Easter period in the life of well-known writers

Eastertime, the theme of rebirth in a new, better life, the resurrection of the soul and moral renewal has always occupied a special place in the work of Russian writers. Turning to the spiritual nature of the Easter celebration, the writers reflected on goodness and mercy, love and forgiveness. Ivan Shmelev, in his wonderful novel “Summer of the Lord” described a beloved Orthodox holiday through the prism of children's perception; Ivan Bunin combined the image of Easter with the image of national revival; according to the will of Fyodor Dostoevsky, it is on Easter days that the moral resurrection of Rodion Raskolnikov takes place in “Crime and Punishment”.

What happened to the writers themselves during the Easter period?  

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State official and poet Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin felt “the first inspiration or thought” to the writing of the ode “God” in 1780. At that moment he “was at the All-night vigil on Easter Sunday in the palace church of the Winter Palace, and then, having arrived home, put the first lines on paper”, - we read in the publication “Notes by Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin. 1743-1812” available on the Presidential Library’s portal.   

Derzhavin called his ode the same way. The poet could not finish it at Easter week “because of employment in the service”, domestic and secular worries... He often tried to return to the started ode, but nothing came of it: Derzhavin set a very high creative task in the first lines, and everyday government efforts took away too much nervous and mental energy.

The ode “God”, which came to the poet on Easter night, is the top of Derzhavin’s oeuvre. The ode “God” is the first of all works of Russian literature, which almost immediately received world fame. It has been translated into English, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czech, Greek, Latin, Swedish, Japanese. There are at least fifteen French, eight German translations. Thus, the multilingual world first learned about with the poems of the Russian poet - Derzhavin's ode about the majesty of God... The full text of the immortal ode is available on the Presidential Library's portal in the 1864 Imperial Academy of Sciences publication “Derzhavin's Works: with explanatory notes [and the preface] J. Grot”.     

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...At the solemn Easter service in 1835, Pushkin was in that same palace church of the Winter Palace, where on the Vigil before Easter Sunday Derzhavin dawned on the first lines of the ode "God". The calendar is April 7. On the same day, at least, the Notes to the Collected Works of the poet assert, Pushkin wrote the poem “The Commander”. Apparently, after the service, he again visited the Winter Gallery in 1812.

Pushkin called his poem "a few sad reflections" about the honored commander. But it is much larger, more philosophical. It is about a man, in line with the brilliant Derzhavin line from the ode "God": "I am a tsar - I am a slave, I am a worm - I am God". It is about you and me, whether Pushkin wanted or didn’t want it on Easter Sunday of 1835.

There is another testimony from a contemporary of the poet from the book “Pushkin in Life” by V. V. Veresaev, associated with the attitude of Alexander Pushkin to the great Easter holiday. According to Alexander Rajewski, Pushkin, still a very young man, being in Odessa, “never missed ... the matins on Easter Sunday and always called his comrades to “hear the voice of the Russian people” (in response to the Christianity of the priest “Indeed he has risen”)”.

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The Moscow literary elite first heard these lines from Gogol in 1844, April 17, on Easter-Eve. Before the very morning of Easter Sunday, he read in Moscow in the small office of Sergei Aksakov the sixth chapter of "Dead Souls", "in which the creation of Plyushkin brought everyone to great delight". After reading, all those gathered went to the Kremlin to hear the first Easter strike of Ivan the Great Bell. After the matins, they greeted with Gogol... One of the company, Panov, "came to the rapture and immediately decided to sacrifice all his calculations and go with Italy to Gogol ...Gogol was very happy about that". And one of the first listeners of the sixth chapter of “Dead Souls”, Aksakov, recalled that in the same 1844 “Gogol’s mother arrived with his younger sister before holy week. Looking at Marya Ivanovna (that is Gogol’s mother’s name) and talking to her for several minutes from the heart, one could understand that such a woman could have such a son. It was a kind, tender, loving creature, full of aesthetic feeling, with a slight touch of the most gentle humor". This information is provided “flipping through” “Notes on the life of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, compiled from the recollections of his friends and acquaintances and from his own letters”.

The same collection contains such a testimony of the writer's contemporary: "On Holy Week, Gogol stewed ... He usually became a little away from others and was so deeply immersed in prayer that he seemed not to notice anyone around him".

Gogol loved Easter sincerely. In the book “Selected Places from the Correspondence with Friends” of 1847, which is also presented on the Presidential Library’s portal features the chapter “Easter Sunday”, full of deepest thoughts about this Christian holiday.

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Dostoevsky left Petersburg on Holy Friday, April 14, 1867.

The Dostoevskys came to the unfinished church of St. Nicholas. Then they went to the church. Bowed the shroud. At night, a quarter to two, Fyodor Mikhailovich had an epileptic seizure. This time it was strong, I did not let go for fifteen minutes ... In the morning we chatted with cottage cheese, Easter cake, eggs and left for Berlin. From there - to Dresden. “I was leaving then (Russia) with death in my soul. One, without material, with a young creature, who with naive joy sought to share with me wanderous life”. - wrote Fyodor Dostoevsky to A. N. Maykov on August 16 (28), 1867 from Geneva.

It was not a departure, but an escape! From the disease, from the intolerable "nervous and brain stress" caused by creative fatigue, from lenders who did not want to wait any longer. Some bills of exchange were long overdue, and the writer was threatened with confinement of defective debtors to the House. In popular speech, he was called Tarasovskaya Kutuzka, or Tarasovskaya pit, because he was stationed in the house of Tarasov in the first company of the Izmailovsky regiment.

... Dostoevsky went abroad with the idea of ​​a novel. Not a single line has been written yet - they will fall on paper only in September. Masterpieces on biblical themes helped in April, during Easter week. They helped not only the soul, but also the creative imagination. The main character of the novel will be Prince Myshkin, whom Dostoevsky would call Prince Christ for his moral ideals, attitude to life and conviction.

Materials on the life and work of the great writer, philosopher and publicist are collected on the portal of the Presidential Library in “The World of Dostoevsky” collection.

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“After Australia, Sakhalin is the only place where you can study the colonization of criminals. <...> Sakhalin is a place of unbearable suffering, which only a man can do, voluntary and dependent... The celebrated 60s did not do anything for the sick and prisoners, thus violating the most important commandment of Christian civilization”, - he will write to Suvorin later nine years. These words are cited in the “Biographical Sketch” by A. A. Izmailov, which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

Chekhov did not break the commandments. Moscow. Perm, Tyumen, Tomsk. Irkutsk, Sakhalin... He will overcome 11 thousand miles - either with a cart or a boat. Rain, off-road, cold. The flood of the Irtysh and Ob, stuffy nights at the postal stations. All this was on the way.

In Sakhalin, Chekhov, a doctor who is well aware of his own far from strong health, will stand up every morning for five months at five in the morning and work until late in the evening “under great pressure from the thought that much has not been done”. He traveled all the settlements, went to all the huts... Alone, Chekhov conducted a census of the Sakhalin population, filled out ten thousand statistical cards with his own hand, each of which contained twelve questions.

F. Koni, whose memoirs about Chekhov are given in the collection “Anton Chekhov: Lost Works. Unpublished letters. Memories. Bibliography” – and which are available on the Presidential Library’s portal, he wrote: “He undertook a difficult journey, coupled with a mass of tests, anxieties and dangers, which had a disastrous effect on his health. The result of this journey - his book of Sakhalin - bears on itself the stamp of ruthless waste of time and effort by the author. It, behind the strict form and business-like tone, behind a multitude of factual and digital data, the sad and indignant heart of the writer is felt”.

The words "accomplished a feat" somehow do not fit Chekhov, they do not tally with his appearance. But others, perhaps, you will not find .... The accomplishment will begin after the Holy One ... In the meantime, Chekhov reads out the last pages of the "many things" of economic, legal, geographical, historical literature intended for the "book development" of Sakhalin and island problems, writes letters. “Christ has risen, dear Roman Romanovich! I congratulate you and all of you on your holiday and sincerely wish you happiness... I am leaving St. Thomas Week from the beautiful places here... ”“Christ has risen, dear Nikolai Alexandrovich... I will soon be on my way. Waiting for the clearing of Kama. I will live on Sakhalin for at least two months”. “Christ has risen, Alexander Sergeevich. Congratulations, darling ... Soon I will make parting visits...".