At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Russian society heard the voices of village poets. Until then, poems were "registered" in the salons of the nobility. It was believed that huts, stoves and carts could not act as a poetic image. Such items are too rough and grounded. However, the touching description of Russian nature, fragile and harsh, touches some hidden strings in the soul. Nikolai Klyuev, a peasant poet, finds surprisingly accurate and sublime words for a story about his native land.
Poetry of the hut and the field
Literary critics have long "determined" the place of Nikolai Klyuev in Russian poetry. It is customary to call him a representative of the new peasant trend. So be it. For the discerning reader, those images and comparisons that the poet uses in his works are interesting. When you read the lines - I will put on a black shirt and, following the yellow lantern, I will go to the chopping block over the stones of the yard - you involuntarily feel the eternal destiny. And a weak person has no choice but to worship the Creator and the surrounding nature.
The biography of Nikolai Alekseevich Klyuev is simple and obvious, like a birch tree in a grove on a hillock. The child was born among the lakes and meadows of the Olonets province, today it is the Vologda region, in the fall of 1884. The family lived in a large village where there was an Orthodox church. My father rose to the rank of a sergeant. Mother, a peasant woman from the Old Believers, knew many folk songs, spiritual poems and funny jokes. She was often invited to a funeral as a mourner. Nicholas from an early age watched how the village lived in the northern lands, scarce in harvest.
Despite the harsh conditions of the Russian North, village life is full of earthly joys and sorrows. People celebrate weddings. In their free time, they lead round dances and compose ditties. The boy is sent to a parish school, where he is addicted to reading. Apparently during this period he has an attraction and taste for writing. Possessing a tenacious memory and observation, he accurately captures the characteristic details of the surrounding reality. “The son offends, the daughter-in-law does not hear, he reproaches with a piece of bread and idleness” - this is about an old woman from a neighboring house.
The spirit of contradiction
After leaving school, Nikolai tries to get a medical education at a medical assistant school. However, the career of a county doctor is not being set. Ailments fall on the young man, and he, a little alive, returns to his father's house. After a while, having strengthened his health, Klyuev, in an artel with fellow countrymen who are engaged in the trade in furs and fish, went to St. Petersburg to earn some money. No suitable work was found in the capital, but the first poetic tests were approved. In 1904, the poems of Nikolai Klyuev first saw the light of day in the collective collection "New Poets".
After a while, Klyuev meets Alexander Blok. The famous symbolist poet helps his fellow pen to publish his poems in periodicals. In 1911, the first collection of the New Peasant poet "Pine Chime" was published. In the works presented, Russian nature and the attractiveness of rural life are glorified. At the same time, the poet speaks sharply about the atheists as representatives of bourgeois culture. Nicholas met the October Revolution of 1917 with delight.
Oddly enough, the poet's personal life does not add up. He already has only one love and an imaginary wife is Poetry. And he, a faithful husband, will never leave her. Meanwhile, Klyuev's worldview does not fit into the framework of new laws and regulations. Many books and films have been made about such disappointments with the revolution. The peasant poet became one of those who fell victim to his illusions. As a result of the disagreements that arose, Nikolai Klyuev was sentenced to exile in the Tomsk region. Here in the fall of 1937 he was sentenced to death on a trumped-up case.
