Аннотация: Fyodor Dostoevsky and the USSR space project. A literary note
Fyodor Dostoevsky and the USSR space project. A literary note
1. Partitions of the Rech Pospolita (Commonwealth) and an isolation.
If you take the path of discovering the connections of the great Russian writers with the historical events of Russia, the question arises: with what event is Fyodor Dostoyevsky connected?
Ivan Turgenev - the liberation of the serfs in 1861 and the reforms of the 1860s of the 19th century.
Leo Tolstoy - (for example) the October Manifesto of 1905 and the creation of the State Duma.
And Fyodor Dostoevsky?
A reading of the book 'Fyodor Dostoevsky' by Henri Troyat begins with a description of the origin of Fyodor Dostoevsky.
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania ... Rech Pospolita (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Energetic, restless, rich people. In the book "Fyodor Dostoevsky" the state structure, the freedoms and legal status of the szlachta (the gentry) are not mentioned.
Apparently, in his (Henry Troyat) historical vision there is no correlation between the freedom of this social layer and the entry into the Russian literature of people associated, by origin, with the szlachta or with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Probably, at Pushkin you can find the corresponding ancestors ...
Lermontov stands individually. His ancestor is a semi-mythical Scot. But I suppose that among Lermontov's ancestors there were inhabitants of the Rech Pospolita (Commonwealth) ...
Gogol ... Turgenev (on the mother's line)... Leo Tolstoy ("The members of the Tolstoy family considered themselves the descendants of the Lithuanian knight Indros, who settled in Chernigov in the XIV century" (Henri Troyat)) ...
We go back to the book by Henri Troyat. There is no word about the partitions of the Rech Pospolita (Commonwealth) in his book 'Fyodor Dostoevsky'.
But the historical path of the ancestors of Fyodor Dostoevsky, in general, repeats the path of the ancestors of Gogol.
'Something' is happening. Formerly people of a different position (from privileged class), the inhabitants of the lands of the Rech Pospolita (Commonwealth), find themselves completely financially disadvantaged and forced to go to the ranks of clergy (one of the "categories" of the intelligentsia of that time).
Fyodor Dostoevsky's father is educated, becomes a military doctor. This doctor (and his family) lives in isolation ...
'... Fyodor Mikhailovich grew up in a dangerous isolation, fenced off from all contacts with the outside world, cut off from his peers, not having friends, not getting impressions, deprived of his freedom. This youth, spent as if in a clogged vessel [bottle], this artificial development of sensitivity should have been reflected in his entire existence' (Henri Troyat).
Yes, we can imagine, that father of Fyodor Mikhailovich felt and understood own isolation. After the world crashed (almost) to smithereens, by any means he sought to find a foothold.
The education, the position, orders (awards), an organized family life, an acquisition of a small estate ...
2. Ancient habits and a new world. A red hat.
The life path of Fyodor Dostoyevsky is not like something as a secret events. And Henri Troyat does not make secrets, describing the early years of Fyodor Mikhailovich.
Little Fyodor is 'boiling'. He did not receive his portion of historical experience. But he grew up in relative safety in an isolated family world organized by his father ... Some (genetic?) habits remained in his character ...
The family, may be, had to isolate herself. This family was taking into account both the "displeasure" of the inhabitants of the liquidated Rech Pospolita (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), and the reaction of Nicholas I (and the empire in general) to this displeasure ... Henri Troyat does not direct an attention of a reader to this aspect. The military doctor's trying to organize selfisolation is explained in the book by Henri Troyat with the individual characteristics of this man.
(An interest in the Rech Pospolita (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), a focusing on this topic in one way or another switches attention to the fact of the liquidation of a democratic state. And who needs it? For the ideology of authoritarianism and totalitarianism, "ordinary people" who voluntarily restored an unlimited monarchy, a "life in exchange of a saving a tsar' life" (A Life for the Tsar) are much closer)).
'And the military doctor, scolding his son, utters truly prophetic words:' Hey, Fedya, hold on, you will not be bored ... You is moving to find yourself, in future, under a red hat!' And, indeed, Fyodor Mikhailovich will wear this red hat - a soldier's cap with a red emblem, when will return from penal servitude [from hard labor].' (Henri Troyat).
3. The gentle, maternal smile of a poor serf peasant
Henri Troyat describes the case: the little Fyodor was scared in the forest. Someone was screaming about a wolf. Little Fyodor rushed to run in fright, and ran out to one of the local peasants.
'- What are you, what are you, what kind of wolf? It's imagination!... - He muttered, encouraging me. But I was shaking all over and clinging even harder to his zipun [coat] and must have been very pale.
- Look, you got scared, ah-ah! - He shook his head. - That's enough! Oh, kid, ah!
He held out his hand and suddenly stroked my cheek.
- Well, that's enough, well, Christ is with you.' But ... the corners of my lips trembled, and it seemed that struck him especially. He ... softly touched my jumping lips [by the finger, soiled in the ground].
... and suddenly now, twenty years later, in Siberia, I remembered this whole meeting with such clarity, to the very last detail ... I remembered this gentle, maternal smile of a poor serf man, his crosses, his shaking his head: 'Look, you got scared, kid! 'And especially this ... finger, soiled in the ground, by which he quietly and with timid tenderness touched my quivering lips.
And when I came down from the prison bed [wooden boards] and looked around, I remember that I suddenly felt that I could look at these unfortunates with a completely new mood, and that, by some miracle, all hatred and anger in my heart disappeared. ' (quote from the book by Henri Troyat).
(An independent plot is the end of the life of the former military doctor, the father of Fyodor Dostoevsky. The military doctor became the owner of a small estate. According to the dominant version, the former military doctor, the estate owner, died at the hands of his serfs due to own inadequate behavior).
4. A cultural compromise. A cultural assimilation in a (semi-) despotic regime?
If we accept this logic of semantic accents by Henri Troyat, then we can recall that the central figures of the USSR space project were persons - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Sergei Korolev - who were, by origin, - connected with the Rech Pospolita (Commonwealth), Poland, and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
At this point of reasoning, we have to add own logic line to the semantic accents of Henri Troyat. We have to make the assumption that from the (almost) broken world of the Rech Pospolita (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), from the (almost) disappeared layer of free, equal people, many of its representatives went into the intelligentsia layer. Church leaders were only part of the intelligentsia of the Empire. There were (in intelligentsia), for example, writers, and technical intelligentsia (Garin-Mikhailovsky can be mentioned), and intelligentsia with "cosmic interests" ...
On the one hand, the departure of Nicholas the First with his straightforward, not deep, views, and the advent of the relatively moderate Alexander the Second, Alexander the Third ... Reforms ... Movement to democracy ...
On the other hand, Fyodor Dostoevsky with his sermon on love and with positive remarks, addressed to the Russian people, and with his predictions about the great future of Russia.
Oddly enough (someone will say - 'naturally') a great future has come for a while.
Who could expect from a country, that went through a devastating war of 1941-1945, the implementation of a space project?
Sergei Korolev, figuratively speaking, had to wear a red hat ...
Tsiolkovsky also fell into an unpleasant situation under the Soviet regime - but he managed to get out of it relatively painlessly ...
Tsiolkovsky was among the symbolic figures supported by the Soviet government.
Korolev may have forgiven everything ...
Their knowledge, ideas, achievements "were launched" - were put into action (in the era of Stalin). Results were achieved.
So there is reason for a hypothesis. Fyodor Dostoevsky is also associated with the historical event of Russia - with April 12, 1961, with the first manned flight into cosmic space ...
November 6, 2019 19:53
Translation from Russian into English: November 7, 2019 09:09.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Фёдор Достоевский и космический проект СССР. Литературная заметка'.