Crimea in the works of writers and poets. "Union of Writers of the Republic of Crimea" - regional public organization

Crimean resorts are very lucky with advertising. The best slogans for it were written by real literary geniuses. For example, Mayakovsky immortalized the Evpatoria health resorts with his “I am very sorry for those who have not been to Evpatoria.” And what is Pushkin’s worth: “The hills of Taurida, a lovely land, I visit you again, I drink greedily the air of voluptuousness, As if I hear the close voice of Long-lost happiness”...

However, the classics took away not only enthusiastic impressions from Crimea. Alexander Sergeevich, for example, squandered all his money in Crimea and caught a cold, Bulgakov got seasick on the ship, and Mayakovsky complained about mosquitoes and dirty beaches.

IN the Velvet season- the time when, until the beginning of the last century, the bulk of vacationers came to Crimea, the most famous Crimean holidaymakers from literature also arrived. But as it turned out, the period, which today is commonly called the Velvet Period, was previously called differently.

“Initially there were three seasons,” explains Crimean historian Andrei Malgin. “Velvet season began immediately after Easter. There are several versions of the origin of this name: both according to the material of clothing, and because at that time the nobility came to Crimea, inscribed in the velvet books. Then came the calico season, the poorest season - in July-August, Crimea was visited by people with incomes below average.

And the season from August 15 to mid-October was called silk, at this time prices rose five to six times, the richest audience came. The grapes were just ripening, and this season was also called the grape season. But over time, the silk season began to be called velvet because of the mild weather."

PUSHKIN DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH MONEY

It was in his poems that the great classic called Crimea “beautiful shores,” but in his letters - “an important and neglected side.” Having set foot on Crimean soil in August 1820 together with the Raevsky family, the poet managed to live in Gurzuf and visit Kerch, Feodosia and Bakhchisarai.

“It was not customary to relax in Gurzuf until the Duke of Richelieu built a house here in 1881, where all the traveling nobility subsequently stayed,” says Svetlana Dremlyugina, head of the department of the Pushkin Museum in Gurzuf.

The Raevskys, along with Alexander Sergeevich, who was in southern exile, spent three weeks in the same house. There was no need to pay for accommodation and food at Richelieu's. Nevertheless, Pushkin managed to save money and wrote to his brother asking him to send him money."

The poet himself wrote the following about the time spent in Gurzuf: “... I lived in Sydney, swam in the sea and ate myself on grapes. A young cypress tree grew two steps from the house; every morning I visited it and became attached to it with a feeling similar to friendship ".

21-year-old Pushkin and Nikolai Raevsky, two years younger, had fun as best they could, because at that time Gurzuf, even though it was more popular than Yalta, could not offer cultural leisure.

"They tasted wines, rode boats and horses. Once they rode from Gurzuf to Bakhchisarai in four days. On the way, Alexander Sergeevich caught a cold, but even the fever did not stop him from noticing how beautiful the legend about the “fountain of tears” was and how depressing the very condition of the khan’s wife was. residence. Later he wrote in a letter: “I walked around the palace with great annoyance at the neglect in which it was decaying, and at the semi-European alterations of some rooms,” says Svetlana Mikhailovna.

Concept beach holiday in the time of Pushkin it already existed, but was different from the modern one. “Sunbathing was not accepted. Light skin was in fashion. And, according to doctors, swimming was only possible until 11 am and no longer than five minutes.

There is information that Pushkin knew how to swim, and also that he and Raevsky spied on the ladies from the olive grove. Back then, swimsuits had not yet been invented and negligees were used to plunge into the water.

There were also rumors that Alexander Sergeevich in Gurzuf was inflamed with love for one of the Raevsky daughters. He really became interested, not just in one, but in all four sisters, but he did not feel love for any of them. But he was very impressed by a certain young Tatar woman from a nearby village.”

CHEKHOV: "BORED LIKE SIBERIA"

Anton Chekhov was perhaps the most famous Crimean holidaymaker. “It got to the point that scammers on the way to Yalta pretended to be him, flirted with young ladies, and Anton Pavlovich then heard rumors about his allegedly immoral behavior,” says Alla Golovacheva, a researcher at the Chekhov Museum in Yalta.

In 1888, the writer came to Crimea for the first time. His train arrives in Sevastopol. From there it was necessary to get to Yalta on horseback. “We drove either one day, stopping at the Baydarsky Gate for lunch, or two days with an overnight stay at the Baydarsky Gate,” says Irina Ganzha. “Chaises with a pair of horses to Yalta cost 7.32 rubles, a phaeton with a pair - 15 rubles, three horses - 20 rubles (the average salary of a worker at the same time was 14 rubles - approx.)."

During this visit, Anton Pavlovich visited the St. George Monastery, and later came to Feodosia, Koktebel, and Bakhchisarai. And when the doctor told him a disappointing diagnosis, Chekhov decides to move to Crimea, whose climate was considered beneficial for tuberculosis patients.

At first, Anton Pavlovich did not like Yalta; in his letters he called it a cross between something European and something bourgeois-fair: “Box-shaped hotels, in which these faces of idle rich people with a thirst for penny adventures, a perfume smell instead of the smell of cedars and the sea, pathetic, dirty pier..."

Later, Chekhov begins to call Yalta “warm Siberia” for the boredom that reigns in the town at any time of the year. During his first visits, the writer stayed in hotels, but already in 1898 he bought a small (800 fathoms) plot on the outskirts of Yalta. The land cost Chekhov 4 thousand rubles. A year later, Anton Pavlovich moved into a finished house with his mother and sister. Here he writes and communicates with visiting writers: Tolstoy, Gorky, Sulerzhitsky.

But Chekhov could not afford the usual entertainment for today’s holidaymakers. Sunbathing was not accepted, and the doctor forbade swimming.

“Having already settled in Yalta, Chekhov bought a dacha in Gurzuf (now a department of our museum) and became the owner of a piece of shore with a beach,” says Alla Golovacheva. “In his letters, he more than once mentioned that his relatives would vacation there. But the writer himself did not care for the beach "I never took advantage of it. At that time, sea bathing took place under the supervision of a physician. And he did not recommend water procedures to the writer."

BULGAKOV: "THE BEACH IN YALTA IS SPIT"

Mikhail Afanasyevich owes his first voyage to the Crimean shores to Maximilian Voloshin, who invited Bulgakov and his wife to visit Koktebel. “In June 1925, the writer and his wife Lyubov Belozerskaya boarded a train and 30 hours later got off at the Dzhankoy station, from where a train went to Feodosia seven hours later,” says Crimean literary critic Galina Kuntsevskaya.

Having reached Koktebel, the Bulgakov couple stayed with Voloshin for more than a month, having managed to join the local eccentricity - collecting semi-precious stones, which Bulgakov described as “sport, passion, quiet insanity, taking on the character of an epidemic.” But the Bulgakov couple did not take part in nudist reclining on the beach and hiking in the mountains, which Voloshin brought into fashion.

“On the way back, Mikhail Afanasyevich and his wife went on a steamship to Yalta, on which they rocked strongly, which made the writer feel unwell. In the evening they sailed from Feodosia, and early in the morning they saw Yalta and went to Chekhov’s dacha, which had already become a museum and where he dreamed of visiting Bulgakov,” explains Galina Kuntsevskaya.

In his memoirs, Mikhail Afanasyevich writes that in Yalta they had to rent an overly expensive hotel room (there were no others left) for 3 rubles. per person per day. The average salary at the same time is 58 rubles. When asked why the electricity was not on, Bulgakov heard the answer: “Resort, sir!”
And here are the lines about the Yalta beach:

"... it is covered with scraps of newsprint... and, of course, there is not an inch where you could spit without getting into someone else's trousers or bare stomach. But you really need to spit, especially for a person with tuberculosis, and tuberculosis patients in Yalta are not to be occupied That's why the beach in Yalta is spit on...

It goes without saying that at the entrance to the beach, there is a tower with a cash hole, and in this square there sits a sad female creature and tenaciously takes away ten-kopeck pieces from single citizens and dimes from members of a trade union.”

And here's more about the Yalta shopping district:

"...shops are stuck one next to the other, all wide open, everything is piled up and screaming, littered with Tatar skullcaps, peaches and cherries, cigarette holders and mesh underwear, footballs and wine bottles, perfume and suspenders, cakes. Greeks, Tatars, Russians are selling, Jews. Everything is exorbitantly expensive, everything is “resort style,” and everything is in demand.”

MAYAKOVSKY PROMOTED CRIMEA

The vociferous futurist visited Crimea six times. “It was probably genetic love,” says Galina Kuntsevskaya. “After all, his grandfather and grandmother lived in Crimea. He first came to Crimea in 1913, visiting Simferopol, Kerch and Sevastopol with performances. Then he visited Yalta and Evpatoria.”

In 1920, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars, it was decided to use Crimean dachas and palaces for the improvement of workers' health, and, starting in 1924, Mayakovsky annually comes to Crimea to speak to proletarian holidaymakers.

“He especially liked it in Yevpatoria,” says Galina Kuntsevskaya. “He usually lived in the Dulber hotel. He performed not only in concert halls. In the Thalassa sanatorium, for example, the terrace served as a stage, to which even bedridden patients were carried out on their beds.” .

In the early 20s, accommodation in Thalassa and Dulber cost from 162 to 300 rubles. (the average salary at the same time was 58 rubles.) True, Mayakovsky did not pay for accommodation, which he himself mentioned in his letters: “I received a room and board in Yalta for two weeks for reading to sanatorium patients.”

Those lines that the poet gave to the mountain about the Crimean nature (“I walk, I look out the window - flowers and the blue sky, then magnolia is in your nose, then wisteria is in your eye”), about sanatoriums (“People’s repairs have been accelerated in a huge Crimean forge"), and simply about the resort ("And it’s stupid to call it “Red Nice”, and it’s boring to call it “All-Union Health Resort”. What can our Crimea compare with? There’s nothing our Crimea can compare with!”) served as excellent advertising for Crimea.
However, Mayakovsky himself, it turns out, noticed not only good things on the peninsula. Here, for example, is what he wrote about beaches:

“Sorry, comrade, there is no place to swim: cigarette butts and bottles fell in a hail, - even a cow is not fit to lie here. And if you sit in a booth, a splinter-snake will pierce your buttock from the baths.”

The poet was also outraged by the assortment of the Evpatoria market:

"...at least a quarter of a peach! - There are no peaches. I ran around, even if I measured a mile on the meter! And my peach in the market and in the field, pouring tears on my fluffy cheeks, rots in Simferopol an hour's drive away."

And, in the end, Mayakovsky gives Crimea a damning summary: “The country of apricots, duchess and fleas, health and dysentery.”

THE UKRAINIAN DIRT DID NOT HELP

Lesya Ukrainka wrote some of her most romantic works in Crimea ("Bakhchisarai", "Iphigenia in Taurida", "Aisha and Muhammad"). But it was not a muse that forced her to come here, but a serious illness - bone tuberculosis.

According to the doctor’s instructions, the poetess came to the peninsula three times: with her mother in 1890 she vacationed in Saki, with her brother in Yevpatoria a year later, and in 1907 with her husband in Balaklava and Yalta.

“In the time of Lesya Ukrainka, treatment in the Moinak mud was a procedure that not all healthy people could endure,” says Lyudmila Dubinina, a researcher at the Evpatoria Museum of Local Lore. “A person was laid on cemented platforms and covered with clay from head to toe.
So he lay there, sweating and could not move. Then I still had to lie wrapped in a sheet. So now all this takes twenty minutes, but in those days it took more than two hours. These procedures were very difficult for Lesya Ukrainka, and she wrote in letters that they made her feel worse.”
The procedures were not only exhausting, but also expensive. A course of mud therapy in 1910 cost 45 rubles. - for ordinary people (several dozen patients were in one room) and 130 rubles. — for richer patients (the procedures took place in a separate room). But I still had to pay 5-15 rubles every day. to the attending physician. For comparison: a cow in those years also cost 5 rubles.

The poetess was also treated with water procedures, but in Evpatoria. “Resort guests went into a superstructure above the water, from which they could go down into the water. There they undressed and took a dip. Undressing is, of course, a strong word. Bathing suits were very closed: long shirts for men and short dresses for women,” says Lyudmila Dubinina.

In 1907, Lesya Ukrainka arrived with her husband in Sevastopol. But then, on the advice of doctors, the couple moves to Yalta, where the poetess is treated again and again in vain. She writes to her sister: “... here I reached such a state that I was lying in the city squares - my head was so dizzy.” Perhaps that is why Crimea is reflected in the works of Lesya Ukrainka by no means as a resort mood.

Here, for example, is what she writes about her trip to the Ai-Petri plateau: “The scorching sun shoots arrows onto the white chalk, the wind stirs up gunpowder, it’s stuffy... not a drop of water... it’s like the road to Nirvana, the land of omnipotent death... "…

A PEARL FROM EKATERINA

Crimean historian, director of the Central Museum of Taurida Andrei Malgin, explains that in 1783, when Crimea was annexed to Russia, its climate was considered unhealthy.

“Russian people were convinced that it was impossible to get anything here other than fever. Therefore, travelers came to Crimea not for a resort, but for impressions. Catherine II was the first to come here in 1787. Then she called Crimea the best pearl in her crown,” - says Andrey Vitalievich.
According to him, the peninsula began to be used as a medicinal resource in the 20s of the 19th century, when the properties of Saki mud were discovered. Saki thus became the first resort in Crimea.

“Houses here were originally built by representatives of the nobility: Vorontsov, Borozdin and the like. It was an expensive hobby. And mass pilgrimage to Crimea began in the 50s of the XIX century.
Livadia became the royal residence, after which the railway was laid and the first hotel "Russia" was built. After this, the public close to the court begins to travel to Yalta.
In the 90s, a new tariff was introduced. Railway became a state-owned enterprise, which made it possible to reduce the price of a ticket, and the middle class began to travel to Crimea,” says Andrei Malgin.

The routes from Moscow to Simferopol and from Simferopol to Yalta cost the same - about 12 rubles (with an average cost of work per day of 20 kopecks). It was affordable for average officials. But merchants, workers and peasants did not go to Crimea.

And it wasn't just about the money. Simply because of their outlook, it would never occur to anyone to quit their job and household to go somewhere.”

ICE CREAM WITH COFFEE IS LIKE A BOTTLE OF VODKA

At the end of the 19th century, Yalta prices were at the level of Moscow. This was especially true for hotels and restaurants attached to them. For example, in 1903, in the first-class Rossiya Hotel in the center of Yalta, prices from November to August were from 1.5 rubles. per day, and from August to November - from 3 rubles. For comparison: a zemstvo teacher received 25 rubles. per month.

At the Yalta Hotel (near the modern cable car) a room costs from 75 kopecks. up to 5 rub. per day. In the same year, in the Moscow hotel "Boyarsky Dvor" a room cost from 1.25 rubles. up to 10 rub. per day.

In the restaurant of the Yalta city garden in holiday season 2-course breakfasts cost 75 kopecks. and served from 11 to 1 p.m. Lunches of 2 courses - 60 kopecks, of 3 - 80 kopecks, of 4 - 1 ruble, served from 13.00 to 18.00.
In Floren's confectionery, located on the Yalta embankment opposite the Mariino Hotel, in 1890 a glass of tea cost 10 kopecks, coffee - 15 kopecks, a cup of chocolate with biscuits - 25 kopecks, and a portion of ice cream - 25 kopecks. At the same time in Moscow for 40 kopecks. you could buy a bottle of vodka.

Tour type: Auto-pedestrian route
Tour route: Old Crimea - Feodosia - Koktebel - Yalta
Tour duration: 3 days / 2 nights

Tour cost: 9600 rub. per one tour participant.

During the trip, tourists will learn about famous poets and writers who lived in Crimea. In the city of Stary Krym they will see the estate of A. Green and his resting place.
In Feodosia, travelers will get acquainted with the creativity and the House - Museum of the Tsvetaev sisters. In the village Koktebel tourists will visit the House - Museum of the artist and poet M. Voloshin. In Yalta, pilgrims will get acquainted with the Yalta House - the museum of A.P. Chekhov and its theater.

LOCATION: Russia, Crimea

ROUTE: Old Crimea - Feodosia - Koktebel - Yalta

SERVICE LEVEL: Standard

Thematic program
Thanks to the enchanting beauty of nature, Crimea has always been a source of inspiration for many figures of culture, art and literature. Some had to stay here for several months, others preferred not to part with the muse much longer and stayed for several years. They stayed as guests, at dachas, or built their own houses.
We owe everything we know about Crimea to Russian literature, Derzhavin, Pushkin, and even one of the main ideas of world literature, “war is madness,” was also born in Crimea by Leo Tolstoy during the defense of Sevastopol.
But the most literary place on the peninsula is Koktebel. Maximilian Voloshin's dacha first became a center of attraction for artists and poets of the Silver Age, and then for Soviet writers. At the end of the 19th century there was not a single well for many kilometers around fresh water. But Voloshin decided that since the profile on Karadag resembles his own, this is predestination, and builds a house. Voloshin was ahead of the brilliant Le Corbusier by fitting his house into the surrounding landscape. He also included Russian literature in it. Tsvetaeva, Gumilev, Mandelstam, Khodasevich, Bulgakov, Ostroumova-Lebedeva stayed here... In the Soviet years, more than a hundred artists and writers visited each season.
Marina Tsvetaeva came to Voloshin from Feodosia, which she said was “a fairy tale from Gauf, a piece of Constantinople.” Now we can see what she was like in the Tsvetaev Museum.
To fulfill Alexander Green's dream of owning his own home, his wife secretly sold his gift - a gold watch - and bought this house in Old Crimea. Not for long, but it extended his life.
The tour introduces guests to historical places and the work of poets and writers who lived in Crimea in different periods of time. These are such famous poets and writers: A.S. Pushkin, A. Green, A.P. Chekhov, M. Voloshin and others. Guests will visit cities and houses - museums of Russian poets and writers, where brilliant masterpieces were written that added to the collection of Russian literature.

Tour program

1 day
Meeting at the airport of Simferopol.
Trip to Old Crimea. A visit to the A. Green House Museum, getting acquainted with his romantic work, famous literary works, and his resting place. Visit to the Old Crimean Literary House-Museum. Getting to know the works of Paustovsky. many writers. Walking tour to the Paustovsky waterfall.
Lunch at a Tatar cafe (Tatar cuisine).
Arrival in Feodosia. Visit to the art gallery of I.K. Aivazovsky, a marine painter.
Visit to the Feodosia House-Museum of A. Green. Acquaintance with literary exhibits and personal belongings of the writer.
Visit to the House-Museum of the Tsvetaev sisters. Getting to know the works of the Tsvetaev sisters in Feodosia.

Day 2
Breakfast.
Transfer to the village Koktebel. Excursion to the House - Museum of M. Voloshin.
The excursion introduces guests to the history of the emergence of the literary and artistic society of the Russian intelligentsia in Koktebel. Pilgrims will visit the House-Museum of the artist and poet Maximilian Voloshin, hear the story of an extraordinary man who united the best half of the Russian intelligentsia. They will also visit M. Voloshin Mountain - a place of pilgrimage for artists, poets, and writers.
Walk around Koktebel.
Transfer to Yalta. Excursion along the southern coast of Crimea.
Hotel accommodation. Dinner. Free time.

Day 3
Breakfast.
Visit to the House - Museum of A.P. Chekhov. Acquaintance with the writer’s work, his personal belongings, and the history of writing the work “The Lady with the Dog.”
A walk along the Yalta embankment, getting acquainted with the A.P. Chekhov Theater and the sculptural composition “Lady with a Dog”.
Transfer to Gurzuf.
Lunch in Gurzuf at a restaurant.
Visit to the Pushkin House Museum and excursion to Gurzuf Park (Night and Rachel fountains).
Airport transfer. Departure.

THE TOUR PRICE INCLUDES:
Accommodation, three meals a day, excursion program, transport services, medical insurance

There are many places in Russia, the mention of which gives rise to a whole universe of associations - climatic, historical, cultural. You say “Siberia” and you remember Ivan the Terrible, Ermak - a galaxy of famous discoverers, great Komsomol construction projects, snow and frost. You say “Kamchatka”, “Pomorye”, “Primorye”, “Caucasus” - in your head there are hundreds of stories of conquest, imprints of someone’s memories, images of discoverers, builders and defenders associated with these spaces. But when mentioning Crimea, one cannot do without Russian literature in the life of this amazing peninsula.

I hit my pocket and it doesn’t ring.
If I knock on another one, you won’t hear it.
If only I'd be famous
Then I’ll go to Yalta to rest….

(N. Rubtsov)

So many celebrities have visited Crimea that there is enough for an entire civilization. And from works relating to the peninsula, one can compile a significant library.

One way or another, all representatives of the Slavic northern culture felt the breath of time, saturated with the southern sea breeze and the climatic diversity of Tauride landscapes.

Pushkin, Chekhov, Korolenko, Mayakovsky visited Kerch; Gorky, Bunin and Kuprin were seen in Gurzuf. Arkady Averchenko was born and lived in Sevastopol, and Andrei Platonov was improving his health in Yalta. As a teenager, the future poetess Anna Akhmatova ran along the warm pebbles of Streletskaya Bay; Balaclava was visited by Ostrovsky, Balmont, Paustovsky... Koktebel is inseparable from the name of Maximilian Voloshin, Nikolai Gumilyov, Osip Mandelstam, Valery Bryusov, Vikenty Veresaev, Korney Chukovsky and many other celebrities came here. One could write a whole book about their diary entries, full of “Crimean notes”...

The peninsula's earliest connections with Russian literature are found at the beginning of the 19th century. An official Pavel Ivanovich Sumarokov worked in Simferopol. The nephew of one of the greatest poets of the 18th century, who worked as an official and rose to the rank of privy councilor and governor, in Crimea wrote a very interesting book “The Leisure of a Crimean Judge, or the Second Journey to Taurida,” where he gave very accurate descriptions of many local corners: “Do you want to eat sweets in soul feeling? Stay on Salgir. Do you want to amuse yourself with an extraordinary spectacle? Cross the Baydars. Do you want to meet splendor? Appear in the vicinity of Yalta. Have you decided to indulge in peaceful despondency? Visit Foros. Finally, whether you are suffering from love or suffering another misfortune, then sit down on the shore of the Black Sea, and the roar of the waves will dispel your gloomy thoughts.”

The wonderful Russian playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky was in Crimea only once. He was not verbose about his impressions, but in one of the sources he noted “there is paradise on the southern coast.” The entries in his travel diary, accidentally found in the 1970s, are brief, like strokes or dots in a drawing, but quite picturesque.

The Malakhov Kurgan made a particular impression on the writer, which resulted in the pages of his letters to friends: “...I was in unfortunate Sevastopol. It is impossible to see this city without tears. When you approach from the sea, you see a large stone city in excellent terrain; as you drive closer, you see a corpse without any life. I examined the bastions, trenches, saw the entire battlefield...", "I picked a flower on the Malakhov Kurgan, it grew on the ruins of the tower and was raised by Russian blood..."

And, of course, the southern shores of Russia could not do without the “sun of Russian poetry”...

“Now explain to me why the midday shore and Bakhchisarai have an inexplicable charm for me? Why is my desire so strong to revisit the places I left with such indifference? Or is memory the most powerful ability of our soul, and everything that is subject to it is fascinated by it?” (from letter D.).

In the house that belonged to the Duke de Richelieu, young Alexander Pushkin stayed in the summer of 1820, arriving in Gurzuf with the family of General Raevsky.

The delight of southern nature and wonderful friends was embodied in the poems “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Tavrida” and “Bakhchisarai Fountain”, a lyrical cycle of poems.

Great ideas are born precisely where time itself has left its historical imprint. In one of his last letters from Gurzuf, the poet connects the idea of ​​the famous novel with this place: “There is the cradle of my Onegin.”

The poet of all Rus' also left a peculiar “Crimean riddle” for Pushkin scholars:

There, once in the mountains, full of heartfelt thoughts,
Over the sea I eked out brooding laziness,
When the shadow of night fell on the huts,
And the young maiden was looking for you in the darkness,
And she called her friends by her name.

Who appeared to the poet as a “young maiden” in the flesh? Still unknown...

The influence of the sea on Alexander Sergeevich turned out to be undoubtedly useful, and even somewhat meditative. The poet recalled: “When I woke up at night, I loved to listen to the sound of the sea and listened for hours.”

Among the green waves kissing Taurida,
At dawn I saw Nereid.
Hidden among the olive trees, I barely dared to breathe:
Above the clear moisture of the demigoddess breasts
The young one, white as a swan, lifted up
And I squeezed the foam out of my hair in a stream

State Councilor, diplomat, poet, playwright and composer Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov also plunged into the atmosphere of the subtropical coast. He was keenly interested in the past and present of the peninsula, studied the works of ancient geographers, and read the pages of Russian and eastern chronicles.

Griboedov was a welcome guest in many homes, he was constantly surrounded by annoying admirers and admirers. But most of all he visited the house that belonged to the disgraced Decembrist general Orlov, who spent the summer in the Crimea. Griboyedov knew the general for a long time and shared his views. Communication with him brought mental relief and Griboyedov went on a long journey. In the village of Ayan (now Rodnikovoe), the poet admires the source of Salgir, drives through the Angar gorge, heading to the famous Crimean cave Kizil-Koba. Here, in one of the “corridors,” there was an inscription carved on the wall: “A.S. Griboedov, 1825."

“Being in Crimea and not visiting Chatyr-Dagu is a matter of reprehensible indifference,” wrote Sumarokov.

Since ancient times, the Slavs called the mountain Palat-gora, as it looks like a tent. Indeed, this unique plateau, located in the southern part of the peninsula, is visited by almost everyone who travels to these places. And Griboedov’s goal is also precisely this yayla (the word comes from the common Turkic “yay” - “summer” and Turkish yaylak, which means high-mountain summer pasture). This mountain range evoked special associations for the poet, who had seen the Caucasus. Having climbed to its very top, Griboyedov was delighted with the panorama that opened before him. Here night finds him, and he goes down to the sheepfold, spends the night with the shepherds, admiring the stars. On this day he met a St. Petersburg acquaintance and the publisher of Otechestvennye Zapiski.

The famous editor and journalist Pavel Petrovich Svinin writes: “I met Alexander Sergeevich Griboedov almost at Chatyr-Dag; and I sincerely regret to this day that inclement weather did not allow me to make a trip with such a dear comrade to the top of this Crimean giant, where he could have been the best cicerone for me (an ironic playful nickname for a guide), approx. Ed.), for he very often visits the highest mountain of Taurida from Simferopol, probably to feed on the clean mountain air, inspired by the fiery imagination of the poet-psychologist" ("Dating and Meetings on the Southern Coast of Taurida."

“In Alupka I’m having lunch, sitting under a roof that rests on a wall on one side and on a stone on the other, the floor overlooks the flat roof of another owner. From Alupka to Simeiz. Plums, pomegranates, kourma - the luxury of vegetating in Simeiz"

Griboyedov admires the noisy splashing of the waves. Meets the great Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz at Olizar's dacha, pays a visit to Ayu-Dag.

The connoisseur of Russian history strives for Chersonesos, ancient Korsun, to which he devotes many laconic but thought-capacious entries. On one of the hills between Pesochnaya and Streletskaya bays, he thought: “Isn’t this where Vladimir built a church? Maybe, Grand Duke stood in the very place where I am now...”

Alexander Sergeevich was the first of the travelers who remembered the presence of Russian troops at the Chersonese walls and spoke about Prince Vladimir, who was baptized in Korsun (Chersonese) and brought Orthodoxy to Rus'. It wasn't just a mention. Griboyedov intended to write a tragedy about the great Russian reformer. For a more thorough acquaintance with the Heraclean Peninsula, he makes a special horseback ride, inspecting the coast right up to the Chersonesos lighthouse.

From a letter to friend and colleague S.N. Begichev: “Brother and friend! I toured parts of the southern and eastern (obvious typo - western) peninsula. I’m very pleased with my trip, although here nature against the Caucasus presents everything as if in abbreviation: there are no such granite masses, snowy peaks of Elbrus and Kazbek, no roaring Terek and Aragvi, the soul does not die at the sight of bottomless abysses, as there, in our area. But the beauty of the sea and other valleys, Kacha, Belbek, Kasikli-Uzen (Chernaya River) and so on, cannot be compared with anything.”

Another great playwright and writer also visited the peninsula, from whose “Overcoat,” as Dostoevsky aptly put it, almost all Russian literature came out.

Gogol felt the southern breeze of the Mediterranean, according to him in my own words, when he “got dirty here in mineral mud,” as he reported in his letter to V.A. Zhukovsky.

The treatment process for the great Russian writer, whose name is now being trumpeted by idle filmmakers, was long but pleasant. The patients were placed in human-sized oval-shaped wooden platforms made of silt heated in the sun to 33 degrees Reaumur, which corresponds to 41.25 degrees Celsius. The bath was blocked from the wind so that the temperature did not drop for a long time. The duration of exposure to healing mud depended on the type of disease, physical condition patients. The dirt from the sick was washed off with warm salt water from the lake - brine. After which everyone was taken to their dachas and houses.

The peninsula made an indelible impression on Nikolai Vasilyevich, and the local mud helped him a lot. Dr. Auger’s patient dreamed of visiting Crimea again. From 1848 until his death, he dreamed about this, but to no avail: he was never able to collect the necessary “damned money”.

In the found Gogol note “About Tavria”, researchers of the author’s work “Evenings on a Farm...” discovered the writer’s good knowledge of the most important local history sources and the history of Crimea. Probably, ideas related to the Crimean chronotope were swarming in his head. These plans were not allowed to come true...

Two Lev Nikolaevichs of Russian civilization visited Tavria at once.

Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov, who devoted a lot of time to archaeological research, worked one of the field seasons as part of an expedition in the Crimea, at the excavation of the Paleolithic site of Adzhi-Koba.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy served here during the First Defense of Sevastopol, commanded a battery on the 4th bastion, and was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 4th degree. He stayed in besieged Sevastopol for exactly a year and not only fought, but also wrote. In those years, the famous “Sevastopol Stories” came from his pen. Many authors mention Sevastopol in Russian literature. “I had to see many cities, but I don’t know a better city than Sevastopol,” wrote K. Paustovsky, who visited the city of military glory more than once. But the city is not only mentioned in military “chronicles”, it also serves as a place of inspiration. Vsevolod Vishnevsky wrote the famous communist drama “Optimistic Tragedy” here.

It is clear that the peninsula cannot but be connected with the “maritime” theme.

Alexander Kuprin loved to go out to sea with fishermen, loved this town and its inhabitants - Greek fishermen. From his pen came a whole series of wonderful essays about Balaklava and its inhabitants - “Listrigons”. Kuprin really wanted to settle here, he even bought a plot of land to build a house, but it didn’t work out. The monument to the writer stands on the Balaklava Embankment.

If in Pushkin’s times Gurzuf shone with splendor, then later Yalta became one of the “southern” capitals Russian Empire– those who made up the “tops” of Russian culture lived here for a long time.

A.P. Chekhov lived at his Belaya Dacha for less than five years, from 1899 to 1904. “Three Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard”, the famous “Crimean” story “The Lady with the Dog” were written here. However, you could write a whole novel about Chekhov and Yalta...

In the newly built Yalta hotel "Tavrida" (formerly "Russia"), which itself is an architectural object, a year before his death Nekrasov lived, who came to Yalta for treatment for two months. But no one knows where Joseph Brodsky stayed when he was in Yalta almost a century later.

Maxim Gorky spent about a month in Crimea. Having familiarized himself with the rich museum collections of Chersonese, he rightly notes: “Crimea is a goldmine for historical science!” However, for him as an author, meetings with local residents turned out to be a bonanza, whose trust he fully enjoyed, since he did not shy away from any work. In Yalta, in order to earn money for bread, he had to unload barges and steamships in the port, and in the Nikitsky Garden he had to dig up trees. In Feodosia, Gorky participates in the construction of a pier, and then crosses the Kerch Strait to the Caucasus, where a year later in Tiflis, with the publication of the story “Makar Chudra,” his long and fruitful life in literature will begin.

In Alushta, at the foot of Mount Chatyr-Dag, he spent the night near the fire of an old Crimean shepherd. The wise old man treated Gorky to fish soup made from freshly caught fish, introduced him to folk tales and told a parable, which would later be transformed into “The Song of the Falcon” under the pen of a proletarian writer.

The poet Ilya Selvinsky spent his youth in Crimea and studied at the Yevpatoria gymnasium, which now bears his name. In the early Soviet years, Selvinsky argued with Mayakovsky himself; apparently, the air of Crimea raised in him a decisive and extraordinary personality. During the years of the revolution, he took part in the revolutionary movement, fought in the Civil War in the Red Army, changed many professions, was a loader, model, reporter, circus fighter, and after a letter of repentance, which came from his pen after a journalistic polemic with Mayakovsky, he got a job as a welder to the electrical plant. At that time he wrote about Crimea like this:

There are edges that remain motionless for centuries,
Buried in darkness and moss,
But there are also those where every stone
Humming with the voices of eras

The fate of Selvinsky as a Crimean poet, as a descendant of one of the indigenous local peoples, deserves special mention.

He did not indulge in the riotousness of bohemia like other “artists,” but entered into battle, not valuing the fact that he could be destroyed and he would no longer write poems that would be included in anthologies. Since 1941, he has been at the front in the ranks of the Red Army, first with the rank of battalion commissar, then lieutenant colonel. In the battles he received two shell shocks and a serious wound; the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense himself awarded him a gold watch for the lyrics of the song "Combat Crimean", which became the song of the Crimean Front.

However, Selvinsky was not the only one distinguished by courage and dedication. Long before him, the famous Russian writer-marinist Stanyukovich took part in the Crimean War, although he was only 11 years old. For his participation in the defense of Sevastopol, he was awarded two medals, and then wrote books about those events: “The Sevastopol Boy”, “Little Sailors” and “The Terrible Admiral”.

It is not without reason that Crimea is revered as a place of miracles. However, not only literary fame left its mark here. In 1921, an article was published in a Feodosia newspaper stating that a “huge reptile” had appeared in the sea near Kara-Dag. A company of Red Army soldiers was sent to capture the sea serpent. When the soldiers arrived in Koktebel, they did not find the snake, but saw only a long and wide footprint in the sand.

However, even this “non-literary”, but rather zoological episode still turned out, according to some researchers, to be connected with the creative process. Maximilian Voloshin sent a clipping “about the bastard” to Mikhail Bulgakov. Perhaps she pushed the writer to create the story “Fatal Eggs”.

The renowned stylist and Nobel laureate writer Ivan Alekseevich Bunin visited Crimea for the first time in April 1889.

“At this moment it must be terribly strange for you to imagine that Vanya is sitting in Sevastopol, on the terrace of a hotel, and the Black Sea begins two steps away? At about three o'clock I hired a sailboat, went to the Konstantinovskaya fortress, and had to go to the Baydar Gate on a crossbar - along the highway, in a britzka ... "

The superbly designed stylistic “windows of prose” by Bunin, the so-called Crimean cycle, reflected expressive sketches of views of the Southern and Southwestern parts of Crimea, where Ivan Alekseevich especially loved to visit.

In many works, Ivan Bunin mentions or describes the populated areas of Crimea, Crimean geographical and historical sights: Yalta (poem “Cypresses”, story “Penguins”), Sevastopol (story “Crimea”), Gurzuf, Bakhchisarai, Alupka, “flying Uchan from the cliffs” -Su”... Even while living abroad, Bunin repeatedly remembered Crimea. Out of old habit, when going to the sea, to Nice, in the off-season, he constantly compared it with Yalta. And the comparison was not in Nice's favor.

Writer S.N. Sergeev-Tsensky, who became famous for writing the entire cycle “Transfiguration of Russia”, where, in addition to the artistic part, there is numerous documentary evidence of the era, found himself in Crimea on the crest of waves of political events together with Kuprin. This happened in October 1905.

During the unrest, Sergei Nikolaevich witnessed Black Hundred pogroms and abuse of power by army officials. His testimony was used at the trial of the pogromists.

The army authorities punished him by placing him under house arrest, and in December he was completely dismissed from the army. Later, the writer built a small house in Crimea and lived there happily.

Kuprin first visited Crimea at the beginning of the century. In the year of the beginning of the most terrible century in Russian history, he met Chekhov in Yalta. Anton Pavlovich's intelligence and rare gift as a storyteller charmed Kuprin. He took the writer’s death very hard, reflecting the depth of this loss in his memoirs “In Memory of Chekhov.”

In the summer and autumn of 1905, Kuprin lived first in Sevastopol, then in Yalta, and from August in Balaklava: “...In order to go to sea with the fishermen, not as a passenger who wants to take a boat trip, but as a comrade equal to them in work, I joined a fishing artel... First, the jury, consisting of a headman and several elected officials, tested my skill at work and muscular strength, and only then they accepted me,” he told Mamin-Sibiryak.

According to the recollections of Kuprin’s wife, the city fathers, fishermen and respectable owners of houses and vineyards found that for the prosperity of Balaklava it would be important to get the writer as a permanent resident. Therefore, they approached him with a proposal to purchase a plot of land located opposite the Genoese tower in the Kefalo-Vrisi gully. The price was set low, but there was extremely little land there - only a narrow strip along the road, the rest was bare rock. Alexander Ivanovich was carried away by the idea of ​​planting his garden on a barren rocky area.

In Koktebel, much is inseparable from the name of Voloshin, a famous poet, publicist, artist and great original.

In 1893, his mother Elena Ottobaldovna (née Glaser, from the Russified German nobles) acquired a small plot of land in the Tatar-Bulgarian village of Koktebel and transferred the 16-year-old boy to a gymnasium in Feodosia. Voloshin falls in love with Crimea, and he will carry this feeling throughout his life. Subsequently, the poet visited many European cities and countries - Vienna, Italy, Switzerland, Paris, Greece and Constantinople. He sincerely loved Paris, but lived (also out of love) only in Crimea. In the mid-twenties, he created the “House of the Poet” here, its appearance reminiscent of both a medieval castle and a Mediterranean villa. The Tsvetaeva sisters, Nikolai Gumilyov, Sergei Solovyov, Korney Chukovsky, Osip Mandelstam, Andrei Bely, Valery Bryusov, Alexander Green, Alexei Tolstoy, Ilya Erenburg, Vladislav Khodasevich, artists Vasily Polenov, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Boris visited here Kustodiev, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Aristarkh Lentulov, Alexander Benois...

On the Yalta Embankment, the Isadora plane tree, which is at least 500 years old, stands out with its huge spherical crown. Rumor has it that the famous ballerina made a date with Sergei Yesenin under this tree. However, Yesenin’s visits to Crimea in a slightly different capacity are documented. Like Alexander Vertinsky, young Sergei Yesenin served as an orderly on a hospital train. At the end of the spring of 1916, he writes to his friend Murashev: “I’m going to Crimea. I'm tossing and turning in May. Live so that all the devils are sick, and remember me. The train leaves today at 6 o’clock. Save the letters.”

The train arrives in Evpatoria at 1 a.m.; the station was located at that time in the area of ​​the current Evpatoria-Tovarnaya station. In the morning, a team of orderlies, of which Yesenin was a member, participates in transporting the wounded “18 officers and 33 lower ranks” from wagons to ambulance transport, on which the wounded were transported through the city streets to the hospital gates, then they were taken to the wards on stretchers. For the new orderlies, this was a difficult physical and moral test.

The military field hospital train remained in Yevpatoria for more than a day, and on May 2 in the morning it arrived in Sevastopol. In Yevpatoria, after work, the team of orderlies had to rest; the service of the orderlies was quite difficult; perhaps they managed to visit the sea. True, in Yesenin’s work a visit to Evpatoria, and even the sanitary military service was not reflected.

In the village of Gaspra, to the west of Yalta, lived the outstanding Russian thinker and theologian S. N. Bulgakov, and the future author of Lolita, then very young V. Nabokov, indulged in his favorite pastime in the local park - catching butterflies...

Marina Tsvetaeva met her future husband Sergei Efron here.

Nowadays, in addition to the museum, in Voloshin’s house, according to his will, the House of Writers’ Creativity is also located. They rested and worked here. For example, V. Aksenov wrote his famous novel “The Island of Crimea” in Koktebel.

Another " great woman Russian Literature" as a very little girl, she also walked along the coastal pebbles. Every summer, the family of a hereditary nobleman, a retired naval mechanical engineer, rented a dacha in Turovka. From the age of seven to thirteen, the “wild girl,” as the locals called her, grew up by the sea. These years were not only the formation of the personality of the future poet (Akhmatova did not like being called a poetess), they were marked by a wide variety of experiences.

The departure of her father from the family, which resulted in the departure of her mother with five children to Evpatoria, brought a sad and even sorrowful note to the girl’s impressions. Anna Akhmatova recalled: “We lived for a whole year in Yevpatoria, where I took my penultimate class at the gymnasium at home, yearned for Tsarskoe Selo and wrote a great many helpless poems.

In X Poets and writers from different countries: Russia, Ukraine, Donetsk People's Republic, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Germany, Syria, Italy, Lebanon, Egypt, Montenegro, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Serbia, Morocco, India, Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Republic of Costa Rica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Albania and Switzerland. And all of them were united not only by the opportunity to express themselves creatively, but also by the opportunity to talk about the culture of their country and establish connections between our peoples. The festival was traditionally organized this year by the RPO “Union of Writers of the Republic of Crimea”. The festival has become the tenth since its creation and the third since the modern Russian history of the peninsula.

All four days, members of the international jury and participants enjoyed an interesting and vibrant competitive program, round tables, meetings about Chekhov’s work. The Festival was opened on October 21 by Festival President Andrei Chernov, who spoke about the importance of uniting Crimean writers with writers from other regions of Russia and abroad. Greetings from friends of the Festival were read out: Muradova G. - Permanent Representative of the Republic of Crimea to the President of the Russian Federation, Pereverzin I. - Chairman of the International Society of Writers' Unions, Boyarinov V. - Chairman of the Moscow city organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, E.I.V. . Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, Savchenko S. - deputy State Duma FS RF.

High International Jury consisting of: Ayman Abu-Shaar (Syrian Arab Republic) chairman of the jury, Terekhin V. (Russia, Kaluga region) deputy chairman of the jury, Doha Assi (Arab Republic of Egypt) deputy chairman of the jury, Smirnov V. (Shumilov) (Russia , Republic of Crimea), Kondryukova G. (Russia, Sevastopol), Grachev V. (Russia, Republic of Crimea), NGUYEN THI KIM HIEN ( People's Republic Vietnam), Melnikov A. (Germany), Tomskaya L. (Ukraine), Shalyugin G. (Russia, Republic of Crimea), Salikhov D. (Russia, Republic of Tatarstan), Matveeva M. (Russia, Republic of Crimea), Ryabchikov L. (Russia, Republic of Crimea), Golubev M. (Russia, Republic of Crimea), Ilaev A. (Russia, Republic of Crimea), Berlin T.(Ukraine), Popova N. (Russia, Moscow), Klossovsky I. (Russia, Republic of Crimea), Podosinnikova L. (Russia, Sevastopol).

On the first day competitions were held: “ Public acceptance", music competitions "Take your overcoat, let's go home!" and “Free original song”, “Love lyrics”.

Second day X The International Literary Festival "Chekhov's Autumn - 2019" was no less bright. On this day, participants had the opportunity to listen to poems dedicated to nature (in the category “Landscape Lyrics. Crimean Motifs”), works of young poets (“Poetry of the Young”), “Poems for Children”, as well as “Civil and Spiritual-Philosophical Lyrics”. On this day, a recitation competition was also held among schoolchildren on the topic “The best expert in the poetry of Vladimir Lugovsky.” In the second half of October 22, festival guests were treated to excursions to the Massandra Palace of Emperor Alexander III and to the House-Museum of A.P. Chekhov “Belaya Dacha”. In the same House-Museum, after the excursions, an Hour of interesting meetings was organized - “Round Table”, the topic of which was a discussion of the work of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov not only as an outstanding writer of his time, but also as a person who subsequently united writers and poets from all over the world under one roof.

October 24 marked the festive closing of the Festival. The results of the correspondence and in-person competitions were summed up, all the winners and prize-winners were announced and awarded, and the “Grand Prix of the Festival” was awarded.

10 laureates who participated in the competition will take diplomas and medals to their countries. competitions: “Landscape lyrics. Crimean motives » SandhuNupurMajumder(Republic of India), “Love lyrics » received a diploma and a bronze medalRubinSabrina(Republic of Bangladesh), “I love you, sea!” received a diploma and a silver medal Getmanenko Inna Vladimirovna(Ukraine, Dnepr), “CRIMEAN MUSE” (poetry ring or marathon) received a diploma and a bronze medalAlMuhaishNabeelAbdorrahmanA(Kingdom Saudi Arabia), "Civil and spiritual-philosophical lyrics » received a diploma and a silver medal Lara Mshawrab(Republic of Lebanon), correspondence literary « Chekhov's motives" received a diploma and a bronze medal Pankhuri Sinha(Republic of India), “Writers and the public of the world about Crimea » received a diploma and a silver medal Graham Phillips(United Kingdom Great Britain), “The author of the magazine “Brega Taurida” received a diploma and a silver medal Abdulla Issa(State of Palestine), received a “Public Recognition” diploma and a gold medal Mohamed Ali Rafie Mohamed(Arab Republic of Egypt), received a “Public Recognition” diploma and a gold medalSandhuNupurMajumder(Republic of India), received a diploma and a gold medal “For outstanding services to literature” Rokiah Hashim(Malaysia).

Diploma I -th degree and a gold medal of the Festival were received by:

Competition “Landscape Lyrics. Crimean motives » - Kamenshchikova Larisa Georgievna (Russia, Krasnodar region);

Competition "Love Lyrics" » - Milodan Ariolla Vladimirovna (Russia, Republic of Crimea, Yalta);

Competition "Poems for Children" » - Prudsky Alexander Nikolaevich (Russia, Republic of Crimea, Yalta);

Contest “The best expert on the poetry of Vladimir Lugovsky” - Shiyan Alexander Alexandrovich (Russia, Republic of Crimea, Yalta);

Competition “I love you, sea!” - Krylova Lyubov Andreevna (Russia, Tambov region, Tambov);

Competition "CRIMEAN MUSE" (poetry ring or marathon) - Milodan Ariolla Vladimirovna (Russia, Republic of Crimea, Yalta);

Competition "Civil and spiritual-philosophical lyrics" » - Babushkin Evgeniy Vasilievich (Russia, Republic of Crimea, Alushta);

Contest " Take your overcoat and let's go home!» -Duet Strunko Nadezhda - Mezhirova Galina (Russia, Anapa - Omsk);

Competition "Poetry of the Young" - Alex Kasper Drew (Russia, Republic of Crimea, Kerch);

Correspondence competition« Chekhov's motives" - Kuraev Mikhail Nikolaevich (Russia, St. Petersburg);

Contest“Writers and the public of the world about Crimea » - Bondarev Yuri Vasilievich (Russia, Moscow);

Correspondence competition“The author of the magazine “Brega Taurida” is Kunyaev Stanislav Yurievich (Russia, Moscow);

Competition “For the best song” - Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Strunka (Russia, Krasnodar region, Anapa);

Competition “For the best poems” Prudsky Alexander Nikolaevich (Russia, Republic of Crimea, Yalta);

Competition "Audience Award" - Alexey Yurievich Zolotarev (Russia, Moscow);

Competition “Public Recognition” - Kibireva Elena Andreevna (Russia, Kurgan region), Mohamed Ali Rafie Mohamed (Arab Republic of Egypt), NUPUR MAJUMDER SANDHU (Republic of India);

Competition "For Outstanding Services to Literature" - Rokiah Hashim (Malaysia), Ilyashevich Vladislav Nikolaevich (Republic of Estonia), Kulunchakova Biyke Iskhakovna (Russia, Republic of Dagestan);

Cup, diploma I -th degree and gold medal received:

Competition “Best LITO of the Crimean Peninsula” - Lito of science fiction writers “Club of science fiction writers of Sevastopol and the Republic of Crimea”, Chairman - Gaevsky Valery Anatolyevich Nikolaevich (Russia, Republic of Crimea);

Competition "For Outstanding Services to Literature" - Ivanov - Valery Aleksandrovich Tagansky (Russia, Moscow)

The diploma and the “Literary Olympus” award from the League of Eurasian Writers were presented to the deputy chairman of the jury, head of the Egyptian delegation Doha Assy.

The main prize of the festival - “Grand Prix of the Festival” and the gold medal was received by the wonderful poetess from the city of Yalta - Ariolla Milodan. From the chairman of the jury, Ayman Abu-Shaara (Syrian Arab Republic), Ariolla also received a special prize - a Syrian dress.

X The international literary festival "Chekhov's Autumn - 2019" in the city of Yalta thundered throughout the world. The festival was a success!

President X International Literary Festival "Chekhov's Autumn - 201" 9 "in Yalta

A. Chernov

Each new generation of Russian writers perceived Crimea in its own way, but for none of them this peninsula was just a beautiful and warm vacation spot. Great works were created here, the view of the world changed, and the fight against death was waged.

Pushkin: “Crimea is an important and neglected side”

Alexander Pushkin visited Crimea in 1820, during the southern exile, where he was sent for “freedom-loving poetry.” At first, the peninsula did not make much of an impression on the poet, but later he was struck by the nature of Crimea. For him, she became the embodiment of romanticism, only not the bohemian St. Petersburg, but real, unfeigned: “The daylight has gone out; / The evening fog fell on the blue sea. / Make noise, make noise, obedient sail, / Worry beneath me, gloomy ocean.” Pushkin would not have been Pushkin if he had not spoken about the trip in a completely different genre in his letters to family and friends. In them, he called Crimea “an important but neglected country,” and about his stay in Gurzuf, in addition to his poems, he also left the following notes: “... I lived in Sydney, swam in the sea and ate myself on grapes. A young cypress tree grew two steps from the house; Every morning I visited him and became attached to him with a feeling similar to friendship.”

Memory: Three settlements in Crimea are named Pushkino, and monuments to the main Russian poet were erected in Simferopol, Gurzuf, Saki, Bakhchisarai and Kerch. There is a museum of A.S. in Gurzuf. Pushkin. The exhibition in six halls tells about the Crimean period of the poet’s life.

Griboedov: “Three months in Tavrida, but the result is zero”

Alexander Griboyedov visited Crimea in 1825, on the way to the Caucasus. The author of “Woe from Wit” left memories of his stay on the peninsula in his diaries. First of all, Griboedov visited the Kizil-Koba cave (Red Cave), where in one of the corridors the inscription was carved: “A.S. Griboyedov. 1825". The writer climbed Chatyr-Dag, the fifth highest mountain range on the peninsula, and visited the Sudak valley, Feodosia, and Kerch. Griboedov was in a gloomy mood for almost the entire trip. In letters to his brother, he complained: “...well, I spent almost three months in Taurida, and the result was zero. I didn’t write anything... ...travelers came who knew me from magazines: the author was Famusov and Skalozub, therefore a cheerful person. Ugh, villainy! In the diaries, descriptions of nature are interspersed with philosophical thoughts: “...a view of the extreme cape of the southern coast of Forus, dark, teeth and roundness are drawn behind by the luminous evening glow. Laziness and poverty of the Tatars."

Memory: On the facade of the former Athens Hotel in Simferopol there is a memorial plaque with the inscription: “The great Russian playwright Alexander Sergeevich Griboedov lived here in 1825.

Gogol: “I was in Crimea. Got dirty in mineral mud"

The writer studied the history of Crimea long before the trip. Thus, in “Taras Bulba” he described the life and customs of the Crimean village of the 15th century. Peninsula Gogol visited to undergo treatment at the Saki resort, where at that time there was the only mud clinic on the peninsula. In a letter Vasily Zhukovsky Gogol wrote: “The damned money was not enough for half the voyage. I was only in Crimea, where I got dirty in mineral mud. Finally, my health seems to have improved just from moving. An awful lot of plots and plans accumulated during the ride, so if it weren’t for the hot summer, I would now have used up a lot of paper and feathers...” The writer spent several weeks in the hospital, and although he was not able to make a long trip around the peninsula, Crimea left a deep imprint on his soul. It is no coincidence that 13 years later, when his health had seriously deteriorated, he wanted to go to Crimea again. However, the writer failed to accomplish his plan: “I didn’t collect the damned money.”

Tolstoy: “Only two companies of us came to Fedyukhin Heights”

Leo Tolstoy visited Crimea three times, and spent a total of two years of his life on the peninsula. The first time the 26-year-old writer came to Sevastopol was during the first defense. late autumn 1854, when, after persistent demands, he was transferred to the active army. For some time he was in the rear, and in the last days of March 1855 he was transferred to the famous fourth bastion. Under incessant shelling, constantly risking his life, the writer remained there until May, and after that he also participated in battles and covering the retreating Russian troops. In Sevastopol, he created the “Sevastopol Stories” that made him famous, which was new literature for that time. In it, the war appeared as it is, without pretentious heroism. The count turned out to be a good commander, but strict: he forbade the soldiers to swear. In addition, his rebellious disposition did not contribute well to a military career: after an unsuccessful offensive in which he had to participate, Tolstoy composed a satirical song, which was sung by the entire Russian group of troops. The song contained the lines “Only two companies came to Fedyukhin Heights, but regiments went” and “It’s written purely on paper, but they forgot about the ravines, how to walk along them,” and also ridiculed the command by name. In many ways, this prank of the young count was the reason for his dismissal from the army, and only literary fame saved him from more serious consequences. Tolstoy's second long stay in Crimea occurred in old age. In 1901, the writer rested in the Crimea, in the palace Countess Panina"Gaspra". During one of his walks, he suffered a severe cold, and although at first the illness did not seem serious, things soon took such a turn that doctors advised the writer’s family to prepare for the worst. Despite this, Tolstoy fought the disease for several months and defeated it. At this time, Crimea became the cultural center of Russia: Chekhov and other major Russian writers came here. In addition to his diaries, Tolstoy worked in Gaspra on the story “Hadji Murat” and the article “What is religion and what is its essence,” which included, among other things, the following words: “The law of human life is such that improving it both for for an individual person and for a society of people is possible only through internal, moral improvement. Nevertheless, the efforts of people to improve their lives by externally influencing each other with violence serve as the most effective preaching and example of evil, and therefore not only do not improve lives, but, on the contrary, increase evil, which, like a snowball, grows more and more, and everything is moving people further and further away from the only possibility of truly improving their lives.”

Memory: In the Gaspra Palace, Tolstoy’s memorial room is preserved, which the writer occupied during his stay in Crimea.

Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy in Gaspra, Crimea. Photo by Sofia Tolstoy. 1901 Source: www.russianlook.com

Chekhov: “Yalta is Siberia!”

That Anton Chekhov He lived in Yalta for several years, many people know, but not everyone knows that, in essence, he went to Crimea to die. After the writer showed the first signs of consumption (tuberculosis), Chekhov, as an experienced doctor, realized that the end was a foregone conclusion and soon decided to leave for Crimea. In the then unremarkable town of Yalta, he acquired a small plot of land, on which in 1899 he built a small house, nicknamed “White Dacha.” If in Europe the “Blooming Cemetery” (as Maupassant nicknamed it) was the Cote d'Azur, then in Russia it was Crimea that was the “last straw” for tuberculosis patients. A warm climate could slightly delay the inevitable outcome, but not prevent it. Chekhov, realizing this, began summing up the results and compiling a collection of works. The whole of literary Russia understood this, where many sought to help Chekhov and visit him in Crimea. His sister Maria lived at the Belaya Dacha and helped the writer, and Chekhov’s wife, actress Olga Knipper (whom the writer married in 1901), appeared in Yalta only in the summer, when the theater season ended. Also in the Yalta house of the writer, Bunin, Gorky, Kuprin, Korolenko, Chaliapin, Rachmaninov and other major cultural figures visited. However, the writer spent many months in the off-season alone, walking along the empty beaches and streets of the resort town. But his sense of humor did not leave him. In letters to his relatives, he complained that newspapers arrived late in Yalta, and “without newspapers one could fall into gloomy melancholy and even get married,” in one of the letters he wrote that “Yalta is Siberia,” and above his secluded and immaculate life in Crimea, he ironically signed the letters “ Anthony, Bishop of Melikhovo, Autkin and Kuchuk-Koy" In Crimea, the writer created the plays “Three Sisters”, “ The Cherry Orchard", many large and small stories. Chekhov was an expert on resort life, having learned over many years to see the other side of an idle holiday. In the story “The Lady with the Dog,” he wrote: “Due to rough seas, the steamer arrived late, when the sun had already set, and took a long time to turn around before landing on the pier. Anna Sergeevna looked through her lorgnette at the ship and the passengers, as if looking for acquaintances, and when she turned to Gurov, her eyes sparkled. She talked a lot, and her questions were abrupt, and she herself immediately forgot what she was asking; then I lost my lorgnette in the crowd.”

Memory: In Yalta, a monument was erected to the writer, and there is also a memorial house-museum in the Belaya Dacha building.

Chekhov's house in Yalta. Photo from 1899. Source: Commons.wikimedia.org

Voloshin: “Crimea is like a fish thrown ashore”

Maximilian Voloshin became a recognized poet of Crimea. Born in Kyiv, he lived on the peninsula from an early age, then received his education abroad, lived in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and after the revolution he finally “settled” in Koktebel. During the revolution and civil war he does not take sides, helping first the Reds and then the retreating Whites. He travels around Feodosia, trying to preserve the culture of Crimea, and later, on his own estate in Koktebel, he creates the famous “House of the Poet,” the doors of which are “open to everyone, even those coming from the street.” In 1923, 60 people passed through the House, in 1924 - three hundred, in 1925 - four hundred. Been here at different times Mandelstam, White, Bitter, Bryusov, Bulgakov, Tsvetaeva, Gumilyov, Zoshchenko, Chukovsky, Neuhaus and many others. Voloshin felt like a native inhabitant of Crimea and always stood up for it in various articles, and did not always take the side of Russia. In one of them he wrote: “For the second century now, he has been suffocating, like a fish pulled ashore.”

Memory: A museum has been opened in the poet’s house in Koktebel, and Voloshin’s grave on a mountain not far from it is a place of pilgrimage for admirers of the poet’s talent.

House-museum of Maximilian Voloshin in Koktebel. Founded in 1984. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org