Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin. Master of monumental sculpture Anikushin works

Installed in St. Petersburg opposite the building of the Russian Museum, but the sculptor is also the author of more than twenty monumental compositions. The most famous work of Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is “Monument to the Defenders of Leningrad”, opened in 1975.

Although Mikhail Anikushin’s entire creative life, by force of circumstances, turned out to be connected with Leningrad, he considered himself a Muscovite in spirit and origin. Anikushin was born in Moscow, in one of the alleys located near Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya Street. His father came to Moscow from the village and worked as a parquet master almost until the last days of his life.

Mikhail was the fourth child in the family. The year he was born, his father was drafted into the army as the First World War continued. Having barely recovered from giving birth, the mother moved with all the children to the village, to live with her husband’s parents. Only in 1926, when Mikhail finished second grade, did the family return to Moscow, where by that time his father had also returned.

Even in early childhood, the boy’s unique abilities manifested themselves. He said that he had been sculpting and drawing for as long as he could remember. In Moscow, he entered school, where he became a school artist, designed wall newspapers and painted posters for the holidays. The art teacher advised Mikhail to study in the studio at the House of Pioneers of the Leninsky District. It was led by the famous teacher and artist G. Kozlov. He noticed that Mikhail had a good sense of volume and began sculpting with the boy.

Under the leadership of Kozlov, Mikhail Anikushin masters the necessary skills and begins to sculpt from life portraits of his comrades and small genre groups - “Young Aircraft Modeler”, “Help to a Comrade”. Kozlov insisted that Anikushin’s works be shown in the children’s art section at the exhibition dedicated to the fifteenth anniversary of the organization of the Red Army. There they were seen by the famous artist Alexander Deineka. He met with the boy and said that he needed to get a special education.

After graduating from high school, Mikhail Anikushin went to Leningrad, since the only sculpture department at the Academy of Arts was located there at that time.

Kozlov gave Anikushin a letter of recommendation to the rector of the Academy, Joseph Brodsky. Mikhail passes the entrance exams brilliantly and is immediately accepted into the second preparatory class at the Academy. Then the sculpture department was headed by V. Bogatyrev. Under his leadership, Anikushin not only completes training assignments, but also begins to work independently. His sculptures “Mother” and “Pioneer Reading His Poems” were shown at the exhibition of young talents dedicated to the Eighth Congress of the Soviets. There they receive an enthusiastic assessment from the artist B. Ioganson, who noted that the level of execution of the sculptures corresponds to the first year of the Academy.

In just a year, Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin completely fulfills the curriculum of preparatory classes, and at the request of Bogatyrev, he is transferred immediately to the last class of a secondary art school. Now the sculptor G. Schultz becomes his teacher.

Under his leadership, Mikhail Anikushin carries out introductory work to the Academy. In 1937, he became a student in a sculpture class taught by the famous Russian sculptor A. Matveev. He was known not only as the author of beautiful monumental works, but also as a talented teacher who trained more than one generation of masters.

Anikushin studied in Matveev’s workshop for five years. Already while studying at the nervous course, he became an assistant to the professor and helped him in his work on the project of the monument to A. Pushkin. Together with other sculptors in 1937, Matveev took part in a competition for a monument to the poet, which was planned to be erected in Leningrad. Matveev’s project took second place in the competition, but he was unable to complete work on it: the war began.

In 1939, on the advice of Matveev, Mikhail Anikushin participated in a competition for the best design of a monument to the Azerbaijani poet Nizami. He received the first prize, and in the post-war period a monument based on his model was erected in Baku.

Since Anikushin was a fifth-year student at the beginning of the war, he was not drafted into the army, but was left at the Academy to complete his education. But he achieves conscription and becomes a soldier in an anti-tank regiment.

Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin stayed at the front until Victory Day, continuing to draw in his few free hours. He created a gallery of portraits of fellow soldiers. In 1945, Anikushin returned to the Academy and began work on his graduation composition, “The Victorious Warrior.” The work was highly appreciated by the commission; it was considered so successful that it was included as one of the components in the monument to the Chekist soldiers created in Stalingrad.

After graduating from the Academy, Mikhail Anikushin could have remained a teacher in the sculpture department, but decided to combine teaching and creative activities. He works with students and begins working as a portrait sculptor.

By 1949, two directions had emerged in his work: portraiture and monumental. The first major work completed after graduating from the Academy was the monument to Pushkin, which he submitted to the 1949 competition. Together with Anikushin, V. Domogatsky, S. Merkurov, V. Sinaisky, I. Shadr took part in the competition, but only a few options, including the model presented by Anikushin, received the approval of the commission and were exhibited in the Russian Museum. Spectators and the authoritative jury gave preference to two versions of the monument - Anikushin and Nikolai Tomsky. But the latter withdrew his candidacy. So Mikhail Anikushin became the winner.

However, he continued work on the monument. In the process of preparing the final version, Anikushin significantly changed the composition. He abandoned the round pedestal and, together with the architect V. Petrov, made a granite pedestal in the shape of a parallelepiped, which was in harmony with the classicist design of the Russian Museum.

While working on the monument, Anikushin created several versions of the poet’s figure. Some of them were so successful that they became models for a number of monuments to Pushkin. One of the first options became the basis of a marble figure installed in the foyer of the assembly hall MI "U on Vorobyovy Gory. Another version of the monument - “Seated Pushkin the Lyceum Student" - was placed in Tsarskoye Selo, it was made in bronze. The main version was installed as planned , in front of the Russian Museum.

At the same time, Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin is working on monuments to other Russian writers. In 1954, he painted a portrait of Mayakovsky for a monument, later installed on Mayakovsky Square in Moscow.

In 1956, Mikhail Anikushin went on a trip to Italy, working in museums in Venice, Florence, Rome and Milan. He created a series of drawings and graphic sheets, published in the form of a book.

Having returned from the trip, Mikhail Anikushin continues to work on the monument to Pushkin. He later admitted that his main version was influenced by the proportions of the sculpture “David” by Donatello. It was then that Anikushin suggested turning the figure of the poet around and raising his right hand in an expressive gesture. The figure acquired lightness and was filled with hidden movement.

In April 1958, Anikushin was awarded the Lenin Prize for the monument to Pushkin. At the same time, another monument to the poet was commissioned for him for the city of Gurzuf. Mikhail Anikushin depicted Pushkin sitting on the seashore. The basis for it was the famous portrait of the poet made by O. Kiprensky. For various reasons, Anikushin could not complete the monument; it was installed only in 1972.

The sculptor begins to work on the monument to Chekhov. But he did not meet the deadline set by the commission and presented the statue after the end of the competition. However, the jury found it possible to reject the remaining options and approved Anikushin’s work.

Initially, the master conceived a two-figure composition consisting of the figures of Chekhov and I. Levitan. But the commission accepted only the sculpture of Chekhov, which became the basis of the monument opened in Moscow in 1973.

Then he begins work on monuments to the physiologist Vladimir Bekhterev and the composer R. Gliere. In the first work, the influence of Anikushin’s teacher, the sculptor Merkurov, is noticeable. The peculiar laconicism of the silhouette is combined with deep psychologism. The monument to academician physicist A. Ioffe was designed in a similar way, first installed on the scientist’s grave, and then in front of the institute where he worked.

The master himself considered his best work to be the sculpture of the famous surgeon P. Kupriyanov, whom he met several times during his military service. Anikushin made the first version of the sculpture in 1947; it was a kind of sculptural sketch.

In 1967, at the request of Kupriyanov’s relatives, Anikushin returned to work on the bust and, based on it, created a monument to the surgeon, installed on his grave. Mikhail Anikushin solved it in the genre of bas-relief, which is rare for Russian sculpture. The full-length figure of a doctor appears to emerge from a massive white marble stele.

From the beginning of the seventies, Anikushin completely focused on the monumental design: he began work on a monument dedicated to the heroic defenders of Leningrad during the war. Back in the fifties, together with the sculptor Sinaisky and the architect A. Baruchev, Anikushin participated in a competition to design a memorial to those killed during the siege. But then the competition was not completed.

Now he is developing a project for the monument together with his regular collaborator, architect F. Gepner. The monumental composition was accepted by the commission and became the basis of the memorial built on Moskovskaya Square in Leningrad. The conceived project turned out to be so grandiose that it was carried out in collaboration with the sculptor F. Kamensky and the architect F. Speransky.

The center of the composition was the monumental statue of Victory standing in front of the marble obelisk. True, in the process of work, Mikhail Anikushin abandons the traditional allegorical figure and replaces it with the composition “Winners”.

Around it there were six sculptural groups in which Anikushin depicted the defenders of the city. Each group forms a unique narrative unity with the plot. The sculptor admitted that the general idea of the composition arose under the influence of the “Requiem” he heard by D. Kabalevsky based on the poems of R. Rozhdestvensky. The images of the characters are inspired by the war poems of Olga Berggolts.

Mikhail Anikushin called the entire composition a tale of war. Indeed, he gave each figure both specific and generalized features. The sculptor sought to ensure that the monument conveys not only sorrow, but also the joy of victory. The master did not hide the fact that in the arrangement of individual elements of the composition he used the experience of his predecessors. In particular, the group "Defense Works" was born under the influence of Auguste Rodin's sculpture "The Citizens of Calais".

Simultaneously with the work on the monument, Anikushin made a bronze sculptural frieze “Victory”, which was installed on the facade of the Great Concert Hall building.

In the last years of Mikhail Konstantinovich's life, Anikushin was mainly engaged in portrait sculpture and until the last days of his life he continued to teach in the sculpture class. He worked as a professor at the Academy for more than forty years.

His childhood was spent in the village of Yakovlevo, Zaoksky district, Tula region. The father of the future sculptor came to Moscow from the village and worked as a parquet master almost until the last days of his life. Mikhail was the fourth child in the family. In 1917, the year of his birth, his father was drafted into the army as the First World War continued. Having barely recovered from giving birth, the mother moved with all the children to Yakovlevo, to live with her husband’s parents. And already there, in early childhood, the boy’s unique abilities manifested themselves: Anikushin said that for as long as he could remember, he sculpted and drew.

While studying at a sculpture studio in Moscow under the guidance of G.A. Kozlova, Mikhail Konstantinovich became acquainted with the traditions of the Russian realistic school of the 19th century. After graduating from school, Anikushin sent documents to the All-Russian Academy of Arts. But when he arrived in Leningrad, it turned out that the documents were missing, and he was not allowed to take the exams. Then Grigory Kozlov wrote a letter to the director of the Academy Brodsky and sent a telegram to the admissions committee: “It is necessary to prevent the greatest mistake... It is unacceptable to cripple a life due to the loss of documents... To deprive Anikushin of the opportunity to take the exam for the Academy is not only a blow for him. This means losing him a year of study, and maybe losing Anikushin altogether...”

It was the teacher’s intercession that played a huge role in the life of the future sculptor, who was eventually enrolled in the preparatory classes of the Academy. In 1937, he was already a first-year student at the Faculty of Sculpture, where he studied with V.A. Sinaisky and A.T. Matveeva. My studies at the institute were interrupted by the war. From its first days, the artist joined the militia, and from November 1941 he joined the ranks of the Red Army.

Only after the victory does Anikushin return to Leningrad. From now on, his entire life and work will be inextricably linked with the city on the Neva. In 1947, Anikushin defended his thesis “Winner-Winner”. In the early 50s, he began working on the monument to Pushkin, and only on June 18, 1957, the monument was unveiled. “Monumentality is not in gigantic size,” Anikushin argued, “but in clarity and depth of thought, accuracy of form, accuracy of relationships.” These words became Anikushin’s creative credo: “I would like some kind of joy and sunshine to emanate from the monument, from the figure of Pushkin,” said Anikushin. And this bright joy really exists in most of the sculptural portraits of Pushkin created by the wonderful Russian artist. And in the monument that stands at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, and in those that he prepared for Moscow, Tashkent, Gurzuf. Even in the bust, which was installed in the park opposite the gymnasium in Dzerzhinsk near Moscow, there is a ray of this joy.

Anikushin also worked a lot on the image of another of his favorite writers - A. Chekhov, in whose works he was always attracted by the authenticity and humanity of the experiences expressed in them. In the 70s, he made a project for a grandiose monument to the heroic defenders of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War, which he saw as consisting of separate groups of short stories - “Pilots and Sailors”, “In the Trenches”, “Blockade”, “Snipers” and others.

Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin was a talented teacher. People's Artist of the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor taught at the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I. Repin and directed the creative sculpture workshop of the Academy of Arts. Even at the very beginning of his creative career, setting out to convey in the sculptural image of the great Russian poet Pushkin the most elusive of feelings experienced by a person - inspiration, Anikushin caught and captured this impulse in a stubborn material.

Where has this uplifting state gone today, why is true art being replaced by outright quackery? - these are the involuntary questions that arise when you turn to the work of the master of easel and monumental sculpture, which was one of the pinnacles of Russian art of the second half of the 20th century.

Alexander Alexandrovich KADASHEVSKY

Anikushin Mikhail Konstantinovich - Russian sculptor. If you look for a long time at the monument to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, which stands on Arts Square in St. Petersburg against the backdrop of the State Russian Museum, at some point it begins to seem that the Poet seems to dissolve in the rhythm, the music of the poems being born. With a gesture, a glance, a subtle movement of his lips, he conveys to us the secret, intimate meaning of his lines. The sculptor, who lived more than a century later, was able to convey Pushkin’s living, pulsating thought, his inspiring feeling, the very soul of the great Russian poet. As Anikushin himself recalled, while working on the image of Pushkin, he often re-read the memoirs of I. A. Goncharov and, in particular, these lines: “At first glance, his (Pushkin’s) appearance seemed inconspicuous. Of medium height, thin, with small dark-skinned features Only when you look closely into the eyes will you see a thoughtful depth and some kind of nobility in the eyes, which you will not forget later.”

“I would like the monument, the figure of Pushkin, to emanate some kind of joy and sunshine,” said Anikushin.

And this joy and sunshine really exist in most of the sculptural portraits of Pushkin created by the wonderful Russian artist. And in the monument that stands at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, and in those that he prepared for Moscow, Tashkent, Gurzuf. Pushkin is sometimes thoughtful, sometimes serious, sometimes as if he is all about hearing... But his thoughtfulness and even his seriousness are light and inspired.

While working on the monument to Pushkin at the Russian Museum, Anikushin re-read the works of the great poet, studied self-portraits, traveled to Pushkin’s places more than once, and peered closely at P. Konchalovsky’s painting “Pushkin at Work,” where the moment of poetic insight was captured. By the way, Konchalovsky made sketches of the face of Pushkin’s granddaughter Anna Alexandrovna, who, as many claimed, was very similar to her grandfather. Anikushin sought to find a plastic solution to the image that would convey the maximum range of feelings.

In Anikushin’s workshop, when he was working on a two-meter statue of Pushkin, there was a small plasticine figurine and a huge plaster statue of the sitter, who stood in the pose of a monument. It was the nude that helped the sculptor, in the words of the great Rodin, “to convey the inner feeling through the play of muscles.” Anikushin simultaneously worked on two projects of monuments, made several versions of plaster and plasticine heads..

The monument was supposed to be five meters high. While working on it, Anikushin simultaneously made a marble statue for Moscow State University and other sculptures, and traveled to Italy, where he carefully studied the brilliant creations of Donatello, Michelangelo and others. He began working on the monument to Pushkin in the early 50s, and only on June 18, 1957, the monument was unveiled. “Monumentality is not in gigantic size,” said Anikushin, “but in clarity and depth of thought, accuracy of form, accuracy of relationships.” These words became a creative credo for Anikushin.

Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin was born on October 2, 1917 in Moscow. His father was a parquet worker and fought in the war. The future sculptor spent his childhood in the village of Yakovlevo near Serpukhov. In 1926, Mikhail moved to Moscow and began studying in a sculpture studio led by Grigory Kozlov.

After graduating from school, Anikushin sent documents to the All-Russian Academy of Arts. But when he arrived in Leningrad, it turned out that the documents were missing, and he was not allowed to take the exams. Then Grigory Kozlov wrote a letter to the director of the academy, Brodsky, and sent a telegram to the admissions committee: “It is necessary to prevent the greatest mistake... It is unacceptable to cripple life due to the loss of documents... To deprive Anikushin of the opportunity to take the exam for the Academy is not only a blow for him. This means lose him a year of study, and maybe lose Anikushin altogether..."

It was the intercession of the teacher, who raised his student for five years in the modeling circle at the House of Pioneers, that played a huge role in the life of the future sculptor, who was eventually enrolled in the preparatory classes of the Academy.

In 1937, Anikushin entered the sculpture department of the All-Russian Academy of Arts in the class of A. Matveev and V. Sinaisky.

Matveev taught Anikushin to deeply understand and interpret nature. During his internship, first at the Leningrad Porcelain Factory named after M.V. Lomonosov, and then at the Kasli Iron Foundry, Anikushin created a whole series of very interesting figurines of children. By the way, Anikushin first began working on the image of Pushkin back in 1937.

As soon as the Great Patriotic War began, Anikushin joined the people's militia, and then was sent to an anti-tank regiment.

And he began doing his diploma work only in 1946. The composition “The Victorious Warrior” can be considered the beginning of a whole series of works on a military theme, including designs for monuments and individual sculptural portraits. In the late 1949s and early 1950s, Anikushin began work on a monument to Pushkin for Leningrad.

Anikushin also worked a lot on the image of another of his favorite writers - A. Chekhov, in whose works he was always attracted by the volume of experiences expressed in them. An interesting double sculptural portrait of A. Chekhov and his friend the artist I. Levitan, who, according to the recollections of contemporaries, always admired the picturesqueness of Chekhov’s prose. Working on projects for monuments to Chekhov for Moscow, Anikushin looked for in the image of the great Russian writer not only will and determination, but also delicacy, cordiality, and spirituality. The sculptural images of the romantic composer V. Gliere, actor Yu. Yuryev, academician V. Bekhterev and other outstanding people of the Russian land, created by Anikushin, are also inspired.

In the 50s, Anikushin created a series of portraits of workers, in 1967 - a portrait of the famous Belarusian poet V. Dubovka, and then for a long time worked on monuments to Lenin in Leningrad and other cities. In the 70s, he made a project for a monument to the heroic defenders of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War, which he saw as consisting of separate groups of short stories - “Pilots and Sailors”, “In the Trenches”, “Blockade”, “Snipers” and others. All generalized monumental forms here are dynamic and expressive. And therefore the monument makes a very strong impression.

Mikhail Anikushin was a very talented teacher, he taught at the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I. Repin and directed the creative sculpture workshop of the USSR Academy of Arts.

Even at the very beginning of his creative career, having set out to convey in the sculptural image of the great Russian poet Pushkin the most elusive of feelings experienced by a person - inspiration, Anikushin sought and embodied this inspiration in almost all of his works.

Bogdanov P.S., Bogdanova G.B.

State Prize of the RSFSR named after I. E. Repin ()

Mikhail Konstantinovich Anikushin(-) - Soviet and Russian sculptor.

Biography

Mikhail Anikushin was born on September 19 (October 2), 1917 in Moscow, into a working-class family.

- - with V.S. Bogatyrev in preparatory classes at the All-Russian Academy of Arts.
- - studied at the Secondary Art School under V.A.Kh., under G.A. Schultz.
- and - - from V. A. Sinaisky and A. T. Matveev at the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

One of the most famous works of the sculptor is the monument to A. S. Pushkin, erected in 1957 in Leningrad.

Anikushin is a representative of the classical, traditionalist school, the author of a number of famous images of A. S. Pushkin.

Awards and titles

Hero of Socialist Labor ().
two Orders of Lenin (, 30.9.)
Order of the Patriotic War, II degree (11.3.)
Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1.10.)
Order of Friendship of Peoples (28.9.)
medals
Lenin Prize (1958) - for the monument to A. S. Pushkin in Leningrad on Arts Square
State Prize of the RSFSR named after I. E. Repin (1986) - for the series of sculptural portraits “Our Contemporary”: “Weaver V. N. Golubeva”, “Worker V. S. Chicherov”, “Ballerina G. S. Ulanova”, “ Composer G. V. Sviridov »
People's Artist of the USSR ()
Honorary Doctor of St. Petersburg State University since 1994

Family

Wife - Maria Timofeevna Litovchenko (1917-2003) - sculptor, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts, People's Artist of the Russian Federation.

Memory

Main works

“The Victorious Warrior” (thesis work, 1947)
Monument to A. S. Pushkin (seated figure at the Pushkinskaya metro station in Leningrad, 1954)
Monument to A. S. Pushkin on Arts Square in Leningrad (bronze, granite, 1949-1957; architect V. A. Petrov; opened in 1957)
Monument to A. S. Pushkin in Tashkent (1974)
Portrait of V. M. Bekhterev (1960)
Portrait of the artist Yu. M. Yuryev, bronze, granite, 1961; necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra
Portrait of cosmonaut G. S. Titov (1961)
Monument to V. I. Lenin on Moskovskaya Square in Leningrad (1970, architect V. A. Kamensky)
Monument to V.I. Lenin in Turku, Finland (1977)
Portrait of General Aircraft Designer A. S. Yakovlev (1975)
Memorial “Heroic Defenders of Leningrad” (opened in 1975, architects V. A. Kamensky and S. B. Speransky)
Portrait of the composer G. V. Sviridov (1980)
Portrait of the artist N. K. Cherkasov (1975) necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra
Monument at the grave of R. M. Glier at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow
Bust of designer N.D. Kuznetsov, installed on August 19, 1986 in Kuznetsov Square in Samara.
Monument to A. S. Pushkin (Chernaya Rechka metro station (St. Petersburg) 1982)
Composition "Peace" in Nagasaki Peace Park.
Monument to G. S. Ulanova in Moscow Victory Park (opened on May 30, 1984).
Monument to V.I. Lenin on the central square of Nakhodka (July 12, 1984).
Monuments to A. S. Pushkin (1993) and M. I. Kutuzov (1995) in Kaliningrad.
. The three-meter bronze figure of the writer is the sculptor’s first work dedicated to Chekhov.

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Notes

Literature

Pribulskaya G. I. Anikushin / Photos by V.V. Strekalov. - L.; M.: Art, 1961. - 48, p. - 20,000 copies.(region)
Alyansky Yu. L. In the workshop on the Petrograd side (M.K. Anikushin). - M.: Soviet artist, 1985. - 144 p. - (Stories about artists). - 35,000 copies.(region)
"Soviet sculpture". Exhibition of new arrivals. State Russian Museum. - L. 1989. - P. 18.
Krivdina, O. A. Anikushin Mikhail Konstantinovich // Pages of memory. Reference and biographical collection. 1941-1945. The artists of the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Union of Artists are veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Book 1. St. Petersburg: Petropolis, 2014. P.40-44.

Links

Website "Heroes of the Country".

An excerpt characterizing Anikushin, Mikhail Konstantinovich

In winter, Prince Andrei came to Bald Mountains, he was cheerful, meek and gentle, as Princess Marya had not seen him for a long time. She had a presentiment that something had happened to him, but he did not say anything to Princess Marya about his love. Before leaving, Prince Andrei talked for a long time about something with his father, and Princess Marya noticed that before leaving, both were dissatisfied with each other.
Soon after the departure of Prince Andrei, Princess Marya wrote from Bald Mountains to St. Petersburg to her friend Julie Karagina, whom Princess Marya dreamed of, as girls always dream, of marrying her brother, and who at that time was in mourning on the occasion of the death of her brother, killed in Turkey.
“Sorrow, apparently, is our common destiny, dear and gentle friend Julieie.”
“Your loss is so terrible that I cannot otherwise explain it to myself, as a special mercy of God, who wants to experience - by loving you - you and your excellent mother. Ah, my friend, religion, and only religion, can, let alone console us, but save us from despair; one religion can explain to us what a person cannot understand without its help: why, why beings who are kind, sublime, who know how to find happiness in life, who not only do not harm anyone, but are necessary for the happiness of others - are called to God, but remain to live evil, useless, harmful, or those who are a burden to themselves and others. The first death that I saw and which I will never forget - the death of my dear daughter-in-law, made such an impression on me. Just as you ask fate why your beautiful brother had to die, in the same way I asked why this angel Liza had to die, who not only did not do any harm to a person, but never had anything but good thoughts in her soul . And well, my friend, five years have passed since then, and I, with my insignificant mind, am already beginning to clearly understand why she needed to die, and how this death was only an expression of the infinite goodness of the Creator, all of whose actions , although we mostly do not understand them, they are only manifestations of His infinite love for His creation. Perhaps, I often think, she was too angelically innocent to have the strength to endure all the responsibilities of a mother. She was impeccable, like a young wife; perhaps she could not be such a mother. Now, not only has she left us, and especially Prince Andrei, the purest regret and memory, she will probably get that place there that I do not dare hope for for myself. But, not to mention her alone, this early and terrible death had the most beneficial effect, despite all the sadness, on me and on my brother. Then, in a moment of loss, these thoughts could not come to me; Then I would have driven them away with horror, but now it is so clear and undeniable. I am writing all this to you, my friend, only to convince you of the gospel truth, which has become a life rule for me: not a single hair of my head will fall without His will. And His will is guided only by boundless love for us, and therefore everything that happens to us is all for our good. Are you asking if we will spend next winter in Moscow? Despite all my desire to see you, I don’t think and don’t want it. And you will be surprised that the reason for this is Buonaparte. And here's why: my father's health is noticeably weakening: he cannot tolerate contradictions and becomes irritable. This irritability, as you know, is directed primarily at political matters. He cannot bear the thought that Buonaparte is dealing as with equals, with all the sovereigns of Europe and especially with ours, the grandson of the Great Catherine! As you know, I am completely indifferent to political affairs, but from the words of my father and his conversations with Mikhail Ivanovich, I know everything that is happening in the world, and especially all the honors given to Buonaparte, who, it seems, is still only in Lysykh Mountains throughout the globe are not recognized as either a great man, much less a French emperor. And my father can't stand it. It seems to me that my father, mainly due to his view of political affairs and foreseeing the clashes that he will have, due to his manner of expressing his opinions without hesitation with anyone, is reluctant to talk about a trip to Moscow. Whatever he gains from treatment, he will lose due to the disputes about Buonaparte, which are inevitable. In any case, this will be decided very soon. Our family life continues as before, with the exception of the presence of brother Andrei. He, as I already wrote to you, has changed a lot lately. After his grief, only this year has he completely morally come to life. He became the same as I knew him as a child: kind, gentle, with that golden heart that I know no equal to. He realized, it seems to me, that life is not over for him. But along with this moral change, he physically became very weak. He became thinner than before, more nervous. I am afraid for him and am glad that he took this trip abroad, which doctors have long prescribed for him. I hope this fixes it. You write to me that in St. Petersburg they talk about him as one of the most active, educated and intelligent young people. Sorry for the pride of kinship - I never doubted it. It is impossible to count the good that he did here to everyone, from his peasants to the nobles. Arriving in St. Petersburg, he took only what he should have. I’m surprised how rumors from St. Petersburg reach Moscow in general, and especially such incorrect ones as the one you are writing to me about - the rumor about the imaginary marriage of my brother to little Rostova. I don’t think Andrei will ever marry anyone, and especially not her. And here’s why: firstly, I know that although he rarely talks about his late wife, the sadness of this loss is too deeply rooted in his heart for him to ever decide to give her a successor and stepmother to our little angel. Secondly, because, as far as I know, this girl is not the type of woman that Prince Andrei might like. I don’t think that Prince Andrei would choose her as his wife, and I’ll say frankly: I don’t want this. But I started chatting, I’m finishing my second piece of paper. Farewell, my dear friend; May God keep you under His holy and mighty protection. My dear friend, Mademoiselle Bourienne, kisses you.
Marie."

In the middle of summer, Princess Marya received an unexpected letter from Prince Andrei from Switzerland, in which he told her strange and unexpected news. Prince Andrei announced his engagement to Rostova. His entire letter breathed with loving enthusiasm for his bride and tender friendship and trust in his sister. He wrote that he had never loved as much as he loves now, and that now he only understood and got to know life; he asked his sister to forgive him for the fact that on his visit to Bald Mountains he did not tell her anything about this decision, although he spoke about it with his father. He did not tell her this because Princess Marya would have asked her father to give his consent, and having not achieved her goal, she would have irritated her father and would have borne the brunt of his displeasure on herself. However, he wrote, then the matter was not as finally decided as it is now. “Then my father appointed me a period, a year, and now six months have passed, half of the appointed period has passed, and I remain more firm than ever in my decision. If the doctors had not kept me here, on the waters, I would have been in Russia myself, but now I must postpone my return for another three months. You know me and my relationship with my father. I don’t need anything from him, I was and will always be independent, but to do something contrary to his will, to earn his anger, when he might not have much time left to be with us, would destroy half of my happiness. I am now writing him a letter about the same thing and asking you, taking a good moment, to give him the letter and notify me of how he views all this and whether there is any hope that he will agree to reduce the term by three months.”
After much hesitation, doubt and prayer, Princess Marya handed the letter to her father. The next day the old prince said to her calmly:
- Write to your brother to wait until I die... Not long - I’ll untie him soon...
The princess wanted to object, but her father did not allow her, and began to raise his voice more and more.
- Get married, get married, my dear... Good relationship!... Smart people, huh? Rich, huh? Yes. Nikolushka will be a good stepmother! Write to him and let him get married tomorrow. Nikolushka’s stepmother will be her, and I’ll marry Burienka!... Ha, ha, ha, and he won’t be without a stepmother! Only one thing, I don’t need any more women in my house; Let him get married and live on his own. Maybe you will move in with him too? - he turned to Princess Marya: - with God, in the frost, in the frost... in the frost!...
After this outburst, the prince never spoke about this matter again. But restrained annoyance at his son’s cowardice was expressed in the father’s relationship with his daughter. To the previous pretexts for ridicule, a new one was added - talk about the stepmother and courtesy to m lle Bourienne.
- Why shouldn’t I marry her? - he told his daughter. - She will be a glorious princess! “And lately, to her bewilderment and surprise, Princess Marya began to notice that her father was really beginning to bring the Frenchwoman closer and closer to him. Princess Marya wrote to Prince Andrei about how his father accepted his letter; but she consoled her brother, giving hope of reconciling her father with this thought.
Nikolushka and his upbringing, Andre and religion were the consolations and joys of Princess Marya; but in addition, since every person needs his own personal hopes, Princess Marya had in the deepest secret of her soul a hidden dream and hope, which gave her the main consolation in her life. This comforting dream and hope was given to her by God's people - holy fools and wanderers, who visited her secretly from the prince. The more Princess Marya lived, the more she experienced life and observed it, the more she was surprised by the short-sightedness of people seeking pleasure and happiness here on earth; workers, suffering, fighting and doing evil to each other, to achieve this impossible, illusory and vicious happiness. “Prince Andrei loved his wife, she died, this is not enough for him, he wants to connect his happiness with another woman. The father does not want this because he wants a more noble and rich marriage for Andrei. And they all fight and suffer, and torment, and spoil their soul, their eternal soul, in order to achieve benefits for which the term is an instant. Not only do we ourselves know this, but Christ, the Son of God, came down to earth and told us that this life is an instant life, a test, and we still hold on to it and think to find happiness in it. How did no one understand this? - thought Princess Marya. No one except these despicable people of God who, with bags on their shoulders, come to me from the back porch, afraid of catching the prince’s eye, and not so as not to suffer from him, but so as not to lead him into sin. Leave family, homeland, all worries about worldly goods in order to, without clinging to anything, walk in rags, under someone else’s name from place to place, without harming people, and praying for them, praying for those who persecute , and for those who patronize: there is no truth and life higher than this truth and life!”

Mikhail Konstantinovich (born 1917), sculptor. Monument to A.S. Pushkin (1957), memorial to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad (1975) in St. Petersburg... Modern encyclopedia

Mikhail Konstantinovich (1917 97), sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1963), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1962), Hero of Socialist Labor (1977). Worked in St. Petersburg. Monument to A. S. Pushkin (1957), sculptures for the memorial to the Heroic ... ... Russian history

Mikhail Konstantinovich [b. 19.9 (2.10).1917, Moscow], Soviet sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1963), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1962), Secretary of the Board of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR (since 1960) and the Union of Artists of the USSR (since 1963), Chairman ...

ANIKANOV ANIKEEV ANIKEENKO ANIKIN ANIKUSHIN ANIKUSHKIN ANIKHNOV ANICHEV ANICHKIN ANICHKOV All these surnames are from derivative forms of the names Ioannikiy and Anikita (the first is associated with the Greek word nike victory, the second with the Greek aniketos invincible). Expression... ...Russian surnames

- ... Wikipedia

ANIKUSHIN- Mikhail Konstantinovich (b. 1917), Soviet, Russian. sculptor, people artist of the USSR (1963), actual. member Academician Arts of the USSR (1962). For military service in 1941 45. Graduated from the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (Leningrad, 1947). Since 1947 he has been teaching... ... Encyclopedia of the Strategic Missile Forces

Anikushin Mikhail Konstantinovich Birth name: Anikushin Mikhail Konstantinovich Date of birth: September 19 (October 2) 1917 (1917 10 02 ... Wikipedia

- [p. 19.9 (2.10).1917, Moscow], Soviet sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1963), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1962), Secretary of the Board of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR (since 1960) and the Union of Artists of the USSR (since 1963), Chairman of the Board of the Leningrad... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (b. 1917), Soviet sculptor. People's Artist of the USSR (1963), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1962), Hero of Socialist Labor (1977). Studied at LINZHAS (1937 41 and 1945 47) with V. A. Sinaisky and A. T. Matveev; teaches there (since 1947).... ... Art encyclopedia

Books

Sculptor M.K. Anikushin, Alexander Shefov. Book-album by A. N. Shefov Sculptor M. K. Anikushin, as the fruit of many years of personal friendship between the author and the sculptor and research work, is not…
Sculptor M.K. Anikushin, Shefov A.N.. The book-album of A.N. Shefov “Sculptor M.K. Anikushin”, dedicated to the outstanding sculptor of the twentieth century Mikhail Anikushin, reveals all stages of the life path and creativity of the great master. Works…