Moscow literary and artistic circle. Teleshovskie "Wednesdays"

Nikolai DmitrievichTeleshov

"Wednesday".Literary circle

Members of "Wednesday" and new comrades.-- Big literary evening.-- Jokes.-- Protests.--

Publishing house of writers.-- Young "WedeYes".-- Arbitration Court.-- Loss of "Environment" and its end.

(From book " Writer's Notes. Memories and stories of the past " )

M Little by little, our comradely circle began to expand. The writer Semyonov Sergey Terentyevich, the author of peasant stories noted by L. N. Tolstoy, came to us. O ry called them "significant, since they concern the most significant class of Russia - the peasantry, which Semenov knows, as only a peasant living himself a rural draft life can know him." The poet and novelist Fedorov Alexander Mitrofanovich came, who lived in Odessa, but often visited Moscow. Then Goslavsky Evgeny Petrovich, Timkovsky Nikolai Ivanovich began to visit. At that time, the newspaper "Courier" was published in Moscow under the editorship of Ya. A. Feigin and ID Novik, fresh and energetic people who tried to unite our entire young group. Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev began working in the same newspaper as a court reporter, but none of us knew him yet. Yes, he himself at that time e I didn't know that he was a novelist. My wife, by profession and education, is an artist, she graduated from Mosko V the school of painting, sculpture and architecture; thanks to this, our parties became b s vat often her associates and other familiar artists. Sometimes during the evening they And poked the reading author or one of the writers present, or did it without G lye illustrative sketches. But all this, unfortunately, was scattered around, and only e how many sketches I have survived and in the Literary Museum,where I gave them a long time ago when at zey was still "Chekhov's". Golovin Alexander Yakovlevich visited quite often - undeniable talent, but in And Due to the circumstances of that time, a modest worker from the painter Tomashka, who took orders for painting ceilings in the homes of wealthy Muscovites. Subsequently, Golovin was pulled out by Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin as an assistant decorator of the Bolshoi Theater, in an owl T At the same time, he was recognized and elevated to the People's Artists of the Republic. His works in And collected Tretyakov Gallery. There were artists K. K. Pervukhin, Vl. Il. Rossinsky, who subsequently painted a portrait of Andreev, is one of the most successful in terms of similarity. This portrait is associated with "Wednesday", was acquired by her and hung in my office, and at the present time I have transferred it to the Literary Museum. Vasnetsov Apollinary Mikhailovich visited us, he liked to depict old, ancient Moscow. Apart from their art n He wrote articles and fiction stories in other works. There were artists: Emilia Yaco V Levna Shanks, V. Ya. Tishin and Isaac Ilyich Levitan. However, Levitan was only at the beginning of the organization of the circle; he soon fell ill and died. A year later, our circle had already grown significantly, and we began to meet regularly every week - first on Tuesdays, and then on Wednesdays, not avoiding "Saturdays" Art n a circle that had a different interest for us and a different attraction. In 1899, in Nizhny Novgorod (the city of Gorky), I met Alexei Maksimovich Gorky, who became very interested in our circle and promised to be with us. e for sure. Since that time, when he came to Moscow, he always visited our "Wednesdays". He likes And These comradely meetings were held, where in an intimate circle young authors themselves read their O wines that have not yet appeared in print, and comrades express their revelations about what they have read n opinions. We were all young then friendly support we all really needed and the field s on. “I would like,” Gorky wrote to me from Arzamas, where he was sent from Nizhny Novgorod, “Thurs oh would you come closer attracted Andreev: he is glorious, in my opinion, and a talent t livy". Soon after this, Gorky arrived in Moscow and on the very first "Wednesday" brought Andreev to us - young, handsome, shy among recognized writers. Gorky also recommended another writer for Sred to us. “An interesting and talented person lives with you in Moscow: a former singer - Petrov. Under the verses he signs - Wanderer. An entertaining fellow. And his verses are such that - here! O I dare to call him; would be helpful." I don’t know why it happened, but among young writers there suddenly appeared a craving for Moscow. Previously attracted to Petersburg. Yevgeny Nikolaevich Chirikov and Alexander Serafimovich Popov, who wrote under the pseudonym Seraf, moved to live in Moscow. And movich, Stepan Gavrilovich Petrov (Wanderer), Vikenty Vikentyevich Smidovich (Veresaev), playwright Sergey Alexandrovich Alekseev (Naydenov), often came and stayed in Moscow Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin, lived Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev, they always began to spend the winter in Moscow Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, Evgeny Petrovich Goslavsky, Nikolai Ivanovich Timko V sky. All of them were members of our Sreda and its regular visitors. But not only young people were with us. Senior writers were also with us, such as Pyotr Dmitrievich Boborykin, Nikolai Nikolaevich Zlatovratsky, Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak, Sergei Yakovlevich Elpatievsky, Viktor Alexandrovich Goltsev, Professor Alexei Evgenievich Gruzinsky. Although rare guests, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov and Vladimir Galaktion still visited us. about vich Korolenko. Through "Wednesdays" usually passed in manuscripts many novelties not yet published. n ki writers. In most cases, the authors themselves read. The first reading of the famous play "At the Bottom" took place here; read by Gorky himself. The works of Leonid Andreev, I think that almost without exception, were read by the author on "Wednesdays" and were discussed in a comradely manner. We had a rule: speak without hesitation. This did not mean, of course, to upset the author at all costs. Butif he was worthy of reproach, then he already listened to the whole bitter truth without condescension; of course, in O nah friendly and not offensive, although resolute and merciless. This happened with Andreev's story "Buyanikha", which, it seems, was never published. That's what happened to the With Kuprin's tale "Furniture", with one story by Goloushev and some stories by other writers. But these harsh reviews did not spoil our good relations, but, on the contrary, brought us closer into a really friendly circle. There were no outsiders at these readings, and Mr. O one could speak without hesitation; these opinions were not made public, and the author could be calm about his reputation, even if his comrades smashed him, which is called s crumbles to smithereens. Many of Naydenov's plays were read at Wednesdays by the authors themselves, almost all With tales and stories of Bunin and most of his poems, many works of the Wanderer, Serafimovich and others, and Leonid Andreev, even when he was abroad, sent his r at copies by mail and demanded the opinion of "Wednesday". “Without this,” he wrote to me in letters, “I can’t consider any of my things finished.” n noah". Bunin was one of the interesting figures on Wednesday. Tall, slender, with a thin, intelligent face, always well and strictly dressed, fond of civilized society and good literature, who read and thought a lot, very observant and capable of everything e mu, for which he undertook, easily grasping the essence of any matter, persistent in work and sharp on the tongue, he cut off his innate talent to a high degree. Literary circles and groups, with their diverse views, tastes and quest, all equally recognized Bunin as a great talent, which over the years grew and grew stronger, and when he was elected in honor T nye academicians, no one was surprised; even enemies and envious people grumblingly called him "sli w com as a young academician, "but that's all. Bunin never missed our meetings and contributed with his reading, as well as humor and comradely witticisms O there's a lot of animation there. It was a man, as they say, a fidget. He was always drawn to go somewhere. For a long time he stayed only in his homeland, in the Oryol province, in Moscow, in Odessa and in Yalta, and from year to year he wandered around the world and wrote to me either from Constantinople, then from Paris, from Palestine, from Capri, from the island Ceylon ... He could work very hard and for a long time: when he visited me in the summer at the dacha, it happened, he would sit and write for days on end; at this time does not eat, does not drink, only works; runs out in the middle of the day for a minute into the garden to breathe and again for p A bot until he cums. He always treated his works extremely strictly, tormented himself over them, trimmed, crossed out, straightened out, and at first often underestimated them. So, he did not dare to give me one of his best stories - "The Gentleman from San Francisco" when I was compiling the next collection of "The Word"; he considered the story worthy no more than for a fel e tone of the Odessa newspaper. Forcibly, I persuaded him to publish in the "Lay", which enjoyed great attention among readers and asked about catfish. Bunin's older brother, Yuli Alekseevich, is also a native member of Sreda and n her last visitor, was much older than Ivan Alekseevich and treated him almost like a father. His influence on his brother was enormous, starting from childhood. He, as a man, is widely A called, loved, appreciated and understood world literature, Ivan Alekseevich very much about I busy in its development. Love and friendship between the brothers were inseparable. The wanderer - Stepan Gavrilovich Petrov - not only read his works with us, but sometimes brought his famous Volga harp and sang folk songs to their sounds, which he was very successful at. He rolled up the sleeves of his blouse to the elbow—he didn’t wear any other suit at that time—tossed strands of hair from his forehead and, saying in a low voice: “Hey, you harp-thoughts!” And nal sing. His voice was strong, pleasant, chesty and expressive bass, very suitable for folk songs, which he knew well and felt well. And it is not surprising, because he is the son of a peasant, a former serf, then a carpenter and a worker, then a free harpman, who wandered around the fairs with his son-son for two years and sang his songs, which was reflected in the life and work of the Wanderer. expelled for political e reliability from the last class of the Samara seminary, Petrov, in search of life path, wandered around the south of Russia, serving either as a scribe in the district court, or as a singer in church choirs, or as a singer and actor, he participated in the Ukrainian troupe of Kropyvnytsky; led in "Herself R newspaper" poetic feuilletons on the topic of the day, rotated in student revolutionary circles until he met in 1898 in Samara with A. M. Gorky. This meeting, and then bl And zest with Alexei Maksimovich decided the fate of the Wanderer; he joined Sreda, in which he was closely involved, and when in 1902 Gorky took over the Knowledge publishing house, the first book of the Wanderer, Stories and Songs, was published. His poems are full of contempt e attitudes towards philistinism, sounded at one time the tocsin, and prose works were saturated not only with a revolutionary mood, but often with the rebellious romanticism characteristic of the Wanderer s mom. My father-gusli gave me as a legacy Gusli-thoughts and merry songs a gift. I also fell to be a gusliar - To sow songs on my native side ... This is how the Wanderer defined his youthful vocation; in the future, this harp sings in a different way: I enter the palace to the rich man And I trample expensive carpets: Full of boredom, melancholy and prayers, Slaves live a well-fed life there... By the way, the Wanderer sang to us on "Wednesday" from Gorky's play "At the Bottom" m new song "The Sun Rises and Sets" earlier than we heard at the Art Theater. It was he who took it out and wrote it down and handed it over to the theater for performance. He also sang with us for the first time With Nude about Stepan Razin and the Persian princess, which is now sung everywhere. It was the Wanderer who so popularized her on his harp; with his light hand she flew, at least along Mos To ve, and from Moscow and further. I remember another Russian song that I happened to hear on condition O views are quite special. In early spring, in the Black Sea, on a simple fishing boat, we left the Nyura dacha in Oleiz, where Gorky then lived, four of us: Wanderer, Gorky, Chaliapin and I. There was not a single person around for dozens of versts. The sun shone like gold in strong and resilient rising and falling blue waves. Chaliapin sang "Down the mother along the Volga", and Gorky and the Wanderer portrayed the chorus; I was the only listener, sitting on the steering wheel. While Chaliapin's voice carried over the expanse of the sea and sang about e the weather, "The Wanderer, on low notes, almost an octave, simultaneously with the lead singer and as if with each other, called on someone:"Let's blast, we'll blast, guys! ..", and then immediately joined the general song, picking up the motive. It turned out very interesting and good. There was everything that, according to the situation, is required from real Russian singing: the lead singer “draws in”, the voices “stick”, the echoes “pick up”, one “fills in”, the other “carries out” ... O Vom, all these proper verbs were put into action. Against the backdrop of Sreda, one of the notable figures was Sergei Sergeevich Goloushev, a gynecologist by profession, but in essence a writer, theater critic, artist, whose whole life was in art. In age, he was older than all of us - some by ten, some by fifteen years. But this difference was not noticed: always interesting, carried away - what do you call T Xia is a "living person" - he could be a comrade and younger than we are. He died in June 1920, at an age that makes it possible to call him an old man:he was sixty-five years old. But everyone who knew him, all his numerous comrades in art, in public, in honey And tsine and even more numerous young pupils and students in art and especially in the theater can confirm that a young soul burned in this sixty-five-year-old husband, and not only young, but young. His mature and good mind embraced and analyzed phenomena, and I whose heart, inclined to hobbies, supplemented this understanding with love for phenomena, itself and With deep, young and real, that's why all his works, theatrical articles, artistic assessments, monographs of artists and his studio lectures on theatrical art- all this is full of enthusiasm, infecting the reader, and even more so the listener. He was especially captivating as an orator, and least of all as a novelist. One day Goloushev read to us on Sreda a story he had just written on the theme of love;I don't remember its name. The story did not seem interesting, and the author was A but it's frank. He thought for a second. - I meant the case as if interesting and not stereotyped. For example, here is this scene. Or this one. And he started talking again. The usual passion took possession of him. And the same ra With the tale lit up and sparkled. Concisely, strongly, beautifully and meaningfully flowed his speech. And when he finished, it was impossible not to say to him: "Why did you write differently than you are now talking about?" He himself felt it and even confessed: “I see that the story is no good. I should probably not write a story A PS, and talk about them in your own words. Tall, thin, with broad, somewhat raised shoulders, with a light brown d Koi, beginning to grey, with a high forehead and long, blond hair thrown back, also not without silver threads, almost always in a long tricot frock coat, which he usually wore wide open; something beautiful and something ugly was at the same time in his face; in n e big gray and slightly slanting eyes, especially when he laughed, flashed a sly expression A vision, which, however, in fact, was not at all either in his nature, or in character, or in his relations with people. He was very friendly, very sweet, capable of everything and talented person, who is fond of everything and easily amenable to many things. I take his appearance for the last ten years before his death. In general, I have known him since a quarter of a century, when he was already a Moscow doctor and artist, who had served his exile in the far north for participating in R tee " People's Will"in the seventies I ths years. Artistic Moscow knew Goloushev well from his reviews, and theater O The people were fascinated by his lectures. He always spoke meaningfully and beautifully, and he himself was fond of the topic of his speech. His capital work was the text for a large illustrated edition. A nyu 1909 " Art Gallery Tretyakov", where Goloushev unfolded the history of ru With Russian painting from the sixties to the last days. His monograph "I. I. Levitan, his life and work", published in 1913, and "Essays on the history of art in Russia" are also very famous. One day, when A.I. Kuprin stopped by to see me, he did not find me at home and, waiting for an hour of pronunciation O ril with my wife. When I returned he said: - We had a nice conversation without you! Now, after all, wherever you go, everywhere there is one conversation: "Ah, Bunin! Ah, Andreev! .." And we talked well and with pleasure about l about shads. In general, Kuprin was very fond of horses, and at that time in Moscow there were a lot of all sorts of races. h talk about the invincible running stallion Dawn, who suddenly and mysteriously died. The matter was dark; newspapers alluded to the deliberate poisoning of a horse by a rival horse breeder and com. Both Kuprin and my wife, who both loved animals, accidentally attacked a topic of interest to them and got into such a conversation that Kuprin promised to write a story about a trotter. And soon action And carefully wrote his "Emerald", in s calling for an enthusiastic review of L. N. Tolstoy. In the same vein, there was another case with Leonid Andreev. One evening he wandered for a long time at our dacha in the garden, admiring starry sky, and my wife, who at that time was interested in asters O nomiya, told him something about the constellations. -- That's fine! Leonid Nikolaevich suddenly exclaimed. good theme for the play: high on the mountain lives a scientist-astronomer, unsociable, to whom there is no e la. And below, under the mountain, there is a revolution that does not care about the sky. From this I am something e barking. I don't know what, but I'll definitely write! And wrote "To the Stars" Of the writers who did not live in Moscow, N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, a handsome man with a gray head, an outstanding engineer and a talented novelist, a builder of the Batumi port, the author of "Childhood of the Theme" and many stories, Korean fairy tales, etc., occasionally came to us. In literature, he became known only at the age of forty, but he immediately won the attention of both readers and the press. When his story “Several Years in the Village” appeared in Russian Thought, such a sensitive and demanding connoisseur as A.P. Chekhov spoke about it in With solemnly: "Before, there was nothing like this in literature of this kind in tone and, perhaps, in sincerity ... The middle is a complete pleasure. So true that more than enough." One of the O his last stories, "Engineers", published in the collection "Knowledge", was in a separate and h Denmark was arrested and seized. Thus, the literary youth of that time and writers with definite names in the person of their best representatives formed a strong literary core. And this core The name is "Wednesday". In December 1902, Leonid Andreev was instructed to arrange a literary evening in favor of the Society for the Assistance of Student Women. He took it upon himself and invited comrades from the same "Wednesday" to participate. He decided to read new story"Foreigner", Naydenov - neg. s wok from the play "The Tenants", Bunin - "To the End of the World", my share got the legend "About the Three Young Men" and the Wanderer's share - poems. Interest in the group of writers from "Wednesday" at that time was just growing, and tickets were taken briskly. The huge Column Hall of the former Blah O the native assembly, the present House of Unions, was overcrowded. The authors who first appeared before the public on the stage were greeted noisily and for a long time; the success of the evening was clearly defined. According to the established custom, at large evenings, especially in the best of Moscow premises, the performers dressed ceremonially: the singers - in ball gowns, the readers and musicians - in French A kah. Only the Wanderer, who came towards the very end of the evening, appeared in his unchanged blouse and only, instead of an ordinary tie, waved some kind of wide tie over his entire chest. And ny bow. Due to being late, he got the very last, final number. And now, in the atmosphere already red-hot by the success of the evening, after violins, tailcoats, hairstyles and ladies' d e Colte, suddenly something new bursts in, something unseen in these walls - almost ran onto the stage A there is a shaggy, ferocious-looking blouse, makesmovements, as if about to roll up his sleeves, with quick steps he comes to the very edge of the platform and, throwing up his head, in a loud voice, to the whole huge hall, crowded with people A row audience, throws out words like stones:...Let a shadow lie on your heart! You will not like my song: It will ring like a flail, On empty heads! I came to you to announce: Life awaits your punishment! Life wants to take revenge on you mercilessly - She is coming for me! .. When he had finished this poem and fell silent,rose in the hall not only a knock, crackling and thunder, but a storm literally roared. According to the newspaper "Courier", preserved in my h ke, "this storm turned into a real hurricane when the Wanderer encore read the poem "No, I'm not with you." The walls of the Noble Assembly are probably the first time they have heard such songs and have never seen and With an executor in such a simple suit..." That's what the paper said. So that's all it really was. But in the newspapers of that time it was still impossible to And talk about everything that happened. I hate deeply, passionately All of you; you are toads in and scrap swamp!-- so shouted the Wanderer to the audience in a thunderous voice, shaking his hand over his head and I wiggle my hair: My god is not your god; your god forgives... And my god is an avenger! My god punishes! My god will betray you to thunders and punishments, my Lord will strike a thunderstorm over you And revive you with his blow! The police officer, who was sitting on duty in the first row of seats, did not get up without waiting for the end, but jumped up and abruptly announced that he was stopping the concert. The audience, screaming, rushed from their seats to the stage, moved close, and the youth climbed even to the very top. O a bridge to greet the author; shouted: "Swing! Pump!.."could not be disassembled. police force I tried to put out the fires. And the brilliant hall immediately dimmed. One by one, the huge chandeliers went out, but the people did not disperse and kept shouting and banging, calling the Wanderer for an encore. It was getting dark in the hall. Finally, the police came to the artistic room, where there was a server for the participants. and rowan tea. - Leave the premises immediately! And when the performers were removed, the audience involuntarily calmed down and wandered to St. O them fur coats. But on the street And tse, near the entrance, exclamations rose again and screams. It all ended with the Wanderer leaving for the Volga, the Society for the Assistance of Student Women earned a good amount in the evening, and Leonid Andreev, as an official And The attendant of the evening, who signed the poster, was suddenly prosecuted in a criminal case. O in a row for not preventing the Wanderer from reading a poem where revolution and popular anger were prophesied. The newspaper "Courier" for the fact that the next day she placed a sympathy T venous report on the evening and printed the poem of the Wanderer "Guslyar", which he read, A missed for a few months. In the future, we were all called to the investigator for interrogation, and then as witnesses in court, where Andreev was sitting in the dock and almost got hurt for no reason. - The Wanderer wrote, the Wanderer read, and the Wanderer became famous, but they want to imprison me or expel me, - see e Leonid Nikolaevich was already in the courtroom before the start of the trial. However, the court acquitted him. In the same winter, Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin, not only already recognized, but also a famous artist who sang at the Bolshoi Theater at that time, began to come to "Wednesdays" from time to time. Sometimes he took part in a general conversation, often liked to joke, tell an anecdote, sometimes he read some dramatic passage, revealing here too O some artistic skill, and again returned to the joke and jokes. And then he sat down O where for the piano and, accompaniment to himself And Ruya began to sing. In addition to our usual regular meetings, from time to time A called weekends, or big, "Wednesdays", which gathered a lot of people. We did not shy away from the then new direction - decadents, modernists and others - and we could meet Bryusov, Balmont, Bely, Krechetov, Sologub at such large meetings ... But we considered them guests, and not members of "Environment" , and these big, or weekend, "Wednesdays" were no longer made in my apartment, but either at Andreev's or at Goloushev's. All this was discussed in advance by "Sreda" and never had an accidental character, but was carried out I elk as a decree, our guests, perhaps, unknown. Artists such as V. I. Kachalov, O. L. Knipper-Chekhova, L. A. Sulerzhitsky also came to such evenings, there were well-known lawyers, doctors, artists, journalists, publishers, professors. However, they were all someone's personal acquaintances, while random people, even very interesting ones, were not allowed for obvious reasons: strict selection guaranteed both us and our guests from the watchful eye - from the incredible detective work that was developing at that time. And the alert eye was interested in "Wed e doyu" - it was to uswell and accurately known. Not always on "Wednesdays", or rather, not all the timeduring the evenings, the conversations were businesslike and serious. We were allowed jokes and laughter. All sorts of things were in use at one time O calls and couplets. I remember about Andreev's story "The Abyss" someone started a couplet and An d Reev was very comforted by them. This happened after he was attacked for this "Abyss" and "N O time" and Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, who smashed the young writer. Leonid An himself d Reev, smiling, liked to repeat among his friends at puppy pun: Kindly: Don't read The Abyss. A rhyme was also composed about the Wanderer. I don't remember it in its entirety. I only remember: The young man called himself a Wanderer in the world, And really wandered around the taverns... Most of all, the Wanderer himself laughed at this, whom readers imagined to be unusually gloomy and terrible, since he wrote about himself inpoems: "I and the sword and together the flame", or:"If you drink - drink with a ladle; beat - so beat with a flail!" Very aptly they gave him a comparison with a tiger ... from a fur store. "He frightens me, but I'm not afraid," as Leo Tolstoy said about the work of L. Andreev. Nicknames were given only to their permanent comrades, and it was allowed to choose these nicknames only from the actual then names of Moscow streets, squares, etc. e reulkov. We called it "giving addresses". This was done openly, that is, his “address” was not hidden from the nicknamed, but was announced in all conditions. s shaniye and never "behind the back." For example, N. N. Zlatovratsky was first given the following address: "Old triumphal gate", but then changed to "Patriarch's Ponds"; the editor of "Russian Thought" V. A. Goltsev was given the address:"Maiden's Field", but later changed to "Babiy Gorodok"; N. I. Timkovsky was called "Hook"; theater critic S. S. Goloushev - "Brekhov per e street "; E. P. Goslavsky - for the usual silence during disputes - "Bolshaya Molchanovka", and another comrade, L. A. Khitrovo, on the contrary, for his addiction to speeches - "Samoteka"; Gorky for his tramps and heroes "Dna" received the address of the famous Moscow square "Khitrovka", covered with bunkhouses and dens; Chaliapin was "Razgulay". Senior Bunin - Julius, p A who spent his whole life visiting the editorial offices was Staro-Gazetny Lane; the youngest is Ivan Bunin, partly for his thinness, partly for wit, from which others had salty, called s there was "Zhivoderka", and meek Belousov - "Prechistenka";AS Serafimovich received the address "Kudrino" for his baldness; VV Veresaev - for the inviolability of views - "Stone Bridge"; Chirikov - for a high forehead - "Execution Place"; A. I. Kuprin - for his passion for horses and the circus - "Horse Square", and L. N. Andreev, who had just started then, was given the address "Bol b shoy Novo-proektirovanny lane", but this did not satisfy him, and he asked to give him the opportunity to change the address, or, as we called it, "move" to another place, even to "Vagankovo ​​kla bishche". “You never know, I wrote to you about the dead,” Andreev used to say.two or three dead. Give me the address of Vagankovo. I seem to deserve it. Not immediately, but his request was nevertheless respected, and he calmed down. A.P. Chekhov laughed and made fun of these addresses when one day in his Yalta office we have spoken about them. - What was my name? - Anton Pavlovich asked with interest, preparing to laugh at his own "address". - You have not been touched, you have no address. “Well, it’s not good, it’s a pity,” he said disappointedly. “It’s very annoying. When you come to Moscow, be sure to call me. Only without any ceremony. The funnier the better h she. And write me how. Give pleasure. When he heard that V. S. Mirolyubov for his tremendous growth gave the address "Calanche V Sky Square," he remarked with a smile: - Gleb Uspensky also splendidly christened him with an absolutely incredible name, but aptly: "Feast A midal buffalo". That's it! So, interfering with dealing with jokes and working with trifles, for many years we have been together and well And whether. From time to time there were some troubles and incidents in our midst. Someone was arrested, then expelled; so, for example, from Yalta, the mayor Dumbadze at one time began to administratively expel all visiting writers. He drove out of Yalta A same native Yalta, doctor and writer Yelpatyevsky, great specialist on pulmonary diseases, a respected and beloved public figure. There were sometimes all sorts of clashes, about which they later wrote in the newspapers, drew cartoons about them; n And An incident that was in itself sometimes blown up into an event, such as the misunderstanding between Gorky and the public in X at dozhestvenny theatre. The times were troubling. The authorities tried to clamp everyone's mouths to keep silent, but the forced silence was not in the power of the "authorities": the Burevestnik was already hovering in the air, and m A little by little the year 1905 drew nearer. "Wednesday" sensitively reacted to the outstanding phenomena of public life; from here n e seldom did the initiative of an all-Moscow protest come about against especially outrageous acts T viy of the then government. Protests were drawn up, covered by many signatures of eminent public figures, petitions were written, publicly scathing reports were read. "Sreda" even published a special comradely collection under modest name"Book of stories and poems". It was published "just in case". And this case will soon appear A in 1905, all the proceeds were transferred in full to the strike committee for the famous postal and telegraph strike that broke out at that time, carried out by the heroic e ski and had big influence to the appearance of the also "famous" manifesto on the establishment of the State at donation thought. Sublime handed over to the manuscript sector of the Gorky Institute of World Literature n naya manuscript of one of the sharp protests of writers against the atrocities of the Moscow police. Head e I am quoting a real copy as one of the examples: “On December 5, 1904, in Moscow, at a time when part of the population was trying to express their dissatisfaction with the existing bureaucratic system, the police, gathered in advance in huge numbers and hidden in yards and other premises, attacked as a demonstrator n Comrade, and to the casual public. The policemen cut down the people with sharpened swords, and And nyaya grievous wounds and even mutilations. Shot point-blank at those fleeing with revolvers, drove the crowds A mi in the courtyards, where they freely beat and tortured defenseless people until they lost consciousness. They didn't differentiate between gender or age. The beaten were taken to the stations, and there the beating continued. Shops and entrances by order of the police were closed, fleeing from violent pursuers had no opportunity to hide. Residents of Moscow were subjected to the same violence on December 6, when there was no demonstration, and the object of police beatings e an unexpecting audience roared. A group of Moscow writers, expressing both their feelings and the feelings of the conscious part of society, deeply indignant at these atrocities of the Moscowadministration, speech s expresses her disgust at the rapists and declares publicly that this acting on the O the brutal and rude administration once again confirmed that the existingthe regime could not be more tolerant." Under the protest authentic signatures-autographs:E. Chirikova, L. Andreeva, S. Petrov-Skitalts, N. Tel e shov, I. Belousov and others. At the end of 1902, a group of seven people was photographed by Fischer: Gorky, Wanderer, Bunin, Andreev, Teleshov, Chirikov and Chaliapin. These pictures have been distributed all over the world. There was, it seems, no such magazine, where these reproductions would not have appeared for all sorts of and new signatures. In some foreign publications, the group was called "writers", in other publications A niyah - "Russian revolutionaries", etc. Russian illustrated magazines literally all, except for the brightly Black Hundreds, hosted this group: it was, as it were, a presentation to readers of the group of authors of the then-nascent publishing house "Knowledge" and the collections "Knowledge", which had such significant relation to 1905. These collections were O van Gorky at our place, on one of the “Wednesdays”, when Alexei Maksimovich, having arrived in Moscow for a day, selected manuscripts from us for the first issue. In memory of this undertaking of collections, Gorky invited us to act as a comradely group. The first collection was compiled and With exclusively from the works of the members of "Cf. e dy". In addition to collections, "Knowledge" began to publish stories in separate volumes and lead comrades in "Environment". So, the published small book of stories by Leonid Andreev created popularity for the author and assist t vowed for his quick glorification. It is important to note that not a single author was bound by any penalties, any contracts, any binding deadlines, as it was done literally in all other publishing houses. Here the author was s o completely free and independent. When the Znanie publishing house closed down a few years later, Sreda immediately tried to fill this gap and organized the Writers' Book Publishing House in Moscow with a pronounced tendency to protect authors from publishing addiction and often - cab A ly. They laughed at our idea, because we announced: "From the publication of the book, all income will be And belongs to the author, not the publisher." Perhaps it was both new and bold, but it was not funny and ridiculous, because "Wednesday" proved all this in practice for a decade. A tels and all sorts of buyers of author's manuscripts - these "lovers Russian literature", as Mamin-Sibiryak called them jokingly and with grief, - at first they laughed at us. But then they stopped seeing e yatsya. The "book publishing house of writers" was initially forced to be officially called a "trading house on faith" under the firm "Trading House Golubev and Makhalov for the production in the city of Moscow of operations for the publication and sale of books by both Russian and foreign writers e lei". Despite all the absurdity, all the absurdity of such a name, fourteen people became the founders of the business, among whom were:Belousov, Bunin brothers, Veresaev, Crash e Ninnikov, Serafimovich, Teleshov, Shmelev and others. A. N. Tolstoy, K. A. Trenev, I. A. Novikov took a close part in the publications ... And mean, but funny. With such "capital" it was impossible, of course, to count on and h giving at least one more or less noticeable name. But the essence of the matter was not in capital, but in the composition of the newborn publishing house, as part of this "trading house", which had O voice and sympathy of a number of names, not only noticeable, but also significant in their time. Soon" trading house" was renamed into a "partnership", the purpose of which was officially announced: "To come to the aid of authors in the publication of books and save them from the need to give a significant part of the income from the publication to publishing but to calves." How such a statement could have been published at that time, and this was in 1912, we ourselves were surprised. However, it was printed in black and white and sent to many writers for information. This announcement spoke not only about the fight against the exploiters of writers' labor, but also about the conditions for publishing books: the publishing house takes on allissuance risk, and O the proceeding income goes first of all entirely to cover the cost of printing the book and paper. In this case, the publisher withholds in its favor for the costs of n tore, premises, taxes, etc. only ten percent of the nominal price of each e To sampler; the rest of the income goes to the author, which is ultimately minus proi h management costs, receives up to forty percent of the face value of each copy of the book. And all subsequent editions produced on the same basis. Association members are not gender b receive no advantage in publishing their books; their rights in this respect are no different from those of outsiders. All these conditions, to the annoyance of private publishers and to our joyful surprise, were freely printed and sent to addresses. stakeholders and as a result b tate attracted many prominent authors, novelists and critics to the publishing house: Gorky, K. O Rolenko, Elpatyevsky, Zlatovratsky, Trenev, Naydenov, Sergeev-Tsensky, Seraphim O Vich, Yushkevich, Novikov-Priboy and many others, in addition to those who were part of the main group. The heirs of A.P. Chekhov, who lost faith in private publishers, gave all six volumes of Chekhov's letters to the partnership. In addition, the publishing house undertook to replace the discontinued collections "Knowledge" with the release of collections called "The Word", which at one time, from 1910 to 1917, outstanding success. They were chasing after them bookstores almost the same as behind the collections "Knowledge". "People's School Library" and the so-called "Cheap Library e ka" in a certain selection of authors and their works complemented the public role of "Kn And state publishing houses of writers". How good or bad this role was, it is not for us, the participants and creators of the case, to judge this. The chairmen of the board were at different times, if not And I'm afraid there are only two: VV Veresaev and myself. The case, at which the major publishers laughed, grew so much that in a short time e it became impossible for me to enslave a writer with famous name for many years, and even forever, as it often happened then. Every writer, whatever his need don't find Xia, had the opportunity to publish his books not on the terms of bondage, but on the basis of a comradely one. And this was the considerable social role of "Environment", which united certain group writing e lei and delivering them, as well as many other writers, from the buyers of manuscripts need Yu from these writers' benefactors, from these "lovers of the Russian literary about sti". The personal relations of the participants in Sreda were quite friendly with each other, I anyway among the majority, and very cordial and sincere, especially between some of us. The proximity was not only literary or comradely, but often personal and family. th naya. Although A.P. Chekhov lived in Yalta, he was always interested in our circle, and when we A published a comradely collection "The Book of Stories and Poems", Anton Pavlovich wrote to me about it: “I have already read almost everything - and I liked a lot, fascinated a lot ...” O the shuttle" and "The Song of the Blind", especially towards the end, seemed to me unusually good, magnificent ... Thank you very much, great! .. I firmly shake my hand ... Bow and greetings e to the proponents of "Wednesday"..." And when, in 1904, Chekhov came to Moscow to stage his last play, "Vi w nevy garden", then spent the whole evening with me, among our comrades, and asked me to write to him about all our news and achievements. Beginning in 1909, the character of Sreda changed radically. assemble st A whether it is no longer with me and not in private apartments, but in the Literary and Artistic Circle, on Bolshaya Dmitrovka, now renamed Pushkinskaya Street. A good room was allotted here for Sreda. Julius Bunin became the head of these meetings. During the first winter, the number of participants grew so much thanks to young poets and young writers that the large reserve hall of the circle could hardly accommodate everyone. Among the participants were not only young people, but often attended these meetings, etc. A some writers like A. N. Tolstoy, Iv. A. Novikov, whose names were already well known T us in literature. After the readings and debates, a comradely tea was usually arranged with speeches, articles and hami, witticisms and curious poetic "protocols", sometimes brilliantly witty m nymi, who composed right there, without leaving the room, impromptu, M. P. Galperin and so on And he told the whole assembly about his meeting today, listing the names, words and cases that stood out that evening in a somewhat exaggerated form, which made them funny and interesting; these jokes were hilarious and don't offend anyone's vanity d us. This witty and pleasant poet in Soviet times worked a lot in dramaturgy, composed librettos for new operas and operettas, and died quite by accident under the wheels of at zovik almost at his apartment in 1944. However, these readings by young writers did not always go smoothly. was, n A an example, a case when one poet from the camp of decadents so sharply carried the poems he read to a young e zhi, that in conclusion exclaimed! "Drown them while they're blind!" This unbridled exclamation, in turn, provoked Ivan Bunin's ardent defense of the young authors, and the evening passed in a general agitated on the building. On these young "Wednesdays" I recall some especially noticeable forces of that time, such as the poetess Ada Chumachenko, the young Valentin Kostylev, who later became famous writer, fiction writers - V. G. Lidin, Shmelev, Fomin, Ashukin, critic Yuri Sobolev, artist Ap. M. Vasnetsov, who appeared here as a novelist with his stories, and N. G. Shklyar, who usually acted as a benevolent critic of the read h knowledge, and many, many who became famous in the Soviet era. Among the guests and silent listeners who were interested in young authors, many of the prominent people are also remembered, such as, for example, People's Artist S. I. Migai, at that time still a young law student, and other young people - teachers, doctors, journalists, later became very famous and A or big names. In general, the young "Wednesday" defended the realistic direction, despite the fashion and passion for other tastes. Decadence windceased to rage, and a normal attitude towards literature began to A little by little became necessary. The number of new members grew exponentially. But the old comrades began to attend meetings less and less frequently. Several times in the winter they again began to gather, now at my place, now occasionally at Goloushev's. Many of the former are no longer there: some went abroad as a result of reactionary dominance, some moved to St. Petersburg or other cities. But, on the other hand, during the same time there were good additions:Ivan Ivanovich Popov, an old Narodnaya Volya member, an involuntary Siberian, a former editor-publisher of a large and influential Siberian R the Vostochnoye Obozreniye newspaper and the Sibirsky Sbornik magazine, and also Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev, a talented and bright person who wrote a lot strong stories and stories, including "The Man from the Restaurant", published in "Knowledge". Both of them quickly and firmly established comradely relations. e niya. In connection with this, one sometimes recalls the painful impression of the news of the departure from Yasnaya Polyana of Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, one of the greatest people of his time. It's be G in the autumn black night along the deaf village roads, surrounded in the early days of thai n quality, made a terrific impression both among us and abroad, where the name of Tolstoy b was given great respect. The announcement of his illness on the way, of his stop at the Astapovo station, and finally of his death - all this was not only an exciting, but completely amazing event. T e The letter printed in the newspapers that on November 7-20, 1910, at 6:05 am in Astapovo, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy had died, made a terrible impression, although everyone had already been prepared e us to such news. The extreme reactionary haters, spiritual lords, Metropolitan O litas, court henchmen, ministers, officials and all that evil army that anathematized Tolstoy and excommunicated him from the church; for him, all these excommunications and anathemas were only evidence and proof that his voice was heard and that the invulnerable armor of the samples And that. The vast majority of the peopleera looked differently than people of the court type, for whom Tolstoy was only a heretic and troublemaker. It is unlikely that there was such a country in the world, even if only with a nascent culture, where there were no admirers of Lev Nikolaevich and where his name would not be surrounded by A acceptance, love and respect. "The great writer of the Russian land" has long ceased to speak with some chosen ones And kami, but spoke with all the people in a language simple and understandable to everyone about issues that are vital for all, rooted in life itself, trying to connect his words with his personal actions. Renunciation, renunciation, renunciation - that's it eternal companion truth seekers. And in p O in the mortars of the truthful and the brave, other people usually feel and see themselves reproached. That is why much that goes beyond the ordinary is so often and so willingly condemned. And the more Tolstoy renounced the blessings of life, the more reproach to other people grew out of his life and the more accusations of insincerity fell on him from those alien to him. dark forces, V And who have shared their happiness and well-being only in power, in wealth and in violence against other people b mi. Patiently and attentively, he read and listened to embittered antics against him, often threats, insults, even curses and swearing, thinking not about himself, but about those who could suffer from this - because of him, get into trouble, in conclusion or into exile, which often happened in those cruel time. Many thousands of people from all over the world turned toTolstoy personally and in writing; O b peasants turned to him with their age-old needs and questions, all kinds of people turned to him with matters, public and personal, turned to everyone who found it difficult, or painful, or unbearable to live ... Wonderful words come to mind A. M. Gorky: "Tolstoy is a whole world ... Without knowing Tolstoy -you can’t consider yourself knowing your country, you can’t consider yourself a cultured person e com". And now a great citizen of the world has left us, asit has been called lately. Lev Nikolaevich sent his reflections "On Life and Death" to me for the collection "Drukar", in favor of the workers of the printing business, which was published in 1909 under my editorship To tion. He wrote one of the aphorisms with his own hand under his portrait, which was also placed in the "Drukar" with his autograph. The old "Wednesday" essentially no longer existed. Was alive new, or they say O day, "Wednesday" numerous, active, in which the old founders of the "Wednesdays" were more like guests and each was responsible only for himself. But individually, the "old men" about With huddled with each other as comrades. They have now rallied around the Book Publishing House A telei", having entered the council and the editorial board; almost all of them were part of the dire To Members of the Literary and Artistic Circle, on the board of the "Society of Periodical Press Workers" and in the court of honor at this society, worked on the board of the fund for mutual assistance of writers and scientists, where I was chairman for about fifteen years. There was always something that connected us and kept us in some kind of unity. Even during the war, "Sreda" was entrusted with everything With kovskogo Press Day to compile a collection to help the victims of the world massacre. And "Wednesday" highlighted And three editors from its composition: I. A. Bunina, V. V. Veresaeva and N. D. Teleshova, who compiled this collection immediately under the name "Cry", where the best modern e temporary writers, major artists and famous composers. The book was sold out in three days and gave a net profit, according to the published report, thirty-four thousand rubles. This money was added to the overall, rather significant amount collected by the Press Day and distributed, according to the decision of the general meeting of the Moscow Press Day, between national organizations that provided assistance to the population affected by the war: Armenian, Polish, Georgian, Jewish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Tatar and To Rainsky - through the Pirogov Society, in an equal part of each organization. A lot fell to my lot of work on compiling and publishing this collection, and e free of charge on the first copy received from the printing house, madeinscription on the book by hand e Resaev: "To dear comrade N. D. Teleshov, who on his shoulders endured the whole huge p A bot to create "Cry". Under this signature: "Co-editors: Iv. Bunin and V. Veresaev. March 17, 1915". I cherish this recognition very much and cherish this commemorative specimen with love. For a quarter of a century there was not, or almost no, in Moscow not a single society n not a single cultural undertaking where, in one way or another, Sreda did not take an ardent and close part, if not as a collective, then in the person of its individual members. The authority of "Sreda" was high, and public groups often turned to it when serious fundamental conflicts arose and an impartial arbitration decision was required. In such cases, "Wednesday" pointed to one of its associates, and he was elected in the at dei. I remember one complex and difficult process. The young poet, from a group of modernists, was suspected of provocation, and accusations fell on his head of betraying his friends. It all started with correspondence from Paris, published in the newspaper Russkiye Vedomosti; the name of the well-known "everywhere" in this part of Vl. Burtsev, who admitted that there was a provocation behind the poet. The accusation was so definite, and the allusions so transparent, that the name was suspected. n many things were already directly mentioned, although it did not appear in the correspondence, and the poet e they stopped giving a hand, then the magazines stopped accepting his works for printing, then he s lo denied service - he was a teacher. With the loss of a good name, the means of subsistence also disappeared. It was not possible to defend oneself, because it was impossible to file a complaint with the state T a so-called "crown" court due to a politically slippery topic. What kind of government would agree, in fact, to consider service in its political agents a crime and consider work in it as a shame for an employee? And in what position A There would be witnesses, both themselves and all those people and circles that would have to be told about in court! For the investigation and for widespread betrayal, such a trial would be the greatest triumph T vom and holiday. And no one could have wished for this. There was no way out of the impasse. The persecution continued until a "private court" was formed - a court of honor, with completely closed doors. The court consisted of seven persons - representatives of the legal profession, literature and the public: three from the side of Russkiye Vedomosti, headed by N.V. Davydov, and three from the side of the writer: I was among them, x O This writer was far from being one of the friends of our group, and not even one of my acquaintances. soup R S. I. Filatov, at that time the chairman of the board of attorneys at law, an organization endowed with high public confidence, was elected arbitrator. These judges were entrusted with the question of the good name of a person and, in connection with this, undoubtedly, about his life and death - so gray b zeno played out and painfully O there was this scandal. The process dragged on for several months - from autumn to spring. From the testimony of many St. And Children, mainly from the literary and magazine world, revealed horrific pictures of investigation, oppression, bribery, and trading in people's heads. These testimonies led to the trail of one " beautiful lady", who was undoubtedly at the center of the denunciations. She lived somewhere on the estate, but e far from Moscow. A trustee was sent to her from the court with a request to come to the meeting A nie to testify in the case of the writer as a simple witness. She greeted the envoy impudently and announced to him that he should go out this very minute and would never come again, otherwise she would hunt him down with dogs. Along the way, in order to finally clarify the guilt or innocence of the writer, it became inevitable to propose a number of significant questions as the author of disgraceful articles, but A published in the newspaper, Belorusov, and V. L. Burtsev, who recognized these articles as correct. But both of them lived in Paris. Sending questions and receiving answers via mail was equal to O much to the opening of doors, and even worse, since all the letters would undoubtedly have been secretly read by the gendarmerie. And the court was forced to send a courier - a faithful person with the necessary questions to Paris, to obtain a personal meeting there and bring the written answers to the court. It's a difficult time at and slowed down the course of the process. The duties of the judges were morally difficult and extremely responsible: it is impossible to whitewash in And new in vile betrayals, but one cannot accuse such a case by assumption, without clear evidence. Every effort was made to find out the truth. And after long, persistent and painful labors, the court came to the conclusion that the accusation was not confirmed by the decision b but nothing. good name, and with it, probably, life itself A the calves were saved. Having freed the writer from the accusations weighing on him, the arbitration court in its e The decision also concerns the behavior of the newspaper: "In the actions of the editorial board there is no violation of the requirements of the A courtesy and good morals; there is no indication in the case that when typing the incriminating And articles, the editors pursued selfish or generally personal goals, were guided by intentions that did not meet the requirements of general or literary ethics; the editors had in mind not a sensation that gives the newspaper an external success, but an investigation of a phenomenon that required serious b significant public attention; what was meant was the fight against the phenomenon, and not strikes against individuals, not reprisals against them. And yet, as the circumstances of the case showed, the share of [lit. e ratator] fell a heavy blow. It would be sad, but inevitable, if the blow was deserved. at wives, but, as mentioned above, evidence of guilt "was not and is not available" ... Therefore, third th The Russian court considers itself obliged to note in the actions of the editorial board what constitutes And mournful negligence - regrettable for those grave consequences that it entailed with O a blow that fell on [a writer]. The reputation of the newspaper "Russkiye Vedomosti" is generally known T on and created by long years of serving the public interest, but the more authoritative the word of the newspaper, the more carefully it should be pronounced and mo". From this short excerpt very lengthy resolution - almost a thousand newspaper lines - it is clear with what attention the court worked on all questions, on all the details I mi of this extremely complex, extremely e boiler and responsible business. In literary circles, many anxiously awaited the end of this protracted process. Here is neg s wok from a letter to me by Boris Zaitsev: "What a burden has been lifted from the shoulders with the denouement of this story. The resolution is clever, the A fair and, in my opinion, fair. Her impression is gratifying. It was not in vain that we were worried, it was not in vain that you were wasting time, strength and nerves on unraveling all this ... You are so kind e you reacted to the grief of a person almost unknown to you with vehemence and cordiality. I know that, in h maybe, thanks to this case and your impartiality, you have amassed some ill-wishers e lei ... But you are infinitely above behind-the-scenes influences, and this was fully confirmed in the weak O of the right, but the right against the strong wrong ... " Members of "Sreda" had the opportunity to influence the most diverse aspects of life. Through the Literary and Art Circle, they helped writers, artists, artists and just working people who fell into trouble or extreme; through the Society of Periodical Press and Literature with its court of honor, they defended the rights and dignity of individual figures of science and l And literature, through the fund for mutual assistance of writers and scientists, they gathered by labor groups O sham comradely funds, and members of the fund for a quarter of a century of work in recent years began to be able to teach their children free of charge, live more or less tolerably their lives in retirement, and even receive treatment and live in Essentuki, where a reception room was equipped h living writers, and in the event of death, the orphaned family of a member of the fund received immediately and without any hassle a bit by bit amount of money. The last meeting of Sreda took place in 1916. On it came from Peter O The city of Leonid Andreev introduced us to his new, last play - the tragedy "Sampson in Chains", which Goloushev read in the presence of the author. Acquaintance with the play O It was accompanied by success, to which Andreev was accustomed in previous years, and he brought with him to "Wednesday" several Petrograd friends. Among them was Fedor Sologub (Teternikov), who had never been to Sreda before. The usual discussion of the reading did not get better; something prevented it. Maybe the height of the world war and a premonition of other And The raging world events made the heroes of the biblical era not bright enough, but only the general conversation quickly moved from the play to modern phenomena, and the discussion of the play did not take place. After that evening we had no more meetings. Soon "Wednesday" began to experience loss after loss. Starting with Andreev, who died in 1919, close comrades began to go to the grave one after another. Yuli Bunin, Timkovsky, Goloushev, Belousov, Gruzinsky died. In January 1933, our oldest colleague, Sergei Yakovlevich Elpatievsky, one of the most typical representatives of the literature of the past, died just a few months short of his eighty years. And anniversary. It was tall, dry, very cheerful and agile old man, with a sympathetic and la With kov heart, with the soul of a student of the eighties, social activist, publicist and Belle T rist, a gifted and intelligent person, widely educated, a doctor by profession, is a great and very experienced connoisseur of pulmonary diseases. At one time, having experienced arrest, prison and exile on political affairs, he reflected his experiences in his essays and stories, op. And writing people who are thirsty for freedom, whose lives were ruined by prison and exile, describing for And solid polar nights, the great horror of the Siberian wilderness, the endless taiga with its e erratic, threatening, like the roar of a dispersed, disturbed beast, howling ... The son of a village priest, he left in literature whole line interesting essays about his childhood in the village among the peasants, as well as a number of characteristics and memoirs of outstanding writers, T military figures and revolutionaries of his time. Always attentive to the person, always affectionate and ready to help in word and deed, Elpatyevsky was always in work and care. In I l where he lived for many years after his release, he organized sanatoriums and free medical care centers for needy patients, who always flocked to the Crimea endlessly. With lazy set. When in Moscow in 1905 the famous All-Russian Congress doctors in and mint Pirogov, E l Patievsky was elected chairman of this congress. In 1936, all of us, Soviet people, were shocked by the news of the untimely death of Alexei Maksimovich Gorky, a man and writer of great importance for our era. In 1938, Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin, the son of a Vyatka peasant, a great Russian artist, died abroad. His childhood passed in poverty, at the very bottom, almost in poverty. Simultaneously with Gorky, not yet knowing each other, they worked side by side in Saratov as a loader. And ki. And in Kazan, as Chaliapin himself said, "I was a shoemaker, and Gorky was a baker. Both I and he Sundays took part in fistfights with the Tatars on a frozen lake. "Then they tried to stick to the theater. Gorky was accepted as a singer, and Chaliapin was zabrak O wali. Subsequently, when great fame came to them, they were close friends. In the same 1938, Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin died, shortly before that I returned V coming from abroad. He left, if not very young, but very strong and strong physically. And Chesky, almost an athlete, but returned emaciated, lost his memory, powerless and weak-willed b disabled person. I visited him at the Metropol Hotel three days after his arrival. It was no longer Kuprin - a man of bright talent, which we are accustomed to consider him - it was something a little like the former Kuprin, weak, sad and, apparently, dying. He spoke, remembered, mixed up everything, forgot the names of former friends. It was felt that in his soul he had a great disagreement with himself. He wants to respond to something, but there is no strength for it. I left him with a sad feeling: I felt sorry for the strong and brilliant writer that he had already ceased to be. The Literary Fund came to his aid and set him up near Moscow, in a dacha e estnosti Golitsyno, for a summer vacation. And this is what happened there not with Kuprin himself, but with what is called the soul of Kuprin. In the recreation center of the Literary Fund in August 1937, a friendly reception was organized for the Red Army soldiers of the Proletarian Division. Two hundred people came. We prepared cheesecakes, kvass, all kinds of muffins, berries for them, so that it would be exclusively only “our own” and not And what is bought. The garden was festively cleaned. Everywhere flags, bouquets and posters with mottos and poems. The guests came with a march and songs. They sang, played burners, danced, chased A starts, have fun. Some of the writers present here read their poems: Loeb e dev-Kumach, Lahuti. In response to this, the Red Army soldiers read their works. It was fun and joyful. Kuprin was also invited to this holiday. An armchair was brought out to him on the playing field, seated respectfully, and he sat and looked at everything almost in silence. The military sometimes approached him, saying that they knew and read his books, that they were glad to see him in their midst. He is beautiful T Ko thanked and sat in deep thought. It seemed to some that this general comradely fun did not seem to reach him. But when the Red Army men sang in chorus the Russian songs With nor - "Down the mother along the Volga", about Stepan Razin and the Persian woman and others, he completely changed, as if he had suddenly come to life. And when they sang the current song "Broad is my country, d Kuprin was deeply moved. When the departing Red Army soldiers expressed their farewell greetings to him in chorus, he could not stand it. What he experienced that day silently and, it seemed, indifferently, suddenly broke out. “The motherland itself forgave me, a great sinner before the motherland,” he spoke through sincere hot tears. “Sons of the people, the army itself forgave me. And I finally found oh whoa. With this reconciling consciousness that in no country can there be such a united O suffocation between ordinary soldiers and their commanders, between writers and all working people, that all of them, whom he saw, were one great sensitive family of one people and in this united A one can be really happy with one's own family, - with this he left for Leningrad, where he soon died. At the end of June 1941, S. G. Wanderer died. His death coincided with the just beginning V the Great Patriotic War. They took him to the Vvedenskoye cemetery. For a very short T During the first period of his illness, this hero, according to his constitution, became so thin and changed that it was impossible to recognize. A month before his death, he said: "Will I have the strength to overcome liver and heart disease, not affected by excesses happy life which were not there, but because I carried too much heavy on my shoulders, took too much to heart the grief of others and shared grief with the people all my life ... " In May 1942, playwright SD Razumovsky died at the age of seventy-eight. After him, in addition to his plays, a large number of unpublished p a bot. In February 1943, my wife, Elena Andreevna Teleshova, died, taking bl And the most important participation in the creation and development of our comradely circle. Everyone appreciated and respected her as a close and dear person, who took an ardent part in all the events of the life of "Wednesday". She was fluent in five European languages ​​and was useful to many comrades in translating foreign reviews, often very sympathetically. T veins and interesting for writers. In 1945, another close comrade died, V.V. Veresaev, whom I am talking about in d more detailed in later lines. In 1949 A. S. Serafimovich died at the age of eighty-six. After his death, in the end, only one of our "Wednesdays" remained alive, only I in our Owl T country. I have lived a long, interesting and happy life thanks to friends and e niya of talented people. When in 1924 my first, very short essays O past days, subsequently greatly expanded, A. M. Gorky wrote to me from Co rrento: "Nicely you wrote, but little ... Your Wednesdays had a very great importance for all of us writers of that era." Text source: N. Teleshov. Writer's Notes. Stories. Moscow. Publishing house "Pravda". 1987 OCR and proofreading Yu.N.Sh.

Wednesday: Derived etymologically from the word middle middle, but means essentially the opposite word environment. That is, everything that is around the middle (around me). In this meaning, the rule is usually used with a clarification (what environment?) ... Wikipedia

1. WEDNESDAY, s, wine. environment; pl. environment; and. 1. A substance that fills what l. space and having certain properties. Air s. Propagation of light in a homogeneous medium. refractive media. Filter media. Nutritious with. (liquid or ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

The literary circle in Moscow, gathered on Wednesdays at the writer N. D. Teleshov from the 90s. 19th century until 1916. Participants V. V. Veresaev, A. I. Kuprin, I. A. Bunin, M. Gorky, and others. Young Wednesday, led by Yu. A. ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

The literary circle in Moscow, gathered on Wednesdays at the writer N. D. Teleshov from the 90s. 19th century until 1916. Participants V. V. Veresaev, A. I. Kuprin, I. A. Bunin, M. Gorky and others. After the Revolution of 1905 07, the so-called “Young Wednesday” arose at the head ... encyclopedic Dictionary

I Environment in biology, a set of abiotic (inorganic) and biotic (organic) living conditions of animals, plants or microorganisms of the same or different species. The abiotic factors of S. include chemical ( chemical composition… … Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- Ash Wednesday, painting by Carl Spitzweg, 1855-1860 This term has other meanings, see Environment (meanings) ... Wikipedia

This article is about I. F. Lopatin's house at 68 Nevsky Prospect. About I. F. Lopatin's house at 100 Nevsky Prospekt, see Nevsky, 100. This article is about Dekhterev's house on Nevsky Prospekt. About Dekhterev's house according to ... ... Wikipedia

- - was born on May 30, 1811 in Sveaborg, recently annexed to Russia, where his father, Grigory Nikiforovich, served as a junior doctor in the naval crew. Grigory Nikiforovich received his last name when he entered the seminary from his educational ... ...

- a famous poet. ?. CHILDHOOD (1783-1797) The year of Zhukovsky's birth is determined differently by his biographers. However, despite the evidence of P. A. Pletnev and Ya. K. Grot, indicating the birth of Zh. in 1784, it must be considered, like Zh. himself ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia

Literature of the era of feudalism. VIII X century. XI XII century. XII XIII century. XIII XV century. Bibliography. Literature of the era of the decomposition of feudalism. I. From the Reformation to the Thirty Years' War (late 15th–16th centuries). II From the 30 year war to the early Enlightenment (XVII century ... Literary Encyclopedia

"Outside Slavic world Gogol extends his power to the whole of mankind, ”Vogüet summed up in his speech the main motive of all foreign greetings.

The organization of the Gogol days and the celebrations were taken over by the oldest literary society, celebrating its centenary in the same year - the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, where the official committee worked. But in the office of N. V. Davydov, during a friendly conversation, much was prepared in advance; from here came the initiative of certain events more than once. The Gogol commission was headed by Davydov as chairman and worked in unison and energetically. For two years I had the opportunity to take part in it closely.

Perhaps it would not be superfluous if I quote some excerpts from a letter from a group of foreign writers and journalists.

“What strikes us most in Russian literature is that extraordinary sympathy for everything that suffers, for the humiliated and insulted, for the stepchildren of life of all classes and conditions,” they wrote, “for people whose souls are still alive, but, as it were, paralyzed or mutilated in whirlpool of life. And this special sympathy, penetrating everything that is most outstanding in Russian art, is not in the least patronage or even pity. It is rather a feeling of blood kinship between people, which keeps the members of the family closely together, both in misfortunes and in happiness; it is a feeling of true brotherhood that unites all heterogeneous humanity. With such qualities, Russian literature has become a torch that shines brightly in the darkest corners of Russian literature. national life. But the light of this torch spread far beyond the borders of Russia - it lit up the whole of Europe. And we firmly believe that the people who have done such a great and courageous work in the liberation of the human spirit will also be able to achieve full and free development in life, for which they have fought and suffered for so long.

What was it like to hear all this for loyal officials who imagined that only they were in charge of the life and spirit of the people!

With N. V. Davydov, I also had joint work. At the same time, representatives of the all-Russian students turned to him and me with a request to be the editors of their literary collection. And we worked on numerous manuscripts for a long time, highlighting the more interesting ones. A year later, the “All-Student Collection” was published. To our satisfaction, several of the names of these young participants subsequently remained in the literature and became famous, but many did not go beyond youthful rhymes and fell silent. And during the imperialist war, Davydov and I not only edited, but also collected large volume, with the participation of writers and artists, to help captured soldiers languishing in enemy prisons. How many letters of gratitude from soldiers we received then through an international organization - the Committee for Assistance to Russian Prisoners of War! My comrades from Sreda participated in the collection, and among them A. M. Gorky.

Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and opera composers, which existed since the seventies, issued the "Griboedov Prize" for the best play of the season. It elected annually three judges: one year from Muscovites, the next year from St. Petersburg. Among these Moscow judges, I worked for several terms and for many years of work was awarded, in accordance with the charter of the society, a personalized gold token. Among this "troika" I remember either N.V. Davydov, or the famous actress G.N. Fedotova, or academician M.N. Rozanov. The awarding of prizes took place in the same office of N. V. Davydov, hung on the walls interesting groups and photographs of the literary and theatrical era of the sixties - nineties, as if asking from the wall straight into a good museum.

In addition to fiction essays and stories published in a separate volume, N. V. Davydov wrote interesting memoirs “From the Past”, which tells about his close acquaintance with Tolstoy, Zhemchuzhnikov, Koni and other prominent people, about how he directed in Yasnaya Polyana and for the first time staged the play "The Fruits of Enlightenment" and himself played the role of a professor in the presence of Lev Nikolaevich.

“My performance as a professor, which was completely unusual for me,” Davydov said, “was rather weak, but Lev Nikolayevich praised my game very much, adding that I gave him great pleasure, especially since he did not recognize my performance of his text at all, so I brought a lot of new things into my role, which was supposedly for the benefit of the play. I must confess that L.N. was right in one respect: I did not know the role, I did not have time to learn it through the chores of directing and fiddling with accessories and props, which is why I had to fantasize, especially in the professor's monologue.

Davydov died already at Soviet power. He was at that time well over seventy years old, but he last day worked, lecturing at the former Commercial Institute and supplementing his memoirs in the evenings with memories of his prominent and interesting contemporaries.

"Wednesday". Literary circle

Members of Sreda and new comrades. - Big literary evening. - Jokes. - Protests. - Publishing house of writers. - Young Wednesday. - Arbitration court. - Loss of "Environment" and its end.

Little by little, our comradely circle began to expand. The writer Semyonov Sergey Terentyevich came to us, the author of peasant stories noted by L. N. Tolstoy, who called them “significant because they concern the most significant class of Russia - the peasantry, which Semenov knows, as only a peasant living himself as a village draft farmer can know him. life." The poet and novelist Fedorov Alexander Mitrofanovich came, who lived in Odessa, but often visited Moscow. Then Goslavsky Evgeny Petrovich, Timkovsky Nikolai Ivanovich began to visit. At that time, the newspaper "Courier" was published in Moscow under the editorship of Ya. A. Feigin and I. D. Novik, fresh and energetic people who tried to unite our entire young group. Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev began working in the same newspaper as a court reporter, but none of us knew him yet. Yes, he himself at that time did not yet know that he was a novelist.

My wife is an artist by profession and education; she graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture; thanks to this, her associates and other familiar artists often began to visit our parties. Sometimes during the evening they sketched the reading author or one of the writers present, or made cursory illustrative sketches. But all this, unfortunately, was scattered around, and only a few sketches survived with me and in the Literary Museum, where I gave them long ago when the museum was still "Chekhov's".

Golovin Alexander Yakovlevich visited quite often - an undoubted talent, but due to the circumstances of that time, a modest worker from the painter Tomashka, who took orders to paint ceilings in the homes of wealthy Muscovites. Subsequently, Golovin was pulled out by Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin as an assistant decorator of the Bolshoi Theater, while in Soviet times he was recognized and elevated to People's Artists of the Republic. A significant number of his works are collected by the Tretyakov Gallery. There were artists K. K. Pervukhin, Vl. Il. Russian, who subsequently painted a portrait of Andreev, one of the most successful in similarity. This portrait is associated with "Wednesday", was acquired by her and hung in my office, and at the present time I have transferred it to literary museum. Vasnetsov Apollinary Mikhailovich visited us, he liked to depict old, ancient Moscow. In addition to his artistic work, he wrote articles and fictional stories. There were artists: Emilia Yakovlevna Shanks, V. Ya. Tishin and Isaac Ilyich Levitan. However, Levitan was only at the beginning of the organization of the circle; he soon fell ill and died.

A year later, our circle had already grown significantly, and we began to meet regularly every week - first on Tuesdays, and then on Wednesdays, without avoiding the “Saturdays” of the Artistic Circle, which had a different interest and other attraction for us.

"Wednesday" ( literary circle), the Teleshov environments are Moscow literary and artistic circle (1899-1916), founded by N. D. Teleshov. The first chairman of the directorate of the circle is A. I. Sumbatov, the second is V. Ya. Bryusov.

Foundation and activities of the circle

The literary and artistic association of Moscow writers "Sreda" was organized in 1899 in Moscow by the Russian writer Nikolai Dmitrievich Teleshov. Meetings of members of the Commonwealth were held in the apartment of N. D. Teleshov on Wednesdays.

During the meetings, young writers brought new, previously unpublished works for discussion by colleagues, and the authors personally performed their works. The famous play by Maxim Gorky "At the Bottom" was first read at "Wednesday".

Writers also arranged weekends, or big Wednesdays, in which writers, artists, artists, doctors, and lawyers participated as guests. A group of Moscow writers supported and composed the protests caused by the government's violent actions. The revolutionary nature of the creativity of the members of the Commonwealth is due to their connection with representatives of decadence, modernism and other trends. Large “Wednesdays” were visited by K. D. Balmont, Krechetov, V. Ya. Bryusov and other poets.
The works of Moscow writers were included in the collections of the circle "Knowledge", "Word", "Cry", "Book of stories and poems".

Circle members

Indigenous members and regular visitors creative circle"Wednesday" were famous Russian writers and playwrights of the XIX-XX centuries: N. D. Teleshov, M. Gorky, E. N. Chirikov, L. N. Andreev, Wanderer, Naydenov, Veresaev, A. I. Kuprin, I. A. Bunin, Yu. N. Zlatovratsky, S. Ya. Elpatievskii, Mamin-Sibiryak, and V. A. Goltsev. A.P. Chekhov, V.G. Korolenko, A.Ya. Golovin and others were often guests of creative evenings.

The members of the circle, in addition to common creative interests, had friendly relations. The members of the group were distinguished by self-irony: they had a tradition of openly giving nicknames to their regular comrades, which were chosen from a number of names of Moscow squares and streets. This process was called "giving addresses".

Maxim Gorky received the address of Moscow's Khitrovka Square in honor of the play "At the Bottom", I. A. Kuprin - "Horse Square" for his passion for the circus and horses; Veresaev was given the address "Stone Bridge" for his unwavering views, Yu. A. Bunin - "Staro-Gazetny Lane" for his long experience in editorial offices; N. N. Zlatovratsky was called the "Old Triumphal Gate", etc.

"Young Wednesday"

Since 1909, the nature of Sreda has changed significantly. The meetings of the group, headed by Yu. A. Bunin, were held in the Moscow Literary and Art Circle. The composition of the community expanded with young writers. The updated circle, which continued the traditions of its predecessors, was called "Young Wednesday".

Closing the circle

The last years of the existence of the literary association "Sreda" fell at the height of the First World War. The final meeting took place in 1916 without previous success, after which creative meetings ceased.

The "Sreda" partnership not only made a significant contribution to the development of Russian culture, but also had a significant social role - the activities of writers are mainly based on the principles of protecting people and mutual assistance.

Nikolai Dmitrievich Teleshov (1867-1957), a famous Russian and Soviet writer and poet, came from a rather wealthy merchant family in Zamoskvorechye, whose dacha in Malakhovka is depicted on this old postcard.

His ancestors were serfs in the Vladimir province, who independently redeemed themselves to freedom. Grandfather Nikolai Dmitrievich had a shop in the Old Gostiny Dvor on Ilyinka Street. Subsequently, he became a co-owner of the Teleshov Dmitry Yegorovich trading house, established by his father in 1877, a member of the board of the Yaroslavl Bolshoi Manufactory commercial and industrial partnership, and a guild elder of the merchant council of the Moscow Merchant Society (1894-1898).

Ilyinka street in Moscow. Old postcard from the early twentieth century

In 1884, Nikolai Teleshov graduated from the Moscow Practical Commercial Academy. In the same year, he published his first poem "Abandoned" in the Rainbow magazine. In 1895, Teleshov's first book, On Troikas, was published by Sytin's publishing house. The stories and essays of the writer quickly gained popularity by the beginning of the 20th century.

Teleshov Nikolay Dmitrievich

(1867-1957)

In general, N.D. Teleshov entered the history of Russian literature primarily as the initiator of the Teleshov Wednesdays and the author of the memoir book Notes of a Writer. On "environments" in Teleshov's house, the whole color of literary Moscow of the early 20th century visited: L.N. Andreev, K.D. Balmont, V.Ya. Bryusov, I.A. Bunin, A.S. Serafimovich, V.V. Veresaev, A.M. Gorky, A.I. Kuprin, B.K. Zaitsev and many others. Gorky first read his play "At the Bottom" here. S. Rachmaninov played the piano, and F. Chaliapin urged his friends to listen to him right here: “Listen to me here, and not at the Bolshoi Theater - I sing there for money!”

N. D. Teleshov and I. A. Bunin, 1910

The book of these "notes" was repeatedly reprinted in Soviet times and was interesting because it was illustrated with photographic portraits of Russian writers. The fact was that these portraits contained a personal dedicatory autograph to Teleshov. Since collecting these portraits was Teleshov's passion, he managed to get dedicatory inscriptions on portraits from Leo Tolstoy, Chekhov, Korolenko, Gorky, Kuprin, Bunin, Serafimovich, Veresaev, Belousov, Wanderer, Leonid Andreev, Mamin-Sibiryak, Zlatovratsky, Spiridon Drozhzhin, Chaliapin and many others.

In the 1948 edition of Notes of a Writer, among other portraits, an illustration was placed that reproduced the well-known group portrait of 1902 of the writers of Sreda. Its difference from original portrait consisted in the fact that the image of the Russian writer and playwright E.N. Chirikov behind the back of I.A. Bunin was carefully retouched.

The literary circle "Sreda" existed in Moscow from 1899 to 1916 and met on Wednesdays at the writer Nikolai Teleshov's on Chistoprudny Boulevard, and after that in the house on Pokrovsky Boulevard.

In 1899, Teleshov married E.A. Karzinkina, a representative of a wealthy merchant family, whose dowry was given the lands of Malakhovka. Elena Andreevna, the wife of the writer, graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, was a student of V. D. Polenov and had wide circle acquaintances among artists. Thanks to her, the artists A. Ya. Golovin, K. K. Pervukhin, A. M. Vasnetsov, I. I. Levitan visited the Wednesdays.

Malakhovka station. Old postcard from the early twentieth century

After the opening of the Malakhovka railway platform in 1880, dacha construction began, and by the end of the century it was already a fashionable dacha community of more than 300 dachas, one of which was the large wooden dacha of the Teleshovs depicted on this old postcard. The Teleshovs lived in Malakhovka for more than 20 years - from 1899 to 1921. Sometimes they arrived in early spring, and left only in late autumn, since from 1913 to 1915 a winter stone house was built on the estate. Relatives and friends often came to visit the Teleshovs, and often the “Wednesday” circle also gathered at this dacha. Photographs of Teleshov with guests in the room, on the veranda, on the porch of the cottage have been preserved. I. A. Bunin and L. N. Andreev often came. Once Malakhov's dacha of Teleshov was visited by A. M. Gorky. In 1924, he wrote to Teleshov: "Your Wednesdays were very important for all of us, the writers of that era."

A group of participants in the literary Moscow circle "Wednesday".Old postcard from the early twentieth century

Prominent and famous writers of that time visited Teleshov's dacha: A.P. Chekhov, A.I. Kuprin, V.V. Veresaev, poet and translator T.G. Shevchenko, prominent literary critic A.E. Gruzinsky, playwright S.A .Naidenov, author famous play"Children of Vanyushin", doctor and art historian S. S. Goloushev (Sergey Glagol), who actively participated in the literary life of Moscow, and other figures of Russian culture.

F.I. Chaliapin in Malakhovka with Luzhsky and Teleshov. Photo from 1918

I liked to relax in Malakhovka and F.I. Chaliapin, who often came with his family to visit Teleshov. More than once visited the estate "Lake", which got its name from the dam on the Makedonka River, and many figures of the Russian theater such as: A.I. Yuzhin-Sumbatov, director of the Maly Theater, and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.

Gymnasium in Malakhovka. Old postcard from the early twentieth century

The Teleshovs actively participated in the life of the village. Thanks to the exceptional energy of Nikolai Dmitrievich, it was possible to open in Malakhovka "the first village gymnasium in Russia" - now school number 48, "above the ravine." The Teleshovs also organized a hospital in Malakhovka at their own expense (1915) and built a rural hospital (1916).

But in 1921, the Teleshovs' estate was nationalized, and the family moved to Pokrovsky Boulevard to the Karzinkins' house. This was the Moscow apartment of the Teleshovs since 1913, where Alexander Andreyevich Karzinkin, the brother of the writer's wife, suggested they move.

The Karzinkins' house on Pokrovsky Boulevard, No. 18/15, where N.D. Teleshov lived

The wooden house in Malakhovka was demolished, and only the main house and outbuilding, built before the 1917 revolution, have survived to this day. After the owners were expelled, the building housed a school, and then a physical culture institute, now transformed into the Moscow State Academy of Physical Culture. In 2014, the outbuilding, which was historical monument, without permits, according to city defenders, was illegally demolished.

After the revolution, Nikolai Dmitrievich participated in the organization of the Moscow Museum Art Theater. In 1938, N.D. Teleshov received the title of Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR for organizing the Moscow Art Theater Museum in Kamergersky Lane, the director of which was since 1923. In 1943, the first edition of Teleshov's memoirs, entitled "Notes of a Writer", dedicated to his wife, was published.

The building of the Moscow Art Theater. Old postcard from the early 20th century.

It should be noted that in 1911 the composition of the “Wednesday” circle expanded, and for some time the circle was called “Young Wednesday” under the chairmanship of Yu.A. Bunin, the elder brother of Ivan Alekseevich, and the members were: A.N. Shmelev, V. G. Lidin, B. A. Pilnyak, etc. In September 1913, Sreda turned from a private circle into an officially registered association - the Commission for Literary Interviews of the Moscow Society for Assistance to Writers and Journalists (100 members). In 1918, Sreda, having separated from the association, became an independent organization. Meetings again took place at Teleshov's apartment at 18, Pokrovsky Boulevard: permanent - until 1922, and episodic - until the death of the owner in 1957.