Russia (bbabo.net), - The Boslen Publishing House published the book "Yesenin vs Mayakovsky" about the relationship between two great poets, rivals and duelists on the literary stage, antagonists who sharply criticize each other, but at the same time respect each other.

The poetic duel between Yesenin and Mayakovsky began from they met and ended only after the death of both. "Mayakovsky was haunted by the close proximity to Yesenin," said Yuri Annenkov. What did the two poets have in common? What was their attitude towards Europe and America? Why did the Futurists and Imagists hooligan? All this can be learned from the book. The fascinating story of Maria Andreevna Stepanova (not to be confused with another famous writer, poet Maria Mikhailovna Stepanova) is complemented by photographs, portraits, posters, covers, cartoons.

offers a fragment from the book "Yesenin vs Mayakovsky", provided by the publishing house "Boslen", about why Pushkin did not let two poets sleep. The Futurists promised to "throw him off the ship of modernity." And the imagists… about this in the chapter "Alexander Sergeevich, let me introduce myself."

Verbatim

…The era of the late 19th - early 20th century was a time of rethinking and rediscovering classical literature. None of the poets of the Silver Age remained indifferent to A.S. Pushkin. According to Yuri Annenkov, "Pushkin did not let poets sleep at all" (Yu.P. Annenkov. Diary of my meetings. A cycle of tragedies. In 2 volumes / Introductory article by P.A. Nikolaev. T. 1. M., 1991. S. 158). Some poets, like V.Ya. Bryusov, wrote theoretical works on the peculiarities of Pushkin's metrics, his style, individual works on the specifics of some of Pushkin's works ("The House in Kolomna", "The Bronze Horseman"), as well as on the most important aspects of the poet's biography (" Pushkin's First Love", "From the Life of Pushkin"). Most of the poets turned to the name and personality of Pushkin as the source of harmony and the standard of art, the "sun of Russian poetry" (A.A. Akhmatova) and proclaimed themselves his disciples, followers (M.I. Tsvetaeva). Yesenin and Mayakovsky had a very interesting and complex attitude towards Pushkin. Each of them claimed leadership in poetry, the role of "Pushkin of the XX century." According to Ivan Gruzinov and Augusta Miklashevskaya, Yesenin even “played Pushkin”, bringing his appearance closer to Pushkin’s: “We are walking along Tverskaya. Yesenin is in Pushkin’s Spanish cloak, in a top hat. He plays Pushkin. about the game. We talk continuously. In an undertone: about fame, about Pushkin. We stop at the corner. We kiss each other's hands goodbye: we play Pushkin and Baratynsky "(Gruzinov I.V. Yesenin // EBU. In 2 vols. Vol. 1 . M., 1986. S. 355), “Yesenin came out to us in a lionfish and in a wide top hat, which Pushkin wore. He came out and was embarrassed. He took my arm to walk, and quietly asked:“ Is this very funny? But I so wanted to be at least something like him "(Miklashevskaya A.L. Meetings with a poet // Sergei Yesenin through the eyes of contemporaries / Compiled by N.I. Shubnikova-Guseva. St. Petersburg, 2006. P. 234). There is the stereotype that Yesenin always treated Pushkin with exceptional reverence, and Mayakovsky negatively and nihilistically, as a classic, an orientation towards which hinders the development of art. Indeed, Yesenin treated Pushkin's personality and memory very reverently. pilgrimage was the grave of Gogol, then in the St. Petersburg period it was Pushkin's house on the Moika. Literally after several literary acquaintances and the very first justification in the city, Yesenin asked his new acquaintances to show him the house where Pushkin died. Seeing him from a distance, Yesenin knelt down, took off hat and asked his companion: “What do you think: maybe cross yourself?” However, in the life of Sergei Yesenin there was a short period of youthful maximalism, when he was set to critically in relation to classical literature, including Pushkin. In a Moscow letter to his friend Grigory Panfilov (1913), Yesenin writes that he "does not recognize" Pushkin, and explains this, referring to the addressee of the letter: "You, of course, know Pushkin's cynicism ..." (Yesenin S.A. Letter to G.A. Panfilov between March 16 and April 13, 1913 // PSS-E. T. 6 M., 2005. P. 34). During the period of creativity, when the poet was in a group of Imagists who rejected the classics for reasons close to futuristic, there is evidence that Yesenin, during the New Year's Eve at the Polytechnic Museum, along with other poets, shouted: "We - Imagists - do not recognize Pushkin!" Among the hooligan acts of the Imagists, there was one that we have not yet mentioned and which aroused particular indignation among Muscovites. Mariengof and Shershenevich asked the artist Did Lado (Pseudonym of the artist Belevsky A.S.) to draw a poster "I am with the Imagists!" According to Matvey Roizman, Yesenin tore off this poster, refusing to participate in the undertaking. According to other recollections, the poster was torn down by outraged residents of the city. However, there is no doubt about Yesenin's sincere love and admiration for the genius of Pushkin. According to close friends of the poet, he quoted Pushkin most often. He especially liked the poems "October 19", "On the hills of Georgia lies the darkness of the night ...", "Do not sing, beauty, with me ...", "Village". According to a childhood friend of Yesenin N. Sardanovsky, the poet knew "Eugene Onegin" by heart (Sardanovsky N.A. At the dawn of a foggy youth // EBU. In 2 vols. T. 1. M., 1986. P. 130). M. Roizman mentions in his notes that Yesenin often recalled "Little Tragedies", especially highlighting "Mozart and Salieri" (Roizman M.D. Everything I remember about Yesenin // Living Yesenin. Anthology. St. Petersburg, 2006. P. 272). A huge number of scientific works have been written about the proximity of Pushkin and Yesenin's images and motifs, about the "resurrection of Pushkin's rhythms" in Yesenin's poetry, the influence of Pushkin's tradition on Yesenin's work (Pyatkin S.N. Pushkin in Yesenin's artistic consciousness. Bolshoe Boldino, 2010). In the late period of creativity, Yesenin recognized that Pushkin's style was a guide for him, a kind of aesthetic canon. In his 1925 autobiography, he wrote: "In terms of formal development, nowDreaming of a mighty gift

The one who became Russian fate,

I'm standing on Tverskoy Boulevard,

I stand and talk to myself.

Blond, almost white

In legends, which has become like fog,

Oh Alexander! You were a rake

Like I'm a bully today.

But these cute things

Don't darken your image

And in bronze forged glory

Your proud head.

And I stand, as before communion,

And I say to you:

I would die now of happiness

Blessed with such a fate.

But, doomed to persecution,

I will sing for a long time...

So that my steppe singing

Managed to ring out bronze

Yesenin S.A. Pushkin // PSS-E. T. 1. M., 1995. S. 203.The poem is more a self-reflection, a reflection on art and one's own destiny in the face of Pushkin, as before the highest judge, than a conversation with a genius on an equal footing. Many contemporaries noted that Yesenin liked to walk along Tverskoy Boulevard because of its literary fame, that it was one of his favorite places in Moscow. The monument to Pushkin was especially dear to Yesenin: passing by, he always turned around, he could talk to him as if he were a “living” Pushkin (Roizman M.D. Everything I remember about Yesenin // Living Yesenin. Anthology. St. Petersburg, 2006. P. 331). The words in the poem "blond, almost whitish" refer, however strange it may seem, to Pushkin, and they appeared from a real episode of Yesenin's biography. One day, walking along the boulevard on a winter night, he looked at the monument to Pushkin: powdered with snow and in the light of lanterns, he seemed to him a blonde, disappearing into the fog. The reference to Pushkin in the poem is exceptionally polite and respectful, full of prayerful admiration (“as before communion”), conveying the attitude of the lyrical hero to the poet precisely as “to the genius of the country”, who played a huge role in the formation of national culture. Perhaps the only liberties are the mention of the details of Pushkin's biography ("You were a rake, / As I am a bully today"). Yesenin compares himself with Pushkin and this seems to justify himself, giving a deep meaning to his hooliganism. The poet's friends noted the same in his biography. When someone reprimanded him for extraordinary actions, he calmly retorted: "Do you know how Shakespeare and Pushkin were hooligans?" The poem "Pushkin" was also a prophecy in its own way: Yesenin's "steppe singing" "managed to ring out like bronze" - in 1995, on Tverskoy Boulevard (territorially close to the current location of the monument to Pushkin), a monument was erected to Sergei Yesenin, whom his contemporaries considered to be the heir Pushkin tradition. Shagane Talyan once said: “Sergei Alexandrovich, you are like Pushkin of the 20th century!”, And during Yesenin’s funeral, the funeral procession carried the poet’s coffin around the monument to Pushkin three times as a sign that he was a worthy successor to Pushkin’s glory. As for Mayakovsky, this poet was unfairly reproached for disrespect for Pushkin until the end of his life. One of the reasons was the famous words from the Futurist manifesto: "Throw Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, etc., etc. from the steamer of Modernity", and the other - his own poems and outrageous statements: "Why was Pushkin not attacked? / And the other generals of the classics ?"; "Mayakovsky said that he never reads Pushkin - only in childhood, when he was forced. And he never reads any poets at all. Of course, this was not true ..." (Tamara Miklashevskaya-Krasina, Miklashevskaya-Krasina T.V. revolution // MGS, St. Petersburg, 2014, p. 154). The mass reader took the slogans of the Futurists or some of Mayakovsky's own statements literally, but Pushkin's name in this case was only a symbol. Mayakovsky opposed the canonization of Pushkin, and spoke out for many reasons. Orientation to models (even the highest ones) fetters the freedom of the author, hinders self-expression, hinders the development of art and language. Each new era requires new forms in art, dictates new themes. The poet of each era speaks in his own unique language. A fresh, extraordinary, "unworn" look allows you to see Pushkin (and other classics) from an unusual, unexpected side: I love you, but alive, not a mummy. They brought a textbook gloss. A look at Pushkin from academic heights seemed vulgar and outdated not only to Mayakovsky, but also to his futurist friends: “Pushkinians, that’s who are the true gravediggers of poetry. Protecting Pushkin from us, they turned the poet into a copper idol, tried to make literary relics out of him, scientific herbarium" (Kamensky V.V. Life with Mayakovsky // Came himself. Memories of Vladimir Mayakovsky. / Introductory article by D. Bykov. M., 2013. P. 58). M.I. Tsvetaeva wrote very interestingly about Mayakovsky’s connection with Pushkin: “Self-protection of creativity. In order not to die, sometimes you need to kill (first of all, in yourself). the most modern poet of his time, the same creator of his era, as Mayakovsky was his - and only because of the enemy that he was poured in cast iron and this cast iron was heaped on generations.(Poets, poets, be even more afraid of lifetime glory of posthumous monuments and anthologies!) The cry is not against Pushkin, but against his monument "(Tsvetaeva M.I. Poet and time // Tsvetaeva M.I. Works in 2 volumes / Compiled, text prepared, introductory article and commentary A. Saakyants. T 2. M., 1988. S. 358-359. In the same work, Tsvetaeva emphasized the unity of the two poets: "Pushkin and Mayakovsky would have agreed, already agreed, they never really diverged. The lower classes are at enmity, the mountains converge" (Tsvetaeva M. I. The Poet and Time // Tsvetaeva M. I. Works in 2 volumes / Compiled, text prepared, introductory article and commentary by A. Saakyants . T. 2. M., 1988. S. 359). In one of the letters to B.L. Pasternak (July 1931), Tsvetaeva called MayakPushkin is bored.

Cast iron grumbles.

The boulevard is good for single dudes.

Pushkin needs a cultural society,

and they slipped him the Passion Monastery.

Mayakovsky V.V. A joke that looks like the truth // PSS-M. T. 9. M., 1958. S. 246.

For the 125th anniversary of Pushkin, Mayakovsky wrote the poem "Jubilee". The poem is a conversation with Pushkin on an equal footing. The lyrical hero of Mayakovsky feels himself in the same dimension with Pushkin (“I, and you, have eternity in store ...”), not only his heir, but also an equal interlocutor, equal - in understanding the purpose of poetry, mutual knowledge of the torments of creativity (“ But poetry is the sweetest thing"), awareness of the tragic path of the poet, the bitterness of unrequited, hopeless love ("That's when you are not able to grieve - this, Alexander Sergeyich, is much harder ..."). In Yubileiny, Mayakovsky seems to recall a pile of accusatory notes and complaints about Pushkin and justifies himself to him: "Alexander Sergeyich, don't listen to them! Maybe I'm the only one who really regrets that you are not alive today." Like for Sergei Yesenin, Pushkin for Mayakovsky was the main measure of his own talent: looking towards Pushkin, he evaluates his success in creativity and only next to Pushkin sees his immortality - "After death, we stand almost next to each other: you are on Pe, and I on em". As if to the court of Pushkin, Mayakovsky puts forward all his contemporaries ("My country is too poor for poets"), defining his exceptional position:

Well, Yesenin.

masculine pack.

Laugh!

cow

n laika gloves.

Once you listen...

but it's from the choir!

Balalaika!

Mayakovsky V.V. Jubilee // PSS-M. T. 6. M., 1957. S. 52-53

Sergei Yesenin was deeply offended by this attack by Mayakovsky. Yesenin's instant response to Mayakovsky was the poem "In the Caucasus" (September 1924). It is noteworthy that it was written in Georgia, in Tiflis, that is, in the homeland of Vladimir Mayakovsky. Yesenin sings, poeticizes the Caucasus as a sacred place of Russian poetry, with which the birth of poems, the life and death of great poets are associated. Before embarking on a critical analysis of his contemporaries, Yesenin mentions the great classics and, as if in front of their unfading light, before their tragic fate, inflicts judgment on his fellow writers.

Since ancient times our Russian Parnassus

Drawn to unfamiliar countries,

And most of all, only you, the Caucasus,

It rang with a mysterious mist.

Here Pushkin in sensual fire

He wrote with his disgraced soul:

"Do not sing, beauty, with me

You are the sad songs of Georgia.

And Lermontov, curing melancholy,

He told us about Azamat,

How is he for Kazbich's horse

He gave his sister instead of gold.

For sadness and bile in your face

Boiling yellow rivers worthy

He, like a poet and an officer,

Was calmed down by a friend's bullet.

And Griboyedov is buried here,

As our tribute to the Persian gloom,

At the foot of a big mountain

He sleeps to the cry of zurna and tari.

Yesenin S.A. In the Caucasus // PSS-E. T. 2. M., 1997. S. 107-108

Thus, the trial of Mayakovsky is going on not only in the face of Pushkin, but also Lermontov and Griboyedov, his work is diminished next to the work of the classics:

I love poetry Russian heat.

There is Mayakovsky, there is and besides,

But he, their chief staff painter,

Sings about traffic jams in Mosselprom.

There. S. 108.

The rivalry between Yesenin and Mayakovsky sometimes became a subject for the imagination of contemporaries. Nikolai Verzhbitsky described how the researchers established (Yushkin Yu.B. Remembering ... the unbelievable (On the memories of N. Verzhbitsky) // Literary studies. 2005 No. 6) a fictional meeting in the fall of 1924 between Yesenin and Mayakovsky. According to Verzhbitsky, Yesenin then read the lines of the poem "In the Caucasus" to his opponent with pleasure. Mayakovsky smiled and said: Quite! “But Yesenin, apparently, was just about to take revenge. Tapping a cigarette on an ashtray, he lightly touched Mayakovsky’s knee and, sighing, said: “Yes ... what can you do, I really only start with the letter E. Fate! You can’t get anywhere from the alphabet! .. But you, Mayakovsky, are surprisingly lucky - only two letters separate you from Pushkin ... And, after a short pause, he unexpectedly concluded: - Only two letters! But what - "But"! it’s like this: “N-n-but!”, Stretching out the “n” warningly. And at that time a stern grimace was depicted on his face. A deafening laugh rang out ... Mayakovsky laughed. kissed Yesenin "(Verzhbitsky N.K. Meetings with Yesenin. Tbilisi, 1961. P. 1).

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