A century and a half has passed since the death of the poet, and Tyutchev’s genius, without suffering the slightest devaluation, has successfully overcome space and time. We have entered a zone of turbulence, when the course of History in its incomplete state concerns each of us. And at this moment Tyutchev comes to our aid. We open its volume and read:
“Oh, what is our ignorance and most helpless and saddest? Who dares to say: goodbye for the abyss of two or three days?”
Reading Tyutchev’s prose and poetry, we receive unexpected and accurate formulations of the challenges of the time, and answers to the most pressing questions that were not on the agenda yesterday and to which modern analysts give in. This means that the privy councilor and chamberlain Tyutchev remains our contemporary.
We are blind to Destiny. It is not for us to tear off its cover… I will not reveal mine to you, but the delirium of the prophetic spirits… We are still far from the goal, The storm rages, the storm grows, – And now – in a cradle of iron, In the thunder the New Year is born…
The poems were written at the end of 1855 and have not lost their relevance at the end of 2022.
A man who lived for decades in Western Europe and was always aware of all the most significant developments in his political and intellectual life, managed to recognize before others the hypocrisy of the West and its inherent double standards. In 1845, in a memorandum to Nicholas I, Tyutchev said that the West looked at Russia “through the prism of hatred multiplied by ignorance.”
While foreign countries were closed to most Russians, the diplomat Tyutchev, who had traveled throughout Europe, willingly took advantage of the comforts and various material benefits that European civilization brought with it. In his heyday, Tyutchev could not imagine his life without daily reading European newspapers and magazines, but before other contemporaries he realized the need to wage an offensive information war directed against the West.
“To this day, we admit, in the rare cases in which we raised our voices to repel their attacks (from the West, SE), we, with very rare exceptions, chose a tone that hardly suited us. They looked too much like schoolchildren. who tried to appease an angry mentor with clumsy praise… If the West is hostile to us, if it looks at us cruelly, the reason is that, recognizing and even exaggerating, perhaps, our material strength, most likely Often , however absurd it may seem, it is doubted that our power is animated by our own moral life, our own historical life, while man, especially the man of our time, is created in such a way that he resigns himself to physical life. power only when he discerns the moral power behind it… And at the same time, there are people who seriously wonder where are the patents of this Empire for the nobility, what is its rightful place in the world… Is it the current generation? So lost in the shadow of the mountain that they cannot discern its summit?
We have entered an area of historical turbulence. And at this moment Tyutchev comes to our aid.
On the night of January 23, 1863, an uprising broke out in the Kingdom of Poland, which at that time was part of the Russian Empire. At the same time, in several dozen parts of the Kingdom, the rebels unexpectedly attacked military garrisons and attempted to destroy them. Western European public opinion was sympathetic to the Poles. In the summer of 1863, France, Austria and England sent notes to St. Petersburg demanding the convening of a conference to resolve the Polish question, which was direct interference in the internal affairs of Russia. Fyodor Ivanovich experienced a feeling of anxiety caused by the dangerous position of Russia, threatened by a new war with a coalition of European powers.
Hall of high society. 1830s. Unknown artist.
There was no unity among high dignitaries regarding Polish affairs. Interior Minister Valuev and St. Petersburg Governor-General Prince Suvorov, grandson of the famous commander, condemned the harsh measures. “What will Europe say about this?” – asked Prince Suvorov. Following Prince Suvorov, this rhetorical question was asked by Russian liberals, about whom in May 1867 the poet answered the following:
No matter how much you bow before it, gentlemen, you will not achieve the recognition of Europe: in its eyes you will always be not servants of the Enlightenment, but slaves.
Medal “For the taking of Warsaw on August 25 and 26, 1831.”
Opposing points of view, aspirations and interests collided, but there was no one idea that united everyone. This is precisely the idea that Tyutchev tried to propose. Fyodor Ivanovich, then still a young diplomat, outlined his political creed in a poem that was never published during his lifetime. This great poem of 1831 was not only a direct response to events, but set out Tyutchev’s historio-sophical views with the greatest clarity.
So we dealt a fatal blow to unfortunate Warsaw: Let us buy at this price for bloody Russia integrity and peace!… Another thought, another faith! The Russians beat their chests! With a storm of saving example, Power is preserved. integrity, native generations of Slavs under the Russian flag, like-minded brothers and the message of the feat of enlightenment, like an army.
The poet spoke very harshly: No matter how much you bow before her, gentlemen, you will not achieve the recognition of Europe.
For Russia, the Polish question was extremely painful. Tyutchev’s generation of contemporaries inherited it from his predecessors, spent decades solving it, and passed it on to his descendants, without solving it. Any movement led to a stalemate. Russia could not admit that Poland was right, because the overwhelming majority of the patriotic population would have considered such a concession as an undoubted weakness of the supreme power and a prologue to the imminent collapse of the empire: everyone knew about the existence of strong centrifugal forces. trends in the Baltic countries, Finland and Ukraine. The practical implementation of these trends would lead to inevitable, protracted and bloody territorial disputes. Agreeing to this meant neglecting national interests and losing great power status. Tyutchev considered the Polish question to be the “dynastic destiny” of the House of Romanov.
A terrible dream weighs heavily on us
Poems by F. Tyutchev. SPb.: type. E. Praca, 1854. Lifetime edition.
…And the whole world, as if drunk with lies, All the evils, all the tricks of evil! and distortion of the word – Everything has risen and everything threatens you, oh country! – The world has not seen such a militia since the first days… It is great to know, oh Russia, your importance! Cheer up, stand firm, be strong and win!
August 1863
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