Let's be like the sun!
K. Balmont

The organizers of the exhibition, which opened at the Tretyakov Gallery in March 2008, sought to fully reflect the diverse activities of the Golden Fleece magazine and reveal its historical significance. The materials are grouped into three sections: "Exhibitions", "Journal" and "Nikolai Ryabushinsky". The exposition is based on works of Russian and French art, designed to give an idea of ​​the joint Russian-French performances organized by the magazine in Moscow in 1908-1909, which contributed to the exit of the art of that time from the crisis and the formation of the concept of the Russian avant-garde of the 20th century. The “Journal” section presents materials that acquaint viewers with the activities of the “Golden Fleece” as a printed publication, the task of which was to help artists and the Russian reading public understand the mass of new, sometimes very complex problems that arose at that time before art, and also contribute to the education of a wide knowledge and interest in national traditions. In the section dedicated to Nikolai Ryabushinsky, visitors will get an idea about the personality of the editor-publisher of the Golden Fleece, get acquainted with the facts of his life and work in Russia and abroad, during the period of emigration. It also shows reproductions of paintings by Ryabushinsky exhibited at the exhibitions of the Golden Fleece, and his rare original graphic sketches. This section also contains a gallery of painted portraits of prominent figures of Russian culture at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, made for the magazine by order of Ryabushinsky. The exhibits of the exhibition are the issues of the "Golden Fleece" themselves - wonderful examples of Russian magazine art of the Art Nouveau era.

In total, the exhibition demonstrates about 200 works of painting, graphics and sculpture from the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin, the Russian Museum, the Hermitage, the State Literary Museum, the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the Russian Diaspora Library-Fund, as well as materials from private collections.

The State Tretyakov Gallery expresses its gratitude to the general sponsor of the project - the IFD Capital Group.

There was a brief period in the history of European culture - the turn of the 19th-20th centuries - when an art magazine became, in its significance and role, something more than a printed publication; it turned into a bright cultural phenomenon that formed the aesthetic ideal of the era. Starting from the mid-1890s, such magazines appeared one after another in Paris, London, Berlin, and Munich. They contributed to the creation of a certain emotional atmosphere of the time. The Munich "Jugend" even gave the name to the artistic direction in the European culture of that time - Jugendstil.

In Russia, such phenomena include the magazines "World of Art" and "Golden Fleece". The latter was inextricably linked with the history of the community of young Moscow symbolist artists, headed by P. Kuznetsov. The magazine was material base this group, which received with its help complete freedom of action; a printed organ and an ideological center that united and rallied the commonwealth and contributed to the establishment of the aesthetic principles of symbolism. It was the "Golden Fleece" that was in 1907 the organizer of the famous Moscow exhibition "Blue Rose", which gave the name to Russian symbolism in fine arts 1900s. Through the efforts of the “Golden Fleece”, the “Blueberry” turned into an epoch-making artistic movement that set the tone and determined the style of the time.

Following the "Blue Rose", as a continuation of its activities, the magazine organized joint performances of Russian and French contemporary progressive artists. In Moscow in 1908-1909, three exhibitions unique in scale and composition of participants called The Golden Fleece took place, which played a crucial role in the history of Russian art of the 20th century and gave a powerful impetus to the development of the Russian avant-garde movement.

However, the "Golden Fleece" not only did not receive due appreciation in Soviet art history, but, like everything connected with symbolism in general and the "Blue Rose", in particular, was branded as harmful and alien to the new ideology. The magazine was declared "bourgeois", decadent, due to which it ended up in the "dump of history" and became one of the publications banned in the Soviet years.

Today, no one has any doubts about the historical pattern of the emergence of the Golden Fleece, about the importance and significance of this phenomenon for Russian culture. Naturally, there was a need for its study and research. In 2007, the first large monograph on this topic was published. Organized by the Tretyakov Gallery in the spring of 2008, the exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the first joint Russian-French exposition "Salon of the Golden Fleece" for the first time presents to a wide audience the diverse activities of the magazine.

The Golden Fleece began to appear in Moscow in January 1906. Nikolai Ryabushinsky became its editor-publisher. The new edition was conceived and formed as a continuation of the Petersburg "World of Art", the publication of which was discontinued in 1904. The need for an art magazine that would take on the role of an ideological center in the struggle between the rapidly emerging new and the inertia that was still firmly defending its positions was especially acute at that moment. Moscow then began to actively "rise" as an artistic center of Russian art. Unlike the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, which by that time had become a musty conservative institution, the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where Valentin Serov was invited as the head of the natural class in 1897, and after him came Isaac Levitan, Konstantin Korovin, Paolo Trubetskoy, experienced a genuine renewal. The spirit of freedom nurtured here contributed to the activation of the creative forces of Moscow artists, bold innovation while maintaining a heightened sense of "soil", a deep inner connection with national traditions.

By creating new magazine, Ryabushinsky was guided by the activities of Sergei Diaghilev and the tasks that he set when organizing the "World of Art". In a letter of 1897 to A. Benois.

Diaghilev reported: “... I am designing<...>a magazine in which I think to unite our entire artistic life, i.e. in illustrations to place true painting, in articles to speak frankly what I think, then on behalf of the magazine to organize a series of annual exhibitions. The World of Art began to appear in 1899. The program article "Difficult Questions", which preceded the first two books of the magazine, outlined new aesthetic principles, on the basis of which the young figures of the new St. Petersburg creative community united. It proclaimed the autonomy of art and the freedom of creativity, affirmed the priority of the personality of the creator, the purpose of art criticism was formulated as the "singing" of any new manifestation of talent. One of the most important tasks of the journal was the education of broad knowledge.

The Golden Fleece entered the arena of struggle for new aesthetic principles seven years after the release of the first issues of the World of Art. It was the peak of the Russian revolution. Just before the appearance of the magazine in Moscow in December 1905, the authorities brutally suppressed the Moscow armed uprising. The Golden Fleece, unlike the World of Art, expounded its principles in the spirit of the revolutionary time - in the form of a manifesto printed in gold letters on the pages of the first issue. It said: “In a terrible time, we set out on the road. All around is seething with a frantic whirlpool of renewing life. We sympathize with everyone who works for the renewal of life, we do not deny any of the tasks of our time, but we firmly believe that it is impossible to live without Beauty, together with free institutions, we must win free, bright, sunlit creativity for our descendants ... And in the name of the same new life to come, we, the seekers of the golden fleece, unfurl our banner: Art is eternal. Art is one. Art is symbolic. Art is free."

The name of the new magazine was chosen with meaning. His idea was expounded by the then very young poet and theorist of symbolism, Andrei Bely, in the story "The Argonauts", where the vague, in the spirit of symbolist imagery, expectations of enthusiastic young Russian idealists found expression. Bely called on Mankind, “loving freedom”, to leave the Earth that had become unbearable for free people and fly “into the blue ether”, to the Sun. The story even contained a specific departure plan. The main character, “a great writer who went after the Sun, like an argonaut for a fleece,” says: “I will publish the Golden Fleece magazine. The Argonauts will be my co-workers, and the Sun will be my banner. With a popular exposition of the principles of sunshine, I will kindle hearts. I will gild the whole world. Let's drown in the liquid sun."

The first issue of the Golden Fleece, published in January 1906 - large, beautiful, shining with gold, as if filled with sunlight - was supposed to amaze, delight, lift the spirit, inspire hope. The birth of the magazine under the flag of the Sun symbolized the Rise of a new Life. The sun rose to dispel the twilight of the Night into which Russia was then plunged. The new edition was aimed, in accordance with the idea of ​​Andrei Bely, to “ignite the hearts” of readers with a “popular presentation of the foundations of sunshine”, that is, the ideas of symbolism as a new and most advanced trend in the culture of the twentieth century.

The life of the "Golden Fleece" began with the presentation of the founder of Russian artistic symbolism, Mikhail Vrubel. The first, January issue of 1906 opened with a display of his works. The artist for a long time remained misunderstood by his contemporaries, but for the young Moscow symbolists he was an idol, the embodiment of the very symbolist idea, a kind of spiritual guide. Vrubel became a kind of tuning fork for the Golden Fleece, that high note to which the magazine tuned itself. The personality of this celestial artist determined the course taken by the "Golden Fleece" and overshadowed his entire subsequent path to the very end.

In each issue, the magazine introduced readers to the most significant phenomena of the modern artistic life of the country, often still misunderstood and unappreciated until then. Thus, the third issue is dedicated to Viktor Borisov-Musatov, the founder of Russian pictorial symbolism, who was for Moscow innovators not only a guiding star, beautiful and distant, like Vrubel, but a living reality - a friend, mentor, Teacher. This publication played an important role in shaping the correct historical assessment of the creative personality of Borisov-Musatov and in understanding his role in the history of art in the 20th century.

The possibility of a personal display on the pages of the "Golden Fleece" was also provided to many leading masters of the "World of Art" - K. Somov, L. Bakst, A. Benois, E. Lansere. A large number of works by these masters were published here and their portraits and self-portraits, specially ordered for the magazine by Ryabushinsky, were placed - this is how the extensive portrait gallery of the Golden Fleece arose.

M. Nesterov, N. Roerich, K. Bogaevsky are represented with dignity and with the same reverence in The Golden Fleece. Of the young Moscow innovators, only P. Kuznetsov received such attention.

The magazine set itself the task of cultivating artistic taste among the reading public, and not only Russian: for the first six months, the Golden Fleece was published in two languages ​​- Russian and French - and was focused on 11 largest cities in Russia, Europe and America. Along with that, what published, great importance was attached in the new journal to the fact that how it is being done. The illustrations in the Golden Fleece are mostly large-format, covering the entire page of a sheet of excellent quality paper, not interrupted by text and placed with a certain meaning. Thus, the comparison of Vrubel's self-portraits with the faces of his "Prophets", "Seraphim", "Demons" emphasizes the chosenness of the artist, the divine nature of his gift. Sheets depicting the works of Borisov-Musatov give rise to a feeling of gentle lyrical melody. Important role light backgrounds play in them, against which the melodious smooth lines of Musatov's compositions and the gentle intonations of his color harmonies are clearly revealed. In the material about Roerich, on the contrary, white serves to enhance the depth of the gloomy black tones that dominate in many of the artist's works. The magazine directs readers' attention to the fact that each type of fine art requires its own approach to perception. For example, two sculptural groups of Somov are presented on the pages of "Rune" in four and six projections, respectively, on different backgrounds. There is a special interest of the magazine in the specifics of graphics, the most organic in nature printed edition. The grace and subtlety of the line, the beauty of the black spot of Somov's silhouette drawings are brilliantly shown here; one can appreciate the beauty and rationality of Lansere's works, the classical clarity of Bakst's graphic style, the charm and freedom of his natural sketches from reproductions of the magazine.

The new magazine picked up and successfully continued another very important undertaking of the World of Art - the popularization of the national artistic heritage. Every year he dedicated a large, built-in number to this. The theme of the first publication of this kind was ancient Russian art. The material, containing about 70 illustrations, is grouped into five sections covering different types and forms of ancient Russian art. Its importance is difficult to overestimate. For the first time, an unknown layer of artistic culture was revealed to the wide reading masses, new world highly spiritual national creativity. The discovery of ancient Russian art as a powerful source of aesthetic and spiritual influence played a huge role in guiding the search for young artists and shaping the principles of the Russian avant-garde.

The following year, 1907, the most significant in the heritage section was the material dedicated to A.G. Venetsianov and his school, in 1908 - the work of the artist Nikolai Ge as the best representative of the highly moral tradition of wandering. The Golden Fleece celebrated the centenary of the birth of Alexander Ivanov with a remarkable publication of the artist's drawings and watercolors, which are inaccessible to the general public, accompanied by an article by V. Rozanov.

With all the attention to the art of the past, the new edition was primarily aimed at the future. Considering himself responsible for the fate of Russian culture, the Golden Fleece joined the struggle for its restructuring. On the pages of the magazine, the issues of improving art education were hotly discussed, state organization and leadership of art, while the role of the artist in the life of a renewed free society was seen as a leading one. Called “apolitical” by Soviet critics, The Golden Fleece, upon closer examination, turns out to be a living reflection of its time. This luxurious, shining gold magazine, like no other publication, allows you to really feel the complexity of the tragic moment in Russian history. Its pages capture both the emotional upsurge of those years and the harsh truth of reality, inspiring utopian hopes and a heavy feeling of hopelessness and complete despair.

Starting from the second year of its existence, the Golden Fleece, continuing to remain literary and critical, expanding the music department, increasingly concentrated on the visual arts, defining itself as an art magazine and in every possible way contributing to the development and popularization of the principles of symbolism as the most progressive. Art exhibitions have always been the focus of his attention. Reviews of exhibitions in the magazine invariably contained an extensive display of exhibits and were usually accompanied by a serious analysis of the processes that took place in contemporary art. So, in several issues, the exhibition "The World of Art" organized by Diaghilev in 1906, which became epoch-making in its significance, was subjected to rigorous discussion. It openly laid bare the already emerging and growing contradictions between the group of Moscow Symbolists and the St. Petersburg retrospectivists. After the exhibition, there was no longer any doubt that these artistic groups were by no means fellow travelers in search of new paths in art. There was a need for the Golden Fleece's own exhibition activity. It began brilliantly with the organization in 1907 in Moscow of the Blue Rose.

The artist Sergei Vinogradov recalled: “The first Blue Rose exhibition was a sensation in the Moscow art world. And it was arranged with such exceptional sophistication and beauty that nothing like it had ever been seen. A special issue of the Golden Fleece, designed by the participants of the exposition in their own style, is dedicated to the presentation of the Blue Rose and the analysis of the problems associated with its activities. The magazine convincingly, seriously and with great taste presented the exhibition to its readers and managed at the same time, in an article by Sergei Makovsky, to give a correct historical assessment of the phenomenon, which from that moment finally acquired its name and status. Having become the pinnacle of symbolism in the visual arts, the "Blue Rose" also exposed the big problems that this artistic movement faced: plastic art, material in nature, was in danger of disappearing in the work of the Blue Roses. It was necessary to find means to return painting to its nature, while not changing the main aesthetic principles of symbolism. The new tasks that confronted Russian art in a certain way corrected the course of the magazine. The direction of the search for the “Golden Fleece” of 1908-1909 was quite clearly formulated by one of the members of the Goluborozov community, the artist V. Milioti: “And if Russian art wants to become necessary for Russian culture, it must partake of that great spiritual depth, vigor and faith that left us as a testament to the first teachers of the Wanderers, and to absorb the conquests of the great picturesque West, looking for new forms for renewed inner experiences”5].

This task became decisive in the activities of the "Golden Fleece" over the next two years. The magazine planned to organize in Moscow a joint performance of Russian and French contemporary artists at an exhibition called "Salon of the Golden Fleece", the opening of which was supposed to coincide with the anniversary of the "Blue Rose" - March 18, 1908.

“By inviting French artists to participate in the exhibition,” the organizers said, “the Golden Fleece group pursued a twofold goal: on the one hand, by comparing Russian and Western quests, to better illuminate the features of the development of young Russian painting and its new tasks; on the other hand, to emphasize the features of development common to Russian and Western art, since for all the difference in national psychologies (the French are more sensualists, Russian artists have more spirituality), the new searches for young art have some common psychological foundations. Here - the overcoming of aestheticism and historicism, there - a reaction against neo-academism, into which impressionism has degenerated. If the founders of this movement in France were Cezanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh, then the first impetus in Russia was given by Vrubel and Borisov-Musatov.

On April 5, 1908, in Moscow, in the Khludovs' house at the corner of Rozhdestvenka and Teatralny proezd, the exhibition "Salon of the Golden Fleece", unprecedented in scope and significance in the history of Russian art of the 20th century, opened. It was the first such representative display of new French art outside of France, which at that time did not yet have wide recognition even in Paris itself, not to mention other European cities. Only two years later, an exhibition of French impressionism was held in London. The Salon introduced the Russian audience to the entire spectrum of French art movements at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The magazine organized a complete and comprehensive presentation of the exhibition on its pages, carried out a broad campaign to popularize French art, paying great attention to the analysis of common problems that then confronted representatives of both art schools. Extensive visual material was accompanied by three detailed articles on French art.

On January 11, 1909, the second exhibition organized by the magazine opened, which continued the tradition of common creative meetings with the French, begun by the Salon. It was attended by 16 Russian artists (according to the Goluborozov tradition), who presented 111 works, and 10 French masters, who demonstrated 44 works. Among the French, this time preference was given to artists of the latest trends - J. Braque, A. Derain, K. van Dongen, A. Marquet, A. Matisse, J. Rouault, M. Vlaminck took part in the exhibition.

The last exhibition of the magazine opened at the end of 1909 and continued throughout the following January, 1910, when the Golden Fleece officially ended its activities. Only Russian artists participated in it. Perhaps the reason for this was the material side of the issue, but the very need for contacts between Russian masters and the French by that time in to a large extent dropped. The role of the "Golden Fleece", in fact, was played. Almost every member of the gold-fleeced group demonstrated 10 or more works at the exhibition, M. Larionov, who exhibited 22 works, was especially active.

It is especially important to note that new young avant-garde artists I. Mashkov, P. Konchalovsky, A. Kuprin, R. Falk joined the Golden Fleece group at the third exhibition. At the end of 1910, together with M. Larionov, N. Goncharova, A. Lentulov, V. Kandinsky and K. Malevich, they acted independently as a new avant-garde association called the Jack of Diamonds. This group of Russian painters also experienced the beneficial French influence at the Golden Fleece exhibitions. Unlike the Blue Bears, they were attracted by the powerful "materiality" of Cezanne's art. Born in the bosom of Goluborozov's innovation, the Russian avant-garde from that time "broke away" from the "Blue Rose" and began an independent, unstoppable movement forward. "Blue Rose" and "Golden Fleece" appeared to him nutrient medium, gave him an impulse, a push. The Rose itself, seriously rebuilt under the influence of French art, chose a special path of development, which also turned out to be quite modern and artistically convincing and took its rightful place next to the Russian avant-garde movement.

The magazine left with dignity, honorably fulfilling all the tasks assigned to it. In the farewell address of the Editors, it was said: “Now parting with the readers, we do not feel tired at all. Neither the constant struggle that we have been waging for more than three years for the future of art dear to us, nor the enormous technical difficulties of printing the art department, nor the systematic confiscation of our numbers and publications by the censors, nor the indifference and campaigns of newspaper criticism have shaken our energy. But now we clearly feel that the currents that we defended both in the field of literature and in the field of painting have already become strong enough and expressed themselves to develop independently and that the Golden Fleece has already fulfilled its mission in this respect ... Finishing our four-year work, we leave with a calm confidence that nothing will be able to drown out and destroy those artistic principles for which the Golden Fleece fought.

The editors left the right to sum up the activities of the journal to us, the descendants, believing that “an objective assessment of what has been achieved and not achieved<...>belongs only to the future. Indeed, in a hundred-year perspective, everything acquires its true value, clearing itself of the random and petty, which sometimes came to the fore in the heat of the struggle.

The phenomenon that entered the history of culture of the twentieth century under the name "Golden Fleece" played a truly fateful role in it. At a time when Russian art was looking for opportunities to use the mighty forces roaming in it and ready to break out, the Golden Fleece, having become the ideological center of Russian art, defining the artistic consciousness of the era, having historically accurately comprehended and assessed what was happening, directed this energy in the right direction and rendered active comprehensive assistance to its free manifestation. The new generation of Russian artists, having gained confidence, taking alignment with the great French innovators, rushed along this path with such Russian prowess and scope that they soon found themselves ahead of those who were initially overtaken and, in turn, led them after them to new, more more daring discoveries. Nothing could already drown out and destroy those artistic principles for which the Golden Fleece fought.

A hundred years ago, the Golden Fleece contributed to the formation in the Russian cultural environment of such artistic thinking and understanding of the historical value of the most important phenomena of European and Russian art of the early twentieth century, which, in essence, has not changed to this day. And there is no doubt that the activities of this art magazine were determined and carried out by none other than the publisher himself - Nikolai Ryabushinsky. The facts testify that it was he who invented, planned, organized, invited to participate, traveled and persuaded, selected for exhibitions the works of great and little-known, but promising, in his opinion, masters. It was he who ordered portraits of those figures whom he considered the most worthy, and, as time has shown, he never made a mistake in choosing, he financed everything without pursuing any material benefit, but having only exorbitant expenses even with his wealth. It was truly his patriotic feat. Nikolai Ryabushinsky played his role in history and remained a bright star in it. His contribution, and above all it concerns the fate of Russian fine art, is no less, if not more significant, than the contribution of Sergei Diaghilev. Both of these figures deserve to stand side by side in the history of Russian culture of the 20th century, although their destinies turned out differently. Ryabushinsky's fortune turned out to be much more severe. He was not understood and accepted by his contemporaries and has not yet been adequately appreciated by his descendants.

And in conclusion - once again about the magazine itself. In addition to all of the above, the "Golden Fleece" is also a unique monument of graphic art of the early twentieth century, uniting around itself all the best forces of Russian graphics of that time.

Here, a harmonic ratio of text and illustrations is found, the interaction of typographic font and a lively stroke of artistic drawing is thought out. Numerous intros, endings, drop caps, title pages of sections, made by the greatest masters of the World of Art and Blue Rose, become an organic part of the text, and the text, in turn, turns into a work of graphic art.

The very appearance of the magazine has become a form of education of taste, a sense of beauty in a wide readership. And this undoubtedly played a beneficial role in popularizing this publication a hundred years ago and in attracting deep interest in the magazine and that epoch-making phenomenon, which is called the Golden Fleece, in our day.

1. Hoffman I.M. The Golden Fleece. Magazine. Exhibitions 1906-1909. M., 2007.
2. Benois A. The emergence of the "World of Art". L., 1928. S. 27.
3. White A. Argonauts // White A. Symphonies. L., 1991.S. 450.
4. Vinogradov S. About the exhibition "Blue Rose", the talent of N.P. Ryabushinsky and "The Feast of Roses" in his Kuchin" // Vinogradov S. Former Moscow. Riga, 2001.S. 143.
5. Milioti V. Forgotten Testaments // Golden Fleece, 1909, No. 4. S. V.
6. Catalog of the exhibition of paintings "Golden Fleece". M, 1909.
7. From the Editor // Golden Fleece, 1909, No. 11-12. P.107.
8. There.

Poetry. Vitaly Grigorov. "To Moscow. Symphony”, “Someday my son will become a grandfather”, “My blue-eyed Tajik”, “At the Bolshoi on the Theater”. Literary almanac "Golden Fleece". No. 3, M., 2016. P. 212-216.

TO MOSCOW
Symphony.

At your crossroads, like I'm on the stage
And people read poetry!
And with an Uzbek woman I boldly manage skillfully,
And I whisper her name - Zulhi!

Let them pass lonely aside and far away
Hundreds and hundreds of centuries more,
Pour into glasses and walk through the ditches
And in the stomach - paternal pilaf!

Along your alleys, like a pilgrim for a long time,
I go and breathe deeply!
So old age wanders side by side gloomy,
Soon with a wand, apparently, I will!

I'm with you forever, I'm your man.
"Moscow gave bloom!" -
It's all romanticism, it's all communism
We read this to holes!

I go on the Internet, and I sit on the planet,
In general, I'm lying in bed:
I'm not in a hurry to go anywhere, even though the night star
My soul carries over the equator!

Each pebble is your eyewitness alive
Collisions, and troubles, and discord!
Along your avenues, along your boulevards
Both workers and thieves drink!

Hello tribe of bronze, you are alive like the sun,
We comprehend all your works:
And poetry, and science, your happiness and torment, -
All kinds of spirit fruits!

And crazy rains, and evil frosts
I am sheltered and healthy and saved;
There will still be victories, as our grandfathers prophesy,
And our two-headed eagle soars!

Glory, glory, worker, eager for constellations,
You built all our palaces:
And in the subway, in factories, on land and on waters
Everywhere glorious our specialists!

Glory, glory, peasant, Siberian and Tatar,
And Chuvash, and Mordvin, and Kalmyk!
I will throw a glorious cry - every Muscovite will be,
If the heart penetrated the capital!

I love you city! Your peace and parade!
The majesty of your bell towers!
I glorify in a thousand epochs, I glorify our Russian God,
I glorify the first throne will! ..

Someday my son will become a grandfather,
And there will be grandchildren and, perhaps, great-grandchildren.
Well, in the meantime, I myself am going to the subway,
Sipping beer on holidays.

Well, for now, I'm not a grandfather at all,
I do not bend like grass in the wind in the field.
I sit and eat myself a rye bread,
Buying a plane ticket to Peru.

My blue-eyed Tajik,
You are an excellent Russian man.
Sweep the Moscow courtyard.
We're both like that Yorick.

Your eyes are like ripples in a river.
And smile with longing.
I love you like a brother
Similar to our stories.

Where is the blue of your eyes
Let me guess, barmaley.
Really Macedonian
Left a trace of his horse.

Human incest.
Adultery of kings.
And later you realize
What you don't know...

You do not know the wildness of the grass,
You do not know the herbalism of fate.
And here: gloves, boots,
And there are people give-help.

I love you, blue eyed
As a girl, I give rhinestones,
And I'm waiting for the reciprocity of the hand,
We are both from the same torment.

Wonderful action of the times:
There are sparks all around.
I bow a hundred times
Azat history!..*

* Free (Eastern).

AT THE BOLSHOY ON THE THEATER

Neon Fountain!
Neon Fountain!
You replaced the living, but I'm in love and drunk!
leaving Old year!
And it will burst New Year!
Chocolate, cognac and a sandwich on the bench!

Four horses!
Quadriga, what's up, hey!
From the theater you fly to the square as soon as possible!
Let's rush forward!
Let's rush forward!
Farewell, Old Year! Let there be a New Year!

Girlfriend, spill it!
Girlfriend, drink up!
And sing a song from the heart about life!
Short skirt!
Short skirt!
And the legs are so soft, and the lips are fragrant!

We are happy together!
We are both sunshine!
And again, pour the glasses to the brim!
And push for love!
And swoop for love!
I will smooth your dashing eyebrow with my finger ...

Quadriga, what's up, hey!
Four horses!
Don't fly to us, please - kill it!
Let's get on the subway!
To the house on the subway!
The boulevards and the avenue are covered with snow!

Neon Fountain!
Neon Fountain!
With water in the spring you will be drunk again!
And with a song from the heart
And with a song for the soul
They will find shelter in you - native drunks! ..

Reviews

The daily audience of the Potihi.ru portal is about 200 thousand visitors, who in total view more than two million pages according to the traffic counter, which is located to the right of this text. Each column contains two numbers: the number of views and the number of visitors.

"THE GOLDEN FLEECE"

Immediately after the termination of the "World of Art", from January 1905 in Moscow began to appear "art and art-critical magazine" - "Iskusstvo". Its editor-publisher was a young artist N. Ya. Tarovaty. Although the new magazine diligently tried to outwardly resemble its predecessor and develop the artistic principles laid down in the World of Art, it did not enjoy the support of the "senior" and evoked mostly squeamishly derogatory reviews. The idea of ​​succession seemed to the founders of the closed magazine too bold and arrogant for the Moscow artistic youth, who had not yet shown themselves to be anything serious; the primary interest of the new magazine in folk and decorative arts, in the French impressionists and post-impressionists, reliance on Moscow partnership artists also could not but arouse a jealous and wary attitude among the "World of Art". And in the writing environment, "Art" did not have reliable support. The literary (more precisely, critical and bibliographic) department of Art was, in comparison with the Libra and Questions of Life published simultaneously, very thin. He participated in the organization of the journal and at first its secretary was the young symbolist poet V. Hoffman, a student of Balmont and Bryusov, who then retired from the circle of Scorpio and Libra and managed to attract only a few novice writers to work in Art. modernists. A few articles, newsreels and reviews in the first issues of the journal were signed mainly by M.I. Pantyukhov (Mikh. Pan-v), M.I. Sizov (Mikh. S.), V.F. Hoffman, various pseudonyms, of course, hiding the same names for the most part.

In the summer of 1905, S. A. Sokolov (literary pseudonym - Sergey Krechetov) joined the work in the editorial office of Iskusstva. In No. 5/7 of the journal it was announced that Sokolov was taking an active part in editing the literary department; in No. 8 he was already named along with Tarovaty as an equal editor. The head of the symbolist publishing house Grif, second in importance after Scorpion, the publisher of the almanacs of the same name, Sokolov was connected with all the most significant representatives of the "new" art and could provide Tarovaty's magazine with a quite representative literary department. “I’ve thought about helping Art and I’m attracting a number of people there, starting with Balmont,” Sokolov informed V.F. Khodasevich on May 11, 1905. employees, among whom now, by the way, are: Merezhkovsky, Balmont, Minsky, Gippius, Sologub, A. Blok and Bely.

The efforts of Sokolov gave a certain result: the 8th issue of the magazine was already presented by the names of Balmont, Bryusov, Blok. However, the activities of the magazine ceased at this point due to the then usual reason for financial insolvency. Nevertheless, the publication of "Iskusstva" and the union of Tarovaty and Sokolov - the leaders, respectively, of its artistic and literary departments - became a kind of springboard for the activities of the new Moscow modernist publication - the magazine "Golden Fleece". “Art as such no longer exists, and the 8th issue that came out is the last,” Tarovaty Konst reported. Erberg in October 1905 - But from the "Art" a new magazine "Golden Fleece" arose, which is supposed to be published monthly starting from January 1906. Staff, with a few additions<…>the same as in Art, but I was invited to head the art department in it. Sokolov became the head of the literary department of the magazine.

Nikolai Pavlovich Ryabushinsky (1876–1951), a representative of a large family of Moscow millionaire capitalists, a generous philanthropist, a remarkable and extravagant figure in his own way, gave money for the publication of The Golden Fleece. As M. D. Bakhrushin recalls, “he was not involved in the affairs of the family banking company (or rather, he was not allowed to them), he was married several times and only spent money on both his and his wives ... He built the Black Villa in Petrovsky Park in Moscow. Swan", where he set fantastic tricks for golden youth. However, he was a very capable and even talented person.” Sincerely devoted to the "new" art, Ryabushinsky tried his hand at painting and literature (under the pseudonym "N. Shinsky"), but in these experiments he was not able to go beyond dilettantism. This is evidenced by his paintings, repeatedly reproduced in the "Golden Fleece", and poems, and with particular obviousness the story "Confession", published under the "Golden Fleece" in a separate edition in 1906 - an ultra-decadent work in the spirit of Przybyszewski and D' Annunzio, written from the point of view of the artist, and with typically epigone zeal, develops the themes of individualism and immorality, free creativity and free passion.

From the very beginning, The Golden Fleece was conceived as a magazine close in its literary and aesthetic principles to Libra. The desire to take into account and adopt the editorial experience of Bryusov characterizes the first steps of Ryabushinsky and Sokolov on the way to organizing a new edition. Bryusov, however, reacted to Ryabushinsky's publishing venture with a certain amount of caution, cautiously taking a wait-and-see attitude, although he willingly joined the ranks of the magazine's closest collaborators. This wariness was partly dictated by the fact that the literary affairs of the Golden Fleece were controlled by S. Sokolov, the leader of the "Grifov" group of symbolists, which Bryusov regarded as a hotbed of epigonism and in relation to which he cultivated "some kind of rivalry and a kind of antagonism." While welcoming the "Golden Fleece" in general as a significant symptom of the development and spread of the "new" art, Bryusov nevertheless could not but point out possible vulnerabilities, and above all, the threat of the notorious secondary nature of this enterprise, organized on a grand scale and far-reaching claims. Such fears were voiced even in Bryusov's speech, prepared for the gala dinner on the occasion of the publication of the first issue of The Golden Fleece (January 31, 1906); the leader of symbolism drew attention in it to the urgent need for radically new searches and daring for the further fruitful development of the literary school he defended:

“Thirteen years ago, in the autumn of 1893, I was working on the publication of a thin, tiny book that bore the impotent and impudent title of The Russian Symbolists. I called this title powerless because it is colorless, does not say anything in itself, refers to something else. But it was also audacious, because it openly presented its authors as defenders of that movement in literature, which in our country until that time had been subjected only to the most bitter attacks and ridicule, except for its very ambiguous defense in the pages of Sev.<ерного>Herald". A struggle began, at first imperceptible, then noticed only in order to also be subjected to all kinds of attacks. And it lasted 13 years, growing, capturing more and more vast areas, attracting more and more significant number of supporters. Today, at last, I am present at the launch of the newly equipped, richly decorated, luxurious ship Argo, which Jason hands over to us, politicians so different in their convictions.<еским>, philosophical<им>and religious<ым>, but united precisely under the banner of new art. And seeing before me this marvel of building art, its golden sails, its beautiful flags, I finally realize that the struggle in which I had the honor to participate with my companions was not fruitless, was not hopeless. But, as I board this ship, I ask myself the question: where will our feeder take us? What Golden Fleece are we going for. If for the one for which we set out 13 years ago in a fragile boat, then it has already been snatched from the evil dragon in Colchis, has already become the property of our native country. Is it really the task of the new Argo only to deliver strands of evil<отого>rune and distribute it among the hands. Is it really the business of the new edition only to disseminate ideas previously expressed by others? Oh, then your Argo will not be winged<м>by ship - but by bulk<ным>crypt, marble<ым>a sarcophagus, which, like the tombs of Pergamon, will be admired in museums, but in which the new poetry will be magnificently buried. I raise my glass to<ы>this was not, I raise a glass against everyone who wants to rest, celebrating victory, and for everyone who wants new struggle, in the name of new ideals in art, who are waiting for new failures and new ridicule.

Bryusov's characterization of the "Golden Fleece" as a "miracle of building art" was not only a tribute to the solemn and festive style. Ryabushinsky did everything to attract the best symbolist and near-symbolist literary forces to his magazine, and the art department of the magazine was organized on a grand scale, built on the example of the World of Art. Huge amounts of money were invested in the publication. The design was distinguished by the defiant high cost of execution. The orientation was initially given to the loudest, most prestigious names of its kind: the first issue opened with a whole album of reproductions from the works of M. Vrubel (subsequent issues were respectively devoted to the work of K. Somov, V. Borisov-Musatov, L. Bakst), the literary department it was represented by the names of D. Merezhkovsky, K. Balmont, V. Bryusov, A. Blok, Andrei Bely, F. Sologub. The entire text of the magazine was printed in parallel in two languages ​​- Russian and French. And at the same time, from the very beginning there were fears similar to Bryusov's, and suspicions that "the Golden Fleece" - it seems - has a lot of money and few ideas.

Having presumptuously become the editor-publisher of The Golden Fleece, Ryabushinsky placed himself in the curious position of a "philistine in the nobility" among the refined representatives of the "new" art. “... It seemed like he on purpose appears to the point of caricature as a typical merchant-dear from Ostrovsky’s plays,” Benois recalled about Ryabushinsky, noting at the same time the founder of the magazine had a touching desire to “crawl out of the state that was determined for him by class, environment, upbringing, and penetrate into some“ spiritual zone “, which seemed to him incomparably more sublime and bright.” The same Benois, at the time of the publication of The Golden Fleece, concluded that Ryabushinsky was “a true boor, although“ decorated ”with brocade, gold, and maybe even flowers.” D. V. Filosofov echoed him: “Golden Fleece is a boorish magazine, but the only one where you can work,” he meant, first of all, the financial security of the publication, which he admitted with ironic frankness: “We had N. Riabouchinsky. I'm not talking about the impression. When finances are cracking, la Toison d’or is of great importance for intelligent proletarians!” Not yet very experienced in the capital's literary affairs, L. Shestov was sincerely perplexed after meeting with Ryabushinsky in the editorial office of the Golden Fleece: “He told me that he was both a publisher and an editor. But when I tried to talk to him about literature, it turned out that he had nothing to do with it. Not only has he not heard anything about me, but apart from Bryusov, Balmont and Merezhkovsky, he knows no one. Yes, and those whom he knows, he knows only by name. That's the editor! However, the editor himself was full of confidence that he was able to brilliantly establish a literary business. “A mixture of naivety and boastfulness,” E. Lanser stated in Ryabushinsky, citing some of his assurances: “Everything talented works for me,” “My magazine will be everywhere - in Japan, and in America, and in Europe.”

Everything in Ryabushinsky's journal, starting with the title, chosen under the deliberate influence of Andrey Bely's famous poem "The Golden Fleece" and the figurative symbolism of the circle of Moscow "Argonauts", was oriented towards ready samples and persistently claimed only the completeness and completeness of their expression. Adopting the experience of The World of Art and Scales, which were published at a high printing level, in an exquisite and strictly deliberate design, Ryabushinsky sought to outshine and suppress his predecessors with excessive, excessive luxury, pretentiousness, which constantly threatened to develop into triumphant bad taste. The determination to follow the aesthetic precepts of symbolism gave rise to an editorial manifesto that opened the first issue of the magazine; in it, with disarming naivety, full of almost parodic sound, it was announced that in the “mad whirlpool” of modern life, in the “roar of struggle” “it is impossible to live without Beauty”, that “it is necessary to win for our descendants free, bright, sunlit creativity”, and proclaimed program mottos:

« Art is forever for it is based on the imperishable, on what cannot be rejected.

Art is one for its only source is the soul.

Art is symbolic for it bears within itself a symbol, a reflection of the Eternal in the temporal.

Art is free for it is created by a free creative impulse” (1906, no. 1, p. 4).

Behind the eloquence and pathos of the manifesto, we can clearly distinguish the imprint of the personality of S. Sokolov (Krechetov), ​​who in the first months of the Golden Fleece's activity became its ideologist and actual leader. He himself considered The Golden Fleece to be a publication “quite amazing in terms of scope and breadth of tasks”, emphasizing in every possible way his leading position in it, however, he could tell the magazine nothing but a “lexicon of common truths” of symbolist aesthetics in its specifically “decadent” refraction.

To a certain extent, Ryabushinsky's money saved the situation. Thanks to this important factor, the "Golden Fleece" had the appearance of a solid, well-established monthly. In terms of volume and level of the literary department, the issues of the Golden Fleece were not inferior to the issues of Libra. K. Balmont, V. Bryusov, Andrey Bely, Vyach. Ivanov, F. Sologub, A. Blok, Z. Gippius, D. Merezhkovsky - in fact, all the symbolists "with a name" who published poetry, prose, and articles in the Golden Fleece. Extremely indicative in this regard was the first, "debut" issue of the magazine: it published Merezhkovsky's poem "Old Octaves", Sologub's story "The Caller of the Beast", Andrey Bely's dramatic passage "The Mouth of the Night", poems by Balmont, Bryusov, Blok, Bely; the same Balmont, Merezhkovsky, Blok participated in the critical department. Symbolist writers of the second rank and novice writers also found a safe haven in the "Golden Fleece", although in general they were published in a smaller proportion than the "masters". The leading artists of the era, for the most part "World of Art", participated in the design - they had already gained fame (L. Bakst, E. Lansere, K. Somov, A. Benois, S. Yaremich, M. Dobuzhinsky) and were just beginning to win public recognition (N Sapunov, P. Kuznetsov, N. Feofilaktov, V. Milioti and others).

A serious impression was made by the chronicle and critical-bibliographic departments. In their charge, there was a noticeable desire to solve somewhat different tasks than those set by the editors of Libra: in Bryusov's journal much attention was paid to novelties of foreign literature and events in the cultural life of the West, in The Golden Fleece the main emphasis was placed on Russian literary and art history. The selection and evaluation of the material was carried out from aesthetic positions close to Libra. In particular, Ryabushinsky's journal fully adopted the tone of Libra in relation to realist writers. In the "Golden Fleece" disparaging reviews were published about the collections "Knowledge", about Bunin's poems (S. Solovyov - 1907. No. 1, p. 89), about the works of secondary authors of the realistic school. It should be noted, however, that, in comparison with Libra, The Golden Fleece paid little attention to the fight against realism and did not try to withstand polemical one-linearism. So, A. Kursinsky, calling M. Gorky “an artist who has already exhausted himself”, at the same time highly appreciated L. Andreev’s Savva (1906. No. 10. P. 90–91), and V. Khodasevich, who saw in the majority works of the 7th collection of "Knowledge" only "a monotonous gray mass", focused all attention on Gorky's "Children of the Sun" as a "truly remarkable" drama (1906. No. 1. P. 154-155). The main interest of the "Golden Fleece" showed to the phenomena of art, directly or indirectly related to modernism. N. Tarovaty was engaged in the artistic chronicle of Moscow in the magazine, D. V. Filosofov prepared the reviews “The Artistic Life of St. Petersburg”, and then (after the departure of Filosofov with the Merezhkovskys on February 25, 1906 to France) Konst. Erberg. The “Musical Chronicle of St. Petersburg” was conducted from issue to issue by the famous music critic V. Karatygin (signing with the cryptonym V. K.), correspondence about Moscow musical life was placed by I. A. Sats, Alexander Struve, E. K. Medtner (Wolfing), B Popov (Mizgir). Reports on the events of the theatrical life in Moscow were published by N. Petrovskaya and A. Kursinsky, in St. Petersburg - by O. Dymov. Reviews by S. Makovsky, A. Rostislavov, A. Vorotnikov, Parisian correspondence by M. Voloshin, A. Benois, A. Shervashidze appeared sporadically.

On the whole, there were no fundamental, programmatic differences from Libra in the Golden Fleece at the beginning of the publication. Only one more, richer journal of a similar trend and subject matter appeared, relying on the same authors and practically duplicating Scales, diverting employees from Bryusov's journal and ultimately preventing it from maintaining its former monopoly position. Bryusov's fears that the "Golden Fleece" would become a "marble sarcophagus" crowning the values ​​already won long ago received eloquent confirmation with each issue. The desire to partly restore the priority of the pioneers of the "new" art, partly to reveal the initial lack of independence and weakness that were hiding behind the external magnificence and prestige of Ryabushinsky's journal, was dictated by his article "Links. II. Golden Fleece”, published on March 27, 1906 in the literary supplement to the Slovo newspaper. The Golden Fleece was regarded in it as a publication focused on yesterday and proclaiming elementary truths that no one cares about anymore: “This whole“ new ”magazine tells me about something old, he offers readers, obtained not by him, but by others, long before he was equipped for the journey. “What is the Golden Fleece? Bryusov asks. - These are interesting and artistically published collections that do not give anything new, but allow a group of artists to finish their speeches. This is a beautiful, lovingly executed edition, similar, however, to an alien plant, to a beautiful orchid that feeds on juices that it did not extract from the earth. This is a magnificent palace in which those of the former “decadents” who are tired of the rebellion of their youth and are ready to rest on drying laurels, rattling the strings with their usual hand and waving the brush, can peacefully calm down.

If Bryusov blamed the "Golden Fleece" primarily for the lack of search and independent initiative, then Z. Gippius's criticism was directed in a slightly different direction: she exposed Ryabushinsky's journal as an anti-cultural phenomenon. The concept of culture in general was the main weapon used by Libra employees for polemical purposes, and in the case of the Golden Fleece it turned out to be especially convenient. Hiding under the pseudonym "Comrade Herman", Gippius placed in "Balance" a note "Golden Fleece", in which she ridiculed the appearance of the first issue of Ryabushinsky's magazine ("pomp" of the "richest Moscow wedding"), his ideological credo ("decayed decadence") and editorial manifesto (“there is not a single reader of the Golden Fleece who has not heard that there is beauty, that there is art, that beauty is eternal, and art too”), caustically touched on the bilingualism of the magazine (“Obviously, the time has come for the French too learn that without beauty one cannot live and that it is eternal”). The accusations of bad taste and lack of culture contained in this review were imbued with arrogance towards the founders of the journal and, in contrast to Bryusov's article, were expressed in a very harsh, even insulting form. “The Golden Fleece is unreliable, but not hopeless,” Gippius concluded. - Only he would not have to teach, but to learn beauty. The Goddess-culture is incorruptible and gives the rights of teaching only to those who have really gone through her long school. "Beauty" cannot be written out like a dress from Paris. And luxury is not yet beauty.

S. Sokolov (Krechetov) made a rebuttal on the pages of the Golden Fleece. In the note “Apologetics of Culture” (1906, No. 3, pp. 131–132), he, refusing to argue on the merits (“We will not respond to abuse with abuse”), again insisted on the unshakable significance of the ideological and aesthetic slogans of the “Golden Fleece” and returned back to "Comrade Herman" accusations of lack of culture. Sokolov also pointed out the underlying reason for the dissatisfaction of the "Vyesovites": "... the note of offended monopoly sounds too unambiguously in their words."

"Scales" did not forgive this performance. Another note "Comrade Herman" - "Golden Fleece" followed; this time its author was Bryusov. The direct object of ironic criticism in this case turned out to be the pompous and pathetic style of S. Krechetov’s answer, which is especially ridiculous because it is called upon to defend undisputed truisms: a burning novelty for persons importantly informing Europe that art is eternal.

With this, the direct printed polemics between Libra and the Golden Fleece temporarily died out. Taking a pose of offended nobility, Sokolov only composed a memorandum to "Libra", which was not published:

“In No. 5 of the Scales, an article appeared again under the title “Golden Fleece” signed “Comrade Herman”. In it, the magazine again resorts to the indecent method of literary polemics - to open and rude abuse. Next to reproaching us for being "uncivilized," the new trick of the "Balance" is a suicidal spearhead.

This time article T<оварища>G<ермана>has nothing to do with the<олотому>R<уну>“like a magazine. These cries of petty irritated pride are directed at me personally.

I declare to “Libra” that, not wanting to analyze in detail the narrowly personal and base motives of the last article, I will henceforth consider it beneath my dignity not only to object to something in essence (it is very desirable for “Libra”!) To works of pseudonymous and badly corresponding to their own the purpose of the masks from Libra, but also to somehow understand them in general.

An embittered scolding, where the sense of decency and proportion is lost, is a sign of clearly conscious impotence, and the one who hides his face at the same time shows caution close to the quality whose name is cowardice.

Indeed, it is difficult to deny the share of Libra's bias, and Bryusov in the first place, in relation to Sokolov, Scorpio's longtime competitor. However, in both of his answers to "Libra" - both in the published and sent editions of the journal - attention is drawn to the insensitivity to the very essence of the critical speeches of Bryusov and Gippius, the readiness to explain all conceptual arguments exclusively by external, even vile personal considerations. Sokolov was clearly unable to understand the literary, ideological and aesthetic orientation of the “weight” criticism, and therefore could not listen to it and make any efforts to get rid of the stereotype in the guise of the journal he led. “The Golden Fleece, it seems to me, is hopeless,” Bryusov summed up in April 1906 in a letter to Merezhkovsky. - No brilliant guest performers will save the theater without a director, without their own troupe, without a person who would know how to evaluate plays. But it is insulting, endlessly insulting that the big, even huge money (a year will cost over 100,000 rubles), which would enable a completely exceptional publication to exist and exercise its influence, results in such a mediocre, banal "monthly, art magazine “” . Almost in the same terms, reproaches to the "Golden Fleece" were expressed in the anonymous "weighty" note "Questions" written by Bryusov. Bryusov sees confirmation that Ryabushinsky’s journal is not an organ of like-minded artists, but “a storage place for poems, articles and drawings”, that there are no “literary and artistically educated leaders” in it, Bryusov sees both in the outdated ideological program of the Golden Fleece, and in the colorless appearance of the chronicle-bibliographic department, and in the poor quality of the reproduction of pictures, and in the artisanal nature of French translations, representing Russian writers “devoid of any individuality of style, some kind of impersonal crowd, writing invariably correct and invariably boring language”.

Inside the Golden Fleece, however, their own conflicts were also brewing. Sokolov and Ryabushinsky clashed in their intention to play a leading role in the journal. Sokolov complained more than once about Ryabushinsky's nit-picking, whims, and dictatorial habits, about his helpless attempts to carry out his own literary ideas. Sokolov's proposals to streamline the conduct of business (in particular, his desire to assign secretarial duties to V. Khodasevich) were met with hostility by the owner of the journal. It came to a scandalous break, to which Sokolov tried to give maximum publicity, exposing Ryabushinsky as an "impudent capitalist" and "semi-literate person", "absolutely ignorant in matters of literature." On July 4, 1906, he sent Ryabushinsky a lengthy statement announcing his departure from the Golden Fleece; essentially it was open letter, since Sokolov sent copies of it to many writers. “The Fleece can have the right to further existence only on the condition,” Sokolov wrote to Ryabushinsky, “that by inviting a person with sufficient literary experience as my deputy, you will give him unlimited powers, and you yourself will become only a student, and, moreover, for a long time.

The gap between Sokolov and Ryabushinsky produced the effect of a “bomb” in the symbolist environment, in the words of the secretary of the Libra, M. F. Likiardopulo. Sokolov even counted on the fact that eminent employees would leave the Golden Fleece after him; this did not happen, but the magazine's reputation was badly damaged. Ryabushinsky announced that from now on he intended to personally edit the literary department, but in reality he was not able to do without outside help and first of all turned to Bryusov for her, the very next day after the break with Sokolov: “... I am writing to you, kindly asking you Your advice and opinion. Literature now I will conduct myself. The unrevealed direction in the journal really torments me<…>Don't Forget The Golden Fleece<…>Respond and give me, please, something of your things. Again about the "unrevealed direction" of the "Golden Fleece" was an indirect recognition of the correctness of Bryusov's criticism; the leader of the Libra had an opportunity to take control of another journal, and he did not fail to take advantage of it, especially since he regarded with satisfaction the loss of Sokolov's leading role. “In Sweden, I learned that S. A. Sokolov left the Golden Fleece,” Bryusov wrote in his diary, “and this gave me hope to enter this journal closer. Since autumn, I began to visit the editorial office often and “help with advice.”

In terms of such “advice”, it is worth considering the involvement of A. A. Kursinsky, a minor poet and prose writer from the circle of early symbolists, a friend of Bryusov from his youth, to active work in the literary department of the Golden Fleece. “Old comrade Bryusov helped Kursinsky get a job as an editor at the Golden Fleece,” recalled B. Sadovskoy. Kursinsky had been a member of the magazine even under Sokolov, and after his departure he became responsible for maintaining the literary department. Sokolov informed after the break with Ryabushinsky that "in fact, in some parts, acquired the influence of Kursinsky, but he has neither rights nor powers and in general is under Ryab<ушинском>almost without a voice", "on the<ении>"half lady". With the growth of Bryusov's influence, the role of Kursinsky increased accordingly. On October 8, 1906, Bryusov stated with satisfaction in a letter to Z. N. Gippius: “Our mutual friend A. A. Kursinsky occupies an increasingly decisive position in the Rune ...”.

In terms of editorial skills and talents, Kursinsky would hardly; more capable than Sokolov. A writer of more than modest and dependent talent, relying on "decadent" examples in style and problematics, Kursinsky himself could not have a life-giving influence on the Golden Fleece and, in general terms, remained quite similar to the former head of the literary department. However, through him, Bryusov opened up the prospect of influencing the Golden Fleece, without taking on his shoulders all the hardships of the editorial and publishing process. Kursinsky turned out to be a convenient intermediary between the Golden Fleece and Libra. At the end of 1906, S. Sokolov noted that these two journals are “now in the closest friendship,” and Bryusov subsequently specified the nature of this “friendship”: “We willingly attended various editorial meetings and more than once took part in editorial work, up to reading manuscripts and writing announcements.

However, this union did not give independence and novelty to the Golden Fleece. For a short time - a few months at the end of 1906 - beginning of 1907 - Ryabushinsky's journal became in fact a satellite, a branch of "Vesov". Notable and even outstanding works continued to appear in it - “Salting” by A. Remizov (1906. No. 7/9, 10), “Eleazar” by L. Andreev and “The Tale of Eleusippe” by M. Kuzmin (1906. No. 11/12) , “The Gift of the Wise Bees” by F. Sologub (1907, No. 2, 3), “The King in the Square” by A. Blok (1907. No. 4), poems by Bryusov, Andrei Bely, M. Voloshin, Vyach. Ivanov, articles by Bely and Blok, etc. But as before, the Golden Fleece on a grand scale - and sometimes even with brilliance - propagandized and crowned what had been achieved, and did not open up something new, and in this sense, Bryusov's reproaches remained effective even at that time when he himself was involved in logging. Moreover, Bryusov's temporary "one-man management" was by no means becoming last reason The fact that Ryabushinsky's journal, actively contributing to the establishment of symbolism and the spread of the ideological and aesthetic principles of the "new" art, was unable to create a new, independent in relation to the "Scales" creative laboratory, uniting literary forces.

The Golden Fleece initiatives were carried out only in the direction where generous funding could support them, and often had an advertising, propaganda character. It was decided to supplement the parade of major literary names with a gallery of portraits painted by the order of the Golden Fleece by the best artists; this is how famous portraits were born - Bryusov by M. Vrubel (1906. No. 7/9), Andrei Bely by L. Bakst (1907. No. 1), Vyach. Ivanov by K. Somov (1907. No. 3), A. Remizov (1907. No. 7/9) and F. Sologub (1907. No. 11/12) by B. Kustodiev, A. Blok by K. Somov (1908. No. 1). As if in compensation for the magazine program, it was decided to hold Golden Fleece competitions on a given topic. The first competition was announced on the topic "The Devil" in literature and fine arts, for its holding in December 1906 a representative jury was assembled (for the literary department A. Blok, V. Bryusov, Vyach. Ivanov, A. Kursinsky, N. Ryabushinsky ); the works awarded in the competition were published in the first issue of the Golden Fleece for 1907. Bryusov summed up the ironic result of the competition: “It turned out that neither the authors nor their judges (including myself) have any idea about the devil.” The second of the announced competitions (on the topic "Life and Art of the Future") did not take place at all. Following the example of Libra, which was published under the symbolist publishing house Scorpio, Ryabushinsky also tried to establish book publishing under the Golden Fleece, but this enterprise did not reach a solid scale: only a few books were published in the Golden Fleece.

The work of the art department of the "Golden Fleece" was carried out with greater originality. Its head N. Ya. Tarovaty died on October 6, 1906, and was replaced by the artist Vasily Milioti. Under the leadership of Milioti, the Golden Fleece has already decisively completed the reorientation from the masters of the World of Art to the latest artistic trends. With the support of Ryabushinsky, the Blue Rose exhibition was organized, its review with many reproductions appeared in The Golden Fleece (1907. No. 5). The artists of the "Blue Rose" (P. Kuznetsov, N. Milioti, N. Sapunov, S. Sudeikin, M. Saryan, A. Arapov, N. Krymov and others) then made up the assets of the exhibitions of the "Golden Fleece" in 1908 and 1909. , from issue to issue participated in the design of the magazine. The "Golden Fleece" also has the merit of familiarizing the Russian public with the latest aspirations of French painting: 94 photographs from the works of French artists were placed in No. 7/9 for 1908, a significant number of reproductions - in No. 2/3 for 1909, separate the issues of the magazine were specially devoted to the sculpture of P. Gauguin (1909. No. 1) and the painting of A. Matisse (1909. No. 6). All these publications were accompanied by articles interpreting the work of selected masters and the nature of the search for new art schools.

Already at the beginning of 1907, the fragility of the alliance between the Bryusov group and the Golden Fleece was revealed. Ryabushinsky's cooperation with Kursinsky developed in the same direction as earlier with Sokolov. In mid-March 1907, Kursinsky complained to S.A. Polyakov about "a very strange and hardly motivated relationship" with Ryabushinsky, about the insulting behavior of the magazine owner. Not wanting, according to Bryusov, to be "a submissive performer<…>absurd whims", Kursinsky brought the conflict to the press, announcing his break with the "Golden Fleece", and demanded from the editorial board of "Libra" an arbitration tribunal between him and Ryabushinsky. Formally, Ryabushinsky was forced to apologize, but then, with insulting frankness and cynicism, he spoke about both Kursinsky and Libra’s guardianship: “Can’t I refuse his cook, without Libra intervening in this matter?" - and: "I am quite convinced that writers are the same as prostitutes: they give themselves to the one who pays, and if you pay more, they allow you to do whatever you want with them." Andrey Bely (who was offered to edit the literary department of the Golden Fleece after Kursinsky) reports on what happened next: “... I wrote to Ryabushinsky with a challenge: it is enough honor for him to subsidize the magazine; he, a tyrant and mediocrity, should not participate in the magazine; consequence - my way out<…>". “Boris Nikolaevich “officially” left the Golden Fleece,” wrote Bryusov Z. N. Gippius in mid-April 1907. “After a rather bad“ story ”with Kursinsky, I would willingly do the same<…>But it seems to me that it is shameful to refuse when the abolition of the literary department has already been decided. Heroism is too cheap, they will say.

Rumors about the termination of the literary department in the "Golden Fleece" in the spring of 1907 were quite persistent. In fact, only some internal reorganization of the journal took place; it was decided to abandon the voluminous critical and bibliographic department, which required methodical and laborious organizational and editorial work; “Instead of the bibliographic department, which was abolished from No. 3, the editors of The Golden Fleece, from the next No., introduces critical reviews that give a systematic assessment of literary phenomena. The editors obtained the consent of their employee A. Blok to conduct these reviews.<…>"("From the editors" // 1907. No. 4. P. 74). Along with this report, Blok's statement was placed, outlining a thematic program for future "critical reviews of current literature."

The planned reform was definitely a consequence of the fact that his secretary Heinrich Edmundovich Tasteven, a “Moscow Frenchman”, a philologist by education, an author of articles on philosophical and aesthetic issues, joined the direct management of the Golden Fleece. During the first months of the magazine's publication, Tastevin's duties were mainly to provide French translations of prose material. In 1907, his actual powers go beyond secretarial work, and editorial activity is essentially concentrated in the hands of Tasteven. G. I. Chulkov, who knew Tasteven well from his school years, characterized him: “An amateur in the good sense of the word, Tasteven responded with extraordinary sensitivity to all the cultural phenomena of our time: he knew Kant well and German philosophy in general, and this allowed him to freely navigate in all the latest ideological currents; he could also be a competent judge in the field of plastic arts and devoted a lot of time to organizing exhibitions of the "Golden Fleece"<…>". The influence of Tasteven largely explains the changes in the ideological and aesthetic position of the Golden Fleece, which were clearly marked by the middle of 1907: “The magazine, until then eclectic, takes on a certain face. A number of significant articles appear on its pages on issues of general aesthetics and the theory of symbolism, as well as a decisive and firm polemic against decadence.<…>» .

The "anti-decadent" pathos manifested itself already in the first major article by Tasteven, which appeared in the "Golden Fleece" - "philosophical study" "Nichsche and the modern crisis." It pointed out the futility of "modern abstract individualism", which "turned the symbol from a living force, from the focus of our mental energies, into a dead mummy, a hieratic sign gravitating over life", and affirmed the need to overcome individualism, to establish a connection "between the" I " and “space”, the great element of life” (1907, no. 7/9, p. 115). The idea of ​​“overcoming individualism” was for Tasteven, according to G. Chulkov, “not only a literary formula, but also a matter of life”, he sought to find internally united aspirations to translate it into reality in the most dissimilar cultural phenomena of our time and sought to change in the corresponding direction the former "decadent"-individualistic course of the "Golden Fleece". At the same time, it is natural that in their new ideological inclinations, the editors of the Golden Fleece - in the person of Tasteven in the first place - approached "mystical anarchism" - a philosophical and aesthetic theory put forward in 1906 by Chulkov and supported by Vyach. Ivanov, who put at the forefront the striving for "catholicity" and overcoming the former, individualistic symbolism. Having received a resonance primarily in the circle of the St. Petersburg symbolists, "mystical anarchism" was sharply criticized by the "Balance", who defended the precepts of "classical" symbolism.

It is characteristic that earlier in his criticism of the activities of the "Golden Fleece" Bryusov called for new searches precisely along anti-individualistic paths. However, the path of the “mystical-anarchist” revision of symbolism and the direction of “overcoming individualism” associated with it, which the Golden Fleece chose, were considered unacceptable by the “Vesovites”. This rejection was not long in affecting the renewed printed polemic between the two journals, as a result of which their ideological and tactical demarcation was actually sanctioned.

The first polemical attacks were resumed by "Scales" immediately after the termination of Kursinsky's editorial activity. In two notes published in the March 1907 issue, Bryusov pointed to the editorial negligence and undemanding nature of The Golden Fleece, and even to an irrefutable example of plagiarism, noting that Ryabushinsky's journal "again turns into some kind of barn for random materials." In response, the April issue of The Golden Fleece (which came out belatedly at the beginning of the summer) was followed by an article entitled “The Causes of a Literary Metamorphosis”, in which the tactics were already used not of defense, but of attack. Its author was hidden behind the signature "Empiric", but in the critical arguments cited, the handwriting of Tasteven, who by that time had taken a leading position in the journal, was fully recognizable. The note stated that “the ideological physiognomy of Libra has become very dull”, that the journal has lost its former militant character and is becoming a conservative organ, “entrenched in the stronghold of aesthetic individualism”, that “now, when the moment comes to give an organic synthesis of the elements of a new world outlook, it is impossible engage in endless summing up” (1907, no. 4, pp. 79–80). The arguments with which the "Scales" had previously condemned the "Golden Fleece" were now directed to their own address. Bryusov, in a reply to The Golden Fleece, rejected the accusations that Libra supposedly “feeds on something else,” as obviously false.

The attacks were continued in Empiric's next article, "On Cultural Criticism," in which Libra's rejection of the latest ideological and literary trends was regarded as "monstrous self-satisfaction, ideological narrowness, a spirit of heaviness, and a desire to strengthen one's positions" (1907, no. 5, p. 75). Finally, a change in the ideological guidelines of the "Golden Fleece" was announced in a special notification "From the Editor" (1907. No. 6. P. 68). Following the recognition that “‘decadentism’, which was an integral and artistically complete worldview, has already been experienced by modern consciousness,” a new direction in the journal’s activity was announced: on the other hand, a revision of the theoretical and practical issues of the aesthetic worldview, on the other hand, perhaps an objective analysis of the art of recent years and new phenomena in painting and literature in order to clarify the prospects for the future. The editors attach particular importance to the consideration of questions about the national element in art and about the “new realism”. It was also reported about the planned change in the staff, caused by the "gradual involvement of a number of writers associated with new young searches in art."

It would seem that the "Golden Fleece" finally heeded the constant advice of the "Libra" to self-determine in relation to other symbolist associations. However, according to the planned program, such self-determination turned out to be emphatically “anti-Western”, including all specific points: “Libra” united for the most part the luminaries of symbolism - the “Golden Fleece” decided to rely on young forces, “Libra” defended the “classical”, “autonomous” symbolism - the "Golden Fleece" announced its inclination towards "new realism" and towards "synthetic" tendencies in general; finally, attention to the "national element" in art was to a large extent a counterargument to the Europeanism, the cosmopolitanism of Libra, which was even threatened by the reputation of the Franco-Russ magazine. But the main "anti-Western" point of the new program of the "Golden Fleece" was, of course, in solidarity with the ideas of renewal of symbolism on a "mystical-anarchist" basis. In a mocking polemical remark to the announcement of new program magazine - “We got together. A new coup d’tat in the Golden Fleece” - Z. Gippius (“Comrade Herman”) noticed behind this installation one more eloquent evidence of the accessibility of the Golden Fleece “for all kinds of ignorance”. “... However, I can’t help but rejoice,” Gippius concludes, “that the reproaches of the Golden Fleece are just, that the advice of the Empiricist is futile and that the Scales still adheres to its calm general cultural direction: they do not notice a bias towards catholicity ".

From the book "For some reason I have to tell about that ...": Selected author Gerschelman Karl Karlovich

“It was not in vain that the gold caught fire ...” It was not in vain that the golden caught fire, the Golden that we call life: These pines, refreshed by the dawn, This is a cloud with a pink edge. These buckets at the well, with a slight splash, Spilling water with a soft splash, The rumble of a tram behind the next

From the book Russian Symbolists: Studies and Researches author Lavrov Alexander Vasilievich

"GOLDEN Fleece" Immediately after the termination of the "World of Art", from January 1905 in Moscow began to appear "magazine art and art-critical" - "Iskusstvo". Its editor-publisher was a young artist N. Ya. Tarovaty. Although the new magazine diligently tried

From the book Universal reader. 3rd grade author Team of authors

Autumn promised the golden word: "I will make it golden." And Winter said: "As I want." And Spring said: "Well, well, Winter." And Spring has come. Everywhere is a mess. The sun is golden. Buttercup is golden. The river is silvery and naughty with water. Born in the wild, flooded the meadows, Flooded the field, erased the banks. There,

DEAR COLLEAGUES!

We invite you to take part in the fifth issue of the almanac "Golden Fleece".

The fourth issue of the anthology "Golden Fleece" is published in April. The solemn presentation will take place in the Small Hall of the CDL on May 17 at 18:00. 30 minutes.

At the same time, we are starting to collect materials (prose, poetry, drama, criticism, journalism) for the 5th issue of the almanac.

International Literary Almanac "Golden Fleece"

The Golden Fleece Almanac has been published since 2014. During this time, it published works by E. Evtushenko, E. Rein, L. Anninsky, K. Kovaldzhi, V. Lichutin, A. Gedymin, L. Podolsky and many other authors from many cities and countries: Russia, USA, Israel, Ukraine, Australia, Germany. Our almanac is distributed to the leading libraries of Russia, Ukraine (Odessa, Nikolaev), to the libraries of the faculties of Slavic studies of the leading US universities, such as, in particular, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and others, as well as Austria and Germany.

The Almanac is published on paper with a circulation of 500 copies. The works accepted for publication will be published in the Golden Fleece almanac, as well as on the Internet portal of the same name, which will ensure wide accessibility of all published materials. In addition, the Golden Fleece almanac is presented and available in the Reading Room.

The editorial board of the almanac "Golden Fleece" includes: L.A. Anninsky, A.Yu. Gedymin (deputy editor-in-chief), K.V. Kovaldzhi, O.S. (chief editor), E.V. Safronova, D.V. Silkan, L.V. Rybakova, I.B. Chubais.

The Almanac is published with the financial participation of the authors. Edition cost: 1 page (prose 1800 characters with spaces; poetry 30 lines): first 6 pages - 1000 rubles. per page; starting from the 7th page - 800 rubles. for 1 page. Authors are given 2 copies of the almanac free of charge.

In addition to the main text, please immediately send a photo of the author and a brief literary biography indicating only the main publications and awards.

Please send text, biography and photo in separate files. The text must be in Word, Times New Roman font, size 12-14. For ease of communication, please also include a phone number.

The volume of prose and poetry is not limited. In addition, the almanac necessarily contains sections of journalism and criticism, as well as satire and humor.

The editors of the almanac reserve the right to edit texts in order to ensure the artistic level of the almanac.

The editors of the almanac do not publish works that unjustifiably contain profanity, as well as calls for violence and ethnic hatred.

Please send all materials to: [email protected] with a note: “in the almanac “Golden Fleece” No. 5.

Telephone information:

Participants of the Golden Fleece almanac are given a preferential opportunity to participate in the programs Faces of Modern Literature (in the Literary Lounge) and Free Microphone (in the Video Salon) on the Golden Fleece Internet portal. In addition, participants in the almanac Golden Fleece" get preferential access to publications on the portal of the same name. Based on the results of the first five issues of the "Golden Fleece" almanac, it is planned to award authors for the most significant works published in the almanac and on the "Golden Fleece" portal.

Leonid Podolsky,

editor-in-chief of the almanac and the Internet portal "Golden Fleece".

Circulation - 34 issues, price - 5 rubles 10 kopecks, "office" - at the villa of Nikolai Ryabushinsky "Black Swan", income - 12 thousand rubles, expenses - 84 thousand rubles. The magazine "Golden Fleece" is a story of grandiose ambitions, fame and talent.

Maecenas

Nikolai Ryabushinsky

The editor-publisher of the Golden Fleece magazine was the philanthropist Nikolai ("Nikolasha") Ryabushinsky. According to the memoirs of the collector Sergei Shcherbatov, he “played the role of an esthete, published a luxurious art magazine, established an exhibition of paintings the latest trends"Blue Rose" and built himself a villa in the Petrovsky Black Swan Park, but despite this, "he could have passed for an ordinary "dear merchant", a reveler who dined daily at the "Hermitage".

Office

Interiors of the villa "Black Swan"

The Golden Fleece editorial office was located in the most prestigious places in the city: first on Novinsky Boulevard, later on Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya, and in 1909 - in Petrovsky Park in Ryabushinsky's own Black Swan villa.

Name

Cover of the magazine "Golden Fleece", 1908

The magazine got its name thanks to the story "The Argonauts" by the symbolist Andrei Bely, main character whom "the great writer, who set out for the Sun, like an argonaut for a fleece," says: "I will publish the magazine" Golden Fleece ". My employees will be argonauts, and the banner will be the Sun. With a popular presentation of the foundations of the sun, I will light hearts. I will bring gilding to the whole world. Let's drown in the liquid sun."

media plan

Cover of the magazine "Golden Fleece", 1906

In the first issue of the magazine, published in 1906, a manifesto was published in the spirit of the revolutionary time: “In a terrible time, we set out on the road. Around us, a renewing life boils with a frantic whirlpool. We sympathize with everyone who works to renew life, we do not deny any of tasks of our time, but we firmly believe that it is impossible to live without Beauty... And in the name of... a new coming life, we, seekers of the Golden Fleece, unfurl our banner:

Art is eternal, because it is based on the imperishable, on what cannot be rejected.
Art is one, for its single source is the soul.
Art is symbolic, because it carries a symbol in itself, a reflection of the Eternal in the temporal.
Art is free, because it is created by a free creative impulse.

Employees

Prophet, study from a painting, 1906

The best of the best collaborated with the magazine - Konstantin Balmont, Leonid Andreev, Alexander Blok, Valery Bryusov, Andrey Bely, Maximillian Voloshin, Zinaida Gippius, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Fyodor Sologub, Ivan Bunin...

Spreading

The emblem of the magazine "Golden Fleece" designed by N.P. Feofilaktov. 1906

The editorial board had ambitious plans: the publishers wanted to enter the European market, so it was possible to subscribe to the magazine not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, London, Vienna, Rome, Madrid, Copenhagen, New York.. The cost of the magazine varied depending on the country: from 1 ruble 70 kopecks to 5 rubles 10 kopecks.

From the pages of the magazine

Illustration by Leo Bakst

The title page of the publication of the Blue Rose exhibition in the Golden Fleece magazine, based on a sketch by P.S. Utkin. 1907