Смирненски

The feuilletons occupy the most significant place among the poet's prose. Both in volume and in importance. If in Smirnenski's lyrics there are four humoresques and satires for every non-humorous poem, in his prose the number of feuilletons and zlobodnevki compared to that of stories and impressions is even greater. This shows that, in addition to being a poet, Smirnenski systematically, consciously and continuously developed as a feuilletonist. Here he also follows a tradition inherited from Botev. As a genre, the feuilleton is widely represented in Bulgarian literature. The active civic consciousness of our writers of the past directs them to use the most efficient satirical weapon for quickly and surely defeating the enemy, for instantly exposing vice. From a journalistic genre with a sharp publicistic focus, the feuilleton gradually turns into a work of art, in which memorable images and characters are concisely and vividly outlined. Incidentally, the elements of artistry and publicism are so closely connected with each other that it would perhaps be most correct to speak of artistic publicism in Bulgarian literature. There are no strict barriers and barriers; the genres flow into each other. Only in a conditional sense can one speak of artistic and publicistic feuilleton - to the extent that one or another element predominates in the individual work. Hristo Botev uses the feuilleton form both for the direct publicistic-satirical expression of his thoughts and ideas, and for the creation of negative human types. Aleko Konstantinov, who has made great contributions to the development and improvement of this genre in our literature, is also following in his footsteps. In the acute political clashes after the liberation, the feuilleton did not leave the pages of the newspapers. It would not be an exaggeration to say that there was hardly a Bulgarian writer of that time who did not leave his name or pseudonym under the regular column with the feuilletons. After Aleko's death, one name stands out brightly among the authors-feuilletonists - Georgi Kirkov. Botev, Aleko Konstan and Georgi Kirkov were Smirnensky's teachers, their traditions continued by his contemporaries in the new historical environment. Of course, he was influenced by Kyulyavkov, his proletarian feuilletonists (D. I. Polyanov, Krum).

Hristo Smirnenski carries on the wings of his poetry the indomitable rush of the revolutionary storm and the most daring dreams of the sunny day of humanity. The very movement of the many-faced life has found in his poetry an inspired poetic embodiment, capable of greatly affecting the mind and heart of man. Deeply and realistically embracing the main features of the revolutionary era, the dark spots in the cruel dying world of capitalism and the whirlwind flight of the oppressed lowlands to the gates of communism; reflecting in unique pictures and images the very storm of the emerging socialist world, embodying the trembling enthusiasm and unshakable faith in the victorious march of the Great October Socialist Revolution and in the future day of humanity, Smirnenski's work opened new horizons in the development of Bulgarian literature. The scope of his poetic talent is so wide, the enchanting figurative wealth of his works has so deeply summarized the development of Bulgarian literature, so close is the connection of his poetic visions with the people's life and dreams for the future, that it contributes to the unshakable force of laying the foundations of socialist-realist art in our country without much toil and detours. With his life and work, Smirnenski brilliantly showed that the fusion of the writer with the revolutionary aspiration of the masses, placing his heart and lyre in harmony with communist ideas, in the service of the revolution and the liberation struggle of the people, fertilizes his talent, stimulates his creativity, elevates his thought. After Smirnenski, a great writer in Bulgarian literature could only be the one who stands on the positions of realism, on the side of the struggling people. This enormous contribution of Smirnensky had a beneficial effect in two directions: on the one hand, it opened the broad road of socialist revolutionary literature, united democratic writers on the basis of the anti-fascist struggle; on the other hand, it dug a deep chasm for modernism, which could no longer find fertile ground for flourishing in our country. The entire Bulgarian revolutionary literature, supported and guided by the Communist Party, followed the path outlined by Smirnensky. Along this path, learning creatively from Smirnensky, Bulgarian literature created works that are unfading in their poetic power and inspiration, in their insight into the life and pathos of the struggle.

There is almost no researcher of the work of Hristo Smirnensky who would not point out the importance of the October Socialist Revolution and the young Soviet poetry in the ideological and creative evolution of the poet. Moreover, usually the question of influence is connected with the question of the genesis and development of Smirnensky's artistic method. Recently, efforts have been directed precisely at such a wider range of problems. This, of course, does not mean that all questions have been exhausted. At least the lack of a comprehensive monograph on the poet so far does not convince us of the opposite. In these brief notes I would like to draw attention to some facts from our literary life in 1919-1923 - the time when Hristo Smirnensky created his most mature works. I am referring to the articles that appeared on the pages of the party periodicals - the newspapers "Mladezh" and "Narodna armiya", the magazine "Novo vreme", advocating the issues of the construction of proletarian culture. B .. Let's mentally travel back forty-three years. The first years of Soviet power, the interventionists have just been expelled. The first steps are being taken in the construction of the new system. The construction of a new culture, a new literature is being started. Everyone is convinced that they must be truly new, just like the new revolutionary fighter and winner of the civil war. In order to embody this new hero in art, new forms, new means of expression are needed. Sometimes new artistic forms are presented as adequate to the revolution. These are forms that set millions of hearts in motion.

The great poet resembles the sea: the more the diver enters into it, the deeper it becomes, the more wonderful and unsuspected beauties its depths reveal. We experience the same feeling when we want to stir up that wonderful peace of ideological and artistic values ​​that we call the poetry of Hristo Smirnenski. Four decades ago, the "discoverer" of Smirnenski as a poet and his first enthusiastic critic - Georgi Bakalov wrote about him: "He was a poet. A true poet. A juicy poet, as they say. A poet who is rarely born... There is no other poet in our country after Botev as popular among the masses as Smirnenski. The names of the two Hristovtsi are inseparably linked in the consciousness of the masses. Inseparable in immortality.

Laughter is usually the weapon of a person placed in an unequal position, it is the revenge of the defenseless. In the social hierarchy and the official table of ranks and ranks, it rushes in uninvited and unwanted, to turn everything upside down, to turn the figures of despotism and power into wax figures, puppets in a comedy theater. Laughter does not recognize respect, does not tolerate authoritarian restrictions, it is the antithesis of everything inflated, pompous, majestic. Its expansiveness acts revolutionaryly, as it equalizes magnitudes, utters hidden and suppressed truths, declares with the ease of a child that the king is naked. Laughter demolishes idols, crowns and halos, because, in the words of Herzen, "to make a person laugh at the god Apis means that he - the god - is dethroned from his sacred rank and made into a simple bull." Smirnensky's red laughter flows freely and infectiously, directed in many directions and at various addresses. In his feuilletons and zlobodnevy, the poet has created a rich gallery of comic images. His observant gaze, the rapier of his wit penetrates everywhere: in parliament and behind the scenes of political deals, in the office of the big merchant and in the boudoir of the bourgeois lady. From there he drags out the distinguished gentlemen and ladies undressed, shows them to us without makeup and disguise.

Every time we come into contact with the poetry of Hristo Smirnenski, we are struck by the flames and lights of our socialist revolution. We remain with particles of his ardor, of his heart, of his boundless love for the "hard-working brothers", for the people's forces unleashed by the revolution, for Moscow blazing with its purple rubies. In these communications with the poet, impulses for struggle, firmness in upholding the communist ideal, confidence in its triumph were born and are born. And it is especially important that these feelings and thoughts arise not only in the conscious fighter, but above all in the worker, among the broadest layers of the people, among those who themselves are the engines of history.

The great proletarian poet usually lives in our consciousness with the dazzling brilliance of his poetic images, with the captivating dynamics and heroism of mass revolutionary scenes, with his youthful exaltation. Smirnensky was a contemporary of epochal, hitherto unheard-of events in history. Dizzy by their grandeur, the poet saw them in fantastic outlines. For him, the rebellious slaves turned into titans, who, having built their enormous stature on a par with mountain ridges, carry within themselves the sun and the storm, and the revolution was an angrily erupting volcano, a stormy sea, a fierce element of ocean waves, a bristled fiery colossus. "A fairy tale of fiery images and paintings" - this is how Georgi Bakalov defined the form of Smirnensky's revolutionary poetry. But if we exhaust the poet's creative portrait with these features alone, it would be very incomplete. The inspired proletarian singer turned out to be a master not only in revolutionary poetry, but also in tender, intimate lyrics, in the short story, in the essay, in the feuilleton and in satirical poetry. In Smirnensky, the poet, the fiction writer, the cheerful humorist and the merciless satirist happily combined. And in all genres he achieved a rare variety of stylistic techniques, he emerged as a unique creative individuality. It was as if the muses had fallen madly in love with this fiery young man and generously showered him with versatile gifts. Along with the titanic images of the October Revolution, of the rebellious masses, Johann, Delecluze, the gladiator, the little gavroshchés, the street woman, the tobacco worker scarred by the "yellow guest", the stonemason, the florist, the blind musician, the Russian peasants condemned to starvation appear before us as alive. They are all drawn in natural height, without romantic embellishment. And in "Winter Evenings" with great simplicity and expressiveness, pictures of harsh everyday life are drawn. Many of the stories are written with the same simplicity. In them the tone is not so elevated, there is not that titanicness of the images, as in much of the revolutionary poetry.

Hristo Smirnenski lived and worked in a turbulent and majestic era, saturated with revolutionary dynamics and mass heroism, with a premonition of the rising revolution. These were the heroic and crucial post-war years, years of a powerful revolutionary upsurge, of an unprecedented drive of the proletariat to win a free and happy life, years illuminated by the greatest event in the history of mankind - the October Revolution. The entire era was saturated with heroic flame, with rallies and demonstrations, with mass unrest, with an open and determined struggle against oppression and exploitation. The authority and influence of the Bulgarian Communist Party during this period were constantly growing, it was rapidly becoming mass and expanding, establishing itself as a leading factor in the socio-political life of the country.

The impact of the October Socialist Revolution and Soviet fiction does not only imply the dissemination of ideas, the translation and reading of books. This is perhaps the purely external side of this complex and deeply contradictory process. But as an "external side" it also has its place and significance. However, it is no less important to see the ideological and aesthetic changes that occurred in the creative development of individual our writers and in literature as a whole after October. A new aspect in this regard is the way in which we responded to the first October events. Because new art, new production means, first of all, the discovery of a new form, on the one hand, and, on the other - the rejection of the "old" rules in order to manifest the new ones. And not only that. The new is never born suddenly, on the contrary - the elements from which it will "crystallize" accumulate for a long time. The new inherits and simultaneously elevates to a higher level that which prepared its appearance.