Пенчо

Pencho Slaveykov is one of those authors who, compared to his predecessors, discovers a completely new poetic world for us. He is not a follower of an artistic school that is fading in its development, but is himself a pioneer and herald of an original direction in art. Although with his patriotic, historical and even intimate works he reminds us of the poetry that preceded him, he conquers us with a new vision, with new ideas about morality and love for nature and man. The reader is attracted by his ethical aspirations and, despite the feeling of contradiction in his ideas, hides in his heart a warm love for his poetry. However, for a long time progressive criticism, constrained by dogmatic views, misinterpreted the legacy of Pencho Slaveykov, connecting him entirely with the reactionary ideology and with the individualism of Nietzsche. It was not only wrong in the assessment of individual works - a phenomenon that is completely possible. (It is known that even the great critic Brandes made a serious mistake by calling Tolstoy's magnificent work "War and Peace" a pile of paper.) Literary criticism misinterpreted the poet's personality, his ideals, and incorrectly assessed the direction he represented. Gradually, the ice was broken, and we abandoned the loud and superficial denials in order to live more freely with the charm of Slaveykov's personality and the beauty of his poetry.

The poetic legacy of Pencho Slaveykov is a fruitful topic for the study of the creative process. To clarify the psychic functions of Slaveykov's poetic personality in view of the artistic text, letters, documents, memories, etc. - this is one of the main problems facing our literary critics. These functions determine the main psychic units of his creative system, they clarify the psychomotorics of the poet, his creative psychogram. The explanation of Slaveykov's poetic work cannot be achieved only within the framework of the most general findings and with the means of a terminology, in whose basic linguistic structures-definitions in most cases there is not enough scientific content. The poet's creative system, explained in a number of studies and articles, needs, in my opinion, a revision.

The interests of our great poet and cultural figure Pencho Slaveykov in Russia, Russian literature and Russian culture appeared in his earliest years, and deepened and developed throughout his life. At different times and on different occasions, he gave not quite the same assessments of individual writers, poets and literary critics, and even expressed contradictory thoughts. But this is the fleeting, episodic aspect of his work, of his life. Characteristic of his entire creative development, of his literary and aesthetic views, of his mature artistic taste and preferences, is his understanding and deep conviction that Russian literature is leading, that Russian writers utter new truths, that their work is original and unique, that the path to great art leads through Russian literature. Pencho Slaveykov received the correct direction of his interests in Russian literature first from his father, and then from other of his predecessors, writers and poets: Karavelov, Botev, Drumev, Vazov. It grew and took shape in the first years after the Liberation, when the atmosphere in our country was filled with the influence of Russia, an influence represented in many ways by progressive-minded Russian specialists and public figures working in Bulgaria.

After Stambolov came to power, the former head of the liberal government, Petko Karavelov, who had been expelled from the political arena, was forced to engage in cultural and educational activities. He founded a society in Sofia for the dissemination of useful knowledge among the people and the development of their taste, which began publishing in 1888 the magazine "St. Clement Library", named in honor of the oldest enlightener, Kliment Ohridski. During the period of acute book famine in Bulgaria and the flooding of the book market with low-quality literature, the magazine sought to provide the general reader with exemplary works of world literature. Russian writers occupied a predominant place in the magazine. Its pages were dotted with the names of Pushkin, Nekrasov, Turgenev, Lermontov, Tolstoy. Readers get acquainted with little-known or completely unknown authors: with the poems of Batyushkov, Koltsov, Pleshcheev, I. Kozlov, with the stories of Shchedrin, Korolenko, Garshin, Karonin-Petropavlovsky. "The St. Kliment Library managed to become a conduit of Russian socio-literary influence in Bulgaria during the developing Stambolov reaction, when the official newspaper Svoboda carried out unbridled Russophobic propaganda and insisted on selecting special literature by Western authors for the younger generation. The populist writer T. G. Vlaikov, in his memoirs of the 1980s and 1990s, spoke of the magazine as very good and valuable for its time. "1

Even during her lifetime, Svetoslava Slaveykova managed to find and collect memories from numerous relatives, friends, writers, artists and public figures with whom Pencho Slaveykov was in contact. Most of these people are now deceased and their memories, which seemed insufficiently interesting to us ten years ago, today far from correspond to our then-present view. On the contrary. Although not written quite "literarily", the spirit of the times lives in them, they speak the language of the era. Particularly interesting are those of them that concern the native environment and atmosphere in which the poet lived, the interesting image of his mother - Irina Slaveykova, the last years of his father's life, the house and their everyday life in Tryavna, Tarnovo and Sofia. What was left by Ekaterina Karavelova, who characterizes the poet's mother with only one word - a good Bulgarian woman, is irreplaceable. And this really seems to be her most typical quality. She is Bulgarian in everything - in her proud patience, in her persistent work capacity, and in her unyielding character. Unfortunately, however, the memories that we are publishing here from Karavelova are only a draft excerpt from one of her articles, intended for the collection that was to be published on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the death of Pencho Slaveykov. The collection never saw the light of day. The memories were lost. After some time, when Svetoslava Slaveykova visited Karavelova with a request to tell her something about her grandmother's life, she, who was already nearing the end of her life, replied: "I can't remember anything anymore, I wrote everything back then." We report this, in the hope that it is still possible that Ekaterina Karavelova's memories may be found accidentally forgotten in some archive or editorial office.

On my first visit to the Slaveykovs' house, a short, plump woman stood before me, very neat, with a round face, heavily graying hair, and a low forehead. Strict brown eyes stared at me, short sentences came out of her small mouth. She was not talkative. When I asked Petko on my first visit to the Slaveykovs' house: "What is Grandma Slaveykova like?" He only replied: "A good Bulgarian." Few knew the "good Bulgarian," the wife of grandfather Slaveykov, and even fewer took the trouble to understand what was hidden behind her reticence and silence. I have rarely met a hardworking woman like her. The morning was devoted to cooking, because the Slaveykovs, led by grandfather, loved to eat, and they ate like heroes. I have never, anywhere in my life, eaten more delicious meals prepared by mother Irina and my own mother. And I have been to rich tables with the most exquisite dishes, but nothing has tasted as good as what was prepared by both mothers. Oh, the banitsa! In "Bloody Song" the Pench elder Divisil - in his image, speech and worldview, is strikingly reminiscent of grandfather Slaveykova, and the banitsa at the feast in honor of the Voivode was copied from the product of mother Irina, who was an incomparable craftswoman...

I have heard that Grandpa Racho's father was also a coppersmith. He went around the villages repairing coppersmiths and took his son Racho with him. When the son later came to Tarnovo, he was already an orphan - without a father and mother. The conspirators of the Velcho Conspiracy gathered in the house of Racho Kazandzhiata. The neighborhood had already begun to talk about these gatherings. Grandma Todora shouted to her husband: - What do you think? We have so many children. Don't gather here anymore! People are already starting to talk... It was Sunday. Racho Kazandzhiata, together with his wife and children, were at church. Their servant ran up to tell them that they were looking for the conspirators. Grandpa Racho rode his horse and left the city. On the way, he met Velcho, who was coming to Tarnovo from his braiding shop at the mouth. Racho told him that they were looking for them and advised him to return, but Velcho said: "Whatever happens, I will go to Tarnovo" - and continued on his way.

The school was on the square, the same building is now the municipality. As he remembers, Pencho was short and very naughty as a child. At that time, only Grandma Irinka and Donka, Pencho and Penka lived in Tryavna, Grandpa Slaveykov was in Constantinople, and the other boys were in Constantinople and Russia. Grandma Slaveykovitsa was a middle-aged woman at that time, pretty, Raykov, with a headscarf, wide-brimmed hat and a fur coat. She was mostly in her father Ivancho's house when it was next to the school. There was a gate on their fence that led directly to the churchyard. When the eldest son of a teacher Petko returned from Constantinople, he came to the school, all his feet, and the teachers surrounded him.

Pencho Slaveykov is the most prominent representative of the Bulgarian ballad from the Liberation to the beginning of the present century. Above the few and unknown poets who tried to work in this field, he rises above both the number of ballads written and their artistic achievements. The lasting interest in folk art - an indispensable school for developing aesthetic taste - which Pencho Slaveykov maintained until the end of his life; the revolutionary struggles of our people, from which he took the themes of many of his works; his contact with European literature facilitated Slaveykov's aspiration to create poetry that reached the world level, without affecting its national peculiarity. This path of development turned out to be extremely fruitful and left a unique originality in his ballads.

The early death of Dimcho Debelyanov (killed on October 2, 1916 near Demir Hisar during the First World War) is not a barrier to his not having a clear vision for poetry. Frost scorches the youth of our elegiac poet, but the voice of this youth - both intimate and sincere, both inconsolable and ecstatic - we hear in his songs. The star of this poet - an angel expelled from heaven, rises in the poetic firmament with great brilliance. This star shines even now above his forehead, above us, and above all those who love poetry and cannot live without it.

Pencho Slaveykov's attitude towards our folk art is not one of the unclear and unknown issues of his thought and poetry. Moreover, he is one of those artists who turn to the folklore of his people not only directly - with his personal poetic work - but also through a number of statements, articles, studies. This facilitates the study of the problem posed and to a certain extent directs its solution. I will not dwell on Pencho Slaveykov's views on Bulgarian folk art, expressed theoretically, but on those that we find in works such as "Ralitsa", "Chunar", "Lud Gidiya", "Nerazelni", "Lyatna Vecher" and many others, which grew under the direct influence of folk works or were nourished by them. On the other hand, I will try to trace the dependence of Pencho Slaveykov's journalistic statements on the relationship between the talent of the artist and the talent of the folk singer; to what extent is the influence between them; to what extent these statements become a principle for his personal creativity.