Славейков

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 creative development of Petko Slaveykov provides the literary historian with exceptionally rich material on the socio-political and cultural conditions under which our fiction from the period of the Revival was created and developed so rapidly. In the 1940s, when the future author of "Don't Sing to Me" and "Cruelty Has Broken Me" was developing a strong ambition to be partly useful to his people, our Revival poetry did not yet have its own national artistic traditions. Petko Slaveykov read with enthusiasm Paisius's History, the attempts of our first poets and every new Bulgarian book, he was inspired by the patriotism of their authors, which also ignited in him a passion for literary activity. His constant connection with the people, the diligent collection of folk songs, proverbs and fairy tales, his own life as a worker and teacher gave rise to many ideas in the poet, opening up to him a variety of themes and plots for artistic creativity. Slaveykov looked for examples in his native literature from which to learn; he consulted with his acquaintances and friends; he read with interest the Greek, Serbian and Russian books available to him. The knowledge he gained from his native patriotic literature happily are supplemented by that useful literary reading that other national literatures offer him, especially the Russian one. "Dear Fellow Citizens!" - he addressed his compatriots in an announcement from 1847. - The benefit of reading books is obvious, and I know the scarcity of books in the Bulgarian language. This has grieved me daily, it has prompted me to take up my pen to bring the Writer Kurganov, the eleventh printed book in Russia, without the grammar, and I have divided it, as it is divided, into two parts, because it is a very large book. And I am now publishing an announcement only for the first part, which will have, in addition to various moralizing, useful and conversational stories... some rules for poetry (k. m.) and will also be embellished with some translated poems of mine. Petko Slaveykov did not manage to publish his translation of Kurganov's "Pistol". But it is also clear from the cited Announcement that the same Slaveikov, who worked hard to master poetic mastery, in 1847 had at hand some rules for poetry. From that moment on, Russian fiction occupied an increasingly important place in his creative development.

One of the main tasks of the Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is to collect and publish the works of Bulgarian classical writers. In fulfillment of this task, volume 1 of the Collected Works of Petko R. Slaveykov has been prepared for publication. This edition will collect for the first time the works of the poet, publicist and public figure Petko R. Slaveykov, who was unable to see even a single volume of his collected poems printed during his lifetime. It will also be the first academic publication of the Institute of Literature.

In his study of K. Fotinov, Iv. Shishmanov called the images of our Revivalists, whom he so lovingly knew how to extract from the darkness of the past, shadows. And this was true. What else, if not a shadow for us, is the face of Paisius, for example? What do we know about his life path? Hardly anything more than what he himself wrote about himself in his "History". This can largely be attributed to the majority of representatives of our Revival. And they were exceptional personalities. In order to properly understand the era in which they lived, as well as their works, we must certainly feel not only the writer, but also the person with his distinctive qualities, experiences and temperament. It is necessary for the researcher to see the creative individuality of the writer in its unique originality, in its connection with the laws of literary development. That is why, recently, the consistent study of the creative and life biography of the writer has acquired such great importance. And it is here, in this aspect of research work, that a number of generally accepted recipes often fail, "precisely" establishing the writer's method, his worldview, the ratio of proportions of one or another side of the literary process. Petko R. Slaveykov is one of our Revival figures, about whom we know much more than about the others. His lively and colorful autobiography, his large archive and rich correspondence have revealed to us a number of sides of his life path. But despite this, there is still something to add to what is already known. For example, we know relatively little about the years spent by Slaveykov in Constantinople, as editor of the newspaper "Macedonia" - the most mature and inspired years of his life, when his work became Bulgarian history. During this remarkable time, the image of a woman is intertwined in the poet's life path, who becomes unique and unrepeatable for him. The memory of her has long been buried under the heavy layer of years, and because of this, we have made no small effort to understand the bond that so firmly and forever connected them, hidden under the weeds of slander and misunderstanding.

It is known that one of the first (if not the very first) readers and judges of Botev's poems was Petko Slaveykov. Botev sent him a notebook of poems that burned in Stara Zagora along with many other manuscripts and books by Slaveykov, as his son Pencho testifies. In his newspaper "Gayda", year III, issue 19 of April 15, 1867, page 312, Botev's first published poem "Your Mother" appears. Slaveykov's words in "Macedonia", issue 33 of July 13, 1868 most likely refer to him: "I only know one of our young men with poetic abilities..." But after going to Bucharest, Botev no longer searched the pages of Slaveykov's publications. Standing on other, social-revolutionary positions, he cannot even condescendingly welcome some of the poetic confessions of Slaveykov, who, working in Constantinople under the nose of the Turkish authorities, could not accompany his fellow writers from the Transdanubian region in everything. And he was not spared by Botev in the humorous-satirical poem "Why Am I Not?"

In the District State Archives - V. Tarnovo there is a "Diary of Panayot Vassilev Typographov" (Fund 65, archive unit 221), in which we find interesting information about the public figure and teacher Petko R. Slaveykov. The author of this diary briefly described his life and intended what was written for his heirs. He was born in Tarnovo in March 1854. He studied until the first grade and in 1866, when his father died, he left school. His mother sent him to learn the abadji craft, to which he apprenticed for 4-5 months. Then he met P. R. Slaveykov and the following excerpt from his diary tells about the connections of Panayot V. Typographov with Slaveykov in Constantinople and Edirne.

As is known, already in the 18th and 19th centuries, Serbian and Bulgarian writers dedicated their works to the revival of the two peoples. Andrija Kačić-Miošić, for example, did not divide the southern Slavs. Dositej Obradović mentioned in his works not only Serbia, but also "poor Bulgaria". Vuk Karadžić was the first to publish Bulgarian folk songs, Konstantin Ognjanović worked for the spiritual awakening of the Bulgarian people, to whom he dedicated his works. Major writers such as Hristofor Žefarović and Jovan Rajić were of Bulgarian origin. They wrote their works in the Russian-Slavic language and contributed equally to the Bulgarian and Serbian spiritual and political development. During the Renaissance, an unprecedented transfer of ideas and themes from one literature to another occurred. However, when we must note the undoubted impact of South Slavic literatures in our country, especially since the beginning of the 19th century, we must also bear in mind the fact that these South Slavic literatures themselves sought models in Italian, Russian, Greek and Austrian literature, that they were in natural, natural relationships with these literatures. First of all, Dalmatian, and for a long time after that, the other Slavic literatures suffered the general influence of the European Renaissance, which manifested itself somewhere earlier, somewhere later in separate borrowings and imitations of one or another model. That is why, when we study the Serbian and Croatian literary and cultural influence in our country at the beginning of the 19th century, we cannot help but notice that this is actually a natural creative process that encompasses both countries, as well as the other Balkan peoples, that historically conditioned interconnections are taking place here, that from what we have taken in a given period, we have created qualitatively new works with which we have moved literary development forward.

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.

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.

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.

It was deep autumn, in 1842. With souls filled with love for their homeland and a burning desire to continue their education, Petko Slaveykov and Hristo Draganov set off for Svishtov. They traveled on foot through the villages, with bags on their shoulders, in which, along with bread, lay the manuscript of Paisiy's History. "This journey through the villages was extremely curious for me. At that time, I already knew Bulgarian history, but my geographical knowledge was still very limited," the poet wrote. When they saw the Danube, they realized that they had reached the city. The great river flowed majestically and silently. To the north of it spread out the endless plain, and to the south rose white hills with gray houses perched on them, squeezed into narrow streets. The city was a center for the export of grain from the Danube Plain and an important economic center with distant trade connections - through Serbia, Austria, France, Dalmatia, to the entire commercial Western and Eastern world. Work began early and ended late in the evening. The Svishtov merchants, who had traveled "from Europe", dressed in a "European" way - shirts with stiff white collars, ties. Their wives wore malakofs sewn in Bucharest, the daughters - outfits from Galati, Pest and Vienna.

At two consecutive meetings, the Scientific Council of the Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences discussed and accepted for publication Vasil Kolevski's work "The Pathos of October", dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. In his review, Angel Todorov emphasized the importance of the topic, gave a positive assessment of the work and concluded that the influence of Soviet literature on Bulgarian is a profound regularity for the activation and development of our entire culture and literature. From this position, the author also considers the issue of the reflection and reception of Soviet literature in Bulgarian progressive periodicals from 1917 to 1944. Angel Todorov made a brief overview of the material presented in the book, emphasized its breadth, systematization and assessment from a modern scientific point of view. He characterized the study as seriously and competently written. He also made some critical remarks.

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.

And in the many studies on the life and work of Petko Slaveykov, his personality as a public figure and creator with great charm continues to be at the center of scientific research on the national peculiarities and the rapid development of Bulgarian Renaissance literature. And this is mainly due to the exceptional importance that Slaveykov has as the creator of New Bulgarian poetry, as an editor of meaningful periodicals and as a courageous tribune of Bulgarian national consciousness, who retained self-control in the face of more than one mishap in his diverse patriotic endeavors. But not only for this important reason. It so happened that in the literature about this our poet and public figure, quite a few aesthetic, bourgeois-idealistic, subjective and essentially unscientific assessments were preserved for the longest time, either for his political and social views, or for his individual works or - which is especially important - for the main directions of his poetic work.

In the era of the Revival, so widely and inspiredly revealed by our writers, literary historians and theorists, there is an area almost unexplored, an area in which the aspirations, feelings and tastes of the people are directly reflected. We are talking about the numerous manuscript collections and songbooks distributed in our country at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries, a part of which, although small, has been preserved to this day. They preserve those works of the Bulgarian creative spirit with which the middle and lowest class in our country - the people themselves - lived.