A tutorial of a writer s success. Part II. Ch 2

http://proza.ru/2021/08/31/121 A tutorial of a writer s success. Part II. Chapter 1. http://proza.ru/2021/08/31/121


Chapter 2. Hansa. The Dnieper Cossacks. Russian petty bourgeois-craftsmen

2.1. Hanseatic merchants and a partnership (a comrades' relations; a comrades' system)

"The question of my origin, of my ancestors, has naturally interested both many people, my friends, and I think it is quite possible that some of you are also interested in it. I will be happy to share with you the data on this issue that I myself possess, especially since in the future I will have to touch on some circumstances related to my family or, rather, to the advantages associated with it.

My origin is directly from the link of Uriah's wife with King David, which is known to you from the biblical history." (Э. Распэ. Вечера барона Мюнхаузена) (Rudolf Erich Raspe. Evenings of Baron Munchausen).

Heinrich Schliemann in his Autobiography does not pay special attention to own origin; there is a mention of his father, a Protestant clergyman (Ilios. The city and country of the Trojans. By Dr. Henry Schliemann. NY. 1881. P. 2.).

Some biographers of Heinrich Schliemann in one way or another note the connection of his ancestors with the merchants, with the Hanseatic League, with Lubeck (the city-organizational center of the Hanseatic League) (see, for example: [Мейерович М. Л. С. 14] [Meyerovich M. L. P. 14]).

"The trade movement between different localities and countries took place in the Middle Ages (especially in their early period), in an environment full of inconveniences and dangers. ( ... ) It was possible to overcome these difficulties only if the merchant was armed and if he was united with his comrades in the profession. ( ... ) The merchants of each city are united at the same time in guilds, the statutes of which charge members with the duty to help and protect each other: not to leave a laggard [merchant] on the road (alone), to collect money for his ransom if he is captured, etc.  "The "guild" (in the West, initially) is defined as "a free union of equal members to achieve common goals" [Стоклицкая — Тережкович В.] [Stoklitskaya-Terezhkovich V.].


2.2. The Dnieper Cossacks and a partnership (comrades' relations; a comradship)

Just like Heinrich Schliemann, Nikolai Gogol did not show — publicly — special attention to his origin.

The origin of Nikolai Gogol (both declared one - from Hetman Ostap Gogol, and documented - for example, from the Lizogub family) was historically connected with the Dnieper Cossacks, with the Hetmanate.

(The Hetmanate became one of the historical organizational forms for a (part of the) Dnieper Cossacks) [«Гетманщина»] ["Hetmanate"].

Nikolai Gogol's father is Vasily Afanasyevich. His paternal grandfather is Afanasy Demyanovich. Grandmother of Nikolai Gogol (wife of Afanasy Demyanovich) "Tatyana Semyonovna Gogol-Yanovskaya (born Lizogub; born after 1750 (according to some sources, about 1768-1769) - died about 1827). She remembered the times of the Zaporozhye Sich [she had information about the times of the Zaporozhye Sich].

She was the daughter of "bunchuk's comrade" [бунчуковый товарищ] [honorary title,"comrade" of the Hetman] Semyon Semyonovich Lizogub, who was [1] the native grandson of Hetman Ivan Ilyich Skoropadsky, [2] a relative of Pavel Leontievich Polubotok [military and political figure of the Zaporozhye Host], [3] a descendant of the generalny [general] obozny [obozny - the head of the aggregate of horse carriages with military supplies] Yakov Lizogub and [4] the son-in-law (since 1742) of the Pereyaslav colonel of the "Zaporozhye army" [Zaporozhye Host] (from 1726-1728) Vasily Mikhailovich Tansky (ca. 1678-1763)" [Виноградов И.] [Vinogradov I.].

"Vasily Tansky, a colonel and a well-known writer, the author of popular interludes in the Ukrainian language at the time.

Vasily Tansky was Tatyana Semyonovna's grandfather and, consequently, Nikolai Gogol's great-great-grandfather" [Манн Ю. В. С. 14] [Mann Yu. V. P. 14].

"The Hetmanate was headed by an elected hetman. ( ... ) The highest representative body of the state power of the Hetmanate was the General ("full") Rada [Генеральная („полная“) рада]. The meeting of the General Rada was attended by a hetman (if the Rada was not elective), a foremen [foremen «старшина» - persons who held certain military-administrative positions in the Cossack army [Cossack Host] - лица, занимавшие в казачьем войске определённые военно-административные должности], ordinary Cossacks, representatives of the Orthodox Church; sometimes also representatives of cities and the "pospolstvo" [pospolstvo - is a social group of the urban and rural population of the feudal period in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as in Malorossiya [the Little Russia]: artisans of average income and poor merchants of something..]."  "...The power institutions and even the administrative structure of the Hetmanate were directly related to the military tasks..." [«Гетманщина»] [«Hetmanate»].

Both in the Hanseatic League and the Hetmanate there was both freedom and equality. We will add "comradeship" to this list. But to what extent? It is difficult to measure on the pharmacy scales now. For the feudal hierarchical seigneur-vassal world, the presence in a certain community - to a sufficient, very noticeable extent - of freedom, equality, and comradeship, was both a noticeable and distinctive — to some extent exclusive - sign that influenced the characters of its participants.

The existence of such communities-comradeships was short-lived by the historical standards of seigneur-vassal feudalism, which existed for much more than 1000 years. The Hansa existed for about three centuries, the Ukrainian Cossacks for three or four centuries (the Hetmanate-about one century and a quarter).

Let us add that the gentry republic (Polish (Polish-Lithuanian) elective monarchy), which was geographically close to Ukraine, and for some time included a significant part of territory of modern Ukraine, provided — in favour of a significant part (8-10 percent) of the population - a tangible (for feudal society) amount of personal rights and freedoms (for example, the so-called immunity, property rights, exemption from duties, participation in the formation of the judiciary, the exclusive right to hold a number of important positions, etc.) [«Шляхта»] ["Gentry" ("Szlachta")].

By the time of the birth of Heinrich Schliemann, like by the time of the birth of of Nikolai Gogol, the Hansa, and the Hetmanate were phenomena that went into the past (in reality) , but were mentally present in memory. What was left for the new generations coming into life? Military or civil service? ("...everything went to St. Petersburg to serve... " [Гоголь Н. В. Мертвые души.] [Nikolai Gogol. Dead souls.]). There were other possibilities, although there were not so many of them.

Many ancestors, relatives of both Heinrich Schliemann and Nikolai Gogol increasingly linked their life paths with the service of the Church.

2.3. Instantly a short comradship and an infinitely long period of a senor-vassalage relations. A few historical details

Let's note some historical nuances.

The final formalization of the Hansa (Hanseatic League) (the union of the North German cities led by Lubeck) is associated with the peace Treaty of Stralsund (1370), which was the victorious for the Hansa.

The" decline " of the Hansa took place very gradually: for example, in 1494 the German yard was liquidated in Novgorod; in 1598 in England the Hansa was deprived of all privileges.

Formally, the Hansa existed until 1669.

In the history of the Dnieper Cossacks, the concept of "hetman" appears, for example, in connection with the Letter of Sigismund II August of June 5, 1572. "The King confirmed the order of the Crown Hetman Jerzy Jaz;owiecki on the recruitment of 300 Cossacks for public service" [«Реестровое казачество»] ["Registered Cossacks"].

It is believed that the Hetmanate as a fairly integral social structure had existed since 1649.

"After the conclusion of the Treaty of Perpetual Peace (1686) between the Russian Kingdom and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Hetmanate on the right bank of the Dnieper, which remained in the Polish crown, was liquidated... " [«Гетманщина»] [«Hetmanate»].

1697 - it is documented that the priest (vicar) of the Lubenskaya Trinity Church is Ivan (Jan), the son of Yakov (the surname is not called). Ivan's son, Demyan Ivanovich, is also a priest; Demyan Ivanovich is already referred to as "Yanovsky".

"...In 1764, by the decree of Empress Catherine the Great, the title of Hetman of the Zaporozhye Army [Zaporozhye Host] was finally abolished" [«Гетманщина»] [«Hetmanate»].

(The second half and the end of the XVIII — the period of turbulent events in the Dnieper territories; if there is interest, the respected Reader can get acquainted with them in more detail using Wikipedia articles, historical literature, and other information sources).


2.4. A Volgian mosaic

A cultural and historical foundation [base], a background of Aleksey Peshkov: did it exist? (The author uses the phrases "cultural and historical foundation" [base] and "background" as synonymous in this text).

Yes, it existed. Albeit, it is difficult to determine it unambiguously. To consider the Nizhny Novgorod petty bourgeois -artisans as cultural and historical foundation [base], as the background of Maxim Gorky?

Gorky's grandfather Vasily Kashirin started as a boatman [burlak бурлак - a man of physical labor, who pulled a barge as part of a group of men], and ended up a beggar.

If the "Nizhny Novgorod petty bourgeois - artisans" are considered a certain historical phenomenon, a certain social form [group, layer] then it was not very stable, and the family of Kashirins were not very rooted in it. We have to admit that historical foundation [base], a background of Maxim Gorky is a mosaic thing (entity). It consists of different elements.

Let's put forward a version regarding several elements that made up the cultural and historical foundation [base], the background of Maxim Gorky, and make an approximate list of four positions:

A layer of petty bourgeois (commoners) - artisans, who are going bankrupt with the development of large-scale capitalist production and have no economic future,
Christians, ordinary Russian citizens, religious, closely familiar with the Bible, who know many Biblical texts by heart,
"People of folk art",
The indigenous inhabitants of the Volga region.

"Maternal grandfather Vasily Kashirin was a burlak [бурлак] in his youth, then opened a small dyeing establishment in Nizhny Novgorod and was a shop foreman [head of community of craftsmen] for thirty years. ( ... ) Artisanal dyeing was replaced by factory dyeing, so the impending poverty determined a lot in the life of a large family" [Нефедова И. М.] [Nefedova I. M.].

Maxim Gorky wrote that his grandfather, Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin, knew the Psalter "almost entire text by memory, reading, according to a vow, every evening, before going to bed, kathisma aloud" (М. Горький. «Детство») (Maxim Gorky. "Childhood"). "Grandfather began to teach his grandson to read and write according to the Psalter and the Book of Hours [Часослов]" [Нефедова И. М.] [Nefedova I. M.]. "Grandfather Vasily Kashirin, knizhnik  and a nachetchik " [Басинский П. В. Страсти по Максиму] [Basinsky P. V. Passions according to Maxim]. [knizhnik книжник connoisseur of sacred books] [книжник lover of books, a man of a book] [nachetchik начетчик - well-read, learned man] [nachetchik начетчик - a person who regularly reads sacred texts] [nachetchik начетчик - a person who regularly reads texts - according of a tradition]. 

In Gorky's memoir work, there is a mention that — it happened sometimes— strangers called him a "psalterman" [псалтырник] (М. Горький. «Хозяин. Страница автобиографии») (Maxim Gorky. "The owner. The autobiography page"). If we consider this term ["psalterman" псалтырник] as a variant of the name  of a person who knows the Psalter well, then for pre-revolutionary religious Russia such a "title", albeit with an ironic semantic nuance, is a fragment of a positive reputation that creates a tendency to a positive perception of a person. It's a distant synonym for the concept of "a competent, knowledgeable person".

Maxim Gorky's grandmother Akulina Ivanovna. "A. I. Kashirina in her youth was a Balakhna lace-maker; these lace-makers were equally famous for their craft and their songs. Her memory held a huge number of poems. She was the one of those keepers and masters of folk art who were called "storytellers" [сказители skilled reciters of fairy tales] ... " [Груздев И. А.] [Gruzdev I. A.]

"Quite another is the prayers of the grandmother addressed to the Virgin. "Straightening her stooped back, raising her head, looking affectionately at the round face of the Kazan Mother of God, she crossed herself widely, fervently, and she whispered noisily, heatly:
— The Most Glorious Mother of God, give me Your mercy for the coming day, Mother!

She bowed to the ground, unbent her back slowly and again whispered more and more warmly and tenderly:
- A source of joy, a pure beauty, an apple tree in bloom!

She found new words of praise almost every morning, and this always made me listen to her prayer with intense attention.

— My pure, heavenly heart! My protection and salvation, the golden sun, Mother of the Lord! Protect me from the evil obsession, do not let for me to offend anyone, and nobody would not  offend me in vain! "

Grandfather is angry, hearing all this:
"- How many times have I taught you, oaken head, how to pray, and you mumble all your own words, you, heretic woman! As soon as the Lord tolerates you! < ... > The damned Chuvasha! Oh, you-u... "

Here is another possible explanation for the strange "religion" of the grandmother. Pagan blood roams in her and in her children, exploding Christianity, which was once forcibly instilled in her people" [Басинский П. В. Страсти по Максиму] [Basinsky P. V. Passions according to Maxim].

The Akulina Ivanovna's  mother, - that is, we are saying about the great-grandmother of Maxim Gorky, - was a serf in her youth, after a tragic accident she received freedom, she traveled on foot with her daughter Akulina, asked for Christ's sake. There is no clear indisputable data about Akulina Ivanovna's father.

Let us add to the reflections and assumptions about the background (the basis) of Maxim Gorky such a question. "Strict people with military discipline": is such a mental [logical] association legitimate and justified? Can this position be added to the four previously stated? Aleksey Peshkov on his father's side was a descendant (grandson) of an officer who was demoted for cruelty towards subordinates. "His father, Maxim Savvatievich Peshkov, was also strange person, as well as his paternal grandfather, Savvatiy. Savvatiy was a man of such a cool "ndrav" [agressive manner of behaivour] that in the era of Nicholas the First ("Nikolai Palkovich" ["Nikolai The Truncheon"]), he rose from a soldier to an officer, but was demoted and exiled to Siberia "for cruel treatment in relation of people of the lower military ranks"" [Басинский П. В. Страсти по Максиму] [Basinsky P. V. Passions according to Maxim].

Dmitry Bykov quotes Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: "It was June 20, 1929. The famous writer went down to the pier in the Bay of Prosperity [бухта Благоденствия] [the Prosperity Bay (бухта Благополучия) on Solovetsky Island]. Next to him [that is, to Maxim Gorky] was his daughter-in-law, all in leather (black leather cap [kepi], leather jacket, leather breeches, and high narrow boots) — a living symbol of the OGPU shoulder to shoulder with Russian literature" (See: [Быков Д. Л.] [Bykov D. L.]).


2.5. Medals of Maxim Gorky

If we take into consideration the version that there is such an element as "strict people with military discipline" in the historical background of Maxim Gorky, then it will be interesting to characterize the mentions of the word "medal" (one of the main meanings is a military award) in the (auto) biographical materials of Maxim Gorky and about Gorky.

The first mention is from among the well-known, widely cited ones.

Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin, Aleksey's grandfather, expressed himself figuratively, "for the ages" ["for the centuries"]: "Well, Lyaxey, you are not a medal, I have no place for you on my neck; but you ought to go "into people" [that is to make a career, to gain a position] ...".

A curious mention. Vasily Vasilyevich knew the Bible well. He was able to read lines of the Bible by heart. Perhaps, exaggerating, he can be called a connoisseur of the Bible. The word "medal" is not used in the Bible, in the canonical books of Holy Scripture, but it is possible to find synonyms for this word (in the given context) from biblical terms. [for example: "you are not a heavy load, you are not a burden"]

In the memoirs of Maxim Gorky himself, also does not find — it seems - the other cases of Vasily Vasilyevich using the word "medal". Is the use of the sonorous (Latin in origin) word "medal" by a philistine, a connoisseur of the Bible Vasily Kashirin by chance? Or is there some logic? ("Gorky's maternal grandfather Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin ( ... ) was born in 1807 in the Nizhny Novgorod province in the family of a soldier Vasily Danilovich Kashirin..." [Басинский П. В. Страсти по Максиму] [Basinsky P. V. Passion for Maxim]. That is, Maxim Gorky is a great-grandson of a soldier by his mother).

Little Aleksey, who decorated the attic with "pink tea paper patterns" and received a "big Nikolaev fiver (pyatak) [pyatak - coin of five kopecks]" from the "owner" for this, - Aleksey, we can say, that he made a medal out of this pyatak and awarded himself with this medal (М. Горький «В людях») (Maxim Gorky "In people").

Then, there are three of a "single root" mentions.

The Nizhny Novgorod chief of gendarmes, Major-General Pozansky, "talked with the arrested man [Maxim Gorky] about songbirds, of which he [Pozansky] was a great fan, about old [ancient] medals and about the dignity of Gorky's poems selected during the search" [Груздев И. А.] [Gruzdev I. A.].

Maxim Gorky himself also mentioned this meeting, about a subsequent meeting with a relative of the general and about the museum. "...Ten years after an amusing acquaintance with the general, I, an arrested man, was sitting in the Nizhny Novgorod gendarmerie department, waiting for interrogation. A young adjutant came up to me and asked:

— Do you remember General Pozansky? This is my father. He died in Tomsk. He was very interested in your fate-he followed your success in literature and often said that he was the first to feel your talent. Not long before his death, he asked me to give you the medals that you liked — of course, if you want to take them…

I was genuinely touched. After leaving prison, I took the medals and gave them to the Nizhny Novgorod Museum" (М. Горький. «Время Короленко») (Maxim Gorky. "Korolenko's Time")

Finally, another [fourth] mention of the word "medal". It is connected with Ekaterina Pavlovna Volzhina (Aleksey Peshkov married to her in 1896 [a wedding was in Church]; neither a divorce nor a new wedding took place). "Katya graduated from the gymnasium with a gold medal" [Нефедова И. М.] [Nefedova I. M.].

Religious figures, Church employees are not observed among Aleksey Peshkov's closest relatives (perhaps grandfather Vasily Vasilyevich performed some organizational duties among the parishioners).