Simeon of Polotsk interesting facts. Brief biography of Semeon of Polotsk
hieromonk, Russian preacher, teacher and poet, was born in Belarus in 1628. After graduating from the course at the Kiev-Mohyla college, Simeon Polotsky also visited Polish academies. The scholastic education system that reigned in the college, which served a special purpose - to develop experienced spiritual orators, "savers of Orthodoxy", had a worthy representative in the person of Simeon of Polotsk. At the age of 27, he accepted monasticism at the Polotsk Epiphany Brotherhood Monastery, in whose school he later became a "didascal" (teacher).
Thanks to strong connections and personally winning the favor of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who traveled through Polotsk in 1656 during the Russian-Polish war, Simeon Polotsky was invited, along with other scientists, to Moscow, where he soon became a court poet and mentor to the royal children. At the same time, he founded a Latin school in the Spassky monastery behind the Icon row, in which, according to the tsar's decree, he taught some people "Alvara" (Alvarez's Latin grammar) and the composition of verses and orations.
As a supporter of Western European enlightenment, Simeon Polotskiy is an energetic antagonist of the "Greek" trend, which had its defenders mainly in the Chudovskaya and Rtishchevskaya schools. On behalf of the council convened in 1666 on Patriarch Nikon, Simeon of Polotsk wrote the book "The Rod of Government" (in 1668) in defense of Nikon's innovations and in denouncing the "schism". In addition, his theological works are known: "The Crown of Faith" (the first popular dogmatic system in the north of Russia) and a short catechism.
But most of all, the activity of Simeon of Polotsk in the church-administrative sphere was expressed in the renewal of the preaching word. The religious and moral ideal, defined by two collections of his sermons: "Soul Lunch" (109 sermons) and "Soul Supper" (78 sermons and 29 teachings), is close to the ascetic one. Of the total number of them, only 26 interpret the issues of the time and the needs of society, but, despite this, Simeon Polotsky is a constant messenger of state needs. In the rest of his sermons he denounces the "evil manners in general", carries out sound Christian concepts, etc. The books written by Polotsky reveal considerable reading of the author, but they differ unfavorably from the living, bright and folk-Russian works of the Old Believers of his day (Avvakum, etc.) to the soulless , official, "non-national" syllable.
Standing at the head of the poets of his time, Simeon Polotsky wrote two collections of syllabic poems: "Vertograd multicolored" (an encyclopedia of moral instructions, literary and scientific information, issues of education), and "Rhyme", concluding speeches of a panegyric character in case of all kinds of events in the royal family. Finally, an important merit of Simeon Polotsky, as a poet, is that he was one of the first to introduce Moscow to dramatic art, writing in the spirit of medieval mysteries three plays that were played at the royal court: "About the prodigal son", "About Nebuchadnezzar and the three youths" and "About Nebuchadnezzar and Holofernes". Using all his influence and energy to make science a factor in public life, Simeon Polotsky fussed about the establishment of schools, founded a printing house and even dreamed of an academy, for which he composed a charter.
Simeon of Polotsk (1629-1680)
(based on biography)
You can find everything about Simeon Polotsk on the Internet.
Here, with my brief comments, I am giving only informative information about his life and literary activity in the framework of a new educational trend in Izbe-Chitalna.
Real name - Samuil Gavrilovich Petrovsky-Sitnyanovich.
The toponymic name is Polotsk (from the city where he was born - Polotsk).
A talented spiritual writer, poet, playwright, translator, theologian, monk, court astrologer, teacher, mentor of the children of the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
He lived only 51 years, but managed to do a lot in his difficult life ...
Simeon Polotsky is one of the brightest representatives of Russian syllabic poetry. Only Feofan Prokopovich and Antiochus Kantimir can be recognized as equals to him.
Simeon of Polotsk was born in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was part of the Commonwealth. Studied at the Kiev-Mohyla Collegium with the Bishop of Chernigov -
Lazar Baranovich. Perhaps he was associated with the Greek Catholic order of St. Basil the Great.
Hence comes his western orientation, both spiritual and world outlook and literary.
Fortune smiled at Simeon in 1656. It is worth noting that nothing happens in our life without good luck! When Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich visited Polotsk, twenty-seven-year-old Simeon personally presented the tsar with welcoming verses of his own composition. This is how important it is to personally transfer something from yourself into the hands of the mighty of this world ...
In 1664 Simeon remains in Moscow. The Tsar instructs him to train young clerks of the Order of Secret Affairs in the Spassky Monastery. However, Simeon's interests are not limited to this ... Still, he was a very talented and versatile person.
Here is what A.S. Pushkin writes about him:
“Hieromonk Simeon of Polotsk was engaged in astrological observations and predictions at the court of Alexei Mikhailovich. ... Nine months before the birth of Peter, he prophesied his glorious deeds and confirmed in writing that “from the brightest star that appeared near Mars, he clearly saw and, as it were, read in a book that his son (the tsar) who was conceived in the womb of Tsarina Natalia Kirilovna would be called Peter, that he would inherit his throne will be such a hero that none of his contemporaries can compare with him in glory “and so on. (A. Pushkin "History of Peter I")
Simeon, in personal conversations, persistently tells the tsar about the need to raise the level of education in the Russian state. The tsar appreciates the provincial writer. In 1667, Simeon of Polotsk was appointed court poet and educator of the children of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. During this period, Simeon composes the tsar's speeches and writes solemn announcements. In fact, as they would say now, he is the president's speechwriter ...
Simeon Polotsky is one of the first Russian official poets. He wrote syllabic verses in Church Slavonic and Polish. Today one could talk about the Polish trace in the work of Simeon, but it is better and more accurate to talk about the Western ...
Simeon of Polotsk made a poetic transposition of the Psalter called "The Rhyming Psalter." Published in the year of his death - 1680.
Simeon Polotsky, admittedly, was a prolific writer. He created many poems that made up the collection "Rhymology". In these verses, he sang a variety of events from the life of the royal family and courtiers. He also wrote many moral and didactic poems, which were included in the book "Vertograd Multicolored", recognized by the critics of our era as the pinnacle of his work. At the same time, it is noted that in this book the Russian literary baroque was most clearly manifested.
Simeon Polotsky also acts as a playwright, who created two comedies for the nascent Russian theater: "The Comedy about the Tsar Nebuchadnezzar, about the body of gold and about the three children in the cave not burnt" and "The comedy of the parable of the Prodigal Son." The latter enjoyed undoubted success with the public.
However, the main thing in his life is the affirmation of syllabic poetry as the main direction in Russian literature of that time.
It is interesting that the subsequent era of Trediakovsky and Lomonosov recognized syllabic poetry as a foreign body in Russian literature, legitimizing the syllabo-tonic system of versification, as they say, for eternal times.
Even today, most of us write poetry in the syllabo-tonic system!
And yet ... Something remained in us from the syllabic. Sometimes there are verse-makers with a lack of poetic ear, and so they write their verses in violation of the size of the syllabo-tonic system, and if you look closely, you can say: they write in the syllabic system of versification, but they themselves do not even know about it!
No matter how we treat this person now, we must admit that Simeon Polotsky not only flashed like a bright star in his time in the horizon of Russian poetry, but also remained in the history of Russian literature forever.
PS
Syllabic versification. Essence: dividing poetic lines into rhythmic units, equal to each other in the number of syllables, not stress and their location (traditionally 11-13 syllables). In this case, the presence in the verse (line) of a pause - caesura is mandatory. And one more important element of syllabics is female rhyme in almost all poems.
It is worth emphasizing that this kind of versification is common in languages where the stress in a word always lies on a certain syllable, and unstressed syllables are weakly reduced (in French, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Ukrainian). And it must be admitted that such a stress scheme impoverishes the possibilities of poetic speech in the language.
But the Russian language, with its variability not only of stresses, but also of other linguistic factors, is the most powerful and brightest means in terms of its capabilities in the field of poetic art.
As a conclusion, I bring to the attention of the venerable public a few poems by Simeon of Polotsk, typical and characteristic of the 17th century piita.
POEMS TO THE OVERCOMING TSAR ALEXIY MIKHAILOVICH THE GREAT AND MALY S WHITE RUSSIA AUTOCHOR
Velia joy shines through the heart,
When the Lord grants me an article
Before your face, Orthodox tsar,
Many kingdoms and principalities are strong to the Lord.
Now I rejoice merrily and play,
Whenever I look at the blessed scepter.
And always fell at your feet
Kissing faithfully the right hand of the mouth.
I fervently wish her from God,
May it be strong for the summer,
Defeat enemies, humble adversaries,
Those who do not want thee for the king of the nobility.
Will erase their necks, s proud glory
In honor of all, the king, and your glory.
God will give the nobility the fortress of the right hand,
Where the elephant is west and east is the day.
Delhi will give faith, even about Bose
S for the sake of others like them in labor.
I'm a slave, the imam is pissed off to work
It is always true, teas of grace.
God forbid you to reign over us,
Yes, we command the elephant shines with rays.
1657
Verses to the Queen's Condemnation
Two God luminaries in heaven,
Two created in Russia, - with the sovereign to you,
Our queen, if the world were to be revealed,
Yak the moon with the elephant is light to fix.
I’m doing this on a bright face
Looking at yours, Mary, tsarina.
Oh shine with light, like from the light,
I pray to God that it was not dark.
The light of the diadem adorns you,
Russia knows you babbling.
Other kingdoms, countries, cities
Not alien to your desired joy.
I run under your mercy and I
And I fall slavishly at my feet.
Longing for you to reign
To possess the spacious light everywhere.
East s West, Seaver, South of the country
Let you be subject to the Tsar.
1660
Poems to the saint of the Tsarevich
The chicks exclaim with a sweet song,
When the days of the day will shine,
For near the daytime they insist
Vaughn eats moshchno quench hunger.
You, Alexy Alexievich,
Our little darling, Ruski to the Tsarevich,
We all put our hope in you,
We will never know how dark the night is.
The day is bright now for your father,
God willing, the day will be for thee, his son.
In it, it will be satisfied
Glory, in foreign countries of adornment.
For this, for the sake of it, you are healthy, you see,
I kiss my feet, sit and hear.
Shine, Dennizo, for many years.
We'll be an elephant for the arrival of light.
1660
Naina 11/03/2014 4:23:43 PM (Reply to user: Leo Silvio (L.K.-T.))
His vile deeds are too obvious, their blatant anti-Christian and anti-church spirit is too strong, obvious Russophobia is overwhelming. At the same time, the "legacy" of Simeon is still being studied in Nikonian educational institutions, where gr. Petrovsky (Simeon Polotsky) appears as “... a poet, playwright, preacher, publicist, teacher, translator, who fought against the schism, who advocated the development of education and enlightenment.
Nikonian Archpriest Georgy Florovsky gives a devastating characterization of Polotsky: “a rather ordinary Western Russian scribe, or a scribe, but very dexterous, resourceful, and controversial in everyday affairs, who managed to stand high and firmly in the bewildered Moscow society as a poet and a sucker for any orders ”. There is truth and ridiculous definitions of our "hero". In the opinion of the Belarusian scientist Mikola Prashkovich, Simeon Polotsky was "the most significant cultural john of the deserving Slavs of the 17th century." Another apologist writes about him this way: "It can be argued without any exaggeration that Simeon of Polotsk was close to the leaders of the Renaissance in terms of the versatility of his interests." Titan can be said to be Michelangelo of Russian enlightenment. Well, the Russian contemporaries of Polotsk defined him very succinctly: "he is a papier and a crafty person." So what did a person whose name causes such controversial assessments have managed to create?
http://www.staropomor.ru/nikon (8) / simeon_polotski ...
Dmitry Lavrov 03.11.2014 11:50:30 (Reply to the user: Nikolai Lemkin)
For example, Simeon of Polotsk. He seemed to be a cultured person, educated, but ... he was looking towards the West! And nevertheless, the liberal hydra, inclined Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, many courtiers, as well as his children Sophia and Peter, to the trampling of ancient Orthodoxy, servility to the West, and, what is most terrible, the Nikonian schism ...
Well, why do we need such an intelligentsia ?!
Leo Silvio (L.K.-T.) 03.11.2014 12:13:36 (Reply to user: Dmitry Lavrov)
Well, I looked ...
Since then, he was not alone in the direction of the West.
However, this is where the syllabic system came from in Russia, for in the Western world such a system already existed at that time.
Tamara Makhankova 03.11.2014 12:27:06 (Reply to the user: Leo Silvio (L.K.-T.))
Leo ... from my point of view, there is no point in doing "rewriting" ... of the classics of versification, to be honest, I don't see. Who cares - everything is on the Internet and in books.
And so, "if only there was a topic for conversation" ... yes, please.
Leo Silvio (L.K.-T.) 03.11.2014 12:34:28 (Reply to user: Tamara Makhankova)
This is an educational direction.
There will be nothing bad from it, but the benefits are obvious.
Some of our authors do not even suspect that people have been writing poetry here for a long time.
And here's the curious ...
A number of the author writes in syllabic (numerous violations of the rhythmic pattern from the position of syllabo-tonic), but they do not know anything about it.
Maybe they will think before composing their immortal poems?
Tamara Makhankova 03.11.2014 12:42:42 (Reply to the user: Leo Silvio (L.K.-T.))
"... think ..." - I doubt it;)))
Those who "... do not even suspect that they have been writing poetry a long time ago," it is better to leave in the dark, otherwise stress is inevitable for them .. (have pity, Leo ..)
Leo Silvio (L.K.-T.) 03.11.2014 12:44:48 (Reply to user: Tamara Makhankova)
But you are probably right ...
Better to leave them in the dark ...
Dmitry Lavrov 03.11.2014 12:42:06 (Reply to user: Leo Silvio (L.K.-T.))
I was joking and joking, of course ... but where is the epic Boyanov chanting ?!
Is it not too late for us to be the brethren, to start with the old words of three-day stories ... =
Epic, sweep, spaciousness ... but it was so weak - and about modernity ?! so not the same, syllabism led to such lines of Trediakovsky:
A word to the town of Paryzh is commendable (note, here too "To see a paryzh - and die!").
Red place! Dragoi coast of Senski!
You are no better than the Eliseiski field:
All the joys of the house and sweet peace,
Where there is neither winter nor summer heat ... etc.
And the old Slavic style:
Oh you, goy you are a good fellow,
daring hero Ilya, yes Murom.
but do you like my food,
but do you like my drink.
I beat you with a cheek, ah, Grand Duke Volodymyr,
Volodymyr that Red Sun,
thank you for rich bread and salt.
I'm not drunk, but I'm not full.
Pain-gnawing hard at me.
Pain-kruchinushka for the Russian land.
Well, etc.
How long will we look into the mouth of the West, forgetting our own, primordial, homespun, homespun ?!
Dmitry Lavrov 03.11.2014 14:12:51
Leo, it seems to me that it would be nice to give several samples of the creativity of these people in a time sequence - to show how the literary language and the rules of versification changed, how both the form and the vocabulary were gradually enriched. And give Pushkin, who walked directly behind Derzhavin with his comrades, and became the creator of an almost MODERN literary language.
To show with examples how our language was born out of a ponderous, archaic, even for those times vocabulary, but considered the only "high calm" decent for poetry. And how and who scolded Pushkin precisely for this - not in condemnation to those who scolded him, just as an example of the struggle between the new and the old.
I think it would be useful and interesting for many.
Naina 03.11.2014 16:05:48
It is always interesting to lift the curtain of history.
Perhaps during his studies at the Vilna Jesuit Academy in the first half of the 1650s, Samuil Gavrilovich Petrovsky-Sitnyanovich; Polotsk - a toponymic nickname (December 12, 1629 - August 25, 1680) joined the Greek Catholic order of St. Basil the Great.
This is who the Romanovs took to raise their children, this is where the curvature of Orthodoxy came from. No wonder German Sterligov says that Russia needs a new baptism.
Confident that Russia must get rid of its identity, he devoted all his activities to spreading the ideas of Western European humanism and rationalism here. And above all, he promoted secular science, so denied earlier in ancient Russian thought.
And now about the syllabo-tonic
... Russia is expanding its glory
We do not only sword, but also fleeting
type, through books with eternal beings.
But alas for mores! They are exterminating
Even honest work is encouraged.
We do not want to shine with the sun of the world,
we love to dwell in the shadow of ignorance.
Naina 11/03/2014 16:17:45
Already in the first years of his stay in Russia, Simeon Polotsky took an active part in carrying out church reform and in the fight against the Old Believers. He penned several books against the Old Believers. So, after the cathedrals of 1666-1667. he wrote the book "The Rod of Government" with denunciations of the Old Believers.
The very attitude of Simeon of Polotsk to the Russian traditions proper, which were very distant from him and, by and large, of little value, is clearly manifested. He had the same attitude to Russian history. At one time L.N. Pushkarev noted that "Spiritual Vertograd" Polotsk does not mention a single Russian tsar, except for Prince Vladimir, who baptized Russia. Apparently, Polotsky was simply not interested in his own Russian history.
King of the east, king of many countries,
the adversary of many who has delivered us from.
Drive away heretics from Russia,
the budij in victories is glorified forever!
Reign over all the universes of the country,
Christians do from the language of the gloomy ones.
Expand your faith, wake up the dark light,
people like me are dying in the shadow of death
Reign, reigned, glorified everywhere,
where the sun is west and gets up from where!
May the Lord shine in the world,
the second sun, to possess all,
So that you avoid the darkness
all kind of land and the knowledge of faith.
Budi Constantine and Vladimir to the world,
erase your idol and glorify the faith.
May the Lord grant the world to possess,
and in the future age, reign in heaven.
http: //referatyk.com/biografii/12429-simeon_polot ...
Valery Belov 03.11.2014 16:44:09
LITERARY AND ARTISTIC PROJECT Alexey Mashevsky
Syllabic (verse) poetry of the 17th - 18th centuries
As we have already found out, the poetic text is divided into non-syntactic segments called verses or lines. Our consciousness compares them, focusing on the length, which can be determined based on the number of stresses, syllables or feet in each line. In the first case we have a tonic, in the second a syllabic, in the third - a syllabo-tonic versification system. The tonic verse is characteristic of Old Russian poetry. Syllabo-tonic began to spread in our country only from the 30s of the 18th century. But syllabic (or verse) poetry reigns supreme in the 17th - early 18th centuries.
Russian poets borrow the syllabic verse1 from Poland and it was with Polish culture that the most famous poet of the 17th century, Simeon of Polotsk (1629-1680), was largely associated.
He graduated from the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, took tonsure at the age of 27, taught in Polotsk, for his eloquence was invited by Alexei Mikhailovich to Moscow. In 1656, the tsar, who was passing through Polotsk, drew attention to the whistle who spoke with welcoming verses. He remembered the monk and in 1664 summoned him to the court. Simeon became the court poet of the Moscow tsars - Alexei Mikhailovich and Feodor Alekseevich, brought up the children of the sovereign, became famous for his educational activities. The debater was great. His verbal competition with the archpriest Avvakum is known.
Simeon's poetry was educational and didactic in nature. For many years, Polotsky wrote poetry on the occasion of certain events that took place in the royal family. He collected these works in the collection Rhymologion, remarkable not only for the author's ability to sumptuously reflect in verse the everyday collisions of royal addressees, but also for formal delights that for a long time outstripped the experiments of the 20th century avant-garde.2 Simeon gave his verses the shape of hearts, crosses, stars. He created a huge encyclopedia of poetry, called "Vertograd multicolored", in which he dealt with many moral or philosophical issues, based on examples from history, gave literary portraits of famous figures of the past.
Poetry in the XVII - early XVIII in Russia was mainly practiced by people of clergy. We can recall such well-known writers in their time as Simeon's disciple Sylvester Medvedev (1641-1691), Metropolitan of Ryazan and Murom - Stefan Yavorsky (1658-1722), associate of Peter I, Feofan Prokopovich (1681-1736).
The syllabic poetry of Simeon of Polotsk and his followers most fully reflected the early Russian baroque, which gravitated towards flowery and embellishment. We find a vivid example of this style in the poem by Pyotr Buslaev (first half of the 18th century) "Spiritual speculation, described in verse, about the transmigration into eternal life of the superior Baroness Maria Yakovlevna Stroganova." There is pathos, and dynamism, and the grandeur of images, and a special baroque cosmicity, combining in a single space earthly inhabitants with the inhabitants of the heavenly spheres, and rhetoric, the focus of versification means in order to have a strong emotional impact on the listener, to shock him.
It is necessary to note the originality of the Russian Baroque, which had a joyful, educational character. There was no Renaissance in Russia and many of its cultural functions were taken over by the Baroque.
Lyubov Pavlova 11/06/2014 18:19:51 (Reply to the user: Valery Belov)
This is how Simeon Polotsky's curly verses looked like
Yuri Alekseenko 11/03/2014 20:20:25
As far as we know, all Russian poetic oral folk art (UNT) relied on tonic verse ... the syllabic came from the West, or rather from Greece (according to another version - from Poland, during the invasion of the Poles into the Muscovite state) ... it is alien to the Slavic thinking, therefore, in order to make up an imbalance between two opposite values - syllabic and tonic - they constructed a syllabotonic verse. Hence, there is a modern verse, which is still written by the grandees of poetry. By the way, I want to note that Mayakovsky and his ilk futurists did not give a damn about this egalitarianism and wrote only in tonic verse.
Gennady Rostovsky 04.11.2014 19:13:16
Here the work of Simeon Polotsky is widely represented - http://ctuxu.ru/article/selected_poetry/russia_xv ...
And the introductory part says:
Sѵmen Polatskiy (1629-1680)
The language of Simeon Polotsky is basically the Church Slavonic language of the reduced norm of the 17th century, which absorbed the dialectal features of the Belarusian and Ukrainian languages of that time: for example, the reflexes of the transition from ѣ to і, for this reason a "Solomon" decision was made when publishing - the unnormalized spelling of the 17th century is approximated , with the exception of the phonetically significant preservation ѣ (according to the original text), to the modern one: the letter ѱ is transmitted by the combination "ps", ѳ - is transmitted by "f", ү and "oh" as "y", ѡ as "o", і and ї "and" is transmitted. The sound, denoted by the letter "ѣ", in the Ukrainian language of that period was already pronounced as [i]. The presence of the phenomenon as such is confirmed by rhymes, where in the position of the shock constant a pair "ѣ - and" ("synclite - sovtom") is observed. However, considering the texts of Simeon of Polotsk, we can conclude that this phenomenon was not regular, but was only optional, because along with those given in the text there are rhymes “planted - unchanged”, which reflect the phonetic “norm” of the Church Slavonic language of the Russian version. Regarding the printed edition indicated in the source, another amendment is introduced: "g" before the posterior palates (k, g, x) is transmitted "n" in accordance with the tradition of pronouncing Church Slavonic texts, where such a spelling is a trace of the Byzantine spelling. It should also be noted that the sound denoted by the letter "g" should be pronounced as a pharyngeal fricative ([h]), i.e. in the Ukrainian manner, which was the norm of pronunciation until the 18th century inclusive.
The texts used a large number of past tense forms characteristic of the Church Slavonic language (aorist, imperfect), as well as the East Slavic perfect, which has lost the conjugation of the auxiliary verb “to be” in the form of the present tense, contextually synonymous with these forms (for example, “made to eat”). The aorist initially denotes an instantaneous action performed in the past, to which Russian perfective verbs are synonymous; imperfect - a long-term action, synonymous with it are, accordingly, imperfect Russian verbs. However, this system of verbal paradigms was almost completely destroyed during the time of Simeon of Polotsk, and the meanings of the aorist, imperfect and East Slavic perfect no longer differed (as evidenced by the first grammars of the Church Slavonic language). Nevertheless, to facilitate the understanding of the text, we present the verb paradigms of the normalized Church Slavonic language of the Russian edition [M.L. Remneva. Church Slavonic language, 1999]:
P. Sng. Plr.
1 idokh bykh idohom bykhom
2 i'm quicker and quicker
3 i'm quick
Imperfect:
P. Sng. Plr.
1 noyah byah noyahom byahom
2 wear byashe nyaste byaste
3 wear byashe nosyahu byahu (or bѣhu)
* forms of the 2nd and 3rd person are regularly replaced by the forms of the East Slavic perfect.
What has been said, however, to a very modest extent reflects the peculiarities of the language of the texts cited and other texts of the era. For more detailed information, we recommend referring to the book [M.L. Remneva. Ways of development of the Russian literary language XI-XVII centuries, - Moscow State University, 2003].
The texts of Simeon of Polotsk are written according to the syllabic versification system of the Polish model. Thanks to the influence of Simeon, it was this system of versification that for a long time (before the reforms of Trediakovsky and Lomonosov) was entrenched in Russian versification. Before the beginning of Polotsky's activities in Moscow, the so-called. a dialectical verse ("verse"), which is a collection of amorphous metrically paired rhymed lines. The syllabic versification system is based on the equivalence of lines, quantitative and accent characteristics of syllables are not taken into account, the form factor is the obligatory presence of caesura in long sizes (in this case, they are all considered long). The lines end with rhymes, which are paired in the Polish (and, accordingly, Russian) versification system (AABB ...). Until now, ultimately, it is not known whether a stress constant was present in a verse of such a pattern: in Polish, the stress in most words falls on the penultimate syllable, therefore, strictly speaking, only feminine rhyme is possible. There is an opinion that the accent feature in the Russian syllabic was not recognized as a form-building one, and the last two graphically coinciding syllables, starting with a vowel, were considered rhyme, regardless of the place of stress. We are of the opinion that the most adequate reproduction of texts during reading will be the forcible transfer of the stress on the penultimate syllable in all final words. The accentuation of the caesura is not fundamental. For more details see [Gasparov M.L. Essay on the history of European verse; - M., 2003]. The metric repertoire of Simeon Polotsky is as follows:
8-fold (4 + 4):
God is our strength / refuge,
from the vows of sorrows / refuge
If the earth / everything is confused,
our heart is / is not afraid.
11-grade (5 + 6):
Lord God, / I trust in you,
I beg you to save me from those who drive me.
And deliver me, / yes my soul
does not hit its teeth / jaws ...
13-fold (7 + 6):
Alive to the Son of God, / to the Lord carry
as the son of a ram, / give praise.
Name his glory / carry a lot,
worship in the courtyard / holy him, God.
Sirena 11/10/2014 07:59:52 (Reply to the user: Valery Belov)
Creativity of Simeon of Polotsk (1629-1680)
Arkhangelskaya A.V.
Samuil Yemelyanovich Petrovsky-Sitnianovich (Simeon is the name he received when he was tonsured a monk) is the first professional Russian poet and playwright, the initiator of two literary families in Russian literature at once and the creator of the first samples in the field of syllabic book poetry and theater. He was born in Polotsk and was educated at the Kiev-Mohyla Collegium - then the largest center of Orthodox humanitarian and theological education. In 1656 he became a monk and became a teacher at the fraternal school of the Polotsk Epiphany Monastery. In July of the same year, the Moscow sovereign Alexei Mikhailovich arrived in Polotsk, and 12 youths of the fraternal school, headed by Simeon of Polotsk, greeted him with welcoming verses, glorifying the reunification of Ukraine and Belarus with Russia. This is how the young teacher first attracted the attention of the king.
In January 1660 Simeon arrived in Moscow in the retinue of the abbot of the Epiphany Monastery. His disciples read the "verses of the edge" (that is, rhymed verses), praising the royal family. After the resumption of the Russian-Polish war in 1661 and the next capture of Polotsk by the Poles, Simeon considered it a blessing to finally move to Moscow, where he taught the Latin language (and maybe other subjects) to the young clerks of the Secret Order, from 1667 he became the teacher of the heir to Tsarevich Alexei , and later - Tsarevich Fyodor.
In Moscow, Simeon Polotsky wrote a lot. As his disciple and friend Sylvester Medvedev recalled, "every day I have a pledge to write at half a ten or half a notebook, and his writing was very small and downy." He wrote poetry, sermons, translated a lot from Polish and Latin, tried to write for the theater.
The entire literary activity of Simeon of Polotsk - he not without reason attached great social significance to it - was guided by one clearly expressed desire: to make his own contribution to the cause of Russian enlightenment. During this period, in various strata of the Moscow intelligentsia, the question, which seemed to be the main for further social development, was actively discussed - "is it more useful for us to learn grammar, rhetoric, or, without learning this trick, in the simplicity of pleasing God, and which language we, the Slavs, are learning more needed and useful - Latin or Greek ". Simeon Polotsky in this dispute unconditionally joined the camp of supporters of "grammar" and the Latin language. This question very soon grew into another - about the ways of further development of Russian enlightenment.
Simeon considered the development of school education in the Russian state an extremely important task. He believed that it was necessary to build schools, "acquire" teachers, and even drew up his own draft charter of the Academy. According to Sime-on's plan, it was to be organized like the Kiev-Mohyla, but with a significantly expanded program of teaching certain sciences. The charter of Simeon of Polotsk provided for the study by students of the whole circle of "free" sciences, civil and spiritual, from grammar and poetics to philosophy and theology. The charter also provided for "the teachings of spiritual and secular justice," that is, ecclesiastical and civil law. Four languages were to be systematically taught at the Academy: Slavic, Greek, Latin and Polish.
Simeon of Polotsk attached no less educational significance to the development of book printing in the Russian state. At the end of 1678, with the permission of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, he organized a printing house in the Kremlin. This so-called "upper", superbly equipped printing house was completely and uncontrolled by him; the then patriarch of Moscow Joachim lamented that Simeon "dared" to print books there even without his, the patriarch's blessing. Simeon managed to attract the best forces to work in the "upper" printing house: the largest Russian artist of that time, Simon Ushakov, and the best master of book engraving, Afanasy Trukhmensky.
So, as the researchers note, in the last third of the 17th century. in Russia, a literary community is emerging with all the signs of corporatism, something like a writers' circle, whose members are connected with each other - friendly or official relations, hostility or friendship, materially or professionally. It was in this circle that a special type of writing was developed, which dominated high Russian literature for about half a century. This community was founded by Simeon of Polotsk, of his immediate students in the literary field, Sylvester Medvedev was especially active, Karion Istomin, Mardarii Khonikov, Makaryevsky Archimandrite Tikhon, and later Demetrius of Rostov and Stefan Yavorsky should be considered prominent members of the corporation. A common feature for all members of the writing group is monasticism. It was not always an end in itself, it often served only as a means. The laws of literary life that took shape over the centuries led a person who devoted himself to literature behind the monastery walls. Ancient Russia, as literary historians write, was not an exception in this respect - the European writer's environment was subject to the same laws.
The question of the emergence of the Baroque style in Russian literature is usually associated with the work of Simeon Polotskgo. The baroque as a literary style, as you know, is determined not only by a set of formal features, but also by its historical and cultural role, its position between the Renaissance and classicism. Therefore, the main difference between the style that is called the Russian baroque and the Western European one is that there was no Renaissance stage in Russia. If in European countries the baroque replaced the Renaissance and manifested itself in a partial return to medieval principles in style and worldview, then the Russian baroque did not return to medieval traditions, but picked up and strengthened on them. Therefore, ornateness, "weaving of words", love of contrasts, formal hobbies, the idea of "vanity of vanities" of everything that exists, chronological instructiveness and much more, distinguished as the hallmarks of the Baroque style, all this was not "revived" in Russian literature of the 17th century, but was a continuation their local traditions.
As the researchers of Russian literature wrote, the baroque culture of Russian syllabics is provincial, and any provincialism can take either extreme forms, or, on the contrary, forms of relief. Moscow poets preferred to avoid extremes, to mitigate baroque rebellion and exaltation.
The Baroque style, as it were, collected and "collected" plots and themes. He was interested in their diversity, intricacy, but not in the depth of the image. The inner life of a person interested the Baroque writer only in its external manifestations. Everyday life and landscape are present, but clean and tidy, mostly rich and patterned, multidimensional, as if devoid of signs of time and national identity.
Reality is portrayed in baroque works in a more versatile manner than in previous medieval ceremonial and official styles. A person paints in his connections with the environment and everyday life, with other people, enters with them in "ensemble groups". Unlike a person in other official styles, a "baroque person" is commensurate with the reader, but some of the achievements already accumulated before in Russian literature have been lost in this style. Moving forward is almost always associated with some irreparable loss, and these losses are especially frequent when literature turns to someone else's experience.
The favorite technique of Baroque writers is allegory. In the works one can feel a heightened sense of the contradictory nature of the world, and on the other hand, the desire to reproduce life phenomena in their dynamics, fluidity, transitions. One of my favorite topics is the theme of the inconstancy of happiness, the precariousness of life values, the omnipotence of fate and chance. At the level of style - heightened expressiveness and emotionality tending towards pathos.
Simeon brought to Russia a new, baroque concept of writing and tried to follow it not only theoretically, but practically, with all his work. According to this concept, writing is a personal moral feat, a feat of the creator: just as God created the world with the Word, so the writer creates the artistic world with a poetic word. Thus, poetry (and literature in general) is blessed from above and consists in identifying the Word of God and the word as the primary element of literature. Having a low opinion of the Old Russian bookishness, Simeon, a European educated man, thought of himself as the first Russian writer, founder, creator of a new Russian verbal culture. But he also understood perfectly well that she needed new readers who would be able to perceive and appreciate it. This also explains his extraordinary creative activity. In an effort to educate such readers, Simeon literally saturated the life of the royal court and the metropolitan aristocracy with syllabic verses. On holidays, his poems in the genres of "recitation" and "dialogue" were publicly performed, and both the author himself and specially trained youth acted as readers. "Greetings" - eulogies were also publicly performed. Simeon tried to use every more or less suitable opportunity when it seemed appropriate to make a speech in verse. He composed such speeches both for himself and for others - on request or as a gift. They sounded at royal ceremonial dinners, in boyar mansions and in churches on the days of temple holidays.
Simeon Polotsky left behind several tens of thousands of lines of poetry. His central works were a collection of panegyric "poems in case" "Rhymologion", a poetic arrangement of biblical psalms "Rhyming Psalter" and a huge collection of "Vertograd multicolored" that remained in handwriting.
Simeon of Polotsk brought to Russian literature the syllabic system of versification, which he borrowed from Polish poetry. The organizing principle of this poetry was the equal number of syllables in rhyming lines, which was organic for the Polish language, which has a fixed stress on the penultimate syllable. Feminine rhyme was also borrowed from the tradition of Polish syllabic poetry. The fact that Simeon of Polotsk sought to express himself as much as possible in poetry, in itself also testified to the baroque nature of his work: in this way he sought to make a literary work strange, unusual, different from the usual speech constructions. The poems of Simeon Polotsky clearly opposed both the prose of everyday life and the prosaic Old Russian literary tradition. It was precisely this pretentiousness, the uncommonness of the syllabic poetic system that began to be recognized as a shortcoming by the reformers of Russian verse in the 30s. XVIII century, when the Baroque era is already a thing of the past.
The central work of Simeon of Polotsk is the collection "Multicolored Vertograd" (1677-1678). In accordance with the baroque concept of creativity, this collection was supposed to both entertain and educate the reader, that is, it was both an entertaining reading and a kind of encyclopedia. This idea determined the compositional structure of the collection: all the material was distributed according to thematic headings in alphabetical order of titles. In terms of content, thematic, genre and style, "Vertograd" is characterized primarily by baroque diversity. Historical figures of the past appear before the reader: Caesar, Augustus, Alexander, Diogenes, Charlemagne; exotic animals, sometimes fictional: a phoenix bird, a crying crocodile, an ostrich, comprehended in the allegorical tradition of ancient Russian "physiologists", precious stones, Christian symbols, moral properties, etc. It is fair to remark by I.P. Eremin, who spoke of "Vertograd" as "a kind of museum", "in the showcases of which ... all the main things that Simeon, a bibliophile and a bibliophile, a lover of various" rarities "and" curiosities ", managed to collect are exhibited for viewing during his life in my memory. "
The collection includes the most diverse in terms of genre ("likeness", "images", "sayings", "interpretations", "epitaphs", "images of signing", "stories", "admonitions", "denunciations") and in terms of volume (from short couplets to cumbersome "poems" of several hundred verses each) works.
A relatively large place in the collection is occupied by poems devoted to socio-political issues. This includes the poem "Citizenship", where Simeon of Polotsk, through the lips of a number of famous philosophers of antiquity, characterizes in detail all the foundations of human civil society that "strengthen states, righteously and gloriously contribute to kingdoms", speaks of the civil virtues of each person, the need for rulers to observe the established laws on labor as an obligatory basis for any well-organized society, etc.
This should also include an extensive cycle of poems by Simeon of Polotsk, the purpose of which was to visually show the reader what an ideal ruler is and what a tyrant ruler is (the word "tyrant" in this very meaning of "bad, cruel tsar" was introduced in Russian poetry, as the researchers note, for the first time it was Simeon of Polotsk). The ideal ruler in the image of Simeon is full of humility, never forgets about the fragility of human happiness. He always and in everything is an example for his subjects: he works for the good of society, he is strict and demanding and at the same time merciful and just, he zealously cares about the enlightenment of his people, he is the guardian of law and order in the country. The tyrant, on the other hand, never cares about civil needs, burdens the people with taxes and extortions, is cruel and vindictive, unjust and self-willed.
Some of the collection's poems are also built on the example of such a baroque museum. The poem "Merchant" presents the reader with a gallery of vices with which the "merchant rank" is infected, and "Monk" depicts the vices of monastics. Both the poem ends with the author's pathetic appeal to the representatives of the depicted class with a call to reform, and a righteous life in both cases is a guarantee of heavenly bliss. In this case, we have before us a vivid example of the transformation of the genre of church preaching ("teaching") in a new - poetic - form.
The baroque view of the world suggested the possibility of the "world - book" metaphor, very close to Simeon of Polotsk, who equated poetic creativity with the act of Creation. In one of the poems of The Multicolored Vertograd, this metaphor is clearly declared:
This world is embellished - the book is great,
Vladyka wrote all sorts of things with the same word.
Five sheets that are common in it are acquired,
even chyudna letters are included in themselves.
The first leaf is the sky, there are lights on it,
like a letter, God's fortress was laid.
The second leaf is an elemental fire under the sky high
in it is like the Scripture let the eye see power.
The third leaf is an extremely wide air ringing powerfully,
it has rain, snow, clouds and birds to read.
The fourth leaf - the host of water in it acquires,
in that animal there is a lot of comfort to read.
The last leaf is earth with wood, with herbs,
with krushtsy and with animals, like with letters.
This "museum of rarities" reflects several fundamental motives of the Baroque - first of all, the idea of the "variegation" of the world, the changeability of existence, as well as a craving for sensationalism. However, the main feature of the "museum of rarities" is that it is a museum of literature. The development of culture as imagined by Simeon of Polotsk is something like a verbal procession, a parade of words. At first glance, things also participate in this procession. But the sphinx and the salamander, the phoenix and the siren, the pelican and the centaur, the magnet and amber, by themselves, are not of interest to Simeon of Polotsk. Their intelligible essence, the Word hidden in them, is interesting - for it is the main element of culture.
Baroque presupposed love for paradoxes, for mutually exclusive things, for witty resolution of seemingly insoluble contradictions. These features can be seen in the poem "Wine". It begins with a paradox, the author does not know whether to praise or blaspheme wine, because, on the one hand, it is "useful to the forces of the flesh," on the other hand, it awakens "harmful passions" in a person. The answer to the question posed turns out to be an ingenious removal of the contradiction: "Good is not enough to drink." Moreover, in full accordance with the poetics of the Baroque, this witty answer is not an invention of the author, but also a part of his "museum of rarities", because it belongs to the famous hero of the past: "This Pavel to Timothy will give you sound advice." The poem "The Robber" is based on the witty answer of the sea robber Dionides to Alexander the Great:
... as one I break
By ship, for that I wear evil to the title,
People call me a robber,
You are usually called the king,
As many of the regiments scolded,
All people are captivated by the sea, by the earth.
A witty answer plays the role of an argument in a dispute, and the argument is decisive:
The king, hearing the answer, marveled at his insolence,
Do not be angry with your heart,
He has forgiven the reproof,
Near the truth of being, the word judged is.
A number of works in the collection "Vertograd multicolored" anticipate the genre of fables (parables) in classic literature. An example is the poem "Obedient Toads". First, Simeon tells a plot anecdote about how in a certain monastery, located next to a swamp, "many toads ... screaming their annoyance at a praying monk." One of the brothers, sent by the boss for the sake of laughter to order the frogs to shut up, really pacifies them with the name of Christ: "Ottole the voice of the frogs tamo can not hear." From this anecdote follows "moral": just like the toads once, nowadays people (especially women) often chat in church during services. And the poem ends with a call to them:
In vain, women, toads to imitate,
During spiritual sacrifices, keep your voice.
In this regard, it is interesting to consider the specificity of the baroque fable. It is not without reason that it becomes one of the leading genres in baroque literature: in some ways it is similar to the pictorial emblem, beloved by baroque writers (the structure of the emblem "image - inscription - signature" turns out to be identical to the structure of the fable "plot - title - morality"). A striking example of a baroque fable is Simeon Polotsky's treatment of Aesop's fable "The Fisherman" in the poem "Trumpet". The plot of an unlucky fisherman, who went to fish and playing on the flute on the seashore, turns out to be a prophecy of the end of the world in Simeon: the fisherman playing the flute is God announcing the beginning of the Last Judgment; the fish that are in no hurry to jump ashore are sinners seeking to avoid punishment and nevertheless being taken "on the bank of the court", while Aesop's fable only refers to those who do everything inappropriately.
Both in poetry collections and in the drama of Simeon of Polotsk, the baroque trends that penetrated Russian literature in the second half of the 17th century were most clearly reflected. It should be borne in mind that the Russian baroque, reflected in the poetic practice of syllabic poets, including their teacher Simeon of Polotsk, was quite significantly different from the European one. A.M. Panchenko spoke primarily of "moderation" as a distinctive feature of the Russian type of baroque. A stranger to decisive extremes, avoiding descriptions of afterlife horrors and death throes, Russian baroque is devoid of rebellion and exaltation. Paradoxically, “the syllabics brought up in the European school are in a certain sense less baroque than their contemporaries, the schismatics, genetically unrelated to the baroque. European during the Thirty Years War. Syllabics are slow enlighteners, confident in the power of their own minds. "
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Polotsk Simeon - (in the world - Samuil Gavrilovich Petrovsky-Sitnianovich, Belorussian. Samuil Gaurilavich Pyatroўski-Sitnyanovich, Polish. Samuel Piotrowski-Sitnianowicz; Polotskiy - toponymic nickname) (1629-1680) - a religious figure of the Eastern culture poet, playwright, translator, Basilian monk. He was a mentor to the children of the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich from Miloslavskaya: Alexei, Sophia and Fedor.
Along with such poets as Sylvester Medvedev, Karion (Istomin), Feofan Prokopovich, Mardarii Khonykov and Antioch Kantemir, he is considered one of the earliest representatives of Russian-language syllabic poetry before the era of Trediakovsky and Lomonosov.
Who wants to know people in the world,
Please ask about smart me.
I myself am not a fool, but I keep telling,
So that they don't want to take me up.
Polotsk Simeon
According to the researcher of the history of Russian theological thought and culture, Archpriest Georgy Florovsky, “a rather ordinary Western Russian scribe, or scribe, but very dexterous, resourceful, and controversial in everyday affairs, who managed to stand high and firmly in a bewildered Moscow society as a piita and a suitor, as a learned man for all sorts of assignments. "
Born in 1629 in Polotsk, which at that time was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
He studied at the Kiev-Mohyla College, where he was a student of Lazar Baranovich (since 1657, Bishop of Chernigov), with whom he remained close for life.
Is there a virtue of faith in piety? Without measure.
Lover of the commandments of the Lord? The keeper...
... How does he think about the humble? Honors.
Is he a seeker of wisdom? The money-grubber ...
(about the virtue of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich)
Polotsk Simeon
Possibly, while studying at the Vilna Jesuit Academy in the first half of the 1650s, S. Polotskiy entered the Greek Catholic order of St. Basil the Great. In any case, he referred to himself as "[...] Simeonis Piotrowskj Sitnianowicz hieromonachi Polocensis Ordinis Sancti Basilii Magni").
About 1656 S. Polotsk returned to Polotsk, accepted Orthodox monasticism and became a didascal of the Orthodox fraternal school in Polotsk. When Alexei Mikhailovich visited this city in 1656, Simeon was able to personally present the tsar with the greeting “Meters” of his composition.
In 1664 he went to Moscow to pick up the belongings of Archimandrite Ignatius (Ievlevich), who had died there; however, he did not return to his native Polotsk. The Tsar instructed him to teach young clerks of the Order of Secret Affairs, having appointed the Spassky Monastery behind the Icon row as a place of training.
God gave the will to eat: behold the birds fly,
The beast freely dwells in the woods.
And you give me, father, if you please,
I am reasonable, visit the whole world ...
Polotsk Simeon
In 1665, Simeon presented the tsar with "a welcome for a newly-gifted son." At the same time, he actively participated in the preparation and then the holding of the Moscow Council for the deposition of Patriarch Nikon and was a translator under Paisius Ligaris.
On the authorization of the Eastern Patriarchs, who came to Moscow on the Nikon case in November 1666, Simeon delivered an oration to the tsar about the need to “seek wisdom,” that is, to raise the level of education in the Moscow state.
In 1667 he was appointed court poet and educator of the children of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. He was a teacher with Fedor Alekseevich, thanks to which he received an excellent education, knew Latin and Polish, wrote poetry. S. Polotsky composed the tsar's speeches, wrote solemn announcements. He was instructed to "build" the Acts of the Councils of 1666-1667; translated the polemical treatises of Paisius Ligarida.
What will I get in the house? What will I study?
Better in my wandering I will enrich myself with my mind.
Youngsters from my fathers are sent
In other countries, then they do not sleep ..
Polotsk Simeon
Simeon Polotsky - photo
Simeon Polotsky - quotes
God gave the will to eat: behold the birds fly, The beast in the woods freely dwell. And you, father, if you please give me the will, I am reasonable, visit the whole world ... 
The gray-bearded old man, who looks at us from the engraving of the 19th century, was measured only for half a century of earthly life. But among the famous Belarusians, this native of Polotsk occupies exclusively his own unique place. In the stormy, full of changes in geopolitics and long wars of the 17th century, he managed to light in Moscow, in the royal chambers, a bright and multicolored fire of enlightenment, which did not die out over time and only flared up with renewed vigor.
And also, according to the poet Vasily Trediakovsky, it was he who was the first Russian poet.
About Simeon Polotsk, his lifetime and posthumous glory, in an interview with "Rodina" tells the doctor of philological sciences, chief researcher at the Institute of World Literature. A.M. Gorky Institute of RAS Lidiya Sazonova.
"Simeon Gavrilov son"
In 1629, Samuil Petrovsky-Sitnyanovich was born in Polotsk, his further life developed, as in the famous song: "I changed cities, I changed names." Lidia Ivanovna, how did this wonderful person manage to escape from the obscurity to which he was, in theory, doomed?
The nickname Polotsky, given to him in Moscow, stuck with him forever and so strongly that it is perceived as a surname, hence the widespread mistake to call him "S. Polotsky" or simply "Polotsky". But we do not say "E. Rotterdam" or "F. Assisi". He was a monastic writer, and monks are usually called by name; in this case it is correct: Simeon or Simeon of Polotsk. He did not forget his native, "clean" Polotsk even in his declining years, turning in the second half of the 1670s to his pupil, the young Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich, with the following verses:
Leave the fatherland, akin to retire,
By the will of your royal grace, we have been entrusted.
The names are more confusing. Taking monasticism in the Polotsk Epiphany Monastery in 1656, Samuel became Simeon. The patronymic of our hero is still confused to this day, choosing between Gavrilovich and Emelyanovich. But back in 1988, Mikhail Robinson, a well-known specialist from the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and I managed to prove that his father's name was Gabriel, and his stepfather's name was Emelyan. Our hero signed it: "Simeon Gavrilovich" or "Simeon Gavrilov son" 1. And in the 1990s, the Belarusian historian Mikhail Gordeev found in the act book of the Polotsk magistrate for 1656-1657 an important document - the will of Simeon of Polotsk's mother Tatiana Sheremet. It follows from it that the double surname of Simeon Petrovsky-Sitnyanovich, known from the sources, is the surname of his father, while the surname of Yemelyan's stepfather is Sheremet 2.
Perhaps the family was a merchant - Polotsk at that time was widely known as a trading city on the Western Dvina. The Petrovskys were definitely the Polotsk merchants, mentioned in the sources together with the Skaryns, from which the famous first printer Francysk Skaryna came out, exactly 500 years ago, in 1517, who published his first book in Prague.
Simeon of Polotsk, in fact, was the direct successor of the work of his glorious and highly educated fellow countryman.
But if it were not for the craving for knowledge and the scholarship gained in the works, we would at best learn about Samuil Gavrilovich Petrovsky-Sitnyanovich from some archive file about litigation ...
The cities of that time were small - for example, in the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania - Vilno, according to modern researchers, in his time hardly more than 20 thousand people lived Vilna contingent "3. Polotsk was almost certainly smaller, and at that time it was possible for its unknown native to break out into the people only by choosing the right cities for study and life. Our hero, in fact, did just that: Kiev became the cities of study of enlightened wisdom and, apparently, Vilna, the city of life's luck - Moscow.
Wars at that time were a frequent occurrence, but the big war between Russia and the Commonwealth, which lasted from 1654 to 1667, was reflected in the minds of Simeon and his contemporaries vividly and clearly. If the troops of Ivan the Terrible had already entered his native Polotsk in 1563, then Vilno in the summer of 1655 was taken by the Moscow army for the first time. Military shocks can drastically change both public consciousness and the fate of an individual, and outline the contours of future regions and countries. So it turned out with the Belarusian lands, and with Simeon himself in this war.
"Rejoice, Belarusian land!"
But it was at this time that the Belarusian lands began to be called Belarusian. For example, the historian from Polotsk Sergei Shidlovsky believes that the name "Belaya Rus" "consistently began to be used in relation to the modern Belarusian territory precisely at the Moscow court. The fact that this name was assigned to the present Belarusian territory, perhaps, Simeon Polotsky also has a well-known merit. teacher of the Moscow tsars "4.
It is worth noting that it was after the capture of Vilna that the Moscow tsarist title was replenished with the new formula "White Russia".
The key events of that war, the famous Russian historian, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Boris Florea, calls the capture of Polotsk and Vitebsk, which in the eyes of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich were even more important than the desired return of Smolensk: “And Smolensk is not as annoying to them as Vitepsk and Poltesk, because the passage along the Dvina to Riga was taken away "5. It is no coincidence that both in Vitebsk and in Polotsk in the summer of 1656 they prepared so carefully for the arrival of the Moscow sovereign. The previous tsarist visit to Polotsk by Ivan the Terrible was tough and harsh. Now, both sides, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and his new Polotsk and Vitebsk subjects, found it beneficial to come to an agreement and meet each other solemnly.
In the summer of 1656, Simeon, who had just taken monasticism, a teacher at a fraternal school at the Polotsk Epiphany Monastery, decided to go the other way - he turned his gaze to Orthodox Moscow, hoping for her victory in the big war. Many of his other fellow countrymen did the same - some of the local nobles, the "Polotsk gentry", took part in Alexei Mikhailovich's campaign against Riga 6. 27-year-old Simeon, the same age as the tsar, distinguished himself in another field, verbal. Already fairly adept in the art of rhyming (his first known poem dates back to 1648), he with twelve youths inventively met the tsar with verses in Vitebsk, and then, together with other teachers-poets Ignatiy Ievlevich and Filofei Utchitsky - and at home in Polotsk.
Piit and the enlightener
- But Alexei Mikhailovich is not used to grandiose praises in Moscow ...
The Tsar and his retinue were sincerely delighted and amazed by the thoughtful recitation ceremony of specially composed verses. They were called "Meters for the coming into the city of clean Polotsk ... of the Tsar and Grand Duke Alexy Mikhailovich" and gave the impression that all the new subjects were rejoicing at the appearance of the sovereign: "Hail, Belarusian land!" It was a new action, unfamiliar to the Russian tsar - fashionable, progressive, completely Western 7.
Simeon was noticed. Moscow, which called him Polotsk, gave the young monk not despair, but hope. At a time when a cautious enthusiasm for Western customs that did not affect the Orthodox faith was in vogue in the royal family, the poet and teacher received a great chance in life, which he fully used. IN. Klyuchevsky vividly portrayed this mood: "They felt in Moscow the need for European art and comfort, and then for scientific education. They began as a foreign officer and a German cannon, and ended with German ballet and Latin grammar."
In 1660, Simeon and his youths first visited Moscow, and their recitation with praise to the tsar was now heard in the Kremlin:
There is darkness without you, as in a world without the sun.
Shine on us always and be a defencist
From all the enemy.
Mentor of the princes and princesses
As Sergei Shydlovsky aptly noted, "Belarusians in Moscow were made ... provocateurs of change" 9. How did our hero manage to become such a person?
From 1664 Simeon, now Polotsk, settled in Moscow until the end of his days. Aleksei Mikhailovich was also pleased with the witty praises, to which the Belarusian scientist was quick and eager - especially on joyful occasions, such as the birth in 1672 of Tsarevich Peter, to whom he predicted a great future. But the functions of the court poet in the fast and high Moscow career of the Polotsk citizen were not the only ones - the royal court desperately needed scholarship and that very Latin grammar. Here Simeon was also in his place - as the Soviet historian Lev Pushkarev noted, "all his adult life he was a teacher - first in the fraternal Epiphany school, then in the Moscow Zaikonospasskaya school and, finally, became a mentor to the tsar's children."
Simeon was engaged in the education and upbringing of Tsarevich Alexei, the future Tsar Fedor and the future princess-ruler Sophia. When it was necessary to choose a mentor for the young Tsarevich Peter, the future Peter the Great, he was instructed to examine the clerk Nikita Zotov for this role.
An interesting episode is recorded in Simeon's poem "Presentation of the Book of the Crown of Faith". 13-year-old princess Sophia, having learned that the teacher had written the book "The Crown of Faith" (1670-1671) - a collection of theological knowledge about the world order, "diligently" read the working manuscript, "I used to be in the rabble" (by the way, this is the first certificate of the draft as a stage of creative work), and ordered to make a blank copy:
You are the church books you used to read
and in the paternal sweatshirts of wisdom to seek.
Having led away, like a new book
writing, even the Crown of Faith spoken,
I desired that you yourself contemplate
and I was still in the mob, and I read diligently.
And, having learned useful in the spirituality of being,
ordered you to arrange it purely 11.
Both manuscripts have survived - the draft and the white one. These lines reveal the trusting nature of the relationship between the teacher and the student, speak of the extraordinary abilities of the young princess and the thorough training that his wards received under the leadership of Simeon.
And in 1679 for the seven-year-old Tsarevich Peter in the printing house founded by Simeon in the Kremlin, a wonderful primer with moralizing verses was published:
Childhood young, learning from childhood,
The writings of the nobility and the mind are sweating.
The "pleasant teacher", to the envy of many, was brought closer to the court. He became the first to receive royalties for literary work. The royal grace made him the owner of sables, and the "atlas of green", and very expensive at that time books, the number of which by the time of his death exceeded 600. Simeon was the owner of the largest library in Moscow at that time in many European languages. An excellent catalog gives an idea of its composition; it was compiled by the English scientist Anthony Hippisli and the employee of the RSAA Evgenia Lukyanova 12. Most of these books have survived and can be viewed.
Our contemporary
In the recent era of typewriters, such an abundant production of poetry and text was often considered graphomania, but in the Internet times you can see in this daily, good and different creativity the manner of the first blogger in our history. So how modern is Simeon of Polotsk these days?
Life in the capital, it would seem, was a success - everything that our hero wanted to see in Moscow, he saw. He did not have to worry about his safety, and a difficult time bypassed him, but his brother, hieromonk Isaac, was beaten to death by archers in the Trubchevsky monastery in 1674. Simeon, on the other hand, could afford the lifestyle he desired only for him: according to his student Sylvester Medvedev, he wrote 8 double-sided sheets of paper every day.
At the same time, everything that could be seen in Moscow from Simeon was also seen. Poems in the shape of a heart, a star, a cross, and rays connected together by thousands of verses - none of his then contemporaries in the Russian capital knew how and could not even imagine. No one even thought of the idea of their own, censorship-free printing house or an "academy" like a university. The Kremlin printing house published the "Rhyme Psalter", which Lomonosov called "the gate of his learning." Simeon developed the main provisions of the project for organizing the first higher school (academy) in Moscow. Seven years after his death, in 1687, the idea was embodied in the Academy of Slavic-Greek-Latin.
Not everyone liked his position - a simple hieromonk, and his students were royal children. Lifetime literary controversy grew into accusations that did not find any confirmation. All this is connected with the struggle for power between the supporters of Princess Sophia and Peter. It led to the fact that his student and executor Sylvester Medvedev became the first Russian poet to lay his head on the chopping block. The legacy of Simeon, kept by Sylvester, was hidden in the patriarchal sacristy in a chest. In fact, Simeon's manuscripts containing poetic texts were withdrawn from circulation.
In the 19th century, the figure returned to the historical space: the first biographies appeared. In 1953, the first scientific edition of the poet's selected poems was published, it was prepared by the outstanding researcher of Old Russian literature Igor Eremin in the series "Literary Monuments".
A new, even larger revival is taking place before our eyes. In recent years, Simeon Polotsky has become more and more in demand - his personality attracts not only Russian and Belarusian, but also serious Western scientists, large-scale editions of his works have already been published (including with the participation of the Standing Committee of the Union State) - an example of this published in two editions (2015, 2016) the majestic heraldic poem "Russian Eagle".
A wise and creative person from the 17th century remains our contemporary. And it is symbolic that the monument to him in Polotsk, erected in 2004, is located opposite the main local cinema with the name "Rodina".
1. Robinson M.A., Sazonova L.I. Notes to the biography and work of Simeon Polotsky // Russian Literature. 1988. No. 4. S. 134-141.
2. Gordeev M.Yu. New data for the biography of Simeon of Polotsk: the testament of the mother of the educator // Slavic studies. 1999. N 2.S. 37-47.
3. Gerasimova I.V. Under the rule of the Russian tsar: the socio-cultural environment of Vilna in the middle of the 17th century. SPb., 2015.S. 33, 48-49.
4. ShydloyskЄ S.A. Kaardynaty passtalaga // AntalogЄya suchasnaga belaruskaga thought. SPb., 2003.S. 314-327.
5. Florea B.N. The Russian state and its western neighbors (1665-1661). M., 2010.S. 17.
6. Ibid. P. 88.
7. Sazonova L. The most Belarusian of Russian poets // http://www.postkomsg.com/history/208394.
8 Klyuchevsky V.O. Russian history course. Part 3.M., 1916.S. 362.
9. ShydloyskЄ S.A. Decree. op.
10. Pushkarev L. Simeon of Polotsk // Zhukov D., Pushkarev L. Russian writers of the 17th century. M., 1972.S. 244.
11. Simeon Polotsky. Rhyming. - OR SHM. Synodal meeting N 287.L. 395.-395ob.
12. See: Hippisley A., Luk janova E. Simeon Polockij s Library: A Catalog. Kln; Weimar; Wien, 2005.
Moscow) - Russian educator, writer, poet, scientist, astrologer, theologian, monk and statesman. Represented the Westernizing, Latin trend in Russian culture of the 17th century
Biography
Samuil Gavrilovich Petrovsky-Sitnyanovich was born in Belarus in the year. Historians suggest that he was born in the city of Polotsk and from this he received his future nickname, but sometimes they say that the nickname Polotsk it was given to him at the first place of service. It is sometimes called Emelyanovich, and in this regard, the researchers have a version that his father was Gavriil Sitnyanovich(or Sitnianovich), but soon the father died and the future enlightener had a stepfather Emelyan Petrovsky(or Piotrovsky). The fact that the enlightener before taking monasticism was called Samuel became known only in the twentieth century, and before his real name was unknown. Considered real surname Simeon of Polotsk has several spellings: Petrovsky-Sitnyanovich, Petrovsky-Sitniyanovich, Petrovsky-Sitnianovich, Sitnianovich-Petrovsky.
Petrovsky-Sitnyanovich studied at the Kiev-Mogilev College, and also, presumably, at the Vilna Jesuit Academy. At the end of the course of scholastic sciences (trivium and quadrivium) in the year he took monastic vows under the name Simeon in the Orthodox Polotsk Epiphany Monastery and from that time served as a teacher (didascal) in the monastery.
Unorthodox Simeon of Polotsk, his obvious Latin-Jesuit roots created many opponents for him among the Orthodox clergy and their hierarchs, but opponents Simeon of Polotsk could not compete with him in terms of intelligence and education, could not undermine his strong position at the Moscow court.
Only after death Simeon under unknown circumstances on August 25, Patriarch Joachim (-) condemned Polotsk for non-Orthodoxy, forbade reading his works. Manuscripts Simeon of Polotsk kept by his student Sylvester (Simeon) Medvedev were confiscated and hidden in the patriarch's archives. Their surviving remains were discovered only in the middle of the 19th century. Follower Simeon of Polotsk Sylvester Medvedev was executed a year, slandered by the Grecophile party in high treason, and specifically in a conspiracy F. Shaklovity in favor of the queen Sophia.
It is believed that Simeon Polotsky He was buried in the stavropegic Zaikonospassky monastery of Kitay-gorod Moscow, but sometimes the Kremlin's Chudov Monastery is indicated as a burial place, destroyed in a year - the building of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was built in its place. It is not known if the grave has survived Simeon of Polotsk currently.
Acts
Poetic creativity Simeon of Polotsk, his rhetorical and theological works were not highly appreciated by officialdom even at the end of the 19th century - in this regard, we can mention a rather dismissive article about him in the Encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron written by a little-known historian, journalist and candidate of theology of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy Konstantin Ierofeevich Hraniewicz... This attitude was obviously associated with church condemnation of educational activities. Simeon of Polotsk... Nevertheless, even then he was considered the founder of the literary and scientific school in Moscow, and M.V. Lomonosov called the "Rhyming Psalter" Simeon of Polotsk the gate of your learning. In modern times Simeon Polotsky revered as "One of the outstanding figures of the East Slavic culture of the 17th century".
From a new chronological point of view Simeon Polotsky interesting for the fact that he is known for his numerological and astrological knowledge and works. In the "Crown of Catholic Faith" of 1670, next to the statement of Orthodox dogmas Polotsk posted an apology for astrological science. There is a legend that Simeon Polotsky struck by the appearance of a new star in the constellation Chanterelle, predicted the birth of a king Petr Alekseevich, drew up his horoscope and chose his name for astrological reasons. However, the appearance of this message is associated with the publication P.N. Krekshin scraps "On the conception and birth of the Great Sovereign Emperor Peter the First All-Russian Autocrat and about the rest" which Krekshin attributed Simeon Polotsky... The horoscope of Peter the Great in the year was restored by the academician Andrey Ivanovich Leksel on request G.F. Miller, in the year this horoscope was published M.P. Pogodin and ON. Field... This story contradicts the generally accepted opinion in traditional history that astrology was considered a science only in the Middle Ages, and that astrological and numerological divination was condemned by the Christian church.
Proceedings
- "Akathist to the Mother of God", 1648
- "The rod of government on the government of the mental herd of the Orthodox-Russian Church, - affirmations in the affirmation of those who waver in the faith, - punishments as punishment for the rebellious sheep, - executions to defeat the cruel and predatory wolves, attacking the flock of Christ",
