The chronotope problem in the historical novel by D. Romanenko "Yerofei Khabarov"

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Sholem Aleichem Amur State University, Birobidzhan

The chronotope problem in the historical novel by D. Romanenko "Yerofei Khabarov"

Ph. D. in Philology, Associate Professor

Abdurazakova Elena Rudol'fovna

Annotation

The article describes the study of the category of the artistic chronotope in D. Romanenko's historical novel “Yerofei Khabarov”. The influence of the chronotope on the composition and genre of the novel is considered. The principles of using the chronotope techniques in the novel are analyzed: ideological, phraseological, spatial, temporal, psychological, and philosophical. The connection between the atemporal concept of time and the real primary category of space is retraced.

Key words and phrases: chronotope; space; time; historical novel; atemporal conception of time; Daniel Romanenko.

Аннотация

Статья посвящена изучению категории художественного хронотопа в историческом романе Д. Романенко «Ерофей Хабаров». Рассмотрено влияние хронотопа на композицию и жанр романа. Проанализированы принципы использования приемов хронотопа в романе: идеологический, фразеологический, пространственный, временной, психологический, философский. Прослежено соединение атемпоральной концепцией времени с реальной первичной категорией пространства.

Ключевые слова и фразы: хронотоп; пространство; время; исторический роман; атемпоральная концепция времени; Даниил Романенко.

Since ancient times, the image of space has become the subject of close attention of philosophers, philologists, historians. If we refer to all the meanings and connotations of this image, a branched semantic tree will appear in front of us.

In the wide sense, the image of the space is always connected with geography, in a narrower sense, the space is perceived as a vital category that is close to the concept of freedom.

The literature has always been inclined to delve into the metaphysics of space, to connect it with the body-soul life of a man and with the natural and social world. artistic chronotope romanenko khabarov

M. M. Bakhtin, D. S. Likhachev, V. N. Toporov in their fundamental works devoted to the understanding of art space, defined it as the most important typological category of poetics.

This image got the greatest development in the work of romantics, poets and writers of the “silver age” in the nonclassical prose of the twentieth century. But even today the space is the steadiest and widespread motif of the world literature, which has acquired new and unexpected interpretations, reached hundreds of word usage in poetry and in prose. It is possible to single out the initial, the most stable and literally fixed categories of the space: geographic and sacral. Different configurations of the space in certain genres and texts have their own historical and philological hidden motive.

The history of the Russian Far East gave to a number of writers the richest material for artistic comprehension. In a pleiad of famous novelists are the following names: N. Ivanov, N. Zadornov, N. Navolochkin, D. Romanenko, S. Balabin, A. Semenov, I. Basargin, V. Azhayev, A. Vakhov, A. Talanov, N. Romov, I. Kalashnikov, V. Bakhrievsky, V. Grigoriev, E. Gronyanov, S. Danilov, I. Yelegechev, V. Kargalov, V. Kedrov, G. Kungurov, A. Maksimov, T. Semushkin, A. Safronov, A. Stepanov, J. Fedorov, V. Kalikinsky, S. Rem, and others. These works were created on the basis of historical annals, archival documents and also according to eyewitnesses. However, until now many of the previously mentioned works remain beyond the literary criticism. The Far Eastern vector of the Russian literature that is considered under the modern angle of view is fraught with many godsends.

A real historical situation always creates its own theme and its hero.

With the advancement of Russian explorers to Siberia and to the Far East, the Russian spatial myth received a new stage of its formation. The toponymy of the country is expanding, the desired and significant oceanic status is emerging, the socio-economic picture of life is gradually changing, and a new mental pattern of the Russian person is being formed.

The far and unknown east side always appeared in the minds of the Russian people as a fairy-tale country. One of the first Russian tsars, who drew attention to the Far East and, above all, to China, was Ivan the Terrible. In 1567 the first Russian atamans were sent with the diplomatic mission to China, but to the Celestial Empire they arrived without a proper royal tribute (which they drank along the way) and therefore were not allowed to the ruler.

Yerofei Khabarov became the next person who had an occasion to represent Russia, but already on the banks of the Amur River. Rus became a close neighbor of the Middle Empire after Yerofei Khabarov's trips to Dauria. However, for a long time the name of Yerofey Pavlovich Khabarov was practically unknown to the Russian man. And only to the end of the nineteenth century, after the publication of the historical documents of the explorer, in the historical science and literature a strong interest to Yerofey Khabarov's personality became apparent.

In the 40-ies of the twentieth century the development of the earth-penetrating theme in literature began in the Far East of Russia. In 1946 the novel “Yerofei Khabarov” by D. Romanenko was published. The writer's appeal to the image of Yerofey Khabarov was fully justified by the historical situation of the time and corresponded to the concept of the heroic personality that prevailed at that moment in the Soviet literature.

The book was paid attention, the book was given different estimates, but eventually people agreed that “the novel is evidence of the author's serious creative aspirations...” [1, с. 84]. After the “wake” of the Soviet literature, this book was firmly forgotten by literary scholarship. So far, no serious analysis has been devoted to the novel. In modern historical conditions, the work reveals to the reader a different field of perception of the historical reality and personality of Yerofey Khabarov.

Time and space are the main categories that reveal person's consciousness, which determine the sociopsychological specifics of a particular culture, representing the main parameters of the “image of the world” of this culture. These categories “model” that “system of spatial coordinates”, through this system people perceive reality. “A man is not born with a sense of time; his or her temporal and spatial concepts are always determined by the culture to which he or she belongs to” [4, с. 89].

At the heart of the all actions of the main characters of D. Romanenko's novel “Yerofei Khabarov” is the description of the dominant space of Siberia and the Far East. The writer shows this space gradually unfolding and expanding. The work presents a kind of map of the “unknown” world. The impression of the colossal volume is created by the poetics of geographical enumeration: the great path from Lopskaya land to the Amur is represented by fortress cities: Pechenga, Kola, Kandalaksha, Solovki, Kargopol, Vologda, Kholmogory, Sol-Vychegodskaya, Veliky Ustyug, Arkhangelsk, Mezen, Pustozersk, Tyumen, Tobolsk, Tara, Berezov, Surgut, Narym, Tomsk and Ket prisons, Ilimsk, Kirenga, Kuta, Yakutsk, Mangazeya, Stanovoi Range, Dauria, Albazin, Goygudar - all these fortress cities give rise to poeticization of its territorial scope. The spatial extent is also represented in the form of oppositions: “distant - close”, “center - periphery”, “East - West”, “one's -another's”. In the multi-layered system of the Far Eastern space, the definitions “unknown”, “empty”, “huge”, “infinite” space come to the forefront, which simultaneously attracts and frightens the Russian people: “Yerofei Khabarov first climbed to the top of the ridge. He looked around him and spat with vexation. Everything was deserted. The ground was lonely frozen under the snow. Here and there lakes were cut on it, bordered by a stunted low forest. The river snaked across the snowy desert. Unconditioned silence reigned over the frozen world” [Там же, с. 86]. The new world, completely different from the Russian, is betrayed in feelings and sensations: “When the ice floe swayed, proudly floated past, a look appeared that excited Khabarov to tears. Joy overwhelmed the heart”. “Look, what a marvel! - He thought, and seizing himself, he rushed into the hold... the enchanted Cossacks looked afar off” [3, с. 329].

The image of the vast Far Eastern space that personifies will, freedom, greatness is connected with the image of the river-road. The traditional motif of “road-road” for Russian literature, which is often used in Russian literature as a horse, is connected with the image of the river in the novel “Yerofei Khabarov”. This image is a stable motive of all works about Siberia and the Far East. There are some names of the rivers in the novel: Kireng, Kupa, Kut, Muka, Chechuya, Vitim, Aldan, Ilim, Kolyma, Angara, Lena, Mangazeya, Lower Tunguska, Olekma, Amur, Zeya. Through the image of the river-road leading to unknown worlds, the landscape of D. Romanenko is often unfolded: “Day by day, the further they floated along Olekma, places became deeper. Clouds were smoking on their peaks. On the slopes grew gray, shaggy fir-trees and seemed warriors climbing on the attack... Under the cliff, over the river itself, a tow path ran; The water was boiling, the maelstrom twisted... The bare Cossack's backs and shoulders turned black from the wind and the sun, the legs were covered with sores. The weak-strong people fell off and fell into the seething water. The frenzied curses rang through the river.

- And where does the evil spirit go? - For happiness!” [4, с. 89-90].

The motive for finding the Promised Land in the novel is correlated with the motive of the road. U. M. Lotman considers that “with the appearance of the image of the road as a form of space, the idea of the road as a norm of life for man, people and humanity is formed. Heroes are sharply divided into moving («heroes of the road») and motionless. The moving hero has a purpose” [2, с. 47]. The Russian explorers are related to the moving heroes of the novel, - the indigenous inhabitants of Siberia and the Far East are related to the immobile.

Exploring the image of space in the ancient Russian monument “The Tale of the Armament of Igor”, D. S. Likhachev wrote: “All countries are divided in the «Word (Tale)» not by principality, but by rivers” [Там же, с. 70]. This spatial tradition can also be observed in Romanenko's novel. The localization of the “distant” land is correlated with the most colorful image of the “great river” - the Amur River. Unlike other rivers that are mentioned in the novel, the Amur River is polyfunctional. Firstly, the Amur River is the edge of the great forests and vast steppes, that is, the symbolically-generalized name of the Far Eastern lands, as well as the desired geographical object, which the pioneers dream to reach. Secondly, all battles take place here for the desired territory. Thirdly, the Amur River is the only water artery that in the future will give Russia the desired oceanic status and formal consolidation of these territories behind Russia.

The spatial image of the road introduces into the text also a motive of a choice, to which the heroes face to face. This motive is associated with the ancient type of a moral search, “finding of your own way”.

One of the spatial leitmotifs of the novel is the Russian folk song, which always corresponds to the tragic fate of the Russian explorer. The song expands the novel space, deepens the time perspective of the work. The spatial image of the song sets a circle of stable semantic associations and a single system of feelings for the tradition: “Stephan Polyakov has become obnoxious with such a life. He sighed heavily and tightened the song. Another voice came to his voice, then the third one. The song boiled, hammered, moaned and cried, filling the hearts with a silent aching pain. They sang one of three lingering and tender songs, this plaintive motive always eases the soul:

Our bed is Mother Earth,

Head of the bed is the evil-root,

Blanket is the riotous winds,

Bedspread is the white snow, Washing is the frequent rain, Towel is the silk grass. Our native father is a light month...” [4, c. 216].

The folk lyric song is dominated by the law: “Tell me where you are, I will tell you what you are experiencing”. We can feel the suffering of separation from the own world, acute orphanhood. This deep “bitterness” of the Cossack song is most clearly shown in the case of voluntarily-forced abandonment from the home town like to robbers, runaway people, because the orders in Russia led a person either to slavery or to flight, the same “law” worked in Khabarov's fate: “The petition did not reach the king, and maybe it reached, but The Tsar had no time to study it. It remained unanswered. What should I do? Khabarov decided to seek the truth by his own, and tied his life with the workmen. But whether it is his case, (he is a salt worker and a plowman) to be a chieftain with the rebels?” [Там же, c. 218].

Studying the image of space in this novel, it is necessary to identify a problem such as the history of mutual relations, the co-existence of two civilizations: the eastern and the western. As the Russians moved to the banks of the Amur River, another space penetrates into the consciousness of the explorers: the real and mythical China. The spatial component is already expressed in the poetics of the names of this country: “The Celestial Empire”, “The Middle Empire”, “The Blooming Empire”, “The Land of Flowers”, “The Reigning Country”, etc.

The image of China appears in the novel in detailed descriptions of spatial coordinates and is depicted in vertically horizontal planes. The horizontal plane is characterized by the dynamic nature of spatial positions and is more connected with the world of ordinary people.

The dominant word in this case is the “line”: “There were bands of melons and rice fields through the line of the bank... The long and wide streets were full of life and movement in the Forbidden City. The eye was amazed and pleased with the bright colors of the walls, signboards, costumes. Horses, mules, camels, palanquins, strollers, and a sea of heads in straw hats with large fields - everything moved and rustled, merging into a common stream” [Там же, c. 264].

In the descriptions of the highest aristocracy and the ruler of China, who was also called the “Son of Heaven”, there is a vertical static space with the semantics of the “sky”, with a characteristic “upwards” position, which is expressed in topographic objects: “Soon the porters stopped near a lonely hill that was piled with human hands. It was called Jingshan. There was an openwork gazebo of the Eternal Spring on the top of Jingshan. The view of the capital was opened from here... At the northern foot of the Jingshan hill there was the temple of longevity. The portraits of the goddess ancestors were kept here. A red Signal Tower pierced the sky straight from the temple... In the southeast, as if covered with several tiers of azure umbrellas, the majestic temple of Heaven rose, the three-tiered roof of this temple was covered with blue tiles. Walking along its steps, it seemed to a worshipper as if he was climbing to the sky... Everything in this park was amazing: palaces and pagodas with multi-colored roofs, a lake with several islets that is connected by a bridge of seventeen arches. This bridge is similar to a rainbow. There were also the Longevity Mountain and Virtue Palace, Tower-Chamber of Longevity, the gates of beyond clouds skies, the amused garden at the mountainside and the four-storey Temple of Wisdom on its summit” [Там же, c. 282].

The Moscow space, to which Yerofei Khabarov falls into for several months, is emphatically disharmonious. The author sequentially fixes the sounds that fill this space. As a rule, the sounds are sharp, annoying and “unnatural”. The dominant words of this space are “noise” and “hubbub”. The interior of Moscow is defined by toponyms with Christian semantics. The cross is a special locus, as well as church domes, bell ringing; especially bell ringing that is audible far beyond the city limits.

The royal chambers are represented in the vertical space, princes' palaces, which amazed with their beauty and luxury, pointed hipped bell-towers of numerous churches and cathedrals stretched to the sky. The space of archers, artisans, and ordinary people is written out in the horizontal plane, the peasant revolt of Stepan Razin comes here. Here are also revolt of the archpriest Avvakum, the disagreement between the tsar and Patriarch Nikon. The motives of poverty and ruin of the Russian people intersect with the motives of luxury and fun of the Russian Tsar: “Alexey Mikhailovich had up to three thousand hunting birds at the amusing courtyards near Moscow, and every year hundreds of new birds were added. They were fed with beef and mutton meat from the royal court and with live pigeons. The birds had their own names. The king demanded that the chief falconer constantly informs him about any ailments of the hunting birds... Eyewitnesses said that the tsar hunted at any time - «before the meal» and «after the meal»” [Там же, c. 286].

Moscow is a closed spatial image. The hero feels very uncomfortable and lonely here. One of the pioneers of the Amur lands in the capital is deprived of all honors, values and, together with a huge army of beggars and vagabonds, begs for alms. The hero is outraged by the insignificance of Russian policy towards the Amur lands, and “the pride of Khabarov, as the son of the fatherland, was offended by the authorities' disrespect for the participants in the great cause” [Там же, c. 292].

The center of Moscow is the Place of Execution, where the atmosphere of the city is especially felt, as the quintessence of all Russian life. The author does not accidentally lead the hero to the Execution place at the turning point in his life. It is here the legendary contemporary Khabarov Stepan Razin is executed, the terrible execution of whom will be stunning news for the hero. The image of Stepan Razin was attracted by the author as a contrast-comparative material. Both heroes were the key images of Russia in the seventeenth century, enriched Russian characterology, which absorbed all the contradictory qualities of the Russian soul. They possessed similar properties of the fate, character and thinking of the leader. Two Cossack atamans have: strength, courage, enterprise, determination, energy, cruelty, breadth of soul. The will of each of them borders with an “insane” element, which manifests itself in rebellion, self-will, but Cossacks' will is a continuation of violence. Each of them is both a great sinner and a great righteous person, tragically contradictory individuals whose fateful vicissitudes lead to the most terrible dead ends of the history. Razin and Khabarov are heroes of their time, who have highlighted the power of the national spirit. D. Romanenko thoroughly examines in the novel the terrible, cruel acts of Khabarov. He imposes on him all responsibility for the withdrawal of Russians from the Amur lands. Consistently, the scene behind the scene “breakup” of the detachment of the ataman is shown in the novel.

With the spatial image of Moscow, the motives of repentance are connected in the novel. Once in Moscow Khabarov mentally turns to the past and realizes the significance of his affairs. The appeal to the memory of the legendary explorer promotes the internal expansion of space. Pangs of conscience torment the hero: “Khabarov thought that Ilya had been offended in vain, repulsed the Cossacks in vain, wasted his time in vain, the Daurian land was empty in vain... They paid a great price for the land they had discovered - a gift to the Motherland. And he, being so busy with his profits, failed to understand and appreciate his comrades... But the hardest part was to realize that the Amur region, which had become incredible labors and blood, was defenseless and deserted. Khabarov felt his guilt in this. It was necessary to build fortresses and small estates, populate them with willing people, and then enemies would not dare to encroach the Amur lands” [Там же, c. 286].

The repentance of Khabarov brings him closer to the epic heroes, who are always conscious of and redeeming their sins. Repenting as it sums up the life of the hero. The motif of a destiny testing in the understanding of the hero becomes a form of God's craft: the repentant soul wishes to change everything, but the second life, unfortunately, is not given to a man. In the final of the novel Khabarov meets an already grown-up son, whom he had to leave early in his childhood, and in this connection the book ends with the motive of the family continuity: “Looking at his son with inflamed eyes, Khabarov complained:

- Ondrejka, my dove, I have not been able to find the truth and to please our homeland. The illness has ruined my life. I feel death on the shoulders...

- Shut up, Dad, shut up, dear. Let your soul not to grieve. I'll manage your business.

- God my son, please. I waited for you, I believed in you. My misfortune, I was alone: I was a servant to myself, a lord to myself. I took only myself on account, and then I ruined the matter” [Там же, c. 292].

The movement of the hero in the space allowed the author, through the characteristic of the place of action, to give an idea of the historical characters, to acquaint the reader with the way of life of different peoples reflected in the exterior, interior, and way of life, customs and traditions, in the manner of behaving, in the type of behavior. The novel takes place in the vast expanses of Siberia and the Far East, China, Moscow. Each of the allocated points of space is meaningfully significant.

References

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2. Лихачев Д. С. Слово о полку Игореве. М. - Л.: Изд-во АН СССР, 1950. 83 с.

3. Лотман Ю. М. В школе поэтического слова: Пушкин. Лермонтов. Гоголь. М.: Просвещение, 1988. 352 с.

4. 4. Романенко Д. Ерофей Хабаров. Хабаровск: Хабар. кн. изд-во, 1990. 323 с.

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