Collection of Christmas Yuletide Stories. Yule and Christmas story in Russian literature of the 18th-21st centuries. "Silver Blizzard", Vasily Nikiforov-Volgin

Yule and Christmas story in Russian literature of the 18th-21st centuries.

Wonderful winter holidays have long included and probably still include the ancient folk Christmastide (pagan in origin), the church holiday of the Nativity of Christ, and the worldly holiday of the New Year.

Literature has always been a reflection of the life of the people and society, and even the mysterious Christmastide theme is just a storehouse of fantastic plots that convey the world of the wonderful and otherworldly, always bewitching and attracting the average reader.

Christmastide, in the capacious expression of A. Shakhovsky, is "evenings of folk fun": fun, laughter, mischief are explained by a person's desire to influence the future (in accordance with the proverb "as he began, he finished" or with the modern one - "how will you celebrate the New Year, so you will spend it ").

It was believed that the more cheerful a person spends the beginning of the year, the more prosperous the year will be ...

Artist A. Emelyanov "Christmastide"

However, where there is excessive laughter, fun, fervor, there is always restless and even somehow alarming ... It is here that an intriguing plot begins to develop: detective, fantastic or simply romantic ... ...

In Russian literature, the Christmastide theme begins to develop from the middle of the 18th century: at first it was anonymous comedies about merrymaking, Christmastide stories and stories. Their characteristic feature has become the long-standing idea that it is during the Christmastide period that "evil spirits" become most active - devils, goblin, kikimors, banniks, etc. This emphasizes the hostility and danger of Christmastide ...

Fortune-telling, and caroling of mummers, and podvodny songs became widespread among the people. Meanwhile, the Orthodox Church has long condemned such behavior as sinful. In the decree of Patriarch Joachim of 1684, prohibiting Christmas "demonic possessions", it is said that they lead a person into "soul-destroying sin." Christmas games, fortune-telling and dressing up ("masquerade", putting on "beast-like mugs") have always been condemned by the Church.

Subsequently, there was a need for folk Christmas-time stories and literary processing of stories. These began to be studied by writers, poets, ethnographers and folklorists, in particular M.D. Chulkov, who published the humorous magazine "And that, and this" during 1769, and F.D. Nefedov, from the end of the 19th century. published magazines with a Christmastide theme, and, of course, V.A. Zhukovsky, who created the most popular Russian ballad "Svetlana", which is based on a folk story about a heroine guessing at Christmastide ...

Many poets of the 19th century also turned to the Christmastide theme: A. Pushkin ("Fortune-telling and Tatyana's Dream" (an excerpt from the novel "Eugene Onegin), A. Pleshcheev (" The Legend of Christ the Child "), Y. Polonsky (" Yolka " ), A. Fet ("Fortune-telling") and others.

Gradually, during the period of development of romanticism, the Christmas story attracts the whole world of the miraculous. Many stories are based on the Bethlehem miracle, and this is already the transformation of a simple Christmastide story into a Christmas story ...

The Christmas story in Russian literature, in contrast to Western literature, appeared only in the 40s. XIX century. this is due to the different from Europe, the special role of the holiday.

The Day of the Nativity of Christ is a great Christian holiday, the second most important after Easter.

For a long time, Christmastide was celebrated in Russia in the world, and only the Church celebrated the Nativity of Christ.

In the West, the Christian tradition was much earlier and more closely intertwined with the pagan one, in particular, this happened with the custom of decorating and lighting a Christmas tree for Christmas. The ancient pagan rite of worshiping the tree has become a Christian custom. The Christmas tree has become the symbol of the Divine Child. The tree entered Russia late and took root slowly, like any Western innovation.

From the middle of the XIX century. the appearance of the first stories with a Christmas theme is also associated. Earlier texts, such as "The Night Before Christmas" by N.V. Gogol, are not indicative, firstly, the Gogol story depicts Christmastide in Ukraine, where the celebration and experience of Christmas was closer to the West, and secondly, Gogol's pagan element ("devilry") prevails over the Christian.

Another thing is "Night on Christmas Day" by the Moscow writer and actor K. Baranov, published in 1834. This is really a Christmas tale: in it the motive of mercy and sympathy for the child turns out to be the leading one - a typical motive of the Christmas story.

The massive appearance of such texts is observed after the Christmas stories of Charles Dickens were translated into Russian in the early 1840s. - "A Christmas Carol", "Bells", "Cricket on the Stove", and later others.

These stories were a huge success with the Russian reader and gave rise to many imitations and variations. One of the first writers who turned to the Dicken tradition was D.V. Grigorovich, who published the story "Winter Evening" in 1853.

An important role in the emergence of Russian Christmas prose was played by "The Lord of the Fleas" and "The Nutcracker" by Hoffmann and some of Andersen's fairy tales, especially "Yolka" and "Girl with matches".

The plot of the last fairy tale was used by FM Dostoevsky in the story "The Boy at Christ's at the Christmas Tree", and later by V. Nemirovich-Danchenko in the story "The Foolish Fedka".

The death of a child on Christmas night is an element of phantasmagoria and a too terrible event, emphasizing the crime of all mankind against children ...

But from a Christian point of view, little heroes acquire true happiness not on earth, but in Heaven: they become angels and end up on the Christmas tree of Christ Himself. Actually, a miracle is taking place: the miracle of Bethlehem repeatedly affects the destinies of people ...

Later, Christmas and Yuletide stories were written by almost all major prose writers of the late 19th - early 19th century. XX centuries. Yule and Christmas stories could be funny and sad, funny and scary, they could end with a wedding or death of heroes, reconciliation or a quarrel.

But with all the variety of their plots, they all had something in common - something that was in harmony with the festive mood of the reader, then sentimental, then unrestrainedly cheerful, invariably evoking a response in the hearts.

At the heart of each such story lay "a small event of a completely Christmastide character" (NS Leskov), which made it possible to give them a general subtitle. The terms "Christmas story" and "Christmas story", for the most part, were used synonymously: in the texts under the heading "Christmas story", motives associated with the Christmas holiday could prevail, and the subtitle "Christmas story" did not at all imply the absence of folk motives in the text. Christmas time ...

The best examples of the genre were created by N.S. Leskov. In 1886, the writer wrote a whole cycle of "Christmas stories".

In the story “Pearl Necklace”, he reflects on the genre: “From the Christmastide story it is imperative that it be timed to coincide with the events of the Christmastide evening - from Christmas to Epiphany, so that it is somehow fantastic, has some kind of morality ... and, finally - so that it certainly ends with fun.

In life, there are few such events, and therefore the author does not allow himself to invent and compose a plot that fits the program. "

Both "Vanka" and "On Christmastide" by A.P. Chekhov are original Christmastide stories.

In n. XX century, with the development of modernism in literature, parodies of the Christmastide genre and humorous recommendations on how to compose Christmastide stories began to appear.

So, for example, in the newspaper Rech in 1909, O.L.D ”or (I. Orsher) publishes the following guide for young writers:

“Anyone who has hands, two cents on paper, pen and ink and has no talent can write a Christmas story.

You just need to adhere to a well-known system and firmly remember the following rules:

1) A Christmas story is not valid without a pig, a goose, a tree and a good person.

2) The words "manger", "star" and "love" must be repeated at least ten, but no more than two or three thousand times.

3) Bells ringing, affection and remorse should be at the end of the story, and not at the beginning.

All the rest is unimportant".

Parodies testified that the Christmastide genre had exhausted its possibilities. Of course, one cannot fail to note the interest in the spiritual sphere among the intelligentsia of that time.

But the Yuletide story is moving away from its traditional norms. Sometimes, as, for example, in V. Brusov's story "The Child and the Madman", it gives an opportunity for depicting psychologically extreme situations: the Bethlehem miracle as an unconditional reality in the story is perceived only by a child and the mentally ill Semyon.

In other cases, Christmastide works are based on medieval and apocryphal texts, in which religious moods and feelings are especially intensively reproduced (here the contribution of A.M. Remizov is important).

Sometimes, due to the reproduction of the historical situation, a special flavor is given to the Christmastide plot (as, for example, in S. Auslander's story "Christmastide in Old Petersburg"), sometimes the story tends to be a top-down psychological novella.

A. Kuprin especially honored the traditions of the Christmastide story, creating excellent examples of the genre - stories about faith, kindness and mercy "The Poor Prince" and "The Wonderful Doctor", as well as the writers of the Russian diaspora IABunin ("Epiphany Night", etc.) , IS Shmelev ("Christmas" and others) and V. Nikiforov-Volgin ("Silver Blizzard" and others).

In many Christmastide stories, the theme of childhood is the main one. This theme is developed by the statesman and Christian thinker K. Pobedonostsev in his essay "Christmas": "The Nativity of Christ and Holy Easter are predominantly children's holidays, and it seems that the power of Christ's words is fulfilled in them:

Unless you are like children, you cannot bring them into the kingdom of God. Other holidays are not so accessible to children's understanding ... "

“A quiet night over the Palestinian fields, a secluded nativity scene, a nursery. Surrounded by those domestic animals that are familiar to the child from first impressions of memory - in the manger a twisted Infant and above Him a meek, loving Mother with a pensive look and a clear smile of maternal happiness - three magnificent kings following the star to a wretched den with gifts - and in the distance on the field are shepherds in the midst of their flock, listening to the joyful news of the Angel and the mysterious chorus of the Forces of Heaven.

Then the villain Herod, pursuing an innocent Child; the beating of infants in Bethlehem, then the journey of the holy family to Egypt - how much life and action in all this, how much interest for a child! "

And not only for a child ... Holy days are such an amazing time when everyone becomes children: simple, sincere, open, kind and loving everyone.

Later, and not surprisingly, the Christmastide story was “revolutionary” reincarnated into a New Year story. The New Year as a holiday supplants Christmas, the good Grandfather Frost comes to replace Christ the Child ...

But the state of awe and expectation of a miracle is also present in the “new” stories. "Yolka in Sokolniki", "Three Attempts on the Life of Lenin" by VD Bonch-Bruevich, "Chuk and Gek" by A. Gaidar are some of the best Soviet idylls. The orientation towards this tradition of E. Ryazanov's films "Carnival Night" and "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath" is also undoubted ...

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Compiled by Tatiana Strygina

Christmas stories by Russian writers

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Series "Christmas Gift"

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Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)

The boy at Christ's tree

Boy with pen

Children are strange people, they dream and appear. In front of the Christmas tree and in the very Christmas tree before Christmas, I met everything on the street, at a famous corner, one boy, no more than seven years old. In the terrible frost, he was dressed almost like a summer, but his neck was tied with some kind of old-fashioned stuff, which means that someone was still equipping him when they sent him away. He walked "with a handle"; it is a technical term and means begging. The term was invented by these boys themselves. There are many like him, they spin on your road and howl something learned; but this one did not howl and spoke somehow innocently and unfamiliarly, and looked me trustingly into my eyes - therefore, he was just beginning his profession. When I questioned him, he said that he had a sister, was out of work, sick; maybe it’s true, but only I found out later that these boys are dark and dark: they are sent out with a pen even in the most terrible frost, and if they don’t get anything, they will probably be beaten. After collecting kopecks, the boy returns with red, numb hands to some basement, where some gang of robe-gowns are drinking, one of those who, "having gone on strike at the factory on Sunday, Saturday, return to work no earlier than Wednesday evening." ... There, in the basements, their hungry and beaten wives drink with them, and their hungry nursing children immediately squeak. Vodka, and dirt, and debauchery, and most importantly, vodka. With the pennies he collected, the boy is immediately sent to the tavern, and he brings more wine. For fun, and he sometimes poured a kosushka into his mouth and laugh when he, with stopped breathing, falls almost unconscious on the floor,

... and bad vodka in my mouth
Poured mercilessly ...

When he grows up, he is quickly sold somewhere to the factory, but everything that he earns, he is again obliged to bring to the caretakers, and they again drink away. But even before the factory, these children become complete criminals. They wander around the city and know places in different basements that you can crawl into and where you can spend the night unnoticed. One of them spent several nights in a row with a janitor in a basket, and he never noticed him. Of course, they become thieves. Theft turns into a passion even among eight-year-old children, sometimes even without any consciousness of the criminality of the action. In the end, they endure everything - hunger, cold, beatings - only for one thing, for freedom, and they run away from their robe to wander from themselves. This wild creature sometimes does not understand anything, neither where he lives, nor what nation he is, is there a God, is there a sovereign; even these convey things about them that are incredible to hear, and yet all the facts.

The boy at Christ's tree

But I am a novelist, and I think I composed one "story" myself. Why do I write: “it seems”, because I myself know for certain what I have composed, but I keep imagining that it happened somewhere and once, that is what happened just before Christmas, in some huge city and in a terrible freezing.

I imagine that there was a boy in the basement, but still very small, about six years old or even less. This boy woke up in the morning in a damp and cold basement. He was dressed in some kind of dressing gown and was trembling. His breath flew out in white steam, and he, sitting in the corner on the chest, out of boredom, deliberately let this steam out of his mouth and amused himself watching it fly out. But he really wanted to eat. Several times in the morning he approached the bunks, where his sick mother lay on a bed as thin as a pancake and on some knot under his head instead of a pillow. How did she get here? She must have arrived with her boy from a strange city and suddenly fell ill. The mistress of the corners was captured by the police two more days ago; the tenants dispersed, it was a festive business, and the remaining one robe had been lying dead drunk for the whole day, not waiting for the holiday. In the other corner of the room, an eighty-year-old woman was moaning with rheumatism, who once lived somewhere in nannies, and now she was dying alone, groaning, grumbling and grumbling at the boy, so that he was already afraid to come close to her corner. Somewhere he got a drink in the hallway, but he could not find a crust anywhere, and once in the tenth time he went to wake up his mother. Finally, it became terrifying for him in the darkness: the evening had begun long ago, and the fire had not been lit. Feeling his mother's face, he marveled that she did not move at all and became as cold as a wall. “It's too cold here,” he thought, stood for a while, unconsciously forgetting his hand on the shoulder of the deceased, then breathed on his fingers to warm them, and suddenly, groping for his cap on the bunk, slowly, groping, went out of the basement. He would have gone before, but he was still afraid at the top, on the stairs, of the big dog, which howled all day at the neighbour's door. But the dog was gone, and he suddenly went out into the street.

Lord, what a city! He had never seen anything like it. There, where he came from, there was such a black darkness at night, one lamp for the whole street. Low wooden houses are shuttered; on the street, it gets a little dark - no one, everyone closes in their homes, and only whole flocks of dogs howl, hundreds and thousands of them, howl and bark all night. But there it was so warm and he was allowed to eat, but here - God, if only to eat! and what a knock and thunder here, what light and people, horses and carriages, and frost, frost! Frozen steam comes down from the driven horses, from their hot breathing muzzles; through the loose snow, horseshoes clink on the stones, and everyone is pushing so hard, and, Lord, I really want to eat, even a piece of some, and all of a sudden my fingers hurt so much. The guardian of order passed by and turned away so as not to notice the boy.

Here is the street again - oh, how wide! Here it will probably be so crushed; how they all scream, run and ride, and the light, the light! and what's that? Wow, what a big glass, and behind the glass there is a room, and in the room there is a tree up to the ceiling; this is a tree, and there are many lights on the tree, how many golden pieces of paper and apples, and all around there are dolls, little horses; and children are running around the room, smart and clean, laughing and playing, and eating and drinking something. This girl started dancing with the boy, what a pretty girl! Here is the music, you can hear it through the glass. The boy looks, marvels, he is already laughing, but his fingers and legs are already aching, and his hands are completely red, they do not bend and it hurts to move. And suddenly the boy remembered that his fingers were so sore, he cried and ran on, and then again he saw through another glass room, there were trees again, but on the tables there were pies, all sorts of almond, red, yellow, and there were four rich ladies, and whoever comes, they give him pies, and the door opens every minute, many gentlemen come in from the street. A boy crept up, suddenly opened the door and entered. Wow, how they shouted and waved at him! One lady came up as quickly as possible and thrust a penny into his hand, while she herself opened the door to the street for him. How frightened he was! and a penny immediately rolled out and rang down the steps: he could not bend his red fingers and hold it. The boy ran out and went quickly, quickly, but he doesn't know where. He wants to cry again, but he is really afraid, and runs, runs and blows on the arms. And longing takes him, because he suddenly felt so lonely and terribly, and suddenly, Lord! What is this again? People are standing in a crowd and are amazed: there are three dolls on the window behind the glass, small ones dressed in red and green dresses and just like living things! Some old man sits and seems to be playing a large violin, two others stand right there and play small violins, and shake their heads to the beat, and look at each other, and their lips move, they say, they say completely - only now you can't hear it from behind the glass. And the boy thought at first that they were alive, but when he completely guessed that they were dolls, he suddenly laughed. He had never seen such dolls and did not know that there were such dolls! and he wants to cry, but so funny-funny at the dolls. Suddenly it seemed to him that someone had grabbed his robe from behind: a big, angry boy stood beside him and suddenly hit him on the head, tore off his cap, and kicked him from below with his foot. The boy rolled to the ground, then they screamed, he was stupefied, jumped up and run and run, and suddenly he ran not knowing where, into the gateway, into a strange yard, and sat down behind the wood: "They won't find it, and it's dark."

He sat down and writhed, and he himself could not catch his breath from fear, and suddenly, all of a sudden, he felt so good: his arms and legs suddenly stopped hurting and it became so warm, so warm, as on a stove; so he shuddered all over: ah, but he was asleep! How good it is to fall asleep here: “I'll sit here and go again to look at the dolls,” the boy thought and grinned, remembering them, “just like they are alive! ..” and suddenly he heard that his mother was singing a song over him. "Mom, I'm sleeping, oh, how good it is to sleep here!"

“Come to my tree, boy,” a quiet voice suddenly whispered over him.

He thought it was all his mother, but no, not her; who called him, he does not see, but someone bent over him and hugged him in the darkness, and he held out his hand to him and ... And suddenly - oh, what a light! Oh, what a tree! And it’s not a tree, he hasn’t seen such trees yet! Where is he now: everything shines, everything shines and everything around is dolls - but no, these are all boys and girls, only so bright, they all circle around him, fly, they all kiss him, take him, carry him with them, yes and he himself flies, and he sees: his mother is looking and laughing at him joyfully.

- Mum! Mum! Oh, how nice it is here, mom! - the boy shouts to her, and again kisses with the children, and he wants to tell them as soon as possible about those dolls behind the glass. - Who are you boys? Who are you girls? He asks, laughing and loving them.

- This is the "Christ's tree" - they answer him. - Christ always has a Christmas tree on this day for little children who do not have their own Christmas tree ... - And he learned that these boys and girls were all the same as him, children, but some were still frozen in their baskets, in which they were thrown on the stairs to the doors of St. Petersburg officials, others suffocated at the chukhonki, from the orphanage for feeding, still others died at the withered bosom of their mothers, during the Samara famine, the fourth suffocated in third-class carriages from the stench, and all of them are now here, all of them are now like angels, all are with Christ, and He Himself is in their midst, and stretches out his hands to them, and blesses them and their sinful mothers ... And the mothers of these children all stand right there, on the sidelines, crying; each one recognizes her boy or girl, and they fly up to them and kiss them, wipe their tears with their hands and beg them not to cry, because they feel so good here ...

And downstairs in the morning the janitors found a small corpse of a boy who had run in and was frozen to death behind the firewood; they also found his mother ... She had died even before him; both met with the Lord God in heaven.

And why did I write such a story, which does not go so well in an ordinary rational diary, and even a writer? and he also promised stories mainly about real events! But that's the point, everything seems to me and it seems to me that all this could really happen - that is, what happened in the basement and behind the wood, and there about the Christmas tree at Christ's - I really don't know how to tell you , could it have happened or not? that's what I am a novelist, to invent.

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

A tall, evergreen tree of fate is hung with the blessings of life ... Careers, happy occasions, suitable games, winnings, cookies with butter, snaps on the nose and so on hang from bottom to top. Adult children crowd around the tree. Fate gives them gifts ...

- Children, which of you wants a rich merchant's wife? - she asks, taking off a red-cheeked merchant's wife from a branch, from head to toe strewn with pearls and diamonds ... - Two houses on Plyushchikha, three iron shops, one porter and two hundred thousand money! Who wants?

- To me! To me! - hundreds of hands reach out for the merchant's wife. - A merchant's wife for me!

- Do not crowd, children, and do not worry ... Everyone will be satisfied ... Let the young Aesculapius take the merchant's wife. A person who has devoted himself to science and enrolled in the benefactor of mankind cannot do without a couple of horses, good furniture, and so on. Take it, dear doctor! not at all ... Well, now the next surprise! Place on the Chukhlomo-Poshekhonskaya railway! Ten thousand salaries, the same amount of bonuses, three hours of work a month, an apartment of thirteen rooms, and so on ... Who wants to? You, Kolya? Take it, dear! More ... Housekeeper's place at the lonely Baron Schmaus! Ah, don't break it like that, mesdames! Have patience! .. Next! A young, pretty girl, daughter of poor but noble parents! Not a penny dowry, but honest, feeling, poetic nature! Who wants? (Pause.) Nobody?

- I would take, but there is nothing to feed! - the voice of the poet is heard from the corner.

- So nobody wants to?

- Perhaps, let me take it ... So be it ... - says a small, gouty old man, serving in the spiritual consistory. - Perhaps ...

- Zorina's handkerchief! Who wants?

- Ah! .. To me! Me! .. Ah! They crushed my leg! To me!

- Next surprise! A luxurious library containing all the works of Kant, Schopenhauer, Goethe, all Russian and foreign authors, a lot of old folios and so on ... Who wants to?

- I'm with! - says the second-hand bookseller Swineherd. - Pazhalte, sir!

The swineherd takes the library, selects for himself the "Oracle", "Dream Interpretation", "Writer", "Handbook for Bachelors" ... he throws the rest on the floor ...

- Next! Portrait of Okreits!

Loud laughter is heard ...

- Let me ... - says the owner of the museum Winkler. - It will come in handy ...

The boots go to the artist ... in the end the tree is ripped off and the audience disperses ... Near the tree there is only one employee of humorous magazines ...

- What is it to me? - he asks fate. “Everyone got a present, but I’d have something.” This is disgusting on your part!

- Everything was dismantled, nothing remained ... There was, however, one fig with butter ... Do you want?

- No need ... I'm already tired of these cookies with butter ... The cash desks of some Moscow editions are full of this stuff. Isn't there anything more essential?

- Take these frames ...

- I already have them ...

- Here is the bridle, the reins ... Here is the red cross, if you want ... Toothache ... Hedgehog mittens ... A month in prison for defamation ...

- I already have all this ...

- Tin Soldier, if you want ... Map of the North ...

The comedian waves his hand and goes home with the hope of a Christmas tree next year ...

1884

Christmas story

There are weather, when winter, as if angry with human weakness, summons a harsh autumn to its aid and works together with it. Snow and rain swirl in the gloomy, misty air. The wind, damp, cold, piercing, knocks on the windows and roofs with fierce malice. He howls in the pipes and cries in the vents. Longing hangs in the air, dark as soot ... Nature is muddied ... Damp, cold and creepy ...

The weather was exactly the same on the night before Christmas in 1888, when I was not yet in the prison companies, but served as an appraiser in the loan office of the retired captain Tupaev.

It was twelve o'clock. The pantry, in which, at the behest of the owner, I had my dwelling place at night and pretended to be a guard dog, was dimly illuminated by a blue lamp. It was a large square room, littered with knots, chests, shelves ... on the gray wooden walls, from the cracks of which disheveled tow peeped, hare coats, jackets, guns, paintings, sconces, a guitar hung ... I, obliged to guard this good at night, lay on a large red chest behind a showcase with precious things and looked thoughtfully at the lamp light ...

For some reason, I felt fear. The things stored in the pantries of the loan offices are scary ... at night, in the dim light of the lamp, they seem alive ... Now, when the rain was murmuring outside the window, and the wind howling in the oven and over the ceiling, it seemed to me that they were making howling sounds. All of them, before getting here, had to go through the hands of the appraiser, that is, through mine, and therefore I knew everything about each of them ... I knew, for example, that for the money I got for this guitar, powders for consumptive cough were bought ... I knew that a drunkard had shot himself with this revolver; my wife hid the revolver from the police, pawned it with us and bought a coffin.

The bracelet, looking at me from the window, was laid by the man who stole it ... Two lace shirts, marked with 178 No. illness, crime, corrupt debauchery ...

On the night before Christmas these things were somehow especially eloquent.

- Let us go home! .. - they cried, it seemed to me, along with the wind. - Let me go!

But it wasn't just things that aroused fear in me. When I poked my head out from behind the window and cast a timid glance at the dark, sweaty window, it seemed to me that human faces were looking into the pantry from the street.

“What nonsense! - I encouraged myself. - What stupid tenderness! "

The fact is that a person, endowed by nature with the nerves of an appraiser, was tormented by conscience on the night before Christmas - an incredible and even fantastic event. Conscience in the loan offices is only under the mortgage. Here it is understood as an object of sale and purchase, but other functions are not recognized for it ... It is surprising, where did it come from me? I tossed and turned from side to side on my hard chest and, screwing up my eyes from the flickering lamp, tried with all my might to drown out the new, unwelcome feeling in myself. But my efforts remained in vain ...

Of course, this was partly to blame for physical and moral fatigue after hard, whole-day work. On Christmas Eve, the poor crowded into the loan office in droves. On a great holiday, and in addition, in bad weather, poverty is not a vice, but a terrible misfortune! at this time the drowning poor man looks for a straw in the loan office and receives a stone instead ... for the whole Christmas Eve we had so many people that three quarters of the mortgages, for lack of space in the pantry, we were forced to carry to the barn. From early morning to late evening, without stopping for a minute, I bargained with rags, squeezed pennies and pennies out of them, looked at tears, listened to vain pleas ... by the end of the day I could hardly stand on my feet: my soul and body were exhausted. It's no wonder that now I was awake, tossed and turned from side to side and felt creepy ...

Someone knocked gently on my door ... Following the knock, I heard the owner's voice:

- Are you sleeping, Pyotr Demyanych?

- Not yet, but what?

- I, you know, wondering whether to open the door for us early tomorrow morning? The holiday is big and the weather is fierce. The poor will flood like a fly to honey. So you don't go to mass tomorrow, but sit at the checkout ... Good night!

“That’s why I’m so creepy,” I decided after the owner left, “that the lamp is flickering ... I must put it out ...”

I got out of bed and went to the corner where the lamp hung. The blue light, faintly flashing and flickering, apparently fought with death. Each glimpse for a moment illuminated the image, walls, knots, a dark window ... and in the window two pale faces, leaning against the glass, looked into the pantry.

"There is no one there ..." I reasoned. "It seems to me."

And when I, extinguishing the lamp, groped my way to my bed, there was a small incident that had a considerable influence on my further mood ... A loud, frantically squealing crackling suddenly, suddenly, was heard over my head, which lasted no longer than a second. Something cracked and, as if feeling a terrible pain, screamed loudly.

Then the fifth burst on the guitar, but I, seized with panic, plugged my ears and, like a madman, stumbling over chests and bundles, ran to the bed ... I buried my head under the pillow and, barely breathing, dying with fear, began to listen.

- Let us go! - howled the wind along with things. - For the sake of the holiday, let go! After all, you yourself are a poor man, you see! I experienced hunger and cold myself! Let go!

Yes, I myself was a poor man and knew what hunger and cold meant. Poverty pushed me to this damned appraiser position; poverty made me despise grief and tears for a piece of bread. If it were not for poverty, would I have had the courage to evaluate at a pittance what is worth health, warmth, and holiday joys? for what does the wind blame me, for what does my conscience torment me?

But no matter how my heart beat, no matter how fear and remorse tormented me, fatigue took its toll. I fell asleep. The dream was light ... I heard the owner knocking on me again, how they hit me for matins ... I heard the wind howling and the rain pounding on the roof. My eyes were closed, but I saw things, a shop window, a dark window, an image. Things crowded around me and, blinking, asked me to let them go home. On the guitar with a squeal, strings burst one after another, burst endlessly ... beggars, old women, prostitutes looked out the window, waiting for me to open the loan and return their things to them.

Through my sleep I heard something scrape like a mouse. It scraped for a long time, monotonously. I turned and cringed, because a strong cold and dampness blew on me. As I pulled the covers over myself, I heard rustling and human whispers.

“What a bad dream! I thought. - How creepy! I wish I could wake up. "

Something glass fell and shattered. A light flickered behind the window, and a light played on the ceiling.

- Don't knock! - there was a whisper. - Wake up that Herod ... Take off your boots!

Someone came up to the window, looked at me and touched the padlock. He was a bearded old man with a pale, wasted face, in a torn soldier's coat and in garters. A tall, thin guy with terribly long arms, in an oversized shirt and a short, torn jacket, came up to him. Both of them whispered something and fiddled around the shop window.

"They are robbing!" - flashed through my head.

Although I was asleep, I remembered that there was always a revolver under my pillow. I felt it softly and squeezed it in my hand. Glass clinked in the window.

- Hush, wake up. Then you have to jab.

Then I dreamed that I screamed in a chesty, wild voice and, frightened by my voice, jumped up. The old man and the young guy, their arms outstretched, pounced on me, but when they saw the revolver, they backed away. I remember that a minute later they stood before me pale and, tearfully blinking their eyes, begged me to let them go. The wind beat violently through the broken window and played with the flame of a candle lit by thieves.

- Your honor! - Someone spoke under the window in a crying voice. - You are our benefactors! Merciful!

I looked at the window and saw an old woman's face, pale, emaciated, soaked in the rain.

- Don't touch them! Let go! She cried, looking at me with pleading eyes. - Poverty after all!

- Poverty! - confirmed the old man.

- Poverty! The wind sang.

My heart sank with pain, and to wake up, pinched myself ... But instead of waking up, I stood at the window, took things out of it and frantically shoved them into the pockets of the old man and the guy.

- Take it, hurry! I gasped. - Tomorrow is a holiday, and you are beggars! Take it!

Filling the beggarly pockets, I tied the rest of the jewels in a knot and tossed them to the old woman. I handed the old woman a fur coat, a knot with a black pair, lace shirts and, by the way, a guitar, to the old woman. There are such strange dreams! Then, I remember, the door crackled. As if having grown out of the earth, the owner appeared before me, the district police officer, the policemen. The owner is standing next to me, but I don't seem to see and continue to knot.

- What are you, you scoundrel, doing?

- Tomorrow is a holiday, - I answer. - They need to eat.

Then the curtain falls, rises again, and I see new scenery. I'm no longer in the pantry, but somewhere else. A policeman walks around me, puts a mug of water for me at night and mutters: “Look! Look you! What I have in mind for the holiday! " When I woke up, it was already light. The rain no longer knocked on the window, the wind did not howl. The festive sun played merrily on the wall. The first one who congratulated me on the holiday was the senior policeman.

A month later I was tried. For what? I assured the judges that it was a dream, that it was unfair to judge a person for a nightmare. Judge for yourself, could I have given someone else's things for no reason to thieves and scoundrels? And where have you seen that to give things away without receiving a ransom? But the court took the dream for reality and condemned me. In the prison companies, as you can see. Can't you, your honor, put in a good word for me somewhere? Honestly, not guilty.

During the days of Christmas, the whole world, childishly freezing in anticipation of a miracle, looks into the winter sky with hope and trepidation: when will the same Star appear? For the closest and loved ones, friends and acquaintances, we prepare Christmas gifts. Nicaea also prepared a wonderful present for its friends - a series of Christmas books.

Several years have passed since the release of the first book in the series, but every year its popularity is only growing. Who doesn't know these cute little Christmas pattern books that have become an attribute of every Christmas? This is an always up-to-date classic.

Topelius, Kuprin, Andersen

Nicaea: a Christmas gift

Odoevsky, Zagoskin, Shakhovskoy

Nicaea: a Christmas gift

Leskov, Kuprin, Chekhov

Nicaea: a Christmas gift

It would seem, what could be interesting? All works are united by one theme, but as soon as you start reading, you immediately understand that each new story is a new story, not like all the others. Exciting celebration of the holiday, many destinies and experiences, sometimes difficult life trials and unchanging faith in goodness and justice - these are the basis of the works of the Christmas collections.

We can safely say that this series set a new direction in book publishing, rediscovered an almost forgotten literary genre.

Tatiana Strygina, compiler of Christmas collections The idea belongs to Nikolai Breev, general director of the Nikaia publishing house - He is the inspirer of the wonderful Easter News campaign: on the eve of Easter there is a distribution of books ... And in 2013 I wanted to make a special gift for readers - collections of classics for spiritual reading , for the soul. And then came the "Easter stories of Russian writers" and "Easter verses of Russian poets". The readers immediately liked them so much that it was decided to release Christmas compilations as well. "

Then the first Christmas collections were born - Christmas stories by Russian and foreign writers and Christmas poems. This is how the series "Christmas Gift" turned out, so familiar and beloved. From year to year, the books were reprinted, delighting those who did not have time to read everything last Christmas or wanted to buy as a gift. And then Nicaea prepared another surprise for its readers - Christmas collections for children.

We began to receive letters from readers asking them to publish more books on this topic, shops and churches were expecting new products from us, people wanted something new. We simply could not disappoint our reader, especially since there were still many unpublished stories. This is how the children's series was born first, and then the Christmas tales, ”recalls Tatiana Strygina.

Old magazines, libraries, funds, filing cabinets - the editorial staff of "Nikaia" works all year round to present their readers with a gift at Christmas - a new collection of the Christmas series. All authors are classics, their names are well-known, but there are also less well-known authors who lived in the era of recognized geniuses and were published with them in the same magazines. This is something that has been tested by time and has its own "quality guarantee".

Reading, searching, reading and reading again, - Tatiana laughs. - When in a novel you read a story about how New Year and Christmas are celebrated, it often does not seem to be the main point in the plot, so you do not focus on this, and when you plunge into the topic and start purposefully search, these descriptions, one might say, go by themselves. in hand. Well, in our Orthodox heart, the story about Christmas immediately resonates, immediately engraved in the memory. "

Another special, almost forgotten genre in Russian literature is the Christmas tales. They were published in magazines, publishers specially commissioned stories from famous authors. Christmastide is the period between Christmas and Epiphany. In Christmastide stories there is traditionally a miracle, and the heroes happily do the difficult and wonderful work of love, overcoming obstacles, and often the intrigues of "evil spirits".

According to Tatyana Strygina, in the Christmas literature one comes across stories about fortune-telling, and about ghosts, and incredible afterlife stories ...

These stories are very interesting, but it seemed that they didn’t fit the festive, spiritual theme of Christmas, they didn’t fit with other stories, so they had to just put them aside. And then we nevertheless decided to publish such an unusual collection - "Scary Christmas stories".

This collection includes Christmas "horror stories" of Russian writers, including little-known ones. The stories are united by the theme of Christmastide - mysterious winter days, when miracles seem possible, and the heroes, having endured fear and calling out to all that is holy, dispel the obsession and become a little better, kinder and bolder.

The theme of the scary story is very important from a psychological point of view. Children tell each other horror stories, sometimes adults also like to watch a horror movie. Every person experiences fear, and it is better to experience it with a literary hero than to get into a similar situation himself. Scary stories are believed to compensate for the natural feeling of fear, help overcome anxiety and feel more confident and calm, ”Tatiana emphasizes.

I would like to note that an exclusively Russian theme is a harsh winter, a long sleigh ride, which often becomes deadly, swept roads, blizzards, snowstorms, Epiphany frosts. The tests of the harsh northern winter gave vivid plots to Russian literature.

The idea of ​​the collection "New Year and Other Winter Stories" was born from Pushkin's "Snowstorm", - says Tatiana. - This is such a poignant story that only a Russian person can feel. In general, Pushkin's "Snowstorm" left a huge mark on our literature. Sollogub wrote his "Snowstorm" with an allusion to Pushkin's; Leo Tolstoy was haunted by this story, and he also wrote his "Snowstorm". The collection began with these three "Snowstorms", because it is an interesting topic in the history of literature ... But only the story of Vladimir Sollogub remained in the final composition. The long Russian winter with Epiphany frosts, snowstorms and blizzards, and the holidays - New Year, Christmas, Christmastide, which fall at this time, inspired writers. And we really wanted to show this feature of Russian literature ”.

Christmas stories of Russian writers / comp. T.V. Strygina. - M.: Nikeya, 2017 .-- 432 p. - (A Christmas gift).

Christmas stories in Russian literature are an almost forgotten phenomenon. The years of Soviet power tried to erase from the consciousness of the Russian people the feeling of a miracle and the holiday of Christmas. But the memory remained, and modern writers still returned to it in their works. And this collection is a vivid confirmation of this.
What do the Christmastide stories tell about? In Christmas tales, there is traditionally a miracle, and heroes overcome trials with the strength of spirit and love, do good, despite the obstacles of the outside world. This book contains stories of classic writers such as A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, N. Gogol, N. Leskov, A. Kuprin, I. Shmelev and stories of contemporary prose writers such as N. Klyuchareva, O. Nikolaeva, V. Kaplan , B. Ekimov, N. Agafonov, K. Parkhomenko and others.

Regarding the genre features of the Christmastide story (and they were created strictly according to certain literary canons), the Russian writer Nikolai Leskov said precisely: fantastic, had some kind of moral ..., and finally, so that it certainly ends merrily. "

And this is confirmed by the intriguing story of Nikolai Leskov about the family jewel "Pearl Necklace" or the fatal love intrigue of the protagonist in the story of Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky "A Terrible Fortune-telling", or the journey of blacksmith Vakula, full of dangers, for the cherviches for beloved Oksana from Nikolai Gogol's story "The Night Before Christmas ", The phantasmagoric story of Alexander Kuprin" Millionaire "about the thirst for wealth" a little man "and the illusion of achieving this golden dream. Memories of Ivan Shmelev, written in distant emigration, in the stories "Christmas and Christmastide" about the anticipation of Christmas in early childhood, about home preparations for the holiday and about those poor and unfortunate people who were welcomed by the writer's hospitable family these days. Nikolai Pozdnyakov's Christmas stories "On a Hair" and "Revolver" show the facets of the human personality, fatal deeds, for which one is then ashamed.

The story of Archpriest Nikolai Agafonov "Werewolf" tells about the celebration of Christmas by monks in a poor revived monastery, about prejudices and about a real Christmas miracle of mercy and love. The story "The Readers" illuminates the complex life story of Sergei Avdeev, a former chanter and cathedral reader, whose once amazing voice led one of the seminarians to deep faith. Boris Yekimov's Christmas story "For Warm Bread" shows the lonely old age of two elderly people and hopeless poverty, the lack of necessary things. And, despite the fact that grandfather Arkhip's trip to the city for coal turns into disappointment and resentment, the taste of fresh bread revives him and returns the desire to live. Vasily Kaplan's piercing story "Learning with a Star" plunges us into the era of the criminal 90s, a difficult path to the faith of one of the heroes and finding simple human happiness through suffering. Did the physics teacher Mikhail Nikolaevich, returning from the night Christmas service, think that life would soon present him with a terrible surprise, but God's providence would be stronger than the fierce laws of life?

In the Christmastide excerpt from the story "It's okay" by Olesya Nikolaeva, the story of rejection, hatred and love of two pure and beautiful young people - Anastasia and Alexei - is shown. Disagreements over the subtleties of faith, prejudices and doubts for a very long time prevented two lovers from finding their happiness. And they would never have been reunited, if not for one criminal circumstance. And in Maxim Yakovlev's Christmas story "Kalyamka" the main character, a little boy from an orphanage, taken into a foster family, really wants to know: is Santa Claus sitting under a thuja in the garden and what is in his bag. The discovery shocked little Kalyamka so much that already elderly Nikolai Petrovich cannot forget this episode from his distant childhood. In the story "An Accidental Gift", the protagonist stands at a crossroads: to help a boy begging for alms or to pass by indifferently. And if he helps, then what will happen ...?

The stunning short story "Yurkino Christmas" by our compatriot Natalya Klyuchareva shows the tragedy of a drinking family and the forgotten schoolboy Yurka. The lesson life taught him made his heart cold and cruel. And only a Christmas tree can melt this deep ice…. And the Yuletide story of Archpriest Konstantin Parkhomenko "Christmas miracle at the Arctic Circle" tells about the amazing journey to Yakutia of a St. Petersburg student Suzy and her desire to help a boy dying of leukemia. What trials awaited the inexperienced traveler Suzy, and what a miracle shocked her - the author of this mystical novel tells very vividly and fascinatingly about this. Larisa Podistova's story "Christmas, Mom" ​​is dedicated to the relationship between mother and son, and its main meaning is that good must be done in time, and parents must be loved while they are alive. In the story of the priest Alexander Shantaev "On a holiday" and "Katya's dream" Christmas appears as a miracle of transformation of life, giving a warm light of hope. Sergei Durylin's stories "In the Native Corner" and "The Fourth Magus" - children's touching memories of the holiday of Christmas and the wonderful discoveries associated with it, about the light of the human soul, about unearthly joy and hope that it will always be like this.

The collection of Christmastide stories by Russian writers is very light, emotional and kind. The topics covered in it are eternal and will never lose their relevance. And the bright holiday of Christmas after reading this book will become closer and more desirable.

V In recent years, Christmas and Yuletide stories have become widespread. Not only collections of Christmastide stories written before 1917 are published, but their creative tradition has begun to revive. Of the recent - in the pre-New Year issue of the Afisha magazine (2006), 12 Christmastide stories were published by contemporary Russian writers.

However, the very history of the emergence and development of the genre form of the Christmastide story is no less fascinating than its masterpieces. An article by Elena Vladimirovna DUSHECHKINA, Doctor of Philology, Professor of St. Petersburg State University, is dedicated to her.

The Christmas story is absolutely required to be timed to coincide with the events of the Christmas Eve - from Christmas to Epiphany, so that it is somehow fantastic, has some kind of moral, even like a refutation of a harmful prejudice, and finally - that it must end merrily ... the story, being in all its framework, can nevertheless be modified and present a curious variety, reflecting in itself both its time and mores.

N.S. Leskov

The history of the Christmastide story can be traced in Russian literature for three centuries - from the 18th century to the present, but its final formation and flowering is observed in the last quarter of the 19th century - during the period of active growth and democratization of periodicals and the formation of the so-called "small" press.

It is the periodical press, due to its timed to a certain date, that becomes the main supplier of calendar "literary products", including the Christmas story.

Of particular interest are those texts in which there is a connection with oral folk Christmastide stories, for they clearly demonstrate the methods of assimilating oral tradition in literature and "oliteraturing" folklore plots, meaningfully related to the semantics of folk Christmastide and the Christian holiday of Christmas.

But the essential difference between the literary Christmastide story and the folklore story lies in the nature of the depiction and interpretation of the culminating Christmastide episode.

The attitude to the truth of the incident and the reality of the characters are an indispensable feature of such stories. Supernatural collisions are not characteristic of the Russian literary Christmas story. A plot like Gogol's "Christmas Nights" is quite rare. Meanwhile, it is the supernatural that is the main theme of such stories. However, what may seem supernatural, fantastic to the heroes, most often gets a very real explanation.

The conflict is not built on the collision of a person with the otherworldly evil world, but on that shift in consciousness that occurs in a person who, due to certain circumstances, doubted his disbelief in the other world.

In humorous Christmastide stories, so characteristic of the "thin" magazines of the second half of the 19th century, the motive of a meeting with evil spirits is often developed, the image of which appears in a person's mind under the influence of alcohol (cf. the expression "get drunk to hell"). In such stories, fantastic elements are used unrestrainedly and, one might even say, uncontrollably, since their realistic motivation justifies any phantasmagoria.

But here it should be borne in mind that literature is enriched by a genre, the nature and existence of which give it a deliberately anomalous character.

As a phenomenon of calendar literature, the Christmas story is tightly connected with its holidays, their cultural life and ideological problems, which prevents changes in it, its development, as required by the literary norms of the new time.

Before the author, who wants or - more often - who has received an order from the editors to write a Christmas story for the holiday, there is a certain “warehouse” of characters and a given set of plot moves, which he uses more or less masterly, depending on his combinatorial abilities.

The literary genre of the Christmastide story lives according to the laws of folklore and ritual "aesthetics of identity", focusing on the canon and the stamp - a stable complex of stylistic, plot and thematic elements, the transition of which from text to text not only does not irritate the reader, but, on the contrary, gives him pleasure.

It must be admitted that most of the literary Christmastide stories do not have high artistic merit. In the development of the plot, they use long-established techniques, their problems are limited to a narrow circle of life problems, which, as a rule, come down to clarifying the role of chance in a person's life. Their language, although it often claims to reproduce lively colloquial speech, is often poor and monotonous. However, the study of such stories is necessary.

First, they directly and visibly, in view of the nakedness of the techniques, demonstrate the methods of assimilation of folklore subjects by literature. Already being literature, but at the same time continuing to perform the function of folklore, consisting in influencing the reader with the entire atmosphere of his artistic world, built on mythological representations, such stories occupy an intermediate position between oral and written traditions.

Secondly, such stories and thousands of others like them make up the literary body that is called mass fiction. They served as the main and constant "reading matter" of the ordinary Russian reader, who was brought up on them and formed his artistic taste. Ignoring such literary production, one cannot understand the psychology of perception and the artistic needs of a literate but still uneducated Russian reader. We know quite well "big" literature - the works of great writers, classics of the 19th century - but our knowledge about it will remain incomplete until we can imagine the background on which big literature existed and on the basis of which it often grew ...

And finally, thirdly, Christmastide stories are samples of almost completely unexplored calendar literature - a special kind of texts, the consumption of which is timed to coincide with a certain calendar time, when only their therapeutic effect on the reader becomes possible, so to speak.

For qualified readers, the stamping and stereotypical nature of the Christmastide story was a drawback, which was reflected in the criticism of the Christmastide production, in the declarations about the crisis of the genre and even its end. Such an attitude to the Christmastide story accompanies it almost throughout its literary history, testifying to the specificity of the genre, whose right to a literary existence was proved only by the creative efforts of major Russian writers of the 19th century.

Those writers who could give an original and unexpected interpretation of a "supernatural" event, "evil spirits", "Christmas miracles" and other components fundamental to Christmastide literature were able to go beyond the usual cycle of Christmastide plots. Such are Leskov's "Christmastide" masterpieces - "Selected Grain", "Little Mistake", "Darnter" - about the specifics of the "Russian miracle". Such are also the stories of Chekhov - "Vanka", "On the Way", "Woman's Kingdom" - about a possible meeting on Christmas that never took place.

Their achievements in the genre of the Yuletide story were supported and developed by Kuprin, Bunin, Andreev, Remizov, Sologub and many other writers who turned to him to once again, but from their own point of view, in a manner characteristic of each of them, remind the general reader of the holidays highlighting the meaning of human existence.

And yet the mass Christmas products of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, supplied to the reader at Christmas by periodicals, are limited by worn-out methods - stamps and templates. Therefore, it is not surprising that already at the end of the 19th century, parodies began to appear both on the genre of the Christmastide story and its literary life - writers writing Christmastide stories and readers who read them.

The upheavals of the beginning of the 20th century - the Russo-Japanese War, the Troubles of 1905–1907, and later - the First World War - unexpectedly gave a new breath to the Christmastide story.

One of the consequences of the social upheavals of those years was an even more intensive growth of the press than it was in the 1870s and 1880s. This time he had not so much educational as political reasons: parties are being created that need their publications. "Christmas editions", as well as "Easter" ones, play an essential role in them. The main ideas of the holiday - love for one's neighbor, compassion, mercy (depending on the political attitude of the authors and editors) - are combined with a variety of party slogans: either with calls for political freedom and the transformation of society, or with demands for the restoration of "order" and pacification of "turmoil ".

The Christmas numbers of newspapers and magazines from 1905 to 1908 give a fairly complete picture of the balance of power in the political arena and reflect the nature of changes in public opinion. So, over time, the Christmas tales become darker, and by Christmas 1907 the old optimism disappears from the pages of the “Christmas issues”.

The processes that took place within literature itself also contributed to the renewal and raising of the prestige of the Yuletide story during this period. Modernism (in all its ramifications) was accompanied by the growing interest of the intelligentsia in Orthodoxy and in the spiritual sphere in general. Numerous articles on various religions of the world and literary works based on a wide variety of religious and mythological traditions appear in magazines.

In this atmosphere of gravitation towards the spiritual, which has engulfed the intellectual and artistic elite of St. Petersburg and Moscow, Christmastide and Christmas stories turned out to be an extremely convenient genre for artistic treatment. Under the pen of the modernists, the Christmastide story is modified, sometimes significantly moving away from its traditional forms.

Sometimes, as, for example, in the story of V.Ya. Bryusov's "The Child and the Madman", it provides an opportunity for depicting mentally extreme situations. Here, the search for the baby Jesus is conducted by “marginal” heroes - a child and a mentally ill - who perceive the Bethlehem miracle not as an abstract idea, but as an unconditional reality.

In other cases, Christmastide works are based on medieval (often apocryphal) texts, in which religious moods and feelings are reproduced, which is especially characteristic of A.M. Remizov.

Sometimes, due to the recreation of the historical setting, a special flavor is given to the Christmastide plot, as, for example, in the story of S.A. Auslander "Christmastide in Old Petersburg".

The First World War gave Christmastide literature a new and very characteristic turn. The writers who were patriotic at the beginning of the war transfer the action of traditional plots to the front, tying together the military-patriotic and Christmas-tree themes in one knot.

Thus, over the three years of wartime Christmas issues, many stories have appeared about Christmas in the trenches, about the "wonderful intercessors" of Russian soldiers, about the experiences of a soldier striving home for Christmas. A mocking play on the "Christmas tree in the trenches" in the story of A.S. Bukhov is quite consistent with the state of affairs in the Yuletide literature of this period. Sometimes special editions of newspapers and "thin" magazines are published for Christmas, such as the humorous "Christmastide in Positions", published by Christmas 1915.

The Christmastide tradition finds its own application in the era of the events of 1917 and the Civil War. In the newspapers and magazines that had not yet been closed after October, many works appeared sharply directed against the Bolsheviks, which was reflected, for example, in the first issue of the Satyricon magazine in 1918.

Later, in the territories occupied by the troops of the White movement, works using Christmastide motives in the fight against the Bolsheviks are encountered quite regularly. In publications published in cities controlled by the Soviet government, where attempts to preserve an independent press at least to some extent have ceased since the end of 1918, the Christmas tradition is almost dying out, occasionally reminding itself of itself in the New Year's issues of humorous weeklies. At the same time, the texts published in them play on individual, most superficial motives of Christmastide literature, leaving aside the Christmas theme.

In the literature of the Russian diaspora, the fate of the Christmastide literature turned out to be different. An unprecedented in the history of Russia, the flow of people beyond its borders - to the Baltic states, to Germany, to France and more distant places - carried away with it both journalists and writers. Thanks to their efforts, already from the beginning of the 1920s. in many emigration centers, magazines and newspapers are being created, which in the new conditions continue the traditions of the old magazine practice.

Opening the issues of such publications as "Smoke" and "Rul" (Berlin), "Latest News" (Paris), "Zarya" (Harbin) and others, you can find numerous works and major writers (Bunin, Kuprin, Remizov, Merezhkovsky) , and young writers who appeared mainly abroad, such as, for example, V.V. Nabokov, who created several Christmastide stories in his youth.

The Christmas stories of the first wave of Russian emigration represent an attempt to infuse into the “small” traditional form of experience of Russian people who tried in a foreign language environment and in difficult economic conditions of the 1920s – 1930s. preserve their cultural traditions. The environment in which these people found themselves, in itself contributed to the conversion of writers to the Yuletide genre. The expatriate writers may well have avoided inventing sentimental plots as they encountered them in their daily lives. In addition, the very orientation of the emigration of the first wave towards tradition (preservation of language, faith, rituals, literature) corresponded to the orientation of Christmas and Yuletide texts towards the idealized past, towards memories, towards the cult of the hearth. In emigrant Christmastide texts, this tradition was also supported by an interest in ethnography, Russian life, and Russian history.

But in the end, the Yuletide tradition in émigré literature, as well as in Soviet Russia, fell victim to political events. With the victory of Nazism, Russian publishing activity in Germany was gradually eliminated. The Second World War brought with it similar consequences in other countries. The largest emigration newspaper "Latest News" already in 1939 stopped publishing Christmas stories. The editors, apparently, were prompted to abandon the traditional "Christmas issue" by the feeling of the inevitability of an impending catastrophe, even more terrible than the trials caused by previous conflicts on a global scale. After a while, the newspaper itself, as well as the more right-wing Renaissance, which printed calendar works even in 1940, were closed.

In Soviet Russia, a complete fading of the tradition of the calendar story did not happen, although, of course, the number of Yuletide and Christmas works that arose at the turn of the century did not exist. This tradition was to a certain extent supported by New Year's essays (prose and poetry) published in newspapers and fine magazines, especially for children (the newspaper Pionerskaya Pravda, the magazines Pioner, Vozhaty, Murzilka and others). Of course, in these materials, the Christmas theme was absent or was presented in a highly deformed form. At first glance it may seem strange, but it is precisely with the Christmas tradition that the Christmas tree in Sokolniki, so memorable to many generations of Soviet children, is connected with the essay of V.D. Bonch-Bruevich “Three attempts on V.I. Lenin ”, first published in 1930.

Here Lenin, who came to a village school in 1919 for a Christmas tree, with his kindness and affection clearly resembles the traditional Santa Claus, who always brought children so much joy and fun.

One of the best Soviet idylls, the story of A. Gaidar "Chuk and Gek", seems to be connected with the tradition of the Christmas story. Written in the tragic era of the late thirties, with unexpected sentimentality and kindness so characteristic of a traditional Christmas story, it recalls the highest human values ​​- children, family happiness, the comfort of the home, echoing in this Dickens' Christmas story "Cricket on the Stove."

The Christmastide motives and, in particular, the Christmastide motif inherited from the folk Christmastide by Soviet mass culture, and above all by children's educational institutions, merged more organically with the Soviet New Year's holiday. It is on this tradition that, for example, the films "Carnival Night" and "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath" by E.A. Ryazanov, a director, of course, endowed with sharp genre thinking and always perfectly sensing the audience's needs for festive experiences.

Another soil on which calendar literature grew was the Soviet calendar, which was regularly enriched with new Soviet holidays, starting from the anniversaries of the so-called revolutionary events and ending especially in the 1970s – 1980s. professional holidays. It is enough to turn to the periodicals of that time, to newspapers and thin magazines - "Ogonyok", "Rabotnitsa" - to make sure how widespread were the texts associated with the Soviet state calendar.

Texts with the subtitles "Christmas" and "Christmas" stories have practically fallen out of use in Soviet times. But they were not forgotten. In the press, these terms were encountered from time to time: the authors of various articles, memoirs and works of fiction often used them in order to characterize sentimental or far from reality events and texts.

This term is especially often found in ironic headings such as "Ecology - not Christmas stories", "Not at all a Christmas story", etc. The memory of the genre was also kept by the intelligentsia of the old generation, who were brought up on it, reading in childhood issues of "Heartfelt Word", sorting through the files of "Niva" and other pre-revolutionary magazines.

And now the time has come when calendar literature - Christmastide and Christmas stories - again began to return to the pages of modern newspapers and magazines. This process has become especially noticeable since the late 1980s.

How can this phenomenon be explained? There are several factors to note. In all areas of modern life, there is a desire to restore the broken connection of times: to return to those customs and forms of life that were forcibly interrupted as a result of the October Revolution. Perhaps the key moment in this process is the attempt to revive the feeling of “calendar” in modern man. The need to live in the rhythm of time is inherent in man by nature, within the framework of a conscious annual cycle. The fight against "religious prejudices" in the 1920s and a new "production calendar" (five days), introduced in 1929 at the 16th party conference, canceled the Christmas holiday, which was quite consistent with the idea of ​​destroying the old world "to the ground" and building a new one. The consequence of this was the destruction of tradition - a naturally formed mechanism for the transmission of the foundations of the way of life from generation to generation. Nowadays, much of what has been lost is returning, including the old calendar rituals, and with it, the "Christmastide" literature.

LITERATURE

Research

E.V. Dushechkina Russian Christmas story: the formation of the genre. - SPb .: Publishing house of SPbSU, 1995.

E.V. Dushechkina Russian Christmas tree: History, mythology, literature. - SPb .: Norint, 2002.

Baran Henrik. Pre-revolutionary holiday literature and Russian modernism / Authorized translation from English by E.R. Squires // Poetics of Russian Literature of the Early 20th Century. - M., 1993.

Texts

Christmas stories: Stories and poems of Russian writers [about Christmas and Christmas]. Compilation and notes by S.F. Dmitrenko. - M .: Russian book, 1992.

Petersburg Christmas story. Compilation, introductory article, notes by E.V. Dushechkina. - L .: Petropol, 1991.

The Miracle of Christmas Night: Christmas Tales. Compilation, introductory article, notes by E.V. Dushechkina and H. Baran. - SPb .: Fiction, 1993.

The Star of Bethlehem: Christmas and Easter in Poetry and Prose. Compilation and introduction by M. Pismenny. - M .: Children's literature, 1993.

Christmas stories. Preface, composition, notes and dictionary by M. Kucherskaya. - M .: Children's literature, 1996.

Yolka: A book for small children. - M .: Horizon; Minsk: Aurika, 1994. (Reissue of the book in 1917).