4. Main events of political history
The political history of the Seleucids was determined by the main factors mentioned above. Already Antiochus I had to conduct military operations both in Asia Minor and in southern Syria. In Asia Minor, he defeated the Galatians (278-277 BC), for which he received the title of "Savior" (Soter). War elephants played the most important role in this victory. Less successful was his war with the Ptolemies (First Syrian War -274-271 BC). Although Antiochus's ally, the Macedonian king Antigonus Gonat, managed to neutralize the actions of the powerful Egyptian fleet, Antiochus, who waged a land war, failed to achieve any serious success. Ptolemy II retained all his possessions in southern Syria and even expanded his zone of influence in Asia Minor. By the end of the reign of Antiochus I, Pergamum became completely independent.
In the reign of Antiochus II - the successor of Antiochus I - the Second Syrian War broke out. Information about her in the sources is extremely fragmentary. Antiochus II managed to somewhat expand the boundaries of his possessions in Asia Minor and South Syria. At this time, the situation in the East changed dramatically. Around 250 BC e. there is a falling away from the central government of Bactria and Parthia. The reasons for this lie in the change in the general line of the Seleucid policy. Seleucus I and Antiochus I paid great attention to these areas. New cities were actively built here, the borders were strengthened, for example, a wall was built that surrounded the entire Merv oasis. However, in the future, the center of gravity of the Seleucid policy shifted to the West and the eastern satrapies began to be considered by the government only as an object of exploitation, obtaining funds for conducting an active policy in the West. The Greek and Macedonian population of these satrapies could not come to terms with this, since the situation here was also quite complicated (the threat of nomadic invasions, the growth of discontent among the local population), and further continuation of the short-sighted, from their point of view, policy of draining money and human resources could lead to disaster - the fall of the power of the Greek-Macedonians in these satrapies. The fate of the fallen satrapies develops in different ways. An independent kingdom is created on the territory of Bactria, which is usually called Greco-Bactria. In Parthia, the development of the political situation was sharply complicated by the intervention of the nomads of the Parnian confederation. Parns led by Arshak invaded Parthia. In the ensuing struggle, the satrap Andragora died, and the satrapy came under the rule of Arshak. Thus, two independent states appeared on the eastern territories that previously belonged to the Seleucids.
The Seleucid state experienced very severe upheavals at the very end of the reign of Antiochus II. When the king, at the end of the Second Syrian War, concluded a peace treaty with Egypt, as a guarantee of friendship between the two states, a marriage was concluded between Antiochus and Ptolemy's daughter Berenice. In order to marry an Egyptian princess, Antiochus had to divorce his first wife, Laodice, with whom he already had two sons. After the death of Antiochus II, a fierce dynastic struggle begins between the supporters of Laodice and Berenice. Berenice and her newly born son were killed, and Laodice's son Seleucus II had no rivals. However, Ptolemy intervenes in this struggle and the so-called Third Syrian War, or "War of Laodice", begins. Taking advantage of the dynastic strife that reigned in the Seleucid state, Ptolemy captures all the most important cities in Syria, including the capital of the state, Antioch on the Orontes. Seleucus II (246-225 BC) with great difficulty managed to restore his power. Based on an alliance with the rulers of Pontus and Cappadocia, he recaptured most of the cities captured by Egypt. However, he failed to return Seleucia in Pieria - the main base of the Seleucid fleet - and the port of Antioch on the Orontes. The further reign of Seleucus II was filled with a struggle with his younger brother Antiochus Hierax ("vulture"), who claimed power in the state. In the end, Hierax was killed by his own mercenaries, and Seleucus II soon died.
After the brief reign of Seleucus III, the throne passed to the youngest son of Seleucus II, Antiochus III (223-187 BC). The time of his reign is the time of the highest rise of the Seleucid state, but at the same time the beginning of its fall. The political situation in the first years of the reign of Antiochus III was very difficult. In Asia Minor, power belonged to Achaeus, a relative of Antiochus, who apparently had some reason to claim the royal title. He, however, ceded the throne to Antiochus without a fight, receiving in return power over Asia Minor, which he ruled as an independent ruler. In the East, the satrap of Media Molon and his brother Alexander, the satrap of Persia, rebelled against the central government.
Having suppressed the rebellion of Molon, Antiochus III was able to act in the south, the Fourth Syrian War (219-217 BC) began. The Seleucid army returned Seleucia to Pieria, military operations were successfully deployed in Phoenicia and Palestine. However, in a decisive battle at Raphia (217 BC), the Seleucid army was completely defeated. As a result, Antiochus III lost all acquisitions in Syria, with the exception of Seleucia in Pieria.
In the years that followed, Antiochus III led military operations in Asia Minor, where he eventually succeeded in crushing the power of Achaea. Achaeus himself was captured during the siege of Sardis and put to a painful execution. Having thus consolidated his power, Antiochus III launched the famous eastern campaign (212-205 BC), the purpose of which was to restore the power of the Seleucids over the lost eastern provinces. Media served as the base for this campaign. For getting Money on the orders of Antiochus, the temple of Anahita in Ecbatana was robbed, which gave a huge amount of 4,000 talents. The result of the campaign was the conquest of Parthia and Greco-Bactria, which, however, retained their statehood as vassal kingdoms in relation to the Seleucids. Then the army of Antiochus crossed the Hindu Kush and invaded India; an agreement was concluded with the local king Sophagasen, according to which Antiochus received Indian war elephants. The Seleucid army made its way back through the territory of Southern Iran. Antiochus strengthened the position of his state in the Persian Gulf, from Persia he carried out an expedition to Arabia. Antiochus himself attached such great importance to this campaign that after its completion he took the title of "Great".
After the end of this campaign, Antiochus III again returned to the problem of relations with the Ptolemies. Based on an alliance with Macedonia, Antiochus was able to capture southern Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine, and somewhat later a number of cities belonging to the Ptolemies in Asia Minor.
It was at this time that Antiochus III encountered Rome. Before that, he had already captured Thrace and supported all those in Greece who were dissatisfied with the Roman power. The Romans began, in turn, to prepare for a confrontation with Antiochus. A period of diplomatic and propagandistic confrontation lasted for some time. Roman diplomacy turned out to be more successful: Pergamon, Rhodes and, most importantly, Macedonia, which had recently been defeated by the Romans, and Antiochus especially counted on its support, became allies of Rome. In 192 BC. e. direct military clashes began. They took place on the territory of Greece, where the Seleucid army landed. However, miscalculations in the policy of Antiochus III led to the fact that only the Aetolians became his allies. The army of Antiochus III was defeated at Thermopylae. The war was moved to Asia Minor. Here Antiochus was finally defeated at the Battle of Magnesia on Maeander (190 BC). Unable to resist further, he accepted the conditions dictated by the Romans: he renounced almost all Seleucid possessions in Asia Minor, all warships (except 10) and war elephants were given to Rome. In addition, within 12 years it was necessary to pay Rome a huge indemnity of 15 thousand talents.
Experiencing extreme financial difficulties, Antiochus III decided to remedy the situation in an already tried and tested way: to rob the local temples in Elimande, which caused an uprising of the local population, during which Antiochus himself died. The disintegration of the state recreated by Antiochus III began immediately. Greco-Bactria and Parthia again separated from the Seleucid state, Persis fell away, unrest began in many areas.
From the book Jews in Mstislavl. Materials for the history of the city. the author Tsypin VladimirPart 14. Main events in the history of Mstislavl and its Jewish community
From the book Ancient Sumer. Cultural essays author Emelyanov Vladimir Vladimirovich From the book History of Ancient Greece author Andreev Yury Viktorovich1. The main facts of political history The boundary that marked for Greece and Macedonia the end of the period of struggle of the Diadochi and the establishment of a certain stability was the invasion of the Celts (Galatians), which swept the Balkan Peninsula in 280-277. BC e. Celts
From the book History of Portugal author Saraiva José ErmanuMain events This situation gave rise to conflicts and clashes, the analysis of which is usually left out of the course brief history. However, it is necessary to indicate the main events of the revolutionary period: the government of Palma Carlos, "gonsalvism", the resignation of Spinola, March 11, elections
From the book Failed Capitals of Russia: Novgorod. Tver. Smolensk. Moscow author Klenov Nikolai ViktorovichChapter 3 Greatness and fall of Smolensk. Essay on the history of ethnic self-consciousness of the Smolensk land in the context of its political history The battle is going on at our walls. Will shameful captivity await us? Better blood from our veins Let's give it to the people. Robert Burns. Bruce to the Scots Alas and ah but for
authorThe main events of life 1728 - I. I. Polzunov was born in the Urals. 1748 - I. I. Polzunov arrived with a group of Ural mining specialists at Kolyvano - Resurrection factories of Altai. 1754 - I. I. Polzunov creates in Zmeinogorsk the first hydropower plant in Russia
From the book Russian scientists and inventors author Artemov Vladislav VladimirovichThe main events of life 1866 - Nine-year-old K. E. Tsiolkovsky fell ill with scarlet fever and, due to complications in his ears, almost lost his hearing. 1873 - Father sent K. E. Tsiolkovsky to Moscow for self-education and improvement. 1879 - K. E. Tsiolkovsky passed as an external student
From the book Russian scientists and inventors author Artemov Vladislav VladimirovichThe main events of the life of 1816 - N. I. Lobachevsky, at the age of 23, becomes a professor. 1816–1817. - N. I. Lobachevsky first approached the question of the axiom of parallels. 1819 - N. I. Lobachevsky was elected dean of Kazan University. 1822 - N. I. Lobachevsky
From the book Russian scientists and inventors author Artemov Vladislav VladimirovichThe main events of life 1821 - P. L. Chebyshev was born. 1837 - P. L. Chebyshev became a student at Moscow University. 1847 - P. L. Chebyshev was invited to
From the book Russian scientists and inventors author Artemov Vladislav VladimirovichThe main events of life 1850 - S. V. Kovalevskaya was born. 1869 - S. V. Kovalevskaya settled in Heidelberg, where she persistently studied science. 1874 - The famous mathematician K. Weierstrass filed a petition for the award
From the book Russian scientists and inventors author Artemov Vladislav VladimirovichThe main events of life 1862 - A. A. Inostrantsev entered St. Petersburg University at the Department of Natural Sciences of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty. 1867 - A. A. Inostrantsev graduated from the university and took PhD thesis"Petrographic essay
From the book Russian scientists and inventors author Artemov Vladislav VladimirovichThe main events of life 1859 - N. V. Sklifosovsky graduated from the medical faculty of Moscow University. 1863 - N. V. Sklifosovsky defended his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. 1866 - N. V. Sklifosovsky was sent abroad for two years. 1866 - N.V.
From the book Russian scientists and inventors author Artemov Vladislav VladimirovichThe main events of life 1861 - Eighteen-year-old K. A. Timiryazev entered St. Petersburg University. 1868 - K. A. Timiryazev made his first experiments on air nutrition of plants, which he reported at the I Congress of Naturalists in St. Petersburg. 1868 - K. A.
From the book of Athena: the history of the city author Llewellyn Smith MichaelChronology. Major events in Athenian history ca. 4000 BC e. - Stone Age settlement on the Acropolis. XIV-XIII centuries. BC e. - Settlement of the Mycenaean culture. Palace and fortifications on the Acropolis. Approx. 620 BC e. - Aristocratic laws of the Dragon. Ok. 594 BC e. - Economic and
From the book When Egypt ruled the East. Five centuries BC author Steindorf GeorgMajor Events in Egyptian History Most dates in Egyptian chronology are approximate. Dates for the period covered by this edition are established by synchronization with events in Western Asia, but Assyriologists are currently
From book Golden Horde: myths and reality author Egorov Vadim LeonidovichThe main stages of the political history of the Golden Horde Having completed the bloody aggressive campaigns, the Mongol detachments, weighed down by huge convoys with looted goods and countless crowds of prisoners, settled at the end of 1242 in the vast steppes between the Danube and the Ob. New
Rejection of traditional Christian ideas about the purpose of human life, about the structure of society Creation of a completely new, non-religious picture of the world The idea of history as a progressive movement towards the public good, that is, towards PROGRESS
Particular popularity of the Encyclopedia in Russia years - 29 collections (St. Petersburg, Moscow) In France, the Encyclopedia was read and discussed by provincial nobles, wealthy bourgeois, notaries, and teachers. It is these sections of society that will play the most prominent role in the preparation of the French Revolution.
2. AND HISTORICAL EPOCH French Revolution years "Declaration of the rights of man and citizen" Jacobins - political club Convention - body of revolutionary self-government Robespierre
Russia Catherine II the Great Paul I Alexander I Russia enters into a military confrontation with Napoleonic France years Tilsit peace treaty 1812
Secret anti-government societies Their goal is to adopt a constitution and limit autocracy "Union of Salvation" () "Union of Welfare" () Northern and Southern Societies December 14, 1825, Senate Square in St. Petersburg - armed uprising
The reign of Nicholas I The uprising for the independence of Poland, years, Warsaw Peasant riots Censorship Strengthening the power of the state bureaucracy Serfdom Crimean War ()
The proletariat enters the historical stage "Capital" Karl Marx "Union of Communists" (1847) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (1848). Revolutionary destruction of the old world order, creation of a new civilization, a utopian kingdom of proletarian happiness Terrorism "People's Will". Alexander II () Peasant reform of 1861 Local self-government system (zemstvo) Reform of the court, army March 1, 1881 Alexander III ()
International (late 1860s) American Civil War ()
3. CULTURE AND ECONOMY The development of capitalism The fate of man does not depend on his origin, but above all on his own will, energy, and individual qualities. Dependence on money. Wealth becomes an instrument of power. Money is starting to rule the world. Literary studies became an independent profession. Writers have become dependent on reader demand for their books.
TECHNICAL DISCOVERIES 1783 - flight to hot-air balloon brothers Montgolfier Early 19th century - the first paddle steamer was built 1825 - the first railway was laid 1831 - Michael Faraday discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction - the first round-the-world trip led by I.F. Kruzenshtern - Russian explorers and sailors first set off for the shores of Antarctica
1863 - the world's first underground line was launched (London) 1876 - American Alexander Bell received a patent for a telephone set 1897 - Alexander Popov begins work on creating a wireless telegraph American Thomas Edison improved the telegraph and telephone, invented the phonograph (1879) German engineer Rudolf Diesel created an engine internal combustion German designer Count Zeppelin - airship The Eiffel Tower in Paris is a symbol of the technological achievements of mankind. 123 meters - height, weight - 9 thousand tons a year
N AUKA - N.I. Lobachevsky turned over ideas about the nature of space 1869 - the periodic law of chemical elements. D.I. Mendeleev Frenchman Louis Pasteur developed vaccines against anthrax (1881) and rabies (1885)
4. AND ART AND LITERATURE Ludwig van Beethoven () Fryderyk Chopin () Giuseppe Verdi () G. Berlioz ()
F.G OYA ()
K ARL B RYULLOV ()
ALEXANDER IVANOV ()
P AVEL FEDOTOV ()
P.I. Tchaikovsky () M.P. Mussorgsky ()
X Wanderers I. Kramskoy () I. Repin () A. Surikov () V. Vasnetsov () I. Levitan ()
The historical epoch in which the creators of the early Russian classics happened to live and which in many ways shaped them was revolutionary, explosive, and heroic. Its meaning was the triumph of enterprise over nobility, individualism over class ethics, novelty over tradition. Ho, bringing hope for the renewal of society, the state and man, this era ended with a deep crisis, a general disappointment in the idea of progress.
As we have already said, it was preceded by the philosophical search of the encyclopedists. And the French Revolution of 1789-1793 laid the immediate start. Now, from our historical distance, it is difficult to understand how global the changes that she brought with her were. If you compare it with something, then not even with an earthquake, but with a grandiose volcanic eruption, after which everything starts to move, everything changes. Where once there were fertile lands, a scorched desert remains, and where there was a wasteland, the springs begin to beat and greenery appears; former peaks disappear, and new mountains are born. And if we switch to a dry, but more precise language of abstract concepts, then the revolution led to a sharp change in historical structures.
So what happened? From the course new history you know the details. And we will only briefly recall the events that had a decisive influence on the development of Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century (we will find mention of them in almost all the works that we will read together).
By the early 1790s, the French feudal-aristocratic state had exhausted its possibilities. It literally went bankrupt. King Louis XVI was forced to convene the Estates General, which until then had played no real role. The Estates General declared themselves first the National and then the Constituent Assembly, which was called upon to establish a new state system for bourgeois France, to bring the third estate to power. On July 14, 1789, in response to the king’s attempt to dismiss the deputies home, the elements spilled onto the streets: an uprising began, culminating in the capture of the Bastille prison-fortress and marking the beginning of a new, revolutionary era in the history of France, and indeed of all Europe.
And on August 26 of the same year, the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen” was adopted, proposing simple, clear and generally accessible formulas for a new way of life. “People are born and remain free and equal in rights”, property rights are unshakable and sacred, the personal freedom of a citizen is limited only by the rights of another person. Freedom of opinion was proclaimed, including political and religious, and the rule of law was declared over class privileges. These formulas took into account the postulates of the "Declaration of Independence" of the North American United States - a new state that was formed in 1776 on the site of former European colonies and for the first time challenged all generally accepted state traditions. What was happening in the North American States was followed with intense attention in different time and Goethe and Pushkin.
After the king and his wife Marie Antoinette were executed in January 1793, the revolution finally threw off the liberal mask. The Jacobins - that was the name of the political club whose members came to power in the Convention, an organ of revolutionary self-government - began to destroy their political opponents. Very soon, the dictatorship of the leader of the Jacobins, Robespierre, who eventually fell under the knife of the guillotine himself, led the country into a bloody dead end. She was unexpectedly led out of this impasse by the young Corsican general Napoleon Bonaparte, who took full power into his own hands and, step by step, made his way from a revolutionary dictator (1799) to consul for life (1802), and then crown emperor (1804).
The revolution has returned to the point it left; the republic again gave way to the empire. But it was already another empire, another monarchy. Napoleon seemed to be redirecting revolutionary energy in a new direction. He began the redistribution and conquest of the world; the Napoleonic Wars, which reshaped political map Europe, struck the imagination of contemporaries. It seemed to them that one person could not do this, that Napoleon had some kind of mystical, supernatural power; many directly called him the Antichrist. One way or another, but in 1811 most of Europe was part of France.
These events took place in the very center of Western Europe. And what was happening in Russia at the same time?
At the end of the 18th century, she tried to fence herself off from revolutionary storms. Last years the reign of Catherine II the Great (after the suppression of the Pugachev uprising in 1774) was a time of golden blissful stagnation; never before and never since has the Russian nobility felt so calm and confident. At the same time, the empress herself was well aware that serious changes in state and public life could no longer be avoided. Reassuring the nobility, endowing them with more and more privileges, she secretly considered legislative reforms that would have to overtake the imminent revolution, produce it "from above".
Catherine II pinned her special hopes on her grandson, the future Emperor Alexander I Pavlovich; her plans, however, were destroyed by a sudden death in 1796. Paul I, who reigned after her, could not find a common language with the nobility, and in the end, in 1801, he fell victim to a conspiracy. Having become an unwitting participant in parricide, Alexander I at the beginning of his reign tried to clear the historical rubble, prepare the ground for serious reforms, but stopped halfway.
There are many reasons for this. One of them is that Alexandrov's Russia from the very beginning entered into a confrontation with Napoleonic France and was forced to spend precious forces on a series of military conflicts of 1805-1807. They ended with the Tilsit peace treaty, humiliating for Russia. But by 1812, when Napoleon declared a new war on her, Russia had managed to accumulate the moral and military forces for victory; Patriotic War became one of the main events of Russian history. The dates and names of the main battles of 1812 have forever entered Russian cultural use: August 4-5 - the battle for Smolensk, August 26 - the Battle of Borodino, September 1 - the council in Fili, September 4-6 - a fire in Moscow, November 14-16 - battle near the Berezina River, December 14 - the final expulsion of the "great army" from Russia and the beginning of the war for the liberation of Europe.
Young officers, who returned from the European campaign and inspired by the victory, hoped that Alexander I would finally fulfill Catherine's dream, start the revolution "from above". But the time allotted by history for peaceful reforms Russian authorities wasted; a series of national liberation uprisings in Europe and Asia Minor in the early 1820s forced Alexander to “freeze” reforms until better times, which, alas, never came.
Young Russian nobles, not waiting for the renewal of the country from the monarchy, began to unite in secret anti-government societies, the ultimate goal of which was to adopt a constitution and limit autocracy. (Some relied on a republican form of government, others on a constitutional monarchy.) Early organizations - the "Union of Salvation" (1816-1817) and the "Union of Welfare" (1818-1821) were transformed into the Northern and Southern Societies, which on December 14, 1825 organized an armed performance on the Senate Square in St. Petersburg. Blood spilled; the performance was suppressed by troops who remained loyal to the new Tsar Nicholas I.
The reign of Nicholas I, which began tragically, with the suppression of the uprising and the execution of five Decembrists, became one of the most controversial eras in modern Russian history. Possessing a sound mind and a strong character, Nicholas did everything to correct the mistakes of the previous reign. In the second half of the 1820s he waged successful wars in the east of the empire; energetically ruled the country, rigidly defended its interests (as he understood them). But already in 1830-1831 there was a series of military-political upheavals, from which Russia emerged internally weakened and bitter.
In November 1830, an uprising for the independence of Poland broke out in Warsaw, which by the summer of 1831 was brutally suppressed by the Russian army. At the same time, peasant riots took place in military settlements; relations with Europe sharply worsened, especially with France. Having inherited from his elder brother Alexander I whole line unsolvable problems, Nicholas I hastened to change the internal policy of Russia, cracking down on the emerging public opinion, tightening censorship, and strengthening the power of the state bureaucracy.
The emperor did not delve into the problems facing the thinking part of the non-governmental intelligentsia, he drove social diseases inside. The policy of isolation from the "dangerous" West, infected with revolutionary ideas, ultimately led Russia to a dead end. And the main problem of a multimillion-strong country - serfdom - has not been resolved. The Crimean War (1853-1856), shameful for the Russian Empire, became a sad result of the reign of Nicholas.
The social atmosphere that formed the next generation of Russian classics, from Ivan Goncharov to Anton Chekhov, was completely different from the atmosphere of the era that fell to the lot of Karamzin, Pushkin, Gogol. In the 1840s, Russian society (at least the educated part of it) was seized by feelings of disappointment and social apathy; many topical problems could not be discussed aloud - and the writers worked out the Aesopian language, learned to talk about painful things with the help of hints, allegorically. Something similar happened in the West.
A series of social upheavals in France (1830, 1848) eventually led to the restoration of the monarchy: the grandson of Napoleon I Bonaparte, more than conservative Napoleon III, came to power. With the accession of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), a long and magnificent Victorian era began in Great Britain - a time of triumph of traditional values that proved their resistance to the onslaught of social movements. The Poles' dream of national independence was not realized, the Germans' hopes for the creation of a single state from disparate principalities were in vain. (Only Prince Bismarck, who in 1871 will become Chancellor of Germany, will be able to solve this problem.) Slavic and Finno-Ugric peoples - Serbs, Czechs, Bulgarians, Magyars, Finns - under the influence of romantic ideas and military-political upheavals of the 19th century, realized themselves as full-fledged nations . That is, historical communities of people who are united not only by historical roots, but also by state borders, and literary language, and cultural traditions. However, they never managed to free themselves from foreign domination, did not gain the long-awaited state independence from powerful empires: the Ottoman ports (present-day Turkey), Austria-Hungary, and Russia.
Meanwhile, under the cover of political reaction, both in the West and in Russia, processes that were important and very dangerous for the fate of mankind were taking place. Just as in the second half of the 18th century the third estate, the bourgeois, entered the historical stage, so in the second half of the 19th century the proletariat, the poorest and least qualified part of the working class, declared its claims to a special role in history. The clever and firm leaders of the revolutionary movement took advantage of this. First of all, the outstanding German political economist and philosopher, author of the monumental work Capital, Karl Marx. The idea of social justice took possession of the minds, and under the slogan of protecting the professional rights of workers, the "Union of Communists" (1847) was created, for which Marx, together with the publicist Friedrich Engels, wrote the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (1848).
In this Manifesto, for the first time, the task of the revolutionary destruction of the old world order was clearly and clearly stated and a supra-historical goal was proclaimed: the creation of a new civilization, a utopian kingdom of proletarian happiness. Humanity will pay for this dream in the 20th century with tens of millions of innocent lives, bloody upheavals, but already in the 19th century, under the influence of revolutionary ideas, a new phenomenon arose that was destructive and did not recognize national borders - terrorism.
Secret terrorist organizations were formed in Russia as well. One of them, Narodnaya Volya, passed judgment on Emperor Alexander II (he ruled the country from 1855 to 1881). Meanwhile, the king sought to renew the country, rid it of long-term and even centuries-old, chronic diseases. He not only carried out the great Peasant Reform of 1861, abolishing serfdom, but also introduced a system of local self-government (it was called the Zemstvo), reformed the court and the army. After the suppression of the second Polish uprising (1863-1864), Alexander II somewhat slowed down the course of reforms, fearing the growth of radical sentiments. And all the same: it was he who prepared Russia for the new realities of political, economic, intellectual life, which she had to face at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.
Ho revolutionary terrorists little worried about the future of the country; they demanded to change the present - and immediately; the gradual improvement of the Russian order did not suit them, they were steadily pushing Russia towards chaos. Therefore, a number of attempts were made on the life of Alexander II (1866, 1867); since 1879, the secret terrorist organization "Narodnaya Volya" began to hunt for him - and on March 1, 1881, the emperor died at the hands of terrorists. Moreover, according to legend, the tsar was mortally wounded on the very day when he decided to set in motion the constitutional project, which was supposed to introduce constitutional-monarchical rule in autocratic Russia, that is, change it radically.
So the Russian revolutionaries stopped the peaceful process of state evolution. The next ruler of the country, Alexander III (reign: 1881-1894), recoiled in horror from political reforms, which in his mind were firmly associated with the growth of revolutionary unrest. He managed to "freeze" the revolutionary ferment in Russian society for some time and redirected his state energy from the political to the economic plane. However, having chosen a policy of counter-reforms, strengthening the role of the police, local and central bureaucracy, the tsar involuntarily repeated the mistake of the late Nicholas I: he did not heal the state, but drove the disease inside.
Being a talented and large-scale leader of the country, he hoped that the rapid growth of industry (the successes of Alexander III and his administration were very impressive in this area) by itself, without political reforms, would pull Russia up and eliminate the social ground of anti-government mentality. The tsar wanted to raise the patriotic spirit of the population, relying on officers, merchants, prosperous peasants, merchants ...
But as a result, the Russian revolutionaries only hid, learned the art of conspiracy and began preparing for the coming upheavals. revolutionary movement has long become an international phenomenon: in the late 1860s, the international organization Internationale arose, which coordinated the activities of labor movements in different countries. Hopes that internal Russian measures would be able to put out the world fire forever were naive. As for patriotic ideas, during the reign of Alexander III, the a fine line between healthy national feeling and morbid nationalism; Jewish pogroms broke out more than once in the south.
Important events also took place outside the European continent; one of the main ones is the US Civil War (1861-1865) between North and South. The southerners were in favor of maintaining the principles of slavery, the northerners were against it; the meaning of the Civil War was the struggle for the path that America will take in the 20th century, the path of individual rights and civil liberties or the path of slavery and racism ...
Such was the historical background of the literary achievements, the study of which we have to study.
Zhukovsky and Batyushkov opened up rich opportunities for expressing the inner world of the individual. At the same time, there were also negative sides style of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov. The poetic style shunned the direct and precise expression of feelings. For transmission psychological states stable verbal formulas (« best color”, “Sweetness of life”, “Past days”, for example, etc.), the danger of pretentious, cutesy, mannered language was indicated. Instead of a simple, clear and energetic style, a metaphorical one took root.
Since the genres of elegies, messages, ballads, reflecting the feelings of the “inner man”, became central in the poetry of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov, they directly affected public emotions only partially. The task of artistic comprehension of the national character was not solved. This was immediately noticed by the Decembrist poets, who sought to rely not on European models, but on the traditions of Russian and Slavic verbal culture.
They contrasted the tradition of Karamzin, developed by Zhukovsky and Batyushkov, with the tradition of Lomonosov and Derzhavin, a smoothed, harmonious language - Slavicisms and archaisms borrowed from chronicles, Church Slavonic texts, vernacular and colloquial speech.
Polemic about poetic language opened Pavel Aleksandrovich Katenin(1792-1853) - a talented Decembrist poet, playwright and critic. Dissatisfied with the "Russian" ballads of Zhukovsky, he gave his samples - "Olga", "Natasha", "The Killer", "Leshy", etc. Katenin was attracted by Russian antiquity, national subjects.
Unlike Zhukovsky, Katenin brought to the fore the epic beginning - the national-historical characteristic of Olga's feelings. The poet strove to turn the ballad into a monumental genre, filling it with a serious national-historical content. He also stood up for the plausibility of feelings, for the popular nature of literature. Katenin was one of the first to feel that the reflection of national life in poetry rests on the problem of language, because neither national history nor national color could be conveyed, in his opinion, by the poetic style of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov. His position was subsequently supported by the Decembrist poet, critic and playwright VC. Küchelbecker(1797-1846). Kuchelbecker defends the archaic language traditionally prepared in Russian poetry to express high civic feelings.
Fiction in the eyes of the Decembrists was a powerful means of civic education. Many of them were themselves outstanding poets and possessed a literary talent, which they forced to serve high public interests and, above all, to awaken a sense of freedom among the Russian nobility.
Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleev(1795-1826) - the most prominent Decembrist poet. He wrote accusatory and civil odes, political elegies and epistles, "thoughts" and poems.
When Ryleev said about himself: “I am not a Poet, but a Citizen,” he did not mean at all the opposition of civic activity to the field of a poet or artist of “pure art”, on the one hand, and inspired by social ideas, on the other. According to Ryleev, the poet considers poetry to be his life's work, and this work is no worse than any other. For Ryleev himself, poetry is not art, but a direct expression of "living feelings", therefore, to arouse lofty patriotic feelings, to captivate contemporaries to heroic deeds, does not mean to be a poet. Poetry is only one of the means of eloquent manifestation of civic sentiments.
All Decembrists adhered to similar views with various deviations. But since they were nevertheless involved in art and understood perfectly well that social influence not least depends on art, on the skill of performance, and not only on noble public intentions, they were keenly interested in the problems of literary development. Moreover, purely literary tasks often found themselves in the thick of the ensuing ideological disputes.
The Decembrists were zealous supporters of romanticism and greatly contributed to its victory. They associated with the concept of romanticism the upbringing of civil, patriotic feelings. Therefore, unlike Zhukovsky, they put forward a national-historical and civil-heroic theme. At the same time, the true content of art for romantics is the soul, its impulses and feelings. For Zhukovsky, the world of the soul is the world of personal aspirations; for Zhukovsky, a person is mainly occupied with self-education. Zhukovsky, the poet, cares first of all about improving the moral potential of the individual, ennobling the person, instilling in him humane concepts and feelings.
Without denying the self-education of the individual, the Decembrists relied mainly on public education. The high moral qualities of a person, they argued, are born in civil history. Intimate experiences, no matter how significant, are still too narrow. The betrayal of a beloved, the loss of a close friend, the death of a loved one, the experience of painful loneliness that gives rise to sadness are quite legitimate, but insufficient, because the essence of a person lies in his social deeds. That is why civil and patriotic passions, without ceasing to be personal experiences, according to the Decembrists, are much more worthy of expression in poetry than other passions.
The Decembrists countered psychological romanticism with a completely different range of topics, motives, and situations. Military glory, heroic feat for the good of the motherland, denunciation of tyrants poetic word, fidelity to public duty - these are the themes of their poetry. At the same time, the Decembrists, in the spirit of their ideas, rework the characteristic genres of romantic poetry. Thus, Ryleev, in his message to Vera Nikolaevna Stolypina, rethought the traditional genre of the elegiac message. The event that formed the basis of the message is tragic and sad: Stolypina, the daughter of N. S. Mordvinov, respected by the Decembrists, lost her husband, A. A. Stolypin, who sympathized with the advanced nobles. However, Ryleev does not write an elegiac message, but a civil catechism. He avoids elegiac meditations and fills the poem with "educational" pathos, a passionate appeal. He sees in the heroine not a beloved, stricken with misfortune, not a friend separated from her beloved, but a mother of the family endowed with civic feelings. The poet appeals to the "sacred duty" of a woman. He deliberately rejects traditional elegiac feelings. In a moment of grief, he awakens public sentiments in the addressee of the poem:
sacred debt to you
To form wonderful children.
The heroine of the message appears as a convinced Decembrist, a like-minded poet, only temporarily desperate, but able to overcome misfortune. Therefore, instead of an elegiac message, Ryleev creates an invitingly pathetic poem with its inherent oratorical turns.
According to the civic lesson, the poetic vocabulary, usually inherent in the elegiac message, also changes: the poem widely includes socio-political vocabulary (“sacred duty”, “fellow citizens”), words and phrases of the “high” style unusual elegy (“chad”, “mouth” and etc.). At the same time, the personal character of the civic theme does not disappear.
The restructuring of the established genres also concerned the genre of love elegy. In the poem “You wished to visit, my friend ...” Ryleev deliberately recreates the typical situation of a love elegy: here is a “secluded corner”, and a soul exhausted “in the fight against a fatal disease”, and a romanticized image of a beloved (“Your dear look, your gaze is magical"), and the hero-sufferer. Here, characteristic elegiac formulas and intonations and even the rejection of happiness arise, although the hero and heroine feel mutual attraction.
However, the cause of this failed love is not the betrayal of the hero or heroine, not the disappointment of the hero in love or in his beloved, but the civic passion that has taken possession of him, in the name of which he rejects love in the days when “the fatherland suffers” and when “the soul ... is one wants freedom."
Thus, a civil theme invades the love elegy, motivating the behavior of the hero. Thus, the Decembrists expanded the scope of traditional genres, filling them with new content. The genre of elegy gained the opportunity to express not only intimate, but also civil feelings.
Among the Decembrists there was no common understanding of romanticism. Decembrist romanticism not only rejected the principles of lyrical subjectivism developed by Zhukovsky, but also adopted his achievements.
Ryleev, unlike Katenin, focused on the psychology of the national character, on the expression of civic passions that fill the soul. Therefore, in order to transmit them, he involuntarily turned to Zhukovsky, to his situations and vocabulary. In general, he uses the language introduced by the Karamzinists.
Depending on the point of view on the object of study and the ongoing processes, the historical epochs may not be in the same order as the ordinary people are used to. Moreover, even the zero reference point can be placed in a very unusual place.Countdown start
What is "History"? History is what is recorded. If any event is not recorded, but is transmitted orally, then this is a tradition. Accordingly, it would be reasonable to assume that historical epochs concern only that period of the existence of human civilization, when writing was already invented. This is one of the important factors that separate historical eras from geological ones.
Following these arguments, the beginning of the countdown of historical eras will start from the moment of the invention of writing. But at the same time, the tradition of writing should not be interrupted.
In particular, there are samples of writing that date back to the age of 8 and 7.5 thousand years. But they did not continue, but were just local manifestations of the power of the human intellect. And these letters have not yet been deciphered.
The first records deciphered to date appeared in Egypt, approximately 5.5 thousand years ago. These are clay tablets that were in burial places. The names of the dead were written on them.
This writing has not been interrupted in time.
From this moment, the order of counting historical epochs begins.
Historical eras in chronological order
In each isolated region of the Earth, writing appeared in its own historical period. We will analyze the closest culture to us - European. And its origins, through the Cretan civilization, go back to Ancient Egypt.Please note that considering Ancient Egypt as an ancestral home European culture, we are isolated from geographical landmarks. According to the "Theory of Civilizations" prof. A. D. Toynbee, these structures have the ability to develop, give life to other civilizations, in some cases fade away or be reborn into other cultures.
This means that the beginning of the chronology of historical eras will be the middle of the Eneolithic.
1. Ancient world, with a total duration of approximately 3,000 years, including:
· The Copper Age ended approximately 3700 years ago.
The Bronze Age. Ended 3100 years ago.
The Iron Age. Lasted until 340 BC.
· Antiquity. With the fall of Rome in 476, the era of the Ancient World ended.
2. Middle Ages. It continued until approximately 1500 (duration ≈1000 years). The beginning of the end of the Middle Ages was marked by:
· Massive migration of the educated part of the population from Byzantium to Europe.
The fall of Tsargrad in 1453.
· Emergence of the Renaissance. Perhaps it was this factor that was the foundation on which the modern capitalist civilization was formed, with its vices.
3. New time. This era lasted for about 400 years, and ended at the end of 1917 with the October Socialist Revolution. During this time, the cultural and moral state of society has undergone incredible metamorphoses.
If at the beginning of the New Age in the center of the worldview ordinary person there was a God who created man, the whole world, and in general, was the measure of all things. That passing the era
· Renaissance, the works of Thomas Aquinas, theology began to be perceived as an ordinary scientific discipline, not tied to God. Then, the champion of Rationalism, Descartes, proclaimed the postulate: "I think, therefore I am." And in the final, G. Cherbury concluded that Christianity is a common philosophical doctrine. This was the beginning of Deism. Then followed
A drop of oil in the fire of reformatting consciousness was added by Voltaire, who argued that it was not God who created man, but man invented God. This marked the beginning of a schizoid split in the minds of an entire civilization. After all, on Sundays everyone went to church, and there they confessed that they were sinful and unworthy. But the rest of the days, they were equal to God.
And although now people began to be considered the measure of all things, people began to feel the lack of a spiritual and mystical component in their lives. And appeared on the threshold
The era of Romanticism. The mind was pushed to the sidelines, and feelings and emotions began to dominate, which replaced spirituality. Hence the irresistibility, the desire for risk. Duels were almost legalized. The image of a "noble savage" was formed.
Feerbach ended this period with the postulate: "Feelings are nothing, the main thing is to eat tasty and satisfying." And then it was the turn of the emancipation of women. Meanwhile, ontologically they are the keepers of traditional values.
4. The latest time. This period continues to this day, almost a hundred years.
Curious patterns
According to the calculations of prominent scientists, during each of the above epochs, ≈ 10 billion people managed to live on the planet. But the phenomenon of compression of historical time, with each epoch, reduced its duration by 2.5-3 times.
There are suggestions that for the transition of mankind to a new formation, a certain amount of knowledge and technological innovations must accumulate, which in turn lead to a qualitative leap.
Prof. S. Kapitsa, derived the population growth formula for the entire planet: N(t)=200 billion /(2025-t). Where N is the population at a given time, and t is given time. Two constants: 2025 and 200 billion people, were obtained by several scientists independently of each other.
This formula allows you to build such a graph of population growth on Earth:
And it coincides with the data on the population, which historians provide with varying accuracy.
According to this concept, S. Kapitsa argued that approximately in 2025, there should be a certain phase transition in the development of human civilization, which will be accompanied by global changes in all spheres of life.
