Pushkin scholar Cherkashina comes from Volkovysk

Pushkin scholarCherkashina comesfrom Volkovysk

Larisa Cherkashina, literary critic and historian of literature, is a leading Russian Pushkin scholar. She was born in Belarus, in Grodno Region. She often comes to different places of this Belarusian region full of blue rivers and lakes. She knows very well not only Grodno, but also Vitsebsk and Polotsk. Larisa Andreyevna follows the life of Belarus with interest. Our conversation with the Russian writer is about this, about different Belarusian addresses.

L—Larisa Andreyevna, your origins, it is more than a hundred years old. There is War he was the commissar of the partisan your native land is in Volkovysk, Belarus. also a former military hospital, near Volya detachment; in his peaceful life he was How close are you to Belarus! Do you ofStreet, where I was born. This memorable the principal of the Polotsk Pedagogical ten visit the places where you were born, trip would hardly have been made if my College named after Francis Skaryna. He spent your childhood? brother and I hadn’t been invited to partici‑ was awarded the title of Honorary Citi‑ — V olkovysk is my favorite city. It’s my pate in the 27th International Book Fair in zen of Polotsk. He was on friendly terms homeland, and it speaks for itself. The win‑ Minsk, which was held in the framework with many Belarusian writers and poets, dow to the world. Along with the date of of the Year of Our Small Motherland, de‑ in particular with People’s Poet of Belarus birth, Volkovysk is imprinted not only in clared in Belarus. Grigory Borodulin. He had a large library my passport, but in my heart, no matter My childhood was spent in Shchuchin, and liked to read me poems in Belarusian. how pompous it sounds. When I am asked Slonim, Smorgon, Baranovichi. Father — Y ou are engaged in literary studies. where I was born, I answer: in the same city Andrey Cherkashin commanded the regi‑ And you probably don’t deal much with with Cinderella. However, I have to explain ment, and we often moved to the place of Belarus… But maybe there are some bindthat the wonderful actress Janina Żejmo, his service. He “got acquainted” with Bela‑ ing threads in your work that are somehow the best Cinderella on the screen, comes rus during the Great Patriotic War, liberat‑ connected with Belarus? from my Volkovysk. ed it from the Nazis — in February 1944 he — First of all, it is Alexander Ser‑ And she visited Volkovysk just recent‑ was seriously injured near Vitsebsk. geyevich Pushkin, our Slavic genius. Sev‑ ly, in February this year. Together with my …I went to the first grade in Smorgon. eral years ago I published a book “Pushkin brother, marine writer Nikolay Cherkashin, Five years ago together with the broth‑ t ravels. From Moscow to Erzurum.” There is also a native of Volkovysk. On Zenitchikov er I visited Smorgon and we were photo‑ a chapter on Belarusian Pushkiniana in it. Street there is still our house, made of stone, graphed at our school, — t he same-looking —Larisa Andreyevna, while studying photo was made in those distant years in the life and work of Alexander Sergeyevich which I — the first grader, the brother — Pushkin, do you pay attention to literary the third grader, are both in school uni‑ local history? forms, with school -b ags in our hands. It is —Yes, and I like it when ancient, figu‑ kept in our family album. ratively speaking, prayed-in manors are Before I did not know that I lived in such transformed. Here’s an example. a historic city, especially famous for its resil‑ In the vicinity of the famous Boldino ience during the First World War. Famous manor, where Alexander Sergeyevich spent writers fought near Smorgon: Mikhail Zos‑ three truly miraculous autumns, in the vil‑ hchenko, Konstantin Paustovsky, Valentin lage of Lvivka there is an ancient house, which Kataev. The daughter of Lev Tolstoy, Al‑ wa s inherited by Pushkin’s widow Natalya exander, stayed as a sister of mercy on the Nikolayevna, and then her eldest son Alex‑ battle positions. It is surprising that my own ander. For many years this house was bare, grandfather, Mikhail Romanovich Sokolov unin habited! And relatively recently it was also fought near Smorgon in 1916… decided to develop it into a branch of the me‑ When my husband’s parents were alive, morial estate and to house in it the Museum I often visited them in Polotsk. My father o f Literary Heroes “Belkin’s Stories”: thus, a Presentation of the Homer Diploma in Crete. in-law, Pyotr Kupriyanovich Patsey, was a room of the count from the story “Shot” ap‑ On the right is the writer's brother Nikolay wonderful man: during the Great Patriotic peared — there is a real dueling pistol on the Cherkashin. Heraklion, 2019.

table, above it there is a picture with a small hole, as if penetrated by apt Silvio; an office of the landlord of Goryukhino village with all stationery; Mariya Gavrilovna’s bedroom from “The Blizzard” with a small bundle collected for escape with his beloved; Liza Muromskaya’s room from “Lady -Peasant Woman”. It is so interesting and informative to visit Pushkin’s characters!

And the museum staff are planning to restore an old windmill in Maloye Boldino, to create stylized estates of Troyekurov and Dubrovsky. When ideas come true, it is wonderful!

— D o you know Pushkin’s addresses in Belarus well?

— I do , but I haven’t visited them all. First of all, it’s Mogilev.

On the evening of August 7, 1824, Pushkin, after leaving Odessa and having covered hundreds of miles along the roads of Malorossiya, reached this Belarusian city. At the post station the poet was wel‑ comed by his ardent admirers — officers of hussar regiments, stationed in Mogilev. The friendly feast, which began immediately at the station house, continued at the apart‑ ment of Kutsynsky, cornet of the Lubensky Hussar Regiment. Alexander Sergeyevich, according to the recollections of eyewit‑ nesses, read poems, and was heard with adoration by the brave hussars. More than one bottle of champagne was cracked that night, and in the morning, the whole cheer‑ ful company accompanied the poet.

At five o’clock in the morning Pushkin left the hospitable Mogilev. That same day he passed by Orsha and Polotsk…

The eldest son of the poet and his dar‑ ling, Alexander Pushkin, was in the ser‑ vice in Byelorussia. In the late 1860s, Al‑ exander Alexandrovich’s family moved to Novogrudok, Minsk Province, where the 13th Narva Hussar regiments, one of the most famous and oldest in Russia, was sta‑ tioned. And in June, 1870 Alexander Push‑ kin becomes its commander.

In ancient Novogrudok, “the regiment was rewarded for the inconveniences of the previous life,— wrote the regimental histo‑ rian A. N.Tikhanovsky.— Once the capital city of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania met the most sophisticated demands, the regi‑

In the memorial apartment of Pushkin on Arbat. In the center is Sergey Klimenko, a Belarusian descendant of the poet, Larisa and A ndr ey Cherkashin. Moscow, 1988.

ment enjoyed life a lot, and the appointment o f colonel Alexander Alexandrovich Push‑ kin as its commander, complemented one o f the happiest periods of regimental life”.

In the regimental chronicle new exact and vivid lines appeared: “The son of the famous poet, whose name Russia is proud of, Colonel Pushkin, being at the head of the ancient regiment, was an ideal of a gen‑ tleman -commander.”

In that distant June there was a joyful event in the Pushkin family: baby Pyotr was born! But the boy — he became the eighth child and the third son of Alexander Alexandrovich — lived quite a short time: in December of the same year a grave ap‑ peared at the old cemetery. The lines carved out on a rock-boulder read: “Baby Pyotr Pushkin was born on June 9, 1870 died on November 6, 1870”.

The grave of the poet’s grandson, whose earthly life was so short, survived in spite of the two World Wars, that in the last cen‑ tury ran through Belarus, sweeping away fortresses, towns and castles on their way… And there is a piece of land which remained untouched in the orthodox part of the old cemetery in Novogrudok, where the infant son was lamented by Colonel Alexander Pushkin and his wife, beloved Sonechka. There are also tombs of the deceased Hus‑ sar Rotmasters and Lieutenants, retired counselors and collegiate secretaries…

As if making up for the loss, after Pyotr two daughters, Nadezhda and Vera, and son Sergey were born in the Pushkin fam‑ ily. But the life of their kindest mother was coming to an end: after catching a cold in April 1875 in Vilno, where the regiment was stationing, Sophia Alexandrovna died.

Very soon the museum -estate “Lopasn‑ ya-Zachatayevskoe” (the town of Chekhov near Moscow) will host an exhibition dedi‑ cated to her memory. In the same place near the estate, which is called the “Push‑ kin’s Nest”, because the poet’s grandsons grew up there, she and her husband, com‑ bat general Alexander Pushkin, were bur‑ ied in the family church.

But let’s go back to Belarus. Very impor‑ tant Pushkin addresses, or rather addresses of the poet’s grandsons and great-grand‑ sons never seen by him, are the follow‑ ing — Bobruisk, Telusha, and Vavulich (now the village of Dubovka). The poet’s granddaughter Natalya Pushkina moved to her husband’s estate Vavulichy immedi‑ ately after her marriage to Pavel VorontsovVelyaminov, a brave officer who served in her father’s regiment. They got married in 1881 in the Church of the Righteous Anna’s Conception in Lopasne.

Natalya Alexandrovna used to live in Belarusian Vavulichi for many years. She painted well, mostly landscapes, wrote po‑ ems, but, bearing in mind the prohibition of her great grandfather for his descend‑ ants to write poetry, did not print them. She knew perfectly well the creative work not only of Pushkin, but also of Russian writers, e. g . Turgenev and Dostoevsky, and even maintained friendly relations with them.

Good memory of her is cherished till now, — after all Natalya Alexandrovna

helped poor peasants with bread, medi‑ cines. She supported the construction of new schools in the surrounding villages, and taught peasant children herself. At Christmas she arranged for them Christ‑ mas trees, gave them presents. She created orphanages for orphans and the weak. The old-timers remembered that the poet’s granddaughter loved Belarusian folk songs, took a keen interest in legends and stories.

Some of the Vorontsov-Velyaminovs’ children, and there were five of them, later settled in Bobruisk. Pushkin’s descendants had their own house, but it has not sur‑ vived, now there is the Hall of Civil Cer‑ emonies in its place.

Natalya Alexandrovna died in De‑ cember 1912 and was buried within St. Nicholas Church in Telush. Every year, in early June, Pushkin’s poems sound near her modest obelisk.

— R ussian academician Pixanov has the theory of “cultural nests.” Do you see such addresses in Belarus from Moscow — regional or just regional “cultural nests”? What addresses would you name in the first place?

— I had a chance to visit Oginsky’s manor in Zalesye, near Smorgon — it made a lasting impression. Amazing unity of nature and music! The polonaise “Fare‑ well to the Fatherland” sounds everywhere, and everything seems to be filled with this heartfelt, sad melody… The ancient alleys, witnesses of many significant events, and wonderful apple orchards, and storks hov‑ ering over the stubble are unforgettable…

(I have recently discovered that Push‑ kin mentioned the surname Oginsky in his historical notes three times).

And, of course, ancient Polotsk, satu‑ rated with history, — t he center of the city with its cathedrals, unique museums and monasteries — is one big “cultural nest”, from which the scientists with world names “flew out”: philosopher and humanist, edu‑ cator Francisk Skorina and theologian, spiritual writer Symeon of Polotsk. The city consecrated by the deeds of Reverend Prin‑ cess Euphrosyne of Polotsk.

Ancient Polotsk is associated with the name of Pushkin’s ancestor who gave him his hot African blood — Abram Petrovich Hannibal. It is true that there is no men‑ tion of the poet’s great-grandfather’s stay in this Belarusian city in any of the countless works devoted to the extraordinary fate of the “tsar’s moor”. And yet I take the liberty of asserting that the little moor, who at that time bore the name of Ibragim, lived in Polotsk together with his high patron Tsar Pyotr I. If Pushkin, who cherished the smallest details about his dark-skinned great-grandfather, had known about it, he would have made a stop in this glorious city.

Pushkin just passed it by. But the name of this ancient city, founded in the 9th century on orders of Prince Ryurik, ap‑ pears not once on the pages of Pushkin’s manuscripts. The city of Griefslava, Polotsk princess Rogneda, who was named so for her unhappy fate, was called Polotsk. The chronicle has preserved a sad story of Prince Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko’s pro‑

With Alexander Alexandrovich Pushkin, Belgian descendant of the poet, at the celebration of the anniversary of the Lyceum. Tsarskoye Selo, 2011. posal to marry the proud beauty Rogneda and her unhappy marriage…

The poet was aware of this ancient leg‑ end. But Alexander Pushkin couldn’t know that both the Polotsk Princess Rogneda and the Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir, who once conquered Polotsk and forcefully married the beauty he loved, as well as their distant great -great-granddaughter Prin‑ cess Alexandra Bryachislavna of Vitebsk and Polotsk, who became the wife of Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky, are connected with him by blood ties of kinship.

The poet’s statement about the Bela‑ rusians as “the people close to us from the dawn of time” gets a different meaning!

—How does the literary local history develop in Russia today? Do you follow the works of Russian literary local historians?

— I a m closely connected with Push‑ kin’s memorial estates: Lopasnaya near Moscow, Tver Bernovo, Kaluga Polotnyan‑ ny Zavod. I often visit these regions, follow all the innovations in the field of literary local history. I am glad that a lot of books on regional studies have been published re‑ cently, including literary ones.

— Wh o would you single out from the literary local history of Russia?

— Fir st of all, Boris Arkadyevich Dio‑ dorov. But he is not a local historian in the usual sense, but the People’s Artist of Rus‑ sia, one of the best book illustrators. So, this man (by the way, recently he has turned 85!) created a private museum “The Road to Pushkin” in a small Tver village with an unusual name Pogoreloye Gorodishche.

The story goes back to the seventeenth century, to the Time of Troubles. In Decem‑ ber 1828, on the way from Malinnikov to Moscow, Pushkin visited the ancient town Pogoreloye Gorodishche of Tver province. The poet came to the town, which once had been defended by Gavrila Pushkin, in order to find the family documents that had survived since those distant times. In 1617, when the troops of the Polish king’s son Vladislav approached the fortress of Derzhislavl (that was the name of the settle‑ ment at that time), voivode Gavrila Push‑ kin ordered it to be burned, but not to be left to the enemy. The Charter, found by the poet, was granted by Mikhail Romanov in

1621 and exempted the inhabitants of the burned town from taxes.

“I found in history one of my ances‑ tors, who played an important role in that unfortunate era, I took him on stage, not thinking about the sensitivity of decency… but without any nobleman’s pride” — the poet wrote it about his famous ancestor in the first draft of the preface to “Boris Go‑ dunov. Gavrila Pushkin became one of the characters of the tragedy.

So Boris Diodorov, a native Musco‑ vite, decided to create a museum and cul‑ tural center in a small village to familiarize young people with the history of his region.

He moved rare furniture of Pushkin’s time from his Moscow house, filled the ex‑ position with unique items, paintings, stat‑ uettes, genuine antique items. He arranges meetings and exhibitions in the museum, publishes books on literary local history. And everything is free of charge!

He is not a rich man at all, but last year he was awarded the Prize of Russian Presi‑ dent Vladimir Putin in the field of art. He decided that a million he received was Di‑ vine Providence, and gave the money for the development of the Pushkin Museum!

The man is an extremely interesting and creative person. Boris Diodorov is one of the best illustrators of Andersen’s tales, and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark gave him an unusual title: “Andersen’s Ambas‑ sador to Russia”. But he is also Pushkin’s ambassador to the Tver Region!

— D o you think literary local history should become a school subject?

— I think if it happened, such an ini‑ tiative could be compared to a real break‑ through. I fully support Alexander Pushkin’s w ords about history that should be compre‑ hended “at home”. And that means the study o f genealogic trees, the history of home vil‑ lages, cities, regions. Then, an abstract co ncept “love for the Fatherland” becomes native, understandable. And this feeling re‑ mains with you for the rest of your life.

—The years 2018–2020 have been declared the Year of the Small Motherland in Belarus. It reminded the society, the whole country that special attention should be paid to the development of regions. Are there such initiatives in Russia?

—Unfortunately, Russia has not reached such a spiritual understanding. It’s a pity… Though I happened to read a beautiful ad‑ dress of Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga a nd Borovsky: to visit your small moth‑ erland, to breathe its air, to gain spiritual s trength, not to rush to Thailand and Turkey.

By the way, Metropolitan Clement gave his blessings for the restoration of the tem‑ ple in the Goncharovs’ estate Polotnyanny Zavod, which was destroyed in the godless 1930s. The beauty Natalya Goncharova grew up in this Kaluga estate, Pushkin vis‑ ited it and the poet’s children grew up there. The call to revive the shrine for a long time remained a pipe dream.

I know a wonderful man, People’s Art‑ ist of Russia, soloist of the Bolshoi Thea‑

Presentation of the book about Natalya Goncharova in the House of Russian Abroad in Moscow, 2012

tre Vladimir Matorin. The best performer of B oris Godunov’s part. The great singer of our time, the king-bass, — h e was enthusiastical‑ ly received by spectators of all world capitals!

He was one of the first to respond to a noble cause. In addition to all titles and regalia, Vladimir Matorin is Chairman of the Foundation for the Revival of Culture and Traditions of Small Cities of Russia. All the money received from the charity concert of the artist, which was held with great success in the Kaluga Philharmonic, was spent on the restoration of the tem‑ ple of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the village of Kaluga Polotnyavod. And re‑ cently the ding -d ong of the bells of the re‑ vived temple has been heard in the historic manor - museum of the Goncharovs, just as centuries ago. And Sunday school for chil‑ dren is open at the temple.

This is a real help to a small village! And preservation of historical and spiritual memory.

—Don’t you want to write a book “Alexander Pushkin and Belarus”?

—So far it has been just a dream. I’ve been getting close to this book for a long time. And, oddly enough, this desire has awakened in France. Twenty years ago, I was lucky to visit the poet’s descendants in Paris, who had blood kin in Belarus. Imagine my delight and surprise when Nadezhda Baer, great-granddaughter of Pushkin, took out old yellowish photographs from the puffy family album. In the photos there are the poet’s descendants, many of them wearing Belarusian folk costumes, views of the fam ‑ ily estate of Vavulich, which does not exist a ny more. That’s when the idea to visit this part of the country was born.

It’s strange why I haven’t visited Ba‑ bruisk and Telusha so far (and in Belaru‑ sian it sounds very tender — Tsyalusha)?! I’ll t ry to come to Pushkin places this summer.

A few days ago, in the memorial Push‑ kin’s apartment on Arbat (this is the first fam‑ ily house of the poet) I met with Andrey Ale ‑ xa ndrovich Kologrivov, a direct descendant of Pushkin. Natalya Alexandrovna Voronts‑ ova -Velyaminova, the poet’s granddaughter, is his great-grandmother. And his father, Alexander Kologrivov, war - veteran, spent his childhood in Bobruisk. And for the rest of his life he cherished bright memories of those days. I would like to quote an extract from his memories: “Bobruisk… My childhood! I remember apple orchards, in which wooden houses are hiding, overflow of the Berezina, ruins of an ancient fortress. There were leg ‑ ends about the fortress… As soon as the first sn owdrops appeared in the forest, my mother took me and my brother to the Kiselevichsky Bor. We walked along Gogolevskaya Street, past the blossoming gardens…”

So I suggested to Andrey Kologrivov, a representative of a “Bobruisk branch” of Pushkin’s descendants, writing a joint book, and he agreed.

Well, let’s work!

— Th ank you, Larisa Andreyevna! We are looking forward to seeing you in Belarus!

Interviewed by Kirill Ladutko

To the fairy tale— on foot or by bike

Ecological recreation is becoming an alternative to a foreign tour

TThe number of times I’ve been to Belovezhskaya Push‑ On the board in front of the entrance one can read all the in‑ cha is very difficult to calculate. In most cases I was journalistic formation about services and excursions. You can also do it in business that brought me there: top-ranking government del‑ advance using your own smartphone. Present tourists who are in‑ egations and cheerful companies of international youth or sports terested in seeing the age-old forest with their own eyes, and not in communities visit Pushcha. We used to come to the National Park a hurry, I think, will be attracted by the possibility of a bicycle with our families but always as members of guided tours. But I do tour. One can discover Pushcha on six bicycle routes which last not remember being a member of such a small group. from 1.5 to 4 hours. The shortest 10‑kilometer journey of is called

And it would have hardly been possible in the near future if it “Tsar’s Meadow”, then comes a 15‑kilometer “Voytov Most”, “An hadn’t been for my girlfriend of youth, who has long been living in Animal Crossing” is only one kilometer longer than the previous Moscow. As they say, every cloud hs a silver lining. So this summer one, “A Big Journey” stretches for 27 kilometers, and the section she did not plan a trip to her small homeland, but the pandemic “Kamyenyuki — Byely Lyasok” is 28 kilometers long. changed all the plans and she came. And since nowadays we don’t Bicycle rental is organized without weekends and breaks. By receive guests at home, we agreed to meet in Pushcha. She came the way, the rent price includes visiting an enclosure with animals. to her native place with her daughter and a would -be son-in-law. The animals are worth seeing, especially by those who get to the

The young people had never been to Pushcha before, so they were National Park for the first time. eager to see this landmark. By the way, there are not many cars with Our young people chose the cycling trip “Tsar’s Meadow” —

Russian plates in the parking lot near the National Park. Today’s apparently, the name attracted them. And they didn’t regret it. tourists get there mainly in their own cars, although it’s not dif‑ Later they told us with delight about the birch with the “head of ficult to do it by means of public transport: there are regular buses a bison”. The growth on the tree, which looks like a head of the and minibuses from the bus station in Brest. It is about 60 kilom‑ master of the Pushcha, was noticed more than 20 years ago. Ac‑ eters from the borders of the city to the mentioned parking lot is. cording to specialists, such an outgrowth is formed when a alien

organism gets into the trunk. Most often these uninvited guests are mushrooms of different species. The tree got through it and and the alien organism formed an exotic hump. This excursion also includes a visit to a huge luxurious oak-hermit. The tree is three hundred years old — for an oak it is not such an old age, but the trunk diameter has already exceeded one and a half meters. This oak always reminds me of Andrey Bolkonsky’s reflections in “War and Peace” about the triumph of life.

The swamp “Tatar bagno” has already dried up, and the name has remained, as in the 13th century the Tatars, who reached it during the invasion, used to station there. The former narrow-gauge road built by the Germans during the First World War is now a very pic‑ turesque place. The invaders built the road to carry out wood. Dur‑ ing a year and a half, the prisoners laid a 325‑kilometer -long railway network. Now there is asphalt laid on the place of individual narrow gauge lines, and bicycle routes run along them. And the meadow it‑ self now is an exotic object and a landmark. It is located in the mid‑ dle of the thicket. According to some sources, the first hunting ball wa s organized here by King Stanisław August Poniatowski. Thanks to him, at fist kings, then secretaries general used to hunt there.

And the contemporaries are not lagging behind: today festi‑ vals, public events are held there. It is also necessary to stop in Urochishche “Turlyuy”, to admire a picturesque wood fork, a cen‑ tury-old pine forest and many other things. And the main thing is that one can enjoy the trip leisurely, making stops whenever and wherever you want.

This time we discovered hiking routes, which will help you to explore the pushcha anew. There are three artificial lakes on the ecological path “Lake Ring”. They were created in the early 1970s to controle the hydrological regime. The water in them is dark, because there are deposits of peat at the bottom. And in this dark water the trees, the sun, the sky mirror in a special way — as if it is not a natural phenomenon, but some kind of screen, besides si‑ lence and slowness in general create an effect of animation, a fairy tale… But you get in a real fairy tale not here, but in the protected

m o c ity. c t s re b

oak -tree forest, where under oaks and hornbeams there is eternal shade. The plants, accustomed to this semi -darkness, look like a special dark-green cover, which makes you feel to be in deep an‑ tiquity: it seems that it looked like this, maybe, a thousand years ago. Or maybe that’s what it really was like. There is silence and calmness that are characteristic only of the wilderness: you will find them in no other forest. At least, Korotkevich masterfully de‑ scribed the forest in his “The Land under the White Wings”. …One can visit the museums in Pushcha, including a new open-air archaeological one, the “Vygonoschansky” re‑ serve in Ivatsevichi District, which is now also a part of the Na‑ tional Park. Lovers of new impressions will discover for themselves Ruzhanskaya Pushcha, not so well-promoted and visited by tour‑ ists, but an extremely interesting and mysterious forest. In any case, it is necessary at least occasionally to come to the protected areas, generously scattered nationwide. Nature knows how to give strength, in addition, it never betrays and does not cheat. By Svetlana Yaskevich

ta Bel