“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is incredibly patriotic, where the central place is occupied not by people, but rather by images of Russian nature. Moreover, the Russian land is presented not as an ordinary landscape, but as a dynamic individual character who has his own feelings and experiences.

Native nature, undoubtedly, is trying in every possible way to help and warn Prince Igor about the impending disaster. So, she sends him signs, sometimes in the form of a solar eclipse, sometimes through the restless behavior of animals, sometimes in the form of various natural phenomena. In addition to warnings, Mother Nature assists the prince in escaping from captivity of the Polovtsian Khan. Woodpeckers show Igor the way, and the banks of the river hide him from enemy eyes. The author draws an analogy between nature and mother, that she, as an all-forgiving and loving mother, will always come to the rescue of her child.

The culmination of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is “Yaroslavna’s Lament”, in which Igor’s wife appeals to the elements - air, water and fire. With this technique, the author returns us to the origins, to paganism. In a similar way, the author tries to bring us closer to the idea that man is a creation of nature.

So, the main position in the work is occupied by nature, the Russian land. In a similar way, the author is trying to bring to mind the idea of ​​love for the fatherland, patriotism and the need to take care of one’s homeland and unite for the good of the entire Russian state.

Stanislav Epifantsev

What even slightly educated Russian person does not remember the words from “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”: “Oh, Russian land! Are you over the hill already? These lines alone convey all the pain and longing of the Russian people for their native land, and the severance of ties with it foreshadows the tragic outcome of Prince Igor’s campaign.

It just so happened that at the turn of the last centuries these words turned out to be prophetic for tens of millions of Russian people whom Russia abandoned to survive on the ruins of the Soviet empire. This tragedy has remained “behind the scenes” for Russia and Russians, and is still waiting for its Nestor. However, it is not the author’s task to give out the usual portion of complaints and lamentations, especially since Moscow is not the only one who does not believe in tears. In new times, we quickly realized how true the saying “don’t wait, don’t hope, don’t ask” is. The Russians could only rely on themselves. Russia left and practically forgot about us for a long period, and in the new states they began to build ethnocratic states, in which the Russians were often assigned a place “suitcase, train station, Russia.”

And yet the Russians turned out to be a tenacious people and managed to adapt to new times. Moreover, they were among the most prosperous groups of the population, not to mention Tajikistan, from where the Russian diaspora was almost completely squeezed out by the horrors of the civil war. It is impossible to say definitely how many Russian people live in the new states of Central Asia, only estimates, since statistics appear here in their classical function (there are lies, there are big lies, and there are statistics). As a rule, it is not profitable for the authorities to show the decline in the Russian population. In addition, in Kazakhstan, the money allocated from the budget for the population census simply disappeared, and the numbers were drawn. There was a lot of noise, the census takers safely left with their spoils abroad, and the country was left with the numbers drawn. However, the number of Russians is still large in Kazakhstan, noticeable in Kyrgyzstan and felt in the cities of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. More than two decades after the collapse of the Union, we can say that Russians in the Central Asian countries today live in a state of a kind of conditional stability.

Over the past years, a significant number of Russians (5-6 million) have emigrated from the countries of the region, mainly to Russia, but also to Canada, Australia, Germany, and many other places. Emigration peaked in the 90s, but never stopped completely. And in the last year or two, the flow of immigrants has noticeably increased, and this is primarily due to increased nationalist pressure.

As you know, the Soviet Union was a stronghold of the so-called friendship of peoples and internationalism. And, indeed, we could travel to almost any part of the Union and not encounter any problems on a national basis. Of course, it was impossible to talk about a heavenly idyll in the national question, but the truth is that people of different nationalities lived peacefully side by side. All the more striking is the lightning-fast change in interethnic relations in post-Soviet states. Here we have everything - just everyday chauvinism, the least of evils, and massacres on ethnic grounds, and even wars between post-Soviet countries.

It became absolutely clear that, under all other conditions, interethnic peace in society can only exist under strict state control. Well, since from the first days the course was taken to build ethnocratic states, it is clear that all Soviet internationalism went out the window. In words, the authorities continued to talk about internationalism, but in fact nationalism flourished. Essentially, the differences from country to country in this matter lay in the personality traits of the first leader.

If we talk about Uzbekistan, whose population exceeded 30 million people, the most experienced partyocrat of Soviet times, Islam Karimov, perfectly understood the danger of nationalism both for the state and for his own power, and therefore decisively and very harshly suppressed nationalist rhetoric, not allowing the creative intelligentsia to run wild, this evil demon of the post-Soviet era. Karimov quickly showed who was boss, and the intelligentsia obediently carried out the orders of the authorities. There were, apparently, those who disagreed, but their story is clear. Plus, Russians in Uzbekistan have always been small in percentage terms, and now they are generally 4-5 percent of the total population of the country.

In principle, we can say that the situation with the national issue in Uzbekistan is quite calm for the Russian population. This does not mean, of course, that there are no problems, but against the backdrop of the general plight of the population, the economic situation of the Russian population is not the worst (but calling it acceptable can only be a stretch). At least, in the multi-million army of Uzbek guest workers, there are either no Russians, or their share is negligible. Of course, as with all countries in the region, political discrimination against the Russian population is typical, but against the backdrop of the truly powerless situation of the mass of the indigenous population and the generally low socio-political activity of the Russian population, this factor is not too striking. The mood to leave the Russian environment is quite strong, but due to the poverty of the population, resettlement to Russia is not very active.

The situation of the Russian population in Kazakhstan is somewhat different. Nazarbayev also has extensive experience as a party leader, and also has a charismatic and strong personality. And in the art of political intrigue he has few equals. Like all his brothers in the shop, Nazarbayev chose the ethnocratic path of development for Kazakhstan, and there is nothing good in this for the Russian population. The negative consequences of this course are emerging now. Like sharp objects from a bag. However, Nazarbayev is distinguished by powerful intuition and the ability to make the necessary decisions. So, from the first years of independence, he gave economic rights and freedoms to everyone, including Russians. True, only Kazakhs were allowed to access the riches of their homeland, and therefore there are not so many particularly rich Russians, but thanks to freedom of enterprise, it was the Russians who became the backbone of small and medium-sized businesses in Kazakhstan. That is, people got the opportunity to put fat on their belly button, and real estate prices went up. At one time, housing prices in Almaty were equal to those in Moscow and exceeded those in St. Petersburg. Those who managed to seize the moment easily bought housing in Russia to replace the one sold in Kazakhstan. True, the boom turned out to be short.

The flip side of the construction of an ethnocratic society was the colossal social differentiation in the titular environment. The Kazakh elite, and these are mainly urban Kazakhs, have become very fat in modern times, and a certain part has become incredibly rich, while the masses of ordinary Kazakhs have also become incredibly impoverished. The problem here is that at the same time the titular community has set a course towards returning to tribal, archaic values. The mentality is such that the people support their elders, tribal leaders, and they, in turn, feed “their” people. Theoretically, it was assumed that the wealth of the homeland would be enough for all Kazakhs, but in reality the greed of the clan elites refuted these hopes.

While other ethnic groups struggled to master the science of survival under capitalism, and eventually mastered it at the very least, ordinary Kazakhs found themselves at the bottom of life. Huge resources thrown into agriculture were stolen, hundreds of thousands of village residents moved to big cities, where they settled in the so-called “shaheed belts.” The huge problem now is that these people have become a breeding ground for nationalists, Islamists and even terrorists. Often life without water, sewerage or even electricity. With poor knowledge of the Russian language and poor education, they cannot claim a decent place in society. Social elevators do not work, urban Kazakhs despise them. It’s no wonder that slogans about Russians being to blame for everything fall on fertile soil.

It must be said that nationalism in Kazakhstan flourished under the wing of the state from the first days of independence, it was the authorities who fed the nationalist press and leaders, and then the opposition slipped towards nationalism. Nazarbayev, it must be said, deftly manipulated the bogeyman of nationalism, intimidating with this threat the Russian population, which almost completely recklessly voted for him in the elections, as for the only defender. This moment further divided the Russians and the titular population. In a sense, for part of the titular population, Russians occupied the traditional niche of Jews - “if there is no water in the tap...”.

It was hardly possible to continue such a policy indefinitely, and in the past political season Nazarbayev spoke for the first time about the “united people of Kazakhstan.” Well, here’s the problem: nationalist leaders, who were previously afraid of any shout from above, gradually emerged as an independent political force. The same Aidos Sarim, who enjoys the reputation of a court nationalist of Ak Orda, allows himself to make outrageous statements across the line of power, in particular, he turned into one of the most odious critics of integration with Russia and an enemy of the Russian language.

The state of the Russian community in Kazakhstan is twofold. For the vast majority of Russian people, Kazakhstan is their homeland, and in principle, few would like to leave. After all, these are lived-in places, familiar habitats, home, work, family graves. And at the same time, almost everyone understands that there is no future, especially among young people. At the same time, formally speaking, the authorities and a significant part of the titular population would not like to be deprived of the Russian population. The negative consequences of the process are all too obvious. However, the emigration process threatens to cross the point of no return. Moreover, the situation is such that the Russian population will live in Kazakhstan in significant numbers for many years to come.

The situation is similar in Kyrgyzstan. After all, the Kyrgyz and Kazakhs are closely related peoples, having practically very close languages ​​and often related origins, customs and mentality, and way of life. Unlike Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, at the dawn of independence, the head of Kyrgyzstan was not a party-crat, not a nomenclature official, but simply a “good man,” Askar Akayev. The famous scientist, initially honest intellectual Akaev turned out to be a hostage and in some ways a victim of temporary circumstances. I undoubtedly wanted the best, but it turned out... poorly. And after that it got even worse - a collapse process began. If Kyrgyzstan's neighbors became authoritarian countries, where strong centralized power was good or bad, then in Kyrgyzstan the country found itself without a rudder and without sails. The real power of ochlocracy. Perhaps the country has not matured into the so-called democracy of which it was so proud, or other factors have come into play, but it is clear that the country today needs strong governance.

As for interethnic relations, little is understood in this area. It can certainly be argued that of all the Central Asian peoples, the Kyrgyz are the most tolerant and friendly people. Nevertheless, it is in Kyrgyzstan that we see the strongest manifestations of nationalism. Our case once again clearly shows that only the state can regulate the sphere of interethnic relations. Only the unconditional implementation of the country's Constitution by all citizens, regardless of rank and nationality, is capable of maintaining interethnic peace. At the same time, I want to note that the people are still determined to live in peace and harmony. Over the past couple of years, I had to travel the length and breadth of the country, and in the most remote villages people rejoiced at our arrival and talked about the desire for peace and harmony.

It is no secret that in Kyrgyzstan there has been strong pressure on the Russian language lately. And this despite the fact that the Russian language is in demand in the country. Russian schools are overcrowded with children of the titular nationality. It is a well-known fact that it is our fellow citizens who get the best jobs in Russia thanks to their knowledge of the Russian language. And at the same time, even from the walls of parliament we hear warlike speeches. It is not surprising that Kyrgyzstan has become the leader among the countries in the region in terms of the rate of emigration of the Russian population.

Summing up the conversation about Russians in the countries of the region, we can say that the trend towards emigration to one degree or another is still dominant. At the same time, it is clear that Russian people will live in the region for a long time. Do Russians expect anything from Russia? There is no definitive answer here. Over these many years, we have become accustomed to organizing our lives ourselves; Russia has not spoiled us too much with its attention. At the same time, it is obvious that a strong Russia is in itself far from ephemeral support. Who knows how the attitude towards Russians would have been formed if the local elites had not kept her presence behind them in their minds. As of today, the situation in all three countries is not simple. This state is best conveyed by articles by popular titular authors, for example Kenzhe Tatil, who talks about a strange situation when people smile in the eyes, but hate behind the eyes. And all this is not at all simple.

What could Russia do for its compatriots in this situation? Of course, the first and most important thing is the unconditional right to citizenship. People simply cannot understand why Germans, Jews and many others receive this citizenship almost automatically, while a Russian person makes his way to citizenship as if along an obstacle course, and even with barbed wire. For example, Posner in his memoirs mentions the fact of obtaining French citizenship, while having citizenship of Russia and the United States. In a conversation with the French ambassador, he simply mentioned that he was born in France. The ambassador offered to bring documents, and a week later Posner received a passport as a French citizen. It is known that Germany accepted tens of thousands of Russian people and did not wince. Even Jews, who are so sensitive to issues of blood, recognize any crumbs of Jewish blood in order to give Israeli citizenship and even recognize those who do not have it if relatives live in Israel. Recently in Russia there has been some revival of the issue, but of an increasingly casuistic nature.

The restrictions on moving under the Program, which limits areas of entry, are also surprising. If a person receives citizenship, then according to the Constitution he has the right to live anywhere. Nowadays a favorable situation is developing for the mass movement of compatriots to the Far East, and especially to more developed areas. Give people land to build houses and for farming, provide benefits and preferences that existed during the Union, and the people will go. Although not Stolypin’s times, the land is still attractive. And there is a sea of ​​waste land in Russia; even in the center of Russia there are dead villages and fields, already overgrown with forest.

There is only one question - does anyone need Great Russia?! Or Russian land, are you already “over the hill” from us?

People have long tried to find a solution to the mystery of the concept of “homeland”. They searched along the paths of philosophical speculation, in the heartfelt depths of artistic creativity, in the annals of history, in ethnography - the experience of life and everyday life of peoples... Even at the dawn of mankind, the ancient Greeks thought about this intimate connection between man and the land of his birth. Homer thought as he sent his Odysseus on many years of wanderings. And then - on a long journey home - to the Motherland - to the beloved island of Ithaca. And it was revealed to Homer that this was a very difficult road, and that everything along this path would hinder a person. How everything hindered Odysseus, sometimes in the form of all sorts of trials and dangers, sometimes in the form of temptations, so that he would deviate from the road and not reach his goal... This was the case, for example, in the country of the Lotophagi, where the sweet-honey lotus grew. Having tried it, people forgot about everything that had once been sweet and dear to them, and felt an irresistible desire to “pick a delicious lotus, forever abandoning their Fatherland.” Probably, this lotus is an eternal symbol of temptation, if to this day it intoxicates thousands and even millions of our fellow citizens with its imaginary sweetness. But our ancestors were different...

Back in the 1st century AD, the Roman historian Valery Maxim wrote about the extraordinary commitment and love of our ancestors, the Scythian nomads, for their homeland. Under the pressure of the powerful army of Darius, who invaded their borders, the Scythians continuously retreated. When Darius asked them through ambassadors if they would put an end to their shameful flight and begin to fight, the Scythians replied that they had neither cities nor cultivated fields for which it would be worth fighting. But when Darius reaches the tombs of their fathers, then he will find out how the Scythians usually fight! And one feels that this love of the Scythians for their father’s tombs was then very amazing for the Roman historian...

The world thieves - "lotophagists", invaders and aggressors of all times were very well aware that the people's love for the Fatherland is a powerful force, even with insufficient military-technical equipment of the enemy. That is why armed aggressions were both preceded and accompanied by spiritual wars. Victory in spiritual warfare usually ensured victory on the battlefield.

Let us remember what preceded the monstrous destruction - and incomparable to anything in Russian history in terms of the scale of destruction! - the events of the Time of Troubles... The Russian Kingdom and the fate of the Russian nation were brought to the brink of destruction. But what led to the capture of the Moscow Kremlin by the Poles? Until now, we have not yet fully appreciated the significance of the secret, insidious and destructive spiritual war that Catholic Rome waged against Rus' for several centuries. But it was precisely the expansion of the Vatican, which entangled the Orthodox Power in a network of intrigues, espionage, sabotage, provocations, bribery and all kinds of corruption, starting from the top of the boyars and bureaucrats down to the bottom, and led as a result to that Great Troubles - “vacillation” and “confusion of minds” almost throughout the entire Russian people...

From the events of not so long ago, we know that Hitler, in his plan to conquer the Soviet Union “Barbarossa”, intends not only to capture Moscow, but also... to completely flood it. He followed the traditions of his predecessor, the Emperor of the “Holy Roman Empire” Frederick Barbarossa... Having conquered Milan in the 12th century, he ordered not only to sweep away the city from the face of the earth, but also to plow up the land, so that not only would no stone be left unturned, but even memory of these stones... Isn’t that what, say, is happening in Moscow today before our eyes? When quietly, and sometimes brazenly, openly (especially in the last fifteen to twenty years!) everything that for centuries has preserved and expressed the unique face and very soul of the Mother See of the Capital is destroyed and supplanted by all sorts of ugly and alien “scrapers”...

For such secret and overt “barbaross”, it is obvious that conquering the land and slavishly subjugating its population is still half the battle. Must be destroyed nation as such. And this is possible only under one condition: if the roots of memory are destroyed - the guarantee of the greatness and “independence” of the people - “love for the native ashes” and for the “father’s tombs.”

Is this not what the current arbiters of world destinies - the “globalists” or their close relatives “uranolites” - are striving for today? Not disdaining any means, the globalists are steadily pushing people towards the destruction of national “independence”. The implementation of their far-reaching plans for world domination, the subjugation of the entire world to just one Western stencil, is hampered like a bone in the throat by national-patriotic self-awareness and the traditional values ​​of peoples. Therefore, the target for globalism is not just the destruction of borders, ancient civilizations, spiritually, culturally and historically distinctive states, but displacement of the very concept of “fatherland” from human consciousness! Until recently, the main obstacle to globalism was religious consciousness, and what, despite everything, was preserved from Orthodox civilization. Since there is no stronger guarantee for a person of loyalty to his Fatherland than genuine, unbending Faith. But now the destroyers of national pillars are acting more sophisticatedly - they are trying to speak on behalf of the Church, destroying national self-awareness and the holy connection of a person with his native land, allegedly speaking “from the Scriptures,” neglecting even the most sacred feelings of people, while referring to the authority of dogmatic theology, but in fact, pursuing all the same ancient destructive goals...

This is a great secret - love for the Motherland, our connection with the land on which we were born and “used”, with that soil in the depths of which the centuries-old roots of each of us are hidden, with everything that is intimately associated in our soul with the concept “ Motherland." Fairy tales, chronicles, and ancient legends have preserved for us many amazing examples of this inextricable, blood connection between a person and the land of his birth. Take, for example, our language - the most faithful witness... In it, like diamonds in the deep bowels of the earth, the most important, most valuable, eternal concepts about life were deposited and perfected over the centuries. What did the Russian people always call their land? “Holy Rus'”, “Mother Russia”, “Motherland”, “mother-nurse”, “darling side”, “mother of the damp earth”. And everything on this favorite side was special: “polyushko”, and “little river”, and “ant-grass” - where, in what language can we find such affection and such warmth!

Ancient Russian warriors fell to their native land when they were exhausted in a difficult struggle with the filthy, and were revived and strengthened by its unearthly life-giving power. They fell to their native land, kissed it with reverence, bowed to it in all four corners of the world and asked for forgiveness when preparing to go on a long journey or to fight to the death. The native land was not just the soil under one’s feet, but something comprehensive and sacred for man. For a thousand years, seeing off their husbands, brothers, and sons to war, Russian women sewed a pinch of the holy native land into the amulet of their soldiers. This ancient custom was still alive during the last Great Patriotic War. And the Russian soldiers always had one thing in their hearts: “It is better to heal with a bone on your own land, and than to be glorious on someone else’s land” (Ipatiev Chronicle, 1201), for which there is a lot of evidence in our historical monuments: from ancient chronicles to the relics of the last war. The word “Russian” has always been synonymous with “patriot”; anything else seemed impossible, incredible, monstrous! Take, for example, the travel notes of foreigners about Russia - they did not flatter us, but they could not help but admit that yes, indeed, all of Holy Rus' was like that: kings, fathers, mothers, and children...

With every bump and cloud,

With thunder ready to fall,

I feel the most burning

The most mortal connection.

It seemed that this “mortal connection”, which the wonderful Russian poet of the 20th century Nikolai Rubtsov spoke about so well, remained and will remain in the Russian heart forever. “Oh Russian land! You are already behind the shelomyan!” - “Oh Russian Land! You're already over the hill! What Russian heart has not responded to this call, to this pain of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (shelomya - hill, shelom - helmet). And how many times over a thousand years did this groan and cry sound over the hills of Russia, gathering the people, uniting them into a monolithic spiritual unity! To this day, this piercing call sounds over the orphaned expanses of Rus'... But how many sons of the Fatherland now want to hear it, although everyone, probably, certainly once had their own, native “nursing landscape,” as they say Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov, who discovered the laws of the emergence, development and extinction of ethnic groups. This doctrine was based on the postulate of the “attachment” of an ethnos to its natural environment, to its “feeding landscape” (L.N. Gumilyov. Ethnosphere. History of people and history of nature. M. 1993.) - the law of inextricable, blood, the mortal connection of a person (and the clan and ethnic group to which he belonged) and the place of his birth and life activity.

The native natural environment fed, educated and formed the unique appearance of the ethnic group, unique traits and behavioral characteristics that were inherited, from old people and mothers to children. The strict connection of a people with the feeding landscape, the development of traditions and behavioral stereotypes necessary for a prosperous existence in this particular place, the birth in this people of creative people who concentrate and express its unique appearance, different from its neighbors - according to Gumilyov - this is the Motherland. The combination of these coordinates - the native land, carefully preserved living traditions, their flowering and fruiting in the activities of creative individuals expressing the soul of this place and this people, turns the Motherland into the Fatherland.

The Russian epic has preserved many tales about how a dead hero was saved and brought back to life by his native land with its magical juices and energy. And also about how separation and excommunication from his native soil inevitably led to the disappearance of a person’s identity and his creative powers. Memory, of course, could maintain a spiritual connection in a person with his homeland for quite a long time, since the person was, after all, born there and nurtured by it. But now his children and grandchildren - the next generations of wanderers - were no longer able to satiate their souls with just memory, reading and stories about their “nursing landscape”. The inexorable law of the connection of a person (clan and ethnic group) with his native breadwinner-landscape began to operate, outside of which both the person, the clan, and the ethnic group began to lose their identity, their face, their unique and only hypostasis on this earth, their independence. That very “love for the coffins of the fathers” and “love for the native ashes”, which Pushkin spoke about long before Gumilyov, who claimed that “On them has been based from time immemorial / By the will of God himself / The independence of man / The guarantee of his greatness.”

And following the loss of “independence” - a living connection with one’s “breadwinner”, a new and inevitable misfortune came into play - the breakdown of “signal heredity” - inherited mainly from elders to younger ones, from mother to children - by imitation - traditional behavioral characteristics . Not “I want it this way,” but stable conditioned behavioral reflexes and reactions to the world passed down from elders, from ancient times.

The phenomenon of “signal heredity” or, more simply, non-genetic continuity was first discovered by the geneticist M. Lobashev, who observed and described the process of offspring borrowing vital skills from the older generation. This discovery was widely used in the development of his theory of ethnos and L.N. Gumilev. In his opinion, the feeding landscape and signal heredity were the conditions with the help of which the unique and stable faces of ethnic groups were formed. And in isolation from their native land, from family and tribal ties, it was impossible for an ethnic group and even an individual person to preserve their identity, their face, created and imprinted in the traditions of behavior, in the immediate reactions and perceptions of the world, successively passed on “from generation to generation.” .

Many ethnic groups who were previously in the spaces of history lost face, and then themselves and their lives. They dissolved in other “waters” and “currents” spiritually and metaphysically, and after that they inevitably lost their land as a physical reality, turning into homeless ethnic groups, in order to subsequently cease their own independent existence on earth.

Our world is a temple devastated to them,

Their fable is our reality,

And the fact that ashes are sacred to us,

For them there is only silent dust.

P.A. Vyazemsky, 1840

Who has not seen destroyed churches in the cities and towns of our Motherland... A sad and, alas, painfully familiar picture. Headless bell towers, empty window sockets, dilapidated walls showing the amazing thickness and good quality of ancient brickwork, the sky - instead of a dome, and here and there, with the miraculously surviving remains of frescoes, the faces of saints mournfully looking at this desolation... You will enter such a “deserted temple ", you cross yourself to the East, at the defenseless altar covered with garbage and your gaze will stop at the stone floor tiles that have been preserved here and there and, apparently, at one time were very beautiful... And your heart will ache for the prayer that was once heard here, for the people who have passed away, who once lived here the best moments of their lives. About the holidays that have long since fallen silent in this holy place... Here is the font: A simple, village priest is baptizing a baby... They have already named him - John... Will this Vanyusha live to this day? Will he remember the temple and his baptismal font? Or a young guy, together with the sailors, whooping and whistling, will destroy the cross from the bell tower, and then he himself will disappear without trace or memory... But here are the young people standing under the crowns: shy, serious, just like in many old village photographs. People took life seriously and strictly...

But if you lift your eyes, everything will disappear. There is a large, populated, modern village around. Vegetable gardens, potatoes, beggary and - foreign cars near fallen fences, the sloppiness of poverty and the noisy attempts of the “new Russians” - all at once. Old people live here, young people come here, there are children, and there are middle-aged people. But, don’t ask anyone, in honor of what holiday or saint was the temple built when the patronal feast day was celebrated in the village? Nobody will remember. And he is not interested in remembering... And there is no concern that children are not baptized, that old people go to another world without repentance and parting words, that life in the village is monotonous and dull. And instead of church holidays and the ringing of bells, there are only feasts with endless drunkenness, that the fields around have long been turned into virgin soil, and the meadows of fragrant herbs are now overgrown with thorns and monstrously growing mutant weeds. That the farms are all destroyed, there are no livestock, only recently someone got a rooster... How, sometimes, do you think a Russian person can look at all this? And it’s not a pity, it’s not painful, it’s not scary? Why does no one ever even cry for their miserable homeland? Those who are stronger and younger are all busy, everything is business, all thoughts are about what else to buy and buy, and how to move closer to the center of civilization. And there is almost no approach to such a person: he is no longer afraid of anything except money “collapses”, he simply does not react to any “chimeras” like “serving the Fatherland” (material for uran-political propaganda is almost ready!), no warnings for himself in the terrible and tragic things that happen around us every day, he doesn’t hear. True, even if he hears and cares, he is still unlikely to find a way out. After all, all that has been heard around us for many years now is: “what is happening to us?”, and “how to restore the broken connection of times”? But Rus' still does not give and does not give an answer...

I remember in the seventies, when there was a surge in “village prose,” it seemed that now a genuine national feeling, a filial attitude towards Russia, would come to life in Russian people, that a new generation would come to its senses and return to our interrupted, historically established national path... How many historical novels and essays were written on the theme of memory back then, what kind of journalism appeared! The names of Russian writers were on everyone's lips. It seemed that a little more - and everyone, reading, would light up, rush to deeply study our past, begin to love it, imitate it, in accordance with traditions, rethink and transform their failed lives... But everything turned out differently. The most capable, active part of the younger generation did not choose this path. It very quickly rushed to “pick a delicious lotus, forever abandoning its Fatherland,” seduced by the ideals of a well-fed West. Neglect of one's own, domestic, has worsened even more. And even the patriots’ own offspring, for the most part, were not inflamed with the love and pathos of their fathers, and did not light their candle from them. Why?

Almost a hundred years ago, in April 1907, the famous Orthodox publicist and thinker Lev Tikhomirov gave a report at the Historical Museum of Moscow on the topic “What is the Fatherland?” He spoke with pain about the impoverishment of patriotism in Russia, about the skeptically arrogant, nihilistic attitude towards the Motherland in all layers of Russian society, and tried to answer the question “why”... Lev Tikhomirov made a disappointing diagnosis: mental illness.“Devastation of the soul,” he said, “is the disease of the century, and especially (?) of the Russian people.” Psychiatry of that time, according to him, testified to an increase in the number of patients doubting... their own existence. From here, according to L. Tikhomirov, came such a social disease as “not seeing” and “not feeling” the Fatherland.

It was still a relatively quiet time... It was still far from the mass desertion of soldiers, the betrayal of the Motherland, duty, oath... The demonic “carnival” had not yet begun, releasing all the demonic demons that had been held back in people for the time being under the guise of decency, habits, and inertial fear strength. "Freedom!" - Russian society, having lost all the bonds of shame, screamed... It screamed in exactly the same way in 1991, while a huge country was finally collapsing, and in 1993, when the patriotically minded Supreme Soviet of Russia was shot from cannon...

“The discussion about whether there is a Fatherland and what it consists of,- Lev Tikhomirov thought in 1907, - now receives special significance... The mind, supporting the remnants of the weakened feeling, will give it time to recover, perk up in its functions and begin to grow again in souls" What these naive hopes for the saving power of reason at the beginning of the twentieth century led to is known. And the aspirations of the patriots of the late twentieth century (who really worked a lot in the field of moral education of the people, who at that time mourned the time of farewell to Matera and the motherland) also, alas, did not come true. “Flute” never played. Is it because we did not fully understand then what our Fatherland stood on and how it was strengthened during the years of historical prosperity? Is it because they were disingenuous with themselves, and did not then fully assess the scale and nature of the destruction created in the minds and hearts of our people in the last, mostly, one and a half hundred years? It was difficult to tear yourself away from the Belinskys and Dobrolyubovs with blood! From everything that was memorized and memorized, that surrounded and pressed, with which years of life and service records were associated...

Let us remember how the living connection of generations was destroyed step by step, how in the 19th century the conflict between fathers and children was imposed by haters of Russia and Orthodoxy... This was a terrible blow: for by denying and despising parents, fathers, arrogantly above them, becoming their judges, we We inevitably come to the denial of the Motherland! How I. S. Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons” was turned upside down for this destructive purpose! We have not yet returned to what was really intended and written an author who saw what was brewing in Russia and did not approve of this artificial separation of families and generations, those who actually loved each other dearly...

Is it because our patriotic hopes were not crowned with success because we did not then (and do we still have them today?) the courage to refuse compromises born of selfishness? With Marxism, the habitual and crude materialism that has disfigured the Russian soul? Is it because they stubbornly guarded their own peace, evading the cleansing truth and inevitable repentance before God? After all, it would lead to the understanding that it is not necessary to demand self-denial from others, but to start with ourselves!

Once upon a time, Shakespeare's Prince Hamlet gave a wonderful rebuke to all those who, without hesitation, dare to tug on the strings of human souls in order to play their selfless “melodies” on them... At a time when on the simplest pipe-flute, without knowing the device its valves, it’s impossible to play even a primitive song! It’s not like encroaching on the mastery of the bottomless depths of human hearts, of which the only Creator, King and Master is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “from whom,” according to the word of St. Apostle Paul (Eph. 3:14), - is called “every Fatherland in heaven and on earth.”

“...The Lord God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way, all the way that you walked until you came to this place” ( Deut.1:31).

When Adam was expelled from Paradise ancestral homelands his own, for him and here, the Heavenly Father had prepared a place for life - the earth, from which Adam was to “eat with sorrow” all the days of his life, earning his bread by the sweat of his brow (Gen. 3:17-19). Now, under the burden of original sin, life for Adam became equivalent to work. Sorrow, illness, death awaited him on earth... Adam no longer had power over either nature or animals. Both man and all living creatures - all creation together, together with man, were doomed to “groan and suffer” (Rom. 8:19-22). And Eve was predicted to “increase sorrow,” for she had to give birth to children in illness and pain (Gen. 3:16). “We were created for life in paradise,” wrote St. Theophan the Recluse, “But we sinned and were expelled to this sorrowful land. For what? To bring repentance. Our life on earth is penance. And what is typical for someone who bears penance? To lament, lament, cry about sins..."

“What a cruel punishment!” perhaps another modern person would exclaim, not being clearly aware of the fact that Which heights and how far I have fallen our forefather Adam... And yet, although it is difficult, it is possible for us to comprehend that the sentence given by God to our earthly life was not just a punishment, but above all a manifestation of immeasurable Divine Love. Outside the narrow path of sorrows, a person crippled by original sin would not be able to take the path of healing and transformation. At the same time, just like a loving father and mother, carefully preparing everything necessary for the coming into the world and the life of their unborn baby, so the Heavenly Father is here, on Earthly homeland prepared for Adam and Eve a wondrous “dowry”: everything they needed to complete their life-saving journey. And even more than that...

And flowers, and bumblebees, and grass, and ears of corn,

And the azure and the midday heat...

The time will come - the Lord will ask the prodigal son:

“Were you happy in your earthly life?”

And I’ll forget everything - I’ll only remember these

Field paths between ears and grasses -

And from sweet tears I won’t have time to answer,

Falling to the merciful knees.

I. A. Bunin. 1918

And the sun, and the sky, and the rains, and the stars, and the wondrous, varied, unique beauty of the earth, and the change of seasons, and every animal, and every flower - everything, absolutely everything in this world bore the Divine stamp, the reflection of Love. God, a piece of the beauty of the Creator Himself. No, the earthly Motherland, which accepted the exile, was not only a vale of repentance and crying, but the beauty of its structure reminded of the lost paradise. Everything in it was permeated with a certain inviting, alluring light, everything breathed, everything spoke, everything called the human heart to reconciliation with God... And man began to love this warm land of labor and repentance. But not only because she was beautiful, but also because every time a person repented before God even for a brief moment and cried about his unworthiness, he felt in those moments as if in Paradise... For this there were moments of his reconciliation with God.

The first descendants of Adam and Cain “perverted their way on earth,” and “the earth was corrupted before the face of God” (Gen. 6:11-12). Probably, the very face of the earth, filled with atrocities, also began to change and deform from that time... Then the Lord decided to destroy people on earth with a flood of water, with the exception of the righteous Noah, who found grace in the eyes of God, and his family. God commanded Noah to build the ark of salvation and He Himself indicated all the proportions, the dimensions of its structure down to the smallest detail. “Noah spent a hundred years building the ark, and when he told people that there would be a flood, they laughed at him,” we read in the “Tale of Bygone Years” - our Primary Chronicle. And the Monk Nektarios, the elder of Optina, used to say: “For a hundred years Noah built the ark and for a hundred years he invited people into it. And only cattle came..."

But what did this divine ship-ark signify, what essentially was it for Noah when “all the fountains of the deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” (Gen. 7:11) and the whole earth was covered with flood waters? After all, all Holy Scripture is deeply symbolic! So the ark also represented the deepest prophecy, and revealed many great secrets of God’s Economy...

First of all, for people the ark (and Noah’s family at that time was all of humanity!) became the only place of life , actually temporary home. The Ark swiftly rushed across the waters, and this was visible evidence that the earthly life of mankind was not the last point on its journey, and the path itself. That this path (as well as in the design of the ark) has a meaning laid down by God and a goal predetermined by Him - saving people. The design of the ark, prescribed to the smallest detail by the Lord to Noah, was direct evidence Divine Fatherly care about a human.

Saint Nicholas of Serbia (Velimirović) has a remarkable discourse dedicated to the Nativity of the Holy Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John. Let us quote him: “Even before John was born, it was said about him... And about all of us, dear brothers, they speak about us even before we were born. Even before we are born, people think and talk about us. God thinks about us, the angels of the Lord know about us, our parents consult about us while we are still far from consciousness and light. Even before birth, we are connected by hundreds of visible and invisible connections with the whole light that surrounds us.” From this reasoning it follows that in our earthly existence, as well as in the ark, there are no, and cannot be, accidents. Everything is providentially arranged by God for our salvation: our parents, and our Motherland is the fruit of Divine care for us.

The design of the ark was perfect. She kept Noah's family safe in the depths of the increasing waters for over five months! According to God's instructions, Noah made three dwellings in the ark: the lower, the second and the third (Gen. 6:16). What did they mean that these three dwellings represented?

Perhaps, lower the housing of the ark could be compared to mother's womb, - first homeland, where the Lord Himself instills man from non-existence into existence. Where He Himself, a weak and defenseless being, incapable of any activity, takes care of him. “I was established in You from the womb, from my mother’s womb You are my protector” (Ps. 70:6). The first dwelling of the ark - the mother's womb - was also a kind of echo of the lost paradise. And childbirth is a memory of the sad expulsion from paradise, and a prophecy, which will be discussed below...

Second home ark sign a second human homeland - earthly, with whom we were also blood-connected by the Lord Himself, just as He tied a child with its mother with an umbilical cord. Isn’t that why the air of the Motherland and its herbs are most healing for us, and even “the smoke of the Fatherland is sweet and pleasant to us” (A.S. Griboyedov)?

Stepan Timofeevich Aksakov in “The Childhood Years of Bagrov’s Grandson” has amazing pages where he recalls his severe, long and almost fatal illness in infancy, and the strange, at first glance, method of treatment chosen by his mother. As soon as the boy became very ill, they harnessed the horses, put the baby in a stroller, and then set off along the wide and long steppe roads. And only there, in his native Orenburg expanses, among the boundless steppes, among the grasses and nature of his Motherland, did he come to life...

Straight road, high road!

You took a lot of space from God,

You stretched into the distance, straight as an arrow,

The wide surface of the tablecloth lay!

This is how the son of Sergei Timofeevich, the famous Slavophile and poet Ivan Aksakov, wrote about the Russian road, just like his father, inextricably linked with the soul and world of his Motherland. By the way, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, who was often ill, came to life, became stronger and more vigorous only on the road, on the road. Which was reflected brilliantly in “Dead Souls”, where he elevated the road into a great symbol of Christian life, into the image of the special and unique path of Russia...

And Who gives a man a Motherland, He Himself implants in the human heart the guarantee of the strength of this union - man’s love for the land of birth and formation, for the land of his fathers, bonding man and the Motherland with that very “mortal bond” that Nikolai Rubtsov spoke about so well. But why was it necessary to tie a person so firmly and bloodily with his earthly Fatherland? Why from time immemorial in Rus' has the virtue of serving the Motherland been placed in close connection with serving God? Even so, they believed that you cannot please God if you do not serve the Fatherland. Is it because without fulfilling this earthly obedience to his Heavenly Father, without exhausting and fulfilling his earthly calling, man would not be able to prepare himself for the transition to the third, highest housing of the ark?

“The forefathers called themselves wanderers not only in relation to Palestine, but in relation to the whole universe, [...] they were looking for the Heavenly Fatherland.”

St. John Chrysostom

Both in the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament and in the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, the theme of man’s pilgrimage on the earth of birth sounds constantly and unchangeably. The Lord Himself was a Stranger on this earth. His disciples followed Him, leaving everyone and everything behind them, followed by people, crowds of people, and after them, only having heard the voice of God’s calling, all of Holy Rus', the eternal wanderer, followed! If we only set out to trace how the image of wandering was reflected in Russian spirituality, in folk art, in songs and fairy tales, in the art of our great writers and artists, we would get an incomparable, great, unique picture!

For a thousand years they walked, tirelessly, across their native land: bast shoes, barefoot peasants and village women, retired soldiers, yesterday's merchants, young artisans and even weak girls! And nobles, writers and - secretly - sovereigns... They went to Kyiv and Solovki, to Pochaev and to the Trinity, to venerate St. Sergius... They walked, warming their spirits and gaining wisdom at the great shrines, from meetings with holy people of God. They endured both cold and hunger - they endured everything, for their souls were looking for a meeting with the Lord, looking for a way to the Kingdom of Heaven. And if it were possible, miraculously, to suddenly stop this quiet and incessant movement, to see it in an instant as one living picture, we, looking at it, would not be able to help but say: this is the image of our Motherland. Here is the secret of our national life, our national character, our soul and our land, in its unique nature and in man-made beauty, which reflected this spiritual height of people's life.

Our ancestors considered their land sacred. As “brightly bright and beautifully decorated” (The Word of Batu’s conquest of Ryazan, XIII century), consecrated by God’s churches, holy icons, processions of the cross, bell ringing, vigilant prayers and services, holy springs, the relics of countless revealed and unrevealed saints, the land. All life - from birth to the grave - on this holy land was actually one continuous worship service. From the wise and deepest mysticism of Russian churches and urban planning, which symbolized the realities of the Holy Land - as the Motherland of the Savior, and the images of the Heavenly City - the Promised Land, the Heavenly Fatherland, to the subtlest aspects of life - everything was subordinated to one thought, one goal, one cherished aspiration, which imprinted in our Orthodox Creed: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century.”

But to enter there, to move into this third cherished ark housing It was possible only by being “born again,” from water and the Spirit, by being transformed from a natural man (born of the flesh) into a spiritual man, born of the Spirit. The Lord spoke to Nicodemus about this secret (John 3:3-5). And Nicodemus was perplexed: “How can a person be born when he is old? Can he really enter his mother’s womb another time and be born?” But the Lord again and again exhorted Nicodemus: “Do not be surprised at the fact that I said to you: you must be born again” (John 3:7).

It is these words of the Lord about the second birth that open the way for us to understand what the earthly Motherland is for a person...

The greatest Divine gift, the fruit of the Father’s providence for us, Homeland is given to us as place of second birth. As the only possible - both for each individual person and for the people as a whole - a set of necessary and sufficient conditions required for the healing of our souls damaged by sinfulness. The homeland is given to a person so that, having passed his way here on earth, his path to obedience to the will of God, V these specific conditions, on this place, in this environment, among these people, our inner old man was able to obtain this second birth of the Spirit, and become new Adam. And, therefore, to prepare your soul for eternal life in Christ.

That is why willful abandonment of the Motherland, betrayal of it, or even simply a disdainful, nihilistic, unloving attitude towards one’s native land is the greatest sin before God and the greatest of evils that a person and the people as a whole can create for their souls. Betrayal of this path, its distortion both in the fate of one person and in the fate of an entire people, entails great sorrows, burdens and troubles that fall as a terrible burden on the shoulders of several subsequent generations. And often, they lead to direct destruction of both the people and their homeland. There are many examples of this in history. And the fate of Russia is an example of this. “A voice is heard on the heights, the mournful cry of the children of Israel that they have perverted the way, they have forgotten the Lord their God. Return, rebellious children: I will heal your disobedience,” the prophet Jeremiah warned his people. (Jer.3:21-22), already foreseeing both the captivity of Babylon and the destruction of Jerusalem. They didn't listen to him. They did not listen to other prophets either. Russia did not want to listen to its prophets either. But we, who have been in captivity in Babylon for almost a century, reaping all the fruits of our apostasy, both in the life around us and in the lives of our own children, have already almost lost our Motherland, should we finally hear them and “return”? ! Return... But how?

“...Then those who captivated us asked about the words of the songs, and those who led us about the singing: sing to us from the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land; If I forget you in Jerusalem, my right hand will be forgotten" ( Ps. 136:1).

Our history has preserved a remarkable statement by Emperor Peter I, dating back to the beginning of “cutting a window” to Europe: “We need the West only for a while,” said Peter, “and then we will turn our backs on it.” But it turns out that it turned out quite the opposite. For almost ten years now, in the center of Moscow, not far from the Kremlin, opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, there has been an ugly monument to the great reformer, but only its face is looking towards the West, and towards the East, towards the Kremlin, towards Russia it is turned... backwards. Such a sonorous symbol of our time! How can you return “home” when everything around you and above you is saturated with an alien spirit, alien concepts: “civil society, democratic values”... And you know that all this is a lie, that there is only one underlying reason behind it: money, profit , self-interest and very far-reaching plans for world domination. That cosmopolitan politicians no longer hide their shamelessness, and in front of the Russian people, dying under the pressure of such “values,” they are eating up what ten years ago they called “Russian pie.” How can one put in a word about the Motherland, to whom to mentally direct it, how to touch the bitter and cold hearts of compatriots who no longer trust anyone or anything?

It was said a long time ago and not by us: where you have sinned, correct yourself. We have destroyed all the fullness, all the beauty, all Russian happiness and all the meaning of our national life, leaving the church fence. By rejecting Christ, we thereby destroyed all the spiritual bonds of our earthly life, and above all our “mortal connection” with our only God-given Motherland. Now it is clear why attempts to revive patriotic consciousness at the end of the twentieth century were not crowned with success, why sincere and bitter lament about the Motherland sinking into the waters of oblivion could not take effect. How can those who rely on appearance, even a very ancient and beautiful ritual fail to revive holy Love for the Fatherland... Even if you reproduce the entire life of Holy Rus' from the 11th century, what will happen? Only theater, only falsehood, mummers, carrion and dryness...

“The fullness of national life is possible only where respected tradition",- wrote the wonderful “sorrowful man” and expert on the Russian land, collector of folk songs and epics, Pyotr Vasilyevich Kireyevsky, spiritual son of the Venerable Optina Elder Macarius. But what is “tradition”? This is tradition, this is permeation of all life, all human life by the light of Faith, everything that people reverence as an ideal. Sanctification of life. Isn’t that what F.M. is talking about? Dostoevsky thought when, in the heat of controversy, he defended the Russian people and all Russian life from a stream of malicious attacks. Yes, - said Dostoevsky, - our people sinned a lot, and fell deeply, - but it’s also true that as soon as the soul of the Russian people was “not repaired”! As long as they didn’t seduce him, test his holy patience, or torture him! Judge the people, argued F.M. Dostoevsky, - it is possible only because what people regard as an ideal, which for him is the highest good and shrine, which he, even weak and sinful, worships in his soul. And we know why, or rather, To whom Our people have been worshiping for almost a thousand years!

I remember how school literature teachers stammered and became confused when it came to analyzing Lermontov’s poem “Motherland”: “I love my fatherland, but with a strange love, My reason will not defeat it.” This “strange” denial of reason and everything that official patriotic propaganda was still based on after the Great Patriotic War after the Great Patriotic War confused the teachers who were accustomed to the cultural and educational primitiveness. But Lermontov had something different, forgotten, incomprehensible... Neither historical glory, “bought with blood,” nor ancestral memory and nostalgia for the “cherished legends” of antiquity stirred the poet’s “delightful dreams.” Other pictures resonated with aching love and pain in the poet’s heart:

But I love - for what, I don’t know myself -

Its steppes are coldly silent,

its boundless forests sway...

On a country road I like to ride in a cart

And, with a slow gaze piercing the shadow of the night,

Meet on the sides, sighing for an overnight stay,

Trembling lights of sad villages.

It was here that the godless human mind became lost, feeling some kind of power beyond its control. Not only in Lermontov, but also in Pushkin, Gogol, Tyutchev, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Blok, Yesenin, in drawn-out Russian folk songs (especially!) we hear the same repeating, long, languid, constricting heart sound... These “trembling lights of sad villages”... This love-pain is like a touch to some hidden depths, to the naked heart of the Russian land, to its nature, humble and quiet, to what “comes through and secretly shines" in her humble nakedness" (F.I. Tyutchev), and that "the proud gaze of a foreigner will never understand or notice... The eyes of Christ, His meek, humble and bright gaze, which a thousand years ago entered forever in the heart of the Russian person, consecrated our entire land, our nature, our history, culture, our self-awareness, all our feelings, our way of life, all our aspirations in this earthly life, the very love for the Motherland - everything is ours.

So can we go home another way?

The path to the Motherland, the path to the true, authentic, thousand-year-old Russia for us today, as well as for our ancestors, is only one: through the Church gates - to Christ. We once came out of them in our madness, and we must enter them again. And there is prayer. “My house will be called a house of prayer” (Mark 11:17). A prayer will heal everything and unite everyone. With God, everyone is alive. And remembering your ancestors, known and unknown, near and far, all Russian people, praying for them, grieving, but not condemning! - according to Pushkin -

May the descendants of the Orthodox know

The native land has a past fate,

They commemorate their great kings

For their labors, for glory, for good -

And for sins, for dark deeds

They humbly implore the Savior.

We will feel how our age-old wounds will begin to heal, and in our hearts will begin to come to life - like the gaze and hands of a long-dead mother - forgotten, dear, sacred... How our hearts will suddenly open in all the radiance of the truth that we are all one Family, one Spirit - for “Cling to the Lord; there is one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor.6:17), one One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church - both Triumphant Heavenly and Militant Earthly. That we all have One Heavenly Father, and our blood Homeland, handed over to us by Him, so that we “cultivate it” as a paradise, and “keep it” as a shrine, and thus be saved, is also one. And then, only then, will the prophetic words, filled with love and light, begin to come true, the words of the holy martyr Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna, written by her in 1918, a few days before her arrest and just a little over two months before her martyrdom:

“We... on this earth must direct our thoughts to the Kingdom of Heaven, so that with enlightened eyes we can see everything and say with humility, “Thy will be done.” “Great Russia, fearless and impeccable,” was completely destroyed. But “Holy Russia” and the Orthodox Church, which “the gates of hell will not overcome,” exist and exist more than ever before. And those who believe and do not doubt for a moment will see the “inner sun” that illuminates the darkness during the thundering storm.” Amen.

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Introduction. The main theme of “Words...” is the story of Igor’s unsuccessful campaign against the Polovtsians. It is important for the author of “The Lay...” to have a deep emotional understanding of the events of Russian history. “The Word...” is surprisingly lyrical. The pinnacle of lyricism in “The Lay...” is Yaroslavna’s cry.

Main part.

a) The woman is the heroine of the ancient Russian epic. It is unusual that a female heroine appears in the narrative of the military campaigns of Russian princes. But Yaroslavna is not a heroine in the literal sense of the word. She does not fight, does not take active actions.

b) Who is Yaroslavna? Yaroslavna princess, wife of Prince Igor, daughter of Prince Yaroslav of Galitsky. She is waiting for Igor to return to Putivl.

c) The power of Yaroslavna’s love.

d) Who does Yaroslavna address in her letter, and what does she pray for? Yaroslavna turns to nature (wind, river, sun). She prays for the salvation of Prince Igor, reproaches nature for helping the Polovtsians and destroying the Russian army.

e) What is the meaning of the image of Yaroslavna? Yaroslavna is the embodiment of love and sorrow, the personification of a loving wife and a symbol of the sorrow of the entire Russian people

Conclusion. The image of Yaroslavna enhances the tragic sound of “The Lay...”. At the same time, along with her image, “The Word...” includes the theme of saving love. In her crying, her prayers, the general
Outline of the message on the topic: “What is the pathos of the monument “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”

Introduction. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is a work of unusually deep content.

Main part.

a) The main theme of “Words...”. At the beginning of the “Words...” the author says that his great predecessor, the storyteller Boyan, sang of ancient times and the deeds of the old princes. He, “according to a different plan,” wants to tell about the present, about the princes whose contemporary he was, and the events that he saw.

b) Deepening the meaning of the “Word...”. However, the meaning of the story deepens due to the expansion of the temporal (the author talks about past times and reflects on the future) and geographical (generally the author shows all of Rus') framework.

c) The main idea of ​​the author. Having shown the prospects for the historical development of Rus' and the sad results of the modern political situation (civil strife, the destruction of cities, the death of brave warriors, the weakening of the military power of Rus'), the author expresses his cherished thought: the strength of Rus' lies in its unity, in the alliance between the princes.

d) Nationality of the “Words...”. The author's main idea is an expression of the hopes of the entire Russian people.

Conclusion. The pathos of “The Lay...” lies in the solemn call of the Russian princes for unification and an end to strife. The call comes from the entire Russian people.

Outline of the message on the topic: “What is the relevance of this work today? »

Introduction. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” was created more than eight centuries ago. But the topics raised in this work are national, so “The Word...” remains relevant today.

Main part.

a) The problem of separation of the Slavic world. Nowadays, Slavic peoples (for example, Russians and Ukrainians) treat each other with hostility. But they are united by thousands of years of common history, language, and culture. The enemy that now threatens the Slavic world is globalization. The loss of cultural ties between the East Slavic countries may cause their culture to become increasingly monotonous and Western-oriented. The call for the unification of the Slavic peoples, an alliance of equals, is now more relevant than ever.

Conclusion. “The Word...” reminds us of our cultural roots, of the common history of the now divided Slavic peoples.

Outline of the message on the topic: “My attitude towards the characters of “The Lay...”.”

Introduction. All the heroes "

“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is, of course, one of the most significant works in all of ancient Russian literature. The image of nature plays a very important role in the artistic system of the poem. In this article we will talk about it in detail.

Nature's Dual Function

Nature in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is characterized by the fact that it performs a double function. On the one hand, she lives her own life. The creator of the poem describes the landscape that surrounds the heroes. On the other hand, it is a means of expressing the author’s thoughts and his attitude to what is happening.

Nature is a living thing

Reading the description of nature in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” we understand that the author poetically perceives the world around him. He treats her like a living being. The author endows nature with qualities that are characteristic of humans. In his image, she reacts to events and perceives the world around her. In "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" nature is a separate hero. Since her image is a kind of means through which the author expresses his thoughts, she is, as it were, a supporter and ally of the Russian troops. We see how nature “worries” about the people. When Igor was defeated, she mourns with this hero. The author writes that the tree bowed to the ground, that the grass drooped.

Union of man and nature

In the work that interests us, the boundaries between man and nature are erased. People are often compared to animals and a raven, falcon, aurochs. It is difficult to name a work where changes in nature and events in people's lives would be so closely intertwined. And this unity enhances the drama and significance of what is happening. The union of man and nature, unfolded with great force in the work, is a poetic union. For the author, nature is an inexhaustible source of poetic means and a kind of musical accompaniment that gives the action a strong poetic sound.

Description of the second battle

The description of the second battle in the work “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is an excerpt that presents a detailed image of nature. The author notes that “bloody dawns” have appeared, that “black clouds” are coming from the sea, in which “blue lights are trembling.” He concludes: “Let there be great thunder!” Reading “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (a passage dedicated to the second battle), we feel the author’s emotional tension. We understand that defeat cannot be avoided. This point of view on current events is the result of the political views of the creator of the poem. And they were that Russian troops could defeat the Polovtsians only by uniting. You can't act alone.

Nature is the highest power

It should also be noted that nature in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” acts as a kind of higher power, capable of predicting events and also managing them. For example, before Igor went on a campaign, she warned the Russian troops about the danger that threatened them. The author writes: “The sun blocked his path with darkness.”

How nature is involved in what is happening

Nature is used not only to reflect events and warn of danger in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” She is in the work and an active participant in what is happening. Yaroslavna turns to nature with a request for help. She sees her as her assistant and protector. Yaroslavna asks the “bright and bright” Sun, Dnieper and Wind to help Igor escape from captivity. The princess, turning to them, tries to dispel grief and find peace of mind. Yaroslavna's cry is a kind of spell addressed to the forces of nature. The princess encourages them to serve Igor, her “dear lady.”

And nature in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” responds to this request. She actively helps Yaroslavna’s husband escape. The Donets lays green grass on the banks for the prince, cherishes him on its waves. He dresses Igor in warm mists, hiding him under the canopy of trees. With the help of nature, the prince escapes safely. Woodpeckers show him the way, and nightingales sing songs to Igor. Thus, Russian nature in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” helps the prince.

Donets, despite the defeat of the prince's troops, justifies and glorifies this hero. When he returns from captivity, the author notes that “the sun is shining in the sky.”

Symbolism of color

The symbolism of color plays an important role in describing nature. It helps us discover its semantic meaning. The colors that predominate in the image of a particular landscape have a certain psychological load. The Middle Ages were generally characterized by the perception of color as a symbol. This manifested itself very clearly in icon painting, but it was also reflected in literature. The color black, for example, is used to depict tragic events. It symbolizes darkness and is a manifestation of the forces of evil. Blue is the color of heaven. In his works he personifies higher powers.

Blue clouds and black lightning tell us that darkness is coming. They indicate the hopelessness of the situation. Blue acts as a kind of sign from above. Suffering, blood symbolizes the color red. That is why the author uses it when describing nature during the battle and after it. Green symbolizes calm, and silver symbolizes joy and light. Therefore, the author uses them to depict the escape of Prince Igor.

Expression of the author's thoughts

The description of nature in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” helps the author to poetically and vividly express his political views and thoughts. When Igor decides to go on a hike on his own, nature gives a negative assessment to this decision. It's as if she's going over to the enemy's side. During the escape of Igor, who is in a hurry to “bring his guilt” to the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav, nature helps him. She happily greets him when he manages to reach Kyiv.

One of the best works of ancient Russian literature is “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” The image presented in it testifies to the great artistic skill and talent of the author. The picture he vividly depicted is evidence that the work was created by an eyewitness, perhaps even a participant in Igor’s campaign.