How did you travel in the old days?
...Almost all postal routes are known to me...When it wasn't railways, traveling on horseback along postal routes, inevitably slow, with inevitable delays along the way, turned into an event. It is no coincidence that the topic of the road took great place in the works of poets and writers of that time.
In the first chapter of the novel "Eugene Onegin" Eugene travels to his uncle's village, "flying in the dust on post offices."
He got ready, and, thank God, on the third of July, a light carriage carried Him on the road by mail.
(Excerpts from Onegin's journey) *
* (Pushkin's texts (except for those specified) are given according to the edition: A. S. Pushkin Complete Works: In 10 volumes, 4th ed. D.: Nauka, 1977.)
Postal horses were the name given to government horses; the traveler exchanged them at postal stations.
The word "post" (from the Latin posita, statio) came to mean a station with a change of horses. The merits of Peter I were especially great in organizing regular mail in Russia. The post office delivered correspondence and served travelers on official business. By decree of Peter I, private individuals were then given the right to use post horses for double runs.
From the middle of the 18th century, mail was increasingly used as a means of transportation. Since that time, the number of postal routes has rapidly increased. High postal rates and low salaries of postal employees made it a profitable source for the state.
At the end of the 18th century, special postal troikas appeared (three horses harnessed to a postal wagon). They primarily carried urgent government correspondence sent by express courier and couriers. Riding in troikas later became widespread in people's everyday lives, but at first they only traveled this way from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoe Selo and to Narva (on the best roads at that time). Soon they began to tie a bell to the arch of the root (middle) horse. And in the first third of the 19th century, a special troika harness with bells and bells was invented. The ringing of bells on the main roads helped to avoid going astray and warned when it was necessary to miss oncoming mail. For the same purpose, in Western Europe they used a postal horn, and rattles were tied to horses. Remembering the Prussian cab drivers, N. M. Karamzin wrote in “Letters of a Russian Traveler”: “Long wagons in a train; the horses are large, and the rattles hanging on them make an unbearable noise for the ears.”
Russian postmen were also required to notify of their approach with a postal horn. However, the postal bell became a purely national invention that firmly entered Russian road life.
Fast driving accompanied by its melodic ringing, sung by many poets of the 19th century, became the property of everyday romance and folk songs. The poet P. A. Vyazemsky wrote about the ringing of a bell in the poem “More Troika”:
Russian steppe, dark night Poetic news! There is a lot of languid thought in it, and there is a lot of expanse.
Postal stations were set up on all roads for changing horses and resting. Each of them had a certain number of horses and carriages, depending on the category to which it belonged. Stations of the first category were built in provincial cities, of the second - in district ones. Small settlements had stations of the third and fourth categories with a small number of horses.
The postal station was under the authority of an official - the stationmaster. His duty was to check the travel documents (that was the name of the document that indicated the route, rank and title of the traveler), receive passes and release the horses.
For horses, driving money was charged - for each horse and mile. A horse's run of one mile cost, depending on the route, from eight to ten kopecks. The calculation of miles began from the city post offices. The first post office in Russia (Poshtovy Dvor) was opened in St. Petersburg in 1714, when the new capital became a center of regular communications. Initially made of wood, it was built near the current Campus Martius.
All the main roads of the state were marked with versts (a verst is equal to 1067 meters). A post with numbers was placed at every mile. On one side of the pillar the miles traveled were indicated, on the other - the remaining path to the final destination.
Since the end of the 18th century, postal stations were built according to standard designs and in Central Russia were located approximately at a distance of 18 to 25 versts. Having covered this path and delivered mail or people to the next station, the driver and horses returned back. The post office worked according to the relay race method.
In order to travel with greater comfort and not have to transfer (hence “travel on a carriage”) luggage at each station to another wagon, it was considered more convenient for the traveler to use his own carriage and change only horses at stations.
Depending on the time of year, there were different crews. In the summer they used wagons, double and four-seater carriages, britzkas and carriages. In winter they traveled in sleighs and carts (the latter were sleighs with a body in the form of a low carriage with small windows).
For Russian roads, the most convenient carriages in the summer were a cart and a carriage; for winter - a simple sleigh or a wagon - a sleigh with a leather canopy stretched over rods.
The type of crew indicated the greater or lesser well-being of the traveler.
Very bulky but comfortable traveling carriages were equipped with a wide variety of travel accessories. A description of such a carriage was given by Pushkin in an excerpt from the planned but unrealized “Novel on Caucasian Waters”: “...What a carriage! A toy, a sight for sore eyes - all in boxes, and what is not here: a bed, a toilet, a cellar, a first aid kit, a kitchen, a service ".
The cumbersome carriages were pulled by horses in a train - single file, two in a row. One carriage was often harnessed to six or more horses. Their number also depended on the importance of the traveling person, but due to bad roads it was often an urgent necessity. Even in summer it was difficult to travel, not to mention the spring and autumn thaw.
Pushkin wrote on August 20, 1833 to his wife from Torzhok: “The coachmen put gears in the carriage, frightening me with dirty country roads.” And later to her from Moscow: “...they forcibly dragged me with a gear.”
Due to bad roads, carriages often broke down, especially those from abroad, those not designed for long distances and bad roads.
On September 25, 1832, Pushkin wrote to Natalya Nikolaevna: “My coachman is a rogue; he took 500 rubles from me for repairs, and in one month I could even abandon my carriage...” Somewhat earlier, the poet had described to her his trip to Moscow on a “discharged” stagecoach : “Velosifer, in Russian a hasty stagecoach... hurried like a turtle, and sometimes even like a lobster. I happened to make three stations a day... I’ve never seen anything like it in my life...”
In 1816, Russia began construction of the first highway between St. Petersburg and Moscow. The road was completed in 1834. Now the distance between the two capitals was covered in four days instead of the previous five or six days. To contemporaries it seemed like a miracle. But in the 1820s, when Eugene Onegin was created, highways were still a dream. In the seventh chapter of the novel, Pushkin wrote:
When, through good enlightenment, We push back more boundaries... ...... ......the roads, right, will change immeasurably for us: the Russian highway here and here, Having connected, they will cross. Cast-iron bridges across the waters will step in a wide arc, we will move apart the mountains, under the water we will dig through bold vaults, and a baptized world will open a tavern at every station.
Now our roads are bad, Forgotten bridges are rotting, There are bugs and fleas at the stations It takes minutes to fall asleep; There are no taverns. In a cold hut Pompous, but hungry The price list hangs for appearance And vainly teases the appetite, While the rural cyclops Before the slow Russian fire they treat with a hammer The light product of Europe, Blessing the ruts and ditches of their father's land.
How fast did they travel at that time? Despite the condition of the roads, we drove relatively quickly thanks to the extraordinary skill of Russian coachmen. The speed of travel on Russian roads amazed and frightened foreigners. Abbot Georgel recalled in his “Travel to St. Petersburg during the reign of Emperor Paul I”: “Russian coachmen drive extremely quickly, almost all the time the horses gallop ... you constantly risk breaking the carriage and capsizing, and you have to threaten them in order to force them to go slower."
But in Pushkin, the hero of one of his unfinished stories (“In 179* I was returning...”) says: “I drove the postman, my cold-blooded fellow countryman, and mentally regretted the Russian coachmen and the daring Russian riding.” And the poet’s contemporary G.V. Gerakov wrote in “Travel Notes to Many Russian Cities”: “The roads are worse than the other, the bridges are even worse, the coachmen are great, the horses are good.”
There were rules about how many miles per hour coachmen could carry “ordinary travelers.” So, in the autumn it was supposed to carry eight versts per hour, in the summer - ten, and in the winter, along the sled route - twelve. These rules did not apply to couriers and couriers, who, as it is said about them, “are to be transported as hastily as possible.”
The usual speed when chasing postal mail day and night was about one hundred versts per day. But, negotiating with the coachmen, the travelers traveled along the winter road for two hundred miles a day.
Pushkin speaks about such fast driving in the seventh chapter of Eugene Onegin, comparing the Russian coachman with Automedon, the driver of Achilles from Homer’s Iliad:
But winters are sometimes cold. Driving is pleasant and easy. Like a verse without a thought in a fashionable song - The winter road is smooth. Our automedons are militant, our troikas are tireless, and miles, delighting the idle gaze, flash in the eyes like a fence.
The poet supplied the last lines in a note with an anecdote he heard about the fast courier and courier driving: “K... told that, having once been sent as a courier from Prince Potemkin to the Empress, he rode so fast that his sword, sticking out of the cart, was knocking on miles, like a stockade."
For travel by postal service, a travel pass was issued. Without it or another document proving the identity of the traveler and the purpose of the trip, it was impossible to travel outside the city. Guard officers at the outposts recorded travelers on special lists. Information about nobles who left and entered capitals and provincial cities was published in newspapers. Only after checking the documents did the barrier rise and the traveler could leave or enter the city.
“Travel horses are issued,” says the postal rules for travelers, “in cities: provincial from the heads of the provinces, regional from the heads of the regions, and in the districts - from the mayors, but without a travel document no one can receive post horses.”
"On the road according to our own needs." Copy of A.F. Novikov from fig. P. I. Chelishcheva. 1830s
In the case when the landowner sent his servants to go shopping in the city, he also issued them something like a travel ticket - a ticket. Then, instead of rank and title, the signs of serfs were reported.
A similar document was preserved in the papers of A. S. Pushkin. It is written by the poet himself in a modified handwriting. Having received news of the death of Emperor Alexander I (this news reached Pushkin on November 29, 1825), the poet decided to go to St. Petersburg, for which this ticket was written in a greatly altered handwriting, as if on behalf of his neighbor, the Trigorsk landowner P. A. Osipova. Its text is as follows:
TICKET
This was given to the people of the village of Trigorskoye: Alexei Khokhlov, height 2 arsh. 4 ver. dark brown hair, blue eyes, shaves his beard, 29 years old, and Arkhip Kurochkin is 2 are tall. 3 1/2 in. light brown hair, thick eyebrows, crooked, pockmarked eyes, about 45 years old, to certify that they were definitely sent from me to St. Petersburg for my own needs, and therefore I ask the gentlemen commanders at the outposts to fix a free pass for them.
The text of the ticket indicates that Pushkin himself was hiding under the name of Alexei Khokhlov. The signs of "Khokhlov" coincide with the signs of the poet. Pushkin added years to himself, apparently believing that in appearance he could be given more.
The escape plan was not carried out. Soon news came of the defeat of the uprising and arrests in the capital.
Post horses were released according to the rank and rank of the traveler indicated in the travel order, which was strictly regulated by the “Highly Approved Schedules.” This began with Peter's Table of Ranks. Those traveling “for official reasons” were paid for their travel.
The higher the rank of the traveler, the more horses he was supposed to. For example, persons of the 1st class: field marshal general, admiral general, chancellor and others could, if necessary, demand 20 horses at the station; persons of the 2nd class: metropolitans, bishops and actual privy councilors, courtiers in the 2nd class, members of the State Council and senators - 15 horses; persons of the 3rd class: lieutenant general, vice admiral, court persons of the 3rd class, privy councilors and all other ranks of the 3rd class - 12 horses and so on - the lower the rank, the fewer horses were required. Persons from the 9th to the 14th class: captains, staff captains, lieutenants, titular advisers, all military and naval chief officers and other ranks were entitled to three horses, while lower ranks and servants were entitled to only two horses.
Upon leaving the Lyceum, Pushkin received the rank of collegiate secretary (13th grade), and later, from 1831, had the rank of titular councilor (10th grade). He was entitled to only three horses.
The poet's travel document has been preserved, with which he was traveling along the Belarusian postal route, when he was sent to his first exile under the guise of a business trip: “By decree of His Majesty, Sovereign Emperor Alexander Pavlovich, Autocrat of All-Russia, and other, and other, and other indicators of this, the Department of the State Board of Foreign Affairs, collegiate secretary Alexander Pushkin was sent due to the need for service to the Chief Trustee of the colonists Southern region Russia, G. Lieutenant General Inzov; why, for free passage, this passport from this Collegium was given to him in St. Petersburg on May 5, 1820" *.
* (In documents and letters of the 18th-19th centuries, the peculiarities of spelling and punctuation of that time are preserved.)
When four years later the poet, by order of the tsar, was sent to a new exile, to the Pskov province, he was given orders from Odessa to Pskov according to his rank. “For runs to the destination of 1621 versts, for 3 horses, he was given money of 389 rubles. 4 kopecks,” the Odessa mayor wrote in a report in July 1824.
Couriers and couriers received horses at post stations out of turn. There should always be ready-made threes for them. But if the courier horses were in overdrive, any that were available were given to the couriers. Then the travelers received horses in order of rank. An unofficial, lowly person had no voice on the postal route. He had to sit for a long time waiting at stations. “Ranks are a necessity in Russia, at least for some stations, where without them you can’t get horses,” says one of the characters in Pushkin’s unfinished “Novel in Letters.”
But the worst thing was for the traveler when he did not have a travel ticket. “Whoever traveled by mail,” wrote A. N. Radishchev in “Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” “knows that the travel card is a savings letter, without which every wallet, perhaps a general’s, with the exception of it, will be unprofitable...”
In addition to the road ticket for special occasions, there was a sheet for the caretakers on the road - about the non-stop release of post horses. The sheet, printed on a special form, was issued to “excellent travelers and those passing through official or special needs.”
The list for caretakers did not exclude the need to have a travel document, but horses, if available, were provided, if not non-stop, then, in any case, faster than usual.
There was a case when A.S. Pushkin also used such a sheet. He received it through an acquaintance from the Moscow postal director A. Ya. Bulgakov. Setting out on a long journey from Moscow to the Kazan and Orenburg provinces to collect materials for “The History of Pugachev,” the poet feared that most of the time would be spent waiting for horses at the stations. In a letter to his wife dated September 2, 1833, Pushkin wrote that before leaving Moscow, he paid a visit to A. Ya. Bulgakov to “beg for a sheet for the caretakers, who respect me very little, despite the fact that I write wonderful poems.” Such sheets about the non-stop release of horses are still stored today in the Central State Historical Archive in Leningrad, in the files of the Main Postal Administration A. Ya. Bulgakov, a friend of A. I. Turgenev, one of Pushkin’s friends, certainly had such forms and was able to help out the poet. Sheets for caretakers were usually issued to officials on special assignments. The story with the sheet continued: Pushkin arrived in Orenburg on September 18, 1833 and stayed here with the Orenburg military governor V. A. Perovsky, the brother of the writer A. A. Perovsky, with whom the poet was closely acquainted. At this time, Perovsky received a letter from the Nizhny Novgorod governor. It was about Pushkin. “I don’t believe,” the governor wrote, “that he was traveling around for documents about the Pugachev riot. He must have been given a secret order to collect information about malfunctions.” The letter made the poet laugh: he was mistaken for an auditor. Then he gave Gogol the idea of the possibility of such a plot and considered himself the godfather of his comedy “The Inspector General”.
If the traveler did not have a travel document, he had to take care of himself, hire coachmen and horses at a free, negotiated price, or try to get them at the same post stations, paying exorbitant prices for everything. This was called traveling “free.”
The cavalry maiden N.A. Durova spoke about the difficulties of traveling without a travel ticket, describing her trip to St. Petersburg in 1836 in the autobiographical story “A Year of Life in St. Petersburg, or the Disadvantages of a Third Visit”:
“Ride without a road ticket... The free ones will take you cheaper... I followed this rash advice... The free drivers calculated in great detail what it would cost me to get to the postal station, and demanded much more from me...
I tried to take post horses at several stations, and I was very amused by the antics and blinking with the mysterious look of some of the caretakers, delighted by the fact that a man rode up to them without a traveler, whose appearance showed that he had no idea about any tricks... The caretaker sat down at table, unfolded the book, turned his head to the door and shouted: “More agile than horses!” - He immediately turned to me: “Your travel document?” “I don’t have it,” I answered frankly... After several stations, at which I had to pay left and right, for everything and about everything, and also very expensively, I went again on free, but there was more worse..."
“With the travel allowance, I would have paid no more than three hundred rubles from Kazan to St. Petersburg; without it, I spent exactly six hundred,” Durova wrote.
Some travelers preferred "free" horses, as they were afraid of fast riding - "chasing" - on post horses. Travel was not always successful. Because of a bad road or because of a fast ride, to which the driver was often encouraged by the impatient traveler himself, carriages overturned on the roads.
“...left my damned village 5-6 days ago at a crossroads because of the disgusting roads.
"Meeting the courier." Copy of A.F. Novikov from fig. P. I. Chelishcheva. 1830s
The Pskov coachmen did not find anything better than to overturn me; My side is bruised, my chest hurts, and I can’t breathe. I’m waiting for me to feel at least a little better so that I can continue on the postal route...”
The calmest was the ancient method of riding “on one’s own” or “on long terms”, which was still widespread at that time. Back then they usually didn’t hire horses, but used their own and rode the same horses all the way “from place to place,” giving them a rest along the way.
In such cases, travelers, not having the need for official post horses, made stops where they found it necessary, regardless of the location of post stations.
Riding “long” with long stops to feed and rest the horses without the night chase typical when using postal ones was indeed slow and long, but it was cheaper.
Pushkin wrote in the seventh chapter of Eugene Onegin:
Larina trudged along, Afraid of the expensive runs, Not at the post office, but at her own...
When traveling “long”, the landowners equipped a whole convoy for themselves, for servants and a lot of things they brought with them, food and feed for horses. This, at that time modest, departure of the thrifty landowner Larina is depicted in Pushkin’s novel:
An ordinary convoy, three wagons, carrying household belongings, saucepans, chairs, chests, jam in jars, mattresses, feather beds, cages with roosters, pots, basins et cetera, well, a lot of all sorts of goodness. ....................... There was a noise, a farewell cry: Eighteen nags were being led into the yard, ............... ....... They are harnessed to a boyar's cart, ...................... They load the wagons with a mountain...
All three methods of transportation were known to Pushkin and were tested by him more than once. He traveled a lot on his own, and during his travels he also hired “free” coachmen. Evidence of this was preserved among the income and expenditure records in his papers and notebooks *.
* (See: By the Hand of Pushkin: Uncollected and unpublished texts. M.-L.: Academia, 1935, p. 361-362.)
But of those described, the most reliable was the journey by mail. State post office with its relay race transportation from station to station guaranteed reliable movement. Your carriage could break down on the way, the horses could fail. How many times have travelers had to leave their damaged carriage and horses and go further by mail.
Pushkin complained to S.A. Sobolevsky in a letter from Mikhailovsky to Moscow dated November 9, 1826: “I was on the road for eight days, broke two wheels and arrived on crossbars.” “By mail” it was possible to get to the place more accurately and, most importantly, faster.
Travel has long been considered a useful and healing activity. In January 1830, Pushkin jokingly advised his friend M. O. Sudienko: “Dear Sudienko... you write that you have lost your appetite and do not have breakfast as usual... come by postal service to St. Petersburg, and your appetite will return.”
Later, writers of the 19th century spoke a lot about the beneficial effects of the road. S. T. Aksakov in his chronicle “The Childhood Years of Bagrov the Grandson” wrote: “The road is an amazing thing! Its power is irresistible, calming and healing. Suddenly separating a person from his environment, no matter whether it is pleasant or even unpleasant to him, from the constantly entertaining with his multitude of objects, constantly flowing diverse reality, she concentrates his thoughts and feelings in the cramped world of the road crew, directs his attention first to himself, then to the memory of the past and, finally, to dreams and hopes for the future..."
Fast driving was also considered useful, as it gave energy and courage to the body. N.V. Gogol speaks about her in the poem “Dead Souls”: “And what Russian doesn’t love fast driving?.. Shouldn’t you love her when you hear something enthusiastically wonderful in her?..”
Traveling on horseback made the journey memorable. With this method of travel, Russia seemed endless. From Pushkin: “From the cold Finnish rocks to the fiery Colchis” (“To the Slanderers of Russia”); from Gogol: “...even if you gallop for three years, you won’t reach any state” (“The Inspector General”) or “it’s scattered smoothly across half the world, and just start counting the miles…” (“Dead Souls”).
The traveler saw and felt closely native land, and therefore the connection between the theme of the road and the image of the motherland is especially characteristic of Russian literature from the end of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century. For example, in A. N. Radishchev’s “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” the road is Russia itself. Through travel, Pushkin’s hero also learns about Rus':
Onegin is traveling; he will see Holy Rus': its fields, deserts, cities and seas.
Gogol compares Rus' itself to a “brisk, unstoppable troika” and, in order to also show Russia, in “Dead Souls” he sends his hero Chichikov on the road.
The road gives rise to the image of the fatherland in M. Yu. Lermontov’s poem “Motherland”:
On a country road I love to ride in a cart and, with my slow gaze piercing the shadows of the night, meet on the sides, sighing for an overnight stay, the trembling lights of sad villages.
The theme of separation and the unknown that awaits a traveler in a foreign land was also connected with the road.
The sadness of parting, which is full of monuments of folk poetry, finds special expression among Russian writers of the late 18th and first half of the 19th centuries.
N. M. Karamzin in “Letters of a Russian Traveler” addresses his friends: “I have parted with you, dear ones, I have parted! My heart is attached to you with all my most tender feelings, and I am constantly moving away from you and will continue to move away!.. How many years has the journey been taking place? was the most pleasant dream of my imagination?.. But when the desired day came, I began to feel sad, imagining vividly for the first time that I had to part with the people who were dearest to me in the world.”
Lubok picture for a folk song based on the verses of A. S. Pushkin “In the evening of a stormy autumn.” 1829
In the seventh chapter of Eugene Onegin, Tatyana is sad when leaving her home:
“Forgive me, peaceful places! Forgive me, secluded shelter! Will I see you?..” And a stream of tears flows from Tanya’s eyes.
Whether the journey was desired or forced, the unknown lay ahead. What awaits the traveler ahead?
Who is this traveler and how far is his journey? Is he rushing into the darkness of the night, whether by force or by choice? For fun, or for sorrow, Is it to the shelter of his neighbors, Or is he in a hurry to a sad foreign land, my dear?
(P. A. Vyazemsky. Three more)
Will the traveler return to his abandoned home and his friends and find them the same after a long separation? What is his fate?
In the Russian language, folk poetry and works of literature, the themes of the road (path) and human destiny have been drawn together for a long time.
In the poem “October 19” of 1825, Pushkin, addressing his lyceum comrade A. M. Gorchakov, wrote:
Strict fate has assigned us different paths; Stepping into life, we quickly parted ways: But by chance, on a country road, We met and embraced brotherly.
As a symbol of human destiny, rapidly flowing life and the irrevocability of passing time, the theme of the road-fate has worried poets since antiquity *.
* (At the origins of this topic lay the ancient myth of Phaeton - the son of Helios - the sun god (according to the myth, Helios leaves the east every morning in a chariot drawn by four fast-footed fire-breathing horses, and in the evening in the west descends into the ocean. Phaeton begged his father to entrust him with driving the chariot on one day, but could not cope with the horses and died). The poetic myth about the Phaeton (in the 19th century, a special type of light carriage was called a phaeton) was interpreted differently by many authors, and we will only touch on this large topic.)
It is also reflected in Russian poetry. So, for example, in 1825 E. A. Baratynsky wrote the poem “The Road of Life.” Time is likened to post horses.
Equipping His sons, the madmen of us, for the road of life, Good fate gives us a known reserve of golden dreams: The postal years quickly take us from tavern to tavern, And with those dreams we pay for the journeys of life * .
* (The poems later received a second name - “Travel Expenses”: the traveler pays for the journey with “golden dreams”. The theme of Phaeton, who paid with his life for traveling on a solar chariot, is reflected here in its own way.)
In 1823, Pushkin, as if borrowing an image from world poetry, wrote “The Cart of Life.” In his poem, instead of “light chariot” and “sunny horses *” - “cart” and “dashing coachman”:
* (Goethe wrote in the book “From My Life. Poetry and Truth”: “... the sunny horses are racing the light chariot of fate, and all we can do is firmly and courageously control them... Where are we rushing, who knows?!!”)
Although the burden in it is sometimes heavy, the cart is light on the move; The dashing coachman, gray time, Lucky, won’t get off the train. In the morning we get into the cart; We are happy to break our heads And, despising laziness and bliss, We shout: let's go!......... But at noon there is no such courage; Shocked us; We are more afraid of both slopes and ravines; We shout: take it easy, fools! The cart is still rolling; In the evening we got used to it and dozed off until we stopped for the night, while time drives the horses.
Pushkin's traveler makes his usual human journey in the "Cart of Life", he travels in it the morning, noon and evening of his life, and drives the horses "gray time".
Pushkin has many poems related to travel impressions and reflections. He began writing one of them in 1833 and then returned to it at the end of 1835. The text remained unfinished. There are several options in the draft manuscripts. From them one can judge that the poet wanted to talk about some kind of journey. In the drafts, in one case the speech is about the road “From** to Moscow”, in another the lines: “Where the flat and sloping path lies under the Volga” *. The passage, revised in 1835, suggests the road to Pskov. But at the same time, this final sketch, almost devoid of geographical indications, allows us to judge the main idea of the poem. It lies in the fact that a traveler while passing through invisibly observes and gets to know someone else’s life:
* (Pushkin A.S. Complete works: In 16 volumes. M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1937-1949. T.3, p. 403, 1012-1013.)
If you happen to drive from **** to ** Where the river flows Between the sloping banks, - From the main road on the right, Between the field and the village, You will see an oak grove, On the left is a garden and a manor house. .......................And, bored while driving, past..................entertained, The Traveler looks invisibly at the family , to the balcony.
Driving along the same road, the traveler sees the same landscape and the same people - a house and a family sitting on the balcony, and each time he observes their life invisibly from them.
Pushkin turned to this technique more than once in his work. The story of an outsider observing someone else's life became the basis of the story "The Station Agent", which so fully reflects the poet's travel impressions and the life of the road in Russia *.
* (See: Berkovsky N. Ya. Articles about literature. M.-JI.: Goslitizdat, 1962, p. 323.)
It’s rare that I don’t know a caretaker by sight; it’s a rare one that I haven’t dealt with... These much-maligned caretakers are generally peaceful people, helpful by nature, inclined towards community, modest in their claims to honors... From their conversations (whom the gentlemen inappropriately neglect passing) you can learn a lot of interesting and instructive...
Pushkin A.S. Stationmaster
Read it.
A) While my horses were being re-harnessed, I was curious, examining the papers I had received.<…>Among the many decrees relating to the restoration, if possible, of equality among citizens, I found table of ranks. <…>But now the arch of the root horse is already ringing the bell and calling me to leave; and for this, for the sake of goodness, I decided to better discuss what is more profitable for the person riding the post office, so that the horses trot or amble, or what is more profitable for mail nag, to be a pacer or a horse? -rather than doing something that doesn’t exist.
(A.N. Radishchev, “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”)
B) After reading the sad message,
[…] see you straight away
Headlong I went by mail
And I already yawned in advance,
Getting ready, for the sake of money,
For sighs, boredom and deception...
- Explain what the highlighted expressions mean.
- Write the name of the author of passage B) and the name of the main character of the work, missing in passage B).
- Imagine that horses have the gift of speech. Write a monologue to a postal horse: how it lives, who it has to carry, how it is treated. Mention other works of Russian literature that mention post horses. Volume – 150–200 words.
Answers and evaluation criteria
- "Table of Ranks"- a document in the form of a table that established the correspondence between civil, military, spiritual and scientific ranks.
Put into circulation by decree of Peter I in 1722 (1 point).
"Mail Nag"- a horse at the post station. Postal system
stations were established by the state for fast communication between populated areas. Horses were changed at stations located several dozen miles from each other, which made it possible to travel almost without stopping (2 points).
“I rode by mail”– used the postal station system for travel (1 point).
- A.S. Pushkin, “Eugene Onegin” (0.5 points), Eugene (0.5 points).
- Monologue of the post horse.
Task 2. HOLISTIC TEXT ANALYSIS
Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (1783–1852)
ULLIN AND HIS DAUGHTER
There was a strong whirlwind and heavy rain;
The abyss was boiling and raging;
To the shore of Reno, mountain chief,
He rushed with Ullin's daughter.
“Fisherman, take us into your boat;
Fisherman, save us from pursuit;
Ullin and his squad are not far away:
We hear screams; the horses are racing."
“Do you see how evil the water is?
Can you hear how loud the waves are?
Letting go now is a disaster:
My canoe is not strong, the oars are brittle.”
“Fisherman, fisherman, give me your boat;
Save us: no matter how evil the abyss,
There may be mercy from the waves -
It won’t be from Ullin!”
The thunderstorm is stronger, the abyss is angrier,
And closer, closer the sound of the chase;
They can hear the heavy snoring of horses,
They can hear the sound of swords hitting armor.
“Sit down, good time; let's swim."
And Rino sat down, and the maiden sat down with him;
The fisherman set sail; shuttle
The gray abyss took over.
And death is everywhere to them: open
Before them is the greedy mouth of the abyss;
There's a threat coming from the shore behind them
Ullin, like a merciless storm.
Ullin galloped to the shore;
He sees his daughter being carried away by the waves;
And the anger in the father’s chest disappeared,
And he exclaimed, full of fear:
“My child, go back, go back!
Forgiveness! come back, Malvina!”
But the waves only make noise in response
To the desperate call of Ullina.
A thunderstorm roars, black as night;
The boat flies between the waves;
Through their foam he sees his daughter
With arms outstretched to him.
“Oh, come back, come back!”
But the abyss sounded menacingly,
And the waves, having devoured the boat, merged
At Ullin's plaintive cry.
| Evaluation criteria | Points |
| The integrity of the analysis carried out in the unity of form and content; presence/absence of errors in understanding the text. Rating scale: 0 – 5 – 10 – 15 |
15 |
| General logic and composition of the text, its stylistic homogeneity. Rating scale: 0 – 3 – 7 – 10 |
10 |
| Referring to text for evidence, using literary terms. Rating scale: 0 – 2 – 3 – 5 |
5 |
| Historical and cultural context, presence/absence of errors in the background in this material. Rating scale: 0 – 2 – 3 – 5 |
5 |
| Presence/absence of speech, grammar, spelling and punctuation errors (within the limits of the Russian language studied material). Rating scale: 0 – 2 – 3 – 5 |
5 |
| Maximum score | 40 |
For ease of assessment, we suggest focusing on the school four-point system. Thus, when assessing the first criterion, 0 points correspond to a “two”, 5 points to a “three”, 10 points to a “four” and 15 points to a “five”. Of course, intermediate options are possible (for example, 8 points correspond to a “B minus”).
The maximum score for all completed tasks is 70.
The Post Horse, also known by other names - the Traveling Horse or the Horse of Wealth, belongs to the so-called and, like any other of them, has a certain influence on the development of events in a person’s destiny. It is considered a favorable star, although if the element by which it is represented in the chart is not favorable to its owner, or is in a low Qi phase, or collides with other elements of the chart, its influence may be far from favorable.
In most cases, it is believed that this star symbolizes any movement, including trips and relocations, even emigration. However, its meaning is much broader and can mean any changes, including those related to movement, career advancement, the arrival of prosperity and wealth in life, development and progress, as well as readiness for them and the ability to adapt to changes. In addition, this star is a symbol of speed and can mean, in general, the acceleration of the process of certain events and situations, and indicate the course of processes, for example, the rapid transfer of information.
The post horse can be located either inside the card itself - and then it will indicate the qualities of a person’s character, indicating his activity, desire for change and movement, adventure and interesting events, as well as the presence of creative abilities, artistry, a penchant for active species sports or other active pursuits. Or say that his profession, and therefore his life, will be associated with constant travel, business trips or frequent changes of residence.
And it can also come in, bringing into life not only various kinds of movements, but also contributing to a more rapid development of events that began at this time. Any trips and activities started during this period will receive additional support from this star, leading to more successful results. By the way, you can use the Post Horse not only when its year comes, but also the month, day and even hour.
But as already mentioned, it does not always have a beneficial effect. Being favorable for DD and having no clashes and conflicts, it brings progress, development, the ability to successfully communicate, resolve issues and trade, favorable changes, and makes travel easy and successful. However, if it conflicts with other signs or unfavorable stars, or collides with the year of birth, being a personal destroyer, destroyer of the year or destroyer of the month, the consequences of its influence may not be so rosy and can bring misfortunes on the road, obstacles in business, fruitless efforts, forced and unwanted movements and relocations, as well as fussiness, anxiety, uncertainty and aimless actions leading to the collapse of hopes and plans.
How can you find this symbolic star in your chart or beats? It is determined by the year of birth or birthday - depending on which animal is in the Pillar of the Year or the Pillar of the Day in the Bazi chart, they look at which animal corresponds to it. In the table below, find your animal of the year or birthday and determine which animal is the Post Horse for you.
For example, for those born in the year of the Goat, the Post Horse will be the Snake. And for those born in the year of the Horse - Monkey.
When you find a Postal Horse in your chart or the incoming Pillars of Luck, you can determine which area of life the changes or movements that it promises will be associated with. This will depend on what aspect of life its element is represented in relation to the Element of the personality.
If she represents Resources, then the trips or changes will be related to training, both yours and yours - that is, you can go on a trip to conduct a training seminar, or present to partners new project etc. Or maybe it will be a trip on vacation or to visit relatives, where you will replenish your internal resources - vitality. Or for the purpose of acquiring real estate as a type of resource.
Representing the aspect of Power, it will talk about connections with work issues, perhaps completing a task, meeting with superiors, or acquiring a new position or place of work in general. The aspect of Self-Expression will indicate new acquaintances, presentation and manifestation of oneself, one’s abilities and capabilities, as well as directly about the journey itself.
If this is an aspect of Money, then the trip or changes will be related to money issues, perhaps it will concern business, new prospects for earning money - new investments or partners, etc. Well, the Friends aspect speaks for itself, reflecting connections with friends or, perhaps, competitors or partners.
So, as we see, in general, the Post Horse is a harbinger of favorable events and, even more than that, it promises a speedy solution to the issues and situations it points to. However, we should not forget that the Bazi card is far from the simplest thing, requiring a deep detailed approach. Therefore, before making any far-reaching conclusions, be sure to take into account all the nuances and look at all the possible combinations of elements that it contains. And then the luck that you see in its signs will really not bypass you.
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