The last years of Yesenin's work. Life and work of Yesenin SA

Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin was born in 1895 in the village of Konstantinovo, Ryazan province (see). His parents were peasants, and in addition to Sergei had two daughters: Ekaterina and Alexandra.

In 1904, Sergei Yesenin entered the zemstvo school in his native village, and in 1909 he began his studies at the parochial school in Spas-Klepiki.

Having a quick-tempered and restless character, Yesenin arrived in Moscow on an autumn day in 1912 in search of happiness. First, he got a job in a butcher's shop, and then began working in the printing house of I.D. Sytin.

Since 1913, he became a volunteer at the University named after A. L. Shanyavsky and made friends with the poets of the Surikov literary and musical circle. I must say that this was of greater importance in the further formation of the personality of the future star in the horizon of Russian literature.

Special signs of Sergei Yesenin

The beginning of creativity

The first poems by Sergei Yesenin were published in the children's magazine Mirok in 1914.

This seriously influenced his biography, but after a few months he left for Petrograd, where he made important acquaintances with A. Blok, S. Gorodetsky, N. Klyuev and other outstanding poets of his time.

Yesenin reads his mother's poems

After a short time, a collection of poems called "Radunitsa" is published. Yesenin also collaborates with Socialist-Revolutionary magazines. The poems "Transfiguration", "Oktoih" and "Inonia" are printed in them.

After three years, that is, in 1918, the poet returns to, where, together with Anatoly Mariengof, he becomes one of the founders of the Imagists.

Starting to write the famous poem "Pugachev", he traveled to many significant and historical places: the Caucasus, Solovki, Crimea, and even reached Tashkent, where he visited his friend, the poet Alexander Shiryaevts.

It is believed that it was from Tashkent that his performances before the public at poetry evenings began.

It is difficult to fit all the adventures that happened to him during these travels into a short biography of Sergei Yesenin.

In 1921, a serious change took place in Yesenin's life, as he married the famous dancer Isadora Duncan.

After the wedding, the couple went on a trip to Europe and America. However, soon after returning from abroad, the marriage with Duncan broke up.

Yesenin's last days

The last few years of his life, the poet worked hard, as if foreseeing his imminent death. He traveled a lot around the country and went to the Caucasus three times.

In 1924, a trip took place to, and then to Georgia, where his works “The Poem of Twenty-Six”, “Anna Snegina”, “Persian Motifs” and the collection of poems “Red East” are being published.

When the October Revolution took place, it gave the work of Sergei Yesenin a new, special force. Singing love for the motherland, he, one way or another, touches on the theme of revolution and freedom.

It is conventionally believed that in the post-revolutionary period there were two great poets: Sergei Yesenin and. During their lives, they were stubborn rivals, constantly competing in talent.

Although no one allowed himself to make mean statements about his opponent. The compilers of Yesenin's biography often quote his words:

“I am still Koltsov, and I love Blok. I am only learning from them and from Pushkin. What do you say. He knows how to write - that's true, but is it poetry, poetry? I don't love him. He has no order. Things are falling on things. From poetry, there should be order in life, but with Mayakovsky everything is like after an earthquake, and the corners of all things are so sharp that it hurts the eyes.

Yesenin's death

On December 28, 1925, Sergei Yesenin was found dead in the Angleterre Hotel in Leningrad. According to the official version, he hanged himself after being treated in a neuropsychiatric hospital for some time.

I must say that, given the long depression of the poet, such a death was not news to anyone.

However, at the end of the twentieth century, thanks to lovers of Yesenin's work, new data began to emerge from the biography and death of Yesenin.

Due to the prescription of time, it is difficult to establish the exact events of those days, but the version that Yesenin was killed, and then only staged suicide, looks quite reliable. As it was in fact, we will probably never know.

Yesenin's biography, like his poems, is filled with a deep experience of life and all its paradoxes. The poet managed to feel and convey on paper all the features of the Russian soul.

Undoubtedly, he can be safely attributed to the great Russian poets, called a fine connoisseur of Russian life, as well as an amazing artist of the word.

Posthumous photo of Yesenin

Yesenin's last verse

Goodbye my friend, goodbye.
My dear, you are in my chest.
Destined parting
Promises to meet in the future.

Goodbye, my friend, without a hand, without a word,
Do not be sad and do not sadness of the eyebrows, -
In this life, dying is not new,
But to live, of course, is not newer.

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Yesenin, Sergei Alexandrovich, poet (October 3, 1895, the village of Konstantinovo, Ryazan province - 12/28/1925 Leningrad) (see his biography). Born into a peasant family, he grew up in the house of his grandfather, an Old Believer, in religious strictness. In 1912-15 he studied at the People's University of A. L. Shanyavsky in Moscow and worked as a proofreader.

In 1914, Yesenin's first poems appeared in magazines. In 1915, in Petrograd, Yesenin met with Blok and entered the local literary circles. block and Gorodetsky oriented him towards rapprochement with peasant poets, especially with N. Klyuev. The first collection of poems by Yesenin Radunitsa(1916) was received positively.

Sergei Yesenin in newsreels, 1918, 1921, Living voice of a Russian poet

In 1917, Yesenin was close to the left-wing socialist revolutionaries (Socialist-Revolutionaries). He welcomed the October Revolution from the point of view of a spiritual upsurge, full of messianic expectations, portrayed in the image of a peasant paradise. In 1919, during the Civil War, Yesenin moved to Moscow and joined the Imagist literary group. From time to time he indulged in revelry in the company of drunkards, prostitutes and drug addicts.

The meeting with the American dancer Isadora Duncan led to an unsuccessful marriage, scandals, widely covered by the world press, while Yesenin was abroad (May 1922 - August 1923). Yesenin was in despair, from which he could not be brought out by a temporary return to his native village (1924), as well as attempts to somehow adapt to communist reality. In December 1925 he was found dead in a hotel room in Leningrad. According to the official version, Sergei committed suicide, but there is a lot of evidence that he was killed on the orders of the authorities, dissatisfied with his latest anti-Soviet poem Country of villains.

During his lifetime, Yesenin was one of the most popular poets, but later party criticism consistently deleted him from Soviet literature. "Yeseninshchina" has become a negative concept. Only since 1955 his works began to be widely published again in the USSR.

Yesenin's innate lyrical talent, which manifested itself in the melancholy chanting of the old Russian village with its meadows, clouds, huts (for example, in a poem Russia) and combined with religious imagery, developed through various symbolist influences (Blok, Bely), but was strong enough to always remain himself. His early poems, which arose upon his return to the village after the first meeting with the city, include simple, very emotional ballads about animals, for example, Song of the dog(1915). From an early age, he also gives heartfelt samples of love lyrics (for example, Do not wander, do not crush in the crimson bushes ...).

Yesenin, like Blok and Bely, revolutionary events appear in connection with the ideas of Christianity, moreover, the religious element, manifested in the system of images, or, for example, in a poem Comrade in the description of Christ, has a dual character, up to blasphemy.

In a poem Inonia(1918), reminiscent of Chagall's paintings in its figurative language, Yesenin paints the peasant paradise he so desired, free from the enslaving influence of urban civilization. In search of revolutionary content, he turned to Russian history and created a lyrical drama Pugachev(1921), where linguistic eccentricity makes it very difficult to understand the allegories used by the poet.

Secrets of the Century - Sergei Yesenin. Night in Angleterre

Yesenin was by nature predisposed to melancholy; it was intensified by the disappointment from the process of urbanization and proletarianization taking place around, which were detrimental to the peasantry. Escape from reality into a wild life led to a different theme of his poems, written since 1920 and published in two collections - Confessions of a bully(1921) and Moscow tavern(1924). Yesenin feels that he, as a poet, has no place in Soviet Russia; the despair associated with this permeates his confessional lyrics.

In the last two years of his life, Yesenin's poetry, often narrative, rich in colors, sounds and unusual phrases, becomes more and more clear and simple. The discord that ruined his life and led him to a tragic end was deeply understood by thousands of young people who, like the poet, lost their roots and fell into the maelstrom of this flood: in verses full of confusion and loss, they saw their own life, heard their own complaints.

Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin is a great Russian lyric poet. Most of his works are new peasant poetry and lyrics. Later work belongs to Izhimanism, as it traces many used images and metaphors.

The date of birth of the literary genius is September 21, 1895. He comes from the Ryazan province, the village of Konstantinovka (Kuzminsky volost). Therefore, many works are devoted to love for Russia, there are many new peasant lyrics. The financial condition of the family of the future poet could not even be called tolerable, since his parents were quite poor.

All of them belonged to a peasant family, and therefore were forced to work hard by physical labor. Sergei's father, Alexander Nikitich, also went through a long career. As a child, he was fond of singing in the church choir, had good voice data. When he grew up, he went to work in a meat shop.

The case helped him get a good position in Moscow. It was there that he became a clerk, and the income of the family became higher. But this did not serve as a joy for the wife, Yesenin's mother. She saw her husband less and less, which could not but affect their relationship.

Sergei Yesenin with his parents and sisters

Another reason for discord in the family was that after his father moved to Moscow, the boy began to live with his own grandfather, an Old Believer, his mother's father. It was there that he received a masculine upbringing, which three of his uncles were engaged in in their own way at once. Since they did not have time to acquire their own families, they tried to give the boy a lot of attention.

All the uncles were unmarried sons of Yesenin's grandmother, who were distinguished by a cheerful disposition and, in part, still youthful mischief. They taught the boy to ride a horse in a very unusual way: they put him on a horse that galloped off. There was also learning to swim in the river, when little Yesenin was simply thrown naked from a boat right into the water.

As for the poet's mother, she was affected by parting with her husband when he was in a long service in Moscow. She got a job in Ryazan, where she fell in love with Ivan Razgulyaev. The woman left Alexander Nikitich and even gave birth to a second child from a new roommate. Stepbrother Sergei was named Alexander. Later, the parents nevertheless got back together, Sergei had two sisters: Katya and Alexandra.

Education

After such home education, the family decided to send Seryozha to study at the Konstantinovskaya Zemstvo school. He studied there from the age of nine to fourteen and was distinguished not only by his abilities, but also by his bad behavior. Therefore, in one year of study, by decision of the school manager, he was left for the second year. Still, graduation marks were exceptionally high.

At this time, the parents of the future genius decided to live together again. The boy began to come to his home more often during the holidays. Here he went to the local priest, who had an impressive library with books by various authors. He carefully studied many volumes, which could not but affect his creative development.

After graduating from the Zemstvo school, he moved to the parish school, located in the village of Spas-Klepki. Already in 1909, after five years of study, Yesenin also graduated from the Zemsky School in Konstantinovka. His family's dream was for his grandson to become a teacher. He was able to realize it after studying at Spas-Klepiki.

It was there that he graduated from the second-class teacher's school. She also worked at the parish of the church, as was customary in those days. Now there is a museum dedicated to the work of this great poet. But after receiving a teaching education, Yesenin decided to go to Moscow.

In crowded Moscow, he had to work in a butcher's shop and in a printing house. His own father arranged for him in the shop, since the young man had to ask for help in finding employment from him. Then he got him into an office, in which Yesenin quickly became bored with the monotonous work.

When he served as an assistant proofreader in a printing house, he quickly became friends with poets who were part of Surikov's literary and musical circle. Perhaps this influenced the fact that in 1913 he did not enter, but instead became a free student at the Moscow City People's University. There he attended lectures of the Faculty of History and Philosophy.

Creation

The craving for writing poetry was born in Yesenin back in Spas-Klepiki, where he studied at the parish teacher's school. Naturally, the works had a spiritual orientation, they were not yet imbued with notes of lyrics. Such works include: "Stars", "My Life". When the poet was in Moscow (1912-1915), it was there that he began his more confident attempts at writing.

It is also very important that during this period in his works:

1. Poetic imagery was used. The works were full of skillful metaphors, direct or figurative images.
2. During this period, the new peasant imagery was also traced.
3. One could also notice Russian symbolism, since the genius loved creativity.

The first printed work was the poem "Birch". Historians note that when writing it, Yesenin was inspired by the works of A. Fet. Then he took the pseudonym Ariston, not daring to send the poem to print under his own name. It was published in 1914 by the Mirok magazine.

The first book "Radunitsa" was published in 1916. Russian modernism was also traced in it, since the young man moved to Petrograd and began to communicate with famous writers and poets:

• CM. Gorodetsky.
• D.V. Philosophers.
• A. A. Blok.

In "Radunitsa" there are also notes of dialectism, and numerous parallels drawn between the natural and the spiritual, since the title of the book is the day when the dead are honored. At the same time, the arrival of spring occurs, in honor of which the peasants sing traditional songs. This is the connection with nature, its renewal and honoring those who have passed away.

The style of the poet also changes, as he begins to dress a little fabulous and more elegant. This could also be influenced by his guardian Klyuev, who oversaw him from 1915 to 1917. The poems of the young genius then listened with attention to S.M. Gorodetsky, and the great Alexander Blok.

In 1915, the poem "Bird Cherry" was written, in which he endows nature and this tree with human qualities. Bird cherry seems to come to life and shows its feelings. After being called up for war in 1916, Sergei began to communicate with a group of new peasant poets.

Because of the released collection, including Radunitsa, Yesenin gained wider fame. She reached the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna herself. She often called Yesenin to Tsarskoye Selo so that he could read his works to her and her daughters.

In 1917 there was a revolution, which was reflected in the works of the genius. He received a "second wind" and, inspired, decided to publish a poem in 1917 called "Transfiguration". It caused a great resonance and even criticism, since it contained many slogans of the International. All of them were presented in a completely different way, in the style of the Old Testament.

The perception of the world, adherence to the church also changed. The poet even stated this openly in one of his poems. Then he began to focus on Andrei Bely, began to communicate with the poetic group "Scythians". The works of the late twenties include:

• Petrograd book "Dove" (1918).
• The second edition of "Radunitsa" (1918).
• A series of collections of 1918-1920: Transfiguration and Rural Book of Hours.

The Imagist period began in 1919. It implies the use of a large number of images, metaphors. Sergei enlists the support of V.G. Shershenevich and founded his own group, which also absorbed the traditions of futurism, style. An important difference was the fact that the works were of a variety character, suggesting open reading in front of the viewer.

This gave the group more fame against the backdrop of bright performances with application. Then they wrote:

• "Sorokoust" (1920).
• Poem "Pugachev" (1921).
• Treatise "Keys of Mary" (1919).

It is also known that in the early twenties, Sergei began to sell books, rented a shop for the sale of printed publications. She was on Bolshaya Nikitskaya. This occupation brought him income and a little distraction from creativity.

After communication and exchange of opinions, stylistic devices with A. Mariengof Yesenin were written:

• "Confessions of a Hooligan" (1921), dedicated to the actress Augusta Miklashevskaya. Seven poems from one cycle were written in her honor.
• "Treyadnitsa" (1921).
• “I don’t regret, I don’t call, I don’t cry” (1924).
• "Poems of a brawler" (1923).
• "Moscow tavern" (1924).
• "Letter to a Woman" (1924).
• "Letter to Mother" (1924), which is one of the best lyric poems. It was written before Yesenin's arrival in his native village and is dedicated to his mother.
• "Persian Motives" (1924). In the collection you can see the famous poem "Shagane you are mine, Shagane."

Sergei Yesenin on the beach in Europe

After that, the poet began to travel frequently. His travel geography was not limited to Orenburg and the Urals alone, he even visited Central Asia, Tashkent and even Samarkand. In Urdy, he often went to local establishments (teahouse), traveled around the old city, made new acquaintances. He was inspired by Uzbek poetry, oriental music, as well as the architecture of local streets.

After the marriage, numerous trips to Europe followed: Italy, France, Germany and other countries. Yesenin even lived in America for several months (1922-1923), after which records were made with impressions of living in this country. They were published in Izvestia and named "Zhelezny Mirgorod".

Sergei Yesenin (center) in the Caucasus

In the mid-twenties, a trip to the Caucasus was also made. There is an assumption that it was in this area that the collection "Red East" was created. It was published in the Caucasus, after which, in 1925, the poem “Message to the Evangelist Demyan” saw the light. The period of Imagism continued until the moment when the genius quarreled with A. B. Mariengof.

He was also considered a critic and a well-known opponent of Yesenin. But at the same time, they did not show hostility in public, although they often pushed their foreheads together. Everything was done with criticism and even respect for each other's work.

After Sergey decided to break with Imagism, he began to give frequent reasons for criticizing his behavior. For example, regularly after 1924, various incriminating articles began to appear that he was seen in a drunken state or arranged brawls and scandals in institutions.

But such behavior was just hooliganism. Due to the denunciations of ill-wishers, several criminal cases were immediately opened, which were later closed. The loudest of these is the Case of the Four Poets, which included accusations of anti-Semitism. At this time, the health of the literary genius was also shaken.

As for the attitude of the Soviet authorities, she was worried about the state of the poet. There are letters indicating that Dzerzhinsky is asked to help and save Yesenin. They say that an employee of the GPU will be assigned to Sergei, who would not let him sleep. Dzerzhinsky responded to the request and brought in his subordinate, who was never able to find Sergei.

Personal life

Yesenin's civil wife was Anna Izryadnova. He met her when he worked as an assistant proofreader in a printing house. The result of this marriage was the birth of a son, Yuri. But the marriage did not last long, since already in 1917 Sergei married Zinaida Reich. During this time, they had two children at once - Konstantin and Tatyana. This union also proved to be fleeting.

The poet entered into an official marriage with Isadora Duncan, who was a professional dancer. This love story was remembered by many, as their relationship was beautiful, romantic and somewhat public. The woman was a famous dancer in America, which fueled public interest in this marriage.

At the same time, Isadora was older than her husband, but the age difference did not stop them.

Sergey met Duncan in a private workshop in 1921. Then they began to travel together throughout Europe, and also lived in America for four months - in the homeland of the dancer. But after returning from abroad, the marriage was annulled. The next wife was Sofya Tolstaya, who was a relative of the famous classic, the union also broke up in less than a year.

Yesenin's life was also connected with other women. For example, Galina Benislavskaya was his personal secretary. She was always by his side, partly devoting her life to this man.

Illness and death

Yesenin had problems with alcohol, which were known not only by his acquaintances, but also by Dzerzhinsky himself. In 1925, the great genius was hospitalized in a paid clinic in Moscow, specializing in neuropsychiatric disorders. But already on December 21, the treatment was completed or, possibly, interrupted at the request of Sergei himself.

He decided to temporarily move to live in Leningrad. Before that, he interrupted work with the State Publishing House and withdrew all his funds that were in state accounts. In Leningrad, he lived in a hotel and often talked with various writers: V. I. Erlikh, G. F. Ustinov, N. N. Nikitin.

Death overtook this great poet unexpectedly on December 28, 1928. The circumstances under which Yesenin passed away, as well as the cause of death, have not yet been clarified. It happened on December 28, 1925, and the funeral itself took place in Moscow, where the grave of the genius is still located.

On the night of December 28, an almost prophetic farewell poem was written. Therefore, some historians suggest that the genius committed suicide, but this is not a proven fact.

In 2005, the Russian film "Yesenin" was filmed, in which he played the main role. Also before that, the series "Poet" was filmed. Both works are dedicated to the great Russian genius and received positive reviews.

1. Little Sergei was unofficially an orphan for five years, as his maternal grandfather Titov took care of him. The woman simply sent the father funds for the maintenance of her son. Father at that time worked in Moscow.
2. At the age of five, the boy already knew how to read.
3. At school, Yesenin was given the nickname "godless", since his grandfather had once renounced the church craft.
4. In 1915, military service began, followed by a delay. Then Sergei again ended up on military lava, but already as an orderly.

Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin is a poet of Russia and the USSR, considered by many writers and lovers of poetry to be the most talented poet in the history of the country. Born in the Ryazan village of Konstantinovo on September 21, 1895.

From 1904 to 1909, Yesenin studied at the Konstantinovsky Zemstvo School, and then entered the parochial teacher's school in Spas-Klepiki. In the autumn of 1912, Sergei left home, moving to Moscow, where he worked in a butcher's shop, and then in the printing house of I. Sytin. A year later, Yesenin entered the university as a volunteer. A. L. Shanyavsky in the capital to the historical and philosophical department.

In 1914 he published his poems for the first time in the Mirok magazine for children. A year later, the poet arrives in Petrograd, where he reads his poems to A. Blok, S. Gorodetsky and other poets. He becomes close to the "new peasant poets" and publishes the collection "Radunitsa" (1916), which made him famous.

In 1918, Yesenin met A. Mariengof. He adjoins the Moscow group of Imagists. In the early 1920s, a number of his collections were published: "Confessions of a Hooligan", "Treryadnitsa", "Moscow Tavern", etc.

In the autumn of 1921, Yesenin met the dancer Isadora Duncan. Six months later, they signed and went on a trip to Europe and the USA. But when they returned to their homeland, they parted ways.

In the same years, Yesenin was engaged in book publishing. He also sold books in a rented bookshop, which was time consuming. The last years before his death, the poet traveled a lot around the Union. He visited the Caucasus, Leningrad, Konstantinovo, and in 1924-25. visited Azerbaijan. There he published a collection of poems "Red East". In 1924 Yesenin broke with the Imagists.

At this time, newspapers began to accuse the poet of drunkenness, fights and other bad deeds. Even started criminal cases under the article on hooliganism. However, the Soviet authorities took care of his health, they tried to send him to a sanatorium. As a result, in the late autumn of 1925, through the efforts of Sophia Tolstaya, Sergei Alexandrovich was placed in a Moscow psycho-neurological clinic. But Yesenin left the institution, withdrew all the cash from the passbook and left on December 22 for Leningrad. There he stayed at the Angleterre Hotel. He met with various writers for several days. And on December 28, he was found hanged in a hotel room. The tragic death of Yesenin gave rise to many versions, but the version of suicide is considered the main one.

Brief analysis of Yesenin's work

Among the poets of the 20th century, Yesenin is ranked above all. All his poems are filled with a kind of tragic worldview, but they also feel a stunningly subtle vision of Russian nature. The poet's life was short, but it fell on the most turbulent pages of the country's history. He was a supporter of the October Revolution, but then doubts began to torment him about the share of peasants in the new country. Yesenin believed that a whole era was leaving, the peasant life, which he always sang, was collapsing. This is especially evident in the work "I am the last poet of the village".

It is difficult for Yesenin to find himself in a new industrial country. He bitterly notes that he is leaving his native fields, and death will overtake him on the streets of a big city. In the last years of his life, Sergei Alexandrovich stopped turning to the peasant theme. In his works, a large place was now given to love lyrics, as well as amazing poetic glorification of nature.

A special tragedy is present in the poem of 1925, which was the last for the genius. Yesenin seems to have a premonition of his imminent death, therefore he writes “Letter to his sister”, in which he refers to a past life, saying goodbye to close relatives. He admits that he is ready to leave forever. But the feeling of imminent death is most clearly reflected in a poem called "Goodbye, my friend, goodbye ...", in which he says goodbye to an unknown friend. The death of the poet left a trail of unsolvable mysteries. He became the last poet of a bygone era with a patriarchal peasant way of life and a reverent attitude towards nature.

• “A blue fire swept…”, analysis of a poem by Sergei Yesenin

1. The meaning of the theme of the Motherland in Yesenin's work.
2. Early work of S. A. Yesenin.
3. The theme of the motherland and nature are the main ones in the poet's work.
4. Poetry of the 1920s.
5. The ideal of the poet is Russia.

I am not a new person, what to hide.
I stayed in the past with one foot.
In an effort to catch up with the steel army,
I slide and fall another.
S. A. Yesenin

These lines of the talented Russian poet S. A. Yesenin, which sound bitter, are autobiographical. Having enthusiastically met the new post-revolutionary Russia, he could not understand and accept what began to happen to the Russian village, nature and man as an integral part of it. Whatever the poet writes about: about the revolution, about the personal, about the eternal, the feeling of the motherland, love for it, its significant role in the fate of Yesenin, has always been a leitmotif in his poetry. He himself often admitted: “My lyrics are alive with one great love, love for the motherland. The feeling of the motherland is the main thing in my work.

S. A. Yesenin (1895-1925) was born into a simple peasant family in the village of Konstantinovo, Ryazan province. During his studies at the zemstvo school and the Spas-Klepikovskaya school, he wrote more than 30 poems, compiled a handwritten collection "Sick Thoughts" (1912). The Russian village, the nature of central Russia, oral folk art, Russian classical literature had a strong influence on the formation of the young poet, nourished his natural talent. The feeling of the motherland finds expression so far only in love for native nature, a landscape familiar from childhood: Compressed fields, a red-yellow bonfire of an autumn grove, a mirror surface of lakes. The poet feels himself a part of nature and is ready to merge with it: "I would like to get lost in the greenery of your callous." Another great master of the Silver Age, A. A. Blok, highly appreciated the "fresh, clean, vociferous", although "verbose" poems of the nugget poet. At the beginning of 1916, Yesenin's first collection of poems "Radunitsa" was published, which is imbued not only with freshness and lyricism, a vivid perception of nature, but also with figurative brightness. In the pre-revolutionary poetic world of Yesenin, Russia has many faces: “thoughtful and tender”, “humble and violent”, “poor and cheerful”. In the poem “You didn’t believe in my God” (1916), the poet calls on Russia, the “sleepy princess”, located “on a foggy shore”, to “a cheerful faith”. In the poem of the same year, "Clouds from the Colt..." the poet somehow predicts a revolution that will bring about the transformation of Russia "through torment and the cross."

At the end of 1916, Yesenin was preparing a new collection of poems, Dove, which would be released after the revolution in 1918. There are already many lyrical masterpieces here, both about bright love, painted in sensual tones, and about convict, impoverished, requiring the renewal of Russia. The lyrical hero also undergoes changes - he is now a “gentle youth”, “humble monk”, then “sinner”, “tramp and thief”, “robber with a flail”.

The poet met the October Revolution enthusiastically. “I rejoice in the song of your death,” he addresses the old, obsolete world. It seemed to him that an era of great spiritual renewal, a reassessment of values, was coming. At this time, he creates a cycle of 10 small poems in which "violent Russia" is sung and the "red summer" is famous ("Comrade" (1917), "The Singing Call" (1917), "The Coming" (1918), "Transfiguration "(1918)," Inonia "(1918)," Jordan Dove "(1918), etc.). Yesenin expected from the revolution to improve the lives of ordinary peasants, which did not happen. He is going through a spiritual crisis, which is expressed in the following lines: “... I don’t understand where the fate of events leads us.” The change in the face of Russia by the Soviet government is now also incomprehensible to him. The transformations in the village are associated by the poet with the invasion of the "hostile" "iron guest", before which the nature, praised by him since childhood, is defenseless. Considering that a person negatively affects its integrity and beauty, he feels like "the last poet of the village." A vivid symbol of this performance is the image of a foal, trying in vain to overtake a steam locomotive:

Dear, dear, funny fool
But where is he, where is he going?
Doesn't he know that living horses
Did the steel cavalry win?

Yesenin's most significant works, which brought him fame as one of the best poets in Russia, were created by him in the 20s of the 20th century. The poetry of the most tragic years (1922-1925) is marked by a striving for a harmonious worldview. During these years, he wrote his best creations: “I don’t regret, I don’t call, I don’t cry ...”, “The golden grove dissuaded ...”, “Now we are leaving little by little ...”, etc. A poem also belongs to this time "Sorokoust" (1920), collections of poems "Treryadnitsa" (1920), "Confessions of a Hooligan" (1921), "Poems of a Brawler" (1923), "Moscow Tavern" (1924), "Soviet Russia" (1925), "Country Soviet" (1925), "Persian motives" (1925).

Most often in the lyrics of this period there are motives for a deep understanding of the Universe, one's place in the world, along with the awareness of lost hopes. Indicative in this respect is the poem "Pushkin", dated 1924:

Dreaming of a mighty gift
The one who became Russian fate,
I'm standing on Tverskoy Boulevard.
I stand and talk to myself.
Blond, almost white
In legends, which has become like fog,
Oh Alexander! You were a rake
Like I'm a bully today.
... But, doomed to persecution,
I will sing for a long time...
So that my steppe singing
Managed to ring bronze.

The poem is largely seen as prophetic, with the exception of one moment - he did not have long to “sing”.

The poem "Anna Snegina" (1925) became in many ways the final work in which the personal fate of the poet is intertwined with the fate of the entire Russian people. It is here that the image of the "black man" pursuing the poet appears. His tragic death and today is one of the unsolved mysteries of the literature of the XX century and dark pages in the history of the Soviet state. This foreboding of an impending tragedy, a break in fate - both personal and common - made many talented poets and writers of the "troubled" years of the early 20th century related.

The system of motives in Yesenin's poetry forms a single picture of the "beloved homeland" in all its variety of shades. This is the highest ideal of the poet, who throughout his short life subtly feels and sings of "a sixth part of the earth with a short name - Russia."