For whom Ogarev is calling: the “relocants” of the 19th century resembled those of today

The famous “We are lazy and incurious. “Wonderful people disappear, leaving no traces behind,” is Pushkin’s sigh based on Griboyedov’s unwritten biography. Sergei Dmitriev’s recent book “The Last Year of Griboyedov” restored the “traces”, at least on his fatal turn, which gave rise to the “Great Game”. (The Great Game – the geopolitical confrontation between Russia and England – began precisely with the murder of Griboedov). Dmitriev explored Iran when it was not at all mainstream. He was the first Russian, generally the first European, to visit many places after the Islamic revolution of 1979. The conclusion of his 750-page work is that Griboedov was killed by British intrigue. Having concluded the Turkmanchay Treaty with Persia, one of the most significant and profitable in the history of the Russian Empire, Griboedov not only “squeezed out” the agreed indemnity (20 million rubles) and returned prisoners, but also approached a long-term alliance with Tehran, which frightened the British. The British Lord Keeper of the Seal Ellenborough urged: “In Persia, as elsewhere, it is necessary to create the preconditions to begin a broad armed struggle against Russia as soon as necessary. It’s not on the banks of the Indus to meet the enemy.” The winner of Waterloo in 1828, Prime Minister Wellington did not lag behind: “We will oppose and untie our hands. One way or another, we must get rid of Russia” (4 months before the assassination of the Russian ambassador)…

The success of the diplomat, which improved Griboedov’s personal and financial situation (a prize of 4,000 chervonets for Turkmanchay), the admiration of Russia for rewriting his “Woe from Wit,” the meeting with Nino Chavchavadze… Pushkin: “I don’t know anything more enviable than the last years of his stormy life. The very death that befell him in the midst of a bold, uneven battle was instantaneous and beautiful.”

But there is another view on this life, as if their “colleagues”. We read Nikolai Ogarev: “Griboyedov, having escaped exile through family ties, joined the government and in the diplomatic field stumbled upon accidental death. But his talent was already lost: he expressed everything in “Woe from Wit”, and then could not develop anything in himself, precisely because he joined the government, this coffin of Russian talents and Russian valor.

In one sentence, “relatives saved” and “joined the government”: he was associated with the Decembrists, but did not share their fate. Let’s leave the events of December 14, 1825 for now, attention to the springboard: Ogarev, from aggravating circumstances, goes to the assessment of the “lost talent.” Here let us remember the line of the “defendant” (Griboyedov): “Who are the judges?” Having memorized “Ogarev – Herzen’s friend, comrade-in-arms, poet” since school, fortunately we did not touch upon his “poems” themselves. But now let’s break through the “protective screen”.

Herzen was criticized for dragging his friend’s pitiful lines onto the pages of “The Bell,” so he carefully selected them for quotes in “The Past and Thoughts.” So to speak, the best off:

Having arrogantly straightened his figure,

He’s pointing somewhere into the distance with his hand

From his horse a mighty giant

And the horse, drawn by the bridle,

He rose up from his front legs,

So that the rider could see further.

This is from Ogarev’s poem “Humor”, like his “Bronze Horseman”. This is what I called a “protective screen”. Put this “from the front legs so that you can see” in the same textbook with Pushkin… – and there is no Russian poetry as a genre. In the Brockhaus Encyclopedia, the most liberal Semyon Vengerov (the line of completely victorious admirers of Herzen) admitted:

“O.’s activities as an emigrant were not marked by anything outstanding; his sluggish articles in Kolokol and economic poems added nothing to Herzen’s newspaper. Lack of endurance, perseverance, pointless daydreaming, laziness, the habit of living without a specific goal prevented O.’s creativity from developing to its full potential…”

Bringing “Comparative Lives” to the problems of today, we give a simple diagnosis: “mediocrity” is worth the wasted lines, because it shows not only an important person in the Russian crisis, to this day the eponym of MSU (Ogarev Mordovian State University) and much more. It is more important to consider the very mechanics of the folding of destinies.

The Herzen-Ogarev friendship and cooperation, glorified in dozens of books and films, was born of the work of the Decembrists. Ogarev: “The year 1825 was of great importance for Russia. For us boys, it was a moral revolution. We stopped praying to images and prayed only to people who were executed or exiled. We grew up with this feeling.”

They were bound with Herzen by the sacred “Annibal’s oath”: revenge for the Decembrists, hatred of Russian power. Lenin was crammed for 100 years: “The Decembrists woke up Herzen.” But the plot is not that the awakened Herzen pushes: “Hey, Ogarev! Wake up and swear…” The now popular curses against the “Decembrist Masons” flatten and simplify the plot of the 19th century to the level of “mother washed the frame,” “A primer on the history of Russia” for the correction class.

He published extensive essays on the crisis of 1825. Let’s state it briefly. Having allocated one line to the peasants in the manifesto on the occasion of the victory over Napoleon – “peasants, our good people, may they receive their reward from God,” Alexander I materialized this “bribe” with military settlements. All the royal preferences, 90% of the royal time, attention went to Europe, the Holy Alliance, and the Poles. There would have been a December “squabble” even if some kind wizard had taken all the conspirators out of Russia in a “blue helicopter.” The first duty of monarchs is to produce an heir (“the king is dead, long live the king!”). Played with the Polish favorite, didn’t have any heirs? Let’s fix it: there are brothers. But hiding Constantine’s abdication by provoking the chaos of the re-oath is a crime. Let’s believe Pushkin. He “accepted the entire history of Russia as God gave it to us,” but still could not restrain himself against Alexander: “A weak and crafty ruler, / A bald dandy, an enemy of labor, / Unintentionally warmed by glory, / Reigned over us then.” The analogy with Gorbachev is based on moral and even, sorry, physiological traits…

But the difference in reactions to the shameful kick of the Russian authorities is enormous. Griboyedov: arrest, interrogations. The dismissal of the governor of the Caucasus, Ermolov (chief, patron), was a blow to his career, but Griboedov continued to serve. Triumph of Turkmanchay.

Ogarev: the richest landowner in the country, after emigrating through his relatives, crumbs (part of the peasant dues) reached London. Herzen took homerically mediocre verses into “The Bell” not only because of the common “Annibal oath” – Ogarev’s wife, so to speak, also became common; lived together, children – like Herzen. He excuses the fact that earlier the socialist Georg Herwegh also lived with Herzen’s previous wife, and Herzen threatened Herwegh… with the court of international democracy. What’s the point of mentioning this here? The same Herzen – about Catherine II: “Her history cannot be read in front of ladies!” (indecent, there are many lovers). Only the combination of words and lives gives this aroma…

Before the renaming, there were Herzen and Ogarev streets in Moscow. Moreover, they overlapped! Why shouldn’t there be a place for a “themed” swingers club on their corner?

Well, the finale… Having trampled Griboedov’s talent, Ogarev said about his death: “in the diplomatic field I came across an accidental death.”

Information: Ogarev died in London, falling drunk into a gutter.

One hundred, three hundred Tsarist, Soviet, Putin propagandists will not come up with such a thing. However, the Soviets crossed out the adjective “sewage”… My question is: what other ditches were there besides sewers? Plus they hinted (Ogarev’s extreme drunkenness cannot be hidden) at epilepsy. No, Berezovsky, hanging on a scarf not far from that London ditch, is an ancient hero, Pericles in comparison with our “poet”. The slander itself is meaningless here. And the key to those lives that are dirtier than a dirty slander? Again in the lines of the “hero”: “(Griboedov) could not develop anything in himself precisely because he joined the government, the grave of talent and valor.” And “joining” the London Bell is a guarantee. Anyone, even Ogarevo level.