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By Olga Bobrova
When, speaking of Russian art, you mention "the golden age", the message is clear: you mean the 19th century, the century that became "golden" for Russian literature, music, painting and architecture, above all, civil architecture. In November we marked two anniversaries - the 215th of the birth of Osip Bove (November 4) and the 205th of the birth of Konstantin Ton (November 6). These outstanding masters were largely responsible for the architectural appearance of the two Russian capitals - Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The two architects belong to the same generation, with an age difference of a mere ten years. But they worked in different periods. The early 19th-century classicism, with Bove as its devotee, was replaced in the middle of the century with a search for a new style. This search was headed by Konstantin Ton. One of the reasons for this was the short life of Osip Bove who died in 1834 at the age of 50. Meanwhile Ton lived to be a very old man. His career was at its height in the mid-19th century, when Russia was switching over from serfdom with its patriarchal way of life to a bourgeois, capitalist society. Like no other art, architecture reacts quickly to changes and produces vivid evidence of them. Russian architects did not hesitate to reject the traditional canons of classicism. Choosing utilitarian principles and drawing freely on various styles and traditions, they formed what became Russian architectural eclecticism. Konstantin Ton is regarded as its founder.
Born in St. Petersburg, Osip Bove was inseparably connected with Moscow. Here he studied at an architectural school, being a pupil of the outstanding Matvei Kazakov. Here he joined a civil guard during the Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon. After the war he came to Moscow to rebuild the devastated and burnt down city. For this purpose the authorities set up a special commission, and Osip Bove was appointed chief architect of the city center. Large ensembles built by him survive to this day, first of all, the ensemble of the historic Red Square. Bove decided against the restoration of the numerous stores that filled the square before the war. He made it look magnificent as becomes a capital's main square, especially this one, lying next to the Kremlin and featuring such a landmark as St. Basil's Cathedral. The moat running along the Kremlin's wall facing Red Square was filled up, and on the site appeared a boulevard and passage to the Moskva River. The territory adjacent to the Kremlin wall between the Voskresensky and Borovitsky Gates became the site of a beautiful garden, to be later called Alexander Gardens, with a romantically mysterious grotto. The Gardens remain one of the favorite spots of Muscovites.
The famous Theater Square is also the creation of Osip Bove. In 1825 the square received the magnificent building of the Bolshoi Theater. It's hard to believe today that, when the architect began construction, the site was swampy wasteland, with the Neglinka River running across. The river was confined into an underground pipe, and the square leveled. Bove designed an ensemble of buildings to surround it. The architect owes his greatest success to the construction of the Bolshoi Theater, which, according to his contemporaries, "like a Phoenix, raised its walls from the ruins in all brilliance and grandeur."
It took Osip Bove three years to build the Bolshoi on the site of the Petrovsky Theater, burned down long before. The initial project was drawn by the St. Petersburg-based architect Andrei Mikhailov. But Bove did such a serious and creative job working on the project, so ingeniously adopted it to the locality and the surrounding buildings, added such important improvements to its structure and decoration, that he is justly regarded as the author of the building. Whatever reconstruction the Bolshoi has undergone ever since, it has preserved the appearance created by Bove's artistic imagination: the magnificent eight-column portico on the main facade, with Apollo's quadriga above it, the beautiful interiors and the splendid hall. The public present at the opening of the Bolshoi in 1825, greeted Osip Bove with a rapturous applause, calling him onto the stage. The musical ode "The Triumph of Muses" was created to honor the builders of the theater.
Osip Bove's historical role was not over with the creation of the Bolshoi. From 1814 he occupied the position of Moscow's main architect in charge of facades. His reference book called "A Collection of Typified Facades" served as a basis for Moscow's architects who used it to give new features to the city. Now city mansions were built with facades not hiding deep in the courtyards but overlooking the streets, all having the same stylistic features of empire -the style of late classicism. Osip Bove played the same role in Moscow as, perhaps, another outstanding architect, Carl Rossi, in St. Petersburg - both formed new architectural ensembles, creating the style of the city.
Konstantin Ton was also born in St. Petersburg. At 9 he already studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. From 1830 until death he taught there. He was rector of the architectural department and gave tuition to more than 200 pupils. The famous pier with sphinxes on the Neva River in front of the entrance to the Academy was created according to his design. As one of the Academy's best graduates he was sent to Italy for probation. 9 years in that country made the Russian architect a recognized master. His projects of the restoration of several Italian architectural monuments gained him the title of academician in three European academies.
Yet the real fame waited for him in his home country. He gave nearly half a century to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Emperor Alexander I issued a manifest to erect the Cathedral in 1812 to commemorate the Russian soldiers' victory over Napoleon. But it was not before 1832 that another Emperor, Nicholas I, finally chose the site for the Cathedral, not far from the Kremlin on the bank of the Moskva River.
Konstantin Ton's project impressed by its sizes. Moscow had not seen such an imposing and mighty cathedral before. Also impressive were its architectural forms, reminiscent of the long-forgotten old Russian structures - austere and laconic in the outline but with a great number of details in its decor and novelties in its structure. Contemporaries said this architecture embodied "the voice of the century which demands that fine arts be given a fine expression."
Konstantin Ton gave the Cathedral not only his soul of an artist but also the talent of an engineer. Already fatally ill, he supervised the works. When he could no longer get up, his best pupils took over from him. To see the construction complete, he arrived from St. Petersburg to Moscow. His pupils brought him to the Cathedral on stretchers.
In 1931 the Soviet authorities barbarously destroyed the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. It took a mere 45 minutes to wipe out the gigantic structure. It was not before the late 20th century that Russia, after it came to fully realize the horror of the deed, tried to redeem the sin. The Cathedral was restored from scratch with documentary precision.
Recent years saw the restoration of another outstanding creation of Konstantin Kon's - the Great Kremlin Palace. The architect was engaged in the construction of the palace from 1838 to 1849. He had the complicated task of erecting a new building that would fit into the historical ensemble. Ton must have taken the only correct decision creating a building with a modest outward appearance but with a complicated interior layout and splendid furnishings. It was a czar's palace, indeed! And at the same time a palace of Russian glory with the halls dedicated to Russia's highest orders, those of St. Andrew, St. Catherine, St. Alexander Nevsky, St. George and St. Vladimir. "The whole structure betrays the audacious hand driven by the ingenious idea of combining ancient with new, grandeur with finesse" - such was the opinion of Ton's contemporaries about the palace.
The architect has buildings in a more democratic style to his credit. In 1851 Russia saw its first rail road, the one connecting Moscow with St. Petersburg. Since then passengers have been using the two railway stations created by Konstantin Kon - the Leningrad Terminal in Moscow and the Moscow Terminal in St. Petersburg. The terminals, with their austere lines, look practically alike. Enjoying today the comfortable terminals, one can only admire the architect's wisdom and far-sightedness: the speed and intensity of rail traffic and the number of passengers have increased immensely but the terminals continue to operate and cope with their task. They came to symbolize the two main cities in the architect's life and at the same time they link him with our century, our life and our concerns .
 
HISTORICAL NOVELS OF YURI TYNYANOV
(Marking the 105th anniversary of the writer's birth)
 
 
 By Olga Bobrova
In October we marked the 105th anniversary of the birth of Yuri Tynyanov, writer, literary critic, translator, scriptwriter, and one of the most authoritative Pushkinists. His whole life was linked with Pushkin's work and personality. Tynyanov lived a short life and died at 49 of the fatal disease - multiple sclerosis.
Tynyanov was born in a small town, now Rezekne, on the territory of Latvia. It was at the age of 8 that the boy was presented with his first volume of Pushkin. After graduation from St. Petersburg University he became a teacher of the history of Russian poetry. Many people were struck by his looking so much like Pushkin. Even more impressing was his knowledge of Pushkin's life and work. Tynyanov knew every Pushkin-related detail as if he had experienced all ups and downs of the great poet's life.
In 1924 Tynyanov summed up his knowledge in the article "Archaists and Pushkin". The article became a new word in literary studies. It had none of the schematic and austere attitude inherent in the work of academy members. Instead, there was a lively and well-grounded interpretation. In his article Tynyanov managed to restore the real literary process, the daily life and the environment of Pushkin's days.
Tynyanov is the author of one of the most incredible hypothesis about Pushkin's secret love. He provides such vivid and convincing evidence that cannot help believing that the poet experienced a life-time love for Yekaterina Karamzina, wife of the historian-writer Karamzin, Pushkin's elder contemporary. But it's only a hypothesis, of course.
The novel "Pushkin" became the main work in Tynyanov's life. "In this book I would like to come as close as possible to the artistic truth about the past. This truth is the ultimate goal of any historical novelist," wrote Tynyanov. The writer managed to carry out his task but only partly: the novel remained unfinished. Tynyanov died, having written only the first three parts: "Childhood", "Lyceum", "Youth".
As scholar and writer Tynyanov had his favorite epochs. The Pushkin period - the early 19th century, when Russia was shaken by the uprising of the gentry against the czar. The event took place on December 14, 1825 and went down in history as the uprising of Decembrists. Tynyanov devoted two of his novels to people living in those years. The first novel, "Kyukhlya" (1925), features Vilgelm Kyukhelbeker, a poet and Pushkin's friend and a person of great integrity. The defeat of the Decembrists' uprising meant the ruination of his own life and years of complete oblivion. Tynyanov restored the personality and work of this outstanding man.
The other novel "The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar" (1927) deals with the life of the prominent dramatist and diplomat Alexander Griboedov, a man who was close to the ideas of Decembrists. After their defeat he felt deeply depressed but did not leave the scene and continued his career of a diplomat until the tragic death in Persia a few years later.
Highly educated, with a perfect command of German and French, Tynyanov had interests going far beyond Russian life and history. He was concerned with the time of the Great French Revolution. His archives preserve a play about one of the Jakobins. Foreign literature too attracted his attention. Tynyanov analyzed work of Russian poets and compared it with that of Heine. All his life he translated verses and poems of this German romanticist. These are regarded as the most masterly translations of Heine.
Yuri Tynyanov's literary work was translated into different languages and became the property of many nations. Anyone who reads his novels and short stories is most likely to be amazed by the shrewdness and imagination of a writer who was confined to his office by a grave illness - so vivid are the pictures of history and lives of the characters described in his books .

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