Quote from comandante
Brodsky did not hesitate to express his (as it turned out correct) assessment national character aborigines of the territory...
I heard this poem before and remembered it ... Not words and formulations, but its spirit, idea, causticity, emotional outburst, lack of positive (to put it mildly) ... and very precise wording ... And I was surprised: where did the former Leningrader Brodsky come from such deep subtleties are known dark side Ukrainians, and what prompted him to create such a rather aggressive poem towards Ukrainians? I must say right away that the poem impressed me and, in a certain sense, I liked it, I felt its depth, but in this case I do not intend to blame or praise the work itself and its author. I don't want to play along with Brodsky or lash out at him angrily. This is completely superfluous ... I will do without ideology and propaganda ... I have read everything that has been written about him here, and this is quite enough: the spectrum of opinions is presented quite frankly in its opposite, and I am overwhelmingly on the side of those who this poem praises ... Thanks comandante for the correct publication!
But I will allow a relatively small analysis.
Firstly, the poem sharply outlines the negative aspects not so much of Ukrainians (they are different), but of Ukrainianness as a historical and mental phenomenon ... well, I am not going to defend the Ukrainians themselves, because who, if not themselves, are the basic bearers of this phenomenon ...
Secondly, it is noteworthy that such a rather malicious, but essentially concentrated negative about mental Ukrainianism was written by an ethnic Jew who calls himself Russian and, as I read, does not particularly attach himself to spiritual and nationalist Jewry. His ideology (worldview) is largely Western, or rather Anglo-Saxon, and more British than American. Therefore, it is not surprising that he rode through the Slavs, no matter how bad they were. However, I don’t know where he got such a brutal Ukrainophobia from... Maybe Ukrainians got sick of the Arkhangelsk zone? or the American Ukrainian community in Michigan and New York? Or maybe his parents/grandfathers (I don’t know where they came from to St. Petersburg) were smashed by the Ukrainian Nazis? Anti-Semitism in Ukraine is a long-standing phenomenon, stable and insurmountable until now, despite a long lull... This is incomprehensible to me, figuratively speaking, "where does the guy get Spanish sadness?"...
The exact date of writing the poem has not been determined (the beginning of the 1990s, to the so-called independence) ... I found a mysterious phrase on the Internet: "The authenticity of the poem has long been a cause for heated debate among scientists and Brodsky's admirers. And now, after 23 years after the appearance of the work, the authorship of Brodsky was proved .... Strange, however, the dispute, and these "scientists" and "admirers" themselves, if he himself performed it ...
And why did it lie around somewhere unclaimed for 23 years? ... The US authorities banned it from being "released" before the Maidan of 2014? Did he read someone else's, although the poetic style is clearly his?
Well, and thirdly: according to all "metrics", I myself belong to the so-called. "full-blooded Ukrainians", although she was born in the Baltics and raised in a Russian city near the coast of the southernmost part of the Baltic Sea. But until adulthood, often visiting grandparents in Ukraine, she mastered well the language and customs of the Ukrainian village, as well as the capital Kyiv ... As a result (moving her life around the republics of the USSR) she became a mental Soviet imperialist, painfully reacting to the current restrictions in this the very movement through the "places of childhood and youth" that have become to one degree or another familiar ... it just infuriates me!
The most vicious and Svidomo relatives, inherited from my parents’ brothers, have ceased to maintain contact with me, and I don’t remind myself of myself ... and those who live more modestly and poorer still experience good family feelings ...
Another thing is surprising: rewinding my memories to the 60s, I came to an interesting conclusion. In terms of the mentality of rural Ukrainians and urban Kyivans, in terms of their attitude towards Russia and towards Russians, the Maidan was ready to take place already in those years ... Everything that Brodsky so impartially described and not accidentally stuck out already really existed, but like dirty and unsightly stones and snags at the bottom of the reservoir, it was hidden by the semi-muddy water of Soviet patriotism and internationalism ... The tide went out - and everything was bare, bristled ... it smelled musty, like in a neglected swamp, all sorts of slugs, worms and predatory insects crawled out ... Not it’s worth saving this reservoir for the time being, until the vile living creatures die, and the stones and gilyaks crumble into dust ... But harmless fish, helplessly gaping their mouths in a dirty slush from lack of water, it’s a pity ... they need to be saved ... anyway someday ... let them sail to us in Russia ...
Here, something like this ... about independence and Brodsky ... chaotic and long ... it's hard to read such multi-bookoff texts ...
Scandalous poem "For the Independence of Ukraine" Joseph Brodsky really belongs to the poet. In this work Brodsky, not embarrassed in expressions, says goodbye to the Ukrainians, calling them crests.
Joseph Brodsky recited the poem "For the Independence of Ukraine" in public, and it was recorded on a video that Boris Vladimirsky published the other day.
"An excerpt from a video recording of Brodsky's evening in the hall of the Palo-Alto Jewish Center on October 30, 1992, where he reads "On the Independence of Ukraine" in the presence of almost a thousand listeners," commented the author of the video.
The authenticity of the poem has long been the subject of heated debate among scholars and admirers of Brodsky.. And now, 23 years after the appearance of the work, Brodsky's authorship was proven.
On Independence of Ukraine
Dear Charles the Twelfth, the battle of Poltava,
thank God, lost. As the burry one said,
time will tell - Kuz'kin's mother, ruins,
bones of posthumous joy with a taste of Ukraine.
That is not green-even, wasted by an isotope,
- yellow-blakyt flying over Konotop,
tailored from canvas: to know, Canada has in store -
for nothing that without a cross: but Ukrainians do not need it.
Goy you, rushnik-karbovanets, seeds in a sweaty zhmena!
Not for us, katsapam, to accuse them of treason.
Themselves under the images of seventy years in Ryazan
with flooded eyes they lived, as under Tarzan.
Let's tell them, with a sonorous mother, marking pauses, strictly:
a tablecloth for you, crests, and a towel for the road.
Get out of us in a zhupan, not speaking in a uniform,
by address by three letters by all four
Parties. Let now in the hut Hansa's choir
with Poles put you on four bones, bastards.
How to climb into the loop, so together, choosing bitches in more often,
Is it sweeter to nibble chicken from borscht alone?
Farewell, bastards! Living together is enough.
Spit, or something, in the Dnipro: maybe it will roll back,
proudly disdaining us, like an ambulance, jam-packed
turned away corners and age-old resentment.
Do not remember dashingly! Your sky, bread
us - we choke on cake and the ceiling - not required.
There is nothing to spoil the blood, to tear clothes on the chest.
Ended, know, love, if it was in between.
What to poke around in vain in torn roots with a verb!
The earth gave birth to you: soil, black soil with podzol.
It is full to swing the rights, to sew to us one thing, another.
This land does not give you, kavuns, peace.
Oh yes, levada-steppe, kralya, chestnut, dumpling.
More, go, lost: more people than money.
We'll get through somehow. And what about the tears from the eye,
There is no order for her to wait until another time.
With God, eagles, Cossacks, hetmans, guards!
Only when you come and die, bullies,
you will wheeze, scratching the edge of the mattress,
lines from Alexander, not Taras's nonsense.
Behind the lines of Brodsky's poem lies a story full of drama about the relationship between the two countries. Written at the end of 1991, and first publicly read in 1994, Joseph Brodsky's poem "On the Independence of Ukraine" caused a violent reaction, almost a scandal among the Ukrainian intelligentsia. And now ... The swing swung towards the west, and again the country was sick of geeks. Vanga is resting...
Dear Charles the Twelfth, the battle of Poltava,
thank God, lost. As the burry one said,
time will tell - Kuzkina, ruins,
bones of posthumous joy with a taste of Ukraine.
That is not green-even, wasted by an isotope,
Zhovto-Blakyt flies over Konotop,
tailored from canvas: to know, Canada has in store
It's a gift that without a cross: but Ukrainians don't need it.
Goy you, rushnik-karbovanets, seeds in a sweaty zhmena!
Not for us, katsapam, to accuse them of treason.
Themselves under the images of seventy years in Ryazan
with flooded eyes they lived, as under Tarzan.
Let's tell them, with a sonorous mother, marking pauses, strictly:
a tablecloth for you, crests, and a towel for the road.
Get out of us in a zhupan, not speaking in a uniform,
by address by three letters on all four sides.
Let now in the hut Hansa's choir
with Poles put you on four bones, bastards.
How to climb into the loop, so together, choosing bitches in more often,
Is it sweeter to nibble chicken from borscht alone?
Farewell, bastards! Living together is enough.
Spit, or something, in the Dnipro: maybe it will roll back,
proudly disdaining us, like an ambulance, jam-packed
leather corners and age-old resentment.
Do not remember dashingly! Your sky, bread
us - we choke on cake and the ceiling - not required.
There is nothing to spoil the blood, to tear clothes on the chest.
Ended, know, love, if it was in between.
What to poke around in vain in torn roots with a verb!
The earth gave birth to you: soil, black soil with podzol.
It is full to swing the rights, to sew to us one thing, another.
This land does not give you, kavuns, peace.
Oh yes, levada-steppe, kralya, chestnut, dumpling.
More, go, lost: more people than money.
We'll get through somehow. And what about the tears from the eye,
There is no order for her to wait until another time.
With God, eagles, Cossacks, hetmans, guards!
Only when you come and die, bullies,
you will wheeze, scratching the edge of the mattress,
lines from Alexander, not Taras's nonsense.
What was it? A prophecy?.. Or a closer look at the subtle nuances of the national character of the ethnic group living in Ukraine.
The name of the ethnic group, not the people.
The people are something deep, connected by a long unifying history...
But there is no this long .. Just no. As there was no ruler uniting non-kind.
There were rulers, but they did not unite the country and people, but tore it either towards Poland, then towards Russia, then towards Germany and again towards Russia ...
And again to the west and again to the east.
And the swing swung again towards the west, and again the country was sick with geeks.
And these swings of history do not allow the country to wash off the vomit of the human race, They do not allow to find peace and go smoothly, and not shy away from roadside to roadside, picking up scraps on one side and asking for alms on the opposite ...
Seasick...
Original publication source:
Modern Western Slavists now and then look at each other in horror. Their community gave Joseph Brodsky the Nobel Prize, but such people, such poets, cannot receive Nobel Prizes, as a rule. According to many Western philologists, Brodsky is a notorious xenophobe, anti-feminist, homophobe, periodically a militarist, in short, a monster. The Western world laid down its soul to destroy this, but, being in some kind of eclipse, gave birth to a poet with such terrifying views. Moreover, Brodsky and western civilization I didn't like it very much from time to time.
THE POEM OF I. BRODSKY "ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF UKRAINE" AND MODERNITY
From the book of O.I. Glazunova "Joseph Brodsky: An American Diary" (2005, pp. 72-73):
“In February 1994, after Ukraine became a member of the NATO Partnership for Peace program, Brodsky wrote the poem “For the Independence of Ukraine,” which exploded the notion of him as an emigre poet who broke forever with Russia and with his past.
One can treat Brodsky's poem differently, as well as Pushkin's Slanderers of Russia. But it is impossible not to note in the verses the anger of a person and a citizen of a country in relation to which an act was committed that called into question the history of interaction between the two countries, all friendly relations in the past. Why did cooperation with NATO of Ukraine, and not Georgia or, for example, Uzbekistan, provoke such an angry rebuff from Brodsky?
The answer is obvious: behavior loved one(in this case, a representative of the Slavic community) always hurts deeper and is perceived on a more emotional level. The ease with which Ukraine was ready to sacrifice relations with Russia for the sake of momentary gain (there was and could not be a military threat against it) blew up the poet, giving his words a special harshness:
Expensive Charles XII, battle near Poltava,
Thank God it's lost. As the burry one said,
Time will show "kuzkina mother", ruins,
A bone of posthumous joy with a taste of Ukraine.
It's not green - visible, wasted by an isotope,
Zhovto-blakytny flies over Konotop,
Tailored from canvas, to know, Canada has in store.
For nothing that without a cross, but Ukrainians do not need it.
Bitter cherry karbovanets, seeds in full zhmena.
Not for us, katsapam, to accuse them of treason.
Themselves under the images of seventy years in Ryazan
With flooded eyes, they lived like convicts.
Let's tell them, with a voiced mother, marking pauses strictly:
A tablecloth for you, crests, and a towel for the road.
Get out of us in a zhupan, not to mention - in a uniform,
Three letters to the address, four letters to the sides.
Now let the Hans in the hut in chorus
With the Poles they put you on four bones, bastards.
How to climb into the loop, so together, choosing soup in more often,
And eating borscht chicken alone is sweeter.
Farewell, crests, lived together - that's enough!
Spit, or something, in the Dnipro, maybe he will roll back.
Disdainful proudly of us, as crowded packed,
Rejected corners and age-old resentment.
Do not remember dashingly, your bread, heaven
To us, choke on cake, you don’t need it for a long time.
There is nothing to spoil the blood, tear clothes on the chest,
It ended, to know, love, since it was in between.
What to poke around in vain in torn roots with a pokopom.
You were born by the earth, soil, black earth with a subzom,
It is full to swing the rights, to sew to us one thing, another.
This land does not give you, Kaluns, peace.
Oh, you levada, steppe, kralya, chestnut, dumpling,
More, go, lost - more people than money.
We'll get through somehow. And what about tears from the eye
There is no decree on her, to wait until another time.
With God, eagles and Cossacks, hetmans, guards,
Only when you come and die, bullies,
Will you wheeze, scratching the edge of the mattress,
Lines from Alexander, not bullshit from Taras.
The poem, read on February 28, 1994 at an evening at Quincy College (USA) and published in 1996 in the Vecherny Kyiv newspaper, caused an uproar in Ukraine. For ethical reasons, probably, it was not included in the collection of "Works of Joseph Brodsky" (St. Petersburg, 2001) and is currently available only in the Internet version. Although, by and large, it is not clear what the compilers of the collection were guided by in this case and why Brodsky's poems, which give a negative description of Russian reality ("The Fifth Anniversary", "Sketch", "Presentation"), are present in it.
Is the infringement of the feelings of a "foreign" people of concern to us more than our own?
We must not forget one important fact: although Brodsky’s poem is formally called “For the Independence of Ukraine,” it was written not in connection with the acquisition of state status by the country, but on the occasion of the hasty desire of its leaders to join their recently common enemy with Russia. Ukraine's desire to become a member of NATO was in fact a statement that now at any moment it can oppose Russia - its former partner and ally. It was this step of the Ukrainian leaders that not only Brodsky, but also many of his compatriots perceived as a stab in the back. This is probably why the theme of betrayal is heard by the poet throughout the entire poem.
At the beginning of the poem, the poet recalls the tragic events for Russia Northern war(1700.1721), when the Ukrainian troops unexpectedly went over to the side of the Swedish king Charles XII ("Dear Charles XII, / the battle of Poltava, / thank God, was lost. / As the burry one said, / time will tell "Kuzkin's mother."), and compares the behavior Ukrainian hetman with statements by Lenin (“burry”), who during the First World War called for the defeat of his country on the grounds that this war was waged by the imperialist government. Khrushchev's famous promise to show "Kuzkin's mother" to America actually turned into an infringement of Russia's territorial rights and the transfer of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine in 1954.
The next line of the poem "yellow-blakyt flies over Konotop", on the one hand, continues the theme of Mazepa's betrayal (Ukraine took the yellow-blue state colors from Sweden, after its troops defected to the enemy during the Great Northern War), and on the other, - refers readers to the events of an even more distant past.
In the middle of the 17th century, the war with Poland, which began so well for Bogdan Khmelnytsky (Zaporizhzhya Cossacks defeated Polish troops several times), ended with the defeat of Ukraine in the Battle of Berestechka (1651) and the hetman's appeal to Russia with a request to annex Little Russia to the Muscovite state. After long hesitation, Moscow gave a positive answer to the hetman's request. The fluctuations were caused by the fact that the decision to annex Ukraine for Russia was inevitably followed by a war with Poland, which happened: in 1654 Ukraine became part of the Muscovite state, from 1654 to 1656 Russia waged war with Poland for the liberation of Ukrainian lands.
After the death of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, the situation in Ukraine changed. Khmelnytsky's successor Hetman Vyhovsky was a supporter of Poland; by entering into an agreement with Crimean Khan, he opposed Moscow, which resulted in the brutal defeat of the Russians near Konotop, which Brodsky mentions in the poem. About this battle, S.M. Soloviev wrote:
"The color of the Moscow cavalry, who made happy campaigns in 54 and 55, folded in one day; the winners got five thousand prisoners; the unfortunate were taken out into the open and slaughtered like sheep: so the allies agreed among themselves - the Crimean Khan and the hetman of the Zaporizhian Army!".
In the "Course of Russian History" by V.O. Klyuchevsky, the events near Konotop are described as follows: "Little Russia dragged Moscow into the first direct clash with Turkey. After the death of Bogdan, an open struggle began between the Cossack elders and the mob. His successor Vyhovsky was transferred to the king and with the Tatars near Konotop destroyed the best army of Tsar Alexei (1659). Encouraged by this and freed from the Swedes with the help of Moscow, the Poles did not want to cede to her any of her conquests. The second war with Poland began, accompanied by two terrible setbacks for Moscow, the defeat of Prince Khovansky in Belarus and the surrender of Sheremetev near Chudnov in Volyn due to Cossack treason. Lithuania and Belarus were lost. "
Behind a few lines of Brodsky's poem lies a full of drama story of the relationship between the two countries. And although not everything in this story was smooth and flawless, the good still prevailed over the bad, and this good, in the poet’s mind, was crossed out by the desire of the new Ukrainian leaders to openly take the side of NATO, their until recently common enemy with Russia.
It is beyond the scope of this book to study in detail the relationship between Ukraine and Russia, but if we are studying the work of a poet, it is quite natural to try to understand the reasons that prompted him to take certain actions. One cannot be satisfied with the considerations of one of the parties, in this case "offended" Ukraine, one should also consider the opposite point of view. And here one cannot do without turning to history, and this history, unfortunately, is far from idyllic.
The fact that Brodsky's opinion was dressed in an extremely emotional form can also be understood - after all, the act of Ukraine, which served as the reason for writing the poem, went beyond the historically established moral and ethical principles of interaction between friendly countries.
For a long period of history, Russia has built its relations with Ukraine on the basis of the idea of a Slavic commonwealth, often to the detriment of its own interests, not to mention the fact that potential enemies are not given away territories. Perhaps the negative charge of Brodsky's poem was directed not at Ukraine, but at himself, naive, who perceived this country as his closest friend and ally, on whom he could rely at any moment.
Losing friends, as well as your illusions, is always difficult, it is unlikely that anyone in such a situation manages to maintain an impartial tone of the narration and an impeccably balanced position of the observer.
_____________________________________________
MY COMMENT.
How this poem by Joseph Brodsky resonates with the current situation in relations between Russia and Ukraine! The Euromaidanists, in essence, continue Mazepa's dirty work ("stab in the back"). They don't just want association with the European Union. They want to do this by breaking deep historical, family and economic ties between Ukraine and Russia. This is where the problem is!
And most recently (end of January 2014), another trend has been revealed: civil war, to the collapse of Ukraine and, ultimately, to a severe aggravation of the conflict between Russia and the West, since Russia will come out in support of the pro-Russian forces in Ukraine.
Thanks to Olga Glazunova. At first I took Brodsky's poem as abracadabra. But Olga deciphered and explained everything. Thanks to this poem, I took a fresh look at Joseph Brodsky. It turns out that he is a real patriot of Russia and can act quite in the spirit of A.S. Pushkin's poem "To the Slanderers of Russia". It is not clear why he kicked Taras Shevchenko ("Taras' bullshit") and opposed him to our Alexander Sergeevich?!
By the way, it is useful to recall here Pushkin's poem "To the Slanderers of Russia":
What are you fussing about, folk vitias?
Why are you threatening Russia with an anathema?
What angered you? unrest in Lithuania?
Leave: this is a dispute between the Slavs,
Domestic, old dispute, already weighed by fate,
A question that you can't answer.
For a long time with each other
These tribes are at enmity;
More than once bowed under a thunderstorm
Either their side or ours.
Who will stand in an unequal dispute:
Puffy Lyakh, or faithful Ross?
Will Slavic streams merge into the Russian sea?
Will it run out? here is the question.
Leave us: you haven't read
These bloody tablets;
You don't understand, you don't understand
This family feud;
The Kremlin and Prague are silent for you;
Mindlessly seduces you
Fight desperate courage -
And you hate us...
For what? answer: whether
What's on the ruins of burning Moscow
We did not recognize impudent will
The one under whom you trembled?
For being thrown into the abyss
We are the idol gravitating over the kingdoms
And redeemed with our blood
European liberty, honor and peace?..
You are formidable in words - try it in practice!
Or the old hero, deceased on the bed,
Unable to screw up your Ishmael bayonet?
Or is the word already powerless for the Russian tsar?
Is it new for us to argue with Europe?
Has the Russian lost the habit of victories?
Are we few? Or from Perm to Taurida,
From Finnish cold rocks to fiery Colchis,
From the shocked Kremlin
To the walls of motionless China,
Shining with steel bristles,
The Russian land will not rise? ..
So send it to us, vitii,
His angry sons:
There is a place for them in the fields of Russia,
Among the coffins that are not alien to them. (1831)
Joseph Brodsky
"ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF UKRAINE", - a prophetic ode of 1991
***
Dear Charles the Twelfth, the battle of Poltava,
thank God, lost. As the burry one said,
time will tell - "Kuzkin's mother", ruins,
bones of posthumous joy with a taste of Ukraine.
That is not green-even, wasted by an isotope,
- yellow-blakyt flying over Konotop,
ccut from canvas: to know, Canada has in store -
- for nothing that without a cross: but Ukrainians do not need it.
Goy you, rushnik-karbovanets, seeds in a sweaty zhmena!
Not for us, katsapam, to accuse them of treason.
Themselves under the images of seventy years in Ryazan
with flooded eyes lived, as under Tarzan
(option: as convicts.-?).
Let's tell them, with a sonorous mother, marking pauses, strictly:
a tablecloth for you, crests, and a towel for the road.
Get out of us in a zhupan, not to mention - in a uniform,
to the address for three letters for all four ...
sides. Let now in the hut Hansa's choir
with the Poles put you on four bones, bastards.
How to climb into the loop - so together, choosing the path (soup?) in more often,
and eating chicken from borscht alone is sweeter.
Farewell, bastards! We lived together - that's enough!
Spit, or something, in the Dnipro: maybe it will roll back ...
- disdaining proudly us, like an ambulance, jam-packed
leather corners and age-old resentment.
Do not remember dashingly! Your sky, bread
us - we choke on cake and kolob - not required.
Ended, know, love, if it was in between.
What to poke around in vain in torn roots with a verb?
You gave birth to the earth, soil, black soil with podzol.
It is full to swing the rights, to sew to us one thing, another.
This land will not give you kavuns peace.
Oh yes Levada-steppe, kralya, chestnut, dumpling!
More, go, lost - more people than money.
Let's move on somehow. And what about tears from the eyes -
there is no decree on her - to wait until another time.
With God, eagles, Cossacks, hetmans, guards!
Only when you come and die, bullies,
you will wheeze, scratching the edge of the mattress,
lines from Alexander, not Taras's nonsense.
********
The poem is currently only available in online versions; and it is published on many sites in slightly different options, where it is sometimes referred to as "Oda". Experts believe that it was written in 1991 on the occasion of the collapse of the USSR, the "Belovezhskaya Pact" and the proclamation of the "independence of Ukraine" - as a 50-year desire, struggle and goal of the Bandera and Ukrainian diasporas in the US and Canada, supported and funded by the CIA. Brodsky has the word "Canada" and this goal, the flag. In part of other articles on the Internet about this poem, it is noted that: “Brodsky wrote it more on the occasion of the desire of the leaders of Ukraine to join NATO, which leads to a situation of direct “betrayal”: at any moment Ukraine can oppose Russia - stab in the back ! “And therefore, the theme of betrayal runs through Brodsky’s entire verse.” Ode "For the Independence of Ukraine" was read by Brodsky himself on February 28, 1994 at a poetry evening at Queen's College, New York; there is a cassette recording of this evening. There are also other reports that earlier, somewhere in 1991 and 1992, Brodsky read "Ode" both at parties with friends and at the same Queens College. Neither Brodsky himself, nor the heirs of his archive and work have yet published this poem in print, in collections of poems. People write that because of "political fear"... But in 1996 it was published in a little-known Ukrainian publication "Voice of a Citizen" (gromadyanina), No. 3; others point out: “... - in the newspaper Vecherny Kyiv in 1996. – and caused a storm of indignation in Ukraine.”
Let us explain a few words from the poem: -a) “burry” is Lenin, who during the First World War called for the defeat of Russia; and he is the creator of "Ukraine"; -b) "Kuzkina's mother" - the phrase of Nikita Khrushchev, who gave the Crimea to Ukraine; -c) the flag "wasted by the isotope" - this is Brodsky talking about Chernobyl accident; d) “Alexander” and “Taras” are Alexander Pushkin and Taras Shevchenko, respectively. Thus, Brodsky boldly and sadly binds all the traitors, traitors to Russia: the “hetmans, Cossacks, eagles” of the 17th century, Lenin, Khrushchev and the CPSU of the 20th century, and all the “Khokhlovs” as a people at all times, including to the Great patriotic war("uniforms", "Hans", "guards"). Knowing well folk anecdotes and observations of "Khokhls", Joseph Brodsky in "Ode" also notes a number of strong psycho-behavioral differences between Russians and Ukrainians, such as: "jointly, collectively - among Russians", "alone, individually, mine hut from the edge "- crests", plus secretly eat fat under the covers, "chicken from borscht alone", without sharing with anyone ..., and also "the earth, soil gave birth to you" - in contrast to the Russians (from God and spirit).
Here are a few phrases from a very deep historical and literary-critical article by Vladimir Bondarenko “Khokhols and a towel for you…”, published on September 21, 2014 on the Free Press website in the Culture section:- “... ... Viktor Toporov wrote: “... At the Macro level, Brodsky never forgave the “leaders of the Union” for overlooking his inherent potential as a state poet. ... "... I would call Joseph Brodsky's poem "For the Independence of Ukraine" the main poem of 2014. ... The poem became prophetic. .... Today, in an Internet vote, this poem by Brodsky was included in the list of the 100 best poems of all times and peoples. ... And the meaning of Brodsky's poem is absolutely transparent. As a RUSSIAN (not Soviet) patriot, he could not perceive the separation of Ukraine except in the context of a centuries-old construction Russian Empire and fleeting destruction of the space of Russian culture. (...) As Nikolai Gogol predicted long ago in Taras Bulba, all these Andriy who have forgotten about the Russian land have one road - to the Poles and the Hans. Poles and Germans have been sharpening their teeth on Ukraine for hundreds of years, even if later our “riding” brothers do not cry and do not cry for help. Enough! Enough! Enough! ... »
Due to its competence, V. Bondarenko's article received excellent reviews from readers on the Russian Internet, in particular on the MaxPark.Com website. I remember how Bondarenko came to the USA several times in the early 1990s, how my friends and acquaintances met him and took him to Russian events in New York, to lectures at Otrada, in Jordanville. I personally hosted him in 1991 (or 1992) in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and arranged for him to meet with the widow of Yale University professor Nikolai Ulyanov. Photographed them and also photographed Bondarenko and his wife in groups at an event in Jordanville in 1992. At these meetings, Bondarenko, at that time - deputy. chapters editor of the newspaper "The Day" / "Tomorrow", talked about Brodsky and, apparently, about this poem. For my part, I gave Bondarenko the text of the rhythmic verse of another poet, who wrote the text “Svyatogor” at the same time as Brodsky, since it was about the same topic - the collapse of the USSR and Ukraine, as well as both verses - not lyrical, romantic, “girlish ”, but on the contrary - “masculine”, sharp, strong, - that is, with their “male strength” and non-standard rhythm (rhyme) similar to the lyrics of Vysotsky's songs and part of the poems of Maximilian Voloshin. Here, for comparison, is one excerpt from N. Gavrilin's rhythm verse "Svyatogor", 1991 or 1992: -
“... They croaked, spitted, smoked, drank, yelled, smutted, almost ruined everything ... - Volcanoes in the Carpathians, the Caucasus, the Urals, Baikal, volcanoes in the Altai, the Kurils – We started talking! Clatter! Submarines went under water, missiles passed over Alaska! - Exchanges, banks of Tokyo, London, etc. - burst! ... And there the sparrow himself was loaded forever! Cocked! .... " Full text is given in our articles on the websites of Tol-Nabat.Info (Ukraine), Midgard-Info and MaxPark.Com (Russia).
We also note that from the beginning of the 1990s until 2001, Bondarenko and his boss Prokhanov received several parcels from the United States personally and by mail from Mikhail Turyanitsa and Valery Gerasimov with materials on the danger of "Ukrainian separatism", on the history of the Carpathians, Galicia, Ukraine and “Ukrainian issue, but they did not publish anything in Moscow! Not until 2001, not before the events in Ukraine in 2014. This suggests that Prokhanov and Bondarenko, being one of the first in Russia to have this unique material, politically and spiritually, have not fully and deeply understood the problem of "Ukraine". Now V. Bondarenko showed his knowledge of this problem in his article about the powerful and prophetic poem by Joseph Brodsky, ending the article with the words: “That's all. A sad and tragic, angrily farewell poem by a Russian poet... And one woman wrote on the Internet: "... if Brodsky hadn't written anything else, but only this poem, he would have already been a poet of genius!"
Reference from encyclopedias: “Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky was born on May 24, 1940 in Leningrad. Parents, ancestors lived in the village / town of Brody in the Carpathians. He died on January 28, 1996 in New York. Buried in Venice. Emigrated to the USA in 1972. Russian and American poet, essayist, playwright, translator, laureate Nobel Prize in Literature 1987.
Sources, citation
- 1. Bondarenko V. http:// svpressa. en/ culture/ article/98751/? rpop=1
- 2. Gerasimov V. "The Great Russian Man", 09.02.13 - Novorossiya.Org, Odessa
- 3. Gavrilin N . "Svyatogor", 08/05/14 - http:// tol- nabat. info , Kremenchug, Ukraine.
- 4. "For the independence of Ukraine", - http:// www. world art. en > Literature.
Nikolai Botov (USA)
