Горе побеждённым
В письме В.Ф.Маркову (спасибо Флибусте животворящей, а копирайтерам кукиш) Георгий Иванов пишет:
В прошлом письме я упоминал Вам о друге поэтов П. П. Волконском, которого я искренно - лет пятьдесят! любил. И вот читали м.б. в «Русской мысли» - представился или перекинулся или чикнулся (по Ильфу Петрову) этот душка светлейший князь. Года четыре назад покончила с собой его жена, которую я уважал еще больше. Она была просто замечательное существо (м. б. читали мой некролог в «Возрождении» в свое время? Если нет - как-нибудь развлекая Вас, в ответе на Ваше очередное письмо (если таковые будут следовать) охотно о ней расскажу. Стоит того. Если можете достать разыщите и прочтите книгу кн. Волконской «Горе побежденным». Очень поучительно.
В книге ответы Маркова не приводятся, так что последовал ли он рекомендации Иванова, не известно, я же задался целью книгу найти. Поиски не облегчаются тем обстоятельством, что княгиня Софья Волконская упонинается иногда под девичьей фамилией Бобринская, а иногда под фамилией первого мужа Долгорукова. О ней имеется очень любопытная статья в Википедии -- Долгорукова, Софья Алексеевна -- правда, без упоминания самоубийства. Найти мне удалось английский перевод, который я и хочу предложить вам:
Princess Peter Wolkonsky, The Way of Bitterness
Methuen & Co, London, 1931
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Had Pierre and I been alone we would certainly have found some way of leaving the country. There always are people willing to help you secretly across the frontier in return for a reward. Of course there were risks: the frontier was well guarded, and there was, besides, a considerable danger of falling into the hands of a traitor, who, having received the price of your passage, delivered you straight into the hands of the Tcheka. Quite a number of our friends and acquaintances got caught: among others the Golitsins, the Fehleisens, the Ermoloffs. The latter's failure was due entirely to their own carelessness. They were attempting to escape under assumed names, with false documents and faked passports. Part of the journey was to be made by railway. When their luggage was opened at the station for the usual inspection, a little box with old visiting-cards fell out: cards with Ermoloff's real name and court title-'Chambellan de sa Majeste '. Denial was useless and both husband and wife were sent to finish their journey in prison.
'When I was young,' said Princess Dolgorouky, 'I used to dream of the great French Revolution and wished I could have lived in those interesting and romantic days. Now I have learned, alas, that revolutions are neither interesting nor romantic' Later she once said to me : 'Every day of my life I have repeated the words of the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," but I never thought the time would come when I would have to give them a literal meaning.'
The town of Helsingfors, which had impressed me so favourably at first, with its gaiety and cleanliness, was little by little losing in my eyes a great deal of its charm. The Finns are a hardworking and steadfast people, although of a somewhat heavy and mirthless disposition. At that time their pride in their newly-acquired independence found its chief expression in unrestricted animosity towards their former rulers. All those who had a grudge against Russia gave full vent to their old feelings of resentment; others followed their lead and made us pay, now that we were vanquished, for all the offences, all the slights they had ever suffered in the course of history. At every step we met with difficulties, petty vexations and delays, humiliating pin-pricks, and often more than pin-pricks. We Russians were as yet unaccustomed to our new position as ' the pariahs of Europe', and reacted painfully to every slur on our national pride. Just a question of habit.
To those who should suspect me of exaggeration I recommend the few pages on Finland in Professor Dillon's book Russia To-day and Yesterday (Dent, 1929) : 'I had been away from Helsingfors since the month of June 1914,' writes Dillon, 'when a large percentage of the population spoke Russian fluently. A still larger bi-lingual percentage was to be found in Viborg and the country along the Russian frontier. To-day the bi-lingual element-excluding those who speak Swedish-has vanished. Nobody speaks or is supposed to understand Russian, not even those who knew it so thoroughly fourteen years ago. I tempted some to bring out their latent knowledge, but they ignored my luring efforts and resorted to the language of signs. Once in a while my perseverance was rewarded with an answer in racy Russian but it was preceded with a request that I would not reveal this philological backsliding to any one. "Is it an offence then?" I queried. "No. There's no law against speaking Russian, but all the same, it's unlucky. Those who do it, repent." ' These lines were written more than ten years after the proclamation of Finland's independence. If this is the feeling reigning in the country to-day, what must it have been ten years ago, before the healing hand of time had been able to tune it down to its present degree of vindictive fierceness?
Мои заметки по поводу книги:
1. Перевод на английский сделала дочь Софьи, фотография которой вклеена напротив страницы 4. Википедии она известна как Sofka Skipwith и пересказывать её биографию my language fails. Можно ещё почитать интервью с её внучкой (правнучкой княгини) по имени Софка Зиновьев.
2. Упоминаемый на странице 146 spiteful little Communist Jew это крупный советский писатель Никулин (Олькеницкий). Список его книг читается как каталог изгибов генеральной линии! Тут можно увидеть Лизетт (поищите по слову "Никулина"), а тут прочитать про неё анекдот.
3. Well-known authoress, уступившая княгине свою комнату в ДИСКе (стр. 148), это по-видимому Ахматова (см. интервью Софки Зиновьев).
4. Наконец в связи с русским заглавием "Горе побеждённым" не могу не упомянуть постинг Галковского 509. ОЛЕНЬ НА ЛЬДУ.
Update: А вот и русский вариант.
В прошлом письме я упоминал Вам о друге поэтов П. П. Волконском, которого я искренно - лет пятьдесят! любил. И вот читали м.б. в «Русской мысли» - представился или перекинулся или чикнулся (по Ильфу Петрову) этот душка светлейший князь. Года четыре назад покончила с собой его жена, которую я уважал еще больше. Она была просто замечательное существо (м. б. читали мой некролог в «Возрождении» в свое время? Если нет - как-нибудь развлекая Вас, в ответе на Ваше очередное письмо (если таковые будут следовать) охотно о ней расскажу. Стоит того. Если можете достать разыщите и прочтите книгу кн. Волконской «Горе побежденным». Очень поучительно.
В книге ответы Маркова не приводятся, так что последовал ли он рекомендации Иванова, не известно, я же задался целью книгу найти. Поиски не облегчаются тем обстоятельством, что княгиня Софья Волконская упонинается иногда под девичьей фамилией Бобринская, а иногда под фамилией первого мужа Долгорукова. О ней имеется очень любопытная статья в Википедии -- Долгорукова, Софья Алексеевна -- правда, без упоминания самоубийства. Найти мне удалось английский перевод, который я и хочу предложить вам:
Princess Peter Wolkonsky, The Way of Bitterness
Methuen & Co, London, 1931
pdf (12.5Mb): mediafire, Яндекс-диск
djvu (24Mb): mediafire, Яндекс-диск
Несколько выписок для привлечения внимания:
Had Pierre and I been alone we would certainly have found some way of leaving the country. There always are people willing to help you secretly across the frontier in return for a reward. Of course there were risks: the frontier was well guarded, and there was, besides, a considerable danger of falling into the hands of a traitor, who, having received the price of your passage, delivered you straight into the hands of the Tcheka. Quite a number of our friends and acquaintances got caught: among others the Golitsins, the Fehleisens, the Ermoloffs. The latter's failure was due entirely to their own carelessness. They were attempting to escape under assumed names, with false documents and faked passports. Part of the journey was to be made by railway. When their luggage was opened at the station for the usual inspection, a little box with old visiting-cards fell out: cards with Ermoloff's real name and court title-'Chambellan de sa Majeste '. Denial was useless and both husband and wife were sent to finish their journey in prison.
'When I was young,' said Princess Dolgorouky, 'I used to dream of the great French Revolution and wished I could have lived in those interesting and romantic days. Now I have learned, alas, that revolutions are neither interesting nor romantic' Later she once said to me : 'Every day of my life I have repeated the words of the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," but I never thought the time would come when I would have to give them a literal meaning.'
The town of Helsingfors, which had impressed me so favourably at first, with its gaiety and cleanliness, was little by little losing in my eyes a great deal of its charm. The Finns are a hardworking and steadfast people, although of a somewhat heavy and mirthless disposition. At that time their pride in their newly-acquired independence found its chief expression in unrestricted animosity towards their former rulers. All those who had a grudge against Russia gave full vent to their old feelings of resentment; others followed their lead and made us pay, now that we were vanquished, for all the offences, all the slights they had ever suffered in the course of history. At every step we met with difficulties, petty vexations and delays, humiliating pin-pricks, and often more than pin-pricks. We Russians were as yet unaccustomed to our new position as ' the pariahs of Europe', and reacted painfully to every slur on our national pride. Just a question of habit.
To those who should suspect me of exaggeration I recommend the few pages on Finland in Professor Dillon's book Russia To-day and Yesterday (Dent, 1929) : 'I had been away from Helsingfors since the month of June 1914,' writes Dillon, 'when a large percentage of the population spoke Russian fluently. A still larger bi-lingual percentage was to be found in Viborg and the country along the Russian frontier. To-day the bi-lingual element-excluding those who speak Swedish-has vanished. Nobody speaks or is supposed to understand Russian, not even those who knew it so thoroughly fourteen years ago. I tempted some to bring out their latent knowledge, but they ignored my luring efforts and resorted to the language of signs. Once in a while my perseverance was rewarded with an answer in racy Russian but it was preceded with a request that I would not reveal this philological backsliding to any one. "Is it an offence then?" I queried. "No. There's no law against speaking Russian, but all the same, it's unlucky. Those who do it, repent." ' These lines were written more than ten years after the proclamation of Finland's independence. If this is the feeling reigning in the country to-day, what must it have been ten years ago, before the healing hand of time had been able to tune it down to its present degree of vindictive fierceness?
Мои заметки по поводу книги:
1. Перевод на английский сделала дочь Софьи, фотография которой вклеена напротив страницы 4. Википедии она известна как Sofka Skipwith и пересказывать её биографию my language fails. Можно ещё почитать интервью с её внучкой (правнучкой княгини) по имени Софка Зиновьев.
2. Упоминаемый на странице 146 spiteful little Communist Jew это крупный советский писатель Никулин (Олькеницкий). Список его книг читается как каталог изгибов генеральной линии! Тут можно увидеть Лизетт (поищите по слову "Никулина"), а тут прочитать про неё анекдот.
3. Well-known authoress, уступившая княгине свою комнату в ДИСКе (стр. 148), это по-видимому Ахматова (см. интервью Софки Зиновьев).
4. Наконец в связи с русским заглавием "Горе побеждённым" не могу не упомянуть постинг Галковского 509. ОЛЕНЬ НА ЛЬДУ.
Update: А вот и русский вариант.