Boris Akunin
The most mysterious secret and other stories
© B.Akunin, 2012
© ACT Publishing LLC
All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for private or public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.
* * *
This is the third book in the “Love of History” series, which contains publications from my blog on LiveJournal. Most of the short stories are really about historical events and historical characters, both very famous and completely forgotten. But there is no need to treat these texts as a source of factual information - they are not so much about the story itself, but rather about the love for it, that is, about the thoughts and feelings that stories from the past evoke in me. On the Internet blog I write a lot about modern times, but most of these “posts” were not included in the book, since the “topic of the day” is short-lived and after several months is forgotten or loses relevance, but history will never become outdated.
The book consists of two unequal parts.
First, historical miniatures are given, some of which are an invitation to conversation for readers or even deliberately provoke them into argument (such as the very first one). On the Internet, each such topic is followed by a lively and meaningful discussion, usually involving hundreds of people.
After the story sketches, there is a “Polls and Questions” section dedicated to feedback from the online audience. Thousands of readers take part in voting for the most different topics, and members of the “Noble Assembly” (the so-called community of regular readers and commentators of the club) ask the author questions, which can be very difficult to answer.
If you are interested in the life of the blog, welcome to http://borisakunin.livejournal.com. There is a lot of interesting stuff there besides my texts. Perhaps the most valuable thing is the atmosphere of mutual respect in communication between members of the community, a rarity in the “wild steppe” that is the Russian network space today.
One of the most unconditional truths is: those who do not know history do not understand modernity. And I would say this: “Love history, and modernity will love you.”
Imported product
07.06.2012
But there are people who would still criticize the corrupting influence of the West!
Did you know that Love is an imported product, brought to Russia only ten generations ago and not quickly taking root in our soil?
I made this discovery for myself when, as A.O. Brusnikin, I was coming up with a love line for the novel “The Ninth Savior,” from the Peter the Great era. I went to the sources for examples of old Russian love vocabulary - and discovered that there was none, because it seems that no love existed in our country three hundred years ago.
I mean love as a feeling with the help of which physiological relationships are given a sublimely romantic super-meaning.
In Muscovy, this concept did not seem to exist. They got married, they fornicated, but somehow no one mentioned their feelings. All the fairy tales about princes in love and sleeping beauties coming to life from a kiss appeared much later - mainly in the 19th century. And our ancestors managed without any “I love you, I can’t live without you.” Initially, in Peter's times, this exotic and fashionable state was called a foreign word“Cupid”, it was brought to Russia by foreigners along with Alonge’s wigs, earthen apple and coffee. It was possible to indulge in such an exquisite emotion only somewhere in the assembly, with a shaved chin and a tobacco pipe in hand. You were supposed to sigh, roll your eyes and feign heartache - this is the new trend that arose in the narrow circles of advanced youth.
This splint is our copy-paste from a European engraving
There are different opinions about who was the first Russian lyric poet and when the first love poem appeared.
Obviously, this glory should be shared between Antiochus Cantemir and Vasily Trediakovsky. Cantemir began singing love a little earlier. In his youth, he composed some “Love Songs,” but they have not reached us, and the poet himself, having matured, spoke disparagingly about such writing:
Write songs for love, I have tea, that’s the case,
Of whom the mind is as immature as the body is weak.
But love lyrics Trediakovsky has been preserved. It is dated 1730, which, obviously, should be considered the official birth of Russian Love:
Without love and without passion
All days are unpleasant:
You have to sigh to feel sweet
The lovers were noble.
Handsome Cantemir, disillusioned with love poetry
Frankly speaking, not Shakespeare’s ninetieth sonnet, but what are they rich in?
I have a question in this regard. Well, okay, the word “love” in its current sense did not exist in Rus'. But was there love itself or not? Did your heart skip a beat with delight and longing? Has magic lightning struck your soul? Did the sky open up? Has the Earth stopped rotating? Has life become less sweet without your beloved?
Ugly Trediakovsky, the first nightingale of Russian Love
Or did all these neuro-emotional phenomena arise later - when poets and writers explained in detail to readers what love is and how this process should occur?
This version is flattering and pleasant to me as a writer, but still raises some doubts.
Once again about love
09.06.2012
Thanks to everyone who, in response to the previous post, rushed to defend the honor of the fatherland and sternly refuted my insinuations that romantic love did not exist in Rus' in the pre-Petrine era. I, of course, did not expect that so many would take simple trolling seriously.
The question of whether love has always existed in the world does not generally require a reasoned answer. Firstly, ®“and no evidence is needed”; secondly, everyone has personal experience. vl2011 wrote in the comments: “When I was three years old, I fell in love. I didn’t tell my mom or dad about this—nobody. I couldn’t understand what kind of thing this was that helped me easily wake up on a dark winter morning and joyfully walk through the cold on a hated day. kindergarten, where – LYUDA TRUSHIN. I remember this even now, 57 years later.” That's it. The same thing happened to me at the age of four, when I still didn’t know the word “love.”
© B.Akunin, 2012
© ACT Publishing LLC
All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for private or public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.
This is the third book in the “Love of History” series, which contains publications from my blog on LiveJournal. Most short stories are indeed dedicated to historical events and historical characters, both very famous and completely forgotten. But there is no need to treat these texts as a source of factual information - they are not so much about the story itself, but rather about the love for it, that is, about the thoughts and feelings that stories from the past evoke in me. On the Internet blog I write a lot about modern times, but most of these “posts” were not included in the book, since the “topic of the day” is short-lived and after several months is forgotten or loses relevance, but history will never become outdated.
The book consists of two unequal parts.
First, historical miniatures are given, some of which are an invitation to conversation for readers or even deliberately provoke them into argument (such as the very first one). On the Internet, each such topic is followed by a lively and meaningful discussion, usually involving hundreds of people.
After the story sketches, there is a “Polls and Questions” section dedicated to feedback from the online audience. Thousands of readers take part in voting on a variety of topics, and members of the “Noble Assembly” (the so-called community of regular readers and commentators of the club) ask the author questions, which can be very difficult to answer.
If you are interested in the life of the blog, welcome to http://borisakunin.livejournal.com. There is a lot of interesting stuff there besides my texts. Perhaps the most valuable thing is the atmosphere of mutual respect in communication between members of the community, a rarity in the “wild steppe” that is the Russian network space today.
One of the most unconditional truths is: those who do not know history do not understand modernity. And I would say this: “Love history, and modernity will love you.”
Imported product
07.06.2012
But there are people who would still criticize the corrupting influence of the West!
Did you know that Love is an imported product, brought to Russia only ten generations ago and not quickly taking root in our soil?
I made this discovery for myself when, as A.O. Brusnikin, I was coming up with a love line for the novel “The Ninth Savior,” from the Peter the Great era. I went to the sources for examples of old Russian love vocabulary - and discovered that there was none, because it seems that no love existed in our country three hundred years ago.
I mean love as a feeling with the help of which physiological relationships are given a sublimely romantic super-meaning.
In Muscovy this concept did not seem to exist. They got married, they fornicated, but somehow no one mentioned their feelings. All the fairy tales about princes in love and sleeping beauties coming to life from a kiss appeared much later - mainly in the 19th century. And our ancestors managed without any “I love you, I can’t live without you.” Initially, in the times of Peter the Great, this exotic and fashionable condition was called the foreign word “cupid”; it was brought to Russia by foreigners along with Alonge wigs, earthen apples and coffee. It was possible to indulge in such an exquisite emotion only somewhere in the assembly, with a shaved chin and a tobacco pipe in hand. You were supposed to sigh, roll your eyes and feign heartache - this is the new trend that arose in the narrow circles of advanced youth.
This splint is our copy-paste from a European engraving
There are different opinions about who was the first Russian lyric poet and when the first love poem appeared.
Obviously, this glory should be shared between Antiochus Cantemir and Vasily Trediakovsky. Cantemir began singing love a little earlier. In his youth, he composed some “Love Songs,” but they have not reached us, and the poet himself, having matured, spoke disparagingly about such writing:
Write songs for love, I have tea, that’s the case,
Of whom the mind is as immature as the body is weak.
But Trediakovsky’s love lyrics have been preserved. It is dated 1730, which, obviously, should be considered the official birth of Russian Love:
Without love and without passion
All days are unpleasant:
You have to sigh to feel sweet
The lovers were noble.
Handsome Cantemir, disillusioned with love poetry
Frankly speaking, not Shakespeare’s ninetieth sonnet, but what are they rich in?
I have a question in this regard. Well, okay, the word “love” in its current sense did not exist in Rus'. But was there love itself or not? Did your heart skip a beat with delight and longing? Has magic lightning struck your soul? Did the sky open up? Has the Earth stopped rotating? Has life become less sweet without your beloved?
Ugly Trediakovsky, the first nightingale of Russian Love
Or did all these neuro-emotional phenomena arise later - when poets and writers explained in detail to readers what love is and how this process should occur?
This version is flattering and pleasant to me as a writer, but still raises some doubts.
Once again about love
09.06.2012
Thanks to everyone who, in response to the previous post, rushed to defend the honor of the fatherland and sternly refuted my insinuations that romantic love did not exist in Rus' in the pre-Petrine era. I, of course, did not expect that so many would take simple trolling seriously.
The question of whether love has always existed in the world does not generally require a reasoned answer. Firstly, ®“and no evidence is needed”; secondly, everyone has personal experience. vl2011 wrote in the comments: “When I was three years old, I fell in love. I didn’t tell my mom or dad about this—nobody. I couldn’t understand what this thing was that helped me easily wake up on a dark winter morning and joyfully walk through the cold to the hated kindergarten, where - PEOPLE TRUSHIN. I remember this even now, 57 years later.” That's it. The same thing happened to me at the age of four, when I still didn’t know the word “love.”
From the institute course on the history of world literature, I remembered that sublime love is found in ancient poetry; then disappears for a long time under the yoke of the dull early Middle Ages; comes to life in Eastern literature; From there, in the twelfth century, it reaches the south of France, and then flies on transparent wings throughout the European continent.
Boris Akunin
The most mysterious secret and other stories
* * *This is the third book in the “Love of History” series, which contains publications from my blog on LiveJournal. Most short stories are indeed dedicated to historical events and historical characters, both very famous and completely forgotten. But there is no need to treat these texts as a source of factual information - they are not so much about the story itself, but rather about the love for it, that is, about the thoughts and feelings that stories from the past evoke in me. On the Internet blog I write a lot about modern times, but most of these “posts” were not included in the book, since the “topic of the day” is short-lived and after several months is forgotten or loses relevance, but history will never become outdated.
The book consists of two unequal parts.
First, historical miniatures are given, some of which are an invitation to conversation for readers or even deliberately provoke them into argument (such as the very first one). On the Internet, each such topic is followed by a lively and meaningful discussion, usually involving hundreds of people.
After the story sketches, there is a “Polls and Questions” section dedicated to feedback from the online audience. Thousands of readers take part in voting on a variety of topics, and members of the “Noble Assembly” (the so-called community of regular readers and commentators of the club) ask the author questions, which can be very difficult to answer.
If you are interested in the life of the blog, welcome to http://borisakunin.livejournal.com. There is a lot of interesting stuff there besides my texts. Perhaps the most valuable thing is the atmosphere of mutual respect in communication between members of the community, a rarity in the “wild steppe” that is the Russian network space today.
One of the most unconditional truths is: those who do not know history do not understand modernity. And I would say this: “Love history, and modernity will love you.”
Imported product
07.06.2012
But there are people who would still criticize the corrupting influence of the West!
Did you know that Love is an imported product, brought to Russia only ten generations ago and not quickly taking root in our soil?
I made this discovery for myself when, as A.O. Brusnikin, I was coming up with a love line for the novel “The Ninth Savior,” from the Peter the Great era. I went to the sources for examples of old Russian love vocabulary - and discovered that there was none, because it seems that no love existed in our country three hundred years ago.
I mean love as a feeling with the help of which physiological relationships are given a sublimely romantic super-meaning.
In Muscovy this concept did not seem to exist. They got married, they fornicated, but somehow no one mentioned their feelings. All the fairy tales about princes in love and sleeping beauties coming to life from a kiss appeared much later - mainly in the 19th century. And our ancestors managed without any “I love you, I can’t live without you.” Initially, in the times of Peter the Great, this exotic and fashionable condition was called the foreign word “cupid”; it was brought to Russia by foreigners along with Alonge wigs, earthen apples and coffee. It was possible to indulge in such an exquisite emotion only somewhere in the assembly, with a shaved chin and a tobacco pipe in hand. It was supposed to sigh, roll your eyes and feign heartache - such a new trend arose in the narrow circles of advanced youth.
This splint is our copy-paste from a European engraving
There are different opinions about who was the first Russian lyric poet and when the first love poem appeared.
Obviously, this glory should be shared between Antiochus Cantemir and Vasily Trediakovsky. Cantemir began singing love a little earlier. In his youth, he composed some “Love Songs,” but they have not reached us, and the poet himself, having matured, spoke disparagingly about such writing:
Write songs for love, I have tea, that’s the case,
Of whom the mind is as immature as the body is weak.
But Trediakovsky’s love lyrics have been preserved. It is dated 1730, which, obviously, should be considered the official birth of Russian Love:
Without love and without passion
All days are unpleasant:
You have to sigh to feel sweet
The lovers were noble.
Handsome Cantemir, disillusioned with love poetry
Frankly speaking, not Shakespeare’s ninetieth sonnet, but what are they rich in?
I have a question in this regard. Well, okay, the word “love” in its current sense did not exist in Rus'. But was there love itself or not? Did your heart skip a beat with delight and longing? Has magic lightning struck your soul? Did the sky open up? Has the Earth stopped rotating? Has life become less sweet without your beloved?
Ugly Trediakovsky, the first nightingale of Russian Love
Or did all these neuro-emotional phenomena arise later - when poets and writers explained in detail to readers what love is and how this process should occur?
This version is flattering and pleasant to me as a writer, but still raises some doubts.
Once again about love
09.06.2012
Thanks to everyone who, in response to the previous post, rushed to defend the honor of the fatherland and sternly refuted my insinuations that romantic love did not exist in Rus' in the pre-Petrine era. I, of course, did not expect that so many would take simple trolling seriously.
The question of whether love has always existed in the world does not generally require a reasoned answer. Firstly, ®“and no evidence is needed”; secondly, everyone has personal experience. vl2011 wrote in the comments: “When I was three years old, I fell in love. I didn’t tell my mom or dad about this—nobody. I couldn’t understand what this thing was that helped me easily wake up on a dark winter morning and joyfully walk through the cold to the hated kindergarten, where PEOPLE TRUSHIN. I remember this even now, 57 years later.” That's it. The same thing happened to me at the age of four, when I still didn’t know the word “love.”
From the institute course on the history of world literature, I remembered that sublime love is found in ancient poetry; then disappears for a long time under the yoke of the dull early Middle Ages; comes to life in Eastern literature; From there, in the twelfth century, it reaches the south of France, and then flies on transparent wings throughout the European continent.
Courtly love
But love - the same one that makes you forget about earthly and even heavenly blessings - existed before the troubadours, before the knightly service to the Lady of the Heart.
I’ll tell you a story from completely remote times - about how one man, who did not read love literature (for lack of it), fought for his love with people and even with the Lord God himself.
King Robert the Pious (972-1031), son of Hugh Capet, at the age of 18 was forced to marry a lady who was either twenty or thirty years older. (Because of the difference in age, Robert obviously became so pious.) He was famous for his devout piety, composed church hymns, and eschewed carnal pleasures. But at twenty-two, the august faster met Bertha, the wife of the Count of Blois, and fell in love for life. The Countess already had five children and, by the standards of that time, was not young (27 years old), however, as is known, lovers have eyesight in a special way. Bertha seemed to the king the most beautiful of women.
First, he declared war on the Count of Blois in order to rid his beloved of her husband. The count very conveniently died of his own death, and the king immediately wooed the widow. She agreed, but there was no happy ending.
The Church prohibited marriages between relatives up to the seventh degree and observed this rule very strictly. It was difficult for European monarchs to find a decent bride - everything ruling houses were already related. They had to look for wives far away. One of the French kings, as we remember, was forced to send matchmakers all the way to Kyiv, to Anna Yaroslavna.
And Robert and Bertha were either second or fourth cousins. Therefore, the Pope did not give permission for the marriage.
And the king suddenly lost all piety. By putting his throne, his life, even the salvation of his soul at stake, he disobeyed His Holiness. Got married.
© B.Akunin, 2012
© ACT Publishing LLC
All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for private or public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.
© The electronic version of the book was prepared by liters company (www.litres.ru)
* * *
This is the third book in the “Love of History” series, which contains publications from my blog on LiveJournal. Most short stories are indeed dedicated to historical events and historical characters, both very famous and completely forgotten. But there is no need to treat these texts as a source of factual information - they are not so much about the story itself, but rather about the love for it, that is, about the thoughts and feelings that stories from the past evoke in me. On the Internet blog I write a lot about modern times, but most of these “posts” were not included in the book, since the “topic of the day” is short-lived and after several months is forgotten or loses relevance, but history will never become outdated.
The book consists of two unequal parts.
First, historical miniatures are given, some of which are an invitation to conversation for readers or even deliberately provoke them into argument (such as the very first one). On the Internet, each such topic is followed by a lively and meaningful discussion, usually involving hundreds of people.
After the story sketches, there is a “Polls and Questions” section dedicated to feedback from the online audience. Thousands of readers take part in voting on a variety of topics, and members of the “Noble Assembly” (the so-called community of regular readers and commentators of the club) ask the author questions, which can be very difficult to answer.
If you are interested in the life of the blog, welcome to http://borisakunin.livejournal.com. There is a lot of interesting stuff there besides my texts. Perhaps the most valuable thing is the atmosphere of mutual respect in communication between members of the community, a rarity in the “wild steppe” that is the Russian network space today.
One of the most unconditional truths is: those who do not know history do not understand modernity. And I would say this: “Love history, and modernity will love you.”
Imported product
07.06.2012
But there are people who would still criticize the corrupting influence of the West!
Did you know that Love is an imported product, brought to Russia only ten generations ago and not quickly taking root in our soil?
I made this discovery for myself when, as A.
O. Brusnikina came up with a love line for the novel “The Ninth Savior”, from the era of Peter the Great. I went to the sources for examples of old Russian love vocabulary - and discovered that there was none, because it seems that no love existed in our country three hundred years ago.
I mean love as a feeling with the help of which physiological relationships are given a sublimely romantic super-meaning.
In Muscovy this concept did not seem to exist. They got married, they fornicated, but somehow no one mentioned their feelings. All the fairy tales about princes in love and sleeping beauties coming to life from a kiss appeared much later - mainly in the 19th century. And our ancestors managed without any “I love you, I can’t live without you.” Initially, in the times of Peter the Great, this exotic and fashionable condition was called the foreign word “cupid”; it was brought to Russia by foreigners along with Alonge wigs, earthen apples and coffee. It was possible to indulge in such an exquisite emotion only somewhere in the assembly, with a shaved chin and a tobacco pipe in hand. You were supposed to sigh, roll your eyes and feign heartache - this is the new trend that arose in the narrow circles of advanced youth.
This splint is our copy-paste from a European engraving
There are different opinions about who was the first Russian lyric poet and when the first love poem appeared.
Obviously, this glory should be shared between Antiochus Cantemir and Vasily Trediakovsky. Cantemir began singing love a little earlier. In his youth, he composed some “Love Songs,” but they have not reached us, and the poet himself, having matured, spoke disparagingly about such writing:
Write songs for love, I have tea, that’s the case,
Of whom the mind is as immature as the body is weak.
But Trediakovsky’s love lyrics have been preserved. It is dated 1730, which, obviously, should be considered the official birth of Russian Love:
Without love and without passion
All days are unpleasant:
You have to sigh to feel sweet
The lovers were noble.
Handsome Cantemir, disillusioned with love poetry
Frankly speaking, not Shakespeare’s ninetieth sonnet, but what are they rich in?
I have a question in this regard. Well, okay, the word “love” in its current sense did not exist in Rus'. But was there love itself or not? Did your heart skip a beat with delight and longing? Has magic lightning struck your soul? Did the sky open up? Has the Earth stopped rotating? Has life become less sweet without your beloved?
Ugly Trediakovsky, the first nightingale of Russian Love
Or did all these neuro-emotional phenomena arise later - when poets and writers explained in detail to readers what love is and how this process should occur?
This version is flattering and pleasant to me as a writer, but still raises some doubts.
Once again about love
09.06.2012
Thanks to everyone who, in response to the previous post, rushed to defend the honor of the fatherland and sternly refuted my insinuations that romantic love did not exist in Rus' in the pre-Petrine era. I, of course, did not expect that so many would take simple trolling seriously.
The question of whether love has always existed in the world does not generally require a reasoned answer. Firstly, ®“and no evidence is needed”; secondly, everyone has personal experience. vl2011 wrote in the comments: “When I was three years old, I fell in love. I didn’t tell my mom or dad about this—nobody. I couldn’t understand what this thing was that helped me easily wake up on a dark winter morning and joyfully walk through the cold to the hated kindergarten, where - PEOPLE TRUSHIN. I remember this even now, 57 years later.” That's it. The same thing happened to me at the age of four, when I still didn’t know the word “love.”
From the institute course on the history of world literature, I remembered that sublime love is found in ancient poetry; then disappears for a long time under the yoke of the dull early Middle Ages; comes to life in Eastern literature; From there, in the twelfth century, it reaches the south of France, and then flies on transparent wings throughout the European continent.
Courtly love
But love - the same one that makes you forget about earthly and even heavenly blessings - existed before the troubadours, before the knightly service to the Lady of the Heart.
I’ll tell you a story from completely remote times - about how one man, who did not read love literature (for lack of it), fought for his love with people and even with the Lord God himself.
King Robert the Pious (972-1031), son of Hugh Capet, at the age of 18 was forced to marry a lady who was either twenty or thirty years older. (Because of the difference in age, Robert obviously became so pious.) He was famous for his devout piety, composed church hymns, and eschewed carnal pleasures. But at twenty-two, the august faster met Bertha, the wife of the Count of Blois, and fell in love for life. The Countess already had five children and, by the standards of that time, was not young (27 years old), however, as is known, lovers have eyesight in a special way. Bertha seemed to the king the most beautiful of women.
First, he declared war on the Count of Blois in order to rid his beloved of her husband. The count very conveniently died of his own death, and the king immediately wooed the widow. She agreed, but there was no happy ending.
The Church prohibited marriages between relatives up to the seventh degree and observed this rule very strictly. It was difficult for European monarchs to find a decent bride - all the ruling houses were already related. They had to look for wives far away. One of the French kings, as we remember, was forced to send matchmakers all the way to Kyiv, to Anna Yaroslavna.
And Robert and Bertha were either second or fourth cousins. Therefore, the Pope did not give permission for the marriage.
And the king suddenly lost all piety. By putting his throne, his life, even the salvation of his soul at stake, he disobeyed His Holiness. Got married.
In response, the pope excommunicated Robert from the church.
It was a terrible punishment. Everything touched by the hand of an anathematized person was considered desecrated. The servants did not wash, but burned the royal linen; They didn’t wash, but threw away the dishes. The subjects fled at the sight of the damned royal couple and hid their children.
For five whole years the lovers held on. Then the king wised up. And most likely, his wife gave it to him good advice, because men are terrible fools and often sacrifice well-being for the sake of ambition.
Painting by J.-P. Laurence “The Excommunication of Robert the Second” (It’s not a filtered cigarette smoking on the floor, but a ritually extinguished candle)
Robert repented, divorced and took another wife, but according to modern standards the marriage would be called fictitious, because the king continued to live with his beloved Bertha. (The church did not consider this a mortal sin.) The lovers lived to old age and died at the same year. However, historians are confused about the years of life of such distant monarchs, so perhaps all this is nothing more than a beautiful legend.
Boris Grebenshchikov wrote a famous song about the former pious king. There Robert says to the Lord: listen, I don’t need a place in Your paradise,
Just give me the one
Which I love.
Well, if you are like that, the Lord answers the king. As for the place in My paradise, we’ll see.
Once again
15.06.2012
I mean, about love. I'm deep into reading the Love.doc file and still can't stop. There I have collected different historical facts about the quirks and vicissitudes of love. Some I've already used in novels, others obviously won't be needed.
Here, for example, is a story that is definitely not useful for any novel. In literature, this would look like tear-squeezing kitsch. Only real life can afford dramaturgy of such intensity.
About the morals that reigned in prisons French Revolution, many studies and literary texts have been written. The material is really juicy: horror and obscenity, blood and love, the sublime and the base - everything is mixed.
In the Conciergerie prison in Paris, prisoners of both sexes were kept together - at least during the day, the cell doors were open.
Conciergerie: waiting for the guillotine
The prisoners had virtually no hope of salvation. With rare exceptions, we left here only in one direction.
And this was not the worst ending. The ending could very well have been like this:
But still, the revolution preferred to observe formalities. The court worked on the same conveyor belt principle as our “troikas” of 1937, but ordinary Conciergerie prisoners had to wait for their turn for the next world for months. Still, 2,780 death sentences during the year of the Jacobin terror is a lot of bureaucratic work.
Mob breaks into prison to finish off 'enemies of the people'
The majority of the prison population, naturally, were “formers.” The nobles of the Old Regime were not distinguished by strict morals before, and in the face of imminent death they completely forgot about decency. Many people began to seek oblivion in carnal joys. Revolutionary newspapers and popular prints vividly described the unprecedented debauchery that reigned in the dungeons - this confirmed the thesis about the moral decay of the aristocracy.
But, of course, it was not a matter of decomposition. It was life that finally frantically hurried to grab its own - until death powerfully knocked on the door of the dungeon.
However, in the midst of physiological hysteria, deep, true love also arose from time to time. Because in a moment of danger, as you know, base souls sink even lower, and sublime souls rise even higher.
Prison love during the Terror had no future. What lay ahead was not the crown, but the guillotine. Therefore, the Conciergerie lovers dreamed not of living happily ever after, but of dying on the same day. It was considered incredible luck, the highest happiness, if a loving couple was lucky enough to be included in the same sentence list. But in this lottery it was difficult to draw a winning ticket. Every day, in the prison yard, from where the convicts were taken on carts to the place of execution, heartbreaking partings took place.
And then one day someone resourceful (history has not preserved the name, even the gender is unknown) thought of shouting loudly at the moment of separation: “Long live the king!” For such a terrible crime they were executed without sentence or delay. The villain (or villainess - for some reason it seems to me that it was a woman) was grabbed and thrown into a cart. The lovers hugged and went to meet the guillotine, as if to the altar, completely happy.
Subsequently, this know-how was used repeatedly at the Conciergerie.
Well, tell me, is it possible? modern novel can it withstand such a scene? “Ugh, what vulgarity!” – the reader will exclaim, ashamed of the tingling in his eyes. And he will be absolutely right.
I told you this Bollywood story not to make you sob, but to compare my feelings with yours. When I first read about the tragic love happy endings of the era of Terror, I had the feeling that this (I deliberately switch to clerical language so as not to get emotional) is not depressing, but positive information about human nature.
Subsequently, I tried to rationalize this impulse as follows (as written in the file):
“In the confrontation between Love and Death, the former, it would seem, has no chance of winning. Even the marriage vow says: “Until death do us part” - they say, then, due to force majeure, all obligations are canceled.
That's how it is, but whenever love turns out to be stronger than fear death, and lovers prefer a joint journey into the Unknown to separation, it turns out that Death, although he received double spoils, did not win, but lost.”
Great experts in this matter are the Japanese with their tradition of double suicide of “shinju” lovers. But about shinju some other time.
Disclaimer: This post is in no way intended to promote suicidal behavior. Any member of the Noble Assembly who commits suicide will be immediately banned by the moderator.
The most mysterious secret
18.06.2012
Shouldn't we continue our intellectual fitness classes? Last year, you chose the worst villain, and I had to act as his lawyer. Now your task and mine will be more difficult. I invite you to choose the most intriguing historical mystery from among the unsolved ones. And I will offer a solution. Let's see if I can develop a plausible version and if it will satisfy you.
You, of course, remember the historical anecdote about the centenarian Pushkin era Natalya Kirillovna Zagryazhskaya, who used to say: “I don’t want to die suddenly. You will come to heaven mad and in a hurry, but I need to ask the Lord God three questions: who was False Dmitry, who is the Iron Mask and who is the Chevalier d'Eon - a man or a woman?
Here she is, a wonderful old lady
I understand the old lady very well. It’s terribly offensive to think that you will die without knowing who “ordered” John Kennedy, whether Atlantis existed, how Hitler managed to fool Stalin on June 22, who Dickens ordered to kill Edwin Drood, where the Nazca geoglyphs came from. But you never know there are questions in the world that remain unanswered...
It was good for Zagryazhskaya, who firmly believed in God and, moreover, had no doubt that she had the courage to “ask questions” to the Almighty. But a fiction writer also has his own possibilities. I have already tried to explain some of the mysteries that have occupied me since childhood in novels: the origin of False Dmitry (“Children’s Book”), the mystery of the Plevna siege (“Turkish Gambit”), Napoleon’s stupor during the Battle of Borodino (“Quest”), Stalin’s mystical blindness ( “Spy Novel”), the sudden death of Skobelev (“The Death of Achilles”) and so on. Anyone who has read it knows that sometimes my versions are fantastic - this is because I was unable to explain what happened in any other way. It is very possible that this time I will have to follow the same path - I warn you in advance. It will depend on the complexity of the riddle.
So, ask me questions. Although I am not the Lord God, I will try to satisfy your curiosity.
This is how we work.
You offer historical stories in the comments to this post. Who supports the named topic - upvote. I will put the most popular “riddles” up for voting with a brief commentary on each.
Let's choose the most popular one. Well, then, after some time out, I will tell you how easy (or difficult) it is to open this casket.
Well, monsieur ladies, order it. I'm curious what will come of it.
Mysterious secrets
21.08.2012
From all the abundance of riddles thrown at me by commentators, the moderator selected six leading ones. That is, in fact, there were seven stories that aroused particular interest, but I will not touch on one - about the explosions of 1999. The matter is too bloody, completely unsuitable for mind games. Such crimes have no statute of limitations. I am confident that sooner or later a full and transparent investigation will be conducted. Then we will finally know the background to those massacres.
Therefore, you will choose from six options. Not all the secrets here are tragic, and if they are tragedies, then they are ancient ones. I hope no one's feelings will be hurt.
1. Secret of secrets
Where did we - I mean, humanity - come from?
Evolved, or revolutionized, or created by the Supreme Intelligence, or landed from space? You can continue the list of existing versions yourself. Do you want to know mine too? All you have to do is vote.
2. So Alexander Pavlovich or Fyodor Kuzmich?
I think the question is clear? Who died there in Taganrog on November 19, 1825 - the Tsar or not the Tsar? Or did no one die?
Many have written on this topic, including Leo Tolstoy. Will it really be my lot to wander along the same path? (In the sense, not along the path of the sovereign emperor, but along the path of the author of the story “The Posthumous Notes of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich.” Somehow creepy.)
3. The disappearance of the Marie Celeste
I didn’t think that this ancient conflict still excites people’s minds so much.
Telegraphically - for those who are not in the know: a brigantine running on the waves; not a soul on board; It’s unclear where the people went. If it were not for the strict documentation of events, this would be just another legend about “ The Flying Dutchman" But here almost even the ship’s log with the last entry dated November 4, 1872 has been preserved.
4. Another secret with the “beard”: Grand Duchess Anastasia
Saved or not saved? Scammer or unfortunate victim? (I’m sure that it wasn’t Anastasia, but if I have to artistically immerse myself in the topic, I might change my mind - I don’t guarantee anything).
5. Murder of Stolypin
Oh, I didn’t want to write about this. In the novel “The Whole World is a Theater,” which takes place in those very days, I cleverly led Fandorin away from investigating a high-profile crime in privacy. Well, all of them, Erast Petrovich and I thought then: anti-Semite-phobes, anti-Semite-philes, great-power leaders, provocateurs with or without uniform. The result will be not a novel, but a political pamphlet.
But this time, if the veche sentences me, I won’t shy away.
It is known who shot. Question: who was behind this? And was anyone standing?
6. Dyatlov Pass
This is something from my youth. I remember there were some incredible rumors about a group of students who died during a ski trip in the northern Urals.
All that remained in my memory were the orange, or something like, faces of the dead - it was this detail that most excited my imagination. Either the aliens did something to the tourists, or the American spy planes did a mischief (at about the same time, Powers was also shot down in the Urals). I honestly admit: I don’t know the circumstances of the case, but if you vote, I’ll figure it out and report back.
Survey. Which secret is more tempting?
Choose one topic
Participants: 8396
How did humanity appear? 1449 (17.4 %)
Did Alexander die in Taganrog? 603 (7.2 %)
The mystery of "Mary Celeste" 1129 (13.5 %)
Was Anastasia saved? 363 (4.4 %)
Who is to blame for Stolypin's death? 938 (11.2 %)
What happened to the Dyatlov group? 3861 (46.3 %)
Boris Akunin
The most mysterious secret and other stories
* * *This is the third book in the “Love of History” series, which contains publications from my blog on LiveJournal. Most short stories are indeed dedicated to historical events and historical characters, both very famous and completely forgotten. But there is no need to treat these texts as a source of factual information - they are not so much about the story itself, but rather about the love for it, that is, about the thoughts and feelings that stories from the past evoke in me. On the Internet blog I write a lot about modern times, but most of these “posts” were not included in the book, since the “topic of the day” is short-lived and after several months is forgotten or loses relevance, but history will never become outdated.
The book consists of two unequal parts.
First, historical miniatures are given, some of which are an invitation to conversation for readers or even deliberately provoke them into argument (such as the very first one). On the Internet, each such topic is followed by a lively and meaningful discussion, usually involving hundreds of people.
After the story sketches, there is a “Polls and Questions” section dedicated to feedback from the online audience. Thousands of readers take part in voting on a variety of topics, and members of the “Noble Assembly” (the so-called community of regular readers and commentators of the club) ask the author questions, which can be very difficult to answer.
If you are interested in the life of the blog, welcome to http://borisakunin.livejournal.com. There is a lot of interesting stuff there besides my texts. Perhaps the most valuable thing is the atmosphere of mutual respect in communication between members of the community, a rarity in the “wild steppe” that is the Russian network space today.
One of the most unconditional truths is: those who do not know history do not understand modernity. And I would say this: “Love history, and modernity will love you.”
Imported product
07.06.2012
But there are people who would still criticize the corrupting influence of the West!
Did you know that Love is an imported product, brought to Russia only ten generations ago and not quickly taking root in our soil?
I made this discovery for myself when, as A.O. Brusnikin, I was coming up with a love line for the novel “The Ninth Savior,” from the Peter the Great era. I went to the sources for examples of old Russian love vocabulary - and discovered that there was none, because it seems that no love existed in our country three hundred years ago.
I mean love as a feeling with the help of which physiological relationships are given a sublimely romantic super-meaning.
In Muscovy this concept did not seem to exist. They got married, they fornicated, but somehow no one mentioned their feelings. All the fairy tales about princes in love and sleeping beauties coming to life from a kiss appeared much later - mainly in the 19th century. And our ancestors managed without any “I love you, I can’t live without you.” Initially, in the times of Peter the Great, this exotic and fashionable condition was called the foreign word “cupid”; it was brought to Russia by foreigners along with Alonge wigs, earthen apples and coffee. It was possible to indulge in such an exquisite emotion only somewhere in the assembly, with a shaved chin and a tobacco pipe in hand. It was supposed to sigh, roll your eyes and feign heartache - such a new trend arose in the narrow circles of advanced youth.
This splint is our copy-paste from a European engraving
There are different opinions about who was the first Russian lyric poet and when the first love poem appeared.
Obviously, this glory should be shared between Antiochus Cantemir and Vasily Trediakovsky. Cantemir began singing love a little earlier. In his youth, he composed some “Love Songs,” but they have not reached us, and the poet himself, having matured, spoke disparagingly about such writing:
Write songs for love, I have tea, that’s the case,
Of whom the mind is as immature as the body is weak.
But Trediakovsky’s love lyrics have been preserved. It is dated 1730, which, obviously, should be considered the official birth of Russian Love:
Without love and without passion
All days are unpleasant:
You have to sigh to feel sweet
The lovers were noble.
Handsome Cantemir, disillusioned with love poetry
Frankly speaking, not Shakespeare’s ninetieth sonnet, but what are they rich in?
I have a question in this regard. Well, okay, the word “love” in its current sense did not exist in Rus'. But was there love itself or not? Did your heart skip a beat with delight and longing? Has magic lightning struck your soul? Did the sky open up? Has the Earth stopped rotating? Has life become less sweet without your beloved?
Ugly Trediakovsky, the first nightingale of Russian Love
Or did all these neuro-emotional phenomena arise later - when poets and writers explained in detail to readers what love is and how this process should occur?
This version is flattering and pleasant to me as a writer, but still raises some doubts.
Once again about love
09.06.2012
Thanks to everyone who, in response to the previous post, rushed to defend the honor of the fatherland and sternly refuted my insinuations that romantic love did not exist in Rus' in the pre-Petrine era. I, of course, did not expect that so many would take simple trolling seriously.
The question of whether love has always existed in the world does not generally require a reasoned answer. Firstly, ®“and no evidence is needed”; secondly, everyone has personal experience. vl2011 wrote in the comments: “When I was three years old, I fell in love. I didn’t tell my mom or dad about this—nobody. I couldn’t understand what this thing was that helped me easily wake up on a dark winter morning and joyfully walk through the cold to the hated kindergarten, where PEOPLE TRUSHIN. I remember this even now, 57 years later.” That's it. The same thing happened to me at the age of four, when I still didn’t know the word “love.”
From the institute course on the history of world literature, I remembered that sublime love is found in ancient poetry; then disappears for a long time under the yoke of the dull early Middle Ages; comes to life in Eastern literature; From there, in the twelfth century, it reaches the south of France, and then flies on transparent wings throughout the European continent.
Courtly love
But love - the same one that makes you forget about earthly and even heavenly blessings - existed before the troubadours, before the knightly service to the Lady of the Heart.
I’ll tell you a story from completely remote times - about how one man, who did not read love literature (for lack of it), fought for his love with people and even with the Lord God himself.
King Robert the Pious (972-1031), son of Hugh Capet, at the age of 18 was forced to marry a lady who was either twenty or thirty years older. (Because of the difference in age, Robert obviously became so pious.) He was famous for his devout piety, composed church hymns, and eschewed carnal pleasures. But at twenty-two, the august faster met Bertha, the wife of the Count of Blois, and fell in love for life. The Countess already had five children and, by the standards of that time, was not young (27 years old), however, as is known, lovers have eyesight in a special way. Bertha seemed to the king the most beautiful of women.
First, he declared war on the Count of Blois in order to rid his beloved of her husband. The count very conveniently died of his own death, and the king immediately wooed the widow. She agreed, but there was no happy ending.
The Church prohibited marriages between relatives up to the seventh degree and observed this rule very strictly. It was difficult for European monarchs to find a decent bride - all the ruling houses were already related. They had to look for wives far away. One of the French kings, as we remember, was forced to send matchmakers all the way to Kyiv, to Anna Yaroslavna.
And Robert and Bertha were either second or fourth cousins. Therefore, the Pope did not give permission for the marriage.
And the king suddenly lost all piety. By putting his throne, his life, even the salvation of his soul at stake, he disobeyed His Holiness. Got married.