Yesenins dispute about Kolovrat

Perhaps, after a performance about Evpatiy Kolovrat was staged on the stage of the Ryazan Theater at the Cathedral, one can argue about some kind of correspondence dispute between the two Yesenins. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the director of the play, about which the Ryazan diocese spoke negatively, was Marina Yesenina (according to her, they are namesakes with the poet). And it was she who had to voice her view of our legendary hero, widely known in narrow circles.

Many people know that there is a poem by Sergei Yesenin on this topic, in the first edition the title of which is: “The Legend of Evpatiy Kolovrat, of Khan Batu, Tsvet Three-Handed, of the Black Idol and Our Savior Jesus Christ” (1912).

In short: in the poem by Yesenin the poet, Kolovrat is a peacemaker, and even his army has a place in heaven. In Yesenin’s poem, Batu is patronized by a certain idol, Evpatiy is protected by Christ. In the production by Yesenina the director, Evpatiy renounces Christ and comes under the tutelage of an idol, the Slavic god Veles.

Let me insert a quote from our fellow countryman poet:

And on the heavenly arable lands there are fights -
The idol argues with the Lord:
“You give victory to the vykram,
A true Muslim."

The Lord says sensitively:
“Oh, you black idol,
What kind of angry mother are you?
Did you suck the cherry tit?”

The vigilante falcons fight,
But they don’t know the will of the sexes.
How to sit their white darlings
Whether in the mansion, in the Garden of Eden.

The black idol groans,
The eyebrows turn away.
How can the evil Tatars boil?
In resin, boiling cauldrons.

The khan rides on Bela Batyr,
Dripping saliva runs from the lips.
And it was not the sword that Evpatiy pulled out,
And the candle in my hands began to glow.

“And it was not the sword that Evpatiy pulled out, but the candle in his hands that lit up.”

Unlike the epic heroes who valiantly fight the “enemy force,” Yesenin’s Evpatiy is a peacemaker: during the fight with Batu, he did not “pull out his sword,” but “the candle in his hands lit up.” This is how the candidate of philological sciences L.Ya. Boritskikh interprets this line.

In addition, in Yesenin’s poem the image of the holiness of Evpatiy’s soldiers is obvious. "The vigilante falcons fight,
But they don’t know the will of the sexes.
How to sit their white darlings
Whether in the mansion or in the Garden of Eden."

Those. according to Yesenin the poet, Evpatiy is a warrior of good, a follower of Christ, a peacemaker.

It is also probably no coincidence that Yesenin included the name of the Orthodox icon and Christ in the title of the poem, contrasting Him there with the “Black Idol”

And what about the production of our contemporary, director Marina Yesenina?
I quote the review of theater critic Larisa Lobanova, which was voiced on Radio Rossii Ryazan:

“At the beginning of the performance, the extras, led by the Ryazan prince, are baptized almost every 5 minutes. I thought, well, the work was created for the date and maintained in accordance with the current ideological trends, state-church. But then, when the plot began to twist, I realized that the director needed to show increased religiosity in order to emphasize the drama of the action of the main character, Kolovrat. He and his soldiers renounce Christianity and They defiantly tear off their crosses in order to enter into a deal (!) with the pagan god Veles. The latter rewards Evpatiy’s warriors and himself with superhuman strength and makes them invulnerable to arrows...."

That is, according to Yesenina the director, Kolovrat, on the contrary, goes over to the side of the idol ? ? ?

To be fair, it should be noted that in 1925 Sergei Yesenin edited his poem and, among other things, deleted the above episode from it. For obvious reasons...

What do we have in the bottom line? Two artistic visions of the same character, the historicity of which, in my opinion, makes no sense to consider in this context. One way or another, in our minds he is already a hero.

We also see two artistic views of the same person. In one case he is a Christian hero, in the other he is a pagan, an apostate.

It is obvious that in the end these are two different heroes, two different legends. And this point, I think, is important and fundamental. Or we are talking about Kolovrat the Christian, paying tribute to the very legend of the hero and the culture of the Russian people. Or, hiding behind sentimentality and a beautiful screen of “some kind of humanity”, that supposedly after Kolovrat saw the devastated Ryazan, he didn’t care who to believe in, just to take revenge, we accept the image shown in the theater on Sobornaya.

This choice, of course, is everyone’s business.

Links:
1. edition of the poem 1912 - http://www.museum-esenin.ru/tvorchestvo/1251
2. edition of the poem 1925 - http://esenin.niv.ru/esenin/text/kolovrat.htm
3. Article by L.Ya. Bobritsky "Evpatiy Kolovrat in the history of Russian poetry" - http://www.vestnik.vsu.ru/pdf/phylolog/2015/02/2015-0 ..
4. Article “Marina Yesenina: “The last name does not interfere...” - http://mediaryazan.ru/articles/detail/164657.html
5. Audio file attached below. Review of the premiere of the play "The Tale of Evpatiy Kolovrat" ( https://vk.com/wall-64722515_28013 )

Original