Pushkin as a monument in the poetic worldview of Bulat Okudzhava

Abstract

The poems of Bulat Okudzhava, “Aleksandr Sergeich” and “Tourist family is photographed at the Pushkin Monument,” are analyzed through the system of contexts. These are traditional poems in the “ekphrasis” genre, reflecting the cult status of the monument by Opekushin, various debates with the tradition of poems “to the monument” by Mayakovsky and Brodsky, and Pushkin’s works united in the reception of the modern poet by the ideas of benevolence and gratitude. Okudzhava’s interpretation of the “bronze Pushkin” was inspired by the idea of a poetry monument. The theme of mercy from Pushkin’s poem “Exegi monumentum” is realized in “Aleksandr Sergeich” by the connection between the title, the dedication, and the content. The dedication of the poem “Tourist family is photographed at the Pushkin Monument” to a friend of his youth is considered through the author’s creative task: the poet and photoartist Tsybulevskiy becomes a judge in a dispute with Samoylov (“Amateur photographer”). Finally, the disagreements between the distant interlocutors become imaginary, as is the conflict between the “little man” and eternity “in front of Pushkin.” After substantiating the meaning of the allusion to Pushkin’s “Birdie” in the poem’s refrain, a conclusion is made: the metaphor of the soaring souls of “little people” develops the idea of “Aleksandr Sergeich”, with a monument symbolizing a hierarchy of values. Okudzhava’s interpretation of Pushkin’s monument was not influenced by prejudice against the “deadening” (Mayakovsky) or “ice-cold” (Brodsky) bronze form. For Okudzhava, the spirituality of the “bronze Pushkin” signifies his harmonizing role in modern life.