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Biography, life story of Susanin Ivan
Ivan Osipovich Susanin - Russian peasant, national hero.
Biography
Ivan Susanin was born in the village of Derevnishchi (Derevenki) in the second half of the 16th century. He was a serf of the noble Shestov family, who lived in the village of Domnino. According to legend, Ivan was a patrimonial elder. Although some historians claim that Susanin could also have been a clerk and manager of the patrimony.
It is known that Ivan Susanin had a daughter, Antonida. The girl married the peasant Bogdan Sobinin, gave birth to children - the grandchildren of Susanin. There is no information left about Ivan's wife - scientists believe that in adulthood Susanin remained a widower and never married again.
History of the feat
In the autumn of 1612, at the end of the Time of Troubles, a war for the Russian throne began between the Romanov family and the Poles, who wanted to see their protege at the head of Russia. At the end of the year, the main contender for government and his mother, Inokinya Marfa, left the Kremlin and went to Domnino, to their patrimony. I wanted to know to get into the Makaryevsky Monastery. The Poles knew about it. They decided to catch up with the mother and son along the way and destroy them.
At the beginning of 2013, a Polish search party went to Domnino and wanted to extract information about the exact location of Romanov from the local population using torture and bullying. Ivan Susanin, the headman of the patrimony, met the enemies near the village (according to other sources, the Poles entered Domnino and tortured the villagers) and volunteered to show them the way to. They agreed. Susanin led the enemies in the opposite direction, to the village of Isupov, and he quietly sent his son-in-law Bogdan to Domnino to inform the boyars about the danger approaching them.
CONTINUED BELOW
Ivan Susanin led the Poles into the swamp. When they realized that the peasant had deceived them, they began to beat him and demand to show him the right path. Ivan refused. He understood that he was going to certain death, but he could not betray. The Poles killed Ivan Susanin in the Isupovsky (Clean) swamp (or in Isupov itself). Ivan Susanin gave his life to ascend the throne and help the state forget about the difficult Time of Troubles.
For a valiant feat, Susanin's son-in-law was gifted with half the village and exemption from all duties. The awards were also subsequently awarded to the daughter of Ivan Susanin, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Ivan Susanin himself became a national hero. Monuments were erected in his honor, ships and places were named after him.
Not a single royal dynasty came to the throne so unusually as the house of the Romanovs. This remark belongs to the famous writer Ivan Gogol, who, not without reason, believed that the feat of Ivan Susanin inextricably linked the tsar with his subjects. What is known about this landmark event in the history of Russia?
Volkov Adrian – picture Death of Ivan Susanin
Due to the limited source base, the biography of Ivan Susanin is the subject of historical disputes. The only documentary source about his life is Mikhail Fedorovich's charter of 1619. It speaks of granting Susanin's son-in-law half of the village with deliverance from all taxes and duties, while the folk hero is mentioned quite briefly. The rest of the data about the life of this man are legendary.
It is generally accepted that Ivan Susanin was born in the village of Domnino, which is 70 miles from Kostroma. According to one version, he was a serf of the Shestov nobles, according to another, he served as a patrimonial headman. It is known that he had a daughter, Antonida, and a son-in-law, Bogdan Sabinin.
The above royal charter says that in the winter of 1613 the newly elected Tsar Mikhail Romanov lived with his mother Marfa in the village of Domnino. At that time, the Time of Troubles turned from a civil war into a struggle against the interventionists from Poland. The gentry decided to capture the newly elected king, for this purpose a small Polish-Lithuanian detachment went to Domnino.
On the way, the invaders met the peasant Susanin, who was ordered to show the way to the village. But he led the detachment in the opposite direction, and sent his son-in-law Bogdan to Domnino to warn the tsar and his mother of the impending danger. Susanin led the Poles deep into the forest, and then to the Isupovsky swamp, for which he was tortured and killed. It is assumed that at that time this man was already in old age. In the impassable terrain, the enemy detachment also died. At this time, Mikhail Romanov took refuge in the Ipatiev Monastery.
After 6 years, the king thanked the relatives of the peasant who saved him by granting them land and exemption from taxes. The death of Ivan Susanin was not forgotten even later. The descendants of the national hero repeatedly received letters of commendation and preferential decrees until 1837.
The cult of Ivan Susanin during the Russian Empire
In Tsarist Russia, the image of Ivan Susanin was the subject of a cult. Paintings, sculptures, musical and literary works were devoted to his feat. It was his name that was actively used by official propaganda during the suppression of Polish uprisings and the War of 1812.
In 1838, the central square of the city of Kostroma began to be officially called Susaninskaya. In addition, the hero was depicted among other prominent historical figures on the monument "Millennium of Russia" (1862). Propaganda took its toll, two centuries later, what Susanin did was repeated to some extent by Osip Komissarov, who saved Emperor Alexander II from death. Interestingly, Komissarov was born not far from his native village of Susanin.
However, it was in pre-revolutionary Russia that the first criticism official version feat. So, the historian N. Kostomarov believed that the only reliable fact in the entire history of Susanin was his death from one of the robber detachments in Time of Troubles. S. Solovyov was also known for critical reviews of this story, who believed that the peasant was tortured by the Cossacks.
presumed place of death
During the Soviet era, the initial attitude towards Susanin was negative. So, in 1918, the monument to Ivan Susanin was thrown off the pedestal. The folk hero began to be called the royal servant, and the feat for which he became famous was a fairy tale.
Attitudes changed dramatically in the late 1930s. He again entered the list of folk heroes. The district center, near which Susanin once lived, was renamed in his honor. At the same time, a version spread that he was a "patriot of the Russian Land", who fought against foreign invaders, and did not save the tsar. In the 60s of the last century, a monument to Susanin was even erected in Kostroma.
In post-Soviet Russia, the personality of Susanin is interpreted in two ways. Most historians continue to call him a folk hero, while acknowledging that vassal loyalty rather than patriotism prompted him to the feat. There are also several versions of how the events took place. For example, A. Shirokopad believes that Susanin suffered from the piratical raid of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks.
- In some publications, Susanin is credited with the patronymic Osipovich. However, there is no mention of this in the sources, in addition, in the 17th century, it was not customary for peasants to be called by their patronymic.
- In Soviet times, the peasant Matvey Kuzmin was no less famous than Susanin. In 1942, at the cost of his own life, he led a German detachment under machine-gun fire from Soviet soldiers. The enemy detachment was destroyed, but the German commander managed to kill Kuzmin. After the end of World War II, a book appeared describing the exploits of 58 "followers" of Susanin.
In 2003, in the necropolis of the village of Isupovo, remains were discovered that may belong to Susanin. However, professional archaeologists and historians dispute their authenticity.
January 29, 2018
The seventeenth century in the history of Russia opens with the tragedy of the Time of Troubles. This was the first terrible experience of a civil war, in which all layers of Russian society were involved. However, since 1611 Civil War in Russia began to take on the character of a struggle against foreign invaders, for national independence. The second militia under the leadership of Minin and Pozharsky was destined to become a savior Russian state. In February 1613, the most representative Zemsky Sobor in the history of its existence proclaimed Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov the new tsar. The feat of Ivan Susanin, the savior of the founder of the new Russian Romanov dynasty, is connected with this event.
Indeed, the feat of Ivan Osipovich Susanin, a peasant in the village of Domnino, Kostroma Region, has become an integral part of Russian history. However, the only documentary source about the life and exploits of Susanin is the charter of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, which he bestowed in 1619, "on the advice and petition of his mother" to the peasant of the Kostroma district "Bogdashka Sabinin half of the village of Derevishch, because his father-in-law Ivan Susanin, whom “the Polish and Lithuanian people found and tortured with great unreasonable tortures, and tortured, where at that time the great sovereign, tsar and Grand Duke Mikhail Feodorovich ... knowing about us ... enduring unreasonable torture ... did not say anything about us ... and for that he was tortured to death by Polish and Lithuanian people. Subsequent letters of commendation and confirmation in 1641, 1691 and 1837, given to the descendants of Susanin, only repeat the words of the letter of 1619. In the annals, chronicles and other written sources of the 17th century. almost nothing was said about Susanin, but legends about him existed and were passed down from generation to generation. According to legend, in March 1613, one of the Polish detachments expelled from Moscow broke into the Kostroma district and was looking for a guide to get to the village of Domnino, the patrimony of the Romanovs, where Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, elected to the throne, was located. Arriving in Derevenki (3 km from the village of Domnino), the invaders broke into Susanin's hut and demanded to show them the way. Susanin deliberately led the enemy detachment into impassable places (now the Susanin Swamp), for which he was killed by the Poles. The entire Polish detachment also perished. Meanwhile, the tsar, warned by Susanin's son-in-law, Bogdan Sabinin, took refuge in Kostroma in the Ipatiev Monastery.
The memory of Susanin's patriotic deed was preserved not only in oral folk tales and legends. His feat as an ideal of national prowess and self-sacrifice was in demand in the course of events. Patriotic War 1812, accompanied by a peasant partisan movement. It is no coincidence that in the same 1812, on the wave of a patriotic upsurge, M.I. Glinka creates the opera A Life for the Tsar (Ivan Susanin).
The image of a patriotic peasant who gave his life for the tsar fit perfectly into the official ideological doctrine of “Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality” and that is why it became especially in demand during the reign of Nicholas I. In 1838, he signed a decree on granting the central square of Kostroma named after Susanin and the erection of a monument on it "to testify that the noble descendants saw in the immortal feat of Susanin - saving the life of the newly elected tsar by the Russian land through the sacrifice of his life - the salvation of the Orthodox faith and the Russian kingdom from foreign domination and enslavement." His feat was reflected in many works of fiction, and N.V. Gogol noted: “Not a single royal house began as unusually as the house of the Romanovs began. Its beginning was already a feat of love. The last and lowest subject in the state offered and laid down his life in order to give us a king, and with this pure sacrifice he already connected the sovereign with the subject inextricably. Susanin is also depicted on the famous monument "Millennium of Russia" by Mikhail Mikeshin. True, after the revolution of 1917, the name of Susanin fell into the category of "servants of the kings", and the monument in Kostroma was barbarously destroyed. However, in the late 1930s, in connection with the formation of the Stalinist political, economic and ideological system, his feat was again remembered. The hero was "rehabilitated". In 1938, Susanin's exaltation began again as a hero who gave his life for the Motherland. In 1939, the production of Glinka's opera was resumed at the Bolshoi Theater, albeit with a different title and a new libretto. At the end of the summer of 1939, the district center and the district where he lived and died were renamed in honor of Susanin. Especially the "connection of times" became in demand during the Great Patriotic War. So, for example, in 1942, 83-year-old peasant Matvey Kuzmin repeated his feat. In Kurakino, the native village of Matvey Kuzmin, the battalion of the German 1st Mountain Rifle Division (the well-known "Edelweiss") was quartered, before which in February 1942 the task was to make a breakthrough, going to the rear Soviet troops in the planned counter-offensive in the area of the Malkinskiye Heights. The battalion commander demanded that Kuzmin act as a guide, promising money, flour, kerosene, as well as a Sauer brand hunting rifle “Three Rings” for this. Kuzmin agreed. Having warned the military unit of the Red Army through the 11-year-old grandson of Sergei Kuzmin, Matvey Kuzmin led the Germans for a long time on a detour and finally led the enemy detachment to an ambush in the village of Malkino under machine-gun fire from Soviet soldiers. The German detachment was destroyed, but Kuzmin himself was killed by the German commander.
The opera "Ivan Susanin" by Glinka describes the events connected with the campaign of the Polish army against Moscow in 1613. The work was written in 1836 and dedicated to Nicholas I, in connection with which it was soon renamed "Life for the Tsar."
main characters
Ivan Susanin- a peasant in the village of Domnina.
Antonida- the native daughter of Ivan Susanin
Ivan – Foster-son Ivan Susanin
Other characters
Bogdan Sobinin- fiance of Antonida, militia.
Sigismund III- Polish king
Minin leader of the freedom movement.
Act one
A simple peasant Ivan Susanin and his two children live in a small village: his own daughter Antonida and his adopted son Vanya. The news of the attack of the Polish army stirs up the people who are not going to give up their homeland to the enemy without a fight - "Whoever dares to Russia, will find death."
Bogdan, along with other young and strong peasants, join the people's militia. After a while, he brings home good news - the peasant Minin from Nizhny Novgorod collects a great squad to defeat the Poles and liberate the capital from the invaders.
Antonida and Bogdan turn to Ivan Susanin to give a blessing for their wedding, but the old man refuses the request of the lovers: “Now it’s not about weddings. Fighting time!"
Action two
Meanwhile, Sigismund III is throwing a sumptuous ball in honor of his victory. Inspired by military success, the Poles look forward to a heavenly life at the expense of the looted wealth.
During the general rejoicing, the ambassador brings bad news to the king. The Russians, led by Minin, are resisting the Poles. The Polish detachment is besieged in Moscow, and the remaining army scatters in panic.
Act Three
Vanya makes himself a wooden spear, dreaming of growing up as soon as possible and defending his homeland. Susanin enters the hut and reports that Minin and his retinue have set up camp nearby in the forest.
Bogdan and Antonida are busy preparing for the long-awaited wedding. Peasants enter the Susanins' house to congratulate the newlyweds. When the guests disperse, Polish soldiers suddenly burst into the hallway and demand the old man to take them to Minin.
At first, the peasant refuses, but then an insidious plan matures in his head - to deceive the Poles into the wilderness and kill them there. He quietly instructs Vanya - to rush as quickly as possible to the militias and warn of danger, and he leads the enemies into the forest.
When Antonida's friends come to the hut, the tearful girl tells them about the trouble that has happened. Bogdan with the peasants goes to the aid of Susanin.
act four
Late at night, Vanya runs to the militia and informs Minin about the Poles' attack. The alarmed warriors are immediately going on a campaign.
Tired Poles suspect something is wrong. They ask Susanin where he led them, to which the brave peasant replies that he led them to where they would have to "die of starvation." In anger, the Poles kill Susanin.
Epilogue
Exulting crowds of people rush to Red Square, church bells deafen the area with a festive ringing. Among the joyful people, sad Antonida, Bogdan and Vanya stand out.
One of the soldiers asks about the reason for their sadness, to which Vanya tells him about the heroic deed of his father. The soldiers comfort the boy with the words: "Ivan Susanin will live forever in the memory of the people."
The people welcome the appearance of their heroes - Minin and Pozharsky, laudatory songs are heard in their address.
Conclusion
Glinka's opera glorifies the heroism and self-sacrifice of a simple Russian peasant who did not spare his own life for the sake of his people.
After reading brief retelling"Ivan Susanin", we recommend that you familiarize yourself with full version libretto.
Opera test
Check the memorization of the summary with the test:
Retelling rating
Average rating: 4.1. Total ratings received: 426.
Arseniy Zamostyanov tells about Ivan Susanin, his feat and the significance of this story for the Russian statehood.
The feat of Ivan Susanin
The 300-year reign of the Romanov dynasty began with Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich - and this happened after a dashing, shameful decade of unrest.
“Not a single royal house began as unusually as the house of the Romanovs began. Its beginning was already a feat of love. The last and lowest subject in the state offered and laid down his life in order to give us a tsar, and with this pure sacrifice he already linked the sovereign inseparably with his subject, ”these are the words of Gogol.
This last subject is the peasant Ivan Osipovich Susanin, a key figure in the autocratic ideology. Remember the triad of Count Uvarov - "Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality"? The Minister of Public Education formulated it in the 1840s, but in historical reality this ideology has existed for centuries. Without it, it would be impossible to overcome the turmoil. This very “nationality” was personified by Ivan Susanin, a peasant in the village of Domnina, seventy miles from Kostroma, a serf of the Shestov nobles. Nun Marfa Ivanovna, she is also Xenia, the wife of the boyar Fyodor Romanov and the mother of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, bore the surname Shestova as a girl, and the village of Domnino was her fiefdom.
The name of Ivan Susanin in Russia is known to everyone, but only fragmentary and vague information has been preserved about his life. The Orthodox, especially the people of Kostroma, revere the hero, but in response to the age-old question about canonization, a reasonable one sounds: “We need to study, investigate the biography of the martyr. We need to know more about him…”
Official version
How was it? Let us turn to the official version - on which all the Romanovs were brought up.
In February 1613, a Polish detachment scoured the Kostroma region in search of Mikhail Romanov and his mother, nun Martha. They intended to capture or destroy the real Russian pretender to the throne of Moscow. Or maybe they wanted to capture him in order to demand a ransom. According to a legend that has been passed down from generation to generation in the parish of Domnino, future king, having learned about the approach of the Poles, he fled from the village of Domnina and ended up in settlements, in the house of Susanin. The peasant regaled him with bread and kvass and covered him in a barn pit, throwing firebrands and burnt rags at it.
The Poles raided Susanin's house and began torturing the old man. He did not give Michael away. The Poles failed to find him with the dogs: the firebrands interrupted the human smell. The drunken enemies cut down Susanin and galloped away. Mikhail got out of hiding and, accompanied by peasants, went to the Ipatiev Monastery.
Another interpretation of events is better known. Not far from Domnino, the Poles met the village head Ivan Susanin and ordered him to show the way to the village. Susanin managed to send his son-in-law, Bogdan Sabinin, to Domnino with instructions to equip Mikhail Romanov to the Ipatiev Monastery. And he himself led the Poles in the opposite direction - to the swamps. He was tortured and executed - but it was Susanin's feat that allowed Mikhail to reach Ipatievskoye unharmed.
Susanin was buried first in his native village, and a few years later the ashes were transferred to the Ipatiev Monastery - which became a symbol of the salvation of the dynasty. True, this version is often questioned - there are several alleged graves of Ivan Susanin. And ten years ago, archaeologists (not in the first and probably not in last time) discovered the place of death of Susanin ...
In a word, a mystery shrouded in mystery. Even the hero's memorial day has not been set. The most probable date of the feat and death is February 1613, 400 years ago ... Before the revolution, honors were brought to the savior of the first royal Romanov on September 11, on the feast of the Beheading of the head of the Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John. A special funeral commemoration of the national hero was performed. This tradition was revived in the 21st century.
The late His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II addressed the countrymen of the legendary hero: “Kostroma, for several centuries referred to as the “cradle of the Romanov dynasty”, overshadowed by the All-Russian shrine - the miraculous Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God - was of particular importance in the events of 1613, which marked the beginning of overcoming the Time of Troubles. The appeal to the memory of Ivan Susanin is seen by Us as a good sign of the spiritual revival of the Kostroma region and all of Russia. Remembering with love our visit to the places of life and deeds of Ivan Susanin, which took place in 1993, now with the entire Kostroma flock We offer up Our First Hierarchal Prayers for the blessed repose of the servant of God John in the villages of the righteous, “where there is illness, no sorrow, no sighing, but endless life ".
The story is symbolic, parable, mysterious.
Why was the legend about Ivan Susanin necessary?
The point is not only that the village headman has become a model of sacrificial, selfless devotion to the sovereign. A vivid (albeit mysterious) episode of the massacre of a peasant who lured a Polish detachment into impenetrable swamps was the last manifestation of the Time of Troubles - and so it remained in people's memory. Troubles are both civil war, and anarchy, and betrayal of the ruling circles, and the bestiality of the people, and rampant impostorism, and the outrages of the conquerors ... Ivan Susanin gave his life in the name of ending this misfortune.
Skeptics will throw up their hands: yes, he could not think about such matters as the salvation of statehood or national sovereignty ... At best, the peasant showed vassal devotion.
Perhaps he was hostile towards non-Christian Catholics, but Susanin was not and could not be any conscious statesman ... Yes, Susanin was hardly a politically literate patriot. It is unlikely that he thought in terms of "state", "sovereignty", "war of liberation". Perhaps he did not even have a chance to see the great Russian cities. But the meaning of any act is determined over decades ...
In 1619, during a pilgrimage, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich remembered the winter of 1613. Most likely, it was then, in the hot pursuit of events, that he was told about the deceased peasant. Russian autocrats often made trips to monasteries - but Mikhail Fedorovich chose the Trinity-Makarevsky Monastery, on the Unzha River, for prayer of thanksgiving. This monastery is associated with the work of St. Macarius Zheltovodsky. The holy elder lived 95 years, died in 1444 - and was in Tatar captivity, in Kazan, which had not yet been conquered. He (even before canonization, which took place just during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich) was prayed for the salvation of the captives. The tsar's father, Patriarch Filaret, was released from captivity alive and unharmed - and the Romanovs saw this as the patronage of the Zheltyvodsk elder. There is a version that in February 1613, when Ivan Susanin destroyed the Polish detachment, Martha and Mikhail were heading to Unzha, to the Trinity-Makarevsky Monastery.
The feat of Susanin prevented the looting of the monastery and the capture of the future king. The king, bowing to the relics of St. Macarius, decided to reward the relatives of the fallen hero. It was then that the sovereign drew up a letter of commendation to Ivan Susanin's son-in-law, Bogdan Sobinin. This is the only document testifying to the feat! Let's not forget: these lines were written six years after the February events of 1613, when the memory of them had not yet faded:
“By the grace of God, we, the great sovereign, tsar and grand duke Mikhailo Fedorovich, autocrat of all Russia, by our royal mercy, and by the advice and petition of our mother, the empress, the great old woman nun Marfa Ivanovna, granted us the Kostroma district, our village of Domnina, peasant Bogdashka Sobinin, for service to us and for blood, and for the patience of his father-in-law Ivan Susanin: how we, the great sovereign, tsar and grand duke Mikhailo Fedorovich of all Russia in the past 121 (that is, in 1613 from the Nativity of Christ!) year were in Kostroma, and at that time Polish and Lithuanian people came to the Kostroma district, and Lithuanian people confiscated his father-in-law, Bogdashkov, Ivan Susanin at that time and tortured him with great, unreasonable tortures and tortured him where at that time we, the great Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Duke Mikhailo Fedorovich of All Russia were, and he was Ivan, knowing about us, the great sovereign, where we were at that time, enduring unreasonable tortures from those Polish and Lithuanian people, about us, the great sovereign, by those Polish and Lithuanian He didn’t tell people where we were at that time, but the Polish and Lithuanian people tortured him to death.
And we, the great sovereign, the tsar and the grand duke Mikhailo Fedorovich of all Russia, granted him, Bogdashka, for the service of his father-in-law Ivan Susanin to us and for the blood in the Kostroma district of our palace village of Domnina, half of the village of Derevnishch, on which he, Bogdashka, now lives, one and a half four of the land was ordered to be whitewashed from that semi-village, and one and a half four of the land was ordered to be whitewashed on it, on Bogdashka, and on his children, and on our grandchildren, and on our great-grandchildren, no taxes and feed, and carts, and all sorts of canteen and grain stocks , and in urban handicrafts, and in mostovshchina, and in others, they did not order any tax to imati from them; they ordered them to whitewash that half of the village in everything, both for their children and grandchildren, and for the whole family immobile. And there will be our village of Domnino in which the monastery will be in return, that half of the village of Derevnishch, one and a half four of the land in which the monastery with that village was not ordered to be given, they ordered, according to our royal salary, to own it, Bogdashka Sobinin, and his children, and grandchildren and unmoved into their generation forever. This is our royal charter in Moscow in the summer of 7128 (from the Nativity of Christ - 1619) November on the 30th day.
Note: Susanin is not called Ivashka, but Ivan - with reverence. And his son-in-law is Bogdashka. In those years, the autocrats rarely rendered such an honor to the “vile people”.
Ivan Susanin: martyr's crown
Since then, Russia has not forgotten about Ivan Susanin.
“Faithful to his Christian duty, Susanin accepted a martyr’s crown and blessed, like the righteous Simeon of old, God, who vouchsafed him, if not to see, then to die for the salvation of the lad, whom God anointed with holy oil and called him the king of Russia,” they wrote about Susanina to early XIX century. This is how schoolchildren and high school students recognized the hero.
And is it possible to forget the thought of Kondraty Ryleev - which was studied at school in the Soviet years. True, instead of "for the tsar and for Russia" in our anthologies it was written: "For dear Russia." In the Soviet tradition, Susanin is the hero of the liberation struggle of the Russian people against the interventionists; monarchist aspirations were kept silent about.
These lines are unforgettable:
"Where did you take us?" - Lyakh old cried out.
- "Where you need it!" Susan said.
“Kill! torture! My grave is here!
But know, and rush: - I saved Mikhail!
A traitor, they thought, you found in me:
They are not and will not be on the Russian land!
In it, everyone loves their homeland from infancy,
And he will not destroy his soul by betrayal. —"Villain!", shouted the enemies boiling:
"You will die under swords!" “Your anger is not terrible!
Who is Russian by heart, then cheerfully and boldly
And joyfully dies for a just cause!
Neither execution nor death, and I'm not afraid:
Without flinching, I will die for the tsar and for Russia! —
"Die!" The Sarmatians shouted to the Hero -
And the sabers over the old man, whistling, flashed!
"Die, traitor! Your end has come!" —
And the solid Susanin fell all over in ulcers!
snow clean the purest blood stained:
She saved Mikhail for Russia!
With Ivan Susanin, the Russian opera began, in which a peasant in a sheepskin coat so impressively declared himself, bringing out in bass wonderful unborrowed tunes: “They smell the truth! You, dawn, rather shine, rather build, raise the hour of salvation! Great opera image. By the way, Glinka's "Life for the Tsar" was not the first opera about that feat. Back in 1815, Katerino Cavos created the opera Ivan Susanin. This plot was perceived as state-forming. But then the time came to revise the usual ideas about the history of Russia. From the monarchical myths, gilding flew off. “Is it sacred? A total lie!"
“It could be that the robbers who attacked Susanin were the same kind of thieves, and the event, so loudly glorified later, was one of many that year,” wrote historian Nikolai Kostomarov, the eternal troublemaker of academic peace and subverter of ideals.
No, the feat of Ivan Susanin is not a falsification, not someone's fantasy, the peasant really fell victim to the interventionists in the Kostroma swamps. But the main thing in this feat is a parable, a legend, a historical context. If young Mikhail Romanov had not become the first king of a powerful dynasty, history would hardly have preserved the name of a pious peasant. In those years, Russian people often became victims of atrocities - and the first to die were those who remained faithful to their faith and legitimate authority. History itself wove a laurel wreath for Ivan Osipovich - and the disgrace of noble ideals has not yet brought happiness to anyone. We are told about the slavish ("dog") devotion of the serf Susanin to his masters. But what grounds do skeptics have for such a cruel diagnosis? According to many testimonies (including the testimonies of foreign guests of Russia), the Muscovite peasants, despite their slave status, developed self-esteem. Do not throw mud at loyalty, do not treat it arrogantly.
Of course, Susanin did not know that a conciliar decision had been made in Moscow to call Mikhail Fedorovich to the kingdom. As hard as it is to believe, there was no radio or internet in those years. But it can be assumed that the wise peasant heard rumors that this young boyar is our future autocrat. And he felt the high significance of the feat - to save the young man, not to let the enemy through Domnino, to give his life with a prayer for others ...
The Russian land is glorious with heroes. Many feats have peasant roots. And the first in the people's memory was Susanin - he was (I hope that he remains!) An example for posterity. He will still serve the Fatherland: the heroes who died for the Motherland do not die. A village does not stand without a righteous man - and without legends and myths.
