How is the patriotic theme revealed in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”?

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How is the patriotic theme revealed in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”?

Whoever the author of The Tale of Igor's Campaign was, we know that this man was deeply concerned about the future of Rus'. With pain and bitterness, he speaks about the discord between the princes, about the strife that torments the Russian land and makes it defenseless against enemy raids. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is dedicated to the unsuccessful campaign against the Polovtsians in 1185 of Novgorod-Seversky Prince Igor Svyatoslavovich with a few allies, a campaign that ended in a terrible defeat. The author calls on the Russian princes to unite to repel the steppe and to jointly defend the Russian land. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” with brilliant power and insight reflected the main disaster of its time - the insufficiency of state unity of Rus'. Its consequence was the weakness of defense against external enemies, which Igor’s campaign eloquently demonstrated. The 12th century is a time that is far from us, but despite this, we can imagine the complexity of this era. Feudal fragmentation, which reached its peak at that time, completely weakened public administration. Each appanage prince only sought to seize as much of the lands of his neighbors as possible, not disdaining the dirtiest ways to do this, even to the point of uniting with the direct enemies of Rus' - the Polovtsians. The all-Russian power of the Kyiv prince had not yet completely disappeared, but its importance was falling uncontrollably. Echoes of this phenomenon are observed in the “Word...” Igor Svyatoslavovich went on a campaign against the Polovtsians with small forces, without coming to an agreement with the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav. With his rash act, he canceled out Svyatoslav’s recent successful campaigns, putting Rus' in an extremely difficult situation, opening up access to Russian lands for enemies. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is a small work, but at the same time unusually monumental in its plot, images, and spatial boundaries. His hero is the entire Russian land, and the narrative of “The Words...” also involves huge geographical spaces - from Novgorod in the north to Tmutarakan on the Black Sea, from the Volga in the east to Galich in the west. Dozens of rivers, cities, principalities are captured by the action of “The Word... therefore it is impossible to single out a separate image of the Russian land, for all of it is in the author’s field of vision, introduced into the circle of his narration. When Igor first set out on a campaign, he was greeted by a solar eclipse - a bad omen, a harbinger of impending disaster. The battle itself is accompanied by storms and thunder, and all nature mourns the defeat of the Russians: “the trees bowed down to the ground. The author more than once refers to the image of the Russian land when he wants to emphasize the need for unity. He persistently calls on the princes to speak out “for the Russian land, for Igor’s wounds.” The author, who apparently was a participant in those events and could observe with his own eyes, gave this ordinary incident a nationwide significance with his poetic talent. The form of the “Words...” allowed him to express his views on the policies being pursued. One feels that this is not just a court poet, a favorite of some prince, but a person close to the people, worried about the fate of his homeland, loving it endlessly.__________________________________________________________

The image of the Russian land in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”

From a distant distance, across the space of centuries, voices reach us, in which reverent love for our native Russian land sounds. In the brilliant ancient poem “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” the Russian land is perceived as something unified, as the property of a people coming from one root, despite strife and the existence of various principalities. The soul of the author of “The Lay...”, still, unfortunately, nameless, is inseparable from the native expanses and fogs of the southern Russian hills and steppe expanses. Nature lives and breathes in the “Word...” together with man, acts together with the Russian warriors who blocked the “great fields with scarlet shields.” She rejoices with them in victory, grieves and is sad in defeat. The author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” embodied the feeling of unity with the homeland in a living, concrete image of the Russian land. The hero of “The Lay...” is not any of the princes, but the Russian people. Russian land. All the best feelings of the author are directed towards it, towards the Russian land. The image of the Russian land - . There is hardly a work in world literature in which such vast geographical spaces are simultaneously drawn into action. Polovtsian steppe, “blue sea”, Don, Volga, Dnieper, Danube, Western Dvina, Donetsk, and from the cities - Kiev, Polotsk, Chernigov, Kursk, Belgorod, Novgorod and many others - the entire Russian land is in the author’s field of view, introduced into the circle of his narrative. The image of the homeland, full of cities, rivers and numerous inhabitants, seems to be contrasted with the image of the deserted Polovtsian steppe - the “unknown country”, its hills, swamps, “mud” places. For the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” the Russian land is, of course, not only “land” in the proper sense of the word, not only Russian nature, Russian cities, but first of all the people inhabiting it. The author talks about the peaceful work of Russian plowmen, disrupted by the strife of the princes; about the wives of Russian soldiers mourning their husbands who died in the battle for Rus'; about the grief of the entire Russian people after the defeat of Igor. Outlining the history of Igor's unsuccessful campaign against the Polovtsians, the author covers the events of Russian life over a century and a half and conducts his narrative, constantly turning from the present to history, comparing past times with the present. Creating “The Word...”, the chronicler was able to look at all of Rus' as a whole, and united in his description both Russian nature, Russian people, and Russian history. The image of a suffering homeland is very important in the artistic and ideological concept of “The Lay...”: it arouses the reader’s sympathy for it, it arouses hatred of its enemies, it calls on the Russian people to defend it. Love for the homeland guided the pen of the author of this immortal work. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” in our time, a time of social and national conflicts, struggles for all kinds of sovereignties, sounds like a spiritual testament from a long-gone generation to our generation. This “golden word” teaches us to love our homeland Russia and preserve its unity.__________________________________________________________

Why does “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” end with the glorification of Russian princes?

The ideological basis of the “Word...” is the author’s call for the unity of the Russian princes in order to unite and defend the Russian land with joint forces. In conditions of feudal fragmentation, when the discord between the Monomakhovichs and the Olgovichs flared up more and more (Prince Igor precisely belongs to the “brave Oleg’s nest”), the author dreams of a union of Russian princes and thinks of Kiev as the natural center of the Russian land. That is why, deviating from the historical truth, he portrays the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav as a strong and wise politician.

According to convincing assumptions of modern researchers, the author of “The Lay...” was himself a follower, and perhaps even a member of “Oleg’s Nest,” and therefore his task was complicated by the fact that he had to not only exalt his prince, but also condemn him for his reckless campaign , associated not with all-Russian, but with one’s own selfish interests (“to gain fame”). That is why the image of Prince Igor is so complex and ambiguous. The measure of his assessment, as well as all the images and events of “The Lay...”, is the Russian land - the true hero of the work, its main theme and the ideological and compositional center of the work.

In the finale, Prince Igor realizes the disastrousness of his previous aspirations and is himself ready to take part in future campaigns of the Russian princes against the Polovtsians. Selfish aspirations are defeated by the awareness of the importance of the unity of all princes to save the Russian land. The direct political call for unity sounded in Svyatoslav’s “golden word” directly correlates with the author’s main idea, and therefore Svyatoslav’s “word” can also be perceived as the “word” of the author.

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From other Russian liters Page 1

How is the patriotic theme revealed in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”?

Patriotism "Tales of Igor's Campaign"

The meaning of the poem is the call of the Russians

Princes to unity just before

Invasion of the Mongols.

K. Marx

When you read “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” you remember a wise parable.

The old father, sensing his imminent death and wanting to pass on his life experience to his sons, gathered them and, taking a tightly tied broom, invited the young people to break it. None of them could do this. Then the old man untied the broom and repeated his request. The sons easily broke the twigs. The old man’s admonition sounded very convincing: “As long as you are together, no one will be able to defeat you, but alone, everyone can easily cope with you.”

To cope with an external enemy, to defend one’s homeland, one must unite - this is the main idea of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, its patriotic idea. The selfish, ambitious behavior of individual princes then led to the ruin of the country. External enemies took advantage of this and carried out devastating raids on Rus'. The Kiev prince, gradually losing his influence, could not retain supreme power. The almost continuous Polovtsian raids became a terrible disaster. Everyone had to fight against such an enemy together, joining forces. Many princes understood this.

In the early 80s of the 12th century, their civil strife gradually ceased, and significant Russian forces united to fight against the Polovtsians. Under the leadership of Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich, Prince of Kyiv, the Russians defeated the nomads and frightened them, it seemed, for a long time. Novgorod-Seversky Prince Igor, who was unable to take part in the last campaign due to bad weather, decided on his own to finally defeat the already weakened, as he believed, enemy. In the spring of 1185, without even warning Svyatoslav, with a small detachment, together with his brother Vsevolod and his squad, he set out against the Polovtsians, but was defeated and captured, and the Russian land was again subjected to devastating attacks by the enemy.

The events of this campaign formed the basis of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”

The author of the poem, a sage and patriot, describes the participants in the campaign with great sympathy, admiring their military valor, determination, courage, and youthful enthusiasm. Princes Igor and Vsevolod are drawn as real heroes, faithful to their goal. They were not frightened even by the formidable omen - an eclipse of the sun. They decided to go to the end - to die or win. “With you, Russians, I want to lay my head or drink with the helmet of the Don,” Prince Igor addresses his soldiers. But the arrogance of the young prince, the inability to calculate his strength, the selfish desire to stand out and become famous without resorting to the help of his compatriots could not lead to good. The defeat of Igor's army brought new troubles to the Russian land.

The author of the poem, despite sympathy for Igor, condemns him. He takes the reader to Kyiv, to the “Svyatoslav’s Gridnitsa”, where the famous “golden word” of the Prince of Kyiv is heard. Svyatoslav reproaches Igor and Vsevolod, condemns their desire only to become famous themselves, regardless of the national interests.

The Prince of Kiev turns to other Russian princes, speaks of their power, military valor, glorious victories, and immediately recalls how princely feuds led to defeats of brave and strong warriors.

The poem sounds a direct call to the princes to stop the strife. This is the demanding and authoritative voice of history itself. Both in Svyatoslav’s “golden word” and in the author’s appeals to the princes, we hear praise for those of them who fought together against external enemies.

The conclusion is clear: Rus' has a lot of strength, its warriors are fearless and devoted to their homeland. They will be able to defeat any external enemy if the princes stop quarreling with each other and unite around the Grand Duke of Kyiv to take revenge “for the insult of this time, for the Russian land, for Igor’s wounds.” This conclusion is deeply patriotic, as it is dictated by love for the long-suffering native land, for all who became victims of princely strife.

The author of the Lay, unknown to us, showed great civic courage, daring to express the bitter truth to the arrogant, selfish princes. He was not afraid of anyone, because his pen was driven by love for his homeland, concern for its future. The patriotic singer seemed to have a presentiment of the coming troubles that would befall disunited Rus' during the invasion of the Tatar-Mongols, and warned of danger,

Of course, both Igor and Vsevolod also considered themselves patriots: after all, they loved their native land and wanted to defend it, not even sparing their own lives. But they loved personal glory even more, putting it above national interests.

History has convincingly proven that the patriotic idea of a brilliant ancient Russian poem cannot become outdated, it is always modern, just as the parable about a father’s lesson to his sons is modern.