Igor Leonidovich Volgin was born on March 6, 1942 in Perm, where the family was evacuated from Moscow during the war.

He graduated from Moscow school No. 626 and in 1959 entered the history department of Moscow State University. In the same year, the first publications of his poems appeared. In 1962, Pavel Antokolsky admonished the young poet in Literaturnaya Gazeta. Volgin's first poetry book, "Excitement," was published in 1965. Then several more poetry collections and books of translations were published.

He graduated from the Faculty of History in 1964, receiving a diploma with honors. While still a student, he became one of the organizers and participants in the famous readings “at Mayakovka”. In 1968 he created the Literary Studio of Moscow University "Luch", which has existed for more than 35 years. This is one of the oldest and most authoritative literary associations, from which came a whole galaxy of now widely known writers - Sergei Gandlevsky, Alexander Soprovsky, Alexey Tsvetkov, Bakhyt Kenzheev, Evgeniy Bunimovich, Gennady Krasnikov, Elena Isaeva, Dmitry Bykov, Inna Kabysh, Vera Pavlova, Vadim Stepantsov and many others.

Igor Volgin is a writer and historian who created his own unique genre of historical and documentary biographical prose. His now classic works on Dostoevsky combine the spirit of deep historicism and bold scientific research. Author of the books "Dostoevsky the Journalist. "The Diary of a Writer" and the Russian Public" (1982), "The Last Year of Dostoevsky. Historical Notes" (1986, 1990, 1991), "Born in Russia. Dostoevsky and his Contemporaries: Life in Documents" (1991 ), "Metamorphoses of power. Attempts on the Russian throne in the 18th - 19th centuries." (1994), "Staggering over the abyss. Dostoevsky and the Imperial House" (1998), "The Missing Conspiracy. Dostoevsky and the Political Trial of 1849." (2000), "Return of the ticket. Paradoxes of national identity" (2004).

Volgin's historical and biographical studies are widely known in our country and enjoy worldwide recognition; they have been translated into many foreign languages. “Staggering over the Abyss” and “The Missing Conspiracy” were included in the short list of the Anti-Booker Prize and the State Prize of the Russian Federation; for the entire cycle of works about Dostoevsky, Igor Volgin was awarded the Moscow Prize in Literature for 2004.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Doctor of Philology, Candidate of Historical Sciences. Professor, Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov and the Literary Institute named after. A.M. Gorky. Member of the Writers' Union, the Union of Journalists, the International Association of Journalists, the International PEN Club and the Russian PEN Center, a member of the public council of the October magazine and the editorial boards of the Chelovek and Literary Studies Magazines. Member of the scientific council of the Pushkin Institute. He took part in many international conferences and symposiums.

Under the leadership of I.L. Volgin, founder and president of the Dostoevsky Foundation, held the international symposium “Dostoevsky in the Modern World” (2001) and the congress “Russian Literature in the World Cultural Context” (2004).

In February 2017, Igor Volgin became a laureate of the Russian Government Prize in the field of culture.

IGOR VOLGIN

Igor Volgin - poet, historian, TV presenter. From a family of Moscow journalists, he was born in 1942 in Perm, where the family was evacuated. Graduated from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov.
In 1962, Pavel Antokolsky admonished the young poet in the “literary newspaper”. Igor Volgin has been published in many periodicals, author of several books
poems and translations, including the book “Personal Data” (2015), published after a long break.
One of the world's leading experts on the life and work of Dostoevsky. President of the Russian Dostoevsky Foundation, vice-president of the International Dostoevsky Society. Author of the books "Dostoevsky the Journalist. “The Diary of a Writer" and the Russian Public" (1982), "The Last Year of Dostoevsky. Historical Notes" (1986, 1990, 1991, 2010), "Born in Russia. Dostoevsky and his contemporaries: life in documents" (1991), "Metamorphoses of power. Attempts on the Russian throne in the 18th–19th centuries." (1994), "Staggering over the abyss. Dostoevsky and the Imperial House" (1998), "The Missing Conspiracy. Dostoevsky and the Political Trial of 1849." (2000), "Return of the ticket. Paradoxes of national identity" (2004), "Get away from everyone. Leo Tolstoy as a Russian wanderer" (2010), "Family and Friends" (2013).
Under the leadership of Igor Volgin, the documentary “Chronicle of the Dostoevsky Family” (2013) was published. Igor Volgin is a professor at the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University.
M. V. Lomonosov and the Literary Institute named after A. M. Gorky. Candidate of Historical Sciences, Doctor of Philology, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, member of the Moscow Writers' Union, member of the executive committee of the Russian PEN Center.
Member of the Russian Language Council under the President of the Russian Federation.
Founder (1968) and permanent director of the legendary literary studio of Moscow State University "LUCH", whose graduates have made and are making a significant contribution to modern Russian poetry (Sergey Gandlevsky, Alexander Soprovsky, Evgeny Vitkovsky,
Bakhyt Kenzheev, Alexey Tsvetkov, Gennady Krasnikov, Natalya Vankhanen, Evgeny Bunimovich, Inna Kabysh, Dmitry Bykov, Vladimir Vishnevsky, Vadim Stepantsov, Victoria Inozemtseva, Sergey Shestakov, German Vlasov, Anna Arkatova, Maria Vatutina and many others. etc.).
Laureate of the "October" magazine prize (1998, 2010), the Moscow Government Prize in the field of literature (2004), the Russian-Italian literary prize "Moscow-Penne" (2011), the Government Prize of the Russian Federation (2011), the Lomonosov Prize (2014), Russian National Television Award "TEFI" (2016), International Tyutchev Award "Thinking Reed" (2016).
Author and presenter of the intellectual program
"The glass bead game with Igor Volgin" on the TV channel "Russia K".
Author of the television series "Nikolai Zabolotsky", "From the history of Russian journalism", "The Life and Death of Dostoevsky" (12 episodes).

Poetry as an occasion

Can we do without poetry? Easily. After all, even the most handsome Evgeny Bazarov said, as he printed: “A decent chemist is twenty times more useful than any poet.”
In general, all art can look like a kind of excess in relation to “normal” life. You can eat, drink, dress, defend yourself from enemies, and survive both without rock paintings and without Raphael’s paintings. And in general, material success does not at all presuppose the presence of Beethovens and Leo Tolstoys.
Meanwhile, it is difficult to dispute the opinion that it was Homer who created Hellas.
Indeed, the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Germans, and the Scandinavians recognized themselves as a single people, only relying on “legends and myths,” on a common poetic sound, on an epic that captured their origin, existence, or, in scientific terms, self-identification tribes who erected this grandiose poetic world.
Let's try to "subtract" Pushkin, Tyutchev, Mayakovsky, Mandelstam and others from Russia: it will be a completely different country. Let us assume that she is physically powerful (which, however, is doubtful), but does not evoke any special affection either from her own citizens or from the inhabitants of neighboring lands. It would be extremely boring to live in this imaginary country and, despite the hypothetical prosperity, the percentage of unmotivated suicides would probably go off scale.
Poetry is redemption. For she connects two truths - “in the beginning was the Word” and “God is love” - in the most faithful and most incomprehensible way.
“And the secret of your beauty is tantamount to the solution to life...” - this is about the ineffability of female beauty. The same can be said for poetry. However, wouldn’t life itself stop if, suppose, it could be solved to the end?
Of course, we know: “the best words in the best order.” But you need to play with all the meanings of existence in order to achieve this seemingly not so burdensome goal. Poetry is the shortest distance between any points in space, between any world values, between the nearest and most distant objects. It instantly covers distances that would take centuries for other types of human curiosity to cover. And in this sense, it cannot be divided into genres: philosophical, love, civil, male, female, etc. lyrics. Obviously, I. Brodsky is right: “Poetry has no epithet.”
Wieland once remarked that if he “lived and worked” on a desert island - with no hope that he would ever be read - he would finish his own poems with the same care as if he intended them for lovers of literature. This testifies to the selflessness of creation. God “also” created alone.
But everything that I have tried to present here is nothing more than an imperfect attempt by an imperfect mind to grasp the immensity. Left alone with a sheet of paper, the poet may not remember anything that could help him in his “usual” business.

I love the appearance of the fabric
When after two or three,
And then four breaths
A straightening sigh will come...

O. Mandelstam

That is, possession of, say, all the secrets of mastery does not always lead to the “appearance of fabric.” A poem is always an accident (“Chance awaits us all”). But, as it was said (albeit on a different occasion), a brick will not just fall on your head.

Igor Volgin

I'll get out at the station by chance.
I'll buy a dry sandwich.
The boss in a greasy jacket
sadly waves his hand.
And, as if an unanswered voice,
calling into the night, at random,
tragic copper bell
will hit three times in a row.
Isn't it just to make it even worse?
in an old performance
they were talking about a terrible ending,
appointed by the Supreme Court?
...But the chill of the night will blow,
the night star will light up.
I'll move on from here -
and I won't come back here again.
I don’t feel sorry for my life or my money,
but I feel sorry for those left here
these short moments,
these piercing minutes.
It's as if this light is pale
I’ll remember it more than once later.
...And a bell, a copper bell.
And the night on the empty platform.

The rain hit the dark glass,
The fire sparkled and my garden was illuminated.
And I thought, "If I die,
Why did I come into this world?"
...My garden was noisy - heavy fruits
attracted from the trees, and as if to the origins
streams of dark waters rushed,
stranglingly wheezing through the gutters.
I never knew this when I was born!
But the past, presented in person,
inspired the idea that someone, getting angry,
He planned to clean me up this night.
Under the groan of the oak trees that bent in the wind,
under the thunder of the heavens calling for retribution,
I thought: "If I die,
then this will be very useful..."
...But the shine faded, a hoarse voice was heard,
cried the rooster - the spirit of peace,
and turned away confusion from us,
and stopped the whirling of the elements.
The fog was sliding from the awakened birches,
drops flowed from the leaves of the euonymus,
and the smell of roses, overpowering the smell of thunderstorms,
It seemed like peace was promised to us this summer.
“Breathe,” the fir trees made noise, “and say,
that, in general, there is no reason to worry
and what about the state of mind
affect atmospheric disturbances!
“It’s all so,” I repeated, “it’s so,”
the gaping firmaments are solid again!
But this night, but the lightning, but the darkness,
but these thoughts are strange - about death...

The thread of time is getting thinner,
no matter how you try.
I should write something
before separation.
Maybe I can pour out my bile in prose -
Damn it, God damn it -
and, having written it, burn it immediately,
crying like Gogol.
And my wondrous talent will be wasted
in the Russian hush,
and the redneck graduate student will not honor me
polite footnote.
And tenderness is my quiet retreat
will evoke in children,
because I didn’t bother them too much,
sunk into oblivion, 8 youth 2016
Poetry
where are the army of my inescapable sins
Mom only sees...
How can I choose to live my life?
a tolerable epithet?
Maybe I should really write a rhyme
with a sub-rhyme,
maybe have a drink for the ride
with a young friend?
Lo and behold, at the end of an autumn day
in the Mother See
other poets will remember me
with decent sadness.
And wags his stump of tail
My dog ​​is a suck-up.
And, hung over, he opens his lips
poor Lisa.

Treacherous, gentle, evil,
mongrel swamp blood,
under the scattering of crows
what have you done with my life?
What have you done to our home?
like Ryazan, ruined to dust,
with this happiness short-lived and poor,
with the first word on children's lips?
This means that time is more terrible than Herod,
if a woman is in a wild fight,
multiplying the number of orphans,
makes his way.
I am now at one with the falling leaves,
with this vastness, where ocher and rust,
where it circles over an abandoned garden
my wounded soul.
Where is the last friend - autumn
hurries away from me into the darkness.
And to the sound of Peredelkino pines
It's so easy to fall asleep alone.

Perm - former Molotov, now Perm.
From the encyclopedia

I was born in the city of Perm.
I don't remember Perm, damn it.
Railway hospital.
Obstetric part.
Existence is still a dream for me,
without departing from non-existence.
A war year, naked, frank.
Life and death staring at each other
imply irrevocable
the verdict they pass.
The enemy stands from the Volga to the English Channel,
and father's road is long.
How can my mother, a debutante, console me?
military officer with a crust of "Gudka"?
And abandoned by evacuation
to the tank-bellied Urals,
I am born prematurely -
The Germans laugh at them, damn them!
I come into the world - nameless,
overshadowed by a mortal blizzard.
Not particularly, in general, desirable,
but guarded by a secret hand -
in a city where everything is unfamiliar to me,
where the ballet hotel is packed,
named after the People's Commissar
like an anti-tank cocktail.
And at the end of life's end
I survive with other children
I am a Muscovite, conceived under bombs
and born in the city of Perm,
where I sleep blissfully, one of the judges
that country that did not surrender in battle,
whose fronts with all their guns
they play bayushki-bayu for me.

Everyone thought there was a war with Hitler
will last not years, but weeks.
And, sitting by the darkened window,
They looked into the loudspeakers with hope.
As if Levitan could announce,
that, having accumulated his troops at a distance,
we carried out a furious ramming
and broke through to the Vistula and Oder.
And that the Nazis' hours are numbered
and in the Ruhr the proletarians rebelled...
But we already left Romny
and fought back to Kharkov.
And my mother, pregnant with me,
without waiting for European help,
on weekends I dug near Moscow
steep, full-profile trenches.

I'll wake up from sleep,
I'll throw back the blanket.
The war is over
and I don’t even care!
And only about one thing
I regret those moments -
that they fell silent outside the window
victory fireworks.
And, having aligned the bayonets,
go non-stop
heroic regiments
on Olkhovka street.
Oh, mom, orders
what a tankman has!
Why is there war?
ended so quickly?

I’ll quickly pull on my coat -
and where the fighting lads are
selflessly plays at war,
covering the machine guns.
How snowy our yards are!
How our ceremonials became silent!
We are devotees of this game -
We have not yet comprehended adult games.
I'll fall into the snow without getting dark,
so that, saving you from a certain grave,
brought me out of the fire
Tanka Bushina from the third apartment.
How spectacularly we fall on our faces,
striking heroic poses!
...But they drip from Tanya’s eyelashes
real bitter tears.
And like a mother, leaning through the smoke
to your same age boys,
she cries for us - the young,
single, unlucky soldiers.
Tanka Bushina is crying for us!
But, casting aside empty doubts,
from vegetable secret bases
We are going on the offensive against Balchug.
We will reach the Elbe itself,
to the Ditch in the jagged fence...
This is apparently the forty-eighth
or maybe forty-nine.
He tries to pass by,
but in some vague anxiety,
the steam engine screams, straining
on the Kazan railway.
The White Square on Ordynka is stripped,
and the trees are transparent and blue.
...We don't read newspapers yet.
There are no televisions in sight.

WINTER 1953

Dawn leaks through the pale windows.
Dreams fade - and come to naught.
Blue-gray drifting snow
post-war long dreams.
As if falling into oblivion for the last time,
fellow citizens see: everyone has their own.
Violinist Kopelevich sees in the morning
daughter buried at Babi Yar.
Vakhitova, our house manager, sees
husband, killed in '42.
Saburov, a blind citizen, sees
the battle for Proskurov and the battle for Berlin.
...The first carriage grinds along the rails.
Late dreams fly away in pursuit.
Passage yards are drowning in the snow -
as passageways to other worlds.
O my communal youth!
Everything will return to normal.
The smell of whitewash and the smell of borscht.
And it’s not trinkets that are at the heart of things.
What will shake and what will fall?
The matter is urgent and time is running out.
...The smoke rises straight to the sky.
Seven gloomy families rise.
Seven kerosene gases are burning in the kitchen,
Doors slam and taps wheeze.
Doors slam - and, sleep extorted,
seven trumpets sound in unison.
Cheerfully inspires us with cheerful speech
Place your hips at shoulder level.
Teacher Gordeev is not in vain
wakes up Russia at the crack of dawn.

My father hasn't gotten up for three years.
Relatives, as usual, faded away.
And the mother, dragging herself as if to a logging site,
I changed his diapers with effort.
They were ninety. Three wars.
God had mercy on me to sit on the bunks.
Trip to Crimea. The agony of the country.
The nonsense of perestroika. Cottage in Catuary.
And my mother spun this thread for so long
just so as not to sound like a bitch -
to bury my father herself.
But it turned out that she was called first.
And, leaving for that unspeakable land,
where there are no benefits, no time, no rules,
she whispered: “Lenya, catch up!” -
and my father didn’t keep me waiting.
They left in two thousand and two.
And I live. And nothing like that.
And the world did not collapse. And no thunder struck -
only Skolkovo was named Vostryakovo.

What was thundering behind the Los station?
tonight?
Apparently it didn't work out again
summer of the Lord.
Apparently, the deadlines are already approaching
extreme ones, it seems.
What, man, is on your soul,
even in nature.
...There, across the river, burdocks smoke,
Stozhary is fading.
Soon the capital for our sins
fires will burn out.
To whom is this fiery age betrothed,
who is this chosen one -
either Nero, or the prophetic Oleg,
or a peat bog.
What can we do to save
separately and disorganized
if the ground is burning under your feet,
that is, literally.
If even gas doesn't help
from the underworld
for it has again departed from us
summer of the Lord.

Soldiers of the amusing regiments
play funny games.
Flying from iron horseshoes
colorful funny sparks.
Funny boat board
and cups with amusing mash.
And Lefort waves bravely
with his amusing sword.
Thunder, drum - and continue
will not subside in the ears of the autocrat
all the old music - cut it!
sweat the sovereign's heart.
While at the junction of the eyelid
bloody milestones are driven outside,
soldiers of the amusing regiments
dashing indulge in fun.
Amusing guns are firing.
And, as is the case in Rus', -
no one has yet guessed
how all this will turn out for her.

JEWISH MELODY

Bagritsky (nee Dzyubin), Samoilov (nee Kaufman),
Kushner and Levitansky, Slutsky and Brodsky, not to mention Pasternak and Mandelstam:
People with ambiguous surnames have attached themselves to Russian poetry,
characteristic, however, for people from poor Jewish towns -
shoemakers (usually Talmudists), watchmakers, tailors,
and also for their children who have become people -
merchants, lawyers, jewelers, dentists.
Such surnames, no matter how dark, immediately expose the origin,
without giving their owners a chance to hide from a fair human trial.
Let's say, David Samoilov, printing poetry,
I always put a beautiful letter D instead of my full name.
David - it would look immodest, almost defiant.
And so - maybe someone will think that it is Danila. (God forbid Daniel.)
Or, let's say, Dmitry.
And at worst Dormidont.
Slutsky Boris Abramovich was greatly compromised by his inconvenient middle name
(in contrast to Boris Leonidovich, who was more prosperous in this regard).
But he did not hide it at all and even wrote the famous “Jews do not sow grain...”
which, however, he was never able to print during his lifetime.
Osip Emilievich with the same name and patronymic
and there was nowhere to go:
write poetry - don’t write it, but it’s immediately obvious: not Ivanov.
But the unlucky man didn’t seem to be particularly worried about this.
And he even carelessly made it clear
that a street in the very heart of Russia will one day be called by his odious name.
Cunning Brodsky his name is Joseph
could, of course, explain it not with some biblical allusions,
but the ardent love of parents for the father of all Soviet peoples,
But for some reason he had no need for arguments of this kind.
So, Russian poets of Jewish origin
(or, as some like to clarify, Russian-language poets)
did their job without caring
what will other vigilant fellow citizens think about this,
for whom the fifth point
(I dare not call it obsolete, because there is nothing more eternal)
is a stumbling block (at the same time a stone in one’s bosom),
which should be immediately thrown at those
who is certainly not without sin.
Meanwhile, the great Russian poets of Russian origin
(that is, as you might guess, also Russian-speaking)
They were not particularly concerned about the personal data of foreigners - their rivals and colleagues.
But they were very jealous of their rhymes, metaphors, not to mention enjambment -
As, in fact, is what poets of all times and peoples do.
For if your stanza is crooked and wretched,
nothing will help you - even if your passport says you are the son of Pharaoh Amenhotep.
So, great Russian poets of Jewish origin,
Just like the great Russian poets of non-Jewish origin,
To our shame, we forgot about this important difference.
However, both of them - whether they wanted it or not -
ultimately turned out to be the pride of the Russian people.
No matter what Stanislav Kunyaev says about this.

Who else, besides writers, is the world of literary criticism connected with? Of course, with researchers and philologists who analyze and interpret literary texts, find hidden, encrypted meanings in them, and make them as understandable as possible for the reader of the new generation. Volgin Igor Leonidovich is not only a writer and historian, but also a famous Dostoevist who reveals to the world the complex works of Fyodor Mikhailovich. This researcher, his biography and areas of activity will be discussed further.

Brief information

Volgin Igor Leonidovich, in addition to all of the above, is also a candidate of historical sciences and a doctor of philological sciences. He is an honorary member of such associations as the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and the International Society of F.M. Dostoevsky (where he has been Deputy Prime Minister since the summer of 2010). As a professor, he gives numerous lectures at higher educational institutions, for example, at Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov at the Faculty of Journalism, as well as at the Literary Institute. A.M. Gorky. Volgin Igor Leonidovich is the current presenter in the television programs “Context” and “The Glass Bead Game”, which are broadcast on the channel “Russia - Culture”.

Basic information from the biography

Igor Leonidovich was born in Molotov in 1942. Here his parents, father, Volgin Leonid Samuilovich, a journalist by profession, and mother, Volgina Rakhil Lvovna, working as a proofreader, were brought during the evacuation. In 1959, Igor Leonidovich graduated from the eleventh grade of one of the Moscow schools, after which he entered Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov to the Faculty of History. Even before the start of his serious research activities, as a simple student, Igor Volgin, whose poems were liked by society, gained fame as a poet.

Achievements in the literary field

Where did Igor Leonidovich Volgin make his first debut? His poetry was first published in periodicals: “New World”, “October”, “Moscow”, “Izvestia”, “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Arion”, “Questions of Literature” and others. Then Igor Volgin, whose poems became increasingly popular, released his first collection called “Excitement” (1965). Igor Leonidovich was also one of the founders and participants of the famous literary readings “at Mayakovka”, as well as the founder of one of the most authoritative associations of writers and poets called “MSU Luch”, from under whose wing came such modern authors as Dmitry Bykov, Evgeniy Bunimovich, Vadim Stepantsov, Elena Isaeva, Vera Pavlova and many others.

Read more about the poems of I.L. Volgina

As a poet, Igor Volgin has established himself in literary circles for a long time and firmly. In his own interviews, Igor Leonidovich admits that he cannot really explain to himself and others such categories as “creativity,” “inspiration,” and “artist.” Referring to quotes from the works of Pushkin and Akhmatova about poets and poetry, Volgin nevertheless states that all this is a game, mysterious, incomprehensible, irrational, in which any word, action, phenomenon can serve as an impulse for the creation of a truly brilliant masterpiece. Igor Leonidovich Volgin also published collections of poems “Ring Road” (1970), “Six in the Morning” (1975), “Personal Data” (2015).

Achievements in science and research

Igor Volgin, whose biography defines him as a tirelessly active person, expressed himself most fully and vividly in the scientific field. He is the author of over 250 research works, most of which are known not only in Russia but also abroad, translated into many foreign languages ​​and recognized by the world community and various philological associations. The main area of ​​close interest and careful study of Volgin is the work and fate of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.

Igor Leonidovich’s PhD thesis, which was called “The Diary of a Writer” by F.M., was devoted to these topics. Dostoevsky. History of publication”, and subsequently a large number of other works, monographs and books, the main of which are “The Last Year of Dostoevsky. Historical notes", "Staggering over the abyss. Dostoevsky and the Russian Revolution”, “Born in Russia. Dostoevsky and his contemporaries: life in documents”, “The Missing Conspiracy. Dostoevsky and the political process." The scientist’s research, recognized as classic throughout the world, combines careful historicism and innovative, bold scientific research.

What did Igor Volgin say in numerous interviews with journalists? He spoke about Dostoevsky like this: “Dostoevsky is a religious writer, one of the deepest Orthodox thinkers, who embodied the Orthodox idea in the real artistic context of his novels.” However, at the same time, the researcher urged not to consider the works of Fyodor Mikhailovich only in this unilinear direction. For Igor Leonidovich, Dostoevsky’s works are centers of intersection of many spheres of life at once. If we see in the books of the great writer the adaptation and artistic interpretation of only biblical plots and situations, then a significant part of the novels and stories, and indeed Dostoevsky’s worldview itself, will remain unrevealed, which is fundamentally wrong.

Teaching activities

Igor Leonidovich, as mentioned earlier, is an active professor at a number of well-known Moscow higher educational institutions, conducts lectures and seminars, and organizes active work with students. He teaches the course “History of Russian Journalism of the 19th Century” and also conducts classes on literary criticism.

Volgin is categorical in his views on modern youth. He believes that today young people, especially before reaching adulthood, simply need to be imposed on the fundamental foundations of at least the cultural minimum on which the state and its national consciousness are based. Otherwise, according to Igor Leonidovich, there is a serious risk of losing the younger generation, which is already actively choosing modern cliched films and morally corrupting programs shown in huge numbers on screens.

TV shows with Igor Volgin

Igor Leonidovich is the host of not only such cultural and developmental programs as “The Glass Bead Game” and “Context”. In addition to them, Volgin released a number of original projects, short in total duration. These include a film about Nikolai Zabolotsky, consisting of two episodes, as well as the program “The Life and Death of Dostoevsky,” including 12 episodes, which premiered on the Kultura TV channel.

“The Glass Bead Game” with Igor Volgin is a serious intellectual program dedicated to issues of literature and literary criticism. In one episode, which lasts 40 minutes, the presenter has time to discuss with invited guests, professionals in the field of philology, critics, directors, producers, cultural experts, key works of world and domestic culture. The main task, according to Volgin, is not to tell about everything - to do this in such a short time is still unrealistic, given that the real discussions are, for example, about “War and Peace”, “Faust”, “The Divine Comedy”, etc. , can even last hundreds of years - but awaken interest in the viewer, force him, after watching a TV program, to pick up a book and start reading it. It is curious that Igor Leonidovich himself created a list of works that are being submitted for discussion. The channel administration can make its own adjustments, but they, as a rule, turn out to be insignificant.

What audience does the Glass Bead Game program with Igor Volgin cover? The presenter himself claims: this TV show, like “Context”, which is no longer an author’s project, but the official brainchild of the channel, is loved by not only doctors, librarians, teachers and other representatives of society traditionally classified as intellectuals. Viewers from different social strata, according to Igor Leonidovich, no longer want to watch “soap operas”, but prefer to develop, be enlightened and learn new things.

Awards

For his active literary and research activities, Volgin was awarded the Order of Friendship, which is awarded for his contribution to the development of Russian art and culture. In addition, Igor Leonidovich received the Russian Government Prize for a series of studies called “Documentary Biography of Dostoevsky”, a national television award for the TV show “The Glass Bead Game”, the “Thinking Reed” Award, which is international, as well as a number of other awards.

Family life

Igor Volgin, whose personal life is much less interesting to a wide range of ordinary people than the ups and downs in the relationships of music and film stars, is a good husband, despite the fact that his chosen one is much younger than her husband. From numerous videos and photographs on social networks, it becomes obvious that the couple is truly happy, despite the significant age difference: traveling together, visiting museums and exhibitions, and constant cultural education serve as proof of this. What kind of woman could make such a versatile and erudite man as Igor Leonidovich Volgin fall in love with her? Wife Katya is the young girl who became a muse for a man much older than herself. It is curious that in this Volgin repeated the fate of his idol, Dostoevsky, whose biography also includes love for a young lady.

Outlook on life

Igor Volgin is a person who knows how to set goals and achieve them. The writer insists that if it is not possible to accomplish everything (in his opinion, this will never be achieved), then at least the minimum program must be done. His attitude to the world, life position, the essence of existence itself lies in the works that are dedicated to Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and other famous authors, therefore, in order to better understand Igor Leonidovich, it is recommended to read his research and journalistic notes, essays and monographs.

One of the most discussed news in recent days is that the 60-year-old leader of the A Just Russia party, Sergei Mironov, got married. For the fourth time. On a journalist who is 29 years old.

The people did not understand such an impulse of the soul. “Gray hair in a beard is a devil in a rib,” this can still be considered a compliment. The mildest mockery: “Sergei Mironov defended family values ​​for the fourth time.” Basically, bloggers are much more cynical and categorical, assuring that Mironov’s new chosen one, Olga Radievskaya, “thus solved all her problems at once - and a single mother has more of them.” Well, people don’t believe in pure love, that’s a real problem.

Honestly, until now I had no idea how many wives Mironov had. I wasn't interested in any way. And now I don’t feel any emotions about this.

But I want to speak about another comrade, who is also being actively discussed on the Internet. This is TV presenter and director Alexander Gordon. He, however, did not get married, but on the contrary, he got divorced. Once again too. And also with a young girl. Moreover, with what a young girl - she is allegedly 19 years old. Alexander himself is 49. And the reason for the divorce was allegedly the age difference. A conflict of generations, so to speak.

What has started here on social networks, especially on the “elite” Facebook! One famous writer reposted this news, and every self-respecting reader of her feed considered it his duty to comment. To quote some is to disrespect yourself. And if Sergei Mironov is now being reminded of all his party sins, then Alexander Gordon is being reminded of his creative ones.

I won't defend him. I myself don’t like that he got involved with the “Politics” program on Channel One. And this, alas, is not his first dubious project. But in the 90s Gordon had a documentary-fiction series “Collection of Delusions”, which is still remembered to this day. And “Closed Screening” is clearly not enough on air...
I remember several years ago Alexander Gordon came to Severodvinsk. Then he talked about the “Image of the Future” movement. None of those present at the meeting understood almost anything. The movement designed to almost save Russia is now unheard of. But then I asked Alexander if he was still going to make films. And then his eye, as they say, really lit up... The movie, which was only an idea at that time, Gordon later filmed - “Brothel Lights.” The picture didn't make much of an impression on me. But there is also “The Shepherd of His Cows.” And still somewhere in the depths of my soul there lives that feeling of inescapable melancholy, deserted inevitability, which settled while watching the film. By the way, I would like to reconsider...

Do you feel how many “buts” there are in the previous two paragraphs? Everything is correct. I don't want to take out white paint and dress a person in angelic clothes. And I can’t get black paint. He is a complex creature - man. And it's not just Gordon. Look in the mirror.

By the way, there is another relatively recent story. When I saw on the Internet a photo of the writer, philologist, TV presenter Igor Volgin, where he was next to his young bride, I thought: he took his granddaughter down the aisle. It turned out that he got married himself. Perhaps Igor Leonidovich is not as public and controversial a figure as Mironov and Gordon, but there was no outburst of emotion about this on the Internet. Fortunately.

So the history of unequal marriages is as old as the world. As for Volgin, you better turn on the channel “Russia K” (“Culture”) on Tuesday evening. There, in Igor Leonidovich’s program “The Glass Bead Game,” educated and interesting people discuss literary classics. On November 19, they will talk about Thomas Mann’s novella “Death in Venice.” The theme of the novella is sensitive - much more subtle than just gray hair and a demon. It will be very interesting to see how those who are invited to the discussion will cope with the conversation about it. But it will probably be both more complex and deeper than comments on Facebook.

In one television program, Igor Volgin talks about significant events of modern spiritual life, in another he looks for eternal meanings in the works of world classics, their resonance with the present day.

The first program is called "Context", the second - "Game of Beads". Both air on the Culture channel. Both involve representatives of the Russian cultural elite. In both cases, the presenter acts as an equal participant in the conversation, having not only formal reasons for this (a famous writer, poet, researcher of Dostoevsky’s work, Doctor of Philology and Candidate of Historical Sciences, professor of Moscow State University and the Literary Institute), but also something that is not certified by any regalia and what is called the charm of the mind.

Volgin made an appointment at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University, where he has been teaching for many years.

"Tolstoy and Dostoevsky - two poles of Russian life"

Have you just finished a big lecture?

Igor Volgin: On the contrary, it will begin in an hour - on the history of Russian journalism of the 19th century. And now I was reading a more “narrow” topic - a special course “Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. An unfinished dialogue.” Strange as it may seem, they never met in life. But in a metaphysical sense they cannot be separated: they embody different, polar sides of the national soul. In their attractions and repulsions, in the struggle of their mentalities, one can see the tragic course of Russian history and Russian destiny. Each of them experienced their own religious drama and each came out of it with the exact opposite result. By the way, Dostoevsky has a description of Tolstoy’s psychological type. In “The Diary of a Writer,” he tells how a repentant sinner crawled to a certain elder confessor on his knees: he admitted that he had taken the sacrament from the church and aimed a gun at him. (I remember Blok’s later: “Let’s fire a bullet at Holy Rus'!”) But then the Crucified One appeared to him - and the blasphemer fell unconscious. Dostoevsky says that this trait is extremely characteristic of the people's worldview. “This is, first of all, the oblivion of any measure in everything... the need to go over the edge, the need to reach the abyss in a fading feeling, hang halfway into it, look into the very abyss and - in special cases, but very often - throw yourself into it like a madman head." Isn’t it true that this also looks like a description of the Russian 20th century?

In my special course, using specific examples, I try to determine the fundamental difference between the poetics of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. If in Dostoevsky the most important artistic meanings are often taken away, “driven”, hidden in the subtext, then the author of “War and Peace” is busy with a task of the opposite nature: he strives to bring these meanings out - into the text - from the darkness of extra-textual chaos; he wants to embrace and explain with a firm and commentary word the entirety of spiritual and historical movements. Note that Dostoevsky's later environment is predominantly female, while Tolstoy's is predominantly male. Tolstoyism had its martyrs, but it does not know martyrs: among the latter one can only name Sofya Andreevna. And does material considerations alone explain her active rejection of her husband’s teachings? Wasn’t there also a spontaneous heartfelt distrust of the rationalistic primacy of Tolstoyism, a purely feminine misunderstanding of the obligation of love?

Are you continuing your research on Dostoevsky?

Igor Volgin: Yes. The 1220-page Chronicle of the Dostoevsky Family has just been published under my editorship. We worked on it for several years. This is a collective fundamental work published by the Dostoevsky Foundation. "Chronicle" inherits the unique book of 1933 by M.V. Volotsky. He calculated a significant number of personalities starting from the 14th century. We continued the reconstruction of this family tree - right up to the present day. Hundreds of previously unknown names were found. The book turned out to be three times larger than before. It was possible to restore the lost links in the 18th century; there were significant genealogical gaps. Dostoevsky, as surprising as it is, did not know his immediate ancestors. I didn’t even know the name of my grandmother (Anastasia), the patronymic of my grandfather (Andrei Grigorievich), a Uniate priest (who converted to Orthodoxy) in his family village of Voitovtsy, near Bratslov. The writer’s father was born there, and a large family remained there. The book contains many new archival documents: official papers, private correspondence, materials from the NKVD funds... Under the same cover as the Chronicle is my book “Family and Friends.” In particular, I pay great attention to both of Dostoevsky’s spouses. After all, a wife in Russia (especially a writer) is more than a wife. The Dostoevsky family fit into the ordinary, everyday, “small” history of Russia to the same extent that its most prominent member became an integral part of its big history. However, one does not exist without the other. Therefore, the chronicle of the family reflected the features of its main chronicler, whose name is Time.

“Our task is educational”

Who invented the Bead Game program?

Igor Volgin: The idea was in the air. The management of the "Culture" channel has long felt the need for a serious literary program. The initiator was Sergei Leonidovich Shumakov. I suggested the name - "The Glass Bead Game". This, of course, is not entirely according to Hermann Hesse. Here this is only a metaphor, denoting the efforts of the mind and the indifference of the heart. Actually, this is a search for the hidden meanings of culture. In view is the entire world literature, where everything echoes and echoes each other. And, of course, Russian literature, which, I would like to believe, is “our everything.”

Do you think it’s realistic to discuss “War and Peace” or “Faust” in forty minutes?

Igor Volgin: Of course, this is unrealistic, since such discussions last for tens, if not hundreds of years. But our task is different: to interest. Or, if possible, to awaken memories. The goal, on the one hand, is educational. But on the other hand, it is also research. We strive to discover potential meanings in literary classics that are in demand today. In this program, a lot depends on the personality of the participants. I insisted on a “narrow” format - four people plus a presenter. Then this is a thoughtful conversation, which, however, does not exclude heated debates, where the arguments of the parties are listened to. And not the group yelling that some talk shows are known for.

By what principle do you select guests?

Igor Volgin: These are people of science, directors, critics, cultural experts. But it is important that active writers who have a “skin” feel for the nature of words also participate in the program. And it is desirable that new young faces and new names appear. The layer of humanitarian intelligentsia is relatively thin. But “physicists” are not alien to the “lofty and beautiful.”

How do you know which program participants are in what positions? This is only revealed through discussion, right?

Igor Volgin: We turn to researchers of, say, Bulgakov or Platonov: from their publications we can predict who will take what position. As a rule, there is no consensus. As a presenter, I sometimes allow myself provocative questions. And I try to make sure that the conversation is not only about the text as such, but also about the time when it was written, about the fate of the author. No wonder Nekrasov said: “Brothers writers! There is something fatal in our destiny.”

"The Glass Bead Game", like any intellectual program, is not initially intended for a wide audience. Still, what is its rating?

Igor Volgin: It's hard for me to judge, but the number of responses is encouraging. I thought that due to progressive spiritual savagery, the program would remain the property of a few. But more than fifty programs have already been released - and the interest is only growing. The Glass Bead Game is watched in the most distant corners of the country. And the audience is not only teachers, librarians, doctors, students, scientists... People are tired of “soap operas”. And in general, people are much smarter than others assume.

Is the choice of works always yours?

Igor Volgin: I compiled a catalog of about two hundred books, Russian and foreign. We choose from this list, and the channel sometimes adds and clarifies something. While the press is vigorously discussing options for the “golden hundred” that the president spoke about, we are little by little putting this idea into practice.

Do you also decide who to invite to the program?

Igor Volgin: Of course. Although the channel may have its own preferences. At the same time, no one is imposed or prohibited. They can only notice that this or that person does not quite fit into the plot or appears on the screen too often. Many people visited me - Lev Anninsky, Pavel Basinsky, Svyatoslav Belza, Mikhail Shvydkoy, Kama Ginkas, Mikhail Weller, Konstantin Bogomolov, Evgeny Rein, Evgeny Popov, Natalya Ivanova, Andrey Vasilevsky, Irina Barmetova, Anatoly Smelyansky... Not to mention them all .

Can you invite Prilepin?

Igor Volgin: Yes, he is on my list of personalities.

Bykova?

Igor Volgin: I visited Dima Bykov twice. And in general, I am always glad to see him - and not only because he is a good writer, but also because he is my former student.

Do you prepare questions for guests yourself?

Igor Volgin: Of course, although the group helps a lot, selecting materials and analytics. To be fair, I will also mention my wife, who sits at the computer much more than me.

Igor Volgin: Unfortunately, no. Therefore, sometimes there are annoying shifts in emphasis and the omission of what, in my opinion, are significant topics. And this despite the fact that the creative team works very conscientiously and professionally.

What's next for you?

Igor Volgin:"The Pit" by Platonov, "The Golovlevs" by Saltykov-Shchedrin, "Cyrano de Bergerac" by Rostand, "At the Bottom" by Gorky, "The Little Prince" by Exupery, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by R. Stevenson, lyrics by Akhmatova... .

"The context of Russian culture has changed greatly over the past twenty years"

On the “Culture” channel you also host the weekly final program “Context” with an overview of the most significant events in the world of art and science. Do you use your own judgment to determine what is meaningful and what is not?

Igor Volgin: Unlike “The Glass Bead Game,” this program is not an original program, it is the official program of the channel. All stories are prepared by the channel. Sometimes I find out about them the day before, and sometimes on the day of recording. I can recommend something, but the content of the program determines the channel.

What is your preparatory work?

Igor Volgin: First of all, I study “information for thought,” then I edit the texts that go on air, and prepare questions for guests.

The release of a program can include a theater premiere, a tour of a famous musician in Russia, the publication of a serious scientific work, and someone’s opening day... But it’s unlikely that you understand all types of art and branches of science equally well. You probably don’t feel very confident about something.

Igor Volgin: My job is to direct the conversation. It’s not for nothing that experts are invited to the program. In drama theater - Alena Karas and Grigory Zaslavsky, in opera - Mikhail Muginshtein, in classical music - Ekaterina Biryukova, in science - Marina Astvatsaturyan... But in general, a TV presenter is not forbidden to have his own point of view. He is by no means an announcer voicing other people's texts. He must have all his life experience behind him. As the poet Vl said. Kornilov:

And the mercy of the television camera

So windy, alas,

Like a tower without a foundation

Like glory without destiny.

It is impossible to talk about the fate of a culture “without fate.”

What is the nature of the cultural events selected by the channel for “Context”? For example, are radical artistic gestures encouraged?

Igor Volgin: As far as I understand, what is important for the channel is the significance of the cultural event, and not the degree of radicalism. For example, we freely discussed the controversial play “An Ideal Husband” that caused a stir, staged at the Moscow Art Theater by Konstantin Bogomolov. They also discussed the production of “Eugene Onegin” carried out by Rimas Tuminas at the Vakhtangovsky. But I would like the debate to be conducted more sharply and fundamentally. And it happens that on the sidelines, before the broadcast, a guest heartily criticizes some performance or exhibition, and as soon as the camera turns on, he begins to look for streamlined formulations.

Who is the difficult guest in The Glass Bead Game for you?

Igor Volgin: One that is fixated only on the right or left leg of the subject being discussed. Meanwhile, the “specialty” of the humanities is all culture. It is desirable that he thinks broadly and comprehensively. So that, say, in Bunin he sees a person, and not just a subtle stylist. So that the conversation contains not only a philological or philosophical component, but also human complicity, a living vested interest. Why is this text good? Why does he excite and leave no one indifferent? After all, a book, as Pasternak said, is a cubic piece of a hot, steaming conscience. The guest of the program is free to express his opinion, even extreme ones. I recently read an article where it was stated that Brodsky is almost a disgrace to Russian poetry. Well, I would invite the author of this article to the program - let those who look at Brodsky completely differently argue with him. Taste selection should be avoided. Not only Leo Tolstoy is allowed to scold Shakespeare: the author of “Hamlet” will not be harmed by this.

Can a guest on your program be someone you don't like as an artist or researcher?

Igor Volgin: Maybe. There were such cases. But I invite a guest not only because of personal sympathies, but also because he may be interesting to someone other than me. Of course, it’s nice when all the guests know each other and have approximately the same views. But there is a danger of infighting here. Whereas "The Glass Bead Game" assumes an open ending.

In your opinion, has the context of Russian culture changed a lot over the past twenty years?

Igor Volgin: Yes.

Which way?

Igor Volgin: It would seem, towards diversity and aesthetic radicalism. But, please note, over these two decades, not a single film has appeared in cinema comparable to Ryazanov’s “Beware of the Car” or Tarkovsky’s “Mirror”, and in literature - nothing close in level to at least Trifonov’s urban stories, “The Tsar Fish” Astafiev or Shukshin's stories.

How do you explain this?

Igor Volgin: For many reasons. Losing the meaning of life. By vulgarizing history. The disappearance of an entire civilization, which, despite all the “deviations”, had - albeit ideally - ideas about beauty, truth, and justice. Art does not exist on its own. It is always linked to a scale of certain values. And on this scale, selflessness is replaced by bestiality, sympathy for “little ones” - with contempt for them. “How will you unite people,” says Dostoevsky, “to achieve the highest civic goals, if you do not have a basis in the original great moral idea?” The soul cannot be saved either by innovation or investment. Art too.

There is a common opinion that Soviet censorship was productive in its own way: the best books, plays, films were born in resistance to it, and when freedom came, everything was shredded.

Igor Volgin: There is, of course, nothing good about censorship. But it’s no better when “everything is allowed” in a culture. When self-censorship is completely absent, that is, there is a higher understanding of duty. Note that, for example, swearing has become a sign of good manners in literature. I once wrote that it is necessary to protect not literature from swearing, but swearing from literature. Once introduced into written speech, swearing self-destructs and loses its “aesthetic” power. For obscene vocabulary belongs exclusively to oral speech, a kind of superlanguage that “replaces” the rest of the vocabulary. She will soon replace him. For the new generation, the use of swear words has become a literary norm. I will never believe that if someone starts using foul language on a talk show, he doesn’t understand that this is unacceptable, that he is in a public space. People are well versed in the hierarchy of language. This means that the director subtly made it clear to the invitee that it would be cool, that such a demonstration of “selfhood” would be welcomed in every possible way. The sanctimonious squeaking only enhances the “artistic effect.” This is the fault of television - and the fault is unforgivable. We all used profanity. But they knew: it’s not allowed at school, it’s not allowed with mom, and in public it’s obscene. It is rightly said that without a society of chastity there can be no society of mercy. But “checkmate” can take on a variety of guises. This is deculturation, which is in full swing on all fronts and which ultimately is dehumanization. The intelligentsia must make a choice. If she renounces her birthright, she will receive that same lentil stew, which she will slurp together with people like her who are marginalized.