A peculiar character in the works of several generations of Russian writers of the XIX century was the "master of Russian forests" brown bear. His appearance was not unexpected: this image widely reflected Russian folklore. As you know, even in the time of paganism, the Eastern Slavs had a cult of the bear, and then the bear became the hero of fairy tales, legends, legends, proverbs, sayings, riddles, songs, rituals, Christmas games (see: Voronin N. N. The Bear cult in the Upper Volga region in the XI century // Local lore notes. Issue No. 4. Yaroslavl, 1960; Ivanov V. V., Toporov V. N. Slavyanskie yazykovye, modelirovushchie, semioticheskie sistemy [Slavic language, modeling, and semiotic systems]. Moscow, 1965, pp. 160, 164]. Fear and reverence for the former god gradually gave way to a sober and ironic view of him: the bear became a symbol of brute strength, ferocity, as well as simplicity, laziness, and voluptuousness. It is these qualities of a bearish nature that Russian writers used to denounce tyranny, arbitrariness, inertia, ignorance, and predatory aspirations.

The beginning of the development of the satirical "bear theme", as one might expect, was laid by the masters of the most democratic genre-fables. Bearish stupidity, stupidity and ferocity were vividly depicted by I. A. Krylov in the fables "The Hermit and the Bear", "Pied Sheep", "The Bear at the Bees", "The Hardworking Bear". Even here, the image of the bear as a rude and merciless persecutor of the poor and defenseless was clearly defined. This point of view was supported by A. S. Pushkin in the story "Dubrovsky", bringing together the landowner-beast Troyekurov with his pet, a domestic bear (ch. VIII). Both of them received an unexpected blow from a man who boldly declared that "I do not intend to suffer offense."..

In the heroine of the novel "Eugene Onegin" Tatiana Larina, a young lady with a subtle, lofty spiritual disposition, the collapse of ideals and hopes was reflected in a peculiar way in a nightmare, where the main acting figure was again a bear, rudely dragging her into the wilds of the forest, into the society of fantastic freaks and monsters (ch.5, XI - XXI).

This image was further developed by Nikolai Gogol. His mayor in the Inspector General compares with bears zealous servants, "guardians of the rule of law": the thievish Svistunov and the "dentist" Derzhimorda.

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And the" capital thing "Khlestakov honors provincial landowners with "bears" (d. 3, yavl. XI; d. 2, yavl. V). The landowner-" kulak", gluttonous and rude Sobakevich ("Dead Souls", Chapter 5) presented himself as a" medium-sized bear " in a home environment to the experienced swindler Chichikov.

I. A. Nekrasov compares the scientist bear with the general of a fierce temper, who is being raced across a snow-covered plain by horses that are not controlled by anyone and are distraught with fear:

There was only a groan all around: "Clear the road!" Toptygin General himself is going to the den!

Rudeness, rudeness, philandering are inseparably combined in the character of the provincial "bear", landowner Smirnov in the one-act comedy by Anton Chekhov, which the author called "The Bear"!

The image of the local "democrat", the chairman of the Zemstvo Council Protopopov from the play "Three Sisters", also clearly shows" bearish " features. Rudely, brazenly, he destroyed the family of his secretary, the weak-willed and simple-minded Andrey Prozorov, having an affair with his frivolous wife, invaded their house, surviving Andrey's sisters from it. The fact that the sisters see Protopopov as a rough, voluptuous bear is quite clear from the words of Masha Prozorova, who calls him, Mikhail Ivanovich, Mikhail Potapych, which has long been the popular nickname of the bear.

M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin gave the image of the bear a political and social focus in his "fairy tales". In one of them - "Bear in the voivodeship", under the guise of a bear, a dashing administrator is depicted, seeing sedition everywhere and demanding only one thing: "Bloodshed.".. bloodshed... that's what you need! " But times are changing... And the career of this lifer-beast and his two successors ends sadly.

Almost the last example of the development of the "bear theme" in Russian literature, already at the beginning of the XX century, was the image of a policeman in the play by A.M. Gorky "At the Bottom", which the author openly provided with the surname Medvedev. Clumsy, stupid, this" law enforcement officer " is greedy and thievish, he and his relatives are completely entangled in dark matters, as the resident of the night shelter thief Vaska Pepel tells him right to his face, threatening Medvedev with complete exposure.

Such juicy fruits were brought to our literature by the appeal to the image of the lord of the dense forests, the backwoods of Russia, - the bear.

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