Rubakin Nikolai

People who knew Nicholas Alexandrovich Rubakin say that it was a very modest and quiet man. An old-fashioned, pedantic old man, apparently the whole of the last century. For decades residents of a small Swiss town of Clarens daily, . in the same clock, . with a condescending smile observed, . as a high hill down to Lake Geneva for a walk thickset, . tightly-knit old man with a flowing beard,
. Negotiators, . owners of large and small workshops, . stores and little shops, . Hotels and cafes, . people, . frozen in its arrogance and aversion to the welfare of every, . who they do not like, . forgive this man his strange appearance, . his crumpled hat, broad, . black cape, . even galoshes ..,
. After all, every city should have its own eccentric, and for klarantsev Rubakin was such a quiet and harmless eccentric, the city landmark. They took a little: who is this Russian, what is he doing? They knew that the old man something is known that he was the director of some international institution, has many honors that he is friends with another Swiss celebrity - Romain Rolland. They tolerated him, and they do not even annoyed that Rubakin, in front of which grew several generations klarantsev, spoke French with a Russian accent unbearable.

We should not claim to be Swiss. In the end, whoever they may live: Rousseau, Plekhanov, Rolland, Chaplin - they were all tenants and owners to be treated as residents. Quiet behave, well, well! But here, in the country, birth Rubakin and completely owning them spiritually, for it is still treated as a quiet, executive office scientist. There was a - educator, bibliographer, he wrote popular books, Methodist was. Even widely marked stamp centenary of the birth Rubakin not enrich this representation.
And he was a man of unusually bright, passionate, nutty. He raised the virgin soil and plowed it deep, long, left behind a trail unforgettable: the love and thanks to one and a rabid hatred of others. No, Rubakin not like the one blessed type of desk scientist, whom we so often see in movies, and which read in the "biographical novel". Although it over because in stamped films and books written by scientists for the most disappointed in the students, play the piano and in all areas - except the sphere of science! - Demonstrate their noble qualities and little human weaknesses. A Rubakin neither liked nor understood the music of poetry, did not attend the theater, and even went to the movies only because of the fact that during the screening, his head would often come new and unexpected ideas ... In any case, after the scanned film he could never tell him the content. This is not because that Rubakin was biscuits and a rationalist, indifferent to the life and art. He simply had no time.

All the words that we use in order to determine the highest degree of diligence: a hard worker, hard worker, slogger - all these are insufficient to describe the activities Rubakin. Shortly before his death, he with his love of statistics was made briefly to sign them: read 250 thousand books, . collected 230 thousand books, . created 49 major scientific works, . written 280 scientific and popular books, . compiled and sent 15 thousand programs on self-education, . published over 350 articles in 115 periodicals ..,
. But this does not include hundreds of books, . who Rubakin edited, . Thousands of letters, . he wrote! Correspondence with individuals - is a special type of current literature ", . - Said Rubakin and to uments with the same seriousness, . with which he treated all the literature ..,
. And that does not include two large unpublished manuscript
novels, and much that he had made in his memo.

Rubakin lived a long time - 84 пЁпЎпЄп°. But to put across this mountain of work, he had to work non-stop, valuing every moment. So he worked every day from early morning until late at night, no days of rest, no play, or rather, without any distractions. Over forty years of his life in Switzerland, he traveled from this country just three times for a few days. And this is despite their vast connections, numerous acquaintances of great interest to the countries and people ... He was in a hurry, he had to work, had to use up every day, dozens of pages of its smallest, shorthand, illegible handwriting. In the last period of his life he has been difficult to own right arm - it constantly cramp from writing, he suffered from a disease that medicine called "writer's cramp" ..
. When like that runs through the outer contours Rubakin life, . then first may seem, . we have before us a man unusually solid, . looking, . once defined his life's vocation, . chosen their way of life and it never went,
. And it's true. And still very imperfectly. With all the integrity of a person's character and fate Rubakin strike difficult to explain the contradictions.

Rubakin was Russian, not only by birth, nationality, language, tastes, habits. As a man, a public figure and writer, he had been generated by Russia, he was inseparable from her interests, joys and sorrows. Rubakin phenomenon was Russian and only Russian. His homeland he loved passionately, obsessively, to her and only to her have been called all his titanic task.

Yet the last forty years of his life - much of it! - He has lived continuously for abroad. He lived, not being an immigrant, being in close connection with the new social system of their country, sharing his ideals ... His sympathies, personal relationships, hopes he was connected with the working class, the emerging social democracy. And yet, for many years, this quiet man of clear and sober mind drifted to the SR, in a formless chaos of bombs and the petty-bourgeois rhetoric, terrorists and provocateurs ...

Rubakin inseparable from the books. They were - from his childhood and ending with old age - his principal affection. He loved them physically, treated them as living beings. When no one saw, he came to the bookcases and stroked roots favorite books ... Introducing each new book was to him like a familiarity with a new man. He was pathetic in that love, and no one perceived as an old man's eccentricity, even when he quarreled with relatives because of the soiled pages, bent cover.

But Rubakin was not a shadow miserly Bibliophilia, and he has never avidly not tremble over its book-treasures. Throughout his life he was handing out books. He gave all those who only need them - the workers, professors, unknown to the peasants and the well-known political figures. Spend their own money to ensure that the books sent by mail, hand out in the tea, give students the Sunday school workers. Why are some books - he gave the whole library!

. In the eighties of last century, just after graduating from university and starting to live independently, Rubakin spend all the earnings out to create its library - the best private libraries in Russia
. To supplement her, he undertook to do any work - an editor, proofreader. And, having collected a hundred thousand books, gave them full and free-Petersburg "League of Education". The new library, collected by him in Switzerland, was a unique and valuable in its composition. I use it for decades the whole revolutionary emigration, all Slavic studies of the world. Rubakin demanded from his readers one thing: the return of care to take the book. For anybody - even the most revered them - did not make exceptions. But when the Second World War in Switzerland found themselves thousands of Soviet prisoners of war, . fleeing from Nazi captivity and interned by the Swiss Government, . Rubakin managed to break through the wall of isolation, . they were surrounded by, . and send them more than ten thousand books, . not counting on their return ..,
. And its huge library of it - overcoming the great difficulties caused by the Swiss laws - bequeathed to his homeland.

However, a Rubakin thought skopidomom, a miser, and with contrition said to blame his childhood, spent in the old-fashioned merchant family. A skopidomstvo "it was that Rubakin very reluctant to spend on himself and his family every penny that could be employed in the purchase of books ...

But Rubakin quite sincerely and was confident that he and his books stands above any controversy over all sorts of political discussions. But in reality he was a natural debater, irresistible. By its very friendly review of the famous book Rubakin "Among the books" Lenin ironically about "curious warning against the author of" controversy ". He wrote: "In the preface, Mr.. Rubakin declared that he himself "in his lifetime never involved in any controversy, believing that the overwhelming number of cases of controversy - one of the best ways to eclipse the truth, by all sorts of human emotions". Successfully proved that the author of the statement itself is subject to these "emotions" and that they brought it to the eclecticism and ideological confusion, Vladimir Ilyich exclaimed: "Oh, Mr.. Rubakin, never in his lifetime did not engage in any controversy! "
Lenin understood the nature and characteristics Rubakin as a public figure more and better than himself Rubakin. And features of this complex human nature must be borne in mind, assessing his life and work. They put on the identity and fate Rubakin an indelible imprint.

First of all, you need to clear the true character Rubakin from the book husk, in which he, on the submissions of his contemporaries, was his life and which continues to be a representation of descendants. Indeed, Rubakin his life lived "among the books. The name that he gave his main and favorite book, extremely accurately describes the life of the author. Of the many literary pseudonyms, which he enjoyed, Rubakin most fond of his very first: "Book Worm". He did not see anything in the nickname of the estimated and humiliating. Although the worm, but the life lived in books.

But Rubakin lived and worked not for the books - for people. All his thoughts, all of the work were addressed to the Russian people and linked to his long and painful struggle for their political and social liberation. Rubakin would be naive to assume that he is "over the controversy, but any of his book, no its effect, he could not be termed as calling his book by his friend Rolland," above the fray ". In one of his early revolutionary pamphlets Rubakin wrote: "There is a war of the people working with offenders. Those defend their well-fed well-being, and people are struggling with them for land and freedom ". In this war Rubakin attended all his life, and he went to war without hesitation. He only sought and found for themselves the most suitable for his weapon. They had a book. At its never change Exlibris Rubakin wrote: "The book - a powerful tool in the fight for truth and justice". Book for Rubakin was not an end in itself, not a source of sweet delight - it was a means to combat. In 1915, when Rubakin was already 53 years old, he was in his autobiographical sketch, remembering his youth, said: "I decided to dedicate his life to fight for rights, against the most heinous types of inequality - inequality in education". He rushed into battle with weapons, which believed in the power of unlimited. This belief has been concluded and Rubakin strength and its weakness, it has become the source of his victories and defeats.

Throughout his furious energy, merchant efficiency, tireless diligence he used to implement this task. Hundreds of articles and books, thousands of letters, forms, guidelines, bibliography ... As for his temperament warrior, avid interest in experiencing new places, new people, he consciously doomed himself to voluntary imprisonment in his office - it is only there and only so he can fulfill his destiny ... In 1907 he left Russia not only because, . that the king's minister sent his "forever", . - Rubakin felt no fear of reprisals, . not afraid of the hardships of illegal life - he needed the conditions for their work, . by virtue of which he believed no less, . than a Catholic who believes in the power of Madonna,
.

It's happened a revolution, people were given unlimited opportunities for education - the more, therefore, reason to exert every effort, still more to write, actively develop methods of self -. Longing for their homeland, with greed lovivshy every news from Russia, Rubakin remained in the Swiss town philistine. After all, he could not afford to interrupt their work for a single day or the hour ... What is the power of persuasion it took for the sake of an illusory idea of their ability to doom themselves to the end of life in a tragic separation from their homeland!

. In his unpublished diaries, we still Rolland much space devoted Rubakin was struck by its intense activity and a fanatical belief in the power of education
. "This - the great encyclopedic!" - Rolland exclaims after the first acquaintance with Rubakin. The famous Frenchman, not by chance came to mind images of his great compatriots - Diderot, D'Alembert. It's not that the educational activities Nikolai Alexandrovich Rubakin was similar to the educational activities of the French encyclopedists - it was different in its aims, the means. But, really, in kind Rubakin, in his beliefs was something of the eighteenth century. For his fanatical belief in the unlimited influence of the printed word, he was not alone in the boiling political passions between the two Russian revolutions, in a situation where not a word, but the action was decisive in the struggle of people against their oppressors. History of life Rubakin with all the ruthlessness shown that the past is not repeated.

This story began July 13, 1862. On this day in Oranienbaum merchant Alexander Rubakin son, who had to live these 84, in which to accommodate the most tense and significant years of human history. Rubakin left no memoirs - he had no time to write. And remember he was that! Who just did not know who just did not mix this former "son of a merchant! Plekhanov and Lenin, Tolstoy, and Rolland, Krasin and Lunacharsky, Pleven Azef ... What would be an isolated mountain or a prophet of self-selected to ensure that they compose and send out the commandments of their faith, the mountain is constantly bathed turbulent flows of great events. But childhood Rubakin about it would be difficult to guess.

Oranienbaum. "Rambo" - as he was called by the people. The small, provincial capital of the Russian Empire Satellite. City of small traders, artisans, officers, civil servants, retirees, summer residents of St. Petersburg. The town is so small that even the second merchant guilds Alexander Rubakin it was very noticeable phenomenon. Despite the fact that he was on his condition and scope of activity does not particularly stand out. Bargained forest, was the owner of commercial bathhouses, had a few small houses on the main street of the city. But this is not a very rich merchant for 18 years spent mayor. Perhaps because he was not yesterday's serf, a kind Razuvayevs, nazhivshimsya on foam "peasant Reform". Rubakins - the merchants of old, Old Testament, revered for his commitment to the old, for the slowness ... From generation to generation by the merchants Rubakins these qualities. And - she stopped ... But through no fault of Oranienbaum mayor. Nicholas Rubakin father taught to her inheritance case with all diligence. Learning to give is not in school, but in a real school. In his spare time, lessons were forced to sell brooms in belonging Rubakin baths. Count every penny and is issued on the books for breakfast, entertainment. Deference to elders and merchant traditions inspired his sons proven way - with his fists and a hard strap ... Until the end of life did not lose the old Rubakin hope that their children will bring in people ". Even after the - against his will and desires - his sons had gone to study in St. Petersburg, after Nicholas Rubakin graduated from university, he tried to appoint the son of a factory manager of wrapping paper - perhaps to their business senses ... But the new "manager", glad its independence, became wildly spending money on buying books, organizing the library for the workers, the device for these courses ... For some two years, he quickly and confidently entrusted to him had brought the factory to the full and final collapse. On this and ended the last educational experiment Rubakin-father. And Nicholas Rubakin was fully granted their tastes, aspirations, passions. They decided very early and all were associated with one - books. You can, of course, to find the origins of this surprising to people who come from Rubakin family passion. Mattered time - the famous sixties, had a huge impact on Rubakin his mother - a woman, with all its low education passionately fond of books and passed the love of her son. But one way or another, namely, the early childhood books, literature seized all his thoughts Rubakin. Books began to gather, not yet knowing how to read. In the eleven years redid the notorious "Rocambole" to play, . twelve years invented adventure novel and play "Neither one nor the other", . thirteen years began to publish its own manuscript journal "Strela", . in sixteen published in the "Children's reading" my first story and received a first fee - 16 rubles ..,
.

I read. Continuing, randomly, where possible. Running away from school and in an old barn to read the "last call". In the third class missed 565 classes and with difficulty moved to the next grade. In the fifth grade, still remained in the second year, despite its position as the son of the mayor. And the ability to have Rubakin were brilliant. He studied in a natural faculty of St. Petersburg University, enthusiastically studied the physiology involved in a student's scientific circles with Alexander Ulyanov. University graduated with honors. He loved science and also attended all the lectures on the History and Philology and the Faculty of Law. No, he is wasting no means was the fact that in contemporary literature, called "nutty kind".

Unbridled desire for knowledge, and even more so to transfer them to the people in it combined with excellent business acumen and the merchant practicality in everything that concerned his favorite things. Still a student, educator Rubakin was formed and this saw his vocation. He haunted extensive educational activities, public libraries, versatile courses, evening schools ... As expected, the reality has made this plan substantial amendments.

After all, those were the best "years of long, dull" when "Pobedonostsev over Russia stretched Owl wing. And it was all that could befall the honest and intelligent young man, naive to believe that they can easily be prepared to serve the people. The police burst into student gatherings, "surrender to the soldiers' whips of the Cossacks, cutting the student's coat at the Kazan Cathedral, the horror of the news of the execution of his friend - Alexander Ulyanov ... And the first arrest, immediately after graduation. And "release under strict police surveillance". Many starry-eyed and quite liberal young people passing through it, humbled themselves, found their cozy place in life, went into academic work, put on his uniform the various departments.

And the scientific and bureaucratic career Rubakin was more than indifferent. He had his own business, and in it he could only rely on themselves. However, these forces were a lot. The Great Podyacheskaya street in St. Petersburg, he opens his private "public" library. The basis of its Rubakin put 6 thousand books from the library of his mother. After ten years it had about 115 thousand. Only iron constitution could endure Rubakin work, . which he himself shouldered, . in order to have the money to replenish its library! Rubakin wrote dozens of articles, . edited book, . had proofs of books of different publishers, . charge of the publication of popular science books in companies on,
. Popova, and. Sytin, Gershunina. Then it was his habit to sit down for work at five o'clock in the morning, a habit, keeping it until the last day of life.

Very easy to fit classes Rubakin in this period of his life on a shelf kulturtregerstva. "Bourgeois liberal", a supporter of "small deeds", "liberal educator - yes there are few names, which defines the activities of this kind! But Rubakin does not fit into this scheme. Collection of books and make them available in a wide use was not an end in itself for Rubakin. And the library at the Grand Podyacheskaya little was similar to the liberal kulturtregerskim agency. And why should such an institution would have become regular visitors of H. K. Krupskaya, E. D. Stasova 3. P. Nevzorov, sisters Menzhinsky ... Library Rubakin become a base for those working most of Sunday schools, which gave the revolutionary labor movement of the first working-agitators, the first Marxist workers. They Rubakin picked manuals, available scientific literature, and illegal publications. For them, he, together with E. D. Stasovoy organized by the library Russia's first museum of visual aids. Rubakin library, naturally, became a place of rendezvous for the revolutionaries, the place where clashed on the margins of illegality, Peter. All this was done with the consent of the owner of the library and with his active participation. Rubakin he was able to write a leaflet to distribute illegal publication, perform risky conspiracy instruction.

Yet Rubakin was not revolutionary and did not become them, nor was it normal and educator, acting "under the existing system". It was during this period of life develops in him the belief that he had found the very link which, if grasped can break the chains of social injustice, and stifled the Russian people. This link is the education, knowledge. Proceedings thoughts Rubakin been rigorously straight, the findings - as well as all sorts of speculative conclusions - immutable. Inequality in education - the most important instrument in the hands of the ruling classes. It is supported by all the force of a police state, a powerful apparatus of ecclesiastical obscurantism, the activities of those educated people who went to the service of the reactionaries. We must break through the iron barrier and do - in spite of and in addition to the formal education system - knowledge accessible to all the people. Need millions of popular books, in which knowledge is brought such that it will be able to join each. Thousands of libraries available to all, a whole army of enthusiastic volunteers, who boldly and confidently will guide the reading of millions of people. Plan a great, inspired and very naive. But apparently it kulturtregerstva he had nothing to do with the usual bourgeois enlightenment. Rubakin saw in the revolutionary force of enlightenment, he believed that education is likely to result in fragmented, oppressed people great power, capable of breaking the existing social and political system

. There is no need to prove all this utopian plan in the wild Russia at the end of last century, . oppose him the only way of, . which was created and developed a revolutionary Marxists and led to the creation of Lenin's party - the main lever, . turning Russia from the landlord and bourgeois to the state of the workers and peasants, . the construction of socialism,
. We must only consider the dramatic story of the, . as a man of great intelligence and a fiery heart was on the way, . which made many great and beautiful, . but who brought him to the top of Klaranskogo hill and made it not a party, . but more an observer of the great transformations, . to which he sought all his life,
. This happened not only because they were utopian ideas Rubakin. Complex and confusing was the life of the Rubakin.

Feature Rubakin - educator, promoter, bibliographer - was that he was never a pure "scholar". Any book covers them in its close relationship with the reader. For him she was interesting and significant only when it is read, good work. From this perspective, he saw all those hundreds of thousands of books, which turn over on its long lifetime. In 1889 he was with a group of teachers of Sunday school workers' experience of a program of research literature for the people ".
This work is published in Rubakin Populist magazine "Russian Wealth", and then published in book form. The book was the result of a long and very interesting study. In his library, reading room at the Nevsky Gate, in the Sunday, working schools Rubakin and his aides, volunteers organized a comprehensive observation of the reading, the life of books a reader. Rubakin developed a special questionnaire, interviewed 3946 people, joined in active correspondence with many hundreds of readers.

Conclusions of it were cut and disappointing. The vast majority of books - the progressive, useful, written with the best intentions - are not available, and little understood by the people. They are in complete ignorance of the needs of the people, their spiritual needs, language. Intelligentsia, creating spiritual values, does not know the general reader, not focused on it and does very little for the integration of ordinary people to knowledge and culture. These findings were Rubakin developed in his book "Studies of the Russian reading public", published in 1895 and caused a storm of responses. Based on extensive and skilfully compiled statistics, . author of this book with such a neutral name unfolded before the reader the picture of abject spiritual poverty, . deliberate exclusion of workers from the progress of knowledge, . isolation of the intelligentsia from the people,
. However, the book Rubakin was saturated with admiration before the ability of the Russian workers and peasants, before their thirst for knowledge, faith in its future.

Do I have to wonder what this "scholarly research" authorities quickly saw the dangerous direction. Rubakin young and not so secret it. Revolutionary sentiments pushed Rubakin not only to "research". He ran to the rallies, wrote the proclamation, protested against the beating up student demonstration. In 1896, he would be expelled from the capital in Ryazan. In 1901, again arrested and expelled for two years from the capital, under police surveillance. These years Rubakin held in Crimea, in a small Tartar village near Alushta.

It was a strange link. It was not usual to refer to a political prison, was not political disputes, clashes of opinion, the atmosphere of political struggle. Boredom, isolation from the usual communication with readers and many of his assistants, longing for the books ... A number of Russia, the newspaper came from Peter a few days, the mail goes to sleep Rubakin letters. Russia is seething in the towns and villages more and more confident develops revolutionary movement. Maybe, . should really stop being a book worm, . forget about the books and their readers, . not a book, . and arms to hurl himself against the gendarmerie and police government? It somehow pitiful digging in the books next to the selfless actions of people, . devoting their youth revolution, . and even life ..,
. And example of such a sacrifice here, near ...

In the same village, under the same transparent oversight lived Catherine K. Vreshko-Breshkovskaya. The name of the person Revolutionaries in 1917, proudly called "the grandmother of the Russian Revolution, the present generation of totally unknown. And during the Revolution and Civil War Breshko-Breshkovskaya was infamous reputation for its struggle against the Bolsheviks, active cooperation with the Whites.

But we need to know what was meant by the name Breshko-Breshkovskaya enthusiasm for revolutionary youth beginning of the century. By the time the meeting with Rubakin Breshko-Vreshkovskaya was not yet "grandmother", but it was known as a representative of the last veterans of the populist revolutionary movement. Behind me were the terrible twelve years penal servitude and exile, numerous arrests, brutal beatings by police. The head of this early gray hair, haggard-looking woman surrounded by a halo of martyrdom and intransigence. She was a living reproach to the quiet and calm seat in the library, flipping through statistical handbooks, leisurely correspondence with readers ...

We must assume that Breshko-Breshkovskaya was very important to enlist in the newly created Social Revolutionary Party a prominent and energetic writer. She succeeded. Nutty, full of enthusiasm, Rubakin with all his rare capacity for work turned to politics. However, like all activities Rubakin, she wore only a literary character.

Dozens of revolutionary pamphlets written Rubakin and widespread during the first Russian revolution, are remarkable. They did not remind the usual Social Revolutionary literature, full-flown phrases, rhetorical pathos. They are very Rubakin. Whatever the alias or signed by them, no one had any doubt as to who wrote them. These booklets are widely used Rubakin prevailing in his idea of what should be a popular book for the people. The name should be simple and to express the very essence of books. And their brochures Rubakin gave names: "Down with the police!", "The truth about the hazards of the common people", "Where are Russian money". Extremely simple and easily understood language. Lack of foreign words and obscure terms. No rhetoric - a calm and businesslike story. Evidence. These literary means Rubakin-publicist

. More than once had occasion to meet with the, . that many of the great progressive scholars and talented popularizers, . such, . as Timiriazev, . expressed an aversion to "traditional" literature, . to popular pamphlet, . in which the authors of their, . adapting to the reader, . invented a supposedly popular language, . simplify complex, . vulgarize great truths,
. Historians have repeatedly had to deal with the fact that a lot of the Socialist Revolutionary leaflets and pamphlets were written by the same ernicheskim, psevdonarodnym language, which were written in the depths of the gendarmerie offices leaflets, addressed to the "Black Hundred" ... Of course, not in the case that among the SRs were provocateurs who were serving two different masters. Just this expressed ignorance of the people, disrespect to him. Distinctive feature of Rubakin-promoter was respect for the reader. All truth must be proved! - That was the first and foremost rule Rubakin.

That is why the revolutionary pamphlets Rubakin such a large place occupied by figures. Do not just blame the landlords, but seriously, based on official statistics show and prove that the landlord class continues to rob and plunder the peasantry. Not invent abusive nicknames pohlestche to criticize high-ranking bureaucrats, and calculate how much it costs the people of the contents of a gang of plutocrats, who have much to grab people's money, when, how. Famous article Rubakin "Trepovskaya party in figures resembled labor statistics. But agitational effect of this article was enormous, she received the widest dissemination. Similarly, there was another pamphlet Rubakin - the king's Council of State. In it the author meticulously-accurate counts, . how much, . how long are dignitaries, . have already hundreds of thousands of acres of land and multimillion-dollar state - leases, . pension, . Award, . medal, . zasedatelskie, . lifting, . run-through, . dining, . apartment, . forage ..,
. He counts how many of these Dolgoruky Mengden, Sabler, Obolensky, Arseniev, Ikskuli for time spent in public service acquired the land: where, how many in his own name as his wife's name ... The facts follow the facts: General Polovtsev has 7 thousand acres, and takes from the treasury for another 10 thousand acres, Count Ignatiev, who has 128 thousand acres, provides a "needy" 18 thousand acres and receives over 4 million rubles them ... Contents only 28 dignitaries - all identified by name! - Costs each year, one million rubles. And in the countryside the peasants die from hunger. How much that these people were alive? Only 1 ruble 40 kopecks per month. Twenty-eight old men, hung with medals and sitting a few times a year in the State Council, is taken from the treasury a sum of money, what is needed to save from starvation 625 thousand people!.. No extra words, no exclamation marks, just the facts, figures. And one grows a moving picture of organized robbery, embezzlement, extortion shameless. Conditions in which he lived Rubakin before the 1905 revolution, during it and after its defeat, it seemed little had to contribute to the literary work. But just when it was written Rubakin most of his journalistic and literary works. From the Crimean link to send police custody in Novgorod. In 1904 Plehve orders to send Rubakin from Russia "forever" ... But a few months Yegor Sazonov's bomb severs the author of this Order, and Rubakin immediately returns. Endless travel, feverish vanity, safe houses, night conversations with Central Committee members, militants, fugitives from a link ... And anyway - on the corner of the dining table, on the train, in between endless meetings and discussions - Rubakin wrote, wrote, wrote articles, pamphlets, stories, tales. In the case goes all - the secret information got from unknown sources, the stories of many who saw the people's own observations. Here are just that, very recently it was mainly for Rubakin, - book, its impact on the reader - this is not written, it left behind, supplanted by other.

On this stage of his life Rubakin subsequently not really like to remember. It is easy to understand why. It so happened that the revolution and the revolutionaries turned to Rubakin eserovschinoy. Sure, . among hundreds of those revolutionaries, . with whom I communicate Rubakin, . There were many honest and sincere, . smote his imagination, his willingness to sacrifice, . fanatical belief, . that bombs and guns will open to the people the way to a new and happy life,
. But there were many and cheap rhetoric, many politicians and Zlatoust, conspiratorial dignitaries. And among them is the mysterious, all hiding figure, a tall man with protruding lips on the loose and impassive face - Azef ...

Yes, summing up his attempt to directly engage in revolutionary activity, Rubakin - as the hero of Gorky's play - he could see that he is "not on the street he lived '. Repeated statements Rubakin, . after it in 1909 out of the Revolutionary Party, . their "impurity in Party", . his aversion to, . what he called "controversy", . was the result of long-term association with the, . who confessed notorious populist theory of "heroes and the crowd",
. And it was the "crowd" rather than "Heroes", has always attracted the political and literary sympathies Rubakin ... Should we be surprised that after the 1905 revolution, he turned with renewed vigor to his eternal main passion - the book. This Rubakin return to the main cause of his life was not a shadow of apostasy from the revolution.

Torn by leaf
Programmki and brochures.
Now in hypocrisy, the mystique
Naked hide hide.

These lines Sasha Cherny, telling about a turn in the minds of many colleagues Rubakin of the SR party, no relation to him had. People instantly changed their allegedly revolutionary "pathos" in a malicious grin, or a languid, disappointed look, were disgusting and hateful Rubakin. In his fictional works, he attacked the "demagnetized intellectuals" with all its merchant unrestrained temperament. He argued that such people have no right to be called "intellectuals", and proposed to deprive them of that name - as if the future "Vekhists" any dearer to them than ...

It has been like that with all this crowd egotistical windbags and elegantstvuyuschih phrasemongers Rubakin had nothing to do on the very essence of his character. By itself, vanity, and what was called "feverish activity", he was not seduced. He liked to say: "We need to do is not to do, but in order to make".
Not for calm and peaceful life education went Rubakin of boiling Russia in quiet Switzerland. He lived there as actively and as "bother" people, as in any place, wherever they are. But, disillusioned with the SR vspyshkopuskatelstve, Rubakin with even greater vehemence took up a huge load, which he hoisted on his shoulder in the belief that these shoulders will stand. They possessed an absolute and unwavering faith in the power of self -.

The basis of this belief - and with it Rubakin lived his whole life! - Lying on his fantastic imagination of respect for human. By his will, mental abilities. Those who are highly educated Kadetstvo professors seemed faceless and amorphous mass, ready at any moment to crush the shaky crust of civilization in Russia, for Rubakin been the hope and ornament of his native country, the future of Russian culture. He could make them concrete and real people - with different tastes, characters, tendencies, demands. Books written by these writers, not for people in general, not a faceless and abstract reader, but for this - very different, dissimilar people. And the book becomes effective only when it gets it to his readers, merges with its aspirations, temperament and capacity. At the end of the last century, in the preface to "A Study of the Russian reading public," Rubakin wrote: "The history of literature is not only the history of writers and their works, bearing in society these or other ideas, but also the history of the readers of these works".

In his book "How to educate ourselves" (by the way, we have republished in 1962) Rubakin tells a parable - very real, peeped in life - about two working. One - a hot, passionate and deeply emotional, the other - a calm and sensible. Both asked the librarian a book about the heavenly bodies. The librarian gave the first book Newcomb - restrained, evidence, supplied with a set of tables and figures. Second - book Flammarion, passionate, deeply poetic in its mood of. After some time, both the reader's disappointment was returned to the library of these books, not read them until the end, and asked the other, more interesting ... But when the librarian to change them to these books, give Flammarion first reader, and Newcomb - second, as they both received great pleasure from the books they read.

Very early in Rubakin formed a belief in the existence of different "types of readers, which in the future became the basis of invented science - bibliopsihologii. I must say that this belief was not the extent to which speculative. It has grown in years and great work on the study of those who Rubakin the old intelligentsia terminology described as "reading public". It is impossible any accurate estimate and take into account the number of people who questioned Rubakin and its many volunteers, the number of questionnaires sent out to them, the letters they received and sent. In the years that Rubakin held in Russia, he communicated with a huge number of people who are considered primarily as a reader.

These were all sorts of people: peasants, workers, artisans, clerks. Rubakin not blind to the terrible social conditions in which they were delivered. Weary, withering work, the constant care of the bread for his family, illiteracy. But they are the same people and the human, that they have an urgent need of food for the mind, consciousness, feelings. They can not rely on formal education. To hope they can only assume. "People are not waiting for him to give literacy. He takes it, "- wrote Rubakin based on the analysis, even official statistics. In his essay "Peasants self-taught, written in 1898, Rubakin estimated that in Russia for 500 thousand villages and villages there are only 35 thousand primary schools, single-class schools ... And here he is in his "Etude" concludes: Public education in Russia "because of the basic features of system is replaced by self-education". Moreover - Rubakin do not think that self is only a surrogate for education. Instead, he used every opportunity of to express the idea that all real education is obtained only through self -.

But Rubakin in his boundless enthusiasm for the idea of self-made conclusions more categorical. He did not consider that any conditions may be limited opportunity for any person to become educated. The assumptions of his touchingly naive in his enormous faith in those whom his liberal critics as a "succeeding Huns". He wrote: "Anyone can give reading 1 hour, and on Sunday - 3 hours. Hence, 52 on Sunday for 3 hours will give 156 hours. A 313 everyday for 1 hour - is 313 hours of reading. Hence, in the year is over 450 hours of reading. This is the smallest, 5 thousand pages! And with skills in two or three times more! "

Five thousand pages per year ... Rubakin, for which the reading was as natural and necessary part of existence, like food and sleep, excellent understanding of how humiliating and such a small book quota ... In his advice, he urges, requests, persuades to communicate as much as possible with a large number of books. Do not even read - if this is not possible! - And even hand-held, to consider, turn over the pages, watch pictures, remember the cover and title ... "The more books you skip through his hands - the better, the sooner you will become an intellectual". Well, all the same - only the real five thousand pages read and learned a year! Hence, it is necessary that this rule was not hungry any slag that these pages were complete, weighty. And that they "came" to its readers, harmoniously blended with its interests, concerns, specifics!

How can this be achieved? First of all, there is a simple way to determine good book reader or not. Unsuitable book is easy to learn here is why: she does not like ". This "taste" the ratio of the book may cause, and still am appalled and surprised many bookstores pedants. However Rubakin articulated so clearly his idea is not just to be witty. He was convinced that such an assessment of the book is crucial for the fate of the book, it was the cornerstone of his views promoter. Disagreeing with Rubakin, easy to accuse him of that in relation to science, he always remained an amateur only carried away, which gave him the right to adhere to the evaluation of scientific books the most extreme views ... But it is surprising that contemporary Rubakin Timiryazev, which he certainly could not be called a dilettante in science, followed exactly the same relationship to promotional book. Long before Rubakin, in the preface to The Life of Plants ", published in 1878, he wrote:" The first and last peremptory authority is the reader ". For the great scientist and a great popularizer of this was not a slip of the tongue. By this thought, he returned repeatedly. Speaking of the popular scientific essay, Timiriazev argued: "If they just do not like the reader, it no longer achieves its objectives and, therefore, convicted". The dispute, which Rubakin took a completely categorical position, far from being finished and not only became a part of history. He continues in our time.

In one of his appeals to the reader Rubakin wrote: "Do not judge their intelligence and abilities of the books, you are not suitable". From Rubakin belief that the reader need only "suitable" for his book, has grown a significant cause of his life as Rubakin bibliography.

Bibliography - science does not start with Rubakin and it ended in. In the world and Russian bibliography, long before Rubakin existed classical works, the most valuable benefits. But what did Rubakin, had no predecessors, it was a matter entirely new, as on the objectives and its means. In its bibliographic activity Rubakin set out to identify and classify the "types of readers, the reader to imagine living with all the richness and complexity of its human characteristics. And each such reader to help find those same five thousand pages per year that would turn it into a full-fledged, educated man, able to withstand the terrible machine of class oppression and successfully fight it. That is what is necessary to explore and establish "types of books". And after that - research, be sure to research! - To get to the sacrament of the impact of books on the reader, to reveal its mechanism, to establish laws. Never had any bibliographers to Rubakin not engaged in describing the books, not only on the basis of their content, but also from their form, language, style, even tone ... Yes, for Rubakin was very little importance is the fact, as the tone of the author's speech. He listened to it all the shades: melancholy, brooding, ironic, polemical ... Rubakin interested in not only the composition of the book, but the pace of presentation: smooth, fast, shifty ... Like living people, the books have their own, unique individuality, have their own psychological characteristics. Like people, books on nature are intellectual, emotional, strong-willed. Like humans, they can be sluggish, complacent, sleepy, inert, they can be an excess of emotion or rationality ... As created by men, each book - a member of society, it is social, it has certain political sympathies and antipathies.

Rubakin, speaking about the properties of individual features of the books, believes that the book was born not only of mental work of the writer, but the entire tenor of social and political life of society, in which this book appeared. And every book its peculiar characteristics affecting the ideas of the book, not just its composition, language, even the exterior.

On the amateur art book written about a lot of lovely memories, even whole books.
We know about people with a deep love collecting lifetime editions, rare copies of books that survived in spite of the persecution and destruction. We understand the emotion of the scribe to the unique binding, beautiful engravings, rare design. None of this existed for Rubakin. When he held in his hands a book, when he reviewed its vast treasures of books, he saw a completely different books, classified them as would never have occurred to any lover of books. He saw the book on their shelves, the proletarians and the book-nobles, he distinguished among them commoners, landowners, merchants ... Among the books for him were public advocates, and were despised them nonentities, books and book-ignorant-scientists, books and book-villagers-citizens ... Books can be burning, and cold-sharp, speculative and unselfish ... In short, as Rubakin wrote: "Even a large extent independently of its content, but merely a form of exposition, each book has, so to speak, his soul or little soul, and this is nothing like the imprint of the mind or those who gave birth to her ". Despite his love for the strict classification of all phenomena, Rubakin understood the difficulty and sometimes impossibility of this, when speaking about the book.

It is striking that just how easy and extremely accessible Rubakin written popular science books, is as complicated and packed with scientific terminology of his theoretical works devoted to the study books and readers. But once, . in speech, . delivered in 1913 at the Congress on Women's Education, . him - suddenly - through a veil of human psychological terms had broken clear and powerful explanation of their beliefs: "When your hands pass through the tens of thousands of books, . your eyes, . and not only the eye, . a and your soul begins to somehow differentiate itself, . that there are mental types, and in the book realm,
. Book work delays and draws. Its circulation of images, types of books are made brighter, individual, and objectified images of readers, too, turning into types. And there is something powerful, and terrible in his appointed these ideas embodied in the books in the face of people ... Life itself reveals thousands kinship types of books with the types of readers. This is a special world of those and others, and no common words and phrases can not convey what he is, if you do not live among the books and not dug into them many, many years ".

A man of infinite tact, Rubakin little has been adapted to ensure that scold people. Still less he was able to use swear words at the books. Yet for some books he had been ill and expletive - "furniture". Rubakin urged writers, publishers, librarians: "The book becomes a zero, in furniture, the book is dying when it bounces off the reader's head. But the same book sprout when it finds its ground in the human soul and when its content becomes a mental connection, similar to the chemical, with the soul of the reader, and this connection is the strongest ... when a certain type of book the reader finds the same type, ie, when both speak the same language ".

Such ideas are not entirely similar to the ideas of contemporary bibliography formed the basis of a paramount and fundamental work Rubakin - "Among the books". Books, of which Lenin said that "the plan of the author, in general, it is true". In "Among the books contained the names of 22 thousand. Must imagine the sea of books, from which Rubakin had to choose two of ten thousand books. In those years when Rubakin proceeded to implement its plan, Russia was a country of illiterate - in the strict sense of the word. According to the Ministry of War, in 1886, more than 70 percent of all soldiers enlisted in the army, were illiterate ... And yet in the same illiterate Russia published annually by about five thousand titles of books with a circulation of 20 million copies. In this ocean drowned many excellent books, lay motionless rocks works of great Russian writers. We are accustomed to the fact that we loveless, capricious Knigotorg without any "trade" willingly accepts hundreds of thousands of works of Russian classics, it is difficult to imagine that the fifth edition of the Collected Works H. A. Nekrasov, published in an edition of 15 thousand, was sold for eight years ... No fewer years of lying on the shelves of one of the first Complete Works And. N. Ostrowski, published in 7200 the number of copies ...

Getting his work, Rubakin had to sift a lot of books, not just choose the best and select them for an entirely different principle than the one that guided all educators and bibliographers before him. "Among the books" - is not a set of annotations of the best books, but an attempt to give to millions of readers "reading circle" - a guide for the reader. He wanted to take the reader by the hand and lead him from close to distant, from concrete to abstract, from facts to ideas.

The idea of a grand! And the forces needed for this enormous. With all the confidence in their strength Rubakin realized that he alone does not raise. He was attracted to his work a lot of people, he tried to obtain the necessary information for the book not by intermediaries, as a first-hand - from prominent scientists, journalists, writers, politicians. Lenin, he asked to write a review about Bolshevism, and Martov on Menshevism ... Of course, this was seen not only is the "objectivity", which was the dream Rubakin as eclecticism, for which he is rightly rebuked in his review of Lenin. But, despite the hefty ideological confusion of the author of "Among the books, he created a work that was of great importance for several generations of Russian" reading public ".

In this sense, is not fooled no one - neither friends nor enemies. V. Rozanov - the most talented and cynical representative of Novoye Vremya journalism - in all honesty, in his article in 1912, expressed concern to the Rubakin. He wrote: "Many of these concerns the government provide social Bibliography - Gernfeld, Vengerov and Rubakin. They are cunning, like Talleyrand: write a bibliography - no pridereshsya ... Not for the Peter and Paul, nor for Shlisselburgskaya Fortress bibliography unattainable ... Take you at least twelve-gun Rubakin, when he simply wrote "Among the books". Simply, very innocent and to reinforce the innocence of the book devotes his mother Lydia Terentevna Rubakin ... The book will Rubakin Walker, but she has now gone as the "Religious Calendar" Gattsuka ... Catalog interpretation subordinates irresistibly librarian, becoming his friend and a glowing candle. Who will notice that in essence, "Candle" Rubakin burn all the libraries that it is not "Among the books, but against the books, for pamphlets, leaflets for ... Here are all these Kireevskys, Aksakovs, Rachinsky hovered in the air, waved their wings, and to them crept unnoticed worm, until just Rubakin obedient its mother, and spoiled them all the dish. But the great ladies of the academic bibliographies, . rebelled against violations of the established canons of science, . Purishkevich, . reviled Rubakin polygonal words from the rostrum IV State Duma, . had in mind was not the fact, . that Rubakin rejected some books and encouraged its readers to other,
. Dangerous novelty "Among the books" for them was to try to connect Rubakin right reader for the desired book, moreover, with the correct author.

All twenty-two thousand books, described in the "range of reading" Rubakin, bearing symbols: asterisks, numbers ... The key to them are large tables attached Rubakin. These are the tables and gave "Among the books" a completely unique character. Rubakin tables were designed so that each reader can find a book that not only guided by the theme, but also their training, aptitude, taste. Rubakin divides the book on "specific" and "abstract". The first of them, he in turn divided into those where the evidence is more or less clearly described, or those in which the facts just listed, the book, where the facts take precedence over the arguments and the books, which is dominated by arguments over the facts ... The descriptions of each book Rubakin necessarily indicate, "the mood" it or "no mood". And, not content with this, the book, "not alien to pessimism" and the book "an active, strong-willed type. More than half a century has passed since then, as was done this amazing attempt to cram all the great variety of books, bearing the features of their creators, in a coherent and universal table. And do not criticize the author for the inaccuracy of this classification, for the subjectivity of assessments and many other sins. Not the point! She is a passionate desire to see the reader, it is the reader to see it through the book! From this, in fact, begins the series of life Rubakin, which led him to the confusing maze bibliologicheskoy psychology. To her he gave twenty years of hard work - almost as much as Einstein spent on the effort to create a "unified field theory" ...

What kind of science? Sam Rubakin it described quite generally and vaguely. "Bibliopsihologiya is the science of social and psychological impact of the book" - he wrote. "Psychological" ... And their science Rubakin squeezed in biology, physiology, reflexology, he tried to take a new science of reflexology and the biological foundations. "Social" ... And Rubakin frantically seeking for sociology, economics, politics, facts and examples that would prove that the books in a position to shape the reader through the very life.

In this emulsion valuable observations and conclusions naively enthusiastic, truly innovative ideas and old-fashioned, idealistic ideas were very much useful, entertained throughout the long and difficult life Rubakin. But there was a lot of vulnerabilities. And that took full advantage of people who love to look "vulnerable" places. Moreover, the time has come when these fans were opened for the broadest possible ...
And just then appeared in magazines numerous articles, reviews, speeches. "Rubakinschina - the mortal enemy of the Marxist-Leninist outlook," "Activities Rubakin - is relentless and prolonged controversy with the theory and practice of communist education of the masses, . with the promotion of communism "; Rubakin book - a guide for action, . objective aimed to disarm the proletariat and the blunting its class vigilance "and they act" in the worst shape against the dictatorship of the proletariat, . against the already building socialism "..,
. These few quotations do not exhaust all the terrible accusations against Rubakin. It believed, and some authors of articles, which ended with the words: "Not all parties rubakinschiny were exposed Soviet criticism".

People who appropriated the right to speak on behalf of Soviet criticism, yet failed to achieve Rubakin alienation from his native Soviet culture. Its connection with their country is not torn, and after the appearance of these articles do not even deprived of personal pension which he received from the Soviet government since 1930. It is not possible, and whatever was necessary to debate with the authors of these articles. Indeed, the distinguishing feature is the most cynical demagoguery and complete absence of any evidence. One of the articles against the "rubakinschiny", quoted from Rubakin: "The very essence of library work is not in the book and its content, even the most brilliant, and the reader. Be first and foremost a psychologist! "From this idea Rubakin critic concludes:" It turns out that even a counter-revolutionary book can be useful to the reader, if only to take into account the psychological moment the librarian when she submitted ". No, it does not require comment, and history has already told his word - the most weighty, the most convincing. Obscure "critics" Rubakin (if they have a shame) ashamed to remember their articles, but the name Rubakin always remained in the treasury of Russian and Soviet culture!

. Really, . if subject all, . he wrote Rubakin in connection with its bibliopsihologiey, . all types of analysis, . including spectral, . it can be easily they find traces of Kant's philosophy, . theories of Western psychology Uetsona, . influence of many other authors, . which Rubakin studied, . trying to bring the "theoretical basis" for its long-term observations and reflections on self-education,
. But is there now in this need? Even from the little that we spoke about the ideological formation and past Rubakin, seen as it was eclectic and confused in theory. Yes, as such, no one ever it seriously and did not take. Do not these vague thoughts about this great cause to which he was engaged, we have interesting and valuable Rubakin. Especially since he himself - with all its nutty kind - had never insisted on categorical finiteness of their "theories". And he himself said: "I am not one of those who have already found the truth, but of those who is looking to the end of days will find it".

Despite the enthusiasm the theories of Western psychology - Wundt, Malapera, Ribot, Gennekena, in the center of all thought Rubakin is a concrete, real reader. And it is stronger than all attempts to expand the reader's particular kind of cell in the "Periodic Table of Elements" reading psychology. When it came to real, live library work, Rubakin never tired of saying: "Reader" in general "as the books" in general "does not exist and can not exist". For Rubakin reader - is first and foremost, the notion of social. Interests in charge of thoughts "- so clumsily told Rubakin famous formula of Marx that social being determines consciousness of the people ...

At the time, aroused fierce opposition Rubakin idea that "how many different readers, so many different meanings in the same book. With all the external paradoxical that idea was not only true - it was based on the practice of library work on the study of reader. Subsequently, explaining this idea, Rubakin wrote: "What is the principal value of the book influences? Not so much that the reader makes of the book, but in the fact that he was experiencing during her read -. Therefore, you must take care not only about how to create a book full of thoughts and feelings, but also know when and what to recommend to the reader her. In the thirties, the critics Rubakin forgot, . that these principles were the basis of the huge army of enthusiastic librarians, . that in the real cultural revolution, . which took place in our country, . Rubakin ideas found their concrete expression, and gave abundant and rich sprouts,
. Study of the reader, the search for forms of this propaganda book, which - simultaneously - and the leadership would have been reading, it is widely developed in our country, and to the credit of a man whose ideas have not lost their value in our time.

We should not forget that Rubakin was one of those who first set a very high moral pedestal, the work of a librarian. In our frequent, sometimes rough, sometimes exquisite, disputes about the books we forget about the hundreds of thousands of people who are agents of this book. In our country, hundreds of thousands of libraries, in their dedication to working people who selflessly dedicated. Anyone who has any contact with workers in rural and regional libraries, can not but marvel at the enthusiasm of these men and women who are ready to go off-road dozens of kilometers to reach the desired book reader. In bad weather, in rain, in snow, they go to the district center to listen to the review of new books, send a request to a large public library, to get the reader a rare edition ... "Choosing a book for his and others' reading - not only science but also art," - said Rubakin. In the work of the man standing behind the library counter, receiving and issuing the book, Rubakin introduced an element of art - art.

Literary Heritage Rubakin-promoter enormous. They were written about 250 books, telling about the various fields of knowledge - biology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, geography, history ... It is hard to find any modern Rubakin science or field of knowledge, which he did not write. The success of his books that the reader was a colossal. The circulation of its publications to the revolution more than 15 million copies. No beating around the bush can say that Rubakin earned the title "national" writer - on his books introduced to the knowledge of millions of people.

The archive Nikolai Alexandrovich Rubakin kept many thousands of letters to his correspondents. Most of these are letters of the Russian workers and peasants of different generations. Dear our tutorial ... " - So touchingly naive and begins one of those letters ... They expressed gratitude and respect for the writer, who opened the eyes of millions of workers to significant phenomena in the life of nature and society.
But with books Rubakin happened, it would seem, the worst thing that could happen with the books - they did not survive its author. Moreover, the author himself experienced them for a long time ... Some books Rubakin reprinted in the twenties - thirties, time, on time and still rare reissue of these books. But, nevertheless, remains an immutable fact: after the great cultural revolution in our country, popular science books Rubakin, which seemed to have disappeared all censorship and other barriers, have begun to lose his reader. Does this, . that all long-term and passionate quest Rubakin such a "key", . that opened to a promoter for the heart and mind of the reader, . been in vain? And what the reader - the same, . which Rubakin considered the supreme judge of the writer, . - Rejected as far-fetched all the activities Rubakin - theorist promotion? If it were that way, . then we should write about the great tragedy of man and thinker ..,
.

But in reality, a tragedy was. Conversely, natural death Rubakin popular science books in the Soviet era was just as l