«Well, wait a bit!» Approaching to one guess of Yury Chumakov

The article reconstructs Chumakov’s version of Pushkin’s elements
in the Sukhovo-Kobylin’s trilogy «The Pictures of the Past». Pushkin’s
poem «The Bronze Horseman» – is not named directly in Sukhovo-Kobylin’s
drama, but its voiceover presence in the play of Sukhovo-Kobylin is multifaceted.
The theme of the monument, the monument idea is reinterpreted ironically
by Chumakov. Classification of all types of bribery in the Krechinsky’s letter is
regarded as a possible project of a monument to bribery and has deep routes
in traditions of Russian literature.
«Delo» is one of the most «philological» dramas in the national repertoire,
where the whole trial, shameful accusation and death, the ruin of the family
arises spontaneously from the foam of words, the verbal casuistry of the officials-
directors of the multi-pass scenario of extortion, bribery and the destruction
of the helpless petitioner.
The drama of Sukhovo-Kobylin was read by Chumakov through the Pushkin;
s experience of depicting this conflict in the poem «The Bronze Horseman».
The breakthrough to the new powerful language that took place in Eugene’s
nature, in addition to his will and consciousness, Justifies comparison of the
«Bronze Horseman» and the drama «Delo».
«Delo» is a «Petersburg story» by the Chumakov’s definition. Petersburg as
the scene of action occupies remarks, the geography of the play, the list of characters
and the description of actors.
The drama of Sukhovo-Kobylin according to Chumakov’s thought is a holistic
description of the tragedy cycle, the mystical ritual of the slow killing
of a small man by a state machine. The death / murder formula found by the
playwright is heard in the «copper vibrations» (A. A. Block) of the «Bronze
Horseman» and is mathematically deduced in the trilogy.
The stem of the play is an elaborate multi-stage tirade, which develops
Pushkin’s «Well, wait a bit!» Sukhovo-Kobylin himself represents the type
of so called Pushkin\s Eugene in the 1860s for several decades living through
a sprawling catastrophe of an irrational clash with Russian statehood, history,
power, and literature.