Dostoevsky came to Optina after the death of his 4-year-old son Alyosha, and a meeting with the famous old man Ambrose helped him out of the tragedy that was destroying him. But you must admit that this is not the best reason to organize a festival-style holiday. You immediately think that it would be better if they came up with the Days of Gogol or Turgenev. Who among the luminaries of Russian culture has not been here? And Tolstoy, Turgenev, Vladimir Solovyov, Konstantin Leontyev, and the Kireyevsky brothers. Around Optina, like nowhere else, a pearl necklace of Russian culture gathered, and this was not just another dispute between people of culture and the church. On the contrary, it was the life of great people of culture in the church.
Of course, it was a bit cold to see how Dostoevsky can easily parse instructive quotes and aphorisms, although he certainly cannot be reduced to them. It was a bit frightening because of the enthusiasm of the officials and the speeches – after all, Dostoevsky is a deeply personal experience and it is almost always a drama or tragedy inside the human soul that breaks the scheme of the plot. But in general, the festival passed through the ears with a noisy and varied program, and when Tutta Larsen read from the stage excerpts from the best modern student works about him, and then Igor Volgin began to represent the team of intellectuals whom he brought to the Dostoevsky Days, and without fear of making the sad diagnosis “We are moving away from Dostoevsky”, it became clear that the Dostoevsky Days in Optina are not a din of mass culture or an event for a propaganda show. That the complexity of Dostoevsky rules the show where it is supposed to rule it. And neither the brisk trade in lace dresses and farm-bought strawberry jam, nor the children playing on the bales of straw that serve as benches for the audience, nor the roar of songs, nor the abundance of crowds of spectators can prevent this. And now the Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, Anna Kuznetsova, tells RG how she met Dostoevsky in the fourth grade, and Igor Volgin, after leaving the stage, recalls at what price Dostoevsky was given away.
The festival will take place over two days at two venues: round tables and lectures by intellectuals will be held in Optina Pustyn, and concerts, competitions, festivities and a field kitchen will be held in the village of Gubino. RG will tell you what awaits spectators at these two venues in the coming days.
