«Сводня грустно за столом»: K истории и интерпретации

This article examines the literary and practical context of Pushkin's poem "Svodnia grustno za stolom…" in an attempt to elucidate what caused Pushkin to put aside his labors on important works like Eugene Onegin and The Blackamoor of Peter the Great for the sake of a facetious, obscene poem clearly never intended for publication, and to explain what made him conceal this poem from everyone he knew. This parodic ballad is analyzed in the context of the literary society Arzamas and its informal mode of communication, the influence of Pushkin's uncle Vasilii L´vovich and his poem "Opasnyi sosed," and as of a piece with Pushkin's juvenile parodies of Zhukovskii. The author situates "Svodnia…" in a broader picture of Pushkin's everyday life and his social circle after his return from exile in Mikhailovskoe, as well as a change in Pushkin's attitude towards parodies targeting Zhukovskii which came about in the mid-1820s in the context of literary battles and polemics in the journals. Along the way, this article dispels a conspiracy-minded interpretation of the poem that connects it to the executions of the Decembrists and reads the deadbeat "guests" in the poem as the executioners carousing after carrying out the sentences.