"Alyosha the Pot" (Russian: Алеша Горшок [Alyosha Gorshok]) is a short story written by Leo Tolstoy (1905) about the life and death of a simple, uncomplaining worker. It was published after Tolstoy's death in 1911 and received high praise from Tolstoy's contemporaries. D. S. Mirsky considered it "a masterpiece of rare perfection." Without ever calling Alyosha a holy fool, Tolstoy centers the story on his meekness, aloofness, and foolishness. Alyosha's simple life, soft-spoken manner, and calm acceptance of death epitomizes Tolstoyan principles.

History

The hero and namesake of the story was based on a real person. According to the memoirs of Tatyana Andreevna Kuzminskaya (Lev Tolstoy's sister-in-law), "the assistant to the cook and yard-keeper was the half idiot Alyosha the Pot, who was, for some reason, romanticized to the point that reading about him, I could not recognize our holy fool Alyosha. But, as far as I remember, he was quiet, inoffensive, and meekly did all that was ordered of him."

"The Pot" is a song by American rock band Tool and was released as the second single from their fourth studio album 10,000 Days (2006). According to Adam Jones, it is confirmed to be about hypocrisy and is a double entendre that refers to both drug intoxication and believing oneself to be above others, deriving from the phrase "pot calling the kettle black". It became their first song to top the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and received a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2008. According to The Rock Radio, a music video was filmed during the holiday season in 2006; however, it has not surfaced.

Track listing

Personnel

References

External links

Alyosha is an affectionate diminutive (hypocorism) of the name Alexey and may refer to:

People

Fictional people

Monuments

"Alyosha" (Russian: «Алёша») is a Soviet-era Russian song by composer Eduard Kolmanovski and poet Konstantin Vanshenkin. The subject is the Alyosha Monument, the common local name for the 11-metre (36-foot) statue of a WWII Soviet soldier which stands in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv as a monument to all Soviet soldiers who died in the occupation of Bulgaria.

Creation of the song

In 1962, Eduard Kolmanovskii visited Bulgaria, including in the city of Plovdiv where the Alyosha monument stands, where he learned the story of its origin. Kolmanovskii later shared his notes with poet Konstantin Vanshenkin, who was inspired by the topic and soon wrote a poem.

Kolmanovskii then composed music for the verses. The mournful feeling of the song is achieved with the minor mood of the music and by the lyric which employs both slow repetition ("If there's a new snowfall in the fields / Snowfall, snowfall / If there's a new snowfall in the fields / Or thunder echoes in the rain / He stands upon the mountain: Alyosha, / Alyosha, Alyosha / He stands upon the mountain, Alyosha / A Russian soldier in our Motherland") and pathos ("Since the blizzard of bullets, his tunic is made now of stone... He'll never step down down from his mountain... He cannot give flowers to the women, who give their flowers to him")

Olena Kucher (Ukrainian: Олена Кучер, born 14 May 1986 in Zaporizhia), better known by her stage name Alyosha (Ukrainian: Aльоша), is a Ukrainian singer.

Career

Early career

She studied vocals at the Kiev National University of Culture and Arts and signed with the Catapult Music record label in 2008.

In 2010, Alyosha released an album in the English language with songs written by Dr. Peter B. Chykaliuk and daughter Carrie Chykaliuk.

She was born two weeks after the Chernobyl disaster and her song Sweet People reflects concern both for the effects of this disaster and for the world environment.

2010: Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

On 20 March 2010, Alyosha won the Ukrainian National Final and thus represented Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. She replaced Vasyl Lazarovych who was originally picked on December 29, 2009 to represent Ukraine. After some political changes that took place in Ukraine his candidacy was withdrawn on March 15 under suspicion that he was picked with the help of the current director of the State National Television (1st National) Vasyl Ilashchuk. The petition to organize another concourse and to cancel the current results was signed by several famous Ukrainian performers such as Taisia Povaliy, Ruslana Pysanka, Kostyantyn Meladze, and many others.