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Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy(June 22 [July 3], Irkutsk - February 22 [March 6], St. Petersburg) - Russian writer, playwright, literary and theater critic, journalist, historian and translator (also one of the first translators of William Shakespeare in prose); ideologist of the “third estate”. Brother of the critic and journalist K. A. Polevoy and writer E. A. Avdeeva, father of the writer and critic P. N. Polevoy.
Biography
Born into a Siberian merchant family, Polevoy never forgot his origins; perhaps the first in Russian journalism to express the interests of the merchant class and the emerging bourgeoisie. Received home education. He made his debut in print in the magazine “Russian Bulletin” in 1817. From 1820 to 1836. lived in Moscow, then moved to St. Petersburg. Positioning himself as a representative of the people in literature, he contrasted supranational classicism with romanticism (in which he saw the special spirit of each nation reflected in art).
In 1820-1824, he published poems, notes, essays, articles, and translations from French in “Notes of the Fatherland,” “Northern Archive,” “Son of the Fatherland,” and the almanac “Mnemosyne.” The Russian word “journalism”, introduced into circulation in the early 1820s by Polev himself, was initially perceived ambiguously. At that time, literary activity was the exclusive domain of the nobility. The appearance in the press of people from tax-paying classes who owed their careers only to their own efforts and abilities, such as N. Polevoy and M. Pogodin, caused bewilderment and ridicule.
From 1825 to 1834 Polevoy published the Moscow Telegraph magazine in unprecedented numbers in Moscow, where he published his own articles on literature, history and ethnography. The magazine emphasized the positive role of merchants, trade and industry in the life of Russia. Polevoy often allowed himself to attack noble literature and criticized its main representatives for their isolation from the people and their needs. The magazine was closed by personal order of Nicholas I for Polevoy’s disapproving review of N. V. Kukolnik’s play “The Hand of the Almighty Saved the Fatherland.”
After the magazine ceased, Polevoy went to St. Petersburg, where he changed his liberal views to loyal ones. In 1835-1844 he published the illustrated yearbook “Pictorial review of memorable objects from the sciences, arts, arts, industry and dormitory with the addition of a picturesque tour across the globe and biographies of famous people.” He participated in the “Northern Bee”, in 1837-1838 he was in charge of the literary department of the newspaper. In 1838-1840 he was the editor of “Son of the Fatherland”.
Polevoy died at the age of 49 “from a nervous fever” caused by the imprisonment of his student son, Niktopolion, in the Shlisselburg fortress, who was detained while trying to cross the border without permission. He was one of the first writers buried in that part of the Volkov cemetery, which later became known as the Literatorskie Mostki (photo grave). From St. Nicholas Cathedral, where the funeral service took place, to the cemetery the crowd carried the coffin in their arms. P. A. Vyazemsky wrote in his diary:
Belinsky, who himself actively polemicized with Polev, nevertheless recognized his significant literary merits in his obituary. The subsequent generation honored Polevoy as the predecessor of the common intelligentsia who entered the arena of public and literary life in the forties, but his works were quickly consigned to oblivion and ceased to be published.
Fiction writings
Polevoy not only promoted the aesthetics of romanticism (in the spirit of simplified Schellingism) in his magazines, but he himself wrote romantic stories “The Bliss of Madness” (1833), “The Painter” (1833), “Emma” (1834), etc. The main theme of Polevoy’s fiction - class obstacles that gifted commoners face in noble society. The usual hero of Polevoy's story is a pious, morally pure person from the middle of the philistinism (bourgeoisie), who is disgusted by the narrow-mindedness and backwardness of his environment. Aristocrats are presented as egoists, hiding their lack of conviction and immorality behind a false façade of polished manners.
Polevoy owns four dozen plays. Most often he turns to events and figures of Russian history. A. N. Ostrovsky noted that during the reign of Nicholas I, the patriotic plays of Polevoy and Puppeteer brought “large and constant collections” to Russian theaters.
Since July 1829, Polevoy published a satirical supplement to the Moscow Telegraph, which continued the traditions of educational satire of the late 18th century - “The New Painter of Society and Literature.” Almost all of the genre-diverse content of The New Painter came from the pen of the publisher himself; according to Belinsky, this is “the best work of Polevoy’s entire literary activity.” A distinctive feature of Polevoy’s manner as a satirist is the refusal of exaggeration and hyperbole.
In addition to the translations of foreign prose made for the Moscow Telegraph (in particular, the fairy tales of V. Hauff), Polevoy owns a very free prose translation of Shakespeare's Hamlet (1837) - with abbreviations and additions. Shakespeare scholar D. M. Urnov spoke with admiration about this translation:
... there were wonderful successes, like Hamlet, translated by Polev. He removed a fair amount of it and wrote “his own,” but he did it with talent, power, and pressure. Just remember this: “I’m scared for the person!” There was something for Karatygin and Mochalov to shine in.
Lifetime editions of fiction by N. A. Polevoy
- "Stories and literary excerpts." M., 1829-30
- "Dreams and Life." Parts 1-4. M., 1833-1834
- “Abbaddonna”, novel M., 1834, St. Petersburg, 1840
- "Byzantine legends. John Tzimiskes." Part 1-2. M., 1841
- “There were also fables” St. Petersburg, 1843
- “Tales of Ivan the Gudoshnik”, St. Petersburg, 1843
- “The Old Tale of Ivan the Fool”, St. Petersburg, 1844
Historical writings
Initially, Polevoy planned to write 12 volumes (like Karamzin) and announced a subscription for exactly that number of volumes, but due to personal difficulties he was able to write and publish only 6, which led to accusations of financial dishonesty. The last volumes of the History of the Russian People are not as interesting as the first two; they reflect the haste of the writer, who “goes astray” into the traditional “statist” scheme of presentation, retells sources, etc. Polevoy’s presentation led to the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible.
After “History,” Polevoy wrote a number of historical articles for the general reader. In the work “Little Russia, its inhabitants and history” (Moscow Telegraph. - 1830. - No. 17-18) he came out with a radical denial of the ethnic and historical kinship of the Great Russians and Little Russians, and proposed recognizing that Little Russia had never been an “ancient heritage” of Russia (as Karamzin insisted on this):
| In this nation [we] see only two main elements of ancient Rus': faith and language, but even those were changed by time. Everything else is not ours: physiognomy, morals, homes, everyday life, poetry, clothing.<...>We Russified their aristocrats, little by little eliminated local rights, introduced our own laws, beliefs... but after all this we did not have time to Russify the natives, just like the Tatars, Buryats and Samoyeds.” |
Notes
- Bernshtein D.I. Field // Brief literary encyclopedia - M.:
The book "Russian Romantic Novella" contains vivid examples of fiction from the first half of the 19th century, works of both famous and forgotten writers.Moscow, Moscow! It is close - only one station separates me from Moscow, dear, beautiful, native Moscow - but what do I care about you, dear, ancient Moscow! She is in Moscow, my Paulina, and with the same impatience I would gallop and rush to Kola, to Nerchinsk, to Olonets, with which I gallop and rush now to Moscow - there - no! Now it’s almost here - my Paulina! - Here!..“Having indicated in the title of the article all twelve volumes of the “History of the Russian State,” we do not want, however, to offer our readers a detailed analysis of this wonderful creation, we will not follow its creator in detail in all respects, consider the “History of the Russian State” from a general and private parties and its author as a historian and paleographer, philosopher and geographer, archaeographer and researcher of historical materials...""Dear sir Pavel Petrovich!
Yesterday, from 87 No. of the Moskovskie Vedomosti, all of Moscow learned about the birth, or, better said, the conception of the Telegraph. I hasten to forward the ticket to you and humbly ask you to print the attached advertisement in Otechestvennye Zapiski. I must love my future son, for he will truly be a good little boy and a meek one..."Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy (1796-1846) - critic, theorist of romanticism, prose writer, historian, publisher of the Moscow Telegraph magazine (1825-1834).
It was first published under the title "Simeon Kirdyapa. Russian true story of the 14th century"“We expressed our opinion about the literary merits of Mr. Gogol, assessing in him what constitutes his indisputable dignity. Let us repeat our words: “No one doubts Mr. Gogol’s talent and that he has his own area in the field of poetic creatures. His section is a good-natured joke, a Little Russian zart, somewhat similar to the talent of Mr. Osnovyanenka, but separate and original, although it also contains the properties of the Little Russians..."Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy (1796-1846) - critic, theorist of romanticism, prose writer, historian, publisher of the Moscow Telegraph magazine (1825-1834).
The collections include works that, for the most part, have become bibliographic rarities.
The first volume includes works by: V. T. Narezhny, M. P. Pogodin, A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, N. F. Pavlov, O. M. Somov, A. F. Veltman.This collection includes fantastic works by classic writers: Osip Senkovsky, Nikolai Polevoy, Konstantin Aksakov, Vladimir Odoevsky, Alexander Kuprin, Mikhail Mikhailov and others.
Their fantastic stories revealed a whole gallery of themes, images, plots, which in one way or another explore the relationship between two worlds - the otherworldly (irrational, elemental-sensual, metaphysical) and the existing material, material world.“The venerable Father Iakine occupies a place of honor among Russian writers, and undoubtedly, the first among Russian Orientalists for his practical and useful works. We do not at all think to humiliate with our words other respectable people who are involved with us in the East and its languages and literatures, such as Mr. yes Fran, Schmidt, Kovalevsky, Senkovsky, and others..."In a remote part of Moscow, precisely in the German settlement, before Napoleon's invasion there were many cute, cheerful houses and large boyar houses. Now this has changed: the German settlement is built up with factories, mills, government schools; only the ruins, burned in 1812, are visible from most of the former boyar houses...
POLEVOY, NIKOLAY ALEXEEVICH(1796–1846), Russian writer, literary critic, journalist, historian, translator. Born June 22 (July 3), 1796 in Irkutsk. My father served in Irkutsk as the manager of the Russian-American Company, owned a faience and vodka factory, but shortly before Napoleon’s invasion he began to suffer losses, and therefore the family moved to Moscow, then to Kursk. In 1822 Polevoy inherited his father's business.
Published since 1817: in S.N. Glinka’s “Russian Bulletin” his description of Emperor Alexander I’s visit to Kursk appeared. In February 1820 he moved to Moscow, where he became addicted to the theater and as a volunteer attended lectures at Moscow University by A.F. Merzlyakov, M.T. .Kachenovsky and others. In the summer of 1821 he visited St. Petersburg, in whose literary circles he was accepted as a “nugget”, “self-taught merchant”; met with A.S. Griboyedov, V.A. Zhukovsky, met F.V. Bulgarin, N.I. Grech. P. Svinin in his “Notes of the Fatherland” published his articles on literary and historical topics, poems, translations of Mrs. Montolier’s stories.
In 1821 for a treatise A new way to conjugate Russian verbs received a silver medal of the Russian Academy. In those same years, he became close to V.F. Odoevsky, studied the philosophy of F. Schelling and the works of his interpreters. Published in the magazines “Mnemosyne”, “Son of the Fatherland”, “Northern Archive”, “Proceedings of the Society of Russian Literature”. In 1825–1834 he published the magazine of “literature, criticism and art” “Moscow Telegraph”, which became the main work of his life and a stage in the development of Russian culture. He was the first to create a type of Russian encyclopedic magazine, based on which the “Library for Reading”, “Notes of the Fatherland” by A.A. Kraevsky, N.A. Nekrasov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and others, and “Contemporary” were later published. In an effort to “introduce everything interesting” in Russia and the West, Polevoy divided the magazine’s materials into sections: science and art, literature, bibliography and criticism, news and mixture. Maintaining constant information contacts with the Parisian literary and journalistic magazine “Revue encyclopedique”, he attached special importance to the criticism department, later noting: “No one will challenge my honor that I was the first to make criticism a permanent part of a Russian magazine, the first to collect criticism on all the most important modern objects."
The Moscow Telegraph published satirical supplements “The New Painter of Society and Literature” (1830–1831) and “Camera Obscura of Books and People” (1832). The magazine published works by I.I. Lazhechnikov, V.I. Dahl, A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky (especially active in the 1830s), A.F. Veltman, V.A. Ushakov, D.N. Begichev, Polevoy himself; from foreign authors - W. Scott, W. Irving, E. T. A. Hoffmann, P. Merimee, B. Constant, V. Hugo, O. Balzac and others. In 1825–1828, “aristocratic” writers appeared in the magazine (V.F. Odoevsky, E.A. Baratynsky, A.I. Turgenev, S.A. Sobolevsky, etc.) from the circle of A.S. Pushkin – P.A. Vyazemsky, a leading magazine critic, whose break with Polev occurred in 1829 due to harsh criticism by the latter History of the Russian State N.M. Karamzina. From that time on, a sharp polemic between the Moscow Telegraph and the “literary aristocracy” began, led primarily by Polev himself and his brother Xenophon, who actually became the editor-in-chief of the magazine (in 1835–1844 editor of the Zhivopisnoe Obozreniye magazine, in 1856–1859 publisher of the Zhivopisnaya magazine Russian library"; author of literary criticism; author of books. M.V. Lomonosov, 1836; Notes on the life and writings of N.A. Polevoy, 1888).
In 1829–1833 Polevoy wrote History of the Russian people. A convinced monarchist, like Karamzin, he reproaches the master of Russian historiography for being more of a chronicler-storyteller than an analyst and researcher. Contrary to Karamzin, he argued that statehood in Russia did not exist in the ancient (before the reign of Ivan III) period, and therefore found the anti-boyar policy of the “centralizers” Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov justified. The same anti-aristocratic position, stated in the very title of the work, was reflected in the articles, notes and feuilletons (more than 200) published by Polev in the Moscow Telegraph, and in the speeches he read at the Moscow Practical Academy of Commercial Sciences ( About ignorant capital, 1828; About the merchant title, and especially in Russia, 1832) and in other works of Polevoy, where the idea of free bourgeois development was put forward, the equality of all before the law accepted in France, achieved by the revolution of 1789, was glorified, the revolution of 1830 was welcomed ( The current state of dramatic art in France, 1830, etc.).
Polevoy’s ethical views, based on the philosophy of Schelling in the interpretation of V. Cousin, as well as on the views of the French historians F. Guizot and A. Thierry, rejected the normativity of classicism and, following the principle of historical assessment of art as the embodiment of national identity in certain “conditions of centuries and societies” , gave preference to romanticism as a popular movement (high praise from Hugo, A. de Vigny, Constant in the article About the new school and French poetry, 1831; About the novels of V. Hugo and in general about the latest novels, 1832). In works devoted to domestic literature ( About dramatic fantasy N. Kukolnik« Torquato Tasso", 1834; articles about the works of G.R. Derzhavin, ballads and stories of V.A. Zhukovsky, about Boris Godunov Pushkin; reviews of the works of A.D. Kantemir, I.I. Khemnitser and others, combined into Essays on Russian literature, 1839), Polevoy, for the first time in a monographic study, attaching fundamental importance to the biography of the writer, largely anticipated the objective historical and literary concept of V.G. Belinsky (“Consider each object not according to an unconscious feeling, like, don’t like, good, bad,” wrote Polevoy in 1831, - but according to the historical considerations of the century and the people and the philosophical most important truths and the human soul"). At the same time, advocating for the “truth of image,” Polevoy accepted N.I. Nadezhdin’s thesis “Where there is life, there is poetry,” believing the eternal opposition between art and reality, which is, in principle, “anti-aesthetic” (article Is the truth of the image the goal of an elegant work??, 1832), and recognizing the possible connection of these contrasting spheres only on the basis of romanticism, however, in his opinion, not in the works of Pushkin and, especially, N.V. Gogol, whose Auditor Polevoy called it a “farce,” and in Dead souls saw only “ugliness” and “poverty” of the content. In 1834 for Polevoy’s disapproving review of the jingoistic drama of the Puppeteer The hand of the Almighty saved the Fatherland The magazine "Moscow Telegraph" (the direction of which censorship and police circles had long considered as "Jacobin") was closed.
From 1837, having moved to St. Petersburg, Polevoy took over, under an agreement with the publisher A.F. Smirdin, the secret editors of “Son of the Fatherland” (headed by F.V. Bulgarin; left the magazine in 1838) and “Northern Bee” (headed by with N.I. Grech; left in 1840). In 1841–1842 he edited the Russian Messenger, organized by Grech, an opponent of the natural school, but was not successful. In 1846, severely criticized by Belinsky for renegade, he began (under an agreement with Kraevsky) to edit the liberal Literary Newspaper.
Author of the novel Abbadonna(1837) and stories Emma (1829), Oath at the Holy Sepulcher, Painter, Bliss of Madness(both 1833; united under the name. Dreams and life, book 1–2, 1934), in a romantic spirit, depicting the tragic clash of an idealist dreamer with the prose of life. At the same time, the writer constantly raised the question of the place in the noble society of the Russian bourgeois - a representative of the third estate, endowed with the best, from Polevoy’s point of view, qualities (religiosity and moral firmness), but constrained by the narrowness of interests and cultural backwardness of his environment, opposed, for all that volume, the soullessness and selfishness of the aristocracy with patriarchal simplicity, spiritual sincerity and patriotism ( Grandfather of the Russian Navy, 1838; loyal dramas for the Alexandrinsky Theater Igolkin, merchant of Novgorod, 1839; Parasha Siberian, 1870, which enjoyed particular stage success; Lomonosov, or Life and Poetry, 1843). Translated, among other things (published in Sat. Stories and literary excerpts, 1829–1830) tragedy in prose Hamlet W. Shakespeare (1837; based on this translation, the famous P.S. Mochalov played in the title role).
Polevoy's artistic works, which had a wide circle of admirers during the author's lifetime, were soon (until the end of the 20th century) forgotten. Realistic tendencies in the early work of the writer (most clearly manifested in the works written in 1829 in the form of a tale Stories of a Russian soldier and stories Bag of gold) were approved, in contrast to the works of the 1840s, by the Belinskys, who indicated in the obituary brochure N.A. Polevoy(1846) Polevoy’s contribution to the development of Russian literature, aesthetics and education, primarily as the publisher of the Moscow Telegraph. Consonant with this is the assessment of Polevoy’s activities by A.I. Herzen in the book On the development of revolutionary ideas in Russia(1850): “Polevoy began to democratize Russian literature; he forced her to descend from aristocratic heights and made her more popular...”
Polevoy also published an extensive reference and bibliographic publication Russian Vivliofika, or Collection of materials for Russian history, geography, statistics and ancient Russian literature (1833).
POLEVOY Nikolai Alekseevich was born into the family of a wealthy Kursk merchant - writer, journalist, literary critic, historian.
My father served in Irkutsk as manager of the Russian-American Company and owned a faience and vodka factory. But his affairs began to deteriorate. Shortly before Napoleon's invasion, the family moved to Moscow, then settled in their native Kursk.
In 1822 Nikolai Alekseevich inherited his father's business. I did not receive a systematic education. He was attracted to literary activity. Self-taught, he acquired knowledge. I started reading at the age of 6, randomly. A barber from Napoleon's army, an Italian, showed him the pronunciation of French in Kabul, a music teacher, a Bohemian, taught him the German alphabet. New worlds opened up before Polevoy.
When he first arrived in Moscow, he became addicted to the theater. As a volunteer he attended lectures at Moscow University: he listened to Merzlyakov, Kachenovsky, Geim.
In 1817 he began to publish: his description of Alexander I’s visit to the city of Kursk appeared in S. N. Glinka’s “Russian Bulletin”.
In February 1820 he left Kursk for Moscow.
In the summer of 1821 he visited St. Petersburg. I saw Griboyedov, Zhukovsky in literary circles, met Bulgarin, Grech. Nikolai Alekseevich was accepted as a “self-taught merchant”, a “nugget”. Polevoy Svinin published in his “Notes of the Fatherland” his articles on literary and historical topics, poems, translations (of Ms. Montolier’s stories).
In 1821 Nikolai Alekseevich composed “A new way of conjugating Russian verbs”, for which he received a silver medal from the Russian Academy. He became close to V.F. Odoevsky, became acquainted with the philosophy of Schelling and his interpreters. Published in “Mnemosyne”, “Son of the Fatherland”, “Northern Archive”, “Proceedings of the Society of Russian Literature”.
In 1825-34 Polevoy published the Moscow Telegraph, a magazine of “literature, criticism and the arts.” This is the most important work of Polevoy’s life, of great historical significance. He was the first to create a type of Russian encyclopedic magazine; Based on this model, the “Library for Reading”, “Notes of the Fatherland”, and “Contemporary” were later created. Setting the goal of “introducing everything interesting” in Russia and the West, he created four departments in the magazine:
1) science and art,
2) literature,
3) bibliography and criticism,
4) news and mixture.
Nikolai Alekseevich drew materials from the liberal French magazines “Le Globe”, “Revue framjaise”, and the reputable Scottish “The Edinburgh Rewiev”. Maintained close contacts and mutual information with the Revue encyclopedique of Julien de Paris. Polevoy attached fundamental importance to the criticism department in the magazine. Later, he himself wrote: “No one will challenge my honor that I was the first to make criticism a permanent part of a Russian magazine, the first to turn criticism to all the most important modern subjects.”
In 1825-28, “aristocratic” writers from the Vyazemsky-Pushkin group collaborated in the magazine: V. Odoevsky, S. D. Poltoratsky, E. Baratynsky, S. A. Sobolevsky, Y. Tolstoy, A. Turgenev. Vyazemsky was a leading, sharp critic.
In 1829 there was a break with Vyazemsky, when the writer began to sharply criticize Karamzin’s “History of the Russian State”; polemics with the “literary aristocracy” began. The direction of the magazine began to be determined entirely by the articles of the Polev brothers themselves. Ksenophon Polevoy becomes the actual editor-in-chief. Nikolai Polevoy switched to other literary ideas: "History of the Russian people"(vol. I - VI, 1829-33), fiction. Marlinsky's role as a fiction writer and critic increased greatly. Nikolai Alekseevich was no less a “monarchist” than Karamzin. But he reproached Karamzin for being more of a chronicler-storyteller than a historian-researcher. He believed that the idea of statehood did not extend to the ancient (before John III) period, that at that time there was not a Russian state, but many appanage states. Karamzin did not see historical necessity, justified expediency in the anti-boyar policy of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov (the anti-noble, bourgeois-merchant orientation of Polevoy himself was reflected here).
In 1830-31, the magazine published a special satirical supplement "New painter of society and literature".
In 1832 she replaced him "Camera obscura of books and people"- sharp, meaningful satire. The magazine published works by Lazhechnikov, V. Dahl, Marlinsky, V. Ushakov, D. Begichev, A. Veltman, Polevoy himself, among foreign authors - V. Scott, Washington Irving, Hoffmann, Merimee, B. Constant, V. Hugo, Balzac and others.
Nikolai Alekseevich published more than 200 articles and notes in the Moscow Telegraph. He was a herald of the ideas of free bourgeois development. He substantiated the rights of the Russian “third estate” in speeches read at the Moscow Practical Academy of Commercial Sciences:
"On immaterial capital" (1828),
"About the merchant title" (1832),
and in the preface to his novel "Oath at the Holy Sepulchre"(1832). He glorified the “equality” of everyone before the law that prevailed in France, and sympathized with the revolution of 1830, which brought the big bourgeoisie to power (“The Current State of Dramatic Art in France,” 1830, part 34, No. 15 and 16; reviews of the brochure “Woe from Wit” , 1831, part 36, no. 16; etc.). Polevoy believed that the causes of the French Revolution of 1789 were “deep, varied, active and powerful.” But Nikolai Alekseevich accepted only the results of the revolution, and not its violent methods. The writer’s position was reflected in the compromise of the Russian bourgeoisie, which was entering into an alliance with the tsarist autocracy. This predetermined his capitulation to the authorities when they closed the Moscow Telegraph in April 1834 for its liberal direction, using as a reason Polevoy’s disapproving review of the Puppeteer’s jingoistic drama “The Hand of the Almighty Saved the Fatherland” (No. 3), from production which Nicholas I was delighted with in St. Petersburg.
At the best time of his activity, Nikolai Alekseevich was a herald of romanticism, mainly French: the work of Hugo, A. de Vigny, Constant. He found the philosophical basis for his constructions in the eclectic system of V. Cousin. The writer began to introduce the principle of historicism into criticism. His articles are especially important:
"The Present State of Dramatic Art in France"(1830, part 34, no. 15 and 16),
"On the New School and French Poetry"(1831, part 38, no. 6),
“About the novels of V. Hugo and in general about the latest novels”(1832, part 43, no. 1, 2 and 3),
"On Dramatic Fantasy" N. Kukolnik "Torquato Tasso"(1834, part 55, no. 3 and 4).
From Russian literature, his articles on the works of Derzhavin (1832), ballads and stories of Zhukovsky (1832), about Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov” (1833), reviews of the works of Kantemir, Khemnitser and others, then combined in “Essays on Russian Literature” (part 1-2, St. Petersburg, 1839). Polevoy N.A. sought to rely on biographical facts, for the first time giving them fundamental importance in a monographic study of the artist of words. His articles about various writers represent elements of N.A. Polevoy’s work. a holistic historical and literary concept that preceded Belinsky’s concept.
The writer considered “romanticism in poetry as liberalism in politics” (Hugo’s words), as a means of establishing a new, democratic, anti-noble art. The principles of freedom of creativity, uninhibited from constraining rules and regulation, and the destruction of normativism were preached by Polevoy. True, Nikolai Alekseevich, according to Belinsky, denied more than he asserted, he disputed more than he proved. But in the articles of the last years of the existence of the Moscow Telegraph, he more and more clearly developed the theses of objective, historical aesthetics, speaking out against the subjectivist aesthetics of taste and arbitrary judgments. “Consider each object,” he wrote, “not according to an unconscious feeling: like, dislike, good, bad, but according to the historical considerations of the century and the people and the philosophical considerations of the most important truths and the human soul” (1831, part 37, no. 3, p. . 381). In these arguments, the writer acted as a direct predecessor of Belinsky.
But, fighting for the “truth of image,” Nikolai Alekseevich still remained a romantic and had a limited understanding of his task. He rebelled against the aesthetic dissertation of N. I. Nadezhdin, who proclaimed an important thesis: “Where there is life, there is poetry,” although, as researchers note, perhaps under the influence of the same Nadezhdin, Polevoy himself increasingly began to recognize the primacy of reality in relation to art and the role of objective historical circumstances influencing the artist’s work (see review of “Torquato Tasso” by Kukolnik, 1834, part 55, no. 3 and 4). Yet “naked truth” seemed anti-aesthetic to him: “Is the truth of the image the goal of an elegant work?” (1832, part 43, no. 4, p. 539). Polevoy proceeded from the thesis that there is an allegedly eternal contradiction between the poet and society. However, he did not know how to eliminate this contradiction, and capitulated to it. “Both the world and the poet are both right; society is mistaken if it wants to make a worker out of a poet... along with others, the poet is equally mistaken if he thinks that his poetry gives him the same right to a place among people that his arshin gives to a merchant, to an official from his office, to a courtier from his gold caftan" (1834, part 55, no. 3). Initially, Nikolai Alekseevich rejected the ideas of Hugo’s preface to the drama “Cromwell”. But later he accepted Hugo’s theses regarding the “contrasting” image of life as corresponding to the “spirit of the times,” realizing that romanticism is “diversity, destructive, wild impulse,” “struggle of the spirit” (1832, part 43, no. 3, p. 375). But he recognized the combination of opposite elements only on the basis of romanticism. In the works of Pushkin and especially Gogol, the writer did not recognize this as legitimate and aesthetic.
Nikolai Alekseevich completely rejected all Russian literature of the 18th century. in originality, making a concession only to Derzhavin. He harshly condemned Karamzin for his imitation. And he condemned Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov” for allegedly slavishly following Karamzin the historian, overlooking the problem of the people that was important to Pushkin. Polevoy gave a more objective assessment of the great poet in the obituary article “Pushkin” in the “Library for Reading” (1837, vol. 21).
The situation with Gogol's assessment was even worse. He called “The Inspector General” a “farce”; in “Dead Souls” he saw only “ugliness”, “poverty” of content. Nikolai Alekseevich did not understand Gogol’s grotesqueness, his realistic contrasts, the combination of the sublime and the comic.
The writer is also known as a fiction writer and has written a number of novels and stories in a romantic spirit:
"Emma" (1829),
"Oath at the Holy Sepulchre" (1832),
"The Painter" (1833),
"The Bliss of Madness" (1833),
"Abbadona" (1834).
Some of the works were combined by him in a two-volume publication entitled “Dreams and Life” (1834). As the title of the collection itself shows, the writer proceeds from the same thesis: “The dreams of poets are not suitable for the material world,” they are broken in the battles of life. Polevoy's favorite conflict is the clash between the poet-dreamer and the prose of life. He did not overcome the dualism of the romantic view of reality, and was unable to dialectically resolve the issue of the connection between the individual and society. The most valuable of his prose experiments were "Stories of a Russian Soldier" And "Bag of Gold"(1829), written in a manner approaching realistic, in the form of an ingenuous tale.
Having survived the shock due to the closure of the Moscow Telegraph, Nikolai Alekseevich moved to St. Petersburg in 1837 and became close to Bulgarin and Grech. He collaborated with the Northern Bee, but failed to “ennoble” it and left Bulgarin in 1838.
In 1840 he resigned as editor of Grech's Son of the Fatherland.
To please the “official people,” he writes reptilian dramas for the Alexandrinsky Theater:
"Grandfather of the Russian Navy" (1838),
"Parasha the Siberian" (1840),
"Igolkin, merchant of Novgorod" (1839),
"Lomonosov, or Life and Poetry" (1843).
Only the prose translation of Shakespeare's Hamlet was valuable.
In 1842, Nikolai Alekseevich edited the Russian Messenger, but was not successful. Belinsky persecuted him for renegade. Polevoy experienced a painful drama.
In 1846, he tried to break with the reactionary environment and, under an agreement with Kraevsky, began editing the Literary Newspaper. But soon death came.
Belinsky wrote the brochure “N. A. Polevoy" (1846), in which he highly praised the writer's activities as the publisher of the Moscow Telegraph.
Died - St. Petersburg.
The pseudonym under which the politician Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov writes. ... In 1907 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the 2nd State Duma in St. Petersburg.
Alyabyev, Alexander Alexandrovich, Russian amateur composer. ... A.'s romances reflected the spirit of the times. As then-Russian literature, they are sentimental, sometimes corny. Most of them are written in a minor key. They are almost no different from Glinka’s first romances, but the latter has stepped far forward, while A. remained in place and is now outdated.
The filthy Idolishche (Odolishche) is an epic hero...
Pedrillo (Pietro-Mira Pedrillo) is a famous jester, a Neapolitan, who at the beginning of the reign of Anna Ioannovna arrived in St. Petersburg to sing the roles of buffa and play the violin in the Italian court opera.
Dahl, Vladimir Ivanovich
His numerous stories suffer from a lack of real artistic creativity, deep feeling and a broad view of the people and life. Dahl did not go further than everyday pictures, anecdotes caught on the fly, told in a unique language, smartly, vividly, with a certain humor, sometimes falling into mannerism and jokeiness.
Varlamov, Alexander Egorovich
Varlamov, apparently, did not work at all on the theory of musical composition and was left with the meager knowledge that he could have learned from the chapel, which in those days did not at all care about the general musical development of its students.
Nekrasov Nikolay Alekseevich
None of our great poets has so many poems that are downright bad from all points of view; He himself bequeathed many poems not to be included in the collected works. Nekrasov is not consistent even in his masterpieces: and suddenly prosaic, listless verse hurts the ear.
Gorky, Maxim
By his origin, Gorky by no means belongs to those dregs of society, of which he appeared as a singer in literature.
Zhikharev Stepan Petrovich
His tragedy “Artaban” did not see either print or stage, since, in the opinion of Prince Shakhovsky and the frank review of the author himself, it was a mixture of nonsense and nonsense.
Sherwood-Verny Ivan Vasilievich
“Sherwood,” writes one contemporary, “in society, even in St. Petersburg, was not called anything other than bad Sherwood... his comrades in military service shunned him and called him by the dog name “fidelka.”
Obolyaninov Petr Khrisanfovich
...Field Marshal Kamensky publicly called him “a state thief, a bribe-taker, a complete fool.”
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