The main dates of life, creativity and social activities c. G

(1853-1922) - prose writer, publicist.
Korolenko was born in the family of a county judge, he began to study at a Polish boarding school, then at the Zhytomyr gymnasium, and graduated from the Rivne real gymnasium.
In 1871 he graduated with a silver medal and entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. But the need forced Korolenko to leave the doctrine and go over to the position of "intelligent proletarian." In 1874 he moved to
Moscow and enters the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry (now Timiryazevskaya) Academy. In 1876 he was expelled from the gymnasium for a year and sent into exile, which was then replaced by a supervised "residence" in Kronstadt. Korolenko was refused reinstatement at the Petrovsky Academy, and in 1877 he became a student for the third time at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute.
In 1879, following a denunciation by an agent of the tsarist gendarmerie, Korolenko was arrested. Over the next six years, he was in prisons, at stages, in exile. In the same year, Korolenko's story "Episodes from the Life of a Seeker" appeared in a St. Petersburg magazine. While in the Vyshnevolotsk political prison, he wrote the story "Wonderful" (the manuscript was distributed in the lists, without the knowledge of the author, the story was published in 1893 in London, in Russia - only in 1905 under the title "Business trip").
Since 1885, Korolenko was allowed to settle in Nizhny Novgorod. The next eleven years were the heyday of his work, active social activities. Since 1885, stories and essays created or printed in exile have been regularly published in the capital's magazines: Makar's Dream, In Bad Society, The Forest Noises, Sokolinets, and others. Collected together in 1886, they compiled a book " Essays and stories. In the same year, Korolenko worked on the story "The Blind Musician", which went through fifteen editions during the author's lifetime.
The stories were divided into two groups related to the sources of themes and images: Ukrainian and Siberian. Another source of impressions, reflected in a number of Korolenko's works, is the Volga and the Volga region. The Volga for him is the "cradle of Russian romanticism", its banks still remember the campaigns of Razin and Pugachev, "Volga" stories and travel essays are filled with thoughts about the fate of the Russian people: "Behind the Icon", "On the Eclipse" (both - 1887), "In Cloudy Day" (1890), "The River Plays" (1891), "Artist Alymov" (1896) and others. In 1889, the second book of Essays and Stories was published.
In 1883, Korolenko went on a trip to America, which resulted in a story, and in fact a whole novel about the life of a Ukrainian emigrant in America, "Without a Language" (1895).
Korolenko considered himself a fiction writer "only half", the other half of his work was journalism, closely related to his many-sided social activities. By the mid-80s, Korolenko published dozens of correspondence and articles. A book was compiled from his publications in the Russkiye Vedomosti newspaper.
"In the year of famine" (1893), in it a stunning picture of the people's disaster is associated with poverty and serfdom, in which the Russian village continued to remain.
For health reasons, Korolenko moved to Poltava (after the Russian Academy of Sciences elected him an honorary member in 1900). Here he completes the cycle of Siberian stories ("Tsar's coachmen", "Frost", "Feudal lords", "The last ray"), writes the story "Not terrible".
In 1903, the third book of Essays and Stories was published. Since 1905, work began on the multi-volume History of My Contemporary, which continued until Korolenko's death.
After the defeat of the first Russian revolution of 1905, he opposes the "wild orgy" of executions and punitive expeditions (the essays "Everyday Phenomenon" (1910), "Features of Military Justice" (1910), "In a Calm Village" (1911), against chauvinistic persecution and slander ("The Beilis Case" (1913).
Having left on the eve of the First World War for treatment abroad, Korolenko was able to return to Russia only in 1915. After the February Revolution, he published the pamphlet The Fall of Tsarist Power.
Struggling with a progressive heart disease, Korolenko continues to work on "The History of My Contemporary", essays "Earth! Earth!", organizes food collection for the children of Moscow and Petrograd, establishes colonies for orphans and homeless children, is elected honorary chairman of the League for Saving Children, the All-Russian Committee for Assistance starving. The death of the writer came from a recurrence of inflammation of the brain.
One of the main themes of Korolenko's artistic work is the path to the "real people". Reflections on the people, the search for an answer to the riddle of the Russian people, which determined so much in the human and literary fate of Korolenko, are closely connected with the question that runs through many of his works. "For what, in essence, was man created?" - this is how the question is posed in the story "Paradox". "Man is born for happiness, like a bird for flight," answers the creature warped by fate in this story.
No matter how hostile life is, "still ahead - lights!" - wrote Korolenko in a poem in prose "Lights" (1900). But Korolenko's optimism is not thoughtless, not blind to reality. "Man is created for happiness, only happiness is not always created for him." So Korolenko affirms his understanding of happiness.
Korolenko is a realist who has always been attracted by romanticism in life, reflecting on the fate of the romantic, the lofty in harsh, not at all romantic reality. He has many heroes whose spiritual intensity, self-burning selflessness raise them above the dull, sleepy reality, serve as a reminder of the "highest beauty of the human spirit."
"... To discover the meaning of the individual on the basis of the knowledge of the masses," was how Korolenko formulated the task of literature back in 1887. This requirement, realized in the work of Korolenko himself, connects him with the literature of the next era, which reflected the awakening and activity of the masses.

) is very typical of what was considered "artistic" in the 1880s and 1890s. It is full of emotional poetry and "Turgenev's" pictures of nature. The lyrical element today seems somewhat outdated and uninteresting, and most of us will probably prefer his last book, in which he almost completely freed himself from "poetry". But it was precisely this poetry that appealed to the Russian reading public of his era, which revived the cult of Turgenev. Although everyone knew that Korolenko was a radical and a revolutionary, all parties received him with equal enthusiasm. The party-independent welcome given to writers in the 1980s was a sign of the times. Garshin and Korolenko were recognized as classics (smaller, but classics!) before Leskov (who is much larger than them, but was born at a less fortunate time) received at least remote recognition.

Portrait of Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko. Artist I. Repin, 1912

Although Korolenko's poetry has faded over the years, his first works still retain some of their charm. For even this poetry of his rises above the level of "pretty" in the descriptions of the majestic northern nature. The northeast of Siberia, with its vast uninhabited spaces, short polar days and dazzling snowy deserts, lives in his early stories in all its impressive immensity. He masterfully writes the atmosphere. Everyone who reads remembers the romantic island with a ruined castle and tall poplar trees rustling in the wind in the story. In a bad society(see the full text of this story on our website).

But the uniqueness of Korolenko lies in the combination of poetry with subtle humor and undying faith in the human soul. Sympathy for people and faith in human kindness is characteristic of the Russian populist; Korolenko's world is a world based on optimism, for man is by nature good, and only the bad conditions of life created by despotism and crude egoistic capitalism have made him what he is - a poor, helpless, absurd, miserable and irritating creature. In the first story of Korolenko - Dream Makara- there is true poetry, not only in the way the Yakut landscape is written, but, most importantly, in the author's deepest and indestructible sympathy for the dark, unenlightened savage, naive and selfish and still carrying a ray of divine light.

Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko. video film

Korolenkov's humor is especially charming. There is absolutely no satirical gimmicks in it. It is laid-back, natural, and there is in it that lightness that is rare among Russian authors. Korolenko's humor is often intertwined with poetry, as in a charming story At night, where children at night, in the bedroom, discuss the exciting question - where do children come from. Yom Kippur, with his funny Hebrew devil, is that mixture of humor and fantasy that is so charming in Gogol's early stories, but Korolenko's colors are softer, calmer, and, although he does not have an ounce of the creative wealth of his great countryman, he surpasses him in warmth and humanity . The most purely humorous of his stories - No tongue(1895) - tells about three Ukrainian peasants who emigrated to America, not knowing a word in any language other than their own. Russian criticism called this story Dickensian, and this is true in the sense that Korolenko, like Dickens, the absurdity, the absurdity of the characters does not prevent the reader from loving them.

Korolenko's last thing is his autobiography, a story about his own life, unusually accurate and truthful, but which he, out of some overscrupulousness, called the story not of his own, but of his contemporary. It is less poetic than his first works, it is not embellished in any way, but the two main qualities of Korolenkov's prose are very strong there - humor and humanity. We meet there charming pictures of the life of semi-Polish Volhynia; we see his father, scrupulously honest, but wayward. He recalls his first impressions - the village, the school, the great events that he witnessed - the liberation of the peasants and the Polish uprising. He shows us unusually lively figures of eccentrics and originals - perhaps their portraits succeeded him better than anyone else. This is certainly not a sensational book, but it is a delightfully calm story told by an old man (he was only fifty-five years old when he started it, but something from the "grandfather" in the image of Korolenko was always present), who has a lot of time, and he tells with pleasure, reviving the memory of what happened fifty years ago.

Born July 15, 1853 in Zhytomyr in the family of a court official of the Ukrainian noble family (his image is captured in the story "In Bad Society" and "The History of My Contemporary") and mother, Polish, Catholic from the gentry class. He studied at the Zhytomyr and Rivne gymnasiums, whose students were Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, Jews. Multinational environment, diverse cultural traditions have left a special stamp on his work, artistic style. The future writer subsequently repeatedly protested against national oppression and religious intolerance.

His outlook was formed under the influence of the works of I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, D. I. Pisarev, N. A. Dobrolyubov. After the death of his father in 1870, the Korolenko family was left without a livelihood (Korolenko had two more brothers and a sister). Having settled in St. Petersburg, the future writer, together with his brothers, took up coloring atlases and proofreading work. At the end of 1870, the first literary experiments of Korolenko appeared in print, but at that time the author was not noticed by the reading public. His debut story "Episodes from the Life of a Seeker" "The Word", 1879, written at a time when the writer was fascinated by the ideas of "truth-seeking", testified to the high moral upsurge that gripped Russian youth, called for living in the name of the public good. This mood largely determined the further personal and creative fate of the writer.

In 1871 he entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, but did not graduate from it. In 1874 he successfully passed the entrance exams to the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy in Moscow, but he did not study here for long either, in 1876 he was expelled for participating in a collective protest directed at the administration of the academy.

In this regard, he was exiled to Vyatka (on the way to the place of exile, the story "Wonderful" was written, published a quarter of a century later, in 1905), then to Kronstadt - his exile lasted a year. The time spent in Vyatka, Korolenko considered the best. G. I. Uspensky becomes his new literary landmark, depicting "the living life of living people." Having received a free residence permit in 1877, Korolenko entered the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg, which he also left, because he was carried away by the ideas of the populists and, dreaming of getting closer to the people, began to learn how to shoemaker.

In 1878, he tried himself as a journalist by publishing material in the Novosti newspaper. In 1879 he was arrested on suspicion of having connections with revolutionaries and illegal organizations. After he refused to swear allegiance to Emperor Alexander III, in 1881 he was exiled to Yakutia, where he served a three-year exile. The harsh but beautiful nature of Eastern Siberia, the difficult life of the settlers, the peculiar psychology of the Siberians, whose life was full of the most incredible adventures, are reflected in Korolenko's Siberian essays: Makar's Dream (1885), Notes of a Siberian Tourist, Sokolinets "(1885)," In the department under investigation.

"The Dream of Makar" is the second major publication of the writer. In the image of the protagonist, who seemed to have long lost his human appearance, the author nevertheless saw a man. The source of Makar's deviations from the truth is that no one taught him to distinguish good from evil. The essay, written in poetic language, with a masterfully put together plot, brought the writer a real success. Following Makar's Dream, the story In Bad Society (1885) was published, the plot of which was based on Rovno memories. The motif of "outcastes" appeared in the writer's work. The story is better known in an abridged version for children's reading as "Children of the Underground".

In 1885 Korolenko settled in Nizhny Novgorod, remaining under police supervision. However, he was allowed to engage in journalism, literary work. Upper Volga life, with all its hardships and small joys, organically entered the writer's books. The following stories were written here: “At the Eclipse” (1887), “Behind the Icon” (1887), “Birds of Heaven” (1889), “The River Plays” (1892), “On the Volga” ( 1889) as well as "Pavlovian Essays" (1890) and the essays that made up the book "In the year of famine" (1893).

"The River Plays" is one of the best stories not only of this period, but, perhaps, of all Korolenko's work. The writer created the image of, at first glance, a careless, but in fact charming, captivating sincerity carrier Tyulin, who put the soul of an artist into his simple craft.

Ten years spent in Nizhny Novgorod turned out to be very fruitful for the writer. He was engaged in literary creativity, was active in social activities: he helped in organizing assistance to the starving, he found personal happiness (he married Avdotya Semyonovna Ivanovskaya, in October their eldest daughter was born). Here he received reader recognition; met A.P. Chekhov, L.N. Tolstoy, N.G. Chernyshevsky and others. In 1887, the story “The Blind Musician” was published as an independent publication, which became, in modern terms, a bestseller. "The Blind Musician" is a story about man's eternal desire for the unknown. Its main character experiences an irresistible craving for a light that he has never seen. In the work, the realism of the image of reality is harmoniously combined with the idealism of the worldview. The main theme that worries the writer is the triumph of the spiritual principle in man over the material aspects of life. The story was translated into European languages ​​and interested P. Verlaine, who saw in it an example of a new art.

In 1893 Korolenko crossed the ocean to visit the World Art and Industrial Exhibition in Chicago. The writer strongly disliked America. This trip strengthened his rejection of the bourgeois world. In 1902, the writer published the story "Without a Language", written in the wake of American impressions.

Korolenko's interest in the "psychology of universal longing for the unattainable" ("Letters to A. G. Gornfeld") can also be traced in the story "Night" (1888). A child who feels the "mystery" of birth and death is, in the author's opinion, wiser than a medical student. Rationalists saw in this story the author's bias towards metaphysics.

The best journalistic works of the writer include the article "On the Complexity of Life" - a reminder of the successive connection between the generations of the Russian intelligentsia, whose task is to protect the personal freedom of a person.

In 1896-1918. Korolenko was a member of the editorial board of the Russian Wealth magazine in St. Petersburg (since 1904 - editor-publisher). The writer believed that civil society was not sufficiently developed in Russia, the legal consciousness of the people was extremely weak, and there was almost no justice (he himself repeatedly acted as a human rights activist at trials).

In 1900, he moved from St. Petersburg to Poltava due to nervous exhaustion, where his life did not become more measured and calm: frequent trips to the capital on magazine business, difficulties with censorship. Here he completed a cycle of Siberian stories ("The sovereign's coachmen", "Frost", "Feudal lords", "The last ray"), wrote the story "Not terrible".

In 1902, together with Chekhov, he refused the title of honorary academician (he was among the first elected) in protest against the cancellation of the election of M. Gorky to the Academy of Sciences.

In journalism, he directly expressed his civic humanistic position, indignation at the Jewish pogroms (House No. 13, 1905). In 1905, when the censorship was somewhat weakened, he began to work on the artistic chronicle of his generation, writing it with long breaks until the end of his days. Completely "History of my contemporary", sustained in the literary tradition of Herzen's "Past and Thoughts", appeared in 1922-29. - it clearly expresses the multifaceted talent of the writer, his attraction to lyrical, essay and journalistic genres.

He perceived the February Revolution of 1917 as an opportunity for the democratic renewal of Russia. On March 6, 1917, he spoke at a rally in Poltava about the overthrow of the autocracy. He reacted coolly to the October Revolution, and during the years of the Civil War he sharply opposed the bloody suppression of peasant uprisings, branded revolutionary terror (six letters to A.V. Lunacharsky, 1922).

In 1921, being seriously ill, he refused to leave Russia and go abroad for treatment. In 1922, in a series of essays under the emotional title “Earths! Earth!" outlined his own ideas about the foundations on which Russia could be reborn. In the eyes of his contemporaries, he remained a "moral genius", a man of high moral principles, a righteous man of Russian literature.

Korolenko became interested in the Orenburg region with the Pugachev uprising. The first time in the Orenburg region, in Buguruslan, Korolenko was in 1891 on his way to Ufa. In July 1900, Korolenko visited the village. Ilek. Korolenko's interest was due to the fact that Ilek was the first to recognize Pugachev as "king", here he was greeted with bread and salt. On August 25-26, 1900, he made another trip to the Orenburg Territory to the Talovaya River, since, according to the writer, there was an "umet", an inn, "where Pugachev started his business." “Korolenko described his trip in the essays “At the Cossacks” (1901). In the essay dedicated to the description of Ilek, there are pages where Korolenko reaches a special artistic power. This is a wonderful scene of a kind of song contest between old and young Cossacks in the Plevna tavern. The researchers compared this scene, according to the strength of artistic penetration, with the "Singers" by I. S. Turgenev. This scene and all the essays "At the Cossacks" were highly appreciated by L. N. Tolstoy and A. P. Chekhov.

MAIN DATES OF LIFE, CREATIVITY AND PUBLIC ACTIVITIES OF V. G. KOROLENKO 5

1853 July 15 (27)- Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko was born in the city of Zhytomyr, Volyn province.

1864 - Goes to high school.

1871 - With a silver medal, he graduated from the gymnasium and entered the Technological Institute in St. Petersburg.

1873 - Leaving the institute. Corrective work.

1874 - Admitted to the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy.

1876 - Expelled from the academy for submitting a collective application. Settlement in Kronstadt under open police supervision. Drawing work.

1877 - Enters the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg. Correction work in the newspaper "News". Participation in the funeral of Nekrasov.

1878 - Studying shoemaking, intending to take part in "going to the people."

Korolenko brothers, Vladimir and Julian, translated the book of J. Michelet "Bird". The first appearance in the press - a note in the Novosti newspaper - "A fight at Apraksin's yard (Letter to the editor)".

1879 - Arrest and deportation to the city of Glazov, Vyatka province. Shoe work. The Slovo magazine published "Episodes from the Life of a "Seeker". Exiled to Berezovsky Pochinki.

1880 - Arrest and transfer to the Vyshnevolotsk political prison. The story "Wonderful" is written. Korolenko was sent into exile in Siberia. On the prisoner's barge, the essay "The Fake City" was written. Returned from the road and settled under police supervision in the city of Perm. In the "Word" printed "Fake City". Service as a timekeeper and clerk on the railway.

1881 - The story “Temporary inhabitants of the “under investigation department” was printed. Renunciation of an oath. Exiled to the Amga settlement of the Yakutsk region.

1882–1884 - Farming and shoemaking. The stories “Killer”, “The Dream of Makar”, work on the stories “Sokolinets”, “In Bad Society”, “Vagabond Marriage” (“Marusina Zaimka”), “Machinists” (“Tsar's Coachmen”), etc. were written.

1885 - Settlement in Nizhny Novgorod. Cooperation in the newspapers "Volzhsky Vestnik" and "Russian Vedomosti". The stories "On the Night of the Bright Holiday", "The Old Bell Ringer", "The Wilderness", "The Dream of Makar", the essay "On the Machine" were printed. Participation in the journals "Russian Thought", "Severny Vestnik". The stories "Killer", "Falconer" appeared.

1886 - Published "The forest is noisy." Marriage to A. S. Ivanovskaya. Visited Leo Tolstoy. The story “The Blind Musician”, the stories “The Tale of Flora the Roman”, “The Sea”, the essay “Containing” were printed. The 1st volume of Essays and Stories has been published.

1887 - "Prokhor and students." Acquaintance with A.P. Chekhov and G.I. Uspensky. "At the factory". Entered the editorial office of the Northern Bulletin. Printed "Behind the Icon", "On the Eclipse". A separate edition of The Blind Musician. Work in the Nizhny Novgorod Archival Commission.

1888 - Printed "On the way". "From a notebook" (the first edition of "Circassian"). "On both sides." Exit from the editorial office of the Northern Bulletin. Story at night.

1889 - Meetings with N. G. Chernyshevsky in Saratov. Visiting Korolenko A. M. Gorky.

1890 - Essays "In Desert Places", "Pavlovsky Essays" were published.

1892 - Work on hunger. Articles "On the Nizhny Novgorod region".

The stories “The river plays”, “At-Davan” appeared in print. Cooperation in "Russian wealth".

1893 - Articles "In the hungry year" in "Russian wealth". Foreign travel.

1894 - Printed "Paradox", "God's town", "Fight in the House". Entered the editorial office of Russian Wealth.

1895 - The story "Without language" was published in "Russian wealth". The essay "In the fight against the devil" appeared. Secondary trial of the Multan case. Articles in defense of the multans.

1896 - Moving to St. Petersburg. "Death Factory", "On a Cloudy Day". Work on the story "Artist Alymov". Acting as a defender in the Multan case.

1897 - A trip to Romania. "Over the firth".

1899 - The essay "At the Dacha" ("Humble") was printed. A satirical fairy tale "Stop, sun, and don't move, moon!" was written. Work on the story "The Runaway Tsar". The story "Marusya" ("Marusina Zaimka") was published.

1900 - Elected an honorary academician. Editorial work. "Lights". Trip to Uralsk. Moving to Poltava. The story "Instant" is published.

1901 - The stories "Frost", "The Last Ray", essays "At the Cossacks" were printed.

1902 - A trip to the city of Sumy for the process of Pavlovian sectarians. "Memories of G. I. Uspensky". Renunciation of the title of honorary academician.

1903 - The articles "Autocratic helplessness" and "Substitutes for publicity for the highest use" were published. The story is not terrible. Trip to Chisinau. The essay “House No. 13” was written (not passed by the censors). Celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Korolenko.

1904 - Korolenko - editor-publisher of "Russian wealth".

Memoirs "In memory of A.P. Chekhov". "Memories of Chernyshevsky" printed. The story "Feudal lords" was published.

1905 - The article "January 9 in St. Petersburg." The beginning of work on the "History of my contemporary". Participation in the newspaper "Poltavshchina" (later "Chernozem"). The fight against the rioters in Poltava. Appeals to the population of the city with anti-pogrom appeals. The prohibition of "Russian wealth" for printing the "Manifesto" of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. The essay “House No. 13” was printed. About 60 articles on socio-political topics.

1906 - "An open letter to the State Councilor Filonov." Persecution of the writer by the Black Hundreds. The History of My Contemporary began to be printed. The article “Words of the Minister. Affairs of governors. About 40 articles during the year.

1907 - The article "Sorochinsky tragedy", "From stories about people you meet" were published.

1909 - Essay "Ours on the Danube".

1910 - Articles "Everyday phenomenon", "Features of military justice". Meeting with Leo Tolstoy. Participation in the funeral of Tolstoy.

1911 - The articles “In a Calm Village”, “To the Features of Military Justice”, “Tormentor Orgy”, “Liquidation of the Pskov Hunger Strike”, etc. were published.

1913 - An article about Korolenko in the "Working Truth" "Writer-humanist". At the Beilis trial in Kyiv. Articles "Gentlemen of the Jury".

1914 - Travel abroad for treatment. Preparation for publication of the complete collection of works. Within a year, nine volumes of complete works were published by the publishing house of the t-va A. F. Marx.

1915 - Article "Won back position". Return to Russia. "Mr. Jackson's Opinion on the Jewish Question". Work on the story "The Brothers Mendel".

1916 - Editorial and journalistic activity. The articles "Old Traditions and a New Organ", "On the Mariampol Treason", etc. were published. Work on "The History of My Contemporary".

1918 - Work on the "History of my contemporary". Article "To help Russian children."

1919 - Work in the Children's Rescue League. Protests against robberies and pogroms of Denikin. Six "Letters from Poltava". The 2nd volume of "The History of My Contemporary" has been published.

1920 - A visit to A. V. Lunacharsky. Work on the 3rd volume of "History of my contemporary". Letters to Lunacharsky about current events.

1921 - A sharp deterioration in health. The 4th volume of "The History of My Contemporary" has been completed. December 25 Korolenko died. 27th of December At a meeting of the IX All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the delegates paid tribute to the memory of the writer. December 28th- mourning in Poltava, civil funeral of VG Korolenko.