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Pisarev biography. Russian literary criticism of the 18th–19th centuries

Pisarev biography. Russian literary criticism of the 18th–19th centuries

24.03.2019

Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev(October 14, 1840, Znamenskoye village, Oryol province - July 16, 1868, Dubbeln, Livonia province) - Russian publicist and literary critic, translator, revolutionary democrat. He is rightfully considered the “third”, after Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov, the great Russian critic of the sixties. Plekhanov called him “one of the most outstanding representatives of the sixties.”

He graduated from the 3rd St. Petersburg Gymnasium (1856) and the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University (1861). For his graduation essay on the late antique mystic Apollonius of Tyana, he was awarded a silver medal.

In 1859, he led the bibliographic department in the magazine “Rassvet” under the editorship of V. A. Krempin. In 1861-1866 he was a leading critic and ideological director of the magazine “Russian Word”. For the illegal article-proclamation “On the Chedeau-Ferroti brochure”, which contained a call for the overthrow of the autocracy (“Overthrow of the happily reigning Romanov dynasty and change in the political and social order constitutes the only goal and hope of all honest citizens of Russia"), from July 1862 to November 1866 he served imprisonment in the Peter and Paul Fortress. From August 1863 he was allowed to continue his literary studies.

In 1867-1868 he collaborated with the magazine “Delo” and “Otechestvennye zapiski”. In articles on fiction, in development of “real criticism,” N. A. Dobrolyubova interpreted artistic images as an objective depiction of social types (article “Bazarov” about I. S. Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons,” 1862; “The Struggle for Life” about the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment”, 1867, and others). He fought against aesthetics and aesthetics (articles “Realists”, 1864; “Pushkin and Belinsky”, “Destruction of Aesthetics”, “Let's see!”, 1865) as the enemies of “reasonable progress”, but subsequently overcame the nihilistic attitude towards “aesthetics”.

He denied the significance of Pushkin’s work: Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol were a completed stage for Pisarev.

Translated into Russian the 11th canto of the “Messiad” by F. G. Klopstock, Heinrich Heine’s poem “Atta Troll”.

Many writers, journalists, and scientists testified in their letters and memoirs about the influence of Pisarev’s articles, their very perky tone, the aphorisms generously scattered in them, and damning comparisons; it is known, according to the testimony of N.K. Krupskaya, that V.I. Lenin loved Pisarev very much and took his portrait with him into exile in Shushenskoye.

In the summer of 1868, Pisarev, with his second cousin Maria Vilinskaya, the new object of his passion, and her son, went to the Gulf of Riga for sea swimming and on July 4 (16), 1868, drowned in Dubbelna (Dubulti). Buried at Literary Bridges Volkovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Addresses

Tombstone of D. I. Pisarev on the Literary Bridge

in St. Petersburg

1867 - apartment building - Nevsky Prospekt, 98;
1867 - summer 1868 - I.F. Lopatin's house - Nevsky Prospekt, 68.

in Moscow

1867 - Apartment house Torletsky - Zakharyin (Kuznetsky Most street, 20/6/9).

Collected works of D. I. Pisarev (main editions)

Collected works in 6 volumes - Ed. F. Pavlenkova, 1897.
Selected works in 2 volumes - M.: State. art publishing house literature, 1934.
Works in 4 volumes - State. art publishing house literature, 1955.
Literary criticism. In 3 volumes - M.: Fiction, 1981.
Complete collection essays and letters in 12 volumes - M.: Nauka, 2000-2013.
Collected works

“...what can be broken must be broken;
whatever can withstand a blow is good,
whatever shatters into pieces is rubbish;
in any case, hit right and left,
there will be no harm from this and cannot be"

DI. Pisarev, 1861

Russian publicist, literary critic, propagandist of the ideas of Darwinism.

"A brilliant publicist and literary critic Dmitry Pisarev Already at the age of four he could read Russian and French fluently, then mastered German. From the early 1860s, he became a leading contributor to the Russian Word magazine. From that moment his popularity began and at the same time his misadventures began. In 1860, as a result of overwork and unrequited love for his cousin R. Koreneva, he spent four months in a psychiatric hospital. After recovery, he successfully graduated from St. Petersburg University. In 1862-1866 for a pamphlet containing a call for the overthrow of the government and the physical destruction of the royal family (the illegal pamphlet was written in defense of A.I. Herzen– Approx. I.L. Vikentyev), Pisarev was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he continued to work actively and wrote almost forty articles.”

Ryzhkov A., Criminal talent, M., Eksmo, 2006, p. 203-204.

DI. Pisarev after the arrest and analysis of the situation, I came to the conclusion that the masses Not capable of revolution in Russia and therefore believed main force social progress, science and education... Based on this model, he assigned a utilitarian role to art, and considered some types of art: sculpture, ballet and music simply useless for humanity.

“Attaching decisive importance to science in historical progress, Pisarev simplified the relationship between art and science: The role of writers was essentially reduced to the popularization of advanced ideas of social and natural scientific thought.”

Monuments of world aesthetic thought in 5 volumes, Volume 4, Book 1, M., “Art”, 1969, p. 375.

The critic denied the importance of creativity A.S. Pushkin for modern times: “Pushkin uses his artistic virtuosity as a means to initiate all of reading Russia into the sad secrets of his inner emptiness, his spiritual poverty and his mental impotence.” The 1860s were a time that persistently demanded utilitarianism and benefits from art. Its creators, on the banner “whose name was written Chernyshevsky", fearlessly - following Pisarev - proclaimed that "the boot is higher Shakespeare" Art's goal was to serve poor people, humiliated and insulted, unhappy and disadvantaged. This was a noble feat of Russian cultural figures who forever “obliged” themselves to be “citizens”. Teaching and the benefits of art were put at the forefront. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, we can assume that in art the main thing became “what” and not “how”; the content overshadowed the form.”

Bikkulova I.A., The phenomenon of Russian culture of the Silver Age, M., “Flint”; "Science", 2010, p. 20.

“There was already a moment in the history of Russian literature when Pisarev “abolished” Pushkin, declaring it superfluous and insignificant. But the Pisarev movement did not captivate a wide range of readers and soon disappeared. Since then, Pisarev’s name has been pronounced more than once with irritation, even with anger, which is natural for connoisseurs of literature, but impossible for a historian who indifferently listens to good and evil. Pisarev’s attitude towards Pushkin was stupid and tasteless. However, it was prompted by the ideas that were then in the air, to some extent expressed the spirit of the time, and, expressing it, Pisarev expressed the view of a certain part of Russian society. Those on whom Pisarev relied were people small mind and poor aesthetic development - but it is in no way possible to say that these were bad people, hooligans or obscurantists. In the primordial split of Russian society, they stood precisely on the side on which its best part stood, and not its worst.”

, Russian empire

Occupation: Years of creativity: Language of works:

Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev(October 2, Znamenskoye village, Oryol province - July 4, Dubbeln, Livonia province) - Russian publicist and literary critic, revolutionary democrat. He is rightfully considered the “third”, after Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov, the great Russian critic of the sixties. Plekhanov called him “one of the most outstanding representatives of the sixties.”

Biography

In 1859, he led the bibliographic department in the magazine “Rassvet” under the editorship of V. A. Krempin. In 1861-1866 he was a leading critic and ideological leader of the magazine “Russian Word”. For the illegal article-proclamation “On the Chedeau-Ferroti brochure,” which contained a call for the overthrow of the autocracy (“The overthrow of the happily reigning Romanov dynasty and the change in the political and social system is the only goal and hope of all honest citizens of Russia”), he was imprisoned from July 1862 to November 1866 imprisonment in the Peter and Paul Fortress. From August 1863 he was allowed to continue his literary studies.

He denied the significance of Pushkin’s work: Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol were a completed stage for Pisarev.

Translated into Russian the 11th canto of the “Messiad” by F. G. Klopstock, Heinrich Heine’s poem “Atta Troll”.

In the summer of 1868, Pisarev, with his second cousin Maria Vilinskaya, the new object of his passion, and her son, went to the Gulf of Riga for sea swimming and on July 4 (16), 1868, drowned in Dubbelna (Dubulti). He was buried on the Literatorskie Mostki of the Volkovskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Addresses

In St. Petersburg

- apartment building - Nevsky Prospekt, 98;
- summer of 1868 - house of I. F. Lopatin - Nevsky Prospekt, 68.

in Moscow

- Apartment building of Torletsky - Zakharyin (Kuznetsky Most street, 20/6/9).

Collected works of D. I. Pisarev (main editions)

Pisarev D. I. Collected works in 6 volumes - Ed. F. Pavlenkova, 1897.
Pisarev D. I. Selected works in 2 volumes - M.: State. art publishing house literature, 1934.
Pisarev D. I. Works in 4 volumes - State. art publishing house literature, 1955.
Pisarev D. I. Literary criticism. In 3 volumes - M.: Fiction, 1981.
Pisarev D. I. Complete collection of works and letters in 12 volumes - M.: Nauka, 2000-2013.

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Notes

Literature

D.I. Pisarev in memoirs and testimonies of contemporaries. - M.: IMLI RAS, 2015. - 448 p.
Demidova N.V. Pisarev. - M., 1969. - 223 p.
Kirpotin V. Ya. Radical commoner D.I. Pisarev. - M.: Priboy, 1929. - 252 p.
Korotkov Yu. Pisarev. - M.: Young Guard, 1976. - 368 p. (series Life of Remarkable People)
Tsybenko V. A. Worldview of D. I. Pisarev. - M.: Moscow University Publishing House. 1969. - 352 p.

Excerpt characterizing Pisarev, Dmitry Ivanovich

“Oui, mon cher ami, voila les caprices de la fortune,” he began. – Qui m"aurait dit que je serai soldat et capitaine de dragons au service de Bonaparte, comme nous l"appellions jadis. Et cependant me voila a Moscou avec lui. “Il faut vous dire, mon cher,” he continued in the sad, measured voice of a man who is about to tell a story. long story, - que notre nom est l "un des plus anciens de la France. [Yes, my friend, here is the wheel of fortune. Who would have told me that I would be a soldier and captain of dragoons in the service of Bonaparte, as we used to call him However, here I am in Moscow with him. I must tell you, my dear... that our name is one of the most ancient in France.]
And with the easy and naive frankness of a Frenchman, the captain told Pierre the history of his ancestors, his childhood, adolescence and manhood, all his relatives and property, family relationships. “Ma pauvre mere [“My poor mother.”] played, of course, important role in this story.
– Mais tout ca ce n"est que la mise en scene de la vie, le fond c"est l"amour? L"amour! “N"est ce pas, monsieur; Pierre?” he said, perking up. “Encore un verre.” [But all this is only an introduction to life, its essence is love. Love! Isn’t it so, Monsieur Pierre? Another glass. ]
Pierre drank again and poured himself a third.
- Oh! Les femmes, les femmes! [ABOUT! women, women!] - and the captain, looking at Pierre with oily eyes, began to talk about love and his love affairs. There were a lot of them, which was easy to believe, looking at the smug, Beautiful face officer and the enthusiastic animation with which he spoke about women. Despite the fact that everything love stories Rambal had that character of dirty tricks in which the French see the exceptional charm and poetry of love, the captain told his stories with such sincere conviction that he alone experienced and knew all the delights of love, and described women so temptingly that Pierre listened to him with curiosity.
It was obvious that l "amour, which the Frenchman loved so much, was neither that lower and simple kind of love that Pierre once felt for his wife, nor that inflated by himself romantic love which he felt for Natasha (Rambal despised both types of love equally - one was l "amour des charretiers, the other l "amour des nigauds) [the love of cabbies, the other was the love of fools.]; l'amour, which the Frenchman worshiped, consisted mainly in the unnaturalness of relationships with women and in a combination of ugliness that gave the main charm to the feeling.
That's what the captain said touching story his love for one charming thirty-five-year-old marquise and at the same time for a charming innocent seventeen-year-old child, the daughter of a charming marquise. The struggle of generosity between mother and daughter, which ended with the mother, sacrificing herself, offering her daughter as a wife to her lover, even now, although a long-past memory, worried the captain. Then he told one episode in which the husband played the role of a lover, and he (the lover) played the role of a husband, and several comic episodes from souvenirs d'Allemagne, where asile means Unterkunft, where les maris mangent de la choux croute and where les jeunes filles sont trop blondes [memories of Germany, where husbands eat cabbage soup and where young girls are too blond.]
Finally last episode in Poland, still fresh in the captain’s memory, which he told with quick gestures and a flushed face, was that he saved the life of one Pole (in general, in the captain’s stories, the episode of saving a life occurred incessantly) and this Pole entrusted him with his charming wife (Parisienne de c?ur [Parisian at heart]), while he himself entered French service. The captain was happy, the charming Polish woman wanted to run away with him; but, moved by generosity, the captain returned his wife to the husband, saying to him: “Je vous ai sauve la vie et je sauve votre honneur!” [I saved your life and save your honor!] Having repeated these words, the captain rubbed his eyes and shook himself, as if driving away the weakness that had seized him at this touching memory.
Listening to the captain's stories, as often happens in the late evening and under the influence of wine, Pierre followed everything that the captain said, understood everything and at the same time followed a number of personal memories that suddenly appeared to his imagination for some reason. When he listened to these stories of love, his own love for Natasha suddenly suddenly came to his mind, and, turning over the pictures of this love in his imagination, he mentally compared them with the stories of Rambal. Following the story of the struggle between duty and love, Pierre saw before him all the smallest details of his last meeting with the object of his love at the Sukharev Tower. Then this meeting had no influence on him; he never even thought about her. But now it seemed to him that this meeting had something very significant and poetic.
“Peter Kirilych, come here, I found out,” he now heard these words spoken, saw before him her eyes, her smile, her travel cap, a stray strand of hair... and something touching, touching seemed to him in all this.
Having finished his story about the charming Polish woman, the captain turned to Pierre with the question of whether he had experienced a similar feeling of self-sacrifice for love and envy of his lawful husband.
Provoked by this question, Pierre raised his head and felt the need to express the thoughts that were occupying him; he began to explain how he understood love for a woman a little differently. He said that in all his life he had loved and loves only one woman and that this woman could never belong to him.
- Tiens! [Look!] - said the captain.
Then Pierre explained that he had loved this woman from a very young age; but he did not dare to think about her, because she was too young, and he was an illegitimate son without a name. Then, when he received name and wealth, he did not dare to think about her, because he loved her too much, placed her too high above the whole world and therefore, especially above himself. Having reached this point in his story, Pierre turned to the captain with a question: does he understand this?
The captain made a gesture expressing that if he did not understand, he still asked to continue.
- L'amour platonique, les nuages... [ Platonic love, clouds...] - he muttered. Whether it was the wine drunk, or the need for frankness, or the thought that this person does not know and will not recognize anyone from characters his story, or all together loosened Pierre’s tongue. And with a murmuring mouth and oily eyes, looking somewhere into the distance, he told his whole story: his marriage, and the story of Natasha’s love for his best friend, and her betrayal, and all his simple relationship with her. Prompted by Rambal's questions, he also told him what he had hidden at first - his position in the world and even revealed his name to him.
What struck the captain most from Pierre’s story was that Pierre was very rich, that he had two palaces in Moscow, and that he gave up everything and did not leave Moscow, but remained in the city, hiding his name and rank.
It was late at night and they went out together. The night was warm and bright. To the left of the house the glow of the first fire that started in Moscow, on Petrovka, brightened. To the right stood high the young crescent of the month, and on the opposite side of the month hung that bright comet that was associated in Pierre’s soul with his love. At the gate stood Gerasim, the cook and two Frenchmen. Their laughter and conversation in a language incomprehensible to each other could be heard. They looked at the glow visible in the city.

(1840-1868) Russian critic and publicist

Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev was born in family estate his father, a wealthy but not very rich landowner. Until the age of twelve, Dmitry did not leave his parents' house. His mother, Varvara Dmitrievna, and invited teachers studied with him. When the boy turned twelve, his mother moved with him to St. Petersburg and enrolled her son in a classical gymnasium.

Dmitry Pisarev was an excellent student and graduated from high school in 1856 with a gold medal. In the same year he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University. True, at this time Pisarev dreamed of being a philosopher; his interest in literature appeared only when he began to collaborate in the magazine for girls “Rassvet”.

At the request of the publisher, Dmitry Pisarev was supposed to review all literary works published at that time. In articles devoted to the novel “Oblomov” by Ivan Goncharov, the works of Ivan Turgenev and the stories of Leo Tolstoy, the young critic tried to show his young readers the originality of each of the authors. He did not just present new products, but analyzed each work, identifying its merits and novelty, connecting them with modern problems of society.

While studying in his last year at university, Dmitry Pisarev fell in love with his cousin L. Korenev. The young people were planning to get married, but were never able to overcome their parents’ ban. The forced break with his beloved caused Pisarev a severe nervous shock, after which he was treated in a psychiatric clinic for more than six months.

After recovery and rest, he returned to his studies at the university and in 1861 completed the course, defending thesis, dedicated to the teachings of the Roman philosopher Apollonius of Tyana. She was awarded a silver medal, and the gifted student received an offer to remain at the department at the university, but abandoned his scientific career and, at the invitation of his friend G. Blagosvetlov, became editor of the popular magazine “Russian Word”.

Soon his articles in this magazine began to attract the attention of readers due to his strong authorial position, sincerity, and sharpness of thought, and the circulation of the publication began to grow. In addition to creating journalistic articles, he began to engage in literary work. Thus, he published a translation into Russian of Heinrich Heine’s poem “Atta Troll”.

By this time, the public consciousness of the critic had also changed. Carried away by philosophical materialism, Dmitry Pisarev believes that it is necessary first of all to solve the socio-economic problems of Russia. Having come to the conclusion that enlightening the masses can speed up the process of revolutionary transformation of society, he develops an entire pedagogical system, which is a continuation of the democratic views of Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky, Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky and Nikolai Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov. Pisarev believes that for young people striving for knowledge and social life, “a talented critic with a lively feeling and an energetic mind, a critic like V. G. Belinsky, could be a moral teacher in the full sense of the word.”

Published in 1862, Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev’s article “Bazarov” became the most important literary-critical statement of revolutionary democrats. The author decided to “outline large features Bazarov’s personality, or, rather, that general, emerging type, of which the hero of Turgenev’s novel is a representative.” Considering that main character can count on reader sympathy, Pisarev at the same time noted that his nihilistic one-sidedness, his rejection of poetry, music and other arts is a sign of “narrow mental despotism.”

The article became the object of fierce polemics with Antonovich, a critic of the Sovremennik magazine, and Dmitry Pisarev gained fame as a bright, interesting polemicist, brilliant researcher and deep thinker. At the same time, he became one of the largest Russian critics. His articles were read all over Russia, and the release of each issue of the magazine was eagerly awaited.

His life seemed to be going quite well. Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev worked a lot and was literally inundated with offers from various publications. But suddenly the calm flow of life changed. At the beginning of 1862, he wrote a review-pamphlet on the pamphlet of S. Firks, the author of which criticized the activities of the political emigrant writer Alexander Herzen.

Realizing that official publications would not dare to publish this work, Pisarev handed over the manuscript to an illegal student handwritten journal. Unexpectedly, a search was carried out at the magazine's editorial office, and the manuscript fell into the hands of the police.

A few days later, Dmitry Pisarev was arrested and put in solitary confinement in the Peter and Paul Fortress on charges of treason. The thoughts contained in the article were perceived as a call for the overthrow of the existing system. Only a year after his arrest, Pisarev received permission to write and publish his works.

Over the years, Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev wrote more than forty articles that brought him true literary fame. Enormous willpower, maternal support and the participation of the staff of the Russian Word magazine helped him withstand the prison loneliness. Most of Pisarev's journalistic articles were devoted to socio-political, philosophical and pedagogical issues.

Among the literary critical works of this period, the article “Motives of Russian Drama”, according to the assessment of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky’s drama “The Thunderstorm” (1864), should be noted. The article was written to refute N. A. Dobrolyubov’s view of the image main character plays. In his work “A Ray of Light in dark kingdom“Dobrolyubov pointed out Katerina’s nobility, passion, honesty and conscientiousness, calling her a “ray of light” in the kingdom of ignorance, tyranny and despotism. He believed that "The Thunderstorm" was "Ostrovsky's most decisive work." And Dmitry Pisarev in his work proved that Katerina’s whole life consists of constant internal contradictions. Every minute she rushes from one extreme to another, and finally, having mixed up everything that was at her hands, she cuts through the lingering knots with the most stupid means - suicide, and even a suicide that is completely unexpected for herself...

In the fall of 1864, the magazine “Russian Word” appeared famous work Pisarev “Realists”, in which the critic again analyzed the image of Bazarov. He believed that Turgenev created a more vital type than A. Pushkin in his time. Of course, Dmitry Pisarev’s assessments were distinguished by a certain categoricalness, caused by the fact that he was in prison and was deprived of the opportunity to participate in live debate. But the thoroughness and reasoning of the analysis, as well as the simplicity and accessibility of the presentation of the material, ensured the popularity of his articles in different layers society.

However, the official assessment of Pisarev's critical works was completely different. After the publication of his article “The Thinking Proletariat,” dedicated to N. Chernyshevsky’s novel “What to Do,” the authorities hastened to close the journal “Russian Word.”

On November 18, 1866, Dmitry Pisarev was released from prison. Having received permission to live in St. Petersburg, he, together with a small circle of friends, founded a new literary magazine, Delo. The financial side was taken over by G. Blagosvetlov, who was associated with Pisarev for many years of friendship and joint work in the magazine “Russian Word”.

After leaving the fortress, the critic overestimated much of what he had written in polemical fervor. In particular, in the articles “The Struggle for Life” and “The Struggle for Existence,” he gave a detailed analysis of Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” and showed that Raskolnikov is a kind of hero of warning.

In his subsequent articles, Dmitry Pisarev changed his point of view on the image of Katerina, largely agreeing with Dobrolyubov’s opinion. The constancy of Pisarev’s revolutionary views gradually led to a break with Blagosvetlov, who was afraid that the authorities would close his new magazine.

At the beginning of 1868, Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev accepted N. Nekrasov’s offer and became deputy editor-in-chief of the journal Otechestvennye zapiski. There he again began publishing reviews of all literary novelties, but the well-established work was unexpectedly interrupted.

Having gone with his wife and son to the resort town of Dubbeln (Dubulti) near Riga in the summer, Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev drowned during a boat trip. He was buried at the Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg, which was a kind of necropolis for Russian cultural figures.

PISAREV Dmitry Ivanovich was born in noble family middle-income - literary critic and publicist.

My father was a retired staff captain.

The mother, an educated and cultured woman, devoted herself entirely to raising her son, who early years amazed me with his amazing talent.

At the age of four, Dmitry Ivanovich read Russian and French, and soon mastered the German language.

As a seven-year-old child, he became interested in writing novels. Since childhood, he was distinguished by his remarkable erudition. The inquisitiveness of the mind and spiritual needs, the complexity of the psychological experiences of the teenager are evidenced by the diaries that he kept.

At the age of eleven, Pisarev was sent to one of the best gymnasiums in the capital.

From 1856-1861 he studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University. The university gave him deep training in his chosen field of knowledge (Pisarev at one time dreamed of a scientific career), however, judging by the article “Our University Science” written in 1863, he soon became disillusioned with his teachers. The separation of academic science from the needs of real life, the adherence of professors to ossified dogmas, the retreat into the jungle of abstract wisdom - all this could not satisfy Pisarev, just as the best part Russian students who experienced the impact of the democratic movement in the country.

From 1859-1868 - Dmitry Ivanovich was engaged in literary activities. The critic spent almost half of this time in captivity - solitary confinement in the “Russian Bastille”, in the Peter and Paul Fortress. The process of his ideological formation was intense, difficult and complex. A well-intentioned young man brought up in the spirit of respect for authority, Pisarev published in 1860 a work on the German idealist philosopher W. Humboldt in a student collection. A university graduate who chose the mystical teachings of Apollonius of Tyana, the ideologist of the slave society in the Roman Empire during the era of its decay, as the topic of his dissertation, Pisarev soon experienced a serious spiritual crisis. About the origins of this crisis, which led young critic to a decisive rejection of the ideas about the meaning and prospects of social existence instilled in him by his environment and upbringing, can be partly judged by the nature and direction of his first printed literary-critical speeches.

From the beginning of 1859, while still at the university, Dmitry Ivanovich began to regularly collaborate with the magazine “Rassvet”, the direction of which he himself later defined as “sweet, but decent.” It was typical for that time, one of the many short-lived pedagogical publications - “a magazine of sciences, arts and literature for adult girls.” However, in his reviews and articles, short reviews and bibliographic annotations on the pages of this publication, designed for a specific reader and limited by a specific target setting, Pisarev was able to speak out on a number of important issues, aesthetic, historical-literary, pedagogical. The critic reveals an excellent knowledge of modern literature and the ability to subordinate the analysis of works of art to the tasks of ideological and aesthetic education of youth in articles devoted to “Oblomov”, “ Noble nest", the story of L. Tolstoy "Three Deaths".

It is too early to talk about the consistent democracy and materialistic beliefs of young Pisarev, but the analysis of these works testified to the critic’s sympathy for realistic literature, imbued with nationality, affirming progressive ideals. Dmitry Ivanovich gives subtle characteristics of the artistic style of Goncharov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and convincingly reveals the originality of the talent of each of the three great masters. He sensitively grasps the connection between typical images and objective Russian reality. And although his position still lacks political certainty, and the very understanding of reality is sometimes vague, it can be noted that he was undoubtedly influenced by Belinsky’s ideas - this was reflected, first of all, in his close attention to the traditions of Gogol’s direction.

Work in “Dawn” played a positive role in Pisarev’s choice of his life path, in identifying interests. “One year of journal work,” he wrote on this occasion, “brought more benefit to my mental development than two years of intense study at the university and in the library.” An intense search for a guiding idea, a longing for a holistic worldview, an acute rejection of routine thinking that justifies the abominations of the surrounding world, an awareness of the need for self-determination in the pre-storm atmosphere of the early 60s. on one side of the invisible barricades - all this, taken together, determined the intensity of the spiritual crisis.

In the spring of 1861, the brightest and most fruitful stage in the activities of D.I. Pisarev began. He becomes a leading employee of the Russian Word magazine. Thanks to Pisarev, this publication is moving to the forefront of the fight against the forces of reaction. Given the presence of shades in views that distinguished “Russian Word” from “Sovremennik” and sometimes served as a reason for polemics within the revolutionary-democratic camp, mainly on issues of tactics, the magazine, to which Pisarev devoted five years of his life, took a place in the history of Russian social thought left flank. It is no coincidence that the seditious “Russian Word” was subjected to censorship persecution.

In June 1862, Russkoe Slovo, together with Sovremennik, was suspended.

And in 1866, after D. Karakozov’s assassination attempt on the Tsar, it was completely closed by order of the government. The socio-political reputation of the magazine, its direction and position, first of all, are connected by “Russian Word” with the name of Pisarev, who became the “ruler of the thoughts” of the young sixties.

In June 1862, Dmitry Ivanovich was arrested and kept in the Peter and Paul Fortress for almost four and a half years. The immediate reason for the arrest was his article-proclamation against the brochure of the foreign agent of the tsarist government, Baron Firks. A corrupt scribbler, operating under the pseudonym Chedeau-Ferroti, tried to discredit Herzen. Chadeau-Ferroti's pamphlet, inspired by reactionary circles, contained vile insinuations towards the publisher of the Bell. Pisarev not only defended the name of the revolutionary from obscurantists. His article-proclamation contained a direct call for the immediate overthrow of the autocracy.

During the era of revolutionary upsurge of the 60s. Pisarev predicted: “The Romanov dynasty and the St. Petersburg bureaucracy must perish... What is dead and rotten must fall into the grave by itself; All we have to do is give them the final push and throw dirt at their stinking corpses.” He was kept in the fortress as a dangerous political criminal.

Only in June 1863 was he allowed to engage in literary work.

While in captivity, the critic wrote 24 articles, which in 1864-65 appeared in almost every next book of the Russian Word. In these articles, he was able to most fully express his ideological and political credo and substantiate his aesthetic teaching. Performances Pisareva - criticism and publicist - they were distinguished by their fighting, offensive spirit, and sharp polemics.

A major role in the formation of Pisarev’s views on Russian reality and prospects social development, N.G. Chernyshevsky influenced the understanding of the role of art and literature in the life of the people. True, Dmitry Ivanovich did not assimilate everything and did not accept everything in Chernyshevsky’s program; he also disputed certain provisions put forward in the works of Belinsky, Herzen, and Dobrolyubov. However, in solving the basic questions of philosophy and sociology, as well as in its own aesthetic theory, a critic of the Russian Word, acted as their student and colleague.

Pisarev’s turn towards democracy, “toward consistent realism and the strictest utilitarianism,” as he himself wrote about it in the article “Mistakes of Immature Thought,” the critic’s affirmation of materialist positions and, in this regard, an increased interest in the successes of natural science occurred already in the first period of his collaboration in "Russian Word" (spring 1861 - summer 1862). Thus, one of Pisarev’s first major works in “Russian Word”, article "Plato's Idealism", was by no means of an abstract academic nature. With it, the critic actively intervened in the mental life of his era, struck a blow at dogmatic thinking, routine ideas, “morbid hallucinations” of doctrinaire idealists, and revealed the reactionary meaning of the preaching of asceticism, which justified the suppression of the individual.

In a polemical article "Scholasticism of the 19th century"(1861) he comes to the defense of Chernyshevsky, his materialist philosophical views, which were attacked by outright reactionaries and their liberal allies. “No philosophy in the world will take root in the Russian mind as firmly and as easily as modern, healthy and fresh materialism,” says Pisarev. In contrast to the deadening, mind-fogging idealistic theories that are afraid of contact with reality, the materialist view is based on facts and evidence. Materialism for him - military weapon, its edge directed against outdated forms of life, against apologists for the rotten old order. True in its initial positions (affirmation of the idea of development, the laws of the struggle between the new and the old, recognition of the primacy of objective reality), Pisarev’s philosophical preaching, like all pre-Marxian materialism, was also distinguished by clearly weak and erroneous sides. Dmitry Ivanovich experienced a certain influence of vulgar materialists (Focht, Buchner, Moleschott), allowed simplified formulations, mechanically interpreted other phenomena of nature and society, and underestimated the factor of objectivity of knowledge. But considered from a broad historical perspective, Pisarev’s speeches played a very positive role in overthrowing false authorities, all kinds of “ghosts”, ideological “junk”, in clearing a springboard for the development of natural science knowledge and a sober view of the living needs of social existence in Russia. Brilliant heyday exact sciences, natural sciences in Russia, which gave humanity such giants as Sechenov, Butlerov, Mechnikov, Pirogov, Timiryazev, Mendeleev, originates in the 60s. and, as recognized by natural scientists themselves, is directly related to the materialist tradition, which comes from Chernyshevsky, Herzen and Pisarev. The latter's articles contributed to the penetration of deep interest in natural science into wide circles society.

As a literary critic, Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev saw an indispensable condition for the development of literature in strengthening its ties with the life of the people, with their fundamental interests. Articles

"Standing Water"

"Pisemsky, Turgenev and Goncharov",

“Female types in the novels and stories of Pisemsky, Turgenev and Goncharov”(1861) the logic of the analysis of artistic images is directed against the dominant forces in Russia social relations, against the deformities of the “dark kingdom”. They sharply condemn people who are incapable of action, heroes of phrases, beautiful-hearted dreamers. These articles contain an unambiguous call to action, to change living conditions. However, unlike Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov, Pisarev underestimated the significance of the revolutionary situation and did not recognize the prospects for the peasant revolution in Russia as real enough. Therefore, his positive program put forward as a priority the task of education, educating a new generation of democratic intelligentsia, which, fully armed with knowledge, is called upon to bring to the people reasonable ideas for transforming society, awareness of the injustice and intolerance of the existing world order.

Dmitry Ivanovich's immaturity as a revolutionary democrat is revealed during these years in his specific assessments of the ideological and figurative content of a number of significant literary works. Dobrolyubov (“When will the real one will come day?”), speaking about Turgenev’s novel “On the Eve,” predicted the imminent birth of Russian Insarovs in Russia. Pisarev, on the contrary, did not agree to recognize the conditions for portraying a positive hero-activist as actually existing. In his opinion, Turgenev “built a stilted figure.” Insarov “represents nothing holistically human and absolutely nothing sympathetic.” “Whoever in Russia strayed from the road of pure negation fell,” writes a critic regarding Turgenev’s attempt to create positive image. At the same time, Dmitry Ivanovich refers to the sad experience of Gogol, who “also yearned for positive figures, and turned to “Correspondence with Friends.” No less symptomatic were the differences between Pisarev and Dobrolyubov in understanding the nature and socio-political meaning of images “ extra people"in Russian literature. At the same time, it should be noted that Pisarev’s evolution and the strengthening of his revolutionary-democratic views in the conditions of intensifying class struggle were extremely intense. Shortly before his arrest, he launched a direct attack against reactionary-protective journalism: in the article “Moscow Thinkers” he exposes the program of Katkov’s “Russian Messenger”; "Russian Don Quixote" he angrily ridicules the teachings of the Slavophiles, which the reaction tried to galvanize in opposition to the revolutionary democratic ideology.

In 1862, the article “Bazarov” appeared - one of Pisarev’s most significant literary critical speeches, a kind of hymn to a man of action.

The critic calls on progressive Russian youth to completely abandon complacency and illusions about the government’s reformist actions. Referring to the hero of “Fathers and Sons,” Pisarev speaks of the need to purposefully prepare to take the matter of decisive transformation of the world into one’s own hands. “The Bazarovs, under certain circumstances, develop into great historical figures; such people remain young, strong and fit for any work for a long time; they do not go into one-sidedness, do not become attached to theory, do not become attached to special studies; they are always ready to exchange one area of activity for another, broader and more entertaining; they are always ready to leave the scientific office and laboratory...”

At the end of 1864, in the article “Realists”, Pisarev expanded and deepened many of the provisions contained in the article about Bazarov. In the context of the decline of the revolutionary wave and the general crisis of the ideas of utopian socialism, comprehending the reasons for the failure of the people's liberation movement, he puts forward a new tactical line. Not yet seeing a revolutionary class capable of practically solving the problem with one blow, he proposes, through persistent, painstaking propaganda of democratic ideas, “chemically,” to steadily prepare the public consciousness for radical changes. First of all, Dmitry Ivanovich is counting on democratic, heterogeneous youth. The “thinking proletariat”, close to the people, will have to, having mastered real knowledge, find real ways to synthesize knowledge and labor. Pisarev's theory of realism gave rise to accusations against the critic of abandoning revolutionary democratic ideals. Some modern researchers have also written about his transition from radical to reformist positions. In fact, Dmitry Ivanovich was talking about the search for new tactics to achieve the same ultimate goals, searches dictated by sincere democracy, genuine concern for the welfare of the people. Disbelief in the reality of the “mechanical path,” that is, a revolutionary revolution, is explained by the specific Russian conditions of the mid-60s. Pisarev had previously questioned the readiness of the peasant masses for immediate revolutionary action. However, in principle, he never abandoned the idea of the ultimately decisive role of the masses in historical process. This is confirmed by many of his works written before and after The Realists. In particular, “Essays on the History of Labor” (1863) is devoted to the decisive significance of the working masses in history, to creative labor as the basis of human civilization. They actually started new stage in the activities of a critic of the Russian Word after a year-long forced break.

In 1863-65, except

"Our university science",

"Essays on the History of Labor",

“Realists” and other works that raised the question of the need for a radical transformation of social life, containing a deep analysis of the phenomena of modern natural science (including a presentation of Darwin’s doctrine of the origin of species - article "Progress in the world of animals and plants"), Pisarev created a series of literary critical works proper. Much attention He devotes his attention to theoretical problems of art history. An article appeared in the fifth book of the Russian Word for 1865 "Destruction of Aesthetics"- the most complete presentation of Pisarev’s views on the importance of art in the life of society. His aesthetic theory is as complex and contradictory as his theory of realism in general. Polemically pointed against the reactionary preaching of “art for art’s sake,” it gives a materialist answer to the basic question about the relationship of art to reality.

The most important criteria for assessing works of art for Dmitry Ivanovich are the depth and completeness of the reflection of the life of society, serving the interests of the people, promoting educational ideas, fighting inertia and stagnation. However, while asserting the social usefulness of truly realistic art and the primacy of reality over artistic creativity, Pisarev at the same time allowed the vulgarization of dialectical-materialist ideas about the nature of the aesthetic development of reality. From the standpoint of “consistent, strict utilitarianism,” he was inclined to consider art only as one of the forms of popularization of useful truths. Ignoring the complex specifics of art and its objective laws, Pisarev, as a theorist, was ready to admit artistic activity an unacceptable waste of public energy. However, one cannot simplify the position of Pisarev, the “destroyer of aesthetics.” A one-sided interpretation of the fundamental principles of Chernyshevsky, set out by the latter in “Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality,” inevitably led Pisarev to the denial of aesthetics as a science, as well as objectively independent meaning beautiful. But in the specific judgments of the critic, with all their contradictions and sometimes inconsistency, the one-sided extreme of theoretical attitudes was overcome. This especially applies to evaluations of works of art. With great skill, Dmitry Ivanovich determined the objective social significance of individual works and the work of writers in general. He constantly emphasized the responsibility of literature to its era. An opponent of superficial tendentiousness, he demanded from the artist deep knowledge the needs of life and organic perception, assimilation of advanced ideas of the time. His best literary critical articles will long remain examples of a skillful combination of analysis of the ideas and images of a work, artistic specificity with a broad journalistic statement of philosophical, social and political problems. In the works "Realists",

"The Romance of the Muslin Girl",

"Growing Humanity",

in the article "The Thinking Proletariat" and others, based on the material “What to do?” Chernyshevsky, stories by Pomyalovsky and Sleptsov, all democratic literature 60s Pisarev raised the question of a positive hero, a new person, a fighter for a better future for the people. In speeches dedicated to the works of Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, he not only determines the direction of the talent of each of the great realist writers, but also rises to broad generalizations regarding the prospects of historical and literary development.

In a fierce struggle against reactionary and liberal criticism, in his polemical ardor, Pisarev sometimes took the position of anti-historicism. This is what happened, for example, in articles grouped under common name "Pushkin and Belinsky"(1865). Here the most obvious weak sides methodology of Pisarev-critic.

In the dispute about the Pushkin and Gogol trends in Russian literature, he did not maintain the heights achieved by revolutionary-democratic criticism. Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov did not contrast Gogol with Pushkin and did not surrender Pushkin to aesthetic criticism as a representative of supposedly “pure poetry.” Pisarev, relying on a paradoxical system of evidence, refused a concrete historical consideration of the legacy of the great poet. Concerned that the reactionaries were using the name of Pushkin and his authority to try to cover up the anti-people essence of their aesthetic theory, Pisarev D.I. reduced the significance of the founder of new Russian literature, the Russian critical realism, to purely formal, stylistic achievements.

The critic of the Russian Word also expressed erroneous views in a discussion with Sovremennik. In the article "Flowers of Innocent Humor"(1864), dedicated to the works of Shchedrin, the social significance and artistic perfection of the works of the great satirist were underestimated.

In the article "Motives of Russian drama" he disagrees with the main conclusions of Dobrolyubov’s article on Ostrovsky’s “The Thunderstorm” and puts forward an unconvincing concept of the main character of the drama.

But Pisarev’s place in the history of Russian social thought, journalism and literary criticism is not determined by his mistakes, contradictions and weaknesses. Basically and most importantly, he remained faithful and devoted to revolutionary democratic ideals. His views on the tasks of literature, taken in their logical development, go back to Belinsky. It should be remembered that the critic’s activity was cut short at the very peak of his creative growth.

After Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev left the fortress, secret surveillance was established over him. The closure of Sovremennik and Russian Word, intensified repressions - all this affected his literary activity. However, what they wrote in last years, indicated new serious searches. The critic thought about the meaning of revolutionary turns in the history of mankind, about the role of the masses.

In 1867 he wrote the famous work Heinrich Heine. The article dates back to the same time "Fight for Life", published in the magazine "Delo".

The article provides a substantive analysis of Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”. The break with the former editor of the Russian Word, Blagosvetlov, who had headed Delo since 1867, put Pisarev in a difficult position. He actually lost his platform. Nekrasov and Saltykov-Shchedrin extended a helping hand to him.

Since 1868, Dmitry Ivanovich became a permanent contributor to Otechestvennye zapiski. Published here last works Pisarev, in particular the article "Old nobility", the beginning of a broadly conceived analysis of War and Peace.

The tragic death of Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev resonated with pain in the heart of democratic Russia.

Herzen wrote in Kolokol: “Brilliant and serving big hopes the star disappears, taking with him barely developed talents, leaving the barely begun literary field. - Pisarev, a caustic critic, sometimes prone to exaggeration, always full of wit, nobility and energy, drowned while swimming. Despite his youth, he suffered a lot...” (Collected works, vol. XX, book 1, p. 377).

Oldest Member revolutionary movement Vera Zasulich put Pisarev on a par with Dobrolyubov: “We cherish the images of these two young men, who barely flashed on the threshold of history. Their great predecessors also left the stage early, but they still managed to stand before us at full height; these two were still growing; they cannot even be imagined stopping at the understanding they achieved before death. They still had im Werden” (Sb. articles, vol. II, P., 1907, p. 301).

Pisarev D.I. went down in the history of Russian social thought and literature not only as a tireless fighter who fought against the diverse enemies of social progress, but also as an inspired builder, as one of those who laid the foundation of a new world. His legacy retains its enduring significance and is an integral part of our socialist, truly folk culture.

Died - Dubbulne resort (now Dubulti) near Riga.