Polevoy Nikolai Alekseevich. Nikolay field

Russian writer, playwright, literary and theater critic, journalist, historian and translator; brother of critic and journalist K. A. Polevoy and writer E. A. Avdeeva, father of writer and critic P. N. Polevoy.
Born June 22 (July 3), 1796 in Irkutsk. My father served in Irkutsk as the manager of the Russian-American Company, owned faience and vodka factories, but shortly before Napoleon's invasion, he began to suffer losses, in connection with which the family moved to Moscow, then to Kursk. In 1822 Polevoy inherited his father's business.
Published since 1817. In the Russkiy Vestnik by S.N. Glinka, his description of Emperor Alexander I’s visit to Kursk appeared. .Kachenovsky and others. In the summer of 1821 he visited St. Petersburg, in literary circles who was accepted as a "nugget", "self-taught merchant"; met with A.S. Griboyedov, V.A. Zhukovsky, met with F.V. Bulgarin, N.I. Grech. P. Svinin in his " Domestic notes”published his articles on literary and historical topics, poems, translations of the stories of Mrs. Montolier.
In 1821 for a treatise " New way conjugation of Russian verbs" received a silver medal Russian Academy. In those same years, he became close to VF Odoevsky, studied the philosophy of F. Schelling and the works of his interpreters. Published in the journals "Mnemosyne", "Son of the Fatherland", "Northern Archive", "Proceedings of the Society Russian literature". In 1825-1834 he published the Moscow Telegraph magazine of "literature, criticism and art", which became the main business of his life and a stage in the development of Russian culture. He was the first to create a type of Russian encyclopedic journal, on the model of which “Library for Reading”, “Domestic Notes” by A.A. Kraevsky, N.A. Nekrasov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and others, “Sovremennik” were later published. In an effort to "acquaint with everything interesting" in Russia and in the West, Polevoy distributed the materials of the journal into sections: science and art, literature, bibliography and criticism, news and mixture.
The Moscow Telegraph published the 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. Dal, A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky (especially active in the 1830s), A.F. Polevoy himself; from foreign authors - V. Scott, V. Irving, E.T.A. Hoffmann, P. Merime, B. Constant, V. Hugo, O. Balzac and others. (V.F. Odoevsky, E.A. Baratynsky, A.I. Turgenev, S.A. Sobolevsky and others) from the circle of A.S. Pushkin–P.A. Vyazemsky, leading magazine critic, whose break with Polevoy occurred in 1829 due to the sharp criticism of the last "History of the Russian State" by N.M. Karamzin. Since that time, a sharp controversy between the Moscow Telegraph and the "literary aristocracy" began, led mainly by Polev himself and his brother Xenophon, who actually became the editor-in-chief of the magazine.
In 1829–1833 Polevoy wrote The History of the Russian People. A convinced monarchist, like Karamzin, he reproaches the master of Russian historiography for being more of a chronicler-narrator 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 justified the anti-boyar policy of the "centralizers" Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov. 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, in the speeches he read at the Moscow Practical Academy of Commercial Sciences and in other works by Polevoi, where the idea was put forward free bourgeois development, the equality of all before the law adopted in France, achieved by the revolution of 1789, was glorified, the revolution of 1830 was welcomed.
Since 1837, having moved to St. Petersburg, Polevoy, under an agreement with the publisher A.F. Smirdin, took over the unspoken editorial staff of The Son of the Fatherland (headed by F.V. Bulgarin; he left the magazine in 1838) and The Northern Bee (headed by with N.I. Grech, left in 1840). In 1841–1842 he edited an organized by the enemy natural school Grech "Russian Messenger", but was not successful. In 1846, severely criticized by Belinsky for renegade, he began (under an agreement with Kraevsky) to edit the liberal Literaturnaya Gazeta.
Author of the novel "Abbadonna" (1837) and the stories "Emma" (1829), "The Oath at the Holy Sepulcher", "The Painter", "The Bliss of Madness" (both 1833; combined under the title Dreams and Life, books 1–2, 1934), depicting in a romantic spirit the tragic collision of an idealist-dreamer with the prose of life.
Polevoy also published an extensive reference and bibliographic publication "Russian Vivliofika, or Collection of Materials for national history, geography, statistics and ancient Russian literature" (1833).
Polevoy died in St. Petersburg on February 22 (March 6), 1846.

Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy, who struck his contemporaries with the versatility of his talent (novelist and playwright, translator of Shakespeare, journalist and critic, historian and publicist, it seemed that there was no area of ​​literature in which he would not be involved), was born in Irkutsk, in the family of a hereditary Kursk merchant . In 1811, the Polevoys returned to Kursk, where, in fact, the future writer. About how in the dark merchant environment he became attached to literature, legends were formed.

“He was about 20 years old when he decided to study and educate himself,” wrote V. G. Belinsky. trade, at night, instead of sleeping, he took up teaching. He could not always get a stub of a candle for this, because his father forbade him to sit at night. There was no candle - he used moonlight... He spent three years in such terrible, health-destroying labors. At this time, he wrote an article about the passage of Emperor Alexander through Kursk and sent it to Moskovskie Vedomosti. The article attracted the attention of the Kursk governor, who wanted to get acquainted with the young author. This vividly affected the vanity of the old father, and he allowed his son to study.

The share of truth that is in this story is hidden behind exaggerations. In the Polevoy family, books have always been treated with respect. "... Father constantly read all the Russian newspapers and magazines that came out at that time and enthusiastically indulged in disputes on political and religious-philosophical topics ..." And he studied Latin and French the future critic is not with a "drunk deacon", but with a well-known book lover, owner of a wonderful library - A.P. Baushev. The curiosity of the young man and his passion for literature received support and food for their development even in Kursk. N. Polevoy "soon became close to Prince Meshchersky and visited him almost every day ... The prince loved literature and could tell a lot of new things. He conveyed to him the view of the French theory of art ..."

By the time of moving to Moscow (1820) N.A. Polevoy was in many ways already prepared to become a professional writer: critic, writer, translator, publisher.

In 1825, Polevoy began to publish the first magazine in Russia, Moscow Telegraph, which was closed by the government in 1834, which saw it as a seditious publication.

Certainly, most of what is written by Polevoy now has a purely historical meaning. But for his time, his work both as a critic and as a writer was important and meaningful.

Entirely in the spirit of the new then artistic direction the work of N.A. Field. His works, in which dream and reality, the aspirations of the individual and the laws of society, were romantically opposed, were highly appreciated by readers at one time. The young Belinsky noted, not without enthusiasm, "that Polevoi's stories and novels, Simeon Kirdyap, The Painter, The Bliss of Madness, Emma, ​​The Fools, Abbadon, etc., are the purest poetry without any admixture of prose, though written in prose."

"Polevoi was the first to show that" ... literature is not a game of forfeits, not child's play, that the search for truth is its main subject and that truth is not such a trifle that could be sacrificed to conditional decency and friendly relations, "said VG Belinsky.

In "Tales of a Russian Soldier", largely based on Kursk material, the young merchant, on behalf of whom the story is being told, lovingly represents the city. “If you are in Kursk,” he says, “I advise you to go to the banks of the Tuskari to the former Trinity Monastery and admire from there the view of the Streletskaya Sloboda, its surroundings and the slope downhill to Tuskari. No less good is the view of the Yamskaya Sloboda, which has parted on the meadow side of the river..."

It is no coincidence that V.G. Belinsky said that in "Tales of a Russian Soldier" one senses folk spirit, there is everything "what is called nationality, from which our authors are so busy, what they least succeed in and what is easiest for true talent."

(According to I. Baskevich)

Bibliography:

• Polevoy, N. A. Autobiography of N. A. Polevoy / N. A. Polevoy // Polevo N. A. Dreams and life. - M., 1988. - S. 285-300.
• Polevoy, N. A. Selected prose. - M.: Pravda, 1990. - 752 p.
• Field, N. A. History of the Prince of Italy, Count Suvorov-Rymniksky / N. A. Field. - M.: Edition of A. Petrovich, 1904. - 346 p.
• Polevoy, N.A. History of the Russian people: [in 6 volumes] / N.A. Polevoy. - Ed. 2nd. - M., 1830-1833.
• Polevoy, N. Essays on Russian Literature: [in 2 hours] / N. Polevoy. - St. Petersburg. : type. Sakharova, 1839
• Zaporozhskaya, O. P. N. A. Polevoy - a striking phenomenon in cultural life Russia XIX century / O. P. Zaporozhskaya // From the history of culture Kursk region- Kursk, 1995. - Part 1. - S. 20-25.
• Zaporizhskaya, O. P. A. S. Pushkin and N. A. Polevoy / O. P. Zaporozhskaya // Culture in the history of Russia: past and present. - Kursk, 2001. - S. 66-67.
• Karpov, A. A. Nikolai Polevoy and his stories / A. A. Karpov // Selected works and letters / N. Polevoy. - L., 1986. - S. 3-26.
• Kirilov, A. S. Polevoy N. A. / A. S. Kirilov // Russian Writers. - M., 1990. - T. 2. - S. 153-156
• Polevoy Nikolai Alekseevich // History of Russia in faces from antiquity to the present day. - M., 1997. - S. 266-267.
• Polevoy Nikolai Alekseevich // Literary encyclopedic Dictionary. - M., 1987. - S. 678.
• Getman, N. "His name is in the memory of society" / N. Getman // Gor. news. - 2004. - S. 7. - (Culture).
• Prokhorova, I. E. Field Merchants - Columbuses of the Russian Enlightenment / I. E. Prokhorova // World of Bibliography. - 2001. - No. 4. - S. 83-90.
• Privalenko, M. Living features of the past / M. Privalenko // Kurskaya Pravda. - 1990. - 13 Jan. - (Famous smokers).

Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy- Russian writer, playwright, literary and theater critic, journalist, historian and translator; brother of critic and journalist K. A. Polevoy and writer E. A. Avdeeva, father of writer and critic P. N. Polevoy.

Born into a merchant family. Received home education. He made his debut in print in the magazine "Russian Messenger" in 1817. Lived in Moscow (1820 -1836), then moved to St. Petersburg.

The Russian word "journalism" was created in the early 1820s by Polev himself, who in 1825 titled the section on magazines in the Moscow Telegraph. Initially, this word caused ridicule.

In 1820 -1824 he published poems, notes, essays, articles, translations from French in " Domestic notes”, “Northern Archive”, “Son of the Fatherland”, almanac “Mnemosyne”.123

In Moscow he published literary and Science Magazine « Moscow Telegraph"(1825 -1834), which was printed in the printing house of August Semyon. The journal published articles on literature, history and ethnography, emphasized positive role merchants. The journal was closed in 1834 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 termination of the journal, Polevoy moved away from his former views.

In 1835-1844 he published an illustrated yearbook " Picturesque review of memorable objects from the sciences, arts, arts, industry and community, with the addition scenic travel By the globe and biographies famous people ". 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 The Son of the Fatherland. In 1841, together with N. I. Grech, he began to publish the monthly magazine "Russian Messenger" and was its sole editor in 1842-1844.

In addition to articles on the topics of history, Polevoy wrote The History of the Russian People (vols. 1-6, 1829-1833). In this work, he sought, in contrast to N. M. Karamzin's "History of the Russian State", to move from depicting the role of rulers, military and foreign policy events to identifying the "organic" development of the "people's principle". In "History" Polevoy focused on Western European romantic historiography, primarily Guizot, and sought to highlight the elements social order(the first to apply the concept of feudalism to Rus'), to reconstruct folk performances etc. Criticism of the "Pushkin circle" perceived the work of Polevoy as an unworthy "parody" of Karamzin and subjected the author to attacks that were not entirely deserved. In a draft review, Pushkin, however, regarded the 2nd volume more favorably, as a more independent work.

Initially, Polevoy planned to write 12 volumes (like Karamzin) and announced a subscription to just that many volumes, but due to personal difficulties he was able to write and publish only 6, which caused accusations of financial dishonesty. Latest volumes"History of the Russian people" is not as interesting as the first two; they reflect the haste of the writer, who "strays" into the traditional "statist" scheme of presentation, retells the sources, etc. Polevoy brought the presentation to the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible.

After "History" Polevoy wrote another series historical writings for the general reader. For example, in the work “Little Russia; its inhabitants and history ”(Moscow telegraph. - 1830. - No. 17-18) made a radical denial of the ethnic and historical kinship of the Great Russians and Little Russians, offered to admit that Little Russia was never the “ancient property” of Russia (as Karamzin insisted on this) . “We Russified their aristocrats, gradually eliminated local rights, introduced our own laws, beliefs ... but for all that, we did not manage to Russify the natives, just like the Tatars, Buryats and Samoyeds.” “In this nation [we] see only two main elements ancient Rus': faith and language, but even those have been changed by time. Everything else is not ours: physiognomy, customs, dwellings, life, poetry, clothing.

Is one of the main characters of the book by S. A. Lurie "Broken Arshin"

Author of romantic stories "Bliss of Madness" 1833), "The Painter" (1833), "Emma" (1834), the novel "Abbaddonna" (1834 ), historical novel"The Oath at the Holy Sepulcher" ( 1832 ). Polevoy owns a prose translation of Hamlet Shakespeare (1837 ). Ugolino wrote his first play in 1837; in AMD (about 40 plays in total) addressed the events and figures of Russian history ("Simeon Kirdyapa", 1828, "Krakow Castle",! 829, "Grandfather of the Russian Navy", 1838 ; "Elena Glinskaya", 1839 ; "Igolkin, merchant of Novgorod", 1839 ; "Parash-Siberian", 1840 ; "Kostroma Forests" 1841 ; "Lomonosov, or Life and Poetry", 1843 ; "Russian sailor. Historical reality", 1843 ; "Ermak Timofeevich, or the Volga and Siberia", 1845 ).

Articles about G. R. Derzhavin, V. A. Zhukovsky, A. S. Pushkin and other Russian writers compiled the book "Essays on Russian Literature" (parts 1-2, 1839 ). IN later years opposed V. G. Belinsky and the so-called Gogol direction in literature; Belinsky, who himself actively argued with him, nevertheless recognized Polevoy's significant literary merits in his obituary.

February 22 (March 6), 1846, St. Petersburg) - Russian writer, playwright, literary and theater critic, journalist and historian; brother of critic and journalist K.A. Polevoy and writer E.A. Avdeeva, father of the writer and critic P.N. Field. He published a magazine in Moscow, in which Pushkin, Turgenev, Zhukovsky, Dal sought to be published. The author of the word "journalism", which he created in the early 1820s (as he titled the section on magazines in the Moscow Telegraph in 1825). Initially, this word caused ridicule.

Childhood in Irkutsk

Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy was born on June 22 (July 3), 1796 in. He came from the old Kursk merchant family. His father served as a manager in the Russian-American Trading Company, owned a faience and vodka factories. The head of the family was famous for his strong and quick-tempered character.

Mother was known as a soft and meek woman. She was brought up in the Irkutsk nunnery, and therefore was very religious. At the same time, she was attracted fiction novels which her husband was very displeased with. And to the literature of their children, who received home education, and even more so. But, despite this, three writers grew up in the family - Nikolai, Xenophon and, who became the first Siberian writer, publisher of Russian folk tales and home economics books.

Nikolai Alekseevich combined the qualities of both parents - the willpower of his father and the gentleness and religiosity of his mother. WITH early childhood he showed great curiosity. At the age of six he had already learned to read, and by the age of ten he had become acquainted with all the books that were in the house. Among them are works by Sumarokov, Lomonosov, Karamzin, Kheraskov, Golikov. Having become familiar with literature, Polevoy himself began to write poetry, he publishes his own handwritten newspapers, composes the drama The Marriage of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and the tragedy Blanca of Bourbon. But his father saw in him only a merchant, therefore from the age of ten he attracted his son to clerical affairs, burned his literary opuses, and selected books. True, this did not stop Nikolai - he inherited a stubborn character from the priest.

In 1811, a real turning point occurred in the life of the future writer. With commercial assignments, his father sent him to Moscow, for almost a year Nikolai lived in the capital. It was then that he got acquainted with the theater, was able to read the books he wanted, and without prohibitions. Sometimes he even managed to get to lectures at Moscow University. Polevoy continued to write, but his father, who arrived, destroyed all his manuscripts upon learning of their existence.

Caught up with academics

It so happened that shortly before the war of 1812 family business began to suffer serious losses. Therefore, the Fields had to leave for Moscow, and then to Kursk. Father sent Nikolai on assignments throughout the country. Such a nomadic life could not provide young man even the slightest opportunity to engage in literature. But the desire grew.

Finally, in 1814, Polevoy began to study the Russian language, as well as studying foreign ones - there were people who agreed to tell the young man about the intricacies of grammar and pronunciation (he then served as a clerk for the Kursk merchant Baushev). Of course, there was no system in such studies - I had to form often at night, in fits and starts. During the day, to deal with clerical and paternal affairs.

In 1817, Alexander I arrived in Kursk. The tsar's visit impressed Polevoy so much that Nikolai wrote an article and it was published in the Russky Vestnik magazine by Sergei Nikolaevich Glinka. Two more of his articles were soon published here - memories of the capture of Paris and the arrival of Barclay de Tolly in Kursk. The novice publicist gains some fame in the city, even honored with an acquaintance with the governor. They begin to reckon with him. All this spurs him to further self-education.

He studies an article by Nikolai Grech, which says that the Russian language is not sufficiently developed, and decides to compile new system Russian conjugations. Then he starts translating foreign press. He sends these works and his articles to Vestnik Evropy, where they are published.

Polevoy becomes known in literary circles. In 1820, Nikolai personally met his first editor, Glinka. And in 1821 in St. Petersburg he already met with the great people of his time - Zhukovsky, Griboyedov, Grech, Bulgarin. Pavel Petrovich Svinin invites him to work in the Notes of the Fatherland. Polevoy is working hard - he is finishing his research "A new way of conjugation of Russian verbs". His work was highly appreciated - Polevoy was awarded the silver medal of the Russian Academy.

The best magazine in Russia

In 1822, his father dies, and Polevoy inherits his business. True, he soon decides that literature and journalism are more important, and completely stops trading. He intends to publish his own magazine.

Just at this time, Russian magazines are not going through the best period. Vestnik Evropy is already considered obsolete, Son of the Fatherland also ceases to satisfy the interests of readers, and Russkiy Vestnik is bored with reverting to antiquity that is not connected with modernity. An update was needed. And Polevoy opens the Moscow Telegraph. The author takes as its basis one of the leading French journals - Revue Encyclopedique.

Nikolai Alekseevich wants to popularize not only new domestic ideas, but also Western ones. Moscow Telegraph covers all outstanding European events in literature, science, public life. It contains translations of August Schlegel, Shakespeare, Balzac, Walter Scott, Byron, Schiller, Goethe, Hoffmann and other famous classics. Materials of French and English journals are published in Russian. But also about home country The publisher doesn't forget. On Russian intelligentsia this is very beneficial.

In addition, the magazine becomes encyclopedic. Illuminate in it and fashion trends. There are articles about fine arts, Polevoi is the first to publish reproductions in his edition famous paintings. The Moscow Telegraph was published twice a month - on the 1st and 15th. It doesn’t matter if holidays fell on these days or something else, even though the flood happened, it didn’t stop.

Among the authors of the journal are Kuchelbecker, Odoevsky, Krylov, Dal. Brother Xenophon helped Polevoy publish the Moscow Telegraph. Prince Vyazemsky - right hand Nikolai Alekseevich - head of the department literary criticism. Looking for new employees from the so-called Pushkin Circle. Pushkin sent his plays and epigrams to the editors of the Moscow Telegraph. The works of Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Baratynsky, Turgenev were printed here. The magazine flourished. It became the main event of a whole decade - the 20s of the XIX century.

Polevoy himself knew how to organize the work of the editorial board. He showed himself as a journalist, and as a critic, and as a historian. Fascinated by philosophy, he writes criticism of works and even criticism of criticism. Nikolai Alekseevich said that behind the work it is important to see the personality of the author, to think globally, and not just within the limits of one's own country. He is engaged in fiction, writes historical writings, plays and novels. He was the first to translate Shakespeare's Hamlet into Russian. Alexander Herzen said about him: "This man was born to be a journalist."

Opala

Polevoy's sharp tongue helped him make many enemies in literary circles. Some of the journalists could not stand him for taking away the audience from their magazines, the Pushkin circle was angry because of Polevoy's criticism of N.M. Karamzin's "History of the Russian State". Yes, and not the most flattering reviews of the Literary Gazette by Pushkin and Delvig were not in vain. Vyazemsky refused to work for the magazine.

The well-known persecutor of Pushkin, Uvarov, the head of the Ministry of Public Education, was also dissatisfied with Polevoy's activities. In addition, the Moscow Telegraph was considered the first bourgeois journal. And many did not like the glorification of the merchant class in it (Polevoi never forgot about his roots).

The last straw of the patience of the authorities was Nikolai Alekseevich’s critical review of the Kukolnik’s drama “The Hand of the Most High Fatherland Saved”, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. The plot is familiar to her: Ivan Susanin leads enemies into a swamp and, at the cost of his life, saves the new tsar. In 1834, this story also had a certain political subtext - the ideas of autocracy and nationality. Therefore, all critics were given the exact instructions to write well about the play, because Nicholas I himself was sitting among the audience! But Polevoy criticized this creation. The Moscow Telegraph ceased to exist, and its editor was outlawed.

Nikolai Alekseevich was banned from journalistic activities and even more so to publish his own magazine again. And he had big family in which seven children grew up. He could only earn writing. Under strict secrecy, Polevoy becomes the unspoken editor of Live Review. Worked under a false name or simply anonymously. A little later, he was offered to edit the St. Petersburg publications Northern Bee and Son of the Fatherland.

The disgraced writer passes control of the Review to brother Xenophon and, with the hope of better life leaves Moscow. But in northern capital he still can't find like-minded people. Even worse, the editors of the magazines Bulgarin and Grech, with whom he has to work, are his worst enemies. Despite his wounded pride, Polevoy has a lot of ideas on how to improve magazines. But, having not found responses to his proposals, Nikolai Alekseevich refuses both the Northern Bee and the Son of the Fatherland.

The last years of Polevoy were very difficult. To earn money, he edited the works of incoming authors, he himself believed that it was impossible to exchange for small coins, but he could not do anything. The attitude of good friends towards him also changed - they did not recognize him.

The only joy was that Polevoy's plays, staged in the theater, were quite popular. True, and this was overshadowed by the fact that now the once sharp and uncompromising author was accused of currying favor with the authorities. Polevoy had something to change his attitude to life. The death of his son and sister, constant attacks from all sides greatly undermined his health. He himself had already begun to dream of death.

He understood that his views were outdated, that he had become old. All attempts to publishing remained fruitless. On February 22, 1846, at the age of 52, Nikolai Alekseevich passed away. His family received a pension of 1000 rubles. And Vissarion Belinsky wrote a posthumous article about how much Polevoy did for Russian literature and society.

No. 4. - P.163-183.