Born into a wealthy family of Evgraf Vasilyevich Saltykov, a hereditary nobleman and collegiate adviser, and Olga Mikhailovna Zabelina. He was educated at home - his first mentor was the serf painter Pavel Sokolov. Later, young Michael was educated by a governess, a priest, a seminary student, and his older sister. At the age of 10, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin entered the Moscow Noble Institute, where he demonstrated great academic success.
In 1838, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin entered the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. There, for his academic success, he was transferred to study at public expense. In the lyceum, he began to write "free" poetry, ridiculing the surrounding shortcomings. Poems were weak, soon the future writer stopped doing poetry and did not like being reminded of the poetic experiences of his youth.
In 1841 the first poem "Lyra" was published.
In 1844, after graduating from the Lyceum, Mikhail Saltykov entered the service of the Office of the War Ministry, where he wrote free-thinking works.
In 1847 the first story "Contradictions" was published.
On April 28, 1848, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin was sent to a service transfer to Vyatka for the story "A Tangled Case" - away from the capital into exile. There he had an impeccable working reputation, did not take bribes and, enjoying great success, was well received in all houses.
In 1855, having received permission to leave Vyatka, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin left for St. Petersburg, where a year later he became an official for special assignments under the Minister of the Interior.
In 1858, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin was appointed vice-governor in Ryazan.
In 1860 he was transferred to Tver as a vice-governor. During the same period, he actively collaborated with the magazines Moskovsky Vestnik, Russkiy Vestnik, Library for Reading, Sovremennik.
In 1862, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin retired and tried to found a magazine in Moscow. But the publishing project failed and he moved to St. Petersburg.
In 1863, he became an employee of the Sovremennik magazine, but due to microscopic fees, he was forced to return to the service again.
In 1864, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin was appointed chairman of the Penza State Chamber, and was later transferred to Tula in the same position.
In 1867 he was transferred to Ryazan as head of the Treasury.
In 1868, he again retired with the rank of a truly state councilor and wrote his main works “History of a City”, “Poshekhonskaya Antiquity”, “Diary of a Provincial in St. Petersburg”, “History of a City”.
In 1877, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin became the editor-in-chief of Otechestvennye Zapiski. He travels around Europe and meets Zola and Flaubert.
In 1880, the novel "Lord Golovlev" was published.
In 1884, the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski was closed by the government, and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin's health deteriorated sharply. He is ill for a long time.
In 1889, the novel "Poshekhonskaya antiquity" was published.
In May 1889, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin fell ill with a cold and died on May 10. He was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.
Years of life: from 01/15/1826 to 04/28/1889
Russian writer, publicist. Known as the satirical works of Saltykov-Shchedrin, and his psychological prose. Classic of Russian literature.
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (real name Saltykov, pseudonym N. Shchedrin) was born in the Tver province, on the estate of his parents. His father was a hereditary nobleman, his mother came from a merchant family. Saltykov-Shchedrin was the sixth child in the family, he received his initial education at home. At the age of 10, the future writer entered the Moscow Noble Institute, from where two years later he was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, as one of the best students. Saltykov-Shchedrin's literary predilections began to appear in the lyceum, he writes poems that are published in student publications, but the writer himself did not feel a poetic gift in himself, and subsequent researchers of his work do not rate these poetic experiments highly. During his studies, Saltykov-Shchedrin became close to the graduate of the Lyceum M. V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky, who had a serious influence on the worldview of the future writer.
After graduating from the lyceum in 1844, Saltykov-Shchedrin was enrolled in the office of the Minister of War and only two years later he received his first full-time position there - assistant secretary. At that time, literature interested the young man much more than service. In 1847-48, the first novels by Saltykov-Shchedrin, Contradictions and A Tangled Case, were published in the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine. Shchedrin's critical remarks towards the authorities came just at the time when the February Revolution in France was reflected in Russia by the tightening of censorship and punishments for "free-thinking." Saltykov-Shchedrin was actually exiled to Vyatka for the story "A Tangled Case", where he received a position as a clerk under the Vyatka provincial government. During the exile, Saltykov-Shchedrin served as a senior official for special assignments under the Vyatka governor, held the position of governor of the governor's office, and was an adviser to the provincial government.
In 1855, Saltykov-Shchedrin was finally allowed to leave Vyatka, in February 1856 he was assigned to the Ministry of the Interior, and then appointed an official for special assignments under the minister. Returning from exile, Saltykov-Shchedrin resumes his literary activity. Written on the basis of materials collected during his stay in Vyatka, "Provincial Essays" quickly gain popularity among readers, Shchedrin's name becomes known. In March 1858, Saltykov-Shchedrin was appointed vice-governor of Ryazan, and in April 1860 he was transferred to the same position in Tver. At this time, the writer works a lot, collaborating with various magazines, but mostly with Sovremennik. In 1958-62, two collections saw the light: "Innocent Stories" and "Satires in Prose", in which the city of Foolov first appeared. In the same 1862, Saltykov-Shchedrin decided to devote himself entirely to literature and resigned. For several years the writer took an active part in the publication of Sovremennik. In 1864, Saltykov-Shchedrin returned to the service again, and until his final retirement in 1868, his writings practically did not appear in print.
Nevertheless, Shchedrin's craving for literature remained the same, and as soon as Nekrasov was appointed editor-in-chief of Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1868, Shchedrin became one of the journal's chief contributors. It was in Otechestvennye Zapiski (of which Saltykov-Shchedrin became editor-in-chief after Nekrasov's death) that the most significant works of the writer were published. In addition to the well-known "History of a City", which was published in 1870, a number of collections of Shchedrin's stories were published during the period 1868-1884, and in 1880 - the novel "Lord Golovlev". In April 1884, Otechestvennye Zapiski were closed by personal order of the chief censor of Russia, the head of the Main Directorate for Press Affairs, Yevgeny Feoktistov. The closure of the magazine was a great blow to Saltykov-Shchedrin, who felt that he had been deprived of the opportunity to address the reader. The health of the writer, already not brilliant, was finally undermined. In the years following the prohibition of Otechestvennye Zapiski, Saltykov-Shchedrin published his writings mainly in Vestnik Evropy, in 1886-1887 the writer’s last lifetime collections of stories were published, and after his death, the novel Poshekhonskaya Starina. Saltykov-Shchedrin died on April 28 (May 10), 1889 and was buried, according to his wishes, at the Volkovskoye cemetery, next to I. S. Turgenev.
Bibliography
Novels and novels
Contradictions (1847)
A Tangled Case (1848)
(1870)
(1880)
Refuge of Mon Repos (1882)
(1890)
Collections of short stories and essays
(1856)
Innocent Tales (1863)
Satires in Prose (1863)
Letters from the Province (1870)
Signs of the Times (1870)
The biography of Saltykov-Shchedrin shows not only a talented writer, but also an organizer who wants to serve the country and be useful to it. He was valued in society not only as a creator, but also as an official who cares for the interests of the people. By the way, his real name is Saltykov, and his creative pseudonym is Shchedrin.
Education
Since childhood, spent in the Tver provincial estate of his father, an old nobleman, located in the village of Spas-Ugol, the biography of Saltykov-Shchedrin begins. The writer will later describe this period of his life in the novel Poshekhonskaya Starina, published after his death.
The boy received his primary education at home - his father had his own plans for his son's studies. And ten years old he entered the Moscow Noble Institute. However, his talents and abilities were an order of magnitude higher than the average level of this institution, and two years later, as the best student, he was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum “for a state kosht”. In this educational institution, Mikhail Evgrafovich became interested in poetry, but he soon realized that writing poetry was not his path.
War Department official
The labor biography of Saltykov-Shchedrin began in 1844. A young man enters the service of an assistant secretary in the office of the War Department. He is captured by literary activity, to which he devotes much more mental strength than bureaucratic. The ideas of the French socialists and the influence of the views of George Sand are visible in his early works (the stories "A Tangled Case" and "Contradictions"). The author sharply criticizes serfdom in them, which sets Russia back in relation to Europe a century ago. The young man expresses a profound thought that human life in society should not be a lottery, it should be life, and for this a different social way of life is needed.
Link to Vyatka
It is natural that the biography of Saltykov-Shchedrin during the years of the reign of Despot Emperor Nicholas I could not be free from repression: public freedom-loving thoughts were not welcomed.
Exiled to Vyatka, he served in the provincial government. He devoted a lot of time and energy to the service. The official's career was successful. Two years later he was appointed an adviser to the provincial government. Thanks to frequent business trips and active insight into the affairs of the people, extensive observations of Russian reality are accumulated.
In 1855, the term of exile ends, and the promising official is transferred to his native Tver province to the Ministry of the Interior for militia affairs. In fact, another Saltykov-Shchedrin returned to his small homeland. The (short) biography of the returned writer-official contains one more stroke - upon arrival home, he got married. His wife was Elizaveta Apollonovna Boltova (the Vyatka vice-governor blessed his daughter for this marriage).
A new stage of creativity. "Provincial Essays"
However, the most important thing is the acquisition of his own literary style: his regular publications in the Moscow journal "Russian Messenger" were expected by the literary community. So the general reader got acquainted with the author's "Provincial Essays". The stories of Saltykov-Shchedrin presented to the addressees the pernicious atmosphere of obsolete serfdom. The writer calls the anti-democratic state institutions "the empire of facades." He denounces the officials - "stingers" and "naughty ones", the local nobles - "tyrants"; shows readers the world of bribes and undercover intrigues ...
At the same time, the writer understands the very soul of the people - the reader feels this in the stories "Arinushka", "Christ is Risen!" Starting with the story "Introduction", Saltykov-Shchedrin immerses the recipients in the world of truthful artistic images. A short biography, concerning creativity, at the turn of writing the "Provincial Essays" was assessed by him very succinctly. “Everything that I wrote before was nonsense!” The Russian reader finally saw a vivid and truthful picture of the generalized provincial town of Krutoyarsk, the material for the image of which was collected by the author in Vyatka exile.
Collaboration with the journal "Domestic Notes"
The next stage of the writer's work began in 1868. Saltykov-Shchedrin Mikhail Evgrafovich left the civil service and concentrated entirely on literary activity.
He began to work closely with the Nekrasov journal Otechestvennye Zapiski. The writer publishes his collections of stories Letters from the Province, Signs of the Times, Diary of a Provincial..., History of a City, Pompadours and Pompadours (the full list is much longer) in this printed edition.
The author's talent, in our opinion, most clearly manifested itself in the full of sarcasm, subtle humor of the story "The History of a City". Saltykov-Shchedrin Mikhail Evgrafovich skillfully illustrates to the reader the history of his own collective image of the "dark kingdom" of the city of Foolov.
A host of rulers of this city, who were in power in the 18th-19th centuries, pass before the eyes of the addressees. Each of them manages to leave social problems unattended, while compromising the city authorities for their part. In particular, the mayor, Brodysty Dementy Varlamovich, ruled in such a way that he provoked the townspeople to turmoil. Another of his colleagues, Pyotr Petrovich Ferdyshchenko, (former batman of the all-powerful Potemkin) died of gluttony while traveling around the lands entrusted to him. The third, Basilisk Semyonovich Borodavkin, became famous for having launched real military operations against his subjects and destroyed several settlements.
Instead of a conclusion
The life of Saltykov-Shchedrin was not simple. A person who is not indifferent and active, not only as a writer, he diagnosed the diseases of society and demonstrated them in all their ugliness for viewing. Mikhail Evgrafovich, as a state official, to the best of his ability, fought against the vices of power and society.
His health was crippled by a professional loss: the authorities closed the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, with which the writer associated great personal creative plans. He died in 1889 and, according to his will, was buried next to Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, who had died six years earlier. Their creative interaction during life is well known. In particular, Turgenev inspired Mikhail Evgrafovich to write the novel The Golovlevs.
The writer Saltykov-Shchedrin is deeply revered by his descendants. Streets and libraries are named after him. In the small homeland, in Tver, memorial museums have been opened, numerous monuments and busts have also been erected.
Saltykov-Shchedrin (pseudonym N. Shchedrin) Mikhail Evgrafovich (1826 1889), prose writer.
Born on January 15 (27 n.s.) in the village of Spas-Ugol, Tver province, in an old noble family. Childhood years were spent in the father's family estate in "... the years ... of the very height of serfdom", in one of the back corners of Poshekhonye. Observations of this life will later be reflected in the books of the writer.
Having received a good education at home, Saltykov at the age of 10 was accepted as a boarder at the Moscow Noble Institute, where he spent two years, then in 1838 he was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Here he began to write poetry, having been greatly influenced by the articles of Belinsky and Herzen, the works of Gogol.
In 1844, after graduating from the Lyceum, he served as an official in the Office of the War Ministry. "... Duty is everywhere, coercion is everywhere, boredom and lies are everywhere..." he gave such a description of bureaucratic Petersburg. Another life attracted Saltykov more: communication with writers, visiting Petrashevsky's "Fridays", where philosophers, scientists, writers, military men gathered, united by anti-serfdom sentiments, the search for the ideals of a just society.
Saltykov's first novels "Contradictions" (1847), "A Tangled Case" (1848) attracted the attention of the authorities, frightened by the French Revolution of 1848, with their acute social problems. The writer was exiled to Vyatka for "... a harmful way of thinking and a destructive desire to spread ideas that have already shaken the whole of Western Europe...". For eight years he lived in Vyatka, where in 1850 he was appointed to the post of adviser to the provincial government. This made it possible to often go on business trips and observe the bureaucratic world and peasant life. The impressions of these years will have an impact on the satirical direction of the writer's work.
At the end of 1855, after the death of Nicholas I, having received the right to "live where he wants", he returned to St. Petersburg and resumed his literary work. In 1856 1857 "Provincial Essays" were written, published on behalf of the "court councilor N. Shchedrin", who became known to all reading Russia, who called him Gogol's heir.
At this time, he married the 17-year-old daughter of the Vyatka vice-governor, E. Boltina. Saltykov sought to combine the work of a writer with public service. In 1856 1858 he was an official for special assignments in the Ministry of the Interior, where work was concentrated on the preparation of the peasant reform.
In 1858 1862 he served as vice-governor in Ryazan, then in Tver. He always tried to surround himself at his place of service with honest, young and educated people, dismissing bribe-takers and thieves.
During these years, short stories and essays appeared ("Innocent Stories", 1857, "Satires in Prose", 1859 62), as well as articles on the peasant question.
In 1862, the writer retired, moved to St. Petersburg and, at the invitation of Nekrasov, joined the editorial office of the Sovremennik magazine, which at that time was experiencing enormous difficulties (Dobrolyubov died, Chernyshevsky was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress). Saltykov took on an enormous amount of writing and editorial work. But he paid most of his attention to the monthly review "Our Public Life", which became a monument to Russian journalism of the 1860s.
In 1864 Saltykov left the editorial office of Sovremennik. The reason was intra-journal disagreements on the tactics of social struggle in the new conditions. He returned to public service.
In 1865 1868 he headed the State Chambers in Penza, Tula, Ryazan; observations of the life of these cities formed the basis of "Letters on the Province" (1869). The frequent change of duty stations is explained by conflicts with the heads of the provinces, over whom the writer "laughed" in grotesque pamphlets. After a complaint from the Ryazan governor, Saltykov was dismissed in 1868 with the rank of real state councilor. He moved to St. Petersburg, accepted the invitation of N. Nekrasov to become co-editor of the journal "Domestic Notes", where he worked in 1868 1884. Saltykov now completely switched to literary activity. In 1869, he wrote "The History of a City" - the pinnacle of his satirical art.
In 1875 1876 he was treated abroad, visited the countries of Western Europe in different years of his life. In Paris he met with Turgenev, Flaubert, Zola.
In the 1880s, Saltykov's satire culminated in its rage and grotesque: "Modern Idyll" (1877 83); "Lord Golovlevs" (1880); "Poshekhon stories" (1883㭐).
In 1884, the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski was closed, after which Saltykov was forced to publish in the journal Vestnik Evropy.
In the last years of his life, the writer created his masterpieces: "Tales" (1882 86); "Little Things in Life" (1886 87); autobiographical novel "Poshekhonskaya antiquity" (1887 89).
A few days before his death, he wrote the first pages of a new work "Forgotten Words", where he wanted to remind the "variegated people" of the 1880s about the words they had lost: "conscience, fatherland, humanity ... others are still there ...".
SALTYKOV-SHCHEDRIN, MIKHAIL EVGRAFOVICH(real name Saltykov; pseudonym N. Shchedrin; (1826–1889), Russian satirist, publicist.
Born on January 15 (27) in the village of Spas-Ugol, Kalyazinsky district, Tver province. in an old noble family, from an early age he observed the wildness of serf customs. Ten years old he entered the Moscow Nobility Institute, then, as one of the best pupils, he was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum and accepted at public expense. In 1844 he graduated from the course. In the lyceum, under the influence of still fresh legends of the Pushkin era, each course had its own poet - this role was played by Saltykov. Several of his poems, filled with youthful sadness and melancholy (he was known to his then acquaintances as a "gloomy lyceum student"), were placed in the "Library for Reading" for 1841 and 1842 and in "Sovremennik" in 1844 and 1845. However, he soon realized that he had no vocation for poetry, and stopped writing poetry.
In August 1844 he was enrolled in the office of the Minister of War, but literature occupied him much more. He read a lot and was imbued with the latest ideas of the French socialists (Fourier, Saint-Simon) and supporters of all kinds of "emancipation" (George Sand and others) - a picture of this hobby was drawn by him thirty years later in the fourth chapter of the collection Abroad. Such interests were largely due to rapprochement with the circle of radical freethinkers under the leadership of M.V. Petrashevsky. Begins to write - first small book reviews in "Notes of the Fatherland", then stories - contradictions(1847) and confusing case(1848). Already in the reviews, the mindset of a mature author is visible - disgust for routine, for commonplace morality, indignation at the realities of serfdom; sparkles of sparkling humor come across. In the first story, the theme of J. Sand's early novels is captured: the recognition of the rights of "free life" and "passion". confusing case- a more mature work, written under the strong influence of Gogol's Overcoats and probably poor people Dostoevsky. “Russia,” the hero of the story reflects, “is a vast, plentiful and rich state; yes, a person is stupid, he is starving in a rich state. “Life is a lottery,” the familiar look, bequeathed by his father, tells him; - it is so .. but why is it a lottery, why shouldn't it just be life? These lines, to which probably no one would have paid much attention before, were published immediately after the French Revolution of 1848, which responded in Russia with the establishment of a secret committee vested with special powers to curb the press. As a result, on April 28, 1848, Saltykov was sent to Vyatka. The Tsarskoye Selo graduate, a young nobleman, was not punished so severely: he was appointed a clerk under the Vyatka provincial government, then holding a number of positions, and was also an adviser to the provincial government.
He took his duties to heart. Provincial life, in its darkest sides, I got to know well thanks to numerous business trips around the Vyatka region - a rich stock of observations made found a place in Provincial Essays(1856–1857). He dispelled the boredom of mental loneliness with extracurricular activities: excerpts of his translations of French scientific works have been preserved. For the Boltin sisters, one of whom became his wife in 1856, was Brief history of Russia. In November 1855 he was finally allowed to leave Vyatka. In February 1856, he was assigned to the Ministry of the Interior, then appointed a ministerial official for special assignments and sent to the Tver and Vladimir provinces to review the records management of local militia committees.
Following his return from exile, his literary activity resumed. The name of the court adviser Shchedrin, who signed those who appeared in the Russkiy Vestnik Provincial Essays became popular. Collected in one book, they opened a literary page in the historical annals of the era of the liberal reforms of Alexander II, laying the foundation for the so-called accusatory literature, although they themselves only partly belonged to it. The outer side of the world of slander, bribes, abuse fills only a few of them; the psychology of bureaucratic life comes to the fore here. Satirical pathos has not yet received exclusive rights; in the spirit of the Gogol tradition, humor on its pages is periodically replaced by frank lyricism. Russian society, which had just awakened to a new life and followed with joyful surprise the first glimpses of freedom of speech, perceived the essays almost as a literary revelation.
The circumstances of the then “thaw” time also explain the fact that the author Provincial Essays could not only remain in the service, but also receive more responsible positions. In March 1858 he was appointed vice-governor of Ryazan, in April 1860 he was transferred to the same position in Tver. At the same time, he writes a lot - being published first in various magazines (in addition to the Russkiy Vestnik in the Atenaeum, Library for Reading, Moscow Bulletin), and since 1860 - almost exclusively in Sovremennik. From what was created at the dawn of the reforms - between 1858 and 1862 - two collections were compiled - Innocent stories And satires in prose. A collective image of the city of Glupov appears in them, a symbol of modern Russia, the “history” of which Saltykov created a few years later. Among other things, the process of liberal innovations is also described, in which the sharp eye of the satirist catches hidden inferiority - attempts to preserve the old content in new forms. One “embarrassment” is seen in the present and future of Glupov: “It is difficult to go forward, it is impossible to go back.”
In February 1862 he retired for the first time. He wanted to settle in Moscow and found a new magazine there; but when he failed, he moved to St. Petersburg and from the beginning of 1863 became in fact one of the editors of Sovremennik. Over the course of two years, he published fiction, public and theatrical chronicles, letters, book reviews, polemical notes, journalistic articles. The embarrassment that the radical Sovremennik experienced at every step from censorship prompted him to enter the service again. At this time, the least actively engaged in literary activities. As soon as Nekrasov became the editor-in-chief of Otechestvennye Zapiski on January 1, 1868, he became one of their most diligent employees. In June 1868, he finally left the service and became co-director of the journal, and after the death of Nekrasov, his only official editor. Until 1884, while the "Domestic Notes" existed, he worked exclusively for them. During these years, collections were created Signs of the times And Letters from the province(both –1870) History of one city (1870), Pompadours and Pompadours (1873), Gentlemen of Tashkent (1873), Diary of a provincial in St. Petersburg (1873), well-intentioned speeches (1876), In an environment of moderation and accuracy(1878), novel Lord Golovlev(1880), books Collection (1881), Monrepos refuge (1882), All year round (1880), Abroad (1881), Letters to aunt (1882), Modern Idyll (1885), Unfinished conversations (1885), Poshekhon stories(1886). famous Fairy tales, published as a separate book in 1887, appeared initially in Otechestvennye Zapiski, Nedelya, Russkiye Vedomosti, and the Collection of the Literary Fund.
After the prohibition of Otechestvennye Zapiski, he published his works mainly in the liberal Vestnik Evropy. The forced closure of the magazine was extremely difficult, while his health was already sep. The 1870s was seriously undermined. Tirelessly engaged in editorial work, perceiving writing as the most important service for the benefit of modern Russia. One of his letters to his son ends with these words: "Most of all, love your native literature and prefer the title of a writer to any other." At the same time, the thought of loneliness, "rejection" depressed him more and more, exacerbating physical suffering. The last years were marked by slow agony, but he did not stop writing. He died on April 28 (May 10), 1889 in St. Petersburg and was buried, according to the will, at the Volkov cemetery, next to I.S. Turgenev.
In the history of Russian classical satire, the place of Saltykov-Shchedrin is unique. If Gogol's "laughter through tears invisible to the world" was softened by lyricism and the breadth of philosophical generalizations, then Saltykov's satire is, first of all, a ruthless scourge that smashes the enemy on the spot, straightforward debunking, the pathos of rejecting everything "untrue" and "vile", filled with high rhetoric "thunders" and "lightning". He rather inherited not Fonvizin and Gogol, but Juvenal with his famous "indignation", which "creates poetry", and Jonathan Swift, a bilious skeptic who managed to reveal the depravity of human society. But if Swift denied the right to nobility to the human race as a whole, then Saltykov, in phantasmagoric, grotesque masks of "gloomy grumblers" and "organs", dressed up the inhabitants almost exclusively of the "Russian space", created a gallery of types that embody moral ugliness and moral breakdown in Russia the era of "great reforms" and the "freezes" that followed them. Not all attentive readers accepted the writer's sarcasm. In his scourging indignation caused by the diseases of national life, they often refused to see the roots of sincere suffering and love - and saw only malice and defamation of the Fatherland. V.V. Rozanov even wrote that Saltykov-Shchedrin “like a seasoned wolf, got drunk on Russian blood and fell off into the grave when he was full.”
For twenty years in a row, all the major phenomena of Russian social life met with an echo in Shchedrin's satire, which sometimes foresaw them even in the bud. The peculiarity of the writer's literary style consisted in the synthesis of fiction with frank publicism, artistic exaggerations, grotesque deformation of the contours of real phenomena with direct philippics about the most pressing political and social issues. This is connected with the attraction to the genre of the essay, which occupies an intermediate position between fiction and newspaper and magazine articles on topical issues. At the same time, he strove for broad generalizations, tried to show moral ulcers as characteristic symptoms of the diseases of Russian life, and therefore combined essays into large cycles.
His work reached its zenith at the time when the main cycle of the "great reforms" was completed. Inertia and the fruits of quiet resistance to innovative undertakings were becoming more and more pronounced in society: institutions and people became smaller, the spirit of theft and profit increased. For Saltykov, an excursion into the past also becomes an instrument of struggle: when compiling the “history of one city”, he also has in mind the present. “The historical form of the story,” the satirist said in one of his letters, “was convenient for me because it allowed me to more freely refer to the known phenomena of life ...”. And yet, for Saltykov, “the present” is not a synonym only for today. IN History of one city it encompasses the fate of imperial, post-Petrine Russia in general, the embodiment of which is the city of Foolov. The despotism and tyranny of those in power, combined with the servility and stupidity of the "broad Foolov masses" create an essentially terrible image of a country over which hangs an almost apocalyptic shadow of inevitable retribution.
In the first half of the 1870s, the writer fights back mainly against those who seek to resist the reforms of the previous decade - to win lost positions or to reward themselves for their losses. IN Letters from the province historiographers - i.e. those who have long "created" Russian history are fighting against new writers. IN Diary of a provincial floodlights are pouring out, as if from a cornucopia, highlighting "trustworthy and knowledgeable local landowners." IN Pompadours and Pompadours"strong-headed" "examine" world mediators-liberals. Saltykov does not spare the new institutions - the Zemstvo, the court, the bar, demanding a lot from them, and is indignant at every concession made to the "trifles of life." In the heat of the struggle, he could be unfair to individuals and institutions, but only because he was always led by a high idea of the tasks of the era.
By the second half of the 1870s, the appearance in his work of "pillars", "pillars of society", distinguished by predation and arrogance, such as, for example, the bailiff Gratsiapov and the collector of "materials" in Monrepos refuge. Sad pictures of decaying families, irreconcilable discord between "fathers" and "children" ( sore spot, 1879;Lord Golovlev). With particular indignation, the satirist attacked the "literary bedbugs", who chose the motto - "thinking is not supposed to", the goal is the enslavement of the people, the means to achieve it is slander on opponents. "Triumphant Pig", brought to the scene in one of the last chapters of the book Abroad, not only interrogates the "truth", but also mocks it, publicly eating it with a loud champ. On the other hand, literature is invaded by the street "with its incoherent noisy, base simplicity of demands, wildness of ideals", which serves as the main center of "selfish instincts". Later comes the time of "lying", the master of thoughts is "a scoundrel, born of moral and mental dregs, brought up and inspired by selfish cowardice."
Censorship and the gradual “tightening the screws” in Russian society led to an appeal to allegories and Aesopian language, which allowed the practice of “literary insolence”. Saltykov developed a special system of ironic allegories - a kind of "Aesopian thesaurus", the first set of established concepts in the history of dramatic relations between Russian literature and state censorship: "the order of things" - the political system, "heart" - a spy, "fuit" - a sudden exile to distant places , "foam skimming" - corrupt opportunism of journalists, etc.
Fantasy and allegory were congenial to the artistic talent of Saltykov-Shchedrin. Therefore, the appearance in 1883-1886 of his famous fairy tales. At first glance, they are unpretentious, focused on a simple and expressive folk language, but in fact they are quite far from the folklore origins of the genre. The satirist borrowed from the folk tale only the principle of anthropomorphization, that is, the "humanization" of animals. The very images of animals and birds, as well as folklore plots and motifs, he fundamentally rethought in order to create a grandiose allegory of modern Russian life in the genre of a kind of prose fable-feuilleton. In fairy tales, the imperial table of ranks is replaced by representatives of the zoological world, hares study "statistical tables" and write correspondence to newspapers, bears go on business trips and "put things in order" among the blossoming "forest peasants", fish talk about the constitution and debate about socialism. The fantastic costume simultaneously sets off the negative traits of the types and exposes them to ruthless ridicule: equating human life with the activity of a lower organism sets a derogatory background for the narrative, regardless of the plot.
At the same time, in the best writings, debunking is intricately intertwined with implicitly expressed compassion for those who have been eaten away by moral rust. In the novel Lord Golovlev the process of degeneration of the inhabitants of the noble estate is depicted. But with the help of a few rays of light that pierced the deep darkness, the last, desperate flash of a fruitlessly lost life rises before the readers. In a drunkard who has almost reached the point of animal stupefaction, one can recognize a person. Arina Petrovna is depicted even more vividly - and in this callous, stingy old woman, the author discerned human features that inspire compassion. He reveals them even in Judas himself (Porfiry Golovlev) - this "hypocrite of a purely Russian kind, devoid of any moral measure and not knowing any other truth, except for the one that appears in the alphabetical copybooks." Loving no one, respecting nothing, he replaced "living life" with predatory hypocrisy with an almost infernal aftertaste of carrion, burning everything around him. But he, too, suddenly wakes up and experiences horror at the realization of the terrible emptiness in his soul and the abomination of the sin that has struck it. The deep meanings of artistic denunciations in the best works of Saltykov are often associated with the introduction of Christian symbols into the text, which sets the criteria for evaluation from the height of final truth. Judas Golovlev experiences his inner upheaval during the days of Passion Week and the pangs of conscience become his "way of the cross." And in Poshekhonskaya antiquity hope in the promised mercy in eternal life does not allow despair from the triumph of evil to finally conquer the human soul.
The protest against the "serf chains" is translated in mature creativity into the intercession of a religiously motivated humanist for a person with trampled dignity, for the orphans and the poor.
There are few writers who would evoke such obvious and stubborn rejection from a certain part of the public as Saltykov. He was given a humiliating attestation of a "storyteller", the works were called "empty fantasies", which sometimes degenerate into a "wonderful farce" and have nothing to do with reality. He was reduced to the level of a feuilletonist, an amusing person, a caricaturist. Some critics claimed that he had no ideals, no positive aspirations. However, all the writings of the writer were united by the 19th century, which was so essential for the reader. "striving for the ideal", which Saltykov himself in Little things in life summarizes in three words: "freedom, development, justice". In the last years of his life, this phrase seemed to him insufficient, and he expanded it with a series of rhetorical questions: “What is freedom without participation in the blessings of life? What is development without a clearly defined end goal? What is justice without the fire of selflessness and love?
Compositions: Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. Collected works and letters. In 20 vols. M., 1965–1981
Vadim Polonsky
