Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was born in 1766 in Simbirsk (on the middle Volga) into a family of provincial noblemen. He received a good secondary education at the private school of a German professor at Moscow University. After school, he almost became a dissolute nobleman looking for some entertainment, but then he met I.P. Turgenev, a prominent freemason, who led him away from the path of vice and introduced him to Novikov. These Masonic influences played a major role in shaping Karamzin's worldview. Their vaguely religious, sentimental, cosmopolitan ideas paved the way for the understanding of Rousseau and Herder. Karamzin began to write for Novikov's magazines. His first work was a translation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar(1787). He also translated Seasons Thomson.
In 1789 Karamzin went abroad and spent there, wandering around Germany, Switzerland, France and England, for about a year and a half. Returning to Moscow, he began to publish a monthly Moscow magazine(1791-1792), from which the new movement begins. Most of the materials placed in it belonged to the pen of the publisher himself.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. Portrait by Tropinin
His main work, published there, were Letters from a Russian traveler(see summary and analysis), accepted by the public almost as a revelation: a new, enlightened, cosmopolitan sensibility and a delightfully new style appeared to her eyes (see Karamzin's article as a reformer of the Russian literary language). Karamzin became the leader and the most prominent literary figure of his generation.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin is a famous Russian writer, historian, the largest representative of the era of sentimentalism, a reformer of the Russian language, and a publisher. With his submission, the vocabulary was enriched with a large number of new crippled words.
The famous writer was born on December 12 (December 1, according to the old style), 1766, in a manor located in the Simbirsk district. The noble father took care of his son's home education, after which Nikolai continued to study first at the Simbirsk noble boarding school, then from 1778 at the boarding school of Professor Shaden (Moscow). During 1781-1782. Karamzin attended university lectures.
The father wanted Nikolai to enter the military service after boarding school - the son fulfilled his desire, in 1781 being in the St. Petersburg Guards Regiment. It was during these years that Karamzin first tried himself in the literary field, in 1783 he translated from German. In 1784, after the death of his father, having retired with the rank of lieutenant, he finally left military service. Living in Simbirsk, he joined the Masonic Lodge.
Since 1785 Karamzin's biography has been connected with Moscow. In this city, he meets N.I. Novikov and other writers, joins the "Friendly Scientific Society", settles in his house, further collaborates with members of the circle in various publications, in particular, takes part in the publication of the magazine "Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind", which became the first Russian magazine for children.
During the year (1789-1790) Karamzin traveled to the countries of Western Europe, where he met not only with prominent figures of the Masonic movement, but also with great thinkers, in particular, with Kant, I.G. Herder, J. F. Marmontel. The impressions from the trips formed the basis of the future famous Letters of a Russian Traveler. This story (1791-1792) appeared in the Moscow Journal, which N.M. Karamzin began to publish upon arrival at home, and brought the author great fame. A number of philologists believe that modern Russian literature is counting precisely from the "Letters".
The story "Poor Liza" (1792) strengthened the literary authority of Karamzin. Subsequently published collections and almanacs "Aglaya", "Aonides", "My trinkets", "Pantheon of Foreign Literature" opened the era of sentimentalism in Russian literature, and it was N.M. Karamzin was at the head of the current; under the influence of his works, they wrote V.A. Zhukovsky, K.N. Batyushkov, as well as A.S. Pushkin at the beginning of his career.
A new period in Karamzin's biography as a person and a writer is associated with the accession to the throne of Alexander I. In October 1803, the emperor appoints the writer as an official historiographer, and Karamzin is tasked with capturing the history of the Russian state. His genuine interest in history, the priority of this topic over all others was evidenced by the nature of the publications of Vestnik Evropy (this country's first socio-political, literary and artistic magazine Karamzin published in 1802-1803).
In 1804, literary and artistic work was completely curtailed, and the writer began to work on The History of the Russian State (1816-1824), which became the main work in his life and a whole phenomenon in Russian history and literature. The first eight volumes were published in February 1818. Three thousand copies were sold within a month - such active sales had no precedent. The next three volumes, published in the following years, were quickly translated into several European languages, and the 12th, final, volume was published after the death of the author.
Nikolai Mikhailovich was an adherent of conservative views, an absolute monarchy. The death of Alexander I and the uprising of the Decembrists, which he witnessed, became a heavy blow for him, depriving the writer-historian of his last vitality. On June 3 (May 22, O.S.), 1826, Karamzin died while in St. Petersburg; they buried him in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, at the Tikhvin cemetery.
Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich (1766 - 1826)
He was born on December 1 (12 n.s.) in the village of Mikhailovka, Simbirsk province, in the family of a landowner. He received a good education at home.
At the age of 14, he began to study at the Moscow private boarding school of Professor Shaden. After graduating in 1783, he came to the Preobrazhensky Regiment in St. Petersburg, where he met the young poet and future employee of his "Moscow Journal" Dmitriev. Then he published his first translation of S. Gesner's idyll "Wooden Leg". After retiring with the rank of second lieutenant in 1784, he moved to Moscow, became one of the active participants in the magazine Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind, published by N. Novikov, and became close to the Masons. Engaged in translations of religious and moral writings. From 1787 he regularly published his translations of Thomson's The Seasons, Janlis's Village Evenings, W. Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar, and Lessing's tragedy Emilia Galotti.
In 1789, Karamzin's first original story, Evgeny and Yulia, appeared in the magazine "Children's Reading ...". In the spring, he went on a trip to Europe: he visited Germany, Switzerland, France, where he observed the activities of the revolutionary government. In June 1790 he moved from France to England.
In the autumn he returned to Moscow and soon undertook the publication of the monthly "Moscow Journal", in which most of the "Letters of a Russian Traveler" were printed, the stories "Liodor", "Poor Liza", "Natalia, the Boyar's Daughter", "Flor Silin", essays, short stories, critical articles and poems. Karamzin attracted Dmitriev and Petrov, Kheraskov and Derzhavin, Lvov Neledinsky-Meletsky and others to cooperate in the journal. Karamzin's articles asserted a new literary trend - sentimentalism. In the 1790s, Karamzin published the first Russian almanacs - "Aglaya" (parts 1 - 2, 1794 - 95) and "Aonides" (parts 1 - 3, 1796 - 99). The year 1793 came, when the Jacobin dictatorship was established at the third stage of the French Revolution, shocking Karamzin with its cruelty. The dictatorship aroused in him doubts about the possibility for mankind to achieve prosperity. He condemned the revolution. The philosophy of despair and fatalism permeates his new works: the stories "Bornholm Island" (1793); "Sierra Morena" (1795); poems "Melancholy", "Message to A. A. Pleshcheev", etc.
By the mid-1790s, Karamzin had become the recognized head of Russian sentimentalism, opening a new page in Russian literature. He was an indisputable authority for Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, the young Pushkin.
In 1802 - 1803 Karamzin published the journal Vestnik Evropy, which was dominated by literature and politics. In the critical articles of Karamzin, a new aesthetic program emerged, which contributed to the formation of Russian literature as a nationally original one. Karamzin saw the key to the identity of Russian culture in history. The most striking illustration of his views was the story "Marfa Posadnitsa". In his political articles, Karamzin made recommendations to the government, pointing out the role of education.
Trying to influence Tsar Alexander I, Karamzin gave him his Note on Ancient and New Russia (1811), irritating him. In 1819 he filed a new note - "The Opinion of a Russian Citizen", which caused even greater displeasure of the tsar. However, Karamzin did not abandon his faith in the salvation of the enlightened autocracy and later condemned the Decembrist uprising. However, Karamzin the artist was still highly appreciated by young writers who did not even share his political convictions.
In 1803, through M. Muravyov, Karamzin received the official title of court historiographer.
In 1804, he began to create the "History of the Russian State", on which he worked until the end of his days, but did not complete it. In 1818 the first eight volumes of History, Karamzin's greatest scientific and cultural achievement, were published. In 1821, the 9th volume was published, dedicated to the reign of Ivan the Terrible, in 1824 - the 10th and 11th, about Fyodor Ioannovich and Boris Godunov. Death interrupted work on the 12th volume. It happened on May 22 (June 3, NS) 1826 in St. Petersburg.
December 12 (December 1, according to the old style), 1766, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was born - Russian writer, poet, editor of the Moscow Journal (1791-1792) and the Vestnik Evropy magazine (1802-1803), honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences ( 1818), full member of the Imperial Russian Academy, historian, the first and only court historiographer, one of the first reformers of the Russian literary language, the founding father of Russian historiography and Russian sentimentalism.
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Contribution of N.M. Karamzin in Russian culture can hardly be overestimated. Remembering everything that this man managed to do in the short 59 years of his earthly existence, it is impossible to ignore the fact that it was Karamzin who largely determined the face of the Russian XIX century - the "golden" age of Russian poetry, literature, historiography, source studies and other humanitarian areas of scientific research. knowledge. Thanks to linguistic searches aimed at popularizing the literary language of poetry and prose, Karamzin presented Russian literature to his contemporaries. And if Pushkin is “our everything”, then Karamzin can be safely called “our everything” with the capital letter. Without him, Vyazemsky, Pushkin, Baratynsky, Batyushkov and other poets of the so-called "Pushkin galaxy" would hardly have been possible.
“Whatever you turn to in our literature, Karamzin laid the foundation for everything: journalism, criticism, a story, a novel, a historical story, publicism, the study of history,” V.G. Belinsky.
"History of the Russian State" N.M. Karamzin became not just the first Russian-language book on the history of Russia, available to the general reader. Karamzin gave the Russian people Fatherland in the full sense of the word. They say that, slamming the eighth and last volume, Count Fyodor Tolstoy, nicknamed the American, exclaimed: “It turns out that I have a Fatherland!” And he was not alone. All his contemporaries suddenly found out that they live in a country with a thousand-year history and they have something to be proud of. Before that, it was believed that before Peter I, who opened a “window to Europe”, there was nothing in Russia worthy of attention: the dark ages of backwardness and barbarism, boyar autocracy, primordially Russian laziness and bears on the streets ...
Karamzin's multi-volume work was not completed, but, having been published in the first quarter of the 19th century, he completely determined the historical self-consciousness of the nation for many years to come. All subsequent historiography could not give rise to anything more in line with the “imperial” self-consciousness that had developed under the influence of Karamzin. Karamzin's views left a deep, indelible mark in all areas of Russian culture of the 19th-20th centuries, forming the foundations of the national mentality, which, in the end, determined the development of Russian society and the state as a whole.
It is significant that in the 20th century, the edifice of Russian great power, which had collapsed under the attacks of revolutionary internationalists, revived again by the 1930s - under different slogans, with different leaders, in a different ideological package. but... The very approach to the historiography of Russian history, both before 1917 and after, in many ways remained jingoistic and sentimental in Karamzin's way.
N.M. Karamzin - early years
N.M. Karamzin was born on December 12 (1st century), 1766, in the village of Mikhailovka, Buzuluk district, Kazan province (according to other sources, in the family estate of Znamenskoye, Simbirsk district, Kazan province). Little is known about his early years: there are no letters, no diaries, no memories of Karamzin himself about his childhood. He did not even know exactly his year of birth and for almost his entire life he believed that he was born in 1765. Only in his old age, having discovered the documents, he “looked younger” by one year.
The future historiographer grew up in the estate of his father, retired captain Mikhail Yegorovich Karamzin (1724-1783), a middle-class Simbirsk nobleman. He received a good education at home. In 1778 he was sent to Moscow to the boarding house of professor of Moscow University I.M. Shaden. At the same time he attended lectures at the university in 1781-1782.
After graduating from the boarding school, in 1783 Karamzin joined the Preobrazhensky Regiment in St. Petersburg, where he met the young poet and future employee of his Moscow Journal, Dmitriev. At the same time, he published his first translation of S. Gesner's idyll "Wooden Leg".
In 1784, Karamzin retired as a lieutenant and never served again, which was perceived in the then society as a challenge. After a short stay in Simbirsk, where he joined the Golden Crown Masonic lodge, Karamzin moved to Moscow and was introduced into the circle of N. I. Novikov. He settled in a house that belonged to Novikov's "Friendly Scientific Society", became the author and one of the publishers of the first children's magazine "Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind" (1787-1789), founded by Novikov. At the same time, Karamzin became close to the Pleshcheev family. For many years he was connected with N. I. Pleshcheeva by a tender platonic friendship. In Moscow, Karamzin publishes his first translations, in which interest in European and Russian history is clearly visible: Thomson's The Four Seasons, Janlis's Village Evenings, W. Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar, Lessing's tragedy Emilia Galotti.
In 1789, Karamzin's first original story "Eugene and Yulia" appeared in the magazine "Children's Reading ...". The reader hardly noticed it.
Travel to Europe
According to many biographers, Karamzin was not disposed towards the mystical side of Freemasonry, remaining a supporter of its active educational direction. To be more precise, by the end of the 1780s, Karamzin had already “been ill” with Masonic mysticism in its Russian version. Possibly, cooling towards Freemasonry was one of the reasons for his departure to Europe, where he spent more than a year (1789-90), visiting Germany, Switzerland, France and England. In Europe, he met and talked (except for influential Masons) with European "rulers of minds": I. Kant, J. G. Herder, C. Bonnet, I. K. Lavater, J. F. Marmontel, visited museums, theaters, secular salons. In Paris, Karamzin listened to O. G. Mirabeau, M. Robespierre and other revolutionaries in the National Assembly, saw many prominent political figures and was familiar with many. Apparently, the revolutionary Paris of 1789 showed Karamzin how much a person can be influenced by the word: the printed word, when the Parisians read pamphlets and leaflets with keen interest; oral, when revolutionary orators spoke and controversy arose (experience that could not be acquired at that time in Russia).
Karamzin did not have a very enthusiastic opinion about English parliamentarism (perhaps following in the footsteps of Rousseau), but he highly valued the level of civilization at which English society as a whole was located.
Karamzin - journalist, publisher
In the autumn of 1790, Karamzin returned to Moscow and soon organized the publication of the monthly "Moscow Journal" (1790-1792), in which most of the "Letters of a Russian Traveler" were printed, telling about the revolutionary events in France, the story "Liodor", "Poor Lisa" , "Natalia, Boyar's Daughter", "Flor Silin", essays, short stories, critical articles and poems. Karamzin attracted the entire literary elite of that time to cooperate in the journal: his friends Dmitriev and Petrov, Kheraskov and Derzhavin, Lvov, Neledinsky-Meletsky, and others. Karamzin's articles asserted a new literary trend - sentimentalism.
The Moscow Journal had only 210 regular subscribers, but for the end of the 18th century it was the same as a hundred thousand circulation at the end of the 19th century. Moreover, the magazine was read by those who “made the weather” in the literary life of the country: students, officials, young officers, petty employees of various government agencies (“archival youths”).
After the arrest of Novikov, the authorities became seriously interested in the publisher of the Moscow Journal. During interrogations in the Secret Expedition, they ask: did Novikov send the “Russian traveler” abroad with a “special assignment”? The Novikovites were people of high decency and, of course, Karamzin was shielded, but because of these suspicions, the magazine had to be stopped.
In the 1790s, Karamzin published the first Russian almanacs - Aglaya (1794-1795) and Aonides (1796-1799). In 1793, when the Jacobin dictatorship was established at the third stage of the French Revolution, shocking Karamzin with its cruelty, Nikolai Mikhailovich abandoned some of his former views. The dictatorship aroused in him serious doubts about the possibility of mankind to achieve prosperity. He sharply condemned the revolution and all violent ways of transforming society. The philosophy of despair and fatalism permeates his new works: the stories "Bornholm Island" (1793); "Sierra Morena" (1795); poems "Melancholy", "Message to A. A. Pleshcheev", etc.
During this period, real literary fame comes to Karamzin.
Fedor Glinka: “Out of 1200 cadets, a rare one did not repeat by heart any page from the Island of Bornholm”.
The name Erast, previously completely unpopular, is increasingly found in noble lists. There are rumors of successful and unsuccessful suicides in the spirit of Poor Lisa. The venomous memoirist Vigel recalls that important Moscow nobles had already begun to make do with “almost like an equal with a thirty-year-old retired lieutenant”.
In July 1794, Karamzin's life almost ended: on the way to the estate, in the wilderness of the steppe, robbers attacked him. Karamzin miraculously escaped, having received two light wounds.
In 1801, he married Elizaveta Protasova, a neighbor on the estate, whom he had known since childhood - at the time of the wedding they had known each other for almost 13 years.
Reformer of the Russian literary language
Already in the early 1790s, Karamzin seriously thought about the present and future of Russian literature. He writes to a friend: “I am deprived of the pleasure of reading a lot in my native language. We are still poor in writers. We have several poets who deserve to be read." Of course, there were and are Russian writers: Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Fonvizin, Derzhavin, but there are no more than a dozen significant names. Karamzin was one of the first to understand that it was not about talent - there are no fewer talents in Russia than in any other country. It’s just that Russian literature can’t move away from the long-obsolete traditions of classicism, laid down in the middle of the 18th century by the only theorist M.V. Lomonosov.
The reform of the literary language carried out by Lomonosov, as well as the theory of "three calms" he created, met the tasks of the transition period from ancient to new literature. A complete rejection of the use of the usual Church Slavonicisms in the language was then still premature and inappropriate. But the evolution of the language, which began under Catherine II, continued actively. The "Three Calms" proposed by Lomonosov relied not on live colloquial speech, but on the witty thought of a theoretician writer. And this theory often put the authors in a difficult position: they had to use heavy, outdated Slavic expressions where in the spoken language they had long been replaced by others, softer and more elegant. The reader sometimes could not "break through" through the heaps of obsolete Slavic words used in church books and records in order to understand the essence of this or that secular work.
Karamzin decided to bring the literary language closer to the spoken language. Therefore, one of his main goals was the further liberation of literature from Church Slavonicism. In the preface to the second book of the almanac "Aonides" he wrote: "One thunder of words only deafens us and never reaches the heart."
The second feature of Karamzin's "new style" was the simplification of syntactic constructions. The writer abandoned lengthy periods. In the Pantheon of Russian Writers, he resolutely stated: “Lomonosov’s prose cannot serve as a model for us at all: its long periods are tiring, the arrangement of words is not always in line with the flow of thoughts.”
Unlike Lomonosov, Karamzin strove to write in short, easily visible sentences. This is to this day a model of a good style and an example to follow in literature.
The third merit of Karamzin was to enrich the Russian language with a number of successful neologisms, which have become firmly established in the main vocabulary. Among the innovations proposed by Karamzin are such widely known words in our time as “industry”, “development”, “refinement”, “concentrate”, “touching”, “entertainment”, “humanity”, “public”, “ generally useful", "influence" and a number of others.
Creating neologisms, Karamzin mainly used the method of tracing French words: “interesting” from “interesting”, “refined” from “raffine”, “development” from “developpement”, “touching” from “touchant”.
We know that even in the Petrine era, many foreign words appeared in the Russian language, but for the most part they replaced the words that already existed in the Slavic language and were not necessary. In addition, these words were often taken in a raw form, so they were very heavy and clumsy (“fortecia” instead of “fortress”, “victory” instead of “victory”, etc.). Karamzin, on the contrary, tried to give Russian endings to foreign words, adapting them to the requirements of Russian grammar: “serious”, “moral”, “aesthetic”, “audience”, “harmony”, “enthusiasm”, etc.
In his reforming activities, Karamzin focused on the living colloquial speech of educated people. And this was the key to the success of his work - he does not write scientific treatises, but travel notes (“Letters from a Russian Traveler”), sentimental stories (“Bornholm Island”, “Poor Liza”), poems, articles, translates from French, English and German .
"Arzamas" and "Conversation"
It is not surprising that most of the young writers, modern Karamzin, accepted his transformation with a bang and willingly followed him. But, like any reformer, Karamzin had staunch opponents and worthy opponents.
A.S. stood at the head of Karamzin's ideological opponents. Shishkov (1774-1841) - admiral, patriot, well-known statesman of that time. An Old Believer, an admirer of Lomonosov's language, Shishkov at first glance was a classicist. But this point of view requires essential reservations. In contrast to the Europeanism of Karamzin, Shishkov put forward the idea of the nationality of literature - the most important sign of a romantic worldview far from classicism. It turns out that Shishkov also adjoined romantics, but only not progressive, but conservative direction. His views can be recognized as a kind of forerunner of later Slavophilism and pochvenism.
In 1803, Shishkov delivered a Discourse on the Old and New Style of the Russian Language. He reproached the “Karamzinists” for having succumbed to the temptation of European revolutionary false teachings and advocated the return of literature to oral folk art, to popular vernacular, to Orthodox Church Slavonic book learning.
Shishkov was not a philologist. He dealt with the problems of literature and the Russian language, rather, as an amateur, so Admiral Shishkov's attacks on Karamzin and his literary supporters sometimes looked not so much scientifically substantiated as unsubstantiated and ideological. The language reform of Karamzin seemed to Shishkov, a warrior and defender of the Fatherland, unpatriotic and anti-religious: “Language is the soul of a people, a mirror of morals, a true indicator of enlightenment, an unceasing witness to deeds. Where there is no faith in the hearts, there is no piety in the tongue. Where there is no love for the fatherland, there the language does not express domestic feelings..
Shishkov reproached Karamzin for the immoderate use of barbarisms (“era”, “harmony”, “catastrophe”), neologisms disgusted him (“revolution” as a translation of the word “revolution”), artificial words cut his ear: “future”, “readiness” and etc.
And it must be admitted that sometimes his criticism was apt and precise.
The evasiveness and aesthetic affectation of the speech of the "Karamzinists" very soon became outdated and went out of literary use. It was precisely this future that Shishkov predicted for them, believing that instead of the expression “when traveling became the need of my soul,” one can simply say: “when I fell in love with traveling”; the refined and paraphrased speech “variegated crowds of rural oreads meet with swarthy bands of reptile pharaohids” can be replaced by the understandable expression “gypsies go towards the village girls”, etc.
Shishkov and his supporters took the first steps in studying the monuments of ancient Russian literature, enthusiastically studied The Tale of Igor's Campaign, studied folklore, advocated rapprochement between Russia and the Slavic world and recognized the need for convergence of the "Slovenian" syllable with the common language.
In a dispute with the translator Karamzin, Shishkov put forward a weighty argument about the “idiomaticity” of each language, about the unique originality of its phraseological systems, which make it impossible to translate a thought or a true semantic meaning from one language into another. For example, when translated literally into French, the expression "old horseradish" loses its figurative meaning and "means only the very thing, but in the metaphysical sense it has no circle of signification."
In defiance of Karamzinskaya, Shishkov proposed his own reform of the Russian language. He proposed to designate the concepts and feelings missing in our everyday life with new words formed from the roots of not French, but Russian and Old Slavonic languages. Instead of Karamzin's "influence", he suggested "influence", instead of "development" - "vegetation", instead of "actor" - "actor", instead of "individuality" - "yanost", "wet shoes" instead of "galoshes" and "wandering" instead of "maze". Most of his innovations in Russian did not take root.
It is impossible not to recognize Shishkov's ardent love for the Russian language; one cannot but admit that the passion for everything foreign, especially French, has gone too far in Russia. Ultimately, this led to the fact that the language of the common people, the peasant, began to differ greatly from the language of the cultural classes. But one cannot brush aside the fact that the natural process of the beginning evolution of language could not be stopped. It was impossible to forcibly return to use the already obsolete at that time expressions that Shishkov proposed: “zane”, “ubo”, “like”, “like” and others.
Karamzin did not even respond to the accusations of Shishkov and his supporters, knowing firmly that they were guided by exceptionally pious and patriotic feelings. Subsequently, Karamzin himself and his most talented supporters (Vyazemsky, Pushkin, Batyushkov) followed the very valuable indication of the "Shishkovites" on the need to "return to their roots" and examples of their own history. But then they could not understand each other.
Paphos and ardent patriotism of A.S. Shishkov aroused sympathy among many writers. And when Shishkov, together with G. R. Derzhavin, founded the literary society “Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word” (1811) with a charter and its own journal, P. A. Katenin, I. A. Krylov, and later V. K. Küchelbecker and A. S. Griboyedov. One of the active participants in the "Conversations ..." prolific playwright A. A. Shakhovskoy in the comedy "New Stern" viciously ridiculed Karamzin, and in the comedy "A Lesson for Coquettes, or Lipetsk Waters" in the face of the "ballade player" Fialkin created a parody image of V. A Zhukovsky.
This caused a friendly rebuff from the youth, who supported the literary authority of Karamzin. D. V. Dashkov, P. A. Vyazemsky, D. N. Bludov composed several witty pamphlets addressed to Shakhovsky and other members of the Conversation .... In The Vision in the Arzamas Tavern, Bludov gave the circle of young defenders of Karamzin and Zhukovsky the name "Society of Unknown Arzamas Writers" or simply "Arzamas".
In the organizational structure of this society, founded in the autumn of 1815, a cheerful spirit of parody of the serious "Conversation ..." reigned. In contrast to official pomposity, simplicity, naturalness, openness dominated here, a lot of space was given to jokes and games.
Parodying the official ritual of "Conversations ...", when joining "Arzamas", everyone had to read a "funeral speech" to their "deceased" predecessor from among the living members of the "Conversations ..." or the Russian Academy of Sciences (Count D.I. Khvostov, S. A. Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, A. S. Shishkov himself, etc.). "Gravestone speeches" were a form of literary struggle: they parodied high genres, ridiculed the stylistic archaism of the poetic works of the "talkers". At the meetings of the society, the humorous genres of Russian poetry were honed, a bold and resolute struggle was waged against all sorts of officialdom, a type of independent Russian writer, free from the pressure of any ideological conventions, was formed. And although P. A. Vyazemsky, one of the organizers and active participants in the society, in his mature years condemned the youthful mischief and intransigence of his like-minded people (in particular, the rites of the “burial” of living literary opponents), he rightly called Arzamas a school of “literary fellowship” and mutual creative learning. The Arzamas and Beseda societies soon became centers of literary life and social struggle in the first quarter of the 19th century. The "Arzamas" included such famous people as Zhukovsky (pseudonym - Svetlana), Vyazemsky (Asmodeus), Pushkin (Cricket), Batyushkov (Achilles), etc.
Beseda broke up after Derzhavin's death in 1816; Arzamas, having lost its main opponent, ceased to exist by 1818.
Thus, by the mid-1790s, Karamzin became the recognized head of Russian sentimentalism, which opened not just a new page in Russian literature, but Russian fiction in general. Russian readers, who had previously absorbed only French novels and the works of enlighteners, enthusiastically accepted Letters from a Russian Traveler and Poor Liza, and Russian writers and poets (both “conversators” and “Arzamas”) realized that it was possible and must write in their native language.
Karamzin and Alexander I: a symphony with power?
In 1802 - 1803 Karamzin published the journal Vestnik Evropy, which was dominated by literature and politics. Largely due to the confrontation with Shishkov, a new aesthetic program for the formation of Russian literature as a nationally original appeared in Karamzin's critical articles. Karamzin, unlike Shishkov, saw the key to the identity of Russian culture not so much in adherence to ritual antiquity and religiosity, but in the events of Russian history. The most striking illustration of his views was the story "Marfa Posadnitsa or the Conquest of Novgorod".
In his political articles of 1802-1803, Karamzin, as a rule, made recommendations to the government, the main of which was the enlightenment of the nation in the name of the prosperity of the autocratic state.
These ideas were generally close to Emperor Alexander I, the grandson of Catherine the Great, who at one time also dreamed of an “enlightened monarchy” and a complete symphony between the authorities and a European-educated society. Karamzin's response to the coup on March 11, 1801 and the accession to the throne of Alexander I was the "Historical eulogy to Catherine II" (1802), where Karamzin expressed his views on the essence of the monarchy in Russia, as well as the duties of the monarch and his subjects. "Eulogy" was approved by the sovereign, as a collection of examples for the young monarch, and favorably accepted by him. Alexander I, obviously, was interested in Karamzin's historical research, and the emperor rightly decided that a great country simply needed to remember its no less great past. And if you don’t remember, then at least create anew ...
In 1803, through the tsar’s educator M.N. Muravyov, a poet, historian, teacher, one of the most educated people of that time, N.M. Karamzin received the official title of court historiographer with a pension of 2,000 rubles. (A pension of 2,000 rubles a year was then assigned to officials who, according to the Table of Ranks, had a rank no lower than that of a general). Later, I. V. Kireevsky, referring to Karamzin himself, wrote about Muravyov: “Who knows, maybe without his thoughtful and warm assistance, Karamzin would not have had the means to accomplish his great deed.”
In 1804, Karamzin practically departed from literary and publishing activities and began to create the "History of the Russian State", on which he worked until the end of his days. Through his influence M.N. Muravyov made available to the historian many of the previously unknown and even "secret" materials, opened libraries and archives for him. Modern historians can only dream of such favorable conditions for work. Therefore, in our opinion, to speak of the "History of the Russian State" as a "scientific feat" N.M. Karamzin, not entirely fair. The court historiographer was in the service, conscientiously doing the work for which he was paid money. Accordingly, he had to write such a story that was currently needed by the customer, namely, Tsar Alexander I, who at the first stage of his reign showed sympathy for European liberalism.
However, under the influence of studies in Russian history, by 1810 Karamzin became a consistent conservative. During this period, the system of his political views finally took shape. Karamzin's statements that he is a "republican at heart" can only be adequately interpreted if one considers that we are talking about the "Platonic Republic of the Sages", an ideal social order based on state virtue, strict regulation and the denial of personal freedom. . At the beginning of 1810, Karamzin, through his relative Count F.V. Rostopchin, met in Moscow with the leader of the "conservative party" at court - Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna (sister of Alexander I) and began to constantly visit her residence in Tver. The salon of the Grand Duchess represented the center of conservative opposition to the liberal-Western course, personified by the figure of M. M. Speransky. In this salon, Karamzin read excerpts from his "History ...", at the same time he met Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna, who became one of his patronesses.
In 1811, at the request of Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna, Karamzin wrote a note “On ancient and new Russia in its political and civil relations”, in which he outlined his ideas about the ideal structure of the Russian state and sharply criticized the policies of Alexander I and his immediate predecessors: Paul I , Catherine II and Peter I. In the 19th century, the note was never published in full and diverged only in handwritten lists. In Soviet times, the thoughts expressed by Karamzin in his message were perceived as a reaction of the extremely conservative nobility to the reforms of M. M. Speransky. The author himself was branded a "reactionary", an opponent of the liberation of the peasantry and other liberal steps taken by the government of Alexander I.
However, during the first full publication of the note in 1988, Yu. M. Lotman revealed its deeper content. In this document, Karamzin made a reasonable criticism of unprepared bureaucratic reforms carried out from above. While praising Alexander I, the author of the note at the same time attacks his advisers, referring, of course, to Speransky, who stood for constitutional reforms. Karamzin takes the liberty of proving to the tsar in detail, with reference to historical examples, that Russia is not ready either historically or politically to abolish serfdom and limit the autocratic monarchy by the constitution (following the example of the European powers). Some of his arguments (for example, about the uselessness of freeing peasants without land, the impossibility of constitutional democracy in Russia) look quite convincing and historically correct even today.
Along with an overview of Russian history and criticism of the political course of Emperor Alexander I, the note contained an integral, original and very complex theoretical concept of autocracy as a special, distinctively Russian type of power closely associated with Orthodoxy.
At the same time, Karamzin refused to identify "true autocracy" with despotism, tyranny or arbitrariness. He believed that such deviations from the norms were due to chance (Ivan IV the Terrible, Paul I) and were quickly eliminated by the inertia of the tradition of "wise" and "virtuous" monarchical rule. In cases of a sharp weakening and even complete absence of the supreme state and church authority (for example, during the Time of Troubles), this powerful tradition led to the restoration of autocracy within a short historical period. Autocracy was the "palladium of Russia", the main reason for its power and prosperity. Therefore, the basic principles of monarchical government in Russia, according to Karamzin, should have been preserved in the future. They should have been supplemented only by a proper policy in the field of legislation and education, which would lead not to undermining the autocracy, but to its maximum strengthening. With such an understanding of autocracy, any attempt to limit it would be a crime against Russian history and the Russian people.
Initially, Karamzin's note only irritated the young emperor, who did not like criticism of his actions. In this note, the historiographer proved himself plus royaliste que le roi (greater royalist than the king himself). However, subsequently the brilliant "anthem to the Russian autocracy" as presented by Karamzin undoubtedly had its effect. After the war of 1812, the winner of Napoleon, Alexander I, curtailed many of his liberal projects: Speransky's reforms were not completed, the constitution and the very idea of \u200b\u200blimiting autocracy remained only in the minds of future Decembrists. And already in the 1830s, Karamzin's concept actually formed the basis of the ideology of the Russian Empire, designated by the "theory of official nationality" of Count S. Uvarov (Orthodoxy-Autocracy-Nationhood).
Before the publication of the first 8 volumes of "History ..." Karamzin lived in Moscow, from where he traveled only to Tver to the Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna and to Nizhny Novgorod, while Moscow was occupied by the French. He usually spent his summers at Ostafyev, the estate of Prince Andrei Ivanovich Vyazemsky, whose illegitimate daughter, Ekaterina Andreevna, Karamzin married in 1804. (The first wife of Karamzin, Elizaveta Ivanovna Protasova, died in 1802).
In the last 10 years of his life, which Karamzin spent in St. Petersburg, he became very close to the royal family. Although Emperor Alexander I treated Karamzin with restraint from the time the Note was submitted, Karamzin often spent his summers in Tsarskoye Selo. At the request of the empresses (Maria Feodorovna and Elizaveta Alekseevna), he more than once conducted frank political conversations with Emperor Alexander, in which he acted as a spokesman for the opponents of drastic liberal reforms. In 1819-1825, Karamzin passionately rebelled against the intentions of the sovereign regarding Poland (submitted a note "Opinion of a Russian citizen"), condemned the increase in state taxes in peacetime, spoke of the ridiculous provincial system of finance, criticized the system of military settlements, the activities of the Ministry of Education, pointed to the strange choice by the sovereign of some of the most important dignitaries (for example, Arakcheev), spoke of the need to reduce internal troops, about the imaginary correction of roads, so painful for the people, and constantly pointed out the need to have firm laws, civil and state.
Of course, having such intercessors as both empresses and Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna behind her, one could criticize, and argue, and show civil courage, and try to set the monarch "on the right path." It was not for nothing that Emperor Alexander I and his contemporaries and subsequent historians of his reign called the “mysterious sphinx”. In words, the sovereign agreed with Karamzin's critical remarks regarding military settlements, recognized the need to "give fundamental laws to Russia", and also to revise some aspects of domestic policy, but it so happened in our country that in reality - all the wise advice of state people remain "fruitless for Dear Fatherland"...
Karamzin as a historian
Karamzin is our first historian and last chronicler.
By his criticism he belongs to history,
innocence and apothegms - the chronicle.
A.S. Pushkin
Even from the point of view of Karamzin's modern historical science, no one dared to call 12 volumes of his "History of the Russian State" scientific work. Even then, it was clear to everyone that the honorary title of court historiographer cannot make a writer a historian, give him the appropriate knowledge and proper training.
But, on the other hand, Karamzin did not initially set himself the task of taking on the role of a researcher. The newly minted historiographer was not going to write a scientific treatise and appropriate the laurels of his illustrious predecessors - Schlozer, Miller, Tatishchev, Shcherbatov, Boltin, etc.
Preliminary critical work on sources for Karamzin is only "a heavy tribute brought by reliability." He was, first of all, a writer, and therefore he wanted to apply his literary talent to ready-made material: “select, animate, colorize” and, in this way, make Russian history “something attractive, strong, worthy of attention not only Russians, but also foreigners." And this task he performed brilliantly.
Today it is impossible not to agree with the fact that at the beginning of the 19th century source studies, paleography and other auxiliary historical disciplines were in their very infancy. Therefore, to demand professional criticism from the writer Karamzin, as well as strict adherence to one or another method of working with historical sources, is simply ridiculous.
One can often hear the opinion that Karamzin simply beautifully rewrote Prince M.M. family circle. This is wrong.
Naturally, when writing his "History ..." Karamzin actively used the experience and works of his predecessors - Schlozer and Shcherbatov. Shcherbatov helped Karamzin navigate the sources of Russian history, significantly influencing both the choice of material and its arrangement in the text. Coincidentally or not, Karamzin brought The History of the Russian State to exactly the same place as Shcherbatov's History. However, in addition to following the scheme already developed by his predecessors, Karamzin cites in his essay a lot of references to the most extensive foreign historiography, almost unfamiliar to the Russian reader. While working on his "History ...", for the first time he introduced into scientific circulation a mass of unknown and previously unexplored sources. These are Byzantine and Livonian chronicles, information from foreigners about the population of ancient Rus', as well as a large number of Russian chronicles that have not yet been touched by the hand of a historian. For comparison: M.M. Shcherbatov used only 21 Russian chronicles in writing his work, Karamzin actively cites more than 40. In addition to the chronicles, Karamzin attracted monuments of ancient Russian law and ancient Russian fiction to the study. A special chapter of "History ..." is devoted to "Russian Truth", and a number of pages - to the newly opened "Tale of Igor's Campaign".
Thanks to the diligent help of the directors of the Moscow Archive of the Ministry (Board) of Foreign Affairs N. N. Bantysh-Kamensky and A. F. Malinovsky, Karamzin was able to use those documents and materials that were not available to his predecessors. The Synodal depository, libraries of monasteries (Trinity Lavra, Volokolamsk Monastery and others), as well as private collections of Musin-Pushkin and N.P. Rumyantsev. Karamzin received especially many documents from Chancellor Rumyantsev, who collected historical materials in Russia and abroad through his numerous agents, as well as from AI Turgenev, who compiled a collection of documents from the papal archive.
Many of the sources used by Karamzin perished during the Moscow fire of 1812 and survived only in his "History ..." and extensive "Notes" to its text. Thus, Karamzin's work, to some extent, has itself acquired the status of a historical source, to which professional historians have every right to refer.
Among the main shortcomings of the "History of the Russian State" is traditionally noted the peculiar view of its author on the tasks of the historian. According to Karamzin, "knowledge" and "scholarship" in the historian "do not replace the talent to portray actions." Before the artistic task of history, even the moral one recedes into the background, which was set by Karamzin's patron, M.N. Muravyov. The characteristics of historical characters are given by Karamzin exclusively in a literary and romantic vein, characteristic of the direction of Russian sentimentalism he created. The first Russian princes according to Karamzin are distinguished by their "ardent romantic passion" for conquests, their retinue - nobility and loyal spirit, the "rabble" sometimes shows discontent, raising rebellions, but in the end agrees with the wisdom of noble rulers, etc., etc. P.
Meanwhile, the previous generation of historians, under the influence of Schlözer, had long developed the idea of critical history, and among Karamzin's contemporaries, the requirements for criticizing historical sources, despite the lack of a clear methodology, were generally recognized. And the next generation has already come forward with the demand for philosophical history - with the identification of the laws of development of the state and society, the recognition of the main driving forces and laws of the historical process. Therefore, the overly “literary” creation of Karamzin was immediately subjected to well-founded criticism.
According to the idea, firmly rooted in Russian and foreign historiography of the 17th - 18th centuries, the development of the historical process depends on the development of monarchical power. Karamzin does not deviate one iota from this idea: the monarchical power glorified Russia in the Kievan period; the division of power between the princes was a political mistake, which was corrected by the state wisdom of the Moscow princes - the collectors of Rus'. At the same time, it was the princes who corrected its consequences - the fragmentation of Rus' and the Tatar yoke.
But before reproaching Karamzin for not contributing anything new to the development of Russian historiography, it should be remembered that the author of The History of the Russian State did not at all set himself the task of philosophical understanding of the historical process or blind imitation of the ideas of Western European romantics (F. Guizot , F. Mignet, J. Meshle), who already then started talking about the "class struggle" and the "spirit of the people" as the main driving force of history. Karamzin was not interested in historical criticism at all, and deliberately denied the "philosophical" trend in history. The conclusions of the researcher from historical material, as well as his subjective fabrications, seem to Karamzin to be "metaphysics" that is not suitable "for depicting action and character."
Thus, with his peculiar views on the tasks of the historian, Karamzin, by and large, remained outside the dominant currents of Russian and European historiography of the 19th and 20th centuries. Of course, he participated in its consistent development, but only in the form of an object for constant criticism and the clearest example of how history should not be written.
The reaction of contemporaries
Karamzin's contemporaries - readers and admirers - enthusiastically accepted his new "historical" work. The first eight volumes of The History of the Russian State were printed in 1816-1817 and went on sale in February 1818. Huge for that time, the three-thousandth circulation sold out in 25 days. (And this despite the solid price - 50 rubles). A second edition was immediately required, which was carried out in 1818-1819 by I. V. Slyonin. In 1821 a new, ninth volume was published, and in 1824 the next two. The author did not have time to finish the twelfth volume of his work, which was published in 1829, almost three years after his death.
"History ..." was admired by Karamzin's literary friends and a vast public of non-specialist readers who suddenly discovered, like Count Tolstoy the American, that their Fatherland has a history. According to A.S. Pushkin, “everyone, even secular women, rushed to read the history of their fatherland, hitherto unknown to them. She was a new discovery for them. Ancient Russia seemed to be found by Karamzin, like America by Columbus.
Liberal intellectual circles of the 1820s found Karamzin's "History ..." backward in general views and unnecessarily tendentious:
Specialists-researchers, as already mentioned, treated Karamzin's work exactly as a work, sometimes even belittling its historical significance. It seemed to many that Karamzin's undertaking itself was too risky - to undertake to write such an extensive work in the then state of Russian historical science.
Already during Karamzin's lifetime, critical analyzes of his "History ..." appeared, and soon after the author's death, attempts were made to determine the general significance of this work in historiography. Lelevel pointed to an involuntary distortion of the truth, due to the patriotic, religious and political hobbies of Karamzin. Artsybashev showed the extent to which the writing of "history" is harmed by the literary techniques of a non-professional historian. Pogodin summed up all the shortcomings of the History, and N.A. Polevoy saw the common cause of these shortcomings in the fact that "Karamzin is a writer not of our time." All his points of view, both in literature and in philosophy, politics and history, became obsolete with the appearance in Russia of new influences of European romanticism. In opposition to Karamzin, Polevoy soon wrote his six-volume History of the Russian People, where he completely surrendered himself to the ideas of Guizot and other Western European romantics. Contemporaries rated this work as an "unworthy parody" of Karamzin, subjecting the author to rather vicious and not always deserved attacks.
In the 1830s, Karamzin's "History ..." becomes the banner of the officially "Russian" direction. With the assistance of the same Pogodin, its scientific rehabilitation is carried out, which is fully consistent with the spirit of Uvarov's "theory of official nationality".
In the second half of the 19th century, on the basis of the "History ...", a mass of popular science articles and other texts were written, which formed the basis of well-known educational and teaching aids. Based on the historical plots of Karamzin, many works for children and youth were created, the purpose of which for many years was to instill patriotism, fidelity to civic duty, and the responsibility of the younger generation for the fate of their homeland. This book, in our opinion, played a decisive role in shaping the views of more than one generation of Russian people, having a significant impact on the foundations of the patriotic education of young people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
December 14th. Final Karamzin.
The death of Emperor Alexander I and the December events of 1925 deeply shocked N.M. Karamzin and negatively affected his health.
On December 14, 1825, having received news of the uprising, the historian goes out into the street: “I saw terrible faces, heard terrible words, five or six stones fell at my feet.”
Karamzin, of course, regarded the performance of the nobility against their sovereign as a rebellion and a serious crime. But there were so many acquaintances among the rebels: the Muravyov brothers, Nikolai Turgenev, Bestuzhev, Ryleev, Kuchelbeker (he translated Karamzin's History into German).
A few days later, Karamzin will say about the Decembrists: "The errors and crimes of these young people are the errors and crimes of our age."
On December 14, during his travels around St. Petersburg, Karamzin caught a bad cold and fell ill with pneumonia. In the eyes of his contemporaries, he was another victim of this day: his idea of the world collapsed, faith in the future was lost, and a new king ascended the throne, very far from the ideal image of an enlightened monarch. Half-ill, Karamzin visited the palace every day, where he talked with Empress Maria Feodorovna, from memories of the late sovereign Alexander, moving on to discussions about the tasks of the future reign.
Karamzin could no longer write. Volume XII of the "History ..." stopped at the interregnum of 1611 - 1612. The last words of the last volume are about a small Russian fortress: "Nutlet did not give up." The last thing that Karamzin really managed to do in the spring of 1826 was, together with Zhukovsky, he persuaded Nicholas I to return Pushkin from exile. A few years later, the emperor tried to pass the baton of the first historiographer of Russia to the poet, but the “sun of Russian poetry” somehow did not fit into the role of the state ideologist and theorist ...
In the spring of 1826 N.M. Karamzin, on the advice of doctors, decided to go to southern France or Italy for treatment. Nicholas I agreed to sponsor his trip and kindly placed a frigate of the imperial fleet at the disposal of the historiographer. But Karamzin was already too weak to travel. He died on May 22 (June 3) 1826 in St. Petersburg. He was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin- the famous Russian writer, historian, the largest representative of the era of sentimentalism, a reformer of the Russian language, a publisher. With his submission, the vocabulary was enriched with a large number of new crippled words.
The famous writer was born on December 12 (December 1, according to the old style), 1766, in a manor located in the Simbirsk district. The noble father took care of his son's home education, after which Nikolai continued to study first at the Simbirsk noble boarding school, then from 1778 at the boarding school of Professor Shaden (Moscow). During 1781-1782. Karamzin attended university lectures.
The father wanted Nikolai to enter the military service after boarding school - the son fulfilled his desire, in 1781 being in the St. Petersburg Guards Regiment. It was during these years that Karamzin first tried himself in the literary field, in 1783 he translated from German. In 1784, after the death of his father, having retired with the rank of lieutenant, he finally left military service. Living in Simbirsk, he joined the Masonic Lodge.
Since 1785 Karamzin's biography has been connected with Moscow. In this city, he meets N.I. Novikov and other writers, joins the "Friendly Scientific Society", settles in his house, further collaborates with members of the circle in various publications, in particular, takes part in the publication of the magazine "Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind", which became the first Russian magazine for children.
During the year (1789-1790) Karamzin traveled to the countries of Western Europe, where he met not only with prominent figures of the Masonic movement, but also with great thinkers, in particular, with Kant, I.G. Herder, J. F. Marmontel. The impressions from the trips formed the basis of the future famous Letters of a Russian Traveler. This story (1791-1792) appeared in the Moscow Journal, which N.M. Karamzin began to publish upon arrival at home, and brought the author great fame. A number of philologists believe that modern Russian literature is counting precisely from the "Letters".
The story "Poor Liza" (1792) strengthened the literary authority of Karamzin. Subsequently published collections and almanacs "Aglaya", "Aonides", "My trinkets", "Pantheon of Foreign Literature" opened the era of sentimentalism in Russian literature, and it was N.M. Karamzin was at the head of the current; under the influence of his works, they wrote V.A. Zhukovsky, K.N. Batyushkov, as well as A.S. Pushkin at the beginning of his career.
A new period in Karamzin's biography as a person and a writer is associated with the accession to the throne of Alexander I. In October 1803, the emperor appoints the writer as an official historiographer, and Karamzin is tasked with capturing the history of the Russian state. His genuine interest in history, the priority of this topic over all others was evidenced by the nature of the publications of Vestnik Evropy (this country's first socio-political, literary and artistic magazine Karamzin published in 1802-1803).
In 1804, literary and artistic work was completely curtailed, and the writer began to work on The History of the Russian State (1816-1824), which became the main work in his life and a whole phenomenon in Russian history and literature. The first eight volumes were published in February 1818. Three thousand copies were sold within a month - such active sales had no precedent. The next three volumes, published in the following years, were quickly translated into several European languages, and the 12th, final, volume was published after the death of the author.
Nikolai Mikhailovich was an adherent of conservative views, an absolute monarchy. The death of Alexander I and the uprising of the Decembrists, which he witnessed, became a heavy blow for him, depriving the writer-historian of his last vitality. On June 3 (May 22, O.S.), 1826, Karamzin died while in St. Petersburg; they buried him in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, at the Tikhvin cemetery.
Biography from Wikipedia
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin(December 1, 1766, Znamenskoye, Simbirsk province, Russian Empire - May 22, 1826, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire) - historian, the largest Russian writer of the era of sentimentalism, nicknamed the "Russian Stern". The creator of the "History of the Russian State" (volumes 1-12, 1803-1826) - one of the first generalizing works on the history of Russia. Editor of the Moscow Journal (1791-1792) and Vestnik Evropy (1802-1803).
Karamzin went down in history as a reformer of the Russian language. His style is light in the Gallic manner, but instead of direct borrowing, Karamzin enriched the language with tracing words, such as “impression” and “influence”, “love”, “touching” and “entertaining”. It was he who coined the words "industry", "concentrate", "moral", "aesthetic", "epoch", "stage", "harmony", "catastrophe", "future".
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was born on December 1 (12), 1766 near Simbirsk. He grew up on the estate of his father, retired captain Mikhail Egorovich Karamzin (1724-1783), a middle-class Simbirsk nobleman from the Karamzin family, descended from the Tatar Kara-Murza. He received his primary education in a private boarding school in Simbirsk. In 1778 he was sent to Moscow to the boarding house of Professor of Moscow University I. M. Shaden. At the same time, in 1781-1782, he attended lectures by I. G. Schwartz at the University.
In 1783, at the insistence of his father, he entered the service of the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment, but soon retired. By the time of military service are the first literary experiments. After his resignation, he lived for some time in Simbirsk, and then in Moscow. During his stay in Simbirsk, he joined the Masonic Lodge of the Golden Crown, and after arriving in Moscow for four years (1785-1789) he was a member of the Friendly Learned Society.
In Moscow, Karamzin met writers and writers: N. I. Novikov, A. M. Kutuzov, A. A. Petrov, participated in the publication of the first Russian magazine for children - “Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind”.
In 1789-1790 he made a trip to Europe, during which he visited Immanuel Kant in Königsberg, was in Paris during the great French revolution. As a result of this trip, the famous Letters of a Russian Traveler were written, the publication of which immediately made Karamzin a famous writer. Some philologists believe that modern Russian literature starts from this book. Be that as it may, Karamzin really became a pioneer in the literature of Russian “travels” - he quickly found both imitators (V.V. Izmailov, P.I. Sumarokov, P.I. Shalikov) and worthy successors (A.A. Bestuzhev, N. A. Bestuzhev, F. N. Glinka, A. S. Griboedov). Since then, Karamzin has been considered one of the main literary figures in Russia.
N. M. Karamzin at the monument "1000th anniversary of Russia" in Veliky Novgorod
Upon his return from a trip to Europe, Karamzin settled in Moscow and began his career as a professional writer and journalist, starting to publish the Moscow Journal of 1791-1792 (the first Russian literary magazine, in which, among other works of Karamzin, the story “Poor Lisa”, which strengthened his fame, appeared ”), then released a number of collections and almanacs: Aglaya, Aonides, Pantheon of Foreign Literature, My Trifles, which made sentimentalism the main literary trend in Russia, and Karamzin - its recognized leader.
In addition to prose and poetry, the Moscow Journal systematically published reviews, critical articles and theatrical analyzes. In May 1792, Karamzin's review of Nikolai Petrovich Osipov's ironic poem " Virgil's Aeneid, turned inside out"
Emperor Alexander I by personal decree of October 31, 1803 bestowed the title of historiographer Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin; 2 thousand rubles were added to the title at the same time. annual salary. The title of a historiographer in Russia was not renewed after Karamzin's death. Since the beginning of the 19th century, Karamzin gradually moved away from fiction, and since 1804, being appointed by Alexander I to the position of a historiographer, he stopped all literary work, "brought his hair into historians." In this regard, he refused the government posts offered to him, in particular, the post of governor of Tver. Honorary member of Moscow University (1806).
In 1811, Karamzin wrote a "Note on Ancient and New Russia in its Political and Civil Relations", which reflected the views of the conservative strata of society, dissatisfied with the emperor's liberal reforms. His task was to prove that there was no need to carry out any transformations in the country. "A note on ancient and new Russia in its political and civil relations" also played the role of outlines for the subsequent enormous work of Nikolai Mikhailovich on Russian history.
In February 1818, Karamzin put on sale the first eight volumes of The History of the Russian State, three thousand copies of which were sold out within a month. In subsequent years, three more volumes of the History were published, and a number of its translations into the main European languages appeared. The coverage of the Russian historical process brought Karamzin closer to the court and the tsar, who settled him near him in Tsarskoye Selo. Karamzin's political views evolved gradually, and by the end of his life he was a staunch supporter of absolute monarchy. The unfinished 12th volume was published after his death.
Karamzin died on May 22 (June 3), 1826 in St. Petersburg. According to legend, his death was the result of a cold received on December 14, 1825, when Karamzin personally observed the events on Senate Square. He was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Karamzin - writer
Collected works of N. M. Karamzin in 11 vols. in 1803-1815 was printed in the printing house of the Moscow book publisher Selivanovskiy.
"The influence of the last<Карамзина>on literature can be compared with the influence of Catherine on society: he made literature humane "- wrote A. I. Herzen.Sentimentalism
The publication by Karamzin of Letters from a Russian Traveler (1791-1792) and the story Poor Lisa (1792; a separate edition in 1796) opened the era of sentimentalism in Russia.
Liza was surprised, dared to look at the young man, blushed even more and, looking down at the ground, told him that she would not take a ruble.
- For what?
- I don't need too much.
- I think that beautiful lilies of the valley, plucked by the hands of a beautiful girl, are worth a ruble. When you don't take it, here's five kopecks for you. I would always like to buy flowers from you; I would like you to tear them up just for me.
Sentimentalism declared feeling, not reason, to be the dominant of "human nature", which distinguished it from classicism. Sentimentalism believed that the ideal of human activity was not the "reasonable" reorganization of the world, but the release and improvement of "natural" feelings. His hero is more individualized, his inner world is enriched by the ability to empathize, sensitively respond to what is happening around.
The publication of these works was a great success with the readers of that time, "Poor Lisa" caused many imitations. The sentimentalism of Karamzin had a great influence on the development of Russian literature: it was repelled, among other things, by the romanticism of Zhukovsky, the work of Pushkin.
Poetry Karamzin
The poetry of Karamzin, which developed in line with European sentimentalism, was radically different from the traditional poetry of his time, brought up on the odes of Lomonosov and Derzhavin. The most significant differences were:
Karamzin is not interested in the outer, physical world, but in the inner, spiritual world of man. His poems speak "the language of the heart", not the mind. The object of Karamzin's poetry is "a simple life", and to describe it he uses simple poetic forms - poor rhymes, avoids an abundance of metaphors and other tropes so popular in the poems of his predecessors.
"Who is your sweetheart?"
I'm ashamed; i really hurt
The strangeness of my feelings to open
And be the butt of jokes.
The heart in the choice is not free! ..
What to say? She... she.
Oh! not at all important
And talents behind you
Has none;
…
The Strangeness of Love, or Insomnia (1793)
Another difference between Karamzin's poetics is that the world is fundamentally unknowable for him, the poet recognizes the existence of different points of view on the same subject:
One vote
Scary in the grave, cold and dark!
The winds are howling here, the coffins are shaking,
White bones are clattering.
Another voice
Quiet in the grave, soft, calm.
The winds blow here; sleeping cool;
Herbs and flowers grow.
Cemetery (1792)
Prose Karamzin
- "Eugene and Julia", a story (1789)
- "Letters from a Russian Traveler" (1791-1792)
- "Poor Lisa", story (1792)
- "Natalya, the boyar's daughter", story (1792)
- "The Beautiful Princess and the Happy Karla" (1792)
- "Sierra Morena", story (1793)
- "Bornholm Island" (1793)
- "Julia" (1796)
- "Martha the Posadnitsa, or the Conquest of Novgorod", a story (1802)
- "My Confession", a letter to the publisher of a magazine (1802)
- "Sensitive and Cold" (1803)
- "Knight of our time" (1803)
- "Autumn"
- Translation - retelling of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign"
- "On Friendship" (1826) to the writer A. S. Pushkin.
Karamzin's language reform
Karamzin's prose and poetry had a decisive influence on the development of the Russian literary language. Karamzin deliberately refused to use Church Slavonic vocabulary and grammar, bringing the language of his works to the everyday language of his era and using French grammar and syntax as a model.
Karamzin introduced many new words into the Russian language - as neologisms ("charity", "love", "free-thinking", "attraction", "responsibility", "suspicion", "industry", "refinement", "first-class", "humane ”), and barbarisms (“sidewalk”, “coachman”). He was also one of the first to use the letter Y.
The language changes proposed by Karamzin caused a heated controversy in the 1810s. The writer A. S. Shishkov, with the assistance of Derzhavin, founded in 1811 the society “Conversation of the Lovers of the Russian Word”, the purpose of which was to promote the “old” language, as well as to criticize Karamzin, Zhukovsky and their followers. In response, in 1815, the literary society "Arzamas" was formed, which sneered at the authors of "Conversations" and parodied their works. Many poets of the new generation became members of the society, including Batyushkov, Vyazemsky, Davydov, Zhukovsky, Pushkin. The literary victory of "Arzamas" over "Conversation" strengthened the victory of the language changes introduced by Karamzin.
Despite this, Karamzin later became closer to Shishkov, and thanks to the assistance of the latter, Karamzin was elected a member of the Russian Academy in 1818. In the same year he became a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
Karamzin the historian
Karamzin's interest in history arose from the mid-1790s. He wrote a story on a historical theme - "Martha the Posadnitsa, or the Conquest of Novgorod" (published in 1803). In the same year, by decree of Alexander I, he was appointed to the position of a historiographer and until the end of his life he was engaged in writing the History of the Russian State, practically ceasing the activities of a journalist and writer.
Karamzin's "History of the Russian State" was not the first description of the history of Russia; before him were the works of V. N. Tatishchev and M. M. Shcherbatov. But it was Karamzin who opened the history of Russia to the general educated public. According to A. S. Pushkin, “Everyone, even secular women, rushed to read the history of their fatherland, hitherto unknown to them. She was a new discovery for them. Ancient Russia seemed to have been found by Karamzin, just as America was found by Columbus. This work also caused a wave of imitations and oppositions (for example, "History of the Russian people" by N. A. Polevoy)
In his work, Karamzin acted more as a writer than a historian - describing historical facts, he cared about the beauty of the language, least of all trying to draw any conclusions from the events he describes. Nevertheless, his commentaries, which contain many extracts from manuscripts, mostly first published by Karamzin, are of high scientific value. Some of these manuscripts no longer exist.
In his "History" elegance, simplicity Prove to us, without any partiality, The necessity of autocracy And the charms of the whip.
Karamzin took the initiative to organize memorials and erect monuments to outstanding figures of Russian history, in particular, K. M. Sukhorukov (Minin) and Prince D. M. Pozharsky on Red Square (1818).
N. M. Karamzin discovered Afanasy Nikitin's Journey Beyond Three Seas in a 16th-century manuscript and published it in 1821. He wrote:
“Until now, geographers did not know that the honor of one of the oldest described European travels to India belongs to Russia of the Ioannian century ... It (the journey) proves that Russia in the 15th century had its Taverniers and Chardenis, less enlightened, but equally bold and enterprising; that the Indians had heard of her before they had heard of Portugal, Holland, England. While Vasco da Gama was only thinking about the possibility of finding a way from Africa to Hindustan, our Tverite was already a merchant on the coast of Malabar ... "
Karamzin - translator
In 1787, fascinated by the work of Shakespeare, Karamzin published his translation of the original text of the tragedy Julius Caesar. About his assessment of the work and his own work as a translator, Karamzin wrote in the preface:
“The tragedy that I have translated is one of his excellent creations… If reading the translation will give Russian lovers of literature a sufficient understanding of Shakespeare; if it brings them pleasure, then the translator will be rewarded for his work. However, he was prepared for the opposite.
In the early 1790s, this edition, one of the first works of Shakespeare in Russian, was included by censorship among the books for seizure and burning.
In 1792-1793, N. M. Karamzin translated a monument of Indian literature (from English) - the drama "Sakuntala", authored by Kalidasa. In the preface to the translation, he wrote:
“The creative spirit does not live in Europe alone; he is a citizen of the universe. Man everywhere is man; everywhere he has a sensitive heart, and in the mirror of his imagination contains heaven and earth. Everywhere Natura is his teacher and chief source of his pleasures.
I felt this very vividly when reading Sakontala, a drama composed in an Indian language, 1900 years before this, the Asiatic poet Kalidas, and recently translated into English by William Jones, a Bengali judge ... "
Family
N. M. Karamzin was married twice and had 10 children:
- First wife (since April 1801) - Elizaveta Ivanovna Protasova(1767-1802), sister of A. I. Pleshcheeva and A. I. Protasov, father of A. A. Voeikova and M. A. Moyer. According to Karamzin to Elizabeth, he "Knew and loved for thirteen years". She was a very educated woman and active assistant to her husband. Having poor health, in March 1802 she gave birth to a daughter, and in April she died of postpartum fever. Some researchers believe that it is in her honor that the heroine of "Poor Lisa" is named.
- Sofia Nikolaevna(03/05/1802-07/04/1856), since 1821, a maid of honor, a close acquaintance of Pushkin and a friend of Lermontov.
- Second wife (from 01/08/1804) - Ekaterina Andreevna Kolyvanova(1780-1851), illegitimate daughter of Prince A. I. Vyazemsky and Countess Elizaveta Karlovna Sievers, half-sister of the poet P. A. Vyazemsky.
- Natalia (30.10.1804-05.05.1810)
- Ekaterina Nikolaevna(1806-1867), Petersburg acquaintance of Pushkin; from April 27, 1828, she was married to a retired lieutenant colonel of the guard, Prince Peter Ivanovich Meshchersky (1802-1876), who was married to her for the second time. Their son, writer and publicist Vladimir Meshchersky (1839-1914)
- Andrey (20.10.1807-13.05.1813)
- Natalia (06.05.1812-06.10.1815)
- Andrey Nikolaevich(1814-1854), after graduating from Dorpat University, was forced to stay abroad for health reasons, later - a retired colonel. He was married to Aurora Karlovna Demidova. He had children from an extramarital affair with Evdokia Petrovna Sushkova.
- Alexander Nikolaevich(1815-1888), after graduating from Dorpat University, he served in horse artillery, in his youth he was a great dancer and merry fellow, was close to Pushkin's family in his last year of life. Married to Princess Natalya Vasilievna Obolenskaya (1827-1892), had no children.
- Nicholas (03.08.1817-21.04.1833)
- Vladimir Nikolayevich(06/05/1819 - 08/07/1879), member of the consultation under the Minister of Justice, senator, owner of the Ivnya estate. He was witty and resourceful. He was married to Baroness Alexandra Ilyinichna Duka (1820-1871), daughter of General I. M. Duka. They left no offspring.
- Elizaveta Nikolaevna(1821-1891), maid of honor since 1839, never married. Having no fortune, she lived on a pension, which she received as Karamzin's daughter. After the death of her mother, she lived with her older sister Sophia, in the family of the sister of Princess Ekaterina Meshcherskaya. She was distinguished by intelligence and boundless kindness, taking all other people's sorrows and joys to heart. Writer L. N. Tolstoy called her "an example of selflessness". In the family, she was affectionately called - Babu.
Sofia Nikolaevna,
daughter
Ekaterina Nikolaevna,
daughter
Andrei Nikolaevich,
son
Vladimir Nikolayevich,
son
Elizaveta Nikolaevna,
daughter
Memory
Named after the writer:
- Karamzin passage in Moscow
- Nikolay Karamzin street in Kaliningrad
In Ulyanovsk, a monument to N. M. Karamzin was erected, a memorial sign - in the Ostafyevo estate near Moscow.
In Veliky Novgorod, on the monument “1000th Anniversary of Russia”, among 129 figures of the most prominent personalities in Russian history (as of 1862), there is a figure of N. M. Karamzin
The Karamzin public library in Simbirsk, created in honor of the famous countryman, opened to readers on April 18, 1848.
In philately
Postage stamp of the USSR, 1991, 10 kopecks (TsFA 6378, Scott 6053)
Postage stamp Russia, 2016
Addresses
- Saint Petersburg
- Spring 1816 - the house of E. F. Muravyova - the embankment of the Fontanka River, 25;
- spring 1816-1822 - Tsarskoye Selo, Sadovaya street, 12;
- 1818 - autumn 1823 - the house of E. F. Muravyova - embankment of the Fontanka River, 25;
- autumn 1823-1826 - Mizhuev's apartment building - Mokhovaya street, 41;
- spring - 05/22/1826 - Tauride Palace - Voskresenskaya street, 47.
- Moscow
- The estate of the Vyazemsky-Dolgorukovs is the home of his second wife.
- The house on the corner of Tverskaya and Bryusov Lane, where he wrote "Poor Lisa" - has not been preserved
