Portrait of Saltykov-Shchedrin: YouTube/Brief Biography The father of Russian satire, Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin, skillfully noticed the shortcomings of the Russian government, the bureaucracy of the system and the degradation of the elite. All this became the subject of his literary research. The biography of Saltykov-Shchedrin is a vivid example of selfless, selfless service to society. Take an interest in facts from the life of the great satirist, his creative heritage.
Biography of Saltykov-Shchedrin: childhood and youth
Tver province, the family estate of the Saltykov landowners (the village of Spas-Ugol) is the small homeland of the talented Russian satirist writer. Here, a year after the Decembrist uprising, in 1826, a sixth child, Mikhail, was born into the family of Evgraf Vasilyevich Saltykov, who married noblewoman Olga Zabelina, 25 years his junior.
Mikhail Evgrafovich spent his childhood in a large house, which was located in an almost empty place and was not famous for its comfort. The house resembled a gray box, adjacent to which were numerous buildings for servants, livestock, a cage for supplies, and a cellar. Behind the estate stretched a swampy plain on which coniferous forests grew.
Saltykov-Shchedrin, whose biography begins in this gloomy place, did not particularly like his mother:
- She was a powerful and tough woman who, in a short period of time, not only revived her husband’s almost completely ruined estate, but also increased the family fortune tenfold.
- The children saw their parent only when she considered it necessary to punish the heirs for disobedience, which the tutors informed her about. The writer later recalled that already at the age of 2 he knew well what caning was.
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin in childhood: YouTube/Brief Biography
The home education that Saltykov-Shchedrin received was insufficient. He was taught literacy by the Saltykov serf artist Pavel Sokolov, who later became the prototype of one of the characters in the work “Poshekhon Antiquity.”
When the child mastered literacy and learned to read, a priest was invited for his further education. Then Misha’s education was taken care of by his older sister, a student who studied at the Moscow Theological Academy.
At the age of ten, the boy passed exams at the Moscow Institute for Nobles, where he was immediately admitted to the 3rd grade. At that time, this boarding school was one of the best progressive institutions, where many famous writers and poets studied, including:
- Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky.
- Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov.
- Grigory Petrovich Danilevsky.
- Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov.
A short biography of Saltykov-Shchedrin says that two years after entering the institute, for outstanding achievements in his studies, Mikhail was transferred to study at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum at public expense, where the future famous writer began his creative activity.
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 savagery of serfdom. At the age of ten he entered the Moscow Noble Institute, then, as one of the best students, he was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum and accepted into the government account. In 1844 he graduated from the course. At the Lyceum, under the influence of the still fresh legends of Pushkin’s time, each course had its own poet - Saltykov played this role. Several of his poems, filled with youthful sadness and melancholy (among his then acquaintances he was known as a “gloomy lyceum student”), were published in the “Library for Reading” for 1841 and 1842 and in “Sovremennik” in 1844 and 1845. However, he soon realized that he had he has no vocation for poetry, and has stopped writing poetry.
In August 1844 he enlisted in the office of the Minister of War, but literature occupied him much more. He read a lot and became 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 passion was drawn by him thirty years later in the fourth chapter of the collection Abroad. Such interests were largely due to his rapprochement with the circle of radical freethinkers under the leadership of M.V. Petrashevsky. He begins to write - first short book reviews in Otechestvennye Zapiski, then stories - Contradictions (1847) and Confused Affair (1848). Already in the reviews one can see the way of thinking of a mature author - aversion to routine, to conventional morality, indignation at the realities of serfdom; There are sparkles of sparkling humor. The first story captures the theme of J. Sand's early novels: recognition of the rights of “free life” and “passion.” An Entangled Affair is a more mature work, written under the strong influence of Gogol's The Overcoat and, probably, Dostoevsky's Poor People. “Russia,” the hero of the story reflects, “is a vast, abundant and rich state; Yes, the man is stupid, he is starving to death in an abundant 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 reverberated 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 exiled to Vyatka. A Tsarskoye Selo graduate, a young nobleman, was not punished so severely: he was appointed a clerical official under the Vyatka provincial government, then holding a number of positions, and was also an adviser to the provincial government.
He took his official duties to heart. He got to know provincial life, in its darkest sides, well thanks to numerous business trips around the Vyatka region - a rich supply of observations made found a place in the 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, he compiled a Brief History of Russia. In November 1855 he was allowed to finally leave Vyatka. In February 1856 he was assigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then appointed a ministerial official for special assignments and sent to the Tver and Vladimir provinces to review the paperwork of local militia committees.
Following his return from exile, his literary activity resumed. The name of court councilor Shchedrin, who signed the Provincial Essays that appeared in the Russian Bulletin, became popular. Collected in one book, they opened a literary page in the historical chronicle of the era of liberal reforms of Alexander II, laying the foundation for the so-called accusatory literature, although they themselves only partly belonged to it. The external side of the world of slander, bribes, and abuses completely 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, the humor on its pages is periodically replaced by outright lyricism. Russian society, which had just awakened to a new life and was watching with joyful surprise the first glimpses of freedom of speech, perceived the essays almost as a literary revelation.
The circumstances of the “thaw” period of that time also explain the fact that the author of the Provincial Sketches could not only remain in the service, but also receive more responsible positions. In March 1858 he was appointed vice-governor of Ryazan, and in April 1860 he was transferred to the same position in Tver. At the same time, he wrote a lot, publishing first in various magazines (in addition to the Russian Messenger in the Athenaeum, Library for Reading, Moskovsky Messenger), and from 1860 almost exclusively in Sovremennik. From what was created at the dawn of reforms - between 1858 and 1862 - two collections were compiled - Innocent Stories and Satires in Prose. A collective image of the city of Foolov 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 innovation is described, in which the keen eye of the satirist catches hidden defects - attempts to preserve old content in new forms. One “embarrassment” is seen in Foolov’s present and future: “Going forward is difficult, going back is impossible.”
In February 1862 he retired for the first time. I 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 works of fiction, social and theatrical chronicles, letters, book reviews, polemical notes, and journalistic articles. The embarrassment that the radical Sovremennik experienced at every step from the censorship prompted him to re-enter the service. At this time, he is least actively engaged in literary activities. As soon as Nekrasov became 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 magazine, and after Nekrasov’s death - its only official editor. Until 1884, while Otechestvennye Zapiski existed, he worked exclusively for them. During these years, the collections Signs of the Times and Letters from the Province (both -1870), History of a City (1870), Pompadour and Pompadourche (1873), Gentlemen of Tashkent (1873), Diary of a Provincial in St. Petersburg (1873), Well-Intentioned Speeches (1876) were created. , In an environment of moderation and accuracy (1878), the novel by Lord Golovleva (1880), books Collection (1881), Monrepos Shelter (1882), All Year Round (1880), Abroad (1881), Letters to Auntie (1882), Modern Idyll (1885), Unfinished Conversations (1885), Poshekhonsky Stories (1886). The famous Fairy Tales, published as a separate book in 1887, originally appeared in Otechestvennye Zapiski, Nedelya, Russkie Vedomosti and Collection of Literary Funds.
After the ban on Otechestvennye Zapiski, he published his works mainly in the liberal Vestnik Evropy. He experienced the forced closure of the magazine extremely hard, while his health was already poor. 1870s was seriously undermined. He was 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: “Above all else, love your native literature and prefer the title of writer to any other.” At the same time, the thought of loneliness and “throwback” depressed him more and more, exacerbating his physical suffering. His last years were marked by slow agony, but he never stopped writing. He died on April 28 (May 10), 1889 in St. Petersburg and was buried, according to his will, at the Volkov cemetery, next to I.S. Turgenev.
In the history of Russian classical satire, Saltykov-Shchedrin’s place 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 merciless scourge that crushes the enemy outright, a straightforward debunking, the pathos of rejection of everything “untrue” and “vile”, filled with the high rhetoric of “thunders” and "lightning". He inherited rather not Fonvizin and Gogol, but Juvenal with his famous “indignation”, which “creates poetry”, and Jonathan Swift, the 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 dressed up the inhabitants of the “Russian cosmos” almost exclusively in phantasmagoric, grotesque masks of “gloomy-burcheevs” and “organs”, created a gallery of types embodying moral ugliness and moral breakdown in Russia the era of the “great reforms” and the “frosts” that followed them. Not all attentive readers accepted the writer's sarcasm. In his flagellating indignation caused by the illnesses of national life, they often refused to see the roots of sincere suffering and love - but saw only anger and reproach of the Fatherland. V.V. Rozanov even wrote that Saltykov-Shchedrin “like a seasoned wolf, drank Russian blood and fell into his grave well-fed.”
For twenty years in a row, all the major phenomena of Russian social life found an echo in Shchedrin’s satire, which sometimes foresaw them in their infancy. The peculiarity of the writer’s literary style was the synthesis of fiction with outright journalisticism, artistic exaggeration, grotesque deformation of the contours of real phenomena with direct philippics on the most pressing political and social issues. This is related to the attraction to the essay genre, which occupies an intermediate position between artistic prose and newspaper and magazine articles on topical topics. At the same time, he strived for broad generalizations, tried to show moral ulcers as characteristic symptoms of illnesses in 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” ended. In society, inertia and the fruits of quiet resistance to innovative endeavors manifested themselves more and more sharply: institutions and people became smaller, the spirit of theft and profit intensified. Saltykov also uses an excursion into the past as a weapon 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 address known phenomena of life...” And yet, “the present” for Saltykov is not a synonym for just today. In the History of One City, it embraces 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 Foolovian 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 reward themselves for losses suffered. In Letters from the Province, historiographers—that is, those who have long “created” Russian history—are fighting with new writers. In the Diary of a Provincial, projections pour in as if from a cornucopia, highlighting “reliable and knowledgeable local landowners.” In Pompadours and Pompadourches, the “strongheads” are “examining” the liberal world mediators. Saltykov does not spare new institutions - the zemstvo, the court, the bar, demanding a lot from them, and is indignant at every concession made to the “little things in life.” In the heat of struggle he could be unfair to individuals and institutions, but only because he was always guided by a high idea of the tasks of the era.
The second half of the 1870s dates back to the appearance in his work of “pillars”, “supports of society”, distinguished by predation and impudence, such as the police officer Graziapov and the collector of “materials” in the Mon Repos Vault. The pictures of decaying families, the irreconcilable discord between “fathers” and “children” are sad (Sore spot, 1879; Messrs. Golovlevs). The satirist attacked with particular indignation the “literary bedbugs” who chose the motto “you’re not supposed to think,” the goal is the enslavement of the people, and the means to achieve it is slandering opponents. The “triumphant pig,” brought onto the stage 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 slurp. On the other hand, the street invades literature “with its incoherent hubbub, base simplicity of demands, wildness of ideals,” serving as the main focus of “selfish instincts.” Later comes the time of “lying”, the ruler of thoughts is “a scoundrel, born of moral and mental dregs, educated and inspired by selfish cowardice.”
Censorship and the gradual “tightening of the screws” in Russian society led to a turn to allegories and Aesopian language, which made it possible to practice “literary audacity.” Saltykov developed a special system of ironic allegories - a kind of “Aesopian thesaurus”, the first set of established concepts in the history of the dramatic relationship between Russian literature and state censorship: “order of things” - political system, “heart expert” - spy, “fuit” - sudden exile to distant places , “foaming” - corrupt opportunism of journalists, etc.
Fantasy and allegory were natural to Saltykov-Shchedrin’s artistic talent. Therefore, it is quite natural that his famous Fairy Tales appeared in 1883-1886. At first glance, they are unpretentious, focused on a simple and expressive folk language, but in essence 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, “humanizing” animals. He fundamentally rethought the images of animals and birds, as well as folklore stories and motifs, with the aim of creating 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 in newspapers, bears go on business trips and “restore order” among the blossoming “forest men”, fish talk about the constitution and conduct debates about socialism. Fantastic costumes simultaneously highlight the negative traits of the types and subject them to merciless ridicule: equating human life with the activities of a lower organism sets a derogatory background for the narrative, regardless of the plot.
At the same time, in the best works, debunking is intricately intertwined with implicitly expressed compassion for those who have been eaten away by moral rust. The novel by Lord Golovleva depicts the process of degeneration of the inhabitants of a noble estate. But with the help of several rays of light piercing 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 stupor, one can recognize a person. Arina Petrovna is depicted even more clearly - and in this callous, stingy old woman, the author discerned human traits that inspire compassion. He even reveals them in Judushka himself (Porfiry Golovlev) - this “hypocrite of a purely Russian type, devoid of any moral standard and not knowing any other truth than that which is listed in the alphabet copybooks.” Not loving anyone, not respecting anything, he replaced “living life” with predatory hypocrisy with an almost infernal taste of carrion, burning out everything around him. But he, too, suddenly awakens and experiences horror from 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 Saltykov’s best works are often associated with the introduction of Christian symbolism into the text, which sets the criteria for evaluation from the height of final truth. Judushka Golovlev experiences his inner revolution during the days of Holy Week and the pangs of conscience become his “way of the cross.” And in Poshekhonskaya antiquity, despair from the triumph of evil is prevented from finally defeating the human soul by hope in the promised mercy in eternal life.
The protest against the “chains of serfdom” is translated in mature creativity into the intercession of a religiously motivated humanist for a person with violated dignity, for the orphaned and wretched.
There are few writers who would arouse such obvious and persistent rejection among a certain part of the public as Saltykov. He was given the humiliating certification of a “storyteller”; his works were called “empty fantasies”, which sometimes degenerate into a “wonderful farce” and have nothing to do with reality. He was relegated to the level of feuilletonist, funnyman, caricaturist. Some critics insisted that he had no ideals or positive aspirations. However, all the writer’s works were united by something so essential for the 19th century reader. “striving for the ideal,” which Saltykov himself summarizes in the Little Things of Life in three words: “freedom, development, justice.” In the last years of his life, this phrase seemed insufficient to him, 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 devoid of the fire of selflessness and love?
Brief chronicle:
1826, January 15 (27)
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Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin was born in the village of Spas-Ugol, Kalyazinsky district, Tver province. 1826-1836
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He spent his childhood years on his family estate, where he received his initial education at home. 1836-1838
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He studied at the Moscow Noble Institute. 1838
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For excellent success he is transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. 1840
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Writes first poems. 1841
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The poem “Lyre” was published in the journal “Library for Reading”. 1844
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He graduated from the Lyceum and joined the staff of the military department office. 1847 , November
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Publishes reviews of new books in the magazines Sovremennik and Otechestvennye zapiski. 1848, March
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The story “A Confused Affair” was published in Otechestvennye zapiski. 1848, April
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Arrested and sent to Vyatka. 1848-1855
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Serves in Vyatka. 1855
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Released from exile and assigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 1856, June
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Marries Elizaveta Apollonovna Boltina in Moscow. 1856-1857
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In the magazine "Russian Messenger" he publishes the satirical cycle "Provincial Sketches". Signed "N. Shchedrin." 1858
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Appointed vice-governor of Ryazan. 1860
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Appointed vice-governor of Tver. 1862
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Resigned. 1862, December
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Member of the editorial board of Sovremennik. 1864
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Leaves the editorial board of Sovremennik and is appointed chairman of the Penza Treasury Chamber. 1866
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Takes office as manager of the Tula Treasury Chamber. 1867
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Moves to Ryazan, serves as manager of the treasury chamber. 1868
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Receives resignation. 1868, September
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He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Otechestvennye zapiski, headed by N. A. Nekrasov. 1869
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The magazine “Otechestvennye zapiski” publishes the fairy tales “The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals” and “The Wild Landowner.” 1869-1870
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Publishes the novel “The History of a City” in Otechestvennye Zapiski. 1872
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Son Konstantin was born. 1873
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Daughter Elizabeth was born. 1876
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Heads the “Notes of the Fatherland” in connection with the illness of N. A. Nekrasov. 1878
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Approved by the editor of Otechestvennye zapiski. 1880
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The novel “Gentlemen Golovlevs” has been published. 1887-1889
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The novel “Poshekhon Antiquity” was published in the “Bulletin of Europe”. 1889, March
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The writer's health is deteriorating sharply. 1889, April 28 (May 10)
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Death of Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin. 1889, May 2 (May 14)
. Funeral at the Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg next to the grave of I. S. Turgenev - according to the will of Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin: creative path
The famous writer’s first attempts at writing occurred during his stay at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.
Young Saltykov-Shchedrin: YouTube/Brief Biography
Saltykov-Shchedrin, whose years of life were associated with literature, began to write free-thinking poems. Despite the fact that after graduation he should have received the rank of titular adviser for outstanding academic achievements, Mikhail Saltykov was given only the rank of collegiate secretary for inappropriate behavior.
After the Lyceum (1845), Saltykov-Shchedrin went to work in the military chancellery. During this period, Mikhail Evgrafovich wrote notes and a number of stories, including such well-known works as “An Entangled Case” and “Contradiction.”
The writer's literary activity in 1848 led him to exile in Vyatka, where he spent seven years. Here Saltykov-Shchedrin began serving as a clerical official, and later became an adviser to the provincial board. In 1855, the writer left his place of exile and became an official in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The years of Saltykov-Shchedrin's life in exile were not in vain. The accumulated experience and materials that the author collected in observations of the everyday life of society helped the writer to create with even greater desire. His “Provincial Sketches”, published in “Russian Bulletin”, almost from the first publication became popular and beloved among different strata of Russian society.
After returning from exile, Saltykov-Shchedrin became vice-governor of Ryazan (1858), and a little later he held the same position in Tver. During this period, the author wrote a lot and published in various publications, including:
- "Athenea".
- "Russian Bulletin.
- "Library for reading."
- "Contemporary".
- "Moskovsky Vestnik".
- "Time".
- "Moskovskie Vedomosti".
Photo portrait of Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin: YouTube/Short Biography
Later, the author’s works published at this time were collected and published in collections of works “Innocent Stories”, “Satire in Prose”, which were republished three times during the author’s lifetime and many times after his death.
In 1864, Saltykov-Shchedrin was appointed manager of the state chamber in Penza, and later in Tula and Ryazan. During this period, the writer practically did not engage in creativity: from 1865 to 1867 he published only one article entitled “Testament to my children.”
But the thirst for creativity does not leave Shchedrin. When the publication “Domestic Notes” was headed by Nekrasov (1868), Mikhail Evgrafovich left government service and became an employee of the magazine. Later he occupies a leadership position, and 10 years later, when Nekrasov dies, he takes the post of editor-in-chief.
During these years, many works came from his pen, including:
- "Letters from the Province."
- "Pompadours and Pompadours."
- "The history of one city."
- "Cultural people."
- "Messrs. Golovlevs."
- "Well-Intentioned Speeches."
While working in Otechestvennye Zapiski, the writer publishes his works exclusively in this publication.
In 1884, a significant event for the author occurred - Otechestvennye zapiski was closed. This was a big blow for Shchedrin. After this, the author published almost all of his works in the publication “Bulletin of Europe”.
The last years of the writer's life
Since 1868, Mikhail Evgrafovich retired and was actively involved in literary activities. In the same year, the writer became one of the editors of Otechestvennye Zapiski, and after the death of Nikolai Nekrasov, he took the post of executive editor of the magazine. In 1869 - 1870, Saltykov-Shchedrin created one of his most famous works - “The History of a City” (summary), in which he raises the topic of relations between the people and the authorities. Soon the collections “Signs of the Times”, “Letters from the Province”, and the novel “The Golovlev Gentlemen” will be published.
In 1884, Otechestvennye zapiski was closed, and the writer began to publish in the journal Vestnik Evropy.
In recent years, Saltykov-Shchedrin’s work has reached its culmination in the grotesque. The writer publishes the collections “Fairy Tales” (1882 – 1886), “Little Things in Life” (1886 – 1887), “Peshekhonskaya Antiquity” (1887 – 1889).
Mikhail Evgrafovich died on May 10 (April 28), 1889 in St. Petersburg, and was buried at the Volkovsky cemetery.
