Biography of Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, great historian, writer, publicist

short biography

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was born on December 1, 1766 in the Simbirsk province.

He received his primary education at home under the guidance of a village sexton. Thanks to his brilliant abilities, the boy learned the Church Slavonic alphabet in a few weeks. Reading became a favorite pastime.

Karamzin continued his education at the Fauvel boarding school in Simbirsk. At the age of thirteen he entered the Moscow boarding school of I. M. Shaden, who was a professor at Moscow University. This gave the teenager the opportunity to attend university lectures.

After graduating from boarding school, he goes into military service. Three years later he retired with the rank of lieutenant and left for Simbirsk. There he meets the director of Moscow University I.P. Turgenev. He invites him to Moscow.

In Moscow, Nikolai Mikhailovich meets the Freemasons. Communication with them helped him discover English classics and the works of French enlighteners.

In 1789, Karamzin travels around Europe, observing people's lives and government events. The result of the trip was “Letters of a Russian Traveler,” which he published in the “Moscow Journal” he published.

Karamzin stood at the origins of Russian sentimentalism. The most famous work of this direction is “Poor Lisa”.

In 1801, Nikolai Mikhailovich married Elizaveta Ivanovna Protasova. A year later she died in childbirth.

Then he finally decided to devote himself to writing the history of the state. The emperor appointed him to the post of historiographer.

A few years later, Karamzin married the illegitimate daughter of Andrei Ivanovich Vyazemsky, Ekaterina Andreevna Kolyvanova. In her person, fate gave him a muse and assistant.

“The History of the Russian State” is Karamzin’s life’s work. He worked on it for 23 years. Wrote a full 11 volumes, the 12th remained unfinished. The first 8 volumes were published in 1816.

Alexander I died on December 1, 1825. Nikolai Mikhailovich was shocked by his death. The Decembrist uprising that followed on December 25 made no less impression on him. Karamzin fell ill and died on May 22, 1826.

Brief biography of Karamzin

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin is a historian and writer who was called the Russian Stern. He was interested in the inner world of man, so his works were written in the “language of the heart.” Nikolai Karamzin was born on December 12, 1766 in Karamzinka. His father was a Simbirsk nobleman.

At first, the boy studied in a private boarding school. In 1778, Nicholas went to Moscow. He studied at the boarding school of Professor Johann Schaden. Additionally, Karamzin attended lectures by the Russian teacher Ivan Schwartz.

1781-1784 - at this time the young man served in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. After his resignation with the rank of lieutenant, Nikolai lived in Simbirsk and then in Moscow. He met famous writers: Novikov, Petrov. Karamzin took part in the publication of the magazine “Children’s Reading for the Heart and Mind.”

In 1789-1790, Nikolai Mikhailovich traveled around Europe. He visited Konigsberg, Berlin, and Paris. Based on this trip, Karamzin wrote “Letters of a Russian Traveler.”

Returning to Russia, the writer settled in Moscow. He devoted all his free time to journalism and writing. The work “Poor Liza” soon appeared in the publication “Moscow Magazine”. This is a sentimental story that tells the story of unhappy love. Later Karamzin published several collections and almanacs. These include “Aglaya,” a two-volume publication of the era of sentimentalism. The writer also created the almanac “Pantheon of Foreign Literature.” This is a three-volume collection, which includes translations of articles by foreign authors on historical and philosophical topics.

In 1803, Emperor Alexander I granted Nikolai Mikhailovich the title of historiographer. Additionally, he added an annual salary of 2,000 rubles to the honorary title. After this, Karamzin abandoned his literary activities. He performed the work of a historiographer.

In 1811, the writer created “A Note on Ancient and New Russia.” In 1818, books dedicated to the history of the Russian state appeared on sale. Karamzin became close to the tsar and the court.

Karamzin is the author of many works. These are “Sierra Morena”, “Natalia, the Boyar’s Daughter”, “Eugene and Yulia”. The author's unfinished novel is “A Knight of Our Time.” This is a romantic story of one of the writer's friends.

Karamzin's works had a huge impact on the development of the Russian language. He basically did not use Church Slavonic vocabulary. The writer used the syntax of the French language. Nikolai Mikhailovich introduced many new words into the Russian language. For example, era, love, harmony. Such changes caused heated controversy. In 1815, the Arzamas society appeared. Its participants were poets of a new generation. They supported the changes introduced by Karamzin.

Nikolai Mikhailovich had two wives. The first wife is Elizaveta Protasova. After the birth of her daughter Sophia, she died. The second wife is Ekaterina Kolyvanova. The marriage produced nine children.

Nikolai Karamzin died on June 3, 1826 in St. Petersburg. The cause of death was consumption. The great writer was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery.

Full biography

The year 1821 was significant in the social and cultural life of the Russian Empire. It was marked by the publication of volume 9 of the “History of the Russian State”. Society was seething: the book contained unpleasant information about the Russian tsars. Those in power were indignant at how he dared to criticize the kings. Progressive-minded people were grateful to have learned the truth. The author of the book was Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. The principle of Karamzin’s whole life was to tell people the truth.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was born on December 1, 1766. For a long time it was not known exactly where he was born. Only after one day a document written by Karamzin’s hand was found in the Lenin Library in Moscow, where he recalled his childhood, biographers were convinced that his homeland was the Simbirsk province.

His father Mikhail Yegorovich was from an old noble family, a middle-class landowner. A wounded retired captain, he took Ekaterina Petrovna Pazukhina as his wife. The girl was much younger than him. She died when Nikolai Mikhailovich was not even three years old. She managed to give him affection and tenderness, to cultivate his first feeling for God. He missed her very much.

Russian nature, Russian word, Russian traditions lay at the origins of Karamzin’s worldview. The Volga worldview remained in memory forever. As an adult, he will say that the “first upbringing” in most cases decides what a person will be like and his destiny. Karamzin's childhood memories contain mystical facts. One day they were crossing the river by boat, and a storm caught them halfway along the way. The boy began to fervently pray for the bad weather to subside. After some time there was a calm, and they safely reached the shore. The second incident occurred in the forest during a thunderstorm. A bear suddenly jumped out at him. The boy was frightened, froze in place and repeated only one word, “Lord.” The bear fell struck by lightning.

The Karamzins' house was very hospitable. My father’s friends, retired officials and officers often gathered here. They had “voluble conversations” and recalled jokes from past years. The boy borrowed from them Russian friendliness and noble pride. Karamzin observed the life of the landowners, the life of the serfs. He listened to conversations about the peasant uprising of Pugachev, to whom he was a contemporary.

From an early age, Karamzin showed brilliant abilities. At first he was educated at home. His first teacher was a village sexton. He learned the Church Slavonic alphabet in a few weeks and began to read everything that came to hand. These were mainly church books. Based on a book of Aesop's fables, I deciphered the civil alphabet. After that, he began to read books from the library that belonged to his late mother. It consisted of adventurous novels that opened up a different world to him. Reading instilled in him the conviction that “the virtuous always wins, and the villain perishes.”

In 1773, he continued his education at the Simbirsk private boarding school of Pierre Fauvel. When Karamzin was 13 years old, his father brought his son to Moscow. He entered the boarding school of Professor Schaden, a wonderful teacher and erudite. The professor, in addition to private practice, taught at Moscow University. The teenager got the opportunity to attend university lectures. He studied foreign languages, world and domestic history, and literature. These years became a time of high mental growth and assimilation of impressions. The first literary experiments date back to this period of life. Karamzin tries his hand at translations. His young years were preparation for the main work of his life, “History of the Russian State.”

After graduating from boarding school, Karamzin dreamed of Leipzig University. His father insisted that he follow in his footsteps and enter military service. He enlists in the St. Petersburg Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment. A distant relative, I. I. Dmitriev, introduces the young man to literary circles.

Having retired with the rank of lieutenant, Karamzin left for Simbirsk. By the end of the 18th century, life in the provincial town was full of events. Theatrical performances and musical evenings became fashionable. Many began to collect art, antiques, and create libraries.

Karamzin plunged into this atmosphere and soon became the darling of secular society. The director of Moscow University, I.P. Turgenev, who came to Simbirsk to stay, drew attention to him. He persuades him to move to Moscow, where Nikolai Mikhailovich becomes close to N.I. Novikov’s circle, the Friendly Scientific Society.” They pay a lot of attention to the Russian language, reflect on philosophical and moral problems, and issues of education. Karamzin writes poetry and does translations. He is an active contributor to the magazine “Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind,” which gave him a meeting with A. A. Petrov, who played a big role in the formation of his way of thinking. Nikolai Mikhailovich meets A. N. Radishchev’s friend A. M. Kutuzov, who shared his impressions of his time studying at the University of Leipzig.

In the 18th century, Freemasonry arose in Russia as a spiritual and social movement. They strived for scientific knowledge and service to society. Novikov stood at the head of Russian Freemasonry. He saw the task of Freemasonry in developing a new worldview, considering the book to be the best tool for this. He creates the Harmony Lodge. The activities of the Freemasons showed Karamzin that a high place in society and influence on minds depend not only on position and noble origin. Karamzin himself still did not become an active Freemason. The rituals and ceremonies of Freemasonry and the mysticism that they were fond of were alien to him. The organization of society did not appeal either.

In the spring of 1789, Karamzin went abroad. He dreamed about this for several years. His trip coincided with Catherine II’s persecution of the Masons, and Novikov was arrested. She saw conspiracies everywhere. Karamzin was close to the Freemasons; his departure, therefore, turned out to be somewhat hasty. The trip to Europe lasted a little over a year. He attended scientific meetings, theaters, museums, attractions, and met famous people. He meets with Pierre Levesque, whom Catherine recommended for writing Russian history. Karamzin believed that Leveque was not up to the task. To create the history of Russia you need to be Russian. He met with Lavater, a master of physiognomy. He asked him what the soul is and what the body is. I did not receive a specific answer to my question.

In France, Karamzin visited revolutionary clubs. About the French Revolution, he said that this event is one of those that determine the life of mankind for many centuries to come. At first, Nikolai Mikhailovich welcomed political changes, but after the terror developed, he came to the conclusion that “violent upheavals are disastrous, and every rebel is preparing a scaffold for himself.” From that moment on, he became a staunch supporter of the monarchy and an opponent of the autocracy of the people.

Everywhere, wherever he was, Nikolai Mikhailovich observed, asked and never forgot about Russia. For example, he concluded that the mind of the British is always turned to their own benefit, they are honest, but selfish, with them everything is thought out, everything is calculated. “To do good without knowing why is the work of our poor Russian reckless heart,” wrote Karamzin. His observations formed the basis of the later work “Letters of a Russian Traveler.”

Nikolai Mikhailovich brought many impressions and translations from abroad. He dreams of writing and publishing. Having secured the support of G.R. Derzhavin, I.I. Dmitriev and other prominent writers, Karamzin created the monthly “Moscow Journal” in 1790. It was the first Russian literary periodical intended for a wide range of readers. In it, Nikolai Mikhailovich published his prose works “Letters of a Russian Traveler”, “Poor Lisa”, poems, reviews, and entertaining information. In his magazine, he served as an editor, critic, and translator. The popularity of the magazine was very great. It was published for two years. In 1803, Karamzin made another attempt to publish a magazine. This time it was “Bulletin of Europe”.

Karamzin’s work on a sentimental story dates back to the same time. He became the founder of Russian sentimentalism. His most famous work in this direction is the tragic story “Poor Liza.” Karamzin in his works reflected the mood of the era and influenced the formation of literary and artistic taste. He was the creator of a new level of the Russian language. He was given the nickname “Parrot Monkey,” but Karamzin did not pay attention to envious people.

Karamzin was already 35 years old when he married Elizaveta Ivanovna Protasova, whom he had known for 13 years. A year later, his wife died, leaving him a daughter, Sonechka. Then Nikolai Mikhailovich finally decided to devote his life to writing “The History of the Russian State.” In 1803, Alexander I appointed him to the post of Historiographer, which opened the doors to the archives for him. They said about Karamzin that he “took his hair as a historian.” Karamzin himself said that he was deeply immersed in history. As you know, monks used to write about all historical events in chronicles. Nikolai Mikhailovich was brought rare documents that were found in the archives of the monasteries.

One day Karamzin had a dream that he was standing on the edge of a grave, and on the other side he saw the daughter of Andrei Ivanovich Vyazemsky, who extended her hand to him. The dream turned out to be prophetic; in 1804 she became his wife. Ekaterina Andreevna was 14 years younger than Nikolai Mikhailovich. She was the happiness of his whole life. The strength of his feelings for him was immeasurable. She became Karamzin's wife and muse. Pushkin called the “History of the Russian State” a feat of an honest man. Together with him, Ekaterina Andreevna accomplished this feat.

Karamzin fenced himself off from the whole world on the Vyazemsky estate Ostafyevo. Every day for many years, after a morning walk and coffee, he went into his office and sat down to work. His wife and children often came to see him and went about their business, trying not to disturb him. He worked on the work for 23 years and survived the death of three of his ten children. During the Patriotic War of 1812, he took a forced break. By that time he had already approached the description of the 15th – 16th centuries. He sent his family from Moscow, and he himself left the city only with the departing army, intending to become a militia member. At that time, the manuscripts remaining in Moscow were burned in a fire, but those in Ostafyevo survived and allowed the author to continue his work. It took the author four and a half years to describe the era of Ivan the Terrible. They said that it was so difficult for Karamzin to write about the era of Ivan the Terrible and how people should live during this time. He brought to the attention of posterity what had been kept silent for three hundred years. The writer even had more frequent headaches. Nikolai Mikhailovich was very afraid of not seeing his work published, so he decided to publish those that had already been written.

At the beginning of 1816, Karamzin prepared the first eight volumes of History, which he brought to St. Petersburg. Alexander I personally censors the work and only after that allows it to be published. Three thousand copies sold out in one month. The history of Russia was written before Karamzin, but Tatishchev speculated on what he did not know; Shcherbatov’s history was also not indisputable. Karamzin shaped the idea of Russian history in the form in which it still exists. Karamzin strove for authenticity; he acted both as a historian and as a writer at the same time.

The Karamzins move to St. Petersburg, and in the summer they live in a house provided to them in Tsarskoe Selo. He moves in literary circles and with members of the Arzamas circle. Karamzin had the talent to please people, the ability to talk with people of different ages and positions. Among the people with whom he often communicated were the young Emperor Alexander, I. I. Dmitriev, V. A. Zhukovsky, and Chancellor N. P. Rumyantsev. Good breeding, secular manners, education, intelligence, and independence of judgment endeared him to everyone. Nikolai Mikhailovich was democratic and showed sincere interest in people. Communicating with kings and their entourage, he behaved as a consultant. We can say that Karamzin stood at the origins of Russian political science. He was a frequent interlocutor of the emperor, gave him advice orally, and wrote treatises. In 1810, he wrote “A Note on Ancient and New Russia,” saying that autocracy is a necessary condition for the integrity of Russia. A few years later he writes “The Opinion of a Russian Citizen.” The Emperor read the treatises, but ignored Karamzin’s opinion.

In 1818 he was elected a member of the Russian Academy and the Imperial Academy of Sciences. His merits were appreciated. In 1824 he was awarded the title of actual state councilor.

The year 1825 brought two shocks at once. In November, Alexander I died, and his draft manifesto on the accession to the throne of Nicholas I was rejected. In December, the best people of Russia came to Senate Square. Karamzin said that in France those who have nothing opposed the owners. In Russia, among the protesters were people who had something to lose. The “Russian reckless heart” is to blame for this. Karamzin himself was in the square that day and caught a bad cold. He was never able to recover from the illness and died on May 22, 1826. Many at that time said that if Karamzin had been alive, the sentence imposed on the Decembrists would have been more lenient.

The last twelfth volume of “History of the Russian State” remained unfinished. It was published in 1829. The historian settled on the description of 1611.

V.G. Belinsky defined Karamzin’s merits as follows: “Karamzin revealed to the whole Russian society that he has a fatherland that has a history, and that the history of his fatherland should be interesting to him, and knowledge of it is not only useful, but also necessary. Great feat!

Karamzin N. M.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin is a famous Russian writer, publisher, historian, reformer of the Russian language, who is the largest representative of the era of sentimentalism. Through his work, he significantly enriched the vocabulary with many new crippled words.

The famous writer was born on December 12, 1766 in the Simbirsk province. His childhood years were spent on his father's noble estate, he was brought up in a private boarding school in Simbirsk, then in the Moscow boarding school of Professor Schaden.

Karamzin studied philosophy, languages, literature, and history. Then he moves to St. Petersburg and enters the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment for military service. However, soon after retiring, he completely devoted himself to literary work, first starting with translations. Having settled in Moscow, Nikolai Mikhailovich joined N.I.’s circle. Novikova, participates in the release of the first Russian children's publication - “Children's Reading”.

In 1789, Karamzin went on a trip to Europe, visited Austria, Germany, Switzerland, England, France, met I. Goethe, I. Kant, and in Paris became an eyewitness to the events of the Great French Revolution. Nikolai Mikhailovich sets out his impressions of traveling around Europe in the book that made his name famous - “Letters of a Russian Traveler.”

Since 1791, Karamzin published the Moscow Journal, and in 1802, the Bulletin of Europe. One after another, his works “Natalia, the Boyar’s Daughter”, “Poor Liza”, “Liodor”, “Frol Silin, a Benevolent Man” were published, which were received by readers with all their hearts. Nikolai Mikhailovich was at the heart of the emergence of sentimentalism in Russian literature. His poems - madrigals, friendly messages, elegies, filled with sorrowful languor and melancholy - with their lyrical interpretation of the landscape and psychologism, paved the way for the versification of V.A. Zhukovsky.

Nikolai Mikhailovich introduced significant changes and additions to the Russian literary language - he freed prose from archaic, dilapidated forms, developed an elegant, light intonation of phrases, thereby enriching the vocabulary.

The next stage in the biography of Karamzin as a person and writer is associated with the accession to the Russian throne of Alexander I. The Emperor appoints Nikolai Mikhailovich as the official historiographer in October 1803, and the writer is given the task of capturing the history of Russia. The priority of this topic over all others, his true interest in history, was indicated by the nature of the publications of the “Bulletin of Europe”.

Karamzin’s “Historical Laudatory Word to Empress Catherine II” also shows a fundamentally journalistic character. During the publication of the magazine, the writer increasingly prefers writing historical articles. Nikolai Mikhailovich is awarded through a friend of the Minister of Education M.N. Muravyov, the title of historiographer and an annual pension of 2000 rubles, to describe the complete history of Russia.

In 1804, the author left his literary and artistic activity and began compiling the “History of the Russian State,” which was the most important work in his life and a significant phenomenon in the literature and history of Russia. The first eight volumes written were published in 1818. Three thousand copies were sold in a month - such sales activity had no precedent. The next three volumes, published in subsequent years, were quickly translated into European languages; the final, twelfth volume was published after Karamzin’s death. The entire work had significant documentary applications, which, in terms of their volume, are not inferior to the main text.

Interesting Facts

The village where Karamzin was born is now called Karamzinka.
Nikolai Mikhailovich's distant ancestor was a Tatar prince who served the Moscow Tsar.
Traveling around Europe, Karamzin wrote letters to friends in duplicate, keeping the drafts for himself. They later formed the basis of his works.
He was the author of the first guidebooks.
Contemporaries recall: while traveling around Europe, Russian emigrants asked him what was happening in their homeland, he answered briefly: “They are stealing.”
The writer was distinguished throughout his life by abstinence in food and drinks, and loved coffee.
His menu often included boiled rice; he was convinced of its benefits.
Karamzin was the only one who held the position of historiographer.
Not knowing about such a position, in one of the houses where the historian was staying, a servant wrote down “The Count’s History.”
Karamzin introduced the words “falling in love”, “catastrophe”, “sidewalk” and others.
While working on his main work, the historian discovered “Walkings across the Three Seas of Afanasy Nikitin” in one of the 16th century manuscripts.
Karamzin became the first to actively use the letter “ё”.
He considered the fight against illiteracy to be the main concern of the state.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, the Karamzin family gathered 70 militias.
Karamzin was awarded two honorary orders: St. Anna, 1st class, and St. Vladimir, 3rd class.
During the historian’s lifetime, his “History of the Russian State” was translated into foreign languages.
A. S. Pushkin wrote the tragedy “Boris Godunov” using “The History of the Russian State” and dedicated it to Karamzin.
In 1818, the historian proposed erecting monuments to famous historical figures, in particular Minin and Pozharsky.
He criticized the government reforms of M. M. Speransky.
Karamzin's children and grandchildren received a pension assigned by the emperor.

Nikolay Karamzin short biography

Nikolai Karamzin’s brief biography is presented in this article.

Nikolay Karamzin short biography

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin
- historian, the largest Russian writer of the era of sentimentalism. Creator of “History of the Russian State”

Born on December 12 (December 1, O.S.), 1766 in an estate located in Simbirsk district into a noble family. At first he received home education, after which he continued to study, first at the Simbirsk noble boarding house, then from 1778 at the boarding school of Professor Schaden (Moscow). Throughout 1781-1782. Karamzin attended university lectures.

From 1781, at the insistence of his father, he served in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, where he began to write. In 1784, after the death of his father, having retired with the rank of lieutenant, he finally parted with military service. While living in Simbirsk, he joined the Masonic lodge.

In 1785 he moved to Moscow, where he met N.I. Novikov and other writers, joins the “Friendly Scientific Society”, takes part in the publication of the magazine “Children’s Reading for the Heart and Mind,” which became the first Russian magazine for children.

Over the course of a year (1789-1790), Karamzin traveled around Europe, where he met not only with prominent figures of the Masonic movement, but also with great thinkers, in particular, Kant, I.G. Herder, J.F. Marmontel. Impressions from the trips formed the basis for the future famous “Letters of a Russian Traveler,” which brought fame to the author.

The story “Poor Liza” (1792) strengthened Karamzin’s literary authority. The subsequently published collections and almanacs “Aglaya”, “Aonids”, “My Trinkets”, “Pantheon of Foreign Literature” ushered in the era of sentimentalism in Russian literature.

A new period in Karamzin’s life is associated with the accession to the throne of Alexander I. In October 1803, the emperor appointed the writer as an official historiographer, and Karamzin was given the task of 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 “Bulletin of Europe” (Karamzin published this first socio-political, literary and artistic magazine in the country 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 in a month. 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 and an absolute monarchy. The death of Alexander I and the Decembrist uprising, which he witnessed, became a heavy blow for him. On June 3 (May 22, O.S.), 1826 Karamzin died while in St. Petersburg.