Konstantin Batyushkov: biography, creativity and interesting facts. Russian poet Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov: short biography

P.A. Orlov

The question of the ownership of the work of K.N. Batyushkov to one of the literary movements of the early 19th century. has long been controversial. This, in particular, is indicated by N.V. Friedman: “Batiushkov’s work has not been studied enough. In fact, even the question of which literary movement this remarkable poet should belong to has not been resolved.” N.V. Friedman cites six definitions of Batyushkov’s creative position, proposed only in the last three decades: neoclassicist, pre-romanticist, romanticist, realist, representative of light poetry, Karamzinist. The most stable opinion was about Batyushkov as a romantic.

G.A. was the first to express this idea. Gukovsky in the monograph “Pushkin and the Russian Romantics” (1st edition - 1946; 2nd - 1965). In his opinion, Batyushkov’s worldview is deeply tragic. As little consolation, the poet erects “the light edifice of a dream about a normal, healthy person.” A.N. Sokolov supported the idea of ​​G.A. Gukovsky about the romantic dual worlds of Batyushkov’s poetry, but these worlds look somewhat different in his view: what is interconnected here is not the tragic worldview and the epicurean dream, but the reactionary social reality and the poet’s romantic ideal opposing it.

The authors of numerous works about Batyushkov strive to give an unambiguous definition of the writer’s work, classifying it as romanticism or realism, classicism or sentimentalism. Meanwhile, the living literary process turns out to be immeasurably more complex, since the development of literature occurs not only from one direction to another, but also in the work of each individual writer. Sometimes the same method is deepened and improved, in other cases the writer moves from one creative method to another, as, for example, Pushkin, Gogol and other writers. There are also cases when one work bears the stamp of two artistic methods, merged in an indissoluble unity.

In Russian literature of the first decades of the 19th century. There were also intermediate phenomena caused by the peculiarities of the historical development of Russian society. Unlike a number of European countries (England, France), which had already experienced bourgeois revolutions, Russia was just on the eve of democratic transformations. Because of this, educational ideas and educational art with their anti-feudal, anti-absolutist pathos did not lose their significance here and successfully developed side by side, and sometimes in close unity with new literary phenomena - with romanticism and even critical realism. “Russian romanticism,” writes A.B. Botnikov, “was a short-term phenomenon and quite rarely appeared in a “pure” form... The picture of the literary development of Russia appears in an immeasurably more complex form than in the West.”

Light poetry cannot be considered one of the movements of romanticism, if only because it arose much earlier than this movement. It first appeared in France in the first half of the 18th century. and was represented here by the works of Cholier, Lafar, Hamilton, Jean-Baptiste Rousseau. The next stage of its development dates back to the middle of the 18th century. - lyrics by Dora, Colardo, Bernard, Leonard, Bernie, Bertin, Boufle. During this period, it reflects the thoughtlessly erotic, frivolous attitude of the French aristocracy on the eve of the French Revolution.

Subsequently, light poetry became one of the phenomena of educational literature. Enlightenment writers turned in their work to a wide variety of genres of previous literature. They used adventure, family and frivolous novels, fairy tales, classical tragedy, odes, heroic and burlesque poems for their purposes, but introduced new militant, anti-feudal content into all these genres.

“No matter how contradictory it may be at first glance,” wrote S.S. Mokulsky, “the unification of the great enlightener Voltaire with the aristocratic poetry of the Rococo, however, historically such a unification took place... But in his mind... this hedonism lost its thoughtless, decadent character and became a symbol of independence, an instrument of ideological self-determination.” At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. The most prominent representative of light poetry in France was Évariste Parni, in whose work anti-clerical and atheistic motives became especially strong.

In Russia, light poetry appeared in the second third of the 18th century. in the lyrics of classic poets: Kantemir, Trediakovsky, Lomonosov and Sumarokov. It was represented at that time by translations of the poems of Anacreon and his Greek imitators. In the last decades of the 18th century. in Russia there is a spread of educational ideas. Light poetry with its cult of sensual pleasures turned out to be consonant with the hedonistic ethics of the enlighteners and at the same time (a fertile form for expressing their oppositional sentiments towards representatives of secular power and the clergy. Batyushkov’s predecessors in light poetry were M.N. Muravyov and G.R. Derzhavin.

Light poetry at the educational stage of its development has a number of stable, typological features. These include, first of all, two-planeness, two-worldness, which should be distinguished from romantic two-worldness, since it is created in light poetry on the basis of purely educational ideas.

The heroes of light poetry are clearly divided into two camps sharply opposed to each other. Belonging to each of them is determined by the degree of intelligence and “enlightenment” of its representatives. Some of them “correctly” understand the nature of man, the purpose and meaning of his existence. Therefore, in light poetry they are called either “philosophers” (“lazy philosophers” - by Batyushkov), or “sages” (“The Sage of Tebs” - by Pushkin). They love pleasure and reject asceticism. In the hierarchy of pleasures, sensual love comes first for them, followed by friendship, village solitude, wine, poetry and idleness (“laziness” in the language of the poets of this circle).

The opposite camp is represented by heroes who mistakenly, incorrectly judge the meaning and purpose of human existence. This includes kings, courtiers, rich people, all kinds of service workers and careerists, churchmen, primarily monks. Their lives are in blatant contradiction with the laws of nature: they live in stuffy and cramped cities, they are burdened with tedious and boring official duties, their thoughts are subordinated to the struggle for power and wealth. They have no friends, they are unfamiliar with selfless, mutual love. They are possessed by envy and vanity. As for the clergy, they are condemned primarily for preaching asceticism, which is contrary to human nature itself.

The educational character of light poetry of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. also manifests itself in the preaching of “moderation.” We will not find this concept in romantic literature, the heroes of which do not tolerate any control over themselves, no limitation of their desires. The enlighteners had a completely different view. Recognizing and justifying man's desire for pleasure, they at the same time pointed to the need for reasonable limitation of their desires. “Pleasure,” wrote Paul Holbach, “is good only insofar as it serves to preserve health and maintain the good condition of a person, but pleasure becomes evil... when the consequences of pleasure are harmful to the happiness and well-being of the enjoyer.”

Associated with the preaching of “moderation” in light poetry is the glorification of a modest, unpretentious life, which gives true and at the same time harmless pleasures. The chambers and palaces are contrasted here with a modest “hut”; luxury is contrasted with the ingenuous gifts of nature.

The passion of love, glorified in light poetry, differs significantly from the feeling of love in the depiction of romantics. Romantic love is always ideal, sublime. It is either heroic, or tragic, or even mystical in nature, but only chosen ones endowed with exceptional, outstanding characters can be worthy of it. In light poetry, love is understood as a healthy, natural, sensual attraction.

Despite its seemingly harmless and not at all militant character, light poetry, like other phenomena of educational literature, did its destructive work. She debunked the idols of the feudal-absolutist world and thereby deprived it of the halo with which it had been surrounded for many centuries.

Study of light poetry of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. allows us to reconsider the originality of Batyushkov’s creativity. His light poetry does not belong to one of the movements of early Russian romanticism, as G.A. claimed. Gukovsky and his many followers belong entirely to the educational stage of Russian literature. Of course, Batyushkov is immeasurably more talented than his predecessors in light poetry, but their perception of reality and creative method are the same.

D.D. wrote about Batyushkov’s connection with the Enlightenment. Blagoy, B.S. Meilakh and a number of other researchers. But this fact was cited as one of the features of the writer’s worldview, as evidence of his belonging to the advanced part of society and was not connected with the peculiarities of the creative method. Meanwhile, the first period of Batyushkov’s literary activity is associated with enlightenment precisely thanks to light poetry, which he and young Pushkin brought to its highest flourishing and perfection.

Batyushkov’s works at this time are distinguished by the dual worlds discussed above and which characterizes light poetry at the educational stage of its development

The poet is equally indifferent to military glory (“Answer to Gnedich”):

Let those who are sick with ambition

Throws fire and thunder with Mars,

But I'm happy with obscurity

In my Sabinsky house.

In the message “To Petin” there is again the same contrast: the world of “nobles and kings”, in which “slavery and chains” await everyone, is contrasted with the poet’s “unknown lot”, decorated with love and wine.

An important place in Batyushkov’s lyrics is occupied by the glorification of “moderation.” This is expressed primarily in the description of the modest furnishings of the poet’s home, in the constant emphasis on the simplicity and unpretentiousness of tastes. The poet calls his house (“My Penates”) either a “wretched hut,” sometimes a “humble hut,” or a “simple” “hut.” The furnishings of the “hut” are modest: “the table is shabby and tripoded,” “the hard bed” - “all the utensils are simple, // Everything is a crumbling meager!” This description does not characterize the tastes of a Stoic, nor the habits of an ascetic. It reflects the views on life of an Epicurean philosopher who knows how to separate true values ​​from false values. Against the background of the poet’s wretched home, far from “palaces”, “fortune” and official “happiness”, the true joys of life look more prominent: love, friendship and poetry.

The love sung by Batyushkov is distinguished by sensuality and eroticism, which is inherent in light poetry (the poems “False Fear”, “Merry Hour”, “Ghost”, “My Penates”, “Bacchante”). She knows neither fidelity nor jealousy and is quite content with the momentary pleasures received on the bed of “voluptuousness.” The earthly, educational nature of this love was severely condemned by Zhukovsky in his letter “To Batyushkov” and strongly supported by young Pushkin.

The poet’s friends can only be his like-minded people, just like him, “lazy philosophers, enemies of court bonds,” who calmly exchanged the vicissitudes of public service for the idleness of home life.

The materialistic worldview, coming from the ideas of the Enlightenment, was expressed in Batyushkov’s light poetry and in the denial of the afterlife. This thought is persistently repeated in the first period of his literary activity: “I will die, and everything will die with me!” (“Merry Hour”), “I will die, friends, and that’s all with me” (“Advice to Friends”), “The Most Blessed Hour! But ah!//The dead do not rise” (“Ghost”). The thought of death not only does not darken the joy of life in Batyushkov’s light poetry, but, on the contrary, makes it doubly valuable. Therefore, it is difficult to agree with the opinion of G.A. Gukovsky, who argued that “the individual soul, mortal, fleeting, tragically doomed, is empty and meaningless for Batyushkov.” This problem is revealed in Batyushkov’s poetry much more optimistically. Enlightenment materialists believed that disbelief in the afterlife does not reduce, but, on the contrary, increases the value and significance of earthly existence. Interesting in this regard is the interpretation of P.I. Shalikov, in the spirit of the educational ideas of the late 18th century, the philosophy of Epicurus. “Epicure,” he wrote, “especially tried to dispel the horror of death... If you are happy, if you have lived in all contentment, then... what do you expect? Leave life as one leaves a feast.” This idea was repeated almost verbatim by Batyushkov in the poem “Answer to Gnedich”:

Like a guest, satiated with fun,

The luxurious one leaves the feast,

So I, intoxicated with love,

I will leave the world indifferently.

Batyushkov’s attitude to the problem of death is as courageous and optimistic as that of the enlighteners. The theme of death and the theme of pleasures often appear side by side in his works (“Response to Gnedich”, “Ghost”, “My Penates”). The winner of a duel is always pleasure, as a result of which life does not depreciate, but acquires even greater significance (“My Penates”):

While he's running after us

God of time is gray

And the meadow with flowers is destroyed

With a merciless scythe,

My friend! hurry up for happiness

Let's fly on the journey of life;

Let's get drunk with voluptuousness

And we will get ahead of death...

“The very course of the historical process clearly demonstrated to the poet the inconsistency of his attempt to escape from... the painful contradictions of reality,” writes N.V. Friedman. This fundamentally correct idea requires some clarification. The fact is that the rejection of light poetry meant at the same time Batyushkov’s departure not only from Epicureanism, but also from Enlightenment.

The destroyers of Moscow and hedonistic philosophers turned out to be compatriots. This was enough for Batyushkov to declare war on both.

Of course, there was a historical causal relationship between the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the reign of Napoleon and his campaign against Russia, otherwise history would have turned into a kaleidoscope of accidents. But the causal dependence between phenomena does not mean their identity. Therefore, Napoleon’s seizure of imperial power and the wars that followed, although they were conditioned by the entire course of previous events, were at the same time a clear betrayal of the basic principles of Enlightenment philosophy.

Then in the excitement of the people's storms

Anticipating my wonderful destiny,

In his noble hopes

You despised humanity, -

wrote Pushkin in 1821, summing up the short-term and stormy activities of Napoleon. Batyushkov did not comprehend the complex dialectics of history, superbly revealed by Pushkin in the ode “Napoleon”. He lined up enlightenment, revolution, Napoleon’s wars, the fire of Moscow and saw in them phenomena that were completely homogeneous in their internal nature and in their results: “The terrible actions of the vandals or the French in Moscow and in its environs... completely upset my little philosophy and they quarreled me with humanity... Barbarians, vandals! And this people of monsters dared to talk about freedom, about philosophy, about philanthropy! And we were so blinded that we imitated them like monkeys! Okay, so they paid us! All their books are worthy of a fire, ... their heads are worthy of a guillotine.”

Capturing in his mind's eye the ideological and political phenomena of the late 18th - early 19th centuries, Batyushkov establishes a too straightforward causal connection between them: “My heart does not belong to this country,” he writes to Gnedich, “the revolution, the world war, the fire of Moscow and the devastation of Russia.” I was forever at odds with the fatherland of Henry IV, the great Racine and Montagne.”

Batyushkov is now inclined to see the source, the beginning of all disasters in the preaching of hedonism, which lay at the basis of both educational philosophy and light poetry. He set out his new views especially fully in the article “Something about Morality Based on Philosophy and Religion,” written in 1815. In clear contradiction with his recent beliefs and cheerful light poetry, Batyushkov now furiously attacks hedonism. “...A crowd of epicurean philosophers from Montagne to the most stormy days of the revolution repeated to man: “Enjoy! All nature is yours, it offers you all its sweets... everything except hope for the future, everything is yours, momentary, but true! But this kind of preaching, Batyushkov claims, does not achieve the goal and does not give a person lasting happiness. Pleasure ends, according to the poet, every time with satiety and leaves behind boredom and dissatisfaction. “This is how,” writes Batyushkov, “the human heart was created: ... in the highest bliss, ... it acquires bitterness.” The consequence of dissatisfaction, on the one hand, and godlessness, on the other, were, in the poet’s opinion, the tragic events that took place on the verge of two centuries: “...We looked with horror at the fruits of wicked freethinking, at freedom that had hoisted its banner among the bloody corpses , ... to the successes of the wicked legions, to Moscow, smoking in its ruins.” The recent atheist and epicurean now defends the afterlife, the immortal soul, and ethics based on Christian dogmas. “Unbelief destroys itself,” he declares. “Faith alone creates unshakable morality.”

Batyushkov’s “little philosophy” really could not withstand the collision with major historical events. The reason for this is that the poet perceived enlightenment itself too narrowly, limiting it exclusively to a hedonistic worldview. The political ideas of the Enlightenment - hatred of absolutism, serfdom, denial of class inequality, etc. - were not reflected in the poet’s worldview. As a result, the collapse of the hedonistic worldview led Batyushkov in 1812 to reject the entire Enlightenment ideology as a whole.

Let us remember that Pushkin and the future Decembrists also witnessed the invasion of Napoleonic army into Russia, and later the fire of Moscow. However, these dramatic events were perceived by them not as a consequence of the ideas of enlightenment, but as a gross and unceremonious violation of them. Pushkin, glorifying in the ode “Liberty” one of the cherished ideas of the philosophers of the 18th century. - equality of all before the law - at the same time stigmatizes not only Louis XVI and Paul I, but also Napoleon. Moreover, in the lyrics of 1818-1819. Pushkin managed to combine both the hedonistic and political principles of the Enlightenment (messages to “V. Engelhardt,” “Vsevolozhsky,” “Mansurov”), but Batyushkov was unable to achieve such a broad approach to Enlightenment ideology. The consequence of this was an ideological crisis, which ended with concessions to religious sentiments, which brought his poetry closer to the protective camp.

If earlier Batyushkov’s light poetry opposed Zhukovsky’s romanticism, now their creative positions are becoming extremely close, since the worldview of both poets is based on the same idea about the fragility of earthly values ​​and the eternity of afterlife bliss.

These new moods were especially clearly reflected in the poems “Hope”, “To a Friend” (both written in 1815) and in the extensive elegy “Dying Tass”.

In the first of these works there is even a verbal coincidence with Zhukovsky’s poems:

Zhukovsky. "Singer in the camp of Russian warriors" ...

Power of attorney to the Creator!

Whatever it is - Invisible

Leads us to a better end

A path incomprehensible.

Batyushkov. "Hope"

My spirit! power of attorney to the creator!

Take heart; Be a patient stone.

Isn't he for a better end?

He led me through the flames of war (195).

In Batyushkov’s poetic dictionary the same symbolic words “here” and “there” appear as in Zhukovsky, denoting earthly and afterlife existence in both authors: “So everything here is vanity in the monastery of vanities!” (“To a friend”), “There, there... oh happiness! ...among immaculate wives,//Among angels...” (“Dying Tass”).

The new moods were especially fully and vividly expressed in the elegy “Dying Tass”. The tragic fate of the great Italian poet - poverty, unjust persecution, imprisonment in prison, in a mental hospital - becomes in Batyushkov’s work a kind of symbol of the imperfection of the earthly vale, and the death of Tassa on the day of his belated triumph is an even more striking example of the “treachery” of envious fortune (see . author's notes to the poem "Dying Tass".)

Everything earthly perishes... both glory and crown...

The creations of the arts and muses are majestic,

But everything there is eternal, just as the creator himself is eternal,

Give us the crown of eternal glory!

An analysis of Batyushkov’s work convinces us that the question of whether writers belong to one or another literary movement does not always imply an unambiguous solution. In some cases, a writer may move from one direction to another. A striking example of such evolution can be the creative path of Batyushkov. He started with light poetry, which was one of the phenomena of educational literature at that time, and only after a complex ideological crisis moved to romanticism

However, this sequence is characteristic not only of Batyushkov. Many poets of the first quarter of the 19th century paid tribute to light poetry: Vyazemsky, Delvig, Yazykov, Baratynsky, Ryleev and Pushkin. Their interest in light poetry testified to their belonging to the camp of freethinkers, but of an educational kind. The next stages of their work were romanticism.

Keywords: Konstantin Batyushkov, criticism of Batyushkov’s work, Batyushkov’s work, download criticism, download for free, Batyushkov and antiquity, Russian literature of the 19th century, download abstract, Batyushkov’s poetry

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Biography of the poet Born into the Batyushkov family, father - Nikolai Lvovich Batyushkov. He spent the years of his childhood in the family estate - the village of Danilovskoye (Vologda). At the age of 7, he lost his mother, who suffered from mental illness, which was inherited by Batyushkov and his older sister Alexandra. In 1797, he was sent to the St. Petersburg boarding school Jacquinot, where the future poet studied European languages, enthusiastically read European classics and began to write his first poems. In 1801 he moved to the Tripoli boarding house. In the sixteenth year of his life, Batyushkov left the boarding school and began reading Russian and French literature. At the same time, he became close friends with his uncle, the famous writer Mikhail Nikitich Muravyov. Under his influence, he began to study the literature of the ancient classical world and became an admirer of Tibullus and Horace, whom he imitated in his first works. In addition, under the influence of Muravyov, Batyushkov developed literary taste and aesthetic sense.

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In 1802, Batyushkov enlisted in the Ministry of Public Education. This service weighs heavily on the poet, but circumstances do not allow him to leave the service. The ancient noble family of the Batyushkovs became impoverished, the estate fell into disrepair. In St. Petersburg, Batyushkov met representatives of the then literary world. He became especially close friends with G. R. Derzhavin, N. A. Lvov, V. V. Kapnist, A. N. Olenin.

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Battle of Heilsberg in 1807 Batyushkov enlisted in the people's militia (militia) and took part in the Prussian campaign. In the battle of Heilsberg he was wounded and had to go to Riga for treatment. During the campaign, he wrote several poems and began translating Tassa’s poem “Liberated Jerusalem.” The next year, 1808, Batyushkov took part in the war with Sweden, after which he retired and went to his relatives in the village of Khantanovo, Novgorod province. In the village, he soon began to get bored and was eager to go to the city: his impressionability became almost painful, more and more he was overcome by melancholy and a premonition of future madness.

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The failed attempt to get married in 1815 and the breakdown of personal relationships with his father were difficult for the poet. For some time he lives in Ukraine, in Kamenets-Podolsk, with his military superiors. The poet is elected in absentia as a member of the Arzamas literary society. At this time, Batyushkov was experiencing a strong creative upsurge: in a year he wrote twelve poetic and eight prose works. He is preparing his works in poetry and prose for publication.

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After staying in St. Petersburg, the poet in the spring of 1818 went south to improve his health. On the advice of Zhukovsky, Batyushkov submits an application for enrollment in one of the missions in Italy. In Odessa, the poet receives a letter from Alexander Turgenev informing him of the poet’s appointment to the diplomatic service in Naples. After a long journey, he arrives at his place of duty, with vivid impressions of the trip. An important meeting for the poet was with Russian artists, including Sylvester Shchedrin and Orest Kiprensky, who lived in Rome at that time

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On July 7, 1855, he died of typhus in Vologda. He was buried in the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery, five miles from Vologda. “From birth, I had a black spot on my soul, which grew and grew over the years and almost blackened my entire soul.” Back in 1815, Batyushkov wrote the following words about himself to Zhukovsky:

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Peculiarities of creative manner Writers who study the work of the outstanding Russian poet Batyushkov come up with the same problem - the relationship between the two selves of the poet’s lyrical hero. This is due to the rather noticeable closeness of the “biographical” and artistic images of Batyushkov. Similar things can be found in the works of other poets, but in the case of Batyushkov such closeness is boiled down from a slightly different side, more mysterious and ambiguous. The poet himself emphasized this feature of his lyrics. The relationship between Batyushkov’s creativity and real life can be called the main feature of his work.

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1 reader:“Here we have won; but whole rows of the brave lay down, and here are their graves!.. These solitary crosses erected along the sandy shore or along the road, this row of Russian graves in foreign countries, distant from their homeland, seem to say to a passing warrior: victory and death awaits you! »

Leading: Since then, his life has become restless and restless.
“Incessant marches, bivouacs, battles, retreats, fatigue, mental and physical - in a word - eternal restlessness: this is my story, I have never had a single truly calm day,” he wrote.
In 1809, having received his resignation, Batyushkov lived in St. Petersburg, then in Khantonovo, and visited Moscow and Vologda.
In 1812 he entered the service of the Public Library as assistant curator of manuscripts, where he was subsequently accepted as an honorary librarian.
On June 13, the war between Russia and Napoleon began. As he moved deeper into Russia, anxiety grew in Russian society.
On August 14, having received leave from the Public Library, Batyushkov arrives in Moscow to accompany the family of his benefactor, cousin Muravyov, to Nizhny Novgorod. The sight of burned, devastated Moscow, the city where he found friends (P.A. Vyazemsky, V.A. Zhukovsky, N.M. Karamzin, V.L. Pushkin), where he was happy in their company, shocked the poet. He expressed his feelings in one of his best works.

Reader 2:"Message to Dashkov"

On the land of the defeated enemy, he experienced a feeling of national pride, that rare unity in the concern for the defense of the Fatherland, which covered the army.

Reader 3:"Crossing the Rhine" (excerpt)

Reader 4: Alexander Romanov “Konstantin Batyushkov in Paris”

Reader 5:“Memory of Petin” (excerpt)
“I spent that day almost until nightfall on the battlefield, driving around it from one end to the other and examining the bloody corpses. The morning was cloudy. Around noon it began to rain in rivers; everything aggravated the gloom of the most terrible spectacle, the mere memory of which tires the soul, the spectacle of a fresh battlefield, littered with the corpses of people, horses, broken boxes... The bell tower constantly flashed in my eyes, where the body of the best of men rested, and my heart was filled with unspeakable grief, which not a single tear made it easier... On the third day after the capture of Leipzig... I met the faithful servant of my friend, who was returning to Russia... He led me to the grave of the good master. I saw this grave, filled with fresh earth; I stood there in deep sorrow and eased my heart with tears. The best treasure of my life was hidden in it forever - friendship... Fulfilling his duty, he was a good son, a faithful friend, a fearless warrior.”

Reader 6:"Shadow of a Friend"

Reader 7:"To Nikita"

8 reader:"My genius"

Leading: While in liberated Paris, Batyushkov talked with friends about Russian affairs, about the structure of Russian social life. Far from politics, he nevertheless wrote a beautiful quatrain in 1814, in which he addressed Emperor Alexander with an appeal to complete his glory and immortalize his reign by liberating the Russian people from serfdom. Having resigned, Batyushkov turns to the emperor with a petition to send him to serve in the diplomatic department. On November 19, 1818 he left for Italy. Batyushkov had long dreamed of this country, which he came to know well after being carried away by Italian poetry. Friends hoped that there he would improve his health and renew his impressions. However, in Italy the poet did not find peace, primarily because the Russian envoy Stackelberg treated him as an ordinary official.
Already in August 1819, he wrote to Zhukovsky: “In the midst of these miracles, be surprised at the change... I cannot write poetry at all.” He took from there 4 beautiful short poems and notes in prose about the environs of Naples, destroyed in an attack of mental illness. In addition, in Naples, in 1820, in front of Batyushkov’s eyes, a revolution broke out. Carbonariev, i.e. members of the secret society were brutally defeated by Austrian troops. Batyushkov left Naples for Rome and from there wrote to Karamzin about the extremely difficult impression of everything that happened.
In a letter to Ekaterina Fedorovna Muravyova, who treated him like a son, he wrote in December 1821 from Dresden, where he went on vacation for treatment: “I confess to you, I have long wanted to return to Russia... I ask you to save me in your memory..."
Presumably, in 1821 K.N. Batyushkov wrote his poetic testament, an extremely mysterious work called “The Saying of Melchizedek.” (Melchizedek is a biblical king and priest, his name means “king of righteousness”).

Reader 9:"You know what you said..."

Leading: What worried him: the premonition of an imminent spiritual death, or the unconsciousness of his descendants. The mystery remained unsolved.
In the notes “Alien: My Treasure!” (1817) Batyushkov wrote: “He lived in hell - he was on Olympus.” In the notebook of P.A. Vyazemsky, from the words of the poet, recorded his last statement about his work: “What should I write and what should I say about my poems!.. I look like a man who did not reach his goal, but carried on his head a beautiful vessel filled with something. The vessel fell off the head, fell and broke into pieces. Now go find out what was in it!”
Romance “Elegy”, lyrics by K.N. Batyushkova, music N. Balakhonova

10th reader: V.A. Shaginov “Batyushkov at the window”

Cherepovets

Literature
1. Batyushkov K.N. Works in 2 volumes. – M., 1989.
2. Afanasyev V.V. Achilles, or the life of Batyushkov. – M., 1987.
3. Koshelev V.A. Konstantin Batyushkov. Travels and passions. – M., 1987.
4. Maikov L.N. Batyushkov, his life and works. – M., 2001.
5. Chizhova I.B. The soul is a magical luminary... - St. Petersburg, 1997.

Source: Chusova V. D. Scenario of the evening “Three wars, all on horseback and in peace on the high road...” / V. D. Chusova // “Collection of motley chapters”: about K. N. Batyushkov and Khantov. – Cherepovets, 2007. – pp. 151–170. – Bibliography in note at the end of Art.

BATYUSHKOV Konstantin Nikolaevich, Russian poet.

Childhood and youth. Start of service

Born into an old but impoverished noble family. Batyushkov's childhood was overshadowed by the death of his mother (1795) from a hereditary mental illness. In 1797-1802 he studied in private boarding schools in St. Petersburg. From the end of 1802, Batyushkov served in the Ministry of Public Education under the leadership of M. N. Muravyov, a poet and thinker who had a deep influence on him. When war with Napoleon was declared, Batyushkov joined the militia (1807) and took part in the campaign against Prussia (he was seriously wounded near Heilsberg). In 1808 he took part in the Swedish campaign. In 1809 he retired and settled on his estate Khantonovo, Novgorod province.

Beginning of literary activity

Batyushkov's literary activity began in 1805-1806 with the publication of a number of poems in the magazines of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts. At the same time, he became close to writers and artists grouped around A. N. Olenin (N. I. Gnedich, I. A. Krylov, O. A. Kiprensky, etc.). The Olenin circle, which set itself the task of resurrecting the ancient ideal of beauty on the basis of modern sensitivity, opposed itself to both the Slavicizing archaism of the Shishkovists (see A.V. Shishkov), and the French orientation and cult of trifles widespread among the Karamzinists. Batyushkov’s satire “Vision on the Shores of Lethe” (1809), directed against both camps, becomes the literary manifesto of the circle. During these same years, he began translating T. Tasso’s poem “Jerusalem Liberated,” entering into a kind of creative competition with Gnedich, who translated Homer’s “Iliad.”

"Russian Guys"

Batyushkov’s literary position underwent some changes in 1809-1810, when he became close in Moscow with a circle of younger Karamzinists (P. A. Vyazemsky, V. A. Zhukovsky), and met N. M. Karamzin himself. Poems of 1809-1812, including translations and imitations of E. Parni, Tibullus, a cycle of friendly messages (“My Penates”, “To Zhukovsky”) form the image of the “Russian Parni” - an epicurean poet, singer - that determines Batyushkov’s entire subsequent reputation laziness and voluptuousness. In 1813 he wrote (with the participation of A.E. Izmailov) one of the most famous literary and polemical works of Karamzinism, “The Singer or Singers in the Conversation of the Slavic Russians,” directed against the “Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word.”

In April 1812, Batyushkov became an assistant curator of manuscripts at the St. Petersburg Public Library. However, the outbreak of the war with Napoleon prompts him to return to military service. In the spring of 1813 he went to Germany to join the active army and reached Paris. In 1816 he retired.

The military upheavals, as well as the unhappy love experienced during these years for the Olenins’ pupil A.F. Furman, lead to a deep change in Batyushkov’s worldview. The place of the “little philosophy” of Epicureanism and everyday pleasures is taken by the conviction in the tragedy of existence, which finds its only resolution in the poet’s acquired faith in reward after death and the providential meaning of history. A new set of moods permeates many of Batyushkov’s poems of these years (“Nadezhda”, “To a Friend”, “Shadow of a Friend”) and a number of prose experiments. At the same time, his best love elegies dedicated to Furman were created - “My Genius”, “Separation”, “Tavrida”, “Awakening”. In 1815, Batyushkov was admitted to Arzamas (under the name Achilles, associated with his past merits in the fight against archaists; the nickname often turned into a pun, playing on Batyushkov’s frequent illnesses: “Ah, heel”), but disappointed in literary polemics, the poet did not played a significant role in the activities of the society.

"Experiments in poetry and prose." Translations

In 1817 Batyushkov completed a series of translations “From the Greek Anthology”. In the same year, a two-volume publication “Experiments in Poetry and Prose” was published, which collected the most significant works of Batyushkov, including the monumental historical elegies “Hesiod and Omir, Rivals” (an adaptation of the elegy of C. Milvois) and “The Dying Tass ”, as well as prose works: literary and art criticism, travel essays, moralizing articles. "Experiments..." strengthened Batyushkov's reputation as one of the leading Russian poets. The reviews noted the classical harmony of Batyushkov’s lyrics, who connected Russian poetry with the muse of southern Europe, primarily Italy and Greco-Roman antiquity. Batyushkov also owns one of the first Russian translations of J. Byron (1820).

Mental crisis. Last verses

In 1818 Batyushkov received an appointment to the Russian diplomatic mission in Naples. A trip to Italy was a long-term dream of the poet, but the difficult impressions of the Neapolitan revolution, work conflicts, and a feeling of loneliness lead him to an increasing mental crisis. At the end of 1820 he sought a transfer to Rome, and in 1821 he went to sea in Bohemia and Germany. The works of these years - the cycle “Imitations of the Ancients”, the poem “You awaken, O Baya, from the tomb...”, the translation of a fragment from “The Bride of Messina” by F. Schiller are marked by increasing pessimism, the conviction of the doom of beauty in the face of death and the ultimate unjustification of earthly things existence. These motives reached their culmination in a kind of poetic testament of Batyushkov - the poem “Do you know what the gray-haired Melchizedek said / saying goodbye to life?” (1824).

At the end of 1821, Batyushkov began to develop symptoms of hereditary mental illness. In 1822 he travels to Crimea, where the disease worsens. After several suicide attempts, he was placed in a psychiatric hospital in the German city of Sonnestein, from where he was discharged due to complete incurability (1828). In 1828-1833 he lived in Moscow, then until his death in Vologda under the supervision of his nephew G. A. Grevens.

Everyone knows the Vologda poet Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov. His biography is bright and tragic. The poet, whose creative discoveries were brought to perfection by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, was a pioneer in the development of the melodiousness of the Russian language. He was the first to notice in him, “somewhat stern and stubborn,” remarkable “strength and expressiveness.” Batyushkov’s creative achievements were recognized as classics even during his lifetime by the entire Russian poetic world of his time, and primarily by Karamzin and Zhukovsky.

Childhood

The dates of the poet's life are 05/18/1787 - 07/07/1855. He belonged to the old noble family of the Batyushkovs, which included generals, public figures, and scientists.

What can Batyushkov’s biography tell about the poet’s childhood? Interesting facts will come later, but for now it is worth noting that the child suffered from the death of his beloved mother. Alexandra Grigorievna Batyushkova (nee Berdyaeva) died eight years after the birth of Kostya. Were the years spent on the family estate in the village of Danilovskoye (modern Vologda region) happy? Hardly. Konstantin's father, Nikolai Lvovich Batyushkov, a bilious and nervous man, did not pay due attention to his children. He had an excellent education and was tormented by the fact that he was unclaimed for his job because of a disgraced relative involved in a palace conspiracy.

Study, self-education

However, at the behest of his father, Konstantin Batyushkov studied in expensive but unspecialized St. Petersburg boarding schools. The biography of his youth is marked by a strong-willed and far-sighted act. He, despite his father’s protests, quit school in boarding schools and zealously began self-education.

This period (from 16 to 19 years) is marked by the transformation of a young man into a person of humanitarian competence. Konstantin’s benefactor and beacon turned out to be his influential uncle Mikhail Nikitich Muravyov, senator and poet, trustee of Moscow University. It was he who managed to instill in his nephew respect for ancient poetry. Thanks to him, Batyushkov, having studied Latin, became an admirer of Horace and Tibullus, which became the basis for his further work. He began to achieve, through endless edits, the classical melodiousness of the Russian language.

Also, thanks to the patronage of his uncle, eighteen-year-old Konstantin began to serve as a clerk at the Ministry of Education. In 1805, his poem was published for the first time in the magazine “News of Russian Literature.” He meets St. Petersburg poets - Derzhavin, Kapnist, Lvov, Olenin.

First injury and recovery

In 1807, Constantine's benefactor and first adviser, his uncle, died. Perhaps, if he were alive, he alone would have persuaded his nephew not to expose his fragile nervous system to the hardships and hardships of military service. But in March 1807, Konstantin Batyushkov volunteered for the Prussian campaign. He is wounded in the bloody battle of Heilsberg. He is sent for treatment first to Riga, and then released to the family estate. While in Riga, young Batyushkov falls in love with the merchant's daughter Emilia. This passion inspired the poet to write the poems “Memories of 1807” and “Recovery.”

War with Sweden. Mental trauma

Having recovered, Konstantin Batyushkov in 1808 again went as part of the Jaeger Guards Regiment to the war with Sweden. He was a courageous officer. Death, blood, loss of friends - all this was hard for Konstantin Nikolaevich. His soul was not hardened by the war. After the war, the officer came to rest on the estate with his sisters Alexandra and Varvara. They noted with alarm that the war had left a heavy mark on their brother’s unstable psyche. He became overly impressionable. He periodically experienced hallucinations. In letters to Gnedich, his friend from his service in the ministry, the poet writes directly that he is afraid that in ten years he will completely go crazy.

However, friends tried to distract the poet from painful thoughts. And they partially succeed in this. In 1809, Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov plunged into the St. Petersburg salon and literary life. A short biography will not describe all the events that happened in the poet’s life. This time is marked by personal acquaintances with Karamzin, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky. Ekaterina Fedorovna Muravyova (the widow of a senator who once helped Batyushkov) brought her cousin to them.

In 1810, Batyushkov retired from military service. In 1812, with the help of friends Gnedich and Olenin, he got a job as an assistant curator of manuscripts at the St. Petersburg Public Library.

War with Napoleonic France

At the beginning of the Patriotic War with France, retired officer Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov sought to join the active army. He performs a noble deed: the poet accompanies the widow of his benefactor E.F. Muravyova to Nizhny Novgorod. Only since March 29, 1813, he serves as an adjutant in the Rylsky infantry regiment. For courage in the battle of Leipzig, the officer is awarded 2nd degree. Impressed by this battle, Batyushkov writes the poem “Shadow of a Friend” in honor of his deceased comrade I. A. Petin.

His work reflects the evolution of the poet's personality, from romanticism to match the Age of Enlightenment to the greatness of the spirit of a Christian thinker. His poetry about the war (the poems “On the Ruins of a Castle in Sweden”, “Shadow of a Friend”, “Crossing the Rhine”) is close in spirit to a simple Russian soldier, it is realistic. Batyushkov writes sincerely, without embellishing reality. The biography and work of the poet described in the article are becoming more and more interesting. K. Batyushkov begins to write a lot.

Non-reciprocal love

In 1814, after a military campaign, Batyushkov returned to St. Petersburg. Here he will be disappointed: his feelings are not reciprocated by the beautiful Anna Furman, a pupil of the Olenins’ house. Or rather, she says “yes” only at the request of her guardians. But the scrupulous Konstantin Nikolaevich cannot accept such ersatz love and, offended, refuses such a marriage.

He is awaiting transfer to the Guard, but the bureaucratic delays are endless. Without waiting for an answer, in 1816 Batyushkov resigned. However, the years 1816-1817 turned out to be extremely fruitful for the poet in terms of creativity. He actively participates in the life of the Arzamas literary society.

The period of revelation in creativity

In 1817, his collected works “Experiments in Poetry and Prose” were published.

Batyushkov endlessly corrected his rhymes, achieving the precision of his words. The biography of this man’s work began with his professional study of ancient languages. And he managed to find echoes of rhymes in Latin and ancient Greek in Russian poetics!

Batyushkov became the inventor of that poetic Russian language that Alexander Sergeevich admired: “the syllable... trembles,” “the harmony is charming.” Batyushkov is a poet who found a treasure, but could not use it. At the age of thirty, his life was clearly divided into “before and after” by a black streak of paranoid schizophrenia, manifested in persecution mania. This disease was hereditary in his family on his mother’s side. The eldest of his four sisters, Alexandra, suffered from it.

Progressive paranoid schizophrenia

In 1817, Konstantin Batyushkov plunged into spiritual anguish. The biography says that there was a difficult relationship with his father (Nikolai Lvovich), which ended in complete discord. And in 1817 the parent dies. This was the impetus for the poet’s conversion to deep religiosity. Zhukovsky supported him morally during this period. Another friend, A.I. Turgenev, secured a diplomatic position for the poet in Italy, where Batyushkov stayed from 1819 to 1921.

The poet had a severe psychological breakdown in 1821. What caused him was a boorish attack (the libelous verses of “B..ov from Rome”) against him in the magazine “Son of the Fatherland.” It was after this that persistent signs of paranoid schizophrenia began to appear in his health.

Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov spent the winter of 1821-1822 in Dresden, periodically falling into madness. The biography of his work will be interrupted here. Batyushkov’s swan song is the poem “Testament of Melchizedek.”

The meager life of a sick person

The poet's further life can be called the destruction of personality, progressive madness. At first, Muravyov’s widow tried to take care of him. However, this soon became impossible: the attacks of persecution mania were intensifying. The following year, Emperor Alexander I allocated for his treatment in a Saxon psychiatric institution. However, four years of treatment had no effect. Upon arrival in Moscow, Konstantin, whom we are considering, feels better. Once Alexander Pushkin visited him. Shocked by the pathetic appearance of Konstantin Nikolaevich, a follower of his melodic rhymes writes the poem “God forbid I go crazy.”

The last 22 years of a mentally ill person’s existence were spent at the home of his guardian, Grevens’ nephew G.A. Here Batyushkov died during a typhus epidemic. The poet was buried at the Vologda Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery.

Conclusion

The work of Batyushkov in Russian literature occupies a significant place between Zhukovsky and the era of Pushkin. Later, Alexander Sergeevich would call K. Batyushkov his teacher.

Batyushkov developed the genres of “light poetry”. In his opinion, its flexibility and smoothness can decorate Russian speech. Among the poet's best elegies one should name "My Genius" and "Tavrida".

By the way, Batyushkov also left behind several articles, the most famous being “Evening at Cantemir’s”, “Walk to the Academy of Arts”.

The main lesson from Konstantin Nikolayevich, which the author of “Eugene Onegin” adopted, was the creative need to first “experience in your soul” the plot of the future work before putting pen to paper.

Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov lived such a life. A short biography, unfortunately, cannot cover all the details of his difficult fate.