Birthplace of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. N

The fate and personality of each person cannot be fully understood outside the fate of his family, his ancestors. From the beginning of the 18th century, the noble family of the Nekrasovs was inextricably linked with the village (village, later seltz) Greshnevo in the Yaroslavl district, which stood on the road that has long connected the cities of Kostroma and Yaroslavl along the left bank of the Volga. At the beginning of the 18th century, Greshnevo was part of the estate of the steward Boris Ivanovich Neronov, the great-great-grandfather of the poet 13* .

In 1736, B. I. Neronov's daughter, Praskovya Borisovna, married the reiter of the Horse Guards Alexei Yakovlevich Nekrasov. As a dowry for his wife A. Ya.Nekrasov received the Yaroslavl estate - the village of Vasilkovo with the villages of Koschevka, Gogulino and half the village of Greshnevo 14 ... Thus, the first owner of Greshnev from the Nekrasov family was the poet's great-grandfather A. Ya. Nekrasov. After his death (he died around 1760), P. B. Nekrasova (died after 1780) and her only son Sergei Alekseevich, the poet's grandfather, became the owners of the Yaroslavl estate. The retired bayonet-junker of artillery S.A.Nekrasov and his wife Maria Stepanovna (nee Granovskaya), who lived in Moscow, had six sons and three daughters, including Alexei, the future father of the poet 15 ... Sergei Alekseevich, who was a passionate gambler, after a series of major losses, got into big debts, for the payment of which he had to mortgage his property. At the very beginning of the 19th century, he was forced to sell his house in Moscow and move with his family to Greshnevo 16 ... From then until the abolition of serfdom, the Nekrasovs usually lived in Greshnevo.

S. A. Nekrasov died on January 3, 1807. 17 The first of the Nekrasovs, the poet's grandfather was buried in the parish cemetery near the walls of the Peter and Paul Church * the village of Abakumtseva, located three miles from Greshnev. The grave of S. A. Nekrasov was preserved in Abakumtsevo until the beginning of the 20th century. Later, at the cemetery near the walls of this church, the children and grandchildren of Sergei Alekseevich completed their life.

Poet's parents

The poet's father, Aleksey Sergeevich Nekrasov, was apparently born in Moscow. With the determination of the exact year of his birth, the situation is very confusing. For a long time it was believed that A.S. Nekrasov was born in 1788, but recently S.V. Smirnov, on the basis of a number of documents, convincingly proved that the poet's father was born in 1794 or 1795. 19 As stated above, Alexey Sergeevich lost his father early, who died on January 3, 1807. Soon, the guardian assigned the three youngest sons of S. A. Nekrasov - Sergei, Dmitry and Alexei - to serve in the Tambov Infantry Regiment, which was then stationed in Kostroma. A.S. Nekrasov began service in the Tambov Infantry Regiment on March 30, 1807 with the rank of non-commissioned officer 20 ... At this time he was only 12 (or 13) years old. In the same 1807, together with the regiment of A.S. Nekrasov, set out from Kostroma on a campaign in East Prussia; Let us recall that there was an era of Napoleonic wars and East Prussia was one of the main theaters of military operations of the Russian and French troops. On December 2, 1810, A.S. Nekrasov was promoted to ensign and transferred to serve in the 28th Jaeger Regiment. On September 17, 1811 he was awarded the rank of second lieutenant. It was in this title that the poet's father met the Patriotic War of 1812. 21

The participation of A.S. Nekrasov in the Patriotic War was usually not mentioned in non-racial studies. As a rule, in literature we find Captain A.S. Nekrasov already in 1821, who was standing with the 36th Jaeger Regiment in Western Ukraine, in the Podolsk province, where his son Nikolai was born. What the poet's father did in previous years, as a rule, remained behind the scenes. The reasons for this reticence are understandable. AS Nekrasov had an established reputation as a cruel feudal landowner, while the participants in the war of 1812 were traditionally respected in the mass consciousness, and in order not to "undermine" their reputation, the question of Nekrasov Sr.'s participation in the Patriotic War was usually hushed up. V. Ye. Evgeniev-Maksimov writes that the question of whether Aleksey Sergeevich "was in any way an active participant in the Napoleonic wars that coincided in time with his service in the army (...) remains open" 22 True, the researcher mentions the book by N. V. Gerbel “Russian poets in biographies and samples”, published in 1873, where it was said that “Aleksey Sergeevich made the entire campaign of 1812-1814 (...) and lost two older brothers at Borodino " 23 ... V.E. Evgeniev-Maksimov notes: "It is possible that this biography was reviewed by Nekrasov (in the papers that remained after him we found a handwritten copy of it)" 24 .

Yes, we do not have direct evidence of A.S. Nekrasov's participation in the battles of the Patriotic War of 1812, however, we agree, it is difficult to assume that, being in the ranks of the belligerent army, an officer did not take part in hostilities. We do not know where the war ended for AS Nekrasov.

In non-racialism, in fact, it was also ignored that the war was attended by three older brothers of Alexei Sergeevich (the poet's uncles), who, as N. A. Nekrasov wrote, were “killed at Borodino in one day” (XII, 17) * ... In one of the documents, Aleksey Sergeevich indicated that three of his brothers - Vasily, Alexander and Pavel - were "killed in battles." 25 .

After the end of World War II and the foreign campaigns of the Russian army, the 28th Jaeger Regiment, in which A.S. Nekrasov served, stood on the western borders of the empire, in the Vinnitsa district of the Podolsk province. Here A. S. Nekrasov met his future wife. On November 11, 1817, the wedding of Lieutenant A.S. Nekrasov and Little Russian noblewoman Elena Andreevna Zakrevskaya took place in the Assumption Church of the town of Yuzvin, Vinnitsa district 26 .

Little is known about the poet's mother, E.A. Zakrevskaya, but what is known has long been controversial. First, the question of the exact year of her birth is confused. Traditionally it was believed that she was born in 1796. This date got into the literature thanks to V.E. Evgeniev-Maksimov, who in 1913 saw in the birth register of the church with. Abakumtseva's record of her death: "1841, on July 29, his wife, Elena Andreevna, 45 years old, died of consumption at Major Alexei Sergeevich." 27 ... According to this record, Elena Andreevna was born in 1796, and until recently this date was generally accepted. However, S. V. Smirnov, on the basis of archival documents, established a different date - 1803. AS Nekrasov's form list for 1838 says that his wife is "35 years old." 28 ... In the birth register of the Resurrection Church of Yaroslavl, where the funeral service for Elena Andreevna took place, in the record of her death it is said that the deceased was "38 years old." 29 , which again points to 1803 as the year of her birth.

Secondly, we do not even know what name the poet's mother bore: in some documents she is called Elena, in others - Alexandra. In this regard, the literature has long raised the question of her nationality. According to S. V. Smirnov, the presence of two names of A. S. Nekrasov's wife indicates her "belonging to Catholicism at an early age." However, the researcher makes a reservation: “It seems that being a girl in Catholicism does not indicate the Polish origin of the poet's mother. Her Catholicism is the fruit of her father's "careful" education by the Jesuits, a tribute to the Polish-Catholic influence in the region, where the elements of Polish-Catholic culture were given the importance of prestige, belonging to the local elite " 30 .

In 1820, the firstborn was born to the young couple, a son, Andrei, and at the very beginning of 1821, a daughter, Elizabeth. At the end of 1821, their third child was born - their son Nikolai. For a long time, it was mistakenly believed that N.A.Nekrasov was born on November 22 (December 4 according to the present), 1821 in the town of Yuzvin, Vinnitsa district. Only in 1949, A.V. Popov documented that the poet was born on November 28 (December 10 in a new style) in the town of Nemyriv * in the Vinnitsa district of the Podolsk province 31 .

For some reason, the baptism of the future poet took place almost three years after his birth - on October 7, 1824 in the church with. Senyok of Podolsk province 32 ... At baptism, the child received a name in honor of St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Lycia, who has long been especially revered in Russia.

On January 16, 1823 A.S. Nekrasov "due to illness" was dismissed from military service "major with a uniform" 33 ... Traditionally it was believed that the Nekrasovs moved to Greshnevo at the end of 1824. However, as V.I. Yakovlev convincingly proved recently, A.S. Nekrasov and his family arrived at the family estate near Yaroslavl in 1826. 34 The same researcher also gave a striking answer to the question of why A.S. Nekrasov, who had lived in Ukraine after retiring for almost three years, left there for Greshnevo. “As for the reasons for A. Nekrasov’s move from the Ukraine to Greshnevo in 1826,” writes V. I. Yakovlev, “they (...) are obviously connected with the situation resulting from the defeat of the southern center of the Decembrist movement. Before retiring in 1823, A.S. Nekrasov served in the city of Nemirov, in a military unit that was part of the 18th Infantry Division, which, in turn, was part of the 2nd Army. The headquarters of the 2nd Army was located in the city of Tulchin, within 30 km from Nemirov. In Tulchin, in 1821-1826. hosted the central board of the Southern Society, headed by P. I. Pestel " 35 ... Following the defeat of the uprising of the Chernigov regiment in Ukraine, mass arrests began. “Apparently, fears for the fate of his family, - continues V. I. Yakovlev, - and undoubted personal acquaintances in the previous service with many of the“ conspirators ”, which was directly assumed by the position of the brigade adjutant performed by A. S. Nekrasov, - and served the main reason for moving to a family estate - the village of Greshnevo, Yaroslavl province " 36 .

Apparently, in the summer months of 1826, the Nekrasov family left the Podolsk province and went - most likely through Kiev and Moscow - to the Upper Volga.

13. Yakovlev V. I. Genus and hereditary possessions of the Nekrasov nobles in the 17th - first third of the 19th centuries. // Karabikha: Historical and literary collection. Yaroslavl, 1993, p. 226 (hereinafter - Yakovlev V.I. Rod and hereditary possessions of the Nekrasov nobles in the 17th - first third of the 19th centuries).

14. Ibid, p. 226-227.

15. Nekrasov NK Following their footsteps, along their roads. Yaroslavl, 1975, p. 247 (hereinafter - Nekrasov N.K. Following their footsteps, along their roads).

16. Evgeniev-Maksimov V. Life and work of N. A. Nekrasov. M.-L., 1947, t. 1, p. 14 (hereinafter - Evgeniev-Maksimov V. Life and work of N. A. Nekrasov).

17. Yakovlev V. I. Genus and hereditary possessions of the Nekrasov nobles, p. 229.

18. Monasteries and temples of the Yaroslavl land. Yaroslavl - Rybinsk, 2000, vol. II, p. 245.

19. Smirnov S. V. Autobiography of Nekrasov. Novgorod, 1998, p. 179 (hereinafter - Smirnov S.V. Autobiography of Nekrasov).

20. Ibid, p. 172.

21. Ibid.

22. Evgeniev-Maksimov V. E. Life and work of N. A. Nekrasov, vol. 1, p. 28-29.

23. Ibid, p. 29.

24. Ibid.

25. Smirnov S. V. Autobiography of Nekrasov, p. 169.

26. Ashukin NS Chronicle of the life and work of NA Nekrasov. M.-L., 1935, p. 20 (hereinafter - Ashukin N. S. Chronicle of the life and work of N. A. Nekrasov).

27. Evgeniev-Maksimov V. E. From the past. Notes of a Ukrasovist // Nekrasov Collection. L., 1980, no. VIII, p. 223.

28. Quoted. Quoted from: Smirnov S.V. Autobiography of Nekrasov, p. eleven.

29. Ibid, p. 12.

30. Ibid, p. 176.

31. Popov A. When and where was Nekrasov born? Towards a revision of tradition // Literary heritage. M., 1949, t. 49-50, p. 605-610.

32. Smirnov S. V. Autobiography of Nekrasov, p. 175.

33. Evgeniev-Maksimov V. E. Life and work of N. A. Nekrasov, vol. 1, p. 28.

34. Yakovlev V. I. Genus and hereditary possessions of the Nekrasov nobles in the 18th - first third of the 19th centuries, p. 249-251.

35. Ibid, p. 251.



"For Nekrasov, immortality remains, which he fully deserves." FM Dostoevsky "The personality of Nekrasov is still a stumbling block for everyone who is in the habit of judging by stereotyped ideas." A.M.Skobichevsky

ON. Nekrasov

On December 10 (November 28, O.S.), 1821, Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov was born - a brilliant publisher, writer-publicist, close to revolutionary democratic circles, permanent editor and publisher of the Sovremennik magazine (1847-1866).

Before Nekrasov, in the Russian literary tradition, there was a view of poetry as a way of expressing feelings, and prose as a way of expressing thoughts. 1850-60s - the time of the next "great turning point" in the history of Russia. Society did not just demand economic, social and political changes. A great emotional outburst was brewing, an era of revaluation of values, which ultimately resulted in fruitless flirting of the intelligentsia with the elements of the people, fanning a revolutionary conflagration and a complete departure from the traditions of romanticism in Russian literature. Responding to the requirements of his difficult time, Nekrasov decided to prepare a kind of "salad" of folk poetry and accusatory publicistic prose, which pleased his contemporaries very much. The main theme of such "adapted" poetry is a person as a product of a certain social environment, and grief about this person (according to Nekrasov) is the main task of the best citizens of contemporary Russian society.

For a long time, the journalistic essays of the "sadden" Nekrasov, dressed in an emotional and lyrical package, were an example of civic lyrics for writers - democrats of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. And although the sane minority of Russian society did not at all consider the rhymed feuilletons and proclamations of Mr. Nekrasov to be high poetry, already during the life of the author, some of them were included in school curricula, and Nekrasov himself acquired the status of a "true people's poet." True, only among the "repentant" in all ways of the nobility-raznochinsky intelligentsia. The people themselves did not even suspect the existence of the poet Nekrasov (as well as Pushkin and Lermontov).

The publisher of one of the most widely read magazines, a successful literary businessman, N.A. Nekrasov perfectly fit into his difficult era. For many years he managed to manipulate the literary tastes of his contemporaries, responsive to all the demands of the political, economic, literary market of the second half of the 19th century. Nekrasov's Sovremennik became the focus and center of attraction for a wide variety of literary and political movements: from the very moderate liberalism of Turgenev and Tolstoy to revolutionary democrats (Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky).

In his poetic stylizations, Nekrasov raised the most painful, most pressing problems of the pre-reform and post-reform Russia of the 19th century. Many of his plot sketches were subsequently reflected in the works of recognized classics of Russian literature. So, the whole philosophy and even the "poetics" of suffering in F.M. Dostoevsky in many ways developed under the direct and strongest influence of Nekrasov.

It is to Nekrasov that we owe many "winged" phrases and aphorisms that have forever entered our everyday speech. ("Sow reasonable, good, eternal", "Happy are deaf to good", "There were worse times, but there was no mean", etc.)

Family and ancestors

ON. Nekrasov twice seriously tried to inform the public about the main milestones of his interesting biography, but each time he tried to do it at the most critical moments for himself. In 1855, the writer believed that he was terminally ill, and was not going to write the story of his life, because he recovered. And twenty years later, in 1877, being really terminally ill, he simply did not have time.

However, it is unlikely that the descendants would be able to glean any reliable information or facts from these author's stories. Nekrasov needed an autobiography exclusively for an auto-confession aimed at teaching and edifying literary descendants.

“It occurred to me to write for the press, but not during my life, my biography, that is, something like confessions or notes about my life - in a rather extensive size. Tell me: isn't this too - so to speak - proud? " - he asked in one of the letters to I.S. Turgenev, on which he then checked almost everything. And Turgenev replied:

“I fully approve of your intention to write your biography; your life is precisely one of those that, putting all self-esteem aside, should be told - because they represent a lot of things that more than one Russian soul will deeply respond to. "

Neither an autobiography nor a recording of N.A. Nekrasov's literary memoirs took place. Therefore, everything that we know today about the early years of the "sadden of the Russian land" is gleaned by biographers exclusively from the literary works of Nekrasov and the memoirs of people close to him.

As evidenced by several options for the beginning of Nekrasov's "autobiography", Nikolai Alekseevich himself could not really decide on the year, day, or place of his birth:

"I was born in 1822 in the Yaroslavl province. My father, the old adjutant of Prince Wittgenstein, was a retired captain ..."

"I was born in 1821 on November 22 in the Podolsk province in the Vinnitsa district in some Jewish place where my father was then with his regiment ..."

In fact, N.A. Nekrasov was born on November 28 (December 10), 1821 in the Ukrainian town of Nemirov. One of the modern researchers also believes that the place of his birth was the village of Sinki in the present-day Kirovograd region.

Nobody wrote the history of the Nekrasov family either. The noble family of the Nekrasovs was quite ancient and purely Great Russian, but due to their lack of documents, they were not included in the part of the genealogy book of the nobility of the Yaroslavl province, where the column nobility was located, and the official account goes to the second part from 1810 - according to the first officer rank of Alexei Sergeevich Nekrasov (father of the future poet). Recently, the coat of arms of the Nekrasovs was found, approved by Emperor Nicholas II in April 1916.

Once the family was very rich, but, starting with the great-grandfather, the Nekrasovs' affairs went worse and worse, thanks to their addiction to the card game. Alexey Sergeevich, telling his sons a glorious pedigree, summed up: “Our ancestors were rich. Your great-great-grandfather lost seven thousand souls, your great-grandfather - two, your grandfather (my father) - one, I - nothing, because there was nothing to lose, but I also love to play cards. "

His son Nikolai Alekseevich was the first to turn fate. No, he didn’t curb his addiction to cards, he didn’t quit playing, but he didn’t quit losing. All his ancestors lost - he played alone. And he played a lot. The bill went, if not millions, then hundreds of thousands. His partners in the maps were large landowners, and important state dignitaries, and very rich people of Russia. According to Nekrasov himself, only the future Minister of Finance Abaza lost to the poet about a million francs (at the then exchange rate - half a million Russian rubles).

However, success and financial well-being did not come to N.A. Nekrasov immediately. If we talk about his childhood and adolescence, then they, indeed, were full of hardships and humiliations, which subsequently affected the character and worldview of the writer.

N.A. Nekrasov spent his childhood in the Yaroslavl estate of his father Greshnevo. The relationship of the parents of the future poet left much to be desired.

In an unknown wilderness, in a semi-savage village, I grew up among violent savages, And fate gave me, by the great mercy, In the leaders of hounds.

Under the "hound" should be understood here as a father - a man of unbridled passions, a limited domestic tyrant and tyrant. He devoted his whole life to litigation with relatives on estate matters, and when he won the main case of the possession of a thousand serf souls, the Manifesto of 1861 came out. The old man could not survive the "liberation" and died. Before that, Nekrasov's parents had only about forty serfs and thirteen children. What kind of family idyll in such conditions could we talk about?

The mature Nekrasov subsequently abandoned many of his accusatory characteristics about the serf parent. The poet admitted that his father was no worse and no better than other people in his circle. Yes, he loved hunting, kept dogs, a whole staff of hounds, actively introduced his eldest sons to hunting activities. But the traditional autumn hunt for the landed nobleman was not just fun. With the general limited funds, hunting prey is a serious help in the economy. She made it possible to feed a large family and courtyard. Young Nekrasov understood this perfectly.

By the writer's own admission, his early works ("Homeland") expressed youthful maximalism and a tribute to the notorious "Oedipus complex" - filial jealousy, resentment against the parent for the betrayal of his beloved mother.

The bright image of the mother, as the only positive memory of childhood, Nekrasov carried through his entire life, embodying it in his poetry. To this day, Nekrasov's biographers do not know anything real about the poet's mother. She remains one of the most mysterious images associated with Russian literature. No images (if any) have survived, no things, no written documentary materials. From the words of Nekrasov himself, it is known that Elena Andreevna was the daughter of a rich Little Russian landowner, a well-educated, beautiful woman who, for some unknown reason, married a poor, unremarkable officer and left with him to the Yaroslavl province. Elena Andreevna died quite young - in 1841, when the future poet was not even 20 years old. Immediately after the death of his wife, the father brought his serf mistress into the house as a mistress. “You saved the living soul in me,” the son will write in verse about his mother. Her romantic image will be the main leitmotif through all subsequent work of N.A. Nekrasov.

At the age of 11, Nikolai, together with his older brother Andrei, went to study at a gymnasium in Yaroslavl. The brothers studied poorly, only reached the 5th grade, without being certified in a number of subjects. According to A.Ya. Panaeva's recollections, Nekrasov said that "selfish" high school students lived in the city, in a rented apartment under the supervision of only one drinking "uncle" from the father's serfs. The Nekrasovs were left to their own devices, walked the streets all day, played billiards and did not bother too much with reading books or attending a gymnasium:

At the age of fifteen I was fully educated, As demanded by my father's ideal: The hand is firm, the eye is faithful, the spirit is tested, But I did not know very well how to read.

Nevertheless, by the age of 13-14, Nikolai knew "literacy", and very well. For a year and a half, Nekrasov's father served as a police chief - a police district chief. The teenager acted as secretary for him and traveled with his parent, personally observing the criminal life of the county in all its unsightly light.

So, as we can see, there was nothing like the excellent home education of Pushkin or Lermontov behind the shoulders of the future poet Nekrasov. On the contrary, he could be considered a poorly educated person. Until the end of his life, Nekrasov never learned a single foreign language; the reading experience of the young man also left much to be desired. And although Nikolai began to write poetry at the age of six or seven, by the age of fifteen his poetic creations were no different from the "test of the pen" of most of the noble ignoramuses of his circle. But the young man possessed excellent hunting skills, rode well, shot accurately, was physically strong and enduring.

It is not surprising that my father insisted on a military career - several generations of the Nekrasov nobles served the Tsar and the Fatherland quite successfully. But the son, who had never been distinguished by his love of science, unexpectedly for everyone, wanted to go to university. There was a serious disagreement in the family.

“Mother wanted,” Chernyshevsky recalled from Nekrasov’s words, “so that he was an educated person, and told him that he should go to university, because education is acquired at the university, and not in special schools. But my father did not want to hear about it: he agreed to release Nekrasov only to enter the cadet corps. It was useless to argue, the mother fell silent ... But he was driving with the intention of entering not a cadet corps, but a university ... "

Young Nekrasov went to the capital in order to deceive his father, but he deceived himself. Not having sufficient preparation, he could not stand the exams at the university, and flatly refused to enter the cadet corps. The enraged Alexei Sergeevich left the sixteen-year-old son without any means of subsistence, leaving him to arrange his own destiny.

Literary vagrant

It is safe to say that not a single Russian writer had anything even close to the life and everyday experience through which young Nekrasov went through in his first St. Petersburg years. He later called one of his stories (an excerpt from the novel) "Petersburg Corners". He could only write on the basis of personal memories some "Petersburg bottom", which Gorky himself did not visit.

In the 1839-1840s, Nekrasov tried to enter Russian literature as a lyric poet. Several of his poems were published in magazines ("Son of the Fatherland", "Library for Reading"). He also had a conversation with V.A. Zhukovsky, the tutor of the Tsarevich and mentor of all young poets. Zhukovsky advised the young talent to publish his poems without a signature, because then he himself would be ashamed.

In 1840, Nekrasov published a collection of poetry "Dreams and Sounds", signed with the initials "N.N." The book was not a success, and the reviews of critics (including V.G. Belinsky) were simply devastating. In the end, the author himself bought up the entire edition and destroyed it.

Nevertheless, the then still very young Nekrasov was not disappointed in the chosen path. He did not take the pose of an offended genius, did not slide down to vulgar drunkenness and fruitless regrets. On the contrary, the young poet showed the greatest sobriety of mind, complete and never later changed his self-criticism.

Later Nekrasov recalled:

“I stopped writing serious poetry and began to write selfishly,” in other words, for earning money, for money, sometimes just in order not to starve to death.

With "serious poetry", as well as with the university, it ended in failure. After the first failure, Nekrasov made repeated attempts to prepare and pass the entrance exams again, but received one unit. For some time he was listed as a volunteer at the Faculty of Philosophy. I listened to the lectures for free, since my father got a certificate from the Yaroslavl leader of the nobility about his "insufficient condition".

The financial situation of Nekrasov during this period can be described in one word - "hunger". He wandered about Petersburg almost homeless, always hungry, poorly dressed. According to later acquaintances, even the beggars felt sorry for Nekrasov in those years. Once he spent the night in a poor house, where he wrote a certificate to a beggar old woman and received 15 kopecks from her. On Sennaya Square, he earned money by writing letters and petitions to illiterate peasants. Actress A.I. Schubert recalled that she and her mother called Nekrasov "unfortunate" and fed him, like a stray dog, the remnants of their lunch.

At the same time, Nekrasov was a man of a passionate, proud and independent character. This was precisely confirmed by the whole story of the break with his father, and his whole future fate. Initially, pride and independence were manifested precisely in the relationship with the father. Nekrasov never once complained about anything and never asked for anything from either his father or his brothers. In this regard, he owes his fate only to himself - both in a bad and in a good sense. In St. Petersburg, his pride and dignity were constantly tested, insulted and humiliated. It was then, apparently, on one of the bitterest days, the poet gave himself his word to fulfill one oath. I must say that vows were in vogue then: Herzen and Ogarev swore on Sparrow Hills, Turgenev swore to himself the "Annibal oath", and L. Tolstoy swore in his diaries. But neither Turgenev, nor Tolstoy, nor even more so Ogarev and Herzen were never threatened by hunger or cold death. Nekrasov, like Scarlett O'Hara, the heroine of Mitchell's novel, swore to himself only one thing: not to die in the attic.

Perhaps only Dostoevsky fully understood the final meaning, the unconditional meaning of such an oath by Nekrasov and the almost demonic rigor of its fulfillment:

“A million - that's the demon of Nekrasov! Well, he loved so much gold, luxury, pleasures and, in order to have them, indulged in "practicality"? No, rather it was a demon of a different nature, it was the most gloomy and humiliating demon. He was a demon of pride, a thirst for self-sufficiency, the need to protect himself from people with a solid wall and independently, calmly look at their threats. I think this demon still clings to the heart of a child, a child of fifteen, who finds himself on the St. Petersburg pavement, almost fleeing from his father ... It was a thirst for gloomy, gloomy, detached self-support, so as not to depend on anyone. I think that I am not mistaken, I remember something from my very first acquaintance with him. At least it seemed to me so all my life. But this demon was still a low demon ... ".

Lucky case

Almost all of Nekrasov's biographers note that no matter how the fate of the “great sorrowful Russian land,” he would sooner or later be able to get out of the Petersburg bottom. At any cost, he would have built his life as he saw fit, could have achieved success, if not in the literary field, then in any other field. One way or another, but the "low demon" Nekrasov would have been satisfied.

I.I. Panaev

However, it is not a secret for anyone that to firmly enter the literary environment and embody all their talents - writer, journalist, publicist and publisher - N.A. Nekrasov was helped by the very "lucky chance" that happens once in a lifetime. Namely, a fateful meeting with the Panaev family.

Ivan Ivanovich Panaev, the grand-nephew of Derzhavin, a rich darling of fate, known throughout St. Petersburg as a fabulous and rake, also dabbled in literature. In his living room was one of the most famous literary salon in Russia at that time. Here, at times, at the same time, one could meet the entire color of Russian literature: Turgenev, L. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Goncharov, Belinsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Ostrovsky, Pisemsky and many, many others. The hostess of the Panayevs' hospitable house was Avdotya Yakovlevna (nee Bryanskaya), the daughter of a famous actor in imperial theaters. Despite an extremely superficial education and blatant illiteracy (until the end of her life she made spelling mistakes in the simplest words), Avdotya Yakovlevna became famous as one of the very first Russian writers, albeit under the male pseudonym N. Stanitsky.

Her husband Ivan Panaev not only wrote short stories, novels and novels, but also loved to act as a patron and benefactor for poor writers. So, in the fall of 1842, a rumor spread around St. Petersburg about another "good deed" by Panaev. Learning that his brother in the literary workshop was in poverty, Panaev came to Nekrasov in his shyogol carriage, fed him and loaned him money. Saved, in general, from starvation.

In fact, Nekrasov never thought of dying. During that period, he made up for casual literary earnings: he wrote custom poems, vulgar vaudeville songs for theaters, compiled posters, even gave lessons. Four years of a wandering life only hardened him. True to his oath, he waited for the moment when the door to fame and money would open before him.

This door turned out to be the door to the Panaevs' apartment.

Nekrasov and Panaev.
Caricature N.A. Stepanov, "Illustrated Almanac", 1848

At first, the writers only invited the young poet to their evenings, and when he left, they made fun of his uncomplicated rhymes, poor clothes, and uncertain manners. Sometimes they simply felt sorry for human beings, as they feel sorry for homeless animals and sick children. However, never distinguished by excessive shyness, Nekrasov with surprising speed took his place in the literary circle of young Petersburg writers, united around V.G. Belinsky. Belinsky, as if repenting for his review of Dreams and Sounds, took literary patronage over Nekrasov, introduced him to the editorial board of Otechestvennye zapiski, and allowed him to write serious critical articles. An adventure novel by the young author "The Life and Adventures of Tikhon Trostnikov" began to be published there.

The Panaevs also became imbued with the talkative, witty Nekrasov with a sense of sincere friendship. The young poet, when he wanted, could be an interesting conversationalist, he knew how to win over people. Of course, Nekrasov immediately fell in love with the beautiful Avdotya Yakovlevna. With the guests, the hostess behaved quite freely, but was equally sweet and even with everyone. If the love affairs of her husband often became known to the whole world, then Mrs. Panaeva tried to observe external decency. Nekrasov, despite his youth, had another remarkable quality - patience.

In 1844 Panaev rented a new spacious apartment on the Fontanka. He made another broad gesture - he invited the family friend Nekrasov to leave his miserable corner with bedbugs and move to live with him on the Fontanka. Nekrasov occupied two small cozy rooms in Ivan Ivanovich's house. Absolutely free. In addition, he received as a gift from the Panaevs a silk scarf, a dress coat and everything that is due to a decent socialite.

"Contemporary"

Meanwhile, there was a serious ideological division in society. Westerners beat the "Bell", calling to be equal to the liberal West. Slavophiles called to the roots, plunging headlong into a still completely unexplored historical past. The guards wanted to leave everything as it was. In St. Petersburg, writers were grouped "according to their interests" around magazines. Belinsky's circle was then warmed by A. Kraevsky in Otechestvennye zapiski. But in the face of harsh government censorship, the not-so-brave Kraevsky gave most of the magazine space to proven and safe historical novels. The youth were cramped within this narrow framework. In Belinsky's circle, conversations began about opening a new magazine of its own. However, fellow writers were not distinguished by either their practical acumen or the ability to organize a business. Voices were heard that it would be possible to hire a sensible manager, but how much will he share their beliefs?

And then in their midst there was such a person - Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. It turned out that he knows a thing or two about publishing. Back in 1843-46, he published the almanacs "Articles in Verse", "Physiology of St. Petersburg", "April Fool's Day", "Petersburg Collection". The latter, by the way, was the first to publish "Poor People" by F.M. Dostoevsky.

Nekrasov himself later recalled:

“I alone was a practitioner among the idealists, and when we started the magazine, the idealists told me this directly and gave me a kind of mission to create a magazine.”

Meanwhile, in addition to the desire and ability to create a magazine, you also need the means. Neither Belinsky, nor any of the writers, except for Ivan Panaev, had enough money then.

Nekrasov said that it would be cheaper to buy or lease an existing magazine than to create something new. Such a magazine was found very quickly.

As is known, Sovremennik was founded by Pushkin in 1836. The poet managed to publish only four issues. After Pushkin's death, Sovremennik passed to his friend, poet and professor at St. Petersburg University P.A. Pletnev.

Pletnev had neither the time nor the energy to engage in publishing work. The magazine eked out a miserable existence, did not bring any income, and Pletnev did not abandon him only out of loyalty to the memory of his deceased friend. He quickly agreed to lease the Sovremennik and then sell it in installments.

For the initial payment, bribes to censors, fees and first expenses, Nekrasov needed 50 thousand rubles. Panaev volunteered to give 25 thousand. It was decided to ask the remaining half of Panaev's old friend, the richest landowner G.M. Tolstoy, who adhered to very radical views, made friends with Bakunin, Proudhon, and was friends with Marx and Engels.

In 1846, the Panaev couple, together with Nekrasov, went to Tolstoy in Kazan, where one of the estates of the alleged philanthropist was located. In business terms, the trip turned out to be pointless. Tolstoy at first willingly agreed to give money for the magazine, but then he refused, and Nekrasov had to collect the remaining amount bit by bit: Herzen's wife gave five thousand, the tea merchant V. Botkin donated about ten thousand, Avdotya Yakovlevna Panaeva allocated something from her personal capital. The rest was obtained with the help of loans by Nekrasov himself.

Nevertheless, on this long and tiring trip to Kazan, a spiritual rapprochement between Nikolai Alekseevich and Panaeva took place. Nekrasov used a win-win trump card - he told Avdotya Yakovlevna in all the details about his unhappy childhood, poor years in St. Petersburg. Panaeva regretted the unfortunate wretch, and such a woman had only one step from pity to love.

Already on January 1, 1847, the first book of the new, already Nekrasov's Sovremennik was brought from the printing house. The first issue immediately attracted the attention of readers. Today it seems strange that things that have long become textbooks were once published for the first time, and almost no one knew the authors. The first issue of the magazine published "Khor and Kalinych" by I.S. Turgenev, "A novel in nine letters" by F.M.Dostoevsky, "Troika" by N.A.Nekrasov, poems by Ogarev and Fet, and I.Panaev's story "Relatives". The critical section was adorned with three reviews by Belinsky and his famous article "A Look at Russian Literature of 1846".

The publication of the first issue was also crowned with a large gala dinner, which opened, as Pushkin would say, "a long line of dinners" - a long tradition: this is how the publication of each magazine book was celebrated. Subsequently, Nekrasov's rich drunken feasts came not so much from the lordly hospitality as from a sober political and psychological calculation. The success of the magazine's literary affairs was ensured not only by the writing, but also by the banquet tables. Nekrasov knew very well that Russian affairs were being done more successfully “in the hops”. A different arrangement under a glass may be stronger and more reliable than a flawless legal transaction.

Publisher Nekrasov

From the very beginning of his work at Sovremennik, Nekrasov proved himself to be a brilliant businessman and organizer. In the very first year, the circulation of the magazine increased from two hundred copies to four thousand (!). One of the first Nekrasov realized the importance of advertising for increasing subscriptions and improving the financial well-being of the magazine. He cared little about the ethical standards of publishing at the time. There were no clearly defined laws. And what is not prohibited is allowed. Nekrasov ordered to print a huge number of color advertising posters for Sovremennik, which were pasted all over St. Petersburg and sent to other cities. He advertised a subscription to the magazine in all St. Petersburg and Moscow newspapers.

In the 1840-50s, translated novels were especially popular. Often several Russian magazines published the same novel. You didn't have to buy publishing rights to get them. It was enough to buy a cheap brochure and print it in parts, without waiting for the translation of the entire novel. It’s even easier to get a few issues of foreign newspapers, where modern fiction was printed in the “basements”. Nekrasov kept a whole staff of voyagers who, when visiting Europe, brought newspapers from there, and sometimes stole fresh proofs right from the desks in the editorial offices. Sometimes they bribed typesetters or copyists (typists) who rewrote the scribbles of the authors. It often happened that a novel in Russian translation was published in Sovremennik faster than it was published entirely in its native language.

Numerous book applications also helped to increase the circulation of the magazine - for subscribers at a discounted price. To attract a female audience, a paid application was released with beautiful color pictures of the latest Parisian fashions and Avdotya Yakovlevna's detailed explanations on this issue. Panaeva's materials were sent from Paris by her friend Maria Lvovna Ogaryova.

In the first year, the talented manager Nekrasov achieved that the number of Sovremennik's subscribers reached 2000 people. The next year - 3100.

Needless to say, none of his fellow writers around him had such a practical acumen, or (most importantly) the desire to deal with financial affairs and "promote" the magazine. Belinsky, admiring the extraordinary abilities of his recent ward, did not even advise any of his friends to meddle in the publishing house's business affairs: “You and I have nothing to teach Nekrasov; Well, what do we understand! .. "

Nor is there anything surprising in the fact that the agile publisher very quickly wiped out his co-owner Panaev from all the affairs of Sovremennik. At first, Nekrasov tried to divert his companion's attention to writing, and when he realized that Ivan Ivanovich was not very capable of this either, he simply wrote him off, both in business and in personal terms.

"You and I are stupid people ..."

Some contemporaries, and later biographers of N.A. Nekrasov, spoke more than once about the mental imbalance and even ill health of Nikolai Alekseevich. He gave the impression of a man who sold his soul to the devil. It was as if two different essences existed in his bodily shell: a prudent businessman who knows the value of everything in the world, a born organizer, a successful player and at the same time - a depressed melancholic, sentimental, sensitive to the suffering of others, a very conscientious and demanding person. At times he could work tirelessly, single-handedly carry on himself the entire load of publishing, editorial, financial affairs, showing outstanding business activity, and at times he fell into impotent apathy and moped alone for weeks, lounged around without leaving his home. During such periods, Nekrasov was obsessed with thoughts of suicide, held a loaded pistol in his hands for a long time, looked for a strong hook on the ceiling, or got involved in dueling disputes with the most dangerous rules. Of course, years of hardship, humiliation, struggle for their own existence affected the character, worldview, attitude to the world around the mature Nekrasov. In the earliest period of his life, when a generally prosperous noble dullard had to endure several serious crashes, it is possible that Nekrasov deliberately rejected himself from his present. Instinctively, he still felt that he was created for something else, but the "low demon" won more space for himself every year, and the synthesis of folk stylizations and social problems led the poet further and further away from his true destiny.

There is nothing surprising. Reading, and even more so writing such "poems" as "Whether I am driving along a dark street at night" or "Reflections at the front entrance", you will involuntarily fall into depression, get sick with mental illness, become disgusting to yourself ...

The substitution of concepts, not only in literature, but also in life, played a fatal, irreversible role in the personal fate of the poet Nekrasov.

The year 1848 turned out to be the most unhappy for Sovremennik. Belinsky died. A wave of revolutions swept across Europe. Censorship raged in Russia, prohibiting everything from moderately liberal statements by domestic authors to translations of foreign literature, especially French. Due to the censorship terror, the next issue of Sovremennik was under threat. Neither bribes, nor plentiful meals, nor deliberate losses in cards to “the right people” could radically change the situation. If one bribed official allowed something, the other immediately forbade it.

AND I. Panaeva

But the inventive Nekrasov found a way out of this vicious circle. To fill the pages of the magazine, he invites Avdotya Panaeva to urgently write an exciting, adventure and absolutely apolitical novel with a sequel. So that it does not look like "female needlework", Nekrasov becomes a co-author of his beautiful lady, who originally wrote under the male pseudonym N. Stanitsky. The novels "Three countries of the world" (1849) and "Dead Lake" (1851) are a product of joint creativity that allowed Sovremennik as a commercial enterprise to stay afloat during the years of the pre-reform strengthening of the regime, later called by historians "the gloomy seven years" (1848-1855) ...

Co-authorship brought Panaeva and Nekrasov closer together so much that Avdotya Yakovlevna finally put an end to her imaginary marriage. In 1848, she became pregnant from Nekrasov, then they had a child desired by both parents, but he died a few weeks later. Nekrasov was very worried about this loss, and the unhappy mother seemed to be petrified with grief.

In 1855, Nekrasov and Panaev buried their second, perhaps even more desired and expected son. This almost became the reason for the final break in relations, but Nekrasov became seriously ill, and Avdotya Yakovlevna could not leave him.

It just so happened that the fruit of the great love of two far from ordinary people remained only two commercial novels and really lyric poems that entered the literature under the name "Panaevsky cycle".

The true love story of Nekrasov and Panaeva, as well as the love lyrics of the poet-“sadden”, poet-citizen, destroyed all hitherto familiar ideas about the relationship between a man and a woman and their reflection in Russian literature.

For fifteen years, the spouses Panaevs and Nekrasov lived three together, in fact, in the same apartment. Ivan Ivanovich did not interfere in any way with the relationship of his lawful wife with "family friend" Nekrasov. But the relationship between Nikolai Alekseevich and Avdotya Yakovlevna was never even and cloudless. The lovers sometimes wrote novels together, then they ran away from each other in different cities and countries of Europe, then they parted forever, then they again converged in the St. Petersburg apartment of the Panaevs, in order to escape after a while and look for a new meeting.

Such a relationship can be characterized by the adage "closely together, but apart boring."

In the memoirs of contemporaries who observed Nekrasov and Panaeva at different periods of their lives, there are more than once judgments that these "stupid people" could never make up a normal married couple. Nekrasov was by nature a fighter, hunter, adventurer. He was not attracted by the quiet family joys. During "quiet periods" he fell into depression, which at its climax often led to thoughts of suicide. Avdotya Yakovlevna simply had to take active steps (run away, slip away, threaten to rupture, make her suffer) in order to bring her loved one back to life. In Panaeva, Nekrasov - willingly or unwillingly - found that main nerve that for many years held the entire nervous basis of his work, his attitude and almost the very existence - suffering. The suffering that I received from her in full and which I fully endowed with her.

A tragic, perhaps defining imprint on their relationship was imposed by the suffering of failed motherhood and fatherhood.

The modern researcher N. Skatov in his monograph on Nekrasov attaches decisive importance to this fact. He believes that only happy fatherhood could, perhaps, bring Nekrasov out of his spiritual impasse, establish normal family relations. It is no coincidence that Nekrasov wrote so much about children and for children. In addition, the image of a beloved woman for him has always been inextricably linked with the image of a mother.

Panaeva, for many years, shared her failed maternal feelings between Nekrasov and the "unfortunate", degraded spouse, forcing the entire capital's elite to exercise barbs about this unusual "triple alliance".

In Nekrasov's poems, the feeling of love appears in all its complexity, inconsistency, unpredictability and, at the same time, everyday life. Nekrasov even poeticized "the prose of love" with its quarrels, quarrels, conflicts, parting, reconciliation ...

You and I are stupid people: What a minute, the flash is ready! Relief of an agitated chest, An unreasonable, harsh word. Speak when you are angry, Everything that excites and torments the soul! Let us, my friend, be angry openly: The world is easier, and more likely to get bored. If prose is inevitable in love, So let's take a share of happiness from it too: After a quarrel, it's so full, so tender Return of love and affection ... 1851

For the first time, not one, but two characters appear simultaneously in his intimate lyrics. He seems to "play" not only for himself, but also for his chosen one. Intellectual lyrics replace love lyrics. Before us is the love of two people engaged in business. Their interests, as is often the case in life, converge and diverge. Harsh realism invades the realm of intimate feelings. He forces both heroes to make, albeit incorrect, but independent decisions, often dictated not only by the heart, but also by the mind:

A difficult year - an illness broke me, Trouble overtook me, - happiness changed, - And neither enemy nor friend spares me, And even you did not spare! Tormented, embittered by the struggle With her blood enemies, Sufferer! you stand before me A beautiful ghost with crazy eyes! Hair fell to the shoulders, Lips burn, cheeks glow with a blush, And unbridled speech Merges into terrible reproaches, Cruel, wrong ... Wait! I didn’t doom your early years To a life without happiness and freedom, I am a friend, I am not your destroyer! But you are not listening ...

In 1862 I.I. Panaev died. All the acquaintances believed that now Nekrasov and Avdotya Yakovlevna should finally get married. But this did not happen. In 1863, Panaeva moved out of the Nekrasov apartment on Liteiny and very hastily married the secretary of Sovremennik A.F. Golovachev. It was a deteriorated copy of Panaev - a cheerful, good-natured rake, an absolutely empty person who helped Avdotya Yakovlevna quickly lose all her considerable fortune. But Panaeva for the first time, at the age of forty-odd years, became a mother, and all plunged into raising her daughter. Her daughter Evdokia Apollonovna Nagrodskaya (Golovacheva) will also become a writer - albeit after 1917 - of the Russian diaspora.

The split in Sovremennik

Already in the mid-1850s, Sovremennik concentrated all the best that Russian literature of the 19th century had and will have in the future: Turgenev, Tolstoy, Goncharov, Ostrovsky, Fet, Grigorovich, Annenkov, Botkin, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov. And it was Nekrasov who collected them all in one magazine. Until now, it remains a mystery how, apart from high fees, could the publisher of Sovremennik keep such diverse authors together?

"Old" editorial staff of the journal "Contemporary": Goncharov I.A., Tolstoy L.N., Turgenev I.S., Grigorovich D.V., Druzhinin A.V., Ostrovsky A.N.

It is known that in 1856 Nekrasov entered into a kind of "binding agreement" with the leading authors of the magazine. The agreement obliged the writers for four years in a row to give their new works only to Sovremennik. Naturally, in practice, none of this came of it. Already in 1858 I.S. Turgenev terminated this agreement unilaterally. In order not to finally lose the author, Nekrasov was then forced to agree with his decision. Many researchers regard this step by Turgenev as the beginning of a conflict in the editorial office.

In the acute political struggle of the post-reform period, two directly opposite positions of the main authors of the journal became even more pronounced. Some (Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov) actively called Russia "to the ax", foreshadowing the peasant revolution. Others (mostly noble writers) took more moderate positions. It is believed that the culmination of the split within Sovremennik was the publication by N. A. Nekrasov, despite the protest of I. S. Turgenev, the article by N. A. Dobrolyubova about the novel "On the Eve". The article was titled "When Will the Present Day Come?" (1860. No 3). Turgenev had a very low opinion of criticism of Dobrolyubov, openly disliked him as a person and believed that he exerted a harmful influence on Nekrasov in matters of selecting materials for Sovremennik. Turgenev did not like Dobrolyubov's article, and the author directly told the publisher: "Choose, either me, or Dobrolyubov." And Nekrasov, as Soviet researchers believed, decided to sacrifice his long-standing friendship with the leading novelist for the sake of his political views.

In fact, there is every reason to believe that Nekrasov did not share either of those or other views. The publisher proceeded solely from the business qualities of its employees. He understood that the magazine was made by raznochintsy journalists (the Dobrolyubovs and Chernyshevskys), and with Messrs. Turgenevs and Tolstoys, he would simply fly into the chimney. It is indicative that Turgenev seriously suggested that Nekrasov take on the place of the leading critic of the magazine Apollo Grigoriev. As a literary critic, Grigoriev stood two or three orders of magnitude higher than Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky combined, and his "genius insights" even then in many ways anticipated their time, which was later unanimously recognized by distant descendants. But businessman Nekrasov wanted to make a magazine here and now. He needed disciplined employees, not ragged geniuses suffering from depressive alcoholism. In this case, it was not the old friendship, and not even the dubious truth, that turned out to be dearer to Nekrasov, but the fate of his beloved work.

It must be said that the official version of the “split of Sovremennik” presented in Soviet literary criticism is based exclusively on the memoirs of A.Ya. Panaeva - a person directly interested in considering the "split" in the magazine not just a personal conflict between Dobrolyubov (read - Nekrasov) and Turgenev, but to give it an ideological and political character.

At the end of the 1850s, the so-called "Ogarev case" - a dark story with the assignment of A.Ya. Panaeva money from the sale of the estate of N.P. Ogaryov. Panaeva volunteered to be a mediator between her close friend Maria Lvovna Ogaryova and her ex-husband. As a "compensation" in the divorce of N.P. Ogarev offered Maria Lvovna the Uruchye estate in the Oryol province. The ex-wife did not want to engage in the sale of the estate, and trusted Panayev in this matter. As a result, M.L. Ogareva died in Paris in terrible poverty, and where the 300 thousand banknotes received from the sale of Uruchya ended up, remained unknown. The question of how much Nekrasov was involved in this case still causes controversy among literary scholars and biographers of the writer. Meanwhile, the closest circle of Nekrasov and Panaeva was sure that the lovers together appropriated other people's money. It is known that Herzen (a close friend of Ogarev) called Nekrasov nothing more than a "sharper", "a thief", "a scoundrel", and resolutely refused to meet when the poet came to him in England to explain himself. Turgenev, who initially tried to defend Nekrasov in this story, having learned about all the circumstances of the case, also began to condemn him.

In 1918, after the opening of the archives of the III department, a fragment of Nekrasov's translated letter to Panaeva, dated 1857, was accidentally found. The letter concerns precisely the "Ogarev case", and in it Nekrasov openly reproaches Panaeva for her dishonorable act towards Ogareva. The poet writes that he still “covers” Avdotya Yakovlevna in front of his acquaintances, sacrificing his reputation and good name. It turns out that Nekrasov is not directly guilty, but his complicity in a crime or concealment of it is an indisputable fact.

It is possible that the Ogarev story was the main reason for the cooling of relations between Turgenev and the editors of Sovremennik already in 1858-59, and Dobrolyubov's article on Nakanune was only a direct reason for the “split” in 1860.

Following the leading novelist and oldest collaborator Turgenev, L. Tolstoy, Grigorovich, Dostoevsky, Goncharov, Druzhinin and other "moderate liberals" left the magazine forever. Perhaps the above "aristocrats" could also be unpleasant to deal with a dishonest publisher.

In a letter to Herzen, Turgenev will write: "I left Nekrasov as a dishonest person ..."

It was he who “abandoned” him, as people who once betrayed their trust are abandoned, caught cheating in a card game, who have committed a dishonorable, immoral act. It is still possible to have a dialogue, a dispute, defend one's own position with an ideological enemy, but a decent person has nothing to talk about with a “dishonest” one.

At the first moment, Nekrasov himself perceived the break with Turgenev only as personal and far from final. Evidence of this is the verses of 1860, later explained by the phrase "inspired by a discord with Turgenev," and the last letters to a former friend, where remorse and a call for reconciliation are clearly traced. Only by the summer of 1861, Nekrasov realized that there would be no reconciliation, finally accepted Panaeva's "ideological" version and dotted the i's:

We went out together ... At random I walked in the darkness of the night, And you ... your mind was already bright And the eyes were sharp. You knew that the night, the dead night Our whole life will last, And you did not leave the field away, And you began to fight honestly. You, like a day laborer, went out to work before the light. In the eyes you spoke the truth to the Mighty despot. In lies you did not let sleep, Branding and cursing, And impudently tore off the mask From the jester and the scoundrel. And well, the beam barely flashed Doubtful light, Rumor says that you blew out Your torch ... waiting for the dawn!

"Contemporary" in 1860-1866

After a number of leading authors left Sovremennik, N.G. Chernyshevsky. His sharp, polemical articles attracted readers, maintaining the competitiveness of the publication in the changed conditions of the post-reform market. During these years Sovremennik acquired the prestige of the main organ of revolutionary democracy, significantly expanded its audience, and its circulation grew continuously, bringing considerable profits to the editorial board.

However, Nekrasov's bet on young radicals, which looked very promising in 1860, ultimately led to the death of the magazine. Sovremennik acquired the status of an opposition political journal, and in June 1862 was suspended by the government for eight months. At the same time, he lost his main ideologist N.G. Chernyshevsky, who was arrested on suspicion of drawing up a revolutionary proclamation. Dobrolyubov died in the fall of 1861.

Nekrasov, with all his revolutionary-poetic proclamations ("Song of Eremushka", etc.) again remained on the sidelines.

Once Lenin wrote the words that for many years determined the attitude towards Nekrasov in Soviet literary criticism: "Nekrasov hesitated, being personally weak, between Chernyshevsky and the liberals ..."

Nothing more stupid than this "classical formula" can be invented. Nekrasov never did not hesitate and in no principled position and on no significant issue did he concede - neither to the "liberals", nor to Chernyshevsky.

Praised by Lenin, Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky are boys who looked up at Nekrasov and admired his confidence and strength.

Nekrasov could be in a state of weakness, but, as Belinsky used to say about the famous Danish prince, a strong man in his very fall is stronger than a weak one in his very uprising.

It was Nekrasov, with his outstanding organizational skills, financial capabilities, unique social instinct and aesthetic sense, who had to take the role center, combiner, shock absorber in collisions. Any hesitation in such a position would be fatal to the cause and suicidal to the hesitant. Fortunately, being personally strong, Nekrasov avoided both the unreasonable "leftism" of Chernyshevsky and the unpopular attacks of moderate liberals, taking in all cases a completely independent position.

He became "his own among strangers and a stranger among his own." Still, the old edition of Sovremennik, with which Nekrasov was linked by bonds of long-standing friendship, turned out to be more “his own” to him than the young and zealous commoners. Neither Chernyshevsky nor Dobrolyubov, unlike Turgenev or Druzhinin, have ever claimed friendship or personal relationship with the publisher. They remained only employees.

In the last period of its existence since 1863, the new edition of Sovremennik (Nekrasov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Eliseev, Antonovich, Pypin and Zhukovsky) continued the magazine, keeping the direction of Chernyshevsky. At that time, the literary and artistic department of the magazine published works by Saltykov-Shchedrin, Nekrasov, Gleb Uspensky, Sleptsov, Reshetnikov, Pomyalovsky, Yakushkin, Ostrovsky, and others. In the journalistic department, not the most talented publicists - Antonovich and Pypin - came to the fore. But this was not the same Sovremennik at all. Nekrasov intended to leave him.

In 1865, Sovremennik received two warnings, in the middle of 1866, after the publication of five books of the magazine, its publication was discontinued at the insistence of a special commission organized after Karakozov's assassination attempt on Alexander II.

Nekrasov was one of the first to learn that the magazine was doomed. But he did not want to give up without a fight and decided to use the last chance. The story about "Muravyov's ode" is connected with this. On April 16, 1866, in the unofficial atmosphere of the English Club, Nekrasov approached the main suppressor of the Polish uprising of 1863, Count M.N. Muravyov, with whom he was personally acquainted. The poet read patriotic poems dedicated to Muravyov. There were eyewitnesses to this action, but the text of the poem itself has not survived. Witnesses subsequently claimed that Nekrasov's “toadying” had failed, Muravyov was rather cold about the “ode”, and the magazine was banned. This act dealt a serious blow to Nekrasov's authority in revolutionary democratic circles.

In this situation, it is not surprising that the magazine was eventually banned, but how long it has not been banned. "The postponement" of at least 3-4 years "Sovremennik" is obliged exclusively to the extensive connections of N.A. Nekrasov in the bureaucratic and government-court environment. Nekrasov was good at any door, could solve almost any issue in half an hour. For example, he had the opportunity to "influence" S. A. Gedeonov - the director of the imperial theaters - a kind of minister, or his permanent partner in the cards A. V. Adlerberg - even then five minutes later, the minister of the imperial court, a friend of the emperor himself. Most of his high-ranking friends did not care what the publisher wrote or printed in his opposition magazine. The main thing was that he was a man of their circle, rich and well-connected. It never occurred to the ministers to doubt his trustworthiness.

But the closest employees of Sovremennik did not trust their publisher and editor at all. Immediately after the unsuccessful action with Muravyov and the closure of the magazine "the second generation" of young radicals - Eliseev, Antonovich, Sleptsov, Zhukovsky - went to the accounting office of Sovremennik in order to obtain a complete financial report. The "audit" by the cashier's employees of their publisher said only one thing: they considered Nekrasov a thief.

Truly "our own among strangers" ...

Last years

After the closing of Sovremennik, N.A. Nekrasov remained a "free artist" with a fairly large capital. In 1863, he acquired the large estate of Karabikha, becoming also a wealthy landowner, and in 1871 he acquired the estate of Chudovskaya Luka (near Novgorod the Great), remaking it specifically for his hunting dacha.

We must think that wealth did not bring special happiness to Nekrasov. At one time, Belinsky absolutely accurately predicted that Nekrasov would be with capital, but Nekrasov would not be a capitalist. Money and obtaining them were never an end in itself, nor a way of existence for Nikolai Alekseevich. He loved luxury, convenience, hunting, beautiful women, but for the full realization he always needed some kind of business - the publication of a magazine, creativity, to which the poet Nekrasov, it seems, also treated as a business or an important mission to educate humanity.

In 1868, Nekrasov undertook a journalistic restart: he rented his magazine Otechestvennye Zapiski from A. Kraevsky. Many would like to see the continuation of Sovremennik in this magazine, but it will be a completely different magazine. Nekrasov will take into account the bitter lessons that Sovremennik has gone through in recent years, dropping to vulgarity and outright degradation. Nekrasov refused to cooperate with Antonovich and Zhukovsky, having invited only Eliseev and Saltykov-Shchedrin from the previous edition.

L. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Ostrovsky, faithful to the memory of the "old" edition of Sovremennik, will perceive Nekrasov's Otechestvennye zapiski as an attempt to return to the past, they will respond to the call for cooperation. Dostoevsky will donate his novel “Teenager” to Otechestvennye zapiski, Ostrovsky - his play The Forest, Tolstoy will write several articles and will negotiate the publication of Anna Karenina. True, Saltykov-Shchedrin did not like the novel, and Tolstoy gave it to the Russian Bulletin on more favorable terms.

In 1869, the "Prologue" and the first chapters "Who Lives Well in Russia" were published in Otechestvennye Zapiski. Then the central place is occupied by the poems and poems of Nekrasov "Russian women", "Grandfather", satirical and publicistic works of Saltykov-Shchedrin.

F. Viktorova - Z. N. Nekrasova

At the end of his life, Nekrasov remained deeply alone. As the famous song says, "friends do not grow in the garden, you cannot sell or buy friends." Friends have long turned away from him, the staff, for the most part, betrayed or were ready to betray, there were no children. Relatives (brothers and sisters), after the death of their father, dispersed in all directions. Only the prospect of receiving a rich inheritance in the form of Karabikha was able to bring them together.

From mistresses, kept women, fleeting love interests, Nekrasov also preferred to pay off with money.

In 1864, 1867 and 1869, he undertook trips abroad in the company of his new passion - the Frenchwoman Sedina Lefrène. Having received a large sum of money from Nekrasov for the services rendered, the Frenchwoman safely remained in Paris.

In the spring of 1870, Nekrasov met with a young girl Fyokla Anisimovna Viktorova. She was 23 years old, he was already 48. She was of the simplest origin: the daughter of a soldier or a military clerk. No education.

Later, there were also dark allusions to the institution, from where Nekrasov allegedly extracted it. VM Lazarevsky, who was quite close to the poet at that time, noted in his diary that Nekrasov had taken her away from “some merchant Lytkin”. In any case, a situation has developed that is close to that once proclaimed in Nekrasov's verses:

When from the darkness of delusion I extracted the fallen soul with a fervent word of conviction, And all is full of deep torment, You cursed, wringing your hands, The vice that enveloped You ...

Initially, apparently, Feklusha was destined for the fate of an ordinary kept woman: with a settlement in a separate apartment. But soon she, if not already complete, then after all hostess enters the apartment on Liteiny, occupying its Panayev half.

It is difficult to say in what role Nekrasov himself saw himself next to this woman. Either he imagined himself Pygmalion, capable of creating his own Galatea from a piece of soulless marble, or with age, the complex of unrealized parentage began to speak in him more and more, or he was simply tired of the salon dryness of unpredictable intellectuals and wanted a simple human affection ...

Soon Feklusha Viktorova was renamed Zinaida Nikolaevna. Nekrasov looked for a convenient name and added a middle name to this, as if he had become her father. This was followed by classes in Russian grammar, inviting teachers of music, vocals and French. Soon, under the name of Zinaida Nikolaevna, Fyokla appeared in the world, met Nekrasov's relatives. The latter strongly disapproved of his choice.

Of course, Nekrasov failed to turn a soldier's daughter into a high society lady and owner of the salon. But he found true love. The devotion of this simple woman to her benefactor bordered on selflessness. The middle-aged, wise experience Nekrasov, it seemed, also sincerely attached to her. It was no longer love-suffering or love-struggle. Rather, the grateful indulgence of the elder towards the younger, the affection of the parent for the beloved child.

Once, while hunting in Chudovskaya Luka, Zinaida Nikolaevna mortally wounded Nekrasov's favorite dog, the pointer Kado, with an accidental shot. The dog was dying on the poet's lap. Zinaida, in hopeless horror, asked Nekrasov for forgiveness. He was always, as they say, a crazy dog ​​lover, and would not forgive anyone for such an oversight. But he forgave Zinaida, as he would not forgive another kept woman, but his beloved wife or his own daughter.

For two years of a fatal illness, Zinaida Nikolaevna Nekrasova was next to him, looked after, consoled, brightened up the last days. When, from the last painful battle with a fatal disease, he passed away, she remained on this, as they say, an old woman:

Two hundred days already, Two hundred nights My torment continues; Night and day In your heart My groans echo. Two hundred days, two hundred nights! Dark winter days, Clear winter nights ... Zina! Close your weary eyes! Zina! Sleep!

Before his death, Nekrasov, wanting to ensure the future life of his last girlfriend, insisted on a wedding and an official marriage. The wedding took place in a marching military church-tent, set up in the hall of the Nekrasov apartment. It was crowned by a military priest. Around the analogion Nekrasov was already circled under the arms: he could not move on his own.

Nekrasov died for a long time, surrounded by doctors, nurses, a caring wife. Almost all former friends, acquaintances, employees, had time to say goodbye to him in absentia (Chernyshevsky) or in person (Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin).

Thousands of crowds accompanied Nekrasov's coffin. Until the Novodevichy Convent they carried him in their arms. Speeches were made at the cemetery. The well-known populist Zasodimsky and the unknown worker-proletarian, the later famous Marxist theoretician Georgy Plekhanov and the already great writer-soil scientist Fyodor Dostoevsky spoke ...

Nekrasov's widow voluntarily renounced almost all the considerable fortune left to her. She transferred her share of the estate to the poet's brother Konstantin, the rights to publish the works - to Nekrasov's sister Anna Butkevich. Forgotten by everyone, Zinaida Nikolaevna Nekrasova lived in St. Petersburg, Odessa, Kiev, where, it seems, only once loudly, publicly shouted her name - "I am the widow of Nekrasov", stopping the Jewish pogrom. And the crowd stopped. She died in 1915, in Saratov, robbed to the skin by some Baptist sect.

Contemporaries highly appreciated Nekrasov. Many noted that with his departure the great center of gravity of all Russian literature was forever lost: there is no one to be equal to, no one to set an example of great service, to indicate the "correct" path.

Even such a consistent defender of the theory of "art for art" as A. V. Druzhinin stated: "... we see and will constantly see in Nekrasov a true poet, rich in the future and who has done enough for future readers."

F.M. Dostoevsky, speaking with a farewell speech at the poet's grave, said that Nekrasov had occupied such a prominent and memorable place in our literature that, in the glorious row of Russian poets, he "deserves to stand right after Pushkin and Lermontov." And from the crowd of admirers of the poet exclamations were heard: "Higher, higher!"

Perhaps the Russian society of the 1870s lacked its own negative emotions, thrills and sufferings, which is why it with such gratitude shouldered the depressive outbursts of poetic graphomaniacs? ..

However, already the closest descendants, capable of soberly assessing the artistic merits and demerits of Nekrasov's works, made the opposite verdict: “singer of people's suffering”, “denouncer of social plagues”, “brave tribune”, “conscientious citizen”, who knows how to correctly write down rhymed lines - this is not yet poet.

“An artist has no right to torture his reader with impunity and senselessly,” M. Voloshin said about L. Andreev’s story “Eliazar”. It was not by chance that he contrasted Andreev's "anatomical theater" with Nekrasov's poem, written upon his return from Dobrolyubov's funeral ...

If not in this, then in many of his other works N.A. For many years Nekrasov allowed himself to torture the reader with impunity with pictures of inhuman suffering and his own depression. Moreover, he allowed himself to nurture a whole generation of magazine critics and followers of the poetics of "people's suffering" who did not notice anything anti-artistic, aggressive, contrary to the feelings of a normal person in these "tortures".

Nekrasov sincerely believed that he was writing for the people, but the people did not hear him, did not believe in the simple peasant truth stylized by the master-poet. Man is designed in such a way that he is interested in learning only new, unfamiliar, unknown. And for the common people, there was nothing new and interesting in the revelations of the “people's sadden”. This was their daily life. For the intelligentsia, on the contrary. She believed Nekrasov, heard the bloody revolutionary alarm, got up and went to save the great Russian people. Ultimately, she died, falling victim to her own delusions.

It is no coincidence that none of the poems of "the most popular Russian poet" Nekrasov (except for "Korobeiniks" in various versions and "folk" processing) never became a folk song. From "Troika" (its first part) they made a salon romance, omitting, in fact, what the poem was written for. Nekrasov's "suffering" poems were sung exclusively by the populist intelligentsia - in drawing rooms, in exile, in prisons. For her, it was a form of protest. And the people did not know that they also needed to protest, and therefore sang apolitical ditties and the naive "Kalinka".

Soviet art criticism, which denied decadent nonsense, like all the artistic achievements of the Russian "Silver Age", once again raised Nekrasov to unattainable heights, again crowned him with the laurels of a truly national poet. But it's not a secret for anyone that during this period the people liked S. Yesenin more - without his early modernist quirks and "folk" stylizations.

It is also significant that the bright and clear voice of Yesenin was not to the court's favor for the Soviet ideologists. Only by the example of the "sufferer" Nekrasov could it be clearly demonstrated: before the revolution, before the rivers of shed blood, before the horrors of the Civil War and Stalin's repressions, the Russian people were constantly groaning. This largely justified what was done with the country in 1920-30, justified the need for the most severe terror, violence, physical extermination of entire generations of Russian people. And what is interesting: in the Soviet years, only Nekrasov was recognized the right to hopeless pessimism and exaltation of the theme of death in the lyrics. For such topics, Soviet poets were “preached” at party meetings and were already considered “non-Soviet”.

In the few works of today's philologists and literary critics, the activities of Nekrasov as a publisher, publicist, businessman are often distinguished from literature and his poetic work. This is true. It's time to get rid of the textbook clichés we inherited from the populist terrorists and their followers.

Nekrasov was, above all, a man of action. And the Russian literature of the 19th century was incredibly lucky that it was Nekrasov who chose it as the “deed” of his whole life. For many years Nekrasov and his Sovremennik formed a unifying center, acting as a breadwinner, protector, benefactor, helper, mentor, heartfelt friend, and often a caring father for the people who made up a truly great edifice of Russian literature. Honor and praise to him for this from both deceased contemporaries and from grateful descendants!

Only merciless time has long ago put everything in its place.

Today, putting the poet Nekrasov above Pushkin, or at least on a par with him, would not even occur to the most loyal admirers of his work.

The experience of many years of school study of Nekrasov's poems and poems (in complete isolation from the study of the history of Russia, the personality of the author himself and the temporary context that should explain many things to the reader) led to the fact that Nekrasov had practically no fans left. To our contemporaries, people of the XX-XXI century, the "school" Nekrasov did not give anything, except for an almost physical aversion to the unknown why rhymed lines of satirical feuilletons and social essays "in spite" of that, long gone day.

Guided by the current legislation prohibiting the propaganda of violence, Nekrasov's works of art either need to be completely excluded from the school curriculum (for depicting scenes of human and animal suffering, calls for violence and suicide), or they must be carefully selected, providing accessible comments and links to the general historical context of the era ...

Application

What feelings, besides depression, can such a poem cause:

MORNING You are sad, you suffer in soul: I believe that it is difficult not to suffer here. With the poverty that surrounds us Here, nature itself is at the same time. Endlessly sad and pitiful These pastures, cornfields, meadows, These wet, sleepy jackdaws, That sit on top of the haystack; This nag with a drunken peasant, Through the strength of a running gallop Into the distance, hidden by a blue fog, This cloudy sky ... At least cry! But the rich city is not more beautiful: The same clouds are running across the sky; Terrible for the nerves - with an iron shovel. They are now scraping the pavement. Work begins everywhere; A fire was announced from the watchtower; They took someone to the shameful square - the executioners are already waiting there. The prostitute goes home at dawn Hurries, leaving the bed; Officers in a hired carriage are galloping out of town: there will be a duel. The traders wake up amicably And rush to sit down behind the counters: They need to measure the whole day, In order to have a hearty meal in the evening. Chu! cannons burst from the fortress! The capital is threatened with flooding ... Someone has died: Anna is lying on a red pillow of the First Degree. The thief's janitor beats - got caught! A herd of geese is being driven to slaughter; Somewhere on the top floor, a Shot rang out - someone had committed suicide. 1874

Or like this:

* * * Today I am so sadly tuned, So tired of painful thoughts, So deep, deeply calm My mind, torn by torture, - That ailment, oppressing my heart, Somehow bitterly amuses me, - Meeting with death, threatening, walking, He went Would ... But the dream will refresh - Tomorrow I will get up and run out greedily Meeting the first ray of the sun: The whole soul will start to cheer, And I want to live painfully! And the ailment, crushing the forces, Will torment the same tomorrow And about the proximity of the dark grave It is also intelligible to the soul to speak ... April 1854

But this poem, if desired, can be brought under the law prohibiting the propaganda of violence against animals:

Under the cruel hand of a man Slightly alive, ugly skinny, A crippled horse is straining, Dragging an unbearable burden. So she staggered and stood. "Well!" - the driver grabbed the log (It seemed to him that the whip was not enough) - And he beat her, beat her, beat her! Legs somehow spread wide, All steaming, settling back, The horse only sighed deeply And looked ... (this is how people look, Submitting to wrong attacks). He again: on the back, on the sides, And running forward, on the shoulder blades And on the crying, meek eyes! All in vain. The nag stood, Striped all from the whip, Only responded to every blow with a uniform movement of its tail. It amused the idle passers-by, Each put in a word of his own, I was angry - and thought sadly: "Should I stand up for her? In our time, sympathize with fashion, We would not mind helping you, Unrequited sacrifice of the people, - But we cannot help ourselves!" " And the driver did not work in vain - Finally, he got the point! But the last scene was more outrageous than the first for the gaze: The horse suddenly tensed - and went Somehow sideways, nervously soon, And the driver with each jump, In gratitude for these efforts, He gave her wings with blows And he ran light next to him.

It was these poems by Nekrasov that inspired Dostoevsky to depict the same monstrous scene of violence in prose (the novel "Crime and Punishment").

Nekrasov's attitude to his own work was also not entirely unambiguous:

A holiday of life - years of youth - I killed under the weight of labor And a poet, a darling of freedom, Friend of laziness - I have never been. If long restrained torments, Nakipev, come under the heart, I write: rhymed sounds Disturb my usual work. All the same, they are no worse than flat prose And they excite soft hearts, Like tears that suddenly flowed From a grieved face. But I’m not flattering that some of them survived in the people's memory ... There is no free poetry in you, My harsh, awkward verse! There is no creative art in you ... But living blood boils in you, A vengeful feeling triumphs, Burning out, love flickers, - That love that glorifies the good, That brands the villain and the fool And endows the defenseless singer with a wreath of thorns ... Spring 1855

Elena Shirokova

Based on materials:

Zhdanov V.V. The life of Nekrasov. - M .: Thought, 1981.

P.V. Kuzmenko The most scandalous triangles in Russian history. - M .: Astrel, 2012.

Muratov A.B. N.A. Dobrolyubov and I.S.Turgenev's break with the journal "Sovremennik" // In the world of Dobrolyubov. Digest of articles. - M., "Soviet Writer", 1989

Nikolay Nekrasov is a famous Russian poet, writer and publicist. His works have become classics of Russian literature. He was one of the first poets who began to pay great attention to peasant life.

Biography of Nekrasov

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov was born on November 28, 1821 in Nemyriv, Podolsk province of the Russian Empire. He had 13 brothers and sisters, 10 of whom died in childhood.

Nekrasov's father, Alexei Sergeevich, was a despotic and harsh person. Working as police officers (head of the police), he often had to force the arrears from the peasants by force.

Childhood and youth

Father often took little Kolya with him when he worked on the road. As a result of such forced business trips, the future writer was an unwitting witness to many terrible pictures.

He often saw how peasants unable to pay taxes were beaten to death, and their relatives were subjected to all kinds of human humiliation.

In addition, the father repeatedly arranged orgies with serf girls, who had to obey their master.

One of these mistresses was Nekrasov's mother, who endured cruel treatment by the police chief.

All these events were reflected in the biography of Nekrasov and influenced the formation of his personality.

Education

At the age of 11, Nikolai began to study at the Yaroslavl gymnasium. He did not have a very good academic performance due to the fact that he wrote all his free time.

After studying at the gymnasium for 5 years, he graduated from it in 1837, the year when he died tragically. Since his father wanted to make a military man out of his son, in 1838 he arranged for him in the Konstantinovsky Artillery School, located in.

However, the future writer was not very interested in military affairs, as a result of which he decided to enter the St. Petersburg University.

This decision infuriated my father. He threatened his son to stop financial support if he entered the university.

Interestingly, this did not frighten Nekrasov at all, as a result of which he began to actively prepare for the exams. But he failed to pass them, so he became a volunteer at the Faculty of Philology.

Difficult years

Due to the fact that the father stopped sending money to his son, Nikolai was in dire need. He often starved, and often he simply had nowhere to sleep. For a time he lived on the street, dragging out a miserable existence.

Once a beggar passing by him took pity on him and took him to one of the slums, where he could at least have a roof over his head.

These years will be the most difficult in the biography of Nekrasov, although they tempered his youth.

Literary activity

A few years later, Nekrasov managed to adapt to the conditions in which he lived. Soon he began to write small articles and publish in various publications. In addition, he periodically gave lessons, thanks to which he had additional income.

Nikolai Alekseevich plunged headlong into literature, reading the works of Russian and foreign authors. After that, he began to hone his skills in writing poems and vaudeville, as well as diligently working on prose.

As a result, he earned the amount of money needed to publish his first collection of poems, Dreams and Sounds (1840).

An interesting fact is that Nekrasov was greatly upset by the criticism of his works, since by nature he was a very emotional person.

He did something similar before him, who bought and burned "Ganz Küchelgarten".

However, despite the criticism, Nikolai Nekrasov did not give up, but on the contrary continued to work on himself. Soon he began to cooperate with the well-known St. Petersburg edition of Otechestvennye zapiski.

Every year his work became better and better, and pretty soon warm and friendly relations developed between Nekrasov and Belinsky.

During this period of Nekrasov's biography, his works began to be actively published and receive positive reviews from critics, including Belinsky himself.

In the financial situation, the writer also did not experience any difficulties. In 1846, together with like-minded people, he acquired the Sovremennik magazine, in which many writers later began to publish:, etc.

Due to the fact that the publication was under the tsarist censorship, most of the works were adventurous, but this in no way affected the popularity of the magazine.

In the mid-50s, a serious trouble occurs in the biography of Nekrasov. He falls ill with a throat disease, as a result of which he has to leave for treatment in Italy.

After staying there for some time, he went on the mend and returned to his homeland again. Meanwhile, his works began to be considered one of the best, and Dobrolyubov was among his faithful friends and assistants.

In 1866, Sovremennik was closed, as a result of which Nekrasov had to look for new ways to continue his activities.

Soon he rented the publication "Otechestvennye zapiski", in which he began to successfully publish his own works, as well as collaborate with other writers.

The most famous work in the biography of Nekrasov is the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", which was completed in 1876.

It told about the journey of 7 ordinary men looking for a happy person.

After her, many poems come out from the poet's pen, which have positive reviews, both from critics and from the common reader.

Love in the life of a poet

In the biography of Nekrasov there were 3 women who differed among themselves both in character and in social status.

The first love was Avdotya Panaeva, whom Nekrasov first saw in 1842. Soon they began a stormy romance, as a result of which they began to live together.

And although they were not officially scheduled, they managed to live together for over 15 years. Avdotya was a literate and beautiful woman.

An interesting fact is that Fyodor Dostoevsky was in love with her, who, however, was never able to achieve reciprocity (see).

The next girl of Nekrasov was the Frenchwoman Selina Lefren, who was distinguished by her light character and simplicity.

Their close relationship developed over the course of several years, but it never came to marriage.

The third and last woman in the biography of Nekrasov was Fekla Viktorova.

All her life she lived in the village, and was a very simple and good-natured person.

Despite the fact that she had a meager education, Nikolai Alekseevich fell in love with her to the point of unconsciousness.

The couple got married six months before the poet's death, and failed to fully enjoy married life.

Death

In 1875, Nekrasov was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. The disease caused a lot of suffering, which prevented him from fully engaging in writing.

However, after he began to receive letters from loyal readers, he perked up and again took up the pen.

Ailing Nekrasov continues to work in bed

In the last years of his life he managed to write the satirical poem "Contemporaries", as well as compose a number of poems "The Last Songs".

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov died on December 27, 1877 at the age of 56. Despite the severe December frosts, thousands of people came to say goodbye to the Russian poet.

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Nekrasov, whose biography is full of interesting and unexpected turns, became famous as a Russian poet-democrat, a singer of a difficult female fate. Explore the pages of the biography of the lyricist and find out why a woman became the center of his poetic world, what role the fair sex played in his destiny.

"Russian women", "Grandfather Mazai and the hares", "Frost Red Nose" - these verses of Nekrasov are known to every schoolchild. A lyricist, a singer of national grief, a poet who worshiped a woman - a mother, a hard worker and a protector - such was Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov.

He left a noticeable mark on the development of Russian literature in the 19th century - he became famous as a lyricist, playwright and publicist. Under his leadership, the Sovremennik magazine acquired significant social and literary significance (Nekrasov was the owner of the publication), and Otechestvennye Zapiski entered the heyday.

However, the path to fame and glory was not easy. The biography of Nekrasov will tell about the complex everyday vicissitudes of the poet's fate.

In 1817, the brilliant beauty, the heiress of the ancient Lithuanian-Polish family of the Zakrevskys, Elena Andreevna, without the permission of eminent parents, married Lieutenant Alexei Nekrasov. This marriage was an obvious misalliance, since the Yaroslavl landowner could not compare with the eminent Zakrevskys with neither nobility nor wealth.

Despite this, Elena Andreevna gets married and settles in Nemirov (Vinnitsa region, Ukraine), where at that time her husband's regiment was stationed. Here, four years after the wedding of Zakrevskaya with Nekrasov (in 1821), a son, Nikolai, was born. Soon the young family moved to the Yaroslavl province, to the Greshnevo estate, where the future star's childhood years passed.

Nekrasov's father inherited not the best character traits from his ancestors. A gambler and a bum, a lover of women, he very quickly spent all the money, lost his estate in the Yaroslavl province and served as a police officer. Often, leaving on business, he took Nikolai with him. He was struck by the poverty of the peasants, their powerlessness, high mortality. This subsequently formed a special attitude of the poet Nekrasov to the fate of the people, which was reflected in the theme of his works.

The second impression of Nikolai's childhood is his father's mockery of his mother, the meekness with which she endured his despotic disposition and unrestrained character. The mother became a symbol of suffering, nobility and generosity. In the future, the lyricist elevated the woman, making her the embodiment of love and spiritual strength, a sufferer and a victim of lawlessness and outrage.

Nikolai Alekseevich received a systemic education at the gymnasium. True, he studied not the obligatory eight, but only five years. The boy had no craving for knowledge at all; creativity attracted him most of all. The first poetic works of Nekrasov were born on the gymnasium lava.

The father, who saw in his son a gallant officer, after the gymnasium sent the young man to St. Petersburg to a noble regiment. However, Nikolai disobeyed Alexei Sergeevich and made an attempt to conquer the selection committee of St. Petersburg University. It was unsuccessful: Nekrasov became a free student at the Department of Philology. Deprived of the material support of his father, he was looking for a part-time job, vegetating in poverty.

Hard times receded, when in 1840 Nekrasov began to cooperate with the Alexandrinsky Theater, took up journalism, began to write reviews and critical articles for the Literaturnaya Gazeta. Thanks to small earnings, Nikolai Alekseevich managed to publish the first collection of poems.

"Dreams and Sounds" was the title of the first edition, where Nekrasov included poems written during his student years. The collection did not impress critics. The poet was disappointed and depressed. Like Gogol, he almost completely destroyed the first edition of his poems.

In the future, Nekrasov decides to do prose. At that time, stories about commoners, about girls deceived by the rich nobles, about the fall in morals among young nobles were in vogue. The Life and Adventures of Tikhon Trostnikov is one of such successful works of the author. He was noted in his speech by the eminent and influential critic Belinsky. He spoke positively about the realistic search for a literary neophyte, which instilled confidence in the young talent.

Soon the writer switches to publishing. He buys out Pushkin's brainchild - Sovremennik - and makes titanic efforts to make it successful. The magazine is experiencing a second flourishing: works by Saltykov-Shchedrin, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Ogarev, Herzen, Belinsky, Tolstoy appear on its pages.

Nekrasov managed to protect the magazine from the onslaught of censorship, survive a dramatic split in the middle of the group of authors. In the period before the reform in the state, social confrontation intensified as much as possible. Peasant riots, growing discontent among the masses pushed Nekrasov to write "Railroad", the poem "Poet and Citizen". This is how he expressed his commitment to the coming social changes. This became the reason for the repressive measures taken against his magazine and himself: gendarme surveillance was established for Nekrasov, and the publication was closed.

The poet does not give up: in his hands are "Otechestvennye zapiski" (Kraevsky leases the magazine to him). In the 1870s. there is a turn of Nekrasov to satire. He writes pamphlets, poignant satirical articles. In order not to bring trouble to the current edition, on the initiative of the poet, an addendum to the magazine was established. The Whistle has become a platform for satirical performances by progressive writers.

Drastic changes in the life of Nekrasov occurred through his own fault. Fearing that the publications he led will be closed, at a meeting of the English Club, the poet reads a laudatory ode dedicated to the strangler of the revolutionary movement, General Muravyov. This act radically changed the attitude of society towards the writer. They despised him, they refused to cooperate with him, to communicate. Nekrasov stayed in this position until the end of his days.

Despite this, the poet did not stop active social activities. In 1861, he responded to the abolition of serfdom with the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", in which he raised the question of whether the peasants had become happier.

Two years before his death in 1877 were painful for Nikolai Alekseevich. Oncological disease confined him to bed. However, the poet did not stop writing: he creates socially poignant poems, writes folk stylizations.

The poet's departure from life was a heavy loss for the revolutionary-minded intelligentsia. However, he left works that inspired wrestling.

Nekrasov: interesting facts

The most interesting facts of their lives are rarely mentioned in the official biographies of writers. Namely, they can tell a lot about the character of the writer, about his tastes and interests. Thanks to this information, biographical portraits of celebrities come to life, become closer and more realistic.

So in the case of the singer of a difficult folk fate Nikolai Nekrasov, whose life path is full of interesting moments:

• A big family and a dissolute father.

The Nekrasov family was huge - fourteen children born in a marriage with Elena Andreevna, and countless illegitimate children. Nikolai's father was a lecher and a womanizer. Like most nobles, he seduced and seduced serf girls, and then held his own children in front of the cross (like a godfather).

Elena Andreevna, the poet's mother, was forced to endure her husband's outrage. He humiliated and bullied her, but the woman accepted her fate with Christian humility. This spiritual stoicism and mother's chastity delighted Nicholas.

• Poverty.

Because of the passions of their father, the Nekrasovs were poor. Alexey Sergeevich, having lost the estate, was forced to go to work in order to feed a huge family.

What is a beggarly existence, Nikolai knew firsthand. In his student years, he had to earn money by private lessons, drawing up petitions. However, there was not always enough money to buy lunch and pay for housing.

Once, due to malnutrition, Nekrasov fell seriously ill. The soldier with whom he lodged, because of non-payment, put him out on the street. The beggar who brought him to the orphanage helped the poet and shared his food. This situation was reflected in the attitude of Nekrasov towards poor people.

• Love triangle.

Twenty-six-year-old Nikolai Nekrasov was invited to the literary salon of the wife of the famous Russian writer Ivan Panaev Avdotya. The young poet was struck by the beauty, education, delicate taste and tenderness of the hostess of the meeting.

However, he was not the only writer who was conquered by Avdotya. Dostoevsky and Turgenev were at her feet. Passion for a woman captured Nekrasov so much that, having received Avdotya's refusal, he decided to commit suicide. The lady could not remain indifferent to such ardor, so she succumbed to the young talent.

And from that moment the intrigue begins, which stirred up the St. Petersburg society of the 1850s. Nekrasov moves to an apartment with the Panayevs and openly lives in a civil marriage with Avdotya under the same roof with her husband Ivan. Moreover, he rolls the last scenes of jealousy.

Together with Avdotya, he writes several novels, which were highly appreciated by critics, publishes a "Panaevsky" cycle of lyrics. This period is the happiest and most unhappy in the life of Nekrasov.

In 1849, their newborn son and Avdotya died, Nekrasov himself fell ill. This leads to quarrels and misunderstandings between spouses. But, surprisingly, the reason for their breakup was the death of Panaev in 1862. Avdotya abandoned the poet, and until the end of his life he could not stop loving her.

• French actress and country girl.

After parting with Avdotya Panaeva, Nikolai Alekseevich struck up a relationship with Selina Lefren, an actress of the Mikhailovsky Theater troupe. He went on an overseas tour with her, but returned to North Palmyra alone. For some time they maintained a relationship, but the marriage was never concluded.

The village girl Fekla became the legal wife of Nekrasov. She was poorly educated, narrow-minded, but sincerely admired the work of her chosen one. The age difference between the poet and his passion was huge - 24 years.

Nekrasov was engaged in the education of the girl: he gave literature to read, attended theater premieres and art exhibitions with her. To veil her simple origin, the poet came up with another name for her - Zinaida Nikolaevna.

Nikolai Alekseevich entered into a marriage with Fekla-Zina while already on his deathbed.

• The card game is the path to Nekrasov's financial success.

Maps - a passion that killed Nekrasov's father, made the poet a very wealthy man. Thanks to the Panaev couple and the success of the Sovremennik magazine, Nikolai Alekseevich became a member of the English Club. The most famous and richest people of St. Petersburg gathered here - officials, statesmen, wealthy landowners.

Out of boredom, they painted the bullet. Nikolai Nekrasov, who is well versed in cards (thanks to heredity), easily won huge sums from inattentive. So, the main financier of the Russian Empire lost more than a million francs to him, the losses of the rest were calculated in thousands of rubles.

The rich played inattentively and relaxedly. This was used by the clever and perceptive Nekrasov. He used the game as one of the types of earnings. The money went to buy out the family estate and to publish the brainchild - Sovremennik.

• Nekrasov is a passionate hunter.

Passion for hunting forest animals and game is a sign of nobility. Nekrasov was a gambling hunter. He had a wonderful ride and excellent hunting dogs. In total, the poet devoted 43 of the 56 years he lived to this occupation.

With special enthusiasm, he went to the bear, loved to shoot birds. Most often he was accompanied by another famous writer and passionate hunter - Ivan Turgenev. However, due to personal misunderstandings, the friends parted, and Zinaida Nikolaevna became Nekrasov's partner.

This passion is reflected in the poet's lyrics: he has poems dedicated to bear hunting, hunting wading birds.

Nikolai Nekrasov did not live a very long life, but left a noticeable mark on the history of Russian literature. As a master, he closely perceived the tragedy of the peasants who lived in eternal poverty and struggle for survival. He was fascinated by the spiritual chastity and hard work of the Russian woman, who became the embodiment of an exhausted but strong Russia.

What facts of the biography of Nekrasov became a discovery for you?

Biography and episodes of life Nikolai Nekrasov. When born and died Nikolay Nekrasov, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. Quotes from a poet, Photo and video.

The years of Nikolai Nekrasov's life:

born November 28, 1821, died December 27, 1877

Epitaph

"Do not be afraid of bitter oblivion:
I already hold in my hand
The crown of love, the crown of forgiveness
The gift of your meek homeland ...
The stubborn darkness will give way to the light,
You will hear your song
Over the Volga, over the Oka, over the Kama,
Bayu-bayu-bayu-bayu! .. "
From N. Nekrasov's poem "Bayushki-Bayu", written by him in the year of his death

Biography

Nikolai Nekrasov, familiar to us from school with his "folk" poems, with which he evoked compassion for the people's suffering, and he himself was familiar with hardships and hardships firsthand. Even as a child, "thanks" to his father, he saw violence, cruelty and death; subsequently suffered severely from want, and in the last years of his life he suffered terribly from an incurable disease. Perhaps it was the misfortunes that filled Nekrasov's poetry with the feeling that evoked such a wide response from readers and put him in the eyes of many contemporaries on a par with Pushkin.

Nekrasov was born into a noble, once wealthy family. The father wanted the young man to enter the noble regiment in St. Petersburg, but when he was in the capital, Nekrasov realized that he wanted to get an education. The young man did not pass the exam and remained at the university as a volunteer. Moreover, his father was so angry that he stopped helping him financially, and young Nekrasov, suffering from dire need, was forced to look for any kind of earnings.

Several years later, the future poet's affairs improved a little: he gave private lessons and published articles. Nekrasov has long understood that the meaning of his life is in literature. The first collection of Nekrasov's poems was a youthful maximalist imitation of romantic poets, rather unsuccessful, so Vasily Zhukovsky advised the aspiring author to publish without a name, so as not to blush for these poems later.

But Nekrasov did not give up: he continued to write now in the humorous and satirical genre, he began to work on prose. He became close to V. Belinsky and his literary circle, and the famous critic had a huge influence on the poet and supported him. But so far, it was publishing activity that made Nekrasov famous: he began to publish almanacs in which Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Maikov were published. And in the Sovremennik, headed by him, with the help of Nekrasov, such names as Ivan Goncharov, Nikolai Herzen, Lev Tolstoy were discovered. Here, in Sovremennik, the poetic talent of Nekrasov himself flourishes.

One way or another, but only in his mature years did the poet acquire the fame that he rightfully deserved. The main work in the life of Nekrasov was the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", the result of many years of observation and reflection on the serf system and the life of the people. By the time the poem was written, Nekrasov had already formed his own poetic school: a group of realist poets who opposed their work to “pure art”. It was Nekrasov who became a symbol of the civic significance of poetry.

Two years before his death, doctors discovered intestinal cancer in Nekrasov, which made the last years of his life unbearably painful. The news that Nekrasov was mortally ill flew around Russia, and words of support and consolation rained down on him from all parts of it. The death of Nekrasov caused a huge public outcry: several thousand people, mostly young people, accompanied the coffin from Nekrasov's apartment to the Novodevichy cemetery. And when Dostoevsky, who spoke at the funeral, put Nekrasov in third place in Russian poetry after Pushkin and Lermontov, he was not allowed to finish, declaring the poet higher than Pushkin.

Life line

November 28, 1821 Date of birth of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov.
1832 g. Admission to the Yaroslavl gymnasium.
1838 g. Moving to St. Petersburg.
1839 g. Admission as an auditor to the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg University.
1840 g. Release of the first collection of poems "Dreams and Sounds".
1842 g. Acquaintance with Avdotya Panaeva.
1843 g. Beginning of publishing activity.
1847 g. Nekrasov becomes the head of the Sovremennik magazine.
1858 g. Issue of a satirical supplement to Sovremennik - the Whistle magazine.
1865 g. Creation of the first part of the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia".
1868 g. Appointment as editor of the journal Otechestvennye zapiski.
1875 g. Disease.
December 27, 1877 Date of death of Nikolai Nekrasov.
December 30, 1877 The funeral of Nekrasov at the Novodevichy cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Memorable places

1. G. Nemirov, where Nekrasov was born.
2. House number 11 on Revolutionary (formerly - Voskresenskaya) street, the building of the Yaroslavl gymnasium, where Nekrasov studied from 1832 to 1838.
3. House number 13 on Povarsky lane in St. Petersburg, where in apt. 7 Nekrasov lived from 1845 to 1848.
4. Memorial museum-apartment of Nekrasov in the former House of Kraevsky (No. 36 on Liteiny Prospekt) in St. Petersburg, where the editorial offices of the Sovremennik and Otechestvennye zapiski magazines were located and where Nekrasov lived from 1857 to 1877.
5. Literary-memorial museum-reserve "Karabikha", where Nekrasov lived in the summer months in 1861-1875.
6. House-museum in the former hunting lodge of Nekrasov in Chudovo, where the writer spent the summer months from 1871 to 1876.
7. Novodevichye cemetery in St. Petersburg, where Nekrasov is buried.

Episodes of life

Nekrasov's father was a family despot who mistreated both his own wife and serfs. For the poet, his image personified the tyranny and cruelty of the one in power, while Nekrasov's mother became in his eyes a symbol of meek and long-suffering Russia.

Nekrasov's personal life caused a lot of gossip and indignation in society. The poet was in love with Avdotya, the wife of his friend, the writer Ivan Panaev, and the trio lived together in the Panaevs' apartment for more than 15 years, which led to public condemnation. And already at the mature age of 48, Nekrasov met a peasant girl Fyokla Viktorova, whom he took out into the world, calling her a more noble name Zinaida, and with whom he later got married.

Nekrasov, like his male ancestors, was an avid card player. But, unlike them, he won, and not vice versa. So, with the help of a card game, he managed to return the hereditary estate Greshnevo, the poet's childhood home, taken away for his grandfather's debts.

Covenants

"Man was created to be a support to another, because he himself needs support."

"Love as long as you love,
Be patient as long as you wait
Goodbye while goodbye
And - God be your judge! "

“I am always annoyed when I meet the phrase“ there are no words to express ”, etc. Nonsense! There are always words, but our mind is lazy. "

Within the framework of the "Living Poetry" project, Mikhail Politseimako reads Nekrasov's poem "Frost, Red Nose"

Condolences

"His glory will be immortal ... eternal Russia's love for him, the most brilliant and noblest of all Russian poets."
N. G. Chernyshevsky, writer

"Nekrasov, as a poet, I respect for his ardent sympathy for the suffering of a common man, for his word of honor, which he is always ready to put in for the poor and oppressed."
Dmitry Pisarev, literary critic

"After Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Nekrasov are the first poets of the city ..."
Valery Bryusov, poet

"... a gentle, kind, non-envious person, generous, hospitable and completely simple ... a person with a real ... Russian nature - ingenuous, cheerful and sad, capable of being carried away by both fun and grief to the point of excessiveness."
Ivan Panaev, writer and friend of Nekrasov