Saltykov Shchedrin childhood summary. The childhood of Saltykov-Shchedrin
These biographical sketches were published about a hundred years ago in the series `Life wonderful people`, carried out by F.F. Pavlenkov (1839–1900). Written in the genre of poetic chronicle and historical and cultural research, new for that time, these texts retain their value to this day. Written for ordinary people`, for Russian province, today they can be recommended not only to bibliophiles, but to the widest readership: both those who are not at all experienced in the history and psychology of great people, and those for whom these subjects are a profession.
A series: Life of wonderful people
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by liters company.
Biographical sketch S. N. Krivenko.
WITH portrait of M. E. Saltykov, engraved in Leipzig by Gedan.
CHAPTER I. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
The proximity of death usually does not allow one to see the real magnitude of a person’s merits, and while the merits of some are exaggerated, the merits of others are undoubtedly presented in an understated form, even though no one doubted their existence and even their enemies paid them a silent tribute of respect. The latter also applies to Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov.
There are few names in Rus' that would speak so much to the mind and heart as his name; There are few writers who had such an influence during their lifetime and left such a vast legacy to society. literary heritage, the heritage is rich and diverse both in terms of internal content and external form and a very special language, which during his lifetime began to be called “Saltykovsky”. Adjacent in type of creativity directly to Gogol, he is in no way inferior to him either in originality or in the power of talent. Finally, there are few people who would be distinguished by such an integral character and would go through the field of life with such honor as he did.
Mikhail Evgrafovich was born on January 15, 1826 in the village of Spas-Ugol, Kalyazinsky district, Tver province. His parents - his father, a collegiate adviser, Evgraf Vasilyevich, and his mother, Olga Mikhailovna, nee Zabelina, of a merchant family - were quite wealthy local landowners; He was baptized by his aunt Marya Vasilyevna Saltykova and the Uglich tradesman Dmitry Mikhailovich Kurbatov. The latter ended up as a successor in a noble house due to a rather exceptional previous circumstance, which Saltykov talks about in a humorous tone, both personally and then in “Poshekhonskaya Antiquity,” where Kurbatov is brought out under the name of Barkhatov. This Kurbatov was famous for his piety and insight and, constantly going on pilgrimages to monasteries, he stopped along the way and stayed for quite a long time with the Saltykovs. He happened to visit them in the same way in 1826, shortly before Mikhail Evgrafovich was born. When asked by Olga Mikhailovna who would be born to her - a son or a daughter, he answered: “Cockerel, cockerel, voster marigold! He will conquer many adversaries and will be a female disperser.” When the son was actually born, he was named Mikhail, in honor of Michael the Archangel, and Kurbatov was invited to be the godfather.
The upbringing of landowners' children was carried out at that time according to a fairly common pattern, had some kind of abbreviated, factory-like character and did not abound in parental attention: children were usually raised and educated in a special half, first by a wet nurse, and then by nannies and governesses or uncles and tutors, then They were taught for up to ten years by parish priests and some “home teachers,” often from among their own serfs, and then they were sent to educational institutions, mainly state-run ones, or to some preparatory boarding houses. In general, this upbringing cannot be called rational, and Saltykov’s even more so because of the severity of the home regime and the rather exceptional family environment that was created on the basis of serfdom, and the subordination of the characterless father to the practical, businesslike mother, who thought most of all about the household. Little Saltykov saw a lot of both serfdom and family lies that offended human dignity and oppressing the impressionable soul of a child; but his gifted nature did not break, but, on the contrary, seemed to be tempered in the test and gathered strength in order to subsequently spread its wings widely over human untruth in general. One day we talked to him about memory - at what age does a person begin to remember himself and his surroundings - and he said to me: “Do you know from what moment my memory began? I remember being whipped, I don’t remember who exactly; but they flog me properly, with a rod, and the German woman - the governess of my older brothers and sisters - stands up for me, covers me with her palm from the blows and says that I am too young for this. I must have been two years old then, no more.” In general, Saltykov’s childhood was not replete with bright impressions.
“Poshekhon Antiquity,” which undoubtedly has an autobiographical meaning, is filled with the saddest colors and gives, if not literally accurate, then at least a fairly close picture of his home upbringing in the period up to the age of ten. Mikhail Evgrafovich had to grow up and study separately from his older brothers, who were already in educational institutions at that time, but still he remembered their childhood and experienced it himself, albeit in to a lesser extent, the same educational system in which corporal punishment is different types and forms were the main pedagogical technique. Children were forced to their knees, torn by the hair and ears, flogged, and most often fed with cuffs and beaters as a more convenient method.
“I remember the incessant crying of children, the incessant children’s moans at the class table,” he makes his Shabby say, “I remember a whole retinue of governesses, following one after another and with a cruelty incomprehensible for the present time, pouring mallets right and left... They all fought inhumanly, and Maryu Even our strict mother called Andreevna (the daughter of a Moscow German shoemaker) a fury. So throughout her stay, the children’s ears were constantly covered with sores.”
The parents remained indifferent to all this, and the mother usually even intensified the punishment. It was the highest punitive authority. Saltykov did not like to remember his childhood, and when he remembered some of its individual features, he always remembered it with great bitterness. He did not blame anyone personally, but said that at that time the whole system, the whole order of life and relationships was like that. Neither those who punished and wasted punishment recognized themselves as cruel, nor did outsiders look at them like that; then they simply said: “You can’t do without this with children,” and this was the whole horror, much greater than the personal horrors, because it was this that made them possible and gave them the rights of citizenship. The external environment of childhood, in terms of hygiene, neatness and nutrition, also could not be boasted. Although the house had quite large and bright rooms, these were rooms front doors, the children were constantly crowded during the day in a small classroom, and at night in a common nursery, also small and with a low ceiling, where there were several cribs, and nannies slept on the floor, on felts. In the summer the children were still somewhat animated under the influence fresh air, but in winter they were positively sealed within four walls and not a single stream of fresh air reached them, because there were no windows in the house, and the room atmosphere was refreshed only by the fire of the stoves. They only knew one thing - to heat it hotter and wrap it up well. It was called gentle education. It is very possible that as a result of precisely these hygienic conditions, Saltykov subsequently turned out to be so frail and sickly. Neatness was also poorly maintained: children's rooms were often left unswept; The children’s clothes were bad, most often altered from something old or passed down from older to younger. Add to this the servants, dressed in some kind of stinking, patched rags. The same can be said about the food: it was very meager. In this regard, landowner families were divided into two categories: in some, food was elevated to some kind of cult, they ate all day, ate entire fortunes, and children were also stuffed, overfed and made gluttons; in others, on the contrary, it was not so much stinginess that prevailed, but some kind of incomprehensible hoarding: it always seemed like there was not enough, and everything was a pity. Barns, glaciers, cellars and storerooms were bursting with provisions; a lot of food was prepared, but not for oneself, but for guests; They served themselves on the table the leftovers and what was already beginning to deteriorate and was stale; on barnyard there were a hundred or more cows standing, and skim milk, blue milk, etc., were served with tea.
This kind of order, and even to an increased degree, existed in the Saltykov family. But the moral and pedagogical conditions of education were even lower than the physical ones. There were constant quarrels between father and mother. Submitting to his mother and realizing his humiliation, the father repaid for this by showering her with impotent abuse, reproaches and reproaches on any occasion. The children were involuntary witnesses to this abuse, did not understand anything about it, but saw only that strength was on their mother’s side, but that she had somehow offended their father, although she usually listened to his abuse in silence, and therefore they felt an unaccountable fear of her, and towards him as a characterless person who could not protect not only them, but also himself, complete indifference. Saltykov said that neither father nor mother cared for them, that they grew up like strangers, and that he, at least, did not know at all what is called parental affection. The favorites were still caressed in a peculiar way, the rest were not. This very division of children into loved and unloved was bound to spoil the former and deeply offend the latter. Then, if unfair and severe punishments had a cruel effect on children, then the actions and conversations that took place in front of them revealed to them the whole underbelly of life; and the elders, unfortunately, even a short time They did not consider it necessary to restrain themselves and, without the slightest hesitation, they turned out both the serf and any other mud.
More than once Saltykov complained about the lack of communication with nature in childhood, the lack of a direct and living connection with its freedom, with its warmth and light, which have such a beneficial effect on a person that fills his entire being and then passes through his entire life. And this is what we read in “Poshekhon Antiquity” on behalf of Zatrapezny: “...we became acquainted with nature by chance and in fits and starts - only during long journeys to Moscow or from one estate to another. The rest of the time everything around us was dark and silent.” No one had any idea about any hunting; occasionally they picked mushrooms and caught crucian carp in the pond, but “this fishing was purely economic in nature and had nothing in common with nature”; then, there were no live animals or birds in the house, so “we only knew animals and birds in salted, boiled and fried form.” This also affected his works: descriptions of nature are rare in him, and he is far from being such a master at such descriptions as, for example, Turgenev, Lermontov, Aksakov and others. However, northern nature could not give a child much joy either - poor and gloomy nature, which, in turn, produced a depressing impression not because of some majestic severity, but precisely because of poverty, inhospitability and a drab coloring. The area where Saltykov was born and where he spent his childhood was a backwater, even in the provincial part. It was a plain covered with coniferous forest and swamps, stretching without interruption for many tens of miles. The forests were burning, rotting on the roots and cluttered with dead wood and windbreaks; the swamps infected the surrounding area with miasma, the roads did not dry out in the most intense summer heat, and there was little running water. Small rivers barely flowed among the marshy swamps, sometimes forming stagnant ponds, sometimes completely lost under a thick veil of water thickets. In summer, the air was saturated with fumes and filled with clouds of insects that gave no rest to either people or animals.
In Saltykov’s childhood there were two circumstances that favored his development and the preservation in him of that spark of God, which later burned so brightly. One of these circumstances, which was essentially negative - that he grew up separately and that for some time there was less supervision over him - however, gave a positive result: he thought more, concentrated his thoughts on himself and those around him, and began to read and read independently. engage in self-activity and independence, to rely on yourself and believe in your strength. There was almost nothing to read, since there were almost no books in the house, and therefore he read the textbooks left over from his older brothers. Among them, the Gospel made a special impression on him. This was the second circumstance that had the most decisive influence on him. He later remembered it as a life-giving ray that suddenly burst into his life and illuminated both his own existence and the darkness that surrounded him. He became acquainted with the Gospel not scholastically, but perceived it directly with the soul of a child. He was then eight or nine years old. We have no doubt that in the person of Zatrapezny he recalls precisely his acquaintance with the “Reading from the Four Evangelists.” Here are these wonderful lines:
“The main thing I learned from reading the Gospel was that it sowed in my heart the beginnings of a universal human conscience and aroused from the depths of my being something stable, yours, thanks to which the dominant way of life no longer enslaved me so easily. With the assistance of these new elements, I acquired a more or less solid basis for evaluating both my own actions and the phenomena and actions that took place in the environment around me... I began to recognize myself as a human being. Moreover, I transferred the right to this consciousness to others. Until now, I knew nothing about the hungry, or the thirsty and the burdened, but I saw only human individuals formed under the influence of the indestructible order of things; now these humiliated and insulted stood in front of me, illuminated by the light, and loudly cried out against the innate injustice that gave them nothing but shackles... And the excited thought was involuntarily transferred to the concrete reality of the girls’ room, to the table, where dozens of abused and tortured human beings were suffocating ... I can even say with confidence that this moment had an undoubted influence on the entire subsequent structure of my worldview. In this confession human image where, according to the strength of generally established conviction, only the desecrated image of a slave existed, this was the main and significant result that I learned from those attempts at self-education that I indulged in during the year.”
I cannot resist citing the following passage, remarkable in its depth of feeling, which speaks of Saltykov’s growing sympathy and attraction to the people - a process that shows an understanding of the people’s mood and the close, organic connection of this mood with his own state of mind:
“I understand that the most ardent religiosity can be accessible not only to lecturers and theologians, but also to people who do not have a clear understanding of the meaning of the word “religion.” I understand that the most undeveloped, yoke-ridden commoner has every right to call himself religious, despite the fact that instead of a formulated prayer he brings to the temple only a tormented heart, tears and a chest filled with sighs. These tears and sighs represent a wordless prayer that lightens his soul and enlightens his being. Under her inspiration, he sincerely and fervently believes. He believes that there is something higher in the world than wild arbitrariness, that there is Truth in the world and that in its depths lies a Miracle that will come to his aid and lead him out of darkness. Let everyone new day certifies him that there is no end to witchcraft; let the chains of slavery dig deeper and deeper into his exhausted body every hour... He believes that his misfortune is not indefinite and that the moment will come when the Truth will shine upon him along with others who are hungry and thirsty. And his faith will live until the source of tears in his eyes dries up and his last breath dies in his chest. Yes! Witchcraft is crumbling, the chains of slavery will fall, a light will appear that darkness will not defeat! If not life, then death will perform this miracle. It is not for nothing that at the foot of the temple in which he prays there is a rural cemetery where his fathers laid the bones. And they prayed the same wordless prayer, and they believed in the same miracle. And a miracle happened: death came and announced freedom to them. In turn, she will come to him, the believing son of believing fathers, and will give wings to the free one to fly to the kingdom of freedom, towards the free fathers...”
In another place, on behalf of the same Zatrapezny, Saltykov says even more clearly:
“Serfdom brought me closer to the forced masses. This may seem strange, but even now I still realize that serfdom played a huge role in my life, and that only after experiencing all its phases could I come to a complete conscious and passionate denial of it.”
In general, “Poshekhon Antiquity” is of great interest in relation to the author, because it throws light not only on his childhood, but also on his entire subsequent life. Although he appears there only sporadically, against the background of the general everyday picture, although we cannot follow him day after day, it is still clear how, under what influences and from what elements his character, his mental and moral character. We repeat: it is impossible, of course, to say that everything happened exactly as it was told there, but much of what Saltykov personally told during his lifetime was reproduced by him with literal accuracy, even some names were preserved (for example, the midwife who received him, the Kalyazin bourgeois Ulyana Ivanovna, his first teacher Pavel, etc.) or only partially changed.
His first teacher was his own serf, the painter Pavel, who on the very birthday of Mikhail Evgrafovich, January 15, 1833, that is, when he turned seven years old, was ordered to begin teaching him to read and write, which he did, coming to class with with a pointer and starting with the ABCs. There is some inaccuracy here: when talking about Pavel’s first lesson to Zatrapezny, he says that before that he could neither read nor write, nor in English, not even in Russian, but only learned to chat in French around his older brothers and sisters and in German, yes, at the insistence of the governesses, and speak congratulatory poems on the days of name days and births of parents; Meanwhile, the French poem cited in the 5th chapter of “Poshekhon Antiquity” turned out to be among Saltykov’s papers and was written in a child’s handwriting and signed as follows: “écrit par votre très humble fils Michel Saltykoff. Le 16 October 1832.” The boy was not yet seven years old at that time, therefore, one of two assumptions can be made: either that he read and wrote in French earlier than in Russian, or that the poem was written on his behalf by one of the older children. But this is a minor inaccuracy that is not worth dwelling on.
In 1834, Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov’s elder sister, Nadezhda Evgrafovna, left the Moscow Catherine Institute, and his further education was entrusted to her and her friend at the institute, Avdotya Petrovna Vasilevskaya, who entered the house as a governess. They were helped by the priest of the village of Zaozerye, Fr. Ivan Vasilievich, who taught Saltykov Latin language in Koshansky's grammar, and a student of the Trinity Theological Academy Matvey Petrovich Salmin, who was invited for two years in a row to summer vacations. Saltykov studied diligently and so well that in August 1836 he was admitted to the third class of the then six-grade Moscow Noble Institute, which had just been converted from a university boarding school. However, he had to stay in third grade for two years; but this is not due to bad success, but solely due to childhood. He continued to study well and in 1838 he was transferred as excellent student at the lyceum. The Moscow Noble Institute had the advantage of sending two of the best students to the lyceum every year and a half, where they entered for government support, and Saltykov was one of these.
At the Lyceum, already in the first grade, he felt an attraction to literature and began to write poetry. For this, as well as for reading books, he suffered all kinds of persecution both from tutors and the lyceum authorities, and especially from the Russian language teacher Grozdov. His talent was obviously not recognized. He was forced to hide poems, especially if their content might seem reprehensible, in the sleeves of his jacket and even in his boots, but contraband was found, and this had an impact strong influence for marks on behavior: during the entire time of his stay at the lyceum, he received almost no, with a 12-point system, over 9 points until the very last months before graduation, when everyone was usually given full marks. Therefore, the certificate issued to him reads: “when enough good behavior”, which means that the average behavior score for the last two years was below eight. And all this began with poetry, which was later joined by “rudeness”, that is, an undone button on a jacket or uniform, wearing a cocked hat from the “field”, and not according to the form (which was unusually difficult and constituted a whole science in itself), smoking tobacco and other school crimes.
Starting from the 2nd grade, the lyceum allowed students to subscribe to magazines at their own expense. Thus, Saltykov produced: “Domestic Notes”, “Library for Reading” (Senkovsky), “Son of the Fatherland” (Polevoy), “Lighthouse” (Burachka) and “Revue Etrangére”. The magazines were read voraciously by the pupils; The influence of Otechestvennye Zapiski, where Belinsky wrote critical articles, was especially strong. In general, the influence of literature was then very strong in the lyceum: the memory of the recently deceased Pushkin seemed to oblige him to carry his banner, and his successor was expected at each course. Such successors were considered V. R. Zotov, N. P. Semenov (senator), L. A. Mei, V. P. Gaevsky and others, including Saltykov. His first poem “Lyre” was published in the “Library for Reading” in 1841, signed S-v. In 1842, another of his poems, “Two Lives,” signed by S. Then his works appeared in Sovremennik (Pletnev): in 1844, “Our Century,” “Spring,” and two translations, from Heine and Byron; in 1845 - “Winter Elegy”, “Evening” and “Music”. Under all these poems there is a signature: M. Saltykov. At that time he had already left the lyceum, but these poems were written there. He apparently didn’t write anything else in poetic form, at least he didn’t print it, but only sent for printing what was already in his portfolio, and didn’t give it away in the order of writing, but as it happens: things written later are written earlier , and the early ones - later. We will present some of these poems both in order to show how Saltykov wrote poetry, and in order to see the spiritual mood of the young man, the future outstanding writer, reflected in them.
(From Heine. 1841)
Oh sweet girl! fast
Direct your shuttle towards me!
Sit next to me and be quiet
We will talk in the dark.
And you are close to the heart of the sufferer
Press the young head -
After all, you entrust yourself to the sea
Both in storms and on clear days.
And my heart is the same sea -
It rages and boils,
And many priceless treasures
Keeps it at its clear bottom.
Music (1843)
I remember the evening: you played,
I listened to the sounds in horror,
The bloody moon flickered -
And the ancient hall was gloomy.
Your dead face, your suffering,
The grave sparkle of your eyes
And the lips are cold breath,
And the fluttering of breasts -
Everything brought a gloomy coldness.
You played... I was shaking all over,
And the echo repeated the sounds,
And the old hall was scary...
Play, play: let the torment
Fill my soul with longing;
My love lives on suffering
And peace is terrible for her!
Our Century (1844)
In our strange age, everything strikes with sadness.
No wonder: we are used to meeting
Work every day; everything imposes
We have a special stamp on our souls,
We are in a hurry to live. Without purpose, without meaning
Life drags on, passes day after day -
Where, to what? We don't know about that.
Our whole life is a vague kind of doubt.
We live in a heavy sleep, immersed in it.
How boring everything is: infant dreams
Full of some kind of secret sadness,
And the joke was somehow said through tears!
And our lyre blows after life
Terrible emptiness: hard!
A tired mind will die untimely,
And the feeling in him is silent, lulled.
What's fun in life? Unwittingly
Silent sorrow will come to the soul
And the shadow of doubt will darken the heart...
No, really, life is both sad and painful!..
The author's melancholy mood, sadness and questions, why Life is going so sad and what is the reason for this - are heard definitely and sound with sincerity and depth. Life at that time really had little joy in it and was replete with painful pictures of lawlessness and tyranny. To do this, you didn’t have to live long or go far, but it was enough to see serfdom alone. But you feel that this mood does not smack of disappointment, which makes you fold your hands, nor does it resemble barren melancholy, but, on the contrary, you can already hear in it a note of effective love (“my love lives in suffering and peace is terrible for it!”), which then it flared up brighter and brighter and did not go out until his very last days. He soon stopped writing poetry, either because they were not good for him, or because the form itself did not correspond to his mentality, but the mood remained, and the thought continued to work in the same direction.
“Even within the walls of the lyceum,” says Mr. Skabichevsky, “Saltykov abandoned his dreams of becoming the second Pushkin. Subsequently, he did not even like it when anyone reminded him of the poetic sins of his youth, blushing, frowning on this occasion and trying in every possible way to hush up the conversation. Once he even expressed a paradox about poets: that, in his opinion, they were all crazy people. “For mercy,” he explained, “isn’t it crazy to rack your brains for hours on end in order to squeeze living, natural human speech, at all costs, into measured rhymed lines! It’s the same as if someone suddenly decided to walk only on a spread out rope, and certainly crouch down at every step.” “Of course,” adds Mr. Skabichevsky, “it was nothing more than one of satirical hyperbole a great humorist, because in fact he was a subtle connoisseur and connoisseur of good poetry, and Nekrasov was always one of the first to read his new poems to him.”
Several lines by A. Ya. Golovacheva about Saltykov the lyceum student in her literary “Memoirs” relate to the time we are talking about: “... I saw him in the early forties in the house of M. Ya. Yazykov. He was no different then cheerful expression faces. His big gray eyes looked sternly at everyone, and he was always silent. He always did not sit in the same room where all the guests were sitting, but was placed in another, opposite the door, and from there he listened attentively to conversations.” The smile of the “gloomy lyceum student” was considered a miracle. According to Yazykov, Saltykov went to him “to look at the writers.” The idea of becoming a writer himself was obviously deeply ingrained in him. In addition, as we have already said, at the lyceum of that time they were interested in literature and read a lot; reading itself raised questions that worried and tormented, demanded answers and gave rise to a natural desire to hear living word smart people. In addition to the periodicals that were subscribed to, many other things were read at the Lyceum. K.K. Arsenyev says in “Materials for the biography of M.E. Saltykov” that “even in the late forties, early fifties, after the thunderstorm of 1848, after the case of the Petrashevites, in which it was no coincidence that many of the former lyceum students were involved ( Petrashevsky, Speshnev, Kashkin, Evropeus), other ideas that inspired the young man Saltykov wandered among the students of the lyceum.”
Saltykov graduated from the lyceum with first grade. At that time, as now, those who completed the course were graduated from the lyceum with the rank of IX, X and XII classes, depending on their success in science and “behavior.” Since Saltykov received bad scores for behavior And by subject I didn’t try very hard, so I came out with the rank of X class, seventeenth on the list. Of the 22 students from the class of 1844, 12 were graduated IX, 5-X and 5-XII. TO middle group and belonged to our lyceum student. It is curious that Pushkin, Delvig, and Mei left the lyceum with the rank of X class. Of Saltykov’s comrades at the Lyceum, who were at the same time with him both in his and in other courses, none made such a big literary name for themselves as he did, although many wrote and tried to write; in a relationship social activities nor is there a more distinguished name; and in their service, many reached high positions: for example, Count A.P. Bobrinsky, Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky (ambassador in Vienna) and others. Upon completion of the course, Saltykov entered service in the office of the War Ministry under Count Chernyshev.
He did not retain good memories of the lyceum and did not like to remember it. “I remember school,” he wrote ten years after graduation in one of his essays, “but somehow it resurrects in my imagination gloomily and uninvitingly...” On the contrary, the time of youth, youthful hopes and beliefs, a passionate desire from the impenetrable darkness to light and truth, comrades who strived for the same ideals with which he thought and worried together, are remembered more than once and with pleasure. Comparing what was in pre-reform Russia at the time with what was in Europe, young people were especially fascinated by France.
“For me, the memory of my youth, that is, the forties, is inextricably linked with the idea of France and Paris,” we read in another essay by Saltykov. And not only for me personally, but also for all of us, our peers, these two words contained something radiant, luminous, which warmed our lives and, in a certain sense, even determined its content. As you know, in the forties, Russian literature (and after it, of course, the young reading public) was divided into two camps: Westerners and Slavophiles. There was also a third camp, in which the Bulgarins, Brandts, Puppeteers, etc. swarmed around, but this camp no longer had the slightest influence on the younger generation, and we knew it only to the extent that it showed itself to be related to the department of the deanery. At that time I had just left school and, brought up on Belinsky’s articles, naturally joined the Westerners.”
Telling further that he did not, in fact, join the most extensive and the only authoritative then in literature a circle of Westerners who studied German philosophy, and to the unknown circle, which instinctively clung to the French idealists, to not official France, but to the one that strived for the best and set broad goals for humanity, Saltykov says: in France “everything was clear as day... everything seemed to have just begun. And not only now, at this moment, but for more than half a century in a row everything began, and again, and again, and did not express the slightest desire to end. We followed with genuine excitement the ups and downs of the drama of the last two years of the reign of Louis Philippe and enthusiastically read the “History of the Decade”... Louis Philippe and Guizot, and Duchatel, and Thiers - all of these were, as it were, personal enemies, whose success was saddened by failure pleased. The trial of Minister Testa, the agitation in favor of electoral reform, Guizot’s arrogant speeches... all this still appears so vividly in my memory as if it happened yesterday.” “France seemed like a wonderland. Was it possible, having a young heart in my chest, not to be captivated by this inexhaustibility? life creativity, which, in addition, did not at all agree to concentrate within certain boundaries, but was eager to capture further and further?”
If we add to this that Saltykov was a Russian man in best value this word, was firmly connected with Russian life with his whole being and passionately loved home country and the people loved them not at all sentimentally, but alive and effective love which does not turn a blind eye to shortcomings and dark sides, but is looking for ways to eliminate them and ways to happiness, we will see that he entered life, if not a completely ready person, then a person, in any case, already with a fairly definite worldview and a fairly definite criterion, which only had to develop further and become stronger. Saltykov’s love for Russia was rarely expressed in any praises, but was expressed so often and in so many works that I would complicate the reader with evidence and quotations. Complaining about the lack of communication with nature in childhood, describing the meager northern nature of the outback in which he was destined to be born, he is imbued with a very special tenderness and love for her. Even in “Provincial Sketches” we read the following:
“I love this poor nature, perhaps because, whatever she is, she still belongs to me; she became close to me in the same way as I became close to her; she cherished my youth; she witnessed the first worries of my heart, and since then she belongs to best part myself. Take me to Switzerland, to India, to Germany, surround me with whatever luxurious nature you want, throw whatever transparent and blue sky you want over this nature - I will still find everywhere the lovely gray tones of my homeland, because I carry them everywhere and always in my heart, because my soul keeps them as its best asset.”
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The given introductory fragment of the book Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. His life and literary activity(S. N. Krivenko) provided by our book partner -
Childhood is the time when the foundations of personality are laid, and what will give impetus to its development is determined. That is why it is so important to understand what shaped the future writer, what entered his soul from an early age and then translated into his work. We know well the life history of Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and many other wonderful Russian writers. Here's how it went life path and, in particular, the childhood of Saltykov-Shchedrin, who later became a great writer, information is very scanty. As a rule, his biography mentions his service, Vyatka exile and working in magazines. But the gift of a satirical writer that Shchedrin possessed is truly unique: it requires special personal qualities, a special view of the world. How is it formed, what lies at its foundation? Perhaps Saltykov-Shchedrin’s childhood will help us understand this.
His life was eventful and in many ways unusual: before becoming famous as a satirist, Shchedrin went through a great school of life, a school of trials and losses, hopes, mistakes, disappointments and discoveries. And it started in childhood. He was born on January 15 (27 old style) 1826 into a family of wealthy landowners of the Tver province, the Saltykovs, in the village of Spas-Ugol. It received this name due to the fact that it was located on the “corner” of the county and province.
Parents of Saltykov-Shchedrin
His father Evgraf Vasilievich Saltykov belonged to an old noble family. Having received a good education for his time, he knew four foreign languages, read a lot and even wrote poetry. He did not make a career, and after retiring in 1815, he decided to improve his unimportant financial situation a profitable marriage. The wedding took place in 1816. A middle-aged, forty-year-old nobleman married the fifteen-year-old daughter of a rather wealthy Moscow merchant. Olga Mikhailovna Zabelina. Immediately after the wedding, the newlyweds settled in the Saltykov family estate in the village of Spas-Ugol. Shortly before the wedding, Evgraf Vasilyevich completed the construction of a new manor house here, where their children were born: Dmitry, Nikolai, Nadezhda, Vera Lyubov, the sixth was Mikhail, and after him two more brothers were born - Sergei and Ilya. In total - 8 children! Perhaps even for noble families that era was too much: usually there were 3-4, sometimes five children, but eight! How could such a “crowded population” affect the writer’s childhood?
Family atmosphere
We know how much Pushkin lacked maternal affection in his childhood - but he had a nanny. Lermontov was left without a mother early on - but he had a loving grandmother. Shchedrin seems to have been luckier: his parents lived long enough and had many brothers and sisters. But the atmosphere in the family was extremely tense. The fact is that Olga Mikhailovna was distinguished by a tough disposition, which was reflected in her attitude towards her husband and children. Despite her youth, she showed such power that she soon subjugated everyone, including her own husband. She established a strict routine in the estate and introduced strict accounting of income and expenses. Soon, through the efforts of Olga Mikhailovna, the Saltykovs became the largest landowners in the county, the estate turned into a highly profitable farm based on the most advanced achievements of that time. But at what cost was this achieved?
Hoarding was accompanied by astounding hoarding. Olga Mikhailovna saved on everything: on food, on clothes, on children’s education. But not only that: Saltykov-Shchedrin’s half-starved childhood in a wealthy family took place against the backdrop of constant scandals between his parents. There was a big difference in age, upbringing, characters, habits, and temperament. Olga Mikhailovna had no education; she even learned to write only in Spassky. Evgraf Vasilyevich, even while living in the village, retained an interest in reading, including religious literature. He devoted a lot of time to church affairs, and was especially attentive to the church, which rose opposite the estate. The Saltykovs baptized their children here, and there was also a family tomb where the writer’s father, who died in 1851, was buried.
But the father’s religiosity did not save the family from strife. As a result, it turned out that those commandments that were spoken about in the sacred books, in fact, had nothing to do with real life, where the main thing was missing - love for one's neighbor. And therefore, as the writer said, “the religious element was reduced to the level of simple ritualism.”
The atmosphere of constant hostility and swearing forever sank into the sensitive soul of little Misha. What was especially scary was that this also affected children. Instead of parental affection there were handouts to some and blows to others. Children were divided into “favorites” and “hateful ones.” How different all this is from those “noble nests” that Mikhail Evgrafovich Turgenev, a contemporary, showed us in his novels! How different was the environment of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s childhood from that in which another great Russian writer, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, grew up! It is enough to compare only two works written on an autobiographical basis - Tolstoy’s “Childhood” and Saltykov-Shchedrin’s “Poshekhon Antiquity” - to understand this difference.
Attitude towards serfs
But, perhaps, Shchedrin was even more struck by his childhood impressions associated with the attitude towards serfs. He recalled this with a feeling of inner shudder: “I grew up in the bosom of serfdom. I saw all the horrors of this age-old bondage in their nakedness.” A thrifty and skillful housewife, Olga Mikhailovna was prudently cruel in her dealings with the peasants. Saltykov-Shchedrin's childhood was marked by the fact that he more than once witnessed scenes of savage torture, abuse, and beatings. People were equated with things. Household girls who had done something wrong could be married off to the most worthless men; for the slightest disobedience, peasants were flogged or sold. And all this was considered the norm, a legal means of getting the economy back on its feet.
Visit to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra
The picture of people's suffering was also complemented by those impressions that the future writer remembered after his first visit to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In 1831, his mother took him and his brother Dmitry to Moscow to enroll him in an educational institution where they could continue the education they had received at home. Their road ran through the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, located 70 miles from the Spasskaya estate.
Even from a distance, the traveler had a picturesque view of the fabulous ensemble of the Trinity Monastery, surrounded by powerful white fortress walls with red battle towers. Behind them could be seen cathedrals with golden domes, a light, skyward bell tower and colorful palaces. The monastery itself was full of beggars and cripples who sat down on both sides of the alley and howled sadly. The monks looked completely different, dapper, in silk robes and with colorful rosaries. He remembered the church service, accompanied by chants, for a long time.
Saltykov-Shchedrin visited the Trinity-Sergius Lavra more than once and subsequently. But the impressions from the first visit were undoubtedly the strongest. They found a place in " Provincial essays", and in " Lord Golovlevs", and in " Poshekhon antiquity" Thus, the soldier Pimenov tells the legend of Sergius of Radonezh, Judushka Golovlev dreams of finding peace from the worries of life at the Trinity. In “Poshekhon Antiquity” Shchedrin gave an accurate description of the road from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra to Moscow.
Bright memories
There were also bright memories associated with his native places where he spent his childhood. The surroundings of the estate gave peace to the soul and set one in a contemplative, dreamy mood. From the west there was a forest almost close to the estate. It was full of game, mushrooms and berries. The writer noted: “It’s wonderful that I was born and raised in the village. I knew what a forest was, and many times I even went there to pick mushrooms and berries.” In the east, the forest gave way to shrub thickets of a swamp, along which, two miles from the estate, the Vyulka River slowly carried its waters in the sedge thickets. Behind it, on a hill, the village of Nikitskoye was visible. From there and from other surrounding villages, on holidays, a line of pilgrims went to the Church of the Savior past the master's house. Then the boys and girls danced in circles, and the songs of the peasants were heard. All this also filled the soul of the impressionable boy, bringing into it bright impulses, moods of peace and joy.
Thus, gradually, the formation of the future writer took place with the characteristic combination of the most severe social satire and amazing aspiration for a bright, ideal beginning in his work. This was the childhood of Saltykov-Shchedrin, briefly described in the article. At the intersection of these two seemingly mutually exclusive trends, Shchedrin’s unique, inimitable style was formed, which determined his gift as a writer.
Saltykov-Shchedrin was born into a noble family, in the village of Spas-Ugol, Tver province, and early became acquainted with the life and way of life of the village, with the aspirations and hopes of the peasants. The writer’s works reflected the vivid impressions of childhood - the horrors of serfdom in the most unsightly and naked form.
From the age of ten, he studied at a privileged educational institution - the Moscow Noble Institute, and then, among the best students, was sent to continue his education at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, which under Nicholas 1 turned into a barracks institution that trained obedient officials. Saltykov graduated from it in 1844, entered the office of the War Ministry, became a hardworking and intelligent official and quickly moved up the career ladder. And everything would have been fine, and Saltykov could have risen to a high rank, if not for one “but”: the official wrote poetry, and then began to compose stories and reviews.
While still at the Lyceum, he became friends with Mikhail Petrashevsky and in 1845-1846 attended his St. Petersburg circle, where young democrats studied the works of the French utopian thinkers Saint-Simon and Fourier. (In 1849, the circle was destroyed, 20 people were sent to hard labor and to become soldiers. Among them was F.M. Dostoevsky.)
The writer decided to choose a pseudonym for himself, probably because it was considered inconvenient to be in public service and sign works of art with his last name. Secondly, the surname Saltykov evoked certain associations in Russian society: the landowner Daria Nikolaevna Saltykova (1730-1801), known under the name Saltychikha, tortured more than a hundred serfs, for which she was sentenced to death, which was replaced by imprisonment. From 1768 until the end of her life she spent in a monastery prison. The story of Saltychikha was well known in Russian society, perhaps this prompted Saltykov to choose a pseudonym for himself.
Saltykov chose a pseudonym for himself that fits the word “generous,” that is, “providing assistance widely, willingly spending money on others, not stingy,” since, according to the writer’s wife, he was generous with all kinds of sarcasm in his works.
In March 1848, the magazine “Otechestvennye zapiski” published a story by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin’s “Entangled Affair”, permeated with socialist ideas. In March, news comes from Paris about the revolution that has begun there. The Tsar orders repressions against the “free spirit” to begin. Saltykov was immediately arrested and exiled to Vyatka, where he lived for more than seven years, working mainly as an official on special assignments under the governor. The writer thoroughly studied the life of the province. All the absurdities, ugliness and sorrows provincial life passed before his eyes. The general state of Russia, exhausted by serfdom, tyranny, and covetousness, became more and more clear to him. The writer talks about his Vyatka impressions in “Provincial Sketches,” which brought him all-Russian fame.
At the end of 1855, under Alexander 1, Saltykov was released. He moves to St. Petersburg and serves in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then is appointed vice-governor in Ryazan, Tver, serves in Penza, Gula, and again in Ryazan. The noble vice-governor cannot cope with the established social order, with general bribery and embezzlement. He resigns with the rank of active state councilor (fourth class), which corresponded, according to the Table of Ranks, to major general (in military service) or governor (in civil service).
Since 1868, the entire life of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin is dedicated to literature. He becomes assistant and co-editor
N. A. Nekrasov, after the ban of Sovremennik, publishing “Notes of the Fatherland”; after Nekrasov's death in 1877, he headed the magazine and directed it until 1884 - until the ban.
As an official, he single-handedly tried to fight against the injustices of life, defending the human right to the truth, but his attempts were defeated. Then he took the spear of satire in his hands, and not a single meanness could hide from his gaze. He shocked his contemporaries with his ability to reveal not only negative socio-political and moral phenomena in the life of society, but also the very roots of these phenomena. In order to understand the reasons current state Russia, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin turned to its history.
Shchedrin, real name Saltykov, was born in 1826, in the village of Spas-Ugol, Tver province, now Moscow region, on the family estate.
The strictest economy, parental scandals and swearing, cruel treatment of serfs - this is the world of his childhood, captured in the novel “Poshekhon Antiquity.”
Having received elementary education in the family, the writer studied at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where senior government officials were trained. There his literary and poetic abilities manifested themselves.
After graduation, he began service, which continued with a short break until 1868.
In 1848 the young official, already taking part in the literary and social life of the capital, almost suffered the fate of Dostoevsky: Saltykov was arrested for the stories “Contradictions” (1847) and “A Confused Case” (1848). He continues to serve in Vyatka, from where he returns after the death of Nicholas I, in 1855.
In 1856 - 1857, the satirist, basing his impressions of the province and for the first time using his favorite form - a cycle of closely related stories and scenes, embodied his plan - “Provincial Sketches”.
1858 Saltykov is the vice-governor of Ryazan, later of Tver, and in 1865 - 1868 he served in important posts in Penza, Tula, and Ryazan. According to contemporaries, he was a respectable, incorruptible, and zealous official. But intransigence, rigidity and inflexibility, some cynicism and caustic temperament, reluctance to adapt to the leaders and the current situation, became the reason for leaving the civil service.
Shchedrin devotes himself entirely to literary craft. True experience of life in the outback and awareness of the structure of the state apparatus from the inside made the writer an expert on the national foundations of that time. “Innocent Stories”, “Satires in Prose”, “Pompadours and Pompadours”, and the brilliant “History of a City” appeared, which in its genre became a satirical parody of historical work.
In 1863 - 1864, having temporarily retired from service, Saltykov collaborated with Nekrasov in the Sovremennik magazine. In 1868 - becomes co-editor of Otechestvennye Zapiski, connecting his further literary work with this magazine - social activity. In 1880 The socio-psychological novel “Gentlemen Golovlevs” has been completed.
In 1884 By decision of the government, the popular and democratic “Otechestvennye Zapiski” is closed. The writer perceives this as a personal life disaster. The mental wound inflicted by the banning of the publication, into which so much effort and heart had been invested, did not heal until his death in 1889.
Despite his painful illness and depressed mental state, Saltykov continues to compose. This time includes: “Poshekhon Antiquity”, “Little Things in Life”. Bright, expressive, sharp in their themes fairy tales, the images of which have become household names. The author begins “Forgotten Words”, in the genre of poetic prose, but death interrupts his work.
All the works of the classic are united not by genre, not by theme, or even by a special, sarcastic method of describing what is happening, but by the fact that they are original parts and fragments of one great work, which depicted Russian life late XIX century.
M.E. Saltykov, thanks to the strength and depth of his amazing talent, is a rare, amazing phenomenon. He rightfully occupies a special niche in literature.
A very short biography of Saltykov-Shchedrin
M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin was born in the Tver province in 1826. At the age of 10, he began studying at the Moscow Noble Institute. Having shown himself to be an excellent student, he soon received a transfer to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.
At the age of 19, Mikhail entered military service in the office. At this time, his works began to be published for the first time.
He was exiled to Vyatka in 1848 because his way of thinking was not accepted by many. There he served as a senior official under the governor and later became an advisor to the governor's board.
It was not until 1856 that his residence restriction was lifted. At this time, Mikhail returned to St. Petersburg. There he began to engage in writing again. In addition, the writer worked at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and took part in reforms. In 1858, Saltykov-Shchedrin became vice-governor in Ryazan, and then in Tver. At the age of 36, he resigned, returned to St. Petersburg and began working as editor of Sovremennik magazine.
For several years he tried to return to public service, but the attempts were unsuccessful.
Almost until his death, Mikhail worked in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski, first as one of the editors, and then as the managing editor of the magazine. At this time he creates his own famous work- “The history of one city.”
Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin is one of those rare Russian classics whose names are known to everyone and whose works are often quoted (not just Reshetnikov or Pomyalovsky), but the works themselves are rarely read, and the details of their biography can only be revealed by rare experts... What will a person, even one familiar with the course of 19th century literature, say about Saltykov-Shchedrin? Born into a noble family; albeit not immediately, but he entered the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, from which he graduated with the rank of 10th grade. In his youth he dabbled in poetry, free-thinking, was friends with Petrashevsky, was sent to Vyatka, into exile, but with the right to serve, and began an official career there; Over time, he rose to the post of vice-governor in Ryazan, and then in Tver. I haven't left my whole life literary experiments, published under the pseudonym Nikolai Shchedrin, was considered a satirist and wit, although he had a rather gloomy character. He also made a successful literary career, gained fame, accepted the lyre from the hands of the dying Nekrasov in the form of the journal "Notes of the Fatherland", replacing the poet as editor... He was married and had children in marriage. That's all, actually. No fatal duels, no burning romances, no barricades; I didn’t even pawn my wife’s last coin in the gambling house and didn’t go behind the plow...
And Saltykov’s portraits are known, but not loved - from them a gloomy old man with an unkempt beard looks at us. But Saltykov died at the age of 63, before he really reached old age...
Portrait by Ivan Kramskoy
Meanwhile, upon careful examination, it turns out that Saltykov’s life was full of different events - there was a place in it for love, and various tragedies, and unexpected turns... A worthy plot for a great novel, it’s even strange that Tolstoy and Dostoevsky passed by indifferently.
They say that a person takes out many of his problems from childhood, from his parents’ home. And often, wittingly or unwittingly, he repeats the mistakes of his parents, stepping on the same rake...
Biographers, as a rule, dryly report that Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov was born into a noble family. Meanwhile, his father was not just a nobleman, but a representative of a noble and wealthy family. The Saltykovs often appeared on the stage of history, and these phenomena cannot always be assessed positively. But the name was well known... Evgraf Vasilyevich Saltykov, however, was an ordinary person, unambitious and did not leave a bright mark. But he had 3000 souls of serfs! At that time, 1000 souls were considered great wealth, but here three times more is a lot... And when forty-year-old Evgraf decided to marry a young, even more than young - fifteen-year-old (!) - bride, he was not refused. On the contrary, the offer was accepted with joy.
The groom's relatives turned out to be dissatisfied - not only is Olga Zabelina only 15 years old, but her origin is also rather dubious, she is only considered a noblewoman...
Olga's father Mikhail Petrovich Zabelin received nobility only in 1812 for donating his fortune to the needs of the Moscow militia. Before that, he was a merchant, and simple, merchant morals reigned in the family. However, even having been awarded the nobility, the Zabelins did not turn into aristocrats - sophistication had nowhere to come from, especially since the previous means no longer existed. In addition to youthful freshness, other advantages, general opinion, Olga didn’t have it.
However, the new relatives did not appreciate Olga Zabelina’s grasp - she quickly took her husband, family, serfs and entire fortune into her hands, put her husband’s sisters in their place, who immediately lost the habit of interfering in the affairs of the newlyweds, and gave birth to eight children one after another. Misha was the sixth, but he was his mother's favorite (unlike those children whom she relegated to the category of hateful ones). As she grew older, Olga Mikhailovna lost the charm of her youth, became coarser and became terribly stingy. The mother’s endless debates with the serf cook about how to profitably prepare “blancmange” from yesterday’s soup meat for dinner, and the counting of peaches from the estate greenhouse seemed painful to Mikhail already in early childhood.
Childhood impressions would later form the basis of “Poshekhon Antiquity” - a book that is not only an interesting testimony to the life and everyday life of the “nobles” mediocre"(according to Saltykov-Shchedrin's definition), but speaks a lot about the eternal conflict of generations, "fathers and sons", about the rejection and ridicule by the young of the traditions and values of the older generation... The writer himself asked not to be identified with your own character Nikanor Zatrapezny, on whose behalf the story was told. But this did not deceive anyone - the autobiographical nature of the work and the true facts woven into it literary basis, were obvious.
Misha Saltykov in childhood
In the 1830s, Saltykov as a child came with his mother to Moscow to visit his grandfather Zabelin, who lived near Arbat in Bolshoy Afanasyevsky Lane in own home. (Zabelin’s house has not survived). In that very year 1831, when A.S. Pushkin rented an apartment on Arbat to bring his young wife there after the wedding; little Misha Saltykov came with his mother to Arbat for the first time to visit his grandfather. True, Pushkin and Saltykov missed each other a little in time - Misha stayed in Moscow from August 23 to October 3, when Alexander Sergeevich had already moved to St. Petersburg, and the future writer Saltykov-Shchedrin did not have a chance to see the famous poet walking along the Arbat, arm in arm with his beautiful wife ...
In order not to embarrass or disturb their grandfather, the Saltykovs usually rented a mansion somewhere in the neighborhood of his house. Mikhail Saltykov later embodied his childhood memories in the pages of “Poshekhon Antiquity”:
“At that time there were almost no large houses with several apartments in Moscow, and the alleys were completely lined with small wooden houses, belonging to middle-class nobles (only about them we're talking about in this story, because the so-called Griboyedov Moscow, in which the highest Moscow circle mainly figured, is completely unknown to me, although, undoubtedly, in a moral and mental sense it differed very little from the Moscow I described). For some reason, some of the owners stayed in the villages for the winter and gave their houses to those who wanted them, with all the furnishings. Alas! These are no longer ceremonial mansions in the style of classicism - with tall, slender colonnades, amfilades of spacious halls, wide windows that let in a lot of light and double doors... These were mansions, of which rarely contained more than seven or eight rooms. Among the latter, only two or three “clean” rooms were quite spacious; the rest could, in the full sense of the word, be called cages. The front porch opened onto a cramped courtyard cluttered with services, which was entered from the street through a wooden gate. There was nothing to think about luxurious or even simply comfortable surroundings, and we, also middle-class nobles, did not pretend to be comfortable. Furniture for the most part It was a collection, old, covered with stained leather or torn hair."
This is house number 12 on Bolshoy Afanasyevsky Lane. Very similar house No. 30 in the same lane, also with seven windows on the facade, lived Saltykov-Shchedrin’s grandfather M.P. Zabelin. But house number 30 has not survived... Only a sketch of its facade is in the Historical and Architectural Archive of Moscow.
M.P. Zabelin appears on the pages of “Poshekhon Antiquity” under the name of grandfather Pavel Borisych. "A fat, squat and completely bald old man, he sits at the window of his small wooden house in one of the alleys surrounding the Arbat. On one side he has a table on which lies yesterday's issue of Moskovskie Vedomosti; on the other, on the windowsill, lies a round a snuffbox with Berezinsky tobacco, and a leather cracker with which he beats flies. At his feet, his friend and interlocutor, the fat cat Vaska, sits and washes himself (...) It’s still early, it’s only seven o’clock, but grandfather has already drunk his tea and looks out the window... The lane is deserted, and rarely, rarely, when a passenger cab rattles along the pavement - Grandfather watches him and remembers that the other day Ipat, his trusted one, gave a ten-kopeck piece to such a cabman from Okhotny Ryad to the Arbat.
- And the whole price is a penny, it’s a dime... ehma! - he grumbles, - you don’t mind other people’s money!
But if there are few travelers, then peddlers with trays and various utensils on their heads often look into the alley. Grandfather knows when which one is coming, and he either waves his hand at each one (“no need!”), or opens the window and clicks. (...) In a word, what you want is what you ask for. Grandfather will either buy gooseberries or Pereslavl herring, and sometimes he’ll just talk and let you go without buying anything. In between, he will kill a fly with a firecracker...
Mother Olga Mikhailovna and her entire brood came to Moscow for a reason, but to the “bride fair” in the hope of profitably marrying off the sister of the future writer. According to established tradition, brides and grooms from noble families came to Moscow in search of a couple (let’s remember Tatyana Larina and her mother). As the famous memoirist of that time P. Wistenhoff wrote: “These benefits consist of: according to the understanding of the daughters, so that the groom is liked and rich, or at least liked; according to the understanding of the mothers: so that he is not disgusting and rich; according to the understanding of the evil aunts , grandmothers and guardians: so that, although he is disgusting, he is only rich, and does not ask for a dowry.” But how can the groom not ask for a dowry? “...They all think that rich brides don’t matter in Moscow, that they’ll ripen here like berries in a garden bed, and that taking 400 souls of pure property for a Moscow bride is a mere trifle.”
In order to show society a bride brought from a rural estate, it was necessary to take her to certain places, for example, to the Arbat Church of St. Nicholas the Revealed (in 1830 - 1840 St. Nicholas Church was one of the most “fashionable” in Moscow). M.E. also wrote about this. Saltykov-Shchedrin in “Poshekhonskaya Antiquity”: “Nicholas the Revealed’s rector was an archpriest who became famous for his sermons. They said that he competed in this regard with Metropolitan Philaret, that the latter was jealous of him...”
Young ladies who arrived with their parents in Moscow for the “bride fair” were brought here for grooms’ viewing. During church service potential suitors looked for a suitable beauty, then sent a matchmaker to her house to arrange a personal visit for the applicant. Having praised the groom, his income and fortune, the matchmaker asked the bride's parents for an invitation for the groom ("They are very keen to marry Nadezhda Vasilievna. They saw them in church, at St. Nicholas the Revealed. They liked them so much, they liked them so much!"). If the applicant was considered suitable, he was invited to pay a visit and get to know him better. The bride was preparing for this meeting with excitement (“The sister had thought about her dressing in advance. She would be dressed simply, as if no one had warned her about anything, and she he always walks like this at home. A pink tartalan dress with a high bodice, tied at the waist with a crimson ribbon - that's all. There is a string of pearls woven into her hair, and a brooch with diamonds on her chest; The ribbon is pinned with a buckle, also with diamonds. The main thing is that it’s simple.”) Parents, servants and everyone at home were also fussing before the groom’s visit (“By seven o’clock they cleaned the hall and living room, wiped off the dust from the furniture, lit sconces with wax candles on the walls; in the living room a girandole was placed on the table in front of the sofa ... At the end, they opened the piano in the hall, put notes on the music stand and lit candles on both sides, as if they were playing." Mother had already managed to make inquiries about the groom from her Moscow relatives.
The long-awaited guest is engaged in conversation, which revolves more and more around the Arbat church, so as not to search for common topics for a long time.
“The guest is seated on the sofa next to the hostess.
“It seems that we are somewhat familiar from St. Nicholas the Revealed,” mother kindly begins the conversation.
- I live close to this church, so, to be honest, I go there for mass on holidays.
- And what sermons the archpriest speaks! Oh, what sermons these are!
- How can I tell you, madam... I don’t like them... “Watch” and “remember” - and without it everyone knows! And sometimes he talks freely!”
The bridal party, which seemed quite funny, for example, in “Eugene Onegin,” in Saltykov’s work looks pitiful and wretched... He generally looked at his loved ones with unkind eyes. The efforts were eventually crowned with success, and a groom was found for my sister... Misha was assigned to study in Moscow. Before that, on the estate, his education was quite random - either he was taught to read and write by a serf artist, or by his sister, or by a governess, or by a student at the Theological Academy...
In 1836, Mikhail entered the Lyceum at the Moscow Noble Institute and continued to visit his grandfather’s house until the future writer, as the best student, was transferred to the more prestigious Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum (by that time already taken from Tsarskoe Selo to St. Petersburg). Mother was most pleased that the boy was accepted for a “state fee”, and therefore, his son’s education did not require large expenses.
Despite the meager life of his Moscow relatives, Saltykov fell under the charm of this city, fell in love with Moscow and kept this love in his heart until the end of his life. A person who was at home on Arbat remains forever connected with it by invisible threads.
“My cult towards Moscow was so persistent that it survived even when, for educational purposes (and later with the secret hope of easily obtaining the rank of titular councilor), I had, at the behest of my parents, to move to St. Petersburg. And then it continued to haunt me Moscow has always found in me a fiery and quick defender of its pillars... This is not enough: when we Muscovites went on vacation in the summer, every time we approached Moscow, we demanded that the stagecoach stop on a hill, near Vsekhsvyatsky, then get out of crew and kissed the ground."
These are the kind of sentimental actions that Moscow plunged even Mikhail Saltykov, the future sarcastic-bitter, caustic satirist Shchedrin, into.
Life at the Lyceum also turned out to be boring for Mikhail - he studied poorly (he graduated in 17th place out of 22), was rude, smoked, and irritated teachers with his untidiness. He was not particularly friendly with anyone except Petrashevsky; started writing bad poems, whom he was then shy all his life... However, while still a lyceum student, the young poet achieved his first publications and thanks to this, and to his friend Petrashevsky, he made acquaintances in the literary circles of St. Petersburg... The bureaucratic career began without sparkle - it seemed he was enrolled in the office of the military department, but the first rank they appropriated it only a year later... But he continued to write and publish - bibliographic reviews, essays, and finally stories... In "An Entangled Affair" Mrs. Kroshina appears, a "woman-kulak", in whom they easily recognized Mother Saltykov. When among writers, the always gloomy and melancholy Mikhail spoke little, listened more...
And then, like a bolt from the blue, for publishing freethinking works, Mikhail Saltykov was sent into exile in Vyatka... This was not the exile that seems to our contemporaries, burdened with sad knowledge. Saltykov simply had to move to the province, where he was decently accommodated, had the opportunity to serve and receive a salary, made a career, six months later becoming a senior official for special assignments under the Vyatka governor, and worked locallym society, maintained correspondence with relatives...
But Mikhail, torn out of the St. Petersburg-Moscow circle, took this as a complete collapse of everything...
Saltykov-Shchedrin Museum in the house where he lived in Vyatka
To be continued...
