Fyodor Tyutchev

Fyodor Tyutchev was a versatile figure in the Russian Empire, born on November 23, 1803, in Bryansk Oblast. He was a writer, poet, diplomat, philosopher, politician, and translator. Tyutchev primarily focused on lyric poetry as his genre.

Tyutchev held citizenship in the Russian Empire and was of Russian nationality. His career accomplishments extended beyond his literary work, as he partook in diplomatic and political roles as well.

Fyodor Tyutchev was not only a talented individual himself but also the father of another Fyodor Tyutchev. He lived a long life and eventually passed away on July 15, 1873, in Pushkin, Saint Petersburg.

Fedor Tyutchev was born on December 5, 1803 in the Ovstug family estate of the Oryol province (now the Bryansk region ). He came from an old Russian noble family that had been known since the 14th century. The poet's father Ivan Tyutchev served in the Kremlin , in the last years of his life he led the "Kremlin Building Expedition" - a state organization that monitored the condition of historical monuments. Fyodor Tyutchev's mother Ekaterina Tolstaya was described by the publicist Ivan Aksakov as "a woman of remarkable intelligence" .

The Tyutchevs lived very friendly. Historian Mikhail Pogodin, a friend of their family, wrote: “Looking at the Tyutchevs, I thought about family happiness. If only everyone lived as simply as they do . " Parents tried to give their children a good education at home: they taught Russian and French, music. The childhood of the future poet, his brother and sister passed in the Ovstug family estate .

“When you talk about Ovstuga, charming, fragrant, blooming, serene and radiant - oh, what attacks of homesickness take possession of me” Fyodor Tyutchev, from a letter to his wife Ernestine Pfeffel

In winter, the Tyutchevs often went to Moscow - the family had a mansion there. Literary critic Vadim Kozhinov wrote: “There is evidence that the Tyutchevs lived in Moscow according to the canons of everyday life inherent in it - they lived openly, widely, hospitably. The whole family indulged in the rituals of holidays, christenings, weddings, name days . In 1812, due to the Patriotic War, they had to change their usual way of life and move to Yaroslavl for a while . After the end of hostilities, the Tyutchevs returned: their house was one of the few that survived the fire .

In the same 1812, Fyodor Tyutchev was hired by a home teacher - Semyon Raich. He was a connoisseur of ancient Greek, Latin, Italian. With his help, the future poet studied ancient literature and "by the thirteenth year he was already translating Horace's odes with remarkable success . " It was Raich that Fyodor Tyutchev dedicated one of his first poems, including the message “On the stone of fatal life” (“S.E. Raich”) :

The mind is quick and sharp, the eye is true, Imagination - quickly ... And he argued in his life only once - At the master's dispute.

The future poet not only read a lot, he was interested in art and history. Among his favorite books were collections by Gavriil Derzhavin , Vasily Zhukovsky and Mikhail Lomonosov , The History of the Russian State by Nikolai Karamzin . From 1816 he was a volunteer at Moscow University and attended lectures.

“The child was extremely kind-hearted, meek, affectionate disposition, alien to any coarse inclinations; all the properties and manifestations of his childish nature were brightened up by some especially subtle, elegant spirituality. Thanks to his amazing abilities, he studied unusually successfully. But even then it was impossible not to notice that the teaching was not a labor for him, but, as it were, the satisfaction of the natural need for knowledge. Ivan Aksakov, "Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev. Biographical sketch»

Semyon Raich gave one of Tyutchev's first works to his mentor, Alexei Merzlyakov, a professor at Moscow University. Merzlyakov decided to read the ode "For the New Year 1816" at a meeting of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature in February 1818. Soon Tyutchev - he was then 14 years old - was accepted into the organization. The poet's first poems began to appear in the journal Proceedings of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature.

In 1819, Tyutchev passed the exams in history, geography, and foreign languages, among which were Latin, French and German, and became a student at the Faculty of Literary Sciences of Moscow University. At the university, he closely communicated with the historian Mikhail Pogodin, the poet Dmitry Venevitinov, the writers Vladimir Odoevsky and Andrei Muravyov. In 1821, Tyutchev dedicated the poem "Spring greeting to the poets" to his comrades.

Fyodor Tyutchev graduated from Moscow University at the end of 1821, a year ahead of schedule. To do this, he received special permission from the Minister of Public Education, Prince Alexander Golitsyn. A year later, Tyutchev moved to St. Petersburg . There the poet became an employee of the State Collegium of Foreign Affairs. In the capital, he lived in the house of his relative, Count Osterman-Tolstoy, a general, a hero of the Patriotic War. It was he who recommended sending Tyutchev on a diplomatic mission to Munich. Later, the poet wrote to his parents: “A strange thing is the fate of man. It was necessary for my fate to arm itself with the surviving Osterman's hand in order to throw me so far from you! .

Tyutchev lived in the Kingdom of Bavaria for more than twenty years - he finally returned to Russia only in 1844. In Germany, he met the philosopher Friedrich Schelling, the poets Johann Goethe and Heinrich Heine. The poet translated the works of German philosophers and writers, including Friedrich Schiller's Song of Joy, attended literary evenings, corresponded with foreign scholars, and wrote journalistic articles in French.

“Tyutchev's connections with the culture of the West are sometimes portrayed one-sidedly - they are reduced to only German connections. In fact, other European authors were also of considerable importance for Tyutchev: he mastered the poetry of Byron , he turned to Shakespeare more than once , he knew French romanticism, the French realistic novel, and French historical science very well. Munich and Bavaria, and then for a while Turin and Italy were instructive for Tyutchev not only in themselves - they "pushed" him into Europe, from these cities he was clearly visible to the political and cultural life of other European capitals " Naum Berkovsky, "On Russian Literature"

Fedor Tyutchev did not leave literary creativity either. In the second half of the 1820s, he wrote about seventy poems, including "Spring Thunderstorm" , "As the ocean embraces the globe of the earth ...", "Silentium!" other. During these years, the poet created philosophical, landscape and love lyrics. Later , Valery Bryusov wrote about his work at this time: “Tyutchev learned almost nothing from his Russian predecessors. In his early poems there is the influence of Zhukovsky and, in part, Derzhavin; later Tyutchev took something from Pushkin . But on the whole, his verse is extremely independent, original .

Already in 1823, a few months after moving to Munich, Tyutchev composed for Amalia von Lerchenfeld, with whom he was in love, the poem "Your sweet look, full of innocent passion ...". Two years later, the poet almost became a duel because of her . To avoid scandal, he had to return to Russia for six months. Later, Tyutchev dedicated the poem “I remember the golden time” and “I met you, and all the past” to his beloved . Immediately after his return, Tyutchev married Eleanor Peterson , the widow of Russian diplomat Alexander Peterson, from whom she had four children. The poet wrote to his parents:“I want you who love me to know that no person has ever loved another as she loved me ... there was not a single day in her life when, for the sake of my well-being, she would not agree, without a moment's hesitation, to die for me . " They later had three daughters.

In 1829, Tyutchev's teacher Semyon Raich began publishing the magazine Galatea in Moscow. He invited the poet to publish. Tyutchev agreed, and his poems were printed in almost every issue. After the closure of Galatea in 1830, Tyutchev was invited to collaborate with Mikhail Maksimovich's almanac Dennitsa. In this edition, the works "Calmage" , "Spring Waters" , "The Last Cataclysm" were published .

“Tyutchev, as already mentioned, was in no hurry to become a poet; becoming a poet, he again was in no hurry to publish poetry. It is known that he submitted poems to Moscow magazines and almanacs only thanks to the persistent requests of Raich, the Kireevsky brothers, and Pogodin. In very rare cases - and then only in the last years of his life - the poet's poems got into print on his personal initiative. Vadim Kozhinov, "Tyutchev" (from the series "Life of Remarkable People")

Tyutchev was very demanding about his work - he rewrote and reworked finished works many times, and destroyed some of them. He recalled: "Ah, writing is a terrible evil, it is, as it were, the second fall of the poor mind ..." . His poems, even published, were little known in the early 1830s. And Tyutchev's career was not successful - he received a small salary and did not live well.

In 1835, the poet's friend Ivan Gagarin returned from a diplomatic mission to St. Petersburg and learned that Tyutchev was almost unknown in Russia. Gagarin persuaded the poet to send him a notebook with the last poems and took several unpublished works from Raich. And then he showed all the collected manuscripts to Peter Vyazemsky and Vasily Zhukovsky.

“... The other day I give Vyazemsky some poems, carefully disassembled and rewritten by me; a few days later I casually drop in on him around midnight and find him alone with Zhukovsky reading your poems and completely carried away by the poetic feeling that your poems breathe. I was in admiration, delighted, and every word, every remark, especially Zhukovsky, convinced me more and more that he correctly understood all the shades and all the charm of this simple and deep thought. Diplomat Ivan Gagarin, from correspondence with Fyodor Tyutchev

Vyazemsky and Zhukovsky handed over the works to Alexander Pushkin. He read them and in 1836 published them in Sovremennik under the heading "Poems sent from Germany". Pushkin was careful about the publication - the censor Krylov wanted to remove several stanzas from the poem "Not what you think, nature ..." . But the poet achieved publication with dots in place of the missing stanzas. So the readers of the magazine could understand: in the magazine the poem is incomplete and reduced by the decision of censorship.

“I was told by eyewitnesses how delighted Pushkin was when he first saw a collection of his [Tyutchev’s] handwritten poems ... He rushed about with them for a whole week” Yuri Samarin, publicist, philosopher

Tyutchev's poems were published in three books of Sovremennik, including in 1837, after Pushkin's death. Despite this, critics almost did not react to them. At the same time, Ivan Gagarin, who wanted to publish a book of Tyutchev's works, returned to serve in Germany. Literary critic Naum Berkovsky wrote: "Tyutchev still did not truly enter literature at that time . "

In May 1837, the poet again came to Russia for several months. Here he composed the poem "January 29, 1837" about the death of Pushkin:

Peace, peace be with you, O shadow of the poet, Peace be bright to your ashes!.. In spite of human vanity Great and holy was your lot!.. You were a living organ of the gods, But with blood in your veins... sultry blood.

In 1838, Fyodor Tyutchev was sent on a diplomatic mission to Turin. Eleanor Peterson and the children sailed to him on a steamboat. When they were near the German city of Lübeck, the ship caught fire. Tyutchev's wife and his children were not hurt, but, of course, they were very scared. Eleanor Peterson's health deteriorated after the disaster. In August 1838, after a serious illness, she died. However, a few months later Tyutchev married again. Ernestine Dernberg became his wife. The poet met her back in 1833 and has since maintained a relationship, wrote several love poems, including "I love your eyes, my friend ..." and "Memories of March 20, 1836 !!!". In the marriage of Tyutchev and Dernberg, five children were born.

In 1839, Fyodor Tyutchev filed a petition to leave the service. He remained in Europe until 1844. In 1843 he met Alexander Benckendorff, head of the Third Department of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery. Benckendorff was in charge of the detective and was the chief of the gendarmes. Tyutchev showed him his philosophical works - reflections on the fate of Russia and the West, and Benckendorff handed them over to Emperor Nicholas I. Tyutchev wrote to his parents: “He [Benckendorff] assured me that my thoughts were received quite favorably, and there is reason to hope that they will be given a move”. Nicholas I read the poet's works and supported his ideas. Tyutchev wanted to change the attitude of Europeans towards Russia and was going to publish articles on politics in well-known German and French magazines. The emperor promised to support the poet and invited him to Petersburg for an audience. September 20, 1844 Tyutchev returned to Russia. However, three days later, Benckendorff, who patronized the poet, died. As Ivan Kozhinov wrote: “The death of Benckendorff, obviously, interrupted the implementation of the entire Tyutchev “project” .

In 1845, a few months after returning to St. Petersburg, Fedor Tyutchev again became an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For several years - until 1849 - he stopped writing poetry. During these years, the poet attended secular salons , balls . The Petersburg nobility remembered him as a good storyteller who understood politics and philosophy.

“It happened a lot in my lifetime to talk and listen to famous storytellers, but none of them made such a charming impression on me as Tyutchev. Witty, gentle, caustic, kind words, like pearls, casually rolled from his lips<...> When he began to speak, tell, everyone instantly fell silent, and in the whole room only Tyutchev's voice was heard <...> Tyutchev's main charm <...> was the fact that <…> there was nothing prepared, learned, invented” Writer Vladimir Sologub, "Memoirs"

In 1848, Tyutchev was appointed senior censor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This position did not bring the poet a lot of money, and the work seemed to him boring and monotonous. Every day, Tyutchev had to search the press for articles on foreign policy. He wrote to his parents: “If I weren’t so poor, with what pleasure would I throw in their faces the maintenance that they pay me, and openly break with this crowd of cretins ... What a brat, great God! ..” . During these years, he wrote and published articles in French, including "Russia and the Revolution", "Russia and Germany", "The Papacy and the Roman Question". The poet conceived a large-scale historical treatise "Russia and the West", in which he planned to present his thoughts on foreign policy. The work remained unfinished, although Tyutchev worked on it for several years.

“By the end of the 40s, Tyutchev began to preach the political and spiritual isolation of Russia from Europe. According to his treatises, Russia is a great patriarchal empire, a pillar of order, a confessor of Christian impersonality and humility. The Christian idea coexisted perfectly with Tyutchev's aggressive pathos, with calls for the expansion of territories, for the capture of Constantinople, which, according to his theory, was supposed to be the center of a state uniting the Slavic peoples under the rule of the Russian Tsar " Naum Berkovsky, "On Russian Literature"

In 1850, the poet Nikolai Nekrasov called Tyutchev "Russian paramount poetic talent" in his article . Shortly thereafter, his old works began to appear in magazines, and Tyutchev himself began to write poetry again and publish them. In the early 1850s, “Like a Pillar of Smoky Brightens Above!” , “Tears of people, oh tears of people”, “Oh, how deadly we love” and other works. At the same time, Ivan Turgenev and Nikolai Nekrasov prepared for publication his first collection , which was published in 1854. A large circulation for that time - three thousand copies - was sold out in a short time.

At this time, the poet wrote philosophical and love lyrical poems, which were combined into the so-called "Denisiev" cycle: he devoted most of it to his beloved Elena Denisiev . The poet met her back in the late 1840s at the Smolny Institute , where he came to visit his daughters Daria and Ekaterina. Denisyeva studied with them. For almost fifteen years - until Denisyeva's death in 1864 - Tyutchev maintained relations with both his legal wife and her. Denisyeva wrote: “I have nothing to hide and there is no need to hide from anyone: I am more than anything his wife than his ex-wives, and no one in the world has ever loved and appreciated him as much as I love and appreciate him . ” She bore Tyutchev three children.

In addition to love lyrics , Fyodor Tyutchev wrote a lot on political topics during these years. In the service, he received a promotion: in 1857 he was appointed head of the Foreign Censorship Committee. This institution was responsible for all printed products that were imported into the territory of the Russian Empire. During the leadership of Tyutchev, the number of books and magazines increased, and censorship softened.

The poet regularly published his philosophical reflections in magazines. In 1857, he wrote an article entitled "On Censorship in Russia", in which he reflected on the state's policy towards publishers : since then nothing really real can be undertaken with some grounds for success; and the hope of gaining influence on the minds with the help of the press <.> would remain a constant delusion .

In 1862, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was headed by Pushkin 's comrade from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum , Prince Alexander Gorchakov. Tyutchev developed friendly relations with him, they corresponded a lot. With Gorchakov, the poet shared his views on foreign policy. Tyutchev was close to the concept of the Slavophiles: he believed that Russia was following its own original path and its history was fundamentally different from the history of European countries. These ideas of the poet manifested themselves in his political lyrics, among which are the poems “The East is doubtfully silent” , “Russia cannot be understood with the mind ...” and “Slavs” .

“Politics and poetry in the broadest sense of these two concepts were the essence of his life, the policy of the peaceful whole life of mankind and politics as a set of issues that vividly and passionately affect the interests of Russia and suit its future. Along with politics, there was also poetry, which was something akin to politics in its spiritual being ... " Vladimir Meshchersky, "Memoirs"

From the 1860s, Fyodor Tyutchev was often ill. Elena Denisyeva wrote to her sister: "Fyodor Ivanovich fell ill again and very badly: he is in bed, and for at least a week ..." . In 1864, their third child, son Nikolai, was born. Soon after, Denisyeva fell seriously ill and died. Tyutchev wrote about this: “Emptiness, terrible emptiness ... Even to remember her - to call her, alive, in memory, as she was, looked, moved, spoke, and I can’t. Terrible, unbearable… ” In the following year, 1865, the two youngest children of Tyutchev and Denisyeva, Elena and Nikolai, fell ill and died. The eldest son Fyodor was taken to her by the daughter of the poet Anna Tyutcheva. At this time, Tyutchev dedicated almost all the poems to his deceased beloved, he thought a lot about old age and imminent death.

“Life, like a shot bird, Wants to rise - and cannot. There is no flight, no scope - Broken wings hang, And all of it, clinging to the dust, Trembling from pain and impotence ... " An excerpt from the poem "Oh, this South, oh, this Nice!" , 1864

In the 1870s, the health of the poet himself also deteriorated. Shortly after Denisyeva's death, his mother died. Naum Berkovsky wrote: "Tyutchev was seriously ill, but he did not want to admit his illness and was eager for an active life . " Tyutchev did not leave the service and did not listen to the advice of doctors who recommended that he leave for the estate and live in peace. In the last years of his life, the poet experienced problems with vision and speech, could not write, but continued to dictate poems and articles. Tyutchev closely followed the Franco-Prussian war and subscribed to newspapers, discussed the latest news with all visitors. In 1872, he wrote to his daughter: “In my incorrigible frivolity, I still cannot but be interested in everything that happens in the world, as if I would not have to leave it soon ...”. Soon the beloved daughter of the poet Maria died. Shortly before his death, Tyutchev composed his last poems “Insomnia” (“At night in the city desert ...”) and “The executing God took everything from me ...” .

Fyodor Tyutchev died on July 27, 1873 in Tsarskoye Selo . The poet was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in St. Petersburg.