Nikolai Vladimirovich Nekrasov

Young authors, who had previously published mainly in Otechestvennye Zapiski, willingly switched to Nekrasov's publication. It was Sovremennik that made it possible to reveal the talent of such writers as Ivan Goncharov , Ivan Turgenev , Alexander Herzen , Fyodor Dostoevsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin . Nekrasov himself was not only the editor of the magazine, but also one of its regular contributors. His poems, prose, literary criticism, journalistic articles were published on the pages of Sovremennik.

The period from 1848 to 1855 was a difficult time for Russian journalism and literature due to a sharp tightening of censorship. To fill in the gaps that arose in the content of the magazine due to censorship bans, Nekrasov began to publish in it chapters from the adventure novels Dead Lake and Three Countries of the World, which he wrote in collaboration with his common-law wife Avdotya Panaeva (she was hiding under the pseudonym N .N. Stanitsky).

In the mid-1850s, the demands of censorship softened, but the Sovremennik faced a new problem: class contradictions split the authors into two groups with opposing beliefs. Representatives of the liberal nobility advocated realism and the aesthetic principle in literature, supporters of democracy adhered to a satirical direction. The confrontation, of course, splashed out on the pages of the magazine, so Nekrasov, together with Nikolai Dobrolyubov, founded an appendix to Sovremennik - the satirical publication Whistle. It published humorous novels and stories, satirical poems, pamphlets and caricatures.

At various times, Ivan Panaev, Nikolai Chernyshevsky , Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Alexei Tolstoy published their works on the pages of the Whistle . The supplement was first published in January 1859, and its last issue was released in April 1863, a year and a half after Dobrolyubov's death. In 1866, after the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, the Sovremennik magazine itself was closed.

After the closure of Sovremennik, Nekrasov began publishing the journal Domestic Notes, which he rented from the publisher Andrei Kraevsky. At the same time, the poet worked on one of his most ambitious works - a peasant poem "Who should live well in Russia . "

The idea for the poem came to Nekrasov as early as the late 1850s, but he wrote the first part after the abolition of serfdom, around 1863. The basis of the work was not only the literary experiences of the poet's predecessors, but also his own impressions and memories. According to the author's idea, the poem was to become a kind of epic, demonstrating the life of the Russian people from different points of view. At the same time, Nekrasov purposefully used for writing it not a “high calm”, but a simple colloquial language close to folk songs and legends, replete with colloquial expressions and sayings.

Work on the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" took Nekrasov almost 14 years. But even during this period, he did not have time to fully realize his plan: a serious illness prevented him, which chained the writer to bed. Initially, the work was supposed to consist of seven or eight parts. The route of the heroes' journey, looking for "who lives happily, freely in Russia", lay across the whole country, to St. Petersburg itself, where they were to meet with an official, merchant, minister and tsar. However, Nekrasov understood that he would not have time to complete the work, so he reduced the fourth part of the story - "A Feast for the Whole World" - to an open ending.

During the life of Nekrasov, only three fragments of the poem were published in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski - the first part with a prologue, which does not have its own name, "Last Child" and "Peasant Woman". "A Feast for the Whole World" was published only three years after the death of the author, and even then with significant censorship cuts.

Nekrasov died on January 8, 1878 (December 27, 1877 according to the old style). Several thousand people came to say goodbye to him, who accompanied the coffin of the writer from home to the Novodevichy cemetery in St. Petersburg. This was the first time that a Russian writer was given national honors.

In 1832, Nekrasov turned 11 years old, and he entered the gymnasium, where he studied until the fifth grade. Studying was difficult for him, relations with the gymnasium authorities did not go well - in particular, because of the caustic satirical poems that he began to compose at the age of 16. Therefore, in 1837, Nekrasov went to St. Petersburg , where, according to the wishes of his father, he was supposed to enter the military service.

In St. Petersburg, young Nekrasov, through his friend at the gymnasium, met several students, after which he realized that education interested him more than military affairs. Despite the demands of his father and the threats to leave him without material support, Nekrasov began to prepare for the entrance exams to the university, but failed them, after which he became a volunteer at the Faculty of Philology.

Nekrasov Sr. fulfilled his ultimatum and left his rebellious son without financial assistance. All of Nekrasov's free time from studies was spent looking for work and a roof over his head: it got to the point that he could not afford to have lunch. For some time he rented a room, but in the end he could not pay for it and ended up on the street, and then ended up in a beggar's shelter. It was there that Nekrasov discovered a new opportunity for earning money - he wrote petitions and complaints for a small fee.

Over time, Nekrasov's affairs began to improve, and the stage of dire need was passed. By the early 1840s, he made a living by composing poems and fairy tales, which later appeared in the form of popular prints, published small articles in the Literary Gazette and the Literary Supplement to the Russian Invalid, gave private lessons and composed plays for Alexandrinsky Theater under the pseudonym Perepelsky.

In 1840, at the expense of his own savings, Nekrasov published his first collection of poetry, Dreams and Sounds, consisting of romantic ballads, which traced the influence of the poetry of Vasily Zhukovsky and Vladimir Benediktov. Zhukovsky himself, having familiarized himself with the collection, called only two poems not bad, while he recommended printing the rest under a pseudonym and argued this as follows: “Later you will write better, and you will be ashamed of these poems . ” Nekrasov heeded the advice and released a collection under the initials N.N.

The book "Dreams and Sounds" was not particularly successful with either readers or critics, although Nikolai Polevoy spoke very favorably about the beginning poet, and Vissarion Belinsky called his poems "come out of the soul." Nekrasov himself was upset by his first poetic experience and decided to try himself in prose. He wrote his early stories and novels in a realistic manner: the plots were based on events and phenomena in which the author himself was a participant or witness, and some characters had prototypes in reality. Later, Nekrasov also turned to satirical genres: he created the vaudeville "This is what it means to fall in love with an actress" and "Feoktist Onufrievich Bob", the story "Makar Osipovich Random" and other works.

From the mid-1840s, Nekrasov began to actively engage in publishing activities. With his participation, the almanacs "Physiology of Petersburg", "Articles in Poetry without Pictures", "April 1", "Petersburg Collection" were published, and the latter was especially successful: Dostoevsky's novel "Poor People" was first published in it.

At the end of 1846, Nekrasov, together with his friend, journalist and writer Ivan Panaev, rented the Sovremennik magazine from the publisher Pyotr Pletnev .

Nikolai Nekrasov was born on December 10 (November 28 according to the old style) in 1821 in the small town of Nemirov, Vinnitsa district, Podolsk province. His father Alexei Nekrasov came from a family of once wealthy Yaroslavl nobles, he was an army officer, and his mother Elena Zakrevskaya was the daughter of a possessor from the Kherson province. Parents were against the marriage of a beautiful and educated girl with a poor military man at that time, so the young people got married in 1817 without their blessing.

However, the couple's family life was not happy: the father of the future poet turned out to be a harsh and despotic man, including in relation to his soft and shy wife, whom he called a "recluse". The painful atmosphere that reigned in the family influenced Nekrasov's work: metaphorical images of parents often appeared in his works. Fyodor Dostoevsky said: “It was a heart wounded at the very beginning of life; and this wound that never healed was the beginning and source of all his passionate, suffering poetry for the rest of his life .

Nikolai's early childhood was spent in his father's family estate - the village of Greshnevo, Yaroslavl province, where the family moved after the resignation of Alexei Nekrasov from the army. The boy had a particularly close relationship with his mother: she was his best friend and first teacher, instilled in him a love for the Russian language and the literary word.

Things in the family estate were very neglected, it even came to litigation, and Nekrasov's father took on the duties of a police officer. When leaving on business, he often took his son with him, so from an early age the boy had a chance to see pictures that were not intended for children's eyes: knocking out debts and arrears from peasants, cruel reprisals, all kinds of manifestations of grief and poverty. In his own poems , Nekrasov recalled the early years of his life as follows:

Not! in my youth, rebellious and stern,

There is no remembrance that pleases the soul;

But everything that, having entangled my life since childhood,

An irresistible curse fell on me -

Everything began here, in my native land! ..