Alexey Vasilievich Koltsov born on October 3, 1809 in Voronezh into a large merchant family. The family was strong, patriarchal, everyone and everything obeyed the stern and oppressive father. Vasily Petrovich Koltsov was engaged in a variety of activities - rented land, sold wheat, traded livestock. “Three times he made up to 70 thousand, went down and made money again,” the poet himself later recalled.
The parents managed to give their daughters a quite decent education for those times. Alexey, bypassing the elementary department, immediately entered the first grade of a two-year district school, where they taught Russian, arithmetic, early Latin and even German. The future poet studied for only a year and a half and was taken out of school - from the age of 11 he helped his father in his merchant affairs. Continuous travel on Prasol affairs, weeks spent in the steppe, nights in the open air, sunrise - all this was reflected in the poems of A. Koltsov. One of the clerks V.P. Koltsova recalled: “It used to be in the summer, in the steppe, especially in the evenings, at sunset, it would already get dark, and he, darling, would write, and write. I am his - Lexey Vasilievich! Where you go, he doesn’t hear, he looks like an idol. At that time I looked like a complete eccentric.” Belinsky later called the steppe “the first school of life” for Koltsov. Perhaps it is no coincidence that it was in the steppe - “wide”, “free”, “free” (this is how it entered Koltsov’s work) - that he felt himself a poet. “And the steppe enchanted me again,” he wrote to Belinsky in July 1838.
This is how A.Ya remembers it. Panaeva (wife of the writer I.I. Panaev): “Once Koltsov drank tea with us; besides him there were only Belinsky and Katkov. Koltsov was very talkative and, among other things, told how he wrote poetry for the first time. “I spent the night with my father’s herd in the steppe, the night was dark, pitch-dark and such silence that only the rustling of the grass could be heard, the sky above me was also dark, high, with bright blinking stars. I couldn’t sleep, I lay there and looked at the sky. Suddenly poems began to form in my head; Before that, I was constantly running fragmentary, unconnected rhymes, but here they took a definite form. I jumped to my feet in a kind of feverish state; To make sure it wasn't a dream, I read my poems out loud. I experienced a strange feeling listening to my own poems.”
In 1827, 36 poems were already included in the large notebook “Exercises of Alexei Koltsov. Selected best and corrected.” The epigraph is also characteristic - “Sciences nourish young men” - famous words M.V. Lomonosov. And 3 years later, “Leaflets from notebook V. Sukhachev”, where 3 poems by the young Koltsov “Vengeance”, “It’s not for me to listen”, “Come to me” were first published (albeit anonymously). The following year, 1831, the poems were published under the poet’s name in the Moscow newspaper “Listok” and in the St. Petersburg “Literary Gazette” - a publication by Pushkin and Delvig. And this is already a considerable success. Koltsov's name becomes famous. The poem “Ring” was sent to Literaturnaya Gazeta by N. Stankevich, and it was he who helped the poet with the publication of his collection in 1835, which included 18 poems. Koltsov's poems from 1835 to 1842. published in well-known St. Petersburg and Moscow publications: “Rumor”, “Domestic Notes”, “Literary Additions to the “Russian Invalid”, etc. At the beginning of 1836, Koltsov spent several months in Moscow, where he became close to Belinsky, and in St. Petersburg meets Vyazemsky, Zhukovsky, Pushkin. And in the same year, his poem “Harvest” was published in Pushkin’s Sovremennik.
The collection of 1835 could not completely satisfy Koltsov. The idea of a new collection appeared in both 1837 and 1840. (already a book at 15 printed sheets). This plan was not destined to come true, just like Koltsov’s dream - to escape from Voronezh and move to the northern capital. The reasons were financial dependence on his father (a circumstance all the more unbearable since Koltsov himself managed and settled family affairs) and a severe debilitating illness. “For a long time now, I’ve had this sad realization in my soul that I won’t be happy for a long time in Voronezh. I’ve been living in it for a long time and I look out there like an animal. My circle is small, my world is dirty, it is bitter for me to live in it, and I don’t know how I haven’t been lost in it long ago. Some good force invisibly supports me from falling,” he wrote to Belinsky on August 15, 1840. “If you knew how much I don’t want to go home - it’s so cold that I feel at the thought of going there, but I have to go - a necessity, an ironclad law" (December 15, 1840). Koltsov’s premonition did not deceive him. A severe incurable illness (consumption) and unbearable home circumstances hastened his death - October 29, 1842.
The second collection of Koltsov’s poems was published by V.G. Belinsky in 1846
Koltsov, Alexey Vasilievich
- “poet-prasol”, “artist of Russian song”, one of the favorite poets of the Russian school, b. October 3, 1809 in Voronezh, d. in the same place on October 29, 1842. His father, Vasily Petrovich, a Voronezh tradesman, traded in cattle; His education, despite his rather significant wealth, was limited to literacy; the poet's mother, Praskovya Ivanovna, was illiterate. Koltsov's son's schooling lasted only a year and three months at the district school, from where his father took him from the second grade in 1821 in order to accustom him to the trade business. From then on, the boy's mental needs were satisfied by randomly encountered books - first fairy tales, then novels (Aug. La Fontaine, Ducret-Dumesnil, "Cadmus and Harmony" by Kheraskov). The first poems read by Koltsov, the works of I. I. Dmitriev, made a strong impression on him; noticing the presence of rhythm, he decided that they should not be read, but sung, which he did until he was disabused by the bookseller Kashkin, who gave him “Russian Prosody” to read; From then on, Koltsov’s poetic experiments began (the play “Three Visions,” which retold the dream of a boy comrade, etc.), extremely imperfect, until the influence of seminarian Serebryansky, who was at that time in the senior philosophy class, came into play. According to the reviews of people who knew him, the son of a village priest, Andrei Porfiryevich Serebryansky, was a richly gifted person, distinguished by his mental development and could write good poetry - he owns a fairly well-known song “Fast as the waves are the days of our lives” - at the same time standing out for his idealism aspirations and spiritual fervor, which was expressed, according to Koltsov, in hot, animated improvisations. The friendship with Serebryansky, which began around 1827, gave Koltsov a lot: since then, Koltsov’s poems have often been corrected by Serebryansky; exchanging thoughts and reading together replenishes his mental development; but it also had another meaning for the future friend of Belinsky and Stankevich - it prepared him for the perception of this most important influence in his mental life, since, despite all the differences in positions and scientific training, spiritual appearance Serebryansky had undoubted similarities with the mental mood of the famous circle. In the first "Duma" Koltsov (""), written in 1833, it is impossible to separate the echoes of Koltsov's first trip to Moscow to see Stankevich (1831) from the possible influences of Serebryansky, who himself was the author of the philosophical ode "Immortality". This is Serebryansky's participation in Koltsov's authorship for more early period its development, which, of course, cannot be accurately assessed, subsequently gave reason to accuse Koltsov of appropriating someone else’s property. The prosecution relied on a few words from a letter from Serebryansky, who was dying of consumption, to his brother. The best objection in favor of Koltsov can be his subsequent, more valuable works and also his ardent attitude towards the fate of his dying (in 1838) friend, with whom he had separated several years before, and to Belinsky’s assessment of Serebryansky’s poems: he sent several poems to Belinsky Serebryansky, Koltsov wrote to critics: “I’m impatiently waiting to hear about Serebryansky’s poems - was he really a bad poet”... “We grew up with him, read Shakespeare together, thought, argued. I owe him so much, he’s too much for me spoiled”... It also doesn’t hurt to note that, with the exception of the above song, all of Serebryansky’s surviving poems are bad.
A new era in Koltsov’s life begins with his rapprochement with N.V. Stankevich (probably in 1830). The circumstances of their first meeting are conveyed differently; a more plausible story, coming through Neverov from Stankevich himself, conveys that, having driven a herd of cattle to the Stankevich estate, Koltsov, having dinner with the servants, sang to her songs of his own composition; Having become interested in the prasol songwriter based on the servant’s story, Stankevich wanted to see him and unmistakably identified in him the presence of native poetic talent. Since then, Stankevich’s concerns about Koltsov did not stop until he left abroad in 1837, from where he was not destined to return. When in 1831 Koltsov went to Moscow for the first time on behalf of his father, he stayed with Stankevich and through him met members of the circle, by whom he was greeted very cordially: the ideal impulses of Stankevich’s friends and that desire for spiritual improvement in which they saw the meaning of life , should have made them see a phenomenon kindred to them in spirit in an inquisitive and receptive self-taught person. But both the external facts of this trip and the immediate traces of its influence on Koltsov’s spiritual life cannot be traced even approximately. But the circle’s participation in Koltsov is expressed in concerns about his literary fame: since then his poems have been published in magazines; in the "Literary Gazette" for 1831, the play "Ring" (later "Ring") appears, accompanied by notes by Stankevich, which indicate the name of the author, his age, occupation and degree of education. A number of Koltsov’s plays were then published in Listok, Molva and Teleskop. However, for the first time, Koltsov’s poems saw the light even earlier, in 1830, thanks to an accident: a certain Sukhachev, a little-known writer, while passing through Voronezh, became acquainted with the “self-taught” and included three of Koltsov’s plays, without the author’s name, in his book: “Leaves from the Notebook books S." - Koltsov was indebted to his new Moscow friends for the first separate edition of his works, the only one during the poet’s lifetime. In one of the circle meetings, the fate of the publication was decided, for which Stankevich provided funds; in 1835 a book appeared, containing only 18 plays and entitled: “Poems of Alexei Koltsov,” which was not immediately noticed by many. Nedezhdin’s perplexed and disdainful oral review of her is known, which did not prevent, however, Belinsky from giving a sympathetic note about her in “Telescope,” published by the same Nadezhdin. The Slavophile press overlooked this original manifestation of the Russian folk spirit. Belinsky, who was in charge of the publication, mentioned in the preface to it the material participation of Stankevich, which led the latter to indignation: he was in despair that he would be considered a literary entrepreneur, a “literary worker.” Fortunately, there was a delay at the printing house, and the preface was destroyed. Regarding this, two letters from Stankevich to Belinsky from the village have been preserved. Stankevich was also indebted to Koltsov for the first biographical sketch: Ya. M. Neverov, to whom Koltsov appeared in March 1836 in St. Petersburg with a letter of recommendation from Stankevich, published a few months later an article: “The poet-prasol A.V. Koltsov” (in “Son of the Fatherland” 1836), warmly written, in which he more than once refers to Stankevich, without, however, calling him by name; pointing to the publication of 1835 and naming a number of plays that later appeared in magazines, he values them especially for their spontaneity, “as a pure and free outpouring of the soul.” The period of Koltsov’s life, which consisted between his first and second trips to the capital (1831-1836), represents an almost complete gap in his generally sparse biography. Over the space of five years, only one “Duma” (1833) represents an example of ideological creativity; it is expressed entirely in songs with pictures of folk life; the amount of writing is small, but among it there are such famous plays, like “Harvest”, “Don’t make noise, rye”, “Don’t sing, nightingale”. The poet's time, obviously, was occupied by life itself, affairs, wandering through the steppes, impressions of nature - all that later, until the end of his life, provides material for observations, moods and colors of the Russian folk poetry of Koltsovo. By the nature of his nature, Koltsov felt the need to actively, actively, sometimes passionately, participate in life, perceiving its impressions extremely sensually. We have reason to imagine him at this early time as a lively, quick-witted industrialist who did not miss his goal, who was not afraid of the hardships and dangers of steppe overnight stays, who was not averse to simple, riotous fun, who sometimes did not disdain either the ordinary tricks of a young lady or the dirty, even cruel side of the befall. he had his share of the trade, which sometimes forced him to spend whole days among pools of blood, when dozens of bulls were killed and the master’s eye was required. People's life, with its work, simplicity, freedom and revelry, then entered his soul in a wide wave, not yet being analyzed, and when a break with the environment subsequently began to appear, it had to have its source not in the nervous weakness and disgust of the white-handed woman, but in the mental , moral and aesthetic needs that spoke imperiously in the soul and for which environment was so clearly unfavorable; then he put into the struggle with her the same activity and passion with which he had previously participated in her work and in her fun; but due to the circumstances of his life, instead of openly fighting the enemy, he only had to tease him and annoy him, which is why it is so difficult in Koltsov’s later history to separate serious protest from nit-picking and true drama from trifles and dirt.
At the beginning of 1836, Koltsov again went to Moscow and from there for the first time to St. Petersburg for litigation and trade affairs father. On this trip he became close to Belinsky, whose relationship later turned into friendship; After Koltsov moved to St. Petersburg, his correspondence with Belinsky began, which then continued until the end of Koltsov’s life and occupied the most important place in his correspondence. The respectful tone of the student when addressing the teacher is heard from the very beginning, it will remain until the end, subsequently connecting with an expression of love, even tenderness. Reproaching himself for burdening Belinsky with some kind of assignment, Koltsov writes (1836): “Forgive me... I thought very stupidly: a man who devoted himself to sublime thoughts, who, in full ideas of common sense, deduces sacred truths and gives them to the whole world. ... and I’m a fool, I disturbed your thoughts with my trifle” - the way of expression is characteristic of the development of the poet-prasol at that time. - In St. Petersburg, thanks to the recommendations of Moscow friends, Koltsov acquired a lot literary dating; he got into business literary connections with Kraevsky, Vladislavlev and others, who later helped him publish his poems in the magazine; Koltsov met with Pushkin, the prince was warmly received. Odoevsky, Zhukovsky, Pletnev, at the evening at which he was met by I. S. Turgenev, who preserved for us in his “Literary Memoirs” the appearance of the poet at that time. Among new relationships, Koltsov showed a lot of tact and self-control, behaved modestly, but with dignity; a less favorable impression is made by his desire to derive practical benefit from the prince’s sympathetic attitude towards him. P. A. Vyazemsky, Zhukovsky and Prince. V.F. Odoevsky for his father’s litigation. These affairs took place between the Koltsovs and local peasants over leased pastures and were of a slanderous nature, which even caused a protest from the Moscow circle; the poet had to justify himself, referring to his subordinate role as his father's attorney. Petitioners and Thanksgiving letters Koltsov to the three persons named above make an unfavorable impression by the tone of naivety that prevails in them and which contradicts Koltsov’s true mentality; once his requests apparently met with resistance even from the good-natured and gentle Zhukovsky. In May 1836, Koltsov was again in Voronezh, apparently encouraged and inspired by the impressions he had experienced. This is a moment of rising strength, revitalization of hopes and plans; faith in one’s talent is noticeable; Koltsov’s poetic activity becomes more intense, searching for new themes; Almost all best plays Koltsov were written after 1836. But the influence of the impressions he experienced went even deeper: the world of broad mental and aesthetic interests, which Koltsov was lucky enough to see in its best representatives, irresistibly attracted a talented and still full of strength nature. The immediate fruit of this influence is Koltsov’s “Dumas,” which almost all focus on these middle years (1836-1838) of Koltsov’s short poetic career. After Belinsky’s hot article, more cool-headed subsequent criticism more than once pointed out their shortcomings: uncertainty, sometimes confusion of thought; the author is more perplexed where he asks, than where he tries to give answers; but this does not prevent us from recognizing the poetic merits of certain places where the prasol poet managed to combine the abstract breadth of his concept with the spirit of poetry in images and contrasts, warming them with courageous and strong lyricism, equal to the grandeur of the plot ("God's World", "Unsolved Truth", "Prayer ", "Forest", etc.). Looking closely at Koltsov’s “Thoughts”, it is easy to find in them traces of those philosophical ideas that lived in Stankevich’s circle, the ideas of Schelling’s philosophy; it is enough to compare the characteristic lines in Belinsky’s “Literary Dreams”: “The whole boundless beautiful world of God is nothing more than the breath of a single eternal idea, the thought of a single, eternal God” - with the thought “The Kingdom of Thought” (1837). We find the same idea of the presence of thought in nature and the primordial kinship of the spirit of nature with the personal spirit in the thought “Forest” (1839). The high view of the artist, flowing from Schelling’s philosophy, as a “competitor of the spirit of life flowing in the depths of nature,” and of art, as a rare fusion on earth of “the ideal and the real in the absolute,” has its echo in several of Koltsov’s “thoughts.” You can also connect with him that hot letter similar to a “poem in prose”, which was written by Koltsov to Kraevsky about the death of Pushkin: “The sun was shot through... fell to the ground like an ugly block”... - At that time family relationships Koltsov were quite satisfactory - better than ever. The practical benefits that the son derived from his acquaintances in the capital pleased his father. In July 1837, Zhukovsky came to Voronezh, accompanying the Heir to the Throne, saw Koltsov more than once and caressed him in front of everyone. This unexpected honor raised the young poet and his literary activity in the eyes of his father and environment. But a turn in the unfavorable direction soon followed.
Koltsov’s third trip dates back to the very beginning of 1838; first he spent some time in Moscow, where this time he became close to M. Bakunin and V.P. Botkin, and saw the Aksakovs; Koltsov's relationship with Belinsky remained very close; Having moved to St. Petersburg, Koltsov served as an intermediary in his relations with Kraevsky and Polev: preparations were being made for Belinsky’s move to St. Petersburg (in 1839); in May Koltsov was again in Moscow, and by June he returned to Voronezh. We do not know the details of this trip and the impressions the poet made, but it was from this time that a double note began to sound more and more strongly in Koltsov’s letters - distrust of one’s own strengths and alienation, even bitterness towards the environment. The task of re-educating his personality, which he would like to accomplish according to the broadest program, seems impossible to the poet: “I have been given from God a sea of desires, and from the box of my soul,” he says with bitterness; in his letters during this time we find traces of intensive reading, but philosophical studies, apparently approved by Belinsky, give little results, the terminology is confusing ("subject", "object", "absolute"); he strives in vain for “real” understanding, so that “he himself can convey: without this there is no concept,” he admits that under Belinsky things went differently. Losing faith in the possibility of a new structure of life, Koltsov, at the same time, became more and more at odds with the old one: “I’m growing apart little by little with my acquaintances... everyone is bored - the conversations are vulgar... they laugh at me”... He emphasizes in his letters the dirty and the rough side of his trade: “I spent the whole day at the factory, admiring the slaughtered cattle and people, ragged, dirty in mud, covered in blood from head to toe.” Meanwhile, trading requires “the whole person”; there is neither time nor energy left for anything else. At this time, Serebryansky died, not having time to make peace with Koltsov, with whom he was in a quarrel. His death evoked several heated lines in Koltsov’s letters: “The wonderful world of a beautiful soul, without expressing itself, disappeared forever.” An attitude towards the conditions of life that bound him was being prepared in Koltsov’s soul, which in the end grew into irreconcilable hostility, making him as unbearable for those around him as they were for him.
In September 1840, Koltsov set out on the road again, this time with particularly important assignments: it was necessary to achieve the end of two legal cases, one in Moscow, the other in St. Petersburg, and in addition, sell two herds of cattle, which cost at least 12 thousand . Belinsky was no longer in Moscow; Koltsov saw Botkin, became close to Katkov, carried out various instructions from Belinsky and Kraevsky; in October he was already in St. Petersburg, where he spent two months; Koltsov stayed with Belinsky, and it was here that his teachers’ sympathy for him became a warm, friendly feeling, which was later expressed in the famous article of 1846 “Rich and noble nature,” Belinsky writes under the impression of this last meeting of theirs. Koltsov returned to Moscow on November 27 and met the new year of 1841 with Botkin in a big campaign; the letter to Belinsky gives a “full register” of guests: Granovsky, Krylov, Ketcher, Klyushnikov, Krasov, Satin, Shchepkin... The meeting was noisy and on a grand scale. This was Koltsov’s last contact with the remnants of Stankevich’s circle, who himself had just gone to his grave. The play “The Wake,” inspired by this death, has value when studying Koltsov’s biography: it gives us the measure of assessment that he applied to the members of the circle; it preserved for us, not cooled, the enthusiasm that the poet-prasol took with him into his “small world” and which played an important, but joyless role in his life. - Stay in Moscow has slowed down; one can guess that Koltsov was in poverty, did not know how to get home, where at one time he was considered missing, they did not think that he would return. In Voronezh, a difficult and final break with his father and beloved younger sister awaited him.
We do not have the data to reconstruct in any detail the facts of this episode in the poet’s life. The rift between father and son occurred due to financial issues; of the two trials, one was lost; the herds were sold unprofitably; one might think that the proceeds were not handed over regularly by the clerk-son. The relationship was irrevocably damaged; living together became unbearable, but nevertheless continued; at one time, at the request of his son, his father assigned him a certain salary; this, apparently, could settle the relationship; but soon the illness made him incapable of “work, a parasite who was kept out of mercy. A St. Petersburg friend made plans to snatch the poet from difficult conditions hostile to him: “let him drop everything and run, saving his soul” (Belinsky writes to Botkin); Koltsov, in his opinion I suppose he could manage the office of Otechestvennye Zapiski or open a book trade; but all plans are dashed: there is no money, the son is entangled in Voronezh with his father’s affairs, debt obligations, and besides, “there is no voice in the soul to be a merchant in correspondence on this.” On occasion, the teacher and student had to change places more than once: in rubles and kopecks Koltsov calculates to the impractical Belinsky how much it would cost to implement his plans and what could be expected from them. His own practice developed in the young merchant a bleak view of the commercial business: one cannot help but deceive. He begins to speak disparagingly about his talent; condemnation of his former philosophical interest is heard in the last “Duma” (“Isn’t it time for us to leave dreaming about heights”), consecrated by the book. Vyazemsky. But the letters still show traces of diligent reading, reviews and questions about books, projects for future readings, admiration for Belinsky’s articles and Lermontov’s new things. This continued until the very end of his life. When V. Askochensky, a comrade of Serebryansky, visited the almost dying Koltsov, he heard the words spoken with difficulty: “My God, how happy you are; you studied; but it’s not my destiny, I will die unlearned.”
But during this sad period of decline, another episode was to play out in Koltsov’s life, which completely undermined his strength and completely unsettled him. It was a passion of a violently sensual nature, which made him completely lose his head and scandalized his relatives. In a letter to Belinsky dated March 1, he shares this news in chaotic lines that reek of madness and which could not be fully printed. Subsequently, under the pen of a biographer-friend, this episode turned into a fragment of a romantic poem of a darkly beautiful, Byronic hue; the reality was much lower, but just as mercilessly consistent: the result of the connection was a serious illness; sick and abandoned, Koltsov was left in the arms of his relatives, who were completely disgusted with him. Thus prepared his sad end; On February 27, 1842, he wrote for the last time to Belinsky and on the same day to Botkin; from here the details were mainly gleaned, which later made it possible for Belinsky to make a “criminal case” out of his relatives’ attitude towards Koltsov, in the ironic expression of De Poulet. The subjectivity and morbid irritability of both letters is undeniable; but the painful agony of dying shines through in every line. Such was Koltsov’s life for the next 8 months; On October 29, he died suddenly, without suffering, while the old nanny was feeding him tea from a spoon: he was weak like a child, could barely sit and spoke in a whisper. His death, long in preparation, was greeted by the family as liberation. The tough, inflexible father did not show that he was in any way touched; but on the modest monument that he placed at the poet’s grave, an inscription was made, probably at his request, very characteristic in its illiterate eloquence: “An enlightened scienceless nature, awarded by the monarch’s grace, died 33 years and 26 days at the 12th hour of marriage.” . The day of the poet's death was subsequently strangely forgotten. In 1888, the sister of the poet Andronov erected a new monument on his grave, and the date of death was indicated incorrectly: October 19, a date that was later repeated by almost all biographers. Church books restore the true date: October 29; it is also confirmed by the count of days lived on the original monument, as well as by the fact that Koltsov’s funeral took place on November 1.
The facts of the life of the poet-prasol are few, small and not varied; his withdrawn, uncommunicative character made him stingy in expressing more intimate, personal experiences; his papers, including letters from Belinsky, Botkin, Bakunin, ended up on the market after his death; the brightness and character of his few letters does little to fill the gaps. The more important, but at the same time the more responsible for the biographer, is the coverage of the facts. In Koltsov’s biography, under the pen of various biographers, it reached serious disagreements, one might say, contrasts, which therefore need to be addressed.
Of the people who personally knew Koltsov, two - Belinsky and Katkov - tried to make a serious assessment of his personality, and the result was not the same. Belinsky saw in Koltsov only one part of his nature - his desire for the highest spiritual development and his talent, which caught the eye of everyone after the shortest acquaintance with him; but having loved him as a person, the famous critic passionately “pityed” him as a typical “victim of the environment,” a personal irritated memory of which never ceased to live in Belinsky’s own soul; bringing Koltsov’s “deed” closer to his own bloody cause, Belinsky, without hesitation, attributed to him that degree of spiritual heat, reaching the thirst for achievement, to self-forgetfulness, which he felt in himself. And Koltsov, partly involuntarily, partly consciously, turned to him with that side of his being that Belinsky saw and wanted to see in him; such is the nature of Koltsov’s letters to Belinsky, in which facts are often given a one-sided treatment. The news of Koltsov’s death, which reached him only a month later, when the poem “On the Death of Koltsov” was sent to Otechestvennye Zapiski from Voronezh, Belinsky greeted with embittered despair. He writes to Botkin: “Koltsov’s death struck you. What to do? Such things have a different effect on me: I look like a soldier in the midst of a battle - a friend and brother has fallen - nothing - with God - an ordinary thing.” From such and such a spiritual source came his biography of Koltsov, written at the very height of public protest (1846), on the eve of the “Letter to Gogol.” Katkov peered more calmly at Koltsov. Remembering the night spent in conversations at the inn of Zaryadye, where Koltsov lived, he expresses surprise at his natural talent, but the strong connection that connected Koltsov with the environment and life in which he was already an established, energetic businessman with the usual already in techniques and tastes; mental receptivity was combined in him with an unyielding, “flint-like” character, as Katkov put it, closed by instinct, sometimes by calculation, in which it was difficult to find the traits of an enthusiast. - But there was another side to the complex personality of the poet, which neither Katkov nor Belinsky fully appreciated: this was his broad folk nature, which pushed him into revelry and excess; Belinsky saw her only as she was reflected, poetically transformed, in Koltsov’s poetry; That’s why the episode of the last “hobby” grew and blossomed into poetry under his pen, obscuring the picture of moral and physical decline. In this way, a later controversy was prepared in the literature about Koltsov, thanks to which the most knowledgeable of the poet’s biographers, M.P. De Poole, had to appear more than once in the role of accuser of the prasol poet and defender of the family so harshly condemned by Belinsky. The episode of Koltsov’s relationship with his younger sister Anisya can successfully illustrate this complicated litigation. The poet complained bitterly about the “betrayal” of his sister, who from a friend and ally became for him angrier than the enemy; but his complaints can hardly be divided by an impartial judge. As far as one can judge from the - far from sufficient, however, - data at our disposal to restore this quarrel, one must imagine the matter like this: in an uneducated, Old Testament family, strained relations have been established between the son and the parents; a young sister, gifted and characterful, joined her brother, receptive to the propaganda of the new, on the banner of which at first it was written: learn French and play the piano; after much struggle, the youth achieves their goal; Koltsov’s letter to his sister (January 10, 1841) from Moscow, the only one we have, is full of the spirit of proselytism, invitations to a better, tempting world, where you can listen to wonderful music, see smart, interesting people. But the propagandist himself, as we know, cannot take root in this world; Meanwhile, during his long absences, my sister remained alone, eye to eye with her parents; at times she is ready to think that her brother will not return home, there is a rumor that he is settling in St. Petersburg, where she will probably never end up in her entire life - and so the woman’s practical sense takes precedence over dubious dreams: she must get along with that environment , in which she will always have to live. But the brother does not forgive his sister for this turn to another path, he tries to prevent her marriage, reproaches her, takes revenge: “they angered me so much that I began to gossip,” he writes to Belinsky; True, he is ready to repent of the discord he has sown, but the malicious note continues to sound. In the same letter, he cites the words his sister said about him to his mother: “Wait, he’ll bite your nose,” and indeed he knew how to “bite”; in the struggle, his tough nature, like his father’s, unfolded, something harsh and unkind appeared, akin to the gloomy and passionate poetry of his ballad songs with a bloody denouement (Khutorok, Night). This Koltsov was poorly known and understood by Belinsky, a non-egoistic nature, poorly able to even defend himself, courageous only where it was necessary to stand for principle. The fate of Koltsov the poet served as the subject of yet another critical-biographical litigation, in which the role of accuser and plaintiff, this time in the interests of Koltsov, belongs to the same De Poulet; he expressed the idea that Belinsky brought one harm to Koltsov the poet, leading him astray from the correct, natural path of development, that the ideas of the “circle” gave rise to “cleverness” in him, conceit, and confusion of concepts. The incriminating documents were not difficult to find; Koltsov’s unpreparedness for philosophical studies is too obvious; but the accuser-biographer forgets about the aesthetic school that Koltsov went through under the leadership of Belinsky. His letters are full of indications of this: “so this topic is not good, but I thought it was successful,” writes Koltsov, and immediately begins to wonder why it is not good? what was the mistake? Hard critical work begins. M. P. De Poulet forgets about Koltsov’s wide erudition, in which Belinsky’s influence is undoubtedly, forgets the exchange of literary news, judgments, lived impressions, with which the correspondence is full. Koltsov, a “songwriter” who developed independently, in his own narrow corner, to the point of high artistry, is a myth, an impossibility; his early experiences are full of shortcomings - sweetness, false romanticism, inability to distinguish poetry from a set of words; What was needed was the development of critical ability, contact with the world of broad generalizations and sublime points of view. M. P. De Poulet tries to separate with a sharp line the influence of Stankevich from the influence of Belinsky to the benefit of the former; but where is the basis for such a contrast? Only “harmony”, “a sense of proportion”, strongly developed in the nature of Stankevich, who, shaking his head, listened to the “frantic Vissarion”. Stankevich's poems, together with the indicated tirade of "Literary Dreams" and Koltsov's "Thoughts", form a completely homogeneous whole in spirit. Let us also recall the poet’s feeling of gratitude to Belinsky until the very end of his bitter life, which constitutes perhaps the brightest feature in Koltsov’s correspondence. Almost everyone who later wrote about Koltsov (I. I. Ivanov, N. A. Kotlyarevsky, etc.) rebelled against such a condemnation of Belinsky.
The first thing that found appreciation among Koltsov’s poetic creations were those pictures of village life, folk fun and folk labor, which are still so popular in Russian schools. But their significance, of course, has greatly diminished in our eyes; they will now hardly satisfy an adult and educated reader; Koltsov's early critic, Valeryan Maikov, calling such plays as "What are you sleeping, little man" - "economic" poetry, pronounced a fair verdict on them. But the main lyrical motifs in Koltsov’s poetry retain their poetic value, thanks to their universal and national significance, brightness and strength of mood, beauty and power of language. The expression of daring, the broad scope of the soul, one of Koltsov’s frequent motifs, also contains national elements; but these motives are better developed where there are fewer everyday details. Koltsov’s personal fate often suggested to him the motive for struggle, the fatal battle of the individual with external forces hostile to him; This is the “Falcon’s Thought”, “Reckoning with Life”, previously called “The Complaint”. A characteristic feature is that external forces influencing life are always depicted by the poet in the form of fate, unreasonable, blind and at the same time merciless and persistent. If a person triumphs in the struggle, this is not so much his merit as “luck”, a matter of the same fate. This is Koltsov’s folk philosophy, which he tried in vain to replace with Schelling’s faith in the kingdom of a rational idea. This property of Koltsov’s poetry deserves attention: being an expression of an individual who is indignant, demanding freedom and rights, at the same time, it seems to carry in its very depths a primordial disbelief in the power of the individual, an ominous premonition of its final defeat!
But perhaps the most striking motive in Koltsov’s work is the thirst for life, life in general, at any cost, whatever its content, a passionate desire to “make money from life,” in his own words. This stream, composed of sensual impulses, with a tragic and proud note and with an imperious passion of feeling runs through all of Koltsov’s poetry. The poet willingly transfers fleeting moments of folk drama into a setting of storm, night with ghosts and nightmares; they are similar in poetic atmosphere to Dostoevsky’s “The Mistress”; Between the two artists it is in this direction that one can look for related traits. The thirst for life, expressed in Koltsov’s lyrics, is infinitely far from the bright cheerfulness of Pushkin’s muse: there is a grain of self-destruction in it. A trait of passion, extremely rare in Russian art, is inherent in the poetry of this nugget; it changes its content; This is not just love, sometimes it is equally passionate enmity, a challenge, a thirst for freedom, anger at oneself. Without a doubt, in plays of this kind, and not in idyllic and instructive rural motifs, Koltsov’s true significance in Russian art.
Koltsov’s place in the history of Russian literature may not be significant, but it is firmly and rightfully occupied by him. His poetry was one of the earliest fruits of the great Pushkin reform, which finally liberated the creative personality, making possible creativity that flowed from the very depths of personal existence, and through this from the depths of national existence. But besides this general meaning, Koltsov expressed a certain and further step in literary development: a liberated personality who dared to oppose himself to life, suddenly demanding a lot from her. In this regard, with all the differences in talents and development, Koltsov represents a phenomenon similar to Lermontov. Finally, another merit of Koltsov’s poetry - the merit of expressing social self-awareness - cannot be denied, but it was achieved not by plays depicting folk life, but by depicting the soul of a commoner, as he himself was, in significant and vivid features that loudly declare his rights to full human existence; in this sense, Koltsov’s songs lend a helping hand to Notes of a Hunter, Nekrasov’s poetry and subsequent populist literature.
The first edition of Koltsov's works was made by Stankevich in 1835; the next edition appeared in 1846, accompanied by an article by Belinsky; it was repeated in 1856. Since then, Koltsov’s poems have been republished several times. In 1892, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the poet’s death, several publications appeared at once; the best of them is the Niva magazine, edited by Ars. Vvedensky; it was repeated in 1895; All of Koltsov’s letters known to this day are printed here (64), an overview of the manuscripts and notes on individual plays are given. (The date of letter No. 41 to Kraevsky is incorrect: it should be 1841, not 1840). According to the same plan, the publication of the magazine "North" was compiled under the editorship of A. Lyashchenko (where, however, an important letter to Botkin was omitted). - The publication of “World Illustration”, edited by P. Bykov, 1892, deserves attention for its illustrations and precise chronology.
The first biography of Koltsov was written by Jan. Peverov, “Son of the Fatherland,” 1836, part 176. - Belinsky’s article was important when published in 1846 (“Belinsky’s Works,” vol. XII). The most detailed biography belongs to M. P. De Poulet: “A. V. Koltsov in his everyday life and literary affairs and in a family setting" 1878 (previously in "Ancient and New Russia" of the same year), which caused objections ("Voice", 1878, No. 336) and the author's response to them ("Our critical flabbiness" - " New Time", 1878, December 31). Biography compiled by V. Ogarkov - in Pavlenkov's edition "The Life of Notes. People" and in the anniversary editions of Koltsov; also in "Ents. Slov.", ed. Brockhaus and Efron, biographical essay by I. I. Ivanov. - To cover individual episodes of Koltsov's life they have a price: "Several. words to biogr. " and I. N. Panaev; the influence of Stankevich’s circle on Koltsov was seriously considered by Mr. Jarmerstedt (“Questions of Philosophy and Psychology.” 1803, November and 1894, March - First assessment). early plays Koltsova is given in Art. Ya. Neverov, then - all the poetry of Koltsov - from Belinsky; in the same year (1846) Val wrote his article. Maikov ("Critical Experiments" 1891), which looks at Koltsov not so much as a product of the people's environment, but as the embodiment of its aspirations to get out of a narrow circle of interests. An article by M.S. dates back to 1856. (in "Russian Vestn."), directed against a naively limited understanding of nationality along with a tendentious idealization of patriarchal life. - An overview of Koltsov’s poems, mainly in terms of content and their similarity with folk songs, is given by an article by V. Vodovozov, in the “Journal of Min. People. Pr.” 1861 An attempt to determine the place of Koltsov’s poetry in the history of Russian literature is contained in the article by A. N. Pypin: “Lermontov and Koltsov” in “Vestn. Evr.” 1896, January, also "Ist. Russian sheet." Vol. IV. Minor articles and notes about Koltsov before 1870 - see Gennadi, "Reference. Dictionary", II. 153-154.
A. Shalygin.
(Polovtsov)
Koltsov, Alexey Vasilievich
Famous poet. Genus. in Voronezh on October 2, 1808. His father, Vasily Petrovich, belonged to a respectable petty-bourgeois family, was engaged in prasolship, that is, buying and selling livestock, and was known in his district as a wealthy and honest merchant. Distinguished by his intelligence and practical talents, K.'s father barely knew how to read and write, the poet's mother, Paraskovya Ivanovna, was completely illiterate. Of the numerous brothers and sisters of Alexei Vasilyevich, it is important for his biography younger sister, Anisya. The family lived in the old, patriarchal way. When his son was nine years old, his father invited a seminarian to teach him to read and write. The boy obviously showed good abilities and could enter directly into the district school, bypassing the parish school. His father did not allow him to stay here for a long time: after a year and 4 months, K. had to graduate from second grade. He was no more than 12 years old, and he immediately had to become an active assistant to his father. Such a short stay at school could not bring noticeable results. Until the end of his life, Koltsov waged a vain struggle with Russian spelling, mastered prosaic speech with great difficulty, and felt his ignorance with deep pain at every step. But at school he developed a passion for reading. One of his comrades, the son of a merchant, came to the rescue and began to supply K. with fairy tales and novels from his father’s library. The young reader was especially fascinated by Arabic tales and Kheraskov's writings" Cadmus and Harmony". According to Belinsky, the poem " Peer"Next to the reading were the prasolship activities of the young K. The prasolstvo presented many dangers and hardships, but also had its attractive sides. Cattle were bought up in the southern steppes, in the Don region, the buyers had to live in the steppe for weeks, stay on horseback for days, spend the night under In the open sky, K. had to deal with all sorts of people, get along with them, while away his leisure time - in villages while camping, on overnight stays in the vast steppe. nature and her motives. Of course, there were “strong feelings” during this acquaintance. So, one day, K. was in danger of being stabbed to death in the steppe, and one of the workers or clerks became angry with him, and the owner had to tame his anger. drinking together. But the steppe generously rewarded the future poet for all his troubles - with wonderful, powerful beauty, inexhaustible poetry. In moments of inspiration, pictures of the steppe wanderings will rise before his imagination and evoke songs filled with deep, strong feelings.
Two names are associated with the beginning of K.’s poetic activity - the bookseller Kashkin and the seminarian Serebryansky. In 1825, K. happened to buy poems by I. I. Dmitriev at the market. Until then he had not read poetry. The new book brought him into unspeakable excitement, he ran into the garden and began to sing the poems he had just bought, confident that all the poems were certainly songs and, therefore, were sung and not read. In the young reader, under the influx of new impressions, a passionate desire began to speak - to write a poem himself. One of the comrades by the way told his dream, and Koltsov firmly decided to turn the story into poetry. There was a poem " Three visions", “a monstrous play,” in the words of Belinsky, - and the author himself soon realized its unsatisfactoryness and destroyed it. But the first experience only fueled the passion. K. began to buy works of poets - Lomonosov, Derzhavin, Bogdanovich. Kashkin was the owner of the shop where they bought These books are an intelligent man, who himself loves Russian literature, he became interested in the sixteen-year-old buyer, recognized his cherished thoughts, looked through his works and, frankly appreciating them, gave them to him for guidance. Russian prosody and offered to use his library free of charge. K. made extensive use of his precious right, he bought especially his favorite works - Pushkin, Delvig, Zhukovsky - and from then on the Voronezh poet began to feel solid ground under his feet. Kashkin took part in his activities, gave him advice, corrected his poems, as evidenced by K. himself in a poem addressed to him. Here the poet attributes a decisive influence on his work to Kashkin, calls him the “culprit” of his “works,” and thanks him for his “unkind advice.” Poems are written by K. with great diligence, on some days two or three poems. The author becomes famous in Voronezh, begins to be known as a “philistine poet”, “poet-prasol” - names that later greatly contributed to K.’s popularity in the capitals. About two years after meeting Kashkin, K. became close to Serebryansky and this rapprochement finally decided him future fate as a poet. Andrei Porfiryevich Serebryansky, the son of a village priest, was gifted with great abilities, had a brilliant gift of words, wrote poetry easily, and knew how to read them with such skill that he captivated even his comrades who were completely indifferent to poetry. His song “Swift as the waves are the days of our lives” has not yet been forgotten. The talented young man was extremely cordial towards the “prasol poet”, began to help him both in deed and in word, corrected his poems, and introduced him to European classical literature. K. himself assessed this relationship best of all: “We grew up together, read Shakespeare together, thought, argued. And I owed him so much, he spoiled me too much.” But even more important was Serebryansky’s intervention in K.’s literary works. None Prosody and the instructions of an inquisitive bookseller could not provide as many services to the aspiring poet as the intelligent, educated and poetically gifted Serebryansky himself. Many of the poems attributed to K. were more than half either corrected or written by Serebryansky, especially thoughts, for example " Great mystery", "God's peace", "Prayer", "Great word ". It was a friendly collaboration, it did not arouse any misunderstandings among both poets, and only later Serebryansky, already ill with consumption, complained in letters to his brother about Koltsov’s appropriation of his poems. But K. Serebryansky’s help at first did not undermine his original talent. “poet-prasol” and, apparently, was most often applied to the works that are least valuable in K.’s work - to thoughts. K.’s strength was not reflected in these measured abstractions, devoid of true inspiration. Serebryansky was useful to K. not as. collaborator, and as a literary teacher, as a historian and critic in the field of art. Under the influence of Serebryansky, K. turned from an idle literate poet into a poet-writer, instinctively prompted fun became a serious conscious activity. Fate wanted K. to experience a strong heart shock. - an inevitable motive of poetic inspiration. A serf servant, bought from the landowners, lived in K.’s house. Among these servants was a girl named Dunyasha, a wonderful beauty. K. fell passionately in love with her, worshiped her as the ideal woman. Such love necessarily led to marriage. But K.’s old men considered it humiliating to be related to a maid and, taking advantage of their son’s absence on business, they sold Dunyasha to a remote Cossack village. This incident upset K. to such an extent that he went to bed, fell ill with a severe fever and almost died. Having recovered from his illness, he rushed into the steppe to look for his beloved. All searches remained in vain. This happened in the late twenties. Belinsky heard K.'s own story about the event in 1838 and testifies how difficult it was for the poet to remember the past: “his face was pale, the words came out of his mouth with difficulty and slowly, and while speaking, he looked to the side and down.” . Belinsky never again dared to ask K. about his first love. The story with Dunyasha showed how much passionate feeling lurked in the chest of the ugly, stooped, unusually resourceful prasol in commercial affairs. K. loved his work, it even happened that he spoke with delight about clever trading operations, considered profitable buying and selling a kind of sport, and in general in his youth he was by no means an involuntary martyr of his craft. In this rich and strong nature, practical dexterity, ebullient Prasol energy and the sensitive, inspired feeling of a poet coexisted side by side. Life in the steppe gradually nourished these feelings, happy acquaintances directed him on the path of creative activity, his first tragic love was a lightning strike that brought into being a rich spring of poetic “thoughts” and “heartfelt fire.” She inspired the poet with many poems filled with passion, stormy, dizzying. She left her stamp on all of K.’s work, which amazes with the depth and strength of feeling, energy and completeness of form. The longing for lost happiness poured out in the poem " First love", written in 1830, may be immediately after the unsuccessful search for Dunyasha. The poet speaks of an unforgettable first feeling that cannot be replaced by another, and the poet will remain faithful to it until the last years of his life. In the same year, K. appears in print for the first time A certain Sukhochev, who himself wrote poetry, accidentally stopped in Voronezh on his way to Moscow from some southern city, met K. through Kashkin, took several poems from him and in the collection - ". Leaflets", published in Moscow, placed one of them, without the name of the author. In the next 1831, already with the name K., two poems appear: " Sigh at Venevitinov’s grave" And " My friend, my dear angel" - in the Moscow newspaper "Listok" and in the "Literary Gazette" - a poem " Ring", sent to the editor by N.V. Stankevich. Stankevich, sending the poem, recommended K. as an original self-taught poet. He himself met K. quite by accident, at his father’s distillery, where K. had driven a bunch of cattle as a drink. This was K.'s first literary acquaintance, which soon gave him access to Moscow and St. Petersburg literary circles. Stankevich, while in Voronezh, visited the poet and, undoubtedly, became very interested in the fate of his works. K. came to Moscow for the first time on his father’s business in 1831, visited Stankevich, who was then a university student with Belinsky, and met some members of Stankevich’s student circle. But the poet’s stay in the capital this time was obviously short-lived and was not accompanied by any important facts for his poetic activity.
Four years later in Moscow they released " Poems by Alexey K" in the amount of 18. The book was printed with subscription money collected by Stankevich's friends in one evening, and was met with universal sympathy and interest: the appearance of a "self-taught poet", a "prasol poet" seemed extraordinary news. The next year - 1836 - constituted an era in life of K. The poet also had to be in Moscow again on trade matters and travel to St. Petersburg. On this trip, K. became briefly close to Belinsky, who was writing in “Telescope” at that time and “Rumor” introduced him to many Moscow writers. supplied him with books, generally received him warmly, although some were rather indifferent to the “rhymes” of the barely literate tradesman and K.’s prosaic, too “positive” appearance. This attitude was helped by K.’s shyness. He did not seek literary acquaintances, and had the most modest opinion about his songs , spoke little in society, looked from under his brows and felt a kind of dumbfoundedness in front of the “literary generals.” But the lack of swagger did not prevent K. from accurately observing and shrewdly assessing people. He saw very well and even expressed with what condescension some of the capital’s patrons looked at him, mistook him for a complete ignoramus and, in his words, threw dust in his eyes. But these were exceptions. The writers who stood at the head of literature sincerely treated K. In Moscow, Belinsky became his friend for life. In St. Petersburg K . met Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Prince Vyazemsky, Prince Odoevsky. Pushkin, whom K. revered, received him so warmly that K. remembered this reception with deep feeling until the end of his days. Zhukovsky and Vyazemsky even paid great attention to K.’s trade and litigation matters, and he skillfully knew how to use their influence on various authorities and public places. Often the poet had to “kneel” to thank his patrons in letters. And to Prince Odoevsky he wrote the following: “If there were wonderful moments in my life, they were all given to me by you, Prince Vyazemsky and Zhukovsky.” In St. Petersburg, K. brought a letter from Stankevich to Neverov, who subsequently wrote the first biography of K. At Pletnev, K. met with I. S. Turgenev. Kraevsky introduced him to all the famous St. Petersburg people. Zhukovsky, according to Neverov, introduced K. to the sovereign and, passing through Voronezh with the heir, his pupil, visited K. and received him. This was in July 1837. K. enthusiastically described the events in a letter to Kraevsky, concluding his story with characteristic words: “I can now live and with grief it has even become warmer.” The complicated affairs of his father in Prasol caused the poet a lot of grief. Many lawsuits accumulated every year, the troubles fell mainly on the son, who had such influential acquaintances. Soon after a trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg, K. wrote: “My friend has been selling bulls in Moscow for two months. I’m alone at home. There’s a lot to do. I buy pigs, put them in a winery, for stillage; I chop firewood in the grove; I plowed the land in the fall; a quick fix I go to villages; I'm busy at home with business from dawn until midnight." In 1838, K. again went to Moscow, from here to St. Petersburg and, returning, stopped for a long time in Moscow. In March of this year, Belinsky became the editor of the Moscow Observer. K. actively supplied the magazine poems, in general he took to heart the affairs of the publication edited by Belinsky. The critic finally mastered the feelings and thoughts of the poet. From then on, he was a friend, teacher, confidant of all the joys and sorrows of V. spiritual world K. gradually there was a decisive revolution. Long-term relations with the most talented representatives of literature, especially close ties with Belinsky, were bound to inevitably give rise to new ideas and moods that became difficult to reconcile with the life of a prasol, a tradesman, surrounded by trading, the pursuit of petty profit, the struggle for interests - not always impeccable in moral and even in a legal sense. K. never ceased to highly value Belinsky’s friendship and leadership, but his letters were simultaneously filled with complaints about the burden of everyday life in Voronezh, which was so unlike the pastime in the capital. The only consolation was nature, the beloved steppe since childhood. With people, even former friends, K. felt “bored, sad, homeless.” “In Voronezh, living in Voronezh is twice as bad as before,” he wrote to Belinsky, “and somehow everything seems the same, but not the same.” The poet, undoubtedly, had to have long conversations with Belinsky, who was experiencing philosophical hobbies in this era. The critic did not fail to initiate his friend into the secrets of the favorite questions of the Moscow Hegelians - “ideas”, “reality”. K. sincerely tried to get comfortable with these terms - and these efforts were reflected even in his work. Duma " Kingdom of thought“, written in 1837, expresses in verse the very thought about the omnipresent idea that Belinsky put at the head of the article “Literary Dreams.” From K.’s letters it is clear that he tried to enlighten his fellow countrymen, but the attempts were not successful. The poet assured his friends, probably family ones, that “they look at things crookedly, they understand things wrongly,” “they interpreted this way and that way.” in Voronezh, the poet wrote a Duma " The Silent Poet", branding the indifference of the crowd to the inspired poet. Before his trip to the capital, such a line of thought was hardly possible for K. and the poem itself could partly be an echo of Pushkin’s indignation at the same crowd. In any case, a close acquaintance with the capital’s literary circles and especially Conversations and correspondence with Belinsky produced a deep split in K.’s moral world. The last five or six years of his life represent a real dramatic struggle truth And poetry, household little things and holidays with the highest intellectual and artistic demands of a richly gifted nature. The poet’s later biographer, De Poulet (q.v.), strives with the greatest zeal to prove the perniciousness of literary influences, and especially Belinsky’s, on K. These influences, in the biographer’s opinion, turned the “songwriter” into an “armchair writer,” arrogant, intolerant, bursting out of pride and mentoring claims of communication with the closest people, like Kashkin. But such an accusation may be the result of a single misunderstanding. First of all, the influence of Moscow and St. Petersburg writers on K. was not only natural, but downright inevitable. Once K. left the close Voronezh environment, he inevitably fell into the cycle of modern literature and thought. And he was excellent at assessing the benefits of his rapprochement with writers, especially Belinsky. K. was by no means distinguished by either naivety or inclination to unaccountable good-natured moods. The poet's biographer points out this feature with special emphasis. Meanwhile, K.’s letters to Belinsky are filled with the most vivid feelings of love, often delight and gratitude. K. could not have any financial payments: Belinsky could not help him like Prince Vyazemsky and Zhukovsky, as for poetry - K. never took a fee for them anywhere, and did not need recommendations and patronage to publish them in magazines, and Only in 1839 did he decide to talk to the critic about a new edition of his works. Obviously, the relationship was built exclusively on ideal foundations - for K., an unconditionally practical and reasonable person, this is a fact of great importance. All his outpourings in letters to Belinsky, therefore, must be considered the fruit of sincere feelings; finally, it is impossible to pretend for entire years with such constancy and skill. We constantly hear assurances that for K. life is fuller next to Belinsky, that for the poet his friend will soon replace “everyone and everything,” and K. dreams of living together with Belinsky as his greatest happiness. Obviously, in such a mood, the home environment must have seemed unbearable oppression to the poet. There was only one person in the family who was morally close to Alexei Vasilyevich, sister Anisya, a beautiful, talented girl who had musical abilities. With these abilities, she was her brother’s unwitting companion in misfortune. My father also didn’t want to hear about the piano, just like he didn’t want to hear about books. Can one blame the poet if he did not put up with his native barbarism and if his demands have now risen higher, so much so that the former smart and learned people seemed vulgar and ignorant? After all, he himself never ceases to repent of his ignorance, until his death he eagerly seeks knowledge, reads books, communicates his bewilderments to Belinsky, and it is truly touching to hear such naive statements from this unusually intelligent person by nature and who has experienced a lot: “I understand the subject and the object a little, but not a tiny bit of the absolute, and even if I understand it, it’s very bad.” If, following Belinsky, K. courageously rushed onto the thorny path of philosophy, his views on people and the life around him obviously became even more energetic. It could happen that he fell into too hot a tone and inflicted unwitting insults on his interlocutors. But what was reflected here was not the pride of the soothsayer and teacher, as the biographer thinks, but sincere, painful indignation at the same time at the darkness of oneself and others, at all reality Voronezh philistinism, regardless of persons and conditions.
More more important question How did acquaintances in the capital influence K’s talent? Here the answer is completely clear and simple. Since 1837, all the best works have been written and, moreover, reflecting the people's life and soul with the greatest brightness and strength. Friends from the capital even strengthened K.’s interest in the people, convinced him to collect folk songs, and generally sought to comprehend and deepen his innate attraction and everyday habit. One of the first results of the capital's impressions is a poem " Forest", dedicated to the memory of Pushkin: in harmonious beauty it merges the sublime idea of the great writer with grandiose pictures of Russian nature; and the poem dedicated to Belinsky - " Reckoning with life" - does not bear any traces of artificial, externally suggested thoughts and feelings: it is difficult to indicate in poetry a more sincere complaint about a failed life... Obviously, the freshness of inspiration and the power of creativity remained intact in K. - the poet was only more thoughtful and stricter now about the outside world , and to your thoughts. K. soon had to brutally pay for his mental discord, for his involuntary break with his former way of life. The father valued his son's poetic talents solely based on material results, influential acquaintances, and brilliant guests - like Stankevich and Zhukovsky. But as soon as the son showed less zeal for commercial enterprises and litigation, in the eyes of his father all significance of both his talent and his existence in general disappeared. Undoubtedly, many matters regarding the presidency and especially the trials seemed to K. now in a different light than before - hence the endless disputes with his father, which gave the latter reasons to throw reproaches at the literati and scribblers. K. was suffocating in these squabbles and was only waiting for an opportunity to escape from his parents’ house. At the same time, he had to mourn the death of Serebryansky. In a letter to Belinsky, he again recalled what he owed to his friend. “The beautiful world of a beautiful soul, without expressing itself, disappeared forever,” he wrote about the dear deceased. He declared about himself that he “won’t last long in Voronezh.” - “My circle is small, my world is dirty, it’s bitter for me to live in it, and I don’t know how I haven’t been lost in it long ago. Some good force invisibly supports me from falling.” In September 1840, two lawsuits finally had to be concluded and it was necessary to go to Moscow and St. Petersburg. K., of course, took advantage of the opportunity. His father instructed him to sell two herds (300 heads) of bulls in Moscow. Belinsky, who now lived in St. Petersburg, waited for the poet with passionate impatience and insisted that he come directly to him, without stopping anywhere. In Moscow, K. saw Katkov and later recalled this meeting: “his face was firmly imprinted in my memory. The struggle with the prevailing circumstances had already depicted hopeless despondency on him”... Obviously, this was not an arrogant popularizer of Belinsky’s ideas, like his represents the embittered De Poulet, and the oppressed and broken victim of his talent and intelligence, which were so contrary to life conditions. In St. Petersburg, K. stayed with Belinsky, which delighted him. “I came to life a little from his presence,” the critic wrote. “What a rich and noble nature!.. I definitely found myself in the company of several wonderful people.” And Belinsky complained bitterly when K. left for Moscow. The poet was horrified at the thought of finding himself in Voronezh again; he no longer had “the voice in his soul to be a merchant.” The bulls were sold and, apparently, at a very unprofitable price, the money was spent, K. was in great need, and finally decided to go, although until the last minute he was tempted by the thought of returning to St. Petersburg and staying there forever. In Voronezh, the poet again had to immerse himself in business and troubles. The relationship with my father was completely upset. All trading failures indirectly fell on his son. And the son, to his grief, fell in love, and the object of his love turned out to be a woman who had long been rejected by the public opinion of Voronezh. In a poem dedicated to this heroine back in 1839, her personality is clearly outlined. It is addressed to K***, the poet offers a helping hand to a woman who has set out on a journey “for criminal pleasures, for voluptuousness without love”; the poet promises to lead her “from the abyss of terrible sin,” no matter how difficult it is for them to “pass in front of the sarcastic crowd.” The poet's wish was fulfilled, but the reward was a terrible illness and a painful death agony that lasted more than a year. This time is a true tragedy in the poet’s life. At the beginning, K. wrote in detail to Belinsky about his hopeless, downtrodden situation. His family, besides his mother, were his first tormentors. Even his beloved sister Anisya, in the midst of her brother’s illness, decided to get married and, together with her friends, next to his room, staged a parody of his funeral in their faces, and all the others acted deliberately against his requests. He did not always have a decent lunch, tea and sugar. As soon as he began to recover, the unfortunate man was already making plans on how to escape from the whirlpool of his home. His poems are filled with mental anguish. Their very themes are eloquent - " Reckoning with life", "Wake", "A cry of misery". Questions constantly arise: will death really come so soon? Is it really too early for the poet to “exit the world” - “without even fulfilling his heartfelt desire?” It is with these words that the poem ends." For the New Year 1842". K.'s last letter to Belinsky was dated February 27, and on October 19 the poet died. Death struck K. suddenly, over tea. The father was more than indifferent to her. The son no longer existed for him for a long time. Subsequently, the old man put it on K.'s grave. a modest monument with the following inscription: “Enlightened by nature, without science, awarded by the monarch’s grace, he died at the age of 33 and had no marriage for 26 days at the 12th hour.” In 1880, this monument was replaced by a new one, three stanzas from the poem were cut out from it. Reckoning with life", more eloquently than all reasoning, outlining the tireless life struggle of the poet. But the most beautiful monument to K. was erected soon after his death - by his friend Belinsky. The brilliant critic finally fulfilled the poet’s cherished desire - he published his works and prefaced them with a biographical story, imbued with the most sincere deep feeling The article was written under the fresh impression of an irreplaceable loss and, perhaps, at times falls into an overly lyrical tone, illuminating the personality of the hero with a continuous ideal light. The later author of the most detailed and conscientious biography of K. - De Poulet - tried with all his might to dispel this idealization and raise the family. the poet at the expense of himself. The efforts should have turned out to be futile and aimless. Readers learned that K. combined poetic talent with a great practical mind, before meeting Belinsky he was engaged in prasolship with love, lived in harmony with his father, was friends with the Voronezh people - but at the same time. it was impossible to hide that the peace with the family was based solely on trade calculations: the son was first a senior clerk, and then, thanks to influential acquaintances, a profitable intercessor in litigation. As soon as K. left these roles - and family world disappeared without a trace and the contradiction between the dark Domostroevsky environment and personal aspirations for light and independence appeared in all its strength. De Poulet himself ends his book with the remark: “his father and sister Anisya remain not yet reconciled with the memory of the poet,” and leaves the trial and verdict to the reader. Obviously, neither the trial nor the verdict can be different than in Belinsky’s article. They are based on facts recognized as undoubted by the same De Poulet, on suicide letters and poems by K.
K.'s poetry is especially precious because all of it, without exception, represents a sincere and truthful reflection of the reality experienced by the poet. Based on K.'s poems, one can reconstruct in basic outline his biography, his worldview, his joys, sorrows and hopes. In his first poems, he presented a number of pictures from the steppe life, which nourished poetic moods in him. IN " Accommodation for the Chumaks", V " Traveler"The poet speaks about himself and on his own behalf, as a prasol, and at the same time a lover of folk poetry and wild steppe nature. Then all the feelings that have kindled in his heart over the years certainly evoke a song, a message, frank story, and everywhere the deep trembles, strong passion. Does the poet address Peer - we hear about the “young flame of blood”, about the swift desire to be with a friend “boiling in soul”; are poems sent? To my sister- the energetic message speaks of “wonderful dreams”, of a “flow of sweet tears”... It is easy to imagine what a stormy speech the passion of love will sound on this “homemade lyre”. The introduction is " Elegy" - a complaint about loneliness, rather not a complaint, but indignation at an unfair fate. All the comparisons here amaze with their strength and courage. A dead friend is an “instant grave fireplace”, extinguished in the morning dawn, love is a star “in the thick black twilight,” and the lonely poet himself is a “rootless orphan,” among the “crowd of people” - “with a gloomy and cold soul, like an unrepentant villain ". Among this youthful lyricism, a note of utmost seriousness is heard; it will remain the constant refrain of all K.’s sad songs. The poet repeatedly dwells on the contradictions of reality and the best human aspirations (“ Discouragement", "To friend"). Bewilderment and melancholy are resolved with unusually self-confident speech:
Let human malice
It will deprive you of everything pleasant
May it be from the cradle to the grave
Only evil torments and frightens:
I will not humble myself before her
I will not lose faith in my dreams;
I will fall into the dust like a grave shadow
But I won’t give myself up to grief!...
These poems date back to 1831: they should be placed at the head of a typically Koltsov’s view of life, moral and external adversities. The motif is repeated whenever the poet has to deal with personal grief or give advice to others caught in trouble. “I’ll clip the wings of daring doubt,” says one of the early “thoughts” - “ The Unsolved Truth". This does not mean that the poet will forever be freed from doubts: this only testifies to a decisive will, ready to follow the once accepted path, regardless of any obstacles and hesitations. Poem " Last fight", written in 1838, that is, when the discord between K. the poet and K. the merchant began, ends with a proud challenge to fate. The poet says: “I have strength in my soul, I have blood in my heart.” And these forces of the soul carry the poet out of the abyss of despair, where his ardent nature often carries him. Cheating on your betrothed“- the poet first seeks consolation from people, - they greet him with laughter, - then the storm raises his courage, he sets off on a “path without a road” - “to face an evil fate.” The poet likes to put side by side the indifference of people to other people’s grief and the heroic struggle lonely young man. Comrade"The poet, in brief but amazingly strong expressions, depicts the psychology of the crowd and the hero. If you show your grief to people, they will start laughing and regretfully, but if you appear strong and self-confident, the same scoffers will "call themselves friends." You need to believe in the "powers of the soul , yes to mighty shoulders,” and not “to walk in need among strangers.” The same ideal in the poem “ Path", in the speeches of the merchant, the hero" Khutorka", V " Song", convincing the "fate" - "to rise as much as you can" and flap your wings... And all this is not an idle recitation of high spirits - behind the bold speeches one involuntarily draws a strong figure of the author, who knew how to deftly conduct business in the steppe, and deal with terrible misfortune with honor - the loss of a beloved girl, on occasion, to take a walk and, among the depressing prose of bourgeois life, to keep the spark of divine fire pure and bright. Before us is a strong, passionate nature, carried away to the point of self-forgetfulness and able to pay for her hobbies. K.’s love poems are the only ones in Russian poetry - in their simplicity. form and strength of content. There is no idyllic pseudo-nationality, eloquent outpourings - the mood and feeling are expressed in two or three words, but these words shine like zigzags of lightning. K. is able to merge two concepts into one and thereby evoke an unprecedentedly vivid image in the reader. Song“If I meet you” - a date is described, first a simple meeting (“awe and fire will spread in the soul”), then the look of the sweetheart, her speeches, kisses - and for each moment the poet only needs one or two lines, but they are forever imprinted in memory. K. unknown love romantic languor. He knows only a formidable, all-consuming passion. His favorite expressions are “fire of love”, “love-fire”, “love-longing”. Such love outrages the entire moral world of man and transforms life and nature. To a lover together with his beloved, winter seems like summer, grief is not grief, night is a clear day, and without her there is no joy in the May morning and in the dawn-evening, and in the green oak grove - silk brocade (" Parting",Song"The winds are blowing"). The same burning features express the despair of a young man who has been cheated on by his betrothed
The sadness and melancholy fell heavy
On the twisted head;
Mortal torment torments the soul
The soul asks to leave the body.
The same motif and in an equally original form is repeated in the poems." My friend, my dear angel", "Frenzy", "Star"and the earliest of them Song"Having lost what we once had." But, as has already been said, fiery passion meets a powerful nature here, and not only does not enslave it, but only excites new energy. The moral meaning of love, according to Koltsov’s view, is most clearly expressed in the following words:
Without loving you
He was a great guy in the villages
And with you my friend
Cities don't care!
(Song "Tonight at home").
Happy love makes a young man a hero, unhappy love, or betrayal by a sweetheart, raises from the bottom of the soul all the fire of an offended feeling, and then there is no strength equal to his “strength of the soul” and “mighty shoulders.” “Be with grief at the feast with a cheerful face,” is the favorite image of the Koltsovo muse, illuminated with all the brilliance, all the passion of her inspiration. For us there can be no question about the meaning of the famous " Songs of Likhach Kudryavich". Likhach Kudryavich is a hero of the lowest breed, in the eyes of K. he is a comic and despicable creature. In times of good fortune, he is a frivolous reveler, a self-confident darling, blindly believing in his curls and eyebrows; in adversity, he is a pathetic, tearful coward, helplessly surrendering to the power of fate, hopelessly intimidated and overwhelmed by people and events... Nothing could be more antipathetic for K. -a poet and a person than such a would-be hero. The general motifs of K.'s poetry are inextricably linked with Russian folk life, which created and raised the poet. K., both in the songs of the people and in their everyday life, encountered the features of Likhach Kudryavich, admiration for blind happiness, weak fatalism and the opposite properties - the fire of undying moral energy, the conscious “forces of the soul.” Experience instilled in K. faith in personal strength, and it remained his ideal to the end. Among K.'s everyday works, it should be noted first of all poetry of village labor. These are not idylls, but a strict, truthful depiction of difficult reality, imbued with the sympathy of a working poet. In a few words, K. is able to describe the various moments of peasant working life: sowing, harvesting grain, haymaking, and retell all this in one poem - a kind of whole poem of rural labor and rural joys (“ Harvest"), and on the same stage sketch a peculiar romance of a village girl (“ Young Reaper"), drama young guy, who fell in love with the daughter of a rich man (" Mower"), present the peasant worker in an unusually attractive light (" Plowman's Song"), say a simple but stern word to the parasite (" Why are you sleeping, man?"), to evoke in the reader deep sympathy for the lonely worker, absorbed in his only concern - to be saved from "bitter need" (" The mind of a peasant"). And over all these pictures and images the same faith in the “powers of the soul” reigns, often turning into a religious feeling. Even a seventy-five-year-old old man, a miserable beggar, ends his reflections on his long-suffering life with the words:
How long can and strength
How long is the soul in the body
I will work...
and the results of such a decision are moral satisfaction and an honest piece of bread (" A Villager's Reflection"). The poet did not forget the defenseless victims of village hardships. He was the first of the Russian poets to hear poetic notes in complaints Reapers, penetrated into the simple, but extremely touching, truly dramatic psychology of an ordinary village heroine girl, forcibly married to an old man (song " Oh, why did they hand me over by force?...", song: " Without your mind, without your mind"), without loud phrases and sensitive effects - depicted the selflessness of an ingenuous loving heart, ready to sacrifice its destiny to the happiness of its beloved (song: " A friend told me goodbye"). And all these everyday phenomena, barely noticeable, but overwhelming people's life, are conveyed in an amazing language, merging artistic simplicity and musical harmony with the folk style, folk simplicity and sincerity, the universal and Russian folk, inextricably merging in the content and form of Koltsov's poetry, make it the property of truly fiction. Only in some poems did K. betray his genius. All of them belong to the so-called I think. Where the poet does not leave the natural sources of his inspiration - nature and folk life, there his “thoughts” breathe truth and poetry. Duma " Forest" - a wonderful painting on the theme of the riddle so beloved by poets - “What is the pine forest rustling about,” thought - " grave" - a series of touching motifs from his native life. But as soon as the poet begins to be tempted by abstract or even philosophical questions, his poems turn into a tedious and aimless collection of words. And the reason is not a lack of talent, but in the themes themselves. Such thoughts are few: obviously personal the poet’s own feelings did not reconcile well with poetic reasoning, and it is remarkable that at the end of his life the poet was less and less engaged in thoughts. In 1840, only one thought was written - “The Poet”, in. next year- two, and in the year of death - not one. But these same years are rich in autobiographical, unusually passionate and sincere poems, for example: " Crossroads", almost literally coinciding with letters to K. Belinsky about the "cramped" life in his father's house, " Reckoning with life", "A cry of misery", "Funeral for Serebryansky"and finally the dying" On new 1842"Death, obviously, overtook the poet in the prime of his poetic power... But what the poet managed to do forever established for him one of the first places in the history of Russian poetry and the Russian public. He is the first, as a son and pet of the people's life , showed the real people's life, the real peasant with his hardships and joys, managed to discover glimpses of poetry in this life, and in the soul of the eternal worker - to show a person close and dear to us. In terms of the artistry of the image and the significance of the content, K.'s poetry is a direct predecessor of the populist activity of writers. -realists who prepared the consciousness of Russian society for peasant reform. According to ideal goals, this poetry is the embodiment of the noblest properties of the Russian spirit - those properties that marked the life of K. himself - a bearer of light among a semi-barbarian society - and the life of all true workers of Russian thought and enlightenment.
Literature. V. G. Belinsky, “On the life and writings of K.” (article for the publication of K.’s works, 1846); “A.V. Koltsov” (Art. M.S.) and “A few additional words to characterize K.”, M.N. Katkov (Russian Bulletin, 1856, VI, 146, 169); Valeryan Maykov, “Critical Experiments” (St. Petersburg, 1891), M. De Poulet, “A. V. Koltsov in his everyday and literary life and in a family environment” (St. Petersburg, 1878); "A. V. Koltsov, his life and works" ("Reading for Youth", 1858; anonymous essay by N. A. Dobrolyubov); V. Ogarkov, “A.V. Koltsov, his life and literary activity” (in Pavlenkov’s edition, “The Life of Remarkable People”); V. P. Ostrogorsky, “The Artist of the Russian Song” (“The World of God,” 1892, October); P. Vladimirov, “A.V. Koltsov, as a person and as a poet” (Kyiv, 1894, from “Readings in the Historical Society of Nestor the Chronicler”). Until 1892, K.'s poems went through several editions (K. T. Soldatenkova). With the expiration of literary ownership, several publications appeared simultaneously, for the most part like prizes for illustrated magazines. The best of them are Ars. Vvedensky (ed. "Niva") and A.I. Lyashchenko (ed. "North", many unpublished letters from K.). K.'s poems were excellently translated into German by F. F. Fiedler (Leipzig, 1887, in the "Universal Bibliothek" Reclam "a). Later, a good and accurate translation by M. I. Michelson was also published (St. Petersburg, 1889).
Iv. Ivanov.
(Brockhaus)
Koltsov, Alexey Vasilievich
(Polovtsov)
Koltsov, Alexey Vasilievich
Poet. The son of a wealthy Voronezh prasol, who himself was involved in his father’s business. K.'s education was limited to home literacy and a short stay at the district school, from the second grade of which the poet was taken by his father in half school year. K.'s first leaders in poetic creativity were Voronezh bookseller D. A. Kashkin, who gave the young man the opportunity to use books from his library for free, and seminarian, later a student at the Medical Academy, A. P. Srebryansky, who corrected his first poetic experiments. In 1831, K. was in Moscow on his father’s business, where, thanks to N.V. Stankevich, he met some writers, including Belinsky. In 1836, 1838 and 1840 K. again visited Moscow and St. Petersburg, and these trips gave him the opportunity to strengthen and expand his literary connections. In St. Petersburg, V. Odoevsky, Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky and others took an active part in the poet-prasol. This communication with the most prominent representatives of the noble intelligentsia had an undoubted influence on K.’s craving for studies in literature, history and philosophy, but the poet’s extremely meager education represented for him, an insurmountable obstacle on this path, which was painfully felt by K himself. “I understand the subject and the object a little, but not a tiny bit of the absolute...”, naively laments, for example. poet in a letter to Belinsky dated 28/X 1836. K.’s entire life passed between two poles, one of which was determined by his literary pursuits and passionate desire to “be on par with the century,” and the other by constant worries about trade affairs and participation in petty gossip the bourgeois environment surrounding the poet.
K.'s poetry is the most developed expression of the literary style of the urban philistinism (petty and middle urban bourgeoisie) of the first third of the 19th century. K.'s early poetic experiments represent imitations of the poems of Dmitriev, Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Kozlov and other poets; in these works the poet is still discovering his own artistic manner, his own style. But even among them there are already poems in which one cannot help but see the future creator of songs. These are eg. “If I meet you”, “The Tale of My Love” and “Advice of an Elder”. On the other hand, attempts to write in the spirit of book poetry are observed in K. until his death, interspersed with songs, and among the latter, some are closer to book forms than to the specific manner in which one can see the features of Koltsov’s style. As for K.'s other genre - his thoughts, in most cases they are similar in design to songs, and in content they represent a unique poetic philosophy. Having glimpsed the philosophical debates of the capital's friends, Ch. arr. in Belinsky’s circle, the poet-prasol is trying to understand world problems in his thoughts.
The highest point of K.'s artistic achievements are his songs. Impulses to freedom, the image of daredevils, a failed life, longing for youth, love in its various experiences, peasant labor and contentment as a result of this labor - these are the main themes of Koltsov’s songs. All these works are imbued with cheerfulness, indestructible energy, and a readiness to fight life’s difficulties and dangers to the end. The major mood of Koltsov’s lyrics is the result of the upsurge that was experienced in the first third of the 19th century. bourgeoisie. This social class feels on the rise, experiencing a certain rise. But at the same time, the bourgeoisie still bears the full burden of patriarchy: the impulses of the young class towards culture constantly collide with the environment, with its practicality and conservatism. The contradiction was especially noticeable in the development of the small and middle urban bourgeoisie, which had not yet broken ties with the peasantry. A poetic expression of the difficult but persistent upsurges of the urban philistinism in the struggle for their well-being, primarily economic, in K.’s work is the image of a falcon trying to break the bonds that bind him (“The Thoughts of a Falcon,” “Longing for Freedom,” “The Old Man’s Song,” “ Song of the Robber", "In Bad Weather Wind", "Forest", "Frenzy"). The psychoideological content of this image is that of a falcon, a daredevil (“How healthy and young,” “The wind blows in the field,” “The first song of Likhach Kudryavich,” “Escape,” “The Daredevil”) or a lover (“A friend told me goodbye,” “Not make noise, rye”, “To each his own talent”, “Mower”, “The Last Kiss”, “The Marriage of Paul”, etc.) - lies in repulsion from sad reality and in impulses towards another life, towards a “free will”, and the meaning of this antithesis is quite clear: its main core is the achievement of material wealth.
The same ideal of satiety and material well-being permeates K.'s songs about peasant work and rest ("The Plowman's Song", "Harvest", "Reflections of a Villager", "Peasant Feast", etc.). As a representative of the wealthy urban philistinism, the poet had not yet completely broken with the peasant soil from which the petty and middle urban bourgeoisie grew. But the “power of the land” no longer weighs on him: K. is no longer a plowman, but an outside observer of a prosperous village that has bought itself off from serfdom.
All peasant work in K. is presented as one continuous holiday. Even the mournful “Reflections of a Villager,” a very old man who is “in his eighties and five years old,” and still “there is no change,” eventually returns to the same rural labor and finds joyful peace in it. When the peasant has a feast after the harvest, the “plank gates” open wide for numerous guests. There is something to treat those “invited”:
"On the tables are chickens and geese
Lots of fried ones
Pies, ham
The dishes are full..."
There is also a “bitter cup”, and “intoxicating mash”, with which the owner treats his relatives from carved ladles”, and “sychy honey”. And not in homespun paneva and bast shoes, the “black-browed young wife” receives guests, but appears before them “fringed, dressed up in muslin" (“Peasant Feast”). To explain peasant poverty, the poet does not find any other reason other than laziness (“What are you sleeping, peasant?”). It is no wonder that K. did not say a single word about serfdom: for the city philistinism, the latter was an already passed stage of social existence.
Both from the content and design side, K.’s work represents a synthesis of elements of book poetry and peasant folklore.
K.'s songs, often having much in common with works of peasant oral poetry, sometimes differ from the latter in the complexity of their composition. Let us cite here only “The Time of Love” as an example. This poem consists of three paintings, united into one whole by the “breath of enchantment” of spring, which produces such a magical effect in the sense of the origin, further development and strengthening of the feeling of love. The first picture represents the effect of spring on the girl’s heart, the second - the love experiences of the young man, and the third - the synthesis of the experiences of both in a mutual feeling of love. This complexity of the composition undoubtedly reflected K.’s bookish and literary training, as can be noted in the poet’s widespread use of pictures of nature. The compositional role of landscape in K. is much more important than in peasant folklore. A peasant song turns to nature as a means for its symbolism, for constructing psychological parallelism, or for creating a background against which certain experiences unfold. However, nowhere in the oral poetry of the village will we find such sustained and broad pictures of nature as, for example. in Koltsov's "Harvest", or such a natural symbol on which an entire work would be built, like Koltsov's poem "Forest" dedicated to the memory of Pushkin. Psychological parallelism is not found at all in K., and natural symbolism usually has a different psycho-ideological content than what we find in peasant oral poetry.
The same synthesis of elements of book poetry and peasant song folklore is observed in poetic language. K. The poet very often uses epithets, but along with such epithets as red girl, daring fellow, ardent wax, dear friend, oak tables, damp earth, good horse, Mother Volga, red sun, clear falcon, blond curls, there are often a languid gaze, magical distance, dead midnight, hot feelings, maiden, joy of the soul, fatal fire, deaf midnight, blind happiness, the golden age of girls, steppe grass - silk brocade, night - a sorceress, fertile nights, ardent youth, voluptuous dreams , magical dreams, wonderful songs, foggy youth, etc., which are completely alien to peasant oral poetry and testify to the stream of sentimental noble literature in the songs of K. A favorite stylistic device in peasant song folklore is comparison in its various forms. In K. comparison is also one of the most common techniques, but its negative form, most characteristic of peasant oral creativity, is extremely rare in the poet. K.'s songs are especially rich in comparisons expressed through the instrumental case (“the curls curl like hops,” “the bread of the orphan is worth it,” etc.). K. often resorts to the technique of repetition, but repetition of a verse or part of it, which represents the most specific property of peasant folklore, is completely absent from K., and repetition through the use of an epithet is very rare. A number of stylistic devices already directly connect K.’s songs with the poetics of his time book literature, predominantly noble sentimental lyrics. This should include the use of all kinds of exclamatory particles (alas, oh, ah), the rhetorical question:
"Why does he care?
Thunder clouds,
How they will come to your heart
Blue eyes!..” (“The wind blows in the field”),
silence or a sharp transition from one thought to another as a stylistic means to give a dramatic character to a particular experience:
"Don't go, wait! Give me time
Stifle sadness, cry out sadness;
On you, on the clear falcon..."
“The spirit became busy - the word froze”... (“Separation”).
"There is no hope in my soul...
You'll fall apart
Golden tear
Memory milov!.." ("Ring").
The vocabulary of Koltsovo's songs represents a constant combination of words from the peasant language, many of which are of a local nature (cage, treasury, bins, mash, bad weather, come to the occasion, play songs, talk, sam-drug, quietly, without waking up, let them in, etc.), and literary words (kiss, delight, expression, luxurious, moment, take up arms, gloss, enchantment, fatal, cherish, etc.). As for the syntax of K., what should be noted here are elements close to the syntax of peasant oral poetic speech, the almost complete lack of connection between sentences according to the method of subordination, the predominance of abrupt speech and the use of short form adjectives serving as a definition (valiant prowess, evil misfortune, clear eyes). But the above methods of rhetorical question or silence bring K.’s poems closer to book poetry. The version of K.'s poems is bookish, with correctly expressed metrics. The impression of the closeness of Koltsov’s verse to the verse of peasant songs is explained by the fact that in K.’s works there is no correct alternation of rhythmically strong and weak syllables, and stress is counted according to “prosodic periods,” that is, according to groups of words united by a common emphasis on one of them.
Bibliography: I. Complete collection. composition A. V. Koltsova, ed. and with notes A. I. Lyashchenki, ed. "The category of fine literature of the Academician of Sciences", ed. 3rd, St. Petersburg, 1911 (best edition). There you can also see a review of other publications.
II. Neverov Ya. M., Poems by Alexei Koltsov, "ZhMNP", part 9, 1836, pp. 653-658; His, Prasol Poet A.V. Koltsov, “Son of the Fatherland,” part 176, pp. 259-272 and 309-324 (about the peasant nature of K.’s creativity); Danilov V.V., Essays on Koltsov’s poetry, “Russian Philological Bulletin”, 1910, No. 1, pp. 19-45 (an unfinished attempt to connect the poet with the environment of the urban philistinism). On the relationship of K.'s creativity to folklore, see: Nekrasov A. Ya., Koltsov and folk lyrics, "Izvestia. Department of Russian Language and Words. Academic Sciences", vol. XVI, book. 2, 1911; Olminsky M. S., On questions of literature, Leningrad, 1925.
III. For a detailed bibliography, see academic. ed. K., St. Petersburg, 1911; Vladislavlev I.V., Russian writers, ed. 4th, Guise, L., 1924; His, Literature of the Great Decade, vol. I, Guise, M., 1928.
Famous national poet. Born on October 3, 1809, into a wealthy middle-class family in the city of Voronezh. His father was a livestock trader, an intelligent, energetic, and resourceful man. Koltsov’s mother was a kind woman, but completely uneducated, even... Biographical Dictionary
- (1809 42), Russian. poet. From the end 30s, along with L., one of the main. authors of "OZ". According to contemporaries, K. and L. did not meet, although they had a wide circle of mutual acquaintances (V. G. Belinsky, A. A. Kraevsky, V. F. Odoevsky, P. A. Vyazemsky, V ... Lermontov Encyclopedia
Russian poet. Born into the family of a Voronezh tradesman, a cattle dealer. From childhood he took part in his father’s business - driving herds in the steppes, buying and selling livestock at village bazaars.... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- (18091842), poet. He came to St. Petersburg in 1836, 1838 and 1840. Among his St. Petersburg acquaintances were V. A. Zhukovsky, V. F. Odoevsky, P. A. Vyazemsky, A. A. Kraevsky, I. A. Krylov, I. S. Turgenev, A.G. Venetsianov and others. Unforgettable for... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"
In 1809, the poet Alexei Koltsov was born into a prosol family. Alexei's father was energetic and powerful, was engaged in trade and was one of the ten richest salted people in Voronezh. He was an ambitious man. I dreamed of moving from the outskirts to the center of Voronezh. This is what happened in 1816 - he bought a large estate in the very center of the city. Known for his tough temperament, he identified a trading career for his son from childhood. From the age of nine, Alexey learned to read and write at home and at the same time worked with his father. Considering education an unaffordable luxury, his father allowed Alexei to complete only two classes of school. The boy had to graze cattle in the steppe for weeks and endure his father’s squabbles.
Alexei's youth was joyless. He traveled around the area, buying and selling, and managed his father’s business. The future poet developed an early interest in literature. Reading was his great passion. Since childhood, he spent the money he earned on books. Even when he went to the steppe to graze cattle, he did not part with his books. He loved to communicate with peasants, listen to their fairy tales and songs, and studied the life and character traits of the common people.
At the age of 16, the poet wrote his first poems. In them he revealed the soul of the Russian people. At the age of 17, Alexey fell in love with a girl who was his father’s serf. The love was mutual and they wanted to get married. But the father did not allow this relationship to take place and sold the girl to another owner.
In 1830, by chance, while traveling on his father’s business, he met N.V. Stankevich, who was the organizer of a literary circle, philosopher and poet. This meeting gave him access to literary collections in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
In 1831, Koltsov visited Moscow for the first time, went to visit Stankevich, where he met Belinsky. The writer took the poet under his protection. In him, Koltsov found a literary teacher and devoted friend.
In 1835, a book of poems by Alexei Koltsov was published, which was the first and only publication during the poet’s lifetime. The book contained only 18 poetic works, but this was enough to bring him fame among the capital's writers. The poet dreamed of leaving trade and devoting himself to his favorite work - literature.
In 1836, Koltsov again traveled to the capital on his father’s business. This period turned out to be a turning point for the poet. The little book gave the provincial poet the opportunity to communicate with the best writers of that time. In St. Petersburg, Alexey Koltsov met many luminaries of Russian literature, among whom were Pushkin and Zhukovsky. They were delighted with Koltsov's work. Pushkin especially liked the poem “Harvest”. Koltsov’s poems began to be published in the best metropolitan magazines.
Koltsov returned home triumphant. There was unprecedented interest in him. Even the Voronezh governor was a fan of his work.
In 1840, having unsuccessfully completed his trading business in Moscow, he returned home. He was met by an angry father, who was not satisfied with his son’s attitude towards his master’s affairs. Family quarrels began, growing into family conflict. All this ended with the poet's illness. The poet died suddenly and without suffering in 1842.
In 1846, Belinsky published a posthumous collection of poems by Alexei Koltsov. This was his friend's deepest wish.
Interesting facts and dates from life
KOLTSOV ALEXEY VASILIEVICH - Russian poet.
From the bourgeoisie, the son of the former great-so-la (livestock merchant). In 1821, he graduated from one class of a two-class school in the district, after which his father attracted him to his before the end of his life. Early on, he developed a passion for reading, and in the mid-1820s he began to compose poetry, finding support among the gentle people. skoy in-tel-li-gen-tion (book-tor-go-vets D.A. Kash-kin, se-mi-rist-sti-ho-creator A.P. Se-reb -ryansky). In 1830, the first (anonymous) publication of 4 works by Koltsov took place in Moscow. In the same year, he became acquainted with N.V. Stan-ke-vi-chem, who introduced Koltsov into literary circles. Since 1831, he began to publish in hundred-personal editions [the song “Per-sten” (later called “Ring”), published in “Li- te-ra-tur-noy ga-ze-te”]. In 1835, the efforts of Stan-ke-vi-cha and V.G. Be-lin-skogo, having become the main author of Koltsov’s work, the first collection of his poems was published -rhenium. In 1836, 1838 and 1840, Koltsov was on trade business in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where he was favorably inclined ma-li A.S. Pushkin, V.A. Zhu-kov-sky and others. Koltsov’s move to St. Petersburg did not take place due to his illness and mother -ri-al-nyh for-work-in-the-family. From the death of Koltsov’s poems (1846) Belinsky, who pre-made him a great man, yo “About life and co-chi-ne-ni-yahs of Kol-tso-va”, in which from-lo-zhe-on the first-vai, from-of-times mi-fo-lo -gi-zi-ro-van-naya bio-graphy po-this.
In Koltsov’s poetry, the most significant are his songs, created at the intersection of folk-ethical and literary (style) -for-tions of folk songs A.F. Merz-la-ko-va, A.A. Del-vi-ga, etc.) traditions. Characteristic folklore techniques (hundred-of epi-thoses, established formulas, oli-tse-re-re- niya, psi-ho-lo-gich. par-ral-le-ism, etc.), to which Koltsov comes in in-tim-noy, psi-ho-lo-gi -che-ski us-false-no-no-li-ri-ke. So, in love songs a complex range of re-livings is presented, right up to the most painful and dramatic -nyh: “From-me-to-my-wife” (1838); “Russian song” (“A friend said to me, farewell…”, 1839); “Raz-lu-ka” (“At the dawn of tumultuous youth...”, 1840). In a number of Koltsov’s early songs, the re-creation of a gar-mo-nic-kar-ti-on Christian life with its festivities, mo-lit-va-mi and agricultural labor, bringing people together to the countryside (“Rural pi-rush-ka”, 1830 year; “Song-nya-ha-rya”, 1831; “Harvest”, 1835; “Ko-sar”, 1836). In Koltsov’s later songs, there are pre-ob-la-da-yut mo-ti-you alone, well, well, isn’t it, ras-tra-chen- Noah for “foreign people”, youthful strength, etc. (“Raz-du-mie se-la-ni-na”, 1837; “Bitter Do-la”, 1837; “Why are you sleeping, mu-zhi-chok?..”, 1839, and etc.); social and family conflicts become acute (“Second Song of Paradise Li-ha-cha Kud-rya-vi-cha”, 1837; “De-re-Ven-skaya be-da”, 1838; “Everyone has his own ta-lan”, 1840), does not “break-anyone’s” te- ma (“Uda-lets”, 1833; “Hu-to-rock”, 1839), the line of spiritual poetry continues (“Before the at once Spa-si-te-la", 1839). Genuine tragedy is inherent in the poem on the death of Push-ki-na “Forest” (1837). Another significant section of Koltsov’s li-ri-ki is “thought-we”, representing ourselves as non-savory races. discussions on philosophical and religious topics: about the secrets of the world and the Creator's mind, about the limits of mankind knowledge of something (“God’s world”, 1837; “Forest”, 1839; “Po-et”, 1840). In contrast to Koltsov’s poems in traditional literary genres (poems, elegy, mad-ri-ga-ly, etc.), his dog -ni and “thoughts” are a unique phenomenon of Russian poetry. Elements of Koltsov's poetry were you aware of N.A. Not-kra-so-vym, I.Z. Su-ri-ko-vym, S.D. Drozh-zhi-nym, S.A. Ese-ni-nym and others. Music to Koltsov’s song pi-sa-li A.S. Dar-go-myzh-sky, N.A. Rim-sky-Kor-sa-kov, M.P. Mu-sorg-sky, M.A. Ba-la-ki-rev, etc.
Essays:
Full collection op. 3rd ed. St. Petersburg, 1911;
Full collection sti-ho-tvo-re-ny. L., 1958;
Works: In 2 vols. M., 1961; Op. L., 1984;
Russian so-lo-vey. Vo-ro-nezh, 1989.
Additional literature:
De-Pou-le M.F. A.V. Koltsov in his life and life-tour affairs and in the family environment. St. Petersburg, 1878;
Ogar-kov V.V. A.V. Koltsov, his life and literary activities. St. Petersburg, 1891;
Bu-na-kov N.F. A.V. Koltsov as a person and as a poet // Fi-lo-lo-gi-che-che-notes. 1892. No. 5;
Pryad-kin S.N. Essay on poetry by A. V. Koltsov. Vo-ro-nezh, 1906;
So-bo-lev-sky A. I. A. V. Koltsov in the history of Russian literature. St. Petersburg, 1910;
Ton-kov V.A. A.V. Koltsov and folklore. Vo-ro-nezh, 1940;
aka. A. V. Koltsov. Life and art. 2nd ed. Vo-ro-nezh, 1958;
Moi-see-va A.A. A. V. Koltsov. M., 1956;
A.V. Koltsov: Articles and materials. Vo-ro-nezh, 1960.
Illustrations:
A. V. Koltsov. Po-rt-rett work K. A. Gor-bu-no-va. 1838. All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin (St. Petersburg). BRE Archive.
Alexey Vasilievich Koltsov
was born in Voronezh into the family of Vasily Petrovich Koltsov (1775-1852) - a buyer and cattle dealer (prasol), who was known throughout the district as an honest partner and a strict housekeeper. A man of strong character, passionate and enthusiastic, the poet’s father, not limiting himself to being a prasol, rented land for sowing crops, bought forests for felling, traded firewood, and was engaged in cattle breeding. In general, my father was an extremely economical man.....
Alexei's mother is a kind, but uneducated woman; she did not even know how to read and write. He had no peers in the family: his sister was much older, and his brother and other sisters were much younger.
From the age of 9, Koltsov learned to read and write at home, demonstrating such abilities that in 1820 he was able to enter a two-year district school, bypassing the parish school. Vissarion Belinsky wrote the following about the level of his education:
We don’t know how he was transferred to the second grade, and in general what he learned at this school, because no matter how briefly we knew Koltsov personally, we did not notice any signs of elementary education in him.
After a year and four months (second grade) at the school, Alexey was taken away by his father. Vasily Petrovich believed that this education would be enough for his son to become his assistant. Alexei’s job was driving and selling livestock.
At school, Alexey fell in love with reading, the first books he read were fairy tales, for example about Bova, about Eruslan Lazarevich. He bought these books with the money he received from his parents for treats and toys. Later, Alexey began to read various novels, which he borrowed from his friend Vargin, who was also the son of a merchant. The future poet especially liked the works “A Thousand and One Nights” and “Cadmus and Harmony” by Kheraskov. After Vargin's death in 1824, Alexey Koltsov inherited his library - about 70 volumes. In 1825, he became interested in the poems of I. I. Dmitriev, especially “Ermak”.
In 1825, at the age of 16, he wrote his first poem, “Three Visions,” which he later destroyed. The poem was written in imitation of Koltsov's favorite poet, Ivan Dmitriev.
Koltsov’s first mentor in poetry was the Voronezh bookseller Dmitry Kashkin, who gave the young man the opportunity to use books from his library for free. Kashkin was direct, smart and honest, for which the youth of the city loved him. Kashkin’s bookstore was a kind of club for them. Kashkin was interested in Russian literature, read a lot and wrote poetry himself. Apparently Koltsov showed him his first experiments. For 5 years, Koltsov used his library free of charge.
Somewhere in his youth, the future poet experienced a deep drama - he was separated from the serf girl whom he wanted to marry. This was reflected, in particular, in his poems “Song” (1827), “Don’t Sing, Nightingale” (1832) and a number of others.
In 1827, he met seminarian Andrei Srebryansky, who later became his close friend and mentor. It was Srebryansky who instilled in Koltsov an interest in philosophy.
The young poet's first publications were anonymous - 4 poems in 1830. Under his own name, Alexey Koltsov published poems in 1831, when N.V. Stankevich, a famous poet, publicist and thinker, whom Koltsov met in 1830, published his poems with a short preface in the Literary Gazette. In 1835, the first and only collection during the poet’s lifetime, “Poems of Alexei Koltsov,” was published. On his father’s business, he traveled to St. Petersburg and Moscow, where, thanks to Stankevich, he met V. G. Belinsky, who had a great influence on him, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Vladimir Odoevsky and Pushkin, who published Koltsov’s poem in his magazine “Sovremennik” Harvest".
After the release of the poems “The Young Reaper,” “It’s Time for Love,” and “The Last Kiss,” Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin became interested in Koltsov. He called the main feature of these poems “a burning sense of personality.”
While traveling on his father’s trade business, Koltsov met various people and collected folklore. His lyrics glorified ordinary peasants, their work and their lives. Many poems became words to the music of M. A. Balakirev, A. S. Dargomyzhsky, M. P. Mussorgsky, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov and many others.
Alexey Koltsov often had quarrels with his father (especially in last years life); the latter had a negative attitude towards his son’s literary work. As a result of depression and prolonged consumption, Koltsov died at the age of thirty-three in 1842.
V. G. Belinsky wrote:
“To restore his health, it was necessary, first of all, to calm down, and yet he was insulted every minute, tortured, teased, like a wild animal in a cage... Once in the next room his sister had many guests, and they started a game: they put a table in the middle of the room , put the girl on it, covered her with a sheet and began to sing in chorus the eternal memory of the servant of God Alexei."
The poet was buried at the Mitrofanevskoye cemetery in Voronezh.
Alexei Koltsov's early poetic experiments represent imitations of the poems of Dmitriev, Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Kozlov, Kheraskov and other poets; in these works the poet is still discovering his own artistic style. But even among them there are already poems in which one cannot help but see the future creator of songs. On the other hand, attempts to write in the spirit of book poetry are observed in Koltsov until his death, interspersed with songs, and among the latter, some are closer to book forms than to the specific manner in which one can see the features of Koltsov’s style. Another genre of Koltsov is thoughts, which are similar in form to his songs, and in content represent a unique poetic philosophy. Having briefly become acquainted with the philosophical debates of his friends in the capital, mainly in Belinsky’s circle, Koltsov tries to understand world problems in his thoughts.
In 1856, in the fifth issue of the Sovremennik magazine, an article by N. G. Chernyshevsky was published, dedicated to the work of A. V. Koltsov
The grave of A.V. Koltsov is preserved in the Literary Necropolis not far from the Voronezh Circus. The date of death of Alexey Vasilyevich is incorrectly indicated on the tombstone. In fact, he died not on October 19, but on October 29.
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