Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy is a domestic writer and playwright. He was also known as a literary critic, journalist, translator and, of course, historian. He was one of the ideologists of the "third estate". He was the brother of the critic Xenophon Polevoy and writer Ekaterina Avdeeva, the father of the Soviet writer Peter Polevoy.
Writer Biography
Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy was born in 1796. He was born in Irkutsk. He grew up in a wealthy merchant family. It is interesting that he became one of the first Russian journalists who never forgot about his origin, constantly expressing the interests of this estate in his publications.
Received primary education from home teachers. He began to write in the journal "Russian Herald" in 1817. By 1820, he finally moved to Moscow, where he lived until 1836. Only after that Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy moved to Petersburg. In his work, he always positioned himself as a representative of the people in literature.
Journalistic activities
At the beginning of the 1920s, a lot was published in the Northern Archive, Fatherland Notes, Son of the Fatherland, and the almanac of Mnemozin. Just at that time the word “journalism” appeared, to which Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy himself was at first wary.
It is worth noting that in those years it was believed that nobles could deal with literature exclusively, and the appearance in the press of works by representatives of other classes caused outright bewilderment and even ridicule.
Moscow Telegraph
In 1825, Polevoy began to publish the Moscow Telegraph magazine, which had huge print runs. In this edition, he published his articles on history, literature and ethnography. Constantly in these publications he emphasized the important role of merchants, as well as industry and trade in the modern fate of Russia. Often he made open attacks on the literary works of nobles, criticizing them for being isolated from the people and ignorance of their needs and problems.
An interesting fact in the life of Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy is that his magazine was closed in 1834 by personal order of Emperor Nicholas I. This happened after a critical review of the play by Kukolnik called “The Father Has Saved the Most High Hand”.
Career in St. Petersburg
After the scandal with the closure of the magazine, Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy, whose biography is given in this article, went to Petersburg. Here, a revision of personal views took place - as a result, the journalist changed liberal beliefs to loyal ones. He begins to publish an annual entitled, "A Pictorial Review of Memorable Items from Sciences, Arts, Arts, Industry, and the Hostel." He writes for the Northern Bee and for several years has been editing the Son of the Fatherland.
His new project was the magazine "Russian Herald", which since 1841 began to be published once a month. Already in 1845, he agreed with the editor Andrei Kraevsky on the leadership of the Literary Newspaper. He paid much attention to literary and critical articles, in particular, he was in opposition to Belinsky.
Polevoy himself was criticized more than once, and even parodies. He was ridiculed for arrogance and for the frequent use of the pompous syllable.
Illness and death
In 1846, Field died. He was only 49 years old. He died of a fever, which was provoked by the imprisonment of his son in the Shlisselburg fortress. Student Niktopolion was detained by the tsarist authorities while trying to arbitrarily cross the border.
Field was buried at the Volkov cemetery. He was one of the first whose grave was located in that part of the cemetery, which today is known as Literary bridges. The Russian poet Pyotr Vyazemsky, who was present at the funeral, noted that a lot of people had gathered - Polevoy was very popular.
According to the stories, Polevoy was lying in a coffin with an unshaven beard and in a dressing gown. The fact is that after death his family remained in a difficult financial situation, the hero of our article had a wife and nine children. He left about 60,000 rubles of debts and no savings. The family was granted a pension of 1,000 rubles.
Belinsky, who often polemicized with Polev, while acknowledging his merits in literature. The younger generation appreciated him for being one of the first representatives of the raznochinsky intelligentsia, which managed to take its special place in Russian literature. At the same time, soon after the death, the works of Polevoy were forgotten and stopped publishing.
Literary activity
In his books, Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy often propagandized the aesthetics of romanticism; his novels “Painter”, “Bliss of Madness”, and “Emma” serve as proof. Polevoy is a classic fiction writer, the main theme of his works was class obstacles that arise in a clash of representatives of the nobility with gifted non-members.
The standard hero of Polevoy is a morally pure representative of the bourgeois or philistinism, usually also a devout one, who will face the backwardness of his environment and the narrowness of his views. Aristocrats, as a rule, are depicted as immoral egoists, who have no convictions, trying to hide their inner void behind brilliant and reproachful manners.
Plays and satire
In the works of Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy often turned to historical subjects. He wrote about 40 plays. He often wrote about famous domestic figures and events, which was very popular in Russia during the reign of Nicholas I.
In the satirical supplement to the Moscow Telegraph, the hero of our article sought to continue the satire tradition of the end of the last century. A distinctive feature of his satirical works is the deliberate rejection of hyperbole and exaggeration in favor of other bright artistic means.
Polevoy also did a lot of translations. For example, thanks to him, Russian readers got acquainted with Gauf's tales. In 1837, he released a rather free translation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet.
Historical works
The work of Nikolai Alekseevich Polevoy, History of the Russian People, was widely known. He wrote it in contrast to the concept of Karamzin, who represented the history of the country as a chronicle of the biographies of its supreme rulers. Field brought to the first position ordinary people.
In this historical work, he tried to find a popular principle in all the fundamental events of Russian history, moving away from the role of military leaders and rulers.
In Russia, Polevoy’s “History” was perceived by many as a weak parody of Karamzin; it was criticized. Interestingly, initially the hero of our article sought to write 12 volumes, like Karamzin. However, due to various difficulties, including personal ones, he managed to publish only six volumes. By that time, the subscription was sold out, which led to fraud allegations and financial claims.
In addition, the last volumes were not as interesting as the first two - it was noticeable that the author was in a hurry, often straying into a banal retelling of the official doctrine. In his volumes, he managed to set out the history of Russian statehood before the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible.
In addition to this cycle, Polevoy wrote a number of articles for a wide readership. For example, he denied the historical and ethnic affinity of the Little Russians with the Great Russians, on this basis he proposed to admit that Little Russia is not part of Russia, as Karamzin insisted on this.