The poetry of the Silver Age is famous for its representatives. Their names, along with unforgettable works, are known to everyone who at least a little considers himself an expert on literature. There are poets whose poems are remembered against their will. These include Fedor Sologub. A brief biography, a review of creativity and a description of the direction in which the poems are created awaits you below.
About the writer
Fedor Sologub is a Russian writer, poet, publicist, translator and teacher. He was one of the brightest representatives of the Silver Age and an apologist for Russian symbolism. His work is so extraordinary and ambiguous, then many critics still can not come to the only correct interpretations of the images and characters created by the poet. Sologub, whose biography and work is still the subject of study and search for new characters - a multifaceted creator of poetry and prose. His poems amaze with their motives of loneliness, mysticism and mystery, and the novels attract attention, shock and do not let go to their last page.
Nickname History
The real name of the poet is Fedor Kuzmich Teternikov.
The magazine "Northern Herald" has become a launching pad for the poet. In the 90s of the XIX century, the poetry of Sologub was published in this edition, and in large volumes.
The role of the symbolist poet demanded a sonorous name. The editorial staff of the magazine came up with the first variants of pseudonyms, among which the option “Sollogub” was proposed. This surname was carried by a noble family, the bright representative of which was Vladimir Sollogub - writer, prose writer. To have differences, Fedor decides to remove one letter.
In 1893, the journal published the poem "Creativity", signed by the pseudonym Fedor Sologub. The biography of the writer hides many events in which the editorial staff of this magazine took part. "Northern Herald" gave the poet a decent incentive to development and growth.
Fedor Sologub, short biography. Childhood
The writer was born on March 1, 1863 in St. Petersburg. His father was a native of Poltava province.
The family lived very poorly, his father was a serf and earned his living as a tailor.
The parents of the future poet were educated, intelligent people, there were books in the house, and the father taught children to read and write, played for them, talked about the theater and transmitted the little bits of knowledge about world culture and literature that he had.
When two years after the birth of Fedor, his little sister was born, the life of the family became more difficult in material terms. The family was finally driven into poverty by the death of his father in 1867. Mother was left with children in her arms, without a livelihood. She was forced to become a servant in a wealthy family. In this noble family of Agapovs, a young poet grew up, to whom the aristocrats favored, helped his self-education, shared rare books, which Sologub was very eager to. The poet’s biography will further be rich in random people and meetings, which helped him overcome life's obstacles and look for himself.
However, there were also some dark sides in the poet’s childhood at the Agapov’s house. The world of books, science and music, which the young Fedor joined in the house, contrasted insanely sharply with the atmosphere of a smoky kitchen and laundry in a heavy couple, where his mother worked until she was completely exhausted to feed her children. Sometimes she frustrated her fatigue on children, even reaching beatings for the slightest disobedience. Later, the writer will write the story “Consolation,” in which he will express the severity of his shattered children's world. Reluctantly in his memoirs, Sologub recalled this, a short biography of the poet often misses these points, but they are necessary to depict a complete picture of his life and formation.
Works that pointed the way to the poet
The poet’s wife, composing his biography, spoke of three books that Fedor read in his childhood.
These are Don Quixote by Cervantes, King Lear by Shakespeare and Robinson Crusoe Defoe. The impression of what was read by a very young boy was so strong that it sprouted talent, which was destined to bloom in adulthood and create a great poet, creating under the pseudonym Sologub. A brief biography created by his wife told us that these books were "a kind of gospel."
But the work of Pushkin and Lermontov, his main motives were alien to the young Sologub. N.A. Nekrasov was much closer to him in spirit, the images of the poor man and his difficult fate were transformed and found their place and reflection in the future poetry of the successor. Fyodor Sologub in his youth was struck by the realism with which he described the Nekrasov experiences and sufferings of a simple person.
Also, a significant influence on the formation of the worldview and talent of the writer was the work of S. Nadson.
Youth and the search for yourself
The poet's youth was influenced by world literature and Russian classics, whom he had the opportunity to read. Thanks to this opportunity, young Sologub was able to develop his talent (a biography written by the poet’s wife gives a very clear idea about this).
At the age of fifteen, Fedor Sologub becomes a student at the Teachers' Institute in St. Petersburg. The young poet came here with ambiguous thoughts and thanks to the patronage of the Agapov family and teacher Fedor, who saw in the boy a sharp mind and talent that required cutting. Literally the first lessons opened for the poet a whole new world of creativity and freedom.
The director of the institute was K.K. St. Iller - a highly educated person with progressive and innovative views. Thanks to his enthusiasm, the most advanced teachers of the time were involved in teaching. Among students, most of whom were from wealthy families, Fedor was completely a stranger. He was not attracted to student gatherings and festivities. While his classmates had fun, he translated the classics and took the first steps in prose. With the beginning of training at the institute, Sologub will begin the novel “Night Dew”. The poet’s biography will tell us that he will never finish this novel, but it will be a good attempt, enriching his experience.
In 1882, the future symbolist writer will graduate with honors from the institute and leave for the remote village of Kresttsy. He will take his mother and sister Olga with him. Here he was waiting for the work of a teacher, as well as ten years of wandering in the provinces: Velikiye Luki and Vytegra were the temporary home of the writer and his family.
Here, in the “bear corner”, the writer was madly suffering from his loneliness and “provincial swamp”. Later, he will write about this, saying that the teacher is doomed to loneliness and misunderstanding.
First steps in poetry
The first poems of the poet were born, according to some, when he was a twelve-year-old boy. Fedor Sologub (whose biography tells little about his formation as an author) in adulthood often recalled with bitterness the burdens of the youthful period, when there was no support and understanding, and he had to achieve everything himself.
With all the power of youthful maximalism, young Fedor was sure that he was destined to become a poet, and he swore to himself that he would not back down from his calling, no matter how difficult it was for him. And fate did not skimp on trials. Apart from the material difficulties in which the orphaned family of the writer lived, there were many moral torments for the gifted young man. He lived with his mother and sister in a provincial town, there were fewer opportunities than barriers. His poems were published in weak provincial magazines with a limited number of readers, fame and recognition did not all go to the poet.
Northern messenger
The year 1891 became a turning point for the poet, when fate threw him into the capital and presented a completely random meeting with Nikolai Maksimovich Minsky, a representative of the so-called mystical symbolism. The sign of this meeting was that, despite a brief conversation, F. Sologub (a biography written by the poet’s wife, clearly describes this meeting) will leave Minsky with his small collection of poems (literally a couple of hundred early poems). This year was the year of the birth and transformation of the already known magazine "Northern Herald". Its creators: N. Minsky, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius and A. Volynsky were busy searching for works that would become a worthy illustration of the new manifesto of N. Minsky “In the light of conscience ...”. Surprisingly, the young poetry of Sologub turned out to be what helped to arrange the editorial magazine, and the young poet was finally allowed to establish herself in the mainstream of symbolism.
Maturity
In the fall of 1892, Fedor Sologub moved to St. Petersburg. After the province that nearly destroyed him, he breaks into the Symbolist society with his innovation and desire to create.
Here he finds a teacher's place in the city Christmas school. While living here, the writer softened many scenes of his brilliant but heavy novels “The Little Devil” and “Heavy Dreams”. And the place the action of his works was transferred to the "provincial cities", but for some reason not to the capital, where he spent his entire maturity and loved with all his heart.
The "Northern Herald" becomes for the writer both a place of learning, and a means by which his poems finally become known.
In 1908, Sologub Fedor Kuzmich (the biography of the writer does not adequately describe this life stage) leaves his career as a teacher and marries Anastasia Chebotarevskaya, a writer and translator.
In 1913, he and his wife went on a trip to the cities of Russia, visiting them in the amount of almost four dozen.
In 1918, the poet was honored to be the chairman of the Union of Artists.
On December 5, 1927, the writer passed away at the age of sixty-four, leaving behind a huge legacy of the brightest poetry and prose of symbolism.
Creativity Overview
The work of the poet and writer is rich and multifaceted. Although critics themselves later attributed his poetry and prose to symbolism, many features of his works go beyond this direction.
Sologub Fedor Kuzmich began his career (a short biography written by Anastasia Chebotareva tells about this) with poems.
Later, at the teacher's institute, he makes an attempt to create a prosaic epic “Night Dew”. Around the same time, the poem Loneliness was born, which was never destined to be published.
The St. Petersburg Northern Herald publishes poems by the poet.
In 1902, the writer completed work on his novel The Little Devil. The work tells about the crazy unhealthy soul of the sadistic teacher Ardalion Peredonov. Because of its frankness and “riskiness,” the novel was doomed to “life on the table.” However, in 1905, the magazine "Questions of Life" is taken to publish a work. In connection with the closure of the magazine, publications were cut short, which did not allow the novel to fully reveal itself.
In 1907, The Little Devil finally came out completely and from that time to the present day remains one of the most famous and studied books in Russian literature.
The main motives of poetry F. Sologub
Despite the fact that the novels of the writer occupy a worthy place in the world of literature, his poetry is no less interesting for its originality and unusually light, airy syllable.
It is with this ease of syllable that Sologub strikes. The biography of the writer is full of his creative searches and experiences, which are reflected in the verses, they are easy and read in one breath.
The main theme of the poems is the themes of sadness, suffering, existence without meaning and purpose of life, characteristic of symbolism and decadence.
Mystical themes of influence on the life of higher powers can be traced in the poems Devil's Swing and One-Eyed Dashing. Also, the weakness of a person, his powerlessness in front of life's obstacles pass through the entire poetry of Sologub.
Finally
We briefly told you about the writer who left a literary heritage, which can safely be put on a par with the work of Dostoevsky, Blok, Tolstoy. Fedor Sologub (biography and creativity, photo of the writer - all this is in the article) is a writer and poet, prose writer and playwright, who reflected in his work the dark sides of life. But he did it so skillfully and interestingly that his works are read in one breath and remain in memory forever.