Konstantin Batyushkov, whose brief biography is described in this article, was a talented Russian poet with a difficult fate.
Childhood
Nikolai and Alexandra Batyushkov were hoping to see the birth of their fifth child in the family. They dreamed of a son, since they had already given birth to four daughters. Their long-awaited boy came to this world in May 1787 in Vologda. The father of the family belonged to an old noble family, but was in disgrace due to his uncle, who participated in a conspiracy against the empress.
Six years after the birth of Konstantin, his mother was in trouble - mental illness. In 1795 she died.
Batyushkov Konstantin Nikolaevich spent his childhood in a family estate, studied at home. And after the death of his mother, he was sent to a boarding house in St. Petersburg. His main passions were French and Russian literature, he learned perfect Latin and was read by the works of Horace and Tibull.
Youth
Thanks to the patronage of his uncle, trustee of Moscow University Mikhail Muravyov, in 1802 Batyushkov Konstantin Nikolaevich entered the service of the Ministry of Education. Over the next year he worked in the office of Muravyov.
In 1807, disobeying the will of his father, the poet enlisted in the militia and went with a militia battalion to Prussia. During the fighting he was wounded and sent for treatment to Riga, and then - to restore his native estate.
In 1808 he participated in the war with Sweden. After her, I took a long vacation, because my health worsened. The illness of the mother was reflected in the children, she was hereditary. Around this time, Batyushkov, whose brief biography does not describe all the colors of what happened, begins to suffer from hallucinations.
On Christmas Day 1809, the poet arrived by invitation to Moscow, where he met Karamzin, Pushkin, Zhukovsky. With the first two persons he came very close.
In May 1810, received a resignation. A terrible foreboding of his illness did not allow him to live in peace. He rushed between Moscow and the village where his sisters lived.
In 1812, he moved to the capital to work in a public library. His colleague was I. A. Krylov.
The poet participated in the Patriotic War since 1813, was an adjutant to General Raevsky. He returned home only in 1814.
Mature years
In the spring of 1818 he stayed in Odessa with the governor there. It was then that he received a letter from his friend Turgenev, which stated that Batyushkov was invited to a diplomatic mission in Naples.
Since 1819, the poet lived in Venice. In 1821 he traveled to Germany to improve mental health. He began to think that he was being pursued. The situation was getting worse.
Since 1822 he was in the Caucasus and in the Crimea, it was there that the most tragic cases occurred related to his mental state. He repeatedly tried to kill himself.
In 1824, it was decided to send Batyushkov to a psychiatric hospital in Saxony. He spent four long years there, and returned to Moscow when his seizures practically stopped.
A.S. Pushkin last saw the poet in 1830. He was so impressed with this quiet, tragic madness that he wrote the poem "God forbid I go crazy."
In 1833, Konstantin Nikolaevich was transferred to Vologda, to the house of his nephew, where he lived exactly twenty-two years until his death. Batyushkov, whose brief biography does not reflect the whole dramatic nature of his fate, died of typhus at the age of sixty-eight years.
Creation
The first poetic experiments happened at Batyushkov around 1804, when he became close to the members of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts. Following his friends, he tried to compose, and his work began to print.
During the Prussian campaign, he writes some more good poems and begins to translate "Liberated Jerusalem", a poem by Tass.
During the battle of Leipzig, his best friend and comrade in arms Ivan Petin dies. Batyushkov devotes several poems to him, including Shadow of a Friend, one of the poet’s best works.
At one of the difficult moments in the life of Batyushkov, whose brief biography is not able to accommodate them all, he turned to Zhukovsky for support. It was after his passionate speeches that the poet began to prepare for publication the publication of his works, published in 1817.
Since 1815, the poet was a member of the Arzamas Society.
Konstantin Batyushkov, whose work is of great importance for Russian literature, did a great job on the poetic speech of the Russian language. His poems are unusually sincere and "breathe deeply."
Most literary scholars claim that it was Konstantin Batyushkov, whose poems were clean, brilliant and figurative, that influenced the formation of Pushkin.
Personal life
The personal life of the poet was not happy, he never married and had no children.
For the first time experienced a feeling of falling in love in Riga during treatment after being wounded. It was the girl Emilia, the daughter of a local merchant. Their romance had no continuation after Batyushkov’s departure.
In 1812, the poet met Anna Furman in the Olenins' house, feelings for which instantly swept him. Their communication lasted about three years, and everyone believed that it was a wedding. But Anna was not in love with Batyushkov, she only wanted to fulfill the will of her guardians and conclude a profitable marriage.
Konstantin Nikolaevich, who realized this, refused the wedding and fell ill with a severe nervous breakdown, which he had been treated for several months.
In the remaining years, he never met that one.