No wonder the 19th century is called the golden age of Russian poetry. At this time, many great artists of the word worked, including Apollo Grigoriev. His biography, set forth in this article, will give you general ideas about this talented person. Apollon A. Grigoriev (years of life - 1822-1864) is known as a Russian poet, translator, theater and literary critic, and memoirist.
The origin of A. A. Grigoriev
Apollon Alexandrovich was born in Moscow on July 20, 1822. His grandfather was a peasant who came to Moscow to earn money from a remote province. For hard work in official positions, this man received the nobility. As for the father of Apollo Grigoriev, he disobeyed the will of his parents and connected his life with the daughter of a serf coachman. Only a year after the birth of a son, Apollo's parents got married, so the future poet was considered an illegitimate child. Apollo Grigoriev managed to gain personal nobility only in 1850, when he was in the rank of titular adviser. The noble title was thus restored.
Period of study, clerical work
The future poet received a home education. This allowed him to enter Moscow University immediately, bypassing the gymnasium. Here, at the Faculty of Law, he listened to the lectures of M.P. Pogodin, T.N. Granovsky, S.P. Shevyrev, and others. Our hero's fellow students were J.P. Polonsky and A.A. Fet. Together with them, he organized a literary circle in which young poets read their works to each other. In 1842, Apollon Alexandrovich graduated from the university. After that, he worked in the library, and then became secretary of the Council. However, clerical work was not given to Grigoriev - he kept sloppy protocols, when issuing books he forgot to register them.
First publications
Since 1843, Apollo Grigoriev began to print. His poems very actively appeared in the period from 1843 to 1845. This was facilitated by an unrequited feeling for A.F. Korsh. Many themes of Grigoriev’s lyrics are explained precisely by this love drama - spontaneity and unbridled feelings, fatal passion, love-struggle. The poem "Comet" belongs to this period, where the chaos of love feelings is compared by the poet with cosmic processes. The same mood is present in the first prose work of Apollon Alexandrovich, made in the form of a diary. The work is called "Leaflets from the manuscript of a wandering sophist" (written in 1844, published in 1917).
Years of life in St. Petersburg
Weighed down by debt, devastated after disappointment in love, Grigoryev decided to start a new life. He secretly went to Petersburg, in which he had no acquaintances. In the period from 1844 to 1845, Grigoriev served in the Senate and in the Deanery Office, but then decided to leave the service in order to devote all his time to literary work. Grigoriev wrote dramas, and poems, and prose, and theatrical and literary criticism. In 1844-1846 Apollon Alexandrovich collaborated with the Repertoire and Pantheon. In this journal, he became a writer. He published critical articles on the topic of theater, reviews of performances, as well as many poems and a drama in the poems "Two Egoisms" (in 1845). Then his trilogy appeared, the first part of which is "The Man of the Future", the second - "My acquaintance with Vitalin" and the final - "Ophelia". Apollon Grigoriev also did translations (in 1846 Antigone Sophocles, the School of the Moliere's husbands, and other works appeared).
Return to Moscow
Grigoriev possessed a broad nature, which forced him to change his beliefs, rush from one extreme to another, to seek out new ideals and attachments. In 1847, disappointed in St. Petersburg, he returned to Moscow. Here he began to collaborate with the newspaper Moscow City Leaflet. Among the works of this period, it is necessary to note 4 articles by Grigoriev "Gogol and his last book", created in 1847.
Marriage
In the same year, Apollon Alexandrovich tied the knot. The wife of Apollo Grigoriev was the sister of A.F. Korsh. Soon, however, due to her frivolous behavior, the marriage was dissolved. Grigoriev again began a period of mental anguish and disappointment. Many works of this period of the poet’s life would probably not have been created if not for the wife of Apollo Grigoriev and her frivolous behavior. At this time, Apollon Alexandrovich published a poetic cycle entitled "Diary of Love and Prayer." In 1879, this cycle was completely published, after Apollo Grigoriev died. The poems placed in it are dedicated to the beautiful stranger and unrequited love for her.
Teaching, critic Grigoryev
In the period from 1848 to 1857, Apollon Alexandrovich was a teacher. He led the law in several educational institutions. At the same time he collaborated with magazines and created new compositions. In 1850, Grigoriev became close to the editors of Moskvityanin. He organized a "young editorial board" together with A. N. Ostrovsky. In essence, it was a criticism section of the Moskvityanin.
As a critic, Apollon Grigoriev at this time became the main figure in theatrical circles. He preached naturalness and realism in acting and dramaturgy. Many productions and plays were appreciated by Apollon Grigoriev. He wrote about Ostrovsky's "Storm" primarily as a work of art. The critic considered the main advantage of the play to be the author’s ability to poetically and reliably depict Russian national life. Grigoriev noted the charm of the provincial life and the beauty of Russian nature, but practically did not touch upon the tragedy of the events depicted in the work.
Apollo Grigoriev is known as the author of the phrase "Pushkin is our everything." The work of Alexander Sergeyevich, of course, he set very high. His reasoning is very interesting, in particular, what Apollo Grigoriev said about Eugene Onegin. The critic believed that the spleen of Eugene is associated with his natural innate criticism, which is characteristic of Russian common sense. Apollon Alexandrovich said that society is not to blame for the disappointment and spleen that swept Onegin. He noted that they do not stem from skepticism and bitterness, as in Childe Harold, but from the giftedness of Eugene.
In 1856, the Moskvityan was closed. After this, Apollon Alexandrovich was invited to other magazines, such as Sovremennik and Russian Conversation. However, he was ready to accept the proposal only subject to the personal management of the critical department. Therefore, the negotiations ended only with the publication of poems, articles and translations of Grigoriev.
New love
In 1852-57 Grigoriev Apollon Alexandrovich again experienced unrequited love, this time for L. Ya. Wizard. In 1857, the poem cycle “Struggle” appeared, which included Grigoriev’s most famous poems “Gypsy Hungarian” and “Oh, at least speak with me ...”. A.A. Blok called these works pearls of Russian lyrics.
Trip to europe
Apollon Grigoriev, becoming a home teacher and educator of Prince I. Yu. Trubetskoy, went to Europe (Italy, France). In the period from 1857 to 1858 he lived in Florence and Paris, visited museums. Returning to his homeland, Grigoriev continued to print, since 1861, actively collaborating with the magazines Epoch and Vremya, headed by F. M. and M. M. Dostoevsky. M. Dostoevsky advised Apollon Alexandrovich to create memoirs on the development of the modern generation, which was carried out by Apollon Grigoriev. His work includes "My literary and moral wanderings" - the result of comprehension of the proposed topic.
Philosophical and aesthetic views of Grigoriev
Grigoriev’s philosophical and aesthetic views were developed under the influence of Slavophilism (Khomyakov) and romanticism (Emerson, Schelling, Carlyle). He recognized the decisive importance of religious and national-patriarchal principles in the life of the people. However, in his work, this was combined with criticism of the absolutism of the communal principle, Puritan judgments about literature. Apollon Alexandrovich also defended the idea of national unity of the pre- and post-Petrine periods. He believed that both Westernism and Slavophilism are characterized by the restriction of historical life to the framework of schemes, abstract theorizing. Nevertheless, according to Grigoriev, the communal ideal of the Slavophiles is incomparably better than the Westernism program, which recognizes uniformity as its ideal (uniform humanity, barracks).
Grigoriev’s worldview is most fully reflected in the theory of organic criticism created by him. The very concept of organic criticism corresponds to the understanding of organic art, in which various organic principles of life are synthetically embodied. In his opinion, art is part of life, its ideal expression, and not just a copy of reality.
Features of poetry
Grigoryev's poetic work developed under the influence of Lermontov. Apollon Alexandrovich himself called himself the last romantic. Motives of disharmony of the world and hopeless suffering are central to his work. They often splash out in the element of tearful fun, revelry. It was difficult to publish many poems of Grigoriev (especially the cycle about the city) because of the acute social orientation. This was possible only in the foreign Russian press. In general, the poetic legacy of the author we are interested in is very unequal, but his best creations are distinguished by their brightness and extraordinary emotionality.
last years of life
Apollo Grigoriev during his life has been an atheist and a mystic, a Slavophile and a freemason, a polemicist enemy and a good comrade, a drunken drunkard and a moral person. In the end, all these extremes broke him. Apollo Grigoriev got confused in debt. In 1861, he had to sit in a debt prison. After that, he last tried to change his life, for which he went to Orenburg. Here Grigoriev was a teacher in the cadet corps. However, this trip only aggravated the state of the poet. In addition, once again there was a break with his wife M.F. Dubrovskaya. Apollon Alexandrovich increasingly sought oblivion in wine. Returning from Orenburg, he worked, but with interruptions. Grigoriev avoided rapprochement with the literary parties, he wanted to serve only art.
The death of A. A. Grigoriev
In 1864, Apollon Alexandrovich had to serve another two sentences in a debt prison. Completely devastated by emotional distress, in St. Petersburg, Apollon Grigoriev died of an apoplexy stroke . His biography ends on September 25, 1864.