Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky (13 (25) .X.1843, Tula - 24. III (5.IV) .1902, Petersburg) - prose writer, publicist. His life and career are closely connected with social life, ideas and moods of that time. Being a typical representative of the class of raznochintsev, he was a kind of "hero of the time." Even a brief biography of Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky is a life story of an ascetic, socially significant, tragic and instructive.
Childhood and youth
Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky was born in the family of an official (secretary of the chamber of state property), the son of a village clerk. In childhood, he was surrounded by a calm, kind atmosphere. Grandmother told the boy tales and stories from the pictures. With his grandfather, who was well aware of peasant life, Leo Tolstoy himself came to consult. Relatives on the maternal side highly appreciated art and literature. My father had a small library, books from which were read very early by Ouspensky. From here begins the love of Pushkin’s work, which began with the tales of the great creator. Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky also liked Lermontov’s poems very much. From early childhood, Ouspensky demonstrated amazing acting skills in the recitation of poetry. He grew up affectionate, kind and gentle boy, whom he adored in the family.
Since 1853, Uspensky has been studying at the Tula Gymnasium, has impressive achievements in learning. So it was until the 4th grade. And then his father receives a transfer to Chernihiv and the family moves. It was very difficult for Uspensky to change the situation: academic successes are in the past, the boy is often sick, becomes tearful.
In 1861, Gleb Ivanovich graduated from high school and entered the University of St. Petersburg at the Faculty of Law. But a year later he was transferred to Moscow University, from which a year later he was expelled due to the fact that he could not pay for tuition.
Gleb Ivanovich is forced to go to work, he manages to get a job at the Moscow Vedomosti printing house as a proofreader. But this stage of the biography of Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky did not last very long, since after the death of his father in 1864 he was forced to take care of his three brothers and four sisters. It was an extremely difficult time, Ouspensky had to learn from his own experience what hunger and wanderings are.
The beginning of literary activity
The first samples of the pen date back to the time of graduation. Unfortunately, not one of the texts written at that time was preserved, so the beginning of Uspensky’s literary work is usually counted from 1862, when his first stories are printed in the magazines Spectator and Yasnaya Polyana.
The early works of Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky tell about the lives of slum dwellers, poor artisans and petty officials. At this time, Ouspensky was guided by the artistic principle formulated by Chernyshevsky: "truth without any embellishment."
The creative manner of the first essays was greatly influenced by the cousin of Gleb Ivanovich, who was also a writer.
In 1865, Gleb Ivanovich met with Nekrasov, who was already the editor of the journal Sovremennik. This event marked an important change in the fate of the young writer. The democratic character of Ouspensky's work fully corresponded to the direction of the magazine. It was in Sovremennik that essays were published that would later make up the cycle of Morals of Rasteryaeva Street, which brought the author public recognition.
The essays very realistically present the first post-reform years, which became a monstrous disappointment for an entire nation. Widespread need, despair and drunkenness - these are the "Rasteryaevsky manners." Ouspensky is the first to introduce a new type of hero into literature - this is an acquirer who profits from people and their weaknesses.
After the Sovremennik was closed in 1866, the writer is left without work and livelihoods. And again, a difficult time is coming: for two long years Uspensky is forced to live in the atmosphere of the very “confusion” that was transferred to the pages of his essays and stories with ruthless realism.
"Domestic notes"
Nekrasov again came to the aid of Ouspensky, who in 1868 became the co-editor of Domestic Notes. Gleb Ivanovich gets a permanent job in the journal.
In his works of this period, Ouspensky not only exposes morals, like many of his contemporaries, writers, he penetrates into the very essence of events and phenomena. He is distinguished by a depth of understanding of the social movements of the post-reform society, a sober, devoid of all illusions view of human nature. Ruthless truthfulness, vivid realism, sometimes turning into gross frankness, will become a hallmark of the whole career of the Assumption. The ability to clearly see, clearly understand and deeply experience everything that is happening around, the desire to understand and comprehend the essence of phenomena and their causes formed the writer's worldview and his approach to writing.
Personal life
Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky married in 1870. His chosen one was the teacher Alexandra Vasilyevna Baraeva. Ouspensky's biographers testify that the marriage was quite happy, despite the fact that the financial situation left much to be desired. The couple had five children.
Foreign impressions
In the first half of the 70s. Gleb Ivanovich traveled abroad twice: in Paris and in London. One of the most vivid impressions of this period was a trip to the Louvre, where the writer saw "Venus de Milo." Much later, in 1885, in the essay “Straightened up”, Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky will tell about her amazing impact on the audience.
Acquaintance with many revolutionaries and ideologists of Narodism, as well as the beginning of friendship with I. S. Turgenev, belong to the same period.
Until the end of the seventies, Ouspensky will invest in the works all that he saw and comprehended during his travels. The leitmotif of many stories will be the power of money, which devalues human life, turns people into "fifty dollars."
New turn
Since the late 70's, the creative biography of Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky has been making a new round. The writer thinks hard about the reasons that led the people to such a deplorable state, about how and why the unlimited power of money spread, and why drunkenness flourishes. In search of the "true truth of life", Ouspensky moved to the Novgorod province, where he devotes much time to the study of peasant life. The result of this work is the understanding that ordinary people retain their "mighty and meek type" as long as they are under the "power of the earth."
He creates a number of works where, with harsh truthfulness and accuracy, depicts peasant psychology and folk life. True to himself, Ouspensky does not allow any idealization of the peasantry, which the fiction of populism of that time sinned.
Criticism and fame
The first glory came to Ouspensky after the publication of "Morals of Rasteryaeva Street." And after the publication of an eight-volume collected works in the mid-80s, he becomes widely known in all corners of Russia. Particularly successful were his works among young people.
Moreover, he was repeatedly attacked not only by the liberal press, but also among the populists. Often his stories were criticized quite sharply. Even in the editorial office of Fatherland Notes, which was headed by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin after Nekrasov’s death, Uspensky’s ideas did not always find approval.
The 1980s the year before last
The works of Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky of the 80s are devoted to depicting the process of capitalization of Russia. He considered this phenomenon incomprehensible, unnecessary and even shameful. The “power of the earth” is being replaced by the “power of the capital”.
At this time, the writer makes a number of trips around the country. Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky also visited the Kuban, in the city of Tikhoretsk, about which he will later write a story, which is included in "Letters from the Road."
In the storybook “Living Figures” (1888), it is narrated about a difficult, sometimes nightmarish daily routine hidden behind dry and sometimes mockingly ridiculous statistics (for example, “a quarter of a horse per 1 audit soul”).
To Ouspensky, the spread and strengthening of capitalism seemed a hopeless tragedy leading to the destruction of the very essence of Russia. The awkwardness of public life tormented the writer, he acutely felt vulgarity, could not tolerate falsehoods. Very impressionable and subtly sensitive, he was exhausted by suffering not only personal but also general. The situation was complicated by the need to conduct a constant exhausting struggle with censorship, with its endless nit-picking. Gleb Ivanovich begins to constantly complain of "cold in the soul."
End of the way
From the end of 1889, the writer began to have a nervous breakdown. Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky was officially recognized as insane in 1892, in the fall of this year he was placed in a clinic for the mentally ill.
He suffered from periodic auditory and visual hallucinations. There is a disintegration of the personality: to Gleb, who embodies all the good, and Ivanovich, who is the focus of all the evil. These two principles waged a constant struggle, alternately gaining the upper hand.
In the hospital, Ouspensky spent the rest of his life. He died in 1902, the cause of death was heart failure. Thousands of people came to the writer's funeral, but the cemetery was cordoned off by a police detachment, no one was allowed to make a farewell speech.
The grave of the writer is located in St. Petersburg on the Literary bridges in the Volkov Cemetery.
Creative method
The language of Ouspensky's prose is accurate and labels, close to the national language. Bloodly interested in the fate of the people, he was keenly worried about everything that was happening in the country. This was reflected in the presence of the author in all the works in the role of researcher and actor, which brings his works closer to journalism.
The result of artistic research and intense thought has been the extensive formulations and concepts that can be used to characterize the entire modern Assumption era. Sometimes, behind the humorous intonations and humor in the essays of Gleb Ivanovich, true drama, eerie and gloomy reality hides.
The writer's creative research was aimed not only at researching and describing the present, but also at anticipating the future. He was convinced that only genuine art and adherence to lofty ideas could “straighten” a person. Some of his works are a kind of instructions, a guide to action.
The leading genre of the writer's work is an essay that provides the opportunity to bring artistry and journalism as close as possible. Essays were combined by the author in cycles.
Ouspensky considered his work to be his true biography, he wished to abandon the memory of the factual side of his life, asserted that he was all, all the most important and only significant in him - in his works.
Quotes
Gleb Ivanovich Ouspensky in his work paid attention to many aspects of human nature and life. Quotes from his works have become aphorisms, which have not lost their relevance to this day.
About poverty:
All types of poverty and all kinds of ignorance inseparable from poverty — either downtrodden, timid, helpless, or self-righteous, and therefore even more terrible than other varieties, are terrible <...>.
About the Russian people:
The enormous mass of the Russian people is so far patient and powerful in misfortunes, until then young in soul, courageously strong and childishly meek - in a word, a people that holds everyone and everything on their shoulders - the people we love, to which we go for the healing of mental anguish - until then, it retains its mighty and gentle type, as long as the power of the earth reigns over it, as long as the impossibility of disobeying its commands lies at the very root of its existence, as long as they rule over its mind, conscience, as long as they fill its existence .
About creativity:
An artist who sets his task as a profit, a monetary benefit, ceases to stand on ceremony with his conscience, paints everything that is required, goes down to draw signboards on portrait and vegetable shops ...
About agricultural work:
Creativity in agricultural labor, his poetry, its versatility constitute for the vast majority of our peasantry a vital interest, the source of the work of thought, the source of almost all of his relations, private and public.
Agricultural labor, with all its ramifications, adaptations, and accidents, absorbs thought, concentrates in itself almost all mental and even moral activity, and even seems to satisfy morally.
About children:
Oh kids, kids! What a grief you will bear!
About the villains:
According to the general "conscientious" opinion, there are no other means for the wickedness of villains, except torture. The question is: from what sources do people come out who are capable of doing such villainous affairs?
About human dignity:
But the main misfortune of a simple working man is ignorance, darkness, lack of moral support, which makes it possible to feel human dignity in oneself.
About life:
Here it is, human life! Dust, decay!
Memory
In Tula, on the square named after Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky, there is a monument to the writer of the work of Z. Tsereteli.
In 1952 and 1963, postage stamps with a portrait of Gleb Ivanovich were issued in the USSR, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of his death and the 120th anniversary of the writer.
Streets in St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Tula, Bugulma, Nizhny Tagil, Murmansk, Rybinsk are named after Gleb Uspensky. There is a street of Gleb Uspensky in several cities of Ukraine: Boryspil, Lugansk, Vinnitsa and Torez.
Memorial House-Museum of G.I. Uspensky is located in the Novgorod region, in the village of Syabrenitsy. Previously, the village was called Uspenskoe, since it was here that Gleb Ivanovich once acquired a house. During the Second World War, the museum was looted, but in the 1980s it was restored and opened to visitors.