Everyone knows the Vologda poet Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov. His biography is bright and tragic. The poet, whose creative findings brought to perfection Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, was a pioneer in the development of the singing of the Russian language. He was the first to notice in him, "somewhat stern and stubborn," a remarkable "strength and expressiveness." Batyushkov’s creative achievements were recognized as classical during his lifetime by the whole Russian contemporary poetic world, and first of all by Karamzin and Zhukovsky.
Childhood
The dates of the poet's life - 05/18/1887 - 07/07/1855, he belonged to the old noble family Batyushkov, in which there were generals, public figures, scientists.
What can Batyushkov's biography tell about the poet’s childhood? Interesting facts will come later, but for now it’s worth noting that the child suffered from the death of his beloved mother. Alexandra Grigoryevna Batyushkova (nee Berdyaev) died eight years after the birth of Kostya. Were the years spent in the family estate in the village of Danilovsky (present-day Vologda region) happy? Unlikely. Konstantin's father, Nikolai Lvovich Batyushkov, a bile and nervous man, did not pay enough attention to children. He had a brilliant education and was tormented by the fact that he was unclaimed in the service due to a disgraced relative participating in the palace plot.
Study, self-education
However, by the will of his father, Konstantin Batyushkov studied in expensive, but non-specialized St. Petersburg boarding houses. The biography of his youth is marked by a strong-willed and far-sighted act. Despite his father’s protests, he quit schooling in boarding schools and zealously proceeded to self-education.
This period (from 16 to 19 years) is marked by the transformation of a young man into a person of humanitarian competence. His influential uncle Mikhail Nikitich Muravyov, senator and poet, trustee of Moscow University, turned out to be the benefactor and light of Konstantin. This he managed to instill in his nephew respect for ancient poetry. Thanks to him, Batyushkov, having studied the Latin language, became a fan of Horace and Tibull, which became the basis of his future work. He began to seek endless revisions from the Russian language to the classical melodiousness.
Also, thanks to the patronage of his uncle, eighteen-year-old Konstantin began to serve as a clerk at the Ministry of Education. In 1805, his poem was first published in the journal News of Russian Literature. He meets with St. Petersburg poets - Derzhavin, Kapnist, Lvov, Olenin.
The first wound and recovery
In 1807, the benefactor and first adviser of Constantine, uncle, died. Perhaps if he were alive, he alone would have persuaded his nephew not to subject his fragile nervous system to the hardships and tribulations of military service. But in March 1807, Konstantin Batyushkov volunteered for the Prussian campaign. He is injured in a bloody battle near Heilsberg. He is sent for treatment first to Riga, and then released to the family estate. While in Riga, young Batyushkov falls in love with the merchant daughter Emilia. This passion inspired the poet to the poems “Memoirs of 1807” and “Recovery”.
The war with Sweden. Mental trauma
Having recovered, Konstantin Batyushkov again left for 1808 as part of a jaeger guards regiment for a war with Sweden. He was a courageous officer. Death, blood, loss of friends - all this was difficult for Konstantin Nikolaevich to bear. His soul was not coarsened in the war. After the war, the officer came to rest at the estate with his sisters Alexandra and Barbara. They noted with alarm that the war left a heavy imprint on the unstable psyche of his brother. He became overly impressive. He had hallucinations from time to time. In letters to Gnedich, his friend in the ministry, the poet writes bluntly that he is afraid of losing his mind completely after ten years.
However, friends tried to distract the poet from painful thoughts. And they partially succeed. In 1809 Batyushkov Konstantin Nikolaevich plunges into the Petersburg salon and literary life. A brief biography will not describe all the events that happened in the life of the poet. This time is marked by personal acquaintances with Karamzin, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky. Ekaterina Fyodorovna Muravyova (the widow of the senator who at one time provided Batyushkov with help) brought the cousin to them.
In 1810, Batyushkov resigned from military service. In 1812, with the help of friends Gnedich and Olenin, he got a job as an assistant curator of manuscripts in the St. Petersburg Public Library.
War with Napoleonic France
At the beginning of World War II with France, retired officer Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov strove to get into the army. He commits a noble deed: the poet accompanies the widow of his benefactor Muravyov, EF, to Nizhny Novgorod. Only from March 29, 1813 did he serve in the Rylsky infantry regiment as an adjutant. For courage in the battle of Leipzig, officers are awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 2nd degree. Impressed by this battle, Batyushkov writes the poem Shadow of a Friend in honor of the deceased comrade I. A. Petin.
His work reflects the evolution of the poet’s personality, from romanticism to the era of the Enlightenment to the greatness of the spirit of the Christian thinker. His poetry about the war (poems "On the ruins of a castle in Sweden", "Shadow of a friend", "Crossing the Rhine") is close in spirit to a simple Russian soldier, it is realistic. Sincerely, without embellishment of reality, Batyushkov writes. The biography and work of the poet, described in the article, are becoming more interesting. K. Batyushkov begins to write a lot.
Nonreciprocal love
In 1814, after the military campaign, Batyushkov returned to St. Petersburg. Here he will be disappointed: the beautiful Anna Furman, a pupil of the Olenins' house, does not reciprocate with his feelings. Rather, she says yes only at the request of her guardians. But the scrupulous Konstantin Nikolaevich cannot accept such ersatz-love and, offended, refuses such a marriage.
He expects a transfer to the guard, but the bureaucratic delays are endless. Without waiting for an answer, in 1816 Batyushkov resigned. However, the years 1816-1817 are extremely fruitful for the poet in terms of creativity. He is actively involved in the life of the literary society "Arzamas".
The period of revelation in creativity
In 1817, his collected works, Experiments in Poems and Prose, were published.
They infinitely ruled their rhymes, achieving the cuteness of words of Batyushkov. The biography of this man’s work began with his professional study of ancient languages. And he managed to find in Russian poetry echoes of rhymes of the Latin language and ancient Greek!
Batyushkov became the inventor of that poetic Russian language, which Alexander Sergeevich was delighted with: “the syllable ... trembles”, “the harmony is charming”. Batyushkov is a poet who found a treasure, but could not use it. His life was clearly divided at the age of thirty into “before and after” the black stripe of paranoid schizophrenia, manifested in the persecution mania. This disease was hereditary in his family through the mother. The eldest of his four sisters, Alexander, suffered from it.
Progressive paranoid schizophrenia
In 1817, Konstantin Batyushkov plunged into spiritual anguish. The biography suggests that there was a difficult relationship with his father (Nikolai Lvovich), which ended in complete contention. And in 1817, the parent dies. This served as an impetus for the conversion of the poet into deep religiosity. He is morally supported during this period by Zhukovsky. Another friend, A. I. Turgenev, obtained a diplomatic post for the poet in Italy, where Batyushkov resides from 1819 to 1921.
A strong psychological breakdown of the poet occurred in 1821. He provoked his boorish attack (lousy verses "B..ov from Rome") against him in the journal "Son of the Fatherland". It was after this that persistent signs of paranoid schizophrenia began to appear in his health.
The winter of 1821-1822 he spent in Dresden, periodically falling into madness, Batyushkov Konstantin Nikolaevich. The biography of his work will be interrupted here. Batyushkov’s swan song is the poem “Testament of Melchizedek”.
Scanty life of a sick person
Further life of the poet can be called the destruction of personality, progressive madness. at first, the widow of Muravyov tried to patronize him. However, this soon became impossible: the attacks of the persecution mania intensified. The following year, Emperor Alexander I appropriated his treatment at a Saxon psychiatric institution. However, a four-year treatment did not give an effect. Upon arrival in Moscow, Konstantin Batyushkov, whose brief biography is examined by us, feels better. Once he was visited by Alexander Pushkin. Shocked by the miserable look of Konstantin Nikolayevich, the follower of his melodic rhymes writes the poem "God forbid I lose my mind."
The last 22 years of the existence of a mentally ill person have passed at the house of his guardian, G. Grevens nephew. Here, Batyushkov died during an epidemic of typhoid. The poet was buried at the Vologda Spaso-Prilutsky monastery.
Conclusion
Batyushkov’s work in Russian literature occupies a significant place between the work of Karamzin and Zhukovsky and the era of Pushkin. Later, Alexander Sergeevich will call K. Batyushkov his teacher.
Batyushkov developed the genres of "easy poetry." In his opinion, its flexibility and smoothness can decorate Russian speech. Among the best elegies of the poet should be called "My Genius" and "Tauris."
By the way, Batyushkov also left behind several articles, the most famous of which were "An Evening at Kantemir," "A Walk at the Academy of Arts."
The main lesson from Konstantin Nikolayevich, which was adopted by the author of Eugene Onegin, was the creative need to first “relive the soul” of the plot of a future work before embarking on a pen.
Such a life was lived by Batyushkov Konstantin Nikolaevich. A short biography, unfortunately, cannot cover all the details of his difficult fate.