As a poet, Wilhelm Küchelbecker is little known. He grew up surrounded by brilliant poets, above all of whom, without a doubt, was Pushkin. Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Delvig were his entourage. Baratynsky wrote in these years. In the circle of these poets it is easy to get lost with the non-modern, overly civilian muse, which was like Küchelbeker's, although his talent was considerable.
A family
Kuchelbecker Wilhelm Karlovich was born in 1797 in St. Petersburg. The family was not rich, but had useful connections and influential relatives. Father, a very educated man, studied in Leipzig at the same time as Goethe and Radishchev. He had extensive knowledge in the fields of agronomy, economics, and legal sciences. Influential relatives helped him take a position at court (Secretary of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich). He was later appointed director of Pavlovsk. Wilhelm's mother was also at court. She was the nanny of the youngest son of Emperor Mikhail Pavlovich. Paul I gave the estate to Küchelbecker’s father for life. It was in him, in Avinorm, that Wilhelm Küchelbecker spent his childhood.
Father, Karl Küchelbecker, turned out to be a very economic person. He successfully managed the estate, and even during the crop failure period in 1808, peasants did not starve at his estate. But the family had four children, and everyone had to be educated, so there was always not enough money.
At nine years old, William was seriously ill and deaf in one ear. From the fact that everything is not heard, the previously calm, cheerful and mischievous child became nervous and irritable. When William turned eleven years old, his father died, and the estate was taken from his family. William's adult married sister, Justina, began to take care of the family. Her husband later became a mentor to the Grand Dukes Nikolai Pavlovich and Konstantin.
In the Lyceum
By this time, Wilhelm Küchelbecker was already studying in a boarding house, where there was an excellent general educational program. But a great material help to the family was the free Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum that opened . In 1811, a distant relative, Mikhail Barclay de Tolly, brought him there. Teen brilliantly passed the entrance exams.
The abilities and perseverance of the young Küchelbecker were noticed by the authorities. But everyone also saw a lack of knowledge of the Russian language and a passion for German authors. Lyceum students ridiculed this as well as the deafness of a teenager. They made fun of Kühle and wrote epigrams that irritated him very much and led to quarrels. But the kindless, good-natured Kyuhlya quickly cooled. However, his extensive knowledge and perseverance aroused the respect of lyceum students. At the age of 15, he began to compose poems with enthusiasm in both Russian and German. Poems turned out to be tongue-tied. And the importance with which he communicated, as well as poems, still aroused ridicule. Alexander Pushkin, like everyone else, was ironic about the works of the awkward Kyuhli. But he quickly saw in him both straightforwardness, and sincerity, and the fact that he knows literature, history, philosophy better than many. And if necessary, I’m always ready to share with all my knowledge. Wilhelm Küchelbecker admired Pushkin's poetic gift, his poems, sonorous and accurate, with deep thoughts.
Service and poetry as high art
At the age of twenty, with a silver medal, Kuchelbecker graduated from the Lyceum and entered the College of Foreign Affairs. Immediately he found himself an extra job. Kuchelbecker began to teach Russian literature at the Noble Guesthouse. In 1820, becoming secretary of A. Naryshkin, Wilhelm Küchelbecker went abroad and visited Germany and France. During these years he actively composes and prints poems. This is the most fruitful period in his work.
In total, he wrote about a hundred poems. There were many imitations of Zhukovsky, but in general his poems were pathos. This is their characteristic trait. Their content is high, and therefore his art is pathetic. Female images in poems are not typical for him. After that, Yermolov served in the Caucasus, but due to a duel, he resigns and cannot find a job.
Life-changing incident
By 1825, Küchelbecker was again in St. Petersburg. Two months before the uprising, he enters the Northern Society and speaks with the Decembrists on Senate Square. Pushkin believed that he participated in the uprising by chance. First, he was assigned 15 years in prison, and then an eternal settlement in Siberia.
The last time Pushkin met with Kuchelbecker was when he was transported from one fortress to another in the fall of 1827. Pushkin and Kuchelbecker, despite the presence of the gendarmes, rushed to hug and kiss each other. They were taken away. Küchelbecker, although he was ill, was quickly seated in a cart and taken away. Pushkin always recalled this meeting with excitement. There are suggestions that Kuchelbecker was the prototype of Lensky.
In the fortress of Sveaborg in 1832 he writes "Elegy". In it, he talks about the sad thoughts of a prisoner, bowing his head in his hand. Who will understand the longing of his lyrical hero? Who cares about his bitter fate? He is his own support. With his firmness of mind, he will not let himself be carried away by impossible dreams. Let him be fettered, but his spirit is free. And yet he cannot but be sad about nature, the earth, the vast sky, the stars in which other worlds are enclosed. So, bowing his head, he yearns for fate. In it the divine fire went out, with which no prison, no betrayal of love, poverty is not terrible. So ends the elegy of Küchelbecker.
In Siberia
Kuchelbecker keeps diary entries constantly, and Pushkin’s name is very common in them. But then he was transferred to Barguzin, where he married the illiterate daughter of the postmaster and he had four children.
Three survived. Then, at his own request, Kuchelbecker is transferred to Tobolsk, and then to Kurgan, where he will go blind. And again Tobolsk. This is a seriously ill person. He will die from tuberculosis in August 1846, not even living to be 50 years old.
Until the end of his life, Kuchelbecker will treat poetry as something lofty, prophetic, serving civic ideals. He was a philosopher and at the same time romantic Wilhelm Küchelbeker. His biography provokes sad thoughts.