Saltykov Shchedrin Biography Portrait
Shchedrin [15 from the noble family, known from the 16th century. He studied at the Moscow Noble Institute -, then at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum -; With Aleksandrovsky, where the first publication at the end of the lyceum began to write poetry at the service of the Chancellery of the Military Ministry. In - gg. Petrashevsky; Saltykov-Shchedrin and in the mature years was not alien to the sympathy of socialist projects, including very radical.
As a prose writer made his debut in the city of Gogol and the young F. Dostoevsky described the bitter fate of the “little man”, the desire to spread harmful revolutionary ideas was seen; Saltykov-Shchedrin was arrested and sent to the service of Vyatka in the department of the vice-governor. As an administrator, he developed energetic activity, was highly appreciated and appointed in January G.
Literary fame of Saltykov-Shchedrin brought the “Provincial Essays” cycle-published under the pseudonym N. Shchedrin-a book that combines the features of social essays with elements of memoirs-autobiographic nature, which denounced the vices and morals of provincial provincial bureaucracy. In March, one of the cases of cruelty to serfs later formed the basis of the story “Misha and Vanya.
Forgotten story »Milyutin on the preparation of legislation on the abolition of serfdom; In April, in February, a significant divergence of Saltykov-Shchedrin’s position with the official one, as well as the feeling of impossibility to strictly follow the public service, prompted him to resign. Nekrasov, he entered the editorial office of the magazine “Contemporary”, where he published satirical essays, which later compiled the Pompadour and Pompadursha cycle-in November of Shidlovsky Saltykov-Shchedrin, he wrote a pamphlet “stuffed head” on it, transferred to the manager of the official ward to Ryazan, where, serving until June after leaving public service Saltykov-Shchedrin in the city in the magazine in-gg.
The outline principle prevailed in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, however, along with it, the genre of a satirical fairy tale-alarmic character was developed by a separate non-appropriate publication called “Tales for children of a considerable age”-Geneva,; A separate publication called “23 Tales”, the last work of Saltykov-Shchedrin is the memoir novel “Poshehonskaya old man”-the main subject of the satire of Saltykov-Shchedrin is not considered to be reality administrative madness.
At the same time, zealous and insane administrators are able to implement both “conservative” and “liberal” program “Pompadour and Pompadurshi” with the same passion. The insanity of the authorities is sophisticated by the insanity of the townsfolk, who easily renounce their own freedom “History of one City” and discovering the complete absence of self -consciousness “Pompadour and Pompadursha”.
The activity of public parties-“conservatives” and “red” is equally absurd in the image of Saltykov-Shchedrin; The opposition itself “conservatives - liberals” turns out to be a height there. The indigenous flaws of Russian self-awareness, social life and practices of management are, according to Saltykov-Shchedrin, unprofessionalism, a lack of self-esteem and initiative in combination with a special kind of “talent”-by order of the readiness to commit everything.
The total character of the satire of Saltykov-Shchedrin can be explained not so much by the socio-political views of the writer as the features of his approach to reality: Saltykov-Shchedrin depicts an absurd, unnatural and wrong world, only at certain points in contact with modern reality. The only possible anti-manion of administrative madness, unconsciousness, the lack of society, the insatiable and indefatigable greed of parasitic officials-“Pompadurov” and “Tashkents”-in the artistic world of the writer is the conscience of an individual: the conscience of the Judas of Golovlyov, which led him to the late, the romance of “Lord Golovyova”; Conscience, put in the heart of a small child, the fairy tale “Conscience disappeared”, the combination of satire on the Russian bureaucratic management system with belonging to the upper layers of this system of the writer's contemporaries, as well as some later writers V.
Rosanov and others. The dissonance between his life and creativity looks especially sharp, if you interpret the writer's works as executed by revolutionary pathos, expressed Ezopian language. Such an interpretation was almost unanimous in the research of the Soviet period. In fact, the socio-political views of Saltykov-Shchedrin were distinguished by eclecticism, a combination of moderation and radicalism; He did not refuse the idea of cooperation with the authorities for the benefit of society, and his moral guideline was not revolutionary activity, but asceticism and the strict performance of his duty, including official.
At the same time, the writer brutally ridiculed the “Theory of Little Development” in the fairy tale “Leaned Vobla” and sarcastically presented the liberal hopes and aspirations in the fairy tale “Caracial-idealist”, and in the fairy tale “Bear on the Voivodeship” the reprisals of peasants with allegorical characters embodied the police and administrative power of the Toptygins 2 and 3, 3, He showed as a logical and fair retribution.
Representatives of the authorities in his works are depicted either with worthless parasites “The Tale of how one man fed two generals,” or despots. The despots either torment and hack people with irrational sadism, referring to the peaceful inhabitants as enemies most mayors in the "History of one City", or implement monstrous projects of total regulation and control.
The best administrators in the “History of one City” are the mayors, who are generally not interfering with the life of the population entrusted to them. The characteristic features of the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, who continued the traditions of the satirical, mainly grotesque, domestic N. Gogol and foreign Lucian, J. Swift, Voltaire, E. Hoffmann and others. Among other works: the comedy “Death of Parazuhin”, “Shadows”, published in; Journalism, including the cycle “Our Public Life”, -, waybills “abroad” -; Literary and critical articles and reviews.
Published on July 4, the latest update on July 4 to contact the editors.