Biography. Why is Abraham Lincoln's biography the best motivator? See what "Biography" is in other dictionaries

To the question Why does Gogol give a biography only to Plyushkin? Biography details. Gogol Dead soul chapter 6 set by author Ksenia the best answer is Starting work on the poem "Dead Souls", Gogol set himself the goal of "showing all of Rus' at least from one side." The poem is built on the basis of a story about the adventures of Chichikov, an official who buys dead Souls» . Such a composition allowed the author to talk about different landowners and their villages, which Chichikov visits in order to make his deal. The face of landlord Russia is presented in five chapters, each of which is dedicated to one landowner. The chapter on Plyushkin closes this series.
According to Gogol, heroes follow us, "one more vulgar than the other." It is known that Gogol had a plan, which remained unfulfilled, to write a poem in three parts, like " Divine Comedy» Dante, where the first part is "Hell". Then it turns out that the first and only completed volume of this three-part poem has similarities with Dante's Inferno, and the same sequence of showing the characters should be observed in it: the further they go, the worse they become. According to this logic, it turns out that of all the landowners, Plyushkin, who is drawn last, should be the most terrible, his soul should have completely died.
The author's characterization of Plyushkin - "a hole in humanity" - seems to confirm this conjecture. But there is evidence that of all the heroes of the first volume, Gogol wanted to lead through purification to the rebirth of the soul in the third volume, only two - Chichikov and Plyushkin. This means that the author's position is far from being as straightforward as it might seem at first glance.
This is noticeable already by the way the estate of this landowner, the richest in the whole province, is depicted. On the one hand, this description respects the principle general characteristics Plyushkin: he is a "hoarder" and a "squanderer" at the same time, because, completely absorbed in his stinginess and thirst for money-grubbing, he has lost an idea of ​​​​the real state of affairs. As a result, he cannot distinguish the important and necessary from the trifles, the useful from the unimportant. So a rich crop rots in his barns, while all rubbish is stored in a heap, carefully guarded by the owner. There is a lot of good, but not only the peasants live from hand to mouth, but the landowner himself.
And we see the same thing in the description of “a vast village with many huts and streets”, but at the same time, in all the village buildings, Chichikov noticed “some special dilapidation”. Huge as a castle, the manor's house looked like "some kind of decrepit invalid". On the other hand, “the old, vast garden stretching behind the house”, which also combines the features of its former grandeur and terrible neglect, produces a different impression: it turns out to be beautiful even in its “picture desolation”. Why, then, is nature able to preserve its “soul”, while a person, captured by the power of things, must “dead” forever? Perhaps there is hope even for the one who has become a "hole in humanity"? It seems to me that it is the meeting with Chichikov that helps to see in Plyushkin something that gives some hope for the revival of his dead soul.
There is one more feature of the chapter devoted to Plyushkin, which distinguishes it from other chapters on landowners: only here is a detailed biography of the hero given. Why does the author deviate from the plan adopted by him in other chapters?
On the one hand, if in all other landlords it was precisely their typicality that was emphasized, then in Plyushkin the author sees not only a phenomenon characteristic of landlord Russia, but a kind of exception. Even Chichikov, who had seen "a lot of the whole kind of people", "had never seen such a thing", and in the author's description of Plyushkin it is said that "such a phenomenon rarely comes across in Rus'". Therefore, the nature of this landowner requires special explanations.
The state in which Chichikov finds him is indeed terrifying. Drawing a portrait of Plyushkin, the author exaggerates to the limit: Chichikov could not even "recognize what gender the figure was: a woman or a man" - and in the end he decided that the housekeeper was in front of him. But, perhaps, even the housekeeper will not put on the rags that Plyushkin wears: on his dressing gown "the sleeves and upper floors were so greasy that they looked like yuft, which goes on boots."

A meeting with the author of the book “Stalin. The Life of a Leader by Oleg Khlevnyuk

Text: Vladimir Emelianenko/RG
Photo: RIA Novosti
In the photo: Joseph Stalin in his office, 1938

The 2015 research book by HSE professor, historian Oleg Khlevnyuk about the last dictator of the USSR remains one of the most books read about Stalin in Russia and abroad. One of the reasons - the generation of historians and writers - the same age as Khlevnyuk - accounted for the so-called archive revolution of the 90s. When a huge corpus of previously secret documents became available.

Until the early 1990s, many biographies of Stalin were published, but only in the West. In the Soviet Union, there were no biographies of Stalin in principle. Only the official one - “Stalin. short biography". However, Western interpretations of his biography were based on a narrow circle of sources. They suffered from a lack of documents, knowledge historical context and the rumors and legends that have always accompanied the figure of Stalin.

The first, even before Khlevnyuk, who tried to write a biography of Stalin on the basis of documents, was the Soviet historian Dmitry Volkogonov. His 1989 book on Stalin, Triumph and Tragedy, was, without exaggeration, a breakthrough in objectivity and the desire to understand the phenomenon. However, she did not have enough documents. In addition, it was a journalistic political portrait, allowing for both partiality and subjectivity of the author. Nevertheless, "Triumph and Tragedy" played a significant role in shaping the Soviet people opinions about the era of the "Great Terror" as a time of mass political repressions.

Over the past almost thirty years, the book, having played an educational role, has become outdated. Since then, there has not been a single scientific biography of Stalin on the Russian book market. There was a lot of journalism, apologetics and exaggerated sensations, but no approximation to history through documents.

- My book is the first scientific biography of Stalin for recent decades, - said Oleg Khlevnyuk at a meeting with readers at MDM. - It was written based on the study a wide range archives. There is not a single word or statement in it that would not be backed up by reference to documents, archives, and published sources. If there are any assumptions that I make, then I write so that I assume that the reader knows that this is my point of view. Unfortunately, the literature about Stalin that the shelves are filled with today is made in such a way that the authors pass off their assumptions and fictions as the truth.

Khlevnyuk admitted that his work, like the work of any researcher of Stalin's biography, was complicated by the fact that the politician, like his associates, did not keep diaries. And those memoirs that are, for example, Khrushchev or Mikoyan, only complicate the work. It is known, after all, that memoirs written many years later are always written with a desire to justify oneself, to keep silent about something, to present something in a better light.

However, Oleg Khlevnyuk is convinced that as the archives, especially the FSB, expire, state secrets in other archives expire, his biography of Stalin will also inevitably become outdated.

- We still lack documents and historical sources in order to get closer to an objective understanding of the figure of Stalin,- says Oleg Khlevnyuk. - And although it is obvious that we are talking about about dictatorship and dictator, a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon is still ahead - as the archives are opened.

Biography is biography genre; involves an artistic or scientific understanding of the history of a person's life, aimed at finding and identifying the origins of a person's socially significant activity in his individual biographical experience. A prerequisite for the creation of a biography is the recognition of the significance of this person for history, culture, political life or life on a national or global scale. In the biography, the events of the hero's life are documentary material, the factual side; the plot of the biography, revealed by the author in the life of the hero or formed by him, is the dynamics, development of the personality and its laws. The degree of the author's presence in the biography, the measure of his transformation into a hero and the extent of the transformation of life events can be different. Interpretation of life events, their logical analysis, moral assessment and emotional development in biographical genres can be correlated in different ways. In accordance with this, genres of artistic biography are distinguished (in which the subjectivity of the author, biased interpretation is a necessary feature of style), scientific, popular and academic biography. Interaction of genre tendencies is possible: there are popular science biographies; artistic biographies can acquire features of documentary and scientific nature, popular science biographies are enriched with stylistic picturesqueness and imagery. The biographies of our contemporaries often resemble reports and essays.

The origins of the biography go back to the ancient "Comparative Lives" of Plutarch (1st century), to the "Biography of Agricola" (97) by Tacitus, "Biography of the Twelve Caesars" (1191-21) by Suetonius. In the course of the formation of the genre, the didactic principle inherent in it is activated: medieval biographies exist mainly in the form of hagiographic literature (lives) and tell about religious ascetics, wise rulers, talented commanders. During the Renaissance in Europe, and in Russia in the 17th century. life turns into a biography of a private person (G. Boccaccio. Life of Dante Alighieri, c. 360; biographies compiled by G. Vasari famous painters, sculptors and architects; biographical writings by P. de B. Brantoma; "The Tale of Ulyania Osorina", 17th century), which is associated with an interest in the unique spiritual and intellectual world of the individual and in the diversity of human talents and their manifestations. During the Age of Enlightenment biography is characterized by the desire to identify patterns the interaction of individual and social being of a person, to discover the motivation of activity in general and individual actions of the person under study; it is built on solid documentary research and in a historical perspective (“History of Charles XII”, 1731, Voltaire, “Life of S. Johnson”, 1791, J. Boswell). The first biographical dictionaries appear (“Experience historical dictionary O Russian writers”, 1772, N.I. Novikova). In the 19th century the genre of biography flourishes both in Europe and in Russia. Particular attention is paid to the biographies of writers and poets and their spiritual and public influence for an era: in Europe, biographies are created by J. Milton, V. Scottshm, C. Dickens; the genre of literary autobiography arises (S.T. Coleridge. Biographia literaria, 1817).

In Russia, the traditions of the biographical genre are developed by "Fon-Vizin" (1830) by P.A. Vyazemsky, "A.S. Pushkin in the Alexander era" (1874) by P.V. Annenkov; the eight-volume Dictionary of Memorable People of the Russian Land (1836-47) by D.BantyshKamensky is published. At the turn of the 1920s. the practice of creating biographical dictionaries continues ("Critical biographical dictionary Russian writers and scientists. From the beginning of Russian education to the present day ”edited by S.A. Vengerov,“ Russian Biographical Dictionary ”by A.P. Polovtsev (1896-1913. Vol. 1-25). In the 20th century the artistic biographies written by S. Zweig, A. Morois, R. Rolland, D. Weiss, G. Mann, colored by the author's worldview and aimed at studying the fate of people who contributed to different areas public life. In Russia, the series “Life of wonderful people”, which includes biographies of people of science, art, politicians different eras. Biographical works of this series were often ideological in nature, which directed the genre development of the biography towards illustrativeness.

In the 1990s, biographies of people whose influence on the national or world culture, science and history was denied or questioned for ideological reasons: biographical works A. Heit “Anna Akhmatova. Poetic Journey” (1991), “Biography of Mikhail Bulgakov” (1988) by M.O. Chudakova, “Marina Tsvetaeva. Life and creativity "(1997) A.A. Saakyants, biographical works about N.S. Gumilyov, O.E. Mandelstam, E.I. Zamyatin, A.P. Platonov, V.V. Rozanov, I.A. Bunin, reprints of the biography of the Russian abroad: “Derzhavin” (1931) by V.F. Khodasevich, “Dmitry Merezhkovsky” (1945) by Z.N. Gippius and others. A special modification of the biography genre is the autobiography.

The word biography comes from Greek bios - life and grapho, which means - I write.

In a previous article, I wrote about how to achieve your dreams. And then I remembered a lot notable biography sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Why I remembered his biography, you will understand a little later. And I want to say that it is the biography of Abraham Lincoln that is one of the best motivators.

So what is interesting life path the sixteenth president of the United States?

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809 in Kentucky, the son of a poor farmer. Lincoln's childhood was difficult, he first lost his brother, then his mother died. After the mother, there was no older sister. The Lincolns had serious financial difficulties, because of which Abraham could not receive a full education. He had to work on his own.

Upon reaching adulthood, Abraham Lincoln began independent life, moonlighted as a carpenter, lumberjack, postmaster, courier, and so on. And yet this did not prevent him from educating himself and obtaining permission to practice law.
I will not bore you with stories anymore, but I will give only excerpts from the biography of Abraham Lincoln, which I found on the Internet. Fortunately, now any information is not difficult to find.

1831 - burned out in business, declared bankrupt
1832 - defeated in the elections to the legislature of his state
1834 - again went bankrupt in business and again declared bankrupt
1835 -1836 - personal failures and, as a result, the hardest breakdown, treated for a long time
1838 - defeated in the next election
1843 - defeated in the elections to the US Congress
1846 - defeated in the elections to the US Congress
1848 - defeated in the elections to the US Congress
1855 - defeated in elections to the Senate
1856 - defeated as a candidate for Vice President of the United States
1858 - defeated in elections to the Senate
1860 - Elected President of the United States

And why are you not motivated? And we all cry, we just can’t give ourselves a kicker. Re-read Lincoln's biography again and draw the appropriate conclusions for yourself.

Go to your goals to fulfill your dreams, regardless of any difficulties on your way.