Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich about him. Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich

Nikolai Karamzin- Russian historian, writer, poet and prose writer. He is the author of "History of the Russian State" - one of the first generalizing works on the history of Russia, written in 12 volumes.

Karamzin is the largest Russian writer of the era of sentimentalism, nicknamed the "Russian Stern".

In addition, he managed to make many important reforms in the Russian language, as well as introduce dozens of new words into everyday life.

Feeling confident in his abilities and inspired by the first success, Nikolai Karamzin begins to actively engage in writing. Many interesting and instructive stories come out from under his pen.

Soon Karamzin became the head of the Moscow Journal, which published works different writers and poets. Until that time, there was not a single such publication in the Russian Empire.

Works by Karamzin

It was in the Moscow Journal that Nikolai Karamzin published Poor Liza, which is considered one of the best works in his biography. After that, “Aonides”, “My trinkets” and “Aglaya” come out from under his pen.

Karamzin was an incredibly efficient and talented person. He managed to compose poetry, write reviews and articles, participate in theatrical life, and study many historical documents.

Despite the fact that he liked creativity and, he looked at poetry from the other side.

Nikolai Karamzin wrote poems in the style of European sentimentalism, thanks to which he became the best Russian poet working in this direction.

In his poems, he primarily drew attention to the spiritual state of a person, and not to his physical shell.

In 1803, a significant event took place in Karamzin's biography: by personal decree, the emperor granted Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin the title of historiographer; 2 thousand rubles of annual salary was added to the title at the same time.

Since that time, Karamzin began to move away from fiction, and began to study historical documents even more diligently, including the most ancient chronicles.

During this period of biographies, he was constantly offered various government posts, but apart from Karamzin, he was not interested in anything.

Then he wrote several historical books, which were only a prelude to the main work in his life.

"History of Russian Goverment"

His work was appreciated by all sectors of society. Representatives of the elite tried to acquire the "History of the Russian State" in order to get acquainted with detailed history.

Many prominent people sought meetings with the writer, and the emperor openly admired him. It is worth noting here that as a historian, Nikolai Karamzin was a supporter of absolute monarchy.

Having received wide recognition and fame, Karamzin needed silence in order to continue to work fruitfully. To do this, he was allocated a separate housing in Tsarskoye Selo, where the historian could carry out his activities in comfortable conditions.

Karamzin's books attracted the reader with their clarity and simplicity of presentation of historical events. Describing certain facts, he did not forget about beauty.

Proceedings of Karamzin

For his biography, Nikolai Karamzin performed many translations, among which was the work "Julius Caesar". However, he did not work in this direction for long.

It is worth noting that Karamzin managed to radically change the Russian literary language. First of all, the writer sought to get rid of outdated Church Slavonic words, as well as to modify the grammar.

Karamzin took the syntax and grammar of the French language as the basis for his transformations.

The result of Karamzin's reforms was the emergence of new words that are still used in Everyday life. Here is a short list of words introduced into the Russian language by Karamzin:

Today it is already difficult to imagine the modern Russian language without these and other words.

An interesting fact is that it was thanks to the efforts of Nikolai Karamzin that the letter “ё” appeared in our alphabet. At the same time, it should be recognized that not everyone liked his reforms.

Many criticized it and tried their best to keep the "old" language.

However, Karamzin was soon elected a member of the Russian and Imperial Academy of Sciences, thus recognizing his services to the Fatherland.

Personal life

In the biography of Karamzin there were two women to whom he was married. His first wife was Elizaveta Protasova.

She was a very literate and flexible girl, but she was often sick. In 1802, a year after the wedding, their daughter Sophia was born.

Ekaterina Andreevna Kolyvanova, Karamzin's second wife

After giving birth, Elizabeth began to develop a fever, from which she later died. A number of biographers believe that the story " Poor Lisa"Was written in honor of Protasova.

An interesting fact is that Karamzin's daughter Sofia was friends with and.

The second wife of Karamzin was Ekaterina Kolyvanova, who was the illegitimate daughter of Prince Vyazemsky.

In this marriage, they had 9 children, three of whom died in childhood.

Some of the children have reached certain heights in life.

For example, son Vladimir was a very witty and promising careerist. He later became a senator in the Department of Justice.

The youngest daughter of Karamzin, Elizabeth, never married, although she had a great mind and was an extremely kind girl.

Karamzin was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Photo by Karamzin

At the end, you can see some of the most famous portraits of Karamzin. All are made from paintings, not from life.

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A. Venetsianov "Portrait of N.M. Karamzin"

"I was looking for the path to the truth,
I wanted to know the reason for everything ... "(N.M. Karamzin)

"History of the Russian State" was the last and unfinished work of the outstanding Russian historian N.M. Karamzin: a total of 12 volumes of research were written, Russian history was presented until 1612.

Interest in history appeared in Karamzin in his youth, but there was a long way to his vocation as a historian.

From the biography of N.M. Karamzin

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin born in 1766 in family estate Znamenskoye of the Simbirsk district of the Kazan province in the family of a retired captain, a middle-class Simbirsk nobleman. Received home education. Studied at Moscow University. A short time served in the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment of St. Petersburg, it was to this time that his first literary experiments date.

After retiring, he lived for some time in Simbirsk, and then moved to Moscow.

In 1789, Karamzin left for Europe, where in Koenigsberg he visited I. Kant, and in Paris he became a witness to the Great French Revolution. Returning to Russia, he publishes Letters from a Russian Traveler, which make him a famous writer.

Writer

"The influence of Karamzin on literature can be compared with the influence of Catherine on society: he made literature humane"(A.I. Herzen)

Creativity N.M. Karamzin developed in line with sentimentalism.

V. Tropinin "Portrait of N.M. Karamzin"

Literary direction sentimentalism(from fr.sentiment- feeling) was popular in Europe from the 20s to the 80s of the 18th century, and in Russia from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century. The ideologist of sentimentalism is J.-J. Ruso.

European sentimentalism entered Russia in the 1780s and early 1790s. thanks to translations of Goethe's Werther, novels by S. Richardson and J.-J. Rousseau, who were very popular in Russia:

She liked novels early on;

They replaced everything for her.

She fell in love with deceptions

And Richardson and Rousseau.

Pushkin is talking here about his heroine Tatyana, but all the girls of that time read sentimental novels.

The main feature of sentimentalism is that attention in them is primarily paid to the spiritual world of a person, in the first place are feelings, and not reason and great ideas. The heroes of the works of sentimentalism have an innate moral purity, integrity, they live in the bosom of nature, love it and are merged with it.

Such a heroine is Liza from Karamzin's story "Poor Lisa" (1792). This story was a huge success with readers, followed by numerous imitations, but the main significance of sentimentalism and in particular the story of Karamzin was that such works revealed inner world common man which evoked empathy in others.

In poetry, Karamzin was also an innovator: the former poetry, represented by the odes of Lomonosov and Derzhavin, spoke the language of reason, and Karamzin's poems spoke the language of the heart.

N.M. Karamzin is a reformer of the Russian language

He enriched the Russian language with many words: “impression”, “love”, “influence”, “entertaining”, “touching”. Introduced the words "epoch", "concentrate", "scene", "moral", "aesthetic", "harmony", "future", "catastrophe", "charity", "free-thinking", "attraction", "responsibility" ”, “suspicion”, “industry”, “refinement”, “first-class”, “human”.

His language reforms caused a heated controversy: members of the Conversation of Russian Word Lovers society, headed by G. R. Derzhavin and A. S. Shishkov, adhered to conservative views and opposed the reform of the Russian language. In response to their activities, in 1815 the literary society "Arzamas" was formed (it included Batyushkov, Vyazemsky, Zhukovsky, Pushkin), which sneered at the authors of "Conversations" and parodied their works. The literary victory of "Arzamas" over "Conversation" was won, which also strengthened the victory of Karamzin's language changes.

Karamzin also introduced the letter Y into the alphabet. Prior to this, the words “tree”, “hedgehog” were written like this: “іolka”, “іozh”.

Karamzin also introduced a dash, one of the punctuation marks, into Russian writing.

Historian

In 1802 N.M. Karamzin wrote historical story“Marfa the Posadnitsa, or the Conquest of Novgorod”, and in 1803 Alexander I appointed him to the post of historiographer, thus, Karamzin devoted the rest of his life to writing “The History of the Russian State”, in fact, finishing with fiction.

Exploring manuscripts of the 16th century, Karamzin discovered and published in 1821 Afanasy Nikitin's Journey Beyond the Three Seas. In this regard, he wrote: “... while Vasco da Gamma was only thinking about the possibility of finding a way from Africa to Hindustan, our Tverite was already a merchant on the coast of Malabar”(historical region in South India). In addition, Karamzin was the initiator of the installation of a monument to K. M. Minin and D. M. Pozharsky on Red Square and took the initiative to erect monuments eminent figures national history.

"History of Russian Goverment"

Historical work of N.M. Karamzin

This is a multi-volume work by N. M. Karamzin, describing Russian history from ancient times to the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible and the Time of Troubles. The work of Karamzin was not the first in the description of the history of Russia, before him there were already historical works by V. N. Tatishchev and M. M. Shcherbatov.

But Karamzin's "History" had, in addition to historical, high literary merits, including due to the ease of writing, it attracted not only specialists, but also simply educated people to Russian history, which greatly contributed to the formation national consciousness, interest in the past. A.S. Pushkin wrote that “everyone, even secular women, rushed to read the history of their fatherland, hitherto unknown to them. She was a new discovery for them. Ancient Russia seemed to have been found by Karamzin, just as America was found by Columbus.

It is believed that in this work Karamzin nevertheless showed himself more not as a historian, but as a writer: "History" is written in a beautiful literary language (by the way, Karamzin did not use the letter Y in it), but the historical value of his work is unconditional, because . the author used manuscripts that were first published by him and many of which have not survived to this day.

Working on "History" until the end of his life, Karamzin did not have time to finish it. The text of the manuscript breaks off at the chapter "Interregnum 1611-1612".

The work of N.M. Karamzin over the "History of the Russian State"

In 1804, Karamzin retired to the Ostafyevo estate, where he devoted himself entirely to writing the History.

Manor Ostafyevo

Ostafyevo- the estate near Moscow of Prince P. A. Vyazemsky. It was built in 1800-07. the poet's father, Prince A. I. Vyazemsky. The estate remained in the possession of the Vyazemskys until 1898, after which it passed into the possession of the Sheremetevs.

In 1804, A.I. Vyazemsky invited his son-in-law, N.M. Karamzin, who worked here on the History of the Russian State. In April 1807, after the death of his father, Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky became the owner of the estate, under which Ostafyevo became one of the symbols of the cultural life of Russia: Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Denis Davydov, Griboedov, Gogol, Adam Mickiewicz visited here many times.

The content of Karamzin's "History of the Russian State"

N. M. Karamzin "History of the Russian State"

In the course of his work, Karamzin found the Ipatiev Chronicle, it was from here that the historian drew many details and details, but did not clutter up the text of the narrative with them, but put them in a separate volume of notes that are of particular historical significance.

In his work, Karamzin describes the peoples who inhabited the territory of modern Russia, the origins of the Slavs, their conflict with the Varangians, talks about the origin of the first princes of Rus', their reign, describes in detail everything important events Russian history until 1612

The value of N.M. Karamzin

Already the first publications of the "History" shocked contemporaries. They read it excitedly, discovering the past of their country. Writers used many plots in the future for works of art. For example, Pushkin took material from History for his tragedy Boris Godunov, which he dedicated to Karamzin.

But, as always, there were critics. Basically, liberals contemporary to Karamzin objected to the etatist picture of the world expressed in the work of the historian, and his belief in the effectiveness of the autocracy.

Statism- this is a worldview and ideology that absolutizes the role of the state in society and promotes the maximum subordination of the interests of individuals and groups to the interests of the state; a policy of active state intervention in all spheres of public and private life.

Statism considers the state as the highest institution, standing above all other institutions, although his goal is to create real opportunities for comprehensive development individuals and states.

The liberals reproached Karamzin for following in his work only the development of the supreme power, which gradually took on the forms of autocracy contemporary to him, but neglected the history of the Russian people themselves.

There is even an epigram attributed to Pushkin:

In his "History" elegance, simplicity
They prove to us without prejudice
The need for autocracy
And the charms of the whip.

Indeed, by the end of his life, Karamzin was a staunch supporter of absolute monarchy. He did not share the point of view of the majority of thinking people on serfdom, was not an ardent supporter of its abolition.

He died in 1826 in St. Petersburg and was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Monument to N.M. Karamzin in Ostafyevo

According to one version, he was born in the village of Znamenskoye, Simbirsk district (now the Mainsky district of the Ulyanovsk region), according to another, in the village of Mikhailovka, Buzuluk district, Kazan province (now the village of Preobrazhenka, Orenburg region). IN Lately experts were in favor of the "Orenburg" version of the writer's birthplace.

Karamzin belonged to a noble family, descending from a Tatar murza named Kara-Murza. Nicholas was the second son of a retired captain, a landowner. He lost his mother early, she died in 1769. By the second marriage, my father married Ekaterina Dmitrieva, the aunt of the poet and fabulist Ivan Dmitriev.

Karamzin spent his childhood years in his father's estate, studied in Simbirsk at the noble boarding school of Pierre Fauvel. At the age of 14, he began to study at the Moscow private boarding school of Professor Johann Schaden, while simultaneously attending classes at Moscow University.

Since 1781, Karamzin began serving in the Preobrazhensky Regiment in St. Petersburg, where he was transferred from army regiments (he was enrolled in service in 1774), received the rank of lieutenant.

During this period, he became close to the poet Ivan Dmitriev and began literary activity transfer from German language"Conversation of the Austrian Maria Theresa with our Empress Elisabeth in the Champs Elysees" (not preserved). The first printed work of Karamzin was the translation of Solomon Gesner's idyll "Wooden Leg" (1783).

In 1784, after the death of his father, Karamzin retired with the rank of lieutenant and never served again. After a short stay in Simbirsk, where he joined the Masonic lodge, Karamzin moved to Moscow, was introduced into the circle of the publisher Nikolai Novikov and settled in a house that belonged to the Novikov Friendly Scientific Society.

In 1787-1789 he was an editor in the magazine "Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind" published by Novikov, where he published his first story "Eugene and Julia" (1789), poems and translations. He translated into Russian the tragedy "Julius Caesar" (1787) by William Shakespeare and "Emilia Galotti" (1788) by Gotthold Lessing.

In May 1789, Nikolai Mikhailovich went abroad and until September 1790 traveled around Europe, visiting Germany, Switzerland, France and England.

Returning to Moscow, Karamzin began to publish the "Moscow Journal" (1791-1792), which published the "Letters of a Russian Traveler" written by him, in 1792 the story "Poor Lisa" was published, as well as the stories "Natalia, Boyar's Daughter" and "Liodor ", which became examples of Russian sentimentalism.

Karamzin. In the first Russian poetic anthology Aonides (1796-1799) compiled by Karamzin, he included his own poems, as well as poems by his contemporaries - Gavriil Derzhavin, Mikhail Kheraskov, Ivan Dmitriev. In "Aonides" the letter "ё" of the Russian alphabet appeared for the first time.

Part of the prose translations Karamzin combined in the "Pantheon of Foreign Literature" (1798), brief characteristics Russian writers were given to them for publication "Pantheon of Russian authors, or Collection of their portraits with remarks" (1801-1802). Karamzin's response to the accession to the throne of Alexander I was "Historical eulogy to Catherine II" (1802).

In 1802-1803, Nikolai Karamzin published the literary and political journal Vestnik Evropy, in which, along with articles on literature and art, issues of foreign and domestic policy of Russia, history and political life foreign countries. In the Bulletin of Europe, he published works on Russian medieval history "Martha Posadnitsa, or the Conquest of Novgorod", "News of Martha Posadnitsa, taken from the life of St. Zosima", "Journey around Moscow", "Historical memories and remarks on the way to the Trinity " and etc.

Karamzin developed a language reform aimed at bringing the bookish language closer to the colloquial speech of an educated society. Limiting the use of Slavonicisms, widely using language borrowings and calques from European languages ​​(mainly from French), introducing new words, Karamzin created a new literary style.

On November 12 (October 31, old style), 1803, by personal imperial decree of Alexander I, Nikolai Karamzin was appointed historiographer "to compose a complete History of the Fatherland." From that time until the end of his days, he worked on the main work of his life - "The History of the Russian State." Libraries and archives were opened for him. In 1816-1824, the first 11 volumes of the work were published in St. Petersburg, the 12th volume, devoted to describing the events of the "Time of Troubles", Karamzin did not have time to finish, he came out after the death of the historiographer in 1829.

In 1818, Karamzin became a member of the Russian Academy, an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He received a real state councilor and was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 1st degree.

During the first months of 1826, he suffered pneumonia, which ruined his health. On June 3 (May 22, old style), 1826, Nikolai Karamzin died in St. Petersburg. He was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Karamzin was married with a second marriage to Ekaterina Kolyvanova (1780-1851), the sister of the poet Pyotr Vyazemsky, who was the hostess of the best literary salon in St. Petersburg, where poets Vasily Zhukovsky, Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, writer Nikolai Gogol visited. She helped the historiographer by proofreading the 12-volume History, and after his death she completed the publication of the last volume.

His first wife, Elizaveta Protasova, died in 1802. From his first marriage, Karamzin had a daughter, Sophia (1802-1856), who became a maid of honor, was the hostess of a literary salon, a friend of the poets Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov.

In his second marriage, the historiographer had nine children, five survived to a conscious age. Daughter Ekaterina (1806-1867) married Prince Meshchersky, her son - writer Vladimir Meshchersky (1839-1914).

Nikolay Karamzin's daughter Elizaveta (1821-1891) became a lady-in-waiting of the imperial court, son Andrei (1814-1854) died in the Crimean War. Alexander Karamzin (1816-1888) served in the guard and at the same time wrote poems that were published by the magazines Sovremennik and Otechestvennye Zapiski. Youngest son Vladimir (1819-1869)

December 12 (December 1, according to the old style), 1766, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was born - Russian writer, poet, editor of the Moscow Journal (1791-1792) and the Vestnik Evropy magazine (1802-1803), honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences ( 1818), full member of the Imperial Russian Academy, historian, the first and only court historiographer, one of the first reformers of the Russian literary language, the founding father of Russian historiography and Russian sentimentalism.

Contribution of N.M. Karamzin in Russian culture can hardly be overestimated. Remembering everything that this man managed to do in the brief 59 years of his earthly existence, it is impossible to ignore the fact that it was Karamzin who largely determined the face of Russian XIX century - the "golden" age of Russian poetry, literature, historiography, source studies and other humanitarian areas of scientific knowledge. Thanks to linguistic searches aimed at popularizing the literary language of poetry and prose, Karamzin presented Russian literature to his contemporaries. And if Pushkin is “our everything”, then Karamzin can be safely called “our everything” with the capital letter. Without him, Vyazemsky, Pushkin, Baratynsky, Batyushkov and other poets of the so-called "Pushkin galaxy" would hardly have been possible.

“Whatever you turn to in our literature, Karamzin laid the foundation for everything: journalism, criticism, a story, a novel, a historical story, publicism, the study of history,” V.G. Belinsky.

"History of the Russian State" N.M. Karamzin became not just the first Russian-language book on the history of Russia, available to the general reader. Karamzin gave the Russian people Fatherland in the full sense of the word. They say that, slamming the eighth, last volume, Count Fyodor Tolstoy, nicknamed the American, exclaimed: “It turns out that I have a Fatherland!” And he was not alone. All his contemporaries suddenly found out that they live in a country with a thousand-year history and they have something to be proud of. Prior to this, it was believed that before Peter I, who cut through the “window to Europe”, there was nothing in Russia that was at least somewhat worthy of attention: dark ages backwardness and barbarism, boyar autocracy, primordially Russian laziness and bears on the streets ...

Karamzin's multi-volume work was not completed, but, having been published in the first quarter of the 19th century, he completely determined historical identity nation for many years to come. All subsequent historiography could not give rise to anything more in line with the “imperial” self-consciousness that had developed under the influence of Karamzin. Karamzin's views left a deep, indelible mark on all areas of Russian culture of the 19th-20th centuries, forming the foundations of the national mentality, which ultimately determined the development of Russian society and the state as a whole.

It is significant that in the 20th century, the edifice of Russian great power, which had collapsed under the attacks of revolutionary internationalists, revived again by the 1930s - under different slogans, with different leaders, in a different ideological package. but... The very approach to the historiography of Russian history, both before 1917 and after, in many respects remained jingoistic and sentimental in Karamzin's way.

N.M. Karamzin - early years

N.M. Karamzin was born on December 12 (1st century), 1766, in the village of Mikhailovka, Buzuluk district, Kazan province (according to other sources, in the family estate of Znamenskoye, Simbirsk district, Kazan province). Little is known about his early years: there are no letters, no diaries, no memories of Karamzin himself about his childhood. He did not even know exactly his year of birth and for almost his entire life he believed that he was born in 1765. Only in his old age, having discovered the documents, he “looked younger” by one year.

The future historiographer grew up in the estate of his father, retired captain Mikhail Egorovich Karamzin (1724-1783), a middle-class Simbirsk nobleman. He received a good education at home. In 1778 he was sent to Moscow to the boarding house of professor of Moscow University I.M. Shaden. At the same time he attended lectures at the university in 1781-1782.

After graduating from the boarding school, in 1783 Karamzin joined the Preobrazhensky Regiment in St. Petersburg, where he met the young poet and future employee of his Moscow Journal, Dmitriev. At the same time, he published his first translation of S. Gesner's idyll "Wooden Leg".

In 1784, Karamzin retired as a lieutenant and never served again, which was perceived in the then society as a challenge. After a short stay in Simbirsk, where he joined the Golden Crown Masonic lodge, Karamzin moved to Moscow and was introduced into the circle of N. I. Novikov. He settled in a house that belonged to Novikov's "Friendly Scientific Society", became the author and one of the publishers of the first children's magazine "Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind" (1787-1789), founded by Novikov. At the same time, Karamzin became close to the Pleshcheev family. For many years he was connected with N. I. Pleshcheeva by a tender platonic friendship. In Moscow, Karamzin publishes his first translations, in which interest in European and Russian history is clearly visible: Thomson's The Four Seasons, Janlis's Village Evenings, W. Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar, Lessing's tragedy Emilia Galotti.

In 1789, Karamzin's first original story "Eugene and Yulia" appeared in the magazine "Children's Reading ...". The reader hardly noticed it.

Travel to Europe

According to many biographers, Karamzin was not disposed towards the mystical side of Freemasonry, remaining a supporter of its active educational direction. To be more precise, by the end of the 1780s, Karamzin had already “been ill” with Masonic mysticism in its Russian version. Possibly, cooling towards Freemasonry was one of the reasons for his departure to Europe, where he spent more than a year (1789-90), visiting Germany, Switzerland, France and England. In Europe, he met and talked (except for influential Freemasons) with European "rulers of minds": I. Kant, J. G. Herder, C. Bonnet, I. K. Lavater, J. F. Marmontel, visited museums, theaters, secular salons. In Paris, Karamzin listened to O. G. Mirabeau, M. Robespierre and other revolutionaries in the National Assembly, saw many outstanding politicians and knew many of them. Apparently, the revolutionary Paris of 1789 showed Karamzin how much a person can be influenced by the word: printed, when Parisians read pamphlets and leaflets with keen interest; oral, when revolutionary orators spoke and controversy arose (experience that could not be acquired at that time in Russia).

Karamzin did not have a very enthusiastic opinion about English parliamentarism (perhaps following in the footsteps of Rousseau), but he highly valued the level of civilization at which English society as a whole was located.

Karamzin - journalist, publisher

In the autumn of 1790, Karamzin returned to Moscow and soon organized the publication of the monthly "Moscow Journal" (1790-1792), in which most of the "Letters of a Russian Traveler" were printed, telling about the revolutionary events in France, the story "Liodor", "Poor Lisa" , "Natalia, Boyar's Daughter", "Flor Silin", essays, short stories, critical articles and poems. Karamzin attracted the entire literary elite of that time to cooperate in the journal: his friends Dmitriev and Petrov, Kheraskov and Derzhavin, Lvov, Neledinsky-Meletsky, and others. Karamzin's articles asserted a new literary direction- sentimentalism.

The Moscow Journal had only 210 regular subscribers, but for the end of the 18th century it was the same as a hundred thousand circulation at the end of the 19th century. Moreover, the magazine was read by those who “made the weather” in the literary life of the country: students, officials, young officers, petty employees of various public institutions(“archival youths”).

After the arrest of Novikov, the authorities became seriously interested in the publisher of the Moscow Journal. During interrogations in the Secret Expedition, they ask: did Novikov send the “Russian traveler” abroad with a “special assignment”? The Novikovites were people of high decency and, of course, Karamzin was shielded, but because of these suspicions, the magazine had to be stopped.

In the 1790s, Karamzin published the first Russian almanacs - Aglaya (1794-1795) and Aonides (1796-1799). In 1793, when in the third stage French Revolution the Jacobin dictatorship was established, which shocked Karamzin with its cruelty, Nikolai Mikhailovich abandoned some of his previous views. The dictatorship aroused in him serious doubts about the possibility of mankind to achieve prosperity. He sharply condemned the revolution and all violent ways of transforming society. The philosophy of despair and fatalism permeates his new works: the stories "Bornholm Island" (1793); "Sierra Morena" (1795); poems "Melancholy", "Message to A. A. Pleshcheev", etc.

During this period, real literary fame comes to Karamzin.

Fedor Glinka: “Out of 1200 cadets, a rare one did not repeat by heart any page from the Island of Bornholm”.

The name Erast, previously completely unpopular, is increasingly found in noble lists. There are rumors of successful and unsuccessful suicides in the spirit of Poor Lisa. The venomous memoirist Vigel recalls that important Moscow nobles had already begun to make do with “almost like an equal with a thirty-year-old retired lieutenant”.

In July 1794, Karamzin's life almost ended: on the way to the estate, in the wilderness of the steppe, robbers attacked him. Karamzin miraculously escaped, having received two light wounds.

In 1801, he married Elizaveta Protasova, a neighbor on the estate, whom he had known since childhood - at the time of the wedding they had known each other for almost 13 years.

Reformer of the Russian literary language

Already in the early 1790s, Karamzin seriously thought about the present and future of Russian literature. He writes to a friend: “I am deprived of the pleasure of reading a lot on mother tongue. We are still poor in writers. We have several poets who deserve to be read." Of course, there were and are Russian writers: Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Fonvizin, Derzhavin, but there are no more than a dozen significant names. Karamzin was one of the first to understand that it was not about talent - there are no fewer talents in Russia than in any other country. It’s just that Russian literature can’t move away from the long-obsolete traditions of classicism, laid down in the middle of the 18th century by the only theorist M.V. Lomonosov.

The reform of the literary language carried out by Lomonosov, as well as the theory of "three calms" he created, met the tasks of the transition period from ancient to new literature. A complete rejection of the use of the usual Church Slavonicisms in the language was then still premature and inappropriate. But the evolution of the language, which began under Catherine II, continued actively. The "Three Calms" proposed by Lomonosov relied not on live colloquial speech, but on the witty thought of a theoretician writer. And this theory often put the authors in a difficult position: they had to use heavy, outdated Slavic expressions where in spoken language they have long been replaced by others, softer and more elegant. The reader sometimes could not "break through" through the heaps of obsolete Slavic words used in church books and records in order to understand the essence of this or that secular work.

Karamzin decided to bring the literary language closer to the spoken language. Therefore, one of his main goals was the further liberation of literature from Church Slavonicism. In the preface to the second book of the almanac "Aonides" he wrote: "One thunder of words only deafens us and never reaches the heart."

The second feature of Karamzin's "new style" was the simplification of syntactic constructions. The writer abandoned lengthy periods. In "Pantheon" Russian writers"He resolutely declared:" Lomonosov's prose cannot serve as a model for us at all: its long periods are tiring, the arrangement of words is not always in accordance with the flow of thoughts.

Unlike Lomonosov, Karamzin strove to write in short, easily visible sentences. This is to this day a model of a good style and an example to follow in literature.

The third merit of Karamzin was to enrich the Russian language with a number of successful neologisms, which have become firmly established in the main vocabulary. Among the innovations proposed by Karamzin are such widely known words in our time as “industry”, “development”, “refinement”, “concentrate”, “touching”, “entertainment”, “humanity”, “public”, “ generally useful", "influence" and a number of others.

Creating neologisms, Karamzin mainly used the method of tracing French words: “interesting” from “interesting”, “refined” from “raffine”, “development” from “developpement”, “touching” from “touchant”.

We know that even in the Petrine era, many foreign words appeared in the Russian language, but for the most part they replaced the words that already existed in the Slavic language and were not necessary. In addition, these words were often taken in a raw form, so they were very heavy and clumsy (“fortecia” instead of “fortress”, “victory” instead of “victory”, etc.). Karamzin, on the contrary, tried to give foreign words a Russian ending, adapting them to the requirements of Russian grammar: “serious”, “moral”, “aesthetic”, “audience”, “harmony”, “enthusiasm”, etc.

In his reform activities Karamzin made an installation for the lively colloquial speech of educated people. And this was the key to the success of his work - he writes not scientific treatises, but travel notes(“Letters from a Russian Traveler”), sentimental stories (“Bornholm Island”, “Poor Liza”), poems, articles, translates from French, English and German.

"Arzamas" and "Conversation"

It is not surprising that most of the young writers, modern Karamzin, accepted his transformations with a bang and willingly followed him. But, like any reformer, Karamzin had staunch opponents and worthy opponents.

A.S. stood at the head of Karamzin's ideological opponents. Shishkov (1774-1841) - admiral, patriot, well-known statesman of that time. An Old Believer, an admirer of Lomonosov's language, Shishkov at first glance was a classicist. But this point of view requires essential reservations. In contrast to the Europeanism of Karamzin, Shishkov put forward the idea of ​​the nationality of literature - the most important sign of a romantic worldview far from classicism. It turns out that Shishkov also adjoined romantics, but only not progressive, but conservative direction. His views can be recognized as a kind of forerunner of later Slavophilism and pochvenism.

In 1803, Shishkov delivered a Discourse on the Old and New Syllabus Russian language". He reproached the “Karamzinists” for having succumbed to the temptation of European revolutionary false teachings and advocated the return of literature to oral folk art, to popular vernacular, to Orthodox Church Slavonic book learning.

Shishkov was not a philologist. He dealt with the problems of literature and the Russian language, rather, as an amateur, so Admiral Shishkov's attacks on Karamzin and his literary supporters sometimes looked not so much scientifically substantiated as unsubstantiated and ideological. The language reform of Karamzin seemed to Shishkov, a warrior and defender of the Fatherland, unpatriotic and anti-religious: “Language is the soul of a people, a mirror of morals, a true indicator of enlightenment, an unceasing witness to deeds. Where there is no faith in the hearts, there is no piety in the tongue. Where there is no love for the fatherland, there the language does not express domestic feelings..

Shishkov reproached Karamzin for the immoderate use of barbarisms (“era”, “harmony”, “catastrophe”), neologisms disgusted him (“coup” as a translation of the word “revolution”), artificial words cut his ear: “future”, “readiness” and etc.

And it must be admitted that sometimes his criticism was apt and accurate.

The evasiveness and aesthetic affectation of the speech of the "Karamzinists" very soon became outdated and went out of literary use. It was precisely this future that Shishkov predicted for them, believing that instead of the expression “when traveling became the need of my soul,” one can simply say: “when I fell in love with traveling”; the refined and paraphrased speech “variegated crowds of rural oreads meet with dark-skinned bands of reptile pharaohs” can be replaced by the understandable expression “gypsies go towards the village girls”, etc.

Shishkov and his supporters took the first steps in studying the monuments of ancient Russian literature, enthusiastically studied The Tale of Igor's Campaign, studied folklore, advocated rapprochement between Russia and the Slavic world and recognized the need for convergence of the "Slovenian" syllable with the common language.

In a dispute with the translator Karamzin, Shishkov put forward a weighty argument about the “idiomaticity” of each language, about the unique originality of its phraseological systems, which make it impossible to translate a thought or a true semantic meaning from one language into another. For example, when translated literally into French, the expression "old horseradish" loses its figurative meaning and "means only the very thing, but in the metaphysical sense it has no circle of signification."

In defiance of Karamzinskaya, Shishkov proposed his own reform of the Russian language. He proposed to designate the concepts and feelings missing in our everyday life with new words formed from the roots of not French, but Russian and Old Slavonic languages. Instead of Karamzin's "influence", he suggested "influence", instead of "development" - "vegetation", instead of "actor" - "actor", instead of "individuality" - "yanost", "wet shoes" instead of "galoshes" and "wandering" instead of "maze". Most of his innovations in Russian did not take root.

It is impossible not to recognize Shishkov's ardent love for the Russian language; one cannot but admit that the passion for everything foreign, especially French, has gone too far in Russia. Ultimately, this led to the fact that the language of the common people, the peasant, began to differ greatly from the language of the cultural classes. But one cannot brush aside the fact that the natural process of the beginning evolution of language could not be stopped. It was impossible to forcibly return to use the already obsolete at that time expressions that Shishkov proposed: “zane”, “ubo”, “like”, “like” and others.

Karamzin did not even respond to the accusations of Shishkov and his supporters, knowing firmly that they were guided by exceptionally pious and patriotic feelings. Subsequently, Karamzin himself and his most talented supporters (Vyazemsky, Pushkin, Batyushkov) followed the very valuable indication of the "Shishkovites" on the need to "return to their roots" and examples of their own history. But then they could not understand each other.

Paphos and ardent patriotism of A.S. Shishkov aroused sympathy among many writers. And when Shishkov, together with G. R. Derzhavin, founded the literary society “Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word” (1811) with a charter and its own journal, P. A. Katenin, I. A. Krylov, and later V. K. Küchelbecker and A. S. Griboyedov. One of the active participants in the "Conversations ..." prolific playwright A. A. Shakhovskoy in the comedy "New Stern" viciously ridiculed Karamzin, and in the comedy "A Lesson for Coquettes, or Lipetsk Waters" in the face of the "ballade player" Fialkin created a parody image of V. A Zhukovsky.

This caused a friendly rebuff from the youth, who supported the literary authority of Karamzin. D. V. Dashkov, P. A. Vyazemsky, D. N. Bludov composed several witty pamphlets addressed to Shakhovsky and other members of the Conversation .... In The Vision in the Arzamas Tavern, Bludov gave the circle of young defenders of Karamzin and Zhukovsky the name "Society of Unknown Arzamas Writers" or simply "Arzamas".

In the organizational structure of this society, founded in the autumn of 1815, a cheerful spirit of parody of the serious "Conversation ..." reigned. In contrast to official pomposity, simplicity, naturalness, openness dominated here, a lot of space was given to jokes and games.

Parodying the official ritual of "Conversations ...", upon joining "Arzamas", everyone had to read a "funerary speech" to their "deceased" predecessor from among the living members of the "Conversations ..." or Russian Academy Sciences (Count D. I. Khvostov, S. A. Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, A. S. Shishkov himself, and others). "Gravestone speeches" were a form of literary struggle: they parodied high genres, ridiculed the stylistic archaism poetry"talkers". At the meetings of the society honed humorous genres Russian poetry, a bold and resolute struggle was waged against all kinds of officialdom, a type of independent Russian writer, free from the pressure of any ideological conventions, was formed. And although P. A. Vyazemsky, one of the organizers and active participants in the society, in his mature years condemned the youthful mischief and intransigence of his like-minded people (in particular, the rites of the “burial” of living literary opponents), he rightly called Arzamas a school of “literary fellowship” and mutual creative learning. The Arzamas and Beseda societies soon became centers of literary life and social struggle in the first quarter of the 19th century. Arzamas included such famous people, like Zhukovsky (pseudonym - Svetlana), Vyazemsky (Asmodeus), Pushkin (Cricket), Batyushkov (Achilles), etc.

Beseda broke up after Derzhavin's death in 1816; Arzamas, having lost its main opponent, ceased to exist by 1818.

Thus, by the mid-1790s, Karamzin became the recognized head of Russian sentimentalism, which opened not just a new page in Russian literature, but Russian fiction in general. Russian readers, who had previously absorbed only French novels and the works of enlighteners, enthusiastically accepted Letters from a Russian Traveler and Poor Liza, and Russian writers and poets (both “conversators” and “Arzamas”) realized that it was possible to must write in their native language.

Karamzin and Alexander I: a symphony with power?

In 1802 - 1803 Karamzin published the journal Vestnik Evropy, which was dominated by literature and politics. Largely due to the confrontation with Shishkov, in critical articles Karamzin, a new aesthetic program appeared for the formation of Russian literature as a nationally original one. Karamzin, unlike Shishkov, saw the key to the identity of Russian culture not so much in adherence to ritual antiquity and religiosity, but in the events of Russian history. The most striking illustration of his views was the story "Marfa Posadnitsa or the Conquest of Novgorod".

In his political articles of 1802-1803, Karamzin, as a rule, made recommendations to the government, the main of which was the enlightenment of the nation in the name of the prosperity of the autocratic state.

These ideas were generally close to Emperor Alexander I, the grandson of Catherine the Great, who at one time also dreamed of an “enlightened monarchy” and a complete symphony between the authorities and a European-educated society. Karamzin's response to the coup on March 11, 1801 and the accession to the throne of Alexander I was "Historical eulogy to Catherine II" (1802), where Karamzin expressed his views on the essence of the monarchy in Russia, as well as the duties of the monarch and his subjects. "Eulogy" was approved by the sovereign, as a collection of examples for the young monarch, and favorably accepted by him. Alexander I, obviously, was interested in the historical research of Karamzin, and the emperor rightly decided that a great country simply needed to remember its no less great past. And if you don’t remember, then at least create anew ...

In 1803, through the tsar’s educator M.N. Muravyov, a poet, historian, teacher, one of the most educated people of that time, N.M. Karamzin received the official title of court historiographer with a pension of 2,000 rubles. (A pension of 2,000 rubles a year was then assigned to officials who, according to the Table of Ranks, had a rank no lower than that of a general). Later, I. V. Kireevsky, referring to Karamzin himself, wrote about Muravyov: “Who knows, maybe without his thoughtful and warm assistance, Karamzin would not have had the means to accomplish his great deed.”

In 1804, Karamzin practically departed from literary and publishing and proceeds to create the "History of the Russian State", on which he worked until the end of his days. Through his influence M.N. Muravyov made available to the historian many of the previously unknown and even "secret" materials, opened libraries and archives for him. Modern historians can only dream of such favorable conditions for work. Therefore, in our opinion, to speak of the "History of the Russian State" as a "scientific feat" N.M. Karamzin, not entirely fair. The court historiographer was in the service, conscientiously doing the work for which he was paid money. Accordingly, he had to write such a story that was currently needed by the customer, namely, Tsar Alexander I, who at the first stage of his reign showed sympathy for European liberalism.

However, under the influence of studies in Russian history, by 1810 Karamzin became a consistent conservative. During this period, the system of his political views finally took shape. Karamzin's statements that he is a "republican at heart" can only be adequately interpreted if one considers that we are talking about the "Platonic Republic of the Sages", an ideal social order based on state virtue, strict regulation and the denial of personal freedom. . At the beginning of 1810, Karamzin, through his relative Count F.V. Rostopchin, met in Moscow with the leader of the "conservative party" at court - Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna (sister of Alexander I) and began to constantly visit her residence in Tver. The salon of the Grand Duchess represented the center of conservative opposition to the liberal-Western course, personified by the figure of M. M. Speransky. In this salon, Karamzin read excerpts from his "History ...", at the same time he met Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna, who became one of his patronesses.

In 1811, at the request of Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna Karamzin wrote a note “On the ancient and new Russia in its political and civil relations”, in which he outlined his ideas about the ideal device Russian state and sharply criticized the policy of Alexander I and his immediate predecessors: Paul I, Catherine II and Peter I. In the 19th century, the note was never published in full and diverged only in handwritten lists. In Soviet times, the thoughts expressed by Karamzin in his message were perceived as a reaction of the extremely conservative nobility to the reforms of M. M. Speransky. The author himself was branded a "reactionary", an opponent of the liberation of the peasantry and other liberal steps taken by the government of Alexander I.

However, during the first full publication of the note in 1988, Yu. M. Lotman revealed its deeper content. In this document, Karamzin made a reasonable criticism of unprepared bureaucratic reforms carried out from above. While praising Alexander I, the author of the note at the same time attacks his advisers, referring, of course, to Speransky, who stood for constitutional reforms. Karamzin takes the liberty of proving to the tsar in detail, with reference to historical examples, that Russia is not ready either historically or politically to abolish serfdom and limit the autocratic monarchy by the constitution (following the example of the European powers). Some of his arguments (for example, about the uselessness of freeing peasants without land, the impossibility of constitutional democracy in Russia) look quite convincing and historically correct even today.

Along with an overview of Russian history and criticism of the political course of Emperor Alexander I, the note contained an integral, original and very complex theoretical concept of autocracy as a special, original Russian type of power closely associated with Orthodoxy.

At the same time, Karamzin refused to identify "true autocracy" with despotism, tyranny or arbitrariness. He believed that such deviations from the norms were due to chance (Ivan IV the Terrible, Paul I) and were quickly eliminated by the inertia of the tradition of "wise" and "virtuous" monarchical rule. In cases of a sharp weakening and even complete absence of the supreme state and church authority (for example, during the Time of Troubles), this powerful tradition led to the restoration of autocracy within a short historical period. Autocracy was the "palladium of Russia", main reason its power and prosperity. Therefore, the basic principles of monarchical government in Russia, according to Karamzin, should have been preserved in the future. They should have been supplemented only by a proper policy in the field of legislation and education, which would lead not to undermining the autocracy, but to its maximum strengthening. With such an understanding of autocracy, any attempt to limit it would be a crime against Russian history and the Russian people.

Initially, Karamzin's note only irritated the young emperor, who did not like criticism of his actions. In this note, the historiographer proved himself plus royaliste que le roi (greater royalist than the king himself). However, subsequently the brilliant "anthem to the Russian autocracy" as presented by Karamzin undoubtedly had its effect. After the war of 1812, the winner of Napoleon, Alexander I, curtailed many of his liberal projects: Speransky's reforms were not completed, the constitution and the very idea of ​​\u200b\u200blimiting autocracy remained only in the minds of future Decembrists. And already in the 1830s, Karamzin's concept actually formed the basis of the ideology of the Russian Empire, designated by the "theory of official nationality" of Count S. Uvarov (Orthodoxy-Autocracy-Nationhood).

Before the publication of the first 8 volumes of "History ..." Karamzin lived in Moscow, from where he traveled only to Tver to Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna and to Nizhny Novgorod, during the occupation of Moscow by the French. He usually spent his summers at Ostafyev, the estate of Prince Andrei Ivanovich Vyazemsky, whose illegitimate daughter, Ekaterina Andreevna, Karamzin married in 1804. (The first wife of Karamzin, Elizaveta Ivanovna Protasova, died in 1802).

In the last 10 years of his life, which Karamzin spent in St. Petersburg, he became very close to royal family. Although Emperor Alexander I treated Karamzin with restraint from the time the Note was submitted, Karamzin often spent his summers in Tsarskoye Selo. At the request of the empresses (Maria Feodorovna and Elizaveta Alekseevna), he more than once conducted frank political conversations with Emperor Alexander, in which he acted as a spokesman for the opponents of drastic liberal reforms. In 1819-1825, Karamzin passionately rebelled against the intentions of the sovereign regarding Poland (submitted a note "Opinion of a Russian citizen"), condemned the increase in state taxes in Peaceful time, spoke of the absurd provincial system of finance, criticized the system of military settlements, the activities of the Ministry of Education, pointed out the strange choice of some important dignitaries by the sovereign (for example, Arakcheev), spoke of the need to reduce internal troops, of the imaginary correction of roads, so painful for the people and constantly pointed out the need to have firm laws, civil and state.

Of course, having behind such intercessors as both empresses and Grand Duchess Ekaterina Pavlovna, one could criticize, and argue, and show civil courage, and try to set the monarch "on the right path." It was not for nothing that Emperor Alexander I and his contemporaries and subsequent historians of his reign called the “mysterious sphinx”. In words, the sovereign agreed with Karamzin's critical remarks regarding military settlements, recognized the need to "give fundamental laws to Russia", as well as to revise some aspects of domestic policy, but it so happened in our country that in reality - all the wise advice of state people remain "fruitless for Dear Fatherland"...

Karamzin as a historian

Karamzin is our first historian and last chronicler.
By his criticism he belongs to history,
innocence and apothegms - the chronicle.

A.S. Pushkin

Even from the point of view of modern Karamzin historical science, to name 12 volumes of his "History of the Russian State", in fact, scientific work no one dared. Even then it was clear to everyone that honorary title a court historiographer cannot make a writer a historian, give him the appropriate knowledge and proper training.

But, on the other hand, Karamzin did not initially set himself the task of taking on the role of a researcher. The newly minted historiographer was not going to write a scientific treatise and appropriate the laurels of his illustrious predecessors - Schlozer, Miller, Tatishchev, Shcherbatov, Boltin, etc.

Preliminary critical work on sources for Karamzin is only "a heavy tribute brought by reliability." He was, first of all, a writer, and therefore he wanted to apply his literary talent to ready-made material: “select, animate, colorize” and, in this way, make Russian history “something attractive, strong, worthy of attention not only Russians, but also foreigners." And this task he performed brilliantly.

Today it is impossible not to agree with the fact that at the beginning of the 19th century source studies, paleography and other auxiliary historical disciplines were in their very infancy. Therefore, to demand professional criticism from the writer Karamzin, as well as strict adherence to one or another method of working with historical sources, is simply ridiculous.

One can often hear the opinion that Karamzin simply beautifully rewrote Prince M.M. family circle. This is wrong.

Naturally, when writing his "History ..." Karamzin actively used the experience and works of his predecessors - Schlozer and Shcherbatov. Shcherbatov helped Karamzin navigate the sources of Russian history, significantly influencing both the choice of material and its arrangement in the text. Coincidentally or not, Karamzin brought The History of the Russian State to exactly the same place as Shcherbatov's History. However, in addition to following the scheme already developed by his predecessors, Karamzin cites in his essay a lot of references to the most extensive foreign historiography, almost unfamiliar to the Russian reader. While working on his "History ...", for the first time he introduced into scientific circulation a mass of unknown and previously unexplored sources. These are Byzantine and Livonian chronicles, information from foreigners about the population of ancient Rus', as well as a large number of Russian chronicles that have not yet been touched by the hand of a historian. For comparison: M.M. Shcherbatov used only 21 Russian chronicles in writing his work, Karamzin actively cites more than 40. In addition to the chronicles, Karamzin attracted monuments of ancient Russian law and ancient Russian fiction to the study. A special chapter of "History ..." is devoted to "Russian Truth", and a number of pages - to the newly opened "Tale of Igor's Campaign".

Thanks to the diligent help of the directors of the Moscow Archive of the Ministry (Board) of Foreign Affairs N. N. Bantysh-Kamensky and A. F. Malinovsky, Karamzin was able to use those documents and materials that were not available to his predecessors. The Synodal depository, libraries of monasteries (Trinity Lavra, Volokolamsk Monastery and others), as well as private collections of Musin-Pushkin and N.P. Rumyantsev. Karamzin received especially many documents from Chancellor Rumyantsev, who collected historical materials in Russia and abroad through his numerous agents, as well as from AI Turgenev, who compiled a collection of documents from the papal archive.

Many of the sources used by Karamzin perished during the Moscow fire of 1812 and survived only in his "History ..." and extensive "Notes" to its text. Thus, Karamzin's work, to some extent, has itself acquired the status of a historical source, to which professional historians have every right to refer.

Among the main shortcomings of the "History of the Russian State" is traditionally noted the peculiar view of its author on the tasks of the historian. According to Karamzin, "knowledge" and "scholarship" in the historian "do not replace the talent to portray actions." Before the artistic task of history, even the moral one recedes into the background, which was set by Karamzin's patron, M.N. Muravyov. Characteristics historical characters given by Karamzin exclusively in a literary and romantic vein, characteristic of the direction of Russian sentimentalism he created. The first Russian princes according to Karamzin are distinguished by their "ardent romantic passion" for conquests, their retinue - nobility and loyal spirit, the "rabble" sometimes shows discontent, raising rebellions, but in the end agrees with the wisdom of noble rulers, etc., etc. P.

Meanwhile, the previous generation of historians, under the influence of Schlözer, had long developed the idea of ​​critical history, and among Karamzin's contemporaries, the requirements for criticizing historical sources, despite the lack of a clear methodology, were generally recognized. A next generation has already demanded philosophical history- with the identification of the laws of development of the state and society, the recognition of the main driving forces and laws of the historical process. Therefore, the overly “literary” creation of Karamzin was immediately subjected to well-founded criticism.

According to the idea, firmly rooted in Russian and foreign historiography of the 17th - 18th centuries, the development of the historical process depends on the development of monarchical power. Karamzin does not deviate one iota from this idea: the monarchical power glorified Russia in the Kievan period; the division of power between the princes was a political mistake, which was corrected by the state wisdom of the Moscow princes - the collectors of Rus'. At the same time, it was the princes who corrected its consequences - the fragmentation of Rus' and the Tatar yoke.

But before reproaching Karamzin for not contributing anything new to the development of Russian historiography, it should be remembered that the author of The History of the Russian State did not at all set himself the task of philosophical understanding of the historical process or blind imitation of the ideas of Western European romantics (F. Guizot , F. Mignet, J. Mechele), who already then started talking about the "class struggle" and the "spirit of the people" as the main driving force stories. Karamzin was not interested in historical criticism at all, and deliberately denied the "philosophical" trend in history. The researcher's conclusions from historical material, as well as his subjective fabrications, seem to Karamzin to be "metaphysics" that is not suitable "for depicting action and character."

Thus, with his peculiar views on the tasks of the historian, Karamzin, by and large, remained outside the dominant currents of Russian and European historiography of the 19th and 20th centuries. Of course, he participated in its consistent development, but only in the form of an object for constant criticism and clearest example how history should not be written.

The reaction of contemporaries

Karamzin's contemporaries - readers and admirers - enthusiastically accepted his new "historical" work. The first eight volumes of The History of the Russian State were printed in 1816-1817 and went on sale in February 1818. Huge for that time, the three-thousandth circulation sold out in 25 days. (And this despite the solid price - 50 rubles). A second edition was immediately required, which was carried out in 1818-1819 by I. V. Slyonin. In 1821 a new, ninth volume was published, and in 1824 the next two. The author did not have time to finish the twelfth volume of his work, which was published in 1829, almost three years after his death.

"History ..." was admired by Karamzin's literary friends and a vast public of non-specialist readers who suddenly discovered, like Count Tolstoy the American, that their Fatherland has a history. According to A.S. Pushkin, “everyone, even secular women, rushed to read the history of their fatherland, hitherto unknown to them. She was a new discovery for them. Ancient Russia seemed to be found by Karamzin, like America by Columbus.

Liberal intellectual circles of the 1820s found Karamzin's "History ..." backward in general views and unnecessarily tendentious:

Specialists-researchers, as already mentioned, treated Karamzin's work exactly as a work, sometimes even belittling its historical significance. It seemed to many that Karamzin's undertaking itself was too risky - to undertake to write such an extensive work in the then state of Russian historical science.

Already during Karamzin's lifetime, critical analyzes of his "History ..." appeared, and soon after the author's death, attempts were made to determine general meaning this work in historiography. Lelewel pointed to the involuntary distortion of the truth, due to patriotic, religious and political hobbies Karamzin. Artsybashev showed the extent to which the writing of "history" is harmed by the literary techniques of a non-professional historian. Pogodin summed up all the shortcomings of the History, and N.A. Polevoy saw the common cause of these shortcomings in the fact that "Karamzin is a writer not of our time." All his points of view, both in literature and in philosophy, politics and history, became outdated with the appearance of new influences in Russia. European romanticism. In opposition to Karamzin, Polevoy soon wrote his six-volume History of the Russian People, where he completely surrendered himself to the ideas of Guizot and other Western European romantics. Contemporaries rated this work as an "unworthy parody" of Karamzin, subjecting the author to rather vicious and not always deserved attacks.

In the 1830s, Karamzin's "History ..." becomes the banner of the officially "Russian" direction. With the assistance of the same Pogodin, its scientific rehabilitation is carried out, which is fully consistent with the spirit of Uvarov's "theory of official nationality".

In the second half of the 19th century, on the basis of the "History ...", a mass of popular science articles and other texts were written, which formed the basis of well-known educational and teaching aids. Based on the historical plots of Karamzin, many works have been created for children and youth, the purpose of which for many years was to educate patriotism, loyalty civic duty, responsibility younger generation for the fate of their country. This book, in our opinion, played a decisive role in shaping the views of more than one generation of Russian people, having a significant impact on the foundations of the patriotic education of young people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

December 14th. Final Karamzin.

The death of Emperor Alexander I and the December events of 1925 deeply shocked N.M. Karamzin and negatively affected his health.

On December 14, 1825, having received news of the uprising, the historian goes out into the street: “I saw terrible faces, heard terrible words, five or six stones fell at my feet.”

Karamzin, of course, regarded the performance of the nobility against their sovereign as a rebellion and a serious crime. But there were so many acquaintances among the rebels: the Muravyov brothers, Nikolai Turgenev, Bestuzhev, Ryleev, Kuchelbeker (he translated Karamzin's History into German).

A few days later, Karamzin will say about the Decembrists: "The errors and crimes of these young people are the errors and crimes of our age."

On December 14, during his travels around St. Petersburg, Karamzin caught a bad cold and fell ill with pneumonia. In the eyes of his contemporaries, he was another victim of this day: his idea of ​​the world collapsed, faith in the future was lost, and a new king, very far from perfect image enlightened monarch. Half-ill, Karamzin visited the palace every day, where he talked with Empress Maria Feodorovna, from memories of the late sovereign Alexander, moving on to discussions about the tasks of the future reign.

Karamzin could no longer write. Volume XII of the "History ..." stopped at the interregnum of 1611 - 1612. The last words of the last volume are about a small Russian fortress: "Nutlet did not give up." The last thing that Karamzin really managed to do in the spring of 1826 was, together with Zhukovsky, he persuaded Nicholas I to return Pushkin from exile. A few years later, the emperor tried to pass the baton of the first historiographer of Russia to the poet, but the “sun of Russian poetry” somehow did not fit into the role of the state ideologist and theorist ...

In the spring of 1826 N.M. Karamzin, on the advice of doctors, decided to go to southern France or Italy for treatment. Nicholas I agreed to sponsor his trip and kindly placed a frigate of the imperial fleet at the disposal of the historiographer. But Karamzin was already too weak to travel. He died on May 22 (June 3) 1826 in St. Petersburg. He was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Karamzin, Nikolai Mikhailovich famous Russian writer, journalist and historian. Born December 1, 1766 in the Simbirsk province; grew up in the village of his father, a Simbirsk landowner. The first spiritual food for an 8 9 year old boy was old novels, ... ... Biographical Dictionary

Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich (1766-1826) Russian historian and writer. Aphorisms, quotes Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich. Biography Like the fruit of a tree, life is sweetest just before it begins to fade. For… … Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms

Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich - .… … Dictionary of the Russian language of the 18th century

Russian writer, publicist and historian. The son of a landowner of the Simbirsk province. He was educated at home, then in Moscow - in a private boarding school (until ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (1766 1826), Russian. writer, critic, historian. IN early work L. noticeably some influence of sentimentalists, incl. and K. The most interesting material for comparison with prod. L. contain "secular" stories K. ("Julia", "Sensitive and ... ... Lermontov Encyclopedia

- (1766 1826) Russian historian, writer, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1818). Creator of the History of the Russian State (vol. 1 12, 1816 29), one of the most significant works in Russian historiography. The founder of Russian sentimentalism (... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

"Karamzin" redirects here. See also other meanings. Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin Date of birth: December 1 (12), 1766 Place of birth: Mikhailovka, Russian Empire Date of death: May 22 (June 3), 1826 ... Wikipedia

Historiographer, b. December 1, 1766, d. May 22, 1826 He belonged to a noble family, descended from the Tatar Murza, named Kara Murza. His father, a Simbirsk landowner, Mikhail Egorovich, served in Orenburg under I. I. Neplyuev and ... Big biographical encyclopedia

- (1766 1826), historian, writer, critic; honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1818). Creator of the "History of the Russian State" (volumes 1-12, 1816-1829), one of the most significant works in Russian historiography. The founder of Russian sentimentalism ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Karamzin, Nikolai Mikhailovich- N.M. Karamzin. Portrait by A.G. Venetsianov. Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich (1766-1826), Russian writer and historian. The founder of Russian sentimentalism (Letters from a Russian Traveler, 1791-95; Poor Liza, 1792, etc.). Editor... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary