Summary Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. Biography of Nekrasov

Nekrasov Nikolai Alekseevich, whose biography begins on November 28 (December 10), 1821, was born in the small town of Nemirov, located on the territory of the Vinnitsa district of the Podolsk province (now the territory of Ukraine).

The poet's childhood

After the birth of their son, the Nekrasov family lived in the village of Greshnev, which at that time belonged to the Yaroslavl province. There were a lot of children - thirteen (although only three of them survived), and therefore it was very difficult to support them. Alexey Sergeevich, the head of the family, was forced to also take on the job of a police officer. This work could hardly be called fun and interesting. Little Nikolai Nekrasov Sr. often took little Nikolai Nekrasov Sr. with him to work, and therefore the future poet from a very early age saw the problems that ordinary people faced and learned to sympathize with them.

At the age of 10, Nikolai was sent to the Yaroslavl gymnasium. But at the end of the 5th grade, he abruptly stopped studying. Why? Biographers have differing opinions on this issue. Some believe that the boy was not too diligent in his studies, and his success in this field left much to be desired, while others are of the opinion that his father simply stopped paying for his education. Or perhaps both of these reasons occurred. One way or another, Nekrasov’s biography continues in St. Petersburg, where a sixteen-year-old boy is sent to enter college. military school(noble regiment).

Difficult years

The poet had every opportunity to become an honest servant, but fate decided otherwise. Arriving in the cultural capital of the empire - St. Petersburg - Nekrasov meets and communicates with the students there. They awakened in him a strong thirst for knowledge, and therefore the future poet decides to go against the will of his father. Nikolai begins to prepare to enter university. He fails: he could not pass all the exams. However, this did not stop him: from 1839 to 1841. The poet goes to the Faculty of Philology as a volunteer student. In those days, Nekrasov lived in terrible poverty, because his father did not give him a single penny. The poet often had to go hungry, and it even got to the point that he spent the night in homeless shelters. But there were also bright moments: for example, it was in one of these places that Nikolai earned his first money (15 kopecks) for help in writing a petition. Difficult financial situation did not break the young man’s spirit and he vowed to himself, despite any obstacles, to achieve recognition.

Literary activity of Nekrasov

A biography of Nekrasov is impossible without mentioning the stages of his formation as a poet and writer.

Soon after the events described above, Nikolai's life began to improve. He got a job as a tutor, and was often tasked with composing fairy tales and ABCs for popular print publishers. A good part-time job was writing small articles for the Literary Newspaper, as well as the Literary Supplement to the Russian Invalid. Several vaudevilles he composed and published under the pseudonym “Perepelsky” were even staged on the Alexandria stage. Having put aside some money, in 1840 Nekrasov published his first collection of poems, which was called “Dreams and Sounds.”

Nekrasov’s biography was not without struggle with critics. Despite the fact that they treated him ambiguously, Nikolai himself was extremely upset negative feedback authoritative Belinsky. It even got to the point that Nekrasov himself bought most circulation and destroyed the books. However, the few remaining copies made it possible to see Nekrasov in a completely unusual role as a writer of ballads. Later he moved on to other genres and topics.

Nekrasov spent the forties of the 19th century working closely with the journal Otechestvennye zapiski. Nikolai himself was a bibliographer. The turning point in his life can be considered his close acquaintance and the beginning of his friendship with Belinsky. After quite a bit of time, Nikolai Nekrasov’s poems began to be actively published. In a fairly short period of time, the almanacs “April 1”, “Physiology of St. Petersburg”, “Petersburg Collection” were published, in which the poems of the young poet were side by side with the works of the best authors of that period. Among them, among others, there were works by F. Dostoevsky, D. Grigorovich, I. Turgenev.

Publishing business was going well. This allowed Nekrasov and his friends to purchase the Sovremennik magazine at the end of 1846. In addition to the poet himself, many talented writers contribute to this magazine. And Belinsky gives Nekrasov an unusually generous gift - he passes it on to the magazine great amount materials that the critic had been collecting for a long time for his own publication. During the period of reaction, the content of Sovremennik was controlled by the tsarist authorities, and under the influence of censorship, they began to publish mostly works of the adventure genre. But, nevertheless, the magazine does not lose its popularity.

Next, Nekrasov’s biography takes us to sunny Italy, where the poet went in the 50s to be treated for a throat disease. Having recovered his health, he returns to his homeland. Here life is in full swing - Nikolai finds himself in advanced literary streams, communicates with people of high morality. At this time, the best and hitherto unknown sides of the poet’s talent are revealed. While working on the magazine, Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky became his faithful assistants and colleagues.

Despite the fact that Sovremennik was closed in 1866, Nekrasov did not give up. The writer rents Otechestvennye zapiski from his former “competitor,” which quickly rises to the same height as Sovremennik in its time.

Working with two of the best magazines of his time, Nekrasov wrote and published a lot of his works. Among them are poems (“Who Lives Well in Rus'”, “Peasant Children”, “Frost, Red Nose”, “Sasha”, “Russian Women”), poems (“ Railway", "Knight for an Hour", "Prophet") and many others. Nekrasov was at the zenith of his glory.

last years of life

At the beginning of 1875, the poet was given a terrible diagnosis - “intestinal cancer”. His life became a complete misery, and only the support of devoted readers helped him somehow hold on. Telegrams and letters came to Nikolai even from the farthest corners of Russia. This support meant a lot to the poet: while struggling with pain, he continued to create. At the end of his life, he writes a satirical poem called “Contemporaries”, a sincere and touching cycle of poems “Last Songs”.

The talented poet and literary activist said goodbye to this world on December 27, 1877 (January 8, 1878) in St. Petersburg, at the age of only 56 years.

Despite the severe frost, thousands of people came to say goodbye to the poet and accompany him to his final resting place (Novodevichy Cemetery in St. Petersburg).

Love in the life of a poet

N.A. Nekrasov, whose biography is a real charge of vitality and energy, met three women in his life. His first love was Avdotya Panaeva. They were not officially married, but lived together for fifteen years. After some time, Nekrasov fell in love with a charming Frenchwoman, Selina Lefren. However, this novel was unsuccessful for the poet: Selina left him, and before that she squandered a fair part of his fortune. And finally, six months before his death, Nekrasov got married to Fyokla Viktorova, who loved him dearly and took care of him until his last day.

Creative path of N.A. Nekrasov (1821 - 1878) began with his arrival in 1838 in St. Petersburg. Contrary to his father’s will, he did not enroll in the Noble Regiment, a military educational institution, but decided to take the university exams. However, his intentions were not crowned with success, and he entered the historical and philological department as a volunteer student.

As punishment for disobedience, the father deprived Nekrasov of financial support. From this time on, the period of “St. Petersburg ordeals” began for the future poet, which lasted for three years. By the way, my father, also thanks to the works of N. A. Nekrasov, firmly established the reputation of a cruel landowner-tyrant - a characteristic that is far from indisputable, as N. A. Nekrasov himself later wrote about in his autobiography of 1877.

The poet's first book was a collection of poems, Dreams and Sounds, published in 1840. The poems included in it were weak and imitative. “Dreams and Sounds” was subjected to devastating criticism by V.G. Belinsky, after which Nekrasov bought the remaining copies and burned them.

After an unsuccessful debut, Nikolai Alekseevich writes articles, a play in verse “Lomonosov’s Youth”, children’s vaudevilles, and fairy tales. In 1841, he began collaborating with the Literary Newspaper, which published his poems, stories, plays, feuilletons, and reviews.

Since 1847, Nekrasov has been editor of the Sovremennik magazine. In 1852, the first printed work of L.N. appeared on the pages of this publication. Tolstoy's story "Childhood". Sovremennik has established a lasting reputation as one of the best magazine publications in Russia. In 1853, N. A. Nekrasov met N. G. Chernyshevsky, who becomes a leading employee of the magazine.

An amazing team of talented writers is forming around Sovremennik, which includes I.S. Turgenev. L.N. Tolstoy, D.V. Grigorovich. V.G. Belinsky, N.A. Dobrolyubov. The editorial board is headed by I. I. Panaev and N.A. Nekrasov.

The mid-1850s were a particularly productive time for Nikolai Alekseevich. This was a period of rising social movement in Russia, marked by passionate discussions about the need to abolish serfdom and ways to emancipate the peasantry. Literary works began to be widely used as a means of political polemics and struggle, and journalism flourished with its sharp journalistic materials. During these years, Nekrasov wrote especially a lot. In a letter to I.S. He reported with satisfaction to Turgenev on June 30, 1855: “This spring I wrote more poetry than ever before...”

Nekrasov's civic position, sounded in his poems, journalism, reflected in his editorial activities, makes him not just famous. The writer, according to contemporaries, becomes “a real idol, a god, a poet higher than Pushkin; they worship him..."

This fame is enhanced by the publication on October 19, 1856 of the first edition of Nekrasov’s Poems. The poems “Poet and Citizen”, “Poet and Citizen” published in the book received the greatest public response. Forgotten Village" But not only public admiration awaited N.A. Nekrasova. After the publication of “Poems,” helpful dignitaries reported to Alexander II about the poet’s revolutionary sentiments, which threatened censorship persecution not only of Nekrasov, but also of the Sovremennik magazine.

In 1857, Nikolai Alekseevich became close to the young revolutionary-minded poet and literary critic N.A. Dobrolyubov, who becomes one of Sovremennik’s regular employees and a member of the magazine’s editorial board. Views of N.A. Dobrolyubov, no less radical than N.A. himself. Nekrasov, were not shared by all Sovremennik authors. A conflict is brewing, which reached its climax after the appearance of an article by N.A. in the third issue of the journal. Dobrolyubov’s “New Tale of Mr. Turgenev”, later published under the title “When will the real day come?” It was a review of the novel by I.S. Turgenev "On the Eve".

Turgenev got acquainted with the article even before publication in proof and insisted on its removal from the magazine for ideological reasons. He categorically disagreed with Dobrolyubov’s interpretation of the novel. If Dobrolyubov’s material was published, Turgenev promised to resign from the magazine. For Nekrasov, the departure of Turgenev, with whom he was friendly, would have been a big blow. I had to choose between friendship, the desire to keep a talented writer as part of Sovremennik, and ideology.

Nekrasov chooses the latter and decides to publish Dobrolyubov’s article. Turgenev breaks off all relations with Nekrasov and leaves the magazine. The experiences of the break with Turgenev were subsequently reflected in the 1860 poem “...lonely, lost...”.

In the same year, Nekrasov’s poem “Reflections at the Front Entrance” was published in Herzen’s magazine “The Bell,” published in London, with the following comment from the publisher: “We very rarely publish poems, but there is no way not to publish this kind of poem.”

The most significant event of the 19th century for Russia was the abolition of serfdom, announced in the Tsar’s manifesto on March 5, 1861. Nekrasov and his like-minded people were not satisfied with the reform. They saw its half-hearted nature and believed that the manifesto did not bring actual liberation to the peasants - they remained dependent, because they did not receive the most desired thing - land. Nekrasov said to Chernyshevsky, who visited him that day: “Is this real will! No, this is pure deception, a mockery of the peasants.” Then this position was repeatedly manifested in his numerous poems: “Freedom”, “Every day, the strength decreases...”, most acutely sounded in the lines “The people are liberated, but are the people happy?..” (“Elegy”, 1874) and in the text of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” (1877).

Feeling like a national poet, N.A. Nekrasov strove to ensure that his works could reach ordinary people. He begins to publish “Red Books” - cheap publications intended for peasants. However, after the second edition in 1863, due to censorship obstacles, their publication ceased.

The position of Nekrasov and his magazine, where sharp materials were published that criticized the reform of 1861, met with increasing rejection from the authorities and, as a result, censorship persecution. On May 28, 1866, Sovremennik was banned. November 29, 1867 N.A. Nekrasov enters into a lease agreement for the magazine Otechestvennye zapiski, which, continuing the traditions of Sovremennik, becomes a platform for adherents of revolutionary democratic ideas.

In the late 60s and early 70s, Nikolai Alekseevich worked hard to create the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” which is published in separate parts in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski. The poem immediately attracts the attention of readers and becomes the object of persecution by the authorities, subject to continuous censorship bans. In 1873, the fifth edition of “Poems” by N.A. was published. Nekrasov, where, along with the chapters of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” written by that time, the poems “Grandfather” and “Russian Women” were also published. The poet's poems are firmly entrenched in the popular consciousness. The first 24 lines from the poem “Peddlers” became a folk song. Nekrasov's works attract the attention of Russian composers. In 1875 P.I. Tchaikovsky creates a cantata based on the poet's poems.

By the end of the 70s, the health of I.A. Nekrasova's condition is deteriorating sharply. In April 1877, the poet’s last book, “Last Songs,” was published. Nikolai Alekseevich feels that his muse is weakening.

December 27, 1877 at 8:50 pm N.A. Nekrasov died. About four thousand people followed the poet’s coffin on December 30.

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. Born on November 28 (December 10), 1821 in Nemirov, Podolsk province - died on December 27, 1877 (January 8, 1878) in St. Petersburg. Russian poet, writer and publicist, classic of Russian literature. From 1847 to 1866 - head of the literary and socio-political magazine Sovremennik, from 1868 - editor of the magazine Otechestvennye zapiski.

He is best known for such works as the epic poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” the poems “Frost, Red Nose,” “Russian Women,” and the poem “Grandfather Mazai and the Hares.” His poems were devoted mainly to the suffering of the people, the idyll and tragedy of the peasantry. Nekrasov introduced the richness of the folk language and folklore into Russian poetry, making extensive use of prosaisms and speech patterns of the common people in his works - from everyday to journalistic, from vernacular to poetic vocabulary, from oratorical to parody-satirical style. Using colloquial speech and folk phraseology, he significantly expanded the range of Russian poetry. Nekrasov was the first to decide on a bold combination of elegiac, lyrical and satirical motives within one poem, which had not been practiced before. His poetry had a beneficial influence on the subsequent development of Russian classical and later Soviet poetry.

Nikolai Nekrasov came from a noble, once rich family from the Yaroslavl province. Born in the Vinnitsa district of the Podolsk province in the city of Nemirov. There at that time the regiment in which his father served, lieutenant and wealthy landowner Alexei Sergeevich Nekrasov (1788-1862), was quartered. The Nekrasov family weakness did not escape him - the love of cards ( Sergei Alekseevich Nekrasov (1746-1807), the poet’s grandfather, lost almost his entire fortune at cards).

Alexei Sergeevich fell in love with Elena Andreevna Zakrevskaya (1801-1841), the beautiful and educated daughter of a wealthy possessor of the Kherson province, whom the poet considered Polish. Elena Zakrevskaya's parents did not agree to marry their well-bred daughter to a poor and poorly educated army officer, which forced Elena to marry without the consent of her parents in 1817. However, this marriage was not happy.

Remembering his childhood, the poet always spoke of his mother as a sufferer, a victim of a rough and depraved environment. He dedicated a number of poems to his mother - “Last Songs”, the poem “Mother”, “Knight for an Hour”, in which he painted a bright image of the one who brightened up the unattractive environment of his childhood with her nobility. Warm memories of his mother affected Nekrasov’s work, appearing in his works about women’s lot. The very idea of ​​motherhood will appear later in his textbook works - the chapter “Peasant Woman” in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, the poem “Orina, the Soldier’s Mother”. The image of the mother is the main positive hero of Nekrasov’s poetic world. However, his poetry will also contain images of other relatives - his father and sister. The father will act as the despot of the family, an unbridled savage landowner. And a sister, on the contrary, is like a gentle friend, whose fate is similar to the fate of a mother. However, these images will not be as bright as the image of the mother.

Nekrasov spent his childhood on the Nekrasov family estate, in the village of Greshnevo, Yaroslavl province, in the district where his father Alexey Sergeevich Nekrasov, having retired, moved when Nikolai was 3 years old.

The boy grew up in a huge family (Nekrasov had 13 brothers and sisters), in a difficult situation of his father’s brutal reprisals against peasants, his stormy orgies with serf mistresses and a cruel attitude towards his “recluse” wife, the mother of the future poet. Neglected cases and a number of processes on the estate forced Nekrasov’s father to take the place of police officer. During his travels, he often took little Nikolai with him, and, while still a child, he often had the opportunity to see the dead, collecting arrears, etc., which became embedded in his soul in the form of sad pictures of people’s grief.

In 1832, at the age of 11, Nekrasov entered the Yaroslavl gymnasium, where he reached the 5th grade. He did not study well and did not get along very well with the gymnasium authorities (partly because of the satirical poems). At the Yaroslavl gymnasium, a 16-year-old boy began to write down his first poems in his home notebook. In his initial work one could trace the sad impressions of his early years, which to one degree or another colored the first period of his work.

His father always dreamed of a military career for his son, and in 1838, 17-year-old Nekrasov went to St. Petersburg to be assigned to a noble regiment.

However, Nekrasov met a gymnasium friend, a student of Glushitsky, and became acquainted with other students, after which he developed a passionate desire to study. He ignored his father's threat to be left without any financial assistance and began to prepare for the entrance exam to St. Petersburg University. However, he failed the exam and entered the Faculty of Philology as a volunteer student.

From 1839 to 1841 he spent time at the university, but almost all of his time was spent searching for income, since his angry father stopped providing him with financial support. During these years, Nikolai Nekrasov suffered terrible poverty, not every day even having the opportunity to have a full lunch. He didn't always have an apartment either. For some time he rented a room from a soldier, but somehow he fell ill from prolonged starvation, owed the soldier a lot and, despite the November night, was left homeless. On the street, a passing beggar took pity on him and took him to one of the slums on the outskirts of the city. In this shelter, Nekrasov found a part-time job by writing to someone for 15 kopecks. petition. The terrible need only strengthened his character.

After several years of hardship, Nekrasov’s life began to improve. He began giving lessons and publishing short articles in the “Literary Supplement to the Russian Invalid” and the Literary Gazette. In addition, he composed ABCs and fairy tales in verse for popular print publishers, and wrote vaudevilles for the Alexandrinsky Theater (under the name of Perepelsky). Nekrasov became interested in literature. For several years he worked diligently on prose, poetry, vaudeville, journalism, criticism (“Lord, how much I worked!..”) - until the mid-1840s. His early poetry and prose were marked by romantic imitation and in many ways prepared further development Nekrasov's realistic method.

He began to have his own savings, and in 1840, with the support of some St. Petersburg acquaintances, he published a book of his poems entitled “Dreams and Sounds.” In the poems one could notice the imitation of Vasily Zhukovsky, Vladimir Benediktov and others. The collection consisted of pseudo-romantic imitative ballads with various “scary” titles like “Evil Spirit”, “Angel of Death”, “Raven”, etc.

Nekrasov took the book he was preparing to V.A. Zhukovsky to get his opinion. He singled out 2 poems as decent, the rest advised the young poet to publish without a name: “Later you will write better, and you will be ashamed of these poems.” Nekrasov hid behind the initials “N. N."

Literary critic Nikolai Polevoy praised the debutant, while critic V.G. Belinsky in “Notes of the Fatherland” spoke disparagingly about the book. The book of the aspiring poet “Dreams and Sounds” was not sold out at all, and this had such an effect on Nekrasov that he, like (who at one time bought up and destroyed “Hanz Küchelgarten”), also began to buy up and destroy “Dreams and Sounds”, which therefore became the greatest bibliographic rarity (they were not included in Nekrasov’s collected works).

Nevertheless, with all the severity of his opinion, in his review of the collection “Dreams and Sounds” he mentioned the poems as “coming from the soul.” However, the failure of his poetic debut was obvious, and Nekrasov tried his hand at prose. His early stories and short stories reflected his own life experience and his first impressions in St. Petersburg. In these works there are young commoners, hungry poets, officials living in need, poor girls deceived by the capital's bigwigs, moneylenders profiting from the needs of the poor. Despite the fact that his artistic skill was still imperfect, Nekrasov’s early prose can be safely attributed to the realistic school of the 1840s, led by Belinsky and Gogol.

Soon he turned to humorous genres: such were the joke poem “Provincial Clerk in St. Petersburg”, the vaudeville “Feoktist Onufrievich Bob”, “This is what it means to fall in love with an actress”, the melodrama “A Mother’s Blessing, or Poverty and Honor”, ​​the story of petty Petersburg officials "Makar Osipovich Random" and others.

In the early 1840s, Nekrasov became an employee of Otechestvennye Zapiski, starting work in the bibliographic department. In 1842, Nekrasov became close to Belinsky’s circle, who became closely acquainted with him and highly appreciated the merits of his mind. Belinsky believed that in the field of prose Nekrasov would not become anything more than an ordinary magazine employee, but he enthusiastically approved his poem “On the Road.” It was Belinsky who had a strong ideological influence on Nekrasov.

Soon Nekrasov began to actively engage in publishing activities. He published a number of almanacs: “Articles in verse without pictures” (1843), “Physiology of St. Petersburg” (1845), “April 1” (1846), “Petersburg Collection” (1846), in which D. V. Grigorovich made his debut , speakers I. S. Turgenev, A. N. Maikov. The “Petersburg Collection”, in which Dostoevsky’s “Poor People” were published, was a great success.

A special place in early work Nekrasov takes the novel from modern life of that period, known as “The Life and Adventures of Tikhon Trostnikov.” The novel was begun in 1843 and was created on the threshold of the writer’s creative maturity, which was manifested both in the style of the novel and in the content itself. This is most noticeable in the chapter “Petersburg Corners”, which can be considered as an independent story of an essay nature and one of the best works of the “natural school”. It was this story that Nekrasov published separately (in the almanac “Physiology of St. Petersburg”, 1845). She was highly appreciated by Belinsky in his review of this almanac.

Nekrasov's publishing business was so successful that at the end of 1846 - January 1847, he, together with the writer and journalist Ivan Panaev, leased a magazine from P. A. Pletnev "Contemporary", founded by Alexander Pushkin. The literary youth, who created the main force of “Notes of the Fatherland,” left Kraevsky and joined Nekrasov.

Belinsky also moved to Sovremennik; he transferred to Nekrasov part of the material that he had collected for the collection “Leviathan” he had planned. Nevertheless, Belinsky was at Sovremennik at the level of the same ordinary journalist as Kraevsky had previously been. And Nekrasov was subsequently reproached for this, since it was Belinsky who most contributed to the fact that the main representatives of the literary movement of the 1840s moved from Otechestvennye Zapiski to Sovremennik.

Nekrasov, like Belinsky, became a successful discoverer of new talents. Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Herzen, Nikolai Ogarev, Dmitry Grigorovich found their fame and recognition on the pages of the Sovremennik magazine. Alexander Ostrovsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Gleb Uspensky were published in the magazine. Nikolai Nekrasov introduced Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy into Russian literature. Also published in the magazine were Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Nikolai Dobrolyubov, who soon became the ideological leaders of Sovremennik.

From the first years of publication of the magazine under his leadership, Nekrasov was not only its inspirer and editor, but also one of the main authors. His poems, prose, and criticism were published here. During the “dark seven years” of 1848-1855, the government of Nicholas I, frightened by the French Revolution, began to persecute advanced journalism and literature. Nekrasov, as the editor of Sovremennik, in this difficult time for freethinking in literature, managed, at the cost of enormous efforts, despite the constant struggle with censorship, to preserve the reputation of the magazine. Although it was impossible not to note that the content of the magazine had noticeably faded.

The printing of long adventure novels “Three Countries of the World” and “Dead Lake”, written by Nikolai Nekrasov in collaboration with Stanitsky (pseudonym of Golovacheva-Panaeva), begins. With the chapters of these long novels, Nekrasov covered the gaps that formed in the magazine due to censorship restrictions.

Around the mid-1850s, Nekrasov became seriously ill with a throat disease, but his stay in Italy alleviated his condition. Nekrasov's recovery coincided with the beginning of a new period in Russian life. A happy time has also come in his work - he is being nominated to the forefront of Russian literature.

However, this period could not be called easy. The class contradictions that aggravated at that time were also reflected in the magazine: the editors of Sovremennik found themselves split into two groups, one of which, led by Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy and Vasily Botkin, who advocated for moderate realism and the aesthetic “Pushkin” principle in literature , represented the liberal nobility. They were counterbalanced by adherents of satirical “Gogolian” literature, promoted by the democratic part of the Russian “natural school” of the 1840s. In the early 1860s, the confrontation between these two trends in the journal reached its utmost intensity. In the split that occurred, Nekrasov supported the “revolutionary commoners”, the ideologists of “peasant democracy”. During this difficult period of the highest political upsurge in the country, the poet created such works as “The Poet and the Citizen” (1856), “Reflections at the Main Entrance” (1858) and “The Railway” (1864).

In the early 1860s, Dobrolyubov died, Chernyshevsky and Mikhailov were exiled to Siberia. All this was a blow for Nekrasov. The era of student unrest, riots of “liberated from the land” peasants and the Polish uprising began. During this period, the “first warning” was announced to Nekrasov’s magazine. The publication of Sovremennik was suspended, and in 1866, after Dmitry Karakozov shot the Russian Emperor, the magazine closed forever. Nekrasov, over the years of his leadership of the magazine, managed to transform it into the main literary magazine and a profitable enterprise, despite constant persecution by censors.

After the closure of the magazine, Nekrasov became close to the publisher Andrei Kraevsky and two years after the closure of Sovremennik, in 1868, he rented Otechestvennye zapiski from Kraevsky, making them a militant organ of revolutionary populism and turning them together into an organ of advanced democratic thought.

In 1858, N. A. Dobrolyubov and N. A. Nekrasov founded a satirical supplement to the Sovremennik magazine - “Whistle”. The author of the idea was Nekrasov himself, and Dobrolyubov became the main employee of “Svistok”. The first two issues of the magazine (published in January and April 1859) were compiled by Dobrolyubov, while Nekrasov began active collaboration from the third issue (October 1859). By this time, he was no longer just an employee, but was involved in organizing and editing the issue. Nekrasov also published his poems and notes in the magazine.

At all stages of the development of Nekrasov’s work, one of the most important places in it was occupied by satire, a tendency towards which began to emerge back in the 1840s. This craving for a sharply critical depiction of reality led in the 1860-1870s to the appearance of a whole series of satirical works. The poet created new genres, he wrote poetic pamphlets, review poems, and pondered a cycle of “club” satires.

He succeeded in the art of social revelations, skillful and subtle description of the most pressing issues. At the same time, he did not forget about the lyrical beginning, he knew how to easily move from soulful intonations to the techniques of a prickly poetic feuilleton, often even close to a vaudeville style. All these subtleties of his work predetermined the emergence of a new type of satire, which had not yet existed in Russian literature before him. Thus, in his great satirical poem “Contemporaries” (1875), Nekrasov skillfully alternates the techniques of farce and grotesque, irony and sarcasm. In it, the poet, with all his talent, brought down the force of his indignation against the growing strength of the Russian bourgeoisie. According to the literary critic V.V. Zhdanov, Nekrasov’s satirical review poem “Contemporaries” in the history of Russian literature stands next to Shchedrin’s accusatory prose. Saltykov-Shchedrin himself spoke positively about the poem, which struck him with its strength and truth.

However main job Nekrasov’s epic peasant poem-symphony “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, which was based on the poet’s thought, which relentlessly haunted him in the post-reform years: “The people are liberated, but are the people happy?” This epic poem absorbed all his spiritual experience. This is the experience of a subtle connoisseur folk life and folk speech. The poem became, as it were, the result of his long thoughts about the situation and fate of the peasantry, ruined by this reform.

At the beginning of 1875, Nekrasov became seriously ill. Doctors discovered he had intestinal cancer, an incurable disease that left him bedridden for the next two years. During this time, his life turned into a slow agony. Nekrasov was operated on by surgeon Billroth, who specially arrived from Vienna, but the operation only slightly extended his life. News of the poet's fatal illness significantly increased his popularity. Letters and telegrams began to arrive to him in large quantities from all over Russia. The support greatly helped the poet in his terrible torment and inspired him to further creativity.

During this difficult time for himself, he writes “Last Songs,” which, due to the sincerity of his feelings, are considered one of his best creations. IN last years the consciousness of its significance in the history of the Russian word clearly emerged in his soul. Thus, in the lullaby “Bayu-Bayu,” death tells him: “do not be afraid of bitter oblivion: I already hold in my hand the crown of love, the crown of forgiveness, the gift of your meek homeland... The stubborn darkness will yield to the light, you will hear your song over the Volga, over the Oka, over the Kama, bye-bye-bye-bye!..”

In “A Writer’s Diary,” Dostoevsky wrote: “I saw him for the last time a month before his death. He seemed almost like a corpse then, so it was strange to even see such a corpse talking and moving his lips. But he not only spoke, but also retained all the clarity of his mind. It seems that he still did not believe in the possibility of imminent death. A week before his death, he suffered from paralysis on the right side of his body.”

A huge number of people came to see the poet off on his final journey. His funeral became the first time a nation paid its last respects to the writer. The farewell to the poet began at 9 a.m. and was accompanied by a literary and political demonstration. Despite the severe frost, a crowd of several thousand people, mostly young people, escorted the poet’s body to his eternal resting place at the St. Petersburg Novodevichy Cemetery.

The youth did not even allow Dostoevsky, who spoke at the funeral itself, to speak, who assigned Nekrasov (with some reservations) third place in Russian poetry after Pushkin and Lermontov, interrupting him with shouts of “Yes, higher, higher than Pushkin!” This dispute then went into print: some supported the opinion of young enthusiasts, the other part pointed out that Pushkin and Lermontov were spokesmen for the entire Russian society, and Nekrasov - only the “circle”. There were still others who indignantly rejected the very idea of ​​a parallel between the creativity that brought Russian verse to the pinnacle of artistic perfection, and the “clumsy” verse of Nekrasov, which, in their opinion, was devoid of any artistic significance.

Representatives of “Land and Freedom” took part in the burial of Nekrasov, as well as other revolutionary organizations, who laid a wreath with the inscription “From the Socialists” on the poet’s coffin.

Personal life of Nikolai Nekrasov:

The personal life of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov was not always successful. In 1842, at a poetry evening, he met Avdotya Panaeva (ur. Bryanskaya) - the wife of the writer Ivan Panaev. Avdotya Panaeva, an attractive brunette, was considered one of the most beautiful women Petersburg at that time. In addition, she was smart and was the owner of a literary salon, which met in the house of her husband Ivan Panaev. Her own literary talent attracted the young but already popular Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Turgenev, Belinsky to the circle in the Panayevs’ house. Her husband, the writer Panaev, was characterized as a rake and a reveler. Despite this, his wife was distinguished by her decency, and Nekrasov had to make considerable efforts to attract the attention of this woman. Fyodor Dostoevsky was also in love with Avdotya, but he failed to achieve reciprocity. At first, Panaeva also rejected twenty-six-year-old Nekrasov, who was also in love with her, which is why he almost committed suicide.

During one of the trips of the Panaevs and Nekrasov to the Kazan province, Avdotya and Nikolai Alekseevich nevertheless confessed their feelings to each other. Upon their return, they began to live in a civil marriage in the Panaevs’ apartment, together with Avdotya’s legal husband, Ivan Panaev. This union lasted almost 16 years, until Panaev’s death.

All this caused public condemnation - they said about Nekrasov that he lives in someone else’s house, loves someone else’s wife and at the same time makes scenes of jealousy for his legal husband. During this period, even many friends turned away from him. But, despite this, Nekrasov and Panaeva were happy. Nekrasov created one of his best poetic cycles - the so-called “Panaevsky cycle” (they wrote and edited much of this cycle together). The co-authorship of Nekrasov and Stanitsky (pseudonym of Avdotya Yakovlevna) belongs to several novels that have had great success. Despite such an unconventional lifestyle, this trio remained like-minded people and comrades-in-arms in the revival and establishment of the Sovremennik magazine.

In 1849, Avdotya Yakovlevna gave birth to a boy from Nekrasov, but he did not live long. At this time, Nekrasov himself fell ill. It is believed that it was with the death of the child that strong attacks of anger and mood swings were associated, which later led to a break in their relationship with Avdotya. In 1862, Ivan Panaev died, and soon Avdotya Panaeva left Nekrasov. However, Nekrasov remembered her until the end of his life and, when drawing up his will, mentioned her in it.

In May 1864, Nekrasov went on a trip abroad, which lasted about three months. He lived mainly in Paris with his companions - his sister Anna Alekseevna and the Frenchwoman Selina Lefresne, whom he met back in St. Petersburg in 1863.

Selina was an actress of a French troupe performing at the Mikhailovsky Theater. She was distinguished by her lively disposition and easy character. Selina spent the summer of 1866 in Karabikha, and in the spring of 1867 she went abroad, as before, together with Nekrasov and his sister Anna. However, this time she never returned to Russia. This did not interrupt their relationship - in 1869 they met in Paris and spent the whole of August by the sea in Dieppe. Nekrasov was very pleased with this trip, also improving his health. During the rest, he felt happy, the reason for which was Selina, who was to his liking, although her attitude towards him was even and even a little dry. Having returned, Nekrasov did not forget Selina for a long time and helped her. And in his dying will he assigned her ten and a half thousand rubles.

Later, Nekrasov met a village girl, Fyokla Anisimovna Viktorova, simple and uneducated. She was 23 years old, he was already 48. The writer took her to theaters, concerts and exhibitions to fill the gaps in her upbringing. Nikolai Alekseevich came up with her name - Zina. So Fyokla Anisimovna began to be called Zinaida Nikolaevna. She learned Nekrasov's poems by heart and admired him. Soon they got married. However, Nekrasov still yearned for his former love - Avdotya Panaeva - and at the same time loved both Zinaida and the Frenchwoman Selina Lefren, with whom he had an affair abroad. He dedicated one of his most famous poetic works, “Three Elegies,” only to Panaeva.

Should also be mentioned about Nekrasov’s passion for playing cards, which can be called the hereditary passion of his family, starting with Nikolai Nekrasov’s great-grandfather, Yakov Ivanovich, an “immensely rich” Ryazan landowner who quickly lost his wealth.

However, he again became rich quite quickly - at one time Yakov was a governor in Siberia. As a result of his passion for the game, his son Alexei inherited only the Ryazan estate. Having married, he received the village of Greshnevo as a dowry. But his son, Sergei Alekseevich, having mortgaged Yaroslavl Greshnevo for a period of time, lost him too. Alexey Sergeevich, when telling his son Nikolai, the future poet, his glorious pedigree, summarized: “Our ancestors were rich. Your great-great-grandfather lost seven thousand souls, your great-grandfather - two, your grandfather (my father) - one, I - nothing, because there was nothing to lose, but I also like to play cards.” And only Nikolai Alekseevich was the first to change his fate. He also loved to play cards, but became the first to not lose. At a time when his ancestors were losing, he alone won back and won back a lot. The count was in the hundreds of thousands. So, Adjutant General Alexander Vladimirovich Adlerberg, famous statesman, Minister of the Imperial Court and personal friend of Emperor Alexander II. And Finance Minister Alexander Ageevich Abaza lost more than a million francs to Nekrasov. Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov managed to return Greshnevo, where he spent his childhood and which was taken away for his grandfather’s debt.

Another hobby of Nekrasov, also passed on to him from his father, was hunting. The hound hunt, which was served by two dozen dogs, greyhounds, hounds, hounds and stirrups, was the pride of Alexei Sergeevich. The poet's father forgave his son long ago and, not without glee, followed his creative and financial successes. And the son, until his father’s death (in 1862), came to see him in Greshnevo every year. Nekrasov dedicated funny poems to dog hunting and even the poem of the same name “Dog Hunt”, glorifying the prowess, scope, beauty of Russia and the Russian soul. In adulthood, Nekrasov even became addicted to bear hunting (“It’s fun to beat you, honorable bears...”). Avdotya Panaeva recalled that when Nekrasov was going to hunt the bear, there were large gatherings - expensive wines, snacks and just provisions were brought. They even took a cook with them. In March 1865, Nekrasov managed to catch three bears in one day. He valued the male bear-hunters and dedicated poems to them - Savushka (“who sank on the forty-first bear”) from “In the Village,” Savely from “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” The poet also loved to hunt game. His passion for walking through the swamp with a gun was limitless. Sometimes he went hunting at sunrise and returned only at midnight.

He also went hunting with the “first hunter of Russia” Ivan Turgenev, with whom they had been friends for a long time and corresponded. Nekrasov, in his last message to Turgenev abroad, even asked him to buy him a Lancaster gun in London or Paris for 500 rubles. However, their correspondence was destined to be interrupted in 1861. Turgenev did not answer the letter and did not buy a gun, and their long-term friendship was put to an end. And the reason for this was not ideological or literary differences. Nekrasov's common-law wife Avdotya Panaeva got involved in an inheritance dispute ex-wife poet Nikolai Ogarev. The court awarded Panaeva a claim for 50 thousand rubles. Nekrasov paid this amount, preserving the honor of Avdotya Yakovlevna, but thereby his own reputation was shaken. Turgenev found out from Ogarev himself in London all the intricacies of the dark matter, after which he broke all relations with Nekrasov.

Nekrasov the publisher also broke up with some other old friends - L. N. Tolstoy, A. N. Ostrovsky. At this time, he switched to the new democratic wave emanating from the camp of Chernyshevsky - Dobrolyubov. Fyokla Anisimovna, who became his late muse in 1870, and was named Zinaida Nikolaevna by Nekrasov in a noble manner, also became addicted to her husband’s hobby, hunting. She even saddled the horse herself and went hunting with him in a tailcoat and tight trousers, with a Zimmerman on her head. All this delighted Nekrasov. But one day, while hunting in the Chudovsky swamp, Zinaida Nikolaevna accidentally shot Nekrasov’s beloved dog, a black pointer named Kado. After this, Nekrasov, who devoted 43 years of his life to hunting, hung up his gun forever.

Bibliography of Nikolai Nekrasov:

Poems by Nikolai Nekrasov:

The grief of old Nahum
Grandfather
Wax cabinet
Who can live well in Rus'?
Peddlers
Peasant children
Frost, Red Nose (poem dedicated by the poet to his sister Anna)
On the Volga
Recent time
About the weather (Street impressions)
Russian women
Knight for an hour
Contemporaries
Sasha
Court
Silence

Plays by Nikolai Nekrasov:

Actor
Rejected
Bear hunt
Theoklist Onufrich Bob, or the husband is out of his element
Lomonosov's youth

Tales of Nikolai Nekrasov:

Baba Yaga, Bone Leg

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov was born in 1821 in the Podolsk province (Ukraine), where at that time his father was stationed. The poet's mother was Polish Elena Zakrevskaya. Subsequently, he created an almost religious cult of her memory, but the poetic and romantic biography with which he endowed her was almost entirely a figment of the imagination, and his filial feelings during her life did not go beyond the ordinary. Soon after the birth of his son, the father retired and settled on his small estate in the Yaroslavl province. He was an uncouth and ignorant landowner - a hunter, a petty tyrant, a rude man and a tyrant. From an early age, Nekrasov could not stand his father’s house. This made him declassed, although until his death he retained many of the traits of a middle-class landowner, in particular, a love of hunting and large card games.

Portrait of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. Artist N. Ge, 1872

At the age of seventeen, against his father’s will, he left his home and went to St. Petersburg, where he enrolled as an external student at the university, but due to lack of money he was soon forced to stop studying. Receiving no support from home, he turned into a proletarian and lived from hand to mouth for several years. In 1840, he published his first collection of poems, in which nothing foreshadowed his future greatness. Belinsky subjected these verses to severe criticism. Then Nekrasov took up daily work - literary and theatrical -, took on publishing enterprises and proved himself to be a smart businessman.

By 1845 he had found his feet and was in fact the main publisher of the young literary school. Several literary almanacs he published had significant commercial success. Among them was the famous Petersburg collection, who first published Poor people Dostoevsky, as well as several mature poems by Nekrasov himself. He became a close friend of Belinsky, who admired his new poems no less than he was indignant at the collection of 1840. After Belinsky’s death, Nekrasov created a real cult of him, similar to the one he created for his mother.

In 1846 Nekrasov acquired from Pletneva former Pushkin Contemporary, and from a decaying relic, which this publication became in the hands of the remnants of the former “aristocratic” writers, it turned into a remarkably profitable business and the most vibrant literary magazine in Russia. Contemporary survived the difficult times of the Nikolaev reaction and in 1856 became the main organ of the extreme left. It was banned in 1866 after the first attempt on the life of Alexander II. But two years later, Nekrasov, together with Saltykov-Shchedrin, bought Domestic Notes and thus remained editor and publisher of the leading radical journal until his death. Nekrasov was a brilliant editor: his ability to get the most the best literature and the best people who wrote on the topic of the day bordered on the miraculous. But as a publisher he was an entrepreneur - unscrupulous, tough and greedy. Like all entrepreneurs of that time, he did not pay his employees extra, taking advantage of their selflessness. His personal life also did not meet the requirements of radical Puritanism. He always played big cards. Spent a lot of money on his table and his mistresses. He was no stranger to snobbery and loved the company of superior people. All this, according to many contemporaries, was not in harmony with the “humane” and democratic character of his poetry. But his cowardly behavior on the eve of closing especially turned everyone against him. Contemporary, when, to save himself and his magazine, he composed and read publicly a poem glorifying Count Muravyov, the firmest and most decisive “reactionary”.

Lyrics by Nekrasov. Video tutorial

Born November 28 (December 10) 1821. in Ukraine in the town of Nemirov, Podolsk province, in the noble family of retired lieutenant Alexei Sergeevich and Elena Andreevna Nekrasov.

1824–1832– life in the village of Greshnevo, Yaroslavl province

1838- leaves his father’s estate Greshnevo in order to, by his will, enter the St. Petersburg noble regiment, but, contrary to his wishes, decides to enter St. Petersburg University. His father deprives him of his livelihood.

1840- the first imitative collection of poems "Dreams and Sounds".

1843– acquaintance with V. G. Belinsky.

1845- poem "On the Road". Enthusiastic review by V.G. Belinsky.

1845–1846– publisher of two collections of writers of the natural school – “Physiology of St. Petersburg” and “Petersburg Collection”.

1847–1865– editor and publisher of the Sovremennik magazine.

1853– cycle “Last Elegies”.

1856– the first collection of “Poems by N. Nekrasov”.

1861- poem "Peddlers". Release of the second edition of "Poems by N. Nekrasov".

1862– poem “Knight for an Hour”, poems “Green Noise”, “Village suffering is in full swing”.
Acquisition of the Karabikha estate near Yaroslavl.

1868– publication of the first issue of N.A. Nekrasov’s new magazine “Notes of the Fatherland” with the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.”

1868 –1877– together with M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, edits the journal “Domestic Notes”.

1869 - appearance in No. 1 and No. 2 of "Notes of the Fatherland" of the "Prologue" and the first three chapters of "Who Lives Well in Rus'."
Second trip abroad. Involving V. A. Zaitsev in cooperation with Otechestvennye zapiski.

1870 - rapprochement with Fekla Anisimovna Viktorova, the future wife of the poet (Zina).
In No. 2 of "Notes of the Fatherland" chapters IV and V of the poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" are published, and in No. 9 - the poem "Grandfather" with a dedication to Zinaida Nikolaevna.

1875 – election of Nekrasov as a fellow chairman of the Literary Fund. Work on the poem "Contemporaries", the appearance of the first part ("Anniversaries and Triumphants") in No. 8 of "Notes of the Fatherland". The beginning of the last illness.

1876 – work on the fourth part of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”.
Poems “To the Sowers”, “Prayer”, “Soon I will become prey to decay”, “Zine”.

1877 – at the beginning of April – the book “Last Songs” will be published.
April 4 – wedding at home with Zinaida Nikolaevna.
April 12 – surgery.
Beginning of June - meeting with Turgenev.
In August - a farewell letter from Chernyshevsky.
December - latest poems(“Oh, Muse! I’m at the door of the coffin”).
Died December 27, 1877 (January 8 1878- according to the new style) in St. Petersburg. He was buried in the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent.