Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin | |
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Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin (Russian: Михаи́л Евгра́фович Салтыко́в-Щедри́н, IPA:
Biography
Mikhail Saltykov was born on 27 January
Saltykov's mother was an heir to a rich Moscow merchant of the 1st level guild Mikhail Petrovich Zabelin whose ancestors belonged to the so-called trading peasants[5] and who was granted hereditary nobility for his handsome donation to the army needs in 1812; his wife Marfa Ivanovna Zabelina also came from wealthy Moscow merchants.[6][7] At the time of Mikhail Saltykov's birth, Yevgraf was fifty years old, while Olga was twenty five.[8] Mikhail spent his early years on his parents' large estate in Spasskoye on the border of the Tver and Yaroslavl governorates, in the Poshekhonye region.[9]
"In my childhood and teenage years I witnessed serfdom at its worst. It saturated all strata of social life, not just the landlords and the enslaved masses, degrading all classes, privileged or otherwise, with its atmosphere of a total lack of rights, when fraud and trickery were the order of the day, and there was an all-pervading fear of being crushed and destroyed at any moment,"[6] he remembered, speaking through one of the characters of his later novel Old Years in Poshekhonye.[9] Life in the Saltykov family was equally difficult. Dominating the weak, religious father was despotic mother whose intimidating persona horrified the servants and her own children. This atmosphere was later recreated in Shchedrin's novel The Golovlyov Family, and the idea of "the devastating effect of legalized slavery upon the human psyche" would become one of the prominent motifs of his prose. Olga Mikhaylovna, though, was a woman of many talents; having perceived some in Mikhail, she treated him as her favorite.[8]
The Saltykovs often quarreled; they gave their children neither love nor care and Mikhail, despite enjoying relative freedom in the house, remembered feeling lonely and neglected. Another thing Saltykov later regretted was his having been completely shut out from nature in his early years: the children lived in the main house and were rarely allowed to go out, knowing their "animals and birds only as boiled and fried." Characteristically, there were few descriptions of nature in the author's works.[10]
Education
Mikhail's early education was desultory, but, being an extraordinarily perceptive boy, by the age of six he spoke French and German fluently. He was taught to read and write Russian by the
At the age of ten Saltykov joined the third class of the Moscow Institute for sons of the nobility (Dvoryansky institute), skipping the first two classes, where he studied until 1838. He then enrolled in the
While at the lyceum Saltykov started writing poetry and translated works from
Upon graduating the Lyceum in 1844, Saltykov, who was one of the best students, was promoted directly to the chancellery of the Ministry of Defense. This success upset Mikhail, as it ended his dream of attending
Literary career
In 1847 Saltykov debuted with his first novella Contradictions (under the pseudonym M.Nepanov), the title referring to the piece's main motif: the contrast between one's noble ideals and the horrors of real life. It was followed by A Complicated Affair (1848), a
In his first few months of exile Saltykov was mainly occupied with copying official documents. Then he was made a special envoy of the Vyatka governor; his major duty in this capacity was making inquiries concerning brawls, cases of minor bribery, embezzlement and police misdoings. Saltykov made desperate attempts to break free from what he called his 'Vyatka captivity', but after each of his requests he received the standard reply: "would be premature." He became more and more aware of the possibility that he'd have to spend the rest of his life there.[9] "The very thought of that is so repellent that it makes by hair bristle," he complained in a letter to his brother.[15] It helped that the local elite treated Saltykov with great warmth and sympathy; he was made a welcome guest in many respectable houses, including that of vice-governor Boltin whose daughter Elizaveta Apollonovna later became Saltykov's wife.[10]
While in Vyatka Saltykov got carried away by the idea of radically improving the quality of education for young women and girls. There were no decent history textbooks at the time in Russia, so he decided to write one himself. Called A Brief History of Russia, it amounted to 40 handwritten pages of compact text compiled from numerous sources. He worked on it while on vacation in a village near Tver, sending it to Vyatka to be published as a series.[10]
As the numerous members of the Petrashevsky Circle were arrested in 1848, Saltykov got summoned to the capital to give evidence on his involvement in the group's activity. There he managed to convince the authorities that 'spreading harm' was not his intention and safely returned to Vyatka. In the summer of 1850 he became a councillor of the local government which implied long voyages through the province on official business, many of them having to do with issues concerning the Old Believers. As an investigator, he traveled throughout the Vyatka, Perm, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl governorates. In 1850 he became the organizer of the Vyatka agricultural exhibition, one of the largest in the country. All this provided Saltykov with priceless material for his future satires.[9]
Provincial Sketches
In 1855 Tzar
In 1857 The Russian Messenger published Pazukhin's Death, a play which was quite in tune with Provincial Sketches. The production of it was banned with characteristic verdict of censors: "Characters presented there are set to prove our society lies in the state of total moral devastation." Another of Saltykov's plays, Shadows (1862–1865), about careerism and immorality of bureaucracy, has been discovered in archives and published only in 1914, when it was premiered on stage too.[17]
Contrary to left radicals' attempt to draw Saltykov closer to their camp, "undermining the Empire's foundations" was not his aim at all and on his return to Saint Petersburg he was soon promoted to administrative posts of considerable importance. His belief was that "all honest men should help the government in defeating serfdom apologist still clinging to their rights." Huge literary success has never made him think of retiring from work in the government. Partly reasons for his return to the state service were practical. In 1856 Saltykov married Elizaveta Boltina, daughter of a Vyatka vice-governor and found, on the one hand, his mother's financial support curtailed, on the other, his own needs risen sharply. Up until 1858 Saltykov continued working in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Then after making a report on the condition of the Russian police, he was appointed deputy governor of Ryazan where later he's got a nickname "the vice-Robespierre".[11] On April 15, 1858, Saltykov arrived to Ryazan very informally, in an ordinary road carriage, which amazed the local 'society' for whom he'd been known already as Provincial Sketches' author. He settled in a small house, often visited people and received guests. Saltykov's primary goal was to teach local minor officials elementary grammar and he spent many late evenings proof-reading and re-writing their incongruous reports.[10] In 1862 Saltykov was transferred to Tver where he often performed governor's functions. Here Saltykov proved to be a zealous promoter of the 1861 reforms. He personally sued several landowners accusing them of cruel treatment of peasants.[10]
All the while his literary activities continued. In 1860-1862 he wrote and published (mostly, in Vremya magazine) numerous sketches and short stories, some later included into Innocent Stories (1857–1863) which demonstrated what Maxim Gorky later called a "talent for talking politics through domesticities" and Satires In Prose (1859–1862) where for the first time the author seemed to be quite vexed with the apathy of the oppressed.[11] "One is hardly to be expected to engage oneself in self-development when one's only thought revolves around just one wish: not to die of hunger," he later explained.[18] Many of Saltykov's articles on agrarian reforms were also written in those three years, mostly in Moskovskye Vedomosty, where his major opponent was journalist Vladimir Rzhevsky.[10]
Sovremennik
In 1862 Saltykov retired from the government service and came to Moscow with the view of founding his own magazine there. The Ministry of Education's Special committee under the chairmanship of Prince D.A.Obolensky gave him no such permission.[10] In the early 1863 Saltykov moved to Saint Petersburg to join Nekrasov's Sovremennik, greatly undermined by the death of Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky's arrest. In this magazine he published first sketches of the Pompadours cycle and got involved with Svistok (The Whistle), a satirical supplement, using pseudonyms N.Shchedrin, K.Turin and Mikhail Zmiev-Mladentsev.[10]
The series of articles entitled Our Social Life (1863–1864), examining “new tendencies in Russian
On the other front, Saltykov waged a war against the Dostoyevsky brothers’ Grazhdanin magazine. When Fyodor Dostoyevsky came out with the suggestion that with Dobrolyubov's death and Chernyshevsky's imprisonment the radical movement in Russia became lifeless and dogmatic, Saltykov labeled him and his fellow
Being dependent on his Sovremennik's meagre salaries, Saltykov was looking for work on the side and quarreled with Nekrasov a lot, promising to quit literature. According to
Finally the governor of Ryazan made an informal complaint which was accounted for by Count Shuvalov, the Chief of Staff of the Special Corps of Gendarmes, who issued a note stating that Saltykov, as a senior state official "promoted ideas contradicting the needs of maintaining law and order" and was "always in conflict with people of local governments, criticizing and even sabotaging their orders."[9] On July 14, 1868, Saltykov retired: thus the career of "one of the strangest officials in Russian history" ended. Years later, speaking to the historian M.Semevsky, Saltykov confessed he was trying to erase from memory years spent as a government official. But when his vis-a-vis argued that "only his thorough knowledge of every possible stage of the Russian bureaucratic hierarchy made him what he was," the writer had to agree.[20]
Otechestvennye Zapiski
On July 1, 1866, Sovremennik was closed. In the autumn Nekrasov approached the publisher Andrey Krayevsky and 'rented' Otechestvennye Zapiski. In September 1868 Saltykov joined the re-vamped team of the magazine as a head of the journalistic department. As in December 1874 Saltykov's health problems (triggered by severe cold he's caught at his mother's funeral) made him travel abroad for treatment, Nekrasov confessed in his April 1875 letter to Pavel Annenkov: "This journalism thing has always been tough for us and now it lies in tatters. Saltykov carried it all manly and bravely and we all tried our best to follow suit."[9] "This was the only magazine that had its own face… Most talented people were coming to Otechestvennye Zapiski as if it were their home. They trusted my taste and my common sense never to begrudge my editorial cuts. In "OZ" there were published weak things, but stupid things - never," he wrote in a letter to Pavel Annenkov on May 28, 1884.[11] In 1869 Saltykov's Signs of the Times and Letters About the Province came out, their general idea being that the reforms have failed and Russia remained the same country of absolute monarchy where peasant had no rights. "The bars have fallen but Russia's heart gave not a single twitch. Serfdom has been abolished, but landlords rejoiced," he wrote.[11]
In 1870
In 1873 came out The Tashkenters Clique (Господа Ташкентцы ;
Later years
The Well-Meant Speeches (Благонамеренные речи, 1876) featured characters belonging to new Russian bourgeoisie. On January 2, 1881, Saltykov wrote to the lawyer and author Yevgeny Utin: "I took a look at the family, the state, the property and found out that none of such things exist. And that those very principles for the sake of which freedoms have been granted, were not respected as principles any more, even by those who seemed to hold them." The Well-Meant Speeches initially contained several stories about the Golovlyov family. In 1880 Saltykov-Shchedrin extracted all of them to begin a separate book which evolved into his most famous novel, showing the stagnation of the land-based dvoryanstvo.[11] The Golovlyov Family (Господа Головлёвы, 1880; also translated as A Family of Noblemen), a crushingly gloomy study of the institution of the family as cornerstone of society, traced the moral and physical decline of three generations of a Russian gentry family.[21] Central to it was the figure of Porfiry 'Little Judas' Golovlyov, a character whose nickname (Iudushka, in Russian transcription) became synonymous with mindless hypocrisy and self-destructive egotism, leading to moral degradation and disintegration of personality.[9]
In the 1870s Saltykov sold his Moscow estate and bought the one near
In 1875-1885 Saltykov was often visiting Germany, Switzerland and France for medical treatment. The result of these recreational trips was the series of sketches called Abroad (За рубежом, 1880–1881), expressing skepticism about the Western veneer of respectability which hid underneath horrors similar to the ones that were open in Russia (the latter portrayed as The Boy Without Pants, as opposed to The Boy in Pants, symbolizing Europe). In 1882 Letters to Auntie (Письма к тётеньке), written in the atmosphere of tough censorship came out, a satire on the society in general and its cultural elite in particular (the 'auntie' in question).[9]
In 1883, now critically ill, Saltykov published Modern Idyll (Современная идиллия), the novel he started in 1877–1878, targeting those of intelligentsia who were eager to prove their loyalty to the authorities. The Poshekhonye Stories (Пошехонские рассказы, 1883), Motley Letters (Пёстрые письма, 1884) and Unfinished Talks (Недоконченные беседы, 1886) followed, but by this time Otechestvennye Zapiski were under increasing pressure from the censors, Shchedrin's prose being the latter's main target. The May 1874 issue with The Well-Meant Speeches has been destroyed, several other releases postponed for Saltykov's pieces to be excised. In 1874-1879 Otechestvennye Zapiski suffered 18 censorial sanctions, all having to do with Shchedrin's work, most of which (Well-Meant Speeches, Letters to Auntie, many fairytales) were banned. "It is despicable times that we are living through... and it takes a lot of strength not to give up," Saltykov wrote.[11]
The demise of Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1884 dealt Saltykov a heavy blow. "The possibility to talk with my readers has been taken away from me and this pain is stronger than any other," he complained.
Mikhail Evgraphovich Saltykov-Schedrin died of stroke in Saint Petersburg and was interred in the Volkovo Cemetery, next to Turgenev, according to his last wish.[8]
Legacy
Mikhail Bulgakov was among writers, influenced by Saltykov.
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin is regarded to be the most prominent satirist in the history of the Russian literature. According to critic and biographer Maria Goryachkina, he managed to compile "the satirical encyclopedia" of contemporary Russian life, targeting first serfdom with its degrading effect upon the society, then, after its abolition, - corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency, opportunistic tendencies in intelligentsia, greed and amorality of those at power, but also - apathy, meekness and social immobility of the common people of Russia. His satirical cycle Fables and the two major works, The History of a Town and The Golovlyov Family, are widely regarded as his masterpieces.[11] Maxim Gorky wrote in 1909: "The importance of his satire is immense, first for… its almost clairvoyant vision of the path the Russian society had to travel - from 1860s to nowadays."[11]
James Wood calls Shchedrin a precursor of Knut Hamsun and the modernists:
The closer Shchedrin gets close to Porphyry, the more unknowable he actually becomes. In this sense, Porphyry is a modernist prototype: the character who lacks an audience, the alienated actor. The hypocrite who does not know that he is one, and really be told that he is one by anyone around him, is something of a revolutionary type of character, for he has no "true" knowable self, no "stable" ego... Around the turn of the twentieth century, Knut Hamsun, a novelist strongly influenced by
Dostoevsky and the Russian novel, would invent a newkind of character: the lunatic heroes of his novels Hunger and Mysteries go around telling falsely incriminating stories about themselves and acting badly when they have no obvious reason to. <...> The line from Dostoevsky, through Shchedrin, and on to Hamsun, is visible.[26]
Saltykov-Shchedrin has been lavishly praised by Soviet critics as "the true revolutionary", but his mindset (as far as they were concerned) was not without a "fault", for he, according to Goryachkina, "failed to recognize the historically progressive role of capitalism and never understood the importance of the emerging proletariat". Karl Marx (who knew Russian and held Shchedrin in high esteem)[27][28] read Haven in Mon Repos (1878–1879) and was unimpressed. "The last section, 'Warnings', is weak and the author in general seems to be not very strong on positivity," he wrote.[11] Marx was also known reading other books by the author, namely The Gentlemen from Tashkent and Diary of a Provincial in St. Petersburg;[29] among the Russian authors that Marx read, he particularly valued Pushkin, Gogol and Shchedrin.[30]
Some contemporaries (
According to
Most works of Saltykov's later period were written in a language that the satirist himself called
Saltykov's style of writing, according to D.S.Mirsky, was based on the bad journalistic style of the period, which originated largely with
Saltykov-Schedrin was a controversial figure and often found himself a target of sharp criticism, mainly for his alleged 'lack of patriotism' and negativism. He's never seen himself a promoter of the latter and often proclaimed his belief in the strength of a common man, seeing the latter as holder of principles of real democracy.[11] In 1882, as he, feeling depressed by the critical response to his work, made rather a pessimistic assessment of his life in literature, Ivan Turgenev was quick to reassure him. "The writer who is most hated, is most loved, too. You'd have known none of this, had you remained M.E.Saltykov, a mere hereditary Russian aristocrat. But you are Saltykov-Schedrin, a writer who happened to draw a distinctive line in our literature: that's why you are either hated or loved, depending [on who reads you]. Such is the true 'outcome' of your life in literature, and you must be pleased with it."[9]
For all his insight and taste for detail, Saltykov was never keen on examining individual characters (even if he did create memorable ones). Admittedly, he was always more concerned with things general and typical, gauging social tendencies, collective urges and what he termed 'herd instincts in a modern man', often resorting to schemes and caricatures.[9]
In his later years Saltykov-Schedrin found himself to be a strong influence upon the radical youth of the time. In 1885–1886,
Selected works
Novels
- The History of a Town (История одного города, 1870)
- Ubezhishche Monrepo (Убежище Монрепо, 1879, Mon Repos Haven), not translated.
- The Golovlyov Family (Господа Головлёвы, 1880)
- Sovremennaya idilliya (Современная идиллия, 1883, Modern Idyll), not translated.
- Poshekhonskaya starina (Пошехонская старина, 1889, Old Years in Poshekhonye), not translated.
Stories and sketches
- Provincial Sketches (also: Tchinovnicks: Sketches Of Provincial Life, Губернские очерки, 1856)
- The Pompadours (also: Pompadours and Pompadouresses and Messieurs et Mesdames Pompadours, Помпадуры и Помпадурши, 1863–1874)
Other
- Pazukhin's Death (Смерть Пазухина, 1857, play)
- Fables (or Tales, Сказки для детей изрядного возраста, 1869–1886)
- The Story of How a Muzhik Fed Two Generals (The How a Muzhik Fed Two Officials, Повесть о том, как один мужик двух генералов прокормил, 1869)
English translations
- The Golovlyov Family
- The Gollovlev Family, Jarrold & Sons, 1910.
- A Family of Noblemen (The Gentlemen Golovliov), Boni & Liveright, 1917.
- The Golovlyov Family, Everyman's Library, J. M. Dent & Sons, 1934.
- The Golovlovs, The New American Library, 1961.
- The Golovlyov Family, ISBN 0140444904
- The Golovlyov Family, ISBN 146830156X
- The Gollovlev Family,
- The History of a Town
- The History of a Town, Willem A. Meeuws, ISBN 0902672398
- The History of a Town, or, The Chronicle of Foolov, ISBN 0882336118
- The History of a Town, Willem A. Meeuws,
- Fables
- Fables by Shchedrin, Chatto and Windus, 1931.
- Tales from M. Saltykov-Shchedrin, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1952.
- Fables by Shchedrin,
- Pazukhin's Death
- The Death of Pazukhin: A Play in Four Acts, Brentano's, 1924.
- Russian Comedy of the Nikolaian Era. Pazukhin's Death: A Comedy in Four Acts, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997. ISBN 9057020483
- Tchinovnicks: Sketches of Pronvincial Life (Selections from Gubernskie ocherki), 1861.
- The Village Priest and Other Stories from the Russian of Militsina & Saltikov, T. Fisher Unwin, 1918.
- The Pompadours: A Satire on the Art of Government, Ardis, 1982. ISBN 0882337432
- The Humour of Russia, London : W. Scott, 1895
- How the two Ivans quarrelled : and other Russian comic stories, Oneworld Classics, 2011.
References
- ^ Princes, Grafs and noble Saltykov families, Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1890–1907 (in Russian)
- ^ Saltyk, Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary. Volume 2, p. 551 (in Russian)
- ^ Velvet Book. Chapter 15, 142-143: Morozov and Saltykov families, Genealogia.ru (in Russian)
- ^ Saltykov coat of arms, All-Russian Armorials of Noble Houses of the Russian Empire, Part 7. October 4, 1803 (in Russian).
- ^ Zvenya: Collection of materials and documents on the history of literature, arts and public thought of the XIX century. Volume 8, Pushkin House's electronic publications, 1950, p. 479 (in Russian)
- ^ a b Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin (1975). Collection of Works in 20 Volumes. Volume 17. Leningrad: Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, p. 548, 9
- ^ Vladimir Saitov, Boris Modzalevskiy (1907). Moscow Necropolis. Volume 1. Saint Petersburg, p. 454 (in Russian)
- ^ a b c Konstantin Tyunkin (1989). "Saltykov-Shchedrin". Moscow: Molodaya Gvardiya Publishers. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Prozorov, V.V. (1990), Nikolayev, P.A. (ed.), "М.Е.Saltykov-Shchedrin", Russian Writers. Biobibliographical Dictionary, vol. 2, Moscow: Prosveshcheniye, retrieved 2012-03-01
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Krivenko, S.N. (1895). "Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. His Life and Writings". Florenty Pavlenkov’s Biographical Library. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Goryachkina, М.S. М.Е.Saltykov-Shchedrin. The Selected Works. Critical and biographical essay. Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publishers. Moscow. 1954, pp. 5–24
- ^ The Works of M.E.Saltykov-Shedrin in 20 Volumes. Moscow, 1975. Vol. 17. P.331
- ^ Saltykov-Shchedrin. "Abroad". rvb.ru /Thw Works. Vol.14. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ^ The Works of M.E.Saltykov-Shedrin in 20 Volumes. Moscow, 1975. Vol. 17. P.228
- ^ The Works of M.E.Saltykov-Shchedrin in 20 Volumes. Moscow, 1975. Vol. 1. P.111
- ^ Shevchenko, T.G. The Selected Works in 5 Volumes. Moscow, 1956. Vol.5 P. 120
- ^ Livshits, Lev. "Shadows. Foreword". www.levlivshits.org. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ^ Saltykov-Shchedrin, М.Е. "Satires in Prose". az.lib.ru. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ^ Dostoyevsky, F.М. (1864). "Mister Shchedrin or a Nihilism Schism (Gospodin Shchedrin ili raskol v nigilistakh)". Epoch magazine /az.lib.ru. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ^ М.Е.Saltykov-Shchedrin Remembered by Contemporaries. Vol.1 P. 184
- ^ a b "Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin". Gale Encyclopedia of Russian History. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ^ Saltykov-Shchedrin, M.E. (1985). "Pompadury i pompadurshi". Pravda Publishers. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ^ a b Korolenko, V.G. (1889). "About Shchedrin". The Works in 5 Volumes. Criticism and Memoirs. Ogonyok Library. Pravda Publishers, Moscow, 1953. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ^ Saltykov-Shchedrin, М.Е., Poshekhonskaya starina, Works in 20 Volumes, vol. 7, Moscow, p. 75, retrieved 2012-03-01
- ^ "Saltykov-Shchedrin, M.E., A Biography". Piplz. p. 2. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ^ James Wood. The Golovlyov Family Introduction
- ^ "Karl Marx. Brief Biography". www.webmechta.com. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ^ "The Golovlyov's Family. Its Genre Peculiarities". www.bestreferat.ru. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
- ^ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Karl_Marx_and_World_Literature/8GznDwAAQBAJ
- ^ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Soviet_Literature/QWZ9AAAAIAAJ
- ^ ISBN 0-8101-1679-0. Page 294.
- ^ Kovalevskaya, Sofia (1889). "М.Е.Saltykov (Shchedrin)". Stockholms Dagblad. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
External links
- Works by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin at Internet Archive
- Works by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- A Family of Noblemen (The Golovlyov Family) at the Internet Archive (translation by Avrahm Yarmolinsky)
- The Golovlyov Family at the Internet Archive (translation by Natalie Duddington)
- The Village Priest and Other Stories from the Russian of Militsina & Saltikov at the Internet Archive
- Tchinovnicks (Provincial Sketches) at Google books
- Grave of M.Saltykov