Thaddeus Bulgarin

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In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Venediktovich and the family name is Bulgarin.
Thaddeus Bulgarin

Thaddeus Bulgarin (Russian: Фаддей Венедиктович Булгарин, lit. 'Faddey Venediktovich Bulgarin'; 5 July [O.S. 24 June] 1789 – 13 September [O.S. 1 September] 1859), born Jan Tadeusz Krzysztof Bułharyn, was a Russian writer, journalist and publisher of Polish ancestry. In addition to his newspaper work, he rejuvenated the Russian novel, and published the first theatrical almanac in Russian. During his life, his novels were translated and published in English, French, German, Swedish, Polish, and Czech. He served as a soldier under Napoleon, and in later life as an agent of the Czar's secret police.[1] As a writer his self-imposed mission was to popularize the authoritarian policies of Alexander I and Nicholas I.[citation needed]

Life and career

Bulgarin was born in the

uprising of 1794 and was exiled to Siberia for killing the Russian general Voronov;[4] according to others, he was only suspected of participating in the liberation movement and was arrested in 1796, but released already at the beginning of 1797.[5]

Bulgarin's childhood passed on the estates of Makovishchi near

Nesvizh. From there, Bulgarin went with his mother as a child to Saint Petersburg, where he joined the cadet corps in 1798-1806.[3] While studying, he began to write fairy tales and satires.[3]
He knew Russian poorly and at first he studied with difficulty and was ridiculed by the cadets, but gradually took root in the corps, under the influence of the corps literary traditions he began to compose fables and satires, and subsequently wrote a very flattering review of his history teacher G. V. Gerakov.

Napoleonic Wars

In 1806, Bulgarin became a

Kingdom of Sweden.[3] For one of the satires on the chief of the regiment, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, he spent several months under arrest in the Kronstadt Fortress. He was sent to the Yamburg Dragoon Regiment, but did not get along here either. Due to some scandalous story on a "romantic lining", he was regarded poorly. For writing satires, he was discharged with the rank of lieutenant from the Imperial Russian Army in 1811.[3]

Having lost his service, Bulgarin finds himself without money, toils for some time, and then goes to the

Marshal Oudinot's II Corps. For his actions during the campaign of 1812, he was awarded the 5th Class Legion of Honour and promoted to the rank of captain.[3]

According to one account, he was captured by Russian troops in 1812 during the Battle of Berezina.[3] Another source writes that Bulgarin was in the battles of Bautzen and Kulm in 1813 and that he surrendered to the Prussian troops in 1814 and was then extradited to Russia.

From 1816 he lived in Saint Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire, and then in Vilnius.[3] He managed the nearby family estate and published, initially anonymously, in Polish-language magazines published in Vilnius: Dziennik Wileński, Tygodnik Wileński [pl], Wiadomości Brukowe [pl].[3]

He significantly developed his literary and publishing activities in Saint Petersburg, where he went in 1819 and made friends with the leading local writers.

Russian conservatives.[3]

In 1820, Bulgarin travelled from Warsaw to St. Petersburg, where he published a critical review of

Fatherland's Son (1825–59), and other reactionary
periodicals.

Bulgarin's tomb in Tartu

Bulgarin's unscrupulous manners made him the most odious journalist in the Russian Empire. The leading Russian poets Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov devoted critical epigrams to Bulgarin.[3] Alexander Pushkin, in particular, ridiculed him in a number of epigrams, changing his name to Figlyarin (from a Russian word for "clown"). In turn, Bulgarin intensively criticized Pushkin in his works.[3] Bulgarin retorted with epigrams, in which Pushkin's name was rendered as Chushkin (from the Russian word for "nonsense").

Inspired by Sir

Dorpat University.[11]

Some of Bulgarin's stories are science fiction: Probable Tall-Tales is a far future story about the 29th century; Improbable Tall-Tales is a fantastic voyage into hollow Earth; The Adventures of Mitrofanushka on the Moon is a satire.

After Nicholas I's death, Bulgarin retired from the department of stud farms, in which he had been serving for many years, and withdrew to his manor in Karlova (Karlowa in German) a suburb of Tartu at the time, but now incorporated within the city.

Notes and references

  1. ISBN 978-5-86793-044-8. "Фиглярин" was a derogatory play on words from Bulgarin's first name and "фигляр" a jester or clown. This play on words was first made by the poet Vyazemsky, and immortalized in an epigram by Yevgeny Baratynsky, published in 1827. Набоков, Владимир Владимирович. "Комментарий к роману Евгений Онегин"
    [Commentary on the novel Eugene Onegin] (in Russian).
  2. ^ a b Głuszkowski, Piotr. "Jan Krzysztof Tadeusz Bułharyn". Polski Petersburg. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Piekarek 1937, p. 131.
  4. ^ BEED 1891, p. 895.
  5. ^ Meshcheryakov & Reinblatt 1989, p. 347–351.
  6. ^ Atkinson, S. C. (1832). "Thaddeus Bulgarin". The Journal of Health and Recreation. 4 (1): 21–22.
  7. ^ "Miscellaneous Literary Notices: Russia". The Foreign Quarterly Review. 9: 251. 1832.
  8. ^ The English translation of Dmitry the Pretender appeared in 1831 under the title Demetrius.
  9. ^ Клевенский, М. "БУЛГАРИН Фаддей Венедиктович". Фундаментальная электронная библиотека «Русская литература и фольклор» (FEB) (in Russian).
  10. ^ Булгарин (1837). Россия в историческом, статистическом, географическом и литературном отношениях.
  11. ^ Половцова, А. А. (1897). "Иванов, Николай Алексеевич (историк) [Ivanov, Nikolay Alekseevich (historian)]". Русский биографический словарь Russian Biographical Dictionary (in Russian). Vol. 8. pp. 25–30.

Sources

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