Father's family message. Konstantin Nikolayevich Batyushkov: biography, interesting facts, poems. War with Sweden. mental trauma

Batyushkov Konstantin Nikolaevich - one of the greatest Russian poets, b. 1787, mind. 1855. Belonged to one of the old noble families of the Novgorod and Vologda provinces. His father, Nikolai Lvovich Batyushkov, having failed in military service, had to retire and settle permanently in the countryside. This aroused in him dissatisfaction with life and a painfully developed suspicion. The poet's mother, Alexandra Grigorievna, nee Berdyaeva, soon after the birth of Konstantin lost her mind, she had to be removed from the family, and in 1795 she died when her son, who had no idea about her, was not yet 8 years old.

Konstantin Nikolaevich was born in Vologda on May 18, 1787, but spent his childhood in the village of Danilovsky, Bezhetsk district, Novgorod province. In the 10th year of his life, he was placed in the St. Petersburg boarding school of the Frenchman Zhakino, and after 4 years he was transferred to the boarding school of the teacher of the Tripoli naval corps, where Batyushkov stayed for 2 years. In both boarding schools the course of sciences was the most elementary. Batyushkov was obliged to study in boarding houses only by a thorough knowledge of French and Italian. In the 14th year, Batyushkov was seized by a passion for reading, while in the 16th he found a guide in his father's friend and workmate, Mikhail Nikitich Muravyov, with whom the young poet lived after leaving the boarding school. Muravyov was one of the most educated people of his time. Unfortunately, he died when Batyushkov was not yet 20 years old. Muravyov's wife, a woman of outstanding intelligence, who took care of him like a mother, also had a wonderful influence on Konstantin Nikolaevich. Under the influence of Muravyov, Batyushkov thoroughly studied Latin language and got acquainted in the original with the Roman classics. Most of all he liked Horace and Tibull. Muravyov, comrade of the Minister of Public Education, in 1802 appointed Batyushkov as an official in his office. In the service and at Muravyov's house, he became close to such people as Derzhavin, Lvov, Kapnist, Muravyov-Apostol, Nilova, Kvashnina-Samarina, Pnin (journalist), Yazykov, Radishchev, Gnedich.

Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov. Portrait by an unknown artist, 1810s

Batyushkov took little interest in the service. Since 1803 he began his literary activity with the poem "Dreams". By this time, Batyushkov met Olenin, president of the Academy of Arts and director of the Public Library. All talented people of that time gathered at Olenin, especially those belonging to the new literary movement created by Karamzin. From the very first years of his literary activity, Batyushkov was one of the most zealous participants in the struggle of the "Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts" against Shishkov and his followers. In 1805 Batyushkov became a contributor to many magazines. In 1807 (February 22) enters military service hundred chief, and in the St. Petersburg militia militia on May 24, 25 and 29 of the same year, he participates in battles in Prussia. On May 29, in the battle near Heidelberg, Batyushkov was dangerously wounded in the leg. He was taken to Yurburg, where sanitary conditions were very poor, and from there he was soon transferred to Riga and placed in the house of the wealthy merchant Mugel. Konstantin Nikolaevich became interested in his daughter. After recovering, he went to Danilovskoye to his father, but soon returned from there due to a strong disagreement with his parent because of his second marriage. In the same year, Batyushkov suffered another heavy blow - the loss of Muravyov, who died on July 22. All these losses, in connection with the impressions of the just experienced war, caused a severe illness, which almost prematurely carried away the young poet. Only the solicitude of Olenin supported him.

Having recovered, Batyushkov collaborates in the Dramatic Bulletin. There he placed his famous fable "The Shepherd and the Nightingale" and "works from the field of Italian literature." In the spring of 1808, in the ranks of the Life Guards of the Jaeger Regiment (the transfer took place back in September 1807), he takes part in Russo-Swedish War of 1808-09. Several of his best poems belong to this period. Here Batyushkov met the war hero, his classmate, Petin. In July 1809, the poet went to his sisters in Khantovo (Novgorod province). Since that time, he began to manifest a terrible hereditary disease. Batyushkov has hallucinations, and he writes to Gnedich: "If I live another 10 years, I will probably go crazy." Nevertheless, the heyday of his talent belongs to this time. After living for 5 months in the countryside, Batyushkov leaves for Moscow to enter the civil service. But almost all the time until 1812 he spent without any service, either in Moscow or in Khanty. Here the poet approached V. A. Pushkin, V. A. Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Karamzin. Many of his works belong to these years, among other things "Vision on the banks of Lethe" (jokingly satirical).

Konstantin Batyushkov. video film

In 1812, Batyushkov, who had just entered the service of the Imperial Public Library, was again in a hurry to go to the Patriotic War. First of all, he had to escort Madame Muravyova from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod, where he was struck by the complete lack of self-awareness and national pride: “I hear sighs everywhere,” he writes, “I see tears and stupidity everywhere. Everyone complains and scolds the French in French, and patriotism lies in the words "point de paix". 1813 Batyushkov serves as an adjutant to Bakhmetiev and General Raevsky. Together with him on March 19, 1814, he enters the conquered Paris. The poet attended battle of Leipzig, while Raevsky was wounded. In the same battle, Batyushkov lost his friend, the 26-year-old hero Petin. Together they made a Finnish campaign, together they spent the winter of 1810-11 in Moscow. Batyushkov's poem "The Shadow of a Friend" is dedicated to Petin.

Abroad, Konstantin Nikolayevich was interested in everything: nature, literature, politics. All this prompted him, like other officers, to new thoughts, which gave the first impetus to the development of the Decembrist movement. At this time, the young poet wrote a quatrain to Emperor Alexander, where he said that after the end of the war, having liberated Europe, the sovereign was called by providence to complete his glory and immortalize his reign by liberating the Russian people.

Upon returning to Russia, in June 1814, apathy took possession of the poet. He had to live in Kamenetz-Podolsk, as an adjutant to the commander of the Rylsky Infantry Regiment, General Bakhmetyev. By the same time, the poet’s unhappy love for Olenin’s relative, Anna Fedorovna Furman, dates back. All this had a harmful effect on the already upset health of the poet. The excited state during the war was mixed with a painful blues. In January 1816, Batyushkov retired for the second time and moved to Moscow, where he finally joined the Arzamas literary society. Despite poor health, in 1816-17. he writes a lot. Then articles were written in prose “Evening at Kantemir”, “Speech on Light Poetry” and the elegy “Dying Tass”, which appear in October 1817 in the first collection of poems and prose by Batyushkov. In 1817, Batyushkov traveled to the Crimea with Muravyov-Apostol to improve his health.

At the end of 1818, friends, mainly Karamzin and A. I. Turgenev, managed to attach Batyushkov to the Russian mission in Naples. At first, life in Italy, which he always longed to visit, had a wonderful effect on Batyushkov's health. His letters to his sister are even enthusiastic: “I am in that Italy where they speak the language in which the inspired Tass wrote his divine verses! What land! She is beyond all description, for someone who loves poetry, history and nature!” In Konstantin Nikolayevich again there was an interest in all the phenomena of life, but this excitement did not last long. On February 4, 1821, Turgenev writes: "Batyushkov, according to the latest news, is not recovering in Italy." In the spring of 1821, Batyushkov went to Dresden to treat his nerves. Partly the reason for the bad influence of Italy was the trouble in the service with Count Stackelberg, which even forced him to transfer from Naples to Rome. In Dresden, the last poem "The Testament of Melchisidek" was written. Here Batyushkov burned everything created in Naples, retired from people and clearly suffered from persecution mania.

In the spring of 1823, the patient was brought to St. Petersburg, and in 1824 the poet's sister A.N., using funds granted by Emperor Alexander, took her brother to Saxony, to the psychiatric institution Sonnenstein. He stayed there for 3 years, and finally it turned out that Batyushkov's disease was incurable. He was brought back to St. Petersburg, taken to the Crimea and the Caucasus, but in the Crimea Batyushkov attempted suicide three times. The unfortunate sister of the poet, a year after her return from Saxony, went mad herself. Convinced of the futility and even harm of new experiences for the patient, he was placed in Moscow in the hospital of Dr. Kiliani. Here the madness took on a calmer form.

In 1833, Batyushkov was finally dismissed from service with a lifelong pension of 2,000 rubles. In the same year, he was taken to Vologda to his nephew, the head of the specific office, Grenvis. In Vologda, violent seizures recurred only at first. In his illness, Batyushkov prayed a lot, wrote and drew. He often recited Tassa, Dante, Derzhavin, described the battles near Heidelberg and Leipzig, recalled General Raevsky, Denis Davydov, as well as Karamzin, Zhukovsky, Turgenev, and others. He was very fond of children and flowers, read newspapers and, in his own way, followed politics. He died on June 7, 1855 from a typhoid fever that lasted 2 days. Batyushkov was buried 5 versts from Vologda, in the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery.

BATYUSHKOV, KONSTANTIN NIKOLAEVICH, Russian poet (1787–1855).

Born May 18 (29), 1787 in Vologda, spent his early childhood in his father's patrimony Danilovsky (not far from Bezhetsk, Tver province). The career of his father, Nikolai Lvovich, who belonged to an old noble family, did not work out: already at the age of 15 he was removed from Izmailovsky regiment because of the exile of his uncle, implicated in a conspiracy against Catherine II in favor of her son Paul. Batyushkov's mother went mad shortly after the birth of her son and died when he was 8 years old...

At the age of ten, Batyushkov was sent to the St. Petersburg boarding house of the Frenchman Zhakino, then to the boarding house of the Italian Tripoli. He studied with particular zeal foreign languages- French, Italian, Latin, distinguished among peers by a penchant for foreign languages ​​and literature.

After graduating from the boarding school, he was forced to enter the service of a clerk in the Ministry of Public Education, which disgusted him. But in the service he met young people, friendship with whom he supported for many years. He especially became close to the poet and translator N. Gnedich, whose literary advice he was attentive to all his life. Here Batyushkov met members of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts: I. Pnin, N. Radishchev (son), I. Born, thanks to whom he began to collaborate with some Moscow magazines.

Batyushkov's first great poem Dream apparently it was written in 1804, and published in 1806 in the journal Lover of Literature. Batyushkov was especially fond of this poem: he reworked it for many years, painstakingly and carefully replacing some lines with others, until he settled on the edition of 1817. Already in the first poetic opuses, he abandons the tradition of the lofty ode of the 18th century, elegies and friendly letters become his favorite genres. messages. Dream, like other early poems, is imbued with the spirit of poetic dreaminess, melancholy, pre-romantic immersion in the world of dreams and fantasies:

Oh sweet dream! O heavenly gift!

Among the wilds of stone, among the horrors of nature,

Where the waters of Bothnia splash against the rocks,

In the land of the exiles .. I was happy with you.

I was happy when in my solitude

Above the fisherman's tabernacle, silent at midnight,

The winds whistle and howl

And hail and autumn rain will knock on the roof.

In 1805, the journal News of Russian Literature published another poem by Batyushkov. Message to my poems, after which his small lyrical poems (as they were then called, plays) begin to appear on the pages of the press and the name of the author becomes known in literary circles.

In many ways, the formation of Batyushkov’s literary tastes was influenced by his cousin Mikhail Muravyov, mostly a prose writer, who, however, wrote poetry, and, of course, the idol of the then youth, historian and writer Nikolai Karamzin, whose works largely predetermined the future flowering of elegiac poetry.

Poet and critic of the 20th century. Vl.Khodasevich wrote about that transitional period of Russian literature: “The first mine, planted under Karamzin’s sentimentalism under classicism, has already exploded ... a vast field opened before new forces. Zhukovsky and Batyushkov tried to find "new sounds ...".

Denial of "cold reason", intoxication with a poetic dream in the bosom of nature, animated and, as it were, echoing the poet's experiences, an attempt to catch the fleeting experiences of the soul, sincerity and lack of pathos - these are the poems of the young Batyushkov, "sweet-tongued and youthful."

It seemed that he was created only "for sweet sounds and prayers", Batyushkov dramatically changes his life: in 1807 he enlisted in the militia and went to war with Napoleon in East Prussia. Receives a serious wound near Heilsberg, remains for some time to be cured in the house of a Riga merchant. The experience of the war is not in vain - strict, melodious and solemn motives invade the thoughtful, dreamy poems - the themes of parting and death:

I left the shore of foggy Albion:

It seemed that he was drowning in the waves of lead.

Galcyone hovered behind the ship,

And the quiet voice of her swimmers amused.

<...>

And suddenly ... was it a dream? .. a comrade appeared to me,

Died in fatal fire

An enviable death, over the Pleys jets ...

Shadow of a friend

In 1807 he lived for some time in St. Petersburg, where he became close to the family of A.N. Olenin, a close friend of the late Muravyov by that time. Here he feels at home. In the society that gathered in Olenin's house (among the guests was Batyushkov's long-time friend N. Gnedich), antiquity was considered the ideal of beauty, which fully corresponded to Batyushkov's literary inclinations.

In 1808, having recovered completely, he again went to the army, this time to Finland, where he did not take part in hostilities, but spent a whole year on campaigns.

In 1809-1811, already in his village Khantonovo and again indulging in literary pursuits, he wrote a number of poems that put him in the eyes of an enlightened reading public among the best poets. It's elegiac Recollection of 1907, the best translations from the Roman poet Tibullus, a great friendly message to Zhukovsky and Vyazemsky My Penates and satire Vision on the banks of Lethe. Created under the influence of the literary disputes of those years, it became widespread and clearly defined Batyushkov's place in the "war of the old style with the new." Batyushkov is entirely on the side of Karamzin, following him, believing that it is necessary to “write as they say and speak as they write”, that Slavic words and obsolete phrases should be alien to modern poetry, and that language can draw strength only in living speech. So in Lete - the river of oblivion Batyushkov "drowned" the "archaists" - A.S. Shishkov and his associates, which they perceived on his part as an open challenge.

Soon Batyushkov moved to Moscow, where new impressions and acquaintances awaited him. First of all, these are the very supporters new poetry, supporters of Karamzin, on whose side he stood so unconditionally. These are the future members of the literary society "Arzamas" - V. Zhukovsky, Vas. Pushkin, P. Vyazemsky and Karamzin himself, whom Batyushkov personally meets. At the same time, there was not enough money from the estate, and he is looking for services both for income and for "position in society", dreams of a diplomatic career, which seems to him the most suitable occupation. In early 1812 he arrived in St. Petersburg, where Olenin got him a job at the Public Library.

The war of 1812 was a shock to Batyushkov. He could not comprehend how the French, this “most enlightened” people, committed atrocities in the occupied lands: “There is no Moscow! Irrevocable losses! The death of friends, the shrine, the peaceful refuge of science, everything is defiled by a band of barbarians! These are the fruits of enlightenment, or rather, the debauchery of the most witty people... How much evil! When will it end? On what do you base your hopes?

Illness did not allow Batyushkov to immediately take part in hostilities. He ended up in Moscow on the eve of the Battle of Borodino, then he was forced to leave with his aunt Muravyova for Nizhny Novgorod and ended up in Moscow after the French had left. From here he wrote to Gnedich: "The terrible deeds of the vandals, or the French, in Moscow and its environs ... completely upset my little philosophy and quarreled me with humanity." In a message to Dashkov My friend, I have seen the sea of ​​evil, there is nothing left of sweet dreams, but there is only the truth of an eyewitness of terrible events:

I saw poor mothers

From the dear homeland of the expelled!

I saw them at the crossroads

How, like pressing the chest children to the Persians,

They wept in despair

And looked with new awe

The sky is rye all around.

To Dashkov- in fact, the rejection of the early Epicurean lyrics, and the new theme of national disaster imperiously invades his poetic world which is now split into the ideal and the real.

The war also influenced the poetic form of Batyushkov's writings. The pure genre of elegy was not well suited to describe the war, and it begins to gravitate towards the ode. For example, in poetry Crossing the Rhine(1816) or Castle ruins in Sweden(1814), where the odic and elegiac beginnings are intricately intertwined, and, according to the literary critic B. Tomashevsky, “in this monumental elegy, the poet’s spiritual outpourings are clothed in the form of historical memories and reflections on the past.” "A meditative elegy with historical content" can be called most of Batyushkov's best elegies.

As an adjutant to General N. Raevsky, he was sent to Dresden, where he participated in battles, and after the general was wounded, Weimar followed him. He returned to the active army by the end of the campaign, was present at the surrender of Paris, then lived in the capital of France for two months, carried away by her motley, colorful, despite wartime, life. Returning to his homeland both pleased and frightened, his mood became more and more anxious, sometimes he was overcome by bouts of despair and despondency. In one of the letters, he said that he should soon return to a country where it was so "cold that the wings froze over time." And in the poem The fate of Odysseus(free translation from Schiller, 1814) one can clearly see the analogies of the hero-wanderer from the epos of Homer with the author himself, who does not recognize his homeland:

It seemed that heaven was tired of punishing him

And quietly sleepy rushed

To the dear homelands of the long-desired rocks,

He woke up: so what? did not know the fatherland.

From Paris through London and then Sweden, he returns to St. Petersburg, where he stays with the Olenin family and where another shock awaits him - he is forced to refuse marriage to A. Furman, doubting the sincerity of the feelings of his chosen one. At the end of 1815, he resigned and began preparing his works for publication, the collection of which he decided to call Experiences: 1st volume - prose, 2nd - poetry. Actively participates in the literary life of Moscow. In 1816 he was elected a member of the Moscow Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, and at the entrance he delivers a keynote speech. On the influence of light poetry on the Russian language. In it, he formulated the ideal of light poetry based on clarity, harmony, and simplicity of language: “In a light kind of poetry, the reader requires possible perfection, purity of expression, harmony in style, flexibility, smoothness; he demands truth in feelings and the preservation of the strictest propriety in all respects. “Clarity, fluency, precision, poetry and... and... and... as few Slavonic words as possible,” he wrote back in 1809.

In St. Petersburg, he becomes a member of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature. And, finally, in October 1816 he was included in Arzamas, a society in which all his friends Karamzinists, opponents of the conservative Conversations of the Russian Word, headed by Shishkov, united.

1816–1817 is the period of Batyushkov's greatest fame. And although life around him seems to be in full swing, and he himself is at the zenith of both fame and creative powers, the theme of enjoying life, intoxication with poetry and nature fades into the background, and the motives of despondency, disappointment, doubt appear with a special, poignant force. This is especially noticeable in, perhaps, Batyushkov's most famous elegy. Dying Tass (1817):

And with the name of love the divine went out;

Friends above him wept in silence,

The day was slowly burning down ... and the bells were ringing

Spread the news of sadness around the haystacks.

“Our Torquato is dead! Rome exclaimed with tears.

A singer worthy of a better life has died! .. "

The next morning, torches saw gloomy smoke

And the Capitol was covered with mourning.

Batyushkov not only highly appreciated the work of the Italian poet, but found or foresaw much in common in their destinies. So, in the author's note to the elegy, he wrote: “Tass, like a sufferer, wandered from region to region, did not find a place for himself, carried his sufferings everywhere, suspected everyone and hated his life as a burden. Tass, a cruel example of fortune and the wrath of fortune, retained his heart and imagination, but lost his mind.

It was not for nothing that Batyushkov said: "The alien is my treasure." Brought up on French literature, learning the elegiac direction from the French poet Parny, he was especially inspired by Italian poetry. V. Belinsky wrote: “The fatherland of Petrarch and Tassa was the fatherland of the muse of the Russian poet. Petrarch, Ariost and Tasso, especially the latter, were Batyushkov's favorite poets. Ancient poetry was also his home. Arrangements and translations of the Roman poet Tibullus, free translations of Greek poets ( From the Greek anthology), and the original poems of the poet, perhaps, are distinguished by their special musicality, richness of sound precisely because the author perceived other languages ​​​​as native, because, in the words of O. Mandelstam, “poetry grape meat” “accidentally refreshed the language” Batyushkov.

His ideal was to achieve the ultimate musicality in the Russian language. Contemporaries perceived his language as smooth, sweet. Pletnev wrote in 1924: “Batyushkov ... created for us that elegy that Tibulla and Propertsia made interpreters of the language of graces. Every verse breathes with feeling; his genius at heart. It inspired him with its own language, which is tender and sweet, like pure love...”.

1816–1817 Batyushkov spends most of his time at his Khantonov estate, working on Experiences in poetry and prose. Experiences- the only collection of his works in which he was directly involved. consisted Experiences from two parts. The first includes articles on Russian poetry ( Speech about the influence of light poetry on the Russian language), essays on Kantemir, Lomonosov; travel essays ( An excerpt from the letters of a Russian officer about Finland, Journey to Sirey Castle); reasoning on philosophical and moral topics ( Something about morality based on philosophy and religion, About the best properties of the heart), articles about their favorite poets - Ariost and Tass, petrarch. In the second part - poems arranged by sections, or genres: "Elegies", "Messages", "Mixture" ... Experiences, a kind of summing up, was published in October 1817, and Batyushkov hoped to start a new life, continuing to fuss about a diplomatic career and striving for Italy. Finally, he receives the long-awaited news of his appointment to the Russian mission in Naples, and on November 19, 1818, he goes abroad through Warsaw, Vienna, Venice and Rome.

However, the journey did not bring the long-awaited peace and healing. On the contrary, his health was deteriorating, he suffered from "rheumatic" pains, various ailments, became irritable, quick-tempered. While in Dresden, he writes a letter of resignation. Zhukovsky met him there, who said that Batyushkov tore up what he had written earlier and said: “Something must happen to mine.”

Even before mental illness completely consumed him, Batyushkov wrote several poems, a kind of short lyrical sayings on philosophical topics. A line from the latter, written in 1824, reads as follows:

Man is born a slave

Will lie down as a slave in the grave,

And death will hardly tell him

Why did he walk through the valley of wondrous tears,

Suffered, sobbed, endured, disappeared.

Apparently, the madness that overtook him had hereditary causes and had been waiting for a long time. No wonder in 1810 he wrote to Gnedich: "If I live another ten years, I will go crazy ...".

Alas, that is what happened. In 1822 Batyushkov was already seriously ill, and after St. Petersburg, the Caucasus, the Crimea, Saxony and again Moscow, where all attempts at treatment were in vain, he was transferred to Vologda, where he lived for more than 20 years, not recognizing anyone, and died 7 (19) July 1855 for typhus.

The elegy as a genre of new romantic literature was picked up from the hands of Batyushkov, who was completing his career, by Pushkin and Baratynsky. As for Pushkin, at first he considered Batyushkov his teacher and read his poems. Later he began to be more critical, "respecting" "the misfortunes and unripe hopes in him", at the same time paying tribute to the skill and harmony with which many of his poems were written. A. Bestuzhev wrote: “A new school of our poetry begins with Zhukovsky and Batyushkov. Both of them comprehended the secret of our majestic harmonic language...”

Editions: Experiences in poetry and prose. M., Nauka, 1978.

Natalia Karamysheva

Not everyone knows the name of the classic Konstantin Batyushkov, but his contribution to Russian literature is very large. It was thanks to Batyushkov's poems that the language acquired such flexibility and harmony, which made it possible to form new trends in Russian literature.

The subject of poems by Batyushkov Konstantin Nikolaevich:

At the same time, the poet tried in all his poems to be sincere, to avoid tensions and uncertainties. The poet was guided by one principle - "live as you write, and write as you live", which helped him achieve extraordinary mastery in his works, expressing his thoughts in poetic lines.

Konstantin Batyushkov sincerely believed that the Russian language is really powerful and rich, that absolutely everything can be expressed with it. At the same time, even Alexander Pushkin agreed with how much Batyushkov is a verbal “miracle worker”.

If you are not yet familiar with the work of the poet, then we invite you to evaluate the poems listed below. We have collected the best works Konstantin Batyushkov, while regularly updating our website with other of his poems.

Konstantin Batyushkov- an outstanding Russian poet who gave the poetic language a special harmony and flexibility.

Batyushkov is one of the first who introduced into Russian poetry many developments that were recognized as classic during his lifetime.

During this period of biography, Batyushkov was especially interested in French and Russian (see). At the same time, he studied Latin, and was also fond of the ancient Roman classics.

While in St. Petersburg, Batyushkov met an outstanding Russian poet.

An interesting fact is that Konstantin Batyushkov was a relative of the senator and public figure Mikhail Muravyov, who helped him get a job in the Ministry of Public Education.

After serving there for about 3 years, the 18-year-old Batyushkov began working as a clerk at the Ministry of Education.

In 1807, Konstantin Batyushkov signed up for the people's militia, after which he went on the Prussian campaign.

In one of the battles he was wounded and sent to Riga for treatment. After 2 months he was allowed to go home.

War with Napoleon

The significance of Batyushkov in the history of Russian literature and his main merit lies in the fact that he worked hard on processing his native poetic speech and gave the Russian poetic language such flexibility, elasticity and harmony that Russian poetry had not yet known.

At this time, a nervous breakdown happens to him, after which the poet begins to show pronounced signs of schizophrenia. At this time, he wrote the poem "The Testament of Melchizedek."

Every month Konstantin Batyushkov was getting worse. Imaginary persecution made the life of the writer and the people around him unbearable. As a result, he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

After 4 years of treatment, he was sent to.

Once Alexander Pushkin came to visit Batyushkov, who was shocked by the terrible appearance of the poet. Some time later, Pushkin wrote the famous poem "God forbid I go crazy."

Death

The patient spent the last 22 years of his life in the house of his nephew. Konstantin Nikolayevich Batyushkov died of typhus on July 7, 1855 at the age of 68. He was buried in the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery.

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Konstantin Nikolayevich Batyushkov, born on May 29 (Old Style 18) May 1787 in Vologda, came from an old, but not noble and not particularly rich, noble family. Obviously, there was heredity in the family regarding mental illness; mother soon after the birth of the future poet went mad.
Batyushkov spent his childhood in the family village of Danilovsky, Bezhetsky district, Novgorod province. He received an excellent home education, and from the age of ten he studied in St. Petersburg boarding schools. Batyushkov was considered one of the educated people of that time, he spoke French, Italian, Latin and German.
The most important role in the education of the poet was played by his cousin, the writer M.N. Muravyov, at that time curator of Moscow University. He was a man of remarkable intelligence and talent, whose house Derzhavin, Lvov, Olenin, Kapnist, Karamzin and other famous writers visited. In this atmosphere, the views of the young man, his literary taste were formed, his horizons developed, the boundaries of knowledge expanded. From 1802 to 1806 Batyushkov lived in his uncle's house and served as a clerk in his office at the Ministry of Public Education.
In 1805, Batyushkov made his debut in print with the satire "Message to My Poems." He published in St. Petersburg magazines and became a member of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts.
Meanwhile, the general patriotic movement that arose after the battle of Austerlitz, where Russia suffered a severe defeat, fascinated Batyushkov, in 1807 he enlisted in the militia, participated in the Russian campaign against Napoleon in a campaign in Prussia, then in a war with Sweden. All this time, however, he did not stop writing.
In connection with a serious injury, Batyushkov receives leave. He went to his father's village, to Danilovskoe. But because of the second marriage of his father and the family split, he and his sisters had to move to the village of their late mother, Khantonovo, Cherepovets district. Here he is actively engaged in literary work. The satire "Vision on the banks of Lethe" was written, which determined the poet's attitude to literary struggle those years. The satire quickly became widespread and caused displeasure of the "Old Believers" ridiculed in it, the supporters of A. Shishkov. The fact that he had enemies, Batyushkov found out already in Moscow, where he moved from the village at the end of 1809. Here new acquaintances awaited him, which determined a lot in his later life and literary activity. He became friends with a group of young followers and admirers of Karamzin, who later became part of the literary association"Arzamas". These were Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky. Batyushkov also met Karamzin himself. He finally joins the ranks of the Karamzinists, whose struggle against the Shishkovists, who had already been ridiculed by him, then became especially acute.
Batyushkov retires and lives on the income from the estate, spending time either in Moscow or in Khantonovo. But these incomes are not too much, and the idea of ​​the need for a service career does not leave young man. He dreamed not of clerical, but of diplomatic activity, which would give him the opportunity to visit Europe.
At the beginning of 1812 Batyushkov arrived in St. Petersburg. Director of the Public Library A.N. Olenin, an acquaintance of the poet from previous years, arranged for him to be an assistant curator of manuscripts. (Batyushkov worked in the library for a short time, but a few years later, no longer working, he was elected an honorary librarian.)
Soon Batyushkov becomes the recognized head of the so-called "light poetry". The chanting of the joys of earthly life, friendship, love is combined in his friendly messages with the assertion of the poet's inner freedom, his independence. The program work of this kind is the message "My Penates" (1811-1812).
Meanwhile began Patriotic War 1812 Batiushkov, despite his health, which was upset by the injury, does not want to stay away from the fight against Napoleon. In 1813, he returned to military service, took part in fierce battles, in particular in the famous "battle of the peoples" near Leipzig (at that time the poet was adjutant to General N.N. Raevsky Sr.), and as part of the Russian army, in 1814 ends up in Paris. Thus, Batyushkov became an eyewitness and participant in the greatest historical events.
The events of the war, the capture and destruction of Moscow, personal upheavals cause Batyushkov's spiritual crisis. He is disappointed in the ideas of enlightenment philosophy. His poetry is painted in increasingly sad tones (elegies "Separation", "Shadow of a Friend"). He also reflected his impressions of the war in the poems “Captured”, “On the ruins of a castle in Sweden”, “Crossing the Rhine”, in the essays “Memories of places, battles and travels”, “Journey to Sirey Castle”.
Returning to St. Petersburg, the poet is fond of Anna Furman, who lived in the Olenin family. Having received the girl's consent to marriage, he, however, refuses it himself, realizing, obviously, that this consent is not determined by love. The novel left a bitter aftertaste in the poet's soul; to this failure was added failure in the service, and Batyushkov, who had been haunted by hallucinations several years ago, finally plunged into a heavy and depressing apathy, intensified by his stay in a remote province, in Kamenetz-Podolsk, where he had to go with his regiment.
At this time (1815-1817) his talent flared up with particular brightness, for the last time before weakening and finally fading away, which he always foresaw. He refuses satires and epigrams, philosophical and religious reflections, motives of tragic love, the eternal discord of the artist-creator with reality appear in his work more and more often. Elegies were written: “My Genius”, “Tavrida”, “Hope”, “To a Friend”, “Awakening”, “Last Spring”, “Dying Tass”, “Arbor of the Muses”, part of the poems of the cycle “From the Greek Anthology”. In 1817, the collection "Experiments in Poetry and Prose" was published, which was a great success with the reader. The first, prose volume contains essays, translations, moral and philosophical articles, literary and theoretical discussions, studies on the writers of the past, and the first art history essay in Russian literature. The second volume contains poems grouped by genre.
These years are also the period of the greatest literary fame of Batyushkov. He is considered the first poet of Russia, he is elected a member of the Moscow Society of Lovers of Russian Literature; at the introduction at the meeting of the Society, his speech “On the influence of light poetry on the language” was read. After the publication of "Experiments in verse and prose" he becomes an honorary member of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature in St. Petersburg. But the association closest to Batyushkov was Arzamas.
In 1816, Batyushkov retired and settled in Moscow, occasionally visiting St. Petersburg or the countryside. But gradually heredity began to make its own adjustments to the life of the poet. The first signs of mental disorder appeared. In 1818, friends secured a place for him at the Russian mission in Naples, where he went with the hope of recovery. Batyushkov patronizes the colony of Russian artists, continues to write and translates from Byron. However, it quickly became clear that the service was not going well, the first enthusiastic impressions were experienced, the poet began to yearn. In 1821, he decided to give up both service and literature, received an indefinite leave, and soon moved to Germany. Here Batyushkov sketches out his last poetic lines, full of bitter meaning, "The Testament of Melchesidek" and burns everything he wrote in Italy.
In 1822 he returned to Russia already sick. It was persecution mania. Attempts at treatment have not been successful, the mental disorder is intensifying. In 1823 Batyushkov burned down his library and attempted suicide three times. In 1824, his sister takes him to a psychiatric hospital in Saxony; however, treatment for three years is ineffective.
From 1828 to 1832 Batyushkov lives with relatives in Moscow, then he is transported to relatives in Vologda. Here, on July 19 (old style 7), 1855, the poet dies of typhus. He was buried in the Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery near Vologda.