Message about Karamzin in literature. Who is he? "Bulletin of Europe"

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was born on December 1, 1766. in the family of a Simbirsk landowner, who came from an old noble family. He was brought up in a private Moscow boarding school. In adolescence, the future writer read a lot of historical novels, in which he was especially admired by "dangers and heroic friendship." According to the noble custom of that time, as a boy, recorded on military service, he, "entering the age", entered the regiment, in which he had long been listed. But the army service weighed on him. The young lieutenant dreamed of doing literary work. The death of his father gave Karamzin a reason to ask for his resignation, and the small inheritance he received made it possible to fulfill his old dream - a trip abroad. The 23-year-old traveler visited Switzerland, Germany, France and England. This trip enriched him with various impressions. Returning to Moscow, Karamzin published Letters from a Russian Traveler, where he described everything that struck him and remembered in foreign lands: landscapes and appearance of foreigners, folk customs, urban life and political system, architecture and painting, his meetings with writers and scientists , as well as various social events that he witnessed, including the beginning French Revolution(1789-1794).

For several years, Karamzin published the Moscow Journal, and then the journal Vestnik Evropy. He created new type magazine, in which literature, politics, science coexisted. A variety of materials in these editions were written in an easy, elegant language, served lively and entertainingly, so they were not only accessible to the general public, but also contributed to the education of literary taste among readers.

Karamzin became the head of a new trend in Russian literature - sentimentalism. The main theme of sentimental literature is touching feelings, emotional experiences of a person, “the life of the heart”. Karamzin was one of the first to write about the joys and sufferings of modern, ordinary people, and not about the heroes of antiquity and mythological demigods. In addition, he was the first to introduce into Russian literature a simple, understandable language, close to colloquial.

The story "Poor Liza" brought Karamzin a huge success. Sensitive readers, and especially female readers, shed streams of tears over her. The pond at the Simonov Monastery in Moscow, where the heroine of the work Liza drowned herself because of unrequited love, began to be called "Lizin's pond"; real pilgrimages were made to him. Karamzin had long intended to take up the history of Russia seriously, he wrote several historical novels, including such brilliant works as Marfa Posadnitsa, Natalya, boyar daughter».

In 1803 the writer received from Emperor Alexander the official title of historiographer and permission to work in archives and libraries. For several years, Karamzin studied ancient chronicles, working around the clock, ruining his eyesight and undermining his health. Karamzin considered history to be a science that should educate people and instruct them in everyday life.

Nikolai Mikhailovich was a sincere supporter and defender of the autocracy. He believed that "the autocracy founded and resurrected Russia." Therefore, the focus of the historian was the formation of the supreme power in Russia, the reign of kings and monarchs. But not every ruler of the state deserves approval. Karamzin was indignant at any form of violence. So, for example, the historian condemned the tyrannical rule of Ivan the Terrible, Peter's despotism and the rigidity with which he carried out reforms, eradicating ancient Russian customs.

The huge work created by the historian in a relatively short time was a stunning success with the public. All enlightened Russia was reading the History of the Russian State; Creating the "History of the Russian State", Karamzin used a huge number of ancient chronicles and other historical documents. To enable readers to get a true idea, the historian has placed footnotes in each volume. These notes are the result of a colossal work.

In 1818 Karamzin was elected an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Childhood and youth of Karamzin

Karamzin the historian

Karamzin-journalist

Childhood and youth of Karamzin

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was born on December 1 (12), 1766 in the village of Mikhailovka, Buzuluk district, Simbirsk province, into a cultured and well-born, but poor noble family, descended on the paternal side from a Tatar root. He inherited his quiet disposition and penchant for daydreaming from his mother Ekaterina Petrovna (née Pazukhina), whom he lost at the age of three. Early orphanhood, loneliness in his father's house strengthened these qualities in the boy's soul: he fell in love with rural solitude, the beauty of the Volga nature, and early became addicted to reading books.

When Karamzin was 13 years old, his father took him to Moscow and sent him to the boarding school of Moscow University professor I.M. Shaden, where the boy received a secular education, studied to perfection European languages and listened to lectures at the university. At the end of the boarding school in 1781, Karamzin left Moscow and decided in St. Petersburg to the Preobrazhensky Regiment, to which he was assigned from childhood. Friendship with I.I. Dmitriev, the future famous poet and fabulist, strengthened his interest in literature. For the first time Karamzin appeared in print with a translation of the idyll of the German poet S. Gessner in 1783.

After the death of his father, in January 1784, Karamzin retired with the rank of lieutenant and returned to his homeland in Simbirsk. Here he led a rather scattered lifestyle, typical of a young nobleman of those years. A decisive turn in his fate was made by an accidental acquaintance with I.P. Turgenev, active freemason, writer, associate famous writer and publisher late XVIII century N.I. Novikov. I.P. Turgenev takes Karamzin to Moscow, and for four years the novice writer rotates in Moscow Masonic circles, closely approaches N.I. Novikov, becomes a member of the "Friendly Scientific Society".

Moscow Rosicrucian Freemasons (knights of the gold-pink cross) were characterized by criticism of Voltairianism and the entire heritage of the French encyclopedists-enlighteners. Freemasons considered the human mind to be the lowest level of knowledge and made it directly dependent on feelings and Divine revelation. The mind outside the control of feelings and faith is not able to correctly understand the world around it, it is a "dark", "demonic" mind, which is the source of all human delusions and troubles.

The book of the French mystic Saint-Martin "On Errors and Truth" was especially popular in the "Friendly Learned Society": it was not by chance that the Rosicrucians were called "Martinists" by their ill-wishers. Saint-Martin declared that the teaching of the Enlightenment about the social contract, based on an atheistic "faith" in the "good nature" of man, is a lie that tramples on the Christian truth about the "obscurity" of human nature by "original sin." It is naive to consider state power as the result of human "creativity". It is the subject of God's special care for sinful humanity and is sent by the Creator to tame and restrain sinful thoughts to which fallen man is subject on this earth.

The state power of Catherine II, who was under the influence of the French enlighteners, was considered by the Martinists to be a delusion, God's forgiveness for the sins of the entire Petrine period of our history. Russian Freemasons, among whom Karamzin moved in those years, created a utopia about a beautiful country of believers and happy people, controlled by elected Masons according to the laws of the Masonic religion, without bureaucracy, clerks, policemen, nobles, arbitrariness. In their books, they preached this utopia as a program: there would be no need in their state, there would be no mercenaries, no slaves, no taxes; all will learn and live peacefully and sublimely. For this, it is necessary that everyone become Freemasons and be cleansed of filth. In the future Masonic "paradise" there will be no church, no laws, but a free society of good people who believe in God as they wish.

Karamzin soon realized that, denying the "autocracy" of Catherine II, the Masons hatched plans for their "autocracy", opposing the Masonic heresy to everything else, sinful humanity. With external consonance with the truths of the Christian religion, in the process of their ingenious reasoning, one untruth and lie was replaced by another no less dangerous and insidious. Karamzin was also alarmed by the excessive mystical exaltation of his "brothers", so far from the "spiritual sobriety" bequeathed by Orthodoxy. I was embarrassed by the veil of secrecy and conspiracy associated with the activities of Masonic lodges.

And now Karamzin, like the hero of Tolstoy's epic novel "War and Peace" Pierre Bezukhov, is deeply disappointed in Freemasonry and leaves Moscow, setting off on a long journey through Western Europe. His fears are soon confirmed: the affairs of the entire Masonic organization, as the investigation found out, were run by some dark people who left Prussia and acted in her favor, hiding their goals from the sincerely mistaken, beautiful-hearted Russian "brothers". Karamzin's journey through Western Europe, which lasted a year and a half, marked the writer's final break with the Masonic hobbies of his youth.

"Letters from a Russian Traveler". In the autumn of 1790, Karamzin returned to Russia and from 1791 began to publish the Moscow Journal, which was published for two years and had great success with the Russian reading public. In it, he published two of his main works - "Letters from a Russian Traveler" and the story "Poor Liza".

In "Letters from a Russian Traveler", summing up his travels abroad, Karamzin, following the tradition " sentimental journey"Stern, rebuilds it from the inside in a Russian way. Stern pays almost no attention to the outside world, focusing on a meticulous analysis of his own experiences and feelings. Karamzin, on the contrary, is not closed within his "I", is not too concerned about the subjective content of his emotions. The leading role the outside world plays in his narrative, the author is sincerely interested in its true understanding and its objective assessment.In each country, he notices the most interesting and important: in Germany - mental life (he meets Kant in Koenigsberg and meets Herder and Wieland in Weimar) , in Switzerland - nature, in England - political and public institutions, parliament, jury trials, family life of respectable Puritans. different countries and peoples is already anticipated in Karamzin and the gift of translation by V.A. Zhukovsky, and Pushkin's "proteism" with his "universal responsiveness".

Particular emphasis should be placed on the section of Karamzin's Letters concerning France. He visited this country at the moment when the first thunderous peals of the Great French Revolution were heard. He also saw with his own eyes the king and queen, whose days were already numbered, and attended the meetings of the National Assembly. The conclusions that Karamzin made when analyzing the revolutionary upheavals in one of the most advanced countries of Western Europe already anticipated the problems of the entire Russian literature XIX century.

“Any civil society, approved for centuries,” says Karamzin, “is a shrine for good citizens, and in the most imperfect one one must be surprised at the wonderful harmony, improvement, order. “Utopia” will always be a dream good heart or it may be fulfilled by the inconspicuous action of time, through the slow but sure, safe advances of reason, enlightenment, education of good morals. When people are convinced that virtue is necessary for their own happiness, then the golden age will come, and in every government a person will enjoy the peaceful well-being of life. All sorts of violent upheavals disastrous, and every rebel prepares a scaffold for himself. Let us betray, my friends, let us betray ourselves into the power of Providence: it certainly has its own plan; in his hands are the hearts of sovereigns - and that's enough."

In the "Letters of a Russian Traveler" the thought is ripening, which formed the basis of Karamzin's later "Notes on the Ancient and new Russia", which he presented to Alexander I in 1811, on the eve of the Napoleonic invasion. In it, the writer inspired the sovereign that the main business of government is not in changing external forms and institutions, but in people, in the level of their moral self-awareness. The benevolent monarch and the governors he skillfully selected will successfully replace any written constitution. folk schools.

Letters from a Russian Traveler revealed the typical attitude of a thinking Russian to the historical experience of Western Europe and the lessons he learned from it. The West remained for us in the 19th century a school of life both in its best, bright and dark sides. The deeply personal, kinship attitude of an enlightened nobleman to the cultural and historical life of Western Europe, evident in Karamzin's Letters, was well expressed later by F.M. Dostoevsky through the mouth of Versilov, the hero of the novel "The Teenager": "For a Russian, Europe is as precious as Russia: every stone in it is sweet and dear."

Karamzin the historian

It is noteworthy that Karamzin himself did not take part in these disputes, but treated Shishkov with respect, not harboring any resentment towards his criticism. In 1803, he began the main work of his life - the creation of the "History of the Russian State". The idea of ​​this capital work arose from Karamzin long ago. Back in 1790, he wrote: “It hurts, but it must be fair to admit that we still do not have a good history, that is, written with a philosophical mind, with criticism, with noble eloquence. Tacitus, Hume, Robertson, Gibbon - these are examples They say that our history in itself is less entertaining than others: I don’t think, only mind, taste, talent are needed. Of course, Karamzin had all these abilities, but in order to master the capital work associated with the study of a huge number of historical documents, material freedom and independence were also required. When Karamzin began publishing Vestnik Evropy in 1802, he dreamed of the following: “Being not very rich, I published a magazine with the intention that by forced work of five or six years I would buy independence, the opportunity to work freely and ... compose Russian history which has occupied my whole soul for some time."

And then a close acquaintance of Karamzin, Comrade Minister of Education M.N. Muravyov, appealed to Alexander I with a request to help the writer in the implementation of his plan. In a personal decree of December 31, 1803, Karamzin was approved as a court historiographer with an annual pension of two thousand rubles. Thus began the twenty-two-year period of Karamzin's life, associated with the capital work of creating the History of the Russian State.

About how to write history, Karamzin said: “A historian should rejoice and grieve with his people. He should not, guided by passion, distort facts, exaggerate happiness or belittle disaster in his presentation; he must, above all, be truthful; but he can, he must even convey everything unpleasant, everything shameful in the history of his people with sadness, and speak about what brings honor, about victories, about a flourishing state, with joy and enthusiasm.Only in this way will he become a national writer of everyday life, which, above all, he must be a historian."

"History of the Russian State" Karamzin began to write in Moscow and in the estate of Olsufyevo near Moscow. In 1816, he moved to St. Petersburg: efforts began to publish the completed eight volumes of "History ...". Karamzin became a person close to the court, personally communicated with Alexander I and members of the royal family. The Karamzins spent the summer months in Tsarskoye Selo, where they were visited by the young lyceum student Pushkin. In 1818, eight volumes of "History ..." were published, in 1821 the ninth, dedicated to the era of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, was published, in 1824 - the tenth and eleventh volumes.

"History ..." was created on the basis of the study of a huge actual material, among which key place occupied chronicles. Combining the talent of a scientist-historian with artistic talent, Karamzin skillfully conveyed the very spirit of chronicle sources by quoting them abundantly or skillfully retelling them. Not only the abundance of facts, but also the very attitude of the chronicler towards them was dear to the historian in the annals. Comprehension of the chronicler's point of view is the main task of Karamzin the artist, allowing him to convey the "spirit of the times", the popular opinion about certain events. And Karamzin the historian at the same time made comments. That is why Karamzin's "History ..." combined a description of the emergence and development of Russian statehood with the process of growth and formation of Russian national identity.

By his convictions, Karamzin was a monarchist. He believed that the autocratic form of government was the most organic for such a huge country as Russia. But at the same time, he showed the constant danger that lies in wait for autocracy in the course of history - the danger of its degeneration into "autocracy." Refuting the widespread view of peasant revolts and riots as a manifestation of the people's "savagery" and "ignorance", Karamzin showed that popular indignation is generated every time by the retreat of monarchical power from the principles of autocracy towards autocracy and tyranny. Popular indignation in Karamzin is a form of manifestation of the Heavenly Court, Divine punishment for the crimes committed by tyrants. It is through folk life manifests itself, according to Karamzin, the Divine will in history, it is the people who most often turn out to be a powerful tool of Providence. Thus, Karamzin relieves the people of the blame for the rebellion in the event that this rebellion has a higher moral justification.

When Pushkin, already in the late 1830s, got acquainted with this "Note ..." in manuscript, he said: "Karamzin wrote his thoughts about Ancient and New Russia with all the sincerity of a beautiful soul, with all the courage of a strong and deep conviction." "Someday posterity will appreciate ... the nobility of a patriot."

But the "Note ..." caused irritation and displeasure of the conceited Alexander. For five years, with a cold attitude towards Karamzin, he emphasized his resentment. In 1816 there was a rapprochement, but not for long. In 1819, the sovereign, returning from Warsaw, where he opened the Polish Sejm, in one of his sincere conversations with Karamzin announced that he wanted to restore Poland within its ancient borders. This "strange" desire shocked Karamzin so much that he immediately compiled and personally read to the sovereign a new "Note ...":

"You think of restoring the ancient Kingdom of Poland, but is this restoration in accordance with the law of the state welfare of Russia? Is it in accordance with your sacred duties, with your love for Russia and for justice itself? Can you, with a peaceful conscience, take Belarus, Lithuania, Volhynia from us, Podolia, the approved property of Russia even before your reign? Do not sovereigns swear to preserve the integrity of their powers? These lands were already Russia when Metropolitan Platon presented you with the crown of Monomakh, Peter, Catherine, whom you called the Great ... nikolay karamzin pension historiographer

We would be deprived not only of beautiful regions, but also of love for the tsar, we would cool down in soul to the fatherland, seeing it as a plaything of autocratic arbitrariness, we would not only be weakened by a decrease in the state, but we would also be humiliated in spirit before others and before ourselves. Of course, the palace would not have been empty, and then you would have ministers, generals, but they would not serve the fatherland, but only their own personal benefits, like mercenaries, like true slaves ... "

At the end of a heated argument with Alexander 1 about his policy towards Poland, Karamzin said: “Your Majesty, you have a lot of pride ... I am not afraid of anything, we are both equal before God. What I told you, I would say to your father ... I despise premature liberals; I love only that freedom that no tyrant will take away from me ... I no longer need your favors.

Karamzin passed away on May 22 (June 3), 1826, while working on the twelfth volume of "History ...", where he was supposed to tell about the people's militia of Minin and Pozharsky, who liberated Moscow and stopped the "distemper" in our Fatherland. The manuscript of this volume broke off at the phrase: "Nutlet did not give up ..."

The significance of the "History of the Russian State" can hardly be overestimated: its appearance in the light was a major act of Russian national self-consciousness. According to Pushkin, Karamzin revealed to the Russians their past, just as Columbus discovered America. The writer in his "History ..." gave a sample national epic, forcing each Age to speak its own language. Karamzin's work had a great influence on Russian writers. Relying on Karamzin, Pushktn wrote his "Boris Godunov", Ryleev composed his "Dumas". The History of the Russian State had a direct influence on the development of the Russian historical novel from Zagoskin and Lazhechnikov to Leo Tolstoy. "The pure and high glory of Karamzin belongs to Russia," said Pushkin.

Karamzin-journalist

Beginning with the publication of the Moscow Journal, Karamzin appeared before Russian public opinion as the first professional writer and journalist. Before him, only writers of the third rank dared to live on literary earnings. A cultured nobleman considered literature to be more of a fun and certainly not a serious profession. Karamzin, with his work and constant success with readers, established the authority of writing in the eyes of society and turned literature into a profession, perhaps the most honorable and respected. There is an opinion that the enthusiastic youths of St. Petersburg dreamed of at least walking to Moscow, just to look at the famous Karamzin. In the "Moscow Journal" and subsequent editions, Karamzin not only expanded the circle of readers of a good Russian book, but also brought up aesthetic taste, prepared cultural society to the perception of the poetry of V.A. Zhukovsky and A.S. Pushkin. His journal, his literary almanacs were no longer limited to Moscow and St. Petersburg, but penetrated into the Russian provinces. In 1802, Karamzin began publishing Vestnik Evropy, a magazine not only literary, but also socio-political, which gave a prototype to the so-called "thick" Russian magazines that existed throughout the 19th century and survived until the end of the 20th century.

Nikolai Karamzin is a historian and writer of the 18th and 19th centuries. Born December 12, 1866 in the Kazan province of the family estate Znamenskoye.

His family comes from the Crimean Tatars, his father, a retired officer, was an average landowner, his mother died when Kolya Karamzin was still a child. His upbringing was done by his father, tutors and nannies. Nikolai spent all his childhood on the estate, received home education, re-read all the books in his mother's large library.

His love for progressive foreign literature had a great influence on his work. It was the future publicist, writer, honorary member of the Academy of Sciences, well-known critic, reformer of Russian literature and historiographer who loved to read Rollin, Emin and other masters of the word of Europe.

In 1778 he entered a noble boarding school in Simbirsk, his father attached him to an army regiment, which made it possible for Nikolai Karamzin to study at the prestigious Moscow boarding school at Moscow University. Karamzin studied humanitarian sciences and attended lectures.

The future writer ended up in active service in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. His military career was not attractive and he took a year off, and in 1784 he received a decree on his resignation with the rank of lieutenant.

In 1789 he makes a long journey through Europe. During it, he met with Kant, visited Paris during the revolution, and witnessed the fall of the Bastille. He collected a large amount of material about European events, which served to create the Letters of a Russian Traveler, gained great popularity in society and are accepted with a bang by critics.

At the end of the journey, he took up literature. He established his own Moscow magazine, in which his bright star of sentimental creativity, Poor Liza, was published.

In 1803 he became a historiographer. At this time, he began to work on the great work of his life - the History of the Russian State.

In 1810 he received the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd class. In 1816 he received the high rank of state councilor and became a holder of the Order of St. Anne, 1st degree.

In 1818, 8 volumes of the History of the Russian State were published for the first time. He did not finish his enormous work, volume 12 was published after his death.

Karamzin's first wife is Elizaveta Protasova, married since 1801, his wife died after giving birth to her daughter Sophia. The second wife is Ekaterina Kolyvanova.

After the Decembrist uprising on Senate Square, Karamzin died after an aggravated cold. He rests at the Tikhvin cemetery. Karamzin was a fundamentalist of Russian sentimentalism, a reformer of the Russian language. He added many new words to the vocabulary. He was one of the first creators of a comprehensive generalizing work on the history of Russia.

Pushkin was frequent guest at the Karamzins.

Karamzin owns the expression that he said about Russian reality, to the question - what is happening in Russia, the answer was as follows - steal.

Historians believe that Poor Liza is named after Protasova.

Sophia, daughter of Karamzin, was adopted secular society, at the imperial court she became a maid of honor, was friends with Pushkin and Lermontov.

Karamzin had 5 sons and 4 daughters from his second marriage.

Wow! .. Here, yes! .. Be healthy! ..

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

Contribution of N.M. Karamzin in Russian culture can hardly be overestimated. Remembering everything that this man managed to do in the brief 59 years of his earthly existence, it is impossible to ignore the fact that it was Karamzin who largely determined the face of the Russian 19th century - the “golden” age of Russian poetry, literature, historiography, source studies and others. humanitarian areas scientific knowledge. Thanks to linguistic searches aimed at popularizing the literary language of poetry and prose, Karamzin presented Russian literature to his contemporaries. And if Pushkin is “our everything”, then Karamzin can be safely called “our everything” from the very capital letter. Without him, Vyazemsky, Pushkin, Baratynsky, Batyushkov and other poets of the so-called "Pushkin galaxy" would hardly have been possible.

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

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

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

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

N.M. Karamzin - early years

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

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

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

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

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

Travel to Europe

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

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

Karamzin - journalist, publisher

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

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

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

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

During this period, real literary fame comes to Karamzin.

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

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

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

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

Reformer of the Russian literary language

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Arzamas" and "Conversation"

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

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

In 1803, Shishkov delivered a Discourse on the Old and New Style of the Russian Language. He reproached the "Karamzinists" for having succumbed to the temptation of European revolutionary false teachings and advocated the return of literature to the oral tradition. folk art, to folk vernacular, to Orthodox Church Slavonic literacy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thus, by the mid-1790s, Karamzin became the recognized head of Russian sentimentalism, which opened not just a new page in Russian literature, but Russian fiction in general. Russian readers, who had absorbed only French novels, yes, the writings of the enlighteners, enthusiastically accepted “Letters from a Russian traveler” and “ Poor Lisa”, and Russian writers and poets (both “conversators” and “Arzamas”) realized that they could and should write in their native language.

Karamzin and Alexander I: a symphony with power?

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

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

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

In 1803, through the tsar’s educator M.N. Muravyov, a poet, historian, teacher, one of the most educated people of that time, N.M. Karamzin received the official title of court historiographer with a pension of 2,000 rubles. (A pension of 2,000 rubles a year was then assigned to officials who, according to the Table of Ranks, had a rank not lower than that of a general). Later, I. V. Kireevsky, referring to Karamzin himself, wrote about Muravyov: “Who knows, maybe without his thoughtful and warm assistance, Karamzin would not have had the means to accomplish his great deed.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Karamzin as a historian

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

A.S. Pushkin

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

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

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

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

One can often hear the opinion that Karamzin simply beautifully rewrote Prince M.M. family circle. This is not true.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The reaction of contemporaries

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

December 14th. Final Karamzin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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