Vissarion Belinsky: biography and photos

The nineteenth century is called the Golden Age for Russian literature and the period of the formation of art criticism, the founder and most vivid representative of which is Belinsky Vissarion Grigorievich. The world importance of this person is measured by the quality of the ideas developed by him. In this respect, according to contemporaries, Vissarion Belinsky, a critic and a Western philosopher, has outgrown the level of bourgeois thought of that time. But unfortunately, the true evaluation of his services was received rather late.

Relevance

The influence of this publicist and writer on Russian literature is still felt. Vissarion Belinsky first established the correct concepts of prose and poetry in general. It was he who pointed out the direction in which literature was supposed to go, to become a social force and become a teacher for the younger generation.

The writers' galaxy of the forties of the last century owes much to the ideological side of their own works to him. Belinsky, who always welcomed the emerging talent, almost unmistakably guessed the path of his future development, with his sincere and passionate nature irresistibly sending all the young figures into literature. Theoretical positions that he developed, have become common property. Most of them have retained their significance to the present day. New literary generations are still based today on his relentless search for truth, as well as on the views on the importance of literature in life that Vissarion Belinsky left for them.

Biography

The grandson of the priest and the son of the doctor, a future critic and publicist, was born in the village of Belyni in the Penza province on May 30 (June 11), 1811. After learning reading and writing from a local teacher, Vissarion Belinsky was sent to study at the district school, which opened in Chembar. In 1825, he was transferred to a provincial grammar school, where he stayed for three and a half years, without completing a four-year course. According to Belinsky, studies there did not satisfy him. His goal was the Moscow University. It was not easy to fulfill this plan for the future Russian thinker. His father, because of the limited funds, could not support his son in Moscow. However, the young man agreed to be poor, just to be a student. In August 1829, he was enrolled in the verbal faculty and in the same year was admitted to the public account.

University life

In the student years (1829-1832) around Belinsky, a circle of the Eleventh Number formed. It constantly discussed many problems of philosophy, studied the works of Bachmann, Schelling, modern issues. At one of the meetings Vissarion Belinsky read the first drama he wrote called Dmitri Kalinin, based on the author's living impressions of serfdom. The future great critic and publicist in his work heatedly attacked the "fatal law" of the landlord class to dispose of the destinies of the peasants.

Censorship of the Moscow University drama as "immoral" was banned. Belinsky frightened the soldier and the exile to Siberia, but in vain. During the student years, he found loyal friends who not only sympathized with him, but also fully shared his aspirations. They were Stankevich, Herzen, Ketcher, Ogaryov, E. Korsh and others.

An exception

In September 1832, the Ministry of Public Education signed an order for the dismissal of Belinsky from the university. The wording was standard - "due to poor health and because of the limitations of his abilities." This is today the works and photos of Vissarion Belinsky is known to every student who studies at the philological faculty, and then the writer, not yet known to anybody, suddenly lost his means and roof over his head.

He began to give lessons and make translations, somehow interrupted by scanty fees. At this time he is getting close to Professor Nadezhdin. The latter, in 1831, founded a new journal called the "Telescope", suggested that Belinsky translate for his edition of small articles. And in September 1834 Vissarion Grigorievich appeared in the magazine with his first critical article. It was with her, in fact, began his serious literary activity.

The Stankevich Circle

In 1833, Belinsky began to attend the literary evenings of Aksakov and Selivansky. Here he approaches N. Stankevich, and after a while enters his circle. The limited funds and lack of normal conditions for literary work forced Belinsky to change his address very often: he lived in Rakhmanovsky Lane, in Nadezhdin's apartment, in the house of Sukhovo-Kobylin, then in the building of Moscow University. In 1835 he began to work as secretary of the famous writer A. Poltoratsky. The closure in 1836 of the journal Telescope, where Vissarion Belinsky directed the department of criticism, put him on the verge of poverty. According to contemporaries, until the beginning of 1838, a well-known publicist and writer survived only thanks to the help of friends.

Work in the "Notes of the Fatherland"

From March to October 1838, at the invitation of Aksakov Belinsky teaches at the Constantinovsky land surveying institute, after which he becomes an unofficial editor in the journal "Moscow Observer". At this time, he often visited the family of M. Shchepkin, whose daughter was in love. Among the Moscow acquaintances of Belinsky were T. Granovsky, P. Mochalov, N. and K. Fields, A. Veltman and many others.

After the closure of the issue of the Moscow Observer in June 1839, the writer again remains without funds, but soon receives an invitation from A. Krayevsky to take the post of head of the critical department of the journal Otechestvennie zapiski. In October of the same year, Vissarion Belinsky moved to Petersburg and in Moscow it happens only by arrivals.

Political Views

In his youth, Belinsky Vissarion Grigorievich, whose philosophy was always a hobby, begins to study the aesthetics of Romanticism, deepens into the ideas of Schelling, Hegel and Fichte. Already in the early 1840s, he sharply criticized the rationalistic determinism of the concept of progress, concludes that "the fate of the individual and the individual is more important than all the destinies of the world." Evolution of Belinsky's views is accompanied by an intensification of criticism of philosophical idealism. His religious beliefs give way to clearly atheistic attitudes. In his letter to Gogol, whom he deeply sympathizes with, Vissarion Belinsky exposes the church to severe criticism.

A well-known critic and publicist died in 1848 from consumption. Being married, he left behind a three-year-old daughter and a huge literary heritage.