Pyotr Vyazemsky

Prince Pyotr Andreyevich Vyazemsky (Russian Пётр Андреевич Вяземский, scientific transliteration Pëtr Andreevič Vjazemskij; * 12 Julijul / July 23 1792greg in Moscow, .. .. † 10 Novemberjul / November 22 1878greg in Baden -Baden ) was one of the leading figures of the Golden Age of Russian literature.

Biography

His parents were a Russian prince from the Rurik dynasty and an Irish nobleman. As a young man he took part in the Battle of Borodino and in other battles of the Napoleonic Wars. Many years later Tolstoy's description of the battle of Borodino seemed inauthentic and brought him into a literary dispute with the great writers.

In the 1820s, Vyazemsky was one of the greatest representatives of the literary movement of Romanticism in Russia. Both he and his wife, Princess Vera, born Gagarin, were close friends with Alexander Pushkin, who was often at her country estate in Ostafjewo near Moscow to guest (now a museum of literature ). It is therefore not very surprising that Vyazemsky is mentioned in the works of Pushkin, including the famous Eugene Onegin.

From the 1830s it was for Vyazemsky, as for the most representative of the " literary aristocracy ", increasingly difficult to keep pace with the younger generation. The fact that he survived all his contemporaries and friends, he became increasingly moody. Although from today's perspective, especially in his later works his talent most unfolded, he came alive with the critics and the audience long before his death in oblivion. He himself became a bitter reactionary who despised all who were born after the Napoleonic period.

At the same time he became recognized at the Russian court, in part, by the marriage of his daughter with Pyotr Valuev, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers. In the 1850s Vyazemsky served as education minister and head of the censorship in Russia. From 1863 he lived due to poor health abroad. Prince Vyazemsky died in 1878 in Baden -Baden, his body was taken and buried to Saint - Petersburg.

Literary work

Most Vyazemsky is known as the best friend of Pushkin. Their correspondence is now considered a literary heritage of wit, apt criticism and fine Russian. In the early 1820s, Pushkin Vyazemsky named the best prose writers in the country. The works Wjasemskis are sometimes a little too ironic, but at the same time original and captivating. Especially known are his anecdotes from the "old notebook ", which are a rich source of insights from the lives of the great and the little man of the early 19th century. A major prose work of his later years of life was the biography of Denis Fonvisin.

Although Vyazemsky was the journalistic leader of the Russian romance, his early poetry was very unromantic and showed none of the basic features of romantic poetry. Only with time Vyazemsky approached to the classic style of romance.

Bibliography

• Собрание сочинений Вяземского в 12 тт. СПб. 1878-1886, его переписка, " Остафьевский архив » т. I- V.
• Грот Я. , Сухомлинов М. , Пономарев С. , В Сборнике наук 2 отделения Академии, т. XX, 1880.
• Трубачев С. С. Вяземский как писатель 20 - х гг. , " Исторический вестник " Ї 8, 1892.
• Спасович В. Вяземский и его польские отношения и знакомства. Сочинения Спасовича, т. VIII, 1896.
• Языков Д. П. Вяземский. - М. In 1904.
• Кульман H. Вяземский как критик. Известия Академии наук. книга 1, 1904.
• Гинзбург А. Вяземский литератор, Сборник " Русская проза " под ред. Б. Эйхенбаума и Ю. Тынянова, Л. , 1926.
• Венгеров С. А. Источники словаря русских писателей, т. I, СПб. , 1900.