Evgeny Abramovich Baratynsky. Brief biography. Evgeny Baratynsky. Biography Interesting facts about E. Baratynsky

Evgeny Baratynsky (1800—1844)

Evgeny Abramovich Baratynsky was born on February 19, 1800 in the village of Vyazhle, Kirsanovsky district, Tambov province, on the estate of his father, Adjutant General Abram Andreevich Baratynsky. “The ancient Polish family of the Korczak coat of arms, originating from Zoard, the head of one of the hordes that invaded Eastern Europe in the 5th century. The surname of Boratynsky was first adopted by Dmitry, the chancellor of the Russian lands, after the name of the castle “God's Defense”, built by his father... and began to be written “de Boratyn”. In the 5th generation of Bozhidar, Jan Boratynsky... distinguished himself during the reign of Sigismund I with military exploits. Yan’s great-grandson, Ivan Petrovich, became impoverished, turned into a Velsky nobleman, went to Russia, converted to Orthodoxy, was established in the Smolensk province to the estates...”

Baratynsky received his primary education at home; His first uncle was the Italian Borghese. Baratynsky’s dying message, written two weeks before the poet’s death in Naples, is dedicated to him: “To the Italian uncle.” In 1811, Baratynsky was sent to St. Petersburg to receive an education, where he studied at a German boarding school, and then at the page corps. In the corps, Baratynsky made friends with pages who violated not only the rules of corps discipline, but also the basic requirements of honor. In February 1816, Baratynsky, together with another page, was expelled from the corps by imperial order with a ban on ever entering military service. After being expelled, Baratynsky lived with his mother in the Tambov province for two years, periodically visiting his uncle B.A. Baratynsky in the Smolensk province. In 1818, Baratynsky went to St. Petersburg, where, after much trouble, in 1819 he managed to become a private in the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment. In St. Petersburg, Baratynsky became friends with A. Delvig, who was the first to appreciate his extraordinary poetic gift and even published one of Baratynsky’s poems without his knowledge. At the same time, young Baratynsky became close friends with Pushkin, Pletnev, Gnedich, and partly with Zhukovsky. He also met many of the future Decembrists, in particular Küchel-Becker, but neither he (Baratynsky) nor Delvig were not privy to the secrets of the political society that already existed at that time.

At the beginning of Baratynsky’s literary activity, his poems appeared in many St. Petersburg magazines and al-manakhs: “Well-Intentioned”, “Son of the Fatherland”, “Competitor of Enlightenment and Charity”, etc. Their originality, depth of thought and elegant style very soon brought -whether the young author is famous. In 1820, Baratynsky was promoted to non-commissioned officer and transferred to the Neyshlotsky infantry regiment stationed in Finland. His stay in Finland had a significant impact on the poet’s work, determining his interest in Northern European culture, which was reflected in the choice of themes and plots of Baratynsky’s works (the poem “Eda”, the poem “Finland”).

In the spring of 1825, Baratynsky was finally promoted to officer; soon after this, he retired and moved to Moscow, where on June 9, 1826 he married the eldest daughter of Major General Engelhardt, Nastasya Lvovna. “The latter was not only a tender and loving wife, but also a woman with a refined literary taste: the poet was often surprised at the fidelity of her critical gaze. He found in her encouraging sympathy for his inspirations and hurried to read to her everything that came out of his pen.”

After his marriage, Baratynsky entered the boundary office, but soon retired. In the thirties, the poet lived for some time in Kazan, where at the same time he visited Pushkin, who collected materials for the history of the Pugachev rebellion. In Kazan, Baratynsky received the sad news of his death Delviga.

During his Moscow life, Baratynsky became close friends with Prince Vyazemsky, Denis Davydov, with whom he visited Dmitriev, as well as with other Moscow writers and poets: I. Kireevsky, Yazykov, Khomyakov, Pavlov. Baratynsky constantly corresponded with Pushkin and Zhukovsky.

Since the autumn of 1839, Baratynsky with his entire family - his wife and nine children - lived in the village, on his mother’s Tambov estate and in the Moscow region in the village of Muranovo. The poet loved village life and enjoyed farming, while at the same time not abandoning his creative pursuits. In 1842 Baratynsky published collection of poems "Twilight". This included works written in 1835-1842. Earlier, in 1826, the poems "Eda" and "Feasts" appeared as a separate edition, in 1827 - the first collection of poems, in 1828 - the poem "Ball", in 1831 - the poem "Concubine" (original title “Gypsy”), finally, in 1835, a second collection of poems appeared in two parts.

In the fall of 1843, Baratynsky fulfilled a long-standing desire: he went abroad with his wife and older children. He visited Berlin, Frankfurt and Dresden, and the winter of 1843 - 1844. spent in Paris. Here the Russian poet moved in salons and met the writers Nodier, both Thierry, Sainte-Beuve, Prosper Merimee. At the request of some of his new French friends, he translated about 15 of his poems into French in prose.

In the spring of 1844, the Baratynskys set off from Paris to Naples. While moving by sea, the poet wrote the poem “Piroskaf”, published in 1844 in Sovremennik. The doctor did not advise the poet to go to Naples, fearing the harmful influence of the hot Neapolitan climate. These fears, unfortunately, came true. Baratynsky was prone to severe headaches. On June 29 (and July), 1844, Baratynsky died suddenly in Naples. A year later, his body was transported to St. Petersburg and on August 30, 1845, buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, next to the graves of Gnedich and Krylov.

The works of Evgeny Abramovich Baratynsky belongs to the number of the most original and specific phenomena of the Russian romantic movement. Baratynsky is a romantic, a poet of modern times, who absorbed his sorrows and sorrows, revealing the internally contradictory, complex spiritual world of the man of his time. For all his outward restraint, the artist invested great personal passion, “heart convulsions,” into art. Baratynsky's thought, full of anxiety and worry, is closely connected with a deep inner feeling. Pushkin, who insightfully grasped the main feature of his poetry, wrote: “He is original with us - because he thinks.” But he immediately added: “... while he feels strongly and deeply.” This amazing interweaving of rationalism, noticed by Pushkin, which grew on Russian soil with the high spirituality and emotionality inherent in the romantic movement, gave birth to a completely new quality of the poet’s lyricism (“Thought is the subject of his inspiration.” V. G. Belinsky).

The poet’s quest led him to the creation of the famous book “ Twilight”, published in 1842 and which was one of the highest peaks of Russian lyric poetry of the 19th century. It was in “Twilight” - a brilliant cycle of philosophical lyrics, united by a single theme and a single author’s mood, that the power and depth of Baratynsky’s poetry was most fully revealed.

Nowhere does the most original lyricism of thought, the passion of philosophical reflection, the atmosphere of intellectualism and high spirituality achieve such tension, such astonishing power, as in this book. The lyrics of “Twilight” with its harsh tragic structure were a sensitive reflection of the time: behind the poems of “Twilight” stood the experience of history, the cold breath of the “Iron Age” was heard, the image of which, not by chance, becomes the main one in the book. The “Iron Age” is not only the “merchant age” with its power of money and prosaic relationships, but at the same time a generalized expression of the oppressive atmosphere of Nicholas’s reign.

After Baratynsky's death, long decades of almost complete oblivion of his works began. And only at the end of the last and beginning of this century, interest in the poet’s work was revived again, including from figures of the symbolist movement, who declared him their forerunner.

Baratynsky's creativity, a great and sensitive artist, one of the creators of philosophical lyrics, had and continues to have a noticeable influence on the development of Russian poetry. Pushkin, Lermontov, Tyutchev, Blok, Bryusov - each of them in one way or another took into account Baratynsky’s literary experience.

Evgeny Abramovich Baratynsky Salnikov Spartak Student of the 8th grade of the MAOU “Gymnasium named after N.V. Pushkova" Head Mazurova Elena Anatolyevna

Childhood Baratynsky was born on February 19. (March 2) 1800 in his father’s estate Mara near Tambov. His father came from an old Polish family. Under the guidance of an Italian tutor, he gave his son a wonderful education. At the age of five, the boy already knew French and Russian so well that he could read independently, and by the age of eight he could write letters fluently in these languages.

Mother Then, while studying in the St. Petersburg Corps of Pages, Boratynsky wrote her very warm and eloquent letters, by which one can judge the character of the future poet: nobility, tender affection for loved ones, a tendency to melancholy, pessimism, inability to quickly get along with people. After the death of his father, Baratynsky’s closest person was his mother, Alexandra Fedorovna. A determined and energetic woman, after the death of her husband, took upon herself the entire burden of managing a large family and estate.

A dark spot on the fate of the future poet He had the imprudence to join the society of little rebels that arose among the pages. They took revenge on particularly unloved and picky teachers and corps supervisors: they pierced hats, smeared ink on chairs, and wrote offensive inscriptions with chalk on the backs of teachers’ coats. Most often it was the word “drunkard”... One day, a naughty rake was expelled from the corps. He was expelled with shame and scandal, after which he was strictly forbidden to serve anywhere. The mother tried her best to help her son, to give him the best. But, as often happens, remaining deaf to Eugene’s request to assign him to the naval department, made his life miserable.

The young adult now had to answer for the childishness of his childhood. After meeting Zhukovsky in absentia in April 1816, Baratynsky spent more than two years on his uncle’s estate in the Smolensk region, where the poet’s first lines were born.

Chronicles of the poet's service After being expelled from the Corps of Pages, Baratynsky's service, however, did not end. In 1819, he entered the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment as a private in St. Petersburg. In 1820 he was promoted to non-commissioned officer and served in the Neishlot regiment in Finland, in the fortification of Kyumen and its environs. In the fall of 1824, Baratynsky received permission to come to Helsingfors (then name of Helsinki) and be at the corps headquarters of General Zakrevsky. In 1825 he was finally promoted to officer. And in January 1826, the “singer of feasts” (Pushkin’s expression) retired and settled in Moscow.

Helsingfors His life in Helsingfors was bright, noisy and hectic. His infatuation with the beautiful Agrafena Fedorovna Zakrevskaya, the wife of the governor-general (whom Pushkin called “a lawless comet in the circle of calculated luminaries”) brought Baratynsky many painful experiences and brought to life the beautiful lines of a whole cycle of poems, which later became romances. I smoked incense for others. But I carried you in the shrine of my heart; I prayed to new models, but with the anxiety of an old believer. ("Confidence". 1824)

Decembrists Soviet researchers ranked Baratynsky among the “Decembrist” circle. In the poem “Stanzas” (1827), he, paraphrasing Pushkin’s lines related to the Decembrists, quoted a year earlier by Vyazemsky in the Moscow Telegraph, will say: I knew the brothers; but young dreams united us for a moment: others are in misery far away, and there are no others in the world.

Resignation Being promoted to officer gave Baratynsky the right to retire. Taking advantage of it, the poet left for Moscow, where he married Anastasia Lvovna Engelhardt, a person of “non-elegiac appearance”, but who managed to bind the sad and thoughtful poet to her. After the release of the poem "Ball", Baratynsky finally receives all the fame he deserves. In his Foresight he wrote: My gift is poor, and my voice is not loud, But I live, and my existence on earth is kind to someone: My distant descendant will find him in my poems; who knows? My soul will be in intercourse with his soul, And just as I found a friend in a generation, I will find a reader in posterity. And the lines turned out to be very prophetic.

Glory The fame that came to the fullest led Baratynsky to meet many interesting people, among whom was Vyazemsky, who later wrote about the poet: “The more you rub him, the better and stronger he smells. In addition to his talent, the base is dense and beautiful!” However, this glory did not last long. After the unsuccessful release of the poem “The Concubine,” the poet withdraws into himself and writes on the table. “Let us enclose ourselves in our circle, like the first Christian brothers... Let us write without printing.” (letter to I. Kireyevsky dated March 14, 1832.)

Last collection The third, last collection of poems, Baratynsky published in 1842 and dedicated it to P. Vyazemsky. It was called “Twilight” and included 26 poems, notable for its philosophical cyclicity, which is unusual for Russian poetry. The through-line lyrical image of the book: the tragic awareness of a person’s loneliness in a deaf world and the passionate need for the response of “another soul.” The appearance of "Twilight" was compared by critics to "a ghost suddenly appearing on the street, with a shadow among the perplexed faces of descendants." Boratynsky was called a bright, wonderful poet of thought completely alien to our generation.

Death of the Poet The winter of 1843-44 takes place in Paris. Life begins to attract Baratynsky with bright colors and new horizons. He even expects to return home “cured of many prejudices.” But, having lived in Naples for two months, excited by new impressions, full of ideas and plans, plunging into invigorating memories of childhood, on June 29, 1844, as a result of an unexpected hemorrhage in the brain, shocked by a nervous a seizure that happened to his wife, the poet suddenly died. On August 31, 1845, Baratynsky was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The life circle of twilight and enlightenment silently closed.

Baratynsky's biography would be incomplete without a story about his family. E.A. Baratynsky was born on March 2 (February 19), 1800 in the village of Vyazhle, located in the Tambov province. His family belonged to a noble noble family. His ancestors were from a Polish family of nobles, who received their surname back in the 14th century after the name of the Boratyn castle they owned.

Father, Abram Baratynsky, served as an officer in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. He was especially loved and appreciated by the heir to the throne, Paul I. However, the favorite soon fell out of favor and retired. The mother of the future poet, Alexandra Cherepanov, in her youth was a maid of honor at the imperial court.

Having received his primary education at home, in 1808 Eugene went to a private German boarding school. German was added to his impeccable Italian and French. After boarding school, he moved to the most prestigious military educational institution at that time - the Corps of Pages. From there, he often wrote letters to his mother, in which he spoke of his absolute desire to devote his life to military affairs. But not all dreams are destined to come true. He found himself involved in an “ugly” story involving the theft of money. On the one hand, it was just a prank. On the other hand, it was a serious offense, for which he was expelled from the corps and deprived of the right to serve in a high military rank.

The beginning of a creative journey

At the age of 19, Baratynsky entered the Jaeger Life Guards Regiment as a simple soldier. Then he transferred to the Neishlot Infantry Regiment in Finland. At the age of 25 he received an officer's rank. He served in it for only a short time: exactly a year later he refused service and moved to the capital. There he soon married Anastasia, the beloved daughter of Major General Lev Engelhardt.

The first poetic work was published in 1819. The period under review was very eventful: close acquaintance in the northern capital with Alexander Pushkin and Anton Delvig; joining a narrow literary circle of Moscow writers and close communication with N. Yazykov, I. Kireevsky and A. Khomyakov. Year after year, starting from 1826, collections of his works have been published: the poems “Eda”, “Feasts”, “Ball”, “Concubine”, lyric poems and others.

Last years of life

At the age of 36, Baratynsky, after the death of his wife’s father, took possession of an estate near Moscow - Muranovo. He settled there with Anastasia Lvovna and the children, and practically never left. During the same period, in 1842, another cycle was published - “Twilight”.

And in the fall of 1843, the great Russian poet went on a family trip to Europe. Berlin, Frankfurt, Dresden, Paris - this is an incomplete list of cities visited by the Baratynsky family. There were some pleasant surprises - new acquaintances with the writer Prosper Merimee, historians Amedee and Thierry, and poet Sainte-Beuve. They were delighted with his talent, and at their insistence he translated fifteen of his lyrical works.

With the arrival of spring 1844, the family decided to move to Naples. They went on a journey by sea, during which he wrote his last poem. The day after his arrival, Yevgeny Abramovich’s headaches that had previously bothered him intensified and he suddenly died.

Other biography options

• For children, the first acquaintance with the work and short biography of Evgeniy Baratynsky occurs in the 4th grade. Schoolchildren know that he was born in the era of Pushkin and was considered the first great Russian poet after him.
• At the age of 20, the young poet wrote a poem that was prophetic. In it, he said that he had already stepped into the second half of his life, and it would end not just anywhere, but in a distant and foreign country.
• They say that Baratynsky knew Russian grammar very poorly. Once he even asked A. Delvig what the “parent case” was. In his works he used only commas and no other punctuation marks.

Evgeniy Abramovich Baratynsky, whose biography arouses sincere interest among fans of poetic lyricism, is a famous Russian poet of the 19th century, a contemporary and friend of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.

Childhood years

Born on February 19, 1800 into a poor family of nobles living in the Tambov province. His mother Alexandra Fedorovna was a maid of honor, and his father Abram Andreevich was an adjutant general.

The boy spoke foreign languages ​​from early childhood. French was accepted in the Baratynskys' house; at the age of 8, Zhenya spoke it fluently. He learned Italian thanks to his uncle, the Italian Borghese, and studied German in a private boarding school in St. Petersburg, where his parents sent him in 1808.

In 1810, his father passed away, and his mother, an intelligent, educated woman, completely shouldered the responsibility of raising her son. In 1812, Eugene entered the Corps of Pages in the city of St. Petersburg. There, with a certain group of comrades, he took part in pranks, which ended very sadly for him. One of them bordered on a crime (theft) and became the reason for the young man’s expulsion from an educational institution without the right to enter the civil service, except for the soldier.

This shameful incident greatly affected 15-year-old Evgeniy. The young man was more than once ready to say goodbye to life. As if through a dark glass, Evgeny Baratynsky began to look at the world around him. His poems had a pessimistic mood, bordering on mental anguish, the pangs of shame experienced.

Baratynsky Evgeniy Abramovich: biography

After being expelled, Baratynsky went to the Tambov province, to the village to visit his mother. Periodically visited his uncle, Admiral B.A. Baratynsky, who lived in the Smolensk province. Life in the rural open spaces fully awakened Evgenia’s poetic talent. The rhyming lines of the early period were quite weak, but within a couple of days Baratynsky gained confidence and his own individual style.

In 1819, Evgeny Baratynsky, whose poems are studied in the school curriculum, was enlisted in the St. Petersburg Jaeger Regiment as a private. Interest in literature during this period prompted him to purposefully seek acquaintance with writers as a young author. His work was appreciated by Anton Antonovich Delvig, who had a significant influence on Baratynsky’s writing style. The writer morally supported the young man, helped him publish his own works and introduced him to such famous writers as Pyotr Pletnev, Wilhelm Küchelbecker, and Alexander Pushkin.

“I’m reckless - and no wonder!” - Evgeny Baratynsky addresses Delvig specifically in this poem, written in 1823, where he talks about his heartache, and a manifestation of his friendship with Alexander Sergeevich was the publication of the book “Two Stories in Verse,” which included poems by Baratynsky “The Ball” and Pushkin “ Count Nulin."

Years in Finland

In 1820, Evgeniy Abramovich Baratynsky, whose biography is of sincere interest to fans of his work, with the rank of non-commissioned officer, joined the Neyshlotsky regiment, based in Finland. There he stayed for 5 years. He led a calm, secluded life. were a couple of officers whom he met with the regimental commander. This period, which left the deepest impressions in Baratynsky’s mind, was clearly reflected in his poetry. The harsh region was described in the poems “Waterfall”, “Finland”, “Eda”.

Epigrams, madrigals, elegies and messages of Baratynsky began to appear in print periodically. The poem “Feasts,” published in 1820, brought him particular success. At this time, Evgeniy became close to the memoirist and historian N.V. Putyata, with whom he preserved his friendship until the end of his days. Nikolai Vasilyevich described Evgeny as a thin, pale man, whose features expressed the deepest despondency.

Baratynsky Evgeniy Abramovich: interesting facts

Thanks to Putyata's petition, in 1824 Eugene was allowed to come to Helsingfors (the capital of Finland). There he was at the corps headquarters of General Zakrevsky and became very interested in his wife Agrafena. The poet dedicated many poetic lines to his muse (“To me with noticeable rapture”, “Justification”, “No, rumor deceived you”, “Fairy”, “Ball”, “I am reckless - and no wonder!”). Evgeny Baratynsky suffered a lot because of this love. Later, the conqueror of men’s hearts had an affair with A.S. Pushkin.

Meanwhile, Baratynsky's friends persistently sought to assign him an officer's rank and all the time encountered refusal from the emperor. The reason for this was the independent nature of the writer’s creativity, his oppositional statements. Baratynsky was not a Decembrist, but the ideas that were embodied in the activities of secret societies completely took possession of his consciousness. Political opposition was reflected in the epigram on Arakcheev, the elegy “Storm”, and the poem “Stanzas”. Finally, in 1825, Eugene was promoted to officer, which gave him the opportunity to control his own destiny. He settled in Moscow, started a family (Nastasya Lvovna Engelgard became Evgeniy Baratynsky’s wife) and soon retired.

The settled life of Baratynsky

His life became monotonous; his wife had a restless character, which caused a lot of suffering to Eugene and influenced the fact that many friends moved away from him.

A peaceful family life smoothed out in the poet all the rebellious, violent things that tormented him in recent years. The poet lived sometimes in the capital, sometimes on his estate (the village of Muranovo), sometimes in Kazan, and often traveled to St. Petersburg.

In 1839, Baratynsky met Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov. In Moscow he became friends with such writers as N. F. Pavlov, A. S. Khomyakov, I. V. Kireevsky, S. A. Sobolevsky. The result of the first period of Yevgeny Baratynsky’s work was a collection of his poems published in 1827.

Baratynsky's creativity

The defeat of the Decembrist uprising radically changed the social life of Russia, which could not but affect Baratynsky’s poetry. Themes of loneliness, great sorrow, glorification of death as the “solution of all chains” (“Death”, “What are you for, days”, “Last death”, “Bastard”, “Why should a slave dream of freedom?”) came to the fore in his creativity. In the poems, the pessimistic motives of grief, the doom of art, the inferiority of human nature, and the impending destruction of humanity are acutely felt.

In 1832, the magazine "European" began to be published; Baratynsky became one of the active authors. There were only two publications of the publication, after which the magazine was banned. The great Russian poet, deprived of a strong motivation for verbal labors, fell into a hopeless, aching melancholy.

In 1835, the second edition of his works was published, which at that time seemed to be the completion of his creative path. The last book published during Baratynsky’s lifetime was the collection “Twilight” (1842), which united poems from the 1830s and 1840s and was dedicated to Prince Andreevich. It clearly expresses the contradiction between historical progress and the spiritual and aesthetic nature of man.

Travel to Naples

Since the end of 1839, Baratynsky Evgeniy Abramovich (life years - 1800-1844) with his wife and nine children lived in the Muranovo estate near Moscow, which later belonged to the Tyutchevs. The poet liked village life: he enjoyed farming, without stopping his creative search.

In 1843, Baratynsky Evgeniy Abramovich, whose biography was coming to an end, went abroad with his older children and wife, spent six months in Paris, met with writers and public figures in France. To introduce the French to his poetry, the poet translated several poems into their native language.

In 1844, Baratynsky went by sea to Naples via Marseille. Even at the beginning of the journey, he felt unwell, and doctors warned him about the possibility of adverse effects from the hot climate of Italy. Upon arrival in Naples, Baratynsky’s wife suffered a painful nervous attack, which had a very strong effect on Yevgeny Abramovich. His headaches increased sharply, often bothering him. The day after the incident - July 11, 1844 - Baratynsky suddenly died.

The poet's body was transported to St. Petersburg and buried at the Lazarevsky cemetery, in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.

Baratynsky's poetry - poetry of thought

As the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin said, Baratynsky’s poetry is the poetry of thought. The poet of modern times, a romantic with a complex spiritual world, full of grief and sorrow, who invested great personal passion in art, was original, because he thought correctly and independently. Belinsky rightly believed that of all the poets who were Pushkin’s contemporaries, Evgeniy Abramovich Baratynsky ranks first. His work is a huge legacy for the modern generation. After Baratynsky's death, a long period of almost complete oblivion of his works began. Interest in the poet's work was revived at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries.

The school curriculum includes a poem written by Evgeny Baratynsky in 1832 - “Spring”. With unique trepidation and tenderness, the author conveys all the unusualness of the arrival of spring. Nature under Baratynsky’s pen seems to come to life, breathe and sing.

There is a completely opposite mood in the poem “Where is the sweet whisper...”. Evgeny Baratynsky describes the arrival of winter, its freezing cold, gloomy sky and angry raging wind.

My gift is poor, and my voice is not loud,
But I live, and on earth is mine
Existence is kind to someone:
My distant descendant will find it
In my poems; who knows? my soul
Will find himself in intercourse with his soul,
And how I found a friend in a generation,
I will find a reader in posterity. (E. Baratynsky)

Evgeny Abramovich Boratynsky (Baratynsky; 1800-1844) - Russian poet, friend of Pushkin, one of the most significant Russian poets of the first half of the 19th century.

Baratynsky was a “sincere and passionate seeker of truth,” his work is distinguished by the depth of philosophical thought and the perfection of artistic form.

Life path

He came from an old Polish family that settled in the 17th century. in Russia. The poet was born on February 19, 1800 into a noble family in the village of Mara, Kirsanovsky district, Tambov province. He received his primary education in the village, under the supervision of an Italian uncle, then in a St. Petersburg French boarding school and page corps. As a result of a serious offense - the theft of a fairly large sum of money from the father of a comrade - he was expelled from the corps with a permanent ban on entering service other than military service as a private. This punishment greatly shocked Baratynsky (he suffered from a serious nervous disorder and was close to suicide) and left an imprint on his character and subsequent fate.

The efforts of Baratynsky’s relatives to forgive him were not crowned with success; he leaves for St. Petersburg and enlists as a private in the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment. Soon he was promoted to non-commissioned officer, and with the Neishlot infantry regiment he went to Finland, where he spent about 5 years. He was fascinated by the harsh, majestic nature of Finland, he observed local customs and everyday life, all this is reflected in his work.

Baratynsky's first poem was published with the help of A. Delvig in the magazine "Blagomarnenny" in 1819 1823-1824. - the time of Baratynsky’s greatest closeness with K. Ryleev and A. Bestuzhev, who published his poems in the Decembrist almanac “Polar Star”. But civil poetry was not Baratynsky’s calling. However, the well-known epigram on the Minister of War A. Arakcheev “The Fatherland's Enemy, Servant of the Tsar” (1825) and some other works speak of the rather oppositional sentiments of the young poet, but the idea of ​​​​changing the foundations of existence seems to him unpromising and useless.

Enemy of the Fatherland, servant of the Tsar,
To the scourge of peoples - autocracy -
Some kind of hellish love of grief,
He is not familiar with another passion.
Hiding from view, he acts in the dark,
To act more freely.
No need for a name: everyone has it on their lips,
As a terrible name of the ruler of the underworld.

Finally, on April 21, 1825, Baratynsky received an officer rank, went on vacation and then retired. Changes also occur in the poet’s personal life: he marries Anastasia Lvovna Engelhardt. She did not have any particular beauty, but the poet himself said about her in the poem “She”:

There is something in her that is more beautiful than beauty,
What speaks not with feelings - with the soul;
There is something about her that is more autocratic over the heart
Earthly love and earthly charms.

Baratynsky's marriage turned out to be very happy.

Lyrics by Baratynsky 1826-1834 acquires an increasingly deeper philosophical character, it contains thoughts about the role of the poet and poetry, about the fate of humanity and art, about life and death, about human passions and the laws of eternal beauty...

In 1842, Baratynsky published his last collection of poems, “Twilight,” which included poems from 1834-1841. During this period, the motive for the discord between the surrounding reality and the inner world of man intensifies:

The century moves along its iron path;


Poetry, childish dreams,

Baratynsky died suddenly while traveling abroad, in Naples on June 29, 1844. His body was transported to St. Petersburg, where he was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra next to Krylov, Gnedich, Karamzin at the Tikhvin cemetery.

In the Muranovo estate near Moscow, where Baratynsky spent the last years of his life, a literary and memorial museum of E.A. was created. Baratynsky and F.I. Tyutchev “Muranovo” - from 1816 to 1918. Muranov was owned, successively replacing each other, by four families connected by family ties - the Engelhardts, the Boratynskys, the Putyats and the Tyutchevs. Each of them was involved in the literary life of Russia.

Creativity of E. Baratynsky

According to many literary critics, the main lines of Baratynsky’s work were parallel to the work of Pushkin: both began by imitating the dominant models of the beginning of the century - the erotic-elegiac poetry of Batyushkov, the elegies of Zhukovsky; both have passed through the stage of the romantic poem; finally, the last period in the work of both is colored by a distinct realistic style of writing. But despite the similarity of the main lines, Baratynsky’s poetic style is distinguished by a remarkable originality - “originality”, which Pushkin himself so noted and appreciated in him (“he never trudged on the heels of a captivating genius of his age, picking up the ears of corn that he had dropped: he walked his way alone and independent").

As mentioned above, the youthful mistake and its consequences left a strong imprint on the poet’s fate: his work is distinguished by sharp individualism, concentrated loneliness, isolation in oneself, in one’s inner world, the world of “dry sorrow” - hopeless thoughts about man and his nature, humanity and its destinies.

There is being; but what name
Name him? It is neither sleep nor vigil;
Between them it is, and in man it
Reason borders on madness.
He fully understands his
And meanwhile, like the waves on him,
Some are more rebellious and wayward than others,
Visions run from all sides:
As if from their ancient homeland
He was given over to spontaneous confusion;
But sometimes, inflamed by a dream,
He sees a light that is not revealed to others.

(“The Last Death,” 1827, excerpt).

The external world, nature for these lyrics are only “landscapes of the soul”, a way of symbolizing internal states. All these features take Baratynsky beyond the circle of poets of Pushkin’s galaxy, making his work close and akin to the poetry of the Symbolists. At the same time, due to the preservation of economic ties with the nobility, Baratynsky, like none of the poets of the galaxy, feels his closeness with the “fertile” 18th century - “powerful years” - the period of the highest class flowering of the nobility; he hates the approaching bourgeois-capitalist culture:

The century marches on its iron path;
There is self-interest in our hearts and a common dream
From time to time, vital and useful
More clearly, more shamelessly busy.
Disappeared in the light of enlightenment
Poetry, childish dreams,
And it’s not about her that generations are busy,
Dedicated to industrial concerns.

(“The Last Poet,” 1835, excerpt).

Along with elegies, Baratynsky’s favorite genres are the characteristic “small genres” of the 18th century: madrigal, album inscription, epigram. A rationalist seeking to overcome his rationalism, a “decadent” in his themes and their specific sharpening, a symbolist in some of his techniques, an archaist in language, in the general character of the style - from such complex, contradictory elements, Baratynsky’s integral and highly original poetic image is formed, “not general expression” - which the poet himself rightly recognized as his main advantage.

I am not blinded by my Muse:
They won't call her beautiful
And the young men, seeing her, followed her
They won't run in a crowd of people in love.
Lure with exquisite attire,
Playing with the eyes, brilliant conversation,
She has neither inclination nor gift;
But a glimpse of light is astonishing
Her face has an uncommon expression,
Her speeches are calm and simple;
And he, rather than caustic condemnation,
She will be honored with casual praise.

(“Muse”, 1829).

Lyrics by Baratynsky 1826-1834 is becoming increasingly philosophical in nature. The lyrics of these years contain elegiac reflections on the role of the poet and poetry, on the fate of humanity and art, on life and death, on human passions and the laws of eternal beauty...

In 1842, Baratynsky published his last collection of poems, “Twilight,” which included poems written in 1834-1841.

His poems stand somewhat apart from Baratynsky’s lyrics, overshadowed from his contemporaries by the work of Pushkin.

Baratynsky’s deeply original poetry was forgotten throughout the century, and only at the very end of it did the Symbolists, who found so many similar elements in it, renewed interest in Baratynsky’s work, proclaiming him one of the three greatest Russian poets, along with Pushkin and Tyutchev.