Military service feta. Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet biography - briefly the most important

Afanasy Fet is an outstanding Russian poet, translator and memoirist, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. His poems are known and read not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders.

Soon he successfully passed the exams at Moscow University at the Faculty of Law, but then transferred to the verbal department of the Faculty of Philosophy.

At the university, the student made friends with the famous writer and journalist Mikhail Pogodin.

While studying at the university, Afanasy Fet did not stop writing new poems. Once he wanted to know Pogodin's opinion regarding his work.

He spoke positively about his poems and even decided to show them.

Imagine Fet's surprise when he learned that his work made an excellent impression on famous writer... Gogol called the young poet "an undoubted talent."

Fet's works

Inspired by praise, in 1840 Athanasius Fet published a collection of poetry "Lyrical Pantheon", which was the first in his creative biography... Since that time, his poems began to appear in various Moscow publications.

A few years later, in the life of Fet, major changes... In 1844 his mother and beloved uncle passed away.

It is worth noting that after the death of his uncle, he hoped to receive an inheritance from him. However, for some unknown reason, the money disappeared.

As a result, Afanasy Afanasyevich was left practically without means of subsistence. To make a fortune, he decided to become a cavalryman and rise to the rank of officer.

In 1850, the second collection of Afanasy Fet was published, which aroused great interest among critics and ordinary readers. 6 years later, a third edited collection appeared.

In 1863, Fet published a two-volume collection of his own poems. There were many lyric works in him, in which he excellently described human qualities. In addition to poetry, he was also fond of writing elegies and ballads.

It is worth noting that Afanasy Fet gained great popularity as a translator. During his biography, he managed to translate both parts of Faust and many works of Latin poets, among whom were Horace, Juvenal, Ovid and Virgil.

An interesting fact is that at one time Fet wanted to translate the Bible into, since he considered the synodal translation unsatisfactory. He also planned to translate Critique of Pure Reason. However, these plans never came true.

Fet's poems

Among the hundreds of poems in the biography of Fet, the most popular are:

• If the morning makes you happy ...
• Steppe in the evening
• I will only meet your smile ...
• I stood motionless for a long time ...
• I came to you with greetings ...

Personal life

By nature, Afanasy Fet was a rather extraordinary person. Many saw him as a serious and thoughtful person.

As a result, his fans could not understand how such a closed personality managed to vividly, vividly and easily describe nature and human feelings.

One day in the summer of 1848 Fet was invited to a ball. Getting acquainted with the invited guests and watching the dances, he noticed a black-haired girl Maria Lazic, who was the daughter of a retired general.

Interestingly, Maria was already familiar with the work of Athanasius Fet, because she loved poetry.

Soon correspondence began between the young people. Later, the girl inspired Fet to write many poems and played an important role in his biography.

Nevertheless, Athanasius Fet did not want to propose to Mary, since she was as poor as himself. As a result, their correspondence stopped, and at the same time any communication.

Soon, Maria Lazic died tragically. From an accidentally thrown match, her outfit caught fire, as a result of which she received many burns incompatible with life.

Some biographers of Fet argue that the death of the young beauty was a suicide.

When the writer gained a certain popularity and was able to improve his financial situation, he went on a trip to the cities of Europe.

Abroad, Fet met a wealthy woman, Maria Botkina, who later became his wife. And although this marriage was not for love, but for calculation, the couple lived a happy life together.

Death

Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet died on November 21, 1892 of a heart attack at the age of 71.

Some researchers of Fet's biography believe that his death was preceded by a suicide attempt, but this version has no reliable facts.

The poet was buried in the village of Kleimenovo, the Shenshin family estate in the Oryol region of Russia.

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The future poet was born on November 23 (December 5, new style), 1820 in the village. Novoselki, Mtsensk district, Oryol province (Russian Empire).

As the son of Charlotte-Elizabeth Becker, who left Germany in 1820, Athanasius was adopted by the nobleman Shenshin. 14 years later, an unpleasant event occurred in the biography of Afanasy Fet: an error was discovered in the birth record, which deprived him of his title.

Education

In 1837, Fet graduated from the Krummer private boarding school in the city of Verro (now Estonia). In 1838 he entered the Faculty of Philosophy at Moscow University, continuing to take a great interest in literature. He graduated from the university in 1844.

The poet's creativity

In a short biography of Fet, it is worth noting that the first poems were written by him in his youth. Fet's poetry was first published in the collection "Lyric Pantheon" in 1840. Since then, Fet's poems have been constantly published in magazines.

Striving by all possible ways to regain the title of nobility, Afanasy Fet went to serve as a non-commissioned officer. Then, in 1853, in the life of Fet, there was a transition to the Guards regiment. Fet's creativity, even in those days, does not stand still. In 1850 his second collection was published, in 1856 - the third.

In 1857, the poet marries Maria Botkina. Having retired in 1858, without having achieved the return of the title, he acquires land and devotes himself to housekeeping.

Fet's new works, published from 1862 to 1871, comprise the series From the Village and Notes on Free Hired Labor. They include short stories, short stories, essays. Afanasy Afanasievich Fet strictly distinguishes between his prose and poetry. Poetry is romantic for him, and prose is realistic.

Afanasy Afanasevich Fet (23.11.1820-21.11.1892), Russian poet. His father was the German Johann-Peter-Karl-Wilhelm Föth (Fö), assessor of the city court of Darmstadt. Mother Charlotte-Elizabeth Becker was married to her husband for only about a year. She, being pregnant with him (this is confirmed by her letters to her first husband and relatives), was carried away by a 45-year-old Russian nobleman, captain Afanasy Shenshin, who was in Germany for treatment, and in September 1820 she left for Russia with him.

Her son was born in the village. Novoselki, Oryol province, was baptized by Orthodox rite, named Afanasy, in the register of births recorded by the son of the landowner Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin. In September 1822 Shenshin married Charlotte Becker, who converted to Orthodoxy before the wedding and became known as Elizabeth Petrovna Fet.

In 1834, when Afanasy Shenshin was 14 years old, a certain "mistake" in the documents (lack of official adoption) was discovered, the boy was stripped of his surname, nobility and Russian citizenship and became a "Hessendarmstadt subject Afanasy Fet". This became a trauma for him, as he considered himself the son of Shenshin, and not Fet. Only in 1873 he was able to officially take the surname Shenshin, but he continued to sign literary works with the surname Fet, since he had already gained fame with this name.

In 1834-1837. Fet studied at a German boarding school in Verro (now Võru, Estonia), then at the verbal department of the Faculty of Philosophy (graduated in 1844), where he became close to the writers A.A. Grigoriev, Ya.P. Polonsky. In the same period, he began to write and publish his poems.

Fet's first poetry collection "The Lyric Pantheon" was published in 1840 with the participation of Grigoriev. In 1842, publications followed in the journals Moskvityanin and Otechestvennye zapiski. In 1845, wishing to serve the nobility, Fet entered the military service in the cuirassier regiment and a year later received the first officer's rank.

In 1850, a second collection of poems was published, which met with positive reviews from critics. 1853 Fet was transferred to a guards regiment stationed near St. Petersburg. The poet often visits the capital and gets acquainted with, and others. Becomes closer to the editorial board of the Sovremennik magazine. With their assistance, in 1856 Fet's third collection appeared (edited by Turgenev).

Having married in 1857 to M.P. Botkina, the poet retires with the rank of the guards staff captain and becomes a successful landowner. It ceases to be published, and in 1859 terminates relations with the Sovremennik magazine. Even the publication of the two-volume collection of Fet's poems in 1863 does not change this. In 1867, Fet was elected magistrate for 11 years. In 1873 the nobility and the Shenshin surname were returned to him.

During the years of Fet's poetic silence, his interests are evidenced by the works of Horace, Ovid, Goethe ("Faust"), and Schopenhauer's philosophical treatises, translated into Russian by him. Only at the end of his life Fet returned to poetry, released 4 collections of poems under common name"Evening Lights" (1883, 1885, 1888, 1891). He also wrote his memoirs "My Memories" and " early years of my life".

Fet's romantic poetry is apolitical and alien to the interests of public life of that time (he constantly argued about this with Nekrasov). Fet acutely feels and unusually "musically" reflects in his poems the currents of being in Russian nature, which also reflects the "landscape" of the multifaceted Russian soul. In that main force harmonious poetry of a born German by blood, who became an outstanding Russian poet.

Fet died in Moscow of a heart attack on November 21, 1892. He was buried in the village of Kleimenovo, the Shenshin family estate.

From the poems of A.A. FETA

Wonderful picture
How dear you are to me:
White plain
Full moon,

The light of the high heavens,
And shiny snow
And the sledges distant
Lonely run.

What a night! What bliss is all over!
Thank you, dear midnight land!
From the kingdom of ice, from the kingdom of blizzards and snow
How fresh and clean your May flies!

What a night! All the stars to one
Warmly and meekly look into the soul again,
And in the air following the song of the nightingale
Anxiety and love are spreading.

The birches are waiting. Their leaf is translucent
Shyly beckons and amuses the eye.
They tremble. So to the newlywed virgin
And her dress is joyful and alien.

No, never more tender and incorporeal
Your face, oh night, could not torment me!
Again I go to you with an involuntary song,
Unwitting - and the last, maybe.

Not so, Lord, mighty, incomprehensible
You are in front of my restless mind
That on a starry day, your bright Seraphim
A huge ball lit over the world.
And to a dead man with a flaming face
He commanded to keep Your laws,
Awaken everything with a life-giving ray,
Keeping their ardor for centuries millions;
No, you are powerful and incomprehensible to me
By the fact that I myself, powerless and instant,
I wear it in my chest like this Seraphim,
The fire is stronger and brighter than the whole universe
Meanwhile, as I, the prey of vanity,
The plaything of her impermanence
In me he is eternal, omnipresent, like you,
He knows neither time nor space.

Birth story. Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet was born in November or December 1820 in the village. Novoselki, Oryol province. The story of his birth is not entirely common. His father, Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin, a retired captain, belonged to an old noble family and was a wealthy landowner. While undergoing medical treatment in Germany, he married Charlotte Fet, whom he took to Russia from her living husband and daughter. Two months later, Charlotte gave birth to a boy named Athanasius and given the surname Shenshin.

Fourteen years later, the spiritual authorities of Oryol discovered that the child was born before the wedding of his parents and Athanasius was deprived of the right to bear his father's surname and title of nobility and became a German citizen. This event was a very impressionable soul of a child, and Fet experienced the ambiguity of his position almost all his life. The special position in the family influenced the further fate of Athanasius Fet - he had to win his noble rights, which the church deprived him of. Between the university and the army. Although the Shenshin family was not distinguished by a special culture, Fet received a good education.

From 1835 to 1837 he studied at a German Protestant boarding school in Verro (now Võru, Estonia). Here he enthusiastically studies classical philology and secretly begins to write poetry. Fet mastered here Latin language, which helped him later translate ancient Roman poets. After Verro, Fet continued his education at the boarding school of Professor Pogodin for training at Moscow University, where he was enrolled in 1838 in the department of literature of the philosophical faculty. During his university years, Fet became especially friends with the future famous critic and poet Apollo Grigoriev.

Together they discussed the poetry tests of the pen, which were included in the first collection of poetry - "The Lyric Pantheon" (1840): "Let Your dreams into the light, I surrender to sweet hope, What may be a secret smile of beauty on them, Or a slave of tormenting passions, Reading a humble creature, Sharing the Secret Suffering With my agitated soul. ”These were imitative verses, and the poetry of Pushkin and Venediktov, whom, as Fet recalled, he“ howled ”with enthusiasm became the role models.

Within two or three years after the publication of "Lyric Pantheon" Fet published on the pages of magazines, in particular "Moskvityanin" and "Notes of the Fatherland", collections of poems, but they do not bring the expected wealth. With the hope of regaining the nobility, the young poet leaves Moscow and enlisted in the military service in the cuirassier regiment, and settled in the Kherson province. Subsequently, in his memoirs, Fet writes: “This conclusion will continue for a long time - I don’t know, and in a moment, a tablespoon of various Gogol Wii climbs into my eyes, and I still need to smile ... I can compare my life with a dirty puddle”. But in 1858 A. Fet was forced to retire.

He never received noble rights - at that time the nobility gave only the rank of colonel, and he was the headquarters - captain. This made this further military career useless. Of course, military service was not in vain for Fet: these were the years of the dawn of his poetic activity. In 1850, A. Fet's Poems were published in Moscow, which were met with enthusiasm by the readers. In St. Petersburg, he met Nekrasov, Panaev, Druzhinin, Goncharov, Yazykov. He later became friends with Leo Tolstoy. This friendship was of duty and necessary for both.

During the years of military service, Afanasy Fet experienced a tragic love that influenced all of his work. It was love for the daughter of a poor landowner Maria Lazic, a fan of his poetry, a very talented and educated girl. She also fell in love with him, but they were both poor, and A. Fet, for this reason, did not dare to join his fate with his girlfriend. Soon Maria Lazic died under mysterious circumstances.

Until his death, the poet remembered his unhappy love, her unfading breath is heard in many of his poems.
In 1856, a new book by the poet was published. Fulfillment of desires. After retiring, Fet married the critic Botkin's sister, M. Botkin, who belonged to a wealthy Moscow merchant family. It was a marriage of convenience, and the poet sincerely confessed to the bride the secrets of his birth. With the money of his wife, Fet bought the Stepanovka estate in 1860 and became a landowner, where he lived for seventeen years, only occasionally visiting Moscow. Here he was found by the highest decree that the surname Shenshin was finally approved for him, with all the rights associated with it. He became a nobleman.

In 1877, Afanasy Afanasyevich bought the village of Vorobyevka in the Kursk province, where he spent the rest of his life, leaving for Moscow only for the winter. These years, in contrast to the years lived in Stepanovka, are characterized by his return to literature. Beginning in 1883, he published a number of collections of lyric poems, united by a common title - "Evening Lights" (first edition - 1883; second edition - 1885; third edition - 1888; fourth edition - 1891). In his poems, the poet refuses all abstraction, since mental states are difficult to analyze, and even more difficult to convey in words the subtle movements of the soul.

Creativity A. A. Fet. A. Fet's poems are pure poetry, in the context that there is not a drop of prose. Fet limited his poetry to three themes: love, nature, art. As a rule, he did not sing about hot feelings, despair, delight, high thoughts. No, he wrote about the simplest things - about pictures of nature, about rain, about snow, about the sea, about the mountains, about the forest, about the stars, about the most simple movements souls, even about momentary impressions. His poetry is joyful and light, a feeling of light and peace is inherent in it. Even about his ruined love, he writes lightly and calmly, although his feeling is deep and fresh, as in the first minutes. Until the end of his life, Fetu did not change the joy that permeated almost all of his poems.

The beauty, naturalness, sincerity of his poetry reach full perfection, his verse is amazingly expressive, figurative, musical. "This is not just a poet, but rather a poet - musician ..." - Tchaikovsky said about him. Many romances were written on Fet's poems, which quickly gained wide popularity.

Fet is a singer of Russian nature. Feta can be called a singer of Russian nature. The approach of spring and autumn wilting, a fragrant summer night and a frosty day, an endless and endless rye field and a dense shady forest - he writes about all this in his poems. Fet's nature is always calm, quiet, as if frozen. And at the same time, she is surprisingly rich in sounds and colors, lives her own life, hidden from an inattentive eye:

“I came to you with greetings,
Tell that the sun is up
That it is hot light
The sheets fluttered;
Tell that the forest is awake
All woke up, with each branch,
Every bird shook
And full of spring thirst ... "

Perfectly conveys Fet and "fragrant freshness of feelings", inspired by nature, its beauty, charm. His poems are imbued with a light, joyful mood, the happiness of love. The poet unusually subtly reveals the various shades of human experiences. He knows how to capture and clothe in bright, vivid images even fleeting spiritual movements, which are difficult to designate and convey in words:

"Whisper, timid breath,
Nightingale trills,
Silver and wobble
Sleeping stream
Night light, night shadows
Shadows without end
A series of magical changes
Sweet face
In the smoky clouds, purple roses,
Reflections of amber
And kissing and tears
And dawn, dawn! .. "

Usually A. Fet in his poems stops at one figure, at one turn of feelings, and at the same time, his poetry can in no way be called monotonous, on the contrary, it amazes with its diversity and multitude of themes. The special charm of his poems, in addition to the content, is precisely in the nature of the moods of poetry. Muse Feta is light, airy, as if there is nothing earthly in her, although she tells us exactly about the earthly. There is almost no action in his poetry, each of his verses is a whole kind of impressions, thoughts, joys and sorrows.

Take at least such of them as "Your ray, flying far ...", "Motionless eyes, Crazy eyes ...", "The sun is a ray between the limes ...", "You, in silence, I stretches out my hand ..." and others ..
The poet sang beauty where he saw it, and he found it everywhere. He was an artist with an extremely developed sense of beauty. This is probably why there are such wonderful pictures of nature in his poems that he accepted it for what it is, not allowing any adornments of reality.

The poet's love lyrics. The feeling of love, to which many of the poet's works are devoted, was just as wonderful for Fet. Love for him is protection, a safe haven "from the eternal splash and noise of life." Fet's love lyrics are distinguished by the richness of shades, tenderness, warmth coming from the inside of the soul. "Fragrant honey of love joy and magical dreams" Fet portrayed in his works with words of extreme freshness and transparency. Permeated now with light sadness, now with light joy, his love lyrics it still warms the hearts of readers, "it burns with eternal gold in singing."

In all of A. Fet's works, he is impeccably faithful in the descriptions or feelings, then the nature of their small risks, shades, moods. It is thanks to this that the poet created amazing works that have amazed us with filigree psychological precision for so many years. These include such poetic masterpieces as "Whisper, timid breath ...", "I came to you with greetings ...", "At dawn, you don't wake her up ...", "Dawn says goodbye to the earth .... ".

Fet's poetry - the poetry of hints, conjectures, omissions, his poems for the most part have no plot - these are lyrical miniatures, the purpose of which is not so much to convey to the reader thoughts and feelings as the "volatile" mood of the poet. He was far from emotional storms and worries. The poet wrote:

"The language of the bad weather
Was incomprehensible to me. "

Fet was deeply convinced that beauty is real important element building a world that provides him with harmonious balance and integrity. Therefore, he sought and found beauty in everything: in fallen leaves, in a rose that smiled surprisingly “on the day of fast-flying September”, in the colors of the “native sky”. The poet distinguished between the "mind of the mind" and the "mind of the heart." He believed that only with the "mind of the heart" can the beautiful essence of being penetrate through the outer shell. There is no access to anything terrible, ugly, disharmonious in Fet's heart-felt lyricism.

In 1892, the poet died of an asthma attack, two days before he was 72 years old. Before that, he tried to commit suicide. He was buried in the village of Kleimenovo - the family estate of the Shenshins, 25 versts from Orel.

Fet's work had a significant impact on the Symbolist poets of the early twentieth century - V. Bryusov, A. Blok, A. Bely, and then S. Yesenin, B. Pasternak and others.
Conclusion. Analyzing the works of the poet, we can confidently assert that the Russian school of pure art was not only not inferior to the French, but perhaps even surpassed it in some way. Unlike representatives of the French school of "pure art", who in their poems paid attention primarily to the rhythm of the verse, repetitions, alternation of letters in words, the creation of poems - symbols, Russian poets were masters of "musical poems" that were easy to read. The images created in the poems were light, permeated with light, appealed to the best human feelings, taught beauty, taught to find and love beauty in every manifestation of nature, or the feeling of love.

The poems of the representatives of the Russian school of "pure art" are more understandable to the reader, since their poems are not burdened with a large number of symbolic images. An interesting feature Russian poets is that they not only glorified nature, but also treated it as something outstanding, amazing, which can become the meaning of life. It is in nature, love for a woman or a man, that a person should find inspiration for life, work, creativity, love for the homeland. In my opinion, Russian poets of the “pure art” school glorified nature in verse through their special attitude to it, and French poets simply believed that in centuries it was worthy to preserve only poetry about the eternal, something sublime, not ordinary. That is why nature reigned in the poetry of the French.

Therefore, I am more impressed by the poetry of the poets Fet and F. Tyutchev, which, through all the dissimilarity, bewitches with its beauty, subtle sense of the "soul of nature" and the desire to reflect it in all its manifestations.

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The great Russian lyricist A. Fet was born on December 5, 1820. But biographers doubt not only exact date his birth. The mysterious facts of their true origin tormented Fet for the rest of his life. In addition to the absence of a father as such, the situation with the real surname was also incomprehensible. All this envelops Fet's life and work with a kind of mystery.

Fet's parents

According to the official version, the Russian nobleman Afanasy Neofitovich Shenshin, while undergoing treatment in the German city of Darmstadt, settled in the house of the Oberkriegskommissar Karl Becker. After some time, a retired army officer is carried away by the owner's daughter Charlotte. However, Charlotte at that time was already not free and was married to a small German official Karl Fet, who also lived in Becker's house.

Despite these circumstances, and even if Charlotte has a daughter from Fet, a whirlwind romance ensues. The feelings of the lovers were so strong that Charlotte decided to flee with Shenshin to Russia. In the fall of 1820, Charlotte, leaving her husband and daughter, leaves Germany.

Mother's protracted divorce

An essay on the life and work of Fet is impossible without a story about the relationship of his parents. Already in Russia, Charlotte dreams of an official divorce from Karl Fet. But divorce in those days was a rather lengthy process. Some biographers claim that because of this, the wedding ceremony between Shenshin and Charlotte took place two years after the birth of little Athanasius, their common son. According to one version, Shenshin allegedly bribed the priest in order to give the boy his last name.

Probably, it was this fact that influenced the poet's entire life. Violations of this kind in Russian Empire were pretty strict. However, all sources confirm the fact of the wedding of Shenshin and Charlotte, who later took the name of Shenshina.

From nobles to beggars

Getting acquainted with the biography of the lyricist, one involuntarily wonders what influenced the life and work of Fet. It is difficult to find out all the details to the smallest detail. But the major milestones are within our reach. Little Afanasy until the age of 14 considered himself a hereditary Russian nobleman. But then, thanks to the diligent work of judicial officials, the secret of the child's origin was revealed. In 1834, an investigation was carried out in this case, as a result of which, by a decree of the Oryol provincial government, the future poet was deprived of the right to be called Shenshin.

It is clear that the ridicule of his recent comrades immediately began, which the boy experienced rather painfully. This is partly what contributed to the development mental illness Fet, who pursued him to death. However, it was much more important that in this situation he did not have not only the right to inheritance, but in general, judging by the documents presented from the archives of that time, he was a person without a confirmed nationality. At one point, a hereditary Russian nobleman with a rich inheritance turned into a beggar, no one except his mother the right person, without a surname and the loss was so great that Fet himself considered this event disfiguring his life to his deathbed.

Foreigner fet

One can imagine what the poet's mother went through, begging the judges' hookers for at least some kind of certificate of the origin of her son. But it was all in vain. The woman went the other way.

Remembering her German roots, she appealed to the pity of her former German husband. History is silent about how Elena Petrovna achieved the desired result. But he was. Relatives sent an official confirmation that Athanasius is the son of Fet.

So the poet got at least a surname, the life and work of Fet received a new impetus in development. However, in all circulars he still continued to be referred to as "foreigner Fet". The natural conclusion from this was the complete deprivation of inheritance. After all, now the foreigner had nothing to do with the nobleman Shenshin. It was at this moment that he was possessed by the idea by any means to regain the lost Russian name and title.

The first steps in poetry

Afanasy enters Moscow University at the Faculty of Literature and is referred to in university forms in the same way - "foreigner Fet". There he met the future poet and critic. Historians believe that the life and work of Fet changed at that very moment: it is believed that Grigoriev discovered the poetic gift of Afanasy.

Feta - "The Lyric Pantheon" is coming out soon. The poet wrote it while still a university student. Readers highly appreciated the young man's gift - they didn't care what class the author belongs to. And even the harsh critic Belinsky has repeatedly emphasized in his articles the poetic gift of the young lyricist. Belinsky's responses, in fact, served as a kind of pass to the world of Russian poetry for Fet.

Afanasy began to publish in various publications and after a few years he prepared a new lyric collection.

Military service

However, the joy of creativity could not cure Fet's sick soul. The thought of his true origin haunted young man... He was ready to do anything to prove it. In the name of a great goal, Fet immediately after graduation enters the military service, hoping to earn the nobility in the army. He ends up serving in one of the provincial regiments located in the Kherson province. And immediately the first success - Fet officially receives Russian citizenship.

But his poetic activity does not end, he still continues to write and publish a lot. After some time, the army life of the provincial unit makes itself felt: the life and work of Fet (he writes poetry less and less) are becoming darker and more uninteresting. The craving for poetry diminishes.

Fet in personal correspondence begins to complain to friends about the hardships of his current existence. Moreover, judging by some of the letters, he is in financial difficulties. The poet is even ready to just get rid of the current oppressive physically and morally deplorable situation.

Transfer to St. Petersburg

Fet's life and work were rather gloomy. Summarizing the main events, we note that the poet pulled the soldier's strap for eight long years. And just before receiving the first officer's rank in his life, Fet learns about a special decree that raised the length of service and the level of the army rank to receive a noble rank. In other words, the nobility was now provided only to a person who received a higher officer rank than Fet had. This news completely demoralized the poet. He understood that he was unlikely to reach this rank. Fet's life and work were again reshaped by someone else's mercy.

A woman with whom one could associate one's life of convenience was also not on the horizon. Fet continued to serve, becoming more and more depressed.

However, luck finally smiled at the poet: he managed to transfer to the Guards Life-Uhlan Regiment, which was stationed near St. Petersburg. This event happened in 1853 and amazingly coincided with a change in the attitude of society towards poetry. Some decline in interest in literature, which became apparent in the mid-1840s, has passed.

Now, when Nekrasov became the editor-in-chief of the Sovremennik magazine and gathered the elite of Russian literature under his wing, times clearly contributed to the development of any creative thought. Finally, the second collection of Fet's poems, written long ago, was published, which the poet himself had forgotten about.

Poetic confession

The poems published in the collection made an impression on connoisseurs of poetry. And soon such well-known literary critics of the time as V.P. Botkin and A.V. Druzhinin left rather flattering reviews about their works. Moreover, under pressure from Turgenev, they helped Fet publish a new book.

In essence, these were all the same previously written poems of 1850. In 1856, after the release of a new collection, the life and work of Fet changed again. In short, Nekrasov himself drew attention to the poet. A lot of flattering words addressed to Afanasy Fet were written by the master of Russian literature. Inspired by such high praises, the poet develops a stormy activity. He is published in almost all literary journals, which undoubtedly contributed to some improvement in the financial situation.

Romantic infatuation

The life and work of Fet were gradually filled with light. His most important desire - to receive a title of nobility - was to come true soon. But the next imperial decree again raised the bar for obtaining hereditary nobility. Now, in order to acquire the coveted rank, it was necessary to rise to the rank of colonel. The poet realized that it was simply useless to continue pulling the hated strap of military service.

But as often happens, a person cannot but be lucky in absolutely everything. While still in Ukraine, Fet was invited to a reception with his friends Brzhevsky and in a neighboring estate he met a girl who then did not leave his head for a long time. It was a gifted musician Elena Lazych, whose talent amazed even the famous composer who was then touring Ukraine.

As it turned out, Elena was a passionate admirer of Fet's poetry, and he, in turn, was amazed at the girl's musical abilities. Of course, without romance it is impossible to imagine the life and work of Fet. Summary his romance with Lazic fits into one phrase: young people had tender feelings for each other. However, Fet is very burdened by his disastrous financial situation and does not dare to take a serious turn of events. The poet tries to explain her problems to Lazic, but she, like all girls in such a situation, does not understand his torment poorly. Fet tells Elena in plain text that there will be no wedding.

The tragic death of a loved one

After that, he tries not to see the girl. Leaving for St. Petersburg, Athanasius realizes that he is doomed to eternal spiritual loneliness. According to some historians studying his life and work, Afanasy Fet wrote too pragmatically to friends about marriage, about love and about Elena Lazich. Most likely, the romantic Fet was simply carried away by Elena, not intending to burden himself with a more serious relationship.

In 1850, being a guest of the same Brzhevskys, he did not dare to go to a neighboring estate to dot the i's. Later, Fet was very sorry about this. The fact is that Elena soon died tragically. History is silent as to whether her terrible death was a suicide or not. But the fact remains: the girl was burned to death in the estate.

Fet himself learned about this when he once again visited his friends. This shocked him so much that until the end of his life the poet blamed himself for Elena's death. He was tormented by the fact that he could not find the right words to calm the girl and explain his behavior to her. After the death of Lazic, there was a lot of misinterpretation, but no one ever proved Fet's involvement in this sad event.

Marriage of convenience

Rightly judging that in the army, he is unlikely to achieve his goal - a title of nobility, Fet takes a long vacation. Taking with him all the accumulated royalties, the poet rushes to travel across Europe. In 1857, in Paris, he unexpectedly married Maria Petrovna Botkina, the daughter of a wealthy tea merchant, who, among other things, was the sister of the literary critic V.P. Botkin. Apparently, this was the very marriage of convenience that the poet had dreamed of for so long. Contemporaries very often asked Fet about the reasons for the marriage, to which he answered with eloquent silence.

In 1858 Fet came to Moscow. He is again plagued by thoughts of the scarcity of finances. Apparently, his wife's dowry does not fully meet his requirements. The poet writes a lot, is published a lot. Often the quantity of works does not correspond to their quality. This is noticed by both close friends and literary critics. The audience also seriously lost interest in Fet's work.

Landlord

Around the same time Leo Tolstoy leaves the bustle of the capital. Having settled in Yasnaya Polyana, he is trying to regain inspiration. Probably Fet decided to follow his example and settle in his estate in Stepanovka. It is sometimes said that Fet's life and work ended here. Interesting Facts, however, were found in this period. Unlike Tolstoy, who really found a second wind in the provinces, Fet is increasingly abandoning literature. He is now passionate about the estate and the economy.

It should be noted that he really found himself as a landowner. After a while, Fet multiplies his holdings by purchasing several more neighboring estates.

Afanasy Shenshin

In 1863, the poet publishes a small lyric collection. Even in spite of the small circulation, it remained unsold. On the other hand, the landlord neighbors appreciated Fet in a completely different quality. For about 11 years, he served as an elective judge of the peace.

The life and work of Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet were subordinated to the only goal to which he went with amazing persistence - the restoration of his noble rights. In 1873, a royal decree was issued, which puts an end to the poet's forty-year ordeals. He was fully restored in rights and legalized as a nobleman with the surname Shenshin. Afanasy Afanasyevich confesses to his wife that he does not even want to pronounce the hated surname Fet aloud.