Nikolay Karamzin - translator and journalist; the founder of sentimentalism and the creator of the multivolume "History of the Russian State". From him began the literary language, which Zhukovsky and Pushkin later wrote; the fascination with Russian history also began with him.
Biography
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was born on December 1 (12), 1766 in the village of Mikhailovka, Buzulinsky district, Simbirsk province. Father - a hereditary nobleman and retired captain Mikhail Yegorovich Karamzin - raised his son with the help of tutors, because his wife died when the child was only two years old. Nikolai received a good education at home. As a teenager, he knew several foreign languages.
At the age of 12, his father sent his son to study at the boarding school of Moscow University professor Johann Schaden. Three years later, Nikolai Karamzin begins to attend lectures by the famous professor of aesthetics and educator Ivan Schwartz at Moscow University.
The study did not last long. At the insistence of his father, who wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, Nikolai Karamzin entered the service in the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment, where he was assigned from infancy. And only the death of his father gives him the opportunity to end his military service. Nikolai Karamzin retires with the rank of lieutenant and returns to Simbirsk, where he joins the Golden Crown Masonic lodge.
In 1785, at the age of 18, Karamzin returned to Moscow and became close to an old friend of the family, the freemason Ivan Petrovich Turgenev, who later became director of Moscow University. At the same time, Karamzin met the writers and writers Nikolai Novikov, Alexei Kutuzov and Alexander Petrov, who for some time became his teachers and guides in the spiritual world.
Letters from a Russian Traveler
Nikolai Karamzin began his professional career, like many writers of that time, with translations. After meeting Nikolai Novikov's circle, Karamzin participates in the publication of the first Russian magazine for children, Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind.
Nikolai Karamzin, who grew up on old novels and knew several foreign languages from childhood, set off on a trip to Europe in 1789. 22-year-old Karamzin visits Germany, Switzerland, France and England, gets acquainted with how the European intelligentsia lives. In Konigsberg, he met with Immanuel Kant, and in Paris he witnessed the events of the French Revolution. This trip to Europe, which lasted almost 1, 5 years, became a landmark in the fate of Nikolai Karamzin - as a result, he writes "Letters of a Russian Traveler" and publishes them in the "Moscow Journal". After the first release, documentary notes about a trip to Europe gained popularity among readers, and Karamzin became a fashionable writer.
"Moscow Journal" and "Bulletin of Europe"
In 1791, 25-year-old Karamzin founded the first Russian literary magazine - "Moscow Journal". Karamzin makes the entire magazine independently - he publishes his translations of European authors; his works, both prose and poetry; theatrical critical notes.
It is in the "Moscow Journal" that Karamzin publishes his story "Poor Liza", which has become an event in the literary life of Russia and the basis of new literature. Love and feelings have replaced reason and rationalism.
A year later, Nikolai Karamzin had to close the magazine. This was influenced by the arrest of Novikov and the persecution of the Freemasons by the tsarist administration. After the arrest of his close acquaintance, Karamzin writes an ode "To Mercy", and the police draws attention to him, suspecting that he traveled abroad with the money of the Freemasons. Karamzin falls into disgrace and leaves for the village, where he spends three years.
In 1801-1802. Nikolai Karamzin publishes the journal "Vestnik Evropy". The first issue of the magazine was published in January 1802. This magazine became the first socio-political and literary-artistic publication in Russia.
History of Russian Goverment
By a decree of October 31, 1803, Emperor Alexander I appoints 36-year-old Nikolai Karamzin as the official historiographer and instructs him to write the history of Russia. There is no information why it was Karamzin, who was not previously interested in history, who receives this title. Nikolai Karamzin gets down to business with ardor, especially since the title of historiographer opens up for Karamzin all the archives and collections of documents that are inaccessible not only to the general public, but also to historians. Karamzin brought his story to the Time of Troubles. Working on his "History …", Karamzin abandons a state career, including the post of Tver governor.
The position of historiographer brought Karamzin 2,000 rubles an additional annual salary. This was less than his publishing and journalistic activities brought him (for example, for editing Vestnik Evropy his salary was 3 thousand rubles a year), nevertheless, from that moment Nikolai Karamzin devoted himself entirely to the main work of his life - compiling History the Russian state ". He spent 22 years on this, reviewing and making extracts from hundreds of documents, many of which were previously unknown. In particular, Karamzin discovered Afanasy Nikitin's "Voyage across the Three Seas" in a 16th century manuscript and published it in 1821.
Work on the "History of the Russian State" was interrupted only once in 1812. Karamzin, who was eager to join the militia and was ready to defend Moscow, agreed to leave the city only when the French were already preparing to enter. During the fires, Karamzin's library burned down. The beginning of 1813 Karamzin spent in evacuation - first in Yaroslavl, then in Nizhny Novgorod, after which he returned to Moscow and continued to work on his historical work.
In February 1818, when the writer was preparing to celebrate his 50th birthday, the first eight volumes of his work were published. During the month, 3 thousand copies were sold - this was a sales record of that time. The 12th volume came out after the death of the author.
In 1810, Alexander I granted Karamzin the Order of St. Vladimir 3 degrees. In 1816, Nikolai Karamzin received the title of State Councilor and was awarded the Order of St. Anna 1st grade. Since 1818, Karamzin was a member of the Imperial Russian Academy, and since 1824 - a full state councilor.
The last years of his life Nikolai Karamzin spent in St. Petersburg, was close to the royal family and had his own housing granted to him by the emperor in Tsarskoe Selo.
Nikolai Karamzin died on May 22 (June 3), 1826 from consumption. His health was compromised after he went to Senate Square to watch the Decembrist uprising and caught a cold. For treatment, he was going to travel to Italy and the south of France. The emperor allocated him funds and a frigate for this, but the official historiographer could not take advantage of the royal favor. He was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra at the Tikhvin cemetery.
Personal life
Nikolai Karamzin was married twice and had 10 children. His first wife Elizaveta Ivanovna Protasova, whom he married at the age of 34, was his same age and longtime lover. Elizaveta Ivanovna, who became the prototype of Poor Liza, was an educated woman and a real friend to her husband. Unfortunately, a year after her marriage, she died of postpartum fever, leaving her husband a daughter, Sophia.
Two years after the death of his first wife, Nikolai Karamzin married a second time. His chosen one was Ekaterina Andreevna Kolyvanova, the illegitimate daughter of Prince A. I. Vyazemsky and Countess Elizabeth Karlovna Sivers, with whom he usually spent the summer in Ostafiev. Catherine was 14 years younger than her husband and bore him nine children. Three children died at an early age; son Nikolai died at 16. The other three sons and two daughters continued the Karamzin family, although not all of them had offspring.
