Message on the topic Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov Shchedrin. Brief biography: Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E.

On January 15, 1826, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin was born in a small village in the Tver province. The biography of this man is thoroughly permeated with philanthropy and contempt for the reactionary state apparatus of his time. However, first things first.

Saltykov-Shchedrin Mikhail Evgrafovich: biography of his early years

The future famous writer was born into the family of a wealthy nobleman. By the way, Saltykov is his real name. Shchedrin is a creative pseudonym. The boy spent the first years of his life on his father's family estate. The most difficult years of serfdom occurred during this period. When the scientific and technological revolution had already occurred or was taking place in most states, and capitalist relations were developing, the Russian Empire became increasingly mired in its own medieval way of life. And in order to somehow keep up with the development of the great powers, the state machine worked more and more actively, extensively squeezing all the juices out of the peasant class. Actually, the entire subsequent biography of Saltykov-Shchedrin eloquently testifies to the fact that he had sufficient opportunity to observe the situation of the peasants in his youth.

This greatly impressed the young man and left an imprint on all his further work. Mikhail received his primary education in his home, and when he was ten years old, he entered the Moscow Institute of Nobility. Here he studied for only two years, showing extraordinary abilities. And already in 1838 he was transferred to receive a state scholarship for his studies. Six years later, he graduates from this educational institution and enters the ministerial military office to serve.

Biography of Saltykov-Shchedrin: the beginning of creative activity

Here the young man is seriously interested in the literature of his time, voraciously reading French educators and socialists. During this period, his first own stories were written: “Contradictions”, “An Entangled Affair”, “Notes of the Fatherland”. However, the nature of these works, full of freethinking and satire on the tsarist autocracy, even then turned state power against the young official.

Biography of Saltykov-Shchedrin: creative recognition and acceptance by state authorities

In 1848, Mikhail Evgrafovich went into exile in Vyatka. There he enters the service as a clerical official. This period ended in 1855, when the writer was finally allowed to leave this city. Returning from exile, he is appointed as an official for special assignments under the State Minister of Internal Affairs. In 1860 he became the Tver vice-governor. At the same time, the writer resumes his creative activity. Already in 1862, he retired from public office and focused on literature. At the invitation of Sergei Nekrasov, Saltykov-Shchedrin comes to St. Petersburg and gets a job in the editorial office of Sovremennik. Here, and later in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski, where he ended up under the patronage of the same Nekrasov, they are held

the most fruitful years of his creative activity. Many stories, satirical articles and, of course, the famous grotesque novels: “The History of a City”, “A Modern Idyll” and others - were written in the second half of 1860-1870.

Biography of Saltykov-Shchedrin: the last years of his life

In the 1880s, the writer’s satirical works increasingly enjoyed fame among the intelligentsia, but at the same time they were increasingly persecuted by the tsarist regime. Thus, the closure of the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, where he was published, forced Mikhail Evgrafovich to look for publishing houses abroad. This ban on printing in his native country greatly undermined the health of an already middle-aged man. And although he also wrote the famous “Fairy Tales” and “Poshekhon Antiquity,” over the course of several years he grew very old, his strength was rapidly leaving him. On May 10, 1889, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin died. The writer, in accordance with his request in his will, was buried in St. Petersburg, next to the grave of I.S. Turgenev.

Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826-1889) - prose writer, publicist, critic.

The great Russian satirist Saltykov-Shchedrin was born and raised in a wealthy landowner family, but in the house there was an atmosphere of stinginess, mutual hostility, hypocrisy and inhumanity.

Saltykov first studied at the Moscow Noble Institute and, as an excellent student, was sent to St. Petersburg, to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. In 1844, Saltykov graduated from the Lyceum and entered service in the War Ministry.

In his first works, the writer spoke out against social inequality. The hero of his story “A Confused Affair” (1848) saw the Russian social system as a huge pyramid of people, at the base of which are the poor, persecuted by the unbearable hardships of life. Nicholas I found in the story “a desire to spread revolutionary ideas,” so in 1848 the young writer was exiled to Vyatka, where he spent 8 years. Only after the death of the Tsar, in 1855, was the writer able to return to St. Petersburg.

In 1857, the writer’s new book, “Provincial Sketches,” was published. The work was directed against landlord oppression and bureaucratic arbitrariness.

In the 60s, the great satirist decisively opposed the autocracy in his remarkable book “The History of a City” (1869-1870), in which he sought to destroy the people’s faith in the “good king.” In this work, Shchedrin painted a terrifying picture of popular lawlessness, grief and poverty (see "The History of a City").

From 1868 to 1884, he published all his works only on the pages of Otechestvennye Zapiski. Readers of the magazine get acquainted with the cycles of satirical stories and essays by Saltykov: “Pompadours and pompadours” (1863-1874), “Letters about the province” (1868), “Signs of the times” (1868), “Gentlemen of Tashkent” (1869-1872), “ Well-Intentioned Speeches" (1872-1876), "In an Environment of Moderation and Accuracy" (1874-1877), "The Monrepos Shelter" (1878-1879), "Letters to Auntie" (1881-1882), the novels "The Lord Golovlevs" (1875 -1880) and “Modern Idyll” (1877-1883). Saltykov creates a kind of satirical encyclopedia of Russian life.

The most popular are the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin. His first fairy tales were published in 1869: “The Wild Landowner”, “How One Man Fed Two Generals.”

Fairy tales are the result of many years of life observations of the writer. In them he acts as a defender of people's interests, an exponent of people's ideals, advanced ideas of his time (see "Tales of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin").

In the novel “Poshekhon Antiquity,” the writer painted terrible pictures of serf life, and in the book “Little Things in Life” (1886) Shchedrin showed the tragedy of the lives of “little”, ordinary people.

Many of Shchedrin's satirical types outlived both their era and their creator. They have become household names, denoting new and at the same time social phenomena of Russian and world life that have their own long-standing pedigree.

Throughout his life, Saltykov-Shchedrin retained faith in his people and his history. “I love Russia to the point of heartache and I can’t even imagine myself anywhere other than Russia.”

Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin (real name Saltykov, pseudonym "N. Shchedrin") was born on January 27 (January 15, old style) 1826 in the village of Spas-Ugol, Tver province (now Taldomsky district, Moscow region). He was the sixth child of a hereditary nobleman, a collegiate adviser, his mother came from a family of Moscow merchants. Until the age of 10, the boy lived on his father’s estate.

In 1836, Mikhail Saltykov was enrolled in the Moscow Noble Institute, where the poet Mikhail Lermontov had previously studied, and in 1838, as the best student of the institute, he was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Saltykov was known as the first poet on the course; his poems were published in periodicals.

In 1844, after graduating from the lyceum, he was assigned to serve in the office of the War Ministry in St. Petersburg.

In 1845-1847, Saltykov attended meetings of the circle of Russian utopian socialists - “Fridays” of Mikhail Butashevich-Petrashevsky, whom he met at the Lyceum.

In 1847-1848, the first reviews of Saltykov were published in the magazines Sovremennik and Otechestvennye zapiski.

In 1847, Saltykov’s first story, “Contradictions,” dedicated to the economist Vladimir Milyutin, was published in Otechestvennye zapiski.

The publication of this work coincided with the tightening of censorship restrictions after the Great French Revolution and the organization of a secret committee chaired by Prince Menshikov. As a result, the story was banned, and its author was exiled to Vyatka (now Kirov) and appointed to the post of scribe in the Provincial Board.

In 1855, Saltykov received permission to return to St. Petersburg.

In 1856-1858, he was an official of special assignments in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and participated in the preparation of the peasant reform of 1861.

From 1856 to 1857, Saltykov's "Provincial Sketches" were published in the "Russian Bulletin" under the pseudonym "N. Shchedrin". The “essays” received the attention of Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Nikolai Dobrolyubov, who dedicated articles to them.

In March 1858, Saltykov was appointed vice-governor of the city of Ryazan.

In April 1860, due to a conflict with the Ryazan governor, Saltykov was appointed vice-governor of Tver; in January 1862 he resigned.

In 1858-1862, the collections “Innocent Stories” and “Satires in Prose” were published, in which the city of Foolov, a collective image of modern Russian reality, first appeared.

In 1862-1864, Saltykov was a member of the editorial board of the Sovremennik magazine.

In 1864-1868 he held the positions of chairman of the Penza Treasury Chamber, manager of the Tula Treasury Chamber and manager of the Ryazan Treasury Chamber.

Since 1868 he collaborated with the journal Otechestvennye zapiski, and since 1878 he was the executive editor of the magazine.

During the period of work at Otechestvennye zapiski, the writer created his significant works - the novels “The History of a City” (1869-1970) and “The Golovlevs” (1875-1880).

At the same time, the writer worked on journalistic articles; in the 1870s he published collections of stories “Signs of the Times”, “Letters from the Province”, “Pompadours and Pompadours”, “Gentlemen of Tashkent”, “Diary of a Provincial in St. Petersburg”, “Well-Intentioned Speeches”, which have become a noticeable phenomenon not only in literature, but also in socio-political life.

In the 1880s, the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin were published, the first of which were published in 1869.

In 1886, the novel "Poshekhon Antiquity" was written.

In February 1889, the writer began preparing the author's edition of his collected works in nine volumes, but only one volume was published during his lifetime.

On May 10 (April 28, old style), 1889, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin died in St. Petersburg. He was buried on the Literatorskie bridge of the Volkovsky cemetery.

In 1890, the complete collected works of the writer were published in nine volumes. From 1891 to 1892, a complete collection of works was published in 12 volumes, prepared by the author’s heirs, which was reprinted several times.

Saltykov-Shchedrin was married to Elizaveta Boltina, whom he met during the Vyatka exile, and the family had a son, Konstantin, and a daughter, Elizaveta.

Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin is a Russian writer, journalist, publicist and public figure. Born in 1826 on January 27 in the Tver province, a descendant of an old noble family. He excelled in his studies at the noble institute, thanks to which in 1838 he transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. At the age of 22, he was exiled to Vyatka, where he worked for the next 8 years in low positions in the provincial government.

Upon returning to St. Petersburg, Mikhail Saltykov joined the Ministry of Internal Affairs and also continued to write. After retiring, he moved to St. Petersburg and began editorial work at the Sovremennik magazine. Later he returned to public service, and also served on the editorial board of the journal Otechestvennye zapiski. The ban on this publication in 1884 greatly damaged the writer’s health, which was reflected in various works. He died on April 28, 1889 and was buried at the Volkovsky cemetery according to his own last will next to I.S. Turgenev.

Creative stages of life

Mikhail Saltykov graduated from the lyceum in the second category. Among the standard lyceum “sins” such as smoking, rudeness and careless appearance, he was also credited with writing disapproving poetry. However, the future writer’s poems turned out to be weak, and he himself understood this, so he quickly abandoned poetic activity.

From Saltykov-Shchedrin’s debut work “Contradictions,” it is noticeable that the young prose writer was greatly influenced by the novels of George Sand and French socialism. “Contradictions” and “Convoluted Case” caused indignation among the authorities, and Mikhail Evgrafovich was exiled to Vyatka. He practically did not study literature during this period of his life. It was possible to return to it in 1855, when, after the death of Nicholas I, the young official was allowed to leave his place of exile. “Provincial Sketches”, published in the “Russian Bulletin”, made Shchedrin a famous and revered author among a wide circle of readers.

Being the vice-governor of Tver and Ryazan, the writer did not stop writing for many magazines, although readers found most of his works in Sovremennik. From the works of 1858-1862, the collections “Satires in Prose” and “Innocent Stories” were formed, published three times each. During his service as manager of the treasury chamber of Penza, Tula and Ryazan (1864-1867), Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov was published only once with the article “Testament to my children.”

In 1868, the publicist completely left the civil service and, at the personal request of Nikolai Nekrasov, became one of the key employees of the journal Otechestvennye zapiski. Ten years later he became editor-in-chief. Until 1884, when Otechestvennye zapiski was banned, Saltykov-Shchedrin devoted himself entirely to working on them, publishing almost two dozen collections. This period saw the publication of one of the author’s best and most popular works, “The History of a City.”

Having lost his most beloved publication, Mikhail Evgrafovich was published in the “Bulletin of Europe”, which included the most grotesque collections: “Poshekhon Antiquity”, “Fairy Tales”, “Little Things in Life”.

Basic motives of creativity

Saltykov-Shchedrin became a popularizer of the social-satirical fairy tale. In his stories and tales, he exposed human vices, relations between the authorities and the people, bureaucratic crime and tyranny, as well as landowner cruelty. The novel “The Golovlevs” depicts the physical and spiritual decay of the nobility at the end of the 19th century.

After the closure of Otechestvennye Zapiski, Saltykov-Shchedrin directed his writing talent to the top of the Russian government, creating exclusively grotesque works. A distinctive feature of the author's style is the depiction of the vices of the bureaucratic and power apparatus not from the outside, but through the eyes of a person who is part of this environment.