“Hero” of epigrams of Russian classics: Thaddeus Bulgarin. Biography Other biographical materials

(1789-1859) - Russian journalist, writer, publisher, active state councilor (1857). Participant in the anti-Napoleonic wars (1806-1807) and the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809. Dismissed from the army for disciplinary offenses (1811). He left for Warsaw and entered the Polish Legion of Napoleon I's army as a private. In 1812, in the corps of Marshal N. Sh. Oudinot N.-Ch. he fought against the Russians. In 1814 he was captured by Prussian troops. At the end of hostilities he returned to Warsaw. Pardoned by the manifesto of Emperor Alexander I (1814). Collaborated with a number of periodicals. He became close to liberal Polish writers. From 1819 he lived in St. Petersburg. In 1825-1859. published (from 1831 together with Ya. I. Grech) the newspaper “Northern Bee”, the magazines “Northern Archive” (1822-1828) and “Son of the Fatherland” (1825-1839). Since the 1840s opposed the realistic movement in art, which he called the “natural school.” In the 1820-1840s. wrote a number of novels of moral descriptive (“Ivan Vyzhigin”) and historical (“Dmitry the Pretender”) content.

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Bulgarin, Thaddeus Venediktovich - writer, born on June 24, 1789 in the Minsk province, into a Polish family. Bulgarin's father, taking part in the Polish revolution, killed General Voronov, for which he was exiled to Siberia in 1794. Mother, having moved to St. Petersburg, assigned Bulgarin in 1798 to the Land (now 1st) Cadet Corps. Having graduated from it in 1806, Bulgarin joined the Uhlan regiment of the Tsarevich, took part in the campaign of 1806 - 1807, was wounded in the stomach near Friedland and received an Annin lanyard for his saber. Returning from the campaign, Bulgarin composed a satire on the regimental commander, for which in 1809 he was transferred to the Kronstadt garrison regiment, from which in 1810 he moved to the Yamburg Uhlan regiment. In 1811, Bulgarin was dismissed from the regiment with poor certification, he sank completely morally, went as far as stealing, lived on alms, until he joined Napoleon’s Polish legion as a private in the regiment that was then in Spain. In the ranks of the French army, Bulgarin took part in the campaign and in the corps of Marshal Oudinot fought against Count Wittgenstein, reaching the rank of captain. In 1814, Bulgarin was captured by Prussian troops; after the war he returned to Warsaw, from which he moved to St. Petersburg, where he was allowed to settle. In 1816, Bulgarin appeared in print with short stories, historical and geographical notes, taking part in “Son of the Fatherland” by Grech. In 1821, Bulgarin published “Selected Odes” by Horace, from 1822 he began to publish the historical magazine “Northern Archive”, and from 1823 - “Literary Sheets”. At this time, Bulgarin had already acquired great literary acquaintances, moved in the best literary circles, presenting himself as a supporter of those political and social ideas that were professed by the youth of that time. Bulgarin's unattractive moral qualities had not yet emerged, and he enjoyed the favor of such persons as Griboyedov, A. Bestuzhev, Ryleev and Pushkin. In 1825, Bulgarin published the almanac "Russian Waist". From the same year, he began publishing the newspaper “Northern Bee”. Simultaneously with his acquaintance with progressive-minded youth and Decembrists, Bulgarin established connections with official spheres, with a circle close to Arakcheev. During the preparations for the uprising on December 14, Bulgarin stood aside, but his acquaintance with the Decembrists raised the question of his participation in the conspiracy. Thanks to his connections with higher spheres, and finally, to the fact that, according to Grech, he assisted the police in the arrest of Kuchelbecker, Bulgarin was not brought to the investigation and trial. If before 1825 he considered it more profitable to move in the then influential progressive circles, then after the December uprising he sharply changed his position, gained the favor of the then chief of gendarmes Benckendorff, thanks to whose assistance the Highest Decree followed on renaming Bulgarin from the captains of the French army to the VIII class and classifying him to the Ministry of Public Education. In 1827 - 28, Bulgarin's "Works" were published in 10 parts (2nd ed. in 12 parts, St. Petersburg, 1830; 3rd ed. in 3 parts, St. Petersburg, 1836; complete ed. in 7 volumes were published in 1839 - 1844). Having presented them to Nicholas I, Bulgarin, with the assistance of Benckendorff, received the highest gratitude and a diamond ring. In 1829, Bulgarin published “Ivan Vyzhigin, a moral and satirical novel” (2nd ed., St. Petersburg, 1829; 3rd ed., St. Petersburg, 1830), in 1830 - “Memoirs of unforgettable A.S. Griboedov"," "Dmitry the Pretender", a historical novel (2nd ed., St. Petersburg, 1830; 3rd ed. in 3 parts, St. Petersburg, 1842), for which he received a second diamond ring, and, together with Bronevsky, “Picture of the war between Russia and Turkey during the reign of Nicholas I.” In 1831, Bulgarin published “Peter Ivanovich Vyzhigin, a morally descriptive historical novel of the 19th century” (2nd ed., 1834), for which he received the third diamond ring. In the same year, Bulgarin was expelled from the Ministry of Public Education, where he was considered an official on special assignments. In 1833 - 34, "Mazepa" was published, in 1835 - "Memoirs of the Titular Councilor Chukhin", in 1839 - "Summer Walk in Finland and Sweden", in 1843 - "" Suvorov"", in 1842 - 43 - "Pictures of Russian Morals". After the death of Benckendorf in 1844, Bulgarin continued to be under the patronage of the 3rd department and the new chief of gendarmes Orlov, since Bulgarin was patronized by Dubelt, who was appointed assistant chief of gendarmes in 1839, and retained this post after 1844. In 1846 - 49 they left in 6 parts "Memoirs" by Bulgarin. In 1845, he received the rank of court councilor, and the following year, ““in consideration of his excellent, diligent and zealous service,” Bulgarin was ordered by the Highest: ““ not to be considered an obstacle to receiving a pension and other awards, except for the insignia of blameless service , Bulgarin's resignation in 1811, according to poor attestation, from service." In 1848, Bulgarin, “in consideration of his excellent diligence and special labors,” received the rank of collegiate adviser. In 1857, Bulgarin was stricken with paralysis; on September 1, 1859, he died with the rank of full state councilor. As a literary critic, Bulgarin ranks very low. It is enough to point out that he quite sincerely considered Gogol to be the Russian Paul de Kock. In Bulgarin’s critical assessments, the main role was played by personal feelings and settling personal scores. He praised those writers whose good attitude Bulgarin valued for personal material reasons in the most shameless manner, even if it was generally recognized mediocrity; Bulgarin criticized the same writers who stood in his way with the same shamelessness, not disdaining any insinuations and going so far as to curse at the lowest level. His attitude towards Pushkin is very characteristic of Bulgarin. In an effort to attract him to cooperate in the "Northern Bee", which would increase his income, Bulgarin, in his critical articles until 1830, lavished the greatest praise on the poet, but when he saw that he was at the head of the competing "Literary Newspaper" , immediately attacked Pushkin with rage, and did not hesitate after the release of Chapter 7 of “Eugene Onegin” to admit the “complete fall” of the poet’s talent. Bulgarin was distinguished by vindictiveness and arrogance; It was enough for someone to speak unflatteringly about his work, Bulgarin began to attack in the most harsh manner. Bulgarin's novels at one time caused endless ridicule from Baron Delvig, Prince Vyazemsky, Pushkin, Gogol, Belinsky and others. But still, as a fiction writer, Bulgarin stands higher. Some of Bulgarin's historical works are not without a certain significance. Thus, he was one of the first to give a correct assessment of Polevoy’s “History of the Russian People” (see P.N. Milyukov, “The Main Currents of Russian Historical Thought”, M., 1898). Despite his insignificance as a critic and publicist, Bulgarin played a prominent role in Russian journalism in the second quarter of the 19th century, and her life was closely connected with the name of Belinsky. Having started publishing “Northern Bee” in 1825, Bulgarin entered into a close alliance with Grech, who had been publishing “Son of the Fatherland” since 1816. In 1834, Senkovsky joined them, editing the “Library for Reading”. These three publications had individual characteristics, in some respects they were not homogeneous, but they formed a close-knit coalition that fought with common forces against any attempts at competition and zealously sought to jointly seize the field of Russian journalism. Bulgarin was a man of the lowest moral level; for him, material gain was in the foreground, to achieve which he was ready to do anything decisively. In literary circles of various shades they had deep contempt for him, showering him with a hail of caustic epigrams. Even Grech, in his “Notes,” spoke in the most negative way about the spiritual qualities of his comrade-in-arms. Not from ideological, principled considerations, but solely from material calculations, the crudely corrupt Bulgarin moved to a protective camp and became an obedient servant of the Nicholas regime, a faithful agent and servant, not without compensation, of the chief of gendarmes Benckendorff, whom he kept informed of all literary events, gave him the information he needed about writers and often wrote articles at his request in the Northern Bee. Thanks to Benckendorf's patronage, "Northern Bee" occupied a monopoly position and had a broader program than other newspapers, which entailed large incomes. Treasuring them, Bulgarin did not stop at any means to destroy competing publications. Endless denunciations, intrigues, settling personal scores, shameless flattery to the powerful, constant begging for handouts - runs like a red thread through Bulgarin’s entire life. Not to mention political groveling, Bulgarin did not hesitate to write enthusiastic articles in his newspaper about hotels, shops, etc., which paid him for it. By shamelessly advertising his works, artificially created noise, and satisfying the indiscriminate tastes of the crowd, Bulgarin created popularity and authority among them. With its groveling, falsification of public opinion, venality, and mediocre critical assessments of literary phenomena, “Northern Bee” had the most harmful influence on society, inhibiting the growth of public consciousness and literary development. The disgusting reptile outraged all somewhat squeamish people, even those who were completely devoted to the idea of ​​absolutism. Bulgarin's greatest influence dates back to the second half of the 20s; in the 30s it began to decline thanks to Pushkin and his circle, who greatly discredited Bulgarin in the opinion of society; in the 40s, Belinsky finally destroyed Bulgarin and the triumvirate, undermining all his influence. - The richest factual biography of Bulgarin is the work of M.K. Lemke (“Nikolaev gendarmes and literature 1826 - 1855”, St. Petersburg, 1908); For a list of separately published works by Bulgarin, see 3 volumes of “Russian Books” by S.A. Vengerov, literature about Bulgarin is given in Volume I of “Sources of the Dictionary of Russian Writers” by S.A. Vengerova. A.I. Fomin.

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Bulgarin, Faddey Venediktovich

Journalist; genus. in 1789 in the Peryshevo estate, Minsk province, d. September 1, 1859 in his estate Karlov, from a blow. A Pole by origin, who spent his childhood in a family fanatically devoted to everything Polish, Bulgarin, upon entering the St. Petersburg gentry corps in 1798, in his own words, “Russified to such an extent that he went with his comrades to the Orthodox Church , even studied the Orthodox catechism with Archpriest Kolosov, was one of his best students,” sang in the choir and completely forgot his native language. Upon completion of the corps, in 1806, Bulgarin was released as a cornet into the Uhlan regiment, from which, due to his inability for cavalry service, in 1809 he was transferred to the Kronstadt garrison regiment, and then, a year later, to the Yamburg Dragoon Regiment. During this time, he participated in campaigns - against the French in 1807 and in Finland in 1808. The details of his participation in these campaigns, as he conveyed them in his “Memoirs,” testify to the love he showed for Russia. When, however, in 1811, “due to poor certification in the conduit lists,” he was dismissed, he fled to Warsaw and entered the French army, in which he rose to the rank of captain, taking part in Napoleon’s campaigns against Italy and Spain and Russia. According to his explanation, the hopes raised by Napoleon in Poland reminded him that he was a Pole, and his love for his previously forgotten homeland awoke. The hobby passed with the fall of Napoleon, and Bulgarin again became Russian, began to speak passionately about love for the fatherland, stood up for everything Russian, called himself a Russian patriot, etc. At this time, Count took a close part in it. Benkendorf, who in 1826, taking into account the “commendable literary works of the former captain of the French army Bulgarin,” asked the Minister of Public Education A.S. Shishkov to enroll him in the staff of ministry officials. The memorandum presented at the same time listed Bulgarin’s literary works and noted their commendable qualities. In 1816, Bulgarin published “Selected Odes of Horace,” where, as the report says, “everything seductive is excluded and everything that is in accordance with Christian morality is included.” To maintain the “militant spirit” among the people and “to combine people’s love with the glory of the sovereign,” Bulgarin published “Glorious Memoirs of the Russians of the 19th Century.” Since 1822, he began publishing the journal "Northern Archive", which published articles on history, statistics and jurisprudence. Since 1823, he began to publish “Literary leaflets” and “Russian Waist”. Especially to prove that “A people inflamed with love for their sovereigns is invincible,” Bulgarin published his “Memoirs of Spain.” Since 1825, he began to publish the literary and political newspaper “Northern Bee,” “whose main goal, according to the note, was to affirm loyal feelings.” To spread these same feelings among young people, Bulgarin began publishing “Children's Interlocutor” in 1826. Not knowing what position to give to Bulgarin, Shishkov appointed him an official of special assignments, but he was only listed in the service, and therefore, when in 1831 the question of his resignation arose, the minister refused to make the usual note in his form about his ability to perform civil duties. service, and the Committee of Ministers did not consider it possible to award him a rank for length of service, despite the petition of Count. Benckendorf, who certified that Bulgarin was “used by him in writing for the benefit of the service,” and that he carried out all his instructions “with excellent diligence.” In 1844, Bulgarin became a corresponding member of the special horse breeding commission and, “in consideration of his excellent diligence and special labors,” received orders and ranks, including the rank of full state councilor. Bulgarin was buried in the Dorpat city cemetery. - The list of Bulgarin’s literary works is as follows. The feuilletons and stories that appeared in the publications listed above, together with his large novels “Ivan Vyzhigin”, “Peter Ivanovich Vyzhigin”, “Notes of Chukhin”, “Dimitri the Pretender”, etc., were published separately by Bulgarin, making up 5 volumes of his “Works” ". Separately, he also published his “Memoirs” and presented as his work the work of Prof. N. A. Ivanov’s work: “Russia, in historical, statistical, geographical and literary relations.” During his service in horse breeding, he published the magazine "Economy" (1841-1845).

Never suffering from false modesty, Bulgarin always had a very high opinion of his activities, both literary and social, and explained disapproving reviews from critics mainly by envy, hatred of his truthfulness, and also by the fact that he “strongly criticized the illiterate writers of his century ". There is no doubt that for his time Bulgarin was, in any case, an extraordinary phenomenon and, of course, could demand that he be given not the last place in the literary and journal world, especially in the thirties. He was read a lot, even translated into foreign languages, his novels were sold out, and Northern Bee, the first newspaper at that time, had up to 10,000 subscribers. Even Belinsky paid tribute to Bulgarin’s novels as our first morally descriptive novelist, after Narezhny. We have received a number of very sympathetic reviews of Bulgarin’s works from such persons as Nikolai Polevoy, Grech, and Skobelev. But, at the same time, it is indisputable that Bulgarin, like his admirers, greatly exaggerated the merits of everything he did. For example, novels and stories are written in good language, with animation, sometimes they give lively and apt characteristics, pictures of modern morals, good descriptions, but in general they are not far from the old adventure novels. Having set satirical goals, Bulgarin rather monotonously depicts the same relationships, punishes the same vices. The depiction of the injustice of judges, reminiscent of the heroes of Kapnist’s “The Yabeda,” bribery, the arbitrariness of the powerful, the seeking and humiliation of petitioners, cards, the pursuit of fashion, a passion for everything French to the detriment of the Russian - provide Bulgarin with constant material for denunciations, inserted, moreover, into lifeless and very artificial framework. At one time, the novel “Ivan Vyzhigin”, which caused a lot of noise, positively resembles “Milord Aglitsky” in terms of the complexity and artificiality of the main plot. His hero ends up with a landowner-hussar, and a Jewish smuggler, and is captured by the Kirghiz, and performs the most incredible actions. Mysterious strangers, mannequin villains and virtuous dolls, the character of which is determined by their surnames (Bulgarin calls the bribe-taker “Vzyatkin”, the murderer “Norovy”, the shtos lover - Shtosina, etc.) - these are the heroes of Bulgarin’s novels. They are completely lifeless and sometimes find themselves in situations from which the author has to resort to unexpected and unjustified solutions. The hero of the novel "Chukhin's Notes" has adventures in Siberia that are reminiscent of Shakespeare's Juliet. Chukhin is euthanized by some doctor, then he is buried, and he leaves the coffin, in which his friends put a dummy in his place... With all this, both the big novels and the small feuilletons included in the “Collected Works” are imbued with always with the noblest thoughts, the strictest morals, and, upon familiarization with them, one involuntarily wonders how their author could create such notorious fame for himself. Watching "Northern Bee" leads to the same question. The newspaper contains too little resemblance to the denunciations for which Bulgarin is constantly reproached; there is not even a comparison of Russian “liberals” of that time with European events. True, sometimes you can find flattery to high-ranking officials, praise of Russian customs, but all this occurs so rarely that it is completely lost in the general mass of newspaper material and cannot serve as any characteristic feature. Of course, such management of the newspaper depended not so much on Bulgarin as on the censorship of that time, which forbade not only condemnation, but generally judging and even approving of anything that had any relation to the government. This, undoubtedly, alone explains the coldness of “Northern Bees” to such events of current life, to which Bulgarin, who undoubtedly had the temperament of a journalist, could not help but respond. He presented Benckendorff with his thoughts on various kinds of issues raised by modern life. Despite such complete colorlessness of the newspaper, despite the high morality spilled in all his works, regarding which Pushkin even said that there is nothing more moral than Bulgarin’s novels, he, however, acquired a sad reputation, and his name turned into a dirty word. If we remember that Bulgarin for a very long time was on the most friendly terms with such people as Griboedov, Ryleev and Bestuzhev, then the matter will become even less clear. Obviously, its explanation lies not so much in Bulgarin’s literary activity, but in his social life. Not to mention the rapid transformations from a Russian patriot to a Polish one and vice versa, depending on the need, the relationship that Griboedov’s friend had with the gr. Benckendorf and Dubelt. Bulgarin was considered their friend to such an extent that he was even called, as he himself said, Thaddeus Dubeltovich. Gr. Bludov told Nikitenka that it was an undoubted fact that Bulgarin served in the detective police. Denunciations were his favorite method of fighting not only with his fellow journalists, but also with the censors and in general with everyone who stood in his way. The censorship committee, for example, had to point out to Bulgarin the indecency of the article, which reported that Kraevsky was humiliating Zhukovsky, despite the fact that Zhukovsky was the author of our national anthem. He informed the Minister of Public Education about the emergence in Russia of the Martinist party, which set itself the goal of overthrowing the existing order of things and elected Fatherland Notes as its organ. Not limiting himself to a letter, he threateningly demanded the appointment of an investigative commission, before which he wanted to appear as an “informer” and denouncer of a party shaking faith and the throne. In his denunciations of the writers of that time, including Pushkin, according to his characterization, “throwing stones at the heavens, throwing rhymes at everything sacred, boasting of free-thinking before the mob, composing “Gavriliad”, “Ode to Liberty” and “Dagger””, Bulgarin reached such an extent that he infuriated Emperor Nicholas I, who, as can be seen from his notes to gr. Benkendorf, repeatedly reprimanded Bulgarin sharply and almost banned “Northern Bee”. In addition, Bulgarin, completely devoid of aesthetic feeling and understanding of new phenomena of literary life, opposed such writers as Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Goncharov, Herzen, Nekrasov. True, many attacked them then, but they attacked them literary, without denying their undoubted merits. Bulgarin knew only such reviews: “natural poetry: brr, brr, brr…”, “after reading one article from the natural school, you feel tired and exhausted, as Mr. Gogol said: “as if you came out of a gloomy, damp cellar”…”, “modern literature, in which Mr. Goncharov takes first place - superb literature! With such opinions it was impossible to lead readers, who, moreover, could not trust Bulgarin’s sincerity. More than once, under the impression of purely personal relationships, he, for example, either extolled N. Polevoy to the skies, then then destroyed him, explaining that the previous praises were nothing more than the result of “camaraderie”. It was not difficult to arouse Bulgarin's anger - all it took was doing something in which he would see an undermining of his enterprises. As soon as Polevoy, for example, started an agricultural department at Russky Vestnik, Bulgarin entered into a hostile polemic with him for fear that Polevoy would undermine the subscription to Ekonom. As Grech assures, Bulgarin always looked at literature from the point of view of an industrialist and, when starting a publication, he simply “wanted to earn something.” A number of his notes to Usov, who headed the political department of the Northern Bee, indeed indicate that monetary considerations prevailed among Bulgarin. The hopes expressed by Usov that there would be no war with Turkey caused a number of reprimands from Bulgarin, who forbade the expression of such reassuring thoughts, since with each declaration of war 1,500 and 2,000 subscribers arrive. There was a belief in society, and quite rightly so, that Bulgarin’s praise could not be bought at a high price. According to Grech, in such cases he “did not take money, was content with a small piece of praised goods or a friendly dinner in a glorified new hotel, without at all considering this reprehensible: he took a reward, just as they take payment for advertisements published in newspapers.” Indeed, Bulgarin’s enthusiastic greetings to a pie maker opening a shop, a tailor starting to sew a dress, a visiting charlatan selling horoscopes, Isler, etc. are replete with the Northern Bee, and they alone could cast doubt in the souls of even those numerous readers of the newspaper who , according to Nikitenka, they believed in it “like the Holy Scriptures.” Pushkin’s sharp characterization of the detective Vidocq, in whom everyone immediately recognized Bulgarin, clearly emphasized these dark sides of Bulgarin, and everyone agreed with the poet. Gradually, starting with friendship with the best representatives of Russian society, Bulgarin fell lower and lower and by the end of his life he acquired that sad fame that completely overshadowed his, admittedly small, but still existing literary merits. A complete and very long list of everything written by Bulgarin can be found in the work of S. A. Vengerov “Russian Books” (issue 26, pp. 269-275). Translations of Bulgarin's works into foreign languages ​​are also listed here.

Bulgarin's form ("Literary Bulletin", 1901, vol. I, book 4). - N.I. Grech, “Biographical sketch of B.”, St. Petersburg, 1871 (reprint from “Russian Antiquity”, 1871, vol. IV). - “Notes and Diary” by A. V. Nikitenko, vol. I-III. - Notes from Ks. Polevoy, St. Petersburg, 1888. - M. Sukhomlinov, “Research and Articles,” vol. II, pp. 267-300. - A. Pyatkovsky, “From the history of literary and social development”, St. Petersburg, 1888, part II, pp. 209-219. - B. Burnashev, “Bulgarin and Pesotsky” (Birzhevye Vedomosti, 1872, No. 284, 285). - B.’s relationship with Gogol was clarified by prof. Kirpichnikov in the "Izvestia of the Department of the Russian Language of the Academy of Sciences" for 1900, vol. IV. - P. Milyukov, “The Main Currents of Russian Historical Thought”, St. Petersburg, 1897, p. 194. - N. Kozmin, “The Oath at the Holy Sepulcher” (Journal of M.N. Pr., 1900, part. 328, March, pp. 40-42). - “Antiquity and Novelty”, historical collection, St. Petersburg, 1903. - Report by Imp. Public Library for 1884, pp. 143-144. - B.'s letters to various persons and a number of articles about him are listed in the "History of Russian Literature" by N. A. Engelhardt, vol. I, p. 325. - "Russian Wealth", 1902, No. 10.

Vl. Botsyanovsky.

(Polovtsov)

Bulgarin, Thaddeus Venediktovich

Russian journalist; Pole by origin, b. in 1789 in Minsk province. His father, Comrade Kostyushki, was exiled to Siberia in 1794 for the murder of the Russian general Voronov, and his mother brought her young son to St. Petersburg and then placed him in the Land Cadet Corps. After completing the training course, B. entered the Life Guards. Uhlan regiment, with which it participated in the campaigns of 1805-1807. and in the battle of Friedland; upon returning to Russia, he was arrested for something, then transferred to an army dragoon regiment stationed in Finland; from here he fled to Warsaw and joined the Polish legion, which was part of Napoleon's army. With this legion B. participated in the campaigns of 1809-11. in Italy and Spain, and in 1812 he was in the corps of Marshal Oudinot, who acted in Lithuania and Belarus against Count Wittgenstein. In 1814, he was captured in France and sent to Prussia, from where, after the exchange of prisoners, he returned to Warsaw. In 1820, B. came to St. Petersburg as a writer; publishes "A Brief Review of Polish Literature" and "Selected Odes of Horace", and in 1822-28. publishes the magazine "Northern Archive", dedicated exclusively to Russia and later merged with "Son of the Fatherland", which B. published until 1835 together with N. I. Grech; with him, starting in 1825, he published the newspaper "Northern Bee", in which he wrote critical articles and feuilletons for more than 30 years, dedicated to polemics, advertising and denunciations of literary opponents of the newspaper of ill-intention. These objects constituted the main motive of B.'s entire literary activity and gave it a unique character, which turned his name into a common noun. In addition, he published Literary Sheets (1823-24); "Children's Interlocutor" (1826-27); "Economy" (1841) and the almanac "Russian Waist" (1825). Along with newspaper and magazine articles, B. wrote several novels that were successful in their time, which he called “moral descriptive”: “Ivan Vyzhigin” (4 parts, St. Petersburg, 1829); "Peter Ivanovich Vyzhigin" (4 hours, St. Petersburg, 1831); "Memorial Notes of Chukhin" (1835) and historical stories: "Dmitry the Pretender" (1830) and "Mazepa" (1834); published under his own name an essay by Dorpat professor N.A. Ivanov: “Russia in historical, statistical, geographical and literary relations” (6 parts, St. Petersburg, 1837), several small brochures and “Memoirs” (1846-49). Simultaneously with his literary pursuits, B. served first in the Ministry of Public Education, then in the state horse breeding industry, and enjoyed the special, albeit contemptuous, patronage of the head of the Third Department of the Sob. E.I.V. Office, General Dubelt. His literary activity ceased at the beginning of 1857, and he died on September 1, 1859 at his dacha "Karlovo", near Dorpat. The complete collection of his works was published in 7 parts in St. Petersburg, 1839-44. Biography written by his long-term collaborator N. Grech - in "Russian Antiquity" 1871 Wed. also “Notes” by Grech, published in 1884, and “Works” by Belinsky, vol. IV, etc.

(Brockhaus)

(Polovtsov)

Bulgarin, Faddey Venediktovich

(1789-1859) - Pole (son of a rebel exiled to Siberia). Writer and journalist, guard officer, participated in the campaigns of 1806-1807. But his successfully started career is cut short: B. is first transferred to the army (for satirizing a colonel), and then completely dismissed from service. After various ordeals, he flees to Warsaw. Then, as a Polish legionnaire, he participated in Napoleonic campaigns in Spain (1811) and Russia (1812). With the end of the war in 1814 and the exchange of prisoners, B. returned to Warsaw, and in 1820 he reappeared in St. Petersburg. Here he quickly makes a career and becomes a major social force. B. is hated and despised by everyone, but almost everyone is afraid of him and seeks his friendship. The significance of this “patriotic traitor,” who called himself “Faddey Dubbeltovich” in honor of the gendarme general Dubbelt, was determined primarily by the fact that for over 30 years he had in his hands the only private daily newspaper in Russia - “Northern Bee” - the organ of the feudal nobility, higher bureaucracy and conservative philistinism. B. became the permanent leader of the newspaper, devoting his abilities and knowledge to the service of the Nicholas monarchy. The “Northern Bee” was the secret organ of the 3rd Section, the special favor of which B. managed to gain. “God,” he wrote to Dubbelt, “in his goodness created you and the gendarmes.” Through his newspaper, he extorted bribes from trading companies, hotels, etc. B. bombarded the 3rd Department with denunciations: against the police and ministers, against censorship and magazines, against writers and scientists. The chief of gendarmes, Benckendorff, gave a frank assessment of B.: “Bulgarin was used at my discretion in the written part and carried out all orders with excellent diligence.” B. achieved significant ranks and a large fortune.

At the beginning of his literary activity, B. was close to groups of progressive youth of the 20s, maintaining connections with Pushkin, Bestuzhev, Ryleev, Griboedov (he retained the most friendly feelings towards the latter; Griboedov gave him, etc., the manuscript “Grief from mind"). One of the monuments of this period was Bulgarin’s interesting and sharply critical remarks about the X and XI volumes of Karamzin’s history (in the “Northern Archive” for 1825) as an echo of the negative attitude of progressive circles to Karamzin’s monarchism and to his historical philosophy (there is also a positive and apt review B. about “The History of the Russian People” by Polevoy). But 14 Dec. 1825 and the defeat of the revolutionary circles threw back B. along with some of the Russians. society into the camp of militant reaction. B. washed away the suspicion of sympathy for the “liberalists” both by extraditing one of the Decembrists - his personal friend Kuchelbecker, and by all his subsequent activities. B.'s fierce enmity towards yesterday's like-minded people knew no bounds. This resulted in deep contempt and hatred for B. in the radical layers of the Russians. intelligentsia as a renegade and police agent. B. became a symbol of political corruption and dishonor. The most prominent role in the fight against B. belongs to Pushkin and especially Belinsky.

Of the 173 volumes, which, according to V., he “wrote and published”, are interesting for studying the era in addition to the indicated critical articles - “Memoirs” (6 parts, 1846-49) and “Letters”. In the history of Russian His novels, which were popular in their time (in particular, “Ivan Vyzhigin”) retain a certain significance in literature. B.'s works - in 7 parts (1839-44).

Lit.: Lemke M.K., Nikolaev gendarmes and literature 1825-56, St. Petersburg, 1909; Piksanov N., Two centuries of Russian literature, edition 2, Moscow, 1924.

Bulgarin, Faddey Venediktovich

Famous journalist, fiction writer and critic of the 20-40s. XIX century From 1822 to 1828 he published the magazine "Northern Archive", from 1823 to 1828 - "Lite Sheets" and the almanac "Russian Waist", from 1825 to 1857 - the newspaper "Northern Bee", which enjoyed a monopoly on publishing political news. Together with N.I. Grech, his co-publisher on the newspaper, B. occupied an exceptionally privileged position in journalism for a long time. In a political sense, B. represented the most disgusting phenomenon: in his youth, a fairly close person to some future Decembrists, B. subsequently resorted to denunciations, stood in very close relations with the III department, carried out Benckendorff’s instructions with “excellent zeal,” which earned him the deepest contempt in literary circles. B. usually resorted not to so-called “literal denunciations,” but to denunciations in the most literal sense of the word, which he sent to the Third Department, which patronized him and gave him orders for various official articles. Of the very numerous denunciations of B., one can, for example, note his indication to Benckendorf of the “desperate Jacobinism” of Prince. Vyazemsky, on the complete political unreliability of N. Polevoy, etc. But most often, B. chose Otechestvennye zapiski as the object of his denunciations, seeing Kraevsky as a dangerous competitor. He persistently, using extracts from magazine articles, proved that “O. 3.” preach “communism, socialism and pantheism”, are a stronghold of revolutionaries, etc. As a writer, B. was very popular: not without literary abilities, he was able to guess the tastes and needs of wide petty-bourgeois “philistine” circles, from middle-class officials in the capital and provincial landowners down to literate servants. Despite all the repulsive properties of B.'s political and moral physiognomy, his popularity signified a kind of democratization of literature; B. repeatedly expressed sympathy for people of “middle society,” whom he contrasted with the upper circle. An unusually prolific writer, B. used a wide variety of cast forms. Of his novels, the greatest success was “Ivan Vyzhigin,” which went through several editions. Its continuation was “Peter Ivanovich Vyzhigin”. "Vyzhigin" caused many parodies in literature - a sign of success. In addition, he wrote “Posthumous Notes of the Titular Councilor Chukhin” and two historical novels: “Dmitry the Pretender” and “Mazepa”. The goal of B.’s “moral-satirical” novels is “to give sharp features of morals, trying to extract good consequences from them, that is, several wise rules and moral teachings for humanity.” By its adventurous intensity, improbability in the general depiction of Russian life, didactic-moral tone, by the manner of dividing characters into vicious and virtuous, and also giving the heroes nicknames corresponding to their properties (Zakonenko, Rossoyaninov, Vorovatin, Bespechin, Skotenko, etc.), B.'s novels are completely adjacent to the old literary tradition of the 18th century novel. Nevertheless, since B. contributed to the restoration of the form of the novel, which had been supplanted for a long time by the story, he played his role. His novels accustomed the reader, still unable to perceive true realism, to external and primitive forms of expression of realism, to novels from Russian reality. In "Ivan Vyzhigin", built according to the type of "Plutovian Novels", the plot is artificial (although B. took credit for the naturalness of this plot), the heroes are dummies, the satire is shallow and stereotyped, but still sometimes there are correctly captured details of Russian life. Some traces of the influence of "Ivan Vyzhigin" can be found in Gogol's "Dead Souls". Bulgarin always spoke negatively about the “natural school,” not realizing that his only literary merit lay in the fact that he, although in a very crude and simplified manner, approached the methods of this school. B.'s historical novels are replete with bloody effects and imbued with popular melodrama; and Dmitry the Pretender and Mazepa in his portrayal are incredible villains. In small genres, B. was very diverse; he wrote “pictures of morals”, and oriental tales, and dramatic scenes, and travel, and even utopian pictures of the future. Most of all, his small, purely everyday images were valued (“morals”, in the literary terminology of that time, approaching the later “physiological sketches”). In B.'s moralizing essays, a certain amount of observation is sometimes demonstrated - especially in the depictions of the capital's small-time and middle-class population. Some of B.'s essays and feuilletons are imbued with patriotic and moral tendencies of the lowest level. In his critical articles, B. either revealed a sincere misunderstanding of important literary phenomena (for example, the work of Gogol), or was guided by the motives of personal enmity and nepotism. In matters of grammar and language. B. was a purist - a fan of the correctness of school grammar and an enemy of updating literary vocabulary through provincialisms, folk words, neologisms, etc. In publishing, B. was almost the first to show a purely bourgeois ability to turn literature into a profitable type of industry.

Bibliography: Lemke M., Thaddeus B. and “Northern Bee”, in the book “Nikolaev Gendarmes and Literature 1825-1856”, St. Petersburg, 1909; Karatygin P., "Russian Archive", No. 2, 1882; Russian Biographical Dictionary, volume "Betannur-Bäxter", St. Petersburg, 1908; Vengerov S. A., Sources

Dictionary of Russian Writers, vol. I, St. Petersburg, 1900; Kotlyarevsky N., Nik. You. Gogol, St. Petersburg, 1911; F(oht) Yu., Ivan Vyzhigin and Dead Souls, "Russian Archives", No. 8, 1902; Engelhardt A.N., Gogol and the novels of the twenties, “Historical Bulletin”, 2, 1902; Skabichevsky A., Our historical novel in its past and present, works., vol. II., St. Petersburg, 1903.

M. Klevensky.

(Lit. enc.)

Bulgarin, Faddey Venediktovich

(1789-1859) - Russian. prose writer, journalist and editor, widely known in his time for realistic “moralizing” novels, as well as for his unique social activities (even during B.’s lifetime, which made his name synonymous with literary unscrupulousness and denunciation). Pole by nationality (son of a small nobleman), in 1806-1809. participated in the campaign against the French in 1811-1812. fought on the side of Napoleon; since 1819 he lives in St. Petersburg, publishes (together with N.I. Grech) a journal. "Son of the Fatherland" and gas. "Northern Bee"; conducts active polemics with democratic lit. camp, having earned the reputation as a secret informant of the III Security Police Department (belonging to A. Pushkin epigram about "Vidoc Figlarin" and other testimonies of contemporaries); in the late 1970s on the pages of a number of owls. NF edition, published by the Young Guard publishing house, attempts were made to posthumously “rehabilitate” B.

From a variety of lit. tv-va B. k SF background are related to fantasy-utopian essays, of which the most. interesting "Plausible fables, or Wanderings around the world in the twenty-ninth century" (1824 ) - the first in Russian. literature time travel. A thousand years later, the society reveals a desire for bourgeois luxury (often quite meaningless - like porcelain walls and silver chairs) and almost complete. lack of social progress, which is not surprising for the ardent “protector” monarchist that the author was; the only sign of democracy is joint education children poor and rich. The essays also contain apt scientific and technical. foresight: underwater farms as ch. food source, scuba gear; in addition, production B. may serve as an early example of environmental “alarmism.” IN "Incredible Tales, or Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1843 ) discussed pop. hypothesis " hollow earth".

"Mitrofanushka's Adventures on the Moon" ( 1837 ).

"Journey to the Antipodes to the Healing Island" ( 1842 ).

"Scenes from Private Life in 2033" ( 1843 ). "Ancestor and Descendants" (1843 ).

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Bulgarin Thaddeus Venediktovich (1789-1859), publisher, journalist, writer.

Born on July 5, 1789 in the Minsk province. Bulgarin, a Pole by origin, was named by his father in honor of the leader of the Polish national liberation uprising of 1794, Tadeusz (Thaddeus) Kosciuszko. Venedikt Bulgarin took an active part in the uprising, but his father’s past did not prevent Thaddeus from enrolling in the Land Noble Corps in St. Petersburg, after which he served as a cornet in the Uhlan regiment from 1806.

During the war with France of 1806-1807, in the battle of Friedland, Bulgarin was wounded in the stomach and returned to Russia. Later he took part in the Russian-Swedish war of 1808-1809, and in 1811 he left the service. After his dismissal from the army, Bulgarin was accused of theft. To avoid prosecution, in 1811 he went to Warsaw and there joined the French army.

Bulgarin also fought on the side of the French during the Patriotic War of 1812. In 1814, Bulgarin was captured by Prussian troops on French territory and soon settled again in Russia. Here he managed to become a very successful journalist in a short time. He published the magazine “Northern Archive”, which was later merged with the magazine “Son of the Fatherland” by N. I. Grech. The newspaper “Northern Bee” - Bulgarin began publishing it in 1825 - turned into the mouthpiece of the Third Department and A. X. Benckendorff.

Bulgarin was accused (and sometimes not without reason) of publishing articles ordered by the government. When criticizing certain literary works in his newspaper, he was guided primarily not by their artistic merits or shortcomings, but by personal relationships with writers and the latter’s degree of loyalty to the authorities. Thus, dissatisfied with the growing popularity of the Literary Newspaper, on the pages of which A. S. Pushkin and other members of his circle published their works, Bulgarin did not hesitate, after the publication of the seventh chapter of Eugene Onegin, to declare the “complete decline” of the great poet’s talent.

M. Yu. Lermontov wrote several caustic epigrams about Bulgarin. And yet the name of Thaddeus Bulgarin will forever remain in the history of Russian journalism. For the first time, he transformed the publishing of periodicals from an intellectual activity into a real commercial enterprise. For more than ten years, Northern Bee had no serious competitors.

In the middle of the 19th century. Bulgarin was also known as the author of “moral descriptive” and historical novels. During his lifetime, a complete collection of works was published in seven volumes. Emperor Nicholas I liked it so much that Bulgarin was awarded a diamond ring and declared “the highest gratitude” to him.

In the novels “Dmitry the Pretender” and “Mazepa,” the author argued that the strength of Russia lies in the unity of the people and the tsar.

Thaddeus Venediktovich Bulgarin (1789-1859)

Thaddeus Venediktovich Bulgarin(born Jan Tadeusz Krzysztof Bulgarin, Polish Jan Tadeusz Krzysztof Bułharyn; June 24, 1789, Pyrashevo estate, Minsk Voivodeship, Grand Duchy of Lithuania - September 1, 1859, Karlova estate near Dorpat) - Russian writer, journalist, critic, publisher, captain of the Napoleonic army , Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor of France, actual state councilor; “hero” of numerous epigrams by Pushkin, Vyazemsky, Baratynsky, Lermontov, Nekrasov and many others. The founder of the genres of the adventurous picaresque novel, the fantastic novel in Russian literature, the author of feuilletons and morally descriptive essays, the publisher of the first theatrical almanac in Russia. His novels, in which he acted as an ideologist of the Russian bourgeoisie, were translated during his lifetime into French, German, English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Polish, Czech.

I.Fryderik. Thaddeus Bulgarin (1828). Source Complete works of Bulgarin, volume 3

The life of Thaddeus Bulgarin is worthy of a novel. Maybe just the kind of novel that he himself wrote, where there are ups and downs, wins and losses, the smoke of battle, the frenzy of love and the leap from rags to riches - cards, women, war, betrayal - in a word, an adventurous novel in the spirit “Ivan Vyzhigin” and “Peter Ivanovich Vyzhigin”, which brought European fame to their author. This is how Bulgarin attests to himself in the preface to his memoirs: “For almost twenty-five years in a row I lived, so to speak, in public... and, finally, I lived to the point where I can say... that all literate people in Russia know about my existence!”

But it was not only in Russia that literate people were readers of his novels, “thanks to God,” as Bulgarin admits, they sold “many thousands of copies.” They have been translated into the languages ​​“French, German, English, Swedish, Italian, Polish and Bohemian.”

Bulgarin was never distinguished by modesty, and when listening to him, you always have to make allowances for the fact that in a hundred pieces of information you will be presented with seventy pieces of lies, or even the whole hundred, as in the speeches of Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov. To listen to Bulgarin, he knows all the ministers, and goes to the palace every day, and he created Russian literature (at least “the first original Russian novel,” as he himself said about his “Ivan Vyzhigin”), and with Pushkin on friendly leg, etc., etc. But let's return from myths to strict facts.

Portrait of Bulgarin from the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedia

His parents were Venedikt Bulgarin and Anelya Buchinskaya. The Bulgarin family comes from the gentry of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, his maternal family descended from Chancellor Demetrius the Pretender Jan Buchinsky, his full surname on his father’s side is Shkanderbek-Bulgarin, according to family legend, the ancestor was of princely origin from Albanians assimilated among the Bulgarians. The Polish writer Osip Pshetslavsky, who knew Bulgarin well, considered Thaddeus a Belarusian, because He was born in Belarus, almost on the border with Lithuania and Poland, on June 24 (old style) 1789.

He was ten years older than Pushkin, twenty years older than Gogol, and outlived them both, dying on his estate Karlovo near Dorpat on September 1, 1859.

His father, a zealous republican, known in his district under the name of the crazy (szalony) Bulgarin, in the heat of the Polish revolution (1794) killed (not in battle) the Russian general Voronov and was exiled to live in Siberia. His wife, as far as I can judge from the legends, a kind and respectable woman, went with her son, Thaddeus, to St. Petersburg and managed to place him in the Land (which is now the First) Cadet Corps.... Her husband, Benedict, was returned to his homeland by the emperor Paul and soon died. His widow married some Mendzhinsky and had a son and daughter with him. The son served in the Russian army, honestly and bravely, was wounded, then lived in retirement and died in the thirties. The daughter, Antonina Stepanovna, was a beauty in her youth. Her mother, having a trial in the Senate, brought her with her to St. Petersburg. Here Senate Secretary Alexander Mikhailovich Iskritsky fell in love with her and married her. He had sons Demyan, Alexander and Mikhail

His father gave him a name in honor of the leader of the Polish rebels, the famous Tadeusz Kosciuszko, in whose army he fought.

Bulgarin, in his (largely fictitious) biography, is silent about this crime of his father, but does not hide the fact that his father was arrested, then released and died some time later. Having lost his father early and being in the care of his mother along with other children from her first marriage, Bulgarin was forced to rely on himself, on his abilities, character, will, and especially, of course, character - and Bulgarin was by nature quick-tempered, hot-tempered, unbridled (and in this he was like his father). All this, along with his successes, caused him a lot of troubles, which, if Bulgarin had been more secretive, patient, cunning and smarter, might not have happened.

As a result of the second partition of Poland, the territory where he lived became part of Russia. The family estate was seized by a neighbor, and the well-being of the Bulgarin family began to depend only on the help of relatives and friends. Thanks to her acquaintance with Count Fersen, who defeated Kosciuszko, his mother sent Tadeusz in 1798 to the Land Noble Cadet Corps, where Fersen was the director, and where Thaddeus studied until 1806. Here Bulgarin was at first subjected to ridicule and bullying because of his Polish origin and, in particular, because of his poor knowledge of the Russian language. Thaddeus, endowed with an impulsive character, constantly clashed with teachers and fellow students. He began to write fables and satires.

But our hero was a Pole - and that says it all.

Subsequently, Pushkin, in the article “The Triumph of Friendship, or Justified Alexander Anfimovich Orlov,” published in the Moscow magazine “Telescope” in 1831, responding to Bulgarin’s co-publisher N.I. Grech and defending the honor of Moscow, questioned by Grech, wrote: “Moscow is still the center of our enlightenment: in Moscow, for the most part, native Russian writers were born and brought up, not natives, not changeovers, for whom ubi bene, ibi patria, for whom it doesn’t matter whether they run under the eagle in French or dishonor the Russian language in Russian - would be just full.”

“Peremetchik” and “not a native Russian” are words that are certainly offensive to Bulgarin, but they correspond to the facts of his life, and perhaps these facts, more than anything else, distorted his fate.

After graduating from the Land Noble Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg, he was enrolled in the Horse Guards. In 1806-1807 he took part in military operations against the French. He was wounded near Friedland and awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd degree. .

Upon the return of the guard to St. Petersburg, he became bored with the monotonous garrison service. He sent it carelessly and willfully. Once, from squadron duty in Strelna, he waved, without asking, to St. Petersburg to have fun in a public masquerade; went to see a friend, the Tsarevich's adjutant, who lived in the Marble Palace, dressed up as Cupid in tights, threw on his uniform overcoat, put on a Uhlan hat and went down the back stairs. Suddenly I saw the Tsarevich in front of me (Konstantin Pavlovich).

For one of the satires (on the commander of the regiment (and according to other sources, on the chief of the regiment, the Grand Duke, the Tsar’s brother), he spent several months under arrest in the Kronstadt fortress;

After spending some time in the dungeon, he was released by the kind commandant Klugen and spent the time remaining before his release in the apartment of some drunken tradesman Golyashkin, looked after his daughters and learned from the priest various indecent, bandit songs, which he later sang at the right and inappropriate times. .

N.I. Greek Notes about my life

As a result, in 1808 he found himself outside the guard, in the army, served in Kronstadt and Revel, participated in the Finnish campaign, led a stormy life: he played cards, it even got to the point where he lost his own overcoat, got drunk, stood with his hand outstretched in Revel boulevard, begging.

Frictions with his superiors ended with his dismissal from the army with the rank of lieutenant (in 1811) due to poor certification of the commander. But at the same time, the commander of the Yamburg Dragoon Regiment in which Bulgarin served, a Frenchman by nationality, who gave Bulgarin a bad assessment, took him with him to Warsaw, where he himself went to organize Polish troops in Napoleon’s army.)

Bulgarin moved to Warsaw, then to Paris, then to Prussia, allegedly only there, according to him, was mobilized into Napoleon’s army and fought in Spain as part of the Polish Legion in the Uhlan regiment. In 1812, he took part in the campaign of the French army to Russia as part of the 2nd Corps of Marshal Oudinot (partially formed from Poles), was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor (a fact known from his words, not documented), and received the rank of captain. In 1813 he was in the battles of Bautzen and Kulm. In 1814 he surrendered to Prussian troops and was extradited to Russia.

The biography of Bulgarin, who served under Napoleon and then became a supporter of reactionary politics and an agent of the Third Section, was the subject of discussion in Russian society and numerous epigrams. Bulgarin himself justified himself by saying that he joined the French army before 1812, at a time when, according to the Peace of Tilsit, France was an ally of Russia.

At the end of the Allied war against Napoleon he returned to Warsaw. In 1816 he was in St. Petersburg, then moved to Vilna. He managed his uncle's nearby estate and began publishing (mostly anonymously in Polish) in the Vilna periodicals "Dziennik Wileński", "Tygodnik Wileński", "Wiadomości Brukowe".

Even then, he developed a nose for sensation, a greed for actual facts, political flexibility, to say the least, and an unparalleled sense of the taste of the crowd, the taste of the customer who must pay for his fictional efforts and innovations.

This was Bulgarin’s talent, which still cannot be denied, because nature rewarded him with a keen memory, observation and a considerable gift for risk, always necessary in journalism.

He communicated intensively with local liberal Polish writers and teachers at Vilna University who were members of the Association of Shubravtsev (“idlers”; 1817-1822). In January 1819, Bulgarin even became an honorary member; After leaving Vilna, he maintained close contacts with the Shubravites.

Shubravets emblem

In 1819, Bulgarin finally settled in St. Petersburg, made connections in the capital’s literary circles, met N. M. Karamzin (1819), N. I. Grech (1820), K. F. Ryleev, A. A. Bestuzhev and N. A. Bestuzhev, V. K. Kuchelbecker, A. S. Griboyedov, A. O. Kornilovich.

He becomes a solicitor, that is, a court attorney, taking on a case that seems hopeless, and after a few years (still not immediately, but after these few years!) he wins it.

In 1820 he met a publisher, journalist and translator Nikolai Grech, your future friend and enemy.

At the beginning of February 1820, a man of about thirty, a stout, broad-shouldered, thick-nosed wrasse, decently dressed, appeared in my office and spoke to me in French.

Bulgarin at that time was by no means what he later became: he was a smart, kind, cheerful, hospitable guy, capable of friendship and seeking the friendship of decent people. Meanwhile, by his national nature, he did not neglect the acquaintance and favor of noble and especially powerful people. He knew how to get along with the vile Magnitsky, and the extravagant Runich, and the stupid Kavelin, got acquainted with the people surrounding Arakcheev, and got in with him himself.

N.I. Greek Notes about my life

Portrait of N.I. Grech (1787-1867) - Russian writer and publisher (About 1850)

In Grech's magazine "Son of the Fatherland" Bulgarin publishes his first work in Russian - the article "A Brief Review of Polish Literature." From this time on, Bulgarin’s surprisingly energetic activity unfolded as a journalist, editor and publisher.

In 1819-1820, anonymously or under a cryptonym, he published poems, essays, and memoirs in the St. Petersburg newspaper in Polish “Ruski inwalid czyli wiadomości wojenne” (Polish version of “The Russian Invalid”; (1817-1821).

At first, he actively promoted Polish culture, wrote articles on the history and literature of Poland, and translated Polish authors.

In 1820 he joined the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Science and the Arts.

Participated in issues of the almanac "Polar Star". He wrote articles, war stories, travel notes, essays, fairy tales, historical stories and novels, feuilletons.

Bulgarin’s fantastic-utopian essay “Plausible Fables, or Wanderings around the World in the Twenty-Ninth Century” (1824) is considered the first description of time travel in Russian literature. Bulgarin also wrote a large collection of memoirs.

Bulgarin and Grech. Caricature by unknown artist. 1830s

In 1822-1829 he published the magazine “Northern Archive” (since 1825, together with N.I. Grech) and “Literary Leaflets” (1823-1824), published as a supplement to it, in 1825-1839 - co-editor and co-publisher of Grech according to the magazine “Son of the Fatherland”, which since 1829 has been merged with the “Northern Archive” and published under the title “Son of the Fatherland and the Northern Archive”.

He gained the greatest fame as the editor-publisher of the first private Russian political and literary newspaper “Northern Bee”, which (together with Grech) he published from 1825 until the end of his life, which became the first private newspaper in Russia and collected over a period of time from 4.5 to 10 thousand subscribers was an unheard of circulation at that time.

“The Northern Bee”, in addition to official news, gave its reader statistics, and announcements about performances, and foreign and domestic news, and responses to new books, and the physiology of St. Petersburg (the author of essays about the capital was often Bulgarin himself), and poetry, and fashion, and literature reviews, and much more. On its pages a genre such as the feuilleton regularly appeared - an almost intimate conversation between the editor and the subscriber on various topics - from everyday life to philosophical ones, and all this was written in a playful tone and brought the publisher and the reader closer together. The fact that Bulgarin moved the Russian newspaper is a fact. There would have been no “Northern Bee” and its temperamental editor, who from time to time fell into “heresy” and excited the imagination of society, without his frantic war with everything that threatened “The Bee” with the loss of a subscriber, Russian public life would have been more boring.

Unknown artist. Caricature of F.V. Bulgarin. (1820-1830s) From A.E. Izmailov’s album “Monument of Friendship”.
Caption: “What if this nose starts sniffing nettles? / The nettles seem to be withering!”.

The Northern Bee published until December 1825 Krylov and Ryleev, Pushkin and Yazykov. It was read both in the provinces and in the capitals, they referred to it, laughed at it and, laughing, read it again, because it was the only living piece of paper that stood out among the dispassionately boring official “Vedomosti”. And although Bulgarin sang a well-intentioned song in “The Bee” and did not allow himself anything that would not have been authorized from above, there was still unofficial information, biased opinions, irritating ones, which could not be ignored.

Bulgarin and Grech. Caricature by N.A. Stepanov

Bulgarin was the creator of the first theatrical almanac in Russia, “Russian Waist” (1825).

Maintained friendly relations with A. S. Griboedov, whom he portrayed as Talantin on the pages of the feuilleton “Literary Ghosts” (1824) - an interesting source of information about the views of the playwright.

F.V. Bulgarin met Griboedov in early June 1824, shortly after Griboedov’s arrival in St. Petersburg with the manuscript of “Woe from Wit.” They quickly became close and Bulgarin subsequently explained this rapprochement by the fact that Griboyedov had long known one good deed of Bulgarin: helping one sick young man, a friend of Griboedov, in Warsaw in 1814. Bulgarin took a great part in the fate of Griboedov: only thanks to his dexterity it was possible to publish excerpts from the comedy in the anthology “Russian Waist”; during the days Griboyedov was under arrest in 1826, at great risk to himself, he communicated with Griboyedov through a bribed guard officer and sent him books and money; and, finally, later Bulgarin often carried out orders from Griboyedov, sent from the East, for the acquisition of books, things and money accounts; he also notified Griboedov about news from the Foreign Office. Leaving for the East for the last time, Griboyedov left Bulgarin with an important textual meaning, the so-called “Bulgarin list” of “Woe from Wit” with the inscription: “I entrust my grief to Bulgarin. Faithful friend of Griboedov."

Setting off on his last journey, Alexander Sergeevich writes to Thaddeus Venediktovich: “Be patient and lend me, this is not your first friendly service to someone who knows how to appreciate you.” And already from the Caucasus: “Dear friend, I am writing to you in the open air, and gratitude guides my pen: otherwise I would not have taken up this work after a difficult day’s march.”

This is how Bulgarin spoke about his friend in an article dedicated to his memory: “Having known Griboedov, I clung to him in soul, was completely happy with his friendship, lived a new life in another better world and was orphaned forever!”

He (Bulgarin) I revered and respected the good sides in people, even those that I myself did not have. Thus, he comprehended all the goodness, all the greatness of Griboedov’s soul, became friends with him, was sincerely faithful to him until the end of his life, but I don’t know whether this friendship would have remained in force if Griboedov had decided to publish a magazine and thus began to threaten “Pchela” that is, increasing the number of its subscribers.

N.I. Greek Notes about my life

Subsequently, material relations with Griboedov caused Bulgarin a lot of trouble with the poet’s heirs.

Alexander Griboedov by Pyotr Karatygin

In 1825, Bulgarin married his young pupil, German-born Elena Ida. Subsequently, partly thanks to Pushkin’s epigram, rumors will leak into society that Bulgarin’s wife was a fallen woman before her marriage. Most likely, the famous Tanta from Pushkin’s epigram was the aunt of the writer’s wife. Elena was friends with Griboyedov, which gave rise to a version of their romance

Thaddeus Venediktovich is smart, charming, but also quick-tempered, suspicious, and capricious. Even Belinsky noted that Bulgarin’s character “is very interesting and would be worth, if not a whole story, then a detailed physiological sketch.” More than once or twice he quarrels with his friends. “Proud man!” Ryleev reproached him and added, affectionately, jokingly: “When the revolution happens, we will cut off your head at the Northern Bee.”

A. Delvig tried to challenge Bulgarin to a duel, but Thaddeus Venediktovich answered the challenge with the contempt of a career officer: “Tell the baron that in my time I have seen more blood than he has ink.”

Bulgarin felt like a man of Russian culture and advised the young Adam Kirkor to write in Russian. At the same time, he maintained contacts with the Vilna cultural environment, corresponded with local writers, and subscribed to Kirkor’s almanac “Teka Wileńska”.

Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky in his article “A Look at Old and New Literature in Russia” (1823) spoke about him like this:

Bulgarin, a Polish writer, writes in our language with particular interest. He looks at objects from a completely new perspective, expresses his thoughts with a kind of military sincerity and truth, without diversity, without puns. Possessing a discriminating and original taste, which is not carried away even by the ardent youth of feelings, striking with unborrowed forms of style, he, of course, will join the ranks of our secular writers.

In February 1824, Pushkin wrote to Bulgarin: “You belong to the small number of those writers whose censure or praise can and should be respected.” But already in the same 1824, Bulgarin sharply changed his views from “liberal” to “reactionary”, although they say that on December 14, 1825 he was seen in a crowd of spectators on Senate Square shouting “Constitution!” After the defeat of the uprising, Bulgarin, at the request of Ryleev, hid his archive and thereby saved A. S. Griboedov and many others, on whom there were incriminating materials in this archive.

Kondraty Ryleyev by Orest Kiprensky

People who do not know the matter accuse Bulgarin of informing on his own nephew, a second lieutenant of the General Staff Demyan Alexandrovich Iskritsky, that he was with Ryleev in the meeting of the rebels on December 13th. This is a complete lie. ....On the third day, Bulgarin comes to me and tells me that Iskritsky told him that on the eve of the mutiny he was with Ryleev, saw some officers and others, but did not participate in their conversations and judgments. Bulgarin added that this announcement embarrassed him, because he might be asked if he knew about Iskritsky’s presence at Ryleev’s: what to do in this case? I answered: “If they ask, then answer the truth, but until they ask, remain silent.” At this time, Bulgarin was in terrible anxiety and tried in every possible way to interrogate what was happening in the Investigative Commission, who was answering what, etc.
Meanwhile, Demyan’s brother, Alexander Iskritsky, who was then a cadet at the Artillery School, came to Bulgarin in the wilderness of his home and asked his wife to give him his book, calling it Lenchen (Helen), as they called it before the wedding, which took place four months before . Suddenly a tanta jumped out from another room and shouted: “My nieces are gone, there is Lenchen. He is Frau Capitanin von Boulgarin."

Iskritsky, Alexander Alexandrovich (1806-1867) - Major General, Knight of St. George
photograph from an unsurvived portrait from the 1830s.

Iskritsky answered, smiling: “She is still our same liebes Lenchen,” and left with the book. When Bulgarin returned home, the tanta jumped up at him: “Why did you marry Lenchen when your nephews treat her like a girl? Now your nephew Alexander came and scolded her on the spot!” Bulgarin flared up, sat down at his desk and scribbled a terrible letter to Demyan, calling his father a bribe-taker, and his mother (his sister) an indecent woman, asking how his brother, Alexander, dared to scold a noble woman, and threatened to beat them all up.

Soon after, Demyan came to Bulgarin, they fought.

The next day, Bulgarin came to me wearing blue glasses, which he wore after every similar massacre, and announced: “I’m in trouble. I beat the scoundrel Demyan yesterday and now I see that I am dead. He will report that I knew about his presence in Ryleev’s meeting.”

I tried to calm him down, but he was inconsolable. A few days later, Andrei Andreevich Ivanovskoy, an official in the office of the Investigative Commission, met with him and told him: “Poor Iskritsky! They'll take him tomorrow. They found out that on the eve of the 14th he was in Ryleev’s council.”

Demian (Demyan) Alexandrovich Iskritsky.
Father - Chief Secretary of the Senate Alexander Mikhailovich Iskritsky (born in 1782), mother - Antonina Stepanovna Mendzhinskaya, maternal sister of Thaddeus Venediktovich Bulgarin.

Bulgarin hastened to warn Iskritsky, but he decided that it was Bulgarin himself who denounced him. Demyan served time in the fortress, then he

transferred to the Orenburg garrison and, when the war with Persia opened, they were sent to the Caucasus. He served very diligently, fought bravely (under Count P.P. Sukhtelen) against the enemy and, with the intercession of this noble man, of course, would have gotten out of the extreme situation, but he did not live to see it: he died of illness in the village of Tsarskie Kolodtsy. Subsequently, I learned from Sukhtelen that until the end of his life he called Bulgarin the culprit of his misfortune. This was not good. Count Konovnitsyn pointed him out at the Investigative Commission, and Bulgarin only behaved like a brainless Pole, but never thought of informing.

This slander incises Bulgarin during his lifetime and incriminates him in death. It is my duty to protest against such injustice. Everything came from Bulgarin’s cowardice (lachete), mixed with insolence and unbridled character. The source of everything was a vile, evil woman (tanta), whom Bulgarin himself hated in his soul.

N.I. Greek Notes about my life

Careless behavior before the uprising and, finally, Bulgarin’s past itself motivated the authorities’ interest in his name.

But as soon as it becomes clear that the authorities disapprove of his actions, that his name appears during interrogations and in testimony, and that his employees and friends are arrested, natural defense mechanisms are immediately activated. Not even with his mind, but with something deeper, Bulgarin understands: fate is tripping him up again. And the main task becomes to survive, to prove your loyalty.

Nationality and commitment to everything native, the unfortunate circumstances of his youth that led to the service of Napoleon, and friendship with opposition-minded writers begin to play against him. Moreover, A.F. Voeikov sends out anonymous anonymous letters accusing Grech and Bulgarin of involvement in the conspiracy.

Bulgarin begins to look for a way out of this situation. On the one hand, he never hands over Ryleev’s archive to the authorities, but on the other hand, at the request of the police, he is forced to give a description of his friend V.K. Kuchelbecker, explaining this act: “Doesn’t the oath oblige us to do this?”

Already in May 1826, Bulgarin turned to the tsar with a new note “On censorship in Russia and book printing in general,” where he argued for the need for the authorities to advise and control book printing.

The climax comes on May 9, 1826, when St. Petersburg Governor General P.V. Golenishchev-Kutuzov received a report from the duty general of the General Staff A.N. Potapov. He informed that “The Sovereign Emperor deigned to command that Your Excellency have under the strict supervision of the retired French service captain Bulgarin, a famous magazine publisher, who is here, and at the same time His Majesty is pleased to have a certificate of Bulgarin’s service, where he served after leaving the Russian service , when and which foreign ones he entered into and when he left them. Having the honor to convey this Highest will to Your Excellency, I humbly ask that a certificate of Bulgarin’s service be delivered to me for presentation to the Sovereign Emperor."

They turned to the culprit himself for this information. Bulgarin wrote about himself as neutrally as possible and immediately after that he gave the emperor a note “On censorship in Russia and on printing in general.” Its main idea, which was largely new for Russia, was that “since it is impossible to destroy a general opinion, it is much better for the government to take upon itself the responsibility of admonishing it and managing it through printing, rather than leaving it to the will of malicious people.”

In a month, the sovereign will establish the Third Department.

Subsequently, Bulgarin wrote notes and letters about specific personalities, political rumors, literary groups, on the Polish question, and the situation in the Baltic states was covered in his messages. These notes were most often addressed to the director of the office of the third department, Maximilian von Fock, the chief of gendarmes, Alexander Benckendorff, and the manager of the third department since 1839, Leonty Dubelt.

A fairly large part of his “notes” was compiled in response to specific requests from the director of the office of the Third Department, M. J. von Fock and A. H. Benckendorff. Bulgarin acted as an expert on cultural issues, writing “reviews” on the problems of Poland and the Baltic states, censorship and the moral climate in society. But from time to time he had to “report”, write characteristics of cultural figures, officials, etc.

Bulgarin even stole for his novel “Dmitry the Pretender” the ideas of Pushkin’s tragedy “Boris Godunov”, which he could only get acquainted with as an officer of the secret police, which earned him the light hand of A.S. Pushkin, who guessed about it (whom he criticized for the poem “Gabriiliada”, the absence patriotism and glorification of “thieves” (Cossacks and robbers) and “kikes” (Pushkin’s poem “Gypsies”)) reputation as an informer.

Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (1782-1836) Portrait of A.S. Pushkin (1827)

A.S. Pushkin. Corner of the office (it is generally believed that this is Boldino). There is a bust of Napoleon on the table. Below is a portrait of Bulgarin. Drawing by Pushkin. November. 1830. Attribution to T.G. Tsyavlovskaya

Once, at a dinner party at Smirdin’s, as P.I. Grech said, “Bulgarin and I happened to be sitting in such a way that between us sat the censor Vasily Nikolaevich Semenov, an old lyceum student, almost a classmate of Alexander Sergeevich. This time Pushkin was somehow especially on fire, chatting incessantly, making smart jokes and laughing until he dropped. Suddenly, noticing that Semyonov was sitting between us, two journalists... he shouted from the opposite side of the table, addressing Semyonov: “You, brother Semyonov, today are like Christ on Mount Calvary.” These words were immediately understood by everyone. I laughed, of course, louder than anyone else.” It’s unlikely that Grech’s laughter can be considered sincere. According to legend, Christ was crucified on Golgotha ​​between two robbers, namely “robbers” and Pushkin called the company of Grech and Bulgarin

The sheet was attached to the almanac "Housewarming" (St. Petersburg, 1833). The lunch depicted in the engraving was given on the occasion of the relocation of A.F.’s bookstore. Smirdin to the most prestigious and solemn part of St. Petersburg - on Nevsky Prospekt. Among those depicted is I.A. Krylov (in place of the owner), A.F. Smirdin (standing), to the right of them is D.I. Khvostov, A.S. Pushkin, P.A. Vyazemsky, on the left - N.I. Grech (standing with a glass in his hand), censor V.N. Semenov, F.V. Bulgarin.

Despite the successful and fruitful publishing activity, F.V. Bulgarin and the “Northern Bee” are remembered today mostly in connection with the persecution of Pushkin that unfolded in this newspaper.

In 1828, he bought the neglected Karlovo estate from the landowner Otto Kridener for 60,000 rubles, and in 1831 he moved there for six years. The estate building was rebuilt over several years under the leadership of the new owner, and later he bought another estate in the name of his wife, Sarakus near Karlovo. Already in June 1830, on the pages of “Northern Bee”, he colorfully described the calm and pleasantness of life in Dorpat. Subsequently, Bulgarin remained in St. Petersburg for the winter, and the rest of the time he lived on his estates.

Karlova's estate

In Karlovo, he became actively involved in agriculture, and from 1841 he wrote a number of articles for the magazine “Economy” on the proper conduct of agriculture. In them he promoted frugality and hard work. According to the testimony of the writer E. Avdeeva, who visited him, the estate brought him up to 15,000 rubles in income.

At one time, Bulgarin was going to earn money by opening a boarding house for Russian students on the estate. The curious and pedantic rules for boarders that he wrote in 1829 have been preserved. This attempt to create a student boarding house was not successful.

In his article “F.V. Bulgarin in Livonia and Estland” M. Salupere mentions Bulgarin’s complaint about the hostile attitude of the Baltic nobles and local authorities towards him, which was not sent to the third department. In it, he writes that they tried to survive, subordinate his estate to the city authorities, and even arrested his servant for taking food out of the city. Local landowners were also irritated by Bulgarin’s excessive concern for his peasants, in whom they saw a bad example to follow.

Much more complex were Bulgarin’s relations with the students. Without exception, all researchers of the Dorpat period of his life write about the quarrel that occurred between the owner of Karlov and the students in the fall of 1832. About 600 students were going to give him a cat concert, and although a scandal was avoided, Bulgarin reported the prank to the third department, several students were put in a punishment cell. After this, a window on the estate was broken with a stone, which frightened the writer’s pregnant wife. There is also a known case when students forced Bulgarin’s daughter to get out of the carriage and dance in the street.

In Dorpat, Bulgarin became the father of a family. His four sons were born here - Boleslav, Vladislav, Mechislav and Svyatoslav and his daughter Elena.

Ivan Nikolayevich Terebenev. Portrait of Faddey Venediktovich Bulgarin, (c.1840, Pushkin Museum, Moscow)

According to Russian laws, Bulgarin, as a Pole who fought in Napoleonic army against the Russians, had to be sent to serve in the Cossack troops; an exception to this rule in the case of Bulgarin could only be explained by the highest command. Despite this, he allowed himself to be controversial: he published a negative review in his newspaper of the patriotic novel “Yuri Miloslavsky” and for this, by personal order of the Tsar, on January 30, 1830, he was put in a guardhouse awaiting assignment to the Cossacks; his newspaper was closed. But by the new year of 1831, at the height of the Polish uprising, he received a third diamond ring from the sovereign (supposedly for “Ivan Vyzhigin”) with a letter from Benckendorf, which emphasized the highest patronage of Bulgarin and allowed him to report this: “In this case, the sovereign emperor deigned to respond “that His Majesty is very pleased with your labors and zeal for the common good and that His Majesty, being confident in your devotion to his person, is always disposed to provide you with his merciful patronage.”

Thaddeus Venediktovich Bulgarin in his office. Engraving by V.F. Timm. 1853

The pinnacle of Bulgarin’s literary career was the novel “Ivan Vyzhigin” (St. Petersburg, 1829), which became the first bestseller in Russia (more than ten thousand copies were sold in total). The novel became the predecessor of “Dead Souls”, “The Twelve Chairs” and other Russian novels focused on the tradition of the picaresque novel. The novel “Ivan Vyzhigin” was so popular that, at the request of readers, Bulgarin wrote its continuation “Pyotr Ivanovich Vyzhigin” about the war of 1812 (St. Petersburg, 1831). It was envy of his success among the reading public that he explained the hostility of Pushkin, Lermontov and many other writers.

With the success of his stories and small articles, he conceived his “Ivan Ivanovich Vyzhigin”, wrote it for a long time, diligently and had great success with it. In two years, up to seven thousand copies were sold. This novel is now forgotten and is neglected, which it does not deserve. We must remember that it was, in time, the first Russian novel and that it began our accusatory literature. Many features and characters are captured successfully and intelligently. Seeing the success of “Ivan Vyzhigin,” bookseller Alexey Zaikin ordered Bulgarin “Peter Vyzhigin,” which was incomparably weaker and did not bring any profit. Alexei Zaikin died of cholera in 1831, without waiting for the publication of the novel to be completed. “Dmitry the Pretender,” for me, is even weaker, especially because the author undertakes to depict feelings of love and tenderness. He knew love and knew it in practice, but not the kind described in novels

N.I. Greek Notes about my life

In Gostiny Dvor (merchants invite Bulgarin). Lithograph by R. Zhukovsky. 1840s.
Nicholas I called Bulgarin “King of Gostiny Dvor”;

At the end of the 40s, relations with Grech worsened.

In 1838, when we handed over the “Bee” to Smirdin and took Polevoy as our employee, our budget was drawn up, according to which my son, Alexey, received three thousand rubles a year in banknotes for his cooperation. Three years later, Bulgarin decided to take this money from him under the pretext that I, living abroad, should pay him for his work from myself, and not from the general treasury: he lost sight of the fact that he himself spent most of the year in Dorpat and in Karlovo was not directly involved in “Bee” at that time either. The saddest and meanest thing about this attempt is that he is trying to convince my son that I do not love him as much as he, Bulgarin, loves him. The material consequence of this correspondence was that my son stopped receiving 3 thousand rubles from the “Pchela” cash desk, and at the same time I allocated him 5,000 rubles from my private fund. Morally, this answer from my son deeply stung Bulgarin, and when I, in 1847, intending to live longer abroad, wanted to transfer my affairs in “Pchela” into the ownership of my son during my lifetime, Bulgarin announced his consent, on the condition that I paid him, Bulgarin, ten thousand rubles for this program. Of course, after this the transfer did not take place.

I admit, if I had known what Bulgarin really was like, that is, what he became in his old age, I would never have entered into an alliance with him. But these impulses seemed to me to be simple flashes of flighty pride. I did not see that this only concealed an exceptional greed for money, whose goal was not so much the accumulation of wealth as the satisfaction of vanity.

N.I. Greek Notes about my life

In the second half of the 40s, Bulgarin “lost his authority every year, because the generation that believed in him grew old, lost everything and left the stage. His patronage and recommendations lost all power.” The attacks on Bulgarin were especially stimulated by his publication of “Memoirs” in 1846-1849.

K. Bryullov. Caricature of F.V. Bulgarin.

In the second half of the 50s, according to the memoirs of P. Karatygin, his name in “the literary world began to be used as a replacement for a swear word, in the sense of a common noun or, more correctly, a derogatory one.” A year before Bulgarin’s death, in 1858, Dobrolyubov in Sovremennik pronounced a verdict on him and Grech:

“Let their name die by its own death, let their literary activity not reach posterity, despite the fact that they themselves many times brought other people’s activities to the attention of amateurs in their analyzes, and even more often in a distorted form... in literary insignificance. "We have no doubt at all about Bulgarin and Grech."

Bulgarin's death in 1859, in the context of a dramatically changed situation caused by the social upsurge of the second half of the 50s, was met with almost complete silence; even the Northern Bee contained only brief information about his death.

He was buried in the cemetery in Dorpat (now Tartu, Republic of Estonia).

Grave of F.V. Bulgarin

Alexander Pushkin
(It's about the message
Bulgarin that among the ancestors
Pushkin was a black man, bought
for a barrel of rum)

You say: for a barrel of rum!
Unenviable goodness!
You are more valuable sitting at home
Selling your pen.

F.V. Bulgarin. Caricature by N.A. Stepanov

Alexander Pushkin
(This is an opinion
Bulgarin, that other writers
discriminated against because of nationality)

It doesn’t matter that you’re Pole:
Kosciuszko pole, Mickiewicz pole!
Perhaps, be yourself a Tatar, -
And I don’t see any shame here;
Be a Jew - and it doesn’t matter;
The trouble is that you are Vidocq Figlarin

Mikhail Lermontov
(we are talking about Bulgarin’s publication of the book
"Russia in statistical terms")

Thaddeus is selling Russia
Not the first time, as you know.
Perhaps he will sell his wife, children,
And the earthly world and heavenly paradise,
He would sell his conscience for a reasonable price,
Yes, it’s a pity, it’s been put into the treasury.

Anonymous (possibly Pushkin)
(about the novel
"Ivan Vyzhigin")

Everyone says: he is Walter Scott,
But I, a poet, am not a hypocrite:
I agree, he's just a beast
But I don’t believe that he is Walter Scott.

Alexander Pushkin
(upon the publication of “Ivan Vyzhigin”)

Otherwise it’s a disaster, Avdey Flugarin,
That you are not a Russian gentleman by birth,
That on Parnassus you are a gypsy,
What in the world are you Vidocq Figlarin:
The trouble is that your novel is boring.

“Avdey Flugarin” is one of Bulgarin’s pseudonyms, although invented by him, but very ambiguous, because a “weather vane” is a flag that changes its position in connection with the direction of the wind.

N. A. Nekrasov

Do not be afraid of an alliance with him,
Don't get upset at all:
He is with the Frenchman - for the Frenchman,
With a Pole - he is a Pole himself,
He is with a Tatar - a Tatar.
He is with a Jew - he is a Jew himself,
He and the footman are an important gentleman,
With an important master - a footman.
Who is he? Thaddeus Bulgarin,
Our famous Thaddeus.

In addition to epigrams, most of which did not make it into print, the caricatured image of Bulgarin was spread through theater and literary works with “hints” - vaudevilles by P. Karatygin (“Familiar Strangers,” 1830) and F. Koni (“St. Petersburg Apartments,” 1840), fables by I. Krylov ("The Cuckoo and the Rooster", 1841) and P. Vyazemsky ("Havronya", 1845), "scenes" by V. Odoevsky ("Morning of a Journalist", 1839) and even "Chinese comedy" by O. Senkovsky (" Fansu, or the Cheating Maid", 1839).

A. NIKOLAEVA

The activities of the once widely known writer, journalist and publisher Thaddeus Venediktovich Bulgarin (1789-1859) are perceived ambiguously. From school, we know about Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin’s sharply negative attitude towards him. But another Alexander Sergeevich - Griboedov considered Thaddeus Venediktovich a faithful friend. Be that as it may, it seems undeniable that Bulgarin turned out to be the founder of many new genres in Russian literature, including the genre of fantasy.

F. V. Bulgarin (1789-1859). His works were very popular among his contemporaries, but he was not destined to survive his fame.

K. P. Beggrov. "Mountains on Tsaritsyno Meadow." Petersburg. 1820s. Was it not this winter fun that suggested to the science fiction writer a way of transportation - on a “cast iron sled” - in the distant future?

Ill. 1. K. I. Kolman. "Hiring a cab driver."

L. P. A. Bishbois, V. V. Adam. "View of St. Isaac's Church and Bridge." Mid-19th century. Why is this now non-existent bridge not a modern engineering structure?

F.-V. Perrault. "Palace Embankment". First half of the 19th century. The ships of that time bear little resemblance to the ships described in the fantastic story by F. Bulgarin.

F. Ya. Alekseev. “View of the English Embankment from Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg.” 1810s.

K. Gampeln. "Troika on the street of St. Petersburg." Mid-19th century.

J. Jacottet. "Promenade des Anglais". Mid-19th century.

"Train of the Tsarskoye Selo Railway." Late 1830s.

Throughout his life, F. Bulgarin found himself in an ambivalent situation. He was born at a time when Poland was losing the last vestiges of independence. The father took part in the uprising of Tadeusz Kosciuszko and named his son in his honor. Later, even in his memoirs, Bulgarin did not mention a word about this, nor about the fact that his father was exiled for the murder of a Russian general.

Imagine a young man of eighteen years old, a handsome uhlan in the regiment of His Highness Tsarevich Konstantin, receiving in the fall of 1807 a notification that he had been awarded the first medal in his life for a military campaign. As Thaddeus Bulgarin himself wrote in his memoirs, “... in every rank, in every class, there are happy moments for a person that come only once and never return. In the military rank, to which I devoted myself from childhood, there are three highest bliss: the first officer rank, the first order, earned on the battlefield, and... the first mutual love. How happy I was when I received the Annensky saber for the Battle of Friedland! I don’t know why I would be so happy now. Then orders were very rare and were given only for distinction. I had no patrons. The sovereign himself signed all the rescripts, and I received a rescript with the following content, which I committed to memory on the first day..."

For Thaddeus Venediktovich - the son of a Polish rebel, Kosciuszko's comrade-in-arms, exiled by the Russian government to Siberia - receiving the Order of St. Anne of the third degree meant a lot. After all, he ended up in St. Petersburg, in the Ground Cadet Corps with virtually no protection, with poor knowledge of the Russian language. Thaddeus went through the ridicule of his fellow students, and over time he even began to compose in Russian, and successfully.

What a fate! At the age of 20, at the most favorable moment - awarded, wounded under heroic circumstances - the officer in love escapes from service to a masquerade, where he is met by his patron, Tsarevich Konstantin. As a result - a guardhouse, the wrath of the authorities and transfer to the Kronstadt garrison regiment, and then to Yamburg. They fire him with a bad certificate.

Bulgarin returns to his homeland, enters the Polish Legion, finds himself in the ranks of Napoleon's army, and fights against Russia. Receives the Order of the Legion of Honor, even saves the emperor by showing him the crossing of the Berezina.

Many years later, Bulgarin confessed to N. Grech, his colleague in the “Northern Bee”: “... if Napoleon’s shop had not collapsed, I would now be cultivating grapes somewhere on the Loire! Fate decided otherwise, and I submitted to it.” Fate decided against Bulgarin. Napoleon was defeated and exiled, he himself was captured by the Germans, then by the Russians and... again ended up in St. Petersburg...

He needs to arrange his life from the very beginning, without looking back at the past. I'm done with military service. But still, even if you come from a small aristocracy, you won’t become either a clerk or a teacher.

What does he know and can do? Well read, smart, writes well. In Poland, Bulgarin became friends with members of the Vilna university circle of educators - the Shubravites - and began to write. Thaddeus Venediktovich decides to continue his literary studies and two years later receives permission to publish his magazine “Northern Archive”. This is where his intelligence and understanding of society shines! "Archive" was created as a magazine on history and geography. The editor and owner has been pursuing a "common sense" philosophy from the very beginning: usefulness and expediency are his motto. Even Bulgarin took the appropriate epigraph: “Nihil ager quod non prosit” (“Work only usefully”).

Bulgarin was fond of history and published many archival documents, involved his compatriots in his work (for example, the famous historian Moachim Lelewel), and gave critical reviews of historical works, including Karamzin’s “History of the Russian State.” Having started publishing a popular magazine, he - one of the first - carefully monitors the accuracy, references and indications of sources. In search of interesting publications, he even penetrated private archives and libraries. As A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky wrote, “The Northern Archives, with the lantern of archeology, descended into the still undeveloped mines of our antiquity and, by collecting important materials, rendered a great service to Russian history.”

But the matter was not limited to history and geography alone: ​​a year later the supplement “Literary Leaflets” was published, where Bulgarin introduced new genres popular in Western Europe: feuilleton, everyday writing, historical essay, military story, utopia and dystopia.

Bulgarin cares about public interest, popularity and commercial success. He preaches the same “common sense” in literature. If you write, you should be read! You may first have to adapt to the tastes of the highly and not very educated public, but having won their trust and interest, you yourself will begin to dictate fashion, he believes.

And in his reviews, Bulgarin, not least of all, focuses on the readability of books and success with the public. He does not hesitate to talk about circulation and fees, which, from his point of view, are an indicator of success!

But literary commerce runs counter to the aspirations of the “literary aristocrats” - Pushkin’s circle. No, they do not shy away from fees and circulation, but they promote the freedom and independence of writers from the tastes of the mass public.

So far, A. S. Pushkin speaks well of his future enemy: “You belong to the small number of those writers whose censure or praise can and should be respected.”

Bulgarin is friends with A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, A. Griboedov, K. Ryleev, and the Decembrists. He is the first to publish a chapter from “Woe from Wit” in the anthology “Russian Waist”. It is no coincidence that the author leaves a note: “I bequeath my ‘grief’ to Bulgarin. Faithful friend of Griboyedov.” Setting off on his last journey, Alexander Sergeevich writes to Thaddeus Venediktovich: “Be patient and lend me, this is not your first friendly service to someone who knows how to appreciate you.” And already from the Caucasus: “Dear friend, I am writing to you in the open air, and gratitude guides my pen: otherwise I would not have taken up this work after a difficult day’s march.”

This is how Bulgarin spoke about his friend in an article dedicated to his memory: “Having known Griboedov, I clung to him in soul, was completely happy with his friendship, lived a new life in another better world and was orphaned forever!”

So far, everyone has a favorable attitude towards his Polish origin and praises him for promoting the achievements of the Fatherland. At the beginning of 1825, Bulgarin was deservedly considered a popular Russian writer.

First, Bulgarin (as eyewitnesses testify) comes out with the slogan “Constitution!”, hides part of Ryleev’s archive, helps his Decembrist friends, and worries about Griboyedov, who was under investigation.

But as soon as it becomes clear that the authorities disapprove of his actions, that his name appears during interrogations and in testimony, and that his employees and friends are arrested, natural defense mechanisms are immediately activated. Not even with his mind, but with something deeper, Bulgarin understands: fate is tripping him up again. And the main task becomes to survive, to prove your loyalty.

Nationality and commitment to everything native, the unfortunate circumstances of his youth that led to the service of Napoleon, and friendship with opposition-minded writers begin to play against him. Moreover, A.F. Voeikov sends out anonymous anonymous letters accusing Grech and Bulgarin of involvement in the conspiracy.

Thaddeus Venediktovich is already 36 years old, and he cannot afford to be among the losers again. Bulgarin begins to look for a way out of this situation. On the one hand, he never hands over Ryleev’s archive to the authorities, but on the other hand, at the request of the police, he is forced to give a description of his friend V.K. Kuchelbecker, explaining this act: “Doesn’t the oath oblige us to do this?”

The climax comes on May 9, 1826, when St. Petersburg Governor General P.V. Golenishchev-Kutuzov received a report from the duty general of the General Staff A.N. Potapov. He informed that “The Sovereign Emperor deigned to command that Your Excellency have under the strict supervision of the retired French service captain Bulgarin, a famous magazine publisher, who is here, and at the same time His Majesty is pleased to have a certificate of Bulgarin’s service, where he served after leaving the Russian service , when and which foreign ones he entered into and when he left them. Having the honor to convey this Highest will to Your Excellency, I humbly ask that a certificate of Bulgarin’s service be delivered to me for presentation to the Sovereign Emperor."

They turned to the culprit himself for this information. Bulgarin wrote about himself as neutrally as possible and immediately after that he gave the emperor a note “On censorship in Russia and on printing in general.” Its main idea, which was largely new for Russia, was that “since it is impossible to destroy a general opinion, it is much better for the government to take upon itself the responsibility of admonishing it and managing it through printing, rather than leaving it to the will of malicious people.”

In a month, the sovereign will establish the Third Department.

Coincidence or consequence? Hard to say. But the fact remains a fact.

The idea that Bulgarin began to follow during this period of his life was cooperation with the state.

A fairly large part of his “notes” was compiled in response to specific requests from the director of the office of the Third Department, M. J. von Fock and A. H. Benckendorff. Bulgarin acted as an expert on cultural issues, writing “reviews” on the problems of Poland and the Baltic states, censorship and the moral climate in society. But from time to time he had to “report”, write characteristics of cultural figures, officials, etc.

Bulgarin wrote some reports on his own initiative and expressed views in them that were not very welcomed by higher authorities: he proved the importance of moral influence on unenlightened people, criticized bribery and “liberal” aristocrats, supported the emerging new educational institutions, argued the need to borrow Western culture and the Western image life, spoke in support of personal initiative. He believed that literature should (this is one of its main tasks) correct morals and help control the population.

Many of Bulgarin's notes are unbiased or even defensive in nature, and only when personal interests are involved is he able to denigrate opponents.

However, Bulgarin did not receive any special benefits from cooperation with the Third Department. Quite often he was “highly” criticized for articles published in “Northern Bee”. And this despite the fact that the newspaper was considered pro-government and loyal. The Tsar “read with pleasure” “Vyzhigina” and awarded the author a diamond ring for the novel “Dmitry the Pretender”. However, in 1830, for example, for continuing (contrary to the tsar’s orders) critical polemics about Zagoskin’s novel “Yuri Miloslavsky,” Bulgarin was put in a guardhouse.

In 1851, Nikolai instructed the Third Department to severely reprimand Bulgarin for another article, “obviously proving that the author has always opposed government measures,” and to convey that “he will not forget this to Bulgarin.” And Thaddeus Venediktovich was 62 years old at that time . And so on and so forth…

In general, the attitude of the authorities towards their official mouthpiece was expressed in the words of the same Nikolai: “I don’t know Bulgarin by sight, and I never trusted him.” Perhaps for the reason that the Bulgarin reports turned out to be in many ways close in spirit to the notes of the Decembrists on improving affairs in the country.

Their literary brothers reproached Bulgarin for commercialism, corruption, maneuvering and flirting with the authorities, since it was understood that a person who deserves respect in Russia is always in opposition to the authorities. Bulgarin, a foreigner, a non-religious person, constantly feeling the instability of his position, including that of a writer, sought peace in collaboration with the authorities, but found only anxiety.

If Bulgarin himself had not gotten involved in one or another polemic, he would have been treated more leniently, but the fervor of Polish blood and the desire to become one of their own did the dirty deed. Thaddeus Venediktovich is smart, charming, but also quick-tempered, suspicious, and capricious. Even Belinsky noted that Bulgarin’s character “is very interesting and would be worth, if not a whole story, then a detailed physiological sketch.” More than once or twice he quarrels with his friends. “Proud man!” Ryleev reproached him and added, affectionately, jokingly: “When the revolution happens, we will cut off your head at the Northern Bee.”

A. Delvig tried to challenge Bulgarin to a duel, but Thaddeus Venediktovich answered the challenge with the contempt of a career officer: “Tell the baron that in my time I have seen more blood than he has ink.”

Let’s try to cover only with a simple enumeration what Thaddeus Venediktovich did for Russian journalism in particular and literature in general.

He published the first special magazine devoted to history, geography and statistics ("Northern Archive"), together with N. Grech created the first private newspaper with a political department and remained its editor for more than 30 years, published excerpts from "Woe from Wit" in the first domestic theater almanac "Russian Waist", was the first to support M. Lermontov's novel "A Hero of Our Time", which did not have success with readers upon release. Bulgarin was also one of the pioneers in using the genres of the moral descriptive essay, the “battle story” and the feuilleton.

With his editorial and publishing activities, Thaddeus Venediktovich largely contributed to the professionalization of Russian literature and journalism. And his novel “Ivan Vyzhigin” is the first novel of a new type in Russian literature. The book had a fantastic circulation - 7 thousand copies, and it sold out instantly! The novel aroused interest in a variety of circles due to its good knowledge of life, its style - simple and expressive, and a well-developed plot.

Bulgarin can also be called one of the founders of fantastic literature in Russia. At the age of 30, he published works in the genres of utopia (Plausible Fables, or Wanderings around the World in the Twenty-Ninth Century, 1824) and dystopia (Incredible Fables, or Journey to the Center of the Earth, 1825). "Plausible Tales", among other things, also became the first time travel in Russian literature. In Bulgarin’s fantastic works, researchers also find scientific and technical predictions (underwater farms as a source of food), examples of environmental warnings and discussions of scientific hypotheses (the theory of the “hollow” Earth).

The rise of the 1820s ended for Bulgarin with long feuds with his fellow writers and a painful decline into oblivion in the 1840-1850s, when the famous author gradually lost his authority. The former admirers gradually grew old, and their opinion lost weight.

Thaddeus Venediktovich never finished his memoirs and last novel. Paralyzed and almost forgotten by everyone, he died on the Karlovo estate near Dorpat (Tartu) on September 13, 1859.

Attention to the curious!

The magazine's readers take an active part in the "Mysterious Pictures" competition and willingly solve puzzles and problems in the "Mathematical Leisure" and "Psychological Workshop" sections. F. Bulgarin's story "Plausible fables, or Wandering around the world in the twenty-ninth century" (published in the magazine with abbreviations) are just assumptions, conjectures of a writer who tried to imagine how life will turn out in the distant future. It has not yet arrived, but some of F. Bulgarin’s predictions (for example, the ability of ships to sink to depths, plantations on the ocean floor, etc.) are already being realized. It seems that high school students would be interested in this task: identify F. Bulgarin’s guesses and list the technical achievements described in the story. And besides, name the scientific discoveries of those years that could give impetus to the writer’s imagination. Explain from the point of view of the achievements of our time where the author made a miscalculation or mistake.

The winner, who will be determined by the jury, will receive a free subscription to the Science and Life magazine for the first half of 2006.

Ill. 1. The most common way to travel around the city and outside it. Probably, the author guessed that with the increase in the number of carriages on the streets, riders would be forced to stand in traffic jams for hours, and, using his imagination, he tried to find a different solution for transportation.

The pseudonym under which the politician Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov writes. ... In 1907 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the 2nd State Duma in St. Petersburg.

Alyabyev, Alexander Alexandrovich, Russian amateur composer. ... A.'s romances reflected the spirit of the times. As then-Russian literature, they are sentimental, sometimes corny. Most of them are written in a minor key. They are almost no different from Glinka’s first romances, but the latter has stepped far forward, while A. remained in place and is now outdated.

The filthy Idolishche (Odolishche) is an epic hero...

Pedrillo (Pietro-Mira Pedrillo) is a famous jester, a Neapolitan, who at the beginning of the reign of Anna Ioannovna arrived in St. Petersburg to sing the roles of buffa and play the violin in the Italian court opera.

Dahl, Vladimir Ivanovich
His numerous stories suffer from a lack of real artistic creativity, deep feeling and a broad view of the people and life. Dahl did not go further than everyday pictures, anecdotes caught on the fly, told in a unique language, smartly, vividly, with a certain humor, sometimes falling into mannerism and jokeiness.

Varlamov, Alexander Egorovich
Varlamov, apparently, did not work at all on the theory of musical composition and was left with the meager knowledge that he could have learned from the chapel, which in those days did not at all care about the general musical development of its students.

Nekrasov Nikolay Alekseevich
None of our great poets has so many poems that are downright bad from all points of view; He himself bequeathed many poems not to be included in the collected works. Nekrasov is not consistent even in his masterpieces: and suddenly prosaic, listless verse hurts the ear.

Gorky, Maxim
By his origin, Gorky by no means belongs to those dregs of society, of which he appeared as a singer in literature.

Zhikharev Stepan Petrovich
His tragedy “Artaban” did not see either print or stage, since, in the opinion of Prince Shakhovsky and the frank review of the author himself, it was a mixture of nonsense and nonsense.

Sherwood-Verny Ivan Vasilievich
“Sherwood,” writes one contemporary, “in society, even in St. Petersburg, was not called anything other than bad Sherwood... his comrades in military service shunned him and called him by the dog name “Fidelka.”

Obolyaninov Petr Khrisanfovich
...Field Marshal Kamensky publicly called him “a state thief, a bribe-taker, a complete fool.”

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