Krylov years of life fables. Famous fables and works of Ivan Krylov

Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:	Moscow, Russian Empire
Date of death:
A place of death:	St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
Occupation:	Poet, fabulist
Years of creativity:
	Fable, play
Language of works:

early years

"Spirit Mail"

"Spectator" and "Mercury"

Translations of fables

Last years

Interesting Facts

Perpetuation of the name

In philately

Addresses in St. Petersburg

Essays

Other writings

Bibliography

Ivan Andreevich Krylov(February 2 (13), 1769, Moscow - November 9 (21), 1844, St. Petersburg) - Russian poet, fabulist, translator, writer. Full member of the Imperial Russian Academy (1811), ordinary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the Department of Russian Language and Literature (1841).

In his youth, Krylov was known primarily as a satirist writer, publisher of the satirical magazine “Mail of Spirits” and the parody tragicomedy “Trumph”, which ridiculed Paul I. Krylov was the author of more than 200 fables from 1809 to 1843, they were published in nine parts and were reprinted in very large editions for those times. In 1842 his works were published in German translation. The plots of many fables go back to the works of Aesop and La Fontaine, although there are many original plots.

Many expressions from Krylov's fables have become popular expressions.

I. A. Krylov’s fables were set to music, for example, by A. G. Rubinstein - the fables “The Cuckoo and the Eagle”, “The Donkey and the Nightingale”, “The Dragonfly and the Ant”, “Quartet”.

early years

His father, Andrei Prokhorovich Krylov (1736-1778), knew how to read and write, but “did not study science,” he served in a dragoon regiment, in 1772 he distinguished himself while defending the Yaitsky town from the Pugachevites, then he was the chairman of the magistrate in Tver and died, leaving a widow with two young children. He died with the rank of captain and poverty.

Ivan Krylov spent the first years of his childhood traveling with his family. He learned to read and write at home (his father was a great lover of reading, after him a whole chest of books passed to his son); He studied French in a family of wealthy neighbors. In 1777, he was enrolled in the civil service as a sub-clerk of the Kalyazin Lower Zemstvo Court, and then of the Tver Magistrate. This service was, apparently, only nominal and Krylov was considered to be probably on leave until the end of his training.

Krylov studied little, but read quite a lot. According to a contemporary, he “I visited with particular pleasure public gatherings, shopping areas, swings and fist fights, where I jostled among the motley crowd, listening greedily to the speeches of the common people”. In 1780 he began to serve as a sub-office clerk for a pittance. In 1782, Krylov was still listed as a sub-office clerk, but “this Krylov did not have any business on his hands.”

At this time he became interested in street fighting, wall to wall. And since he was physically very strong, he often emerged victorious over older men.

Bored by the fruitless service, Krylov at the end of 1782 went to St. Petersburg with his mother, who intended to work for a pension and a better arrangement for her son’s fate. The Krylovs remained in St. Petersburg until August 1783, and their efforts were not fruitless: upon their return, despite a long-term illegal absence, Krylov resigned from the magistrate with the rank of clerk and entered service in the St. Petersburg treasury chamber.

At this time, “The Miller” by Ablesimov enjoyed great fame, under whose influence Krylov wrote the opera “The Coffee House” in 1784; He took its plot from Novikov’s “The Painter,” but changed it significantly and ended with a happy ending. Krylov took his opera to the bookseller and printer Breitkopf, who gave the author 60 rubles worth of books (Racine, Moliere and Boileau) for it, but did not publish the opera. “The Coffee House” was published only in 1868 (in an anniversary edition) and is considered an extremely young and imperfect work, moreover, written in clumsy verse. When comparing Krylov's autograph with printed edition it turns out, however, that the latter is not entirely correct; to remove many of the publisher’s oversights and obvious clerical errors young poet, who in the manuscript that has reached us has not yet completely finished his opera, the poems of “The Coffee House” can hardly be called clumsy, but an attempt to show that newfangledness (the subject of Krylov’s satire is not so much a corrupt coffee house as the lady Novomodova) and “free” views on marriage and morality, strongly reminiscent of the adviser in “The Brigadier,” do not exclude the cruelty characteristic of the Skotinins, as well as many beautifully chosen folk sayings, make the opera of the 16-year-old poet, despite the uncontrolled characters, a remarkable phenomenon for that time. The “Coffee House” was probably conceived back in the provinces, close to the way of life that it depicts.

In 1785, Krylov wrote the tragedy “Cleopatra” (it has not reached us) and took it to the famous actor Dmitrevsky for viewing; Dmitrevsky encouraged the young author to continue his work, but did not approve of the play in this form. In 1786, Krylov wrote the tragedy “Philomela,” which, except for the abundance of horrors and screams and lack of action, does not differ from other “classical” tragedies of that time. The comic opera “The Mad Family” and the comedy “The Writer in the Hallway”, written by Krylov at the same time, are little better; about the latter, Lobanov, Krylov’s friend and biographer, says: “I have been looking for this comedy for a long time and I regret that I finally found it.” Indeed, in it, as in “Mad Family”, apart from the liveliness of the dialogue and a few popular “words”, there are no merits. The only curious thing is the fertility of the young playwright, who entered into close relations with the theater committee, received a free ticket, an assignment to translate the opera “L'Infante de Zamora” from French and the hope that “The Mad Family” will be shown at the theater, since it has already been ordered music.

In the state chamber, Krylov then received 80-90 rubles. per year, but was not satisfied with his position and moved to Her Majesty’s Cabinet. In 1788, Krylov lost his mother and in his arms was left his little brother Lev, whom he cared for all his life like a father about a son (he usually called him “daddy” in his letters). In 1787-1788 Krylov wrote the comedy “Pranksters”, where he brought to the stage and cruelly ridiculed the first playwright of that time, Ya. B. Knyazhnin ( Rhyme thief) and his wife, daughter Sumarokov ( Taratora); according to Grech, the pedant Tyanislov was copied from the bad poet P. M. Karabanov. Although in “The Pranksters”, instead of true comedy, we find a caricature, but this caricature is bold, lively and witty, and the scenes of the complacent simpleton Azbukin with Tyanislov and Rhymestealer could be considered very funny for that time. The “pranksters” not only quarreled Krylov with Knyazhnin, but also brought upon him the displeasure of the theater management.

"Spirit Mail"

In 1789, in the printing house of I. G. Rachmaninov, an educated and devoted person to the literary work, Krylov published the monthly satirical magazine “Mail of Spirits”. The depiction of the shortcomings of modern Russian society is presented here in the fantastic form of correspondence between gnomes and the wizard Malikulmulk. The satire of “Spirit Mail”, both in its ideas and in its degree of depth and relief, serves as a direct continuation of the magazines of the early 70s (only Krylov’s biting attacks on Rhythmokrad and Taratora and on the management of theaters introduce a new personal element), but in relation to the art of depiction, a major step forward. According to J. K. Grot, “Kozitsky, Novikov, Emin were only smart observers; Krylov is already an emerging artist.”

"Spirit Mail" was published only from January to August, as it had only 80 subscribers; in 1802 it was published in a second edition.

His magazine business aroused the displeasure of the authorities and the Empress offered Krylov to travel abroad for five years at the government’s expense. But he refused. In his youth, Krylov was an eternally dissatisfied freethinker.

"Spectator" and "Mercury"

In 1790, Krylov wrote and published an ode to the conclusion of peace with Sweden, a weak work, but still showing in the author developed person and future artist of the word. On December 7 of the same year, Krylov retired; V next year he became the owner of a printing house and from January 1792 began publishing the magazine “Spectator” in it, with a very broad program, but still with a clear inclination towards satire, especially in the editor’s articles. Krylov’s largest plays in “The Spectator” are “Kaib, an Eastern Tale”, the fairy tale “Nights”, satirical and journalistic essays and pamphlets (“A eulogy in memory of my grandfather”, “A speech spoken by a rake in a meeting of fools”, “Thoughts of a philosopher according to fashion").

From these articles (especially the first and third) one can see how Krylov’s worldview is expanding and how his artistic talent is maturing. At this time, he was already the center of a literary circle, which entered into polemics with Karamzin’s “Moscow Journal”. Krylov's main employee was A.I. Klushin. “Spectator” already had 170 subscribers and in 1793 turned into “St. Petersburg Mercury”, published by Krylov and A. I. Klushin. Since at this time Karamzin’s “Moscow Journal” ceased to exist, the editors of “Mercury” dreamed of distributing it everywhere and gave their publication the most literary and artistic character possible. “Mercury” contains only two satirical plays by Krylov - “A speech in praise of the science of killing time” and “A speech in praise of Ermolafides, given at a meeting of young writers”; the latter, ridiculing the new direction in literature (under Ermolafid, that is, a person who carries ermolafia or nonsense, it is implied, as J. K. Grot noted, mainly Karamzin) serves as an expression of the then literary views Krylova. This nugget severely reproaches the Karamzinists for their lack of preparation, for their contempt for the rules and for their desire for common people (bast shoes, zipuns and hats with a crease): obviously, the years of his magazine activity were for him academic years, and this late science brought discord into his tastes, which probably served as the reason for the temporary cessation of his literary activity. Most often, Krylov appears in “Mercury” as a lyricist and imitator of Derzhavin’s simpler and playful poems, and he shows more intelligence and sobriety of thought than inspiration and feelings (especially in this regard, the “Letter on the Benefits of Desires” is characteristic, which, however, remained not printed). Mercury lasted only one year and was not particularly successful.

At the end of 1793, Krylov left St. Petersburg; Little is known about what he was doing in 1794-1796. In 1797, he met in Moscow with Prince S. F. Golitsyn and went to his Zubrilovka estate, as a children's teacher, secretary, etc., at least not in the role of a free-living parasite. At this time, Krylov already had a broad and varied education (he played the violin well, knew Italian, etc.), and although he was still weak in spelling, he turned out to be a capable and useful teacher of language and literature (see. “Memoirs” by F. F. Vigel). For a home performance in Golitsyn’s house, he wrote the joke-tragedy “Trumph” or “Podschipa” (printed first abroad, then in “Russian Antiquity”, 1871, book III), a rough, but not devoid of salt and vitality, parody of classic drama, and through it forever put an end to his own desire to extract the tears of the audience. The melancholy of rural life was such that one day visiting ladies found him at the pond completely naked, with an overgrown beard and uncut nails.

In 1801, Prince Golitsyn was appointed governor-general of Riga, and Krylov was appointed his secretary. In the same or the next year, he wrote the play “Pie” (printed in the VI volume of “Collection of Akd. Sciences”; presented for the first time in St. Petersburg in 1802), a light comedy of intrigue, in which, in the person of Uzhima , casually touches upon the sentimentalism that is antipathetic to him. Despite friendly relations with his boss, Krylov retired again on September 26, 1803. We don’t know what he did for the next 2 years; they say that he led big game playing cards, once won a very large sum, traveled to fairs, etc. For playing cards, he was at one time banned from appearing in both capitals.

Fables

In 1805, Krylov was in Moscow and showed I. I. Dmitriev his translation of two fables by La Fontaine: “The Oak and the Cane” and “The Picky Bride.” According to Lobanov, Dmitriev, after reading them, said to Krylov: “this is your true family; at last you have found it.” Krylov always loved La Fontaine (or Fontaine, as he called him) and, according to legend, already in his early youth he tested his strength in translating fables, and later, perhaps, in altering them; fables and “proverbs” were in vogue at that time. A wonderful connoisseur and artist simple language, who always loved to put his thought into the plastic form of an apologist, and who was also strongly inclined towards ridicule and pessimism, Krylov, indeed, was, as it were, created for a fable, but still he did not immediately settle on this form of creativity: in 1806 he published only 3 fables, and in 1807, 3 of his plays appeared, two of which, corresponding to the satirical direction of Krylov’s talent, had big success and on stage: this is “Fashionable Shop” (finally processed back in 1806 and presented for the first time in St. Petersburg on July 27) and “Lesson for Daughters” (the plot of the latter is freely borrowed from Moliere’s “Précieuses ridicules”; presented for the first time in St. Petersburg June 18, 1807). The object of satire in both is the same, in 1807 it was completely modern - the passion of our society for everything French; in the first comedy, Frenchmania is associated with debauchery, in the second it is brought to the Herculean pillars of stupidity; In terms of liveliness and strength of dialogue, both comedies represent a significant step forward, but the characters are still missing. Krylov’s third play: “Ilya Bogatyr, magic opera"Written by order of A. L. Naryshkin, director of theaters (staged for the first time on December 31, 1806); despite the mass of nonsense characteristic of extravaganzas, it presents several strong satirical features and is curious as a tribute to youthful romanticism, brought by such an extremely unromantic mind.

It is not known to what time Krylov’s unfinished comedy in verse (it contains only one and a half acts, and the hero has not yet appeared on stage) dates back to: “The Lazy Man” (published in volume VI of the “Collection of Academic Sciences”); but it is curious, as an attempt to create a comedy of character and at the same time merge it with a comedy of morals, since the deficiency depicted in it with extreme harshness had its basis in the living conditions of the Russian nobility of that and later era.

In these few verses we have a talented sketch of what was later developed in Tentetnikov and Oblomov. Without a doubt, Krylov found a fair dose of this weakness in himself and, like many true artists, that is why he set out to depict it with possible strength and depth; but to completely identify him with his hero would be extremely unfair: Krylov is a strong and energetic person when necessary, and his laziness, his love of peace ruled over him, so to speak, only with his consent. The success of his plays was great; in 1807, his contemporaries considered him a famous playwright and put him next to Shakhovsky (see “The Diary of an Official” by S. Zhikharev); his plays were repeated very often; “Fashion Shop” was also performed in the palace, in the half of Empress Maria Feodorovna (see Arapov, “Chronicle of the Russian Theater”). Despite this, Krylov decided to leave the theater and follow the advice of I. I. Dmitriev. In 1808, Krylov, who again entered the service (in the coin department), published 17 fables in the “Dramatic Herald” and between them several (“Oracle”, “Elephant in the Voivodeship”, “Elephant and Moska”, etc.) that were quite original . In 1809, he published the first separate edition of his fables, in the amount of 23, and with this little book he won a prominent and honorable place in Russian literature, and thanks to subsequent editions of the fables, he became a writer to such a national degree as no one else had been before. . From that time on, his life was a series of continuous successes and honors, which, in the opinion of the vast majority of his contemporaries, were well deserved. In 1810 he became an assistant librarian at the Imperial public library, under the command of his former boss and patron A. N. Olenin; At the same time, he was given a pension of 1,500 rubles a year, which was subsequently (March 28, 1820), “in honor of excellent talents in Russian literature,” doubled, and even later (February 26, 1834) quadrupled, at which point he was elevated to in ranks and positions (from March 23, 1816 he was appointed librarian); upon his retirement (March 1, 1841), “unlike others,” he was given a pension full of his library allowance, so that in total he received 11,700 rubles. Ass. in year. Krylov has been a respected member of the “Conversation of Lovers of Russian Literature” since its very foundation. On December 16, 1811, he was elected a member of the Russian Academy, and on January 14, 1823, he received from it gold medal for literary merits, and during the transformation of the Russian Academy into the department of Russian language and literature of the Academy of Sciences (1841) he was approved as an ordinary academician (according to legend, Emperor Nicholas I agreed to the transformation with the condition “that Krylov be the first academician”). On February 2, 1838, the 50th anniversary of his literary activity was celebrated in St. Petersburg with such solemnity and at the same time with such warmth and sincerity that such a literary celebration cannot be mentioned earlier than the so-called Pushkin holiday in Moscow.

Ivan Andreevich Krylov died on November 9, 1844 from indigestion. He was buried on November 13, 1844 at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. On the day of the funeral, friends and acquaintances of I. A. Krylov, along with an invitation, received a copy of the fables he published, on the title page of which, under a mourning border, was printed: “An offering in memory of Ivan Andreevich, at his request.”

Anecdotes about his amazing appetite, slovenliness, laziness, love of fires, amazing willpower, wit, popularity, evasive caution are all too well known.

High position in literature Krylov did not achieve immediately; Zhukovsky, in his article “On Krylov’s fables and fables,” written about the publication. 1809, also compares him with I.I. Dmitriev, not always to his benefit, points out “errors” in his language, “expressions contrary to taste, rude” and with obvious hesitation “allows himself” to raise him here and there to La Fontaine , as a “skilled translator” of the king of fabulists. Krylov could not have any particular claim to this verdict, since out of the 27 fables he had written up to that time, in 17 he, indeed, “took both fiction and story from La Fontaine”; on these translations, Krylov, so to speak, trained his hand, sharpened the weapon for his satire. Already in 1811, he appeared with a long series of completely independent (of the 18 fables of 1811, only 3 were borrowed from documents) and often amazingly bold plays, such as “Geese”. “Leaves and Roots”, “Quartet”, “Council of Mice”, etc. All best part the reading public then recognized Krylov’s enormous and completely independent talent; his collection of “New Fables” became a favorite book in many homes, and Kachenovsky’s malicious attacks (“Vestn. Evropy” 1812, No. 4) damaged the critics much more than the poet. In year Patriotic War In 1812, Krylov became a political writer, precisely the direction that the majority of Russian society adhered to. Also clear political idea is also visible in the fables of the next two years, for example. "Pike and Cat" (1813) and "Swan, Pike and Crayfish" (1814; she does not mean Congress of Vienna, six months before the opening of which it was written, and expresses the dissatisfaction of Russian society with the actions of the allies of Alexander I). In 1814, Krylov wrote 24 fables, all of them original, and repeatedly read them at court, in the circle of Empress Maria Feodorovna. According to Galakhov’s calculations, only 68 fables fall in the last 25 years of Krylov’s activity, while in the first twelve - 140.

A comparison of his manuscripts and numerous editions shows with what extraordinary energy and care this otherwise lazy and careless man corrected and smoothed out the initial drafts of his works, which were already apparently very successful and deeply thought out. He sketched out the fable so fluently and unclearly that even to himself the manuscript only resembled something thought out; then he rewrote it several times and corrected it every time wherever he could; Most of all, he strived for plasticity and possible brevity, especially at the end of the fable; moral teachings, very well conceived and executed, he either shortened or completely threw out (thus weakening the didactic element and strengthening the satirical one), and thus through hard work he reached his sharp, stiletto-like conclusions, which quickly turned into proverbs. With the same labor and attention, he expelled from the fables all book turns and vague expressions, replaced them with folk, picturesque and at the same time quite accurate ones, corrected the construction of the verse and destroyed the so-called. " poetic license" He achieved his goal: in terms of the power of expression, the beauty of the form, Kryloa’s fable is the height of perfection; but still, to assure that Krylov does not have incorrect accents and awkward expressions is an anniversary exaggeration (“from all four legs” in the fable “The Lion, the Chamois and the Fox”, “You and I can’t fit in there” in the fable “Two Boys” , “The fruits of ignorance are terrible” in the fable “The Atheists”, etc.). Everyone agrees that in the mastery of storytelling, in the relief of characters, in subtle humor, in the energy of action, Krylov is a true artist, whose talent stands out the brighter the more modest the area he has set aside for himself. His fables as a whole are not a dry moralizing allegory or even a calm epic, but a living drama in one hundred acts, with many charmingly outlined types, a true “spectacle of human life,” viewed from a certain point of view. How correct this point of view is and how edifying Krylov’s fable is for contemporaries and posterity - opinions on this are not entirely similar, especially since not everything necessary has been done to fully clarify the issue. Although Krylov considers the benefactor of the human race “the one who the most important rules offers virtuous actions in short expressions,” he himself, neither in his magazines nor in his fables, was not a didacticist, but a bright satirist, and, moreover, not one who punishes with ridicule the shortcomings of his contemporary society, in view of the ideal firmly rooted in his soul, but a pessimistic satirist who has little faith in the possibility of correcting people by any means and strives only to reduce the amount of lies and evil. When Krylov, as a moralist, tries to propose “the most important rules of virtuous actions,” he comes out dry and cold, and sometimes not even very smart (see, for example, “Divers”); but when he has the opportunity to point out the contradiction between the ideal and reality, to expose self-delusion and hypocrisy, phrases, falsehood, stupid complacency, he is a true master. Therefore, it is hardly appropriate to be indignant at Krylov for the fact that he “did not express his sympathy for any discoveries, inventions or innovations” (Galakhov), just as it is inappropriate to demand that all his fables preach humanity and spiritual nobility. He has another task - to execute evil with merciless laughter: the blows he inflicted on various types of meanness and stupidity are so accurate that no one has the right to doubt the beneficial effect of his fables on a wide circle of their readers. Are they useful as pedagogical material? Without a doubt, as everything is true piece of art, quite affordable to a child's mind and helping him further development; but since they depict only one side of life, material from the opposite direction should also be offered next to them. The important historical and literary significance of Krylov is also beyond doubt. Just as in the age of Catherine II the pessimist Fonvizin was needed next to the enthusiastic Derzhavin, so in the age of Alexander I Krylov was needed; acting at the same time as Karamzin and Zhukovsky, he represented them as a counterweight, without which our society could go too far along the path of dreamy sensitivity.

Not sharing Shishkov’s archaeological and narrowly patriotic aspirations, Krylov consciously joined his circle and spent his entire life fighting against half-conscious Westernism. In fables he appeared as our first “truly folk” (Pushkin, V, 30) writer, both in language and in images (his animals, birds, fish and even mythological figures are truly Russian people, each with the characteristic features of the era and social provisions), and in ideas. He sympathizes with the Russian working man, whose shortcomings, however, he knows very well and portrays strongly and clearly. The good-natured ox and the eternally offended sheep are his only so-called positive types, and the fables: “Leaves and Roots”, “Worldly Gathering”, “Wolves and Sheep” put him far ahead among the then idyllic defenders of serfdom. Krylov chose a modest poetic field for himself, but in it he was a major artist; his ideas are not lofty, but reasonable and strong; its influence is not deep, but extensive and fruitful.

Translations of fables

The first translator of Krylov to Azerbaijan language was Abbas-Quli-Aga Bakikhanov. In the 30s of the 19th century, during Krylov’s own lifetime, he translated the fable “The Donkey and the Nightingale.” It would be appropriate to note that, for example, the first translation into Armenian was made in 1849, and into Georgian in 1860. Over 60 fables by Krylov in the 80s years XIX century translated by Hasanaliaga Khan of Karadag. As the outstanding Azerbaijani literary critic Mikail Rafili noted, “the translations of Khan Karadag were of exceptional importance in cultural life Azerbaijan. Thanks to his translations, educational literature was enriched with new, socially rich works, and Russian literature truly became the property of the broad masses of Azerbaijan. These translations were read and studied with love by schoolchildren; they were perceived as an original phenomenon in literary life. Karadagsky sought to provide a translation very close in content to the original. It is very characteristic that the translator did not limit himself to conveying the content, but sometimes also gave his own conclusions, drawn from folk sayings and expressing the quintessence of Krylov’s work... Translations of Krylov’s fables occupied the most important place in the entire translation activity of Azerbaijani writers late XIX century." Interest in Krylov’s work was great and it is no coincidence that the outstanding Azerbaijani writer Abdurragim bey Akhverdiyev began his literary activity in 1885 with a translation of Krylov’s fable “The Oak and the Cane.” Further, as they say, more. Rashid bey Efendiyev, Mirza Alekper Sabir, Abbas Sihhat, Abdullah Shaig - they all turned to Krylov’s work. In 1938, A. Shaig’s book was published, which included translations of 97 Krylov’s fables. Shaig's translations clearly show the former, but bold experiments translations of Garadagh (“Shaig’s interest in poetry and literature appeared at the age of seven, when he began to study at a Tiflis school. He memorized poems in Azerbaijani, Russian and Persian languages. His first textbook was “Vaten Dili,” which included the fables of I. A. Krylov translated by Hasanaliag Khan of Karadag (Garadagh).”

Last years

At the end of his life, Krylov was treated kindly by the authorities. He had the rank of state councilor, a six-thousandth boarding house.

Krylov lived a long time and did not change his habits in any way. Completely lost in laziness and gourmand. He's smart and not too a kind person, eventually settled into the role of a good-natured eccentric, an absurd, unabashed glutton. The image he invented suited the court, and at the end of his life he could afford anything. He was not ashamed to be a glutton, a slob and a lazy person.

When he died, everyone thought it was from gluttony, but in fact from double pneumonia.

The funeral was magnificent. Count Orlov - the second person in the state - removed one of the students and himself carried the coffin to the road.

Contemporaries believed that the daughter of his cook Sasha was his father. This is confirmed by the fact that he sent her to a boarding school. And when the cook died, he raised her as a daughter and gave her a large dowry. Before his death, he bequeathed all his property and rights to his compositions to Sasha’s husband.

• Once Krylov, at home, having eaten eight pies, was struck by their bad taste. Opening the pan, I saw that it was all green with mold. But he decided that if he was alive, he could finish the remaining eight pies in the pan.
• I really loved watching fires. Didn't miss a single fire in St. Petersburg.
• Above the sofa in Krylov’s house there was a healthy painting hanging “on my word of honor.” Friends asked him to drive in a couple more nails so that it would not fall and break his head. To this he replied that he had calculated everything: the painting would fall tangentially and would not hit him.
• At dinner parties, he usually ate a dish of pies, three or four plates of fish soup, several chops, roast turkey and a few small things. Arriving home, I ate it all with a bowl of sauerkraut and black bread.
• One day, at dinner with the queen, Krylov sat down at the table and, without saying hello, began to eat. Zhukovsky shouted in surprise: “Stop it, let the queen at least treat you.” “What if he doesn’t treat me?” - Krylov was scared.

Perpetuation of the name

• In St. Petersburg there is Krylov Lane
• In Lipetsk there is Krylova Street
• In Nizhny Novgorod there is Krylova Street
• In Tver there is Krylova Street
• In Bobruisk there is Krylova Street
• In Yoshkar-Ola there is Krylova Street
• In Kharkov (Ukraine) there is Krylova Street
• In Saransk there is Krylova Street
• In the city of Surgut (KhMAO-Yugra) there is Krylova Street
• In Karaganda there is Krylov Street
• In Gukovo there is Krylova Street
• In Ust-Kamenogorsk there is Krylova Street
• In Kazan there is Krylova Street
• In Vladivostok there is Krylova Street
• In Krasnoyarsk there is Krylova Street

In philately

Addresses in St. Petersburg

• 1791-1796 - house of I. I. Betsky - Millionnaya street, 1;
• 1816 - 03.1841 - house of the Imperial Public Library - Sadovaya Street, 20;
• 03.1841 - 09.11.1844 - Blinov apartment building - 1st line, 8. Historical monument of Federal significance. Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. No. 7810123000 // Website “Objects of cultural heritage (historical and cultural monuments) of the peoples of the Russian Federation.” Verified

Essays

Fables

Squirrel Bulat Wolf and Crane Wolf and Cuckoo Wolf and Fox Wolf and Lamb Wolf at the kennel Crow A Crow and a fox Two barrels Two dogs Demyanova's ear Tree Hare on the hunt Mirror and Monkey Rock and Worm Quartet Cat and Cook Cat and Nightingale Peasant and death

Peasant and Worker Cuckoo and Rooster Cuckoo and Eagle Chest Lion and Mosquito Lion on the hunt Swan, Pike and Crayfish Fox and Grapes Fox the Builder Fox and Marmot Sheets and Roots Curious Frog and Ox Monkey and glasses Ant Mouse and Rat Monkey Sheep and Dogs Eagle and Bee

Donkey and Man Donkey and Nightingale Rooster and Pearl grain Motley sheep Hermit and Bear Guns and Sails Bee and Flies Fish dance Pig under the oak tree Tit Starling Elephant and Moska Elephant in the voivodeship Dog friendship Council of Mice Dragonfly and Ant Trishkin caftan Hardworking Bear Siskin and Dove Pike and Cat

Other writings

• The Coffee House (1783, published 1869, comic opera),
• The Mad Family (1786, comedy),
• The Writer in the Hallway (1786-1788, published 1794, comedy),
• Pranksters (1786-1788, published 1793, comedy),
• Philomela (1786-1788, published 1793, tragedy),
• The Americans (1788, comedy, together with A.I. Klushin),
• Kaib (1792, satirical story),
• Nights (1792, satirical story; unfinished),
• Trumpf (“Podschipa”; 1798-1800, published 1859; distributed in handwritten lists),
• Pie (1801, published 1869, comedy),
• Fashion Shop (1806, comedy),
• A Lesson for Daughters (1807, comedy),
• Ilya the Bogatyr (1807, comedy).

Bibliography

• The first monographs about Krylov were written by his friends - M. E. Lobanov (“The Life and Works of Ivan Andreevich Krylov”) and P. A. Pletnev (under full meeting works of Ivan Krylov, ed. J. Jungmeister and E. Weimar in 1847); Pletnev’s biography was reprinted many times both in the collected works of Krylov and in his fables.

• Notes, materials and articles about him appeared both in historical and general journals (for a list of them, see Mezhov, “History of Russian and General Words.”, St. Petersburg, 1872, as well as Kenevich and L. Maikov).

• In the year of the centenary anniversary of Krylov’s birth, “Bibliographer” was published. and history notes to Krylov’s fables”, V.F. Kenevich, and Volume II of “History of Russian Literature” by A.D. Galakhov, where a small but valuable study is devoted to Krylov and his fables.

• Serious and conscientious, but far from full time job Kenevich (2nd ed., without additions and even with abbreviations, 1878) was included as part of the VI volume of the “Collection of Russian Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences” (1869), all articles of which are dedicated to Krylov; At the same time, several monographs appeared in magazines.

• Valuable material is provided by the article by L. N. Maykov: “The first steps of I. A. Krylov in the literary field” (“Russian Bulletin” 1889; reprinted in “Historical and Literary Essays”, St. Petersburg 1895).
• A. Lyashchenko, in “ Historical Bulletin"(1894 No. 11);
• A. Kirpyachnikova in “Initiation”,
• V. Peretz in “Annual. Imp. Theaters for 1895"
• a number of articles about Krylov in the Journal of Min. Nar. Enlightened." 1895 Amon, Draganov and Nechaev (the latter caused the brochure of A. Lyashchenko).

• First scientific work about Krylov was published under the editorship of Kallash (St. Petersburg, 1903-1905).

• S. Babintsev. Krylov's world fame (I. A. Krylov. Research and materials. Moscow, OGIZ, 1947, 296 pp.), 274 pp.
• M. Rafili. I. A. Krylov and Azerbaijani literature, Baku, Azerneshr, 1944, pp. 29-30.
• Mirakhmedov A. M. Abdulla Shaik. Baku: “Elm”, 1956, p. 6

Who is Ivan Krylov, what and what did he write about? Today we will try to tell you about all this, based on different sources from the Internet.

K Rylov Ivan Andreevich

Russian publicist, poet, fabulist, publisher of satirical and educational magazines. He is best known as the author of 236 fables, collected in nine lifetime collections.

Bography

Father, Andrei Prokhorovich Krylov (1736-1778), knew how to read and write, but “did not study science,” he served in a dragoon regiment, in 1773 he distinguished himself while defending the Yaitsky town from the Pugachevites, then was the chairman of the magistrate in Tver. He died with the rank of captain in poverty. Mother, Maria Alekseevna (1750-1788) remained a widow after the death of her husband. the family lived in poverty.

Ivan Krylov spent the first years of his childhood traveling with his family. He learned to read and write at home (his father was a great lover of reading, after him a whole chest of books passed to his son); He studied French in a family of wealthy neighbors.

The future fabulist began work very early and learned the hardship of life in poverty. In 1777, he was enrolled in the civil service as a sub-clerk of the Kalyazin Lower Zemstvo Court, and then of the Tver Magistrate. This service was, apparently, only nominal, and Krylov was considered to be probably on leave until the end of his studies.

Another “school of life” of Ivan Krylov, whose biography is very multifaceted, was the common people. The future writer enjoyed attending various folk festivals and entertainments, and often took part in street battles. Right there, in the crowd common people, Ivan Andreevich scooped pearls folk wisdom and sparkling peasant humor, capacious colloquial expressions, which over time will form the basis of his famous fables.

At the age of fourteen he ended up in St. Petersburg, where his mother went to ask for a pension. Then he transferred to serve in the St. Petersburg Treasury Chamber. However, he was not too interested in official matters. In the first place among Krylov’s hobbies were literary studies and visiting the theater.

After he lost his mother at the age of seventeen, caring for his younger brother fell on his shoulders. In the 80s he wrote a lot for the theater. From his pen came the libretto of the comic operas The Coffee House and the Mad Family, the tragedies Cleopatra and Philomela, and the comedy The Writer in the Hallway. These works did not bring the young author either money or fame, but helped him get into the circle of St. Petersburg writers.

He was patronized by the famous playwright Ya.B. Knyazhnin, but the proud young man, deciding that he was being mocked in the “master’s” house, broke up with his older friend. Krylov wrote the comedy Pranksters, in the main characters of which, Rhymestealer and Tarator, contemporaries easily recognized the Prince and his wife.

In 1785, Krylov wrote the tragedy “Cleopatra” (not preserved) and took it to the famous actor Dmitrevsky for viewing; Dmitrevsky encouraged the young author to continue his work, but did not approve of the play in this form. In 1786, Krylov wrote the tragedy “Philomela,” which, except for the abundance of horrors and screams and lack of action, does not differ from other “classical” tragedies of that time.

Since the late 80s, the main activity has been in the field of journalism. In 1789, he published the magazine “Mail of Spirits” for eight months. The satirical orientation, which appeared already in the early plays, was preserved here, but in a somewhat transformed form. Krylov created a caricature of his contemporary society, framing his story in the fantastic form of correspondence between gnomes and wizards Malikulmulk. The publication was discontinued because the magazine had only eighty subscribers. Judging by the fact that “Spirit Mail” was republished in 1802, its appearance did not go unnoticed by the reading public.

In 1790 he retired, deciding to devote himself entirely to literary activity. He became the owner of a printing house and in January 1792, together with his friend the writer Klushin, began publishing the magazine “Spectator,” which was already enjoying greater popularity.

In 1793 the magazine was renamed “St. Petersburg Mercury”. By this time, his publishers focused primarily on constant ironic attacks on Karamzin and his followers.

At the end of 1793, the publication of the St. Petersburg Mercury ceased, and Krylov left St. Petersburg for several years. According to one of the writer’s biographers, “From 1795 to 1801, Krylov seemed to disappear from us.” Some fragmentary information suggests that he lived for some time in Moscow, where he played cards a lot and recklessly. Apparently, he wandered around the province, living on the estates of his friends.

In 1797, Krylov entered the prince's service as a home teacher and personal secretary. During this period, the author does not stop creating dramatic and poetic works. And in 1805 he sent a collection of fables for consideration to the famous critic I.I. Dmitriev. The latter appreciated the author’s work and said that this was his true calling. Thus, a brilliant fabulist entered the history of Russian literature, who devoted the last years of his life to writing and publishing works of this genre, working as a librarian.

It was for the Golitsyns' home performance that the play Trump or Podschipa was written in 1799-1800. In the evil caricature of the stupid, arrogant and evil warrior Trump, one could easily discern Paul I, who did not like the author primarily for his admiration for Prussian army and King Frederick II. The irony was so caustic that the play was first published in Russia only in 1871.

In 1807 he released three plays at once, which gained great popularity and were performed successfully on stage. This is a Fashion Shop, a Lesson for Daughters and Ilya Bogatyr. The first two plays were especially successful, each of which in its own way ridiculed the nobles’ predilection for the French language, fashions, morals, etc. and actually equated gallomania with stupidity, debauchery and extravagance. The plays were repeatedly staged, and The Fashion Shop was even performed at court.

Krylov became a classic during his lifetime. Already in 1835, V.G. Belinsky, in his article Literary Dreams, found only four classics in Russian literature and put Krylov on a par with Derzhavin, Pushkin and Griboyedov.

Krylov died in 1844 in St. Petersburg.

Asni Krylova

Squirrel

Belka served with Leo.
I don’t know how or with what; but the only thing is
That Belkin's service is pleasing to Leo;
And pleasing Leo, of course, is not a trifle.
In return she was promised a whole cartload of nuts.
Promised - meanwhile it flies away all the time;
And my Squirrel often goes hungry
And he bares his teeth in front of Leo through his tears.
Look: they are flashing here and there through the forest
Her girlfriends are on top:
She just blinks her eyes, but
The nuts just keep cracking and cracking.
But our Squirrel is only a step to the hazel tree,
Looks like there’s no way:
She is either called or pushed to serve Leo.
Belka has finally become old
And Leo got bored: it was time for her to retire.
Belka was given resignation,
And sure enough, they sent her a whole cart of nuts.
Glorious nuts, such as the world has never seen;
Everything is selected: nut to nut – a miracle!
There is only one bad thing -
Belka has had no teeth for a long time.

The wolf and the fox

We gladly give

What we don’t need ourselves.

We will explain with this fable,

Because the truth is more tolerably half-open.

Fox, having eaten his fill of chicken

And hid a good pile in reserve,

She lay down under a haystack to take a nap in the evening.

Wolf and Fox Krylov

She looks, and the hungry Wolf is dragging himself to visit her.

“What, godmother, troubles! - He says. -

I couldn’t profit from a bone anywhere;

I'm so hungry and starving;

The dogs are angry, the shepherd is not sleeping,

It’s time to hang myself!”

“Really?” - “Really, so.” - “Poor little kumanek?

Would you like some hay? Here's the whole stack:

I’m ready to serve my godfather.”

But the godfather doesn’t care, I would like Myasnov -

Not a word about Fox's reserves.

And my gray knight,

Caressed head over heels by godfather,

I went home without dinner.

A Crow and a fox

How many times have they told the world,
That flattery is vile and harmful; but everything is not for the future,
And a flatterer will always find a corner in the heart.
Somewhere God sent a piece of cheese to a crow;
Raven perched on the spruce tree,
I was just about ready to have breakfast,
Yes, I thought about it, but I held the cheese in my mouth.
To that misfortune, the Fox ran quickly;
Suddenly the cheese spirit stopped the Fox:
The fox sees the cheese -
The fox was captivated by the cheese,
The cheat approaches the tree on tiptoe;
He twirls his tail and doesn’t take his eyes off Crow.
And he says so sweetly, barely breathing:

“My dear, how beautiful!
What a neck, what eyes!
Telling fairy tales, really!
What feathers! what a sock!
And, truly, there must be an angelic voice!
Sing, little light, don’t be ashamed!
What if, sister,
With such beauty, you are a master at singing,
After all, you would be our king bird!”

Veshunin's head was spinning with praise,
The breath stole from my throat with joy, -
And Lisitsyn’s friendly words
The crow croaked at the top of its lungs:
The cheese fell out - such was the trick with it.

Swan, pike and crayfish

When there is no agreement among comrades,

Things won't go well for them,

And nothing will come out of it, only torment.

Once upon a time Swan, Crayfish and Pike

They began to carry a load of luggage

And together the three all harnessed themselves to it;

They are doing their best, but the cart is still moving!

The luggage would seem light to them:

Yes, the Swan rushes into the clouds,

The cancer moves back, and the Pike pulls into the water.

Who is to blame and who is right?
it is not for us to judge;

Yes, but things are still there.

Fox and grapes

The hungry godfather Fox climbed into the garden;

The bunches of grapes in it were red.

The gossip's eyes and teeth flared up;

And the brushes are juicy, like yachts, burning;

The only problem is, they hang high:

Whenever and however she comes to them,

At least the eye sees

Yes, it hurts.

After wasting a whole hour,

She went and said with annoyance: “Well!

He looks good,

Yes it is green - no ripe berries:

You’ll set your teeth on edge right away.”

Monkey and glasses

The monkey's eyes became weak in old age;

And she heard from people,

That this evil is not yet so big hands:

All you have to do is get glasses.

She got herself half a dozen glasses;

He turns his glasses this way and that:

Then he will press them to the crown,

Then he will string them on his tail,

Monkey and glasses. Krylov's fables

Then he will smell them,

then he will lick them;
The glasses don't work at all.

Monkey and glasses. Krylov's fables

Monkey and glasses. Krylov's fables

“Ugh the abyss! - she says, - and that fool,

Who listens to all human lies:

Everyone about the Glasses only lied to me;

But they are of no use for hair.”
The monkey is here out of frustration and sadness

Oh stone, there were so many of them,

Monkey and glasses. Krylov's fables

Monkey and glasses. Krylov's fables

That only the splashes sparkled.

Unfortunately, this is what happens to people:

No matter how useful a thing is, without knowing its price,

The ignoramus tends to make everything worse about her;

And if the ignorant is more knowledgeable,

So he still drives her.

Oh Rel and Mole

Don't despise anyone's advice
But first, consider it.
From the distant side
Into the dense forest, Eagle and Eaglet together
We planned to stay there forever
And, having chosen a tall branchy oak,
They began to build a nest for themselves at its top,
Hoping to bring the children here for the summer.
Having heard the Mole about this,
Orlu took the courage to report,
That this oak tree is not suitable for their home,
That almost all of it is completely rotten
And soon, perhaps, it will fall,
So that the Eagle does not build a nest on it.
But is it a good idea for the Eagle to take advice from the mink,
And from the Mole! Where is the praise?
What does Eagle have?
Are your eyes so sharp?
And why would Moles dare to get in the way?
King Bird!
Without saying so much to the Mole,
Get to work quickly, despising the adviser, -
And the king's housewarming party
It was soon ripe for the queen.
Everything is happy: Orlitsa already has children.

But what? - One day, like dawn,
Eagle from under the sky to his family
I was in a hurry from the hunt with a rich breakfast,
He sees: his oak tree has fallen
And they crushed the Eaglet and the children.
Out of grief, not seeing the light:
"Unhappy! - He said, -
Fate punished me so fiercely for my pride,
That I didn’t listen to smart advice.
But could it be expected
So that the insignificant Mole can give good advice?
“Whenever you despise me, -
From the hole the Mole said - then I would remember that I was digging
I have my own holes underground
And what happens near the roots,
Is the tree healthy? I can know for sure.”

With bosom and pug

They led an Elephant through the streets,

Apparently, for show.

It is known that Elephants are a curiosity among us,

So crowds of onlookers followed the Elephant.

Well, he gets into a fight with him.

No matter what, Moska will meet them.

When you see an Elephant, well, rush at it,

And bark, and squeal, and tear;

Well, he gets into a fight with him.

“Neighbor, stop being ashamed,”

Shavka says to her, “Are you with the Elephant?”
mess around?

Look, you’re already wheezing, and he’s walking along
Forward

And he doesn’t notice your barking at all. –

“Eh, eh! - Moska answers her, -

This is what gives me spirit,

What am I, without a fight at all,

I can get into big bullies.

Let the dogs say:

“Ay, Moska! know she's strong

What barks at the Elephant!”

Data

Krylov was very plump and in literally thick-skinned creature. Those around him sometimes got the impression that he had no emotions or feelings, since everything was covered in fat. In fact, hidden inside the writer was a subtle understanding of the world and an attentive attitude towards it. This can be seen from almost any fable.

Krylov began his career as an ordinary clerk in the Tverskoy court.

It should be noted that Ivan Andreevich loved to eat. Moreover, his appetite sometimes impressed even seasoned gluttons. They say that once he was late for a social evening. As “punishment,” the owner ordered Krylov to be served a huge portion of pasta, several times higher than the daily allowance. Even two grown men could hardly do this. However, the writer calmly ate everything and happily continued the lunch. The audience's surprise was immeasurable!

Ivan published his first satirical magazine “Mail of Spirits”.

Krylov loved books extremely much and worked in a library for 30 years.

In St. Petersburg, on the Kutuzov embankment, in one of the alleys of the Summer Garden, a monument to the great Russian fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov was unveiled in 1855. This monument is the second of the monuments to Russian writers in Russia.

Immediately after the death of I.A. Krylov, in November 1844, the editors of the newspaper “Petersburg Vedomosti” announced a fundraiser for the construction of the monument. By 1848, more than 30 thousand rubles had been collected. St. Petersburg Academy art announced a competition of projects. The best work was recognized as the work of the animal sculptor Baron P.K. Klodt.

By the way, it was in the library that Ivan Andreevich developed a tradition of sleeping after a hearty lunch for about two hours. His friends knew this habit and always saved an empty chair for their guest.

For more than ten years, Ivan Krylov traveled through the cities and villages of Russia, where he found inspiration for his new fables.

The writer was never married, although it is believed that from an extramarital affair with a cook he had a daughter, whom he raised as his legitimate and his own.

Ivan Krylov was the editor of the Slavic-Russian dictionary.

By the way, it should be noted that in his youth future fabulist I was fond of wall-to-wall fighting. Thanks to his size and height, he has repeatedly defeated quite old and strong men!

There were rumors that his own daughter Alexandra worked in the house as a cook.

By the way, the sofa was Ivan Andreevich’s favorite place. There is information that Goncharov based his Oblomov on Krylov.

It is reliably known that Ivan Andreevich Krylov is the author of 236 fables. Many plots are borrowed from the ancient fabulists La Fontaine and Aesop. Surely you have often heard idioms, which are quotes from the work of the famous and outstanding fabulist Krylov.

The literary genre of the fable was discovered in Russia by Krylov.

All the writer's friends told another interesting fact, associated with Krylov’s house. The fact is that above his sofa there was a huge painting hanging at a rather dangerous angle. He was asked to remove it so that it would not accidentally fall on the fabulist’s head. However, Krylov only laughed, and indeed, even after his death, she continued to hang at the same angle.

Bilateral pneumonia or overeating was the main cause of death of the fabulist. The exact causes of death have not been established.

Cards for money were Ivan Andreevich’s favorite game. Cockfighting was another hobby of Krylov.

Another interesting fact about Krylov is also known. Doctors prescribed him daily walks. However, as he moved, merchants constantly lured him to buy furs from them. When Ivan Andreevich got tired of this, he spent the whole day walking through the traders’ shops, meticulously examining all the furs. At the end, he asked each merchant in surprise: “Is this all you have?”... Having not bought anything, he moved on to the next merchant, which greatly frayed their nerves. After that, they no longer pestered him with requests to buy something.

Krylov worked until his last day, despite his serious illness.

Krylov especially loved his fable “The Stream”.

Once in the theater, eyewitnesses told an interesting fact about Krylov. He was not lucky enough to sit next to emotional person, who kept shouting something, sang along with the speaker and behaved quite noisily. – But what kind of disgrace is this?! – Ivan Andreevich said loudly. The twitchy neighbor perked up and asked if these words were addressed to him. “What are you talking about,” answered Krylov, “I turned to the man on the stage who is preventing me from listening to you!”

At the age of 22, he fell in love with the daughter of a priest from the Bryansk district, Anna. The girl reciprocated his feelings. But when the young people decided to get married, Anna’s relatives opposed this marriage. They were distantly related to Lermontov and, moreover, wealthy. Therefore, they refused to marry their daughter to the poor rhymer. But Anna was so sad that her parents finally agreed to marry her to Ivan Krylov, which they telegraphed to him in St. Petersburg. But Krylov replied that he did not have the money to come to Bryansk, and asked to bring Anna to him. The girls' relatives were offended by the answer, and the marriage did not take place.

In 1941, Krylov was awarded the title of academician.

Ivan Andreevich was very fond of tobacco, which he not only smoked, but also sniffed and chewed.

The famous Russian fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov was born on February 2, 1768 (according to other sources - 1769) in Moscow. Krylov's father, a poor army officer, in 1772 with rare courage defended the Yaitsky town from the attack of the Pugachevites, and after the pacification of the Pugachev rebellion, bypassed by awards, he transferred to the civil service, moved to Tver, where he died in 1778, leaving a widow with two young sons without any means of support. The future fabulist early had to become acquainted with the difficult side of life. Immediately after the death of his father, Ivan Krylov was assigned as a sub-clerk to the Tver provincial magistrate, and in 1783 he went to serve in St. Petersburg, in the treasury chamber as a “commanded servant.” Krylov did not receive any systematic education and owed his development mainly to his extraordinary talent. By the way, he was a good musician. At the age of 15 he wrote a comic opera, that is, a comedy with verses for singing - “The Coffee House”, published after his death. In this work, which, according to Professor Kirpichnikov, was an extraordinary phenomenon for that time, the language, replete with folk expressions and sayings, is especially remarkable. According to legend, from childhood Krylov loved to mingle among the common people and got to know their life and character well.

Portrait of Ivan Andreevich Krylov. Artist K. Bryullov, 1839

Krylov's arrival in St. Petersburg coincides with the opening of a public theater there. Krylov met Dmitrevsky and other actors and for several years lived primarily in the interests of the theater. As an 18-year-old boy, at an age when others are just beginning their careers, Ivan Andreevich Krylov retires and devotes himself to literary activity, which at first was not very successful. His pseudo-classical tragedy “Philomela” is interesting only for some glimpses of the author’s free-thinking, but in literary terms it is extremely weak. His comedies (“Mad Family,” “The Writer in the Hallway,” “The Pranksters,” “The Americans”) have also not yet revealed his talents. Krylov's first fables were published (some without signature) in Rachmaninov's journal " Morning hours” in 1788 and went unnoticed (“The Shy Gambler”, “The Fate of the Gamblers”, “The Newly Granted Donkey”, etc.); they are significantly inferior to the later ones. Perhaps we find more causticity, strength and sarcasm in Krylov’s letters and pamphlets, directed against important people who hurt his pride: the famous writer Knyazhnin and Soimonov, who was at the head of the theater management. These are supposedly exculpatory letters, from a formal point of view it is almost impossible to find fault with them, but they breathe irony, which borders on mockery; the very placement of words is intended to offend. For example, in a letter to Soimonov, Krylov writes: “And the last scoundrel that can be, Your Excellency, would be upset,” etc.

In 1789, Krylov, together with Rachmaninov, took on the publication of “Mail of Spirits,” a magazine that tried to revive the serious satire of Novikov’s magazines. Krylov was more successful in the narrative form than the dramatic one; There is a lot of enthusiasm and sarcasm in Krylov’s magazine articles, but the magazine was still not successful and ceased to exist in August of the same year. In 1792, Krylov and a group of people published another magazine, “The Spectator,” and in 1793 (together with Klushin) “St. Petersburg Mercury.” The Spectator contained the strongest and most profound public meaning from the prose articles of Ivan Andreevich Krylov: the story “Kaib” and “Eulogy to my grandfather,” an unusually bold for that time (the article appeared two years after the Radishchev case) denunciation of landowner tyranny.

Fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov

Whether Krylov was discouraged by the failure of his magazines in the public or whether oppression from the government began, as some suggest, it was only around the middle of 1793 that Krylov stopped all literary activity for several years and disappeared from the capital until 1806. Little accurate information has reached us about how and where he spent this time. He lived with various nobles, most of all with Golitsyn, on his estates (in the Saratov and Kyiv provinces) and in Riga. At one time, Krylov traveled to fairs, indulging in card games. His joke-tragedy “Trumph” dates back to 1800, staged at Prince Golitsyn’s home performance. The comedy of the same period “Lazy Man”, where the prototype is given, has not reached us in its entirety. Oblomov, judging by the surviving excerpts, perhaps the best of all his comedies.

In 1806, the fables “The Oak and the Cane”, “The Picky Bride”, “The Old Man and the Three Young”, translated by Krylov from Lafontaine, appeared in Shalikov’s magazine “Moscow Spectator” with the recommendation of I. I. Dmitriev. In the same year, Krylov returned to St. Petersburg, staged here the comedies “Fashionable Shop” (1806) and “Lesson for Daughters” (1807), directed against Frenchmania and had great success, as they fell in tune with the mood of the society affected by the With Napoleonic wars, national feeling. In 1809, Ivan Andreevich Krylov published the first edition of his fables (23 in number), immediately became a celebrity, and since then, apart from fables, he has not written anything else. Interrupted by him long years the service is also resumed and goes very successfully, first in the Coinage Department (1808 - 1810), then (1812 - 1841) in the Imperial Public Library. During this period, Krylov gives the impression of a man who has calmed down: not a trace remains of youthful incontinence, restless ambition and enterprise; What characterizes him now is a reluctance to quarrel with people, complacent irony, imperturbable calm and laziness that has increased over the years. Since 1836 he no longer wrote fables. In 1838, the 50th anniversary of his literary activity was solemnly celebrated. Krylov died on November 9, 1844.

Monument to Ivan Andreevich Krylov. Sculptor P. Klodt. St. Petersburg, Summer Garden

In total, Krylov wrote more than 200 fables. The most famous of them are “Quartet”, “Crow and Fox”, “Dragonfly and Ant”, “Casket”, “Wolf in the kennel”, “Wolf and Crane”, “Cat and Cook”, “Swan, Pike and Cancer” , “Pig under the Oak”, “Elephant and Moska”, “The Picky Bride”, etc. Most of Krylov’s fables expose universal human shortcomings, others have in mind Russian life (fables about upbringing, about bad administration, historical ones); some (“The Tripartite”, “The Knight”) have neither allegory nor moral teaching and are, in essence, just anecdotes.

The main advantages of Krylov's fables are their nationality and artistry. Krylov is an excellent depictor of animals; in his depiction of Russian men, he happily avoided caricature. He seems to be an unattainable master in conveying all kinds of movements; to this must be added the mastery of dialogue, comedy, unusually rich in shades, and finally, moral teachings, often aptly reminiscent of proverbs. A lot of Krylov’s expressions have entered our colloquial language.

Sometimes the opinion was expressed that Krylov’s fables, preaching supposedly dry egoism (“you sang everything - that’s the point: so come and dance!”), a distrustful, suspicious attitude towards people (“The Grove and the Fire”), pointing out the dangers often associated with freedom of thought and opinion (“Divers”, “The Writer and the Robber”) and political freedom (“Horse and Rider”), are base in their morality. This opinion is based on a misunderstanding. Ivan Andreevich Krylov also has fables, which in their ideas are quite bold for that time (“Worldly Gathering”, “Leaves and Roots”); some of them caused censorship difficulties (“Fish Dances” - in the first edition; “Nobleman”). A man of enormous natural intelligence, Krylov could never become a preacher of mental laziness and stagnation (“Pond and River”). He, it seems, has no great enemies in the world, like stupidity, ignorance and self-righteous insignificance (“Musicians”, “Razors”, “Elephant in the Voivodeship”, etc.); He pursues both excessive philosophizing (“Larchik”) and fruitless theorizing (“Gardener and Philosopher”), because he sees disguised stupidity here too. Sometimes the morality of Krylov’s fables is compared with the morality of proverbs, but we should not forget that Krylov is completely alien to the cynicism and rudeness that are often found in Russian proverbs (“If you don’t deceive, you won’t sell,” “Beat a woman with a hammer,” etc.). Krylov also has fables with sublime morals (“The Fallow Deer and the Dervish,” “The Eagle and the Bee”), and it is no coincidence that these fables are among the weakest. To demand necessarily sublime morality from fables means to completely misunderstand the very essence of this literary form. Brought up by the 18th century, which since the time of Cantemir fell in love with the ideal of the “golden mean,” Krylov is in fables an opponent of all kinds of extremes, and his morality, while not satisfying the highest demands of a developed and sensitive conscience, for all its simplicity, is always valuable.

It is hardly possible to point out another writer in Russian literature who would be as universally understandable and publicly accessible as Ivan Andreevich Krylov. His fables sold almost 80 thousand copies during the author’s lifetime—a phenomenon completely unprecedented in the literature of that time. Krylov, undoubtedly, was more popular than all his contemporaries, not even excluding

Ivan Krylov

nickname - Navi Volyrk

Russian publicist, poet, fabulist, publisher of satirical and educational magazines; best known as the author of 236 fables, collected in nine lifetime collections

short biography

Russian writer, famous fabulist, journalist, translator, state councilor, founder of realistic fables, whose work, together with the activities of A. S. Pushkin and A. S. Griboedov, stood at the origins of Russian literary realism. On February 13 (February 2, O.S.), 1769, he was born into the family of an army officer who lived in Moscow. The main source of data about Krylov’s biography is the memoirs of his contemporaries; almost no documents have survived, so there are many gaps in the biography.

When Ivan was little, their family was constantly on the move. The Krylovs lived in Tver, in the Urals, and were well acquainted with poverty, especially after the head of the family died in 1778. Krylov was never able to receive a systematic education; his father taught him to read and write; the boy received lessons from the home teachers of a wealthy neighboring family. Krylov’s track record included positions as a sub-clerk at the Kalyazin Lower Zemstvo Court, and then at the Tver Magistrate. From the end of 1782, the Krylovs lived in St. Petersburg, where his mother successfully sought a better fate for Ivan: from 1783, he was taken to the St. Petersburg Treasury Chamber as a minor official. It is known that during this period Krylov devoted a lot of time to self-education.

Krylov made his debut in literature between 1786 and 1788. as the author of dramatic works - the comic opera “The Coffee House” (1782), the comedies “The Pranksters”, “Mad Family”, “The Writer in the Hallway”, etc., which did not bring fame to the author.

In 1788 I.A. Krylov quits the civil service so as not to return to it for many years, and devotes himself to journalism. In 1789, he began publishing the satirical magazine Spirit Mail. Using techniques of using magical creatures as characters, he paints a picture of his contemporary society, criticizes officials, as a result of which the magazine is banned. In 1791, I. A. Krylov and his comrades created a book publishing company, which published new magazines - “The Spectator” (1792), “St. Petersburg Mercury” (1793). Despite the milder form of denunciation, the publications again attracted the attention of those in power and were closed, and there is evidence that Krylov had a conversation about this with Catherine II herself.

At the end of 1793, the satirical journalist moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow. There is information that since the fall of 1795 he was not allowed to live in these cities; Krylov's name no longer appears in print. Since 1797 he has served with Prince S.F. Golitsyn's personal secretary, follows his family into exile. After the prince was appointed governor-general of Livonia, Krylov worked for two years (1801-1803) as manager of the chancellery affairs. At the same time, Ivan Andreevich is reconsidering his creative platform, having become disillusioned with the idea of ​​re-educating people through literature, he abandons bookish ideals in favor of practical experience.

His return to literature took place in 1800 with the writing of a comic tragedy of anti-government content, “Podchipa, or Trump,” which was banned by censorship, but, spreading in the lists, became one of the most popular plays. In 1806, Krylov moved to St. Petersburg.

Written during 1806-1807. and the comedies “Fashion Shop” and “Lesson for Daughters”, staged on the Moscow and St. Petersburg stages, enjoyed considerable success. But the greatest glory of I.A. Krylov gained fame as an author of fables. He first turned to this genre in 1805, translating two fables by La Fontaine. Already in 1809, the first book of fables was published, marking a new period of creative biography, dedicated to the intensive writing of fables. It is then that Krylov learns what true glory is. In 1824, his fables were published in translation in two volumes in Paris.

During 1808-1810. Krylov served in the Coinage Department, from 1812 he became an assistant librarian of the Imperial Public Library, and in 1816 he was appointed librarian. Krylov was a holder of the Order of St. Vladimir IV degree (1820), Stanislav II degree (1838). In 1830, he received the rank of state councilor, although lack of education did not give him such a right. His 70th anniversary and 50th anniversary of the beginning of literary activity were celebrated in 1838 as an official solemn event.

Being a very original person, back in the 20s. Ivan Andreevich turned into the hero of jokes and tales, which, at the same time, were invariably good-natured. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Krylov not only did not hide his vices, for example, gluttony, addiction to gambling, untidiness, etc., but also deliberately put them on public display. At the same time, Krylov did not stop self-education until his old age, in particular, he studied English and Ancient Greek languages. Even those writers whose views on creativity differed markedly from Krylov’s were considered an authority and valued the writer.

In 1841, the writer left with civil service. In 1844, November 21 (November 9 according to the old style), I.A. Krylov died; He was buried in the St. Petersburg Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Biography from Wikipedia

early years

Volkov R. M. Portrait of the fabulist I. A. Krylov. 1812.

Father, Andrei Prokhorovich Krylov (1736-1778), knew how to read and write, but “did not study science,” he served in a dragoon regiment, in 1773 he distinguished himself while defending the Yaitsky town from the Pugachevites, then was the chairman of the magistrate in Tver. He died with the rank of captain in poverty. Mother, Maria Alekseevna (1750-1788) remained a widow after the death of her husband.

Ivan Krylov spent the first years of his childhood traveling with his family. He learned to read and write at home (his father was a great lover of reading, after him a whole chest of books passed to his son); He studied French in a family of wealthy neighbors. In 1777, he was enrolled in the civil service as a sub-clerk of the Kalyazin Lower Zemstvo Court, and then of the Tver Magistrate. This service was, apparently, only nominal, and Krylov was considered to be probably on leave until the end of his studies.

Krylov studied little, but read quite a lot. According to a contemporary, he “I visited with particular pleasure public gatherings, shopping areas, swings and fist fights, where I jostled among the motley crowd, eagerly listening to the speeches of the common people”. In 1780 he began to serve as a sub-office clerk for a pittance. In 1782, Krylov was still listed as a sub-office clerk, but “this Krylov did not have any business on his hands.”

At this time he became interested in street fighting, wall to wall. And since he was physically very strong, he often emerged victorious over older men.

At the end of 1782, Krylov went to St. Petersburg with his mother, who intended to work for a pension and a better arrangement for her son’s fate. The Krylovs remained in St. Petersburg until August 1783. Upon their return, despite a long-term illegal absence, Krylov resigned from the magistrate with the rank of clerk and entered service in the St. Petersburg treasury chamber.

At this time, Ablesimov’s “The Miller” enjoyed great fame, under whose influence Krylov wrote, in 1784, the opera libretto “The Coffee House”; He took the plot from Novikov’s “The Painter”, but changed it significantly and ended with a happy ending. Krylov took his book to Breitkopf, who gave the author of the book 60 rubles for it (Racine, Moliere and Boileau), but did not publish it. “The Coffee House” was published only in 1868 (in an anniversary edition) and is considered an extremely young and imperfect work. When comparing Krylov's autograph with the printed edition, it turns out, however, that the latter is not entirely correct; Having removed many of the publisher's oversights and obvious slips of the young poet, who in the manuscript that has reached us has not yet completely finished his libretto, the poems of “The Coffee House” can hardly be called clumsy, and an attempt to show that newfangledness (the subject of Krylov’s satire is not so much a corrupt coffee house, how much lady Novomodova) and “free” views on marriage and morality, strongly reminiscent of the adviser in “The Brigadier”, do not exclude the cruelty characteristic of the Skotinins, as well as many beautifully selected folk sayings, make the libretto of the 16-year-old poet, despite the uncontrolled characters, a phenomenon remarkable for that time. The “Coffee House” was probably conceived back in the provinces, close to the way of life that it depicts.

In 1785, Krylov wrote the tragedy “Cleopatra” (not preserved) and took it to the famous actor Dmitrevsky for viewing; Dmitrevsky encouraged the young author to continue his work, but did not approve of the play in this form. In 1786, Krylov wrote the tragedy “Philomela,” which, except for the abundance of horrors and screams and lack of action, does not differ from other “classical” tragedies of that time. Little better than the libretto of the comic opera “The Mad Family” written by Krylov at the same time and the comedy “The Writer in the Hallway”, about the latter Lobanov, Krylov’s friend and biographer, says: “I have been looking for this comedy for a long time and I regret that I finally found it.” . Indeed, in it, as in “Mad Family”, apart from the liveliness of the dialogue and a few popular “words”, there are no merits. The only curious thing is the fertility of the young playwright, who entered into close relations with the theater committee, received a free ticket, an assignment to translate from the libretto of the French opera "L'Infante de Zamora" and the hope that "The Mad Family" will be performed at the theater, since it has already been music ordered.

In the government chamber, Krylov then received 80-90 rubles a year, but he was not happy with his position and moved to Her Majesty’s Cabinet. In 1788, Krylov lost his mother, and in his arms was left his young brother Lev, whom he cared for all his life like a father about his son (he usually called him “little darling” in his letters). In 1787-1788 Krylov wrote the comedy “Pranksters”, where he brought to the stage and cruelly ridiculed the first playwright of that time, Ya. B. Knyazhnin ( Rhyme thief) and his wife, daughter Sumarokov ( Taratora); according to Grech, the pedant Tyanislov was copied from the bad poet P. M. Karabanov. Although in “The Pranksters”, instead of true comedy, we find a caricature, but this caricature is bold, lively and witty, and the scenes of the complacent simpleton Azbukin with Tyanislov and Rhymestealer could be considered very funny for that time. The “pranksters” not only quarreled Krylov with Knyazhnin, but also brought upon him the displeasure of the theater management.

"Spirit Mail"

In 1789, in the printing house of I. G. Rachmaninov, an educated and devoted person to the literary work, Krylov published the monthly satirical magazine “Mail of Spirits”. The depiction of the shortcomings of modern Russian society is presented here in the fantastic form of correspondence between gnomes and the wizard Malikulmulk. The satire of “Spirit Mail”, both in its ideas and in its degree of depth and relief, serves as a direct continuation of the magazines of the early 70s (only Krylov’s biting attacks on Rhythmokrad and Taratora and on the management of theaters introduce a new personal element), but in relation to the art of depiction, a major step forward. According to J. K. Grot, “Kozitsky, Novikov, Emin were only smart observers; Krylov is already an emerging artist.”

"Spirit Mail" was published only from January to August, as it had only 80 subscribers; in 1802 it was published in a second edition.

His magazine business aroused the displeasure of the authorities, and the empress offered Krylov to travel abroad for five years at the government’s expense, but he refused.

"Spectator" and "Mercury"

In 1791-1796. Krylov lived in the house of I. I. Betsky on Millionnaya Street, 1. In 1790, he wrote and published an ode to the conclusion of peace with Sweden, a weak work, but still showing the author as a developed person and a future artist of words. On December 7 of the same year, Krylov retired; the following year he became the owner of the printing house and from January 1792 began publishing the Spectator magazine in it, with a very broad program, but still with a clear inclination towards satire, especially in the editor’s articles. Krylov’s largest plays in “The Spectator” are “Kaib, an Eastern Tale”, the fairy tale “Nights”, satirical and journalistic essays and pamphlets (“A eulogy in memory of my grandfather”, “A speech spoken by a rake in a meeting of fools”, “Thoughts of a philosopher according to fashion").

From these articles (especially the first and third) one can see how Krylov’s worldview is expanding and how his artistic talent is maturing. At this time, he was already the center of a literary circle, which entered into polemics with Karamzin’s “Moscow Journal”. Krylov's main employee was A.I. Klushin. “The Spectator”, already having 170 subscribers, in 1793 turned into “St. Petersburg Mercury”, published by Krylov and A. I. Klushin. Since at this time Karamzin’s “Moscow Journal” ceased to exist, the editors of “Mercury” dreamed of distributing it everywhere and gave their publication the most literary and artistic character possible. “Mercury” contains only two satirical plays by Krylov - “A speech in praise of the science of killing time” and “A speech in praise of Ermolafides, given at a meeting of young writers”; the latter, ridiculing the new direction in literature (under Ermolafid, that is, a person who carries Ermolafia, or nonsense, it is implied, as J. K. Grot noted, mainly Karamzin) serves as an expression of Krylov’s literary views of that time. This nugget severely reproaches the Karamzinists for their lack of preparation, for their contempt for the rules and for their desire for common people (bast shoes, zipuns and hats with a crease): obviously, the years of his journal activity were educational years for him, and this late science brought discord into his tastes , which probably caused the temporary cessation of his literary activity. Most often, Krylov appears in “Mercury” as a lyricist and imitator of Derzhavin’s simpler and playful poems, and he shows more intelligence and sobriety of thought than inspiration and feelings (especially in this regard, the “Letter on the Benefits of Desires” is characteristic, which, however, remained not printed). Mercury lasted only one year and was not particularly successful.

At the end of 1793, Krylov left St. Petersburg; Little is known about what he was doing in 1794-1796. In 1797, he met in Moscow with Prince S. F. Golitsyn and went to his Zubrilovka estate, as a children's teacher, secretary, etc., at least not in the role of a free-living parasite. At this time, Krylov already had a broad and varied education (he played the violin well, knew Italian, etc.), and although he was still weak in spelling, he turned out to be a capable and useful teacher of language and literature. For a home performance in Golitsyn’s house, he wrote a joke-tragedy “Trumph” or “Podschipa” (printed first abroad in 1859, then in “Russian Antiquity”, 1871, book III), rough, but not devoid of salt and vitality, a parody of classical drama, and through it forever put an end to his own desire to extract tears from the audience. The melancholy of rural life was such that one day visiting ladies found him at the pond completely naked, with an overgrown beard and uncut nails.

In 1801, Prince Golitsyn was appointed governor-general of Riga, and Krylov was appointed his secretary. In the same or the next year, he wrote the play “Pie” (printed in the VI volume of “Collection of Academic Sciences”; presented for the first time in St. Petersburg in 1802), a light comedy of intrigue, in which, in the person of Uzhima , casually touches upon the sentimentalism that is antipathetic to him. Despite friendly relations with his boss, Krylov resigned again on September 26, 1803. We don’t know what he did for the next 2 years; They say that he played a big game of cards, once won a very large sum, traveled to fairs, etc. For playing cards, he was at one time forbidden to appear in both capitals.

Fables

I. A. Krylov at the Monument “1000th Anniversary of Russia” in Veliky Novgorod

In 1805, Krylov was in Moscow and showed I. I. Dmitriev his translation (from French) two fables by La Fontaine: “The Oak and the Reed” and “The Picky Bride”. According to Lobanov, Dmitriev, after reading them, said to Krylov: “this is your true family; at last you have found it.” Krylov always loved La Fontaine (or Fontaine, as he called him) and, according to legend, already in his early youth he tested his strength in translating fables, and later, perhaps, in altering them; fables and “proverbs” were in vogue at that time. An excellent connoisseur and artist of simple language, who always loved to clothe his thoughts in the plastic form of an apologist, and, moreover, strongly inclined to ridicule and pessimism, Krylov, indeed, was, as it were, created for a fable, but still he did not immediately settle on this form of creativity: in 1806 he published only 3 fables, and in 1807 three of his plays appeared, two of which, corresponding to the satirical direction of Krylov’s talent, had great success on stage: this is “The Fashion Shop” (finally processed back in 1806). and presented for the first time in St. Petersburg on July 27) and “A Lesson for Daughters” (the plot of the latter is freely borrowed from Moliere’s “Précieuses ridicules”; presented for the first time in St. Petersburg on June 18, 1807). The object of satire in both is the same, in 1807 it was completely modern - the passion of Russian society for everything French; in the first comedy, Frenchmania is associated with debauchery, in the second it is brought to the Herculean pillars of stupidity; In terms of liveliness and strength of dialogue, both comedies represent a significant step forward, but the characters are still missing. Krylov's third play: “Ilya Bogatyr, Magic Opera” was written by order of A. L. Naryshkin, director of theaters (staged for the first time on December 31, 1806); despite the mass of nonsense characteristic of extravaganzas, it presents several strong satirical features and is curious as a tribute to youthful romanticism, brought by such an extremely unromantic mind.

It is not known to what time Krylov’s unfinished comedy in verse (it contains only one and a half acts, and the hero has not yet appeared on stage) dates back to: “The Lazy Man” (published in volume VI of the “Collection of Academic Sciences”); but it is curious as an attempt to create a comedy of character and at the same time merge it with a comedy of manners, since the shortcoming depicted in it with extreme harshness had its basis in the living conditions of the Russian nobility of that and later eras.

Hero Lentulus
loves to lounge around; But you can’t discredit him for anything else:
He is not angry, he is not grumpy, he is happy to give the last
And if not for laziness, he would be a treasure in husbands;
Friendly and courteous, but not ignorant
I am glad to do all the good, but only while lying down.

In these few verses we have a talented sketch of what was later developed in Tentetnikov and Oblomov. Without a doubt, Krylov found a fair dose of this weakness in himself and, like many true artists, that is why he set out to depict it with possible strength and depth; but to completely identify him with his hero would be extremely unfair: Krylov is a strong and energetic person when necessary, and his laziness, his love of peace ruled over him, so to speak, only with his consent. The success of his plays was great; in 1807, his contemporaries considered him a famous playwright and placed him next to Shakhovsky; his plays were repeated very often; “Fashion Shop” was also going on in the palace, in the half of Empress Maria Feodorovna. Despite this, Krylov decided to leave the theater and follow the advice of I. I. Dmitriev. In 1808, Krylov, who again entered the service (in the coin department), published 17 fables in the “Dramatic Herald” and between them several (“Oracle”, “Elephant in the Voivodeship”, “Elephant and Moska”, etc.) that were quite original . In 1809, he published the first separate edition of his fables, in the amount of 23, and with this little book he won a prominent and honorable place in Russian literature, and thanks to subsequent editions of the fables, he became a writer to such a national degree as no one else had been before. . From that time on, his life was a series of continuous successes and honors, which, in the opinion of the vast majority of his contemporaries, were well deserved.

In 1810, he became an assistant librarian at the Imperial Public Library, under the command of his former boss and patron A. N. Olenin; At the same time, he was given a pension of 1,500 rubles a year, which was subsequently (March 28, 1820), “in honor of excellent talents in Russian literature,” doubled, and even later (February 26, 1834) quadrupled, at which point he was elevated to in ranks and positions (from March 23, 1816 he was appointed librarian); upon his retirement (March 1, 1841), “unlike others,” he was given a pension full of his library allowance, so that in total he received 11,700 rubles. Ass. in year.

Krylov has been a respected member of the “Conversation of Lovers of Russian Literature” since its very foundation. On December 16, 1811, he was elected a member of the Russian Academy, on January 14, 1823, he received a gold medal from it for literary merits, and when the Russian Academy was transformed into the department of Russian language and literature of the Academy of Sciences (1841), he was confirmed as an ordinary academician (according to legend, Emperor Nicholas I agreed to the transformation on the condition “that Krylov be the first academician”). On February 2, 1838, the 50th anniversary of his literary activity was celebrated in St. Petersburg with such solemnity and at the same time with such warmth and sincerity that such a literary celebration cannot be mentioned earlier than the so-called Pushkin holiday in Moscow.

Ivan Andreevich Krylov died on November 9, 1844. He was buried on November 13, 1844 at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. On the day of the funeral, friends and acquaintances of I. A. Krylov, along with an invitation, received a copy of the fables he published, on the title page of which, under a mourning border, was printed: “An offering in memory of Ivan Andreevich, at his request.”

Anecdotes about his amazing appetite, slovenliness, laziness, love of fires, amazing willpower, wit, popularity, evasive caution are all too well known.

Krylov did not reach a high position in literature right away; Zhukovsky, in his article “On Krylov’s fables and fables,” written about the publication. 1809, also compares him with I.I. Dmitriev, not always to his benefit, points out “errors” in his language, “expressions contrary to taste, rude” and with obvious hesitation “allows himself” to raise him here and there to La Fontaine , as a “skilled translator” of the king of fabulists. Krylov could not have any particular claim to this verdict, since out of the 27 fables he had written up to that time, in 17 he, indeed, “took both fiction and story from La Fontaine”; on these translations, Krylov, so to speak, trained his hand, sharpened the weapon for his satire. Already in 1811, he appeared with a long series of completely independent (of the 18 fables of 1811, only 3 were borrowed from documents) and often amazingly bold plays, such as “Geese”, “Leaves and Roots”, “Quartet”, “Council of Mice” and etc. The entire best part of the reading public then recognized in Krylov a huge and completely independent talent; his collection of “New Fables” became a favorite book in many homes, and Kachenovsky’s malicious attacks (“Vestn. Evropy” 1812, No. 4) damaged the critics much more than the poet. In the year of the Patriotic War of 1812, Krylov became a political writer, precisely the direction that the majority of Russian society followed. The political idea is also clearly visible in the fables of the two subsequent years, for example. “Pike and Cat” (1813) and “Swan, Pike and Cancer” (1814; she does not mean the Congress of Vienna, six months before the opening of which she was written, but expresses the dissatisfaction of Russian society with the actions of the allies of Alexander I). In 1814, Krylov wrote 24 fables, all of them original, and repeatedly read them at court, in the circle of Empress Maria Feodorovna. According to Galakhov’s calculations, only 68 fables fall in the last 25 years of Krylov’s activity, while in the first twelve - 140.

A comparison of his manuscripts and numerous editions shows with what extraordinary energy and care this otherwise lazy and careless man corrected and smoothed out the initial drafts of his works, which were already apparently very successful and deeply thought out. He sketched out the fable so fluently and unclearly that even to himself the manuscript only resembled something thought out; then he rewrote it several times and corrected it every time wherever he could; Most of all, he strived for plasticity and possible brevity, especially at the end of the fable; moral teachings, very well conceived and executed, he either shortened or completely threw out (thus weakening the didactic element and strengthening the satirical one), and thus through hard work he reached his sharp, stiletto-like conclusions, which quickly turned into proverbs. With the same labor and attention, he expelled from the fables all book turns and vague expressions, replaced them with folk, picturesque and at the same time quite accurate ones, corrected the construction of the verse and destroyed the so-called. "poetic license". He achieved his goal: in terms of the power of expression, the beauty of the form, Krylov’s fable is the height of perfection; but still, to assure that Krylov does not have incorrect accents and awkward expressions is an anniversary exaggeration (“from all four legs” in the fable “The Lion, the Chamois and the Fox”, “You and I can’t fit in there” in the fable “Two Boys” , “The fruits of ignorance are terrible” in the fable “The Atheists”, etc.). Everyone agrees that in the mastery of storytelling, in the relief of characters, in subtle humor, in the energy of action, Krylov is a true artist, whose talent stands out the brighter the more modest the area he has set aside for himself. His fables as a whole are not a dry moralizing allegory or even a calm epic, but a living drama in one hundred acts, with many charmingly outlined types, a true “spectacle of human life,” viewed from a certain point of view. How correct this point of view is and how edifying Krylov’s fable is for contemporaries and posterity - opinions on this are not entirely similar, especially since not everything necessary has been done to fully clarify the issue. Although Krylov considers the benefactor of the human race “the one who offers the most important rules of virtuous actions in short expressions,” he himself was not a didacticist either in magazines or in his fables, but a bright satirist, and, moreover, not one who punishes with ridicule the shortcomings of his contemporary society, in view of the ideal firmly rooted in his soul, and as a pessimistic satirist who has little faith in the possibility of correcting people by any means and strives only to reduce the amount of lies and evil. When Krylov, as a moralist, tries to propose “the most important rules of virtuous actions,” he comes out dry and cold, and sometimes not even very smart; but when he has the opportunity to point out the contradiction between the ideal and reality, to expose self-delusion and hypocrisy, phrases, falsehood, stupid complacency, he is a true master. Therefore, it is hardly appropriate to be indignant at Krylov for the fact that he “did not express his sympathy for any discoveries, inventions or innovations” (Galakhov), just as it is inappropriate to demand that all his fables preach humanity and spiritual nobility. He has another task - to execute evil with merciless laughter: the blows he inflicted on various types of meanness and stupidity are so accurate that no one has the right to doubt the beneficial effect of his fables on a wide circle of their readers. Are they useful as pedagogical material? Without a doubt, like any truly artistic work, completely accessible to the child’s mind and helping its further development; but since they depict only one side of life, material should also be offered next to them opposite direction. The important historical and literary significance of Krylov is also beyond doubt. Just as in the age of Catherine II the pessimist Fonvizin was needed next to the enthusiastic Derzhavin, so in the age of Alexander I Krylov was needed; acting at the same time as Karamzin and Zhukovsky, he represented them as a counterweight, without which Russian society might have gone too far down the path of dreamy sensibility.

Not sharing Shishkov’s archaeological and narrowly patriotic aspirations, Krylov consciously joined his circle and spent his entire life fighting against half-conscious Westernism. In fables he appeared as our first “truly folk” (Pushkin, V, 30) writer, both in language and in images (his animals, birds, fish and even mythological figures are truly Russian people, each with the characteristic features of the era and social provisions), and in ideas. He sympathizes with the Russian working man, whose shortcomings, however, he knows very well and portrays strongly and clearly. The good-natured ox and the eternally offended sheep are his only so-called positive types, and the fables: “Leaves and Roots,” “Worldly Gathering,” “Wolves and Sheep” put him far ahead among the then idyllic defenders of serfdom. Krylov chose a modest poetic field for himself, but in it he was a major artist; his ideas are not lofty, but reasonable and strong; its influence is not deep, but extensive and fruitful.

Translations of fables

In 1825, in Paris, Count Grigory Orlov published I. A. Krylov's Fables in two volumes in Russian, French and Italian; this book became the first foreign publication of fables.

Krylov's first translator into Azerbaijani was Abbas-Quli-Aga Bakikhanov. In the 30s of the 19th century, during Krylov’s own lifetime, he translated the fable “The Donkey and the Nightingale.” It would be appropriate to note that, for example, the first translation into Armenian was made in 1849, and into Georgian in 1860. Over 60 of Krylov’s fables were translated by Hasanaliaga Khan of Karadag in the 80s of the 19th century.

Last years

At the end of his life, Krylov was favored by the royal family. He had the rank of state councilor and a six-thousand-dollar pension. From March 1841 until the end of his life he lived in apartment building Blinova on the 1st line Vasilyevsky Island, 8.

Krylov lived a long time and did not change his habits in any way. Completely lost in laziness and gourmand. He, an intelligent and not very kind man, eventually settled into the role of a good-natured eccentric, an absurd, unembarrassed glutton. The image he invented suited the court, and at the end of his life he could afford anything. He was not ashamed to be a glutton, a slob and a lazy person.

Everyone believed that Krylov died from volvulus due to overeating, but in fact - from bilateral pneumonia.

The funeral was magnificent. Count Orlov - the second person in the state - removed one of the students and himself carried the coffin to the road.

Contemporaries believed that the daughter of his cook, Sasha, was his father. This is confirmed by the fact that he sent her to a boarding school. And when the cook died, he raised her like a daughter and gave her a large dowry. Before his death, he bequeathed all his property and rights to his compositions to Sasha’s husband.

Recognition and adaptations

• Krylov had the rank of state councilor, was full member Imperial Russian Academy (since 1811), ordinary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the Department of Russian Language and Literature (since 1841).

Perpetuation of the name

Commemorative coin of the Bank of Russia, dedicated to the 225th anniversary of the birth of I. A. Krylov. 2 rubles, silver, 1994

• There are streets and alleys named after Krylov in dozens of cities in Russia and the countries of the former USSR and in Kazakhstan
• Monument in Summer Garden St. Petersburg
• In Moscow Patriarch's Ponds a monument to Krylov and the heroes of his fables was erected
• In St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl and Omsk there are children's libraries named after I. A. Krylov

In music

I. A. Krylov’s fables were set to music, for example, by A. G. Rubinstein - the fables “The Cuckoo and the Eagle”, “The Donkey and the Nightingale”, “The Dragonfly and the Ant”, “Quartet”. And also - Yu. M. Kasyanik: vocal cycle for bass and piano (1974) “Krylov’s Fables” (“Crow and Fox”, “Pedestrians and Dogs”, “Donkey and Nightingale”, “Two Barrels”, “Triple Man” ").

Essays

Fables

• Alcides
• Apelles and the foal
• Poor rich man
• Atheists
• Squirrel (two known fables about a squirrel)
• The Rich Man and the Poet
• Barrel
• Razors
• Bulat
• Cobblestone and Diamond
• Kite
• cornflower
• Nobleman
• Nobleman and Poet
• Nobleman and Philosopher
• Divers
• Waterfall and Stream
• Wolf and Wolf Cub
• Wolf and Crane
• Wolf and Cat
• Wolf and Cuckoo
• Wolf and Fox
• Wolf and Mouse
• Wolf and Shepherds
• Wolf and Lamb
• Wolf at the kennel
• Wolves and Sheep
• Crow
• Crow and Chicken
• The Crow and the Fox (1807)
• Little Crow
• Raising a Leo
• Golik
• Mistress and two Maids
• Crest
• Two pigeons
• Two boys
• Two Guys
• Two barrels
• Two dogs
• Demyanova's ear
• Tree
• Wild Goats
• Oak and cane
• Hare on the hunt
• Mirror and Monkey
• Snake and Sheep
• Rock and Worm
• Quartet
• The Slanderer and the Snake
• Ear
• Mosquito and Shepherd
• Horse and Rider
• Cat and Cook
• Cauldron and Pot
• Kitten and Starling
• Cat and Nightingale
• Peasants and River
• Peasant in trouble
• Peasant and Snake
• Peasant and Fox
• Peasant and Horse
• Peasant and Sheep

• Peasant and Worker
• Peasant and Robber
• Peasant and Dog
• Peasant and Death
• Peasant and Ax
• Cuckoo and Dove
• Cuckoo and Rooster
• Cuckoo and Eagle
• Merchant
• Doe and Dervish
• Chest
• Swan, Crayfish and Pike (1814)
• Leo and Leopard
• Lion and Wolf
• Lion and Mosquito
• Lion and Fox
• Lion and Mouse
• Lion and Man
• Lion on the hunt
• Lion aged
• Lion, Chamois and Fox
• Fox the Builder
• Fox and Grapes
• Fox and Chickens
• Fox and donkey
• Fox and Marmot
• Sheets and Roots
• Curious
• Frog and Ox
• Frog and Jupiter
• Frogs asking for a king
• Boy and Snake
• Boy and Worm
• Monkey and glasses
• Bear in the nets
• Bear at the Bees
• Miller
• Mechanic
• Bag
• World meeting
• Miron
• Pestilence of Beasts
• Mot and Swallow
• Musicians
• Ant
• Fly and road
• Fly and Bee
• Mouse and Rat
• Lunch at the bear's
• Monkey
• Monkey
• Sheep and Dogs
• Gardener and Philosopher
• Oracle
• Eagle and Mole
• Eagle and Chickens
• Eagle and Spider
• Eagle and Bee

• Donkey and Hare
• Donkey and Man
• Donkey and Nightingale
• Farmer and Shoemaker
• Hunter
• Peacock and nightingale
• Parnassus
• Shepherd
• Shepherd and sea
• Spider and Bee
• Rooster and Pearl Seed
• Motley sheep
• Swimmer and Sea
• Plotichka
• Gout and Spider
• Fire and Diamond
• Funeral
• Parishioner
• Passersby and Dogs
• Pond and River
• Hermit and Bear
• Guns and Sails
• Bee and Flies
• The picky bride
• Chapter
• Grove and fire
• Creek
• Fish dance
• Knight
• Pig
• Pig under the Oak
• Tit
• Starling
• Stingy
• Stingy and Chicken
• Elephant in case
• Elephant and Moska
• Elephant in the voivodeship
• Dog and Horse
• Dog, Man, Cat and Falcon
• Dog friendship
• Council of Mice
• Falcon and Worm
• Nightingales
• Writer and robber
• Old man and three young people
• Dragonfly and Ant
• Shadow and Man
• Tripartite
• Trishkin caftan
• Hardworking Bear
• Owl and Donkey
• Fortune and the Beggar
• Hop
• Master and Mice
• Flowers
• Chervonets
• Siskin and Hedgehog
• Siskin and Dove
• Pike and Cat
• Pike and mouse
• Lamb

Other

• The Coffee House (1783, published 1869, libretto of a comic opera)
• The Mad Family (1786, comedy)
• The Writer in the Hallway (1786-1788, published 1794, comedy)
• Pranksters (1786-1788, published 1793, comedy)
• Philomela (1786-1788, published 1793, tragedy)
• The Americans (1788, comedy, together with A. I. Klushin)
• Kaib (1792, satirical story)
• Nights (1792, satirical story; unfinished)
• Trumpf (“Podschipa”; 1798-1800, published 1859; distributed in handwritten copies)
• Pie (1801, published 1869, comedy)
• Fashion Shop (1806, comedy)
• A Lesson for Daughters (1807, comedy)
• Ilya the Bogatyr (1807, comedy)

Bibliography

• The first monographs about Krylov were written by his friends - M. E. Lobanov (“The Life and Works of Ivan Andreevich Krylov”) and P. A. Pletnev (with the complete works of Ivan Krylov, ed. by J. Jungmeister and E. Weimar in 1847); Pletnev’s biography was reprinted many times both in the collected works of Krylov and in his fables.
• Notes, materials and articles about him appeared both in historical and general journals (for a list of them, see Mezhov, “History of Russian and General Words.”, St. Petersburg, 1872, as well as Kenevich and L. Maikov).
• A serious and conscientious, but far from complete work by V.F. Kenevich: Bibliographical and historical notes on Krylov’s fables. 2nd ed. St. Petersburg, 1878.
• Valuable material is provided by the article by L. N. Maykov: “The first steps of I. A. Krylov in the literary field” (“Russian Bulletin” 1889; reprinted in “Historical and Literary Essays”, St. Petersburg 1895).
• A. I. Lyashchenko, in the “Historical Bulletin” (1894 No. 11);
• A. Kirpyachnikova in “Initiation”,
• V. Peretz in “Annual. Imp. Theaters for 1895"
• a number of articles about Krylov in the Journal of Min. Nar. Enlightened." 1895 Amon, Draganov and Nechaev (the latter caused the brochure of A.I. Lyashchenko).
• a scientific work about Krylov was published under the editorship of Kallash (St. Petersburg, 1903-1905).
• S. Babintsev. Krylov's world fame (I. A. Krylov. Research and materials. Moscow, OGIZ, 1947, 296 pp.), 274 pp.
• M. Rafili. I. A. Krylov and Azerbaijani literature, Baku, Azerneshr, 1944, pp. 29-30.
• M. Gordin. "The Life of Ivan Krylov."
• Babintsev S. M. I. A. Krylov: Essay on his publishing and library activities/ All-Union Book Chamber, Ministry of Culture of the USSR, Glavizdat. - M.: Publishing House of the All-Union Book Chamber, 1955. - 94, p. - (Book figures). - 15,000 copies. (region)

Language of works Russian Awards Files on Wikimedia Commons Quotes on Wikiquote

Ivan Andreevich Krylov(February 2, Moscow - November 9, St. Petersburg) - Russian publicist, poet, fabulist, publisher of satirical and educational magazines. He is best known as the author of 236 fables, collected in nine lifetime collections (published from 1809 to 1843). Along with most of The plots of Krylov's fables are original, some of them go back to the fables of La Fontaine (who, in turn, borrowed them from Aesop, Phaedrus and Babrius). Many expressions from Krylov's fables became popular expressions.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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  Krylov's first translator into Azerbaijani was Abbas-Quli-Aga Bakikhanov. In the 30s of the 19th century, during Krylov’s own lifetime, he translated the fable “The Donkey and the Nightingale.” It would be appropriate to note that, for example, the first translation into Armenian was made in 1849, and into Georgian in 1860. Over 60 of Krylov’s fables were translated by Hasanaliaga Khan Karadagsky in the 80s of the 19th century.

  Last years

  At the end of his life, Krylov was favored by the royal family. He had the rank of state councilor and a six-thousand-dollar pension. From March 1841 until the end of his life he lived in the Blinov apartment building on the 1st line of Vasilievsky Island, 8.

  Krylov lived a long time and did not change his habits in any way. Completely lost in laziness and gourmand. He, an intelligent and not very kind man, eventually settled into the role of a good-natured eccentric, an absurd, unembarrassed glutton. The image he invented suited the court, and at the end of his life he could afford anything. He was not ashamed to be a glutton, a slob and a lazy person.

  Everyone believed that Krylov died from intestinal volvulus due to overeating, but in fact - from bilateral pneumonia.

  Contemporaries believed that the daughter of his cook, Sasha, was his father. This is confirmed by the fact that he sent her to a boarding school. And when the cook died, he raised her like a daughter and gave her a large dowry. Before his death, he bequeathed all his property and rights to his compositions to Sasha’s husband.

  Recognition and adaptations

  • Krylov had the rank of state councilor, was a full member of the Imperial Russian Academy (since 1811), and an ordinary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the Department of Russian Language and Literature (since 1841).

  Perpetuation of the name

  • There are streets and alleys named after Krylov in dozens of cities in Russia and the countries of the former USSR and in Kazakhstan
  • Monument in the Summer Garden of St. Petersburg
  • In Moscow, near the Patriarch's ponds, a monument to Krylov and the heroes of his fables was erected
  • In St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl and Omsk there are children's libraries named after I. A. Krylov

  In music

  I. A. Krylov’s fables were set to music, for example, by A. G. Rubinstein - the fables “The Cuckoo and the Eagle”, “The Donkey and the Nightingale”, “The Dragonfly and the Ant”, “Quartet”. And also - Yu. M. Kasyanik: vocal cycle for bass and piano (1974) “Krylov’s Fables” (“Crow and Fox”, “Pedestrians and Dogs”, “Donkey and Nightingale”, “Two Barrels”, “Triple Man” ").

  Essays

  Fables

  Alcides Apelles and the foal Poor rich man Atheists Squirrel (two known fables about a squirrel) The Rich Man and the Poet Barrel Razors Bulat Cobblestone and Diamond Kite cornflower Nobleman Nobleman and Poet Nobleman and Philosopher Divers Waterfall and Stream Wolf and Wolf Cub Wolf and Crane Wolf and Cat Wolf and Cuckoo Wolf and Fox Wolf and Mouse Wolf and Shepherds Wolf and Lamb Wolf at the kennel Wolves and Sheep Crow Crow and Chicken