Who painted the portrait of Trediakovsky. Early literary activity



Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:	Astrakhan
Date of death:
A place of death:	Petersburg
Citizenship:	Russian empire
Occupation:
Language of works:

Creation

In art

(Tredyakovsky) (March 5 (February 22) 1703 - August 17 (6), 1769) - famous Russian scientist and poet XVIII century.

Biography

Born in 1703 in Astrakhan, in the family of a priest. He studied at the school of Capuchin monks and was supposed to be ordained, but, for unknown reasons, in 1723 he fled to Moscow and entered the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. Here he wrote his first dramas, “Jason” and “Titus Vespasian’s Son,” which have not reached us, as well as “Elegy on the Death of Peter the Great” (1725) and “Song” (1725).

In 1726, Trediakovsky, without completing his course at the Academy, went to Holland and spent two years in The Hague. He had to live in poverty abroad: his request to Russia to “determine the annual salary” for the completion of theological and philosophical sciences was not respected, because he was listed as having fled from the Academy. In Paris, where he came “on foot for his extreme poverty,” he studied mathematics and philosophical sciences, listened to theology, took part in public debates.

Returning to Russia in 1730, Trediakovsky published a translation of Paul Talman’s novel “Riding to the Island of Love” (1730). Attached to the translation were poems by Trediakovsky himself, in Russian, French and Latin. The success of the book was ensured by the very content of the book, dedicated to depicting feelings of graceful love and respect for a woman, new at that time for Russian readers. In the same book, Tredyakovsky placed a preface in which he first expressed the idea of using Russian in literary works, and not Old Slavonic language as it was before that time.

Trediakovsky became the court poet of Anna Ioannovna. In 1733, he was recruited into the Academy of Sciences with the obligation to “purify the Russian language, writing both in poetry and non-verse; give lectures if required; finish the grammar that he began, and work together with others on the Russian dictionary; translate from French into Russian everything that is given to him.”

From the beginning of the 1740s, Lomonosov's poetic fame eclipsed Trediakovsky, and the death of Anna Ioanovna and the rise to power of Elizabeth in 1741 worsened Trediakovsky's position at court. Next years Trediakovsky lived in extreme poverty, and his wedding in 1742 only worsened this situation. Only in 1745, simultaneously with Lomonosov, was he appointed professor at the Academy in the department of eloquence, and this improved his financial condition.

Trediakovsky was actively involved in translations and published a nine-volume “ Ancient history Rollenya, and the sixteen-volume Roman History by the same author.

In 1766 he published Telemachida, a free translation of Fenelon's Adventures of Telemachus, written in hexameter. The work and its author immediately become the object of ridicule and attacks, so in the “Hermitage Etiquette” of Empress Catherine II, a comic punishment for light guilt was established: “If anyone sins against the above, then, according to the evidence of two witnesses, for any crime he must drink a glass cold water, without excluding that, I will also give you a page of “Tilemakhida” (Tretyakovsky). And whoever stands against three articles in one evening is guilty of learning six lines of “Tilemakhida” by heart.”

Son Lev (1746-1812) - Yaroslavl and Smolensk governor.

Reform of Russian versification

Trediakovsky is one of the founders of syllabic-tonic versification in Russia.

Poetry XVI - early XVII was built on a syllabic basis, that is, the stresses in the verse were not ordered, only the number of syllables was fixed. This type of verse came to Russia from Poland.

In 1735 Trediakovsky published “New and short way to the composition of Russian poems." In this work he introduced the concept poetic foot, and on its basis - the concept of iambic and trochee. Poetic lines Trediakovsky proposed to build on the basis of trochees: “that verse... is perfect and better, which consists only of trochees... and that one is very bad, which consists of the entire iambus.” In fact, Trediakovsky proposed updating traditional sizes syllabic versification(13 and 11 syllables) by introducing constant stress and caesura.

In his work, Trediakovsky also gave definitions of various genres: sonnet, rondo, epistles, elegies, odes, etc. gives numerous examples.

Lomonosov criticized the versification proposed by Trediakovsky. In his “Letter on the Rules of Russian Poetry” (1739), he indicated that in addition to trochee, in Russian poetry one can use iambic, as well as trilobed meters - dactyl, amphibrachium, anapest. Lomonosov also disputed Trediakovsky’s statement that only female rhymes can be used in verse, introducing masculine and dactylic rhymes into Russian verse.

In general, Trediakovsky accepted the system proposed by Lomonosov, and even rewrote several of his previous odes so that they corresponded to the new rules of versification. However, one question sparked further discussion:

Lomonosov believed that iambic meters are suitable for writing heroic works, in particular, odes, and the trochee “having by nature tenderness and pleasantness, should constitute only an elegiac kind of poem.” Sumarokov shared the same opinion. Trediakovsky believed that size itself does not carry any emotional shades.

This dispute found the following continuation: the arguing poets published the book “Three Paraphrastic Odes of Psalms 143.” In it, the same psalm was translated: by Lomonosov and Sumarokov - in iambic, and by Trediakovsky - in trochee.

Creation

Trediakovsky's work caused a lot of controversy both during the author's life and after his death. On the one hand, partly under the influence of the opinions of the court and literary groups opposing him, Trediakovsky remained in history as a mediocre poet, a court intriguer, weaving conspiracies against his talented colleagues. The novel “Ice House” by I. I. Lazhechnikov, published in 1835, supported this myth, which led to the fact that throughout the 19th century the name Trediakovsky was often used as a common noun to designate a mediocre poet. At the same time, A.S. Pushkin, in an article about Radishchev’s book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” speaks of Trediakovsky as follows:

A number of modern authors call Trediakovsky the founder of Russian lyricism of the New Time, Russian classicism of the 18th century with its ancient European origins, one of the most fruitful ideologists and practitioners of Russian bucolic poetry, etc.

Early creativity Trediakovsky undoubtedly turns out to be in line with the so-called. Russian literary baroque with its characteristic pomposity of style, layers of metaphors, inversions, and Church Slavonicisms. At the same time, being an innovator, Trediakovsky laid down the main lines of formation of Russian lyrics of modern times, brilliantly developed later by Zhukovsky and Pushkin. Trediakovsky's later poems gravitate towards the emerging classicist tradition created by his contemporaries Lomonosov and Sumarokov. However, Trediakovsky never succeeded in becoming an “exemplary classicist”.

"Songs of the World." Love lyrics

Trediakovsky's first song compositions date back to 1725-1727, i.e. while studying at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, but most interesting works Russian love poems, which arose under the influence of French salon songs in the 30s, should be considered created in this genre years XVIII century, that is, during Trediakovsky’s studies in Paris. According to N.P. Bolshukhina, at the beginning of the 18th century, “Love (and more broadly, secular) song was ... beyond the limits of ideas about poetry. Only in the 30s of the 18th century will it be recognized as a specific genre and... included by Trediakovsky in the system of national lyrical genres. As one of typical examples Similar creativity can be taken "Poems about the power of love." In it Trediakovsky refers to ancient and biblical images, noting the extra-spatial and extra-cultural power of love, which “is a great thing.” This idea was very much in the spirit of the French song tradition, but was new for Russian poetry. In a private letter, Trediakovsky wrote that “nature itself, this beautiful and tireless mistress, takes care of teaching all youth what love is.” Strong influence French song lyrics can also be noted in the poem “Love Song” (1730). The poem is written in couplet form, and the final two lines of each couplet form a refrain. There is a characteristic French poetry the presence of a masculine rhyme next to a feminine one. Love in the poem is seen as an impulse, unconscious and not amenable to reflection. Lyrical hero“perishing about love”, unable to figure out what is happening to him.

In art

Trediakovsky is one of the heroes of the historical novel “Word and Deed” by Valentin Pikul.
Historical stories by Yuri Nagibin “The Fugitive” and “Island of Love” tell about the life of Vasily Trediakovsky



Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:	Astrakhan
Date of death:
A place of death:	Petersburg
Citizenship:	Russian empire
Occupation:
Language of works:

Creation

In art

(Tredyakovsky) (March 5 (February 22) 1703 - August 17 (6), 1769) - famous Russian scientist and poet of the 18th century.

Biography

In 1726, Trediakovsky, without completing his course at the Academy, went to Holland and spent two years in The Hague. He had to live in poverty abroad: his request to Russia to “determine the annual salary” for the completion of theological and philosophical sciences was not respected, because he was listed as having fled from the Academy. In Paris, where he came “on foot for his extreme poverty,” he studied mathematical and philosophical sciences at the Sorbonne, listened to theology, and took part in public debates.

Returning to Russia in 1730, Trediakovsky published a translation of Paul Talman’s novel “Riding to the Island of Love” (1730). The translation was accompanied by poems by Trediakovsky himself, in Russian, French and Latin. The success of the book was ensured by the very content of the book, dedicated to depicting feelings of graceful love and respect for a woman, new at that time for Russian readers. In the same book, Tredyakovsky placed a preface in which he first expressed the idea of using Russian, and not Old Church Slavonic, in literary works, as was the case until that time.

From the beginning of the 1740s, Lomonosov's poetic fame eclipsed Trediakovsky, and the death of Anna Ioanovna and the rise to power of Elizabeth in 1741 worsened Trediakovsky's position at court. The following years Trediakovsky lived in extreme poverty, and his wedding in 1742 only worsened this situation. Only in 1745, simultaneously with Lomonosov, was he appointed professor at the Academy in the department of eloquence, and this improved his financial condition.

Trediakovsky was actively involved in translations and published the nine-volume “Ancient History” by Rollen, and the sixteen-volume “Roman History” by the same author.

In 1766 he published Telemachida, a free translation of Fenelon's Adventures of Telemachus, written in hexameter. The work and its author immediately become the object of ridicule and attacks, so in the “Hermitage Etiquette” of Empress Catherine II, a comic punishment for light guilt was established: “If anyone sins against the above, then, according to the evidence of two witnesses, for any crime he must drink a glass of cold water , without excluding that, I will also give you a page of “Tilemakhida” (Tretyakovsky). And whoever stands against three articles in one evening is guilty of learning six lines of “Tilemakhida” by heart.”

Son Lev (1746-1812) - Yaroslavl and Smolensk governor.

Reform of Russian versification

Trediakovsky is one of the founders of syllabic-tonic versification in Russia.

The poetry of the 16th - early 17th centuries was built on a syllabic basis, that is, the stresses in the verse were not ordered, only the number of syllables was fixed. This type of verse came to Russia from Poland.

In 1735 Trediakovsky published “A New and Brief Method for Composing Russian Poems.” In this work, he introduced the concept of a poetic foot, and on its basis - the concept of iambic and trochee. Trediakovsky proposed to build poetic lines on the basis of trochees: “that verse... is perfect and better, which consists only of trochees... and that one is very bad, which is made up entirely of iambas.” In fact, Trediakovsky proposed updating the traditional sizes of syllabic versification (13 and 11 syllables) by introducing constant stresses and caesuras.

In his work, Trediakovsky also gave definitions of various genres: sonnet, rondo, epistles, elegies, odes, etc. gives numerous examples.

Lomonosov believed that iambic meters are suitable for writing heroic works, in particular, odes, and the trochee “having tenderness and pleasantness by nature, should constitute only an elegiac kind of poem.” Sumarokov shared the same opinion. Trediakovsky believed that size itself does not carry any emotional shades.

Creation

Trediakovsky's early work undoubtedly falls in line with the so-called. Russian literary baroque with its characteristic pomposity of style, layers of metaphors, inversions, and Church Slavonicisms. At the same time, being an innovator, Trediakovsky laid down the main lines of formation of Russian lyrics of modern times, brilliantly developed later by Zhukovsky and Pushkin. Trediakovsky's later poems gravitate towards the emerging classicist tradition created by his contemporaries Lomonosov and Sumarokov. However, Trediakovsky never succeeded in becoming an “exemplary classicist”.

"Songs of the World." Love lyrics

Trediakovsky's first song compositions date back to 1725-1727, i.e. while studying at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, however, the most interesting works created in this genre should be considered Russian love poems, which arose under the influence of French salon songs in the 30s of the 18th century, that is, during Trediakovsky’s studies in Paris. According to N.P. Bolshukhina, at the beginning of the 18th century, “Love (and more broadly, secular) song was ... beyond the limits of ideas about poetry. Only in the 30s of the 18th century will it be recognized as a specific genre and... included by Trediakovsky in the system of national lyrical genres. As one of the typical examples of such creativity, we can take “Poems about the power of love.” In it, Trediakovsky turns to ancient and biblical images, noting the extra-spatial and extra-cultural power of love, which “is a great thing.” This idea was very much in the spirit of the French song tradition, but was new for Russian poetry. In a private letter, Trediakovsky wrote that “nature itself, this beautiful and tireless mistress, takes care of teaching all youth what love is.” The strong influence of French song lyrics can also be noted in the poem “Song of Love” (1730). The poem is written in couplet form, and the final two lines of each couplet form a refrain. The presence of male rhyme next to female rhyme, characteristic of French poetry, is present. Love in the poem is seen as an impulse, unconscious and not amenable to reflection. The lyrical hero “perishes about love”, unable to figure out what is happening to him.

In art

Trediakovsky is one of the heroes of the historical novel “Word and Deed” by Valentin Pikul.
Historical stories by Yuri Nagibin “The Fugitive” and “Island of Love” tell about the life of Vasily Trediakovsky

Occupation: Language of works: Works on the website Lib.ru in Wikisource.

Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky(Tredyakovsky) (February 22 (March 5), 1703, Astrakhan - August 6, 1769, St. Petersburg) - famous Russian scientist and poet of the 18th century.

Biography

Born into the family of priest Kirill Yakovlevich Trediakovsky. He studied at the school of Capuchin monks and was supposed to be ordained, but, for unknown reasons, he fled to Moscow and entered the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. Here he wrote his first dramas, “Jason” and “Titus Vespasian’s Son”, which have not reached us, as well as “Elegy on the Death of Peter the Great” and “Song”.

Trediakovsky was actively involved in translations and published the nine-volume “Ancient History” by Rollen, and the sixteen-volume “Roman History” by the same author. In 1766 he published Telemachida, a free translation of Fenelon's Adventures of Telemachus, done in hexameter. The work and its author immediately become the object of ridicule and attacks, so in the “Hermitage Etiquette” of Empress Catherine II, a comic punishment for light guilt was established: “If anyone sins against the above, then, according to the evidence of two witnesses, for any crime he must drink a glass of cold water , without excluding that, I will also give you a page of “Tilemakhida” (Tretyakovsky). Who against three articles in one evening, he is obliged to learn six lines of “Tilemakhida” by heart.”

Lomonosov believed that iambic meters are suitable for writing heroic works, in particular, odes, and the trochee “having tenderness and pleasantness by nature, should constitute only an elegiac kind of poem.” Sumarokov also shared the same opinion. Trediakovsky believed that size itself does not carry any emotional shades.

Creation

“Tredyakovsky was, of course, a respectable and decent person. His philological and grammatical research is very remarkable. He had a more extensive concept in Russian versification than Lomonosov and Sumarokov. His love for Fenelon's epic does him honor, and the idea of translating it into verse and the very choice of verse prove an extraordinary sense of grace. “Tilemakhid” contains many good poems and happy phrases... In general, the study of Tredyakovsky is more beneficial than the study of our other old writers. Sumarokov and Kheraskov are certainly not worth Tredyakovsky...”

"Songs of the World." Love lyrics

Trediakovsky's first song compositions date back to 1725-1727, that is, the time of his studies at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, but the most interesting works created in this genre should be considered Russian love poems, which arose under the influence of French salon songs in the 30s of the 18th century , that is, during Trediakovsky’s studies in Paris. According to N.P. Bolshukhina, at the beginning of the 18th century, “The love (and more broadly, secular) song was ... beyond the limits of ideas about poetry, poetry. Only in the 30s of the 18th century would it be recognized as a specific genre and ... included by Trediakovsky into the system of national lyrical genres. As one of the typical examples of such creativity, we can take “Poems about the power of love.” In it, Trediakovsky turns to ancient and biblical images, noting the extra-spatial and extra-cultural power of love, which “is a great thing.” Such a representation was very much in the spirit of the French song tradition, but it was new for Russian poetry. In a private letter, Trediakovsky wrote that “nature itself, this beautiful and tireless mistress, takes care of teaching all youth what love is.” Strong influence of French song lyrics can also be noted in the poem “Song of Love" (1730). The poem is written in couplet form, and the two final lines of each couplet form a refrain. The presence of masculine rhyme next to feminine rhyme, characteristic of French poetry, is present. Love in the poem is seen as an impulse, unconscious and not amenable to reflection. The lyrical hero “perishes about love”, unable to figure out what is happening to him.

In art

The life of Trediakovsky is dedicated to the biographical historical novel “Harlequin” by Pyotr Aleshkovsky, the historical stories “The Fugitive” and “Island of Love” by Yuri Nagibin, as well as the poetic cycle “Dedicated to Vasily Trediakovsky” by Vadim Shefner.
Trediakovsky is one of the characters of the following historical novels: « Ice house"Ivan Lazhechnikov, "Biron and Volynsky" by Pyotr Polezhaev, "Word and Deed" by Valentin Pikul.

Notes

Links

Trediakovsky, Vasily Kirillovich in the library of Maxim Moshkov.
Trediakovsky in the ImWerden library, including a reproduction of the 1752 edition of “Works and Translations,” which includes “A method for composing Russian poems against that issued in 1735, corrected and supplemented”
Slozhenikina Yu. V., Rastyagaev A. V. Trediakovsky’s linguistic and personal models // Electronic journal"Knowledge. Understanding. Skill ». - 2009. - No. 5 - Philology.
Vasily Kirillovich Tretyakovsky (V.K. Trediakovsky. Gravestone inscription) // Russian antiquity, 1890. - T. 67. - No. 8. - P. 528.
Trediakovsky V.K. Autobiographical note. Excerpt // Collection of materials for the history of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the 18th century. - Ed. A. Kunik. - Part 1. - St. Petersburg, 1865. - P. XIII-XIV.

Categories:

Personalities in alphabetical order
Writers by alphabet
Born on March 5
Born in 1703
Born in Astrakhan
Died on August 17
Died in 1769
Died in St. Petersburg
Poets of Russia
Writers Russia XVIII century
Russian writers of the 18th century
Full members of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Graduates of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy

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See what “Trediakovsky, Vasily Kirillovich” is in other dictionaries:

Russian writer. Born into a priest's family. He studied at the Slavic Greek-Latin Academy (1723‒26) and at the Sorbonne (1727‒30). In 1730 he published a translation of the allegorical French novel P.… … Big Soviet encyclopedia

- (1703 68) Russian poet, philologist, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1745 59). In his work A New and Brief Method for Composing Russian Poems (1735), he formulated the principles of Russian syllabic tonic versification. Poem of Tilemachides (1766) ... Big encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1703 1768), Russian poet, philologist, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1745 59). In his work “A New and Brief Method for Composing Russian Poems” (1735), he formulated the principles of Russian syllabic tonic versification. Poem "Tilemakhida" (1766). * * *… … encyclopedic Dictionary

Poet and literary theorist, one of the founders of Russian classicism. Genus. in Astrakhan, in the family of a priest. For unknown reasons (T. himself referred to a craving for learning; according to other sources, trying to avoid an unpleasant marriage), the poet... ... Large biographical encyclopedia

Trediakovsky Vasily Kirillovich (1703 - 1769), poet, prose writer, theorist.

Trediakovsky was one of the writers who determined the development of Russian literature XVIII century - the century that prepared the "golden age of Russian literature."

Trediakovsky was born into the family of an Astrakhan priest, studied at the school of Capuchin monks and was supposed to be ordained. But he was attracted not by faith, but by science. He ran away from his parents' house and went to Moscow. There he entered the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, but soon, drawn by the same thirst for knowledge, he went abroad - completely without money, relying only on himself and his “sharp mind.” Trediakovsky spent about two years in Holland, and then went to France, to the Sorbonne. On foot - from The Hague to Paris.

Returning to his homeland, he made his debut with a translation of a French novel called “A Trip to the Island of Love” - and immediately incurred universal wrath for the obscene eroticism of the novel. However, Trediakovsky became famous, and his education and literary talent were noticed. Anna Ioannovna granted Trediakovsky the rank of court poet, and in 1733 he joined the staff of the Academy of Sciences as a secretary. In 1745 Trediakovsky became the first Russian professor. Before Trediakovsky, among the professorships of the Academy of Sciences there were only foreigners invited to Russia, and they, to put it mildly, did not like such successes of the Russian “upstart”. Trediakovsky tried to fight against the intrigues, but in 1759 he was dismissed from the Academy. However, work is beneficial Russian science he didn't leave.

Gradually, he released a translation of the works of the Sorbonne professor C. Rellen: the ten-volume “Ancient History” and the sixteen-volume “Roman History”, as well as “History of the Roman Emperors” by J.-B. Crevier. The largest literary work Trediakovsky himself became “Telemachida” - an adaptation of the novel “The Adventures of Telemachus” by the French writer Fenelon. "Telemachida" incurred the wrath of Catherine the Second, who was reigning at the time (these events began in 1766), and disgrace followed the royal wrath.

Trediakovsky was the first in a number of reformers of the Russian system of versification. In 1735, he wrote a treatise “A New and Brief Method for Composing Russian Poems.” At that time, the syllabic system of versification was used. Its basis is to equalize the number of syllables in each line of the poem. The syllabic system used rhyme, but did not take into account word stress. Trediakovsky said that the syllabic system is suitable only for languages in which words have a fixed stress. In Russian it is flexible. Consequently, Trediakovsky concluded, the syllabic system disfigures Russian poetry. He proposed introducing elements of a tonic system of versification based on the alternation of percussion and unstressed syllables. He called this system of versification syllabic-tonic. True, he limited the use of the syllabic-tonic system only to poems with big amount syllables in a line - there should be 11 or 13 syllables. A small number of syllables, in his opinion, could be organized according to the rules of syllabics.

The treatise also discussed the use poetic sizes- this was a consequence of the introduction of the syllabic-tonic system. Tredmakovsky believed that the main meter of Russian poetry should be trochee. He considered the iambic to be of little use for Russian verse; he excluded three-syllable meters altogether. In 1755, another important work Trediakovsky "On Ancient, Middle and New Russian Poems". This was the first work on the history of Russian poetry. As the name suggests, Trediakovsky identified three stages in the development of poetry. The first - he called it “pagan” - is the most ancient, characterized by the dominance of the tonic system of versification (it is closest to the folk poetic creativity). The second stage - from XVII to early XVIII century - the dominance of the syllabic system. And finally, the third - modern - should establish the syllabic-tonic system.

Trediakovsky’s works indeed, as mentioned above, were among those that determined the path of development of Russian literature. But Trediakovsky’s life lasted longer than recognition and fame. He died in complete poverty on August 6, 1769.

Poems of praise to Russia

I’ll start sad poems on the flute,

For all this day is her kindness to me

There is a lot of desire to think with your mind.

Russia mother! my endless light!

Allow me, I beg your faithful child,

Oh, how you sit on the red throne!

The Russian sky, you sun, is clear!

Others are painted with golden scepters,

And precious is the porphyry, the miter;

You decorated your scepter with yourself,

And she honored the crown with her bright face.

About your high nobility

Who would not know in the wide world?

Direct all the nobility itself:

Oh my goodness! light production.

You have all the faith of the pious,

There is no admixture with you of the wicked;

You will not have double faith,

The evil ones do not dare approach you.

All your people are Orthodox

And they are famous everywhere for their courage;

Children deserve such a mother,

Everywhere they are ready for you.

What are you, Russia, not abundant in?

Where are you, Russia, were you not strong?

You are the only treasure of all goodness,

Always rich, fame reason.

If the stars all shine with health in you!

And the Russians splash loudly:

Vivat Russia! Viva dragaya!

Vivat hope! Viva good.

I'll end up with sad poems on the flute,

In vain to Russia through distant countries:

I would need a hundred languages

Celebrate all that is lovely about you!

TREDIAKOVSKY Vasily Kirillovich was born into the family of a priest - philologist, poet.

He studied verbal science at the school of Capuchin monks, who taught in Latin.

In 1723 he fled to Moscow (he did not want to enter the clergy) and entered the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy (Zaikonospasskoye School) directly into the rhetoric class. Here he composed his first poems and wrote two dramas - “Jason” and “Titus”, presented by school students.

In 1725 he created a lament for the death of Peter the Great. He composed funny songs that were included in his later works.

At the beginning of 1726 Vasily Kirillovich went abroad. His all-consuming passion for science led him to an even more risky flight. He spent about two years in Holland, learning languages and getting acquainted with Western literature.

In 1727, “walking behind his extreme poverty,” he arrived in Paris, where he lived on the bread of the envoy Prince A. B. Kurakin. In Paris, Trediakovsky attends mathematical and philosophical lectures at the Sorbonne, and also listens to theology. His studies in poetry also continue, mostly in French.

In September 1730 he returned to his homeland as a highly educated man, but need did not leave him. Only after the publication of “A Trip to the Island of Love,” which attracted the attention of court circles, he received a position as a translator for the Academy of Sciences, often distracted from his studies by composing poetry for court festivities.

In October 1733, Vasily Kirillovich was finally introduced into the academy as acting secretary with the duties of “cleansing the Russian language, writing both in poetry and non-verse, giving lectures, compiling dictionaries, translating from French into Russian.” It seemed that his fate was developing happily. But the dependence of the scholar-commoner on the whims of the nobles, the disdainful attitude of the nobles towards the activities of the first professional writer in Russia made his life humiliating and infinitely difficult. He wrote occasional poems, congratulatory poems, translated a lot of small articles, taught Russian language to noble foreigners free of charge, translated military regulations and ceremonial odes. And at the same time, he created works that represented a major theoretical contribution to the history of Russian culture.

In February 1740, an event occurred in the life of Trediakovsky that revealed the full horror of his situation: he was brutally beaten by the nobleman Volynsky, who mocked him: “Will you start composing songs again?” In his person, Belinsky wrote, “the dignity of a writer, scientist and poet was mercilessly beaten with slaps and sticks.” His position in the academy was complicated by his obvious failure in creative competition with Lomonosov and Sumarokov, more gifted poets; the court public, with its sympathy for them and mockery of Vasily Kirillovich, further aggravated the conflict. After numerous petitions, in which Trediakovsky detailed and proudly listed his services to Russian philology, after long resistance from the Germans who settled in the academy, he nevertheless, in July 1745, “the first of the Russians” became a professor of “both Latin and Russian eloquences” (i.e. eloquence).

Since 1746, Vasily Kirillovich began lecturing on history and theory oratory and poetics. From time to time, along with the painstaking work of translating the huge “History ancient world“Lena’s role, he receives “orally” the highest instructions to “compose a tragedy” and, willy-nilly, had to obey them. In 1752 he published the first collection of his works in two volumes. Each of his new works or his own chosen translation is published after long ordeals.

From 1757 he stopped attending the academy, where he was subjected to persecution and humiliation. In a letter of explanation, he wrote: “Hated in person, despised in words, destroyed in deeds, condemned in art, pierced by satirical horns, I have certainly already exhausted my strength... for which reason the need has come for me to retire.” However, he continued to work “for the benefit of all of Russia”; his consolation is the conviction that the public “no matter how much it now sees Russian poems compiled by different authors, then in the composition of these poems, by the number (i.e. size) it sees them my own fruit."

Trediakovsky did not stop his literary activity, but worked in dire need, giving lessons.

For a long time, the general chorus of critics, researchers, and widespread rumors spread the idea of him as a mediocre poet, a boring pedantic scientist, an eternal worker without talent or a spark of inspiration. But already Pushkin, following Radishchev, wrote about him as “a respectable and decent person. His philological and grammatical research is very remarkable. He had a broader concept of Russian versification than Lomonosov and Sumarokov” (Poln. sobr. soch., vol. I, M., 1949, pp. 253-254).

The first major literary success came to the poet after the publication of a translated novel with poems "Riding to Love Island"(1730). The translation of the love-gallant novel by the Frenchman Paul Talman (1663) catered to both tastes looking for something easy entertainment of the court elite and rich youth, as well as new reading preferences, replacing lovers of business and panegyric literature of Peter the Great's time. In the verses appended to the story dedicated to Russia, one could also find a deep expression of patriotic feelings, so characteristic of that part of society that remained faithful to the precepts of Peter. “Riding to the Island of Love” was a depiction of the various shades and vicissitudes of the love feeling of the hero Tirsites for his beloved Aminta, filled with allegorical interpretations. The action took place, for example, in the Cave of Cruelty, at the Gate of Refusal, on the Lake of Disgustingness, etc. The heroes were Luxury, Reverence and Precaution, Pride (modesty), Glazedness (coquetry). This was the first absolutely “secular novel” in the history of Russian publishing. It was in him that the essential feature of Trediakovsky the philologist was reflected. In the preface to the translation, he expresses new and profound views on the very principles of this kind of literary heap, theoretically substantiates the main feature of his translation: this is “almost the simplest Russian word”, and not “profound Slavicism”; The need for just such a language is explained by him by the content of the work being translated - “this book is sweet love.”

Trediakovsky’s arguments about the obsolescence of the “Slavic language” and its incomprehensibility to a wide range of readers already contain theoretical prerequisites for streamlining Russian literary language. But the salon language of the elite of the educated nobility, chosen by the poet, could not become the basis for the formation of the “most modern” literary language. Vasily Kirillovich put forward important theoretical problems, based on an understanding of the objective processes of development of language and literature, he made excellent use of foreign experience in his own philological research, but when he undertook the creative implementation of the principles and rules he had developed, he was constantly accompanied by failures and miscalculations.

In September 1734, he wrote a poetic congratulation to the head of the academy, unusual for poetry at that time. I. A. Corfu.

Published in 1735 “A new and short way to compose Russian poems with definitions of previously appropriate titles”. This was the proclamation of the largest reform in Russian versification. Until the end of his life, Vasily Kirillovich defended not only the priority, but also the enormous importance of the reform he proposed and enthusiastically accepted by the poets. The poet introduced the tonic system into Russian versification: “the longness and brevity of syllables in this new Russian versification... is only tonic, that is, consisting of a single accent of the voice... in which lies the whole strength of this new versification.” Nowadays this verse system is more often called syllabic-tonic. It arose as a result of Trediakovsky’s study of previous syllabic and kondakar poetry, the presence of tonic elements in it; The poet also relied on the experience of other literatures, but he himself recognized the experience of Russian folk verse as the main motivating reason: “the poetry of our common people brought me to this. Even though her syllable is not very red... but the sweetest, most pleasant and most correct fall of her various feet gave me an infallible guide to the introduction... of the above-mentioned two-syllable tonic feet” (i.e., iambic and trochee). The poet himself defined himself as a person who “began poetry with a foot before anyone else in Russia.” Indeed, the concept of foot created a completely different idea of the rhythmic organization of Russian verse, since it established the location of stressed syllables in a line and, accordingly, the location of unstressed syllables. There were also elements of inconsistency in his reform: for example, he did not give room to three-syllable meters in his reasoning, he considered trochee almost as the only possible size in creative practice, he did not study feet in short poetic lines, he limited the types of rhymes, and so on. Lomonosov, who more consistently implemented the reform of Russian verse, influenced Trediakovsky, and in 1752 he made many changes to his “Method”. As for the poems of Vasily Kirillovich, then, of course, he was not able to create such significant poetic works, like Lomonosov or Sumarokov.

In 1752 Vasily Kirillovich published a treatise “On Ancient, Middle and New Russian Poems”, where for the first time and with sufficient completeness he explored the history of poetry in Russia.

A considerable number of the poet’s works are devoted to the theory of genres. It was he who first formulated the basic principles of composition, the choice of the hero of a solemn ode (1735), and published a number of works on the theory poetic speech, which were important for the poetics of Russian classicism.

A significant part of the poet's legacy consists of translations - a truly gigantic work, numbering hundreds of titles. And here he acted as a writer, practically realizing his theoretical principles. In his prefaces to the translations, he wrote about high art this type of literature: “the translator from the creator just differs in name. I’ll tell you more: if the creator was intricate, then the translator should be more intricate.” The very choice of works intended for translation is often indicative. Ancient authors, outstanding philosophers of the Middle Ages and modern times, supporters of enlightened absolutism and zealots of the republic, enemies of tyranny and obscurantism - the whole world ideas and ideas was presented to Russian readers of the 18th century in the translations of the poet-philologist. He loved this business: “I have much more ability, if there are some, to think with someone else’s mind than with mine.”

IN different periods Throughout his life, Vasily Kirillovich judged kings and nobles differently, but humiliated, he himself sometimes knew how to strike, masking himself with other people’s thoughts or making sharp attacks against the rulers in his prefaces and notes. Reactionary circles were furious about the “attribution of absurd prefaces.” Translated works of Trediakovsky V.K. often incurred the wrath of censorship. The clergy were hostile to him after his arrival from abroad. His “Tilemakhida” is not only the creation of a successful form for Russian translations - hexameter, but also numerous lessons and reproaches to the kings. Catherine II pursued this poem, probably only for aesthetic reasons. Fenelon’s prose novel, translated by Trediakovsky’s verse, presented a caustic picture of the collapse of the state as a result of the reign of the “evil king” and, in the poet’s translation, was perceived by many as a political satire. “His love for Fenelon’s epic does him honor, and the idea of translating it into verse and the very choice of verse proves an extraordinary sense of grace” (A. Pushkin, Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 11, M., 1949, pp. 253-254 ).

A considerable number of oppositional attacks are contained in the translation of the book about Bacon (1760) and Barclay’s “Argenides” (1751). Such sentiments prevail in last years the life of the poet, who at other times allowed both flattery and a loyal attitude towards the autocratic regime.

Vasily Kirillovich also did a lot to establish the boundaries and rules of the literary language. But the style of the poet himself is still only in rare cases rose to purity and harmony. Immense inversion, mixing of words from different linguistic layers, violation syntactic structure language, finally, illegibility in choice phraseological combinations in many cases led to the “wildness” of the language of the poet’s works, although there are many bright, impressive passages in his poems and prose.

Radishchev, following Novikov, stood up for the poet, ridiculed during his lifetime: “Trediakovsky will be dug out of the moss-covered grave of oblivion...” But only Soviet literary criticism restored the true place and revealed the real significance of the poet. “The true pioneer of new Russian poetry should, apparently, count... Trediakovsky. This wonderful person, at one time underestimated, was distinguished by the power of theoretical thinking even more than by the gift of independently creating new poetic forms... The experiences of the first period of Vasily Kirillovich’s creativity decisively affected the course of poetry in the coming decades” (G. Bukovsky, Russian poetry XVIII century, L., 1927, p. 12-13X).

Died - St. Petersburg.

Russian writers. Biobibliographical dictionary.