Vasily Trediakovsky was one of the most famous poets of the 18th century. However, his creative legacy was not appreciated by his contemporaries. Only later, already in the 19th century, his translations and original writings received recognition. The reason for this belated success is that the author's contemporaries sought to create an easy literary language, while the poet was a supporter of complex versification, focusing on the best examples of antiquity and imitating them.
Childhood and youth
Vasily Trediakovsky was born in 1703 in the family of an Astrakhan priest. He graduated from the Latin school, which was founded at the Catholic mission in the city. As a child, he sang in the church choir. He carried his passion for music throughout his life, later even starting to compose his own compositions. Little information about his youth has been preserved, only a notebook with a quatrain remains, which testifies to the boy's early passion for poetry.
At first, the future poet was going to enter the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, but for unknown reasons he did not go there, but instead went to Moscow. From 1723 to 1725, Vasily Trediakovsky studied in the Slavic-GreekLatin Academy at his own expense. At this time, he seriously took up literature: he composed his own novel and translated some works from Latin. After two years of study, he had the opportunity to travel abroad, so he left the academy.
Travel Europe
Vasily Trediakovsky lived in The Hague for some time, but soon left this country and moved to Paris, where he settled with the head of the Russian diplomatic mission. In general, very little is known about the time of the poet's stay in European countries, however, the surviving news suggests that he received a good education at the University of Paris. However, he never managed to pass the bachelor's exams, because they were paid, and the poet had no money.
However, this stage was important in his work, because he got acquainted with French culture, enlightenment, which had a great influence on him, although, of course, in just two years he could not fully imbue the new ideas of European ideology. From 1729 to 1730 the poet lived in Hamburg. Vasily Trediakovsky, whose work had already taken shape as pro-European by that time, met with local intellectuals, studied music and wrote some poems. In addition, he was a member of the circle of Russian diplomats, communication with which raised his cultural level.
First success
Returning to his homeland, the poet was assigned toAcademy of Sciences as a student, which was a great success, as it opened up great opportunities for him in the scientific world. In 1730 he published his translation of the French novel Ride to the Island of Love. It became a real event in the cultural life. This romantic courtly work immediately gained great popularity among the reading public. After the publication of this work, Vasily Trediakovsky remained the most popular author. The poet accompanied his work with a collection of poems of his own composition.
Version reform
In the 1730s, the poet began to change the Russian literary language. Trediakovsky sought to separate prose and poetry and considered the standard of the latter to be Latin versification, to which he tried to adapt Russian poetry. However, he was immediately criticized for the complex construction of sentences, unclear meaning, and intricate grammatical construction. The poet often resorted to inversion, actively used interjections, which, in the view of literary critics of that time, complicated and spoiled the lyrics.
Meaning
Vasily Trediakovsky, whose brief biography is the subject of this review, left a noticeable mark in the history of Russian literature. His experiments, scientific research in the field of literature, disputes with Lomonosov and Sumarokov contributed to the emergence of domestic criticism and original works in various genres. He also made a great contribution as a translator. So, thanks to him, the Russian reader got acquainted with the works of the French scientist on ancientstories. At the end of his life, his he alth deteriorated and he died in 1769.
