The nineteenth century is called the Golden Age for Russian literature and the period of the formation of art criticism, the founder and most prominent representative of which is Belinsky Vissarion Grigoryevich. The world significance of this person is measured by the quality of the ideas he develops. In this regard, according to his contemporaries, Vissarion Belinsky, a critic and Western philosopher, outgrew the level of the then bourgeois thought. But unfortunately, the true assessment of his merit was received rather late.
Significance
The influence of this publicist and writer on Russian literature is still felt. Vissarion Belinsky was the first to establish the correct concepts of prose and poetry in general. It was he who pointed out the direction in which literature had to go in order to become a social force and become a teacher for the younger generation.
The pleiad of writers of the forties of the last century, for the most part, owes the ideological side of their own works to him. Belinsky, who always welcomed the emerging talent, almost unmistakably guessed the path of his future.development, with its sincere and passionate nature, irresistibly directing all young figures into literature. The theoretical propositions that he worked out became common property. Most of them have retained their significance to the present day. New literary generations today are based on his tireless search for truth, as well as on the views on the meaning of literature in life, which Vissarion Belinsky left for them.
Biography
The grandson of a priest and the son of a doctor, the future critic and publicist was born in the village of Belyn in the Penza province on May 30 (June 11), 1811. Having learned reading and writing from a local teacher, Vissarion Belinsky was sent to study at the county school, which opened in Chembar. In 1825, he was transferred to the provincial gymnasium, where he stayed for three and a half years, without completing a four-year course. According to Belinsky, studying there did not satisfy him. His target was Moscow University. It was not easy for the future Russian thinker to fulfill this plan. His father, due to limited funds, was not able to support his son in Moscow. However, the young man was willing to live in poverty, just to be a student. In August 1829, he was enrolled in the Faculty of Literature and in the same year was admitted to the public account.
University life
In his student years (1829-1832), a circle of "The Eleventh Number" formed around Belinsky. It constantly discussed many problems of philosophy, studied the works of Bachmann, Schelling, and contemporary issues. At one of the meetingsVissarion Belinsky read the first drama written by him called "Dmitry Kalinin", which was based on the author's vivid impressions of serf reality. The future great critic and publicist in his work ardently attacked the "disastrous right" of the landlord class to control the fate of the peasants.
Censorship of Moscow University banned drama as "immoral". Belinsky was frightened by soldiery and exile to Siberia, but in vain. During his student years, he found true friends who not only sympathized with him, but also fully shared his aspirations. These were Stankevich, Herzen, Ketcher, Ogarev, E. Korsh and others.
Exception
In September 1832, the Ministry of Public Education signed an order to dismiss Belinsky from the university. The wording was standard - "due to poor he alth and because of the limitations of his abilities." Today, every student studying at the Faculty of Philology knows the works and photos of Vissarion Belinsky, and then the unknown writer was suddenly left without funds and a roof over his head.
He began to give lessons and make translations, somehow surviving on meager fees. At this time, he became closely acquainted with Professor Nadezhdin. The latter, who in 1831 founded a new journal called Teloscope, offered Belinsky to translate small articles for his publication. And already in September 1834, Vissarion Grigoryevich appeared in the journal with his first critical article. It was with her, in fact, that he beganserious literary activity.
Stankevich Circle
In 1833 Belinsky began attending the literary evenings of Aksakov and Selivansky. Here he becomes close to N. Stankevich, and after a while he enters his circle. Limited funds and the lack of normal conditions for literary work forced Belinsky to change his address very often: he lived in Rakhmanovsky Lane, in Nadezhdin's apartment, in the Sukhovo-Kobylin house, then in the building of Moscow University. In 1835 he began to work as a secretary of the famous writer A. Poltoratsky. The closure in 1836 of the Teleskop magazine, where Vissarion Belinsky headed the criticism department, put him on the brink of poverty. According to contemporaries, until the beginning of 1838, the famous publicist and writer survived only thanks to the help of friends.
Work in Otechestvennye Zapiski
From March to October 1838, at the invitation of Aksakov, Belinsky taught at the Konstantinovsky Land Survey Institute, after which he became an unofficial editor in the Moscow Observer magazine. At this time, he began to often visit the family of M. Shchepkin, whose daughter he was then in love with. Belinsky's circle of Moscow acquaintances included T. Granovsky, P. Mochalov, N. and K. Polevye, A. Veltman and many others.
After the issue of the Moscow Observer was closed in June 1839, the writer was again left without funds, but soon received an invitation from A. Kraevsky to take the position of head of the critical department of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine. In October of the sameVissarion Belinsky moves to St. Petersburg and visits Moscow only on short trips.
Political views
In his youth, Belinsky Vissarion Grigoryevich, for whom philosophy has always been a hobby, begins to study the aesthetics of romanticism, delves into the ideas of Schelling, Hegel and Fichte. Already in the early 1840s, sharply criticizing the rationalistic determinism of the concept of progress, he came to the conclusion that "the fate of the individual and personality is more important than all the fates of the world." The evolution of Belinsky's views is accompanied by increased criticism of philosophical idealism. His religious convictions give way to overtly atheistic sentiments. In his letter to Gogol, whom he deeply sympathizes with, Vissarion Belinsky severely criticizes the church.
The well-known critic and publicist died in 1848 from consumption. Being married, he left behind a three-year-old daughter and a huge literary legacy.
