Biography of Nekrasov: the life path and work of the great folk poet

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Nekrasov Nikolai Alekseevich, whose biography begins on November 28 (December 10), 1821, was born in the small town of Nemirov, located on the territory of the Vinnitsa district of the Podolsk province (now the territory of Ukraine).

The poet's childhood

The Nekrasov family after the birth of their son lived in the village of Greshnevo, which at that time belonged to the Yaroslavl province. There were a lot of children - thirteen (although only three of them survived), and therefore it was very difficult to support them. Aleksey Sergeevich, the head of the family, was forced to take on the job of a police officer. It was difficult to call this work fun and interesting. Little Nikolai Nekrasov Sr. often took with him to work, and therefore the future poet from an early age saw the problems that ordinary people faced and learned to sympathize with them.

At the age of 10, Nikolai is sent to the Yaroslavl gymnasium. But at the end of the 5th grade, he abruptly stopped studying. Why? Biographers differ on this issue. Some believe that the boy was not too diligent in his studies, and his success in this field left much to be desired, while others are of the opinion that his father simply stopped paying tuition. And perhaps both of these reasons took place. One way or another, but then the biography of Nekrasov continues in St. Petersburg, where a sixteen-year-old boy is sent to enter a military school (noble regiment).

Difficult years

The poet had every opportunity to become an honest servant, but fate was pleased to dispose otherwise. Arriving in the cultural capital of the empire - St. Petersburg - Nekrasov gets acquainted and communicates with the students there. They awakened in him a strong thirst for knowledge, and therefore the future poet decides to go against the will of his father. Nikolay begins to prepare for entering the university. He fails: he could not pass all the exams. However, this did not stop him: from 1839 to 1841. the poet goes to the Faculty of Philology as a volunteer. In those days, Nekrasov lived in terrible poverty, because his father did not give him a single penny. The poet often had to go hungry, it even got to the point that he spent the night in shelters for the homeless. But there were also bright moments: for example, it was in one of these places that Nikolai earned his first money (15 kopecks) for help in writing a petition. The difficult financial situation did not break the spirit of the young man and he swore to himself, despite any obstacles, to achieve recognition.

Nekrasov's literary activity

Nekrasov's biography is impossible without mentioning the stages of his formation as a poet, writer.

Shortly after the events described above, Nikolai's life began to improve. He got a job as a tutor, he was often assigned to compose fairy tales and alphabets for popular print publishers. A good side jobwas the writing of small articles in the Literary Gazette, as well as the Literary Addendum to the Russian Disabled. Several vaudevilles composed by him and published under the pseudonym "Perepelsky" were even staged on the Alexandria stage. Having set aside some money, in 1840 Nekrasov published his first collection of poems, which was called Dreams and Sounds.

Nekrasov's biography was not without a struggle with critics. Despite the fact that they treated him ambiguously, Nikolai himself was extremely upset by the negative review of the authoritative Belinsky. It even got to the point that Nekrasov himself bought up most of the circulation and destroyed the books. However, the few remaining copies made it possible to see Nekrasov in a completely unusual role as a ballad writer. In the future, he moved on to other genres and topics.

Nekrasov spent the forties of the 19th century working closely with the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine. Nicholas himself was a bibliographer. The turning point in his life can be considered a close acquaintance and the beginning of friendship with Belinsky. After quite a bit of time, the poems of Nikolai Nekrasov begin to be actively printed. In a fairly short period of time, the almanacs "April 1", "Physiology of St. Petersburg", "Petersburg Collection" were published, in which the poems of the young poet coexisted with the works of the best authors of that period. Among them, among others, there were works by F. Dostoevsky, A. Herzen, D. Grigorovich, I. Turgenev.

Publishing business was going great. This allowed Nekrasov and his friendsat the end of 1846, purchase the Sovremennik magazine. In addition to the poet himself, many talented writers go to this magazine. And Belinsky gives Nekrasov an unusually generous gift - he transfers for the magazine a huge amount of materials that the critic has been collecting for his own publication for a long time. During the period of reaction, the content of Sovremennik was controlled by the tsarist authorities, and under the influence of censorship, they began to print mostly works of the adventure genre in it. But, nevertheless, the magazine does not lose its popularity.

Next, Nekrasov's biography takes us to sunny Italy, where the poet leaves in the 1950s to be treated for a sore throat. Having improved his he alth, he returns to his homeland. Here life is "in full swing" - Nikolai finds himself in the leading literary streams, communicates with people of high morality. At this time, the best and hitherto unknown sides of the poet's talent are revealed. In the work on the journal, Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky become his faithful assistants and colleagues.

Despite the fact that Sovremennik was closed in 1866, Nekrasov did not give up. From his longtime “competitor”, the writer rents “Domestic Notes”, which quickly rise to the same height as Sovremennik once did.

Working with two of the best magazines of his time, Nekrasov wrote and published a lot of his works. Among them are poems (“Who should live well in Russia”, “Peasant children”, “Frost, red nose”, “Sasha”, “Russian women”), poems (“Railway”, “Knight for an hour”, “Prophet "") and many others. Nekrasov was at the zenith of hisglory.

Last years of life

In early 1875, the poet was diagnosed with a terrible diagnosis - "intestinal cancer". His life became a continuous suffering, and only the support of devoted readers helped to somehow hold on. Telegrams and letters came to Nicholas even from the farthest corners of Russia. This support meant a lot to the poet: struggling with pain, he continued to create. At the end of his life, he writes a satirical poem called "Contemporaries", a sincere and touching cycle of poems "Last Songs".

The talented poet and activist of the literary world said goodbye to this world on December 27, 1877 (January 8, 1878) in St. Petersburg, at the age of only 56.

Despite the severe frost, thousands of people came to say goodbye to the poet and see him to his final resting place (Novodevichy Cemetery in St. Petersburg).

Love in the life of a poet

N. A. Nekrasov, whose biography is a real charge of manpower and energy, met three women in his life. His first love was Avdotya Panaeva. They were not officially married, but lived together for fifteen years. After some time, Nekrasov fell in love with a charming Frenchwoman - Selina Lefren. However, this novel was unsuccessful for the poet: Selina left him, and before that she squandered a fair amount of his fortune. And, finally, six months before his death, Nekrasov married Fyokla Viktorova, who dearly loved him and cared for him until the last day.