Biography of I. S. Nikitin. Russian poets

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

The poet and writer Ivan Nikitin and his works are not included in the school literature curriculum. This name is known today only to students studying the course of Russian literature at a deeper level. Often Ivan Nikitin is unfamiliar even to those who sing songs based on his poems.

Half-forgotten classic

In the Russian literary criticism of the Soviet period, there was a stable hierarchy of literary values, according to which, all nineteenth-century writers are ranked according to their value. In accordance with this hierarchy, the writer Nikitin Ivan Savvich does not belong to the number of stars of the first magnitude. He is recognized as a classic, and, of course, no one has forgotten about him. It is known that Ivan Nikitin is a poet from the Russian outback.

But it is customary to mention him only after listing the most significant contemporaries. Let's try to figure out how justified it is.

Facts from the biography of the classic of Russian literature

The biography of I. S. Nikitin originates in Voronezh. It was in this ancient provincial town that the future poet was born in 1824. He spent his childhood in a poor merchant family, which existed on income from small retail trade. Ivan Nikitin successfully studied at the Voronezh Seminary. However, to complete the spiritualeducation was not destined for him. The entire further biography of I. S. Nikitin could have had a completely different continuation if his father had not completely gone bankrupt due to continuous drunkenness, and this sad circumstance would not have put the family on the brink of poverty.

The beginning of the creative path

The young man had to earn his living on his own. He was forced to quit his studies at the theological seminary and get a job at an inn. However, the former seminarian shows persistence of character - he reads a lot, educates himself, studies foreign languages. Reads the classics of world literature in the original. Trying his hand at poetry and prose.

During this period of his life, the circle of his contacts is made up of the diverse Voronezh intelligentsia. And in this very exacting circle he is accepted as an equal. Thus, Ivan Savvich Nikitin, whose childhood and youth were spent in poverty and deprivation, is taking the first steps towards success and recognition. The harsh life school not only contributed to the hardening of his character, but also largely determined the choice of images and themes with which he was destined to enter Russian literature in the future. The capital's public will soon learn a lot of new and interesting things by reading Nikitin Ivan Savvich's stories about provincial Voronezh.

Into great literature

The literary biography of I. S. Nikitin began in the early Voronezh years. Despite the fact that most of what he wrote during this period is not entirely independent, it was in the Voronezh provincial newspaper thatpublished his poem "Rus", the literary debut of the poet took place. This publication did not go unnoticed in the literary capitals of the Russian Empire. And the point here is not only the actual theme of the poem dedicated to the Crimean War.

Literary critics of the capital's publications, where the poem was reprinted, noted the artistic originality of the work and the undoubted echoes of the poetry of another famous Voronezh resident - the recently deceased poet Alexei Koltsov. It was an undeniable recognition. The provincial poet was noticed by the reading public, and literary critics predicted a great future for him.

Poem "Fist"

In the largest poetic work by Ivan Nikitin, one can easily distinguish autobiographical details. In this poem, the story is by no means about the peasants, as can be concluded from the title, but about the philistine environment of a large provincial city. The protagonist of the poem is a purely negative character. This is a small bazaar trader and dealer. For the sake of profit, this person is ready for any meanness and will stop at nothing. It cannot be said that Ivan Nikitin directly portrayed his father in this hero, but he took a lot of characteristic precisely from his childhood memories of Voronezh life. Easily recognizable in the poem are other heroes and circumstances from the life of the poet. Before Ivan Nikitin, such characters were not so common in Russian literature. In many ways, they have something in common with the dramaturgy of Ostrovsky, which did not exist in those years.

The poem "The Fist" was duly appreciated by both ordinary Russian readers and metropolitan literary criticism. In particular, the Moscow writer Dobrolyubov spoke highly of this work. The critic saw in the work of the Voronezh poet a dramatic and at the same time comic sketch of the mores of the petty-bourgeois environment, which other writers preferred to silently ignore. In a certain sense, the writer Nikitin became its pioneer. Subsequently, this theme received a powerful development in many classic works of Russian literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Civic lyrics

At first glance, the biography of I. S. Nikitin is devoid of dramatic events and unexpected twists. He did not participate in any wars, or in riots, or in revolutions. The life of the poet Ivan Nikitin was completely devoted to the service of Russian literature. The most important thing in his poetry is the unique charm of native nature. Few of his contemporaries were able to convey this with the same skill as Ivan Nikitin. "Morning", one of his most famous poems, is a typical example of Nikitin's landscape lyrics. But no less significant is sympathy for a simple, modest worker. The poet speaks of the hopelessness of the life of those who work on the ground or drag out a miserable existence on the outskirts of the city. And expresses obvious disagreement with this state of affairs.

Nikolai Nekrasov is rightly known for this topic in Russian literature. But Ivan Nikitin told about itbefore Nekrasov. And most importantly - the poet was heard and understood by his contemporaries. His word echoed among his descendants. He had a significant influence on those who came to replace him in Russian poetry.

Ivan Savvich Nikitin. "Meeting winter"

Many poets have their favorite time of the year. The poet Ivan Nikitin is not distinguished by originality in this sense. Winter is dearer to him than spring, summer and autumn. This is easy to guess from the strength of the lyrical feeling with which he depicts the snow-covered Russian expanses and small villages drowned in snowdrifts. It is enough to read only his famous poem "Meeting of Winter". In all this, something more is seen than simple landscape sketches. Winter for the poet is not just one of the four seasons of the year, but a kind of universal organic image, which contains Russian scope and unbending spiritual power.

This is the same mystical power that the great conqueror of Europe Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte broke off his teeth on. And, no doubt, the same fate will befall in the future all those who dare to continue his work: "And cover his mark in Russia with a blizzard!"

Folk songs and classical romances

The song on the verses of Ivan Nikitin "I went to the fair merchant" is known everywhere in Russia. It is considered folk, and few people realize that the song has a very specific author - the nineteenth-century Russian poet Ivan Savvich Nikitin. The lyrics of this song have many variations. They are performed by pop singers in the stylechanson, as well as drinking songs at weddings and festivities. More than a century and a half has already passed since the song about the ukhar-merchant broke away from the author and lives an independent life. At the same time, few people think that the original moral meaning of the poem was completely different. And the author might be very surprised if he was destined to hear a modern interpretation of his work. But overall he could be happy.

Literary experts have calculated that more than sixty songs and romances have been written to the verses of the poet Ivan Nikitin. Such famous composers as Vasily Kalinnikov and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov turned to his works. Not every Russian poet could boast of such attention to his work.

End biography

It is generally accepted that the age of poets in Russia is very short. And this opinion is easily confirmed by many examples. The biography of I. S. Nikitin ended in October 1861. At the age of thirty-seven, the poet died in his native city from consumption. This disease in the nineteenth century belonged to the category of incurable. Ivan Nikitin was buried in the city cemetery, not far from his predecessor Alexei Koltsov. The untimely death of the Voronezh poet did not go unnoticed in the Russian literary world. Many metropolitan publications responded to the sad news from Voronezh with obituaries. The reader's interest in the works of the poet has increased. His previous collections of poems and prose were republished in significant editions. And new ones releasedbooks. The memory of the poet was immortalized in his native city in the name of one of the squares. She was given the name Nikitinskaya. In 1911, a monument to an outstanding countryman from grateful Voronezh residents was erected on it.