Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev. Pleshcheev Alexey Nikolaevich Portrait of the poet Pleshcheev
Alexey Pleshcheev was a radical Russian poet. He is widely known for his many translations from English and French, as well as for his wonderful poems for children. Many works by this author were set to music by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov and became quite popular. But when was Pleshcheev born and died? What interesting events happened in his life? And how did he achieve his popularity?
Childhood and training
In Kostroma, on November 22, 1825, little Alexei was born, who would later become not only a Russian writer and poet, but also a famous translator. He was born into a noble family, unfortunately impoverished, and belonged to a very ancient family. Among the ancestors of Alexei Nikolaevich was even Moscow. Due to the fact that there were several writers in the family, these traditions were always especially revered.
The boy lost his father early, and his mother, Elena Alexandrovna, was mainly involved in his upbringing. Alexey Nikolaevich received an excellent education at home, and only then, at the insistence of his mother, he began training at the school of guards ensigns in St. Petersburg. Alexei Pleshcheev very quickly lost interest in military service and in 1843 left school in order to start studying Oriental languages at the University of St. Petersburg.
New acquaintances and first steps in creativity
What did Aleksey Nikolaevich the poet do during the years of training from that moment is connected with very interesting personalities. These are Andrei Alexandrovich Kraevsky, Pyotr Alexandrovich Pletnev, Maykovs, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin and others.
And Alexei Nikolaevich sends his very first poems for reading to Pletnev, who was not only the rector of the university, but also the publisher of Sovremennik. And Pyotr Alexandrovich spoke very warmly about the work of the beginning poet.
Interest in political circles
In 1845, Alexei Pleshcheev became interested in the ideas of the socialists and met members of the circle, who were called Petrashevists. They were engaged in poetry and questions of its development in Russia. Alexey Nikolaevich not only took part in such meetings, but also began to write propaganda poems, and also often brought forbidden manuscripts.
Then he begins to translate the book of the ideologue Felicite-Robert de Lamenne, which the members of the circle planned to subsequently print in their underground printing house. So Alexey Nikolayevich Pleshcheev, whose biography became very closely connected with the activities of this political circle, spent his years of study at the university.
The first collection of works, or the Poet-Wrestler
Unfortunately, in 1845, Alexei Nikolayevich was forced to interrupt his education due to insufficient material security. And the learning process itself did not suit him. But he decided to prepare and pass the exams externally in order to complete his studies at the university. Despite the fact that he left the university, he did not lose connections with members of the circle, or Petrashevites. Often they gathered even at his house.
Pleshcheev's first collection of poems was published in 1846. There were such works as "To the call of friends", "Forward! Without fear and doubt ..." and "We are brothers in feelings." They were immensely popular, and the last two verses even became the hymns of the youth. Many contemporaries began to treat Alexei as a poet-fighter. And this is one of the main interesting facts about which his biography tells. Alexey Pleshcheev became in fact the first poet to react to the events that took place in France. It was precisely for this that the Petrashevites respected him, who tried to embody revolutionary ideas in Russia.
Consequences of participation in the circle of Petrashevists
Of course, most readers are interested in when Pleshcheev was born and died, but how many other facts from his biography are known? For example, the fact that this remarkable poet and prose writer, like many of his contemporaries, also went into exile. For a long time Alexei Nikolaevich arranged meetings of the Petrashevites at his home. And in 1849, the police intercepted a copy of Belinsky's letter, which Pleshcheev sent to Fyodor Dostoevsky.
And already on April 8, Alexei Nikolayevich was arrested on the denunciation of a provocateur. Under escort, he was sent to St. Petersburg and put in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he spent eight months. At this time, 21 of the convicts were sentenced to death. Among them was Alesei Nikolaevich. But this is not the end of his biography. Aleksey Pleshcheev and other convicts were taken to the place of execution, Semyonovsky parade ground. Here they read the decree of Nicholas I, in which the execution was replaced by various terms of exile.
Years of exile, or a short biography. Poems by Alexei Pleshcheev during this period
Pleshcheev was enlisted as a private in a prison company, and in 1850 he arrived in Uralsk. Here he spent a long eight years, seven of them served. At first, Alexei Nikolaevich endured his stay in the service very hard. First of all, because of the negative attitude of the officers. He was not given vacations, and one could temporarily forget about creative activity altogether.
Much has changed after Alexey Nikolayevich met his mother's old acquaintance, Count Perovsky, who was the governor general. He began to patronize Pleshcheev. Aleksey Nikolaevich not only got access to literature, but also met interesting people - the family of Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Deziderevich Dandeville, some exiles from Poland, Taras Shevchenko and the poet Mikhail Mikhailov.
Did Alexei Pleshcheev write any works at that time? A short biography, which tells about the period of exile, contains information about some of the poems that he dedicated to Dandeville and his wife. There were also stories written. When Aleksey Ivanovich switched to the civil service, he sent many of his works to St. Petersburg, where they were published in the Russkiy Vestnik.
Resumption of creativity and collaboration with publications
In 1857, Alexei married Elikonida Rudneva, and in May of the following year he went with her to St. Petersburg during a four-month vacation. Then they briefly return to Orenburg. And here you can answer the question of many readers when Alexander Alekseevich Pleshcheev was born. The boy was born in 1858. Subsequently, he will become a well-known journalist and theater critic.
In August 1859, the Pleshcheev family finally settled in Moscow. Here Alexei Nikolaevich devotes himself entirely to creativity. Now he writes not only poetry, but also stories, as well as several novellas. These are "Inheritance", "Father and Daughter", "Budnev" and others.
Alexei Nikolaevich actively cooperates not only with Sovremennik, he also becomes a shareholder in the well-known newspaper Moskovsky Vestnik. In his Moscow home, he often arranges musical and literary evenings. On them one could see Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, actors of the Maly Theater, as well as Turgenev, Tolstoy and Nekrasov.
Continued political activity
Pleshcheev Alexei Nikolaevich, whose biography is still associated with political activity, continues to devote his works to civil and social problems. One of the main motives in his poems is a revolutionary feat. He was very excited by the event that occurred in 1861 (then mass arrests of students were made). He even collected money for the benefit of the victims.
The secret police continued their surveillance of Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev. He continued to be suspected of disseminating political ideas that were contrary to the views of the government. Although there were grounds for these suspicions, no clear charges were brought.
A Period of Disappointment, or Meager Writer's Income
Since the writing career brings a very small income, on which it is almost impossible to feed a family, Alexey Nikolayevich goes to work and becomes an auditor. Which, of course, pisses him off. In the late 1960s in his works, a bad mood became especially noticeable. The reason for this was not only the numerous arrests of friends of Alexei Nikolayevich, but also the death of some. And another hardest blow for the poet during this period was the death of his wife, who died on December 3, 1864.
In 1868, Nekrasov became the head of Otechestvennye Zapiski and invited Alexei Nikolaevich to the post of editorial secretary. Pleshcheev moves to St. Petersburg and immediately falls into the circle of like-minded people. In "Notes of the Fatherland" the poet continues to work until 1884, and after the death of Nekrasov he becomes a leader. During this period, Alexei Nikolaevich helps many novice writers, and even saves Ivan Surikov from suicide by arranging his first publication.
The last days of Alexei Nikolaevich and his poems
Of course, many readers are only interested in the question of when Pleshcheev was born and died, but knowing the creative path and biography of any Russian writer is as important as his dates of death and birth. As for the creative activity of Alexei Nikolaevich, after moving to St. Petersburg, he wrote without stopping almost until his death. He mainly translated poetry from French and English. It was here that his main skill as a poet manifested itself.
It should be noted that children's poetry began to occupy a separate place in the last period of Pleshcheev's life. And many critics noted that it was these works that were filled with a special desire for life. Some poems even got into textbook collections and became popular with younger readers, who not only love this poet, but also know his biography, as well as when Pleshcheev was born and died.
More than a hundred romances and songs
Contemporaries and composers of other generations wrote more than a hundred songs and wonderful romances to the poems of Alexei Nikolaevich. Pyotr Tchaikovsky aroused great interest in Pleshcheev's work, with whom Alexei Nikolayevich had long met and maintained a very warm relationship all his life. And it doesn’t matter what year Pleshcheev was born and died, the main thing is that his work has become a huge contribution to Russian literature.
And when in 1893, on September 26, this remarkable poet and prose writer passed away, many contemporaries felt an irreparable loss. On October 6, when Pleshcheev's funeral took place, a huge number of people gathered at the ceremony. Among them were young writers who repeatedly turned to this remarkable man for help.
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Biography of Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev The work was done by Rudikova Olga Alexandrovna
Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev (1825 - 1893) poet, translator, prose writer and playwright, critic
Alexey Nikolaevich Pleshcheev was born on November 22, 1825 in Kostroma in the family of a provincial official. Father and mother belonged to the old noble nobility. However, the Pleshcheev family did not live well. The poet's childhood passed in Nizhny Novgorod. The financial situation of the family became especially difficult after the death of his father. Nevertheless, the mother managed to give her son an excellent home education.
In 1839 in St. Petersburg he became a cadet of the School of Guards ensigns and cavalry cadets. The atmosphere of the military school oppressed him, and a year later he enters the university, but two years later he leaves the university. In his student years, Pleshcheev's circle of acquaintances expanded significantly and his sphere of interests was determined: literary and theatrical hobbies were combined with history and political economy. He wrote poetry, and in the second half of the 1940s, Pleshcheev also performed quite successfully as a prose writer. His activities as a translator covered his entire creative path. He translated prose and poetry.
In 1849, he was arrested and some time later sent into exile, where he spent almost ten years in military service. Upon his return from exile, Pleshcheev continued his literary activity; having gone through years of poverty and deprivation, he became an authoritative writer, critic, publisher, and, at the end of his life, a philanthropist.
A favorite poet of Russian youth in the 1840s, after exile, he turns into an excellent children's poet. Children's poems will be collected by the poet in Moscow in his collection "Snowdrop".
Contemporaries remembered Pleshcheev as an exceptionally delicate, gentle and benevolent person, always ready to help a writer, especially a beginner. However, life was not easy for Pleshcheev himself: after his exile, he was under police surveillance for many years. All his life he struggled with poverty and, in order to support his family (his wife died in 1864, he later remarried, and he had children from both marriages), he was forced to decide on the service, without leaving at the same time literary studies.
For the last three years of his life, Pleshcheev was freed from worries about earnings. In 1890, he received a huge inheritance from a Penza relative, Alexei Pavlovich Pleshcheev, and settled with his daughters in Paris. The poet contributed a significant amount to the Literary Fund, established the Belinsky and Chernyshevsky funds to encourage talented writers.
In 1893, already seriously ill, A. N. Pleshcheev once again went to Nice for treatment and on the way, on October 8, 1893, died of apoplexy. His body was transported to Moscow and buried in the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent.
Where did Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev spend his childhood? NIZHNY NOVGOROD
3. Famous children's collection of the poet?
4. Where did Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev live after receiving the inheritance and until his death?
5. Where is the poet buried?
Sources en.wikipedia.org/ wiki / Pleshcheev,_Aleksey_Nikolaevich
| Name | Note |
|---|---|
| "Again in the spring, my window smelled," "The snow is already melting, streams are running," "Songs of the Larks Again" "Spring night". |
|
| “Autumn has come ...”, “Autumn song”, “Autumn”. | |
Alexey Pleshcheev is a Russian poet who signed his creations with the pseudonym "Extra Man". The work of this master of the word, who created textbook works, is undeservedly little studied at school. However, the proof of popular recognition can be considered the fact that about a hundred songs and romances were based on his poems. In addition to poetry, Pleshcheev was actively involved in social activities, made translations and was fond of dramaturgy.
The most famous lines from a positive poem glorifying spring are known to everyone: “The grass is green, the sun is shining ...” Pleshcheev’s lyrics delight with melody, purity and, perhaps, some ingenuity. However, some people notice that under such apparent simplicity is hidden social dissatisfaction with the disastrous peasant share.
The children's theme has always interested Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev. He wrote poems for the younger generation, carefully compiling anthologies that included the best, in his opinion, children's poems. Thanks to him, school textbooks containing geographical essays were published. His works, written for children, teach to enjoy every day, to hope for the best, to see beauty in ordinary, ordinary things. Of course, you need to introduce your children to the work of this poet as early as possible.
Born December 4, 1825 in Kostroma. His father was an official and died when Alexei Nikolaevich was only two years old. Mother, Elena Aleksandrovna, raised her son alone, Pleshcheev received an excellent home education. The childhood of the future poet passed in Nizhny Novgorod.
In 1839, the Pleshcheev family moved to St. Petersburg, where Alexei Nikolaevich entered the school of guards ensigns and cavalry cadets. Two years later (1842), Pleshcheev left the school, and in 1843 entered the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University. Already from this age, Nikolai Alekseevich is fond of socialist ideas, is keenly interested in political activities and the upcoming reforms in the country.
In 1845, Pleshcheev left the university without finishing it. By this time, he was already actively engaged in literary activities, wrote poetry and acted as a prose writer.
In 1849, Pleshcheev was arrested because of his connection with the Petrashevites. On charges of distributing prohibited literature, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was not carried out and was replaced with four years of hard labor. In the same year, Pleshcheev was deprived of his fortune and, having commuted the sentence, he was sent to carry out border service in the Orenburg Territory. There Pleshcheev received the rank of non-commissioned officer, then ensign, and then transferred to the civil service.
In 1857 Pleshcheev married. He dreams of moving to St. Petersburg forever, but a secret police supervision is established over him and for political reasons the government does not allow Pleshcheev to live in the capitals.
In 1859, Pleshcheev received permission to move to Moscow, where he could fully engage in creativity. In Moscow, Pleshcheev collaborates with the Sovremennik magazine, is published in newspapers and magazines. He writes critical articles, being carried away by the ideas of socialism, giving feedback on the social and political life of Russia.
In 1863, they tried to accuse Nikolai Alekseevich of anti-government activities. The charge was dropped due to lack of evidence.
In 1864 Pleshcheev's wife dies. Later, Pleshcheev marries a second time. He is faced with the acute problem of providing for his family, he enters the service again, at the same time trying to earn a living by publishing his own works.
Since 1872, Pleshcheev has been living in St. Petersburg and working in the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine. The poet constantly struggles with poverty, works to provide a decent standard of living for his family. Fate rewarded the poet for many years of work and at the end of his life he receives an inheritance that allowed him to live comfortably and engage in creativity.
Biography
Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev - Russian writer, poet, translator; literary and theater critic. In 1846, the very first collection of poems made Pleshcheev famous among the revolutionary youth; as a member of the circle Petrashevsky he was arrested in 1849 and some time later sent into exile, where he spent almost ten years in military service. Upon his return from exile, Pleshcheev continued his literary activity; having gone through years of poverty and deprivation, he became an authoritative writer, critic, publisher, and, at the end of his life, a philanthropist. Many of the poet's works (especially poems for children) have become textbooks and are considered classics. On verses Pleshcheeva the most famous Russian composers wrote more than a hundred romances.
Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheev was born in Kostroma on November 22 (December 4), 1825, into an impoverished noble family that belonged to the ancient Pleshcheev family (Saint Alexy of Moscow was among the poet's ancestors):101. The family honored literary traditions: there were several writers in the Pleshcheev family, including the famous writer S. I. Pleshcheev at the end of the 18th century.
The poet's father, Nikolai Sergeevich, served under the Olonets, Vologda and Arkhangelsk governors. A. N. Pleshcheev’s childhood passed in Nizhny Novgorod:9, where since 1827 his father served as a provincial forester. After the death of Nikolai Sergeevich Pleshcheev in 1832, his mother, Elena Alexandrovna (nee Gorskina), was engaged in raising her son. Until the age of thirteen, the boy studied at home and received a good education, having mastered three languages; then, at the request of his mother, he entered the St. Petersburg school of guards ensigns, moving to St. Petersburg. Here, the future poet had to face the “stupefying and corrupting” atmosphere of the “Nikolaev military clique”, which forever settled in his soul “the most sincere antipathy”. Having lost interest in military service, in 1843 Pleshcheev left the school of guards ensigns (formally, resigning "due to illness") and entered St. Petersburg University in the category of oriental languages. Pleshcheev's circle of acquaintances began to take shape here: the rector of the university P. A. Pletnev , A. A. Kraevsky , Maikovs, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. A. Goncharov, D. V. Grigorovich, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Gradually, Pleshcheev made acquaintances in literary circles (established mainly at soirees in the house of A. Kraevsky). Pleshcheev sent his very first collection of poems to Pletnev, rector of St. Petersburg University and publisher of the Sovremennik magazine. In a letter to J.K. Grot, the latter wrote:
Have you seen poems in Sovremennik signed by A. P-v? I found out that this is our 1st year student, Pleshcheev. He shows talent. I called him to me and caressed him. He goes to the eastern branch, lives with his mother, whose only son he is ...: 9 In 1845, A. N. Pleshcheev, carried away by socialist ideas, met through the Beketov brothers with members of the circle of M. V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky.
At the beginning of 1846, Pleshcheev began to attend the literary and philosophical circle of the Beketov brothers (Alexey, Andrey and Nikolai), which included the poet A. N. Maikov, critic V. N. Maikov, doctor S. D. Yanovsky, D. V. Grigorovich and others. In the circle of the Beketov brothers, Pleshcheev met F. M. Dostoevsky, with whom he had a long-term friendship.
Pleshcheev, to whom Dostoevsky dedicated his novel White Nights, served as the prototype of the Dreamer in this work.
The circle of Petrashevsky included writers - F. M. Dostoevsky, N. A. Speshnev, S. F. Durov, A. V. Khanykov. N. Speshnev had a great influence on Pleshcheev these days, about whom the poet later spoke of a man of “strong will and an extremely honest character”: 10.
The Petrashevites paid considerable attention to political poetry, discussing questions of its development on Fridays. It is known that at a dinner in honor of C. Fourier the translation of "Les fous" by Beranger, a work dedicated to the utopian socialists, was read. Pleshcheev not only took an active part in the discussions and creation of propaganda poems, but also delivered forbidden manuscripts to the circle members. Together with N. A. Mordvinov, he undertook the translation of the book of the ideologist of utopian socialism F.-R. de Lamenne"The Word of a Believer", which was supposed to be printed in an underground printing house.
In the summer of 1845, Pleshcheev left the university due to a cramped financial situation and dissatisfaction with the very process of education. After leaving the university, he devoted himself exclusively to literary activity, but he did not give up hope of completing his education, intending to prepare the entire university course and pass it as an external student: 9. At the same time, he did not interrupt contacts with the members of the circle; Petrashevites often met at his house; Pleshcheev was perceived by them as a "poet-fighter, his own André Chenier ».
In 1846, the first collection of the poet's poems was published, which included the popular poems “At the Call of Friends” (1845), as well as “Forward! without fear and doubt ... ”(nicknamed“ Russian Marseillaise ”) and“ In terms of feelings, we are brothers with you ”; both poems became anthems of the revolutionary youth. The slogans of the Pleshcheev anthem, which later lost their sharpness, had a very specific content for the poet's peers and like-minded people: “teaching of love” was deciphered as the teaching of the French utopian socialists; “valiant feat” meant a call to public service, etc. N. G. Chernyshevsky later called the poem “a wonderful anthem”, N. A. Dobrolyubov characterized it as “a bold call, full of such faith in oneself, faith in people, faith to a better future." Pleshcheev's poems had a wide public response: he "began to be perceived as a poet-fighter."
V. N. Maikov, in a review of the first collection of Pleshcheev’s poems, wrote with special sympathy about the poet’s faith in “the triumph on earth of truth, love and brotherhood”, calling the author “our first poet at the present time”:
Poems to the maiden and the moon are over forever. Another era is coming: doubt and endless torments of doubt are in progress, suffering from universal human questions, bitter lamentation at the shortcomings and disasters of mankind, at the disorder of society, complaints about the trifles of modern characters and the solemn recognition of their insignificance and impotence, imbued with lyrical pathos to the truth ... In that miserable the position in which our poetry has been since the death of Lermontov, Mr. Pleshcheev is undoubtedly our first poet at the present time ... He, as can be seen from his poems, took up the work of a poet by vocation, he strongly sympathizes with the issues of his time, suffers from all the ailments of the century, painfully tormented by the imperfections of society ... The poems and stories of A. Pleshcheev, who in these years was charged with faith in the coming kingdom of "human cosmopolitanism" (in the words of Maikov), were also published in Fatherland Notes (1847-1849).
Pleshcheev's poetry turned out to be in fact the first literary reaction in Russia to the events in France. In many ways, this is precisely why his work was so valued by the Petrashevites, who set as their immediate goal the transfer of revolutionary ideas to domestic soil. Subsequently, Pleshcheev himself wrote in a letter to A.P. Chekhov:
“And for our brother - a man of the second half of the 40s - France is very close to my heart. Then it was not allowed to poke your nose into domestic politics - and we were brought up and developed on French culture, on the ideas of 48 years. You won’t exterminate us ... In many ways, of course, we had to be disappointed later - but we remained faithful to A. Pleshcheev - A. Chekhov, 1888.
The poem “New Year” (“Clicks are heard - congratulations ...”), published with a “secret” subtitle “Cantata from Italian”, was a direct response to the French Revolution. Written at the end of 1848, it could not deceive the vigilance of the censorship and was published only in 1861:240.
In the second half of the 1840s, Pleshcheev began to publish as a prose writer: his stories “Coon coat. The story is not without morality” (1847), “Cigarette. True incident "(1848)," Protection. Experienced History” (1848) were noticed by critics, who found the influence of N.V. Gogol in them and attributed them to the “natural school”. In the same years, the poet wrote the novels Prank (1848) and Friendly Advice (1849); in the second of them, some motifs of the story “White Nights” dedicated to Pleshcheev by F. M. Dostoevsky were developed.
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In the winter of 1848-1849, Pleshcheev arranged meetings of the Petrashevites at his home. F. M. Dostoevsky, M. M. Dostoevsky, S. F. Durov, A. I. Palm, N. A. Speshnev, A. P. Milyukov, N. A. Mombelli, N. Ya. Danilevsky(future conservative author of the work "Russia and Europe"), P. I. Lamansky. Pleshcheev belonged to the more moderate part of the Petrashevites. He was left indifferent by the speeches of other radical speakers who replaced the idea of a personal God with "truth in nature", who rejected the institution of family and marriage and professed republicanism. He was a stranger to extremes and sought to harmonize his thoughts and feelings. An ardent passion for new socialist beliefs was not accompanied by a decisive rejection of one's former faith and only merged the religion of socialism and the Christian doctrine of truth and love of one's neighbor into a single whole. No wonder he took the words of Lamenne as his epigraph to the poem “Dream”: “The earth is sad and dry, but it will turn green again. The breath of evil will not forever sweep over her like a scorching breath.
In 1849, while in Moscow (house number 44 on 3rd Meshchanskaya Street, now Shchepkina Street), Pleshcheev sent F. M. Dostoevsky a copy of the forbidden “Letter from Belinsky to Gogol”. The police intercepted the message. On April 8, on the denunciation of the provocateur P. D. Antonelli, the poet was arrested in Moscow, transferred to St. Petersburg under guard and spent eight months in the Peter and Paul Fortress. 21 people (out of 23 convicted) were sentenced to death; among them was Pleshcheev.
On December 22, together with the rest of the condemned Petrashevites, A. Pleshcheev was brought to the Semenovsky parade ground to a special civil execution scaffold. A staging followed, which was later described in detail by F. Dostoevsky in the novel The Idiot, after which the decree of Emperor Nicholas I was read out, according to which the death penalty was replaced by various terms of exile to hard labor or to prison companies:11. A. Pleshcheev was first sentenced to four years of hard labor, then transferred as a private to Uralsk in the Separate Orenburg Corps.
On January 6, 1850, Pleshcheev arrived in Uralsk and was enlisted as an ordinary soldier in the 1st Orenburg linear battalion. March 25, 1852 he was transferred to Orenburg in the 3rd line battalion. The poet's stay in the region lasted eight years, of which seven he remained in military service. Pleshcheev recalled that the first years of service were given to him with difficulty, largely due to the hostile attitude of the officers towards him. “At first, his life in a new place of exile was downright terrible,” testified M. Dandeville. Vacations were not granted to him, there was no question of creative activity. The steppes themselves made a painful impression on the poet. “This boundless steppe expanse, expanse, callous vegetation, dead silence and loneliness are terrible,” Pleshcheev wrote: 12.
The situation changed for the better after the poet began to be patronized by the Governor-General Count V. A. Perovsky an old friend of his mother. Pleshcheev got access to books, became friends with the family of a lieutenant colonel (later a general) who was fond of art and literature. V. D. Dandeville(to whom he dedicated several poems of those years), with Polish exiles, who was exiled in the same region by Taras Shevchenko, one of the creators of the literary mask of Kozma Prutkov A. M. Zhemchuzhnikov and revolutionary poet M. L. Mikhailov.
In the winter of 1850 in Uralsk, Pleshcheev met Sigismund Serakovsky and his circle; they met later, in the Ak-Mechet, where both served. In Serakovsky's circle, Pleshcheev again found himself in an atmosphere of intense discussion of the same socio-political issues that worried him in St. Petersburg. “One exile supported another. The highest happiness was being in the circle of his comrades. After the drill, friendly interviews were often held. Letters from home, news brought by newspapers, were the subject of endless discussion. Not one of them lost courage and hope for a return…”, - its member Br. Zalessky. Serakovsky's biographer specified that the circle discussed "issues related to the liberation of the peasants and the allocation of land to them, as well as the abolition of corporal punishment in the army."
On March 2, 1853, Pleshcheev, at his own request, was transferred to the 4th linear battalion, which was setting off on a dangerous steppe campaign. He took part in the Turkestan campaigns organized by Perovsky, in particular, in the siege and assault of the Kokand fortress Ak-Mechet). In a letter to an Orenburg friend, Pleshcheev explained this decision by the fact that "the purpose of the campaign was noble - the protection of the downtrodden, and nothing inspires like a noble goal." For courage, he was promoted to non-commissioned officer, and in May 1856 he received the rank of ensign and with him the opportunity to go to civil service. Pleshcheev resigned in December "with the renaming of collegiate registrars and with permission to enter the civil service, except for the capitals" and entered the service of the Orenburg Border Commission. Here he served until September 1858, after which he moved to the office of the Orenburg civil governor. From the Orenburg Territory, the poet sent his poems and stories to magazines (mainly to the Russian Messenger).
In 1857, Pleshcheev married (the daughter of the caretaker of the Iletsk salt mine E. A. Rudneva): 12, and in May 1858 he and his wife went to St. Petersburg, receiving a four-month vacation “to both capitals” and the return of the rights of hereditary nobility.
Resumption of literary activity
Already during the years of exile, A. Pleshcheev again resumed his literary activity, although he was forced to write in fits and starts. Pleshcheev's poems began to be published in 1856 in the Russkiy Vestnik under the characteristic title: "Old Songs in a New Way". Pleshcheev of the 1840s was, according to M. L. Mikhailov, inclined towards romanticism; romantic tendencies were preserved in the poems of the period of exile, but criticism noted that here the inner world of a person who “dedicated himself to the struggle for the happiness of the people” began to be more deeply explored.
In 1857, several more of his poems were published in Russkiy Vestnik. For researchers of the poet's work, it remained unclear which of them were really new, and which belonged to the years of exile. It was assumed that G. Heine's translation of "The Way of Life" (according to Pleshcheev - "And laughter, and songs, and the sun shine! .."), published in 1858, is one of the latter. The same line of “fidelity to ideals” was continued by the poem “In the Steppe” (“But let my days pass without joy ...”). The expression of the general sentiments of the Orenburg exiled revolutionaries was the poem "After reading the newspapers", the main idea of which - the condemnation of the Crimean War - was in tune with the moods of the Polish and Ukrainian exiles.
In 1858, after an almost ten-year break, Pleshcheev's second collection of poems was published. The epigraph to it, the words of Heine: "I was not able to sing ...", indirectly indicated that in exile the poet was almost not engaged in creative activity. Poems dated 1849-1851 did not survive at all, and Pleshcheev himself admitted in 1853 that he had long "lost the habit of writing." The main theme of the 1858 collection was "pain for the enslaved homeland and faith in the rightness of one's cause", the spiritual insight of a person who refuses a thoughtless and contemplative attitude to life. The collection opened with the poem "Dedication", which in many respects echoed the poem "And laughter, and songs, and the sun shine! ..". Among those who sympathetically appreciated Pleshcheev's second collection was N. A. Dobrolyubov. He pointed to the socio-historical conditionality of dreary intonations by the circumstances of life, which "ugly break the most noble and strong personalities ...". “In this regard, Mr. Pleshcheev’s talent was also stamped with the same bitter consciousness of his powerlessness before fate, the same color of“ painful longing and desolate thoughts ”that followed the ardent, proud dreams of youth,” wrote the critic.
In August 1859, after a short return to Orenburg, A. N. Pleshcheev settled in Moscow (under "the strictest supervision") and devoted himself entirely to literature, becoming an active contributor to the Sovremennik magazine. Taking advantage of the Orenburg acquaintance with the poet M. L. Mikhailov, Pleshcheev established contacts with the updated editors of the journal: with N. A. Nekrasov, N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov. Among the publications where the poet published poems were also "Russian Word" (1859-1864), "Time" (1861-1862), the newspapers "Vek" (1861), "Day" (1861-1862) and "Moscow Bulletin "(The editorial position in which he held in 1859-1860), St. Petersburg publications ("Svetoch", "Iskra", "Time", "Russian Word"). On December 19, 1859, the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature elected A. Pleshcheev as a full member.
In the late 1850s, A. Pleshcheev turned to prose, first to the short story genre, then published several stories, in particular, "Inheritance" and "Father and Daughter" (both - 1857), partly autobiographical "Budnev" (1858) , "Pashintsev" and "Two Careers" (both - 1859). The main target of Pleshcheev's satire as a prose writer was pseudo-liberal accusation and romantic epigonism, as well as the principles of "pure art" in literature (the story "Literary Evening"). Dobrolyubov wrote about the story “Pashintsev” (published in the “Russian Bulletin” 1859, Nos. 11 and 12): “The public element constantly penetrates them and this distinguishes them from the many colorless stories of the thirties and fifties ... In the history of each hero of Pleshcheev’s stories, you see how he is bound by his environment, as this little world weighs on him with its demands and relations - in a word, you see in the hero a social being, and not a solitary one.
"Moscow Bulletin"
In November 1859, Pleshcheev became a shareholder of the Moskovsky Vestnik newspaper, in which I. S. Turgenev, A. N. Ostrovsky, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. I. Lazhechnikov, L. N. Tolstoy and N. G. Chernyshevsky. Pleshcheev energetically invited Nekrasov and Dobrolyubov to participate and fought to shift the newspaper's political orientation sharply to the left. He defined the task of publishing as follows: “Any nepotism aside. We must beat the serf-owners under the guise of liberals.”
The publication in the Moskovsky Vestnik of T. G. Shevchenko’s “Sleep” translated by Pleshcheev (published under the heading “The Reaper”), as well as the poet’s autobiography, was regarded by many (in particular, by Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov) as a bold political act. Moskovsky Vestnik, under the leadership of Pleshcheev, became a political newspaper that supported the positions of Sovremennik. In turn, Sovremennik, in Notes of a New Poet (I. I. Panaev), positively assessed the direction of Pleshcheev’s newspaper, directly recommending that its reader pay attention to translations from Shevchenko.
1860s
Cooperation with Sovremennik continued until its closure in 1866. The poet has repeatedly declared his unconditional sympathy for the program of the Nekrasov magazine, the articles of Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov. “I have never worked so hard and with such love as at the time when all my literary activity was given exclusively to the magazine led by Nikolai Gavrilovich and whose ideals were and forever remain my ideals,” the poet later recalled.
In Moscow, Nekrasov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, A.F. Pisemsky, A.G. Rubinshtein, P.I. Tchaikovsky, actors of the Maly Theater attended literary and musical evenings in Pleshcheev’s house. Pleshcheev was a member and was elected elder of the Artistic Circle.
In 1861, Pleshcheev decided to create a new journal, Foreign Review, and invited M. L. Mikhailov to participate in it. A year later, with Saltykov, A. M. Unkovsky, A. F. Golovachev, A. I. Evropeyus and B. I. Utin, he developed a project for the journal Russkaya Pravda, but in May 1862 he was refused permission for the journal. At the same time, an unfulfilled plan arose for the purchase of the already outgoing newspaper Vek.
Pleshcheev's position on the reforms of 1861 changed over time. At first, he received the news of them with hope (evidence of this is the poem “You poor people worked, not knowing rest ...”). Already in 1860, the poet rethought his attitude towards the liberation of the peasants - largely under the influence of Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov. In letters to E. I. Baranovsky, Pleshcheev noted: the "bureaucratic and plantation" parties are ready to give "the poor peasant as a victim of bureaucratic robbery", renouncing the old hopes that the peasant "will be freed from the heavy paw of the landowner."
Period of political activity
Pleshcheev's poetic work of the early 1860s was marked by the predominance of socio-political, civic themes and motives. The poet tried to appeal to a wide democratically minded audience; propaganda notes appeared in his poetic works. He finally ceased cooperation with the Russky Vestnik and personal communication with M. N. Katkov, moreover, he began to openly criticize the direction headed by the latter. “The damned questions of reality are the true content of poetry,” the poet argued in one of his critical articles, calling for the politicization of the publications in which he participated.
Characteristic in this sense were the poems “Prayer” (a kind of reaction to the arrest of M. L. Mikhailov), the poem “New Year” dedicated to Nekrasov, in which (as in “Anger boiled at the heart ...”) liberals were criticized with their rhetoric. One of the central topics in Pleshcheev's poetry of the early 1860s was the theme of a citizen-fighter, a revolutionary feat. The poet in Pleshcheev's poems is not the former "prophet" suffering from a misunderstanding of the crowd, but a "warrior of the revolution." The poem “Honest people on the thorny road ...”, dedicated to the Chernyshevsky trial (“Let him not weave victorious wreaths for you ...”), had a direct political significance.
The poems “To youth” and “False teachers” published in Sovremennik in 1862, connected with the events of the autumn of 1861, when the arrests of students were met with complete indifference of the broad masses, also had the character of a political speech. From Pleshcheev’s letter to A.N. Supenev, to whom the poem “To Youth” was sent for transfer to Nekrasov, it appears that on February 25, 1862, Pleshcheev read “To Youth” at a literary evening in favor of twenty expelled students. The poet also took part in raising money in favor of the affected students. In the poem "To Youth", Pleshcheev urged students "not to retreat before the crowd, to throw stones ready." The poem "To False Teachers" was a response to a lecture by B. N. Chicherin, read on October 28, 1861 and directed against the "anarchy of minds" and "violent revelry of thought" of students. In November 1861, Pleshcheev wrote to A.P. Milyukov:
“Have you read Chicherin's lecture in Moskovskie Vedomosti? No matter how little you sympathize with the students, whose antics are indeed often childish, you must admit that one cannot but feel sorry for the poor youth, condemned to listen to such flabby nonsense, such shabby as soldier's trousers, commonplaces and empty doctrinaire phrases! Is this a living word of science and truth? And this lecture was applauded by associates of the venerable doctrinaire Babst, Ketcher, Shchepkin and Co. » In the reports of the secret police during these years, A. N. Pleshcheev still appeared as a “conspirator”; it was written that although Pleshcheev “behaves very secretively,” he is still “suspected of spreading ideas that disagree with the types of government”: 14. There were some grounds for such suspicion.
By the time A. N. Pleshcheev moved to Moscow, the closest associates of N. G. Chernyshevsky were already preparing the creation of an all-Russian secret revolutionary organization. Many of the poet's friends took an active part in its preparation: S. I. Serakovsky, M. L. Mikhailov, Ya. Stanevich, N. A. Serno-Solovyevich, N. V. Shelgunov. For this reason, the police also considered Pleshcheev as a full member of the secret organization. In the denunciation of Vsevolod Kostomarov, the poet was called a "conspirator"; it was he who was credited with the creation of the Letter to the Peasants, the famous proclamation of Chernyshevsky.
It is known that on July 3, 1863, a note was drawn up in the III Department, stating that the poet-translator F.N. Berg visited Pleshcheev at the dacha and saw leaflets and typographical font from him. “Fyodor Berg said that Pleshcheev ... is positively one of the leaders of the Land and Freedom society,” the note said. On July 11, 1863, a search was carried out at Pleshcheev's, which did not bring any results. In a letter to the manager of the 1st expedition of the III Department, F.F. Krantz, the poet was indignant about this, explaining the presence in the house of portraits of Herzen and Ogaryov, as well as several forbidden books, by literary interests. There is no exact data on Pleshcheev's participation in Land and Freedom. Many contemporaries believed that Pleshcheev not only belonged to a secret society, but also maintained an underground printing house, which, in particular, P. D. Boborykin wrote about. M. N. Sleptsova, in her memoirs “Navigators of the Coming Storm”, claimed that Pleshcheev was among the people who were members of “Land and Freedom” and personally knew her: “In the 60s he was in charge of a printing house in Moscow, where "Young Russia", and, moreover, participated in the "Russian Vedomosti", which had just begun at that time in Moscow, it seems, as a reviewer of foreign literature. He was a member of the Land and Freedom, which has long associated him with Sleptsov, ”she claimed. Indirectly, these statements are confirmed by the letters of Pleshcheev himself. So, on September 16, 1860, he wrote to F.V. Chizhov about his intention to “set up a printing house”. In a letter to Dostoevsky dated October 27, 1859, it was said: "I am starting a printing house myself - although not alone."
Literary activity in the 1860s
In 1860, two volumes of Pleshcheev's Tales and Stories were published; in 1861 and 1863 - two more collections of Pleshcheev's poems. The researchers noted that as a poet, Pleshcheev joined the Nekrasov school; Against the backdrop of the public upsurge of the 1860s, he created socially critical, protest-invocatory poems (“Oh youth, youth, where are you?”, “Oh, don’t forget that you are a debtor”, “A boring picture!”). At the same time, in the 1860s, he was close to N. P. Ogaryov in the nature of poetic creativity; the work of both poets developed on the basis of common literary traditions, although it was noted that Pleshcheev's poetry is more lyrical. Among contemporaries, however, the opinion prevailed that Pleshcheev remained a “man of the forties”, somewhat romantic and abstract. “Such a spiritual warehouse did not quite coincide with the character of the new people, the sober sixties, who demanded deeds and, above all, deeds”:13, noted N. Bannikov, the poet's biographer.
N. D. Khvoshchinskaya (under the pseudonym "V. Krestovsky" in a review of Pleshcheev's collection of 1861, highly appreciating in retrospect the work of the poet, who wrote "living, warm modern things that made us sympathize with him", sharply criticized the "uncertainty" of feelings and ideas, in some verses capturing decadence, in some - sympathy for liberalism. Pleshcheev himself indirectly agreed with this assessment, in the poem "Meditation" he admitted about "miserable disbelief" and "belief in the futility of the struggle ...".
The researchers noted that in the new literary situation for Pleshcheev, it was difficult for him to develop his own position. “We need to say a new word, but where is it?” - he wrote to Dostoevsky in 1862. Pleshcheev sympathetically perceived diverse, sometimes polar social and literary views: thus, sharing some of the ideas of N. G. Chernyshevsky, at the same time he supported both the Moscow Slavophiles and the program of the Vremya magazine.
Literary earnings brought the poet a meager income, he led the existence of a "literary proletarian", as F. M. Dostoevsky called such people (including himself). But, as contemporaries noted, Pleshcheev behaved independently, remaining faithful to "the high humanistic Schillerian idealism learned in his youth":101. As Y. Zobnin wrote, “Pleshcheev, with the courageous simplicity of an exiled prince, endured the constant need of these years, huddled with his large family in tiny apartments, but did not compromise either his civic or literary conscience one iota”:101.
Years of disappointment
In 1864, A. Pleshcheev was forced to enter the service and received the position of auditor of the control chamber of the Moscow post office. “Life has completely torn me apart. In my years, fighting like a fish on ice and wearing a uniform for which I never prepared, how hard it is ”:14, he complained two years later in a letter to Nekrasov.
There were other reasons that led to the sharp deterioration in the general mood of the poet, which was outlined by the end of the 1860s, the predominance of feelings of bitterness and depression in his works. His hopes for popular action in response to the reform suffered a collapse; many of his friends died or were arrested (Dobrolyubov, Shevchenko, Chernyshevsky, Mikhailov, Serno-Solovyevich, Shelgunov). A heavy blow for the poet was the death of his wife on December 3, 1864. After the closure of the magazines Sovremennik and Russkoye Slovo in 1866 (the magazines of the Dostoevsky brothers Vremya and Epoch had been discontinued even earlier), Pleshcheev was among a group of writers who practically lost the magazine platform. The main theme of his poems of this time was the exposure of betrayal and betrayal (“If you want it to be peaceful ...”, “Apostaten-Marsch”, “I pity those whose strength is dying ...”).
In the 1870s, the revolutionary mood in the work of Pleshcheev acquired the character of reminiscences; Characteristic in this sense is the poem “I quietly walked along a deserted street ...” (1877), which is considered one of the most significant in his work, dedicated to the memory of V. G. Belinsky. As if drawing a line under a long period of disappointment and collapse of hopes, the poem “Without hopes and expectations ...” (1881), which was a direct response to the state of affairs in the country.
Pleshcheev in St. Petersburg
In 1868, N. A. Nekrasov, becoming the head of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine, invited Pleshcheev to move to St. Petersburg and take the post of editorial secretary. Here the poet immediately found himself in a friendly atmosphere, among like-minded people. After Nekrasov's death, Pleshcheev took over the leadership of the poetry department and worked in the magazine until 1884.
At the same time, together with V. S. Kurochkin, A. M. Skabichevsky, N. A. Demert, he became an employee of Birzhevye Vedomosti, a newspaper in which Nekrasov dreamed of secretly “holding the views” of his main publication. After the closure of Otechestvennye Zapiski, Pleshcheev contributed to the creation of a new journal, Severny Vestnik, in which he worked until 1890:15.
Pleshcheev actively supported young writers. He played a crucial role in the life of Ivan Surikov, who was a beggar and was ready to commit suicide; his life changed after the first publication arranged by Pleshcheev. Having great influence in editorial offices and publishing houses, Pleshcheev helped V. M. Garshin, A. Serafimovich, S. Ya. Nadson, A. Apukhtin. The most important role Pleshcheev played in the literary fate of D. S. Merezhkovsky during his literary debut. The latter, as a relic, he kept a short note in his archive: “I propose to the members of the society Semyon Yakovlevich Nadson (Krondstadt, the corner of Kozelskaya and Kronstadtskaya, the house of the Nikitin heirs, Grigoriev’s apartment) Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky (Znamenskaya, 33, apartment 9) A. Pleshcheev”: 99. A deep friendship connected Pleshcheev with the novice A.P. Chekhov, whom Pleshcheev considered the most promising of young writers. The poet greeted Chekhov's first major story, The Steppe, with admiration:17.
In his bibliographic notes, Pleshcheev defended realistic principles in art, developing the ideas of V. G. Belinsky and the principles of "real criticism", primarily N. A. Dobrolyubov. Each time, based on the social significance of literature, Pleshcheev tried to reveal in his critical reviews the social meaning of the work, although he "usually relied on vague, too general concepts, such as sympathy for the disadvantaged, knowledge of the heart and life, naturalness and vulgarity." In particular, this approach led him to underestimate the works of A. K. Tolstoy. As head of the literary department of Severny Vestnik, Pleshcheev openly clashed with the populist editorial group, primarily with N.K. Mikhailovsky, from whose criticism he defended Chekhov (especially his Steppe) and Garshin. In the end, Pleshcheev quarreled with A. M. Evreinova (“... She does not intend to cooperate with her after her rude and impudent attitude towards me,” he wrote to Chekhov in March 1890) and ceased cooperation with the magazine.
Creativity of the 1880s
With the resettlement to the capital, Pleshcheev's creative activity resumed and did not stop almost until his death. In the 1870-1880s, the poet was mainly engaged in poetic translations from German, French, English and Slavic languages. As the researchers noted, it was here that his poetic skill was most manifested.
A. Pleshcheev translated major dramatic works (“Ratcliff” by Heine, “Magdalene” by Goebbel, “Struensee” by M. Behr), poems by German poets (Heine, M. Hartmann, R. Prutz), French (V. Hugo, M. Monier ), English (J. G. Byron, A. Tennyson, R. Southey, T. Moore), Hungarian (S. Petofi), Italian (Giacomo Leopardi), works of the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko and such Polish poets as S. Vitvitsky (“The grass is turning green, the sun is shining ...”, from the collection “Rural Songs”), Anthony Sova (Eduard Zheligovsky) and Vladislav Syrokomlya.
A. Pleshcheev also translated fiction; some works (“The Belly of Paris” by E. Zola, “Red and Black” by Stendhal) were first published in his translation. The poet also translated scientific articles and monographs. In various journals, Pleshcheev published numerous compilation works on Western European history and sociology (Paul-Louis Courier, his life and works, 1860; Proudhon's Life and Correspondence, 1873; Dickens' Life, 1891), monographs on the work of W. Shakespeare, Stendhal, A. de Musset. In his journalistic and literary-critical articles, largely following Belinsky, he promoted democratic aesthetics, called for people to look for heroes capable of self-sacrifice in the name of common happiness.
In 1887, the complete collection of poems by A. N. Pleshcheev was published. The second edition, with some additions, was made after his death by his son, in 1894, Pleshcheev's Tales and Stories were subsequently published.
A. N. Pleshcheev was actively interested in theatrical life, was close to the theatrical environment, and was familiar with A. N. Ostrovsky. At various times, he held the positions of foreman of the Artistic Circle and chairman of the Society of Stage Workers, actively participated in the activities of the Society of Russian Drama Writers and Opera Composers, and often gave readings himself.
A. N. Pleshcheev wrote 13 original plays. Basically, these were small in volume and "entertaining" in terms of plot, lyric-satirical comedies from provincial landowner life. Theatrical performances based on his dramaturgical works "Service" and "There is no blessing without good" (both - 1860), "The Happy Couple", "Commander" (both - 1862) "What Often Happens" and "Brothers" (both - 1864), etc.) were shown in the leading theaters of the country. In the same years, he reworked for the Russian stage about thirty comedies by foreign playwrights.
Children's literature
An important place in the work of Pleshcheev in the last decade of his life was occupied by children's poetry and literature. His collections Snowdrop (1878) and Grandfather's Songs (1891) were successful. Some poems have become textbooks ("The Old Man", "Grandmother and Granddaughters"). The poet took an active part in publishing, in line with the development of children's literature. In 1861, together with F. N. Berg, he published a collection-reader "Children's Book", in 1873 (with N. A. Aleksandrov) - a collection of works for children's reading "On a Holiday". Also, thanks to the efforts of Pleshcheev, seven school manuals were published under the general heading "Geographical essays and paintings."
Researchers of Pleshcheev's work noted that Pleshcheev's children's poems are characterized by a desire for vitality and simplicity; they are filled with free colloquial intonations and real imagery, while maintaining the general mood of social discontent (“I grew up with my mother in the hall ...”, “A boring picture”, “Beggars”, “Children”, “Native”, “Old people”, “Spring ”,“ Childhood ”,“ Old man ”,“ Grandmother and granddaughters ”).
Romances on poems by Pleshcheev
A. N. Pleshcheev was characterized by experts as "a poet with a smoothly flowing, romance" poetic speech and one of the most "melodious lyric poets of the second half of the 19th century." About a hundred romances and songs were written to his poems - both by contemporaries and composers of the next generations, including N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov (“The Night Flew Over the World”), M. P. Mussorgsky, Ts. A. Cui , A. T. Grechaninov, S. V. Rakhmaninov.
Pleshcheev's poems and children's songs became a source of inspiration for P. I. Tchaikovsky, who appreciated their "heartfelt lyricism and spontaneity, excitement and clarity of thought." Tchaikovsky's interest in Pleshcheev's poetry was largely due to the fact of their personal acquaintance. They met at the end of the 1860s in Moscow in the Artistic Circle and maintained good friendly relations for the rest of their lives.
Tchaikovsky, who turned to Pleshcheev’s poetry at different periods of his creative life, wrote several romances to the poet’s poems: in 1869 - “Not a word, my friend ...”, in 1872 - “Oh, sing the same song ...”, in 1884 - "Only you alone ...", in 1886 - "Oh, if only you knew ..." and "The meek stars shone for us ...". Fourteen songs of Tchaikovsky from the cycle "Sixteen Songs for Children" (1883) were created on poems from Pleshcheev's collection "Snowdrop"
“This work is light and very pleasant, because I took the text of Pleshcheev’s Snowdrop, where there are a lot of lovely gizmos,” the composer wrote to M. I. Tchaikovsky while working on this cycle. In the House-Museum of P. I. Tchaikovsky in Klin, in the composer’s library, a collection of Pleshcheev’s poems “Snowdrop” has been preserved with the poet’s dedication inscription: “To Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as a token of location and gratitude for his beautiful music to my bad words. A. N. Pleshcheev. February 18, 1881 St. Petersburg.
Findings of researchers
Numerous propaganda poems were created among the Petrashevites, but few of them have survived. Presumably, many of Pleshcheev's propaganda poems also disappeared. There is an assumption that some unsigned works that were published in emigrant collections of the Lute series may belong to Pleshcheev; among them is the poem "The Righteous", marked: "S. Petersburg. January 18, 1847."
The poem “By feelings, we are brothers with you ...” (1846) was attributed to K. F. Ryleev for a long time. Its belonging to Pleshcheev was established in 1954 by E. Bushkants, who found out that the addressee was V. A. Milyutin (1826-1855), a member of the Petrashevsky circle, an economist, whose work Belinsky and Chernyshevsky paid attention to.
The poem "Autumn has come, the flowers have dried up ...", attributed to Pleshcheev in all collections of children's poetry, but absent in all collections of his works, does not actually belong to Pleshcheev. As the literary critic M.N. Zolotonosov established, the author of this text is the inspector of the Moscow educational district Alexei Grigorievich Baranov (1844-1911), the compiler of the collection where this poem was first published.
The poem “I feel sorry for her ...” (“Give me your hand. I understand your sinister sadness ...”) was published with a dedication to D. A. Tolstoy, with whom the poet was friends in his youth. Tolstoy, however, subsequently acquired a reputation as a "reactionary" and even became the chief of the gendarme corps. In this regard, as it turned out later, A. A. Pleshcheev, the son of the poet, urged P. V. Bykov not to include the poem in the collection or delete the dedication.: 238
For a long time there were disputes about who the poem “S ... y” (1885) could be addressed to, which began with the words: “Before you lies a wide new path ...”. The most convincing was the version of S. A. Makashin, according to which Saltykov-Shchedrin was the addressee. In a magazine publication, it had the subtitle: "On entry into the field." Shchedrin was valued by Pleshcheev as “a really huge talent”, he was classified as one of the “best people in his country”:241.
Addresses
In Moscow: Nashchokinsky lane, 10 (the house has not been preserved); Trubnikovsky lane (on Prechistenka), 35; Arbat, 36; Malaya Dmitrovka, 22 (reconstructed); Gun lane, 3.
In St. Petersburg: 1872-1890 - the house of M. B. Bulatova - Bolshaya Spasskaya street, 1.
