(1717-1777) Russian poet and playwright

Sumarokov Alexander Petrovich belonged to that generation of writers who began to update Russian literature, orienting it to European experience. It is with his works that the new Russian drama begins. In addition, Sumarokov went down in cultural history as a talented fabulist, as well as one of the first critics.

From birth, Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov was in the thick of historical events of its time. He was born in the small Finnish town of Vilmanstrand (modern Lappenranta), where at that time the regiment commanded by his father during the Northern War was stationed.

Since the family constantly moved to new places of service of his father, the boy was raised by his mother, as well as home teachers. Only in 1732 did his father assign Alexander Petrovich to the St. Petersburg land gentry cadet corps. It was privileged educational institution, where children of the highest nobility were accepted.

The model of education in the corps was later borrowed during the organization of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where, as is known, young men received the broadest and most comprehensive education.

Alexander Sumarokov, like the rest of the students, was prepared for public service, so he studied humanities, foreign languages, as well as the subtleties of social etiquette. Literary studies were especially encouraged. The building even created its own theater, and the students employed in it were required to attend performances of all foreign troupes that came to St. Petersburg. It is not surprising that in such an environment Sumarokov became interested in drama. He was considered the first student, and writing was easy for him.

The young writer’s first poetic experiments were odes dedicated to Empress Anna Ioannovna. However, Alexander Sumarokov soon realized that they were much inferior to the works of the leading authors of that time - Lomonosov and Trediakovsky. Therefore, he left the ode genre and turned to love songs. They brought Sumarokov fame in court circles.

After graduating from the corps, he becomes an adjutant to the Vice-Chancellor of Russia, Count M. Golovkin. The talented and sociable young man attracted the attention of the empress’s all-powerful favorite, Count A. Razumovsky. He took Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov into his retinue and soon made him his adjutant.

Apparently, Sumarokov managed to win over Razumovsky, since less than three years later he already had the rank of adjutant general. Note that at this time he was not yet twenty years old.

But the opening court career was never the goal of Sumarokov’s life. He devoted all his free time from service to literature. He attends theatrical performances, reads many books, in particular the works of Racine and Corneille, and even gives the Empress a learned treatise in verse, “Epistole on Poetry.” In it, the author talks about the need to create a Russian literary language and what Russian young people who want to devote themselves to literature should do. Later, the treatise became a manifesto of Russian classicism, on which all writers and poets later relied.

In the same year, 1747, Sumarokov Alexander Petrovich composed the first dramatic work- the tragedy “Khorev” based on a legendary plot from Russian history. Her performance took place on the stage of the amateur theater of the Gentry Corps. The tragedy was enthusiastically received by the audience, and rumors about this production soon reached the empress. At her request, Sumarokov repeated the production on the stage of the court theater in 1748 at Christmas time.

Encouraged by the success, the playwright wrote several more tragedies based on plots from Russian history, as well as a reworking of William Shakespeare's drama Hamlet.

Since in those years an entertaining comedy was supposed to be on stage simultaneously with the tragedy, Sumarokov had to turn to this genre. He creates several entertaining comedies in one act. The Empress liked them so much that she appointed him director of the court theater. At that time, this was the most difficult position, because the director had to not only write plays, but also direct their productions, as well as select actors for the stage and train them.

The money allocated from the treasury was constantly not enough, and in order to continue working, Alexander Sumarokov had to sacrifice his own salary. Nevertheless, the theater existed for five whole years. And only in 1761 Sumarokov stopped leading it and went into journalism.

He began publishing the magazine "Industrious Bee". It was the first purely literary magazine in Russia. Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov also published translations of works by ancient and modern European authors - Horace, Lucian, Voltaire, Swift.

Gradually a group of literary gifted young people gathered around him. They conducted a fierce debate about the ways of development of Russian literature with Lomonosov, Trediakovsky, as well as with M. Chulkov and F. Emin. Sumarokov believed that the cult of antiquity should not be implanted in literature, since the writer is obliged to respond to all the events of contemporary reality.

In the mid-sixties, he returned to drama and wrote a series of satirical comedies called “Guardian”, “Reddy Man” and “Poisonous”. Apparently, the playwright wanted to talk about difficult events own life. Just at this time, the writer’s father suddenly dies, and Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov finds himself involved in a long-term lawsuit over the division of the inheritance. Only in 1769 did he receive his share and immediately resign.

In order not to be distracted in the noisy and bustling St. Petersburg, Sumarokov moves to Moscow and completely immerses himself in literary work. For several years he has been diligently working with historical sources and writes his greatest work - historical tragedy"Dimitri the Pretender".

The plot of the play was based on true events of Russian history and sounded extremely modern: quite recently, Catherine II came to power as a result of a coup. This is probably why the tragedy was almost immediately staged on the St. Petersburg stage and enjoyed great success from the public.

Since Alexander Sumarokov collected a large amount of historical material, he was able to begin writing the actual historical works. They told about the uprising of Stepan Razin and the Streltsy riots in Moscow. During these same years, Sumarokov began new page in his work - he publishes a collection of fables. They were written in simple and even rude language, but they were easy to remember and therefore became a model for many authors. By the way, I. Krylov turned to the fable only because he was inspired by Sumarokov’s example. The Moscow authorities did not like the caustic denunciation of all sorts of vices. It is known that in last years Throughout his life, the writer suffered from the nagging of the Moscow mayor. Therefore, he was never able to obtain permanent service in Moscow and lived in loneliness and constant need. But he had many friends and followers who became famous writers - Y. Knyazhnin, M. Kheraskov, V. Maikov, A. Rzhevsky.

When Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov died, he was modestly buried in the Donskoy Monastery. Only four years after his death, when his friend N. Novikov published a ten-volume collected works of the writer, the contribution he made to the development of Russian culture became obvious to everyone.

Biography

His first tragedy, Horev, was published in 1747 and performed at court and brought him fame. His plays were performed at court by F. G. Volkov's troupe, which was contracted from Yaroslavl. When a permanent theater was established in 1756, Sumarokov was appointed director of this theater and for a long time he remained the main “supplier” of the repertoire, for which he is rightly called the “father of the Russian theater.” Horeb was followed by eight tragedies, twelve comedies and three opera librettos.

At the same time, Sumarokov, who worked extremely quickly, developed in other areas of literature. In 1755-1758, he was an active contributor to the academic journal “Monthly Works”, and in 1759 he published his own satirical and moralizing journal, “The Hardworking Bee” (the first private magazine in Russia). Collections of his fables were published in 1762-1769, and a number of collections of his poems were published from 1769 to 1774.

Despite his proximity to the court, the patronage of nobles, and the praise of admirers, Sumarokov did not feel appreciated and constantly complained about the lack of attention, censorship and ignorance of the public. In 1761 he lost control of the theater. Later, in 1769, he moved to Moscow. Here, abandoned by his patrons and bankrupt, he died on October 1 (12), 1777. He was buried at the Donskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

Creation

Sumarokov's creativity develops within the framework of classicism, in the form that it took in France in the 17th - early. XVIII centuries Modern admirers therefore more than once proclaimed Sumarokov “Boileau’s confidante”, “northern Racine”, “Molière”, “Russian Lafontaine”.

Sumarokov's literary activity is distinguished by its external diversity. He tried all genres: odes (solemn, spiritual, philosophical, anacreontic), epistles (epistles), satires, elegies, songs, epigrams, madrigals, epitaphs; In his poetic technique, he used all the meters that existed at that time, made experiments in the field of rhyme, and used a variety of strophic structures.

However, Sumarokov's classicism is different, for example, from the classicism of his older contemporary Lomonosov. Sumarokov “lowers” ​​classical poetics. The “decline” is expressed in the desire for less “high” themes, in the introduction of personal, intimate motives into poetry, in the preference for “middle” and “low” genres over “high” genres. Sumarokov creates a large number of lyrical works in the genre of love songs, works of many satirical genres - fables, comedies, satires, epigrams.

Sumarokov sets a didactic task for satire - “to correct the temper with mockery, to make people laugh and to use its direct rules”: Sumarokov ridicules the empty class swagger (“not in title, in action one must be a nobleman”), warns against abuse of landowner power (see especially “ Chorus to the Perverse Light”, where the “tit” says that “overseas the sea they don’t trade people, they don’t put villages on the map, they don’t skin peasants”).

Sumarokov is one of the founders of Russian parody, the cycle of “Nonsense Odes”, ridiculing Lomonosov’s “furious” odic style.

Notes

Categories:

• Personalities in alphabetical order
• Writers by alphabet
• Born on November 25
• Born in 1717
• Born in Moscow
• Deaths on October 12
• Died in 1777
• Died in Moscow
• Writers in the public domain
• Sumarokovs
• Graduates of the First Cadet Corps
• Writers Russia XVIII century
• Russian writers of the 18th century
• Poets of the 18th century
• Poets of Russia
• Russian poets
• Playwrights of Russia
• Fabulists
• Parodists
• Buried at the Donskoye Cemetery

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See what “Sumarokov, Alexander Petrovich” is in other dictionaries: Large biographical encyclopedia

Sumarokov, Alexander Petrovich- Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov. SUMAROKOV Alexander Petrovich (1717 1777), Russian writer, representative of classicism. In the tragedies Khorev (1747), Sinav and Truvor (1750), Demetrius the Pretender (1771) he combined love themes with social and philosophical... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Sumarokov (Alexander Petrovich) famous writer. Born in 1718, in Finland, near Vilmanstrand. His father, Pyotr Pankratievich, godson of Peter the Great, was an educated man for that time, especially in literature, and... ... Biographical Dictionary

Russian writer. He came from an old noble family. In 1732 40 he studied at the Land Noble Corps, where he began to write poetry. Love songs brought popularity to the poet... ... Big Soviet encyclopedia

- (1717 77) Russian writer, one of the prominent representatives of classicism. In the tragedies Khorev (1747), Sinav and Truvor (1750) he raised the problem of civic duty. Comedies, fables, lyrical songs... Big encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1717 1777), Russian writer, one of the prominent representatives of classicism. In the tragedies “Horev” (1747), “Sinav and Truvor” (1750) he raised the problem of civic duty. Comedies, fables, lyrical songs. * * * SUMAROKOV Alexander Petrovich SUMAROKOV... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

- (1717, Moscow 1777, ibid.), poet and playwright, one of the leading representatives of Russian classicism, actual state councilor. He was born in a mansion that belonged to his grandfather in Bolshoi Chernyshevsky Lane, 6 (nowadays). In 173240… … Moscow (encyclopedia)

Famous writer. Genus. in 1718, in Finland, near Vilmanstrand. His father, Pyotr Pankratievich, godson of Peter the Great, was an educated man for that time, especially in literature, and belonged to sincere supporters... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Ephron

Russian nobleman, poet, writer and playwright of the 18th century. He is often called the “father of Russian theater”.

In 1756, by decree of the Empress Elizaveta Petrovna A permanent theater was established for the Senate and A.P. Sumarokova he was appointed director. To ennoble the title of actors in the eyes of the poorly educated public, the new director obtained the latter a noble distinction - the right to wear a sword.

A.P. Sumarokov wrote numerous plays for the theater. While working for the theater, he at the same time wrote: odes, elegies, fables, satires, parables, eclogues, madrigals, articles, etc. Unlike M.V. Lomonosov, he believed that poetry should, first of all, not be majestic, but “pleasant.”

In January 1759 A.P. Sumarokov managed to achieve a new decree Elizabeth: “Russian theater comedians and others... from now on be in the department of the Court Office and are called courtiers.” 3,000 rubles were added to support the troupe. The actors' salaries were increased, their position became more secure.

“But the character of the Russian theater has changed dramatically. He has completely lost his independence and even in the choice of repertoire he was now completely dependent on the Court Office and the ignorant Marshal Karl Sivsrs, who headed it. Sumarokov quarreled with him tirelessly, complaining about him, who had done so much for Russian culture and, it would seem, was still influential, taking out his grievances on innocent actors.

“I only ask,” he wrote in one of his letters, annoyed and offended, “that if I deserve to be thrown out of the theater, then at least that this be done without continuation... For my work in the theater, which seems to me more than what Volkov did, and I can’t be on Volkov’s team, and I won’t ask him to leave the theater until I go crazy.”

In his letters, Sumarokov either asked for resignation or threatened that if he was fired, he would cease to be a writer, at least a dramatic one. He swore on his honor, his surname, hoping that his threat would frighten Elizabeth and he would be able to defend himself as director of the theater. But Elizaveta Petrovna had long been tired of his complaints. She did not like everything about his tragedies, which constantly emphasized the idea that the monarch’s indulgence in his own passions leads to the misfortune of his subjects. And although in these tragedies there was always a conversation about an ideal monarch, by which Elizabeth was supposedly meant, she could not help but understand the true meaning of the edifications of their creator. After another letter from Sumarokov to Shuvalov in the summer of 1761, his resignation was sanctioned. Sumarokov threw thunder and lightning. But he was quick-witted. And he passionately loved the theater. In addition, the Russian Theater continued to play his works - no decrees could break Sumarokov’s indissoluble connection with the Russian stage.”

Kulikova K.F., Russian theater first actors, L., “Lenizdat”, p. 50-51.

A.P. Sumarokov left us impressions of the Russian theater of his time: “For the clerk to weave praise... it is only inappropriate, since it is indecent... those who came to see Semira, sit near the orchestra itself and gnaw nuts and think that when money is paid for the entrance to the disgrace, you can fist bump in the stalls, and loudly tell the stories of your week in the boxes. You, travelers who have been to Paris and London, tell me, do they gnaw nuts there during a drama performance, and when the performance is at its peak, do drunken coachmen who have quarreled among themselves be flogged, to the alarm of the entire stalls, boxes and theater?

Lunacharsky M.V., Russian criticism from Lomonosov to Belinsky’s predecessors, in Collection: M.V. Lomonosov: pro et contra / Comp. M.A. Maslin, St. Petersburg, “Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy”, 2011, p. 640.

The inscription on the pedestal of the Bronze Horseman: “Petro Primo Catharina Secunda” - “Catherine the Second to Peter the Great” it was proposed A.P. Sumarokov.

After establishment Peter I newspaper "St. Petersburg Vedomosti", the government maintained a monopoly on the printed word, but in 1759 A.P. Sumarokov was allowed to publish the first private magazine in Russia: “Hardworking Bee”, published in 1200 copies.

And in 1759 he wrote an epigram that became famous:

Dancer! You are rich. Professor! You're wretched.
Of course, the head is respectably smaller than the legs.

Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov, whose biography is inextricably linked with the development of the Russian XVIII culture century, is rightfully considered the “father of Russian theater.” He served him as a playwright and librettist. His contribution to Russian literature, which, thanks to his poetic works, rose to new heights at that time is also invaluable. His name forever entered the history of Russia.

The young heir to an old noble name

On November 25, 1717, in Moscow, a son was born into the family of ensign Pyotr Sumarokov, who was named Alexander. Like many children from ancient noble families, namely, the Sumarokov family belonged to their number, their first initial training and the boy was educated at home under the guidance of teachers and tutors hired by his parents.

In those years, many young nobles preferred a military career. Alexander Sumarokov was no exception. The biography of his independent life begins when, at the age of fifteen, he entered the Open Land School in St. Petersburg at the behest of Empress Anna Ioannovna. He spends eight years within its walls and here for the first time begins to study literature.

Cadet Corps and upcoming career

During my studies at cadet corps the aspiring writer writes poetry and song lyrics, taking as a model the works of French authors and his compatriot. His first poetic experiments are poetic transcriptions of psalms. In addition, he fulfills the orders of his comrades - he writes on their behalf congratulatory odes to the Empress Anna Ioannovna, who ruled in those years, which was in great fashion.

In 1740, Alexander Sumarokov was among the young officer graduates of the corps. The biography says that his life in those years was as good as possible. At the age of twenty-three, he enlists in the office of Count Minich, and soon becomes the personal secretary of first Count Golovin, and then the all-powerful Alexei Razumovsky. But, despite the career opening up to him, he devotes himself entirely to literature. His idol of those years was Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, whose famous odes became for Sumarokov a model of harmony and a guide in his search for a creative path.

First well-deserved glory

However, no true artist can be satisfied with just imitating what someone else has created; he is always looking for his own style. This is exactly what Sumarokov did. The biography of his creative life truly begins when lists of his love songs appear in the salons of the educated St. Petersburg aristocracy. This genre was not chosen by the author by chance. He is the one in to the greatest extent allowed the state of mind of Alexander, a young brilliant officer, full of romantic experiences characteristic of his age, to be revealed.

But real glory He was brought in by the production of his poetic drama Horev, which took place at court in 1747. Then it came out of print, becoming available to the general public, which made his name popularly known. Following this, also at court, several plays were performed, the author of which was Sumarokov. From this time on, the biography of his work reaches a new level - he becomes a professional writer.

Sumarokov’s rich creative life

In 1752, a significant event occurred. By her decree, the Empress summoned F. G. Volkov, an outstanding theater figure of those years, from Yaroslavl and entrusted him with organizing the first permanent theater in Russia, of which Sumarokov was appointed director.

A short biography of him is only in general outline can give an idea of ​​the invaluable contribution that this man made to the formation of Russian stage life, but in the memory of future generations he was preserved as the “father of the Russian theater,” and this, you see, is more eloquent than any words.

His creative heritage unusually wide. Suffice it to recall the eight tragedies that came from his pen, twenty comedies and three opera librettos. In addition, Sumarokov left a significant mark in other literary fields. His works are published in the pages of the academic journal “Monthly Works,” and in 1759 he begins to publish his own journal, “The Industrious Bee.” In subsequent years, numerous collections of his poems and fables were published.

The end of the poet's life and the memory of descendants

Sumarokov managed the theater until 1761. After this, he lived in the capital for some time, and then in 1769 he moved to Moscow. Here he has a serious conflict with the commander-in-chief P. Saltykov, whose side the empress takes. This causes mental trauma to the poet and entails serious financial problems. But, despite the adversity, in the seventies, according to researchers, he wrote his best works, such as “Dmitry the Pretender”, “The Trickster” and many others. He died on October 12, 1777 and was buried on

Descendants fully appreciated the services of this man to the Fatherland. On famous monument“The Millennium of Russia” includes Alexander Sumarokov among the outstanding historical figures of the state (the reader can see a photo of this object on the page). Entire generations of poets, who became the glory and pride of our culture, grew up on his works, and his theatrical works became a textbook for future playwrights.

Russian literature of the 18th century

Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov

Biography

Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov, the most consistent of the classicist writers, along with the practice of literary activity, was able to give a theoretical justification for classicism as literary direction, characteristic of Russia in the middle of the century. In literature, Sumarokov acted as a successor and at the same time antagonist of Lomonosov. In 1748, in his “Epistole on Poetry,” Sumarokov writes about Lomonosov: “He is the Malgerb of our countries; he is like Pindar.” Subsequently, Sumarokov recalled the time when he and Lomonosov were friends and daily interlocutors “and took sound advice from each other” (“On versification”). Then the literary, theoretical and personal enmity of the writers began.

A.P. Sumarokov is an outstanding playwright and poet of his time, passionately devoted to literary work, believing in the almighty power of the word addressed to reason. One of the most prolific and active writers of the 18th century, he turned his literary creativity to the nobility. And his classicism was of a narrow class character, in contrast to the statewide and national character of Lomonosov’s classicism. In the fair words of Belinsky, “Sumarokov was excessively exalted by his contemporaries and excessively humiliated by our time.” At the same time, Sumarokov’s work was an important milestone in the history of the development of Russian literary process XVIII century

Biography

Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov was born on November 14 (25), 1717 into an aristocratic, but by that time impoverished family. Having received his initial education at home, Sumarokov in 1732, at the age of 14, entered the Land Noble Corps, open only to nobles. In this corps, which was obliged to graduate “chiefs” of military, civil and court service, Sumarokov received an excellent education and became familiar with literature and theater. General education subjects such as history, geography, law, languages, fencing and dancing were taught here. The building becomes the center of a new noble culture. Much time was devoted to literature and art. No wonder in the building in different time future writers studied: A. P. Sumarokov, M. M. Kheraskov, I. P. Elagin, A. A. Nartov and others. In 1759, a group of students and corps officers undertook the publication of the magazine “Idle Time, Used in Benefit” ", in which Sumarokov, who graduated from the corps in 1740, also collaborated. Literary interests also determined the fact that it was in the Noble Corps that the first Russian tragedy, written by Sumarokov, was performed and marked the beginning of the creation of the Russian dramatic repertoire. Already during his years of study, Sumarokov’s poetic talent was revealed. His first published works were two odes for the new year, 1740, published as a separate brochure. Upon completion of the science course, Sumarokov, despite military service, which was mainly of a formal nature, devotes all its time to literature. He writes odes, elegies, songs, fables, and acts as a playwright, treating literature for the first time as a professional matter.

During his years of study in the corps, Sumarokov developed firm and high ideas about the dignity of a nobleman, about the need for public service to the fatherland, and formed ideal ideas about noble honor and virtue. In the spirit of these ideals, he dreamed of educating a noble society, and he chose literature as a means for this. Sumarokov addressed the government on behalf of the noble community, on whom he focused his main attention. He becomes the ideologist of the noble class, the ideologist of the new nobility born of Peter the Great's time. A nobleman must serve for the benefit of society. And Sumarokov, in turn, protects the interests of the nobles. Seeing in the existing serfdom a completely natural and legalized phenomenon, Sumarokov at the same time opposed the excessive cruelty of the serf-owners, against the transformation of serfdom into slavery. “People should not be sold like cattle,” he stated in his comments on the “Order” of Catherine II. And at the same time, he was convinced that “peasant freedom is not only harmful to society, but also detrimental, and why it is detrimental does not need to be explained.” Recognizing the natural equality of people, he believed that it was upbringing and education that made nobles “the first members of society,” “sons of the fatherland”:

What's the difference between a gentleman and a peasant?

Both he and he are an animated lump of earth,

And if you don’t clear the mind of the lordly peasant,

So I don't see any difference.

("On Nobility")

The nobility, according to Sumarokov, occupying a privileged position in society, must be educated, enlightened, must prove their right to rule the “slaves of the fatherland,” i.e., peasants. In this regard, his programmatic poem was his satire “On Nobility”:

I bring this satire to you, nobleman!

I am writing to the first members of the fatherland.

The nobles know their duty quite well without me,

But many remember one nobility,

Not remembering that born from women and from ladies

Without exception, Adam is the forefather of all.

Are we nobles so that people can work?

Would we have devoured their works because of our nobility?

This satire repeats the main provisions of Cantemir's satire about the nobility of birth and the nobility of merit, about the natural equality of people. “Our honor does not lie in titles,” wrote Sumarokov, “he is the radiant one who shines with heart and mind, the excellent one who surpasses other people in dignity, the boyar who cares about the fatherland.” Sumarokov never managed to bring the nobility closer to the ideal he had conceived.

Being a monarchist and a supporter of enlightened absolutism, Sumarokov sharply opposed monarchs who, in his opinion, do not fulfill their duties to their subjects, forgetting that “we were born for you. And you were born for us.” Sumarokov never tired of reminding us of this in his odes and tragedies. Every now and then he becomes in opposition to the government.

Sumarokov’s life, outwardly full of success and recognition, was extremely difficult. Not seeing among the nobles worthy representatives of his class, he tirelessly denounces the cruel, unenlightened nobles, so far from the ideal he created. He ridicules them in fables and satires, denounces bribery and lawlessness of officials, favoritism at court. The noble society, which did not want to listen to Sumarokov, began to take revenge on the writer. Proud, irritable, accustomed to recognition of his own literary success On the part of the writers, Sumarokov, according to the recollections of his contemporaries, often lost his temper and could not restrain himself. Honest and straightforward, he did not let anyone down. “His indomitability and hysteria are proverbial. He jumped up, cursed, and ran away when he heard the landowners calling the serf servants “boorish tribe.” He reached the point of hysterics, defending his copyright from the encroachments of the Moscow commander-in-chief; he loudly cursed arbitrariness, bribes, and the savagery of society; the noble “society” took revenge on him, driving him crazy, mocking him.”

The name of Sumarokov is associated with the emergence of a permanent “Russian theater for the performance of tragedies and comedies,” the first director of which in 1756 was appointed by Elizabeth Sumarokov. Sumarokov saw in the theater an opportunity to fulfill an educational role in relation to the nobility. The creation of the theater depended largely on the appearance of Sumarokov's tragedies, which made up its repertoire. By the time the theater opened, Sumarokov was the author of five tragedies and three comedies. Contemporaries rightly called him “the founder Russian theater" For five years he was in charge of the theater, where work was extremely difficult: there was no permanent premises, there was not enough money for productions, the actors and director did not receive salaries for months. Sumarokov wrote desperate letters to Shuvalov, entering into constant conflicts. An ardent lover of art and devoted to his work, Sumarokov was neither a sufficiently accommodating person nor a good administrator. In 1761 he had to leave the theater.

The last period of his life was especially difficult for Sumarokov. He moves to Moscow and continues to write a lot. At the end of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, he joined the noble opposition, which succumbed to the liberal declarations of Catherine, who by all means went to power. The coup of 1762, which brought Catherine II to the throne, did not fulfill Sumarokov’s political hopes. He stands in opposition to the queen and creates politically acute tragedies “Dimitri the Pretender”, “Mstislav”. In the first tragedy, the plot is based on a sharp exposure of the despot monarch and a call for his overthrow. The nobility is still dissatisfied with the writer. He enjoys fame mainly in literary circles, but it cannot console Sumarokov. Harsh in his views and irreconcilable in his judgments, he alienates the empress. The persecution intensified when he, an aristocrat by birth, the ideologist of the nobility, violating all class prejudices, married a serf girl. The relatives of the first wife began a lawsuit against the writer, demanding the deprivation of the rights of his children from his second wife. The trial ended in favor of Sumarokov. However, bankrupt and entangled in debt, Sumarokov was forced to humiliate himself before the rich man Demidov, who drives him out of the house for an unpaid debt. There are rumors about him all over the city. The Commander-in-Chief of Moscow, Saltykov, organizes the failure of the Sinav and Truvor tragedy. A beggar, abandoned and ridiculed by everyone, Sumarokov sinks and begins to drink. In the poem "Complaint" he writes:

...I have little consolation that the glory will not fade,

Which the shadow will never feel.

What need do I have for my mind?

If only I carry crackers in my bag?

What an excellent writer I am honored for,

If there is nothing to drink or eat?

On October 11, 1777, after a short illness, Sumarokov died. There was not a ruble to bury the poet. According to the testimony of Pavel Ivanovich Sumarokov, the writer’s nephew, Sumarokov was “buried at his own expense by the actors of the Moscow theater” in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery.

Sumarokov was the first nobleman writer for whom literature became the main business of his life. It was impossible to live by literature at that time; this largely determined the severity of Sumarokov’s material hardships. In a petition addressed to Catherine II, Sumarokov wrote about his plight: “To all this main reason my love for poetry, for I relied on it and on verbal sciences, I cared not so much about ranks and property, as about my muse.” Sumarokov himself was inclined to consider himself the founder of syllabic-tonic poetry, and in an article polemically directed against Lomonosov, “To the senseless rhymers,” he stated that when he began writing, “we didn’t have any poets yet and there was no one to learn from. It was as if I was passing through a dense forest, hiding the dwelling of the muses from my eyes, without a guide...” This, of course, was far from the truth, but Sumarokov’s merits in the development of Russian poetry are undoubted.

If Trediakovsky discovered that Russian poetry should be tonic, and Lomonosov made a true reform, then Sumarokov gave examples of almost all types of tonic verse. Speaking as a playwright, poet, theorist, critic, Sumarokov believed that his literary activity was a service to society, a form active participation V public life countries. He was a leading man of his time, a noble educator, whose work was highly valued by Radishchev and Novikov.

Sumarokov - theorist of classicism

A.P. Sumarokov, with his literary creativity, contributed to the establishment of classicism on Russian soil. He acted both as a theorist of classicism and as a writer who, in his literary practice, gave examples of the diverse genres provided for by the poetics of classicism. Sumarokov began by writing odes; the first two odes, dedicated to Anna Ioannovna, were published in 1740. In them, the aspiring poet imitated Trediakovsky. From the moment the odes of Lomonosov appeared, Sumarokov experienced a strong influence of his creative genius. However, the ode genre did not become dominant in the work of Sumarokov, who was destined to achieve fame as a great playwright and lyric poet, the creator of love songs, idylls, elegies, and eclogues.

An important literary event was the two poetic epistles published in 1748 by Sumarokov - “On the Russian Language” and “On Poetry”, in which Sumarokov acted as a theorist of classicism. In the first he talks about the need to enrich literary language at the expense of outdated Church Slavonic words and avoid foreign words. In this he gets closer to Lomonosov. In “Epistole on Poetry” (1747), unlike Lomonosov, Sumarokov, theoretically substantiating the genres of classicism, asserts the equality of all genres, without giving preference to any of them:

Everything is praiseworthy: whether a drama, an eclogue or an ode -

Decide what your nature draws you to...

Subsequently, both of these epistles were revised and made up one - “Instructions for those who want to be writers,” published in 1774.

To Trediakovsky’s reproach for borrowing epistles from Boileau’s “The Art of Poetry,” Sumarokov replied that he “didn’t take much from Boileau,” meaning his understanding of the aesthetic code and his independent development of individual genres. Nevertheless, Sumarokov does not deny his dependence on Boileau’s theory. “My epistle about poetry,” he says, “is all Boalov’s, and Boalo took it from Horace. No: Boalo did not take everything from Horace, and I did not take everything from Boalo..."

The beginning of Sumarokov’s dramatic activity also dates back to the 40s, for he considered theater to be the strongest means of educating the nobility. In his tragedies, one of the most characteristic genres of classicism, Sumarokov stages great, social significant issues. Contemporaries highly appreciated this type of dramaturgy by Sumarokov, calling him “northern Racine,” the founder of the dramaturgy of Russian classicism.

Tragedies of Sumarokov

The tragedies showed especially clearly Political Views Sumarokova. He strove to create a harmonious society in which every member of society would know his duties and fulfill them honestly. He longed to return the “golden ages,” believing that they were possible under the existing social order, but for this it was necessary to eliminate the lawlessness and disorder that existed in the absolutist-noble monarchy. His tragedies were supposed to show what a true enlightened monarch should be like; they were supposed to educate the “first sons of the fatherland,” the nobility, arousing in them a sense of civic duty, love for the fatherland, and true nobility. Sumarokov never tired of convincing the monarchs that “we (subjects) were born for you, and you were born for us.” And although Sumarokov constantly repeats that “monarchical rule, I do not say despotic, is the best,” he did not hesitate to sharply condemn monarchs who did not correspond to the ideal he outlined. Standing in opposition to Elizabeth Petrovna, he soon understood the pseudo-enlightened absolutism of Catherine's reign and, while promoting the ideas of enlightened absolutism in his tragedies, at the same time exposed the despotism of the rule of monarchs. The tyrant-fighting tendencies in his tragedies intensified sharply towards the end of the 60s and beginning of the 70s, reflecting the general growth of noble opposition to the regime of Catherine II. The socio-political pathos of Sumarokov's tragedies had a huge impact on the development of subsequent Russian tragedy, which retained its political orientation.

Over 28 years, Sumarokov wrote nine tragedies. The first group of tragedies, 1740-1750, are “Khorev” (1747), “Hamlet” (1748), which was a free adaptation from the French prose translation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, “Sinav and Truvor” (1750), “Ariston” (1750 ), “Semira” (1751), “Dimiza” (1758), later revised and called “Yaropolk and Dimiza” (1768).

Sumarokov’s first tragedy, “Khorev,” was published in 1747. This is the playwright’s first experience; it only outlines the main provisions, motives, and situations that will develop later. The tragedy is addressed to Ancient Rus', however, connection with ancient Russian history is very conventional, it is actually limited to names, however, it is important to note that, taking plots from native history, Sumarokov considered them more effective in instilling the “virtue” of the nobility. This, undoubtedly, gave the most pronounced patriotic character to the playwright’s tragedies and was distinctive feature Russian classicism, for Western European drama was built primarily on ancient subjects.

In the tragedy "Horev" central image- Prince Kiy. His brother Khorev loves Osnelda, the daughter of Zavlokh, expelled from Kyiv by Prince Kiy. Osnelda reciprocates Khorev's feelings, but her love contradicts the duty of a daughter and a patriot. By order of Kiy, who wants to test Khorev’s devotion, the latter must march with an army against his beloved’s father. This is how the conflict between public and personal, between duty and passion, which is characteristic of Sumarokov’s subsequent tragedies, is defined.

The outcome is tragic, and Prince Kiy is to blame for it, having trusted the informer Stalver. In this first tragedy of Sumarokov there is not yet that clarity of the main idea, that rigor and integrity in construction that will be characteristic of his best tragedies, but the main collisions are outlined, and the moralistic, didactic orientation of the tragedy is decisive. A monarch who has subdued the voice of reason to the destructive passion that has gripped him becomes a tyrant for his subjects. The speeches of Khorev and Osnelda contained lessons of noble morality.

The next group of tragedies, in which tyrant-fighting motifs sounded most clearly, were written after a ten-year break: “Vysheslav” (1768), “Dimitri the Pretender” (1771), “Mstislav” (1774). However, in these tragedies, despite the more acute socio-political sound, the plot and compositional structure is subordinated to clarifying the main problem: the relationship of the royal power to its subjects and the subjects to this power. At the center of the tragedies is a monarch invested with power, his subjects - princes, nobles, representatives of a noble family, often subjects of the monarch - two lovers, but this love is undesirable, it is condemned by the law of honor and duty. Devotion to one’s feelings and one’s duty creates a tragic collision. Usually, the basis of a tragic collision is a violation of duty by a monarch who does not know how to control his passions and becomes a tyrant towards his subjects. In Sumarokov's tragedies, the monarch, unable to suppress his passion and attraction, has no right to rule others. And from here most tragedies important point in the development of the plot is a speech against the tyrant. This performance is successful if it is directed against despots (Hamlet, Demetrius the Pretender). In other cases, when the ruler turns out to be a reasonable monarch (“Semira”, “Vysheslav”) or a monarch who has repented of his actions (“Artistona”, “Mstislav”, etc.), the uprising ends in failure. It is characteristic that the triumph of Sumarokov’s didactic concept of morality leads to happy endings in tragedies (exception: “Sinav and Truvor” and “Khorev”).

Creating models of behavior of a true monarch and a true subject, whose high feelings and thoughts were supposed to educate the Russian nobility, Sumarokov divides his heroes into positive and negative, virtuous and villains, who are revealed to the viewer primarily in their monologues. The action in tragedies is reduced to a minimum; the monologues of the characters are addressed to the audience and are an expression of certain ideas of the author.

Translated to French The tragedy "Sinav and Truvor" received Voltaire's approval. Sumarokov’s last tragedies “Vysheslav” (1768), “Dimitri the Pretender” (1771) and “Mstislav” (1774) were written at a time when the playwright was in disgrace and clearly saw that the Russian monarchy was despotic. Sumarokov's opposition to the government and his fight against favoritism were reflected in these tragedies, which were of a clearly political nature.

Sumarokov’s goal is to educate monarchs, pointing out their responsibilities towards their subjects:

He reigns the people to bliss

And leading the common benefit to perfection:

The orphan does not cry under his scepter,

The innocent are not afraid of anyone,

A flatterer does not bow at the feet of a nobleman.

The king is a judge equal to all and a father equal to all.

("Vysheslav")

Based on his ideal of a class monarchy, Sumarokov, with his characteristic passion and insolence, attacked those social phenomena and social forces, which he regarded negatively. In his latest tragedies, tyrant-fighting motives intensify. A monarch who is unable to establish order in the state and be the father of his subjects is worthy of contempt; he is a “vile idol”, an “enemy of the people” who must be overthrown from the throne (“Dimitri the Pretender”). Sumarokov started talking about “villains” on the throne. No wonder the tragedy “Dimitri the Pretender” was included in the collection best works Russian literature, published in Paris in 1800. Its compilers explained the choice of this play by the fact that “its plot, almost revolutionary, is obviously in direct contradiction with the morals and political system of this country: minor characters(Shuisky, Georgy, Parmen and Ksenia) give speeches about the rights of the people and the responsibilities of sovereigns.” The tragedy features the theme of the violent overthrow of a tyrant by the people. And although Sumarokov means only a palace coup, and the concepts of “people”, “society”, “sons of the fatherland” are nobles, as P. N. Berkov rightly pointed out in his work about Sumarokov, nevertheless the socio-political resonance this tragedy was very strong.

Sumarokov's tragedies had a huge impact educational value. The spectators sitting in the hall received moral lessons, listened to high words about duty, nobility, love for the Motherland, and learned to be indignant against tyranny. N.I. Novikov, the most prominent educator of the 18th century, wrote about Sumarokov: “... although he was the first Russian to begin writing tragedies according to all the rules theatrical arts, but succeeded so much in them that he earned the name of northern Racine.” It is characteristic that Sumarokov himself expressed dissatisfaction with the audience. In the preface to “Dimitri the Pretender,” complaining about the frivolity and indifference of the public, he wrote: “You who have traveled, who have been in Paris and London, tell me! Do they gnaw nuts there during the performance and, when the performance is at its peak, do they flog drunken coachmen who have quarreled among themselves, to the alarm of the entire stalls, boxes and theater?

Sumarokov's tragedies, designed for the education and upbringing of the noble class, had a wider resonance and a wider sphere of influence. The play “Dimitri the Pretender,” according to contemporaries, was a “people's favorite” even in the 20s of the 19th century. The socially progressive role of Sumarokov’s tragedies was great, and the type of classical tragedy he created for a long time remained a model followed by modern playwrights and playwrights of later times.

Comedies by Sumarokov

Sumarokov also had his say in the comedy genre. In his “Epistole on Poetry,” the playwright defines the social and educational function of comedy: “The property of comedy is to rule morality through mockery; /Mix and use is its direct charter.” By exposing human vices in a funny way, exposing them, comedy should thereby contribute to liberation from them. In “Epistol,” formulating the theory of the comedy genre, Sumarokov wrote that comedy should be separated from tragedy, on the one hand, and from farcical games, on the other:

For knowledgeable people don't write games:

To make people laugh without reason is a gift from a vile soul.

Separating comedy from folk games, Sumarokov nevertheless turned to practice in his comedies folk theater. His comedies are small in volume (from one to three acts), written in prose, they often lack a plot basis (this applies especially to Sumarokov’s first comedies), the comedies are characterized by farcical comedy, the characters are a clerk, a judge, a dandy and other characters noted Sumarokov in Russian life.

Imagine a soulless Podyachev in the order,

The judge that he will not understand what is written in the decree.

Imagine me a dandy who turns up his nose,

What a whole century thinks about the beauty of hair,

Who, as he thinks, was born for cupid,

To win over such a fool somewhere.

Striving to imitate primarily the French comedy of Moliere, Sumarokov was far from the comedies of Western classicism. A classical comedy should have consisted of five acts in verse (an example was Moliere’s comedy “The Misanthrope”), it should have compositional rigor, completeness, and obligatory observance of unities (of course, in Western comedy there were deviations from the classical model: he wrote comedies in prose and Moliere). Sumarokov’s imitation of French comedy and Italian interludes was reflected primarily in the borrowing of the characters’ conventional names: Erast, Dulizh, Dorant, Isabella, etc.

Sumarokov wrote twelve comedies, which, although they had a number of undoubted merits, were inferior in their ideological significance and artistic value to his tragedies.

He wrote the first comedies “Tresotinius”, “Monsters”, “An Empty Quarrel” in 1750. The next group of comedies appeared in the 60s: “Dowry by Deceit”, “Guardian”, “Poisonous”, “Reddy Man”, “Narcissus” , “Three Brothers Together”, and finally, in 1772, three more comedies were written - “Cuckold by Imagination”, “Mother Sharing a Daughter”, “Crazy Woman”. Most often, Sumarokov's comedies served as a means of polemics for him, hence the pamphlet-like nature of most of them. Unlike tragedies, Sumarokov did not work on comedies for long. In his first comedies, each of the characters appearing on stage showed the audience his own vice, and the scenes were mechanically connected. In a small comedy there are many characters (in “Tresotinius” - 10, in “Monsters” - 11). The portraiture of the characters made it possible for contemporaries to find out who in reality served as the prototype for this or that character. Real faces, everyday details, negative phenomena of Russian life - all this gave Sumarokov’s comedies, despite the conventionality of the image, a connection with reality. Most strong point Sumarokov's comedies were their language: bright, expressive, it is often colored with the features of a lively dialect. This manifested the writer's desire to individualize the speech of the characters, which is especially characteristic of Sumarokov's later comedies.

The polemical nature of early comedies, often directed against enemies in the literary field, can be traced in the comedy-pamphlet “Tresotinius”, in which Trediakovsky was portrayed in an exaggerated and grotesque form as the main character - a pedantic scientist. A parody of Trediakovsky’s poems is heard in Tresotinius’s song:

Looking at your beauty, I was inflamed, hey!

Ah, may you spare me from my passion,

You torment me, Klymene, and you knocked me off my feet with an arrow.

The images created in the first comedies were of a conventional nature and were far from typical generalizations.

Despite the fact that the method of conventional depiction of characters is also characteristic of the second group of comedies, they nevertheless differ from the first in the greater depth and conditionality of the depiction of the main characters. The second group of comedies, written between 1764-1768, refers to comedies of character, when all the attention is focused on the main character, while others characters serve only to reveal the character traits of the main character. Thus, “The Guardian” is a comedy about the nobleman-usurer, swindler and hypocrite Stranger, “The Poisonous” is about the slanderer Herostratus, “Narcissus” is a comedy about a narcissistic dandy. The rest of the characters are positive characters who act as sounding boards. The most successful characters in Sumarokov's comedies are negative heroes, in whose characters many satirical and everyday features are noticed, although their depiction is still far from creating a socially generalized type.

One of the best comedies of this period is the comedy "The Guardian", which centers on the image of the prude, miserly nobleman Stranger, fleecing the orphans who came under his care. The “original” of the Stranger was Sumarokov’s relative Buturlin. It is characteristic that he is also depicted as the central character in other comedies (“The Covetous Man,” “Dowry by Deception”). In the comedy “Guardian” Sumarokov does not show the bearer of one particular vice, but draws a complex character. Before us is not only a miser who knows neither conscience nor pity, but also a bigot, an ignoramus, a libertine. With some similarities to Moliere's Tartuffe, Sumarokov creates a generalized satirical image of a Russian vicious nobleman. Character development is also facilitated by speech characteristic, and household items. The speech of the Stranger is full of proverbs and sayings: “the purse is empty, the head is empty”, “what is honor if there is nothing to eat?”, “abuse does not hang at the gate”, “what is taken is holy.” In his sanctimonious repentance, the Stranger turns to God, peppering his speech with Church Slavonicisms: “Lord, I know that I am a rogue and a soulless person, and I have not the slightest love for you or my neighbor; I alone trust in your love for mankind, I cry to you: remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.”

The positive characters of Sumarokov's comedies are devoid of vitality; they often act as sounding boards in comedies - such is Valery in the comedy "Guardian". The iconic names of negative characters, characteristic of classicism, also corresponded to moralizing purposes: Stranger, Kashchei, Herostratus.

The end of the 60s - 70s are characterized by the growth of opposition sentiments towards enlightened absolutism among the progressive nobility and the common intelligentsia. This was the time when Russian educational thought turned to posing the peasant question. More closely, socially meaningful in different genres Literature began to address the issue of the relationship between landowners and peasants. Attention to everyday life surrounding a person, the desire for a more complex psychological revelation of characters in certain social conditions are characteristic of the best dramatic works of the second half of the century. At this time (between 1766-1769) Fonvizin wrote the first domestic comedy from the life of the Russian provincial nobility "Brigadier", the influence of which affected Sumarokov's latest comedies. Following Fonvizin’s “The Brigadier,” the best play in Sumarokov’s comedy work, “Cuckold by Imagination,” appeared, which, in turn, anticipated the appearance of Fonvizin’s “The Minor” (a certain commonality of situations and characters).

The writer focuses on the life of the provincial poor landowners, Vikul and Khavronya. Limited interests, ignorance, narrow-mindedness characterize them. At the same time, the characters in Sumarokov’s comedy are not one-sided. Making fun of the savagery and absurdity of these people, who talk only about “sowing, about reaping, about threshing, about chickens,” whose peasants walk around the world, Sumarokov also shows traits that evoke sympathy for them. Vikul and Khavronya are touching with their mutual affection (here they anticipate Gogol’s “Old World Landowners”). “Cuckold by Imagination” is the pinnacle of Sumarokov’s comedic creativity.

Poetry of Sumarokov

Sumarokov’s diverse creativity was also manifested in the richness of poetic genres. Sumarokov sought to provide examples of all types of poetry provided for by the theory of classicism. He wrote odes, songs, elegies, eclogues, idylls, madrigals, epigrams, satires, and parables. In his poetry, two directions were fundamental - lyrical and satirical. He began writing love songs in his first decade creative activity. In the field of love lyrics, which enjoyed great success among his contemporaries, Sumarokov made undoubted discoveries. His lyrics are addressed to man, to his natural weaknesses. Despite the still conventional depiction of the lyrical hero, in his songs Sumarokov strives to reveal inner world, the depth and sincerity of the feelings of the hero or heroine. His lyrics are distinguished by sincere simplicity, spontaneity, they are characterized by sincerity and clarity of expression. After the lyrics of Peter the Great's time, Sumarokov's lyrics both in the field of content and in the field of technique of verse took a big step forward.

Here is an example of one of those love songs that created Sumarokov’s first fame:

Those hours disappeared when you were looking for me,

And all my joy has been taken away by you.

I see that you have become unfaithful to me now,

Against me, you have become completely different.

My moan and sadness are fierce,

imagine

And remember those moments

How nice I was to you.

Look at the places where you met me,

They will bring back all the tenderness as a memory.

Where are my joys? Where has your passion gone?

They are gone and will never come back to me.

Another life has arrived;

But did I expect this?

A precious life is gone,

Hope and peace.

Sumarokov often uses the technique of antithesis to reveal

Sumarokov Alexander Petrovich was born in Moscow in 1717. He is known to contemporary readers as a poet and playwright.

Alexander Petrovich grew up in a family of nobles. He received his upbringing and initial education at home. At the age of 15 he entered the Land Noble Corps. Here his activity as a young poet begins.

Sumarokov is known to his fans as a writer of love songs that have received success and recognition from society. In his lines, the poet uses the theme of interpersonal conflicts, which he later begins to use in his tragedies. The most famous of them: “Khorev” (1747), “Hamlet” (1748), “Sinav and Truvor” (1750). Poetic tragedies became an incentive for the playwright to create a theater in Russia, which was headed by Sumarokov himself.

During the reign of Catherine II, the popularity of Alexander Petrovich reached its full bloom. He has support in the circles of Novikov and Fonvizin. His works are aimed at ridiculing bribe-takers, landowners who brutally treated their serfs.

But in 1770, a conflict arose between Sumarokov and Saltykov. In this situation, the empress supported the poet, and he wrote her a mocking letter. This event had a negative impact on his literary position.

Throughout his life, the playwright wrote the most interesting works of comedy and tragedy. But in his dying years, he somewhat lost his popularity, which contributed to his passion for bad habits. The consequence is the sudden death of Sumarokov in 1777.