Belinsky, VG
NAME:
Belinsky, Vissarion Grigoryevich.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Encouraged new Russian writers
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
None.
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH:
30th May 1811, Sveaborg, Finland (Russian Empire).
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH:
26th May 1848, St Petersburg, Russia. Aged 37.
DISCIPLINE:
Literary critic.
FIELD:
Literature.
LANGUAGE:
Russian.
PARENTS:
Grigorii Belinsky and Maria Ivanov
SIBLINGS:
Two brothers and one sister.
SPOUSE:
Maria Orlova.
CHILDREN:
Vladimir and Olga
EDUCATION:
Private tutor, School in Chembar, Academy at Penza and University of Moscow.
MAJOR WORK:
"Literary Reveries" and "Letter to Gogol".
LIFE AND TIMES:
Because his father was the son of a clergyman, Belinsky grew up as a free Russian, enjoying the privileges accorded to the professional middle class. He was taught by a priest and then attended the small school in Chembar.
At the age of nine, he was writing verse and was recommended by the Inspector of Schools for a place at the Penza Academy at the age of fourteen. Penza was a provincial capital, about eighty miles away from Chembar, where Belinsky enjoyed the theatre and
translations of the novels of Sir Walter Scott, but he was expelled after three years for not attending classes.
Somehow, he persuaded the authorities at the University of Moscow that he should be admitted as a student and was also awarded an allowance. Ill with tuberculosis, he attended only lectures that interested him, so he got a thorough knowledge of Russian literature but little of modern languages, history and science.
Belinsky's time at university coincided with a period much influenced by the European
Romantic movement, epitomized for the students by Byron*, the English poet, and the Russian writer Alexander Pushkin.
Among the students at this time, there was also criticism of the repressive regime of Tsar Nicholas I, of serfdom, of censorship and the culture of the Russian Orthodox Church. Student rebellion took the form of literary defiance rather than of political activity, and Western Romantic philosophy rather than atheism.
In 1832, Belinsky was expelled from university for lack of ability. Determined to stay in Moscow, he took a job as tutor to other students at the university and local schools.
Within a year, he found a job as a journalist on the "Moscow Telescope," in which cultured Russians could read serialized translations of European literature. By 1834, now assistant editor, Belinsky made his name with his articles "Literary Reveries" in which he discussed Russian literature and the nature of Russian society.
At the age of twenty-three, he was considered a new and original talent, influenced by the
ideas of Herder*, the German philosopher. This gave Belinsky the model for his stand against state censorship and his denial of the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church.
He believed that any work of art reflected a larger whole. If characters in a book or play were revealed as corrupt officials, then corrupt officials existed within society. For this reason, he praised Gogol's* "Inspector-General," first performed in 1836.
When the "Moscow Telescope" was closed in 1836, Belinsky visited his friend Mikhail Bakunin and began writing for the "Moscow Observer". In 1839, he left Moscow and went to St Petersburg, to write for "Notes of the Fatherland".
In 1843, he readTurgenev's* long poem "Parasha" and supported this work in his reviews, becoming friends with Turgenev who, later, dedicated his masterpiece "Fathers and Sons" to Belinsky's memory. Belinsky also praisedDostoyevsky's* "Poor Folk" declaring it the first attempt at a Russian social novel.
In private, he had idealistic notions about marriage, believing that marriage should be a
partnership of equals in intellect and spirit. He admired George Sand* because she seemed to epitomize the kind of independent, educated and intelligent woman he was looking for. In 1843, he married Maria Orlova who, although not his intellectual equal and with whom he was not in love, was a devoted nurse to him. Two years later, his daughter Olga was born.
In 1847, Belinsky travelled to Salzbrunn spa, in Silesia, in an attempt to treat his tuberculosis, and there he wrote a famous letter to Gogol, criticizing Gogol’s "Selected Passages from Correspondence with my Friends" in which he had expressed support for the authority of the state and the church.
From Salzbrunn Belinsky travelled to Dresden, Berlin, Cologne, Brussels and Paris. He spent two months in Paris, mainly with Bakunin and Turgenev. On his return to St Petersburg his health declined even more and he had to dictate the second part of his last significant work, "View of Russian Literature in 1847".
ASSESSMENT: In supporting young writers such as Turgenev, Gogol and Dostoyevsky, he helped to establish the great Russian novels of the nineteenth century.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None.
ONELINER: Vissarion Belinsky, Russian literary critic
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Randall, Francis B, Vissarion Belinskii, Oriental Research Partners, Newtownville, Mass., 1987.