In the reader's mind, Ryleev is primarily a Decembrist poet, publisher of the almanac "Polar Star", a noble revolutionary, a man who, by martyrdom, confirmed his loyalty to freedom-loving ideals.
Biography of Kondraty Ryleev
K. F. Ryleev was born on September 18 (29), 1795 in the village of Batovo, near St. Petersburg, in the family of a retired lieutenant colonel, and from the age of six he was brought up in the St. Petersburg Cadet Corps. Here he fell in love with books and began to write. Thirteen years have passed in studies and drill, not without childish pranks, of course, but also with severe retribution for them. Ryleev's popularity was greatly facilitated by his poems.
Ryleev's youth coincided with a heroic era in the life of Russia, with a glorious twelfth year. He eagerly awaited the release of active army and created "victory songs to the heroes", recalling the heroic past of his homeland. Already in the first samples of Ryley's pen, themes and poetic principles were outlined, to which he would remain faithful forever. In 1814, as an eighteen-year-old warrant officer-artilleryman, Ryleev entered the theater of operations. One can only guess how stunning was the contrast between thirteen years of imprisonment in the corps walls - and foreign campaigns, when in two years Ryleev twice marched all over Europe.
Then came the days of the army. Ryleev's artillery company moved from Lithuania to the Oryol region, until in the spring of 1817 it settled in the Voronezh province, in the village of Podgorny, Ostrogozhsky district. Here Ryleev took up the education of the daughters of a local landowner and soon fell in love with the youngest of them, Natalya Tevyashova. Ryleev, having married and retired, rushes to the capital - where life is in full swing. In the autumn of 1820, Ryleev and his wife and daughter settled in St. Petersburg, and from the beginning of 1821 he began to serve in the St. Petersburg Chamber of the Criminal Court.
Creativity Kondraty Ryleev
Ryleev's poems have already appeared in St. Petersburg magazines. The satire on Arakcheev made the poet's name widely known overnight. Following “Kurbsky”, poems appear one after another in magazines and newspapers signed by Ryleev, in which the pages of Russian history are read as evidence of the ineradicably freedom-loving spirit of the nation. By the nature of his talent, Ryleev was not a pure lyricist; No wonder he constantly turned to various genres of both prose and dramaturgy.
Ryleev's thoughts belong to the genre of historical elegy, close to the ballad, widely used along with lyrical and epic-dramatic artistic means. It is impossible not to notice the educational foundations in Ryleev's worldview, and the features of civil classicism in his artistic method. At the beginning of 1823, Ryleev was accepted by I. I. Pushchin into the Northern Secret Society and soon became its leader. Alien to ambitious calculations and claims, Ryleev became the conscience of the conspiracy.
Ryleev's poetry did not sing of the delight of victory - it taught civic courage. The poetic maturity of Kondraty Fedorovich had just become apparent to his contemporaries on the threshold of 1825 - with the release of Doom and Voinarovsky, with the appearance in print of excerpts from new poems. Directly linking his life with a secret society, with an organized struggle against autocracy and serfdom, Ryleev in the same 1823 began work on a poem about the Siberian prisoner Voinarovsky.
The epilogue of Ryleev's entire work was destined to become his prison poems and letters to his wife. December 14, 1825 - the first of the organizers of the uprising on Senate Square- Ryleev was arrested, imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and six months later he was executed.
- Thirty years later, A. I. Herzen will begin to publish abroad for the Russian reader an almanac of free Russian literature, giving it the glorious name - "Polar Star".
- The motives of Ryleev's lyrics will be developed in the poetry of Polezhaev, Lermontov, Ogarev,.
Ryleev Kondraty Fedorovich, whose brief biography will be discussed below, left an amazing mark on Russian history and literature. He was closely acquainted with A.S. Pushkin and A.S. Griboyedov, but their relationship was based on common literary interests. Much stronger comradely ties connected Ryleev with the republicans M. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin and others. From the school bench we know that these people are Decembrists, and five of them gave their lives in the fight against the autocracy. But what exactly formed Kondraty Ryleyev as a person, what paths led him to the dungeons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and then to the scaffold?
Childhood and youth
short biography Ryleeva says that he was born in September 1795, and was executed in July 1826. From this we can conclude that he died very young - he was only thirty years old. But in such a short period of time, the writer managed to write a lot, and do even more. Kondraty spent his childhood on the estate of his father - a small landowner - in the village of Batovo near St. Petersburg. He chose for his son military career, and already six years old the boy was sent to study in the capital, in the First Cadet Corps.
A brief biography of Ryleev will be incomplete without describing the next stage in the life of a revolutionary, since it is very important, although at first glance it does not seem so. In 1814, the newly minted artillery officer departs for France after Russian army smashing Napoleon Bonaparte. Life in the "defeated" country made an indelible impression on Ryleev. If he lived in the 21st century, one could say that he became a fan of the idea of "European integration", but since only the 19th century began, Raleev had no choice but to become a republican. At first he took a moderate position and defended, but the Restoration forced him to change his views to more radical ones.
Return to Russia
Returning to his homeland, Ryleev served in the army for a short time. He retired in 1818, and two years later he married, out of ardent and passionate love, the daughter of the Voronezh landowner Tevyashev, Natalya Mikhailovna. A brief biography of Ryleev says that the couple had two children: a son who died in infancy and a daughter. To feed his family, Kondraty Fedorovich gets a job as an assessor of the St. Petersburg Criminal Chamber. In 1820, the first work of Ryleev the writer was also published - the satirical ode "To the temporary worker", where the author attacked the mores of the "Arakcheevshchina".
Literary and social activities
In 1823, Ryleev joined the "Northern Society", and also, together with Bestuzhev, began to publish the almanac "Polar Star". Together with Griboyedov, he was a member of a literary circle with a free-thinking bias, called the "Scientific Republic". He also tried himself as a translator from Polish, thanks to which Glinsky's "Dumas" were published in Russia. A brief biography of Ryleev ranks among the main works of the writer, such as "Ivan Susanin", "The Death of Yermak", as well as the poems "Nalivaiko" and "Voinarovsky". But most of all he was glorified by social activities. The brain and engine of the Northern Society of the Decembrists was precisely K.F. Ryleev. A brief biography indicates that since he was a civilian, he did not stand in a revolutionary square on Sennaya Square. Ryleev had just arrived there, but this fact alone was enough to merit a death sentence. He was one of those three hanged men under whom the rope broke, but contrary to custom, the sentence was nevertheless carried out.
Russian Decembrist poet.
Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev was born on September 18 (29), 1795 in the estate of the Sofia district of the St. Petersburg province (now in) in the family of Lieutenant Colonel Fyodor Andreevich Ryleev (d. 1814), the head manager of the prince's estates, which passed after his death in 1810 to his wife V V. Golitsyna.
In 1801-1814, K. F. Ryleev was brought up in the 1st Cadet Corps, in 1814 he was released from the corps as an ensign in the 1st cavalry company of the 1st reserve artillery brigade. In 1814-1815 he took part in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army.
At the end of the war, K.F. Ryleev, together with the company, lodged in the town of Retovo, Rossiensky district, Vilna province (now in Lithuania), and then in the villages of the Ostrogozhsky district, Voronezh province (now in). In 1818 he retired with the rank of second lieutenant.
Since 1819, K. F. Ryleev lived in. From 1821, he served as an assessor from the nobility in the St. Petersburg Chamber of the Criminal Court, and from the spring of 1824, he held the position of governor of the office of the Russian-American Company.
In 1823, K. F. Ryleev became a member of the Northern Decembrist Society, then heading the most radical part. In their political views under the influence evolved from moderate constitutional-monarchical to republican.
Since 1819, K. F. Ryleev collaborated in magazines (“Nevsky Spectator”, “Benevolent”, “Son of the Fatherland”, “Competitor of Education and Charity”, etc.). Literary fame brought him the satire "To the temporary worker" (1820), directed against. In 1821, K. F. Ryleev joined the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature (another name is the Society of Competitors of Education and Charity). In 1823-1825, together with A. A. Bestuzhev, he published the almanac "Polar Star".
In 1821-1823, K. F. Ryleev created a cycle of historical songs “Duma” (1825): “Oleg the Prophetic”, “Mstislav the Udaly”, “Death”, “Ivan Susanin”, “in Ostrogozhsk”, “”, etc. Turning to the heroic past, the poet rethought it in the spirit of his own civil ideals.
The central work of K. F. Ryleev is the poem "Voynarovsky" (1825). The author put thoughts about high civil service to the homeland into the confession of the protagonist of the poem, exiled to Siberia for participating in the rebellion against, raised by Hetman Mazepa. The inconsistency of K. F. Ryleev's historicism was reflected in the romantic idealization of Mazepa and Voynarovsky, in retreat from historical truth in the name of propaganda of the Decembrist ideas. In the unfinished poem "Nalivaiko" (excerpts published in 1825), K. F. Ryleev addressed the theme of the national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian Cossacks of the 16th century against the dominance of the gentry. The most complete expression of civil pathos in the poet's lyrics was the poem "Will I be in a fateful time ..." ("Citizen"). In propaganda and satirical songs (“Oh, where are those islands ...”, “Our Tsar, a Russian German ...”, “How the blacksmith was walking ...”, “Ah, I feel sick even in my native land ... ”, etc.), written jointly with A. A. Bestuzhev, there were hatred for the autocracy and direct calls for its overthrow.
K. F. Ryleev became one of the leaders in the preparation of the uprising on Senate Square on December 14 (26), 1825. In the evening of the same day he was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Being in the fortress under investigation, he completely repented and imbued with the Christian spirit.
K. F. Ryleev was convicted outside the categories and on July 11 (23), 1826 was sentenced to hanging. On July 13 (25), 1826, he was executed on the crown work of the Peter and Paul Fortress, among the five leaders of the uprising, along with
Ryleev Kondraty Fedorovich
18(29).9.1795, p. Batovo, now Gatchinsky District Leningrad region, - 13(25).7.1826, Petersburg
Russian Decembrist poet.
Born on September 18 (29 n.s.) in the village of Batovo, St. Petersburg province, in the family of an army officer, a poor landowner. Educated in cadet corps(1801 - 14) in St. Petersburg, released as an ensign in the artillery and sent to the army, which was on a foreign campaign. Staying in Germany, Switzerland and especially in France did not pass without a trace for the young officer.
Member of foreign campaigns of the Russian army (1814, 1815).
The victory over Napoleon prompts him to take up the pen, odes appear: "Love for the Fatherland" (1813), "Prince of Smolensky" (1814).
Since 1817, transferred to Russia, Ryleev served in the Voronezh province. Like other advanced officers, he was burdened by the Arakcheev order in the army, so in 1818 he resigned and moved to St. Petersburg (1820).
He served as an assessor of the St. Petersburg Criminal Chamber (from 1821), the head of the office of the Russian-American Company (from 1824). In 1823 he became a member of the Northern Society of the Decembrists, then leading the most radical and democratic part of it. In his political views, Ryleev evolved from moderate constitutional-monarchical to republican.
In St. Petersburg, he becomes close to the capital's writers, becomes a member of the "Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature". A special place in the poet's work is occupied by the poetic cycle "Duma" (1821 - 23), the purpose of which was "to remind the youth of the exploits of their ancestors, to acquaint them with the brightest epochs of folk history ...".
He played a leading role in organizing the uprising on December 14, 1825. He was executed in the Peter and Paul Fortress among the five leaders of the uprising.
Literary fame was brought to Ryleev by the satire "To a temporary worker" (1820) - an angry denunciation of the Arakcheev order. Further formation creative principles Ryleev is associated with the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, of which he became a member in 1821. In 1823-25, Ryleev, together with A. A. Bestuzhev, published the annual almanac "Polar Star". In 1821-23 Ryleev created a cycle of historical songs "Duma" (separate edition of 1825): "Oleg the Prophetic", "Mstislav the Udaly", "Death of Yermak", "Ivan Susanin", "Peter the Great in Ostrogozhsk", "Derzhavin" and etc. Turning to the heroic past of Russia, the poet rethinks it in the spirit of his own civil ideals.
Decembrist love of freedom and a foretaste of the future fate of this movement are imbued with the central work of Ryleev - the poem "Voynarovsky" (separate edition of 1825). Ryleev puts thoughts about high civil service to the homeland into the confession of the protagonist of the poem, exiled to Siberia for participating in the rebellion against Peter I, raised by Mazepa. The inconsistency of Ryleev's historicism was reflected in the romantic idealization of Mazepa and Voinarovsky, in the retreat from historical truth in the name of propaganda of the Decembrist ideas.
Although A. S. Pushkin valued Ryleyev's poem above his "Dum", in "Poltava" he argues with the concept of history expressed in "Voinarovsky". In the unfinished poem "Nalivaiko" (excerpts published in 1825), Ryleyev addresses the theme of the national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian Cossacks in the 16th century. against the nobility. The most complete expression of civic pathos in Ryleev's lyrics was the poem "Will I be in a fateful time ..." ("Citizen"). In propaganda and satirical songs ("Oh, where are those islands ...", "Our Tsar, a Russian German ...", "How the blacksmith was walking ...", "Ah, I feel sick even in my native land ... "etc.), written jointly with A. A. Bestuzhev, sounded hatred for the autocratic serf system and direct calls for its overthrow.
Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleev. Born on September 18 (September 29), 1795 in the village of Batovo, St. Petersburg province - executed on July 13 (July 25), 1826 in the Peter and Paul Fortress (St. Petersburg). Russian poet, public figure, Decembrist.
Kondraty Ryleev was born on September 18 (September 29, according to a new style) in 1795 in the village of Batovo, St. Petersburg province (now the territory of the Gatchina district of the Leningrad region).
Father - Fyodor Andreevich Ryleev (1746-1814), manager of the estate of Princess Varvara Golitsyna, a small estate nobleman.
Mother - Anastasia Matveevna Essen (1758-1824).
In 1801-1814 he studied at the St. Petersburg First Cadet Corps. Participated in foreign campaigns of the Russian army in 1813-1814.
In 1818 he retired.
From 1821 he served as an assessor of the St. Petersburg Criminal Chamber, from 1824 - the head of the office of the Russian-American Company.
In 1820 he wrote the famous satirical ode "To the temporary worker" (see below).
In 1823-1825, Ryleev, together with Alexander Bestuzhev, published the annual almanac "Polar Star". He was a member of the St. Petersburg Masonic Lodge "To the Flaming Star".
Ryleev's thought "The Death of Yermak" (see below) was partially set to music and became a song.
Appearance of Kondraty Ryleev: “He was of medium height, good build, his face was round, clean, his head was proportional, but the upper part of it was somewhat wider; his eyes are brown, somewhat bulging, always watery... being somewhat short-sighted, he wore glasses (but more so when he was studying at his desk).”
In 1823 he became a member of the Northern Society of Decembrists, then heading its most radical wing. At first, he stood on moderate constitutional-monarchist positions, but later became a supporter of the republican system.
On September 10, 1825, he acted as a second in the duel of his friend, cousin, lieutenant K. P. Chernov and the representative of the aristocracy of the aide-de-camp V. D. Novosiltsev. The reason for the duel was a conflict due to prejudices associated with the social inequality of the duelists (Novosiltsev was engaged to Chernov's sister, Ekaterina, but under the influence of his mother, he decided to refuse to marry, thereby disgracing the bride and her family). Both participants in the duel were mortally wounded and died a few days later. Chernov's funeral resulted in the first mass demonstration organized by the Northern Society of Decembrists.
Ryleev (according to another version - V.K. Kuchelbeker) is credited with the free-thinking poem "I swear on honor and Chernov." He was one of the main organizers of the uprising on December 14 (26), 1825. Being in the fortress, he scratched on a tin plate, in the hope that someone would read his last verses:
“Prison is in honor of me, not in reproach,
For a just cause, I'm in it,
And should I be ashamed of these chains,
When I wear them for the Fatherland!
Correspondence with Ryleev and Bestuzhev, concerning mainly literary matters, was of a friendly nature. It is unlikely that Ryleev’s communication with him was also politicized - if both called each other “republicans”, then, rather, because of their belonging to the VOLRS, also known as the “Scientific Republic”, than for any other reasons.
During the life of Kondraty Ryleev, two of his books were published: in 1825 - "Dumas", and a little later in the same year the poem "Voinarovsky" was published.
It is known how Pushkin reacted to Ryleev's "Dums" and - in particular - to "Oleg the Prophet". “They are all weak in invention and presentation. All of them are of the same cut: they are made up of common places (loci topici) ... a description of the scene, the speech of the hero and moralizing, ”Pushkin wrote to K. F. Ryleev. “There is nothing national, Russian in them, except for names.”
In 1823, Ryleev made his debut as a translator - a free translation from the Polish poem by Y. Nemtsevich "Glinsky: Duma" was published in the printing house of the Imperial Educational House.
In preparing the uprising on December 14, Ryleev played one of the leading roles. While imprisoned, he took all the blame on himself, sought to justify his comrades, placed vain hopes on the mercy of the emperor for them.
Kondraty Ryleev was executed by hanging on July 13 (25), 1826 in the Peter and Paul Fortress among the five leaders of the December uprising, along with,. His last words on the scaffold, addressed to the priest P. N. Myslovsky were: “Father, pray for our sinful souls, do not forget my wife and bless my daughter.” Ryleev was one of the three whose rope broke. He fell into the scaffold and some time later was hanged again.
According to some sources, it was Ryleev who said before his second execution: "Unfortunate country where they don't even know how to hang you"(sometimes these words are attributed to P.I. Pestel or S.I. Muravyov-Apostol).
The exact burial place of K. F. Ryleev, like other executed Decembrists, is unknown. According to one version, he was buried along with other executed Decembrists on Goloday Island.
After the Decembrist uprising, Ryleyev's publications were banned and mostly destroyed. Known handwritten lists of poems and Ryleev's poems, which were distributed illegally in the territory Russian Empire. The Berlin, Leipzig and London editions of Ryleev, undertaken by the Russian emigration, in particular Ogarev and Herzen in 1860, were also illegally distributed.
N.P. Ogaryov wrote a poem "In memory of Ryleev".
Decembrist Kondraty Ryleev
Personal life of Kondraty Ryleev:
In 1820 he married Natalya Mikhailovna Tevyasheva, from Russian noble family, her ancestors were from the nobility of the Golden Horde.
Bibliography of Kondraty Ryleev:
1857 - Poems. K. Ryleeva;
1860 - Ryleev K. F. Duma. Poems. With a preface by N. Ogaryov;
1862 - Ryleev K. F. Poems. With a biography of the author and a story about his treasury;
1872 - The writings and correspondence of Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev. Edition of his daughter. Ed. P. A. Efremova;
1975 - Ryleev K. F. Dumy (Edition prepared by L. G. Frizman)
To the temporary worker
(Imitation of the Persian satire "To Rubellius")
An arrogant temporary worker, and vile and treacherous,
The monarch is a cunning flatterer and an ungrateful friend,
Furious tyrant of his native country,
A villain elevated to an important rank by tricks!
You look at me with contempt
And in your menacing gaze you show me your furious anger!
I don't value your attention, scoundrel;
From your mouth, blasphemy - a crown worthy of praise!
I laugh at your humiliation!
Can I be humbled by your neglect,
Kohl himself with contempt I look at you
And I'm proud that I don't find your feelings in myself?
What is this cymbal sound of your instant glory?
That the power is terrible and your dignity is majestic?
Oh! better hide yourself in obscurity simple,
Than with low passions and mean soul
Himself, for the strict gaze of his fellow citizens,
Put them on trial, as if for shame!
When in me, when there are no direct virtues,
What is the use of my dignity and my honors?
Not a dignity, not a family - only dignity is respectable;
Seyan! and the very kings without them are contemptible;
And in Cicero I am not a consul - he himself is honored,
For the fact that they saved Rome from Catiline ...
O husband, worthy husband! why can't you again
Having been born, to save fellow citizens from evil fate?
Tyrant, tremble! he can be born
Or Cassius, or Brutus, or Cato, the enemy of kings!
Oh, how on the lyre I will try to glorify him,
Who will save my fatherland from you!
Under hypocrisy you think maybe
To hide from the gaze of the common cause of evil...
Unaware of my terrible situation,
You are deluded in an unfortunate blindness;
No matter how you pretend and no matter how cunning you are,
But the properties of evil souls cannot be hidden:
Your deeds will expose you to the people;
He will know - that you have constrained his freedom,
Tax burdensome brought to poverty,
Villages deprived them of their former beauty...
Then tremble, O haughty temporary worker!
The people are terribly furious with tyrannies!
But if evil fate, falling in love with the villain,
From a fair reward and save you,
All tremble, tyrant! For evil and perfidy
Your offspring will pronounce their sentence!
Death of Yermak
P.A. Mukhanov
The storm roared, the rain roared;
Lightning flew in the darkness
Thunder rumbled incessantly
And the winds raged in the wilds...
To the glory of passion breathing,
In a country harsh and gloomy,
On the wild bank of the Irtysh
Yermak sat, engulfed in thought.
Companions of his labors,
Victories and loud-sounding glory,
Among the spread tents
They slept carelessly near the oak forest.
“Oh, sleep, sleep,” the hero thought, “
Friends, under a roaring storm;
With the dawn, my voice will be heard,
Calling for glory or death!
You need rest; sweet dream
And calm the brave in a storm;
In dreams he will remind glory
And the strength of the warriors will double.
Who did not spare his life
In robberies, mining gold,
Will he think about her
Dying for holy Russia?
Wash away with your own and enemy's blood
All the crimes of a wild life
And deserved for the victory
Blessings of the motherland, -
We cannot be afraid of death;
We have done our work:
Siberia conquered the king
And we - not idly in the world lived!
But his fatal destiny
Already sat next to the hero
And looked with regret
At the victim with a curious look.
The storm roared, the rain roared,
Lightning flew in the darkness;
Thunder rumbled incessantly
And the winds raged in the wilds.
The Irtysh boiled in steep banks,
Gray waves were rising
And crumbled with a roar to dust,
Biya on the shore Cossack boats.
With the leader, peace in the arms of sleep
The brave squad ate;
There is only one storm with Kuchum
I didn’t doze off at their death!
Fearing to fight with the hero,
Kuchum to the tents, like a despicable thief,
Sneaked through the secret path
Tatars surrounded by crowds.
Swords flashed in their hands -
And the valley bled
And fell formidable in battles,
Without drawing their swords, squad ...
Yermak woke up from sleep
And, death in vain, tends to the waves,
Heart full of courage
But the boats are far from the shore!
Irtysh is more worried -
Yermak strains all his strength
And with his mighty hand
Shafts gray cuts ...
Floats ... the shuttle is already close -
But the strength of fate yielded,
And, boiling more terrible, the river
The hero was swallowed up with a bang.
Depriving the strength of the hero
Fight the raging wave
Heavy shell - the gift of the king -
Became his death to blame.
The storm roared... suddenly the moon
The boiling Irtysh turned silver,
And the corpse, vomited by the wave,
In the copper armor lit up.
The clouds rolled in, the rain roared,
And the lightning still flashed
And the thunder still rumbled in the distance,
And the winds raged in the wilds.