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The creative activity of Alexei Vasilyevich Koltsov (1809–1842) is one of the most striking manifestations of what was happening in the 1830s. democratization of the ranks of writers, which, as Pushkin noted, was supposed to have “important consequences.”
In Koltsov’s poetry, for the first time, the spiritual world of the peasant was revealed from within, his deep and genuine humanity, trampled under foot by serfdom. Thus, Koltsov’s work seemed to reveal with his own eyes what, after the poet’s death, Belinsky was still forced to prove and defend, saying: “Isn’t a man a man? – But what could be interesting about a rude, uneducated person? - Like what? “His soul, mind, heart, passions, inclinations - in a word, everything is the same as in an educated person.”
Having become the first poet of the peasant world in the history of Russian poetry, Koltsov thereby expanded the social boundaries of artistically depicted reality. His work was a new and significant step forward towards the further rapprochement of art with the people.
And before Koltsov there were poets who wrote about the peasant. Even in the first decades of the 19th century. - a very remarkable symptom - a number of so-called self-taught peasant poets appear (F. Slepushkin, E. Alipanov, M. Sukhanov, etc.). But in their poems the nationality was, according to Belinsky’s definition, purely decorative (4, 160). Drawing idyllic pictures of “rural life”, they did not go further than rehashes of book poetry of that time.
Koltsov’s poetic creativity was directly related to the advanced trends of Russian social thought and literature of those years. Mastering folk song traditions and relying on the achievements of contemporary writers, Koltsov managed to find his own voice, his own methods of poetic mastery. It is not without reason that, speaking of Koltsov as an original artist of the word and defining his place among the poets of the 30s - early 40s, Belinsky argued that “after the name of Lermontov, the most brilliant poetic name in modern Russian poetry is the name of Koltsov” (4, 179). Later, Chernyshevsky would give the same high praise to Koltsov. Characterizing the post-Pushkin period in the development of Russian poetry, he wrote: “Koltsov and Lermontov appeared. All the old celebrities have faded in comparison to these new ones”; and for the progressive people of Chernyshevsky’s era this was indeed the case.
Koltsov’s creative image is inextricably linked with the peculiarities of his biography. It is not enough to see in it only a special case, a personal drama of an artist forced to submit to unfavorable everyday circumstances. Koltsov’s bitter fate crystallized the general tragedy of the people’s life of his time.
From his adolescence, Koltsov knew the hardships of life. His father, a Voronezh tradesman, strove to raise his children in his own image and likeness. A rude and domineering man, he took the future poet from the second grade of the district school and turned him into his clerk. Throughout his short life, Koltsov was forced by the will of his father to engage in his commercial affairs.
The native nature of the Voronezh region became a real school for Koltsov. He spent most of the year on endless rides on horseback. The black earth steppe with its open spaces and villages taught the poet to think broadly and freely, to see the core, deep beginning in people. The steppe became truly the poetic cradle of Koltsov.
N.V. Stankevich played an important role in Koltsov’s biography. Possessing a highly developed aesthetic taste, he immediately grasped the original character of Koltso’s talent. Through Stankevich, acquaintances were made with V. A. Zhukovsky, V. F. Odoevsky, P. A. Vyazemsky and others. At one of Zhukovsky’s literary “Saturdays” in early 1836, Koltsov met with Pushkin.
It is difficult to overestimate the role of the critic of the democrat Belinsky in the fate of Koltsov. The meeting in 1831, and then the rapprochement and, finally, the closest friendship with him, which lasted until the last days of the poet, largely determined the meaning and content of Koltsov’s entire creative life.
Belinsky for many years was the first reader, connoisseur and editor of Koltsov's works. He took part in the preparation for publication of the first collection of poems by Koltsov (1835). He was also the initiator and compiler of the subsequent publication of the poet’s works, already posthumous (1846), providing it with an extensive introduction “On the life and writings of Koltsov.” This is the first summary article about the activities of the poet Prasol and his first detailed biography.
Belinsky was not just a personal friend for Koltsov, but an ideological leader. They were brought together primarily by social and spiritual kinship. We have the right to consider both as predecessors of the galaxy of “new people” of the 1860s. Koltsov appeared in the world as if responding to Belinsky’s passionate calls for nationality in literature.
Delvig, Vyazemsky, and F. Glinka have a certain influence on the young poet. Koltsov highly appreciates Venevitinov’s work. In an eight-line poem dedicated to Venevitinov (1830), Koltsov expressed warm sympathy for the young poet in his secret longing for the “good” and “high.” Close to Koltsov and Ryleev. The lines of Koltsov’s poem “Earthly Happiness” (1830) are painted in those civic patriotic tones that were characteristic of Ryleev’s “Thoughts”. Even the very nature of exposing social injustices, not to mention the direct use of intonation, rhythm and word usage, makes us recall some poems from the Volynsky Duma.
And yet, in the development of Koltsov as a poet, the decisive role belongs to Pushkin.
The young Koltsov’s attraction to Pushkin’s poetry, to the deeply expressed in it, according to Belinsky, “the inner beauty of man and the humanity that cherishes the soul” (7, 339) was noticeably manifested in the poem “The Nightingale” (1831). By reproducing not only the theme, but also the sound side and the general stylistic and metrical structure of Pushkin’s poem “The Nightingale and the Rose,” the author apparently wanted to emphasize his dependence on the work of his beloved and great poet. However, the romance already reveals that Kol’tsov’s own soulful lyricism, that special musicality that will be characteristic of the poet’s mature mastery. It is not surprising that the poem “The Nightingale” was set to music by A. Glazunov, N. Rimsky Korsakov, A. Rubinstein, A. Gurilev and many other composers. V.V. Stasov ranked it among the “astoundingly beautiful and poetic” romances.
Mastering Pushkin's poetry helps Koltsov to work more seriously and independently on the style of his works. Getting rid of romance phraseology, elegiac formulas that filled his early poems (“I was with her,” “Come to me,” 1829; “What are you for, tender heart...”, 1830, etc.), Koltsov strives for simplicity and clarity of poetic speech.
Koltsov’s artistic sympathies are extremely constant. This applies equally to the content and poetics of his works. If we exclude the first experiments, which bear the stamp of belated sentimentalism, and the poems “for the occasion,” then everything else clearly falls into two dissimilar parts. One is a reflection on the eternal problems of human existence, the other is an image of a peasant soul. The genres – “thought” and song – are chosen accordingly.
Turning to Koltsov’s philosophical themes may seem artificial. But it was precisely the spontaneous desire to touch upon the secrets to which the merchant-philistine circle was indifferent that pushed the poet Prasol into the world of abstract ideas. Let us also not forget that in the conditions of the 30s. passion for philosophy, mainly German, took on the character of a hidden public protest: after all, thought is free, it cannot be banned!
There is no particular pretension to philosophy in Koltsov’s “thoughts.” They captivate not with their depth of insight into the essence of fundamental ideological issues, not with their “intelligence,” but, on the contrary, with their spontaneity, even some kind of naivety. Here is the thought “Man” (1836). These are more likely emotions spilling out from the depths of the soul than a strict reasoning about the contradictory nature of human actions. In “The Kingdom of Thought” (1837) we encounter a purely artistic attempt to present one of the provisions widespread in German metaphysics about the existence of a certain absolute - the infinite spiritual fundamental principle of the universe.
The artist clearly suppressed the philosopher in Koltsov. “Dumas” now retain a more historical interest - as evidence of the intense intellectual quest of the author of “Mower”, as a kind of monument to the social and aesthetic life of the 1830s.
The pinnacle of Koltsov’s creative achievements are the songs he created. Poems written in imitation of Russian folk songs appear in Russian poetry back in the 18th century. and became widespread in the first third of the 19th century. At this time, “Russian songs” by Merzlyakov, Delvig, N. Ibragimov, Shalikov, Glebov, Tsyganov, Obodovsky, Alexander Korsak and others were published and entered into the mass repertoire.
Merzlyakov, Delvig, Tsyganov and other immediate predecessors of Koltsov played an undoubted and positive role in the development of the genre of Russian book songs. Compared to the sentimentalist poets of the late 18th century. they achieved more significant results both in conveying the hero’s emotional experiences and in mastering the stylistic, intonation and rhythmic features of oral folk poetry. However, the work of even prominent masters of Russian song did not go further than external borrowing of motifs, images, and stylistic means already developed in folklore. And this could not but lead to artificiality and imitation, which is felt in the very language of the songs they composed. Some of them became popular, but their authors shunned the prose of people’s working life and spoke “only about feelings, and mostly tender and sad feelings.”
Exceptional penetration into the very depths of the folk spirit and folk psychology allowed Koltsov, as Belinsky said about him, to reveal in his songs “everything good and beautiful that, like an embryo, like a possibility, lives in the nature of the Russian peasant” (9, 532).
Koltsov revealed to Russian literature its true hero - a modest peasant on whose shoulders the whole of Russia rested. Not an invented, but a natural peasant finally took his rightful place in the gallery of poetic characters. It turned out that the soul of a simple person in a moral sense is not a dead desert, as was previously thought, that it is capable not only of vain, low passions, but also of sublime feelings. The serf peasant is shown by Koltsov not as a slave and an impersonal instrument of production, but as an ethically and aesthetically valuable individuality.
The lyrical hero of Koltsov’s poems was the forerunner of Turgenev’s peasants from “Notes of a Hunter.” Without him, the emergence of accusatory Nekrasov poetry would have been impossible.
The true nationality of Koltsov’s creativity was most clearly manifested in his songs about peasant agricultural labor. The poet's innovation was reflected here primarily in his ability to express the people's point of view on work as a source of life, spiritual greatness, and joy. The hero of “The Plowman’s Song” (1831) “merrily” gets along with a harrow and a plow. In the poem “Harvest” (1835), the creaking of carts at harvest time is likened to music, and the stacks on the threshing floors are likened to princes.
The attitude towards work determines the physical and moral beauty that the Koltsovo peasants, for example, the hero of “Mower” (1836):
Do I have a shoulder -
Wider than grandfather;
Chest high -
My mother.
On my face
Paternal blood
Lit in milk
Red dawn.
Strength, dexterity, and enthusiasm for the very progress of the work (“Get itchy, shoulder! Swing, arm!”) reveal that “poetry of labor,” in which Gleb Uspensky saw one of the most characteristic features of Koltsov’s work. It is with difficulty that Koltsov’s lyrical hero connects the concepts of the ethical and the beautiful, thereby revealing the essential aspects of folk life and national self-awareness.
In most cases, the Koltsovo young men are seduced not so much by the practical result as by the process of labor itself, its inner beauty, the possibility of expressing one’s “I” in it. Hard physical labor, which was treated by the educated classes as pitiful and slavish - or, at best, aroused compassion for the plowman - under the pen of Koltsov the songwriter acquired a completely new property. It became that part of people's life where the latent craving of the farmer for spiritual activity found outlet. It is not the principle of immediate “benefit” that explains the peasant’s readiness to poeticize his everyday activities and the formidable forces of nature. Here the original artistic inclinations of the peasant soul made themselves felt.
Koltsov’s innovation is clearly revealed in those of his songs that tell about the difficult living conditions of the peasant. The poet was able to talk about the poor man with such emotional sorrow, with such sympathy, like none of his predecessors. Moreover, in a number of Koltsov’s poems on this topic, trends that will be characteristic of democratic poets of the 60s are already outlined. Particularly noteworthy in this regard are Koltsov’s songs “The Bitter Share” (1837), “The Thoughts of a Peasant” (1837), “The Second Song of Likhach Kudryavich” (1837), “Crossroads” (1840), “The Poor Man’s Share” (1841), etc. The author’s lyrical voice, warmed by warmth and sincere sympathy for a disadvantaged person, is heard in the poem “Village Trouble” (1838), ending with the expressive lines:
Since then I have been waiting with grief
I wander around strange corners,
I work for a day's work,
Then I wash myself with blood...
(p. 162)
At the same time, the poor man in Koltsovo songs not only complains and laments about his bitter fate. He knows how to give her a daring challenge and boldly meets any adversity. The hero of the poem “Treason of the Betrothed” (1838), shocked by what happened, sets off on the road:
Mourn grief, amuse yourself with life,
To recount the evil fate...
(p. 156)
Koltsov’s hero, being an exponent of the most essential features of the Russian character, is patient, persistent, and courageous. If misfortune befalls him, then, according to Belinsky, it is natural for him not to become dissolved in sadness, not to fall “under the burden of despair itself... and if he does fall, then calmly, with full consciousness of his fall, without resorting to false consolations, without seeking salvation in something that he did not need in his best days” (9, 533). That is why, despite all the troubles and thunderstorms that await the lyrical hero Koltsov, the main tone of his poetry remains deeply optimistic and life-affirming:
And so that with grief at the feast
Be with a cheerful face;
To go to death -
Songs to be sung by the nightingale!
(p. 176)
It is characteristic that in these words from the poem “The Path” (1839), the Soviet poet Pavel Antokolsky saw the “central nerve” of Koltsov’s talent.
The theme of will - one of the primordial themes of folk poetry - occupied a prominent place in the work of the poet Prasol. The poem “Stenka Razin” (1838) is typical in this regard. It is in organic connection with Razin’s song folklore. Here is the appeal of the good fellow to the “Mother Volga” who fed and gave him drink, and the sweeping daring of the freedom-loving hero:
Make a fuss, bad weather,
Take a walk, Mother Volga!
Take my awesome thing
Mark a wave along the shore...
(p. 169)
The very choice of Razin’s theme to a certain extent characterizes both Koltsov’s social and aesthetic views.
According to Shchedrin, this is Koltsov’s merit that he was able to reveal in the Russian disenfranchised peasant a person deeply aware of his dignity, to notice that “burning sense of personality” that “reveals all external barriers and, like a river overflowing its banks, drowns, destroys and carries with it everything it encounters along the way.”
Depicting the people with a “hidden thought of freedom,” Koltsov believes that the best share of working people only “For the time being, fell like a stone into the water,” and the important thing is that these hopes are fueled by faith in the powerful forces hidden in the people. In the poem “In Bad Weather, the Wind...” (1839), the poet calls on the people:
Get up - with all your strength
Flap your wings:
Maybe our joy
Lives just over the mountains!
(p. 178)
The lines of Koltsov’s famous song “So the soul is torn…” (1840) are also imbued with the demand for “another life.” The poet puts his ardent desire for freedom into the romantic “Duma of the Falcon” (1840), where the poet’s own sublime dream of freedom merges with the aspirations of the enslaved masses:
Ile at the falcon
Wings are tied
Or the way for him
Are they all booked?
(p. 192)
It is not surprising that “The Falcon’s Thought” was perceived by many generations of progressive people as a song calling for the struggle for a life worthy of a person. Also noteworthy is the wide response that the poems of this song received in fiction: in the works of I. S. Turgenev, I. S. Nikitin, L. N. Trefolev, F. V. Gladkov and others.
The image of a brave and independent bird, akin to Gorky’s legendary Falcon, appears in a number of Koltsov’s poems. And he himself enters our consciousness as “the falcon of Russian poetry, whose free flight was “a call to the proud for freedom, for light.”
Koltsov often speaks of the awakening impulses for a better life among the people only in hints, but quite transparently in the context of the era. For example, in the song “I have a lot...” (1840):
But I know what
I'm looking for magic herbs;
But I know what it's about
I'm sad with myself...
(p. 207)
In some of the poet's songs, features of a certain limitation characteristic of the consciousness of the patriarchal peasantry appear. But - and this is the most important thing - despite all the doubts and rather complex ideological and moral quests of Koltsov, his best poems express a rather bold protest for that time against the “dirty” and “rude” reality of his time. Rising to the realization of the need to fight it, the poet calls in the “Message” dedicated to Belinsky (1839) to rebel in the name of the “triumph” of “new thought,” truth, reason and honor.
It can be said without exaggeration that at that time no one, except Lermontov, expressed hatred of feudal reality with such artistic force as Koltsov. Even tears, burning, poisonous tears of anger, despair, melancholy, here make Koltsov related to Lermontov. Opposing a life based on lawlessness and slavery, Koltsov states in “Reckoning with Life” (1840):
If God gave strength -
I would break you!
(p. 208)
But the parallel between “Lermontov and Koltsov” requires a deeper consideration. Being contemporaries, both poets from different points of view (but similar in the main thing - rejection of contemporary social reality) reflected the contradictions of their bitter era.
Lermontov, more clearly than others, testified to the dissatisfaction of his generation with the Nicholas regime. His work focuses on depicting the darker sides of life. Skepticism, reflection, destructive for the psyche, the poison of introspection - all these “internal diseases” struck the best part of the noble class during the years of the Nicholas reaction.
Koltsov, on the contrary, expressed in many works the healthy, powerful forces of the nation, the national spirit, which cannot be broken even by ultra-cruel political oppression. What, in fact, changed in the usual way of life of the multi-million masses of the peasantry due to the next changes on the Russian throne? Under Nicholas I, everything in the village remained the same as it was before: hopeless poverty, aggravated by the beginning of the stratification of the rural community, the growing power of the “golden treasury”.
Lermontov in “Duma” looks with sadness at his generation, the future is depicted by the author in the darkest colors (“...either empty, or dark...”). Koltsov sees it completely differently. Embodying the inexhaustible faith of the peasant worker in the ultimate happiness of man, this eternal folk optimism, Koltsov exclaims in “The Last Struggle” (1838):
Don't threaten me with trouble,
Do not call, fate, to battle:
I'm ready to fight with you
But you can't deal with me!
(p. 167)
Koltsov’s fiery lines sounded like a sharp dissonance against the background of the poetry of his era. New motives suddenly invade the lyrics of despair, despondency and melancholy. The light coloring of Koltsov’s poems is also born under the influence of their specific artistic form. The song poetics itself becomes unusually meaningful. No matter what sad things are said in the work, the rapidity of intonation, special chanting, and the originality of the melodic pattern seem to soften the drama.
The poem “Forest” (1837) is colored with high civic pathos and deep sorrow caused by the death of Pushkin. This, in the broadest sense of the word, political speech can safely be placed next to such an accusatory work as Lermontov’s “Death of a Poet.” It is enough to recall the comparisons in Koltsov’s poems of those gloomy years with “black autumn” and “silent night” or read, for example, into the following stanza:
He went wild, fell silent...
Only in bad weather
Howling a complaint
For timelessness...
(p. 148)
– to feel the courage of the challenge to the official government of Russia. The description of those base intrigues that were the immediate cause of the death of the great poet is noteworthy in its accuracy:
From heroic shoulders
They took off the head -
Not a big mountain
And with a straw...
(p. 149)
Family and everyday songs deserve special attention in Koltsov’s work. They reveal with great sincerity the inner world of a simple Russian woman, truthfully conveying her position in a patriarchal peasant environment. The realistic content also determined the artistic features of these songs, their close connection with folklore, in particular with family and everyday folk lyrics. This connection was manifested with particular force in Koltsov’s development of the theme of forced life with a “hateful” husband. The poet recreates a truly tragic image of a young peasant woman married against her will. The heroine of the poem “Crazy, Without Reason...” (1839) gives a new and tragic shade to the traditional saying “if you live, you fall in love”:
Well, having grown old,
Reason, advise
And with you youth
Compare without calculation!
(p. 189)
Just as deeply moving, as Belinsky wrote, “the soul-tearing complaint of a tender female soul, condemned to hopeless suffering” (9, 535), is heard in the song “Oh, why me...” (1838):
Don't let the grass grow
After autumn;
Don't let the flowers bloom
In the winter in the snow!
(p. 158)
Koltsov’s family songs are characterized by their social orientation. Expressing the high ideals of folk morality, they contained a demand for the spiritual emancipation of man. The thirst for love, independence, and will was especially clearly manifested in the song “Flight” (1838), in which the right to mutual love and personal happiness was combined with the liberation aspirations of the enslaved people.
Koltsov’s love lyrics are poetry of earthly joy, enthusiastic admiration for spiritual and physical beauty. The admiration of the beloved is also evoked by comparisons that are remarkable in their artistry in the song “The Last Kiss” (1838):
Let your face burn
Like dawn in the morning...
How beautiful is spring
You, my bride!
(pp. 159–160)
An amazingly beautiful and bright feeling is sung by Koltsov. The heroes of his songs love with all their hearts. On the most difficult days, great love illuminates the lives of disadvantaged people and gives them strength in the fight against harsh reality. The boby from the song “The wind blows in the field...” (1838) is not afraid
The share is not human,
When he loves
She is young!
(p. 166)
It is no coincidence that Chernyshevsky called Koltsov’s collection of poems a book of “pure love,” a book in which “love is the source of strength and activity.”
Koltsov’s love songs stand out for their special sincere lyricism, deep sincerity, and sometimes amazingly vivid reproduction of intimate human feelings. Such works of the poet as “It’s Time for Love” (1837), “The Sadness of a Girl” (1840), “Separation” (1840), “I Won’t Tell Anyone...” (1840) were a truly new word in the love lyrics of those years. To this it must be added that, praising the spiritual beauty of people from the people, beauty desecrated and insulted in a serf-owning society, Koltsov was able to become a unique spokesman for the liberation aspirations of his time.
The nationality of Koltsov's poetry finds expression not only in a truthful display of real life, but also in the development of appropriate artistic means. Koltsov’s songs, Belinsky wrote, “represent an amazing wealth of the most luxurious, most original images of the highest degree of Russian poetry. From this side, his language is as amazing as it is inimitable” (9, 536).
Using aesthetic techniques that have long been established in oral tradition, the poet enriches them with his own inventions. He strives to develop a system of poetic means that would allow him to convey the general pathos of his work in an “optimal mode.” Most consistent with these goals were the possibilities of a synthetic genre fusion - a semi-literary, semi-folklore “Russian song”. Symbols, rhythms, and special speech patterns outlined by the people acquired exceptional expressiveness under Koltsov’s pen.
One of the most striking manifestations of Koltsov’s skill is his ability to dramatize a lyrical theme. Penetrating deeply into folk characters, the poet shows the feelings and experiences of ordinary people through their external signs (face, movement, intonation, gesture), which introduces new poetic colors into Russian literature. This is, for example, the image of a girl’s internal state during her separation from her lover in the song “Separation” (1840). The girl’s deep emotion is conveyed here with utmost completeness:
Instantly the whole face burst into flames,
Covered with white snow...
(p. 199)
The heroine’s heartache was reflected in the very intermittency of her speech (“Don’t go, wait! Give me time...”), and in the understatement (“On you, the falcon is clear...”), and in the visible revelation of her spiritual grief (“The spirit was busy - the word froze...").
Sometimes the skill of a songwriter is manifested in extremely compressed portrait sketches. Thus, in the deeply intimate lyrical song “Don’t make noise, rye...” (1834), remembering his beloved “soul maiden,” Koltsov focuses only on her eyes:
It was sweet for me
Look into her eyes;
In eyes full
Love thoughts!
(p. 112)
An exciting image, filled with deep feeling, clearly appears before us. In the stream of surging memories, thoughts, thoughts, the poet finds that essential, fundamental thing that is especially imprinted and has become the most precious.
The usual portrait is not given in the song “It’s Time for Love” (1837):
She stands there, thinking,
Fanned with the breath of enchantment...
(p. 145)
But we well imagine the youth and beauty of a girl through the external manifestation of her spiritual movement:
The white chest is worried,
What a deep river...
(ibid.)
Koltsov’s artistic originality is revealed with particular force in his landscape painting. In his poems, nature is inseparable from people and their work, from everyday human worries, joys, sorrows and thoughts. According to Saltykov Shchedrin, this is why “Koltsov is great, this is why his talent is powerful, that he never becomes attached to nature for nature’s sake, but everywhere he sees a person soaring above it.”
The pictures of his native land created by Koltsov are fresh and new. “The beautiful dawn caught fire in the sky” (“The Plowman’s Song”), and the ripening rye “Smiles at a merry day” (“Harvest”). In the poem “Why are you sleeping, peasant?..” (1839) Koltsov finds unique colors to describe late autumn:
After all, it’s already autumn in the yard
Looking through the spindle...
(p. 186)
– and Russian village winter:
Winter follows her
He walks in a warm fur coat,
The path is covered with snow,
It crunches under the sleigh.
(ibid.)
Koltsov knows how to speak in his own way about the free Russian steppe. Reading the poem “Mower” (1836), it seems that you see its entire endless expanse, breathe in the smell of its herbs and flowers. For the Koltsovo mower, it is not only spacious, but also somehow especially joyful and bright:
Oh, my steppe,
The steppe is free,
You are wide, steppe,
Spread out...
(p. 123)
In the poem “Harvest” (1835), a slowly approaching cloud darkens, grows, “is armed with thunder, storm, fire, lightning,” and then, as if after a moment’s calm, it
Up in arms -
And expanded
And hit
And it spilled
A big tear...
(p. 114)
In this stanza, consisting almost entirely of verbs, the very rhythm and selection of sounds (primarily the voiced consonants “r” and “l”) contribute greatly to the depiction of powerful rumbles of thunder and gushing rain. The “and” sound that precedes them gives verbs especially great dynamism, breadth, and strength.
One of the features of Koltsov’s poetic mastery is the accuracy, concreteness, almost visual palpability of the image with exceptional economy and laconicism of artistic means. Having organically adopted folk song speech, the poet developed his own style corresponding to the theme, his own imagery, his own special voice.
Koltsov strives for fresh and precise words (in the sense of conveying a certain psychological state), comparisons and metaphors, akin to the very spirit of folk songwriting. This feature of Koltsov’s realistic poetics is clearly manifested in the song “The Poor Man’s Share” (1841), where the author was able to simply and at the same time convey in a completely new way the bitterness of the experiences of a peasant bobyly, hidden from the eyes of people:
From the soul sometimes
Joy will burst forth -
Evil mockery
He'll be poisoned in no time.
(p. 215)
Speech elements that come directly from folklore (“And you sit, look, Smiling; And in your soul you curse the bitter Share!”) are natural and artistically justified for the poet.
We see original mastery in the instrumentation, melody, metric and rhythm of Kol’tsov’s poems. Koltsov’s widely used pentasyllabic and iambic trimeter with dactylic endings, internal rhymes, repetitions and alliteration give his poems the semantic expressiveness and musicality noted above. And when you read, for example, the song “Don’t make noise, rye...”, you clearly see that even its very size is very suitable for the sad mood with which this poem is filled:
Heavier than the mountains
Darker than midnight
Lay down on? heart
Black Duma!
(p. 112)
No less expressive is such a Koltsovo song as “The Last Kiss”. In its instrumentation, attention is drawn to the first and second lines, where the sounds “l”, “p” (“kiss, dove, caress”) are clearly heard, the third and fourth - with the sound “r” standing out in them (“Once again, hurry up, kiss me hot." Repetitions of words and internal rhymes are also found (“Don’t yearn, don’t grieve, don’t shed tears from your eyes”). All this gives the lyrical intonation of Koltsov’s songs a musicality that was so highly appreciated by M. Balakirev, who wrote his famous romance based on the words of this poem. According to C. A. Cui, the romance represents the most perfect example of merging music with text into one harmonic whole.
In general, it should be noted that Koltsov played an exceptional role in the development of national musical culture. His lines inspired the creation of wonderful works by such composers as Glinka, Varlamov, Gurilev, Dargomyzhsky, Balakirev, Rimsky Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Rubinstein, Rachmaninov, Grechaninov, Glazunov and others.
Koltsov enriched our poetry with unartificial Russian speech. Avoiding any deliberate “beauty,” he introduces into his poems ordinary words taken from the living folk language, giving them a special poetic flavor. According to Belinsky’s definition, Koltsov’s songs “boldly included bast shoes, and torn caftans, and disheveled beards, and old onuchi - and all this dirt turned into pure gold of poetry for him” (9, 534).
Using the colloquial speech of peasants, Koltsov carefully selects the most typical things in it, which helps him more clearly express the feelings and thoughts of the people, and truthfully show the life of common people. In “The Second Song of Likhach Kudryavich” (1837) we read:
Kaftanishka torn
You'll pull it over your shoulders,
Ruffle your beard
You'll pull your hat down,
You will become quiet
On someone else's shoulders...
(p. 153)
Koltsov is extremely characterized by the frequent use of diminutive speech forms, which are most consistent with the folk style:
Sadness fell, heavy melancholy
On a twisted head...
(p. 156)
Take my cool thing...
(p. 169)
Proverbs and sayings, organically interspersed into the speech of his lyrical hero, are typical for Koltsov’s songs. For example, in “The Bitter Valley” (1837):
Without love, without happiness
I wander around the world:
I'll get rid of trouble -
I will meet with grief!
(p. 137)
The significance of Koltsov in the history of Russian literature is determined by his indissoluble connection with the people, which, according to Belinsky, found vivid expression in the poet’s artistic reproduction of peasant life and the character traits, mindset and feelings of ordinary Russian people. It was these most important aspects of Koltsov’s creativity that had the most fruitful impact on Russian poetry.
Based on the literary and aesthetic concept of Belinsky, the revolutionary democrats of the 60s. considered Koltsov’s poetic heritage in accordance with the new and increased demands put forward by the era for a comprehensive reflection of life in its essential manifestations.
In his first statements about Koltsov (1858), Dobrolyubov defines him as a poet who, by the very essence of his talent, was close to the people. At the same time, the critic directly and, perhaps, even overly categorically pointed out the insufficient connection between Koltsov’s works and socio-political issues. According to Dobrolyubov, “Koltsov lived the life of the people, understood its sorrows and joys, and knew how to express them. But his poetry lacks a comprehensive view; The simple class of the people appears in solitude from common interests...”
Dobrolyubov was able to highlight and highly appreciate that “real healthy” side of Koltsov’s poems, which, according to the critic, needed to be “continued and expanded.” Dobrolyubov emphasized the inextricable connection between advanced Russian poetry and Koltsovo traditions. Saltykov Shchedrin also wrote about the significance of these traditions for Russian literature: “The entire number of modern writers who have devoted their work to the fruitful development of the phenomena of Russian life are a number of successors to Koltsov’s work.”
Koltsov’s artistic heritage was especially dear to N. A. Nekrasov. Speaking about Koltsov as a truly original poet, he put him on a par with our greatest poets - Pushkin, Lermontov, Zhukovsky, Krylov.
In Nekrasov’s work, the theme of labor introduced into poetry by Koltsov found a further continuation. Nekrasov gave her the political edge that Koltsov lacked. Nekrasov was undoubtedly close to the folk view of the physical and spiritual beauty of working people expressed in Koltsov’s songs.
Koltsov’s experience largely prepared Nekrasov’s appeal to folklore, to the living colloquial speech of peasants. Nekrasov, to some extent, can be considered a successor to Koltsov in the field of versification. Very indicative in this regard is the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” in which Koltsov’s predominantly iambic trimeter with dactylic endings is widely used.
The tradition of Koltsov is also noticeable in the work of the poet of the Nekrasov camp, I. S. Nikitin. Relying on the artistic experience of his predecessors and, above all, Koltsov, he turned directly to the life of the common people, drawing themes and images from it. In Nikitin’s poems (“Made noisy, went wild...”, “The Bobyl’s Song”, “Inheritance”, “A crazy merchant was driving from the fair...”, “Get rid of melancholy...”, etc.) there is a clear focus on the folk song principle, which is so fully represented. at Koltsov's.
In line with Koltsov’s traditions, the work of the democrat poet I.Z. Surikov also develops. The influence of the author of “Mower” is felt in such well-known works as “Eh, you, share ...”, “Are you a head, little head ...”, “In the steppe”, etc. Surikov’s poem “In a green garden there is a nightingale ...” is a development of the poetic the motive of the female share, developed by Koltsov in his song “Oh, why me...”.
Traces of Koltsov’s influence are also noticeable in the works of songwriters S. F. Ryskin (1860–1895), E. A. Razorenov (1819–1891), N. A. Panov (1861–1906), etc. The problematics and poetics of Koltsov’s poems were found further development in the creative practice of S. D. Drozhzhin: the theme of peasant labor reflected in his poems genetically goes back to “The Plowman’s Song” and “The Harvest.”
Koltsov had a particularly great and fruitful influence on the artistic development of Sergei Yesenin. In the poem “Oh, Rus', flap your wings...” the poet directly writes about himself as a follower of Koltsov. The lyrical motifs and images of the Russian songbook have a direct echo in the poems of M. Isakovsky, A. Tvardovsky, N. Rylenkov and other Soviet poets, whose work is deeply and organically connected with folk song.
An innovative artist, A. V. Koltsov managed to create such original, deeply national examples of democratic poetry that his name deservedly took one of the first places among the remarkable Russian poets.

A. V. Koltsov wrote romances, madrigals, triplets

Then he turned to the genre of literary songs, which were included in his only lifetime collection of poetry: Poems (1835).

Among his works, the most famous are: “Oh, don’t show a passionate smile!”, “Betrayal of your betrothed,” “A.P. Srebryansky”, “The Second Song of Likhach Kudryavich” and many others.

From the biography of Alexey Vasilyevich Koltsov:

Alexey Vasilyevich Koltsov was born on October 15, 1809 in Voronezh - in the family of a buyer and hereditary cattle dealer (prasol), who was known throughout the district as a literate person, an honest partner and a strict housekeeper. The mother, on the contrary, was kind in nature, but completely uneducated: she could neither read nor write.

There were many children in the Koltsov family, but there were no peers of Alexei: his sisters were either much older or much younger. It is known that the father raised his children quite harshly: he did not allow pranks and was demanding even in small things. The father did not strongly insist on the children’s education, but everyone had basic reading and writing skills. There is no information on how many children the Koltsovs had or how they lived.

From the age of 9, Alexei Koltsov received his primary education at home under the guidance of a seminarian teacher, demonstrating such abilities that in 1820 he was able to enter the two-year Voronezh district school, bypassing the parish school. Studying was easy for him, he mastered many sciences and achieved great success in all subjects.

Alexey failed to complete the course of study: after the first year and 4 months (2nd grade), his father decided to take his son out of school. He motivated this by the fact that without the boy’s help he could not cope with his affairs, and one year of study was quite enough. The father began to accustom his only son and heir to trading activities.

Having taken over the family business, Koltsov was successfully engaged in Prasol activities. Alexey's job was to drive and sell livestock. Alexey did this for quite a long time. In parallel with his Prasol activities, Koltsov writes poetry, despite the fact that his father forbade him to engage in literary work.

On his father's business, Alexey traveled to St. Petersburg and Moscow, where, thanks to Stankevich, he met V.G. Belinsky, who had a great influence on him, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Vladimir Odoevsky and Pushkin.

Grave of A.V. Koltsov

In 1842, on October 29, as a result of depression and prolonged consumption, the poet died at the age of thirty-three.

In the last years of his life, Alexey often quarrels with his father because of his negative attitude towards his work. Although during his short life, Alexey Koltsov achieved quite great creative success: he became a famous Russian poet, whose poems everyone knows and loves.

The creative path of A. V. Koltsov:

At school, Alexey fell in love with reading, the first books he read were fairy tales, about Bova, about Eruslan Lazarevich and others. He bought these books with the money he received from his parents for treats and toys.

Alyosha especially liked the works “A Thousand and One Nights” and “Cadmus and Harmony” by Kheraskov. His father forbade him to engage in poetry, which the boy had become interested in by that time: he demanded that he devote all his time and attention to trading.

But regardless of this, Alexei, at the age of 16, nevertheless wrote his first poem - “Three Visions”. However, after some time he destroyed it, because he believed that he was imitating the style of his favorite poet. But I wanted to find my own, unique style. Around the same time, people appeared in the biography of Alexei Vasilyevich Koltsov who helped the talented poet express his individuality. The first person, the mentor with whom the young poet’s creative path began, was Dmitry Kashkin, a Voronezh bookseller in a shop next door. He allowed Alexei to use the books for free, of course, only if he treated them with care.

Kashkin was direct, smart and honest, for which the youth of the city loved him. Kashkin's bookstore, located on Pushkinskaya Street, on the corner of Shchepnaya Square, was a kind of club for them. Kashkin was interested in Russian literature, read a lot and wrote poetry himself. Koltsov showed him his first works: Kashkin was very well-read and developed and also loved to write poetry. The seller saw himself in the young poet, so he treated him well and helped as much as he could. Thanks to this, for five years the young poet used books for free, studied and developed independently, without giving up helping his father.

The early poetic experiments of Alexei Koltsov represent imitations of the poems of Dmitriev, Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Kozlov, Kheraskov and other poets; in these works the poet is still discovering his own artistic style.

After Vargin's death in 1824, Alexey Koltsov inherited his library - about 70 volumes. In 1825, he became interested in the poems of I. I. Dmitriev, especially “Ermak”.

In 1825, at the age of 16, Alexei wrote his first poem, “Three Visions,” which he later destroyed. The poem was written in imitation of Koltsov’s favorite poet, Ivan Dmitriev.

Thanks to the parting words and advice of seminarian Srebryansky, a friend and mentor, four poems by Koltsov were published in 1830, although this publication was anonymous.

The main stage in the creative biography of Alexei Vasilyevich Koltsov is his acquaintance with the publicist Nikolai Vladimirovich Stankevich, who drew attention to the poems of the self-taught poet during Koltsov’s business trip to Moscow in 1831. The publicist and thinker became interested in the works of the young poet and published his poems in the newspaper. In the same year, Koltsov’s first signed poems were published: “Sigh at Venevitinov’s grave,” “My friend, my dear angel...” and others. Stankevich introduced Koltsov to the literary circle and introduced him to V. G. Belinsky. During this period, Koltsov’s work was largely imitative - for example, the influence of V. A. Zhukovsky was felt in the elegy “It’s not for me to listen to the magic melody” (1830).

Four years later, Stankevich published the first and only collection during the author’s lifetime: “Poems of Alexei Koltsov.” After this, the author became popular even in literary circles.

But, despite his creative breakthrough, Alexey did not stop working on his father’s business: he continued to travel to different cities on family matters. And fate continued to bring him together with outstanding people. Plus, the poet began to collect local folklore, wrote a lot about the life of ordinary people, peasants and their hard work.

The lyrical hero of Koltsov’s songs is a peasant (Plowman’s Song, 1831, Reflections of a Villager, 1832, Kosar, 1836, etc.). Critics noted the connection between Koltsov’s songs and folk songs, noticeable at figurative, thematic, linguistic and other levels. The songs individually combined literary and folk meters.

Love lyrics occupied a special place among Koltsov’s songs. The poems The Young Reaper (1836), Time for Love (1837), The Last Kiss (1838), Separation (1840) and others subtly described various shades of the experience of love. This distinguished Koltsov’s songs from folk love songs - as a rule, they were less diverse in the description of emotional nuances. The individual character of Koltso songs has been noted by many writers.

After the release of the poems “The Young Reaper,” “It’s Time for Love,” and “The Last Kiss,” Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin became interested in Koltsov. He called the main feature of these poems “a burning sense of personality.” During his short life, Alexey Koltsov achieved quite great results: he became not only a successful livestock seller, but also a famous Russian poet, whose poems were known to absolutely everyone.

Interesting facts from the life of the poet A.V. Koltsov:

*In 1835, the first and only collection during the poet’s lifetime was published: “Poems of Alexei Koltsov.”

* In his youth, the poet experienced a deep drama - he was separated from the serf girl whom he wanted to marry. This was reflected, in particular, in his poems “Song” (1827), “Don’t Sing, Nightingale” (1832) and a number of others.

*In the same year, 1827, seminarian Andrei Srebryansky appeared in his life, who after a while became a close friend and mentor on his creative path. Meeting this man helped Alexey survive the breakup with his beloved.

*It was Srebryansky who instilled in Koltsov an interest in philosophy.

*The magazine “Awakening” in No. 19 in 1909 published Koltsov’s poem “Longing for the Darling” for the 100th anniversary of the poet, indicating the date March 25, 1827, as “first appearing in print”, is it included in 4 works published anonymously, unknown.

*The year 1836 became a turning point in Koltsov’s creative development. His circle of contacts became unusually wide, it included many outstanding writers, musicians, artists, actors from Moscow and St. Petersburg: F. Glinka, M. Katkov, M. Pogodin, M. Shchepkin, P. Mochalov, P. Pletnev, A. Venetsianov and others.

* Koltsov was familiar with P. Vyazemsky, V. Odoevsky, V. Zhukovsky.

* His poems were published in the magazines “Telescope”, “Son of the Fatherland”, “Moscow Observer”, etc.

*According to N. Katkov, Koltsov, despite the lack of education, had access to “the most refined feelings, the most complex combinations of mental movements.”

*His lyrics glorified ordinary peasants, their work and their lives.

*Koltsov’s poems were set to music by Russian composers of the 19th century, including: A. S. Dargomyzhsky (“Crazy, without reason”, “Don’t judge, good people”, “I won’t tell anyone”, “Come to me”), M. A. Balakirev (“Wrap, Kiss”, “Frenzy”, “Song of the Old Man”, “Come to Me”, “I Loved Him”), M. P. Mussorgsky (“Winds Blow, Violent Winds”, “Many I have towers and gardens”, “A garden blooms over the Don”, “Merry Hour”), N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov (“Captured by the rose, the nightingale”).

* The grave of A.V. Koltsov is preserved in the Literary Necropolis not far from the Voronezh Circus.

*The date of death of Alexey Vasilyevich is incorrectly indicated on the tombstone. In fact, he died not on October 19, but on October 29.

*But death did not complete the creative biography of Alexei Vasilyevich Koltsov. In 1846, Pavel Stepanovich Mochalov, a Russian actor and acquaintance of Koltsov, published his poems in the newspaper Repertoire and Pantheon, thereby perpetuating the memory of his friend.

*In 1856, the popular newspaper Sovremennik published an article dedicated to the life and work of Koltsov, written by Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky.

*On Sovetskaya Square in the city of Voronezh there is a monument to the poet, which has survived to this day.

* A square, a gymnasium, a theater, a library and a street in Voronezh are named after A.V. Koltsov.

Alexey Vasilievich Koltsov(3, Voronezh - October, ibid.) - Russian poet.

Biography

Family

Alexey Vasilyevich Koltsov was born in Voronezh into the family of Vasily Petrovich Koltsov (1775-1852), a buyer and cattle dealer (prasol), who was known throughout the district as an honest partner and a strict householder. A man of strong character, passionate and enthusiastic, the poet’s father, not limiting himself to being a prasol, rented land for sowing crops, bought forests for felling, traded firewood, and was engaged in cattle breeding.

Alexei's mother is a kind, but uneducated woman, she did not even know how to read and write. He had no peers in the family: his sister was much older, and his brother and other sisters were much younger.

Education

From the age of 9, Koltsov learned to read and write at home, demonstrating such abilities that in 1820 he was able to enter a two-year district school, bypassing the parish school. Vissarion Belinsky wrote the following about the level of his education:

Beginning of quotation We do not know how he was transferred to the second grade, and in general what he learned at this school, because no matter how briefly we knew Koltsov personally, we did not notice any signs of elementary education in him.

After a year and four months (second grade) at the school, Alexey was taken away by his father. Vasily Petrovich believed that this education would be enough for his son to become his assistant. Alexey's job was to drive and sell livestock.

At school, Alexey fell in love with reading, the first books he read were fairy tales, for example about Bova, about Eruslan Lazarevich. He bought these books with the money he received from his parents for treats and toys. Later, Alexey began to read various novels, which he borrowed from his friend Vargin, who was also the son of a merchant. The future poet especially liked the works “A Thousand and One Nights” and “Cadmus and Harmony” by Kheraskov. After Vargin's death in 1824, Alexey Koltsov inherited his library - about 70 volumes. In 1825, he became interested in the poems of I. I. Dmitriev, especially “Ermak”.

Creation

In 1825, at the age of 16, he wrote his first poem, “Three Visions,” which he later destroyed. The poem was written in imitation of Koltsov's favorite poet, Ivan Dmitriev.

Koltsov’s first mentor in poetry was the Voronezh bookseller Dmitry Kashkin, who gave the young man the opportunity to use books from his library for free. Kashkin was direct, smart and honest, for which the youth of the city loved him. Kashkin's bookstore was a kind of club for them. Kashkin was interested in Russian literature, read a lot and wrote poetry himself. Apparently Koltsov showed him his first experiments. For 5 years, Koltsov used his library free of charge.

Family

Alexei's mother is a kind, but uneducated woman; she did not even know how to read and write. He had no peers in the family: his sister was much older, and his brother and other sisters were much younger.

Education

Creation

In 1825, at the age of 16, he wrote his first poem, “Three Visions,” which he later destroyed. The poem was written in imitation of Koltsov's favorite poet, Ivan Dmitriev.

Somewhere in his youth, the future poet experienced a deep drama - he was separated from the serf girl whom he wanted to marry. This was reflected, in particular, in his poems “Song” (1827), “Don’t Sing, Nightingale” (1832) and a number of others.

In 1827, he met seminarian Andrei Srebryansky, who later became his close friend and mentor. It was Srebryansky who instilled in Koltsov an interest in philosophy.

The young poet's first publications were anonymous - 4 poems in 1830. Under his own name, Alexey Koltsov published poems in 1831, when N.V. Stankevich, a famous poet, publicist and thinker, whom Koltsov met in 1830, published his poems with a short preface in the Literary Gazette. In 1835, the first and only collection during the poet’s lifetime, “Poems of Alexei Koltsov,” was published. On his father’s business, he traveled to St. Petersburg and Moscow, where, thanks to Stankevich, he met V. G. Belinsky, who had a great influence on him, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Vladimir Odoevsky and Pushkin, who published Koltsov’s poem in his magazine “Sovremennik” Harvest".

While traveling on his father’s trade business, Koltsov met with various people and collected folklore. His lyrics glorified ordinary peasants, their work and their lives. Many poems became words to the music of M. A. Balakirev, A. S. Dargomyzhsky, M. P. Mussorgsky, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov and many others.

Death of poet

Alexei Koltsov often had quarrels with his father (especially in the last years of his life); the latter had a negative attitude towards his son’s literary work.
As a result of depression and prolonged consumption, Koltsov died at the age of thirty-three in 1842.
V. G. Belinsky wrote:

The poet was buried at the Mitrofanevskoye cemetery in Voronezh.

In 1846, the famous Russian actor of the romantic era, P. S. Mochalov, who knew A. V. Koltsov, published his poems in the magazine “Repertoire and Pantheon”:

Creation

Alexei Koltsov's early poetic experiments represent imitations of the poems of Dmitriev, Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Kozlov, Kheraskov and other poets; in these works the poet is still discovering his own artistic style. But even among them there are already poems in which one cannot help but see the future creator of songs. On the other hand, attempts to write in the spirit of book poetry are observed in Koltsov until his death, interspersed with songs, and among the latter, some are closer to book forms than to the specific manner in which one can see the features of Koltsov’s style. Another genre of Koltsov is thoughts, which are similar in form to his songs, and in content represent a unique poetic philosophy. Having briefly become acquainted with the philosophical debates of his friends in the capital, mainly in Belinsky’s circle, Koltsov tries to understand world problems in his thoughts.

Criticism

In 1856, in the fifth issue of the Sovremennik magazine, an article by N. G. Chernyshevsky was published, dedicated to the work of A. V. Koltsov
According to literary critic Yu. I. Aikhenvald

Memory

Grave of A.V. Koltsov

The grave of A.V. Koltsov is preserved in the Literary Necropolis not far from the Voronezh Circus. The date of death of Alexey Vasilyevich is incorrectly indicated on the tombstone. In fact, he died not on October 19, but on October 29.

Monuments to A.V. Koltsov

A bust of the poet was erected in Koltsovsky Square in 1868. A monument to the poet was also erected on Soviet Square in Voronezh.

Voronezh State Academic Drama Theater named after A.V. Koltsov

In 1959, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, the Voronezh State Drama Theater was named after Alexei Vasilyevich Koltsov. A year before, the chief director of the theater, Firs Efimovich Shishigin, staged the play “Alexei Koltsov” based on the story of the same name by V. A. Korablinov. The premiere took place in May 1958. Voronezh writer and journalist Valentin Yushchenko wrote at the time:

On June 19, 1958, as part of the Ten Days of Professional and Amateur Arts of the Voronezh Region in Moscow, the play “Alexei Koltsov” was shown on the stage of the Vl. Mayakovsky. Many actors were subsequently awarded honorary titles.

Currently, renovations are being completed in the old theater building.

In philately, numismatics, sigillaty, etc.

Postage stamps and coins

USSR postage stamp, 1959

USSR postage stamp dedicated to Koltsov, 1969, 4 kopecks (CFA 3806, Scott 3652)

Commemorative silver coin of the Bank of Russia, dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Koltsov

A square, a gymnasium, a library and a street in Voronezh are also named after A.V. Koltsov.
In 1959, the Soviet historical and biographical feature film “Song of Koltsov” was released.
In 1997, the film “At the Dawn of a Foggy Youth,” dedicated to Alexei Koltsov, was released.
The Voronezh confectionery factory has been producing Koltsov's Songs sweets since 1958.
Voronezh OJSC Distillery "Visant" produces a special vodka called "Koltsovskaya" 0.5 l. 40%.
In 2009, for the 200th anniversary of the birth of A.V. Koltsov, the Bank of Russia issued a silver coin in denomination of 2 rubles.
In 2011, for the 425th anniversary of Voronezh, the Russian Post issued an envelope with an image of the monument to the poet in Koltsovsky Square.

Addresses

Addresses in Voronezh

St. Bolshaya Streletskaya, 53 - presumably on this site stood the house in which Alexey Vasilyevich was born. In 1984, during the celebration of the 175th anniversary of the poet’s birth, a memorial plaque with the following content was hung on the wall of the house:

Ilyinsky Church is the temple in which Alexey Vasilyevich was baptized. The metrical notation reads:

Devichenskaya st. (now Sakko and Vanceti streets), 72 - on this site there was a district school where A.V. Koltsov studied. Now one of the buildings of the Voronezh Technological Academy has been built here.
St. Bolshaya Dvoryanskaya (now Revolution Avenue), 22 - former residence of Voronezh governors

Alexey Vasilyevich Koltsov (1809 - 1842) - an outstanding Russian poet of the Pushkin era. Among his works, the most famous are: “Oh, don’t show a passionate smile!”, “Betrayal of your betrothed,” “A.P. Srebryansky”, “The Second Song of Likhach Kudryavich” and many others.

Biography of Alexey Vasilyevich Koltsov

The life and creative path of the famous poet is interesting and educational.

Family

Alexey Vasilyevich was born on October 15, 1809. The father of the future poet was a buyer and merchant. He was known as a competent and strict housekeeper. The mother, on the contrary, was kind in nature, but completely uneducated: she could neither read nor write. There were many children in the Koltsov family, but there were no peers of Alexei: the brothers and sisters were either much older or much younger.

The short biography of Alexei Vasilyevich Koltsov contains virtually no information about his family: there is almost no information left about this. What is known is that the father raised his children quite harshly: he did not allow pranks and was demanding even in small things. He didn’t really insist on the children’s education, but everyone had basic reading and writing skills. There is no information on how many children the Koltsovs had or how they lived.

Education

From the biography of Alexei Vasilyevich Koltsov we learn that the boy began learning to read and write (at home) at the age of nine. Studying was easy for him, he mastered many sciences. In 1820, Alyosha entered college and achieved great success in all subjects. But most of all he loved to read. The future poet began with the first thing that came to hand - with fairy tales, and a little later he switched to novels. And in 1825 he became interested in reading the poems of I. I. Dmitriev.

Alexey failed to complete the course of study: after the first year, his father decided to take his son out of school. He motivated this by the fact that without the boy’s help he could not cope with his affairs, and one year of study was quite enough. For quite a long time, Alexey was engaged in driving and selling livestock.

Creative path

His father forbade him to engage in poetry, which the boy had become interested in by that time: he demanded that he devote all his time and attention to trading. But regardless of this, Alexei, at the age of 16, nevertheless wrote his first poem - “Three Visions”. However, after some time he destroyed it, because he believed that he was imitating the style of his favorite poet. But I wanted to find my own, unique style.

Around the same time, people appeared in the biography of Alexei Vasilyevich Koltsov who helped the talented poet express his individuality.

The first person who began the creative path of the young poet was Dmitry Kashkin, a bookseller in a shop next door. He allowed Alexei to use the books for free, of course, only if he treated them with care.

Koltsov showed him his first works: Kashkin was very well-read and developed and also loved to write poetry. The seller saw himself in the young poet, so he treated him well and helped him in any way he could. Thanks to this, for five years the young poet used books for free, studied and developed independently, without giving up helping his father.

Soon the poet experienced changes in his personal life: he fell in love with a girl who was a serf peasant. But their relationship is so serious that they are going to get married. However, Mr. Chance separates the couple. This drama leaves a bitter mark in the creative biography of Alexei Vasilyevich Koltsov; a brief summary of the poems of 1827 suggests that they were all dedicated to unhappy love.

In the same year, seminarian Andrei Srebryansky appeared in his life, who after a while became a close friend and mentor on his creative path. Meeting this man helped Alexey survive the breakup with his beloved. Thanks to the parting words and advice of Srebryansky, four poems were published in 1830, and the world learned that there was such a poet - Alexei Koltsov.

The main stage in the creative biography of Alexei Vasilyevich Koltsov is his acquaintance with This happened in 1831. The publicist and thinker became interested in the works of the young poet and published his poems in the newspaper. Four years later, Stankevich published the first and only collection during the author’s lifetime, “Poems by Alexei Koltsov.” After this, the author became popular even in literary circles.

Despite his creative breakthrough, Alexey did not stop working on his father’s business: he continued to travel to different cities on family matters. And fate continued to bring him together with outstanding people. Plus, the poet began to collect local folklore, wrote a lot about the life of ordinary people, peasants and their hard work.

Death of poet

In 1842, without surviving a terrible illness, the poet dies at the age of thirty-three. In the last years of his life, Alexey often quarrels with his father because of his negative attitude towards his work. Although during his short life he achieved quite great results: he became not only a successful livestock seller, but also a famous Russian poet, whose poems were known to absolutely everyone.

Alexey Vasilyevich was buried in the Voronezh region in the Literary Necropolis.

A monument to the poet was erected on Sovetskaya Square in the city of Voronezh, which has survived to this day.

But death did not complete the creative biography of Alexei Vasilyevich Koltsov. In 1846, a Russian actor and acquaintance of Koltsov published his poems in the newspaper Repertoire and Pantheon, thereby perpetuating the memory of his friend.

And in 1856, the popular newspaper Sovremennik published an article dedicated to the life and work of Koltsov, written by Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky.