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Saltykov-Shchedrin. Portrait by I.N. Kramskoi

Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov (Russian: Михаил Евграфович Салтыков; 27 January [O.S. 15 January] 1826 in Spas-Ugol village, Tver guverniya – - 10 May [O.S. 28 April] 1889 in Saint Petersburg), better known under his penname Shchedrin (Щедрин), was a leading Russian satirist of the 19th century. After the death of the poet Nikolai Nekrasov, he acted as editor of Sovremennik, the Contemporary.

The Contemporary was a leading Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in St.Petersburg from 1836-1866. The magazine published poetry, prose, critical, historical, ethnographic, and other material.

The Sovremennik originated as a private enterprise of Alexander Pushkin who was running out of money to support his growing family. To assist him with the magazine, the poet asked Nikolai Gogol, Pyotr Vyazemsky and Vladimir Odoyevsky to contribute their works to the journal. It was there that the first substantial assortment of Fyodor Tyutchev's poems was published. A few years later the magazine fell into decline, and Nikolay Nekrasov and Ivan Panayev took it over in 1847. It was Nekrasov who really made the magazine profitable. He enlisted the services of Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Herzen, and Nikolai Ogaryov. The Sovremennik was the first to publish translated works by Charles Dickens, George Sand, and other best-selling foreign writers.

During the reactionary reign of Nicholas I, the journal had to struggle against censorship and complaints of disgruntled aristocracy.

Most popular contributors to Sovremennik in 1856 (left to right): Ivan Goncharov, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Dmitri Grigorovich, Alexander Druzhinin and Alexander Ostrovsky.

In 1863, Nekrasov invited Saltykov-Shchedrin (stayed until 1864), Maxim Antonovich, Grigory Yeliseyev, and Alexander Pypin to join its editorial staff. Controversy among the members of the editorial staff soon resulted in adoption of a more temperate policy.

In 1863-1866, Sovremennik published Chernyshevsky's What Is To Be Done? (written in the Peter and Paul Fortress), satires by Saltykov-Shchedrin, and works by the so-called plebeian authors (Vasili Sleptsov, Fyodor Reshetnikov, Gleb Uspensky). The magazine was closed down in June 1866, due to the official panic that followed the first attempt on Alexander II's life. After that, Nekrasov and Saltykov-Schedrin acquired the rights to publish the Otechestvenniye Zapiski, a literary journal widely viewed as the Sovremennik's successor.

Early life

A scion of the ancient Saltykov family, Mikhail Saltykov was born on his father’s estate in the province of Tula. His early education was completely neglected, and his youth, owing to the severity and the domestic quarrels of his parents, was full of the most melancholy experiences. Left entirely to himself, he developed a love for reading; but the only book in his father’s house was the Bible, which he studied with deep attention.

At ten years of age he entered the Moscow Institute for the sons of the nobility, and subsequently the Lyceum in St Petersburg, where Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky, afterwards minister for foreign affairs, was one of his schoolfellows. While there he published poetry, and translations of some of the works of Lord Byron and Heinrich Heine. On leaving the Lyceum he obtained employment as a clerk in the Ministry of War.

In 1854 he published A Complicated Affair, which, in view of the revolutionary movements at that time in France and Germany, was cause for his banishment to Vyatka under the conservative regime of Nicholas I, where he spent eight years as a minor government official. This experience enabled him to study the life and habits of civil servants in the interior, and to give a clever picture of Russian provincial officials in his Provincial Sketches.

Later life

On his return to St Petersburg he was quickly promoted to administrative posts of considerable importance. After making a report on the condition of the Russian police, he was appointed deputy governor, first of Ryazan and then of Tver. His predilection for literary work induced him to leave the government service, but pecuniary difficulties soon compelled him to re-enter it, and in 1864 he was appointed president of the local boards of taxation successively at Penza, Tula and Ryazan.

In 1868 he finally quit the civil service. Subsequently he wrote his principal works, namely, The Old Times of Poshekhonye, which possesses a certain autobiographical interest, The History of One Town, a satirical allegory of Russian history, Messieurs et Mesdames Pompadours; and his only novel, The Golovlyov Family (also translated as House of Greed). The latter work, often considered Saltykov's masterpiece, is a penetrating study of overpowering greed.

In his eighties, Saltykov remained a last remnant of the heroic age of reform and progress, universally venerated by all the advanced intelligentsia. His last publication was an applauded collection of satirical fables and tales. He died in St Petersburg and was interred in the Literary Cemetery. "The sole object of my literary work," wrote Saltykov-Shchedrin, "was unfailingly to protest against greed, hypocrisy, falsehood, theft, treachery, stupidity of modern Russians".

Works

The greater part of Saltykov's work is a rather nondescript kind of satirical journalism, for the most part with no narrative skeleton, and intermediate in form between the classical "character" and the contemporary feuilleton. Enormously and universally popular though it was in its own time, it has since lost much of its attraction simply because it satirizes social conditions that have long ceased to exist and much of it has become unintelligible without comment.

In 1869-70 The History of a Town appeared, which sums up the achievement of Saltykov's first period. It is a sort of parody of Russian history, concentrated in the microcosm of a provincial town, whose successive governors are transparent caricatures of Russian sovereigns and ministers, and whose very name is representative of its qualities–Glupov (literally, Sillytown).

Most works of Saltykov's later period are written in a language that the satirist himself called Aesopic. It is one continuous circumlocution in view of the censorship and demands a constant reading commentary for the contemporary reader to understand. The style, moreover, is deeply rooted in the bad "journalese" of the period, which goes back to Osip Senkovsky and which today invariably produces an impression of painfully elaborate vulgarity.^[1]

The Golovlyov Family was described by D.S. Mirsky as the gloomiest book in all Russian literature–all the more gloomy because the effect is attained by the simplest means without any theatrical, melodramatic, or atmospheric effects. The most remarkable figure in this novel is Porfiry Golovlev, nicknamed Little Judas, the empty and mechanical hypocrite who cannot stop talking unctuous and meaningless humbug, not for any inner need or outer profit, but because his tongue is in need of constant exercise. It is one of the most terrible visions of ultimately dehumanized humanity ever conceived by an imaginative writer.^[2]

References
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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Template:Mirsky

Notes

↑ D.S. Mirsky. A History of Russian Literature. Northwestern University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8101-1679-0. Page 294.
↑ Ibidem. Page 294.

External links

Works by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. Project Gutenberg

Credits

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[1] D.S. Mirsky. A History of Russian Literature. Northwestern University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8101-1679-0. Page 294.

[2] Ibidem. Page 294.

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@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 [[Image:Kramskoj - saltykov-schedrin.jpg|right|225px|thumbnail|Saltykov-Shchedrin.  Portrait by [[Ivan Kramskoi|I.N. Kramskoi]]]]
-'''Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov''' ({{lang-ru|Михаил Евграфович Салтыков}}; {{OldStyleDate|27 January|1826|15 January}} in Spas-Ugol village, [[Tver]] guverniya &ndash; -  {{OldStyleDate|10 May|1889|28 April}} in [[Saint Petersburg]]), better known under his penname ''Shchedrin'' (''Щедрин''), was a leading [[Russia]]n [[satire|satirist]] of the 19th century. At one time, after the death of the poet [[Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov|Nikolai Nekrasov]], he acted as editor of the ''Contemporary''.
+'''Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov''' ({{lang-ru|Михаил Евграфович Салтыков}}; {{OldStyleDate|27 January|1826|15 January}} in Spas-Ugol village, [[Tver]] guverniya &ndash; -  {{OldStyleDate|10 May|1889|28 April}} in [[Saint Petersburg]]), better known under his penname ''Shchedrin'' (''Щедрин''), was a leading [[Russia]]n [[satire|satirist]] of the 19th century. After the death of the poet [[Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov|Nikolai Nekrasov]], he acted as editor of ''Sovremennik'', the ''Contemporary''.
-''The Contemporary'' ''Sovremennik'' was a leading [[Russia]]n literary, social and political magazine, published in [[St.Petersburg]] from 1836-1866. The magazine published poetry, prose, critical, historical, ethnographic, and other material.
+''The Contemporary'' was a leading [[Russia]]n literary, social and political magazine, published in [[St.Petersburg]] from 1836-1866. The magazine published poetry, prose, critical, historical, ethnographic, and other material.
-The ''Sovremennik'' originated as a private enterprise of [[Alexander Pushkin]] who was running out of money to support his growing family. To assist him with the magazine, the poet asked [[Nikolai Gogol]], [[Pyotr Vyazemsky]] and [[Vladimir Odoyevsky]] to contribute their works to the journal. It was there that the first substantial assortment of [[Fyodor Tyutchev]]'s poems was published. Soon it became clear that Pushkin's establishment could not compete with [[Faddey Bulgarin]]'s journal, which published more popular and less demanding literature. The ''Sovremennik'' was out of date and could not command a paying audience.
+The ''Sovremennik'' originated as a private enterprise of [[Alexander Pushkin]] who was running out of money to support his growing family. To assist him with the magazine, the poet asked [[Nikolai Gogol]], [[Pyotr Vyazemsky]] and [[Vladimir Odoyevsky]] to contribute their works to the journal. It was there that the first substantial assortment of [[Fyodor Tyutchev]]'s poems was published. A few years later the magazine fell into decline, and [[Nikolay Nekrasov]] and [[Ivan Panayev]] took it over in 1847. It was Nekrasov who really made the magazine profitable. He enlisted the services of [[Ivan Turgenev]], [[Ivan Goncharov]], [[Alexander Herzen]], and [[Nikolai Ogaryov]]. The ''Sovremennik'' was the first to publish translated works by [[Charles Dickens]], [[George Sand]], and other best-selling foreign writers.
-When Pushkin died, his friend [[Pyotr Pletnyov]] took over the editorship in [[1838]]. A few years later the magazine fell into decline, and Pletnyov handed it over to [[Nikolay Nekrasov]] and [[Ivan Panayev]] in [[1847]]. It was Nekrasov who really made the magazine profitable. He enlisted the services of [[Ivan Turgenev]], [[Ivan Goncharov]], [[Alexander Herzen]], and [[Nikolai Ogaryov]]. The ''Sovremennik'' was the first to publish translated works by [[Charles Dickens]], [[George Sand]], and other best-selling foreign writers.
+During the reactionary reign of [[Nicholas I]], the journal had to struggle against [[censorship]] and complaints of disgruntled aristocracy.  [[Image:Famous photograph by levitsky.jpg|thumb|300px|Most popular contributors to ''Sovremennik'' in 1856 (left to right): [[Ivan Goncharov]], [[Ivan Turgenev]], [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Dmitri Grigorovich]], [[Alexander Druzhinin]] and [[Alexander Ostrovsky]].]]
-Although the magazine was owned and run by Nekrasov, its official [[editor-in-chief]] was [[Alexander Nikitenko]]. The virulent realist critic [[Vissarion Belinsky]] was responsible for its ideology. His criticism of present-day reality and propaganda of democratic ideas made the journal very popular among the Russian [[intelligentsia]]. ''Sovremennik'''s circulation was 3,100 copies in [[1848]].
+In 1863, Nekrasov invited Saltykov-Shchedrin (stayed until 1864), [[Maxim Antonovich]], [[Grigory Yeliseyev]], and [[Alexander Pypin]] to join its editorial staff. Controversy among the members of the editorial staff soon resulted in adoption of a more temperate policy.
-During the reactionary reign of [[Nicholas I]], the journal had to struggle against [[censorship]] and complaints of disgruntled aristocracy. Its position grew more complicated after Herzen's emigration (1847) and Belinsky's death (1848). Despite these hardships, ''Sovremennik'' published works by best Russian authors of the day: [[Leo Tolstoy]], Turgenev, and Nekrasov. [[Timofey Granovsky]], [[Sergey Solovyov]] and other leading historians were published as well.
+In 1863-1866, ''Sovremennik'' published Chernyshevsky's ''What Is To Be Done?'' (written in the [[Peter and Paul Fortress]]), satires by Saltykov-Shchedrin, and works by the so-called plebeian authors ([[Vasili Sleptsov]], [[Fyodor Mikhaylovich Reshetnikov|Fyodor Reshetnikov]], [[Gleb Uspensky]]). The magazine was closed down in June 1866, due to the official panic that followed the [[Dmitry Karakozov|first attempt on Alexander II's life]]. After that, Nekrasov and Saltykov-Schedrin acquired the rights to publish the ''[[Otechestvenniye Zapiski (1868-1884)|Otechestvenniye Zapiski]]'', a literary journal widely viewed as the ''Sovremennik'''s successor.
-The period between [[1852]] and [[1862]] is considered to be the most brilliant in the history of the journal. Nekrasov managed to strike a deal with its leading contributors, whereby their new works were to be published exclusively by him. As regards ideology, the ''Sovremennik'' grew more radical together with its audience. Belinsky was succeeded by [[Nikolai Chernyshevsky]] in [[1853]] and by [[Nikolai Dobrolyubov]]. All their principal articles were published in the ''Sovremennik''. [[Image:Famous photograph by levitsky.jpg|thumb|300px|Most popular contributors to ''Sovremennik'' in 1856 (left to right): [[Ivan Goncharov]], [[Ivan Turgenev]], [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Dmitri Grigorovich]], [[Alexander Druzhinin]] and [[Alexander Ostrovsky]].]]
-In late [[1858]], the magazine entered into polemics with the liberal and conservative press and became a platform for and ideological center of the revolutionary democracy, turning into a political magazine. In [[1861]], it published materials, dedicated to the [[emancipation of the serfs]] and advocated the interests of serfs in the strongest terms possible. In [[1859]]-1961, ''Sovremennik'' argued with Herzen's ''[[Kolokol]]'' about the aims of the Russian democracy.
-Such a radical stance alienated those writers who were indifferent to politics or personally disliked revolutionary [[intelligentsia]]. Although Tolstoy, Turgenev, and [[Dmitry Grigorovich]] eventually left the magazine, the ''Sovremennik'''s circulation reached 7,126 copies in 1861. The death of Dobrolyubov in 1861, an 8-month suspension of publishing activities (in June 1862), and Chernyshevsky's arrest caused irreparable damage to the magazine. Its ideological stance became less clear and consistent.
-In [[1863]], Nekrasov managed to resume publishing the ''Sovremennik''. He invited [[Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin]] (stayed until [[1864]]), [[Maxim Antonovich]], [[Grigory Yeliseyev]], and [[Alexander Pypin]] to join its editorial staff. Controversy among the members of the editorial staff soon resulted in adoption of a more temperate policy.
-In 1863-1866, ''Sovremennik'' published Chernyshevsky's ''[[What Is To Be Done?]]'' (written in the [[Peter and Paul Fortress]]), satires by Saltykov-Shchedrin, and works by the so-called plebeian authors ([[Vasili Sleptsov]], [[Fyodor Mikhaylovich Reshetnikov|Fyodor Reshetnikov]], [[Gleb Uspensky]]). The magazine was closed down in June 1866, due to the official panic that followed the [[Dmitry Karakozov|first attempt on Alexander II's life]]. After that, Nekrasov and Saltykov-Schedrin acquired the rights to publish the ''[[Otechestvenniye Zapiski (1868-1884)|Otechestvenniye Zapiski]]'', a literary journal widely viewed as the ''Sovremennik'''s successor.