• Date of Birth: 6 (17) August 1798
• Place of Birth: Moscow
• Direction: Classicism, sentimentalism
• Genre: Dramas, poems, stories

Anton Antonovich Delvig was born in 1798 in Moscow; his father, a major general, came from an impoverished and Russified ( future poet did not even know the German language in childhood) of the Baltic-German (Ostsee) barons. In 1811, Delvig entered the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where he made friends for life, one of them was A. S. Pushkin.

The favorite poet of Delvig the Lyceum student was Derzhavin. The “stealer of heavenly songs” with his life and poetry embodied for him the ideal of the poet: “He threw thunderbolts on the strong and glorified virtue” (“To the poet-mathematician”). In the early poems of Delvig, one can also feel the influence of sentimental-song poetry of the late 18th century. But most significantly at the end of the lyceum period, apparently, was the influence of Batyushkov's poetry (as well as the passion for ancient roman poet Horace; the Horatian spirit is also inherent in poetry Batyushkov), which affected a number of Delvig's poems of this time - in a general Epicurean tone, in kinship artistic ideas and images, in their size: " Quiet life”, “Poor Delvig”, “Drinking Song”, “Dithyramb”, etc. Delvig’s acquaintance with Karamzin’s poetic declarations and Batyushkov, which spoke of the sublime fate of the poet, of his high mission, made a deep impression on the young man. The theme of the poet's calling has become one of the leading ones in his work, he constantly refers to it in a number of works - "To A. S. Pushkin", "Elysium of Poets", "Pushkin", "On the Death of Derzhavin". Already in these early verses, the poet appears as a chanter and prophet, able to foresee the future:

Fate is open

days to come

He has a curtain...

But this double ability is not unconditional - the gift of poetry and the foresight of truth requires from the poet fidelity to his genius, the courage to follow him, spiritual purity. He who has felt the fire of poetry in himself should not be tempted by glory - neither military nor civil, for he has been given a louder glory and deeper wisdom:

...Pallada misty cloud

Scatters from the eyes - and in youth

He already sees the sacred truth

And the prophet, looking down from under his brows!

Delvig Anton Antonovich (6.08.1798-14.01.1831), poet, critic, journalist. On the entrance exams at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum met with A. S. Pushkin; The acquaintance grew into their closest friendship. From 1824 he published the almanac "Northern Flowers", in 1830 he edited the "Literary Gazette". After a conflict with the chief of the gendarmes, Mason Benckendorff, the newspaper was closed. This event, along with family troubles, led to the illness and sudden death of the poet.

One of the brightest representatives of Russian poetry Pushkin's time, Delvig gained fame for his elegies and idylls, as well as romances and songs. The songs My Nightingale, Nightingale (1826, comp. A. A. Alyabiev) and “Not an autumn light rain ...” (c. 1820s, comp. M. I. Glinka).

Anton Delvig by an unknown artist

Delvig and Pushkin

Delvig Anton Antonovich (1798-1831), baron; one of Pushkin's closest friends since his Lyceum days. Pushkin, in his words, "talked to him about everything that excites the soul, that the heart is tormented." highly appreciated great poet and the poetic talent of a friend: “You brought up your genius in silence” (“October 19”, 1825).

Delvig was the editor of the annual "Northern Flowers" (1825-1831), the anthology "Snowdrop" (1829-1830) and "Literary Gazette" (1830) - publications in which Pushkin took a lively part.

Delvig’s early death shocked Pushkin: “This is the first death I mourned”, “No one in the world was closer to me ...”, “He was the best of us.” Pushkin takes care of his orphaned family.

Used materials of the book: Pushkin A.S. Works in 5 vol. M., Synergy Publishing House, 1999.

Delvig Anton Antonovich (1798-1834).

“No one in the world was closer to me than Delvig,” Pushkin wrote to P. A. Pletnev, shocked by the news of the early death of his lyceum friend, and a little later: “In addition to his wonderful talent, he was a perfectly arranged head and soul of an unusual warehouse. He was the best of us."

Delvig began to write poetry very early and was the first of the lyceum students to publish. He also owns the first printed review of Pushkin, then still unknown to the reading public.

Pushkin! He will not hide in the forests:
Lyra will betray him with loud singing,
And from mortals he will take away the immortal
Apollo triumphant on Olympus.

Delvig's poetic legacy is relatively small. The main thing in his lyrics is idylls (imitations of the ancients) and poems in the spirit of Russians folk songs. Widely known are his "Nightingale", "Oh, is it night, night ...", "Not frequent autumn rain ...", set to music. The role of the poet in the development of Russian verse is significant. “The idylls of Delvig are amazing to me,” Pushkin wrote in 1827. German translations».

The friendship of the poets was interrupted only with the death of Delvig. They were inseparable in post-lyceum time. They could be seen at the meetings of the "Green Lamp", of which they were members, at the celebration of the founding day of the Lyceum and in the literary circles of the capital.

When fate befell me with anger,
For all a stranger, like a homeless orphan,
Under the storm I drooped head languid
And I was waiting for you, prophet of Permesian maidens,
And you came, inspired son of laziness,
Oh my Delvig: your voice awakened
Heart heat, so long lulled,
And cheerfully I blessed fate.

Pushkin's meetings with Delvig resumed in the summer of 1827. Petersburg Salon Delvig was one of cultural centers capital, and Pushkin visited him daily. His regulars were the host's friends P. A. Pletnev, A. Mitskevich, P. A. Vyazemsky, V. A. Zhukovsky, O. M. Somov, M. I. Glinka, M. L. Yakovlev, musicians and actors. Pushkin actively participated in Delvig's publications Northern Flowers (1825-1831), Snowdrop (1829) and Literaturnaya Gazeta (1830), published his poems and critical articles. The great poet dedicated many poems to his friend, and among them are “To Delvig” (“Listen, muses of the innocent ...”) (1815), “Love, friendship and laziness ...” (1817-1820), “Message to Delvig” ("Accept this skull, Delvig, he..."). Mentions him in the poems "Sonnet", "The more often the Lyceum celebrates ..." and others.

Delvig had many friends among St. Petersburg artists, and he sought to bring Pushkin closer to them.

Shortly before his death, while examining the models of the statues of Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly in the workshop of the sculptor B. I. Orlovsky, Pushkin recalled his friend:

But meanwhile in the crowd of silent idols -
I walk sadly: good Delvig is not with me;
In a dark grave rested artists friend
and adviser.
How would he hug you! How proud of you!

L.A. Chereisky. Pushkin's contemporaries. Documentary essays. M., 1999, p. 27-29.

Poet

Delvig Anton Antonovich (1798 - 1831), poet. Born on August 6 (17 n.s.) in Moscow in the family of Russified Livonian barons, from an old impoverished family. He studied at a private boarding school, then in 1811 he entered the newly opened Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Here he meets Pushkin, friendship with whom lasts a lifetime.

He pays special attention to Russian literature and poetry, begins to write poetry and soon becomes one of the first lyceum poets, competing with Pushkin.

After graduating from the Lyceum in 1817, Delvig served in various departments. In 1818 he was elected to the "Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts", writes a lot.

In 1820, Delvig was an assistant librarian at the Public Library, served under I. Krylov, but devoted most of his time to literary creativity, visits literary and political circles, which included future Decembrists, becomes close to A. Bestuzhev, and K. Ryleev. However, the ideas of the Decembrist revolutionism are alien to him.

The main genre of Delvig's poetry is idylls (imitations of the ancients) and poems in the spirit of Russian folk songs, some of which are very popular ("Nightingale", music by A. Alyabyev, "Not a small autumn rain", music by M. Glinka). Delvig was one of the first to develop a Russian sonnet. His lyrics, despite their intimacy, played big role in development poetic forms and metric technique in poetry. Pushkin highly valued Delvig's poetry.

In 1825 - 31 he published the almanac "Northern Flowers" and "Literary Gazette" (1830 - 31), which had great importance to unite progressive poets Pushkin circle and defending their positions in the literary struggle of the time. F. Bulgarin's denunciations played their role, "the highest command was issued to ban the publication under his editorship" (1830). Shortly thereafter, Delvig died (January 14, in St. Petersburg).

Used materials of the book: Russian writers and poets. Brief biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.

A. A. Delvig Artist V. P. Langer. 1830

Looking for new ways

Delvig Anton Antonovich (August 6, 1798 - January 14, 1831), baron, poet. He studied at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (1811-17), after which he was determined to serve. Since 1824, Delvig has given himself entirely to literary work. He began to print poetry while still a pupil of the Lyceum, where his artistic views were established. In 1818 he was elected to the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts. Delvig refused to participate in the Decembrist coup. He acted in poetry as an original successor of the classical tradition (K. N. Batyushkova and others). The main types of his lyrics are imitations of the ancients (idylls) and poems in the spirit of Russian folk songs. Passion for antiquity for Delvig, as well as for many poets n. XIX century, was determined by romantic searches harmonious personality characterized by simplicity and naturalness of feelings. This was precisely what ideological meaning such idylls as "Cefiz", "Damon", "Bathrooms", "The End of the Golden Age". In the idyll "Retired Soldier" Delvig sought to reproduce the features of the Russian folk character, life, language. In the genre of folk songs, he reflected the folk spirit much more deeply than his predecessors (Yu. A. Neledinsky-Meletsky, I. I. Dmitriev). Some of the songs are widely popular (The Nightingale, music by A. A. Alyabyev, “Not an autumn light rain”, music by M. I. Glinka). Delvig was one of the first to develop the sonnet form in Russian poetry. As the sketch “Night of June 24” shows, Delvig was looking for new ways in the field of drama and boldly turned to new metrical forms, introducing them into literature. Delvig's lyrics, despite their intimacy, played an important role in the development of poetic forms and metrical technique in poetry. Pushkin, who highly appreciated Delvig's poems, pointed out that they "... noticeably an extraordinary sense of harmony and that classical harmony, which he never changed."

Delvig's publishing activity, his almanac Northern Flowers (1825-1831) and Literary Gazette (1830-31) were of great importance for uniting the poets of Pushkin's circle and defending their position in the literary struggle of the 1920s. From the very first issues, the newspaper waged a struggle for the ideological freedom of the artist. The writers of the Pushkin group defended their creative independence through Delvig's newspaper. The chief of the gendarmes, A. Kh. Benckendorff, summoned the publisher of the newspaper several times. As a result, “the highest order was issued to prohibit publication under his editorship” (December 1830). Shortly thereafter, Delvig died.

Site materials used Big Encyclopedia Russian people - http://www.rusinst.ru

RUSSIAN SONG

Someone poor like me
The night will listen to you
Without closing your eyes
Drowning in tears?

You fly, my nightingale,
Though far away,
Even for blue seas,
To foreign shores;

Visit all countries
In villages and cities:
Can't find you anywhere
Hotter than me.

Do I have a young
Expensive pearls on the chest,
Do I have a young
Fire ring on hand

Do I have a young
A sweet little friend at heart.
On an autumn day on the chest
Large pearls faded

In the winter night on the hand
The ring broke
How about this spring?
Loved me dear.
1825

Not an autumn rain
Splashes, splashes through the mist
Bitter tears are pouring well done
On your velvet coat.

"Come on, well done brother!
You're not a girl
Drink, longing will pass;
Drink, drink, longing will pass!

- "Not longing, friends, comrades,
Sadness sunk deep
Days of fun, days of joy
They flew away."

"Come on, well done brother!
You're not a girl
Drink, longing will pass;
Drink, drink, longing will pass!

- "And how a Russian loves his homeland,
So I love to remember
Days of fun, days of joy
How I had to grieve."

"Come on, well done brother!
You're not a girl
Drink, longing will pass;
Drink, drink, longing will pass!

Collaborated with the Decembrists

DELVIG Anton Antonovich, Baron (6.8.1798 - 14.1.1831). Official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Born in Moscow. Father - Major General (1816) Anton Antonovich Delvig (1772 - 07/08/1828), mother - Lyubov Matveevna Krasilnikova (d. 1859). Lyceum student of the 1st course (graduation) (1817) (Tosya).
He entered the service in the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs on February 6, 1817, was dismissed at the request of February 28, 1819, assigned to the office of the Ministry of Finance on April 2, 1819, dismissed on October 1, 1821, entered the Public Library as an assistant librarian on October 2, 1821, in Ministry of the Interior - 1825, and from 1829 to the Department of Foreign Confession.
Famous poet, Pushkin's closest lyceum comrade, publisher of the almanacs "Northern Flowers" (1825 - 1831) and "Snowdrop" (1829 - 1830) and "Literary Gazette" (1830). Member of the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature (employee - September 22, 1819, full member - October 3, 1819) Mason, member of the "Chosen Michael" lodge.
Member of the pre-Decembrist organization "Sacred Artel" and the literary society "Green Lamp".
Higher commanded to ignore.

Wife (from 10/30/1825) - Sofya Mikhailovna Saltykova. Sister - Maria (b. 1809), brothers Alexander (28.8.1816 - 2.12.1882) and Ivan (b. 9.8.1819).

WD, I, 54.

Used materials from the site of Anna Samal "Virtual encyclopedia of the Decembrists" - http://decemb.hobby.ru/

Sofya Mikhailovna Delvig (Saltykova), Anton Antonovich's wife.
Portrait by K. Schlesinger.

The last years of life and death of Delvig

In 1825, A.A. Delvig married nineteen-year-old Sofya Mikhailovna Saltykova. She was smart, friendly, well versed in literature. Writers, musicians, publishers gathered at the Delvigs. Gradually, their house turned into a fashionable literary and musical salon.
Sofya Mikhailovna had many admirers, to whom she reciprocated. A. A. Delvig knew about this, but he never made scandals.
At the same time, in 1830, A.A. Delvig’s relations with F. Bulgarin, with whom they had long been in hostile relations, escalated, critics fell upon the poet, accusing him of the fact that Pushkin wrote half of the poems for him, and the second half - E.A. Boratynsky.
Problems in literary and publishing activities, as well as family troubles, greatly exhausted the poet. He was often sick.
In November 1830, A.A. Delvig was summoned for interrogation to the head III branch Count A.Kh. Benckendorff, who accused the poet of disobedience to the authorities and threatened with exile to Siberia.
After that, A.A. Delvig fell ill with a fit of nervous fever, which was complicated by pneumonia. He has been in bed for over a month. And on January 14, 1831 he died.
Upon learning of the death of a friend, Pushkin wrote: “Delvig’s death makes me sad. In addition to a wonderful talent, it was a perfectly arranged head and soul of an outstanding temper. He was the best of us. Our ranks are beginning to thin…” In memory of him, A.S. Pushkin in 1831 published another volume of the almanac "Northern Flowers".

) is a Russian poet and publisher.

Biography

Anton Antonovich Delvig was born in Moscow, in the family of a major general, who came from an impoverished family of Baltic German barons. The family was so Russified that Delvig did not even know German language. Father, Anton Antonovich Delvig (06/17/1773-07/08/1828), - officer, major of the Astrakhan regiment, major general (1816). Mother, Lyubov Matveevna (09/26/1777-1859), was the daughter of State Councilor Matvey Andreevich Krasilnikov, director of the Moscow Assignation Bank, and the granddaughter of the Russian astronomer A. D. Krasilnikov.

Creation

Delvig published his poems in the journals "Russian Museum" (), "News of Literature", "Good-meaning", "Competitor of Education" and various almanacs in the 1820s.

last years of life

Until the end of his life, Delvig served in the Ministry of the Interior. He died of typhoid fever ("rotten fever") at the age of 32. He was buried in the necropolis of the masters of arts of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Addresses in St. Petersburg

Memory

• Anton Delvig All-Russian Prize, since 2012 - the award "For Loyalty to the Word and Fatherland" named after the first editor of Literaturnaya Gazeta Anton Delvig, better known as "Golden Delvig" (established by the editors of Literaturnaya Gazeta).

Write a review on the article "Delvig, Anton Antonovich"

Notes

Literature

• See the article about Delvig by V. Gaevsky in Sovremennik, city and, city and.
• complete collection works - in the "Library of the North" for July, ed. V. V. Maikova.
• Vatsuro V. E.
• Korovin V.L.// Encyclopedia Around the World
• A. A. Delvig and V. K. Kuchelbeker. Selected / Compiled by Viktor Vladimirovich Kunin . - Moscow: Pravda, 1987. - 640 p. - 500,000 copies.

Links

An excerpt characterizing Delvig, Anton Antonovich

“Not at all,” he said.
- Well, have you lost your mind?
- On the contrary, but the importance is somehow. Princess! he told her in a whisper.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Natasha said happily.
Natasha told him her affair with Prince Andrei, his arrival in Otradnoye, and showed him his last letter.
- What are you happy about? Natasha asked. - I'm so calm now, happy.
“I am very glad,” Nikolai answered. - He great person. What are you so in love with?
- How can I tell you, - Natasha answered, - I was in love with Boris, with a teacher, with Denisov, but this is not at all the same. I am calm, firm. I know that there are no people better than him, and I feel so calm, good now. Not at all like before...
Nikolai expressed his displeasure to Natasha that the wedding had been postponed for a year; but Natasha attacked her brother with bitterness, proving to him that it could not be otherwise, that it would be bad to enter the family against the will of her father, that she herself wanted it.
“You don’t understand at all,” she said. Nicholas fell silent and agreed with her.
Her brother was often surprised looking at her. It was not at all like she was a bride in love separated from her fiancé. She was even, calm, cheerful, completely as before. This surprised Nikolai and even made him look incredulously at Bolkonsky's matchmaking. He did not believe that her fate had already been decided, especially since he had not seen Prince Andrei with her. It always seemed to him that something was not right in this proposed marriage.
"Why the delay? Why didn't you get engaged?" he thought. Having talked once with his mother about his sister, he, to his surprise and partly to his pleasure, found that his mother, in the depths of her soul, sometimes looked with distrust at this marriage.
“Here he writes,” she said, showing her son a letter from Prince Andrei with that hidden feeling of hostility that a mother always has against her daughter’s future marital happiness, “writes that she will not arrive before December. What kind of business could hold him back? That's right, a disease! Health is very weak. Don't tell Natasha. Don't look that she is cheerful: this is the last girls time is living, and I know what happens to her every time we receive his letters. But God willing, everything will be fine, - she concluded every time: - he is an excellent person.

The first time of his arrival, Nikolai was serious and even boring. He was tormented by the imminent need to intervene in these stupid household affairs for which his mother had called him. In order to get this burden off his shoulders as soon as possible, on the third day of his arrival, he angrily, without answering the question where he was going, went with frowning eyebrows to Mitenka's wing and demanded from him the accounts of everything. What these accounts of everything were, Nikolai knew even less than Mitenka, who had come in fear and bewilderment. The conversation and accounting of Mitenka did not last long. The headman, the elected and the zemstvo, who were waiting in the ante-room of the wing, heard with fear and pleasure at first how the young count’s voice, which seemed to be rising ever higher, began to hum and crackle, heard cursing and scary words falling one after the other.
- Rogue! Ungrateful creature! ... I will chop up a dog ... not with my father ... robbed ... - etc.
Then these people, with no less pleasure and fear, saw how the young count, all red, with bloodshot eyes, pulled Mitenka by the collar, with great dexterity, with great dexterity, between his words, pushed him in the behind and shouted: “Get out! so that your spirit, bastard, is not here!
Mitenka flew headlong down the six steps and ran into the flower bed. (This flowerbed was a well-known area for saving criminals in Otradnoye. Mitenka himself, when he arrived drunk from the city, hid in this flowerbed, and many residents of Otradnoye, hiding from Mitenka, knew the saving power of this flowerbed.)
Mitenka's wife and sisters-in-law, with frightened faces, leaned out into the hallway from the door of the room, where a clean samovar was boiling and the clerk's high bed stood under a quilted blanket sewn from short pieces.
The young count, panting, paying no attention to them, walked past them with resolute steps and went into the house.
The countess, who immediately learned through the girls about what had happened in the wing, on the one hand, calmed down in the sense that now their condition should get better, on the other hand, she was worried about how her son would endure this. She tiptoed to his door several times, listening to him smoke pipe after pipe.
The next day the old count called his son aside and said to him with a timid smile:
- Do you know, you, my soul, got excited in vain! Mitenka told me everything.
"I knew, thought Nikolai, that I would never understand anything here in this stupid world."
- You were angry that he did not enter these 700 rubles. After all, he wrote them in transport, and you didn’t look at the other page.
- Daddy, he's a scoundrel and a thief, I know. And what he did, he did. And if you don't want me, I won't tell him anything.
- No, my soul (the count was also embarrassed. He felt that he was a bad manager of his wife's estate and was guilty before his children, but did not know how to fix it) - No, I ask you to take care of business, I'm old, I ...
- No, papa, you will forgive me if I did something unpleasant for you; I can do less than you.
“To hell with them, with these men and money, and transports along the page,” he thought. Even from the corner of six kush I understood once, but from the page of transport - I don’t understand anything, ”he said to himself, and since then he has no longer intervened. Only once did the countess call her son to her, inform him that she had Anna Mikhailovna's bill for two thousand, and asked Nikolai what he was thinking of doing with him.
“But how,” Nikolai answered. – You told me that it depends on me; I do not love Anna Mikhailovna and I do not love Boris, but they were friendly with us and poor. So that's how! - and he tore the bill, and with this act, with tears of joy, he made the old countess sob. After that, young Rostov, no longer intervening in any business, with passionate enthusiasm, took up the still new for him cases of dog hunting, which in large sizes was instituted by the old count.

There were already winters, morning frosts shackled the ground moistened with autumn rains, already the greenery had become narrower and bright green separated from the stripes of turning brown, knocked out by cattle, winter and light yellow spring stubble with red stripes of buckwheat. The peaks and forests, which at the end of August were still green islands between the black fields of winter and stubble, became golden and bright red islands in the midst of bright green winters. The hare was already halfway lost (molted), the fox broods began to disperse, and the young wolves were larger than the dog. It was the best hunting time. The dogs of the hot, young hunter Rostov not only entered the hunting body, but also knocked out so that in general council The hunters decided to give the dogs a rest for three days, and on September 16 to go on a trip, starting from the oak forest, where there was an untouched wolf brood.
This was the state of affairs on the 14th of September.
All that day the hunt was at home; it was frosty and poignant, but in the evening it began to rejuvenate and warmed up. On September 15, when young Rostov looked out the window in the morning in a dressing gown, he saw such a morning, better than which nothing could be better for hunting: as if the sky was melting and descending to the ground without wind. The only move that was in the air, there was a quiet movement from top to bottom of descending microscopic drops of mist or mist. Transparent drops hung from the bare branches of the garden and fell on the newly fallen leaves. The ground in the garden, like a poppy, turned glossy wet black, and at a short distance merged with a dull and damp cover of fog. Nikolay went out onto the porch, wet with dirt, which smelled of withering forest and dogs. The black-spotted, broad-assed bitch Milka, with big black bulging eyes, saw her master, got up, stretched back and lay down like a brown, then unexpectedly jumped up and licked him right on the nose and mustache. Another greyhound dog, seeing the owner from the colored path, arching its back, quickly rushed to the porch and raising the rule (tail), began to rub against Nikolai's legs.
- Oh goy! - that inimitable hunting echo was heard at that time, which combines both the deepest bass and the thinnest tenor; and from around the corner came Danilo, a hunter and hunter, trimmed in Ukrainian brackets, a gray-haired, wrinkled hunter with a bent rapnik in his hand and with that expression of independence and contempt for everything in the world that only hunters have. He took off his Circassian hat in front of the master, and looked at him contemptuously. This contempt was not offensive to the master: Nikolai knew that this Danilo, who despised everything and stood above all else, was still his man and hunter.

Russian poet, translator, journalist, critic and publisher. Founder of the "Literaturnaya Gazeta" - the first publication devoted entirely to literary - cultural life Russia.
Creator of the almanac "Northern Flowers". He became famous for his poems in the style of "Russian song" and "Greek idylls."
Author of the famous romance "Nightingale". Died at the age of 33. Delvig's work has been little studied and practically forgotten.

Flipping through the yellowed pages of the one-volume poetry and letters of Anton Delvig, now a rare edition, I came across a phrase from the commentator of the book (V. E. Vatsuro): "Delvig's work is not easy to understand. It needs a historical perspective, in which only they can be evaluated literary discoveries" I was confused.

She shrugged. Why am I writing about him? Isn't it too far? But isn’t it too unnecessary?: But then, somewhere in the corner of real heart memory, other lines surfaced, read a long time ago: “Delvig’s death makes me sad. the best of us. Our ranks are beginning to thin out.": (Pushkin - E. M. Khitrovo. January 21, 1831) Tears welled up in my eyes. Uninvited, funny. And I made up my mind. Pushkin did not waste words in vain. And if he said, "He was the best of us," then it's true.

Allow me to introduce "the best." Another Pushkin. Russian poet. The first publisher of the first Russian Literaturnaya Gazeta. Criticism and publicist. translator and collector of folklore. Just Baron Anton Antonovich Delvig, "whose life was not rich in romantic adventures, but wonderful feelings, bright pure mind and hopes "(Pushkin - from a letter to P. Pletnev on January 31, 1831)

Anton Antonovich Delvig was born on August 6, 1798 in Moscow. He belonged to the impoverished but old noble family of the barons Delvigs. His father was an assistant to the commandant of the Moscow Kremlin, according to the old - parade ground - major. Mother, Lyubov Matveevna, from the family of Russian nobles Krasilnikov. To the question of the questionnaire "how many souls, people, peasants does he own?" - the heir to the baronial title after the death of his father answered frankly: "I do not have."

Elementary education Antosha Delvig received in a private boarding school And under the guidance home teacher A. D. Borovkov, who instilled in him a taste for Russian literature and an aversion to exact sciences.

In October 1811, Mr. Borovkov brought the plump, clumsy, ruddy Antosha Delvig to Petersburg.

From lyceum characteristics Delviga:

"Baron Delvig Anton, 14 years old. His abilities are mediocre, like diligence, and successes are very slow. Baggyness is generally his property and is very noticeable in everything, but not when he is naughty or frolicking: here he is mocking, a joker, sometimes immodest Reading various Russian books without a proper choice, and perhaps a spoiled upbringing, spoiled him, which is why his morality requires long-term supervision, however, his good nature, his zeal and attention to admonitions are noticeable in him. the beginning competition in Russian literature and history, ennoble his inclinations". From this very valuable, somewhat contradictory, characteristic, one can see how high the bar of requirements for lyceum students was and how subtle observations were made by teachers of their developing souls.

There were legends about Delvig's laziness in the Lyceum. He himself maintained his reputation as a bum - lazy, thoughtful and absent-minded:

I am the nobility of labor

Still my friend don't comprehend

To be lazy, they say, trouble:

And I'm drowning in this trouble.

But was he really lazy? Hardly. Rather, it was a demeanor, a pace of life learned in childhood and turned into a persistent habit. Delvig was in no hurry. He thought. Accumulated strength.

It must be said that his hesitation and slowness never manifested itself in cases where decisiveness and speed of action were required. When talking with Benckendorff about the fate of Literaturnaya Gazeta, Delvig behaved so courageously, firmly and tactfully that the general was forced to apologize to him at the end of the conversation. But that was later. December 1830.

And if laziness were so true, would Anton Antonovich manage so much for so much short life?... Unlikely.

Delvig's successes in the study of literature were noted by teachers. Delvtg's imagination knew no bounds. Lyceum students often gathered in the evenings and told each other various fictional stories about adventures and exploits. Pushkin later recalled in a brilliantly unfinished article about Delvig: “One day he decided to tell some of his comrades the campaign of 1807, posing as an eyewitness to the events of that time. a circle of curious people gathered around him, demanding new details about the campaign.The rumor about this reached our director (V.F. Malinovsky, who died early, he was replaced by E.A. Engelgardt), who wanted to hear from Delvig himself a story about his adventures. was ashamed to admit to a lie as innocent as it was intricate, and decided to support it, which he did with amazing success, so that none of us doubted the truth of his stories, until he himself confessed to his fiction.

Further, A. Pushkin remarked: "Delvig, who talks about his mysterious visions and imaginary dangers, which he allegedly was exposed to in his father's convoy, never lied to justify any one, to avoid reprimand or punishment."

Delvig had an excellent knowledge of German poetry, quoting Schiller and Gelti by heart. Together with Kuchelbecker and Pushkin, she memorized the odes and poems of Derzhavin, Zhukovsky: and the ancient Horace, whom Anton carefully analyzed in the class under the guidance of Professor N. Koshansky.

“His first experiments in poetry,” A. Pushkin wrote, “were imitations of Horace. The odes “To Dion”, “To Lilet”, “To Dorida” were written by him in the fifteenth year and published in the collection of his works without any change. noticeably an extraordinary sense of harmony and that classical harmony, which he never changed. (Pushkin. Unfinished article about A. Delvig)

In 1814, Delvig sent his first experiments in poetry to the publisher of the popular journal Vestnik Evropy, Vladimir Izmailov. The poems were published without the name of the author, but "attracted the attention of one connoisseur, who, seeing the works of a new, unknown pen, already bearing the stamp of experience and maturity, racked his brains, trying to guess the secret of the anonymous ..." (Ibid.)

It was to Delvig, knowing about his "friendship with the Muse", that the director of the Lyceum, Yegor Antonovich Engelhardt, turned with a request to write a farewell song for graduation.

Delvig fulfilled the request. He wrote the anthem of the Lyceum, which was known to everyone who had a chance to study in this institution in different years:

"Six years passed like a dream,

In the arms of sweet silence.

And the calling of the Fatherland

It thunders to us: march, sons!

Farewell, brothers! Hand in hand!

Let's embrace in last time!

Fate of eternal separation

Perhaps here she is related to us!

(Delvig A.A. Lyceum song)

Upon leaving the Lyceum, Delvig was appointed to serve in the Ministry of Finance. But already in September 1820, he "for hire" entered the Public Library, under the direction of Ivan Andreevich Krylov, and on October 2, 1821, he was officially approved as an assistant librarian. True, Ivan Andreevich many times jokingly grumbled at the assistant, who preferred to read books rather than enter them in catalogs. Soon Russian branch The public library was threatened by chaos. In 1823 Delvig left his post. He later served as an official of various departments, but his soul was invariably all in his anthology "Northern Flowers".

Delvig was a member of the "Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, where he joined in 1819 and where members used to be" Northern Society"Decembrists - Ryleev, Bestuzhev, Trubetskoy, Yakushkin: Noisy disputes about poetry, civil and political freedoms dragged on until midnight. Delvig, for the first time, brought the disgraced E. Boratynsky to the meeting of the "Free Society", with whom he became very friends at that time (see. essay by E. Boratynsky"). Delvig had an amazing gift for recognizing literary talent and support him as much as possible! He was the first to predict great poetic fame for Pushkin, in a difficult moment he took care of E. Boratynsky in a friendly way, helped N. M. Yazykov with the printing of poems.

V. A. Zhukovsky - himself a kind genius of talents - highly valued this spiritual ability of Delvig: not to envy, to understand, to sympathize, to give his attention and a kind, slightly bewildered short-sighted smile to everyone who surrounded him ...

Delvig himself once wrote the following lines in a response sonnet to N. M. Yazykov:

From early years I am not a fire in vain

I keep in my soul, thanks to the gods,

I draw them to the sublime singers,

With some passionate love.

This partial love was most often expressed in the fact that Delvig valued the poetic gift of friends more than his own. Worse, criticism later said that half of Delvig's poems were written by Boratynsky, the other half by Pushkin. Delvig's modesty did him a very bad service ..

On May 6, 1820, Delvig accompanied A. Pushkin to the southern exile in Odessa, then to Mikhailovskoye. And he continuously wrote to him, encouraging, consoling, amusing, telling all the latest news from St. Petersburg and the news of the family of Pushkin's parents, with whom he was extremely friendly, asking about literary plans: Many of these letters have not survived, have not reached us.

A whole separate study could be dedicated to them. This is real literary monument to what is called true friendship, which eluded and eludes us, predecessors, descendants, there in the depths, centuries, in the shadow of alleys, the dim flame of candles, fireplaces, creaking on white sheets of thin paper goose feather: Here are a few lines from the surviving letters: "Dear Delvig, I received all your letters and answered almost all of them. Yesterday I breathed a breath of Lyceum life, glory and thanksgiving for that to you and my Pushchin: The other day I came across your lovely sonnets - I read them with greed, admiration and gratitude for the inspired recollection of our friendship: "(Pushkin - A.A. Delvig November 16, 1823.)

Dear Pushkin, I have received your letter and Proserpina, and I also thank you for them on the day of receipt. "Proserpina" is not poetry, but music: it is the singing of a bird of paradise, which, listening, you will not see how a thousand years pass: "In the same letter and business conversations, Delvig addresses Pushkin as a publisher: "Now it's about money. If you want to sell the second edition of "Ruslan", "Prisoner" and, if possible, "The Fountain of Bakhchisaray", then send me a power of attorney. Three booksellers ask me about this; you see that I can bargain between them and sell your needlework at a profit. Publications will be good. I vouch." (Delvig - Pushkin. September 10, 1824.)

Anton Antonovich always sincerely worried and worried about his friend. Already in Mikhailovskoye a letter came to Pushkin:

"Great Pushkin, little child! Go as you go, that is, do whatever you want, but do not be angry at the measures of people who are already quite frightened! There is a general opinion for you and takes good revenge. I have not seen a single decent person who would not scold Vorontsov for you, on whom all the bumps fell:. None of the Russian writers turned so stone hearts ours, like you. What are you missing? A little indulgence for the weak. Don't tease them for a year or two, for God's sake! Use better time your exile. Having sold the second edition of your writings, I will send you money and, if you like, new books. You will receive magazines. Sister, brother * (* Olga Sergeevna and Lev Sergeevich Pushkin were at that time in Mikhailovsky - the author), nature and reading, you will not die of boredom with them. Am I really going to direct her: "(A. A. Delvig - A. Pushkin on September 28, 1824)

Anton Antonovich was always going to visit a friend in Mikhailovsky, but literary and publishing affairs were delayed, and then the illness knocked him down. Delvig got to Mikhailovskoye only on April 18-19, 1824. Pushkin was overjoyed with him. Sincere conversations began, discussion of the further edition of the almanac "Northern Flowers", detailed analysis all literary novelties. They clarified the composition of the new collection of Pushkin's poems. We dined, remembering common acquaintances, played billiards, walked. And in the evenings they went to Trigorskoye, to the neighbors - the young ladies Osipovs - Wulf for raspberry pie with tea and punch.

The whole Osipov family - Wulf fell in love with the good-natured, cheerful clever Delvig, who kept dropping a funny pince-nez on a string on the floor and in the grass. The youngest children of Praskovya Aleksandrovna Osipova - Maria and Evpraksia Delvig liked to swing on a swing and affectionately called: "little friends." And those in response did not look for souls in him. Time flew by unnoticed. Already on April 26, 1824, Delvig left Mikhailovsky for St. Petersburg.

And soon, in response to Praskovya Alexandrovna’s playful reproaches, to her accusations of silence, Delvig said: “Love and happy love got mixed up here. Your acquaintance Delvig marries a girl whom she has loved for a long time - the daughter of Saltykov, Pushkin’s comrade in Arzamas * (* Literary Society, a member of which Pushkin was still a student at the Lyceum - the author).

Sofya Mikhailovna Saltykova was only 19 years old at that time. Her mother died, her father, a man of freedom-loving views, a writer and hospitable, lived out his life in Moscow. Sofya Mikhailovna was smart, charming, adored literature and, most of all, Pushkin. She wrote to a friend: "It is impossible to have more intelligence than Pushkin - I'm going crazy about it. Delvig is a charming young man, very modest, not distinguished by beauty; what I like is that he wears glasses. As for the glasses, Anton himself Antonovich ironically: “In the Lyceum I was forbidden to wear glasses, but all the women seemed beautiful to me; how disappointed I was in them after graduation."

But in the case of marriage to Saltykova, it would seem that disappointment did not happen. Youth, charm, pronounced temperament, excellent literary taste, natural kindness - all this earned the young Baroness Delvig sincere respect among her husband's friends: writers, publishers, booksellers who visited their house. There were also fans, but more on that later....

Sofya Mikhailovna tried to create in her salon a relaxed atmosphere of friendly communication and fun. often arranged musical evenings, romances were performed on the verses of Yazykov, Pushkin and Delvig himself. After the young composer Alyabyev wrote music to the words of his poem "The Nightingale", the romance was sung by all of Russia.

Delvig, as a poet, became famous for his "Idylls" - poems in the style of ancient poetry. It was often thought that these were translations of Theocritus, Horace and Virgil: But these were the fruits of Delvig's own imagination.

Pushkin wrote about the work of a friend: “Delvig’s idylls are amazing for me. What power of imagination must be in order to be transported so completely from the 19th century to the golden age and what an extraordinary flair for gracefulness in order to guess Greek poetry through Latin imitations or German translations, this luxury, this bliss, this charm, more negative than positive, which does not allow anything tense in feelings; subtle, tangled in thoughts; superfluous, unnatural in descriptions!

(A. S. Pushkin. Excerpts from letters, thoughts and remarks. 1827)

Delvig was also known as a subtly - merciless critic, analyzing every literary novelty: a novel, a poem, a story, poems, and especially translations. Sometimes he wrote bitterly: "You rejoice at a good book, like an oasis in the African steppe. And why are there few books in Russia? More from laziness to learn" .... Doesn't it sound very modern?

His "Literaturnaya Gazeta" often withstood the attacks of Bulgarin's "Northern Bee", Delvig got hard for criticism and violent rejection of Bulgarin's novel "Ivan Vyzhigin," accepted with a bang by an undemanding public. A melodramatic, empty - tearful novel about the adventures of a loving hero could not evoke positive feedback in a man and writer who was famous for his delicate exacting taste and professional look to literature! Delvig could not prevaricate. He wrote:

The Literaturnaya Gazeta is impartial, its publisher has long wished that Mr. F. B.* (* F. Bulgarin is the author.) wrote good romance; to praise "I. Vyzhigin" and "Dmitry the Pretender" - there is no strength!" (A. A. Delvig. Response to criticism of "Northern Bee".)

Delvig also often published in his newspaper the works of the semi-disgraced Pushkin and the "completely" disgraced Kuchelbecker, withstanding the noisy attacks and discontent of the Censorship Committee. Written and oral explanations with censorship and with the chief of the gendarmes, Count Benckendorff, dragged on, sometimes to infinity.

A tough literary and magazine struggle and family concerns - in May 1830, Delvig's daughter Elizabeth was born - sometimes completely exhausted the poet. He was less and less able to calmly sit down at his desk in order to write a few lines of poetry. The damp climate of St. Petersburg did not really suit Delvig, he caught a cold and often got sick, but he had no opportunity to go somewhere to rest - publishing worries and lack of funds interfered. It was very hard for Anton Antonovich to be separated from his friends, now belonging to the "Decembrist tribe": Pushchin, Kuchelbeker, Bestuzhev, Yakushkin: I tried to support them with letters, parcels, with everything I could. This also caused a quiet discontent of the authorities.

The official cause of Delvig's sudden death is still considered heavy conversation with Count Benckendorff, held in November 1830. Benckendorff accused Delvig of disobedience to the authorities, printing the unlawful in Literaturnaya Gazeta, and threatened with exile to Siberia...

Delvig behaved so dignifiedly and coolly that at the end of the conversation, the count, remembering his noble dignity, was forced to apologize: Delvig calmly left the office. But when he returned home, he soon fell ill with a fit of nervous fever, complicated by pneumonia.

The reason for the unofficial, but emotionally more understandable, was the banal adultery.

According to the memoirs of E.A. Boratynsky, a (little-known and never published!) poet, returning home at an odd hour, found the baroness in the arms of another admirer. The innocent became guilty. Heavy impressions from the conversation with Benckendorff and family tragedy led to a severe attack of nervous fever. Everything was complicated by a cold. Delvig spent almost a month and a half in bed. One night of relief gave way to two nights of bouts of coughing, chills, and delirium. Doctors tried to alleviate the suffering of the patient, but to no avail.

On January 14, 1831, Anton Delvig died: He died without regaining consciousness, whispering the same thing in a feverish delirium: "Sonechka, why did you do this ?!" The house was hastily dismantled elegantly decorated Christmas tree. Mirrors hung with black lace. They lit the candles. Someone in a flurry opened the window sash. A gust of icy wind blew out the candle. For a second, everything went dark. And then singing was heard: Sofia Mikhailovna, who had not left her husband’s bed for the last few days, bursting into tears and stroking his cold hands, tried to bring out the first lines of the romance with a velvet contralto:

"My nightingale, nightingale!

Where are you, where are you flying?

Where will you sing all night? .. "

PS A few months after Delvig's death, Baroness Sofia Mikhailovna Delvig married the brother of the poet Boratynsky, Sergei Abramovich. He was the admirer whom Baron Delvig found in his house at a late hour. All her life, Sofia Mikhailovna could not hold back her tears, hearing the first bars of "The Nightingale". In the Boratynskys' house - in the Muranovo estate, this romance was never performed. Sofia Mikhailovna believed that there was no need for a ghost past life mix with the real one. Maybe she was right....

1. Collegiate Secretary- civil rank X class in the Table of Ranks.
Famous collegiate secretaries in the literature: Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, Ilya Ilyich Oblomov - "Oblomov" by I. A. Goncharova, Alena Ivanovna - "Crime and Punishment" by F. M. Dostoevsky, Korobochka Nastasya Petrovna - " Dead Souls» N. V. Gogol. ()

3. Leaves service in the Ministry of Finance- see about the transfer in the letter to Olenin:
A. N. OLENIN
September 27, 1821 Petersburg
Your Excellency, dear sir.
While serving in the Chancellery of the Ministry of Finance, I dared to ask Your Excellency to grant me a place at the Imperial Public Library. A special propensity for bibliographic studies, a desire to be doubly useful, and, I will say with gratitude, an insufficient state that forces me to expect help only from my own works - in a word, necessary for life, made me try to keep both places. But seeing myself forced topics or to sacrifice others, I decided to at least satisfy my inclination and desire to serve under your flattering leadership. I dare to caress myself with the hope that by zealous service I will in time attract the benevolent attention of my superiors and merit his gracious patronage.
It pleases Your Excellency that, prior to my appointment in the Imperial Public Library, I should study there for some time, so that it may be judged whether I have the proper ability to perform the duties entrusted to the officials of this library. As a result, from September 1, last year, 1820, I went to it every day and, to the best of my strength and ability, tried to correct the work entrusted to me as best I could. If I was so happy that the time of this test of mine, in the opinion of the authorities of the library, was not completely useless for it, then your excellency will not refuse me the gracious placement of me among your subordinates in the department of the Imperial Public Library and thereby deliver a feeling of sincere gratitude to the deepest respect with which I have the honor to be Your Excellency the Gracious Sovereign, the most humble servant
Baron Anton Delvig.
St. Petersburg
September 27, 1821. (

By the Lyceum and his best friend. Numerous references to Delvig in Pushkin's poems both before and after his death are one of the most beautiful expressions of friendship in world poetry. After graduating from the Lyceum, Delvig lived in St. Petersburg and became the center of poetic world. His personal influence on contemporary poets was enormous. He was famous for "piitic laziness", kindness and common sense. From 1825 until his death, he published the annual almanac of the party of aristocratic poets northern flowers. In 1830 he managed to obtain permission to publish literary newspaper. His early death in 1831 was a cruel blow to Pushkin and all the poets of their circle.

As a poet, Delvig developed early. All the characteristic features of his style are already present in the lyceum poems written before 1817. But he did not print much and not immediately, mainly because of his notorious laziness. He never became popular, although Pushkin and Baratynsky valued him very highly. He is not a subjective poet. Like poets of the 18th century, he does not make the subject of his poetry inner life rather takes topics from the outside world.

Poet Anton Delvig, 1798-1831

During his lifetime, his Russian songs were the most popular, but his best poems are those written in classical meters. No one, either before or after, wrote such perfect epigrams (in the Greek sense of the word) as Delvig. Even better are his idylls, highly valued by Pushkin: Bathing suits, without a doubt, highest achievement Russian poetry in a purely sensual perception of classical antiquity. Impersonal, unemotional, formal, extremely skillful and strangely unostentatious poetry of Delvig was as if specially created in order to be despised by the late 19th century. However, later Delvig was returned to his rightful place in history - perhaps even more than that. For Delvig, like Katenin, although he is a great master, does not have that universal significance, which in the end is the only one that makes poetry great.