Biography of I. S. Nikitin. Russian poets

The poet and writer Ivan Nikitin and his works are not included in the school program on literature. This name is known today only to students who study the course of Russian literature at a deeper level. Often Ivan Nikitin is unfamiliar even to those who sing songs on his poetry.

Half-forgotten classics

In the Russian literary criticism of the Soviet period, there was a stable hierarchy of literary values, according to which all writers of the nineteenth century were ranked by their significance. In accordance with this hierarchy, the writer Nikitin Ivan Savich does not belong to the number of stars of the first magnitude. He is recognized as a classic, and of course, no one has forgotten about him. It is known that Ivan Nikitin is a poet from the Russian heartland.

But it was only mentioned after the list of the most significant contemporaries. Let's try to figure out how justified it is.

Facts from the biography of the classic of Russian literature

Biography of I. S. Nikitin originates in Voronezh. It was in this ancient provincial town that the future poet was born in 1824. His childhood was spent in a poor merchant family, which existed on income from small retail trade. Ivan Nikitin successfully studied at the Voronezh Seminary. However, to complete the spiritual education he was not destined. The whole further biography of Ivan Nikitin could have had a completely different continuation if his father had not been completely ruined on the basis of continuous drunkenness, and this sad circumstance would not put the family on the brink of poverty.

The beginning of the creative path

The young man had to earn his living on his own. He had to quit his studies at a theological seminary and get a job at an inn. However, the former seminarian shows persistence of character - he reads a lot, does self-education, studies foreign languages. Reads in the original classics of world literature. He tries his hand at poetry and prose.

During this period of his life, the circle of his intercourse is made up of the Voronezh intelligentsia. And in this very exacting circle he is accepted as an equal. Thus, Ivan Savich Nikitin, whose childhood and youth passed in poverty and deprivation, takes the first steps towards success and recognition. Harsh life school not only contributed to tempering his character, but also largely predetermined the choice of images and themes with which he is destined to later enter into Russian literature. The metropolitan public will soon have to learn a lot of new and interesting, reading stories of Nikitin Ivan Savich about provincial Voronezh.

In the great literature

The literary biography of IS Nikitin began in the early Voronezh years. Despite the fact that most of what he wrote during this period is not entirely independent, it was in the Voronezh province newspaper that published his poem "Rus" that the literary debut of the poet took place. This publication did not go unnoticed in the literary capitals of the Russian Empire. And it's not just the actual theme of the poem dedicated to the Crimean War.

Literary critics of the capital's publications, where the poem was reprinted, noted the artistic originality of the work and the undoubted echoes of the poetry of another famous Voronezh poet, the recently deceased poet Alexei Koltsov. This was an undeniable acknowledgment. The provincial poet was noticed by the reading public, and literary critics predicted a great future for him.

Poem "The Fist"

In the largest poetic work of Ivan Nikitin, you can easily distinguish autobiographical details. In this poem, the narrative is not at all about peasants, as one can conclude from the title, but about the philistine environment of a large provincial city. The protagonist of the poem is a completely negative character. This is a small bazaar merchant and second-hand dealer. For the sake of profit this person is ready for any meanness and will not stop at nothing. It can not be said that Ivan Nikitin directly portrayed his father in this hero, but took a lot of characteristic from his childhood memories of Voronezh life. Easily recognizable in the poem are other heroes and circumstances from the life of the poet. Before Ivan Nikitin, such types were not so common in Russian literature. In many respects they echo Ostrovsky's drama, which did not exist in those years.

The poem "Fist" was appreciated by both Russian readers and literary critics of the capital. In particular, the Moscow writer Dobrolyubov spoke highly of this work. The critic saw in the work of the Voronezh poet a dramatic and at the same time a comic sketch of the mores of the philistine environment, which other writers preferred to ignore in silence. In a sense, the writer Nikitin became her pioneer. In the future, this topic received a powerful development in many classical works of Russian literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Civil Lyrics

At first glance, the biography of Ivan Nikitin is devoid of dramatic events and unexpected twists. He did not participate in wars, in riots, or in revolutions. The life of the poet Ivan Nikitin was devoted to the service of Russian literature without any rest. The most important thing in his poetry is the unique charm of his native nature. Few of his contemporaries were able to convey this with the same skill that Ivan Nikitin. "Morning", one of the most famous of his poems, is a typical example of Nikitin's landscape lyric poetry. But no less significant is sympathy for the simple modest toiler. The poet speaks of the hopelessness of the life of those who work on the ground or drags out a miserable existence on the urban outskirts. And he expresses an obvious disagreement with this state of affairs.

Nikolay Nekrasov is rightfully aware of this subject in Russian literature. But Ivan Nikitin told this before Nekrasov. And most importantly, the poet was heard and understood by his contemporaries. His word was also among the descendants. He had a significant influence on those who came to Russian poetry to replace him.

Ivan Savich Nikitin. "Meeting of winter"

Many poets have their favorite season. Ivan Nikitin, the poet, does not differ in originality in this sense. Winter is more precious to him than spring, summer and autumn. It's easy to guess on the strength of that lyrical feeling with which he depicts the snow-covered Russian expanses and drowned in snowdrifts small villages. It is enough to read only his well-known poem "The Meeting of Winter". In all this, one can see more than simple landscape sketches. Winter for a poet is not just one of the four seasons of the year, but a kind of universal organic image, in which lies the Russian scope and unbending spiritual power.

This is the same mystical power that the great conqueror of Europe, the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, broke off with his teeth. And, without a doubt, the same fate will befall the future of all those who will venture to continue his business: "And I'm pouring down his footprint in Russia!"

Folk songs and classical romances

Song on the poems of Ivan Nikitin "I went to the fair merchant's duck" is known in Russia everywhere. It is considered popular, and few people realize that the song has a very specific author - the nineteenth-century Russian poet Ivan Savich Nikitin. The text of this song has many variations. They are performed by variety singers in the style of chanson, and also as drinking songs at weddings and folk festivals. It has already been more than a century and a half since the song about the merchant-merchant has broken away from the author and lives an independent life. However, few people think about the fact that the original moral meaning of the poem was completely different. And the author could be very surprised if he were destined to hear the modern interpretation of his work. But overall, he could be happy.

Specialists-literary scholars calculated that the poems of the poet Ivan Nikitin written more than sixty songs and romances. His works were addressed by such famous composers as Vasily Kalinnikov and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Not every Russian poet could boast such attention to his work.

End of biography

It is generally accepted that the age of poets in Russia is very short. And this opinion is easily confirmed by many examples. Biography of I. S. Nikitin was completed in October 1861. At the age of thirty-seven, the poet died in his native city from consumption. This disease in the nineteenth century was classified as incurable. Buried Ivan Nikitin was in the city cemetery, not far from his predecessor Alexei Koltsov. The untimely death of the Voronezh poet did not go unnoticed in the Russian literary world. On the sad news from Voronezh, many metropolitan publications responded with obituaries. The reader's interest in the poet's works has increased. His previous collections of poems and prose were republished in significant editions. And new books have been released. The memory of the poet was immortalized in his native city in the name of one of the squares. She was given the name Nikitinskaya. In 1911, it was a monument to an outstanding compatriot from grateful Voronezh.