Vasily Zhukovsky
Vasily Zhukovsky was born on the 24th of February 1783 in the village of Mishenskoe within the Tula Governorate. His mother Salkha had been captured during the siege of Bender in 1770 and brought to Russia as a slave. Her master Afanasi Bunin was a landowner who fathered Vasily but did not marry her. The infant poet grew up inside the Bunin family circle yet remained legally unrecognized by his biological father. Social propriety demanded that he be formally adopted by a family friend instead. This arrangement allowed him to keep the surname and patronymic of his adoptive parents for the rest of his life.
In December 1802 the nineteen-year-old Zhukovsky published a free translation of Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Karamzin placed this work in his journal Vestnik Yevropy where it became the first sustained example of sentimental-melancholy style in Russian literature. Readers found this approach strikingly original compared to existing works. By 1808 Karamzin asked him to take over editorship of the same journal. He used this position to explore Romantic themes through translations rather than original composition alone. His rise at court began with Napoleon's invasion of 1812 which caused revilement of French among aristocrats. Thousands including Zhukovsky volunteered for Moscow defense during the conflict.
After the war Zhukovsky settled temporarily in Dolbino near Moscow where he experienced a burst of poetic creativity known as the Dolbino Autumn. Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna invited him to Saint Petersburg to serve as her personal Russian tutor. She was the German-born wife of Grand Duke Nicholas who would become Tsar Nicholas I. Many of his best translations from German were made as practical language exercises for Alexandra. Later he tutored the tsarevich Alexander who eventually became tsar Alexander II. His progressive educational methods influenced the young Alexander so deeply that historians attribute liberal reforms of the 1860s partially to them. His high station allowed him to protect free-thinking writers like Mikhail Lermontov and Taras Shevchenko.
Zhukovsky translated from a staggeringly wide range of sources often without attribution since modern ideas of intellectual property did not exist then. He was especially admired for first-rate melodious translations of German and English ballads. The ballad Ludmila published in 1808 and its companion piece Svetlana from 1813 are considered landmarks in Russian poetry. Both render Gottfried August Burger's Lenore in completely different ways. He later translated Lenore yet a third time as part of his lifelong effort to develop natural-sounding Russian dactylic hexameter. His many translations of Schiller including Die Jungfrau von Orléans became classic works in Russian. Dostoevsky famously called these translations nash Schiller meaning our Schiller.
Among his first acts on moving to Saint Petersburg was establishing the jocular Arzamas literary society. Members included the teenage Alexander Pushkin who rapidly emerged as Zhukovsky's poetic heir apparent. By the early 1820s Pushkin had upstaged Zhukovsky in originality even by the older poet's own estimation. Yet they remained lifelong friends with the senior acting as mentor and protector at court. On Pushkin's early death in 1837 Zhukovsky stepped in as his literary executor. He rescued Pushkin's work from hostile censorship including several unpublished masterpieces while collecting them for publication. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s he also promoted Nikolay Gogol another close personal friend.
Zhukovsky travelled widely in Europe above all within the German-speaking world where Prussian court connections gave him access to spa-towns like Baden-Baden. In 1841 he retired from court and settled near Düsseldorf where he married Elisabeth von Reutern. She was the eighteen-year-old daughter of Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern an artist friend. The couple had two children a girl named Alexandra and a boy named Pavel. Alexandra later had a much talked-about affair with Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich. Zhukovsky died in Baden-Baden in 1852 aged sixty-nine. His body was returned to Saint Petersburg and buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra behind Dostoevsky's monument.
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Common questions
When and where was Vasily Zhukovsky born?
Vasily Zhukovsky was born on the 24th of February 1783 in the village of Mishenskoe within the Tula Governorate. His mother Salkha had been captured during the siege of Bender in 1770 and brought to Russia as a slave.
What major literary work did Vasily Zhukovsky publish in December 1802?
In December 1802 the nineteen-year-old Zhukovsky published a free translation of Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Karamzin placed this work in his journal Vestnik Yevropy where it became the first sustained example of sentimental-melancholy style in Russian literature.
Who were the students taught by Vasily Zhukovsky at court?
Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna invited him to Saint Petersburg to serve as her personal Russian tutor. Later he tutored the tsarevich Alexander who eventually became tsar Alexander II.
Which ballads are considered landmarks in Vasily Zhukovsky's poetry career?
The ballad Ludmila published in 1808 and its companion piece Svetlana from 1813 are considered landmarks in Russian poetry. Both render Gottfried August Burger's Lenore in completely different ways.
How did Vasily Zhukovsky respond to the death of Alexander Pushkin in 1837?
On Pushkin's early death in 1837 Zhukovsky stepped in as his literary executor. He rescued Pushkin's work from hostile censorship including several unpublished masterpieces while collecting them for publication.
Where and when did Vasily Zhukovsky die?
Zhukovsky died in Baden-Baden in 1852 aged sixty-nine. His body was returned to Saint Petersburg and buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra behind Dostoevsky's monument.