Biography and Goncharov

Russian writer; Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of the Russian language and literature childhood Ivan Goncharov was born on June 6 in Simbirsk. His father Alexander Ivanovich - and the mother of Avdotya Matveevna - belonged to the merchant estate in the girlishness of Shakhtarin. In the Goncharov Stone House, located in the very center of the city, with an extensive courtyard, garden, and numerous buildings took place the childhood of the future writer.

Remembering in the advanced years his childhood and his father’s house, Goncharov wrote in the autobiographical essay “In Homeland”: “Ambars, cellars, glaciers were full of reserves of flour, different millet and all kinds of provisions for the food of our and the vast ward. In a word, a whole estate, a village. " Much of what Goncharov recognized and saw in this “village” was, as it were, the initial impulse in the knowledge of the local, the lordly life of pre -reform Russia, which was so brightly and truthfully reflected in its “ordinary history”, “Oblomov” and “cliff”.

When Goncharov was seven years old, his father died. In the subsequent fate of the boy, in his spiritual development an important role was played by his godfather Nikolai Nikolaevich Tregubov. It was a retired sailor. He was distinguished by the breadth of views and was critical of some phenomena of modern life. The education of the potters received education at home, under the leadership of Tregubov, then in a private boarding house.

At ten, he was sent to Moscow to study at a commercial school. The choice of the educational institution was made at the insistence of the mother. For eight years he spent Goncharov at the school. These years were difficult and uninteresting for him. The spiritual and moral development of Goncharov, however, went on as usual. He read a lot. His true mentor was domestic literature. The great revelation for Goncharov and his comrades was Pushkin with his "Evgeny Onegin", which became published by individual chapters.

This almost prayer reverence before the name of Pushkin Goncharov has retained for life. Having graduated from the university in the summer of the year, the university, Goncharov felt, by his own admission, “a free citizen”, before which all the ways in life were open. First of all, he decided to visit his native lands, where his mother, sisters, and trigubs waited for him. Simbirsk, in which everything was so familiar since childhood, struck the matured and matured Goncharov, first of all, by the fact that nothing had changed.

Everything resembled here a huge sleepy village. It was this that Goncharov knew his hometown in childhood, and then in the youth years. Even before graduation, Goncharov decided not to return to permanent life in Simbirsk. He was attracted to himself by the prospect of intense spiritual life in the capitals of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and communication there with interesting people.

But there was another, secret dream associated with his long -time enthusiasm for writing. He decided to leave the drift, boring Simbirsk. And did not leave. The Simbirsk governor persistently asked Goncharov to take the position of his secretary. After thoughts and hesitation, Goncharov accepts this proposal, and the case turned out to be boring and ungrateful. However, these living impressions of the mechanism of the bureaucratic system subsequently got a Goncharov-writer.

After eleven months of stay in Simbirsk, he leaves for Petersburg. Goncharov decided with his own hands, without anyone to build his future. Upon arrival in the capital, he went to the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Finance, where he was offered the position of transcript translator. The service was not very burdensome. To some extent, she financially provided Goncharov and left time for independent literary classes and reading.

In St. Petersburg, he became close to the Maikov family. Goncharov was introduced into this family as a teacher of the two eldest sons of the head of the family of Nikolai Apollonovich Maykov - Apollo and Valerian, who taught the Latin language and Russian literature. This house was an interesting cultural center of St. Petersburg. Almost daily, famous writers, musicians, and painters gathered here.

The beginning of creativity gradually begins the serious work of the writer. It was formed under the influence of those moods that encouraged the young author to more and more ironically relate to the romantic cult of art that reigned in the Maikov house. It was an important time in the development of Russian literature, as in the life of Russian society as a whole.

Goncharov meets Belinsky, often happens to Nevsky Prospekt, in the House of Writers. Here in the year, Goncharov reads criticism of his novel an ordinary story. Communication with a great critic was important for the spiritual formation of a young writer. In his “notes on the personality of Belinsky”, the pottery with sympathy and gratitude spoke about his meetings with a critic and his role as “a publicist, aesthetic critic and the stands, a forerunner of new future principles of social life”.

In the spring of the year, “Contemporary” publishes “Ordinary History”.In the novel, the conflict between “realism” and “romanticism” appears as a significant conflict of Russian life. Goncharov called his novel “Ordinary History”, thereby he emphasized the typical processes that were reflected in this work. The main object of Russian-American rivalry was Japan, which has been closed to foreigners since the year.

The arrival of a foreigner on Japanese land was punishable by the death penalty, and only for Chinese and Dutch ships a small exception was made since the year - they were allowed to go to the port of Nagasaki for trading.

Both Russia and America really wanted to get Japan as a market for its goods, and they almost simultaneously sent their naval squadrons to Japan to force the Japanese to open a country for entry of Russian and American trade ships respectively. The Russian squadron was commanded by Vice Admiral Evfimiy Vasilievich Putyatin, the American-Commodor Matthew Perry. The Russian expedition was equipped not only to establish political and trade relations with Japan, but also for the inspection of Russian possessions in North America - in Alaska.

Both expeditions were successful - the Japanese signed with the United States for a year and a year with Russia trade agreements, but it was reached by different means. Commodor Perry, who arrived in Japan in the year with his squadron to demonstrate the military power of America, simply intimidated the Japanese, threatening to shoot their capital from guns-the city of Edo is now called Tokyo.

Admiral Putyatin arrived at the Port of Nagasaki for peace negotiations on August 10, did not express any direct threats and achieved positive results for Russia, and in the year, 2 years later, secured established relations in the contract. In October, Ivan Goncharov, who served as a translator in the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Finance, was appointed secretary of Admiral Putyatin.

The expedition lasted almost two and a half years. Having landed on the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, Goncharov drove dry through all of Russia and returned to Petersburg on February 13. Already in the April book of “Domestic Notes”, the first essay on the trip appeared in the year. Subsequent fragments were published in the “Marine Collection” and various magazines for three years, and in the year the whole essay turned out to be a separate publication.

The cycle of travel essays “Frigate Pallas” is a kind of “writer's diary”. The book immediately became a major literary event, amazing readers with wealth and diversity of actual material and its literary virtues. The book was perceived as the writer’s output into a large and poorly familiar world to the Russian reader, seen by an inquisitive observer and described by a sharp, talented pen.

For Russia of the XIX century, such a book was almost unprecedented. The service as a censor after traveling Goncharov returned to the Department of the Ministry of Finance, but did not stay here for long. Soon he managed to get a place of censor. This position was troublesome and difficult, but its advantage over the previous service was that it was at least directly related to literature.

However, in the eyes of many, a new position put Goncharov in an ambiguous position. The idea of ​​the censor as a stupid and cruel persecutor of free thought was deeply rooted in the progressive layers of society. Soon, Goncharov himself began to be burdened by the position of Censor and resigned in the year. Among other things, the difficult and troublesome service interfered with the writer's own literary activities.

By this time, Goncharov had already published the Roman Oblomov. The heyday of creativity in the year in Russia for the first time sounded the word "Oblomovism". Through the fate of the protagonist of his new novel, Goncharov showed a social phenomenon. However, many saw in the image of Oblomov also a philosophical understanding of a Russian national character, as well as an indication of the possibility of a special moral path that opposes the bustle of the all -consuming “progress”.

Goncharov made an artistic discovery. He created a work of huge generalizing power. The publication of Oblomov and the enormous success of his readers brought Goncharov the glory of one of the most outstanding Russian writers. He began work on a new work - the novel "Cliff". However, it was also necessary to somehow make money: having left the post of censor, Goncharov lived “on free bread”.

In the middle of the year, he was invited to the post of editor of the recently established newspaper North Mail, which was the body of the Ministry of the Interior. Goncharov worked here for about a year, and then was appointed to the post of member of the Press Council. His censor activity began again, and in the new political conditions she acquired a clearly conservative character.

Goncharov caused a lot of troubles to the “contemporary” of Nekrasov and the Pisarevsky “Russian Word”, he fought an open war against “nihilism”, wrote about “miserable and non -self -state doctrines of materialism, socialism and communism”, that is, actively defended government foundations. This went on until the end of the year, when he retired, to retire, by his request.

Now it was possible to take energetically again for the “cliff”. By that time, Goncharov had already written a lot of paper, and still did not see the end of the novel. The impending old age more and more scared the writer and turned him away from work. Goncharov once said about the “cliff”: “This is a child of my heart.” The author worked for him for twenty years.

At times, especially by the end of his work, he fell into apathy, and it seemed to him that there was not enough strength to complete this monumental work. In another place, Goncharov noted that, having finished the third part of the “cliff”, “I wanted to leave a novel at all without adding”. However, I added.