The hardships of the Russian intelligentsia, or what ruined writers and artists

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It is generally accepted that a creative person is more susceptible to mental ailments than others due to a subtle mental make-up. Many highly regarded writers, artists and musicians have been cornered by various circumstances. Fears, pangs of conscience and personal demons pushed representatives of the talented intelligentsia to take radical steps, and historians argued for a long time and understood the causes of high-profile tragedies.

How Radishchev went against the government

Hereditary nobleman Alexander Radishchev made a brilliant career in St. Petersburg. This man of the strictest principles, being the director of customs, was the only one in the history of this institution who did not take bribes. In 1790, Radishchev published Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow at his home printing house. This book in a sharp form criticized the structure of the Russian state and representatives of the supreme power. The court sentenced the writer to death, but after the pardon by Catherine II he was exiled to Siberia. Radishchev returned from exile 6 years later and got a job at the Commission for the Drafting of Laws. One unfortunate day, when he came home, Radishchev in his hearts drank a glass of the so-called royal vodka (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids), with which the eldest son cleaned epaulettes.

Pushkin wrote about the reasons for Radishchev's suicide, reporting that the day before the deceased had proposed some kind of revolutionary project to his superiors. His initiative was considered inappropriate and half-jokingly reminded that he had once visited Siberia for his daring initiatives. After that, ostensibly insulted and frightened, Radishchev decided to poison himself.

How the artist Ivanov went crazy

The author of "The Appearance of Christ to the People" Alexander Ivanov, at the age of 24, arrived in Italy to create his future painting. In these parts, he remained almost until the end of his days, in every possible way ignoring orders to return. He painted the famous canvas for more than 20 years, living secluded and gloomy. Representatives of the Russian diaspora guessed that the artist was mentally ill. As Alexander Turgenev recalled, one day he and Vasily Botkin invited Ivanov to dinner. The latter, clearly suffering from persecution mania, refused food, citing the poor quality of the products.

Ivanov's biographer A. Tsomakion wrote that the artist's suspiciousness had grown to alarming proportions: fearing poisoning, Ivanov stopped dining not only in restaurants, but also in the homes of close friends. He always cooked himself, took water from fountains and often lived on bread and eggs. The more frequent pains in the stomach only inspired the man with the confidence that someone regularly poured poison into his food. The artist died soon after.

Fashionable writer Uspensky and a stuffed crocodile

Some writers see the biography of the writer Nikolai Uspensky much more interesting than his creative heritage. He entered the textbooks as the author of truthful and realistic literary works about peasants. By the middle of the 19th century, Ouspensky was actually recognized as the representative of a new trend in literature. However, the loud debut quickly gave way to setbacks and disappointments. At first, due to his nasty character, he managed to quarrel with the editors of Sovremennik, where his first stories were placed. Subsequently, he broke off contacts with many writers who sincerely took part in the fate of Ouspensky.

At the end of his writing career, he published ironic memories of famous Russian writers in the Entertainment magazine, which seriously angered his contemporaries. The last years of his life were spent in oblivion and poverty. Ouspensky finally loses touch with society, plunges into drunkenness and wanders. One of the brightest episodes of that period, biographers described Uspensky's travels with an accordion and a stuffed crocodile. In such a company, the writer performed at taverns, singing ditties and voicing his companion. In the end, not seeing any meaning in life, Ouspensky stabbed himself to death.

Rat hunter Garshin

Vsevolod Garshin's stories "Signal", "Red Flower", "Coward" have been known from school to more than one generation of readers. The talented author of psychological works all his life suffered from a serious illness similar to schizophrenia. In the development of this ailment, heredity is attributed not the last role: the writer's father and one of his brothers were mentally unhealthy. In addition, the boy was raised by an oppressive mother, so the atmosphere in the family was not pleasant. Garshin was known as a person with a fragile nervous system and a painful perception of reality.

The writer repeatedly received treatment in clinics for the mentally ill, realized his illness and suffered from his own inferiority. Unable to control himself by the end of his life, Garshin went to the village to the house of his uncle. The writer began to take out the periodically emerging aggression on rats, arranging a real hunt for rodents. After returning to St. Petersburg, he threw himself upside down into the stairwell and soon died.

Fet's death after a failed suicide

The writer Fet saw one of the main goals of his life in obtaining a title of nobility and moving to the family estate. When these dreams came true and, it would seem, the time had come to live happily ever after, Fet unexpectedly asked his wife to stay somewhere without him. Left alone in the house, he locked himself in his study, drained a glass of sparkling wine, dictated to the called secretary the last thoughts of his lifetime. Then he took out a stiletto for cutting paper and held it to his temple, but the secretary snatched the suicide weapon from the writer's hand. Then the distraught Fet rushed, pursued by his assistant, into the dining room. Running to the cupboard, he vainly felt the shelves with his palm, trying to grab the table knife. Suddenly Fet fell to the floor, managed to look at the secretary's eyes, which did not understand anything, and whispered something. A heart attack saved the famous writer from the stigma of a suicide.

But some biographers argue that this version has nothing to do with reality. There was allegedly a medical report, according to which Fet's death occurred from complications of chronic bronchitis. Over the years, Fet increasingly suffered from pulmonary insufficiency, and died from another attack of suffocation.

Talented people not only died early, but also suffered from various government bans. These 5 best works of Soviet samizdat were prohibited by censorship.