Why during the time of Catherine II the works of the writer Mikhail Chulkov were considered immoral

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

If Lomonosov is known to everyone and everyone and amazes with his thirst for knowledge and his versatile interests, then you can hardly hear such a thing about Mikhail Chulkov in the 21st century. But the readers of the time of Catherine II did not have to explain who they were talking about, the books of this enlightener from commoners - whether about superstitions, about trade, about the adventures of a widow, or even about a mysterious crime and its investigation - dispersed with a bang, became the starting point for the development of several directions of science and literature. In any case, both Pushkin and Gogol drew inspiration and materials from the works of Chulkov.

Career "in the style of the Enlightenment": how many roles did Mikhail Chulkov change

The era of Catherine II was marked by the flourishing of classicism, when art was subordinated to the ideas of patriotism, harmonious development of the individual without social contradictions, "the atmosphere of the state myth." Classicism did not allow manifestations of savagery, vestiges of the past and uncontrollable passions, proclaimed the desire for "higher intelligences", for a developed civilization. But with the spread of literacy, with a gradual increase in the number of readers, the need for "simple" works, not burdened by the cumbersome forms of high calm, was felt more and more. In addition, the sphere of interest of the “readers from the lower classes” concerned topics closer to them - everyday life, customs and superstitions, holidays. Among the writers who undertook to satisfy the literary needs of the bourgeoisie, merchants, officials, peasants, was Mikhail Chulkov.

Mikhail Dmitrievich Chulkov was born, apparently, in Moscow, in 1744. Little is known about his biography; he grew up in the family of either a small merchant or a soldier of the Moscow garrison. In any case, it is known that since childhood Chulkov was drawn to knowledge and education, he entered the Raznochinnaya gymnasium at Moscow University, where his first appearances as an actor took place. After university, Chulkov began to play in a real theater, his acting career lasted until twenty-one years, when he, announcing that he "had no desire to continue this occupation," changed his field of activity and entered the court service.

Starting from the position of a footman, Chulkov then rose to the position of a chamber-footman, a court quartermaster. But it was more a need to provide for oneself than a desire to make a career in the field of service at court. Since childhood, having a special inclination for literature, Chulkov “incessantly wrote essays of all kinds,” and the sphere of his interests as a writer coincided so much with those of the reader that from the second half of the 1760s his works were already in full print.

Chulkov - collector of folklore, author of "Abewegs of Russian superstitions"

From 1766 to 1768, four parts of the collection "Mockingbird, or Slavonic Tales", compiled on the basis of folk legends, were published. In 1767, Chulkov wrote and published "A Brief Mythological Lexicon", where the "Slavic" deities were placed on a par with the ancient, so revered authors of classicism. One can imagine how such a book was adopted in Russia in the 18th century - where most of the population still passed on from generation to generation the stories and beliefs of distant ancestors, and the world, despite the Orthodox faith, was still perceived through the prism of the pagan past.

And the upper classes, even if they were educated on the basis of the works of ancient and Western classics, were nevertheless brought up in an environment where nannies were from the people, and the childhood of any nobleman was under the influence of old Russian customs and images taken from the cradle. An interest in Russian folklore began to awaken in society, and Chulkov had successors and like-minded people - one of them was Mikhail Popov, also from the "commoners" and also an actor in the past. Throughout 1769, these two writers published the magazine "Both”, In 52 issues of which descriptions of rituals and ceremonies, christenings, Christmas divinations are published. The magazine published fables and poems by Chulkov, as well as works by other authors, including Sumarokov and all the same Popov. Another brainchild of Chulkov was the magazine Parnassian Scrupulous, in which some poets were satirically ridiculed.

A huge contribution to the study of Russian folklore was made by four books "Collections of different songs", which included songs by famous authors, including Alexander Sumarokov. A few years later, in 1783, the Dictionary of Russian Superstitions, also created by Chulkov, appeared, and three years later - its second edition under the title Abevega of Russian Superstitions. This book will become a source for all later researchers of folklore, it has combined a large number of articles on mythology, not only Russian, but also many other peoples of Russia.

Satire, novels, books for peasants

In the wake of success, Chulkov decided to leave the service and devote himself to literature. But at first it was not possible to do this - for financial reasons: the literary well-being in those years depended heavily on patrons of art who were ready to support the writing of essays. An interesting in this sense is the approach to Chulkov's writing of dedications to some of his books, in which he takes the humble position of a modest narrator in advance, emphasizing at the same time that the book was written primarily for ordinary people, and not for recognition in higher circles.

Since 1770, Chulkov served as a collegiate registrar in the Senate Chancellery, a year later he transferred to the Commerce Collegium. The positions opened up opportunities for him for a new direction of development as a writer - he began to work on the history of Russian commerce, raising from the archives documents about trade in Ancient Rus. The result was the publication in 1781-1788 of seven volumes of "History". The huge amount of material studied and included in the book, laws and regulations regarding the conduct of commercial affairs made it possible to consider Chulkov's work the first work of this kind in the country's economic history. Additionally, the author has published a "Brief History", as well as "Accounting Rules" and "Dictionary of Fairs Established in Russia". Chulkov saw merchants as his main reader, and he addressed his work to them - and the fact that History was written by a person without appropriate education is an indirect evidence that the writer really came from a merchant environment.

One can judge the versatility of Mikhail Chulkov as a writer, if we remember that among his books there were also works of fiction - novels and even a detective story. The novel as such in Russia was just beginning, most of the works of that time were tracing copies from French books. In the same spirit, Chulkov's novel was written under the title "Good-looking Cook, or the Adventures of a Depraved Woman" - in form and plot reminiscent of French, but at the same time reflecting typical Russian realities. The heroine is a young sergeant's widow, at first she mourns her husband, who died in the Battle of Poltava, and then "could not find a place for herself, and so she did so freely because we are not assigned to any positions." In the XIX century, this novel will be considered "immoral" and only by the XXI century it will not be difficult to get acquainted with its text.

Focusing on the interests of the peasants, Mikhail Chulkov wrote "The Rural Clinic, or the Dictionary of the Healing of Diseases" - one can imagine the degree of versatility of the writer. In recent years, he devoted time to compiling the "Legal Dictionary", as well as the "Dictionary of Agriculture, House-Building and Cattle Breeding", worked on the dictionary of the Russian language. It may seem that such a grasping at absolutely unrelated topics speaks of the author's frivolity, but one should not forget about the era in which Chulkov lived and worked. In fact, Chulkov's work can be compared with the activities of another Mikhail - Lomonosov, and he himself can be considered one of the main enlighteners of his time.

During his rather short life (Chulkov lived for 52 years), the writer left a huge volume of works and a serious basis for the further development of literature in Russia. His works on folklore were used at different times by Gogol and Pushkin, and all impressive studies of folk art are somehow based on the materials collected by Chulkov. Even better about the role of Chulkov is the fact that he is considered the first Russian author detective story - the story "Bitter Fate".