Alexander Semenovich Shishkov - thinkers - loyal subjects of Russia - catalog of articles - Holy Russia archipelago. Died Admiral Alexander Semenovich Shishkov, military and statesman

Russian writer, state and public figure, Admiral Alexander Semenovich Shishkov was born on March 20 (March 9, old style), 1754 in Moscow. Educated at the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg, in 1772 he graduated from the corps with the rank of midshipman.

During the Russian-Swedish war of 1788-1790, Shishkov was a participant in the Gogland (1788) and Eland (1789) battles. For participation in the latter, Shishkov was promoted to the rank of captain of the 2nd rank.

In the spring of 1790, Shishkov was appointed commander of the 38-gun rowing frigate St. Nicholas. As part of the squadron "Saint Nicholas" under the command of Shishkov, he participated in the Battle of Krasnogorsk against the Swedish squadron of the Duke of Südermanland. The battle ended with the retreat of the Swedish squadron deep into the Vyborg Bay.

In 1791, he commanded 64 cannon ships "Retvizan", captured from the Swedes during Vyborg battle and included in Russian fleet. In 1796, Shishkov was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet and appointed governor of the office of the head of the Black Sea Fleet and ports, Prince Platon Zubov.

After the coronation of Paul I (1754-1801), Shishkov returned to St. Petersburg.

In 1797, Shishkov was with the emperor as a squadron major. He was with the emperor on board the frigate "Emmanuel" while sailing in the Baltic, and after the campaign he published the Journal of the Campaign of 1797. In July 1797, he was promoted to captain-commander and given the rank of adjutant general.

In 1799, Shishkov was appointed to the honorary position of historiographer of the fleet and soon became vice admiral.

In the reign of Alexander I (1777-1825), Shishkov reacted negatively to the ongoing reforms of the new ruler, as a result of which he fell into disgrace. Retiring from the court, Shishkov devoted himself to scientific and literary activity.

Since February 1807, on the initiative of Shishkov, literary evenings began to gather, which since 1810 became public and received the name "Conversations of lovers of the Russian word", where, in addition to literary problems social and political issues were also discussed. The society published its own "Readings in the Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word", where such works by Shishkov were published as "Discourses on the beauties of Holy Scripture", "Conversations about literature" and "Addition to conversations". The activities of "Conversations" continued until 1816.

In 1811, Shishkov wrote Discourse on Love for the Fatherland. His work attracted the attention of Emperor Alexander I, and Shishkov was appointed Secretary of State, replacing Mikhail Speransky in this post. Being with the emperor in the army, Shishkov wrote the most important orders and rescripts. So, he wrote the famous order to the armies and the rescript to Count Nikolai Saltykov on the entry of the French into Russia.

The manifestos written by Shishkov were read throughout Russia. In fact, he fulfilled the role of the main ideologist Patriotic War 1812. His manifestos, being responses to all the most important events, raised the spirit of the Russian people and supported them in the difficult days of defeat.

When the retreat of the French began, in December 1812, Shishkov followed the emperor to Vilna, where he was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky, and in the Highest Rescript it was said: "for exemplary love for the Fatherland".

In 1813-1814, Shishkov accompanied the Russian army in foreign campaign. In August 1814, he was relieved of the post of Secretary of State for health reasons, but at the same time he was appointed a member of the State Council, as well as President of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In December 1823, Shishkov was promoted to admiral.

In May 1824, Alexander Shishkov became Minister of Public Education and Commander-in-Chief of Foreign Religious Affairs. In June 1826, through the efforts of Shishkov, a new charter on censorship ("cast iron") was adopted, according to which all historical writings if they turned out to be "unfavorable disposition" to monarchical rule.

In 1828, Shishkov was dismissed from the post of minister "due to old age and poor health", but retained the positions of a member of the State Council and president of the Russian Academy.

Alexander Shishkov died on April 21 (April 9 according to the old style), 1841 in St. Petersburg.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

Russian admiral Alexander Semyonovich Shishkov (1754 - 1841), ironically, went down in history not only for his military service how much literary activity. He and his followers (Shishkovists) acted as strong and noble opponents of the reform of the Russian literary language, which was carried out by their contemporary - Karamzin.

Admiral Alexander Semyonovich Shishkov. Portrait by J. Doe

Shishkov rebelled against Karamzin, defending the Russian language from those "innovations" that were introduced by him. Karamzin brought together literary language with colloquial, as a result of which many barbarisms and neologisms have entered Russian literature. Karamzin reacted negatively to the remnants of the Church Slavonic language in Russian fine literature, considering, for example, Lomonosov's style to be "wild", "barbaric". In the literary style of his time, he saw "a pleasant thing called élégance by the French." Actually, it was not Karamzin who reformed the Russian language, he did not free it from Slavism and Latin-German influence - this reform was already carried out by society itself in the Catherine era, but Karamzin was the largest and most popular writer who was the first to discover that the reform had already been completed , and consciously became a style already accepted in society. That is why he became the first target for attack by writers. old school", still holding on to the Lomonosov style of writing.

Shishkov became the head of these opponents of Karamzin. The vehemence he showed in his denunciation of Karamzin is explained by the fact that he viewed the reform of the language as an anti-patriotic and even anti-religious matter.

“Language is,” he says, “the soul of the people, a mirror of morals, a sure indicator of enlightenment, an unceasing witness to deeds. Where there is no faith in the hearts, there is no piety in the tongue. Where there is no love for the fatherland, there the language does not express domestic feelings.

Standing on this point of view, he resolutely rebelled against all the "innovations" that "distorted", in his opinion, the noble and majestic simplicity of the Russian language. He considered Karamzin the main culprit for the spoiling of the language and was ready to turn a philological dispute into a political dispute - for him Karamzin, who spoiled native language, was a harmful liberal, a figure of an anti-national direction. Subsequently, The History of the Russian State reconciled him with Karamzin, especially since Karamzin himself later became a conservative even in the field of language, a lover of characteristic archaisms.

In 1803, Shishkov published “Discourse on the old and new style of the Russian language”, in 1804 - “Addendum to the essay called “Discourse on the old and new style”, in 1810 - “Discourse on the eloquence of St. The Scriptures and what constitutes wealth, abundance, beauty and strength Russian language", in 1811 - "Conversations about literature between two persons "Az" and "Buki"". For Shishkov, the Slavic and Russian languages were almost identical - he considered the Russian language to be the dialect of Slavic. The richness of the Russian language, in his opinion, was expressed mainly in Slavicisms: "the Russian language is a child of the Slavic, borrowing its decoration from it." Lomonosov's style was exemplary for him, and he called the élégance of the new style "nonsense."

Shishkov attacked the then Russian society and literature for the wide use of barbarisms (for example: "moral", "aesthetic", "epoch", "harmony", "enthusiasm", "catastrophe"). He did not like the neologisms that came into use (“coup” - a translation of the French word “révolution”, “development” - “développement”, “refined” - “raffiné”, “concentrate” - “concentrer”, “touching” - “touchant” ). His ear was cut by such artificial words, then in use, as "present" and "future", "well-read", "industry" ... But if Shishkov was wrong, trying to destroy all living creativity of the language, then his censures were quite fair expressions that were fashionable in his time, such as, for example, “support your opinion”, “nature was looking for us to do good”, “the people did not lose the first imprint of their price”, etc.

The pre-revolutionary author Galakhov in his “History of Literature” cites the following excerpt from one essay (A. O. “The Joys of Melancholy”, 1802), which especially revolted Shishkov with his style: “A cloudy day in the heart of July caused us to use the air. Offering an interesting walk in a friendly circle, we go over the mountain to entertain thoughtfulness. The beauties of the field tenderly captivated us; hurrying, with heartfelt pleasure, we enter the grove. Here our vision finds various objects; dissipating in its canopy with inexplicable pleasantness, we hear a passionate philomela, melting in its delights... Here the rural charm surveys the ripening wealth with admiration, greets with impatience the expected. A low natural compliment with an innocent smile was her answer.

But, not content with "criticism" of the shortcomings of the modern literary language, Shishkov still ventured to propose its "reform", advising to replace foreign words Russian, or Church Slavonic (instead of "scene" - "phenomenon", instead of "melancholy" - "despondency", "mythology" - "fabulous", "review" - "examining books", "heroism" - "good-heartedness", "actor "- "actor", "development" (from développement) - "vegetation"). He proposed to return to general use the words already forgotten at that time: “nepshchevat”, “zane”, “ubo”, “like”, “like”.

Shishkov was a sincere patriot, but a poor philologist. A sailor by profession, he studied the language as an amateur. That is why his philological theories are completely naive and unacceptable. For example, he derived the words “wide”, “high”, “far” from such phrases: “width + eye”, “height + eye”, etc. He brought the word “star” closer to the word “nail”, “for stars,” he said, “like bright nails in the sky”; “pride” - from “mountain + I give”, etc.

This circumstance undermined, in the eyes of Russian society, the significance of his noble efforts to purify the Russian language from an excessive admixture of foreign language. In any case, his articles attracted attention, aroused support from some - and ridicule from others. Professors Kachenovsky, Makarov, Dashkov, Izmailov and many others took part in the controversy that arose. Shishkov’s opponents managed to ridicule not only his philological helplessness, but also the fact that he himself, despite his own demands to take care of the purity of the Russian style, could not do without barbarism .

Shishkovists included such famous Russian poets as

Russian writer, statesman and public figure, Admiral Alexander Semenovich Shishkov was born on March 20 (March 9, old style), 1754 in Moscow. Educated at the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg, in 1772 he graduated from the corps with the rank of midshipman.

In 1776, on the frigate "Northern Eagle" he made a trip that lasted three years. Upon his return, Shishkov was promoted to lieutenant and from 1779 taught naval tactics at the Naval Cadet Corps, while simultaneously engaging in literary activities, mainly translations. He also compiled an English-French-Russian marine dictionary.

During a long campaign and fulfillment of secret assignments, Shishkov got acquainted with the situation in Italy, Greece and Turkey. It is characteristic that one of these travel impressions was the first impulse of a hostile attitude towards the French, which subsequently colored almost all of Shishkov's literary activity - he saw how several of the newest Greek chapels were disfigured by the inscriptions of the godless French, despite the fact that even the Turks did not disfigure these chapels.

In 1791, he commanded the 64-gun ship Retvizan, captured from the Swedes during the Battle of Vyborg and introduced into the Russian fleet. In 1796, Shishkov was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet and appointed governor of the office of the head of the Black Sea Fleet and ports, Prince Platon Zubov.

After the coronation of Paul I (1754-1801), Shishkov returned to St. Petersburg.

In 1799, Shishkov was appointed to the honorary position of historiographer of the fleet and soon became vice admiral.

During the years of disgrace, Shishkov finds himself in creativity and social activities. Since 1796, a member of the Russian Academy of Literature, he devotes himself to linguistic work. The Russian Academy, on the initiative of Shishkov, has been publishing “Works and Translations” since 1805, in which he places his original and translated articles, his translation of “The Tale of Igor's Campaign” and its most extensive analysis.

But all this seemed insufficient to Shishkov, and he decided to form a new academy for the training of young writers.

From February 1807, at the initiative of Shishkov, literary evenings began to gather, which since 1810 became public and received the name “Conversations of lovers of the Russian word”, where, in addition to literary problems, social and political issues were also discussed. The society published its own "Readings in the Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word", where Shishkov's works such as "Discourses on the Beauties of Holy Scripture", "Conversations on Literature" and "Addition to Conversations" were published. The activities of "Conversations" continued until 1816.

The manifestos written by Shishkov were read throughout Russia. In fact, he fulfilled the role of the main ideologist of the Patriotic War of 1812. His manifestos, being responses to all the most important events, raised the spirit of the Russian people and supported them in the difficult days of defeat.

The emperor's order to write the manifesto was combined with the appointment of Shishkov on April 9 (21), 1812 to the post of state secretary in place of the removed Speransky. From this moment, vigorous activity begins for Shishkov: the emperor takes him with him to Vilna and, being with the army, Shishkov writes all the most important orders and rescripts. So, he wrote the famous order to the armies and a rescript to Count Saltykov on the entry of the enemy into Russia. The words from them made a deep impression on the whole of Russia, and the same feelings were evoked by further orders edited by Shishkov: these were an appeal and a manifesto on the general militia, manifestos and rescripts on the militia, the news of the abandonment of Moscow by Russian troops. Shishkov's patriotic enthusiasm was expressed in angry accusatory speeches against the French, whom he even likened to "the fusion of a tiger with a monkey." When the retreat of the French began, in December Shishkov followed the emperor to Vilna, where he was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky, and in the Highest Rescript it was said: "for exemplary love for the fatherland."

In 1813-1814, Shishkov accompanied the Russian army on a foreign campaign. In August 1814, he was relieved of the post of Secretary of State for health reasons, but at the same time he was appointed a member of the State Council, as well as President of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In December 1823, Shishkov was promoted to admiral.

In May 1813 he was appointed President of the Academy of Sciences and held it until his death. In this post, he advocated that the Russian Academy, as opposed to the Academy of Sciences (where foreigners predominated), became the basis for the development domestic sciences and education, the center of Russian spirituality and patriotism.

The personnel policy of Shishkov at the Academy was to gather all nationally minded Russian scientists into it. To the credit of the admiral, he brought to the Russian Academy many people with whom he once argued: active members of the Arzamas circle, M. M. Speransky, etc.

A. S. Shishkov gave great attention development of both Russian and common Slavic philology. Shishkov was one of the first to make an attempt to organize the departments of Slavic studies at Russian universities, to create a Slavic library in St. Petersburg, in which literary monuments in all Slavic languages and all books on Slavic studies would be collected. Under Shishkov, the academy did a lot to educate the province.

After the death of Shishkov in 1841, the Russian Academy became part of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences as a branch.

In May 1824, Alexander Shishkov became Minister of Public Education and Commander-in-Chief of Foreign Religious Affairs. At the very first meeting of the Main Board of Schools, Shishkov said that the ministry should, first of all, protect youth from infection with “falsely wise philosophies, wind-blown dreams, puffy pride and pernicious self-esteem, involving a person in dangerous delusion to think that he is an old man in his youth, and through this makes him a young man in his old age.

In the autumn of 1824, Shishkov presented the emperor with several notes justifying the need to close the Bible Societies. The minister objected to the translation of Holy Scripture from Church Slavonic into the modern literary language, seeing in this a blasphemous translation of sacred texts from the "language of the church" into the "language of the theater." He was able to get Metropolitan Philaret's Christian Catechism banned because it was written in the literary language and not in Church Slavonic. Shishkov also argued for the need to withdraw from circulation and destroy books published by the Bible Society. Through the efforts of Shishkov and his like-minded people, by the end of 1824, the Izvestiya of the society practically stopped its work, the translation of the Bible stopped, and in 1825 the publication of the Bible in Russian was interrupted.

The activity of the Bible Society was finally liquidated in the reign of Nicholas I after the events of December 14, 1825. Shishkov was a member of the Supreme Criminal Court over the Decembrists and, being a merciful man, advocated some mitigation of punishment for them, which, however, was not taken into account.

The consequence of the Decembrist uprising was also that, being clearly under the impression of the uprising, Shishkov achieved the adoption on June 10, 1826 of a new Charter on censorship, which was nicknamed "cast iron" in the liberal environment for its protectiveness. According to this statute, all historical writings were banned if they showed an unfavorable disposition to monarchical rule, any attempts to directly or indirectly justify any state indignations were prohibited, and the writings of Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu, Helvetius and other French "enlighteners" were specifically prohibited. The authors were charged with the duty to derive "saving teachings" from stories about the revolution and to reveal a favorable disposition towards monarchical rule.

In June 1826, through the efforts of Shishkov, a new charter on censorship (“cast iron”) was adopted, according to which all historical writings were prohibited if they contained an “unfavorable disposition” to monarchical rule.

The protectiveness of the Shishkovsky charter, directed primarily against the spread of revolutionary and mystical ideas, caused such strong discontent in liberal and Masonic circles that the very next year the emperor agreed to the creation of a commission to develop another, milder censorship charter (Shishkov was not included in the commission). The new Censorship Charter was approved on April 22 (May 4), 1828, and on April 23 (May 5), 1828, Shishkov's resignation from the post of Minister of Education followed.

In 1828, Shishkov was dismissed from the post of minister "due to old age and poor health", but retained the positions of a member of the State Council and president of the Russian Academy.

The beginning of Shishkov's literary studies dates back to the end of the 1770s. In part, these classes were connected with Shishkov's pedagogical service, when he translated the French Naval Tactics and compiled a trilingual English-French-Russian marine dictionary.

At the same time, Shishkov developed an independent interest in literature. The beginning of this interest was the translation of the French melodrama “Blessings win hearts” by Shishkov and the German “Children's Library” by I.K. Campe. "Children's Library", which consisted of moralizing stories for children, had big success, being reprinted until the 1830s (that is, for 50 years). For a long time, noble children were taught to read and write on it.

Alexander Semenych Shishkov, no doubt, rendered a great service by translating this book, which, despite the outdated language and moralizing techniques, still remains the best children's book. She had many publications; the first one seems to have been made in 1792.
- S. T. Aksakov. "Childhood of Bagrov-grandson".

To initial period Shishkov’s literary activity also includes a small independent play “Slavery”, written by him in 1780 to glorify Empress Catherine, who donated a significant amount of money to ransom Christian slaves in Algeria.

Being removed from the court, Shishkov again switched to literary pursuits which took on a slightly different character. He delved into the study of the Church Slavonic language, and was guided by the dominant etymological trend at that time. In 1800 Shishkov became an honorary member Imperial Academy Sciences.

After moving away from public affairs, linguistic studies turned into a tool for a kind of nationalist journalism for him. He was dissatisfied with all sorts of innovations, caring, as a member of the Russian Academy, about maintaining the purity of the Russian language. Shishkov decided to speak out against literary innovations, and at the same time against the source of these innovations, against imitation of the French.

Shishkov's literary activity played a well-known role in the creation of the high civic style of Decembrist poetry (F. N. Glinka, V. K. Kyuchelbeker and others), and his linguistic ideas had some influence on the work of A. S. Griboedov and.

Alexander Shishkov died on April 21 (April 9 according to the old style), 1841 in St. Petersburg.

Shishkov, Alexander Semenovich

admiral, minister of public education, born in 1754, educated in the Naval Cadet Corps, from which he was released as midshipman in 1772. During the reign of Catherine II, he had to make a number of voyages along the White, Baltic, Northern German and Mediterranean seas; these voyages tempered his character, enriched him with information and made it possible to study many foreign languages. Sh. began to study literature with early years; he was brought up on the works of Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Derzhavin and other writers of the 18th century, which is why he remained their admirer and imitator for the rest of his life. On behalf of the President of the Academy of Sciences, Domashnev, he translated the German children's library Kemde, consisting of moralizing stories and poems; this book until the 30s of the last century was very common in Russian families when teaching children to read and write. In 1780, Mr.. Sh. wrote a play: "Slavery", which glorified Catherine II on the occasion of her donation of a significant amount for the ransom of Christian slaves from Algeria. Promoted to lieutenant in 1779, Sh. was appointed teacher of tactics in the Naval Cadet Corps. In 1790 he took part in Swedish war, for which he received a gold saber with the inscription "for courage" and a gold snuff-box strewn with diamonds. In 1793, his book "Marine Art", translated from French, was published. Comrade Sh., Kushelev advised him to bring this essay to the heir, Pavel Petrovich, as an admiral general, in order to ingratiate himself with him. When Prince Zubov was appointed head of the Black Sea Fleet, Sh. was asked to take the place of the ruler of the chancellery with him, but he decided to do this only with the permission of Pavel Petrovich. The accession of Paul I greatly impressed Sh., about which he wrote in his Notes. "Paul I reigned. No one expected this sudden change ... This change was so great that otherwise it seemed to me like an enemy invasion. The palace was filled with many different kind people standing motionless with grief and anxiety depicted on their faces. All the former splendor, all the majesty and importance of the court disappeared. Soldiers with rifles appeared everywhere in and around him. The most famous persons, the primary officials who managed state affairs, stood, as it were, already deprived of positions and titles, with bowed heads, inconspicuous in the crowd of people. People of small ranks, about whom no one thought a day ago, almost no one knew them, ran, commanded, established. It seemed that a different age had come, a different life, a different being. " Sh. Veste with others feared for his future, but new emperor kindly treated him. He was promoted to captain of the 1st rank, received 250 souls in Kashinsky district. and after the coronation, Emperor Paul appointed him to the squadron-major in his presence. In this rank, he was to accompany the emperor on his ten-day voyage across the Baltic Sea on the frigate Emmanuel, for which he was granted the rank of adjutant general. The new appointment brought a lot of anxiety to Sh .: he often had to fulfill various petty assignments of the emperor; the slightest inaccuracy in execution aroused the wrath of the latter. By the way, the emperor instructed him to compile a description of his sea voyage, but was dissatisfied with Sh.'s work, since the latter mentioned in it the seasickness experienced by the emperor. Returning the book to the author, Pavel said dryly to him: "You have written too much." On behalf of the sovereign, Sh. had to go to Vienna in order to take Dutch officers and sailors into the Russian service. Due to circumstances beyond his control, Sh. could not fulfill this and asked the emperor's permission to travel to Karlsbad. Pavel allowed him a vacation, but at the same time assigned him a duty that resented and burdened Sh., namely: "to have a diligent observation of the actions of all Russians who find themselves in Karlsbad, especially Prince Zubov, Orlov and Razumovsky, and if what evils will be noticed in their behavior, immediately send reports about it by courier." Upon his return to Russia, Sh. soon fell into disgrace because he, being on duty, dozed off and did not notice how the emperor passed by him. The next day after that he was already appointed a member of the admiralty board; In this position he received the rank of Vice Admiral.

Sh. welcomed the accession to the throne of Alexander I with an ode that began with the following verses:

"Alexander is on the throne! Great is the Russian God!

All the people rejoice, both the church and the chamber,

The Russians repeat with their heart and mouth:

On the throne Alexander! The hand of the Lord is with us!"

Sh. rejoiced that the new emperor promised in his manifesto to “follow in the footsteps of his grandmother Catherine the Great,” but soon he began to worry about the fact that Alexander surrounded himself with Catherine’s people who still did not remain, and formed an Unspoken Committee of his young friends: Stroganov, Kochubey, Novosiltsev and Chartoryzhsky. Employees of the sovereign, according to Sh., were imbued with new concepts that arose from the chaos of the "monstrous french revolution". Sh., who in his youth was distinguished by contempt for everything French, and now biliously attacked the gallomania of Russian society. He had a negative attitude towards the establishment of ministries. Criticism of the policy of Alexander I and a quarrel with influential maritime minister The Chichagovs were led to the fact that the emperor began to show displeasure to Sh. and forbade sending him invitations to the Hermitage performances. Only after reconciliation with Chichagov Sh. was appointed chairman of the scientific department of the Admiralty Board. At a distance from the court, Sh. gave himself up to scientific and literary activities. As early as 1796, he was elected a member of the Russian Academy, in which he won for himself an eminent position and predominating influence among his fellow members, especially those of them who attended the academy most zealously and steadily participated in its work.

For almost forty years until his death W. took a direct and permanent part in academic life and work. In meetings Russian Academy his writings were read, academic publications were filled with his works; in his hands was the choice of members and the choice of objects for the development of their combined forces. In 1803, he published "Discourse on the old and new style of the Russian language", which caused great controversy in literary circles. In this essay, as in subsequent ones, Sh., having neither the proper philological education, no philosophical thinking, but relying only on his reasoning and imagination, he tried to prove that Church Slavonic and Russian languages are identical; he called the Russian language a child of the Central Slavonic, his dialect. He saw the difference between these languages only in their purpose. The Central Slavic language was supposed to serve to express objects of high style, and Russian only for everyday objects; The Central Slavic language provides the material from which the Russian language forms new words. Attempts by Sh. himself to give examples of such an invention of words against him for a long time incessant ridicule. In his linguistic writings Sh. at the same time was a publicist, defending the ideas of nationalism, understood by him in a narrow sense. According to Stoyunin, he was angry against young administrators who received no Russian education, was angry at Karamzin, who did not take a completely favorable attitude towards the style of former Russian writers, calling it Slavic Russian and who recognized some pleasantness only behind the newest style, was angry at him for the new ideas that he introduced into literature and for the fact that some orders of the administration justified them in his new journal. Since 1805, at the thought of Sh., the academy began to publish "Works and Translations", in which Sh. was placed his translation of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" and an analysis of this word. Since 1807, Sh., together with his friends: Derzhavin, Khvostov, Muravyov and others, began to arrange literary evenings, which since 1810 became public and turned to society: "Conversations of lovers of the Russian word", the purpose of which was to develop patriotism with the help of Russian language and literature. In 1811, Mr. Sh. was written "Reasoning about the love of the fatherland", which again drew the attention of Alexander I to him. On April 9, 1812, Secretary of State Speransky fell. Unexpectedly for himself, through a courier, Sh. was summoned to the sovereign, the Emperor graciously met Sh. and said to him: “I read your reasoning about love for the fatherland; having such feelings, you can be useful to him It seems that we will not do without war with the French, we need to make a recruitment, I would like you to write a manifesto about it. The sovereign liked the manifesto, and after that W. was appointed to the post of secretary of state. During the war of 1812-1814. he constantly accompanied Alexander I on his campaigns, and all manifestos, orders for the army and rescripts relating to the war belonged to him. The order for the army after Napoleon's entry into Russia ended with the following words: "I do not need to remind the leaders, commanders and soldiers of their duty and courage. Since ancient times, the blood of the Slavs has flowed in them with loud victories. Warriors! You defend faith, fatherland, freedom. I am with you .On the begetting God! S. T. Aksakov, in his memoirs about Sh., says that the manifestos he wrote had an electrical effect on the whole of Russia. When the flight of the French began, and Alexander I arrived in Vilna in December 1812, Sh. was awarded the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky "for his exemplary love for the fatherland," as stated in the Imperial rescript. In 1813, after the death of the president of the Russian Academy Nartov, he asked the sovereign for his appointment to this place. Alexander I agreed to fulfill his request, saying that "with a candle he will not find the best person". Being the president of the academy, Sh. continued his philological works, published in the "Academ. Izvestiya." He expressed in them the idea that the roots European languages the same, but fell into extremes, and himself, without any scientific method, based only on the knowledge of certain languages, began to look for the roots of words and explain them according to his reasoning, which he called " common sense". To do this, he compiled long tables, which he compared with trees: the first branches or tribes came from the root, new branches from each tribe. historical meaning, namely: the importance for Russia of the study of Slavism. Sh. wanted to involve scientists and other Slavic lands in his work: in 1813 he met the famous Slavist Dobrovsky, who, at his suggestion, was elected to honorary members academy, together with the Polish scientist Linde and Czech: Ganka and Negedli. Sam Sh. conducted an active correspondence with Miletich, Safarik and Karadzic; Slavic scientists sent their works to the academy through him; he held the view that it was necessary to open Slavic departments in Russian universities, it was necessary to arrange a Slavic library, that is, one in which literary monuments in all Slavic dialects and, in general, all books on Slavic studies would be collected.

In 1814, Mr.. Sh. was dismissed from the post of Secretary of State with the appointment of a member of the State Council. In his new post, he steadfastly pursued his conservative-patriotic convictions: he drew up a new plan for the device of censorship, criticized Speransky's civil code, defended serfdom. He characterized his activities as a struggle against the "spirit of the times", meaning by these words "the general desire for self-will and disobedience." With undisguised enmity, Sh. treated the ministry Public Enlightenment and wrote: "it seems as if all schools have turned into schools of debauchery, and whoever comes out of there will immediately show that he has been seduced from the true path, and his head is full of emptiness, and his heart is filled with pride, the first enemy of prudence." In the mysticism of the Minister of Public Education, Prince. Golitsyn, he also saw the manifestation of the "spirit of the times", which, in his opinion, originated from Novikov under Catherine II, associated with the French revolutionary teachings. People possessed by this "spirit", as Sh. thought, had as their goal to shake Orthodoxy in Russia and weaken its power through internal strife. Alexander I, although he did not share the fears of the admiral, but, respecting his sincere patriotic and religious convictions, appointed him on January 15, 1824, the Minister of Public Education and the head of spiritual affairs of foreign confessions. At the very first meeting of the Main Directorate of Schools, Sh. expressed the idea that the main task of the ministry was to protect the youth from infection with "falsely wise philosophies, hesitant dreams, chubby pride and pernicious self-esteem." Education should be national, to teach literacy to the whole people or a disproportionate number of people would do more harm than good. "As a minister, Sh. was little independent and did not want to take responsibility for his orders; he expected to hide behind the power of the sovereign and constantly wrote to him the longest reports and explanations with complaints about the spreading evil. He sought that the emperor would condemn the activities of the former Ministry of Public Education with a special rescript, although he knew the friendly disposition of Alexander I to Prince Golitsyn. tactless papers, and this led to the fact that Alexander I stopped accepting Sh. with reports and instructed Arakcheev to communicate with him. The first measure "to curb debauchery" Sh. proposed a reform of censorship. He was showered with cruel accusations and biblical societies that distributed translations " so-called spiritual and philosophical, but truly carbonarian and revolutionary Ionic books. He accused even Metropolitan Seraphim and Archbishop Filaret of condoning this. Catechism Filaret, because the texts in it were given in Russian, also fell into the number of harmful books.

At the beginning of the reign of Nicholas I, those persons began to rise, whom Sh. considered, according to their ideas, malicious, such as, for example. Karamzin, Dashkov and Bludov; the latter was even appointed as his comrade. The minister realized that he was already losing his influence and was in a hurry to at least partially implement his views in the new censorship charter entrusted to him, which received the Highest approval on June 10, 1826. Contemporaries called this charter "cast iron", the censor Glinka said that guided by the charter Sh. " it is possible to reinterpret the Our Father in the Jacobin dialect. It forbade the printing of books on geology, philosophy, politics, discourse about a deity, and everything that might seem offensive to any government or religion. The author was subjected to heavy responsibility both for the work omitted by the censors and for the work presented in the manuscript, if there was anything reprehensible in it. In 1826 Sh. was a member supreme court over the Decembrists. In 1828, he was dismissed from the post of Minister of Public Education due to old age and poor health. Although Sh. after that remained until his death the president of the academy and a member of the State Council, but already of no importance either in the state or in public life didn't have. He died in 1841.

"Collected works and translations of A. S. Shishkov" St. Petersburg. 1818-1839 - "Notes, opinions and correspondence of Admiral Sh." Edition of Kiselev and Yu. Samarin, Berlin 1870 - "Collection of the highest manifestos, letters, decrees, etc. 1812-1816." Published by A. S. Sh. (St. Petersburg, 1816). - S. T. Aksakov, "Memories of Sh." ("Works" vol. I) - Zhikharev, "Diary of an official" "Father. Zap.", 1855 - Shchebalsky. "A. S. Sh., his allies and opponents" "Russian. Vestn.", 1870, No. 11. - Przhetslavsky, "Memoirs" "Russian. Star." 1875 - Stoyunin, "A S. Sh." SPb. 1880; - Kochubinsky, " Early Years Russian Slavic Studies" Odessa, 1878; - Sukhomlinov, "History of the Russian Academy" vol. VII. - Schilder, "Emperor Alexander I" St. Petersburg, 1899; - Schilder, "Emperor Nicholas I" SPG, 1903 - Rozhdestvensky, "Historical review of the activities of the Ministry of Public Education" St. Petersburg. 1902 - Pypin, "History of Russian Literature" vol. IV, St. Petersburg, 1903

V. Trotsky.

(Polovtsov)

Shishkov, Alexander Semenovich

Writer and statesman; genus. in 1754. We have no information about the years of his childhood and his initial upbringing, but it is very likely that biographers suggest that it was to this period of Sh.'s life that the first germs of those patriotic and religious feelings that are so clearly manifested in the later state and literary activity Sh. "Most likely," says Stoyunin, "he was brought up under the same conditions under which some of his peers, respected figures in the general Russian life of the second half of the 18th century, were brought up, such as, for example, Fonvizin, Derzhavin and etc. Religious feeling and thought developed in them under the influence of reading church books, sacred history and the Reading of the Menaia, and at the same time they became familiar with the church language; love for nature also developed under the influence of close relationships with it, love for man developed under loving native family, love for the motherland developed under the impression of stories about the glorious and high-profile past times of Peter, under the impression of the people these songs, and, perhaps, the sonorous odes of Lomonosov and other poets. With this home training Sh entered the naval cadet corps, where he was the director of his relative I. L. Kutuzov. In 1771, Mr.. Sh. went to the midshipmen and was sent to Arkhangelsk together with his comrades, and the following year he was promoted to midshipman. In 1776, Mr.. Sh. was assigned to the frigate "Northern Eagle", which was supposed to lead around from Kronstadt through the Mediterranean Sea and the Dardanelles three other ships (under the guise of merchants) to the Black Sea. The journey lasted as long as 3 years, introduced Sh. to the current situation in Italy, Greece and Turkey. It is characteristic that one of these travel impressions was the first impulse of a hostile attitude towards the French, which subsequently colored almost all of S.'s literary activity. and the wickedness of the godless French, who, sometimes entering this port, did not leave a single chapel without disfiguring the faces of the saints and inscribed mocking and abusive inscriptions everywhere. It is amazing to what malice and fury the corruption of morals leads! drowned in unbelief; but why hate the religion of other Christians like them? Why didn't the Turks disfigure these chapels? Why is no other language read in these vile inscriptions than French?" Upon his return from a foreign voyage, Sh. was promoted to lieutenant and assigned to the naval cadet corps to teach naval tactics to midshipmen. By this time, the beginning of Sh.'s literary studies dates back: in part, these classes are connected with Sh.'s pedagogical service (translation french book"Marine Art" and the compilation of a trilingual marine dictionary), in part, they can be considered the result of Sh.'s independent interest in literature. The latter category includes the translation of the French melodrama Beneficences Win Hearts, the German Children's Library by Campe. The last book, consisting of moralizing stories for children, in verse and prose, was a great success, and children were taught to read and write on it for a long time. “My book,” said Sh., “amuses children with its simple style and instructs them in good manners; they read many of its verses by heart, and their parents accepted it favorably, so that within sixteen or seventeen years it was published three times.” By the initial period of literary activity Sh. is a small play "Slavery", written in 1780 to glorify Empress Catherine, who donated a significant amount of money for the redemption of Christian slaves in Algeria. Literary and pedagogical works Sh. were interrupted in 1790 by the war with Sweden: in the rank of captain of the second rank Sh. commanded the frigate "Nikolai", which was part of Chichagov's squadron. After this short and unsuccessful war Sh. settles in St. Petersburg and is given to scientific studies in maritime affairs. In 1793, his translation of "Naval Tactics" was published, and, having brought this book to Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich, as an admiral general, Sh. acquired his location, which increased even more when Sh. Prince Zubov only after the permission of the Grand Duke. Upon accession to the throne, Emperor Pavel immediately made Sh. a captain of the 1st rank, granted him 250 souls in the Kashinsky district, then promoted him to major squadron and adjutant general, but after all these favors, Sh. fell into disgrace in 1798: he was removed from the court, and, however, was promoted to vice admiral, awarded the Order of Anna I degree and appointed a member Admiralty Board. In 1801, Sh. greeted the new emperor with a joyful ode, but it soon turned out that the people of his views were already outdated and did not fit the requirements of Alexander. After the establishment of the ministries and the appointment of Chichagov as Minister of Marine, Sh. clearly expresses his disapproval of some new orders, for which he is again disgraced.

Thus removed from active participation in public life and becoming in the ranks of the dissatisfied, Sh. is given to literary pursuits, in which his Old Believers can partly be explained by personal reasons. Chosen back in 1796 as a member of the Russian Academy, Sh. delved into the study of the Church Slavonic language, and was guided by the etymological trend that prevailed at that time. Under the influence of such studies, he very soon began to regard himself as the most authoritative representative of philology, but when, while moving away from state affairs, his linguistic studies intensified, they turned for him into a tool of a kind of nationalist journalism. He was dissatisfied with all sorts of innovations, and there were many of them. “He was angry,” says Stoyunin, “against young administrators who did not receive a Russian upbringing; he was angry against Karamzin, who did not quite favorably react to the style of former Russian writers, calling it Slavic-Russian, and who recognized some pleasantness only behind the newest style; he was angry with him both for the new ideas that he introduced into literature, and for the fact that some of the new orders of the administration were justified by him in his new journal. Concerned, as a member of the Russian Academy, about preserving the purity of the Russian language, Sh decided to speak out against literary innovations, and at the same time against the source of these innovations, against imitation of the French. He points to this motif in his famous "Reasoning about the old and new style of the Russian language" (St. Petersburg, 1803). Repeating, in essence, the usual attacks of the literature of Catherine's time, Sh; says: "What knowledge can we have in natural language in their own way, when the children of our noblest boyars and nobles from their youngest nails are in the hands of the French, cling to their customs, learn to despise their customs, insensitively receive their whole way of thinking and concepts, speak their language more freely than their own, and even to they are infected with a predilection for them, not only in their language they never practice, not only are they not ashamed not to know it, but still many of them, with their most shameful ignorance of all, seem to boast and magnify themselves with some dignity that adorns them. Having been brought up in this way, they hardly learn to explain themselves by the force of the necessary hearsay in that popular language that is common in general conversations; but how can they draw art and information from a bookish or learned language so far removed from this simple thought of their communication? To know the wealth, abundance, strength and beauty of one’s language, one must read books published in it, and especially written by excellent writers. nevertheless, here he sees the reason for all innovations in Russian literary speech, the reason for the neglect of the Church Slavonic language, as a result of which "in our current books a strange and alien to our understanding and hearing style prevails." “Who would have thought,” Sh. exclaims, “that we, having left this approved foundation of our language for many centuries (that is, the Church Slavonic language), began to build it again on a meager foundation French". Disdainful of the Church Slavonic language, which, according to Sh., is identical with Russian, the new writers completely endure French words, make up new words and sayings according to the French model, give words that already existed before, a new meaning that is not characteristic of them. "While we are engaged in this foolish translation and invention of words and speeches, which are not the least unusual for us, many indigenous and very significant Russian words others have fallen completely into oblivion; others, despite the richness of their meaning, have become strange and wild to ears unaccustomed to them; still others have completely changed their meaning and are not used in the senses in which they were used from the beginning. And so, on the one hand, absurd news is introduced into our language, and on the other, concepts that have long been accepted and approved for many centuries are exterminated and forgotten: in this way our literature flourishes and a pleasantness of style is formed, called by the French élégance! "In order to show examples of good syllable, Sh. in his "Discourse" introduced the life of Minodora, Mitrodora and Nymphodora from Reading the Mena, added to it an explanatory dictionary of Slavic words, a comparison of the Lomonosov ode "Job" with the book of Job. Thanks to such additions, the work of Sh., as he himself admitted, “came out in an unorganized form and composition.” In scientific terms, this work was very weak, and for many contemporaries it was clear that S.’s attacks on the new literary direction, especially since, in support of these attacks, Sh. exhibited a strange idea about the identity of the Russian and Church Slavonic languages. Pointing out in the "Addendum to the Discourse on the Old and New Syllabary of the Russian Language" (St. Petersburg, 1804) various blunders of the Karamzinists Makarov and Martynov, Sh. and new languages. “From where,” he asked, “this unfounded idea was born that the Slavic and Russian languages are different from each other? If we take the word“ language ”in the sense of an adverb or syllable, then, of course, we can assert this difference; one, many: in every century or half a century, some changes in dialects are noted ... What is the Russian language apart from Slavic? A dream, a riddle. Isn't it strange to assert the existence of a language in which there is not a single word? Meanwhile, however, despite On this incongruous oddity, many of the newest writers base our literature on this exactly imaginary division. Sh. considers the Slavic language the language of spiritual books, and Russian - he finds in secular books. This is the whole difference between the two languages, and therefore it is impossible to separate them in the way that new writers do.

His "Reasoning about the old and new style" Sh. through the Minister of Public Education brought the sovereign and was made happy, in his words, with approval; also "praised his diligence and many spiritual and secular persons", and, encouraged by this sympathy, Sh. becomes very active: since 1805, in his opinion, the Russian Academy publishes "Works and Translations", in which he places his original and translated articles, his translation of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" and its extensive analysis. But all this seemed W. insufficient to deal with the new writers, even his own "Reasoning" seemed to him "a small drop of water to put out the fire," and he decided to form a new academy to train young writers. One of his younger contemporaries, Zhikharev, reports the following about this: “Sh. talked for a very long time about the benefits that meetings would bring to Russian literature, in which young writers would be admitted and invited to read their works, and suggested that G. R. Derzhavin appoint along with him, alternately, at least once a week, literary evenings, promising to persuade A. S. Khvostov and Senator I. S. Zakharov, whose houses and lifestyle were the most convenient for that. Thus began in 1807 private meetings of writers of the Sh. The purpose of "Conversations" (see) was to strengthen the patriotic feeling in Russian society with the help of the Russian language and literature: "the triumph of domestic literature," according to one contemporary, "should have preceded the triumph of faith and fatherland." In order to influence the public, the publication of "Readings in the Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word" was undertaken, and the material for the "Readings" was delivered mainly by Sh. "and" Additions to conversations ". In Conversations, by the way, a curious idea was expressed about the importance of studying folk songs. "The popular language, cleansed somewhat of its rudeness, renewed and adjusted to our current literature, would bring us closer to that pleasant innocence, to those natural feelings, from which, moving away, we become more affected talkers than truly eloquent writers."

In 1811, in the "Conversation" Sh. "Reasoning about love for the fatherland" was read. Here he again spoke of the shortcomings of the Russian upbringing of that time. “Education,” Sh. argued, “should be domestic, and not foreign. A learned stranger can teach us, when necessary, some of his knowledge in the sciences, but he cannot put into our soul the fire of national pride, the fire of love for the fatherland, just like just as I cannot put into him my feelings for my mother. "National education is a very important matter that requires great insight and foresight. It does not work at the present time, but prepares the happiness or misfortune of future times, and calls on our head either a blessing or an oath of descendants." In "Reasoning" Sh. felt the strongest excitement of patriotism, and the moment was just such when such excitement should have become especially valuable. The difficult time of the Patriotic War was approaching, and Emperor Alexander, having read the Discourse on Love for the Fatherland, decided to again call Sh. to business, although he was not at all disposed towards him for his harsh speeches and actions in the past. "I read your reasoning about love for the fatherland," said Alexander III . - Having such feelings, you can be useful to him. It seems that we will not do without a war with the French, we need to make a recruiting set; I would like you to write a manifesto about this. "This assignment was connected with the appointment of Sh. to the post of Secretary of State (April 9, 1812) in place of the remote Speransky. From that moment on, vigorous activity begins for Sh.: the emperor takes him from himself in Vilna and, being with the army, Sh. writes all the most important orders and rescripts. So, he wrote the famous order to the armies and a rescript to Count Saltykov on the entry of the enemy into Russia. The first is the words: "I do not need to remind the leaders, commanders and soldiers of our about their duty of courage. Since ancient times, the loud victories of the blood of the Slavs have been flowing in them. Warriors! You defend faith, fatherland, freedom. I'm with you. On the begetter, God!" In the rescript, the patriotic tone is even stronger: "I have no choice but to take up arms and use all the methods handed to me by Providence to repel force with force. I rely on the zeal of my people and the courage of my troops. Being threatened in the bowels of their houses, they will defend them with their characteristic firmness and courage. Providence will bless our righteous cause. The defense of the fatherland, the preservation of the independence and honor of the people forced us to gird ourselves in battle. I will not lay down arms until not a single enemy soldier remains in my kingdom." These words made a deep impression on all of Russia, and the same feelings were evoked by further orders edited by Sh.: these were the appeal and the manifesto on the general militia, manifestos and rescripts on the militias, the news of the abandonment of Moscow by Russian troops, consisting of the words: "God Almighty! Turn Your merciful eyes on the Russian Church praying to You with kneeling! Grant Thy faithful people who fight in truth courage and patience! With them, may he triumph over his enemy, may he overcome him, and, saving himself, save the freedom and independence of kings and kingdoms!" Sh. in denunciations of the spirit of imitation of Russian society, and with such enthusiasm, there were sometimes disagreements between the emperor and the secretary of state. So it was with the "news from Moscow", occupied by the French. "Having written this," says Sh., "I thought that my paper was not may be pleasant to the sovereign, because these reproaches (to Russian society), if not directly, then partly fall on him. This thought stopped me. But when, - he thought again, - and let him feel it, if not under the present circumstances? Encouraged by this reflection, I decided to go to him; but before he began to read, he said to him: sir, I cannot speak otherwise than what I feel. Let me ask you to listen to my paper to the end without interrupting reading it. After that, do with it what you please. - He promised it, and I began to read. At the end of the reading, looking at him, I noticed in his face a certain color and embarrassment. After a short pause, he said to me: “So, really, I deserve this reproach.” If this was sometimes the position of Sh. in relation to the sovereign himself, then he often had major clashes and bickering with ministers and other noble persons. the retreat of the French began, in December the emperor went to Vilna, followed by Sh.

In 1813, Mr.. Sh. accompanied the army on a foreign campaign. In Prague, he met the famous Slavic abbot Dobrovsky, and from that time his relations with various West Slavic scientists began. With his naive etymological direction in the study of the language, Sh. could not appreciate these new acquaintances, his attitude towards them is patronizing in nature, he recommends them his root-word conjectures (according to which, for example, the words sin, city, pride, thunder, etc.) were derived from the word mountain), - they seem to agree with him, but irony is visible on their part in relation to the primitive philology of Sh. Nevertheless, Sh. public education. In 1814, Emperor Alexander appointed Sh. a member state council, and a year earlier - the President of the Russian Academy. As a member of the State Council, Sh. sharply pursued his conservative-patriotic convictions: he presented a plan for a new censorship device, criticized the draft civil code drawn up by Speransky, defended serfdom, spoke negatively about the activities of the Ministry of Public Education, saying: "it seems as if everything schools have turned into schools of debauchery, and whoever comes out of there will immediately show that he has been seduced from the true path and his head is full of emptiness, and his heart is filled with pride, the first enemy of prudence. As president of the Russian Academy, Sh. continued to fight with new writers, worked diligently on his corneology, carried out the tradition of "Conversations of lovers of the Russian word." On May 15, 1824, Sh. was appointed minister of public education and head of affairs for foreign confessions. At the very first meeting of the main board of schools, Sh. said that the ministry should, first of all, protect youth from infection with “falsely wise philosophies, wind-blown dreams, puffy pride and pernicious self-esteem, involving a person into a dangerous delusion to think that he is an old man in his youth, and through that making him a youth in his old age." “Sciences,” the minister said, “refining the mind, will not constitute the well-being of the people without faith and morality ... Moreover, sciences are useful only when, like salt, they are used and taught in moderation, depending on the state of people and according to need, what every rank has in them. Their excess, as well as their deficiency, are contrary to true enlightenment. To teach the whole people to read and write, or a disproportionate number of people, would do more harm than good. To instruct an agricultural son in rhetoric would be to prepare him to be thin and useless or even a harmful citizen." At the very first report to the Sovereign, Sh. asked the Highest permission to draw up a plan, “what methods should be used to quietly and modestly extinguish that evil, which, although it does not bear the name of Carbonarism among us, is definitely there, and is already firmly different means He accused the Ministry of Education not only of connivance, but even "of any patronage and encouragement of moral evil called the spirit of the times." books", among which even the catechism of Filaret was included for the fact that in it the texts of the Holy Scriptures were given in Russian. However, the transformation of public education could not be completed Sh .: on April 25, 1828, he was dismissed from the post of minister "in declination of years and in poor health. "Although the positions of a member of the State Council and president of the Russian Academy were retained for him, Sh.'s social activity from that moment can be considered completed. He plunged into his philological studies, which had no scientific value and even lost the militant social character that they had before. Sh. died in 1841.

See "Collected works and translations of A. S. Shishkov" (St. Petersburg, 1818-39); "Notes, opinions and correspondence of Admiral Sh." (published by Kiselev and Yu. Samarin, Berlin, 1870); "Collection of the Highest manifestos, letters, decrees, etc. 1812-1816. Published by A. S. Sh." (St. Petersburg, 1816); S. T. Aksakov, "Memories of Sh." ("Works", vol. I); Zhikharev, "Diary of an official" ("Notes of the Fatherland", 1855); Stoyunin, "A. S. Sh." (St. Petersburg, 1880); Kochubinsky, "The initial years of Russian Slavic studies" (Odessa, 1878); Sukhomlinov, "History of the Russian Academy" (vol. VII); Schilder, "Emperor Alexander I" (St. Petersburg, 1899); Rozhdestvensky, "Historical review of the activities of the Ministry of Education" (St. Petersburg, 1902).

A. Borozdin.

(Brockhaus)

Shishkov, Alexander Semenovich

Admiral, President of Russia acad. in 1824, since 1823 the minister of the people. enlightenment, in 1814, 30 Aug. appointed member of the State. council, writer; genus. March 9, 1754, † 1841 April 9

(Polovtsov)

Shishkov, Alexander Semenovich

(1754-1841) - writer and statesman, ideologist of the most reactionary noble layers of the early 19th century. Served in the Navy, Vice Admiral. Shishkov's literary activity developed widely at the beginning of the 19th century. "Reasoning about the old and new style of the Russian language" (1803). Sh. opened a campaign against Karamzin's language reform, which resulted in a fierce struggle between the Shishkovists and the Karamzinists. Based on the absurd assumption about the complete identity of Church Slavonic and Russian. language, Sh. urged Karamzin and his followers to return from "secular writings" filled with French contagion to the language scripture and spiritual books. Sh.'s obedient tools in this struggle were the Russian Academy, which he led, and the Literary Society Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word, founded especially for this purpose.

See "Collected Works and Translations", St. Petersburg, 1818-1839; "Notes, Opinions and Correspondence", Berlin, 1870.

Wikipedia

Shishkov (Alexander Semenovich), a writer and statesman, was born in 1754. We have no information about the years of his childhood and his initial upbringing, but the biographers' assumption is very likely that it was by this period of life ... ... Biographical Dictionary

Writer and statesman; genus. in 1754. We do not have any information about the years of his childhood and his initial upbringing, but it is very likely that the biographers suggest that it was to this period of Sh.'s life that the first embryos should be attributed ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Shishkov (Alexander Semenovich) - writer and statesman, born in 1754.

We do not have any information about the years of his childhood and his initial upbringing, but the biographers' assumption is very likely that it is to this period of Shishkov's life that the first germs of those patriotic and religious feelings that are so clearly manifested in Shishkov's later state and literary activities should be attributed. “Most likely,” Stoyunin says, “he was brought up under the same conditions under which some of his peers, respectable figures in the general Russian life of the second half of the 18th century, were brought up, such as Fonvizin, Derzhavin and others. They developed a religious feeling and thought under the influence of reading religious books, sacred history and Chetya-Minei, and with this, the ear became related to the church language; love for nature developed under the influence of close relationships with it, love for a person developed under the impressions of a loving native family, developed love for the motherland under the impression of stories about the glorious and high-profile past times of Peter, under the impression of folk songs, and perhaps the sonorous odes of Lomonosov and other poets. With this home training, Shishkov entered the naval cadet corps, where his relative I.L. Kutuzov. In 1771, Shishkov became a midshipman and was sent to Arkhangelsk with his comrades, and the next year he was promoted to midshipman. In 1776, Shishkov was assigned to the frigate "Northern Eagle", which was supposed to lead three other ships (under the guise of merchants) to the Black Sea from Kronstadt through the Mediterranean Sea and the Dardanelles. The journey lasted for 3 whole years, introduced Shishkov to the then situation in Italy, Greece and Turkey. It is characteristic that one of these travel impressions was the first impulse of a hostile attitude towards the French, which subsequently colored almost all of Shishkov's literary activity. “We saw,” he says, “several of the newest Greek chapels with images of saints painted on the walls and could not marvel at the riot and wickedness of the godless French, who, sometimes entering this port, did not leave a single chapel without disfiguring their faces. "Saints and not to inscribe mocking and abusive inscriptions everywhere. It is amazing to what malice and fury the corruption of morals leads! Let them themselves drown in unbelief; but why hate the religion of other Christians like them? Why did the Turks not disfigure these chapels? Why no other language is read in these vile inscriptions, but only French? Upon returning from a foreign voyage, Shishkov was promoted to lieutenant and assigned to the naval cadet corps to teach naval tactics to midshipmen. The beginning of Shishkov's literary studies dates back to this time: in part, these classes are connected with Shishkov's pedagogical service (translation of the French book "Marine Art" and compilation of a trilingual marine dictionary), but in part they can be considered the result of Shishkov's independent interest in literature. The latter category includes the translation of the French melodrama Beneficences Win Hearts and the German Children's Library by Campe. The last book, consisting of moralizing stories for children, in verse and prose, was a great success, and children were taught to read and write on it for a long time. “My book,” says Shishkov, “amused the children with its simple style and instructed them in good manners; they read many of the verses in it by heart, and their parents accepted it favorably, so that within sixteen or seventeen years it was published three times.” Shishkov's initial period of literary activity includes a small play, Slavery, written in 1780 to glorify Empress Catherine, who donated a significant amount of money to ransom Christian slaves in Algeria. Shishkov's literary and pedagogical works were interrupted in 1790 by the war with Sweden: in the rank of captain of the second rank, Shishkov commanded the frigate "Nikolai", which was part of Chichagov's squadron. After this short and unsuccessful war, Shishkov settled in St. Petersburg and devoted himself to scientific studies in maritime affairs. In 1793, his translation of Naval Tactics was published and, having brought this

book to Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich as General-Admiral, Shishkov acquired his favor, which increased even more when Shishkov agreed to accept the position of governor of the office for the naval unit under Prince Zubov only after the permission of the Grand Duke. Upon accession to the throne, Emperor Pavel immediately promoted Shishkov to captain of the 1st rank, granted him 250 souls in the Kashinsky district, then promoted him to major squadron and adjutant general, but after all these favors, Shishkov fell into disgrace in 1798: he was removed from the court, and, however, he was promoted to vice admiral, awarded the Order of Anna of the 1st degree and appointed a member of the Admiralty Board. In 1801, Shishkov greeted the new emperor with a joyful ode, but it soon turned out that the people of his views were already outdated, not meeting the requirements of Alexander. After the establishment of ministries and the appointment of Chichagov as Minister of Marine, Shishkov clearly expresses his disapproval of some new orders, for which he is again disgraced. Having thus avoided active participation in public life and becoming one of the discontented, Shishkov devotes himself to literary pursuits, in which his Old Believers can partly be explained by personal reasons. Selected back in 1796 as a member of the Russian Academy, Shishkov delved into the study of the Church Slavonic language, and led the etymological trend that dominated at that time. Under the influence of such studies, he very soon began to look at himself as the most authoritative representative of philology, but when, with the removal from state affairs, his linguistic studies intensified, they turned for him into a tool of a kind of national journalism. He was dissatisfied with all sorts of innovations, and there were many of them. “He was angry,” says Stoyunin, “against young administrators who received a non-Russian upbringing; he was angry against Karamzin, who did not quite favorably react to the style of former Russian writers, calling it Slavic-Russian, and who only recognized some pleasantness behind the newest style; he was angry on him and for the new ideas that he introduced into literature, and for the fact that some of the new orders of the administration were justified by him in his new journal. Concerned, as a member of the Russian Academy, about preserving the purity of the Russian language, Shishkov decided to speak out against literary innovations, and at the same time against the source of these innovations, against imitation of the French. He points to this motif in his famous "Reasoning about the old and new syllable of the Russian language" (St. , 1803). Repeating, in essence, the usual attacks of the literature of Catherine’s time, Shishkov says: “What knowledge can we have in our natural language, when the children of the noblest boyars and nobles of ours from their youngest nails are in the hands of the French, cling to their morals, learn to despise their customs, insensitively receive their whole way of thinking and concepts, speak their language more freely than their own, and even become so infected with addiction to them that they never practice their language, not only are not ashamed not to know it, but still many of them, by this most shameful of all ignorances, they boast and exalt themselves, as it were, by some dignity that adorns them. bookish or learned language, so far removed from this simple thought of their message? Ia, the strength and beauty of your language, you need to read books published in it, and especially those written by excellent writers. Noting this lack of “noble boyars and nobles” and forgetting that almost none of them was engaged in literature, Shishkov nevertheless sees here the reason for all innovations in Russian literary speech, the reason for neglecting the Church Slavonic language, as a result of which “in our current books a strange and alien to the concept and hearing of our style. “Who would have thought,” exclaims Shishkov, “that we, having left this foundation of our language approved for many centuries (i.e.

the Church Slavonic language), they began to build it again on the meager basis of the French language. "Contemptuously referring to the Church Slavonic language, which, according to Shishkov, is identical with Russian, new writers completely transfer French words, compose new words and sayings in the image of French, give words, "While we are engaged in this foolish translation and inventing words and speeches that are in no way unusual for us, many other indigenous and very significant Russian words have completely fallen into oblivion; others, despite the richness of their meaning, have become strange and wild to ears unaccustomed to them; still others have completely changed their signification and are not used in the senses in which they were first used. So, on the one hand, absurd news is introduced into our language, and on the other, concepts that have been accepted since ancient times and approved for many centuries are exterminated and forgotten: in this way our conscience flourishes and the pleasantness of the syllable is formed, called by the French elegance! "In order to show examples of good style, Shishkov in his "Discourse" introduced the life of Minodora, Mitrodora and Nymphodora from Chet'i-Meney, added to it an explanatory dictionary of Slavic words, a comparison of the Lomonosov ode "Job" with the book of Job. Thanks to such additions, Shishkov's work, as he himself admitted , “came out in an unsettled form and composition.” In scientific terms, this work was very weak, and for many contemporaries it was clear that Shishkov’s attacks on the new literary trend were untenable, especially since, in support of these attacks, Shishkov put forward a strange idea about the identity of Russian and Church Slavonic. Pointing out in the "Addendum to the Discourse on the Old and New Syllabary of the Russian Language" (St. Petersburg, 1804) various blunders of the Karamzists Makarov and Martynov, Shishkov published in 1810 the discourse "On the Eloquence of Holy Scripture" and in this work stubbornly defends the identity of the old and the new languages. “From where,” he asks, “this unfounded idea was born that the Slavic and Russian languages are different from each other? If we take the word “language” in the sense of an adverb or syllable, then, of course, we can assert this difference; one, many: in every century or half a century, some changes in dialects are noted ... What is the Russian language apart from the Slavic? A dream, a riddle. Isn't it strange to assert the existence of a language in which there is not a single word? Meanwhile, however, despite On this incongruous oddity, many of the newest writers base our literature on this exactly imaginary division. Shishkov considers the Slavic language to be the language of spiritual books, and he finds Russian in secular books. This is the whole difference between the two languages, and therefore it is impossible to separate them in the way that new writers do. Through the Minister of Public Education, Shishkov presented his "Discourse on the old and new style" to the sovereign and was made happy, in his words, with approval; also "praised his zeal" and many spiritual and secular persons, and encouraged by this sympathy, Shishkov becomes very active: since 1805, in his opinion, the Russian Academy publishes "Works and Translations", in which he places his original and translated articles , his own translation of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" and an extensive analysis of the Word. But all this seemed to Shishkov not enough to fight the new writers, even his own "Discourse" seemed to him "a small drop of water to put out the fire," and he decided to form a new academy for the training of young writers. One of his younger contemporaries, Zhikharev, reports the following about this: “Shishkov talked for a very long time about the benefits that meetings would bring to Russian literature, in which young writers would be admitted and invited to read their works, and suggested that G.R. Derzhavin appoint, together with them alternately, at least once a week, literary evenings, promising to persuade A. S. Khvostov and Senator I. S. Zakharov, whose houses and lifestyle were the most comfortable for that. Thus began in 1807 private meetings of writers of Shishkov's party, and in 1810 these meetings

became public, under the name "Conversations of lovers of the Russian word." The purpose of "Conversations" (see III, 628) was to strengthen the patriotic feeling in Russian society with the help of the Russian language and literature: "the triumph of domestic literature, according to one contemporary, should have preceded the triumph of faith and the fatherland." In order to influence the public, the publication of "Readings in the Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Language" was undertaken, and the material for the "Readings" was delivered mainly by Shishkov: the above-mentioned "Discourse on the Beauties of Holy Scripture" was printed here, "Conversations about Literature" and "Additions to conversations". In Conversations, by the way, a curious idea was expressed about the importance of studying folk songs. "The popular language, cleansed somewhat of its rudeness, renewed and adjusted to our current literature, would bring us closer to that pleasant innocence, to those natural feelings, from which, moving away, we become more affected talkers than truly eloquent writers." In 1811, Shishkov read in "Conversation" "Discourse on love for the fatherland." Here he again spoke of the shortcomings of the Russian upbringing of that time. “Education,” Shishkov argued, “should be domestic, not foreign. A learned stranger can teach us, when necessary, some of his knowledge in the sciences, but he cannot put into our souls the fire of national pride, the fire of love for the fatherland, in the same way how I cannot put into him my feelings for my mother." "National education is a very important matter that requires great insight and foresight. It does not work at the present time, but prepares the happiness and misfortune of future times, and calls on our head either a blessing or an oath of descendants." In Shishkov's "Discourse" one felt the strongest excitement of patriotism, and the moment was just such when such excitement should have become especially valuable. The difficult time of the Patriotic War was approaching, and Emperor Alexander, after reading "Discourse on Love for the Fatherland", decided to call Shishkov to work again, although he was not at all disposed towards him for his harsh speeches and actions in the past. “I read your reasoning about love for the fatherland,” said Alexander Shishkov. “Having such feelings, you can be useful to him. It seems that we cannot do without a war with the French, we need to make a recruitment; I would like you to write about volume manifest". This order was combined with the appointment of Shishkov to the post of Secretary of State, on April 9, 1812. , in place of the remote Speransky. From that moment, vigorous activity began for Shishkov: the emperor took him with him to Vilna and, being with the army, Shishkov wrote all the most important orders and rescripts. So, he wrote the famous order to the armies and a rescript to Count Saltykov on the entry of the enemy into Russia. The first one consists in the words: "I do not need to remind the leaders, generals and our warriors of their duty of courage. The blood of the Slavs has been flowing in them since ancient times. In the rescript, the patriotic tone is even stronger: “I have no choice but to take up arms and use all the methods handed to me by Providence to repel force by force. I rely on the zeal of my people and the courage of my troops. their characteristic firmness and courage. Providence will bless our righteous cause. The defense of the fatherland, the preservation of the independence and honor of the people forced us to gird ourselves in battle. I will not lay down my arms until not a single enemy warrior remains in my kingdom. " These words made a deep impression on the whole of Russia, and the same feelings were evoked by further orders edited by Shishkov: these were the proclamation and manifesto on the general militia, manifestos and rescripts on the militias, the news of the abandonment of Moscow by Russian troops, which consisted of the words: "God Almighty! Turn Thy merciful eyes on the Russian Church praying to Thee with kneeling!

and patience! Simi, may he triumph over his enemy, may he overcome him, and saving himself, save the freedom and independence of kings and kingdoms!" Shishkov's patriotic passion was expressed in angry accusatory speeches against the French, whom he even likened to "the fusion of a tiger with a monkey", in the vestments of the spirit imitation of Russian society, and with such enthusiasm, there were sometimes disagreements between the emperor and the secretary of state. So it was with the "news from Moscow", occupied by the French. "Having written this," says Shishkov, "I thought that my paper could not be pleasing to the sovereign , because these reproaches (to Russian society), if not directly, then partly fall on him. This thought stopped me. But when, - I thought again, - and let him feel it, if not under the present circumstances? Encouraged by this reflection, I decided to go to him; but before starting to read, he said to him: “sir, I can’t speak otherwise than what I feel. Let me ask you to listen to my paper to the end, without interrupting reading it. After that, do with it what you please.” ". - He promised it, and I began to read. At the end of the reading, looking at him, I noticed in his face a certain color and embarrassment. He, after a short silence, said to me: "Yes, indeed, I deserve this reproach." If this was sometimes the position of Shishkov in relation to the sovereign himself, then he often had major clashes and squabbles with ministers and other noble persons. But the retreat of the French began, in December the emperor went to Vilna, followed by Shishkov. In Vilna, he was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky, and in the Highest Rescript it was said: "for exemplary love for the fatherland." In 1813, Shishkov accompanied the army on a foreign campaign. In Prague, he met the famous Slavic abbot Dobrovsky, and from that time his relations with various Western Slavic scientists began. With his naive etymological direction in the study of the language, Shishkov could not appreciate these new acquaintances, his attitude towards them was patronizing, he recommends them his root-word conjectures (according to which, for example, the words sin, city, pride, thunder, etc. . were derived from the word mountain), - they seem to agree with him, but irony is visible on their part in relation to the primitive philology of Shishkov. Nevertheless, Shishkov thoroughly judges the importance for Russia of the study of Slavism, as was revealed when he was appointed Minister of Public Education. In 1814, Emperor Alexander appointed Shishkov a member of the State Council, and a year earlier, President of the Russian Academy. As a member of the State Council, Shishkov sharply pursued his conservative-patriotic convictions: he presented a plan for a new censorship device, criticized the draft civil code drawn up by Speransky, defended serfdom, spoke negatively about the activities of the Ministry of Public Education, saying: "it seems as if everything schools have turned into schools of debauchery, and whoever comes out of there will immediately show that he has been seduced from the true path, and his head is full of emptiness, and his heart is full of pride, the first enemy of prudence. As president of the Russian Academy, Shishkov continued to struggle with new writers, worked diligently on his root words, and carried out the traditions of "Conversations of Russian Word Lovers". On May 15, 1824, Shishkov was appointed minister of public education and head of affairs for foreign confessions. At the very first meeting of the main board of schools, Shishkov said that the ministry should, first of all, protect youth from infection with "falsely wise philosophies, wind-blown dreams, puffy pride and pernicious self-esteem, involving a person into a dangerous delusion to think that he is an old man in his youth, and through this making him to the old age of young men." “Sciences,” the minister said, “refining the mind, will not constitute the well-being of the people without faith and morality ... Moreover, sciences are useful only when, like salt, they are used and presented in moderation, depending on the state of people and according to need, any title

has in them. Their excess, as well as their deficiency, are contrary to true enlightenment. To teach literacy to the whole people, or a disproportionate number of people, would do more harm than good. To instruct an agricultural son in rhetoric would be a preparation for him to be a thin and useless or generally harmful citizen. "In the very first report to the sovereign, Shishkov asks the Highest permission to draw up a plan," what methods should be used to quietly and modestly extinguish the evil that, although it does not carry us in the name of Carbonarism, but it is exactly that, and has already strongly strengthened and spread by various means. "He accused the Ministry of Education not only of connivance, but even" of any patronage and encouragement of moral evil called the spirit of the times. "Censorship was strengthened, for which it was developed an extremely severe charter; biblical societies were persecuted for the distribution of "carbonar and revolutionary books," among which even Filaret's catechism was included for the fact that the texts of Holy Scripture were given in it in Russian. However, the transformation of public education could not be completed by Shishkov: April 25 In 1828, he was dismissed from the post of minister "due to old age and built health". Although the positions of a member of the State Council and President of the Russian Academy were retained for him; Shishkov's social activities from that moment can be considered completed. He immersed himself in his philological studies, which had no scientific significance and even lost the militant social character that they had before. Shishkov died in 1841. See "Collected works and translations of A.S. Shishkov" (St. Petersburg, 1818 - 39); "Notes, Opinions and Correspondence of Admiral Shishkov" (published by Kiselev and Y. Samarin, Berlin, 1870); "Collection of the highest manifestos, letters, decrees and other things of 1812 - 1816. Published by A.S. Shishkov" (St. Petersburg, 1816); S.T. Aksakov "Memories of Shishkov" ("Works", Volume I); Zhikharev "Diary of an official" ("Notes of the Fatherland", 1855); Stoyunin "A.S. Shishkov" (St. Petersburg, 1880); Kochubinsky "The initial years of Russian Slavic studies" (Odessa, 1878); Sukhomlinov "History of the Russian Academy" (volume VII); Schilder "Emperor Alexander I" (St. Petersburg, 1899); Rozhdestvensky "Historical review of the activities of the Ministry of Public Education" (St. Petersburg, 1902). A. Borozdin.