Dminaev biography. Dmitry Minaev

Dmitry Dmitrievich Minaev

Minaev Dmitry Dmitrievich (1835/1889) - Russian poet, translator. He worked in many leading magazines of the 19th century (Sovremennik, Gudok, etc.), in which he published his poetic works, which often had an ironic and sometimes accusatory orientation.

Guryeva T.N. New literary dictionary / T.N. Guryev. – Rostov n/d, Phoenix, 2009, p. 174.

Poet of the Nekrasov school

Minaev, Dmitry Dmitrievich - Russian poet. Born into a poor family. His father D.I. Minaev, a military official, wrote poetry, about which V.G.’s review has been preserved. Belinsky (1839), and published his adaptation of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (1846). In 1852, M. graduated from the military educational institution Noble Regiment, where he met his brothers V.S. And N.S. Kurochkin . Since 1857, he took up literary work. In 1859, a collection of Minaev’s parodies “Repeats” (under the pseudonym Accusatory Poet) was published, which received a harsh assessment ON THE. Dobrolyubova . Since the beginning of the 60s, Minaev has collaborated in democratic magazines: his translations from French and English poetry appear in Sovremennik; in “Russian Word” he conducts a literary and satirical feuilleton in prose called “The Diary of a Dark Man” (1861-1864). Minaev's talent as a poet-satirist developed in Iskra. In 1862, Minaev edited the satirical magazine Gudok, in the announcement of which he indicated that the program of the new magazine would be “the persecution of crude and narrow obscurantism, arbitrariness and untruth in our Russian life.” Since 1865, Minaev collaborated in the satirical magazine "Alarm Clock", and later was close to "Domestic Notes" .

A poet of the Nekrasov school, Minaev, acquired a reputation as a poet-citizen who knows how to respond to the topic of the day. All the themes of advanced journalism of the 60s are presented in his poetic work. The Tale of the Eastern Ambassadors (1862) with its famous refrain: “Is this Russian progress?” speaks about the oppressed peasants and the poverty of the Russian village. - “This, my dears, is this!...” Liberal chatterers, verbally concerned about the “poor brother” (“Usual Question”, 1868), admirers of “half-progress, half-freedom, half-measures” (“Renegade”, 1868), reactionary poets, defenders of “pure art” (“Lyrical songs without civil low tide", 1863), figures of the reptilian press, bureaucrats and official scammers, tsarist censorship persecuting satirists ("In the censor's office", "To the Humorists", 1862-1863) - these are the objects of Minaev's satirical revelations. He sarcastically criticized Slavophiles , praising the long-suffering of the people, and, like ON THE. Nekrasov , expressed grief over the passivity of the peasant masses (“Old Tales in a New Way,” 1871; “The Giant’s Dream,” 1873). Minaev was famous as the “king of rhyme,” a master of the biting epigram, parody, flying couplet, close to improvisation, and the poetic feuilleton, a genre that he established in Russian poetry. The ease with which poetry was given to Minaev sometimes led to excessive fertility and weakened the poet’s demands on himself. However, the best part of his legacy, including translations, is still of interest to the reader. Minaev’s puns have long become popular (“...I even address Finnish brown rocks with a pun”). Researchers believe that in the field of punning rhyme (“Gymnasium” - “the anthem of Asia”, etc.) Minaev was one of Mayakovsky’s predecessors.

Brief literary encyclopedia in 9 volumes. State scientific publishing house "Soviet Encyclopedia", vol. 4, M., 1967.

“Long-liver” among the “Nekrasovites” poets

Dmitry Dmitrievich Minaev (1835-1889). A “long-liver” among the Nekrasov poets, Minaev lived for 54 years. Let us remember that Dobrolyubov’s life was cut short at 24, Golts-Miller at 28, Mikhailov at 36, and only Trefolev died at 66. Minaev is the most prolific of them creatively. His poems are “scattered” across numerous magazines. During the poet's lifetime, more than two dozen collections of his poems were published. He had an exceptional gift for improvisation, in which no one could compare with him. He has many “rehashes” of Russian poetry motifs. And even the first collection, published in 1859, was called “Repeeves”.

His poetic thought often follows someone else’s, and Minaev often processes it in an ironic, parody tone. He was a skilled versifier, capable of composing an epigram or acrostic in one minute. He was a master of unexpected rhymes (but did not like verbal rhymes). On the twenty-fifth anniversary of his literary activity, his friends sent him a greeting-monorim, where

each line ended with the words: “sluts”, “parrots”, “slobs”, “Razuvaev”, “Mamaev”, which rhymed with Minaev... He was a fierce opponent of all kinds of “scoundrels”...

The poet did not distinguish between the serious and the frivolous in his creativity - everything for him was the realm of poetry:

The realm of rhymes is my element,
And I write poetry easily:

Without hesitation, without delay
I run to line from line,
Even to the Finnish brown rocks
I'm making a pun...

He wrote under many pseudonyms. And one day, on a Volga steamer, a provincial lover of humor, having discovered that his interlocutor knew the capital’s writers, began asking questions: who was hiding under the pseudonym “Accusatory Poet?” Minaev introduced himself: it’s me. Then the conversation turned to who “Retired Major Mikhail Burbonov” is? - "This is also me". “Well, recently another “Mutual Friend” appeared, it also has a lively verse.” - Minaev: “And it’s me.” The young man disappeared, deciding that he was being hoaxed.

Minaev was distinguished by great resourcefulness and rare wit. For thirty years I have not missed a single event without making a joke about it. And almost always impromptu. Critics scolded him: “He changes to little things in an offensive way,” “invents tricky rhymes.” He composed masterfully, in any size, and even with pre-planned rhymes that did not fit into any system - and all this certainly without verbal rhymes: “look”, “stand”, “lie”, etc. 1

Here is an improvisation about the unsuccessful performance of “Woe from Wit” at Alexandrinka during the 1864-1870 season.

On stage we saw grief, We did not notice the mind.

Once Minaev was scolded in the St. Petersburg Gazette:

Will you really answer?

Mediocrity, no matter what the line,
And carrion, no matter what the word says,
But for a dead man alive
Hand doesn't rise 2 .

One day, someone from my circle of acquaintances turned out to be an informer. Everyone was indignant: what a pity, but he showed promise. Minaev:

You can't trust hope
She lies terribly often:

________________

1 . See: Shevlyakov M.V. Russian wits and their witticisms. St. Petersburg, 1899. P. 99, etc.

2 . Right there. P. 108.

He showed promise before
Now he makes denunciations 1 .

If poetry did not always live in Minaev, then he always lived in poetry.

And yet Minaev was a serious satirist. At the acute moment of the ideological struggle of the 60s, he unmistakably found his place: he collaborates in Sovremennik, Iskra, and Russian Word. And in the 70s - in Otechestvennye zapiski. When a controversy arose between Sovremennik and Russkiy Slovo over “nihilism,” Minaev took the side of Sovremennik. When Nekrasov, in order to save Sovremennik, took the wrong step by writing an ode in honor of Muravyov the Hangman, Minaev condemned this act of Nekrasov. Before us is a true democratic poet, a worthy representative of the Nekrasov school.”

Minaev is from the Simbirsk poor nobles. His father was a poet, whom Belinsky once even praised, but then harshly responded to his attempt to translate “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” into his own words. The father, apparently, influenced his son both with his poetic experiences and his views. My father’s mood took shape in I. Vvedensky’s circle, the “Petrashevites.” My father also knew Chernyshevsky. The son went much further than his father. Minaev wrote the first biography of Belinsky. He understood well that the true successor of Belinsky was Chernyshevsky, the author of “Essays on the Gogol Period...” and a dissertation on aesthetics. Minaev had the honor of defending the program of the democratic movement; he truly becomes the “father of the poetic feuilleton.”

Whenever we talk about Minaev’s citizenship, we must remember that he develops it not in a direct pathetic form, but, so to speak, “in reverse” - in the form of the “suffering” of a liberal hypocrite, a “noble philanthropist,” a parody of famous already poetry. After all, the closure of the third department is mourned by the “retrograde”, the fiscal.

Generational orientation is classically expressed in the poems “Request”, “Fathers or Sons?”. The latter was written in connection with Turgenev’s novel. Let us remember that representatives of democratic circles of society resolutely did not accept the novel, considering the image of Bazarov to be a slander against them. We will not analyze now how right they were, but both Shchedrin and Minaev took part in the polemic against Fathers and Sons. Only D.I. Pisarev raised Bazarov onto his shield. The controversy was fueled by Turgenev's break with the editors of Sovremennik. And let us also remember that the “Nekrasov school” generally sought to portray leading figures not in fictional images, but in historical models, to give their portraits for every hesitant “knight for an hour.” And these portraits: Ryleev, Pestel, Shevchenko, Dobrolyubov... It is clear that Minaev could not spare Turgenev’s novel. He argues with him

1 . Shevlyakov N.V. Russian wits and their witticisms. P. 111.

in his own manner - caricature, grotesque. Uses the rhythm of Lermontov's "Borodino" to emphasize what a gigantic difference separates a real battle from modern literary fuss, in which there are no real heroes, and the battlefield remains with the "fathers."

Who is dearer to us: old man Kirsanov,
Lover of fez and hookahs,
Russian Togenburg?
Or he, a friend of the mob and the bazaars,
Reborn Insarov -
Bazarov cutting frogs,
A slob and a surgeon?
The answer is ready: it’s not for nothing that we
We have a weakness for Russian bars -
Bring them crowns!
And we, deciding everything in the world,
These issues have been resolved...
Who is dearer to us - fathers or children?
Fathers! fathers! fathers!

In fact, Minaev is developing a code of conduct for “children.” It was just a matter of time, and he himself was considered one of the “nihilists” who showed no hope of correction. This was the opinion of the police, who kept a vigilant watch on him.

Minaev takes under his defense Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?”, ridiculing the liberal vulgarization of the meaning of the work. The goal is achieved by “rehash” of retrograde teachings against the emancipation of women:

……….
Better stick to the old order!
It's boring to think and feel again.
Get married - but not to Bazarov,
And most likely for Pavel Kirsanov.

Know, O women: emancipation
It only humiliates the noble class;
Suddenly neatness and grace disappear in you,
You will drink cognac and champagne.

Having thrown off the fragrant, ballroom outfits,
You will wear ugly nails,
Skirts, shirtfronts, non-starch underwear
And talk like orders.

No, forget all the fruitless debates,
Be as happy as ever with your routine:
Forever elegant, forever free,
Be afraid to meet a single thought.

Why should you get tired of scholarly debates?
It’s better to be a full-blooded housewife,
“A lady pleasant in every way”
Or Korobochka, Daria 1 Petrovna.

(“Request”, 1862)

1 . Minaev's mistake: Korobochka's name was Nastasya.

Like any poet of the “Nekrasov school,” in Minaev one can find direct developments of the teacher’s motives.

Sad picture:
Steppe and heaven,
Bare plain
Stunted forests.
Tithe meager
A man is dragging
At hard work
He drooped over the plow.

("Landscape", 1858)

Minaev depicts tragedies in peasant families. Poems from the poem “This one or that one?” (or “Tinsel”, 1861) go back to Nekrasov’s “Wretched and Smart”. In the poem “The Giant's Dream” (1873), the poet symbolically depicts the Russian people, whose mighty power has not yet fully awakened.

In the fairy tale “Who Lives Badly in the World” (1871), the motifs of Nekrasov’s epic “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are re-sung. Minaev identified Stupidity as the main reason preventing people from living well. She boasts of herself, she went to wander around Rus', she encounters pride, stinginess, greed and poverty - the source of all diseases, with all the “seven sins” of mortals. And yet, the mother of all sins is Stupidity:

“I am Almighty Stupidity!
Without will without mine
And a single hair
You won't fall.

No matter what the smart guys do
And neither did geniuses create
The entire globe has been entangled
I am strong in the nets.

All people submissive to me,
In such progress are moving:
They barely take a step forward -
And three steps back!...

There is no parody of Nekrasov here, no revenge on him for Ant’s ode.

Minaev here, like other poets of the “Nekrasov school,” follows Chernyshevsky’s motto, expressed in the article “Is this the beginning of change?” He joins N.V. Uspensky: to portray the people without embellishment.

Minaev wants this minute to resolve the question posed in Nekrasov’s poem, and without a shadow of poeticization of the people, point out the fundamental flaw: gullibility and hopeless darkness. This problem is posed by Minaev at the level of Uspensky’s story “Oboz” and at the level of “The History of a City”, the entire “Foolov cycle” by Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Another important Nekrasov theme, developed in the poem “Song to Eremushka,” is also being revised by Minaev. In contrast, Minaev writes the poem “Eremushka’s Song” (1866), i.e. Eremushka himself sings a song to the traveler Nekrasov. And not without some sarcasm, acquired from the bitter experience of life, he rethinks lofty slogans and moral teachings; after all, they have not yet been confirmed by life:

“Enough, master! Sit on the ladder -
I will not remain in debt:
You once sang me a song -
Today I can sing too.

You sang with amazing power
To me at this porch:
"Damn him, corrupter
Vulgar experience is the mind of a fool.”

What an outdated song!
You're not the same, as far as I can see
And I boldly repay you
I'll compose a new song.

Be smarter... The scourge of mediocrity,
Dull-witted with a strong forehead,
Gain popularity
You are now on a different path;

Brotherhood, Truth, Freedom
Forget to speculate
Just for lunch
Tear your sore chest.

Minaev’s sharp attack did not undermine Nekrasov’s good attitude towards the poet. Nekrasov understood and accepted the reproachful verses: they were fair.

In essence, for Minaev, the “rehash” of “Eremushka’s Song” is a typical case. He has a lot of them on themes from a variety of poets. He also makes irony about Saltykov-Shchedrin’s article “Vain Fears” (1863), which gave clear guidelines to the Sovremennik magazine after Dobrolyubov died and Chernyshevsky was arrested. The main ideas of the article: like the public, so is the literature; we must believe that new social forces will still rise. Of course, Minaev is entirely on Saltykov’s side, but he

opposes him. Years passed, and Russian progress disappointed hopes. Post-reform life renewed Russia. But the lies of the bourgeois world, the moral corruption of people aroused the poet’s indignation. The fears turned out to be not in vain. Only the “binding” of old truths is updated. Minaev, following Shchedrin, taught to look for the hidden bureaucrat in any liberal:

And - having scolded the liberal,
We will find a serf owner in him
……………..
Western ideas are confusing
They didn’t knock down our “salt”
And the same “Northern Bee”
We found it in Novoye Vremya.
Look at any of his numbers
And you will always shout joyfully:
“Bulgarin is alive, and Grech is not dead!”
What else do you need, gentlemen?!

(“Unnecessary Fears1885)

Minaev’s mind is entirely aimed at exaggerating great truths, if they are already distorted in the most post-reform situation. He was ironic about the types of “superfluous man” created by Russian literature, including Bazarov. Minaev's parody, entitled "Eugene Onegin of Our Time", is aimed at Pisarev's vulgar interpretation of Pushkin's novel in a famous article of 1865.

“Onegin, my good friend,
It was tailored according to Bazarov"

And what comes after Bazarov? Minaev did not ask this question. Heroes "What to do?" didn’t discuss it, talked only about women’s emancipation. The “thinking proletarian” is beyond his field of vision.

The only thing Minaev cares about is the moral purity of progressive sermons, so that they do not contain obvious oddities. He is concerned about the huge gap between the word addressed to the people and the people. A good word did not always turn into a good deed.

And only the poet will not understand one thing:
What are these poor people thinking?

The poet Minaev mourns this very thing in his poem “Urgent Question” (1868). The liberator has been ranting here for a long time

The Citizen spoke to the crowd about the great benefits of Russian progress: “What are you missing? What do you want? -

"Of bread! of bread".

The same post-reform casuistry of deceiving the people is displayed in the satirical dialogue between a master and a peasant entitled “One’s own is not one’s brother at all” (1871). Before us is a magnificent continuation of the development of Nekrasov’s meeting between Obolt-Obolduev and seven truth-seekers.

I'm ready to sing "forward" again!
To other future generations,
But fear lives in my chest,
And the thought is poisoned by doubt.

Justice requires saying that Minaev’s skepticism is a very important trait of the “sixties”, although perhaps it seemed to his contemporaries and to himself a sign of weakness.

The “sixties” were replaced by populists with new illusions about improving the life of the peasant.

IN AND. Kuleshov. Russian democratic literature of the 50-60s of the 19th century. A textbook for students of higher educational institutions studying in the specialty “Russian language and literature”. Moscow, Higher School, 1989, p. 76-83.

Read further:

Essays:

Thoughts and songs..., vol. 1-2, St. Petersburg, 1863-1864;

Collected Poems, Leningrad, 1947;

Poems and poems, L., 1960.

Literature:

Dobrolyubov N.A., Perepevy. Poems of an accusatory poet, Collected Works, vol. 6, M.-L., 1963;

Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E., At dusk. Satires and songs of D.D. Minaev, Complete Works, vol. 8, M., 1937;

Belyaeva L.A., Speeches by D.D. Minaev in defense of the leaders of revolutionary democracy, in the collection: The People - the Hero of Russian Literature, Kazan, 1966;

History of Russian literature of the 19th century. Bibliographic index, under. ed. K.D. Muratova, M.-L., 1962.

Famous poet, humorist and translator (1835 1889), son of D.I. Minaeva. He was brought up in the Noble Regiment. He served briefly in the Simbirsk Treasury Chamber and in the Zemstvo Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Minaev's poems began to appear in print in 1857... ... Biographical Dictionary

- (1835 89) Russian satirist poet. Employee of democratic magazines of the 60s. 19th century (Iskra, etc.). Topical epigrams, poems, feuilletons, parodies... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Russian poet. Born into the family of a military official and writer. In 1852 he graduated from a military school in St. Petersburg. In 1857 he left the service and took up only literary work.... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Large biographical encyclopedia

- (1835 1889), Russian satirist poet. Employee of democratic magazines of the 60s. XIX century (“Iskra”, etc.). Topical epigrams, poems, feuilletons, parodies. * * * MINAEV Dmitry Dmitrievich MINAEV Dmitry Dmitrievich (1835 89), Russian poet and satirist.… … encyclopedic Dictionary

Dmitry Dmitrievich Minaev Date of birth: October 21 (November 2), 1835 Place of birth: Simbirsk Date of death: July 10 (22), 1889 Place of death: Simbirsk Citizenship ... Wikipedia

MINAEV Dmitry Dmitrievich- (183589), Russian poet. Feuilleton review “The Diary of a Dark Man” (186164), satirical. poems, epigrams. Parodies (cycles “Lyrical songs with a civil tint”, “Lyrical songs without a civil tint”, both 1863). Sat. "Rehash... Literary encyclopedic dictionary

Minaev Dmitry Dmitrievich- (1835 1889) satirist poet, translator. Permanent contributor to Iskra, Russian Word and Sovremennik. He was also published in Alarm Clock, Gudka, Vremya, etc. In 1861, Dostoevsky commissioned Minaev to write a feuilleton for the first issue of Vremya, but it was not... ... Dictionary of literary types

- (1835 1889) famous poet, Simbirsk native. He studied in a noble regiment and served in the 50s. in the Simbirsk Treasury Chamber and in the Zemstvo Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. M. wrote poetry while still at school; they began to appear in print since 1857...

(02.11 (21.10).1835, Simbirsk, - 22 (10).07.1889, Simbirsk), satirist poet, journalist, translator, critic.

Born into the family of an officer. In 1847-1851. studied in the St. Petersburg Noble Regiment (did not complete the course). In 1852 he passed the exams for the first class rank and served in the provincial treasury chamber for two years. Under the influence of the works of V.G. Belinsky, N.A. Nekrasov, Minaev formed democratic views, he began to engage in literary work, one of the first was his satirical poem (1854), in which he ridiculed the privileged layer of Simbirsk society. In the summer of 1855 he moved to St. Petersburg, where he got a job as an official in the zemstvo department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but already in 1857, with the rank of collegiate registrar, he resigned and devoted himself entirely to literary creativity.

In 1859, a collection of parodies by D.D. was published in St. Petersburg. Minaeva “Repeats. Poems of an accusatory poet”, and in 1860 - an essay “V.G. Belinsky” (under the pseudonym “D. Sviyazhsky”). In 1860-1861 Minaev was a regular contributor to Sovremennik, Russian Word and Iskra, in which he published sharp political feuilletons. From January 1862, he edited the magazine “Gudok”, in which he published an accusatory poem, depicting in it the Simbirsk Chichikovs, Nozdryovs, Plyushkins and others.

D.D. Minaev published dozens of books and was known throughout reading Russia as the “king of rhyme,” a talented satirist, playwright and translator. At the end of 1887 he arrived with his wife E.N. Khudykovskaya in. On Nizhne-Soldatskaya Street, not far from the Sviyaga River, Minaev purchased a wooden house with outbuildings, a garden and a vegetable garden.

Among the few people with whom D.D. Minaev maintained acquaintances, there were: writer, poet, former revolutionary populist A.S. Buturlin, Doctor of Medicine A.A. Kadyan and democratic doctor I.S. Pokrovsky. Minaev worked constantly and was willingly published by Petersburgskaya Gazeta, Nedelya and other publications. He often visited Simbirskaya and gave her three volumes of the luxurious edition of A. Dante’s “Divine Comedy” in his translation.

D.D. died Minaev in Simbirsk as a result of a serious illness. Obituaries, articles, and memoirs about Minaev were published by almost all major newspapers and magazines in Russia.

A decade later, with money raised by subscription, on June 21, 1899, a monument to the poets father and son Minaev was unveiled. Then Soldatskaya Street. was renamed to . In connection with the construction of the Kuibyshev reservoir, the ashes of the Minaevs and the monument were moved to a new cemetery in 1954 (now K. Marx Street). The house where D.D. Minaev lived in 1887-1889. immortalized memorial plaque.

Bibliography:

Minaev D. D. Collected poems/ entry art., ed. and note. I. Yampolsky. - M.: Soviet writer, 1947. - 490 p. : portrait - (Poet's Library).

Minaev D. D. Poems/ ed., intro. Art. and note. I. Yampolsky. - Kuibyshev: OGIZ, 1947. - 334 p. : portrait

Minaev D. D. Poems/ entry art., ed. and note. I. G. Yampolsky. - M.: Soviet writer, 1948. - 423 p. - (Poet's Library. Small series).

Minaev D. D. Favorites: poetry; inscriptions; impromptu; epigrams; poems / comp., author. entry Art. and note. V. N. Boldyrev. - Saratov: Privolzh. book publishing house, 1986. - 288 p.

Minaev D. D. Favorites/ comp., prepared text, intro. Art., note. I. Yampolsky. - L.: Fiction, 1986. - 400 p.

About him:

Beysov P. S. Minaev and Simbirsk// Monomakh. - 2005. - No. 4. - P. 44-45.

Geller T. A. Archival documents about the publishing activities of D. D. Minaev// Questions of source study of Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century. - Kazan, 1983. - P. 61-72.

Dmitry Dmitrievich Minaev: bibliogr. decree. / Region scientific b-ka - Palace of Books named after. V. I. Lenin; comp. V. N. Boldyrev, N. I. Nikitina. - Ulyanovsk, 1985. - 26 p.

Kuleshov V. I. Dmitry Dmitrievich Minaev (1835 - 1889)// Kuleshov V.I. Russian democratic literature: 50-60s of the 19th century. - M., 1989. - P. 76-83.

/auth. kart. V. F. Zunuzin // Gallery of portraits of famous Simbirsk-Ulyanovsk residents: [isomaterial]. - Ulyanovsk, 2008. - 26 department. l. in the region

// Masters of the pen of Simbirsk-Ulyanovsk: biobibliogr. decree. / UlSTU; comp. Yu. S. Lesnyak. - Ulyanovsk, 2015. - pp. 41-43.

//Honorary citizens of the city of Ulyanovsk; Golden book of honor of the city of Ulyanovsk / Ulyan. mountains Thought. - Ulyanovsk, 2008. - P. 36-37: portrait.

Sapchenko L. S. Methods of creating irony in the poem by D. D. Minaev “Provincial Photography”// Simbirsk text of Russian culture: problems of reconstruction: collection. materials of the conference / UlSU; comp. L. A. Sapchenko. - Ulyanovsk, 2011. - P. 136-141.

Trofimov Zh. A. D. D. Minaev and Simbirsk.- Saratov: Privolzh. book publishing house, 1989. - 49 p.

Trofimov Zh. A. “Provincial Photography” by D. D. Minaev// Trofimov Zh. A. Simbirsk and the Simbirsk: historical and literary searches. - Ulyanovsk, 1997. - P. 200-212.

Trofimov Zh. A. To the creative portrait of D. D. Minaev// Trofimov Zh. A. Literary Simbirsk: searches, finds, research. - Ulyanovsk, 1999. - P. 269-283.

Dmitry Dmitrievich Minaev is a famous Russian poet and translator. Born on October 21 (November 2), 1835 in Simbirsk, into the poor family of a combat officer (later a military official) and writer D.I. Minaeva. His father wrote poetry, about which V.G. Belinsky’s review has been preserved (1839), and published his adaptation of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (1846). Minaev’s mother is Simbirsk noblewoman E.V. Zimninskaya, who received a good education and spoke foreign languages. According to the testimony of Minaev’s home teacher (in the future, a notable fiction writer G. N. Potanin), he knew a lot of poetry as a child, “he understood them sensitively and at times tried to read them as solemnly as his father read them.” In 1847, Minaev’s parents temporarily moved from Simbirsk to St. Petersburg, where he was sent to a military educational institution - the “Noble Regiment”. During these years, he was significantly influenced by the literature teacher, the famous translator I. I. Vvedensky, and the future poet V. S. Kurochkin (who studied at the same time in the Noble Regiment).

In 1852, having completed his studies and returning to Simbirsk, Minaev decided to serve in the provincial treasury chamber, then briefly served in the zemstvo department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1857 he left the service and took up only literary work. Kurochkin invited him to collaborate with the Iskra magazine, where Minaev’s talent as a satirist poet developed. Since 1859, Minaev has been writing his numerous and crude parodies, biting satires, not always fair epigrams and a number of poems of a humorous nature. In 1859, a collection of Minaev’s parodies “Repeats” (under the pseudonym Accusatory Poet) was published, which received a harsh assessment from N.A. Dobrolyubova.

Minaev also collaborated in other democratic magazines, including Sovremennik and Russkiy Slovo. Since the early 60s, his translations from French and English poetry have appeared in Sovremennik; in “Russian Word” he conducts a literary and satirical feuilleton in prose called “The Diary of a Dark Man” (1861–1864).

In 1862, he became the editor of Gudok, in the announcement of which he indicated that the program of the new magazine would be “the pursuit of crude and narrow obscurantism, arbitrariness and untruth in our Russian life,” but he soon removed his signature, without ceasing to collaborate with magazine. Since 1865, Minaev collaborated in the satirical magazine “Alarm Clock”, and later was close to “Notes of the Fatherland”.

Adhering to the Nekrasov school, in his poems he took a left-wing radical democratic position, expressed sympathy for the oppressed village, “denounced” (in relation to satirical poets of his circle, “accusation” and “accusatory literature” became almost terminological in the criticism of that time) liberals, bureaucrats , conservative press and censorship; ridiculed and parodied poets who supported “pure art” (Fet, Maykov, Shcherbina, Krestovsky and others). Minaev was famous as the “king of rhyme”, a master of the epigram, parody, and pun of the feuilleton in verse - a genre that he established in Russian poetry. He acquired a reputation as a poet-citizen who knows how to respond to the topic of the day.

All the themes of advanced journalism of the 60s are presented in his poetic work. The Tale of the Eastern Ambassadors (1862) with its famous refrain: “Is this Russian progress?” speaks about the oppressed peasants and the poverty of the Russian village. - “This, my dears, is this!..”. Liberal chatterers, verbally concerned about the “poor brother” (“Usual Question”, 1868), admirers of “half-progress, half-freedom, half-measures” (“Renegade”, 1868), reactionary poets, defenders of “pure art” (“Lyrical songs without civil low tide", 1863), figures of the reptilian press, bureaucrats and bureaucratic swindlers, tsarist censorship persecuting satirists ("In the Censor's Office", "Comedians", 1862–1863) - these are the objects of Minaev's satirical revelations. He sarcastically criticized the Slavophiles, who praised the long-suffering of the people, and, like N.A. Nekrasov, expressed grief over the passivity of the peasant masses (“Old Tales in a New Way,” 1871; “The Giant’s Dream,” 1873).

Minaev reached the heyday of his literary activity in the late 60s and early 70s. Constantly changing his pseudonyms (“The Dictionary of Pseudonyms” by Kartsev and Mazaev includes more than 29), Minaev was especially popular as “D. Sviyazhsky", "Accusatory Poet", "Dark Man" and "Major of Bourbonov". From Minaev’s comedies - “Liberal” (“Domestic Notes”, 1870, No. 12, and in the collection “At the Crossroads”, St. Petersburg, 1871), “Cashier” (written together with S.N. Khudyakov, St. Petersburg, 1883) and “The Sung Song” (“Bulletin of Europe”, 1874, No. 5) or “The Ruined Nest” (St. Petersburg, 1875) - none of them enjoyed success on stage, although for the latter Minaev received the Uvarov Prize from the Academy of Sciences . He also acted as a polemicist in “Russian Word” and “Delo”, revealing here also his inherent agility of the pen.

The ease with which poetry was given to Minaev sometimes led to excessive fertility and weakened the poet’s demands on himself. For example, his fairy tales in verse for children were completely unsuccessful, such as “Grandfather’s Evenings” (St. Petersburg, 1880), “New Products, Songs and Pictures” (St. Petersburg, 1882), “Warm Nest” (St. Petersburg, 1882).

However, the best part of his legacy, including translations, is still of interest to the reader. Minaev’s puns have long become popular (“...I even address Finnish brown rocks with a pun”). Researchers believe that in the field of punning rhyme (“Gymnasium” - “hymn of Asia”, etc.) Minaev was one of Mayakovsky’s predecessors.

Minaev performed a lot with translations, both from European satirical poets and from serious poetry. Knowing well only French, a little German and using interlinear translations of other people from English and Italian, Minaev reworked such translations (from Byron, Shelley, Moliere, Hugo, Heine, Dante) into a smooth poetic form, but often far from the original .

In literary and artistic circles he was known as the author of caustic epigrams on everything and everyone, a person capable of writing, without blots, a satire of several dozen lines. Studying versification, natural, although not deep, humor introduced Minaev into the sphere of topicality and developed him into a resourceful polemicist, the author of countless rhymes. The real poet disappeared into a sea of wit; His talent gave him a name, but soon faded. Minaev outlived his fame and died at home in Simbirsk, forgotten and alone, on July 10 (22), 1889.

Collections of his poems:

“Repeats” (St. Petersburg, 1859)

“Thoughts and Songs”, 2 parts (St. Petersburg, 1863–1864)

“I wish you good health” (St. Petersburg, 1867)

"At Dusk" (St. Petersburg, 1868)

“Songs and Poems” (St. Petersburg, 1870)

“What is the hut rich with” (St. Petersburg, 1880)

“Earrings for all sisters” (St. Petersburg, 1881)

“Not in the eyebrow, but in the eye” (St. Petersburg, 1882; 2nd ed., 1898)

Released separately:

“The Pranks of the Devil on the Railway” (St. Petersburg, 1862)

"Eugene Onegin" (St. Petersburg, 3rd ed. 1877)

“Cannibals, or People of the Sixties” (St. Petersburg, 1881)

Hell. Poem in three songs. (Imitation of Dante)

Two eras

Wild dreams

Nihilist

Diary of a Dark Man

Good dog

Muscovites at a lecture on philosophy

Miniatures and epigrams

Puns by Dmitry Minaev

Translations

Victor Hugo - In the Dark.

Heinrich Heine - From the poem “Germany. Winter's Tale"

Thomas Hood - Song about a Shirt.

Biobibliographic information

Curriculum Vitae

N. A. Dobrolyubov. Rehashes

Dmitry Dmitrievich Minaev was born on October 21 (November 2), 1835 in Simbirsk, to a poor family of a combat officer (later a military official) and writer D.I. Minaeva. Minaev’s mother is Simbirsk noblewoman E.V. Zimninskaya, who received a good education and spoke foreign languages.

In 1847, Minaev’s parents temporarily moved from Simbirsk to St. Petersburg, where he was sent to a military educational institution - the “Noble Regiment”. During these years, he was significantly influenced by the literature teacher, the famous translator I. I. Vvedensky, the future poet (who studied at the same time in the Noble Regiment).

In 1852, having completed his studies and returning to Simbirsk, Minaev decided to serve in the provincial treasury chamber, then briefly served in the zemstvo department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1857 he left the service and took up only literary work. Kurochkin invited him to collaborate with the Iskra magazine, where Minaev’s talent as a satirist developed. Since 1859, Minaev has been writing his numerous and crude parodies, biting satires, not always fair epigrams and a number of poems of a humorous nature. In 1859, a collection of Minaev’s parodies “Repeats” (under the pseudonym Accusatory Poet) was published, which received a harsh assessment.

All the themes of advanced journalism of the 60s are presented in his poetic work. He sarcastically criticized the Slavophiles, who praised the long-suffering of the people, and, similarly, expressed grief over the passivity of the peasant masses (“Old Tales in a New Way,” 1871; “The Giant’s Dream,” 1873).

Minaev reached the heyday of his literary activity in the late 60s and early 70s. Constantly changing his pseudonyms (more than 29), Minaev was especially popular as “D. Sviyazhsky", "Accusatory Poet", "Dark Man" and "Major of Bourbonov".

Peculiar, although not deep, humor brought Minaev into the sphere of topicality and developed him into a resourceful polemicist, the author of countless rhymes. The real poet disappeared into a sea of wit; His talent gave him a name, but soon faded. Minaev outlived his fame and died at home in Simbirsk, forgotten and alone, on July 10 (22), 1889.