‘Man was created to be a support to another, because he himself needs support’: Correspondence between Leo Tolstoy and Nikolay Nekrasov
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17072/2073-6681-2023-3-74-83Keywords:
Leo Tolstoy; Nikolay Nekrasov; journal Sovremennik; correspondence; correspondents; personality; spiritual growth; censorship; creative interaction.Abstract
The article analyzes personal correspondence between Leo Tolstoy and Nikolay Nekrasov in the 1850s–1860s, investigates the influence of the correspondents on each other, which remains underestimated in modern literary criticism: not only the experienced editor Nekrasov had a decisive influence on the novice writer, but also Tolstoy, who knew life firsthand, contributed to the transformation of Nekrasov. During the preparation of the article, not only published letters of the correspondents were used but also handwritten materials stored in the funds of the Leo Tolstoy State Museum. The article indicates the moments of the correspondents’ ideological convergence and distancing, the stages of their interaction in letters, determined by the complexities and specifics of personal communication, the publication of Tolstoy’s works in the Sovremennik journal, and changes in the journal’s trends. The paper notes the qualities and features that each of the correspondents most valued in the other as well as the similarity and parallelism of the creative evolution of the writer and the poet, both of whom came to create great epic art. Particular attention is paid to the role of Tolstoy in maintaining Sovremennik, his assistance in launching a new military documentary direction in the journal. The paper analyzes the correspondents’ disagreement, caused in many respects by Nekrasov’s cooperation with young revolutionary democrats. It is emphasized that Tolstoy’s discoveries and artistic explanations of the spiritual path of the individual, involving the loss of childish purity and faith, the likelihood of a difficult return to them at a new stage of understanding oneself, contributed to the internal evolution of Nekrasov, his understanding of the limitations of materialistic views. In the 1860s, Nekrasov managed to return to the idea of human physical limitations and spiritual strength at a new poetic level.References
Список источников
Толстой Л. Н. Переписка с русскими писателями: в 2 т. Т. 1. М.: Худ. лит., 1978. 495 с.
Некрасов Н. А. Полн. собр. сочинений и писем в 15 т. / Акад. наук СССР, Ин-т рус. лит. (Пушкинский дом). Л.: Наука, 1981–2000.
Письма к А. В. Дружинину (1850–1863) / ред., вступ. ст. «Архив А. В. Дружинина». М: [б. и.], 1948. 423 с. (Летописи / Гос. лит. музей. Кн. 9)
Скабичевский А. М. Очерки истории русской цензуры: (1700–1863 г.). СПб.: Ф. Павленков, 1892. 495 с.
Толстой Л. Н. Полн. собр. соч. в 90 т. М.: Худож. лит., 1928–1958.
Список литературы
Андреева В. Г. Война как средство и состояние на русском пути: Н. А. Некрасов, Ф. М. Достоевский, Л. Н. Толстой // Дискурс Некрасова и Достоевского: культурное наследие и его интерпретация. Ярославль: Ярослав. обл. универсал. науч. библиотека имени Н. А. Некрасова, 2021. С. 36–42.
Бухштаб Б. Я. Н. А. Некрасов: Проблемы творчества. Л.: Сов. писатель, 1989. 349 с.
Гин М. М. Некрасов – драматург и театральный критик. Л.; М.: Искусство, 1958. 147 с.
Гулин А. В. Декабристы в эпическом отображении Л. Н. Толстого и Н. А. Некрасова // Два века русской классики. 2021. Т. 3, № 2. С. 96–119. doi 10.22455/2686-7494-2021-3-2-96-119
Евгеньев-Максимов В. Е. Некрасов // История русской литературы: в 10 т. М.; Л.: Изд-во АН СССР, 1941–1956. Т. VIII. Литература шестидесятых годов. Ч. 2. 1956. С. 56–160.
Лебедев Ю. В. Христианские и фольклорные мотивы в поэзии Н. А. Некрасова // Вестник Костромского государственного университета. 2016. Т. 22, № 4. С. 59–64.
Нестеренко А. А. Н. А. Некрасов и Л. Н. Толстой (опыт анализа творческой переклички поэта и прозаика) // Ученые записки УО ВГУ им. П. М. Машерова. 2008. Т. 7. С. 131–147.
Пайков Н. Н. Чтение Некрасовым Толстого и письма его к писателю как акт духовного самосознания поэта // Карабиха: историко-литературный сборник. Вып. 5. Ярославль: Изд-во Александра Рутмана, 2006. С. 120–129.
Скатов Н. Н. Некрасов. М.: Мол. гвардия, 1994. 411 с. URL: https://royallib.com/book/skatov_nikolay/nekrasov.html (дата обращения: 18.03.2022).
Тарасов А. Ф. Некрасов в Карабихе. Ярославль: Верхне-Волж. книж. изд-во, 1989. 222 с.
Чуковский К. И. Мастерство Некрасова. М.: Худож. лит., 1971. 711 с.
Hruska A. Loneliness and Social Class in Tolstoy’s Trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, Youth // The Slavic and East European Journal. 2000. Vol. 44, no. 1. P. 64–78. doi 10.2307/309628
Klioutchkine K. Between Sacrifice and Indulgence: Nikolai Nekrasov as a Model for the Intelligentsia // Slavic Review. 2007. Vol. 66, no. 1. P. 45–62. doi 10.2307/20060146
References
Andreeva V. G. Voyna kak sredstvo i sostoyanie na russkom puti: N. A. Nekrasov, F. M. Dostoevskiy, L. N. Tolstoy [War as a means and state on the Russian path: N. A. Nekrasov, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy]. Diskurs Nekrasova i Dostoevskogo: kul’turnoe nasledie i ego interpretatsiya [Discourse of Nekrasov and Dostoevsky: Cultural Heritage and Its Interpretation]. Yaroslavl, Yaroslavl Regional Universal Scientific Library named after N. A. Nekrasov Press, 2021, pp. 36–42. (In Russ.)
Bukhshtab B. Ya. N. A. Nekrasov: Problemy tvorchestva [N. A. Nekrasov: Problems of the Oeuvre]. Leningrad, Sovetskiy pisatel’ Publ., 1989. 349 p. (In Russ.).
Gin M. M. Nekrasov – dramaturg i teatral’nyy kritik [Nekrasov as a Playwright and Theater Critic]. Leningrad, Moscow, Iskusstvo Publ., 1958. 147 p. (In Russ.)
Gulin A. V. Dekabristy v epicheskom otobrazhenii L. N. Tolstogo i N. A. Nekrasova [The Decembrists in the epic representation of L. N. Tolstoy and N. A. Nekrasov]. Dva veka russkoy klassiki [Two Centuries of Russian Classics], 2021, vol. 3, issue 2, pp. 96–119. doi 10.22455/2686-7494-2021-3-2-96-119 (In Russ.)
Evgen’ev-Maksimov V. E. Nekrasov. Istoriya russkoy literatury [The History of Russian Literature]: in 10 vols. Moscow, Leningrad, Academy of Sciences of the USSR Publ., 1941–1956, vol. 8. Literatura shestidesyatykh godov [Literature of the 1960s], pt. 2, 1956, pp. 56–160. (In Russ.)
Lebedev Yu. V. Khristianskie i fol’klornye motivy v poezii N. A. Nekrasova [Christian and folklore motifs in Nikolay Nekrasov’s poetry]. Vestnik Kostromskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Vestnik of Kostroma State University], 2016, vol. 22, issue 4, pp. 59–64. (In Russ.)
Nesterenko A. A. N. A. Nekrasov i L. N. Tolstoy (opyt analiza tvorcheskoy pereklichki poeta i prozaika) [Nekrasov and L. N. Tolstoy (an experience of analyzing the creative commonalities of the poet and the prose writer)]. Uchenye zapiski UO VGU im. P. M. Masherova [Scientific Notes of Vitebsk State University named after P. M. Masherov], 2008, vol. 7, pp. 131–147. (In Russ.)
Paykov N. N. Chtenie Nekrasovym Tolstogo i pis’ma ego k pisatelyu kak akt dukhovnogo samosoznaniya poeta [Nekrasov’s reading of Tolstoy and his letters to the writer as an act of the poet’s spiritual self-awareness]. Karabikha: istoriko-literaturnyy sbornik Karabikha: Historical and Literary Collection]. Issue 5. Yaroslavl, Publishing House of Aleksandr Rutman, 2006, pp. 120–129. (In Russ.)
Skatov N. N. Nekrasov. Moscow, Molodaya Gvardiya Publ., 1994. 411 p. Available at: https://royallib.com/book/skatov_nikolay/nekrasov.
html (accessed 18 Mar 2022). (In Russ.)
Tarasov A. F. Nekrasov v Karabikhe [Nekrasov in Karabikha]. Yaroslavl, Verkhne-Volzhskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo Publ., 1989. 222 p. (In Russ.)
Chukovsky K. I. Masterstvo Nekrasova [Nekrasov’s Mastery]. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya literatura Publ., 1971. 711 p. (In Russ.)
Hruska A. Loneliness and social class in Tolstoy’s trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, Youth. The Slavic and East European Journal, 2000, vol. 44, issue 1, pp. 64–78. doi 10.2307/309628 (In Eng.)
Klioutchkine K. Between sacrifice and indulgence: Nikolai Nekrasov as a model for the intelligentsia. Slavic Review, 2007, vol. 66, issue 1, pp. 45–62. doi 10.2307/20060146 (In Eng.)
