Dmitry Dmitrievich Minaev selected satirical poems. Minaev Dmitry Dmitrievich Dmitry Dmitrievich Minaev
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 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 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” - “the anthem 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
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.
You can 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.
Dmitry Dmitrievich Minaev(October 21 (November 2) 1835, Simbirsk - July 10 (22), 1889, ibid.) - Russian satirist poet, journalist, translator, critic.Born into the family of an officer, Dmitry Ivanovich Minaev, poet, translator of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” In 1847-1851 he studied in the Noble Regiment (did not complete the course).
In 1852 he passed the exams for the first class rank and served in the Simbirsk provincial treasury chamber for about three years. In 1855 he moved to St. Petersburg, where he found a job as an official in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In 1857 he resigned and took up only literary work. At the beginning, Minaev published in minor St. Petersburg magazines and newspapers, speaking with lyrical and then satirical poems and translations. In 1859 he published a collection of literary parodies “Repeats. Poems of an accusatory poet." He collaborated in democratic magazines, including Sovremennik, Russkoe Slovo, and Iskra, where Minaev’s talent as a satirist poet developed.
In 1862, he edited the satirical magazine Gudok for several months. 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” (A. A. Fet, A. N. Maikov, N. F. Shcherbina, V. V. Krestovsky and others). He gained fame as the “king of rhyme”, a master of epigrams, parody, feuilleton in verse and especially puns.
In his literary activity, Minaev did a lot of translation work. He translated J. Byron (Don Juan, Childe Harold, Beppo, Manfred and Cain), Dante (The Divine Comedy), Heine (Germany), A. Mickiewicz (Dzyady "(Polish) Russian), P.B. Shelley (“Prometheus Unbound”), poems and plays by Hugo, Barbier, Vigny, Moliere, Syrokoml, Juvenal and many others. The merit of D. D. Minaev is the acquaintance of the Russian reading public with works of European literature.
After the Karakozov shot (an attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander II by D.V. Karakozov), at the end of April 1866, Minaev was arrested for collaborating in magazines “known for their harmful socialist direction, especially Sovremennik and Russkoe Slovo”, and stayed in the Peter and Paul Fortress for about four months.
At the end of 1887, D. D. Minaev and his wife arrived in Simbirsk, where on Nizhne-Soldatskaya Street, near the Sviyaga River, they bought a house with outbuildings and a garden. The poet died on July 10 (22), 1889 in Simbirsk, after a serious illness.
Based on materials from Wikipedia and the Bibliographical Dictionary "Russian Writers"
PROVINCIAL FAMUS
People of a higher view,
Do you want any books?
Let for the lower class
Writers write.
Why do you need more
All human knowledge?
Not of that class -
To read the publications!
Nowadays it’s a glorious persecution,
Tomorrow - a jump in threes;
That's lunch, where - the main thing -
They will treat you with tinctures.
Then you will go to your relatives,
With mongrels - torture...
It’s clear that you’ll lose your mind, -
There's no time for reading here.
Let the clerks cram
Those articles by scientists
Where are the ideas different?
Very depraved.
We, having finished the champagne,
We ask with surprise:
Is it a matter of nobility?
Reading?
FOR CHILDREN
Rods are needed as energy
gical motives of life.
P. Yurkevich
Don't be afraid of the rod, children!
Know - playful scientists
These bars are terrible
Called life a motive.
Let the birch trees grow,
Flexible willow shoots -
You, smiling through tears,
Say - these are the motives!
If it happens to you now
To bear the punishment with tears -
Well? and Rossini's motives
Sometimes there are sobs.
Children! wipe away your tears!
You can bear the severity:
Before, you endured the vines,
So bear with the motives!..
1860 or 1861
HUMORISTS
Comedians! laugh all of you
Just let your verse
Like the smile of a young maiden
It will be clean and quiet.
Be humble like a lamb
Laugh without worries
But from a bilious word
God bless you!..
Without ridicule, without needles,
Fun for everyone
Laugh so hard it doesn't hurt
Harmless laughter;
So that the child in the cradle
I could smile...
From another civilian purpose
God bless you!..
Laugh... well, at least at nature -
There's no harm to her
Above visits, above fashion
Laugh, gentlemen;
Over riding in a cart shaking
Among the big roads...
From meeting pandemonium
God bless you!..
Sing a song about a harmonious front,
About the bigot, the whip,
Just don’t touch personalities,
Laugh - in general...
And from punishment, from reproof
Along and across
From all the latest teachings -
God bless you!..
1862 or 1863
ADVICE
In your own heart and mind
a person must have an internal
nya police...
N. Pavlov
From hobbies, mistakes of the hot century
Only the “police in the heart” will save a person;
Only then will his ideal survive,
If in his soul he opens a permanent quarter.
A thought, for example, will go wild in you in earnest -
Put her in the moral box right away;
What if an indecent whim suddenly enters your head -
Let the watchful guard pacify her hearts;
The blood will boil, it will rage in you beyond measure -
With her, do not hesitate, take the police measure,
Become an exposer of your own malice and lies
And keep your obstinate mind on a string.
Know, Russian people, both elders and children:
Only “with the police in your heart” is there happiness in the world.
From a German poet
A genius cannot take over,
Our poets can
Take the size of his creations.
Let him rhyme every other line
Modern Russian Heine,
And in the water of similar songs
You can swim like in a pool.
I don't speak poetry well
But - I swear here in front of everyone -
I'll write in that size
Every evening a poem
Every evening a poem
Without hard work,
Where they will intertwine through the line
Along with rhymes of wit.
For aspiring poets
I can give lessons
How to write poems
In a short time,
How to write such songs
(I studied that science)
So that the reader is satisfied
And the editor squeezed your hand.
Excellent manner!..
Ready reception teaches us
Instead of a Zimmerman hat
Wear a laurel wreath.
I understood the secret perfectly,
How to write original:
I’ll start the poem pompously,
And when I finish, it’s trivial.
I'll sing a song to the stars,
I will remember lilies, forget-me-nots,
And then I’ll note by the way,
That I upset my stomach.
I'll tell you in a song "to the maiden"
How my embrace is hot, -
And at the same time I will remind her
About hot poultices.
Smoking incense in nature,
I will suddenly exclaim: O Russians!
All along the streets of the capital
People smoke cigarettes these days.
I'll start talking about blacks,
About Jules Simone, Jules Favre,
And then I'll jump over
At least to his cook Mavra.
Unexpectedly bringing you closer
All kinds of items,
I am sure - O reader! -
What talent will you find in me!..
And then, so that journalists
They brought me a sheet of praise,
I won't insult them
An impudent epigram.
I won’t wear it in passing
I'm wearing a stupid cap on them,
So that they don't call me
"Golyu moral tavern."
A range of live events
Walking casually by
I will take the plot from myths
Ancient Attica and Rome.
And then in chorus
In the middle of a magazine dump
Sing me a song of glory
All starlings, swifts and jackdaws.
The poet understands how flowers cry,
What does eared rye say?
What do the leaves of the trees whisper in the evening?
What dreams does every cabbage have?
What does a tree louse think in the world?
He knows sensitively what the pine tree thinks,
How he wanders in the early morning, from sleep,
And only the poet will not understand one thing:
What are these poor people thinking?
LAUGHTER
Always incorruptible, great
And terrible for everyone without distinction,
Honest laughter is a living guide
Progress, love and greatness.
Naively direct, like a child,
Like a mother - loving, gentle,
He teaches wisdom jokingly,
Softens a hopeless lot.
Flowing like water over stones,
Like a clear fountain of a pond,
Solemn laughter sometimes
Comes to the roar of thunder,
Merging in thick clouds
Into the silent, menacing echo,
And the one who has forgotten all fear,
I was shaking from such laughter.
Repressing the impulse of sobbing
And the proud sorrow of a citizen
Hiding under the mask of a jester,
Hidden under a harlequin's cloak,
Striving for a better destiny
He will give birth in the breast of the whole world
And with the hydra of vices in the fight
It sparkles and hits like an axe;
He stirs a sleepy thought
And wakes you up in the deep darkness:
David danced around the ark,
But he was both a king and a prophet.
LIFE HIERARCHY
We have been strictly distinguishing for a long time:
Little thief or big thief.
The little thief is food for satyrs,
A major thief is probably a cashier somewhere;
The little thief is being chased out of the yard,
The big one is also appointed director;
The little thief grabbed and disappeared,
The big one also grabbed it and made capital;
The little thief ended up in prison,
For a big thief, everything is just right for future use;
Winter is a stepmother for little thieves,
The big ones are not afraid of the prison itself,
And they calmly await legal punishment...
Where the bumblebee breaks through, beware of the mosquito!
AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE PRESS
"Who's there?" - “I am the truth.” - "Back!
Our press doesn't need you."
- "I am honesty!" - "Get out!" - "I
reason!" - "Brother,
Go away: entry is prohibited."
- "Who are you?" - "Skip
No talking. I am a subsidy!..”
- “Ah, you are in great honor with us:
I will let you through in any way!"
THE STORY OF A NOVELIST
Short thoughts, short lines,
Strawberry hints from point to point,
Broad manners and a narrow bourgeois look,
The predominant language is not Russian,
and French;
Everything is very easy to write and easy to read,
And it immediately evaporates from the readers’ heads.
The publication was prepared by L. Tsai
Minaev Dmitry Dmitrievich
M inaev Dmitry Dmitrievich - famous poet-humorist and translator (1835 - 1889), son. 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. He invited him to collaborate with Iskra. 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 1862, he became the editor of Gudok, but soon removed his signature, without ceasing to collaborate in it. Minaev reached the heyday of his literary activity in the late 60s and early 70s. Constantly changing his pseudonyms (Kartsev’s “Dictionary of Pseudonyms” includes more than 29), Minaev was especially popular as “D. Sviyazhsky”, “Accusatory Poet”, “Dark Man” and “Major Bourbonov”. From Minaev's comedies - "Liberal" ("Notes of the Fatherland", 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. 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). Knowing only French well, 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, 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, undermined by drunkenness, gave him a name, but soon faded. Minaev outlived his fame and died forgotten and alone. 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 Twilight" ( St. Petersburg, 1868), “Songs and Poems” (St. Petersburg, 1870), “What is the house rich with” (St. Petersburg, 1880), “Earrings for all sisters” (St. Petersburg, 1881), “Not in eyebrow, and in the eye" (St. Petersburg, 1882; 2nd ed. , 1898). Separately published: “The Pranks of the Devil on the Railway” (St. Petersburg, 1862), “Eugene Onegin” (St. Petersburg, 3rd edition 1877), “Cannibals, or People of the Sixties” (St. Petersburg, 1881) and many more others - See: N.A. Derzhavin “The King of Rhyme” (“Historical Bulletin”, 1914, No. 7 and 8); (“New Life”, 1913 and 1914, No. 2, memoirs); ("New Life", 1913, No. 2);
Minaev Dmitry Dmitrievich born on November 21 (XI 2), 1835 in Simbirsk into a poor noble family - satirist poet, playwright, translator.
His grandfather rose from being a soldier to become an officer and received the nobility.
My father knew Chernyshevsky, shared the views of Petrashevsky and Irinarch Vvedensky, and wrote poetry.
In 1847, the family moved to St. Petersburg, and Dmitry Dmitrievich was assigned to a military educational institution - the Noble Regiment, where V. S. Kurochkin studied, with whose family, and especially his brother Nikolai, Minaev became close friends.
In 1852, having completed his studies, he was graduated with the rank of XIV class.
In 1852-55 he began serving in the Simbirsk Treasury Chamber, then moved to St. Petersburg, where he served in the zemstvo department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Since 1857, having retired, Dmitry Dmitrievich devoted himself entirely to literary activity.
Minaev began publishing in minor magazines (“Illustration”, “Swallow”, “Entertainment” and others), publishing in them both original poems (lyrical and satirical) and translations.
In 1859, Minaev’s first collection of parodies, “Repeats. Poems of the Accusatory Poet. Issue 1".
In 1860 he published the first scientific biography of V. G. Belinsky, written from the position of democratic revolutionaries.
In 1861, he briefly collaborated in the Dostoevsky brothers’ magazine “Time,” where he continued to defend the name of Belinsky against the “most learned opponents” S. Shevyrev, M. Pogodin and others.
In 1862, for some time he edited the magazine Gudok (14 issues), to which he tried to give a progressive direction. Constant collaboration in Sovremennik (1860-66), Russian Word (1861-64), Alarm Clock (1865 - early 70s) and especially Iskra (1860-74) brought Minaev in the 60s . the fame of a satirical poet close to the ideology of revolutionary democrats, which attracted the attention of the III department to him.
In 1864, considering the position of "Russian Word" in the polemic with "Sovremennik" regarding "Fathers and Sons" unacceptable for himself, he left the magazine and wrote a satirical poem "Eugene Onegin of Our Time", in which he raises a number of social issues (acts as against Pisarev’s interpretation of Pushkin, and against Bazarov’s nihilism).
In 1866 he created several satirical poems in connection with Nekrasov’s “Muravyov Ode”.
In 1866 Minaev D.D. was brought to trial in the Karakozov case. While under investigation in the Alexander Nevsky part, he attempted suicide. Released two months after arrest.
In the works of Dmitry Dmitrievich of the 1870-80s. motives of fatigue, despair and sorrow appear, giving way (in the 70s) to more major motives. He collaborated in Delo (1868-73), Otechestvennye zapiski (1868-75), and continued to publish in Iskra.
From the mid-1870s-80s. the poet is forced to collaborate in the liberal newspapers “Petersburg Leaflet”, “Petersburgskaya Gazeta” and others, to write to order. Not limiting himself to banal satires of “evil wives” and “cuckold husbands,” Minaev, even in these years, tries to preserve and continue the satirical traditions of Iskra. Rejecting as incorrect the position that Minaev in the 70-80s. abandoned his previous democratic views, it should be emphasized that his work of these years, despite its general democratic essence, is contradictory, inconsistent and often pessimistic. The poet does not see immediate encouraging prospects for social transformation in Russia.
In 1887, sick Dmitry Dmitrievich (kidney disease) returned to Simbirsk “to be treated with the air of his homeland” and died two years later, lonely and forgotten.
Dmitry Dmitrievich is best known as a satirist poet (pseudonym: Accusatory poet, Dark Man, Dm. Sviyazhsky, Retired Major Mikhail Burbonov, Literary Domino, Anonymous, Mutual Friend, Tumbleweed, Ivan Kistochkin and many others).
Minaev's satire exposes the pre-reform, serfdom and is directed against the bourgeois-landowner system of Russia. Speaking against the social evils of Russia, the poet, as a rule, contrasts them with the ideals of the author, the images of revolutionary democrats (“Moonlit Night”, “Two Fates”). In his satirical works, he instantly responds to political and literary events, reacting urgently and politically to facts that are significant for a given historical moment and social environment: he is “hot on the trail of events.” This is the strength of his poetry. Minaev is a poet of the Nekrasov school. In his work one can highlight both the use of Nekrasov’s themes, motifs and images, and his closeness to Nekrasov’s poetic manner itself. But he cannot be considered the epigone of the democratic poet: accepting the spirit and principles of Nekrasov’s poetry, Minaev, relying on them, created his own original works.
One of the leading genres of the poet’s satirical work was the feuilleton, in which he was able to combine literary parody, epigram, satirical scenes, poetic rehashes, ironic reviews of literary works and art exhibitions. Feuilleton reviews entitled “Diary of a Dark Man” occupied an important place in the ideological structure of the magazine “Russian Word” (1861-64) and were continued by the poet in the magazine “Delo” (1868-73) under the title “From the Nevsky Bank” (signed “Anonymous” "). Dmitry Dmitrievich's feuilleton was a multi-genre satirical work that combined prose and poetic elements, as well as other genres of satire.
At the end of his life, being published in newspapers, the poet creates a poetic newspaper feuilleton on the topic of the day. This genre, the founder of which is Dmitry Dmitrievich, took over from the end of the 19th century. a permanent place on the pages of the capital and provincial press.
The satire of D. D. Minaev is characterized by an abundance of allusions, the creation, like other “Iskra-ists,” of literary masks (the most successful is Retired Major Mikhail Burbonov - a stupid and stupid martinet, straightforwardly and smugly expressing his views on life and art) and technique using artistic images created by classical literature of the past for new purposes. (Several of Minaev’s poems were built on this principle: “Julius Caesar”, “Eugene Onegin of Our Time” and others) he widely used Griboyedov’s images (Molchalin, Repetilov), Lermontov’s (Demon) and others. He changed the situation and transferred these images to new social conditions, thereby achieving a certain satirical effect. In his parodies, Minaev revealed ideological tendencies, aesthetic principles, and parodied the literary style of the poets of “pure art,” especially Fet. However, Minaev sometimes lacked the background needed in a parody, and the poem became imitative. Minaev D. D. is a master of puns and rhymes.
He had an amazing ability to find new, unexpected rhymes, to compare seemingly disparate phenomena and things, he had the flexibility and ease of verse, and the gift of improvisation.
In the late 60s - early 70s. Minaev turns to the genre of satirical fairy tales (the most successful fairy tales are published in Iskra under the title “Old fairy tales in a new way”).
As a playwright, Dmitry Dmitrievich performed in Iskra with dramatic scenes of a satirical nature. In the 70s wrote the comedies “Liberal”, “Sung Song” (received the Uvarov Prize) and, together with S. Khudekov, the play “Cashier”. Minaev's plays are not very successful; they lack the severity of social conflict.
Dmitry Dmitrievich’s translations of Byron’s poems (“Don Juan”, “Childe Harold”, “Manfred” and others), Heine (“Germany”), Dante (“The Divine Comedy”) and others are of little artistic quality: they do not convey the originality of thoughts and style original. However, their cognitive significance is undeniable.
Minaev's lyrics, which have undergone an evolution from Nekrasov's motifs to Nadsonov's, are basically imitative; the poet often falls into rhetoric, into a pathetic tone that is difficult for him.
The work of Dmitry Dmitrievich is far from equivalent. His poems are often characterized by superficiality, highlighting insignificant facts (more laughter for the sake of laughter than satire, puns, wordplay, difficult and some especially tricky rhyme always seduced him so much that they sometimes obscured thought). An interesting master of verse, Minaev was not a great poet, but he undoubtedly has his own poetic face. The creator of the genre of poetic satirical feuilleton, a brilliant parodist, the “king of rhyme”, a skilled epigrammatist, Dmitry Dmitrievich in his best works defended the democratic ideals of the 60s, and influenced further Russian satirical poetry.
Died 10(22).VII.1889 in Simbirsk.