Despite the fact that the basis of Gavrila Derzhavin’s work is Russian classicism, it significantly went beyond its limits. Derzhavin's poems are characterized by a combination of “high” and “low” elements, a mixture of solemn ode with satire, colloquial expressions along with Church Slavonic vocabulary. A romantic approach to reality also creeps into the poet’s works. In other words, Derzhavin’s work expressed the entire development path of Russian literature of this era - from classicism, through sentimentalism and romanticism to realism.

The poet considers truth to be the basis of art, which artists and poets are obliged to convey to the reader. The task of art is to imitate nature, that is, objective reality. But this does not apply to the base and rough sides of life - poetry, as Derzhavin believes, should be “pleasant.” It should also be useful - this explains the numerous moral teachings, satires and morals with which the poet’s work is replete.

Derzhavin, of course, could not lay claim to the role of a spiritual people’s leader and encroach on the foundations of autocracy, but in many of his works he expresses precisely the people’s point of view, which was already a breakthrough for Russian literature of the 18th century. Thus, the impressions of Pugachev’s peasant war were reflected in all the poet’s most important poems - from “Chitalagai Odes” to “Nobleman” - in them he is on the side of the people, condemning their torment by landowners and nobles.

Since 1779, Derzhavin’s work has become more and more original - he follows his own path in poetry. Derzhavin’s merit to Russian poetry is the introduction of the “funny Russian style” into literature: a combination of high style with vernacular, satire and lyricism.

Derzhavin expands the themes of poetry, bringing it closer to life. He begins to look at the world and nature through the eyes of an ordinary earthly person. The poet depicts nature not abstractly, as was done before him, but as a living reality. If before Derzhavin nature was described in the most general terms: streams, birds, flowers, sheep, then in the poet’s poems details, colors, sounds already appear - he works with words, like an artist with a brush.

In depicting a person, the poet approaches a living portrait, which was the first step on the path to realism.

Derzhavin expands the boundaries of ode. In “Felitsa” the scheme established by Lomonosov is violated - this is already a plot poem, and not a set of statements by the author in connection with a solemn event. Derzhavin's most famous odes - “Felitsa”, “God”, “Vision of Murza”, “Image of Felitsa”, “Waterfall” - are plot works into which the poet introduces his thoughts and feelings.

Derzhavin's poems introduce the image of the author into poetry, introduce the reader to the personality of the poet - this is another of his discoveries. The works represent not an abstract, but a concrete person. The poet in Derzhavin's works is an incorruptible fighter for the truth.

Of great importance for the subsequent development of Russian literature is poetic language Derzhavina. The poet had an excellent sense of folk speech. The poet's poems always contain rhetoric and oratorical intonations - he teaches, demands, instructs, and is indignant. Many of Derzhavin’s expressions became popular:

“Where there was a table of food, there is a coffin,” “I am a king, I am a slave, I am a worm, I am a god,” “The smoke of the Fatherland is sweet and pleasant to us,” etc.

The poet’s main merit was the introduction of “ordinary human words” into poetry, which was incredibly unexpected and new. The subject of poetry becomes ordinary human affairs and concerns.

Derzhavin's works had an influence on almost all poets of the late 18th - early XIX century, contributing to the advent of a new milestone in the development of Russian poetry.

Derzhavin's main merit was bringing poetry closer to life. In his works, for the first time, the reader was presented with pictures of rural life, modern political events, and nature. The main subject of the image was the human personality, and not a conventional, fictional hero. The poet spoke about himself in poetry - all this was new and completely unusual for Russian literature. The framework of classicism turned out to be tight for Derzhavin: in his work he rejected the doctrine of genre hierarchy. Low and high, sad and funny were combined in one and the same work, reflecting life in its unity of contrasts.
Derzhavin the man stood out sharply from the mass of his contemporaries with his intellectual and moral qualities. A poor nobleman, Derzhavin rose to the highest ranks, but he did not get along with Catherine II, Paul I, or Alexander I. The reason was always the same - he served the cause, the Motherland, and the people too zealously.

Ode "Felitsa". Derzhavin’s programmatic poem, which made readers immediately start talking about him as a great poet, was the ode “Felitsa”. According to V.G. Belinsky, “Felitsa” is one of “Derzhavin’s best creations.” In it, the fullness of feeling was happily combined with the originality of the form, in which the Russian mind is visible and Russian speech is heard. Despite its considerable size, this ode is imbued with an internal unity of thought and is consistent in tone from beginning to end. Personifying in yourself modern society", the poet subtly praises Felitsa, comparing himself to her and satirically depicting his vices."

“Felitsa” is a clear example of a violation of classicist normativity, primarily due to the combination of ode with satire: the image of an enlightened monarch is contrasted with the collective image of a vicious Murza; half-jokingly, half-seriously speaking about Felitsa’s merits; The author laughs merrily at himself. The syllable of the poem represents, according to Gogol, “the connection of the highest words with the lowest.”

Derzhavin’s image of Felitsa is multifaceted. Felitsa is an enlightened monarch and at the same time a private person. The author carefully writes out the habits of Catherine the person, her lifestyle, and character traits:

Without imitating your Murzas,
You often walk
And the food is the simplest
Happens at your table.

The novelty of the poem lies, however, not only in the fact that Derzhavin depicts the private life of Catherine II; the very principle of depicting a positive hero is also new, compared to Lomonosov. If, for example, Lomonosov’s image of Elizabeth Petrovna is extremely generalized, then here the complimentary manner does not prevent the poet from showing the specific affairs of the ruler, her patronage of trade and industry, she is that “god”, according to the poet,

who gave freedom
Jump into foreign regions,
Allowed his people
Seek silver and gold;
Who allows water
And it doesn’t prohibit cutting down the forest;
Orders to weave, and spin, and sew;
Untying the mind and hands,
Tells you to love trading, science
And find happiness at home.

Felitsa “enlightens morals”, writes “instructions in fairy tales”, but she looks at the poetry “kind” to her as “delicious lemonade in the summer”. Remaining within the framework of the dithyramb, Derzhavin follows the truth and, perhaps, without noticing it himself, shows the limitations of Catherine the writer, who sought to develop literature in the spirit of protective ideas.
Derzhavin, like his predecessors, contrasts the modern reign with the previous one, but again does this extremely specifically, with the help of several expressive everyday details:

There with the name Felitsa you can
Scrape out the typo in the line...

In this ode, the poet combines praise of the empress with satire on her entourage, sharply violating the purity of the genre for which the classicists stood. A new principle of typification appears in the ode: the collective image of Murza is not equal to the mechanical sum of several abstract “portraits”. Derzhavinsky Murza is the poet himself with his characteristic frankness, and sometimes slyness. And at the same time, many characteristic features of specific Catherine’s nobles were reflected in it. Here is a poet living in luxury, like Potemkin; leaves service to hunt, like L.I. Panin; keeps his neighbors awake at night, amusing himself with horn music, like S.K. Naryshkin; amuses his spirit with fist fights, like A.G. Orlov; enlightens his mind by reading Polkan and Bova, like A. A. Vyazemsky. Now, to install Murza prototypes, comments are needed. Derzhavin's contemporaries recognized them without difficulty. The typicality of the image of Murza was clear to the poet himself - he ended the story about him with meaningful words: “That’s how I am, Felitsa, I’m depraved! But the whole world looks like me.”

The introduction of a personal element into poetry was a bold but necessary step, prepared by the very logic of artistic development. In Derzhavin’s poems, the image of his contemporary, a natural man, with his ups and downs, is revealed in all its fullness and contradictions.

Derzhavin’s innovation was also the inclusion in the ode of a sample of still life - a genre that would later appear brilliantly in his other poems: “There is a glorious Westphalian ham, // There are links of Astrakhan fish, // There are pilaf and pies...”. The innovative nature of the work was seen by his contemporaries.

Ode "God". This work is an inspired hymn to the omnipotence of the human mind. The poet began working on it in 1780 and finished it in 1784. Derzhavin, following Lomonosov, approaches the concept of deity as a deist. God for him is the beginning of beginnings; in essence, it is all nature, the entire universe, which “fills, embraces, builds, preserves everything.” Using theological terms, Derzhavin writes about the eternal movement of mothers:

O you, endless space,
Alive in the movement of matter;
Eternal with the passage of time,
Without faces, in three faces of a deity!

He explains at the same time that three faces do not mean a theological trinity at all, but “three metaphysical faces; that is, infinite space, continuous life in the movement of substances and the endless flow of time, which God combines within himself.” Time, space and movement, according to Derzhavin, are attributes of nature. Derzhavin writes about the immensity of the universe, about the multiplicity of worlds:

Shining light of the kindled millions
They flow in immeasurability,
They make your laws
Life-giving rays pour down.

As a true deist, he speaks of the presence of a divine impulse:
You are the light from where the light came.
Who created everything with one word,
Stretching into creation new,
You were, you are, you will forever be.

Derzhavin could not help but think in the ode “God” about the place of man in the universe:
Like a drop in the ocean dropped,
The whole firmament is before you.
But what is the visible universe to me?
And what am I in front of you?

Having palpably depicted the negligible size that man is compared to the universe, Derzhavin proudly speaks about his capabilities, about the power of human thought, striving to comprehend the world, able to “Measure the deep ocean, // Count the sands, the rays of the planets” and daring ascend to the incomprehensible god.

Man is not just a speck of dust in the chaos of the world. He's a particle common system of the universe, it occupies its definite and very important place among living beings:
I am the connection of worlds that exist everywhere,
I am an extreme degree of substance;
I am the center of the living
The initial trait of a deity.
Man is the center of the universe, the most perfect creation on earth. Derzhavin estimates his strengths and capabilities unusually highly.

"Waterfall". In the poem “Waterfall,” Derzhavin again returns to the theme of the transience of existence and asks the question of what eternity is, which people have the right to immortality. The magnificent picture of a waterfall, with which the poem opens, contains an allegory: the waterfall is fast-flowing time, and the wolf, doe and horse coming to it are signs of such human qualities as anger, meekness and pride:

Isn't it the life of people for us
Does this represent a waterfall?
He is also the blessing of his jets
Gives water to the arrogant, the meek, and the wicked.
Isn't that how time flows from the sky?
The desire of passions is in full swing...
Most human destinies disappear without a trace in eternity, and only a few remain in the memory of posterity. To decide who is worthy of immortality, Derzhavin compares two types of figures - Potemkin and Rumyantsev.

“A certain gray-haired man” sits near the waterfall and reflects on what it means to be useful to the fatherland. This is the commander Rumyantsev, clearly idealized by Derzhavin, whom the poet contrasts with Potemkin, a nobleman who paid too much attention to himself. At the same time, the poet talks about many useful deeds and about Potemkin’s personal merits, thanks to which ordinary soldiers loved him and hated the nobility.
But not a single one kind words Derzhavin does not find a candidate for Potemkin’s successor, Platon Zubov. The poet speaks of this nonentity, who only knew how to “discredit” the deeds of his predecessor, with devastating contempt, speaking of him as a worm crawling around the ashes of a hero.

Returning again at the end of the ode to the theme of the waterfall, Derzhavin identifies it simultaneously with Potemkin, and with all earthly rulers - “waterfalls of the world”, and, between the lines, with the very century of Catherine II: brilliant, lush, noisy - and cruel, terrible, bloody. And not with hackneyed morality, not with dry moralizing, but with a bitter reproach, a hopeless dream of a better future, the poet’s final call sounds:

Only truth gives crowns
To merits that will not fade;
Only the singers sing the truth,
Which will never stop
Perun's sweet lyres thunder;
Only the idol of the righteous is holy.

Hear, waterfalls of the world!
O glory to the noisy heads!
Your sword is bright, purple is colored,
Since you loved the truth,
When they only had meta,
To bring happiness to the world.

For over four years, Derzhavin worked on “Waterfall,” but managed to create the impression that the poem was written immediately, by inspiration, “in one breath,” under the impression of the unusual death of the “minion of happiness” Potemkin. And this makes “Waterfall” similar to the romanticism of the early 19th century, which argued that the source of true poetry is the poet’s inspiration.

The artistic features of the ode: the overall solemn tone of the poem, the darkly sublime coloring, titanic images in the spirit of northern legends and folk epics - finally make “Waterfall” one of the first romantic poems of Russian poetry.

Derzhavin played an outstanding role in the history of Russian literature. All the poets of the first decades of the nineteenth century relied on his achievements.
A special merit of the poet should be recognized for his artistic exploration of the dialectics of the existence of the macro- and microcosm. Hence the poet’s favorite poetic device is antithesis. He sometimes manages to reveal the dialectical connection of contradictions in their unity. The following lines from the ode “God” are remarkable in this regard:
My body is crumbling into dust,
I command thunder with my mind,
I am the King - I am the slave - I am the worm - I am God!

Derzhavin’s “funny Russian style” contributed to the renewal of poetry. By combining the words “high” and “low,” Derzhavin freed Russian poetry from the shackles of the “three calms” theory, opening the way for the development of a realistic language. No wonder V. G. Belinsky said that “Derzhavin is the father of Russian poets”, that he “would be the first living verb of our Russian poetry.”
According to V. Zapadov, V. Fedorov.

Of course, Derzhavin’s contribution to the development of Russian literature and culture was significant. The ode "Felitsa" gave him popularity and, to put it modern language, brought him into the lead. This work was noticed by Empress Catherine II, which gave Derzhavin the opportunity to move up the career ladder. Soon he will become Minister of Justice. During the service, he will create a new genre in Russian literature - a philosophical ode, write the ode “God” and the ode “On the death of Prince Meshchersky”. Next, Derzhavin will create the text of the unofficial first anthem Russian Empire, which also gave him fame among the population and secular society. He was able to combine ode (high style) and satire (low style) - which seems impossible (in other words - brings ode down to earth). In the genre of "satiristic ode" Derzhavin will write an ode to "The Nobleman" and "To the Ruler and the Judges."

Destroying the foundations of classicism, Derzhavin gave rise to the development of a new artistic direction - realism. This is one of his most important achievements. Places the author's self above the norm.

Updated: 2017-03-24

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The poet Derzhavin Gabriel Romanovich was born on July 3 (July 14), 1743 in the Kazan province into a family of impoverished nobles. His childhood was spent on a family estate in the village of Sokury. Since 1759, Derzhavin studied at the Kazan gymnasium.

In 1762, the future poet entered service as an ordinary guardsman in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. In 1772 he was promoted to ensign, receiving his first officer rank. In 1773 - 1775, Derzhavin, as part of the regiment, participated in the suppression of the uprising of Emelyan Pugachev.

Civil service

Since 1777, Derzhavin entered the civil service in the Government Senate with the rank of state councilor. In 1784 - 1788 he held the post of ruler of the Olonetsky, and then the Tambov governorship. Even in short biography Derzhavin is worth mentioning that he was actively involved in improving the economy of the region and contributed to the formation of provincial administrative, judicial and financial institutions.

In 1791, Derzhavin was appointed cabinet secretary of Catherine II. Since 1793, the poet has served as the empress's secret adviser. In 1795, Derzhavin received the post of president of the Commerce Collegium. From 1802 to 1803 he served as Minister of Justice.

last years of life

In 1803, Derzhavin retired and settled on his Zvanka estate in the Novgorod province. Last years The poet devotes his life to literary activity. In 1813, Derzhavin, whose biography was full of trips even during this period, went to Ukraine to visit V.V. Kapnist. In 1815, he attended an exam at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, listening to the works of the young Alexander Pushkin.

On July 8 (July 20), 1816, Gabriel Romanovich Derzhavin died on his estate. The poet was buried in the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Varlaamo-Khutyn Monastery near Veliky Novgorod.

Creation

The work of Gabriel Derzhavin is considered the pinnacle of Russian classicism. The poet's first works appeared during his military service. In 1773, Derzhavin made his debut in the magazine “Antiquity and Novelty” with a translation of the excerpt “Iroizha, or Letters of Vivlida to Kavno” from the works of Ovid. In 1774, the works “Ode on Greatness” and “Ode on Nobility” saw the light of day.

In 1776, the poet’s first collection of poems, “Odes Translated and Composed at Mount Chitalagoe,” was published.

Since 1779, Derzhavin has been moving away from the traditions laid down by Sumarokov and Lomonosov, working on philosophical lyrics. In 1782, the ode “Felitsa” was published, dedicated to Empress Catherine II, which brought the poet wide literary fame. Soon other famous works of Derzhavin appeared - “The Nobleman”, “Eugene. Life of Zvanskaya”, “On the Death of Prince Meshchersky”, “God”, “Dobrynya”, “Waterfall”, “Herod and Mariamne”, etc.

In 1808, a collection of Derzhavin’s works was published in four volumes.

Chronological table

Other biography options

• The Derzhavin family originates from the son of the Tatar Murza Bagrim, who bore the name Derzhava.
• The first wife of G.R. Derzhavin was Ekaterina Bastidon, the daughter of the Portuguese Bastidon, the former valet of Peter III.
• Derzhavin studied from the age of seven German, read Klopstock, Gellert, Kleist, Haller, Gagedorn in the original, which significantly affected his literary work.
• Derzhavin’s poem “The Thunder of Victory, Ring Out!”, created in 1791, became the first unofficial anthem of Russia.
• For distinguished service in public service, Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin was awarded the Order

What is Derzhavin’s service to Russian literature? and got the best answer

Answer from DINAmovets In spirit[guru]
Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin is a great Russian poet of the late 18th century, one of the titans of the mighty Russian word, who played a huge role in the liberation of Russian literature from classicism and the formation of elements of the future realistic style. The poet’s place in Russian literature was very accurately defined by V. G. Belinsky: “With Derzhavin, a new period of Russian poetry begins, and just as Lomonosov was its first name, so Derzhavin was its second. In the person of Derzhavin, Russian poetry took a great step forward.” The historical merit of the poet is his introduction of the “ordinary poetic word” into poetry. Derzhavin became limited by the three styles established by Lomonosov. He removed them and, according to A.V. Zapadov, “thus... introduced the Russian colloquial language into poetry and energetically contributed to strengthening the national-democratic foundations of our literary language.”
Derzhavin's civil odes are addressed to persons endowed with great political power: monarchs, nobles. In them the poet rises not only to laudatory, but also to accusatory pathos. In the ode “Felitsa,” Derzhavin the enlightener sees in the monarch a person to whom society has entrusted the care of the welfare of citizens, therefore the right to be a monarch imposes on the ruler numerous responsibilities in relation to the people. Derzhavin's innovation in this ode is not only in the interpretation of the image of an enlightened monarch, but also in the bold combination of laudatory and accusatory principles - ode and satire. This connection is a phenomenon of educational literature, because the enlighteners understood the life of society as a constant struggle between truth and error.
In the ode “The Nobleman” by Derzhavin, the evil arising from the indifference of the nobles to their duty is presented with such indignation, which can be traced only in some works of that time. The poet is outraged by the situation of the people suffering from the criminal attitude of the courtiers. In the poem “To Rulers and Judges,” the indifference and selfishness of those in power do not leave the poet indifferent, and he demands the punishment of the guilty. The poet reminds the kings that they are as mortal as their subjects, and sooner or later they will stand trial
God's. In Derzhavin's "Monument" there is a thought about the right of their authors to immortality. In this poem, the poet recalls that he was the first to dare to abandon the solemn pompous style of odes.
Derzhavin insisted on his human dignity and the independence of his judgment over modernity. With this, Derzhavin clarified the idea of ​​the poet’s personal responsibility for his judgments, the idea of ​​sincerity and truthfulness of his ideological propaganda, which is very important for the further development of advanced Russian literature. Derzhavin's predecessors - Kantemir, Lomonosov, Sumarokov - were also quite truthful and sincere when preaching their ideas. But they thought that what was important for the reader was not the opinion of the poet, but the universal evidence of his works, that the state itself or the truth itself spoke through their lips - and the value of these lofty ideas outweighed the question of the personal authority of the human poet.
Derzhavin wrote differently from his predecessors. He taught and judged people precisely as a poet and became an authority of a new ideological nature. Derzhavin is a monarchist. He protects his free authority as a citizen and feels that the autocracy is worsening it:
Fear bound in chains
And those born under the rod,
Is it possible with eagle wings
Should we soar towards the sun with our minds?
And when they flew,
We feel our yoke...
A slave cannot even praise
He can only flatter.
In 1796, Derzhavin, in an ode to the “Prince of Athens,” sang of A. G. Orlov, who was in disgrace, and at the beginning of his ode emphasized the importance of independence and truthfulness of praise and condemnation in the poet’s work and in his own work.
Derzhavin was sincere in his praise and wanted readers to believe his sincerity. “Felitsa” - Catherine - he sang enthusiastically, she seemed like that to him from afar.