
Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky (;
[ Pre-reform spelling: Виссаріонъ Григорьевичъ Бѣлинскій.] – ) was a Russian literary critic of
Westernizing tendency. Belinsky played one of the key roles in the career of poet and publisher
Nikolay Nekrasov and his popular magazine ''
Sovremennik''. He was the most influential of the Westernizers, especially among the younger generation. He worked primarily as a
literary critic
A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...
, because that area was less heavily censored than political pamphlets. He agreed with Slavophiles that society had precedence over
individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote realizing one's goals and desires, valuing independence and self-reliance, and a ...
, but he insisted the society had to allow the expression of individual ideas and
rights
Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...
. He strongly opposed Slavophiles on the role of
Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy () is adherence to a purported "correct" or otherwise mainstream- or classically-accepted creed, especially in religion.
Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical co ...
, which he considered a retrograde force. He emphasized reason and knowledge, and attacked
autocracy
Autocracy is a form of government in which absolute power is held by the head of state and Head of government, government, known as an autocrat. It includes some forms of monarchy and all forms of dictatorship, while it is contrasted with demo ...
and
theocracy
Theocracy is a form of autocracy or oligarchy in which one or more deity, deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries, with executive and legislative power, who manage the government's ...
.
Biography
Born in
Sveaborg, part of
Helsinki
Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
, Vissarion Belinsky lived in the town of Chembar (now
Belinsky in
Belinsky District of
Penza Oblast
Penza Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Penza. As of the Russian Census (2010), 2010 Census, its population was ...
) and in
Penza
Penza (, ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Penza Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Sura (river), Sura River, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Russian census, 2010 Census, Penza had ...
, where he studied in
gymnasia (1825–1829). In 1829–1832 he was a student of
Moscow University. In Moscow he published his first famous articles.
In 1839 Belinsky went to
St. Petersburg, Russia, where he became a respected critic and editor of two major
literary magazines: ''
Otechestvennye Zapiski'' ("Notes of the Fatherland"), and ''Sovremennik'' ("The Contemporary"). In both magazines Belinsky worked with younger
Nikolay Nekrasov.
He was unlike most of the other Russian intellectuals of the 1830s and 1840s. The son of a rural medical doctor, he was not a wealthy aristocrat. The fact that Belinsky was relatively underprivileged meant, among other effects, that he was mainly self-educated; this was partly due to being expelled from Moscow University for political activity. But it was less for his philosophical skill that Belinsky was admired and more for emotional commitment and fervor. "For me, to think, to feel, to understand and to suffer are one and the same thing," he liked to say. This was, of course, true to the
Romantic ideal, to the beliefs that real understanding comes not only from mere thinking (
reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...
), but also from intuitive insight. This combination of thinking and feeling pervaded Belinsky's life.
Ideologically, Belinsky shared, but with exceptional intellectual and moral passion, the central value of most of
Westernizer intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...
: the notion of the individual self, a person (''lichnost''), that which makes people human, and gives them
dignity
Dignity is a human's contentment attained by satisfying physiological needs and a need in development. The content of contemporary dignity is derived in the new natural law theory as a distinct human good.
As an extension of the Enlightenment- ...
and rights. With this idea in hand (achieved through a complex intellectual struggle), he faced the world around him armed to do battle. He took on much conventional philosophical thinking among educated Russians, including the dry and
abstract philosophizing of the German
idealists
Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical realism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, spirit, or consciousness; that reality is enti ...
and their Russian followers although maintaining the perspective of literary realism in his critical writings. In his words, "What is it to me that the Universal exists when the individual personality
'lichnost''is suffering." Or: "The fate of the individual, of the person, is more important than the fate of the whole world." Also upon this principle, Belinsky constructed an extensive critique of the world around him (especially the Russian one). He bitterly criticized
autocracy
Autocracy is a form of government in which absolute power is held by the head of state and Head of government, government, known as an autocrat. It includes some forms of monarchy and all forms of dictatorship, while it is contrasted with demo ...
and
serfdom
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed du ...
(as "trampling upon everything that is even remotely human and noble") but also
poverty
Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...
,
prostitution
Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...
, drunkenness,
bureaucratic
Bureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants or non-elected officials (most of the time). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments ...
coldness, and cruelty toward the less powerful (including women).
Belinsky worked most of his short life as a literary critic. His writings on literature were inseparable from these moral judgments. Belinsky believed that the only realm of freedom in the repressive reign of
Nicholas I was through the written word. What Belinsky required most of a work of literature was "truth." This meant not only a probing portrayal of real life (he hated works of mere fantasy, or escape, or
aestheticism), but also commitment to "true" ideas — the correct moral stance (above all this meant a concern for the dignity of individual people): As he told
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin.
Gogol used the Grotesque#In literature, grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works "The Nose (Gogol short story), ...
(in a famous letter) the public "is always ready to forgive a writer for a bad book
.e. aesthetically bad but never for a pernicious one
deologically and morally bad" Belinsky viewed Gogol's recent book, ''Correspondence with Friends'', as pernicious because it renounced the need to "awaken in the people a sense of their human dignity, trampled down in the mud and the filth for so many centuries."
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influent ...
read aloud at several public events Belinsky's letter, which called for the end of serfdom. A secret press was assembled to print and distribute Belinsky's letter. For these offenses Dostoevsky was arrested, convicted and condemned to death in 1849, a sentence later commuted to 4 years incarceration in the
prison camps of Siberia.
In his role as perhaps the most influential liberal critic and ideologist of his day, Belinsky advocated literature that was socially conscious. He hailed
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian literature, Russian and world literature, and many of his works are consider ...
's first novel, ''
Poor Folk
''Poor Folk'' (, ''Bednye lyudi''), sometimes translated as ''Poor People'', is the first novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, written over the span of nine months between 1844 and 1845. Dostoevsky was in financial difficulty because of his extravagant l ...
'' (1845); however, Dostoevsky soon thereafter broke with Belinsky.
Inspired by these ideas, which led to thinking about radical
changes
Changes may refer to:
Books
* '' Changes: A Love Story'', 1991 novel by Ama Ata Aidoo
* ''Changes'' (The Dresden Files) (2010), the 12th novel in Jim Butcher's ''The Dresden Files'' Series
* ''Changes'', a 1983 novel by Danielle Steel
* ''Chan ...
in society's organization, Belinsky began to call himself a
socialist
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
starting in 1841.
Among his last great efforts were his move to join
Nikolay Nekrasov in the popular magazine ''The Contemporary'' (''Sovremennik''), where the two critics established the new literary center of
St. Petersburg and Russia. At that time Belinsky published his ''Literary Review for the Year 1847''.
In 1848, shortly before his death, Belinsky granted full rights to Nikolay Nekrasov and his magazine, ''The Contemporary'' (''Sovremennik''), to publish various articles and other material originally planned for an almanac, to be called the Leviathan.
Belinsky died of
consumption on the eve of his arrest by the
Tsar
Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...
's police on account of his political views. In 1910, Russia celebrated the centenary of his birth with enthusiasm and appreciation.
His surname has variously been spelled ''Belinsky'' or ''Byelinski''. His works, in twelve volumes, were first published in 1859–1862. Following the expiration of the copyright in 1898, several new editions appeared. The best of these is by S. Vengerov; it is supplied with profuse notes.
Belinsky early supported the work of
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev ( ; rus, links=no, Иван Сергеевич ТургеневIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; – ) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poe ...
. The two became close friends and Turgenev fondly recalls Belinsky in his book ''Literary Reminiscences and Autobiographical Fragments''. The British writer
Isaiah Berlin
Sir Isaiah Berlin (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a Russian-British social and political theorist, philosopher, and historian of ideas. Although he became increasingly averse to writing for publication, his improvised lectures and talks ...
has a chapter on Belinsky on his 1978 book ''Russian Thinkers''. Here he points out some deficiencies of Belinsky's critical insight:
He was wildly erratic, and all his enthusiasm and seriousness and integrity do not make up for lapses of insight or intellectual power. He declared that Dante was not a poet; that Fenimore Cooper was the equal of Shakespeare; that ''Othello
''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...
'' was the product of a barbarous age...
But further on in the same essay, Berlin remarks:
Because he was naturally responsive to everything that was living and genuine, he transformed the concept of the critic's calling in his native country. The lasting effect of his work was in altering and altering crucially and irretrievably, the moral and social outlook of the leading younger writers and thinkers of his time. He altered the quality and the tone both of the experience and of the expression of so much Russian thought and feeling that his role as a dominant social influence overshadows his attainments as a literary critic.
Berlin's book introduced Belinsky to playwright
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...
, who included Belinsky as one of the principal characters in his trilogy of plays about Russian writers and activists: ''
The Coast of Utopia'' (2002)
Legacy
Belinsky Street and Belinsky Lane, close to Red Square in Moscow, were named after Belinsky from 1920–1994.
English translations
*''Selected Philosophical Works'', Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1956.
*''Belinsky, Chernyshevsky & Dobrolyubov: Selected Criticism'', Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1976.
Notes
References
Further reading
*
*
*
* 2 vols.
*
* .
External links
*
*
Letter to GogolThe Coast of Utopia at Lincoln CenterLincoln Center Theater Review, Fall 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Belinsky, Vissarion
1811 births
1848 deaths
Writers from Helsinki
People from the Grand Duchy of Finland
19th-century writers from the Russian Empire
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis deaths in the Russian Empire
Literary critics from the Russian Empire
Atheists from the Russian Empire
19th-century journalists from the Russian Empire
Russian male journalists
19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire
Russian atheists
19th-century atheists
Westernizers
Tuberculosis deaths in Russia
Philosophers of art