Alexander Vasilyevich Druzhinin (), (October 20, 1824 – January 31, 1864), was a Russian writer, translator, and magazine editor.

Biography

Druzhinin was born into a wealthy family in the district of Golov, part of

Saint Petersburg Governorate Saint Petersburg Governorate was a province (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Saint Petersburg. The governorate was composed of of area and 2,112,033 inhabitants. It was bordered by Governorate of Estonia, Estonian and G ...

. He was educated at home until the age of sixteen, and then sent to military school. Upon graduation in 1843, he joined the Life-Guards Finland Regiment of the

Russian Imperial Guard The Russian Imperial Guard, officially known as the Leib Guard ( ''Leyb-gvardiya'', from German ''Leib'' "body"; cf. Life Guards / Bodyguard), were combined Imperial Russian Army forces units serving as counterintelligence for preventing sabot ...

, where he was chosen as regimental librarian. In 1846 he retired from the military and took up a civil service post. He left the civil service after five years in order to devote himself entirely to literary pursuits. From 1848 to 1855 he was the literary editor of the important journal ''

Sovremennik ''Sovremennik'' ( rus, «Современник», p=səvrʲɪˈmʲenʲːɪk, a=Ru-современник.ogg, "The Contemporary") was a Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in Saint Petersburg in 1836–1866. It came out f ...

'' (''The Contemporary''). During this time he published a large number of short novels, stories, and

feuilleton A ''feuilleton'' (; a diminutive of , the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticism, a chronicle ...

s, translated various works of English literature into Russian and wrote a biography of the painter

Pavel Fedotov Pavel Andreyevich Fedotov (Russian: Павел Андреевич Федотов; 4 July 1815 - 26 November 1852) was an amateur Russian painter. He was only 37 years old when he died in a mental clinic. He has been compared to William Hogarth. B ...

. In 1847 he published his most popular work, the

epistolary Epistolary means "relating to an epistle or letter". It may refer to: * Epistolary (), a Christian liturgical book containing set readings for church services from the New Testament Epistles * Epistolary novel, a novel written as a series of lette ...

novella ''Polinka Saks''. He followed this up with ''The Story of Aleksei Dmitrich'' in 1848. Both were published in ''Sovremennik'', and received praise from the prominent critic

Vissarion Belinsky 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 p ...

. After the death of Belinsky in 1848, Druzhinin and

Pavel Annenkov Pavel Vasilyevich Annenkov () (July 1, 1813 – March 20, 1887) was a significant literary critic and memoirist from Russian Empire. Biography Annenkov was born into a wealthy landowning family in Moscow. He attended the philological faculty of St ...

became Russia's most prominent critics. After he left ''Sovremennik'', he edited the journal '' The Library for Reading'', where he espoused a conservative view of literature, denying that it should be subordinated to social and political aims, which was the approach advocated by

Chernyshevsky Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky ( – ) was a Russian literary and social critic, journalist, novelist, democrat, and socialist philosopher, often identified as a utopian socialist and leading theoretician of Russian nihilism and the N ...

and Dobrolyubov, the ideological voices of ''Sovremennik''. Druzhinin became one of the chief proponents of the

aesthetic movement Aestheticism (also known as the aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century that valued the appearance of literature, music, fonts and the arts over their functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be produced to b ...

in Russian literature, along with

and

Vasily Botkin Vasily Petrovich Botkin (; – ) was a Russian essayist, literary, art and music critic, translator and publicist. Early life Vasily was born in Moscow, the son of Alexandra Antonovna (Baranova) and Petr Kononovich Botkin, a wealthy tea merc ...

. Druzhinin was also the major initiator of the ''Literary Fund'', an organization whose purpose was to give financial assistance to needy writers.

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 ...

served as secretary to the fund between 1863 and 1865. Dostoyevsky also participated with Druzhinin in fundraising for the organization. Druzhinin was on friendly terms with many of his more famous contemporaries, including

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

Alexander Ostrovsky Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (; ) was a Russian playwright, generally considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period. The author of 47 original plays, Ostrovsky "almost single-handedly created a Russian national repe ...

, and

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 ...

, whom he exchanged letters with. He died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

in 1864, and was buried in

Volkovo Cemetery The Volkovo Cemetery (also Volkovskoe) ( or Во́лково кла́дбище) is one of the largest and oldest non- Orthodox cemeteries in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Until the early 20th century it was one of the main burial grounds for Lutheran ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

English literature

Druzhinin worked hard to acquaint Russian readers with English literature. He translated three of Shakespeare's plays: ''

King Lear ''The Tragedy of King Lear'', often shortened to ''King Lear'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is loosely based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his ...

'', ''

Coriolanus ''Coriolanus'' ( or ) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1608. The play is based on the life of the legendary Roman leader Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus. Shakespeare worked on it during the same ...

'' and ''

Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...

''. He published a series of essays entitled '' Boswell and

Johnson Johnson may refer to: People and fictional characters *Johnson (surname), a common surname in English * Johnson (given name), a list of people * List of people with surname Johnson, including fictional characters *Johnson (composer) (1953–2011) ...

'', about English life in the eighteenth century, and he wrote a life of

George Crabbe George Crabbe ( ; 24 December 1754 – 3 February 1832) was an English poet, surgeon and clergyman. He is best known for his early use of the realistic narrative form and his descriptions of middle and working-class life and people. In the 177 ...

which included numerous extracts from his poetry.

Works

*''Polinka Saks'', and ''The Story of Aleksei Dmitrich'', Translated by Michael R. Katz, Northwestern University Press, 1992.

References