Dmitry Nikitich Begichev (russian: Дми́трий Ники́тич Бе́гичев; 28 September 1786 - 24 November 1855) was a Russian writer, governor of

Voronezh Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the ...

Province, and senator.

Biography

Begichev was born into a family of the ancient nobility. He had a successful military and civil service career. He was governor of Voronezh Province from 1830 to 1836, and in 1840 he was appointed as a senator. He published his literary works anonymously. His five-volume novel ''The Kholmsky Family'' was published in Moscow in 1832. The language of ''The Kholmsky Family'' is fluent and often

colloquial Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conver ...

. The novel contains numerous quotes from Russian and French literature, and even quotes of "worldly wisdom" from

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

. ''The Kholmsky Family'' is an important antecedent of

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

's War and Peace. Like ''War and Peace'' it reflects the world-view of the Russian gentry.

Family

* Father - Captain Nikita Begichev * Mother - Alexandra Kologrivova * Brother - Stepan Nikitich Begichev (b. 22/07/1785 - d. 03/09/1859), career military * Sister - Elizaveta Nikitichna Begicheva (Yablochkova) (b. 1771 - d.1843), writer, grandmother of

Pavel Yablochkov Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov (also transliterated as Jablochkoff; russian: Павел Николаевич Яблочков) ( – ) was a Russian electrical engineer, businessman and the inventor of the Yablochkov candle (a type of electric ...

inventor of

Yablochkov candle A Yablochkov candle (sometimes electric candle) is a type of electric carbon arc lamp, invented in 1876 by the Russian electrical engineer Pavel Yablochkov. Design A Yablochkov candle consists of a sandwich of two electrodes, which are long carb ...

electric carbon arc lamp

References

Russian male novelists Russian politicians 1786 births 1855 deaths Privy Councillor (Russian Empire) {{Russia-writer-stub