Vasily Avseenko
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Vasily Grigorievich Avseenko (, 17 .s. 5January,
1842 Events January–March * January 6– 13 – First Anglo-Afghan War – Massacre of Elphinstone's army (Battle of Gandamak): British East India Company troops are destroyed by Afghan forces on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad, Afghan ...
,
Moscow Governorate The Moscow Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Tsardom of Russia, and the Russian Empire. It was bordered by Tver Governorate to the north, Vladimir Governorate to the northeast, Ryazan Governorate to the southeast, Tula Gove ...
, - August 11 .s.July 29
1913 Events January * January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his ''Marxism and the National Question''. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city. * January 3 &ndash ...
, Saint Petersburg) was 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' ...
, writer and journalist from the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
.


Biography

Vasily Avseenko was born in 1842 into a wealthy noble family. In 1852 he became a student at the first Saint Petersburg gymnasium. There, influenced by his teacher Vasily Vodovozov and senior students, Vsevolod Krestovsky among them, he started writing poetry. He published only one poem in the 1869 August issue of ''Modny Magazine'', under the pseudonym V. Poroshilov. In 1856 he joined the first Kiev gymnasium and, upon the graduation, enrolled at the St. Vladimir University in Kiev where he studied history. As a student he started publishing articles on the history of Russia and
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
in '' Russkoye Slovo'', 1860-1861; ''Russkaya Retch'', 1861; ''
Otechestvennye zapiski ''Otechestvennye Zapiski'' ( rus, Отечественные записки, p=ɐˈtʲetɕɪstvʲɪnːɨjɪ zɐˈpʲiskʲɪ, variously translated as "Annals of the Fatherland", "Patriotic Notes", "Notes of the Fatherland", etc.) was a Russian lit ...
'', 1863; ''
The Russian Messenger The ''Russian Messenger'' or ''Russian Herald'' (, Pre-reform Russian: Русскій Вѣстникъ) has been the title of three magazines published in Russia during the 19th century and early 20th century. ''Russian Messenger'' period I and ...
'', 1863, and ''
Vestnik Evropy ''Vestnik Evropy'' () (''Herald of Europe'' or ''Messenger of Europe'') was the major liberal magazine of late-nineteenth-century Russia. It was published from 1866 to 1918. The magazine (named for an earlier publication edited by Nikolay Kara ...
'', 1866.Kruzhok (The Circle). A Little Memoir. '' Istorichesky Vestnik''. 1909. No. 5 Upon his graduation in 1862 Avseenko remained as a teacher of history. In the 1860s he became an active contributor to the newspaper '' Kievlyanin'', led by Vitaly Shulgin. In a pro-Moscow conservative newspaper which condemned 'progressive' ideas, the Polish movement and Ukrainian nationalism, Avseenko became one of the most prominent voices. His ''Malorossia in 1767'' historical treatise was published as a separate book. In 1869 Avseenko moved to Saint Petersburg to join first the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then in 1873 the Ministry of Education. Here he became close to the staff of ''Zarya'' magazine where he met Dmitry Averkiev,
Nikolai Strakhov Nikolay Nikolayevich Strakhov, also transliterated as ''Nikolai Strahov'' (; 16 October 1828 – 24 January 1896) was a Russian philosopher, publicist, journalist and literary criticism, literary critic. He shared the ideals of Pochvennichestvo ...
,
Aleksey Pisemsky Aleksey Feofilaktovich Pisemsky () () was a Russian novelist and dramatist who was regarded as an equal of Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoyevsky in the late 1850s, but whose reputation suffered a spectacular decline after his fall-out with ''Sovre ...
, and
Fyodor Berg Friedrich Wilhelm Rembert Graf von Berg (; ; – ) was a Russian nobleman, statesman, diplomat and general of Baltic German descent. Berg was a count of the Austrian Empire and Grand Duchy of Finland. He was also the fifth last person to be prom ...
. The leitmotif of Avseenko's articles was his opposition to Westernization and criticism of authors who were "trying to graft sick and foreign European tendencies onto Russian soil." Later he changed his position radically, drifted away from the Slavophile camp and sharply criticized (in an article entitled "The Wondering of Russian Thought") the Strakhov-published compilation of Apollon Grigoriev's articles, where the 'simple man' was declared the bearer of 'true Russian values'. Avseenko's critical essays were featured in '' Russkiy Mir'' (1871-1875, signed A.O.) and ''
The Russian Messenger The ''Russian Messenger'' or ''Russian Herald'' (, Pre-reform Russian: Русскій Вѣстникъ) has been the title of three magazines published in Russia during the 19th century and early 20th century. ''Russian Messenger'' period I and ...
'' (1873-1877, signed A). According to his theory, the mission of Russian literature was highlighting the "elemental, natural aspects of common Russia, potentially mighty but still unrealized, passive and restricted by an impassive mode of existence" and supporting the educated elite as the nation's driving force. Such elitism drew much criticism, not only from the revolutionary democratic camp, but also from
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 ...
, Strakhov and
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 and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influenti ...
. The latter has been particularly vexed with Avseenko, who dismissed his novels ''
The Raw Youth ''The Adolescent'' (), also translated as ''A Raw Youth'' or ''An Accidental Family'', is a novel by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in monthly installments in 1875 in the Russian literary magazine ''Otechestvennye Zapiski''. ...
'' and ''
Demons A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in media including fiction, comics, film, t ...
'' as being "the works of a limited talent," given to "digging in dark and musty underground," never touching reality and "exploring intimate depths of human vice." Dostoyevsky retorted with a pamphlet denouncing Avdeenko as someone who was too 'star-struck with high society life' to understand and respect the common people. Dostoyevsky saw the core of Russia's problems in the corrupt influence of the Western civilization, while Avseenko argued it was the lack of culture among Russia's educated classes. For "the fall of culture in society" which he often deplored Avseenko was blaming Saint Petersburg's journalists and radical literature with its "disregard for beauty and gentility" and disgust to what the 'aristocratic' literature had to offer. Avseenko advocated the
Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...
tradition, as opposed to that of
Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works " The Nose", " Viy", "The Overcoat", and " Nevsky Prosp ...
, the latter realized in the works by
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 ...
,
Nikolai Nekrasov Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov ( rus, Никола́й Алексе́евич Некра́сов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪkˈsʲejɪvʲɪtɕ nʲɪˈkrasəf, a=Ru-Nikolay_Alexeyevich_Nekrasov.ogg, – ) was a Russian poet, writer, critic and publ ...
and Vissarion Belinsky. As a prosaic Avseenko debuted in 1865 with the short story called "The Tempest" (the August issue of ''The Russian Messenger''). Several novels followed in 1870-1880s (''The Milky Way'', ''Teeth-gnawing'', ''Evil Spirit'') in which he dealt with corruption, injustice and all kinds of social issues. But with thriller elements brought to the fore, a lot af melodrama and sleek, bland language, critics never took those seriously. Saltykov-Schedrin called Avseenko's novels 'dated and moldy', other reviewers noted the author's eagerness to come out as
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 ...
's follower (whose philosophies he criticized). Yet, Avseenko's novels were popular and in retrospect were regarded as curious and valuable pastiches of the end of 19th century life in Russia. In 1883 Avseenko started editing ''Sankt-Peterburgskye Vedomosti'' (Saint Petersburgh News) shifting the magazine towards a moderately conservative mode. In 1886-1890 he was the editor of ''Russkaya Gazeta'' (the curtailed, 'cheap' version of the former) and in 1991-1992 the illustrated ''Khudozhnik'' (Painter) magazine. According to the theatre critic Alexander Kugel, "he was one of those editors who insisted upon the perfection of form and cultivated the strict discipline of the stylistic work." In the early 1900s Avseenko's fiction was still widely read, critics in general regarded him a 'quality writer' and the 'master of the ordinary', according to Afanasiev brothers' biography.The Afanasyevs. Contemporaries. The Album of Biographies. Saint Petersburg. 1910. Vol. 2, pp. 6-10).


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Avseenko, Vasily Grigorievich Literary critics from the Russian Empire Journalists from the Russian Empire Novelists from the Russian Empire Male writers from the Russian Empire 1842 births 1913 deaths