Full name Korolenko in Revolutionary activity and exile

Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko (1853 - 1921) is an outstanding Russian writer. Born in 1853 in the city of Zhitomir in the family of an official. He studied at the Zhytomyr gymnasium, and later at the Rivne real gymnasium. A major role in the formation of Korolenko’s worldview was played by democratic literature of the 60s, the works of N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, N. A. Nekrasov, T. G. Shevchenko; their views had a huge influence on all his work. In 1871, Korolenko entered the St. Petersburg Institute, but was unable to study due to lack of funds. Worked as a proofreader and draftsman geographical maps. In 1874 he entered the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy in Moscow. As a student, he prepared for propaganda activities among peasants. In March 1876, Korolenko was expelled from the academy and then arrested because, on behalf of the majority of students, he protested against the administration, which performed purely police functions. Since 1879, Korolenko’s life began to undergo a long period of exile (to the Vyatka province, to Eastern Siberia, and etc.). In August 1881, he was deported to the Yakut region, after a demonstrative refusal to sign the oath Alexander III. IN European Russia Korolenko was allowed to return in the fall of 1884. From 1885 he lived in Nizhny Novgorod while under police supervision.

Korolenko’s first story, “Episodes from the Life of a Seeker” (1879), to a certain extent reflected popular views. However, in the two subsequent stories, “Yashka” (1881) and “The Unreal City” (1881), the writer began to take a break from the people’s illusion, which was facilitated by direct acquaintance with the people during the period of exile. Already for Korolenko’s early stories and essays it is characteristic realistic image folk life, attention to people who have not repented of a difficult fate, full of an indomitable desire to achieve truth and freedom. The tenacity and courage of the Russian revolutionary girl served as the theme of the story “Wonderful” (1880, published abroad in 1893, in Russia - 1905). The Yakut peasant, the hero of the story “Makar’s Dream” (1885), protests against social injustice. The ability of a Russian person to accomplish a feat and the strength of his soul is spoken of in the essay “The River Is Playing” (1892). Korolenko’s work reveals the deep inner beauty of people from the people who rise to fight for their liberation. At the center of the story "The Musician" (1886) is the spiritual drama of a blind man who "saw" the world through high art. This soulful work, the result of a blind musician with people from the people, helps overcome personal grief from which there seemed to be no way out. This idea of ​​the story was pointed out by M.I. Kalinin in his speech on October 25, 1919 at a rally dedicated to the defense of Tula from Denikin’s gangs: “ Greatest Artist Korolenko’s words in his blind “Blind Musician” clearly showed how problematic and fragile this individual human happiness is... A person... can be happy if then, when with all the threads of his soul, when with all his body and all his heart he is united with his class, and only then will his life be full and whole."

Korolenko’s works reflect Russian reality associated with the collapse of patriarchal forms peasant life and the penetration of capital into the countryside. His speech with essays about the famous handicrafts of the village of Pavlova, near Nizhny Novgorod ("Pavlovsk Sketches", 1890) was significant. The populists considered this village an example of handicraft production, supposedly having escaped the influence of capitalism about free exploitation. Resolutely rejecting these false statements, Korolenko painted a true picture of the ruin of artisans, their complete dependence on capitalist buyers. “There is no just a man,” Korolenko wrote in his essays “In a Hungry Year,” “there are poor people and rich people, owners and workers.” Korolenko expressed his disagreement with the fiction of late populism, which, in his words, viewed reality “through the prism of lies.” A significant place in Korolenko’s work is occupied by the story “Without a Language” (1895), which depicts the misadventures of a Ukrainian peasant who ended up in America. The hero of the story is faced with slavery, unemployment, and the criminal power of money. Driven into a frenzy, he exclaims: “Let the thunder break this damned city and some mayor you have chosen. Let the thunder break this copper freedom of theirs, there on the island...”.

In the years preceding the revolution of 1905, Korolenko continued the cycle of his stories: “The Sovereign's Coachmen” (1901), “Frost” (1901), “Marusina Zaimka” (1903), “Feudal Lords” (1901). Here the humanist writer draws hard life people of forced labor, exposes the remnants of feudal-serfdom, touches on the theme of the inhumanity of the bourgeois system. Despite the uncertainty of his political ideals, Korolenko believed in the victory of the people. The story “Unterrible” (1903) dates back to the same time, which, in terms of the power of exposing the bourgeois intelligentsia and the skill of its execution, can be classified as one of Korolenko’s best works.

In 1900, Korolenko was elected an honorary academician. In 1902, he, like A.P. Chekhov, refused this title in protest against the fact that M. Gorky was not approved by the tsarist government as an honorary academician.

Korolenko’s journalistic talent was particularly evident in his essays “In the Hungry Year” (1892 - 1893), “Sultan’s Sacrifice” (1895 - 1896), “Sorochinskaya Tragedy” (1907), “Everyday Phenomenon” (1910) . In an essay dedicated to the so-called. In the Sultan's case, the democratic writer came out in defense of the Votyak (Udmurt) peasants who were accused by the tsarist police of ritual murder. Korolenko proved that this process was started by the Black Hundreds in order to incite national hatred. Maxim Gorky wrote about this: “The “Sultan’s sacrifice” of the Votyaks, a process no less shameful than the “Beilis case,” would have taken on an even darker character if V. G. Korolenko had not intervened in this process and forced the press to convert attention to the idiotic obscurantism of the autocratic government." During the years of reaction, Korolenko published a pamphlet, “An Everyday Phenomenon,” in which he accused the tsarist government of an “orgy of executions” and police abuse of workers and peasants after the revolution of 1905–1907. From the 2nd half of the 90s, he took part in the publication of the liberal people's magazine "Russian Wealth" (his role was mainly limited to editing the fiction department). From Korolenko’s letters one can judge his serious differences with the editorial board of the magazine, which shared populist, liberal-bourgeois views. At the same time, the writer could not understand the shared significance of the revolutionary struggle of the working class, and this sharply distinguished his position from the position proletarian writer Maxim Gorky.

TO last period Korolenko’s creativity includes his largest work “The History of My Contemporary”, in which it is easy to see artistic embodiment biography of the author, her the most important stages Korolenko at the same time introduces the reader to the development social movement 60s - 70s, with outstanding historical events that time. The last chapters of the epic, covering the activities of the people's intelligentsia, were written after the great October socialist revolution. Without understanding its true meaning, the writer, however, saw that the revolution was victorious because the widest possible participation took part in it. masses. In “The History of My Contemporary” he was able to show how naive the populists were in their hopes for the heroism of the “chosen ones” in the absence of support from the working masses.

Korolenko spoke with literary critical articles and memoir essays. The most significant of them: “In Memory of Belinsky” (1898), “About Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky” (1902), “A. P. Chekhov” (1904), “L. N. Tolstoy” (1908), big job about N.V. Gogol “The Tragedy of the Great Humorist” (1909).

Korolenko’s realistic creativity with all its content opposed the decadent bourgeois literature pre-revolutionary era. It reflected the popular protest against the bourgeois-serf system Tsarist Russia, against national inequality and oppression. In 1907, V.I. Lenin called Korolenko a “progressive writer.” The democratic nature of his work was noted in 1913 by Lenin's Pravda. Pointing out that Korolenko “stands apart from the labor movement,” Pravda at the same time wrote: “We honor in him both a sensitive, future artist, and a writer-citizen, a writer-democrat.” Appreciating public and artistic value Korolenko's creativity, setting him as a writer as an example to young writers, M. Gorky wrote: “This big, beautiful writer told me personally a lot about the Russian people that no one could say before him.”

Korolenko is an excellent master of stories, essays, novels. Using extensive life material, expanding even in a small work complex action it always remains in naturally developing compositions. Striving for a more accurate reproduction of life, Korolenko willingly introduced elements of journalism into his stories and stories. This feature is often indicated by subtitles from his stories: “Sketches from a travel album”, “From a reporter’s notes”, “From notebook traveler" etc. Korolenko is an outstanding artist of words, his art was highly appreciated by L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, M. Gorky. Korolenko had a significant influence on writers who came from the people's environment. "In early years I was greatly influenced by Korolenko,” wrote A.S. Sirofimovich. Korolenko’s realistic method played positive role V development of Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Yakut prose. Korolenko's works have been translated into many languages Soviet Union. In connection with the 25th anniversary of his death in 1946, the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to perpetuate the memory of the outstanding Russian writer with a number of events. Creativity Korolenko, remarkable for its versatile richness of content, nobility of ideas, perfection artistic form, occupies a prominent place in the history of Russian classical literature.

One of the most famous and significant public figures late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century there was a journalist, writer and publicist Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko. A short biography illustrating his life and creative path, includes many sad and tragic events. However, he always remained a realist who sought and found romanticism in real life, reflecting on the lofty in the conditions of harsh reality. Many of his heroes are endowed with such spiritual intensity and self-burning selflessness that were able to lift them above the swamp of dull, sleepy reality. They will forever remain as a reminder of the existence of the supreme beauty of the human spirit.

Vladimir Korolenko. Biography: early years

The writer was born in Zhitomir in 1853. His father was who had a reserved character, integrity and justice. The image of the father became extremely important in the process of forming the boy’s worldview.

The future writer’s mother was Polish by birth, so Vladimir Korolenko was fluent in Polish language. Rykhlinsky's boarding house is the first educational institution, where Vladimir Korolenko studied. His biography includes several more schools, since due to his father’s service the family was forced to move frequently.

The writer received further education in Zhitomir, Rivne, St. Petersburg and Moscow. He did not have the chance to graduate from the St. Petersburg Technological University: the loss of his father was the first test that Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko experienced. Briefly describing further years, we can say that his difficult financial condition forced him to study at the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy.

Rebellious disposition and revolutionary orientation

Vladimir Korolenko shared revolutionary views from his youth. Two years after admission active work in the populist movement he was expelled from the academy and exiled to Kronstadt. There he was under the supervision of the authorities, making money by making drawings.

When the exile ended, the young man was able to return to St. Petersburg and take up his education again, but not for long. The next six years passed for him in exile, arrests and relocations. The hardships and deprivations of a forced existence not only did not break, but also tempered his spirit, as Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko himself mentioned. The writer’s brief biography includes a list of cities and regions in which he lived as a political prisoner: Glazov Berezovsky repairs (Biserovskaya volost), Vyatka, Vyshny Volochek, Tomsk, Perm, Yakutia (Amginskaya Sloboda).

Many biographers agree that it was during this period that the writer’s character was formed. He also collected a huge amount of material for future work.

First literary steps

Having settled in Nizhny Novgorod with the permission of the government, Vladimir Korolenko began writing. The period from 1885 to 1895 is considered the most fruitful in the writer’s career. Here his talent was fully revealed, provoking interest from the reading public throughout Russia.

January 1886 was marked for Vladimir Korolenko with his marriage to Evdokia Ivanovskaya. They knew each other long before the wedding and became a happy married couple. For the writer, this marriage was the only one.

In the same year, the first edition of Vladimir’s book entitled “Essays and Stories” was published, which included several Siberian short stories.

Then “Pavlovsk Sketches” were published, written during Korolenko’s stay in the village of Pavlovo. Their main topic was the description plight, in which there were artisanal metalworkers of the village, crushed by poverty.

Literary triumph

The books “Makar’s Dream”, “The Blind Musician”, and also “In bad society" showed a deep knowledge of human psychology and the philosophical approach applied by the writer when working on his works. They caused real delight among readers. The main material used by Vladimir was his childhood memories and impressions of Ukraine. A difficult period of repression and philosophical reflection enriched past observations with social implications, giving the work maturity and truthfulness.

Vladimir Korolenko insisted that happiness, completeness and harmony of life are available exclusively through overcoming one’s own egoism, as well as by serving the people.

Traveling the world

The writer devoted the following years to travel. At the same time, he visited not only the edges of vast Russia, but also America. In the early 90s, Vladimir visited the World Exhibition in Chicago. Impressions from the trip and the collected material allowed him to write the story “Without Language,” which actually became a novel telling about life path Ukrainian immigrant in America. The work was published in 1895, bringing Vladimir Korolenko fame not only at home, but also overseas. This and his other books are beginning to be translated into foreign languages.

Today of all literary works The most widely known is “The Blind Musician”, since this story is included in educational program many schools.

She may belong to the list required literature or be recommended for. An indicator of its merits can be multiple publications during the writer’s lifetime (15 times).

Publicistic activity

The biography of Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko for the 5th grade of school, along with the facts of his writing activity, also includes examples of work as a journalist.

A significant component of his participation in public life began writing articles and correspondence. The book “In a Hungry Year” brought together the writer’s publications published in the newspaper “Russian Vedomosti”. The idea running through these articles was a description of the monstrous picture of the national disaster provoked by the ongoing serfdom and poverty of the Russian countryside.

The biography of Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko for 5th grade would be incomplete without mention of his work as editor of the magazine “Russian Wealth”.

At the end of the 90s, the writer moved to Poltava, where he remained until the end of his life. Here, on the Khatki farm, he had a dacha. For many years, Vladimir and his family came to this house for the summer. Today there is a museum here.

Completion of life's journey

The last work of Vladimir Korolenko was the autobiographical “The History of My Contemporary”, planned as a generalized and systematized description of all the events he experienced and acquired. philosophical views. Unfortunately, the writer did not have time to finish his large-scale work. In 1921, while working on the fourth volume of the book, Vladimir Korolenko died after suffering from pneumonia.

Korolenko Vladimir Galaktionovich: interesting facts

Writer and publicist, Vladimir Kovalenko was an extremely honest and conscientious person. Having gained a certain influence as a journalist, he used it to establish the rule of law and justice. One of known facts His social activities included participation in the trial of the Votyaks in 1985-1986.

Seven people were charged with the brutal murder of a homeless man, arrested and sentenced to ten years' hard labor. Moreover, the circumstances were aggravated by the nature of the injuries, which made the murder look like a ritual sacrifice.

Hearing about the Multan trial, the writer came to the city to establish the truth as a correspondent. The facts and evidence he collected, as well as the investigation he conducted, showed that the victim was already dead when the injuries were inflicted on him. The main purpose of these actions was to deliberately mislead the investigation and convict specific people.

The decisive role in the ruling was played by the writer’s speech in the courtroom and two speeches made there by Vladimir Korolenko. Biography briefly and in general outline describes the content of these brilliant speeches, because they were not written down. Their emotional power was so great that the stenographers were unable to perform their duties due to the flood of tears.

Beilis case

Beilis became another person saved from unfair condemnation. As a Jew, he was accused of a crime he did not commit (the murder of a Christian boy). This process had a wide resonance, and Korolenko’s participation led to the acquittal of the defendant and the dropping of all charges.

The task of literature formulated by Vladimir Korolenko as the discovery of the meaning of the individual on the basis of knowledge of the masses was fully realized in his activities and creativity, connecting them with literary heritage future era.

(1853-1922) - prose writer, publicist.
Korolenko was born in the family of a district judge, began studying at a Polish boarding school, then at the Zhitomir gymnasium, and graduated from the Rivne real gymnasium.
In 1871 he graduated with a silver medal and entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. But need forced Korolenko to leave his studies and move to the position of an “intelligent proletarian.” In 1874 he moved to
Moscow and enters the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry (now Timiryazevsky) Academy. In 1876, he was expelled from the gymnasium for a year and sent into exile, which was then replaced by supervised “residence” in Kronstadt. Korolenko's reinstatement at the Petrovsky Academy was denied, and in 1877 he became a student for the third time - at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute.
In 1879, following a denunciation by an agent of the tsarist gendarmerie, Korolenko was arrested. Over the next six years, he was in prison, in prison, and in exile. In the same year, Korolenko’s story “Episodes from the Life of a Seeker” appeared in a St. Petersburg magazine. While in the Vyshnevolotsk political prison, he writes the story “Wonderful” (the manuscript was distributed in lists; without the author’s knowledge, the story was published in 1893 in London, in Russia - only in 1905 under the title “Business Trip”).
Since 1885, Korolenko was allowed to settle in Nizhny Novgorod. The next eleven years were a period of flourishing of his creativity and active social activities. Since 1885, the capital's magazines have regularly published stories and essays created or published in exile: "Makar's Dream", "In Bad Society", "The Forest is Noisy", "Sokolinets" and others. Collected together in 1886, they compiled the book " Essays and stories". In the same year, Korolenko worked on the story “The Blind Musician,” which went through fifteen editions during the author’s lifetime.
The stories consisted of two groups related to the sources of themes and images: Ukrainian and Siberian. Another source of impressions reflected in a number of Korolenko’s works is the Volga and the Volga region. The Volga for him is “the cradle of Russian romanticism”, its banks still remember the campaigns of Razin and Pugachev, the “Volga” stories and travel essays: "Behind the Icon", "On an Eclipse" (both - 1887), "On a Cloudy Day" (1890), "The River Plays" (1891), "The Artist Alymov" (1896), etc. In 1889, the second book " Essays and stories."
In 1883, Korolenko went on a trip to America, the result of which was a story, and in fact a whole novel about the life of a Ukrainian emigrant in America, “Without a Language” (1895).
Korolenko considered himself a fiction writer “only half”; the other half of his work was journalism, closely related to his multifaceted social activities. By the mid-80s, Korolenko published dozens of correspondence and articles. A book was compiled from his publications in the newspaper "Russian Vedomosti".
“In a Hungry Year” (1893), it connects a stunning picture of national disaster with poverty and serfdom, in which the Russian village continued to remain.
For health reasons, Korolenko moved to Poltava (after Russian Academy Sciences in 1900 elected him an honorary member). Here he completes the cycle of Siberian stories ("The Sovereign's Coachmen", "Frost", "Feudal Lords", "The Last Ray"), writes the story "Not Terrible".
In 1903, the third book of “Essays and Stories” was published. In 1905, work began on the multi-volume “History of My Contemporary,” which continued until Korolenko’s death.
After the defeat of the first Russian revolution of 1905, he opposed the “wild orgy” of capital punishment and punitive expeditions (essays “An Everyday Phenomenon” (1910), “Features of Military Justice” (1910), “In a Calm Village” (1911), against chauvinistic persecution and slander (“The Beilis Case” (1913).
Having gone abroad on the eve of the First World War for treatment, Korolenko was able to return to Russia only in 1915. After February Revolution he publishes a brochure "The Fall of Tsarist Power."
Struggling with progressive heart disease, Korolenko continues to work on “The History of My Contemporary”, essays “Earth! Earth!”, organizes food collections for the children of Moscow and Petrograd, establishes colonies for orphans and street children, is elected honorary chairman of the League for the Rescue of Children, the All-Russian Relief Committee starving. The writer's death occurred from a relapse of brain inflammation.
One of the main topics artistic creativity Korolenko is the path to the “real people”. Thoughts about the people, the search for an answer to the riddle of the Russian people, which determined so much in Korolenko’s human and literary fate, are closely related to the question that runs through many of his works. “What, in essence, was man created for?” - this is how the question is posed in the story “Paradox”. “Man is born for happiness, like a bird for flight,” answers the creature, distorted by fate, in this story.
No matter how hostile life may be, “there are still lights ahead!” - Korolenko wrote in the prose poem “Ogonki” (1900). But Korolenko’s optimism is not thoughtless, not blind to reality. “Man is created for happiness, but happiness is not always created for him.” This is how Korolenko asserts his understanding of happiness.
Korolenko is a realist who has always been attracted to romanticism in life, reflecting on the fate of the romantic, the lofty in the harsh, not at all romantic reality. He has many heroes whose spiritual intensity and self-burning selflessness lift them above dull, sleepy reality and serve as a reminder of the “highest beauty of the human spirit.”
“... To discover the meaning of personality on the basis of knowledge of the masses,” this is how Korolenko formulated the task of literature back in 1887. This requirement, realized in the work of Korolenko himself, connects him with the literature of the subsequent era, which reflected the awakening and activity of the masses.

) is very typical of what was considered "artistic" in the 1880s and 1890s. It is full of emotional poetry and “Turgenev” pictures of nature. The lyrical element today seems a bit dated and uninteresting, and we would probably prefer it for the most part last book, in which he almost completely freed himself from “poetry.” But it was precisely this poetry that appealed to the Russian reading public of his era, which revived the cult of Turgenev. Although everyone knew that Korolenko was a radical and revolutionary, all parties accepted him with equal enthusiasm. The party-independent reception given to writers in the 1980s was a sign of the times. Garshin and Korolenko were recognized as classics (lesser, but classics!) before Leskov (who is much larger than them, but was born at a less fortunate time) received even remote recognition.

Portrait of Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko. Artist I. Repin, 1912

Although Korolenko’s poetry has faded over the years, his first works still retain some of their charm. For even this poetry of his rises above the level of “cuteness” in descriptions of the majestic northern nature. The northeast of Siberia, with its vast uninhabited spaces, short polar days and dazzling snowy deserts, lives in its early stories in all its impressive enormity. He masterfully writes atmosphere. Everyone who read it remembers the romantic island with a ruined castle and the tall poplars rustling in the wind in the story In bad company(see the full text of this story on our website).

But Korolenko’s uniqueness lies in the combination of poetry with subtle humor and undying faith in human soul. Sympathy for people and faith in human kindness are characteristic of the Russian populist; Korolenko's world is a world based on optimism, for man is good by nature, and only the bad living conditions created by despotism and crude selfish capitalism made him what he is - a poor, helpless, absurd, pitiful and irritating creature. In Korolenko's first story - Makar's Dream- there is true poetry, not only in the way the Yakut landscape is written, but, most importantly, in the author’s deepest and ineradicable sympathy for the dark, unenlightened savage, naively selfish and yet carrying within himself a ray of divine light.

Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko. Video

Korolenkov's humor is especially charming. There is absolutely no satirical tricks in it. He is relaxed, natural, and has that lightness in him that is rarely found in Russian authors. Korolenko’s humor is often intertwined with poetry, as in a charming story At night, where children at night, in the bedroom, discuss the fascinating question of where children come from. Yom Kippur, with its amusing Hebrew devil, represents that mixture of humor and fantasy that is so charming in the early stories of Gogol, but Korolenko’s colors are softer, calmer, and, although he does not have an ounce of the creative wealth of his great countryman, he surpasses him in warmth and humanity . The most purely humorous of his stories is Without tongue(1895) - tells the story of three Ukrainian peasants who emigrated to America without knowing a word of any language other than their own. Russian criticism called this story Dickensian, and this is true in the sense that Korolenko, like Dickens, the absurdity of the characters does not prevent the reader from loving them.

Korolenko's last work is his autobiography, a story about own life, unusually accurate and truthful, but which he, out of some kind of over-scrupulousness, called the history not of his own, but of his contemporary. It is less poetic than his first works, it is not embellished in any way, but the two main qualities of Korolenkov’s prose are very strong - humor and humanity. We meet there charming pictures of life in semi-Polish Volyn; we see his father, scrupulously honest, but wayward. He recalls his first impressions - the village, the school, the great events he witnessed - the liberation of the peasants and the Polish uprising. He shows us unusually lively figures of eccentrics and originals - perhaps his portraits were better than all others. It is certainly not a sensational book, but it is a delightfully quiet story told by an old man (he was only fifty-five years old when he began it, but something of the “grandfather” in Korolenko’s character was always present) with a lot of time, and he talks with pleasure, reviving the memory of what happened fifty years ago.