Ryleev short biography all the most important. Brief biography of Ryleev, poet, public figure, Decembrist

In the biography of Ryleev there are many difficult moments, which, probably, tempered the spirit of the future revolutionary. Kondraty Fedorovich was born on September 18 (29 according to the new style), 1795.in the family of a former army officer who was famous for his squandering and even lost two estates at cards. Wanting to drill his son, he sent him to study at the cadet corps in St. Petersburg, where Ryleev studied from 1801 to 1814, and then participated in military campaigns outside of Russia. Even during his studies, Kondraty discovered in himself a craving for versification.

revolutionary activity

After retiring in 1818, he decided to devote himself entirely to creativity. So, 1820 became a happy year for him not only thanks to his marriage to Natalia Tevyasheva, but also because then his famous ode “To the temporary worker” was written. His wife's parents were wealthy Ukrainian landowners, but they accepted their son-in-law, despite his unenviable position.

In 1821 Ryleev entered the public service in the criminal chamber of St. Petersburg, and in 1824 he moved to the Russian-American Company as the head of the chancellery.

Becoming an active member of the Free Society of Russian Literature Lovers, Ryleev spent two years (1823-24) publishing the Polar Star magazine together with Alexander Bestuzhev.

At the same time, he became a member of the Northern Decembrist Society, under the influence of which his political views changed from constitutional monarchy to republican. Subsequently, he led his comrades. Shortly before the uprising, he, as a second, participated in a duel, the result of which was the death of the duelists. Despite such an ominous sign of fate, Ryleev nevertheless remained unshakable in his decision to go to Senate Square.

Decembrist uprising and execution

short biography Ryleev Kondraty Fedorovich testifies that theAfter the suppression of the uprising, the arrest of all persons involved in it naturally followed. In conclusion, the poet behaved with dignity and justified his comrades in every possible way, hoping for a pardon from the emperor. Which, however, did not follow. Kondraty Fedorovich himself, as well as his comrades in the Northern Society: P. Pestel, M. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, S. Muravyov-Apostol and P. Kakhovsky were hanged on July 13 (25), 1826. Moreover, Ryleev had to endure strangulation twice: the first time the rope broke.

The exact place of his burial has not been established.

Other biography options

• He got his name by accident: on the advice of a church minister, the boy was named after the first person who came across the path, who was a retired military man. He also became the godfather of the child. Kondraty was the only one of the five children born in the family who did not die in infancy.
• According to family tradition, in childhood, Kondraty Fedorovich fell seriously ill, and the angel, touched by his mother’s prayer, helped the boy recover, but predicted him tragic fate and death at a young age.
• Since childhood, Ryleev loved books - he read everything he could in the cadet library and took many from his comrades. The moth father did not buy books for him himself, considering it a stupid waste of money.
• The fiery patriot wrote his first ode to the death of Kutuzov - it was in 1813.
• Kondraty Ryleev had an only child - a son who died at the age of one year.
• The poet could have lived for many years - after the marriage, the wife's parents offered him to move to Ukraine. However, the young man wanted to devote his youth to serving the Motherland and instead went to St. Petersburg, where he became not only the head of the Northern Society, but also one of the main organizers of the general uprising.

RYLEEV Kondraty Fedorovich was born into the family of a poor landowner - a Decembrist poet.

Kondraty Fedorovich's father was a retired lieutenant colonel who managed the estates of Prince Golitsyn.

Six years was given to the 1st Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg, which he graduated in early 1814, having received the rank of ensign.

From 1814-15 he was abroad as part of an artillery brigade. Subsequently, in his testimony at the trial, Kondraty Fedorovich testified that "he initially became infected with free-thinking ... during campaigns in France in 1814 and 1815." Of decisive importance here was the stay in the army, which liberated Europe from the dictatorship of Napoleon, the connection with the heroic Russian people.

From 1819-1819 Ryleev served in the Horse Artillery Company, stationed in the Voronezh province, in Ostrogozhsk. The formation of Ryleev's views here proceeded under the influence of the progressive Ostrogozh intelligentsia, the worst revelry of the feudal lords and the arbitrariness of the authorities.

In December 1818, Kondraty Fedorovich left the army, not accepting the ever-increasing Arakcheev regime.

In early January 1819, Ryleev married the daughter of an Ostrogozhsk landowner, Natalya Mikhailovna Tevyasheva.

In 1820 he moved to Petersburg.

In January 1821 he was elected an assessor of the St. Petersburg Criminal Chamber, where he tried his best to defend the interests of the oppressed (for example, in the case of the Razumovsky peasants who protested against the brutal exploitation of their landowner).

In October 1823, he was admitted to the Northern Secret Society on the recommendation of I. I. Pushchin, a colleague in the criminal chamber.

In 1824, Ryleev joined the Russian-American Trading Company as the head of its office. Working in this, no longer a state institution, Kondraty Fedorovich energetically advocated in favor of the economic interests of Russia. Along with official affairs, he was also engaged in publishing activities.

In 1822-24, Ryleev annually published, together with A. Bestuzhev, the almanac "Polar Star".

In 1825 - the collection "Asterisk". These publications, very successfully implemented, served to disseminate progressive ideas and at the same time meant to financially support needy authors. These collections published the works of Zhukovsky and Pushkin, Griboedov and Krylov, Baratynsky and Ryleev himself, Vyazemsky, Davydov, Yazykov, A. Bestuzhev, Gnedich and others.

Based on observations of Russian reality, as a result of studying the works of French encyclopedists, the works of Bentham, Montesquieu, Benjamin Constant, as well as Russian historians - Karamzin, Stroev, Kornilovich, Kondraty Fedorovich developed as an active public figure and revolutionary. He fought for a republican form of government, for the liberation of the peasants, freedom of printing, open judiciary, and personal security.

In Northern Society, he took a leading role and led the uprising of 1825. Ryleev courageously spent the last seven months of his life in the Alekseevskaya ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress. On a tin plate, he, according to legend, wrote a quatrain in prison, testifying to the stamina of a freedom fighter:

“Prison is in honor of me, not in reproach,

For a just cause, I'm in it,

And am I ashamed of these chains,

When do I wear them for my homeland?

Hanged among the five leaders of the uprising.

Literature occupied a significant place in Ryleev's activities, to which he, like other Decembrists, attached great social importance, seeing in literature essential tool involving educated people in the circle of their ideas.

The creative path of Ryleev the poet is characteristic of most of the Decembrist poets. This is the path from the idea of ​​personal freedom to public freedom. On this path, there is also an awareness of the contradictions of the Decembrist ideology, and overcoming them. Despite the short duration literary activity Ryleev, his work most consistently reveals the internal logic of the development of the Decembrist poet. At the same time, in his work of recent years, Kondraty Fedorovich reveals a distinct originality, an individual characteristic of style. Like other poets, later associated with the liberation movement at its noble stage, he begins with a passion for anacreontics, following Batyushkov, with the approval of the ideals of personal freedom, a life closed in the sphere of intimate relationships.

"To friend" ,

"To Delia",

"Happy Change" - 1820;

"Deception"

"Unexpected Happiness"- 1821, and others.

"To K - mu" - 1821,

"I don't want your love..." - 1824.

Already in 1822, Ryleev affirmed the ideal of a civil poet, first interpreting Derzhavin in this regard (“He set the public good above all goods in the world” - the thought “Derzhavin”), and then declaring in the dedication to the poem “Voynarovsky” (1825). "I'm not a poet, but a citizen." This formula emphasized the subordination of poetic activity to civil, revolutionary goals. Ryleev's formula was then paraphrased by Nekrasov ("You may not be a poet, but you must be a citizen"). In his further activities, Kondraty Fedorovich strictly followed the defined understanding of poetry and the poet.

Turning to the motives of political freedom, the poet, like other poets ideologically close to Decembrism, naturally, first of all used the traditional forms of civil poetry, the forms of classicism, subordinating them to the ideas of love of freedom. The solemn odes of Ryleev are very close to the traditional genre. The idea of ​​Decembrist citizenship is expressed by the message -

"BUT. P. Yermolov" (1821)

"Civic Courage" (1823),

"On the death of Byron" (1824).

Much more significant are the satirical odes of Ryleev - "To the temporary worker" (1820) and the ode "Citizen" (1825) -

"Will I be at the fateful time

To disgrace the Citizen of dignity ... ".

The first of them was directed against the then omnipotent Arakcheev and predicted the inevitability of punishment from the enraged people and the harsh sentence of posterity. The second had in mind a force that was also extremely hostile to the Decembrist movement - the social passivity of the majority of educated society, the "reborn Slavs", those who were not preparing "for the future struggle for the oppressed freedom of man." Both odes were very widespread and were in circulation in a revolutionary environment for many decades.

The initial connection with the tradition of psychological romanticism led to the transformation of the friendly messages of the Anacreontics into political messages in the work of writers, including Ryleev, who became civil poets. Such were Ryleev's messages, in particular to Bestuzhev (1825), where the main motive was unwavering loyalty to "high thoughts", love "for the public good", as well as a message "Vera Nikolaevna Stolypina"(1825), containing a call to raise children in accordance with the ideals of a citizen.

In the literature of psychological romanticism, imitations of folk songs were widespread (Neledinsky-Meletsky, Dmitriev and others). And Ryleev wrote similar songs in his early years. Now Kondraty Fedorovich, together with A. Bestuzhev, writes political propaganda songs, designed to be distributed among the soldiers in order to awaken in them social self-awareness, an understanding of the intolerance of their economic and social position. Seven such songs have come down to us (1823-24).

They are very close to the traditions of Radishchev and oppose songs in the spirit of Karamzin and Zhukovsky.

One of them - "Oh, I'm sick of..." directly opposed to the Neledinsky-Meletsky romance, which begins with the same words. This song along with another - "As the blacksmith goes from the forge..." most consistent in their nationality and revolutionary spirit. The propaganda songs of Ryleev and Bestuzhev became widespread, penetrated the people, became phenomena of folklore, and contributed to the formation of similar works in subsequent decades.

Most clearly, the originality of Ryleev's poetry within the Decembrist literature was reflected in his thoughts and poems. Twenty-five thoughts of Ryleev Kondraty Fedorovich

(1821-23, separate edition - 1825; four were published only in the 2nd half of the 19th century) and his poems:

"Voynarovsky", 1822-24;

unfinished -

"Nalivaiko", 1824-25;

"Gaydamak",

"Paley",

"Partisans" - all three 1825) - works of civil romanticism, imbued with the pathos of revolutionary patriotism. Ryleev created an original form of duma, using Ukrainian folk dumas (collection of N. A. Tsertelev "The experience of collecting old Little Russian songs", 1819), "Spewy Historyczne" by the Polish poet Y. Nemtsevich (1816 and other publications), and also took the influence of Byron's poems and southern poems by Pushkin.

The structure of the thoughts of Kondraty Fedorovich and his poems is very similar; they differ only in volume: a thought is a small poem, "Voynarovsky" is an extended thought. Most of the thoughts are a lyrical monologue of the hero, framed by a landscape, revealing his inner world. These are the legendary Boyan, historical figures Dmitry Donskoy, Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Kurbsky, Nalivaiko, Derzhavin, Ivan Susanin and others. The heroes are given in sharp colors, without chiaroscuro, without halftones. Their inner world is found in conflict with environment, in the face of tyranny. The actions of the heroes illustrate their unchanging appearance. There is no love conflict or only slightly outlined. The heroes are revealed in their selfless service to the cause of the struggle for liberation from tyranny, for the freedom of their homeland, in their devotion to this idea and the people captured by it, in their steadfastness and firmness, in their readiness to sacrifice themselves. The assertion of the unity of interests of the individual and society on the basis of the struggle of the individual for the freedom of the motherland, the struggle in which the individual is ready to sacrifice himself, is characteristic of noble revolutionaries. the nature of his interpretation. The past differed, in Ryleev's understanding, from the present only by "locality", by specific events, but not by the characters of the people who made history, since they were Russian people. The romantic poet was not interested in objective historical truth. The heroes of the thoughts and poems of Kondraty Fedorovich are completely captured by the contemporary poet with the pathos of love of freedom and are relegated to the past only in their outward appearance. His thoughts and poems clearly show the extremely intensive development of his work, which was the result of the deepening of his revolutionary outlook and the growth of talent. The political acuity of his works increased.

First thoughts ( "Boyan", "Oleg the Prophet") are politically rather vague. Subsequent thoughts, and then poems, are typically Decembrist in their content. Dumas, especially early ones, are a very imperfect implementation of the principles of civil romanticism in the genre of the poem. "Voynarovsky" is a much more mature work. The image of the protagonist is much more complicated. The color of the area is more clearly given.

In "Nalivaiko" and "Palea" elements of historicism are even stronger.

The language is being improved, in the latest thoughts, especially in Voinarovsky, speech is largely freed from metaphor, the syntax becomes more concise, the number of Slavicisms decreases, local words are more common. Pushkin reacted negatively to the thoughts, with the exception of Ivan Susanin. But he took Voinarovsky much more favorably.

“Ryleev’s Voinarovsky,” Pushkin wrote, “is incomparably better than all his thoughts,” the poem “is necessary for our literature.” Works by Ryleev K.F. were models for a number of poems of civil romanticism (Yazykov, A. Bestuzhev, F. Glinka Davydov, Yazykov, Vyazemsky), another - returned to the traditions of psychological romanticism (Venevitinov, Baratynsky); if Pushkin shifted his attention as an artist and thinker to understanding the reasons for the social passivity of the majority, Ryleev K.F remained faithful to the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bstruggle in the name of the final victory of freedom, recognizing the inevitability of death at this stage of this struggle. In the poem "Nalivaiko", in the chapter "Confession of Nalivaiko", he wrote:

I know that death awaits

The one who rises first

On the oppressors of the people;

Fate has already doomed me.

But where, tell me when was

Is freedom redeemed without sacrifice?

I will die for my native land, -

I feel it, I know

And joyfully, holy father,

I bless my lot!

Ryleev Kondraty Fedorovich, both in his political activity and in his poetry, was one of those whom V. I. Lenin had in mind when he noted: “ The best people of the nobles helped wake people"(Soch., v. 19, p. 295).

Died -, Petersburg.

Kondraty FedorovichRyleev- Decembrist and poet. Born into a seedy noble family on September 28, 1795. His father, who managed the affairs of Prince Golitsyn, was a tough man and treated arbitrarily both his wife and his son. Mother, Anastasia Matveevna (nee Essen), wanting to save the child from a cruel father, sent him to the first cadet corps when Kondraty was only six years old. In 1814, Ryleev became an officer of horse artillery and participated in a campaign in Switzerland, in 1815 in France. In 1818 he retired.

In 1820, Kondraty Ryleev married Natalya Mikhailovna Tevyashova and moved to St. Petersburg. First heSettledto the position of judge, and became known for his incorruptible honesty, and soon discovered two talents in himself: poetic and commercial. He joined a Russian-American trading company and fell in love with the United States, seeing it as a model of a free state. He was the first to publish literary magazine("Polar Star"), which gave writers and poets decent fees. At the same time, Ryleev wrote his "Thoughts", in which, inspired by Karamzin, he tried to sketch poetic images the brightest personalities of Russian history. Then he released the poem "Voinarovsky", highly appreciated by Pushkin. This poem is remarkable in that in it he described exactly those places where, a few years later, his Decembrist friends had to serve their exile.

In St. Petersburg, Ryleev met many conspirators, recognized in them the same poetic, blind and naive thirst for freedom and became, in his own words, "the spring of the conspiracy."He really became the soul, inspirer and singer of the uprising. He dispelled any sober doubts of his associates with sometimes illogical, but firm arguments. He calmly and at the same time relentlessly convinced one, another, a third that Russia was all infected with evil, that nothing was left alive in it, that debauchery, bribery, injustice were everywhere. Everywhere the temporary worker Arakcheev rules, whose image for Ryleev was a mythical fusion of all the most vile features of the "despotism" he hated. Russia is groveling in darkness, and the only way out of this darkness is a coup. It is necessary to start, Ryleev believed, and then people will see the rightness of the work begun and pick up the baton. Russia will be turned upside down, and out of this chaos the goddess of freedom will be born, who will illuminate her beloved fatherland with a new light.

Nikolai Pavlovich could not decide to ascend the throne, and Konstantin Pavlovich refused the kingdom, the conspirators realized that he turned out to be the one and onlymoment. It was decided to spread rumors among the soldiers that they were being deceived, that Constantine did not abdicate the throne at all, that the deceased tsar left a will in which the service life of the soldiers was reduced and freedom was given to the peasants. Ryleyev surrendered himself entirely to revolutionary exaltation. He knew that most likely their cause was doomed to failure, but some fate drew him to the square, he saw himself as a sacrifice made for the liberation of mankind. "Yes, there are few prospects for success," he said, "but all the same, it is necessary, all the same, it is necessary to start." And a few months before that, Ryleev wrote in his “Confession of Nalivaiko”: “I know: death awaits / The one who rises first / Against the oppressors of the people; / Fate has already doomed me. / But where, tell me, when was / Freedom redeemed without sacrifice ?"

On the same night, Ryleev said goodbye to his wife. With all the strength of a suffering woman's heart, she held him back. “Leave my husband to me, don’t take him away, I know that he is going to his death,” she repeated, referring to Ryleev’s friends. But everything was already decided. Nothing could change even the sobs of a five-year-old daughter, who hugged her father's knees, peering into his concentrated face with her clear, piercing, tear-filled eyes. Ryleev escaped from his daughter's arms, laid his almost unconscious wife on the sofa and ran out after Nikolai Bestuzhev, who many years later captured this scene in his memoirs.

And by the evening of the same day, it was all over. The raging commoners were still walking in groups, the last traces of the insane jealousy of the noble revolutionaries were still being removed from the square, Karamzin and his three sons were still wandering the twilight streets of St. power. And Ryleev returned home. Something collapsed forever in his soul, some new voice began to sound muffled in it. Conscience spoke. “They didn’t do well, all of Russia was ruined,” he said after returning from the square.

And soon he and most of the other Decembrists were in the Peter and Paul Fortress. It is known how cowardly they gave each other away, how zealous they were in exposing, how easily the foundations of all their theoretical constructions crumbled before the horror of prison and power. Ryleev, from the first days of his imprisonment, began to feel the ever-growing voice of the higher forces of the soul, a voice calling a person to the eternal, mountainous, not subject to the laws of earthly life. If before that he always thought about the kingdom of justice here on earth, and not outside the tomb, now he looked more and more seriously into the face of Christ, who suffered for people and called them to the incomprehensible Kingdom of Heaven. It is impossible for us to trace exactly how and with what speed this revolution took place in the soul of the prisoner. But the completed rebirth is obvious. Nestor Kotlyarevsky, a pre-revolutionary researcher of Ryleev's life and work, writes that "by the end of his imprisonment, he did not have a trace of a revolutionary spirit left."

This is best evidenced by the wonderful letters of Kondraty Fedorovich to his wife. All of them are permeated with one thing: confidence in the goodness and mercy of Providence. The king for him is no longer an autocratic despot, but the spokesman of this will. “Rely on the Almighty and the mercy of the sovereign,” Ryleev writes many times from the fortress. Anticipating the impending execution, he in no way considers it cruel or unfair and appeals to his wife: "Whatever befalls me, accept everything with firmness and obedience to His (God. - T.V.) holy will." Shocked by the royal mercy (Nikolai sent his wife 2 thousand rubles, and then the empress sent a thousand rubles for her daughter's name day), Ryleev, with all the strength of the Russian soul, surrenders to a feeling of love and gratitude royal family. "Whatever happens to me," he says, "I will live and die for them." (It should be noted that the tsar continued his concern for the Ryleyev family, and his wife received a pension until her second marriage, and his daughter until adulthood.) Ryleyev also says that "to this day he is treated not as a criminal, but as with the unfortunate. And seeing the merit of the tsar in this, he writes to his wife: "Pray, my friend, may he (the tsar. - TV) have in his close friends of our dear fatherland and may he make Russia happy with his reign."

Ryleev thanks fate for what happened to him. “Having spent three months alone with myself,” he writes to his wife, “I came to know myself better, I examined my whole life and clearly saw that I was mistaken in many ways. I repent and thank the Almighty that He opened my eyes. was, I will not lose as much as I gained from my misfortune, I only regret that I can no longer be useful to my fatherland and to a sovereign so merciful. With bitterness, Ryleev feels terrible guilt before his family. There is only one consolation left for him: to fervently pray for his wife and daughter. “My dear friend,” he writes, “I am cruelly guilty before you and her (daughter. - T.V.): forgive me for the sake of the Savior, to whom I entrust you every day: I confess to you frankly, only during prayer do I calm for you. God is just and merciful, he will not leave you, punishing me. "

Shortly before the execution, Ryleev draws up a note addressed to Nikolai. In it, he renounces "his delusions and political rules" and motivates this renunciation by the fact that his spirit discovered the world of the Christian faith and now everything appeared to him in a new light, and he "with the holy gift of the Savior of the world was reconciled with his Creator." In this note, he does not ask for pardon, recognizes his execution as deserved and "blesses the punishing right hand", but prays for only one thing: "Be merciful to the comrades of my crime." Ryleev puts the main blame on himself, arguing that it was he who "with his criminal jealousy was a disastrous example for them" and because of him "innocent blood was shed."

On the night before the execution, Kondraty Fedorovich was meek and quiet. The priest Father Pyotr Smyslovsky came, who for more than half a year was, in the words of the prisoner himself, "his friend and benefactor." The priest gave communion to the condemned. In the predawn hours, Ryleev wrote his last letter to his wife: “God and the sovereign have decided my fate: I must die and die a shameful death. May His holy will be done! My dear friend, surrender yourself to the will of the Almighty, and He will console you. For the soul pray to God. He will hear your prayers. Do not grumble either at Him or at the sovereign: it will be both reckless and sinful. Shall we comprehend the inscrutable ways of the Incomprehensible? I never grumbled during my imprisonment, and for that the Holy Spirit is wondrous consoled me. Marvel, my friend, and at this very moment, when I am busy only with you and our little one, I am in such comforting calmness that I cannot express to you. Oh, dear friend, how saving it is to be a Christian ... "It was already dawning, footsteps and voices were heard outside the doors, Ryleev was finishing the last words of his last letter: "Farewell! They are ordered to dress. May His holy will be done."

In the early morning of July 13 (25), 1826, a small crowd of people gathered on one of the St. Petersburg embankments. The faces were concentrated and gloomy, the rising sun illuminated the bodies of the executed. The case was unprecedented for Russia. Since the time of Pugachev, executions have not been known here. The gallows was made awkwardly, too high, and school benches had to be carried from the nearby merchant shipping school. The ropes were picked up for a long time, but they could not find suitable ones. Three of the executed broke. The executioners themselves took pity on the criminals, who, raising their hands to heaven, prayed before death, kissed the priest's cross and ascended the scaffold, which became for them a step towards incomprehensible eternity.

This execution of Pavel Pestel, Sergei Muravyov-Apostol, Kondraty Ryleev, Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Pyotr Kakhovsky and the tragic events that preceded it gave one of the most terrible cracks in our history. The tsar, who ascended the throne against his will, met the enemies of his state in the person of the most talented, noble and educated youth, and throughout his reign he could not get rid of deep doubts about the good intentions of the noble society, and the society, in turn, was still muffled. and secretly, but more and more stood up in opposition to the Russian historical system.

Understanding all the real criminality of our first revolutionaries, recognizing deeply Negative consequences their actions, one cannot but become interested in their contradictory and strange destinies. Looking into the depths of these souls, ardent and poetic, but agitated to the extreme by the spirit of the times, one can sometimes discover amazing pearls. And the words spoken about the Decembrists by the priest Peter Smyslovsky, who confessed them in the fortress, seem deeply true. “They are terribly guilty,” he said, “but they were mistaken, and they were not villains! Their guilt came from the delusions of the mind, and not from the corruption of the heart. Lord, let them go! They didn’t know what they were doing. Here is our mind! get lost? And delusion leads to the brink of destruction."

In the reader's mind, Ryleev is primarily a Decembrist poet, publisher of the almanac "Polar Star", a noble revolutionary, a man who, by martyrdom, confirmed his loyalty to freedom-loving ideals.

Biography of Kondraty Ryleev

K. F. Ryleev was born on September 18 (29), 1795 in the village of Batovo, near St. Petersburg, in the family of a retired lieutenant colonel, and from the age of six he was brought up in the St. Petersburg Cadet Corps. Here he fell in love with books and began to write. Thirteen years have passed in studies and drill, not without childish pranks, of course, but also with severe retribution for them. Ryleev's popularity was greatly facilitated by his poems.

Ryleev's youth coincided with a heroic era in the life of Russia, with a glorious twelfth year. He eagerly awaited the release of active army and created "victory songs to the heroes", recalling the heroic past of his homeland. Already in the first samples of Ryley's pen, themes and poetic principles were outlined, to which he would remain faithful forever. In 1814, as an eighteen-year-old warrant officer-artilleryman, Ryleev entered the theater of operations. One can only guess how stunning was the contrast between thirteen years of imprisonment in the corps walls - and foreign campaigns, when in two years Ryleev twice marched all over Europe.

Then came the days of the army. Ryleev's artillery company moved from Lithuania to the Oryol region, until in the spring of 1817 it settled in the Voronezh province, in the village of Podgorny, Ostrogozhsky district. Here Ryleev took up the education of the daughters of a local landowner and soon fell in love with the youngest of them, Natalya Tevyashova. Ryleev, having married and retired, rushes to the capital - where life is in full swing. In the autumn of 1820, Ryleev settled in St. Petersburg with his wife and daughter, and from the beginning of 1821 he began to serve in the St. Petersburg Chamber of the Criminal Court.

Creativity Kondraty Ryleev

Ryleev's poems have already appeared in St. Petersburg magazines. The satire on Arakcheev made the poet's name widely known overnight. Following “Kurbsky”, poems appear one after another in magazines and newspapers signed by Ryleev, in which the pages of Russian history are read as evidence of the ineradicably freedom-loving spirit of the nation. By the nature of his talent, Ryleev was not a pure lyricist; No wonder he constantly turned to various genres of both prose and dramaturgy.

Ryleev's thoughts belong to the genre of historical elegy, close to the ballad, widely used along with lyrical and epic-dramatic artistic means. It is impossible not to notice the educational foundations in Ryleev's worldview, and the features of civil classicism in his artistic method. At the beginning of 1823, Ryleev was accepted by I. I. Pushchin into the Northern Secret Society and soon became its leader. Alien to ambitious calculations and claims, Ryleev became the conscience of the conspiracy.

Ryleev's poetry did not sing of the delight of victory - it taught civic courage. The poetic maturity of Kondraty Fedorovich had just become apparent to his contemporaries on the threshold of 1825 - with the release of Doom and Voinarovsky, with the appearance in print of excerpts from new poems. Directly linking his life with a secret society, with an organized struggle against autocracy and serfdom, Ryleev in the same 1823 began work on a poem about the Siberian prisoner Voinarovsky.

The epilogue of Ryleev's entire work was destined to become his prison poems and letters to his wife. On December 14, 1825, the first of the organizers of the uprising on Senate Square, Ryleev was arrested, imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and six months later he was executed.

• Thirty years later, A. I. Herzen will begin to publish abroad for the Russian reader an almanac of free Russian literature, giving it the glorious name - "Polar Star".
• The motives of Ryleev's lyrics will be developed in the poetry of Polezhaev, Lermontov, Ogarev,.

Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev was born on September 18 (29), 1795 in the village of Batovo, Sofia district, St. Petersburg province.

Early childhood

Father - Fedor Andreevich Ryleev.

Mother - Anastasia Matveevna, nee Essen.

The life of the family was not easy, because. Fedor Andreevich liked to live "in a big way" and squandered two estates. If Batovo had not been ceded to Anastasia Matveevna at a low price by relatives, things could have reached complete poverty.

Before Kondraty, four children had died in the family, and in order to save their son in poor health, on the advice of the priest, they named him after the first person they met on the day they went to baptize the boy. It turned out to be a poor retired soldier Kondraty, whom his parents took with them to church as a godfather.

The father was a very stern man both in relation to the serfs and in relation to his wife. The boy was afraid of his father and often cried.

In order to save Kondrash from domestic scenes, Anastasia Matveevna's relatives helped to arrange him in the cadet corps in St. Petersburg.

In the cadet corps

When the boy was not even six years old, he was brought to St. Petersburg. In January 1801, he was enrolled in the "preparatory class" of the 1st Cadet Corps.

Live in educational institution was very difficult. The older pupils often offended the younger ones, and in the evenings Kondraty often cried, burying his head in the pillow. In addition, it was always cold in large, poorly heated bedrooms, and students slept under thin blankets, and in winter even the smallest ones were dressed in thin overcoats. The boy missed home, his mother, but he held on.

Years passed, and Ryleev gradually got used to military life and drill. He did not study brilliantly, but he tried to study all the subjects important for the future officer thoroughly. And of course he had no equal in literature. Ryleev "overgrown" with many friends who respected him for his exceptional honesty and justice. He stoically endured all punishments and never cried under the rods. Sometimes he took on the guilt of others.

During his studies, Kondraty became addicted to reading. He read everything that could be obtained from the library or from friends, more than once he asked for money for books from his father. But he considered this stupidity and very rarely and hostilely answered his son's letters.

The war of 1812 raised a storm of patriotism in the corps. The younger students were very jealous of the graduates who went to the front. They, too, rushed to defend the fatherland, followed all the news from the active army, heatedly discussed the defeats and victories of the Russian army and were afraid that they would not have time to join the ranks of those who defend Russia with their breasts.

In 1813, the commander-in-chief Kutuzov died, who was able to deploy Napoleon's "invincible" army away from Russia. Ryleev, like all cadets, was struck by the death of the great military leader and wrote his ode “Love for the Fatherland” on this occasion. By this time, several works about the war were already stored in his “literary notebook”.

In February 1814, Ryleev also waited for his graduation. He was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Company of the 1st Reserve Artillery Brigade.

The young ensign-poet entered into life with a dream of becoming a faithful citizen of his homeland and, if necessary, without hesitation to give his life for her!

Overseas trips

Since the spring of 1814, Ryleev participated in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army. He visited Poland, Saxony, Bavaria, France and other countries, met many new people, saw a different life and other customs. Knowing ordinary people only from stories and books, Ryleev first saw ordinary soldiers next to him. He knew that these were great heroes who drove the enemy out of their native land. Now the poet saw how hard these heroes live. Ryleev was horrified by the 25-year service life of ordinary soldiers, the ruthless attitude of many officers towards them. An acute feeling of pity for ordinary people arose in his soul, a desire to help. Ryleev began to dream of a case that he could organize to protect ordinary people. But he hasn't yet figured out how to do it.

During the campaign, Ryleev learned about the death of his father, who last years worked as a manager in the rich estate of the princes Golitsyns. After the death of Ryleev Sr., they stated that he left them a lot of money and took the case to court. As a result of the court decision, Batovo was arrested, and the mother of Kondraty Fedorovich was left practically without a livelihood until the end of her life.

Ryleev felt sorry for his mother, and no matter how hard it was, he never asked her for money.

in the Voronezh province

After returning to Russia (in 1815), the company in which Ryleev served was sent to the Ostrogozhsky district of the Voronezh province. Here the poet remained for several years. In Ostrogozhsk, he met many famous families of the county. Some of them were originally from Ukraine and, surrounded by the Russian people, preserved their original customs and habits.

In Ostrogozhsk, the poet read and thought a lot, often saw the negative aspects of the life of ordinary people. It was here that he fully formed his views and aspirations, developed the best sides poetic talent.

During his visits to Podgornoye, Ryleev met the family of the local landowner M.A. Tevyashov. Soon he began to teach his daughters the Russian language, and the eldest of them, Natasha, really liked the poet. At this time, he writes numerous madrigals and dedications in her honor: "Natasha, Cupid and I", "Dream" and others.

After 2 years, he asks his mother's blessing for marriage. Anastasia Matveevna agrees, but on the condition that the son honestly tells the bride's parents about his poverty. The Tevyashovs are not afraid of the groom's poverty, they give their consent. In 1818 Ryleev retired, and in 1820 Kondraty and Natalya got married.

After the wedding, relatives and friends persuaded the poet to stay with his family in Ukraine and live happily and calmly. But he did not want to "kill" the young years mediocre. His soul was torn to the capital.

Moving to Petersburg. Service in court

In the second half of 1820, Ryleev moved to St. Petersburg. It turns out to be very difficult to settle from scratch, but gradually the Ryleevs get used to a new life.

In October of the same year, the uprising of the Semyonovsky regiment took place, when the desperate soldiers openly opposed the bullying of the new commander. As a result, the entire regiment was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, then ordinary soldiers were sent to hard labor or to Siberian garrisons, and officers to the active army with a ban on retiring or receiving any kind of awards.

Ryleev was struck by the brutality of the suppression of the uprising and openly opposed the all-powerful Arakcheev - his ode "To the temporary worker" was published in the Nevsky Spectator magazine. This was the first work of the poet, under which he put his full name. Petersburg was numb, struck by the insane courage of this “baby”, who stood up against the all-powerful “giant”. Thanks to the ambitiousness of Arakcheev, who did not want to openly recognize himself as a tyrant, Ryleev remained at large. But the magazine was closed and the all-powerful nobleman harbored a grudge. The success of the ode made Ryleev take a more serious look at his work and its ultimate goals. For the first time, the poet understands that with his works he can also fight against autocracy.

From January 1821, Ryleev was offered a position as an assessor in the St. Petersburg Chamber of the Criminal Court. He does not refuse, because understands that this work will help him protect ordinary people. During his service, Ryleev creates a well-deserved reputation for being an honest and incorruptible judge.

In April of the same year, Kondraty Fedorovich joined the Free Society of Russian Literature Lovers. It was chaired by the hero of the war of 1812, Fyodor Nikolaevich Glinka, who openly advocated the equal rights of all people. Accordingly, Ryleev found in him a complete like-minded person. The future Decembrist A. Odoevsky, Pushkin's friends V. Kuchelbecker and A. Delvig, the writer A. Griboyedov and other prominent personalities of that time were also members of the society. Ryleev developed excellent friendly relations with everyone who was part of the society.

More and more, the poet thinks about how to raise and inspire young people to fight against the autocracy? And it seems to him best to remind him of the heroic deeds of the heroes of past centuries. This is how the idea of ​​Ryley's "Dooms" was born - poetic stories from Russian history, focused on modernity.

In May 1821, Kondraty Fedorovich traveled for some time to Podgornoye, visited Ostrogozhsk and Voronezh. Here he is visited by creative inspiration, and he writes new original works: "Desert", "On the death of Polina young", "When from the Russian sword", etc. In the same period, he begins the cycle "Dum", for which he takes not only from historical works, but also from local folk art. Through the chanting of the heroic past of his native country, Ryleev hopes to “wake up” the progressive youth in order to raise them to fight for a better future for the common people.

Most of the "Dooms" are known even now, some have practically become folk songs (for example, "Death of Yermak").

Closer to tragedy

In the fall of 1823, Ryleev became a member of the Northern Society (Decembrists). He is happy to give all his strength and talent for the benefit of the cause that is most important to him. Often returning from meetings with Bestuzhev, they think a lot about what else can be done to renew Russia. This is how the idea of ​​publishing the almanac "Polar Star" was born, which would enjoy undoubted success until 1825. Here they publish their the best works A.S. Pushkin, A. Delvig, P. Vyazemsky, V. Zhukovsky and many other prominent writers and poets of that time. On the pages of the "Polar Star" will be published the best works of Ryleev himself - "Duma" and the poem "Voinarovsky".

In the spring of 1824, Ryleev moved to the Russian-American Company as the head of the office and settled in a large apartment on the Moika embankment, where a kind of "headquarters" of the Northern Society was organized. At the end of the year, Kondraty Fedorovich headed the organization. He began to strengthen it with new reliable and useful people, to inspire them with his own example. Now Ryleev no longer talked about the possibilities of a constitutional monarchy, he preached the election new form state government - republican.

This year was marked for the poet by many difficult events: in February he fought a duel and was slightly wounded, in June his mother died, and in September his son, who had just turned one year old.

fatal uprising

In September 1825, Ryleev participated in another duel, but already as a second. Instead of trying to reconcile the participants, he in every possible way inflated their conflict. Perhaps it was because of this that the duel ended in the death of both participants.

The beginning of December brought an unexpected event for the participants of the Northern Society - Alexander I died. The Decembrists planned to coincide with the time of the death of the tsar, but they did not think that this would happen so soon.

Ryleev and the leaders of other Decembrist organizations urgently began to prepare a speech. It was appointed for December 14, 1825. Trubetskoy was elected leader, whom Ryleev fully trusted. And it was Trubetskoy who became the main traitor.

Kondraty Fedorovich himself, as a civilian, could only come to Senate Square and support the rebels. And he was there, and then most day rushing around the city, hoping to find help.

By evening, government troops were drawn to the square, which were four times more than the rebels. Nicholas I gave the order to shoot "at the rebels." The Decembrists fought to the last, not believing in the promised pardon. Around the square there was a huge crowd of people who sympathized with the rebels and at the first call could join their ranks, but the Decembrists did not understand this and died alone. The uprising was put down. Those who survived were arrested and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress.

On the same night they came for Ryleev. He was interrogated in the palace, then sent to the same place as all the conspirators.

Interrogations went on for several months. Ryleev took upon himself all possible "sins", named only those Decembrists, whose arrest he already knew for sure, tried in every possible way to shield his comrades, spoke of his irreconcilable hatred of the reigning family.

Thanks to such “truthfulness”, Kondraty Fedorovich was among the five main instigators of the uprising, whom it was decided to hang.

The sentence was carried out on July 13 (25), 1826 in the Peter and Paul Fortress. It is assumed that the state-owned Decembrists were buried on the island of Goloday, but the exact place of their rest is unknown.

Interesting facts about Ryleev:

When Ryleev was ill as a child, his mother fervently prayed to God for her son's recovery. An angel appeared to her, who said that it would be easier for the boy to die than to receive such a fate. When she did not agree, the angel left Kondraty's life, but showed his mother how her son would end his life.

The poet was among those 3 unfortunates, under which the rope broke during hanging. They fell deep into the gallows, were pulled out and hanged a second time.

Today, O. Goloday bears the name "Island of the Decembrists."