Vasily Trediakovsky: biography and photos

Vasily Trediakovsky was one of the most famous poets of the 18th century. However, his creative heritage was not appreciated by his contemporaries. Only later, already in the 19th century, his translations and original compositions were recognized. The reason for this belated success lies in the fact that the author's contemporaries sought to create an easy literary language, while the poet was a supporter of complex versification, focusing on the best examples of antiquity and imitating them.

Childhood and youth

Vasily Trediakovsky was born in 1703 in the family of an Astrakhan priest. He graduated from the Latin school, which was founded under the Catholic mission in the city. As a child, he sang in a church choir. Passion for music, he carried through his whole life, later even starting to compose his own compositions. There is little information about his youth, only a notebook with a quatrain remained, which testifies to the boy's early fascination with poetry.

The future poet was going to enter the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy first, but for unknown reasons he did not go there, but instead went to Moscow. From 1723 to 1725 Vasily Trediakovsky studied at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy at his own expense. At this time, he seriously engaged in literature: he composed his own novel and translated some works from the Latin language. After two years of training, he had the opportunity to go abroad, so he left the academy.

Euro-trip

Vasily Trediakovsky lived for some time in The Hague, but soon left this country and moved to Paris, where he settled with the head of the Russian diplomatic mission. In general, little is known about the time of the poet's stay in European countries; nevertheless, the surviving news allows us to say that he received a good education at the University of Paris. However, I could not pass the bachelor's exams because they were paid, and the poet did not have any money.

Nevertheless, this stage was important in his work, as he became acquainted with the French culture, enlightenment, which had a great influence on him, although, of course, in just two years he could not completely penetrate the new ideas of European ideology for him. From 1729 to 1730 the poet lived in Hamburg. Vasily Trediakovsky, whose work by that time had already taken shape as a pro-European one, got acquainted with local intellectuals, studied music and wrote some poems. In addition, he was a member of the circle of Russian diplomats, communication with which increased his cultural level.

First success

Returning to his homeland, the poet was assigned to the Academy of Sciences as a student, which was a great success, as it opened up great opportunities for him in the scientific world. In 1730 he published his translation of the French novel "Riding in the Island of Love." This was a real event in the cultural life. This romantic courteous work immediately gained great popularity among the reading public. After the publication of this work, Vasily Trediakovsky remained the most popular author. The poet accompanied his work and a collection of poems of his own work.

Reform of versification

In the 1730s, the poet began to change the Russian literary language. Trediakovsky sought to separate prose and poetry and considered the Latin versification to be the standard of the last, to which he tried to adapt Russian poetry. However, he was immediately criticized for the complex construction of sentences, an unclear sense, an intricate grammatical construction. The poet often resorted to inversion, actively used interjections, which in the view of literary critics of that time complicated and spoiled the lyrics.

Value

Vasily Trediakovsky, whose brief biography is the subject of this review, left a notable mark in the history of Russian literature. His experiments, scientific research in the field of literature, disputes with Lomonosov and Sumarokov contributed to the emergence of domestic criticism and original works in different genres. He made a great contribution and as an interpreter. So, thanks to him, the Russian reader got acquainted with the works of the French scientist on ancient history. At the end of his life his health deteriorated, and he died in 1769.