Sergey Fyodorovich Durov (russian: Серге́й Фёдорович Ду́ров, 1816,
Oryol Governorate
Oryol Governorate (russian: Орловская губерния, ''Orlovskaya guberniya'') or the Government of Oryol, was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the early Russian SFSR, which existed from 1796 to 1 ...
,
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
- December 18
.s. 6 1869,
Poltava
Poltava (, ; uk, Полтава ) is a city located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the capital city of the Poltava Oblast (province) and of the surrounding Poltava Raion (district) of the oblast. Poltava is administratively ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, then Russian Empire) was a Russian
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
,
translator
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
, writer, and political activist. A member of the
Petrashevsky Circle
The Petrashevsky Circle was a Russian literary discussion group of progressive-minded intellectuals in St. Petersburg in the 1840s. It was organized by Mikhail Petrashevsky, a follower of the French utopian socialist Charles Fourier. Among the memb ...
and later the leader of his own underground group of intellectuals, Durov was arrested in 1849 and spent 8 months in the
Petropavloskaya Fortress, followed by 4 years in
Omsk
Omsk (; rus, Омск, p=omsk) is the administrative center and largest city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia, and has a population of over 1.1 million. Omsk is the third largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk ...
prison.
Durov returned from
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
in 1857, and the ban on his literary activity was lifted in 1862. But, broken physically by his long ordeal, he fell critically ill soon after and died at the age of 54.
Biography
Sergey Fyodorovich Durov was born in the Oryol Governorate in the family of a minor nobleman. His father, an army colonel, died penniless in 1834. The boy's education in the Nobility Boarding school at the
Saint Petersburg University
Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...
(1828-1833) was paid for by his uncle on his mother side,
Nikolai Khmelnitsky, a well-known playwright of his time. From 1833 to 1847 Durov worked as a civil servant, before retiring and making literature his profession. Most of his works—poems, short stories and novellas—were published in almanacs, magazines and newspapers from 1843 to 1849, prior to the arrest.
In late 1847 Durov began attending Petrashevsky's Fridays. In the spring of 1849, dissatisfied with what he saw as the chaotic nature of these meetings, he—along with his friends
Alexander Palm
Alexander Ivanovich Palm (Александр Иванович Пальм, , Krasnoslobodsk, Penza Governorate, Russian Empire, - , Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire) was a Russian poet, novelist and playwright, who also used the pseudonym P. Al ...
and A.D.Shchelkov—organised another underground circle, which included brothers
Fyodor
Fyodor, Fedor (russian: Фёдор) or Feodor is the Russian form of the name "Theodore (given name), Theodore" meaning “God’s Gift”. Fedora () is the feminine form. Fyodor and Fedor are two English transliterations of the same Russian name. ...
and
Mikhail Dostoyevsky
Mikhail Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (russian: Михаил Михайлович Достоевский; 25 November 1820 – 22 July 1864) was a Russian short story writer, publisher, literary critic and the elder brother of Fyodor Dostoevsky. They w ...
,
Aleksey Pleshcheyev
Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Никола́евич Плеще́ев; 8 October 1893) was a radical Russian poet of the 19th century, once a member of the Petrashevsky Circle.
Pleshcheyev's first book of p ...
,
Nikolay Speshnev, Nikolai Grigoriev, P.N.Filippov, V.A. Golovinsky and F.N.Lvov. The social and economical situation in Russia was taken as the main issue. Among the documents read there was the banned
Belinsky's Letter to
Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
, and "The Soldier Talk" (Soldatskaya beseda), the first ever document propagating revolutionary ideas in the Russian army. Four of the circle members, Speshnev, Dostoyevsky, Filippov and Lvov, decided to organize an underground
lithograph
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
. Durov disliked the idea and in April 1849 declared his 'evenings' closed.
On April 23, 1849, Durov was arrested and spent 8 months in a single camera in the Petropavlovskaya Fortress. Along with the other Petrashevtsy he was taken to the parade ground of the Semionovsky Regiment in Saint Petersburg, and lined up for execution. At the last moment the execution was stopped and it was revealed that his sentence had been commuted to
katorga
Katorga ( rus, ка́торга, p=ˈkatərɡə; from medieval and modern Greek: ''katergon, κάτεργον'', "galley") was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union). Prisoner ...
. Durov, along with Fyodor Dostoevsky, was sent in chains to Omsk, where he was to spend 8 years in a convict colony and the rest of his life as a soldier in Siberia. That sentence was reduced to 4 years as a Prisoner by Nicholas I. The sentence only commenced when the convicts entered the Prison at Omsk. Dostoyevsky wrote about his experience as a convict in Omsk in his memoir-novel ''
Notes from the House of the Dead
''The House of the Dead'' (russian: Записки из Мёртвого дома, ''Zapiski iz Myortvovo doma'') is a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1860–2 in the journal '' Vremya'' by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It has also b ...
''.
After Durov's release he spent one year serving in the army as a soldier, then retired due to ill health and settled in Omsk. Having received permission to leave Siberia, he went to
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
and stayed at his friend Palm's house. There he died in 1869, after a long illness.
Legacy
As a poet, Durov was noticed by
Vissarion Belinsky
Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky ( rus, Виссарион Григорьевич БелинскийIn Belinsky's day, his name was written ., Vissarión Grigórʹjevič Belínskij, vʲɪsərʲɪˈon ɡrʲɪˈɡorʲjɪvʲɪdʑ bʲɪˈlʲinskʲ ...
who reviewed his "Molodik" poem (1844) positively, yet opined that the author was "notable more for his earnestness than talent." Influenced by
Lermontov
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (; russian: Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjurʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲɛrməntəf; – ) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucas ...
,
Baratynsky
Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky (russian: Евге́ний Абра́мович Бараты́нский, p=jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ɐˈbraməvʲɪtɕ bərɐˈtɨnskʲɪj, a=Yevgyeniy Abramovich Baratynskiy.ru.vorb.oga; 11 July 1844) was lauded by Alexan ...
and
Tyutchev
Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev ( rus, Фёдор Ива́нович Тю́тчев, r=Fyódor Ivánovič Tyútčev, links=1, p=ˈfʲɵdər ɪˈvanəvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈtʲʉt͡ɕːɪf; Pre-Reform orthography: ; – ) was a Russian poet and diplomat.
...
, Durov, according to biographer O.Bogdanova, still left several "really exciting pieces, marked by fine sparseness, energy and tightness." Durov translated many poems by
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
,
André Marie de Chénier
André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation o ...
,
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
,
Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...
and is credited with "being the first and, arguably, the best" Russian translator of
Henri Auguste Barbier
Henri Auguste Barbier (29 April 1805 – 13 February 1882) was a French dramatist and poet.
Barbier was born in Paris, France. He was inspired by the July Revolution and poured forth a series of eager, vigorous poems, denouncing the evils of the ...
. Durov's short stories had a strong "natural school" component. His sketches (with the exception of "The Auntie" and "Khalatnik") and novellas ("Somebody Else’s Child", "A Novel in Notes") were hardly original, according to Bogdanova.
While Sergey Durov's literary legacy is lean, the strength of his personality made a deep impression upon the people who knew him, particularly Petrashevsky's cohorts (Pleshcheev, N.Grigoriev, A.P.Milyukov) and members of his own circle (Ch.Valikhanov, G.N.Potanin,
Viktor Burenin
Viktor Petrovich Burenin (russian: Виктор Петрович Буренин, March 6 ebruary 22, o.s. 1841 in Moscow, Russian Empire – August 15, 1926 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) was a Russian literary and theatre critic, publicist, no ...
and others). He became the prototype of Rudkovsky (in Alexander Palm's novel ''Alexey Slobodin''), and Sornev (Pavel Kovalevsky's ''Life’s Summary''). Several poets, including Pleshcheev dedicated poems to Sergey Durov.
Select bibliography
* ''Somebody Else’s Child'' (Chuzhoye ditya, Чужое дитя. 1846, short novel)
* "Publius Sirus" (Публиус Сирус, 1847, short story)
* "Khalatnik" (Халатник, 1847, short story)
* "A Novel in Notes" (Roman v zapiskakh, Роман в записках, 1847)
* ''Auntie'' (Tyotinka, Тетинька, 1848, short novel)
* "A Sad Story With a Happy End" (Grustnaya povest s vesyolym kontsom, Грустная повесть с веселым концом, 1848, short novel)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Durov, Sergey
1816 births
1869 deaths
19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire
19th-century poets from the Russian Empire
19th-century writers from the Russian Empire
19th-century translators from the Russian Empire
Male writers from the Russian Empire
Poets from the Russian Empire
Translators from the Russian Empire
People from Oryol Governorate
Russian male poets
Russian political activists
Russian prisoners and detainees
Russian exiles in the Russian Empire