Wilhelm Ludwig von Küchelbecker ( rus, Вильге́льм Ка́рлович Кюхельбе́кер, p=kʲʉxʲɪlʲˈbʲekʲɪr,
tr. ; in
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
– in
Tobolsk
Tobolsk (russian: Тобо́льск) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1590, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, and i ...
) was a Russian
Romantic poet and
Decembrist
The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Ale ...
revolutionary of German descent.
Born into a
Baltic German
Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...
noble family, he spent his childhood in what is now
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
and later attended the
Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum near
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
together with
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
and
Anton Delvig
Baron Anton Antonovich Delvig (russian: Анто́н Анто́нович Де́львигIn Delvig's day, his name was written Антонъ Антоновичъ Дельвигъ., Antón Antónovich Délʹvig, ɐnˈton ɐnˈtonəvʲɪtɕ ˈdelʲv ...
,
[For his Küchelbecker made a poem ''O Del'vig, Del'vig!'' which is cited by 9th movement of the Symphony No. 14 of ]Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
. with whom he became friends. In 1821, he went to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
to deliver courses in
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...
, but his activity was deemed too liberal by the Russian administration and Küchelbecker had to return to Russia.
He served in the
Caucasian War
The Caucasian War (russian: Кавказская война; ''Kavkazskaya vojna'') or Caucasus War was a 19th century military conflict between the Russian Empire and various peoples of the North Caucasus who resisted subjugation during the R ...
under
General Yermolov (with whose nephew he fought a duel) before launching the miscellany ''
Mnemozina
''Mnemozina'' ( rus, Мнемозина, p=mnʲɪmɐˈzʲinə) was a quarterly literary almanac, published in Moscow from 1824 to 1825. The full title in the Russian language is ''Мнемозина, собрание сочинений в стих ...
'' along with
Vladimir Odoevsky
Prince Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoyevsky (russian: Влади́мир Фёдорович Одо́евский, p=ɐˈdojɪfskʲɪj; Владимир Федорович Одоевский. Библиографический указатель. Энц ...
in 1824. Despite his German name, Küchelbecker was considered an ardent Russian patriot by his contemporaries, and though closely allied with the romanticists, he insisted on calling himself a literary conservative and a classicist.
D.S. Mirsky
D. S. Mirsky is the English pen-name of Dmitry Petrovich Svyatopolk-Mirsky (russian: Дми́трий Петро́вич Святопо́лк-Ми́рский), often known as Prince Mirsky ( – c. 7 June 1939), a Russian political and lit ...
characterizes him as "a
quixotic
Quixotic may refer to:
* Quixotism, deriving from the novel ''Don Quixote''
* ''Quixotic'' (album), an album by Martina Topley-Bird
* Quix*o*tic Quix*o*tic was a rock band active from 1997 to 2002 in the area of Washington, D.C., United States. T ...
figure, ridiculous in appearance and behaviour", but his personal friends had a warm affection for him.
Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
, who was one of his principal teasers, dedicated to him one of the most heartfelt stanzas of the ''Lyceum Anniversary'' of 1825.
As a poet, Küchelbecker had a
pantheist
Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ex ...
ic vision of the world but did not succeed in giving it a definite expression — his poetry is an inchoate world awaiting a builder. His best-known poem is the noble elegy on the death of Pushkin, a poem closing the
Golden Age of Russian Poetry Golden Age of Russian Poetry (or ''Age of Pushkin'') is the name traditionally applied by philologists to the first half of the 19th century. The most significant Russian poet Pushkin (in Nabokov's words, the greatest poet this world was blessed ...
. In his short prose piece "European Letters" (1820), a 26th-century American travels in Europe, which has fallen back into
barbarism
Barbarism, barbarity, or barbarous may refer to:
* Barbarism (linguistics), a non-standard word, expression, or pronunciation
** Hybrid words, formerly called "barbarisms"
* Any society construed as barbarian
** Barbarian invasions, a period of m ...
. In the satiric fragment "Land of the Headless" (Земля безглавцев, 1824), the protagonist travels to the Moon and finds a
dystopia
A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...
n state there.
During the doomed Decembrist Uprising, he made an attempt on the life of the tsar's brother
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
. Küchelbecker was sentenced to corporal punishment which was commuted to
imprisonment
Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is "false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessari ...
in
Sveaborg,
Kexholm
Priozersk (russian: Приозе́рск; fi, Käkisalmi; sv, Kexholm) is a town and the administrative center of Priozersky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the northwestern shore of Lake Ladoga, at the estuary of the northern a ...
, and other fortresses for ten years. After that he was exiled to
Kurgan
A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asi ...
. He died blind in
Tobolsk
Tobolsk (russian: Тобо́льск) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1590, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, and i ...
from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
. His most famous biography, ''Kyukhlya'', was written by
Yury Tynyanov
Yury Nikolaevich Tynyanov ( rus, Ю́рий Никола́евич Тыня́нов, p=ˈjʉrʲɪj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ tɨˈnʲænəf; October 18, 1894 – December 20, 1943) was a Soviet writer, literary critic, translator, scholar and scre ...
; its publication in 1925 marked a resurgence of interest in Küchelbecker and his art.
References
*
External links
Vilgelm Kyukhelbeker. PoemsKuchelbecker on www.imwerden.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuchelbecker, Wilhelm
1797 births
1846 deaths
Writers from Saint Petersburg
People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd
People from Kreis Wierland
Baltic-German people
Decembrists
Russian male poets
19th-century poets from the Russian Empire
19th-century male writers from the Russian Empire
Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum alumni
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis deaths in Russia
Russian people who died in prison custody
Pantheists
Prisoners who died in Russian detention
Prisoners of Shlisselburg fortress
Prisoners of the Peter and Paul Fortress