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Birth of Leonid P. Belsky, known Russian poet, writer, translator, literary critic
April 15 (27), 1855 in the town of Korotoyak (toaday - the Voronezh Region), was born Leonid Petrovich Belsky, famous Russian poet, writer, translator and literary critic.
In 1863-1866, Leonid Belsky studied at the Voronezh district school. In 1866, his family moved to Moscow, and Leonid continued his studies at the German School of Peter and Paul Fortress, at the 4th school of Moscow, and finally at the Moscow University (from 1874).
In 1887, Belsky was promoted to privat-docent of Russian language and literature at Moscow University; he became a member of the Society of Russian literature at the University of Moscow, the Moscow Committee of literacy.
Leonid wrote poetry, short stories, mostly for children, published poetic expositions of Russian fairy tales ("Three pennies," "The Tale of the Frog Princess"), but in the history of literature he came down as a translator of the Karelian-Finnish epic "Kalevala".
Karelian-Finnish epic "Kalevala" - an epic poem created by Elias Lönnrot, a prominent Finnish literary figure, scientist, poet, whose main occupation was medicine, from the different genres of Karelian and Finnish folk songs collected in the Russian and Finnish Karelia. Since its release, the world-famous Karelian-Finnish epic "Kalevala" has attracted attention with its perfect form and humanistic content. This is an invaluable source of information about everyday life and beliefs northern peoples.
Belsky first learned about "Kalevala" through Academician F. I. Buslayev. He motivated Leonid Petrovich to study the Finnish language in order to translate the epic. Belsky wrote: "We decided to undertake such a hard task as the translation of "Kalevala" due to the importance of the Finnish national epic in a series of works by other nations and the lack of a complete translation of the "Kalevala" into Russian." Having reviewed the scientific literature about the epic, Belsky began to translate at the age of 26, and finished it 5 years later, in 1886.
A full translation of the poem from Finnish to Russian, carried out by Leonid Petrovich, was published in the "Pantheon of literature" in 1888, and was released as a single edition in 1889. The Imperial Academy of Sciences, praising the work of Belsky, awarded him the highest honor - Minor Pushkin Prize.
In 1905, Belsky made an abridged translation of the epic for young people, and in 1915 he published a second revised and expanded edition of the "Kalevala" - the last lifetime edition. Belsky’s translation has become a classic. In total, it has been reprinted more than 10 times.
In 1915, poet V. Brusov wrote in the "Russian Gazette": "Translation of 22, 000 verses, from the language whose structure is completely alien to Russian, is, there is no doubt, a feat worthy of appreciation of our entire society."
Lit.: Карху Э. Г. «Калевала» // Карелия : энциклопедия. В 3 т. Т. 2. К-П. Петрозаводск, 2009. С. 6-8; Калевала — памятник мировой культуры : библиогр. указ. / [сост. Н. А. Прушинская]. Петрозаводск, 1993; Калевала — памятник мировой культуры : указ. лит. / [сост.: О. П. Кошкина и др.]. Петрозаводск, 1974.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
The material provided by the National Library of the Republic of Karelia