Gavriil Derzhavin (1743–1816)

The collection marks the 275th anniversary of the birth of Gavriil Derzhavin – an outstanding representative of classicism in the Russian literature, an extraordinary and successful statesman. During his career he used to be the governor of Olonets and Tambov, personal secretary of Catherine II, Minister of Justice of Russia and resigned being the Senator and Active Privy Councillor.

Gavriil Derzhavin combined an active career of a statesman with literary work. In 1773 Derzhavin’s first poems came out, and it was after the publication of the "Ode to Felica" (1782), addressed to Catherine II, that he enjoyed widespread popularity. He created odes "God", "Let the thunder of victory sound" (an unofficial anthem of Russia), "The Grandee" and many other works of literature.

The collection includes materials focused on the state and public activities of Gavriil Derzhavin. These are digital copies of archival materials, in particular, the documents of the Senate Archive which highlight the case of the misuse of office of Kaluga Governor D. Lopukhin, and materials featuring the report of G. Derzhavin which reads that the persons involved in the case are found guilty. Being the member of the Imperial Russian Academy the poet contributed to the creation of the first academic explanatory dictionary of the Russian language available in the collection.

Digital copies of the poet’s works of literature, in particular, one of the first collected works, and publications presenting the analysis of his works are available as a part of the collection.

The collection comprises 74 items.

The collection is built up of archival documents, books, visual materials from the collections of the Russian State Historical Archive, The Russian State Library, The National Library of Russia, the Ural Federal University Library, the Fundamental Library of the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia and other sources.