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Birth of Pyotr Pletnev, poet and critic
Pyotr Alexandrovich Pletnev, writer, poet and critic, professor of Russian literature, the rector of the University of St. Petersburg, one of Pushkin's friends, was born August 10 (21), 1792 in the province of Tver, in the family of a priest.
Pyotr Pletnev received his primary education in Tver theological seminary. Then he entered the Pedagogical Institute, after which he served in the Catherine and Patriotic Institutes, in military educational institutions. On the recommendation of V. A. Zhukovsky, from 1828 Pyotr taught literature to the heir to the throne Alexander II and the Grand Duchesses.
From 1832 to 1849, Pletnev had lectured as a professor of Russian literature at St. Petersburg University, where he had been the rector from 1840 to 1861. From 1841 he was a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
Pyotr’s literary career began in 1818: he wrote elegies, epistles, ballads. His first poem was influenced by N. M. Karamzin, V. A. Zhukovsky, K. N. Batyushkov. Literary and social position of Pletnev is expressed in historical elegies, "Derzhavin Tomb" (1819) and "Munnich" (1821), in his ode "Duty of a citizen" (1823), in the letters "To Viazemsky" (1822), "To N. I. Gnedich "(1822), "To Pushkin" (1822) and others.
In 1819, Pletnev joined the Free Society of Amateurs of Literature, Sciences and Arts and the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. He made friends with V. K. Kuchelbecker and A. A. Delwig; was one of the closest friends of Alexander Pushkin. Pletnev published almost all collected works of Alexander Pushkin, who dedicated his friend the novel "Eugene Onegin".
Pletnev’s activity as a critic was of greater importance. In his critical articles he raises the question of the national characteristics of literature, of the importance of folk elements, combining the development of these problems in the spirit of historical method, focusing on the formal side of the studied works. Pletnev was one of the first to give characteristic of Zhukovsky’s romanticism. Pyotr Alexandrovich was the author of the critical analysis of the works of N. V. Gogol, A. N. Ostrovsky, A. F. Pisemsky, of biographical essays devoted to Pushkin, Krylov, Zhukovsky, Baratynsky.
From the 1820s, Pletnev was engaged in publishing activities, participating in the publication of works by Ozerov, Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Gogol. From 1824, he helped Delvig in the publication of "Northern Flowers". After the death of Pushkin, from 1838 to 1846, Pletnev had edited the magazine "Contemporary" established by the poet.
In the autumn of 1861, quitting the post of rector, Pletnev was appointed chairman of two committees: on University management and on seeking measures and means to provide useful activity to persons excluded from the staff.
Pyotr A. Pletnev died after a long illness, December 29, 1865 (January 10, 1866) in Paris, and was buried in St. Petersburg, in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Lit.: Белошапкин Д. П. Петр Александрович Плетнёв, как литературный критик. [СПб]., 1904; Горбенко Е. П. П. А. Плетнёв — литературный деятель пушкинской эпохи. Краснодар, 1992; Переписка Я. К. Грота с П. А. Плетнёвым: В 3 т. СПб., 1896; Плетнёв П. А. Сочинения и переписка: В 3 т. СПб., 1885; Плетнёв П. А. Статьи, стихотворения, письма. М., 1988; Языков Д. Д. Пётр Александрович Плетнёв. М., 1896.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Плетнёв П. А. Сочинения и переписка П.А. Плетнёва. СПб., 1885. Т. 1;
Плетнёв П. А. Сочинения и переписка П.А. Плетнёва. СПб., 1885. Т. 2;
Плетнёв П. А. Сочинения и переписка П.А. Плетнёва. СПб., 1885. Т. 3.