Birthday anniversary of Nikolai V. Gerbel, poet-translator, publisher

November 26 (December 8) 1827, in Tver, in the family of Lieutenant-General of Artillery, veteran of Napoleonic Wars, Vasily V. Gerbel was born famous poet, translator, literary critic, editor, librarian, editor Nikolai Gerbel.

Primary education Nikolai received at home, and then was taken to Kiev and sent to the Noble boarding school under the 1st Kiev gymnasium. Upon graduation Gerbel entered the Nezhinskii Lyceum of Prince A. A. Bezborodko. There, he wrote a thesis on "The detailed analysis of verbal works of Sumarokov and Lomonosov, and the overall conclusion about the nature and status of Russian literature from Peter the Great to Catherine II», for which he was awarded a silver medal.

After the Lyceum, Gerbel served in the Izium Hussar Regiment, took part in the Hungarian campaign. In 1851, Nikolai was transferred to the Imperial Guard Lancers, located in St Petersburg. In 1859, he retired in the rank of staff-captain. In St. Petersburg, Gerbel contributed to such magazines as "Sovremennik" (Russian “Contemporary”), “Biblioteka dlya Chteniya” (Russian "Library for Reading") and "Otechestvennye Zapiski (Russian: “Patriotic Notes"), which published his poems, translations, bibliographies.

Gerbel gained great fame as a poet, translator and publisher. In 1854, he released a verse translation of "The Song of Igor's Campaign" under the name "Igor, Prince Seversky" published twice in 1855 and in 1876. In 1857-1880 Nikolai prepared and published the collected works of F. Schiller, G. Byron, W. Shakespeare, E. T. A. Hoffmann, I. V. Goethe in translations of Russian writers. In addition, he published the collected works of N. V. and A. V. Berg, A. V. Druzhinin, I. S. Kreshev and D. M. Mikhailovsky.

In the free press abroad Gerbel released the prohibited in Russia poems by A. S. Pushkin, K. F. Ryleev and M. Yu. Lermontov, as well as the "Collected Poems of Decembrists." Gerbel translated the works of Ukrainian poets (T. G. Shevchenko, I. P. Kotlyarevsky, E. P. Grebyonka, etc.), Polish poets (A. Mickiewicz, A. S. Narushevich), Bulgarian poets, Ukrainian and Belarusian folk songs. He also compiled the following readers: "Poetry of the Slavs" (1871), "Russian poets in biographies and samples" (1873), "English poets" (1875), "German poets" (1877).

Gerbel’s translated and original poems were published in 1858 under the title "Echoes", and in 1882 was released "The collected poems." Gerbel had written biographical and bibliographical essays about his classmates from Nezhinskii Lyceum, as well as historical monographs - "Nezhin" (1852), "Suburban Izyumsky Cossack Regiment" (St. Petersburg, 1852), etc.

Nikolai Herbel died in St. Petersburg, 8 (20) March 1883.

Lit.: Дмитриев Л. А. Гербель Николай Васильевич // Энциклопедия «Слова о полку Игореве». СПб., 1995. Т. 2. Г-И. С. 20-22; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://feb-web.ru/feb/slovenc/es/es2/es2-0201.htm; Тарасенко И. Н., Хохлачёв В. В. Издательская деятельность Н. В. Гербеля // Книга. Исследования и материалы. М., 1974. Вып. 28.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Гербель Н. В. Изюмский слободской казачий полк: 1651-1765. СПб., 1852;

Гербель Н. В. На двухсотлетие Изюмского гусарского полка: [Стихотворение]. СПб., 1851.