Konstantin Batyushkov’s letters from the Presidential Library's collections allow “following author’s beautiful soul”

May 29, 2019 marks 232 years since the birth of the poet Konstantin Nikolayevich Batyushkov (1787–1855), who became the forerunner of Pushkin and the poets of his generation, translator of Tasso, Montaigne, author of satirical writings and epigrams, a participant in three military campaigns where he proved himself a real hero of Fatherland.

The future poet was born in Vologda in an old noble family. At the age of 8 he lost his mother, and this loss left an indelible sorrowful imprint on the rest of his life. Being the beloved nephew of the educated trustee of the Moscow University, Mikhail Nikitich Muravyov, Batyushkov, beyond his years was introduced to the circle of the best writers of his time and acquired the friendship of such outstanding personalities as N. I. Karamzin, A. I. Turgenev, V. A. Zhukovsky, N. I. Gnedich, I. A. Krylov, and others. Young Batyushkov was fatherly loved in this brilliant society.

He was published in 1805 and after a couple of years he started a grandiose work - the translation of the poem of the 16th century Italian poet Torquato Tasso “The Liberated Jerusalem”. A separate chapter in his life is epistolary creativity. Batyushkov, being an officer, participated in foreign campaigns, then was invited to the diplomatic service, and often moved across Europe. “Most of his letters are rich in thoughts and information about modern literature and the state of the affairs of those days, so they can serve as material for our public history. Many of these letters remained scattered in various journals and collections, and only now appeared in full form; we now have the opportunity to follow author’s beautiful soul, behind all its sublime aspirations and inevitable weaknesses”, - writes J. Groth in the same article.  

In the poem “My Penates. The Message to Zhukovsky and Vyazemsky” Batyushkov appears with all the hopes of his age for a better future. Poems seemed filled with joy, glorifying the serene enjoyment of life, because, after reading Rousseau, Montaigne, Guys, Constantine considered himself among the true Epicureans.

Batyushkov entered the famous Arzamas society and, as one of his prominent representatives, received the nickname of Achilles. His associates particularly welcomed the satirical trend in the poetry of Batyushkov, who, without sparing the authorities, described their vulnerable sides. For example, he wrote about the fabulist Krylov, who loved to eat: "Krylov, forgetting everyday grief, / Went to dine straight to heaven". It was a time of epigrams, quickly transferred between the two capitals.

Not having abilities for military service and obeying only a sense of duty, Batyushkov in 1812 went to war with Napoleon, where he was seriously wounded. Before that, the poet participated in the Finnish campaign of 1809, and after the expulsion of Napoleon from Russia - in the foreign campaigns of the Russian army.

However, facing the realities of the Patriotic War of 1812 produced a complete revolution in the mind of the poet. “The terrible deeds... of the French in Moscow and its suburbs ... completely upset my little philosophy and quarreled with humanity", - he confessed in one of his letters to his literary fellow.

The cycle of Batyushkov's elegy of 1815 opens with a bitter complaint: “I feel my gift in poetry has gone out ...”; he is trying to find calm in faith. The fate of every poet is now perceived by Batyushkov as tragic. In the eyes of friends, the character and the spirit of the poet have changed. He was finally accepted into the Society of Lovers of Literature, sent under the patronage of Turgenev to serve in Naples - the city to which he had been striving for many years. “But this was not the unstable, ever-disturbing nature of Batyushkov, always looking for something and not finding any satisfaction”. He writes to Turgenev: “I know Italy, without having been there. I cannot find happiness; I am sure I will be sad about the snows of the motherland and about the people I find precious to me”.  

Batyushkov’s hopes that the climate of Italy will benefit him, did not come true. Batyushkov was treated in Germany, but it did not help: the nervous illness more and more passed into the stage of mental disorder.

“The activity of his graceful talent was interrupted not by a premature death, but by a serious illness that struck his brilliant mental abilities: in this illness, almost without progress, he spent about half of his seventy-year life”, - wrote Maikov.

Batyushkov died on July 19, 1855 in his family seat in Vologda.