Talented fabulist and librarian. The Presidential Library spotlighting Ivan Krylov’s life and career

February 13, 2022 marks another anniversary of the birth of Ivan Andreevich Krylov. He is known to many as a classic of Russian literature, publisher, publicist, playwright, poet and famous fabulist. And few people know that for 29 years, from 1812 to 1841, Ivan Krylov worked as a librarian.

Krylov's path to national fame and love, to recognition and success was not easy. “Krylov’s biography still remains with many gaps”, - noted the philologist and teacher Pyotr Smirnovsky in the textbook The History of Russian Literature of the Nineteenth Century (1902), citing the words of Professor Kirpichnikov: “The accuracy of information about Krylov is only apparent”.

The future fabulist was born into the family of a poor army captain, after whose death, as the literary critic and writer Vladislav Kenevich wrote in the article Ivan Andreevich Krylov (1904), “the poverty that visited his family forced his mother to assign her son to the service. And so, 14-year-old Krylov, barely able to hold a pen in his hand, instead of school, goes to the magistrate with the rank of clerk”.

He began his literary work as a playwright. “From childhood, he felt a special desire for dramatic art; they looked at the opera then as the most perfect performance, and the boy Krylov boldly sets about composing an opera. Then he tries himself in a tragic way, and finally moves on to comedy”, - wrote Academician Yakov Grot in the publication Krylov’s Literary Life (1868). Since 1789, Krylov turned to journalism (the satirical magazines "Mail of Spirits", "Spectator", etc.) and to poetry, and only in 1805 did he present three fables to the famous fabulist Ivan Dmitriev - translations from La Fontaine.

Real fame came to Krylov in 1809, when 23 of his fables were first published as a separate edition.

Fables brought Krylov closer to Alexei Olenin, a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, an honorary member of the Academy of Arts, in whose house the fabulist became a regular. In 1811, Olenin was appointed director of the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg, and in January 1813 a case appeared "on the proposal of the director of the Public Library to appoint ... titular adviser Krylov as an assistant librarian".

According to the critic, Professor Pyotr Pletnev in the collection Ivan Krylov. Selected Works (1899), the positions of librarians and their assistants in the Public Library were entrusted mainly to persons well-known in literature, so that “the translator of the Iliad Gnedich, an expert in Slavic philology of the East, the first Russian bibliographer Sopikov, the translator of Iphigenia and “ Phaedra "Rasina Lobanov". Krylov became Sopikov’s assistant in the Russian department, and after his resignation in 1816, he received his position and apartment “across the house from the main library building”, “on the middle floor, on the corner to Nevsky Prospekt”, where he lived for almost 30 years until his resignation.

Krylov did a lot for the development of the library, as evidenced by his repeated promotions and salary increases. In many ways, it was thanks to his efforts that the Russian Book Foundation was created. Krylov made a number of improvements in book arrangement and reader service. In particular, Brilliant remarked that, "gifted with inventions, he brought here special cases for flying publications". His role is also great in cataloging - he introduced a system of ciphers, a description of books under a collective author. It is possible that it was the responsible work with books in the library, which provided him with a calm and comfortable life, that also contributed to the flourishing of his fable creativity.

“Krylov owes all his glory to the fables he wrote in the last 30 years of his life. Everyone knows them, everyone at one time taught them by heart; this is the most popular Russian book, their heroes are also depicted on the monument to Krylov, the only national monument erected to the writer in St. Petersburg”, - said Yakov Grot.

Krylov’s works of various genres are presented in the Oeuvre section of the collection of the Presidential Library Ivan Krylov (1769–1844). Both the complete works of the writer and individual editions of his fables are freely available. Other sections of the collection include digital copies of books, research and biographical publications, scholarly articles, archival documents, and pictorial materials.