Декабристы. Эстетика и критика

Our time is characterized by unprecedented interest in the Decembrists, unprecedented both in intensity and in the variety of forms of its manifestation. The reader’s interest in the aesthetics of the Decembrists, which is a genuine phenomenon, is also natural. The proposed collection gives a complete and comprehensive understanding of the attitude of the three leading representatives of Decembrist aesthetics - A.A. Bestuzhev, V.K. Kuchelbecker, K.F. Ryleev - not only to literature, but also to painting, sculpture, music, theater. About half of this material has never been reprinted since the first publications in periodicals in the 1820s and is practically inaccessible to the general reader

Alexander Alexandrovich Bestuzhev (October 23 [November 3] 1797, St. Petersburg - July 7 [19] 1837, Fort of the Holy Spirit, now the Adler microdistrict of the city of Sochi) - Russian Byronic writer, critic, publicist of the era romanticism and the Decembrist, who came from the Bestuzhev family. Published under the pseudonym "Marlinsky". For participation in the Decembrist conspiracy in 1825 he was exiled to Yakutsk, and from there in 1829 he was transferred to the Caucasus as a soldier. Participating in many battles here, he received the rank of non-commissioned officer and the St. George Cross, and then was promoted to ensign. Killed in a skirmish with highlanders in the forest on Cape Adler; his body was not found. Wilhelm Karlovich von Kuchelbecker (10 [21] June 1797, St. Petersburg - 11 [23] August 1846, Tobolsk, West Siberian General Government) - Russian poet and public figure, friend of Pushkin and Baratynsky, classmate of Pushkin at the Tsarskoe Selo Lyceum, collegiate assessor, Decembrist. Wilhelm Karlovich Kuchelbecker died of consumption on August 11 (23), 1846 in Tobolsk, Tobolsk province of the West Siberian General Government, now in the Tyumen region. He was on the move until his death, and the day before his death he walked around the room and talked about how, despite the bad weather, he felt somehow especially good. Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev (September 18 [September 29] 1795, the village of Batovo, Gatchina district, St. Petersburg province - July 13 [25] 1826, Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg) - Russian poet, public figure, Decembrist, one of the five executed leaders of the Decembrist uprising of 1825. His last words on the scaffold addressed to the priest P. N. Myslovsky were: “Father, pray for our sinful souls, do not forget my wife and bless your daughter.” Ryleev was one of the three whose rope broke. He fell inside the scaffold and was hanged again some time later. According to some sources, it was Ryleev who said before his second execution: “An unfortunate country where they don’t even know how to hang you” (sometimes these words are attributed to P.I. Pestel or S.I. Muravyov-Apostol). Condition: Very good