Date of birth: February 13, 1769
Date of death: November 9, 1844
Place of birth: Moscow
Ivan Krylov- an outstanding Russian writer and fabulist. Ivan Andreevich Krylov born on February 13, 1769 in Moscow. His childhood years could not be called rich; his father was a very poor military man and received the rank of officer only after 13 years of service.
His mother also came from a simple family and was a very pious and calm woman. After Andrei Prokhorovich Krylov retired, the whole family moved to Tver to live with Krylov’s grandmother.
It is worth noting that the plight of his family was the reason that the boy could not receive an education and learned to read and write almost independently; perseverance and work made him one of the most enlightened writers of his time.
His father died quite early, leaving the family without the opportunity to lead a full life. Krylov's childhood ended immediately; he immediately got a job as a scribe at the Tver court at the age of 10. This was clearly not enough for the family to exist, and therefore his mother decided to move to St. Petersburg in order to receive a pension from the state.
Life in St. Petersburg:
The capital of Russia did not give them a carefree life; the mother never managed to receive government support. Krylov managed to build the office of the Treasury Chamber, at the same time he began to actively write. It is worth noting that his very first plays became popular in the secular society of St. Petersburg. His few but successful productions immediately made him a prominent figure in the theater world of the Northern capital.
The funds earned were enough to open his own literary magazine. Each of his enterprises in literature was an injection for the authorities; a lot of satire and wit made the long-term existence of his printed publications impossible. Contrary to censorship instructions, after one magazine was closed, he immediately opened a new one.
This regime of constant resistance to censorship could not last forever, and after some time Krylov went on a trip to Russia. He devoted a little less than 10 years to constantly moving between different cities, towns and villages, visited almost every province, lived in Ukraine, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov and Tambov.
Observations of the life of the Russian people and the life of different strata of society allowed him to accumulate a huge amount of material for his fables. The authorities remembered his rebellious past and each of his works was under the strictest control of censorship.
Theaters:
After the death of Catherine II, Krylov got a job as S. Golitsyn’s personal secretary, he also raised the prince’s offspring. Here, in the prince’s home theater, he staged a small tragicomedy “Triumph, or Podschipa.” A little later, in 1801, his comedies “Fashion Shop”, “Pie” and “Lesson for Daughters” also became available to the public.
In 1812, Krylov became head of the Public Library and devoted 30 years to this department. He was engaged in the classification of books, carefully collected a wide variety of books, and compiled an extensive Slavic-Russian dictionary.
Personal life:
Officially, Krylov was never married. However, many believed that his cook's daughter Sasha was his own daughter. After the death of the servant, he raised Sasha himself, gave a dowry for her, and also bequeathed all his property and literary heritage to his husband. Ivan Andreevich died on November 9, 1844; the causes of his death have not yet been precisely established. Perhaps he died from a volvulus or suffered severe pneumonia. He rests in the Tikhvin cemetery.
Krylov became the pioneer of the fable genre for Russian literature, raised pressing moral issues that are relevant to this day, made a huge contribution to the development of the public library, expanding the collection to include rare books, and compiled a huge dictionary of Slavic languages.
The main milestones in the life of Ivan Krylov:
Born on February 2 in Moscow
- Moved to Tver in 1775
- Started working as a scribe in the local court after the death of his father in 1779
- Moved to the Northern capital with his mother in 1782
- Production of the comedy "Coffee Shop"
- Release of the tragedies "Cleopatra" and "Philomela" from 1785 to 1786
- Work on the famous comedy "Pranksters" from 1787 to 1788
- Death of mother in 1788
- Opening, closing and constant reform of the magazines “Mail of Spirits”, “Spectator”, “St. Petersburg Mercury” from 1789 to 1793
- Great journey through Russia from 1791 to 1801
- Return to the capital, staging several plays from 1797 to 1807
- Publication of the first collection of Krylov’s fables in 1809
- Membership in the Russian Academy in 1811
- Started work as a librarian at the Imperial Public Library in 1823
- Publication of a two-volume set of Krylov’s fables in three languages in 1825
- Retirement from public service in 1941 and receiving the title of academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences
- Death November 9, 1844
Interesting facts from the life of Ivan Krylov:
Wing had an excellent appetite; there is an anecdote about how he once ate ten pies, was surprised by their terrible taste, saw mold in the pan with them and still ate the rest
- He was a lover of fires and tried not to miss one in St. Petersburg
- Krylov adored his sofa and could lie on it for a long time without getting up; his lifestyle became the prototype for Goncharov’s creation of Oblomov
- Krylov was very passionate, he lost and won entire fortunes at cards, he was even exiled from both capitals for this hobby
- He was a fan of cockfighting and attended all such events
- Krylov was a huge man, very obese, but at the same time he reacted very easily to criticism and could always answer even more wittily
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Biography, life story of Ivan Andreevich Krylov
Ivan Andreevich Krylov was born in 1769 on February 2 (February 13 according to the new calendar style) in Moscow. His father's name was Andrei Prokhorovich Krylov. The years of my father’s life were 1736 - 1778. He was a captain and served in the Yaitsky town during the Pugachev uprising. Little Ivan Andreevich was with his mother in Orenburg at that time. During this period of his life, Ivan Andreevich most of all remembered the famine, as well as the moment when several cannonballs landed in their yard. Since the rank of Ivan’s father was of great importance at that time, the name of Krylova and her son were then found in documents with a schedule of who was to be hanged and on which street.
By 1774, Ivan Andreevich's father resigned and began living in Tver. There he worked as chairman of the provincial magistrate. After the death of his father, Ivan Andreevich’s mother fell into severe poverty; she had to work part-time in rich houses. She also managed to persuade the local authorities to hire nine-year-old Ivan, who was educated at home. The job consisted of copying business papers.
By 1782, Ivan moved with his mother to St. Petersburg. There he began working in the clerical department in the Treasury Chamber, and also began to get involved in theater. Under the influence of the theater and acquaintance with people close to the theater, Ivan Andreevich created his first work. It was an opera in verse called "The Coffee House". It was not performed on stage and was not published. It can be noted that Ivan Andreevich Krylov’s start to work in the literary field was unsuccessful. The next work, entitled “Cleopatra,” suffered the same fate as the previous work. Krylov never managed to break into the ranks of recognized authors.
By 1788, Krylov had written a satire called “The Prankster.” In this work, Ivan Andreevich spoke very harshly towards his critics and, in connection with this, his good friends from the theater Knyazhnin and Simonov broke off relations with him. Krylov's fables, published in 1788, were included in the magazine "Morning Hours". These were his first fables, and they also did not go unnoticed. Then Ivan Andreevich decided to publish a magazine called “Mail of Spirits”. This magazine soon became banned by censorship. But Krylov did not give up.
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By 1792, Ivan Andreevich, together with such personalities as Klushin, Dmitriev and Plavilshchikov, began publishing a new magazine called “The Spectator”. In May 1792, this magazine was also closed.
At that time, Ivan Andreevich Krylov moved away from literature. He wanted to find at least some source of income and very soon decided. It was a card game. He was extremely lucky in this matter. He was considered both a master and a magician of this business. It is not known how it would have ended, but by the beginning of 1797, Ivan Andreevich met S.F. Golitsyn. and became close friends with him. Golitsyn suggested that Ivan Andreevich take the position of his personal secretary, as well as a home teacher. The estate of Prince Golitsyn was located in the Cossack village, in the Kyiv province. Ivan Andreevich began to spend a long time there. He knew several languages and began to teach the prince’s sons the art of speech and different languages. Especially for the family theater in the Golitsyns’ house, Ivan Andreevich created a clownish tragedy called “Trumph or Podschipa.” In this production, Krylov played the role of Trump (he was an arrogant German prince).
In March 1801 there was a palace coup. Afterwards, Alexander I found himself on the Russian throne. Prince Golitsyn was in great confidence of Alexander I and was appointed by him as the Livonian governor-general, and the prince’s secretary was appointed to the leadership of the chancellery. Krylov served in Riga for several years, then, in the fall of 1803, he moved to Serpukhov, where his brother Lev Andreevich lived. Lev Andreevich was an officer in the Oryol Musketeer Regiment.
At this time, in St. Petersburg, Ivan Andreevich’s play called “Pie” was staged for the first time on stage. This play was a great success. Krylov was inspired by this event and decided to return to literary work again. He wrote new plays called “Fashion Shop”, as well as “Lazy Man”. Krylov also translated some of La Fontaine's fables.
At this time, Krylov decided to return to St. Petersburg. Since then, the great fabulist has settled in this city forever.
By 1809, the first collection of Krylov's fables was published. It brought the author real success and fame. And by 1811, the next collection called “New Fables of Ivan Krylov” was published, then a collection called “Fables of Ivan Krylov” appeared, which consisted of three parts. By 1816, the fabulist’s next work was published, entitled “New Fables of I. A. Krylov,” which made up the next two parts (fourth and fifth) of his previous work; by 1819, the sixth part appeared, and by 1830, the next two.
In 1812, the Public Library was opened in St. Petersburg. In it, Krylov held the position of assistant to V. Sonikov, the first Russian bibliographer.
Nicholas I, after the publication of Krylov’s eight-volume work by 1930, doubled the writer’s pension and called him into the ranks of state councilors. For some time, Krylov was even invited to small dinners with the empress herself. True, then he spoke very unflatteringly, since the portions of dishes served to the table seemed very meager to Ivan Andreevich. V.V. Veresaev later recalled that all the pleasure in life and all the bliss for Ivan Andreevich lay in food.
In his last years of life, Ivan Andreevich was constantly unwell; his excess weight further aggravated the writer’s health. A few hours before his death, Ivan Andreevich asked to be placed in a chair, but then, explaining that it was hard for him, he asked to lie down again.
Ivan Andreevich’s last order before his death was a request that all people who knew the writer be given a copy of the fabulist’s new work.
Ivan Andreevich Krylov passed away in St. Petersburg in 1844 on November 9; according to the new calendar style, this day falls on the 21st. Many of his friends received a copy of the fables he published with an invitation to Krylov’s funeral. On these works of the writer it was written that this copy is an offering in memory of Ivan Andreevich Krylov at his request.
Krylov Ivan Andreevich (1769-1844), Russian writer, fabulist, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1841). He published satirical magazines “Mail of Spirits” (1789) and others. He wrote tragedies and comedies, opera librettos. In 1809-43 he created more than 200 fables, imbued with a democratic spirit, distinguished by satirical sharpness, bright and apt language. They exposed social and human vices. N.V. Gogol called Krylov’s fables “... the book of wisdom of the people themselves.”
Father - Andrei Prokhorovich Krylov - an army officer who rose from the ranks. During the Pugachev rebellion, he led the defense of the Yaitsky town (he owned the anonymously published note “Defense of the Yaik Fortress from the Rebel Party,” the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, No. 52-53, 1824). Krylov spent his early childhood in the Yaitsky town; during the riot he was with his mother, Maria Alekseevna, in Orenburg. In 1775, Andrei Prokhorovich retired from military service and entered the chamber of the criminal court of the Tver governorship. The family was constantly in need, and the father soon died (1778). Krylov, out of mercy, studied with the home teachers of the Lvov family, and took French lessons from the tutor of the governor’s children.
From adolescence, the future writer, helping a family that had lost its breadwinner, served in the Kalyazin Zemstvo Court, then in the Tver Magistrate. Krylov moved to St. Petersburg in 1782 with the Lvovs. From 1783 he served in the Treasury Chamber in St. Petersburg and was actively engaged in self-education. In addition to French, he learned to read and write German and Italian. He played the violin well, learned music theory, and understood mathematics. At the Lvovs and, possibly, at the playwright Ya. B. Knyazhnin, Krylov met almost everyone, a rather narrow circle of writers and art connoisseurs of that time, including G. R. Derzhavin and his wife, who patronized Krylov.
No documents have been preserved from most of the events in Krylov’s life; they are reconstructed from the memoirs of contemporaries; much can only be said speculatively.
He began his literary career as a playwright (the comic opera “The Coffee House”, 1782, the tragedies “Cleopatra”, “Philomena”, the comedies “The Mad Family”, “The Writer in the Hallway”, etc., 1786-1788). Contrary to the overwhelming majority of plays of that time, the last two were based on Russian material contemporary to the author. In “The Mad Family”, violent love passions were ridiculed (a dangerous subject, given the well-known temperament of Catherine II), and in “The Writer in the Hallway” - a writer humiliatingly groveling before the powers that be. Krylov became close to the leading actor of the Russian St. Petersburg troupe I. A. Dmitrievsky, playwright and actor P. A. Plavilshchikov. But at the end of the 1780s. Krylov composed the comedy “Pranksters”, where, under the name of Rhythmokrad, he ridiculed the playwright Ya. B., Knyazhnin and his wife, daughter of A. P. Sumarokov. For this pamphlet, Krylov was excommunicated from the theater following a complaint from Prince. In 1788, Krylov resigned from the Mountain Expedition, leaving public service for many years.
He begins to engage in journalism. As a journalist and publisher, Krylov continued the traditions of N.I. Novikov, and as a thinker - the traditions of the philosophers of the Enlightenment. Krylov established friendly relations with the publisher I. G. Rachmaninov, whose printing house published the collected works of Voltaire and magazines in which Krylov began to collaborate. In 1789, Krylov began publishing the satirical magazine “Mail of Spirits” at Rachmaninov’s printing house. The magazine, in the form of correspondence between gnomes, sylphs and other spirits, gave a broad satirical picture of Russian society during the time of Catherine. The magazine was banned (last issue - March 1790), perhaps due to increased strictness due to the revolution of 1789 in France, and perhaps due to the persistent emphasis on the dangerous topic of the “old coquette”. Together with Dmitrievsky, Plavilshchikov and playwright A.I. Klushin, in 1791 Krylov founded a book publishing company, which, with the assistance of Rachmaninov, in 1792 Krylov published the magazine “Spectator”, in 1793 - “St. Petersburg Mercury”. Here he also acted as an exposer of the damaged morals of society, but in a softer form, moving from satire to moralizing. The company also opened its own bookstore. The magazine was banned due to general censorship restrictions, and there is evidence that the empress herself spoke with Krylov.
In 1794, apparently because of the story with the magazine, Krylov moved to Moscow (and his friend Klushin went abroad). Since the autumn of 1795, he was prohibited from living in the capitals (but there is only indirect evidence of this), his name disappears from the pages of the press. In 1797, Krylov became a personal secretary to General Prince S. F. Golitsyn. After the sudden disgrace of General Krylov, he voluntarily followed his master into exile and until 1801 was a companion of the exiled family, giving Russian language lessons to his younger children and their friends. From October 1801 to September 1803, Krylov was the head of the affairs of the chancellery of Golitsyn, who was appointed Governor-General of Livonia after the accession of Alexander I. The departure from literary activity for “external” reasons coincided with a deep internal change experienced by Krylov: from now on he no longer believes in the possibility of remaking a person Literature, while maintaining devotion to the ideas of the Enlightenment, prefers practical peasant experience to bookish ideals.
In 1800, for the amateur theater of the Golitsyns, the “joke tragedy” “Podschipa, or Trump” was written - a parody of both the “high” tragedy of the Enlightenment and Karamzin’s sentimentalism, which was beginning to come into fashion. The play satirically depicts the conflict between Western civilization (represented by Trump) and Russian patriarchy, with the author ridiculing and rejecting both. “Podshchipa” was submitted by the author to the censorship in 1807, but was banned, however, and without publication it became one of the most popular Russian plays, spreading in lists. In 1800, Krylov began the poetic comedy “Lazy” (not finished), in which he declared conscious non-participation in public life - the cherished position of the author.
After Riga, Krylov moved to Moscow, where his new plays were staged here and in St. Petersburg (“Pie”, 1802; in 1807 - the comedy “Fashion Shop”, “A Lesson for Daughters”). The plays were a resounding success and remained in the repertoire until the mid-19th century. They are devoid of any didactics, although in the spirit of the times they ridicule the passion for everything foreign and excessive sentimentality.
The first publication of Krylov's fables (“The Oak and the Cane,” “The Picky Bride”) took place in 1805. These were translations from La Fontaine. In 1806, Krylov moved to St. Petersburg, where he participated in the production of his plays. He has had a close relationship for several years with actress A.I. Belye. He became a regular at A. N. Olenin's salon, serving under his command in 1808-10 in the Coinage Department, from 1812, when Olenin became director of the Public Library, Krylov was appointed assistant librarian, from 1816 - librarian with an apartment at the library. An archaist in his literary views, a participant in the “Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word” by A. S. Shishkov, a supporter of classicism and heir to the fabulists of the 18th century. (A.I. Sumarokova and others), Krylov is at the same time the creator of a realistic fable, and - more broadly - together with Griboyedov and Pushkin, stands at the origins of the literature of Russian realism.
In 1809, the first book of Krylov's fables was published. In total, he wrote about 200 fables (the latest and most complete edition, a collection in 9 books, was published in December 1843, it entered the book trade later, and part of the edition was distributed free of charge at the writer’s funeral). Many works (for example, “Dragonfly and Ant”, “Wolf and Lamb”, etc.) go back to models borrowed from Aesop, Phaedrus, La Fontaine. However, the realistic convincingness of the images, the severity of the conflict between the demands of morality and hypocrisy, self-interest, cruelty, cowardice, as well as the realism of the language make us see in Krylov an original artist, a reformer of the fable genre. Krylov's fable is devoid of dry moralizing; the moral conclusion contained in it is an expression of common sense, embodied in the forms of living spoken language. Thanks to these qualities, many sayings from Krylov’s fables entered the Russian language as sayings [“And the Casket just opened” (“Casket”), “It’s your fault that I want to eat” (“The Wolf and the Lamb”), “But only things are still there” (“Swan, Pike and Cancer”) and many others. etc.]. The rapprochement of Krylov’s works with living speech was facilitated by his use of free Russian iambic (with the exception of the fable “The Dragonfly and the Ant” of 1808, written in trochee tetrameter).
Many of Krylov’s fables relate to the most significant events in the social and political life of Russia (“Quartet”, 1811, “Swan, Pike and Cancer”, 1816 - responses to problems in the activities of the State Council; “Cat and Cook”, “Wolf in the Kennel”, “ Crow and Hen" and others - on the events of the Patriotic War of 1812; "Dog Friendship", 1815 - on disagreements among members of the Holy Alliance, etc.).
The satirical pathos of Krylov's fables was noted by the Decembrist A. A. Bestuzhev (Marlinsky); V. Zhukovsky and A. S. Pushkin spoke about the natural originality and national character of Krylov’s work, comparing him with La Fontaine; V. G. Belinsky mentioned the enrichment of the genre possibilities of Krylov’s fable (“... this is a story, a comedy, a humorous essay, an evil satire...”, Complete collection of works, 1955, p. 575).
V. A. Zhukovsky responded to the first collection of fables with an extensive article in the “Bulletin of Europe” (1809). Highly appreciating the innovation of Krylov's language, Zhukovsky nevertheless reproached him for using “rude” figures of speech. However, for many contemporaries, from Pushkin to Bolgarin, it was the “rude” language, combined with a “simple” view of things, that was evidence of Krylov’s radical transformation of the principles of Russian poetics. Krylov's fables quickly became widely known; already in 1824 a two-volume set of his fables, translated into French and Italian, was published in Paris. This was followed by translations into most European languages.
Krylov himself, the further he went, the more he was perceived by his contemporaries as a kind of literary character. The writer himself pointedly distanced himself from all social events; in society he deliberately emphasized his vices (laziness, gluttony, sloppiness, passion for cards). Already in the 1820s. He became the character of numerous jokes, however, always benevolent. Until his old age, however, he continued to educate himself: he studied ancient Greek and took English lessons. He was appreciated and accepted in the most distant literary circles in his views. According to some reports, Pushkin visited Krylov shortly before the duel; he, according to contemporaries, was the last person to say goodbye to the body of the great poet at the funeral service.
The official recognition of Krylov by the court can only be compared with the recognition of Karamzin and Zhukovsky: in February 1812 he was awarded a lifelong pension, in 1820 he received the Order of St. Vladimir IV degree, in 1838 - Stanislav II degree, in 1830, in violation of the rules (Krylov did not have a university education and did not pass the exam), the writer was awarded the rank of state councilor. In 1838, the authorities and the public solemnly celebrated Krylov's anniversary - the 70th anniversary of his birth and the 50th anniversary of literary activity. In 1841, Krylov left the service and settled with the family of his “adopted goddaughter” (most likely his own daughter).
Krylov became the first writer to whom a monument was erected in Russia by subscription: on May 12, 1855, a monument by P. K. Klodt to “Grandfather Krylov” was erected in the Summer Garden in St. Petersburg.
Ivan Andreevich Krylov- famous Russian writer, fabulist, journalist, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
I. A. Krylov was born on February 13, 1769 in Moscow in the family of a retired officer. The writer's childhood years were spent in Tver and the Urals. He never received an education. Ivan Andreevich Krylov taught himself literacy, reading, French and Italian, mathematics and literature. Possessing exceptional abilities, reading a lot from childhood, persistently and persistently engaged in self-education, Krylov became one of the most enlightened people of his time.
The Krylov family lived very poorly. As a teenager, I. A. Krylov was forced to join the office of the zemstvo court as a sub-clerk.
In 1782 Krylov moves to St. Petersburg, where he gets a job as a minor official in the Treasury Chamber.
In 1777-1790 a young writer tries his hand at the dramatic field. At the age of 14, Ivan Krylov wrote the libretto for the opera “The Coffee House,” in which he showed the morals of provincial landowners. In 1786 - 1788 his comedies “The Mad Family”, “The Pranksters”, “The Writer in the Hallway” appeared, but they were not successful.
In 1789 Krylov publishes the magazine "Mail of Spirits", in which he publishes satirical messages exposing the abuses of government officials.
In 1792 I. A. Krylov resigns, publishes the satirical magazine "Spectator", and in the same year his story "Kaib" is published. Krylov is actively engaged in political satire. His work displeased Catherine II, and Ivan Andreevich had to leave St. Petersburg for a while and live in Moscow and Riga.
In 1791 - 1801 Ivan Krylov retired from journalism, visited Tambov, Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod, and Ukraine.
After the death of Catherine II, Krylov managed to enter the service of Prince S. Golitsyn as a personal secretary and teacher of his children. Soon he writes the anti-government comic tragedy "Subtype, or Triumph."
In 1801 Krylov completed the comedy "Pie".
In 1805, Ivan Andreevich Krylov translates La Fontaine's fables.
In 1806 I. A. Krylov returned to St. Petersburg, where he established new literary connections, wrote the comedies “Fashionable Shop” (1806) and “Lesson for Daughters” (1807).
In 1808 17 of Krylov’s fables have already been published, including the famous “Elephant and Pug”.
In 1809 The first book of Krylov's fables was published. The fable became the genre in which Krylov’s genius expressed itself unusually widely. Nine books, including more than 200 fables, make up Krylov’s fable heritage. At first, Krylov’s work was dominated by translations or adaptations of La Fontaine’s famous French fables, such as “The Dragonfly and the Ant” and “The Wolf and the Lamb.” Gradually, Ivan Andreevich Krylov began to find more and more independent stories, many of which were related to topical events in Russian life. Krylov's fables "Quartet", "Swan", "Pike and Cancer", "Wolf in the Kennel" were a reaction to various political events. For the first time, real fame as a fabulist comes to Krylov.
In 1812-1841 he served as an assistant librarian at the Imperial Public Library.
In 1825 in Paris, Count Grigory Orlov published I. A. Krylov's Fables in two volumes in Russian, French and Italian. This book became the first foreign publication of fables.
At the end of his life, Krylov had the rank of state councilor, a six-thousandth boarding house. He had the reputation of a sloth and an eccentric, which helped Krylov to hide from the annoying curiosity of his friends and from the suspicion of the government, giving him freedom to implement his creative plans
Ivan Andreevich Krylov was born on February 13, 1769 in Moscow. Young Krylov studied little and unsystematically. He was ten years old when his father, Andrei Prokhorovich, who was at that moment a minor official in Tver, died. Andrei Krylov “didn’t study science,” but he loved to read and instilled his love in his son. He himself taught the boy to read and write and left him a chest of books as an inheritance. Krylov received further education thanks to the patronage of the writer Nikolai Aleksandrovich Lvov, who read the poems of the young poet.
In his youth, Ivan Krylov lived a lot in Lvov’s house, studied with his children, and simply listened to the conversations of writers and artists who came to visit. The shortcomings of a fragmentary education affected later - for example, Krylov was always weak in spelling, but it is known that over the years he acquired quite solid knowledge and a broad outlook, learned to play the violin and speak Italian.
Ivan AndreevichKrylov became a classic during his lifetime. Already in 1835, Belinsky, in his article “Literary Dreams,” found only four classics in Russian literature and put Krylov on a par with Derzhavin, Pushkin and Griboyedov.
All critics paid attention to the national character of Ivan Andreevich’s language and his use of characters from Russian folklore. The writer remained hostile to Westernism throughout his life. It is no coincidence that he joined the literary society “Conversation of Lovers of Russian Literature,” which defended the ancient Russian style and did not recognize Karamzin’s language reform. This did not prevent Krylov from being loved by both supporters and opponents of the new light style. Thus, Pushkin, who was much closer to the Karamzin direction in literature, comparing Lafontaine and Krylov, wrote: “Both of them will forever remain favorites of their fellow Earthmen. Someone rightly said that simplicity is an innate property of the French people; on the contrary, a distinctive feature in our morals is a kind of cheerful cunning of the mind, mockery and a picturesque way of expressing ourselves.”.
It is known that in 1805 Krylov in Moscow showed the famous poet and fabulist Dmitriev his translation of two fables by La Fontaine: “The Oak and the Reed” and “The Picky Bride.” Dmitriev highly appreciated the translation and was the first to note that the author had found his true calling. The poet himself did not immediately understand this. In 1806 he published only three fables, after which he returned to dramaturgy.
In 1807, Ivan Krylov released three plays at once, which gained great popularity and were performed successfully on stage. These are “Fashion Shop”, “Lesson for Daughters” and “Ilya Bogatyr”. The first two plays were especially successful, each of which in its own way ridiculed the nobles’ predilection for the French language, fashions, and morals and actually equated gallomania with stupidity, debauchery and extravagance. The plays were repeatedly staged, and “The Fashion Shop” was even performed at court.
Despite the long-awaited theatrical success, Krylov decided to take a different path. He stopped writing for the theater and every year he devoted more and more attention to working on fables.
In 1809, the first collection was published, which immediately made its author truly famous.In parallel with popular recognition, there was also official recognition. From 1810, Krylov was first an assistant librarian and then a librarian at the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg. At the same time, he received a repeatedly increased pension “in honor of his excellent talents in Russian literature.” He was elected a member of the Russian Academy, awarded a gold medal for literary merits and received many awards and honors.
One of the characteristic features of Krylov's popularity is the numerous semi-legendary stories about his laziness, sloppiness, gluttony, and wit.
Already the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the fabulist’s creative activity has turned into a truly national celebration. Over the past almost two centuries, there has not been a single generation in Russia that was not brought up on the fables of Kr.Ylova.
Just until the end of my lifeIvan Andreevich Krylovwrote more than 200 fables, which were compiled into nine books. He worked until his last days - the writer's friends and acquaintances received the last lifetime edition of the fables in 1844, along with notice of the death of their author.
