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A writer is not for ladies

измайлов
© Форпост Северо-Запад

No technical university in the Russian Empire or the USSR produced as many writers, prose authors and poets as St. Petersburg Mining University did.

Either because, along with the exact sciences, rhetoric and fine literature were always taught here, rightfully believing that a mining engineer should not only think clearly, but also state clearly, or the very atmosphere of the Voronikhinsky walls magically acted on cadets and students. Nikolai Yazykov, Vladimir Obruchev, Ivan Efremov, Andrey Bitov, Alexander Gorodnitsky... But there is one name that was undeservedly forgotten, which at one time was stamped with the authority of Vissarion Belinsky. He wrote that his work outraged the aesthetic sense with its triviality and a kind of masculine originality.

Each era has its own heroes. In the beginning of the 19th century, the heroes of Russia were hussars, lancers, and dragoons, but the spirit of Parisian streets was dispelled on Senate Square and the charming dandies of yesterday went to Siberia.

Chatsky began to appear on the stage in place of yesterday's characters - civil reasoners who considered it valor to publicly denounce the vices of society. This hurt them - it is enough to recall the fate of Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov, torn apart by a crowd in Persian Tabriz. But romanticism, obviously, gave way to realism, in painting, music and life.

Грибоедов
© Портрет А. Грибоедова работы И. Крамского, 1875 год

In 1779, in the impoverished family of the landowner Efim Izmailov in the Vladimir province, a boy named Sasha was born. He was destined to become, according to his contemporaries and not the author himself, the forerunner of Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin.

At the age of 18, the young man graduated from the prestigious Mining Cadet Corps and joined the Ministry of Finance. After that, he spent almost thirty years in various positions: starting from the fourteenth position in the table of ranks as a chief officer, then as an ensign, and finally reaching the sixth position as a collegiate adviser, which corresponds to the rank of court chamberlain. Among other things, this was the rank held by Alexander Pushkin, who Inozemtsev knew and with whom he often polemicized.

In the service, he is a stern pedant – the head of the department in the Department of the State Treasury, but in his spare time he is a piet - fable.

Even while studying at the Mining Cadet Corps, Alexander dabbled in writing fables. This was a popular trend among the noble youth, although it did not really represent anything special. Ivan Andreevich Krylov was hugely popular, and many people imitated him. Their works did not have any originality, but rather they were, in today's terms, reposts or re-recordings. For instance, Izmailov wrote a story about a crane that cured a wolf after a bone got stuck in its throat. The predator offered to be grateful instead of paying the doctor, which was not very different from Krylov's story of the same title. If that's not plagiarism, I don't know what is. But everyone was doing it at the time.

But our hero is also a publisher. With a very strange economic effect.

измайлов
© Журнал "Благонамеренный"

The magazine "Well-Intentioned", which published contemporary works, was a true philanthropic project. Its owner, despite having a large family, did not make a profit from the magazine. In fact, he reported that he made a loss. He also reported that the donations received were not used for tobacco, alcohol, or even coffee. As a result, the magazine burned out.

The rank allowed him to apply for the position of vice-governor, with a salary in the province of about 400 rubles per month. In comparison, the magazine's contributions were 500 rubles per year. Alexander Efimovich chose to move to Tver, which was nearby, and left the capital in 1826.

In the first quarter of the 19th century, Tver was the capital of a vast province that included not only the current territory of Tver but also the Yaroslavl and Novgorod regions. With regard to the number of merchants, this province was second only to Moscow, and there was a flourishing trade in bread, hemp, and iron. Fairs were held in Vesyegonsk, Vyshny Volochyok, and Rzhev, while brisk trade took place in the villages of Koi, Kesova Gora in the Kashinsky district, and Semendyaevo and Taldom in the Kalyazinsky district. Leather, hemp, rope, and twine were produced, as well as vinegar, malt, cereal, starch, and gingerbread. Of course, bribery was also prevalent.

тверь
© Тверь, XIX век

The new financial auditor regularly sent reports to the Minister during his tour of the subordinate municipalities, but they went unanswered. Then, something happened...

Literally overnight, Alexander Efimovich created a poem, which then spread across Russia in the lists, became the founder of the genre "Russian sarcasm". He did not expose the vices of his colleagues, Gogol would later expose them in the "Auditor", he did not deduce their characters, he gave instructions… Actually, this is how the opus was called: "Instructions to my wife, the Tver vice-governor."

The poem is quite lengthy, but let me give you an example:

From gossip girls, if you make up a staff for yourself,

Who will come to you

With a smile, they will kiss not on the cheeks, but on the shoulders

And they will speak deliberately evil words about others:

So that you can ask me about someone,

Give your husband, for example, a chin, or a place,

To identify the nephew,

For the godfather, to lie to the soul in the definition,

Or in a word: somehow oppress someone in the service,—

Don't get angry, you'll get mad!

In my old age, I will divorce you,

I'm serious!

And I'll boil the gossips with hot coffee,

Let them complain at least to the tsar!

In "Woe from Wit", which was published later, there is a quote from Famusov:

With me, foreign employees are very rare:

More and more sisters, sisters-in-law, children.

How will you introduce yourself to a cross or a place,

Well, how not to please a dear little man!

I agree that it is not difficult to guess who influenced Alexander Sergeevich when he wrote this. And such a quote by Izmailov could easily be an epigraph for Nikolai Vasilyevich's play: "To me, a good secretary or even a registrar is more respectable than a bad, stupid governor!"

Thirty years later, Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin was appointed to the same position in Tver. His views on local officials are well-known thanks to "The History of the City of Glupov." It is quite obvious why Alexander Izmailov was dismissed from his position in Arkhangelsk and died a year later. At his grave, he requested to be buried with one of his works, which he was proud of and frequently quoted:

"A writer is not for ladies."