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Nikolay Karamzin
Portrait of Karamzin by Vasily Tropinin, 1818.
Native name	Николай Карамзин
Born	12 December [O.S. 1 December] 1766 Znamenskoye, Simbirsk Uyezd, Kazan Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	3 June [O.S. 22 May] 1826 (aged 59) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Occupation	Writer, historian, poet
Period	1781–1826
Literary movement	Sentimentalism
Notable works	Poor Liza History of the Russian State

Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin (12 December [O.S. 1 December] 1766 – 3 June [O.S. 22 May] 1826) was a Russian writer, historian and critic. He is best remembered for his fundamental History of the Russian State, a 12-volume national history.

Early life

Karamzin was born on 12 December [O.S. 1 December] 1766 on his family's estate in the village of Znamenskoye, also known as Karamzinka, near the provincial capital of Simbirsk (modern-day Ulyanovsk). Another version exists that he was born in the village of Mikhailovka, also known as Preobrazhenka, in the Orenburg Governorate, where his father served and had an estate. His father Mikhail Yegorovich Karamzin (1724–1783) was a retired captain of the Imperial Russian Army who belonged to a Russian noble family. For many years its members had served in Nizhny Novgorod as high-ranking officers and officials before Nikolay's grandfather Yegor Karamzin moved to Simbirsk with his wife Ekaterina Aksakova. According to Karamzin himself, probably repeating a family tradition, his surname derived from the name of his ancestor Kara-Murza, a Tatar nobleman (murza or mirza) who converted to Christianity and entered the service of Muscovy.

His mother Yekaterina Petrovna Karamzina (née Pazukhina) also came from a Russian noble family founded in 1620 when Ivan Demidovich Pazukhin, a longtime officer, was granted lands and a title for his service during the Polish–Russian War. Her father had had a brilliant military career and retired with the rank of colonel. Yekaterina Petrovna died in 1769 when Nikolay was 2 years old. In 1770 Mikhail Karamzin married for the second time to Evdokia Gavrilovna Dmitrieva (1724–1783) who became Nikolay's stepmother. He had three siblings – Vasily, Fyodor and Ekaterina – and two half-siblings.

Nikolay Karamzin received some informal education while still at Znamenskoye, beginning to learn German and French. He read Aesop's Fables and adventure novels, as well as Charles Rollin's Histoire de Rome. After briefly attending a school in Simbirsk, he was sent in 1777 to the boarding school run by Johann Matthias Schaden, a professor of moral philosophy at Moscow University. Karamzin began to read German literature at this time, namely Christian Fürchtegott Gellert's fables and moral writings. While studying under Schaden, he acquired a lasting admiration for England and may have begun to learn English. Karamzin's later views on religion, education and government reflected the teachings of Schaden, who followed the "Germano-masonic" pedagogy dominant in Moscow University at the time which emphasized moral and religious instruction.

As a writer

Karamzin remained at Schaden's boarding school until 1781, when he moved to Saint Petersburg and began service in the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment, in which he had been enrolled as a child, according to the traditions of the time. However, he spent less than a year in Saint Petersburg and was on leave for most of the duration of his service. In Saint Petersburg, he made the acquaintance of Ivan Dmitriev, a poet who later gained renown and remained Karamzin's friend for the rest of his life. Dmitriev mentored Karamzin on literary matters and pushed him to make his first translations of the works of foreign authors. After residing for some time in Saint Petersburg he went to Simbirsk, where he lived in retirement until induced to revisit Moscow. There, finding himself in the midst of the society of learned men, he again took to literary work.

In 1789, he resolved to travel, visiting Germany, France, Switzerland and England. On his return he published his Letters of a Russian Traveller, which met with great success. These letters, modelled after Irish-born novelist Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, were first printed in the Moscow Journal, which he edited, but were later collected and issued in six volumes (1797–1801).

In the same periodical, Karamzin also published translations from French and some original stories, including Poor Liza and Natalia the Boyar's Daughter (both 1792). These stories introduced Russian readers to sentimentalism, and Karamzin was hailed as "a Russian Sterne".

In 1794, Karamzin abandoned his literary journal and published a miscellany in two volumes entitled Aglaia, in which appeared, among other stories, "The Island of Bornholm" and "Ilya Muromets," the former being one of the first Russian Gothic tales and the latter, a story in verse based on the adventures of the well-known hero of many a Russian legend. From 1797 to 1799, he issued another miscellany or poetical almanac, The Aonides, in conjunction with Gavrila Derzhavin and Dmitriev. In 1798 he compiled The Pantheon, a collection of pieces from the works of the most celebrated authors ancient and modern, translated into Russian. Many of his lighter productions were subsequently printed by him in a volume entitled My Trifles. Admired by Alexander Pushkin and Vladimir Nabokov, the style of his writings is elegant and flowing, modelled on the easy sentences of the French prose writers rather than the long periodical paragraphs of the old Slavonic school. Karamzin also promoted a more "feminine" style of writing. His example proved beneficial for the creation of a Russian literary language, a major contribution for the history of Russian literature.

As a historian

In 1803, when he was perhaps at the peak of his fame as a writer, Karamzin decided to abandon literature and dedicate himself to history.the task of writing his twelve-volume History of the Russian State. In order to accomplish the task, he secluded himself for two years. When Emperor Alexander learned the cause of his retirement, Karamzin was invited to Tver, where he read to the emperor the first eight volumes of his history. In 1816, he removed to St Petersburg, where he spent the happiest days of his life, enjoying the favour of Alexander I and submitting to him the sheets of his great work, which the emperor read over with him in the gardens of the palace of Tsarskoye Selo.

He did not, however, live to carry his work further than the eleventh volume, terminating it at the accession of Michael Romanov in 1613. He died on 22 May (old style) 1826, in the Tauride Palace. A monument was erected to his memory at Simbirsk in 1845.

Until the appearance of his work, little had been done in this direction in Russia. The preceding attempt of Vasily Tatishchev was merely a rough sketch, inelegant in style, and without the true spirit of criticism. Karamzin was most industrious in accumulating materials, and the notes to his volumes are mines of interesting information. Perhaps Karamzin may justly be criticized for the false gloss and romantic air thrown over the early Russian annals; in this respect his work is reminiscent of that of Sir Walter Scott, whose writings were at that time creating a great sensation throughout Europe and probably influenced Karamzin.

Karamzin wrote openly as the panegyrist of the autocracy; indeed, his work has been styled the Epic of Despotism and considered Ivan III as the architect of Russian greatness, a glory that he had earlier (perhaps while more under the influence of Western ideas) assigned to Peter the Great. (The deeds of Ivan the Terrible are described with disgust, though.)

In the battle pieces, he demonstrates considerable powers of description, and the characters of many of the chief personages in the Russian annals are drawn in firm and bold lines. As a critic Karamzin was of great service to his country; in fact he may be regarded as the founder of the review and essay (in the Western style) among the Russians.

Political views

Karamzin has been called one of the founders of nineteenth-century Russian conservative thought. He accepted class hierarchy and an enlightened autocracy while opposing revolution. He advocated enlightenment as the key to solving social problems and placed importance on the role of the Russian aristocracy. According to Joel L. Black, Karamzin did not view autocracy as the sole possible political system for Russia but rather considered it to be the system that had "sustained Russians during past crises and so was the logical answer to contemporary political problems." In fact, he viewed change as an "inevitable and vital part of any state's life." While justifying serfdom as a historical phenomenon, he abhorred it as a current practice and foresaw its eventual abolition. In the pages of Vestnik Yevropy, he emphasized the need for domestic reforms and called for Russia to remain disengaged from European politics. However, by 1811, the threat of Napoleonic France made him conclude that all domestic reforms should be left for the future. He was a strong supporter of the anti-Polish policies of the Russian Empire, and expressed hope that "there would be no Poland under any shape or name".

As a linguist and philologist

Karamzin is credited for having introduced the letter Ë/ë into the Russian alphabet some time after 1795. Prior to that simple E/e had been used, though there was also a rare form patterned after the extant letter Ю/ю. Note that Ë/ë is not an obligatory letter, and simple E/e is still often used in books other than dictionaries and schoolchildren's primers.

Commemoration

Several places in Russia were named after Karamzin:

• Karamzina village (now part of Ulyanovsk);
• Proyezd Karamzina (a road in Moscow);
• Nikolay Karamzin street (streets in Kaliningrad, Krasnoyarsk, Mayna, Ulyanovsk Oblast);
• A monument was built in honor of Karamzin in Ulyanovsk;
• Another monument was built in honor of Nikolay Karamzin at Ostafyevo Museum-Estate near Moscow Ring Road.
• The Millennium of Russia monument in Veliky Novgorod includes a statue of Karamzin;
• The Karamzin Public Library in Simbirsk, created in honor of the famous countryman, was opened to readers on April 18, 1848;
• In 2016 the Ulyanovsk State Regional Scientific Library organized an open literary competition dedicated to the 250 years anniversary of the birth of Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin. For this competition only poems about Karamzin and poems based on his works were accepted.

In 2016 on the occasion of the 250th birthday of the writer, the Central Bank of Russia issued a silver two-ruble coin dedicated to Karamzin in the series Outstanding People of Russia. Two commemorative stamps have been issued depicting N.M. Karamzin: in 1991 in the USSR as part of the Russian Historians stamp series, face value of 10 Russian kopeks, and in 2016 as part of the Outstanding Russian historians stamp series, face value of 25 Russian rubles.

Selected works

Prose

Fiction

• Yevgeny i Yuliya (Евгений и Юлия), English translation: Yevgeny and Julia (1789)
• Bednaya Liza (Бедная Лиза), English translation: Poor Liza (1792)
• Natalya, boyarskaya doch (Наталья, боярская дочь), English translation: Natalya the Boyar's Daughter (1792)
• Prekrasnaya tsarevna i schastlivy karla (Прекрасная царевна и счастливый карла), English translation: The Beautiful Princess and the Happy Dwarf (1792)
• Ostrov Borngolm (Остров Борнгольм), English translation: The Island of Bornholm (1793)
• Afinskaya zhizn (Афинская жизнь), English translation: Athenian Life (1794)
• Melodor k Filaletu (Мелодор к Филалету), English translation: Melodor to Filalet (1794; paired with a sequel, Filalet to Melodor)
• Yuliya (Юлия), English translation: Julia (1796)
• Marfa-posadnitsa (Марфа-посадница), English translation: Martha the Mayoress (1802)
• Moya ispoved (Моя исповедь), English translation: My Confession (1802)
• Chuvstvitelny i kholodny (Чувствительный и холодный), English translation: The Sensitive and the Cold (1803)
• Rytsar nashego vremeni (Рыцарь нашего времени), English translation: A Knight of Our Times (1803)

Non-fiction

• Pisma russkogo puteshestvennika (Письма русского путешественника), English translation: Letters of a Russian Traveler (1791–92)
• Zapiska o drevney i novoy Rossii (Записка о древней и новой России), English translation: Memoir on Ancient and Modern Russia (1811)
• Istoriya gosudarstva Rossiyskogo (История государства Российского), English translation: History of the Russian State (1816–26)

Poetry

• Poeziya (Поэзия), English translation: Poetry (1787)
• Darovaniya (Дарования), English translation: Gifts (1796)
• Solovey (Соловей), English translation: Nightingale (1796)
• Protey, ili Nesoglasiya stikhotvortsa (Протей, или Несогласия стихотворца), English translation: Proteus, or Inconsistencies of a Poet (1798)
• Ego imperatorskomu velichestvu Alexandru I, samoderzhtsu vserossiyskomu, na vosshestvie ego na prestol (Его императорскому величеству Александру I, самодержцу всероссийскому, на восшествие его на престол, English translation: To His Imperial Highness Alexander I, All-Russian Autocrat, on the Occasion of His Rise to the Throne (1801)
• Gimn gluptsam (Гимн глупцам), English translation: Hymn to the Fools (1802)
• K Emilii (К Эмилии), English translation: To Emilie (1802)
• K dobrodeteli (К добродетели), English translation: To Virtue (1802)
• Osvobozhdenie Evropy i slava Alexandra I (Освобождение Европы и слава Александра I), English translation: The Freeing of Europe and the Glory of Alexander I (1814)

See also

• List of Russian historians

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Karamzin, Nikolai Mikhailovich". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 676.

Further reading

• Anderson, Roger B. N.M. Karamzin's Prose: The Teller and the Tale. Houston: Cordovan Press, 1974.
• Black, J.L. Nicholas Karamzin and Russian Society in the Nineteenth Century: A Study in Russian Political and Historical Thought. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1975 (hardcover, ISBN 0-8020-5335-1).
• Essays on Karamzin: Russian Man-of-Letters, Political Thinker, Historian, 1766–1826 (Slavistic Printings and Reprintings; 309). Edited by J.L. Black. The Hague; Paris: Mouton, 1975.
• Grudzinska Gross, Irena. "The Tangled Tradition: Custine, Herberstein, Karamzin, and the Critique of Russia", Slavic Review, Vol. 50, No. 4. (Winter, 1991), pp. 989–998.
• [Karamzin, N.M.] Selected Prose of N.M. Karamzin. Trans. and Intr. by Henry M. Nebel, Jr. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1969.
• Nebel, Henry M., Jr. N.M. Karamzin: A Russian Sentimentalist. The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1967.
• Pipes, Richard. Karamzin's Memoir on Ancient and Modern Russia: A Translation and Analysis (Russian Research Center Studies; 33). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959.
• Fraanje, Maarten. Nikolai Karamzin and Christian Heinrich Spiess: "Poor Liza" in the Context of the Eighteenth-Century German Suicide Story. Study Group on Eighteenth-Century Russia Newsletter Volume 27 (1999).

External links

• (in Russian) Karamzin's History of the Russian State Archived 27 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine
• (in Russian) Karamzin's Aglaia I-II, 2nd edition (1796)
• (in Russian) Karamzin. Poem
• English translations of 4 epigrams, "Inscriptions on a Statue of Cupid"