Friendly Literary Society

The friendly literary society is the short-lived Russian literary society that existed in Moscow in 1801 .

The association of like-minded writers from students of the Moscow University boarding house took shape at the end of the 18th century . The initiator of the society was Andrei Ivanovich Turgenev . In 1797-1800, he headed the pre-romantic literary circle in a guesthouse, which took shape in 1801 as the Friendly Literary Society.

The first meeting of the Friendly Literary Society took place on January 12, 1801. It included, in addition to A. I. Turgenev, brothers Andrei Sergeevich Kaisarov and Mikhail Sergeevich Kaisarov , Alexei Fedorovich Merzlyakov , Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky , Alexander Ivanovich Turgenev , Semyon Emelyanovich Rodzianko , Alexander Fedorovich Voeikov ). The meetings of the Society began and for some time took place in the house of Voeikov on Maiden Field.

In the speech “On the Main Laws of the Company” A.F. Merzlyakov noted:

Our Society is an excellent preparation for our future life ... I want to tell you that a person himself does not mean anything ... Here is the birth of society! This is how one person, having felt the flame in his heart, gives the other a hand and, showing in the distance, says: there is our goal! let's go, take and divide the crown that neither you nor I can take! ... If you have a noble ambition ... then give up pride, have a power of attorney to your friends! ...
If not every one of us is gifted with a delicate taste for graceful, if not everyone can judge absolutely correctly about a translation or a composition, then at least we will not doubt the good heart that says our errors; his love tells us: whether this is true or not, he wished us well ... This spirit is the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega of all the laws of the congregation!

Almost two decades later, the same Merzlyakov recalled:

We severely criticized each other in writing and verbally, sorted out the most famous writers, ... argued a lot and noisily at the table for scientists and dispersed good friends home.

At one of the first meetings, Merzlyakov recited the anthem of the German romantic Schiller “For Joy”, members of the Society made translations of his works; A. I. Turgenev harshly criticized the work of Karamzin , Zhukovsky defended him ...

V. M. Istrin , who studied the Society , indicated that among its participants an interest in German literature prevailed; of French literature, the greatest sympathy was the work of Rousseau; from English literature, writers of a sentimental and pre-romantic direction were closer ^[1] .

Yu. M. Lotman believed that in the Society

at the time of its inception, three leading trends in literature of the pre-Pushkin period collided: the direction of dreamy romanticism associated with the name of Zhukovsky; the direction presented by Merzlyakov, which is alien to the noble culture and developed the traditions of democratic literature of the 18th century, and, finally, the direction of Andrei Turgenev and Andrei Kaysarov ... in whose activity traits clearly appear that prepare the literary program of Decembrism.

- Lotman Yu. M. Andrei Sergeevich Kaysarov and the literary and social struggle of his time. Vol. 63. - Tartu, 1958.- S. 25.

In the second half of 1801, members of the Society began to leave Moscow one by one, going either to study abroad or to St. Petersburg to serve, and as a result, by November the Society ceased to exist, but it left a noticeable mark in the history of Russian literature: foundations of Russian romanticism , the bright representative of which was V. A. Zhukovsky.

Leaving for St. Petersburg, A. I. Turgenev wrote a poem “To the dilapidated house of A. F. Voeikov”:

This shabby house, this garden is deaf -

The refuge of friends connected by Phoebus

Where in the joy of hearts they swore before heaven

Swore by my soul

Capturing a vow with tears

To love the fatherland and forever be friends ( 1801 ) ^[2]

In the same 1801, the Friendly Society of Fine Art Lovers arose in St. Petersburg , later called the Free Society of Literature, Science and Art Lovers .