Polonsky, Leonid Alexandrovich

Leonid Alexandrovich Polonsky was born in 1833 in the Vilna province into a noble family.

He graduated from St. Petersburg University in office (administrative) category.

He served in the Office of the War Ministry , then in the Ministry of Education in the Office of Ministers E.P. Kovalevsky and A.V. Golovnin .

Polonsky combined public service with journalism. Knowing well several foreign languages, he led the department of foreign policy in the Russian disabled person (1861), Modern Word (1862-1863), the St. Petersburg Gazette (1864-1865), the Voice (1866-1865), the Court of Vowels (1866) and the Son Fatherland (1867).

He placed the article “Abuse and Inability in Administration” in the Library for Reading (1860), and the article “Poland and Spain” in the Russian Word (1863).

Leonid Polonsky was the first to start a weekly feuilleton of St. Petersburg life in the St. Petersburg Gazette , which, after his departure, was first led by V.P. Burenin , then A.S. Suvorin . These articles were signed by pseudonym Ivan Lubich .

Herald of Europe

Since January 1868 , when the Bulletin of Europe began to appear monthly, Polonsky took over the department of "internal review" in this journal and conducted it for twelve years. The liberal direction of these reviews brought Polonsky a certain fame.

In addition to the department of “internal review”, he published many articles in the Bulletin of Europe , signed by L.P. , L. Alexandrov and L - A - c , mainly on foreign literature, as well as on historical and economic topics.

In 1873 and 1874, Polonsky compiled two volumes of the appendix to the Herald of Europe, entitled The Year. The model for this publication was Annuaire, once attached to Revue des Deux Mondes .

In the Bulletin of Europe, the novels by Leonid Polonsky, “We Must Live” (1878) and “Crazy Musician” (1879), signed by the pseudonym L. Lukyanov , were published.

Political newspaper "Country"

In January 1880, he began publishing his own political newspaper, Strana, which first appeared twice a week, and since 1881, three times. The newspaper immediately took the forefront in the liberal political press. At first, Strana reacted to the management of Count Loris-Melikov with restraint, but soon, convinced by conversations with senior officials of that time, the Strana editor began to sympathize with their intentions, although he kept himself on his own and found their actions too slow. Supporting the main idea of ​​the new direction, the "Country" still remained an opposition body.

Under Count Loris-Melikov, the newspaper received two warnings: January 16, 1881 for an article about the need to pardon Chernyshevsky and March 4 of the same year for an article about the attempt on Alexander II on March 1; at the same time he received a warning and the Voice - for having reprinted the article “Countries” and expressed agreement with it.

The "Country" led a caustic, although restrained in tone, polemic with "Rus" and Slavophilism in general and constantly defended the Old Believers. All editorials in the Country marked “Petersburg” were written by the editor himself.

In 1881, Polonsky placed in his newspaper the novel "The Thaw" with a description of the time.

In January 1883, the "Country" was subjected to temporary suspension with its submission henceforth to preliminary censorship. After the expiration of the term, it was not renewed (only at the end of 1884 there was one issue to preserve the right to publish for another year).

Russian thought

From October 1884 until the end of 1892, Polonsky conducted an “internal review” in Russian thought . There he placed the story “Anna” (1892), which reflected the fall of former hopes and noted the time of the appearance of new people - “lucky ones”.

In 1891, Polonsky placed in the "Collection" in favor of the starving, published by Russian Thought , the story "There is no money." In 1885, in the same journal, he published the beginning of a large essay on Victor Hugo , and in 1888 an article about the Polish poet Juliusz Slovacki .

Northern Herald

In 1893 , Mr .. entered the journal " Northern Herald " and until the spring of 1896 led him to the department "Provincial Press" under the pseudonym L. Prozorov . In 1894 and 1895, in the same journal, he leads the departments "Internal Review" and "Political Chronicle."

In 1883 , 1884 and 1895, Polonsky placed several articles in the "News" on educational and economic issues, some signed.

Foreign Press

Excellent knowledge of the French language allowed Polonsky in 1881 - 1883 to become a permanent Petersburg correspondent for the newspaper Temps. In the beginning of the 80s he wrote Lettres de Russie in the Parisian Revue Universelle and placed the translation of one of the satyrs Saltykov-Shchedrin in the same place.

From the end of the 80s he published articles in Polish in the St. Petersburg newspaper “Kraj”, and from the half of 1896 he took a closer part in this newspaper. His article “Mickiewicz in Russian Literature” is placed in the “Mickiewicz Collection” published by the editors of “Kraj”.

In 1883, Polonsky published a collection of his first fiction essays (“We Must Live,” “The Crazy Musician,” “The Thaw,” along with two essays from Burnand) under the general title “At leisure”.

The story “We Must Live” was translated into French by Mrs. Miscavige (wife of the son of the famous poet) and published in “Revue Universelle”.

A characteristic feature of Leonid Polonsky was a complete disregard for fame: the vast majority of his articles were completely unsigned, and some with constantly changing pseudonyms.

• Polonsky, Leonid Aleksandrovich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.