- Faddei Bulgarin
Tadeusz Bulharyn, known in Russia as "Faddei Venediktovich Bulgarin" (Фаддей Венедиктович Булгарин, 1789-1859), was a Polish-born Russian journalist whose self-imposed mission was to popularize the authoritative policies of Alexander I and Nicholas I.
Bulgarin was born into a noble Polish family near
Minsk . His father, one ofKosciuszko 's associates, was exiled toSiberia for having assassinated a Russian general. Bulgarin was educated inSt Petersburg military school, took part in theBattle of Friedland but was arrested for theft soon thereafter. While his regiment was accommodated inFinland , Bulgarin deserted toWarsaw , where he joined theGrand Armée . He fought under Napoleon's banners in thePeninsular War and the 1812Lithuania n campaign. In 1814 Bulgarin was taken prisoner inFrance and transported toPrussia . There is a 6-year lapse in his biography after that.In 1820 Bulgarin arrived from
Warsaw toSt Petersburg , where he published a critical review ofPolish literature and started editing "The Northern Archive". He also made friends with the playwrightAlexander Griboyedov and the philologistNicholas Gretsch . The latter helped him to edit the newspaper "Northern Bee" (1825-39), the literary journal "Fatherland's Son" (1825-59), and other reactionary periodicals.It has been no secret that Bulgarin and Gretsch were paid agents of tsarist police and used their periodicals to spread propaganda commissioned by the government. Bulgarin's unscrupulous manners made him the most odious journalist in Russia.
Alexander Pushkin , in particular, ridiculed him in a number ofepigram s, changing his name to Figlyarin (from the Russian word for "clown"). Bulgarin retorted by epigrams, in which Pushkin's name was rendered as Chushkin (from the Russian word for "nonsense").Inspired by
Sir Walter Scott , Bulgarin wrote Vyzhigin series ofhistorical novel s, which used to be popular in Russia and abroad. He followed these with two sententious novels aboutFalse Dmitry (1830) andIvan Mazepa (1834). In 1837 he published under his own name a lengthy description of Imperial Russia, which was actually a work by Professor Ivanov.Some of Bulgarin's stories are
science fiction : "Probable Tall-Tales" is a far future story about the ХХIX century; "Improbable Tall-Tales" is a fantastic voyage intohollow Earth ; "Mitrofanushka's Adventures in the Moon" is a satire.After Nicholas I's death, Bulgarin retired from the department of stud farms, in which he had been serving for many years, and withdrew to his dacha in Karlino near
Tartu .
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