Aleksei Alekseevich Perovsky
Aleksei Alekseevich Perovsky (1787–1856) was a notable Russian civil servant and a minor literary figure. Born as one of seven illegitimate children to Count Aleksei Kirillovich Razumovsky, he gained legitimacy through the naming convention associated with one of his father's estates. Perovsky received a comprehensive education and showcased his linguistic talents early on by publishing a German translation of a short story by Nikolai Karamzin while studying at Moscow University. His career included a role in the Senate and military service during which he developed an interest in German Romantic literature.
After retiring from the military, Perovsky became involved in the education sector, demonstrating a commitment to public education in Russia. He produced significant literary works, including a collection of short stories recognized as an early contribution to fantastic Russian literature and a successful children's tale, "The Black Hen." His novel "Monastyrka" garnered acclaim for its depiction of provincial life. Perovsky’s contributions were recognized with his election to prominent literary societies, including the Russian Academy, further solidifying his place in Russian literary history.
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Aleksei Alekseevich Perovsky
Fiction and Children's Literature Writer
- Born: 1787
- Died: July 9, 1836
- Place of death: Warsaw, Poland
Biography
A Russian civil servant and a minor literary pathfinder, Aleksei Alekseevich Perovsky was born in 1787, one of seven illegitimate children born to Count Aleksei Kirillovich Razumovsky and Maria Mikhailovna Sobolevskaia. He and his siblings were named after Perov, one of Razumovsky’s estates, and thereby granted legitimacy. Perovsky was raised at another estate, Pochepa, and provided with an expansive education. At eighteen he entered Moscow University; shortly thereafter, his German translation of Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin’s short story “Bednaia Liza” was published in Moscow. Perovsky received his doctorate in botany in 1808; his linguistic facility enabled him to conduct his thesis defense in Russian, German, and French.
In 1808, he became collegiate councilor in the Senate. Perovsky’s tour of the provinces, or “Little Russia,” with Senator Petr Alekseevich Obreskov in 1809 influenced his later writing. Attracted by literary life in Moscow, Perovsky transferred to the Senate there in 1810. From 1812 to 1816 he was an officer in a Cossack regiment and fought in Germany, where he also worked closely with Prince Nikolai Grigor’evich Repnin-Volkonsky, the governor-general of Saxony. In Dresden, Germany, Perovsky took an interest in writer E. T. A. Hoffman and German Romantic literature.
Perovsky retired from the military in 1816 and moved to St. Petersburg. The birth of his nephew, the future poet Aleksei Konstantinovich Tolstoi, soon altered the course of his life and work. After his sister, Anna Alekseevna Perovskaia, left her husband, Perovsky was active in raising and educating his nephew. He moved the boy and his mother to Pogorel’tsy, a family estate in Ukraine which Perovsky would inherit after his father’s death in 1822. Pogorel’tsy was also the source of the pseudonym, Antonii Pogorel’tsy, that Perovsky used to write fiction, including instructive stories for his nephew.
Perovsky’s interest in education extends to his work in Khar’kov, where he was made trustee of the school district in 1824 and a member of the Committee for the Renovation of Educational Institutions. His article, “O narodnom prosveshchenii v Rossii,” about public education in Russia, was commissioned by Czar Nicholas I and published in Russkaia starina in 1901. While generally not well received, Perovsky’s 1828 collection of short stories, Dvoinik: Ili, Moi vechera v Malorossi, contains work now regarded as the first instance of fantastic Russian literature. However, Perovsky’s fanciful children’s tale, Chernaia kuritsa: Ili, Zhiteli podzemnogo tsarstva. Volshebnaia povest’ dlia detei (1829; The Black Hen: Or, Inhabitants of the Underground Kingdom, 1990) was a major success. Perovsky’s novel of manners, Monastyrka (1830), was lauded for its presentation of provincial life; its second part, published in 1833, did not fare as well. Among Perovsky’s honors are his election to Obshchestvo liubitelei rossiiskoi slovestnosti (The Society of Lovers of Russian Literature) in 1820 and to the Russian Academy in 1829.