Mikhail Nikitich Murav'ev
Mikhail Nikitich Murav'ev was a notable Russian poet and literary theorist born in 1757 in Smolensk, Russia. Emerging during a transformative period in literature, he straddled the decline of Neoclassicism and the rise of Romanticism. While he initially adhered to the established poetic forms favored by Neoclassicist critics, such as the ode and translations from Classical literature, Murav'ev was drawn to the more colloquial genres that were often dismissed as inferior. His ballad "Unfaithfulness" is recognized as one of the first of its kind in Russian literature, introducing themes of romantic love that had previously been absent in the cultural narrative. Additionally, he contributed to the revival of interest in the mythology and culture of pre-Christian Slavic peoples, challenging prevailing views of their heritage. Murav'ev was also an accomplished letter writer, helping to pioneer the genre of friendly correspondence, which would flourish in the Romantic era. He passed away in 1807, leaving behind a legacy that influenced subsequent generations of Russian writers and helped shape a new literary sensibility.
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Mikhail Nikitich Murav'ev
Writer
- Born: October 25, 1757
- Birthplace: Smolensk, Russia
- Died: July 29, 1807
Biography
Mikhail Nikitich Murav’ev was born in Smolensk, Russia, in 1757 to a good family and soon became interested not only in poetry but in literary theory. By the time he became an active poet, the strict hierarchy of literary forms set forth by Neoclassicist theorists had began to erode under the first impulses of the movement that would ultimately become Romanticism. Murav’ev dutifully set himself to the various “high” forms of poetry lauded by Neoclassicist critics, including the ode and various translations from the Classical writers. However, he was persistently drawn to the various genres despised as lowly and plebian by the Neoclassicists, including some of the first ballads of love and its torments. His ballad “Unfaithfulness” is often cited as the first example of such a ballad in Russian literature, since Russian culture had missed out on the Western medieval tradition of courtly love as promoted by the troubadours of the High Middle Ages. (Prior to Czar Peter the Great, Russian culture took a rather Asiatic view of women, keeping aristocratic women confined in the terem, an enclosed life not dissimilar to Middle Eastern traditions of purdah).
In addition to introducing the themes of romantic love and its perils to Russian literary culture, Murav’ev was also instrumental in arousing literary interest in the culture and mythology of the pre-Christian Slavic peoples, who had previously been regarded as heathen and best forgotten. Murav’ev was also a great writer of letters, and his missives to his various friends and associates show the beginning of the development of the friendly letter, which would reach its height during the Romantic era. Murav’ev died in 1807, and although many of his efforts were rough, they laid a foundation for the efforts of more skilled followers to develop a new sensibility of Russian literature and literary culture.