Vasilii Petrovich Botkin
Vasilii Petrovich Botkin was a notable Russian writer and literary critic born into a wealthy Moscow merchant family. Following his father's death, he managed the family business for several years while cultivating a passion for literature through extensive self-education. Botkin was multilingual and translated works from foreign authors, reflecting his deep appreciation for European culture garnered during his travels across Spain, France, and Italy. His literary contributions, while not extensive, were significant in the intellectual debates between Westernizers and Slavophiles in 19th-century Russia.
Botkin aligned himself with the Westernizers, advocating for a shift toward Western values and artistic approaches, often emphasizing the spiritual essence of art over materialistic interpretations. He maintained close relationships with prominent literary figures, including poet Afanasii Fet and critic Vissarion Belinsky, influencing their thought and expanding their perspectives. His critical essays, particularly those focusing on the aesthetic qualities of poetry, would later resonate with the ideals of the Russian Symbolist movement. In his later years, Botkin reaffirmed his commitment to "pure art," distancing himself from utilitarian aesthetics, which cemented his legacy as a pivotal figure in Russian literary history.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Vasilii Petrovich Botkin
Nonfiction Writer
- Born: December 11, 1811
- Birthplace: Probably Moscow, Russia
- Died: October 10, 1869
- Place of death: St. Petersburg, Russia
Biography
Vasilii Petrovich Botkin was born into a wealthy Moscow merchant family. As the oldest son in the family, when his father died, Botkin managed the family business for several years. He showed an early interest in literature and, despite his scant formal higher education, he made up for it on his own by reading voraciously. He learned several languages and read foreign authors in the original, some of whom he translated later. His wide travels throughout Europe reinforced his knowledge of European culture. He wrote travelogues, especially those on Spain, France, and Italy. His Cartas desde España shows his fascination with the Spanish lust for life, worship of the body, and sensualism of dance. Much of this appealed to Botkin’s own hedonism, which he exhibited all his life.
Botkin spent his adult life associating with writers in literary circles. An important Russian poet, Afanasii Fet, was his brother-in-law. Botkin’s literary output is not large, yet he was influential in the intellectual war between the Westernizers and Slavophiles that raged in Russian cultural life around the middle of the nineteenth century. Believing that Russia should turn toward the West rather than cling to its Eastern roots, Botkin joined the Westernizers. However, in the choice between the materialistic and the spiritual approaches to the arts, he believed that art belongs to the spiritual sphere and the subconscious realm, rather than to practical reality based on rational analyses. As such, he sided with the like-minded writers and critics such as Vissarion Belinsky, Nikolai Nekrasov, Pavel Annenkov, and Alexander Druzhinin. Botkin’s friendship with Belinsky was intensive, as reflected in their copious correspondence. Botkin’s influence on Belinsky was manifold, especially his introduction of Hegel to Belinsky. It also shows the extent of Botkin’s engagement in Russian literary life.
In the course of his development, Botkin became an accomplished literary critic. His extensive familiarity with the outside world enhanced the acumen of his critical views. His evaluations were based, again, on his Western and liberal leanings. In time, however, he rejected Nikolay Chernyshevsky’s and Nikolay Dobrolyubov’s emerging utilitarian aesthetics. Botkin also advocated a complete autonomy of the arts. In his essay on Fet, he emphasized the musical quality of Fet’s verse. Botkin’s emphasis became, decades later, one of the basic postulates of the Russian Symbolist movement. In the last years of his life, Botkin was quiet during the reaction to liberal tendencies following the revolutions of 1848. Afterward, he split with Chernyshevsky in reaffirming his allegiance to the “pure art.” In this allegiance lies the basic legacy of Vasilii Botkin.