Soviet literature
Denis Vasilievich Davydov
Biography
Davydov Denis Vasilievich
Partisan Patriotic War 1812, military writer, poet, lieutenant general (1831). Commanding a partisan detachment of hussars and Cossacks, he successfully operated in the rear of the French army. He was close to the Decembrists and A.S. Pushkin. Military historical works, theoretical works on partisan actions. In the lyrics (“hussar” songs, love elegies, satirical poems) there is a new type of hero - a patriotic warrior, an active, freedom-loving, open person.
Biography
One of the most vivid impressions of childhood was the meeting of a nine-year-old boy with the legendary A. Suvorov, who prophesied Davydov’s fate: “This will be a military man...”
Davydov spent most of his life serving in the army, retiring in 1832 with the rank of lieutenant general. He fought bravely in 1806 - 1807 with the French in Prussia, in 1809 - with the Swedes in Finland, in 1809? with the Turks in Moldova and the Balkans, in 1812 - 1814 he crushed the French in Russia and drove them all the way to Paris.
In popular memory, the name of Denis Davydov is inseparable from the Patriotic War of 1812 as the name of one of the leaders of the army partisan movement, which played an important role in the victory over Napoleon.
He was a multi-talented person. Davydov’s first literary experiments date back to 1803 - 1805, when his political poems (the fables “Head and Legs”, “The River and the Mirror”, the satire “The Dream”, etc.) were widely circulated in manuscripts.
Davydov was associated with many Decembrists who valued his poetry, but the offer to join secret society refused.
He entered the history of Russian literature as the creator of the genre of “hussar lyrics”, the hero of which is a lover of wild life, at the same time a free-thinking person, an opponent of violence against the individual (“Hussar Feast”, “Song of the Old Hussar”, “Half-Soldier”, “Borodin Field”. The latter, written in 1829, is considered one of the best historical elegies of Russian romantic poetry).
A significant phenomenon in the literature of the 1830s was Davydov’s military prose - his memories of A. Suvorov, N. Raevsky, M. Kamensky. The poetry of Denis Davydov was highly appreciated by A. Pushkin, with whom he had a long-term friendship.
IN recent years For a long time he sought to transfer Bagration’s ashes to the Borodino field and eventually achieved this, but he himself did not have the opportunity to participate in the ceremony. On April 22 (May 4 n.s.) he died suddenly.
Denis Vasilievich Davydov was born on July 27, 1784 in Moscow. The predictions of the great commander Suvorov about the military future became prophetic for nine-year-old Denis. Davydov devoted almost his entire life to military service. He experienced all the hardships of four military companies (in Prussia, Finland, Moldova and the Balkans, the Russian-French war).
The victory over Napoleon was largely possible thanks to the activities of the partisan movement under the leadership of Denis Vasilyevich. At the age of 48 he retired, having risen to the rank of lieutenant general.
But Davydov is known to the general public not only for his military exploits. He was a talented poet and military playwright. The first samples of Davydov's pen date back to 1803-1805. as a political poet who published the fables “Head and Legs”, “River and Mirror”, etc. His merits include the creation of a new literary direction"hussar lyrics" and introducing readers to the image of a patriotic warrior. The main characters of his works (for the most part) are brave, honest, strong individuals with a slightly absurd character and wild life.
The author's Russian romantic poetry (among which the main place is occupied by the poem "Borodin Field") has been deservedly recognized by many critics as the best manifestation of the historical elegy of its time. Pushkin highly appreciated the works of his long-time friend. In the 1830s, Davydov tried his hand at a completely new direction for himself - military prose. In particular, these are memoirs about meeting A. Suvorov, N. Raevsky, M. Kamensky. After more than 20 years of military service and a short peaceful life, Denis Vasilyevich Davydov died on May 4, 1839, without seeing the ceremony of transferring Bagration’s ashes to the Borodino field, which became possible only thanks to his efforts.
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Biography
Denis Vasilyevich Davydov was born on July 27, 1784 in the family of foreman Vasily Davydov, who served under the command of the great A.V. Suvorov.
Having once arrived at Vasily Davydov’s regiment, the generalissimo noticed the nine-year-old son of the commander of a light horse regiment and prophesied his future as a commander. As if to confirm this, in 1807, when Prince Bagration was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian army in the war with Turkey, Denis Davydov, being his adjutant, successfully participated in all campaigns.
For bravery in Russian-Turkish war Davydov was awarded diamond pendants to the Order of St. Anne, II degree.
Long before the Battle of Borodino, Vasily Davydov bought the village of Borodino, and 5 days before the battle, his son Denis proposed to Bagration the idea of creating a partisan detachment. He was given 50 hussars and 80 Cossacks. Together with other partisan detachments, Davydov captured the two thousandth detachment of General Ogiro, then destroyed the French cavalry depot. Having shown examples of heroism, having marched through Europe with the vanguard of Russian troops, he entered Paris, for which he received the rank of major general. In the battle near Paris, five horses were killed under him, but Davydov still broke through to the capital of France.
Not accepting manifestations of “Arakcheevism” in the army, Davydov retired in 1823, but already in 1826, not without the intervention of his cousin, the legendary and so revered by the Armenians conqueror of the Caucasus, infantry general Alexei Ermolov, Davydov again girded himself with a saber and returned to army and successfully fights the Persians in the Caucasus and, in particular, in Armenia. Here he learned the morals and courage of his comrades - generals and officers, as well as Armenian militias, after which he wrote: “It is enough to invite a hundred Armenians - and they will repel the enemy.”
In 1831, Denis Davydov was promoted to lieutenant general. D. Davydov died on April 22, 1839 at the 55th year of his life and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
Literary activity
Even during military campaigns, Davydov did not stop working on his favorite literary work. He sang the life of the hussars of that time. Wine, love affairs, riotous revelry, daring life - this is the content of his poems. He wrote:
I was born to serve the king! Saber, vodka, hussar horse, With you I have a golden age! I love bloody combat...
And this is all about Davydov, with whom Olga Sergeevna Pushkina, the sister of the great poet, who highly valued the originality of Denis Davydov’s talent, was in love. In addition to the original works, Davydov had translations from Arno, Vigee, Depille, Ponce de Verdun, as well as imitations of Voltaire, Horace and Tibullus.
In 1816, Davydov was elected a member of the famous literary society "Arzamas", where he received the nickname Armenian. It can be assumed that the reason for this could have been his jet-black hair and lush mustache.
Davydov and Armenia
In his biography, Davydov writes about his stay in Armenia in the third person: “The Persians invade Georgia. Ten days later, he and his detachment are behind Bezobdal in pursuit of the enemy retreating from him along the Bezobdal valley. Finally, another day - he is near the sky-high Alagez, strikes Hasankhan's four-thousandth detachment, forcing him to flee to the Erivan fortress, where the Sardar of Erivan himself is rushing with his troops from Lake Gokhchi. Here Ararat opens to Davydov's eyes in full splendor, in its snow clothes, with all the memories of the “cradle of the human race.”
After this expedition, as indicated in all biographies of Davydov, around 1827 he began building the Jalal-ogly fortress, which he completed around December. In winter, during inactivity, he receives leave from General Ermolov to Moscow for six weeks, but due to his deteriorating health, Davydov no longer returns to Armenia.
Achievements
- Lieutenant General (1831)
Images
Miscellaneous
- On August 1, 1812, in the village of Borodino, where he grew up, his parental house was hastily dismantled into fortifications, and during the Battle of Borodino, the entire village burned down along with the manor’s house.
- The great Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin aptly expressed himself about Davydov: the military thinks that he is an excellent writer, and the writers are sure that he is an excellent general.
- The fame of Denis Davydov’s bravery spread throughout Russia and even beyond its borders. The Scottish poet and novelist Walter Scott admired him and hung an engraved portrait of Davydov in his arms cabinet.
- Writers and filmmakers have repeatedly turned to the image of Denis Davydov. Leo Tolstoy chose him as the prototype of Vasily Denisov in the famous novel “War and Peace”. In 1962, Eldar Ryazanov shot the film “The Hussar Ballad,” in which Denis Davydov is the commander of a partisan detachment, friend and comrade-in-arms of Lieutenant Rzhevsky. In 1980, the film “Squadron of Flying Hussars” was made about Denis Davydov.
Davydov Denis Vasilievich, (1784 – 1839), Russian poet, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812
He received an excellent home education. In 1807 he was appointed adjutant to Prince Bagration. At the beginning of the War of 1812, he was a lieutenant colonel in the Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment and was in the vanguard troops of General Vasilchikov. Before the Battle of Borodino, he was the first to suggest the benefits of partisan actions and was the first to begin them. His rapid successes convinced Kutuzov of the advisability of guerrilla warfare, and he gave it wider development.
In 1815 he was promoted to major general; then he took the place of chief of staff.
He was close to the Decembrists and the AS. Pushkin, enjoyed great sympathy in friendly circles. According to P.A. Vyazemsky, he retained an amazing youth of heart and disposition until his death.
In his poetic works (“hussar” songs, love elegies, satirical poems), Davydov created a new type of hero - a patriotic warrior, an active, freedom-loving, open person. Among his most famous poems are “Message to Burtsev”, “Hussar Feast”, “Song”. He was the author of a number of historical and polemical articles and personal memoirs.
Denis Vasilievich Davydov - Russian general, famous poet(1781 – 1839). Having received an excellent home education, he began his military career in 1807. Appointed as an adjutant to Prince Bagration, Davydov took part in almost all the battles of this campaign. In the winter of 1808, during Russian-Swedish war, he was in the army operating in Finland, marched with Kulnev to Uleaborg, occupied the island of Karloe with the Cossacks and, returning to the vanguard, retreated across the ice of the Gulf of Bothnia. Soon the war with Turkey began. In 1809, being under Bagration, who commanded the troops in Moldova, Davydov took part in battles with the Turks, and when Bagration was replaced by Count Kamensky, he entered the vanguard of the Moldavian army under the command of Kulnev.
Portrait of Denis Vasilievich Davydov. Artist J. Doe. Previously 1828
Denis Davydov. The first Russian saboteur
As a person, Davydov enjoyed great sympathy in friendly circles. According to Prince P. A. Vyazemsky, Denis Vasilyevich retained an amazing youth of heart and disposition until his death. His gaiety was infectious and exciting; he was the soul and flame of friendly conversations. Davydov's literary activity was expressed in a number of poems and several prose articles. The poetry of Denis Davydov, small in volume, is rude like a soldier. His early and most popular poems were written in the “hussar” style he himself invented. In them, he glorifies reckless valor - both on the battlefield and behind the glass. The language of some is, to put it mildly, unconventional; words sometimes have to be replaced with periods. But there is always a feeling in them strong game imagination and powerful rhythmic charge. His later poems are inspired by his love for a very young girl. They are passionately sentimental, and in language and flexible rhythm are as full of life as his hussar songs. Pushkin had a high opinion of Davydov’s poetry and used to say that Davydov showed him the path to originality.
Davydov’s poems “Message to Burtsov”, “Hussar Feast”, “Song”, “Song of the Old Hussar” were written in the “hussar” spirit. Along with poems of bacchanalian and erotic content, Davydov had poems in an elegiac tone, inspired, on the one hand, by a tender passion for E. D. Zolotareva, on the other, by impressions of nature. This includes most of his best works of the last period: “Sea”, “Waltz”, “River”. Davydov’s “Modern Song” enjoyed great fame. Written in a satirical tone, this play was aimed at those layers of Davydov’s contemporary society in which there was dissatisfaction with the existing order of things. The satirical direction was also reflected in his earlier works: “The River and the Mirror”, “Head and Legs”, “Treaties” and several epigrams.
Davydov’s poetic works are not distinguished by either the depth of content or the processing of style, but they have one advantage - originality. In addition to the original works, Davydov also had translated ones - from Arno, Vigee, Dedil, Ponce de Verdun and imitations of Voltaire, Horace, Tibullus. In 1816, Davydov was elected a member of the literary society " Arzamas", where he received the nickname "Armenian".
Davydov's prose articles are divided into two categories: personal memoirs and historical and polemical works. Of the first, the most famous are: “Meeting with the great Suvorov”, “Meeting with Field Marshal Count Kamensky”, “Memory of Battle of Preussisch Eylau", "Tilsit in 1807", "Diaries of Partisan Actions" and "Notes on the Polish Campaign of 1831". Based on the value of the data reported, these military memoirs still remain important sources for the history of the war of that era. The second category includes: “Did frost destroy the French army”, “Correspondence with Walter Scott”, “Notes on the obituary of N. N. Raevsky” and a number of others.
There is an opinion that Denisov is War and Peace Leo Tolstoy is based on Denis Davydov. Although the latter probably partly served as the impetus for the creation of this image, the character of Tolstoy's character is still very different from the real Davydov.
The brave cavalryman and intelligent partisan Denis Davydov was born on July 27, 1784 in Moscow in the family of the retired brigadier of the Poltava Light Horse Regiment Vasily Davydov. When little Denis was 9 years old, they met with A.V., already famous at that time. Suvorov, under whose command Davydov’s father served. Suvorov liked the boy and he predicted a brilliant military career for Denis, saying: “He will be an extraordinary military man!”
At the age of 17, Davydov began serving in the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment. But after 2 years he was expelled from the guard for writing “inappropriate poetry” and transferred to the Belarusian Hussar Regiment, where he continued writing poems, romanticizing the life of the hussars.
The year 1806 was marked by his new enrollment in the guard, and already in 1807 Davydov was appointed adjutant of Prince Bagration. He went through the entire campaign of 1807 against French troops in Europe side by side with Bagration, participating in every battle. His bravery did not go unnoticed. Proof of this were 5 medals and a gold saber “For Bravery”.
In 1808-1809, Davydov served under Major General Ya.P. Kulnev in the military campaign against Sweden, making the famous transition of our troops across the ice of the frozen Botany Bay to the Swedish border.
Davydov gained his greatest fame as a military commander in 1812, fighting against Napoleon's troops. As a lieutenant colonel and battalion commander of the Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment, part of the army of P.I. Bagration, shortly before the famous battle of Borodino, he submitted a petition to the prince with a proposal to start. Bagration reported the information to Kutuzov and he liked the idea. Having received under his command a detachment of 50 hussars and 70 Cossacks, Davydov began a partisan war, during which he received popular love and recognition. An interesting fact is that another hero of the war against Napoleon, General P.A. Ermolov was Davydov’s cousin.
During the war, certain incidents occurred. The French and Russian hussar uniforms were similar. Therefore, peasants often mistook their hussars for the enemy and attacked them. To avoid this, Davydov dressed his fighters in peasant clothes and dressed himself in the same, growing a beard.
Davydov's guerrilla warfare during the French retreat from Russia was very successful, so following his example, several more similar detachments were formed to conduct guerrilla operations. Davydov's partisans fought until the enemy was expelled from the country.
As a colonel, Davydov took part in the military campaigns of 1813-1814. He fought at Bautzen and in. During the War of 1814 on French territory, Davydov fought at the head of the Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment. Having a brigade of hussars under his command, with the rank of Major General, Davydov entered the capital of France in March of the same year.
D.V. Davydov left in 1823 military service, but after 3 years he returned and participated in military operations in the Transcaucasian District and Poland.
After retiring, Davydov began to compose memoirs and memoirs about various heroes of the 12th war. Friendly relations with Pushkin and a number of writers of that time contributed to the discovery of his literary talents, which were highly valued by his comrades. By the way, in communication he was a very cheerful person, as they say, the life of the party.