Little-known facts of the life of the great fabulist Ivan Krylov reflected in the Presidential Library’s new e-collection

13 February 2019

Marking the 250th anniversary of the Russian classic, whose birthday is celebrated on February 13, the Presidential Library presents on its portal an extensive electronic collection dedicated to him, which includes digital copies of rare books, articles, archival documents and visual materials. The selection consists of three sections: "Life and Work", "Oeuvre", "Memory of Ivan Krylov".

By the end of his life the writer respected and loved by the public, meanwhile, went through a rather difficult road to success. It is worth noting that, according to the comments of the researchers, there was practically no material for recreating a detailed picture of his life.

Ivan Andreevich Krylov was born in Moscow in 1769 into a family of a poor army officer. After the death of his father, a 14-year-old boy was forced to go to the service of a clerical official in order to save his loved ones from poverty. The mother managed to give knowledge to her son, as follows the collection “Ivan Andreevich Krylov. His life and works". It was during this period that Krylov's many-sided talent was formed.

However, it was not the fables that became Krylov's first literary experience. “From childhood, he felt a special desire for dramatic art; people considered opera then as the most perfect performance, and the boy Krylov bravely accepted the composition of the opera. Then he tries himself in a tragic race, and at last he goes on to comedy, quoting Y. K. Groth again. At the end of 1805, he suddenly appears in Moscow, gives to print three fables and, almost at 40 years old, he realizes his real vocation in the field of poetry”.

Thanks to the collection of the Presidential Library, the visitor of the portal has the opportunity to get familiar with the most different genres of works by Krylov, presented in the section “Oeuvre”, which also includes the Complete Works by Ivan Krylov of 1847.

The most striking contribution to the Russian culture Ivan Krylov made as fabulist. He began by translating La Fontaine's fables, and then engaged in retelling old plots and creating new ones. "His fables reflected many features of his era, social trends, outstanding historical events, and minor topical facts, but reflected as befits a fabulist "under the sign of eternity"" – as notes the book with the telling title 1812 in the fables of Krylov (1912).

The electronic collection presents both editions of fables by Ivan Krylov in the middle of the XIX - middle of the XX century, as well as illustrations to them. Of particular interest among them are satirical posters of the Great Patriotic War, issued in 1944 to the centenary of the death of the fabulist, which depict leaders of the Third Reich in the form of Krylov's characters.