Poet and diplomat. The Presidential Library’s materials illustrate Fyodor Tyutchev

December 5, 2020 marks the 217th anniversary of the birth of Fyodor Tyutchev (1803–1873) - poet, diplomat, publicist, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, privy councilor. His poems are still considered by many people to be unsurpassed in Russian poetry. The portal and the collections of the Presidential Library present various materials about his life and oeuvre - biographical documents, dissertations: Poetic metaphor of Fyodor Tyutchev in a comparative aspect, Derzhavin tradition in the lyrics of Fyodor Tyutchev and others.

Fyodor Tyutchev was born on the family estate, in the village of Ovstug, Oryol province, Bryansk district. The Tyutchevs have long family history: “The Nikon Chronicle mentions the 'cunning husband' Zakhar Tutchev, whom Dmitry Donskoy, before the start of the Kulikovo massacre, sent to Mamai with a lot of gold and two translators to collect the necessary information - that the 'cunning husband' performed very well".

Perhaps Tyutchev's diplomatic abilities go back precisely to this "Tutchev" ... A talented graduate of Moscow University faithfully served Russia in this field for 22 years, defending its interests in Germany and Italy.

After graduating from the university, Tyutchev was sent to serve in the State Collegium of Foreign Affairs. He soon finds himself in Germany. According to Aksakov“… his relative, the famous hero of the Battle of Kulm, who lost his hand on the battlefield, Count A. I. Osterman-Tolstoy, put him in a carriage with him and took him abroad, where he attached him as a supernumerary official to the Russian mission in Munich. "Fate was pleased to arm itself with the last hand of Tolstoy (recalls Fyodor Ivanovich in one of his letters to his brother, 45 years later) in order to move me to a foreign land."

This was the most decisive step in Tyutchev's life, which determined his entire future life.

Poetry, which Tyutchev was fond of since childhood, temporarily receded into the background, but remained his outlet. He composed poems exclusively for himself, without seeking to be published. Philosophical lyrics in depth, psychologism, metaphorical thinking corresponded to the great poet, but Tyutchev did not at all consider himself like that!

Fyodor Ivanovich, who carried so many feelings in his soul, continued to consistently build his diplomatic career.

In 1837 Tyutchev was appointed senior secretary of the embassy in Turin. However, Europe did not become close to him - the Russian diplomat looked for and did not find there even a grain of spirituality.

In 1844 Tyutchev returned to his homeland. He was appointed to the post of chief censor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire and was given the rank of state councilor.

Burdened with public service, he appeared in the press only with journalistic articles. Only when the author was in his sixties, in 1854, on the initiative of the editorial board of the literary and socio-political magazine Sovremennik (at that time it was published by Ivan Panaev and Nikolai Nekrasov), a complete collection of Tyutchev's poems was published with a preface written by Turgenev.

Tyutchev's poems were highly appreciated by Leo Tolstoy. According to Afanasy Fet, close to Sovremennik, after meeting them the great writer exclaimed: “Once Turgenev, Nekrasov and company could hardly persuade me to read Tyutchev. But when I read it, I simply died out from the magnitude of his creative talent! .."

Tyutchev became truly famous. But as a citizen and a former diplomat, he was more worried about the events of foreign policy. Anticipating a war with the Turks before many, he wrote: “Get up, Russia! The time is coming!" 

In an article that was preceded by the first complete collected works of the poet, Ivan Turgenev noted that any Tyutchev’s poem “began with a thought, but with a thought, which, like a fiery point, flared up under the influence of a deep feeling or strong impression; as a result ... it always merges with the image taken from the world of the soul or nature, is penetrated by it, and it itself penetrates it inseparably". According to Turgenev, "there is the stamp of that great era to which Tyutchev belongs".