Kirjad Karlova mõisast

by Faddey Venediktovich Bulgarin, Faddeĭ Bulgarin, Malle Salupere (Tõlkija)

Poola rahvusest vene kirjanik, publitsist ja ajakirjanik Faddei Bulgarin (1789–1859) ostis Tartu lähedase Karlova mõisa 1828. aastal. Elupõlisel sõjamehel, kes käinud Napoleoniga läbi Euroopa ja sõdinud Vene poolel Soome sõjas, tuli sealtpeale vähemalt suviti ja ajuti aastaläbi pista rinda Tartu linnaisadega ja kantseldada laaberdama kippuvaid üliõpilasi. Puškini ajastu vene kirjanduse käsitlustes Poeedi põhivaenlaseks kuulutatud Bulgarinit, kelle pärand on ligi poolteist sajandit kannatanud nii vene kui ka nõukogude kirjandusteadlaste poriloopimist, on tasapisi hakatud rehabiliteerima alles alates 1990-ndatest. Ent just Bulgarin oli enne Turgenevit ainus vene kirjanik, kelle kõik olulised teosed ilmusid juba tema eluajal paljudes võõrkeeltes. Ta oli esimene kutseline ajakirjanik ja kirjanik Venemaal nagu Jannsen eestlastel. Käesolevasse mahukasse köitesse on tõlkija Malle Salupere valinud Bulgarini memuaristika selle osa, mis võiks huvitada eesti lugejat, ning kirjutanud saatesõna vormis põhjaliku ülevaate autorist ja tema ajast.

Raamatu väljaandmist on toetanud Eesti Kultuurkapital.

664 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2019

About the author

Bulgarin was born into a noble Polish family near Minsk, Belarus (then Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth). His father, one of Kosciuszko's associates, was exiled to Siberia for having assassinated a Russian general. Bulgarin was educated in a St. Petersburg military school, took part in the Battle of Friedland but was arrested for theft soon afterwards. While his regiment was stationed in Finland, Bulgarin deserted to Warsaw, but on the way was drafted to the Grande Armée. He fought under Napoleon's banners in the Peninsular War and the 1812 Lithuanian campaign. In 1812 Bulgarin was taken prisoner in Battle of Berezina and transported to Prussia. There is a 6-year lapse in his biography after that.

In 1820, Bulgarin travelled from Warsaw to St. Petersburg, where he published a critical review of Polish literature and started editing The Northern Archive. He also made friends with the playwright Alexander Griboyedov and the philologist Nicholas Gretsch. The latter helped him to edit the newspaper Northern Bee (1825–39), the literary journal Fatherland's Son (1825–59), and other reactionary periodicals.

Bulgarin's unscrupulous manners made him the most odious journalist in Russia. Alexander Pushkin, in particular, ridiculed him in a number of epigrams, changing his name to Figlyarin (from a Russian word for "clown"). Bulgarin retorted with epigrams, in which Pushkin's name was rendered as Chushkin (from the Russian word for "nonsense").

Inspired by Sir Walter Scott, Bulgarin wrote the Vyzhigin series of historical novels, which used to be popular in Russia and abroad. He followed these with two sententious novels about the False Dmitry[disambiguation needed] (1830) and Ivan Mazepa (1834). In 1837 he published under his own name a lengthy description of Imperial Russia, which was actually a work by Professor Nikolai Alexeyevich Ivanov of Dorpat University.

Some of Bulgarin's stories are science fiction: Probable Tall-Tales is a far future story about the 29th century; Improbable Tall-Tales is a fantastic voyage into hollow Earth; Mitrofanushka's Adventures in the Moon is a satire.

After Nicholas I's death, Bulgarin retired from the department of stud farms, in which he had been serving for many years, and withdrew to his manor in Karlova (Karlowa in German) near Tartu at the time, but now within the town.