Nikolay Mikhaylovich Karamzin, a renowned Russian historian, poet, and journalist, was the leading exponent of the sentimentalist school in Russian literature, whose influential works had a profound impact on the development of Russian literary language.
Born in 1766, Karamzin was drawn to Enlightenment philosophy from an early age, and his extensive travels in western Europe only deepened his fascination with the ideas and culture of the time. His impressions of these travels were recorded in his seminal work, Letters of a Russian Traveller, which was published in two volumes between 1789 and 1790.
Written in a self-revealing style, heavily influenced by the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Laurence Sterne, the Letters introduced the sentimental style to Russia, which was all the rage in western Europe at the time. Karamzin's tale, Poor Liza, published in 1792, tells the tragic story of a village girl who takes her own life after a devastating love affair, and it soon became the most celebrated work of the Russian sentimental school.
Karamzin's friendship with Emperor Alexander I, which began in 1803, led to his appointment as court historian, and he devoted the rest of his life to his monumental 12-volume History of the Russian State, which was published between 1816 and 1829.
This groundbreaking work, which is considered the first general survey of Russian history, was conceived as a literary rather than an academic work, and it is credited with having contributed significantly to the development of Russian literary language. Karamzin sought to bring written Russian closer to the rhythms and conciseness of educated speech, and to equip the language with a full cultural vocabulary.
In addition to his own literary achievements, Karamzin's work also had a profound influence on the development of Russian literature as a whole. His History of the Russian State was a main source for Alexander Pushkin's drama, Boris Godunov, and his efforts to elevate the literary language of Russian had a lasting impact on the development of the language itself.
