V.A. Zhukovsky as the coeval of the pedagogic epoch in Germany: german literature about upbringing and artistic pursuits of the poet in 1840-1850

This article covers the first attempt to reconstruct the pedagogic library of 1840 - 1850 collected by V.A. Zhukovsky in Germany for upbringing his own children and the heirs of the Royal Family. On the basis of the notes, letters, and plans, left by the poet on the pages of the scripts, the character of understanding the works about education is studied. The next evolutionary step of the imaginative thinking of the late Zhukovsky correlates with the authentic German environment and the context of the last decade of his creative life. The resonant dialog of Zhukovsky with pietistic direction of the pedagogic of Prussia is characterized in the article, the direct harmonies of the chosen by the poet parts of the works of German authors and the motives of his late prose are discovered. Most of the editions about upbringing, collected by the poet, were published in Germany in 1840-1850 in the German language (more than fifty books and brochures). The type of the reading these pedagogic works shows the high interest of Zhukovsky in the material, his own strategy of understanding and the consistency of the views of the experienced tutor, the presence of defined enough priorities. The prerevolutionary historical-political situation and the reforms in the system of education, carried out in the days of Friedrich Wilhelm IV, defined the principles of the pedagogic editions selection. The foundation for the new governmental politic of Prussia in the questions of education and upbringing gave the pedagogic doctrine of pietists. More than the half of fifty books, collected by Zhukovsky in 1840s, more or less coincided with the theoretical and practical aspects of the Christian upbringing. The works of H. Langental 'A Man and his Upbringing' (Der Mensch und seine Erziehung.Jena, 1845), C.H. Zeller 'The Lessons of Experien-ce.FortheTeachersof Christian Schools' (Lehren der Erfahrung. FUr christ-liche Land- und Armen-Schullehrer.Stuttgart, 1846), and H.W. Grobe 'The Value and the Methods of Christian Upbringing of Children' (Werth und Weise der christlichenKinderzucht.Ein Wort christlicher Liebe. allen El-tern, Lehrern und Erziehern. Kassel, 1851) arosespecialattentionofthepoet. Almost every of the mentioned authors' statements marked by Zhukovskytakes its correspondence in his late prosaic fragments. In the Russian poet'sarticles of the second part of 1840s and of the beginning of 1850s, namely in the essays 'The Liberty of Education', 'The Belief in Knowledge', 'What is Upbringing?', and also in the letter writing there are statements, which almost literally renew the basic ideas of the moral and spiritual learning of pietists about a man and his upbringing. The prosaic series of articles, 'The Thoughts and Notes' by Zhukovsky 1840-1850, develops the keynote theme about the necessary union of the governmental power, public policy, and the state of life of a single citizen in the light of Christian religion. The thesis statements of the Romanticist take place in the fragments of 'The Decision', 'The Absolutism', 'A Man in Society', in the biographic sketch 'IosephRadowitz', and the other works, included in the designed but not published volume of the late prose. The detail reflections characterize the new step of the universalism of imaginative thinking of Zhukovsky, however we can find the direct coincidences with his historiosophic concepts in the frame of the ideas which were coeval to the contemporary German journalism of the pietists-pedagogues. On the back cover of the book by Grobe there is a plan-signature by Zhukovsky, which shows his great conception of the pedagogic publication, destined for Russia. According to the plan, Zhukovsky collected the works of the most outstanding pietists-pedagogues of German worldin his library. All of them can be divided into several thematic groups. The first one includes the books of the followers and the disciples of Pestalozzi, the prominent German and Switzerland pedagogues of the 19th century, who organized their own pedagogic provinces following the pattern of their teacher. The second group includes the works about girls' upbringing and educating, which was a topical issue for German pedagogic science in the 18th century and an independent branch in the scientific and practical pedagogic in 1840s. The third and the most numerous group was represented by the collected anthologies for children reading, "the old and new", as it was marked in Zhukovsky's plan, however not published in 1840s.

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