“Dear friend Zhukovsky.. ”: Letters from Ivan Kozlov to Vasily Zhukovsky (1819-1839)

The article explores the epistolary heritage of Ivan Kozlov (17791840), a famous Russian poet of the romantic era. The heritage was discovered in the Manuscript Department of the Pushkin House (Institute of Russian Literature, RAS) and the National Library of Russia. The article analyses 34 letters addressed to Vasily Zhukovsky, which were mentioned only in a few fragmentary works. The letters cover almost 20 years of the life and work of the blind poet: from 12 June 1819 to 9 January 1839, that is, they fully embrace the period of progressive illness and, at the same time, the intensified development of Kozlov’s poetic talent. Most of the letters (two thirds) are written either entirely in French, or in a mixed format alternating between Russian and French. The poet, already almost or completely blind, wrote 14 letters himself, as a result of which they present the main difficulty for decoding, translation and publication. Kozlov’s daughter Alexandra, who early became a kind of secretary to her father, put the rest of the letters on paper for him. The article attempts to systematize Kozlov’s correspondence internally. All letters addressed to Zhukovsky, in accordance with their content, are divided into three thematic blocks. The first, the largest, is the poet’s creative laboratory. In these letters, Kozlov tells his friend about the texts on which he is currently working, or about those that he has already completed. This information allows the poems mentioned in the dialogue to receive an exact dating, previously unknown or approximate. The second thematic block of Kozlov’s letters is associated with the literary life of the era. First of all, this includes the poet’s reading circle, his aesthetic preferences, as well as individual facts and phenomena of the literary process contemporary to him, the main material of which was the works of Zhukovsky himself. The third block is based on Kozlov’s active participation in the life of Zhukovsky’s youngest niece Alexandra Voeikova, her family affairs, as well as the fate of her three children. This group also includes letters referring to the sudden death of Maria Moyer. As a result, Kozlov’s letters to Zhukovsky as a unique document of the era turn out to be an important source that helps to reconstruct the picture of the relationship between the two poets, to reliably reveal the creative laboratory of their author, who was completely immersed in the socio-cultural life of his time. The complete corpus of this correspondence will soon be prepared for publication as part of the next academic collection Zhukovsky: Research and Materials. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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