I am a literary giant in Russia

Chapter 120 Zhukovsky and Alexander II
It is no exaggeration to say that the chances of Mikhail's articles and poems getting a mention from Tsar Nicholas I were only two or three people.

Perhaps because literature was indeed a high-end industry in this era, Mikhail was closer to those so-called big shots than he had imagined.

If we only consider relationships within the literary world, firstly, Mikhail can connect with Zhukovsky, the founder of Russian Romantic poetry, through Nekrasov, Belinsky, and many other figures in the literary world.

When talking about this kind-hearted and sentimental court poet, one cannot help but mention his rather legendary experiences.

First of all, his origins were not honorable. To put it simply, during a war between Russia and Turkey, a serf serving in the army presented a captured Turkish woman to his master, who then baptized her and took her as a concubine. Zhukovsky was born.

Although nominally a nobleman, upon closer examination, Zhukovsky's origins were certainly not so authentic.

Although the young Zhukovsky suffered a lot because of this ambiguous social status, he did not harbor resentment or sorrow. Instead, he transformed these emotions into poetry, which was recognized almost immediately.

By the time of the Napoleonic Wars, the whole of Russia was reciting his patriotic poems.

However, what truly opened the door to the royal family for him was not his fame as a poet, but rather his excellent translation of German poetry into Russian.

As for the relationship between the Russian and German royal families, simply put, the wives of the Russian Tsars were basically chosen from among the princesses of the German principalities.

Paul I's widow and Alexander II's mother were both native Germans who greatly admired Schiller and German Romantic writers. Therefore, they enjoyed Zhukovsky's translations and especially liked discussing their favorite poets with him.

Thus, he became the Empress Dowager's companion and the Empress's Russian language teacher, securing his place in the palace and the royal family.

These days, poets are like this: as long as they write well enough, theoretically they can establish a connection with the royal family of any European country.

From an illegitimate child with an ambiguous identity to a renowned court tutor, such a life can certainly be described as legendary.

While Zhukovsky held conservative political views and disapproved of revolutionary actions, he was indeed a good person. He not only used his connections with the royal family to help reduce the punishments of the Decembrists, but also did his utmost to improve the situation of Pushkin, Lermontov, Herzen, and others.

At the same time, he also acts as a protector of literature.

Simply put, he was willing to mentor newcomers and help impoverished scholars.

As the saying goes, a person's reputation precedes them. When Nekrasov was seventeen or eighteen years old, before publishing his collection of romantic poems, "Fantasy and Sound," he went directly to Zhukovsky, hoping he could offer some advice.

Although Nekrasov was a nobody in the eyes of the crown prince's teacher at this time, Zhukovsky still received him, left him his collection of poems, and asked him to come back in a few days.

Then, after Nekrasov returned a few days later, Zhukovsky said, "Go home, son, okay? Go home. You're better suited to be a pile of dog poop, better suited to be a pig."

Well, the mild-mannered Zhukovsky certainly wouldn't have said it so directly, but that's roughly the idea. It was on Zhukovsky's advice that Nekrasov's poetry collection was actually signed NN, but the young man couldn't stand it and immediately jumped out after the collection was criticized.

The rest of the story has already been mentioned, so there's no need to go into it again here.

As for the connection between Belinsky and Zhukovsky, it was at a party hosted by Prince Odoevsky, who was also a legendary figure whose actions were equally worthy of respect.

However, due to Mikhail's low profile, the two have not yet officially met. But as Mikhail's reputation grows, out of curiosity, the duke seems to have been inquiring about Mikhail's whereabouts several times and hopes to meet the young man.

After all, their literary salon was one of the most prestigious in St. Petersburg, and famous writers and musicians of the time, such as Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Pushkin, Krylov, Gogol, Lermontov, F. Liszt, and Glinka, were all frequent guests.

It is quite unusual that Mikhail, a young man who has already made a great name for himself, has never come even once.

However, to be honest, Mikhail did maintain a certain distance from such top-tier literary salons. After all, the aristocratic circles in St. Petersburg were really narrow. Take Odoevsky's dinner party, for example; it was a gathering of all sorts of people.

There were writers, painters, and high-ranking civil servants who were scholars, such as Yakinp from Beijing. Yes, that Beijing. This guy was an Orthodox priest and sinologist who worked hard to preach in our Qing Dynasty from 1807 to 1821. I just don't know if he gave eggs when he preached.
Then there are those who are half military police and half literary figures, and those who are entirely military police. Of course, officials from the Third Bureau are also indispensable.

With this kind of setup, even if Mikhail were to go later, he would have to be mentally prepared. Otherwise, if someone on the field accidentally broke a wine glass, Mikhail would suspect that three hundred axemen might suddenly appear. However, if he really wanted to deal with him, he probably wouldn't need such a large setup.

Poor Belinsky was often taken to such parties, and every time he attended one, he would fall ill for two or three days and berate the person who brought him there.

One of his meetings with Zhukovsky took this very turn. Belinsky arrived at the party and wanted to leave, but the furniture blocked his way. Somehow, he was squeezed into a small corner with a small table in front of him, on which were wine and glasses.

Zhukovsky sat diagonally opposite him, wearing a White House suit with gold trim. Belinsky sat patiently for a long time, but seeing that he still couldn't find a suitable opportunity to slip away, he slowly moved the table. At first, it was quite stable, but then the table suddenly wobbled, and a bottle of red wine fell over, spilling all over Zhukovsky.

Then everyone panicked, and Belinsky took advantage of the chaos to slip away. In his embarrassment, he didn't even ride in a carriage, but walked all the way home.

It is worth mentioning that Belinsky also had a very high opinion of Zhukovsky's poetry, saying that it "gave Russian poetry its soul," jokingly suggesting that it might have been to compensate the old man Zhukovsky for his trousers.

Although the great poet has now gone to Germany, he naturally still maintains correspondence with many people in the Russian literary world. Given the current popularity of Imikhail's poetry in high society, it's not impossible that someone might mention it to him and send him a poem. If Zhukovsky truly liked it, he might have brought it up in his correspondence with his student, the future Alexander II. And if Alexander II read it, how far would those articles and poems be from reaching Nicholas I, the Great Khan?

Fortunately, Nicholas I didn't actually like watching these kinds of things.

Incidentally, Alexander II, the future Tsar, was quite a crybaby, partly due to his own personality but also largely influenced by Zhukovsky.

Zhukovsky lived in an era when romance and sentimentality were prevalent, and the romanticism and sentimentality in literature and art profoundly influenced society. A well-known example is Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther," which even inspired a large number of young people to imitate Werther and commit suicide.

Therefore, in late 18th-century Russia, sensitivity and meticulousness were highly fashionable. At that time, when Catherine the Great recounted Peter the Great's achievements to the nobles of Kazan, the entire room was filled with weeping for Peter's great deeds. When Catherine read a new edict to the representatives of the Legislative Council, the council would burst into tears at the Empress's intelligence and wisdom.

But thinking about it from another perspective, sometimes we really might not dare not cry.

In short, the sentimental Zhukovsky often cried. He would cry tears of joy when reading Schiller, and he would cry tears of anger when his students misbehaved. He would also cry his eyes out when he thought of his time as a sycophant, especially before he had won anyone over.

In this respect, Alexander II was a bit like Zhukovsky; he cried so much that another of his teachers made him record every single time he cried on a list of faults, which Nicholas I would then read aloud. He often wrote things like this:
"March 30th. Written terribly, and I burst into tears for no reason."

"April 1st. I studied very well. I hit myself with a small stick and cried."

This sentimentality, as part of his personality, persisted throughout his life. Many years later, when he personally signed the decree to emancipate the serfs, he also shed tears of joy.

However, he loved to cry, while his father, Nicholas I, vehemently hated tears. His attitude towards this was always to point a finger and say, "Cry?! Cry again and I'll make you fly! You've never seen the underworld before!"

He also punished the young Alexander II quite a bit for this.

Another point is that Alexander II also had an affair with Queen Victoria of Great Britain at that time, but we'll talk about that later.

In conclusion, as Mikhail's reputation in the literary world grows, it's possible that some truly influential figures have happened to hear his poems and novels, though Mikhail may not yet be aware of it.

However, Mikhail really didn't want to think about these things in detail. Some things might only weigh a little if you don't think about them, but if you really think about them, they can weigh a ton.

Although having too many lice doesn't make you afraid of being bitten, the current situation is enough to give Mikhail a headache, so he should put aside other troublesome matters for now.

However, some things may still be unavoidable. As mentioned earlier, there was a party at the Odoevsky family's house. It is estimated that Mikhail will still attend it after some time. After all, although the Odoevsky Prince has never officially met Mikhail, he has already taken the initiative to write several reviews of Mikhail's novels and poems.

Given his prestige and status in the cultural world, his actions were undoubtedly a proactive effort to help Mikhail consolidate his reputation and position in the literary world.

If someone who has never met you can do this much, it would be really not very kind of Mikhail to not even attend their party once.

Several days have passed since the latest issue of "The Modern Man" was released, but the controversy and discussion surrounding Mikhail's articles continue, and seem to be far more intense than before. This is largely due to the uproar caused by "The Superfluous Man" among the educated young nobles in Russia.

There were those who approved and those who opposed him. Some hailed Mikhail as "another outstanding critic," while others called him "a cheap clown seeking attention."

As a critic, putting everything else aside, Mikhail's commentary certainly garnered a lot of attention. Newspapers big and small all wanted to ride on his coattails, and after seeing the magazine's sales, the owners of various publishing houses were overjoyed, even Krajevsky was.

There's nothing they can do. They may have grudges, but without Mikhail's commentary to heat up the market, these people wouldn't be able to find anything to take advantage of!
In this atmosphere, Mikhail continued his studies at the university without any conflict. Strictly speaking, he wasn't entirely without conflict, because university students would randomly appear around him. Some were just subconsciously trying to surround him out of admiration and fanaticism, while others genuinely wanted to have a real conversation with him about social issues and revolutionary ideas.

It's clear that if the school supervisors hadn't been keeping a close eye on Mikhail these past few days, they would have really wanted to take him to a high place and listen to him say something.

Even if they couldn't do that, they could still sense Mikhail's genius, keen insight, and noble character from the few words they exchanged with him.

Most importantly, he naturally makes people feel close to him, and makes people unconsciously try to trust him.

The main source of this feeling is probably that I don't see much vulgarity in him, nor do I see any confusion. It's as if if I follow his lead, I'll definitely get a pretty good result in the end.

In this situation, Mikhail really wanted to say, "You've really ruined my life! You've really ruined my life!"

Faced with this rather dangerous situation, Mikhail naturally remained cautious in his words and actions. In addition to interacting normally with others, he was also genuinely studying diligently. His behavior caused many people who were secretly observing him to be on edge one moment and relaxed the next.

Well, this student seems both honest and somewhat dishonest.
During this learning process, Mikhail was not only studying; in his spare time, the idea for a novel closely related to law was also basically perfected in his mind.

However, there's no rush to release a long story; it's good to release a short story first to generate buzz.

Also, it seems Turgenev has been gone for a while now; I wonder if things are going well for him.
(End of this chapter)