A biedermeier aesthetic of almanac Morning dawn (1838-1843) by V.A. Vladislavlev
For the fist time the article dwells on the literary activities of V.A. Vladislavlev, an official of the Third Section of <i>His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery</i>. The attention is paid to the reasons why his almanac "Utrennyaya Zarya" (1838-1843) was so popular with the readers while other periodicals of the kind ceased to be so much appealing. We also determine the ways to attract the readership and contributors. In the focus of our attention is the general aesthetics of late Russian romanticism of 1830 -the beginning of 1840 to Biedermeier. The article contains a thorough analysis of the most significant literary compositions of the almanac. The Almanacs of the 1820-s were a particularly secular type of literature reference book, useful for communication of intellectual well-bred people. The best periodicals of the kind endeavored to surpass this genre canon by acquiring the features of a political journal ("Polyarnaya Zvezda" (The Polar Star)) or a critical and philosophical review ("Mnemozina"). But for the aesthetics of biedermeier the ousted genre model becomes topical again as an antithesis to new democratic magazines and, correspondingly, as an instrument of official ideology, extremely disapproving new trends in journalism. The Almanac "Utrennyaya Zarya" appeared in the critical time which witnessed the decline of interest to this kind of books (1838). Almanacs were rapidly losing their readership in high society, becoming an entertainment for less intellectual readers. That's why the almanac published by V.A. Vladislavlev was of revolutionary nature giving a new birth to the genre mainly due to its freshness, originality and above all quality of the product. Vladislavlev managed to find contributors among famous and popular writers of that time (V.A. Zhukovsky, D.V. Davydov, A.V. Koltsov, V.I. Dal, N.V. Kukolnik, V.A. Sollogub, V.F. Odoyevsky, E.A. Baratynsky and other). The aesthetics of biedermeier perfectly corresponded to the general idea of "Utrennyaya Zarya", becoming the main component of this periodical. Motiffs of "bьrger environment", where this direction comes from, as well as "home", sometimes intimate atmosphere is found in most of the compositions of the almanac. Moreover, these motifs could be found both in prose and poetry, which was mainly represented by elegies and ballads. Vladislavlev did his best to follow the "parlour" way in the communication with the readership, avoiding ideological prolixity, but always emphasizing moral lessons of the story, sometimes very trite, but not without a certain dose of charm for the reader. That is why his choice of certain contributors brought about a commercial success to the almanac. As a result the almanac ceased to exist at its height. In 1842 Vladislavlev made up his mind to resign government of "Utrennyaya Zarya" to his younger brother and made the corresponding announcement in the mass media. This put an end to the unique history of the almanac. Thus, we consider this problem actual and promising as it adds to further and deeper understanding of the artistic heritage of Russian romanticism and its evolution of 1830-1840, connected with biedermeier