There lived a brave admiral. Faithfully served the Fatherland in the battlefield, in the field of public administration and in the literary field.
Such people can be safely attributed to geniuses - Alexander Shishkov was able to realize his talents in a number of completely unrelated spheres. First of all, of course, he was a soldier of his Fatherland, therefore he took the matter seriously and achieved high results. Not without incidents, excesses, but with whom does this not happen? The latter so annoyed the contemporaries of our hero that his figure in Russian culture was called controversial and preferred to be forgotten. It's time to fix the mistake of past centuries.
Childhood
The founder of the Shishkov family arrived at the court of the Tver prince at the beginning of the 15th century. probably from Smolensk, or Pskov. The surname of the serving nobles was formed from the nickname Shik, which Mikula wore - the most famous of the descendants of the same settler from the West. By the 18th century this aristocratic family was not rich.
Born in 1754, Sasha was to continue the military dynasty. At the age of 6, the boy was sent from the Shishkov family estate to the capital to study in the Naval Cadet Corps. Only education could pave his way to a decent life.
Maritime service
The very first sea voyage of Midshipman Shishkov ended in failure - the ship wrecked. The crew sailed on the shores of Sweden, where they were surprised by such guests. Diplomatic delays and the search for funds to return home did not break the graduate sailor. His mentors liked this and Alexander was offered to remain in the cadet corps as a teacher.
The Italian Palace in Kronstadt. From 1771 to 1796 this building housed the Naval Cadet Corps, where Alexander Shishkov taught
Alexander Shishkov managed to combine teaching with participation in long and dangerous voyages. With the rank of captain, he took part in the war against Sweden in 1788-1790. Having distinguished himself in battles, he was seen and awarded by Catherine II. A promising officer attracted the attention of colleagues, Rear Admiral Alexei Shelting gave him his daughter Daria as his wife. Together he lived a long and peaceful life, but they did not have children. In order not to feel lonely, the Shishkovs adopted Alexander Semenovich's nephews into the family for the upbringing.
Civil service
After the death of the empress, hills and potholes began in the biography of the naval officer: Pavel I began his acquaintance with Shishkov, granted him the title of captain-commander, and then he was sent to the rank of admiral … Forest Department. The accession of the grandson of Catherine the Great did not bring relief - in 1802, rival Alexander Shishkov Pavel Chichagov led the Ministry of the Sea.
Alexander Shishkov’s career could have ended if the young sovereign had not paid attention to one of the admiral’s talents — as early as 1777, the green lieutenant had begun to write and publish works on the maritime business. A person who knew how to correctly compose texts of documents and instructions was necessary for the state - in 1812 Shishkov took the post of secretary of state and during the war with Napoleon, and later engaged in foreign work in diplomatic work.
Academician
After the war, the retired navigator received the post of president of the Russian Academy and was introduced to the Council of State. There, he quickly made enemies, advocating tighter censorship. In 1824, the sovereign was appointed minister of public education with an official with radical patriarchal views. This showed the uneasy nature of the retired admiral: instead of immediately prohibiting any sedition, he willingly polemicized with freethinkers and did not begin purges in the apparatus. And yet, they began to perceive Shishkov as a strangler of freedom.
The uprising of the Chernihiv regiment. Artist Tatyana Nazarenko
In 1825, Nicholas I introduced the old man to the court, which considered the case of the Decembrists, but did not guess - Shishkov began to demand leniency for the rebels. The emperor and his retinue ignored the remarks of this strange man, but later they gladly accepted the repressive amendments to the Censorship Law initiated by Shishkov.
Contribution to Culture
Along with military service, managerial activities and active participation in public life, Alexander Semenovich Shishkov was engaged in literature. He began with translations that he did at the dawn of his naval career. Then there were author's works on the subject of education of the military and civil elite of the Russian Empire, poetry, memoirs. Occasionally, our hero turned to the genre of the play.
A word about Igor's regiment. Medieval miniature
A high achievement of Alexander Shishkov is the adaptation of the masterpiece of medieval literary work "Words on Igor's Campaign" into a language close to his contemporaries. So the first step was made towards the popularization of this work. The admiral was fond of religious literature and became the author of several works on linguistics and theology. But he did not want to translate texts from Church Slavonic to literary, but he also forbade others.
