Having created a lot of magnificent poems in his life, Konstantin Batyushkov was an extraordinary person. A sensitive man, emotional, and at the same time educated and extremely cultured, he subtly felt all experiences, both his own and those of others. They laid the foundation of his poetry, sensitive and touching.
The poet’s family was disgraced, as his uncle took part in a conspiracy against Catherine II. The plot was uncovered, the perpetrators were punished, but all the relatives of the participants fell out of favor for a long time. Konstantin Batyushkov was the fifth child of his parents, the youngest. His mother suffered from a mental illness. Apparently, it was inherited by Konstantin Batyushkov – in adulthood, he really began to go crazy. He loved to read from childhood, giving particular preference to the poetry of ancient authors. Being a very young man, Konstantin Batyushkov, despite the ban of his father, went on a military campaign in Prussia. During one of the battles, he showed personal courage, was wounded and subsequently awarded the order.
K. Batyushkov began to compose poems early, but immediately fell in love with this occupation. Even during the Prussian campaigns, he did not leave him. Shadow of a Friend, one of his poems, is often called the peak of Batyushkov’s work. It was written on the death of I. Petin, a close friend of the poet who was killed in the war. A.S. Pushkin highly appreciated the work of K. Batyushkov, and in his youth he read and reread his poems many times. The poet had a dream – to visit sunny Italy. It came true, but, having got there, he quickly wanted to go home, and returned back to Russia. Konstantin Batyushkov tried to commit suicide several times. It affected the mental disorder inherited from his mother. A poet came from an ancient noble family, not too rich, but very notable.
Manor Batyushkov survived to the present day. Now it has a museum dedicated to the work of the famous poet. After the change of power, the Batyushkovs came out of disgrace. So, Emperor Alexander I at the expense of the state treasury paid for the expensive treatment of the poet in Germany, where he spent about 4 years in a psychiatric hospital. With age, Konstantin Batyushkov lost his mind more and more, and the last decades of his life were very difficult. He could no longer compose poetry, and for the most part he was kept isolated from others. The disease began to appear when he was about 30 years old. One of the poet’s friends was Vasily Pushkin, the uncle of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. He was also friends with Nikolai Gnedich. Konstantin Batyushkov was afraid of losing his mind all his life, which he admitted in his letters to a friend. Alas, this is exactly what happened in the end, and by the time of his natural death he was already completely insane.
