Vasily Timiryazev

Vasily Timiryazev was born 6 March 1841 in Saint Petersburg to the head of the Saint Petersburg customs district, Arkady Semyonovich Timiryazev, and his second wife (married 9 November 1830) Adelaida Klementyevna, née Baroness de Bode, daughter of a lieutenant colonel. The noble Timiryazev family was known from pre-Petrine times. Besides Vasily, the family included older daughters Maria and Olga, and brothers Alexander and Ivan — from the father's first marriage to Maria Vasilyevna Protasova. From the second marriage to Adelaida Klementyevna were born Zakhary (born 4 September 1831), Nikolai (born 3 August 1835), Dmitry (born 8 June 1837), Vasily, and Kliment (born 22 May 1843). File:Arkady Timiryazev.jpg|Arkady Semionovich Timiryazev File:Adelaida Timiryazeva.jpg|Adelaida Klimentievna Timiryazeva Additionally, Vasily was a first cousin to the Saratov governor F. I. Timiryazev and nephew to the Astrakhan governor I. S. Timiryazev. His nephews were the physicist A. K. Timiryazev and the Minister of Trade and Industry V. I. Timiryazev. The Timiryazev family was noble but impoverished, as with the accession of the new sovereign Alexander II in 1855, Vasily's father was retired, and his large family had to live on a modest pension. At the same time, Arkady Semyonovich adhered to firm republican principles and raised his children in the same spirit. The younger children received home education and early became accustomed to earning their living through their own labor. However, in preparation for university entrance exams, in addition to their mother, the brothers were assisted by their home tutor Ovchinnikov. On 19 July 1860, Vasily and Kliment submitted petitions for admission to examinations at Saint Petersburg University. == Studies at Saint Petersburg University ==

Following their father's wish, both brothers enrolled on 15 September in the Faculty of Law in the cameral sciences division. Kliment transferred to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics in his first year, studying natural sciences until graduation. In autumn 1861, in their second year, Vasily and Kliment were expelled for participation in student unrest, because of a directive from the new Minister of Public Education E. V. Putiatin, requiring all students to sign matriculation books of a new format containing disciplinary rules: not to participate in university public life, not to organize meetings, a library, or fund, not to attend lectures of other faculties, etc. By signing, a student undertook to follow the new strict rules, contrary to the unwritten laws of student freedom. Some students were forced to sign, but Vasily and Kliment chose the path of "non-matriculated" students — those who refused to sign the document. On this occasion, a police officer visited the apartment of the rebellious young men, "first with flattery, then with threats urging them to return to the university, but in vain". 320 students of Saint Petersburg University refused to sign, and were arrested from 12 October to 6 December 1861. But since Vasily and Kliment's parents lived in Saint Petersburg with their sons, the police authorities required their father Arkady Semyonovich to provide surety for them, which he did. The matter ended there, and the Timiryazev brothers avoided arrest in the Kronstadt Naval Hospital, unlike other protesters. == Vocation choice ==

, 1870s V. A. Timiryazev initially planned to become a professional literary figure and devote his life to journalism, but later postponed this decision. For the rest of his life until retirement, Vasily Arkadyevich served as a Saint Petersburg justice of the peace; according to a contemporary, "Timiryazev, honorary justice of the peace—one of the oldest and most righteous in Saint Petersburg. Stern, passionate, and wayward, but 'mute before the law', with which he is armed from head to toe". However, official service could not fulfill all his aspirations. He shared a typical 1860s liberal-mindset, adherent of ideas promoted by the journal Sovremennik and its radical authors, sharing revolutionary views on Russian society in the 1860s. It was no coincidence that he linked his fate with the most freethinking journals of the time—Otechestvennye Zapiski and Delo, where he published literary translations from European languages and articles on literature, history, and public life. He was particularly close to the interests of Otechestvennye Zapiski, edited at the time by N. A. Nekrasov. V. A. Timiryazev's translations from English, German, French, Norwegian, and Danish are well-known. His younger brother Kliment also earned money translating from English. His articles on Garibaldi and Darwin appeared in Otechestvennye Zapiski in the first half of the 1860s, before Nekrasov and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin joined the editorial board, when the brothers used to be students. Their mother Adelaida Klementyevna taught them languages. Researcher I. M. Katarsky suggested that the brothers may have translated Charles Dickens's Great Expectations together. According to V. Ya. Fet, the Timiryazev family, thanks to Adelaida Klementyevna having a more Protestant than Orthodox lifestyle, may have maintained close ties with Britons living in Saint Petersburg. Thus, writer and Anglican priest Lewis Carroll in March 1871 asked Alexander MacMillan, owner of the London publishing house Macmillan Publishers, to send French and German translations of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' to the priest of the Anglican church in Saint Petersburg, G. S. Thompson. Carroll intended the books for a certain "Miss Timiryazef": . The reason of why an English translator needed French and German versions of Alice, and whether Macmillan's editions reached Saint Petersburg, remains unclear. The only Russian translation of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' published during Lewis Carroll's lifetime appeared in Moscow in 1879 (A. I. Mamontov printing house, 166 pp.). Titled Sonya in the Kingdom of Wonder, all fairy tale characters had Russian names, and the text was shorter than the original. The anonymous translation is attributed either to Olga Ivanovna Timiryazeva, Vasily Arkadyevich's cousin, or, more likely, to Ekaterina Ivanovna Timiryazeva (1848—1921). Ekaterina was Vasily's niece — sister of the future Minister of Trade V. I. Timiryazev; from age ten she lived in their home and learned English from grandmother Adelaida Klementyevna. In 1871, she married L. A. Baratynsky and later became known as translator of children's literature E. I. Baratynskaya, collaborating with the Tolstoyan publishing house Posrednik of I. I. Gorbunov-Posadov. == Work in Otechestvennye Zapiski ==

to V. A. Timiryazev on the book The Pompadours, A. S. Suvorin edition, 1879 The earliest mention of V. A. Timiryazev's name in the honorarium records of Otechestvennye Zapiski dates to 1871. The young contributor received payment for his translation from English of the anonymous "politico-satirical story" ''Ginx's Baby: His Birth and Other Misfortunes''. The actual author was the English writer Edward Jenkins, whom V. A. Timiryazev translated in subsequent years, though in 1871 the author's name was still unknown to him. In the preface to the story —actually a novel— V. A. Timiryazev noted that in just a few months ''Ginx's Baby'' had been reprinted seven times in Great Britain and enjoyed great success among readers. "Critics recognized it as the best political satire in English since Swift, but vainly tried to guess the author's name, which he has kept secret to this day, though all journalists agree it is one of the known political and economic writers..." Two years later, N. P. Ogarev in Geneva read the Otechestvennye Zapiski translation and in a letter to A. A. Hertzen, son of the late A. I. Hertzen, praised both the novel and the translation: "Have you read the English novel Djinks Child (1871). I have it in Russian translation. It's delightful. Get the original. The author's name is not given". The journal employed several translators, including several from English: M. K. Tsebrikova, Marko Vovchok, D. L. Mikhalovsky, N. S. Kuteynikov, and others. However, V. A. Timiryazev became the main translator for Otechestvennye Zapiski. His work there lasted from 1871 to 1883. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, V. A. Timiryazev was a war correspondent for Otechestvennye Zapiski in the Balkans. However, B. B. Glinsky reported that Vasily Arkadyevich wrote his foreign reviews without leaving Saint Petersburg Governorate, using the editorial foreign press. For example, the anonymous article "Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Uprising" in Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1876 was written by V. A. Timiryazev based on the book by English historian Arthur Evans (Through Bosnia and the Herzegovina on Foot during the Insurrection, August and September 1875. London, 1876). Indirect confirmation that V. A. Timiryazev wrote his foreign reviews in Saint Petersburg is that after finishing work for Russkoye Bogatstvo in 1894, he moved to another Saint Petersburg populist journal Novoye Slovo, collaborating from 1895 to 1897. During this time, Vasily Arkadyevich participated in weekly editorial meetings of Novoye Slovo until its publisher O. N. Popova sold it to the legal Marxists in March 1897. . K. A. Timiryazev in the robe of honorary doctor of the University of Glasgow, 1902 After the assassination of Emperor Alexander II by Narodnaya Volya members, voluntary informants from the secret monarchist organization Sacred Druzhina, wishing to compromise the chief editor of Otechestvennye Zapiski for connections with socialists, in the List of Major Agent Investigations of Voluntary Guard dated 5 April 1882 informed the Saint Petersburg Department of Police that at the home of a certain Matveev on Nadezhdinskaya Street, house No. 18, apt. 4 [address of the Otechestvennye Zapiski editorial office] , weekly gatherings occur chaired by Actual State Councillor Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov (pseud. Shchedrin). Known attendees: Mikhaylovsky, Pleshcheyev, Skabichevsky, and justice of the peace Timiryazev. After the death of I. S. Turgenev and just a month after completing publication of the novel Gideon Fleece, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, forgetting past editorial frictions with his contributor, wrote to V. P. Gayevsky on 27 August 1883: "Dear Viktor Pavlovich, as agreed, I send herewith the list of Otechestvennye Zapiski contributors wishing tickets to Turgenev's funeral. All are undoubted literary figures with full right to attend". Among the names of regular contributors was V. A. Timiryazev. The left-radical and revolutionary part of Russian society, amid the reaction of the 1880s, planned to turn Turgenev's funeral into a major political demonstration. The younger brothers Vasily and Kliment were close, though outwardly different, but shared similar characters. Throughout life they held similar political convictions. Moreover, Vasily influenced his younger brother, passionately writing to Kliment in Moscow about the upcoming mourning events in Saint Petersburg: "Come without fail... so many vile things are being done over these funerals that every decent person must attend... If successful, we'll arrange such a triumph — let the scoundrels know. Already 250 delegations and wreaths... If you don't come, you'll be ashamed." Vasily did not have to persuade long: Kliment Arkadyevich came from Moscow and attended as representative of the Petrovskaya Agricultural Academy. Vasily carried the wreath from Otechestvennye Zapiski. V. A. Timiryazev's name appears briefly in N. S. Leskov's story The Lady and the Fefyola (1894), describing events of the 1860s–1870s. Leskov calls V. A. Timiryazev one of his literary friends of that era: "I went with another literary comrade, now deceased (of our company then, only three remain alive: Timiryazev, Vsev. Krestovsky, and I)". The true nature of their relationship is hard to establish, as the story, subtitled "From Literary Memoirs", is, according to the writer's son A. N. Leskov, "least of all memoir-like". Maya Kucherskaya clarified that the circle close to the Otechestvennye Zapiski editorial board under S. S. Dudyshkin included, besides Leskov, V. A. Timiryazev, V. V. Krestovsky, N. I. Solovyov, E. F. Zarin, and L. N. Maykov, though academician L. N. Maykov was still alive when Leskov wrote the story. == Work in Istorichesky Vestnik ==

After the banning of Otechestvennye Zapiski and closure of Delo in 1884, V. A. Timiryazev collaborated to many publications, most intensively to S. N. Shubinsky's journal Istorichesky Vestnik (1880—1917). Eventually, Vasily Arkadyevich retired from service and dedicated himself to literature. Journalist B. B. Glinsky, later editor of Istorichesky Vestnik, in his obituary recalled that Timiryazev was an outstanding worker, highly educated, perfectly mastering European languages. This was appreciated by editor S. N. Shubinsky, who invited the former Otechestvennye Zapiski journalist to maintain the regular column "Foreign Historical News", previously handled by veteran journalist Vladimir Rafailovich Zotov, who died in 1896. V. A. Timiryazev accepted. The column was monthly, anonymous, and under Timiryazev became "Foreign Historical News and Trifles". In 1915, as editor, B. B. Glinsky in the article Istorichesky Vestnik over 35 Years again recalled V. A. Timiryazev and other colleagues. He wrote that Istorichesky Vestnik presents readers face to face not only with phenomena and figures of national life but also Western European, with active assistants V. R. Zotov, E. M. Garshin, A. I. Kirpichnikov, V. A. Timiryazev. Then the editor noted contributors to Historical News and Trifles: the mentioned E. M. Garshin, V. R. Zotov, V. A. Timiryazev, as well as unmentioned F. I. Bulgakov, A. M. Lovyagin, A. M. Belov, and Vasily Arkadyevich's widow E. S. Timiryazeva. Finally, Glinsky drew attention to the column "Foreigners about Russia", a kind of "Rossica" (with a counterpart "Russians about Foreigners"). The first provided compilations from serious works of European scholars on intersections of European and Russian history and life of the Russian Empire. Most fruitfully here worked V. A. Timiryazev, V. I. von Stein, and A. M. Belov. == Death and posthumous fate ==

Vasily Arkadyevich actively contributed to Saint Petersburg press, working as translator and theatre critic. Besides the mentioned Otechestvennye Zapiski, Delo (1873—1876 and 1879—1880), and Istorichesky Vestnik, he appeared in Saint Petersburg journals Slovo, Zhivopisnoye Obozreniye, Severny Vestnik (1889—1891), Russkoye Bogatstvo, Novoye Slovo, Niva, newspapers Nedelya, Sanks Peterburgskiye Vedomosti, Novosti, Golos, Molva, Russkaya Zhizn. V. A. Timiryazev was a member of the Mutual Aid Society of Russian Writers and its aid fund. Vasily Arkadyevich died on 14 August 1912. Buried at the cemetery in Uusikirkko. According to the obituary author, the cause was news of A. S. Suvorin's death on 11 August 1912 in Tsarskoye Selo. The Istorichesky Vestnik editorial learned this on 15 August from Vasily Arkadyevich's widow Ekaterina Sergeyevna Timiryazeva. According to her, the death of the publisher of Novoye Vremya and Istorichesky Vestnik deeply shocked her husband. Reading the news, he gasped: "What grief, what a loss!" Then followed agony lasting a day. V. A. Timiryazev died three days after Suvorin. In Soviet times, he was mentioned by biographers and commentators of K. A. Timiryazev, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, N. A. Nekrasov, and N. S. Leskov, bibliographers I. F. Masanov and Yu. I. Masanov (Dictionary of Pseudonyms), V. E. Bograd, and S. S. Borshchevsky (contents indexes of Otechestvennye Zapiski). In post-Soviet times, his biography began to fade. Thus, biographer of the Timiryazev dynasty Aleksey Andreyevich Druchok erroneously believed Vasily Arkadyevich died in 1899, when in fact his first wife Adelaida Borisovna Danzas died on 30 January 1899, and he remarried. Confusion arose from the ''Agent's Report on Saltykov's Funeral published in Byloye'' in 1906. Timiryazev's initials were not given. The anonymous Department of Police agent reported from M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin's funeral: "Speeches by Orest Miller and Timiryazev were somewhat tendentious". == Personal life ==

Vasily Arkadyevich married Aglaida (Adel, Adelaida) Borisovna Danzas (6 May 1839 — 30 January 1899), daughter of Boris Danzas and niece of Konstantin Danzas, comrade of A. S. Pushkin at the Imperial Lyceum at Tsarskoye Selo on 24 July 1878. The couple lived on the Vyborg Side at Bolshoy Sampsonievsky Prospect, house 22. They had a daughter Tamara. Widowed at sixty-three, Vasily Arkadyevich married on 9 July 1904 the forty-year-old merchant's widow Ekaterina Sergeyevna Guskova (born 1864). The couple lived in the dacha settlement Mustamäki, where V. A. Timiryazev pursued literary work. In later life, paralysis affected half his body, rendering him immobile. His handwriting became illegible, so younger brother Kliment Arkadyevich struggled to read his letters. This period includes another special episode concerned family life, as far as Timiryazev's long-ill and deceased first wife was known to the editorial board, and the Timiryazevs lived in Saint Petersburg, while his young second wife was unknown to the journal. Problems began after the remarriage when the Istorichesky Vestnik contributor vanished. Soon it emerged he had not disappeared forever but submitted the next material on time. Where he sent it from remained unknown. This continued for years: a mysterious landlady collected foreign newspapers and journals from the office, leaving Timiryazev's ready materials without revealing his whereabouts. B. B. Glinsky wrote: "The situation was astonishing, curious: a permanent responsible contributor of unknown location! This gave rise to many anecdotes in editorial life, and the late A. S. Suvorin roared with laughter when I portrayed the editorial predicament in faces. 'Ah, how vivid: a contributor in space!'" Only two years before V. A. Timiryazev's death did the editorial learn he was paralyzed, living at his dacha in Mustamäki, and the column "Foreign Historical News and Trifles" was maintained in his name by his young wife Ekaterina Sergeyevna. "And excellently maintained. He trained a successor. That's the best in literary work," Glinsky relayed Suvorin's view of this journalistic curiosity. == Journalism and translations ==

B. B. Glinsky in Istorichesky Vestnik listed the most significant works of V. A. Timiryazev, excluding articles from other journals, translations, and publication dates: Prologue to the Alexandrine Era; Alexander I as International Arbitrator; Duc de Richelieu and the Odessa Plague of 1812; French Queen Anne Yaroslavna; Emperor Paul I; Daughter of Peter the Great (Elizabeth Petrovna); Six-Month Reign of Peter III; Alexander I and His Era; Pioneers of Enlightenment in Western Siberia; My Great-Grandmother (From Family Chronicle); Woman-Diplomat; French Diplomat at the Court of Catherine II; Adventurer of the Old and New World, and others. They fled to Prussia, then Russia, where Catherine II promised foreigners lands in Crimea and Novorossiya. The Empress graciously received the baron and baroness de Bode, granting vast lands. Karl August Ludwig Friedrich de Bode became Karl Illarionovich; his son Clemens Philipp Joseph de Bode (1777—1846) became Klementy Karlovich and married wealthy Englishwoman Charlotte Gardner in Saint Petersburg, becoming mother of Adelaida Klementyevna Timiryazeva. Mary de Bode herself, now Maria Bode, entered highest Saint Petersburg society, including the circle of Catherine's favorite Count P. A. Zubov. In Crimea, naturalist P. S. Pallas helped Maria Bode choose an estate with vineyard near Sudak. Paul I, besides Catherine's gifted Crimean and Yekaterinoslav lands, granted Maria Bode the estate Ropsha on the Gulf of Finland. The de Bode family's fate in Russia seemed ideal, but Maria dreamed of recovering the fief of Soultz left in Napoleonic France. Diderot and Catherine (Istorichesky Vestnik, 1899, July). Commentators of Literary Heritage characterized V. A. Timiryazev's compilation and translation style regarding Millicent Fawcett's novel Janet Doncaster: introductory article on the English novel and Fawcett, then condensed retelling preserving original beauties and best passages where possible. In the 21st century, Belarusian researcher Irina Chikalova in Great Britain: Comprehension of Historical Experience in the Russian Empire (19th—Early 20th Century), examining reviews of Anglo-Russian interconnections in Russian journals, particularly Istorichesky Vestnik, concluded that the main author on English topics in the 1890s was V. A. Timiryazev. She lists his essay on Byron as political figure, memoirs of British ambassador to Russia in the 1870s Lord Augustus Loftus, cycle on William Gladstone, Earl A. Rosebery, William Harcourt. In detail, she discussed Labor Deputies in England (1893). Among first working-class MPs: secretary and founder of the Joseph Arch, mechanic John Burns, leader of the Independent Labour Party Keir Hardie, and miner , appointed by Gladstone in his fourth cabinet as parliamentary secretary to the Board of Trade. Thomas Burt gained authority as secretary of the ''Northumberland Miners' Union''. Brothers Pyotr and Grigory Panteleev attracted many outstanding Russian translators. V. A. Timiryazev participated. The journal published collected works of Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Bret Harte, Émile Zola, George Sand, and others. Books listed translators, unlike many earlier publishers. V. A. Timiryazev's name stood out. An anonymous reviewer in Mir Bozhiy praised the excellent translation of The Book of Snobs: "The translator shows complete knowledge of English life in details through faithful and subtle rendering of conversation nuances and everyday trifles". The novel The Bride of Lammermoor from the Panteleev edition was reprinted in 1962 in volume 7 of the twenty-volume ("pink") Soviet edition of Walter Scott. V. A. Timiryazev's literary translations continue to be reprinted. In 2013, in Kharkiv and Belgorod, Club of Family Leisure published Walter Scott's "Collected Works in One Book". In 2021, Moscow publisher Veche issued The Bride of Lammermoor translated by V. A. Timiryazev and A. L. Yakovlev. Bret Harte's Gabriel Conroy translated by Vasily Timiryazev, read by Maxim Suslov, was released on CD in Moscow by "1C-Publishing" in 2016. Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood translated by Vasily Timiryazev is read by Dmitry Bykov, "Ardis" publisher, 2021. Articles and translations in Otechestvennye Zapiski per "Contents Index of Otechestvennye Zapiski"; in Delo per its index. V. A. Timiryazev's correspondence is held at the Pushkin House in Saint Petersburg (fund 202, inventory 2). == Publications in periodicals ==

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