Kozma Prutkov
April 23 (11), 1803, Kozma Petrovich Prutkov was born a popularly loved lyricist, philosopher, wit. Kozma Prutkov begins her career in military service, but quickly disappointed in her, turns to civilian and becomes director of the Assay Tent. Being a typical representative of the aristocracy of the epoch of the reign of Nicholas I, Kozma Petrovich was engaged in literature, was fond of natural sciences, was given to philosophical meditations. Hours of leisure, as a representative of the intellectual elite, he spent in the Summer Garden. Here are lines from his poem:
“I walk alone on the Summer Garden,
In the company with friends in the park I go …
* We consider it necessary to explain for Russian provincials and for foreigners that here the so-called “Summer Garden” in St. Petersburg is of course understood. Note K. Prutkov.
Loved Kozma Prutkov walks around the neighborhood of St. Petersburg, another hobby of that era. Walks filled him with inspiration and the lines were born:
“On the seashore, at the outpost,
I saw a big garden.
There is a high asparagus;
Cabbage there modestly grows. ”
Kozma Prutkov did not pass by mass hobby prozabozlovem (so called science botany), he made botanical walks, collected herbarium. In the fable “Landowner and gardener” Kozma Prutkov beats the word “vegetate”.
The landlord once on Sunday
Presented his neighbor to the present.
It was a kind of plant,
What, it seems, is not even in Europe.
The landowner put him in the greenhouse;
But how he did not do it himself
(He was busy doing something else:
I knitted abdominals to my relatives),
That time the gardener to himself he calls
And he says to him: “Yefim!
You are especially in favor of this plant;
Let him live a good life. ”
Winter has come yet.
The landlord remembers about his plant
And so Yefim asks:
“What, is the plant well vegetated?”
“Fairly,” he answered, “it’s really frozen!”
Let every gardener hire such a man,
Who understands,
What does the word “vegetate” mean.
When the word “vegetate” the landlord understands “grow”, and the gardener – “freeze”.
Long before the advent of the Internet, Kozma Prutkov, who occupied and excited the minds of his contemporaries, turned out to be a virtual figure. This literary mask was invented by the poets AK. Tolstoy and the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers, but the hero began to live his life. Now many people perceive Kozma Prutkov as a real person. In Arkhangelsk on the “Homeland” of the hero is a monument. In Tosno and in the Arkhangelsk region there are festivals dedicated to Kozma Prutkov.

Portrait of Kozma Petrovich Prutkov.

Writer and poet Alexei Tolstoy, brothers Alexander, Alexei and Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov.

Monument to Kozma Prutkov, sculptor S. Syukhin.