Grigorovich D.V. (1822-1899), writer

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GRIGOROVICH Dmitry Vasilievich (1822-1899, St. Petersburg), prose writer, corresponding member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1888). Studied in a private boarding schools of Moscow, then in (1836-40) in the Main Engineering School (didn't finish), where he drew together with F.M. Dostoevsky, in 1844 shared a flat with him (11 Vladimirsky Avenue). For a short period of time studied at the Academy of Arts. In 1842 worked in the Front Office of Imperial Theatres. His first literary works appeared in the early 1840s. At the suggestion of N.A. Nekrasov he wrote an essay the Petersburg Organ-Grinder for the collection Physiology of St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg, 1845), this sketch became a classic of the genre. In the 1840-50s he contributed a lot to the journal Sovremennik. Grigorovich's stories The Village (1846), Anton-Goremyka (1847), novels The Fisherman (1853), Resettlers (1856), focusing on the life of peasants, were highly appreciated by contemporaries. The works devoted to Petersburg life (Adventures of Nakatov, or Ephemeral Wealth, 1848; Unhappy Life, 1850; Svistulkin, 1855; A Winter Evening, 1855; Relatives in the Capital, 1857; Petersburg of the Past, 1887 - an unfinished novel) show the shifting towards the grotesque-satiric and objective-psychological depiction of Petersburg life. From the middle of 1860s, Grigorovich appeared mainly as a literary and art critic (The Walk Around the Hermitage, 1865, 1875; The Exhibition of the Imperial Academy of Arts' Students, 1875; Sketches of Artistic Industry, 1886). One of the latest works by Grigorovich, the story The Guttapercha Boy (1883), became a classic of children's literature. In 1863-94 he was secretary of the Artists Encouragement Fund, initiated the creation of the Arts Museum and the Drawing Studio of the society. The literary life of the 1840-50s is masterfully depicted in Grigorovich's Literary Memoirs (1892-93), where he wrote about his meetings with Petersburg and Moscow writers. The essay The Dull City (1897) about the literary life of the 1840-60s developed the subject, which he touched upon in the memoirs. In 1893-99 he lived on Ekaterininsky Canal Embankment (today 77 Griboedova Canal; memorial plaque). Buried at Volkovskoe Cemetery, in 1939 his remains were moved to Literatorskie Mostki.

References: Отрадин М. В. Петербург в прозе Григоровича // Вестн. ЛГУ. 1977. № 2, вып. 1. С. 76-84; Мещеряков В. П. Д. В. Григорович - писатель и искусствовед. Л., 1985.

M. V. Otradin. Dostoevsky Fedor Mikhailovich
Grigorovich Dmitry Vasilievich
Nekrasov Nikolay Alexeevich
Griboedova Canal Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 77
Vladimirsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 11
Отрадин М. В. Петербург в прозе Григоровича // Вестн. ЛГУ, 1977
Мещеряков В. П. Д. В. Григорович - писатель и искусствовед. Л., 1985 Russian Academy of Sciences
Imperial Theatres Board
Sovremennik (Contemporary), journal
Literatorskie (Literary) Mostki, the museum-necropolis