The First Literary Jubilee in Russia: Krylov and Others

The study is focused on an important stage in the process of shaping and functioning of Ivan Andreevich Krylov’s public image. A unique behavioral strategy created by the fabulist in the 1800s synthesized literary pattern with the everyday life. It not only provided Krylov with the most favorable life conditions during three decades (from 1812 till 1844, the year of his death). In virtue of a number of circumstances concerning the formation of the official ideology of the reign of Nicolas I, the named strategy, set upon Krylov’s fables, his opus magnum, resulted in a singular phenomenon of Krylov’s appropriation by the State (ogosudarstvlenie). The paper seeks to show how the idea of celebrating the 50th anniversary of Krylov’s literary activity on February 2nd, 1838, was born and performed in the described context. The light is also shed on the connection between the construct of Grandfather Krylov (“dedushka Krylov”) and further life of the fabulist and his works.