Odoevsky's works are well known and loved by connoisseurs domestic literature XIX century. He was called the prince of romanticism, one of the founders of Russian musicology. In his career, he led the Society of Philosophers, published almanacs and magazines, and was the director of the Rumyantsev Museum. Schelling and Hoffmann had a great influence on him, it is interesting that he was fond of the occult sciences. He was even nicknamed "Russian Faust". Popularity brought him fantastic stories written in the genre of romanticism, wrote utopias, educational satire.

Biography of the writer

It is noteworthy that some of Odoevsky's works remained unfinished. In particular, this concerns one of his first novels called "Jeronimo Bruno and Pietro Aretino", referring to the so-called first Moscow period of his biography.

At this time, Odoevsky lived in Gazetny Lane, studied at a noble boarding school. In 1823 he began to serve in the archives of the College of Foreign Affairs. A circle of the "Society of Philosophy" gathered at his apartment, which was dissolved after the Decembrist uprising.

In 1826, the hero of our article moved to St. Petersburg, where he married Olga Lanskaya. Begins to work in the Censorship Committee of the Ministry of the Interior. Uses the contacts that have appeared to resume publication " Domestic notes". At that time, he takes an active part in the Belinsky circle, preparing a three-volume set of his own works. True, they still remain unpublished.

The maintenance of the salon, which the Odoevsky spouses had in Moshkov Lane, belongs to the Petersburg period. Well-known musicians and writers regularly came to them, among whom were foreign celebrities. For example, Franz Liszt.

"Kitchen Art Lectures"

By the way, Odoevsky was famous for his recipes. Dishes from them always turned out to be original and very spicy. There was always a large number of sauces on the table, which were collected from all over the world.

In the same period of creativity, he shows interest in mysticism, alchemy, Masonic teachings, and medieval magic. It is worth noting that it was during this period that his literary creativity flourished. For example, it is believed that in the unfinished novel "Year 4338: Petersburg Letters" he was one of the first in the world to predict the emergence of the Internet and blogs. Petersburg period include his collection philosophical stories and essays, united under the title "Russian Nights".

Popular are his stories under the titles "The Last Suicide", "The City Without a Name". They detail the consequences that the implementation of the law of Malthus can lead to when the entire population of the planet increases exponentially.

"Russian Nights" became an important final work, in which the author embodied all the disappointments experienced from modern literature and society. After that, he begins to devote less and less time to writing, more doing work and helping others.

Works of the second Moscow period

During the second Moscow period of his work, Odoevsky abandons mysticism, starting to promote the ideals of folk art.

In 1861 he returned to Moscow, received a seat as a senator in the Moscow department. Welcomes liberal reforms and easing of censorship.

Interestingly, throughout his life he had many diverse interests. For example, somehow he became interested in shorthand and even began to write a "Guide to the gradual study of Russian cursive writing."

"4338th year: Petersburg letters"

One of the famous, but unfinished works of Odoevsky is the novel "Year 4338; Petersburg Letters", written in 1835. It was first published in 1926. This is a popular utopia. In the work of V. F. Odoevsky, events unfold in 4338. All in anticipation that Biel's comet will collide with the Earth in a year.

Initially, it was supposed to be the final part of the trilogy, in which attention would also be paid to Russia during the time of Peter the Great. However, as a result, the first part was never realized, and Odoevsky did not finish the second and third parts.

In this work of Odoevsky one can find distant predictions of the future. For example, the possibility of remote communication between people using magnetic telegraphs.

The "home newspapers" that replace regular correspondence are also described in detail. They talk about the illness of the hosts or others important events this life. You can also find thoughts, sayings and comments. In 2005, blogger Ivan Dezhurny drew attention to this and began to claim that these were the first predictions of blogs and the Internet in the history of literature.

"Town in a Snuffbox"

Of the works of Odoevsky for children, the most popular is "The Town in a Snuffbox". This is a story written in 1834. Its main characters are father and son.

The father gives the child a snuffbox. The boy immediately wanted to find out how it functioned and be in inner world small snuffbox. He certainly needs to consider how everything works.

Much to his surprise, he succeeds. Right out of the snuffbox, a bell boy comes out to him, who invites him inside. In the snuffbox there is a whole town in which everything for the protagonist is arranged unknown and in a new way. The boy learns a lot, masters interesting sciences, learns about mechanisms. At the end of the tale, he wakes up, only then he finds out that it was all a dream.

"Russian Nights"

Another work by Odoevsky is called Russian Nights. It was first published in 1843. This is one of the most philosophical and amazing works of the author, as the reader's reviews say.

The annotation to Odoevsky's work mentions that this is one of the most difficult and dramatic stages in the history of all Russian literature and culture. The same goes for reader reviews. The format of this book of the hero of our article is attractive. In fact, the frame is a conversation with elements of philosophy that takes place between several young friends. Various fantastic themes and motifs are raised in the stories.

Tales of Odoevsky

Among the works of Odoevsky, fairy tales stand apart. Many even know him, first of all, as the author of books for children.

Connoisseurs of his fairy tales note that each work of Odoevsky turns out to be a window into a unique and incredible world that is so easy for children to believe in. His tales tell of people who lived full life many generations ago. They selflessly loved, worked to the last drop of sweat, believed in what they were performing for.

Odoevsky's fairy tales can teach even modern children a lot. In them, the best human feelings will be demonstrated to the kids. This is restraint, diligence and inquisitiveness.

"Moroz Ivanovich"

One of the most famous fairy tales Odoevsky, according to readers, is called "Moroz Ivanovich". It tells about two girls, whose names are Sloth and Needlewoman. In life, they behave exactly in accordance with their names.

When the Needlewoman dropped a bucket of water into the well, the nanny made her go down into the well for the bucket. At the bottom of the well, she found an oven with pies, an apple tree, old man Moroz Ivanovich, whom she treated with gifts. For her kindness, he agreed to give her back a bucket full of money.

When Lenivitsa went for gifts, she returned empty-handed.

Odoevsky, Vladimir Fedorovich(1803–1869), prince, Russian writer, journalist, publisher, musicologist. Born July 30 (August 11), 1803 (according to other sources, 1804) in Moscow. The last descendant of an old princely family. His father served as director of the Moscow branch of the State Bank, his mother was a peasant serf. In 1822, Odoevsky graduated with honors from the Moscow University noble boarding school, where P. Vyazemsky and P. Chaadaev, Nikita Muravyov and Nikolai Turgenev had previously studied. In his student years, he was influenced by the professors of Moscow University, the Schellingian philosophers I.I. Davydov and M.G. Pavlov. Since 1826, Odoevsky served on the censorship committee of the Ministry of the Interior, and was the drafter of the new censorship charter of 1828. Upon the transfer of the committee to the Ministry of Public Education, he continued to serve as a librarian. Since 1846 - assistant director of the Imperial Public Library and head of the Rumyantsev Museum, then located in St. Petersburg. From 1861 he was a senator.

Odoevsky's first appearance in print were translations from German, published in Vestnik Evropy in 1821. In the same place, in 1822–1823, Letters to the Luzhnitsky Elder, one of which Days of annoyance, attracted the attention of A.S. Griboyedov with his indignant attitude, who met Odoevsky and remained his close friend until the end of his life. In his youth, Odoevsky was friendly with his older cousin, poet and future Decembrist A.I. Odoevsky, as evidenced by his Diary student(1820–1821): "Alexander was an epoch in my life." His brother unsuccessfully tried to warn him against "the profound speculations of the incomprehensible Schelling", but the cousin showed firmness and independence in his judgments. In the early 1820s, Odoevsky attended meetings of the "Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature", where F. Glinka presided, and was a member of the circle of the translator and poet S.E. Raich, a member of the Welfare Union. He became close with V. Kuchelbecker and D. Venevitinov, together with whom (and with the future prominent Slavophil I. Kireevsky) in 1823 he created the Society of Philosophy, becoming its chairman. As one of the “wise men” recalled, the Society was “dominated by German philosophy”: Odoevsky remained its most active and thoughtful expositor for more than two decades.

In 1824–1825, Odoevsky and Kuchelbecker published the almanac "Mnemosyne" (4 books published), where, in addition to the publishers themselves, A.S. Pushkin, Griboyedov, E.A. Baratynsky, N.M. Yazykov are printed. A participant in the publication, N. Polevoy, later wrote: “There were previously unknown views on philosophy and literature ... Many laughed at Mnemosyne, others thought about it.” It was precisely “thinking” that Odoevsky taught; even his woeful study of secular morals published in the almanac Yelladiy VG Belinsky called it "a thoughtful story".

To the plans of the conspirators revealed after the events of December 1825, with many of whom Odoevsky was friendly or closely familiar, he reacted with sad understanding and unconditional condemnation. However, he condemned the Nikolaev massacre with the Decembrists much more sharply, although he was ready to meekly share the fate of his fellow convicts. The commission of inquiry did not consider him "guilty enough" for this, and he was left to his own devices.

In the late 1820s and early 1830s, Odoevsky zealously performed his official duties, pedantically replenished his vast knowledge, developed a worldview and created his main experience in the field of fiction - a philosophical novel. Russian nights, completed by 1843 and published in 1844 in three volumes Prince's writings V.F. Odoevsky. The novel, in fact, is a verdict on German philosophy on behalf of Russian thought, expressed in an outwardly whimsical and extremely consistent alternation of dialogues and parables: European thought is declared incapable of resolving the most important issues of Russian life and world existence.

However, the novel Russian nights contains an exceptionally high assessment of Schelling's work: "At the beginning of the 19th century, Schelling was the same as Christopher Columbus in the 15th century, he revealed to man an unknown part of his world ... his soul." Already in the 1820s, experiencing a passion for Schelling's philosophy of art, Odoevsky wrote a number of articles devoted to the problems of aesthetics. But the passion for Schelling in the spiritual biography of Odoevsky is far from the only one. In the 1830s, he was strongly influenced by the ideas of the new European mystics Saint-Martin, Arndt, Portridge, Baader, and others. Later, Odoevsky studied patristics, showing, in particular, a special interest in the tradition of hesychasm. The result of many years of thinking about the fate of culture and the meaning of history, about the past and future of the West and Russia, have become Russian nights.

"One-sidedness is the poison of today's societies and the cause of all complaints, confusion and bewilderment," Odoevsky argued in Russian nights. This universal one-sidedness, he believed, is a consequence of rationalistic schematism, which is not capable of offering any complete and holistic understanding of nature, history and man. According to Odoevsky, only symbolic knowledge can bring the cognizer closer to comprehending "the mysterious elements that form and connect spiritual life and material life." For this, he writes, “the naturalist perceives the works of the material world, these symbols of material life, the historian perceives living symbols entered in the annals of peoples, the poet perceives living symbols of his soul.” Odoevsky's thoughts about the symbolic nature of cognition are close to the general tradition of European romanticism, in particular Schelling's theory of the symbol (in his philosophy of art) and the teachings of F. Schlegel and F. Schleiermacher about the special role in the cognition of hermeneutics - the art of understanding and interpretation. Man, according to Odoevsky, literally lives in the world of symbols, and this applies not only to cultural and historical, but also to natural life: "In nature, everything is a metaphor for one another."

The man himself is essentially symbolic. In a person, the romantic thinker argued, "three elements are merged - the believing, the knowing and the aesthetic." These principles can and must form a harmonious unity not only in human soul, but also in public life. It is this wholeness that Odoevsky did not find in modern civilization. Considering that the United States personifies the quite possible future of mankind, Odoevsky wrote with alarm that at this “forward” frontier, there is already “complete immersion in material benefits and complete oblivion of other, so-called useless impulses of the soul.” At the same time, he was never opposed to scientific and technological progress. In his declining years, Odoevsky wrote: “What is called the fate of the world depends at this moment on that lever, which is invented by some hungry ragamuffin in some attic in Europe or America and which decides the question of controlling balloons.” It was also an indisputable fact for him that "with each discovery of science, one of the human sufferings becomes less." However, in general, despite the constant growth of civilizational benefits and the power of technological progress, Western civilization, according to Odoevsky, due to "one-sided immersion in material nature" can only provide a person with the illusion of the fullness of life. Sooner or later, a person has to pay for the escape from being into the "world of dreams" of modern civilization. Inevitably, an awakening sets in, which brings with it "unbearable anguish."

Defending his social and philosophical views, Odoevsky often entered into polemics with both Westerners and Slavophiles. In a letter to the leader of the Slavophiles A.S. Khomyakov (1845), he wrote: “My fate is strange, for you I am a Western progressive, for St. Petersburg I am an inveterate Old Believer mystic; this pleases me, for it serves as a sign that I am on that narrow path, which alone leads to the truth.

Publication of the novel Russian nights many creative achievements preceded: in 1833 were published Motley fairy tales with a red word, collected by Irinei Modestovich Gomozeika(Odoevsky used this verbal mask until the end of his days), which made an extraordinary impression on N.V. Gogol and anticipated the imagery and tonality of his nose, Nevsky prospect And Portrait. Published separately in 1834 Town in a box, one of the best literary fairy tales in the entire world of literature, which can be compared with Andersen's and has become an indispensable reading for Russian children. Several romantic stories have appeared, beginning with Beethoven's last quartet, published in 1831 in the almanac "Northern Flowers". Gogol wrote about them: “Imagination and mind - a bunch! This is a series of psychological phenomena incomprehensible in man!” It's about, besides Quartet, about stories Opera del Cavaliere Giambatista Piranese And Sebastian Bach- especially the last one. Subsequently, they were supplemented, in the words of the poetess K. Pavlova, by the “Russian Hoffmanniana”: stories Segeliel, Cosmorama, sylph, Salamander. True, after inviting Odoevsky to close cooperation in the ventured journal Sovremennik, Pushkin wrote: “Of course, Princess Zizi has more truth and entertainment than Sylphide. But every gift is Your good.” Princess Mimi(1834) and Princess Zizi(1835) - secular novels by Ooevsky, continuing what was planned back in Yelladia line of "metaphysical satire". Having taken upon himself the troubles of publishing the second book of Sovremennik during Pushkin's lifetime, Odoevsky single-handedly published the seventh after Pushkin's death. "Sovremennik" lasted until the intervention of Belinsky only thanks to Odoevsky.

Meanwhile, Odoevsky continues what was planned in Motley fairy tales And Town in a snuffbox: published in 1838 Fairy tales and stories for grandfather's children Irenaeus become textbook children's reading. Success encourages Odoevsky, and he develops it by undertaking in 1843 the publication of a "people's magazine", i.e. periodical collection "Rural Reading": in 1843-1848 4 books were published, reprinted (until 1864) 11 times. According to Belinsky, Odoevsky gave birth to "a whole literature of books for the common people." In the articles of the publication, Odoevsky, under the guise of an uncle (and later “grandfather”), Irineya spoke about the most difficult issues in a simple folk language, which V. Dal admired. Of the accomplishments of Odoevsky in the 1830s, one should also note his play Good salary(1838) - scenes from official life, clearly anticipating A.N. Ostrovsky.

In the 1850s-1860s, Odoevsky was engaged in the history and theory of "primordial Great Russian music": later his works were published On the question of ancient Russian chanting(1861) and Russian and so called general music(1867). He is considered and affirmed as a champion of the semi-official "nationality"; meanwhile, he writes: “Nationality is one of the hereditary diseases with which a people dies if it does not renew its blood by spiritual and physical rapprochement with other peoples.” The dignitary and Prince-Rurikovich, who said these words publicly, was busy at that time compiling a historical study on the reign of Alexander II. About Russia in the second half of the 19th century. Organic (in the spirit of Schelling) communion Russian culture to the European one and Odoevsky was busy all his life. Two years before his death, he responded to an article-proclamation by I.S. Turgenev Enough! modest and firm program of activity of the Russian enlightenment called Not enough!

Russian literature of the 19th century

Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoevsky

Biography

ODOEVSKY, VLADIMIR FYODOROVICH (1803−1869), prince, Russian writer, journalist, publisher, musicologist. Born July 30 (August 11), 1803 (according to other sources, 1804) in Moscow. The last descendant of an old princely family. His father served as director of the Moscow branch of the State Bank, his mother was a peasant serf. In 1822, Odoevsky graduated with honors from the Moscow University Noble Boarding School, where P. Vyazemsky and P. Chaadaev, Nikita Muravyov and Nikolai Turgenev had previously studied. In his student years, he was influenced by the professors of Moscow University, the Schellingian philosophers I. I. Davydov and M. G. Pavlov. Since 1826, Odoevsky served on the censorship committee of the Ministry of the Interior, and was the drafter of the new censorship charter of 1828. Upon the transfer of the committee to the Ministry of Public Education, he continued to serve as a librarian. Since 1846 - assistant director of the Imperial Public Library and head of the Rumyantsev Museum, then located in St. Petersburg. From 1861 - senator.

Odoevsky's first appearance in print was translations from German, published in Vestnik Evropy in 1821. In the same place, in 1822-1823, Letters to the Luzhnitsky Elder were published, one of which, Days of Annoyances, attracted the attention of A. S. Griboyedov with its indignant mood, who met Odoevsky and remained his close friend until the end of his life. In his youth, Odoevsky was friendly with his older cousin, poet and future Decembrist A.I. Odoevsky, as evidenced by his Student's Diary (1820−1821): "Alexander was an era in my life." His brother unsuccessfully tried to warn him against "the profound speculations of the incomprehensible Schelling", but the cousin showed firmness and independence in his judgments. In the early 1820s, Odoevsky attended meetings of the "Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature", where F. Glinka presided, and was a member of the circle of the translator and poet S. E. Raich, a member of the Welfare Union. He became close friends with V. Kuchelbeker and D. Venevitinov, together with whom (and with the future prominent Slavophile I. Kireevsky) in 1823 he created the circle "Society of Philosophy", becoming its chairman. As one of the “wise men” recalled, the Society was “dominated by German philosophy”: Odoevsky remained its most active and thoughtful expositor for more than two decades.

In 1824-1825, Odoevsky and Kuchelbecker published the almanac "Mnemosyne" (4 books published), where, in addition to the publishers themselves, A. S. Pushkin, Griboyedov, E. A. Baratynsky, N. M. Yazykov are printed. A participant in the publication, N. Polevoy, later wrote: “There were previously unknown views on philosophy and literature ... Many laughed at Mnemosyne, others thought about it.” It was precisely “thinking” that Odoevsky taught; even his woeful study of secular manners published in the almanac Yelladiy V. G. Belinsky called "a thoughtful story."

In the late 1820s and early 1830s, Odoevsky zealously performed his official duties, meticulously replenished his immense knowledge, developed a worldview and created his main experience in the field of fiction - the philosophical novel Russian Nights, completed by 1843 and published in 1844 as part of three volumes of the Works of Prince V. F. Odoevsky. The novel, in fact, is a verdict on German philosophy on behalf of Russian thought, expressed in an outwardly whimsical and extremely consistent alternation of dialogues and parables: European thought is declared incapable of resolving the most important issues of Russian life and world existence.

At the same time, the novel Russian Nights contains an exceptionally high assessment of Schelling's work: "At the beginning of the 19th century, Schelling was the same as Christopher Columbus in the 15th century, he revealed to man an unknown part of his world ... his soul." Already in the 1820s, experiencing a passion for Schelling's philosophy of art, Odoevsky wrote a number of articles devoted to the problems of aesthetics. But the passion for Schelling in the spiritual biography of Odoevsky is far from the only one. In the 1830s, he was strongly influenced by the ideas of the new European mystics Saint-Martin, Arndt, Portridge, Baader, and others. Later, Odoevsky studied patristics, showing, in particular, a special interest in the tradition of hesychasm. The result of many years of thinking about the fate of culture and the meaning of history, about the past and future of the West and Russia became Russian Nights.

“One-sidedness is the poison of today's societies and the cause of all complaints, confusion and perplexity,” Odoevsky argued in Russian Nights. This universal one-sidedness, he believed, is a consequence of rationalistic schematism, which is not capable of offering any complete and holistic understanding of nature, history and man. According to Odoevsky, only symbolic knowledge can bring the cognizer closer to comprehending "the mysterious elements that form and connect spiritual life and material life." For this, he writes, "the naturalist perceives the works of the material world, these symbols of material life, the historian - living symbols entered in the annals of peoples, the poet - living symbols of his soul." Odoevsky's thoughts on the symbolic nature of cognition are close to the general tradition of European romanticism, in particular Schelling's theory of the symbol (in his philosophy of art) and the teachings of F. Schlegel and F. Schleiermacher about the special role in the cognition of hermeneutics - the art of understanding and interpretation. Man, according to Odoevsky, literally lives in the world of symbols, and this applies not only to cultural and historical, but also to natural life: "In nature, everything is a metaphor for one another."

The man himself is essentially symbolic. In a person, the romantic thinker argued, "three elements are merged - the believing, the knowing and the aesthetic." These principles can and must form a harmonious unity not only in the human soul, but also in social life. It is this wholeness that Odoevsky did not find in modern civilization. Considering that the United States personifies the quite possible future of mankind, Odoevsky wrote with alarm that at this “forward” frontier, there is already “complete immersion in material benefits and complete oblivion of other, so-called useless impulses of the soul.” At the same time, he was never opposed to scientific and technological progress. In his declining years, Odoevsky wrote: “What is called the fate of the world depends at this moment on that lever, which is invented by some hungry ragamuffin in some attic in Europe or America and which decides the question of controlling balloons.” It was also an indisputable fact for him that "with each discovery of science, one of the human sufferings becomes less." However, in general, despite the constant growth of civilizational benefits and the power of technological progress, Western civilization, according to Odoevsky, due to "one-sided immersion in material nature" can only provide a person with the illusion of the fullness of life. Sooner or later, a person has to pay for the escape from being into the "world of dreams" of modern civilization. Inevitably, an awakening sets in, which brings with it "unbearable anguish."

Defending his social and philosophical views, Odoevsky often entered into polemics with both Westerners and Slavophiles. In a letter to the leader of the Slavophiles, A.S. Khomyakov (1845), he wrote: “My fate is strange, for you I am a Western progressive, for St. Petersburg I am an inveterate Old Believer mystic; this pleases me, for it serves as a sign that I am on that narrow path, which alone leads to the truth.

The publication of the novel Russian Nights was preceded by many creative achievements: in 1833, Motley Tales with a red word were published, collected by Iriney Modestovich Gomozeika (Odoevsky used this verbal mask until the end of his days), which made an extraordinary impression on N. V. Gogol and anticipated his figurativeness and tonality Nose, Nevsky Prospekt and Portrait. In 1834, The Town in the Snuffbox was published separately, one of the best literary fairy tales in the entire world of literature, which can be compared with Andersen's and has become an indispensable reading for Russian children. Several romantic stories appeared, beginning with Beethoven's Last Quartet, published in 1831 in the almanac Northern Flowers. Gogol wrote about them: “Imagination and mind - a bunch! This is a series of psychological phenomena incomprehensible in man!” In addition to the Quartet, we are talking about the stories Opere del Cavaliere by Giambatista Piranese and Sebastian Bach - especially the last one. Subsequently, they were supplemented, in the words of the poetess K. Pavlova, by the “Russian Hoffmannian”: the stories Segeliel, Kosmorama, Sylphide, Salamander. True, after inviting Odoevsky to close cooperation in the ventured journal Sovremennik, Pushkin wrote: “Of course, Princess Zizi has more truth and entertainment than Sylphide. But every gift is Your good.” Princess Mimi (1834) and Princess Zizi (1835) are secular novels by Ooevsky, continuing the line of “metaphysical satire” outlined back in Yelladia. Having taken upon himself the troubles of publishing the second book of Sovremennik during Pushkin's lifetime, Odoevsky single-handedly published the seventh after Pushkin's death. "Sovremennik" lasted until the intervention of Belinsky only thanks to Odoevsky. Meanwhile, Odoevsky continues what he outlined in Motley Tales and Town in a Snuffbox: Fairy tales and stories for children of grandfather Iriney, published in 1838, become textbook children's reading. Success encourages Odoevsky, and he develops it, undertaking in 1843 the publication of a "people's journal", that is, the periodical collection Rural Reading: in 1843-1848 4 books were published, reprinted (until 1864) 11 times. According to Belinsky, Odoevsky gave birth to "a whole literature of books for the common people." In the articles of the publication, Odoevsky, under the guise of an uncle (and later “grandfather”), Irineya spoke about the most difficult issues in a simple folk language, which V. Dal admired. Of the accomplishments of Odoevsky in the 1830s, one should also note his play Good Salary (1838) - scenes from official life, clearly anticipating A. N. Ostrovsky. In the 1850s and 1860s, Odoevsky was engaged in the history and theory of "primordial Great Russian music": later his works On the Question of Old Russian Chant (1861) and Russian and the so-called general music (1867) were published. He is considered and affirmed as a champion of the semi-official "nationality"; meanwhile, he writes: “Nationhood is one of the hereditary diseases with which a people dies if it does not renew its blood by spiritual and physical rapprochement with other peoples.” The dignitary and prince-Rurikovich who said these words publicly was busy at that time compiling a historical study on the reign of Alexander II of Russia in the second half of the 19th century. Organic (in the spirit of Schelling) familiarization of Russian culture with European culture was Odoevsky busy all his life. Two years before his death, he responded to an article-proclamation by I. S. Turgenev Enough! modest and firm program of activity of the Russian enlightenment called Not enough! Odoevsky died in Moscow on February 27 (March 11), 1869.

Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky, Russian prince, writer, was born on August 11, 1803 in Moscow in the family of an official, a descendant of an old princely family.

In 1822, Odoevsky graduated with honors from the noble boarding school of Moscow University. The first mentions of Odoevsky in the press appear while still studying at a boarding school, when in 1821 he makes translations from German language for the journal "Bulletin of Europe". The formation of Odoevsky's personality is strongly influenced by his cousin Alexander, a Schellingian and a future Decembrist. In the early 1820s, Odoevsky met Wilhelm Küchelbecker and Alexander Griboedov, with whom he published the almanac Mnemosyne in 1824.

In 1825, after an attempted coup d'état, Odoevsky is under investigation in the case of the Decembrists, since he was friends or acquaintances with many of them. However, the commission of inquiry releases the prince, considering him not guilty enough.

In 1834, Odoevsky published one of the best children's tales in Russia - "The Town in a Snuffbox", which contemporaries compare with the works of Andersen. During this period of his life, Odoevsky is fond of European mystical practices - alchemy and natural magic. In 1837, he works on an unfinished utopian novel, Year 4338, in which he predicts such aspects modern life like the internet, mobile communications, air travel and space exploration.

After Pushkin's death in 1837, Odoevsky single-handedly published the seventh volume of the Sovremennik magazine. In 1844, Odoevsky published his magnum opus, the philosophical novel Russian Nights, in which the writer criticizes German philosophy from the standpoint of a “Russian” worldview. The philosopher comes to the conclusion that European methods are not suitable for solving the problems of Russian society.

In 1861, Odoevsky finally became disillusioned with mysticism, recognized the value of European natural science and began to promote public education. In addition to literary and philosophical research, Odoevsky also works on the theory of music. The philosopher becomes the founder of Russian musicology, works on the issues of musical acoustics, constructs an enharmonic clavicin.

VF Odoevsky (1804-1869) is a famous writer, musician, philosopher and teacher. “A perfectly developed person”, “a living encyclopedia” - those who knew him spoke of him like that.

Publisher of the almanac "Mnemosyne" and the magazine "Moscow Bulletin", co-editor of Pushkin's "Contemporary". As an assistant director of the public library in St. Petersburg, director of the Rumyantsev Museum (whose book depository became the basis of the Russian State Library - Leninka), he contributed to the development of the book business in Russia.

He was a writer, scientist, philosopher, music theorist, and in all these worlds of human thought he brought something of his own, original - magical and real at the same time.

In music, he heard the second language of mankind, which is destined to become equal in meaning to the language of words, understandable to all people, all peoples, it will unite and make them friends.

Even the word "philosophy" - dry and abstract, he and his friends will find a replacement - wisdom, here, in this sound, love is combined with wisdom.

For a long time, Odoevsky was a member of the Scientific Committee of the Ministry of State Property, organized the educational process in various educational institutions - from educational houses, parish rural schools to the Mariinsky Institute of Noble Maidens. He wrote a series teaching aids for students, guides for teachers.

In 1834-1835, he published an unusual manual for orphanages where orphans lived - "Children's Books for Sunday Children." Pedagogical instructions for teachers, didactic materials, as well as stories and fairy tales for reading to children were placed here.

One of the first in Russia, Odoevsky became interested in pedagogy as a science. He conceived a large essay on pedagogy called "Science before Science". During the life of the writer, only a small part of it was published.

Odoevsky writes: “Three ways to act on a child: reasonable persuasion, moral influence, aesthetic harmonization ... whoever is inaccessible to persuasion (the most difficult task), he can be influenced by moral influence; the child will yield to you because you desire it, out of love for you; if you have not achieved love from a child, try to develop it by aesthetic harmonization - music, paintings, poems ... "

Organizing orphanages and rural schools, V.F. Odoevsky discovered the poverty of literature for children. He writes an article “About children's books. About the reasons for the child’s lack of interest in the book ... ”, creates famous fairy tales and stories for children under the pseudonym "grandfather Iriney", publishes informative articles in the magazine "Rural Reading", etc.

And how interesting is his writer's fate! Beloved and revered by his contemporaries, he was then forgotten for a long time, only now his books are waking up after a hundred years of sleep, come to life, becoming more and more modern and necessary every year.

“Children were my best teachers ... For a fresh, childish mind not spoiled by any scholasticism, there is no separate physics, chemistry, or anthropology ...”

Odoevsky's works for children were influenced by his pedagogical views. Considering that a child is “awakened” and “unawakened”, he attached great importance children's literature that can awaken the mind and heart of the child. “The unawakened are more than asleep,” such children are not interested in anything, they do nothing. They can be awakened, for example, by the tales of Hoffmann. In general, Odoevsky sees the task of literature in awakening the "unawakened" child's mind, in promoting the spiritual growth of the child. At the same time, the writer sets the task of developing "fertile" feelings in the child's soul.

He sought to set in motion the thought of the child, relying on the love of children for fiction, fantasy. His books skillfully combine real and fantastic events. The works of Odoevsky are characterized by the naturalness and scientific nature of the content, the fascination and drama of the narration, and the conviction in the power of the human mind.

During the life of Odoevsky, his books for children were published 6 times: "The Town in a Snuffbox" (1834, 1847), "Tales and Stories for Children of Grandpa Iriney" (1838 and 1840), "Collection of Children's Songs of Grandpa Iriney" (1847).

In terms of genre, his works are diverse: fairy tales, short stories, essays, poems. Odoevsky also wrote several colorful plays for the puppet theater: The Tsar Maiden, The Pharisee Boy, Sunday, The Carrier, or Cunning Against Cunning. According to the recollections of friends, Odoevsky with great pleasure came up with plots and staged home performances with children. He was an enthusiastic person, inexhaustible invention and fun. Such people, according to Belinsky, in Russia are called "children's holiday." Odoevsky ideally combined in himself the qualities necessary children's writer: "and talent, and a living soul, and poetic fantasy, knowledge of children." This predetermined his success.

Having studied the fairy tales and stories of Odoevsky, the following aspects of his works can be distinguished:

Informational. Fairy tales and stories (“Two Trees”, “Worm”, “Town in a Snuffbox”) contain scientific information from various fields of knowledge: chemistry, botany, zoology, physics, mathematics, etc. Therefore, they are a means of mental development and education of children.

Materials for the storyteller, according to the writer, are "everywhere: on the street, in the air." The material for his first fairy tale (“Town in a Snuffbox”) was a music box, a thing in everyday life of the last century, quite common and at the same time arousing the curiosity of a child. It is not accidental that the author-musician himself, who, by the way, created the musical instrument under the name "Se6astianon".

Little Misha is enchanted appearance a snuffbox with a gate, a turret, golden houses, golden trees with silver leaves, a sun with diverging rays on the lid. But the boy is more interested in the internal structure of a wonderful toy - the origin of music. The natural desire of an inquisitive boy to enter a toy town and see everything for himself is fulfilled in a dream. Accompanied by a companion, "a bell with a golden head and a steel skirt," the author introduces young readers to the winding mechanism of a musical toy. The inquisitive stranger sees many bell boys, they are constantly tapped by evil uncle hammers, who are supervised by a thick roller, turning from side to side on the sofa. And the graceful princess spring “in a golden tent with pearl 6-chrome” commands everyone. It is she who explains to Misha the well-coordinated work of the musical mechanism. With surprise, Misha discovers the similarity of the principles of the music box with the laws of the social structure: everything is interconnected and a violation in one link disables the entire system, violates the wonderful harmony. As soon as Misha pressed the spring, everything fell silent, the roller stopped, the hammers fell, the bells turned to the side, the sun hung down, the houses broke ... ". A town in a ta6akerka turns out to be a kind of micromodel of the world.

Traveling through the fairy-tale town, Misha, and therefore the little reader, simultaneously discovers the laws of perspective in painting, the musical theory of counterpoint. And all this simply and naturally fits into the story.

The story is also educational. The idea that everything in the world is driven by labor passes latently, idleness seems attractive only from the outside. At the same time, morality is unobtrusive, it follows from action.

In The Town in a Snuffbox, Odoevsky fully demonstrated the art of talking with children about complex things in a language that is understandable, simple and convincing.

Similar artistic techniques used by Odoevsky in a fairy tale "Worm" , turning this time to the field of natural science. The tale in an entertaining, poetic form acquaints readers with the transformation of a larva-worm into a chrysalis, then into a butterfly. About this tale, A. A. Kraevsky wrote the following: “Is not a mysterious idea obvious in this whole story of the life of a worm, a deep allegory, dressed in the simplest, most charming, most understandable expression for children? Here is ... an example of how to make the most abstract, even metaphysical, truths accessible to children's understanding. A child, after reading this story, not only may want to study natural history, but will also take into his soul a great, fruitful thought that will never be forgotten, give rise to many other sublime thoughts and lay the foundation for moral perfection.

Cultural. With the help of Odoevsky's fairy tales ("Moroz Ivanovich", "Silver Ruble", etc.), the child gets acquainted with the elements of folk life, traditions, holidays. The basis of personal culture is being formed.

The most popular fairy tale is Moroz Ivanovich. She resonates with folk tale"Frost", includes traditional fairy tale motifs (oven with pies, apple tree with golden apples). Creating his work, Odoevsky supplemented it with details of everyday life, a description of the decoration of Moroz Ivanovich's dwelling, and described in detail the characters of the main characters - the girls of the Needlewoman and Lenivitsa. B literary tale they are sisters, they live with a nanny, so the motive of unfair persecution by the stepmother is absent, the moral side of the relationship is accentuated.

Odoevsky's tale is built on the opposition of labor
share and laziness, which emphasizes the epigraph: “For nothing,
without labor, nothing is given - it is not for nothing that the proverb has been kept from time immemorial.

The needlewoman, both in her home and visiting Moroz Ivanovich, is hardworking, diligent, kind-hearted, for which she was rewarded. The sloth, who only knew how to count flies, could neither fluff up the snowy feather bed, nor make food, nor mend the dress.

The writer softens the end of the tale. Sloth receives gifts from Moroz Ivanovich that melt before our eyes. What is the work, such is the reward. And the afterword is addressed to the reader: “And you, kids, think, guess what is true here, what is not true; what is said really, what is said by the side; either for fun or for instruction.

A wise storyteller does not miss the opportunity in the course of a fairy tale to tell children about how winter replaces summer, how winter crops grow, why the water in the well is cold in summer, how to filter water with sand and coal so that it becomes “clean, like crystal”, to give a lot other useful information.

Personal. The works of Odoevsky (“Silver Ruble”, “Orphan”, “Poor Gnedko”) help the child to think about the motives of his actions, to understand his inner world.

The story "Poor Gnedko" sounds most modern - about the fate of a cab horse driven by its owner.

... Once Gnedko was a cheerful foal, he lived in the village, the children of Vanyusha and Dasha were friends with him. Then he was sold to the city. And now poor Gnedko lies on the pavement, "cannot move, buried his head in the snow, breathes heavily and rolls his eyes." The author's direct appeal sounds relevant: “My friends… It is a sin to torture animals… Whoever tortures animals is a bad person. Whoever torments a horse, a dog, is able to torment a person ... "

Social."The Indian Tale of the Four Deaf", "The Organ Grinder", "The Joiner" teach children the ability to build and regulate their relationships with peers and adults, which contributes to the sociologization of children.

The witty Indian tale "About the Four Deaf People" is interesting and meaningful. Four deaf people (a village shepherd, a watchman, a rider and a brahmin) forced to communicate cannot hear each other. Everyone interprets the behavior of the others in his own way, which is why a lot of absurd and absurd things follow. The tale warns against moral deafness. The writer addresses the readers: “Do a little, friends, don't be deaf. We have been given ears to listen. One clever man noticed that we have two ears and one tongue, and that, therefore, we need to listen more than speak.

The tale "The Joiner" tells the story of the life of the famous French architect Andrei Roubaud, who went from poverty to national recognition, a path that could only be possible for a boy who had amazing perseverance, magical curiosity, and extraordinary diligence.

Thus, we can talk about the crucial importance of Odoevsky's works in introducing young readers to universal human values that are relevant for any era.

First Moscow period

Usually the life and work of Odoevsky is divided into three periods, the boundaries between which more or less coincide with his travels from Moscow to St. Petersburg and back.

The first period refers to life in Moscow, in a small apartment in Gazetny Lane in the house of his relative, Prince Peter Ivanovich Odoevsky. Odoevsky then studied at the Moscow University Noble Boarding School (-). Friendship with his cousin A. I. Odoevsky had a great influence on his worldview. As he admitted to student diary(-), "Alexander was an epoch in my life".

His name remained on the golden board of the boarding school, along with the names of: Zhukovsky, Dashkov, Turgenev, Mansurov, Pisarev.

From 1823 he was on public service. At the apartment of V. Odoevsky, a circle was going to “Society of wisdom”, created under the influence of Schellingian ideas, professors of Moscow University M. G. Pavlov and D. M. Vellansky who taught at the boarding school. Among the permanent members of this circle were A. I. Koshelev, D. V. Venevitinov, I. V. and P. V. Kireevsky, V. K. Kyuchelbeker. A. S. Khomyakov and M. P. Pogodin regularly attended the meetings. The meetings of the circle took place in -1825 and ended with its liquidation after the uprising of the Decembrists.

In those same years, Odoevsky tried his hand at the literary field: together with Kuchelbecker, he published the almanac Mnemosyne and wrote the novel Hieronymus Bruno and Pietro Aretino, which remained unfinished. In 1826, he moved to St. Petersburg, where he married and entered the service in the 2nd department of His Majesty's own office, under the command of Count Bludov.

Creativity of the Petersburg period

The second period of Odoevsky's work is characterized by a passion for mystical teachings, primarily the mystical philosophy of Saint-Martin, medieval natural magic and alchemy. He is actively engaged literary creativity. He writes romantic and didactic stories, fairy tales, journalistic articles, collaborates with Pushkin's Sovremennik, Vestnik Evropy and several encyclopedias. Edited the Journal of the Ministry of the Interior.

Admittedly, the best of his works, a collection of philosophical essays and stories under the general title Russian Nights (1844), dated in the form of a philosophical conversation between several young people, belongs to the same time. Intertwined here, for example, are the stories “The Last Suicide” and “The City Without a Name”, which describe the fantastic consequences that the implementation of Malthus’s law on the growth of the population exponentially leads to, and the works of nature in arithmetic, and Bentham’s theory, which lays the foundation for all human actions are exclusively the beginning of the useful, as a goal and as a driving force. Deprived of inner content, closed in hypocritical convention Savor finds a lively and vivid appreciation in the "Dead Man's Mockery" and especially in the pathetic pages of the "Ball" and the description of the horror of death experienced by the audience gathered at the ball.

Around the same time, Odoevsky's participation in the Belinsky circle, the preparation of a three-volume collected works, also published in 1844 and still not reprinted.

This instrument was ordered from a master of German origin A. Kampe, who lived in Moscow and kept a piano factory in Gazetny Lane, which passed to his daughter (married Smolyaninova) at the end of the century. The archive preserved a receipt dated February 11, 1864 on the payment of 300 silver rubles for the manufacture of the tool. Although Odoevsky called him clavicin(i.e. harpsichord), it was a standard hammer piano, with the only difference that each of its black keys was divided in two, in addition, it had one black key where they usually do not exist - between si And before and between mi And F; thus, in each octave of Odoevsky's instrument, 19 keys were formed instead of the usual 12. The mentioned difference includes all the features that an enharmonic keyboard should have. Such a naming extended keyboard not accepted either in German (enharmonische Tastatur), or in Italian (tastatura enarmonica), or in Russian lexicography.

Since there is no work by Odoevsky, in which he mathematically accurate would outline the principles of tuning his instrument, modern musicological conclusions about his intentions are largely hypothetical. Now enharmonic clavicin stored in the Museum of Musical Culture. Glinka in Moscow.

Social activity

In addition to the tireless activity of collecting, preserving and restoring the Russian musical heritage, primarily in regard to Orthodox church music, Odoevsky spared no effort in some other fields. One of the prominent aspects of his literary activity there was concern for the enlightenment of the people, in whose abilities and good spiritual properties he passionately believed. Long years he was the editor of the Rural Review, published by the Ministry of the Interior; together with his friend, A.P. Zablotsky-Desyatovsky, published the books “Rural Reading”, in 20 thousand copies, under the titles: “What the peasant Naum told the children about potatoes”, “What is the drawing of the land and what it is suitable ”(history, meaning and methods of surveying), etc.; wrote for popular reading a number of "Grandpa Iriney's Letters" - about gas, railways, gunpowder, epidemic diseases, about "what is around a person and what is in himself" - and, finally, he published "Motley tales of Iriney Gamozeyka", written language, which was admired by the connoisseur of Russian speech Dal, who found that some of the sayings and proverbs invented by Odoevsky could be attributed to a purely folk origin (for example, “it’s not heavy together, but at least drop it apart”; “two firebrands smoke in an open field, and one and goes out on the sixth "...). His troubles owed their permission to "Domestic Notes".

Welcoming the relaxation of censorship rules in 1865, Odoevsky strongly spoke out against the system of warnings taken from Napoleonic France and advocated the abolition of the unconditional ban on the import of books hostile to Russia.

After his death, the widow transferred her husband's book archive to the Imperial Public Library, and the musical archive (sheet music, manuscripts about music, enharmonic clavicin) to the Moscow Conservatory.

Internet Predictions

Vladimir Odoevsky, in the unfinished utopian novel “Year 4338”, written in 1837, seems to be the first to predict the emergence of modern blogs and the Internet: in the text of the novel there are lines “magnetic telegraphs are arranged between familiar houses, through which those living at a great distance communicate with each other friend."

Addresses in Moscow

and it came true ... In all likelihood, Odoevsky was a wise man.

Addresses in St. Petersburg

- - Lansky's house - Moshkov lane, 1;
- - Serebryanikov's House - embankment of the river. Fontanka, 35;
- - Schlipenbach's house - Liteiny prospect, 36;
- - tenement house A. V. Starchevsky - Promenade des Anglais, 44.

Odoevsky's works on music

Beethoven's Last Quartet // Northern Flowers for 1831. SPb., 1830
Sebastian Bach // Moscow observer, 1835, part 2, [May, book. 1]
A letter to a music lover about Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar // Northern Bee, 1836, No. 280
The second letter to a music lover about Glinka's opera "Life for the Tsar", or "Susanin" // ibid., 1836, No. 287-88
New Russian opera: "A Life for the Tsar" // Literary additions to the "Russian invalid" (1837); reprint: Glinka. creative path. Volume 22. Ed. T.N. Livanova and V.V. Protopopov.
About a new scene in the opera A Life for the Tsar. The work of M. I. Glinka (1837) // reprint ibid.
"Ruslan and Lyudmila" (1842) // there
Notes for my great-great-grandson about the literature of our time and other things. Bichev's letter - "Ruslan and Lyudmila", Glinka's opera (1842) // Otechestvennye zapiski, 1843, vol. 26, no. 2
Appendix to the biography of M.I. Glinka [written by V.V. Stasov]
On the study of Russian music not only as an art, but also as a science (speech for the opening of the Moscow Conservatory on September 1, 1866)
Letter from Prince V. F. Odoevsky to the publisher about the original Great Russian music // Kaliki passers-by. Sat. poems and research by P. Bessonov, part 2, no. 5, 1863
Wagner in Moscow // Modern chronicle. Sunday additions to the Moscow News, 1863, No. 8
Richard Wagner and his music // ibid., 1863, No. 11
A note on singing in parish churches // Day, 1864, No. 4
On the question of ancient Russian singing // Day, 1864, No. 4, 17
On the case of church singing // Home conversation, 1866, no. 27 and 28
Russian and so-called general music // Russian (Pogodina), 1867, No. 11-12
Musical Literacy, or Foundations of Music for Non-Musicians. Issue. 1. M., 1868
Brief notes on the characteristics of Russian Orthodox church singing // Proceedings of the First Archaeological Congress in Moscow. M., 1871
The difference between frets (Tonarten, tons) and voices (Kirchen-tonarten, tons d "église) // there
Worldly song, written in eight voices with hooks with cinnabar marks // there
An Essay on the Theory of Fine Arts, with a Special Application to Music (Unfinished)
Dwarfs of the 19th century (not completed)

Editions of essays

Musical and literary heritage. General ed.<…>G. B. Bernandt. Moscow, 1956;
Odoevsky V.F. Russian Nights / The publication was prepared by B.F. Egorov, E.A. Maimin, M.I. Honey. - L.: Nauka, 1975. - 319 p. (Literary monuments);
Odoevsky V.F. Works. In 2 volumes - M .: Khudozh. lit., 1981. (T. 1 .: Russian Nights; Articles. T. 2 .: Tales);
V.F. Odoevsky. Beethoven's last quartet. Novels, short stories, essays. Odoevsky in life. M .: Moskovsky worker, 1982 (also contains a selection of memoir essays);
Odoevsky V.F. Motley fairy tales / The publication was prepared by M.A. Turyan. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 1996. - 204 p. (Literary monuments);
Prince Vladimir Odoevsky. To the 200th anniversary of the birth. Compositions for organ // Trudy GTsMMK im. M.I. Glinka. M., 2003;
Odoevsky V.F. Diaries. Correspondence. Materials. Ed. M.V. Esipov. M: GTsMMK im. Glinka, 2005.

Memory

Notes

V. F. Odoevsky: biography, works
V. F. Odoevsky on the pages of the "White City"
Memoirs of M. Pogodin 04/13/1869 - “In memory of Prince V.F. Odoevsky”
Biography of V. F. Odoevsky in the Encyclopedia "Circumnavigation"
V. A. Panaev From "memories". From chapter XXIII ... Saturdays at I. I. Panaev ... // V. G. Belinsky in the memoirs of contemporaries / compilation, preparation of the text and notes by A. A. Kozlovsky and K. I. Tyunkin; introductory article by K. I. Tyunkin. - 2nd edition. - M ., 1977. - 736 p. - (A series of literary memoirs). - 50,000 copies.
See numerous Sat. folk songs, starting from the famous collection of N.A. Lvov and I. Prach (1790) to N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov and M.A. Balakirev. The title of one of Odoevsky's articles is characteristic: “Genuine tunes. Experience in harmonization and processing of variants of the Russian folk song "Ai we sowed millet" (1863). Similarly, in droves, composers of the 19th century. old Russian church chants were also harmonized.
Odoevsky, V.F. [“Russian commoners ...”]. Quoted from the collection of VF Odoevsky. Musical and literary heritage. State Musical Publishing House, Moscow, 1956, ss. 481-482
English-language musicology calls this type of keyboard Enharmonic keyboard.
Thus, the English musicologist K.Stembridge in the course of his lecture on the history of musical temperaments (Glinka Museum, May 30, 2005) suggested that Odoevsky's instrument was tuned in one of the mid-tone temperaments (called "mesotonic" in professional jargon).
Tukhmanova Z. Enharmonic piano of Prince V. F. Odoevsky // Ancient Music, 2005, No. 3-4, ss. 23-26
Don Cemetery (Retrieved November 14, 2009)
Prince V. F. Odoevsky in criticism and memoirs
City register of real estate of the city of Moscow
Children's Music School. V. F. Odoevsky. Official site.

Literature

In memory of Prince V. F. Odoevsky.M., 1869.
Pyatkovsky A.P. Prince V. F. Odoevsky. - St. Petersburg, 1870.
A trait in the character of Prince V.F. Odoevsky/ Pub. N. Putyaty // Russian archive, 1870. - Ed. 2nd. - M., 1871. - Stb. 927-931.
Sumtsov N. F. Prince V. F. Odoevsky. Kharkov, 1884.
Yanchuk N. A. Prince VF Odoevsky and his importance in the history of Russian church and folk music // Proceedings of the Musical and Ethnographic Commission. T. 1. M., 1906, ss. 411-427.
Sakulin P. N. From the history of Russian idealism. Prince V. F. Odoevsky. M., 1913.
Bernandt G. B. VF Odoevsky and Beethoven. A page from the history of Russian Beethoveniana. - M.: Soviet composer, 1971. - 51 p.
Virginsky V.S. V. F. Odoevsky. 1804-1869. natural science views. Moscow: Nauka, 1975.
Stupel A. Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoevsky. L .: Music, 1985.
Gavryushin N. K. On the border of philosophy and theology: Schelling - Odoevsky - Metropolitan Filaret (Drozdov) // Theological Bulletin. - 1998. - No. 2. - S. 82-95.
Bayuk D. A. Mathematical theory of temperament. Prince Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky and his "enharmonic harpsichord" (Russian) // Historical and mathematical research: magazine. - M .: Janus-K, 1999. - V. 4. - No. 39. - S. 288-302. - ISBN 5-8037-0037-1.
Koire A. Philosophy and national problem in Russia early XIX century. - M., 2003.
Tukhmanova Z. Enharmonic piano of Prince V. F. Odoevsky (Russian) // early music: magazine. - M ., 2005. - No. 3-4. - S. 23-26.
Saponov M. Fürst Vladimir Odojevskij, Richard Wagner und die Orgel "Sebastianon" // Musikinstrumentenbau im interkulturellen Diskurs, hrsg. v. E. Fischer. bd. 1. Stuttgart, 2006.