First literary circle in Russia: on history of the society in the First Cadet Corps (1730-1750)

This article aims to reveal some details about the literary group at the First Cadet Corps. It is known as the “Lovers of Russian Literature Society”: in the middle of the 18th century, some writers (A.P. Sumarokov, M.M. Kheraskov, I.P. Elagin) and military figures (A.V. Suvorov, P.A. Rumyantsev-Zadunayskiy, N.V. Repnin) gathered together at these meetings. As a number of researchers have noted, this was the first known literary circle in Russia, although no comprehensive data on its activities has been preserved. The main source of information we use is a fragment of the book by S.N. Glinka “Essays on the life and selected works of A.P. Sumarokov” published in 1841 and never republished since. Its author was a friend of M.M. Kheraskov, a formal member of the “Lovers of Russian Literature Society”, whose stories about Sumarokov and his circle became the basis for Glinka’s text. In this case we examine the “unreliability” of this source, because its author never visited those meetings. In spite of this fact we try to explain that Glinka is worth trusting as a narrator. Beside this we revise a case with the magazine “Idle Time Used for Benefit” (1759-1760) which was published at the corps by the members of the society. The data we have managed to analyze shows how the “Lovers of Russian Literature Society” functioned and why the tradition of forming literary associations in Russia began with it. Moreover, this tradition continues to this day and therefore requires more detailed study.