Background
Peter Weinberg was born on June 16, 1831, in Nikolaev, Mykolayivs'ka Oblast', Ukraine. He was born in the family of a notary (merchant of the 3rd guild), who in the same year moved to Odessa. He was the brother of Paul I Weinberg.
Peter Weinberg was born on June 16, 1831, in Nikolaev, Mykolayivs'ka Oblast', Ukraine. He was born in the family of a notary (merchant of the 3rd guild), who in the same year moved to Odessa. He was the brother of Paul I Weinberg.
Peter Weinberg studied (since 1835) in the Boarding School of V.A. Zolotov, in the Gymnasium under the Richelievek Lyceum (since 1841), then at the law faculty of the lyceum, which he left in 1850 and entered the historical and philological faculty of Kharkov University. As a student, he published the first dramas by George Sand Claudie (Pantheon, 1851) and the poem by V. Hugo Prayer for All (Kharkov Province, 1852), and then published a book Poems (1854), containing translations and several original poems.
After graduating from university in 1854, Peter Weinberg moved to Tambov, where he served as an official of special assignments under the governor and edited the unofficial part of the Tambov Gubernatorial Leader. In 1858 he settled in Saint Petersburg, became close to literary circles, and in 1858-1859 led the section Literary Chronicle in the Library for Reading and as an assistant of A.V. Druzhinin participated in the journal edition. He worked in Sovremennik, Son of the Fatherland, Russian Word, Fatherland Notes, Saint Petersburg Bulletin, and other publications, publishing poems, translations and articles.
In the magazine Veselchak (1858), Peter Weinberg performed a series of humorous poems Melodies of Gray and feuilletons. In Iskra, he worked from 1859 to 1866 and at one time participated in editorial work, led a series of feuilleton Extracts from the memorial book of the senior official of special assignments of Iskra (1860-1863), printed under various pseudonyms satire poems that compiled the collection Humor. Heine's poems from Tambov.
Following the civic lyrics of N.A. Nekrasov, Peter Weinberg exposed the contradictions of urban life, social contrasts, and in a number of program poems called for the struggle for the ideals of "truth and goodness". Some of Weinberg's poems were forbidden by censorship, for example, A Look at Nature (1862), built on ironic parallels. However, many poems did not rise above the level of harmless humor. The poem He was a titular adviser (1859) which was put on music by A.S. Dargomyzhsky, gained wide popularity.
In 1861 Vedensky together with A.V. Druzhinin, V.P. Bezobrazov, and K.D. Kavelin, founded the magazine Century, which without a specific public program was not successful. Weinberg's feuilleton Russian Curiosities, tactless in relation to the movement for the emancipation of women and which provoked the protest of the democratic public, compromised the magazine. As a result, Peter Weinberg left the Century in 1862 and entered the Central Commandant's Office as an official. In 1866-1867 he headed the literary department of the journal Alarm Clock.
In 1868-1874, Peter Weinberg headed the department of Russian literature in Warsaw Ch. school (since 1869 - University), and also edited the official newspaper Warsaw Journal (since 1870), which caused criticism in the radical press. He wrote a study "Russian Folk Songs about Ivan Vasilievich the Terrible" (Warsaw, 1872). In 1874, he was dismissed as editor due to problems with the "economic part of the publication" and returned to Petersburg. Until 1890, he was attached to the Chancellery for the Institutions of Empress Maria.
In addition to the Saint Petersburg Bulletin, where Peter Weinberg led the sections Foreign Literature News (1873-1874) and Abroad (1874), he systematically published in Domestic Notes. He also collaborated in the magazines Delo, Russian Wealth, Pantheon of Literature, Northern Herald, the newspapers Week, News, Birzhevoy Vednic, and many others. In addition to translations, he published popular articles on Western European writers.
In 1883-1885 Peter Weinberg published the journal Graceful Literature, which printed translations of works of European writers, less often - the works and critical characteristics of Russian writers. At the same time, he read the history of Russian and foreign literature at the Higher Women's Pedagogical Courses and the Drama Courses of the Theater School, for five years he was an inspector of the Kolomna Women's Gymnasium, and later - the director of the gymnasium and real school named after Y.G. Gurevich.
In 1887-1894 Peter Weinberg was private docent of Saint Petersburg University in the department of universal literature, he gave public lectures on literary topics in Saint Petersburg and the provinces. He prepared a number of textbooks and anthologies.
Throughout his life, Peter Weinberg maintained friendly relations and corresponded with many prominent writers. He helped needy writers. In 1897-1901 he was a chairman of the Union of mutual assistance of Russian writers, closed by order of the Ministry of the Interior; at the end of his life was a chairman of the Literary Fund. In 1905 Peter Weinberg was elected an honorary academician. He published fragments of literary and theatrical memoirs, including memoirs about Nekrasov, A.N. Ostrovsky.