DERZHAVIN, dyer-zliii'‘•n, ItoNt% xo‘trtit t17 1:3 - I 6 1 . telebratcol l? lie poet. Born of a noble family at Kazan, he entered there the newly opened gryinnasinin in 1750, joined the ranks of the Preobrazhensky 1 ;11,11'il 1:eginl•nt 111 17:7.2, became lieutenant captain in 177:1, and later entered the civil son lee. His ode, litsa i 17.s2 I, ill which he extolled Catharine 11., attracted her attention, and through her influence he received many pro motions t he Was Gov•rn• of I )1011etZ 111 1 i `.4 1, of Tambov in 17s5, Secretary of State in 1701 an I senator in 170:1. Catharine'. snecessor. Paul, appointed hint president of the Board of •om merce in 1706, and Alexander I. made him Alin ister of 'Justice in Is02: but he retired to private life in Is03, Ile was the greatest and most original poet before Pushkin, and is best known as the 'Singer of I atharine,' his tvorks forming a poetic chronicle of her achievements. so far from being a Court pet. Lc ? really deep and sincere admirer of the northern Semi ramis, with her liberal reforms and democratie leaning:, as evideneed in her daily life and corre spondence with Voltaire and Diderot. Though occupying a more exalted position after her Beath, he 'lever Wrote a Ilyt 11 ing ali011t the 01.111..1* Mona that in power and loftiness of con ception could oven approach his odes about atharine and the events of her reign. Ilis language is quite modern in its purity and •om pa•ative freedom from Church Taconic expres sions. Its chief characteristics :ire vigor united
with pliancy, and a vivid imagery that some times verges on the hyperbolic., the was the to introduce every-day expressions into odes, thus bringing down the grand style to modern realistn. As a eritie says: "The poet takes the ground of contemporaneousness, and the solemn ode becomes the echo of the day. NO poet before stood so n•:u• to his period as 11 id 1 If his many the ode God I lie 1,1.-4 knom n the world over. having been translated into most t tecidental langnages and eyon into ,Japanese and Chinese. The best edition of 1 is works appeared in nine volumes !Saint l'etersloirg, 1s64-s3 I. with a commentary and biography by the academician .1. tarot.
DES, (lAsh, or DEES MAGYAROS, ros. The capital of the Province of szolnok I /ob. ka. Ilungary, nt t he continence of the t.reat and Little north , I-4 1 f rail. Its •llief buildings ore the fifteenth-century I:othic lit• te d (Imre t. the •hokoly palace, the handsome tow IT /.:111 :11111 111111111•111:11 theatre. A sixteenth ,. to,•r is a remnant of the ancient 1.11 i t iot• -. DiskiJlae and salt-min•s are ..1-1, lig the pritteipal industries. Population, in I ti it osss.