When Zoshchenko was born and died. Full biography of the writer Mikhail Zoshchenko
Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko was born on July 28 (August 9), 1894 in St. Petersburg. His father was an artist, his mother wrote stories and acted in amateur theater. In 1907, the head of the family died, financially difficult times began for the family, which did not prevent the future writer from entering the gymnasium. After completing his studies there, Zoshchenko became a student at the Faculty of Law of the Imperial St. Petersburg University, from where he was expelled for non-payment.
In September 1914 he was enrolled in the Pavlovsk Military School. After completing accelerated wartime courses that lasted four months, Zoshchenko went to the front. He received several awards, including the Order of St. Anne, fourth degree, with the inscription “For bravery.” In 1917 he returned to peaceful life due to worsening illness. In a couple of years I managed to change several professions. Despite his exemption from military service, in 1919 he volunteered for active service in the Red Army. In April he was declared unfit and demobilized, but he joined the border guard as a telephone operator. After returning to Petrograd, Zoshchenko again began to constantly change professions. In addition, he began to attend the literary studio of Korney Chukovsky, which later turned into a club of modern writers.
On February 1, 1921, a new literary association appeared in Petrograd, called the Serapion Brothers. Among its members was Zoshchenko. Soon the writer made his debut in print. The stories, published in the 1920s, brought him enormous popularity. He began working with satirical publications, traveling around the country, speaking to the public reading short works. In the 1930s, Zoshchenko turned to a large form. Among other things, the story “Youth Returned” and the collection of everyday short stories and historical anecdotes “The Blue Book” were written at this time.
At the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Zoshchenko tried to go to the front, but he was declared unfit for military service. Then he joined the fire defense group. In September 1941, he was evacuated from Leningrad - first to Moscow, then to Alma-Ata. Zoshchenko lived there until 1943, after which he returned to the capital. During the war, he composed for the theater, wrote scripts, stories, feuilletons, and worked on the book “Before Sunrise.” Publication of the latter began in August 1943. Then only the first part was published in the magazine “October”. Then, from the Agitprop of the Central Committee, the editorial board of Oktyabr received an order to stop publication. They stopped publishing the story, and a large-scale anti-Zoshchenko campaign began.
The writer returned from Moscow to Leningrad, his affairs gradually began to improve, but in 1946 a new and even more terrible blow followed. It all started with the fact that the Zvezda magazine, without Zoshchenko’s knowledge, published his story “The Adventures of a Monkey.” On August 14, the organizing bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks issued a resolution “On the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad.” Zoshchenko was expelled from the Writers' Union and deprived of food cards. Hard times began, he and his family had to literally survive. From 1946 to 1953, Zoshchenko earned money through translations and also worked as a shoemaker, which he mastered in his youth. In June 1953 he was readmitted to the Writers' Union. The boycott ended for a short time. In the spring of 1954, Zoshchenko was invited to a meeting with English students. Answering a question from one of them regarding the 1946 resolution, Zoshchenko said that he could not agree with the insults addressed to him. This led to a new round of bullying.
The last years of the writer’s life were spent at a dacha in Sestroretsk. On July 22, 1958, Zoshchenko died. The cause of death was acute heart failure. The writer was buried in the cemetery in Sestroretsk.
Brief analysis of creativity
Zoshchenko's greatest fame came from his satirical works - mainly short stories. The writer had a wealth of life experience - he had been to war and managed to change many professions. In the trenches, on public transport, in the kitchens of communal apartments, in pubs, Zoshchenko overheard living everyday speech, which became the speech of his literature. As for the hero of the writer’s works, he said the following about him: “Each of us has certain traits of a tradesman, an owner, and a money-grubber. I combine these characteristic, often shaded features in one hero, and then this hero becomes familiar to us and seen somewhere...” As literary critic Yuri Tomashevsky noted, in Zoshchenko’s work it is not the person himself who is ridiculed, but the “sad traits” of human character.
In the second half of the 1930s and early 1940s, Zoshchenko turned to children's literature. This is how the cycles “Lelya and Minka” and “Stories about Lenin” appeared. They included short texts based on the genre of moralizing stories.
The most important role in Zoshchenko’s literary heritage is played by the autobiographical and scientific story “Before Sunrise,” which the writer himself considered the main work of his life. He began collecting material for it back in the mid-1930s. In a letter to Stalin, Zoshchenko noted that the book was “written in defense of reason and its rights”, that it “contains a scientific theme about Pavlov’s conditioned reflexes” and, “apparently”, has been proven “its useful applicability to human life”, that This "revealed Freud's gross idealistic errors." During the writer's lifetime, the story was never published in full. This first happened only in 1973, and in the USA. In Russia, “Before Sunrise” was published in its entirety only in 1987.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko is a Russian writer, a recognized classic of Russian literature. On the Petrograd side, in house number 4, apartment 1 on Bolshaya Raznochina Street, on August 10, 1895, the future classic, Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko, was born. The boy's father, Mikhail Ivanovich, came from Poltava nobles and worked as an artist. The writer’s mother, Elena Osipovna, was born in Surin and also belonged to the Russian nobles. She was an actress and also a part-time short story writer. Mikhail Mikhailovich graduated from the 8th gymnasium in St. Petersburg in 1913. He wanted to continue his studies and enrolled as a lawyer at the Imperial St. Petersburg University, but a year later he was expelled for non-payment. That year he decided to work as a controller on the Caucasian Railway.The life of Mikhail Zoshchenko during the First World War and the Civil War
In 1914, Zoshchenko was admitted to the Pavlovsk Military School for the cadet course as a volunteer of the 1st category. At the beginning of 1915, he was transferred to a cadet non-commissioned officer. In February of the same year, he was finally able to complete the course and went to fight in the army infantry. Also in February of the same year, he was sent to the headquarters of the Kyiv Military District, and later transferred to reinforcements in Vyazka and Kazan. There he received the position of commander of the 6th march company. In March 1915, Mikhail returned to the functioning army to recruit. He was appointed to the position of junior officer of the machine gun team. In November 1915 he was wounded in the leg. In November of the same year, he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav III. In the winter of 1915, Zoshchenko became the commander of a machine gun brigade as a second lieutenant. In February 1916, he was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 1st degree, “For Bravery.” In July he was awarded the rank of lieutenant. In the small town of Smorgon, from the 18th to the 19th of 1916, Mikhail discovered enemy structures and decided to inform the command about it. On the night of the 20th there was a serious attack from the Germans, as a result of which Zoshchenko was taken to the hospital with serious gas poisoning. In September, Mikhail was already awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus 2. Despite serious health problems, the writer continues to fight on the front line. During the war, Zoshchenko received a huge number of military awards, thanks to the courage and courage shown in battles. However, Mikhail believed that he was worthy of only five of his awards. In 1917, Zoshchenko was already awarded the rank of captain. A progressive heart defect did not give Mikhail the opportunity to fully realize himself in military affairs, and already in February 1917 the command decided to send Zoshchenko to the reserve. In the summer of the same year, he received the position of head of the post and telegraphs, as well as the post office of Petrograd. Zoshchenko decides to leave for Arkhangelsk and leaves his position. In this city he becomes the adjutant of the squad. In 1919, the disease again made itself felt, and Zoshchenko was again released from military service, but Mikhail, not wanting to put up with the disease, decided to join the ranks of the Red Army. In the spring of 1919, he had a heart attack, and the command sent him for demobilization. However, the classic does not abandon the idea of serving his homeland, and decides to become a telephone operator and border guard.
After Mikhail makes the final decision that it is time to leave the front, he begins to change numerous professions, from a criminal investigation agent to a shoemaker. Zoshchenko begins to attend the literary studio, which at that time was headed by K. Tchaikovsky. Mikhail was able to publish his works only in 1922. He was a member of the Serapion Brothers group of literature lovers. Its members: L. Lunts, E. Polonskaya, N. Tikhonov, N. Nikitin, V. Posner and many other outstanding people of that time. The group's activities were based on a discussion of the independence of art from the influence of politics. In almost all of his works of the 20s, Zoshchenko created comic images of heroes with small views on the world. In the early 30s, his works became deeper and more meaningful. Such works as “Youth Restored” and “The Blue Book” showed another side of Zoshchenko’s personality, as a talented and very unusual writer. Soon he begins to realize his idea for the story “Before Sunrise.” His work “The History of One Reforging” was included in the book “The White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Stalin.” This book was published in 1934. Success and recognition by a wide audience of readers came to Zoshchenko in the 30s. His works began to be published more and more often, and his books were instantly sold out. Mikhail begins touring around the country. In February 1939, Zoshchenko was awarded an order for his literary activities.
War and creativity in the life of Zoshchenko
With the beginning of the war, Mikhail wants to go to the front, but he is not allowed due to an old illness. However, Zoshchenko still finds a way to help his homeland. He and his son become a member of the fire defense. He also continues his creative activity, writing numerous articles for newspapers and radio. Zoshchenko, together with Schwartz, became the authors of the play “Under the Linden Trees of Berlin.” This production took place at a time when the Germans were blockading Leningrad. In September 1941, an order came to evacuate the writer to Moscow, and then to Alma-Ata. In Moscow he wrote a lot and worked as a screenwriter at Mosfilm. Mikhail, having come to terms with the impossibility of further realizing his military skills, began to work hard on writing numerous stories, as well as on the scripts for such famous films as “Soldier’s Happiness” and “Fallen Leaves.” From 1944 to 1946, Zoshchenko focused on works for theaters.
The last years of Zoshchenko's life
In 1946, he was awarded the award “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.” In the same year, Zoshchenko’s work was subjected to harsh criticism; the Leningrad magazine in which he published was closed. After Zhdanov’s report, they decide to expel Mikhail from the Writers’ Union. Zoshchenko completely lost his material wealth, his friends turned their backs on him. He had to return to work as a shoemaker and translator. Stalin's death made it possible to re-admit Zoshchenko to the Writers' Union. The boycott of his works was lifted, and the writer himself was restored to his good name. In 1954, Zoshchenko was at a meeting with the British, where he was able to answer questions from readers regarding his work. After the meeting with the British, Zoshchenko’s authority as a writer was shaken again. The Central Committee considered him a traitor, opposing the decisions of the top leadership. After an interview with Zoshchenko, it became clear to the British that there was no freedom of speech in the USSR. After such a statement from England, attacks on Zoshchenko by the authorities decreased significantly, but the writer began to experience depression and lost interest in creativity. Mikhail stops writing completely. In August 1955, he applied for a pension, but it was granted only before the writer’s death in 1958. He spends the remaining days at his dacha in Sestroretsk. In the spring of 1958, the writer suffered from serious nicotine poisoning and ceased to recognize anyone. In the summer of July 22, 1958, he dies of heart failure. The writer is buried in the city of Sestroretsk. Later, his wife, son and grandson will be buried next to him. Mikhail Zoshchenko was born on August 9, 1894 in St. Petersburg.On a summer July day in St. Petersburg, on the St. Petersburg side, in house number 4 on Bolshaya Raznochinnaya Street, in the family of the Itinerant artist Mikhail Ivanovich Zoshchenko and actress Elena Iosifovna Surina, who managed to write and publish stories from the lives of poor people in the magazine "Kopeyka" while doing household chores. , a boy was born. In the metric book of the Church of the Holy Martyr Queen Alexandra, he was entered as Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko. In total, the Zoshchenko family had eight children.
In 1903, the parents sent the boy to the St. Petersburg Eighth Gymnasium. Here is how Zoshchenko spoke about these years in his “Autobiography”: “I studied very poorly. And especially poorly in Russian - at the matriculation exam I received a unit in Russian composition... This failure... is even more strange to me now because I already wanted to "Be a writer and wrote stories and poems for myself. More out of rage than despair, I tried to end my life."
In 1913, after graduating from high school, the future writer entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg Imperial University, from where he was expelled a year later due to non-payment of tuition. The young man had to go to work. His first position was as a controller at the Caucasian Railway. But soon the First World War interrupted the usual course of life, and Zoshchenko decided to go into military service.
He was first enrolled as an enlisted cadet at the Pavlovsk Military School as a 1st category volunteer, and then, having completed an accelerated four-month wartime course, he went to the front. He himself explained it this way: “As far as I remember, I did not have a patriotic mood - I simply could not sit in one place.” Nevertheless, he distinguished himself greatly in his service: he took part in many battles, was wounded, and was poisoned by gases. Having begun to fight with the rank of ensign, Mikhail Zoshchenko was transferred to the reserve (due to the consequences of gas poisoning) and awarded four orders for military merits.
For some time, the writer’s fate was connected with Arkhangelsk, where he arrived in early October 1917. After the February Revolution, Zoshchenko was appointed head of post and telegraph and commandant of the Main Post Office. Then, during a business trip to Arkhangelsk, there followed an appointment as an adjutant of the squad, and elections to the secretary of the regimental court. He combined public service with literary experiments: writing at that time had not yet become his main occupation. Under the influence of fashionable writers in the capital's youth environment - Artsybashev, Verbitskaya, Al. Kamensky - he wrote the stories "Actress", "Philistine" and "Neighbor".
But peaceful life and literary exercises were interrupted again - this time by the revolution and the Civil War. He went to the front again, at the end of January 1919, volunteering for the Red Army. Zoshchenko served in the 1st Exemplary Regiment of the Village Poor as a regimental adjutant. He took part in the battles near Narva and Yamburg against the detachments of Bulak-Balakhovich. However, after a heart attack, he had to demobilize and return to Petrograd.
The State Archives of the Arkhangelsk Region partially preserved documents about Mikhail Zoshchenko. From them you can find out that he, with the rank of staff captain, was enrolled in the lists of the 14th foot squad. The military personnel carried out guard duty in the city, guarded warehouses, unloaded weapons and food in Bakaritsa and Economy.
Journalist L. Gendlin heard from Zoshchenko the story of his life in the region of permafrost. He liked the ingenuous Pomors. In Mezen, Zoshchenko met Lada Krestyannikova, whose husband had gone missing at sea. Lada did not believe in his death and waited. Zoshchenko asked Lada to share his loneliness with him. But Lada said: “What will happen then? The delight of the first nights will pass, routine will set in, you will be drawn to Petrograd or Moscow.” But Zoshchenko could not take his eyes off this woman - he liked her gait, melodious figurative speech, and the way she cleaned, washed, and cooked. She did not complain about fate, did not grumble, she did everything easily and with pleasure. When the children fell asleep, she picked up an old guitar and sang old songs and romances. Mikhail Mikhailovich could not understand where she got her strength from. Lada's father was a priest in Pskov, who was shot by the Bolsheviks in Kronstadt with his wife. And Lada and her three sons were exiled to Arkhangelsk.
There was something about Mikhail Zoshchenko’s appearance and demeanor that drove many women crazy. He did not look like the fatal movie beauties, but his face, according to friends, seemed illuminated by an exotic sunset - the writer claimed that he traced his origins to an Italian architect who worked in Russia and Ukraine. According to Daniil Granin, the writer’s narrow, dark face attracted him with some kind of old-fashioned male beauty. A small mouth with white, even teeth rarely formed a soft smile. He had dark brown, thoughtful eyes and small hands. The hair was combed into an impeccable parting. His appearance combined delicacy and firmness, sorrow and isolation. He moved slowly and carefully, as if afraid of splashing himself. His decorum and coolness could be mistaken for arrogance, and even challenge.
Returning to Petrograd, Zoshchenko met his future wife, Vera Vladimirovna Kerbits-Kerbitskaya.
Vera Vladimirovna Zoshchenko recalled: “I remember the end of the 18th year... Mikhail came from the front of the civil war... He came to me... He loved me very much then... He came for the first time in felt boots, in a short jacket, altered with his own hands from an officer's overcoat... The stove was burning, he stood leaning against it, and I asked: “What is the most important thing in life for you?” “I, of course, expected that he would answer: “Of course, you!” But he said, “ Of course, my literature! This was in December 1918. And it was like that all my life."
From 1918 to 1921, Mikhail Zoshchenko changed many occupations, which he wrote about later: “I changed ten or twelve professions before getting to my current profession. I was a criminal investigation agent... an instructor in rabbit breeding and chicken breeding... a policeman... I learned two trades - shoemaking and carpentry... my last profession before writing was clerical work."
At the same time, the aspiring writer attended the literary studio at the World Literature publishing house, where Korney Chukovsky led seminars. It was there that he met Gumilev, Zamyatin, Shklovsky, Lunts, Slonimsky, Posner, Polonskaya and Gruzdev. In the studio, Mikhail began to hone his individual style, thanks to which his works gained enormous popularity. In January 1920, the writer experienced the death of his mother. That same year, in July, he married V.V. Kerbits-Kerbitskaya and moved in with her.
In 1921, the literary group “Serapion Brothers” appeared, which Zoshchenko joined. Together with Slonimsky, he was part of the so-called “central” faction, which held the belief that “current prose is no good” and that we must learn from the old forgotten Russian tradition - Pushkin, Gogol and Lermontov.
In May 1922, a son, Valery, was born into the Zoshchenko family, and in August of the same year, the first almanac “The Serapion Brothers” was published by the Alkonost publishing house, where a story by Mikhail Zoshchenko was published. The young writer’s first independent publication was the book “Nazar Ilyich’s Stories by Mr. Sinebryukhov,” published in a circulation of 2,000 copies by the Erato publishing house.
Maxim Gorky was on friendly terms with the “serapions”; he followed the work of each of them. Here is his review of Mikhail: “Zoshchenko recorded it superbly. His latest works are the best that the Serapions had. A subtle writer. A wonderful humorist.” Gorky began to patronize the talented writer and assisted him in every possible way in the publication of his works. Through the mediation of the proletarian writer, Zoshchenko’s story “Victoria Kazimirovna” was published in French in 1923 in the Belgian magazine “Le disque vert”. This seemingly insignificant event could not have been mentioned, but this story became the first translation of Soviet prose published in Western Europe.
In general, this decade in Zoshchenko’s work is characterized by extraordinary creative activity. Between 1929 and 1932, a collection of his works was published in six volumes. In total, from 1922 to 1946, there were 91 editions and reprints of his books.
In 1927, a large group of writers, united by the Krug publishing house, created a collective declaration in which they highlighted their literary and aesthetic position. Zoshchenko was among those who signed it. At this time, he was published in periodicals (mainly in the satirical magazines “Behemoth”, “Smekhach”, “Buzoter”, “Crank”, “The Inspector General”, “Mukhomor”, etc.). But not everything was smooth in his life. In June 1927, an issue of the Behemoth magazine was confiscated because of the “politically harmful” story by Mikhail Zoshchenko, “An Unpleasant History.” There was a gradual liquidation of this kind of publications, and in 1930 the last satirical magazine “The Inspector General” was closed in Leningrad.
But Mikhail Zoshchenko did not despair. He continued to work. In the same year, he and a team of writers were sent to the Baltic Shipyard. There he wrote for the wall and workshop newspapers, and was also published in the factory's large-circulation newspaper "Baltiets". Since 1932, the writer began collaborating with the magazine "Crocodile", collected material for the story "Youth Restored", and studied literature on physiology, psychoanalysis, and medicine.
The first terrible shock in Zoshchenko's life was gas poisoning during the war. The second no less severe shock was the meeting at a distant camp point with Lada - dirty, in a padded jacket with holes. He asked about her sons. She replied that she knew nothing about their fate. Returning home, Zoshchenko sent her a parcel with warm clothes and food. He wanted to write a story about a female camp worker, using Lada as a prototype, but nothing came of this plan.
By this time his works were well known in the West. But this fame also had a downside: in 1933 in Germany, his books were subjected to a public auto-da-fé in accordance with Hitler’s “black list.” His comedy “Cultural Heritage” was then published in the USSR and staged on the stage of the Theater of Small Forms. In 1934, one of Zoshchenko’s most famous books, “The Blue Book,” began to be published, the idea of which was suggested by Gorky: “with colorful beads... to depict and embroider something like a humorous history of culture.” In it, the author humorously plays on well-known literary plots ("Poor Liza", "The Sorrows of Young Werther", "Cunning and Love", etc.)
In addition to plays, short stories and novellas, Zoshchenko continued to write feuilletons, historical stories ("The Black Prince", "Retribution", "Kerensky", "Taras Shevchenko", etc.), stories for children ("Christmas Tree", "Granny's Gift", "Smart Animals", etc.). From August 17 to September 1, 1934, the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers was held, and Mikhail Zoshchenko was elected a member of the board.
At first glance, the writer’s creative life was going well, but throughout his entire literary career he was subjected to strict and often unpleasant criticism. From time to time he resorted to the services of psychotherapists. Even after 1939, when he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, his works constantly became the target of official criticism.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Mikhail Zoshchenko wrote an application asking to enlist in the Red Army, but was refused as unfit for military service and took up anti-fascist activities outside the battlefield: he wrote anti-war feuilletons for newspapers and the Radio Committee. In October 1941, the writer was evacuated to Alma-Ata, and in November he was enrolled as an employee of the script department of the Mosfilm studio. In 1943, he was called to Moscow, where he was offered the position of executive editor of Krokodil, which he refused. However, he was included in the editorial board of the magazine. Everything looked outwardly fine. But the clouds continued to thicken over Zoshchenko’s head. In early December, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted two resolutions in a row - “On increasing the responsibility of secretaries of literary and artistic magazines” and “On control over literary and artistic magazines”, where the story “Before Sunrise” was declared “a politically harmful and anti-artistic work” . At an extended meeting of the SSP, A. Fadeev, L. Kirpotin, S. Marshak, L. Sobolev, V. Shklovsky and others spoke out against Zoshchenko. He was supported by D. Shostakovich, M. Slonimsky, A. Mariengof, A. Raikin, A. Vertinsky, B. Babochkin, V. Gorbatov, A. Kruchenykh. In the end, the writer was removed from the editorial board of the magazine, deprived of food rations, and evicted from the Moscow Hotel. The persecution continued. At the expanded plenum of the SSP, N.S. Tikhonov also attacked the story “Before Sunrise,” after which, during a personal conversation with Mikhail Mikhailovich, he justified himself by saying that he was “ordered” to do it. Now Zoshchenko was almost never published, but was still awarded the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945,” and in 1946 he was appointed to the editorial board of the Zvezda magazine. The apotheosis of all the vicissitudes was the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of August 14, 1946 “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”, after which the writer was expelled from the Writers' Union and deprived of a food “work” card. This time there was a reason for attacks at all insignificant - children's story "The Adventures of a Monkey."
Writer Daniil Granin attended a meeting of the Presidium of the Union of Soviet Writers on the issue of the party resolution on the magazines "Zvezda" and "Leningrad". He remembered how steadfastly Mikhail Zoshchenko stood. Many years later, he tried to find a transcript of Zoshchenko’s speech in the archives, but it was nowhere to be found. It was listed, but it wasn’t there. She was seized. When, by whom - unknown. Obviously, someone thought the document was so outrageous or dangerous that it should not have been kept in the archives. Copies could not be found anywhere either. Granin told a stenographer he knew about this. She shrugged her shoulders: it’s unlikely that any of the stenographers made a copy for themselves, it’s not supposed to, especially in those years this was strictly observed. Two months later she called Granin and asked him to come. When he arrived, without explaining anything, she handed him a stack of typewritten sheets. This was the same transcript of Mikhail Mikhailovich’s speech. Where? How? From the stenographer who worked at that meeting. We managed to find her. The stenographers know each other well. A note was attached to the transcript: “Sorry that this recording is approximate in places, I was very worried at the time, and tears got in the way.” There was no signature.
This woman, who did not know Zoshchenko personally, but had read his works, showed true heroism: sitting on the side of the stage, at a small table, she could not raise her eyes to Zoshchenko and understand what was happening. And, however, she understood better than many that Zoshchenko was not a fleeting phenomenon, that his speech should not be lost, she made a copy for herself and kept it all the years.
Following this decision, all publishing houses, magazines and theaters terminated previously concluded contracts and demanded the return of advances issued. The writer's family was forced to subsist on the money raised from selling things, and he himself tried to earn money in a shoemaking artel. In the end, his ration card was returned to him, and he even managed to publish some stories and feuilletons. But he had to earn a living by working as a translator. Zoshchenko's translation into Russian included the works "Behind the Matches" and "Resurrected from the Dead" by M. Lassil, "From Karelia to the Carpathians" by A. Timonen, and "The Tale of the Collective Farm Carpenter Sago" by M. Tsagaraev. The translator's name was missing. Evgeny Schwartz wrote about Zoshchenko: “In his texts, he reflected (reinforced) his way of living, communicating with the madness that was beginning to happen around him.”
Zoshchenko was endowed with absolute pitch and a brilliant memory. Over the years spent in the midst of people, he managed to penetrate the secret of their conversational structure, managed to adopt the intonation of their speech, their expressions, turns of phrase, words - he studied this language to the subtleties and from the first steps in literature began to use it easily and naturally, as if this language was his own, blood-borne, absorbed with his mother’s milk. Reading Zoshchenko's stories syllable by syllable, the novice reader thought that the author was one of his own, living a simple life like himself, a simple person, like “ten of them on each tram.”
Literally everything in the writer’s writings told him this. And the place where the story of the next story “unfolded”; housing, kitchen, bathhouse, the same tram - everything is so familiar, personal, everyday familiar. And the “story” itself: a fight in a communal apartment over a scarce hedgehog, nonsense with paper numbers in a bathhouse for a dime, an incident on transport when a passenger’s suitcase was “stolen” - the author seems to be sticking out behind the person’s back; He sees everything, he knows everything, but he is not proud - well, I know, but you don’t - he does not rise above those around him. And most importantly, he writes “competently”, does not get smart, everything is purely Russian, “natural, understandable words.”
This last completely reassured the reader. In anything else, but here - whether a person really knows how to talk in a simple way or is just playing along - he will always figure it out. And he figured it out: Zoshchenko is positively his own, there is no catch here. The centuries-old distrust of the “poor” person towards those standing higher on the social ladder received here one of its most tangible holes. This man believed the writer. And this was Zoshchenko’s great literary achievement.
If he had not been able to speak the language of the masses, readers would not know such a writer today.
Mikhail Zoshchenko is a Russian Soviet writer, playwright, screenwriter and translator. Classic of Russian literature. His works were distinguished by their pronounced satire, directed against deceit, cruelty, greed, pride and other human vices.
Zoshchenko is known, first of all, as an incredibly talented master of a short humorous story, distinguished by high style, precision of expression and subtle irony.
Biography of Zoshchenko
Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko was born on July 29, 1894 in. He grew up in an intelligent noble family.
His father, Mikhail Ivanovich, was an artist. Mother, Elena Osipovna, was an actress and also wrote stories for a newspaper.
In addition to Mikhail, seven more children were born in the Zoshchenko family. Despite their noble origins, the family barely made ends meet.
Childhood and youth
When Mikhail turned 8 years old, he was sent to study at the gymnasium. Interestingly, Zoshchenko had poor academic performance, as a result of which he received low grades in all subjects. Despite this, Mikhail dreamed of becoming a writer from an early age.
After graduating from high school, he entered the Imperial University to study law. However, a year later Zoshchenko was expelled for non-payment of tuition.
Zoshchenko with the rank of ensign in 1915 After that, he worked for some time as a railroad controller to earn at least some money.
When Mikhail Zoshchenko turned 20, the First World War (1914-1918) began. In his autobiography, he admitted that he did not experience any “patriotic mood.”
Despite this, he managed to show courage in battle and receive 4 military awards.
During the war, Zoshchenko was repeatedly wounded, and also received serious chemical poisoning after. Doctors declared him unfit for military service and sent him to the reserve.
It is interesting that Zoshchenko refused to leave the army and wanted to continue fighting. However, at the insistence of doctors, he was nevertheless sent to the reserve.
After that he left for Arkhangelsk. During this period of his biography, he changed dozens of professions. He worked in court, was a shoemaker, and was also involved in breeding and other household goods.
In 1919, Zoshchenko decided to re-join the Red Army, but he was never able to continue his military career. In the spring of that year he was hospitalized, after which he was demobilized.
Creative biography of Zoshchenko
Interestingly, Mikhail Zoshchenko began writing poetry at the age of 8. A few years later he tried writing stories. The first work in his biography can be considered the story “Coat,” which the young man composed at the age of 13.
Having reached adulthood, he began to write works intended for a children's audience, among which were “The Christmas Tree”, “A Stupid Story”, “Galoshes and Ice Cream”, etc.
In 1919, Zoshchenko first met with, who appreciated the work of the young writer. An interesting fact is that I was very surprised that a person with such a sad face could write such humorous works.
Soon Zoshchenko became a member of the literary group “Serapion Brothers”. This association sought to do everything possible to free literature from politics.
Meanwhile, the popularity of Mikhail Zoshchenko grew every day. During the biography period 1922-1946. Zoshchenko's books were reprinted hundreds of times, and his sarcastic ones quickly spread among the people, becoming.
Works by Zoshchenko
Zoshchenko’s most popular stories were “Trouble,” “Aristocrat,” “Bathhouse,” and “Case History.” Readers were delighted with how easy it was to read his works, filled with deep meaning and humor.
Finding himself under a ban, Mikhail Zoshchenko began to engage in translation activities in order to earn at least some money. After his death, he was again accepted into the Writers' Union, but only as a translator.
In the future, he will be repeatedly subjected to various kinds of persecution. Zoshchenko often publicly stated that he had never been a traitor and an enemy of the people.
These and other statements led to another wave of criticism against him from the current government and his colleagues.
Personal life
In 1918, Mikhail Zoshchenko met Vera Kerbits-Kerbitskaya. After 2 years of courtship, he decided to propose to her.
As a result, in 1920, Mikhail and Vera got married. In this marriage they had a son, Valery.
However, it was difficult to call Zoshchenko a monogamist. In his biography there were many girls with whom he had close relationships. For a long time, the writer dated Lydia Chalova, who was 20 years younger than him.
Their relationship lasted for 17 years, after which they broke up on Lida’s initiative. However, the only legal wife in his life was Vera.
Death
At the beginning of 1958, Zoshchenko received nicotine poisoning. As a result of this, he stopped recognizing close people and could not talk.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko died on July 22, 1958 at the age of 63. The official cause of his death was given as heart failure.
Initially, they wanted to bury the writer at the Volkovskoye cemetery, but the authorities did not give their permission to do so. As a result, Zoshchenko was buried in Sestroretsk, where his dacha was.
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Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko, a famous Russian writer and playwright, was born in 1894, on July 29 (according to some sources, in 1895), in St. Petersburg. His father was an Itinerant artist, and his mother was an actress. First, we will talk about how life turned out for such a writer as Mikhail Zoshchenko. The biography presented below describes the main events of his life. Having talked about them, we will move on to a description of the work of Mikhail Mikhailovich.
Studying at the gymnasium and at the St. Petersburg Institute
In 1903, parents sent their son to study at St. Petersburg Gymnasium No. 8. Mikhail Zoshchenko, whose biography can be reconstructed on the basis of his own memories and works, talking about these years, noted that he studied rather poorly, in Features of the Russian language. He received a unit for his essay in the exam. However, Mikhail Mikhailovich notes that already at that time he wanted to be a writer. So far, Mikhail Zoshchenko has created stories and poems only for himself.
Life is sometimes paradoxical. The future famous writer, who began writing at the age of nine, is the most backward student in his class in the Russian language! His lack of progress seemed strange to him. Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko notes that at that time he even wanted to commit suicide. However, fate protected him.
After graduating in 1913, the future writer continued to receive his education at the St. Petersburg Institute, Faculty of Law. A year later, due to non-payment of tuition, he was expelled from there. Zoshchenko had to go to work. He began working at the Caucasian Railway as a controller.
War time
The usual course of life was interrupted by the First World War. Mikhail decided to enlist in military service. First, he became a private cadet and went to the Pavlovsk Military School, then, after completing a four-month accelerated course, he went to the front.
Zoshchenko noted that he was not in a patriotic mood, he simply could not sit in one place for a long time. In the service, however, Mikhail Mikhailovich distinguished himself. He took part in many battles, was poisoned by gases, and was wounded. Having begun to participate in battles with the rank of ensign, Zoshchenko was already a captain and was transferred to the reserve (the reason was the consequences of gas poisoning). In addition, he was awarded 4 orders for military merit.
Return to Petrograd
Mikhail Mikhailovich, returning to Petrograd, met V.V. Kerbits-Kerbitskaya, his future wife. After the February Revolution, Zoshchenko was appointed head of the telegraph and post offices, as well as commandant of the Main Post Office. Next was a business trip to Arkhangelsk, work as an adjutant of the squad, as well as the election of Mikhail Mikhailovich to the secretary of the regimental court.
Service in the Red Army
However, peaceful life is interrupted again - this time by the revolution and the subsequent Civil War. Mikhail Mikhailovich goes to the front. As a volunteer, he entered the Red Army (in January 1919). He serves as a regimental adjutant in a regiment of the village poor. Zoshchenko takes part in the battles of Yamburg and Narva against Bulak-Balakhovich. After a heart attack, Mikhail Mikhailovich had to demobilize and return to Petrograd.
Zoshchenko changed many occupations between 1918 and 1921. Subsequently, he wrote that he tried himself in about 10-12 professions. He worked as a policeman, a carpenter, a shoemaker, and a criminal investigation agent.
Life in peaceful years
The writer in January 1920 experienced the death of his mother. His marriage to Kerbits-Kerbitskaya dates back to the same year. Together with her he moves to the street. B. Zelenina. In May 1922, a son, Valery, was born into the Zoshchenko family. In 1930, Mikhail Mikhailovich was sent along with a team of writers to
Years of the Great Patriotic War
At the beginning of the war, Mikhail Zoshchenko writes a statement in which he asks to be enlisted in the Red Army. However, he is refused - he is declared unfit for military service. Zoshchenko has to conduct anti-fascist activities not on the battlefield. He creates anti-war feuilletons and publishes them in newspapers and sends them to the Radio Committee. In October 1941, he was evacuated to Alma-Ata, and a month later he became an employee of Mosfilm, working in the studio's script department.
Persecution
Zoshchenko was summoned to Moscow in 1943. Here he is offered the position of editor of Crocodile. However, Mikhail Mikhailovich refuses this offer. Nevertheless, he is on the editorial board of Krokodil. Outwardly everything looks fine. However, after some time, clouds begin to gather more and more over Mikhail Mikhailovich’s head: he is removed from the editorial board, evicted from the hotel, and deprived of food rations. The persecution continues. S. at the SSP plenum even attacks Zoshchenko’s story “Before Sunrise.” The writer is practically not published, but in 1946 he was nevertheless introduced to the editorial board of Zvezda.
August 14, 1946 - the apotheosis of all its vicissitudes. It was then that the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks issued a resolution on the magazines “Leningrad” and “Zvezda”. After this, Zoshchenko was expelled from the Writers' Union and was also deprived of his food card. This time the reason for the attacks was completely insignificant - a children's story by Zoshchenko called “The Adventures of a Monkey.” All magazines, publishing houses and theaters, following the decree, terminate the contracts they previously concluded, demanding the return of advances issued. The Zoshchenko family is in poverty. She is forced to subsist on the proceeds from the sale of her personal belongings. The writer is trying to make money in a cobbler's artel. he is eventually returned. In addition, Mikhail Zoshchenko publishes stories and feuilletons (of course, not all). However, at this time one has to earn a living mainly by translation work.
Mikhail Zoshchenko manages to reinstate himself in the Writers' Union only after a significant event occurs on June 23, 1953 - the writer is again accepted into the Union. However, this is not the end. Mikhail Mikhailovich did not manage to remain a member for long this time.
On May 5, 1954, a fateful event occurred. Anna Akhmatova and he were invited that day to the Writer's House, where a meeting was to take place with a group of English students. The writer publicly declared his disagreement with the accusations made against him. A new stage of bullying begins after this. All these ups and downs affected his poor health. The article “Facts Reveal the Truth,” published on September 7, 1953, was the last straw. After this, the writer’s name ceased to be mentioned at all. This oblivion lasted for about two months. However, already in November, Mikhail Mikhailovich was offered cooperation by two magazines - “Leningrad Almanac” and “Crocodile”. A whole group of writers comes to his defense: Chukovsky, Kaverin, Vs. Ivanov, N. Tikhonov. In 1957, in December, he published “Selected Stories and Novels of 1923-1956.” However, the writer’s mental and physical condition is deteriorating. A sharp decline in his strength occurs in the spring of 1958. Zoshchenko loses interest in life.
Death of Zoshchenko
On July 22, 1958, Mikhail Zoshchenko died. Even his body was disgraced after his death: permission was not given to bury him in Leningrad. The writer's ashes rest in Sestroretsk.
Mikhail Zoshchenko, whose life story was discussed in the first part of our article, left a great creative legacy. His path as a writer was not easy. We invite you to take a closer look at how his creative destiny unfolded. In addition, you will find out what stories Mikhail Zoshchenko created for children and what their features are.
Creative path
Zoshchenko began writing actively after he was demobilized in 1919. His first experiments were literary critical articles. His first story appeared in the Petersburg Almanac in 1921.
Serapion brothers
Zoshchenko was brought to a group called in 1921 by the desire to become a professional writer. Critics were wary of this group, but noted that Zoshchenko was the “strongest” figure among them. Mikhail Mikhailovich, together with Slonimsky, was part of the central faction, which adhered to the belief that one should learn from the Russian tradition - Lermontov, Gogol, Pushkin. Zoshchenko feared a “noble restoration” in literature, considered A. Blok a “knight of a sad image” and pinned his hopes on literature with heroic pathos. The first almanac of the Serapions appeared in Alkonost in May 1922, in which Mikhail Mikhailovich’s story was published. And “Stories of Nazar Ilyich, Mr. Sinebryukhov” is a book that became his first independent publication.
Characteristics of early creativity
The school of A.P. Chekhov was noticeable in Zoshchenko’s early works. These are, for example, stories such as “Female Fish”, “War”, “Love”, etc. However, he soon rejected it. Zoshchenko considered the larger form of Chekhov's stories inappropriate to the needs of the modern reader. He wanted to reproduce in the language "the syntax of the street... of the people." Zoshchenko considered himself a person who temporarily replaces a proletarian writer.
A large group of writers created a collective declaration in 1927. It highlighted a new literary and aesthetic position. M. Zoshchenko was among those who signed it. He was published at this time in periodicals (mainly in the satirical magazines “Smekhach”, “Behemoth”, “Crank”, “Buzoter”, “Mukhomor”, “Inspector General”, etc.). However, not everything was smooth sailing. Because of the story “An Unpleasant History” by M. Zoshchenko, allegedly “politically harmful,” an issue of the magazine “Behemoth” was confiscated in June 1927. This type of publication is gradually being eliminated. In Leningrad in 1930, The Inspector General, the last satirical magazine, was also closed. However, Mikhail Mikhailovich does not despair and decides to continue working.
Two sides of fame
He has been collaborating with the Krokodil magazine since 1932. At this time, Mikhail Zoshchenko is collecting material for his story called “Youth Restored”, and also studying literature on medicine, psychoanalysis and physiology. His works are already well known even in the West. However, this fame also had a downside. In Germany in 1933, Zoshchenko's books were subjected to a public auto-da-fé in accordance with Hitler's blacklist.
New works
In the USSR at the same time, Mikhail Zoshchenko’s comedy “Cultural Heritage” was published and staged. The Blue Book, one of his most famous books, begins publication in 1934. In addition to novels, short stories and plays, Zoshchenko also writes feuilletons and historical stories ("Taras Shevchenko", "Kerensky", "Retribution", "The Black Prince", etc.). In addition, he creates stories for children ("Smart Animals", "Grandma's Gift", "Christmas Tree", etc.).
Children's stories by Zoshchenko
Mikhail Zoshchenko wrote many stories for children. They were published in magazines between 1937 and 1945. Of these, some were separate works, while others were combined into cycles. The cycle "Lelya and Minka" is the most famous.
In 1939 - 1940s. Mikhail Zoshchenko created this series of works. It included the following stories: “Golden Words”, “Nakhodka”, “After Thirty Years”, “Don’t Lie”, “Galoshes and Ice Cream”, “Grandma’s Gift”, “Christmas Tree”. It is no coincidence that Mikhail Zoshchenko combined them into one cycle. Brief summaries of these works allow us to conclude that they have something in common, namely the images of the main characters. This is little Minka and Lelya, his sister.
The story is told on behalf of the narrator. His image is no less interesting than the heroes of Mikhail Zoshchenko’s stories. This is an adult who recalls instructive and comic episodes from his childhood. Note that there are similarities between the author and the narrator (even the name is the same, and there is also an indication of the writing profession). However, it does not reach complete coincidence. The narrator's speech differs significantly from the author's. This form of storytelling is called literary tale. It was especially relevant in the literature of the USSR in the 20s and 30s. At this time, the entire culture was characterized by a craving for stylistic and linguistic experiments.
In these stories, as S. Ya. Marshak notes, the author not only does not hide morality. He speaks about it with all frankness in the text, and sometimes in the title of his works (“Don’t lie”). However, this does not make the stories didactic. They are saved by humor, always unexpected, as well as the special seriousness inherent in Zoshchenko. Mikhail Mikhailovich's unexpected humor is based on a witty parody.
Today, many works written by Mikhail Zoshchenko are very popular. His books are read in schools; adults and children love them. His path in literature was not easy, as was the fate of many other writers and poets of the Soviet era. The twentieth century is a difficult period in history, but even during the war years, many works were created that have already become classics of Russian literature. The biography of such a great writer as Mikhail Zoshchenko, briefly outlined by us, we hope, has aroused your interest in his work.
