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ZOSCHENKO, MIKHAIL MIKHAILOVICH (1894-1958), Russian writer. Born on July 29 (August 9), 1894 in St. Petersburg in the family of an artist. Childhood impressions - including difficult relationships between parents - were later reflected in Zoshchenko’s stories for children ( Christmas tree, Galoshes and ice cream, Grandma's gift, No need to lie etc.), and in his story Before sunrise(1943). The first literary experiences date back to childhood. In one of his notebooks, he noted that in 1902-1906 he already tried to write poetry, and in 1907 he wrote a story Coat.
In 1913 Zoshchenko entered the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. His first surviving stories date back to this time - Vanity(1914) and Two-kopeck(1914). Studying was interrupted by the First World War. In 1915, Zoshchenko volunteered to go to the front, commanded a battalion, and became a Knight of St. George. Literary work did not stop during these years. Zoshchenko tried his hand at short stories, epistolary and satirical genres (he composed letters to fictitious recipients and epigrams to fellow soldiers). In 1917 he was demobilized due to heart disease that arose after gas poisoning.
Upon returning to Petrograd they wrote Marusya, Philistine, Neighbour and other unpublished stories in which the influence of G. Maupassant was felt. In 1918, despite his illness, Zoshchenko volunteered for the Red Army and fought on the fronts of the Civil War until 1919. Returning to Petrograd, he earned his living as before the war. different professions: shoemaker, joiner, carpenter, actor, rabbit breeding instructor, policeman, criminal investigation officer, etc. In humorous stories written at that time Orders on railway police and criminal supervision Art. Ligovo and other unpublished works, the style of the future satirist can already be felt.
In 1919 Zoshchenko studied at creative studio, organized by the publishing house "World Literature". The classes were supervised by K.I. Chukovsky, who highly appreciated Zoshchenko’s work. Recalling his stories and parodies written during his studio studies, Chukovsky wrote: “It was strange to see that such a marvelous ability to powerfully make his neighbors laugh was endowed with such sad man" In addition to prose, during his studies Zoshchenko wrote articles about the works of A. Blok, V. Mayakovsky, N. Teffi and others. At the Studio he met the writers V. Kaverin, Vs. Ivanov, L. Lunts, K. Fedin, E. Polonskaya and others, who in 1921 united in the literary group “Serapion Brothers,” which advocated freedom of creativity from political tutelage. Creative communication was facilitated by the life of Zoshchenko and other “serapions” in the famous Petrograd House of Arts, described by O. Forsh in the novel Crazy ship.
In 1920-1921 Zoshchenko wrote the first stories that were subsequently published: Love, War, Old Woman Wrangel, female fish. Cycle Stories of Nazar Ilyich, Mr. Sinebryukhov(1921-1922) released a separate book in the publishing house "Erato". This event marked Zoshchenko's transition to professional literary activity. The very first publication made him famous. Phrases from his stories acquired the character of catchphrases: “Why are you disturbing the disorder?”; “The second lieutenant is wow, but he’s a bastard,” etc. From 1922 to 1946, his books went through about 100 editions, including collected works in six volumes (1928-1932).
By the mid-1920s Zoshchenko had become one of the most popular writers. His stories Bath, Aristocrat, Medical history and others, which he himself often read before numerous audiences, were known and loved in all levels of society. In a letter to Zoshchenko A.M. Gorky noted: “I don’t know of such a relationship between irony and lyricism in anyone’s literature.” Chukovsky believed that at the center of Zoshchenko’s work was the fight against callousness in human relationships.
In story collections of the 1920s Humorous stories (1923), Dear citizens(1926), etc. Zoshchenko created a new type of hero for Russian literature - Soviet man, who has not received an education, does not have the skills of spiritual work, does not have cultural baggage, but strives to become a full participant in life, to become equal to the “rest of humanity.” The reflection of such a hero produced a strikingly funny impression. The fact that the story was told on behalf of a highly individualized narrator gave rise to literary scholars determining creative manner Zoshchenko as “fantastic”. Academician V.V. Vinogradov in the study Zoshchenko language analyzed in detail the writer's narrative techniques, noted the artistic transformation of various speech layers in his vocabulary. Chukovsky noted that Zoshchenko introduced into literature “a new, not yet fully formed, but victoriously spreading extra-literary speech throughout the country and began to freely use it as his own speech.” Zoshchenko’s work was highly appreciated by many of his outstanding contemporaries - A. Tolstoy, Y. Olesha, S. Marshak, Y. Tynyanov and others.
In 1929, received in Soviet history title “the year of the great turning point”, Zoshchenko published a book Letters to the writer- a kind of sociological research. It consisted of several dozen letters from the huge reader mail that the writer received, and his commentary on them. In the preface to the book, Zoshchenko wrote that he wanted to “show genuine and undisguised life, genuine living people with their desires, taste, thoughts.” The book caused bewilderment among many readers, who expected only the next funny stories. After its release, director V. Meyerhold was forbidden to stage Zoshchenko’s play Dear comrade (1930).
The inhumane Soviet reality could not but affect the emotional state of the sensitive writer, who was prone to depression from childhood. A trip along the White Sea Canal, organized in the 1930s for propaganda purposes for large group Soviet writers, made a depressing impression on him. No less difficult for Zoshchenko was the need to write after this trip that criminals were allegedly being re-educated in Stalin’s camps ( The story of one life, 1934). An attempt to get rid of a depressed state and correct one’s own painful psyche was a kind of psychological research - a story Youth returned(1933). The story evoked an interested reaction in the scientific community that was unexpected for the writer: the book was discussed at numerous academic meetings and reviewed in scientific publications; Academician I. Pavlov began to invite Zoshchenko to his famous “Wednesdays”.
As a continuation Restored youth a collection of stories was conceived Blue Book(1935). Zoshchenko believed Blue Book according to the internal content of the novel, he defined it as “ a short history human relations" and wrote that it "is driven not by the novella, but by the philosophical idea that makes it." Stories about modernity were interspersed in this work with stories set in the past - in different periods of history. Both the present and the past were presented in the perception of the typical hero Zoshchenko, unencumbered by cultural baggage and understanding history as a set of everyday episodes.
After publication Blue Book, which caused devastating reviews in party publications, Zoshchenko was actually prohibited from publishing works that went beyond the scope of “positive satire on individual shortcomings.” Despite his high writing activity (commissioned feuilletons for the press, plays, film scripts, etc.), Zoshchenko’s true talent was manifested only in the stories for children that he wrote for the magazines “Chizh” and “Hedgehog”.
In the 1930s, the writer worked on a book that he considered the most important in his life. The work continued during the Patriotic War in Alma-Ata, in evacuation, since Zoshchenko could not go to the front due to severe heart disease. In 1943, the initial chapters of this scientific and artistic study of the subconscious were published in the magazine "October" under the title Before sunrise. Zoshchenko studied incidents from his life that gave impetus to a serious mental illness from which doctors could not save him. The modern scientific world notes that in this book the writer anticipated many discoveries of science about the unconscious by decades.
The magazine publication caused such a scandal, such a barrage of critical abuse was rained down on the writer that the publication Before sunrise was interrupted. Zoshchenko addressed a letter to Stalin, asking him to familiarize himself with the book “or give orders to check it more thoroughly than has been done by critics.” The response was another stream of abuse in the press, the book was called “nonsense, needed only by the enemies of our homeland” (Bolshevik magazine). In 1946, after the release of the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the magazines Zvezda and Leningrad,” the party leader of Leningrad A. Zhdanov recalled the book in his report Before sunrise, calling it a “disgusting thing.”
The resolution of 1946, which “criticized” Zoshchenko and A. Akhmatova with the rudeness inherent in Soviet ideology, led to their public persecution and a ban on the publication of their works. The reason was the publication of Zoshchenko’s children’s story Monkey Adventures(1945), in which the authorities saw a hint that in the Soviet country monkeys live better than people. At a writers’ meeting, Zoshchenko stated that the honor of an officer and a writer does not allow him to come to terms with the fact that in the Central Committee resolution he is called a “coward” and a “scum of literature.” Subsequently, Zoshchenko also refused to come forward with the repentance and admission of “mistakes” expected of him. In 1954, at a meeting with English students, Zoshchenko again tried to express his attitude towards the 1946 resolution, after which the persecution began in the second round.
The saddest consequence of this ideological campaign was the exacerbation of mental illness, which did not allow the writer to work fully. His reinstatement in the Writers' Union after Stalin's death (1953) and the publication of his first book after a long break (1956) brought only temporary relief to his condition.
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.
Works by Zoshchenko
The most popular stories Zoshchenko were “Trouble”, “Aristocrat”, “Bath” 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 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. Official reason his death was called 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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On August 10, 1895, a boy Misha was born in St. Petersburg - one of eight children in the poor noble family of Zoshchenko. His father, Mikhail Ivanovich, was an Itinerant artist and served at the Academy of Arts. Some of the elder Zoshchenko's paintings are kept in Tretyakov Gallery and in the Museum of the Revolution. Misha’s mother, Elena Osipovna, once played on stage, and after her marriage she wrote stories and published them in the capital’s magazine “Kopeyka”.
Misha inherited his mother's talent - from the age of eight he wrote poetry, and at thirteen he wrote his first story, called “Coat”. True, his literary abilities did not affect his studies. At the age of nine, Misha was sent to the eighth St. Petersburg gymnasium, and he studied very mediocrely, and, oddly enough, he had the worst grades in the Russian language. Subsequently, Zoshchenko himself was quite surprised by this, because since childhood he dreamed of becoming a writer. But the fact remains: at the final exam, Mikhail received a unit for his essay. For a seventeen-year-old boy, such an assessment was a huge blow, and he even tried to commit suicide - according to him, not so much out of despair as out of rage.
Zoshchenko's father died in 1907, leaving the family practically without a livelihood, but Elena Osipovna still found the opportunity to pay for the gymnasium, and in 1913 Mikhail Zoshchenko became a law student. However, six months later, Mikhail was expelled from the university - the family did not have money to pay for his education. And in the spring of 1914, Zoshchenko went to the Caucasus, where he became a controller on the Kislovodsk - Minvody railway line, and at the same time earned money by giving private lessons. In the fall he returned to St. Petersburg, but instead of university he decided to pursue a military career.
Mikhail became a cadet at the Pavlovsk Military School (1st category volunteer), but still did not want to study - he took accelerated military courses and in February 1915 went to the front with the rank of ensign. Zoshchenko did not experience any patriotic sentiments regarding the outbreak of war - rather, he wanted some kind of change, thus fighting his tendency towards melancholy and hypochondria. However, the future writer fought quite successfully, and his comrades did not notice any melancholy behind him, at least in battles.
Zoshchenko ended up in the Caucasian Grenadier Division, received a shrapnel wound in November, and in December he received the rank of second lieutenant. In the summer of 1916, he was poisoned by gases and, after hospitalization, was transferred to the reserve. But Zoshchenko did not want to serve in the reserve regiment and returned to the front in the fall. In November he became a company commander and staff captain, and almost immediately began acting as battalion commander. During the war, he received four orders and was nominated for a fifth, but did not manage to receive either the Order of St. Vladimir or the rank of captain - the February Revolution broke out in Russia. In the same month, Mikhail was diagnosed with a consequence of poisoning - a heart defect, and he was nevertheless demobilized. In the summer of 1917, Zoshchenko was appointed commandant of the Petrograd Post Office, but in October Mikhail left this position and went to serve in Arkhangelsk - adjutant of the 14th Arkhangelsk squad and secretary of the field court. By the way, here he was offered to emigrate to Paris, but Mikhail refused - after October Revolution he accepted Soviet power without hesitation.
In Arkhangelsk, Mikhail met his first love, but Lada, the mother of three sons, who was waiting for her husband who disappeared at sea, refused him, fearing that the capital officer would very quickly get tired of the provincial routine. Perhaps there was some truth in her words - Zoshchenko had an appearance that was very interesting to women. Handsome and delicate in an old-fashioned way, he aroused curiosity with his outward arrogance, the cause of which was actually his reserved character and leisurely movements.
In 1918, Zoshchenko returned to Petrograd and immediately enlisted in the Red Army - first he served as a border guard in Kronstadt, then he went to the front. In the spring of 1919, the disease made itself felt again, and Mikhail had to be demobilized. His fiancée, Vera Vladimirovna Kerbits-Kerbitskaya, was waiting for him in Petrograd, and the following year they got married - exactly six months after the death of Mikhail’s mother. A year later, Vera gave birth to a son, Valery, who later became a theater critic.
After the front, Zoshchenko changed more than a dozen professions, having been a carpenter, a criminal investigation agent, a clerk, and even an instructor in breeding chickens and rabbits. And all this time he was engaged in literature, becoming more and more convinced that his true calling was writing. Since 1919, he attended the literary studio organized by the publishing house “World Literature” under the leadership of Korney Chukovsky. In 1921, Zoshchenko joined the literary group “Serapion Brothers” and was a member of a faction whose adherents argued that one should learn to write from Russian classics.
In August 1922, the Alkonost publishing house published the first almanac of the Serapion Brothers group, which included Zoshchenko’s story. In the same year, his first book, entitled “Stories of Nazar Ilyich Mr. Sinebryukhov,” was published. This collection of short stories became a real literary sensation. Maxim Gorky, impressed by Mikhail’s talent, called him a “subtle writer” and a “wonderful humorist.” It is interesting that the first translation of Soviet prose in the West is “Victoria Kazimirovna,” a story by Zoshchenko, which was published by the Belgian magazine “Le disque vert.”
Over the next few years, Mikhail Zoshchenko gained incredible popularity, and phrases from his stories became catchphrases. By the mid-twenties, he was considered perhaps the most famous Soviet writer, and his work was loved by people belonging to different social strata society. Basically, Zoshchenko's fame was based on what he created new type literary hero- a Soviet man in the street who has neither education nor cultural baggage, primitive and with poor morals. The stories were written in undoubtedly artistic and at the same time ordinary, extra-literary, everyday language.
In 1927, the gradual liquidation of satirical magazines began in the Soviet Union, and some of the writer’s stories were recognized as “ideologically harmful.” In 1929, his book “Letters to a Writer” was published, compiled from readers’ letters and comments to them. The book was very similar to a sociological study and caused great bewilderment among many, because out of habit, only funny stories were expected from Zoshchenko.
Of course, such changes could not but affect the writer, who was already prone to depression since childhood. A trip by a group of writers along the White Sea Canal made a particularly depressing impression on him in the thirties. There, Mikhail Mikhailovich met his Arkhangelsk love in one of the camps, who had no idea where her sons were now. After this trip, writing about the “re-education” of criminals turned out to be simply unbearable. In 1933, Zoshchenko published a story called “Youth Restored”, trying to get rid of depression and at least somehow correct his psyche. This book, dedicated to mental health problems, was reviewed by scientific publications and discussed at the Academy of Sciences.
His creative destiny was very strange: publications, popularity, material well-being, fame abroad, in 1939 - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, but with all this - constant attacks from criticism.
In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Zoshchenko tried to go to the front, but was refused due to his health. In October, the writer evacuated to Alma-Ata, in November he became an employee of the scriptwriters department of Mosfilm, and in 1943 he was called to Moscow and offered the post of executive editor of the satirical magazine Krokodil. Mikhail Mikhailovich did not accept this position, but joined the editorial board of Krokodil. At the end of the year, two government resolutions were adopted - one required increasing the responsibility of secretaries of literary magazines, the second tightened control over these magazines. Zoshchenko’s story “Before Sunrise” was declared “politically harmful and anti-artistic,” and its author was removed from the editorial board of “Crocodile” and deprived of food rations.
Since 1944, Zoshchenko wrote for theaters, and one of his comedies, “The Canvas Briefcase,” had two hundred performances in a year. But the printing of his works was practically stopped. And yet, Mikhail Mikhailovich received the medal “For Valiant Labor,” and in 1946 he became one of the editors of the Zvezda magazine. But in August 1946, after the infamous decree “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”, Zoshchenko was expelled from the Writers' Union and again deprived of his food card. All contracts concluded with publishing houses, magazines and theaters were terminated. Zoshchenko tried to earn extra money in a shoemaking artel, and Vera Vladimirovna was selling their things... Zoshchenko’s main income then became translations, and the translator’s name was not in the books.
Mikhail Mikhailovich was reinstated in the Writers' Union after Stalin's death, but only for a year - in 1954, the persecution continued. They came to his defense famous writers- Chukovsky, Kaverin, Tikhonov. At the end of 1957, it was possible to publish a book of selected works, but Zoshchenko’s health and psyche were irrevocably undermined.
On July 22, 1958, Mikhail Zoshchenko died of a heart attack at his dacha in the city of Sestroretsk. The disgrace did not stop even after death: the writer was not allowed to be buried in Leningrad. His grave is located in the Sestroretsk city cemetery. They say that in the coffin Mikhail Mikhailovich, who was distinguished by his gloominess in life, smiled...
Born on July 28 (August 9), 1894 in St. Petersburg. Biography of Zoshchenko for children primary classes says that his parents were nobles, and his mother played in the theater before her marriage. In addition, she wrote children's stories.
Nevertheless, the family was not wealthy - the father made a living with his talent as an artist, but little came of it - the son was educated at the gymnasium, which he graduated in 1913, but there was no longer enough for the university - he was expelled for non-payment. Zoshchenko began earning money quite early, devoting summer holidays controller's work railway.
The war began and young man drafted into the army. He didn’t particularly want to fight, but he still received four military awards and even returned to the front after he was written off to the reserve.
And then there was the revolution of 1917 and the opportunity to leave Arkhangelsk, where he served as commandant of the post office, to France. Zoshchenko refused her.
A short biography of Zoshchenko indicates that during his youth the writer changed about 15 professions, served in the Red Army and by 1919 became a telephone operator.
Literary activity
He began writing as an eight-year-old boy - first there were poems, then stories. Already at the age of 13, he became the author of the story “Coat” - the first of many written under the impression of family troubles and a difficult childhood.
Much later, while working as a telephone operator, he simultaneously visited the literary studio of Korney Chukovsky, who was already writing for children - today his works are studied in grades 3-4. Chukovsky highly appreciated humorous stories young author, but the personal meeting surprised him: Zoshchenko turned out to be a very sad person.
In the studio, Mikhail Mikhailovich met Veniamin Kaverin and other writers who became the backbone of the Serapion Brothers. This literary group advocated for creativity to be free from politics.
Zoshchenko Mikhail Mikhailovich became popular very quickly - his books are published and republished (in twenty-five years, since 1922, the number of reprints has reached a hundred), and phrases become catchphrases. The zenith of his fame came in the 20s, when Maxim Gorky himself became interested in his work.
In the thirties, the situation changed somewhat - after a trip to the White Sea Canal, he wrote the gloomy “The Story of One Life,” even before that his “Letters to a Writer” caused a wave of indignation, and one of the plays was removed from the repertoire. Gradually he sinks into depression.
During this period, the writer became interested in psychiatry. He wrote “Youth Reclaimed” and “The Blue Book,” but while they aroused keen interest among psychologists, especially foreign ones, they again aroused criticism among writers.
After this, Zoshchenko wrote mainly children's stories, and after the end of the war, scripts for films and plays. But the persecution of the writer continues; Joseph Stalin himself criticizes his works. Gradually the writer fades away - and in 1958 he died.
Personal life
The writer was married. His wife, Vera Kerbits-Kerbitskaya, supported Zoshchenko after the death of her mother and gave her only son Valery.
But interesting fact from Zoshchenko's life is that he was an unfaithful husband. There was another love in his life - Lydia Chalova, whom Zoshchenko continued to love even after breaking up.
However, in the most difficult years of his life, especially the last, Mikhail Zoshchenko continued to be supported by his legal wife, who was later buried next to the writer.
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 to be a writer and wrote stories and poems for myself. More out of rage than out of 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 to 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 participated in many battles, was wounded, and was poisoned by gases. Having started 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 February Revolution Zoshchenko was appointed head of posts and telegraphs 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 again interrupted - 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.
IN State Archives In the Arkhangelsk region, documents about Mikhail Zoshchenko have been partially preserved. 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 with his wife by the Bolsheviks in Kronstadt. 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 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 polishing 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 Alkonost publishing house published the first almanac of the Serapion Brothers, where a story by Mikhail Zoshchenko was published. First independent publication young writer became the book "Stories of Nazar Ilyich Mr. Sinebryukhov", published in a circulation of 2000 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 a proletarian writer, Zoshchenko’s story “Victoria Kazimirovna” was published in the Belgian magazine “Le disque vert” in 1923. French. 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. Second no less severe shock There was a 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.” In the USSR, his comedy " Cultural heritage". In 1934, one of the most famous books Zoshchenko - “The Blue Book”, 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 plays on well-known literary plots with humor (“ Poor Lisa", "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 Soviet writers, of which Mikhail Zoshchenko was elected a member of the board.
At first glance, the writer’s creative destiny was developing well, but throughout his entire literary career he was subjected to strict and often impartial 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 1941-1945.", and in 1946 they were introduced to the editorial board of the magazine "Zvezda". 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 was deprived of a food "work" card. The reason for the attacks this time was completely 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 who 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 perfect 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”; the apartment, the kitchen, the 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.