Biography of Zoshchenko. Biography of Mikhail Zoshchenko When Zoshchenko died

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Mikhail Zoshchenko short biography for children

After graduating from high school, Mikhail Mikhailovich entered the university, but a year later he volunteered for the front (the First World War was in progress). Participates in battles in which he is distinguished by his courage. He was wounded three times, gassed, after which he suffered from heart disease and was demobilized. He was awarded five orders and ended the war with the rank of staff captain.

In 1917 Zoshchenko returned to Petrograd. He makes a living by trying himself in a variety of professions: train controller, postmaster, shoemaker, clerk, policeman, etc.

Soon Zoshchenko meets with Chukovsky, who teaches literary classes and he highly appreciates the writer’s first works.

Zoshchenko published his first story in 1921, and after 10 years he was the author of more than 50 books. In the 1920s, his collections of stories began to appear, among them “Stories of Nazar Ilyich, Mr. Sinebryukhov”, “Sentimental Stories”, “Historical Stories”, “Blue Book”, etc. The publication of these stories immediately made the author famous, and by the mid-1920s he was already one of the most popular writers in the country.

Soon Mikhail Zoshchenko was elected a member of the Writers' Union.

Many of the writer’s works were banned from publication because they showed the negative sides of Soviet society. During World War II, Zoshchenko was evacuated to Alma-Ata. Returning to Moscow, in 1943 he published the story “Before Sunrise,” which was sharply criticized. As a result, in 1946, by a resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, all the writer’s works were banned, and he himself was expelled from the Writers’ Union. Zoshchenko temporarily began to engage in translation activities. Only in 1953, after the death of I.V. Stalin, was he able to publish books again.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko was born on July 29 (August 9), 1894 in St. Petersburg in the family of an artist. Already in childhood he began to write poetry and stories.
In 1913 Zoshchenko entered the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg University, but a year later he was expelled due to non-payment of tuition. In 1915 Zoshchenko volunteered to go to the front, commanded a battalion, and became a holder of 4 military orders. Literary work did not stop. In 1917, Zoshchenko was demobilized due to heart disease, which arose after gas poisoning, and returned to Petrograd.
In 1918, despite his illness, Zoshchenko volunteered for the Red Army. Returning to Petrograd in 1919, he earned his living by various professions - shoemaker, carpenter, carpenter, actor, rabbit breeding instructor, policeman, criminal investigation officer, etc. The style of the future satirist can already be felt in the humorous works written at this time. He studies at the Studio organized by the World Literature publishing house. 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 sad person was endowed with this wondrous ability to powerfully make his neighbors laugh.”
At the Studio, Zoshchenko meets Veniamin Kaverin, Vsevolod Ivanov, Lev Lunts, Konstantin Fedin, Elizaveta Polonskaya. In 1921 they 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 Olga Forsh in the novel “Crazy Ship”.
In 1920–1921 Zoshchenko began to publish. The series “Stories of Nazar Ilyich, Mr. Sinebryukhov” was published as a separate book; this marked Zoshchenko's transition to professional literary activity. And the very first publication made him famous. Phrases from Zoshchenko's stories become catchphrases. From 1922 to 1946, his books went through about 100 editions, including his collected works in six volumes (1928–1932).
By the mid-1920s, Zoshchenko became one of the most popular writers. The stories “Bathhouse”, “Aristocrat”, “Case History” and others, which he himself often read before large audiences, were known and loved in all levels of society. The writer creates a new type of hero for Russian literature - a Soviet man who has not received an education, has no skills in spiritual work, does not have cultural baggage, but strives to become a full participant in life. At the same time, Zoshchenko showed those characteristics of the “little man” that result in baseness of feelings, unworthy behavior, mental limitations, a tendency to wild courage, and opportunism. The fact that the story was told on behalf of a highly individualized narrator gave literary critics the basis to define Zoshchenko’s creative style as “fairy-tale.” 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.N. Tolstoy, Yu.K. Olesha, S.Ya. Marshak, Yu.N. Tynyanov.
Soviet reality could not but affect the emotional state of the sensitive writer, prone to depression from childhood. A propaganda tour along the White Sea Canal, organized in the 1930s for a large group of Soviet writers, left a depressing impression on him. No less difficult for Zoshchenko was the need to write after this trip that criminals were supposedly being re-educated in Stalin’s camps. An attempt to get rid of the depressed state and correct one’s own painful psyche was a kind of psychological study - the story “Youth Restored” (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 of “Youth Restored”, the collection of short stories “The Blue Book” (1935) was conceived. 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 a typical hero Zoshchenko, unencumbered by culture. The publication of this work caused devastating reviews in party publications; Zoshchenko actually could not publish anything except feuilletons “about individual shortcomings” and children's stories.
In the 1930s, the writer worked on the book “Before Sunrise,” which he considered the most important in his life. The work continued during the Patriotic War in Alma-Ata, in evacuation (Zoshchenko could not go to the front due to severe heart disease). In 1943, the first chapters of this scientific and artistic study of the subconscious were published in the magazine “October”. Today, scientists note that the writer anticipated many discoveries of the science of the unconscious. However, then the publication caused such a scandal that printing was interrupted. Zoshchenko addressed a letter to Stalin, asking him to familiarize himself with the book or give orders to check it. The answer was another stream of abuse in the press
Although Zoshchenko received the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1939 for his writing, he constantly remained the object of special interest of official criticism. The culmination of the persecution was the notorious Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”” (August 14, 1946), which defamed Zoshchenko and Akhmatova, leading to their public persecution and a ban on the publication of their works (the reason was publication of Zoshchenko’s children’s story “The Adventures of a Monkey”). During this period, the writer lives by translation work.
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 Resolution he is called a coward and a scumbag of literature. He continued to refuse 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 consequence of this ideological campaign was an 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. Zoshchenko died in Leningrad on July 22, 1958. He was not allowed to be buried in Leningrad; he was buried in Sestroretsk.
Osip Mandelstam subtly noticed the sad paradox of Zoshchenko’s personality and creativity: “Zoshchenko, a moralist by nature, tried to reason with his contemporaries with his stories, to help them become human, but readers took everything for humor and neighed like horses. Zoshchenko maintained illusions, was completely devoid of cynicism, thought all the time, tilting his head slightly to the side, and paid dearly for it. With the eye of an artist, he sometimes penetrated into the essence of things, but could not comprehend them, because he firmly believed in progress and all its beautiful consequences... A pure and wonderful person, he sought connections with the era, believed in broadcast programs that promised universal happiness, believed that when “Someday everything will go back to normal, since the manifestation of cruelty and savagery is just an accident, a ripple in the water.”

Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko is a Russian writer, known primarily for his satirical stories.

Years of life: 1895 - 1958.

Several feature films have been made based on the works of M. M. Zoshchenko, including the famous comedy by Leonid Gaidai “It can’t be!” (1975) based on the story and plays “Crime and Punishment”, “A Funny Adventure”, “The Wedding Incident”.

Zoshchenko wrote several of his autobiographies. The most recent one in 1953:

Autobiography(M. Zoshchenko 1953)

Born in 1895 (August 10) in Poltava. Father is an Itinerant artist. (His paintings are in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Suvorov Museum.)

Father - from hereditary nobles, Ukrainian. Mother is Russian.

I graduated from the 8th gymnasium in St. Petersburg (in 13) and continued my studies at St. Petersburg University (Faculty of Law).

In 1915 (having completed accelerated military courses) he went to the front with the rank of ensign.

He spent two years at the front. He took part in many battles, was wounded and gassed. He had four military orders and the rank of staff captain.

For years 15–17 he held the positions of regimental adjutant, company and battalion commander of the 16th Mingrelian Grenadier Regiment of the Caucasian Division. After the February Revolution, he served in Petrograd as commandant of the Main Post Office and Telegraph and later - in September 17 - was an adjutant of the Arkhangelsk squad.

After October he returned to Petrograd and served in the border troops - in Strelna and Kronstadt.

In September 18, he transferred from the border detachment to the active army and until the spring of 19, he remained at the front in the 1st exemplary regiment of the Village Poor (adjutant of the regiment).

In April 1919 he was demobilized due to heart disease and removed from the military register. From April 1919 he served as an investigator in the Criminal Supervision (Ligovo - Oranienbaum).

In 1920 he entered the Petrograd military port as a clerk. And in the same year he took up literature.

In 1921, the first book of my stories was published (by the Erato publishing house).

Over the next twenty years, a large number of my books were published, which I am not able to list. Of the great works, I can only mention: “Sentimental Stories” (1923–1936), “Youth Recovered” (1933), “Blue Book” (1935) and “Historical Stories” (“The Black Prince”, “Kerensky”, “Retribution” ).

In 1941 (at the beginning of the Patriotic War until October) he worked in Leningrad newspapers, on radio and in the Krokodil magazine.

In October 1941 he was evacuated to Alma-Ata and there until the spring of 1943 he worked in a screenplay studio (Mosfilm), wrote a script (Soldier's Happiness), which was approved by the film committee and put into production (43 years). (This script was published in my one-volume book of 1946, Gosizdat.)

In March 1943, I returned to Moscow and worked as a member of the editorial board of the Krokodil magazine.

In the fall of 1943, I published my story “Before Sunrise” in the magazine “October,” for which I was sharply criticized.

In 1944-46 he worked for theaters. Two of my comedies were staged at the Leningrad Drama Theater. One of them (“Canvas Briefcase”) lasted 200 performances in 1945–46.

In August 1946 (after the Central Committee’s resolution on the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad”) I was expelled from the SSP. During the years 46–52 I was mainly engaged in translation work. Four books were published in my translation: 1. M. Lassila, “Behind the Matches”, 2. M. Lassila, “Risen from the Dead”, 3. Antti Timonen, “From Karelia to the Carpathians”, 4. M. Tsagaraev, “ The Tale of the Collective Farm Carpenter Sago" (in the publishing houses Gosizdat KFSSR and "Soviet Writer" - Moscow).

In June 1953, I was again admitted to the SSP.

Currently I work in the satirical genre - in the magazines “Crocodile” and “Ogonyok”. In addition, I work for the theater and write a book of stories.

Interesting prediction Zoshchenko received it in his youth. This story is described in the preface (Gogolek) to his complete works:

“In the summer of 1938, he told a woman he knew a strange story that happened before the revolution.

Night. A stuffy provincial hotel room. Young officers, stupefied by vodka, cards and boredom, learn that a famous hypnotist and predictor of the future is staying next door, and they go to him in search of at least some kind of entertainment.

A man with sharp features is indignant and drives everyone out of the room.

“The atmosphere was tense. Suddenly the hypnotist’s black eyes focused on him, Zoshchenko.

“I won’t do anything for you, gentlemen. I am outraged by your behavior, and you will leave this room right now... But I am an artist, and among you there is a person who interested me, and I will say a few words to him.”

He walked up to Zoshchenko with long strides and, placing a heavy hand on his shoulder, said, looking into his face:

“You, young man, have remarkable abilities in the field of art. Don't give up on them. Soon you will become famous throughout Russia. But you will end up badly. Farewell!"".

Zoshchenko’s advice, which he outlined in the article “About himself, about critics and about his work,” is instructive for young writers:

First of all, I must say that I divide all my literary work into two categories, into two systems. That is, I have two ways of working. One way is when there is inspiration, when I write under creative tension. Then the work goes easily, quickly and without mistakes. Moreover, the whole plan, the whole composition of things develops on its own.

So, such writers wrote at their full strength, and the quality of their output was, of course, extremely high. But the number of works by such writers was almost always insignificant.

Let's say that such an exceptional writer as Merimee wrote something like two dozen stories and one novel over the course of his seventy-year life. He knew almost no failures. All his things, especially for that time, were made with exceptional brilliance. But if this Merimee worked as a professional, as a day laborer, it is unlikely that he would have such high qualifications. Perhaps he would have such qualifications, but along with brilliant things he would also have mediocre ones.

But for us writers who have to write all the time, without a break, without much rest, we need to learn to write without inspiration. We need to learn a technique that we can work with at any time and in any condition.

A person is designed in such a way that he is not able to remain under the same tension for a long time. There are often failures. Physical and all sorts of others that need to be replaced with something so as not to fail for a long time.

Lack of creative energy, lack of inspiration, it turns out, can be replaced.

You can work and write well without inspiration, without experiencing any creative tension. There are some recipes, some laws, the knowledge of which will completely replace creative inspiration.

Talent and inspiration are excellent things, but it turns out that you can work without them for a while. You can’t work with your gut alone, as we sometimes do, and, most importantly, you can’t rely on it, because then at the slightest illness, at the slightest obstacle, and under many other life circumstances, the writer is forced to lay down his arms.

What is this recipe and how to find it? To do this, you should take a closer look at your own inspiration when it happens.

Taking a closer look at how I work subconsciously, I come to the conclusion that the most important thing in this work is three main points. The first is the correct construction of the story, the correct proportion of material in each part. This is the easiest thing. This is easy to learn by making a detailed story plan each time.

And finally, thirdly, what is most difficult to learn is, so to speak, the smooth flow of a story, one breath, if you can call it that, the absence of seams that usually result from work that is not immediately successful. The reader may not notice these seams, but he will notice the lack of smoothness, the non-monolithic nature of the thing, and then interest in it, if not lost, then decreases. It becomes difficult to read. Attention weakens. It's easy to come off.

It is, of course, extremely difficult to avoid this without inspiration. It requires persistent skill, skill and the right eye that sees the rough edges. These rough edges and seams are erased or filled with words.

I repeat: you can learn this through hard work. Moreover, all failures are extremely useful and instructive.

A notebook plays a huge role in such work. I think every writer keeps a notebook. In particular, it is extremely important to me. Almost every day, in the evening, I write down in my notebook a few words, one or two phrases, sometimes an image, some meeting, and everything is very brief, in one word, in one phrase. This has already become a habit, and I do it almost every day. I write down all my catch for the day in a notebook, often this may not be useful to me in my further work, but sometimes, especially when I am working without inspiration, I take words and phrases from the notebook and insert them into a story or story .

I must say that I personally work mostly and mainly with inspiration, that is, that creative tension that allows me to work easily, quickly and successfully. With this kind of work, as much time is spent on the story as it takes to write it down.

However, sometimes you have to work without inspiration.

And all 10 years of my literary work boiled down to learning that high technique in which the quality of the product is always maintained at approximately the same level. This allows me not to depend on inspiration and not wait for it.

I achieved some success in this matter, because some of my stories, written in the greatest creative decline, are considered almost the most successful. This is extremely important for a writer.

For example, my little trifling story “Bath”, very famous and to the last degree shabby on the stage, was written without inspiration. This story was written artificially, that is, I myself painstakingly selected phrase by phrase and pulled out words from a notebook, and the technique was so high that the reader did not notice the artificial seams in this story.

I used this example to show that technique and skill are sometimes not inferior to the highest creative enthusiasm.

It is this technique, based on experience, on failure, on a careful analysis of one’s creative work, that every writer should learn. Writing like a bird sings, with creative inspiration alone, although easy, is harmful. Writing with just one “gut”, without knowledge of technology and, so to speak, from “the Lord God” is utter nonsense. Such writers usually don't last long. This is why we know such a large number of “losers” - people who abandoned literature after their first successful experiments.

The path to precise technique, precise knowledge and the ability to “play out” a plot takes years of persistent, hard work.

Moreover, knowledge of technology does not interfere with creative growth. On the contrary, such knowledge only helps and improves the thing.

Zoshchenko provides answers to questions from his readers:

Do you rework your stories a lot?

I told you: the work comes in two ways, the stories that I write with inspiration, I finish little. Here all the work is done subconsciously - I write down the story with one gesture, and it is quite accurate and correct. But in those stories that I write artificially, with technical skill, I spend a lot of work there. Sometimes a short story takes 4–5 days to complete. A story written with inspiration usually takes 15–20 minutes to write.

What is the main task of a writer in our time, especially a party member?

I do not undertake to talk about the responsibilities that a party member bears. But in general, the writer of our day, in my opinion, faces the following task: it is necessary to learn to write in such a way that the largest possible number of people understand his works. It is necessary to interest the masses in literature. And for this you need to write clearly, concisely and with all possible simplicity.

Life and artMikhail Zoshchenko

Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko was born in 1895 into the family of a poor itinerant artist, Mikhail Ivanovich Zoshchenko and Elena Iosifovna Surina. After graduating from high school, he studied at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. Without completing his studies, in 1915 he volunteered for the active army, so that, as he later recalled, “to die with dignity for his country, for his homeland.” On the eve of the February Revolution, he was already a battalion commander, a holder of four military orders, and a staff captain. After the October Revolution, he became a border guard in Strelna, then was transferred to Kronshdat. He was demobilized due to illness (during the fighting, Zoshchenko was poisoned with gases, as a result of which he developed a heart defect). This is how he himself writes about it: “I took part in many battles, was wounded, poisoned with gases. Ruined my heart...” After demobilization, Zoshchenko took up a variety of professions. He was: a criminal investigation agent in Petrograd, an instructor in rabbit breeding and chicken breeding at the Mankovo ​​state farm in the Smolensk province, a policeman in Ligov, again in the capital - a shoemaker, a clerk and an assistant accountant in the Petrograd port...

Here is a list of who Zoshchenko was and what he did, where life threw him before he sat down at the writing table.

This list is necessary. These boring, dry lines of tedious enumeration make it possible to understand where Zoshchenko got the material for all his stories, novellas, and feuilletons.

Published in 1922, “Nazar Ilyich’s Stories of Mr. Sinebryukhov” attracted everyone’s attention. Against the background of short stories of those years (and the short story was then the dominant type of literary work), the figure of the hero-storyteller, a seasoned, experienced man, Nazar Ilyich Sinebryukhov, who went through the front and saw a lot in the world, stood out sharply. This is so reminiscent of the biography of Zoshchenko himself...

The works written by the writer in the 20s were based on specific and very topical facts, gleaned either from direct observations or from reader letters. And a great many of them came. “He didn’t walk around people with a pencil. The people themselves, pushing each other aside, vying for his pencil.” Letters came about riots in transport and in hostels, about the New Economic Policy and funny incidents in everyday life, about townspeople and ordinary people. Often his stories were built in the form of a casual conversation with himself, with the reader.

In his series of satirical works, Zoshchenko angrily ridiculed those who, by any means, tried to achieve individual happiness, not caring about everything human (“Famousness”, “Grimace of Nepa”, “Lady with Flowers”, “Nanny”, “Marriage of Convenience”).

Satire, like all Soviet fiction, changed significantly in the 30s. During this period, Zoshchenko was seized by the idea of ​​merging satire and heroics. Theoretically, this thesis was proclaimed by him at the very beginning of the 30s, and practically realized in “Youth Restored” (1933), “The Story of One Life” (1934), the story “The Blue Book” (1935) and a number of other stories of the second half 30s. During the same period, Zoshchenko wrote two more large cycles of stories: stories for children and stories about Lenin.

During the Great Patriotic War, Mikhail Zoshchenko lived in Alma-Ata. The tragedy of the blockaded Leningrad, the menacing attacks near Moscow, the great battle on the Volga, the battle on the Kursk Bulge - he felt all this deeply. In an effort to contribute to the common cause of defeating the enemy, Zoshchenko writes a lot on front-line topics. Here are screenplays for short films, small satirical plays (“The Cuckoo and the Crows,” The Fritz’s Pipe), and a number of short stories “From the Stories of a Soldier,” and humoresques published in “Ogonyok,” “Crocodile,” “Red Army Soldier,” and a film story "Soldier's Happiness"

In the 50s, Mikhail Zoshchenko created a number of stories and feuilletons, a cycle of “Literary Anecdotes”, and devoted a lot of time and energy to translations. The translation of the book by the Finnish writer M. Lassila “For Matches” stands out with particular skill.