Biography Black Sasha


(1880 – 1932)

Black Sasha is a real name – Alexander Mikhailovich Glikberg (1880 – 1932), a poet.
He was born on October 1 (13th century) in Odessa in the family of a pharmacist. He studied at the St. Petersburg Gymnasium, from which he was expelled for failure. He served at customs.
The first poems were published in 1904 in Zhitomir. In 1905 he moved to St. Petersburg, where he collaborated in the progressive satirical magazines “Spectator”, “Molot”, “Masks”, etc.
For the first time he signed the pseudonym “Sasha Cherny” in 1905 under the political satire “Nonsense”, which brought him fame and served as a reason for closing magazine “Spectator”. The first collection of poems “Different Motives,” where along with the lyrics were political satires, was banned by censorship.
In 1906 – 1907 he lived in Germany, listened to a course of lectures at

the University of Heidelberg. Returning to St. Petersburg, for three years (1908 – 11), he cooperates with the Satyricon (magazine of satire and humor), becomes the leading author, acquires all-Russian fame. “Having received a fresh issue of the magazine, the reader first of all looked for Sasha Chernoy’s poems in him.” There was no such a student, a student, a doctor, a lawyer… who did not know them by heart “(K. Chukovsky).
Leaving the “Satyricon”, he wrote for various newspapers and magazines, wrote several children’s books (“Tuk-tuk”, 1913; “Living Alphabet”, 1914), was engaged in translations.
After the revolution, he left for Vilna, where he wrote a cycle of poems for children. In 1920, from Kovno emigrated abroad, lived in Germany, releasing a third book of poems – “Thirst” (1923). Acted mainly as a children’s writer.
In recent years in his work a great place was occupied by prose (Soldiers’ Tales, published in 1933, Frivolous Stories, 1928).
Died Sasha Black in France, in the place of Lavender, July 5, 1932.
A brief biography from the book: Russian writers and poets. A short biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.


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Biography Black Sasha