Biography Zabolotsky Nikolay Alekseevich
(1903-1958)
Nikolai Alekseevich Zabolotsky (1903 – 1958) belongs to the first generation of Russian writers who entered the creative period of life after the revolution. In his biography amazing amazing devotion to poetry, hard work on improving poetic skill, purposeful development of his own concept of the universe and courageous overcoming of barriers that fate erected on his life and creative path. From a young age he was very exacting about his works and their selection, believing that it is necessary to write not a single poem, but a whole book. Over the course of his life several times he composed ideal arches, eventually replenishing them with new poems, previously written – edited and in some cases replaced by other variants. A few days before his death, Nikolai Alekseevich wrote a literary will, in which he specified exactly what should be included in his final meeting, the structure and title of the book. In a single volume he combined the bold, grotesque
“This manuscript includes a complete collection of my poems and poems, which I established in 1958. All other poems ever written and printed by me, I consider either accidental or unsuccessful. They do not need to be included in my book. verified, corrected and established definitively, previously published versions of many verses should be replaced by the texts given here. “
NA Zabolotsky grew up in the family of a Zemstvo agronomist who worked on agricultural farms near Kazan, then in the village of Sernur (now the district center of the Mari ASSR). In the first years after the revolution, the agronomist was in charge of a farm-state farm in the county town of Urzhum, where the future poet received secondary education. From his childhood, Zabolotsky made unforgettable impressions of Vyatka nature and his father’s activities, his love for books and his early conscious vocation
The period of apprenticeship and imitation ended in 1926, when Zabolotsky managed to find the original poetic method and determine the range of its application. The main theme of his poems of 1926-1928 – sketches of urban life, absorbing all the contrasts and contradictions of that time. A recent rural resident of the city seemed alien and ominous, then attractive, especially bizarre picturesqueness. “I know that I’m getting confused in this city, although I fight against him,” he wrote to his future wife EV Klykova in 1928. Reflecting on his attitude to the city, Zabolotsky tried to connect social problems with the notions of the interrelations and interdependence of man and nature in the 1920s. In the poems of 1926, “The Face of a Horse,”
“In our dwellings,” the natural-philosophical roots of the creativity of those years are clearly seen. The premise of the satirical depiction of vulgarity and spiritual narrow-mindedness of the layman (Evening Bar, New Life, The Ivanovs, The Wedding…) was the belief in the pernicious nature of the city residents’ departure from their natural existence in harmony with nature and their duty to relation to it.
Two circumstances contributed to the assertion of Zabolotsky’s creative position and unique poetic manner: his participation in the literary community called the Unification of Real Art (among the Oberiots – D. Harms, A. Vvedensky, K. Vaginov, etc.) and the fascination with painting by Filonov, Chagall, and Brueghel. .. Later, he recognized the relationship of his creativity of the 1920s to the primitivism of Henri Rousseau.
The first book of Zabolotsky’s “Columns” (1929, 22 poems) stood out even against the background of the diversity of poetic trends in those years and was noisy. In the press there were some approving reviews, the author was noticed and supported by VA Hoffmann, VA Kaverin, S. Ya. Marshak, N. L. Stepanov, N. Tikhonov, N. N. Tynyanov, B. M Eikhenbaum… But the further literary fate of the poet was complicated by a wrong, sometimes directly hostile-slanderous interpretation of his works by the majority of critics. Especially intensified was the harassment of Zabolotsky after the publication in 1933 of his poem “The Triumph of Farming”. Most recently, having entered the literature, he already appeared with the brand of a champion of formalism and an apologist for an alien ideology. His new, ready-to-print book of poems (1933) could not see the light. It was here that the poet’s life principle came in handy: “We must work and fight for ourselves.” How many failures are yet to come, how many disappointments, doubts! But if at such times a person shakes – his song is sung. “Faith and perseverance.” Labor and honesty… ” (1928, a letter to E. V. Klykova). And Alekseevich continued to work. The means of subsistence was given by the work begun in 1927 in children’s literature: in the 1930s he collaborated in the journals Yezh and Chizh, wrote poems and prose for children. His translation is best known – the treatment for the youth of the poem by Sh. Rustaveli “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” (in the fifties a complete translation of the poem was made), as well as the transcriptions of the book by Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel” and the novel de Coster “Til Ulenspiegel.” How many failures are yet to come, how many disappointments, doubts! But if at such moments the person will hesitate – his song is sung. Faith and perseverance. Labor and Honesty… “(1928, a letter to E. V. Klykova) And Alekseevich continued to work. The means of subsistence was given by the work begun in 1927 in the children’s literature – in the 1930s he collaborated in the journals” Hedgehog “and” Chizh “, wrote poems and prose for children. The most famous of his translation is the treatment for the youth of the poem by S. Rustaveli” The Knight in the Panther’s Skin “(in the fifties a complete translation of the poem was made), and also the transcriptions of the book by Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel” and the novel de Coster “Til Eulenspiegel.” How many failures are yet to come, how many disappointments, doubts! But if at such moments the person will hesitate – his song is sung. Faith and perseverance. Labor and Honesty… “(1928, a letter to E. V. Klykova) And Alekseevich continued to work. The means of subsistence was given by the work begun in 1927 in the children’s literature – in the 1930s he collaborated in the journals” Hedgehog “and” Chizh “, wrote poems and prose for children. The most famous of his translation is the treatment for the youth of the poem by S. Rustaveli” The Knight in the Panther’s Skin “(in the fifties a complete translation of the poem was made), as well as the transcriptions of the book by Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel” and the novel de Coster “Til Eulenspiegel.”
In his work Zabolotsky increasingly concentrated on philosophical lyrics. He was fond of the poetry of Derzhavin, Pushkin, Baratynsky, Tiutchev, Goethe and, as before, Khlebnikov, was actively interested in the philosophical problems of natural science – he read the works of Engels, Vernadsky, Grigory Skovoroda… At the beginning of 1932 he got acquainted with the works of Tsiolkovsky, indelible impression. In a letter to the scientist and great dreamer he wrote: “… Your thoughts about the future of the Earth, mankind, animals and plants deeply concern me, and they are very close to me.” In my unprinted poems and poems, I resolved them as best I could. “
The philosophical concept of Zabolotsky is based on the idea of the universe as a unified system that unites living and inanimate forms of matter that are in perpetual interaction and interconversion. The development of this complex organism of nature comes from primordial chaos to the harmonious orderliness of all its elements. And the main role here is played by the consciousness inherent in nature, which, in the words of KA Timiryazev, “dulls deafly in the lower beings and only flares up in the human mind with a bright spark.” Therefore, it is the person who is called upon to take care of the transformation of nature, but in his activity he must see in nature not only the pupil but also the teacher, for this imperfect and suffering “everlasting press” embodies the beautiful world of the future and those wise laws by which should be guided by man. The poem “The Triumph of Farming” affirms that the mission of the mind begins with the social improvement of human society and then social justice extends to man’s relationship to animals and all nature. Zabolotsky well remembered Khlebnikov’s words: “I see equine freedoms as the equality of cows.”
Gradually the position of Zabolotsky in the literary circles of Leningrad was strengthened. With his wife and children, he lived in the “writer’s superstructure” on the Griboedov Canal, actively participated in the social life of Leningrad writers. Such poems as “Farewell”, “North” and especially “Goryaysky Symphony” received approving reviews in the press. In 1937 he published his book, which includes seventeen poems (“The Second Book”). On Zabolotsky’s desk lay the started poetic arrangement of the ancient Russian poem The Lay of Igor’s Host and his poem The Siege of Kozelsk, poems, translations from Georgian… But the coming prosperity was deceptive…
March 19, 1938 NA Zabolotsky was arrested and permanently divorced from literature, from the family, from a free human existence. As the accusatory material in his case, there were figures of malicious critical articles and a review “review” that biased the essence and ideological orientation of his work. By 1944, he served an undeserved imprisonment in forced labor camps in the Far East and in the Altai Territory. From spring until the end of 1945, he lived with his family in Karaganda.
In 1946 NA Zabolotsky was restored in the Writers’ Union and received permission to live in the capital. A new, Moscow period of his work began. Despite all the blows of fate, he managed to maintain internal integrity and remained faithful to the cause of his life – as soon as possible, he returned to unfulfilled literary plans. Back in 1945, in Karaganda, working as a draftsman in the construction department, during non-working hours, Nikolai Alekseevich basically completed the transfer of the “Lay of Igor’s Campaign,” and in Moscow he resumed work on translating Georgian poetry. His poems from G. Orbeliani, V. Pshavela, D. Guramishvili, S. Chikovani – many classical and modern poets of Georgia, sound well. He also worked on the poetry of other Soviet and foreign peoples.
In the poems written by Zabolotsky after a long break, there is a clear continuity with his work of the 1930s, especially with regard to natural philosophical ideas. These are the poems of the 10th “Read the trees, the poems of Gayeod,” “I’m not looking for harmony in nature,” “Testament,” “Through the magical device of Leuvenook” … In the 1950s, the natural-philosophical theme began to go deep into the verse, becoming, as it were, its invisible foundation and giving way to reflections on the psychological and moral connections of man and nature, over the inner world of man, over the feelings and problems of the individual. In the “Road Creators” and other poems about the work of builders, the conversation continues about human achievements, begun even before 1938 (“Wedding with fruits,” “North,” “
In the poems of the Moscow period, Zacholotsky’s previously uncharacteristic openness appeared, sometimes autobiographical (“Blind”, “In this birch grove”, the cycle “Last Love”). The aggravated attention to the living human soul led him to psychologically rich genre-plot sketches (“Wife”, “Loser”, “In the cinema,” “Ugly girl,” “Old actress” …), to observations of how emotional warehouse and destiny are reflected in the human appearance (“On the beauty of human faces”, “Portrait”). For the poet, the beauty of nature, its impact on the inner world of man, became much more important. A whole series of ideas and works Zabolotsky was associated with a constant interest in history and epic poetry (“Rubruk in Mongolia”, etc.).
Not everything was just in the Moscow life of Nikolai Alekseevich. The creative upsurge, manifested in the first years after the return, was replaced by a recession and almost complete switching of creative activity to artistic translations in 1949-1952. Time was alarming. Fearing that his ideas would again be used against him, Zapolotsky often restrained himself and did not allow himself to transfer onto paper all that had ripened in his mind and was asking for a poem. The situation changed only after the 20th party congress, which condemned the perversions associated with the cult of Stalin’s personality. On new trends in the life of the country, Zabolotsky responded with poems “Somewhere in the field near Magadan”, “Confrontation of Mars”, “Kazbek”. It became easier to breathe. Suffice it to say, that for the last three years of his life (1956-1958) Zabolotsky created about half of all the poems of the Moscow period. Some of them appeared in print. In 1957 he published the fourth, most complete of his lifetime collection (64 poems and selected translations). After reading this book, authoritative connoisseur of poetry Kornei Ivanovich Chukovsky wrote to Nikolai Alexeyevich enthusiastic words, so important for the poet not indiscriminately criticized: “I am writing to you with the respectful timidity with which Tyutchev or Derzhavin would write.” For me there is no doubt that the author of “The Cranes” , “Lebeda”, “Leave me, starling, corner”, “Loser”, “Actresses”, “Human faces”, “Morning”, “Forest Lake”, “Blind”, “In Cinema”, “Walkers”, “
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