Nikolai Zabolotsky biography is short. How many of them are there in Tarusa? The tragic fate of Nikolai Zabolotsky
Zabolotsky Nikolai Alekseevich
Born: April 24 (May 7), 1903.
Died: October 14, 1958 (aged 55).
Biography
Nikolai Alekseevich Zabolotsky (Zabolotsky) (April 24, 1903, Kizicheskaya Sloboda, Kaimar Volost, Kazan District, Kazan Province - October 14, 1958, Moscow) - Russian Soviet poet, translator.
Born not far from Kazan - on a farm of the Kazan provincial zemstvo, located in close proximity to the Kizicheskaya Sloboda, where his father Alexei Agafonovich Zabolotsky (1864-1929) - an agronomist - worked as a manager, and his mother Lidia Andreevna (nee Dyakonova) (1882 (?) - 1926) - a rural teacher. Baptized on April 25 (May 8), 1903 in the Varvara Church in Kazan. He spent his childhood in the Kizicheskaya settlement near Kazan and in the village of Sernur, Urzhum district, Vyatka province (now the Republic of Mari El). In the third grade of a rural school, Nikolai "published" his handwritten journal and placed his own poems there. From 1913 to 1920 he lived in Urzhum, where he studied at a real school, was fond of history, chemistry, and drawing.
In the early poems of the poet, the memories and experiences of a boy from the village, organically connected with peasant labor and native nature, impressions of student life and colorful book influences, including the dominant pre-revolutionary poetry - symbolism, acmeism, were mixed: at that time, Zabolotsky singled out Blok's work for himself.
In 1920, after graduating from a real school in Urzhum, he came to Moscow and entered the medical and historical-philological faculties of the university. Very soon, however, he ended up in Petrograd, where he studied at the Department of Language and Literature of the Herzen Pedagogical Institute, which he graduated in 1925, having, by his own definition, "a voluminous notebook of bad poems." The following year, he was called up for military service.
He served in Leningrad, on the Vyborg side, and already in 1927 he retired to the reserve. Despite the short-term and almost optional military service, the collision with the “turned inside out” world of the barracks played the role of a kind of creative catalyst in Zabolotsky’s fate: it was in 1926-1927 that he wrote the first real poetic works, found his own voice, unlike anyone else , at the same time he participated in the creation of the OBERIU literary group. At the end of his service, he got a place in the children's book department of the Leningrad OGIZ, which was led by S. Marshak.
Zabolotsky was fond of painting Filonova , Chagall , Brueghel. The ability to see the world through the eyes of an artist remained with the poet for life.
After leaving the army, the poet found himself in the situation of the last years of the NEP, the satirical image of which became the theme of the poems of the early period, which made up his first poetic book - "Columns". In 1929, she was published in Leningrad and immediately caused a literary scandal and mocking reviews in the press. Rated as a "hostile sortie", she, however, did not cause direct "organizational conclusions" - orders in relation to the author, and he (with the help of Nikolai Tikhonov) managed to establish special relations with the Zvezda magazine, where about ten poems were published that replenished Stolbtsy during second (unpublished) edition of the collection.
Zabolotsky managed to create surprisingly multidimensional poems - and their first dimension, which is immediately noticeable, is a sharp grotesque and satire on the topic of petty-bourgeois life and everyday life, dissolving a personality in itself. Another facet of the "Columns", their aesthetic perception, requires some special readiness of the reader, because for those who know, Zabolotsky wove another artistic and intellectual fabric, a parody. In his early lyrics, the very function of parody changes, its satirical and polemical components disappear, and it loses its role as a weapon of intra-literary struggle.
In "Disciplina Clericalis" (1926) there is a parody of Balmont's tautological grandiosity, culminating in Zoshchenko's intonations; in the poem "On the Stairs" (1928), through the kitchen, already Zoshchenko's world, "Waltz" by Vladimir Benediktov suddenly appears; The Ivanovs (1928) reveals its parody-literary meaning, evoking (hereinafter in the text) the key images of Dostoevsky with his Sonechka Marmeladova and her old man; lines from the poem "The Traveling Musicians" (1928) refer to Pasternak etc.
The basis of Zabolotsky's philosophical searches
From the poem "The signs of the zodiac fade" begins the mystery of the birth of the main theme, the "nerve" of Zabolotsky's creative searches - the Tragedy of Reason sounds for the first time. The "nerve" of these searches in the future will force its owner to devote much more lines to philosophical lyrics. Through all his poems, the path of the most intense implantation of individual consciousness into the mysterious world of being, which is immeasurably wider and richer than the rational constructions created by people, runs. On this path, the poet-philosopher undergoes a significant evolution, during which 3 dialectical stages can be distinguished: 1926-1933; 1932-1945 and 1946-1958
Zabolotsky read a lot and with enthusiasm: not only after the publication of Stolbtsy, but also before, he read the works of Engels, Grigory Skovoroda, the works of Kliment Timiryazev on plants, Yuri Filipchenko on the evolutionary idea in biology, Vernadsky on bio- and noospheres, covering all living things and the intelligent on the planet and extolling both as great transformative powers; read Einstein's theory of relativity, which gained wide popularity in the 1920s; "Philosophy of the Common Cause" by Nikolai Fedorov.
By the publication of The Columns, their author already had his own concept of natural philosophy. It was based on the idea of the universe as a single system that unites living and non-living forms of matter, which are in eternal interaction and mutual transformation. The development of this complex organism of nature occurs from primitive chaos to the harmonic orderliness of all its elements, and the main role here is played by the consciousness inherent in nature, which, in the words of the same Timiryazev, “smolders dully in lower beings and only flares up like a bright spark in the human mind.” Therefore, it is Man who is called to take care of the transformation of nature, but in his activity he must see in nature not only a student, but also a teacher, for this imperfect and suffering "eternal winepress" contains the beautiful world of the future and those wise laws by which man should be guided.
In 1931, Zabolotsky got acquainted with the works of Tsiolkovsky, which made an indelible impression on him. Tsiolkovsky defended the idea of a variety of life forms in the Universe, was the first theorist and propagandist of human space exploration. In a letter to him, Zabolotsky wrote: “... Your thoughts about the future of the Earth, humanity, animals and plants deeply concern me, and they are very close to me. In my unpublished poems and poems, I did my best to resolve them.
Further creative path
Collection "Poems. 1926-1932", already typed in the printing house, was not signed for printing. The publication of the new poem "The Triumph of Agriculture", written to some extent under the influence of "Ladomir" by Velimir Khlebnikov (1933), caused a new wave of persecution of Zabolotsky. Threatening political accusations in critical articles convinced the poet more and more that he would not be allowed to establish himself in poetry with his own, original direction. This gave rise to his disappointment and creative decline in the second half of 1933, 1934, 1935. This is where the life principle of the poet came in handy: “We must work and fight for ourselves. How many failures are yet to come, how many disappointments and doubts! But if at such moments a person hesitates, his song is sung. Faith and perseverance. Labor and honesty…” And Nikolay Alekseevich continued to work. Livelihood was provided by work in children's literature - in the 30s he collaborated with the magazines "Hedgehog" and "Chizh", which were supervised by Samuil Marshak, wrote poetry and prose for children (including retold for children "Gargantua and Pantagruel" by Francois Rabelais (1936))
Gradually, the position of Zabolotsky in the literary circles of Leningrad was strengthened. Many poems from this period received favorable reviews, and in 1937 his book was published, including seventeen poems ("Second Book"). On Zabolotsky's desktop lay the begun poetic transcription of the Old Russian poem "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" and his own poem "The Siege of Kozelsk", poems and translations from Georgian. But the ensuing prosperity was deceptive.
In custody
On March 19, 1938, Zabolotsky was arrested and then convicted in the case of anti-Soviet propaganda. As accusatory material in his case, malicious critical articles and a slanderous review "review" appeared, which tendentiously distorted the essence and ideological orientation of his work. He was saved from the death penalty by the fact that, despite being tortured [source not specified for 115 days] during interrogations, he did not admit charges of creating a counter-revolutionary organization, which supposedly included Nikolai Tikhonov, Boris Kornilov and others. At the request of the NKVD, critic Nikolai Lesyuchevsky wrote a review of Zabolotsky's poetry, where he pointed out that ""creativity" Zabolotsky is an active counter-revolutionary struggle against the Soviet system, against the Soviet people, against socialism.
“The first days they didn’t beat me, trying to decompose mentally and physically. I was not given food. They were not allowed to sleep. The investigators succeeded each other, but I sat motionless in a chair in front of the investigator's table - day after day. Behind the wall, in the next office, from time to time someone's frantic screams were heard. My legs began to swell, and on the third day I had to tear off my shoes, as I could not bear the pain in my feet. Consciousness began to become clouded, and I strained with all my might in order to answer reasonably and prevent any injustice against those people about whom I was asked ... "These are Zabolotsky's lines from the memoirs" The History of My Confinement "(published abroad in English in 1981, in the last years of Soviet power were also published in the USSR, in 1988).
He served his term from February 1939 to May 1943 in the Vostoklag system in the Komsomolsk-on-Amur region; then in the Altaylaga system in the Kulunda steppes; A partial idea of his camp life is given by his selection of "One Hundred Letters 1938-1944" - excerpts from letters to his wife and children.
Since March 1944, after being released from the camp, he lived in Karaganda. There he completed the arrangement of The Tale of Igor's Campaign (begun in 1937), which became the best among the experiments of many Russian poets. This helped in 1946 to obtain permission to live in Moscow. He rented a house in the writer's village of Peredelkino from V.P. Ilyenkov.
In 1946, N. A. Zabolotsky was reinstated in the Writers' Union. A new, Moscow period of his work began. Despite the blows of fate, he managed to return to unfulfilled plans.
Moscow period
The period of return to poetry was not only joyful, but also difficult. In the poems “Blind” and “Thunderstorm” written then, the theme of creativity and inspiration sounds. Most of the poems from 1946-1948 have been praised by today's literary historians. It was during this period that "In this birch grove" was written. Outwardly built on a simple and expressive contrast of a picture of a peaceful birch grove, singing orioles-life and universal death, it carries sadness, an echo of the experience, a hint of personal fate and a tragic foreboding of common troubles. In 1948, the poet's third collection of poems was published.
In 1949-1952, the years of extreme tightening of ideological oppression, the creative upsurge that manifested itself in the first years after the return was replaced by a creative decline and an almost complete switch to literary translations. Fearing that his words would again be used against him, Zabolotsky restrained himself and did not write. The situation changed only after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, with the beginning of the Khrushchev thaw, which marked the weakening of ideological censorship in literature and art.
He responded to new trends in the life of the country with the poems “Somewhere in a field near Magadan”, “Opposition of Mars”, “Kazbek”. Over the last three years of his life, Zabolotsky created about half of all the works of the Moscow period. Some of them have appeared in print. In 1957, the fourth, most complete of his lifetime collection of poems was published.
The cycle of lyrical poems "Last Love" was published in 1957, "the only one in Zabolotsky's work, one of the most poignant and painful in Russian poetry." It is in this collection that the poem “Confession” is placed, dedicated to N. A. Roskina, later revised by the St. Petersburg bard Alexander Lobanovsky (Enchanted bewitched / Once married with the wind in the field / All of you are chained / You are my precious woman ...).
Family of N. A. Zabolotsky
In 1930, Zabolotsky married Ekaterina Vasilievna Klykova (1906-1997). E. V. Klykova experienced a short-term romance (1955-1958) with the writer Vasily Grossman, left Zabolotsky, but then returned.Son - Nikita Nikolaevich Zabolotsky (1932-2014), candidate of biological sciences, author of biographical and memoir works about his father, compiler of several collections of his works. Daughter - Natalia Nikolaevna Zabolotskaya (born 1937), since 1962 the wife of the virologist Nikolai Veniaminovich Kaverin (1933-2014), academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, son of the writer Veniamin Kaverin.
Death
Although before his death the poet managed to receive both wide readership and material wealth, this could not compensate for the weakness of his health, undermined by prison and camp. According to N. Chukovsky, who knew Zabolotsky closely, the final, fatal role was played by family problems (the departure of his wife, her return). In 1955, Zabolotsky had his first heart attack, in 1958 - the second, and on October 14, 1958 he died.
The poet was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Bibliography
Columns / Region M. Kirnarsky. - L .: Publishing house of writers in Leningrad, 1929. - 72 p. - 1,200 copies.
Mysterious city. - M.-L.: GIZ, 1931 (under the pseudonym Y. Miller)
Second book: Poems / Per. and the title of S. M. Pozharsky. - L .: Goslitizdat, 1937. - 48 p., 5,300 copies.
Poems / Ed. A. Tarasenkov; thin V. Reznikov. - M.: Sov. writer, 1948. - 92 p. - 7,000 copies.
Poems. - M.: Goslitizdat, 1957. - 200 p., 25,000 copies.
Poems. - M.: Goslitizdat, 1959. - 200 p., 10,000 copies. - (B-ka of Soviet poetry).
Favorites. - M.: Sov. writer, 1960. - 240 p., 10,000 copies.
Poems / Edited by Gleb Struve and B. A. Filippov. Introductory articles by Alexis Rannita, Boris Filippov and Emmanuel Rice. Washington, D.C.; New York: Inter-Language Literary Associates, 1965.
Poems and poems. - M.; L.: Soviet writer, 1965. - 504 p., 25,000 copies. (B-ka poet. Large series).
Poems. - M.: Fiction, 1967
Favorites. - M.: Children's literature, 1970
Snake apple. - L .: Children's literature, 1972
Selected works: In 2 volumes - M .: Khudozh. literature, 1972.
Favorites. - Kemerovo, 1974
Favorites. - Ufa, 1975
Poems and poems. - M.: Sovremennik, 1981
Poems. - Gorky, 1983
Collected works: In 3 volumes - M., Khudozh. literature, 1983-1984., 50,000 copies.
Poems. - M.: Soviet Russia, 1985
Poems and poems. - M.: Pravda, 1985
Poems and poems. - Yoshkar-Ola, 1985
Poems. Poems. - Perm, 1986
Poems and poems. - Sverdlovsk, 1986
Laboratory of Spring: Poems (1926-1937) / Engravings by Yu. Kosmynin. - M.: Young Guard, 1987. - 175 p. - 100,000 copies. (In younger years).
How mice fought with a cat / Fig. S. F. Bobylev. - Stavropol: Stavropol Prince. publishing house, 1988. - 12 p.
Cranes / Art. V. Yurlov. - M.: Sov. Russia, 1989. - 16 p.
Poems. Poems. - Tula, 1989
Columns and poems: Poems / Design by B. Tremetsky. - M.: Arts. literature, 1989. - 352 p., 1,000,000 copies. - (Classics and contemporaries: Poetic library).
Columns: Poems. Poems. - L.: Lenizdat, 1990. - 366 p., 50,000 copies.
Selected writings. Poems, poems, prose and letters of the poet / Comp., enter. article, note. N. N. Zabolotsky. - M.: Arts. literature, 1991. - 431 p. - 100,000 copies. (B-ka classics).
History of my imprisonment. - M.: Pravda, 1991. - 47 p., 90,000 copies. - (B-ka "Spark"; No. 18).
How mice fought with a cat: Poems / Hood. N. Shevarev. - M.: Malysh, 1992. - 12 p.
Columns. - St. Petersburg, North-West, 1993
Fire flickering in a vessel…: Poems and poems. Letters and articles. Biography. Memoirs of contemporaries. Analysis of creativity. - M. Pedagogy-Press, 1995. - 944 p.
Columns and poems. - M.: Russian book, 1996
Signs of the Zodiac fade: Poems. Poems. Prose. - M.: Eksmo-Press, 1998. - 480 p. - (Home Library of Poetry).
Poetic translations: In 3 volumes - M .: Terra-Book Club, 2004. - V. 1: Georgian classical poetry. - 448 p.; Vol. 2: Georgian Classical Poetry. - 464 pages; T. 3: Slavic epic. Georgian folk poetry. Georgian poetry of the XX century. European poetry. Eastern poetry. - 384 p. - (Masters of translation).
Poems. - M.: Progress-Pleyada, 2004. - 355 p.
Do not let the soul be lazy: Poems and poems. - M.: Eksmo, 2007. - 384 p. - (Golden Poetry Series).
Lyrics. - M.: AST, 2008. - 428 p.
Poems about love. - M. Eksmo, 2008. - 192 p. - (Poems about love).
I was brought up by harsh nature. - M.: Eksmo, 2008. - 558 p.
Poems and poems. - M.: De Agostini, 2014. - (Masterpieces of world literature in miniature).
Was born (April 24) May 7, 1903 in Kazan in the family of an agronomist. The writer spent his childhood in the Kizicheskaya Sloboda and in the village of Sernur, not far from the city of Urzhum. Already in the third grade, Nikolai published a school magazine, where he published his poems.
After graduating from a real school in Urzhum in 1920, Zabolotsky entered Moscow University in two faculties at once - philological and medical. The literary life of Moscow captured the poet. He was fond of imitating either Blok or Yesenin.
In 1921, Zabolotsky entered the Pedagogical Institute. Herzen in Leningrad. During the years of study, he became close to a group of young authors, the "Oberiuts" ("Association of Real Art"). All members of this association were characterized by elements of alogism, absurdity, grotesque. Participation in this group helped the poet find his way. Zabolotsky graduated in 1925, having behind his soul, by his own admission, "a voluminous notebook of bad poems." The following year, he was called up for military service.
He served in Leningrad, in 1927 he retired to the reserve. Despite the short duration of military service, he wrote his first poetic works.
The first book of his poems, "Columns", was published in 1929 and was a scandalous success. Livelihood was provided by work in children's literature - in the 30s he collaborated in the magazines "Hedgehog" and "CHIZH", which were supervised by Samuil Marshak, wrote poetry and prose for children.
In 1938, he was repressed on false charges of anti-Soviet propaganda and sent to work as a builder in the Far East, in the Altai Territory, Karaganda. In these difficult conditions, Zabolotsky accomplished a creative feat: he completed The Tale of Igor's Campaign.
Creativity N. Zabolotsky
Nikolai Zabolotsky belongs to the generation of writers who entered literature after the revolution. He was distinguished by hard work on improving his poetic skills, the development of his own concept, a critical attitude towards his works and their selection. Zabolotsky believed that it was necessary to write not individual poems, but a book.
Zabolotsky very cared for the human soul. Hence the psychologically rich plot sketches (“ Wife», « Jonah», « To the cinema», « Ugly girl», « old actress") and observation of how soul and destiny are reflected in appearance person (" On the beauty of human faces», « Portrait"). Also important to the poet the beauty of nature and its impact on the inner world person. And finally, a number of Zabolotsky's works are connected with interest in history and epic poetry Rubruk in Mongolia"). The poet created his formula of creativity, the triad "thought - image - music". Critics called Zabolotsky's work "poetry of thought."
In the work of the poet are clearly distinguished three main periods. In the first early period, the influence of the aesthetics of the Oberiuts is noticeable (he was one of the founders of the OBERIU group). In their declaration, they called themselves poets of "naked concrete figures, brought close to the viewer's eyes."
That's why lyrics from the 1920s- this is denunciation of the lack of spirituality of the petty-bourgeois world of the NEP period, people's greed for the material, which prevents them from feeling the beauty of the world. The images of these early poems included in the collection " columns”, differ in relief and surprise. So in the poem Wedding” the poet satirically draws a flock of “meaty women” who eat “thick sweets”. AT " evening bar» depicts the atmosphere of a beer cellar, called a bottle paradise. A glare of light reflected in a beer mug transforms into an unexpected image - "a window floated in a glass."
Late 1920s - early 1930s his main theme comes to Zabolotsky's poetry - nature theme. The son of an agronomist, Zabolotsky, from childhood saw in nature a living being endowed with reason. And according to the poet, the socialist revolution should free not only people, but also animals from exploitation. Man for him is the crown of nature, "her thought, her unsteady mind." And yet man is not a king, but a son of nature. Therefore, he should not conquer nature, but carefully lead it from “wild freedom”, “where evil is inseparable from good”, to the world of reason, harmony and the sun. These thoughts are expressed in the poem I'm not looking for harmony in nature...».
In the 1930s, Zabolotsky studied the works of Engels and Tsiolkovsky and writes natural philosophical poems about life and death, death and immortality. Zabolotsky is sure that a person is a cluster of atoms, and after death, in the process of rebirth of matter, he can become a part of nature. This is reflected in the poems Metamorphoses" and " Will».
AT post-war lyrics of the 1940s the poet reveals the theme of memory and continuity of generations (« Cranes") and theme of war (« In this birch grove..."), which is not easy. Echoing Tyutchev, Zabolotsky sings in his later poems "last love". But his feeling is full of bitterness. Either the poet admits that he will burn “his bitter, sweet ..." with “tears and poems”, then his soul “cries out in pain”, then between him and his joy “a wall of thistles rises”, because “their song is sung” and "There will be no happiness until the grave, my friend."
In general, Zabolotsky's poems are distinguished by the freshness of artistic images, increased musicality, deep thought and sincere feeling.
“In general, Zabolotsky is an underestimated figure. This is a brilliant poet... When you re-read this, you understand how to work further,” the poet Joseph Brodsky said back in the 80s in an interview with the writer Solomon Volkov. The same underestimated Nikolai Zabolotsky has remained to this day. The first monument with public money was opened in Tarusa half a century after the death of the poet.
“A repressed talent, physically ousted from the literary platform during his lifetime, after death, he created a new direction in poetry - literary critics call it the “Bronze Age” of Russian poetry ... The concept of the “Bronze Age” of Russian poetry is well-established, but it belongs to my late friend, Leningrad poet Oleg Okhapkin. So for the first time in 1975 he formulated it in his poem of the same name ... Zabolotsky was the first poet of the "Bronze Age", - said the ideological inspirer of the opening of the monument, philanthropist, publicist Alexander Shchipkov.
The Tarusa sculptor Oleksandr Kazachok worked on the bust for three months. He drew inspiration from the work of Zabolotsky himself and from the memories of those close to him. He strove to understand the character, in order not only to document facial features, but also to reflect the state of mind in the image. A half-smile froze on the lips of the poet.
“He was such a person inside, not outside, outside he was gloomy, but inside he was a pretty clear person. The singer of our Russian poetry, who loves Russia, loves the people, loves its nature,” sculptor Alexander Kazachok shared his impression.
The people's love for Zabolotsky was also manifested in the desire of the Tarusians to rename the city cinema and concert hall in honor of the poet, and in the summer festival “Roosters and Geese in the City of Tarusa”, beloved by the children, named after a line from the poem “The Town” by Nikolai Zabolotsky.
Who should cry today
In the city of Tarusa?
There is someone in Tarusa to cry -
Marusa girl.
Optotiles Maruse
Roosters and geese.
How many go to Tarusa
Lord Jesus!
The monument to Nikolai Zabolotsky found a place at the intersection of Lunacharsky and Karl Liebknecht streets - next to the house where the poet spent the summers of 1957 and 1958 - the last in his life. The ancient provincial town on the Oka was destined to become the poetic homeland of Zabolotsky.
The poet settled here on the advice of the Hungarian poet Antal Gidash, who lived in the Soviet Union at that time. In Tarusa, he happened to rest with his wife Agnes. Mindful of Zabolotsky’s brilliant translation into Russian of his poem “The Danube Moans”, Gidash wanted to get to know the poet better, to continue the communication that began in 1946 in the house of creativity of Soviet writers in Dubulty on the Riga seaside.
Dacha found personally. Having opted for a house with two cozy rooms overlooking the terrace courtyard and a well-groomed garden. Nikolai Zabolotsky came here with his daughter Natasha. The poet immediately fell in love with Tarusa, recalling the city of his youth Urzhum: over the gardens and roofs of the houses a river was visible, roosters, chickens and geese were pushing in front of the house. Speaking in his own lines, here he lived "the charm of the past years."
Nikolai Zabolotsky with his wife and daughter
House of Nikolai Zabolotsky in Tarusa
Nikolai Alekseevich completely went into writing. Two seasons in Tarusa became perhaps his most intense creative period. The poet wrote more than 30 poems. I read some of them in Rome that same year during a trip with a group of Soviet poets.
In the evenings, Zabolotsky met with the Gidash, talked with artists strolling along the banks of the Oka. He was an excellent connoisseur of painting, he drew well himself.
In a letter to the poet Alexei Krutetsky on August 15, 1957, Zabolotsky himself said: “... I have been living for the second month on the Oka, in the old provincial town of Tarusa, which once even had princes of its own and was burned by the Mongols. Now it is a backwater, beautiful hills and groves, a magnificent Oka. Polenov once lived here, artists are drawn here in droves.
Tarusa is a rare phenomenon for Russian culture. Since the 19th century, it has become a mecca for writers, musicians and artists. The names of Konstantin Paustovsky, Vasily Polenov and Vasily Vatagin, Svyatoslav Richter, the Tsvetaev family are associated with it.
Here the writer Konstantin Paustovsky presented Zabolotsky with his recently published Tale of Life, signing: “To dear Nikolai Alekseevich Zabolotsky - as a sign of deep admiration for the classical power, wisdom and transparency of his poems. You are just a sorcerer!” And in a letter to Veniamin Kaverin, Paustovsky wrote: “Zabolotsky lived here in the summer. A wonderful, amazing person. The other day I came, read my new poems - very bitter, completely Pushkin-like in brilliance, power of poetic tension and depth.
The next summer, Zabolotsky returned to Tarusa. The poet David Samoilov, who visited him, recalled: “He lived in a small house with a high terrace. For some reason, now it seems to me that the house was colorfully painted. It was separated from the street by a high fence with boarded gates. From the terrace, over the fence, the Oka was visible. We sat and drank Teliani, his favorite wine. He was not allowed to drink, and he was also not allowed to smoke.
Zabolotsky fell in love with Tarusa so much that he began to dream of buying a dacha here and living on it all year round. I even noticed a new log house on a quiet green street overlooking a ravine overgrown with forest.
The plan was not destined to come true: soon his heart disease worsened, and on the morning of October 14, 1958, the poet died. Later, in the archives of Zabolotsky, a plan of the house was found, which he so hoped to acquire in Tarusa.
"The Glass Bead Game" with Igor Volgin. Nikolay Zabolotsky. Lyrics
"Copper pipes. Nikolay Zabolotsky»
Nikolai Alekseevich Zabolotsky was born on May 7, 1903One of the most underrated poetsThe Silver Age waspoet Nikolai Zabolotsky. Everyone knows that Akhmatova is a genius, but not everyone can quote her poems. The same applies to Blok or Tsvetaeva. But almost everyone knows the work of Zabolotsky - but many have no idea that this is Zabolotsky. “Kissed, bewitched, with the wind in the field…”, “The soul is obliged to work…” and even “Kotya, kitty, kitty…”. All this is Zabolotsky Nikolai Alekseevich. His poems went to the people, became songs and lullabies for children, the name of the author turned into an extra formality. On the one hand - the most sincere declaration of love of all possible. On the other hand, it is a blatant injustice towards the author. For a scientist, he was too much of a poet, for a poet too much of a layman, for a man in the street too much of a dreamer.
Spirit of Zabolotskwowdidn't fit his body. Blond of medium height, chubby and prone to fullness, Zabolotsky gave the impression of a solid and sedate person. A respectable young man of a very prosaic appearance in no way corresponded to the ideas of a true poet - sensitive, vulnerable and restless. And only people who knew Zabolotsky closely understood that under this external sham importance lies a surprisingly sensitive, sincere and cheerful person.
Open up thought!
Become music, word
Hit the hearts
Let the world triumph!
The literary circle, in which Nikolai Alekseevich Zabolotsky found himself, was “wrong”. Oberiuts - shameless, funny, paradoxical, seemed the most unsuitable company for a serious young man. Meanwhile, Zabolotsky was very friendly with Kharms, and with Oleinikov, and with Vvedensky.
Another paradox of inconsistency is Zabolotsky's literary preferences. Famous Soviet poets left him indifferent. He also did not like Akhmatova, highly valued by the near-literary environment. But the restless, restless, ghostly surreal Khlebnikov seemed to Zabolotsky a great and profound poet. The worldview of this man painfully contrasted with his appearance, his way of life and even his origin.
In 1930, Nikolai Zabolotsky married Ekaterina Klykova. Oberiut friends spoke of her extremely warmly. Even the caustic Kharms and Oleinikov were fascinated by the fragile, silent girl. The life and work of Zabolotsky were closely connected with this amazing woman. Zabolotsky was never rich. Moreover, he was poor, sometimes simply poor. The meager earnings of a translator barely allowed him to support his family. And all these years, Ekaterina Klykova did not just support the poet. She completely handed over to him the reins of government of the family, never arguing with him or reproaching anything with him.
Family friends were amazed at the woman's devotion, noting that there was something not entirely natural in such dedication. The way of the house, economic decisions - all this was determined only by Zabolotsky.
When the poet was arrested in 1938, Klykova's life collapsed. She spent all five years of her husband's imprisonment in Urzhum, in extreme poverty. Zabolotsky was accused of anti-Soviet activities. Despite lengthy exhausting interrogations and torture, he did not sign the indictments, did not acknowledge the existence of an anti-Soviet organization, and did not name any of its alleged members. Perhaps this is what saved his life. The sentence was camp imprisonment, and Zabolotsky spent five years in Vostoklage, located in the Komsomolsk-on-Amur region. There, in inhuman conditions, Zabolotsky was engaged in a poetic transcription of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign". As the poet later explained, in order to preserve himself as a person, not to sink to that state in which it is no longer possible to create.
In 1944, the term was interrupted, and Zabolotsky received the status of an exile. For a year he lived in Altai, where his wife and children also came, then he moved to Kazakhstan. These were difficult times for the family. Lack of work, money, eternal uncertainty about the future and fear. They were afraid of arrest, they were afraid that they would be kicked out of temporary housing, they were afraid of everything.
In 1946 Zabolotsky returned to Moscow. He lives with friends, works as a translator, life begins to slowly improve. And then another tragedy happens. The wife, an infinitely faithful devoted wife, who courageously endured all the hardships and hardships, suddenly leaves for another. He does not betray out of fear for his life or the life of his children, he does not run away from poverty and adversity. It's just that at forty-nine, this woman leaves for another man. This broke Zabolotsky. The proud, conceited poet painfully experienced the collapse of family life.
Whether the old oak whispered with the pine,
Or a mountain ash creaked in the distance,
Or the goldfinch ocarina sang,
Or a robin, little friend
Did she suddenly answer me at sunset?
Who answered me in the thicket of the forest?
Are you who again in the spring
Remembering our past years
Our worries and our troubles
Our wanderings in a distant land -
You, who burned my soul?
Who answered me in the thicket of the forest?
In the morning and in the evening, in the cold and heat,
I always hear an indistinct echo,
Like the breath of immense love,
For which my quivering verse
Rushed to you from my palms ...
Zabolotsky's life gave a roll. He rushed about, frantically looking for a way out, trying to create at least the appearance of a normal existence. He offered his hand and heart to an unfamiliar, in fact, woman, and, according to the recollections of friends, not even in person, but by phone. He hastily married, spent some time with his new wife and broke up with her, simply deleting his second wife from his life. It was to her, and not at all to his wife, that the poem “My Precious Woman” was dedicated. Zabolotsky went to work. He translated a lot and fruitfully, he had orders, and finally he began to earn decent money.
On the Sunset
When, exhausted by work,
The fire of my soul is gone
Yesterday I went out reluctantly
In a devastated birch forest.
On a smooth silk platform,
Whose tone was green and purple,
Stood in orderly disorder
Rows of silver barrels.
Through small distances
Between the trunks, through the foliage,
Heaven's evening radiance
cast shadows on the grass.
It was that weary sunset hour
The hour of death when
The saddest thing for us is the loss
Unfinished work.
Man has two worlds:
One that he made
Another that we are from the century
We create to the best of our ability.
The discrepancies are huge
And despite the interest
Birch wood Kolomna
Do not repeat my miracles.
The soul wandered in the invisible,
Full of fairy tales
Seen off with a blind eye
She is external nature.
So, probably, the thought is naked,
Once abandoned in the wilderness
exhausted within myself,
Doesn't feel my soul.
1958
Zabolotsky was able to survive the break with his wife - but could not survive her return. When Ekaterina Klykova returned, he had a heart attack. One and a half monthsZabolotskyfell ill, but during this time he managed to put all his affairs in order: he sorted poems, wrote a will. He was a thorough man in death as well as in life. By the end of his life, the poet had money, popularity, and readership. But that couldn't change anything. Zabolotsky's health was undermined by the camps and years of poverty, and the heart of an elderly man could not withstand the stress caused by experiences. Zabolotsky died on 10/14/1958. He died on his way to the bathroom, where he went to brush his teeth. Doctors forbade Zabolotsky to get up, but he was always a neat person and even a little pedant in everyday life.
And complete the structure of nature,
Let these waters cover my poor ashes,
Let this green forest shelter me.
I won't die my friend...