Zinaida Mirkina is a famous Russian poetess who became famous for the most part thanks to her philosophical lyrics. The through motive of her work, which can be traced in almost every poem, is the spiritual development of man, the relationship of man and God. Do you want to learn more about the path, creativity and life views of this poetess? Welcome to this article!
Zinaida Mirkina. Biography
The future poetess was born in 1926 in the Russian city of Moscow. Her family had revolutionary inclinations. Mirkina's father was a member of the Bolshevik party (since 1920) and a member of the so-called Baku underground. Mother was an ordinary Komsomol member. An atmosphere of deep faith in the revolution and its ideals reigned in the Mirkin family. Young people believed that for the sake of their ideals it was necessary to make concessions and lead an ascetic lifestyle. Thus, the father of Zinaida, being the deputy director of the Heat Engineering, received the maximum party. And this is four times less than the non-partisan earned in this position.
The revolutionary atmosphere influenced the formation of Zinaida as a person. However, at the age of 14, she first thought about the discrepancy between the cultivated ideology and real life. A girl called “A Man Changes the Skin” by B. Yasensky brought the girl out of reflection. This work greatly influenced the views of the future poetess. Zinaida finally realized that belief in ideals and "fire in the soul" is more important than any material values.
The Great Patriotic War
During the war, the Mirkin family was evacuated to Novosibirsk. During this time, Zinaida studied at Novosibirsk school number 50. It was a rather difficult period for the girl. The brink of hunger, adolescent problems, a new team, exhausting work in the Soviet economy - all this put pressure on the future poetess. Nevertheless, there were positive aspects. At this time, Zinaida Mirkina made her first steps in literature. The girl became the editor of the school wall newspaper, which was a huge success among local educational institutions.
In 1943, Zinaida Mirkina returned to Moscow. There she entered the Faculty of Philology at Moscow State University. And again Mirkina suffers from contradictions. The girl wholeheartedly wanted to do literature. However, she considered this a futile occupation that would not help her country, suffering from a grueling war. Therefore, Zinaida planned to transfer to a technical specialty and become an engineer. Nevertheless, Pinsky’s lectures convinced Zinaida that literature plays a huge role in the development of the nation and country.
Zinaida Mirkina. Poetess. A photo
In her student years, Zinaida began to get involved in religion. She completely read the Bible, and the Old Testament made a huge impression on the girl. Zinaida grew up in an atheistic family. However, she began to realize that she could not live like that. As a result, the girl abandoned her atheistic views. At the same time, Zinaida Mirkina began to write religious poems. The girl defended her thesis. However, the poetess could not pass the state exams due to a serious illness that confined her to bed for five whole years. Also, Zinaida was forced to interrupt her creative activity.
Further activities
When Mirkina nevertheless overcame the disease, she again took up poetry. But, due to the thematic focus, the girl could not publish her poems. For this reason, most of the work went "in the box." In order to feed herself, Mirkina was engaged in translations of Soviet poets from various republics. Also, Zinaida spent literary evenings among her friends. There, the poetess read out her own works. In 1960, on one of these evenings, Zinaida Mirkina met Grigory Pomerantsev, who was collecting material for the Syntaxis literary magazine. Between them began a relationship. As a result, in 1961, Gregory and Zinaida tied their lives in marriage.
Creativity of the poetess
One of the most interesting poets writing on religious subjects is Zinaida Mirkina. The creativity of this writer is characterized by incredible optimism, pathos and sublimity. A similar effect is achieved through various literary techniques that Mirkina masterfully weaves into her works. Zinaida in her work repeatedly touches on eternal topics relating to faith and religion in general.
However, Mirkina’s bibliography does not only consist of religious lyrics. Zinaida over the years of her literary work wrote a lot of fairy tales and even a couple of poems. Of particular note are the essays about the great writers of the past. Mirkina wrote about Pushkin ("Genius and villainy"), Dostoevsky ("Truth and her doubles"), Tsvetaeva ("Fire and ashes"). In addition, Mirkina enriched the domestic literary treasury with translations of famous Soviet writers.