Vvedensky Alexander for a long time was known to a wide circle of readers exclusively as a children's writer and poet. Only the chosen circle knew that he had more serious and deeper works intended for a completely different audience than young children.
Few people know that the poet and playwright Alexander Vvedensky, who gained wide popularity, was unable to pass a simple exam in Russian literature after graduating from high school. This fact, which happened in the youth of an outstanding poet, once again confirmed that not all children who do not cope with formal school tasks are stupid and hopeless. After all, it was precisely in the school years that the future poet manifested a writing talent and a pronounced craving for literature formed.
Poet's family
Vvedensky Alexander, whose birth year falls on 1904, was born in St. Petersburg. We can say that his parents belonged to the intellectual elite of Leningrad at that time. His mother, Povolotskaya Evgenia Ivanovna, was a successful and very famous obstetrician-gynecologist in the city. Vvedensky’s father, Ivan Viktorovich, had a law degree and was in a good position in the city. For many years he devotedly served in the civil service and for his achievements he was awarded the rank of state adviser. After the advent of the power of the Soviets, he began to work as an economist, and his family miraculously escaped the Soviet repressions that threatened her due to her obvious intelligent origin and the lack of direct ties with the working class.
Alexander Vvedensky: biography
First, the parents decided to give their son to be educated in the Leningrad Cadet Corps, where the future writer and poet studied for a short time with his brother. But later, at the insistence of the mother, both her sons went to study at the gymnasium named after Lentovskoy. Alexander Ivanovich Vvedensky, whose photo can be seen in our article, graduated from this gymnasium in 1921. Then he decided to continue his studies at Petrograd University, choosing a law faculty.
He did not study there for long and, realizing that he was not really interested in jurisprudence, Alexander Vvedensky, whose poems for his children would become known to many over time, decided to transfer to the Oriental faculty, or rather, to his Chinese department. But he did not continue this study for a long time and soon left the university forever. For a short time, Alexander Vvedensky was a clerk. Then he worked for two years at the “Red October” - a local power plant.
The first formation of writer's views, futurism
Vvedensky Alexander Ivanovich, a poet whose poems became quite popular, began to write his first works as a schoolboy. And it was during this student period that the young man developed a sympathy for the futurists, and he was also attracted to the work of the Symbolists. Especially Vvedensky Alexander in his youth was carried away by the legendary Bloc. It is worth noting that a great influence on the formation of him as a person had the verses of the Twisted. There is a famous story about how, as a high school student, he was in a literary association. Together with him, Alekseev and Lipavsky entered.
Once, three gymnasium students decided to receive an assessment of their early works from the Block itself. They collected their poems and sent them to Alexander Alexandrovich, but judging by the records from the archives of the great poet, he didn’t really like the verses of the young gymnasium students, he singled out only Alekseev. In this case, most likely, the initiator of the idea to receive a review from the Bloc was Alexander Vvedensky, because his address was indicated as the return on the envelope. Despite such disappointment, his love and desire for literature did not disappear.
Meet Harms
Fatal and in many respects determining his further fate for the poet was his acquaintance with Harms. Vvedensky Alexander actively communicated in poetic circles and tried to maximize his literary connections. He was on friendly terms with Kuzmin and Klyuyev, and often saw them. And during one of these meetings, he met Daniil Harms, who later became his practically best friend.
Once Vvedensky was invited to listen to the work of young poets, and among the speakers, Alexander singled out one, in his opinion, the most talented - he turned out to be Harms.
From this poetic evening they left together, and after talking a little, they found a lot of similarities in their views.
Joint activities of two comrades
Vvedensky and Harms became truly sincere and devoted comrades. They shared the views of the left forces and conducted active literary activity. From time to time, friends read their poems, speaking at literary evenings held by the meeting "Extraordinary dates of friends." They also joined the ranks of the Union of poets of Leningrad. Wanting to combine writers with similar views, the comrades decided to create their own organization.
History of OBERIU
In 1927, Vvedensky, together with Kharms, acted as ideologists and creators of a kind of association of “real art”, which went down in history and literature textbooks under the legendary name OBERIU. This organization was part of the Press House as one of its sections. They showed the main interest in literature to senseless phenomena. And also actively preached the direction of absurdism. Vvedensky for the most part was an active figure in OBERIU, and Daniil Harms acted as an organizer. In addition to them, there were several young poets, among whom were N. Oleinikov and N. Zabolotsky.
The main activities of the literary association
OBERIU was engaged in quite shocking activity at that time. They organized theatrical concerts and performances, during which verses of poets included in OBERIU were read, and very often such performances were accompanied by very eccentric antics. Concerts could be held under different slogans and illustrated with inscriptions, for example, "We are not cakes." For St. Petersburg of the 30s, which was mired in a difficult post-revolutionary period, such inscriptions were too difficult to perceive, and very soon a flurry of criticism fell upon the activities of OBERIU. They were called scandalous, completely incomprehensible and alien to the Komsomol audience.
"Side job" as a children's writer
Active work as the main ideologist and activist of OBERIU, most likely, brought Vvedensky moral satisfaction, but could not provide him financially. Therefore, when Sergei Marshak received the poet a proposal to write poetry for children's magazines, he did not refuse.
Since 1928, he has been actively writing children's poems, short stories and published almost all the time in magazines such as Chizh and Hedgehog. Such work helped him
make ends meet, and it was thanks to her that Vvedensky, Alexander Ivanovich, a poet with expressed futuristic views, an adherent of symbolism and absurdity, became known and went down in official history as a children's writer.
Suspicion and Arrest
The activities of OBERIU were for a long time under the close supervision of local authorities, who could not afford the manifestation of such free-thinking in St. Petersburg. In the 30s, almost all “Oberiuts” came under repression. They were accused of distracting the Komsomol members from their main task — building socialism. Vvedensky was no exception and was also arrested in 1931.
According to the official version, Alexander Ivanovich received a denunciation that during one of the feasts he made a toast in honor of Nicholas II. Vvedensky was charged with the fifty-eighth article accusing of counter-revolutionary activity. But at the same time, the poet’s special department on “literary issues” was engaged in the poet’s business. After the investigation, Vvedensky was sent into exile.
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Initially, to serve his sentence, he was sent to the city of Kursk. Alexander went to exile with his first wife, T. Meyer, whom he met while still a gymnasium student, since they studied at the same institution. Staying in exile, he lived with Kharms for a long time, and then was sent to Vologda. He was released from exile in 1932, but there was a resolution that prohibited Vvedensky from residing in 16 points of the USSR. For this reason, he spent another three years in Borisoglebsk.
Return to freedom
Completely freed, Alexander Vvedensky returned to Leningrad in 1934. There he is immediately admitted to the Writers' Union. In this and the following year, he writes his best poems, including Four Descriptions and An Invitation to Think About Me.
In order not to fall under the authority of the authorities again, Alexander Ivanovich writes a lot of pro-Soviet literature, as well as children's works and plays, including the popular Christmas Tree by the Ivanovs. A few years before the start of the war, Vvedensky was creating a play for the legendary
Obraztsov Puppet Theater. Moreover, with his poems, he speaks in public very rarely.
Alexander Ivanovich married a second time, and Galina Viktorova became his chosen one. They became spouses in 1936, and soon the poet moved to his new wife in Kharkov, where she lived. A year after marriage, in 1936, they had a common son - Peter.
Death of poet
Unfortunately, the exact date of death of this talented person is still unknown. There are several versions of his death, one of which says that in 1941, when the Germans approached Kharkov, Alexander Vvedensky, along with his family, was preparing for the evacuation, along with all the residents of the city. The train on which the poet's family was supposed to leave Kharkov turned out to be crowded, but the next one did not arrive. After two days, Vvedensky was again accused of counter-revolution and presented him with 54 articles. Together with other "unreliable comrades" and "enemies of the people" he was transported to Kazan.
According to the official version, the train cars were completely not designed to transport people. The train was very cold, and Vvedensky, ill with pleurisy of the lungs, died on the way.
His corpse was left in one of the Kazan morgues, which belonged to the psychiatric clinic of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to some reports, the death itself occurred on the night of December 19, while in the rehabilitation document, which was written out much later, the date of death was indicated on December 20.
Alas, the exact place of his burial is still unknown. Poet and playwright Alexander Vvedensky died at a very young age. He was 37 years old.