Valery Bryusov is an outstanding Russian poet of the Silver Age. But the nature of his activity was not limited only to versification. He established himself as a talented prose writer, journalist and literary critic. Along with this, Bryusov was very successful in literary translations. And his organizational abilities found their application in editorial work.
Poet's family
A brief biography of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov is impossible without a story about the poet's family. This is necessary in order to find an explanation for the presence of many talents concentrated in one person. And the family of Valery Bryusov was the foundation on which his diverse personality was formed.
So, Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, was born in 1873, December 1 (13) in the family of a wealthy merchant, who was famous for outstanding people. The poetâs grandfather on the motherâs side, Alexander Yakovlevich Bakulin, was a merchant and fabulist poet from a very wealthy merchant family in the city of Yelets. Along with countless fables in the archives of his grandfather were novels, novels, poems, lyric poems written by him without hope for the reader.
Selflessly devoted to literature and dreaming of devoting himself entirely to it, Alexander Yakovlevich was forced to engage in merchant affairs all his life in order to be able to adequately support his family. After many years, the name of his grandfather, the famous grandson will sign some of his works.
On the part of his father, Valery Bryusov had an equally remarkable grandfather. Kuzma Andreevich was a serf with the landowner Bruce, famous at that time. Hence the name. In 1859, my grandfather bought a free from the landowner, left Kostroma and moved to Moscow. In the capital, Kuzma Andreevich became a successful merchant and acquired the house on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, where his famous grandson, Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, was born and lived for a long time.
Valery Yakovlevich's father, Yakov Kuzmich Bryusov, also a merchant and poet, was published in small editions. It was the father who sent the sonâs first poem, which was published, to the editorial office of one of the magazines. The poem was called "Letter to the Editor," Valery was then 11 years old.
Bryusov's sister, Nadezhda Yakovlevna (1881-1951), like many in the family, was a creative and musically gifted person. She became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. On her account several scientific works on musical pedagogy and folk music. And the younger brother of Valery Bryusov, Alexander Yakovlevich (1885-1966), was an archaeologist and doctor of historical sciences, who wrote works on the history of the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
The childhood of the poet
In continuation of the description of a brief biography of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, it is necessary to note the poetâs childhood. In childhood, Valery Bryusov was left to his own devices, as his parents did not pay much attention to the education of their offspring. However, children were strictly forbidden to read religious literature because their parents were staunch atheists and materialists. Subsequently, Bryusov recalled that his parents introduced him to the principles of materialism and Darwin's ideas before they taught him to count. Any other literature in the family was allowed, so the young Bryusov absorbed everything: from the works of Jules Verne to tabloid novels.
Parents gave a brilliant education to all their children, including Valery. In 1885, at the age of eleven, he began studying in the private classical gymnasium of F.I. Kreiman, and immediately in the second grade. At first, young Bryusov had a very difficult time: he tolerated the ridicule of his classmates and hardly got used to the restrictions and order. However, very soon he won the favor of his comrades with his mind and talent as a narrator. Valery could interestingly and enthusiastically retell entire books, gathering many listeners around him. But in 1889 the schoolboy Bryusov is expelled for his free-thinking and atheistic views.
He then goes on to study at another private gymnasium. This educational institution is owned by a certain L.I. Polivanov, a great teacher, whose mentoring had an invaluable influence on the worldview of young Bryusov. In 1893, he successfully completes his studies at the gymnasium and enters the faculty of history and philology at Moscow University, which he graduated in 1899.
First literary experience
Already at the age of thirteen, Valery was sure that he would become a famous poet. Studying at Kreimanâs gymnasium, the young Bryusov writes pretty good poems and publishes a manuscript magazine. At the same time, his first experience in composing prose happened. True, the early stories were a bit angular.
As a teenager, Bryusov is passionately passionate about the poetry of Nekrasov and Nadson. Later, with the same passion, he reads the works of Mallarmé, Verlaine and Baudelaire, which opened the world of French symbolism to the young poet.
Under the pseudonym Valery Maslov in 1894-1895. Bryusov publishes three collections of Russian Symbolists, where he places his verses under different pseudonyms. Along with poetry, Bryusov included in the collections the works of his friend A. A. Miropolsky and a lover of opium, the mystic poet A. M. Dobrolyubov. The collections were ridiculed by critics, but this did not prevent Bryusov from writing poetry in the spirit of symbolism, but rather, on the contrary.
Youth genius
Continuing the description of a brief biography of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, it is necessary to note the release of the first collection of poems of the young poet (Bryusov at that time was 22 years old). He named his collection "Masterpieces", which again caused laughs and attacks by critics, according to whom the name went against the content.
Youthful insolence, narcissism and arrogance were characteristic of the poet Bryusov of that time. âMy youth is the youth of a genius. I lived and acted in such a way that only great acts can justify my behavior, âwrote the young poet in his personal diary, confident in his exceptionalism.
Alienation from the world and a desire to hide from a dull everyday life can be traced both in the verses of the first collection and in the lyrics of Bryusov in general. However, it would be unfair not to mention the constant search for new poetic forms, attempts to create unusual rhymes and vivid images.
Decadence: a classic of symbolism
The life and work of Valery Bryusov did not always go smoothly. The scandalous atmosphere around the release of the collection âMasterpiecesâ and the shocking nature of some poems drew attention to a new trend in poetry. But Bryusov became known in poetic circles as a propagandist and organizer of symbolism in Russia.
The decadent period in Bryusovâs work ends with the release of the second collection of poems âThis Is Meâ in 1897. Here, the young poet still appears to be a cold dreamer, estranged from the insignificant, hated world.
But gradually, a rethinking of his work comes to him. Bruce saw heroism and sublimity, mystery and tragedy everywhere. His poems acquire some clarity when significant changes take place in literature at the end of the 19th century and symbolism is seen as a self-sufficient course.
The output of the following collections (âThe Third Guardâ - 1900, âCity and the Worldâ - 1903, âWreathâ - 1906) revealed the direction of Bryusov's poetry towards the French âParnassusâ, the hallmarks of which were historical and mythological plot lines, hardness of genre forms, plasticity of versification, a tendency to exotic. Much of Bryusovâs poetry was also from French symbolism with a mass of poetic shades, moods and uncertainties.
The collection âMirror of Shadowsâ, published in 1912, was notable for its noticeable simplification of forms. But the poetâs nature prevailed and later Bryusovâs work was again directed towards the complication of style, urbanism, science and historicism, as well as the poetâs confidence in the existence of many truths in poetic art.
Extra-poetical activity
When describing a brief biography of Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich, it is necessary to touch on some important points. After graduating from the university in 1899, Valery Yakovlevich worked in the journal Russian Archive. In the same year, he heads the Scorpio publishing house, whose task was to unite representatives of the new art. And in 1904, Bryusov became the editor of the magazine "Libra", which becomes the flagship of Russian symbolism.
At this time, Valery Yakovlevich wrote many critical, theoretical, scientific articles on various topics. After the abolition of the journal Libra in 1909, he heads the department of literary criticism in the journal Russian Thought.
Then there was the revolution of 1905. Bryusov took it as inevitability. At this time, he writes a number of historical novels and is engaged in translations. After the October coup, he actively collaborates with the Soviet government and even joins the Bolshevik party in 1920.
In 1917, Valery Bryusov heads the press registration committee, manages scientific libraries and lit. Department of People's Commissariat of Education. He holds high posts in the State Academic Council and lectures at Moscow State University.
In 1921, Bryusov organized the Higher Literary and Art Institute and became its first rector. At the same time, he teaches at the Institute of Word and the Communist Academy.
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov died in his Moscow apartment in 1924, on October 9, from croupous pneumonia. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.