Zhigulin Anatoly Vladimirovich - Russian writer, prose writer and poet, author of the famous autobiographical work "Black Stones" and several collections of poetry.
A man with a difficult fate, who, during the Stalinist period of rule, knew the horror of
forced labor camps, which became the basis for the topics of his literary work in the future.
Zhigulin Anatoly Vladimirovich: childhood
Anatoly was born in Voronezh on the first day of 1930. Father Vladimir Fedorovich - a native of a peasant family, worked as an employee at the post office. For a long period he was sick with consumption (in a dangerous open form), so mother was engaged in the upbringing of Tolik and his younger brother and sister. Evgenia Mitrofanovna, an educated woman who loved poetry, was the great-granddaughter of V.F. Raevsky, the famous Decembrist poet who participated in the Patriotic War of 1812.
Anatoly, who often heard poems and songs from his mother, began to slowly engage in literary work. At first, the young man set out rhyming lines in school compositions, then the subject of his works changed dramatically and was devoted to half-starved childhood, a destroyed native city and a raging war nearby. The first publication of the poems by a talented author took place in the spring of 1949 in a local newspaper.
In the struggle to expose the regime
In 1947, Anatoly Zhigulin, together with classmates, organized the Communist Party of Youth - an illegal organization fighting to restore the state with Leninist principles and expose the Stalin regime (exclusively by peaceful means). This item on the removal of the head of the country and his entourage from their posts was stipulated in the program of the youth organization under the heading "Secret." Despite careful conspiracy, in the autumn of 1949 the plot was uncovered, and most of its participants, who had become students by that time, were arrested and punished with different terms of imprisonment.
Years in the camps
Zhigulin Anatoly Vladimirovich - at that time a first-year student of the Forestry Institute - escaped the firing squad by some miracle. By the decision of the “Special Meeting”, the 19-year-old boy was sentenced to 10 years in a maximum security camp.
Over the years of condemnation, the young man had to experience a lot: he worked at
the Kolyma
uranium mines and sawmills in Tayshet (Irkutsk Region), participated in the construction of the Tayshet - Bratsk railway.
The story of the underground organization, which had been operating for a little less than a year, about the “guilt” of young Tolik in front of the state, the punishment incurred and the long way to find the truth was reflected in the famous autobiographical work “Black Stones”, which was released in 1988. This work, written calmly and sincerely, without a hysterical breakdown and sentimentality in tone, caused a huge public outcry.
Anatoly Vladimirovich Zhigulin, whose biography follows the fate of many people of the Stalin regime, was granted amnesty in 1954, and after 2 years was completely rehabilitated. In 1959, the first thin book of poems, “The Lights of My City,” was published.
Literary activity
Upon returning to Voronezh, the writer graduated, having graduated from the Forestry Engineering Institute in 1960. Then he got a job in the Voronezh editorial office of Uprising, which he subsequently replaced with the capital's Friendship of Peoples and Literary Newspaper. In 1961, the collection “Bonfire-Man” was released from the pen of the author, and 1963 was marked by the publication of the first Moscow book of poems “Rails”. In the same year, deciding to devote himself entirely to writing, Zhigulin became a student of higher literary courses in the capital.
In 1964, the book of poems “Memory”, enthusiastically received by the press, was published in 3,000 copies. Then, with a difference of a year, the collections of Selected Lyrics and Polar Flowers were published.
Zhigulin Anatoly Vladimirovich: verses
At the end of the 60s, a stable concept of the Voronezh poet developed as a major writer who is able to clearly and accurately express difficult topics. The name of Anatoly Zhigulin was mentioned in a row with Bella Akhmadulina, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Andrey Voznesensky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko and the rest of the literary stars of the second half of the 20th century.
His work, establishing faith in the ultimate triumph of true spiritual and moral values, was constantly in demand, regardless of political fluctuations. Collections of works authored by Anatoly Vladimirovich Zhigulin, poetry for children (including "Fox", "Chipmunk" including) were published regularly: "Life, unexpected joy", "Burned notebook", "Transparent days", "Red viburnum - viburnum black "," In the hope of eternal "," Solovetsky gull. "
In the early 1990s, Zhigulin Anatoly Vladimirovich created a cycle of 12 poems “The Disturbing Time of Russia”, through rhyming lines of which he spoke about the “Kolyma convoy”, conveyed to the reader all the burden of responsibility for the integrity of the Fatherland to his great-grandfathers, and defended historical truth.
Characteristic of creativity
The lyrics of Anatoly Zhigulin, a man who went through the horrors of camp life and managed to maintain kindness in his heart, was born from his personal spiritual and life experience.
In the piercing lines devoted to the years of imprisonment in the camp, as well as the majestic nature of North-Eastern Siberia and Central Russia, one always feels a positive general mood, a constant desire and ability to steadfastly overcome the trials that have fallen on people’s share, which Anatoly Vladimirovich Zhigulin also underwent.
Poems about the Motherland ("Oh, Motherland! In a dim brilliance", "I again thought about the Motherland"), like all the poetry of the Voronezh author, are characterized by simplicity and clarity of perception, are close to nature and convincingly convey the moral and humanistic position of a lot of surviving people. Having gone free, Anatoly Zhigulin to some extent remained broken, more than once found himself in a psychiatric hospital, which was reflected in his sincerely sincere poetry. Poems by Anatoly Vladimirovich Zhigulin easily fit into music, so they became the basis of many works by professional composers.
The muse of his life
For almost 40 years, Anatoly devoted poetry to the only woman in his life - Irina Zhigulina-Neustroeva. “I lost a hairpin in the grass ...”, “Mistress”, “Prolong, the Almighty, the days of my Irina ...”, “Love” entered the golden fund of lyric poetry, became a model of a reverent and noble attitude towards a woman. Acquaintance with Irina, a young critic, philologist by education, took place in 1961, and in 1963 the couple married. A year later, the Zhigulins rejoiced at the appearance of the first-born Vladimir, named after his grandfather. It was a happy family, Irina completely subordinated herself to the interests of her husband, was dissolved in him. Anatoly reciprocated, lived only her.
Severe 90s, illness, depression, lack of money, complete indifference of senior officials to the fate of the writer. The talented author died on August 6, 2000. Anatoly died in the arms of Irina: the poet’s heart exhausted by adversity and disease stopped. Irina survived her husband for 13 years, having suffered one more terrible loss in 2009 - the death of her son. Having contracted pneumonia of the lungs, she could not resist the disease and left. She went to meet those whom she sincerely valued, whom she loved more than life.
The memory of the Soviet poet Anatoly Zhigulin is still alive today. At the house where he lived before leaving for the capital (Studencheskaya St. 32), in 2002 a memorial plaque was opened. A book of prose and poetry, The Far Bell, was published posthumously, which included readers' letters and other materials.