The Soviet poet Pavel Antokolsky, whose biography and work deserve close study, lived a long and very interesting life. In his memory there were revolutions, wars, experiments in art, the formation of Soviet literature. Antokolsky’s poems are a lively, talented story about the poet’s experiences, about the life of the country, about his thoughts.
Origin
June 19, 1896 in St. Petersburg was born Antokolsky Pavel Grigorievich. He was the eldest of four children in the family and the only boy. His father, a well-known, but not particularly successful lawyer, constantly made plans for how to transform his life for the better. But he worked for the most part as an assistant to a sworn solicitor, and in Soviet times, as a petty official in various institutions. All worries about the children lay on the shoulders of the mother. The boy was a grand-nephew of the famous sculptor Mark Antokolsky, from whom artistic abilities were transferred to some extent to Pavel. Despite the fact that the family had Jewish roots, nationality did not play any role in the life of the future poet.
Childhood
Pavel Antokolsky spent his childhood in St. Petersburg, and when he was 8 years old, the family moved to Moscow. The main hobby of childhood, according to Antokolsky himself, was drawing with colored pencils and watercolors. His favorite plot was the image of the head - an illustration for A.S. Pushkin's “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. Later, a second favorite plot appeared - an image of Ivan the Terrible, which resembled a statue of grandfather M. Antokolsky. The boy remembered well when he moved to Moscow: after calm and majestic Petersburg, she seemed to him squat, noisy and dirty. But gradually he got used to Moscow and began to consider it his hometown. The revolution of 1905 remained a vivid impression in the memory of the boy, the confrontation of the people and the authorities later will become one of the topics of his thoughts.
Study
Pavel Antokolsky studied at the Moscow gymnasium, which he graduated in 1914. Study was easy for him, but did not cause much hobby. A year after graduating from high school, Pavel enters Moscow State University at the Faculty of Law. Already in his first year, he saw in the corridors of the building of Moscow State University on Mokhovaya an announcement about recruiting a student drama studio under the guidance of actors of the Moscow Art Theater, from this moment Antokolsky's other life began. Times were turbulent, and somehow, gradually, Paul abandoned his studies at the university, first for the sake of working in the revolutionary police, but ultimately for the studio, which was becoming more and more significant for him.
Theater
The MSU Theater Studio was then led by a still little-known director Yevgeny Vakhtangov, and it was to him that Pavel Antokolsky got. His biography changed dramatically with the advent of the theater, at first Pavel tried himself in the acting profession, but his talent was not enough. For three years of classes in the studio, which grew into the “Theater of the People”, Antokolsky tried himself in all possible theatrical professions: from stage editor to director and screenwriter. For the studio, he wrote three plays, including The Infanta Doll and Betrothal in a Dream. In 1919, he leaves Vakhtangov, but continues to work in Moscow theaters, where until the mid-30s he acts as a director. Later, he returned to the Vakhtangov Theater, with him working on the development of the building on the Arbat. After the death of the great founder of the theater, Antokolsky himself and in collaboration with other directors staged performances. With the Vakhtangov Theater, Pavel Grigoryevich goes on tour in Sweden, Germany, France. These trips helped him to get to know the world and himself better; he became even more conscious of himself as a Soviet man. Later, the impressions of these travels will be embodied in verses, in particular, in the book “The West”. The theater has forever remained an important work of life for Antokolsky, even when he chose a different path.
Poetry
Pavel Antokolsky wrote his first poems in his youth, but he did not take this occupation seriously. In 1920, he became close to a group of Moscow writers who gathered in the Poets Cafe on Tverskaya Street. There, Antokolsky meets with V. Bryusov, who liked the poems of the novice author, and in 1921 he published his first works. V. Bryusov was not only an outstanding poet, but also an excellent organizer, under his leadership a literary poetic organization was formed in Moscow, which turned out to be very useful for the young Antokolsky. Here he gained skill and believed in his new destiny. The early works of the poet were full of romance and passion for the theater. So, the poem “Francois Villon” and the collection “Actors” convey the dreams and emotions of a theater man. But gradually the lyrics of Antokolsky acquire a civilian sound. Gradually, maturity occurs, the style and the thematic focus of the author are acquired.
On the day of the beginning of World War II, Pavel Antokolsky submits an application for joining the ranks of the CPSU, from that moment, according to him, a new life begins. The horrors of war spur the poet’s pen; in these years he writes a lot. In addition to poetry, he creates essays, works as a war correspondent, travels along the fronts with a team of actors and as a journalist. After the war, Antokolsky continues to write on socially significant topics, books of poems "The Power of Vietnam", "Poets and Time", "The Tale of Bygone Years" appear, which became a model of civilian Soviet poetry.
Creative heritage
In total, during his long creative life, Pavel Antokolsky, whose photo is in any encyclopedia on Soviet literature, wrote nine collections of poems, several poems and released four collections of articles. Each book of the poet is a whole work imbued with deep emotions and thoughts of the author. The most famous creation of Antokolsky is the poem “Son”, written about the death of his son heroically killed at the front. The poem brought the poet world fame and the Stalin Prize. Of undoubted interest are works written under the influence of the French revolutionary spirit: a poem about Francois Villon, about the Commune, poems “Robespierre and Gorgon”, “Sankyulot”. The last collection of poems “The End of the Century” is published in 1977 and is a kind of summing up of life results.
Translations
Pavel Antokolsky devoted most of his creative biography to translation work. In the second half of the 30s, Antokolsky visited the fraternal republics - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia - and was fond of their culture. Then his work begins to translate the national poetry of these countries into Russian. Most of all he is engaged in translations in the 60s and 70s. In addition to the works of Georgian, Ukrainian, Armenian and Azerbaijani poets, he translates a lot of French literature. In his translation, the collections “Civil poetry of France”, “From Bernage to Eluard”, the fundamental anthology “Two Centuries of French Poetry” are published.
Personal life
The poet lived a rather full and long life. She had friendship with such colleagues as M. Tsvetaeva, K. Smionov, E. Dolmatovsky, N. Tikhonov, V. Kataev. Antokolsky was twice married. The first wife - Natalia Shcheglova - gave birth to his daughter Natalya and son Vladimir, who died in 1942 at the front. She later became an artist and also married poet Leon Toom. Andrei Antokolsky’s grandson became a professor of physics, works in Brazil. The second wife - Zoya Konstantinovna Bazhanova - was an artist, but she devoted all her life to serving her husband. Pavel Antokolsky, his wives, children, grandchildren have always been associated with the main business of his life - poetry. There was a real cult of the Master in the house. At the end of his life, Antokolsky was left alone, his wife died, friends had their own lives. He spent most of the time in the country. The poet died on October 9, 1978, and was buried at the Vostryakovsky cemetery in Moscow.