Representations of Russian literature are most often formed in a person by the course of the school curriculum. It cannot be argued that this knowledge is so completely wrong. But they do not fully disclose the subject. Many significant names and phenomena have remained outside the school curriculum. For example, an ordinary student, who even passed the literary exam, is often completely unaware of who Taffy Nadezhda Aleksandrovna is. But quite often, these so-called second-row names deserve our special attention.
View from the other side
The versatile and vivid talent of Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Taffy is of great interest to everyone who cares about the crucial era of Russian history, in which she happened to live and create. This writer can hardly be attributed to literary stars of the first magnitude, but the image of an era without it will be incomplete. And the view of Russian culture and history from those who were on the other side of its historical rift is especially interesting for us. And outside of Russia, in figurative expression, there was a whole spiritual continent of Russian society and Russian culture. Hope Teffi, whose biography turned out to be split into two halves, helps us better understand those Russian people who consciously did not accept the revolution and were its consistent opponents. They had good reason for this.
Nadezhda Teffi: biography against the backdrop of the era
The literary debut of Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Lokhvitskaya took place at the beginning of the twentieth century with short poetic publications in metropolitan periodicals. Basically, these were satirical poems and feuilletons on topics of concern to the public. Thanks to them, Nadezhda Teffi quickly gained popularity and became famous in both capitals of the Russian Empire. This literary fiction acquired in his youth was surprisingly stable. Nothing could undermine public interest in the work of Teffi. Her biography contains wars, revolutions and long years of emigration. The literary authority of the poetess and writer remained indisputable.
Creative nickname
The question of how Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Lokhvitskaya became Nadezhda Teffi deserves special attention. The adoption of a pseudonym was a necessary measure for her, since it was difficult to publish under a real name. The elder sister of Nadezhda, Mirra Lokhvitskaya, began her literary career much earlier, and her last name has already become famous. Nadezhda Teffi herself, whose biography is widely replicated, several times in the notes about her life in Russia mentions that she chose the name of the familiar fool, whom everyone called "Steffi", as an alias. One letter had to be reduced so that a person would not have an unreasonable reason for pride.
Poems and Humorous Stories
The first thing that comes to mind when you get acquainted with the creative heritage of the poetess is the famous saying of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - "Brevity is the sister of talent." Teffi's early works are fully consistent with him. Poems and feuilleton by the regular author of the popular magazine Satyricon were always unexpected, vibrant and talented. The public constantly expected to continue, and the writer did not disappoint the people. It is very difficult to find another such writer, whose readers and admirers were such different people as Sovereign Emperor Samoderzhets Nikolay II and the leader of the world proletariat Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. It is possible that Nadezhda Teffi would have remained in the memory of descendants by the author of a light humorous reading, if not for the whirlwind of revolutionary events that covered the country.
Revolution
The beginning of these events, which unrecognizably changed Russia over several years, can be observed from the stories and essays of the writer. The intention to leave the country arose far from at one moment. At the end of 1918, Teffi, together with the writer Arkady Averchenko, even made a trip around the country, blazing in the fire of the civil war. During the tour, performances were planned before the public. But the scale of the unfolding events was clearly underestimated. The trip dragged on for about a year and a half, and every day it became increasingly clear that there was no turning back. The Russian land underfoot was rapidly declining. Ahead was only the Black Sea and the path through Constantinople to Paris. It was done by Nadezhda Teffi together with the retreating units of the White Army . Her biography subsequently continued already abroad.
Emigration
Existence far from the homeland for few turned out to be simple and hassle-free. However, the cultural and literary life in the world of Russian emigration was in full swing. Periodicals and books in Russian were published in Paris and Berlin. Many writers at full power could turn around only in exile. The surviving socio-political upheavals became a very peculiar stimulus for creativity, and the forced separation from their native country became a constant theme of emigrant works. The creativity of Hope Teffi is no exception here. Memories of lost Russia and literary portraits of figures of Russian emigration for many years become the dominant themes of her books and articles in periodicals.
Curious can be called the historical fact that the stories of Nadezhda Teffi in 1920 were published in Soviet Russia at the initiative of Lenin himself. In these notes, she spoke very negatively about the morals of some emigrants. However, the Bolsheviks were forced to oblivion the popular poetess, after they got acquainted with her opinion about themselves.
Literary portraits
Notes dedicated to various figures of Russian politics, culture and literature, both those who remained at home and who, by the will of historical circumstances, ended up outside, are the pinnacle of Nadezhda Teffi's work. Memories of this kind always attract attention. Memoirs about famous people are simply doomed to success. And Nadezhda Teffi, whose brief biography is conventionally divided into two large parts - life in the homeland and in exile, personally knew many very prominent figures. And she had something to say about them to descendants and contemporaries. The portraits of these figures are precisely what are interesting for them - the personal attitude of the author of the notes to the portrayed persons.
The pages of Teffi's memoirs of prose give us the opportunity to get acquainted with such historical figures as Grigory Rasputin, Vladimir Lenin, Alexander Kerensky. With outstanding writers and artists - Ivan Bunin, Alexander Kuprin, Ilya Repin, Leonid Andreyev, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Gippius and Vsevolod Meyerhold.
Return to Russia
Hope Teffi's life in exile was far from prosperous. Despite the fact that her stories and essays were readily published, literary fees were unstable and ensured their existence somewhere on the verge of a living wage. During the fascist occupation of France, the life of Russian emigrants became much more complicated. Many famous figures faced the question of moral choice. Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Teffi belonged to that part of the Russian people abroad who categorically rejected cooperation with collaborationist structures. And such a choice doomed a person to complete poverty.
The biography of Hope Teffi ended in 1952. She was buried in the suburbs of Paris at the famous Russian cemetery Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois. She was destined to return to Russia only in her literary works. They began to be massively published in the Soviet periodical in the late eighties of the twentieth century, during the perestroika period. Hope Teffi's books were also published in separate editions. They were well received by the reading public.