In Russian culture, his place was immediately determined - the Russian classic, writer, who discovered the social and philosophical direction in literature. Who is he? Leonid Maksimovich Leonov. His creativity is multi-faceted and multi-problem. He wrote about the structure of socialist society, expressed his opinion on this, sharply raised the problems of the bottom people, and even touched on fantastic projects, such as freezing people.
Short biography of Leonid Maksimovich Leonov. Writer childhood
Leonid Maksimovich Leonov's date of birth falls at the end of the 19th century - May 19, 1899. The writer lived a long life, he died on August 8, 1994 at the age of 95. Leonov was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery.
Leonid’s childhood passed in Moscow. His father, Maxim Leonov (Goremyka), was a self-taught poet, a member of the "Surikov" musical and literary circle. He himself came from the Kaluga province, the village of Polukhino.
Maxim Leonovich created his own book publishing house in Moscow. Things were going well, he opened his own store and was a very wealthy man. In tsarist times, Maxim Goremyka was 17 times held accountable for distributing leftist literature and was eventually exiled to Arkhangelsk, where he settled. He died in 1929. He left his Moscow family, and Leonid Maksimovich was brought up without a father. His main mentor was his grandfather Leon Leonovich Leonov. It was he who instilled a boy's love for spiritual and ancient Russian literature. At ten years old, Leonid became a graduate of the Petrovsky-Myasnitsky city school. He entered the 3rd Moscow gymnasium.
Arkhangelsk
As a gymnasium student, Leonov went on vacation to his father in Arkhangelsk, where he was the editor of the newspaper "Northern Morning". In 1915, the first poems of Leonov Leonid Maksimovich were published. His father also helped him publish various essays, art and theater reviews. They were so strong that the father did not have to be ashamed of his son’s pen samples. So came the first writing experience. The writer himself called his first poems "the initial breakdown of the voice, tuning the lyre," in many ways they were imitative.
While studying at the gymnasium, Leonid Maksimovich Leonov writes the story "Valina Doll", as well as the tale "Tsar and Athos." He graduated from high school Leonov in 1918 with a silver medal and immediately went to Arkhangelsk to his father. There, a young writer works in the publications "Northern Day", "Northern Morning". Here, the first acquaintances with the "poets of the north" are made - writer Shergin, artist Pisakhov. They helped to open to the young man the world of Russian tradition, the iconic epic Russia, untouched virgin nature.
Service in the Red Army
Leonid did not study at Moscow University for long, all of his plans were disrupted by the Civil War. The biography of the great writer Leonid Leonov contains data that a young man voluntarily joined the Red Army in 1920 and served on the Southern Front. He studied at an artillery school, participated in battles, was a front-line correspondent, and worked in military publications. He became a secretary in the editorial office of the Red Warrior. Leonov’s military pseudonym is Maxim Laptev, Lapot. Demobilized in 1921 and began serious writing.
Becoming a writer
Returning to Moscow, Leonid Maksimovich Leonov professionally engaged in copyright. His first works were highly appreciated by Maxim Gorky, who emphasized the talent of the young writer and prophesied a great future for him. Some noticed in Leonov’s work some associations with the style of Dostoevsky, to which Gorky retorted that Leonov’s works do not have the very “cries of the wounded” that are observed in Fedor Mikhailovich.
Leonid Maksimovich Leonov, whose poems were published in his youth, began to seriously engage in prose. His fairy tale “Buryga” was published in 1922, in 1923 a collection of short stories was published, then the novel “The End of a Small Man” and “Petushikhinsky Fracture”.
Novels "Badgers", "Thief"
Thanks to the novel "Badgers" (1924), the writer Leonov Leonid Maksimovich was highly regarded as a young prose writer. The work was dedicated to the rebellion of peasants who opposed Soviet power in the early 20s of the last century. The writer saw the origins of the revolt of the peasants not only in the repressive methods of government, overwhelming food surplus, but also in the historical hostility of the peasants to urban residents. Envy, disputes about the earth, the catastrophic nature of being, which infects with hatred the masses of people.
The author created realistic images of the people, the characters were described with psychological accuracy, philosophical significance. In the novel, one feels the author’s sympathy for the working people, who are gripped by helplessness before the great changes in their destinies.
In the work "The Thief" (1927) Leonid Maksimovich Leonov is already revealed as a connoisseur of human science. If before that he did not depict in the works of these fates, then the Thief tells the reader about the tragic fate of Mitka Vekshin. The former commissioner, who has rolled down to the felon, personifies here the tragedy of the whole people, the drama of the soul and conscience. Nowadays, we can really appreciate the work, now we know how dangerous the power, to which the “lumpen proletarians” got and fell from its peaks. "Thief" at that time revealed the whole unflattering ins and outs about the arbiters of the fate of that time.
Works of the 30s
The novel “Sot” (1930) was the first Soviet work to glorify the labor heroism of the Soviet people, praised the building of socialism and the transformation of the remote outskirts into industrial centers. The novels “Skutarevsky”, as well as “The Road to the Ocean” show an artistic study of the difficult restructuring of the ideas of the world of the old intelligentsia, who decided to take part in the degeneration of the system. It depicts a sharp class struggle in this particular habitat. "The Road to the Ocean" describes the fate of a communist - the organizer, philosopher, leader, who gives himself all for the sake of building communism.
Dramaturgy
In the late 30s and early 40s, Leonov worked more as a playwright. His plays are in great demand. “Skutarevsky” (1934), “Wolf”, “Polovchan Gardens” (1938), “Ordinary Man” (1941).
A few words I want to say about the play "Blizzard". She occupies a special place in the work of Leonov and touches on interesting facts from the life of the writer. In this work, the author recreated the atmosphere of fear, mistrust that had embraced the country in the 30s. A terrible blizzard blizzard ruined everything living, capable on its way. The usual types of heroes of that time were changed beyond recognition, the emigrant represented the positive hero, and his brother, the Soviet director, the negative.
At first, the play was staged in a provincial theater. But then it was banned and accused "as malicious slander against Soviet reality." Leonov was strongly criticized at the Politburo, the author was afraid that he would be arrested. The work was rehabilitated only in 1962.
War. Post-war years
During the war, Leonid Maksimovich evacuated with other writers to Chistopol. He repeatedly went to the front as a correspondent. He worked in Izvestia and Pravda. His works “Invasion”, and then “Lenushka” (1942-1943), reflected the feat of the people in the fight against fascism, the grief of loss and defeat, courage and heroism. "Invasion" was awarded the Stalin Prize. An interesting fact: all the money, and it was 100 thousand rubles, Leonov transferred to the Defense Fund. For which he received written thanks from Stalin.
Leonid Maksimovich Leonov, a brief biography of which is presented in our article, was an outstanding person of his time. Only part of his work is revealed here. In the postwar years, he continued to write, to raise the problems of our time. Not afraid to talk about the repressed, about the fists, enemies of the people, in each person he tried to find a person, tried to reach the truth. His works were not always published, some were even banned in the Union. But somehow, by the will of fate, the writer was not punished for his bold work, and it is even worth noting that he was repeatedly awarded various government awards, was a popular and famous person in the circle of the intelligentsia.
The writer published his main work Pyramid unfinished shortly before his death; he worked on this work for 45 years. In it, Leonov summed up the results of all the realistic literature of the last century, combined reality and fiction, compared the possible with the impossible, and also summed up all his work.