Korney Chukovsky is a famous Russian and Soviet poet, children's writer, translator, storyteller and publicist. In his family, he raised two more writers - Nikolai and Lydia Chukovsky. Over the years, he remains the most published children's writer in Russia. For example, in 2015, 132 of his books and brochures were published with a total circulation of almost two and a half million copies.
Childhood and youth
Korney Chukovsky was born in 1882. He was born in St. Petersburg. The real name of Korney Chukovsky at birth is Nikolai Korneychukov. Then he decided to take a creative pseudonym, under which almost all of his works were written.
His father was a hereditary honorary citizen named Emmanuel Levenson. The mother of the future writer, Ekaterina Korneychukova, was a peasant, and she appeared in the Levenson house as a servant. The marriage of the parents of the hero of our article was not officially registered, since before that it would be required to baptize a father who was Jewish by religion. However, they still lived together for about three years.
It is noteworthy that Korney Chukovsky was not their only child. Before him, the couple had a daughter, Maria. Shortly after the birth of his son, Levenson left his common-law spouse, having married a woman from his circle. Almost immediately after that, he moved to Baku. Chukovsky’s mother with her children was forced to leave for Odessa.
It was in this city that Korney Chukovsky’s childhood passed, and briefly with his mother and sister he left for Nikolaev. From the age of five, Nikolai went to kindergarten, which was kept by Madame Bekhteev. As the writer himself later recalled, they mostly painted pictures and marched there.
For some time, Kolya studied at the Odessa gymnasium, where his classmate was the future traveler and writer Boris Zhitkov. Between them even a genuine friendship was struck. However, the hero of our article did not succeed in finishing the gymnasium; he was expelled from the fifth grade, as he himself claimed, because of his low origin. What really happened is not known; no documents relating to that period have been preserved. The events of that time, Chukovsky described in his autobiographical novel entitled "Silver Coat of Arms".
In the metric, neither Nikolai nor his sister Maria had a middle name, since they were illegitimate. Therefore, in various pre-revolutionary documents you can find options Vasilyevich, Emanuilovich, Stepanovich, Manuilovich and even Emelyanovich.
When Korneychukov began to write, he took a literary pseudonym, to which over time he added the fictitious middle name of Ivanovich. After the revolution, the name Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky became his official name.
Personal life
In 1903, Chukovsky married Maria Goldfeld, who was two years older than him. They had four children. In 1904, Nikolai was born. He translated poetry and prose, married the translator Maria Nikolaevna. The couple had a daughter, Natalya, in 1925. She became a microbiologist, Honored Scientist of Russia, Doctor of Medical Sciences. In 1933, Nikolai was born, who worked as a communications engineer, and in 1943, Dmitry, and in the future, the husband of 18-time USSR tennis champion Anna Dmitrieva. In total, the children of Korney Chukovsky gave him five grandchildren.
In 1907, the hero of our article gave birth to a daughter, Lydia, a famous Soviet dissident and writer. Her most significant work is considered to be Notes on Anna Akhmatova, in which they recorded their conversations with the poetess, who Chukovskaya conducted for many years. Lydia was married twice. For the first time, the historian of literature and literary critic Caesar Volpe, and then the popularizer of science and mathematician Matvey Bronstein.
Thanks to Lydia, Korney Ivanovich has a granddaughter, Elena Chukovskaya, a chemist and literary critic, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn Prize Laureate. She died in 1996.
In 1910, the son of Boris was born to the writer, who died in 1941 shortly after the start of World War II. He was killed returning from intelligence, not far from the Borodino field. He left his son Boris, a cameraman.
In 1920, Chukovsky had a second daughter, Maria, who became the heroine of most of his childhood stories and poems. Father himself often called her Murochka. At the age of 9, she became ill with tuberculosis. Two years later, the girl died, until her death, the writer fought for the life of her daughter. In 1930, she was taken to the Crimea, for some time she remained in the famous children's bone-tuberculosis sanatorium, and then lived with Chukovsky in a rented apartment. In November 1931, she died. For a long time, her grave was considered lost. According to recent studies, it was possible to establish that, most likely, she was buried in the Alupka cemetery. The burial itself was even discovered.
Among the close relatives of the writer, one also needs to recall the nephew, mathematician Vladimir Rokhlin, who was engaged in algebraic geometry and measure theory.
In journalism
Until the October Revolution, Korney Chukovsky, whose biography is given in this article, was mainly engaged in journalism. In 1901, he began writing notes and publications in Odessa News. He was brought into literature by his friend Vladimir Zhabotinsky, who was his guarantor at the wedding.
Almost immediately after the marriage, Chukovsky went as a correspondent to London, seduced by a high fee. He independently learned the language from a self-instruction manual; he went to England with his young wife. In parallel, Chukovsky was published in the Southern Review, as well as in several Kiev publications. However, the fees from Russia came irregularly, it was hard to live in London, the pregnant wife had to be sent back to Odessa.
The hero of our article himself returned to his homeland in 1904, soon plunging into the events of the first Russian revolution. He twice came to the battleship Potemkin, embraced by the uprising, took letters from his sailors to his relatives.
In parallel, he takes part in the publication of a satirical magazine along with such celebrities as Fedor Sologub, Alexander Kuprin, Teffi. After the release of four issues, the publication was closed for contempt of autocracy. Soon, the lawyers managed to get an excuse, but Chukovsky still spent more than a week under arrest.
Acquaintance with Repin
An important stage in the biography of Korney Chukovsky is his acquaintance with the artist Ilya Repin and publicist Vladimir Korolenko. In 1906, the hero of our article draws closer to them in the Finnish town of Kuokkala.
It was Chukovsky who managed to convince Repin to take his literary works seriously, to release a memoir book entitled "Far Close." In total, Chukovsky spent about ten years in Kuokkale. There appeared the famous handwritten humorous anthology "Chukokkala", the name suggested by Repin. Chukovsky led him to the very last days of his life.
During that period of his creative biography, the hero of our article is engaged in translations. He publishes adaptations of Whitman's poems, which increases his popularity among writers. In addition, he turns into a fairly influential critic who criticizes contemporary fiction writers and supports the work of futurists. In Kuokkale, Chukovsky met Mayakovsky.
In 1916, he was sent to England as a member of the State Duma delegation. Soon after this trip Paterson’s book about the Jewish Legion, which fought in the British Army, was published. The hero of our article writes the preface to this edition; he is also editing the book.
After the October Revolution, Chukovsky continued to engage in literary criticism, releasing two of his most famous books in this industry - Akhmatova and Mayakovsky and The Book of Alexander Blok. However, in the conditions of Soviet reality, engaging in criticism is an ungrateful affair. He left criticism, which he later regretted more than once.
Literary studies
According to modern scholars, Chukovsky had a real talent for literary criticism. This can be judged by his essays on Balmont, Chekhov, Gorky, Blok, Bryusov, Merezhkovsky and many others that came out before the Bolsheviks came to power. In 1908, even the collection "From Chekhov to the Present Day" was published, which survived three reprints.
In 1917, Chukovsky took up the fundamental work about his beloved poet Nikolai Nekrasov. He manages to release the first complete collection of his poems, the work on which he does not finish until 1926. In 1952, he published the monograph "The Mastery of Nekrasov", which was significant for understanding the whole work of this poet. For her, Chukovsky was awarded the Lenin Prize.
It was after 1917 that it was possible to publish a large number of poems by Nekrasov, which had previously been banned due to royal censorship. The merit of Chukovsky lies in the fact that he put into circulation about a quarter of the texts written by Nekrasov. In the 1920s, it was he who discovered the prosaic texts of the famous poet. This is “The Subtle Man” and “The Life and Adventures of Tikhon Trosnikov”.
It is noteworthy that Chukovsky was engaged not only in Nekrasov, but in many writers of the 19th century. Among them were Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Sleptsov.
Artworks for children
Passion for fairy tales and poems for children, which made Chukovsky so popular, came to him relatively late. By that time he was already a well-known and accomplished literary critic; many knew and loved the books of Korney Chukovsky.
Only in 1916, the hero of our article wrote his first fairy tale "Crocodile" and released a collection called "Fir-trees". In 1923, the famous fairy tales "Tarakanische" and "Moydodyr" were published, and a year later, "Barmaley."
"Moidodyr" by Korney Chukovsky was written two years before publication. Already in 1927, a cartoon was shot on this plot, later animated films were released in 1939 and 1954.
In “Moidodyr” by Korney Chukovsky, the narration is conducted on behalf of a little boy, from whom all his things suddenly start to run away. The situation is explained by a washstand named Moidodyr, who explains to the child that all things run away from him only because he is dirty. By order of the powerful Moydodyr, soap and brushes pounce on the boy and forcibly wash him.
The boy breaks out and runs out into the street, after him the washcloth is chased, which is eaten by the walking Crocodile. After the Crocodile threatens to eat the child himself, if he does not begin to take care of himself. A poetic tale ends with a hymn to purity.
Classic children's literature
The poems of Korney Chukovsky, written during this period, become classics of children's literature. In 1924, he writes The Fly-Tsokotuha and The Wonder Tree. In 1926, "Fedorino Gora" appears Korney Chukovsky. This work is intended to be similar to Moidodyr. In this tale of Korney Chukovsky, the main character is Fedor's grandmother. All dishes and kitchen utensils run away from her, because she did not follow them, did not wash them in time, and did not clean her house. There are many famous film adaptations of the works of Korney Chukovsky. To this fairy tale in 1974, Natalia Chervinskaya was shot by the eponymous cartoon.
In 1929, the writer writes a fairy tale in poetry about Dr. Aibolit. Korney Chukovsky chose as the main character of his work a doctor who goes to Africa to treat sick animals on the Limpopo River. In addition to the cartoons of Natalia Chervinskaya in 1973 and David Cherkassky in 1984, a film by Vladimir Nemolyaev was shot based on the script by Yevgeny Schwartz in 1938 based on this tale by Korney Chukovsky. And in 1966, the comedic arthouse adventure musical film of Roland Bykov "Aibolit-66" was released.
Renunciation of one's own works
Children's books by Korney Chukovsky of this period were published in large editions, but were not always considered to meet the tasks of Soviet pedagogy, for which they were constantly criticized. Among the editors and literary critics, the term "Chukovism" even arose - this is what most of Korney Chukovsky’s poems meant. The writer agrees with the criticism. On the pages of Literaturnaya Gazeta, he renounces all his children's works, stating that he intends to begin a new stage in his work by writing a collection of poems "Merry Collective Farm", but he never finished it.
By coincidence, his youngest daughter fell ill with tuberculosis almost simultaneously with his renunciation of his works in Literaturnaya Gazeta. The poet himself considered her deadly disease retribution.
Memoirs and War Tales
In the 30s a new hobby appeared in the life of Chukovsky. He studies the children's psyche, especially how the kids master the speech. As a literary critic and poet, this is of great interest to Korney Ivanovich. His observations of children and their verbal creativity are collected in the book "From Two to Five." Korney Chukovsky, this psychological and journalistic study published in 1933, begins with a chapter on children's language, conducting numerous examples of the incredible phrases that kids use. He calls them "stucco nonsense." At the same time, he argues about the amazing talent of children to perceive a huge number of new elements and words.
Literary scholars came to the conclusion that his research in the field of children's word formation became a serious contribution to the development of Russian linguistics.
In the 1930s, the Soviet writer and poet Korney Chukovsky wrote memoirs, the work on which he did not leave until the end of his life. They are published posthumously under the name "Diaries 1901-1969."
When the Great Patriotic War began, the writer was evacuated to Tashkent. In 1942, he wrote a fairy tale in verse, "Overcome Barmaley!". In fact, this is a military chronicle of the confrontation of the small country of Aibolitiya against the animal kingdom of Ferocity, which is filled with scenes of violence, ruthlessness to the enemy, calls for revenge. At that moment, it was such a work that was in demand by readers and the country's leadership. But when in 1943 there was a turning point in the war, outright persecution began for the tale itself and its author. In 1944, it was even banned and not reprinted for more than 50 years. Nowadays, most critics admit that "Overcome Barmaley!" - one of the main creative failures of Chukovsky.
In the 1960s, the hero of our article plans to publish a retelling of the Bible for children. The work was complicated by the anti-religious position of the Soviet authorities that existed at that time. For example, censors demanded that the words "Jews" and "God" not be mentioned in this work. As a result, the magician Yahweh was invented. In 1968, the book was nevertheless published in the publishing house "Children's Literature" under the name "Tower of Babel and Other Ancient Legends."
But the book never went on sale. At the last moment, the entire circulation was seized and destroyed. As one of its authors, Valentin Berestov, later claimed, the reason was the cultural revolution that began in China. The Hunweibins criticized Chukovsky for clogging children's heads with "religious bullshit."
Last years
Chukovsky spent his last years at his dacha in Peredelkino. He was a universal favorite who received all sorts of literary prizes. At the same time, he managed to maintain contacts with dissidents - Pavel Litvinov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In addition, one of his daughters became a prominent human rights activist and dissident.
He constantly invited nearby children to his dacha, read poetry for them, talked about all kinds of things, invited celebrities, among whom were poets, writers, pilots and famous artists. Those who attended these meetings in Peredelkino still recall them with kindness and warmth, although many years have passed since then.
Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky died of viral hepatitis in 1969 there, in Peredelkino, where he lived most of his life. He was 87 years old. Buried in a local cemetery.