One of the most tragic destinies was prepared by the Soviet government for such a great poet as O. Mandelstam. His biography has developed this way largely due to the irreconcilable nature of Osip Emilievich. He could not tolerate a lie and did not want to bow before the powers that be. Therefore, otherwise in those years his fate could not have been formed, which Mandelstam himself was aware of. His biography, like the work of the great poet, teaches us a lot ...
The future poet was born in Warsaw on January 3, 1891. Osip Mandelstam spent his childhood and youth in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, his autobiography was not written by him. However, his memoirs formed the basis of the book "The Sound of Time". It can be considered largely autobiographical. Note that Mandelstam’s memories of childhood and youth are strict and restrained - he avoided revealing himself, did not like to comment on both his poems and his life. Osip Emilievich was an early-ripened poet, or rather, an epiphany. Severity and seriousness distinguish his artistic manner.
We believe that the life and work of such a poet as Mandelstam should be examined in detail. A brief biography regarding this person is hardly appropriate. The personality of Osip Emilievich is very interesting, and his work deserves the most careful study. As time has shown, one of the greatest Russian poets of the 20th century was Mandelstam. A brief biography presented in school textbooks is clearly not enough for a deep understanding of his life and work.
The origin of the future poet
Rather, those little that can be found in Mandelstam’s memoirs about his childhood and the atmosphere surrounding him are painted in gloomy tones. According to the poet, his family was "difficult and confused." In a word, in a speech this was manifested with particular force. So, at least, Mandelstam himself considered. The speech element of the family was peculiar. Note that the Jewish family of Mandelstam was ancient. Since the 8th century, from the time of the Jewish enlightenment, he presented the world with famous doctors, physicists, rabbis, literary historians and Bible translators.
Mandelstam Emiliy Veniaminovich, father of Osip, was a businessman and self-taught. He was completely devoid of a sense of language. Mandelstam in his book “The Sound of Time” noted that he had absolutely no language, there was only “lack of language” and “tongue-tied”. Another was the speech of Flora Osipovna, the mother of the future poet and music teacher. Mandelstam noted that her vocabulary was "squeezed" and "poor," the speed was monotonous, but it was clear and clear, "great Russian speech." It was from his mother that Osip inherited, along with musicality and a predisposition to heart disease, the accuracy of speech, the heightened sense of his native language.
Education at the Tenishevsky Commercial School
In the period from 1900 to 1907, Mandelstam studied at the Tenishevsky Commercial School. It was considered one of the best among private educational institutions in our country. At one time, V. Zhirmunsky and V. Nabokov studied in it. The atmosphere that prevailed here was intellectual-ascetic. In this institution, the ideals of civic duty and political freedom were cultivated. In the 1905-1907s of the first Russian revolution, Mandelstam could not but fall into political radicalism. His biography is generally closely related to the events of the era. The catastrophe of the war with Japan and the revolutionary time inspired him to create the first poetic experiments, which can be considered student. Mandelstam perceived what was happening as a vigorous universal metamorphosis renewing the elements.
Trips abroad
He received a school diploma on May 15, 1907. After that, the poet tried to join the militant organization of the Social Revolutionaries in Finland, but was not accepted there for infancy. Parents, worried about the future of their son, hastened to send him away from sin to study abroad, where Mandelstam went three times. The first time he lived in Paris from October 1907 to the summer of 1908. Then the future poet went to Germany, where he studied Romance philology at the University of Heidelberg (from the fall of 1909 to the spring of 1910). From July 21, 1910 until mid-October, he lived in Zelendorf, a suburb of Berlin. Up to the latest works in Mandelstam's poems, an echo of his acquaintance with Western Europe sounds.
Meeting with A. Akhmatova and N. Gumilev, the creation of acmeism
The meeting with Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilev determined the formation of Osip Emilievich as a poet. Gumilev in 1911 returned from the Abyssinian expedition to St. Petersburg. Soon the three of them began to see each other often at literary evenings. Many years after the tragic event - the shooting of Gumilyov in 1921 - Osip Emilievich wrote to Akhmatova that only Nikolai Gumilyov was able to understand his poems, and that he still talks with him and conducts dialogues. Mandelstam’s attitude towards Akhmatova is evidenced by his phrase: “I am a contemporary of Akhmatova.” Only Osip Mandelstam (a photo of him with Anna Andreevna presented above) could publicly say this during the Stalinist regime, when Akhmatova was a disgraced poetess.
All three (Mandelstam, Akhmatova and Gumilyov) became the creators of acmeism and the most prominent representatives of this new trend in literature. Biographers note that friction arose between them at first, since Mandelstam was hot-tempered, Gumilyov was despotic, and Akhmatova was wayward.
The first collection of poems
In 1913 he created his first collection of poems Mandelstam. His biography and work by this time were already marked by many important events, and life experience was already more than enough then. The poet published this collection at his own expense. At first he wanted to name his book "The Shell", but then he chose another name - "Stone", which was quite in the spirit of acmeism. Its representatives wanted to rediscover the world, to give everything a courageous and clear name, devoid of a foggy and elegiac flair, as, for example, among the Symbolists. Stone is a solid and durable natural material, eternal in the hands of the master. At Osip Emilievich, he is the primary building material of spiritual culture, and not just material.
Osip Mandelstam in 1911 adopted Christianity, making the "transition to European culture." And although he was baptized in the Methodist Church (in Vyborg on May 14), the verses of his first collection captured the enthusiasm for the Catholic theme. In Roman Catholicism, Mandelstam captivated the pathos of the worldwide organizing idea. Under the rule of Rome, the unity of the Christian world of the West is born out of a choir of peoples dissimilar to each other. Also, the "stronghold" of the cathedral is made up of stones, their "unkind gravity" and "elemental labyrinth."
Attitude to the revolution
In the period from 1911 to 1917, Mandelstam studied at St. Petersburg University, at the Romano-Germanic department. His biography at that time was marked by the appearance of the first collection. Complex was his attitude to the revolution that began in 1917. Any attempt by Osip Emilievich to find a place in the new Russia ended in scandal and failure.
Tristia Compilation
Mandelstam's verses from the period of revolution and war make up the new collection of Tristia. This "book of sorrows" was published for the first time in 1922 without the participation of the author, and then, in 1923, under the name "Second Book" was reprinted in Moscow. It is cemented by the theme of time, the stream of history, which is directed towards its death. Until the last days, this topic will be cross-cutting in the poet's work. This collection is marked by a new quality of the lyrical hero Mandelstam. For him, there is no longer personal, not involved in the general flow of time. The voice of the lyrical hero can be heard only as an echo of the hum of the era. What happens in the big story is perceived by him as the collapse and construction of the "temple" of his own personality.
The collection of Tristia reflected a significant change in the style of the poet. The figurative texture moves more and more towards encrypted, "dark" meanings, semantic shift, irrational language moves.
Wandering around Russia
Osip Mandelstam in the early 1920s roamed mainly in the southern part of Russia. He visited Kiev, where he met his future wife N. Ya. Khazina (pictured above), spent some time with Voloshin in Koktebel, then went to Feodosia, where the Wrangel counterintelligence arrested him on suspicion of espionage. Then, after his release, Osip Mandelstam went to Batumi . His biography was marked by a new arrest - now from the coast guard of the Mensheviks. Osip Emilievich was released from prison by T. Tabidze and N. Mitsishvili, Georgian poets. In the end, extremely exhausted, Osip Mandelstam returned to Petrograd. His biography continues by the fact that he lived for some time in the House of Arts, then again went south, after which he settled in Moscow.
However, by the mid-1920s, there was no trace of the former balance of hopes and anxieties in understanding what was happening. The consequence of this is the changed poetics of Mandelstam. "Darkness" now increasingly outweighs clarity in it. In 1925, a short creative surge occurred, which was associated with a passion for Olga Waxel. After that, the poet becomes silent for a long 5 years.
For Mandelstam, the second half of the 1920s was a period of crisis. At this time, the poet was silent, did not publish new poems. Not a single work of Mandelstam appeared in 5 years.
Appeal to prose
In 1929, Mandelstam decided to turn to prose. He wrote the book "The Fourth Prose." It is not large in volume, but Mandelstam’s contempt for the conjunctive writers who were members of MASSOLIT fully spilled out in it. For a long time this pain accumulated in the poet’s soul. In "Fourth Prose" Mandelstam expressed his character - unsociable, explosive, impulsive. Very easily Osip Emilievich made his enemies, he did not conceal his judgments and assessments. Thanks to this, Mandelstam always, almost all the post-revolutionary years, was forced to exist in extreme conditions. In anticipation of imminent death, he was in the 1930s. Mandelstam's admirers of talent, his friends turned out to be not very many, but they still were.
Life
Attitude to everyday life largely reveals the image of such a person as Osip Mandelstam. Biography, interesting facts about him, the poet’s work are connected with his special attitude to him. Osip Emilievich was not adapted for settled life, for life. For him, the concept of a fortress house, which was very important, for example, for M. Bulgakov, had no meaning. The whole world was home to him, and at the same time Mandelstam was homeless in this world.
Remembering Osip Emilievich in the early 1920s, when he got a room in the House of Arts of Petrograd (like many other writers and poets), K.I. Chukovsky noted that there was nothing in it that belonged to Mandelstam, except for cigarettes. When the poet finally got the apartment (in 1933), B. Pasternak, who visited him, said leaving, that now you can write poetry - there is an apartment. Osip Emilievich was furious from this. O. E. Mandelshtam, whose biography is marked by many episodes of intransigence, cursed his apartment and even offered to return it to those to whom it was apparently intended: graphic artists, honest traitors. It was a horror at the realization of the board that was required for it.
Work in the "Moscow Komsomolets"
Are you interested in how the life path of such a poet as Mandelstam continued? Biography by dates smoothly approached the 1930s in his life and work. N. Bukharin, the patron of Osip Emilievich in power circles, arranged him at the turn of the 1920s and 30s in the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets as a proofreader. This gave the poet and his wife at least minimal livelihood. But Mandelstam refused to accept the "rules of the game" of Soviet writers who served the regime. His extreme impetuosity and emotionality greatly complicated Mandelstam’s relationship with his colleagues. He was at the center of the scandal - the poet was accused of translating plagiarism. In order to save Osip Emilievich from the consequences of this scandal, in 1930 Bukharin organized a trip to Armenia for the poet, which made a great impression on him and was also reflected in his work. In the new verses, hopeless fear and the last courageous despair are heard more clearly. If Mandelstam in prose tried to get away from the thunderstorm hanging over him, now he has finally accepted his share.
Awareness of the tragedy of their fate
Awareness of the tragedy of his own destiny, the choice he made, probably strengthened Mandelstam, gave a magnificent, tragic pathos to his new works. It consists in opposing the personality of the free poet "century-beast." Mandelstam does not feel like a miserable victim, an insignificant person in front of him. He feels equal to him. In a 1931 poem, "For the Explosive Valor of the Coming Ages," which was called the Wolf in the home circle, Mandelstam predicted the impending exile to Siberia, his own death, and poetic immortality. This poet understood much earlier than others.
The ill-fated poem about Stalin
Mandelstam Nadezhda Yakovlevna, the widow of Osip Emilievich, left two books of memoirs about her husband, which tell about the sacrificial feat of this poet. Mandelstam's sincerity often verged on suicide. For example, in November 1933 he wrote a sharply satirical poem about Stalin, which he read to many of his acquaintances, including B. Pasternak. Boris Leonidovich was alarmed by the fate of the poet and stated that his poem was not a literary fact, but nothing more than an “act of suicide”, which he could not approve of. Pasternak advised him not to read this work anymore. However, Mandelstam could not remain silent. A biography, the interesting facts from which we just cited, from this moment it becomes truly tragic.
The sentence to Mandelstam, oddly enough, was imposed quite soft. At that time, people perished for much less substantial "wrongdoing." The Stalin resolution read only: "Isolate, but preserve." Mandelstam was sent into exile in the northern village of Cherdyn. Here Osip Emilievich, tormented by mental distress, even wanted to commit suicide. Friends helped again. N. Bukharin, already losing influence, wrote to Stalin for the last time that poets are always right, that history is on their side. After this, Osip Emilievich was transferred to Voronezh, in less severe conditions.
Of course, his fate was a foregone conclusion. However, in 1933, severely punishing him meant publicizing a poem about Stalin and thus, as if to reduce personal scores with the poet. And that would, of course, be unworthy of Stalin, the "father of the peoples." Joseph Vissarionovich knew how to wait. He understood that everything had its time. In this case, he expected a great terror of 1937, in which Mandelstam was destined, together with hundreds of thousands of other people, to disappear unknownly.
Years of life in Voronezh
Voronezh sheltered Osip Emilievich, but sheltered him hostilely. However, Osip Emilievich Mandelstam did not stop fighting the despair steadily approaching him. His biography of these years is marked by many difficulties. He had no means of subsistence; he was avoided to meet with him; his fate was unclear. Mandelstam felt with his whole being that he was overtaken by the "century-beast." And Akhmatova, who visited him in exile, testified that in his room, “fear and muse are on duty”. The verses went on unceasingly, they demanded an exit. Memoirists testify that Mandelstam once rushed to a pay phone and began to read to the investigator, to whom he was attached at that time, his new works. He said there was no one else to read. The poet’s nerves were exposed, in verses he splashed out his pain.
Voronezh from 1935 to 1937 were created three "Voronezh notebooks." For a long time the works of this cycle have not been published. They could not be called political, but even “neutral” verses were perceived as a challenge, since they were poetry, unstoppable and uncontrollable. And it’s no less dangerous for the authorities, since, according to I. Brodsky, “he is shaking the whole way of life,” and not just the political system.
Return to the capital
The sensation of near death pervades many verses of this period, as well as the works of Mandelstam in the 1930s as a whole. The term of the Voronezh exile expired in May 1937. Osip Emilievich spent another year in the vicinity of Moscow. He wanted permission to stay in the capital. However, the editors of the magazines categorically refused not only to publish his poems, but also to talk with him. The poet was begging. Friends and acquaintances helped him at that time: B. Pasternak, V. Shklovsky, V. Kataev, I. Erenburg, although they themselves had a hard time. Anna Akhmatova subsequently wrote about 1938 that it was an “apocalyptic” time.
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