Today, the name of the Soviet writer Nikolai Evgenievich Wirth says little to the average reader, but at one time he was the author of a bestseller, was awarded four Stalin prizes and the right to edit the Bible.
early years
The Soviet writer and playwright, four-time winner of the Stalin Prize Nikolai Evgenievich Virta (1906-1976, real name is Karelsky) was born in the village of Kalikino in the Tambov province, in the family of a parish priest. In 1921, the father of the future writer was shot - allegedly for promoting an anti-communist uprising led by Alexander Antonov. In the future, this uprising will be the main theme of the novel "Loneliness", which brought Wirth fame and the first Stalin Prize.
Education Nikolai Karelsky received in the Tambov secondary school. In his youth, he managed to change several types of activity: he visited both the shepherd and the clerk of the village council, and in 1920-21, as part of educational program, he taught in the 263rd Kungursky Regiment of the 30th division. In 1923 he began working as a reporter in the newspaper Tambovskaya Pravda. There he made his debut as a writer: his first stories, published under the name "Nikolai Virta", were devoted to village life. Virta - the name of the river in Karelia, the historical homeland of the Karelian.
In the second half of the 20s, Virta was actively engaged in journalistic and editorial activities in the newspapers of Kostroma, Saratov and Makhachkala. In 1930, he moved to the capital, where he continued to work in the print media “Evening Moscow”, “Trud” and “Electrozavod”, in the theater of working youth (TRAM) - author of plays, director, actor and even director.
"Loneliness" and glory
In 1935, Wirth created his magnum opus - the novel "Loneliness", which tells about the fight against the Antonov uprising in the 20s. The novel, favorably received by critics and the audience, has been published more than 20 times in 1936 alone. Critics compare him to Sholokhov's "Quiet Don". In 1937, based on the “Loneliness” Wirth wrote the tragedy “Earth”, which is successfully put in the Moscow Art Theater. In 1939, the novel becomes the basis of the opera of the young playwright T.N. Khrennikov's “Into the Storm”, and in 1964, based on his motives, the director Vsevolod Voronin made the film “Loneliness”.
In 1941, the novel brings Wirth the Stalin Prize of the second degree.
Initially, the writer planned to create a cycle of six novels about folk life, covering the period from the end of the 19th century to the present, but the novel “Regularity” (1937), which continued the “Loneliness”, was met rather coldly. Such authoritative cultural figures as Sholokhov and Makarenko negatively speak of him (a review of the latter in the Literary Newspaper was entitled “Regular Failure”). The novel "Evening Ringing" (1951), which tells about events preceding those described in "Solitude", also did not gain popularity and became the last in the cycle.
Nikolai Virta received three more Stalin Prizes in 1948, 1949 and 1950 for the plays Our Daily Bread (1947) and The Conspiracy of the Doomed (1948) and the screenplay The Battle of Stalingrad (1949).
In the two-part film directed by Wirth, directed by Vladimir Petrov, a lot of attention is paid to the commander’s wisdom of Comrade Stalin.
Scripture Censor
Arkady Vaksberg in his book “Queen of Evidence” gives an interesting story related to the biography of Nikolai Evgenievich Wirth. In 1943, Stalin, having embarked on a policy of easing his attitude towards the church, decided to publish the Bible in a limited edition. The publication was entrusted to Molotov, who transferred it to Vyshinsky. To verify the ideological security of the text, it was decided to appoint a special censor. They became Nikolai Virta. The writer was instructed to study the Old and New Testaments on the subject of criticism of the Soviet regime, with special need to make bills and edits. The commission threw Virtus into confusion, but to refuse it, presented as "the task of Comrade Stalin" and "personal request of Metropolitan Sergius", would be tantamount to suicide. I had to search in the Holy Scriptures for ideologically questionable places, in particular, portraits of a man with a mustache. Fortunately, no such places were found, and the Bible was safely published without cuts.
Stalin's death and sunset of popularity
After the death of the dictator, the situation of Nikolai Virta changed for the worse. In 1954 he was expelled from the Union of Writers of the USSR - for the luxurious lifestyle that he led at the cottage in the suburbs. True, in 1956, membership was restored, but its former authority and popularity were irretrievably lost. Until his death, Nikolai Virta continues to create novels, novels, plays, scripts and short stories, but they no longer cause excitement among critics and the public. The last major work of the author - the Black Night epic, devoted to Hitler, Nazism and the resistance movement in Europe - remained unfinished. Nikolay Virta died on January 3, 1976, was buried in Moscow at the Peredelkino cemetery.