Zoshchenko Mikhail Mikhailovich, the famous Russian writer and playwright, was born in 1894, July 29 (according to some reports, in 1895), in St. Petersburg. His father was a traveling artist, and his mother was an actress. First, we will talk about how the life of such a writer as Mikhail Zoshchenko developed. The biography below describes the main events of his life path. Having told about them, we will go on to describe the work of Mikhail Mikhailovich.
Education at the gymnasium and at the St. Petersburg Institute
In 1903, parents sent their son to study at St. Petersburg Gymnasium No. 8. Mikhail Zoshchenko, whose biography can be recreated, including on the basis of his own memories and works, talking about these years, noted that he studied rather poorly, in features in the Russian language. For writing on the exam, he received a unit. However, Mikhail Mikhailovich notes that already at that time he wanted to be a writer. So far, only for himself has Mikhail Zoshchenko created stories and poems.
Life is sometimes paradoxical. The future famous writer, who began to compose at nine, is the most lagging student in the Russian language in the class! His poor performance seemed strange to him. Zoshchenko Mikhail Mikhailovich notes that at that time he even wanted to commit suicide. However, fate kept him.
After graduating in 1913, the future writer continued to receive education at the St. Petersburg Institute, at the Faculty of Law. A year later, due to non-payment of tuition, he was expelled from there. Zoshchenko had to go to work. He began to work as a controller on the Caucasian Railway.
War time
The usual course of life was interrupted by the First World War. Michael decided to enlist in the military. First, he became an ordinary cadet and went to the Pavlovsk Military School, then, after completing four-month accelerated courses, he went to the front.
Zoshchenko noted that he did not have a patriotic mood, he just could not sit in one place for a long time. In the service, however, Mikhail Mikhailovich distinguished himself. He was a participant in many battles, was poisoned by gases, and was injured. Starting to participate in the battles with the rank of ensign, Zoshchenko was already assigned as a captain to the reserve (the reason is the consequences of gas poisoning). In addition, he was awarded 4 orders for military merit.
Return to Petrograd
Mikhail Mikhailovich, having returned to Petrograd, met with V.V. Kerbits-Kerbitskaya, his future wife. After the February Revolution, Zoshchenko was appointed head of the telegraph and post offices, as well as the commandant of the Main Post Office. Next was a business trip to Arkhangelsk, work as an adjutant of the squad, as well as the election of Mikhail Mikhailovich to the secretaries of the regimental court.
Service in the Red Army
However, peaceful life is again interrupted - now by the revolution and the ensuing Civil War. Mikhail Mikhailovich goes to the front. As a volunteer, he enters the Red Army (in January 1919). He serves as a regimental adjutant in the regiment of the rural poor. Zoshchenko takes part in the battles near Yamburg and Narva against Bulak-Balakhovich. After a heart attack, Mikhail Mikhailovich had to demobilize and return to Petrograd.
Zoshchenko in the period from 1918 to 1921 changed many classes. Subsequently, he wrote that he tried himself in about 10-12 professions. He worked as a policeman, and a carpenter, and a shoemaker, and an agent of criminal investigation.
Peaceful life
The writer in January 1920 experiences the death of his mother. His marriage to Kerbits-Kerbitskaya dates to the same year. Together with her, he moves to the street. B. Zelenin. In the family of Zoshchenko in May 1922, the son of Valery is born. In 1930, Mikhail Mikhailovich was sent along with a team of writers to the Baltic Shipyard.
Years of World War II
Mikhail Zoshchenko at the beginning of the war writes a statement in which he asks to enroll him in the Red Army. However, he is refused - he is declared unfit for military service. Zoshchenko has to conduct anti-fascist activities not on the battlefield. He creates anti-war feuilletons and publishes them in newspapers, sends them to the Radio Committee. In 1941, in October, he was evacuated to Alma-Ata, and a month later he became an employee of Mosfilm, working in the script department of the studio.
Persecution
Zoshchenko in 1943 was summoned to Moscow. Here he is offered to take the post of editor of Crocodile. However, Mikhail Mikhailovich refuses this offer. Nevertheless, he is a member of the editorial board of Crocodile. Outwardly, everything looks safe. However, after some time, clouds begin to thicken more and more over Mikhail Mikhailovich’s head: he is being taken out of the editorial board, evicted from the hotel, and deprived of food ration. Persecution continues. Tikhonov N. S. at the plenum of the MTP even attacks the story of Zoshchenko "Before Sunrise." The writer is practically not published, but still introduced in 1946 to the editorial board of Zvezda.
August 14, 1946 - the apotheosis of all its vicissitudes. It was then that the decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (B) on the magazines Leningrad and Zvezda came out. After that, Zoshchenko was expelled from the Writers' Union, and also deprived of a grocery card. This time, the reason for the attacks was already completely insignificant - a children's story by Zoshchenko, entitled "The Adventures of the Monkey." Following the decree, all magazines, publishers and theaters terminate the agreements they concluded earlier, demanding that the advances given be returned. The Zoshchenko family is in poverty. She is forced to exist on the proceeds from the sale of personal items. The writer is trying to make money in the artisan cobblers. The food card is eventually returned to him. In addition, Mikhail Zoshchenko publishes stories and feuilleton (of course, not all). However, making a living at this time is mainly a translation job.
Mikhail Zoshchenko manages to recover in the Writers' Union only after the death of Stalin. A significant event takes place on June 23, 1953 - the writer is again admitted to the Union. However, this is not the end. This time Mikhail Mikhailovich did not succeed in being a member for a short time.
May 5, 1954 a fatal event occurred. Anna Akhmatova and he were invited that day to the Writer's House, where a meeting with a group of English students was to take place. The writer on it publicly declared his disagreement with the accusations made against him. A new stage of bullying begins after this. All these ups and downs affected his poor health. Published on September 7, 1953, the article “Facts Expose the Truth” was the last straw. The name of the writer after that completely ceased to be mentioned. About two months this oblivion continued. However, in November two magazines, Leningradsky Almanac and Crocodile, proposed cooperation with Mikhail Mikhailovich. A whole group of writers stands up for his defense: Chukovsky, Kaverin, Vs. Ivanov, N. Tikhonov. In 1957, in December, he released "Selected Stories and Tales of 1923-1956." However, the mental and physical condition of the writer is getting worse. A sharp decline in his strength occurs in the spring of 1958. Zoshchenko loses interest in life.
The death of Zoshchenko
July 22, 1958, Mikhail Zoshchenko died. Even his body was disgraced after death: permission was not given to bury him in Leningrad. The ashes of the writer rest in Sestroretsk.
Mikhail Zoshchenko, whose life story was devoted to the first part of our article, left a great creative legacy. His path as a writer was not easy. We offer a closer look at how his creative destiny developed. In addition, you will learn what stories Mikhail Zoshchenko created for children and what their features are.
Creative way
Zoshchenko actively began to write after he was demobilized in 1919. His first experiments were literary and critical articles. In the Petersburg Almanac in 1921, his first story appears.
Serapion Brothers
In 1921, Zoshchenko led the desire to become a professional writer to a group called The Serapion Brothers . Critics were cautious about this group, but noted that among them Zoshchenko was the “strongest” figure. Mikhail Mikhailovich, along with Slonimsky, was part of the central faction, which held the conviction that one should learn from the Russian tradition - Lermontov, Gogol, Pushkin. Zoshchenko feared in the literature of "noble restoration", considered A. Blok "a knight of a sad image" and placed his hopes on literature that had a heroic pathos. In "Alkonost" in May 1922, the first almanac of serapions appeared, in which the story of Mikhail Mikhailovich was published. And "The Stories of Nazar Ilyich, Mr. Sinebryukhov" is a book that became his first independent publication.
Characteristics of early creativity
School A.P. Chekhov was palpable in the early works of Zoshchenko. These, for example, are such stories as “Fish Female”, “War”, “Love”, etc. However, he soon rejected it. Zoshchenko considered a large form of Chekhov’s short stories not appropriate for the needs of the modern reader. He wanted to reproduce in the language "the syntax of the street ... of the people." Zoshchenko considered himself a man who temporarily replaces the proletarian writer.
A large group of writers in 1927 created a collective declaration. It highlighted a new literary and aesthetic position. M. Zoshchenko was among those who signed it. It was published at that time in periodicals (mainly in the satirical magazines Laughter, Behemoth, Eccentric, Buzoter, Amanita, The Inspector General, etc.). However, not everything was smooth. Because of the story “Unpleasant History", M. Zoshchenko, allegedly "politically harmful", confiscated in June 1927 the issue of the Behemoth magazine. The liquidation of such publications is gradually being carried out. In Leningrad, in 1930, the Inspector General, the last satirical magazine, was also closed. However, Mikhail Mikhailovich does not despair and decides to continue to work.
Two sides of fame
He has been working with Crocodile Magazine since 1932. At this time, Mikhail Zoshchenko collects material for his story entitled "Returned Youth", and also studies literature on medicine, psychoanalysis and physiology. His works are already well known even in the West. However, this fame had a downside. In Germany in 1933, Zoshchenko’s books were exposed to Hitler’s blacklisted public auto-dauph.
New works
In the USSR, at the same time, Mikhail Zoshchenko’s comedy "Cultural Heritage" was printed and put on the stage. The Blue Book, one of his most famous books, begins to be published in 1934. In addition to novels, short stories and plays, Zoshchenko also writes feuilleton and historical novels (Taras Shevchenko, Kerensky, Retribution, The Black Prince, etc.). In addition, he creates stories for children ("Clever Animals", "Grandmother's Gift", "Christmas Tree", etc.).
Children's stories Zoshchenko
Mikhail Zoshchenko wrote a lot of stories for children. They were published in magazines from 1937 to 1945. Of these, some were separate works, while others were combined into cycles. The cycle "Lelya and Minka" is most famous.
In 1939 - 1940s. Mikhail Zoshchenko created this series of works. The following stories were included in its composition: Golden Words, Great Travelers, Nakhodka, Thirty Years After, No Need to Lie, Galoshes and Ice Cream, Grandmother's Gift, Christmas Tree. It is no coincidence that Mikhail Zoshchenko united them in one cycle. Brief contents of these works allow us to conclude that they have something in common, namely the images of the main characters. This is little Minka and Lelya, his sister.
The narrator is on behalf of the narrator. His image is no less interesting than the heroes of the stories of Mikhail Zoshchenko. This is an adult who recalls instructive and comic episodes from his childhood. Note that there is a similarity between the author and the narrator (even the name coincides, and there is also an indication of the writing profession). Nevertheless, it does not reach a complete coincidence. The narrator’s speech differs significantly from the author’s. This form of narration is called a literary tale. It was especially relevant in the literature of the USSR of the 20-30s. At this time, the whole culture was characterized by a craving for stylistic and linguistic experiments.
In these stories, as noted by S. Ya. Marshak, the author not only does not hide morality. He speaks of her with all frankness in the text, and sometimes in the title of the works ("Do not lie"). However, stories from this do not become didactic. They are saved by humor, always unexpected, as well as the special seriousness inherent in Zoshchenko. The basis of Mikhail Mikhailovich’s unexpected humor is a witty parody.
Today, many works written by Mikhail Zoshchenko are very popular. His books are held at school, they are loved by adults and children. His path in literature was not easy, as, however, was the fate of many other writers and poets of the Soviet era. The twentieth century is a difficult period in history, however, even in the war years, many works were created that have become classics of Russian literature. The biography of such a great writer as Mikhail Zoshchenko, outlined by us, we hope, aroused your interest in his work.