Nina Berberova is a woman who can be called one of the most prominent representatives of the Russian emigration. She lived in a difficult time in the history of our country, which many writers and poets tried to comprehend. Nina Berberova did not stand aside. Her contribution to the study of Russian emigration is invaluable. But first things first.
Origin, years of study
Berberova Nina Nikolaevna (years of life - 1901-1993) - poet, writer, literary critic. She was born in St. Petersburg on July 26, 1901. The Berberovs were quite wealthy: their mother was a Tver landowner, and her father served in the Ministry of Finance. Nina Nikolaevna studied first at the Archaeological University. Then she graduated from Don University in Rostov-on-Don. Here from 1919 to 1920. Nina studied at the Faculty of History and Philology.
First poems, acquaintance with Khodasevich, emigration
In 1921, in Petrograd, Nina Berberova wrote her first poems. However, only one of them was published in the collection "Ushkuyniki" of 1922. Thanks to the first works she was accepted in the poetic circles of Petrograd. So she met many poets, including V. Khodasevich, whose wife Nina Nikolaevna soon became. Together with him, she went abroad in 1922. Before settling in Paris for a long time, the Berberov family first visited M. Gorky in Berlin and Italy, and then moved to Prague.
So, since 1922, Nina Nikolaevna was in exile. It was here that her real debut in literature took place. Berberova’s poems were published in the journal Conversation, published by M. Gorky and V. F. Khodasevich.
Berberova's short stories and novels
Nina Berberova was an employee of the newspaper "Latest News" and its regular author. In the period from 1928 to 1940. she published in her a series of short stories "Biyankursky gingerbread". These are ironic-symbolic, lyrical-humorous works dedicated to the life of Russian emigrants in Biyankur. At the same time, the latter are workers at the Renault plant, drunks, beggars, bereaved eccentrics and street singers. In this cycle, the influence of early A. Chekhov, as well as M. Zoshchenko, is felt. Nevertheless, they had a lot of their own.
Before the closing of the newspaper "Latest News" in 1940, the following novels by Berberova appeared in it: in 1930 - "The Last and the First", in 1932 - "The Lady", in 1938 - "Without Sunset". It was they who determined the reputation of Nina Nikolaevna as a prose writer.
"Relief of fate"
Criticism noted the proximity of Berberova’s prose works to French novels, as well as the seriousness of Nina Nikolaevna’s attempt to create in the epic refraction an “image of the emigrant world.” Life abroad, the social landscape of the "underground" (outskirts) defined the sound of "Facilitation of fate." This series of stories was published in the 1930s. And in 1948, a book of the same name was published as a separate publication. In this cycle, the theme of homelessness was born, which is important for Berberova’s work as a whole. At the same time, Nina Nikolaevna was aware of homelessness not as a tragedy, but as a lot of a person of the 20th century, free from adherence to her "nest", which ceased to be a symbol of "strength of life", "delights" and "protection".
"Last and first"
In The Last and First, however, an attempt was made to build such a "nest". Having forbidden himself to yearn for his homeland, the hero of the novel tried to create something like a peasant community, which provided not only shelter, but also should return a sense of cultural identity to its participants. Note that, before Berberova, almost no one described fictitiously life and life, aspirations and dreams of ordinary Russian emigrants. Subsequently, the theme of building a peasant community was not developed in the works of Berberova. However, she remained entwined in her biography. Nina Nikolaevna lived the years of occupation on a small farm, where she was engaged in peasant labor.
"Lady" and "Without sunset"
"Lady" - the second novel by Nina Nikolaevna. It was published in 1932. The work speaks about the details of the life of emigrant youth belonging to the third generation. In 1938, a third novel appeared - "Without Sunset." Readers and heroes in it raised the question of how and how to live a female emigrant from Russia. The unequivocal answer to it is as follows: only mutual love can give happiness. Criticism noted that these stories, artificially related to each other, are instructive, sharp, entertaining, and sometimes captivate with a feminine vigilance to people and things. The book has many beautiful lyrical lines, bright pages, significant and deep thoughts.
Moving to the USA, "Cape of Storms"
Then, in 1950, Nina Berberova moved to the USA. Her biography during these years was marked by teaching at Princeton University first the Russian language, and then Russian literature. However, the circle of Nina Nikolaevna’s writing interests remained the same. In 1950, the novel "Cape of Storms" appeared. It speaks of two generations of emigration. For the young, the "universal" is more important than the "native", and the older generation ("people of the last century") do not think of life outside of Russian traditions. The loss of one’s country leads to the loss of God. However, the spiritual and worldly disasters that she is experiencing are interpreted as liberation from the shackles of the traditional institutions on which the world order that collapsed with the revolution rested.
Two books about composers
Nina Berberova published books about composers even before the war. These works have a documentary and biographical character. In 1936, "Tchaikovsky, the story of a lonely life" appeared, and in 1938 - "Borodin." They were evaluated as phenomena having a new literary quality. These were the so-called novels without fiction or, according to Khodasevich, a biography, seen creatively, which strictly adhered to the facts, but illuminated them with the freedom inherent in novelists.
"Iron Woman"
Nina Berberova, as a critic, substantiated the futility of this genre, which was especially in demand during the period of interest in extraordinary fates and personalities. The highest achievement of Nina Nikolaevna on this path was the book Iron Woman, which appeared in 1981. This is a biography of Baroness M. Budberg. Her life was closely connected, first with M. Gorky, and then with G. Wells.
Berberova, dispensing with “jewelry” and fiction born of imagination, managed to create a vivid portrait of an adventurer. M. Budberg belonged to the type of people who, according to Berberova, particularly clearly expresses the typical features of the 20th century. In merciless times, she was an exceptional woman. She did not succumb to the requirements of the era, which made me forget about the moral commandments and live just to survive. The story, built on letters, documents, eyewitness accounts, as well as on the author’s recollections of his meetings with the heroine and thoughts on the course of history, covers almost half a century. It ends with a description of the trip Budberg made in 1960 when she went to disgraced B. Pasternak in Moscow.
"Italic mine"
In 1969, in English, and then in Russian (in 1972), Nina Berberova's autobiography "Italics Mine" was printed. Looking back at her own life, Nina Nikolaevna sees in her “returning themes”, and also reconstructs her past in the ideological and spiritual context of the time. Defining her literary and life position as pro-Western, anti-Orthodox and anti-soil, she builds through these characteristics the "structure" of her personality, which opposes the "fragility" and "meaninglessness" of the world. The book presents a panorama of the artistic and intellectual life of the Russian emigration in the years between the two world wars. It contains important memorial evidence (especially about Khodasevich), as well as analysis of the works of writers of the Russian foreign countries (G. Ivanov, Nabokov, etc.).
Berberova Nina Nikolaevna in 1989 came to Russia, where she met with readers and literary critics. She died on September 26, 1993 in Philadelphia. And today, the work of Nina Berberova remains in demand. The list of references about it is already quite impressive.