Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin is a well-known Russian writer and journalist, author of a large number of essays. One of the most popular masons among Russian emigrants, the founder of several lodges in France.
Origin
Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin was born in Perm in October 1878. His surname at birth was Ilyin, the pseudonym Osorgin appeared later. It was the name of the grandmother. His parents were hereditary pillar nobles.
His father was engaged in law, was one of the participants in the judicial reform carried out by Emperor Alexander II. Brother Sergey, a well-known poet and journalist in the province, died in 1912.
Education
He studied at the Perm gymnasium. During these years he published his first works in local periodicals. In the "Perm Provincial Gazette" came his obituary to the death of a class warden, and in the popular at that time "Journal for All" in 1896, the story "Father". Osorgin graduated from high school in 1897.
Immediately after that he entered Moscow University, at the Faculty of Law, deciding to follow in his father's footsteps. As a student, he did not leave the work of a journalist, mainly writing articles and essays for the Ural newspapers.
He became one of the participants in student unrest, for which he was expelled from Moscow back to Perm. He received a diploma in 1902. He joined the jury attorney at the Moscow Court of Justice. In parallel, he worked as a jury solicitor in a commercial, orphaned court, as well as a legal adviser. During this period, he published his first journalistic book - Workers' Compensation for Accidents.
Political Views
In 1903, the biography of Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin changes dramatically - he marries the daughter of the famous Narodnaya Volya Malikova. Then his political views formed.
Osorgin was a zealous critic of the autocracy, taking into account its origin and anarchist character, makes the decision to join the party of social revolutionaries. First of all, he supported the ideas of the Social Revolutionaries about supporting the peasantry, calls to respond to violence with violence and even terror.
Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin at his apartment in Moscow organized the gatherings of the members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party committee , and hid the terrorists. Moreover, he did not directly participate in the revolution, but actively participated in its preparation.
During the February Revolution, Osorgin’s apartment and cottage in the Moscow Region were used as meeting places for party functionaries, and Social Revolutionary appeal and slogans and party documents were drawn up and circulated here.
Osorgin himself took part only in the December uprising, which took place from December 20 to December 31, 1905. Then the fighting squads of the workers opposed the police, Cossacks, dragoons and the Semenovsky regiment. The uprising was crushed, reliable data on losses were not preserved.
Imprisonment and emigration
For participation in the uprising, Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin was arrested and imprisoned in Taganskaya prison. In conclusion, he spent about 6 months. He was saved only by bail. He was put in jail as a dangerous barricade player.
Barely freed, Osorgin immediately emigrated, as he was afraid of further prosecution. First he went to Finland, from there he soon moved to another Scandinavian country - Denmark. Then he lived in Germany, Switzerland.
He found a temporary refuge in Italy, in an immigrant commune near Genoa. In exile, Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin spent about 10 years. Books published during this period are devoted to life away from Russia, the most famous - "Essays on Modern Italy" - was published in 1913.
Life in exile
In exile, Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin briefly got acquainted with the basics of the work of futurists and was immediately inspired by their ideas. Especially he was impressed by the early representatives of this trend, determined as decisively as possible. His work in Italian futurism played a role in the development of this direction.
In 1913, another significant event takes place - Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin, whose personal life was almost upset by then, getting married for the second time. His chosen one is 17-year-old Rosa Gunzberg, for the sake of her he even accepts Judaism. Her father is the famous Jewish philosopher Ahad ha Ama.
Osorgin traveled extensively throughout Europe. He visited the Balkans, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia. In 1911, he publicly announced his disappointment with the ideas of the Social Revolutionaries and soon joined the Freemasons.
In exile, Osorgin continued to write for Russian magazines. His publications were published in "Russian Vedomosti", "Vestnik Evropy". In 1916, secretly returns to Russia and lives in Moscow.
February revolution
The year 1917 was enthusiastically received by Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin. The biography briefly notes that he accepted the February Revolution. He began to actively cooperate with the new government, became a member of the commission for the development of archives and political affairs, which worked closely with the security department. It was published in the literary and historical journal Voice of the Past.
At the same time, his works “Ghosts”, “Security Department and its Secrets”, “Tales and Not Tales” are published.
After the October revolution
Osorgin did not accept the victory of the Bolsheviks, becoming their ardent opponent. Because of this, in 1919 he was imprisoned. The writer was released only under the guarantee of the Union of Writers and the poet Baltrushaitis.
In 1921, he worked for a short time in the hunger strike commission. However, in August he was arrested again, this time Nansen rescued him. However, he was sent to Kazan. In 1922, he was expelled from the country on the so-called philosophical ship.
The second stage of life in exile began with Berlin, in 1923 Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin finally settled in Paris. Biography, the family of the writer was interested in his associates. Changes again occurred here, in 1926 he would marry for the third time - Tatyana Bakunina, who held the post of professor at the University of Paris.
Paris fate
Living in Paris, Osorgin retained Soviet citizenship until 1937. After he lived without official documents, since he did not receive French citizenship.
After the outbreak of World War II, Osorgin and his wife fled from occupied Paris and settled in the town of Shabri, not occupied by the Germans. Here he wrote his last significant works - “Letters of Insignificance” and “In a Quiet Place in France”. They condemn the outbreak of war, and also predicts the decline and even death of culture.
Creativity Osorgin
One of his most famous works, the novel Sivtsev Vrazhek, was released by Osorgin in 1928. The protagonists of the story are an old scientist, retired professor of ornithology Ivan Alexandrovich, as well as his granddaughter Tatyana. She lives with an elderly relative and in the course of the work turns from a young girl into a young bride.
This novel is also called the chronicle. This is illustrated by the fact that the story does not unfold in a strict storyline. In the center of "Sivtseva Vrazhka" - the house in which Professor Ivan Alexandrovich lives. Literary scholars compare it even with the microcosm. The image of the sun in the center of this universe is a table lamp in the scientist’s office.
Two main ideas in the work of Mikhail Osorgin are love for the world and craving for the world, at first glance, not the most important and ordinary things.
Passion for nature lies at the heart of a series of essays published by Osorgin in The Latest News under the pseudonym Everyman. They were later released as a separate book, The Incidents of the Green World. They show deep drama.
The second fundamental idea is the enthusiasm of Osorgin for collecting books and collecting. He owns a huge collection of domestic publications, a detailed list of which is presented in the Notes of the Old Bookworm, as well as in a collection of historical short stories, often criticized by representatives of the monarchist camp. They appeared in print in 1928-1934. Critics especially eagerly noted in them a disrespectful attitude towards the imperial family and the leadership of the Orthodox Church.
Pensne
In 1924, in Berlin, in the journal Days, one of the most famous stories was published, authored by Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin, Pensne.
The work begins with the statement that every thing in our world lives its own life. The author actively uses such a technique as impersonation. With its help, inanimate objects acquire human qualities. For example, the clock at Osorgin paces and coughs.
Another favorite technique of the author is a metaphor. With its help, he manages to give ordinary household things a special, unique character. The main character of the story is made by Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin pince-nez. A summary of the work describes its illustrative history.
As evidence that things sometimes live on their own, the author cites cases when household items first suddenly disappear, and then they are also unexpectedly. This playful proof in Osorgin's interpretation is similar to Murphy's law.
As an example, the author cites pince-nez, which disappeared at the most inopportune moment - during reading. His search gradually grew into a general cleaning of the whole house, but even when all the rooms shone with cleanliness, they could not find a pince-nez.
His companion comes to the aid of the narrator. They approach the matter in detail, draw a plan of the room indicating the places where the pince-nez could be, but all the searches are in vain.
In the finals, pince-nez is discovered quite by accident. Moreover, the very fact of his find is considered by the heroes as a completely natural event.
The narrator refers to pince-nez as an animate object that has its own character, needs and lives its own life. In the end, like any other living thing, pince-nez life comes to an end. It is dying. The finale is described very tragically, according to all the canons of the dramatic work. It died scattering into small fragments.
A unique and peculiar approach to the image and understanding of the essence of things makes this story noticeable in the work of Osorgin.
In the camp of the Masons
Starting to live in exile, in 1925 Osorgin participated in the organization of several Masonic lodges, while working under the auspices of the "Great East of France" - one of the oldest Masonic organizations. He was one of the leaders of the lodges "North Star" and "Free Russia", while holding officer posts. For example, he was a venerable master.
By 1938 he was a member of the chapter - the supreme council of the great collegium of the Ancient and the adopted Scottish charter.
He died and was buried in the French city of Chabri in 1942.