Elena Caesarevna Chukovskaya gained fame as a literary critic and chemist. Her life was influenced by World War II, perestroika, and other difficult and bright periods in the history of Russia.
Early childhood
On August 6, 1931, a daughter was born into the family of Caesar Samoilovich Volpe and Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya, who was named Elena. A few years after birth, the parents divorced, the mother almost immediately marries Matvey Bronstein.
Elena was born in Leningrad. However, in her early childhood, she spent little time in this city. In 1937, the Soviet theoretical physicist was arrested; after a short trial, the death sentence was executed. The policy of the leading party in relation to persons who were found guilty determined the possibility of arrest and close relatives, in this case, Elena’s mother. That is why Lidia Korneevna Chukovskaya decided to leave Leningrad and went to live for a while with her father Korney Chukovsky.
Life in Tashkent
During the war, Elena Cezarevna, along with her mother, was immediately evacuated to Tashkent. A cousin goes with them.
Student years
Elena chooses chemistry as the main focus of her professional career and, after the end of the war in 1948, enters the chemistry department of the State Institute in Moscow. At this moment, her grandfather is working on the manuscript almanac "Chukokkala", in which the granddaughter helps him during the illness.
That grandfather had a lot of influence on the future literary critic. In his personal diary, Korney Chukovsky noted that his granddaughter is well organized and clearly separates the good from the bad.
Professional activity
After 6 years of training, Elena Chukovskaya, whose family was going through hard times, graduated from university in 1954. Almost immediately, she was hired by the Research Institute of Organoelement Compounds, where she worked until 1987.
Throughout her work, she showed herself to be a talented chemist. Under the leadership of R. Kh. Freidlina in 1962, Chukovskaya defended a dissertation related to obtaining the degree of candidate of chemical sciences.
In the course of career development, several scientific works related to organic chemistry were written, Elena became a co-author of the monograph.
Choice of the Faculty of Chemistry
In one of her interviews, Elena Chukovskaya talked about how she became a chemist. According to her, the choice was largely random. It was due to the fact that the school was finished in 1949 - a terrible time for the humanities. Her mother and grandfather experienced quite a lot of problems, who were expelled from everywhere, and their works were not published. The current circumstances prompted me to choose a practical sphere of activity.
For Elena, the work of her grandfather "Chukokkala" has become truly fateful. It was after the death of the writer and the inheritance of the almanac that the publishing house "Art" turned to her, and the preparation of the work for publication began. At that time, literary work became a favorite: it was interesting for a chemist by profession to work with archives and notes, to restore works. It was during this period that she met Solzhenitsyn. Some time after the confiscation of the archives, Alexander Isaevich lived first in the country, and then in the apartment of Chukovsky.
An interesting fact can be called the fact that during the life of his grandfather, Elena Chukovskaya was not involved in his affairs. After inheriting the archive, she devoted her future life to its preservation and publishing. Quite a lot of experience as a literary critic was obtained at the time of the independent publication and distribution of the works of Solzhenitsyn, who constantly lived in Ryazan. Even under the threat of arrest and expulsion from the country, the works were published on a private basis and clandestinely distributed in the capital and other cities of the USSR.
Activities of a literary critic
Despite the great enthusiasm in the field of knowledge of chemistry, as well as active professional activity, Elena Chukovskaya draws quite a lot of attention to the literature. As previously noted, as a child, her grandfather influenced her, he formed in Elena a love of literature of various genres.
After meeting Solzhenitsyn and his works, Elena Chukovskaya begins to provide him with various kinds of assistance. They began to communicate in the early 1960s and continued even after Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the USSR.
Solzhenitsyn about Elena Caesarevna Chukovskaya
In the essay “Calf butted with an oak tree,” Solzhenitsyn, in a separate section entitled “Invisibles,” spoke about help from various people in difficult times. In this section, he talks in more detail about his communication with Elena at the time of his stay in the USSR under the threat of arrest.
Being a successful chemist, Elena Chukovskaya, whose biography was never easy and cloudless, transmitted parcels, organized meetings with the right people, interviewed various witnesses to publicize the government’s illegal actions against Solzhenitsyn, and reprinted five volumes over 3 years. According to the writer, she was mentally prepared for his arrest, which could affect his entire close circle of friends, but was not afraid of anything. In case of arrest, she even prepared for herself a certain policy of behavior, which was based on the fact that the main thing is not to get confused in the testimonies and nothing needs to be denied. In the essay, it was noted that if arrested, Elena would have indicated the promotion of Russian literature as grounds for her help.
An interesting fact is that they did not agree on many issues, but despite this, Chukovskaya helped Solzhenitsyn whenever possible.
The death of K.I. Chukovsky
Died K.I. Chukovsky in 1968. All rights to archives and literary works were inherited by his daughter and granddaughter. However, despite the transfer of rights, a lot of problems for the heirs were with the publication of "Chukokkala", which Elena wrote during her student years. The first edition was released in 1979, and only in the late 90s the almanac was reissued in full.
The history of the struggle for publication has dragged on for many years. The essay "Memoir on Chukokkale" was dedicated to this period. It reflects how the people who surrounded the writer in his last years of his life tried to challenge the rights in the almanacs and Chukovsky’s decision to betray his labors to his daughter and granddaughter.
House Museum of Korney Chukovsky
In Peredelkina, where the author of Chukokkala lived, a house museum was created dedicated to his life and work. At the time of death and in the subsequent period, authorities did not pay attention to the desire of people to preserve the writer's work and history, but his granddaughter and daughter put a lot of effort into opening and maintaining the museum. Even now, after the death of his granddaughter, he continues to work.
The first guides were the granddaughter and Klara Izrailevna Lozovskaya - the personal secretary of the writer.
In 1996, his mother, Elena Cezarevna Chukovskaya, dies. After her death, she begins to work on her archive and publication of works. J. O. Khavkina helps her in this.
Publications by Elena Cezarevna Chukovskaya
The most famous works that began to be published since 1974 are as follows:
- "Return Solzhenitsyn citizenship of the USSR." The publication was released in 1988. It is based on personal communication with the writer, an assessment of his character and worldview.
- A collection of articles about Solzhenitsyn, which were written together with Vladimir Gloritser. The collection "The Word is Making Its Way" was released in 1998.
- Memories of Boris Pasternak (1988).
As previously noted, communication with Solzhenitsyn had a great influence on the life of Chukovskaya. This is reflected in her creative activities.
Most of the time in the last years of her life she devoted to the preparation and publication of works that were written by her mother and grandfather. Her reverent attitude to the archive led to the publication of such works as The Poet's House, Dash, The Diary of Korney Chukovsky, as well as the personal correspondence of his father and daughter, which concerned creative activities.
Quite a lot of works were published, which were comments on the work of their relatives. In order to understand some works, you need to know what period of life they were written.
Elena Chukovskaya: personal life
Almost nothing is known about the personal life of Elena Caesarevna Chukovskaya. All the interviews she gave in the last years of her life were related only to her work as a literary critic. Elena Caesarevna Chukovskaya, whose personal life is covered by a veil of secrecy, after the death of her grandfather and mother put all her energy into the work of restoring the family archive. It is only known that she has no children; she has never officially married.
Elena Chukovskaya: a funeral
Elena Caesarevna passed away on January 3, 2015 in Moscow at the 83rd year of her life. She was buried at the Peredelkino cemetery, next to the graves of her mother, grandmother and grandfather. Farewell fell on the Orthodox Christmas holiday, the ceremony was organized in the House of Russian Abroad. Even with Solzhenitsyn, Elena did not agree on issues relating to faith. Maybe that’s why, or because of the Orthodox holiday, a church service was not held.