Korney Chukovsky, Soviet writer and poet: biography, family, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Korney Chukovsky is a famous Russian and Soviet poet, children's writer, translator, storyteller and publicist. In his family, he raised two more writers - Nikolai and Lydia Chukovsky. For many years he has been the most published children's writer in Russia. For example, in 2015, 132 of his books and brochures were published with a total circulation of almost two and a half million copies.

Childhood and youth

Korney Chukovsky was born in 1882. He was born in St. Petersburg. The real name of Korney Chukovsky at birth is Nikolai Korneychukov. Then he decided to take a creative pseudonym, under which almost all of his works were written.

His father was a hereditary honorary citizen, whose name was Emmanuil Levenson. The mother of the future writer Ekaterina Korneichukova was a peasant woman, and she ended up in the Levensons' house as a servant. The marriage of the parents of the hero of our article was not formalized, sincebefore that, it would be required to baptize the father, who by religion was a Jew. However, they still lived together for about three years.

It is noteworthy that Korney Chukovsky was not their only child. Before him, the couple had a daughter, Maria. Shortly after the birth of his son, Levenson left his common-law wife, marrying a woman from his entourage. Almost immediately after that, he moved to Baku. Chukovsky's mother and children were forced to leave for Odessa.

It was in this city that Korney Chukovsky spent his childhood, he left for Nikolaev for a short time with his mother and sister. From the age of five, Nikolai went to kindergarten, which was run by Madame Bekhteeva. As the writer himself later recalled, they mostly drew pictures and marched there.

For some time Kolya studied at the Odessa gymnasium, where his classmate was the future traveler and writer Boris Zhitkov. They even developed a sincere friendship. However, the hero of our article failed to graduate from the gymnasium; he was expelled from the fifth grade, as he himself claimed, due to his low birth. What actually happened is unknown; no documents relating to that period have been preserved. Chukovsky described the events of that time in his autobiographical novel en titled "The Silver Coat of Arms".

In the metric, neither Nikolai nor his sister Maria had a patronymic, since they were illegitimate. Therefore, in various pre-revolutionary documents, you can find variants Vasilyevich, Emmanuilovich, Stepanovich, Manuilovich and even Emelyanovich.

When Korneichukov began to write, he tookliterary pseudonym, to which, over time, Ivanovich added a fictitious patronymic. After the revolution, the name Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky became his official name.

Private life

In 1903, Chukovsky married Maria Goldfeld, who was two years older than him. They had four children. Nikolai was born in 1904. He was engaged in translations of poetry and prose, married the translator Maria Nikolaevna. The couple had a daughter, Natalia, in 1925. She became a microbiologist, Honored Scientist of Russia, Doctor of Medical Sciences. In 1933, Nikolai was born, who worked as a communications engineer, and in 1943 - Dmitry, in the future - the husband of the 18-time USSR tennis champion Anna Dmitrieva. In total, the children of Korney Chukovsky gave him five grandchildren.

In 1907, the hero of our article had a daughter, Lydia, a well-known Soviet dissident and writer. Her most significant work is "Notes on Anna Akhmatova", which recorded their conversations with the poetess, which Chukovskaya had for many years. Lydia has been married twice. First time for the historian of literature and literary critic Caesar Volpe, and then for the popularizer of science and mathematician Matvey Bronstein.

Thanks to Lydia, Korney Ivanovich has a granddaughter Elena Chukovskaya, a chemist and literary critic, laureate of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Prize. She died in 1996.

In 1910, the writer's son Boris was born, who died in 1941 shortly after the start of the Great Patriotic War. He was killed while returning from reconnaissance, not far from the Borodino field. Athe left behind his son Boris, a cameraman.

In 1920, Chukovsky had a second daughter, Maria, who became the heroine of most of his children's stories and poems. Her father often called her Murochka. At the age of 9, she contracted tuberculosis. Two years later, the girl died, until her death, the writer fought for the life of his daughter. In 1930 she was taken to the Crimea, for some time she remained in the famous children's bone-tuberculosis sanatorium, and then lived with Chukovsky in a rented apartment. She died in November 1931. For a long time her grave was considered lost. According to recent studies, it was possible to establish that, most likely, she was buried at the Alupka cemetery. The burial itself was even discovered.

Among the close relatives of the writer, one should also remember his nephew, mathematician Vladimir Rokhlin, who studied algebraic geometry and measure theory.

In journalism

Until the October Revolution, Korney Chukovsky, whose biography is given in this article, was mainly engaged in journalism. In 1901, he began writing notes and publications for the Odessa News. He was introduced to literature by his friend Vladimir Zhabotinsky, who was his guarantor at the wedding.

Almost immediately after his marriage, Chukovsky went as a correspondent to London, tempted by a high fee. He independently learned the language from a self-instruction manual, went to England with his young wife. In parallel, Chukovsky published in the "Southern Review", as well as in several Kyiv publications. However, fees from Russia came irregularly, life in London was hard, and the pregnant wife had to be sent back to Odessa.

The hero of our article himself returned to his homeland in 1904, soon plunging into the events of the first Russian revolution. He twice came to the battleship "Potemkin", embraced by an uprising, took letters from the sailors to their relatives.

In parallel, he takes part in the publication of a satirical magazine, along with such celebrities as Fyodor Sologub, Alexander Kuprin, Teffi. After the release of four issues, the publication was closed for disrespect for the autocracy. Soon the lawyers managed to get an acquittal, but Chukovsky still spent more than a week under arrest.

Meet Repin

An important stage in the biography of Korney Chukovsky is his acquaintance with the artist Ilya Repin and publicist Vladimir Korolenko. In 1906, the hero of our article approaches them in the Finnish town of Kuokkala.

It was Chukovsky who managed to convince Repin to take his literary works seriously, to publish a book of memoirs called "Far Close". In total, Chukovsky spent about ten years in Kuokkala. The famous handwritten humorous almanac "Chukokkala" appeared there, the name was suggested by Repin. Chukovsky led him until the very last days of his life.

During that period of his creative biography, the hero of our article is engaged in translations. Publishes adaptations of Whitman's poetry, which increases his popularity among writers. In addition, he turns into a fairly influential critic who criticizes contemporaryfiction writers, supports the work of futurists. In Kuokkale, Chukovsky meets Mayakovsky.

In 1916, he was sent to England as part of a delegation from the State Duma. Shortly after this trip, Paterson's book about the Jewish legion that fought in the British army is published. The preface to this edition is written by the hero of our article, who also edits the book.

After the October Revolution, Chukovsky continued to engage in literary criticism, releasing two of his most famous books in this industry - "Akhmatova and Mayakovsky" and "The Book of Alexander Blok." However, in the conditions of Soviet reality, engaging in criticism turns out to be a thankless task. He left criticism, which he later regretted more than once.

Literary criticism

As modern researchers note, Chukovsky had a real talent for literary criticism. This can be judged from his essays on Balmont, Chekhov, Gorky, Blok, Bryusov, Merezhkovsky and many others, which were published before the Bolsheviks came to power. In 1908, the collection "From Chekhov to the Present Day" was even published, which went through three reprints.

In 1917, Chukovsky takes on a fundamental work on his favorite poet Nikolai Nekrasov. He manages to publish the first complete collection of his poems, on which he finishes work only by 1926. In 1952, he published the monograph "Nekrasov's Mastery", a landmark for understanding the entire work of this poet. For her, Chukovsky was awarded the Lenin Prize.

It was after 1917 that they managed to publisha large number of Nekrasov's poems, which were previously banned due to tsarist censorship. Chukovsky's merit lies in the fact that he put into circulation about a quarter of the texts written by Nekrasov. In the 1920s, it was he who discovered the prose texts of the famous poet. These are "The Thin Man" and "The Life and Adventures of Tikhon Trosnikov".

It is noteworthy that Chukovsky studied not only Nekrasov, but many writers of the 19th century. Among them were Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Sleptsov.

Artwork for children

The passion for fairy tales and poems for children, which made Chukovsky so popular, came to him relatively late. By that time, he was already a well-known and accomplished literary critic, many knew and loved the books of Korney Chukovsky.

Only in 1916, the hero of our article wrote his first fairy tale "Crocodile" and released a collection called "Christmas Trees". In 1923, the famous fairy tales "Cockroach" and "Moidodyr" were published, and a year later "Barmalei.

"Moydodyr" by Korney Chukovsky was written two years before publication. Already in 1927, a cartoon based on this story was made, later animated films were released in 1939 and 1954.

In "Moidodyr" by Korney Chukovsky, the story is told from the perspective of a little boy, from whom all his things suddenly start to run away. The situation is explained by a washbasin named Moidodyr, who explains to the child that all things run away from him only because he is dirty. By orderpowerful Moidodyr, soap and brushes pounce on the boy and forcibly wash him.

The boy breaks free and runs out into the street, followed by a washcloth, which is eaten by a strolling Crocodile. After the Crocodile threatens to eat the child himself if he does not start to take care of himself. The poetic tale ends with a hymn to purity.

Classics of children's literature

The poems of Korney Chukovsky, written during this period, become classics of children's literature. In 1924 he wrote "Fly-sokotukha" and "Wonder Tree". In 1926 Korney Chukovsky's "Fedorino Grief" appeared. This work, by design, is similar to "Moydodyr". In this fairy tale by Korney Chukovsky, the main character is Fyodor's grandmother. All dishes and kitchen utensils run away from her, because she did not follow them, did not wash and clean her house on time. There are many famous adaptations of the works of Korney Chukovsky. In 1974, Natalia Chervinskaya filmed the cartoon of the same name for this fairy tale.

In 1929, the writer writes a fairy tale in verse about Dr. Aibolit. Korney Chukovsky chose as the main character of his work a doctor who goes to Africa to treat sick animals on the Limpopo River. In addition to the cartoons of Natalia Chervinskaya in 1973 and David Cherkassky in 1984, this fairy tale by Korney Chukovsky was made into a film by Vladimir Nemolyaev based on a script by Evgeny Schwartz in 1938. And in 1966, a comedy art-house adventure musical film by Rolan Bykov "Aibolit-66" was released.

Renunciation ofown creations

Children's books by Korney Chukovsky of this period were published in large editions, but were not always considered to meet the tasks of Soviet pedagogy, for which they were constantly criticized. Among editors and literary critics, the term "Chukovshchina" even arose - this is how most of the poems of Korney Chukovsky were designated. The writer agrees with the criticism. On the pages of Literaturnaya Gazeta, he renounces all his children's works, declaring that he intends to start a new stage in his work by writing a collection of poems "Merry Collective Farm", but he never finished it.

By coincidence, his youngest daughter fell ill with tuberculosis almost simultaneously with his renunciation of his works in Literaturnaya Gazeta. The poet himself considered her fatal illness a retribution.

Memoirs and War Tales

In the 30s, a new hobby appeared in Chukovsky's life. He studies the child's psyche, especially how babies learn to speak. As a literary critic and poet, Korney Ivanovich is extremely interested in this. His observations of children and their verbal creativity are collected in the book From Two to Five. Korney Chukovsky, this psychological and journalistic study, published in 1933, begins with a chapter on children's language, conducting numerous examples of incredible phrases that babies use. He calls them "stupid absurdities." At the same time, he talks about the amazing talent of children to perceive a huge number ofnew elements and words.

Literary critics have come to the conclusion that his research in the field of children's word formation has become a serious contribution to the development of Russian linguistics.

In the 1930s, the Soviet writer and poet Korney Chukovsky wrote memoirs, which he did not leave until the end of his life. They are published posthumously under the title "Diaries 1901-1969".

When the Great Patriotic War began, the writer was evacuated to Tashkent. In 1942, he wrote a fairy tale in verse "Let's overcome Barmaley!". In fact, this is a military chronicle of the confrontation between the small country of Aibolitia and the animal kingdom of Ferocity, which is filled with scenes of violence, ruthlessness towards the enemy, and calls for revenge. At that moment, just such a work was in demand by readers and the country's leadership. But when in 1943 there was a turning point in the war, outright persecution began against the tale itself and its author. In 1944, it was even banned and was not reprinted for more than 50 years. In our time, most critics admit that "Let's defeat Barmaley!" - one of the main creative failures of Chukovsky.

In the 1960s, the hero of our article plans to publish a retelling of the Bible for children. The work was complicated by the anti-religious position of the Soviet authorities that existed at that time. For example, the censors demanded that the words "Jews" and "God" not be mentioned in this work. As a result, the magician Yahweh was invented. In 1968, the book was still published by the publishing house "Children's Literature" under the name "The Tower of Babel and other ancientlegends".

But the book never went on sale. At the last moment, the entire print run was confiscated and destroyed. As one of its authors, Valentin Berestov, later claimed, the reason was the cultural revolution that had begun in China. The Red Guards criticized Chukovsky for littering children's heads with "religious nonsense".

Recent years

Chukovsky spent his last years at his dacha in Peredelkino. He was a universal favorite, receiving all sorts of literary awards. At the same time, he managed to maintain contacts with dissidents - Pavel Litvinov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In addition, one of his daughters became a prominent human rights activist and dissident.

He constantly invited the surrounding children to his dacha, read poetry for them, talked about all sorts of things, invited celebrities, among whom were poets, writers, pilots and famous artists. Those who attended these meetings in Peredelkino still remember them with kindness and warmth, even though many years have passed since then.

Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky died of viral hepatitis in 1969 in the same place, in Peredelkino, where he lived most of his life. He was 87 years old. Buried at the local cemetery.