Nina Berberova: biography, works

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

Nina Berberova is a woman who can be called one of the brightest 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 either. 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) - poetess, writer, literary critic. She was born in Saint Petersburg on July 26, 1901. The Berberov family was quite we althy: her 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 the 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"Ushkuiniki" 1922. Thanks to the first works, she was accepted in the poetic circles of Petrograd. So there was her acquaintance with many poets, including V. Khodasevich, whose wife soon became Nina Nikolaevna. 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.

Stories and novels by Berberova

Nina Berberova was an employee of the Latest News newspaper and its regular contributor. In the period from 1928 to 1940. she published in it a series of stories "Biankur 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 factory, drunkards, beggars, declassed eccentrics and street singers. In this cycle, the influence of the early A. Chekhov, as well as M. Zoshchenko, is felt. However, they had a lot of their own.

Before the closure of the newspaper "Latest News" in 1940, the following novels by Berberova appeared in it: in 1930 - "Last and First", in 1932 - "The Lady", in 1938 - "Without Sunset". It was they who determined the reputation of Nina Nikolaevna asprose.

Relief

Criticism noted the closeness of Berberova's prose works to French novels, as well as the seriousness of Nina Nikolaevna's attempt to create an "image of the emigrant world" in an epic refraction. Life abroad, the social landscape of the "underground" (outskirts) determined the sound of "Relief". This cycle of stories was published in the 1930s. And in 1948, a book of the same name was published as a separate edition. In this cycle, the theme of homelessness was born, which is important for Berberova's work as a whole. At the same time, homelessness was perceived by Nina Nikolaevna not as a tragedy, but as the destiny of a person of the 20th century, free from adherence to his "nest", which ceased to be a symbol of "life strength", "charm" and "protection".

Last and first

In "Last and First", however, an attempt to build such a "nest" was described. Forbidding 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 had to return a sense of cultural identity to its participants. It should be noted that before Berberova, almost no one described the life and way of life, the aspirations and dreams of ordinary Russian emigrants in a fictional way. Subsequently, the theme of building a peasant community was not developed in the works of Berberova. However, it remained woven into her biography. Nina Nikolaevna lived during the years of occupation on a small farm, where she was engaged in peasant labor.

"Lady" and"Without sunset"

"The Lady" is Nina Nikolaevna's second novel. It was published in 1932. The work talks about the details of the life of emigrant youth belonging to the third generation. In 1938, the third novel appeared - "Without sunset". Before readers and heroes, it raised the question of how and how to live an emigrant woman from Russia. The unequivocal answer to it is as follows: only mutual love can give happiness. Criticism noted that these stories, artificially connected with each other, are instructive, sharp, entertaining, and sometimes captivate with unfeminine vigilance towards people and things. The book has many beautiful lyrical lines, bright pages, significant and deep thoughts.

Move to 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 range of Nina Nikolaevna's literary 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”) cannot imagine life outside of Russian traditions. The loss of one's country results in the loss of God. However, the spiritual and worldly disasters that she is experiencing are interpreted as a liberation from the shackles of traditional institutions that held the world order that collapsed with the revolution.

Two books about composers

Nina Berberova published books about composers before the war. These works are documentary and biographical in nature. 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 covered 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 outstanding destinies and individuals. The highest achievement of Nina Nikolaevna on this path was the book "Iron Woman" that appeared in 1981. This is a biography of Baroness M. Budberg. Her life was closely connected first with M. Gorky, and then with H. Wells.

Berberova, doing without "decorations" born of the imagination and fiction, managed to create a vivid portrait of an adventurer. M. Budberg belonged to a type of people who, according to Berberova, especially clearly expresses the typical features of the 20th century. In a merciless time, she was an exceptional woman. She did not succumb to the demands of the era, which forced her to forget about moral precepts and live simply in order to survive. The story, built on letters, documents, eyewitness accounts, as well as on the author's own memories of meetings with the heroine and reflections on the course of history, spans almost half a century. Heends with a description of the trip that Budberg made in 1960, when she went to the disgraced Boris Pasternak in Moscow.

My italics

In 1969, in English, and then in Russian (in 1972), Nina Berberova's autobiography "My Italics" was published. Looking back at her own life, Nina Nikolaevna sees "recurring themes" in it, 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 memoirs (especially about Khodasevich), as well as analyzes of the work of Russian writers abroad (G. Ivanov, Nabokov and others).

Berberova Nina Nikolaevna came to Russia in 1989, 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 literature about her is already quite impressive.