Edvard Radzinsky: books, programs, plays and biography of the writer

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

A writer or a historian? Researcher or mystifier? Edward Radzinsky chose to write his books in a style that once brought recognition to the great Alexandre Dumas - the style of historical narration. However, unlike Radzinsky, Dumas never claimed to be an accurate chronicler. He created exclusively works of art, although he invested in them a fair amount of interpretation of the causes of significant historical events. And Edvard Radzinsky's books are replete with quotations of historical documents extracted by the author from dusty archives and repositories.

So what is it? A true story told in living language? Or just a good genre move that brings a lot of income? Be that as it may, no one will argue with the fact that under the skillful pen of the writer, historical figures who, thanks to the general education school curriculum, remained in memory at best as a combination of several dry dates and events, acquire flesh and blood and carry the reader into a whirlpool of real passions and accomplishments.

Becomingwriter

Edward Radzinsky was born in 1936. At the time of his childhood, the very height of Stalin's repressions fell. The future writer was already 17 years old when the great leader died. By that time, Edward was already a mature young man, able to understand and analyze what was happening around him. Moreover, he lived in Moscow itself and was brought up in the family of a playwright, which means that from an early age he rotated in the center of public life.

Soon the young man enters the Moscow Institute of History and Archives. Probably, already then an unquenchable thirst for knowledge of the events of bygone days began to manifest itself, which gnaws at the popular author to this day. Many hours were spent in dusty archives by an unknown student.

He was especially captivated by stories about Iosif Vissarionovich. Subsequently, Edvard Radzinsky will spend a whole decade on finalizing his biography (“Stalin” is a novel that, according to the author himself, he has been thinking about all his life).

However, the historical layers that the writer raises are by no means limited to just one or two centuries. It is not tied to any geographic area. Books by Edvard Radzinsky can take the reader away during the campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte, and to a concert to Mozart, and into the dark alleys of palaces during the reign of Nicholas II.

Career start

Writer Edward Radzinsky, whose biography in the literary aspect begins with a trial of writing in dramaturgy, wrote his first play in 1958. She had some success. The play was dedicated to G. Lebedev, a Russian scientist who studied the history and culture of India. This image was well known to the recent graduate, since his thesis was dedicated specifically to G. Lebedev.

Edvard Stanislavovich begins to learn how to derive practical benefit from information that remains absolutely unclaimed for the majority. He understands that with his enthusiasm he can turn boring facts into exciting stories. And this discovery inspires him.

Recognition

However, the new playwright's real fame comes with the production of "104 Pages About Love".

Soon he tries his hand at working as a screenwriter - in 1968, the black-and-white feature film "Once Again About Love" is released, which is a reworking of the play that the public loved.

From now on, the playwright, continuing to work on theatrical works, does not bypass the film industry. He is the screenwriter of seven television films. At the same time, his plays are gaining popularity not only in the vast expanses of the Soviet Union, but also abroad.

TV shows

In the 1990s, the situation in the country was changing rapidly. It was necessary to look for new sources of income, and Edvard Radzinsky understood this very well, although his films continued to be made, but it was paid once, and the profit from staging plays was rapidly falling, since most people at that time simply had no time for the theater.

And then he takes up the popularization of the story from the TV screen. He does not bother with any visual accompaniment, but simply sits in front of the camera in the studio and broadcasts the text in the form of a lecture.

However, these programs are successful. And, despite the fact that Radzinsky cannot even be considered a talented speaker, the information that he presented from the screen captured the viewers so much that the design flaws faded against its background.

The secret of popularity

Edvard Radzinsky likes to refer to the names that people hear - Nero, Socrates, Seneca, Casanova, Mozart, Napoleon, Nikolai Romanov, Stalin. He appeals to the undying interest that these personalities have aroused over the centuries. What is the secret of Mozart's genius? Why was Stalin able to stay in power? Why was the brutal murder of the entire royal family allowed?

However, the main ingredient of the historian's success is not in the questions "why?" and not even in the answers to these questions. The real talent of the writer is that he talks about historical figures as neighbors or close friends. They cease to be shadows from the past and turn into truly living people who want to empathize.

From TV shows to books

For a long time, Radzinsky hosted the program "Mysteries of History", for which he was awarded the "Tefi" award. Realizing that he had found the right direction, Edvard Radzinsky, whose “Mysteries of History” was gradually exhausted, moved on to writing historical novels.

Bsoon his novels become bestsellers and are published in many languages by major publishers. However, the attitude towards the works of Radzinsky remains extremely ambiguous. It's funny, but the very thing that helped him gain popularity, namely, the ability to vividly draw historical events, became the main reason for criticism.

Really, when reading his novels, at some point you involuntarily catch yourself thinking, is it really a historical reality or just a successful fiction?

Criticism

You can't say that the arguments of the critics are absolutely devastating, but you can't call them completely groundless either. Here is one example of the inaccuracy that Edvard Radzinsky made in his novel (“Napoleon: Life After Death”): after a conversation that took place in 1804 between Bonaparte and Fouche, the emperor lamented that “Byron and Beethoven denied him his former love. The incident is that by that time Byron was exactly 16 years old and the opinion of this boy, by no means, could excite Napoleon.

Such a discrepancy, no doubt, is forgivable for a writer, but Edvard Radzinsky claims to be a historian, and they are already being judged in a completely different way.

Detective elements

Another historical character whom Edward Stanislavovich paid worthy attention to is the last Emperor of All Russia. And in this work of his, another feature of the author is fully revealed, which helped him win such a widecircle of readers. This is an element inherent in the detective story - the illusion that the reader is slowly unraveling a complex case, relying on documents, evidence and available facts that Edward Radzinsky provides as he narrates.

Nicholas II and his family act here as victims of cold-blooded murder, and by the end of the novel, the reader gets a complete picture of the events that led to the execution of the emperor, who renounced the throne and did not offer the slightest resistance, the emperor with his wife, his young daughters and a sick minor son.

Bold theories

Edward Stanislavovich's approach to the conclusions he draws on the basis of the information received is interesting. It is clear that any, even the most meticulous historian, is forced to putty the gaps that are invariably present in the historical canvas with some kind of assumptions. However, Radzinsky's theories are quite unexpected.

For example, in one of his works, he cites a number of evidence that Tsarevich Alexei escaped after a bloody night of execution in the Ipatiev House. According to Radzinsky, Alexei Nikolaevich grew up safely and became an exemplary Soviet citizen, working out the required shifts at the plant. Of course, he had to change his name and he kept his origin a secret. But when they found him, he calmly and without pretensions presented evidence that he was really Romanov.

However, the author did not bother to explain how a boy with hemophilia, for whom literally anyscratch, was able wounded by gunshots to survive in the forest. He does not talk about how the Tsarevich could have survived to adulthood in general. This was unlikely even under the vigilant supervision of the best doctors in the royal family.

Summarizing the above, it can be noted that if you are writing a serious scientific work on history, it will probably be somewhat unprofessional to refer to the novels of Edvard Radzinsky as an authoritative primary source. But if you are just interested in history, it is worth reading his creations. If you treat them with a share of he althy skepticism, you can learn a lot of interesting things for yourself. So happy reading!