Yaroslav Gashek: biography and photos

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

I. Hasek wrote more than 1,500 works, but his most famous creation was The Good Soldier Schweik. In this perhaps the most hilarious novel of the century, the author managed to touch upon the most important problems of the century.

Biography of Yaroslav Hasek

April 30, 1883 in Prague, in the family of teacher Josef Hasek, a boy was born, he was named Yaroslav. Three years later, the son Boguslav was born. Gasheks came from an ancient rural family. The father of Katerzhina's mother was a watchman for the princes. The parents of the future writer met in the south of the Czech Republic in the city of Pisek and waited for their wedding for thirteen years, after which they moved to Prague.

The family's constant companions were worries and uncertainty about the future. Josef Hasek became hardened, began to drink, he needed a kidney operation, which he did not survive. Father died when Yaroslav was thirteen years old. The mother made a living by sewing linen. Due to difficulties in paying for housing, the family moved from place to place.

Perhaps, this is due to the fact that Yaroslav Gashek graduated from the first two classes of the gymnasium with honors, in the fourth he became a repeater, after which he left school with the permission of his mother. Together withraging crowd in 1897 took to the streets of Prague, shouting revolutionary slogans. The teenager was taken to the police, released only when they were convinced that the stones in the boy's pockets were part of the school collection.

School holidays

After leaving school, Gashek had a hard time, they were reluctant to take a job, and after working for some time in a pharmacy shop, Yaroslav enters a commercial school, graduating in 1902. Here he perfectly mastered the languages: Russian, Hungarian, Polish, German and French. After his second year, in the summer of 1900, he and classmate Jan Chulen went on a trip to Slovakia, which played an important role in the work of Jaroslav Hasek.

The next vacation in 1901 he spent with his brother, exploring the Tatras. The brothers were very proud of this ascent, about which they wrote to their cousin. Hasek's fellow student J. Gavlas publishes travel stories in the newspaper Narodni Listy. At the same time, Hasek began to write essays.

In 1902, Yaroslav again sets off on a trip to Slovakia, along with his friends J. Chulen and Viktor Yanota. Hasek no longer writes essays about nature, but moves on to “simple mountain dwellers” and writes stories. In October 1902, Yaroslav was hired by the Slavia Bank, but the first successes in literature prompted new wanderings, and he constantly tried to escape from bureaucratic life.

Looking for sketches

In 1903, a revolutionary movement began in the Balkans. Yaroslav Gashek immediately went toMacedonian rebels, but he failed to accomplish “military exploits”. For more than a year he wandered around Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, where he was repeatedly arrested for vagrancy. Finally returned to Prague. Everyone noted that he had changed beyond recognition - he began to drink slivovitz, smoke and even chew tobacco. Returning to the bank was out of the question.

In 1903, the future writer joined the anarchists, lived and worked in the editorial office of the Omladins magazine, and delivered publications to the mines on a bicycle. Having saved some money, he went on carefree wanderings around Europe - this time to Germany. In October 1904, the writer appeared on the streets of Prague.

In 1905, several budding writers, including Hasek, organized a circle and published the magazine Modern Belly. Roman, a policeman and cousin of Hasek, became the chairman of the circle. Yaroslav soon became a popular and most read humorist, filling the headings of newspapers, weeklies and magazines.

Private life

Yaroslav Gashek courted Yarmila for a long time, but her parents forbade them to see each other until he found a permanent job and dressed decently. In 1909, he proudly announces that he has found a permanent position - an assistant editor in the journal "The World of Animals" and "80 guilders a month", in addition to what he earns in other newspapers. A week later, Hasek happily informed Yarmila that her father had allowed him to marry her. They got married in May 1910.

At first, family life had a beneficial effect on his work. Yarmila understood that her husband was a creator andpainter. She wrote under his dictation, sometimes she herself completed the works he had begun. But soon Hasek began to disappear from the house and wander around the taverns. Gashek could not find a permanent job after “Light Zvirzhat”. With one friend, he opened an office for the sale of dogs "Cynological Institute". A friend repainted the mongrels, and they sold them as thoroughbreds. The company did not flourish for long, the owners filed a lawsuit against them. Last savings spent on lawyers and courts.

The father-in-law refused to help the young family and told his daughter to leave her unlucky husband. In 1912, Yarmila gave birth to a son, Richard. She returns to her parents. In 1919, in Russia, in the Ufa printing house, Yaroslav Gashek met Alexandra Gavrilova, in 1920 they registered a marriage in Krasnoyarsk.

Life is a game

Hashek perceived life as a game. After becoming editor of the animal magazine Svet Zvirzhat, he invented all sorts of tall tales that led to serious problems with scientific journals, and the owner hurried to fire the new editor. Hasek contributed to many magazines and newspapers and in 1911 was the most prolific Czech writer. Yaroslav Gashek has published more than 120 humoresques and feuilletons.

In the same year, the magazine "Karikatura", and then "Dobra Kopa" began to publish the stories of the soldier Schweik. They ridicule various types of troops, the formula "serve the sovereign at sea and air until the last breath" is a parody of the oath.

The then satires ridiculed the cruelty of the military, humiliation, but the hero of Hasek did not seem to notice them and performed his duties. But whatthe more seriously he took the service, the more insignificant and ridiculous was the very existence of the army. Thanks to this image, Hasek found an original view of the world and penetrated the very essence of this era.

Russian captivity

In February 1915, the writer Yaroslav Hasek was drafted into the army, in September he surrendered to Russian captivity and stayed in camps near Kyiv and Samara. In 1916 he joined the Czechoslovak Volunteer Regiment, and in 1918 he became a member of the Bolshevik Party. He worked in the political department of the Eastern Front, published in front-line newspapers, went with the army to Irkutsk.

In 1920, by decision of the Bureau of the Bolsheviks of Czechoslovakia, he left for Prague. Everyone turned away from him as a traitor. The police followed him, in addition, and the personal life of Yaroslav Hasek became the object of general attention - he was threatened with a trial for bigamy, since he did not formally divorce his first wife. In October 1922, Hasek bought his own house, but his he alth was deteriorating every day. He died in January 1923.

Writer's works

The themes of many books by Yaroslav Hasek are the church, the Austrian bureaucracy, the state school, unconditional military obedience, far-fetched charity. From 1900 to 1922, Hasek published under various pseudonyms over a thousand stories, essays and feuilletons, two novels and a children's story. A 16-volume book of the writer's works was published in the Czech Republic, among them:

• collection of poems "May Shouts", published in 1903;
• author's collection "The Sufferings of Pan Tenkrat", published in1912;
• The novel "The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik" was published in 1912;
• collection of humoresques “Guide for foreigners and other satires” (1913);
• satirical collection “My Dog Trade” (1915);
• Two Dozen Stories published in 1920;
• selected humoresques “Three Men and a Shark” (1921);
• collection “Pepichek Novy and Other Stories” (1921);
• “The Peace Conference and Other Humoresques” (1922).

Reviews from readers

Humor is a specific thing, especially in literature. It is difficult to make the reader laugh - there are no gestures or facial expressions in the book - that helps to perceive jokes. But this does not apply to the books of Yaroslav Hasek. On almost every page of any of his works - a bike or a story, one more hilarious than the other. Partly - laughter through tears, as the writer raises serious topics in his works, reveals human vices and makes fun of them very subtly.