Poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko: biography and creativity

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

Yevgeny Yevtushenko (see photo below) is a Russian poet. He also gained fame as a screenwriter, publicist, prose writer, director and actor. The surname of the poet at birth is Gangnus.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko: biography

The poet was born in the city of Zima, Irkutsk Region, on July 18, 1932. His father, a B altic German by origin, Gangnus Alexander Rudolfovich, was an amateur poet. Mother, Evtushenko Zinaida Ermolaevna, was a geologist, actress, honored worker of culture. After returning to Moscow from evacuation in 1944, she gave her son her maiden name.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko began to be published in 1949, his very first poem was published in Soviet Sport. In 1952-1957. he studied at the Maxim Gorky Literary Institute, but was expelled for supporting Dudintsev's novel "Not by Bread Alone" and "disciplinary sanctions."

In 1952 Yevtushenko's first book of poems was published under the title Scouts of the Future. Later, the author called her immature and youthful. In the same 1952, Eugene, bypassing the candidate stage, became the youngest member of the Writers' Union.

During the 1950s-1980s,characterized by a real poetic boom, Yevgeny Yevtushenko entered the arena of colossal popularity along with B. Akhmadulina, B. Okudzhava, A. Voznesensky, R. Rozhdestvensky. They infected the whole country with their enthusiasm, independence, freshness, informality were felt in their work. The performances of these authors gathered large stadiums, and soon the poetry of the "thaw" period began to be called pop.

Creativity Essay

The poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko is the most "loud" lyricist of the galaxy of poets of that time. He published many collections of poems that gained popularity. These are "Highway of Enthusiasts", and "Tenderness", and "Third Snow", and "Apple", and "Promise", and others.

His works are distinguished by a variety of genres and a wide range of moods. The first line of the introduction to the 1965 poem "Bratskaya HPP" "A poet in Russia is more than a poet" has become a catchphrase that has steadily come into use, and a manifesto of Yevtushenko's creativity.

Subtle, intimate lyrics are not alien to him (for example, the 1955 poem “It used to be that a dog was sleeping at his feet”). In the 1977 poem "Northern allowance" Yevtushenko composes an ode to beer. Several cycles of poems and poems are devoted to anti-war and foreign topics: “Corrida”, “Mom and the Neutron Bomb”, “Under the Skin of the Statue of Liberty”, etc.

The stage performances of the poet have become famous: he successfully recites his own works. Yevgeny Yevtushenko, whose biography is very rich, has released several audio books and CDs in his performance (“Berry Places” andothers).

1980s-1990s

In 1986-1991. Yevtushenko was a secretary on the board of the Writers' Union, and since December 1991 he was appointed secretary on the board of the Commonwe alth of Writers' Unions. Since 1988 - a member of the Memorial Society, since 1989 - co-chairman of the April Writers Association.

In May 1989 he was elected a people's deputy from the Dzerzhinsky IO of Kharkov and worked in this position until the collapse of the Union.

In 1991 Yevgeny Yevtushenko signed a contract with a university in the American city of Tulsa (Oklahoma) and went there to teach. The poet lives in the USA to this day.

He alth condition

In 2013, Yevgeny Alexandrovich had his leg amputated. In December 2014, the poet became ill when he was on tour in Rostov-on-Don, and he was hospitalized due to a sharp deterioration in he alth.

August 24, 2015, the poet was fitted with a pacemaker to correct his heart rhythm problems.

Criticism

The manner and literary style of Yevtushenko provided a large field of activity for criticism. Often he was reproached for pathos rhetoric, glorification, hidden self-praise.

Joseph Brodsky, in an interview in 1972, spoke very negatively about Yevtushenko as a person and a poet. He described Yevgeny as "a huge factory for the reproduction of himself."

Private life

Officially, Yevtushenko was married four times. His first wife was Bella Akhmadulina (since 1954). They often fought, but quickly reconciled,because they loved each other selflessly. When Bella became pregnant, Eugene asked her to have an abortion, as he was not ready for the role of a father. On this basis, the stars of Soviet literature divorced. Then, in 1961, Galina Sokol-Lukonina became Yevtushenko's wife. The woman could not have children, and in 1968 the couple adopted a boy named Peter. Since 1978, his passionate Irish admirer Jen Butler has become the poet's wife. In marriage with her, sons Anton and Alexander were born. Currently, Yevtushenko's wife is Maria Novikova, born in 1962. They met in 1987, when Maria, who at that time had just graduated from medical school, approached the poet to ask for an autograph for her mother. Five months later they got married. The couple has two sons: Dmitry and Eugene. Thus, the poet has five sons in total.

Yevtushenko himself says that he was lucky with all the wives, and only he is to blame for divorces. The 83-year-old poet has something to remember, because he broke a lot of women's hearts!