Biography and work of Alexander Gladkov

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

In 1962 Ryazanov's comedy "The Hussar Ballad" was released on Soviet screens. The film gained wide popularity. First of all, thanks to the songs that sounded in it. A significant role in the success of the picture was played by the script written based on the heroic poem by Alexander Gladkov. What other plays came from the pen of this playwright? The topic of the article is the biography and work of the writer.

Family and early years

Gladkov Alexander Konstantinovich was born in 1912 in the city of Murom. His father was an engineer. Since 1917, Konstantin Gladkov held the post of head of the city, but after the revolution, for unknown reasons, he abandoned it. The future playwright was thirteen years old when the family moved to Moscow. In the capital, he graduated from a labor school.

The beginning of creative activity

For some time the hero of this article worked in the theater as a director. The writing (or rather, journalistic) career of Alexander Gladkov began in the editorial office of the newspaper"Movie". At the end of the twenties, he collaborated with other publications, namely: Komsomolskaya Pravda, Worker and Art, Worker Moscow, Soviet Theater, New Spectator. At this time, Gladkov struck up friendly relations with prominent theatrical figures: playwright Alexei Arbuzov, director Valentin Pluchek, actor Isidor Stock. From 1934 he worked at the Meyerhold Theater. Collaboration and friendship with this talented director later played a fatal role in the life of Alexander Gladkov.

Artworks

Before 1955, the playwright wrote the following plays:

• "A long time ago".
• "Immortal".
• "Sassy".
• "Unknown sailor".
• "Latest method".
• "Cruel Affair".
• "See you soon".
• "First Symphony".
• "Night Sky".
• "Youth of the theater".

The comedy in verse "A long time ago" Gladkov composed in 1940. Twenty-two years later, the film "The Hussar Ballad" was created on it.

A long time ago

Everyone who watched the famous comedy by Eldar Ryazanov knows that the play depicts the events of the Patriotic War of 1812. Gladkov's work has been translated into several languages. For many years, the play has been staged not only in Russia, but also abroad. The first director to use it as materialfor the theatrical production, was Alexei Popov, who was awarded the Stalin Prize for this work.

The premiere took place in November 1941 in besieged Leningrad. The author himself said later that he had nurtured the idea of the play for many years. As a child, his favorite books were Captain Grant's Children and, surprisingly, War and Peace. The events of 1812, depicted by Tolstoy, and the adventure motifs characteristic of the prose of Jules Verne - all this was surprisingly intertwined in the mind of the future playwright. When he became an adult, he was able to realize his old dream: to write about the patriotism of Russian soldiers, but easily, cheerfully. Gladkov managed to create one of the best works dedicated to the theme of the Patriotic War.

Arrest

In 1948 Alexander Gladkov wrote the play "Until we meet again". But its production was realized only seven years later. In the work of Gladkov, according to representatives of the Soviet censorship, there was no ideological content. In addition, at home, as it turned out later, he kept literature falling under the dubious category of "forbidden." There was nothing criminal in these books. But this was enough to bring charges of anti-Soviet activities.

The playwright was arrested and sent to a camp. But people lived there too. Ordinary, the same as in freedom, thirsty for "bread and circuses." Gladkov was appointed director of the camp theater.

He was released after Stalin's death. I could shorten my term if I renounced Meyerhold,who was shot in 1938. But Alexander Konstantinovich did not refuse this friendship. Nor did he renounce his brother, who was arrested in 1937.

Gladkov Alexander is a screenwriter, based on whose works the films "The Incredible Yehudiel Khlamida", "The Green Carriage", "Returned Music" were created. He wrote several documentaries dedicated to Vsevolod Meyerhold, as well as to his other outstanding contemporaries (B. Pasternak, O. Mandelstam, Y. Olesha).

Five years after his release, Gladkov was reinstated in the Writers' Union. The playwright died in 1976, in Moscow. In 2015, the diaries of Alexander Gladkov were published, which were met with interest by readers.