Wolf Ehrlich: biography, photo. Wolf Erlich and Yesenin

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

The beginning of the Soviet era in our country was marked by the appearance of many works of literature written by famous and still little-known authors. One of these talents was the Soviet poet Wolf Erlich, whose work we will talk about in more detail.

For modern readers, this name is almost unknown, but contemporaries were well aware of the bright and piercing verse terms of this poet.

What is this man remembered for?

We will try to answer this question.

Childhood and youth of the poet

Wolf Ehrlich was born in the city of Simbirsk in 1902. His father was a pharmacist, his mother was a housewife. The poet's surname comes from the Hebrew language and means "God-fearing person".

It was very difficult for the future poet, as a native of a Jewish family, to prove his right to receive a higher education. And since childhood, the boy dreamed of both a career and literary glory. He brilliantly graduated from the gymnasium, entered Kazan University, but he failed to get a diploma from this prestigious institution: the Civil War began, which dramatically changed the life of a provincial youth.

Wolf Ehrlich entered the Red Army, but he did not have to fight as a simple soldier. Showinghis education, he was appointed to the post of secretary of the pedagogical laboratory of the education department.

After the end of the war, he moved to the then post-revolutionary Petrograd, decided to continue his studies, entered the literary and artistic department of Petrograd University, but was expelled for poor progress.

In the same years, the young poet became close friends with the circle of Imagists, trying to establish himself in the literary field.

Literary successes

Since 1926, Wolf Ehrlich began to publish his works in print, one after another he published collections of poems. Among them are books called "In the Village", "Arsenal", "Wolf Sun" and others.

Three years later (in 1929) he publishes his poem dedicated to the revolutionary populist Sofya Perovskaya, who organized the assassination of Emperor Alexander. His poems are published in popular literary magazines of the time, such as "Red Night", "Star", "Literary Contemporary".

Wolf Iosifovich Erlich becomes a member of the newly organized writers' union. Already at the end of the 20s, he was fond of translations, translated a lot from the Armenian language.

Mature years

Erlich combines literary activity with hard work for the benefit of the Bolshevik Party.

So, since 1925, he has been filling up the position, which was called "Chekist". It was the post of responsible duty officer at the Leningrad Soviet.

Erlich later works as an editor for several literary magazines, working onscreenplays.

His life ends tragically. The reason for this was the repressions that Stalin consistently carried out among the old Bolsheviks. In 1937, the poet was arrested, sentenced under the infamous article number 58 to death, the sentence was carried out in the same year.

Love for Armenia

Wolf Erlich wrote many poems during his life, his biography reveals to us the sources of his creative inspiration. And one of them was Armenia.

Erlich made his first trip to this land together with N. Tikhonov in the 20s. He fell in love with the beauty of these places. The poet later wrote in letters to his relatives that he had never seen anything better.

The poet created a whole cycle of poems about Armenia, which were then included in his collections "Alagez stories", "Armenia" and others.

Throughout his subsequent life, the poet sought to come to these parts. Here he was arrested. Friends believed that he was arrested by accident. On this day, he came to visit an Armenian family, the feast lasted until late in the evening, and at night the NKVD officers came to arrest the hosts. Together with everyone, Erlich was also arrested. For a long time nothing was known about his fate. Only in 1956 did his relatives receive a conclusion on his posthumous rehabilitation.

Friendship with S. Yesenin

Wolf Erlich and Yesenin were friends, they were united by a common participation in the activities of the “order” of the Imagists, common interests and views on literature. Erlich often supported his talented friend, engaged inissues of publishing his works, organized joint poetry evenings.

Arriving in Leningrad in December 1925, Yesenin wanted to stay with Erlich, but then changed his mind and rented a room in the infamous hotel in the city center. He gave Erlich his farewell poem "Goodbye, my friend," which he asked to read at home.

Erlich fulfilled the request, but when he read the poem at home, he saw that its lines were written in blood. He rushed back to the hotel, but Yesenin was already dead.

After the discovery of the body of Sergei Yesenin in the hotel Erlich helped organize the funeral. He also spoke at the trial, where he spoke out in support of the version of suicide, presenting the text of Yesenin's last poem.

Some modern literary critics differently assess the role of Erlich in the fate and death of Yesenin. Some accuse him of being an agent of the GPU, so his relationship with the great poet was not friendship, but banal surveillance. It is difficult to answer anything to these people after so many years since the death of both Yesenin and Erlich himself. Yesenin's lines remain the only answer, in which he refers to Erlich as a close friend.

The meaning of the poet's creative path

Many contemporaries remember Wolf Ehrlich. His photo, taken in 1928, betrays in him a modest person who knows the value of his word.

His contemporaries believed that the tragic death of Wolf cut short not only his life, but also his future literary successes. Ehrlich's talent could still be revealed in full, the poet was full of creative strength and hopes, but he could not realize them, partly sharing the sad fate of people of his generation who went through the crucible of the civil war, full of faith in the possibility of building a socialist society of prosperity, who made mistakes on the field of building a new state, but faced with an inevitable and terrible reality that led them to death.