Konstantin Paustovsky: biography, works, photos

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

The writer and classic of Soviet and Russian literature K. G. Paustovsky was born on May 19, 1892. And before getting acquainted with his biography, it should be noted that he was a member of the Writers' Union of the USSR, and his books were translated into different languages of the world. From the middle of the 20th century, his works began to be studied in Russian literature in secondary schools. Konstantin Paustovsky (the photo of the writer is presented below) had many awards - prizes, orders and medals.

Reviews about the writer

Secretary Valery Druzhbinsky, who worked for the writer Paustovsky in 1965-1968, wrote about him in his memoirs. What surprised him most of all was that this famous writer managed to live through a period of constant praise of Stalin without writing a word about the leader. Paustovsky also managed not to join the party and not to sign a single letter or denunciation stigmatizing any of those with whom he communicated. And even vice versa, when the writers A. D. Sinyavsky and Yu. M. Daniel were judged, Paustovsky openly supported them and spoke positively about their work. Moreover, in 1967 KonstantinPaustovsky supported Solzhenitsyn's letter, which was addressed to the Fourth Congress of Soviet Writers, where he demanded the abolition of censorship in literature. And only then, the terminally ill Paustovsky sent a letter to the Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers A. N. Kosygin in defense of the director Taganka Yu. P. Lyubimov with a plea not to fire him, and this order was not signed.

Konstantin Paustovsky: biography

To understand the whole life story of this amazing writer, you can read his autobiographical trilogy "The Story of Life". Konstantin Paustovsky was the son of a railway extra Georgy Maksimovich and Maria Grigorievna Paustovsky, who lived in Moscow in Granatny Lane.

His paternal lineage goes back to the family of the Cossack hetman P. K. Sahaydachny. After all, his grandfather was also a Chumak Cossack, and it was he who introduced his grandson Kostya to Ukrainian folklore, Cossack stories and songs. Grandfather served under Nicholas I and was captured by the Russian-Turkish, from where he brought his wife, a Turkish woman Fatma, who was baptized in Russia with the name Honorata. Thus, Turkish from his grandmother was mixed with the Ukrainian-Cossack blood of the writer.

Returning to the biography of the famous writer, it should be noted that he had two older brothers - Boris, Vadim - and sister Galina.

Love for Ukraine

Born in Moscow, Paustovsky lived for more than 20 years in Ukraine, where he became a writer and journalist, which he often mentioned in his autobiographical prose. He thanked fate for having grown up in Ukraine, whichwas to him like a lyre, the image of which he carried for many years in his heart.

In 1898, his family moved from Moscow to Kyiv, where Konstantin Paustovsky began his studies at the First Classical Gymnasium. In 1912, he entered the Faculty of History and Philology at Kyiv University, where he studied for only two years.

World War I

With the beginning of the war, Paustovsky moved back to Moscow to his mother and family, then moved to Moscow University. But soon he interrupted his studies and got a job as a tram conductor, then he served as an orderly on hospital trains. After the death of his brothers in the war, Paustovsky returned to his mother and sister. But again, after a while, he left and worked, either at the metallurgical plants of Yekaterinoslav and Yuzovsk, or at the boiler plant in Taganrog or in the fishing artel on Azov.

Revolution, civil war

With the beginning of the February Revolution, he went to Moscow and worked as a reporter in various print publishing houses. There he witnessed the October Revolution of 1917.

After that, the country plunged into a civil war, and Paustovsky was forced to return to Ukraine again in Kyiv, where his mother and sister had already moved from the capital. In December, he was drafted into the hetman's army, but after the change of power - to serve in the Red Army in a security regiment created from former Makhnovists. This regiment was soon disbanded.

Path to creativity

The life of Konstantin Paustovsky changed, and after that he traveled a lotin the south of Russia, then lived in Odessa, worked at the Moryak publishing house. During this period, he met I. Babel, I. Ilf, L. Slavin. But after Odessa, he went to the Caucasus and lived in Batumi, Sukhumi, Yerevan, Tbilisi, Baku.

In 1923, Konstantin Paustovsky returned to Moscow and worked for several years in the editorial office of ROSTA. It's starting to print. In the 1930s, he again traveled and worked as a journalist for the publishing houses 30 Days, Our Achievements, and the newspaper Pravda. 30 Days magazine published his essays “Fish Talk”, “Blue Fire Zone”.

In early 1931, on the instructions of ROSTA, he went to the Perm Territory, to Berezniki, to build a chemical plant. His essays on this topic were included in the book "The Giant on the Kama". At the same time, he completed the Kara-Bugaz story, which he started in Moscow, which became a key story for him. He soon left the service and became a professional writer.

Konstantin Paustovsky: works

In 1932 the writer visited Petrozavodsk and began to work on the history of the plant. As a result, the stories "The Fate of Charles Lonsevil", "Lake Front" and "Onega Plant" were written. Then there were trips to northern Russia, the result was the essays "Country beyond Onega" and "Murmansk". Through time - essay "Underwater winds" in 1932. And in 1937, the essay "New Tropics" was published in the Pravda newspaper after a trip to Mingrelia.

After trips to Novgorod, Pskov and Mikhailovskoye, the writer wrote the essay "Mikhailovskie Groves", published in the magazine "Red Night" in 1938

In 1939 for literary achievementThe government awarded Paustovsky with the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. It is not known exactly how many stories Konstantin Paustovsky wrote, but there were plenty of them. In them, he was able to professionally convey to readers all his life experience - everything that he saw, heard and experienced.

The Great Patriotic War

During the war with the Nazis, Paustovsky served as a war correspondent on the southern front line. Then he returned to Moscow and worked in the TASS apparatus. But he was released to work on a play at the Moscow Art Theater. And at the same time, he and his family were evacuated to Alma-Ata. There he worked on the play Until the Heart Stops and the epic novel The Smoke of the Fatherland. The production was prepared by the Moscow Chamber Theater of A. Ya. Tairov, evacuated to Barnaul.

For almost a year, from 1942 to 1943, he spent time either in Barnaul or in Belokurikha. The premiere of the play, dedicated to the fight against the German invaders, took place in Barnaul in the spring of April 4, 1943.

Recognition

In the 1950s, the world recognition came to the writer. He immediately had the opportunity to visit Europe. In 1956, he was nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Prize, but Sholokhov received it. Paustovsky was Marlene Dietrich's favorite writer. He had three wives, one adopted son Alexei and his own children - Alexei and Vadim.

At the end of his life, the writer suffered from asthma for a long time and suffered a heart attack. He died in Moscow on July 14, 1968 and was buried in the cemetery of the city of Tarusa, Kaluga Region.