Gorodetsky Sergey Mitrofanovich: biography, creativity, photo

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

Gorodetsky Sergei Mitrofanovich is a famous Russian poet, one of the brightest representatives of the literary movement of acmeism.

This modernist trend in Russian poetry was formed as a reaction to the extremes of symbolism and followed the principles of returning clarity to literature, rejecting mystical nebula and accepting the earthly world in its real beauty, vivid diversity, and visible concreteness.

Sergey Gorodetsky: biography

Sergey Gorodetsky was born in St. Petersburg on January 5, 1884. His family was distinguished by cultural traditions: in his youth, his mother was familiar with Turgenev I. S., his father was engaged in painting, wrote works on folklore and archeology, and from childhood instilled in the child an ardent love for poetry. Little Sergey often met prominent writers and artists in his parent's office, and N. S. Leskov even gave him the book "Lefty" with a signature. When the boy was 9 years old, his father died, andall care for the five children fell on the shoulders of the mother Ekaterina Nikolaevna.

Student days

In 1902, the young man entered St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of History and Philology. There he became friends with Blok A., whose poetry had a strong influence on the future work of a talented student. It was to him, the absolute measure of aesthetic and moral sensuality, that Sergei entrusted his most secret thoughts about various phenomena in art and life.

In addition to his passion for poetry, Sergei Mitrofanovich Gorodetsky, whose biography is interesting to the modern generation, studied Slavic languages, Russian literature, art history and drawing. He even spent some time in the Kresty prison for his involvement in the literary movement. Having studied at the university until 1912, he never graduated.

Creativity of Sergey Gorodetsky

In 1904 and 1905, Gorodetsky made summer trips around the Pskov province, which aroused a sincere interest in folk art in the talented poet. Impressed by intricate ritual dances, old round dances, entertaining fairy tales with elements of pagan antiquity, the 22-year-old author published the book "Yar" (1906) - his first and successful brainchild. In it, the poet vividly recreated the semi-real, multi-colored appearance of Ancient Russia with mythological images in which objects of modern times were originally intertwined with echoes of authentic antiquity, pagan beliefs and ritual games. These were cheerful mischievous poems, breathing freshness and youth.poetic feeling.

On the part of critics and readers, Gorodetsky, who embodied ancient Slavic mythology in forms understandable to modern literature, heard only laudatory speeches. Trying to continue his bright triumph and return to the once conquered peak of recognition and fame, Sergey began to frantically rush about in search of new ways and tried to expand the range of his own creativity. However, the following publications (the collection "Perun" (1907), "Wild Will" (1908), "Rus" (1910), "Iva" (1914)) did not make the impression on the public that the poet expected. It can be said that their appearance has gone almost unnoticed.

Children's folklore in the poet's work

In the period 1910-1915, the author tries his hand at prose and publishes such works as “On the Ground”, “Tales. Stories", "Old Nests", "Adam", the comedy "Dark Wind", the tragedy "Marit". Russian literature also owes the appearance of children's folklore to Sergei, who wrote a large number of children's works and collected drawings of young talents.

In 1911, Sergey Mitrofanovich Gorodetsky showed himself as a literary critic, preparing for publication the collected works of Ivan Savvich Nikitin and accompanying it with an introductory article and detailed notes. In 1912, having become disillusioned with symbolism, together with Nikolai Gumilyov, he formed the "Workshop of Poets", began to make presentations and actively proclaim acmeism, which was clearly reflected in the collections "Willow" and "Flowering Staff" (1913).

Friendship with Yesenin

BDuring the First World War, Sergei Gorodetsky, whose brief biography is taught in schools, fell under the influence of nationalist sentiments, which is reflected in the collection The Fourteenth Year (1915). This response to official patriotism led him to a quarrel with progressive Russian writers.

From 1915 began his friendship with Yesenin, in which the poet Sergei Gorodetsky considered the hope of Russian literature. A fair-haired young man with curly hair came to the apartment of an accomplished poet on the recommendation of Blok; his poems were tied in an ordinary village scarf. From the first lines, Sergei Mitrofanovich understood what joy came to Russian poetry. Young Yesenin left the house of the hospitable poet with the collection "The Fourteenth Year", personally signed by Gorodetsky, and letters of recommendation to various publishers.

In the spring of 1916, Gorodetsky, disillusioned with his literary work, quarreled with A. Blok and V. Ivanov (the leader of the St. Petersburg Symbolists) and, as a newspaper correspondent, left for the Caucasian front. It was here that he realized the groundlessness of his recent understandings about the war, which he reflected in poems riddled with nagging pain (“Angel of Armenia”, 1918).

During the February Revolution of 1917, the poet was in Iran, working in a camp for typhus patients. The October events found him in the Caucasus: first in Tiflis, where he taught a course in aesthetics at the city conservatory, and then in Baku. In 1918 he wrote the poem "Nostalgia"confirming the poet's approval of the revolutionary events.

Building a new world

In 1920, Gorodetsky was actively involved in the arrangement of a new life, became the head of the propaganda department, headed the literary part of the political department of the Caspian Fleet, edited various magazines, and delivered articles and lectures on various topics.

In 1921 he moved to Moscow, where he got a job in the Izvestiya newspaper (literary department) and with Nikolai Nikolayevich Aseev (Soviet poet) headed the literary part of the Revolution Theater. In the 1920s, he constantly revised his literary views, published frequently. From the beginning of the 1930s, Gorodetsky began to actively engage in translations, introducing the readership to the poets of neighboring republics. In addition, he created original opera librettos for several operas.

Military years

In the early days of the Great Patriotic War, Sergei, while in Leningrad, wrote a poem "In response to the enemy", which he read on the radio. Gorodetsky often spoke at recruitment points, rallies and meetings. During the war years, the poet was evacuated in Uzbekistan, and then in Tajikistan. There he was engaged in translations of poems by local authors. Before the end of the war, he returned to the capital, where he continued to write fruitfully.

In 1945, Sergey Gorodetsky buried his wife Anna Alekseevna, a faithful friend and colleague of his life. In 1958, his autobiographical work "My Way" was published. In the last years of his life he was engaged in teaching at the LiteraryInstitute. Gorky. One of the last poems of Gorodetsky was the poem "Harp", in which the poet addressed the soul of his beloved music, which meant so much to him. Sergei Mitrofanovich Gorodetsky died in 1967, at the age of 83.