Nikolai Virta: writer, playwright, censor of Holy Scripture

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

Today, the name of the Soviet writer Nikolai Evgenievich Virta says little to the average reader, but at one time he was a best-selling author, won four Stalin Prizes and the right to edit the Bible.

Early years

Soviet writer and playwright, four-time winner of the Stalin Prize Nikolai Evgenyevich Virta (1906-1976, real name - Karelsky) was born in the village of Kalikino, Tambov province, in the family of a parish priest. In 1921, the father of the future writer was shot, presumably for assisting the anti-communist uprising led by Alexander Antonov. In the future, this uprising will become the main theme of the novel "Loneliness", which brought Wirta fame and the first Stalin Prize.

Education Nikolai Karelsky received in the Tambov secondary school. In his youth, he managed to change several types of activities: he was both a shepherd and a clerk of the village council, and in 1920-21, as part of an educational program, he taught in the 263rd Kungur regiment of the 30th division. In 1923, he began working as a reporter for the Tambovskaya Pravda newspaper. There he made his debut as a writer: his first stories, published under the name "Nikolai Virta", weredevoted to village life. Virta is the name of a river in Karelia, the historical homeland of the Karelians.

In the second half of the 1920s, Virta was actively engaged in journalistic and editorial activities in the newspapers of Kostroma, Saratov and Makhachkala. In 1930, he moved to the capital, where he continued to work in the print media "Evening Moscow", "Trud" and "Electrozavod", in the theater of working youth (TRAM) - the author of plays, director, actor and even director.

"Loneliness" and glory

In 1935 Virta creates his magnum opus - the novel "Loneliness", which tells about the fight against the Antonov uprising in the 20s. The novel, favorably received by critics and the audience, was published more than 20 times in 1936 alone. Critics compare it with Sholokhov's Quiet Don. In 1937, based on "Loneliness", Wirta wrote the tragedy "Earth", which was successfully staged at the Moscow Art Theater. In 1939, the novel becomes the basis of an opera by the young playwright T. N. Khrennikov "Into the Storm", and in 1964, based on his motives, the director Vsevolod Voronin makes the film "Loneliness".

In 1941, the novel brings Virta the Stalin Prize of the second degree.

Initially, the writer planned to create a cycle of six novels about folk life, covering the period from the end of the 19th century to the present, but the novel “Regularity” (1937) continuing “Loneliness” was received rather coldly. Such authoritative cultural figures as Sholokhov and Makarenko speak negatively about him.(the review of the latter in Literary Gazette was en titled "Regular failure"). The novel "Evening Bells" (1951), which tells about the events preceding those described in "Loneliness", also did not gain popularity and became the last in the cycle.

Nikolai Wirta received three more Stalin Prizes in 1948, 1949 and 1950 for the plays "Our Daily Bread" (1947) and "Conspiracy of the Doomed" (1948) and the screenplay "The Battle of Stalingrad" (1949).

The two-part film, directed by Vladimir Petrov and directed by Virta, pays a lot of attention to the military wisdom of Comrade Stalin.

Censor of Scripture

Arkady Vaksberg in his book "The Queen of Evidence" gives an interesting story related to the biography of Nikolai Evgenievich Virta. In 1943, Stalin, taking a course towards softening the policy towards the church, decided to publish the Bible in a limited edition. The publication was entrusted to Molotov, who gave it to Vyshinsky. To check the ideological safety of the text, it was decided to appoint a special censor. They became Nikolai Virta. The writer was instructed to study the Old and New Testaments for criticism of the Soviet regime, and, if necessary, to make cuts and corrections. The order plunged Virtu into confusion, but to refuse it, presented as "the task of Comrade Stalin" and "the personal request of Metropolitan Sergius", would be tantamount to suicide. I had to search inideologically dubious places in the Holy Scriptures, in particular, portraits of a man with a mustache. Fortunately, no such places were found, and the Bible was safely published without cuts.

The death of Stalin and the decline of popularity

After the death of the dictator, the situation of Nikolai Virta changed for the worse. In 1954, he was expelled from the Union of Writers of the USSR - for the luxurious lifestyle that he led in a dacha in the suburbs. True, in 1956 membership was restored, but the former authority and popularity were lost forever. Until his death, Nikolai Virta continues to create novels, novellas, plays, scripts and short stories, but they no longer cause a stir among critics and the public. The last major work of the author - the epic "Black Night", dedicated to Hitler, Nazism and the resistance movement in Europe - remained unfinished. Nikolai Wirta died on January 3, 1976, and was buried in Moscow at the Peredelkino cemetery.