Voznesenskaya Yulia Nikolaevna: biography, works

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

The life path of this extraordinary woman - poetess, writer and missionary - was not easy. In addition to ordinary events, the book of Yulia Voznesenskaya's life contains such difficult pages as camps and prisons, recognition and condemnation, and emigration. But all this thorny path is permeated with the bright light of love for God. She found her embodiment not only in the works of the author, but in the support that Yulia Nikolaevna Voznesenskaya provided to people.

The beginning of life's journey

Yulia Nikolaevna Voznesenskaya was born on September 14, 1940 in Leningrad. In 1945, after the end of the war, the Tarapovsky family moved to Berlin. Here, in the eastern part of the city, my father served in the Soviet troops, who at that time worked as a military engineer.

In 1949, the family returns to their homeland. Here Yulia Voznesenskaya enters the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinema and begins her career in the field of informal art. It was with this period of life that the first arrest was connected, which happened in 1964 and ended with a year of forced labor.

Young life

With the birth of the first child, I had to leave my studies. Later, Julia is transferred to the Faculty of Medicine, which later also remained unfinished. He also tries his hand at journalism. At the dawn of 1960 she was a correspondent for a local Murmansk newspaper. One of her first publications appeared there - the poem "Lapland".

She tried herself in other roles as well. In the mid-1960s, Yulia Nikolaevna, with her husband and sons, moved to the village of Vazhy, closer to nature and clean air. This decision was due to the frequent illnesses of the youngest son. Here, the spouses also found more than worthy use for themselves. The husband was in charge of the House of Culture, and Yulia Nikolaevna herself got a job as a teacher at a music school. However, after the son's recovery and due to pressure from local officials, the family had to leave these places.

Yulia Voznesenskaya - poetess

Here a few words need to be said about the creative name. Julia Voznesenskaya, whose real name is Voznesenskaya-Okulova, received her creative pseudonym from her first husband. This union was very short and subsequently broke up. However, after parting, Yulia Nikolaevna decided to leave her euphonious surname.

The first attempts at writing took place under the guidance of Tatyana Gnedich. Widely known in the 1960s, the poetess and translator created a literary association in which many aspiring poets and writers developed their talents. It was her that Yulia Nikolaevna Voznesenskaya called her the first and only teacher who discovered the origins of poetic mastery. Early workand the first publication in 1966 were favorably received by Tatyana Grigoryevna and later received high marks from readers.

In the late 60s, the works of Yulia Nikolaevna were published in various literary magazines. It was then that she declared herself as a promising poet. A song was written for one of the poems, which was performed by Edita Piekha. However, in 1968, all publications of Yulia Voznesenskaya in Soviet publications ended. The reason for this turn of events was the poem "Invasion", in which the poetess described the events that took place in Czechoslovakia.

The poem caused an ambiguous reaction from the Soviet authorities: Voznesenskaya was summoned to the KGB, where, after long interrogations, without receiving recognition and repentance, they threatened to imprison her. There were many such conversations in the life of the writer. After this incident, Yulia Nikolaevna could acquaint the reader with her works only thanks to samizdat. Numerous texts of poetry have been published in this way. But it is difficult to say exactly how many works she had at that time. Archives were kept by like-minded people and fans of talent in different places. This also had a lot of problems. The places where the manuscripts were kept were constantly searched.

The magazines in which Yulia Voznesenskaya published her poems were dissident. In some of them, she acted as a publisher (Lepta, Woman and Russia).

Second Culture activities

In the 1970s, Julia Voznesenskaya and her family lived in a communal apartment on Zhukovsky. Here they occupy a couple of rooms, one of which has become a placemeetings of young talented people. The community referred to itself as "Second Culture". This name was protest. It was directed against the first - pompous Soviet culture.

Young people actively tried to make themselves known. In 1974 they created a collection of essays called Lepta. This included one of Yulia Nikolaevna's poems. The request for publication was harshly rejected by the Soviet authorities.

In 1975, "Second Culture" staged a protest action: a manifestation and a hunger strike dedicated to the anniversary of the Decembrist rebellion.

A few months later, young people "decorated" the walls of buildings in the central streets of Leningrad with slogans denouncing Soviet power. Yulia Voznesenskaya was one of the first to be detained, but she refused to testify, and she was soon released. Later, already in 1976, during a search of the poetess's apartment, KGB officers found several publications containing anti-Soviet propaganda. Based on this, Yulia Nikolaevna was detained, in the winter of 1977 a trial was held. The writer was convicted and given five years of exile in Vorkuta.

Camps and links

She didn't stay there long. Having learned about the trial of her associates, she fled. Her purpose was to warn them not to repent of their deeds.

However, she failed to get to the court. The arrest took place before the start of the process. After Yulia Nikolaevna was sent to the village of Bozoy, which was located in the Irkutsk region. The five year exile has been replaced by two and a half years of camps.

The time spent in the dungeons of the camps, she embodied on the pages of her novels and essays,telling about the hard life of women in these places. And even speaking about such difficult things, Yulia Nikolaevna presents everything in a wonderful figurative form, highlighting all the kindest and brightest. All the time she was in the camp, she wrote letters to her friends, talking about terrible things that sometimes didn’t fit in her head. But, despite all this, each line was saturated with optimism, with which Yulia Nikolaevna "infected" those around her. Especially female cellmates, to whom I read poems by such poets as Akhmatova, Yesenin, Tsvetaeva. She told some of them about Jesus Christ.

Her urgent need to keep in memory and tell her contemporaries, their children and grandchildren about what really happened at that time, was embodied in the stories of the team story "Notes from the Sleeve". Collected here are many short stories about those circles of hell that many people of the Soviet era and the writer herself had to go through.

In addition to notes, there are other works that tell about the life of women in places of detention: "Women's camp in the USSR", "White Chamomile".

Emigration and life after

In 1980, Yulia Nikolaevna was almost forcibly expelled from the country. Together with her family, she lived for some time in Vienna. Later, she applied for political asylum to the German authorities. She spent the first four years of emigration in Frankfurt am Main. Here she devoted herself to work in an international organization that protects human rights. Later, after moving to Munich, she worked as an editor at Radio Liberty for ten years.

In 2002, Yulia Nikolaevna returned to the capital of Germany. Most of the Orthodox works were written here. A few years before her death, she learned that she was ill. During her illness, she underwent several surgeries. Yulia Nikolaevna died on February 20, 2015 and was buried in Berlin.

Orthodox choice

In 1973, Voznesenskaya Yulia Nikolaevna set foot on the path of the Orthodox faith and received Holy Baptism. This choice was conscious. It was he who helped her pass the trials of the camps and exiles and keep in her heart the love for God and people.

Later, already in exile, Yulia Nikolaevna met her future spiritual father, priest Mark Arndt, who was later replaced by Father Nikolai Artemov. After her husband died, Voznesenskaya decides to settle in a monastery. And in 1996 she was accepted by the Lesna convent, in which Yulia Nikolaevna spent several years of her life.

It was here that Orthodox works saw the light of day, among which the first was the story-parable "My Posthumous Adventures".

Orthodoxy and its place in the work of the writer

It should be noted that the works of the last years of the author's life were devoted mainly to Orthodox themes. Among the most famous are the novels My Posthumous Adventures, Cassandra's Way, Lancelot's Pilgrimage and others. For the first two in 2003, Yulia Voznesenskaya was awarded the honorary title "Best Author of the Year".

Also known are the stories: "100 days before the flood" and "The son of the leader." Yulia Nikolaevna also has children's works. Among them are the trilogy "Yulianna", as well as the collection "Svetlayaya Polyana".

For many of her works she was awarded honorary titles and prizes. Particular attention was drawn to "Posthumous Adventures". For this story, Yulia Nikolaevna was considered the founder of a special genre - Orthodox fantasy. Those metamorphoses that occur with the main character, very vividly and figuratively draw the afterlife.

The creative path of the writer indicates that Yulia Voznesenskaya is a poet of the Orthodox direction. And although she writes not poetry, but prose, all her works are very poetic. Perhaps that is why they are so easy to read and their characters are memorable.

Missionary way

Yulia Nikolaevna Voznesenskaya, whose biography is full of such different events, is an image of a person seeking to help others.

This man could talk about the most difficult things very simply. In recent years, she has collaborated with psychologists who helped seriously ill people. Gradually, this activity developed into communication through letters. Acting as a moderator on the Perezzhit.ru and Pobedish.ru websites, together with Orthodox psychologists, she provided invaluable support to those who needed help the most. Among the people who turned to the site, there were potential suicides, and those who could not survive the death of loved ones.

Yulia Nikolaevna Voznesenskaya, whose photos always radiate some kind of invisible light and kindness, will remain in the hearts of many people not only as a wonderful writer, a sincere believer, but also as a good friend - helping, compassionate and comforting.