Pavel Antokolsky: biography and creativity

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

Soviet poet Pavel Antokolsky, whose biography and work deserve close study, lived a long and very interesting life. In his memory there were revolutions, wars, experiments in art, the formation of Soviet literature. Antokolsky's poems are a lively, talented story about the poet's experiences, about the life of the country, about his thoughts.

Origin

On June 19, 1896 Antokolsky Pavel Grigoryevich was born in St. Petersburg. He was the eldest of four children in the family and the only boy. His father, a famous but not particularly successful lawyer, constantly made plans for how to transform his life for the better. But he worked for the most part as an assistant to a barrister, and in Soviet times - as a petty official in various institutions. All worries about children lay on the shoulders of the mother. The boy was the great-nephew of the famous sculptor Mark Antokolsky, from whom, to some extent, artistic abilities were transferred to Pavel. Even though the familyhad Jewish roots, nationality did not play any role in the life of the future poet.

Childhood

Childhood Pavel Antokolsky spent in St. Petersburg, and when he was 8 years old, the family moved to Moscow. The main hobby of childhood, according to Antokolsky himself, was drawing with colored pencils and watercolors. His favorite subject was the image of the head - illustrations for "Ruslan and Lyudmila" by A. S. Pushkin. Later, a second favorite plot appeared - the image of Ivan the Terrible, which resembled a statue of M. Antokolsky's grandfather. The boy remembered well the move to Moscow: after the calm and majestic Petersburg, she seemed to him squat, noisy and dirty. But gradually he got used to Moscow and began to consider it his hometown. The revolution of 1905 remained a vivid impression in the boy's memory, the confrontation between the people and the authorities would later become one of the topics of his reflections.

Study

Pavel Antokolsky studied at the Moscow Gymnasium, graduating in 1914. Studying was easy for him, but did not cause much enthusiasm. A year after graduating from high school, Pavel entered the Moscow State University at the Faculty of Law. Already in his first year, he saw in the corridors of the Moscow State University building on Mokhovaya an advertisement for admission to a student drama studio under the guidance of the actors of the Moscow Art Theater, from that moment Antokolsky's other life began. The times were turbulent, and somehow gradually Pavel abandoned his studies at the university, at first for the sake ofwork in the revolutionary militia, but ultimately for the sake of the studio, which became increasingly important to him.

Theatre

The theater studio of Moscow State University was directed by the then little-known director Yevgeny Vakhtangov, it was to him that Pavel Antokolsky got. His biography changed dramatically with the advent of the theater, at first Pavel tries his hand at acting, but his talent turned out to be not enough. During the three years of studying at the studio, which grew into the Theater of the People, Antokolsky tried himself in all possible theatrical professions: from stage editor to director and screenwriter. He wrote three plays for the studio, including The Doll of the Infanta and Betrothal in a Dream. In 1919, he left Vakhtangov, but continued to work in Moscow theaters, where until the mid-1930s he acted as director. Later he returns to the Vakhtangov Theater, working with him on the development of the building on the Arbat. After the death of the great founder of the theatre, Antokolsky staged performances himself and in collaboration with other directors. With the Vakhtangov Theater, Pavel Grigorievich goes on tour to Sweden, Germany, France. These trips helped him to get to know the world and himself better, he became even more aware of himself as a Soviet person. Later, the impressions of these travels will be embodied in poetry, in particular in the book "The West". The theater has forever remained an important matter of life for Antokolsky, even when he chose a different path.

Poetry

Pavel Antokolsky wrote his first poems in his youth, but he did not take this occupation seriously. In 1920In the same year, he became close to a group of Moscow writers who gathered in the Cafe of Poets on Tverskaya Street. There Antokolsky met with V. Bryusov, who liked the poems of the beginning author, and in 1921 he published his first works. V. Bryusov was not only an outstanding poet, but also an excellent organizer; under his leadership, a literary poetic organization was formed in Moscow, which turned out to be very useful for the young Antokolsky. Here he gained skills and believed in his new destiny. The early works of the poet were full of romance and passion for the theater. Thus, the poem "Francois Villon" and the collection "Characters" convey the dreams and emotions of a theater man. But gradually Antokolsky's lyrics acquire a civil sound. Gradually, maturity occurs, the style and the author's own thematic focus are acquired.

On the day the Great Patriotic War began, Pavel Antokolsky applies for membership in the ranks of the CPSU, from that moment begins, according to him, a new life. The horrors of war spur the poet's pen, during these years he writes a lot. In addition to poetry, he creates essays, works as a war correspondent, travels along the fronts with a team of actors and as a journalist. After the war, Antokolsky continued to write on socially significant topics, books of poems "The Power of Vietnam", "Poets and Time", "The Tale of Bygone Years" appeared, which became a model of civil Soviet poetry.

Creative legacy

In total for his long creative life Pavel Antokolsky, photowhich is in any encyclopedia of Soviet literature, wrote nine collections of poems, several poems and published four collections of articles. Each book of the poet is a whole work imbued with deep feelings and thoughts of the author. The most famous creation of Antokolsky is the poem "Son", written about the death of his son who died heroically at the front. The poem brought the poet world fame and the Stalin Prize. Of undoubted interest are works written under the influence of the French revolutionary spirit: a poem about Francois Villon, about the Commune, the poems "Robespierre and the Gorgon", "Sanculot". The last collection of poems "The End of the Century" was published in 1977 and is a kind of summing up life.

Translations

Pavel Antokolsky devoted most of his creative biography to translation work. Back in the second half of the 1930s, Antokolsky visited the fraternal republics - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia - and was fond of their culture. Then his work begins on translating the national poetry of these countries into Russian. Most of all he is engaged in translations in the 60s and 70s. In addition to the works of Georgian, Ukrainian, Armenian and Azerbaijani poets, he translates a lot of French literature. In his translation, the collections “Civil Poetry of France”, “From Bernager to Eluard”, the fundamental anthology “Two Centuries of French Poetry” are published.

Private life

The poet lived quite a rich and long life. She had friendship with such colleagues as M. Tsvetaeva, K. Smionov, E. Dolmatovsky, N. Tikhonov, V. Kataev. Antokolsky was married twice. The first wife - Natalya Shcheglova - gave birth to his daughter Natalya and son Vladimir, who died in 1942 at the front. She later became an artist and also married the poet Leon Toom. Andrey Antokolsky's grandson became a professor of physics and works in Brazil. The second wife, Zoya Konstantinovna Bazhanova, was an artist, but devoted her whole life to serving her husband. Pavel Antokolsky, his wives, children, grandchildren have always been associated with the main business of his life - poetry. There was a real cult of the Master in the house. At the end of his life, Antokolsky was left alone, his wife died, and his friends had their own lives. He spent most of his time at the cottage. The poet died on October 9, 1978, and was buried at the Vostryakovsky cemetery in Moscow.