Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich, short biography and creativity

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

Valery Bryusov is an outstanding Russian poet of the Silver Age. But the nature of his activity was not limited to versification. He established himself as a talented prose writer, journalist and literary critic. Along with this, Bryusov was very successful in literary translations. And his organizational skills have found their way into editorial work.

Poet's family

A short biography of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov is impossible without a story about the poet's family. This is necessary in order to find an explanation for the presence of many talents concentrated in one person. And the family of Valery Bryusov was the foundation on which his versatile personality was formed.

So, Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, was born in 1873, on December 1 (13), in the family of a we althy merchant, which was famous for outstanding people. The poet's grandfather on his mother's side, Alexander Yakovlevich Bakulin, was a merchant and poet-fabulist from a very we althy merchant family in the city of Yelets. Along with countlessthe number of fables in the grandfather's archive were novels, short stories, poems, lyrical poems written by him without hope for a reader.

Selflessly devoted to literature and dreaming of devoting himself entirely to it, Alexander Yakovlevich was forced to engage in merchant affairs all his life in order to be able to adequately support his family. Many years later, the famous grandson will sign some of his works with the name of his grandfather.

From his father's side, Valery Bryusov had an equally remarkable grandfather. Kuzma Andreevich was a serf of the then famous landowner Bruce. Hence the surname. In 1859, my grandfather bought a free land from the landowner, left Kostroma and moved to Moscow. In the capital, Kuzma Andreevich became a successful merchant and bought a house on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, in which his later famous grandson, Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, was born and lived for a long time.

Valery Yakovlevich's father, Yakov Kuzmich Bryusov, also a merchant and a poet, was published in small editions. It was the father who sent the first poem of his son, which was printed, to the editor of one of the magazines. The poem was called "Letter to the Editor", Valery was then 11 years old.

Bryusov's sister, Nadezhda Yakovlevna (1881-1951), like many in the family, was a creative and musically gifted person. She became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. She has several scientific works on musical pedagogy and folk music to her credit. And the younger brother of Valery Bryusov, Alexander Yakovlevich (1885-1966), was an archaeologist and doctor of historical sciences, who wrote works on the history of the Neolithic andBronze Age.

The poet's childhood

In continuation of the description of a brief biography of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, it is necessary to note the childhood of the poet. As a child, Valery Bryusov was left to himself, as his parents did not pay much attention to the upbringing of their offspring. However, children were strictly forbidden to read religious literature because their parents were staunch atheists and materialists. Subsequently, Bryusov recalled that his parents introduced him to the principles of materialism and the ideas of Darwin before they taught him to count. Any other literature in the family was allowed, so the young Bryusov absorbed everything: from the works of Jules Verne to tabloid novels.

All their children, including Valery, were given an excellent education by their parents. In 1885, at the age of eleven, he began studying at the private classical gymnasium of F. I. Kreiman, and immediately in the second grade. At first, young Bryusov had a very difficult time: he endured ridicule from classmates and had difficulty getting used to restrictions and order. However, very soon he won the favor of his comrades with his intelligence and talent as a storyteller. Valery could retell entire books with interest and enthusiasm, gathering many listeners around him. But for freethinking and atheistic views in 1889, schoolboy Bryusov was expelled.

Then he is studying at another private gymnasium. This educational institution is owned by a certain L. I. Polivanov, a great teacher, whose mentorship had an invaluable influence on the worldview of the young Bryusov. In 1893 he successfullygraduates from the gymnasium and enters the Faculty of History and Philology at Moscow University, graduating in 1899.

First literary experience

Already at the age of thirteen, Valery was sure that he would become a famous poet. Studying at the Kreyman gymnasium, young Bryusov writes pretty good poetry and publishes a handwritten magazine. At the same time, his first experience in writing prose happened. Admittedly, the early stories were a bit boxy.

As a teenager, Bryusov is passionate about the poetry of Nekrasov and Nadson. Later, with the same passion, he reads the works of Mallarmé, Verlaine and Baudelaire, who opened the world of French symbolism to the young poet.

Under the pseudonym Valery Maslov in 1894-1895. Bryusov publishes three collections "Russian Symbolists", where he publishes his poems under various pseudonyms. Along with poems, Bryusov included in the collections the works of his friend A. A. Miropolsky and the opium lover, mystic poet A. M. Dobrolyubov. The collections were ridiculed by critics, but this did not deter Bryusov from writing poetry in the spirit of symbolism, but rather the opposite.

Youth of a genius

Continuing the description of a brief biography of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, it is necessary to note the release of the first collection of poems by the young poet (Bryusov was 22 at that time). He called his collection "Masterpieces", which again caused chuckles and attacks from critics, according to whom the title was contrary to the content.

Youthful impudence, narcissism and arrogance were characteristic of the poet Bryusov of that time. “My youth is the youth of a genius. I livedand acted in such a way that only great deeds can justify my behavior,” the young poet wrote in his personal diary, confident in his exclusivity.

Detachment from the world and the desire to hide from the dull everyday existence can be traced in the poems of the first collection, and in Bryusov's lyrics in general. However, it would be unfair not to note the constant search for new poetic forms, attempts to create unusual rhymes and vivid images.

Decadentism: a classic of symbolism

The life and work of Valery Bryusov did not always go smoothly. The scandalous atmosphere around the release of the collection "Masterpieces" and the shocking nature of some poems drew attention to a new trend in poetry. And Bryusov became known in poetic circles as a propagandist and organizer of symbolism in Russia.

The decadent period in Bryusov's work ends with the release of the second collection of poems "This is me" in 1897. Here, the young poet still appears as a cold dreamer, detached from an insignificant, hateful world.

But gradually a rethinking of his work comes to him. Bryusov saw heroism and loftiness, mystery and tragedy everywhere. His poems acquire a certain clarity when, at the end of the 19th century, significant changes take place in literature and symbolism is seen as a self-sufficient trend.

The release of the following collections ("Third Guard" - 1900, "To the City and the World" - 1903, "Wreath" - 1906) revealed the direction of Bryusov's poetry towards the French "Parnassus", the distinctive features of which were historicalmythological storylines, the hardness of genre forms, the plasticity of versification, a penchant for the exotic. Much in Bryusov's poetry was also from French symbolism with a mass of poetic shades, moods and uncertainties.

The Mirror of Shadows collection, published in 1912, was distinguished by a noticeable simplification of forms. But the poet's nature prevailed, and Bryusov's later work again directed towards the complexity of style, urbanism, scientific and historicism, as well as the poet's confidence in the existence of many truths in poetic art.

Extrapoetic activities

When describing a brief biography of Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, it is necessary to touch on some important points. After graduating from the university in 1899, Valery Yakovlevich worked in the Russian Archive magazine. In the same year, he headed the Scorpio publishing house, whose task was to unite representatives of the new art. And in 1904, Bryusov became the editor of the journal Scales, which became the flagship of Russian symbolism.

At this time, Valery Yakovlevich writes many critical, theoretical, scientific articles on various topics. After the abolition of the journal "Vesy" in 1909, he headed the department of literary criticism in the journal "Russian Thought".

Then came the 1905 revolution. Bryusov took it as an inevitability. At this time, he wrote a number of historical novels and translated. After the October coup, he actively cooperated with the Soviet authorities and even joined the Bolshevik Party in 1920.

In 1917 Valery Bryusovdirects the committee for the registration of the press, manages scientific libraries and literature. department of the People's Commissariat for Education. He holds high positions in the State Academic Council and lectures at Moscow State University.

In 1921, Bryusov organized the Higher Literary and Art Institute and became its first rector. At the same time, he teaches at the Institute of the Word and the Communist Academy.

Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov died in his Moscow apartment on October 9, 1924 from lobar pneumonia. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.