Biography of Andrey Dementiev: ups and downs

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

This author is familiar to any reader. At children's holidays, his invariable sounds: “Do not dare to forget the teachers!”. At corporate parties dedicated to March 8, men quote with inspiration: "There are no unloved women - there are unmet ones …". And from the radio receivers, the lines of famous songs are catching up with us: “Forgive me, my love, for someone else’s evil …”, “Apples in the snow - pink on white, what should we do with them - with apples in the snow?”, “I draw, I I draw you, I draw you sitting by the window…”. All these poems were written by Andrei Dmitrievich Dementiev, whose biography is little known to a wide range of his readers.

However, the author's poetry, like in a mirror, reflects the main milestones of his career. Where do without it? It is the events and meetings that happened in life, the experiences and joys that fell to the lot, that make up the source from which the lyrics are born.

Biography of Andrei Dementiev: childhood

The poet was born on July 16, 1928 in Tver on the Volga. The city is rich in famous fellow countrymen, however, of the poets whose homeland is the former Kalinin, one can perhaps only mention the “King of the Russianchanson by Mikhail Krug. So Tver is rightfully proud of Dementiev, who is its honorary citizen. Andrei Dmitrievich warmly remembers his parents - Maria Grigoryevna and Dmitry Nikitich, a wooden house with a mezzanine, the Volga, where local boys swam and rowed in the summer, and skated and skied in the winter.

In 1936, the future poet went to school, so his "universities" fell on a difficult wartime. Maps with red and blue flags hung in the classrooms, demonstrating the advance of troops on the fronts. The lessons began with reports from the Sovinformburo. The father was arrested under the infamous Article 58, and Dementyev was raised by his mother. Sometimes life was so hard that in adolescence Andrei almost took his own life.

Biography of Andrey Dementiev: youth

Due to the fact that his father and uncles were in the camps, the young man did not manage to enter the Military Medical Academy and the famous Institute of International Relations, as he wanted. He ended up at the philological faculty of the Tver Pedagogical Faculty. But three years later he transferred to the world famous Literary Institute named after A. M. Gorky in Moscow. Recommendations were written to him by famous authors of those years, Mikhail Lukonin and Sergey Narovchatov.

Dementiev felt happy and eagerly absorbed information at lectures and seminars. Still would! After all, Paustovsky and Kataev, Tvardovsky and Simonov, Marshak and Ehrenburg taught at the institute.

Biography of Andrey Dementyev: professional activity

After graduating from the writing institute, the young man returned to Tver. He worked in the agricultural department of Kalininskaya Pravda, then in the regional newspaper Smena, and wrote poetry at night. The first poem of the poet was published in 1948 here, in Tver. In his native city, the first 5 books of the author, published from 1955 to 1963, saw the light of day. In 1959 Dementiev became a member of the Writers' Union of the USSR.

However, true poetry, a stormy creative life was in Moscow, and Andrei Dmitrievich was eager to go there with all his heart. Even at the Literary Institute, the poet joined the party. In 1967, he received the position of instructor in the department of propaganda and agitation in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Komsomol in the capital. It was difficult for a creative, “unkempt” person to get used to life according to bureaucratic laws. But it was in the Central Committee that a real male brotherhood was present, here the character was tempered.

Moscow did not break Dementiev. He worked for several years at the Young Guard publishing house. And in 1972, an absolutely amazing era began. Dementiev first becomes deputy editor-in-chief, and then editor-in-chief of the legendary Yunost magazine. He worked for this publication for 21 years, published Vasiliev and Aleksin, Voznesensky and Yevtushenko. During his tenure as an editor in Yunost, “100 days before the order” and “Emergency of a regional scale” by Yuri Polyakov, “About Fedot the Archer, a daring young man” by Leonid Filatov, “Island of Crimea” by Vasily Aksenov and “The Life and Adventures of a Soldier Ivan Chonkin by Vladimir Voinovich. The circulation of the magazine under Dementiev reached more than 3 million copies.

In the 90s, the poet ended up in Israel, where he worked for several years as the head of the Middle East representative office of RTR. Later he worked on radio and television. He was fired from his job more than once: either for publishing objectionable poems, or for preparing an acutely political program. All this time, the author's books were published, songs based on his poems appeared.

Biography of Andrey Dementyev: personal life

The poet was married four times. From his second marriage, he has a daughter, Marina, who now lives in St. Petersburg. From the third marriage - the daughter of his wife Natalya (adopted by Dementiev) and son Dmitry. A terrible tragedy occurred in the poet's life. Son Dmitry at the age of 30 died, shooting himself literally in front of his wife. The poet blames himself for what happened all his life. However, a grandson grew up - the full namesake of the poet, Andrei Dmitrievich Dementiev, who chose the career of an actor.

Andrey Dementiev is a poet whose biography is full of happy and tragic moments, ups and downs, perhaps because his work penetrates the souls of numerous readers.