Evgenia Ginzburg: biography, personal life, creativity, photo

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

It's probably not a secret for anyone that in the terrible thirties of Stalin's rule, many people innocently rotted in camps and prisons, whose number is in the tens, hundreds of thousands. Among those who suffered at the hands of the tyrant and his henchmen were a large number of famous people. Among them is the journalist Evgenia Ginzburg. The arrest and wanderings in prisons divided her life into "before" and "after". She frankly spoke about how and what happened in her book "The Steep Route". The book is recommended for everyone to read, and the following is a brief biography of Evgenia Ginzburg and a story about how her confession was written.

The beginning of all beginnings

Evgenia's parents belonged to Jewish families, therefore, she herself was Jewish, despite the completely Russian name Zhenya. But the patronymic gave out immediately - her father's name was Solomon (and her mother was Rebekah).

The first cry of the newborn Zhenechka was heard in December 1904, just before the New Year, in one of the Moscow maternity hospitals. In MoscowZhenya lived with her parents until she reached the age of five. And when she was five, the Ginzburgs moved from the capital to Kazan. Already there, in Kazan, Zhenya's younger sister, Natasha, was born (it is interesting that Rebekah and Solomon called their children Russian names, not Jewish ones). There, in the capital of Tatarstan, the Ginzburgs had their own pharmacy - Solomon worked as a pharmacist. The whole city knew the family, they were one of the most respected people in Kazan.

Time passed, the daughters grew up, the parents began to think about where Zhenya would study in the future. In such respected intelligent families of that time, it was customary to send older children to study abroad. This would have happened with Evgenia - the parents stopped their choice in Geneva. However, the year 1917 came, and all plans went down the drain.

Youth

At the Kazan Institute, where Zhenya entered, she studied history and philology. Having successfully graduated from a higher educational institution, for some time she worked as a teacher at a school, and then went to college - she worked as an assistant in two departments at once. At the same time, the girl defended her Ph. D. thesis, but in the end she did not devote herself to science, but her younger sister Natalya did it. Evgenia chose another path - journalism, getting a job at the editorial office of the Krasnaya Tatariya newspaper. Ginzburg was in charge of the culture department there.

Thirties

Evgenia Ginzburg's "Steep Route" begins with this - a description of her work in the newspaper. And also withassassination of Sergei Kirov, a revolutionary figure. This happened in December 1934 in Leningrad, and a wave of arrests, reprimands, dismissals and other "studies" swept across the country in 1935, from the very beginning. A remark is needed here. The fact is that when individual arrests, layoffs and other "bells" began, Evgenia was calm and was not afraid of anything, just like her then husband, a party leader (we will tell more about Evgenia Ginzburg's personal life later). Both Ginzburg herself and her husband Pavel Aksenov (they had different surnames) were convinced communists, they firmly believed in the ideas being propagated. And they believed that if someone was taken away, then this person was really to blame.

And since their conscience is clear, their biography is not stained, then they simply have nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, at that time very, very many people were mistaken. The first time Evgenia faced injustice in the same thirty-fifth, when she was reprimanded, and later removed from the opportunity to teach (the young woman did this as well) and her party card was taken away for not exposing her colleague, supposedly a convinced Trotskyist. As Yevgenia Ginzburg writes in The Steep Route, she was very worried then, hard times came for her, and she even thought about suicide, but still she had no doubts about the party's policy.

Arrest

However, two years later, a new "kick in the gut" was received. The journalist was arrested. Here is what Evgenia herself writesGinzburg in the book "The Steep Route":

The nights were terrible. But it happened just in the afternoon.

We were in the dining room: me, my husband and Alyosha. My stepdaughter Maika was at the skating rink. Vasya is in his nursery. I ironed the linen. I was often drawn to physical work now. She diverted her thoughts. Alyosha had breakfast. The husband read aloud a book, the stories of Valeria Gerasimova. Suddenly the phone rang. The call was as piercing as December 1934.

We don't answer the phone for a few minutes. We really don't like phone calls these days. Then the husband says in the same unnaturally calm voice with which he now speaks so often:

– This is probably Lukovnikov. I asked him to call.

He picks up the phone, listens, turns pale as a sheet and even more calmly adds:

– This is for you, Zhenyusha… Wevers… NKVD…

The head of the secret political department of the NKVD, Wevers, was very nice and kind. His voice murmured like a spring stream:

– Greetings, comrade. Can you please tell me how is your time today?

– I am now always free. What?

– Oh-oh-oh! Always free! Already discouraged? All this is transitory. So you, then, could meet with me today? You see, we need some information about this Elvove. Additional information. Oh, and he let you down! That is OK! All this will be revealed now.

– When to come?

– Yes, when it is more convenient for you. Want it now, want it after lunch.

– Will you keep me long?

– Yes, forty minutes. Well, maybe an hour…

The husband standing next to me hears everything and signs, in a whisper strongly advises me to go now.

– So that he doesn't think you're afraid. You have nothing to fear!

And I tell Vevers I'll be right back.

After this visit to the Enkavedeshniki, Yevgenia never returned home. She was accused of the same thing - of complicity with the Trotskyists, who organized their cell in the editorial office of the newspaper and, as a result of whose actions and conspiracies, Kirov was killed. Of course, attempts to prove that this is complete nonsense, that not only did she not participate in anything like this, but that in principle there was no such organization in the newspaper, they did not lead to anything. A different life began for Evgenia Ginzburg…

Further destiny

What happened next? And then - the agonizing expectation of the verdict, then in a cell full of all kinds of women, stuffed so that there is nowhere to even stand, then in a "two", then in solitary confinement. In similar cells and transit prisons, Evgenia wandered for a long two years. She wandered, each time not knowing where she was being transported, each time expecting that this day could be her last.

How to survive

You wouldn't want your enemy to experience what happened in those terrible years to many, many residents of the Soviet Union. Far from everyone survived, even the most, it would seem, persistent, strong, seasoned men "broke". Not so much from physical suffering, although they were, of course, in large numbers, but from moral pressure on the soul. They went crazy, committed suicide, died of heart attacks. It is all the more surprising that a woman, fragile, weakbeing, was able to withstand, endure all this pain, all this horror and not break, remaining sane. Evgenia Ginzburg survived.

As she herself confessed in her bitter confession, verses helped her a lot in this. She was a person of great erudition, she knew French, German, Tatar, she remembered an unmeasured amount of poetry by heart - including in foreign languages. So she saved herself, lying on the bunk in anticipation of her future fate: she remembered poems, told them mentally in her head. She also compared what was happening now with various historical events, drew parallels - in general, she actively loaded her brain with mental activity, made it work so that there was no time to think about the worst. About what will happen to her. About whether her husband is alive, whether the old parents were taken away. About how and with whom the children will remain… She tried to drive these thoughts away.

Sentence

Ginzburg was convicted under the political fifty-eighth article, for which, as a rule, the sentenced person was expected to be shot. However, Evgenia was lucky - she was not shot, she was given ten years in prison, five years of disqualification.

The journalist spent these years in various places - she was in Butyrka and Kolyma … There, in Kolyma, she met the end of her term in the forty-seventh year of the last century. As Evgenia Ginzburg wrote in The Steep Route, she was not only a victim, but also an observer - she looked at what was happening around, was amazed - she remembered amazement, evaluated,to be able to tell later simply and honestly how it was.

After the forty-seventh

After the end of the term, Evgenia remained in Kolyma - in exile. She was not allowed to go to Moscow and other large cities. And two years later, she was arrested again, however, this time only for a month. However, the threat of arrest hung over her head until Stalin's death in 1953. Only after that it became possible to finally breathe more or less calmly.

Partially restored in her rights, as indicated in the book of Evgenia Ginzburg, she was in the fifty-second year, and full rehabilitation came two years later. Nevertheless, for another ten years she was forbidden to live in large cities, and therefore the journalist, having finally left Kolyma, went to Lvov. There she began to draw up her camp notes …

Family and personal life in the biography of Evgenia Ginzburg

The first time young Zhenya got married at the age of twenty - to a doctor named Dmitry from Leningrad. The marriage did not last long, soon broke up, but the result was the birth of Alyosha's son. Despite the fact that after the divorce, the boy stayed with his father, he often saw his mother, often lived in her new family. After the arrest of Evgenia, Alexei, who at that time was with his mother in Kazan, returned to St. Petersburg to his father. In Leningrad, father and son met the beginning of the war. In Leningrad, both died in the blockade in the terrible forty-first.

The second husband of Evgenia was the party leader Pavel Aksenov. From him Ginzburg hadstepdaughter Maya, also a son was born in marriage - Vasya. Subsequently, Vasily grew up and became a famous writer - Vasily Aksenov. When Evgenia was taken away, Vasya was only five years old. He stayed with his father, but a few months later Pavel was also arrested, Vasya and Maya ended up in orphanages. After some time, the father's relatives were able to take the boy to their place, and when Evgenia's term ended, she managed to get permission for Vasya to come to Kolyma, to her. As for Pavel, he also survived many prisons and exiles, and was released only in 1956. But, despite the fact that there was no formal divorce, Evgenia and Pavel no longer lived together. The thing is that Ginzburg was informed about the death of her husband. And she married a third time, and later married Paul.

The third husband of Evgenia was the doctor Anton W alter, whom she met in Kolyma - he was also a prisoner. Together with him, Ginzburg adopted the three-year-old orphan Tonechka, who later became actress Antonina Aksenova. Together with W alter Ginzburg, she lived in Lvov until his death in 1966, moving to Moscow only after his death. Such is Evgenia Ginzburg's stormy biography and personal life.

"Steep route": history

As the journalist herself wrote, she intended to make these notes as a letter of appeal to her grandson, so that he would know what happened, which in no case could be repeated. The first part appeared in the sixty-seventh year, began to be distributed by samizdat - it was unrealistic to publish it. Some yearslater came the second one. The book was published abroad, but Evgenia, fearing new arrests, said that this was done without her knowledge. In Russia, "The Steep Route" was printed only in 1988.

By the way, there was another version of the book, tougher, bolder, with attacks on the authorities. However, Eugenia destroyed it - also out of fear for her family and herself. The Steep Route is still relevant today, Ginzburg's book is called one of the best books of camp prose, along with the works of Solzhenitsyn and Shalamov.

Evgenia Ginzburg died in May 1977 from breast cancer. Buried in Moscow.

Interesting facts

1. Evgenia is the full namesake of director Evgeny Ginzburg, but nothing else connects them.
2. The Steep Route was staged and filmed (the latter was not popular).
3. Evgenia's patronymic is Solomonovna, but often in the Russian manner she was called Semyonovna.
4. She was a candidate of historical sciences.
5. She was a member of the party from the age of twenty-eight, and also taught courses in the history of the CPSU (b).
6. She changed many types of work in the zone, including cutting wood and working in the medical unit.
7. From the son of Vasily, Evgenia Ginzburg has a grandson - production designer Alexei Aksenov.
8. Thanks to Vasily, she was able to travel abroad at an advanced age.
9. Yevgenia's stepdaughter Maya (daughter of her husband Pavel) became a Russian language teacher.

This is the biography of Evgenia Ginzburg, which everyone can get acquainted with in more detail by reading the book "The Steep Route".