Venedikt Erofeev: biography, personal life, books and date of death

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

The biography of Venedikt Erofeev should be well known to all connoisseurs of Russian literature without exception. This is a famous Soviet and Russian writer. He went down in history as the author of a poem called "Moscow - Petushki". In this article we will tell about the fate of the creator, his personal life.

Childhood and youth

To tell the biography of Venedikt Erofeev, let's start from 1938, when he was born in the village of Niva-2 in the Murmansk region. He was the youngest in a family of five children. My father worked at the railway station and my mother ran the household.

When the Great Patriotic War began, the Erofeevs moved to the Khibiny station, and soon they were evacuated to the Arkhangelsk region. However, due to the famine they faced in their new location, they had to return.

In 1941, the grandfather of the future writer was arrested, he died in prison three months later. In 1945, my father was accused of anti-Soviet propaganda and sabotage.

In the biography of Venedikt Erofeev, thisit was a hard time. At the same time, he learned to read by the age of six. In 1947, the family was left without a livelihood. To get money for food, the mother went to Moscow to work, and handed over the children to an orphanage. Venechka studied diligently, he was even awarded a trip to a pioneer camp.

Father returned from the colony in 1951, mother came from the capital, the family was reunited. True, not for long. Vasily Vasilyevich was arrested again two years later. He spent three years in prison in Olenegorsk due to being late for work. When he was released, his he alth was completely undermined. He passed away in 1956.

The hero of our article graduated from school with a gold medal, without exams he was accepted to the philological faculty of Moscow State University. In the hostel, he met the literary critic and philologist Vladimir Muravyov, who had a significant influence on his views.

Education and first job

There were several universities in the biography of Venedikt Erofeev, since he could not graduate from Moscow State University. In 1957, he was expelled for academic failure and systematic absenteeism. After that, he went as an auxiliary worker to the construction department "Remstroytrest".

In the dormitory at the enterprise, he organized a literary circle, in which everyone who wished to read his poems, and Benedict himself excerpts from classical works. The management did not like these meetings, they fired him.

Yerofeev spent two years in Ukraine. When he returned to the capital, in 1959, he again entered the philological faculty, but already at the Orekhovo-Zuevsky Pedagogicalinstitute. At the university, he published a literary almanac, but a year later he was expelled again.

Over the next few years, the writer changed many professions, never staying anywhere for long. He also tried to graduate from the Kolomna and Vladimir Pedagogical Institutes, but due to problems with discipline, he was constantly expelled.

Creative career

There are very few works in the biography of Venedikt Erofeev. He managed to finish only five works. Even in his youth, he began to write "Notes of a Psychopath". In the format of diary entries, he set out his own stream of consciousness, in which complete nonsense and base thoughts were combined with lofty ideas. The book was first published only in 2000.

Telling briefly the biography of Venedikt Erofeev, it is necessary to mention the story "The Good News", on which he has been working since 1960. It has not been completely preserved. The work was strongly influenced by Nietzsche, whom Erofeev was studying at the time.

Moscow - Petushki

In 1970, the hero of our article graduated from the main work of his life - the poem "Moscow - Petushki". The biography and work of Venedikt Erofeev merged in this book, since much of what is described in it happened to the writer in reality.

The main character is also called Venya, on the train he goes to his mistress and child. Drinking on the way. As a result, it turns out that he took the wrong train, went in the opposite direction. Venya returns to the capital, where strangers kill him.

Poem "Moscow - Petushki"Venedikt Erofeev is composed of chapters whose names correspond to the names of the railway stations on the main character's route. The work was instantly dismantled into quotes, it became incredibly popular, although it was not officially published.

An interesting fact from the biography of Venedikt Erofeev is connected with the fact that for the first time the poem "Moscow - Petushki" was published in 1973 in Israel. Then the book was published in Paris and London. In the USSR, the work was published in the journal "Sobriety and Culture" in an abbreviated version at the end of the 80s.

Artworks

Among other works of the author, one should note the essay "Vasily Rozanov through the eyes of an eccentric" and "Sasha Cherny and others", the play "Walpurgis Night, or the Steps of the Commander", a selection of Lenin's quotes called "My little Leniniana", an unfinished play " Dissidents, or Fanny Kaplan".

Erofeev claimed that he also wrote the novel "Shostakovich", which he either lost on the train, or was stolen. Many critics suspect that this was one of his hoaxes.

In 1994, information appeared that the novel had been found and would soon be published. But only a passage appeared in print, which most consider a fake.

Private life

In the biography of Venedikt Erofeev, personal life played a big role. He met his first love when he lived in a hostel at Moscow State University. It was Antonina Muzykantskaya, withwhere they dated for about a year.

In autumn, the writer met Yulia Runova. She fascinated him, Erofeev persistently courted the girl, offered to go with him to the Kola Peninsula. In 1961, they broke up, but mutual feelings between them remained. The hero of our article repeatedly tried to find Runova, but their meetings resumed only in 1971, when Yulia got married and gave birth to a daughter.

It is known that in 1964 he had an affair with Valentina Zimakova, who lived just in the Petushinsky district. At the beginning of 1966, their son was born, they signed and settled in the village of Myshlino in the Vladimir region. However, the writer practically did not live with his family. He spent the night with friends and acquaintances, drank a lot. The marriage finally broke up in 1975.

The second official wife of Erofeev was Galina Nosova, whom he married in February 1976. A year later, the couple received an apartment in Moscow. But all this time, Venedikt constantly meets with Runova, which greatly complicates his family life.

Alcohol abuse

Erofeev drank a lot. In 1979, when he and his wife were visiting brother Yuri, he was hospitalized on Christmas Day with delirium tremens. At that time, according to his diary entries, he drank every day for a long time. In 1982, the writer went to the capital's clinic to recover from alcoholism.

After being discharged, he set sail with his friend Nikolai Melnikov across the lakes and northern rivers to the White Sea. Throughout the journey, the writer was very boredaccording to Runova, wrote letters to her. At the same time, there were other women in his life, after returning from swimming, the family was on the verge of divorce.

In 1983, Erofeev again ended up in a clinic due to alcoholism. In the spring, his wife transferred him to a psychiatric hospital.

Death

It is believed that his predisposition to alcoholism was genetic. His father and brother drank a lot. In his youth, Erofeev did not touch alcohol at all. He claims that everything started suddenly. He saw a bottle of vodka in the window, bought it, drank it, and since then he could not stop.

In 1985, Venedikt was diagnosed with throat cancer. The tumor was removed, but the writer lost his voice. In Italy, they made a special device for him with a microphone that had to be applied to the larynx.

A year later, French doctors promised to restore his voice, but the Soviet government refused to let him out of the country.

In the last year of his life, Erofeev gained popularity after the publication of the poem "Moscow - Petushki". Fans and numerous journalists greatly annoyed the writer.

Besides, his he alth deteriorated, he became depressed. In 1990, doctors discovered that the cancer was progressing again. The writer was hospitalized and prescribed chemotherapy. But soon they were forced to refuse treatment, as the condition was very serious.

On May 11, 1990, Venedikt Erofeev died at the age of 51. He is buried at the Kuntsevo cemetery.