2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
It seems that the life of a famous writer should be illuminated with the accuracy of an x-ray by the researchers of his work. But this is only a superficial opinion, which one has to part with regret, as soon as one begins to study the available materials. A solid list of published works, plays, film productions; government awards, prizes, great public work - and minimal information about the life of a person who created a whole gallery of bright characters and described the epoch-making events that he witnessed. His real name is Sergeev. The pseudonym Lavrenev (Boris Andreevich took it because there was already only Sergeev in literature) became the official surname of the writer in 1922. Under this name, he entered the history of Soviet and Russian literature.
Parents: not proletarian at all
The parents of the future writer were school teachers. Although the life of each of them could have turned out very differently.
Mom, Maria Ksaverievna, came from a famous familyCossacks Esaulovs, whose ancestors served under the command of Suvorov and Potemkin. The writer's grandmother was a we althy heiress, whose hand many sought. But she did not marry well. Lieutenant Xavier Tsekhanovich, a participant in the Crimean War, became her chosen one. In just two years, he squandered his wife's inheritance and fled, leaving her with her little daughter in her arms - this is how Lavrenev later described family misadventures. Boris Andreevich knew the history of his ancestors well. Despite the plight, the grandmother tried to give her daughter a good education. After completing her studies at the Poltava Institute for Noble Maidens, Mashenka left to teach in a small town called Borislav.
The story of the writer's father, Andrei Filippovich Sergeev, is just the opposite - nothing is known about his family. Parents were killed during a robbery attack on the road from Kherson to Nikolaev. Who they were remains unclear. Three children, who were found in a sleigh covered with a sheepskin coat, were taken in by a certain Sergeev, an official of the Kherson customs. The man is not rich, he, nevertheless, was able to bring them to the people. Andrei, the writer's father, became a teacher. In the year of his son's birth, he worked as an assistant director in an orphanage. This is how Lavrenev recalled his family. Boris, whose date of birth fell on July 17, 1891, was born in Kherson, a beautiful, park-like city on the high right bank of the Dnieper.
Childhood: sea, books, theater
Fist fights, bruises, scratches and abrasions - childhood passed among the guys who lived inorphanage where his father served. But there were other experiences in his life. And the first one is the sea. It opened before a five-year-old boy from the height of the Baydar Pass - powerful, bewitching, boundless. In adulthood, when the surname Lavrenev is already well known to a wide readership, Boris will often turn to the marine theme. "Song of the Black Sea" (1943), dedicated to the defenders of Sevastopol, and "For those who are at sea" (1945), which tells about sailors from torpedo boats - perhaps the origins of these works should be sought in the enthusiastic eyes of little Bori, who first saw the bottomless Black Sea blue.
The boy met the world of great literature thanks to his godfather, Mikhail Evgenievich Becker. He was the mayor of Kherson - a retired artilleryman and colleague of Leo Tolstoy in the Sevastopol period. Under his patronage, a good library was created in the city, which young Lavrenev happily used. Boris read the collection of works, which was in the library, avidly. His favorite subjects were stories about sea voyages, discoveries and distant lands. Geography knew by heart. By the age of 10, he could show any place on the world map with his eyes closed.
Thanks to his godfather, he was able to join the theater - the mayor had his own box near the stage, and Becker allowed the boy to use it. Here Boris saw the young I. M. Moskvin in the play "Tsar Fedor Ioannovich", V. E. Meyerhold, A. S. Kosheverov in "Boris Godunov". It is safe to say that the future playwright was brought up on highexamples of true theatrical art.
Gymnasium: Escape to distant lands
In 1901, Boris became a schoolboy. He did not study very well, although he had excellent abilities. I just devoted all my time to theater and books - I didn’t have enough patience for cramming school subjects. During the transition to the sixth grade, I could not pass algebra - a one-year deuce, a re-examination and an unpleasant conversation with my father. Resentment for the failures that befell him led to an extravagant decision - to run. Boris was able to get to Odessa and get on the steamer Athos. He went ashore in Alexandria - he intended to be hired as a sailor in the crew of any ship that went to Honolulu. The adventure ended in the Italian port of Brindisi, where he got on a French ship. Two carabinieri took the teenager to the Russian consulate. Soon he was brought home. The vicissitudes of this journey formed the basis of the story "Marina" (1923).
After the 7th grade, high school student Lavrenev made an attempt to enter the Naval Cadet Corps, but his eyesight failed. He again returned to the school desk in his native Kherson. As a memory of this time - an old, worn photograph. Mom, dad and high school student Lavrenev. Boris kept this photo all his life as the greatest value.
Two Universities: Lawyer and Artilleryman
After graduating from high school, the future writer continued his education at Moscow University. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in 1915. During this period, a literary debut took place. The poems were published by the newspaper "Rodnoyregion "in 1911 and signed by the name Lavrenev. Boris (the writer in him was just awakening) painfully searched for his way in literature.
In 1914, peaceful life ended. The young lawyer was drafted into the army after graduating from university. Artillery firing tables became a table book. The time spent in the war, he later called the "highest life academy." The February bourgeois coup of 1917 found him in Moscow and made him commandant of the headquarters of the revolutionary troops. In the post of adjutant of the commandant of Moscow, General A. N. Golitsinsky, Lavrenev met on October 17th. The country and the usual way of life were collapsing.
Life position: determining the path
After the revolution, the young officer Lavrenev joins the Volunteer Army for a short time, but soon returns to his native Kherson. It took him some time to comprehend the events taking place in Russia. In the spring of 1918, Boris returned to Moscow. He went to work in the People's Commissariat for Food - the Soviet government needed literate people.
In November, I saw the first parade of the Red Army in honor of the anniversary of the revolution. This event put everything in its place in the head of a confused person. If there is an army, then there is a state. A month later, a red commander with the surname Lavrenev appeared in the ranks of the defenders of the revolution. Boris, whose biography was intertwined with the Armed Forces of the young republic for a long time, plunged headlong into the whirlpool of a turbulent life.
Two Persons: Painter and Writer
Further military fate of Lavrenev was typical for the red commander of the restless time of civil confrontation. As part of the armored train team, he stormed Kyiv occupied by Petliura. Participated in battles on the Crimean peninsula. When defeating the gang of ataman Zeleny, he was wounded in the leg. After the hospital, I had to part with the military service. Already in the position of a political worker, he was sent to Tashkent for further service. He combined work in a front-line newspaper with the head of the literary department of Turkestanskaya Pravda. He moved from Central Asia to Leningrad in 1923. A year later he was demobilized. Since that time, professional literary activity began.
The passion for futurism that the novice writer experienced in previous years has passed. The author came to literature with military experience and a we alth of observations that became the foundation of his work. He began to write actively in Central Asia. Mostly it was materials for newspapers. But in the same period, the story "Wind" and several long stories were written. In one of them, the story "Forty-First", the writer draws a portrait of one of his colleagues in the tsarist army and does not even change his rank and surname - Govorukho-Otrok. The second story was called "Star Color". In 1924 they were published in Leningrad magazines. In the same year, "Gala-Peter" was published - a work created 8 years ago. But then the tsarist censorship did not allow him to print.
A life dedicated to people
From this time begins the most fruitful period in the writer's work. The heroes of his works are the people of the revolution. Chekist Orlov is the main character in The Story of a Simple Thing (1924). Yevgeny Pavlovich Adamov - a general who went over to the side of the people's power in The Seventh Sputnik (1927). The life of honest and courageous people was described in his works by Boris Lavrenev. In 1925, he tried his hand at dramaturgy - he wrote two not very successful plays: "Rebellion" and "Dagger". The next work for the theater is the play "The Rupture", written for the 10th anniversary of the revolution. She gained wide popularity, and several subsequent generations of Soviet people could see her on the stages of almost all theaters in the USSR.
The Finnish company and the subsequent attack of the Nazis were met by an already established and well-known writer. Lavrenev often traveled to the Army as a correspondent for a naval newspaper. His front-line articles were lively and bright - the writer knew the heroes of his reports well. After the war, he was entrusted to head the section of playwrights in the Writers' Union.
The last years of his life B. A. Lavrenev was engaged in the translation into Russian of authors from the Central Asian republics and French playwrights. And he also painted a lot. The famous writer was devoted to painting passionately and recklessly. The walls of the apartment on Serafimovich Street were hung with his paintings.
Boris Lavrenev's heart stopped beating on January 7, 1959.
Recommended:
Writer Boris Zaitsev: biography, creativity
Boris Zaitsev is a famous Russian writer and publicist of the early 20th century, who ended his life in exile. He is widely known for his works on Christian themes. Especially critics note "The Life of Sergius of Radonezh", where the writer outlined his point of view on the life of the saint
Writer Alexander Kabakov: biography, creativity, photo
Alexander Kabakov is a Russian writer and publicist, winner of many awards. This man is the author of such well-known works as "Defector" and "Blow for blow, or Kristapovich's Approach." The first novel was filmed and shown on TV during the legendary coup. The second work formed the basis of the script for the film "Ten Years Without the Right to Correspondence"
English writer Iris Murdoch: biography, creativity and photo
One of the greatest British writers of the 20th century, Iris Murdoch, left the world with a number of outstanding novels that will be pondered over by generations of readers. She devoted her whole life to literature. Her path was not easy, she had to endure a lot of difficulties, especially at the end of her life
Russian writer Daniil Granin: biography, creativity, photo
Daniil Alexandrovich Granin was born on January 1, 1919. The writer's parents are forester German Alexander Danilovich and his wife Anna Bakirovna. Daniel's homeland is the Kursk region, the village of Volyn. About where the Russian writer Daniil Alexandrovich Granin was born, however, there is conflicting information
Boris Zhitkov is a writer and traveler. Short biography of Boris Zhitkov
Which of us in childhood did not read amazing stories about travelers?! Many were fond of such works, but not everyone now remembers that their author was the writer and researcher Boris Zhitkov. Let's take a closer look at the biography of this amazing person today