Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich: biography and creativity

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

He is called a "missed genius". And also "a person widely known in narrow circles." Few modern readers are familiar with this name - Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich. Meanwhile, he did a lot in such areas as literature, drama, history, philosophy and theater theory.

Family and early years

The future cultural figure was born near Kyiv on February 11, 1887. He was Polish by nationality, Catholic by religion. His father is Dominik Aleksandrovich, a military man; having retired, he left Poland with his family and settled in the vicinity of the mother of Russian cities. The house was bought with the money allocated to the retiree.

Dominik Alexandrovich worked as an accountant, and his wife Fabiana Stanislavovna devoted herself entirely to children. Seriously fond of music and playing the piano beautifully, she gave them a good cultural education. Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund was the youngest of the children, had four older sisters.

The boy adored his mother, treated hervery reverent and tried to inherit her qualities. In his youth, he even dreamed of becoming an opera singer and took singing lessons. But after graduating from the Kyiv gymnasium No. 4, he entered the university as a lawyer. His student life took place in noisy, colorful and crowded Kyiv. The young man approached the issue of education seriously - in addition to knowledge of jurisprudence, he also received knowledge of history and philology, attending relevant lectures.

While still a student, Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund begins to write poetry. He also wrote travel notes from that period, which he makes while traveling around Europe.

Career start

After receiving a university degree in 1913, a young lawyer tries to work in his speci alty and enters the service of a sworn attorney's assistant. But for a long time in this area is not kept. Five years later, he quits law and never returns to it. Perhaps the reason for this was the revolution, which led to chaos and pushed the law into the far corner. Or maybe Krzhizhanovsky was simply attracted by culture…

The next stage of his career was the work of a lecturer. He speaks to students of the Conservatory, the Theater Institute and other educational institutions in Kyiv, telling them about the psychology of creativity, music, literature, the history of theatrical art, etc. The talented teacher's lectures are a huge success among young people.

Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund is trying to realize himself as a writer. Some of his things: the poem "Brigantine", the story "Jacobi andsupposedly" - even printed in magazines.

Moscow

Krzhizhanovsky's youth was overshadowed by a series of tragic events. One by one, his parents died, then his beloved sister Elena, and then his uncle, with whom Sigismund was very friendly. And all this in just two or three years.

Wishing to change the situation, Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich, whose biography was generally full of travel, moved to Moscow in 1922. Here he settles in the Chamber Theater, teaches in his studio. The same theater became the only place where Krzhizhanovsky managed to see his play on the stage. It was called The Man Who Was Thursday. The play is based on the famous work of Gilbert Chesterton. Other works of the playwright, alas, did not reach the stage.

Fame and hardships

In the capital of the USSR, the hero of this article was active. He read his short stories, essays and other works and quickly became famous in the circles of theatergoers and writers in Moscow.

But Krzhizhanovsky's popularity didn't bring him material benefits. He worked very hard, realizing that water does not flow under a lying stone. Hard times were coming, the New Economic Policy was ending. Every now and then “Dr. Schrott” (as the writer and his friends called the famine) knocked on the door. He was very thin and looked pale at that time Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich. Photos of the late 20s eloquently testify to the poverty in which the writer lived. But he did not give up and for a very long time tried to earn byloved most of all - writing.

Attempts almost always turned out to be futile - printing was extremely rare, and bread had to be obtained in a different way. Krzhizhanovsky worked as an editor at a publishing house, prepared scripts for commercials and even full-fledged films, wrote librettos for operas…

"Pushkin" and "Shakespearean" periods

One of Sigismund Dominikovich's "part-time jobs" was the beginning of a whole period in his work. We are talking about a staging of the opera "Eugene Onegin" by Prokofiev.

Touching Pushkin, the writer could not tear himself away from him for a long time. He wrote theoretical articles about the work of the great Russian poet (for example, "The Art of the Epigraph (Pushkin)"), worked on the "Dictionary of Epigraphs", etc.

And at the equator of the 30s it was Shakespeare's turn. The preface prepared for the first volume of the collected works of the classic inspired Krzhizhanovsky to write many articles dedicated to the author of the immortal Hamlet.

By the way, unlike literary works, Sigismund Dominikovich's journalism was sometimes published. In particular, in such publications as "Soviet Art", "Literary Critic", etc.

Missed Genius

The most "prolific" period of Krzhizhanovsky's work is the 20-30s. During this time, the lion's share of the works was written. These are five stories, six books of short stories, essays, stories, plays, works on the history and theory of the theater, etc. Only a few of them were published during the author's lifetime. You can literally count them on your fingers. WhatAs far as theory is concerned, of all the works, only the Poetics of Titles saw the light of day. It was published as a separate brochure. And the story "The Return of Munchausen" was already being prepared for publication, but unexpectedly the author received a refusal from the publisher.

Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund, whose books did not reach a wide readership, was forced to write to the table. Here are some of them:

• Wandering Strange (1924).
• Second Collection (1925).
• Letter Killer Club (1926).
• Memories of the Future (1929).
• "Unbitten Elbow" (1940).

But we are not talking about some graphomaniac! Modern literary critics call the writer a genius, comparing him with the classics of those years - Camus, Kafka, Borges … He wrote at the level of European literature of the first half of the 20th century. His works are rich in allusions, metatexts, artistic interpretations of the ideas of great philosophers, etc. By type, most of them can be attributed to intellectual prose, and Krzhizhanovsky's favorite genre is a parable.

While wondering why the publishers ignored the master, literary critics today tend to believe that he was simply ahead of his time and was incomprehensible to the Soviet system. And what did not fit into her framework, she could not welcome. Sigismund Dominikovich did not write in support of the Soviets, but he was not their opponent either. He was, as it were, outside the system, above it. And this secured oblivion.

In 1939, Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund became a member of the Writers' Union of the USSR, but this factdid not help him in any way in publishing affairs.

Krzhizhanovsky's hobbies

In addition to his passion for literature and theater, Sigismund Dominikovich had another, but fiery passion. He loved travel. Even in the most hungry years, he managed to escape somewhere for at least a week. Travel healed and inspired him.

Intending to visit a new country, Krzhizhanovsky carefully studied its history, geography, culture, in order to later compare the theory with what he saw with his own eyes. When traveling, he always perked up, and returned home a new person.

During my trips, I met a lot of interesting and even great people, among them, for example, Maximilian Voloshin and Alexander Grin, who gladly received the writer in their Crimean possessions in the summer.

Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich: the personal life of the writer

While still living in Kyiv and giving lectures to students, young Sigismund met a woman who became his life partner. Her name was Anna Gavrilovna Bovshek. She was an actress, studied with Stanislavsky. Soon after the fateful acquaintance, she left for Moscow, and Krzhizhanovsky, as you know, also eventually moved to the capital of the USSR. There, their friendship continued, gradually growing into a very close relationship.

True, Sigismund and Anna lived separately until the very last days of the writer. Thus, they tried to preserve romance and protected their love from destructive life.

Supported each other in everything, had a gentle correspondence,traveled together… Their relationship was full of warmth, respect and friendship.

Last years of life

Starting from 1940, Krzhizhanovsky practically did not write works of art. Although he still worked a lot. During the war, he did not leave Moscow, believing that a writer should stay where his subject is. Many essays on the capital and the war date from this period.

They, as before, were not published. Sigismund Dominikovich earned his living by translating.

The last years of his life were overshadowed by serious illnesses. In her memoirs, Anna Bovshek writes about hypertension and anemia. The result of the disease was damage to the part of the brain responsible for memory. And Krzhizhanovsky forgot the alphabet. He could write, but he could not read. And it was a real tragedy for a man who could not imagine himself without books.

The rest of my life was spent in poverty and pain. Having become completely helpless, Sigismund Dominikovich moved in with his wife in her small apartment. He died on December 28, 1950.

Legacy

Krzhizhanovsky had no children. He did not leave behind a grave, or rather, its location is unknown. But the creative heritage of the genius was preserved … And all thanks to the efforts of a loving woman who carefully collected leaves written in her native handwriting.

She took a big risk during the times of repression by keeping manuscripts at home. But none of them were hurt.

Like the author himself, his wife did not wait for the publication of his works. Only in the late eighties readersmet a writer named Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich. His collected works in six volumes in Russian were published from 2001 to 2012. This includes almost everything that was written by the author: prose, dramatic works, theory, and even some letters.

Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich, interesting facts about which are given in this article, was an unusual person. His contemporaries did not appreciate him, and even today the work of the “missed genius” cannot be called mass. But those who truly love literature and theater will definitely like it.