Korzhavin, Naum Moiseevich

The early years

Naum Mandel was born on October 14, 1925 in Kiev into a Jewish family. His grandfather was a tzadik , his father was a bookbinder, his mother worked as a dentist. The family lived on Vladimirskaya street , 97b (corner of Zhilyanskaya) ^[3] . He studied at Ukrainian secondary school number 95 on the street Zhilyanskaya. Soon became interested in poetry. On September 2, 1940, according to his own recollections, he was expelled from Russian high school No. 44 (where he studied from grade 4) “for hooliganism” because of a conflict with the head teacher and was forced to transfer to another school, but he did not graduate from for the war. Even in Kiev, the young poet was noticed by Nikolai Aseev , who then spoke about him in the Moscow literary environment. At the beginning of World War II , he was evacuated with his parents to the city of Sim in the Chelyabinsk Region , where in 1942 he graduated from a ten-year school as an external student and worked at a factory ^[4] .

Life in Moscow

I didn’t get into the army because of myopia. In 1944 he came to Moscow to enter the A. Gorky Literary Institute , but entered it in 1945, on his second attempt. Among his roommates in the dormitory were, in particular, Rasul Gamzatov and Vladimir Tendryakov .

At the end of 1947, Korzhavin was arrested on charges of anti-Soviet activity. Officially, he was presented with "reading poetry of ideologically unstable content." He spent about eight months in the isolation ward of the USSR Ministry of State Security and at the Serbsky Institute . He was condemned by a resolution of the Special Meeting (CCA) under the MGB and sentenced to exile under Articles 58-1 and 7-35 of the Criminal Code as a “socially dangerous element”. In the fall of 1948 he was expelled to Siberia , spent about three years in the village of Chumakovo . In 1951-1954, he was serving a link in Karaganda , where he lived in a dormitory of a mining college on Kostenko Street, 11, and after his marriage, in a rented apartment on 26, Motornaya Street ^[5] . During this period, he graduated from the local mining college (department of geology and exploration of coal deposits), at the training and training plant No. 3 of the Leninugol Trust, he mastered the specialties of a driller, driller and assistant engineer for the PK-2M combine, and on October 30, 1953 he received a steyger (mining masters). Under the pseudonym Naum Malvin published several poems in Socialist Karaganda and Komsomolets Karaganda, translated several poems from Kazakh Maksut Baiseitov and Auezkhan Koshumov, participated in the creation of a literary association under the editorial office of the newspaper Socialist Karaganda, and from January 21, 1954 he served in this newspaper, a literary employee of the department of culture and life and later the department of letters ^[6] . On December 9, 1954, after an amnesty, he quit the newspaper and returned with his wife to Moscow. In 1956 he was rehabilitated, restored at the Literary Institute and graduated in 1959.

Since 1954, the poet earned his living by translations, during the period of the " thaw " he began to publish his own poems in magazines. He became more widely known by publishing a selection of poems in the poetry collection “ Tarusa Pages ” (1961).

In 1963, with the assistance of Yevgeny Vinokurov, Korzhavin's collection of “Years” was published, which included poems from 1941-1961. In 1967, the KS Stanislavsky Theater staged Korzhavin's play Once Upon a Time in the Twentieth.

In addition to official publications, Korzhavin also had an underground component in his work - many of his poems were distributed in samizdat lists. In the second half of the 1960s, Korzhavin defended the “prisoners of conscience” of Daniel and Sinyavsky , Galanskov and Ginzburg . These circumstances led to a ban on the publication of his works.

In 1970, he played a cameo role as the chief master of the Constantinople circus in the film “ Running ” by A. A. Alov and V. N. Naumov based on the works of M. A. Bulgakov .

Emigration

The conflict between Korzhavin and the authorities of the USSR escalated, and in 1973, after interrogation by the prosecutor’s office, the poet filed an application to leave the country, explaining his step as "lack of air for life." Korzhavin left for the USA and settled in Boston . He was included by Vladimir Maximov among the members of the Continent editorial board, continuing his poetic work. In Frankfurt am Main ( Germany ), a collection of verses by Korzhavin, The Times, was published in 1976, and in 1981, there was a collection of Plexuses.

In the post-perestroika era, Korzhavin had the opportunity to come to Russia and spend poetry evenings. The first time he came to Moscow in the second half of the 1980s at the personal invitation of Bulat Okudzhava . The first place where he then performed was the Cinema House. The hall was full, additional chairs brought from the offices were put on the side balconies. When Korzhavin and Okudzhava took to the stage, the whole hall, without saying a word, got up and applauded standing. Korzhavin did not see well, and Okudzhava, leaning towards him, said that the audience stood up. It was seen how Korzhavin was embarrassed. Then he read poetry, answered questions. I recited poems from memory (he could not make out the printed text because of poor eyesight: he needed special strong glasses). Famous actors who came to the meeting as spectators came out of the hall and read from his book without preparation, immediately, the first poem that came to light, on which the collection was revealed. The first person to leave the stage without any invitation and to volunteer to read poetry was Igor Kvasha , an artist of the Sovremennik Theater , and others began to rise behind him.

A few days after that speech, Naum Korzhavin went to visit the disgraced sports journalist Arkady Galinsky , they talked for a long time, were happy about the changes that had begun in the country, but then, in a personal conversation, Korzhavin said: "I do not believe them ."

Naum Korzhavin is one of the heroes of the documentary “ They Chose Freedom ” ( RTVi , 2005).

In his memoirs and journalistic articles, Korzhavin spoke in detail about the evolution of his political views. In his youth, he rejected the Stalinist system and at the same time shared the communist ideology, contrasting Soviet reality with “genuine communism”. Toward the end of World War II, he began to “recognize” and justify Stalin, which he recalls with regret. This mood continued after the arrest. In exile, he again became an anti-Stalinist, continuing to profess communism. By his own admission, Korzhavin abandoned communist ideology in 1957. Like many emigrants from the USSR, in the West Korzhavin was on the right flank of the political spectrum. In journalism, he sharply spoke out not only against communism, but also against Western “friends of the USSR”, as well as against all forms of socialism and the revolutionary movement (“Psychology of modern enthusiasm”, “At whose expense? (Open letter to Heinrich Böll)”). He defined himself as a liberal conservative or a "ferocious liberal." In the disputes of “Russophobes” and “Russophiles” he occupied the “Russophile” position, defended the traditions of Russian culture. In the journalism of the 1990-2000s, he spoke out both against communism and against radical liberalism, which he reproached for ill-conceived and irresponsible politics.

In literary articles, he defended traditional culture, defended Christian morality in art, and insisted on the need for a deep human content of the work of art. Korzhavin protested against the romantic and avant-garde tradition of contempt for the layman, insisted that literature exists for the reader and should appeal to him. He defended the "organic connection of art with the High and Good" ^[7] . It is art that strives for harmony, according to Korzhavin, that satisfies a genuine artistic need: “Fine, that is, art, should not obey the requirement of utility, not because it is primitive and shameful, but because it is so useful, if it really is art ” ^[8] . If the desire for harmony is absent, art turns into a simple self-affirmation. From these positions, Korzhavin reviewed the heritage of the “ Silver Age ”, reproaching even Alexander Blok (“Playing with the Devil”) and Anna Akhmatova (“Anna Akhmatova and the Silver Age”). He sharply criticized the poetry of Joseph Brodsky , ridiculed his cult in the intellectual environment ("The genesis of the" style of outstripping genius ", or the Myth of the great Brodsky").

After the death of his wife (2014), the poet lived with his daughter's family on the Chapel Hill campus, and since the beginning of 2018 (when his brother-in-law became a professor at Duke University ) - in Durham , North Carolina. He died on June 22, 2018 at the 93rd year of his life there ^{[9] [10] [11] [12]} .

The urn with the ashes of Korzhavin was buried on September 28, 2018 in Moscow at the Vagankovsky cemetery ^{[13] [14]} .

Dense, stingy on imagery, gaining political and moral strength through abstractness, Korzhavin’s lyrics arose from what he had experienced, from meanness and darkness he had seen, but also from faith in nobility and light.

- Wolfgang Cossack

Among acquaintances, Korzhavin was known by the names of Em and Emka ^{[15] [16] [17]} . According to autobiographical prose, his real name is Naum.

• The first wife (1953-1964) - Valentina G. Golyak (1923-2013) ^{[18] [19]} , a doctor, a graduate of the Alma-Ata Medical Institute (1951).
  • Daughter - Elena Rubinstein (born 1955). Her husband is Michael (Mikhail Georgievich) Rubinstein, a scientist in the field of physical chemistry of polymers, professor at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ^{[20] [21] [22]} .
    • Grandson - Gregory Rubinstein, chemist at Princeton University ( Eng. Gregory Jacob Rubinstein, Ph.D. ) ^[23] .
    • Granddaughter - Natalie Grover (Rubinstein), doctor, professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [1]
• Second wife (since 1965) - Lyubov Semyonovna Vernaya (in Khazin’s first marriage, Mandel in the second; 1933-2014), philologist, until 1965 - head of the mass work department of the Moldavian Republican Library named after N.K. Krupskaya in Chisinau ; in the USA she taught Russian at Harvard University ^[24] , the first marriage was to a writer M. G. Khazin ^{[25] [26]} .

poems

• 16 poems // “Tarusa Pages”, 1961
• Birth of the century. Poem // "Young Guard", 1962, No. 8
• Years, 1963
• The Poem of Sin // New Journal , No. 116, 1974
• Times, Frankfurt / M., 1976
• Plexuses, Frankfurt / M., 1981
• "Letter to Moscow" (poems and poems, 1991)
• “Time is Given” (verses and poems, 1992)
• “To Yourself” (verses), Moscow., 2000
• "Poems and Poems", Moscow., 2004
• “On the Bevel of the Century” ( Time , 2008)
• “Head of creativity” (poems and poems), Yekaterinburg, 2017

essay

• In defense of banal truths // "New World", 1961, No. 3
• Lyrics of Marshak. Article // "New World", 1963, No. 3
• Poetry of A. K. Tolstoy // " Questions of literature ", 1967, No. 4
• The fate of Yaroslav Smelyakov. Article // "Faces", No. 91, 1974
• The experience of poetic biography. Article // Continent, No. 2, 1975
• Game with the devil. Article // "Faces", No. 95, 1975
• Psychology of modern enthusiasm. Article // Continent, No. 8, 1976 and No. 9, 1976
• "In defense of banal truths." Essay collection // Moscow, 2003
• “In the temptations of the bloody era” (2005) - memories

• 2003 - “Portraits of the era. Naum Korzhavin ”, (directed by Grigory Kataev ) ^[27]
• 2005 - “ They Chose Freedom ” ( RTVi )
• 2011 - “Emka Mandel with Colborn Road, 28” (director Pavel Mirzoev , diploma of the festival “ Literature and Cinema ” in Gatchina)
• 2015 - “Naum Korzhavin. Time is given ... ”(director Pavel Mirzoev , Grand Prix Garnet bracelet of the Literature and Cinema festival in Gatchina)

• 2006 - Special Prize "For Contribution to the Literature" of the Big Book Award.
• 2016 - National Prize "Poet".

• Encyclopedia article Round-the-world
• Naum Korzhavin in the " Journal Hall "
• Interview with Naum Korzhavin in ChasKor (author Yuri Chekalin)
• Interview with Naum Korzhavin (author Mikhail Buzukashvili, Chaika magazine)
• Naum Korzhavin: Catastrophe is not inevitable (Krugozor magazine)
• Naum Korzhavin in Kharkov (Photo by G. Beremblum)
• On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Naum Korzhavin (author Alexander Rosin, Florida magazine)
• POETRY LIBRARY
• Naum Korzhavin about life and poetry. Video Interview at RUNYweb.com - Russian New York Online
• Review (inaccessible link) by N. Korzhavin to the verses of Vladimir Plamenevsky . The original is in the archive of Vitaly Dikson
• 16:28 10/18/10 The line of life. Naum Korzhavin (broadcast October 15, 2010) (inaccessible link)
• Interview with Naum Korzhavin
• The last of the Mohicans. On the ninetieth birthday of Korzhavin
• Victor Nekrasov and Naum Korzhavin
• Interview with Professor L. G. Friesman about Naum Korzhavin.