Tkhorzhevsky, Ivan Ivanovich

His parents, Ivan Feliksovich and Alexandra Aleksandrovna (nee Palm), under the pseudonym Ivan-Maria , compiled and published a complete collection of Beranger ’s songs in translations of Russian poets.

He graduated from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. He was left to prepare for a professorship, but preferred the civil service. Since 1901 he served in the office of the Committee of Ministers (for the State Chancellery). In 1904-1905 he was on duty under S. Yu. Witte . He worked in the clerical work of the Special Meeting on the Needs of the Agricultural Industry. In 1906 he joined the Ministry of Agriculture. On land management issues he traveled all over Russia, was in charge of issues of legislation and internal land management in the office of the committee on land management. At the end of the summer of 1910, he accompanied P.A. Stolypin on his trip to Siberia, composed a note on Siberia. He rose to the post of manager of the office of the Ministry of Agriculture, chamberlain ; in 1916 he retired. He was elected chairman of the board of shareholders of the Netherlands Bank for Russian trade, joined the board of the Commercial and Industrial Bank, and became a shareholder in the Triangle industrial complex in Petrograd.

Since 1917, he took an active part in the anti-Bolshevik struggle. At the end of 1917, meetings of the Right Center were held at his apartment in Petrograd. Monarchist. In the summer of 1919 he secretly went to Helsingfors . In 1919, he edited the newspaper New Russian Life in Finland (until January 1920, Russian Life). He became one of the initiators of the creation of the Society for the Fight against Bolshevism in Finland, then he lived in Paris. In September 1920, through Constantinople, he moved to the Crimea. In 1920, he took part in the government of General P.N. Wrangel , head of the office, managing affairs of the Council of Ministers of the government of the South of Russia. Then he prepared the evacuation of Russian troops in Constantinople.

In December 1920 he emigrated to Paris. Member of the Board of the Commercial and Industrial Bank, leader of the Russian Commercial, Industrial and Financial Union. He collaborated in the newspapers Vozrozhdenie, Rossiya (a member of its editorial board in 1939), magazines Illustrated Russia, Theater and Life, Chasovoy, and other periodicals.

In 1922 he was consecrated into Freemasonry in the Russian Paris box "Astrea" . Then he was one of the founders of the Russian lodges Hermes (1924) and Jupiter (1926).

In 1936 he collaborated with the National Labor Union of the new generation, in 1936-1937 - with the Union of Russian nobles, in 1936-1937 - with the Russian Central Association. Since its founding in 1937, chairman of the National Association of Russian Writers and Journalists in France. In 1937-1938, a member of the Main Board of the Russian National Association, spoke at meetings of this society with reports. He was a member of the Union of Zealots of the Sacred Memory of Emperor Nicholas II. Member of the circle "To the knowledge of Russia" (1933-1936). He was a member of the Special Commission in the case of N. Skoblin (1937). Since 1937, Chairman of the National Association of Russian Writers and Journalists in France. He made reports on the land issue in Russia, on land management problems, on the reform of P. A. Stolypin and others in many emigration organizations, including the Russian Central Association, the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), the Brotherhood of St. Sergius of Radonezh, etc. ., read public lectures.

During the Second World War, he finished the work “Russian Literature” (vols. 1-2, 1946). At the end of the war, he collaborated in Russian Thought. Founder, editor, member of the editorial board of the journal "Renaissance" (since 1948); attracted to participation in the journal I. A. Bunin, B. K. Zaitsev, G. Ivanov, N. A. Taffy and other writers. The author of studies on N. V. Gogol, A. S. Pushkin, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. S. Turgenev and others. He wrote poetry. In exile, he published a translation of Goethe's “Divan” (Paris, 1932). He published translations, poems and articles on literature in the magazines “Struggle for Russia”, “Modern Notes”, “Union of Nobles”, “Revival”; in newspapers: “Russian Thought” and others. Founding member of the Society for the Protection of Russian Cultural Property. The memoirist.

He was buried in a cemetery in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois (grave 2336).

• Wife (from February 7, 1910) - Zinaida Andreevna Iskritskaya (05/26/1878, Chernigov, - 07/29/1947, Paris), sister of Mikhail Iskritsky , first marriage (04/08/1901, St. Petersburg) for Ivan Petrovich Shakhovsky, son of P. I. Shakhovsky , divorced with him ^[1] .

Known as a master of literary translation. Translated from French and Italian: Verlaine , Proust , Mallarmé , Corbières , Leopardi , etc. The main translation work of the poet is the ruins of Omar Khayyam . For his translations, he was twice awarded honorary reviews of the Pushkin Prize of the Academy of Sciences - in 1903 for the translation of “Poems of the Philosopher” by M. Guyot (St. Petersburg, 1901), and in 1907 for the collection of translations of the latest French lyrics “Tristia” (St. Petersburg, 1906 )

Tkhorzhevsky wrote and original verses ^[2] . Eight-poets of Tkhorzhevsky became famous ^[3] - a free imitation of Hafiz :

“New Poets of France”

The large-scale work of Tkhorzhevsky's “New Poets of France” was published in Paris in July 1930. In the preface “From the Translator,” Tkhorzhevsky explained that he tried to present a “living history of French poetry in samples”, guided by what he called the “common line of development of French poetry” recently". How deeply Tkhorzhevsky understood the artistic specificity of some of the most striking components of this “common line” can be evidenced by the following phrase from the same preface: “from the aimless wanderings of the“ Drunken Ship “Rambo to the persistent and bold“ Rower “Valerie”. Thus, Tkhorzhevsky juxtaposed such diverse phenomena as “The Drunken Ship” (“Le Bateau ivre”) by Arthur Rimbaud and the “Rower” (“Rameur”) by Paul Valerie .

The anthology of Tkhorzhevsky, as well as his approach to the interpretation of the original in translation, did not go unnoticed in the literary circles of the diaspora. So, in one of the letters to Gleb Struve, Vladimir Nabokov expressed regret that he was "too lazy" to write a review of Tkhorzhevsky's collection: "it would be murderous. I looked at the book yesterday, and still is a little confusing to me. Especially charming is the translation of Rambo's “Drunken Ship”, where, completely against the will of Rimbaud, a captain from Russian intellectuals appeared on board, denouncer of hypocrisy of Europe, leading a story on his own behalf and taking Florida for mermaids ”(Nabokov’s letter dated November 8, 1930).

In Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, this work of Tkhorzhevsky remains little known. Below is the output of the anthology, as well as its table of contents.

New poets of France in translations of Yves. Tkhorzhevsky . - Paris: Book. Rodnik case in Paris / Libr. "La Source", 106, r. de la Tour, Paris, [July] 1930.

• Ivan Tkhorzhevsky. Last Petersburg: chamberlain memoirs . - Aletheia, 1999 .-- ISBN 978-5-89329-170-4 .

• Ivan Tkhorzhevsky on the site "Age of Translation"
• Voronov I. Served the Fatherland in word and deed // Star. - 2008. - No. 6.
• Vanshenkin, K. Ya. Two lines // Banner , No. 5, 2000. via Mikhail Mazel .
• Serkov A.I. Russian Freemasonry. 1731-2000 Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Russian Political Encyclopedia, 2001.
• Tkhorzhevsky, Ivan Ivanovich // Brief literary encyclopedia / Ch. ed. A.A. Surkov . - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia , 1962-1978.