Kotomkin, Alexander Efimovich

Born in the village of Savino in a peasant family. Parents - Efim Gordeevich ( 1858 - 1901 ) and Stepanida Alexandrovna (died in 1890 ) Kotomkiny. After the death of his father, Alexander lived in the family of his uncle, Matvey Gordeevich Kotomkin.

In the early 1900s , he graduated from the Knyazhninsky male elementary school; from 1901 to 1904 studied at the 1st Real School in Kazan . He began to write poetry at the age of 15. During his studies in Kazan, he published his first collection of Duma, which included 28 poems. In 1904 he was called up for military service and transferred to Moscow to the Moscow Infantry Junker Military School (from 1906 - the Alekseevsky Military School ), where in 1905 he met the then-famous poet K.R., Grand Prince Konstantin Romanov ( Konstantin Konstantinovich ), who was then in the position of the Chief of the military educational institutions of the country. K. R. noticed the young poet, and soon a correspondence was struck between them, which continued until K. R.’s death in 1915. Alexander Kotomkin highly appreciated K. R.’s work and considered him his teacher and mentor.

In 1906 , A.E. Kotomkin, upon graduation, was promoted to second lieutenant and assigned to serve in the 236th Laishevsky Reserve Battalion, located near Kazan ; since the end of 1909 he served in the 95th Krasnoyarsk Infantry Regiment in the Livonia Province , lived in Dorpat (from 1918 - Tartu ). He worked a lot in the library of the University of Derpt , collecting materials for his historical poem. In December 1909 , he married the maid of honor of the court of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Elena Ivanovna Grigoleyt. All this time he continued to write poetry and prepared a new collection for publication, published in 1910 with the introduction of Konstantin Romanov. In 1911 , Alexander Efimovich left military service and began working as a zemstvo chief in the Samara province .

With the outbreak of World War I, A. E. Kotomkin returned to the army. He was sent to the South-Western Front, in Galicia . In the summer of the following year, he was demobilized for injuries; he was treated in Kiev and at the same time published a book of poetry in Kiev publishing house dedicated to the memory of K. R., who died on June 2, 1915. In the autumn he arrived in Tsarevokokshaysk , again entered the Zemstvo service and became the head of the 2nd section of Tsarevokokshaysky Uyezd. He was a member of various commissions and committees (to improve the social status of teachers; to provide assistance to maimed soldiers, etc.). In 1916 he published the poem "Prince Vyachko and the Swordsmen", the work on which he had begun in Derpt . By signing this work, he first adds the pseudonym Savinsky to his family name (after the name of his native village of Savino).

In August 1917 , he left for Kazan , leaving his family in Tsarevokokshaysk , and entered Kazan University at the Faculty of History and Philology, but studied there very little, since the University was soon closed by the Bolsheviks who came to power. AE Kotomkin worked as a theater reviewer; published the historical drama "Jan Hus", previously banned by censorship; in the spring of 1918 he took part in the creation of the Kazan provincial Union of crippled warriors and became one of its leaders, as well as the editor-in-chief of the Union’s printed organ, the literary and public journal K Sveta.

In September 1918 , A.E. Kotomkin left Kazan with the troupe of the Kazan Theater, arrived in Chelyabinsk, and from there, together with the white parts, to Siberia, in the territory subject to Kolchak . He did not participate in hostilities, as he did not consider it possible to personally use weapons against his people. He directed the mobile theater and participated in concerts for the Czechoslovak Corps and the Kolchak military personnel. In Irkutsk , at the play on his drama “Jan Hus”, staged on the occasion of the arrival of Czechoslovak President T. Masaryk , received a personal invitation from Masaryk to come to Prague . He participated in the Great Siberian ice campaign under the command of General Kappel from the beginning of December 1919 .

At the funeral of General Vladimir Kappel in Chita on February 22, 1920 , he read his poem "On the death of Kappel." In it, in particular, it was said:

And Kappel’s name, and feat without measure,

Among the glorious heroes will never die ...

Bend your knees before the Creed,

And stand up for the Fatherland, dear people.

In the spring of 1920 , Alexander Efimovich, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, arrived in Vladivostok as the official envoy of Ataman Semenov . During his creative evening at the theater, he met a teacher, Nina Petrovna Shklyaeva, who agreed to become his wife. Almost immediately, they went to Europe - at the end of 1920 they arrived in Bulgaria , and from the beginning of 1921 they settled in Czechoslovakia , in Prague , in the region of Gornye Mokropsy. Here Alexander Efimovich lectured; in the collection “Slavs and the East” published the drama “Satanists”. The Russian Chamber Theater staged his play Jan Hus. After the premiere of the performance, which took place on the stage of the Czechoslovak National Theater on July 6, 1922 , A. E. Kotomkin was awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of Prague”. Nina Petrovna entered the Russian Pedagogical Institute named after Jan Amos Kamensky, which she graduated in 1926. On October 5, 1924 their daughter Irina was born.

In the summer of 1926 , the Kotomkins left Prague for Paris . Here, Alexander Efimovich began to act as a harp-depositor; sang his poems under the harp. He went with concerts to cities in France , sang at charity evenings, in various emigrant societies and circles. He recorded the disc together with the performer of Russian songs Julia Kutyrina, niece of I. S. Shmelyov . In 1927 he published a collection of poems "For Russia", and in 1930 - a small book of memoirs "On Czechoslovak Legionnaires in Siberia. 1918-1920 ". He participated in the work of the Paris Union of crippled Russian soldiers. The family lived very poorly; often moved in search of a more convenient and cheaper apartment and changed more than 20 addresses in Paris . Nina Petrovna earned a day job, since working in her specialty required French citizenship, which neither Alexander Efimovich nor Nina Petrovna basically wanted to accept. Nina Petrovna published in her Russian magazine her "Diary of a rural teacher" ("Modern Notes" No. 46 for 1931 ). She also devoted a lot of time to voluntary work in the Russian Church of the Three Saints on Petel Street. The Kotomkins organized children's Orthodox holidays (Christmas, Easter), staged performances for Russian children, and invented and sewed costumes themselves.

In 1938 , Alexander Efimovich went on tour in Europe, could not return to France because of the outbreak of war, and was soon detained by German authorities and interned in a camp for displaced persons in Denmark . In 1945 , the former maid of honor Gertrud von Poel found him in this camp and helped to move to Hamburg . Here Alexander Efimovich lived until his death in 1964 ; In recent years he lived in a small family-run guesthouse near Hamburg . For some time he worked at the Berlin Institute for the Study of Sound, but the main earnings were concerts. He performed in restaurants, clubs, acted as a street hussar. He corresponded with his wife and daughter, who remained during the war in France and took part in the Resistance movement , and in 1954 returned to their homeland. For Alexander Efimovich himself, returning home at that time was impossible because of his participation in the white movement and the extreme anti-Bolshevik orientation of many verses.

In 1960 , he published in German the book "From Old Holy Russia" dedicated to the folklore he had collected.

He died on November 23, 1964. He was buried in a cemetery near Hamburg.

In his poems, poems and plays A.E. Kotomkin often turned to the history of the Slavs, for a long time he professed the idea of ​​uniting Slavic peoples. The main theme of his work has always been Russia.

Intravital Publications

• Dumas: poems. A collection of poems by A.E. Kotomkin-Gerpulev. Kazan, printing house of A.M. Petrov, 1904.
• "Call", a poem. The Niva magazine No. 46 (November 14) for 1909.
• Collection of poems (1900-1909). With an introductory article by K.R. St. Petersburg, Artistic Institution of the Island A.F. Marx, 1910.
• Blessed memory of St. John Chrysostom. Kazan, Brotherhood of Christ the Savior, 1907 (signed by Kotomkin-Gerpulev) ..
• Cantata for the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty. St. Petersburg, printing house "Village messenger", Moscow, t-in I. D. Sytin, 1912.
• "1812 - 1912". Cantata for the 100th anniversary of World War II. Saratov, S.M. Panin's printing house, 1913.
• “You are pouring, people's tears,” a poem. Niva Magazine No. 27 (July 5), 1914.
• From Galician motives, a poem. “Niva” 3 13 (March 28) for 1915.
• Songs dedicated to the August Poet K. R. His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich. " Kiev, t-in "Printing of S.P. Yakovlev, 1915.
• Prince Vyachko and swordsmen. Historical poem. Petrograd, printing house t-va A.F. Marx, 1916 (signed "Kotomkin-Savinsky").
• Ian Gus. Historical drama in 6 acts in verse. Kazan, printing house of the Labor Union, 1918.
• "Sveta! More light! ”, A poem; "To all who have left the people," a poem; "I love the village, dear cornfield", a poem; “Kazan Provincial Congress of the Union of Crippled Warriors”, article; "Letter to the matchmaker at Savino", a poem; The Bolshoi Theater (Rosenberg Directorate), a critical note; Romance, poem; The Muslim Theater, a critical note, - To the World magazine, No. 1, 1918, Kazan.
• Swordsmen, historical drama in 5 acts and 2 scenes, - To the Light magazine, No. 2 for 1918, Kazan.
• Swordsmen. 2nd Edition. "Free Word", Tyumen, 1919.
• Ian Gus. Historical drama in poetry. "Free Word", Tyumen, 1919.
• On the death of Kappel, a poem. "Transbaikal News" (Chita) on February 25, 1920.
• Ian Gus. With an introductory article by professors M.V. Brechkevich and N.M. Petrovsky. "Slavic publishing house", Prague, 1921.
• Satanists. The play is a drama. Collection "Slavs and the East", Prague, 1921.
• Feedback on the journal "Wildflowers". Wildflowers (Estonia), No. 3/4 for 1930.
• “For Russia”, collection. Paris, 1927.
• About Czechoslovak legionnaires in Siberia. 1918-1920. Memories and documents. Paris, 1927.
• From old Holy Russia (in German). Flensburg-Hamburg, 1962.

Monument to Alexander Efimovich Kotomkin

Installed on June 21, 2013 ^[3] in the city of Yoshkar-Ola on Chavaina Boulevard, in front of the Nikonov Square; inaugurated on June 24, 2013 ^[4] . The sculptural composition of a single-figured: on a pedestal lined with granite - a bronze full-growth figure. On the pedestal - a quote from the verses of A. E. Kotomkin and the inscription:

Alexander Efimovich Kotomsky (Savinsky). A Russian poet of the first half of the 20th century, a well-known guslar-depositor, a participant in the First World War, the famous Tsarevokokshaets, a native of the village of Savino (1885-1964)

The authors of the monument are Anatoly Shirnin and Sergey Yandubaev. The monument was cast in Kazan ^[3] , the height of the sculpture is 4 meters.

• 1918 in the East of Russia, M., 2003.S. 447 (biographical information).
• S.V. Starikov. “Alexander Kotomkin (Savinsky). A life. Creation. Fate. ”Yoshkar-Ola, Rural News Publishing House, 2012
• Mari Biographical Encyclopedia / Auth. V.A. Mochaev. - Yoshkar-Ola : Mari Biographical Center, 2007 .-- S. 186. - 486 p. - 2032 copies. - ISBN 5-87898-357-0 .

• About participating in Kappel's funeral