Nikolai Nikolaevich Aseev(real name - Stahlbaum; 1889-1963) - Russian Soviet poet , screenwriter, activist of the Russianfuturism. Laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree (1941). He was a friend of V. V. Mayakovsky, B. L. Pasternak.

N. N. Aseev was born on June 28 (July 10), 1889 in the city of Lgov (now Kursk region) in the family of insurance agent Nikolai Nikolaevich Shtalbaum. The poet's mother, Elena Nikolaevna, nee Pinskaya, died young, when the boy was not yet 8 years old. The father soon remarried. He spent his childhood in the house of his grandfather, Nikolai Pavlovich Pinsky, an avid hunter and fisherman, a lover of folk songs and fairy tales, and a wonderful storyteller. Grandmother Varvara Stepanovna Pinskaya was a serf in her youth, bought out of captivity by her grandfather, who fell in love with her during one of his hunting wanderings. She remembered a lot from the life of the old village.

The boy was sent to the Kursk real school, which he graduated in 1909. Then he studied at the economic department at the Moscow Commercial Institute (1909-1912) and at the philological faculties of Moscow and Kharkov universities. In 1915 he was drafted into the army and ended up on the Austrian front. In September 1917, he was elected to the regimental Council of Soldiers' Deputies and, together with a train of wounded Siberians, went to Irkutsk. During the Civil War, he was Far East. He was in charge of the labor exchange, then worked in a local newspaper, first publishing, later as a feuilletonist.

In 1920 he was summoned to Moscow by a telegram from A. V. Lunacharsky. Member of the group "Creativity" together withS. M. Tretyakov, D. D. Burliuk, N. F. Chuzhak. In 1922 he came to Moscow. From 1931 until his death, he lived in the "House of the Writers' Cooperative" in Kamergersky Lane, which is reminded by a memorial plaque installed on the building. During the war years, as not liable for military service, he was evacuated to Chistopol.

He actively helped the promotion of young poets during the Khrushchev "thaw". His letters to Viktor Sosnora, written shortly before his death, have been preserved. The letters are full of active participation in the creative career of the young poet.

N. N. Aseev died on July 16, 1963. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (site No. 6).

In her letter to B. L. Pasternak in 1956, the daughter of M. I. Tsvetaeva A. S. Efron calls him the murderer of his mother (“For me Aseev- not a poet, not a man, not an enemy, not a traitor - he is a murderer, and this murder is worse than Dantesov. Having been turned down for requests for help—even for a dishwasher in the writer's cafeteria—and immediately after talking to Aseev, Marina Tsvetaeva committed suicide.

A street named after the poet Aseeva in Moscow. Kursk regional science Library and one of the streets of Kursk bear the name Aseeva. In the city of Lgov there is a literary and memorial museum of the poet, a street is named after him.

He began to print in 1909. Since 1914 Aseev together with S. P. Bobrov and B. L. Pasternak was one of the leading representatives of the circle "Lyrics", then the group " Centrifuge”, which professed futurism. The poet's first collection, The Night Flute (1914), bore traces of the influence of Symbolist poetry. Acquaintance with the works of V. V. Khlebnikov, passion for ancient Slavic folklore was reflected in the collections Zor (1914), Letorei (1915). Creative communication with V. V. Mayakovsky (since 1913) helped to form talent Aseeva. Revolutionary motifs are amplified in his poetry. The collection "Bomb" (1921) was burned by the invaders along with the destroyed printing house. "March of Budyonny" from the poem "Budyonny" (1922) became a popular song (music by A. A. Davidenko). From 1923 he participated in the literary group " LEF". The poem "Lyrical digression" (1924) caused heated discussions. Here Aseev laments the concessions in the ideological sphere and critically portrays the distortion of the revolutionary idea in the new political environment of the NEP.

The poems “Sverdlovsk Storm” (1924), “Semyon Proskakov” (1928), poems about revolutionaries (“Blue Hussars”, 1926, “Chernyshevsky”, 1929), “A poem about twenty-six Baku commissars” (1925) are imbued with revolutionary-romantic pathos. - a typical example of propaganda lyrics in the style of Mayakovsky). The poem "Mayakovsky begins" (1940).

Translated poems by Mao Zedong.

Wife - Ksenia Mikhailovna (nee Sinyakova) (1900-1985)

Awards and prizes

• Stalin Prize of the first degree (1941) - for the poem "Mayakovsky Begins"
• Order of Lenin (1939)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labor

Books by N. Aseev

• Nikolai Aseev. Night flute: Poems. / Foreword and region S. Bobrov.- M .: Lyrica, 1914. - 32 p.
• Nikolai Aseev. Zor. / Region M. Sinyakova.- M .: Liren, 1914. - 16 p.
• Nikolai Aseev, Grigory Petnikov. Letorei: Book. poems / Region M. Sinyakova.- M .: Liren, 1915. - 32 p.
• Nikolai Aseev. Oh konin dan okein! Fourth book. poems. - M .: Liren, 1916. - 14 p.
• Nikolai Aseev. Oksana. - M .: Centrifuge, 1916. - 88 p.
• Nikolai Aseev. Bomb. - Vladivostok: Vost. tribune, 1921. - 64 p.
• Nikolai Aseev. Siberian bass. - Chita, 1922
• Nikolai Aseev. Sofron at the front. - M., 1922
• Nikolai Aseev. Arzhan decree. - M .: Giz, 1922. - 20 p.
• Wind Council. - M., GIZ, 1923. - 56 p.
• Steel nightingale. - M., Vkhutemas, 1922. - 26 p.
• Nikolai Aseev. October songs., M., Mol. guard, 1925. - 32 p.
• Nikolai Aseev. Next row. M., 1925 - 32 p.
• Nikolai Aseev. Shot land (stories). M., Ogonyok, 1925. - 44 p.
• Nikolai Aseev. Why and who needs poetry. 1961. - 315 p.

Scenarios

• The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks, 1924.
• Battleship "Potemkin", 1925, together with Nina Agadzhanova.
• Fedkina Pravda, 1925, together with Alexander Pereguda.

Aseev Nikolai Nikolaevich - a famous Soviet poet and screenwriter. One of the brightest representatives of futurism in Russia. Has been awarded many times Soviet power for his poems, including the Stalin Prize.

Childhood and youth

Let's make a reservation right away, Aseev is a pseudonym. Real surname writer - Stahlbaum. He often published his works under other names: Ivolga, N. A. Bul-Bul, Nav Fundamentalnikov.

Nikolay Aseev, whose biography is presented here, was born on June 27, 1889 in Lvov (Kursk province). His father, Nikolai Nikolaevich, was an insurance agent, and his mother, Elena Pinskaya, died at a young age, when his son was only 8 years old. Shortly thereafter, the father married a second time.

The future writer spent his childhood with his maternal grandfather, Nikolai Pavlovich Pinsky, who was an avid fisherman and hunter, adored folklore, especially songs, and was known as an excellent storyteller. His grandmother, Pinsky's wife, was born a serf, who was bought by her future husband, having fallen in love with a girl during his hunting trips.

In 1909 Aseev graduated from the Kursk real school. After that he entered the Moscow Commercial Institute. He also attended the Faculty of Philology of Moscow University, where he listened to lectures.

First publications

Nikolai Aseev published his first works in 1911. Moscow literary life overwhelmed the poet. At this time, he is a frequent guest of "Bryusov's evenings" and dinners with Vyacheslav Ivanov. At one of the meetings, he met Pasternak, who conquered the young writer with his works.

In 1914, a selection of Aseev's poems was published in the almanac "Lyric". From this moment begins the active literary life of the poet. And four years later, 5 of his collections were published: "Zor", "Night Flute", "Letorey", "Oksana", "The Fourth Book of Poems".

War and revolution

During the First World War, Nikolai Aseev was drafted into the army. First, he is sent to Mariupol, where combat training takes place. Then they are sent as part of a regiment towards the Austrian front. At this time, he becomes seriously ill - pneumonia begins, complicated by tuberculosis. Aseev is declared unfit for service and sent to the rear. After his recovery, the poet was again sent to the front, where he served until 1917, when he was elected a member of the Council of Soldiers' Deputies.

The February Revolution broke out. The writer's regiment refused to fight. Aseev, taking his family, goes to the Far East. His path ran through a hungry and post-war, insurgent country. He described his wanderings in the essay "October on the Far", which brought him the first real literary success.

Having settled in Vladivostok, the writer began to collaborate with the new newspaper Peasant and Worker. At this time, it became known about the October Revolution, Aseev accepted this news with joy. Soon he received an invitation from Lunacharsky to move to Moscow. And in 1922 Aseev moved to the capital. Here he meets Mayakovsky, who had a very great influence on him.

Life in Moscow

In Moscow, Nikolai Aseev continues to write, publishes several collections: Council of the Winds, Steel Nightingale. In the 1920s, revolutionary poems and poems of the writer were published: Chernyshevsky, Lyrical Digression, Blue Hussars, Sverdlovsk Storm.

In the same years, Aseev went on a trip to the West, from which he returned in 1928. After that, he wrote several impression poems: "Rome", "Road", "Forum-Capitol". After the death of Mayakovsky, the poet published the poem "Mayakovsky Begins."

Final years and death

During the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Aseev continues to work. Many of his works are called a real military chronicle. Among such poems: “The Flame of Victory”, “Radio Reports”, “At the Last Hour”, “Bullet Flight”, etc.

In 1961, the writer's book "Why and Who Needs Poetry" was published, in which he sums up his life and career.

Aseev's poems of the early period

Despite the fact that Aseev is classified as a futurist, he began as a symbolist. In his youth he was strongly fascinated by Verlaine, Hoffmann and Oscar Wilde. It is not surprising that in the poems of this time he appears as a romantic decadent.

The poet in these years adjoins the Centrifuge group, whose representatives tried to combine cubo-futurism, which was only gaining momentum, and “pure” classical lyrics. Aseev treated the “sober-mercantile” world of the townsfolk with contempt. He described the surrounding reality as a "terrible face", which "showers in bundles of rubles." The poet's dream is to escape from this world with his beloved and "not meet either friends or household members." Aseev perceived the First World War as a long-awaited collapse of the petty-bourgeois established order: "let the stones of buildings collapse in fire."

In addition to these motifs, the poet's poems contain images from Russian fairy tales and Slavic mythology, as well as Zaporizhzhya melodies.

Revolution period

Nikolai Aseev is an innovative poet. Mayakovsky and V. Khlebnikov had a great influence on him. They played leading role in shaping his style. During the revolution, Aseev was in Vladivostok. From here he begins to glorify Soviet Russia. The poet turns to classical rural images: blue, flax, arable land, cherries, feather grass, mowing, etc.

Even in pre-revolutionary poetry, Aseev predicted the imminent triumph of a new order. Therefore, he accepted the revolution with enthusiasm. He calls the old culture a “gone cloud”, which has finally “dead down”. The new world has become "a way out of the old, a premonition, an opportunity." Thus, the poet perceives the revolution as a spontaneous force that defeated the petty-bourgeois way of life and made it possible for development.

Post-revolutionary period

After moving to the capital, Aseev's worldview changes somewhat. Revolution turns from an illusory ideal into an accomplished action, the results of which can be assessed. The theme of industrialization appears in the works, which is inextricably linked with creativity.

The writer has always gravitated towards experiments, so he often experienced the influence of various literary movements. For example, ancient Russian motifs, borrowings from Gumilyov, Hoffmann, Blok, Khlebnikov.

In its subject matter, the poem "Lyrical Digression", written in 1924, differs from previous works. The composition has disturbing, dramatic and agitated notes. Aseev reproaches his contemporaries for the fact that they have not departed from philistinism and are still drawn to everyday well-being, not thinking about the common good. This poem was highly appreciated by contemporaries, and later began to be considered a classic of the 20th century.

Second famous work of this period - the suite "Blue Hussars", which was dedicated to the memory of the Decembrists. In the work, Aseev describes the preparation of the uprising and the tragic end of the plan.

In 1929, the book "The Diary of a Poet" was published. In this book, aesthetic searches go into the background, and the lyricism of the surrounding world and the everyday side of life comes forward. Nikolai Aseev returns to romantic pathos again.

The most famous verses are listed below:

• “I know: all sorrows…”;
• "Counterattack";
• "Thunderstorm";
• "What is happiness?";
• "About ordinary";
• "Song of Glory";
• “Every time you look into the water…”;
• "Happiness";
• "Monument";
• "Creator";
• "Bullfinches".

Late stage of creativity

In the second half of the 20s, Nikolai Aseev was looking for a new hero. The poems of this time testify that the poet begins to sing the praises of the worker, while poetry, he says, must be learned "from the machine tool and the combine." Several poems are published in which labor collectivism, folk life and ordinary work are sung ordinary people. Among such works can be called "Kursk Territory", "Electriad", "Song of Oil".

The 30s are marked for Aseev by the continuation of genre searches. In particular, he develops international feuilletons on political topics: “Berlin May”, “Hope of Humanity”. At the same time, the poet is engaged in translations.

During the Great Patriotic War, his works were published on the pages of front-line and central newspapers. In the poems of this period, the main place is occupied by patriotism and faith in victory in the war.

In the postwar years, Aseev paid great attention to the theoretical part of poetry. He often published articles on literary topics in newspapers and published several books.

"I can't live without you": analysis of the poem

The poem was written in 1960, so it is attributed to Aseev's late poetry. The theme of love is not typical for the writer's work and is the exception rather than the rule. The verse has a name - "Simple Lines". It is not always mentioned in collections, but is of key importance for understanding the work.

The poem has no plot as such. It only describes the feeling - the lyrical hero confesses his love. He says that without his beloved he does not need anything in this world. Aseev writes about true fiery love, but he titles the poems "Simple Lines". By this, the poet wanted to say that for those around him, confession is not some kind of revelation, such words were uttered by many. But for the most lyrical hero, his feelings are strong and incredible.

“I can’t live without you” is one of Aseev’s most famous poems. It owes this to its lyricism and sincerity.

Aseev Nikolai Nikolaevich (1889-1963), Russian poet. In the poems "Budyonny" (1923), "Twenty-six" (1924), "Semyon Proskakov" (1928) - romantic glorification of the revolution. From the formal sophistication of the first collections ("Zor", 1914) came to the lyrical and philosophical understanding of reality ("Reflections", 1955; "Lad", 1961). In the poem "Mayakovsky Begins" (1940; State Prize of the USSR, 1941) he created the image of a poet fighting for a new art. A book of reflections on poetry, memoirs "Why and who needs poetry" (1961).

Aseev Nikolai Nikolaevich, Russian poet.

Years of study

Coming from impoverished nobles. Father is an insurance agent. Parents had a great influence on the development of the personality of the future poet. Having lost his mother early, Aseev was brought up by his grandfather - a landowner and a passionate lover of Russian folklore. After graduating from the Kursk real school (1907), he entered the Moscow Commercial Institute (1908-10), then moved to Kharkov University; at one time he was a volunteer at Moscow University (Faculty of History and Philology).

"Symbolist student"

From 1908 he was published in the journal "Spring", in 1912-14 - in the journals "Zavety", " New magazine for everyone”, “Protalinka”, in the almanac “Primrose”. For a short time he was a secretary in the Russian Archive magazine.

The early work of the poet was influenced by the symbolists, primarily K. D. Balmont, as well as the German romantics (E. T. A. Hoffmann). Was familiar with V. Ya. Bryusov, Vyach. I. Ivanov, S. P. Bobrov. “A student of the Symbolists, pushing off from them, like a child pushing off from a wall, holding on to which he learns to walk,” Aseev wrote about himself in the book “Prose of a Poet” (1930).

The lack of independence of the first publications (1911) allowed the poet V. Shershenevich to call them "symbolic cheap stuff". But the books "Night Flute" (1914) and especially "Oksana" (1916), dedicated to Ksenia Sinyakova - the poet's beautiful wife (since 1917) and the only companion of his whole life, testified to Aseev's extraordinary poetic gift. “... Among the youth ... who erected tongue-tied tongue into a virtue and original involuntarily, only two, Aseev and Tsvetaeva, expressed themselves humanly,” B. L. Pasternak wrote later. Together with Pasternak, he was a member of the Centrifuge group close to the futurists.

Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov in the life of Aseev

During the First World War in 1915 he was drafted into the army, served in a reserve regiment in Mariupol; released from service in connection with the discovery of tuberculosis, but in February 1917, despite the illness, he was called up again. He served in an infantry reserve regiment in Gaisin, where he was elected to the Council of Soldiers' Deputies. Sent to the cadet school, he and his wife left (or rather, fled) to Vladivostok, where he joined the futuristic group "Creativity". He worked in Soviet institutions, in 1918 he lectured on the latest Russian poets in Japan. In 1922 he returned to Moscow. At this time, he created the poem "Budyonny". The songs of the composer A. A. Davidenko, written to Aseev’s poems: “Equestrian Budyonny”, “First Horse”, “Rifle” began to enjoy great popularity.

In 1923 he joined the LEF - a literary group headed by VV Mayakovsky. Friendship with Mayakovsky, whom Aseev met, most likely in 1914 changed not only his poetic style, but also life itself. He became, as it were, the “shadow” of the great poet, although neither his worldview, nor his song warehouse, nor the transparency of his verse was close to the thunderous Mayakovsky. Velimir Khlebnikov, whose word creation is akin to Russian folklore, was much closer to him. In "A Lyrical Digression" (1924) and "The Blue Hussars" (1926), Aseev's poetic heights, the sound writing is especially expressive; although Aseev declared that he was “a lyricist by the nature of his soul, by the very line essence,” the lyrics in these things are muffled, the sound is clearly stronger than thought and feeling.

After Mayakovsky's suicide, Aseev was at one time nominated by the authorities for the role of the first poet, received the Stalin (State) Prize (1941) for the poem "Mayakovsky Begins" (1940). But as the Soviet era lost external cheerful features, interest in Aseev fell. During his lifetime, he published about 80 books, including several essays, in which he showed himself to be a connoisseur of poetry. In his last lifetime collection Lad (1961) he abandoned the innovative form of verse.

In addition to poetry, Aseev was passionate about cards and racing.

Aseev, Nikolai Nikolaevich- Nikolai Nikolaevich Aseev. ASEEV Nikolai Nikolaevich (1889-1963), Russian poet. From the formal sophistication of the first collections ("Zor", 1914) came to the lyrical and philosophical understanding of reality ("Reflections", 1955; "Lad", 1961). Romantic… … Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Russian Soviet poet. Born in the family of an insurance agent. He spent his childhood in the house of his grandfather - a hunter, a connoisseur of nature and folklore. He studied at the Moscow Commercial Institute (1909‒12) and at ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (1889 1963) Russian poet. In the poems Budyonny (1923), Twenty-six (1924), Semyon Proskakov (1928) romantic glorification of the revolution. From the formal sophistication of the first collections (Zor, 1914) he came to a lyrical philosophical understanding ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (June 27, 1889, the city of Lgov, Kursk province July 26, 1963), Russian poet, translator, literary critic, screenwriter. He studied at the Moscow Commercial Institute (1909-1912), at the philological faculty of Moscow and Kharkov universities. IN… … Cinema Encyclopedia

Aseev, Nikolai Nikolaevich- Aseev Nikolai Nikolaevich (1889-1963) was gifted with a rare sense of language (bringing him closer to V. Khlebnikov) and a sense of rhythm (so tangible in the "Dance"); experiments led him to the futurists (in the Centrifuge group); only on this intuitive gift… … Russian poets of the Silver Age

- (1889 1963), Russian poet. He was a member of futuristic groups. From the formal sophistication of the first collections ("Zor", 1914) he came to a lyrical and philosophical understanding of reality ("Reflections", 1955; "Lad", 1961). In the poems "Budyonny" (1923), ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

- (b. 1889) poet. The first book of poems, The Night Flute, was published in 1913 (published in Lyrica). In the development of the poetic image, the strong influence of E. T. Hoffmann is felt (for example, in the "Song of the Cockroach Pimrom", etc.), in the poetic ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia

- (1889, Lgov, Kursk province 1963, Moscow), poet. The son of an insurance agent (according to other sources, an agronomist). He studied at the Moscow Commercial Institute (190810), then at Kharkov University; was a volunteer (historical ... ... Moscow (encyclopedia)

ASEEV Nikolai Nikolaevich- (18891963), Russian Soviet poet. The poems "Budyonny" (1923), "Lyrical Digression", "Electriad", "Twenty-Six" (all 1924), "Sverdlovsk Storm" (1925), "Semyon Proskakov" (1928), "Mayakovsky Begins" (1937 40; State Ave. ... ... Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary

N. N. Aseev ... Collier Encyclopedia

Books

• Top-top-top, Aseev Nikolai Nikolaevich. One of the first works of Vera Ermolaeva in the State Publishing House was illustrations for the poem by N. Aseev `Top-top-top`. A simple story about how a kind and conscientious policeman blocks ...
• Top-top-top, Aseev Nikolai Nikolaevich. One of the first works of Vera Ermolaeva in Gosizdat was illustrations for N. Aseev's poem "Top-top-top". A simple story about how a kind and conscientious policeman blocks ...

Therefore, not days, not names I, -
Dark fear in the vein zataya,
I only remember you by the logs,
My house, my dream, my youth!

N. Aseev.

IN most literary studies, publications, encyclopedias, Nikolai Nikolaevich Aseev is called "... one of the most talented Soviet poets." To be honest, now, not only in the country, but also in Lgov, in his homeland, it is difficult to meet a person who remembers the works of the poet. If you don't believe me, ask passers-by on the street. They know that there is Aseev Street and a museum. Young people can remember that at school they once took the whole class there. But did they read Aseev after that? Hard to say. I advise - read! He really made a significant contribution to Soviet poetry, and he was an interesting, benevolent, knowledgeable person.

Usually about childhood famous people others remember, those who were nearby, but did not “light up” in any way, and then suddenly there was an opportunity to declare themselves, telling how they “ate porridge” with a future celebrity. With Nikolai Aseev it turned out differently. He himself spoke about his childhood so poetically and in detail that it seems there is nothing to add. "... the impressions of childhood remain the most vivid and are deposited in the memory much more firmly than the impressions of other - subsequent ages." Probably, everyone will confirm these words of N. Aseev.

The house where the poet was born

N. N. Aseev was born on June 27, 1889 in Lgov. He was orphaned at an early age with a living father. There was almost nothing in common between them. The insurance agent was a specific person, not entirely lucky, devoid of imagination.

“My father and I gathered for matins. We got up early - early, sat on the porch, wait for the first blow of the bell for the service. And now, sitting on this wooden porch, looking at the hemp plant and the neighboring settlement, I suddenly realized how beautiful the world is, how great and unusual. The fact is that the newly risen sun suddenly turned into several suns - a phenomenon in nature known, but rare. And I, seeing something that was akin to the stories of my grandfather, but turned out to be true, somehow trembled all over with delight. The heart was beating fast, fast.

Look dad, look! How many suns have become!

Well, what of this? Didn't you ever see it? These are false suns.

Okay, look, look…”

Memories of his father take up little space in the poet's work. He hardly spoke about his mother, who died very early. Another thing is the grandfather and grandmother who raised him. He was grateful to them all his life.

Judging by the memoirs of the poet, they really were extraordinary personalities. She is a storyteller and singer unsurpassed.

“And yet my main tutor was my grandfather. It was he who told miraculous cases from his hunting adventures that were not inferior in anything to Munchausen's fiction. I listened with my mouth open, realizing, of course, that this did not happen, but it could still be ... ".

In 1957, he would write in more detail about his childhood in the autobiographical essays "My Life" and "The Path to Poetry".

Of course, childhood memories are largely idealized. Grandfather - Nikolai Pavlovich Pinsky had the rank of provincial secretary. From November 1878 to March 15, 1890 he worked as a caretaker of the county hospital. This position was purely economic. The character had a very difficult, independent, perhaps quarrelsome. After serving 12 years, he demands an increase in salary for all years, which he achieves!

Probably also engaged in giving money at interest. Otherwise, how can one explain a petition to the court to recover 18 rubles from the debtors - the peasants of Alexei Mishchenkov, and from Ilya Baklagin as much as 300 rubles, the amount is very serious. Moreover, these peasants lived in different villages.

Interesting memoirs of childhood friends of the future poet - P. D. Zagorodnikh and M. S. Bogomazov were recorded by S. V. Lagutich. They were published in the regional newspaper and, in fact, only supplement the poet's own memoirs with details.

From Lgov, my grandfather took ten-year-old Nikolai to Kursk, where he entered a real school. It is characteristic that the boy began to live not in his father's family, but with his uncle, Vasily Nikolaevich. So, the relationship with his father was very cool. Of all the subjects, Nikolai most of all loved the Russian language and subsequently was noticeably distinguished by his knowledge of the subject even among writers.

The year 1905 has come, in Kursk, as in other cities of Russia, revolutionary unrest begins. Aseev, along with friends, takes part in them. He recalls this:

“Do not slam the lesson again,
Sukhomyatka not climbing into the throat,
Don't go spend the evening
To a friendly meeting?

In 1909, Aseev received a certificate of graduation from the school and came to Lgov for the summer, probably for the last time. And here is what is recorded in the archive document:

“May 1909, 23 days, the Lgovsky district police officer, seeing from the inquiry that student Nikolai Nikolaev Aseev, nobleman Nikolai Vladimirov Santsevich, Konstantin Vladimirov Kurlov, merchant Alexander Ivanov Stepin and daughter of an official Maria Fedorova Safonova by the testimony of witnesses ... are convicted of the fact that in On the night of May 23, they allowed themselves to publicly sing revolutionary songs in the city garden. Therefore, seeing in this act signs of a violation of clause 3 of the mandatory decrees issued by the Kursk Governor on July 3, 1907 ... Decided: ... as harmful to public order, to be arrested at the Lgovskaya prison ... ".

Here are the fruits of being in a student environment! And it's not the first time he's been arrested. I do not know how N. Aseev behaved under arrest. But his friend petitions:

“... a 3rd year student of the Imperial University imprisoned in the Lgovskaya district prison Faculty of Law Konstantin Vladimirovich Kurlov.

I have the honor to humbly ask Your Highness to allow the use of books for reading brought from home and inspected by the head of the prison. And in particular lectures for exam preparation and the use of paper, ink and pens.

You can’t say anything, but the authorities prepared good lawyers for themselves!

In autumn, Nikolai Aseev leaves for Moscow to continue his studies at the Commercial Institute. It was the wish of the father. But accounting is not at all in the spirit of a dreamy young man. He quickly enters the circle of then famous writers V. Lidin, N. Ognev, B. Pasternak, V. Bryusov, A. Bely, V. Khlebnikov. Aseev adjoins the so-called futurists, who called “... to abandon Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and so on. and so on. from the "Steamboat of Modernity". They were "revolutionaries in poetry".

The meeting with Vladimir Mayakovsky, which took place in 1912, becomes decisive. This friendship will go through the whole life of poets. In 1914, the first book of the young Aseev, The Night Flute, was published.

But it starts World War and Nikolai Aseev, are drafted into the army. He did not have to participate in hostilities, and there was no such desire. He clearly did not like the soldier's service. After the February Revolution, Aseev was elected to the Council of Soldiers' Deputies from the 34th Infantry Regiment. He was the most literate in this Council and received a referral to study at the school of ensigns, located in Irkutsk. And so, the aspiring poet gets on the train with his young wife and ... passes by Irkutsk to Vladivostok itself. And the plans include the intention to go even further from the war - to Kamchatka or even to Japan. After all, what he did was always considered as desertion. He will write about his stay in the Far East in the book "Poet's Diary".

In Vladivostok, Aseev was caught by the October Revolution, which announced the end of the war with the "Decree on Peace", and he is in the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, where he receives the post of assistant to the head of the labor exchange. At the same time he collaborates with the local newspaper. Soon the interventionists began to take over Vladivostok and the guns of the Japanese cruisers aimed at the city. Aseev starts editing the local newspaper, but with his poems he fully supports the Bolsheviks:

"Comrade - the Sun! Dry the moisture of tears
Whose puddle the soul is greedy.
Vivat! Huge red flag
Which the sky is waving to us!

He resolutely takes the side of the Red Revolution: "I would like to write only about the battles of art, but with heavy steps they are crossed by battles for power."

In Vladivostok, the poet created two cycles of poems: "The Rusted Lyre" and "Poems of Today". The attitude towards the revolution is already more cautious:

“Death carries a double-barreled shotgun through the elbow,
The pines are mute and the stars are silent.
How can I, a lone wolf,
Do not call out to distant wolf cubs!

It seems that these are the lines of Vladimir Vysotsky. There is some kind of hopeless confusion, abandonment in them. Russia, covered in blood, visibly rises before us:

"You were shot - I was shot,
We loved together, we breathed together,
In one our cheeks burned with delirium.
Are you leaving? And I'm coming for you!"

How could an enthusiastic, romantic young man not get lost in a whirlwind of events. And was he the only one? On both sides of the barricades stood thousands of uncomprehending young people. Aseev seeks support and advice from Mayakovsky. Often writes to him, interested in events in the capital. After living in Vladivostok for four years, he moved to Chita, from which People's Commissar Lunacharsky, at the request of Mayakovsky, summoned him to Moscow by telegram. The leaders of Soviet poetry gather there. Oh, how the new government needed them! Who else will explain to the people the advantages of the new system. Aseev arrived wary, because he was absent for five whole years, do they still remember him? But the meeting with Mayakovsky dispelled all doubts and Nikolai Nikolayevich immediately joined in literary life capital, and hence the whole republic.

Early Aseev sharply opposes the usual, petty-bourgeois forms of life. The motives of his poems are rebellious. And verbal experiments from there. It is necessary to consider the work of writers of those years, taking into account the influence of time. A. Tolstoy said well about that period: “It was a time when love, good and healthy feelings were considered vulgarity and a relic ... Girls hid their innocence, spouses - fidelity. Destruction was considered good taste, neurasthenia a sign of refinement.

Aseev tries to keep up with his fellow writers and often writes like this:

"Ay, double, double.
Glitter blast furnace Stop. Lew!
The crane is given - shine, spike, steam, dance up!

But before that, in 1924, the beautiful poem "Lyrical Digression" was published, which says:

“Reader, stop!
Here is the sentry box
Here is chic and scream.
And the slogan. And a password.
And before, forget-me-not turned blue here
merry boyish times."

Do you feel? He cannot betray his friends in poetry, fashion trends, but the lyrics attract.

The most prominent representative of Soviet poetry is Vladimir Mayakovsky. And Aseev is better known as a friend, first of V. Khlebnikov, then of V. Mayakovsky. Next to them, he looks as if in the shadows. But Nikolai Nikolaevich did not get lost at all against their background, but remained himself, independent and individual. The prominent poet Ilya Selvinsky, who often spoke out against Aseev, had to admit: “Aseev’s strength is that he is, first of all, a person. You can not remember his poems, not know a single line, but when you say "Aseev" - a silhouette appears in front of you, which has no double! Mayakovsky himself puts him next to him with a phrase that will accompany Aseev all his life: “... we also have Aseev Kolka, this one can. He has my grip." And one of the poetic leaders of that time, Valery Bryusov, claims: "Nikolai Aseev is perhaps the most striking figure in our poetry today."

But criticisms are pouring in from all sides, accusations of treason, lack of taste. Mayakovsky, who himself was constantly persecuted, had to speak in defense of a friend. Aseev answers opponents:

"I am a lyricist
according to the nature of your soul,
by itself
line essence.

He found his way in poetry, the way of which he will remain faithful all his life. He was recognized and often began to be placed above Mayakovsky, because Aseev is more understandable and close to the reader. Aseev never agreed with this. They themselves never opposed each other and their relationship was not overshadowed by envy or rivalry. Although Mayakovsky took away entire Aseevsky lines for himself, which he did not hide. Later, Nikolai Nikolayevich admitted: “We were comrades not only in the air of youth, not only in age impressions. I almost always felt his elbow at mine ... ".

It was more difficult with other poets. Disputes - who is more important in poetry arose constantly. There is a known case when Sergei Yesenin showed up to sort things out with Aseev, but the owner of the house was not there. Yesenin took out a bottle, sat - sat, drank everything, was offended, blew his nose on the tablecloth as a keepsake and left. But this case is just funny. It happened even more seriously, when denunciations were written, provocations were arranged.

In 1926, one of the best and most expressive poems "The Blue Hussars" was published. No wonder the most famous readers included him in their repertoire, including G. V. Artobolevsky. Listen to the rhythm

"Wounded bear
frost sucks.
Sledge on the Fontanka
are flying forward.
Poloz sharp-
streaks of snow,
whose is it there
voices and laughter?

Few people said better and more succinctly about the Decembrists:

"I will answer you
dear friend,
death is not terrible
in a tight loop!
More disgraceful and disastrous
in such a slavery
whitened head,
become old."

"Blue Hussars" entered the golden fund of poetry Soviet period. But the experiments with rhyme, the innovation of versification are not yet forgotten:

“Dnipro! Boiling pasterns!
Chernomorets! Into the dark beard!
Confused! And tear to pieces!
Girlo substituting the city!
Word? - No, I'll swim
everlasting these complaints.
Hit a big lick
white-fronted block of the deck.

In February 1927, together with Vladimir Mayakovsky, Nikolai Nikolaevich arrived in Kursk to hold literary meetings. Performances were held in the largest halls of the city, with a large gathering of people. During the day, Aseev took a friend around Kursk, showed him the sights, and visited his relatives, with whom he had previously lived. But there was no time to visit Lgov. Yes, there was no one left there, he never remembered his childhood friends.

A special place in the poet's work is occupied by the cycle "Kursk Territories". It contains seven poems. In fact, it turned out to be a poem about childhood and youth. If in his memoirs he wrote about Lgov as an ordinary dull county town, here he already sang about the “nightingale region”:

“... and behind him, among the oaks, at the gate
Prince-Baryatinsky Park,
they are sown incessantly, so,
that the sky is getting hot.
Here and there, right and left,
into seven tribes they crumble dashingly, -
nightingale, nightingale, nightingale,
just listen to the nightingale!”

Aseev, already a well-known, recognized poet, has not been to his homeland for a long time. But what a joyful, nostalgically poignant feeling created the lines:

“Stay well and be healthy!
You will not be touched by flattery or blasphemy,
Lushenka and Nizhny Derevenki,
The bells that sank to the bottom.
Stand strong. You are my mantle
you are my grandfathers and godfathers,
you are my human form, Kursk region.

He again remembers his beloved grandfather:

“And I, his grown-up grandson,
when I'm in trouble,
I will only take an evil pillow,
I see him as Robin Hood.
Green waves of loaves,
talking to the wind,
and the world's first love
to the hero, to the hunter - to the grandfather.

After the death of Mayakovsky, Aseev, although he did not become a publicist and tribune, is perceived as a follower and successor. He writes a lot, but mostly propaganda poems are published. Several times he tries to turn to Stalin, complaining about harassment.

But now, in December 1935, Stalin declared that “... Mayakovsky was and remains the best, most talented poet of our Soviet era. Indifference to his memory and works is a crime.”

And two weeks later, Aseev publicly declares that he began to write a novel in verse about his friend. He got the opportunity to speak. The main work of Aseev was the poem "Mayakovsky begins." He graduated from it in 1939. The poem became the main event in the poetic world of those years. On March 15, 1941, the author was awarded the Stalin Prize for outstanding literary work. The poem did not fit into the framework of an ordinary biography, it was a literary monument to his friend, without which, perhaps, Aseev himself would not have taken place. This is a farewell to the hobbies of youth - futuristic and lefovsky.

N.N. Aseev and A.P. Gaidar

To him, as to the leading poet from all over the country, beginner writers go for advice and help. Here is how he himself described one of these visits: “A comrade came who quit his job as a milling machine operator at the factory, brought huge piles of poems. I ask what is needed.

He sold everything, divorced his wife, came here. - Put the suitcases.

He read me his poems for three hours. I explained to him that this is a hopeless thing, that there is no need to go to the editorial offices, and he said:

No, I'll come to the Writers' Union. Tell me in a comradely way, comrade Aseev, how much do they pay for a line?

You don't have those lines.

Tell me how much?

Two rubles.

If they accept a tenth of what I wrote, then 5,000 rubles. I agree to this."

I spent a lot of time doing social work. At that time, it was impossible to refuse it. Aseev is a member of the commission for admission to the Writers' Union, on the board of the Literary Fund, which dealt with a wide range of issues to ensure the life of writers. Passionately fond of hunting and tennis, performs even in major competitions.

In 1939, the 50th anniversary of Nikolai Nikolaevich Aseev was widely celebrated. He has been recognized as a leading contemporary poet. Newspapers were filled with congratulations to one of the leaders of the Union of Writers of the country. It means that he arranged the power, was needed by it, wrote useful poems. But no one then and after could reproach him for flattering, they say, before the authorities. Of course, he understood that what was happening in the country was not at all what they dreamed of with Mayakovsky. Two of his father's brothers perished in the camps. It was not in vain that during these years he largely destroyed his archive so that, if anything, he would not harm himself and his friends. It causes great respect for Aseev the man that when the next persecution began not only of one of his friends, but even of literary enemies, Aseev never took part in this, no matter how he was asked and promised for it. He always remained a decent man, with his own concept of honor. Therefore, awards and prizes began to bypass him more and more often, they began to print less and less.

In 1941, a group of 76 writers and several hundred members of their families were evacuated to the city of Chistopol. The time was difficult, but Aseev recalled this:

"…Thank you,
The town on the Kama
deep,
reliable Soviet rear, -
what about our prose
and poetry
you didn't offend us
and sheltered."

Aseev has never been in disgrace. There were articles and speeches critical of him. But they had rather the character of paternal instructions. After the death of the “leader of the peoples”, a new surge begins in the poet’s work. It is recognized that the most fruitful creative time for the writer was the twenties and the last. All the best is created then. He wrote in between, quite a lot and well. But the time was such that whoever leaned out lost his head. We don't know what was in his mind then, of course, there was something. But although not bad, but ordinary works for such a poet were published.

Meeting with the pioneers of Lgov. 1954 (photo by S. Lagutich)

Here is what the poet A. Voznesensky wrote: “Aseev, an ardent Aseev with a swift vertical face resembling a lancet arch, fanatical, like a Catholic preacher, Aseev of the Blue Hussars and Oksana, a minstrel of construction sites, a reformer of rhyme. He vigilantly soared over Moscow ... I have not met a person who would love other people's poems so wholeheartedly. An artist, an instrument of taste, a scent, he, like a dry, nervous greyhound, smelled a line a mile away ... Aseev is a catalyst for the atmosphere, bubbles in the champagne of poetry ... He chivalrously reflected attacks on young sculptors and painters in newspapers.

Causes respect for Aseev-man and his monogamy. There was only one woman next to him - "the incomparable Oksana." And no gossip or hints! It is difficult to find such lines in others:

"I'm more now
I don't want to go anywhere
from home: let
all chandeliers in lamps
burning lit.
What should I look for
and eyes flicker on the empty,
when-nothing in the world
no more tender than my wife.
I wrote little about her:
about her young shoulders, about
how fair she is
trusting and brave
about her blue eyes,
about golden hair,
about her hands
what have you done in my life
so much good."

And he did not tire of repeating this throughout his long life.

Unexpectedly for himself, Aseev in 1948 received a letter from the Lgovsky local historian S.V. Lagutich. Correspondence was not of a regular nature and, unfortunately, not all of it has been preserved. I know 3 letters: 08/10/48, 01/29/49, 04/30/58. and a separate letter to the pioneers dated 03/07/61. All of them were transferred to the Aseev Museum.

Later, these letters were also quoted in the central publications. In a letter dated August 10, 1948, Aseev promises to find and send the first editions of books with his poems, which have become a bibliographic rarity: "... I will try to get you books - I will ask second-hand booksellers." Then he announces his intention to visit native land: “... I will definitely come to Lgov. In the second half of September, the date to 20-25. Is it coming?" But he never arrived. Photographs and books came from Moscow. And one of the most interesting letters is simply impossible not to quote:

“Hello, Semyon Viktorovich! Have you thought of a good thing to write about our hometown, to refresh its history, which is a part of the history of our entire region, rich in its past. The Kursk region - the ancient frontier of Russia, which was the first to take the blows of the Horde raids, was the shield of all our land. And it is not without reason that forgotten meanings still sound in the names of its settlements. Take at least the names of its cities: Rylsk, Sudzha, Oboyan, Putivl - all this breathes some kind of forgotten history. Rylsk dug into the ground, protecting it from raids, Sudzha is the place of judicial review of the district's affairs, Oboyan carries the meaning of spaciousness, charm, that is, power, possession. There is no need to talk about Putivl - he is already mentioned in The Lay of Igor's Campaign. Even the names of our villages are unusually figurative: Lyushenka, Sugrovo, Gorodensk, all of them originally meant something, most of them are covered with some kind of poetic imagery. As for Lgov himself, the meaning of his name must be found and unraveled historically. Either it was the ancient settlement of Olgovo, or some benefits were given to it, and hence its name came from .... All this is significant and interesting not only for the Kursk region, but also wider. I am glad that there are fellow countrymen who love their homeland and wish to lift the haze of historical obscurity from our places.

As for my person, the information about me is very simple. I was born and spent my youth in a house that overlooked the pasture in front of Slobodka, right in the hemp field ... To the right was the quarter occupied by the house of the landowner Borzenkov. On the left was a house, I remember the name of the Vorobyovs. My grandfather, Nikolai Pavlovich Pinsky, was the caretaker of the city hospital. He was a passionate hunter, fisherman, disappeared for weeks in the fields and on the river. He himself was from Orel. The grandmother, Varvara Stepanovna Pinskaya, was still a serf; she married her grandfather out of passionate love: he seems to have bought her out of captivity. My mother died early, my father, an insurance agent, was on the road all the time, and he married a second time soon, so my grandfather and grandmother, in fact, were my educators. From my grandfather, I inherited love for the will, for fields and forests: from my grandmother - stories about serfdom, about old life and life. She was illiterate, but had an excellent memory. She was kind, hard-working, and in her youth must have been very beautiful. My memory of Lgov is the kindest, despite the fact that life in it at that time was rather scary, as in all district towns of Russia: the power of the police officer is almost unlimited in its arbitrariness, the merchants from the Old Believers, fist fights, the bitter hangover of artisans, tyranny and the swagger of the surrounding landowners. But the dense thickets of hemp, into which we climbed as boys as into a virgin forest, but the proximity of the forests and the fresh breath of the river, the proximity to the people, smart and hardworking, surrounding me since childhood, were stronger than other impressions. And our merry little town on the hill, with a bazaar and the talk of the surrounding peasants, and a park with thousands of nightingales, and thickets of blackberries over the Seym, on the sandy shores of which, as children, we roasted our daughters, and blowing "kites" under the clouds, and playing stoves on the path in front of at home with the neighbor's children, all this became a bright image of childhood. About all this I keep memory and gratitude, as about a fresh beginning of life.

Write to me about the Lgov of today, about your way of life and life, and I really have been getting close to this topic for a long time. I started a work called "Kursk anomaly", not only about the ore and iron of the soil, but also about the priceless ore of human hearts, about the strong iron vein on which our region stands - the iron vein of endurance, patience, courage and people's strength.

Your countryman Nick. Aseev.

Expands our understanding of the childhood years of the poet and a letter dated 07.03.61. addressed to the pioneers of the village Selektsionny, Lgovsky District:

“Dear guys! I sincerely tell you that an ax, a saw and a shovel love the morning dawn! She illuminates their shining deeds to the conscience, and they shine, blushing: a shovel, an ax and a saw.

I purposely write out these verses in a line so that it becomes clearer to you what they are talking about. And they say that work becomes brilliant when it is started early, even at dawn, which is reflected in the simplest tools of labor - a saw, a shovel, an ax.

This is not moralizing, not a lesson, but the poet himself's feeling of labor effort at dawn. And at the early dawn of the morning and at the early dawn of age.

What can you write about Lgov? I have not been there for a long time and, probably, it is not the same as it was with me. After all, it was almost a village. On our entire street there were only three houses with iron roofs. The rest are under straw. The best place was on the river Seim or as it was called by the locals - "On the Seven". The biggest impression I had was when I swam across the river for the first time as an eight-year-old boy back and forth. It was on the edge of the city, where there was a prison. The coast there is high, sandy and swifts nested in it. We didn't touch them. They were considered a "holy" bird. I swam across the river with fear and trembling, and suddenly a cramp would cramp my leg! But, having swum across and having eaten the brambles that grew on the shore, he had already grown bolder and swam back confidently. I wrote a number of poems about the Kursk past - from them you can learn everything I remember ... ".

In addition to letters, there were meetings and personal ones. S.V. Lagutich, being in Moscow in 1950, 1953, 1954. met with the poet at his apartment on the street. Moscow Art Theater, twice visited his dacha. Unfortunately, the memory of this has been lost. However, a record has been preserved of how the conversation started about organizing a museum of the poet in Lgov. Unexpectedly, Aseev protested: “There is no museum. May the people of Lgov remember me - my books, my love and the memory of all the people of Lgov of all years.

In July 1954, the director of the Lgovsky House of Pioneers took a group of circle members to Moscow on an excursion. We decided to meet with Nikolai Nikolaevich Aseev. And so, at 11 o'clock in the afternoon in the Alexander Garden near the Kremlin wall, an elderly man approached us, above average height, dressed in a white suit. He was immediately recognized. He shook hands with each, and a conversation ensued. It was evident that he was very happy to meet. He was interested in Lgovsk news, impressions about Moscow. He himself told how Lgov remembers. He promised to visit his homeland. I bought ice cream and cakes for everyone at the kiosk. He presented his book to each, and also asked to donate autographed books to the House of Pioneers, the school and the children's library. It was felt that he did not want to say goodbye, he asked me to write more often. I remember that the poet asked, if anyone remembers, to read at least one of his poems. But from memory, no one could. Then he stroked my head and asked: “Well, are you Mishuk, do you like poetry?” To which I replied: “Nope.” Of course, Nikolai Nikolaevich was very upset and offended by all this, but he did not show it.

There is a photograph of that meeting. My father took pictures, he asked me to come to the general group, but due to my childhood I became stubborn and stood next to him. Now I'm sorry.

IN last years life, his poems become philosophical, they contain the wisdom of the past years. How will the lines sound:

“I know for sure: it’s not scary to die!
Well, he fell, fell silent and grew cold.
If only your life was adorned
the radiance of some good deeds.
Just live for this peace
and be satisfied with a small share
so that your mind and your flesh and bones
come forever into harmony with the soul ... "

After the death of the poet, correspondence and meetings continued with the widow, Ksenia Mikhailovna. There was a question about the museum. By this time wooden house(as Aseev wrote) was lined with bricks, there were apartments in it. The house was old and the city council decided to demolish it. When Xenia Mikhailovna was informed about this, she immediately sent a telegram: “Lgov. Lagutich. Suspend the demolition of Aseev's house-museum, the commission will write to the Kursk regional committee. Aseeva.

The secretary of the Society of Historical and Cultural Monuments S.A. Khukhrin, who took on all the other troubles in organizing the museum and became its director, joined the business.

Interesting additions to the biography of the poet were reported by the researcher of creativity N.N. Aseeva Candidate of Philology F.F. Maisky. He established that in his youth the poet studied dancing, entered the Moscow Art Theater, told Maisky that two principles fought in his youth - theater and literature. But, under the influence of Mayakovsky, literature won.

Apparently, interest in the theater lasted all his life. This is confirmed by the book "Conversations about Directing" with the following inscription by one of the authors: "To Nikolai Nikolaevich Aseev. Write plays. You can! S. Birman. 01/14/39.

For some reason, during the life of N.N. Aseev, no one took an interest in his relationship with another famous countryman - Arkady Gaidar. In addition, at that time, the childhood years of another writer, V. Safonov, were passing in Lgov. But, most likely, they simply did not know about their fellow countrymen. The first meeting of the poet and the children's writer was recorded in the Yalta sanatorium of the Union of Writers in 1939. It's good that the photo survived. The writer Pertsov recalled this episode: “In the foreground, Gaidar is looking at us, next to him in the same wicker chair Aseev. Aseev was writing his poem at that time: “Mayakovsky begins” and was always in high spirits, the thing was clearly successful. And although he did not arrange open reading, but piece by piece, stanza-wise, he recited separate lines and even passages. They often argued. Aseev is a man of a rabid temperament in a dispute, but often he could not convince Gaidar.

In her letter dated May 4, 1996, K.M. Aseeva wrote: “... about Gaidar. Nikolai Nikolayevich had no very close relationship with Gaidar. Obviously, because Aseev is a poet for adults, and Gaidar is exclusively a children's writer.

Nikolai Aseev

Path to poetry

G The village was quite tiny - only three thousand inhabitants, the vast majority of the townspeople and artisans. In another large village there are more people. Yes, and they lived in this little town somehow in a village way: thatched houses, covered with logs, vegetable gardens in the back; along the unpaved streets in the morning and in the evening, the dust from the wandering herds to a nearby meadow; dimensional gait of women with full buckets of icy water on the yokes. “Can I get drunk, aunty?” And the aunt stops, tilting the yoke.

The city lived on hemp. Dense thickets of black-green shaggy panicles on long brittle stems surrounded the city like the sea. In the pasture, with their simple equipment, rope winders were located; behind the gates of the richer houses, hemp riots were visible; hordes of thrashers, cheaply hired vagrants, all covered in dust and fire, straightened, combed, and ruffled the stump. Over the city there was a thick, greasy smell of hemp oil - this was the noise of a butter churn, turning a lattice wheel. It seemed that hemp oil smeared both the heads cut into a circle and the wide combed beards of the sedate fathers of the city - the venerable Old Believers, whose copper eight-pointed cross glittered on the gates of their houses. The city lived a devout, established life.

Small town, but old. His name was Lgov; either from Oleg, or from Olga, he led his name; it’s true that at first there was Olegov or Olgov, but over time the word became shorter - it became easier to call Lgov ... This is how this old testamentary city stood, trying to live in the old days. It went straight to the hemp plants with one edge, and on the very edge, resting against a thicket of hemp, stood a one-story house with four rooms, where at the end of June 1889 the author of these lines was born. My childhood was not very different from the lives of dozens of neighborhood kids, who ran barefoot through the puddles after a thunderstorm, collecting "tickets" from cheap sweets, cigarette covers and beer labels. These were tokens of various denominations. But the ankles were considered to be real values ​​- bones from boiled pork legs, roasted and bleached in the sun, sold in pairs. But there were few hunters to buy them. The main thing - it was a game of ankles. Loved the other games too. For example, a hike in hemp, which seemed to us an enchanted forest where monsters live ... This is how a boy in a provincial town lived, not a barchuk and not a proletarian, the son of an insurance agent and the grandson of a dreamer - his maternal grandfather Nikolai Pavlovich Pinsky, a hunter and fisherman, who went to booty for weeks in the surrounding forests and meadows. I later wrote poems about him. About him and grandmother Varvara Stepanovna Pinskaya, a chubby young old woman who has not lost her charm over the years, the blueness of her trusting eyes, the energy of her ever-active hands.

I don't remember my mother well. She fell ill when I was six years old, and I was not allowed to see her, because they were afraid of an infection. And when I saw her, she was always lying in the heat, with red spots on her cheeks, with feverishly shining eyes. I remember how they took her to the Crimea. They took me too. Grandmother did not leave the patient, and I was left to my own devices.

This is where childhood ends. Then comes the apprenticeship. It wasn't colorful. high school long described by good writers. There are few differences here. Unless our Frenchman was distinguished by a wig, and the German was thick. But the mathematician, who is also the director, was remembered for teaching geometry, singing theorems like arias. It turns out that this was an echo of those distant times, when textbooks were still written in verse and the alphabet was taught in a chorus in a singsong voice.

And yet my main teacher was my grandfather Nikolai Pavlovich. It was he who told me wonderful cases from his hunting adventures, which were not inferior in the least to Munchausen's invention. I listened with my mouth open, realizing, of course, that this had not happened, but it could still happen. It was a living Swift, a living Rabelais, a living Robin Hood. True, I didn’t know anything about them at the time. But the language of the stories was so peculiar, the proverbs and jokes were so flowery, that it was not noticed that, perhaps, these were not foreign samples, but simply relatives of that Rudy Pank, who was also fond of his imaginary heroes.

My father played a smaller role in my height. As an insurance agent, he traveled around the counties all the time, rarely being at home. But one morning I remember well. There was some kind of holiday, almost our birthday. My father and I were going to matins. We got up early, early, sat on the porch to wait for the first blow of the bell for the service. And so, sitting on this wooden porch, looking through the hemp plant at the neighboring settlement, I suddenly realized how beautiful the world is, how great and unusual it is. The fact is that the newly risen sun suddenly turned into several suns - a phenomenon in nature known, but rare. And I, seeing something that was akin to the stories of my grandfather, but turned out to be true, somehow trembled all over with delight. The heart was beating fast, fast.

Look dad, look! How many suns have become!

Well, what of this? Have you never seen? These are false suns.

No, not false, no, not false, real, I see them myself!

Okay, look, look!

So I did not believe my father, but I believed in my grandfather.

The teaching ended, or rather, broke off: having left for Moscow in the summer of 1909, I soon became acquainted with the youth of a literary persuasion; and since I wrote poetry as a student, at the Commercial Institute I had no time for commerce, and at the University, where I entered as a volunteer, I had no time for free listening. We began to gather in one strange place. The writer N. Shebuev published the magazine "Spring", where it was possible to publish, but the fee was not supposed to. There I met many beginners, of whom I remember Vl. Lidina; of the deceased - N. Ogneva, Yu. Anisimova. But I do not know exactly how the case brought me together with the writer S. Bobrov, through him with the poet Boris Pasternak. Pasternak conquered me with everything: appearance, poetry, and music. Through Bobrov, I also met Valery Bryusov, Fyodor Sologub and other prominent writers of that time. I visited the Society of Free Aesthetics twice, where everything was curious and unlike the usual. However, all these impressions of the first acquaintance were soon obscured by something else. It was a meeting with Vladimir Mayakovsky. This is not the place for reminiscences: I wrote about Mayakovsky separately. But since meeting him, my whole destiny has changed. He became one of the few people closest to me; Yes, and his thoughts about me more than once broke through both in verse and in prose. Our relationship has become not only an acquaintance, but also a commonwealth at work. Mayakovsky always cared about how I live, what I write.

Going back a little, I want to talk about my first steps in literature. Being fond of poetry from an early age, I usually read those verses that were placed in collections, the so-called "Readers-Reciters". They were published with many names of authors, one way or another known at that time. The public got used to the names of Bashkin and Mazurkevich, poets of little fame, but often published. I liked in these collections the poems of A. K. Tolstoy, then a very popular Russophile poet, who turned to the themes ancient Rus', to Slavic subjects. In his poems, the prowess and youthfulness of our grandfathers, the heroic deeds of their ancestors were sung. They, however, interpreted in their own way the funny sides of the old clerks and boyars, sometimes directly exposing bribery and extortion; through these long-standing habits, the denunciation of the poet's contemporary orders sometimes shone through. The light, dance rhythms of A. K. Tolstoy's poems, their unusual content aroused the desire to try to write something similar, cheerful, violent and touching. Thus began the craving for the Slavs, for chronicles, for the history of the word. The reading of Gogol's "Taras Bulba" and "The Terrible Revenge" did a lot, which forever became models of poetry for me. I didn't perceive Pushkin sensitively enough; Lermontov seemed gloomy and inaccessible; and Gogol, for the time being, captivated only with the fantastic character of his descriptions. All this refers to the years of youth; however, it must be said that it was then that the formation of my literary taste and understanding of what was being read took place, although I still recited to myself the lines of Mazurkevich that: “Only a mother could lie like that, full of fear that her son would not flinch before the execution!” I was fascinated by this invented and embellished heroism, as all young men like an exaggerated and multiplied sense of civic feat.

Another characteristic sensation was parting with the concept of God. Already aware that the deities of all times were created by human imagination, I still could not imagine what was left of this concept in return. There is no God, that is clear; but what is there? Man, I see and know this; but man is mortal, and, therefore, transient, like everything earthly. And what does not pass century and century? After all, there must be something that is not destroyed by time! These reflections and doubts created those verses that are characteristic of the beginning of my work. These were blasphemous works from the point of view of religion, but they were still poems about God, and they can cause bewilderment in the reader. “Solemnly” (1915), “Announcement” (1915), “Leaps” (1916), “Revelation” (1916) and a number of other poems testify to the struggles and doubts of an immature mind, but full of sincere desire to understand the unknown. To this we must add the Slavic texts of the chronicles, which I swallow, like a squirrel swallows a cracked nut - and yet in these texts the foundations of poetry were laid. This is how poems were created about the Zaporozhian Cossacks ("Zvenchal", 1914), about the death of Andriy Bulba ("Song of Andriy", 1914), about antiquity and the homeland, which parted before the mind's eye with the extraordinary expanses of its legends, fictions, legends, true events. This is how taste and sympathy were formed.

About this I must tell the reader, who otherwise will not be clear, especially in some of the verses of the first volume, my early things. In them, the main thing for me was the search for my own verse, my own way of expressing myself. Hence the omissions and illogical exclamations of the verse, for which the path to the future was groped. I wanted my own words, my own, unhackneyed expressions of feelings - and so words were born, and separate combinations of them, unlike the generally accepted ones: “letorei”, “thunderstorm”, “sheresh”, “dull”, “essence”, “sparkling”, “povaga”, “wonderful”, “lyba” - all the words from the annals and old fairy tales that I wanted to update so that, along with the usual, everyday ones, they would sound forgotten, but so strongly remembered for their semantic shades. Thus passed the first period of study at the annals, at the old dialect of the Oryol-Kursk speeches, which my grandfather was fluent in.

Then came the imperialist war, in 1915 I was drafted into the army. Once in the regiment, in the soldier's environment I became face to face with the national character and mood. There were no "patriots" there, and the very word was almost abusive. Patriotism was called for by middle-ranking commanders who trained soldiers, and by generals during reviews. In the gray overcoat mass itself, this word was pronounced only mockingly. Why did it happen so? Firstly, because the official language of newspapers and posters was alien to the hearts of the soldiers; and secondly, because such a word did not exist in everyday conversation. The tsarist war was unpopular with the people, news came from the front about the shortage of shells, uniforms, and food. There were rumors of treason among the higher ranks. The surname of Myasoedov was increasingly mentioned in the soldier's conversation. What patriotic feelings are there! The empire was about to collapse. There were fewer and fewer hunters to protect her. And the concepts of "motherland", "fatherland" were associated precisely with tsarism, with the noble and capitalist system. There was no heroic spirit among the soldiers in defense of something that had clearly fallen in its former greatness.

Apparently, this is why the consciousness of this “soldier's” mood began to appear in my verses.

Changing the scope of the sky
at dusk: one thousand and twenty!
Is it not for the heart of miracles to burst
beyond the black year line?

This is how I wrote then in the poem “Battle Twilight” (1915), imagining the future that would come as a result of the shelling of time, as a result of the destruction of the black year of the war. Of course, this was little understood even by the author himself. But somehow it was available to the soldiers. Perhaps only because a poet was found among them. Or maybe because in their hearts they felt anger and hatred for what they were experiencing and hope for the future, when the miracle of the coming day would burst. But you can't explain everything in prose. My poems about the war at that time, in any case, did not praise it.

The sickle on the damage draws the seas,
and they will come ashore, squelching with silks.
Here are the waves for you, conquering their murmur,
a white-tube squadron will be seen.
Serb coat of arms tore off too rough
hand. Time to rip Europe apart!

This poem was called "About 1915". What is it about? About the ultimate absurdity of what is happening; about contemporaries who will have to see buildings collapsing in flames, the endless disasters of war, when squadrons will go out into the seas to spew heavy shells, when, due to an insignificant reason provoked on Serbian soil, all of Europe will rise, involving both us and America in the struggle, and all nations. The reader may ask: but how can all this be seen in unintelligible words stumbling with excitement? Yes, unfortunately, or rather, fortunately, it is impossible to see this again. But it seems to me that one can feel the excitement of the heart that the writer experienced. If, of course, the reader is attentive to the author, to his efforts to convey the unique.

The war was in full swing. In the city of Mariupol, we were trained in the reserve regiment. Then we were sent to Gaisin, closer to the Austrian front, to be formed into marching companies. I made friends with many soldiers, arranged readings, even tried to organize the staging of Leo Tolstoy's fairy tale about the three brothers, for which I was immediately put under arrest. From under arrest, I ended up in the hospital, as I fell ill with pneumonia, which was complicated by an outbreak of tuberculosis. I was declared unfit for soldiery and released for the amendment, and the next year they re-examined me and sent me back to the regiment. I served there until March 1917, when I was elected to the Soviet of Soldiers' Deputies from the 34th Infantry Regiment. The authorities, apparently, decided to get rid of me and gave me a referral to the Irkutsk ensign school. February Revolution did not go to waste for us. Our regiment refused to go to the front, and I went east on a business trip to Irkutsk. “... I learned and educated a gray soldier's overcoat,” I wrote later about those days. And I didn’t go to the school of ensigns, but got into the carriage with my young wife and moved to Vladivostok, naively believing that next winter I would go to Kamchatka ...

But World War I was coming to an end. The October Revolution began. In it, we, the youth of those years, saw a change in everything that was still considered unshakable and irrefutable. How was it not to suffocate with happiness, not to pound the heart from what was dreamed and expected! And poems about the revolution were written as a report to the people:

It was a silent time
it was a dumb time
but blossomed, fragrant,
working holiday in May.

It was my "May Day Anthem" - a hymn to the new. Khlebnikov wrote in April 1917 that:

We warriors will hit hard
Hand on harsh shields:
Let the people rule
Always, forever, here and there!

And now the people have truly become the rulers of their destiny. All soldiers' hearts would have answered this call. And there were millions of soldiers' hearts. Namely soldiers, and not generals and admirals, not senior officers who have lost their welds and state allowances.

I traveled all over Siberia along the soldier's letter and rolled to the very ocean. And here, in the Far East, where I reached by the autumn of 1917, the writing of verses that do not require explanations and clarifications is already beginning. Although they also contain things that do not quite coincide with the usual idea of ​​versification. There were traces of searches and sound and meaning, felt and expressed in its own way. And without it, there is no creativity. If everything is already known and heard, then what news is there in poetry! About this difference between verse and prose, the great Russian free mind, A. I. Herzen, wonderfully spoke more than a hundred years ago.

“It's a shame that I don't write poetry,” he said in the story “Injured” (1851), describing the nature of the Mediterranean coast. - Speech about this region needs rhythm, just as it is necessary for the sea, which, with measured feet, splashes into the magnificent cornice of Italy for centuries of endless hexameters. Poems easily tell exactly what you cannot catch in prose ... A barely outlined and noticed form, a barely audible sound, not quite an awakened feeling, not yet a thought ... In prose, it is simply ashamed to repeat this babble of the heart and the whisper of fantasy.

This is how sensitive minds understand the best people poetry, we have learned from them and will continue to learn.

Arriving in Vladivostok, I went to the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, where I was appointed assistant to the head of the labor exchange. It is a shame to remember what kind of institution this is: not knowing either local conditions or newly emerging laws, I got confused and circled in crowds of soldiers' wives, mothers, sisters, among miners, sailors, port loaders. But somehow I still managed, although I still don’t know what kind of activity this was. A trip to the coal mines saved me. There I uncovered an attempt by a mine owner to stop mining by creating an artificial explosion in the mine. He returned to Vladivostok already a self-confident person. He began working in a local newspaper, at first as a literary worker, and later, under the interventionists, even as an editor "for his term" - there was such a position.

But in return, I got the right to print the poems of Mayakovsky, Kamensky, Neznamov. When Sergei Tretyakov arrived in Vladivostok, we organized a small theater - a basement, where we gathered local youth, rehearsed plays, organized poetry contests. But these activities soon came to a halt. Intervention began, the newspaper was subjected to repression, it was not safe to remain, even as a nominal editor. My wife and I moved out of the city to the 26th verst, lived without registering, and then got the opportunity to leave the White Guard clutches for Chita, which was then the capital of the Far Eastern Republic - the Far Eastern Republic.

From there, with the assistance of A. V. Lunacharsky, I was summoned to Moscow as a young writer. Here my acquaintance with Mayakovsky, interrupted for a number of years, resumed. He knew that in the Far East I read his “Mystery Buff” to the workers of the Vladivostok temporary workshops, knew that I had printed excerpts from “Man” in a newspaper, that I had lectured on new poetry in Vladivostok, - and immediately accepted me as a native. Then work began in Lef, in the newspapers, in publishing houses, which again was headed by Mayakovsky, relentlessly, like a barge steamer, towing me everywhere with him. I traveled with him the cities of the Union - Tula, Kharkov, Kyiv; together with him published several campaign brochures.

The constant comradely care on the part of Vladimir Vladimirovich continued until the end of his life. Many of my books have been published thanks to him. Later I wrote a poem about him in order to at least partly make up for my debt to him. Without him, it became more difficult for me. And, despite the signs of attention from fellow writers, I never recovered from this loss. It is irrevocable and unique.

This, in fact, ends my autobiography. Everything else is just options<...>

Moscow 1957-1962

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