Arkady Timofevich Averchenko
Averchenko Arkady Timofeevich (1881/1925) - Russian writer, author of satirical stories, feuilletons and plays that reveal the essence of prevailing customs. After the revolution of 1917, he lived abroad, where his satire on the Soviet regime - "A Dozen of Knives in the Back of the Revolution", as well as the novel "The Patron's Joke" was published.
Guryeva T.N. New literary dictionary / T.N. Guriev. - Rostov n / a, Phoenix, 2009, p. 5.
Averchenko Arkady Timofevich (1881-1925) - writer, playwright, emigrant. Born in Sevastopol. Since 1907 he lived in St. Petersburg, collaborated in the humorous magazine Dragonfly. Since 1908, the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Satyricon". The following books were published in Russia: Circles on the Water (1912); "Stories for convalescents"; "Weeds" (1914); "Miracles in a sieve" (1915), etc. After the October Revolution, he left for the South occupied by whites. Collaborated in the newspapers "Priazovsky Krai", "South". "South of Russia", etc. Since 1920, in exile in Constantinople. From 1922 he lived in Prague. Died in Prague, buried at the Olsany Cemetery
Used material from the site "Russian Abroad" - http://russians.rin.ru
Averchenko Arkady Timofeevich (03/15/1881-03/12/1925), writer, playwright, theater critic. Born in Sevastopol. The son of a small merchant. According to Averchenko, due to the lack of money in the family, he received his initial education at home with the help of older sisters.
Since 1908 - an employee, later editor of the humorous magazine "Satyricon", then editor of the "New Satyricon" (since 1913). In humorous stories and feuilletons, Averchenko ridiculed the vulgarity of bourgeois life (collection "Merry Oysters", 1910, etc.). He also wrote humorous miniature plays staged in theaters. After 1917 he emigrated to France. A book of short stories from the émigré period, A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution, 1921) was a resounding success throughout the Russian world.
Used materials from the site Great Encyclopedia of the Russian people - http://www.rusinst.ru
Averchenko Arkady Timofeevich (1881 - 1925), prose writer. Born on March 15 (27 n.s.) in Sevastopol in the family of a merchant. He was brought up at home, because due to poor eyesight and poor health he could not study at the gymnasium. I read a lot and indiscriminately.
At the age of fifteen, he went to work as a junior scribe in a transport office. A year later, he left Sevastopol and began working as a clerk at the Bryansk coal mine, where he served for three years. In 1900 he moved to Kharkov.
In 1903, Averchenko's first story "How I had to insure my life" was published in the Kharkov newspaper Yuzhny Krai, in which his literary style is already felt. In 1906 he became the editor of the satirical magazine "Bayonet", almost completely represented by his materials. After the closure of this magazine, he heads the next one - "The Sword", - also soon closed.
In 1907 he moved to St. Petersburg and collaborated in the satirical magazine Dragonfly, later transformed into the Satyricon. Then he becomes the permanent editor of this popular publication.
In 1910, three books by Averchenko were published, which made him famous throughout reading Russia: Merry Oysters, Stories (humorous), book 1, Bunnies on the Wall, book II. "...their author is destined to become a Russian Twain...", V. Polonsky perceptively remarked.
The books "Circles on the Water" and "Stories for Convalescents" published in 1912 approved the title of "king of laughter" for the author.
Averchenko met the February revolution enthusiastically, but he did not accept the October revolution. In the autumn of 1918 he left for the south, collaborated in the newspapers "Priazovsky Krai" and "South", performed with the reading of his stories, and was in charge of the literary part in the "Artist's House". At the same time, he wrote the plays "A Cure for Stupidity" and "Playing with Death", and in April 1920 organized his own theater "Nest of Migratory Birds". Six months later, he emigrates through Constantinople abroad; since June 1922 he lives in Prague, briefly leaving for Germany, Poland, Romania, the Baltic states. His book "A Dozen of Knives in the Back of the Revolution", a collection of short stories: "Children", "Funny in a Terrible", a humorous novel "A Patron's Joke", etc. are published.
In 1924, he undergoes an operation to remove an eye, after which he cannot recover for a long time; heart disease soon progresses sharply.
He died in the Prague City Hospital on January 22 (March 3, n.s.), 1925. He was buried in Prague at the Olshansky cemetery.
Used materials of the book: Russian writers and poets. Brief biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.
Russian satirist
Averchenko, Arkady Timofeevich (03/15/27/1881, Sevastopol - 03/12/1925, Prague) - Russian satirist, humorist, theater critic. From the age of 15, A. “served as a junior clerk in a transport office”, as a clerk in the coal mines of Donbass. Moving in 1903! to Kharkov to serve in the board of mines. Published since 1903. Since 1906, A. completely "abandoned the service", the editor of the magazine "satirical literature and humor with drawings" "Bayonet", and then - "Sword". After moving to St. Petersburg, A. collaborates with the Dragonfly magazine, which was transformed into Satyricon in 1908, which became a milestone in A.'s creative biography. During the period of public reaction, Satyricon remained the only popular humor and satire magazine in Russia. Artists N. V. Remizov, L. Bakst, I. Bilibin, M. Dobuzhinsky, A. Benois, and O. Dymov, poets Sasha Cherny, S. Gorodetsky, O. Mandelstam, V. Mayakovsky, writers A. Kuprin, JI. Andreev, A. Tolstoy, A. Green, Teffi. The works of A. himself accounted for almost half of the magazine. In 1913, due to a conflict with the ed. A. and his staff founded the "New Satyricon", which from the beginning of World War I joined the patriotic campaign ("Four Sides of Wilhelm", etc.). Welcoming the February Revolution, A. met the October Revolution with hostility. Painfully experienced domestic turmoil ("Life", "Waiting for horror", etc.). In August 1918 the "New Satyricon" was closed. A. made his way through civil war-torn Ukraine to Sevastopol, where from June 1919 he collaborated in the newspaper South of Russia, agitating for the White movement. In 1920 the newspaper was closed by the Wrangel censorship. From November 1920 - in exile (Constantinople, Sofia, Belgrade, from 1922 - Prague). In 1921 he published a collection of pamphlets, A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution, with sharp criticism of Bolshevism, and in 1923, a collection of émigré stories, Notes of the Innocent. He sadly ridiculed the life of the Russian emigration (“Shards of the smashed to smithereens”, etc.). Contributed to the Prager Presse newspaper. The novel The Joke of a Patron was written in 1923 and published posthumously in 1925.
N. A. Gerulaitis.
Russian historical encyclopedia. T. 1. M., 2015, p. 70-71.
20th century writer
Averchenko Arkady Timofeevich - prose writer, playwright, journalist, critic.
The son of a poor merchant. He received his primary education at home. There is evidence that Averchenko studied for 2 years at the Sevastopol gymnasium. From the age of 15 he began to earn his living.
From 1896 to 1897 he served as a junior scribe in the transport office of Sevastopol. From 1897 he worked as a clerk in the Joint Stock Company of the Bryansk coal mines and mines. Together with the board of mines, then he moved to Kharkov. Oct 31 1903 in the Kharkov newspaper "Southern Territory" the first story "How I had to insure my life" was published. Averchenko himself considered his literary debut the story "Righteous" (Journal for everyone. 1904. No. 4). In 1905, he collaborated in the Kharkov Gubernskie Vedomosti. From 1906 he edited the magazine "Bayonet", from 1907 and the magazine "Sword". These publications became the first permanent platform for Averchenko, who led almost all sections under numerous pseudonyms.
1907 - moving to St. Petersburg, cooperation in minor publications, incl. in Dragonfly magazine. Since 1908, a group of young employees of the Dragonfly began publishing a new humorous magazine, Satyricon. For Averchenko, work in this publication has become a central milestone in his creative biography. The search for its own themes, style, and genre, begun in Kharkov, continues. Averchenko signed his stories with his real name. Under the pseudonyms Falstaff, Medusa Gorgon, Foma Opiskin, Averchenko performed with editorials and feuilletons, under the signature Wolf - with a humorous "trifle", and under the pseudonym Ave reported on opening days, musical evenings, theater performances, led the famous "Mailbox". For the sharp political orientation of some materials, Averchenko was prosecuted. This did not diminish Averchenko's popularity. Fame and success accompanied him during these years - his works occupy about half in each issue of the "Satyricon", annually publishes 2-3 collections of stories.
Contemporaries remember him as cheerful, witty, surrounded by a retinue of admirers, "a finely dressed gentleman, a little plump, handsome and lazy" (Lev Gumilevsky). In this atmosphere of luck and contentment, “vulgar or superficial gizmos” began to flicker (Mikhailov O. S. 11). In 1910 collection: "Stories (humorous)"; "Bunnies on the Wall"; "Merry Oysters" (more than 20 reprints). After Averchenko published the article "Mark Twain" (The Sun of Russia. 1910. No. 12), critics started talking about the connection between Averchenko's humor and the tradition of Mark Twain (V. Polonsky, M.A. Kuzmin), others compared it with the early Chekhov (A. Izmailov) . Averchenko's cheerful, contagious laughter sounded somewhat dissonant with the subtly broken aestheticism of decadence. Averchenko also acted as an active supporter of realism in his direct creative declarations: “Until now, during random meetings with modernists, I looked at them with some fear: it seemed to me that such a modernist artist in the middle of a conversation would either unexpectedly bite me on the shoulder or ask for a loan” .
Averchenko touched on various topics, but his main “hero” is the life of St. Petersburg and the life of its inhabitants: writers, magistrates, remingtonists, policemen, traveling salesmen, maids, narrow-minded and always charming ladies. Averchenko ingeniously mocks stupidity, causing the reader to “hatred the average, worn out, gray person, the crowd, the layman” (K. Chukovsky).
In 1912, Averchenko's books "Circles on the Water" and "Stories for Convalescents" were published in St. Petersburg, after which the title of "king of laughter" was assigned to A. The stories were staged and staged in Petersburg theatres. However, harsh criticism of Averchenko's "empty talk" (A.K. Voronsky) and "well-fed laughter" also date back to around this time. The revolutionary-minded part of the Russian intelligentsia was disgusted by Averchenko's "red-cheeked humor". But the multi-personal "theater of the absurd" of the writer gave a rich panorama of Russian life in those years.
Until 1913, Averchenko continued to lead the Satyricon, which was “a wonderful outlet from which fresh air poured” (A. Kuprin). Here, and then in the New Satyricon, the artists Re-Mi (N. Remizov), A. Radakov, A. Junger, L. Bakst, I. Bilibin, M. Dobuzhinsky, A. Benois, D. Mitrokhin, N. Altman. The masters of humorous prose were published - Teffi, O. Dymov, poets Sasha Cherny, S. Gorodetsky, O. Mandelstam, young V. Mayakovsky, as well as A. Kuprin, L. Andreev, A. Tolstoy, A. Green. In the collective efforts of the "Satyricon" there was a whole aesthetic program. As conceived by the employees, their well. "he tirelessly tried to refine and develop the taste of the average Russian reader, accustomed to semi-literate drink sheets." Bitingly ridiculing mediocrity, cheap clichés (“Incurable”, “Poet”), Averchenko advocates not just talented, but vital, realistic art. He ridicules the extremes of romanticism ("Mermaid"), the theoretical postulates of the "new" art ("Apollo").
In 1913, due to disagreements with the publisher of the Satyricon, M.G. Kornfeld, the main employees left the editorial board and founded the New Satyricon. With the outbreak of the First World War, political themes appeared. The editors share the opinion of the government on the need for the unity of the nation in the face of the danger of an external enemy. Averchenko's patriotically oriented works are published: General Moltke's Plan, Wilhelm's Four Sides, The Case of the Quack Kranken, and others. Averchenko's essays and feuilletons are full of bitterness, conveying the state of collapse in which Russia was on the eve of the revolution. In some of his stories, Averchenko castigates rampant speculation, covetousness, moral uncleanliness.
In the war and pre-revolutionary years, Averchenko's books were actively published and republished: Foma Opiskin. “Weeds” (1914), “About basically good people” (1914), “Odessa stories” (1915), “About little ones for big ones” (1916), “Blue with gold” (1917) and others A special page among them is presented by A.'s "children's" stories (collection "About the little ones - for the big ones", "Naughty people and mouths", etc.).
Averchenko was not upset by the fall of the Romanov monarchy (“My conversation with Nikolai Romanov”), but the coming to power of the Bolsheviks caused him a sharp rejection (“Diplomat from Smolny”, etc.). In 1918, Averchenko left for the south occupied by white troops, collaborated in the newspaper "Priazovsky Krai", "South of Russia". In pamphlets and stories of this period, he appeals to the white generals with a call to bring closer the "hour of liquidation and settlement" with the Bolsheviks. He was subjected to repression by the Wrangel censorship, which ordered the closure of the newspaper Yug Rossii. In Apr. 1920 Averchenko organized his own theater "The Nest of Migratory Birds". Oct. 1920 emigrated first to Constantinople, and then, in his own words, "head over heels in Europe." In 1921, a book of pamphlets A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution was published in Paris, where Averchenko lamented the death of Russia. His heroes - nobles, merchants, officials, soldiers, workers - recall their past lives with nostalgia. There was a sharp rebuke in the Soviet press. The critic N. Meshcheryakov wrote: “This is the level of abomination, the humor of the gallows that the merry joker Arkady Averchenko has now reached.” Nov 22 1921 in "Pravda" was published an article by V.I. Lenin "Talented book", in which Averchenko is called "embittered to the point of insanity by the White Guard." However, V.I. Lenin found the book “highly talented”, noting how skillfully the impressions and moods of the representatives of the old, landlord and factory owners, rich, “overfed and overfed Russia” are “depicted”. Among the emigration, Averchenko noted "boiling decay" ("Fragments of the smashed to smithereens", "Conversations in the living room", etc.). Some stories, according to V.I. Lenin, “deserved to be reprinted”, which was done, since some of Averchenko’s works continued to be published even after his emigration.
Since June 1922, Averchenko lived in Prague, published several collections, a humorous novel “The Patron's Joke” (Prague, 1925). It was difficult to experience separation from Russia: “... It somehow began to be difficult to write ... I can’t write. As if I’m not standing on the present ”(from the memoirs of journalist L. Maxim). He died in the Prague City Hospital from heart disease. Modern criticism associates the main achievements of Averchenko with the humorous element. N.A. Teffi noted that “he is a Russian purebred humorist, without tears and laughter through tears. His place in literature is his own, I would say - the only Russian humorist.
E.I. Kolesnikova
Used materials of the book: Russian literature of the XX century. Prose writers, poets, playwrights. Biobibliographic dictionary. Volume 1. p. 10-13.
Read the essays below:
Read further:
Semenov A.N., Semenova V.V. The concept of mass media in the structure of a literary text. Part II. (Russian literature). Tutorial. SPb., 2011. Russian poetry of the XX - XIX centuries. Arkady Timofeevich AVERCHENKO .
Compositions:
Eight one-act plays and dramatized stories. SPb., 1913;
Eight one-act plays and dramatized stories. SPb., 1911;
Stories. Vol. 1, 11th ed. Pg., 1916. Vol. 2 - Bunnies on the wall. 10th ed., Pg., 1916. Vol. 3 - Merry Oysters, 24th ed., Pg., 1916;
Pieces of broken to pieces. L., 1926;
Notes of a theatrical rat / foreword. V. Meyerhold. M.; L., 1926;
Selected Op. T. 1-2. M., 1927;
Humorous stories. M., 1964;
Selected stories / foreword. O.Mikhailova. M., 1985;
Curved corners. Stories / foreword P. Gorelova. M., 1989.
Literature:
Evstigneeva L.A. Journal "Satyricon" and Sotyricon poets. M., 1968;
Borisov L. At the round table of the past. L., 1971;
Levitsky D.A. Alexei Averchenko: Life path. Washington, 1973;
Teffi N. Memories. Paris, 1980;
Bryzgalova E.N. Pre-revolutionary novelistic. A. Averchenko // Genre and style problems of Russian literature of the XX century. Tver, 1994. S. 42-47;
Molokhov A.V. Arkady Averchenko, biography pages // Russia and the modern world. 1995. No. 1. pp.184-197;
Spiridonova A.L. The immortality of laughter. The comic in the literature of the Russian diaspora. M., 1999. S. 76-120.
Averchenko, Arkady Timofeevich(1881-1925) - Russian writer, satirist, theater critic
Pre-revolutionary life
Born on March 15 (27), 1881 in Sevastopol in the family of a poor businessman Timofey Petrovich Averchenko.
A. T. Averchenko graduated from only two classes of the gymnasium, because due to poor eyesight he could not study for a long time and, moreover, as a child, as a result of an accident, he severely injured his eye. But the lack of education was eventually compensated by the natural mind, according to the writer N. N. Breshko-Breshkovsky.
Averchenko began to work early, at the age of 15, when he entered the service in a private transport office. He did not stay there for long, just over a year.
In 1897, Averchenko left to work as a clerk in the Donbass, at the Bryansk mine. He worked at the mine for three years, subsequently writing several stories about life there (“In the Evening”, “Lightning”, etc.).
In 1903, he moved to Kharkov, where on October 31 his first story appeared in the newspaper Yuzhny Krai.
In 1906-1907, he edited the satirical magazines "Bayonet" and "Sword", and in 1907 he was fired from his next job with the words: "You are a good person, but you are not good for anything." After that, in January 1908, A. T. Averchenko leaves for St. Petersburg, where in the future he will become widely known.
So, in 1908, Averchenko became the secretary of the satirical magazine "Dragonfly" (later renamed "Satyricon"), and in 1913 - its editor.
Averchenko has been successfully working for many years in the magazine's team with famous people - Teffi, Sasha Cherny, Osip Dymov, N.V. Remizov (Re-mi), and others. It was there that his most brilliant humorous stories appeared. During the work of Averchenko in the "Satyricon", this magazine became extremely popular, based on his stories, plays were staged in many theaters of the country.
In 1910-1912, Averchenko repeatedly traveled around Europe with his satyricon friends (artists A. A. Radakov and Remizov). These travels served as Averchenko rich material for creativity, so that in 1912 his book “The Expedition of the Satyriconists to Western Europe” was published, which made a lot of noise in those days.
A. T. Averchenko also wrote numerous theater reviews under the pseudonyms A e, Volk, Foma Opiskin, Medusa the Gorgon, Falstaff, and others.
After the October Revolution, everything changed dramatically. In August 1918, the Bolsheviks considered the New Satyricon to be anti-Soviet and closed it down. Averchenko and the entire staff of the magazine took a negative position in relation to the Soviet government. To return to his native Sevastopol (in the Crimea, occupied by the whites), Averchenko had to get into numerous troubles, in particular, to make his way through the Ukraine occupied by the Germans.
Since June 1919, Averchenko worked in the newspaper "South" (later "South of Russia"), campaigning for the help of the Volunteer Army.
November 15, 1920 Sevastopol was taken by the Reds. A few days before that, Averchenko managed to sail away on a steamer to Constantinople.
After emigration
In Constantinople, Averchenko felt more or less comfortable, because at that time there were a huge number of Russian refugees, just like him.
In 1921, in Paris, he published a collection of pamphlets A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution, which Lenin called "a highly talented book ... of a White Guard embittered to the point of insanity." It was followed by the collection "A Dozen Portraits in Boudoir Format".
April 13, 1922 Averchenko moved to Sofia, then to Belgrade.
Averchenko did not stay in any of these cities for a long time, but moved on June 17, 1922 to Prague for permanent residence.
In 1923, the Berlin publishing house Sever published his collection of émigré stories, Notes of the Innocent.
Life away from the Motherland, from the native language was very difficult for Averchenko; many of his works were devoted to this, in particular, the story "The Tragedy of the Russian Writer".
In the Czech Republic, Averchenko immediately gained popularity; his creative evenings were a resounding success, and many stories were translated into Czech.
Working in the well-known newspaper Prager Presse, Arkady Timofeevich wrote many sparkling and witty stories, in which nostalgia and great longing for old Russia, which had sunk into the past, were still felt.
In 1925, after an operation to remove an eye, Arkady Averchenko became seriously ill. On January 28, he was admitted to the clinic at the Prague City Hospital in an almost unconscious state with a diagnosis of "weakening of the heart muscle, aortic dilation and sclerosis of the kidneys."
They could not save him, and on the morning of March 12, 1925, he died.
Averchenko was buried at the Olshansky cemetery in Prague.
The last work of the writer was the novel "The Patron's Joke", written in Sopot in 1923, and published in 1925, after his death.
Soviet literature
Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko
Biography
AVERCHENKO, ARKADIY TIMOFEEVICH (1881−1925), Russian writer, journalist, publisher. Born on March 15 (27), 1881 in Sevastopol. The father is an unsuccessful small trader; in view of his complete ruin, Averchenko had to complete his studies “at home, with the help of older sisters” (from his autobiography). In 1896, at the age of fifteen, he entered a Donetsk mine as a clerk; three years later he moved to Kharkov to serve in the same joint-stock company. The first story, The ability to live, was published in the Kharkov magazine "Dandelion" in 1902. A serious application of the writer was the story Righteous, published in St. Petersburg in the "Journal for All" in 1904. entrepreneurship, widely publishing essays, feuilletons and humoresques in short-lived periodicals and releasing several issues of his own satirical magazines, Bayonet and Sword, quickly banned by censorship.
Publishing experience came in handy for him in 1908 in St. Petersburg, when he suggested that the editors of the withered comic magazine Dragonfly (where Chekhov's first story was published back in 1880) reorganize the publication. Having become the secretary of the editorial board, Averchenko realized his plan: on April 1, 1908, the Dragonfly was replaced by the new weekly Satyricon. As A. I. Kuprin noted in an article by Averchenko and Satirikon (1925), the journal “immediately found itself: its own course, its own tone, its own brand. Readers - a sensitive middle - unusually quickly opened it. It was the orientation towards the middle-class reader, awakened by the revolution and keenly interested in politics and literature, that ensured the "Satyricon" its huge success. In addition to inveterate comedians such as Pyotr Potemkin, Sasha Cherny, Osip Dymov, Arkady Bukhov, Averchenko managed to attract L. Andreev, S. Marshak, A. Kuprin, A. N. Tolstoy, S. Gorodetsky and many others to cooperate in the magazine poets and prose writers. Averchenko himself was a permanent contributor to the Satyricon and the inspirer of all journal initiatives; the formation of a writer of the first magnitude was the satyricon career of N. A. Lokhvitskaya (Teffi). In addition to the magazine, the Satyricon Library was published: in 1908-1913, about a hundred book titles were published with a total circulation of over two million, including Averchenko's first collection of stories Merry Oysters (1910), which withstood twenty-four editions in seven years. In 1913, the editors of the Satyricon split, and the New Satyricon (1913−1918) became the "Averchenkov's" journal. A rare issue of the previous and new editions did without Averchenko's story or humor; he also published in other "thin" magazines of mass circulation, such as the "Journal for All" and "Blue Journal". The stories were selected, additionally edited and published in collections: Stories (humorous). Book. 1 (1910) - at the same time, previously published things were “dropped” here, even before the “Satyricon”; Stories (humorous). Book. 2. Bunnies on the wall (1911), Circles on the water (1912), Stories for convalescents (1913), About good people in essence (1914), Weeds (1914 - under the pseudonym Foma Opiskin), Miracles in a sieve (1915), Gilded Pills (1916), Blue and Gold (1917). A complex type of Averchenko's story has been developed, the necessary and characteristic feature of which is exaggeration, painting an anecdotal situation, bringing it to the point of utter absurdity, which serves as a kind of catharsis, partly rhetorical. His hypertrophied anecdotes have no shadow of plausibility; the more successfully they are used to mystify and remove reality, which is necessary for the "intelligent" public (the word "intelligent" was introduced into wide use with the considerable assistance of the "Satyricon"), which during the "Silver Age" tried to at least slightly loosen the stranglehold of populist ideology: sometimes even homegrown social democracy was used to counteract it, and traces of it are clear in the Satyricons. The “Satyriconists”, headed by Averchenko, extremely valued their well-acquired reputation as an “independent magazine that makes a living with laughter”, and tried not to indulge base tastes, avoiding obscenity, stupid buffoonery and direct political engagement (in all these senses, Teffi was an exemplary author). The political position of the journal was emphatic and somewhat mocking disloyalty: a position very advantageous in the then conditions of almost complete absence of censorship, which forbade only direct calls for the overthrow of power, but allowed to ridicule any manifestations of it, including censorship itself, as much as you like. Of course, Averchenko welcomed the February Revolution of 1917 with his New Satyricon; however, the unbridled "democratic" pandemonium that followed it caused him increasing suspicion, and the October Bolshevik coup was perceived by Averchenko, along with the overwhelming majority of the Russian intelligentsia, as a monstrous misunderstanding. At the same time, his cheerful absurdity acquired a new pathos; he began to correspond to the madness of the newly established reality and look like "black humor". Subsequently, such "grotesqueness" is found in M. Bulgakov, M. Zoshchenko, V. Kataev, I. Ilf, which testifies not to their apprenticeship with Averchenko, but to the unidirectional transformation of humor in a new era. The era treated humor harshly: in August 1918, the "New Satyricon" was banned, and Averchenko fled to the White Guard South, where he published anti-Bolshevik pamphlets and feuilletons in the newspapers "Priazovsky Krai", "South of Russia", and in October 1920 he left for Istanbul with one of the last Wrangel transports. At the same time, new types of Avrchenko's stories were developed, which later compiled the books A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution (1921) and Funny in a Terrible (1923): an anti-Soviet political anecdote and stylized essays, but at the same time exaggerated in Avrchenko's usual manner, sketches and impressions of the life of the revolutionary capital and civil war. The experience of emigre life, absurdly and pathetically copying the life and customs of perished Russia, was reflected in the book Notes of the Innocent. I'm in Europe (1923), where with the help of reverse hyperbole (litotes) grotesque images of a Lilliputian little world appear, not devoid of surrealistic lifelikeness. In the writings of the last years of Averchenko's life, the children's theme is manifested with renewed vigor - from the collection About the Little ones - for the big ones (1916) to the books of stories Children (1922) and Rest on the nettle (1924). Having tried to write a story (Podkhodtsev and two others, 1917) and a “humorous novel” (Joke of the Patron, 1925), Averchenko creates quasi-memoir cycles of semi-anecdotal episodes connected by more or less caricatured figures of the main characters, i.e. e. again, collections of stories and humoresques with a touch of personal memories. In Istanbul, Averchenko, as always, combined creative and organizational activities: having created the variety theater "The Nest of Migratory Birds", he made several tours around Europe. In 1922 he settled in Prague, where he managed to write and publish several books of short stories and the play Playing with Death, which has the character of a comedy show. Averchenko died in Prague on March 12, 1925.
On the eighteenth (thirtieth) of March 1881 in the city of Sevastopol, located in the Russian Empire, the future outstanding Russian writer, theater critic and satirist, Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko, was born. The humorist's father, Averchenko Timofey Petrovich, was a poor, unsuccessful merchant, and his mother, Safronova Susanna Pavlovna, was the daughter of a retired soldier from Poltava region.
Although Arkady Timofeevich, due to his very poor eyesight, did not receive any education in childhood, this shortcoming of the future writer was fully compensated by his natural intelligence and quick wits.
Young Arkady began working at the age of fifteen. After working for a year as a junior scribe in the transport office of the city of Sevastopol, the future satirist leaves to work at the Bryansk mine as a clerk.
After working for about four years in the Donbass, Arkady moved to Kharkov, where on October 31, 1903 his first story was published - "How I had to insure my life."
From 1906 to 1907, Averchenko edited two satirical magazines - "Sword" and "Bayonet". The literary work of Arkady does not go unnoticed by the board of the mine and the humorist is fired with the words: "You are a good person, but you are not good for hell."
After his dismissal, Arkady Timofeevich leaves for St. Petersburg, where he becomes an employee of various secondary publications.
In 1908, a new humorous magazine "Satyricon" was created, the editor of which was Averchenko Arkady Timofeevich.
During his work at the Satyricon, the writer becomes very famous, and numerous plays are staged based on his stories in The Bat and The Crooked Mirror.
After the October Revolution, much has changed and in 1918 the Bolsheviks who came to power close the Satyricon. November 15, 1920 Averchenko emigrated to Constantinople.
In a foreign land, “a White Guard embittered to the point of insanity,” as Lenin then called him, publishes a collection of pamphlets “A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution” and a collection of “Notes of the Innocent”.
In 1925, the writer loses his eye after an operation, after which he begins to get seriously ill, and on March 12, 1925, Averin Arkady Timofeevich dies.
Pre-revolutionary life
Born on March 15 (27), 1880 in Sevastopol in the family of a poor merchant Timofey Petrovich Averchenko and Susanna Pavlovna Sofronova, the daughter of a retired soldier from the Poltava region.
A. T. Averchenko did not receive any primary education, because due to poor eyesight he could not study for a long time. But the lack of education was eventually compensated by the natural mind.
Averchenko started working early, at the age of 15. From 1896 to 1897 he served as a junior clerk in the transport office of Sevastopol. He did not stay there for long, a little more than a year, and subsequently described this period of his life in the ironic "Autobiography", as well as the story in "On Steamboat Whistles"
In 1897, Averchenko left to work as a clerk in the Donbass, at the Bryansk mine. He worked at the mine for four years, subsequently writing several stories about life there (“In the Evening”, “Lightning”, etc.).
In the early 1900s, he moved with the management of the mines to Kharkov, where on October 31, 1903, his first story “how I had to insure my life” appeared in the newspaper Yuzhny Krai. Averchenko himself considers his literary debut the story "The Righteous"
In 1906-1907, having “completely abandoned his service”, he edited the satirical magazines “Bayonet” and “Sword”, and in 1907 these publications became the first permanent tribune of Averchenko, who led almost all sections under numerous pseudonyms. But he is fired from the board with the words: "You are a good person, but you are not good for hell." After that, in January 1908, A. T. Averchenko leaves for St. Petersburg.
So, in 1908, Averchenko became the secretary of the satirical magazine "Dragonfly" (later renamed "Satyricon"), in the same year - its editor.
Averchenko has been successfully working for many years in the magazine's team with famous people - Teffi, Sasha Cherny, Osip Dymov, N.V. Remizov (Re-mi), and others. It was there that his most brilliant humorous stories appeared. During the work of Averchenko in the "Satyricon", this magazine became extremely popular, based on his stories, plays were staged in many theaters of the country ("Foundry Theatre", "Crooked Mirror", "Bat"). For Averchenko, work in this publication has become a central milestone in his creative biography. the search for its own themes, style, and genre, begun in Kharkov, continues. For the sharp political orientation of some of the materials, Averchenko was prosecuted, but this did not diminish his popularity.
In 1911-1912, Averchenko traveled twice in Europe with his satyricon friends (artists A. A. Radakov and Remizov). These travels served as a rich material for Averchenko's creativity: in 1912, his popular book "The Expedition of the Satyriconists to Western Europe" was published.
A. T. Averchenko also wrote numerous theater reviews under the pseudonyms Ave, Wolf, Foma Opiskin, Medusa-Gorgon, Falstaff and others.
After the October Revolution, everything changed dramatically. In July 1918, the Bolsheviks closed the New Satyricon along with other opposition publications. Averchenko and the entire staff of the magazine took a negative position in relation to the Soviet government. In order to return to his native Sevastopol (in Crimea, occupied by the whites), Averchenko had to go through numerous scrapes, in particular, to make his way through the Ukraine occupied by the Germans.
Since July 1919, Averchenko worked in the newspaper "South" (later "South of Russia"), campaigning for the help of the Volunteer Army.
November 15, 1920 Sevastopol was taken by the Reds. A few days before that, Averchenko had left for Constantinople on one of the last ships.
In exile
In Constantinople, Averchenko felt more or less comfortable, because at that time there were a huge number of Russian refugees, just like him.
In 1921, in Paris, he published a collection of pamphlets A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution, which Lenin called "a highly talented book ... of a White Guard embittered to the point of insanity." His heroes - nobles, merchants, officials, soldiers, workers - recall their past lives with nostalgia. It was followed by the collection "A Dozen Boudoir Portraits". In the same year, Lenin's article "A Talented Book" was published, in which Averchenko was called "embittered to the point of insanity by the White Guard", but V. I. Lenin found the book "highly talented."
Averchenko did not stay in any of these cities for a long time, but moved on June 17, 1922 to Prague for permanent residence. I rented a room at the Zlata Gusa Hotel on Wenceslas Square.
In 1923, the Berlin publishing house Sever published his collection of émigré stories, Notes of the Innocent.
Life away from the Motherland, from the native language was very difficult for Averchenko; many of his works were devoted to this, in particular, the story "The Tragedy of the Russian Writer".
In the Czech Republic, Averchenko immediately gained popularity; his creative evenings were a resounding success, and many stories were translated into Czech.
Working in the well-known newspaper Prager Presse, Arkady Timofeevich wrote many sparkling and witty stories, in which nostalgia and great longing for old Russia, which had sunk into the past, were still felt.
In 1925, after an operation to remove an eye, Arkady Averchenko became seriously ill. On January 28, he was admitted to the clinic at the Prague City Hospital in an almost unconscious state with a diagnosis of "weakening of the heart muscle, aortic dilation and sclerosis of the kidneys."
Averchenko was buried at the Olshansky cemetery in Prague.
The last work of the writer was the novel "The Patron's Joke", written in Sopot in 1923, and published in 1925, after his death.
Creation
Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko - prose writer, playwright, journalist and critic.
The first story of the writer "The ability to live" was published in 1902 in the Kharkov magazine "Dandelion". During the period of the revolutionary events of 1905-1907, discovering his journalistic talent, Averchenko published essays, feuilletons and humoresques in periodicals, and also released several issues of his own satirical magazines Bayonet and Sword, quickly banned by censorship.
In 1910, his collections Stories (humorous), Bunnies on the Wall and Funny Oysters were published, the latter had more than 20 reprints. These books made his name famous among a large number of Russian readers.
After Averchenko published the article "Mark Twain" in the magazine "The Sun of Russia" for 1910 (No. 12), such critics as V. Polonsky and M. Kuzmin started talking about the connection between Averchenko's humor and the tradition of Mark Twain, others (A. Izmailov) compared it with the early Chekhov.
Averchenko touched upon various topics in his work, but his main “hero” is the life and life of the inhabitants of St. Petersburg: writers, judges, policemen, maids, who are not brilliant, but he always has charming ladies. Averchenko mocks the stupidity of some of the inhabitants of the city, causing the reader to hate the "average" person, the crowd.
In 1912, the writer's books "Circles on the Water" and "Stories for Convalescents" were given life in St. Petersburg, after which the title of "King of Laughter" was assigned to Averchenko. The stories were staged and staged in Petersburg theatres.
At this stage, a certain complex type of story has developed in the writer's work. Averchenko exaggerates, paints anecdotal situations, bringing them to sheer absurdity. Moreover, his anecdotes do not even have a shadow of plausibility, thereby serving to further the removal of reality, which was so necessary for the intelligent public of that time. The story "Knight of Industry" tells about a certain Zatskine, who is ready to earn a living in any way he can.
Gradually, tragic notes associated with the First World War are returning to Averchenko's work. With the outbreak of war, political themes appear, patriotically oriented works by Averchenko are published: "General Moltke's Plan", "Four Sides of Wilhelm", "The Case of the Quack Kranken" and others. Averchenko's essays and feuilletons are full of bitterness and convey the state of collapse in which Russia was on the eve of the revolution. In some stories of this period, the writer shows rampant speculation and moral uncleanliness.
In the war and pre-revolutionary years, Averchenko’s books were actively published and republished: “Weeds” (1914), “About good, in essence, people” (1914), “Odessa stories” (1915), “About little ones - for big ones” (1916 ), "Blue with Gold" (1917) and others. A special place among them is represented by "children's" stories (collection "About the little ones - for the big ones", "Naughty and rotozey" and others).
By 1917, Averchenko stopped writing humorous works. Now its main themes are the denunciation of modern power and politicians. From 1917 to 1921, in the work of Averchenko, the world is divided into two parts: the world before the revolution and the world after the revolution. These two worlds are gradually opposed by the writer. Averchenko perceives the revolution as a deception of the working man, who must at some point come to his senses and return everything to its place in this country. And again, Averchenko brings the situation to the point of absurdity: books disappear from people's lives, in the story “A Lesson in a Soviet School”, children learn from a book what food was like. The writer also portrays the main Russian politicians Trotsky and Lenin as a dissolute husband and a grumpy wife (“Kings at home”). Averchenko's second world of Russia is the world of refugees, the world of those who are "hooked" on emigration. This world is fragmented and appears, first of all, in the image of Constantinople. Here we can note the stories “Constantinople menagerie” and “About coffins, cockroaches and empty women inside”, in which three people are trying to survive in Constantinople, they share with each other their experiences about how each of them earns his own bread.
In 1921, a book of pamphlets “A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution” was published in Paris, where Averchenko lamented the terrible death of Russia. His heroes are nobles, merchants, officials, workers, military men - all of them recall their past life with incredible nostalgia.
The experience of the writer's life in exile was reflected in his book "Notes of the Innocent" in 1921. "Notes of the Innocent" is a collection of stories about the life of a wide variety of characters and types of people, their joys and sufferings, adventures and fierce struggles. Around the same time, the collection of short stories "The Boiling Cauldron" and the drama "On the Sea" were published.
In 1922, the collection "Children" was published. Averchenko describes the perception of post-revolutionary events through the eyes of a child, features of child psychology and a unique fantasy.
In 1925, the last work of the writer, the humorous novel "The Patron's Joke", was published.
Storybooks
- "Comic Stories"
- "Funny Oysters"
- "General History Processed by the Satyricon"
- "Twelve portraits (in the Boudoir format)"
- "Children"
- "A dozen knives in the back of the revolution"
- "Notes of the Innocent"
- "Boiling Cauldron"
- "Circles on the Water"
- "Little Leniniana"
- "Devilry"
- “About good, in essence, people!”
- "Pantheon of advice to young people"
- "Stories for the Recovering"
- "Children's Stories"
- "Tales of the Old School"
- "Funny in Scary"
- "Weedy Herbs"
- "Black on White"
- "Miracles in a sieve"
- "Expedition to Western Europe of Satyriconists: Yuzhakin, Sanders, Mifasov and Krysakov"
- "Comic Stories"
satirical types
- Politicians: State Duma, Octobrists;
- Female types: The woman is narrow-minded, but always desired ("Mosaic", "Pitiful creature");
- People of art ("Golden Age", "Poet", "Incurable");
- Life of the city ("Human Day")
And the leading author of the most popular humorous magazine in Russia "Satyricon". Since 1910, collections of cheerful Averchenko stories have been published one after another, some of them, in less than a decade, manage to withstand up to twenty editions. The theater opens its doors wide to his sketches and humorous plays. The liberal press listens to his speeches, the right-wing press is afraid of his sharp feuilletons written on the topic of the day. Such rapid recognition cannot be explained only by Averchenko's literary talent. No, in the very Russian reality of 1907-1917. there were all the prerequisites for his witty, often harmless, and sometimes “well-fed” laughter to evoke an enthusiastic reception from the wide circles of the then reading public.
First Russian Revolution
The first Russian revolution saw an unprecedented demand for accusatory and satirical literature. It was in 1905-1907. Dozens of magazines and weekly leaflets appear, including the Kharkiv "Hammer" and "Sword", where the leading (and sometimes the only) author is Averchenko. Both short-lived magazines were for him the only practical school of "writing". In 1907, Averchenko, full of vague plans and hopes, sets out to “conquer” Petersburg.
Magazine "Satyricon"
In the capital, he had to start collaborating in minor publications, including M. G. Kornfeld's inferior magazine Dragonfly, which was losing subscribers, which, it seems, was no longer read anywhere except in pubs.
In 1908, a group of young employees of the Dragonfly decided to publish a fundamentally new magazine of humor and satire, which would combine remarkable artistic forces. The artists Re-Mi (N. Remizov), A. Radakov, A. Junger, L. Bakst, I. Bilibin, M. Dobuzhinsky, A. Benois, D. Mitrokhin, Nathan Altman. On the pages of the magazine were the masters of a humorous story - Teffi and O. Dymov; poets - Sasha Cherny, S. Gorodetsky, later - O. Mandelstam and the young V. Mayakovsky. Of the leading writers of that time, A. Kuprin, L. Andreev and A. Tolstoy, A. Green, who were gaining fame, were published in the Satyricon. But the “highlight” of each issue was the works of Averchenko, who arranged a merry carnival of masks on the pages of the “Satyricon”. Under the pseudonym of Medusa Gorgon, Falst, Foma Opiskin, he spoke with editorials and topical feuilletons. The wolf (the same Averchenko) gave a humorous "trifle". Ave (he) wrote about theaters, vernissages, musical evenings and witty led the "Mailbox". And only the stories he signed with his last name.
Master of humorous storytelling
A short, "shooting" story with humor - such is the genre where Averchenko reached the heights of genuine verbal art. Of course, he was not a deep political satirist, "the protector of the people". Numerous of his magazine feuilletons are, as a rule, one-day feuilletons. But among the stories, satirical works also flash with rare sparks: “Ivanov’s Case History”, “Viktor Polikarpovich”, “Robinsons”, etc., where the fear of the layman, bribery of officials and the epidemic of espionage and political investigation are ridiculed.
The life of the city is the main "hero" of Averchenko. And not just cities, but giant cities. In St. Petersburg-Petrograd, the very rhythm, the running of being, has been accelerated a hundred times: “It seems as if the day before yesterday I met a familiar gentleman on Nevsky Prospekt. And during this time he either managed to travel around Europe and married a widow from Irkutsk, or he shot himself for half a year, or has been in prison for the tenth month already ”(“ Black on White ”). Here, every little thing, every novelty of everyday life becomes for Averchenko a source of inexhaustible fine art and humor. With the ease of a magician, the young writer extracts witty stories, he seems ready to create stories “out of nothing” and reminds Antosha Chekhonte, an employee of Dragonfly and Alarm Clock, with his rich fiction.
Laughing at vulgarity, Averchenko acted in alliance with other "satirikonists" - with Sasha Cherny, Radakov, Re-Mi, Teffi. According to the employees, their "Satyricon" "tirelessly tried to purify and develop the taste of the average Russian reader, accustomed to semi-literate drinking lists." Here the merit of "Satyricon" and Averchenko is really great. On the pages of the magazine mediocrity, its cheap clichés (the stories "Incurable", "Poet") are bitingly ridiculed, a show trial of stupidity is arranged.
Averchenko and "new" art
Averchenko is not an opening, a champion of talented, but vital, realistic art. He enthusiastically responds to the Moscow Art Theater tour in St. Petersburg: “The Art Theater was the only place where he hid his laughter in his pocket and sat in his place, shocked, compressed by that powerful stream of indestructible talent that poured into my poor, humorous soul and whirled it, like a chip." On the other hand, based on common sense, he ridicules romanticism divorced from life (“Mermaid”), and his laughter reaches ringing strength and causticity when he refers to the “archimonderable”, decadent trends in contemporary literature or painting. And here again we have to return to the general line of the Satyricon. Artists, poets, storytellers constantly target the ugly, the anti-aesthetic, the sick in art as a target for satire. There is nothing surprising in the fact that the themes of other caricatures and parodies repeat or anticipate the plot of Averchenko's stories. They saw and cheerfully denounced in the "innovators", boasting of their "incomprehensibility", the most common charlatans. Democracy, clarity of tastes Averchenko was close to the general reader.
political satire
With the onset of the great crisis that engulfed old Russia - the defeat on the German front, the impending devastation and the specter of hunger - Arkady Averchenko's cheerful, sparkling laughter fell silent. As a personal drama, he perceived the ever-deteriorating life of Petrograd, the rise in the price of life (“A Tangled and Dark History.” “Turkey with Chestnut”, “Life”), “When there is no life with its familiar comfort, with its traditions - it’s boring to live, it’s cold to live” - with these words, the autobiographical story of 1917 "Genesis" ends. Averchenko, who welcomed the fall of the Romanov dynasty (feuilleton "My conversation with Nikolai Romanov"), opposes the Bolsheviks ("Diplomat from Smolny", etc.). However, the new government does not want to put up with the legal opposition: by the summer of 1918, all non-Bolshevik newspapers and magazines were closed, including the New Satyricon. Averchenko himself was threatened with arrest and delivery to the Petrograd Cheka, to the famous building on Gorokhovaya. From Petrograd, he flees to Moscow, and from there, together with Teffi, Kyiv also leaves. The “odyssey” of wanderings begins with a stop in the Wrangel Crimea. In the political feuilleton A Friendly Letter to Lenin, Averchenko summarizes his wanderings, starting from the memorable year 1918:
“You then ordered Uritsky to close my magazine forever, and deliver me to Gorokhovaya.
Forgive me, my dear, that two days before this supposed delivery to Gorokhovaya I left Petrograd without even saying goodbye to you, I got busy ...
I'm not angry with you, although you drove me around the country like a gray hare: from Kyiv to Kharkov, from Kharkov to Rostov, then Yekaterinodar. Novorossiysk, Sevastopol, Melitopol, Sevastopol again. I am writing this letter to you from Constantinople, where I arrived on my personal business.
In pamphlets and stories written in the Crimea, Averchenko appeals to the white army with a call to bring closer the "hour of liquidation and settlement" with the Bolsheviks.
In Sevastopol, Averchenko, together with Anatoly Kamensky, organizes the cabaret theater "House of the Artist", where his plays and sketches "Kapitosha", "Playing with Death" are staged, and where he himself acts as an actor and reader. From Sevastopol, in the stream of refugees, Averchenko left one of the last. In Constantinople, he lingers for a year and a half, performing in the small theater he created, the Nest of Migratory Birds. Prague becomes the last refuge of Averchenko.
"A dozen knives in the back of the revolution"
In 1921, a five-franc book of Averchenko's stories, A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution, was published in Paris. The title accurately reflected the meaning and content of the twelve stories to which the author prefaced: “Perhaps, after reading the title of this book, some compassionate reader, without understanding the matter, will immediately cackle like a chicken:
- Ahah! What a heartless, cruel young man this Arkady Averchenko is!! He took it and stuck a knife in the back of the revolution, and not one, but twelve!
The act, to be sure, is cruel, but let's look into it lovingly and thoughtfully.
First of all, let us ask ourselves, putting our hand on our heart:
- Do we have a revolution now? ..
Is that rottenness, stupidity, rubbish, soot and darkness that is happening now, is this a revolution?
Never before has Averchenko's writer's temperament acquired such fierce strength and expressiveness. Stories "Focus of the Great Cinema". “A poem about a hungry man”, “Grass crushed with a boot”, “Ferris wheel”, “Features from the life of a worker Pantelei Grymzin”, “A new Russian fairy tale”, “Kings at home”, etc. - short, with swift , springy unwinding plot and brightness of accusatory characteristics. Where did petty topics, good-natured humor, well-fed laughter go! The book ended with the question: “Why are they doing this to Russia? ..” (“Fragments of the smashed to smithereens”).
The book caused a rebuff in the Soviet press. Having analyzed a number of Averchenko's stories. N. Meshcheryakov, for example, concluded: "That's what abomination, what "humor of the gallows" the merry joker Arkady Averchenko has now reached." At the same time, another article appeared on the pages of Pravda, proving in detail that there was something useful in Averchenko's satire for the Soviet reader as well. This article, as you know, was written by V. I. Lenin. Describing the stories of "the White Guard Arkady Averchenko, embittered almost to the point of insanity", Lenin noted: "It is interesting to observe how hatred that has come to a boil caused both remarkably strong and remarkably weak points of this highly talented book."
"Laughter through tears"
Yes, in "A Dozen of Knives ..." before us appeared "another Averchenko." Now, behind the crest of great upheavals, in new works that were written in wanderings - in Constantinople or in Prague - that “laughter through tears” sounded that was so characteristic of Russian literature from Gogol to Chekhov, bitter satire pushed aside good-natured humor (sat. "Funny in the terrible"). The very departure abroad is painted in mournful tones, as the writer told with a bitter smile in the preface to the book Notes of the Innocent (1923):
No matter how many shortcomings Arkady Timofeevich has, Korney Chukovsky wrote to the author of these lines on November 4, 1964, when Averchenko’s collection of humorous stories finally came out after a long break, he is a thousand heads higher than all the current laughers.
- Questions
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