Averchenko's biography briefly. Averchenko A

This painting is the most famous painting depicting the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Moreover, its fame is based not so much on historical accuracy as on its mood.

The basis of the plan was a literary artifact - “Letter of the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan.” This text, dating back to the 17th century, is considered by some historians to be a later falsification. It is supposedly the response of the Cossacks of the Zaporozhye Sich to a real written appeal to them by the Turkish Sultan Muhammad IV, who demanded to submit to him as “the ruler of the whole world and the viceroy of God on earth.”

Contemporaries called the painting by Ilya Repin Cossacks writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan, written in 1880, an atlas of laughter or a symphony of human laughter, because all the characters depicted in the picture laugh differently

The Cossacks during the time of Muhammad were famous for their dashing raids against Ottoman Empire and the call was not heeded.

Text of Sultan Mehmed's letterIV

I, Sultan and ruler of the Sublime Porte, son of Ibrahim I, brother of the Sun and Moon, grandson and viceroy of God on earth, ruler of the kingdoms of Macedon, Babylon, Jerusalem, Great and Lesser Egypt, king over kings, ruler over rulers, incomparable knight, no one conquerable warrior, owner of the tree of life, persistent guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ, guardian of God himself, hope and comforter of Muslims, intimidator and great defender of Christians, I command you, Zaporozhye Cossacks, to surrender to me voluntarily and without any resistance and not to make me worry with your attacks.

Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV.

The Cossacks' response

Reply of the Cossacks to Mohammed IV

Zaporozhye Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!

You, Sultan, are the Turkish devil, and the damned devil’s brother and comrade, Lucifer’s own secretary. What the hell kind of knight are you when you can’t kill a hedgehog with your bare ass. The devil sucks, and your army devours. You, you son of a bitch, will not have Christian sons under you, we are not afraid of your army, we will fight you with land and water […]

You are a Babylonian cook, a Macedonian charioteer, a Jerusalem brewer, an Alexandrian goatman, a swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, an Armenian thief, a Tatar sagaidak, a Kamenets executioner, a fool of all the world and the underworld, the grandson of the asp himself and […]. You are a pig's face, a mare's ass, a butcher's dog, an unbaptized forehead, motherfucker...

This is how the Cossacks answered you, you little bastard. You won’t even herd pigs for Christians. This is where we end, since we don’t know the date and don’t have a calendar, the month is in the sky, the year is in the book, and our day is the same as yours, for that, kiss us on the ass!

Signed: Koshevoy Ataman Ivan Sirko with the entire Zaporozhye camp.

The original of this letter has not survived (according to skeptics, it never existed), but the Ekaterinoslav amateur ethnographer Ya. P. Novitsky found a copy made in the 18th century. He handed it over to the famous historian D. Yavornitsky. One day, in order to entertain his guests, the historian read this letter to those present in his house, among whom was the artist I. Repin. The artist became interested in this subject, and in 1880 he began making sketches for the painting.

Yavornitsky knew the history of Ukraine well, he helped the artist a lot in working on this canvas, which was huge not only in subject matter, but also in size: 2.03 × 3.58 m.

Sketches for the painting were created by Repin in the Kuban village of Pashkovskaya (now a microdistrict of Krasnodar), Ekaterinodar (now Krasnodar), in the Kachanovka estate of the Chernigov province and in the Kuban region.

He also made sketches during his trip to Zaporozhye in 1880-1881.

But if the Letter itself is easy to read, the artist’s work on the “film adaptation” was incredibly difficult, stretching over more than ten years. The result was two versions of the painting and many sketches.

Repin himself did not really like it when his Zaporozhets were reduced only to a panorama of folk fun - he put a lofty idea into the canvas. “Our Zaporozhye delights me with this freedom, this rise of the knightly spirit,” the artist wrote. “When thousands of Slavs were taken into slavery by strong Muslims, when religion, honor and freedom were violated, this handful of daredevils not only protects all of Europe from eastern predators, but threatens even their then strong civilization and laughs heartily at their eastern arrogance.”

Characters

Repin was helped to depict the historical mission of the Cossacks in colors famous historians those years Nikolai Kostomarov and Dmitry Yavornitsky. The latter is the largest Ukrainian researcher of the Zaporozhye Cossacks and Repin’s fellow countryman.

Famous historians of those years Nikolai Kostomarov and Dmitry Yavornitsky helped Repin depict the historical mission of the Cossacks in colors.

Yavornitsky met Repin in 1886 in the Northern capital.

Shortly before this, the artist’s chief historical consultant, Kostomarov, passed away. His place was taken by a Kharkov specialist in the Zaporozhye Sich. Yavornitsky also helped the artist in finding models for the painting. And Repin immortalized his new friend in the central figure of the canvas - the Sich clerk, who transfers the fruit to paper collective creativity Cossacks

The historian recalled that at first he refused to pose for Repin. But when he nevertheless dragged his friend, chilled in the St. Petersburg fog and therefore gloomy, into his workshop and threw a humorous magazine on the table in front of him, Yavornitsky looked at some caricature and smiled.

“Stop, stop! - Repin exclaimed. “This is the look I need!” “Not even an hour had passed, and in the picture I was already sitting at the table - behind the clerk...”, Yavornitsky described those events.

The artist also found other prototypes for the laughing Cossacks among his friends or acquaintances - random or non-random. Many of them, ironically, had various funny stories associated with them.

The artist also found other prototypes for the laughing Cossacks among his friends or acquaintances - random or non-random

So, for the Cossack, lounging at the table with his back to the viewer, Repin was looking for a man with an impressive nape and bald spot. The owner of these turned out to be Georgy Alekseev, chief chamberlain royal court, holder of almost all Russian orders and honorable Sir city ​​of Ekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk), who was passionate about numismatics.

To the artist’s offer to act as the back of the head, Alekseev responded with a categorical refusal: “What is this, to make fun of the future generation?! No!". However, the artist and his friends decided to defeat the stubborn man by cunning. Yavornitsky, who knew Alekseev well, lured him to Repin’s house to look at the collection of ancient coins. The painter captured him in this activity, quietly sitting behind him.

But the student with a makitra hairstyle to the left of the clerk was painted by the artist not even from a living person, but from his death mask. True, this was not an ordinary mask: the young artist of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Porfiry Martynovich, from whom this cast was made, was alive at that time. It’s just that, together with his classmates, he was fond of comic exercises - removing plaster masks from each other. Because of this, Martynovich’s “death” mask smiled, which is what attracted Repin to it.

Another student of the academy, a Tatar, whose name has not been preserved by history, also appeared in the picture. But the white-toothed smile was “given” to him by the skull of a Cossack, found by Yavornitsky during archaeological excavations on the territory of the Zaporozhye Sich.

After incredible success Cossacks at exhibitions in Russia, as well as in Munich, Stockholm, Budapest and Chicago, the emperor paid a fortune for the canvas - 35 thousand rubles

For a long time, Repin selected a candidate for the role of the main character and inspirer of the Cossacks’ letter - the ataman Ivan Sirko, looming over the clerk and smiling devilishly. Sirko himself was a legendary personality - he fought fifty battles and emerged victorious from all of them. As a result, his prototype in the picture was a no less honored military figure - General Mikhail Dragomirov, hero Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878. At the time of posing for Repin, he was the commander of the troops of the Kyiv Military District, and later the Kyiv Governor-General.

There were legends about Dragomirov's wit in Kyiv. So, one day, having forgotten to congratulate Tsar Alexander III on his name day on August 30, the general only remembered on September 1 and, in order to correct the mistake, sent the following telegram to the autocrat: “For the third day we drink to the health of Your Majesty. Dragomirov.” To which the emperor, who also had a sense of humor, replied: “It’s time to finish. Alexander".

By the way, exactly Alexander III became the first buyer of Repin's creation. After the incredible success of the Cossacks at exhibitions in Russia, as well as in Munich, Stockholm, Budapest and Chicago, the emperor paid a fortune for the canvas - 35 thousand rubles. The painting remained in the royal collection until the 1917 revolution, and then was placed in the St. Petersburg Russian Museum, where it remains to this day.

Rich nature

But what is stored today in St. Petersburg Museum, is just part of the work that Repin carried out. After all, he made endless and countless changes to his canvas, which he created over a dozen years. From time to time, the artist found that the already depicted characters needed to be “touched a little with a brush,” as Yavornitsky points out in his memoirs. “If you could see all the metamorphoses that were happening here in both corners of the picture!..” Repin wrote to him. “What didn’t happen here!”

Often, for the characters in the canvas, the artist borrowed only individual features from the models. “He drew from me for his future painting“Cossacks for two whole hours,” the famous Russian writer Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak said in personal correspondence. “He needed to borrow my eyes for one, and for another - the eyelid, and for the third Cossack, he needed to fix his nose.”

What is kept today in the St. Petersburg museum is only part of the work that Repin carried out. After all, he made endless and countless changes to his canvas, which he created over a dozen years.

The poet and military lawyer Alexander Zhirkevich, who, by the way, also posed for the Cossacks, once asked Repin when he expected to finish the work. “I have been painting my picture for several years now and, perhaps, I will devote a few more years to it, or it may happen that I will finish it in a month,” the artist answered. “Only one thing scares me: the possibility of death before the end of the Cossacks.”

To immerse himself in the atmosphere of the Zaporozhye Sich, Repin undertook long-distance expeditions. In 1880, in search of nature and historical materials, he, for example, made a voyage across Ukraine along the route that the historian Kostomarov compiled for the artist.

On such trips, the painter made sketches of folk types. “Very typical Chumaks were needed in the steppes of Little Russia. I wanted to write them, but they never agreed, neither for money nor for nothing... - said Repin. “Finally, I arrive at the fair in Chigirin and here I see a group of mowers - well done to well done, all lying on their stomachs waiting to be hired... I took this group for sketches.”

In the famous noble estate Kachanovka in the Chernigov region, which then belonged to the philanthropist and collector of antiquities Vasily Tarnovsky, Repin made sketches from exhibits of the Cossack era: the saber of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnitsky, as well as the personal belongings of Hetman Ivan Mazepa. At the same time, the master transferred onto the canvas the owner of the estate himself in the form of a serious Cossack in a tall black hat.

To immerse himself in the atmosphere of the Zaporozhye Sich, Repin undertook long-distance expeditions

At Repin’s service was the entire collection of Yavornitsky, which he transported from Kharkov to St. Petersburg: weapons, zhupans, “sap’yantsi” (morocco boots), cradles-nose-warmers (short smoking pipes), obchiska cradles (the so-called comradely pipes with pipes up to two meters), as well as a decanter with vodka, dug up during an archaeological expedition in the grave of a Cossack.

“There were two such bottles,” says Tymoshenko from the Yavornitsky house-museum. - They were called quarts, each of them held 1.2 liters. According to Yavornitsky, they even opened one and tried it with archaeologists - and fell as if dead: it was so strong.”

The bottle flaunts on the table where Repin’s Cossacks sit. And its prototype, along with its perfectly preserved contents long years lay in the Ekaterinoslav Museum of History and Local Lore, the director of which Yavornitsky served at that time.

Some museum visitors, especially celebrities, sometimes asked him to try an ancient strong drink, but the director sacredly guarded the rarity, refusing even the last to the Russian Emperor Nicholas II.

And yet one day Yavornitsky parted with this vodka. When the Makhnovists captured the city in 1918 and tried to rob the museum funds, he, at the request of Nestor Makhno, gave the ataman a bottle in exchange for a safe conduct for his institution.

Second version

However, it was not only Ukrainian nature that served as the basis for Repin’s masterpiece. The same Yavornitsky advised the artist to go to Kuban and North Caucasus, where the descendants of the Zaporozhye Cossacks lived at that time.

Impressed by the trip in the late 1880s, Repin began to paint a second version of the painting. The main characters in it basically remained the same, but the coloring of the picture, according to experts, has changed - it has become more vibrant and emotional. Now this canvas is kept in the Kharkov Art Museum.

Unlike the St. Petersburg version with its rather academic, balanced composition, the Kharkov film has a romantic sound

“Unlike the St. Petersburg version with its rather academic, balanced composition, the Kharkov film has a romantic sound. It was written in a more everyday, relaxed style,” explains Olga Denisenko, a museum specialist.

Initially, the “second” Cossacks were bought from Repin by the famous Russian philanthropist Pavel Tretyakov. From his Tretyakov Gallery the painting was transferred to Kharkov in 1933 during a parity exchange between museums in Ukraine and Russia.

The characters in Repin's painting were based on real people. His friends, acquaintances, and sometimes just random people he meets.

For example, a tanned, mustachioed Cossack happily leaning away from the table was copied from the artist Yan Frantsevich Tsionglinsky , teacher of the drawing school of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, active participant in the St. Petersburg creative association"World of Art". By the way, he was born in Warsaw, and was a Pole (damned Poles) by nationality, however, he still kept company with the Cossacks.

And this handsome young man with noble features and a completely intelligent grin is the grandnephew of the famous Russian composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka . Repin found it young man in St. Petersburg - in those days Glinka was a chamber-page. In the picture the young man represented the image of Andriy - youngest son Taras Bulba, who betrayed his father and homeland out of love for a beautiful Polish girl

But this huge Cossack wounded in the head is an Odessa artist Nikolay Dmitrievich Kuznetsov (Aka Mikola). Joker, strongman, academician of the Academy of Arts, professor, head of the battle painting class at the Academy. Kuznetsov made friends with all of Odessa, was the founder of the Association of South Russian Artists in Odessa and the Odessa Literary and Artistic Society. By the way, despite his Odessa origin and Russian surname, he was Greek by nationality.
Mikola Kuznetsov is the eldest son of Taras Bulba - Ostap. I imagined him a little differently... but Repin saw him like this...

Well, opposite his sons, Taras himself froze. He is the easiest to recognize and he laughs from the heart...

Its prototype turned out to be a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory Alexander Ivanovich Rubets . Despite the fact that Alexander Ivanovich lived and worked in St. Petersburg, he was originally from Starodub and was a descendant of a Polish noble family. Rubets was a talented musician and teacher; he played many instruments beautifully, including the piano and bandura. More than ten thousand pupils passed through his hands, and his huge collection of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian folk songs(about six thousand!) is still waiting for its publication - if, of course, it could be found...
I can’t help but note that Repin based the image of the Poles’ hater Taras Bulba on a man of Polish origin...

A thin, tall, long-moustached Cossack peeks sadly from behind Rubets-Bulba. This is the soloist of the Mariinsky Theater, Fyodor Ignatievich Stravinsky . By the way, father famous composer Igor Stravinsky. By the way, F.I. Stravinsky was also a good artist, and at one time he hesitated for a long time about where to enter: the conservatory or the Academy of Arts. The love of music won...

A toothless, wrinkled old man with a cradle was sketched by Repin from a random fellow traveler on the pier of the city of Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye). History has not preserved his name, but his image was captured by the artist for many years of the painting’s existence.

Typical , cropped makitra (under the pot), and who has not yet had time to grow a mustache - an artist Porfiry Demyanovich Martynovich . He studied at the Academy of Arts and, by the way, mastered filigree graphics, but due to illness at the age of 25 he was forced to give up painting. However, the most interesting thing is that Repin had never seen him in his life. And he wrote the character “Cossacks” not from the living Martynovich, but from a plaster mask taken from the young artist’s face. And what’s even more funny is that the poor guy, when the mask was taken off him (alive!), grinned, and the grin remained on the mask. So Repin copied it.

And for this gloomy type with a twilight gaze, none other than Vasily Vasilievich Tarnovsky , Ukrainian collector and philanthropist, owner famous estate Kachanovka. By the way, he was also the leader of the nobility of the Borznyansky and Nezhinsky districts of the Chernigov province. In Kachanovka, Repin copied Cossack ammunition (and at the same time - Vasily Vasilyevich himself), which Tarnovsky had in heaps: his collection of antiquities of the Cossack era became the basis of the collection of the Chernigov Historical Museum.

Not only V.V. Tarnovsky was included in the picture, but also his coachman, Nikishka. Here he represents the image of the Cossack Golota. Repin, admiring the Nikishkins' gap-toothed, one-eyed, drunkenness and laughter, managed to sketch him when he and Tarnovsky were crossing the Dnieper on a ferry.

Well, here is the ataman himself - the then Koshevoy of the Sich, Ivan Dmitrievich Sirko - one of the central figures of the picture. Historical character

The artist searched for a long time for a suitable image for him, finally settling on the general Mikhail Ivanovich Dragomirov , then commander of the Kyiv Military District, later the Kiev Governor-General. A hero of the Russian-Turkish war, a joker, a merry fellow and a joker, M.I. Dragomirov was unusually popular among the people of Kiev. There were legends about him, the most famous of which is classic story with a telegram sent personally to Emperor Alexander: "The third day we drink Your Majesty's health". In general, the general, like I.D. Sirko, also had experience in the original epistolary genre...
About Ivan Dmitrievich Sirko

But the character depicting a Tatar was, indeed, based on a Tatar student. But please note that not all of his facial features are Tatar. The beautiful white teeth were “borrowed” by the artist from the skull of a Cossack Cossack, found at excavations near the Sich....

Well, this vast bald spot and the three-story back of the head - they, not surprisingly, also have an “owner”. This is Georgy Petrovich Alekseev. The personality, I must say, is unique. Leader of the nobility of the Ekaterinoslav province, Chief Chamberlain of His Majesty's court, holder of almost all Russian orders, honorary citizen of the city of Ekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk), passionate numismatist, author scientific works on Russian numismatics. There is a very anecdotal story about how he posed for Repin. He, seeing his unique back of the head and bald spot, was eager to capture them in the picture. However, Alekseev indignantly rejected the artist’s offer to pose for him in such an unsightly position. Here Yavornitsky came to Repin’s aid. Having invited Alekseev to look at his collection of coins, he quietly sat the artist in the back, and while the trusting numismatist admired the collection, the deft hand of the master depicted him from the right angle. Georgy Petrovich, having recognized himself already in the Tretyakov Gallery, was very offended by both, but there was nothing to do...

A half-naked Zaporozhye warrior (and also a gambler) is a friend of Repin and Yavornitsky, a teacher public school, Konstantin Dmitrievich Belonovsky. However, he was a gambler only in the plot of the picture, and not at all in life. By the way, precisely because this character should represent the image of not only a warrior, but also a gambling lover, he is depicted with a naked torso - during a serious game, the Cossacks took off their shirts so as not to hide the cards in their bosoms and sleeves.

And finally, another central character in the picture: the clerk, aka Dmitry Ivanovich Yavornitsky , himself. Well, Repin couldn’t help but depict his friend in the picture! After all, it was Yavornitsky who was the main inspirer and consultant of the artist. It was from the exhibits of Yavornitsky’s collection that Repin copied most of the ammunition, weapons and other Cossack paraphernalia. And, as already mentioned, Ilya Efimovich gave the first completed sketch of the painting to Dmitry Ivanovich. By the way, Repin did not immediately manage to squeeze the smile that is captured in the painting out of Yavornitsky. When Yavornitsky arrived at the artist’s studio to pose, he was very gloomy. But by the way, Repin found a magazine with cartoons, which he slipped to Yavornitsky. After looking at a few pages, he began to smile, and in this form he ended up in the final version of the picture.

There are three versions of the painting “Cossacks”. The painter completed the first version, or rather an oil sketch of the painting, in 1887 and gave it to his friend, historian Dmitry Yavornitsky. Then it was bought by Pavel Tretyakov. This copy is now stored in Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

The second - the main version of the painting - was completed in 1891, it was bought from the artist by Emperor Alexander III. Subsequently the picture was transferred to the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Looking at the painting “Cossacks”, you can see musical instrument- home ru. Apparently, in their free time, the Zaporozhye Cossacks played some soulful melody on it or sang about Cossack courage and glorified the Sich.Did you know that domra is actually considered Russian? folk instrument? True, unlike balalaika, not every Russian will call it. A paradox, but with history.

Tanbur-shaped instruments came to Rus' from the East. They were especially popular among the people because they became the main instruments of traveling buffoon actors, who were loved by both old and young for their witty words and free humor on the most topical topics.This freedom bothered the authorities and a decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich appeared in 1648, the famous phrase from which reads: “And where domras, and surnas, and whistles, and harps, and all sorts of fortune-telling vessels appear, order them to be confiscated and, having broken those demonic games, order them to be burned "

It is unlikely that any other musical instrument in the history of mankind has been subjected to such monstrous destruction. Domras were burned, broken, destroyed. She was forgotten in Rus' for more than two centuries.Domra “resurrected” only in late XIX century thanks to the talented musician V.V. Andreev.

But the picture is not proof, because Repin finished painting it in 1891, when maps had already been extremely popular in the Russian Empire for more than three centuries.

As for the Cossacks and cards, Dmitry Yavornitsky in “The History of the Zaporozhye Cossacks” described this interesting fact: five or six Cossacks, playing cards at night, once saved the Sich from a night attack by the Tatars and Turks. In general, as they say, the attackers came uninvited and left unkindly.

The Cossacks required ink that was suitable for their harsh living conditions, that is, long-lasting and also inexpensive. Therefore, they were prepared from improvised means, namely plants: elderberry, horsetail, knotweed, buckthorn.

Even the recipe for such ink has been preserved, and it’s quite simple: according to one version, most often the Cossacks took ripe elderberries, crushed them, filled them with water, and boiled them on the edge of a smoldering fire. The solution was poured into a clean container, water was added to the thicket again and they continued to boil it. And so - from three to five times. The drained liquid was left to settle overnight, in the morning it was again poured into a clean container and evaporated over low heat, stirring thoroughly. Thick paint was poured into a ceramic bottle (suleya), a little iron sulfate was added - so that the ink would last longer and have a lasting color.

Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko (1881 - 1925) - Russian writer, playwright, satirist, editor.

Family, childhood, youth

Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko was born on March 27 (old style - 15) March 1881. in Sevastopol, then - a province, a backwater. Father, Timofey Petrovich Averchenko, an impoverished merchant of the second guild. Mother, Susanna Pavlovna, daughter of a retired soldier.

The family was not rich; the boy did not attend primary school due to poor eyesight. However, this was later compensated for by the writer’s erudition and natural intelligence.

Already at the age of 15, Averchenko began working as a junior scribe in a transport company in Sevastopol. He worked here for a short time (1896-1897), then based his impressions on the story “About Steamship Horns.”

In 1897 Averchenko gets a job as a clerk at the Bryansk mine in Donbass. He stayed here for 4 years, and the experience he gained also formed the basis for the stories “Lightning”, “In the Evening”, etc.

The beginning of a literary journey

The beginning of the 1900s was marked in the biography of Arkady Averchenko by a working move to Kharkov. Here in 1903 His first story, “How I Had to Insure My Life,” was published in the newspaper “Southern Region.” The satirist said that he made his debut with the story “The Righteous” in 1904.

After 2-3 years, the writer suffers an eye injury. Moreover, as a result of the damage, a complication arises - damage to the second eye, which will later become one of the causes of the satirist’s death.

1906-1907 became for Averchenko the time of editorship in the Sword magazine, where he writes almost all sections under more than 40 pseudonyms. However, being engaged in creativity, A. Averchenko completely neglects his service on the board of mines, for which he is soon removed from his post.

In 1908 Arkady Timofeevich goes to St. Petersburg, where he works in the Dragonfly magazine, which is living out its days. In the same year, the youth of the magazine united to create their own publication. It was called “Satyricon”, and Averchenko was elected to the position of editor.

The years of work in “Satyricon”, and then “New Satyricon” are a period of Averchenko’s creative development, fruitful collaboration with such writers as Sasha Cherny, Teffi, Remizov, Osip Dymov. The satirist's works are actively published and staged. In addition to creative satisfaction, Averchenko receives a good income. Even prosecution due to the political nature of certain of his creations does not bother the satirist.

In 1910, the collections “Stories (humorous)” were published. Book One", "Bunnies on the Wall. Stories (humorous). Book two", "Jolly Oysters". Thanks to them, Averchenko gains fame, standing out among other comedians of the era.

In 1911-1912 Satyricons travel around Europe, the impressions they receive are used when writing “The Satyricon Expedition to Western Europe” (1912).

Contemporary critics compare literary traditions Arkady Averchenko with creative method Mark Twain, A.P. Chekhov, noting his ability to depict narrow-minded ordinary people, stupidity, vulgarity of existence.

Mature years, revolution, emigration

A new round of the writer’s biography occurred in 1918, when the Bolsheviks, who had seized power, closed the magazine. Averchenko, like his fellow satirists, did not accept Soviet power and decided to return to his native Sevastopol, which still belonged to the whites. This path turned out to be full of dangers and troubles, but Averchenko was still able to get to Crimea. Here since July 1919 he works for the newspaper "Yug", and in November 1920, after the capture of Crimea by the Reds, he leaves Russia, emigrating to Rome.

In June 1922, A. Averchenko moved to Prague, where he remained to live until the end of his days. Torn away from his homeland, he feels melancholy and misses his native language. His stories are imbued with this mood, including “The Tragedy of the Russian Writer.”

In Prague, the emigrant works for the Prager Presse, a well-known newspaper, and also collects poetry evenings. Averchenko is popular in the Czech Republic; his stories are published in translation. In 1921 The collection “A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution” is published, one of the most odious anti-Soviet works.

From now on, the satirist’s work is almost absent humorous stories, his works are dedicated to the fate of Russia - before and after the revolution. They see the post-revolutionary period as a deception of the working man, deprived of books, art, and the opportunity to develop.

The last years of his life were overshadowed by an operation to remove his left (injured) eye. The right one began to quickly go blind. In addition, the writer complained of shortness of breath and chest pain. Probably, Averchenko, who led an epicurean lifestyle, developed diabetes mellitus. The satirist's life was cut short at the age of 44 on March 12, 1925. The writer's death was due to heart failure. Arkady Averchenko was buried at the Olshansky cemetery (Prague).

Arkady Averchenko was born on March 27, 1881 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.

Averchenko did not receive any primary education, because due to poor eyesight could not study for long, but the lack of education was compensated over time by his natural intelligence.

Arkady Averchenko began working at the age of 15. From 1896 to 1897, he served as a junior scribe in the transport office of Sevastopol. He didn't last long there, just 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 Steamship Horns”

In 1896, Averchenko went 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” and other works.

In 1903, the Kharkov newspaper “Yuzhny Krai” published Averchenko’s first story, “How I Had to Insure My Life,” in which his literary style was revealed. In 1906, Averchenko became the editor of the satirical magazine "Bayonet", almost entirely represented by his materials. After the closure of this magazine, he headed the next one - “Sword”, which was also closed soon.

In 1907, he moved to St. Petersburg and collaborated with the satirical magazine “Dragonfly”, later transformed into “Satyricon”. Then he became the permanent editor of this popular publication.

In 1910, three books by Averchenko were published, making him famous throughout reading Russia: “Funny Oysters”, “Stories (humorous)”, book 1, “Bunnies on the Wall”, book II. “...their author is destined to become a Russian Twain...”, V. Polonsky insightfully noted.

The books “Circles on the Water” and “Stories for Convalescents”, published in 1912, confirmed the author’s title of “king of laughter.”

February revolution Averchenko greeted her enthusiastically, but did not accept Oktyabrskaya. In the fall of 1918, Averchenko left for the south, collaborated with the newspapers Priazovsky Krai and Yug, read his stories, and headed the literary department at the Artist's House. At the same time, he wrote the plays “A Cure for Stupidity” and “The Game with Death”, and in April 1920 he organized his own theater “Nest of Migratory Birds”. Six months later he emigrated abroad through Constantinople, from June 1922 he lived in Prague, briefly traveling to Germany, Poland, Romania and the Baltic states. His book “A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution”, a collection of short stories: “Children”, “The Funny in the Scary” and the humorous novel “The Patron’s Joke” are published.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AVERCHENKO.

Fifteen minutes before my birth, I did not know that I would appear in this world. I make this in itself a trivial instruction only because I want to get ahead of everyone else by a quarter of an hour. wonderful people, whose life with tedious monotony was described without fail from the moment of birth. Here you go.

When the midwife presented me to my father, he examined what I was like with the air of a connoisseur and exclaimed:

I'll bet you a gold coin it's a boy!

“Old fox! “I thought, grinning internally, “you’re playing for sure.”

From this conversation our acquaintance began, and then our friendship.

Out of modesty, I will be careful not to point out the fact that on my birthday the bells were rung and there was general popular rejoicing.

Evil tongues connected this rejoicing with some great holiday that coincided with the day of my birth, but I still don’t understand what another holiday has to do with it?

Taking a closer look at my surroundings, I decided that my first duty was to grow up. I performed this with such care that when I was eight years old, I once saw my father taking my hand. Of course, even before this, my father had repeatedly taken me by the indicated limb, but previous attempts were nothing more than real symptoms of fatherly affection. In the present case, he, moreover, pulled a hat onto his and my heads - and we went out into the street.

Where are the devils taking us? - I asked with the directness that has always distinguished me.

You need to study.

Very necessary! I do not want to study.

Why?

To get rid of it, I said the first thing that came to mind:

I am sick.

What is hurting you?

I went through all my organs from memory and chose the most important one:

Hm... Let's go to the doctor.

When we arrived at the doctor's, I bumped into him, his patient, and knocked over a small table.

Boy, do you really not see anything?

“Nothing,” I answered, hiding the tail of the phrase, which I finished in my mind: “... good in learning.”

So I never studied science.

The legend that I was a sick, frail boy who could not study grew and strengthened, and most of all I cared about it myself.

My father, being a merchant by profession, did not pay any attention to me, since he was up to his neck busy with worries and plans: how to go bankrupt as quickly as possible? This was the dream of his life, and we must give him full justice - the good old man achieved his aspirations in the most impeccable manner. He did this with the complicity of a whole galaxy of thieves who robbed his store, customers who borrowed exclusively and systematically, and fires that incinerated those of his father’s goods that were not stolen by thieves and customers.

Thieves, fires and buyers stood as a wall between me and school for a long time, and I would have remained illiterate if the older sisters had not come up with a funny idea that promised them a lot of new sensations: to take up my education. Obviously I was pretending tasty, because because of the very dubious pleasure of illuminating my lazy brain with the light of knowledge, the sisters not only argued, but once even got into hand-to-hand combat, and the result of the fight - a dislocated finger - did not at all cool the teaching ardor of the elder sister Lyuba.

Thus - against the background of family caring, love, fires, thieves and buyers - my growth took place, and a conscious attitude towards the environment developed.

When I was fifteen years old, my father, who sadly said goodbye to thieves, buyers and fires, once said to me:

We need to serve you.

“I don’t know how,” I objected, as usual, choosing a position that could guarantee me complete and serene peace.

Nonsense! - the father objected. - Seryozha Zeltser is not older than you, but he is already serving!

This Seryozha was the biggest nightmare of my youth. A clean, neat German, our neighbor at home, Seryozha, from a very early age was set as an example for me as an example of restraint, hard work and neatness.

“Look at Seryozha,” the mother said sadly. - The boy serves, deserves the love of his superiors, knows how to talk, behaves freely in society, plays the guitar, sings... And you?

Discouraged by these reproaches, I immediately went up to the guitar hanging on the wall, pulled the string, began to squeal some unknown song in a shrill voice, tried to “stay more freely,” shuffling my feet on the walls, but all this was weak, everything was second-rate. Seryozha remained out of reach!

Seryozha is serving, but you are not serving yet... - my father reproached me.

Seryozha, maybe, eats frogs at home,” I objected, after thinking. - So will you order me?

I'll order it if necessary! - the father barked, banging his fist on the table. - Damn it! I'll make silk out of you!

As a man of taste, my father preferred silk of all materials, and any other material seemed unsuitable for me.

I remember the first day of my service, which I was supposed to start in some sleepy transport office for the transportation of luggage.

I got there almost at eight o’clock in the morning and found only one man in a vest without a jacket, very friendly and modest.

“This is probably the main agent,” I thought.

Hello! - I said, shaking his hand tightly. - How's it going?

Wow. Sit down, let's chat!

We smoked cigarettes in a friendly manner, and I started a diplomatic conversation about my future career, telling the whole story about myself.

What, you idiot, haven’t even wiped off the dust yet?!

The one I suspected was the chief agent jumped up with a cry of fright and grabbed a dusty rag. The commanding voice of the newly arrived young man convinced me that I was dealing with the main agent himself.

“Hello,” I said. - How do you live? Can you? (Sociability and secularism according to Seryozha Zeltser.)

“Nothing,” said the young master. -Are you our new employee? Wow! I am glad!

We got into a friendly conversation and didn’t even notice how a middle-aged man entered the office, grabbed the young gentleman by the shoulder and sharply shouted at the top of his lungs:

Is this how you, the devilish parasite, are preparing a register? I'll kick you out if you're lazy!

The gentleman, who I took to be the chief agent, turned pale, lowered his head sadly and wandered to his desk. And the chief agent sank into a chair, leaned back and began to ask me important questions about my talents and abilities.

“I’m a fool,” I thought to myself. - How could I not have figured out earlier what kind of birds my previous interlocutors were? This boss is such a boss! It’s immediately obvious!”

At this time, a commotion was heard in the hallway.

Look who's there? - the chief agent asked me.

I looked out into the hallway and reassuringly said:

Some ugly old man is taking off his coat.

The ugly old man came in and shouted:

It's ten o'clock and none of you are doing a damn thing!! Will this ever end?!

The previous important boss jumped up in his chair like a ball, and the young gentleman, whom he had previously called a “idler,” warned me in my ear:

The chief agent dragged himself along.

That's how I started my service.

I served for a year, all the time most shamefully trailing behind Seryozha Zeltser. This young man received 25 rubles a month, when I received 15, and when I reached 25 rubles, they gave him 40. I hated him like some disgusting spider washed with fragrant soap...

At the age of sixteen, I parted with my sleepy transport office and left Sevastopol (I forgot to say - this is my homeland) to some coal mines. This place was the least suitable for me, and that’s why I probably ended up there on the advice of my father, who was experienced in everyday troubles...

It was the dirtiest and most remote mine in the world. The only difference between autumn and other seasons was that in autumn the mud was above the knees, and at other times - below.

And all the inhabitants of this place drank like cobblers, and I drank no worse than others. The population was so small that one person had a whole lot of positions and occupations. The cook Kuzma was at the same time both a contractor and a trustee of the mine school, the paramedic was a midwife, and when I first came to the most famous hairdresser in those parts, his wife asked me to wait a little, since her husband had gone to replace someone’s broken glass. miners last night.

These miners (coal miners) also seemed to me to be a strange people: being for the most part escapees from hard labor, they did not have passports and the absence of this indispensable accessory Russian citizen poured with a sad look and despair in the soul - a whole sea of ​​vodka.

Their whole life was such that they were born for vodka, worked and ruined their health with backbreaking work - for the sake of vodka, and went to the next world with the closest participation and help of the same vodka.

One day before Christmas I was driving from the mine to the nearest village and saw a row of black bodies lying motionless along the entire length of my path; there were two or three every 20 steps.

What it is? - I was amazed...

And the miners,” the driver smiled sympathetically. - They bought gorilka near the village. For God's holiday.

Tai was not informed. They wet the misty. Axis how!

So we drove past entire deposits of dead drunk people who apparently had such a weak will that they did not even have time to run home, surrendering to the scorching thirst that gripped their throats wherever this thirst overtook them. And they lay in the snow, with black, meaningless faces, and if I didn’t know the way to the village, I would have found it along these giant black stones, scattered by a giant boy with a finger all the way.

These people, however, were for the most part strong and seasoned, and the most monstrous experiments on their bodies cost them relatively little. They broke each other's heads, completely destroyed their noses and ears, and one daredevil once even took on a tempting bet (no doubt - a bottle of vodka) to eat a dynamite cartridge. Having done this, for two or three days, despite severe vomiting, he enjoyed the most careful and caring attention from his comrades, who were all afraid that he would explode.

After this strange quarantine passed, he was severely beaten.

Office employees differed from workers in that they fought less and drank more. All these were people, for the most part rejected by the rest of the world for mediocrity and inability to live, and thus, on our small island, surrounded by immeasurable steppes, the most monstrous company of stupid, dirty and mediocre alcoholics, scum and scraps of disgusting people gathered white light.

Brought here by the giant broom of God's will, they all gave up on the outside world and began to live as God dictated.

They drank, played cards, cursed with cruel, desperate words, and in their drunkenness sang something insistently viscous and danced with gloomy concentration, breaking the floors with their heels and spewing from weakened lips whole streams of blasphemy against humanity.

This was the fun side of mining life. Its dark sides consisted of hard labor, walking through the deepest mud from the office to the colony and back, as well as serving in the guardhouse under a whole series of outlandish protocols drawn up by a drunken police officer.

When the management of the mines was transferred to Kharkov, they took me there too, and I came to life in soul and became stronger in body...

For whole days I wandered around the city, pushing my hat on one side and independently whistling the most rollicking tunes that I overheard in the summer chants - a place that at first delighted me to the depths of my soul.

I worked in the office disgustingly and I still wonder why they kept me there for six years, lazy, looking at work with disgust and on every occasion engaging not only with the accountant, but also with the director in long, bitter disputes and polemics.

Probably because I was overjoyed, joyfully looking at the wide God's peace a person who willingly put aside work for laughter, jokes and a series of intricate anecdotes, which was refreshing to those around him who were bogged down in work, boring accounts and squabbles.

My literary activity began in 1904, and it seemed to me to be a complete triumph. Firstly, I wrote a story... Secondly, I took it to the "Southern Region". And thirdly (I am still of the opinion that this is the most important thing in the story), thirdly, it was published!

For some reason I did not receive a fee for it, and this is all the more unfair since as soon as it was published, subscriptions and retail sales of the newspaper immediately doubled...

The same envious ones gossips, who tried to connect my birthday with some other holiday, also connected the fact of the rise in retail with the beginning of the Russian-Japanese War.

Well, yes, you and I, reader, know where the truth is...

Having written four stories in two years, I decided that I had worked enough for the benefit of my native literature, and decided to take a thorough rest, but 1905 rolled up and, picking me up, spun me around like a piece of wood.

I began to edit the magazine “Bayonet”, which was a great success in Kharkov, and completely abandoned the service... I wrote feverishly, drew cartoons, edited and proofread, and in the ninth issue I got to the point where Governor General Peshkov fined me 500 rubles, dreaming that I would immediately pay it out of my pocket money...

I refused for many reasons, the main ones being: lack of money and unwillingness to indulge the whims of a frivolous administrator.

Seeing my steadfastness (the fine was not replaced by imprisonment), Peshkov lowered the price to 100 rubles.

I refused.

We bargained like brokers, and I visited him almost ten times. He never managed to squeeze money out of me!

Then he, offended, said:

One of us must leave Kharkov!

Your Excellency! - I objected. - Let's make an offer to Kharkov residents: who will they choose?

Since I was loved in the city and even vague rumors reached me about the desire of citizens to perpetuate my image by erecting a monument, Mr. Peshkov did not want to risk his popularity.

And I left, having managed to publish three issues of the Sword magazine before leaving, which was so popular that copies of it can be found even in Public library.

I arrived in Petrograd just for New Year.

There was illumination again, the streets were decorated with flags, banners and lanterns. But I won't say anything. I'll keep quiet!

And so they sometimes reproach me for thinking about my merits more than is required by ordinary modesty. And I, I can give my word of honor, having seen all this illumination and joy, pretended that I did not notice at all the innocent cunning and sentimental, simple-minded attempts of the municipality to brighten up my first visit to a large unfamiliar city... Modestly, incognito, I got into a cab and went incognito to the place of his new life.

And so I started it.

My first steps were connected with the magazine “Satyricon” that we founded, and to this day I love, like my own child, this wonderful, cheerful magazine (8 rubles a year, 4 rubles for six months).

His success was half my success, and I can proudly say now that it is rare that a cultured person does not know our “Satyricon” (8 rubles for a year, 4 rubles for six months).

At this point I am already approaching the last, immediate era of my life, and I will not say, but everyone will understand why I am silent at this point.

Out of sensitive, tender, painfully tender modesty, I fall silent.

I will not list the names of those people who have recently become interested in me and wanted to get to know me. But if the reader thinks about it real reasons arrival of the Slavic deputation, the Spanish infanta and President Fallier, then perhaps my modest personality, stubbornly kept in the shadows, will receive a completely different light...

© Arkady Averchenko

NIKITA BOGOSLOVSKY TALKS ABOUT ARKADY AVERCHENKO.

About life and creative path Averchenko, the most talented, witty, bright and popular humorist writer of the pre-revolutionary decade, we know negligibly little. Perhaps, greatest number information about him can be gleaned from the article by critic O. Mikhailov, which precedes the collection humorous stories Averchenko (Khudozhestvennaya Literatura publishing house, 1964).

In this article of mine, I am by no means going to subject the writer’s numerous works to literary critical analysis... I simply want, on the basis of the opportunity given to me, to introduce a number of little or even completely unknown information and sources to us and briefly tell the reader about the stages of the writer’s biography, only slightly touching on his creative activity.

“Biographical information about Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko is scant. It is only known that he was born in 1881 in Sevastopol, in a poor merchant family"(O. Mikhailov). Averchenko himself in the humorous “Encyclopedic Dictionary” reports: “Rod. in 1882." Unfortunately, the exact date birth cannot be established, since in his personal archive, taken from abroad by the late I. S. Zilbershtein and stored in TsGALI, there is not a single identity card indicating the year and month of birth. The writer died on March 12, 1925 in Prague and was buried in the Olshansky cemetery there, where a modest monument was erected to him with the wrong date of birth carved into marble - “1884”.

Timofey Petrovich Averchenko, the writer's father, and his mother Susanna Pavlovna had nine children - six girls and three boys, two of whom died in infancy. The writer’s sisters, with the exception of one, outlived their brother for a long time.

Arkady Timofeevich’s father was, according to O. Mikhailov’s definition, “an eccentric dreamer and a useless businessman,” to which conclusion the critic apparently came on the basis of Averchenko’s story “Father,” as well as information from his “Autobiography.”

There are various information about the writer’s initial education. In his Autobiography, he says that if it were not for his sisters, he would have remained illiterate. But, obviously, he still studied at the gymnasium for some time. According to the testimony of the writer N. N. Breshko-Breshkovsky, who knew Averchenko closely, “the lack of education - two classes at the gymnasium - was made up for by natural intelligence.” And indeed, he did not receive a complete secondary education, since due to poor eyesight he could not study for a long time, and besides, soon, as a result of an accident, he severely damaged his eye, which could not be completely cured.

And so, having left his studies, Averchenko, as a 15-year-old boy, entered service in a private transport office. He repeatedly recalls this period of his life in his stories. However, Averchenko, having worked in the office for just over a year, in 1897 left for the Donbass, to the Bryansk mine, where he became a clerk on the recommendation of engineer I. Terentyev, the husband of one of his sisters. After serving for three years at the mine and subsequently writing several stories about his life there (“In the Evening”, “Lightning” and others), he and the mine office moved to Kharkov, where, as O. Mikhailov writes, “in the newspaper “Yuzhny Krai” On October 31, 1903, his first story appeared.”

L.D. Leonidov, a famous entrepreneur who once worked at the Moscow Art Theater, and later the owner of theatrical enterprises in France and the USA, was one of the few artists who knew Averchenko in his youth: “Arkasha Averchenko was a tall, thin, like a pole, young man . He outshone my friends at parties with his wit and successful funny ad libs...”

Averchenko, being dismissed from service in 1907 with the words of the director: “You good man, but you’re no good for hell,” - having survived several financially difficult months and not finding sufficiently wide opportunities in Kharkov for his literary activity, for which he began to feel a strong attraction, on the advice of friends he moved in January 1908 to St. Petersburg.

It must be said that by this time Averchenko already had some literary experience- V last years life in Kharkov, he edited the satirical magazine “Bayonet” (1906-1907) and published several issues of the magazine “Sword”. Five years after his appearance in the capital, Averchenko on the pages of “Satyricon” (No. 28, 1913) talks about his arrival in St. Petersburg like this : “For several days in a row I wandered around St. Petersburg, looking closely at the signs of the editorial offices - my daring did not go further than this. What does human fate sometimes depend on: the editorial offices of “The Fool” and “Oskolki” were located on distant unfamiliar streets, and “Dragonfly” and “Grey Wolf” are in the center... If “The Fool” and “Oskolki” were right there, in the center, - maybe I would lay my humble head in one of these magazines. I’ll go with “Dragonfly” first, I decided. - Alphabetically. This is what the ordinary humble alphabet does to a person: I stayed in the Dragonfly.

In 1965, M.G. Kornfeld, recalling his acquaintance with his future collaborator, said: “Averchenko brought me several hilarious and excellent in form stories, which I gladly accepted. At that time, I was finishing the reorganization of Dragonfly and the formation of a new editorial staff. Averchenko became her permanent employee at the same time as Teffi, Sasha Cherny, Osip Dymov, O. L. d'Or and others..."

Since the Dragonfly magazine had fallen into complete decline, changes were necessary, and the appearance of the talented and energetic Averchenko was very opportune. And now on April 1, 1908, “Dragonfly”, founded by the father of the current editor, the owner of a soap factory, Herman Kornfeld, was published under a new name: “Satyricon”. The title was drawn by M. Dobuzhinsky, the drawing on the first page was by L. Bakst. And Arkady Timofeevich, already then the secretary of the editorial office of Dragonfly, continued his activities in the same post at Satyricon, of which he became editor in 1913. And soon after this, a serious conflict (mainly on material grounds) occurred between a group of magazine employees and the publisher, and Averchenko, along with the most talented writers and artists, left the editorial office and founded his own magazine, “New Satyricon.” In its first issue, published on June 6, 1913, in connection with this conflict, an offended letter from Kornfeld was published with hints at the possibility of reconciliation and then a very poisonous and ironic response from the editors. For some time, both magazines were published in parallel, but after about a year the old "Satyricon", devoid of the most best authors and artists, was forced to close, having lost great amount subscribers. And the “New Satyricon” successfully existed until August 1918, after which most of its employees went into emigration (Averchenko, Teffi, Sasha Cherny, S. Gorny, A. Bukhov, Remi, A. Yakovlev and others).

During his prosperous, successful life in St. Petersburg, Averchenko became extremely popular. “Satyricon” and collections of stories that were published in large editions were immediately snapped up. His plays (mostly staged stories) were successfully staged in many theaters across the country. And even His Imperial Majesty Nicholas II, being an admirer of Averchenkov’s talent, once deigned to invite him to Tsarskoe Selo to read his works in the circle of his august family. But, as M. Kornfeld says: “We all thought that the speech of the editor of Satyricon in Tsarskoe Selo would hardly be appropriate and desirable.” The visit never took place; Averchenko cited illness.

During the ten years of his life in the capital, Averchenko traveled a lot around the country with performances, and went on trips abroad, as a rule, together with his friends and colleagues in the magazine, artists A.A. Radakov and N.V. Remizov (Remy). After his first overseas voyage in the summer of 1911, he published a supplement to the Satyricon for 1912 - the book “The Satyricon Expedition to Western Europe,” which was a resounding success. And in the same year, in addition to hard work at the magazine, he went on a long tour of Russia, participating in evenings of humor writers in many cities.

How did he look in appearance, this young and clumsy provincial in the recent past, who managed to short term become famous writer, which constantly amuses all reading Russia? The artist N.V. Remizov, already in exile, describes Averchenko’s first appearance in the editorial office as follows: “A large man with a slightly puffy face, but with a pleasant, open expression, entered the room: eyes looked through the pince-nez, which had the peculiarity of smiling without participation facial muscles. The impression was from the first glance at him - inviting, despite the slight touch of provincial “chic”, like the black, too wide ribbon of pince-nez and a white starched vest, details that were already “taboo” in St. Petersburg.”

The success of the magazine large circulations books, speeches, theatrical performances brought material well-being. Averchenko moves into a cozy apartment and furnishes it beautifully. N.N. Breshko-Breshkovsky recalls how “in the mornings, Averchenko did gymnastics to the sounds of the gramophone, working with weights that weighed pounds.” Although music education he didn’t have one, but at one time he was seriously interested in opera, then operetta, and in the numerous miniature theaters where his plays were performed, he was his own man. His ironic and cheerful theater reviews often appeared in Satyricon under one of his many pseudonyms - Ae, Wolf, Thomas Opiskin, Medusa the Gorgon, Falstaff and others. The writer, as a rule, spent his evenings in the Vienna restaurant with his satirical friends, writers, actors, and musicians. One of Averchenko’s many everyday hobbies was chess. L. O. Utesov told me that he was an extraordinary player, he composed and printed problems.

The war of 1914 had almost no effect on Averchenko’s life and work - due to being “one-eyed,” he was not drafted into the army and continued to edit his magazine, often speaking at charity events in favor of the wounded and those affected by the war. After the October Revolution, both Averchenko himself and the editors of Satyricon took a sharply negative position towards Soviet power, after which the magazine was closed by government decree in August 1918.

And then everything collapsed. The magazine is no longer there. The books are not coming out. A substantial bank account has been requisitioned. They intend to “compact” the apartment. In the long term - a hungry and cold winter. Friends and comrades are leaving Petrograd - in all directions. And here is a proposal from Moscow from the artist Koshevsky - to organize a cabaret theater somewhere in the south of Russia. But Averchenko and Radakov, who arrived in Moscow, find Koshevsky seriously ill. The whole plan was ruined. And then Averchenko, together with Teffi, who also happened to be in Moscow, goes to Kyiv (they were invited to literary evenings by two different entrepreneurs).

Teffi’s “Memoirs” very vividly and funnyly describes the numerous scrapes that the writers had to get into during their long trip through German-occupied Ukraine. In Kyiv, however, Averchenko did not stay long and through Kharkov and Rostov, where he lived for several months, performing at humorous evenings, as a refugee he went to his homeland, to Sevastopol, then occupied by whites. This was at the end of March or beginning of April 1919. But what he did in Sevastopol from April to June of this year, when French troops surrendered the city to the Red Army, information could not be obtained anywhere. And, starting from June 1919 and until the end of 1920, Arkady Timofeevich, as well as famous writers I. Surguchev, E. Chirikov and I. Shmelev actively worked in the newspaper “Yug” (later “South of Russia”), intensively campaigning for help from the Volunteer army. Averchenko also, together with the writer Anatoly Kamensky (who later returned to the USSR), opened the cabaret theater “House of the Artist,” where at the beginning of 1920 his multi-act play “The Game with Death,” written in the summer of last year, was staged. Judging by the review published in the newspaper "Yug" (January 4, 1920), the play had good success. And in the spring of the same year, Averchenko already takes part in performances of the new theater - “Nest of Migratory Birds” and continues to organize his evenings in Sevastopol, Balaklava and Evpatoria.

By the end of October, Wrangel's troops found themselves in a desperate situation in Crimea. On November 2, the Reds occupied Sevastopol. And a few days before that, Averchenko went to Constantinople in the ship’s hold on coal bags. He spoke about this journey with bitter humor in the book “Notes of the Innocent. I am in Europe" (Berlin, North Publishing House, 1923). Friends in Constantinople (now Istanbul) rented him a small room in Pera (city district) in advance, and he lived there for a year and a half, resurrecting his Nest Theater. There were a lot of Russian refugees in the city at that time, Russian miniature theaters and restaurants were operating.

But life in a country alien to its morals, traditions and language became extremely difficult for Averchenko. He and his troupe leave Turkey, and on April 13, 1922, arrive at Slavic land- to Sofia, where he expected to stay for a long time, but since the then Stamboliski government treated white emigrants very harshly and introduced numerous restrictions for them, the troupe, together with its director, having given only two performances, hastily left for Yugoslavia, and on May 27 in Belgrade The first performance was a huge success. Then another one, according to a different program - and Averchenko and the theater left for Prague, giving a concert in Zagreb on the way. And two days later, on June 17, Averchenko arrives in Prague, where he finally settles for permanent residence.

Prague, which greeted the writer hospitably and cordially, pleased him too. He quickly gained many friends and admirers. Many of his stories have been translated into Czech. The first evening took place on July 3, which was a great success and received rave reviews in many newspapers. Then, from July to September, he toured the country - he visited Brno, Pilsen, Moravian Ostrava, Bratislava, Uzhgorod, Mukachevo and, returning to Prague only in the first half of September, began working intensively for the Prager Press newspaper, appearing there weekly his feuilletons and new stories. In October, successful tours took place in the Baltic states, Poland and Berlin.

Trouble awaited Averchenko in connection with his upcoming trip to Romania - at first, a visa was not given for a long time. When he finally appeared before the Chisinau public on October 6, they gave the writer an ovation, after which an unexpected complication occurred in Bucharest. The fact is that the Romanian newspapers of that time suddenly remembered that during the years of the World War, Averchenko in his “New Satyricon” published several caustic and offensive feuilletons about the Romanian army, and demanded that the government ban him from speaking and leaving the country. But later the matter was settled after a petition through diplomatic channels from members of the Czech government, admirers of the writer’s talent.

And then wandering again: Belgrade, Berlin again. An invitation was received from the USA, a vacation on the Riga seaside was planned. But all plans went wrong - on the eve of leaving for Riga, his left eye, damaged back in Kharkov times, became seriously ill. An operation was performed and an artificial eye had to be inserted. It would seem that everything turned out well, but the writer began to feel a general malaise, at first not attaching any importance to it. But things got worse - a stay at the Podobrady resort did not help, attacks of suffocation began, and on January 28, 1925, almost unconscious, he was admitted to the clinic at the Prague City Hospital. Diagnosis: almost complete weakening of the heart muscle, expansion of the aorta and renal sclerosis.

Despite a noticeable improvement in early February, after a secondary hemorrhage in the stomach, at 9 a.m. on March 12, 1925, at the age of 44, the wonderful Russian humorist writer Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko died in a hospitable but foreign country. His body was placed in a metal coffin and enclosed in a special case in case anyone in the future - relatives or cultural organizations - could transport the ashes of the deceased to their homeland. Averchenko had no direct heirs; he was a bachelor.

From the very beginning of his St. Petersburg activities, many reviews appeared in the press about Averchenko’s works. In the West, after the death of the writer, many books dedicated to him were published. But for some reason, none of them ever evaluates or even almost mentions two major works: the story “Pokhodtsev and Two Others” and the humorous novel “Maecenas’s Joke.”

Averchenko repeatedly used his favorite literary device- V literary characters depicted the appearance and characters of his friends and colleagues in the Satyricon, most often the artists A. Radakov and N. Remizov, depicting them (under pseudonyms) in the “Expedition to Western Europe” (in this book the artists drew cartoons of each other). In the characters of “Podkhodtsev”, in fact, not a story, but a series of funny and sometimes lyrical short stories with three “through” characters - Podkhodtsev, Klinkov and Gromov - one can also see similarities with the characters and appearance satirical friends.

Last work Averchenko “The Joke of the Maecenas” was written in 1923 in Tsoppot (now Sopot) and published in Prague in 1925 after the death of the writer. The novel is both cheerful and sad, permeated with nostalgia for the carefree bohemian life of St. Petersburg, dear to the author’s heart. And again, in the characters of the novel there are signs of the author himself and his friends.

Arkady Averchenko was buried in Prague at the Olshansky cemetery.

In 2006, a television program “The Man Who Laughed” was filmed about Arkady Averchenko.

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Collections of stories:

"Humorous Stories"
"Jolly Oysters"
« General history, processed by "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 essentially good people!”
"Pantheon of Advice to Young People"
"Stories for Convalescent People"
"Stories about Children"
"Tales of the Old School"
"Funny in the scary"
"Weeds"
"Black and white"
"Miracles in a sieve"
“Expedition to Western Europe of satirical writers: Yuzhakin, Sanders, Mifasov and Krysakov”
"Humorous Stories"

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, since due to poor eyesight he could not study for a long time and, moreover, in childhood, as a result of an accident, he severely damaged his eye. But the lack of education was compensated over time by natural intelligence, according to the testimony of the writer N.N. Breshko-Breshkovsky.
Averchenko began working early, at the age of 15, when he joined a private transport office. He didn't last long there, 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 Yuzhny Krai newspaper.
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’re no good for hell.” After this, in January 1908, A. T. Averchenko left for St. Petersburg, where in the future he would 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 on the staff of the magazine with famous people- Teffi, Sasha Cherny, Osip Dymov, N.V. Remizov (Re-mi), etc. It was there that his most brilliant humorous stories appeared. During Averchenko's work at Satyricon, this magazine became extremely popular; plays based on his stories were staged in many theaters across the country.
In 1910-1912, Averchenko repeatedly traveled around Europe with his satirical friends (artists A. A. Radakov and Remizov). These travels provided Averchenko with rich material for creativity, so that in 1912 his book “The Satyricon Expedition to Western Europe” was published, which caused a lot of noise in those days.
A. T. Averchenko also wrote numerous theater reviews under the pseudonyms Ae, Wolf, Foma Opiskin, Medusa the Gorgon, Falstaff and others.
After October revolution everything changed dramatically. In August 1918, the Bolsheviks considered the New Satyricon anti-Soviet and closed it. Averchenko and the entire staff of the magazine took a negative position towards Soviet power. In order to return to his native Sevastopol (to Crimea, occupied by the whites), Averchenko had to get into numerous troubles, in particular, making his way through German-occupied Ukraine.
From June 1919, Averchenko worked for the newspaper “Yug” (later “South of Russia”), campaigning for help for the Volunteer Army.
On November 15, 1920, Sevastopol was captured by the Reds. A few days before this, Averchenko managed to sail on a ship to Constantinople.
After emigration
In Constantinople, Averchenko felt more or less comfortable, since at that time there were a huge number of Russian refugees there, 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 ... by a White Guard embittered to the point of insanity.” It was followed by the collection “A Dozen Portraits in Boudoir Format.”
On 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 place residence.
In 1923, the Berlin publishing house Sever published his collection emigrant stories"Notes of the Innocent."
Life away from the homeland, from 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 enjoyed great success, and many stories were translated into Czech.
While working for the famous newspaper “Prager Presse”, Arkady Timofeevich wrote many sparkling and witty stories, in which nostalgia and great longing for old Russia, which had sunk forever into the past, were felt.
In 1925, after an operation to remove an eye, Arkady Averchenko became seriously ill. On January 28, in an almost unconscious state, he was admitted to the clinic at the Prague City Hospital with a diagnosis of “weakening of the heart muscle, dilatation of the aorta and renal sclerosis.”
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 writer’s last work was the novel “The Maecenas’s Joke,” written in Sopot in 1923 and published in 1925, after his death.