Leonid Zorin: biography and creativity

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:53

Leonid Zorin - Soviet poet, playwright and writer. His most famous work is the play "Pokrovsky Gates", which was based on the Soviet film of the same name. From this article you can find out the biography of Leonid Zorin, the names of his main works and the details of contemporary creativity.

Early years

Leonid Genrikhovich Zorin was born on November 3, 1924 in Baku (Azerbaijan). Little Lenya grew up as a real child prodigy - at the age of two he already read well, and at four he wrote his first poems. His father, Genrikh Zorin, rewrote a huge number of his son's works in his grown-up handwriting and took them to Baku publishing houses. In 1932, the first book of the eight-year-old poet was published, and in 1934, Leonid and his mother went to Gorki, a village near Moscow where Maxim Gorky, the main writer of that time, was located. He highly appreciated the works of the brilliant boy and wrote several articles about him, after which, under his patronage, a Moscow edition was printed with a collected work of the ten-year-old Leni Zorin.

In 1942, Zorin entered the Kirov University in Baku, graduating from which (in 1946), he left for Moscow and entered the Gorky Literary Institute.

Adult creativity and recognition

Leonid Zorin's first play was staged at the Maly Theater in 1949. It was called "Youth" and attracted attention with the freshness of ideas and modern plot. After that, he wrote plays almost every year: "Evening of Memories" in 1951, "The Sea of Azov" in 1952, "Frank Talk" in 1953.

In literary and theatrical circles, Zorin's work was incredibly valued for sincerity, honesty and a new look at dramaturgy, but there were problems with power. For example, the play "Guests", written in 1954 and in the same year staged at the Yermolova Theater by the great director Andrei Lobanov. After the premiere performance was filmed and banned, Leonid Zorin was severely criticized in the press for two years, calling him a "political slanderer", because of which he fell seriously ill and could not write. Lobanov also had problems - he was kicked out of the theater and soon, unable to withstand the shock, he died. Leonid Zorin admitted that to this day he feels responsible for the death of this great man.

The 1965 play "Roman Comedy", which Georgy Tovstonogov decided to stage, was also surrounded by problems - in the BDT. Like "Guests", "Roman Comedy" was shown only once - the performance and the play were banned, but Tovstonogov said until the end of his life that this was the mainstaging of his life. Despite the ban, it was staged again the following year, but this time in Moscow (at the Vakhtangov Theatre) directed by Ruben Simonov.

Pokrovsky Gate

The main and most beloved work of Leonid Zorin among the people was the play "Pokrovsky Gates", which was based on the cult Soviet film by Mikhail Kozakov. Leonid Genrikhovich wrote it in 1974 and described it as "a purely autobiographical nostalgia for his own youth." At first, the play was staged at the Malaya Bronnaya Theater and became Kozakov's directorial debut. And then he transferred the performance to the screen. Kostya became the only character of Zorin for whom he personally approved the actor. He admitted that he saw his own reflection only in Oleg Menshikov.

Modern creativity

Since 1980, in addition to plays and screenplays, Leonid Genrikhovich began to write prose. To date, about thirty of his short stories, novellas and novels have been published. Modern books by Leonid Zorin include the novel "Voice of the People", released in 2008, the story "Judith" (2009), the novel "Vykrest" (2014). The newest to date is the edition of the story "Pokrovsky Gates", released in 2017.

Also on account of Leonid Genrikhovich more than fifty plays, the last - "The Solemn Comedy" - was written in 2009. Butthe writer does not stop in his work - despite his age (93 years), he spends every day at his desk. In an interview, he admitted that he could not calmly see a blank sheet of paper. Composing and writing is both his happiness and his suffering.

Leonid Zorin is the owner of a large number of awards for his works. The first award was the Order of the Badge of Honor, which the writer received in 1974. In 1977, he became the winner of the best comedy competition, in 1982 he received an award from the Literary Gazette, and in 1983 from the Crocodile magazine. In 1986, Leonid Genrikhovich received the Order of Friendship of Peoples. Then he was awarded the prize for the best play about business people (1995), the main prize of the All-Russian competition of playwrights (1996) and the Znamya magazine (2001), as well as the Ivan Belkin Literary Prize (2008) and the Big Book award (2009).