Movie masterpieces of the Soviet era remain today, even with the current variety of films, the most sought after among ordinary Russians. We all remember and love the films “The Diamond Arm”, “Operation Y”, “Prisoner of the Caucasus” and “Incorrigible Liar”, but few people know that the scripts for all these films were written by one person, writer, playwright and co-songwriter Yakov Kostyukovsky. Fate gave this man a literary talent and an amazing sense of humor that helped him all his life.
Biography
The future Soviet writer was born in Ukraine in a small town called Zolotonosha, Cherkasy region, on August 23, 1921, into a Jewish family. My father participated in the First World War, where he earned an honorary military award for bravery and dedication. In those years, it was almost impossible for representatives of the chosen people to receive the St. George Cross. This award gave a number of privileges, including the right to enter a prestigious educational institution, his father YakovI gave Kostyukovsky to my brother to become a doctor.
Shortly after the birth of their son, the family moved to Kharkov, where the writer spent his youth. The family did not adhere to patriarchal Jewish traditions, and the boy knew only Ukrainian and Russian. As a child, Yakov Kostyukovsky, like many children of that era, admired and revered the personality of Stalin. However, his mother very soon explained to him what the Leader of the People is really “famous” for and why he is praised from every radio. Kostyukovsky later said in an interview that this was his first political lesson.
Developing creativity
Interesting educated people very often gathered in the Kostyukovsky family, including Rabbi Sendler. Sometimes he talked to the boy, struck him with his witty, laconic statements and bold looks. Yakov Kostyukovsky learned to read from the headlines of the Izvestia newspaper, moreover, his father's friends often brought interesting books and magazines for the boy. Friendly conversations about literature and history, good humor and companionship - all this contributed to the development of the child's creative abilities.
At school, he attended a literary circle, where he learned about the genres, styles and features of the writer's work. Even during his studies, he composed humorous stories, poems, epigrams for the school wall newspaper, liked to share his observations and argue with friends. Parents tried to develop his creative abilities and sent little Yakov to a literary studio at the city Palace of Pioneers named after P. P. Postyshev. It was a unique place where beginnerswriters gained experience from the then-famous author N. P. Trubailin.
Training
Yakov Kostyukovsky from childhood was distinguished by perseverance and perseverance in his studies, he graduated from high school with a gold medal, and the young man went to Moscow for higher education. Despite the great competition, he was admitted to the famous Institute of History, Literature and Philosophy. This university brought up many talented people, but in the 30s the institution was out of favor with the leader, Stalin believed that students here were promoting freethinking and political liberalism. Perhaps for this reason, in 1939, the entire first course, including Yakov Kostyukovsky, were sent to the front to support the troops carrying out the annexation of Western Ukraine and Belarus.
Military service gave Yakov Kostyukovsky invaluable experience, new impressions and friends. A year later, the students returned to the institute, but fate did not give them the opportunity to finish their studies, the Great Patriotic War began.
Creative activity
Throughout the war, Yakov Kostyukovsky was at the forefront, it was here, under bombs and bullets, that his humorous talent was truly born. The young man was immediately invited to Moskovsky Komsomolets, but the young writer touched on a topic that was very unpleasant for top management - about how untrained fighters die under bullets. With his article, he aroused the wrath of his superiors, and he was sent to the front, into the thick of it, already as a war correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Yakov Kostyukovsky did not sit in the trenches, he activelyparticipated in the battle for Moscow and even received a medal of distinction, more than once came under fire from the Nazis and was shell-shocked. In an extreme situation, the young man did not lose his unique sense of humor, so, during a dispute with one of the ideological leaders of the Komsomol, he satirically and fairly answered a fictitious accusation, which again earned another reference.
Working in newspapers
Kostyukovsky Yakov Aronovich as executive secretary of the newspaper "For the Fatherland!" again goes into the thick of military events, here he writes the first feuilleton, and, of course, on military topics. Friends liked the story, and they suggested that the young correspondent send his work to the Ogonyok magazine. There, the editors also liked the feuilleton, and soon the passage was printed just at the time of the German offensive on Moscow. Much in the life of Yakov Kostyukovsky will be connected with this magazine, where he later met M. M. Zoshchenko and S. K. Olesha, the writers jointly created the almanac “Laughter is a serious matter.”
After the end of the war, the author returned to the editorial office of Moskovsky Komsomolets, where he continued his literary activity. He owns some initiatives and innovations in the newspaper, so he made a humorous column "Surprising, but true." The stories of Yakov Kostyukovsky began to appear in other Soviet magazines "Krokodil", "Pepper" and others, and in 1952 he was admitted to the Writers' Union of Russia.
Working with other authors
After leaving journalism inmainly due to the growing anti-Semitic sentiments in Soviet society, Kostyukovsky Yakov Aronovich, together with another well-known and established writer V. E. Bakhnov, began to work together. Couplets, satirical poems, feuilletons, skits and reprises come out from under their pen. Their work was distinguished by a high level of artistic language, witty twists, they collaborated with the most famous artists of the Soviet stage. For example, it was Kostyukovsky who wrote several performances by the famous Tarapulska and Shtepsel, numbers by the artist A. S. Belov, etc.
Their creative duet resulted in several multi-act plays Chance Encounters (1955), A Book Without Fables (1960) and others. The last joint work was the film Pen alty Kick (1963).
Working with L. Gaidai
The peak of Yakov Aronovich Kostyukovsky's writing career came in the 60s, when he met the satirist M. R. Slobodsky and the famous director Leonid Gaidai. This creative trio gave the Russian people their favorite films that have long become classics: "Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures" (1965), "Prisoner of the Caucasus" (1967) and "The Diamond Hand" (1969).
Phrases from these pictures are remembered by the inhabitants of the entire former USSR, short, funny and meaningful, they quickly went to the people. Laconism was a distinctive creative feature of Yakov Kostyukovsky. Scenarios, prose, poems and feuilletons of this writer have become a real asset of Russian culture of the 20th century.
Style features
His humor was called humorwise man, the images of Shurik, hooligans or unsuccessful smugglers turned out so kind and lively. Kostyukovsky was brought up on the laughter of Ilf and Petrov, and his immediate teachers were Emil Korotky and Nikolai Erdman, masters of Soviet humorous literature. The writer himself was quite critical of his work as a screenwriter, noting that if in the theater it is still possible to edit a failed piece and try it out in the next performance, then in the cinema everything is written once and for all.
Yakov Aronovich emphasized that all famous phrases from famous films were invented again, and not taken from jokes or other sources. Together with Slobodsky and Gaidai, they tried to identify the formula for the perfect laugh, for this it was necessary to understand what was funny to one, and others might not like it. And, most importantly, the joke must be "live", tied to a real psychological situation.
Books
Yakov Aronovich did not work for awards and recognition of merit, then the goal was the same - to realize himself, to write what you want, about everything in the world. He early felt the joy of creative activity, because he composes from school. I was also lucky with the institute, a rather free spirit, poetic mood and friendly communication reigned at IFLI. But the war helped Kostyukovsky to finally determine his creative path. Here, in conditions of fear and pain, salvation was found precisely in humor.
The writer began with small reprises, feuilletons, sketches and anecdotes, later, in collaboration with V. E. Bakhnov, books by Yakov Kostyukovsky were publishedYou Can Complain (1951), A Book Without Fables (1960), Take Your Seats (1954). But usually his works were notable for their small size, where sometimes very deep thoughts were reflected in a few words. Such were the famous “Mamuarasmy” by Yakov Kostyukovsky, these notes reflected different aspects of the life of the outgoing era, here the writer brought out his well-aimed observations, and also reflected the conclusions of his long life. He himself called them "an alloy of unpretentious memoirs and light insanity."
Censorship Issues
Despite the atmosphere of freedom and simplicity in all his films and books, Yakov Aronovich suffered greatly from the censorship of the Soviet supervisory authorities. Even at school, his bold satirical chuckles caused dissatisfaction with the school leadership, during the war he described with humor the shortcomings of the organization of the army, which also constantly led to conflicts. However, the zealots of socialist values did not stop Yakov Kostyukovsky. The "diamond pen" of the king of comedies, as the writer was sometimes called, never stopped writing.
All Gaidai's paintings hardly overcame state censorship, usually each tape passed through several instances, where first the actors were approved, then the script, editing, etc. They carped stupidly and absurdly, for example, in "The Diamond Hand" in the phrase of Nonna Mordyukova “I won’t be surprised that your husband goes to synagogue!” “Synagogue” was replaced by “mistress.” The controlling authorities, they say, did not like the propaganda of the Jewish question. And Shurik's famous phrase "We must, Fedya, we must!"was perceived as a desire by the writers to denigrate the leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro, who was called "Fedya" in some circles.
Interesting facts
For many young people, the photo of Yakov Kostyukovsky does not mean anything at all, this man is not in the public eye, and yet the fruits of his work are familiar to any Russian person. After all, we must know our heroes by sight, so almost everyone can easily quote "The Diamond Arm" or "Operation Y", but not everyone can name the author of these film masterpieces.
The writer grew up in a non-patriarchal Jewish family, but over the years he began to notice a desire to get to know the history and pain of his people better. Yakov Aronovich himself joked that every year he feels more and more Jewish in himself.
In addition to feature films, Kostyukovsky wrote scripts for several cartoons, including Time Machine (1967), Big New Trouble (1976) and Pine Forest (1974).
The writer had three awards for military merit, including the medal "For the Defense of Moscow" and the medal "For the Victory over Germany". The playwright passed away in 2011. Buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery.
