The change in the social system and its cardinal transformations have become a powerful stimulus for some Russian writers in their work, for others - the beginning of a crisis. Too impressive was the transformation of revolutionary freedom of creativity into the strict ideological organization of Stalinist proletarian literature.
Nikolai Aseev is one of those who painfully survived this. Some researchers of the poet's work note that official recognition required sacrifices from him, the size of which turned out to be too great.
Home from the Outback
He was born on June 28, 1889 in the Kursk province, in the small provincial Lgov, into a poor noble family. His father is either an insurance agent or an agronomist. Some sources indicate the surname of the poet's father as Shtalbaum, others claim that his surname was written as Asseev. The maternal grandfather, Nikolai Pavlovich Pinsky, had a greater influence on the future writer, with whom the young Nikolai Aseev lived after the early loss of his mother and his father's remarriage.
Grandfather had the talent of a wonderful storyteller, knew many folk tales andsongs. He loved nature, willingly introduced his grandson to fishing and hunting, without which he could not imagine life. The story of his marriage was fascinating - he bought the poet's future grandmother from bondage, falling in love with a young peasant woman he met during a hunt. The future writer Nikolai Aseev was very fond of listening to stories about the old days - the biography of his grandmother Varvara Stepanovna fascinated him with a romantic plot.
To Moscow
In 1907, Nikolai graduated from a real school in the provincial Kursk and soon left for Moscow to continue his education at the capital's university. By that time, he had already realized that writing was what he would like to devote his life to. Having become a volunteer at the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, Nikolai Aseev plunged into the turbulent literary life of the Mother See. His creations are published in magazines and almanacs, which appeared in abundance in Moscow: Protalinka, Spring, Testaments, Primrose.
As a poet, Nikolai Aseev went through periods of passion for symbolism, becoming one of the founders of the creative groups Lyrica and Liren. In Moscow and Kharkov, where he continued his education, the young man became close to poets and writers who professed various new forms of word creation: V. Bryusov, V. Ivanov, V. Khlebnikov, D. Burliuk, B. Pasternak. In Aseev's poems of that period, one can clearly feel an interest in national-archaic traditions, in word-creation of a futuristic nature.
The Stormy Time of Revolution
Since the start of the Firstworld Nikolai Aseev experienced the scale of social cataclysms. He was drafted into the active army, where he found himself in the thick of revolutionary events. He was elected to the Council of Soldiers' Deputies and took part in mass fraternization with the enemy, in leaving the hated trenches. Aseev ended up in the Far East, where he continued to participate in the creative process, creating the futuristic literary and artistic association "Balaganchik".
In Aseev's texts - from pre-revolutionary to post-October - one can see the entire path of transformation of his poetic language. In the first book published by Nikolai Aseev ("Night Flute", 1914), - the sophistication of symbols and the outrageousness of futurism, in the collections "Zor" (1914), "Letorey" (1915) - the innovation of word creation, in the books "Bomb" (1921), "Steel Nightingale" (1922), "Council of the Winds" (1923) - acute expectations of social change and optimism of romantic revolutionary hopes.
Mayakovsky begins
Since 1922, Nikolai Nikolayevich Aseev, whose biography since 1914 is a series of moves throughout the country - from Kharkov to Vladivostok, finally settled in Moscow. He was summoned from the Far East on the personal instructions of the People's Commissar of Education A. V. Lunacharsky. In the capital, Aseev, together with Mayakovsky, forms the core of the Left Front of the Arts (LEF), a creative association that considered itself the only worthy representative of the new art.
Creative interaction and personal friendship with Vladimir Mayakovsky is the most important event in Aseev's life. Absorbing the revolutionary intensity of Mayakovsky's poems, the poet createdseveral works of large format and a distinct ideological orientation. These include the poems "The Sverdlovsk Storm" (1924), "Semyon Proskakov" (1928) and "The Poem of Twenty-Six Baku Commissars" (1925), which made him truly famous.
Readers and colleagues highly appreciated the poetic memoirs about a friend and mentor, written by Aseev 10 years after the tragic death of Vladimir Vladimirovich, in 1940 - "Mayakovsky begins." This is a manifesto of loy alty to the convictions of youth, a tribute to a great contemporary.
Pros and cons, plus and minus
In total, the poet published about 80 poetry collections, won numerous prizes and official awards. Aseev lived outwardly serene life. But a close examination of his work reveals a certain duality that could not be avoided by anyone who was engaged in such an ideologically important matter as Soviet literature.
In the Soviet textbooks there was a classical poet, an apologist for socialist realism, who translated the poems of Mao Tse Tung - Nikolai Aseev. "Simple Lines" - the verses of a subtle lyricist, who is not alien to formalistic searches - is also Aseev. A venerable Soviet writer, loyal to the party line, whom Marina Tsvetaeva's daughter, Ariadna Efron, directly accused of indifference, which led her mother to suicide, is Stalin's laureate Aseev. A man who rushed to apply for a Moscow residence permit for Tsvetaeva's son, who fearlessly defended the young before Khrushchevpoets, is also Aseev.
To place signs, to make assessments is a personal matter for everyone, a matter of history…
