French writer Henri Barbusse: biography, creativity and interesting facts

One of the most famous French writers of the early XX century - Henri Barbusse. The best books have glorified him as an anti-war author, a pacifist, an opponent of violence in any form. He became one of the first to describe the horrors of the First World War as realistically and naturalistically as possible.

First steps

Henri Barbouss was born in 1873 in the north-western suburbs of Paris, a small town of Asnieres-sur-Seine, after the revolution, which became very popular among Russian emigrants.

He was born into an international family of the Frenchman and the Englishwoman. His father was also a writer, so it is not surprising that the son entered and successfully graduated from the Literary Department at the Sorbonne. The first steps Barbousse in literature was a collection of poems "Weeping", published in 1895. As well as the novels "Hell" and "Begging" written several years later, the works are imbued with pessimism. At the same time, they were not very popular.

At the front

In 1914 the life of Henri Barbusse changed dramatically. He volunteered to the front, to fight against Germany. In 1915, he was wounded and commissioned for health reasons. He was awarded the Military Cross for his participation in the military operations, but the most important thing he took from the front line was personal emotions and experiences, which formed the basis of his most famous book, "Fire."

The idea of this work appeared at the front, in the intervals between the battles. About him Barbousse tells in letters to his wife. To embody ideas in life began in the hospital at the very end of 1915. The book was pretty soon finished and in August of the 16th it began to be published in the newspaper "Creativity". A separate publication was published in the middle of December of the same year in the publishing house Flammarion. It also indicated the award of Henri Barbus Goncourt Prize - the most prestigious French literary award.

"Fire" - the main novel Barbousse

In the first chapter of the novel, the work is compared with the "Divine Comedy" of Dante, which gives the book a poetic character. Heroes of "Fire" are walking from paradise to the last circles of hell. At the same time, religious notes disappear, and the imperialist war is worse than the most fantastic invention of any writer. The book is "scary with its ruthless truth," and Maxim Gorky writes about the novel by Barbousse in the foreword to the first Russian edition.

Glimpses of the insight of the heroes appear already in the very first chapter "Vision." It tells about the earthly "paradise" in the Swiss mountains. There is no war, and the people living in it, representatives of different peoples, have already come to understand the uselessness and horror of the war.

To the same conclusion the main characters of the novel - soldiers - come. In the final chapter of "Dawn" they wake up. Biography Henri Barbusse is closely related to the events described in the novel. Its main message is the inevitable arrival of the broad masses of the people to revolutionary ideas. The catalyst for this is the participation of virtually all countries of Europe in the imperialist war.

The novel is written in the form of a diary of one platoon. This allows the author to make the narrative as realistic as possible, following the characters, the reader turns out to be under fire on the front line, then in the deep rear, then in the thick of the battle, when the platoon is on the attack.

Barbusse and the October Revolution

The October Revolution in Russia, Henri Barbusse perceived as a key event in world history, actively supporting it. In his opinion, it would allow all European nations to free themselves from capitalist oppression.

In many ways, these ideas were reflected in the novel "Clarity" in 1919. Inspired by the socialist revolution in Russia, Henri Barbusse becomes a member of the French Communist Party. Quotations of the writer, dedicated to the events of those years, argue that "peace is peace, arising from labor." So, the author really believed that, working hard for the benefit of the whole society, people can achieve happiness in any state.

Since then, Henri Barbusse has led an active social and political life. In particular, in 1924 he opposed the repression of the leaders of the Tatarbunar uprising in Romania. Then an armed peasant uprising in South Bassarabia rose against the existing authorities, supported by the Bolshevik party.

Criticism of capitalism

The books of the author Barbus Henri, whose list is supplemented by the novels The Light of the Abyss, The Manifesto of Intellectuals, published in France in the 1920s, are devoted to the harsh criticism of capitalism. The writer also did not recognize bourgeois civilization, insisting only that in the course of socialist construction in the state it is possible to build an honest and just society. For example Barbousse took the events that took place in the Soviet Union, in particular the actions taken by Joseph Stalin. In 1930, even published his essay "Russia", and five years later, after his death, the composition of "Stalin." In these works, these ideas were elaborated in detail. True, in the homeland of socialism books were soon banned, since many of the heroes mentioned in them were repressed by that time.

"Stalin - this is Lenin today" - an aphorism, which belongs to the pen of Barbousse.

Barbus in the USSR

The Soviet Union Barbousse visited four times, for the first time in 1927. On September 20, the French progressive author made a report at the Column Hall of the House of Unions in Moscow on "The White Terror and the Peril of War". In the same year, he made a journey through the socialist state under construction, visiting Kharkov, Tiflis, Batumi, Rostov-on-Don and Baku.

In 1932, Barbousse came to the Soviet Union already as one of the organizers of the international anti-war congress, which took place in August in Amsterdam. On it, he uttered his famous speech "I blame".

His next visit coincided with the election of an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. After this, the work on a book about Stalin was conceived and begun. In July 1935, Barbousse last visited Moscow, worked actively on the book, studied documents, met with friends and associates of Lenin. However, the work was not completed.

Barbousse suddenly fell ill with pneumonia and died suddenly in Moscow on August 30, 1935. After 3 days, the body was taken to France at the Belorussian station, having arranged a farewell meeting.

The writer was buried on the famous Parisian cemetery Pere Lachaise on September 7. Farewell to Barbousse turned into a political demonstration of the united people's front.