Krizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich: biography and creativity

He is called a "missed genius". And also "a man widely known in narrow circles." Few of today's readers are familiar with this name - Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich. Meanwhile, he did a lot in such areas as literature, drama, history, philosophy and theory of theater.

Family and youth

The future cultural figure was born near Kiev on February 11, 1887. He was Polish by nationality, Catholic by religious convictions. His father is Dominik Aleksandrovich, a military man; Having retired, left the country together with the family and settled in the vicinity of the mother of Russian cities. The house was bought for the money allocated to the retiree.

Dominik Alexandrovich worked as an accountant, and his wife Fabiana Stanislavovna devoted herself entirely to the children. Seriously getting carried away by music and playing the piano beautifully, she gave them a good cultural education. Krzyzanowski Sigismund was the youngest of the children, had four elder sisters.

The boy adored his mother, treated her very anxiously and tried to inherit its qualities. In his youth he even dreamed about the career of an opera singer and took singing lessons. But after the termination of the Kiev grammar school № 4 I entered the university as a lawyer. His students passed in the noisy, colorful and crowded Kiev. The young man approached the issue of education seriously - in addition to his knowledge of jurisprudence, he also received knowledge of history and philology, attending lectures.

While still a student, Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund begins to write poetry. Also his pen of that period belong to travel notes, which he does when traveling through the countries of Europe.

Carier start

After receiving a university diploma in 1913, a young lawyer tries to work in his specialty and enlists in the service of a sworn assistant. But it is not kept in this sphere for a long time. Already after five years, he throws the jurisprudence and does not return to her more than ever. Perhaps the reason for this was the revolution, which led to chaos and pushed the law into the far corner. Or maybe Krzyzanowski was simply attracted by culture ...

The next stage of his career was the work of a lecturer. He speaks to students at the Conservatory, the Theater Institute and other educational institutions in Kiev, telling them about the psychology of creativity, music, literature, the history of theatrical art, etc. Lectures of a talented teacher are a great success for young people.

Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund is trying to realize himself and as a writer. Some of his things: the poem "Brigantine", the story "Jacobi and allegedly" - even printed in magazines.

Moscow

The youth of Krzhizhanovsky was overshadowed by a series of tragic events. One by one his parents died, then his beloved sister Elena, and then an uncle with whom Sigismund was very friendly. And all this for some two or three years.

Wanting to change the situation, Krizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich, biography Who was generally full of travel, moved to Moscow in 22nd year. Here he settles in the Chamber Theater, teaches in his studio. The same theater was the only place where Krzhizhanovskiy managed to see his play on the stage. She was called "The Man Who Was Thursday". The play is based on the famous work of Gilbert Chesterton. Other works of the playwright to the stage, alas, never reached.

Fame and hardships

In the capital of the USSR, the hero of this article was active. He read his novels, essays and other works and quickly became known in the circles of theater and literature writers in Moscow.

But the popularity of Krzhizhanovskiy material benefits did not bring him. He worked very much, realizing that under a recumbent stone water does not flow. The time was hard, ending with the NEP. Every now and then, Doctor Schrott knocked on the door (the writer and his friends called the famine). Very much emaciated and looked pale at that time Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich. Photographs of the late 1920s eloquently testify to the poverty in which the writer lived. But he did not give up and very long tried to earn what he loved most - writing.

Attempts almost always turned out to be useless-it was extremely rare to print, and the bread had to be produced in a different way. Krzhizhanovsky worked as an editor at the publishing house, prepared scripts for commercials and even full-fledged films, wrote a libretto for opera ...

"Pushkin" and "Shakespeare" periods

One of the "sub-jobs" of Sigismund Dominikovich was the beginning of a whole period in his work. It is a question of a stage adaptation to the opera "Eugene Onegin" by Prokofiev.

Touching Pushkin, the writer for a long time could not tear himself away from him. He wrote theoretical articles on the work of the great Russian poet (for example, "The Art of the Epigraph (Pushkin)"), he worked on the "Dictionary of Epigraphs," and so on.

And at the equator of the 30's came the turn of Shakespeare. Preface prepared for the first volume of collected works of the classic inspired Krzhizhanovsky to write many articles devoted to the author of the immortal "Hamlet".

By the way, unlike literary works, the publicism of Sigismund Dominovich was sometimes printed. In particular, in such publications as "Soviet art", "Literary critic", etc.

"Missed genius"

The most "prolific" period of creativity Krzhizhanovsky - 20-30-ies. During this time, the lion's share of works is written. These are five novellas, six novellas, essays, novels, plays, works on history and the theory of theater, etc. Only a few of them were published during the author's lifetime. They literally can be counted on the fingers. As for the theory, only the "Poetics of titles" came out of all the works. She came out in a separate brochure. And the story "The Return of Munchausen" was already being prepared for printing, but unexpectedly the author received a refusal from the publishing house.

Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund, whose books did not go out to a wide readership, had to write to the table. Here are some of them:

• "Traveling" Strange "(1924).
• "Collection of seconds" (1925).
• "Club of letter killers" (1926).
• "Memories of the Future" (1929).
• "The Unsophisticated Elbow" (1940).

But we are not talking about some graphomaniac! Modern literary critics call the writer a genius, comparing him with the classics of those years - Camus, Kafka, Borges ... He wrote at the level of European literature of the first half of the 20th century. His works are rich in allusions, metatexts, artistic interpretations of the ideas of great philosophers, etc. By type, most of them can be attributed to intellectual prose, and the favorite genre of Krzhizhanovsky is a parable.

Asked why publishers ignored masters, literary critics today tend to believe that he was simply ahead of time and was incomprehensible to the Soviet system. And what could not fit into her framework, she could not welcome. Sigismund Dominikovich did not write in support of the Soviets, but was not their opponent. He was as if outside the system, above it. And this has provided for itself a forgetfulness.

In 1939, Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund became a member of the Writers' Union of the USSR, but this fact did not help him in the publishing business.

Krzhizhanovsky's hobbies

In addition to his passion for literature and theater, Sigismund Dominovich had another passionate passion. He loved traveling. Even in the most hungry years I managed to escape somewhere even for a week. The trips treated him and inspired him.

Going to visit a new country, Krzhizhanovsky carefully studied its history, geography, culture, to then compare the theory with what he saw. In travel, he always revived, and returned home as a new person.

During trips I got acquainted with a lot of interesting and even great people, among whom, for example, Maximilian Voloshin and Alexander Greene, who happily welcomed the writer in their Crimean possessions in the summer.

Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich: the personal life of the writer

Still living in Kiev and giving lectures to students, young Sigismund met a woman who became a companion of his life. Her name was Anna Gavrilovna Bovshek. She was an actress, she studied with Stanislavsky. Soon after the fateful acquaintance she left for Moscow, and Krzhizhanovsky, as is known, also eventually moved to the capital of the USSR. There, their friendship continued, gradually turning into a very close relationship.

True, Sigismund and Anna lived separately until the very last days of the writer. Thus they tried to preserve romance and cherished their love from destructive way of life.

They supported each other in everything, conducted gentle correspondence, traveled together ... Their relationship was full of warmth, respect and friendship.

last years of life

Beginning in 1940, Krzhizhanovsky practically did not write any works of art. Although I still worked a lot. During the war, Moscow did not leave, considering that the writer should stay where his topic is. This period dates to a number of essays on the capital and the war.

They, as before, were not published. On life, Sigismund Dominikovich earned translations.

The last years of his life were overshadowed by serious diseases. In her memoirs Anna Bovshek writes about hypertension and anemia. The result of the ailment was damage to the part of the brain responsible for memory. And Krzhizhanovsky forgot the alphabet. He could write, but not read. And it was a real tragedy for a man who did not imagine himself without books.

The rest of life passed in poverty and pain. Becoming completely helpless, Sigismund Dominikovich moved to his wife in her small apartment. He died on December 28, 1950.

Heritage

Krzhizhanovsky had no children. He did not leave after himself a grave, more precisely, its location is unknown. But the creative heritage of the genius is preserved ... And all thanks to the efforts of a loving woman who gently collected leaves, covered with native handwriting.

She was very risky at the time of repression, keeping the manuscripts at home. But none of them suffered.

Like the author himself, his wife did not wait for the publication of the works. Only in the late eighties the readers got acquainted with a writer named Krzhizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich. Collected Works It was printed in six volumes in Russian from 2001 to 2012. It included virtually everything that was written by the author: both prose, and dramatic works, and theory, and even some letters.

Krizhanovsky Sigismund Dominikovich, interesting facts about which are given in this article, was an unusual person. Contemporaries did not appreciate it, and today the creativity of "prozevannogo genius" mass can not be called. But those who really love literature and theater, it is sure to like.