Nina Berberova: biography, works

Nina Berberova is a woman who can be called one of the brightest representatives of Russian emigration. She lived in a difficult time in the history of our country, which many writers and poets tried to comprehend. Nina Berberova did not stay aside. Her contribution to the study of Russian emigration is invaluable. But first things first.

Origin, years of study

Berberova Nina Nikolaevna (years of life - 1901-1993) - poetess, writer, literary critic. She was born in St. Petersburg on July 26, 1901. The Berberov family was quite wealthy: the mother was a Tver landowner, and his father served in the Ministry of Finance. Nina Nikolayevna studied first at the Archaeological University. Then she graduated from the Don University in Rostov-on-Don. Here from 1919 to 1920 years. Nina studied at the Faculty of History and Philology.

First verses, acquaintance with Khodasevich, emigration

In 1921, Nina Berberova wrote her first poems in Petrograd. However, only one of them was published in the collection "Ushkuyniki" in 1922. Thanks to the first works, it was adopted in the poetic circles of Petrograd. This was how she became acquainted with many poets, including V. Khodasevich, whose wife Nina Nikolaevna soon became. Together with him, she went abroad in 1922. Before settling permanently in Paris, the Berberov family first visited Berlin and Italy with M. Gorky, and then moved to Prague.

So, since 1922 Nina Nikolaevna was in exile. It was here that her real debut in literature took place. Verses of Berberova were published in the journal Gorky and VF Khodasevich published "Conversation."

Stories and novels of Berberova

Nina Berberova was an employee of the newspaper "Latest News" and her permanent author. In the period from 1928 to 1940, She published in her series of stories "Biancurran gingerbread". These are ironic-symbolic, lyrical and humorous works dedicated to the life in Biyankur of Russian emigrants. At the same time, the latter are workers of the Renault plant, drunkards, beggars, declassed cranks and street singers. In this cycle, the influence of the early A. Chekhov, and also M. Zoshchenko, is felt. Nevertheless, they had a lot of their own.

Before the closure of the newspaper "Latest News" in 1940, she published the following novels Berberova: in 1930 - "The last and first", in 1932 - "The Lady", in 1938 - "Without sunset." It was they who determined Nina Nikolaevna's reputation as a prose writer.

"Facilitating fate"

Criticism noted the proximity of Berberova's prose works to French novels, as well as the seriousness of Nina Nikolaevna's attempt to create in epic refraction the "image of the emigrant world." Living abroad, the social landscape of the "underground" (suburbs) determined the sounding of "Relief of fate." This series of stories was published in the 1930s. And in 1948 a separate book published the same book. In this cycle, the theme of homelessness, important for the creative work of Berberova in general, was born. At the same time, Nina Nikolayevna was aware of homelessness not as a tragedy, but as a destiny of a man of the 20th century free from adherence to her "nest", which ceased to be a symbol of "life's strength," "charms" and "protection."

"The last and first"

In "The Last and the First," however, an attempt was made to construct such a "nest". Forbidding himself to yearn for his homeland, the hero of the novel tried to create something like a peasant community, which provided not only shelter, but also had to regain the sense of cultural identity to its participants. It should be noted that almost nobody described Berberova's life and life, aspirations and dreams of ordinary Russian emigres. Subsequently, the theme of building a peasant community did not develop in the works of Berberova. However, she remained woven into her biography. Nina Nikolayevna lived the years of occupation on a small farm, where she was engaged in peasant labor.

"The Lady" and "Without the Sunset"

"The Lady" is Nina Nikolaevna's second novel. It was published in 1932. The work speaks about the details of the life of emigrant youth, belonging to the third generation. In 1938, a third novel appeared - "Without sunset." Before readers and heroes, he posed the question of how and how to live an emigrant woman from Russia. The unequivocal answer to it is this: only mutual love can give happiness. Criticism noted that these stories, related artificially to each other, are instructive, sharp, entertaining, and sometimes captivated by unfeminine vigilance towards people and things. The book has many beautiful lyrical lines, bright pages, significant and profound thoughts.

Moving to the US, "Cape of Storms"

Then, in 1950, Nina Berberova moved to the US. Her biography in those years was marked by teaching at Princeton University first Russian, and then Russian literature. However, the circle of writers' interests of Nina Nikolaevna remained the same. In 1950, the novel "Cape of the storms" appeared. It talks about two generations of emigration. For the young, the "universal" is more important than the "native", and the older generation ("people of the last century") does not think of life outside of Russian traditions. The loss of one's country leads to the loss of God. However, the spiritual and worldly calamities that she is experiencing are interpreted as the liberation from the shackles of traditional institutions on which the world order that collapsed with the revolution was kept.

Two books about composers

Nina Berberova's book about composers was published even before the war. These works have a documentary-biographical character. In 1936 appeared "Tchaikovsky, the story of a lonely life", and in 1938 - "Borodin." They were evaluated as phenomena having a new literary quality. These were so-called novels without fiction or, according to Khodasevich, a biography that was seen creatively, which strictly adhered to the facts, but illuminated them with the inherent freedom of the novelists.

"Iron Woman"

Nina Berberova as a critic justified the futility of this genre, especially in demand in the period of interest in outstanding fates and individualities. The highest achievement of Nina Nikolaevna on this path was the book "Iron Woman" appeared in 1981. This is the biography of Baroness M. Budberg. Her life was closely connected first with M. Gorky, and then - with H. Wells.

Berberova, dispensing with imagination-free "jewelry" and fiction, was able to create a vivid portrait of the adventuress. M. Budberg belonged to the type of people, which, according to Berberova, especially expresses typical features of the 20th century. In a merciless time, this was an exceptional woman. She did not succumb to the requirements of the era, forcing to forget about moral precepts and live simply to survive. The story, based on letters, documents, eyewitness accounts, as well as on the author's memories of meetings with the heroine and reflections on the course of history, covers almost half a century. It ends with a description of the trip that Budberg accomplished in 1960, when she went to the disgraced Boris Pasternak in Moscow.

"My italics"

In 1969, in English, and then in Russian (in 1972), Nina Berberova's autobiography, My italics, was printed. Looking back at her own life, Nina Nikolaevna sees in her "recurring themes", and also reconstructs her past in the ideological and spiritual context of time. Defining its literary and vital position as pro-Western, anti-Orthodox and anti-soil, it builds through these characteristics the "structure" of its personality, opposing the "fragility" and "meaninglessness" of the world. The book presents a panorama of the artistic and intellectual life of Russian emigration in the years between the two world wars. It contains important memoirs (especially about Khodasevich), as well as the analysis of the works of the writers of the Russian diaspora (G. Ivanov, Nabokov, and others).

Berberova Nina Nikolaevna in 1989 came to Russia, where she met with readers and literary critics. She died on September 26, 1993 in Philadelphia. And today Nina Berberova's art remains in demand. The list of literature about it is already quite impressive.