Zhigulin Anatoly Vladimirovich: short biography, photo

Among prominent and important Soviet poets, a special place is occupied by Anatoly Zhigulin. A brief biography of this literary figure includes quite a lot of sad and tragic events, but his literary heritage is worthy of study and recognition.

The poet's family

Anatoly was born in January 1930 in the village of Podgornoe (Voronezh region). His father was a postal employee named Vladimir, a native of the peasants. For a long time he was tormented by neglected tuberculosis (an open form of tuberculosis). For this reason, the future poet Anatoly Zhigulin, like his brother and sister, more often communicated with his mother Yevgenia Mitrofanovna. Working with her three children and doing almost all the housework on her own, she found time to sing songs, read poems and instill in children love for poetry.

Being an educated woman with noble roots, Yevgenia Mitrofanovna managed to educate the poet in the future respect for the truth, love for the Motherland, and also taught to understand the beauty, to see the diversity of the Russian language. Mother Anatoly's great-grandfather was a participant in the Patriotic War of 1812, the poet-decembrist Vladimir Fedorovich Raevsky (he was a member of the radical wing of Ryleev).

early years

When Anatoly was seven years old, his family moved to the estate of his grandfather. In this house there was a preserved family library. In its composition were very valuable family albums, which were filled with several generations of Rayevsky. However, during the Second World War, under bombardments, the house was still burnt. Despite the fact that all members of the family survived, they waited for the separation and hardships of the war.

For eight months Voronezh was within the front zone. Anatoly Zhigulin, whose brief biography describes this period as extremely difficult for the whole family, was exhausted by hunger, deprivation and was forced to survive in a dilapidated city. Under the influence of the impressions received, the poet will later write more than one poem.

Life under totalitarian regime

The growth of Anatoly was accompanied by the growing Stalinist terror. Members of another branch of the genus Raevsky (Rostov) fell under the extermination or imprisonment in the dungeons of the Cheka. For this reason, Anatoly Zhigulin for a long time did not know about his noble origin and freedom-loving ancestors. Despite the cautiousness and secretiveness of his parents, the boy found out the truth, studying the glorious deeds of his relatives on family albums from the home library.

Zhigulin Anatoly Vladimirovich (short biography): youth

Literary talent in Anatoly manifested itself during the period of high school attendance. Since the writing of school essays in poetic form, by the spring of 1949, Anatoly Zhigulin is gaining momentum and is published in the newspaper. At that time he was only 19 years old, and at the end of the school the young man planned to study at the Forestry Institute. The choice of the institution was made for several reasons. First of all, Anatoly needed to stay at home and look after his younger brother and sister. Secondly, the love of technology and nature was not alien to the young man.

Beginning of underground activities

At the same time, active political activity is being launched by Anatoly Zhigulin in the ranks of the Communist Youth Party. The biography of the poet includes his acquaintance with the founder of the party Boris Batuev.

Being the son of an official of the Voronezh regional party committee, Boris once experienced a tremendous shock at the sight of peasants and collective farmers who lived in the countryside. The hunger and unbearable living conditions of these people did not fit perfectly into the picture of the world that propagandists in the city drew. Having decided on independent search for the truth, Boris began to study the history of the revolution and, together with several close friends, he realized how distorted and distorted Leninism was in Stalin's hands. The creation of the CPM in 1947 was Boris's first step towards the return of the party of the Leninist course. The main principle of their activity was the use of peaceful methods. However, the KPM program contained a secret clause providing for the possibility of eliminating Stalin with the use of violence.

Zhigulin Anatoly was among the sixty members of this conspiratorial organization, when in 1949 the first arrests of the movement were made. Despite the fact that a multi-stage scheme was used to attract new members, students, more recently school children, were exposed.

Condemnation and penal servitude

During all nine months while the investigative process was under way, the detainees were subjected to numerous lengthy interrogations. Often they lasted many hours and were accompanied by violence.

Not all the participants in the movement were behind the bars, the measures of conspiracy defended almost half of their party, but the rest were severely punished for their beliefs. Among them was Anatoly Zhigulin, whose biography was "decorated" with a sentence of ten years in high security camps. During the time spent in the cell before the verdict of the court, then on the territory of the Taishet camp and on the Kolyma the writer and poet collected the richest material that served as the basis for many of his works. The most famous is the story "Black Stones", describing the life and emotions of a political prisoner. Many poems also, one way or another, narrate about those hard times for Anatolia.

During the imprisonment, Anatoly performed hard work on logging and hard labor. It was during his stay on the Kolyma that the "Bitch War" ended and Stalin died.

Liberation and Literary Activity

Fortunately, Zhigulin Anatoly did not stay in prison for ten years - four years after his arrest he was released under amnesty and two years later he was completely rehabilitated.

Anatoly returned to the interrupted training and by 1960 he graduated from the Forestry Institute. In parallel with his studies, he manages to publish in Voronezh a small collection of poems, which was called "The Lights of My City" (1956). The next book was published in Moscow in 1963, it was called "Rails" and also included only poetry. At the same time Anatoly became a student of the Higher Literary Courses and subsequently permanently settled in Moscow.

A year later, in 1964, in Voronezh, in a small print run (three thousand copies), a book of poems was again published by Anatoly Zhigulin. A brief biography for children describes this publication as extremely successful, as it was enthusiastically received by the public and the press.

Deserved popularity

During his literary career, the poet often communicated with prominent figures of that time. Significant influence on his work was made acquainted with the poet A. Twardowski in 1961. Together with the works of Koltsov, Yesenin and Klyuev, it played an important role in the formation of the poetic language and the literary style of Zhigulin.

For several years, Tvardovsky has been helping young Anatoly in the publication of poetry collections and is making considerable efforts to popularize his books.

During this period, such books of poems were published in Voronezh and Moscow as "Memory", "Selected Lyrics", "Polar Flowers". Being at the peak of popularity, the poet releases one compilation after another, and in the late 1980s a cycle of poems was published, called by the poet "Burned-out notebook".

Becoming famous, the poet enters the Union of Writers of the USSR, and the Literary Institute . Gorky in Moscow for many years trusted him to lead poetry seminars.

Characteristics of the personality of Anatoly Zhigulina

Life in the camps left an indelible mark on the soul of the poet's kind nature. Emotional trauma did not turn him into a cynic, but it affected the emotional balance. Living outside the camp walls, Anatoly Zhigulin (biography for children speaks only casually) was forced to be treated in psychiatric institutions.

The seal of a political prisoner also fell on many of the poet's works. In some poems Anatoly describes in detail the injustice and horrors of his imprisonment. Anatoly Zhigulin, whose photo is above, not only did not try to avoid the camp topic, but insisted on its development. In his firm conviction, a sincere story about everything seen and experienced was his main task. The poet's position was so solid that he did not recognize compromises even in stagnant times.

Autobiographical novel "Black Stones"

This work was a description of the life story of Anatoly Zhigulin. It was published in 1988 in the journal "Znamya" and gained great popularity, provoking a considerable resonance in the society.

In the book, the poet spoke about his childhood and adolescence, as well as about family members and friends. In the center of the story is the history of the creation of the Communist Youth Party, its short political activity, the ideas and aspirations of the participants in the movement and their tragic destinies.

Without excessive exaggeration or deliberate concentration of colors, Zhigulin describes the period of his imprisonment, hard labor and long-awaited release. The story is supplemented by poems of the poet, which were written in that period.

Conclusion

Despite the hard fate of the poet and the acute theme of most of the works, there is a huge number of beautiful lyric poems that Anatoly Zhigulin wrote. Biography for children compares the love lyrics of Zhigulin with the works of Yesenin, since she has the same melancholic charm. Several wonderful poems were turned into romantic songs, which became quite famous.

The poet passed away at the age of 70. This happened in his native Moscow, which was on August 6, 2000. A month before his death, Anatoly Zhigulin finished compiling another, as it turned out, the last, a collection of poems. This book was published in a very small edition, when the poet was no more.

The Legacy of the Poet

In memory of the life and work of the poet, his name was given to the library No. 9 in Voronezh, and a memorial plate was placed on the wall of his house. In addition, in honor of Anatoly Zhigulin, 2010 was dedicated to the poet in his native city. This event was initiated by the Department of Culture of the city administration, as well as representatives of the literary community.