The main theme of all the writer's work was the Great Patriotic War. And the hero-soldier he created, Vasily Terkin, gained such enormous popularity that, one might say, surpassed the author himself. We will talk about the life and work of an amazing Soviet writer in this article.
Alexander Trifonovich Twardowski: biography
The future poet in the old style was born on June 8 (June 21 - in a new way) in 1910 in the village of Zagorye, which is located in the Smolensk province. His father, Trifon Gordeevich, was a blacksmith, and his mother, Maria Mitrofanovna, came from a family of odnodvorets (farmers who lived on the outskirts of Russia and had to protect its borders).
His father, despite his peasant origin, was a competent person and loved to read. There were books in the house. She was able to read and the mother of the future writer.
Alexander had a younger brother Ivan, born in 1914, who later became a writer.
Childhood
For the first time, Alexander Trifonovich Twardovsky became acquainted with the works of Russian classics at home. A brief biography of the writer tells that there was a custom in the Twardowski family - on winter evenings one of the parents read aloud to Gogol, Lermontov, Pushkin. It was then that Twardowski gained a love of literature, and even began to compose the first verses, without really learning how to write correctly.
Little Alexander studied at a rural school, and already at the age of fourteen he began to send small notes to local newspapers for publication, some of which were even printed. Soon, Twardowski ventured to send poetry. The editor of the local newspaper Rabochiy Put supported the young poet’s undertaking and, in many ways, helped him overcome his natural timidity and start publishing.
Smolensk-Moscow
After graduation, Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky moved to Smolensk (whose biography and work are presented in this article). Here, the future writer wanted to either continue to study or find a job, but he failed to do either one or the other - this required at least some specialty that he did not have.
Twardowski lived on pennies, which brought inconsistent literary earnings, for which he had to beat the thresholds of the editorial offices. When the poet’s poetry was published in the capital’s October magazine, he went to Moscow, but here luck didn’t smile at him. As a result, in 1930, Twardowski was forced to return to Smolensk, where he spent the next 6 years of his life. At this time he was able to enter a pedagogical institute, which he did not graduate from, and again went to Moscow, where in 1936 he was admitted to MIFLI.
In these years, Twardowski began to be actively published, and in 1936 the poem The Country of Ants was published, dedicated to collectivization, which made him famous. In 1939, the first poetic collection of Twardowski's The Country Chronicle was released.
War years
In 1939, Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky was drafted into the Red Army. The biography of the writer at this moment is changing dramatically - he is in the center of hostilities in Western Belarus. Since 1941, Twardowski worked in the Voronezh newspaper "Red Army".
This period is characterized by the flowering of the writer's work. In addition to the famous poem “Vasily Terkin”, Twardowski creates a series of poems “Frontline Chronicle” and begins work on the famous poem “The House by the Road”, which was completed in 1946.
"Vasily Terkin"
Biography of Twardowski Alexander Trifonovich abounds with various creative achievements, but the greatest of them is the writing of the poem "Vasily Terkin". The work was written throughout the Second World War, that is, from 1941 to 1945. It was published in small pieces in military newspapers, thereby raising the morale of the Soviet army.
The work is distinguished by an accurate, understandable and simple syllable, rapid development of actions. Each episode of the poem is connected with each other only as the main character. Tvardovsky himself said that such a peculiar construction of the poem was chosen by him, because he and his reader could die at any moment, so every story should be finished in the same issue of the newspaper in which it was started.
This story made Twardowski a cult author of wartime. In addition, the poet was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees for his work.
Postwar art
Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky continues his active literary activity after the war. The poet’s biography is supplemented by the writing of a new poem, “Beyond the Distance — the Distance,” which was written between 1950 and 1960.
From 1967 to 1969, the writer worked on the autobiographical work, "By the Right of Memory." The poem tells the truth about the fate of Twardowski's father, who became a victim of collectivization and was repressed. This work was banned for publication by censorship and the reader could get to know it only in 1987. The writing of this poem seriously spoiled the relations of Twardowski with the Soviet regime.
The biography of Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky is rich in prosaic experiments. All the most important, of course, was written in poetic form, but several collections of prose stories were published. For example, in 1947, the book "Homeland and Foreign Land" was published, dedicated to the Second World War.
"New world"
Do not forget about the journalistic activities of the writer. For many years, Alexander Trifonovich Twardovsky served as editor-in-chief of the literary magazine New World. The biography of this period is full of all kinds of clashes with official censorship - the poet had to defend the right to publish for many talented authors. Thanks to the efforts of Tvardovsky, the works of Solzhenitsyn, Zalygin, Akhmatova, Troepolsky, Molsaev, Bunin and others were printed.
Gradually, the magazine became a serious opposition to the Soviet regime. Here sixties writers were published and anti-Stalinist thoughts were openly expressed. The real victory for Twardowski was permission to publish Solzhenitsyn’s story.
However, after the removal of Khrushchev, the editors of the New World began to exert strong pressure. This ended with the fact that Twardowski was forced in 1970 to leave the position of chief editor.
Last years and death
Alexander Trifonovich Twardowski, whose biography was interrupted on December 18, 1971, died of lung cancer. The writer died in the town of Krasnaya Pakhra, which is located in the Moscow region. The body of the writer was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery.
Alexander Twardowski lived a rich and vibrant life and left behind a huge literary heritage. Many of his works were included in the school curriculum and remain popular to this day.