Vikenty Versaev biography. Medical school writer

Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich(real, surname - Smidovich), writer, was born on 4 (16) I. 1867 in Tula, in the family of a doctor.

In 1884 he graduated from the Tula classical gymnasium and entered the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University.

In 1888 he entered the medical faculty of Dorpat University.

Since 1894, having received a medical degree, Vikenty Vikentievich began to engage in medical practice.

In 1887, his first stories were published - "The Nasty Boy" and "The Riddle". The author considered the second of these stories the beginning of his serious literary activity, invariably opening his collected works to them. In this story, Vikenty Vikentievich, developing the theme of art, affirms the idea that art is designed to awaken high aspirations in a person, to evoke faith in one's own strength, to raise one to fight.

Veresaev tries to find an ideological support in populism, sharing his views. However, the theories of the Narodniks were increasingly divorced from reality, and Veresaev's critical mind could not feed on outdated dogmas for a long time.

In the 90s. Vikenty Vikentyevich Veresaev ideologically adjoins the group of legal Marxists and is published in the journals Life and Nachalo. This gave him the opportunity to understand populism "from outside" in its true content.

In the story "Without a Road" (1894), the writer painted the tragic figure of a populist, seized with deep despair from the collapse of his ideals. The hero of the story, an honest and active man, Zemstvo doctor Chekanov, is convinced by his own practice of the futility of populist sermons. Avoiding high-profile words that have been erased like a small coin, he strives for useful and fruitful activities for the benefit of the people. Truthfully and ruthlessly depicting his hero, the author affirms the belief that the new generation of revolutionaries in the person of Natasha and her ilk will find the right path to a noble goal. The story "Without a Road" brought literary fame to Veresaev, and since then he has been in the eyes of broad circles readers becomes a "chronicler" of the Russian intelligentsia.

Vikenty Vikentyevich, with his works, raised the most burning questions, invading the very thick of life.

In the story "The Addiction" (1897), the image of Natasha will again appear, but no longer restless in search of a foothold, but who has found an ideological path. Convinced of the complete failure of the populists, Natasha and her associate Daev enter into an ideological battle with them. They say that “a new, profoundly revolutionary class has grown up and entered the stage”, that “in surrounding life there is a fundamental, long-unseen breakdown, in this breakdown one thing is crushed and perishes, another is imperceptibly born ... ".

The struggle against the populists, who saw support in the peasant, by no means meant for Veresaev a rejection of the topic peasant life. In his stories, Vikenty Vikentievich shows the severity and hopelessness of the life of the peasants, but, unlike his contemporaries - Bunin, Muyzhel and others, he focuses on social changes that affected the economic situation of the village. Veresaev looks at reality through the eyes of a materialist, deeply delving into the very essence of the phenomena depicted.

V. I. Lenin in his work “The Development of Capitalism in Russia” used Veresaev’s story “Lizar” as an illustration to the words about the situation of the Russian peasant, where the writer “talks about the peasant of the Pskov province Lizar, who preaches the use of drops and other things to “reduce a person” ( Works, vol. 3, pp. 207-208).

The life of the peasants is hard and hopeless, but it should not be like this. The writer affirms this idea in all the stories dedicated to the village

"To hell"

"In the Dry Fog"

"In the steppe" and others.

In the last of these stories, Veresaev V.V. depicts the honest, incorruptible nature of a Russian person, his self-esteem, the pride of a worker.

In 1901, the famous "Doctor's Notes" were published, which provoked heated discussions and agitated wide public circles. The "notes" are written on behalf of the "average" doctor, with all his inherent shortcomings, which were mainly the result of a vicious system of education. The author shows the helplessness of this "average" doctor in practical activities. The path he walks, stumbling like a blind man who has lost his guide, sets whole line tasks and contradictory positions from which the young doctor is not able to extricate himself. It is significant that the author chose his meeting with an advanced revolutionary worker as a turning point in the mood of his hero-intellectual. This one is seriously ill, but strong-willed man pushed him to a new, deeper, clear understanding of the world. The "Doctor's Notes", distinguished by the exceptional power of criticism, at the same time were a direct challenge to bourgeois medicine, which was fenced off by a stone wall from the masses.

In 1902, the story "At the Turn" appeared; it reflected the experiences and moods of the intelligentsia on the eve of the first Russian revolution.

In the story, Veresaev illuminates the struggle of revolutionary Marxism against opportunism, showing the ideological failure of such a revisionist trend as Bernsteinism, which had its supporters in Russia. The first part of the story depicts advanced Marxist revolutionaries, active fighters, while the second part deals with the intelligentsia, who lost faith in the revolution and changed the goals of the liberation struggle. The story attracted the attention of V. I. Lenin. He spoke sympathetically about its first part (which shows passionate revolutionary youth), imbued with a pre-stormy mood. The second part reduced the morale of the work.

During the Russo-Japanese War, Vikenty Vikentievich, as a military doctor, was a direct participant in the events in the Far East. The anger of a true Russian patriot against a war unnecessary to the people is imbued with Versaev's "Stories about the War" (1906) and journalistic notes "At the War" (1907-1908). Veresaev consistently, from the moment of mobilization to the final defeat of the Russian troops on the fields of Manchuria, truthfully reveals the real meaning of the adventure started at the arbitrariness of the tsarist government. Admiring the bravery and courage of the Russian soldier, Vikenty Vikentievich directs his blows against the "internal Turks" - mediocre generals, embezzlers of state funds, high-ranking marauders who committed monstrous arbitrariness and least of all thought about the interests of the army and Russia.

In 1908, Veresaev wrote the story "To Life", which affected the mood of hopelessness and hopelessness. At this time, his connection with the revolutionary movement was weakened and he did not see a real way to fight. In the period between the two revolutions, the writer worked hard on two books of the philosophical and literary genre - a very original and peculiar genre in his work.

One of these books - "Living Life" (book 1, 1910) is dedicated to the work of F. Dostoevsky and L. Tolstoy, the second - "Apollo and Dionysus" (1915) - Nietzsche. From the pages of these books sounded a hymn to life, its joy and greatness. His books were directed against anti-humanism and pessimism. Veresaev rejects the decadent interpretation of ancient culture by Friedrich Nietzsche, opposing him with an assessment of the immortal works of Homer as a wonderful childhood of mankind with its inherent healthy outlook on life.

After October revolution Vikenty Vikentyevich Veresaev becomes an active participant in the literary movement. His path to revolution was complex and sometimes contradictory. Like many other representatives critical realism, at first he did not accept the principle of party spirit in literature, trying to establish himself on the position of an abstract, non-class "freedom" artistic creativity. Only practical participation in cultural construction and gradual knowledge of the new reality firmly connect Veresaev's work with Soviet literature.

In the 20s. Veresaev V.V. develops the themes that have been put forward by life, especially the theme of the intelligentsia and the revolution. This topic was devoted to his novel "At the Dead End" (1922), which depicts intellectuals familiar to the reader from his pre-revolutionary work, trying to take a position above the fight. Psychologically subtly and truthfully, the writer showed intellectuals who did not understand the patterns of the events that took place and got lost in them. However, the people of the new world remained outside the attention of the author.

In 1933, the novel "Sisters" was published, in which Veresaev showed the process of ideological restructuring of the intelligentsia, its attempts to actively engage in the process of socialist construction. The novel is written in the form of a joint diary of two sisters - Katya and Nina Sartanov, which opened up the possibility for the author to penetrate into the depths of the experiences of his characters. The story passes before the reader emotional experiences female students psychologically distant from the new reality, but moving towards it in their own unique ways. In the novel, the sexually sensual sphere of experiences of the frivolous Nina Sartanova, carried away by peculiar "experiments", sticks out too much. The emphasis on this kind of experiences was made earlier by Veresaev in the story "Isanka" (1927), which caused discussions and disputes among young people.

IN last years life, Vikenty Vikentievich created a wonderful cycle of memoirs, in which the picture of the literary movement and cultural life late XIX and the beginning of the 20th century.

"IN early years» - 1927,

"In my student years" - 1929.

These memoirs, in which the reader will encounter images of such prominent people, like L. Tolstoy, V. Korolenko, A. Chekhov, N. G. Garin, L. Andreev, K. Stanislavsky, V. Zasulich and many others, are of great cognitive importance.

The literary works of Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev are widely known, especially devoted to Pushkin's themes - "Pushkin in Life" (1926-27) and

"Pushkin's Companions" (1934-36).

These works are built on documentary material, which equally includes sources that correctly reflect the image of Pushkin, and sources that are far from objectivity.

The book Gogol in Life (1933) is built on the same principle.

A kind of continuation of the pre-revolutionary work on L. Tolstoy "Living Life" was Veresaev's article "The Artist of Life" ("Krasnaya Nov", 1921, No. 4). In it, the writer focused on the spiritual contradictions of the great writer.

Veresaev's Unfictional Stories, which he published in the 1940s, aroused great interest. These are short stories about people and events that the writer observed over many years of his life. They were created by an intelligent and observant artist who deeply understood the lessons of the past and knows the paths of the future.

For my long creative life Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev made a significant contribution to Russian literature. In the pre-October era, his work was part of a powerful stream of critical realism, which played a large positive role in the literary process.

Pure fiction must always be on the alert to keep the reader's confidence. And the facts do not bear responsibility and laugh at the unbelievers.

Rabindranath Tagore

Every year, novels and short stories become less and less interesting to me; and all the more interesting - live stories about the real former. And the artist is not interested in what he tells, but in how he himself is reflected in the story.

In general, it seems to me that novelists and poets talk an awful lot and stuff an awful lot of lime into their works, the only purpose of which is to solder bricks in a thin layer. This applies even to such, for example, a stingy, concise poet like Tyutchev.

The soul, alas, will not suffer happiness,

But he can redeem himself.

This poem to D. F. Tyutcheva would only win in dignity if it consisted of just the above couplet.

I am not going to argue with anyone about this and I am ready to agree with all objections in advance. I myself would be very glad if Levin hunted for another whole printed sheet, and if Chekhov's Yegorushka also rode across the steppe for another whole printed sheet. I just want to say that this is my present mood. Much of what is placed here, I long years I was going to “develop”, furnish with psychology, descriptions of nature, everyday details, disperse the sheet into three, four, or even a whole novel. And now I see that all this was completely unnecessary, that, on the contrary, it is necessary to compress, squeeze, respect both the reader's attention and time.

Here, by the way, there are many very short notes, sometimes only two or three lines. With regard to such notes, I have heard objections: “This is just from notebook". No, not “just” from a notebook at all. Notebooks are the material that a writer collects for his work. When we read the published notebooks of Leo Tolstoy or Chekhov, they are most interesting to us not in themselves, but precisely as the material, like bricks and cement, from which these huge artists built their wonderful buildings. But in these books there are a lot of things that are of independent artistic interest, which is valuable in addition to the names of the authors. And is it possible to devalue such records by indicating that they are “just from a notebook”?

If I find in my notebooks a valuable thought, an observation that is interesting to me, a bright stroke of human psychology, a witty or funny remark, is it really necessary to refuse to reproduce them only because they are expressed in ten or fifteen, or even in two? three lines, just because to an outsider’s eye it is “just from a notebook”? It seems to me that only conservatism speaks here.

It turns out: the daughter of a general, she graduated from the Pavlovsk Institute. She got married unhappily, parted ways, got along with the uhlan captain, went on a lot of revelry; then he gave her to another, gradually lower and lower, - she became a prostitute. For the last two or three years she lived with the murdered man, then they quarreled and parted ways. He took another.

This other one killed him.

skinny, with big eyes, about thirty. The name was Tatyana. Her story is like this.

A young girl served as a maid for wealthy merchants in Yaroslavl. She became pregnant by the owner's son. They gave her a fur coat, dresses, gave her a little money and sent her to Moscow. She gave birth to a child, gave it to an orphanage. She went to work in the laundry. I received fifty kopecks a day. She lived quietly and modestly. In three years I saved up seventy-five rubles.

Here she met the famous Khitrov's "cat" Ignat and fell in love with him passionately. Stocky but finely built, bronze-grey face, fiery eyes, black streaked mustache. In one week he blew all her money, her fur coat, her dresses. After that, out of her fifty-kopeck salary, she left five kopecks for herself for food, a dime for a rooming house for him and for herself. She gave the remaining thirty-five kopecks to him. So she lived with him for six months and was well happy for herself.

Suddenly he disappeared. At the market they told her: arrested for theft. She rushed to the station, sobbing, begging to be allowed to see him, broke through to the bailiff himself. The policemen put a punch on her neck and pushed her out.

After that, she has fatigue, a deep desire for peace, quiet life, your angle. And she went to the maintenance of the said old man.

Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev

Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich (1867/1945) - Russian Soviet writer, critic, laureate of the USSR State Prize in 1943. The real name of the writer is Smidovich. For fiction V. is characterized by a description of the searches and throwings of the intelligentsia in the transition from the 19th to the 20th centuries. ("Without a road", "Doctor's Notes"). In addition, Veresaev created philosophical and documentary works about a number of famous Russian writers (F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol).

Guryeva T.N. New literary dictionary / T.N. Guriev. - Rostov n / a, Phoenix, 2009, p. 47.

Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich ( real name Smidovich) - prose writer, translator, literary critic. Born in 1867 in Thule in the doctor's family. He graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University and the Medical Faculty of Dorpat University.

The first publication is the story "The Riddle" (1887). Under the influence of Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chekhov, the main theme of Veresaev's work was formed - the life and spiritual quest of the Russian intelligentsia.

Author of a number of stories (Without a Road, 1895, At the Turn, 1902, the dilogy Two Ends: The End of Andrei Ivanovich and The Honest Way, 1899–1903, To Life, 1908), collections of short stories and essays, novels "At the Dead End" and "Sisters", as well as the dilogy "Living Life" ("About Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy", 1909, "Apollo and Dionysus. About Nietzsche", 1914). The publication of the book Notes of a Doctor (1901), devoted to the problem of professional ethics, caused the greatest public outcry.

A special place in Veresaev's work is occupied by Biographical Chronicles dedicated to Pushkin (Pushkin in Life, 1925–1926, Pushkin's Companions, 1937) and Gogol (Gogol in Life, 1933). Known for translations of ancient Greek classics (Homer, Hesiod, Sappho).

In 1943 he was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Materials of the magazine "Roman-gazeta" No. 11, 2009 were used. Pushkin's pages .

Vikenty Veresaev. Reproduction from www.rusf.ru

Veresaev (real name - Smidovich) Vikenty Vikentievich (1867 - 1945), prose writer, literary critic, critic.

Born on January 4 (16 n.s.) in Tula in the family of a doctor who was very popular both as a doctor and as a public figure. There were eight children in this close-knit family.

Veresaev studied at the Tula classical gymnasium, teaching was easy, he was "the first student." Most of all he succeeded in ancient languages, read a lot. At the age of thirteen he began to write poetry. In 1884, at the age of seventeen, he graduated from the gymnasium and entered St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of History and Philology, went through the history department. At that time, he enthusiastically participated in various student circles, "living in a tense atmosphere of the most acute social, economic and ethical issues."

In 1888 he completed the course as a candidate historical sciences and in the same year he entered the Medical Faculty of Derpt University, which shone with great scientific talents. For six years he was diligently engaged in medical science. During his student years he continued to write: first poetry, later - stories and novels. The first printed work was the poem "Meditation", a number of essays and stories were placed in the "World Illustration" and the books of the "Week" by P. Gaydeburov.

In 1894 he received a doctor's degree and practiced for several months in Tula under the guidance of his father, then went to St. Petersburg and entered the barach hospital as a supernumerary intern. In the fall, he finishes the long story "Without a Road", published in "Russian Wealth", where he was offered permanent cooperation. Veresaev joined the literary circle of Marxists (Struve, Maslov, Kalmykova, and others), maintained close relations with workers and revolutionary youth. In 1901 he was fired from the Barachnaya Hospital on the orders of the mayor and expelled from St. Petersburg. Lived in Tula for two years. When the expulsion period ended, he moved to Moscow.

Vikenty Veresaev. Photo from www.veresaev.net.ru

Great fame to Veresaev brought created on autobiographical material "Doctor's Notes" (1901).

When the war with Japan began in 1904, Veresaev, as a reserve doctor, was called to military service. Returning from the war in 1906, he described his impressions in "Stories about the War".

In 1911, on the initiative of Veresaev, the “Book Publishing House of Writers in Moscow” was created, which he headed until 1918. During these years, he performed literary and critical studies (“Living Life” is devoted to the analysis of the work of F. Dostoevsky and L. Tolstoy). In 1917 he was chairman of the Artistic Education Commission under the Moscow Soviet of Workers' Deputies.

Vikenty Veresaev. Reproduction from www.veresaev.net.ru

In September 1918 he leaves for the Crimea, intending to live there for three months, but is forced to stay in the village of Koktebel, near Feodosia, for three years. During this time, Crimea changed hands several times, the writer had to endure a lot of hardships. In 1921 he returned to Moscow. Completes the cycle of works about the intelligentsia: the novels "At the Dead End" (1922) and "Sisters" (1933). He published a number of books compiled from documentary, memoir sources (Pushkin in Life, 1926-27; Gogol in Life, 1933; Pushkin's Companions, 1934-36). In 1940, his "Unfictional stories about the past" appeared. In 1943 Veresaev was awarded State Prize. Veresaev died in Moscow on June 3, 1945.

Used materials of the book: Russian writers and poets. Brief biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.

Vikenty Veresaev. Photo from www.veresaev.net.ru

Veresaev (real name Smidovich) Vikenty Vikentievich - writer, poet-translator, literary critic.

Born in the family of a doctor. His parents, Vikenty Ignatievich and Elizaveta Pavlovna Smidovichi, great importance attached to the religious and moral education of children, the formation in them of a sense of responsibility to people and themselves. Even during the years of study at the Tula classical gymnasium, Veresaev was seriously interested in history, philosophy, physiology, and showed a keen interest in Christianity and Buddhism.

After graduating from high school with a silver medal, Veresaev in 1884 entered the philological faculty of St. Petersburg University (historical department). Veresaev's first appearance in print dates back to 1885, when he (under the pseudonym V. Vikentiev) published the poem "Meditation" in the magazine Fashion Light and Fashion Store. Veresaev invariably considered the story “The Riddle” (1887) to be the beginning of his real literary work, in which the theme of overcoming loneliness, the birth of courage, the will to live and fight in him is touched upon. “Let there be no hope, we will win back hope itself!” - such is the leitmotif of the story.

After successfully completing his studies at the Faculty of Philology, Veresaev in 1888 entered the Derpt (now Tartu) University at the Faculty of Medicine. In his autobiography, he explained this decision as follows: “My dream was to become a writer, and for this it seemed necessary to know the biological side of man, his physiology and pathology; in addition, the specialty of a doctor made it possible to closely converge with people of the most diverse strata and ways. In Dorpat, the stories "Impulse" (1889), "Comrades" (1892) were written.

The most significant work of this period is the story "Without a Road" (1894), which V., according to him, entered the "great" literature. The hero of the story, zemsky doctor Chekanov, expresses the thoughts and moods of that generation of intellectuals, who, as Veresaev believed at that time, “have nothing”: “Without a road, without guiding star, it perishes invisibly and irrevocably... Timelessness crushed everyone, and desperate attempts to break out from under its power are in vain. One of the defining thoughts in the story should be considered the idea of ​​the hero and the author himself about the “chasm” separating the people and the intelligentsia: “We have always been alien and far away from them, nothing connected them with us. For them, we were people of another world...” The story's finale is nevertheless ambiguous. Chekanov, a victim of the era of "timelessness", inevitably dies, having exhausted all his spiritual potential, having tried all the "recipes". But he dies with a call to the new generation to "work hard and hard", "seek the way". Despite some schematism of the narrative, the work aroused wide interest among readers and critics.

After graduating from Dorpat University in 1894, Veresaev came to Tula, where he was engaged in private medical practice. In the same year, he went to St. Petersburg and became an intern at the Botkin Hospital. At this time, Veresaev begins to take a serious interest in Marxist ideas, gets acquainted with Marxists.

In 1897, he wrote the story The Pestilence, which is based on a tense dispute-dialogue between young Marxists (Natasha Chekanova, Daev) and representatives of the populist intelligentsia (Kiselev, Dr. Troitsky). The thesis of “historical necessity”, which should not only be obeyed, but also promoted, Dr. Troitsky counters with the idea that “you can’t chase after some abstract historical tasks when there are so many pressing matters around”, “life is more complicated than any schemes” .

Following the "Freak" Veresaev creates a series of stories about the village ("Lizar", "In the dry fog", "In the steppe", "To hurry", etc.). Veresaev does not confine himself to describing the plight of the peasants, he wants to truly capture their thoughts, morals, and characters. The ugliness of poverty does not obscure or cancel his ideal of the natural and the human. In the story “Lizar” (1899), which was especially noted by Chekhov, the social theme of “reduction of a person” (poor Lizar regrets the “overabundance” of people on a piece of land and stands up for “cleansing the people”, then “it will become freer to live”) is intertwined with the motives of the eternal triumph of natural life (“To live, to live, to live wide, full life, not to be afraid of her, not to break and not to deny yourself - this was that great mystery which nature revealed so joyfully and powerfully”). In the manner of narration, Veresaev's stories about the village are close to the essays and stories of G. Uspensky (especially from the book "The Power of the Earth"). Veresaev noted more than once that G. Uspensky was his favorite Russian writer.

In 1900, Veresaev completed one of his most famous works, which he had been working on since 1892, “Doctor's Notes”. Based on your personal experience and the experience of his colleagues, Veresaev stated with alarm: “People do not have even the remotest idea either about the life of their body, or about the forces and means of medical science. This is the source of most misunderstandings, this is the reason for both blind faith in the omnipotence of medicine and blind disbelief in it. And both equally make themselves felt with very grave consequences. One of the critics, who called the book “a statement about the wonderful anxiety of the Russian conscience,” testified: “The human anthill was all stirred up and agitated before the confession of a young doctor who<...>betrayed professional secrecy and brought to the light of God both the instruments of struggle, and the psyche of the doctor, and all the contradictions that he himself was exhausted in front of. This confession reflected all the main features of Veresaev's work: observation, restless mind, sincerity, independence of judgment. The merit of the writer was the fact that many of the issues that the hero of the Notes is struggling with are considered by him not only in purely medical, but also in ethical, socio-philosophical terms. All this made the book a huge success. The form of "Doctor's Notes" is an organic combination of fiction and journalism elements.

Veresaev seeks to expand the scope of artistic reflection of life. So, he writes the acutely social story "Two Ends" (1899-03) consisting of two parts. In the image of the craftsman Kolosov (“The End of Andrei Ivanovich”), Veresaev wanted to show a worker-craftsman, in the depths of whose soul “there was something noble and broad, pulling him into the open space from a cramped life.” But all the good impulses of the hero are in no way consistent with the gloomy reality, and he, exhausted by hopeless contradictions, dies.

The story "On the bend" (1901) was another attempt Veresaev to comprehend Russian revolutionary movement. Here, again, the opinions of those who find the revolutionary path found seems bookish, far-fetched (Tokarev, Varvara Vasilievna), and those who recklessly believe in revolution (Tanya, Sergey, Borisoglebsky) clash again. The position of the writer himself on the eve of the first Russian revolution was characterized by doubts that people were ripe for an "explosive" reorganization of society; it seemed to him that a person is still very imperfect, the biological principle is too strong in him.

In the summer of 1904, Veresaev was drafted into the army as a doctor and until 1906 was in Manchuria, on the fields of the Russian-Japanese war. He reflected his thoughts, impressions, experiences associated with these events in the cycle "Stories about the Japanese War" (1904-06), as well as in a book written in the genre of notes - "At War" (1906-07). These were a kind of "doctor's notes", in which V. captured all the horror and suffering of the war. Everything described led to the idea that the absurdities of the social structure had reached alarming proportions. V. more and more reflects on the real ways of transforming reality and man. The result of these reflections was the story "To Life" (1908), in which Versaev's concept of "living life" found its initial embodiment. V. explained the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe story this way: “In a long search for the meaning of life, at that time I finally came to firm, independent, not bookish conclusions,<...>who gave their own<...>knowledge - what is life and what is its "meaning". I wanted to put all my findings into the story...” The hero of the story, Cherdyntsev, is absorbed in the search for the meaning of life for all people. He wants to understand how the joy and fullness of human existence depend on external conditions and circumstances. Having traveled a long path of experience, searches, doubts, Cherdyntsev acquires a firm belief: the meaning of life lies in life itself, in the very natural course of being (“All life was entirely one continuously unfolding goal, running away into the sunny clear distance”). The abnormal structure of society often deprives a person's life of this original meaning, but it exists, you need to be able to feel it and keep it in yourself. V. was struck by “how people are able to cripple living human life with their norms and schemes” (“Records for Myself”).

The main themes and motives of the story were developed in a philosophical and critical study, which Veresaev gave the program name - "Living Life". The first part is devoted to the work of L. Tolstoy and F. Dostoevsky (1910), the second - "Apollo and Dionysus" - mainly to the analysis of the ideas of F. Nietzsche (1914). Veresaev opposes Tolstoy to Dostoevsky, recognizing, however, the truth behind both artists. For Dostoevsky, Veresaev believes, a person is “a receptacle for all the most painful deviations of the life instinct”, and life is “a chaotic pile of fragments that are disconnected, not interconnected by anything.” In Tolstoy, on the contrary, he sees a healthy, bright beginning, the triumph of "living life", which "represents the highest value, full of mysterious depths." The book is of undoubted interest, but it must be borne in mind that V. sometimes “customizes” the ideas and images of writers to fit his concept.

Veresaev perceived the events of 1917 ambiguously. On the one hand, he saw the force that awakened the people, and on the other, the elements, the "explosion" of the latent dark principles in the masses. Nevertheless, Veresaev is quite actively cooperating with new government: he becomes the chairman of the artistic and educational commission under the Council of Workers' Deputies in Moscow, since 1921 he has been working in the literary subsection of the State Academic Council of the People's Commissariat for Education, and is also the editor of the art department of the Krasnaya Nov magazine. Soon he was elected chairman of the All-Russian Union of Writers. The main creative work of those years was the novel At a Dead End (1920-23), one of the first works about the fate of the Russian intelligentsia during the Civil War. The writer was worried about the theme of the collapse of traditional humanism in the novel. He realized the inevitability of this crash, but he could not accept it.

After this novel, Veresaev moved away from the present for some time.

In May 1925, in a letter to M. Gorky, he said: "I waved my hand and started studying Pushkin, writing memoirs - the most old man's business."

In 1926, Veresaev published a 2-volume edition of Pushkin in Life, which provides rich material for studying the poet's biography. This is a collection of biographical realities gleaned from various documents, letters, memoirs.

In the early 1930s, at the suggestion of M. Bulgakov, he began to work together on a play about Pushkin; later he left this work due to creative differences with M. Bulgakov. Veresaev's further work resulted in the books Gogol in Life (1933), Pushkin's Companions (1937).

In 1929 the Homeric Hymns, collections of translations (Homer, Hesiod, Alcaeus, Anacreon, Plato, and others) were published. For these translations, Veresaev was awarded the Pushkin Prize by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In 1928-31, Veresaev worked on the novel Sisters, in which he sought to show the real everyday life of young intellectuals and workers in the era of the first five-year plan. One of the essential regularities of that time, the heroine of the novel, Lelka Ratnikova, formulated for herself as follows: “... there is some kind of general law here: whoever lives deeply and strongly in public work simply has no time to work on himself in the field of personal morality, and here everything is very confusing for him ... ”The novel, however, turned out to be somewhat schematic: Veresaev mastered the new reality more ideologically than artistically.

In 1937, Veresaev began a huge job of translating Homer's Iliad and Odyssey (more than 28,000 verses), which he completed in four and a half years. The translation, close to the spirit and language of the original, was recognized by connoisseurs as a serious achievement of the author. Translations were published after the death of the writer: "Iliad" - in 1949, and "Odyssey" - in 1953.

In the last years of his life, Veresaev created mainly works of memoir genres: “Non-fictional stories”, “Memories” (about childhood and student years, about meetings with L. Tolstoy, Chekhov, Korolenko, L. Andreev, etc.), “Records for myself "(According to the author, this is "something like a notebook, which includes aphorisms, excerpts from memoirs, various notes interesting episodes"). They clearly manifested that “connection with life”, to which Veresaev always gravitated in his work. In the preface to “Unfictional stories about the past,” he wrote: “Every year, novels, stories become less and less interesting to me, and more and more interesting - living stories about a really former ...” Veresaev became one of the founders of the genre of “non-fictional” stories-miniatures in Soviet prose.

Stubbornly seeking the truth in matters that worried him, Veresaev, completing his creative way, could rightly say about himself: "Yes, I have a claim to this - to be considered an honest writer."

V.N. Bystrov

Used materials of the book: Russian literature of the XX century. Prose writers, poets, playwrights. Biobibliographic dictionary. Volume 1. p. 365-368.

Read further:

Russian writers and poets (biographical guide).

Pushkin's pages. "Roman-gazeta" No. 11, 2009.

Compositions:

PSS: in 12 t. M., 1928-29;

SS: in 5 t. M., 1961;

Works: in 2 vols. M., 1982;

Pushkin in life. M., 1925-26;

Pushkin's Companions. M., 1937;

Gogol in life. M, 1933; 1990;

Uninvented stories. M., 1968;

At a dead end. Sisters. M., 1990.

Literature:

Vrzhosek S. Life and work of VV Veresaev. P., 1930;

Silenko A.F. VV Veresaev: Critical and biographical essay. Tula, 1956;

Geyser I.M.V. Veresaev: Writer-physician. M., 1957;

Vrovman G.V. VV Veresaev: life and work. M., 1959;

Babushkin Yu.V.V.Veresaev. M., 1966;

Nolde V.M. Veresaev: life and work. Tula, 1986.

Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev (real name - Smidovich). Born January 4 (16), 1867, Tula - died June 3, 1945, Moscow. Russian and Soviet writer, translator, literary critic. Laureate of the last Pushkin Prize (1919), Stalin Prize of the first degree (1943).

Father - Vikenty Ignatievich Smidovich (1835-1894), a nobleman, was a doctor, founder of the Tula city hospital and sanitary commission, one of the founders of the Tula Doctors' Society. Mother organized the first kindergarten in Tula in her house.

Vikenty Veresaev's second cousin was Pyotr Smidovich, and Veresaev himself is a distant relative of Natalya Fedorovna Vasilyeva, the mother of Lieutenant General V.E. Vasilyev.

He graduated from the Tula classical gymnasium (1884) and entered the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University, from which he graduated in 1888.

In 1894 he graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Derpt and began medical activity in Tula. Soon he moved to St. Petersburg, where in 1896-1901 he worked as an intern and head of the library in the City Hospital in memory of S. P. Botkin, and in 1903 he settled in Moscow.

Vikenty Veresaev became interested in literature and began to write in his gymnasium years. The beginning of Veresaev's literary activity should be considered the end of 1885, when he places the poem "Meditation" in the Fashion Magazine. For this first publication, Veresaev chose the pseudonym "V. Vikentiev. He chose the pseudonym "Veresaev" in 1892, signing his essays « Underworld» (1892), dedicated to the work and life of Donetsk miners.

The writer developed on the verge of two eras: he began to write when the ideals of populism collapsed and lost their charming power, and the Marxist worldview began to be stubbornly introduced into life, when bourgeois-urban culture was opposed to the noble-peasant culture, when the city was opposed to the countryside, and workers to the peasantry.

In his autobiography, Veresaev writes: “New people have come, cheerful and believing. Rejecting their hopes for the peasantry, they pointed to the rapidly growing and organizing force in the form of the factory worker, and welcomed capitalism, which created the conditions for the development of this new force. Underground work was in full swing, agitation was going on in factories and plants, workshops were held with workers, questions of tactics were vividly debated ... Many who were not convinced by theory were convinced by practice, including me ... In the winter of 1885, the famous Morozov weavers' strike broke out , which struck everyone with its multiplicity, consistency and organization ".

The work of the writer of this time is a transition from the 1880s to the 1900s, from proximity to social optimism to what he later expressed in " untimely thoughts» .

In the years of disappointment and pessimism, he joins the literary circle of legal Marxists (P. B. Struve, M. I. Tugan-Baranovsky, P. P. Maslov, Nevedomsky, Kalmykova and others), enters the literary circle "Sreda" and collaborates in magazines : "New word", "Beginning", "Life".

The story was written in 1894 "No Road". The author gives a picture of the painful and passionate search by the young generation (Natasha) for the meaning and ways of life, turns to the older generation (doctor Chekanov) for the resolution of “damned questions” and waits for a clear, firm answer, and Chekanov throws Natasha words as heavy as stones: “ After all, I have nothing. Why do I need an honest and proud outlook on the world, what does it give me? It has been dead for a long time." Chekanov does not want to admit “that he is lifelessly mute and cold; however, he is not able to deceive himself ”and dies.

During the 1890s, events took place: Marxist circles were created, P. B. Struve’s “Critical Notes on the Economic Development of Russia” appeared, G. V. Plekhanov’s book “On the Development of a Monistic View of History” was published, the well-known strike of weavers broke out in Petersburg, the Marxist New Word comes out, then Nachalo and Zhizn.

In 1897, Veresaev published the story "Fad". Natasha is no longer languishing with “restless quests”, “she has found a way and believes in life”, “she exudes cheerfulness, energy, happiness”. The story sketches a period when the youth in their circles pounced on the study of Marxism and went with the propaganda of the ideas of social democracy to the working masses, to factories and factories.

All-Russian fame came to Veresaev after the publication in 1901 in the journal "The World of God" of the work "Doctor's Notes"- a biographical story about human experiments and a young doctor's encounter with their monstrous reality.

“A doctor - if he is a doctor, and not an official of the medical profession - must first of all fight for the elimination of those conditions that make his activity meaningless and fruitless, he must be public figure in the broadest sense of the word", the writer notes.

Then in 1903-1927 there were 11 editions. The work, which condemned medical experiments on people, also showed the moral position of the writer, who opposed any experiments on people, including social experiments, no matter who conducted them - bureaucrats or revolutionaries. The resonance was so strong that the emperor himself ordered to take action and stop medical experiments on people.

It is no coincidence that the writer received the Stalin Prize for this work in 1943, at the height of the struggle against the monstrous experiments of the Nazis. But worldwide fame this work received only in 1972. Indeed, over the years, the relevance of Veresaev’s position has increased, if we keep in mind those Scientific research and those new technologies that in one way or another affect human health, well-being, dignity, and security. Such research in our time is carried out far beyond the scope of proper medical and biomedical science. In a polemic with opponents, Veresaev showed the wretchedness of supporters of the right of the strong to experiment allegedly "in the interests of the public good" over "useless members of society", "old money-lenders", "idiots" and "backward and socially alien elements."

By the beginning of the century, a struggle was unfolding between revolutionary and legal Marxism, between orthodox and revisionists, between "politicians" and "economists". In December 1900 Iskra began to appear. It turns out "Liberation" - the organ of the liberal opposition. The society is carried away by the individualistic philosophy of F. Nietzsche, part of it is read out by the Kadet-idealist collection "Problems of Idealism".

These processes were reflected in the story "On the Turn", published at the end of 1902. The heroine Varvara Vasilievna does not put up with the slow and spontaneous rise of the working-class movement, this irritates her, although she is aware: "I am nothing if I do not want to recognize this spontaneous and its spontaneity."

Closer to 1905, society and literature were seized by revolutionary romanticism and the song "to the madness of the brave" sounded; Veresaev was not carried away by the "elevating deceit", he was not afraid of the "darkness of low truths." In the name of life, he cherishes the truth and, without any romanticism, draws the paths and paths along which the various strata of society went.

In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, he is called up for military service as a military doctor, and he goes to the fields of distant Manchuria.

The Russo-Japanese War and 1905 are reflected in the notes "In the Japanese War". After the revolution of 1905, a reassessment of values ​​began. Many of the intelligentsia withdrew disappointedly from revolutionary work. Extreme individualism, pessimism, mysticism and churchliness, eroticism colored these years.

In 1908, during the days of the triumph of Sanin and Peredonov, the story "To life". Cherdyntsev, a prominent and active social democrat, at the moment of collapse, having lost the value and meaning of human existence, suffers and seeks consolation in sensual pleasure, but all in vain. Inner confusion passes only in communion with nature and in connection with the workers. Delivered hot topic of those years about the relationship between the intelligentsia and the masses, the "I" and humanity in general.

In 1910 he made a trip to Greece, which led to a passion for ancient Greek literature throughout his later life.

To the first world war served as a military doctor. Post-revolutionary time spent in the Crimea.

During the first years after the revolution of 1917, Veresaev's works were published: “In his youth” (Memoirs); "Pushkin in life"; translations from ancient Greek: "Homeric hymns".

From 1921 he lived in Moscow.

The novel was published in 1922 "At a dead end", which shows the Sartanov family. Ivan Ivanovich, a scientist, a democrat, does not understand anything at all in the unfolding historical drama; his daughter Katya, a Menshevik, does not know what to do. Both are on the same side of the barricade. Another daughter, Vera, and nephew Leonid are communists, they are on the other side. Tragedy, clashes, disputes, helplessness, impasse.

In 1928-1929 he published in 12 volumes complete collection his writings and translations. Volume 10 includes translations from ancient Greek by Hellenic poets (excluding Homer), including Hesiod's Works and Days and Theogony, which have been repeatedly reprinted.

According to the manner of writing, Veresaev is a realist. What is especially valuable in the writer's work is his deep truthfulness in the display of the environment, persons, as well as love for all who are rebelliously seeking permission " eternal questions from a position of love and truth. His heroes are given not so much in the process of struggle, work, but in search of ways of life.

Veresaev also writes about workers and peasants. In the story "The End of Andrei Ivanovich", in essay "On the Dead Road" and in a number of other works the writer depicts a worker.

The essay "Lizar" depicts the power of money over the countryside. A few more essays are devoted to the village.

Of great interest is the work on F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy and Nietzsche, entitled "Living Life" (two parts). This is a theoretical justification for the story “To Life” - here the author, together with Tolstoy, preaches: “The life of mankind is not a dark hole from which it will get out in the distant future. This is a bright, sunny road, rising higher and higher to the source of life, light and integral communication with the world!..” “Not away from life, but into life, into its very depths, into its very depths.” Unity with the whole, connection with the world and people, love - this is the basis of life.

In 1941 he was evacuated to Tbilisi.

Died in Moscow on June 3, 1945, buried on Novodevichy cemetery(section No. 2). After 13 years, a monument to the writer was erected in Tula.

Personal life of Vikenty Veresaev:

He was married to his second cousin, Maria Germogenovna Smidovich.

Veresaev described his relationship with his wife in the 1941 story "Eitimiya", which means "joyfulness".

The Veresaevs had no children.

Bibliography of Vikenty Veresaev:

Novels:

Dead End (1923)
Sisters (1933)

Dramas:

In the sacred forest (1918)
The Last Days (1935) in collaboration with M. A. Bulgakov

Tales:

No Road (1894)
Fad (1897)
Two Ends: The End of Andrei Ivanovich (1899), The End of Alexandra Mikhailovna (1903)
At the bend (1901)
On the Japanese War (1906-1907)
To Life (1908)
Isanka (1927)

Stories:

Enigma (1887-1895)
Rush (1889)
To hurry (1897)
Comrades (1892)
Lizar (1899)
Vanka (1900)
On the Bandstand (1900)
Mother (1902)
Star (1903)
Enemies (1905)
Contest (1919)
Dog Smile (1926)
Princess
Non-fictional stories about the past.

In 1913 Date of birth: January 16, 1867 Place of birth: Tula, Russian empire Date of death: June 3, 1945 Place of death: Moscow ... Wikipedia

- (real name Smidovich) (1867 1945), Russian writer. Graduated from the medical faculty of Dorpat University (1894). Tale about the quest of the democratic intelligentsia on turn of XIX XX centuries: "Without a road" (1895), "Doctor's Notes" (1901). ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Veresaev (pseudonym; real name Smidovich) Vikenty Vikentievich, Russian Soviet writer. Born in the family of a doctor. In 1888 he graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University, in ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

VERESAEV (real name Smidovich) Vikenty Vikentievich (1867 1945) Russian writer. Tales about the searches of the intelligentsia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: Without a road (1895), Notes of a doctor (1901). Critical philosophical works about F. M. Dostoevsky, L. A. Tolstoy ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (pseudonym; real name Smidovich) (1867, Tula 1945, Moscow), prose writer, publicist, poet translator. He studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University, in 1894 he graduated from the Medical Faculty of Dorpat University ... Moscow (encyclopedia)

Veresaev, Vikenty Vikentievich- V.V. Veresaev. Portrait by S.A. Malyutin. VERESAEV (real name Smidovich) Vikenty Vikentievich (1867-1945), Russian writer. Tells about the search for the intelligentsia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: “Without a Road” (1895), “Notes of a Doctor” (1901). ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

VERESAEV Vikenty Vikentievich- VERESAEV (real name Smidovich) Vikenty Vikentievich (18671945), Russian Soviet writer. Pov. "Without a Road" (1895), "Fad" (1898), "At the Turn" (1902), "Two Ends" (part 12, 18991903), "To Life" (1909). Rum. "In a dead end" ... ... Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (real name Smidovich; 1867–1945) - Russian. writer. Genus. in the doctor's family. In 1888, a graduate of ist. - philologist. fta Petersburg. un that, in 1894 - honey. fta Derpt University. Published since 1885. Own ps. searched for a long time; on fam. "Veresaev" came across in one ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Nicknames

- (Smidovich). Genus. 1867, mind. 1945. Writer, author of the stories "Without a Road" (1895), "Doctor's Notes" (1901), critic philosophical works about Russian writers (about L. N. Tolstoy and others), documentary books about Pushkin ("Pushkin in ... Big biographical encyclopedia

Portrait by S. A. Malyutin. 1913 Literary Museum. Moscow … Collier Encyclopedia

Books

• Pushkin in life. Book Two, Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev. Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev (1867-1945) famous Russian Soviet writer. His works are like chapters in the history of the revolutionary struggle in Russia at the end XIX beginning XX century, the pages of the chronicle ...
• Pushkin in the memoirs of contemporaries of friends, enemies, acquaintances, Veresaev Vikenty Vikentievich. The book is compiled from authentic documents from the testimonies of contemporaries of A. S. Pushkin. These are memoirs, letters, literary notes, individual statements of people who knew the poet closely, his ...