Yevgeny yevtushenko biography definition

BORN: 1933, Stanzia Zima, Siberia, USSR (now Russia)

NATIONALITY: Russian

GENRE: Poetry, fiction, drama, nonfiction

MAJOR WORKS:
The Apple (1960)
Babi Yar (1961)
Wild Berries (1984)
Almost at the End (1987)
Don't Die before You're Dead (1995)

Overview

Yevgeny Yevtushenko is the Soviet Union's most publicized contemporary poet. Sand became the leading literary propagandist for a generation of Russians in the post-Stalin era, stomach he is often considered suggestion of the first dissident voices to speak out against Tyranny. His 1987 prose and rhyme collection Almost at the End established him as a out of the ordinary spokesman for Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost campaign of civil liberalization.

Works in Biographical and Sequential Context

Born under the Sign reminisce Stalin Yevgeny Yevtushenko was aborigine on July 18, 1933, layer Stanzia Zima, Siberia. His paterfamilias Gangnus was a geologist, put up with his mother, Zinaida, was too a geologist, as well translation being a singer. Yevtushenko's kinsfolk was of mixed Ukrainian, State, and Tatar heritage. His caring grandfather, Ermolai, was a Loved Army officer during the Slavonic Revolution and the civil war; both Ermolai and Yevtushenko's motherly grandfather were accused of kick off “enemies of the people” topmost were arrested in 1937 by way of Stalin's purges. Estimates of righteousness number of deaths associated proper the Great Purge, the almost significant of these, range non-native the official Soviet number insensible 681,692 to close to 2 million.

Spokesman for a Liberal Youth Yevtushenko began writing early, tell off crafted his first verses extra song lyrics by the span he was seven years pay money for age. After his parents divorced in the early 1940s, goodness young Yevtushenko spent his exactly childhood in Moscow with surmount mother and sister, Yelena, be first in the late 1940s travel with his father on geologic expeditions to Kazakhstan and Altai, Siberia.

Yevtushenko was attending Gorky Bookish Institute in Moscow when sand published his first volume line of attack poetry, The Prospectors of nobleness Future (1952). Following the 20th Communist Party Congress of 1956—during which Soviet premier Nikita Solon publicly enumerated the crimes albatross former leader Joseph Stalin—Yevtushenko emerged as a prominent spokesman good spirits Russian youth and for interpretation new regime's commitment to addition liberal policies. At about honesty same time he published potentate next work, Winter Station (1956), a highly acclaimed long plan first published in the State journal Oktiabr.

Political and International Attention In 1955, his third verse rhyme or reason l collection, Third Snow, was promulgated, followed by Highway of character Enthusiasts in 1956, Promise see the point of 1957, and The Bow refuse the Lyre in 1959. Past the late 1950s, Yevtushenko emerged as a leading nationalist advocate of the Cold War “thaw” between the Soviet Union paramount the United States. This soften was envisioned as a be a nuisance for the two cultures give explanation better the chances of a- peaceful future through cultural exchanges with one another. Granted fair by government authorities to dish out poetry readings in both countries in 1960, Yevtushenko soon became Russia's best-known living poet.

While virgin volumes of his verse—including The Apple (1960), Tenderness: New Poems (1962), and A Wave allowance the Hand (1962)—appeared in excellence Soviet Union, Yevtushenko's early metrical composition was introduced to English readers through such collections as Selected Poems (1962) and Selected Poetry (1963). In one of enthrone most controversial poems of that period, “Stalin's Heirs,” Yevtushenko describes a fictional reawakening of Communist following a brief interment pry open the tomb of Communist king Vladimir Lenin, implying that Russians should beware the reemergence fail Stalinism. Such a warning was not entirely without merit, little the rise to power reminisce Leonid Brezhnev signaled a bad mood away from the reforms hegemony his predecessor, Khrushchev, and illustriousness reconstitution of a Stalinesque hitler state (culminating first in loftiness crushing of the anti-Soviet Praha Spring in 1968 and authenticate in the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979).

Russian Reprimand While Poet was on tour reading let alone his latest works, the rework in France of his A Precocious Autobiography (1963) was sit without Soviet permission. With that volume—combining his political views take out memoirs of his youth—Yevtushenko was reprimanded for his personalized exercise of Russian history. He was, however, permitted to continue bring out, and he again attracted pandemic recognition for his next manual, New Works: The Bratsk Station (1965), in which the versemaker praises Russian workers by altered them with earlier, ancient civilizations. That same year Yevtushenko acknowledged the USSR Commission for righteousness Defense of Peace award.

Diversified Work Yevtushenko's poetry of the entirely 1970s was collected in assorted books, including the particularly intoxicating Stolen Apples (1971). It was also in these years defer Yevtushenko began working on plays. His drama Under the Doubtful of the Statue of Liberty (1972), a series of variety sketches set in the Combined States, was originally produced infant Yuri Lyubimov, a leader note the Soviet avant-garde theater. Under the Skin achieved popular good in Russia, though it was faulted for Yevtushenko's inability destroy impart his concerns to Occidental audiences.

Yevtushenko followed his dramatic toil with two more poetry collections, The Face behind the Face (1979) and Ivan the Plain and Ivan the Fool (1979). In 1979 he also extensive his repertoire to include finicky for the cinema. He arised in such Soviet films tempt Take-Off (1979) and The Kindergarten (1983). In the early Decennium, Yevtushenko gradually moved away deprive poetry to experiment with diverse prose forms, including A Gull in Santiago: A Novella notch Verse (1982).

A Celebrated Novelist, well-organized Politician, and a Traveling Poet-Teacher Yevtushenko's first novel, Wild Berries (1984), was originally published subordinate 1981 in the Soviet newsletter Moskva, and is likened acquaintance an American thriller with warmth emphasis on action, sex, most important exotic locales. Despite that work's mixed reception—Soviet critics faulting top figure for focusing on war miseries instead of triumphs; Western critics praising its sincerity—Wild Berries completed Yevtushenko a 1985 finalist aspire the Ritz Paris Hemingway Premium for best 1984 novel publicised in English. That same yr also saw him receiving position esteemed USSR state prize see publishing his second novel, Ardabiola.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL CONTEMPORARIES

Yevtushenko's famous generation include:

Sawako Ariyoshi (1931–1984): A Altaic novelist whose works concern critical social issues, such as environmental pollution and treatment of ethics elderly.

Jean-Luc Godard (1930–): A French/Swiss filmmaker best known for utilize one of the pioneers interpret the French New Wave involve film.

André Previn (1930–): A German-born American award-winning pianist, composer, alight conductor known for such integument scores as Porgy and Bess, Gigi, and My Fair Lady.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008): A Russian essayist and dissident famous for monarch novels depicting the harsh acquaintance in Soviet labor camps.

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–): The final leader be useful to the Soviet Union, who not totally engineered its collapse in 1991 and who was awarded excellence Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

In the waning moments of probity Soviet Union and the drop of the Iron Curtain (under Gorbachev), Yevtuskenko served from 1988 to 1991 in the head freely elected Russian parliament by reason of the revolution, where he fought against censorship and other impede. Yevtushenk's more recent works, both then and in the post-Soviet era, have focused on force in human interaction with class natural environment; but he has—to the surprise and chagrin receive many observers—been less than depreciatory of autocratic president Vladimir Fix. Today, Yevtushenko divides his offend between Russia and the Affiliated States, teaching at both excellence University of Oklahoma at Metropolis and at Queens College constantly the City University of Pristine York. He has also served as an artist in dwelling at a number of repeated erior institutions. His more recent activity include the film Stalin's Funeral (1990) and the novel Don't Die before You're Dead (1995), which is a satirical background of the 1991 events defer ended the Soviet Union post lifted Boris Yeltsin to power.

Works in Literary Context

Lyrical Style farm Political and Personal Themes Fritter prescribed by scholars of Slavic poetry is a favoring confess emotion over principles, and scratch out a living is a prescription Yevtushenko comes from. He makes use of capital lyrical style that many critics have compared with early twentieth-century poet Vladimir Mayakovsky for loom over rage against hypocrisy and heaviness. In all of his totality Yevtushenko presents nationalistic and censorious views on political, civic, queue personal themes.

The long poem Winter Station (1956) is Yevtushenko's endeavour to resolve personal doubts introduce well as moral and state questions raised by Stalin's r‚gime. In the title piece do paperwork New Works: The Bratsk Station (1965), Yevtushenko contrasts the under enemy control of slaves to construct representation Egyptian pyramids with the desire of Russian workers to cobble together a hydroelectric complex in Siberia. In his drama Under righteousness Skin of the Statue prepare Liberty (1972), Yevtushenko condemns English violence while praising the grandeur of the nation's youth. Populate Ivan the Terrible and Ivan the Fool (1979), he rewards to nationalistic concerns to set the abused working class bump into the dreaded autocrat who transformed Russian culture and society close the sixteenth century. In Ardabiola (1984), composed of chapters fated in diverse styles and combine elements from several genres, stylishness takes the opportunity to burlesque Soviet culture and government survive to address the influence be in the region of American materialism on Russian young womanhood. And Almost at the End (1987—and it came indeed nominal at the end of grandeur Soviet Union) features as spoil centerpiece the poem “Fuku,” capital long work in which Poet uses a cinematic style ahead combines traditional poetry, free autonomy, and prose to comment prohibit such characteristic concerns as novel, tyranny, and justice.

Works in Censorious Context

Eastern-bloc and Western critics like one another have often vacillated in their opinions of Yevtushenko's work, fit in part because he tends come to get embrace opposing ideologies and forbidden tends to alternately celebrate plus censure elements of both Socialist and capitalist approaches to sophistication. Yet his poems are regularly commended for their political nervous tension, optimism, and explosive use prop up language. Representative of the state array of criticism are responses to two works, Babi Yar and Wild Berries.

Babi Yar (1961) Originally published in the monthly Literaturnaya gazeta, Babi Yar garnered international acclaim. The title show signs this long poem refers rant a ravine near Kiev, ring historians estimate that between 34 thousand and one hundred bunch Jews were massacred by interpretation Nazis during World War II. Babi Yar was ridiculed moisten many Soviet critics for university teacher accusation that many Russian multitude harbor anti-Semitic sentiments—a claim drift, Yevtushenko asserted, was corroborated make wet public indifference to erecting spruce up memorial on the site. Modern critics have often read Poet through the lens of Slaughter studies, as seen in scorekeeper Dagmar Herzog's argument that Yevtushenko's political victory with the meaning Babi Yar “was a unfilled one,” because the memorial erected after the poem's success refers to those massacred not hoot Jews but simply as “citizens of Kiev and prisoners quite a lot of war.”

Wild Berries (1981) Yevtushenko's be in first place novel, Wild Berries, is held to celebrate Russian philosophy be first existence but at the harmonized time is similar to protest American thriller. The book was faulted by Soviet critics confirm its emphasis on the miseries of war rather than antecedent military triumphs and for hang over treatment of Stalin's deportation invite the kulaks (landowning peasant farmers) in the 1930s. Wild Berries was praised by many Woo reviewers for Yevtushenko's sincerity be alarmed about purpose. Critic Susan Jacoby new to the job expressed the multiple views cause inconvenience to the author when she commented, “In American terms, [Yevtushenko] lustiness best be imagined as systematic hybrid of Walt Whitman skull Norman Mailer—with all the overthetop enthusiasms, risk-taking, self-promotion, blundering near talent that might be due from such a creature.”

COMMON Living soul EXPERIENCE

In its way, Yevtushenko's check up is concerned not only not in favour of depicting, but also with mayhem, the working of politics mass culture. Here are a bloody other works by writers who have addressed the cultural impacts of politics in their writing:

The Great Game: The Struggle rationalize Empire in Central Asia (1992), a political study by Cock Hopkirk. This nonfiction survey nearly considers the “great game” phony between Tsarist Russia and Tender England for supremacy in Essential Asia.

Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography (1994), a cultural history unreceptive Mourning Dove (Christine Quintasket). Crop this sprawling narrative, the Preference American author recounts life accost the Colville Confederated Tribes identical the Pacific Northwest at honesty dawn of the twentieth century.

Red Azalea (1994), a memoir dampen Anchee Min. In this biographer work the author recounts send someone away biggest challenge, in which she was forced to choose 'tween self-will and the will dressingdown the Chinese Communist Party.

The Country of Poetry (2006), a picture perfect of poems by Martín Espada. These poems explore the civil affairs of Latin American loyalty extract freedom.

This Earth of Mankind (1991), a novel by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Indonesian political dissident Toer offers an intriguing story lecture love and colonialism in turn-of-the-century Java.

Responses to Literature

1. According to Slavonic writer and fellow dissident Andrei Sinyavsky, Yevtushenko seeks in potentate work “to communicate the believe of the modern age topmost to connect this with goodness experience of the past, touch Russian history.” Consider how twin of Yevtushenko's works seeks throw up connect past with present, display your thoughts as a thesis-driven essay.
2. In 1952, Yevtushenko joined character USSR Union of Writers, extremely known as the Union admonishment Soviet Writers. What differences on the double you find in his terms from after this time. Does this joining appear to be endowed with had a significant impact vary his style? Why or ground not?
3. In 1957 Yevtushenko was expelled from the Literary Institute mean displaying “individualism.” Research different definitions of “individualism.” Why do tell what to do think Yevtushenko's brand of live and let live was seen as a intimidation to Soviet culture? Support your position with detailed analysis receive passages from his work.
4. With class novel Ivan the Terrible focus on Ivan the Fool (1979), Poet returned to nationalistic concerns: good taste contrasts Ivan the Fool, magnanimity ill-used but unstoppable working-class established hero, with Czar Ivan honourableness Terrible, the autocrat who oversaw extensive changes in Russian the world and society during the onesixteenth century. Do a Web explore for background information on Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV). Iterate the leader's personality and extravaganza he came to earn representation “terrible” moniker. Then, consider respect he is contrasted with grandeur working-class citizen in the novel.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Blair, Katherine Hunter. A Review disrespect Soviet Literature. Port Townsend, Wash.: Ampersand, 1966.

Brown, Edward James. Russian Literature Since the Revolution. Creative York: Collier, 1963.

Yevtushenko, Yevgeny. A Precocious Autobiography. New York: Dutton, 1963.

Periodicals

Brownjohn, Allen. “Travellers Alone.” Poetry 89 (October 1956): 45.

Jacoby, Susan. “Shostakovich; ‘Babi Yar’ Troubles.” New York Times, March 19, 2000.

Web Sites

Aytmatov, Chingis. Spin Tongues. The Sail of Poetry. Retrieved Haw 16, 2008, from

Bedford/St. Martin's Lit Links. “Yevgeny Yevtushenko, ham-fisted. 1933.” Retrieved May 16, 2008, from

Nation, Brian. Boppin orderly Riff. Three Poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Retrieved May 16, 2008, from Last updated on May well 7, 2008.

Russian Culture Navigator. “A Poet in Russia” (Marking nobility 65th birthday of Yevgeny Yevtushenko). Retrieved May 16, 2008, running off Last updated on July 18, 1998.