Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko (; – 22 July 1958) was a Soviet and Russian writer and satirist.

Biography

Zoshchenko was born in 1894, in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, according to his 1953 autobiography. Other sources suggest that he was born in

Poltava Poltava (, ; , ) is a city located on the Vorskla, Vorskla River in Central Ukraine, Central Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Poltava Oblast as well as Poltava Raion within the oblast. It also hosts the administration of Po ...

, in present-day

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. His Ukrainian father was an artist and a mosaicist responsible for the exterior decoration of the

Suvorov Museum Suvorov Memorial Museum (Russian: Музей Суворова) in Saint Petersburg, Russia is a military museum dedicated to the memory of Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov (1729–1800). It was founded in 1900 to commemorate the century of Suvoro ...

.Zoshchenko, M. (1963) ''Nervous People and Other Satires'', ed. Hugh McLean, trans. Maria Gordon and Hugh McLean, London. Introduction, p. viii His mother was Russian. Zoshchenko attended the Faculty of Law at the Saint Petersburg University, but did not graduate due to financial problems. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Zoshchenko served in the army as a field officer, was wounded in action several times, and was heavily decorated. In 1919, during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, he served for several months in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

before being discharged for health reasons. He was associated with the Serapion Brothers and attained particular popularity in the 1920s as a satirist, but, after his denunciation in the Zhdanov decree of 1946, Zoshchenko lived in dire poverty. He was awarded his pension only a few months before he died. Zoshchenko developed a simplified

deadpan Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of Comedy, comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant t ...

style of writing which simultaneously made him accessible to "the people" and mocked official demands for accessibility: "I write very compactly. My sentences are short. Accessible to the poor. Maybe that's the reason why I have so many readers." Volkov compares this style to the nakedness of the Russian holy fool or '' yurodivy''. In 1940 Zoshchenko published a series of short stories for children about

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

Anthology

A critical anthology ''Мих. Зощенко: pro et contra, антология'' was published in 2015. It included a 1926 article by Iakov Moiseyevich Shafir.

Selected bibliography (in English translation)

*''A Man Is Not A Flea'', trans. Serge Shishkoff, Ann Arbor, 1989. *''Before Sunrise''. Trans. Gary Kern, Ann Arbor, 1974. *''Nervous People and Other Satires'', ed. Hugh McLean, trans. Maria Gordon and Hugh McLean, London, 1963. *''Scenes from the Bathhouse'', trans. Sidney Monas, Ann Arbor, 1962. *''Youth Restored''. Trans. Joel Stern, Ann Arbor, 1984. *''The Galosh''. Trans. Jeremy Hicks, New York, 1996. *''Sentimental Tales''. Trans. Boris Dralyuk, New York, 2018. *''Pассказы о Ленине'' (''"Stories about Lenin"''. In Russian. Moscow, 1974.)

References

External links

Creative Commons English translation of Zoshchenko's ultra-short story ''Nervous People''
Alexander Melnikov,

Russia Beyond the Headlines ''Russia Beyond'' (formerly ''Russia Beyond The Headlines'') is a Russian multilingual project operated by RT (formerly ''Russia Today'') parent ANO TV-Novosti, founded by the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. History ''Russia Beyond Th ...

, 2 October 2009
English translation of Zoshchenko's short story ''Honest Citizen''Three short autobiographies by Zoshchenko Poverty , The Galosh
by Zoshchenko at the Short Story Project

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zoshchenko, Mikhail 1894 births 1958 deaths 20th-century Russian male writers 20th-century Russian short story writers People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd Writers from Saint Petersburg People of the Russian Civil War Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 2nd class Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 3rd class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 4th class Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class Russian people of Ukrainian descent Russian Marxist writers Russian military personnel of World War I Russian-language writers Soviet male writers Soviet novelists Soviet short story writers Russian satirists

Biography

Anthology

Selected bibliography (in English translation)

References

Further reading

External links