Eduard Georgyevich Bagritsky ( rus, Эдуа́рд Гео́ргиевич Багри́цкий, p=ɨdʊˈard ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪjɪvʲɪdʑ bɐˈɡrʲitskʲɪj, a=Eduard Gyeorgiyevich Bagriczkiy.ru.vorb.oga; February 16, 1934) was a prominent

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 ...

n and

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

poet of the Constructivist School. He was a Neo-Romantic early in his poetic career; he was also a part of the so-called Odessa School of Russian writers (which also included

Isaak Babel Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel ( – 27 January 1940) was a Soviet writer, journalist, playwright, and literary translator. He is best known as the author of '' Red Cavalry'' and ''Odessa Stories'', and has been acclaimed as "the greatest prose writ ...

, Yuri Olesha, Valentin Katayev,

Vera Inber Vera Mikhailovna Inber (1890–1972) was a Soviet writer, poet, translator and playwright from Odesa, Russian Empire (located in present-day Ukraine). Early life and family background Born ''Vera Moiseevna Shpenster'' on July 10, 1890 to a mi ...

Ilya Ilf Ilya Arnoldovich Ilf (born Iehiel-Leyb Aryevich Faynzilberg; ; – 13 April 1937) was a Soviet journalist and writer of Jewish origin who usually worked in collaboration with Yevgeny Petrov during the 1920s and 1930s. Their duo was known simp ...

and Yevgeni Petrov, among others). A large number of this school's writers were

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

natives who often incorporated Ukrainian inflections and vocabulary into their writing.

Biography

Born Eduard Godelevich Dzyubin ( rus, Эдуа́рд Гео́ргиевич Дзю́бин, p=ˈdzʲʉbʲɪn, a=Eduard Gyeorgiyevich Dzyubin.ru.vorb.oga; ) in

to a Jewish middle-class family, most of his creative career took place in Moscow. After his early death from asthma, his friends helped to publish several of his works posthumously to provide financial assistance to his family. Isaak Babel, for example, planned to write a screenplay based on Bagritsky's long poem "

Duma A duma () is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were formed across Russia ...

about Opanas" (the script was never finished and was eventually lost). Bagritsky was heavily influenced by the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

and

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. His poetry often touches on the subjects of violence, revolutionary morality, sexuality and its interethnic sociological problems. His worldview was extremely unsentimental, and earned him much invective from detractors from all sides who saw his poetry as vindictive toward both his Jewish origins and the host Russian culture. In his book ''Russian Poet/Soviet Jew: The Legacy of Eduard Bagritskii'' (2000),

Maxim D. Shrayer Maxim D. Shrayer (; born June 5, 1967, Moscow, USSR) is a bilingual Russian-American author, translator, and literary scholar, and a professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College. Biography Shrayer was born and grew up in M ...

investigated the path of this major Jewish poet writing in the Russian language and examined Bagritsky's contested legacy. The book included English translations of some Bagrtisky's works. Bagritsky's long poem ''February'' (1933–34) was published in a translation by

Roman Turovsky Roman Mykhailovych Turovsky-Savchuk (born May 16, 1961) is an American artist-painter, photographer and videoinstallation artist, as well as a lutenist-composer,

in 2017 in the literary journal

Cardinal Points The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are the four main compass directions: north (N), south (S), east (E), and west (W). The corresponding azimuths ( clockwise horizontal angle from north) are 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°. The four ...

. In his poetry of the last period of his life Bagritsky managed to covertly criticise the growing oppressive Stalinist regime. Bagritsky who had been suffering from bronchial asthma from childhood died form complications due to

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

in 1934, aged 38. He was buried at the

Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. History The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...

Family

Bagritsky's wife, Lidia Gustavovna Suok (of Czech and Austrian descent), had two sisters who also married noted writers: Olga married Yuri Olesha and Serafima married

Vladimir Narbut Volodymyr Ivanovych Narbut (; 1888–1938) was a Ukrainian poet and a member of the Acmeist poetry, Acmeist group. He was also brother to artist and graphic designer Heorhiy Narbut. Biography Volodymyr Ivanovych Narbut was born on his family' ...

. Bagritsky's son

Vsevolod Vsevolod or Wsewolod ( ; ) is a Slavic male first name. Its etymology is from Slavic roots 'vse' (all) and 'volodeti' (to rule) and means 'lord-of-everything/everybody', (similar to another princely name, "Vladimir" or "Volodymyr"). It is equiva ...

(killed early in World War II) was also a notable Russian poet, whose fiancée

Yelena Bonner Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner (; 15 February 1923 – 18 June 2011) was a human rights activist in the former Soviet Union and wife of the physicist Andrei Sakharov. During her decades as a dissident, Bonner was noted for her characteristic blunt h ...

(eventually the wife of

Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet Physics, physicist and a List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he was awarded in 1975 for emphasizing human rights around the world. Alt ...

) later was a notable Russian

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

Notes

External links

Article about Bagritsky in the YIVO Encyclopediad of Jews in Eastern Europe

An HTML version of the book on the Flemish theme and opposition to Stalinism in the poetical legacy of Eduard Bagritskii (Bagritsky). Complete translations of the poems comprising the “Flemish” cycle

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bagritzky, Eduard 1895 births 1934 deaths Writers from Odesa People from Odessky Uyezd Odesa Jews Russian male poets Jewish poets 20th-century Russian male writers 20th-century Russian poets Russian military personnel of World War I Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery

Biography

Family

See also

Notes

External links