Nikolai Yevgenyevich Virta () (real name Karelsky) ( – January 3, 1976) was a

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 ...

writer who developed the theory of "conflictless" drama.

Biography

Nikolai Virta was born in the village of Bolshaya Lazovka in

Tambov Governorate Tambov Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, the Russian Republic, and the Russian SFSR, with its capital in Tambov. It was located between 51°14' and 55°6' north latitude, north and betwee ...

, into the family of a village priest who was shot in 1921 as a supporter of Aleksandr Antonov. From 1923 he worked as a reporter for newspapers and radio, and after 1930, he lived in Moscow. He took his writer name ''Virta'' ( Finnish for "stream") as a reference to his Karelian forefathers. He won fame with his 1935 novel ''Odinochestvo'' (Alone), which he used as the basis for his play ''Zemlya'' (Earth, 1937). He was awarded the Stalin Prize for the novel in 1941, as well as for his plays ''Khleb nash nashushchny'' (Our Daily Bread) in 1948 and ''Zagovor obrechennykh'' (Conspiracy of the Condemned, a "virulently anti-American drama") in 1949, and for his script for the film '' Stalingradskaya bitva'' (The battle of Stalingrad) in 1950. He later turned his 1956 novel ''Krutye gory'' (Steep Hills) into the play ''Dali dal'nye, ne oglyadnye'' (1957). In 1943,

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

decided to allow publication of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

in Russia, and Virta was chosen as the censor for the project; he decided there were no deviations from Communist ideology and passed it without alteration. In 1954, as the result of a scandal, he was excluded from the

Writers' Union Writers' Union may refer to the following organizations: Statewide unions * Writers Union of Armenia * Azerbaijani Writers Union * Writers' Union of Canada * Chinese Writers Union * Estonian Writers' Union * Hungarian Writers' Union * Iraqi Writer ...

, but he was reinstated in 1956. In describing the "nadir of the Soviet theatre" between World War II and the death of Stalin,

Michael Glenny :''The majority of material in this article has been sourced from the Dictionary of National Biography''. Michael Valentine Guybon Glenny (26 September 1927, London – 1 August 1990, Moscow) was a British lecturer in Russian studies and a tra ...

writes:

Matters reached the depth of absurdity when one of the most compliant Stalinist playwrights, Nikolay Virta, propounded the theory of 'lack of conflict'. According to this, the only possible basis of drama for a Soviet play was the struggle between the 'good' and the 'better'. The resulting plays were so abysmal that even the party was forced to disown them.

Kornei Chukovsky described Virta as follows in his diary entry for October 19, 1941:

But morally suspect as he is, there is something endearing about him: he hasn't read a thing and doesn't care for poetry, music, or nature, yet he is hardworking, tireless in his machinations (and not only when they're for his own good), not without literary ability (some of his newspaper reports are very well written). It's just that he's a predatory type by nature. He adores things—fancy clothes, fine furniture, rich food—and power.Kornei Chukovsky, ''Diary, 1901-1969'' (Yale University Press, 2005: ), p. 342.

English translations

*''Alone'', Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1950.

References

Sources

Вирта Николай Евгеньевич
(in Russian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Virta, Nikolai 1906 births 1976 deaths People from Tokaryovsky District People from Tambovsky Uyezd Soviet novelists Soviet male writers Soviet journalists Male journalists Soviet short story writers Soviet dramatists and playwrights Male dramatists and playwrights Soviet screenwriters Soviet male screenwriters Soviet military personnel of the Winter War Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the Order of Lenin Russian Karelian people