Bryusov in I am a poet. Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich, short biography and creativity. Personal life of Valery Bryusov

Russian poet, prose writer, playwright and translator Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov was born on December 13 (December 1 according to the old style), 1873 in Moscow into a merchant family. , then studied at the gymnasiums of Franz Kreiman (1885-1889) and Lev Polivanov (1890-1893). In 1893, Bryusov entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, from which he graduated in 1899.

Bryusov began to write early, as a child, writing poems and stories. Already at the age of 13, he linked his future life with poetry. Bryusov's earliest known poetic experiments date back to 1881; a little later, his first stories appeared. In adolescence, Bryusov considered Nikolai Nekrasov his literary idol, then he was fascinated by the poetry of Semyon Nadson. By the beginning of the 1890s, the time had come for Bryusov's enthusiasm for the works of French Symbolists - Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Stefan Mallarmé. Between 1894 and 1895 he published (under the pseudonym Valery Maslov) three collections of "Russian Symbolists", which included many of his own poems (including under various pseudonyms); most of them were written under the influence of the French Symbolists. In the third issue of "Russian Symbolists" Bryusov's one-line poem "O close your pale legs" was placed, which quickly gained fame, providing an ironic attitude to the collections from the public.

In 1895, Bryusov's first book of poems, Chefs d'œuvre ("Masterpieces"), was published, in 1897 - a collection of poems Me eum esse ("This is me") about the world of subjective decadent experiences, proclaiming egocentrism. In 1899, after graduating from the university, Bryusov decided to devote himself entirely to literary activity. For two years he worked as the secretary of the editorial board of the Russian Archive magazine. After the organization of the publishing house "Scorpion", which began to publish "new literature" (works of modernists), Bryusov took an active part in the organization of almanacs and the journal "Vesy" (1904-1909), which became the mouthpiece of Russian symbolism.

In 1900, Bryusov's book "The Third Guard" was published, after which the author was recognized as a great poet. In 1903, he published the book Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World), and in 1906, the poetry collection Wreath.

The book "Earth's Axis" (1907) was compiled by the fantastic-symbolic drama "Earth" and stories. Bryusov is the author of the novels "The Fiery Angel" (separate edition 1908), "The Altar of Victory. A Tale of the 4th Century" (1911-1912), novels and short stories (included in the book "Nights and Days", 1913), stories "Rhea Sylvia" ( separate edition 1916), "Betrothal of Dasha" (separate edition 1915), "Mozart" (1915).

At the turn of the first decade of the twentieth century, Bryusov's poetry became more chamber, new features of his lyrics appeared: intimacy, sincerity, simplicity in expressing thoughts and feelings (collection "All Melodies", 1909; book "Mirror of Shadows", 1912).

For the theater of Vera Komissarzhevskaya, Bryusov translated the plays "Pelléas et Mélisande" by Maurice Maeterlinck (1907; staged by Vsevolod Meyerhold) and "Francesca da Rimini" by Gabriele D'Annunzio (together with Vyacheslav Ivanov, 1908). He published the psychodrama The Wayfarer (1911), the tragedy Protesilaus the Dead (1913). He translated the dramaturgy of Emile Verhaarne ("Helena of Sparta", 1909), Oscar Wilde ("The Duchess of Padua", 1911), Molière ("Amphitrion", 1913), Romain Rolland ("Liliuli", 1922).

He was engaged in translations of Dante, Byron, Goethe, Maeterlinck. Separate editions were translated by Emile Verharne, Paul Verlaine, Poe, Oscar Wilde, a collection of French lyrics of the 19th century, "The Great Rhetor. The Life and Works of Decimus Magnus Ausonius" (1911), "Erotopaegnia. Poems by Ovid, Pentadius, Ausonius, Claudian, Luxoria (1917).

During the First World War, Bryusov was at the front as a correspondent for one of the St. Petersburg newspapers, wrote patriotic poems.

Valery Bryusov welcomed the October Revolution of 1917 and actively cooperated with the new government. In 1920 he joined the Communist Party.
In 1917-1919, he headed the Committee for the Registration of the Press (since 1918, a department of the Russian Book Chamber). He was the head of the Moscow Library Department at the Narkompros (1918-1919), chairman of the Presidium of the All-Russian Union of Poets (1919-1921), from 1919 he worked at the State Publishing House, from 1921 - head of the literary sub-department of the Art Education Department at the Narkompros. In 1921 he organized the Higher Literary and Art Institute (later VLHI named after V. Ya. Bryusov) and until the end of his life he was its rector and professor.

Bryusov took an active part in the preparation of the first edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (he was the editor of the Department of Literature, Art and Linguistics; the first volume was published after Bryusov's death). In 1923, in connection with the fiftieth anniversary, Bryusov received a letter from the Soviet government, which noted the poet's numerous merits "to the whole country" and expressed "gratitude from the workers' and peasants' government."

In the 1920s (in the collections "Dali" (1922), "Mea" ("Hurry!", 1924) Bryusov radically updated his poetics, using a rhythm overloaded with accents, abundant alliteration, ragged syntax, neologisms, futuristic constructions of versification. late Bryusov, Mikhail Gasparov, who studied it in detail, called it "academic avant-gardism."

On October 9, 1924, Bryusov died in his Moscow apartment from lobar pneumonia. The poet was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in the capital.

Valery Bryusov was married to Joanna Runt (they were married in 1897). She was the companion and closest assistant of the poet until his death. After the death of Bryusov, she became the keeper of his archive and the publisher of her husband's legacy.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources.

Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov. Born December 1 (13), 1873 in Moscow - died October 9, 1924 in Moscow. Russian poet, prose writer, playwright, translator, literary critic, literary critic and historian. One of the founders of Russian symbolism.

Valery Bryusov was born on December 1 (13 according to the new style) December 1873 in Moscow.

Father - Yakov Kuzmich Bryusov (1848-1907), was fond of the ideas of the revolutionary populists, a poet, published poems in magazines; in 1884, Yakov Bryusov sent to the magazine "Intimate Word" written by his son "Letter to the Editor", describing the summer vacation of the Bryusov family, it was published (No. 16, 1884).

Brother - Alexander (1885-1966) - professor of art history, employee of the Historical Museum, participant in the search for the Amber Room.

Sister - Lydia, wife of the poet Samuil Kissin.

Sister - Nadezhda (1881-1951), musicologist-folklorist, teacher (from 1921 to 1943) and vice-rector (1922-28) of the Moscow State Conservatory.

Maternal grandfather - Alexander Yakovlevich Bakulin, a merchant and poet-fabulist, published in the 1840s. collection "Fables of a provincial" (Bryusov signed some of his works with the name of his grandfather).

Paternal grandfather - Kuzma Andreevich Bryusov, was a serf of the landowner Fedosya Alalykina, who owned land in the Kartsevo volost of the Soligalichsky district of the Kostroma province. In the 1850s he bought himself free and moved to Moscow, where he started a trading business and bought a house on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. The poet lived in this house in 1878-1910.

Valery Bryusov was born in the house of the Herodinovs (now - Milyutinsky lane, 14, station 1). He was baptized on December 6 in the Church of Euplas the Archdeacon on Myasnitskaya.

Parents did little to educate Valery, and the boy was left to his own devices. Much attention in the Bryusov family was paid to the “principles of materialism and atheism,” so Valery was strictly forbidden to read religious literature, he recalled: “From fairy tales, from any “devilry,” I was diligently protected. But I learned about the ideas of Darwin and the principles of materialism before I learned to multiply.

He received a good education - from 1885 to 1889 he studied at the private classical gymnasium of F. I. Kreiman (he was expelled for promoting atheistic ideas), and in 1890-1893 - at the private gymnasium of L. I. Polivanov. In his last years at the gymnasium, Bryusov was fond of mathematics.

At home, he grew up without comrades, did not know simple children's games, and his passion for science and literature alienated him even more from his classmates. However, later Bryusov became close with other young lovers of reading, together they began to publish a handwritten magazine "Beginning". During these years, the novice writer tried his hand at prose and poetry, translating ancient and modern authors.

The Bryusov family became impoverished when his father became interested in horse racing and squandered all his fortune on the tote. By the way, Valery also became interested in horse racing - his first independent publication in the Russian Sport magazine for 1889 is an article in defense of the sweepstakes.

From the age of 13, Bryusov decided for sure that his fate would be connected with poetry. His early poetic experiments date back to 1881. Later, his first stories appeared. While studying at the Kreyman gymnasium, Bryusov composed poetry and published a handwritten journal. In adolescence, Bryusov considered his literary idol, then he was fascinated by Nadson's poetry.

Poetic creativity of Valery Bryusov

By the beginning of the 1890s, the time had come for Bryusov's passion for the works of the French Symbolists - Baudelaire, Verlaine, Mallarmé.

In 1893, he wrote a letter to Verlaine, in which he spoke of his mission to spread symbolism in Russia and presented himself as the founder of this new literary movement for Russia.

In the 1890s, Bryusov wrote several articles on French poets. Admiring Verlaine, at the end of 1893 he created the drama The Decadents. (End of the Century)", which tells about the short happiness of the famous French symbolist with Mathilde Mote and touches on Verlaine's relationship with Arthur Rimbaud.

In the period from 1894 to 1895 he published (under the pseudonym Valery Maslov) three collections under the title "Russian Symbolists", which includes many of his own poems. They are written under the influence of French Symbolists.

When working on the collections "Russian Symbolists" Bryusov used many pseudonyms. The function of the pseudonym here is not to hide the true name of the author, but to mystify the reader. The poet, as editor of collections, sought to create the impression of a large number of his like-minded people and followers, who allegedly had him in these publications, and thus increase their social significance. This is the uniqueness of the use of pseudonyms by Bryusov.

Aliases of Valery Bryusov:

Aurelius
Br., Val.
Br-ov, V.
Bakulin, W.
V. B.
V. Ya. B.
Verigin A.
Galakhov, Anatoly
Harmodius
Darov, W.
I. A.
K.K.K.
L. R.
Latnik
M.P.
Maslov, V. A.
Muscovite
Nellie
Pentaur
Sbirko, D.
Sozontov, K.
Spassky
Comrade German
Tourist
Fox, Z.
Enrico

"Talent, even genius, will honestly give only slow success if they give it. It's not enough! It's not enough for me. I have to choose something else ... Find a guiding star in the fog. And I see it: this is decadence. Yes! Whatever you say, is it false, is it funny, but it goes forward, develops, and the future will belong to it, especially when it finds a worthy leader. And I will be that leader! Yes, I am!", - Bryusov wrote in his diary in 1893.

In 1893, Bryusov entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, where he studied on the same course with the famous literary historian Vladimir Savodnik. His main interests in his student years were history, philosophy, literature, art, and languages.

In 1895 he published a collection of poems "Chefs d'oeuvre" ("Masterpieces"). The attacks of the press were caused by the very name of the collection, which, according to critics, did not correspond to the content of the collection (narcissism was characteristic of Bryusov in the 1890s). As for "Chefs d'oeuvre", and in general for Bryusov's early work, the theme of the struggle against the decrepit, obsolete world of the patriarchal merchant class, the desire to escape from "everyday reality" - to a new world, which was drawn to him in the works of French symbolists, is characteristic.

The principle of "art for art's sake", detachment from the "outside world", characteristic of all Bryusov's lyrics, was already reflected in the poems of the collection "Chefs d'oeuvre". In this collection, Bryusov is a "lonely dreamer", cold and indifferent to people. Sometimes his desire to break away from the world comes to those of suicide, "the last verses." At the same time, Bryusov is constantly looking for new forms of verse, creating exotic rhymes, unusual images.

In the next collection - “Me eum esse” (“This is me”) of 1897, Bryusov is still seen by us as a cold dreamer, detached from the outside world, hated by the poet. The period of "Chefs d'oeuvre" and "Me eum esse" Bryusov himself later called "decadent".

The founder of Russian symbolism

In youthful years Bryusov developed the theory of symbolism: “The new direction in poetry is organically connected with the former ones. It’s just that new wine requires new skins,” he wrote in 1894 to the young poet F. E. Zarin (Talin).

After graduating from the university in 1899, Bryusov devoted himself entirely to literature. For several years he worked in P. I. Bartenev's magazine "Russian Archive".

In the second half of the 1890s, Bryusov became close to the Symbolist poets, in particular - with (acquaintance with him dates back to 1894; it soon turned into a friendship that did not stop until Balmont's emigration), became one of the initiators and leaders of the founded in 1899 the year of S. A. Polyakov of the publishing house "Scorpion", which united supporters of the "new art".

In 1900, the collection Tertia Vigilia (Third Guard) was published in Scorpio, which opened a new - "urban" stage in Bryusov's work. The collection is dedicated to K. D. Balmont, whom the author endowed with the “eye of a convict” and noted as follows: “But I love you - that you are all a lie.” A significant place in the collection is occupied by historical and mythological poetry.

In later collections, mythological themes gradually fade, giving way to the ideas of urbanism. Bryusov glorifies the pace of life in a big city, its social contradictions, the urban landscape, even the chimes of trams and dirty snow piled up in heaps. The poet from the "desert of loneliness" returns to the world of people, as if he regains his "father's house": the environment that raised him is destroyed, and now shining cities of the present and future are growing on the site of "dark shops and barns" ("Dissipates in the light of dream of prison, and the world will come to the predicted paradise").

One of the first Russian poets, Bryusov fully revealed the urban theme.

At this time, Bryusov was already preparing a whole book of translations of Verharn's lyrics - "Poems about Modernity." The poet is carried away not only by the growth of the city: he is excited by the very premonition of impending changes, the formation of a new culture - the culture of the City. The latter should become the "king of the universe." This is the key theme of his collection Tertia Vigilia.

A characteristic feature of Bryusov's poetics from this period is stylistic inclusiveness, encyclopedism and experimentation, he was a connoisseur of all types of poetry, a collector of "all tunes". He speaks about this in the preface to Tertia Vigilia: “I equally love the faithful reflections of the visible nature in Pushkin or Maikov, and the impulses to express the supersensible, the superearthly in Tyutchev or Fet, and the mental reflections of Baratynsky, and the passionate speeches of a civil poet, say, Nekrasov.

Stylizations of a variety of poetic manners, Russian and foreign (up to “songs of Australian savages”) are Bryusov’s favorite pastime, he even prepared an anthology “Dreams of Humanity”, which is a stylization (or translations) of poetic styles of all eras.

Consciousness of loneliness, contempt for humanity, a premonition of inevitable oblivion (characteristic poems - “In the days of desolation” (1899), “Like otherworldly shadows” (1900)) are reflected in the collection "Urbi et Orbi" ("City and the world") published in 1903. Bryusov is no longer inspired by synthetic images - more and more often the poet turns to the "civilian" theme. A classic example of civil lyrics (and perhaps the most famous in the collection) is the poem "The Mason". For himself, Bryusov chooses among all life paths "the path of labor, like a different path", in order to explore the secrets of "a wise and simple life."

In a few poems, far-fetched self-adoration is visible (“And the virgins and young men stood up, meeting, crowning me like a king”), while in others - erotomania, voluptuousness (the section “Ballads” is largely filled with such poems). The theme of love gets a remarkable development in the section "Elegies" - love becomes a sacrament, a "religious sacrament". Exactly after the release of "Urbi et Orbi" Bryusov becomes the recognized leader of Russian symbolism. The collection had a particularly great influence on the young symbolists - Andrei Bely, Sergei Solovyov.

The apotheosis of capitalist culture is the poem "The Bled Horse". In it, the reader is presented with a full of anxiety, intense life of the city. The city with its "roars" and "nonsense" erases the impending face of death, the end from its streets - and continues to live with the same furious, "noisy" tension.

The great-power mood of the times of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 (the poems “To Fellow Citizens”, “To the Pacific Ocean”) were replaced by Bryusov’s period of belief in the inevitable death of the urban world, the decline of the arts, the onset of the “era of damage”. Bryusov sees in the future only the times of "last days", "last desolations". These sentiments reached their peak during the First Russian Revolution. They are clearly expressed in Bryusov's drama "Earth" (1904, included in the collection "Earth's Axis"), which describes the future death of all mankind, then in the poem "The Coming Huns" (1905).

In 1906, Bryusov wrote the short story "The Last Martyrs", describing the last days of the life of the Russian intelligentsia, participating in a crazy erotic orgy in the face of death. The mood of "Earth" (a work of "extremely high", according to Blok's definition) is on the whole pessimistic. The future of our planet is presented, the era of the completed capitalist world, where there is no connection with the earth, with the expanses of nature, and where humanity is steadily degenerating under the "artificial light" of the "world of machines". The only way out for humanity in the current situation is collective suicide, which is the finale of the drama.

Bryusov's next collection was "Στέφανος" ("Wreath"), written during the most violent revolutionary events of 1905 (released in December 1905). The poet himself considered him the pinnacle of his poetic creativity. Bryusov sings a “hymn of glory” to the “coming Huns”, knowing full well that they are going to destroy the culture of the contemporary world, that this world is doomed and that he, the poet, is its inseparable part. The poems "Dagger" (1903), "Satisfied" (1905) - poems of the "songwriter" of the growing revolution.

The organizational role of Bryusov in Russian symbolism and in general in Russian modernism is very significant. The Libra, headed by him, became the most thorough in the selection of material and an authoritative modernist magazine (opposing the eclectic and not having a clear program of the Pass and the Golden Fleece). Bryusov influenced the work of many younger poets with advice and criticism, almost all of them go through the stage of one or another “imitation of Bryusov”. He enjoyed great prestige both among his peers-symbolists and among literary youth, had a reputation as a strict impeccable "master", creating poetry as a "magician", "priest" of culture, and among acmeists (Nikolai Gumilyov, Zenkevich, Mandelstam), and futurists ( Pasternak, Shershenevich and others).

Valery Bryusov made a great contribution to the development of the form of verse, actively used inaccurate rhymes, “free verse” in the spirit of Verharn, developed “long” sizes (iambic 12-foot with internal rhymes: “Near the sluggish Nile, where Lake Merida is, in the realm of fiery Ra // you loved me for a long time, like Osiris Isis, friend, queen and sister...", the famous 7-foot trochee without caesura in "The Pale Horse": "The street was like a storm. The crowds passed // As if they were pursued by the inevitable Rock..."), used alternation lines of different meters (the so-called "linear logaeds": "My lips are approaching // To your lips ..."). These experiments were fruitfully received by the younger poets. In the 1890s, in parallel with Zinaida, Gippius Bryusov developed tonic verse (dolnik is a term that he introduced into Russian poetry in an article of 1918), but, unlike Gippius and subsequently Blok, he gave few memorable examples to this verse in the future. rarely addressed.

In Bryusov's poems, the reader is faced with opposite principles: life-affirming - love, calls for the "conquest" of life by labor, for the struggle for existence, for creation - and pessimistic (death is bliss, "sweet nirvana", therefore the desire for death is above all; suicide is "seductive", and insane orgies are "the secret pleasures of artificial edens"). And the main character in Bryusov's poetry is either a brave, courageous fighter, or a man who despairs of life, who sees no other way but the way to death.

Bryusov also took an active part in the life of the Moscow literary and artistic circle, in particular, he was its director (since 1908). Collaborated in the journal "New Way" (in 1903, he became editorial secretary).

By the 1910s, the activity of Russian symbolism as a movement was declining. In this regard, Bryusov ceases to act as a figure in the literary struggle and the leader of a particular direction, taking a more balanced, "academic" position. From the beginning of the 1910s, he paid considerable attention to prose (the novel The Altar of Victory), criticism (work in Russkaya Mysl, the journal Art in Southern Russia), and Pushkin studies.

In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, Bryusov went to the front as a war correspondent for Russkiye Vedomosti. It should be noted the growth of patriotic sentiments in the lyrics of Bryusov in 1914-1916.

In 1910-1914 and, in particular, in 1914-1916, many researchers consider the period of spiritual and, as a result, creative crisis of the poet. In the collections “Mirror of Shadows” (1912), “Seven Colors of the Rainbow” (1916), the author’s calls to himself to “continue”, “swim further”, etc., which betray this crisis, become frequent, occasionally images of a hero, a worker appear. In 1916, Bryusov published a stylized continuation of the poem "Egyptian Nights", which caused an extremely mixed reaction from critics.

With an attempt to get out of the crisis and find a new style, researchers of Bryusov's work associate such an interesting experiment of the poet as a literary hoax - the collection "Nelli's Poems" (1913) dedicated to Nadezhda Lvova and the "Nelli's New Poems" (1914-1916) that continued it (1914-1916, remained unpublished under author's life). These poems are written on behalf of a “chic” urban courtesan, carried away by fashion trends, a kind of female counterpart of the lyrical hero Igor Severyanin, poetics reveals - along with the characteristic signs of the Bryusov style, thanks to which the hoax was soon exposed - the influence of Severyanin and futurism, to which Bryusov refers with interest.

Valery Bryusov after the 1917 revolution

In 1917, the poet spoke in defense, criticized by the Provisional Government.

After the October Revolution of 1917, Bryusov actively participated in the literary and publishing life of Moscow, worked in various Soviet institutions. The poet was still faithful to his desire to be the first in any business started.

From 1917 to 1919 he headed the Committee for the Registration of the Press (since January 1918 - the Moscow branch of the Russian Book Chamber); from 1918 to 1919 he was in charge of the Moscow Library Department under the People's Commissariat of Education; from 1919 to 1921 he was chairman of the Presidium of the All-Russian Union of Poets (as such, he directed poetry evenings of Moscow poets of various groups at the Polytechnic Museum).

After the revolution, Bryusov continued his active creative activity. In October, the poet saw the banner of a new, transformed world, capable of destroying bourgeois-capitalist culture, the "slave" of which the poet considered himself earlier; now he can "resurrect life." Some post-revolutionary poems are enthusiastic hymns to "dazzling October"; in some of his poems, he glorifies the revolution in one voice with the Marxist poets. Having become the ancestor of the “Russian literary Leniniana”, Bryusov neglected the “precepts” set forth by himself back in 1896 in the poem “To the Young Poet” - “do not live in the present”, “worship art”.

In 1919 Bryusov became a member of the RCP(b).

He worked at the State Publishing House, headed the literary sub-department of the Department of Art Education at the People's Commissariat for Education, was a member of the State Academic Council, a professor at Moscow State University (since 1921); from the end of 1922 - head of the Department of Art Education of the Glavprofobra; in 1921 he organized the Higher Literary and Art Institute (VLHI) and remained its rector and professor until the end of his life. Bryusov was also a member of the Moscow Council. He took an active part in the preparation of the first edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (he was the editor of the Department of Literature, Art and Linguistics - the first volume was published after the death of Bryusov).

In 1923, in connection with the fiftieth anniversary, Bryusov received a letter from the Soviet government, which noted the poet's numerous merits "to the whole country" and expressed "gratitude from the workers' and peasants' government." Despite all his aspirations to become part of the new era, Bryusov could not become a “poet of the New Life”. In the 1920s (in the collections "Dali" (1922), "Mea" ("Hurry!", 1924)) he radically renews his poetics, using rhythm overloaded with accents, abundant alliteration, ragged syntax, neologisms (again, as in the era of Nelly's Poems, using the experience of futurism). These poems are saturated with social motives, the pathos of "scientific". In some texts, notes of disappointment with one's past and present life, even with the revolution itself, appear (the poem "House of Visions" is especially characteristic).

Before his death, the poet led a strange lifestyle, began to smoke, became addicted to morphine, became untidy and nervous. He spent his last strength on the hassle of conferring on him - on the occasion of the upcoming anniversary - the Order of the Red Banner and was upset at receiving the Honorary Diploma.

On October 9, 1924, Valery Bryusov died in his Moscow apartment from lobar pneumonia. The poet was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

In Krasnodar, a street and passage are named after Valery Bryusov.

In Moscow, in the house on Prospekt Mira 30, where Bryusov lived from 1910 to 1924, is the Museum of the Silver Age. The center of the exposition is the former office of the writer.

Poet Valery Bryusov (documentary)

Personal life of Valery Bryusov:

Bryusov's first love - Elena Kraskova- died suddenly of smallpox in the spring of 1893. Many of Bryusov's poems of 1892-1893 are dedicated to her.

In his youth, Bryusov was also fond of theater and performed on the stage of the Moscow German Club, where he met Natalya Aleksandrovna Daruzes, "Talya" (she performed on stage under the name Raevskaya), whom he briefly became interested in - they broke up in the mid-1890s.

Wife - Joanna Matveevna Bryusova (née Runt), his sisters' governess. They got married in 1897. Valery Bryusov wrote in his diary: “The weeks before the wedding are not recorded. This is because they were weeks of happiness. How can I write now if I can only define my state with the word “bliss”? I'm almost ashamed to make such a confession, but what? That's it".

Joanna Runt was very sensitive to Bryusov's manuscripts, before the wedding she did not allow them to be thrown away during cleaning, and after that she became a real keeper of Bryusov's works.

At the end of his life, Bryusov took up his wife's little nephew.

The poet had many novels. Bryusov wrote a wreath of sonnets "The Fatal Row". Each of the poems of this cycle was dedicated to real characters - women whom the poet once loved: M.P. Shiryaev and A.A. Shestarkina, L.N. Vilkina, N.G. Lvova, A.E. Adalis, wife of I.M. Bryusov.

But contemporaries noted that Bryusov's main muse was Nina Ivanovna Petrovskaya, which played a huge role in the life of the poet.

Nina Ivanovna Petrovskaya (1879-1928) - Russian writer and memoirist, who played a prominent role in the literary and bohemian life of the early 20th century, was the mistress of a literary salon, wife and assistant to the owner of the Grif publishing house S. A. Sokolov (Krechetova).

Nina Petrovskaya graduated from the gymnasium, then dental courses. She married the owner of the Grif publishing house and, finding herself in a circle of poets and writers, began to try her hand at literature, although her gift was not great, judging by the collection of stories Sanctus amor, which looked more like a fictionalized diary. In the Moscow life of that time, Nina played a prominent role. She came to the court of the Moscow bohemia with her hobbies for cards, wine, spiritualism, black magic and at the same time the cult of erotica, seething under the seductive and somewhat hypocritical veil of mystical service to the Beautiful Lady. She had an affair with a symbolist poet.

Then Bryusov burst into her life, so that, as she said later, to stay in her forever. At first, she became close to Bryusov, wanting to take revenge on Bely and, perhaps, in the secret hope of returning him, arousing jealousy. Bryusov was eleven years older than Nina, his name - the "father of Russian symbolism", the publisher of literary and art magazines, the original poet - thundered throughout Russia. Their first meeting took place in the living room of mutual acquaintances, where the symbolists gathered. Bryusov seemed to her a magician and a wizard. That evening, Bryusov pointedly did not notice her, dressed in a black dress, with a rosary in her hands and a large cross on her chest. It was clear that she had become a supporter of the fashion for everything mysterious and mystical, which then engulfed many, like a disease. The next time they saw each other was at the Art Theater at the premiere of The Cherry Orchard in early 1904. In these January days, she recalled many years later, the strong links of the chain that bound their hearts were forged. For her, the year of their meeting was the year of resurrection: she truly fell in love. Bryusov also fell in love.

During the same period, he dreamed of doing a long-conceived novel, which he called "Fiery Angel". “In order to write your novel,” he called the future book in letters to Nina Petrovskaya, “it’s enough to remember You, it’s enough to believe in You, to love You.” He realized that he was able to create something significant, outstanding, and wanted to rush into work with his head. He asked her to be his guide, his beacon, his night light here, as in the world of love. “Love and creativity in prose are two new worlds for me,” he wrote to her. - In one thing, you carried me far, to fabulous countries, to unprecedented lands, where they rarely penetrate. May it be the same in this other world.”

As an artist, Bryusov had to not only study and study for the planned historical narrative a lot of literature from the life of Germany in the 16th century, but also find genuine life similarities of these conceived images. Nina Petrovskaya, contradictory by nature, sensual, hysterical, prone to exaltation and mysticism, was the best suited to the image of the main character of the novel. Bryusov wrote his Renata from her. He found in her a lot of what was required for the romantic image of a witch: despair, a dead longing for a fantastically beautiful past, a willingness to throw his depreciated existence into any kind of fire, turned inside out, religious ideas and aspirations poisoned by demonic temptations.

Nina herself very soon entered the role of his heroine and played her quite seriously. It seemed to her that she really entered into an alliance with the devil, and almost believed in her witchcraft. She stated that she wanted to die so that Bryusov would write off Renata's death from her, and thereby become "a model for the last beautiful chapter."

In the summer of 1905 they made a trip to the Finnish lake Saimaa, from where Bryusov brought a cycle of love poems. He wrote to her, recalling this time: “That was the pinnacle of my life, its highest peak, from which, as once Pizarro, both oceans opened to me - my past and my future life. You lifted me up to the zenith of my sky. And you let me see the last depths, the last secrets of my soul. And everything that was in the crucible of my soul riot, madness, despair, passion, burned out and, like a golden ingot, poured into love, one, boundless, forever.

Gradually, love for him turned into a burnt passion. Not wanting to accept the thought of losing a loved one, Nina decided to resort to a tried and tested remedy for many women: jealousy. She flirted with young people - frequenters of literary salons - in front of Bryusov, kissed them, they took her away from the stuffy living rooms. At first, she did not seriously cheat, teased, tried to return the warmth of the relationship, then she changed - once, twice, a third ... He turned away, became a stranger. The severity of the gap was unbearable, and to escape thoughts of suicide, Nina tried morphine. Wine and drugs undermined her health, doctors miraculously brought her back to life. When they returned, she decided to leave Russia. At first, Nina lived in Italy, then in France. She continued to write exalted letters to Bryusov, still full of love outpourings and pretentiously signed: "the one that was your Renata." In 1913, in a state of severe depression, she threw herself out of a hotel window on the boulevard Saint-Michel. She survived, but broke her leg and became lame. The reincarnation of Nina Petrovskaya in the image of the Bryusov heroine came after she converted to Catholicism. In the end, on one of the February days of 1928, Petrovskaya opened the gas valve in the hotel room where she lived, committing suicide.

Nina Petrovskaya - beloved Valery Bryusov

Bryusov collected postage stamps, the subject of his collection were the stamps of all countries. He specialized in the stamps of the colonies of European states. In November 1923, he joined the All-Russian Society of Philatelists and was elected honorary chairman of the editorial board of the VOF. In January 1924, he was included in the editorial board of the Soviet Philatelist magazine.

Bibliography of Valery Bryusov:

1893 - "The Decadents (End of the Century)"
1894 - "Juvenilia" - "Youthful"
1896 - "Chefs d'oeuvre" - "Masterpieces"
1897 - "Me eum esse" - "It's me"
1899 - "On Art"
1900 - "Tertia Vigilia" - "Third Guard"
1903 - "Urbi et Orbi" - "To the City and the World"
1906 - "Stephanos" - "Wreath"
1907 - "Earth's Axis"
1908 - "Fiery Angel" (historical novel)
1909 - "Incinerated"
1909 - "All the tunes"
1911 - "F. I. Tyutchev. The meaning of his work
1912 - "Far and near: articles and notes about Russian poets from Tyutchev to the present day"
1912 - "Mirror of Shadows"
1913 - "The Altar of Victory"
1913 - "Outside my window"
1913 - "Nights and Days"
1914 - Autobiography (under the editorship of S. A. Vengerov)
1915 - "Seven Colors of the Rainbow"
1915 - "Betrothal of Dasha"
1915 - “Selected poems. 1897-1915"
1916 - "Jupiter defeated"
1916 - "Rhea Sylvia"
1916 - "Egyptian Nights"
1917 - "The Ninth Stone"
1917 - "How to end the war"
1918 - "Experiments in metrics and rhythm, in euphony and consonance, in stanza and forms"
1918 - "Chronicle of the historical destinies of the Armenian people"
1919 - "A short course in the science of verse"
1920 - "Last Dreams"
1921 - "In Days Like These"
1922 - "Dali"
1922 - "Horizon"
1922 - "Mig"
1924 - "Mea" - "Hurry!"
1924 - Fundamentals of poetry
1927 - From my life. My youth. Memory.
1927 - Diaries
1927 - Letters from V. Ya. Bryusov to P. P. Pertsov (1894-1896) (On the history of early symbolism)
1929 - My Pushkin

Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov was born on December 13, 1873 in Moscow, into a merchant family. At home he received a good education, at the age of eight he began to write poetry.

Valery Yakovlevich's first publication was in the children's magazine Sincere Word, when Bryusov was only 11 years old.

From 1885 to 1893, Bryusov studied at the gymnasium, from 1893 to 1899 he studied at Moscow University at the Faculty of History and Philology, from which he graduated with a diploma of the 1st degree.

While still a student, Bryusov published a collection of "Russian Symbolists" (issues 1-3, 1894 - 1895), which consisted mainly of his own poems.

In 1899, Bryusov became one of the organizers of the Scorpio publishing house, in 1900 he published the book The Third Guard, which marks his transition to Symbolist poetry.

From 1901 to 1905, under the leadership of Bryusov, the almanac "Northern Flowers" was created, from 1904 to 1909 Bryusov edited the journal "Vesy", which was the central organ of the Symbolists. Bryusov's poetry collections such as "To the City and to the World" (1903), "Wreath" (1906), "All Melodies" (1909) are published. The poet also paid much attention to prose, he wrote the novel "Altar of Victory" (1911 - 1912), a collection of short stories "Nights and Days" (1913), the story "Dasha's Betrothal" (1913) and other works. Bryusov gained a reputation as a master of literature, he is revered as "the first poet in Russia" (A.A. Blok), who "restored the noble art, forgotten since the time of Pushkin, to write simply and correctly" (N. Gumilyov). Valery Bryusov met the October Revolution of 1917 as a holiday of liberation from the shackles of autocracy. In 1920, the poet joined the Bolshevik Party, headed the presidium of the All-Russian Union of Poets. Bryusov organized the Higher Literary and Art Institute, where Valery Yakovlevich became the first rector. However, Bryusov's life was short-lived; on October 9, 1924, he died in Moscow.

Creativity V.Ya. Schoolchildren begin to study Bryusov at school, because his works have a huge impact on the formation of the younger generation. He was born in December 1873 years in Moscow. His family was not very rich, one might even say that they were of average income. The title of the Bryusov family is merchants. That is why a short biography of Valery Bryusov will be useful for schoolchildren to realize all his work.
In the family where Valery Yakovlevich was born, he was the first child. Parents are ready to raise their child. They immediately set about his upbringing, where they considered real life to be the main one, but fantasy and, in general, everything artistic was relegated to the background.
As for education, the Bryusov family had a good library, but these were father's books, among which there was no place for art books or just fairy tales. These books. According to Bryusov, they were only about smart things. From other books that were not needed for life, Valery Yakovlevich was protected by his parents. Therefore, in childhood, he did not read either Pushkin or anyone else. Therefore, the only one whose poems he knew by heart in childhood was N.A. Nekrasov.
Valery Yakovlevich's youth passed calmly and boundlessly. IN 1893 In the year he had already graduated from the gymnasium, at the same time he was fond of reading. Then he entered the Moscow University at the Faculty of History and Philology. Also in 15 For years he has been trying to write prose texts, even to translate. Her passion for literature constantly increased, and when he was presented with a thick notebook, he began to write poetry in it. Bryusov realized that he wanted to devote himself entirely to literature.
IN 1892 In the year Valery Yakovlevich begins with French poetry, he reads mainly symbolist poets: Verlaine, Malarmet, Rambo. They have a huge influence on his work. As a result, already in 1894 -1895 Over the years, he has published his own collections, but they include not only his works. The collection was called "Russian Symbolists". Even then it became clear that Valery Yakovlevich was very talented. After that, the poet releases collections and his books: "Masterpieces", "This is me."
Valery Yakovlevich 1899 graduates from university, and now devotes all his free time to literature. For two years he works as a secretary in one of the editorial offices of the magazine, then moves to another, just formed. The third book of Valery Yakovlevich brings him recognition as a poet.
The First World War brings changes to the poet's life. He goes to the front and works in one of the newspapers, writes articles that are devoted to military topics. But the war soon not only bothers the poet, but he even develops disgust. His patriotism is fading. IN 1915 year, disappointed, he returns home. After that, he tries to find themes for his work in a peaceful life. He writes poems and ballads, in which he diligently tries to show the human soul.
After that, representatives of Armenia turn to him, and Valery Yakovlevich takes on a great job. Already in 20 years, his work is published - a collection of poets of Armenia, in its design and translation.
IN 1924 year, in early October, Valery Yakovlevich dies in the family circle. Living in Moscow. He had not yet reached the age of 51 of the year. His poetry has endured for years and centuries.

Many of us know Valery Bryusov as a Russian poet whose poems were used by composers Sergei Rachmaninov, Alexander Grechaninov, Mikhail Gnesin, Reinhold Gliere. In addition, Bryusov was the author of plays, translator, editor of magazines, head of the literary institute. Literary critics call this poet one of the founders of Russian symbolism.

Childhood

Valery Yakovlevich was born in Moscow on December 13, 1873. His maternal grandfather, Alexander Bakulin, was a merchant and poet, the author of The Fables of a Provincial. Kuzma Bryusov, the paternal grandfather of the future poet, was a serf. He managed to redeem himself, left the Kostroma province for the capital, became engaged in trade, bought a mansion on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, where his famous grandson lived for 32 years.

The father of the future writer, Yakov Kuzmich, wrote poetry, sympathized with the revolutionary populists. He was a very gambler, was fond of horse racing, spent all his fortune on playing in the sweepstakes. Parents paid little attention to the upbringing of their son. At the age of four, a capable boy already knew how to read well. He spent all his time in the parent library. The father and mother only made sure that the boy did not read fairy tales and religious literature.

Valery was fond of the ideas of Darwin, studied the principles of materialism, but did not know Russian classical literature at all. The works of Turgenev, Tolstoy, Pushkin were not in his father's library, but there was a collection of works, and Bryusov Jr. knew most of his poems by heart. He really liked chemistry and physics, the boy was happy to do experiments, studied natural phenomena from books. At preschool age, he became the author of his first comedy "The Frog".

Education

At the age of 11, Valery became a student of the private Kreyman gymnasium. The boy showed such good results that he was immediately accepted into the second grade. At first, he did not enjoy authority among his peers. Before the gymnasium, the boy grew up alone, his brother and two sisters were born much later than Valery. He was not trained in simple children's games, classmates for a long time considered Bryusov an arrogant hack. But a few years later, Valery made friends with the same passionate lovers of literature, and together with them he began to publish a handwritten magazine, The Beginning.

Valery during this period was fond of many genres, wrote prose, poetry, made translations. He completely abandoned his studies, devoted whole evenings to literary activity - he wrote sonnets, octaves, triplets, rondos. Stories, dramas, novels came out from under his pen, he translated the works of modern, ancient authors. Even on the way to the gymnasium, the teenager thought not about studying, but about the plot of a new work, which he would do after class.

With such a passion for high genres, his first published article was surprisingly mundane. Valery, who shared his father's passion, spoke out with his opinion in support of the tote at the races in the Russian Sport magazine. Through the efforts of Bryusov and his comrades, the Nachalo magazine was published for several years. Then the schoolboys cooled down, left their idea.

At the age of 16, Bryusov resumed his activities as an editor, began to publish the V Class Sheet. The newspaper was free-thinking, it criticized the school order, for this reason the editor was soon offered to leave the educational institution. Bryusov went to study at the Polivanov gymnasium.

In the last classes of the gymnasium, he became interested in the work of Pushkin, Paul Verlaine, Stefan Mallarmé, Charles Baudelaire. In 1893, Bryusov wrote a letter to Paul Verlaine. In a letter to a French writer, the aspiring poet called himself

founder of Russian symbolism. In the same year, he wrote the drama Decadents. (End of the Century)”, which deals with some facts from the biography of Paul Verlaine.

In 1893, Valery became a student of the historical and philological faculty of Moscow University. He studied several disciplines - literature, philosophy, history, art, foreign languages. Bryusov paid special attention to foreign languages, they were necessary for the young writer to read the works of foreign authors in the original. The young man was burned with a thirst for knowledge, he believed that one life would not be enough for him to satisfy it.

Poetry collections

In 1894, the poet publishes the first collection called "Chefs d'oeuvre" - "Masterpieces". He dedicated his book not to his contemporaries, who are hardly able to appreciate this work, but to eternity and art. The overly loud title of the book and the aplomb with which Bryusov presented his work did not benefit the author. Critics reacted to his creations with a great deal of skepticism. Two years later, the next collection of Bryusov's poems was published, which he called "This is me." In the new collection, other motives appeared - historical, scientific, urbanistic.

The poet dedicated another collection of poems called "The Third Guard" to Konstantin Balmont. Many works from this book have historical and mythological plots. At that time, Bryusov's works were published in many magazines in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and the poet himself was an employee of the Scorpion publishing house in the capital.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Bryusov closely communicated with other symbolist poets - Fedor Sologub, Dmitry Merezhkovsky. In 1901, the poets jointly published their first almanac, Northern Flowers. This was the time when symbolism was recognized as a new literary trend. Symbolists arranged literary meetings at Bryusov, Gippius, Alexander Miropolsky.

Poets and writers not only introduced the guests to novelties, but also arranged séances.

The lighting was dimmed in the halls, after which the audience summoned the spirits, who not only moved the furniture, but also wrote cryptic texts with the help of a guide, a person present at the session.

Bryusov's next books were called "City and Peace" and "Wreath". In the last collection, he included works written earlier - about war, revolution, mythological and lyrical poems. Bryusov has always worked very hard. During this period, he was engaged in the publication of the magazine of the symbolists "Scales", was the head of the department of literary criticism of the magazine "Russian Thought", wrote plays, prose, and was engaged in translations.

During the First World War, the writer became a war correspondent for the Russkiye Vedomosti newspaper. He went to the front, like many at that time, with a patriotic mood. However, two years later, the patriotic fervor faded away, the poet returned to the capital, deeply disappointed with what was happening on the fronts. He no longer had the slightest desire to return to the battlefield, where the moral decay of the soldiers was in full swing. By that time, Bryusov's critical poems belong, which he did not have time to publish.

In those years, the poet was little interested in the storyline of the work, he was focused on the form of the poem, poetic technique. He was engaged in the selection of sophisticated rhymes, studied the techniques of poets of other poets, created classical works - French ballads. The poet was a virtuoso improviser, it took him several minutes to create a classical sonnet. Bryusov wrote a wreath of sonnets "The Fatal Row" in seven hours, although it included 15 works.

In 1915, the Moscow Armenian Committee commissioned a collection of national poetry from the poet. It was an anthology that covered the centuries-old history of the country. Bryusov was engaged in translations, editing, organization of work, preparation of the book for publication. After the release of the collection, the poet wrote a number of articles about the culture of Armenia, the book "Chronicle of the historical fate of the Armenian people." After some time, he was awarded the title of People's Poet of Armenia.

After the revolution, the poet was appointed head of the Committee for the Registration of the Press, he was an employee of the State Publishing House, chairman of the presidium of the All-Russian Union of Poets, prepared the first edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Since 1921 he was the organizer, then the rector and professor of the Higher Literary and Art Institute.

Personal life

During his life, the poet experienced many hobbies, all of them were mutual. At the age of 24, the poet married Joanna Runt, the governess of his sisters, who was of Czech or Polish origin.

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