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Mikhail Zoshchenko

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Birth Date:
09.08.1895
Death date:
22.07.1958
Extra names:
Mihails Zoščenko, Михаил Зощенко, Mihails Zoščenko, Michael Zoschenko, Михаил Михайлович Зощенко
Categories:
Aristocrat, Nobleman, landlord, Officer, WWI participant, Writer
Cemetery:
Sestroretskoye cemetery

Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko (Russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Зо́щенко, Ukrainian: Михайло Михайлович Зощенко; August 10 [O.S. July 29] 1895 – July 22, 1958) was a Soviet author and satirist.

Biography

Zoshchenko was born in 1895, in St.Petersburg, Russia, according to his 1953 autobiography. His Ukrainian father was an artist and a mosaicist responsible for the exterior decoration of the Suvorov Museum in Saint Petersburg. His mother was Russian. The future writer attended the Faculty of Law at the Saint Petersburg University, but did not graduate due to financial problems. During World War I 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, he served for several months in the Red Army 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 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.

Zoshchenko wrote a series of children’s short stories about Lenin.

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.

Source: wikipedia.org

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        Relation nameRelation typeBirth DateDeath dateDescription
        1Нина  ОльшевскаяНина ОльшевскаяFriend13.08.190825.03.1991
        2Владимир БаталовВладимир БаталовFriend19.09.190214.03.1964
        3Aleksey  BatalovAleksey BatalovFamiliar20.11.192815.06.2017
        4Anna AkhmatovaAnna AkhmatovaIdea mate23.06.188905.03.1966
        5Yevgeny  ZamyatinYevgeny ZamyatinIdea mate20.01.188410.03.1937
        6Nikolay GumilevNikolay GumilevIdea mate15.04.188624.08.1921
        7Вениамин КаверинВениамин КаверинIdea mate19.04.190202.05.1989
        8Vsevolod  IvanovVsevolod IvanovIdea mate24.02.189515.08.1963
        9Vladimir  PoznerVladimir PoznerIdea mate18.01.190519.02.1992
        10Nikolai  NikitinNikolai NikitinIdea mate27.07.188526.03.1963
        11Elizaveta  PolonskayaElizaveta PolonskayaIdea mate26.06.189011.01.1969
        12Nikolai  TikhonovNikolai TikhonovIdea mate04.12.189608.02.1979
        13Konstantin  FedinKonstantin FedinIdea mate24.02.189215.07.1977
        14Korney  ChukovskyKorney ChukovskyIdea mate31.03.188228.10.1969
        15Boris  EikhenbaumBoris EikhenbaumIdea mate04.10.188624.11.1959
        16Andrei ZhdanovAndrei ZhdanovCulprit26.02.189631.08.1948
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