Averchenko A. T

Biography

Russian writer-humorist, playwright, theater critic

Born on March 15 (27 NS) in Sevastopol in the family of a merchant. He received a home education, since due to poor eyesight and poor health he could not study at the gymnasium. I read a lot and indiscriminately.

At the age of fifteen he began working as a junior scribe in a transport office. A year later he left Sevastopol and began working as a clerk at the Bryansk coal mine, where he worked for three years. In 1900 he moved to Kharkov.

In 1903 in the Kharkov newspaper "Southern Region" the first story was published Averchenko "How I Had to Get Life Insurance", in which his literary style is already felt. In 1906 he became editor of a satirical magazine "Bayonet", almost entirely represented by his materials. After the closure of this journal, the next one is headed - "Sword", - also closed soon.

In 1907 he moved to St. Petersburg and collaborated in a satirical magazine "Dragonfly", later transformed into "Satyricon". Then he becomes the permanent editor of this popular publication.

In 1910, three books by Averchenko were published, making him famous throughout reading Russia: "Jolly Oysters", "Stories (humorous)", book 1, "Bunnies on the Wall", book II. "...their author is destined to become a Russian Twain...", - astutely noted V. Polonsky.

Books published in 1912 "Water Circles" and "Stories for the Convalescent" approved the author's title "king of laughter".

Averchenko greeted the February Revolution with enthusiasm, but did not accept the October Revolution. In the fall of 1918 he went south, collaborated in newspapers "Azov region" and "South", performs reading his stories, heads the literary department in "The Artist's House". At the same time he writes plays "The Cure for Stupidity" and "The Game of Death", and in April 1920 he organized his own theater "Nest of Migratory Birds". Six months later he emigrates abroad through Constantinople; Since June 1922 he has lived in Prague, traveling briefly to Germany, Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states. His book is published "A dozen knives in the back of the revolution", collection of stories: "Children", "Funny in Scary", humorous novel "Patron's Joke" etc.

In 1924 he underwent surgery to remove an eye, from which he could not recover for a long time; soon the heart disease progresses sharply.

He died in the Prague City Hospital on January 22 (March 3, n.s.) 1925. He was buried in Prague at the Olsany Cemetery.

Works

1910 - Jolly Oysters
1912 - Circles on the water
1912 - Stories for Convalescents
1913 - Selected Stories
1913 - Black and white
1914 - Humorous stories
1914 - Weeds
1914 - About essentially good people!
1916 - Wolf pits,
1916 - Gilded pills
1916 - Stories about children
1917 - Crucians and pikes
1917 - Blue and gold
1918 - Miracles in a sieve
1920 - Evil spirits
1922 - Boiling Cauldron
1922 - Children
1923 - Funny in the scary
1924 - Pantheon of advice to young people
1925 - Tales of a Cynic

After the revolution, many wonderful poets and prose writers left Russia. One of them was Arkady Averchenko. The biography of this writer is quite sad, like the life of many Russian emigrants who were forced to live out their lives far from their homeland.

Childhood

The satirist reflected his early years in the work “Autobiography” created in a unique style. Since childhood, Arkady Averchenko, whose biography, like his life, ended quite early, due to a severe congenital disease, had poor eyesight. He was born in Sevastopol in 1881. The father of the future writer was a mediocre merchant. But Averchenko failed to get a decent education. The same illness was to blame. In a sense, the son of a Sevastopol merchant can be called a nugget. After all, he was able to fill the gaps in education thanks to his natural abilities, perseverance and desire for knowledge.

Boyhood

However, Averchenko did not have much time for training in his youth. His biography says that this man’s life developed in such a way that already at the age of fifteen the teenager had to earn his living. At first he entered the Sevastopol transport office as a scribe. Then there was service at one of the mines in Donbass. Arkady Averchenko reflected his first work experience in his early work. The biography of this man is known to everyone who is familiar with the works of the satirist. The stories “Autobiography” and “About Steamship Horns” are written in a light humorous style. Averchenko’s works, although they do not have great literary value, are created with subtle satire, which the author always knew how to direct not only towards others, but also towards himself.

Donbass mine

The future writer ended up at the Bryansk mine at the age of sixteen. Here he worked for four years. And, of course, life experience and communication with employees in the miner’s office could not but serve as material for writing the following stories. In his works “Lightning” and “In the Evening,” the young writer Averchenko reflected his life at the mine. The biography of this person, as already mentioned, is quite short. But at the same time it is very rich. In just twenty years, he changed several cities, both Russian and foreign.

Kharkov

Averchenko leaves Donbass. He goes to Kharkov, where he begins his creative journey. His first story appeared in one of the local newspapers at the beginning of the century. The piece was called “How I Insured My Life.” But Averchenko did not consider this story his literary debut. A short biography of the writer, written by himself, suggests that during the Kharkov period he completely abandoned his service and devoted a lot of time to literary creativity. And it was during these years that the story “The Righteous” was written.

Working in a magazine

For about a year, the hero of our story worked in Kharkov satirical magazines. According to the memoirs of friends and relatives, Arkady Averchenko was an extremely unlucky person. It is no coincidence that the (short) biography of this writer is presented in the book “Great Losers” by Alexander Vek.

Averchenko regularly published his short works in the magazines “Bayonet” and “Sword,” which were popular among readers. But for some reason, a year later, the young writer was fired with the words: “You are no good for hell, even though you are a good person.” And he left Kharkov without paying off the financial debts that he strangely acquired in a very short period of time.

Petersburg

In the capital, Arkady Averchenko at first worked mainly in third-rate publications. But here he finally received recognition. In St. Petersburg, luck smiled on him. The staff of the Dragonfly magazine, which at that time was losing its subscribers, decided one day to organize a new periodical. Among the organizers was Arkady Averchenko.

This magazine was called "Satyricon". And Averchenko himself became the editor-in-chief. The biography and work of the writer is closely connected with the magazine. It was here that the most famous stories appeared. "Satyricon" became extremely popular, primarily thanks to the works of Averchenko. While working in this magazine, the writer was able to find his own style. However, the stories that were published in Satyricon had a political orientation. Averchenko has been put on trial more than once. However, this had the most favorable effect on the popularity of his literary creations.

In 1911, Averchenko travels to European cities. He organizes the trip together with his colleagues. Traveling around Europe inspires him to write a satirical essay. The writer combined his work for the magazine with reviewing high-profile theatrical productions. But he used to sign his critical articles with various pseudonyms.

October Revolution

After the coup d'etat everything changed. "Satyricon" was closed by the Bolsheviks. The magazine staff did not like the new government. Which, however, was mutual. Suddenly he turned from a prominent literary figure into a fugitive and political criminal. His biography after the revolutionary events was quite eventful. He published stories, published books. However, the intense creative upsurge that was characteristic of the St. Petersburg period no longer existed in his life.

In order to get to his hometown, the writer had to make his way for a long time through Ukrainian cities occupied by German troops. In Sevastopol, he worked briefly in a local magazine. When the Bolsheviks entered the city, he miraculously managed to get on the last ship leaving for Constantinople.

Emigration

The first years abroad were fruitful for Averchenko. There were quite a few Russians in Constantinople at that time. And in Paris, where Averchenko went a few months after emigrating, he found like-minded people. In France, no one restricted his freedom. The publication of anti-Bolshevik literature was then in fashion. And Averchenko wrote several satirical pamphlets dedicated to the new Soviet government. These works were collected in one publication. And even Lenin himself drew attention to them, calling the book “talented” and its author “an embittered White Guard.”

Czech Republic

In 1922, Averchenko moved to Bulgaria, then to Belgrade. After that he lived for several months in Prague. In the Czech Republic it instantly gained popularity. However, away from his homeland, his life became more and more difficult. In the last, late period, he wrote several works dedicated to nostalgia for Russia. One of them is the story “The Tragedy of the Russian Writer.”

In 1925, the writer’s health deteriorated sharply. He underwent surgery, which resulted in a heart complication. In the same year, Arkady Averchenko passed away. The Russian satirist writer is buried in a Prague cemetery. His last work was the novel “The Patron’s Joke.” This work was written two years before the author's death, but published in 1925.

Arkady Averchenko was born on March 27, 1881 in Sevastopol in the family of a poor merchant Timofey Petrovich Averchenko and Susanna Pavlovna Sofronova, the daughter of a retired soldier from the Poltava region.

Averchenko did not receive any primary education, since due to poor eyesight he could not study for long, but the lack of education was compensated over time by his natural intelligence.

Arkady Averchenko began working at the age of 15. From 1896 to 1897, he served as a junior scribe in the transport office of Sevastopol. He did not stay there long, just over a year, and subsequently described this period of his life in the ironic “Autobiography”, as well as the story in “On Steamship Horns”

In 1896, Averchenko went to work as a clerk in the Donbass at the Bryansk mine. He worked at the mine for four years, subsequently writing several stories about life there - “In the Evening”, “Lightning” and other works.

In 1903, the Kharkov newspaper “Yuzhny Krai” published Averchenko’s first story, “How I Had to Insure My Life,” in which his literary style was revealed. In 1906, Averchenko became the editor of the satirical magazine "Bayonet", almost entirely represented by his materials. After the closure of this magazine, he headed the next one - “Sword”, which was also closed soon.

In 1907, he moved to St. Petersburg and collaborated with the satirical magazine “Dragonfly”, later transformed into “Satyricon”. Then he became the permanent editor of this popular publication.

In 1910, three books by Averchenko were published, making him famous throughout reading Russia: “Funny Oysters”, “Stories (humorous)”, book 1, “Bunnies on the Wall”, book II. “...their author is destined to become a Russian Twain...”, V. Polonsky insightfully noted.

The books “Circles on the Water” and “Stories for Convalescents”, published in 1912, confirmed the author’s title of “king of laughter.”

Averchenko greeted the February Revolution with enthusiasm, but did not accept the October Revolution. In the fall of 1918, Averchenko left for the south, collaborated with the newspapers Priazovsky Krai and Yug, read his stories, and headed the literary department at the Artist's House. At the same time, he wrote the plays “A Cure for Stupidity” and “The Game with Death”, and in April 1920 he organized his own theater “Nest of Migratory Birds”. Six months later he emigrated abroad through Constantinople, from June 1922 he lived in Prague, briefly traveling to Germany, Poland, Romania and the Baltic states. His book “A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution”, a collection of short stories: “Children”, “The Funny in the Scary” and the humorous novel “The Patron’s Joke” are published.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AVERCHENKO.

Fifteen minutes before my birth, I did not know that I would appear in this world. I make this in itself a trivial instruction only because I want to be a quarter of an hour ahead of all the other wonderful people whose lives have been described with tedious monotony from the moment of birth. Here you go.

When the midwife presented me to my father, he examined what I was like with the air of a connoisseur and exclaimed:

I'll bet you a gold coin it's a boy!

“Old fox! “I thought, grinning internally, “you’re playing for sure.”

From this conversation our acquaintance began, and then our friendship.

Out of modesty, I will be careful not to point out the fact that on my birthday the bells were rung and there was general popular rejoicing.

Evil tongues connected this rejoicing with some great holiday that coincided with the day of my birth, but I still don’t understand what another holiday has to do with it?

Taking a closer look at my surroundings, I decided that my first duty was to grow up. I performed this with such care that when I was eight years old, I once saw my father taking my hand. Of course, even before this, my father had repeatedly taken me by the indicated limb, but previous attempts were nothing more than real symptoms of fatherly affection. In the present case, he, moreover, pulled a hat onto his and my heads - and we went out into the street.

Where are the devils taking us? - I asked with the directness that has always characterized me.

You need to study.

Very necessary! I don't want to study.

Why?

To get rid of it, I said the first thing that came to mind:

I'm sick.

What hurts you?

I went through all my organs from memory and chose the most important one:

Hm... Let's go to the doctor.

When we arrived at the doctor's, I bumped into him, his patient, and knocked over a small table.

Boy, do you really not see anything?

“Nothing,” I answered, hiding the tail of the phrase, which I finished in my mind: “... good in learning.”

So I never studied science.

The legend that I was a sick, frail boy who could not study grew and strengthened, and most of all I cared about it myself.

My father, being a merchant by profession, did not pay any attention to me, since he was up to his neck busy with troubles and plans: how to go bankrupt as quickly as possible? This was the dream of his life, and we must give him full justice - the good old man achieved his aspirations in the most impeccable manner. He did this with the complicity of a whole galaxy of thieves who robbed his store, customers who borrowed exclusively and systematically, and fires that incinerated those of his father’s goods that were not stolen by thieves and customers.

Thieves, fires and buyers stood as a wall between me and school for a long time, and I would have remained illiterate if the older sisters had not come up with a funny idea that promised them a lot of new sensations: to take up my education. Obviously, I was a tasty morsel, because because of the very dubious pleasure of illuminating my lazy brain with the light of knowledge, the sisters not only argued, but once even got into hand-to-hand combat, and the result of the fight - a dislocated finger - did not at all cool the teaching ardor of the elder sister Lyuba.

Thus - against the background of family caring, love, fires, thieves and buyers - my growth took place, and a conscious attitude towards the environment developed.

When I was fifteen years old, my father, who sadly said goodbye to thieves, buyers and fires, once said to me:

We need to serve you.

“I don’t know how,” I objected, as usual, choosing a position that could guarantee me complete and serene peace.

Nonsense! - the father objected. - Seryozha Zeltser is not older than you, but he is already serving!

This Seryozha was the biggest nightmare of my youth. A clean, neat German, our neighbor at home, Seryozha, from a very early age was set as an example for me as an example of restraint, hard work and neatness.

“Look at Seryozha,” the mother said sadly. - The boy serves, deserves the love of his superiors, knows how to talk, behaves freely in society, plays the guitar, sings... And you?

Discouraged by these reproaches, I immediately went up to the guitar hanging on the wall, pulled the string, began to squeal some unknown song in a shrill voice, tried to “stay more freely,” shuffling my feet on the walls, but all this was weak, everything was second-rate. Seryozha remained out of reach!

Seryozha is serving, but you are not serving yet... - my father reproached me.

Seryozha, maybe, eats frogs at home,” I objected, after thinking. - So will you order me?

I'll order it if necessary! - the father barked, banging his fist on the table. - Damn it! I'll make silk out of you!

As a man of taste, my father preferred silk of all materials, and any other material seemed unsuitable for me.

I remember the first day of my service, which I was supposed to start in some sleepy transport office for the transportation of luggage.

I got there almost at eight o’clock in the morning and found only one man in a vest without a jacket, very friendly and modest.

“This is probably the main agent,” I thought.

Hello! - I said, shaking his hand tightly. - How are you doing?

Wow. Sit down, let's chat!

We smoked cigarettes in a friendly manner, and I started a diplomatic conversation about my future career, telling the whole story about myself.

What, you idiot, haven’t even wiped off the dust yet?!

The one I suspected was the chief agent jumped up with a cry of fright and grabbed a dusty rag. The commanding voice of the newly arrived young man convinced me that I was dealing with the main agent himself.

“Hello,” I said. - How do you live? Can you? (Sociability and secularism according to Seryozha Zeltser.)

“Nothing,” said the young master. -Are you our new employee? Wow! I'm very glad!

We got into a friendly conversation and didn’t even notice how a middle-aged man entered the office, grabbed the young gentleman by the shoulder and sharply shouted at the top of his lungs:

Is this how you, the devilish parasite, are preparing a register? I'll kick you out if you're lazy!

The gentleman, who I took to be the chief agent, turned pale, lowered his head sadly and wandered to his desk. And the chief agent sank into a chair, leaned back and began to ask me important questions about my talents and abilities.

“I’m a fool,” I thought to myself. - How could I not have figured out earlier what kind of birds my previous interlocutors were? This boss is such a boss! It’s immediately obvious!”

At this time, a commotion was heard in the hallway.

Look who's there? - the chief agent asked me.

I looked out into the hallway and reassuringly said:

Some ugly old man is taking off his coat.

The ugly old man came in and shouted:

It's ten o'clock and none of you are doing a damn thing!! Will this ever end?!

The previous important boss jumped up in his chair like a ball, and the young gentleman, whom he had previously called a “idler,” warned me in my ear:

The chief agent dragged himself along.

That's how I started my service.

I served for a year, all the time most shamefully trailing behind Seryozha Zeltser. This young man received 25 rubles a month, when I received 15, and when I reached 25 rubles, they gave him 40. I hated him like some disgusting spider washed with fragrant soap...

At the age of sixteen, I parted with my sleepy transport office and left Sevastopol (I forgot to say - this is my homeland) to some coal mines. This place was the least suitable for me, and that’s why I probably ended up there on the advice of my father, who was experienced in everyday troubles...

It was the dirtiest and most remote mine in the world. The only difference between autumn and other seasons was that in autumn the mud was above the knees, and at other times - below.

And all the inhabitants of this place drank like cobblers, and I drank no worse than others. The population was so small that one person had a whole lot of positions and occupations. The cook Kuzma was at the same time both a contractor and a trustee of the mine school, the paramedic was a midwife, and when I first came to the most famous hairdresser in those parts, his wife asked me to wait a little, since her husband had gone to replace someone’s broken glass. miners last night.

These miners (coal miners) also seemed to me a strange people: being mostly escapees from hard labor, they did not have passports and the absence of this indispensable accessory of a Russian citizen was filled with a sad look and despair in their souls - with a whole sea of vodka.

Their whole life was such that they were born for vodka, worked and ruined their health with backbreaking work - for the sake of vodka, and went to the next world with the closest participation and help of the same vodka.

One day before Christmas I was driving from the mine to the nearest village and saw a row of black bodies lying motionless along the entire length of my path; there were two or three every 20 steps.

What is it? - I was amazed...

And the miners,” the driver smiled sympathetically. - They bought gorilka near the village. For God's holiday.

Tai was not informed. They wet the misty. Axis how!

So we drove past entire deposits of dead drunk people who apparently had such a weak will that they did not even have time to run home, surrendering to the scorching thirst that gripped their throats wherever this thirst overtook them. And they lay in the snow, with black, meaningless faces, and if I didn’t know the way to the village, I would have found it along these giant black stones, scattered by a giant boy with a finger all the way.

These people, however, were for the most part strong and seasoned, and the most monstrous experiments on their bodies cost them relatively little. They broke each other's heads, completely destroyed their noses and ears, and one daredevil once even took on a tempting bet (no doubt - a bottle of vodka) to eat a dynamite cartridge. Having done this, for two or three days, despite severe vomiting, he enjoyed the most careful and caring attention from his comrades, who were all afraid that he would explode.

After this strange quarantine passed, he was severely beaten.

Office employees differed from workers in that they fought less and drank more. All these were people, for the most part rejected by the rest of the world for mediocrity and inability to live, and thus, on our small island, surrounded by immeasurable steppes, the most monstrous company of stupid, dirty and mediocre alcoholics, scum and scraps of the fastidious white world gathered.

Brought here by the giant broom of God's will, they all gave up on the outside world and began to live as God dictated.

They drank, played cards, cursed with cruel, desperate words, and in their drunkenness sang something insistently viscous and danced with gloomy concentration, breaking the floors with their heels and spewing from weakened lips whole streams of blasphemy against humanity.

This was the fun side of mining life. Its dark sides consisted of hard labor, walking through the deepest mud from the office to the colony and back, as well as serving in the guardhouse under a whole series of outlandish protocols drawn up by a drunken policeman.

When the management of the mines was transferred to Kharkov, they took me there too, and I came to life in soul and became stronger in body...

For whole days I wandered around the city, pushing my hat on one side and independently whistling the most rollicking tunes that I overheard in the summer chants - a place that at first delighted me to the depths of my soul.

I worked in the office disgustingly and I still wonder why they kept me there for six years, lazy, looking at work with disgust and on every occasion engaging not only with the accountant, but also with the director in long, bitter disputes and polemics.

Probably because I was a cheerful person, joyfully looking at the wide world of God, willingly putting aside work for laughter, jokes and a series of intricate anecdotes, which refreshed those around me, bogged down in work, boring accounts and squabbles.

My literary activity began in 1904, and it seemed to me to be a complete triumph. Firstly, I wrote a story... Secondly, I took it to the "Southern Region". And thirdly (I am still of the opinion that this is the most important thing in the story), thirdly, it was published!

For some reason I did not receive a fee for it, and this is all the more unfair since as soon as it was published, subscriptions and retail sales of the newspaper immediately doubled...

The same envious, evil tongues that tried to connect my birthday with some other holiday also connected the fact of the rise in retail with the beginning of the Russian-Japanese War.

Well, yes, you and I, reader, know where the truth is...

Having written four stories in two years, I decided that I had worked enough for the benefit of my native literature, and decided to take a thorough rest, but 1905 rolled up and, picking me up, spun me around like a piece of wood.

I began to edit the magazine “Bayonet”, which was a great success in Kharkov, and completely abandoned the service... I wrote feverishly, drew cartoons, edited and proofread, and by the ninth issue I got to the point where Governor General Peshkov fined me 500 rubles, dreaming that I would immediately pay it out of my pocket money...

I refused for many reasons, the main ones being: lack of money and unwillingness to indulge the whims of a frivolous administrator.

Seeing my steadfastness (the fine was not replaced by imprisonment), Peshkov lowered the price to 100 rubles.

I refused.

We bargained like brokers, and I visited him almost ten times. He never managed to squeeze money out of me!

Then he, offended, said:

One of us must leave Kharkov!

Your Excellency! - I objected. - Let's make an offer to Kharkov residents: who will they choose?

Since I was loved in the city and even vague rumors reached me about the desire of citizens to perpetuate my image by erecting a monument, Mr. Peshkov did not want to risk his popularity.

And I left, having managed to publish three issues of the Sword magazine before leaving, which was so popular that copies of it can even be found in the Public Library.

I arrived in Petrograd just for the New Year.

There was illumination again, the streets were decorated with flags, banners and lanterns. But I won't say anything. I'll keep quiet!

And so they sometimes reproach me for thinking about my merits more than is required by ordinary modesty. And I, I can give my word of honor, having seen all this illumination and joy, pretended that I did not notice at all the innocent cunning and sentimental, simple-minded attempts of the municipality to brighten up my first visit to a large unfamiliar city... Modestly, incognito, I got into a cab and went incognito to the place of his new life.

And so I started it.

My first steps were connected with the magazine “Satyricon” that we founded, and to this day I love, like my own child, this wonderful, cheerful magazine (8 rubles a year, 4 rubles for six months).

His success was half my success, and I can proudly say now that it is rare that a cultured person does not know our “Satyricon” (8 rubles for a year, 4 rubles for six months).

At this point I am already approaching the last, immediate era of my life, and I will not say, but everyone will understand why I am silent at this point.

Out of sensitive, tender, painfully tender modesty, I fall silent.

I will not list the names of those people who have recently become interested in me and wanted to get to know me. But if the reader thinks about the true reasons for the arrival of the Slavic deputation, the Spanish infanta and President Faller, then perhaps my modest personality, stubbornly kept in the shadows, will receive a completely different light...

© Arkady Averchenko

NIKITA BOGOSLOVSKY TALKS ABOUT ARKADY AVERCHENKO.

We know negligibly little about the life and creative path of Averchenko, the most talented, witty, bright and popular humorist writer of the pre-revolutionary decade. Perhaps the greatest amount of information about him can be gleaned from the article by critic O. Mikhailov, which precedes a collection of humorous stories by Averchenko (Khudozhestvennaya Literatura publishing house, 1964).

In this article of mine, I am by no means going to subject numerous works of the writer to a literary critical analysis... I simply want, on the basis of the opportunity given to me, to introduce a number of little or even completely unknown information and sources and briefly tell the reader about the stages of the writer’s biography, only slightly touching on his creative activity.

“Biographical information about Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko is scant. It is only known that he was born in 1881 in Sevastopol, into a poor merchant family” (O. Mikhailov). Averchenko himself in the humorous “Encyclopedic Dictionary” reports: “Rod. in 1882." Unfortunately, the exact date of birth cannot be established, since in his personal archive, taken from abroad by the late I. S. Zilberstein and stored in TsGALI, there is not a single identity card indicating the year and month of birth. The writer died on March 12, 1925 in Prague and was buried in the Olshansky cemetery there, where a modest monument was erected to him with the wrong date of birth carved into marble - “1884”.

Timofey Petrovich Averchenko, the writer's father, and his mother Susanna Pavlovna had nine children - six girls and three boys, two of whom died in infancy. The writer’s sisters, with the exception of one, outlived their brother for a long time.

Arkady Timofeevich’s father was, according to O. Mikhailov’s definition, “an eccentric dreamer and a useless businessman,” to which conclusion the critic apparently came on the basis of Averchenko’s story “Father,” as well as information from his “Autobiography.”

There are various information about the writer’s initial education. In his Autobiography, he says that if it were not for his sisters, he would have remained illiterate. But, obviously, he still studied at the gymnasium for some time. According to the testimony of the writer N. N. Breshko-Breshkovsky, who knew Averchenko closely, “the lack of education - two classes at the gymnasium - was made up for by natural intelligence.” And indeed, he did not receive a complete secondary education, since due to poor eyesight he could not study for a long time, and besides, soon, as a result of an accident, he severely damaged his eye, which could not be completely cured.

And so, having left his studies, Averchenko, as a 15-year-old boy, entered service in a private transport office. He repeatedly recalls this period of his life in his stories. However, Averchenko, having worked in the office for just over a year, in 1897 left for the Donbass, to the Bryansk mine, where he became a clerk on the recommendation of engineer I. Terentyev, the husband of one of his sisters. After serving for three years at the mine and subsequently writing several stories about his life there (“In the Evening”, “Lightning” and others), he and the mine office moved to Kharkov, where, as O. Mikhailov writes, “in the newspaper “Yuzhny Krai” On October 31, 1903, his first story appeared.”

L.D. Leonidov, a famous entrepreneur who once worked at the Moscow Art Theater, and later the owner of theatrical enterprises in France and the USA, was one of the few artists who knew Averchenko in his youth: “Arkasha Averchenko was a tall, thin, like a pole, young man . He outshone my friends at parties with his wit and successful funny ad libs...”

Averchenko, having been dismissed from service in 1907 with the words of the director: “You are a good person, but you’re no good for hell,” - having experienced several financially difficult months and not finding sufficiently wide opportunities in Kharkov for his literary activity, for which he began to feel strong attraction, on the advice of friends he moved in January 1908 to St. Petersburg.

It must be said that by this time Averchenko already had some literary experience - in the last years of his Kharkov life, he edited the satirical magazine “Bayonet” (1906-1907) and published several issues of the magazine “Sword”. Five years after his appearance in the capital, Averchenko on the pages of “Satyricon” (No. 28, 1913) he talks about his arrival in St. Petersburg like this: “For several days in a row I wandered around St. Petersburg, looking closely at the signs of the editorial offices - my daring did not go further than that. What does human fate sometimes depend on: the editorial offices of “The Jester” and “Oskolki” were located on distant unfamiliar streets, and “Dragonfly” and “Grey Wolf” are in the center... If “The Jester” and “Oskolki” were right there, in the center, - maybe I would lay my humble head in one of these magazines. I’ll go with “Dragonfly” first, I decided. - Alphabetically. This is what the ordinary humble alphabet does to a person: I stayed in the Dragonfly.

In 1965, M.G. Kornfeld, recalling his acquaintance with his future collaborator, said: “Averchenko brought me several hilarious and excellent in form stories, which I gladly accepted. At that time, I was finishing the reorganization of Dragonfly and the formation of a new editorial staff. Averchenko became her permanent employee at the same time as Teffi, Sasha Cherny, Osip Dymov, O. L. d'Or and others..."

Since the Dragonfly magazine had fallen into complete decline, changes were necessary, and the appearance of the talented and energetic Averchenko was very opportune. And now on April 1, 1908, “Dragonfly”, founded by the father of the current editor, the owner of a soap factory, Herman Kornfeld, was published under a new name: “Satyricon”. The title was drawn by M. Dobuzhinsky, the drawing on the first page was by L. Bakst. And Arkady Timofeevich, already then the secretary of the editorial office of Dragonfly, continued his activities in the same post at Satyricon, of which he became editor in 1913. And soon after this, a serious conflict (mainly on material grounds) occurred between a group of magazine employees and the publisher, and Averchenko, along with the most talented writers and artists, left the editorial office and founded his own magazine, “New Satyricon.” In its first issue, published on June 6, 1913, in connection with this conflict, an offended letter from Kornfeld was published with hints about the possibility of reconciliation and then a very poisonous and ironic response from the editors. For some time, both magazines were published in parallel, but after about a year the old Satyricon, deprived of the best authors and artists, was forced to close, having lost a huge number of subscribers. And the “New Satyricon” successfully existed until August 1918, after which most of its employees went into emigration (Averchenko, Teffi, Sasha Cherny, S. Gorny, A. Bukhov, Remi, A. Yakovlev and others).

During his prosperous, successful life in St. Petersburg, Averchenko became extremely popular. “Satyricon” and collections of stories that were published in large editions were immediately snapped up. His plays (mostly staged stories) were successfully staged in many theaters across the country. And even His Imperial Majesty Nicholas II, being an admirer of Averchenkov’s talent, once deigned to invite him to Tsarskoe Selo to read his works in the circle of his august family. But, as M. Kornfeld says: “We all thought that the speech of the editor of Satyricon in Tsarskoe Selo would hardly be appropriate and desirable.” The visit never took place; Averchenko cited illness.

During the ten years of his life in the capital, Averchenko traveled a lot around the country with performances, and went on trips abroad, as a rule, together with his friends and colleagues in the magazine, artists A.A. Radakov and N.V. Remizov (Remy). After his first foreign voyage in the summer of 1911, he published a supplement to the Satyricon for 1912 - the book “The Satyricon Expedition to Western Europe,” which was a resounding success. And in the same year, in addition to hard work at the magazine, he went on a long tour of Russia, participating in evenings of humor writers in many cities.

What did he look like externally, this young and clumsy provincial in the recent past, who managed in a short time to become a famous writer who constantly amused all reading Russia? The artist N.V. Remizov, already in exile, describes Averchenko’s first appearance in the editorial office as follows: “A large man with a slightly puffy face, but with a pleasant, open expression, entered the room: eyes looked through the pince-nez, which had the peculiarity of smiling without participation facial muscles. The impression was from the first glance at him - a prepossessing one, despite the slight touch of provincial “chic”, like the black, too wide ribbon of pince-nez and a white starched vest, details that were already “taboo” in St. Petersburg.”

The success of the magazine, large circulations of books, performances, and theatrical performances also brought material well-being. Averchenko moves into a cozy apartment and furnishes it beautifully. N.N. Breshko-Breshkovsky recalls how “in the mornings, Averchenko did gymnastics to the sounds of the gramophone, working with weights that weighed pounds.” Although he had no musical education, at one time he was seriously interested in opera, then operetta, and in the numerous miniature theaters where his plays were performed, he was his own man. His ironic and cheerful theater reviews often appeared in Satyricon under one of his many pseudonyms - Ae, Wolf, Thomas Opiskin, Medusa the Gorgon, Falstaff and others. The writer, as a rule, spent his evenings in the Vienna restaurant with his satirical friends, writers, actors, and musicians. One of Averchenko’s many everyday hobbies was chess. L. O. Utesov told me that he was an extraordinary player, he composed and printed problems.

The war of 1914 had almost no effect on Averchenko’s life and work - because he was “one-eyed,” he was not drafted into the army and continued to edit his magazine, often speaking at charity events in favor of the wounded and those affected by the war. After the October Revolution, both Averchenko himself and the editors of Satyricon took a sharply negative position towards Soviet power, after which the magazine was closed by government decree in August 1918.

And then everything collapsed. The magazine is no longer there. The books are not coming out. A substantial bank account has been requisitioned. They intend to “compact” the apartment. In the long term - a hungry and cold winter. Friends and comrades are leaving Petrograd - in all directions. And here is a proposal from Moscow from the artist Koshevsky - to organize a cabaret theater somewhere in the south of Russia. But Averchenko and Radakov, who arrived in Moscow, find Koshevsky seriously ill. The whole plan was ruined. And then Averchenko, together with Teffi, who also happened to be in Moscow, goes to Kyiv (they were invited to literary evenings by two different entrepreneurs).

Teffi’s “Memoirs” very vividly and funnyly describes the numerous scrapes that the writers had to get into during their long trip through German-occupied Ukraine. In Kyiv, however, Averchenko did not stay long and through Kharkov and Rostov, where he lived for several months, performing at humorous evenings, as a refugee he went to his homeland, to Sevastopol, then occupied by whites. This was at the end of March or beginning of April 1919. But what he did in Sevastopol from April to June of this year, when French troops surrendered the city to the Red Army, information could not be obtained anywhere. And, starting from June 1919 and until the end of 1920, Arkady Timofeevich, as well as famous writers I. Surguchev, E. Chirikov and I. Shmelev actively worked in the newspaper “Yug” (later “South of Russia”), intensively campaigning for help from the Volunteer army. Averchenko also, together with the writer Anatoly Kamensky (who later returned to the USSR), opened the cabaret theater "House of Artist", where at the beginning of 1920 his multi-act play "The Game with Death", written in the summer of last year, was staged. Judging by the review published in the Yug newspaper (January 4, 1920), the play was a good success. And in the spring of the same year, Averchenko already takes part in performances of the new theater - “Nest of Migratory Birds” and continues to organize his evenings in Sevastopol, Balaklava and Evpatoria.

By the end of October, Wrangel's troops found themselves in a desperate situation in Crimea. On November 2, the Reds occupied Sevastopol. And a few days before that, Averchenko went to Constantinople in the ship’s hold on coal bags. He spoke about this journey with bitter humor in the book “Notes of the Innocent. I am in Europe" (Berlin, North Publishing House, 1923). Friends in Constantinople (now Istanbul) rented him a small room in Pera (city district) in advance, and he lived there for a year and a half, resurrecting his Nest Theater. There were a lot of Russian refugees in the city at that time, Russian miniature theaters and restaurants were operating.

But life in a country alien to its morals, traditions and language became extremely difficult for Averchenko. He and his troupe leave Turkey, and on April 13, 1922, arrive on Slavic land - in Sofia, where he expected to stay for a long time, but since the then Stambolisky government treated white emigrants very harshly, and introduced numerous restrictions for them, the troupe, together with its leader , having given only two performances, hastily departed for Yugoslavia, and on May 27, the first performance, which was a huge success, took place in Belgrade. Then another one, according to a different program - and Averchenko and the theater left for Prague, giving a concert in Zagreb on the way. And two days later, on June 17, Averchenko arrives in Prague, where he finally settles for permanent residence.

Prague, which greeted the writer hospitably and cordially, pleased him too. He quickly gained many friends and admirers. Many of his stories have been translated into Czech. The first evening took place on July 3, which was a great success and received rave reviews in many newspapers. Then, from July to September, he toured the country - he visited Brno, Pilsen, Moravian Ostrava, Bratislava, Uzhgorod, Mukachevo and, returning to Prague only in the first half of September, began working intensively for the Prager Press newspaper, appearing there weekly his feuilletons and new stories. In October, successful tours took place in the Baltic states, Poland and Berlin.

Trouble awaited Averchenko in connection with his upcoming trip to Romania - at first, a visa was not given for a long time. When he finally appeared before the Chisinau public on October 6, they gave the writer an ovation, after which an unexpected complication occurred in Bucharest. The fact is that the Romanian newspapers of that time suddenly remembered that during the World War, Averchenko in his “New Satyricon” published several caustic and offensive feuilletons about the Romanian army, and demanded that the government ban him from speaking and leaving the country. But later the matter was settled after a petition through diplomatic channels from members of the Czech government, admirers of the writer’s talent.

And then wandering again: Belgrade, Berlin again. An invitation was received from the USA, a vacation on the Riga seaside was planned. But all plans went wrong - on the eve of leaving for Riga, his left eye, damaged back in Kharkov times, became seriously ill. An operation was performed and an artificial eye had to be inserted. It would seem that everything turned out well, but the writer began to feel a general malaise, at first not attaching any importance to it. But things got worse - a stay at the Podobrady resort did not help, attacks of suffocation began, and on January 28, 1925, almost unconscious, he was admitted to the clinic at the Prague City Hospital. Diagnosis: almost complete weakening of the heart muscle, expansion of the aorta and renal sclerosis.

Despite a noticeable improvement in early February, after a secondary hemorrhage in the stomach, at 9 a.m. on March 12, 1925, at the age of 44, the wonderful Russian humorist writer Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko died in a hospitable but foreign country. His body was placed in a metal coffin and enclosed in a special case in case anyone in the future - relatives or cultural organizations - could transport the ashes of the deceased to their homeland. Averchenko had no direct heirs; he was a bachelor.

From the very beginning of his St. Petersburg activities, many reviews appeared in the press about Averchenko’s works. In the West, after the death of the writer, many books dedicated to him were published. But for some reason, none of them ever evaluates or even almost mentions two major works: the story “Pokhodtsev and Two Others” and the humorous novel “Maecenas’s Joke.”

Averchenko repeatedly used his favorite literary device - in literary characters he depicted the appearance and characters of his friends and colleagues in the Satyricon, most often the artists A. Radakov and N. Remizov, depicting them (under pseudonyms) in the "Expedition to Western Europe" (in In this book, the artists drew caricatures of each other). In the characters of “Podkhodtsev,” in fact, not a story, but a series of funny and sometimes lyrical short stories with three “cross-cutting” characters - Podkhodtsev, Klinkov and Gromov - one can also see a similarity with the characters and appearance of his satirical friends.

Averchenko’s last work, “The Maecenas’ Joke,” was written in 1923 in Tsoppot (now Sopot) and published in Prague in 1925 after the death of the writer. The novel is both cheerful and sad, permeated with nostalgia for the carefree bohemian life of St. Petersburg, dear to the author’s heart. And again, in the characters of the novel there are signs of the author himself and his friends.

Arkady Averchenko was buried in Prague at the Olshansky cemetery.

In 2006, a television program “The Man Who Laughed” was filmed about Arkady Averchenko.

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Collections of stories:

"Humorous Stories"
"Jolly Oysters"
"General history, processed by "Satyricon""
"Twelve portraits (in the "Boudoir" format)"
"Children"
"A dozen knives in the back of the revolution"
"Notes of the Innocent"
"Boiling Cauldron"
"Circles on the water"
"Little Leniniana"
"Evil spirit"
“About essentially good people!”
"Pantheon of Advice to Young People"
"Stories for Convalescent People"
"Stories about Children"
"Tales of the Old School"
"Funny in the scary"
"Weeds"
"Black and white"
"Miracles in a sieve"
“Expedition to Western Europe of satirical writers: Yuzhakin, Sanders, Mifasov and Krysakov”
"Humorous Stories"

Arkady Timofevich Averchenko

Averchenko Arkady Timofeevich (1881/1925) - Russian writer, author of satirical stories, feuilletons and plays that reveal the essence of existing morals. After the revolution of 1917, he lived abroad, where his satire on Soviet power, “A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution,” was published, as well as the novel “The Patron’s Joke.”

Guryeva T.N. New literary dictionary / T.N. Guryev. – Rostov n/d, Phoenix, 2009, p. 5.

Averchenko Arkady Timofevich (1881-1925) - writer, playwright, emigrant. Born in Sevastopol. Since 1907 he lived in St. Petersburg, collaborated in the humorous magazine "Dragonfly". Since 1908, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Satyricon". The following books were published in Russia: “Circles on the Water” (1912); "Stories for Convalescent People"; "Weeds" (1914); “Miracles in a Sieve” (1915), etc. After the October Revolution, he left for the White-occupied South. Collaborated in the newspapers "Priazovsky Krai" and "Yug". "South of Russia" and others. Since 1920 in exile in Constantinople. Since 1922 he lived in Prague. Died in Prague, buried in Olsany Cemetery

Material used from the website "Russian Abroad" - http://russians.rin.ru

Averchenko Arkady Timofeevich (03/15/1881-03/12/1925), writer, playwright, theater critic. Born in Sevastopol. The son of a small merchant. According to Averchenko, due to the lack of money in the family, he received his initial education at home with the help of his older sisters.

From 1908 - employee, later editor of the humorous magazine "Satyricon", then editor of the "New Satyricon" (from 1913). In humorous stories and feuilletons, Averchenko ridiculed the vulgarity of bourgeois life (collection “Merry Oysters”, 1910, etc.). He also wrote humorous miniature plays that were staged in theaters. After 1917 he emigrated to France. The book of stories from the emigrant period, “A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution,” 1921) was a resounding success throughout the Russian world.

Used materials from the site Great Encyclopedia of the Russian People - http://www.rusinst.ru

Averchenko Arkady Timofeevich (1881 - 1925), prose writer. Born on March 15 (27 NS) in Sevastopol in the family of a merchant. He received a home education, since due to poor eyesight and poor health he could not study at the gymnasium. I read a lot and indiscriminately.

In 1903, Averchenko’s first story, “How I Had to Insure My Life,” was published in the Kharkov newspaper “Yuzhny Krai,” in which his literary style is already felt. In 1906 he became editor of the satirical magazine "Bayonet", almost entirely represented by his materials. After the closure of this magazine, he headed the next one - "Sword", which was also closed soon.

In 1907 he moved to St. Petersburg and collaborated in the satirical magazine "Dragonfly", later transformed into "Satyricon". Then he becomes the permanent editor of this popular publication.

The books “Circles on Water” and “Stories for Convalescents”, published in 1912, confirmed the author’s title of “king of laughter.”

Averchenko greeted the February Revolution with enthusiasm, but did not accept the October Revolution. In the fall of 1918, he left for the south, collaborated with the newspapers Priazovsky Krai and Yug, read his stories, and headed the literary department at the Artist's House. At the same time, he wrote the plays “A Cure for Stupidity” and “The Game with Death”, and in April 1920 he organized his own theater “Nest of Migratory Birds”. Six months later he emigrates abroad through Constantinople; Since June 1922 he has lived in Prague, traveling briefly to Germany, Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states. His book “A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution”, a collection of short stories: “Children”, “The Funny in the Horrible”, a humorous novel “A Patron’s Joke”, etc. are published.

In 1924 he underwent surgery to remove an eye, from which he could not recover for a long time; soon the heart disease progresses sharply.

He died in the Prague City Hospital on January 22 (March 3, n.s.) 1925. He was buried in Prague at the Olsany Cemetery.

Materials used from the book: Russian writers and poets. Brief biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.

Russian satirist

Averchenko, Arkady Timofeevich (03/15/27/1881, Sevastopol - 03/12/1925, Prague) - Russian satirist, humorist, theater critic. From the age of 15, A. “served as a junior scribe in a transport office” and as a clerk in the coal mines of Donbass. Having moved in 1903! to Kharkov to serve on the board of mines. Published since 1903. Since 1906, A. completely “abandoned his service”, editor of the magazine “satirical literature and humor with drawings” “Bayonet”, and then - “Sword”. Having moved to St. Petersburg, A. collaborated with the magazine “Dragonfly”, which was transformed in 1908 into “Satyricon”, which became the most important milestone in A.’s creative biography. During the period of public reaction, “Satyricon” remained the only popular magazine of humor and satire in Russia. Artists N.V. Remizov, L. Bakst, I. Bilibin, M. Dobuzhinsky, A. Benois, and O. Dymov, poets Sasha Cherny, S. Gorodetsky, O. Mandelstam, V. Mayakovsky, writers A. Kuprin, JI. Andreev, A. Tolstoy, A. Green, Teffi. The works of A. himself made up almost half of the magazines. In 1913, due to a conflict with the publishing house. A. and his employees founded the “New Satyricon”, which from the beginning of the First World War became involved in the patriotic campaign (“Four Sides of William”, etc.). While welcoming the February Revolution, A. met the October Revolution with hostility. He suffered painfully from everyday troubles (“Everyday Life”, “Waiting for Horror”, etc.). In August 1918, the New Satyricon was closed. A. made his way through civil war-torn Ukraine to Sevastopol, where from June 1919 he collaborated with the newspaper South of Russia, campaigning for the White Movement. In 1920 the newspaper was closed by Wrangel censorship. From November 1920 - in exile (Constantinople, Sofia, Belgrade, from 1922 - Prague). In 1921 he published a collection of pamphlets, “A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution,” with sharp criticism of Bolshevism, and in 1923, a collection of emigrant stories, “Notes of the Innocent.” He sadly ridiculed the life of the Russian emigration (“Fragments of the Broken to Pieces”, etc.). Collaborated with the newspaper Prager Presse. The novel “The Patron's Joke” was written in 1923 and published posthumously in 1925.

N. A. Gerulaitis.

Russian historical encyclopedia. T. 1. M., 2015, p. 70-71.

Writer of the 20th century

Averchenko Arkady Timofeevich - prose writer, playwright, journalist, critic.

The son of a poor merchant. Received primary education at home. There is information that Averchenko studied for 2 years at the Sevastopol gymnasium. At the age of 15 he began to earn his own living.

From 1896 to 1897 he served as a junior scribe in the transport office of Sevastopol. Since 1897 he has worked as a clerk at the Joint Stock Company of the Bryansk Coal Mines and Mines. Together with the management of the mines, he then moved to Kharkov. Oct 31 1903 The first story, “How I Had to Insure My Life,” was published in the Kharkov newspaper “Yuzhny Krai.” Averchenko himself considered his literary debut the story “The Righteous” (Magazine for everyone. 1904. No. 4). In 1905 he collaborated in the Kharkov Provincial Gazette. Since 1906 he has edited the magazine "Bayonet", and since 1907 the magazine "Sword". These publications became the first permanent platform for Averchenko, who led almost all sections under numerous pseudonyms.

1907 - move to St. Petersburg, collaboration in minor publications, incl. in the magazine "Dragonfly". In 1908, a group of young employees of Strekozy began publishing a new humorous magazine, Satyricon. For Averchenko, work in this publication became a central milestone in his creative biography. The search for our own themes, style, and genre, which began in Kharkov, continues. Averchenko signed his stories with his real name. Under the pseudonyms Falstaff, Medusa Gorgon, Thomas Opiskin, Averchenko appeared with editorials and feuilletons, signed by Wolf - with humorous “trifles”, and under the pseudonym Ave he reported on opening days, musical evenings, theatrical productions, and hosted the famous “Mailbox”. Averchenko was prosecuted for the acute political nature of some of his materials. This did not diminish Averchenko’s popularity. Fame and success accompanied him during these years - his works occupy about half of each issue of Satyricon, and he publishes 2-3 collections of stories annually.

Contemporaries remember him as cheerful, witty, surrounded by a retinue of admirers, “a beautifully dressed gentleman, a little overweight, handsome and lazy” (Lev Gumilevsky). In this atmosphere of luck and contentment, “vulgar or superficial things” began to flash (Mikhailov O. S.11). In 1910: “Stories (humorous)”; "Bunnies on the Wall"; “Jolly Oysters” (more than 20 reissues). After Averchenko published the article “Mark Twain” (The Sun of Russia. 1910. No. 12), critics started talking about the connection between Averchenko’s humor and the tradition of Mark Twain (V. Polonsky, M.A. Kuzmin), others compared him with the early Chekhov (A. Izmailov) . Averchenko’s cheerful, infectious laughter sounded somewhat dissonant with the refined, twisted aestheticism of decadence. Averchenko was an active supporter of realism in his direct creative declarations: “Until now, during random meetings with modernists, I looked at them with some fear: it seemed to me that such a modernist artist, in the middle of a conversation, would either unexpectedly bite me on the shoulder, or ask for a loan.” .

Averchenko touched on various topics, but his main “hero” is the life of St. Petersburg and the life of its inhabitants: writers, justices of the peace, Remington women, policemen, traveling salesmen, maids, narrow-minded and always charming ladies. Averchenko inventively mocks stupidity, causing in the reader “hatred for the average, erased, gray person, for the crowd, for the layman” (K. Chukovsky).

In 1912, Averchenko’s books “Circles on Water” and “Stories for Convalescents” were published in St. Petersburg, after which Averchenko received the title of “king of laughter.” The stories were dramatized and staged in St. Petersburg theaters. However, around this time, severe criticism of “idle talk” (A.K. Voronsky) and “well-fed laughter” of Averchenko also dates back. The revolutionary-minded part of the Russian intelligentsia was disgusted by Averchenko’s “red-cheeked humor.” But the writer’s multi-character “theater of the absurd” provided a rich panorama of Russian life in these years.

Until 1913, Averchenko continued to host Satyricon, which was “a wonderful outlet from which fresh air flowed” (A. Kuprin). Here, and then in the “New Satyricon”, the artists Re-Mi (N. Remizov), A. Radakov, A. Junger, L. Bakst, I. Bilibin, M. Dobuzhinsky, A. Benois, D. collaborated at different times. Mitrokhin, N. Altman. Masters of humorous prose were published - Teffi, O. Dymov, poets Sasha Cherny, S. Gorodetsky, O. Mandelstam, young V. Mayakovsky, as well as A. Kuprin, L. Andreev, A. Tolstoy, A. Green. A coherent aesthetic program was felt in the collective efforts of Satyricon. According to the employees' plans, their “he tirelessly tried to purify and develop the taste of the average Russian reader, accustomed to semi-literate drinking papers.” Bitterly ridiculing mediocrity and cheap cliches (“Incurable,” “Poet”), Averchenko acts as a champion of not just talented, but vital, realistic art. Makes fun of the extremes of romanticism (“Rusalka”), the theoretical postulates of the “new” art (“Apollo”).

In 1913, due to disagreements with the publisher of the Satyricon, M.G. Kornfeld, the main employees left the editorial board and founded the New Satyricon. With the outbreak of the First World War, political themes appeared. The editors share the government's opinion on the need for national unity in the face of the danger of an external enemy. Averchenko’s patriotically oriented works are published: “The Plan of General Moltke”, “The Four Sides of Wilhelm”, “The Case of the Charlatan Kranken”, etc. Averchenko’s essays and feuilletons are full of bitterness, conveying the state of collapse in which Russia was on the eve of the revolution. In some of his stories, Averchenko castigates rampant speculation, covetousness, and moral uncleanliness.

During the war and pre-revolutionary years, Averchenko’s books were actively published and republished: Foma Opiskin. “Weeds” (1914), “About essentially good people” (1914), “Odessa stories” (1915), “About the little ones for the big ones” (1916), “Blue and gold” (1917), etc. A special page among them is represented by A.’s “children’s” stories (collection “About the Little Ones for the Big Ones”, “Naughty People and Rogues”, etc.).

Averchenko was not upset by the fall of the Romanov monarchy (“My Conversation with Nikolai Romanov”), but the Bolsheviks’ rise to power aroused his sharp rejection (“The Diplomat from Smolny”, etc.). In 1918, Averchenko went to the south occupied by white troops and collaborated in the newspaper “Priazovsky Krai” and “South of Russia”. In pamphlets and stories of this period, he appeals to the white generals to bring closer the “hour of liquidation and reckoning” with the Bolsheviks. He was subjected to repression by Wrangel’s censorship, which ordered the closure of the newspaper “South of Russia”. In April 1920 Averchenko organized his own theater “Nest of Migratory Birds”. In Oct. 1920 emigrated first to Constantinople, and then, in his own words, “head over heels across Europe.” In 1921, a book of pamphlets “A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution” was published in Paris, where Averchenko lamented the death of Russia. His heroes - nobles, merchants, officials, military men, workers - recall their past lives with nostalgia. A sharp rebuke was sounded in the Soviet press. Critic N. Meshcheryakov wrote: “This is what abomination, what gallows humor the cheerful jokester Arkady Averchenko has now reached.” 22 Nov In 1921, Pravda published an article by V.I. Lenin, “The Talented Book,” in which Averchenko was called “a White Guard embittered to the point of insanity.” However, V.I. Lenin found the book “highly talented,” noting how skillfully “depicted” the impressions and moods of representatives of the old, landowner and factory owner, rich, “overfed and gorged Russia.” Among the emigration, Averchenko noted the “boiling disintegration” (“Fragments of the Broken to Pieces”, “Conversations in the Living Room”, etc.). Some stories, according to V.I. Lenin, “deserved reprinting,” which was done, since some of Averchenko’s works continued to be published after his emigration.

From June 1922, Averchenko lived in Prague, published several collections, and the humorous novel “The Patron’s Joke” (Prague, 1925). It was difficult to experience the separation from Russia: “...It somehow became difficult to write... I can’t write. It’s as if I’m not standing in the present” (from the memoirs of journalist L. Maxim). He died in the Prague City Hospital from heart disease. Modern criticism associates Averchenko’s main achievements with the element of humor. N.A. Teffi noted that “he is a Russian purebred humorist, without strain and laughter through tears. He has his own place in literature, I would say - the only Russian humorist.”

E.I. Kolesnikova

Materials used from the book: Russian literature of the 20th century. Prose writers, poets, playwrights. Biobibliographical dictionary. Volume 1. p. 10-13.

Read further:

Semenov A.N., Semyonova V.V. The concept of mass media in the structure of a literary text. Part II. (Russian literature). Study guide. St. Petersburg, 2011. Russian poetry of the XX - XIX centuries. Arkady Timofeevich AVERCHENKO .

Essays:

Eight one-act plays and dramatized stories. St. Petersburg, 1913;

Eight one-act plays and dramatized stories. St. Petersburg, 1911;

Stories. T. 1, 11th ed. Pg., 1916. T. 2 - Bunnies on the wall. 10th ed., Pg., 1916. T. 3 - Merry Oysters, 24th ed., Pg., 1916;

Shards of a broken thing. L., 1926;

Notes of a theater rat / preface. V. Meyerhold. M.; L., 1926;

Selected op. T. 1-2. M., 1927;

Humorous stories. M., 1964;

Selected stories / preface. O. Mikhailova. M., 1985;

Crooked corners. Stories / preface P. Gorelova. M., 1989.

Literature:

Evstigneeva L.A. The magazine "Satyricon" and the Sotyricon poets. M., 1968;

Borisov L. At the round table of the past. L., 1971;

Levitsky D.A. A. Averchenko: Life path. Washington, 1973;

Teffi N. Memories. Paris, 1980;

Bryzgalova E.N. Pre-revolutionary short stories. A. Averchenko // Genre and style problems of Russian literature of the 20th century. Tver, 1994. S. 42-47;

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Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko (1881 - 1925) - Russian writer, playwright, satirist, editor.

Family, childhood, youth

Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko was born on March 27 (old style - 15) March 1881. in Sevastopol, then - a province, a backwater. Father, Timofey Petrovich Averchenko, an impoverished merchant of the second guild. Mother, Susanna Pavlovna, daughter of a retired soldier.

The family was not rich; the boy did not attend primary school due to poor eyesight. However, this was later compensated for by the writer’s erudition and natural intelligence.

Already at the age of 15, Averchenko began working as a junior scribe in a transport company in Sevastopol. He worked here for a short time (1896-1897), then based his impressions on the story “About Steamship Horns.”

In 1897 Averchenko gets a job as a clerk at the Bryansk mine in Donbass. He stayed here for 4 years, and the experience he gained also formed the basis for the stories “Lightning”, “In the Evening”, etc.

The beginning of a literary journey

The beginning of the 1900s was marked in the biography of Arkady Averchenko by a working move to Kharkov. Here in 1903 His first story, “How I Had to Insure My Life,” was published in the newspaper “Southern Region.” The satirist said that he made his debut with the story “The Righteous” in 1904.

After 2-3 years, the writer suffers an eye injury. Moreover, as a result of the damage, a complication arises - damage to the second eye, which will later become one of the causes of the satirist’s death.

1906-1907 became for Averchenko the time of editorship in the Sword magazine, where he writes almost all sections under more than 40 pseudonyms. However, being engaged in creativity, A. Averchenko completely neglects his service on the board of mines, for which he is soon removed from his post.

In 1908 Arkady Timofeevich goes to St. Petersburg, where he works in the Dragonfly magazine, which is living out its days. In the same year, the youth of the magazine united to create their own publication. It was called “Satyricon”, and Averchenko was elected to the position of editor.

The years of work in “Satyricon” and then “New Satyricon” are a period of Averchenko’s creative development, fruitful collaboration with such writers as Sasha Cherny, Teffi, Remizov, Osip Dymov. The satirist's works are actively published and staged. In addition to creative satisfaction, Averchenko receives a good income. Even prosecution due to the political nature of certain of his creations does not bother the satirist.

In 1910, the collections “Stories (humorous)” were published. Book One", "Bunnies on the Wall. Stories (humorous). Book two", "Jolly Oysters". Thanks to them, Averchenko gains fame, standing out among other comedians of the era.

In 1911-1912 Satyricons travel around Europe, the impressions they receive are used when writing “The Satyricon Expedition to Western Europe” (1912).

Contemporary critics compare the literary traditions of Arkady Averchenko with the creative method of Mark Twain and A.P. Chekhov, noting his ability to depict narrow-minded ordinary people, stupidity, and vulgarity of existence.

Mature years, revolution, emigration

A new round of the writer’s biography occurred in 1918, when the Bolsheviks, who had seized power, closed the magazine. Averchenko, like his fellow satirists, did not accept Soviet power and decided to return to his native Sevastopol, which still belonged to the whites. This path turned out to be full of dangers and troubles, but Averchenko was still able to get to Crimea. Here since July 1919 he works for the newspaper "Yug", and in November 1920, after the capture of Crimea by the Reds, he leaves Russia, emigrating to Rome.

In June 1922, A. Averchenko moved to Prague, where he remained to live until the end of his days. Torn away from his homeland, he feels melancholy and misses his native language. His stories are imbued with this mood, including “The Tragedy of the Russian Writer.”

In Prague, the emigrant works for the Prager Presse, a well-known newspaper, and also organizes poetry evenings. Averchenko is popular in the Czech Republic; his stories are published in translation. In 1921 The collection “A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution” is published, one of the most odious anti-Soviet works.

From now on, there are almost no humorous stories in the satirist's work; his works are dedicated to the fate of Russia - before and after the revolution. They see the post-revolutionary period as a deception of the working man, deprived of books, art, and the opportunity to develop.

The last years of his life were overshadowed by an operation to remove his left (injured) eye. The right one began to quickly go blind. In addition, the writer complained of shortness of breath and chest pain. Probably, Averchenko, who led an epicurean lifestyle, developed diabetes mellitus. The satirist's life was cut short at the age of 44 on March 12, 1925. The writer's death was due to heart failure. Arkady Averchenko was buried at the Olshansky cemetery (Prague).