August 9: The birthday of Mikhail Zoshchenko, a writer who was persecuted for his book about freedom.
On August 9, 1894, Mikhail Zoshchenko was born in St. Petersburg—writer, playwright, and translator. A classic. The most popular satirist of the 1920s and 30s, he was expunged from literary history after the war for his story about how a man conquers his own fear.
The smartest phrase I've ever come up with is that the meaning of life is not to satisfy your desires, but to have them.
I started writing at nine
His father was a mosaic artist, and his mother published short stories in the newspaper "Kopeyka." Imitating his mother, he began writing at nine. Ten years later, he experienced his first literary "epic fail." He attempted suicide.
I swallowed a crystal of corrosive sublimate. Now they're going to pump my stomach <> I wish I could die like this. I got an F in my Russian essay. Besides the F, underneath the essay was the note in red ink: "Nonsense."
Volunteer of the First World War
He graduated from high school in 1913. He volunteered for World War I. In 1916, he developed heart disease during a gas attack.
During that war, warrant officers lived on average no more than 12 days.
I bless inaccurate shooting. War will become absurd when technology achieves absolute accuracy.
A dozen professions
By the beginning of the 1920s he had changed a dozen professions.
I've been a policeman, an accountant, a shoemaker, a poultry farming instructor, a border guard telephone operator, a criminal investigation agent, a court clerk, a clerk. It wasn't a steady march through life; it was confusion.
The Serapion Brothers and the Everyman Hero
He made his print debut in 1922. He was part of the Serapion Brothers, a group that insisted on art's independence from politics and creativity based on facts, not slogans. Zoshchenko's characters—primitive everyday people caught in comical situations—were relatable to the public.
That's quite mean of you. Those without money don't travel with women.
The crowd rushed to their rooms, only the invalid Gavrilych didn't. He lies, you know, on the floor, bored. And blood drips from his head.
Zoshchenko-Rossi Street
In the 1920s and 30s, Zoshchenko's popularity was incredible—tram conductors, unfamiliar with the word "zodchy," called one of the stops "Zoshchenko-Rossi Street."
These are ordinary working people writing to you... In 1924, one of our fellow dorm-mates bought a collection of your stories... From the very first lines, the audience burst into laughter: the stories were understood... Dear Comrade Zoshchenko! Allow me to ask you to answer this seemingly trivial, but very disturbing question: was it on purpose that you inserted the word "zanauda" in the story "Katorga" or is it that you don't quite understand this word. It's a street word and sounds the same as "prostitute."
I sent them a long letter… I wrote that it's impossible to completely banish swear words from literature. We need to change our way of life first. We need to stop swearing… Otherwise, there will be a huge discrepancy between literature and everyday life… As for the ill-fated word, it doesn't actually have a particularly offensive meaning.
Twenty notebooks instead of personal belongings
In 1941, he asked to go to the front, but they didn't take him due to his health. He and his son put out incendiary bombs on rooftops. Anti-war feuilletons were published in newspapers and read on the radio.
When I was evacuated, I was allowed to take 12 kg of belongings. I was about to publish a psychoanalytic novel, "Before Sunrise," so I took 20 notebooks with me. I had 4 kg left for personal belongings.
Persecution for a book on personal freedom
He completed his confessional novella in 1943, describing his struggle to overcome the melancholy and fear of life that tormented him. He sought the causes of his illness in the painful memories of his childhood and adolescence. By examining his traumas and freeing himself from their bondage, he found freedom. His book about the path to personal freedom resulted in persecution. He was expelled from the Writers' Union and deprived of his funds.
Zoshchenko depicts the Soviet order and Soviet people in a hideously caricatured form.
This was stated in the 1946 resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Zoshchenko was erased from literary life—he was not mentioned in the press, and his name was not included on the books he translated.
"I have nothing to repent of"
In 1953, he was readmitted to the Writers' Union. A year later, when asked by English students about the persecution, he replied that he had nothing to repent of. The English applauded. The new round of persecution ended only after the Western press reported on freedom of speech in the USSR.
A satirist should be a morally pure person, but I am humiliated like the last son of a bitch
He suffered from depression. He smoked a lot. He was treated for exhaustion.
A writer with a frightened soul is already a loss of qualifications
The pension application submitted to the SP in 1955 was approved in July 1958, shortly before his death.
