Elena Chukovskaya: biography, personal life, family, funeral

Elena Tsukarevna Chukovskaya gained fame as a literary critic and chemist. Her life was influenced by the Second World War, perestroika and other complex bright periods in the history of Russia.

Early childhood

On August 6, 1931, a daughter was born in the family of Caesar Samoilovich Volpe and Lydia Korneyevna Chukovskaya, who was named Elena. A few years after the birth, my parents divorced, my mother almost immediately marries Matvey Bronstein.

Elena was born in Leningrad. However, in her early childhood she spent little time in this city. In 1937, a Soviet theoretical physicist was arrested, after a short trial was executed a death sentence. The policy of the governing party regarding the persons who were found guilty determined the possibility of arrest and close relatives, in this case Elena's mother. That's why Lydia Korneyevna Chukovskaya decided to leave Leningrad and went to live for a time with her father Korney Chukovsky.

Life in Tashkent

In the war period, Elena Tsezarevna, together with her mother, was almost immediately evacuated to Tashkent. Together with them the cousin also goes.

Student years

As the main line of professional activity, Elena chooses chemistry and after the war in 1948 she entered the chemistry department of the State Institute in Moscow. At this moment, her grandfather is working on the handwritten almanac "Chukokkala", in which the illness is assisted by a granddaughter.

It was the grandfather who had a lot of influence on the future literary critic. In his personal diary Korney Chukovsky noted that his granddaughter is well organized and clearly separates the good from the bad.

Professional activity

After 6 years of training, Elena Chukovskaya, whose family was going through hard times, graduated from the university in 1954. Almost immediately she was recruited at the Research Institute of Organoelement Compounds, where she worked until 1987.

Throughout her time, she showed herself as a talented chemist. Under the leadership of R. Kh. Freidlinoy in 1962, Chukovskaya defended her thesis related to obtaining the scientific degree of candidate of chemical sciences.

In the course of career development, several scientific works dealing with organic chemistry were written, Elena became a co-author of the monograph.

Choice of the Faculty of Chemistry

In one of her interviews Elena Chukovskaya told about how she became a chemist. According to her, the choice was largely random. He was associated with the fact that the school was finished in 1949 - a terrible time for the humanities. A lot of problems were experienced by her mother and grandfather, who were expelled from everywhere, and their works were not published. The current circumstances prompted the choice of a practical field of activity.

For Elena, the work of her grandfather "Chukokkala" has become truly fatal. It was after the death of the writer and the inheritance of the almanac that the publishing house "Art" turned to her, and the preparation of the work began for publication. At that time, literary work became a favorite: a chemist by profession became interested in working with archives and notes, restoring works. It was during this period that she became acquainted with Solzhenitsyn. For some time after the confiscation of the archives, Alexander Isaevich lived first in the country house, and then in the Chukovsky apartment.

An interesting fact is that during the life of her grandfather Elena Chukovskaya was not engaged in his affairs. After the archival inheritance, she devoted her further life to his preservation and publishing. A lot of experience of the literary critic was received at the time of independent publication and dissemination of the works of Solzhenitsyn, who was permanently residing in Ryazan. Even under the threat of arrest and expulsion from the country, the works were published on a private basis and circulated secretly in the capital and other cities of the USSR.

The literary critic

Despite the great enthusiasm in the field of knowledge of chemistry, as well as active professional activity, Elena Chukovskaya draws a lot of attention to literature. As was noted earlier, when she was a child she was influenced by her grandfather, he formed Elena's love for literature of various genres.

After acquaintance with Solzhenitsyn and his works, Elena Chukovskaya begins to render him various kinds of help. They began to communicate in the early 1960s and continued even after the expulsion of Solzhenitsyn from the USSR.

Solzhenitsyn about Elena Tsezarevna Chukovskaya

In the essay "The calf with the oak was eating," Solzhenitsyn in a separate section called "Invisible" told about the help of various people in a difficult time. In this section, he talks about his relationship with Elena at the time of his stay in the USSR under threat of arrest.

Being a successful chemist, Elena Chukovskaya, whose biography was never easy and cloudless, passed parcels, organized meetings with the right people, interviewed various witnesses to publicize the government's unlawful actions against Solzhenitsyn, reprinted five volumes within 3 years. According to the writer, she was morally ready for his arrest, which could be reflected in all his close circle of communication, but nothing was afraid. In case of arrest, she even prepared for herself a certain policy of behavior, which was based on the fact that the main thing is not to get confused in the testimony and nothing to deny. In the essay it was noted that, in the event of arrest, Elena, as the grounds for her assistance, would indicate assistance to Russian literature.

An interesting fact is that they did not agree on many issues, but in spite of this Chukovskaya helped Solzhenitsyn whenever possible.

The death of KI Chukovsky

KI Chukovsky died in 1968. All rights to archives and literary works were inherited by his daughter and granddaughter. However, despite the transfer of rights, quite a lot of problems for the heirs were with the publication of "Chukokkaly", in the writing of which Elena participated during the student years. The first edition was released in 1979, and only in the late 90's the almanac was reissued in full.

The history of the struggle for the publication dragged on for many years. This period was devoted to the essay "Memoir about Chukokkala." It reflects how the people who surrounded the writer in his last years of life tried to challenge the rights to the almanac and Chukovsky's decision to betray his daughter's work with her granddaughter.

House-Museum of Korney Chukovsky

In Peredelkino, where the author of "Chukokkaly" lived, a house-museum dedicated to his life and work was created. At the time of death and beyond, the authorities did not pay attention to people's desire to preserve the writer's work and history, but his granddaughter and daughter made a lot of efforts to open and maintain the museum. Even now, after the death of his granddaughter, he continues to work.

The first guides were the granddaughter and Klara Izrailevna Lozovskaya - the personal secretary of the writer.

In 1996, the mother of Elena Tsezarevna Chukovskaya dies. After her death, she begins work on her archive and the publication of works. In this it helps Zh. Khavkin.

Publications of Elena Tseksarevna Chukovskaya

The most famous works that began to be printed since 1974 are the following:

1. "To return Solzhenitsyn the citizenship of the USSR". The edition was released in 1988. It is based on personal communication with the writer, evaluation of his character and worldview.
2. Collection of articles on Solzhenitsyn, which were written together with Vladimir Gloriser. The collection "The Word Breaks Its Way" was released in 1998.
3. Memories of Boris Pasternak (1988).

As previously noted, the life of Chukovskaya was greatly influenced by communication with Solzhenitsyn. This is reflected in her creative activity.

Most of the time in the last years of her life she devoted to the preparation and publication of works that were written by her mother and grandfather. Her reverent attitude to the archive led to the publication of such works as "Poet's House", "Procher", "Diary" by Korney Chukovsky, as well as personal correspondence between father and daughter, which concerned creative activity.

A lot of works were published, which were comments to the creativity of their relatives. In order to understand some of the works, you need to know what period of life they were written.

Elena Chukovskaya: personal life

About Elena Tseksarevna Chukovskaya's personal life, practically nothing is known. All interviews she gave in the last years of her life were related only to her work as a literary critic. Elena Tsezarevna Chukovskaya, whose private life is covered by a veil of secrecy, after the death of her grandfather and mother, invested all her efforts in the restoration of the family archive. It is known only that she does not have any children, she did not officially get married.

Elena Chukovskaya: funeral

Elena Tsezarevna passed away on January 3, 2015 in Moscow at the age of 83. She was buried at Peredelkino Cemetery, next to the graves of her mother, grandmother and grandfather. Farewell fell on the Orthodox Christmas holiday, the ceremony was organized in the House of Russian Abroad. Even with Solzhenitsyn, Elena did not agree on issues related to faith. Maybe, therefore, or because of the Orthodox holiday, there was no church funeral service.