Ilya Ehrenburg: biography and creativity

Poet, writer, public figure, journalist, translator Ehrenburg Ilya Grigorievich was born in 1891 (January 27 - according to a new style, January 14 - in the old style) in Kiev. His family moved to Moscow in 1895. Here Ilya's father was a director of the brewery for a while.

Deduction from the gymnasium and emigration to Paris

Passing serious exams in 1898 (note that for Jews there was a three-percent qualification), Ilya entered the 1 st Moscow Gymnasium. As a teenager, he took part in the revolution of 1905. Ehrenburg erected barricades near the Kudrinskaya square, and carried out the Party's instructions. He wrote that he was drawn to the Bolsheviks. In 1907, in the spring, his first article appeared entitled "Two Years of a Unified Party". In the same year, in November, a search was carried out in his house, as a result of which Ilya Grigorievich was imprisoned (in January 1908 he was arrested). His father brought a pledge before the court, and in summer, after 5 months, the revolutionary finally released. However, for revolutionary activity, he is expelled from grade 6 of the gymnasium. Ilya is under police surveillance.

Ehrenburg in December 1908 emigrated to Paris. Here he continues his revolutionary activities. In Paris, he meets Lenin, meets with the Bolsheviks. At that time, Ehrenburg's nickname was Ilya Lokhmaty (because of his disheveled head of hair). Lenin will still remember him under this nickname when he reads his first novel. However, the fascination with Bolshevism turned out to be short-lived, as well as Catholicism. After a while, Ilya decided to take up literary activity and move away from political life.

The first collections of poems

Ehrenburg began to write poetry back in 1909. As he admits, it came out "by accident": Ilya Grigorievich was carried away by a girl who loved poetry. In Paris in 1910 he published his first collection of poems. Then there were three more: in 1911 - "I live", in 1913 - "Weekdays", in 1914 - "Children's". Ehrenburg writes about knights and lords, the coffin of the Lord and Mary Stuart. The young poet drew attention to Bryusov. "Weekdays" - appeared in 1913 collection - indicates that the author of illusions about the "old society" is no more. At age 23, Ilya Grigorievich is rather famous among the Parisian bohemians as a promising poet.

After the outbreak of the First World War, Ilya Grigorievich attempted to enlist in the French army as a foreign volunteer, but for health reasons he was declared unfit.

Work as a correspondent on the Western Front

In the period from 1914 to 1917 he was a correspondent for Russian newspapers, he worked on the Western Front. It is these military correspondence - the beginning of his journalistic activities. Ilya Ehrenburg in 1915 and 1916 published essays and articles in the Moscow newspaper "Morning of Russia." Then, in 1916-17, he wrote for the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange.

New arrests

Ilya Ehrenburg returned to Russia in July 1917. However, at first he did not accept the October Revolution. This was reflected in his book of 1918 "Prayer for Russia".

After a brief arrest, held in September 1918, he decided to go to Kiev, and then went to Koktebel. Ehrenburg returned in the autumn of 1920 to Moscow. Here he was arrested again, but soon released. Ilya Ehrenburg in Moscow worked in the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat for Education as the head of the children's section. The department was headed by Vsevolod Meyerhold.

New collections of poems

In the period from 1918 to 1923. Ehrenburg created many collections of poems. In 1919 "Fire" appeared, in 1921 - "Eve" and "Meditation", in 1922 - "Devastating Love" and "Foreign Meditations", in 1923 - "Animal Heat", etc.

Ehrenburg again abroad

Having received permission from the authorities to go abroad, in March 1921 Ehrenburg and his wife went to Paris, while retaining the Soviet passport. In the French capital, he met and made friends with many cultural figures of France - Picasso, Aragon, Eluard, etc. From this time Ehrenburg lived mainly in the West.

He was deported from France shortly after his arrival (for pro-Soviet propaganda). Ehrenburg in the summer of 1921 was in Belgium. Here Ilya Ehrenburg wrote the first prose work . "The extraordinary adventures of Julio Jurenito and his students ..." - a novel created in 1922. This work brought Ilya Grigorievich European glory. Ehrenburg saw himself primarily as a satirist.

It was very difficult for the writer to nestle to one bank - he was not satisfied with either the new society ("anti-humane") or the old order. He did not want to live in Russia, and in Paris he could not settle down. Therefore, Ehrenburgs decided to move to Berlin. Ilya Grigorievich in the period from 1921 to 1924 mainly lived in the German capital. Here he collaborated in the magazines "New Russian Book" and "Russian Book". Ilya until 1923 continued to compose and publish poetry, after which he decided to completely switch to the creation of prose works.

Life in France, new works

After the "Left bloc" came to power in France in 1924, Ilya Grigorievich received permission to settle in this country. From that time, Ehrenburg lived mainly in Paris.

More than 20 books were created in the 1920s by Ilya Ehrenburg. His books are worthy of attention. Among them, one can note the "Unbelievable stories" published in 1922; In 1923 - "Thirteen Tubes" (a collection of short stories), "The Life and Death of Nikolai Kurbov" and "The Trust DE History of the Death of Europe"; In 1924 - "The Love of Jeanne Ney"; In 1926 - "The Summer of 1925"; In 1927 - "In Protochny Lane" and others. Ehrenburg in 1928 created a novel called The Stormy Life of Lazik Roitschwantz, which was published in 1989 in the USSR. The "united front" appears in 1930.

1930s in the life and work of Ehrenburg

Travel to Germany, Spain and other European countries, committed by him in the 1930s, convince Ilya Grigoryevich in the offensive of fascism. Ehrenburg is actively involved in the public life of the USSR. In 1932 he became a Paris correspondent for Izvestia, visited the construction sites of the first five-year plans (the novel "Day Two", published in 1933, is the result of these visits). "Not breathing" - a novel that was created in 1935 after a trip to the north of the country, which Ehrenburg committed in 1934.

Most of the time during the Civil War that unfolded in Spain (1936-39), Ilya Grigorievich was in this country. He served as a correspondent for Izvestia in Spain, in the Republican Army. Here he created many essays and articles, as well as "What a man needs" - a novel published in 1937.

In addition to journalistic work, Ehrenburg also carried out diplomatic assignments. At international congresses held in defense of culture (in 1935 and 1937), he was the representative of our country, acting as a Soviet anti-fascist writer.

After a 15-year break in 1938, Ehrenburg again returned to poetry. He continued to write poetry for the rest of his life.

Return to the USSR, the years of the Great Patriotic War

After the Germans seized France in 1940, he returned finally to the USSR. Here he started writing a novel called The Fall of Paris. His first part was published in early 1941, and entirely the whole novel - in 1942. At the same time this work was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Erenburg Ilya Grigoryevich during the Great Patriotic War served as a military correspondent. He worked in the newspaper "Red Star". His articles were published not only in this newspaper, but also in others - Izvestia, Pravda, some divisional newspapers and abroad. In all, about 3 thousand of his articles were published in the period from 1941 to 1945. Antifascist pamphlets and articles entered a three-volume journalism, called "War" (1942-44 gg.).

At the same time, Ilya Grigorievich continued to create and publish poems and poems about the war. The idea of his novel "The Storm" appeared in the war years. The work was completed in 1947. A year later Ehrenburg received a State Prize for him. In 1943, "Poems about the war" were published.

Postwar years in the life and work of Ehrenburg

Ilya Grigorievich continued his creative activity in the post-war period. In 1951-52 years. Was published his novel "The Ninth Wave", as well as the novel "Thaw" (1954-56 gg.). The story provoked sharp controversy. Its name began to be used to refer to the whole period that our country went through in its social and political development.

Ehrenburg in 1955-57 he wrote literary-critical essays on French art. Their common name is "French Notebooks". Ilya Grigorievich in 1956 achieved the first exhibition of Picasso in the USSR capital.

In the late 1950s, I began to work on the creation of a book of memoirs by Ilya Ehrenburg. The works included in it are united under the name "People, Years, Life." This book was published in the 1960s. Ilya Ehrenburg divided it into six parts. "People, Years, Life" does not include all the memoirs written by him. Only in 1990 they were published in full.

Public activity of Ilya Grigorievich

Until the end of his life, Ilya Ehrenburg led an active social activity. Between 1942 and 1948 he was a member of the EAC (European Anti-Fascist Committee). And in 1943 he became the head of the JAC commission, working on the creation of the "Black Book", which described the atrocities committed by the fascists against the Jews.

This book, however, was banned. It was published later in Israel. Because of the conflict with the leadership in 1945, the writer Ilya Ehrenburg withdrew from the commission.

The EAK was liquidated in November 1948. The process began against his leaders, which ended only in 1952. In the materials of the case, Ilya Ehrenburg also appeared. His arrest, however, was not sanctioned by Stalin.

Ehrenburg in April 1949 was one of the organizers of the First World Congress of Peace Supporters. Also since 1950, Ilya Grigorievich participated in the activities of the World Peace Council as vice-president.

Awards

Several times Ehrenburg was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR as a deputy. Twice he was a laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (in 1942 and 1948), and in 1952 he received the International Lenin Prize. In 1944, Ilya Grigorievich was awarded the Order of Lenin. And the French government made him a Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Ehrenburg's personal life

Ilya Ehrenburg was married twice. He lived with Catherine Schmidt for a while in a civil marriage. In 1911, the daughter of Irina was born (the years of her life - 1911-1997), which became an interpreter and writer. The second time Ilya Grigorievich married Lyubov Kozintseva, an artist. With it, he lived until the end of his days.

The Death of Ilya Ehrenburg

After a long illness, Ilya Ehrenburg died in Moscow on August 31, 1967. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery. A monument was erected at the grave a year later. It is based on the drawing of Pablo Picasso, his friend, knocked out the profile of Ilya Grigorievich.

We hope that from this article you learned something new about such a person as Ilya Ehrenburg. His biography, of course, is brief, but we tried to not miss the most important moments.