Nikolay Erdman: biography, photo. Nikolay Erdman and Angelina Stepanova

Soviet art is rich in the names of many outstanding people: these are writers, screenwriters, and playwrights. One of these artists was Nikolai Erdman, whose biography is known to very few people. And meanwhile he wrote scripts for such famous films of the Soviet era as "Volga-Volga" and "Cheerful Guys". Consider the life story of this man and his creative path in more detail.

Childhood and youth

Nikolay Erdman is a coeval of the century, he was born in 1900. His native city was Moscow. The parents of the future screenwriter and playwright belonged to different nationalities: Valentina Borisovna's mother had Jewish roots, and father Robert Karlovich came from the Baltic Germans.

The future writer and poet studied well enough and managed to show himself as an excellent pupil at the Petropavlovsk Commercial College.

The revolution caught him as a seventeen-year-old boy, and she abruptly changed his life. In 1919 he was drafted into the active Red Army, a year later Nikolai Erdman was able to demobilize.

After demobilization, the young man plunged headlong into the creative environment of Moscow. He became interested in popular then imagination, wrote poems for songs, which were later performed in cabaret, satirical works, plays. Soon his name became known in the theatrical milieu, and the young author was invited to the theaters as a dramatist with a sharp and tenacious pen.

Mature years

The twenties of the 20th century were very productive for Erdmann. He collaborated with the famous VE Meyerhold. It was Nikolai Erdman who wrote the lyrics of the plays called "Suicide" and "Mandate", which were staged with brilliance on the stages of the Moscow theaters.

In 1927 in the life of the playwright a new era is coming - he becomes a screenwriter. The most famous of his script of those years was written for the film "Jolly Fellows". However, in 1933, the screenwriter was arrested and released from exile only three years later.

After the reference Erdman could not stay in Moscow, he had to live in Ryazan and Kalinin. In 1940, the writer moved to Saratov.

When the Great Patriotic War began, Erdman was sent to the deep rear as a politically unreliable man. However, it was the war that changed the life of the writer. Together with the concert brigade, he began to travel on the fronts of the war, acting as an artist and reader.

After the war, fate smiled at Erdman, and he himself tried to behave modestly and not to make any more criticism of the country's leadership (it was precisely because of such criticism that he was arrested once). The writer worked mainly as a playwright, cooperated with the leading theaters of the country, and in 1951 was even awarded the Stalin Prize.

Nikolay Erdman died in 1970, was buried in Moscow.

Erdman and the NKVD

The history of the first arrest of Erdman dates back to 1933. Then, together with the director of the picture, Nikolai Erdman resided in Gagra, where the shooting of the film "Cheerful Guys" was conducted. However, for Erdman they ended tragically. He was arrested by the NKVD. Researchers of his work believe that the reason for the arrest was the text of a fable, satirically exposing the image of Stalin, written by Erdman, and read at one of the literary evenings, actor Kachalov.

In addition to Erdman's arrest, another disappointment awaited - director G. Alexandrov was forced to delete his name from the credits to "Jolly Fellows".

However, in those severe years, Erdman was treated quite gently: the unlucky writer was sent to exile in Siberia (to the city of Yeniseisk, and then to Tomsk). Exemption from exile occurred only in 1936. However, the playwright for a few more years was infringed in rights and forced to stay in neighboring cities with Moscow, not being able to live in the capital where he was born.

Nikolay Erdman and Angelina Stepanova: a love story

A bright page in the life of the playwright was a novel with the actress Angelina Stepanova. Erdman and Stepanova met in Moscow in the 1920s. Both had families (although Erdman lived in a civil marriage with one of the dancers, but Stepanova's marriage was quite legal and respectable). As a result, a turbulent romance between two talented people began, which continued both in life and in letters.

Angelina Stepanova could not stand the double life and left her husband, but Erdman did not hurry to become a bachelor. But their romance continued. Stepanova did not abandon Erdman even when her lover was arrested. Moreover, it was she, being a famous actress, was able to obtain for his elect a mitigation of his fate. The actress's love for Erdman was so great that she forced her to secretly visit her lover in exile.

However, having learned that Erdman is not going to part with his civil wife, Stepanova could not survive this blow and severed relations with her lover. Their correspondence also ended, which lasted about seven years.

The results of a love drama

The fate of Erdman and Stepanova separated. The actress married writer A. Fadeyev. The former lovers met only after 22 years. Stepanova wrote about this touching meeting in her diary as an unforgettable moment of her life. They never met again.

Stepanova learned about the death of Erdman, while on tour in Kiev. She deliberately did not go to his funeral.

This strong and beautiful woman survived her lover for 30 years. At the end of her life, pouring out her soul in a diary, she bitterly remembered the history of her love, regretting that she and Erdman had not been able to save their feelings. Stepanova also deeply regretted the fate of Erdman, believing that he, with his greatest talent, did not manage to take a worthy place in Russian literature.

Cooperation with the Taganka Theater

Many works were written during his life by Erdman Nikolai Robertovich, the biography of this man is proof of this.

In the second half of his creative life, when not only the burden of the past years was on the writer, but the bitter characteristic of the "unreliable", he was very helped by his good friend - the theater director Yury Lyubimov. With Lyubimov, Erdman met during the war (together they worked in a single front-line guard brigade).

It was Lyubimov, being a talented and sensitive person, managed to see in Nikolai Robertovich unrealized talent. Lyubimov, becoming the main director, put many Erdman plays on the stage of his theater. It was thanks to the Taganka Theater that Erdman was able to feel himself again as a playwright in demand.

Creativity Erdman: film works for children

Modern art historians believe that Erdman Nikolai Robertovich could not fully realize his extraordinary talent. But he wrote great scripts for films, which were then watched with interest by millions of spectators.

Erdman was talented in everything, even when he worked on scenarios for fairy tales ("Fire, water and copper pipes," "Morozko", "City of Masters", etc.). After his arrest and links, the directors were afraid to invite him to work on scripts for serious films, but the multipliers treated Erdmann's figure more loyally, so he appeared as the script writer for more than 30 Soviet cartoons. Among them are such well-known cartoons as "The Little Man I Drawn," "The Adventure of Pinocchio," "Thumbelina," etc.

The Importance of Erdman's Creativity

A poet, writer, screenwriter and playwright Nikolai Erdman experienced a lot in his life. Photos of this person, made throughout his life, allow us to see how his expression changed. If in young photos the viewer is slightly ironically looking young author, who dreams to realize himself in life, then at later times we see the sad face of a tired person.

Some contemporaries called Erdman a failure. After all, despite his talent, he could not fully realize himself in literature, survived prison, exile and the ban of his works, and in his personal life, despite three marriages, the writer never took place. Yes, all this was in the life of Nikolai Erdman, but still this man had done much on the earth, so his name should not be forgotten.