Poet, novelist and playwright Evgeny Kharitonov: biography, creativity and interesting facts

He was a real connoisseur of Russian literature. Experts point out that he managed to create in it his own unique, special world. Yevgeny Kharitonov has established himself not only as a brilliant poet and writer, but also as an expert in acting and dramaturgy. At the same time, he was an informal inspirer of the LGBT culture in the literature of the Soviet period of the 1970s, describing in his works feelings that people of non-traditional orientation experience. Naturally, the secret services did not like that in the USSR there lives a man who writes miniatures on a taboo subject, and they did everything in their power to prevent such creativity. One way or another, but Yevgeny Kharitonov did not set himself the task of showing homosexuality "in all its glory" in literature, on stage and in life. Reflecting the taboo subject in his works, he just wanted to prove that the literature of the 70's is not as conservative as it was in the 50's: it is moving toward sincerity.

At the same time, Yevgeny Kharitonov came up with a unique and colorful world of prose in terms of Russian literature. What was his creative path and what legacy he managed to leave behind?

Expert pantomime

Yevgeny Kharitonov was born on June 11, 1941 in Novosibirsk. In his youth he decided to become a lyceum and enrolled in the acting department at VGIK. Having received the diploma, the young man demonstrated his acting skills for a while on the stage, and then became a graduate student in the film science department. He began to teach students the acting skills and the art of pantomime.

In the early 70's, Kharitonov Eugene Vladimirovich became a candidate of art criticism, successfully defending a thesis on "Pantomime in the education of a film actor." He creates a studio under the odious name "School of non-traditional scenic behavior."

Search yourself

Soon graduate VGIK tries its forces in the field of dramaturgy and puts on the stage of the Mimicry and Gesture the play "Enchanted Island", the roles in which are given to deaf-mute actors.

Then Yevgeny Kharitonov, whose biography contains a lot of interesting things, heads a circle of pantomime in the recreation center "Moskvorechye". He continues to stage productions and demonstrates on the stage of the Moscow Conservatory classical opera "Doctor Faust".

Further Kharitonov is arranged to work at the Moscow State University, the department of psychology, where he helps in solving the problem of speech defects. In parallel, he composes poetry and writes stories, but does it for himself, and not for the general public.

Immersed in yourself

Evgeni Vladimirovich was not a public man and rarely let in his inner world. In the late 70's, his lover was killed, and Kharitonov, whom the Chekists hastened to make defendant No. 1 in this crime, was hard-pressed to experience this tragedy. After which he became even more self-absorbed. The beginning playwright and poet was perceived by some part of society as "an underground inhabitant of the capital". His behavior eloquently testified to this. In particular, Yevgeny Kharitonov (the poet) wrote to himself about himself that he was looking for such a job, so that no one would interfere with it and that at the same time he had less opportunity to contact his colleagues.

In the early 80's his works could get on the pages of the almanac "Catalog", the issue of which dealt with the American publishing house. This publication was supposed to include the work of unpublished writers of the USSR. But the works of Yevgeny Vladimirovich initially did not fall in the almanac due to the efforts of the KGB officers.

In the field of writing

And did he remember as an engineer of human souls? Yevgeny Kharitonov, whose creativity was not aroused by the KGB officers, was the author of the gay-manifesto "Leaflet", therefore his popularity as a writer was not large-scale. Moreover, in the era of the building of communism, the editors did not want to deal with him only because he in a rather frank form pierced his works with the theme of homosexuality. Printing, although rare, caused a whole wave of indignation and rejection of the author, who continued to live in an underground state. One way or another, but such areas as conceptualism and postmodernism came to the fore, and many prose writers, including Kharitonov, tried to operate with the language of these currents.

Prohibited

But even the emphasis on his autobiography and the verbal beauty of the presentation could not induce the leadership of the publishing houses of the USSR to publish his stories. The exception was only one creation of the maestro called "Oven".

This is a simple monologue, combining a romantic sophistication and frankness, the topic of forbidden drives. An ordinary guy talks about his love for a guy with a guitar. The author tried to reveal to the reader new pictures of the world, different from those based on the trivial entertainments of the era of stagnation. In other words, this gray world of provincial oven bored the hero to the limit.

Some brothers in the pen, in particular the poet Vsevolod Nekrasov, also could not understand Kharitonov's commitment to same-sex love. It was not so much the affiliation of Yevgeny Vladimirovich to gays that indignant, but how he dared to cover the forbidden topic in Russian literature. It is, for example, about the stories "The Story of a Boy. How did I become like that? "," The Ebony Russian ". However, the language and style of the presentation were simply admired by his colleagues. And despite the background of the matter, he deserved the right to be considered the second Bunin in Russian literature.

In the center of the plot of Kharitonov's works is a man who feels himself an outcast in a society that considers it shameful to show his feelings and emotions. And yet, despite the specificity of the chosen topic, Evgeni Vladimirovich, in the opinion of some colleagues, is one of the best prose writers published in the 90s.

At the trial of the Russian reader

Nevertheless, poetry, prose and dramaturgy Kharitonov still became public.

Opal poet agreed to print only in "Samizdat". But in France, problems with the publication of his works did not arise, and the reader there first became acquainted with his poems. After some time, Kharitonov's stories were published in the aforementioned almanac "Catalog".

Taboo removed ...

Only in the post-perestroika period in Russia are taken to publish the works of the forbidden author. The domestic media, including Mitin magazine, Russkiy Kuryer, Hours, Stolitsa, are happy to take up this matter. In the late 80's in the USSR published a play Haritonov "Tink," written specifically for children. This is some interpretation of Odoevsky's fairy tale "Town in a snuffbox". This play, written by Eugene Kharitonov, will be directed by Eugene Marcelli. The audience will see it in 1989.

In 1993, the Moscow publishing house "Glagol" publishes a two-volume work by Yevgeny Vladimirovich "Tears on flowers". It included not only the stories of Eugene Vladimirovich, but also the memories of his friends: Roman Viktyuk, Dmitry Prigov, Sergei Solovyov, Vasily Aksenov. The preparation of the material for the release was the poet Yaroslav Mogutin.

Only after this, the domestic reader learned in detail about who the prose writer Eugene Kharitonov was, whose books he did not want to publish in the Soviet Union. He finally became famous in his homeland. Remarkable is the fact that Yaroslav Mogutin still believes that "Tears on flowers" is an actual collection for the modern generation, sustained in the style of radicalism.

In the West, the two-volume edition was taken up by the famous publishers Rowohlt and Serpent's Tail. To the works of Kharitonov abroad began to show great interest.

Interesting Facts

As already stressed, the glory to the writer came after his death. All his writings, invented over the past 12 years, Yevgeny Kharitonov (writer) combined into one big volume with a loud title "Under house arrest". Editing of this collection was handled by the literary critic Gleb Morev. Only the closest people he allowed to read his stories.

Finishing the creative way

The prose writer died on June 29, 1981 in Moscow shortly after he finished work on the play "Tzyn". He was just forty years old. The cause of death is a heart attack that occurred in one of the capital's streets. He was supposed to meet in the open air with poetess Tatiana Scherbina (the novelist became very friends with her recently) and show her his final work, but did not have time. The writer's body was buried in his small homeland, in Novosibirsk.

A few months after the departure of Kharitonov, he was awarded in absentia an underground award at the time - the award of Andrei Bely.