Ilya Ehrenburg - biography, information, personal life. Erenburg Ilya Grigorievich. Biography In 1954, Ehrenburg's novel was published

Russian writer, poet, publicist, journalist, translator, public figure, photographer

Ilya Erenburg

short biography

Ilya Grigorievich Erenburg(January 26, 1891, Kyiv - August 31, 1967, Moscow) - Russian writer, poet, publicist, journalist, translator from French and Spanish, public figure, photographer. In 1908-1917 and 1921-1940 he was in exile, and since 1940 he lived in the USSR.

Ilya Ehrenburg was born in Kyiv into a wealthy Jewish family, in which he was the fourth child and only son. His father - Gersh Gershanovich (Gersh Germanovich, Grigory Grigorievich) Erenburg (1852-1921) - was an engineer and merchant of the second guild (later the first guild); mother - Hana Berkovna (Anna Borisovna) Ehrenburg (née Arinshtein, 1857-1918) - a housewife. He had older sisters Manya (Maria, 1881-1940), Evgenia (1883-1965) and Isabella (1886-1965). The parents got married in Kyiv on June 9, 1877, then lived in Kharkov, where three daughters were born, and returned to Kyiv only before the birth of their son. The family lived in the apartment of their paternal grandfather - merchant of the second guild Grigory (Gershon) Ilyich Erenburg - in the house of Natalya Iskra at Institutskaya Street No. 22. In 1895, the family moved to Moscow, where the father received the position of director of the Joint Stock Company Khamovnichesky Beer and Mead Factory . The family lived on Ostozhenka, in the house of the Varvarinsky Society in Savelovsky Lane, apartment 81.

From 1901, together with N.I. Bukharin, he studied at the 1st Moscow Gymnasium, where he studied poorly from the third grade and was retained for the second year in the fourth (he left the gymnasium as a fifth-grade student in 1906).

Revolutions. Emigration. Returns

When will the war end?
Drawing by Marevna, 1916, Paris.
From left to right - Rivera, Modigliani, Ehrenburg

After the events of 1905, he took part in the work of the revolutionary organization of Social Democrats, but did not join the RSDLP itself. In 1907, he was elected to the editorial board of the printed organ of the Social Democratic Union of Students of Secondary Educational Institutions in Moscow. In January 1908 he was arrested, spent six months in prison and released pending trial, but in December he emigrated to France and lived there for more than 8 years. Gradually withdrew from political activities.

In Paris he was engaged in literary activities and moved in the circle of modernist artists. The first poem “I was coming to you” was published in the magazine “Northern Dawns” on January 8, 1910, and published the collections “Poems” (1910), “I Live” (1911), “Dandelions” (1912), “Everyday Life” (1913 ), “Poems about Eves” (1916), a book of translations by F. Villon (1913), several issues of the magazines “Helios” and “Evenings” (1914). In 1914-1917 he was a correspondent for the Russian newspapers “Morning of Russia” and “Birzhevye Vedomosti” on the Western Front.

In the summer of 1917 he returned to Russia. In the fall of 1918, he moved to Kyiv, where he lived with his cousin, a dermatovenerologist at the local Jewish hospital, Alexander Grigorievich Lurie, at 40 Vladimirskaya Street. In August 1919, he married Doctor Lurie’s niece (his maternal cousin) Lyubov Kozintseva. From December 1919 to September 1920, together with his wife, he lived in Koktebel with Maximilian Voloshin, then from Feodosia he crossed by barge to Tiflis, where he obtained Soviet passports for himself, his wife and the Mandelstam brothers, with which they set off together as diplomatic couriers in October 1920 by train from Vladikavkaz to Moscow. At the end of October 1920, Ehrenburg was arrested by the Cheka and released thanks to the intervention of N.I. Bukharin.

Having negatively perceived the victory of the Bolsheviks (collection of poems “Prayer for Russia”, 1918; journalism in the newspaper “Kyiv Zhizn”), in March 1921 Ehrenburg again went abroad. Having been expelled from France, he spent some time in Belgium and arrived in Berlin in November. In 1921-1924 he lived in Berlin, where he published about two dozen books, collaborated in the “New Russian Book”, and together with L. M. Lissitsky published the constructivist magazine “Thing”. In 1922, he published the philosophical and satirical novel “The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito and His Disciples,” which gives an interesting mosaic picture of the life of Europe and Russia during the First World War and the Revolution, but most importantly, provides a set of prophecies that are amazing in their accuracy. Leonid Zhukhovitsky wrote about this:

...I am still shocked by the completely fulfilled prophecies from Julio Jurenito. Did you guess it by chance? But was it possible to accidentally guess both German fascism, and its Italian variety, and even the atomic bomb used by the Americans against the Japanese? There was probably nothing of Nostradamus, Vanga or Messing in young Ehrenburg. There was something else - a powerful mind and quick reaction, which made it possible to capture the main features of entire nations and foresee their development in the future. In past centuries, for such a gift they were burned at the stake or declared crazy, like Chaadaev.

I. G. Ehrenburg was a promoter of avant-garde art (“But still she turns,” 1922). In 1922, his last collection of poems, Devastating Love, was published. In 1923, he wrote a collection of short stories, “Thirteen Pipes,” and a novel, “D.E. Trust.” Ehrenburg was close to the left circles of French society, actively collaborated with the Soviet press - from 1923 he worked as a correspondent for Izvestia. His name and talent as a publicist were widely used by Soviet propaganda to create an attractive image of the Soviet Union abroad. I traveled a lot in Europe (Germany - 1927, 1928, 1931; Turkey, Greece - 1926; Spain - 1926; Poland - 1928; Czechoslovakia - 1927, 1928, 1931, 1934; Sweden, Norway - 1929; Denmark - 1929, 1933 ; England - 1930; Switzerland - 1931; Romania, Yugoslavia, Italy - 1934). In the summer and autumn of 1932, he traveled around the USSR, was at the construction of the Moscow-Donbass highway, in Kuznetsk, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, which resulted in the novel “The Second Day” (1934), condemned by critics; in 1934 he spoke at the First Congress of Soviet Writers. On July 16-18, 1934, in order to find Osip Mandelstam, who was in exile, he visited Voronezh.

Since 1931, the tone of his journalistic and artistic works has become increasingly pro-Soviet, with faith in the “bright future of the new man.” In 1933, the Izogiz publishing house published Ehrenburg’s photo album “My Paris” with cardboard art and a dust jacket made by El Lissitzky.

After Hitler came to power, he became the greatest master of anti-Nazi propaganda. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, Ehrenburg was a war correspondent for Izvestia; acted as an essayist, prose writer (collection of stories “Beyond the Truce”, 1937; novel “What a Man Needs”, 1937), poet (collection of poems “Loyalty”, 1941). On December 24, 1937, he came from Spain to Moscow for two weeks, and on December 29, he spoke at a writers’ congress in Tbilisi. On his next visit from Spain, his foreign passport was taken away, which was restored in April 1938 after two appeals from Ehrenburg to Stalin, and in early May he returned to Barcelona. After the defeat of the Republicans he returned to Paris. After the German occupation of France, he took refuge in the Soviet embassy.

War period of creativity

I was told by people who deserve complete confidence that in one of the large united partisan detachments there was the following clause in a handwritten order:
“After reading newspapers, consume them with a cigarette, with the exception of articles by Ilya Ehrenburg.”
This is truly the shortest and most joyful review for a writer's heart that I have ever heard of.
K. Simonov

Evg. Yevtushenko.
Khreshchatytsky Parisian
I don’t like stones in Ehrenburg,
even stone me.
He is smarter than all our marshals,
led us to victory in '45.
The tank was named "Ilya Erenburg".
These letters shone on the armor.
The tank crossed the Dnieper or Bug,
but Stalin was watching him through binoculars.
They didn’t let me in after reading the newspaper,
Ehrenburg on rolled-up cigarettes,
and the blackest envy of the leader
There was a little smoke coming out of the pipe.
New news, January 27, 2006

In 1940 he returned to the USSR, where he wrote and published the novel “The Fall of Paris” (1941) about the political, moral and historical reasons for the defeat of France by Germany in World War II.

After<22 июня 1941>They came for me and took me to Trud, to Krasnaya Zvezda, to the radio. I wrote the first war article. They called from the PUR, asked to come in on Monday at eight o’clock in the morning, and asked: “Do you have a military rank?” I replied that I don’t have a title, but I have a calling: I’ll go wherever they send me, I’ll do whatever they tell me.
- “People, Years, Life”, Book IV

During the Great Patriotic War, he was a correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper and wrote for other newspapers and for the Sovinformburo. He became famous for his propaganda anti-German articles and works, which he wrote about 1500 during the war. A significant part of these articles, constantly published in the newspapers Pravda, Izvestia, and Krasnaya Zvezda, are collected in the three-volume journalism book “War” (1942-1944). In 1942, he joined the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and was actively involved in collecting and publishing materials about the Holocaust, which, together with the writer Vasily Grossman, were collected in the “Black Book”.

Ilya Ehrenburg and Konstantin Simonov are the authors of the slogan “Kill the German!” (first heard in K. M. Simonov’s poem “Kill him!”), which was widely used in posters and - as a title - leaflets with quotes from Ehrenburg’s article “Kill!” (published July 24, 1942). To maintain the effectiveness of the slogan, special columns were created in Soviet newspapers of that time (one of the typical titles is “Did you kill a German today?”), in which letters and reports from Soviet soldiers were published about the number of Germans they killed and the methods of their destruction. Adolf Hitler personally ordered the capture and hanging of Ehrenburg, declaring him in January 1945 Germany's worst enemy. Nazi propaganda gave Ehrenburg the nickname "Stalin's House Jew."

The hate sermons of Ilya Ehrenburg, which have already borne their first fruits in the East, the Morgenthau plan, that is, the plan for the supposed territorial “castration” of Germany and the demand for unconditional surrender, stopped any attempts by the Germans to somehow come to an agreement and gave resistance a very sharp and fierce character not only in Europe , but also all over the world. The overwhelming majority of Germans saw no other choice but to fight. Even obvious opponents of the Nazi regime now became desperate defenders of their homeland
Walter Ludde-Neurath. End on German soil

In the days when the Red Army crossed the state border of Germany, the Soviet leadership interpreted actions on German territory as the fulfillment of the liberation mission of the Red Army - the liberator of Europe and the German people themselves from Nazism. And therefore, after Ehrenburg’s article “Enough!”, published in “Red Star” on April 11, 1945, a response article by the head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, G. F. Alexandrov, “Comrade Ehrenburg is simplifying” (Pravda newspaper) appeared. .

Post-war creativity

Ehrenburg's grave at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow

After the war, he published a duology - the novels “The Storm” (1946-1947) and “The Ninth Wave” (1950). One of the leaders of the Peace Movement.

In 1948, Hollywood released the film “The Iron Curtain”, about the escape of the GRU cryptographer I.S. Guzenko and Soviet espionage. On February 21 of the same year, Ehrenburg published the article “Film Provocateurs” in the newspaper “Culture and Life”, written on the instructions of the Minister of Cinematography I. G. Bolshakov.

Ehrenburg's position among Soviet writers was unique: on the one hand, he received material benefits and often traveled abroad, on the other hand, he was under the control of the special services and often even received reprimands. The attitude of the authorities towards Ehrenburg in the era of N. S. Khrushchev and L. I. Brezhnev was just as ambivalent.

After Stalin’s death, he wrote the story “The Thaw” (1954), which was published in the May issue of the magazine “Znamya” and gave its name to an entire era of Soviet history. In 1958, “French Notebooks” was published - essays on French literature, painting and translations from J. Du Bellay. Author of the memoirs “People, Years, Life,” which enjoyed great popularity among the Soviet intelligentsia in the 1960s and 1970s. Ehrenburg introduced the younger generation to many “forgotten” names, contributed to the publications of both forgotten (M. I. Tsvetaeva, O. E. Mandelstam, I. E. Babel) and young authors (B. A. Slutsky, S. P. Gudzenko). He promoted new Western art (P. Cezanne, O. Renoir, E. Manet, P. Picasso).

In March 1966, he signed a letter from thirteen figures of Soviet science, literature and art to the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee against the rehabilitation of I.V. Stalin.

He died after a long illness from a massive myocardial infarction on August 31, 1967. About 15,000 people came to say goodbye to the writer.

He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (site No. 7).

Essays

The collected works of Ilya Ehrenburg in five volumes were published in 1951-1954 by the Khudozhestvennaya Literatura publishing house.

The next collection, more complete, in nine volumes, was published by the same publishing house in 1962-1967.

In 1990-2000, the publishing house “Khudozhestvennaya Literatura” published the anniversary Collected Works in eight volumes.

Awards and prizes

Stalin Prize, first degree (1942) - for the novel “The Fall of Paris” (1941)
Stalin Prize, first degree (1948) - for the novel “The Tempest” (1947)
International Stalin Prize “For Strengthening Peace Between Nations” (1952) - the first of only two Soviet citizen laureates
two Orders of Lenin (April 30, 1944, 1961)
Order of the Red Banner of Labor
Order of the Red Star (1937)
Legion of Honor
medals

Membership in organizations

Vice-President of the SCM since 1950.
Member of the USSR Supreme Council since 1950 from Daugavpils, Latvian USSR.

Family

The first wife (1910-1913) is translator Katerina (Ekaterina) Ottovna Schmidt (1889-1977, in Sorokin’s second marriage).
- Their daughter, translator of French literature Irina Ilinichna Erenburg (1911-1997), was married to writer Boris Matveevich Lapin (1905-1941). After the tragic death of her husband, she adopted and raised a girl:

He brought a girl, Fanya, from the war, before whose eyes the Germans shot her parents and sisters in Vinnitsa. The older brothers served in the Polish army. An old man managed to hide Fanya, but since this was associated with great risk, he told her: “Run, look for the partisans.” And Fanya ran.
Ehrenburg brought this girl to Moscow precisely in the hope of distracting Irina from her grief. And she adopted Fanya. At first everything was quite difficult, since the girl spoke Russian poorly. She spoke in some monstrous mixture of languages. But then she quickly mastered Russian and even became an excellent student.
Irina and Fanya lived in Lavrushinsky; The poet Stepan Shchipachev and his son Victor also lived there. Fanya met Victor in the writers' pioneer camp; The semi-childish affair continued in Moscow and ended in marriage. Mom entered the philology department at Moscow State University, but quickly realized that it was not for her, and upon entering medical school, she became a doctor. The marriage did not last long - three years. But I still managed to be born.

The second wife (since 1919) is the artist Lyubov Mikhailovna Kozintseva (1899-1970), sister of film director Grigory Mikhailovich Kozintsev, student of Alexandra Ekster, Robert Falk, Alexander Rodchenko. She was I. G. Ehrenburg's cousin.
Cousin - artist and journalist, participant in the Civil War Ilya Lazarevich Erenburg (1887-1920), son of Kharkov grain merchant Lazar Gershovich (Grigorievich) Erenburg, chemist, graduate of Kharkov University (1882); The Erenburg couple were friends with their cousin and his wife Maria Mikhailovna during the period of their first emigration to Paris.
Cousin - collector, artist and teacher Natalya Lazarevna Ehrenburg (married Ehrenburg-Mannati, French Nathalie Ehrenbourg-Mannati; 1884-1979).
Cousins (on the mother's side) are gynecologist Rosa Grigorievna Lurie and dermatovenerologist Alexander Grigorievich Lurie (1868-1954), professor and head of the department of dermatovenereology at the Kyiv Institute for Advanced Medical Studies (1919-1949).
Cousin - Georgy Borisovich Ehrenburg (1902-1967), orientalist-sinologist.

Famous phrase

I. Ehrenburg owns the famous words: “ See Paris and die».

Contemporary assessments

He was a good writer and talented. But he had some kind of reconciliation, perhaps, with Stalin’s methods of management.
Nikita Khrushchev. Memories: selected fragments // Nikita Khrushchev; comp. A. Shevelenko. - M.: Vagrius, 2007. - 512 p.; ill.

Bibliography

Stalin is the weekly newspaper of the 25th mixed international brigade. April 22, 1937. Editorial by Ehrenburg

1910 - Poems - Paris
1911 - I live - St. Petersburg: printing house of the “Public Benefit” partnership
1912 - Dandelions - Paris
1913 - Everyday Life: Poems - Paris
1914 - Children's - Paris: Rirakhovsky's printing house
1916 - The story of the life of a certain Nadenka and the prophetic signs revealed to her - Paris
1916 - Poems about eves - M.: printing house of A. A. Levenson
1917 - About the vest of Semyon Drozd: Prayer - Paris
1918 - Prayer for Russia - 2nd ed. "At the hour of death"; Kyiv: “Chronicle”
1919 - Fire - Gomel: “Centuries and Days”
1919 - In the stars - Kyiv; 2nd ed. Berlin: Helikon, 1922
1920 - The Face of War - Sofia: “Russian-Bulgarian Book Publishing”, 1920; Berlin: Helikon, 1923; M.: "Abyss", 1924; "ZiF", 1928
1921 - Eves - Berlin: "Thought"
1921 - Reflections - Riga; 2nd ed. Pg.: “The Burning Bush”
1921 - Improbable stories - Berlin: “S. Efron"
1922 - Foreign thoughts - Pg.: “Bonfires”
1922 - About myself - Berlin: “New Russian Book”
1922 - Portraits of Russian poets. Berlin: "Argonauts"; M.: “Pervina”, 1923; M.: “Science”, 2002
1922 - Devastating Love - Berlin: “Lights”
1922 - Heart of Gold: Mystery; Wind: Tragedy - Berlin: "Helikon"
1922 - The extraordinary adventures of Julio Jurenito - Berlin: “Helikon”; M.: "GIHL", 1923,1927
1922 - But still she spins - Berlin: “Helikon”
1922 - Six stories about easy ends - Berlin: “Helikon”; M.: “Abyss”, 1925
1922 - Life and death of Nikolai Kurbov - Berlin: “Helikon”; M.: “New Moscow”, 1923
1923 - Thirteen Pipes - Berlin: Helikon; M.: “New milestones”, 1924; M.-L.: “Novella”, 1924
1923 - Animal warmth - Berlin: “Helikon”
1923 - Trust "D. E." The history of the death of Europe - Berlin: “Helikon”; Kharkov: “Gosizdat”
1924 - The Love of Zhanna Ney - M.: ed. magazine "Russia"; M.: Novella, 1925; M.: "ZiF", 1927; Riga, 1927
1924 - Tube - M.: “Krasnaya Nov”
1925 - Jack of Diamonds and company - L.-M.: “Petrograd”
1925 - Rvach - Paris: “Knowledge”; Odessa: “Svetoch”, 1927
1926 - Summer 1925 - M.: “Circle”
1926 - Conditional suffering of a cafe regular - Odessa: “New Life”
1926 - Three stories about pipes - L.: “Surf”
1926 - Black crossing - M.: “Giz”
1926 - Stories - M.: “Pravda”
1927 - In Protochny Lane - Paris: “Helikon”; M.: “Land and Factory”; Riga: "Gramatu Draugs"
1927 - Materialization of fiction - M.-L.: “Film printing”
1927–1929 - Collected works in 10 volumes - “ZiF” (only 7 volumes were published: 1–4 and 6–8)
1928 - White Coal or Tears of Werther - L.: “Surf”
1928 - The stormy life of Lazik Roytshvanets - Paris: “Helikon”; in Russia the novel was published in 1990
1928 - Stories - L.: “Surf”
1928 - The Communard's Pipe - Nizhny Novgorod
1928 - Conspiracy of Equals - Berlin: “Petropolis”; Riga: “Gramatu draugs”, 1932
1929 - 10 HP Chronicle of our time - Berlin: "Petropolis"; M.-L.: GIHL, 1931
1930 - Visa of Time - Berlin: “Petropolis”; 2nd add. ed., M.-L.: GIHL, 1931; 3rd ed., Leningrad, 1933
1931 - Dream Factory - Berlin: "Petropolis"
1931 - England - M.: “Federation”
1931 - United Front - Berlin: "Petropolis"
1931 - We and They (together with O. Savich) - France; Berlin: Petropolis
1932 - Spain - M.: “Federation”; 2nd add. ed. 1935; Berlin: Helikon, 1933
1933 - Day two - M.: “Federation” and at the same time “Soviet literature”
1933 - Our Daily Bread - M.: “New Milestones” and at the same time “Soviet Literature”
1933 - My Paris - M.: “Izogiz”
1933 - Moscow does not believe in tears - Paris: “Helikon”; M.: “Soviet literature”
1934 - Protracted denouement - M.: “Soviet Writer”
1934 - Civil War in Austria - M.: “Soviet Literature”
1935 - Without taking a breath - Arkhangelsk: “Sevkraizdat”; M.: “Soviet Writer”; 5th ed., 1936
1935 - Chronicle of our days - M.: “Soviet writer”
1936 - Four pipes - M.: “Young Guard”
1936 - Borders of the Night - M.: “Soviet Writer”
1936 - Book for adults - M.: “Soviet Writer”; M.: JSC "Book and Business", 1992
1937 - Beyond the truce - M.: “Goslitizdat”
1937 - What a person needs - M.: “Goslitizdat”
1938 - Spanish style - M.: “Goslitizdat”
1941 - Fidelity: (Spain. Paris): Poems - M.: “Goslitizdat”
1941 - Captive Paris - M.: “Goslitizdat”
1941 - Gangsters - M.: “Goslitizdat”
1941 - Mad Wolves - M.-L.: “Voenmorizdat”
1941 - Cannibals. The path to Germany (in 2 books) - M.: “Military Publishing House NKO”
1942 - The Fall of Paris - M.: “Goslitizdat”; Magadan: “Soviet Kolyma”
1942 - Bitterness - M.: “Pravda”
1942 - Fire at the enemy - Tashkent: “Goslitizdat”
1942 - Caucasus - Yerevan: “Armgiz”
1942 - Hatred - M.: "Military Publishing House"
1942 - Solstice - M.: “Pravda”
1942 - Leaders of Nazi Germany: Adolf Hitler - Penza: ed. gas. "Stalin's Banner"
1942 - For life! - M.: “Soviet writer”
1942 - Basilisk - OGIHL, Kuibyshev; M.: “Goslitizdat”
1942–1944 - War (in 3 volumes) - M.: “GIHL”
1943 - Freedom - Poems, M.: “Goslitizdat”
1943 - German - M.: "Military Publishing House NKO"
1943 - Leningrad - L.: “Military Publishing House NKO”
1943 - The fall of the Duce - M.: "Gospolitizdat"
1943 - “New Order” in Kursk - M.: “Pravda”
1943 - Poems about war - M.: “Soviet writer”
1946 - Tree: Poems: 1938–1945 - M.: “Soviet Writer”
1946 - On the roads of Europe - M.: “Pravda”
1947 - Storm - Magadan: publishing house "Soviet Kolyma" and M.: "Soviet Writer"
1947 - In America - M.: “Moscow Worker”
1948 - Lion on the Square - M.: “Art”
1950 - The Ninth Wave - M.: “Soviet Writer”, 2nd ed. 1953
1952–1954 - Collected works in 5 volumes - M.: GIHL
1952 - For peace! - M.: “Soviet writer”
1954 - Thaw - in 1956 republished in two parts M.: “Soviet Writer”
1956 - Conscience of Nations - M.: “Soviet Writer”
1958 - French notebooks - M.: “Soviet writer”
1959 - Poems: 1938 - 1958 - M.: “Soviet writer”
1960 - India, Greece, Japan - M.: “Soviet Writer”; 2nd ed. M.: “Art”
1960 - Rereading

Nicknames:

Paul Josselin

Erenburg Ilya Grigorievich– poet, prose writer, translator, publicist, public figure

Born on January 14 (26 n.s.), 1891 in Kyiv in the family of an engineer. Five years later, the family moved to Moscow, where his father, G. G. Erenburg, for some time served as director of the Khamovnichesky Brewery. Ilya studied at the 1st Moscow Gymnasium, from the sixth grade of which he was expelled for revolutionary activities. He was an active participant in the student Bolshevik organization, among his comrades in the organization were N.I. Bukharin and G. Ya Sokolnikov. In January 1908 he was arrested, in August of the same year he was released pending trial under police supervision, and in December, at the request of his father, he received permission to travel abroad for treatment on bail.

He settled in Paris, where he met with V.I. Lenin, A.V. Lunacharsky and other prominent Bolsheviks. He worked for a short time in Vienna under the supervision of L.D. Trotsky, then returned to Paris, where he began to write poetry and retired from revolutionary activities. For some time he lived in a civil marriage with Ekaterina Schmidt (later the wife of his friend T.I. Sorokin), they had a daughter, Irina (Irina Erenburg, 1911–1997, writer, translator, was married to the writer B.M. Lapin, who died in 1941).

In 1910, at his own expense, he published the first book of poetry (which was called “Poems”), then he published books of poetry almost every year. These collections were noticed by critics and famous poets (in particular, V. Ya Bryusov). During these years, Ehrenburg met and became friends with many subsequently famous writers, poets (M.A. Voloshin, A.N. Tolstoy, G. Apollinaire) and artists (F. Léger, A. Modigliani, P. Picasso, D. Rivera) , he was a regular at the cafes “Closerie de Lisle” and “Rotunda” on the Boulevard Montparnasse.

After the outbreak of World War I, Ehrenburg tried to join the French army as a foreign volunteer, but was declared unfit for health reasons. His patriotic fervor quickly faded, and he began to write critical poems about the war. At the same time, his journalistic activity began: in 1915–1916 he published articles and essays in the Morning of Russia newspaper (Moscow), and in 1916–1917 in the Birzhevye Vedomosti newspaper (Petrograd).

In July 1917, Ehrenburg returned to Russia. He did not accept the October Revolution and wrote sharply critical poems and articles. After a short arrest in September 1918, he left for Kyiv, which was alternately captured by Petliurists, Reds and Whites. There Ehrenburg married the artist Lyubov Kozintseva, the older sister of the future film director G.M. Kozintsev, with whom he lived until the end of his life. After the next capture of Kyiv by the Whites, in November 1919 they went to Koktebel to M.A. Voloshin.

In January 1920, Ehrenburg wrote the poem “Russia”, where in his characteristic manner he recognized the revolution:

“Not in the foam of the sea, not in the blue of heaven,

On the dark rot, washed with our blood,

A new, great age is being born.”

In the fall of 1920, he and his wife returned to Moscow through independent Georgia. Here he was arrested, but was soon released on the guarantee of N.I. Bukharin. In Moscow he worked as the head of the children's section of the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat for Education (the department was headed by V.E. Meyerhold).

In March 1921, Ehrenburg received permission to travel abroad on an “artistic trip” and went to Paris with his wife, retaining his Soviet passport. From that moment until 1940, he lived most of the time in the West, but often came to the USSR, gave lectures, and participated in the First Congress of USSR Writers in 1934; Most of the works he wrote were published in the USSR.

Soon after his arrival, he was expelled from France for pro-Soviet propaganda. In the summer of 1921 in Belgium, he wrote his first novel, “The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito...” (published in 1922), in which he mercilessly satirized both bourgeois society and the World War it unleashed, as well as the bureaucratic and repressive Soviet system. Many fragments of the novel turned out to be prophetic. One of the chapters was dedicated to V.I. Lenin, whom Ehrenburg likened to the Grand Inquisitor F.M. Dostoevsky. However, Lenin liked the novel.

In 1921–1924, Ehrenburg lived mainly in Berlin; after the “Left Bloc” came to power in France in 1924, he received permission to live in France, and from that time on he lived mainly in Paris. Until 1923, he continued to write and publish poetry, then completely switched to prose.

In the 1920s, he wrote more than two dozen books, in which a critical (and often sharply satirical) view of both bourgeois and Soviet society prevailed. The novels “Trust D.E. The History of the Death of Europe” (1923), “The Love of Jeanne Ney” (1924) and the story “Summer of 1925” (1926) are devoted to criticism of the first. In the collection of stories “Untrue Stories” (1922), Ehrenburg continued to criticize the bureaucratization and repressive nature of the Soviet regime; in the novels “The Life and Death of Nikolai Kurbov” (1923), “Rvach” (1924) and the story “In Protochny Lane” (1927) he critically describes life during the NEP. In some works, especially in the collection of short stories “Thirteen Pipes” (1923), a critical focus is combined with an attempt at a philosophical understanding of life. Although many of his works were positively assessed by a number of Soviet writers and critics, the prevailing view among Soviet critics was that Ehrenburg was a “nihilist,” a “cynic,” and “a representative of the new bourgeois wing of literature.”

In 1928, Ehrenburg wrote the novel “The Turbulent Life of Lazik Roitschwanets,” whose hero was nicknamed “the Jewish Schweik” by critics. The novel again satirically depicts both bourgeois and Soviet society, while at the same time the work is permeated with Jewish philosophical parables. The novel could not be published in the USSR; it was published in our country only in 1989. The failure to publish the novel in the USSR greatly contributed to the turning point in the writer’s work.

During the Great Depression, Ehrenburg created a series of novels and essays under the general title “Chronicle of our days” (“United Front”, “10 HP”, “Dream Factory”, etc.), in which he described in artistic form the mechanisms driving capitalist production.

In 1932, Ehrenburg became a Paris correspondent for the Izvestia newspaper. In the same year, he visited Kuznetsk and other “five-year construction projects”; The result of this trip was the novel “The Second Day” (1933). Trying not to embellish reality with all its complexities and problems, Ehrenburg nevertheless wrote a completely “Soviet” novel about the enthusiasm of the “builders of a new life,” and after this novel he was actually accepted into the ranks of Soviet writers. Soviet criticism received the novel ambiguously, but positive assessments prevailed. After a trip to the north of the country in 1934, Ehrenburg wrote the novel Without Taking a Breath (1935), which was extremely favorably received by Soviet critics, but the author himself considered it unsuccessful.

The fascists’ coming to power in Germany in 1933 finally made Ehrenburg “Soviet.” He was one of the organizers of the International Congresses of Writers for the Defense of Culture, which were held in 1935 in Paris and in 1937 in Madrid. He wrote several cycles of anti-fascist essays, articles and pamphlets, described the fight against fascism in France, Austria, Spain and other European countries, where he visited as a correspondent.

During the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, Ehrenburg spent most of his time in this country and wrote many articles and essays, as well as the novel “What a Man Needs” (1937). In addition to his journalistic work, he also carried out a number of diplomatic assignments. In 1938, after a fifteen-year break, Ehrenburg returned to poetry and continued to write poetry until the end of his life.

Ehrenburg managed to avoid participating in the campaign to defame “enemies of the people,” which was largely facilitated by his absence from the USSR for most of the period of repression. However, he was in Moscow from December 1937 to April 1938, was present at the trial of the “right-Trotskyist bloc” (where one of the accused was his friend N.I. Bukharin), but refused to write about this trial.

After the capture of France by the Germans in 1940, Ehrenburg finally returned to the USSR. He began writing the novel “The Fall of Paris,” in which he showed France in 1936–1940 and denounced the French elite that led the country to defeat. However, due to its anti-fascist orientation, the novel encountered difficulties in publication (Ehrenburg’s articles stopped being published back in 1939, before the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact). The first part of the novel was published in early 1941, but problems arose with the publication of the second. However, on April 24, 1941, Ehrenburg received a call from I.V. Stalin approved the first part of the novel and, in response to the fear expressed by the writer that the continuation would not be published, joked: “And you write, we will try to push through the third part.” Ehrenburg himself took this call as a warning about the inevitability of war between the USSR and Nazi Germany. The completion of work on the novel and its full publication occurred in 1942. In the same year, the novel was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, Ehrenburg has been a correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. During the war years, he wrote more than one and a half thousand articles, which were published not only in Krasnaya Zvezda, but also in other newspapers - central and divisional, as well as abroad. These articles inspired the fighters, instilled in them hatred of the enemy, and provided moral support during difficult periods. The articles and their author were extremely popular: there is evidence that newspaper sheets with Ehrenburg’s articles (unlike all others) were forbidden to be used for smoking. Articles written for foreign readers, which contributed to supporting the USSR in the world, were also important. At the same time, Ehrenburg continued to write and publish poetry and poems. However, the publication of his articles stopped after the publication of an article by G.F. on April 14, 1945 in the Pravda newspaper. Alexandrov “Comrade Ehrenburg simplifies”, where he was accused of inciting hatred towards the German people.

In 1946–1947, Ehrenburg wrote the epic novel “The Tempest,” which covered the events of World War II in France, Germany, the USSR and several other countries. The novel met with a mixed reaction from critics, in particular, the author was reproached for the fact that the French look prettier than Soviet people. Nevertheless, in 1948 the novel was awarded the Stalin Prize.

When the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) was created in 1942, Ehrenburg became an active member. In 1943, he headed the literary commission of the JAC to prepare the “Black Book,” which was supposed to contain facts about the extermination of Jews by the Germans. In 1945, due to a conflict with the leadership of the JAC, he resigned from the commission, and this commission was headed by V.S. Grossman. However, in 1948, the publication of the “Black Book” was banned, and its collection was scattered; the manuscript, however, survived and was first published in Russian in Jerusalem in 1980. In 1948, Ehrenburg, on instructions from the party leadership, wrote an article for the Pravda newspaper “About one letter,” in which he opposed the emigration of Jews to Israel (and in fact indirectly warned Soviet Jews against rash actions at the start of the anti-Semitic campaign); at the same time he denounced anti-Semitism. In November 1948, the JAC was liquidated, and a process began against its leaders, which ended only in 1952. Ehrenburg appeared in the case file, but his arrest was not authorized by I.V. Stalin.

Nevertheless, Ehrenburg was no longer published in February 1949, and in March the deputy. head Department of Propaganda and Agitation of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks F.M. Golovenchenko publicly announced that “cosmopolitan No. 1 Ilya Ehrenburg has been arrested.” In response, Ehrenburg wrote a letter to I.V. Stalin, after which they began to publish him again, and Golovenchenko was removed from work in the Central Committee. In April 1949, Ehrenburg became one of the organizers of the 1st World Peace Congress, and from 1950 he was vice-president of the World Peace Council. His activities greatly contributed to the creation of a positive image of the USSR in the eyes of the Western intelligentsia.

In 1950–1952, Ehrenburg wrote the novel The Ninth Wave, which in form was a continuation of The Tempest. The novel took place in the USSR, USA, Korea, France, and other European countries. The main content of the novel was the “struggle for peace,” which was the writer’s main occupation in those years. The novel was unconditionally positively assessed by Soviet criticism, and the author himself considered it unsuccessful.

At the end of 1952, Ehrenburg was the first Soviet person to be awarded the Stalin Prize “For Strengthening Peace Between Nations.” This event practically coincided with the exposure of the “killer doctors.” Soon after this, on the instructions of I.V. Stalin prepared a “Letter to the editor of the newspaper Pravda,” which was to be signed by several dozen eminent Jews. It, in addition to curses against the “murderers in white coats,” contained the statement that “a certain part of the Jewish population of our country has not yet overcome bourgeois-nationalist sentiments.” In essence, this letter was supposed to serve as justification for the deportation of Jews to remote areas. Ehrenburg was one of the few who refused to sign this letter. Instead, on February 3, 1953, he wrote a letter to Stalin, convincing him that the publication of the “Letter to the Editor of the Pravda newspaper” would cause irreparable harm to the “peace movement.” Later, in a conversation with Pravda editor-in-chief D.T. Shepilov, he insisted that the letter be given to Stalin. After reading Ehrenburg's letter, Stalin changed his position. A new text was prepared, “Letters to the Editor of the Pravda Newspaper,” which not only contained no accusations against Soviet Jews, but also emphasized the friendship between the Russian and Jewish peoples, and all the pathos was directed against “international imperialism” and the “reactionary leaders of Israel.” . Ehrenburg was forced to sign this letter, but it was not published (probably Stalin's death prevented it).

In 1954, Ehrenburg wrote the story “The Thaw,” in which he tried to convey his feelings about the “thawing” of human hearts and relationships between people. The story lacked any serious criticism of the Stalinist regime, but its rejection and hope for positive changes were felt “between the lines.” The story was sharply criticized. Many literary critics later considered the Thaw to be weak in literary terms, but recognized its important role in awakening society. It is no coincidence that this period of Soviet history was called the “Khrushchev Thaw.”

Ehrenburg devoted a lot of effort to introducing Russian readers to Western culture. Back in the 1910s, he began to translate French poets into Russian: medieval (F. Villon, P. Ronsard, I. Du Bellay), symbolists (P. Verlaine, A. Rimbaud) and his contemporaries (G. Apollinaire, F. . Zhamm), as well as medieval Spanish poets. Later he translated poems by Latin American poets (P. Neruda, N. Guillen). In the 1920s, Ehrenburg promoted advanced Western art (literature, painting, cinema) in his lectures. In 1956, he achieved the holding of the first exhibition of P. Picasso in Moscow.

In 1955–1957, Ehrenburg wrote a series of literary critical essays on French art under the general title “French Notebooks.” These essays and a number of other articles by Ehrenburg devoted to art were, on instructions from the Department of Culture of the CPSU Central Committee, subjected to devastating criticism in the Soviet press.

Ehrenburg consistently supported talented writers and artists. In 1962, at an exhibition in Manege, he allowed himself to openly argue with N.S. Khrushchev, defending artists. After this, he was subjected to severe criticism not only in the press, but also from Khrushchev and the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee L.F. Ilyicheva. Once again, Ehrenburg was no longer published for a while. In 1966, Ehrenburg, along with a number of other writers, signed a letter in defense of A.D. Sinyavsky and Yu.M. Daniel.

At the end of the 1950s, Ehrenburg began work on a book of memoirs, “People. Years. Life". Published in the 1960s, it included six parts; the seventh part (unfinished) was published only in 1987. The book describes a significant number of events of the first half of the 20th century, gives literary portraits of many outstanding personalities: scientists (A. Einstein, F. Joliot-Curie), Russian writers and poets (I.E. Babel, K.D. Balmont, A. Bely, V.Ya. Voloshin, S.P. Gudzenko, M.E. Koltsov, O.E. B.L. Pasternak, A.M. Tolstoy, Yu.N. Tynyanov, M.I. Tsvetaeva), foreign writers and poets Blok, R. Desnos, A. Gide, M. Zalka, P. Istrati, A. Machado y Ruiz, V. Nezval, P. Neruda, J. Roth, E. Toller, Y. Tuwim, E. Hemingway, N. Hikmet, P. Eluard), artists (P.P. Konchalovsky, R.R. Falk, F. Léger, A. Marquet, A. Matisse, A. Modigliani, P. Picasso, D. Rivera), directors ( V.L. Durov, V.E. Meyerhold, A.Ya. Tairov), Soviet diplomats (A.M. Kollontai, M.M. Litvinov, Y.Z. Surits, K.A. Umansky), French politicians ( I. Farge, E. Herriot) and others.

The publication of the memoirs took place in a difficult struggle with editors and censors. Ehrenburg did not deny that his book was subjective and defended his right to subjective assessments of people and events. He described, among other things, those events and those people whom it was not customary to mention in the Soviet press of that time. The memoirs were subjected to sharp criticism from both sides - both by representatives of conservative forces and by those who hoped to see “the whole truth” in them. Ehrenburg admitted that he was not writing “the whole truth,” but justified himself by saying that at least part of the truth would immediately be known to millions of people. Indeed, his memoirs played an important role in the formation of the worldview of the “sixties”.

Biography Note:

Ehrenburg turned to science fiction only in the early period of his creativity. The writer became famous for his action-packed satirical novel, close to the absurdist SF “The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito and His Disciples” (1922), the action of which unfolds in post-war Europe and post-revolutionary Russia (both are brought to the extreme grotesque and fantastic); at the center of the novel is the image of the messiah, the “Great Provocateur” Julio Jurenito; the essence of his teaching is the idea of “hatred of the present,” which deserves to be destroyed to the ground. Critics reproached Ehrenburg for directing his pathos of denial against Soviet Russia, which, despite the author’s repeated assurances to the contrary, today seems fair.

The idea of the destruction of the old world is literally realized in another novel by Ehrenburg, which definitely belongs to SF - “Trust D.E. The History of the Death of Europe" (1923); Trust "D.E." created by an American financial tycoon (Destruction of Europe - “Destruction of Europe”) is intended to eliminate the “competitor” and the breeding ground of the revolutionary “infection” from the face of the Earth. The writer not only prophetically saw future fascist aggression in the near future, but also the ease with which it would be possible to drag the peoples of Europe into a bloody massacre.

The curious early story “Uskomchel” (1922 - Germany; 1990 - USSR), which anticipated the central idea of “The Heart of a Dog” by M. Bulgakov and subsequently formed the basis of E. Zozulya’s unfinished novel “Workshop of Men”: all attempts, can also be attributed to Ehrenburg’s SF the creation of the “Improved Communist Man” inevitably leads to the emergence of a moral monster.

Fiction also includes stories from the “Thirteen Pipes” cycle - “Sixth”, “Ninth”, “Eleventh”, “Twelfth”.

Writer, poet, translator, journalist, public figure Ilya Grigorievich (Girshevich) Erenburg was born on January 27 (January 14, old style) 1891 in Kyiv. In 1895, the family moved to Moscow, where his father for some time served as director of the Khamovniki brewery.

Ilya Erenburg studied at the 1st Moscow Gymnasium, from the sixth grade of which he was expelled for revolutionary activities. For participation in the work of the Bolshevik revolutionary organization in January 1908, he was arrested, and in August of the same year he was released pending trial under police supervision.

In December 1908, Ehrenburg emigrated to Paris, where he continued his revolutionary work, then withdrew from political life and took up literary activity.

When World War I began, Ehrenburg tried to join the French army as a foreign volunteer, but was declared unfit for health reasons.

In 1914-1917 he was a correspondent for Russian newspapers on the Western Front. The war correspondence of these years became the beginning of his journalistic work.

In 1915-1916 he published articles and essays in the newspaper "Morning of Russia" (Moscow), and in 1916-1917. - in the newspaper "Birzhevye Vedomosti" (Petrograd).

In July 1917, Ilya Erenburg returned to Russia, but at first he did not accept the October Revolution, which was reflected in the book of poems “Prayer for Russia” (1918).

After a short arrest in September 1918, he left for Kyiv, then to Koktebel. In the fall of 1920 he returned to Moscow, where he was arrested, but soon released.

In Moscow, Ilya Erenburg worked as the head of the children's section of the Theater Department of the People's Commissariat for Education, which was headed by Vsevolod Meyerhold.

In 1918-1923 he created collections of poems “Fire” (1919), “Eves” (1921), “Thoughts” (1921), “Foreign Thoughts”, “Devastating Love” (both 1922), “Animal Warmth” (1923), etc. .

In March 1921, having received permission to travel abroad, he and his wife left for Paris, retaining their Soviet passport. In Paris, he met and became friends with figures of French culture - Picasso, Eluard, Aragon and others.

From that moment on, Ilya Ehrenburg lived most of the time in the West.

Soon after his arrival, he was expelled from France for pro-Soviet propaganda. In the summer of 1921, while in Belgium, he wrote his first work in prose - the novel “The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito and His Students...” (1922).

In 1955-1957 Ehrenburg wrote a number of literary critical essays on French art under the general title "French Notebooks." In 1956, he achieved the holding of the first Pablo Picasso exhibition in Moscow.

Ehrenburg was married twice. For some time he lived in a civil marriage with Ekaterina Schmidt, they had a daughter, Irina (Irina Erenburg, 1911-1997, writer, translator).

For the second time, he married the artist Lyubov Kozintseva (sister of director Grigory Kozintsev), with whom he lived until the end of his life.

Ilya Ehrenburg died after a long illness on August 31, 1967 in Moscow. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. A year later, a monument was erected on the grave, on which Ehrenburg’s profile was engraved based on a drawing by his friend Pablo Picasso.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Ilya Grigorievich Erenburg (1891-1967) was born into a Jewish family (father is an engineer); He spent his childhood in Kyiv, studied at the 1st Moscow Gymnasium, and was expelled from the 6th grade for participating in a revolutionary circle. In 1908 he was arrested, released on bail and, without waiting for trial, fled to France.

Disillusioned with the ideas of Bolshevism, he switched to literary studies. He made his debut in 1910 with a small book “Poems” published in Paris (according to M. Voloshin, works of “skillful, but tasteless, with a clear bias towards aesthetic blasphemy”), and then almost every year he published collections in small editions in Paris at his own expense and sent them to acquaintances in Russia (“I Live,” 1911; “Dandelions,” 1912; “Everyday Life,” 1913; “Children’s,” 1914).

He later considered “Poems about Eves”, 1916, to be the first “real” book. V. Bryusov, N. Gumilyov, S. Gorodetsky paid attention to the poems, they caused many responses in criticism. A. Blok in 1918 in the article “Russian Dandies” already mentions the “fashion for Ehrenburg.”

During these years, I. Ehrenburg translated French and Spanish poetry, entered the circles of the artistic bohemia of Paris (P. Picasso, A. Modigliani, M. Chagall, etc.). After the February Revolution he returned to Russia, but the October revolution was met with hostility (the collection of poems “Prayer for Russia”, 1918, which reflected the writer’s then sentiments, was removed from Soviet libraries).

He lived first in Moscow, then wandered around the south of the country, trying to make a living from journalism (writing articles both friendly towards the revolution and counter-revolutionary).

In 1921 he went on a “creative business trip” to Berlin, keeping his Soviet passport, and most of his most significant prose works were created during the years of “semi-emigration” (“The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito and His Students...”, the novel “Rvach”, melodrama “The Love of Jeanne Ney”, historical novel “Conspiracy of Equals”, collection of short stories “Thirteen Pipes” and many others).

I. Ehrenburg's books were published simultaneously both abroad and at home. A long stay in Germany and France in such an exceptional position led to the fact that Ehrenburg was not completely considered “one of our own” either among the emigrants or in Soviet Russia.

In 1918-1923, small poetry books by Ehrenburg continued to be published, but they did not arouse interest among critics and readers. I. Ehrenburg returned to writing poetry at the end of his life (part of his poetic heritage was published posthumously), and Ehrenburg was known to his contemporaries mainly as a brilliant publicist, novelist, and author of the memoirs “People, Years, Life.”