The amount of writing about Kharms in recent decades only multiplies the number of questions both about the various sources and properties of his work, and about many episodes of his biography. Kharms was and remains a completely inexplicable phenomenon in the history of Russian literature. And to this day, even highly respected scientists - philologists, historians, literary critics who consider themselves experts on Kharms - do not undertake to create any detailed biography of this writer. To write it "official" literary biography, in which real moments of life would be linked and coordinated with the main stages of creativity, at the moment what is missing is not so much facts as their motivations. And without this, the biography of a creative personality, according to the philologist V. Sazhin, a researcher of D. Kharms’ texts, “if it does not turn into a figment of the biographer’s imagination, then it remains only a note or a chronograph.” Unfortunately, researchers do not yet have sufficient data to go beyond this scope. Therefore, this article provides only a summary of the biography of Daniil Kharms, indicating well-known facts and those circumstances that require even more in-depth study and clarification.
Family and ancestors
The biography of Kharms’s father, Ivan Pavlovich Yuvachev (1860-1940), is well known to historians of the so-called “ liberation movement" in Russia. He was the son of a polisher Winter Palace, received a navigator's education in technical school Naval Department in Kronstadt, served for several years on the Black Sea. It is unknown who or what influenced him Political Views, but in the early 1880s he turned out to be a like-minded member of the Narodnaya Volya and in the famous “trial of 14”. September 28, 1884 I.P. Yuvachev was sentenced to death penalty by hanging, but the sentence was soon commuted to 15 years of hard labor. Of this period, the convict had to spend the first 4 years in solitary confinement in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and then in the Shlisselburg Fortress.
Here he turned from a militant atheist into an equally zealous champion of Christianity with a strong dose of mysticism. At the Sakhalin penal servitude I.P. Yuvachev worked in leg shackles for two years, and then, apparently using his navigational education, his superiors assigned him to manage the weather station.
Without serving his entire sentence, I.P. Yuvachev was released in 1895, lived in Vladivostok, committed circumnavigation. The circumstances as a result of which he returned to St. Petersburg in 1899 are completely unknown. It is only known that Yuvachev Sr. decided to serve in the inspectorate of the Savings Banks Management for a position associated with constant inspection trips around Russia. For several years he has been releasing one after another biographical books“Eight Years on Sakhalin” (St. Petersburg, 1901) and “ Shlisselburg Fortress"(M., 1907). From the pen of the former Narodnaya Volya member also came a considerable number of preaching brochures (under the pseudonym I.P. Mirolyubov), in which the author interprets the Holy Scriptures, promotes good morals and reverence for church statutes.
Meanwhile, the classes of I.P. Yuvachev's meteorology and astronomy were highly appreciated. In 1903, he became a corresponding member of the Main Physical Observatory of the Academy of Sciences (in this regard, it is worth recalling the astronomer who often appears in Kharms’s texts).
In April of the same 1903, I.P. Yuvachev married noblewoman Nadezhda Ivanovna Kolyubakina (1876-1928). At that time, she was in charge of the laundry in the refuge of the Princess of Oldenburg, and over the years she became the head of the entire establishment - a place where women released from prison received shelter and work. How Daniil Kharms’ parents met is unknown. In January of the following year, 1904, Nadezhda Ivanovna gave birth to a son named Pavel, but in February he died.
On December 17 (30), 1905, the second son was born. On this day, Ivan Pavlovich made the following entry in his notebook:
The 3rd point of this entry is “obscure” and is most likely associated with the personal refusal of the former Narodnaya Volya member from his previous beliefs. As for the biblical prophet Daniel, he will become “the most dear” for Kharms.
On January 5 (18), 1906, the boy was baptized in the Church of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the refuge of the Princess of Oldenburg (now Konstantinogradskaya Street, on the territory of the Boiler-Turbine Institute). Apparently, the godparents were Ivan Pavlovich’s brother, Pyotr Pavlovich Yuvachev, and “the daughter of the provincial secretary, the girl Natalia Ivanova Kolyubakina.” The latter is the elder sister of Nadezhda Ivanovna (1868-1942), a literature teacher and director of the Tsarskoye Selo Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium. There, in Tsarskoye Selo, the mother’s younger sister, Maria Ivanovna Kolyubakina (1882? - 1943?), also lived, it seems, like the eldest, who had no family. These three women raised Daniel. The father was constantly on the move due to his duties and supervised the upbringing by correspondence with his wife. Moreover, the tone of his letters and instructions was the more severe, the softer and more reverent the mother treated her son. The absence of his father was compensated by his custom of writing letters with enviable frequency and regularity, and thus his voice was constantly heard in the family. For little Daniel, this created a rather fantastic effect of visible absence with a constant feeling of his father’s participation in his real life. The father became for Kharms a kind of higher being, respect for which, as legends testify, was embodied, for example, in the fact that the son, until the end of his father’s life, stood up in his presence and spoke to his father only while standing. It can be assumed that the “gray-haired old man” with glasses and with a book, who appears in several of Kharms’ texts, was inspired precisely by the appearance of his father. It is amazing that the mother not only was not embodied in any way (with the possible exception of one poem) in Kharms’s texts, but even her death in 1928 was not recorded in his notebooks.
early years
In 1915, Daniil Yuvachev entered the first class of a real school, which was part of the Main German School of St. Peter in Petrograd (Petershule). The reasons why parents chose this particular school are unknown. In any case, here the young man received good knowledge German and English languages. Here his penchant for various hoaxes was already evident (at this age they were perceived as funny children's games). The future writer played the horn during lessons (it is unknown where he got it from), persuaded the teacher not to give him a bad mark - “not to offend the orphan” - etc.
During the hungry years of the Civil War, Daniil and his mother went to her relatives in the Volga region. Upon returning to Petrograd, the mother went to work as a wardrobe maid at the Barachnaya Hospital named after. S.P. Botkin, and here, on Mirgorodskaya, no. 3/4, the family lived until moving to Nadezhdinskaya in 1925. It was in this hospital that Kharms earned his first work experience - from August 13, 1920 to August 15, 1921, he served “as an assistant fitter.” The period from 1917 to 1922 is perhaps the most undocumented, and therefore researchers to this day have not been able to fill in many “blank spots” in the biography of Daniil Kharms.
It is known that in September 1922, for some reason, the parents considered their son’s stay in Petrograd inconvenient and sent him to his aunt, N.I. Kolyubakina. She was still the director, only now she former gymnasium was called the 2nd Children's Village Soviet Unified Labor School. Here Daniil completed his secondary education in two years and in the summer of 1924 he entered the Leningrad Electrical Technical School. The father, who served in the financial department at Volkhovstroi, helped ensure that the Working Committee interceded for his son, otherwise the young man of “non-proletarian” origin would not have been accepted into the technical school. But studying at the technical school was a burden for young Kharms, and already on February 13, 1926, he was expelled from there.
A penchant for fantasy, hoaxes, and writing, as was said, was noted in the early childhood of the future writer. At the age of 14, Danya Yuvachev compiled a notebook of 7 drawings (pen and ink), the contents of which still remain a mystery to researchers of Kharms’s work. But the motifs that will later be present in his main work are already obvious in them: the astronomer, the miracle, the wheel, etc. Already at a young age, a tendency towards encryption, veiling the direct meanings of objects and phenomena, which was inherent in Kharms throughout his literary life, is noticeable.
Nickname
First known literary text Kharms was written in 1922 and has the signature DSN. From this it is obvious that at that time Daniil Yuvachev had already chosen for himself not only the fate of a writer, but also a pseudonym: Daniil Kharms. In the future, he will begin to vary it in different ways and introduce new pseudonyms, bringing their total number to almost twenty.
There are several versions about the meaning of the literary name Kharms. According to A. Aleksandrov, it is based French word charme - charm, enchantment. But Daniil’s father, judging by the surviving information, knew about the provocative negative meaning of this name: “Yesterday dad told me that as long as I am Kharms, I will be haunted by needs” (entry in Kharms’ notebook dated December 23, 1936). Indeed, according to the memoirs of the artist A. Poret, Kharms explained to her that in English this word means misfortune (literally “harm” - “misfortune”). However, Kharms always tended to veil (or blur) the direct meanings of words, actions, deeds, so you can look for decoding of his pseudonym in other languages.
First of all, this is the Sanskrit Dharma - “religious duty” and its fulfillment, “righteousness”, “piety”. Kharms could have known from his father that he depicted the pseudonym Mirolyubov, under which his preaching books and articles were published, with two words written in Hebrew: “peace” and “love.” By analogy with this (and from his own Hebrew studies), Kharms could associate his pseudonym with the word hrm (herem), which means excommunication (from the synagogue), prohibition, destruction. In view of these meanings, the above warning (caution) from a father to his son looks quite logical.
It should also be taken into account that Kharms was interested in mythology, history and literature from a young age. Ancient Egypt. Traces of this interest would later appear in numerous and unique ways in his works, and the most early evidence noticeable already in the above-mentioned drawings of 1919 and especially in the drawing of 1924, depicting a certain face with the caption: “That one.” This is one of the main Egyptian gods, the god of wisdom and writing, whom the Greeks later identified with Hermes Trismegistus, the bearer of the secret knowledge of all generations of magicians. The transformations that Kharms gave to his pseudonym from the very beginning of his work are reminiscent of magical manipulations, which, according to the canons of magic, are necessary so that the true meaning of the name remains a secret from the uninitiated. Thus, it was protected from adverse influences.
"Chinar gazer"
Soon, an equally mysterious part was added to the literary name Daniil Kharms: “the plane tree gazer” or simply “the plane tree”.
Early 1925 year Harms met (it is unknown under what circumstances) the poet A.V. Tufanov (1877-1941), an admirer and successor of V.V. Khlebnikov, author of the book “To Zaumi” (1924). Tufanov in March 1925 founded the “Order of the DSO Zaumi”, the core of which included Kharms, who took the title “Behold the Zaumi”.
Through Tufanov, Kharms became close to A.I. Vvedensky (1907-1941), a student of the more orthodox “Khlebnikovite” poet I.G. Terentyev (1892–1937), creator of a number of propaganda plays, including the “actualizing” stage adaptation of “The Inspector General,” parodied in “The Twelve Chairs” by I. Ilf and E. Petrov.
Tufanov’s ideas about a special “perception of space and time” and as a result - special language to whom I should speak modern literature, were close to Kharms from the very beginning and had a strong influence on him. During this year, Kharms formed two notebooks of poems, which he presented on October 9, 1925 along with an application for admission to the Leningrad branch of the All-Russian Union of Poets. On March 26, 1926, the poet Daniil Kharms (Yuvachev) was admitted to it. Among these poems the following signature is often found: plane tree
This word was coined by Vvedensky, who in 1922 founded the friendly union of “plane trees” together with his former classmates at the L. Lentovskaya gymnasium (Petrograd 10th labor school) Y. S. Druskin (1902-1980) and L.S. Lipavsky (1904-1941). And they, who received an excellent education, are prone to mystical philosophizing and literary creativity, it was common to avoid direct and unambiguous formulations and names. None of them ever deciphered the meaning of the word “plane tree”. Therefore, one can only guess: does this word mean spiritual rank, does it go back to the Slavic root “to create,” etc. etc. The most important thing is that Kharms, having met these people in mid-1925, made friends who remained his closest intellectual and creative like-minded people until the end of his life. L. Lipavsky (under the pseudonym L. Savelyev) and A. Vvedensky will work together with Kharms in children's magazines. In the 1930s, Y. Druskin would remain Kharms’s last interlocutor and spiritually close person. He will also protect the writer’s archive from destruction.
Kharms, as an extraordinary creative personality, quickly began to feel burdened by Tufanov’s apprenticeship: he wanted broader activities, both creatively and socially. This is precisely how researchers explain his departure from Tufanov, the organization of the Left Flank, then called the Left Flank, and, finally, the founding of the “Academy of Left Classics.” Each time it was an organization in which people of different creative interests certainly participated: artists, musicians, dramatic artists, filmmakers, dancers and, of course, writers.
In 1926, the Radix Theater was formed in Leningrad. The play “My Mother Is Covered in Watches,” composed of works by Kharms and Vvedensky, is chosen for the production. It was supposed to be a synthetic performance with elements of drama, circus, dance, and painting. But things didn’t go further than rehearsals for the play. It was decided to ask for space for the troupe’s rehearsals at the Institute. artistic culture(INHUK), from its manager - famous artist K. Malevich. So in October 1926, Kharms met K. Malevich, and in December of the same year, the artist agreed to join the next alliance of leftist forces, conceived by Kharms. Evidence of Malevich’s friendly feelings remained his dedicatory inscription to Kharms on his book “God will not be thrown off” (Vitebsk, 1922): “Go and stop progress.”
For the first time in a scandalous context, the name of Kharms appeared on the pages of the press after his speech on March 28, 1927 at a meeting literary circle Higher courses art history at State Institute art history. On April 3, a response to this speech appeared: “... on the third day, the meeting of the literary circle... was of a violent nature. The plane trees came and read poetry. Everything was going well. And only occasionally did the assembled students laugh or make jokes in a low voice. Some even clapping their hands. Give a fool the finger and he will laugh. "Chinari" decided that success was guaranteed. “Chinar” Kharms, after reading several of his poems, decided to inquire what effect they had on the audience.
“Chinari” were offended and demanded that Berlin be removed from the meeting. The meeting unanimously protested.
Then, climbing onto a chair, “Chinar” Kharms, a member of the Union of Poets, raised his hand armed with a stick upward with a “magnificent” gesture, and declared:
I don’t read in stables and brothels!
Students categorically protested against such hooligan attacks by persons acting as official representatives literary organization to student meetings. They demand from the Union of Poets the exclusion of Kharms, believing that in the legal Soviet organization There is no place for those who, at a crowded meeting, dare to compare a Soviet university with a brothel and stables.”
Kharms did not retract his words in the statement he wrote with Vvedensky to the Union of Poets. He explained that he considered his performance to correspond to the reception he received, and the description he gave to the public as a mark.
Judging by Kharms' famous performances, he enjoyed the vigorous activity on stage; he was not frightened, but rather provoked by the audience's reaction to his extravagant texts and often shocking form of performances. Of course, the element of provocation was deliberately incorporated by Kharms into his behavior. But in those years it was considered the norm artistic life. The style of speech of the imagists, yesterday's futurists, and even Mayakovsky today would be called the fashionable word “banter,” and then it was aimed at attracting the attention of the public, “outdoing” literary competitors, and creating scandalous fame for itself.
OBERIUTs
In 1927, the director of the House of Press, V.P. Baskakov, invited the Academy of Left Classics to become a section of the House and perform at a big evening, setting the condition: to remove the word “left” from the name. Apparently, Kharms and Vvedensky did not really stand for any particular name, so the “Union of Real Art” was immediately invented, which, when shortened (in accordance with Kharms’s focus on a game with direct recognition and naming), was transformed into OBERIU. Moreover, the letter “u” was added to the abbreviation, as they say now, “for fun,” which most clearly demonstrates the essence of the creative worldview of the group members.
The date of formation of OBERIU is considered to be January 24, 1928, when the “Three Left Hours” evening took place in the Leningrad Press House. It was there that the Oberiuts first announced the formation of a group representing a “detachment of left-wing art.” The literary section of OBERIU included I. Bakhterev, A. Vvedensky, D. Kharms (Yuvachev), K. Vaginov (Wagenheim), N. Zabolotsky, writer B. Levin. Then the composition of the group changed: after Vaginov left, Yu. Vladimirov and N. Tyuvelev joined it. N. Oleinikov, E. Shvarts, as well as artists K. Malevich and P. Filonov were close to the Oberiuts.
At the same time, the first (and last) manifesto of the new literary association, which declared the refusal traditional forms poetry, the views of the Oberiuts on different kinds art. It was also stated there that the aesthetic preferences of the group members are in the field of avant-garde art.
At the end of the 1920s, the Oberiuts tried to return again to some traditions of Russian modernism, in particular futurism, enriching them with grotesqueness and alogism. In defiance of the “socialist realism” implanted in art, they cultivated the poetics of the absurd, anticipating European literature absurdity for at least two decades.
It is no coincidence that the poetics of the Oberiuts was based on their understanding of the word “reality.” The OBERIU Declaration said: “Perhaps you will argue that our stories are “unreal” and “illogical”? Who said that “everyday” logic is required for art? We are amazed by the beauty of the woman painted, despite the fact that, contrary to anatomical logic, the artist twisted his heroine’s shoulder blade and moved her to the side. Art has its own logic, and it does not destroy the subject, but helps to understand it.”
“True art,” wrote Kharms, “stands among the first reality, it creates the world and is its first reflection.” In this understanding of art, the Oberiuts were the “heirs” of the futurists, who also argued that art exists outside of everyday life and use. Futurism is associated with Oberiut eccentricity and paradox, as well as anti-aesthetic shockingness, which was fully manifested during public speeches.
The evening “Three Left Hours”, which marks the history of OBERIU (very, very short) was, perhaps, Kharms’ benefit performance. In the first part, he read poetry, standing on the lid of a huge lacquered cabinet, and in the second, his play “Elizabeth Bam” was staged. The devastating article by L. Lesnaya remains a reminder of this event, helping to slightly imagine the atmosphere of the evening.
In 1928-29, Oberiut performances took place everywhere: in the Circle of Friends of Chamber Music, in student dormitories, V military units, in clubs, in theaters and even in prison. Posters with absurdist inscriptions were hung in the hall: “Art is a cupboard”, “We are not pies”, “2x2=5”, and for some reason a magician and a ballerina took part in the concerts.
Famous film playwright and director K.B. Mints, who briefly collaborated in the cinematographic section of OBERIU, recalled some of the shocking actions of the “Unification”:
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“1928. Nevsky Avenue. Sunday evening. There is no crowding on the sidewalk. And suddenly there were sharp car horns, as if a drunk driver had turned off the pavement straight into the crowd. The revelers scattered in different directions. But there was no car. A small group of very young people were walking along the empty sidewalk. Among them stood out the tallest, lanky one, with a very serious face and with a cane topped with an old car horn with a rubber black “pear”. He walked calmly with a smoking pipe in his teeth, in short pants with buttons below the knees, in gray woolen stockings, and black boots. In a checkered jacket. Her neck was supported by a snow-white hard collar with a child's silk bow. head young man It was decorated with a cap with “donkey ears” made of fabric. This was the already legendary Daniil Kharms! He's Charms! Shardam! Ya Bash! Dandam! Writer Kolpakov! Karl Ivanovich Shusterman! Ivan Toporyshkin, Anatoly Sushko, Harmonius and others..." Mints K. Oberiuts // Questions of Literature 2001. - No. 1 |
Works for children
At the end of 1927, N. Oleinikov and B. Zhitkov organized the “Association of Writers of Children's Literature” and invited their Oberiut friends, including Kharms, to it. From 1928 to 1941, D. Kharms constantly collaborated in children's magazines “Hedgehog” (monthly magazine), “Chizh” (extremely interesting magazine), “Cricket” and “Octobers”. During this time, he published about 20 children's books.
Many publications about Kharms say that children's works were a kind of “sanitary trade” for the writer and were written solely for the sake of earning money (since the mid-1930s, more than meager). The fact that Kharms himself attached very little importance to his children's works is evidenced by his diaries and letters. But one cannot help but admit that poems for children are a natural branch of the writer’s creativity and provide a unique outlet for his favorite playful element. Does a child attach special importance to play? Despite their small number, Kharms’s children’s poems still have the status of a special, unique page in the history of Russian-language children’s literature. They were published through the efforts of S.Ya. Marshak and N. Oleinikov. The attitude of leading critics towards them, starting with the article in Pravda (1929) “Against hackwork in children's literature,” was unequivocal. This is probably why the pseudonym had to be constantly varied and changed.
In our opinion, such a characterization of Kharms’s children’s works is absolutely unfair. More than one generation of young readers was engrossed in his poems “A Man Came Out of the House,” “Ivan Ivanovich Samovar,” “The Game,” and others. And Kharms himself would never have allowed “hackwork” in literature for children. Children's works were his "calling card". At some stage they actually created it literary name: after all, during the life of Daniil Kharms, no one knew that in 1927-1930 he wrote much more “adult” things, but, apart from two fleeting publications in collective collections, he failed to publish anything serious.
Esther
However, much more than the lack of publications, Kharms in those years was worried about his relationship with his wife. Here, too, much remains unclear for biographers.
Kharms's first wife was Esther Aleksandrovna Rusakova (1909-1943). She was the daughter of Alexander Ivanovich Ioselevich (1872-1934), who emigrated in 1905 during the Jewish pogroms from Taganrog to Argentina, and then moved to France, to Marseille (here Esther was born). Anarcho-communist A. I. Rusakov took part in a demonstration of protest against the intervention in 1918 in Soviet Russia. For this he was deported to his homeland and in 1919 he arrived in Petrograd.
The Rusakov family was friends with many writers: A. N. Tolstoy, K. A. Fedin, N. A. Klyuev, N. N. Nikitin. The husband of one of the Rusakovs’ daughters, Lyubov, was a famous Trotskyist, member of the Comintern V. L. Kibalchich (Victor Serge; 1890-1947). In 1936, Esther would be arrested precisely for collaboration with Victor Serge and sentenced to 5 years in the camps; On May 27, 1937, she was sent by convoy to Nagaevo Bay in SEVVOSTOKLAG.
Kharms met Esther in 1925. At this time, despite her young age, she was already married (from the diary entries of Kharms and poetic works we can judge that the name of Esther’s first husband was Michael). Having divorced her first husband, Esther married Kharms in 1925 and moved in with him, but every now and then she “ran away” to her parents, until the official divorce in 1932. It was a painful affair for both.
For Kharms, in any case, the torment began almost immediately after his marriage, and in July 1928, when fame and success in children’s literature came to him, albeit somewhat scandalous, he wrote in his notebook:
At the same time (or because of this?) Esther Rusakova will remain the brightest feminine impression Kharms, and he will measure all the other women with whom fate brings him together, only by Esther.
In March 1929, Kharms was expelled from the Union of Poets for non-payment of membership fees, but in 1934 he would be admitted to the Union of Soviet Writers without any problems (membership card No. 2330).
The end of OBERIU and the first arrest
The real disaster for OBERIU came in the spring of 1930. She was associated with Kharms’s performance with friends in the student dormitory Leningrad University. The Leningrad youth newspaper Smena responded to this speech, in which an article by L. Nilvich appeared with a biting title: “Reactionary juggling (about one outing of literary hooligans)”:
After such aggressive attacks, OBERIU could not exist for long. For some time, the most active members of the group - Kharms, Vvedensky, Levin - went into the field of children's literature. Here big role played by N. Oleynikov, who, although not formally a member of OBERIU, was creatively close to the association. With the beginning of the ideological persecution of the 1930s, texts for children became the only published works by Kharms and other Oberiuts.
However, they did not last long in this niche either. The free artistic attitude of the absurdists and their inability to fit into a controlled framework could not but arouse dissatisfaction with the authorities. Following the strong responses to their public performance A “discussion about children’s literature” took place in the press, where K. Chukovsky, S. Marshak and other “ideologically unconstrained” writers, including young authors from the children’s edition of Lengiz, were severely criticized. After this, the Oberiut group ceased to exist as an association.
On December 10, 1931, Kharms, Vvedensky and some other editorial staff were arrested.
What Kharms said about his works during the investigation, he could have said among his friends. What was fantastic here were only the circumstances of the place and the extreme sincerity with which the writer characterized his “anti-Soviet” work.
He was sentenced to three years in the camps, but the term was replaced by a short exile. Kharms chose Kursk as his place of residence and stayed there (together with the similarly convicted A. Vvedensky) for the second half of 1932.
1930s
At the end of 1932, Kharms managed to return to Leningrad. The nature of his work is changing: poetry recedes into the background and fewer and fewer poems are written (the last completed poems date back to the beginning of 1938), while prose works (with the exception of the story “The Old Woman,” a creation of a small genre) multiply and become cyclical (“Cases,” “ Scenes”, etc.). On the spot lyrical hero- an entertainer, ringleader, visionary and miracle worker - a deliberately naive narrator-observer appears, impartial to the point of cynicism. Fantasy and everyday grotesque reveal the cruel and delusional absurdity of “unattractive reality” (from diaries), and the effect of terrifying authenticity is created by the author thanks to the scrupulous accuracy of details, gestures, and verbal facial expressions of the characters. In unison with the diary entries (“the days of my death have come,” etc.) they sound latest stories(“Knights”, “Falling”, “Interference”, “Rehabilitation”). They are imbued with a feeling of complete hopelessness, the omnipotence of crazy tyranny, cruelty and vulgarity.
Upon returning to Leningrad, Kharms resumes friendly communication with former Oberiuts. “We met regularly - three to five times a month,” recalled Ya. Druskin, “mostly at the Lipavskys’, or at my place.” Their meetings are a deliberately cultivated form of endless philosophical, aesthetic and ethical dialogue. Here they categorically rejected arguing and defending their point of view as the only correct one. This was determined not so much by ethics as by ontology: according to interlocutors, in earthly world No the last truth, there cannot be unconditional rightness of one in relation to the other: everything is mobile, changeable and multivariate. Hence their skepticism towards science that claims absolute truth, especially exact sciences. Echoes of this position, like the genre of dialogue itself, are found in abundance in Kharms’s works and contain the above-mentioned attitudes. In 1933-1934, conversations of former Oberiuts were recorded by the writer L. Lipavsky and compiled the book “Conversations”, which was not published during Kharms’s lifetime. Also, the collective collection of Oberiuts “The Bath of Archimedes” was not published during the authors’ lifetime.
In 1934, K. Vaginov died. In 1936, A. Vvedensky married a Kharkov woman and went to live with her. On July 3, 1937, following the Kirov murder case, N. Oleinikov was arrested, and on November 24, N. Oleinikov was shot. 1938 - N. Zabolotsky was arrested and exiled to the Gulag. Friends disappeared one by one.
Meanwhile, in the atmosphere of general fear in the second half of the 1930s, Kharms continued to work no less intensively than before in children's magazines, multiplying his pseudonyms under the remaining unpublished “adult” works. He signed his children's works with the pseudonyms Charms, Shardam, Ivan Toporyshkin and others, never using his real last name.
It is impossible not to notice that the rest of Kharms’s friends, just like him, who worked intensively in a variety of genres: poetry, prose, drama, essays, philosophical treatises, did not see anything they wrote in print. But none of them have a note of reflection on this matter. It's not that they didn't want to see their works published. It’s just that the purpose of writing was itself, the actual act of utterance and in best case scenario- the reaction of his closest circle of friends to him. The aimlessness of creativity - perhaps best definition for what Kharms (and his like-minded people) did in the literature of the 1930s.
During these same years, Kharms compiled several collections of previously written works. In addition to those published in the posthumous collected works of Kharms, his archive contains two more collections compiled from previously written texts. They are somewhat similar in their composition, but still differ from each other. The most interesting thing about these collections is that many of them have a number icon above the title (and in some individual autographs). IN total there are 38 such numbered texts, and among the icons the oldest is 43; some numbers are not found. According to modern literary scholars - researchers of Kharms' work, the explanation for these strange numbers with the “t” sign should be sought in Kharms’ occult hobbies. The fact is that verbal interpretations of the meanings of Tarot cards were often compiled into various books (and Kharms studied them, as is clear from the bibliographic entries in his notebooks). Probably, Kharms, following the examples known to him, applied a possible interpretation to one or another of his texts in accordance with one or another Tarot card and thus, as it were, played out a kind of card solitaire from his works.
"Ignite trouble around you"
At the end of the 1930s, according to his recollections last friend I'M WITH. Druskin, Kharms often repeated words from the book “The Seeker unceasing prayer, or Collection of sayings and examples from books Holy Scripture"(M., 1904): "Ignite trouble around you." These words were close to his temperament and mental makeup. Impetuous sincerity and contempt for the opinions of the people around him always guided him. Sacrifice was, according to his concepts, one of fundamental principles creations of art. He was not shy in his assessments of the impending war and, it seems, foresaw his fate. “Ignite trouble” seemed to become an end in itself for the writer, a method of conscious suicide.
On August 23, 1941, Kharms was arrested for “defeatist statements.” Documents about the second arrest and the “case” of Kharms in 1941-42 have not been preserved. According to one version, the writer was declared insane and placed in mental asylum, where he died of exhaustion on February 2, 1942.
Kharms’ second wife M.V. Malich, whom he married in 1935, abandoned the archive after her husband’s arrest (at the last search only correspondence and several notebooks, and a larger number of manuscripts survived) and moved to the “writer’s” house on the embankment of the Griboyedov Canal, no. 9. Having learned about this from her, Ya. Druskin went with Petrograd side to Mayakovsky Street to a friend’s abandoned apartment. Here he collected all the papers that he could find, put Kharms’s manuscripts in a suitcase and carried him through all the vicissitudes of the evacuation. In 1944, Kharms’ sister E. Gritsyna gave Druskin another part of Kharms’ archive, which she found in their apartment. So preserved from destruction literary heritage writer.
Kharms's works, even those published, remained in complete oblivion until the early 1960s, when a collection of his carefully selected children's poems, “The Game” (1962), was published. After this, for about 20 years they tried to give him the appearance of a cheerful eccentric, a mass entertainer for children, which was completely inconsistent with his main “adult” works. Even the writer’s second wife, Marina Malich (Durnovo), in her memoirs was sincerely surprised at how many magnificent works Kharms managed to write in the 1930s. She considered her husband not the most successful, “average” children's writer. She, like everyone else, was familiar only with children's poems published in magazines.
Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev (1905 - 1942) while still at school came up with a pseudonym for himself - Kharms, which varied with amazing ingenuity, sometimes even in the signature under one manuscript: Kharms, Horms, Charms, Haarms, Shardam, Kharms-Dandan, etc. The fact is that Kharms believed that a constant name brings misfortune, and took a new surname as if in an attempt to get away from it. However, it was the pseudonym “Kharms” with its duality (from the French “charme” - “charm, charm” and from the English “harm” - “harm”) that most accurately reflected the essence of the writer’s attitude to life and work.
Daniil Yuvachev was born on December 17 (30), 1905 in St. Petersburg, in the family of Ivan Yuvachev, a former naval officer, revolutionary-People's Will, exiled to Sakhalin and took up religious philosophy there. Kharms's father knew Chekhov, Tolstoy and Voloshin.
Daniil studied at a privileged St. Petersburg German school. In 1924 he entered the Leningrad Electrical Technical School, but was soon forced to leave it. In 1925 he took up writing.
In 1925, Yuvachev met the poetic and philosophical circle of plane trees. He quickly gained scandalous fame in the circles of avant-garde writers under his pseudonym “Kharms”, invented at the age of 17. Kharms was accepted into the All-Russian Union of Poets in March 1926 on the basis of the submitted poetic works, two of which (“The Case of railway" and "Poem by Peter Yashkin - a communist") were published in small-circulation collections of the Union.
The early Kharms was characterized by “zaum”; he joined the “Order of Brainiacs DSO” led by Alexander Tufanov. Since 1926, Kharms actively tried to organize the forces of “left” writers and artists in Leningrad, creating the short-lived organizations “Radix” and “Left Flank”. In 1927, S. Marshak attracted Kharms to work in children's literature. This is how Kharms received his first publications and his first money from them. Profits from publications remained almost the only source of money throughout Kharms’ life. He didn’t work anywhere else; when there was no money (and this was the case all his life), he borrowed money. Sometimes he gave it on time, sometimes he didn’t give it at all.
In February, the first issue of the children's magazine "Hedgehog" was published, in which Kharms's first children's works "Ivan Ivanovich Samovar" and "Naughty Cork" were published. Since 1928, Kharms has been writing for the children's magazine Chizh. Surprisingly, with a relatively small number of children's poems (“Ivan Ivanovich Samovar”, “Liar”, “Game”, “Million”, “How Dad Shot My Ferret”, “A Man Came Out of the House”, “What Was That?”, “Tiger on the Street”...) he created his own country in poetry for children and became its classic.
At the same time, Kharms became one of the founders of avant-garde poetic and art group“Union of Real Art” (OBERIU). Later, in Soviet journalism, the works of OBERIU were declared “the poetry of the class enemy,” and since 1932, the activities of OBERIU in its previous composition ceased.
In December 1931, Kharms was arrested along with a number of other Oberiuts, accused of anti-Soviet activities and sentenced on March 21, 1932 by the OGPU board to three years in correctional camps. But two months later the sentence was replaced by deportation, and the poet went to Kursk.
He arrived on July 13, 1932. “I didn’t like the city in which I lived at that time,” he wrote about Kursk. It stood on a mountain and there were postcard views everywhere. They disgusted me so much that I was even glad to sit at home. Yes, in fact, apart from the post office, the market and the store, I had nowhere to go... There were days when I did not eat anything. Then I tried to create a joyful mood for myself. He lay down on the bed and started smiling. I smiled for up to 20 minutes at a time, but then the smile turned into a yawn...”
Kharms stayed in Kursk until the beginning of November, returning to Leningrad on the 10th. He continued to communicate with like-minded people and wrote a number of books for children to earn a living. After the publication in 1937 of the poem “A Man with a Club and a Bag Came Out of the House” in a children’s magazine, which “has since disappeared,” Kharms was no longer published. This brought him and his wife to the brink of starvation.
On August 23, 1941, Kharms was arrested for defeatist sentiments following a denunciation by an NKVD agent. In particular, Kharms was accused of saying, “If they give me a mobilization leaflet, I’ll punch the commander in the face and let them shoot me; but I won’t wear a uniform” and “ Soviet Union lost the war on the first day, Leningrad will now either be besieged and we will die of starvation, or they will bomb it, leaving no stone unturned.” To avoid execution, Kharms feigned madness. The military tribunal ordered Kharms to be kept in a psychiatric hospital. There, Daniil Kharms died during the siege of Leningrad, in the most difficult month in terms of the number of starvation deaths.
Daniil Kharms was rehabilitated in 1956, but for a long time his main works were not officially published in the USSR. Until the time of perestroika, his work circulated from hand to hand in samizdat, and was also published abroad with a large number distortions and abbreviations.
“I,” wrote Kharms on October 31, 1937, “are only interested in "nonsense"; only that which has no practical sense. I am interested in life only in its absurd manifestation. Heroism, pathos, prowess, morality, hygiene, morality, tenderness and excitement are words and feelings that I hate.
But I fully understand and respect: delight and admiration, inspiration and despair, passion and restraint, debauchery and chastity, sadness and grief, joy and laughter.”
Daniil Kharms. Poems for children
Widely known as children's writer and author of satirical prose. From 1928 to 1941 . he constantly collaborates in children's magazines Hedgehog, Chizh, Sverchok, Oktyabryata. Kharms publishes about 20 children's books. Poems and prose for children provide a unique outlet for Kharms’ playful element, but they were written exclusively for earning money and special significance the author did not give them any credit. The attitude of official party criticism towards them was clearly negative. In our country for a long time Kharms was known primarily as a children's writer. K. Chukovsky and S. Marshak highly valued this hypostasis of his work, and even to some extent considered Kharms the forerunner of children's literature. The transition to creativity for children (and the phenomenal success among the children's readership) was due not only to forced external circumstances, but most of all to the fact that children's thinking, not bound by the usual logic circuits, more prone to the perception of free and arbitrary associations. Kharms’s neologisms resemble words distorted by a child or deliberate agrammatisms (“skask”, “song”, “shchekalatka”, “valenki”, “sabachka”, etc.).
Real name: Yuvachev Daniil Ivanovich. Born on December 17 (30), 1905 in St. Petersburg, died on February 2, 1942 in Leningrad. Russian writer and poet.
Your main pseudonym "Daniil Kharms" Daniel came up with school years(around 1921-1922). This pseudonym he signed first school notebooks. Later pseudonym became official name(It is known that Kharms Yuvachev-Kharms first signed his passport in pencil, and then legalized his pseudonym - Kharms).
About the origin pseudonym researchers are still arguing. Many literary scholars have repeatedly made attempts to decipher in their own way pseudonym writer, putting forward many versions of his origin, finding sources in English, German, French, Hebrew, Sanskrit. (For example, some elevate his false surname "Harms" to the French “charme” - “charm, charm”, some to the English “harm” - “harm”).
But the most common version is that pseudonym inspired by the beloved Conan Doyle and associated with the name of Sherlock Holmes, since Holmes and Kharms- surnames are consonant. Also, the reason for this version was the descriptions mentioned by memoirists of Kharms’ manner of dressing like a “London dandy.” In the few photographs Kharms easily recognizable by his indispensable pipe and style of clothing (he wore short gray socks, gray stockings and a large gray cap).
In addition to the main pseudonym Daniil Kharms used over 40 more pseudonyms(exact number unknown): DCH, Daniel Charms, Daniel, Daniil Sharpener (Kharms), DaNiil Kharms, Daniil Kharms School of Chinari Vzir Zaumi, School of Chinar Vzir Zaumi Daniil Kharms, D.H., Chinar Daniil Ivanovich Harms, D. Harms, D.I. Kharms, D. Bash, Daniil Horms, Daniil Kharms, Khoerms, Daniel Haarms, Daniil Haarms, Daniil Protoplast, Dan. Kharms, (Yaroneya), Kharms, Daniil Dandan, Dan. Kharms, (Yaroneya), Kharms, Daniil Dandan, Dandan, Daniil Ivanovich Kharms, D. Kharms-Shardam, Daniil Shardam, Shardam, Daniil Kharms-Shardam, Vanya Mokhov, Karl Ivanovich Shusterling, Charms, Daniil Charms, Harmonius; Faith, Hope, Love, Sofia; Haarms, D., Daniil, Daniil Ivanovich Dukon- Kharms, A. Sushko, Writer Kolpakov, etc.
The reason is so frequent changes name Kharms explained it quite simply. He believed that a constant name brings misfortune. This is evidenced by the following diary entry Kharms from December 23, 1936: “Yesterday dad told me that as long as I am Kharms, I will be haunted by needs.” And in order to avoid misfortunes, Kharms took himself a new one every time. pseudonym. Most of them formed from the first pseudonym. For example: Daniil Ivanovich Kharms, D. Kharms, D.I. Kharms, Daniil Horms, Daniil Kharms, Khoerms, Daniel Haarms, Daniil Haarms, DCH, Daniel Charms, Daniel, DaNiil Kharms and etc.
Such pseudonyms, as Daniil Kharms School of plane trees Vzir zaumi, School of plane trees Vzir Zaumi Daniil Kharms, Chinar Daniil Ivanovich Kharms testify to the desire Kharms to emphasize his belonging to the then new left “trend”.
Nicknames Shardam Kharms-Shardam, Daniil Shardam, Shardam, Daniil Kharms-Shardam are consonant with Sherlock Holmes.
Nicknames Vanya Mokhov, Karl Ivanovich Shusterling, Writer Kolpakov, A. Sushko, D. Bash - these are the so-called “children’s” pseudonyms of Kharms, which are distinguished by their special “liberty” in their education.
Nickname“Faith, Hope, Love, Sophia” - Christian Turner “faith - hope - love” supplemented with “sophia”, i.e. wisdom.
Was born D. Harms in St. Petersburg, with which his whole life was connected. I studied here and started writing my first poems here. He entered literature as a professional poet in the mid-1920s, when some of his poems appeared in almanacs.
Kharms was one of the founders of the literary group OBERIU (Association of Real Art), which included poets A.Vvedensky, N.Zabolotsky, Yu.Vladimirov and others, who used the techniques of alogism, absurdity, and grotesque. In 1927, Kharms' play "Elizabeth to You" was staged on the stage of the House of Press. Kharms read his works at meetings with the public, his poems and stories were distributed in manuscripts. In 1930, the activities of OBERIU as a “formalist association” were prohibited. Marshak, appreciating talent Kharms, attracted him to work with children's literature. Since 1928, Kharms published poems for children in the magazines "Chizh" and "Hedgehog". Several children's books have also been published, including such well-known ones as “Ivan Ivanovich Samovar”, “The Game”, “Million”.
Spare parts for passenger cars in Chekhov.
D. Harms was arrested on August 23, 1941, and died on February 2, 1942 while in a psychiatric hospital. His name was erased from Soviet literature, and only in 1956 were his works rehabilitated. In the 1960s, his books were republished, and the play “Elizabeth to You” returned to theater repertoires.
1928 The Leningrad Press House was excited by the performance of young shocking writers calling themselves Oberiuts. They recited poems written in abstruse ways, staged the absurdist “Elizabeth Bam,” and to top it all off, they showed the world a montage film with the promising title “Meat Grinder.” The main one among the Oberiuts was Daniil Kharms, whose biography became the topic of this article.
early years
The future poet was born on December 30, 1905. The penchant for writing was passed on to Daniil genetically: his father, who corresponded with Chekhov and Tolstoy, was known not only for his revolutionary activities, but also for his attempts at writing, and his mother was a noblewoman by birth and was in charge of an orphanage. A short biography of Daniil Kharms includes mention of his brilliant education at a privileged German school. After the revolution, he was enrolled in the Leningrad Electrical Technical School, from where he was expelled with the wording “poor attendance” and inactivity in public works.”
Origins of literary activity
When did Daniil Ivanovich Kharms, whose biography became the subject of many studies, change his surname Yuvachev and finally believe in his talent as a writer? The first use of the pseudonym occurred in the early 1920s. They tried to find the answer to the surname “Kharms” (as well as its many variants, including Kharms, Haarms and Karl Ivanovich, who came from nowhere) in numerous dialects. The analogies with the English and French languages should be considered the most plausible. If in the first harm is “harm,” then in the second similar word denotes charm, attractiveness.
Around that time Kharms wrote his first poetic works. As a guide, he chooses Khlebnikov, or rather, his close admirer A. Tufanov. Subsequently, the “Order of Brainiacs” will be replenished with such a talented poet as Daniil Kharms. His biography also shows that in 1926 he joined the All-Russian Union of Poets, from which he was expelled due to non-payment of fees.
OBERIU
In the first half of the 20s, Kharms met Vvedensky and Druskin, who were the founders of the “plane tree” circle. Subsequently, Daniil will also join there, deciding to unite all the “left” writers under one name, one group - OBERIU. This complex abbreviation stands for “Union of Real Art”. Interestingly, in the group’s manifesto, published in 1928, the Oberiuts declared the Zaumi school to be the most hostile to themselves. Kharms renounced the destruction of the word, regular game into nonsense. The goal of their group was global in nature and projected onto the world around them. The Oberiuts sought to clear the subject of “literary husk” and make its perception more real. This applies both to his clearly avant-garde experiments (the poems “The Evil Assembly of Infidels”, “I Sang ...”), and to works of a humorous nature.
Kharms also explains the phenomenon of absurdity in prose miniatures like “Blue Notebook No. 10,” “Sonnet,” and “Old Women Falling Out.” In his opinion, the logic of art should be different from everyday logic. As an example, Kharms cites a case where an artist, contrary to anatomical laws, slightly twisted his shoulder blade main character, which, however, does not prevent us, the audience, from admiring the beauty of the depicted nature. Daniel also created dramatic works (for example, the above-mentioned “Elizabeth Bam”), which easily fit into the context of the experiences of the rest of the Oberiuts.
Works for children
How did the biography of Daniil Kharms develop further? He began writing for children in the late 20s, collaborating with a number of magazines. Other members of OBERIU also worked there, however, unlike them, Kharms took his current job responsibly, which, as fate would have it, became his only source of income. The poet’s poems and puzzles were published in magazines, and he published a number of books (“Firstly and Secondly,” “The Game,” etc.). Some of them were banned or not recommended for public libraries, others were especially loved among young readers.
Kharms in the 1930s
This period became especially difficult for writers who did not want to put their talent on the conveyor belt. Daniil Kharms was one of them. The biography (autobiography, more precisely) of those times is captured in the sad lines of the poem “On visits to the writer’s house...”. The poet discovers with surprise and indignation that his acquaintances have turned their backs on him, a writer who has fallen out of favor. Kharms's first arrest took place in December 1931. Formally, the verdict concerned the poet’s activities in the field, although the real reason for the arrest was related to OBERIU. Apparently, the Soviet government could not forgive him for the shocking, somewhat scandalous antics that characterize avant-garde art - as Daniil Kharms understood it. The poet's biography in the 30s is distinguished by an ideological crisis and constant material deprivation. However, his second wife, Marina Malich, who remained with the poet until the end of his life, helped him cope with them.
Death
The war has begun. Kharms met it with defeatist sentiments and unwillingness to participate in it, for which he was arrested a second time. In order to avoid execution, Kharms feigned madness. He was placed in a psychiatric hospital, where he died during the terrible events of the siege of Leningrad. This is how Daniil Kharms finished his biography and creative heritage which are now of considerable interest.