Нина Берберова - женщина, которую можно назвать one of the most prominent representatives of the Russian emigration. She lived in a difficult time in the history of our country, which many writers and poets tried to comprehend. Not left out and Nina Berberova. Her contribution to the study of Russian emigration is invaluable. But first things first.
Origin, years of study
Berberova Nina Nikolaevna (years of life -1901-1993) - poetess, writer, literary critic. She was born in St. Petersburg on July 26, 1901. The Berber family was quite wealthy: the mother was a Tver landowner, and her father served in the Ministry of Finance. Nina Nikolaevna studied first at the Archeological University. She then graduated from the Don University in Rostov-on-Don. Here from 1919 to 1920 Nina studied at the Faculty of History and Philology.
The first poems, acquaintance with Khodasevich, emigration
In 1921 in Petrograd Nina Berberova wrotemy first poems. However, only one of them was published in the collection "Ushkuyniki" in 1922. Thanks to the first works she was accepted in the poetic circles of Petrograd. That was her acquaintance with many poets, including V. Khodasevich, whose wife soon became Nina Nikolaevna. Together with him she went abroad in 1922. Before settling in Paris for a long time, the Berberovs first stayed in Berlin and Italy with M. Gorky, and then moved to Prague.
So, since 1922 Nina Nikolaevna was inemigration. It was here that she made her real debut in literature. Poems Berberova were published in the journal "Conversation" published by M. Gorky and V. F. Khodasevich.
Stories and novels Berberova
Nina Berberova was an employee of the newspaper "Lastnews "and its regular author. In the period from 1928 to 1940, she published a series of stories in her“ Biyankurskiye gingerbread. ”These are ironic-symbolic, lyrical and comic works devoted to life in Biyankur of Russian émigrés. Renault ", drunkards, beggars, declassed eccentrics and street singers. This cycle is influenced by the early A. Chekhov and M. Zoshchenko. Nevertheless, there was a lot of their own in them.
Until the closure of the newspaper "Latest News" in 1940the following Berberova novels appeared in it: in 1930 - “The Last and First”, in 1932 - “The Lady”, in 1938 - “Without Decline”. They determined the reputation of Nina Nikolaevna as prose writer.
"Fate relief"
Criticism noted the proximity of prosaicworks by Berber's French novels, as well as the seriousness of Nina Nikolayevna’s attempt to create in an epic sense “the image of the emigrant world”. Life abroad, the social landscape of the "underground" (outskirts) defined the sounding of "Relief of Fate." This cycle of stories was published in the 1930s. And in 1948 a book of the same name was published in a separate edition. In this cycle, the theme of homelessness was born, important for Berberova’s work in general. At the same time, homelessness was realized by Nina Nikolaevna not as a tragedy, but as the destiny of a 20th century man, free from adherence to her “nest”, which ceased to be a symbol of the “strength of life”, “charms” and “protection”.
"Last and First"
The "Last and First", however, was describedan attempt to build such a "nest". Having banned his homesickness, the hero of the novel tried to create something like a peasant community, which provided not only shelter, but also had to return a sense of cultural identity to its participants. Note that before Berberova almost no one described the life and life, aspirations and dreams of ordinary Russian émigrés with fictionalism. Subsequently, the theme of building a peasant community was not developed in the works of Berberova. However, she remained woven into her biography. Nina Nikolaevna lived the years of occupation on a small farm, where she was engaged in peasant labor.
"Lady" and "Without Sunset"
"Lady" - the second novel of Nina Nikolaevna.It was published in 1932. The work speaks about the details of the life of emigrant youth belonging to the third generation. In 1938, a third novel appeared - "Without a Decline." Before the readers and heroes, the question was asked about how and how to live an immigrant woman from Russia. The unequivocal answer to it is the following: only mutual love can give happiness. Criticism noted that these stories, which are artificially connected with each other, are instructive, sharp, entertaining, and sometimes captivated by unfeminine vigilance towards people and things. The book has many beautiful lyrical lines, bright pages, significant and deep thoughts.
Moving to the US, "Cape of Storms"
Затем, в 1950 году, переехала в США Нина Berberov. Her biography in those years was marked by teaching at Princeton University, first the Russian language, and then Russian literature. However, the circle of Nina Nikolaevna's writer's interests remained the same. In 1950, the novel "The Cape of Storms" appeared. It speaks of two generations of emigration. For the young, the “universal” is more important than the “native”, while the older generation (“people of the last century”) does not think of life outside Russian traditions. The loss of one’s country leads to the loss of God. However, the spiritual and everyday disasters that she is experiencing are conceptualized as a liberation from the shackles of the traditional institutions that held the world order that collapsed with the revolution.
Two books about composers
Nina Berberova books about composers publishedbefore the war. These works are documented biographical in nature. In 1936, Tchaikovsky, the story of a lonely life, appeared, and in 1938, Borodin. They were evaluated as phenomena having a new literary quality. These were the so-called novels without fiction or, according to Khodasevich, a biography seen creatively, which strictly adhered to the facts, but illuminated them with the inherent freedom of the novelists.
"Iron Woman"
Нина Берберова как критик обосновывала the hopelessness of this genre, especially in demand during the period of interest in uncommon destinies and individuals. The highest achievement of Nina Nikolaevna on this path was the book “Iron Woman”, which appeared in 1981. This is the biography of Baroness M. Budberg. Her life was closely connected, first with M. Gorky, and then with G. Wells.
Берберова, обходясь без рожденных воображением "ornaments" and fabrications, managed to create a bright portrait of an adventuress. M. Budberg belonged to the type of people who, according to Berberova, especially clearly expresses the typical features of the 20th century. In merciless times, she was an exceptional woman. She did not succumb to the requirements of the era, forced to forget about the moral precepts and live simply in order to survive. The story, built on letters, documents, eyewitness accounts, as well as on the author’s memoirs about encounters with the heroine and reflections on the course of history, covers almost half a century. It ends with a description of the trip that Budberg made in 1960, when she went to the disgraced B. Pasternak in Moscow.
"Italics are mine"
In 1969 in English, and then in Russian(in 1972) the autobiography of Nina Berberova "Italics is mine" was printed. Looking back at her own life, Nina Nikolaevna sees in her "recurring themes", and also reconstructs her past in the ideological and spiritual context of time. Defining her literary and life position as pro-Western, anti-Orthodox and anti-soil, she builds through these characteristics the “structure” of her personality opposing the “fragility” and “meaninglessness” of the world. The book presents a panorama of the artistic and intellectual life of the Russian emigration in the years between the two world wars. There are important memoirs in it (especially about Khodasevich), as well as analyzes of the writers of the Russian diaspora (G. Ivanov, Nabokov, etc.).
Berberova Nina Nikolaevna in 1989 came toRussia, where she met with readers and literary critics. She died September 26, 1993 in Philadelphia. And today remains in demand creativity Nina Berberova. References about her is already quite impressive.
