Biography

Russian writer, poet. Olga Fedorovna Berggolts was born on May 16 (according to the old style - May 3), 1910 in St. Petersburg, in the family of a factory doctor who lived on the workers' outskirts of St. Petersburg near the Nevskaya Zastava. Mother - Maria Timofeevna Berggolts, younger sister - Maria.

In 1924, the first poems of Olga Berggolts were published in the factory wall newspaper. In 1925 Olga Berggolts joined the literary youth group Smena, and at the beginning of 1926 she met Boris Petrovich Kornilov * (1907−1938), a young poet who had recently arrived from a Volga town and was accepted into the group. After a while they got married, their daughter Irochka was born. In 1926, Olga and Boris became students of the State Higher Courses of Art History at the Institute of Art History. Boris did not stay on the courses, and Olga several years later was transferred to the Leningrad University.

In 1930, Olga Berggolts graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Leningrad University and left for Kazakhstan, where she began working as a traveling correspondent for the newspaper "Soviet Step". At the same time, Berggolts and Kornilov divorced (“they did not agree in character”) and Olga married Nikolai Molchanov, with whom she studied at the university. (Collection of articles "Remembering Olga Berggolts") Returning from Alma-Ata to Leningrad, Olga settled with Nikolai at 7 Rubinstein Street - in a house called "the tear of socialism". Then she was accepted as editor of the "Komsomolskaya Page" newspaper of the plant "Electrosila", with which she collaborated for three years. Later she worked for the newspaper Literaturny Leningrad. A few years later, the youngest daughter of Olga Berggolts, Maya, died, and two years later, Ira.

In December 1938, Olga Berggolts was jailed on false charges, but released in June 1939. Pregnant, she spent six months in prison, where, after being tortured, she gave birth to a still child. In December 1939, she wrote in her carefully hidden diary: “The feeling of prison now, after five months of freedom, arises in me more sharply than in the first time after my release. Not only I really feel, I smell this heavy smell of the corridor from the prison to the Big House, the smell of fish, dampness, onions, the sound of steps on the stairs, but also that mixed state ... of doom, hopelessness with which I went to interrogations ... They took out my soul, dug into it with smelly fingers, spit at her, shit, then put her back and say: "live." (S. Schultz, "The Main Street of St. Petersburg"; "Science and Life", 2001)

During the blockade of 1941-1943, Olga Berggolts was in Leningrad besieged by the Nazis. In November 1941, she and her seriously ill husband were to be evacuated from Leningrad, but Nikolai Stepanovich Molchanov died and Olga Fedorovna remained in the city. “V.K.Ketlinskaya, who headed the Leningrad branch of the Writers' Union in 1941, recalled how Olga Berggolts came to her in the first days of the war, Olenka, as everyone called her at that time, was still a very young, pure, trusting creature, with shining eyes , "A charming fusion of femininity and sweeping, sharp mind and childish naivety", but now - excited, collected. She asked where and how she could be useful. “Ketlinskaya sent Olga Berggolts at the disposal of the literary and dramatic editorial office of the Leningrad radio. After a very short time, Olga Berggolts's quiet voice became the voice of a long-awaited friend in the frozen and dark blockaded Leningrad houses, became the voice of Leningrad itself. This transformation seemed almost a miracle: from the author of little-known children's books and poems, about which it was said “it's cute, glorious, pleasant - no more”, Olga Berggolts suddenly became a poet, personifying the resilience of Leningrad. " (Collection "Remembering Olga Berggolts"). In the House of Radio she worked all the days of the siege, broadcasting radio broadcasts almost daily, which were later included in her book "Leningrad Speaks". Olga Berggolts was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and medals. Olga Fedorovna Bergholts died on November 13, 1975 in Leningrad. She was buried at Literatorskie Mostki. Despite the writer's lifetime request to bury her at the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery, where her words “No one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten” are carved in stone, the “head” of Leningrad, Mr. Romanov, refused the writer. Bibliography Works of O. F. Berggolts Among the works of Olga Fedorovna Berggolts - poems, poems, stories, stories, plays, journalism "Uglich" (1932; story) "Glubinka" (1932; a collection of essays written in Kazakhstan) "Poems" (1934 ; collection of lyrics) "Journalists" (1934; story) "Night in the" New World "(1935; collection of stories)" Grains "(1935; story)" Book of Songs "(1936; collection)" February Diary "(1942; poem ) "Leningrad Poem" (1942) "Leningrad Notebook" (1942; collection) "In Memory of the Defenders" (1944) "They Lived in Leningrad" (1944; play; written jointly with G. Makogonenko) "Your Way" (1945) " Leningrad Symphony "(1945; screenplay; together with G. Makogonenko)" Leningrad Speaks "(1946; a collection of Olga Berggolts's radio speeches during the siege of Leningrad; the first edition of the book was withdrawn in connection with the" Leningrad affair ") "(1947; play)" Pervorossiysk "(1950; heroic-romantic poem about the Petrograd workers who built in 1918 in Altai city-commune; 1951 - State Prize of the USSR) a cycle of poems about Stalingrad (1952) "Loyalty" (1954; a poem about the Sevastopol defense of 1941-1942) "Daytime Stars" (1959; autobiographical book of lyric prose; in 1968 the film of the same name was shot) "Knot "(1965; collection of poems from 1937-1964) *) In 1936 B. P. Kornilov was expelled from the Writers' Union, and on March 19, 1937 he was arrested. The official date of death of Olga Berggolts's first husband is November 21, 1938, but his place of burial is unknown. “On February 20, 1938, by the visiting session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by lawyer Matulevich Kornilov, he was sentenced to capital punishment. The verdict contains the following wording: "Since 1930, Kornilov was an active participant in the anti-Soviet, Trotskyist organization, which set as its task terrorist methods of struggle against the leaders of the party and government." The verdict was carried out on February 20, 1938 in Leningrad. " (Konstantin Pozdnyaev, "Shooting at the limit. Myths and the truth about the tragic death of Boris Kornilov"; "Literary Review", 1993) For 20 years the name of the poet Boris Kornilov was banned. His books were included in the list of subject to confiscation, and only “The Song of the Counter” (“The morning meets us with coolness, the river meets us with the wind…”), written by him in collaboration with Dmitry Shostakovich for the film “Counter”, continued to live, but the name of the poet- "Enemy of the people" was not reported. On January 5, 1957, Boris Petrovich Kornilov was rehabilitated ("for lack of corpus delicti"). __________

Russian writer, prose writer and poetess, Olga Fedorovna Bergholts was born in May (16 n.s./3.s.) 1910 in St. Petersburg.

Olya spent her childhood in the area of ​​the Nevskaya Zastava, on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. Olga's father was a factory doctor. The younger sister Olya, like her mother, was called Maria. Since childhood, Olya was fond of poetry. Her first poems were published in 1924, and since 1925, Bergholz was a member of the literary youth group Smena.

In 1926, she met Boris Kornilov there, who later became her first husband. The young couple had a girl, they named her Ira. In 1926, the couple became students of the State Higher Courses of Art History (at the Institute of Art History).

Boris quickly got bored with the courses, and Olga, upon graduation, transferred to the Faculty of Philology at Leningrad University and graduated in 1930. After graduation from university, she went to Kazakhstan, where she worked as a newspaper correspondent. Olga and Boris divorced with the wording "did not agree with the characters", and Berggolts married her former classmate Nikolai Molchanov.

Upon his return from Alma-Ata to Leningrad, for three years Berggolts worked as editor of the factory newspaper Komsomolskie Pages of the Electrosila plant, then in the newspaper Literaturny Leningrad. Both Olga's daughters die very suddenly - the youngest Maya, and two years later, and Ira.

The year 1938 was not easy for the writer. Her pregnant woman is kept in prison for six months on false charges of "having connections with enemies of the people." In June 1939, she was released, but as a result of the stress and torture experienced, she gives birth to a still child.

Memories of the time spent in prison tormented her for a very long time. All her life Olga keeps diaries and in one of them she complains that the feeling of prison "after five months of freedom arises sharper than in the first time after release." During the war years, during the blockade of Leningrad (1941-1943), Olga Berggolts remained in the besieged city. In November 1941, she and her husband had to leave Leningrad, but did not have time.

Her second husband, Nikolai Stepanovich Molchanov, died and Olga did not leave the city. During the siege of the city, the voice of the writer became the most recognizable and beloved voice of the inhabitants of Leningrad. Throughout the blockade, her voice called for firmness. Every day she appeared in the editorial office and conducted radio broadcasts, as a result of which her book "Leningrad Speaks" appeared.

Olga Berggolts was awarded medals and orders (of Lenin and the Red Banner of Labor). The famous writer died on November 13, 1975 in Leningrad, was buried at Literatorskie Mostki, despite the fact that during her lifetime she asked to be buried at the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery.

The name of Olga Berggolts is known by every inhabitant of our huge country, especially from St. Petersburg. After all, she is not just a Russian poet, she is a living symbol of the blockade of Leningrad. This strong woman had to go through a lot. Her short biography will be covered in the article.

Childhood and youth

Olga Berggolts was born in the late spring of 1910 in St. Petersburg. Her father Fyodor Khristoforovich was a surgeon. Olga also had a younger sister, Maria. After the revolution, the Bergholtsev family moved to Uglich, because there was a lot of restlessness in Petrograd. The father of the family took part in the hostilities. Mother Maria Timofeevna lived with her daughters for more than two years in the former Epiphany Monastery. Already in her old age, Olga recalled with sincere warmth those times and the anxiety with which they went back to Petrograd after her father returned from the war.

The Bergholts lived on the very outskirts of the Nevskaya Zastava. In 1926 Olga graduated from a labor school. A year before, in one of the literary associations I met Boris Kornilov, a poet and her future husband. Together with him, she studied at the Institute of Art History.

It is with Kornilov that one of the tragedies of the difficult life of the poetess is associated. In 1928 they got married, a few months later the couple had a daughter, Irina. The girl died at the age of eight from heart disease. Boris himself was shot in February 1938 on a trumped-up charge.

1930s

Since 1930 she studied at the philological faculty of the Leningrad University. I went to practice in Vladikavkaz, where I spent half of the summer and autumn, working for the Vlast Truda newspaper.

In the same year, she divorced B. Kornilov and married Nikolai Berggolts, whose biography is filled with tragic events, and outlived her second husband. He died of starvation in 1942 in Leningrad.

After graduation from the university, he was sent to Kazakhstan, where he worked as a correspondent for the newspaper "Soviet Step". After returning to Leningrad until 1934 she worked for the newspaper "Electrosila".

In 1932, Olga and Nikolai had a daughter, Maya, but this motherhood turned out to be tragic. The baby died a year later.

In 1934, the poetess was admitted to the Writers' Union, from where she was expelled several times, and then reinstated again.

In December 1938, Olga Berggolts was arrested on charges of having connections with enemies of the people. She was pregnant at the time of her arrest. But this did not stop her torturers from torturing her. After all the beatings, the poet gave birth to a stillborn child in the prison hospital.

Six months after her arrest, she was released and fully rehabilitated.

Years of the Great Patriotic War

In 1940 she joined the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The news of the beginning of the war found Olga in Leningrad. She immediately went to the local branch of the Writers' Union and offered her help. V. Ketlinskaya, the head of the department, sent Olga Berggolts to the radio. Throughout the entire blockade, the poetess's quiet voice supported the victorious spirit in the Leningraders, her poems inspired hope.

It was Bergholz who became the personification of the resistance of the blockade. In November 1941, together with her ailing husband, they were preparing for evacuation, but Molchanov died, and Olga decided to share the fate of the townspeople, remaining in Leningrad. Her best works were born here. "Leningrad Poem" by Olga Berggolts is dedicated to the defenders of the city and its courageous inhabitants.

At the end of 1942, she was able to visit Moscow. In those days, the poetess desperately missed her hometown and yearned to return with all her heart. No goodness in the form of hot food, baths or anything else could stop her.

It was Bergholts Olga Fedorovna who told the Leningraders in 1943 the good news about

In the summer of 1942, the poetess received After the end of the war, it was her words that were carved on the granite slab of the memorial cemetery: "... no one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten."

last years of life

In 1949 she got married for the third time. Olga's chosen one was Georgy Makogonenko, a literary critic and critic. In the post-war period, the poetess worked a lot, went on business trips. After a trip to Sevastopol, she wrote the tragedy "Loyalty".

In 1951, Olga Berggolts was awarded the USSR State Prize. JV Stalin's death met with bitter verses.

In 1962, she divorced Makogonenko. The last years of my life, in fact, were spent alone. Nearby was only her sister Maria, who helped in everything and always.

Death

She was buried on although it was originally planned that the coffin with the body would be taken to Piskarevskoye. Many townspeople did not manage to say goodbye to their beloved poetess, since the obituary was published in the newspaper only on the day of the burial.

The authorities made sure that there were not many people at the coffin, they were afraid of speeches, because they caused so much evil to Bergholz. In the end, we achieved what they wanted. The speech was made by E. Serebrovskaya, whom Olga could not stand for meanness and constant denunciations of writers and poets. D. Granin, recalling the day of farewell to Bergholz, said that it was a cowardly funeral, instead of sadness and grateful memory, the poetess got only the anger of her ill-wishers.

Creation

The first poem was published in 1925. Initially, Olga Berggolts, whose biography is quite tragic, positioned herself as a children's poet. She received praise from K. Chukovsky.

The war years changed everything in her life. It was then that she found herself and followed the right creative path. Olga Berggolts, whose poems about the war gave hope and faith, became a symbol of invincibility.

Among her best works are "The February Diary", "Leningrad Poem", "Day Stars". After her death, the poetess's diaries were published, which are of great value and keep many happy and painful memories.

BERGGOLTS Olga Fedorovna (May 3 (May 16 NST) 1910, St. Petersburg - November 13, 1975, Leningrad) - poet, prose writer, publicist, journalist. In 1918 - 1921 she lived in the city of Uglich, Yaroslavl province.

Olga Berggolts was born in St. Petersburg in the family of a factory doctor. From 1918 to 1921, she lived in Uglich with her mother and younger sister Maria, a future actress, while her father fought on the fronts of the Civil War. The Bergholites settled in the former cells of the Epiphany Convent. She studied at the Uglich school (now secondary school No. 2). The story of O. F. Berggolts "Uglich" (1932) tells about complex and contradictory events during the Civil War. At the age of 10, she moved to Petrograd with her father, who had returned from the Civil War.

The first poem by Olga Berggolts "Lenin" was published in the newspaper "Red Tkach" in 1925, the first story "The Enchanted Path" - in the magazine "Red Tie". In 1925 she came to the literary association of working youth "Smena", where she met the poet Boris Kornilov. She was eighteen when they got married in 1928. On October 13 of the same year, a daughter, Irina, was born to the young (she died at the age of seven on March 14, 1936).

Olga and her husband studied at the Higher Courses at the Institute of Art History. Such teachers as Tynyanov, Eikhenbaum, Shklovsky taught here, Bagritsky, Mayakovsky, I. Utkin performed. Since 1930 she was published in the magazine "Chizh", published her first book - "Winter-Summer-Parrot".

In 1930, she divorced Boris Kornilov and married classmate Nikolai Molchanov.

After graduating from the philological faculty of Leningrad University in 1930, she left for Kazakhstan, worked as a correspondent for the newspaper "Soviet Step", which she told about in the book "Glubinka" (1932). Returning to Leningrad, she worked as an editor for the newspaper of the Electrosila plant (1931-1934). In 1933-1935, books were published: essays "The Years of the Assault", a collection of stories "Night in the New World", a collection of "Poems", with which Bergholz's poetic fame begins.

In 1932, Olga gave birth to a daughter, Maya, a year later the girl died.

In 1934 she was admitted to the Union of Soviet Writers, from where she was expelled on May 16, 1937. It was reinstated in July 1938, and then, due to her arrest, she was expelled again.

On December 13, 1938, Berggolts was arrested on charges "in connection with enemies of the people" and also as "a participant in a counter-revolutionary conspiracy against Voroshilov and Zhdanov." After being beaten and tortured, Olga gave birth to a dead child right in prison. The first husband, Boris Kornilov, was shot on February 21, 1938 in Leningrad.

On July 3, 1939, O. Berggolts was released and fully rehabilitated. Soon after her release, she recalled: "They took out the soul, dug into it with smelly fingers, spat in it, shit, then put it back and say: live!" Nevertheless, in February 1940 Olga joined the CPSU (b).

During the Great Patriotic War, Olga remained in besieged Leningrad. From August 1941 she worked on the radio, almost daily appealed to the courage of the city's residents.

Olga's second husband, literary critic Nikolai Molchanov, died of hunger on January 29, 1942. Despite his disability, he went to the construction of fortifications on the Luga border. Olga Berggolts dedicated to him the best, in her own opinion, poetry book "The Knot" (1965).

Father, Fyodor Bergholts, for refusing to become an informant in March 1942 was expelled from besieged Leningrad by the NKVD to Minusinsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory).

In the besieged city Olga Berggolts created her best poems dedicated to the defenders of Leningrad: The February Diary (1942), The Leningrad Poem (1942). June 3, 1942 Olga Berggolts was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad". On January 27, 1945, the radio film "900 Days" was released, in which various fragments of sound recordings were used (including a metronome, excerpts from the Seventh Symphony, alarm announcements, people's voices), combined into one recording. After the war, Olga Berggolts's book "Leningrad Speaks" about working on the radio during the war was published. Olga Berggolts wrote the play They Lived in Leningrad, staged at the A. Tairov's theater.

In 1948 "Selected" was published in Moscow.

In 1952 - a cycle of poems about Stalingrad. After a business trip to the liberated Sevastopol, she created the tragedy "Loyalty" (1954).

In 1953 she visited Uglich - the city of her childhood, visited her teacher I. N. Potekhin. A small poem "The Divine Church in Uglich" was written in 1953, after visiting the city. Olga Fedorovna dedicated well-known lines to Uglich from the chapter "A Trip to the City of Childhood" in the book "Stars of Day" (1959), which makes it possible to understand and feel the "biography of the century", the fate of a generation. In 1966, director Igor Talankin shot the feature film "Stars of the Day" based on it (Alla Demidova as Olga Berggolts).

From 1949 to 1962 she was married to G.P. Makogonenko, professor of the Department of Russian Literature at Leningrad State University (1912 - 1986).

In 1958 the Collected Works of Olga Berggolts was published in two volumes, in the 1960s - poetry collections: "Knot", "Test", in the 1970s - "Loyalty", "Memory". In the mid-1950s and early 1960s, several of Bergholz's poems were circulated in samizdat.

The last published new book is a collection of poems "Memory", published in 1972 in Moscow.

Olga Berggolts died in Leningrad on November 13, 1975. She was buried at Literatorskie mostki Volkov cemetery. The monument at the grave of the poet appeared only in 2005.

The diaries that the poetess kept for many years were not published during her lifetime. After the death of Olga Berggolts, her archive was confiscated by the authorities and placed in a special storehouse. Fragments of diaries and some poems appeared in 1980 in the Israeli magazine "Time and We". Most of the unpublished legacy of Bergholz in Russia was included in the third volume of her collected works (1990).

Since 1977, one of the streets in the center of Uglich has been named after O. Berggolts. In the Central Bank named after IZ Surikov there is an edition of the poem "Pervorossiysk" (1952) with an autograph for the library from the author (2 / VIII - 53 Uglich). In Uglich, a memorial plaque was erected in 2010 on the wall of school No. 2, where O. Berggolts studied. The lines of poetry from the text of "Stars of Day" (chapter "A trip to the city of childhood") turned out to be the most appropriate on the memorial plaque with reflected domes. They were written in 1953: “And the land, dear and dear, repeated to me, its blue and stones, and ash:“ You have come where you were striving. Be calm now. You've come". A memorial plaque is also installed on the house number 7 on Rubinstein Street, where Olga Berggolts lived.

She was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" (1942), the Stalin Prize of the third degree (1951) for the poem "Pervorossiysk" (1950), the Order of Lenin (1967), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1960), medals "For the Defense of Leningrad" (1943) and "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941−1945." Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg (1994).

Some books by O. F. Berggolts:

Uglich. - Moscow; Leningrad: OGIZ. Young Guard, 1932.

Leningrad diary. - L .: GIHL, 1944.

Leningrad is speaking. - L .: Lenizdat, 1946.

Favorites. - M .: "Young Guard, 1954.

Lyrics. - M .: Fiction, 1955.

Collected works in 2 vols. - M., 1958.

Daytime stars. - L .: Soviet writer, 1960.

Selected works in 2 volumes. - L .: Fiction, 1967.

Loyalty. - L .: Soviet writer, 1970.

Olga. Forbidden Diary: Diaries, Letters, Prose, Selected Poems and Poems by Olga Berggolts / Auth. project Natalia Sokolovskaya. - SPb., 2010.

Uglich. [Reprint. ed. 1932]. - M., 2010.

"I won't let you forget ..." - M .: Polygraph, 2014.

Blockade diary. - SPb .: Vita Nova, 2015.

Olga Berggolts is a famous Soviet poet, writer, journalist and columnist. Her work fell on difficult years in the history of our country. She began to write in the 1920s-1930s, but she became most famous for her poems on a military theme, which she composed while in besieged Leningrad. In addition, she penned a number of books written in prose, numerous essays, as well as diaries in which she talks about her life, and also expresses her attitude to the Soviet regime.

short biography

Olga Berggolts was born in 1910 in St. Petersburg in the family of a surgeon. At the age of 16, she graduated from a labor school, and in 1925 she published her first poem. This is how her literary career began: she wrote lyrics, prose, worked in various publications, and wrote essays. The poetess was married twice: with her first husband, the poet B. Kornilov, she divorced after a while (he was subsequently shot), with the second she lived until his death from starvation in besieged Leningrad. Olga Bergholz became a victim of political repression: she was arrested, kept in prison and even tortured.

Fortunately, the poet was rehabilitated and was given the opportunity to work for a newspaper. In addition to working in the besieged city, she made a trip to Sevastopol, to which she dedicated a cycle of poems. In the 1950s-1960s, her poems were published in separate collections, and were also distributed in samizdat. The lyrics of the talented poetess received all-Union recognition. Olga Berggolts died in 1975 in Leningrad.

Early works

The first literary works of the author were a poem dedicated to Lenin and a short story, which were published in a newspaper and magazine. The young girl became interested in fiction and joined the association of young authors, and also attended courses at the Institute of Arts. By 1930, Olga Berggolts was already an accomplished author: she was published in the popular magazine "Chizh", and also published her book.

She entered the Leningrad University, but continued her literary career. The girl wrote not only poetry and prose, but also publicistic works. So, she devoted some essays to the construction of large national economic facilities in the country.

Creativity of the 1930s

After graduating from university, the young woman continued to work in a newspaper. For some time she lived in Kazakhstan, about which she wrote not only articles and essays, but also a whole book. A few years later, the poetess returned to her hometown, where she published several of her books, among them a collection of poetry. Olga Berggolts, whose poems immediately brought her fame, has become a popular and famous author since the mid-1930s. The themes of her lyrics were very diverse - from philosophical reflections on life to touching love poems.

During the war

Olga Berggolts, whose biography is inextricably linked with the difficult wartime, remained in blockaded Leningrad, where she worked on the radio. At this time, her second husband died, to whom she dedicated a separate book. According to the poetess, this work was her most powerful work. During these terrible years, she creates her best examples of military lyrics. In 1942 she wrote the famous Leningrad Poem.

In it, the author in a poetic form retells the difficult days of waiting for the inhabitants of the city for bread. The poetess showed a terrible military landscape, the passage of a car with bread on a frozen bay, grief and despair of mothers. Olga Berggolts, whose poems about Leningrad truthfully convey the terrible pictures of hunger, despair and devastation, in her military works each time emphasized the strength of mind and courage of soldiers and ordinary residents.

In the poem "The February Diary", written in 1942, the idea sounds that living in besieged Leningrad itself was a real feat. The author shows how each resident of the city was a single whole with ordinary soldiers who, with weapons in their hands, fought off enemies. The poetess shows the contrast between the terrible pictures of devastation and the morale of the population and soldiers of the army.

Post-war creativity

Bergholz took part in the creation of a radio film dedicated to the defense of Leningrad. It was her words that were engraved on the memorial monument where those who died during the terrible blockade were buried. For her literary merits, she received a medal "For the Defense of Leningrad". Despite the fact that at one of the party plenums her work was criticized, the poet's books continued to be popular among the readership. After the war, she published several new books, among them a cycle of poems about Stalingrad.

At the same time, she wrote the play They Lived in Leningrad, which was staged at the theater. In the 1960s-1970s, Bergholz's works were disseminated through samizdat, her poetry collections were published: "The Knot", "Memory" and others.

Confession

The work of the poetess has received all-Union fame. A street and a public garden in St. Petersburg are named after her, memorial plaques have been erected in her memory and a museum has been opened. In the same city a monument was erected to her.

On theatrical stages, performances dedicated to her difficult fate were staged. Separately, it should be said about the publication of her diaries, which were sent to the archive after the death of the poetess. The first complete edition was produced in 2015. In his memoirs, Bergholz criticizes the Soviet regime for military defeats and the capture of many cities by enemies.

Her poems helped Leningraders to survive in a completely frozen blockade city and not lose human dignity. People dying of exhaustion listened to the poetess's addresses from black "plates" of loudspeakers and strengthened their faith to survive until victory. It was not for nothing that Olga Berggolts' voice was called a symbol of Victory, and the poetess was called “the besieged Madonna” and the muse of the besieged city.

Childhood and youth

The poetess was born in the spring of 1910 in the city on the Neva. Olga, or Lyalya, as her relatives called her, is the first child of a graduate of the University of Dorpat, surgeon Fyodor Khristoforovich Bergholts, a Russified German. Olga's mother is Maria Timofeevna Grustilina, an intelligent and educated woman, "from the former." In marriage, two girls were born - Olga (Lyalya) and Maria (Musya). A nanny and a governess helped the woman look after the children and the house.

The family lived in an old house near the Nevskaya Zastava. The revolution and civil war pulled Dr. Bergholz out of a peaceful life - the field surgeon went to the front. Hunger and devastation forced the family to leave St. Petersburg and move to Uglich. The Bergholians settled in a cold room, once a cell of a former monastery. Malnutrition, poverty, lice - Lyalya and Musya with their mother experienced all the hardships of wartime. In Uglich, Olga Berggolts went to school. Relatives from Uglich to Petrograd were taken by his father, who had returned from the front.

Maria Timofeevna brought up her daughters as Turgenev girls: she played them the works of the classics, read poetry. If it were not for the revolution, Lyalya and Musya would certainly have become gymnasium students, students of the Institute for Noble Maidens. But the rules and fashion were dictated by the post-revolutionary era. Fedor Khristoforovich, an atheist who taught girls that religion is a prejudice, and believing muslin young ladies, are a relic of the past, also contributed to the upbringing of children.

A breakdown in the minds of young Olga Berggolts happened quickly: the girl went to labor school No. 117, at the age of 14 she became a pioneer and proletarian activist, joined the ranks of the Komsomol. At the same time she wrote her first poems entitled "To Pioneers".

At 15, the girl came to a workers' club, where the youth literary association "Smena" was formed. Young people and adolescents who practiced writing poetry met with masters. Eduard Bagritsky and Joseph Utkin entered the club. The masters of the poetic word shared their experience, listened to young poetry, gave advice.

Literature

The first poems of 14-year-old Olga Berggolts appeared in 1925 in the factory wall newspaper. And at 15 fiery lines "Song of the Banner" was published by the Soviet newspaper for children and adolescents "Lenin Iskra".

The first praise for Olga Berggolts's literary talent sounded from the lips of the respected master. At the poetry evening of the literary association "Smena", a thin, blonde-haired Olga recited "Stone pipe" - one of the first author's works. Korney Ivanovich, embracing the girl by the shoulders, prophesied a great future for her.

But the creative biography of Olga Berggolts did not develop as rapidly as desired. In the 1920s, there were more than enough young poetesses with shining eyes, haircuts, and khaki-colored storm troopers. Bergholz differed little from her colleagues, fame bypassed her. In 1926, Olga, together with a talented colleague from Smena, Boris Kornilov, whom she fell in love with without memory, became a student of art history courses. After their closure, the couple moved to the philological faculty of Leningrad University.

Berggolts undergraduate practice took place in Vladikavkaz. Yesterday's student admired the Caucasus, feeling incredible inspiration. She traveled around Ossetia, visited the construction of a hydroelectric power station, wandered for days in the mountains and tirelessly wrote poetry - still weak, inexpressive.

Two and a half months later, Olga Berggolts's creative piggy bank was enriched with three dozen publications, which were printed by the newspaper "Vlast Truda". The journalist traveled along the Ossetian Military Highway cities and villages from Vladikavkaz to Tiflis. Newspaper work helped Berggolts learn about life, study people, and shape his worldview. The young journalist fell in love with the Caucasus so much that she planned to return to this region after graduating from university.

Fate decreed otherwise: having received a diploma, Olga Berggolts went to Kazakhstan. She worked as a correspondent for the newspaper "Soviet Steppe", with her second husband, Nikolai Molchanov, she lived in difficult living conditions, but she felt happy. Olga wrote articles, essays, stories. The first poetry collection for children, entitled "Winter-Summer-Parrot", was published.

Olga Berggolts returned to Leningrad in 1931 and got a job in the factory newspaper of the Electrosila enterprise. In 1935, a book of poetry was published, simply titled "Lyrics". Bergholz was admitted to the Writers' Union. But this period in the life of the writer was marked by a chain of tragic events.

After the murder, "purges" began in the northern capital. In the spring of 1937, the Soviet press designated a group of writers as "enemies of the people", including the former husband of the poet Boris Kornilov. Bergholz was expelled from the Writers' Union for his connection with the disgraced poet. Three months later, the journalist was fired from her job. She got a job at a school where she taught Russian language and literature to children.

In January 1938, a decree "on the mistakes of party organizations" was issued, which allowed Olga Berggolts to hope for a relaxation of the persecution. After the statement of the writer, she was reinstated in the joint venture, at the beginning of autumn she was accepted into the factory newspaper, to her former place. Former husband Boris Kornilov was shot (rehabilitated in 1957).

As it turned out, Bergholz was "saved" for a more serious charge: at the end of 1938, Olga was arrested, being called a Trotskyist and a member of a terrorist group that was preparing an attempt on and. During interrogations, the woman was beaten, she lost her child. A confession was knocked out of Bergholz, she was threatened with a firing squad.

Help came from someone from whom Olga Berggolts did not expect: he helped to get out of the dungeons. In the case of the writer, a record appeared about giving testimony under pressure. My husband Nikolai Molchanov helped to survive the incident. But the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War prevented the quiet family happiness.

War

Olga Berggolts's husband went to the front, although he had a disability. In January 1942, Molchanov's epilepsy worsened, he was hospitalized and died on January 29. In the spring of 1942, Olga Berggolts's father was called a socially dangerous element (the cause was a German surname) and was exiled to Krasnoyarsk. The poetess was diagnosed with dystrophy, friends transported her to Moscow, saving her life. The woman returned after 2 months. She worked on the radio, her voice became familiar to the emaciated Leningraders.

After the war, the radio broadcasts of Berggolts, personifying the courage of the Leningrad people, were included in the collection "Leningrad Speaks". In the "Leningrad Poem" Bergholz the image of the besieged city rises before the readers. This is just one of several dozen works about, the most poignant. Under the pen of Olga Fedorovna in those terrible years, the poems "The February Diary" and "In Memory of the Defenders" were born.

After the war, Bergholz wrote the book Stars of Day, a philosophical diary summarizing her experiences. Finally, the country appreciated the merits of the writer, showered Olga Berggolts with orders and medals. But the main award was people's love and the title of "Leningrad Madonna". The lines of the poetess known to all were carved on the memorial of the Piskarevsky cemetery:

"Nobody is forgotten and nothing is forgotten."

But the difficulties in the life of Olga Berggolts did not stop after the Victory. She was accused of friendship with, the book "Leningrad Speaks" was withdrawn from libraries. In the winter of 1948, the poet's father died. The totality of the suffering experienced affected the woman's psyche, wounded by tragedies: Bergholz was admitted to a hospital for the mentally ill.

After leaving the hospital, Olga Fedorovna wrote plays that were staged in theaters in Leningrad. In the late 1950s, a two-volume edition was published in Moscow. After the death of the writer, Bergholz's diaries were confiscated in the special storage. Published in three volumes of essays in 1990. In them, Olga Fedorovna mercilessly castigated the authorities, which made terrible human casualties in the war. The documentary “How Impossible We Lived” was filmed about the fate of the “besieged Madonna”.

Personal life

Olga Berggolts rarely smiled at happiness. Youthful love for the talented Boris Kornilov ended in parting: her husband's star fever turned into alcoholism. Parting and reconciliation exhausted Olga. The husband left, leaving his daughter Irina. They saw each other for the last time shortly before the death of Kornilov. Then Olga Berggolts got married a second time. Nikolai Molchanov turned out to be the main man in her life, he forgave fleeting romances and idolized his wife.

In a marriage with Molchanov, a second daughter, Maya, was born. A year later, in 1932, the girl died. And 4 years later, the eldest daughter Ira died, who was diagnosed with heart disease. All subsequent pregnancies of Olga Berggolts were interrupted. The last time a woman lost her child was in the dungeons of the NKVD.

Women's happiness briefly smiled at the “besieged Madonna” after the death of Nikolai Molchanov. An employee of the radio committee Georgy Makogonenko took care of Olga when she, exhausted by hunger and grief, lost her desire to cling to life. Later Olga poured this last love in verse, calling it "Indian Summer". Everyday life and routine grind the feeling. George left Olga, another woman appeared in his life. Until her death, Olga Berggolts had a portrait of her second husband, Nikolai Molchanov, on the night table.

Death

Olga Berggolts passed away on November 13, 1975. The muse of besieged Leningrad is only 65 years old.

The poet was buried not where she bequeathed - at the Piskarevskoye cemetery, among friends who died during the blockade. The grave of Olga Berggolts - at the Volkov cemetery, at Literatorskie mostki. The monument was erected 30 years later, in 2005.

A street in the Nevsky District was named after the writer. Another one is named Berggolts in the center of Uglich.

Bibliography

• 1935 - "Lyrics"
• 1944 - "Leningrad Diary"
• 1946 - "Leningrad Speaks"
• 1960 - Stars of the Day
• 1967 - Selected works in 2 volumes
• 1967 - Stars of the Day
• 1970 - Loyalty