Grigory Jakowlewitsch Baklanov

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grigory Baklanov (1981)

Grigori Jakowlewitsch Baklanow ( Russian : Григо́рий Я́ковлевич Бакла́нов; actually: Friedman; born September 11, 1923 in Voronezh ; † December 23, 2009 in Moscow ) was a Soviet writer.

Life

Baklanov was already twelve years old orphan . From the summer of 1941 he learned to be a locksmith in a factory. After the German attack in 1941, at the age of 17, he volunteered at the front. In 1942 he joined the CPSU . He fought in the artillery . He later rose to head an intelligence department . In 1943 he was transferred to the 3rd Ukrainian Front and was involved in the liberation of Kishinev (today's capital of Moldova ), Romania , Sofia , Budapest and Vienna . He experienced the end of the Second World War with the rank of lieutenant in Vienna. After the Soviet occupation army withdrew from Vienna , he studied from 1946 to 1951 at the Literature Institute of the Writers' Union of the USSR ( Maxim Gorki Literature Institute ). His fellow students included Vladimir Fyodorovich Tendryakov , Vladimir Alexeyevich Solouchin and Yuri Wassiljewitsch Bondarew .

His first stories between 1950 and 1955 deal with collective farm life . In 1957/1958 he turned to the novel and described unadorned front-line experiences of the Second World War . In his novel Juli 1941 of 1965 he addressed the Stalinist purges of 1937 as well as the military collapse after the advance of the Wehrmacht much more vividly and uncompromisingly than Konstantin Simonow , as Siegfried Lokatis thinks. In the GDR , the printing of the German translation of July 1941 was rejected in August 1965, in contrast to Simonov's novel Die Lebenden und die Toten . It did not appear in a volume until 1978, together with Freund, originally written ten years later . The afterword was written by Max Walter Schulz , in which Baklanow had found an understanding and kindred spirit in the GDR. His first stay in the GDR was in 1979. There he met his fellow writer Erich Köhler for a work meeting.

In 1982 he was awarded the State Prize of the USSR . In 1986 he became secretary in the Union of Writers of the USSR and, at the end of the year, editor-in-chief of the pro-reform literary and art magazine Snamja ( Russian : Знамя, "banner"), and an active fighter for the democratic ideals of perestroika . Because of these tasks, he was unable to write on his own. It is thanks to him that the circulation increased from 220,000 to 980,000 copies by 1989. Until 1993 he was also editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Zwesda ("Der Stern"), in which many works that had been banned until then ( Bulgakov's dog heart , Wladimows Der loyal Ruslan, etc.) were published. During these years, which went down in history as “perestroika”, Baklanov admitted: “There has never been a time like today for literature in my entire life.” In spring 1988 he and other representatives of Soviet literature met the emigrants in Denmark Andrei Sinjawski and Lev Kopelew . He was also involved in the critical group “Aprel” (“April”) founded in the spring of 1989 within the Writers' Union (now the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic , or RSFSR for short), which, for example, urged democratic procedures in the association. Just as in 1979, as a World War II veteran , he sharply criticized the war in Afghanistan waged by the Soviet Army , he condemned the two wars in Chechnya in 1994 and 1999 . In 1997 he received the State Prize of the Russian Federation .

His wife Elga was a teacher who wanted her students to have a complete overview of literature and the background to its creation. Their daughter studied literary criticism at the Gorky Institute, while the older son worked as an editor for the Soviet APN . Grigory Baklanov died on December 23, 2009 in Moscow.

style

After early short stories that tell of village life and the people's attempts to keep it from stagnating, Baklanov turned to the description of specific, especially delicate, situations from the Second World War. Between 1944 and 1953, he explained, neither the writer nor the historian was allowed to interpret the events of the war independently, since the regime had stipulated that it must always be expressed that the Soviet victory was imperative. Baklanov described the so-called "trench truth", that is, extreme frontline situations and battles with high losses, as naturalistically as possible. In the struggle for an almost lost position with unimaginably high wear and tear of human life, individually thinking and feeling people who happened to be brought together in his books must struggle for their own existence together and also maintain the defense of the fatherland. Not infrequently, the question of the leadership's moral responsibility to its own soldiers and its own people is raised.

In 1979 Baklanov repeatedly underlined the importance of his literary genre in interviews with GDR newspapers. In February he told the Märkische Volksstimme : “We are obliged to constantly remind people of the value of maintaining peace on earth. I am glad that my creative intentions always coincide with the interests of my readers, of my country. "And in November, one month before the Soviet troops march into Afghanistan , on Sunday :" In today's world, where war is taking place somewhere every day, one needs this war literature, which is actually a peace literature, very much. All those people who had to endure a war can only want that such horrors never come again and that the readiness of all people for peace is awakened. ”True to this attitude, he did not support the military measure of his government .

Works published in German

Novels and short stories

  • 1960: An inch of earth. Novel . German publishing house, Stuttgart.
  • 1962: The dead are not ashamed. Novel . Goldmann Verlag, Munich. (1963 in the GDR udT The dead are not shamed . Narrative . VEB Verlag Kultur und Progress, Berlin (= Die Bunte Reihe ).)
  • 1978: July 41st Friends (two novels in one volume). People and World, Berlin (epilogue: Max Walter Schulz).
  • 1981: You will stay nineteen forever . Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin (= spectrum , volume 152).
  • 1982: In the Karpuchin affair . Aufbau Verlag, Berlin / Weimar (= edition of new texts ).
  • 1982: Babichev ( short story). In: Sense and Form. Contributions to the literature . Academy of the Arts of the German Democratic Republic (ed.), Issue 6/1982, Rütten & Loening, Berlin, pp. 1153–1156 (first in: Drushba narodow , Russian : Дружба народов, "Völkerfreundschaft", Issue 1/1982).
  • 1983: The least of the brothers. Novella . Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1983 (= spectrum , volume 174).

Essays

reception

In the lexicon of 20th century Russian literature it is said that Baklanov's stories from kolkhoz life represented real conflicts and therefore belonged to the first critical literature after Stalin's death in 1953. However, the writers offered a real alternative to the pseudo-documentary heroic war representation of the Stalin era only after the XX. Party congress of the CPSU in 1956.

If the narratives were not yet artistically mature, "sophisticated novels" were created. In his contribution, Günter Warm names the laconic , sober and relentless rendering of everyday atrocities as the great art of Baklanov in his contribution to Shaping the War in a New View for the History of Russian Soviet Literature 1941–1967 . This values ​​“humanity and inhumanity, right and wrong, morality and immorality ruthless” and thus convincingly portrays “the combatants who put everything, including their lives at stake, in the self-evident fulfillment of their duties” as real heroes. At the time of publication, however, prevailed in the Soviet Union nor suspicion. Baklanov's novella Pjad zemli from 1959 (1960 in German: A foot's breadth of earth ), which was only printed in a magazine , called on the conservative forces, who clung to the transfiguration of the home - in their opinion - infallible ideal society. They resented his naturalism, which was not sparing, and which also describes naked fear, irrational panic behavior and agonizing dying among the Red Army soldiers , and accused him of "Remarquism", that is, the emulation of Erich Maria Remarque's emphatically critical First World War appraisal in the form of a novel that was effective for the public.

Much more excited debates were held in 1965 about the novel Ijul '41 goda (июль '41 года, July 41 ). Baklanov analyzes how it was possible that the German troops were able to penetrate so quickly and far into the Soviet Union and blames the personality cult around Stalin. Stalin's purges had ominously weakened the officer corps . In the GDR, the manuscript was also up for grabs in 1965, namely in August. The expert, who said he had not yet received such a harsh condemnation of Stalinism , advised against publication. Nevertheless, the work passed the printing approval process , but then fell into the mills of the 11th plenum of the SED Central Committee , which resulted in it being deleted from the publisher's plans for 1966. The the plant and its printing supervising people and world - editor Lola Debüser was reprimanded and trimmed their salary. Siegfried Lokatis classified in his essay on the censorship of Soviet war novels at the publishing house Volk und Welt (2005) Baklanov's novel "more vivid and uncompromising than Simonow [s]" Stalin-Ausrechnung Die Leben und die Toten from 1962. In 1977, when the book was about to be published late, Max Walter Schulz said in a magazine article that it had been discussed vehemently and contrary - "precisely because of its deeply partisan and ruthlessly critical tendency".

After perestroika and glasnost , literary watchers had expected Baklanov and other nonconforming authors, for example in the “Aprel” group, books on the new “realistic problems of the present” in the 1990s and were disappointed that they had not materialized.

Baklanov's novels have appeared in over 30 countries. In addition, many of his books were filmed or staged on the theater stage .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Grigory Baklanov. In: kopelew-forum.de. Lew Kopelew Forum eV , accessed on February 10, 2018 .
  2. ^ KJ Wendlandt: Soviet writers visit RAW. Stimulating exchange of ideas . In: New Germany . Berlin edition. November 1, 1979.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Wolfgang Kasack : Lexicon of Russian literature of the 20th century. From the beginning of the century to the end of the Soviet era . Ed .: Wolfgang Kasack (=  works and texts on Slavic Studies . Volume 52 ). 2nd, revised and significantly expanded edition. Verlag Otto Sagner, 1992, ISBN 3-87690-459-5 , ISSN  0173-2307 , Baklanov, Sp. 103-105 .
  4. ↑ a b c (ADN / MV): Committed to peace. In conversation with Grigory Baklanov . In: Märkische Volksstimme . Potsdam February 16, 1979.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Bärbel Henniger: "Honeymoon" in the Spreewald . In: Neue Berliner Illustrierte - Die Zeit im Bild . Berlin June 22, 1979, Faces, p. 20 .
  6. ↑ Sabine Karradt: Responsibility for the past. For Grigory Baklanov's 60th birthday on September 11th . In: The morning . Berlin September 10, 1983, literary calendar.
  7. ↑ a b c d Grigorij Jakovlevič Baklanov. Ruská, 1923–2009. Životopis. In: databazeknih.cz. Retrieved February 10, 2018 (cz).
  8. ↑ a b c d e f Siegfried Lokatis: A secret Stalin discourse in the GDR. The censorship of Soviet war novels at the publisher “Volk und Welt”. (PDF; 644.28 kB) Problems in Simonov's footsteps: Grigori Baklanow, Juri Bondarew , Grigori Konowalow. In: zeitgeschichte-online.de. May 2005, p. 19 , accessed February 10, 2018 .
  9. ↑ br: meeting with Baklanov . In: Saxon Latest News . Dresden June 20th 1979.
  10. ↑ a b Emmanuel Waegemans: History of Russian Literature from Peter the Great to the Present (1700–1995) . UVK Universitätsverlag, Konstanz 1998, ISBN 3-87940-574-3 , chapter 11.3.1. The Truth About War, p. 367 (Dutch: Geschiedenis van de Russische literatuur . Translated by Thomas Hauth ).
  11. ^ Conversation with the writer Grigory Baklanov. I want to see my partner in the reader . In: Press of the SU . No. 9/1983 , May 1983, pp. 43 f .
  12. ↑ a b Roland Heine: Understanding the time. Interview with the writer Grigory Baklanov . In: Sunday Sunday . No. 29/1989 , July 16, 1989, Abroad, p. 11 .
  13. ↑ Biographical information. Baklanow, Grigori J. In: mehring-verlag.de. Retrieved February 10, 2018 .
  14. ^ Willi Beitz : Literature during the period of perestroika . In: Willi Beitz (Ed.): From “Thaw” to Perestroika. Russian literature between the fifties and nineties . Peter Lang AG, European Science Publishers, Bern 1994, ISBN 3-906750-97-3 , Intellectual life in the beginnings of perestroika, p. 333-340 , here p. 335 .
  15. ↑ Emmanuel Waegemans: History of Russian Literature from Peter the Great to the Present (1700–1995) . UVK Universitätsverlag, Konstanz 1998, ISBN 3-87940-574-3 , chapter 13.1. Perestroika & Glasnost and the End of the Soviet Era (1985–1991). Background, p. 435 (Dutch: Geschiedenis van de Russische literatuur . Translated by Thomas Hauth).
  16. ↑ Reinhard Lauer : History of Russian Literature. From 1700 to the present . 2nd, revised and supplemented edition. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-50267-5 , eighth chapter. The reintegration of Russian literature (since 1985). A. Removal of taboos and opening up. Perestroika and glasnost, p. 847 .
  17. ↑ a b Elena Kalašnikova (Ed.): "Translators are the horses of the Enlightenment". In conversation: Russian translators of German literature . Selection and editing for the German edition: Mascha Dabić , Christian Koderhold, Elisabeth Pernul-Oswald, Larisa Schippel , Claudia Zecher. Frank & Timme Verlag for Scientific Literature, 2014, ISBN 978-3-7329-0097-8 , ISSN  2196-2405 , name and subject index . Baklanov, Grigorij Jakovlevič, S. 219 .
  18. ↑ Willi Beitz, Günter Warm: War as an everlasting topic . In: Willi Beitz (Ed.): From “Thaw” to Perestroika. Russian literature between the fifties and nineties . Peter Lang AG, European Science Publishing House, Bern 1994, ISBN 3-906750-97-3 , The 'second wave' of works about the war. The 'front generation'. Bondarew. Baklanov, S. 160-162 .
  19. ↑ Emmanuel Waegemans: History of Russian Literature from Peter the Great to the Present (1700–1995) . UVK Universitätsverlag, Konstanz 1998, ISBN 3-87940-574-3 , chapter 11.3.1. The Truth About War, p. 366 f . (Dutch: Geschiedenis van de Russische literatuur . Translated by Thomas Hauth).
  20. ^ A b Johannes Holthusen : Russian Contemporary Literature II. 1941–1967. Prose and poetry (=  Dalp paperback books . Volume 369 D). A. Francke, Bern / Munich 1968, A. The new realists. 3. Grigory Baklanov, p. 98–100 (1978 and 1992 also slightly abbreviated in Holthusen: Russian Literature in the 20th Century , Uni-Taschenbücher , Volume 695, here p. 260 f).
  21. ↑ Harri Jünger : Formations of the heroic in the war epic . In: Harri Jünger, Willi Beitz, Barbara Hiller, Gerhard Schaumann (eds.): History of Russian Soviet literature 1941–1967 . With 34 illustrations. tape 2 . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1975, p. 67–89 , here p. 78 .
  22. ^ Günter Warm: Shaping the war from a new perspective . In: Harri Jünger, Willi Beitz, Barbara Hiller, Gerhard Schaumann (eds.): History of Russian Soviet literature 1941–1967 . With 34 illustrations. tape 2 . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1975, p. 267-294 , here p. 268 .
  23. ^ Dagmar Roland: Encounter. Days of the Soviet Book . In: Sunday . No. 46/1979 . Berlin November 18, 1979, art and literature, p. 6 .
  24. ↑ Emmanuel Waegemans: History of Russian Literature from Peter the Great to the Present (1700–1995) . UVK Universitätsverlag, Konstanz 1998, ISBN 3-87940-574-3 , chapter 11.1. The period 1953–1985. Background, p. 358 (Dutch: Geschiedenis van de Russische literatuur . Translated by Thomas Hauth).
  25. ^ Günter Warm: Shaping the war from a new perspective . In: Harri Jünger, Willi Beitz, Barbara Hiller, Gerhard Schaumann (eds.): History of Russian Soviet literature 1941–1967 . With 34 illustrations. tape 2 . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1975, p. 267–294 , here pp. 276 and 278 .
  26. ↑ a b Soviet War. Small size . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17/1960 , April 20, 1960, Kultur, pp. 53 f . ( spiegel.de [accessed on February 10, 2018]).
  27. ↑ Days of Sommerfeld: Truth as a maxim. Novels by the Soviet author Baklanov . In: Junge Welt . Junge Welt, Berlin, 5th September 1978.
  28. ↑ Simone Barck : Andrej Platonow - Lola Debüser discovers a world author . In: Simone Barck, Siegfried Lokatis (ed.): Window to the world. A history of the GDR publishing house Volk und Welt . Published on behalf of the Documentation Center for Everyday Culture of the GDR with the collaboration of Roland Links and Anja Augustin. 1st edition. Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-300-6 , p. 147 .
  29. ↑ Max Walter Schulz: Pinocchio and no end. Notes on literature . Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle / Leipzig 1978, We write how we live. Notes on Baklanov's novels, p. 78 (the chapter on Baklanov first appeared in: Neue Deutsche Literatur , Heft 6/1977).
  30. ↑ Christine Engel : From the thaw to the post-socialist era (1953-2000) . In: Klaus Städtke (ed.): Russian literary history . With 191 illustrations. Verlag JBMetzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-476-01540-8 , Reality (s) and Identity (s) in the river, p. 401-406 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Baklanov, Grigory Jakowlewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Бакла́нов, Григо́рий Я́ковлевич (Russian); Baklanov, Grigorij Jakovlevič
BRIEF DESCRIPTION soviet writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 11, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Voronezh
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 2009
Place of death Moscow