Ossip Maximowitsch Brik

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Ossip and Lilja Brik

Osip Brik ( Russian Осип Максимович Брик ; born January 4 . Jul / 16th January  1888 . Greg in Moscow ; † 22. February 1945 ) was a Russian - Soviet avant - writer and literary critic . He was one of the main theorists of the schools of Russian formalism and futurism .

life and work

Ossip Brik studied law at Moscow University, but soon turned his interest to literature. He was closely associated with the literary movement OPOJAS (ОПОЯЗ, abbreviation for Society for the Study of Poetic Language ) and later the artist group LEF (ЛЕФ, 'Left Front of the Arts'), of which he was the most important theorist. Boris Ignatievich Arwatow was one of the founders of the LEF .

In 1920 he joined the Petrograd department of the Cheka secret police , where he became head of the legal department. His ID card had the number 25541. He was then suspected in literary circles of having participated in the death sentence against the poet Nikolai Gumiljow . He reported to the linguist Roman Jakobson , who was well known to him at the time, that one loses “all sentimentality” in his work. Jakobson wrote in his memoir: “This was the first time he made an obnoxious impression on me. The work at the Cheka spoiled him. ”The poet Boris Pasternak , who was repeatedly a guest at Brik in the twenties, wrote, alluding to the guests from the security organs, that his apartment was nothing more than a“ department of the Moscow Police ”(“ отделением московской милиции ”).

In 1923 he was released from the Cheka "because of his middle-class descent". From 1923 to 1928 Brik, together with his wife Lilja Brik and Wladimir Majakowski, published the official organ of the artist group, also called Lef (later Neue Lef , Новый Леф).

Together with Mayakovsky, Brik wrote the agitation pieces Radio October (Радио-октябрь, 1926) and Moscow in Flames (Москва горит, 1930). He wrote theoretical works and commentaries on Mayakovsky's works, such as the essay Lenin in Mayakovsky's verses (Ленин в стихах Маяковского, 1934). He also wrote film scripts, for example in 1928 for Vsevolod Pudovkin's Storm over Asia (Потомок Чингис-Хана).

The alleged triangular relationship between Brik, his wife Lilja and Mayakovsky has been the subject of much speculation. Lilja Brik herself noted in her notes that she had not had any intimate relationships with her husband for more than a year when her relationship with Mayakovsky began. According to her biography, written by her last husband Vasily Katanjan, Ossip Brik was no longer “physically interested in women” after his first few years of marriage. But Ossip Brik always stayed by her side, he also moved into the apartments of her two future husbands.

When, under Stalin's rule from 1932 onwards, the doctrine of socialist realism became decisive in the cultural events of the Soviet Union, Brik's earlier publications were criticized, but unlike many other former avant-garde artists, he was not subject to any reprisals during the Stalinist purges . He could continue to publish, but adapted to the aesthetic requirements of official cultural policy. These works included opera librettos (Камаринский мужик, 1933; Именины, 1935) and the historical tragedy Ivan the Terrible (Иван Грозный, 1942).

Ossip Brik died of a heart attack when he climbed the stairs to Katanyan's apartment on the third floor of the house.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Efim Lomberg Ефим Ломберг: Поэт и Женщина. In: Международная Еврейская Газета (International Jewish Newspaper). June 21, 2008, archived from the original on July 21, 2013 ; accessed on June 16, 2020 (Russian).
  2. ↑ Roman Gul (Роман Гуль): Общественная и культурная жизнь эмиграции: “Дом искусств”. In: Я унес Росси. Vol. 1, Part 2. New York, 1981, p. 155 , accessed June 16, 2020 (Russian).
  3. ^ Roman Jakobson: My Futurist Years . New York 1997, p. 45 (preview on Google Books) : “This was the first time he made a rather repulsive impression on me. Working in the Cheka had ruined him ".
  4. ↑ Arkadi Waksberg : Пожар сердца. Кого любила Лиля Брик. Astrel (Астрель) / Olimp (Олимп), Moscow, 2010, ISBN 978-5-271-22450-8 / ISBN 978-5-7390-2318-6 , p. 169.
    Lev Kolodnij (Лев Колодный): Гений любви и гений поэзии. In: mk.ru. March 9, 2007, accessed June 16, 2020 (Russian). Roman Gul (Роман Гуль): Общественная и культурная жизнь эмиграции: “Дом искусств”. In: Я унес Росси. Vol. 1, part 2. New York, 1981, p. 155 , accessed on June 16, 2020 (Russian): "Квартира Бриков была в сущности отделением московской милиции"
  5. ↑ Arkadi Waksberg: Лиля Брик: Жизнь и судьба Olimp, Moscow / Rusitsch, Smolensk, 1998, ISBN 5-7390-0582-5 / ISBN 5-313-00016-0 , p. 147.
  6. ↑ Lilja Brik: “Write verses for me”. Memories of Mayakovsky and letters. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1991, ISBN 978-3-353-00874-9 , p. 9.
  7. ↑ a b Arkadi Waksberg: Лиля Брик: Жизнь и судьба Olimp, Moscow / Rusitsch, Smolensk, 1998, ISBN 5-7390-0582-5 / ISBN 5-313-00016-0 , p. 61 f.
  8. ↑ Брик Осип Максимович. In: baku.ru. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (Russian).
  9. ↑ Wassili Katanjan: Lilja Brik. Shisn. Moscow 2002, p. 162.
personal data
SURNAME Brik, Ossip Maximowitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Брик, Осип Максимович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian-Soviet avant-garde writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1945
Place of death Moscow