Evgeny Yevtushenko personal. The youngest member of the Writers' Union: biography of the legendary Yevgeny Yevtushenko
early years
Evgeny Yevtushenko was born on July 18, 1932 in Siberia. According to the passport, the year of birth is 1933. Yevtushenko’s blood flows both Baltic and German through the father of the geologist, amateur poet Alexander Rudolfovich Gangnus. Mother Zinaida Ermolaevna Yevtushenko is a poet, geologist, Honored Cultural Worker of the RSFSR. After the birth of Evgeniy, Zinaida Ermolaevna specifically replaced her husband’s surname with her maiden name. I also changed my son’s year of birth, since at the age of 12 he had to get a pass. 
Since childhood, Yevtushenko was attached to books. Parents helped us understand the world through books and regular communication. Yevtushenko recalls: “My father could spend hours telling me, still a foolish child, about the fall of Babylon, and about the Spanish Inquisition, and about the War of the Scarlet and White Roses, and about William of Orange... Thanks to my father, I already learned to read and write at the age of 6, I read indiscriminately Dumas, Flaubert, Boccaccio, Cervantes and Wells. There was an unimaginable vinaigrette in my head. I lived in an illusory world, I didn’t notice anyone or anything around...”
Later, the father leaves his mother and Evgeniy and goes to another woman. With her he forms his family. Despite this, Alexander Rudolfovich continues to raise his son. He took Evgeniy to a poetry evening at Moscow State University. We went to the evenings of Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Mikhail Svetlov, Alexander Tvardovsky, Pavel Antokolsky. The mother allowed the father to see his son. She understood that their communication was only for Eugene’s benefit. Zinaida Ermolaevna often sent letters to Alexander Rudolfovich, which contained poems written by her son.
She kept all of Eugene's manuscripts. There was even a notebook containing nine thousand rhymes. But it was not possible to save it. His mother also instilled in Evgeniy a love of art. Zinaida Ermolaevna was a soloist at the Stanislavsky Theater. She also had a musical education. Her frequent guests were artists who in the future became famous on the pop stage. Zinaida Ermolaevna constantly toured the country. During the war years, she even suffered from typhus while on tour.
Evgeny Yevtushenko on video
Naturally, with such parents, Evgeniy developed mentally rapidly. He grew up as an erudite, literate child. Many peers envied him. Zinaida Ermolaevna was only glad that their house was visited by such wonderful poets as: Vladimir Sokolov, Evgeny Vinokurov, Grigory Pozhenyan, Bella Akhmadulina, Mikhail Roshchin and many others. Yevtushenko lived, studied, and worked in Moscow. He was a regular guest at the House of Pioneers. He studied at the Gorky Literary Institute and was soon expelled for “incorrect” statements.
Yevtushenko's creativity
The first book written by Yevgeny Yevtushenko was “Scouts of the Future.” It contains slogan, pathos poetry of the 50s. In the year the book was published, Yevtushenko also released his poems: “The Wagon” and “Before the Meeting.” This marked the beginning of his future serious creative work. In 1952, Yevtushenko became a member of the USSR Writers' Union, and he was the youngest in this community.Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s future fame comes from the collections of poems that he writes further: “The Third Snow”, “Highway of Enthusiasts”, “Promise”, “Poems of Different Years”, “Apple”.
Yevtushenko takes part in poetry evenings that took place at the Polytechnic Museum. His partners were those known to us and dearly loved: Robert Rozhdestvensky, Bella Akhmadulina, Bulat Okudzhava.
Yevtushenko understood that, thanks to his works, he was becoming a poet of the next generation. They were then called “sixties”. He dedicates the poem “To the Best of the Generation” to the new generation.
Evgeny Yevtushenko about patriotism
Yevtushenko begins to perform his poems from the stage, conveying the depth of his thoughts to the viewer. For the first time he performs on the big stage in Kharkov in the central lecture hall. Evgeniy was then invited by a fan of his work, and the organizer of this event, Livshits L.Ya. The public was captivated by his work. Each work of Yevtushenko is filled with its own life, they are diverse in their own way. Either he writes about intimate lyrics, which can be seen in the poem “There used to be a dog sleeping at your feet”, then he proclaims an ode to beer in the work “Northern Surcharge”, then he touches on a political theme in the poems: “Under the Skin of the Statue of Liberty”, “Bullfight”, “Italian cycle”, “Dove in Santiago”, “Mom and the neutron bomb”, “Distant relative”, “Full growth” and others.
Many critics did not understand and did not accept the poet's works. He was always at the head of some scandals and provocations. The scandalous poems included: “Stalin’s Heirs”, “Pravda”, “Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station”, “Ballad of Poaching”, “Wave of the Hand”, “Morning People”, “Father’s Hearing” and more.
His works have also been noted in journalism: “Notes to an autobiography”, “Talent is a miracle that is not accidental”, “Tomorrow’s wind”, “Politics is the privilege of everyone”.
Evgeniy writes easily, rhyme follows rhyme by itself, he plays with words and sounds.
Yevtushenko continues his creative path, reading his poems from the stage. Full houses of listeners come to his evenings. He is a huge success. Evgeniy publishes books and CDs where he performs his works. Among them: “Berry Places”, “Pigeon in Santiago” and many others.
The memoirs of Yevgeny Yevtushenko are well known: “Wolf Passport”, “Sixties: Memoir Prose”, “I Came to You: Babi Yar”.
He is also known as an excellent director-producer and author-screenwriter. Thus, Yevtushenko is the director and screenwriter of the military drama “Kindergarten” and the melodrama “Stalin’s Funeral”
There are also Yevtushenko’s works with musical groups: the rock opera “White Snows Are Coming...”, his poems are present in “The Execution of Stepan Razin”.
They put music on Yevtushenko’s poems, resulting in beautiful songs: “And it’s snowing,” “Motherland,” “This is what’s happening to me,” “When the bells ring,” “Under the creaking, weeping willow,” but this is just a small part.
Yevtushenko was appointed secretary of the Writers' Union. Later he becomes secretary of the Commonwealth of Writers' Unions. He is also the chairman of the April writers' association. Became a member of the Memorial Society.
Elections to People's Deputies of the USSR were held in Kharkov. So, Yevtushenko won, beating other candidates, leaving a huge, unattainable margin. He worked there until the collapse of the USSR.
In 1991, Yevtushenko signed a contract to teach at a university in the USA. Actually, Evgeniy takes his family and leaves for permanent residence in America, where he lived until his death.
Personal life of Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Yevgeny Yevtushenko was officially married four times. His first wife is the famous poetess Bella Akhmadulina, with whom he had a creative union in his youth. Evgeny Yevtushenko and Maria Novikova, 1986Awards
“Badge of Honour”, “Order of the Red Banner of Labor”, “Order of Friendship of Peoples”, medal “Defender of Free Russia”, honorary member of the “Russian Academy of Arts” is just a small list of the poet’s awards. Yevtushenko was even a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poem “Babi Yar.” In 1978, a minor planet of the solar system was discovered at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, which was named after the famous poet.Death of Yevgeny Yevtushenko
On April 1, 2017, reports appeared in the press about the hospitalization of 84-year-old Yevgeny Yevtushenko in serious condition, but fully conscious. That same day, he died in his sleep from cardiac arrest, calmly and painlessly, surrounded by loved ones. Later, his son Evgeniy explained that his father suffered from kidney cancer, which returned after six years of remission.According to Yevtushenko’s will, he will be buried in the writer’s village of Peredelkino, next to Boris Pasternak.
Evgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko (at birth - Gangnus). Born on July 18, 1932 in Zim, Irkutsk region - died on April 1, 2017 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. Soviet and Russian poet.
Evgeny Yevtushenko was born on July 18, 1932 in Zim, Irkutsk region. According to other sources - in Nizhneudinsk.
Father - geologist and amateur poet Alexander Rudolfovich Gangnus (Baltic German by origin) (1910-1976).
Mother - Zinaida Ermolaevna Yevtushenko (1910-2002), geologist, actress, Honored Cultural Worker of the RSFSR.
In 1944, upon returning from evacuation from Zima station to Moscow, the mother changed her son’s surname to her maiden name. When filling out the documents to change the surname, a mistake was made deliberately in the date of birth: they wrote down 1933 so as not to receive a pass, which they were supposed to have at the age of 12.
He began publishing in 1949, his first poem was published in the newspaper “Soviet Sport”.
From 1952 to 1957 he studied at the Literary Institute. M. Gorky. Expelled for “disciplinary sanctions”, as well as for supporting Dudintsev’s novel “Not by Bread Alone.”
In 1952, the first book of poems, “Scouts of the Future,” was published; the author subsequently assessed it as youthful and immature.
In 1952, he became the youngest member of the Union of Writers of the USSR, bypassing the stage of candidate member of the joint venture.
“I was accepted into the Literary Institute without a matriculation certificate and almost simultaneously into the Writers' Union, in both cases considering my book to be sufficient grounds. But I knew her worth. And I wanted to write differently,” he said.
The 1950s, which were a time of poetic boom, saw R. Rozhdestvensky and E. Yevtushenko enter the arena of enormous popularity. The performances of these authors attracted huge stadiums, and the poetry of the Thaw period soon began to be called pop poetry.
In subsequent years, he published several collections that became very popular: “The Third Snow” (1955), “Highway of Enthusiasts” (1956), “Promise” (1957), “Poems of Different Years” (1959), “Apple” (1960) , “Tenderness” (1962), “Wave of the Hand” (1962).
One of the symbols of the thaw were the evenings in the Great Auditorium of the Polytechnic Museum, in which Yevtushenko also took part, along with Robert Rozhdestvensky, Bella Akhmadulina, Bulat Okudzhava and other poets of the wave of the 1960s.
His works are distinguished by a wide range of moods and genre diversity. The first lines from the pathetic introduction to the poem “Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Plant” (1965): “A poet in Russia is more than a poet,” is a manifesto of Yevtushenko’s own creativity and a catchphrase that has steadily come into use. The poet is no stranger to subtle and intimate lyrics: the poem “A dog used to sleep at my feet” (1955). In the poem “Northern Surcharge” (1977) he composes a real ode to beer. Several poems and cycles of poems are devoted to foreign and anti-war themes: “Under the Skin of the Statue of Liberty”, “Bullfight”, “Italian Cycle”, “Dove in Santiago”, “Mom and the Neutron Bomb”.
Yevtushenko’s extreme success was facilitated by the simplicity and accessibility of his poems, as well as by the scandals that often arose from criticism around his name.
Yevtushenko's literary style and manner provided a wide field for criticism. He was often reproached for glorification, pompous rhetoric and hidden self-praise.
“Self-glorification cannot take the form of calm, self-confident narcissism, nor can it be an expression of an authentic personality. Ambitions are exceptionally great and have long surpassed the scale of talent. The genre turns out to be fiercely polemical in every word, in every statement, and most importantly, the speaker cannot stop for a minute; having entered into a dispute with time and the world, he is forced to continuously manifest,” wrote literary critic Nikolai Gladkikh about his poem “Fuku!”
Counting on the journalistic effect, Yevtushenko alternately chose topics of current party politics for his poems, for example, “Stalin’s Heirs” (“Pravda”, October 21, 1962) or “Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station” (1965). Or addressed them to a critical public (for example, “Babi Yar”, 1961, or “The Ballad of Poaching”, 1965).
In 1962, the Pravda newspaper published the widely known poem “Stalin’s Heirs,” timed to coincide with the removal of Stalin’s body from the mausoleum. His other works “Babi Yar” (1961), “Letter to Yesenin” (1965), “Tanks are moving through Prague” (1968) also caused great resonance. Despite such an open challenge to the then authorities, the poet continued to publish and travel throughout the country and abroad. Yevgeny Yevtushenko is published in the magazines Yunost (he was also on the editorial board of this magazine), Novy Mir, and Znamya, which were reputed to be oppositional in Soviet times.
In 1963 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
On 08/23/1968, two days after the introduction of tanks into the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, he wrote a protest poem: “Tanks are moving through Prague” (1968).
His speeches in support of Soviet dissidents Brodsky, Solzhenitsyn, and Daniel became famous. Despite this, Joseph Brodsky did not like Yevtushenko (according to Sergei Dovlatov, his catchphrase “If Yevtushenko is against collective farms, then I am for it”) is known and sharply criticized Yevtushenko’s election as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1987.
In an interview from 1972, published in October 2013, the Nobel Prize laureate spoke extremely negatively about Yevtushenko as a poet and person: “Yevtushenko? You know - it's not that simple. He is, of course, a very bad poet. And he is an even worse person. This is such a huge factory for reproducing itself. By reproducing himself... He has poems that, in general, can even be remembered, loved, liked. I just don’t like the general level of this whole thing. That is, mostly. The main one... the spirit doesn't like this. It’s just disgusting.”
Yevtushenko’s stage performances have become famous: he successfully reads his own works. He has released several discs and audiobooks in his own performance: “Berry Places”, “Dove in Santiago” and others.
From 1986 to 1991 he was Secretary of the Board of the Union of Writers of the USSR. Since December 1991 - Secretary of the Board of the Commonwealth of Writers' Unions. Since 1989 - co-chairman of the April writers' association. Since 1988 - member of the Memorial Society.
On May 14, 1989, with a huge margin, having received 19 times more votes than the nearest candidate, he was elected as a people's deputy of the USSR from the Dzerzhinsky territorial electoral district of the city of Kharkov and remained so until the end of the existence of the USSR.
In 1990, he became co-chairman of the All-Union Association of Writers in Support of Perestroika “April”.
In 1991, having signed a contract with an American university in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he and his family left to teach in the USA, where he currently lives.
In 2007, the Olimpiysky sports complex hosted the premiere of the rock opera “The White Snows Are Coming,” based on the poems of Yevgeny Yevtushenko by composer Gleb May.
Some sources attribute P.A. Sudoplatov’s statement that E. A. Yevtushenko collaborated with the KGB, playing the role of an “agent of influence.” However, in the memoirs of Sudoplatov himself, this is described as a recommendation from Sudoplatov’s wife, a former intelligence officer, to KGB officers who turned to her for advice regarding Yevtushenko: “to establish friendly confidential contacts with him, under no circumstances recruit him as an informant.”
On July 18, 2010, Yevtushenko opened a museum-gallery in Peredelkino near Moscow, coinciding this event with his birthday. The museum presents a personal collection of paintings donated to Yevtushenko by famous artists - Chagall, Picasso. There is a rare painting by Ernst, one of the founders of surrealism. The museum operates in a specially built building next to the poet’s dacha.
Evgeny Yevtushenko's height: 177 centimeters.
Personal life of Yevgeny Yevtushenko:
Yevgeny Yevtushenko was officially married 4 times.
The first wife is a poet. They have been married since 1954.
The second wife is Galina Semyonovna Sokol-Lukonina. Married since 1961.
The third wife is Jan Butler, Irish, his passionate fan. Married since 1978. The marriage produced sons Alexander and Anton.
The fourth wife is Maria Vladimirovna Novikova (born 1962). Married since 1987. The couple had sons Evgeniy and Dmitry.
Illness and death of Yevgeny Yevtushenko
In 2013, the poet underwent a complex operation. In the USA, in a clinic in Tulsa (Oklahoma), 81-year-old Evgeniy Aleksandrovich had his right leg amputated. Yevtushenko’s leg problems began back in 1997. His ankle joint wore out and he was fitted with a titanium one. At first everything went well, but then the poet began to suffer unbearable pain - it turned out that the titanium joint in his leg did not take root. Ultimately, the situation went so far that doctors had to amputate the limb.
On December 14, 2014, during a tour in Rostov-on-Don, Evgeny Yevtushenko was hospitalized due to a sharp deterioration in his health. Next, the poet was transferred to the Burdenko Research Institute of Neurosurgery, and then to the Central Clinical Hospital of the Presidential Administration in Moscow. Then the poet ended up in the hospital after he slipped and hit his head while getting out of the bathroom. In addition, information appeared in the press that Yevtushenko’s hospitalization was directly related to suspected acute heart failure and a fracture of the temporal bone.
In August 2015, in Moscow, doctors at the Central Clinical Military Hospital named after P. V. Mandryk performed an operation on Yevtushenko’s heart. To eliminate problems with the heart rhythm, the poet was given a pacemaker during the operation.
On March 31, 2017, the poet was hospitalized in serious condition. “Evgeniy Aleksandrovich was hospitalized in serious condition, I can’t talk about the details yet. I can only say that this is not a routine examination,” said wife Maria Novikova.
According to reports from relatives and friends, . “He had irreversible cancer. After studying the tests, doctors gave him three months to live, but he lived less than a month,” said a close friend of the family, Mikhail Morgulis. This diagnosis was made by American doctors about six years ago. At the same time, the poet underwent surgery and part of his kidney was removed. A month before his death, doctors diagnosed the fourth and final stage of cancer.
“He passed away quite calmly, painlessly. I held his hand for about an hour before his death. He knew that we were loved,” said the writer’s son Evgeniy.
The poet left a will in which he expressed his desire to be buried at the Peredelkinskoye cemetery next to Boris Pasternak.
April 10 was held in the Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Igor of Chernigov in Peredelkino. The funeral service was performed by the former head of the press service of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', rector of the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University, publicist and literary critic Vladimir Vigilyansky.
Poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko:
1953-1956 - “Station Winter”
1961 - “Babi Yar”
1965 - “Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station”
1965 - “Pushkin Pass”
1967 - “Bullfight”
1968 - “Under the Skin of the Statue of Liberty”
1970 - “Kazan University”
1971 - “Where are you from?”
1974 - “Snow in Tokyo”
1976 - “Ivanovo chintz”
1977 - “Northern Surcharge”
1974-1978 - “Dove in Santiago”
1980 - “Nepryadva”
1982 - “Mom and the Neutron Bomb”
1984 - “Distant Relative”
1985 - “Fuku!”
1996 - “Thirteen”
1996-2000 - “Full growth”
1975-2000 - “Proseka”
2011 - “Dora Franco”
Novels by Yevgeny Yevtushenko:
1982 - “Berry Places”
1993 - “Don’t Die Before You Die”
Collections of poems by Evgeny Yevtushenko:
1952 - “Scouts of the Future”;
1955 - “The Third Snow”;
1956 - “Highway of Enthusiasts”;
1957 - “The Promise”;
1959 - “Bow and Lyre”;
1959 - “Poems of different years”;
1960 - “Apple”;
1962 - “Wave of the Hand”;
1962 - “Tenderness”;
1965 - “Bratskaya HPP”;
1966 - “Communication Boat”;
1966 - “Pitching”;
1966 - “This is what’s happening to me”;
1967 - “Poems and poem “Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station””;
1967 - “Poems”;
1969 - “White Snow is Falling”;
1971 - “I am of Siberian breed”;
1971 - “Kazan University”;
1972 - “The Singing Dam”;
1972 - “Road No. 1”;
1973 - “Intimate lyrics”;
1973 - “A poet in Russia is more than a poet”;
1975 - “Father’s Hearing”;
1976 - “Thank you”;
1977 - “Full growth”;
1977 - “Glade”;
1978 - “Morning People”;
1978 - “Oath to space”;
1978 - “Compromise Kompromisovich”;
1979 - “Heavier than the Earth”;
1980 - “Welding by explosion”;
1981 - “Poems”;
1982 - “Two pairs of skis”;
1983 - “Mom and the Neutron Bomb” and other poems”;
1983 - “Where I Come From”;
1985 - “Almost at last”;
1986 - “Half a Vintage”;
1987 - “Tomorrow’s Wind”;
1987 - “Poems”;
1988 - “The Last Try”;
1989 - "1989";
1989 - “Citizens, listen to me”;
1989 - “Darling, sleep”;
1990 - “Green Gate”;
1990 - “The Last Try”;
1990 - “Belarusian blood”;
1990 - “Poems and Poems”;
1993 - “No Years: Love Lyrics”;
1994 - “My Golden Riddle”;
1995 - “My very best”;
1995 - “Last Tears”;
1997 - “Slow Love”;
1997 - “Nipper”;
1999 - “Stolen Apples”;
2001 - “I will break through into the 21st century...”;
2007 - “The window looks out onto white trees”;
2007 - “Anthem of Russia”;
2008 - “Poems of the XXI century”;
2009 - “My Football Games”;
2011 - “You can still save”;
2012 - “Happiness and Retribution”;
2013 - “I don’t know how to say goodbye”
Songs by Evgeny Yevtushenko:
“Still, there is something in our people” (Al. Karelin) - performed by Nat. Moskvina;
“And the snow will fall” (G. Ponomarenko) - Spanish. Klavdiya Shulzhenko;
“And the snow will fall” (D. Tukhmanov) - Spanish. Muslim Magomaev;
“Grandmothers” (Al. Karelin) - Spanish. M. Zadornov and Nat. Moskvina;
“Ballad of Friendship” (E. Krylatov);
“The Ballad of the Fishing Village of Ayu” (Yu. Saulsky) - Spanish. A. Gradsky;
“Even with every effort” (A. Pugacheva) - Spanish. Alla Pugacheva;
“You will love me” (N. Martynov) - Spanish. Victor Krivonos;
“Eyes of Love” (“There is always a woman’s hand”) (Brandon Stone) - Spanish. Brandon Stone;
“Eyes of Love” (“There is always a woman’s hand”) (Mikael Tariverdiev) - Spanish. Galina Besedina;
“God willing” (Raymond Pauls) - Spanish. A. Malinin;
“Dolphins” (Yu. Saulsky) - Spanish. VIA "Watercolors";
“Child is a villain” (group “Dialogue”) - Spanish. Kim Breitburg (Gr. “Dialogue”);
“Envy” (V. Makhlyankin) - Spanish. Valentin Nikulin;
“Ingratiation” (I. Talkov) - Spanish. Igor Talkov; (group “Dialogue”) - Spanish. Kim Breitburg (Gr. “Dialogue”);
“Spell” (I. Luchenok) - Spanish. Victor Vujacic;
“Spell” (E. Horovets) - Spanish. Emil Horovets;
“Will the clover field make noise” (E. Krylatov) - Spanish. Eduard Khil, Lyudmila Gurchenko;
“Like a hollow ear” (V. Makhlyankin) - Spanish. Valentin Nikulin;
“Recording kiosk” (group “Dialogue”) - Spanish. Kim Breitburg (Gr. “Dialogue”);
“When the bells ring” (V. Pleshak) - Spanish. Eduard Khil;
“When Your Face Came Up” (Brandon Stone);
“When a man is forty years old” (I. Nikolaev) - Spanish. Alexander Kalyanov;
“When a person comes to Russia” (Al. Karelin) - Spanish. Nat. Moskvina;
“When a man betrays a man” (E. Krylatov) - Spanish. Gennady Trofimov;
“I understood something in this life” (E. Horovets) - Spanish. Emil Horovets;
“Bell” (Al. Karelin) - Spanish. Nat. Moskvina;
"Wallet" (Brandon Stone);
“Darling, sleep” (D. Tukhmanov) - Spanish. Valery Obodzinsky, Leonid Berger (VIA “Jolly Fellows”), A. Gradsky;
“Love is a child of the planet” (D. Tukhmanov) - Spanish. VIA “Jolly Fellows”;
“There are no uninteresting people in the world” (V. Makhlyankin) - Spanish. Shaft. Nikulin;
“Metamorphoses” (Al. Karelin) - Spanish. M. Zadornov and Nat. Moskvina;
“Our difficult Soviet man” (A. Babajanyan) - Spanish. Georg Ots, Muslim Magomaev;
“No need to be afraid” (E. Krylatov) - Spanish. Gennady Trofimov;
“Don't rush” (A. Babajanyan) - Spanish. Muslim Magomaev, Anna German;
“No Years” (Sergei Nikitin);
“Am I really mortal” (S. Nikitin, P. I. Tchaikovsky);
“Nobody’s” (Yu. Saulsky) - Spanish. Zaur Tutov, A. Gradsky;
“Russian Songs” (Al. Karelin) - Spanish. Nat. Moskvina;
“My Song” (E. Krylatov) - Spanish. Gene. Trofimov;
“Crying for a brother” (S. Nikitin);
“Crying for a communal apartment” (Louise Khmelnitskaya) - Spanish. Gelena Velikanova, Joseph Kobzon;
“Under the creaking, weeping willow ("How to make your beloved happy")" (G. Movsesyan) - Spanish. Georgy Movsesyan, Joseph Kobzon;
“Let me hope” (A. Babajanyan) - Spanish. Vladimir Popkov;
“Confession” (Yu. Saulsky) - Spanish. Sofia Rotaru, Ksenia Georgiadi;
“The Princess and the Pea” (Al. Karelin) - Spanish. Nat. Moskvina;
“A simple song of Bulat” (Al. Karelin) - Spanish. Nat. Moskvina;
“Professor” (group “Dialogue”) - Spanish. Kim Breitburg (Gr. “Dialogue”);
“Child” (Al. Karelin) - Spanish. M. Zadornov and Nat. Moskvina;
“Motherland” (B. Terentyev) - Spanish. VIA "Blue Bird";
“Spring” (Al. Karelin) - Spanish. Nat. Moskvina;
“Romance” (E. Horovets) - Spanish. Emil Horovets;
“The fresh smell of linden trees” (I. Nikolaev) - Spanish. A. Kalyanov;
“Save and preserve” (E. Krylatov) - Spanish. Valentina Tolkunova;
“Old Friend” (I. Nikolaev) - Spanish. A. Kalyanov;
“Your traces” (Arno Babajanyan) - Spanish. People Zykina, Sofia Rotaru;
“Til” (A. Petrov) - Spanish. Ed. Gil;
“You are leaving like a train” (M. Tariverdiev) - Spanish. VIA "Singing Guitars";
“By the Sea” (B. Emelyanov) - Spanish. Vakhtang Kikabidze;
“My beloved is leaving” (V. Makhlyankin) - Spanish. Shaft. Nikulin;
“The Church must be prayed for” (Al. Karelin) - Spanish. Nat. Moskvina;
“Ferris Wheel” (Arno Babajanyan) - Spanish. Muslim Magomaev;
“What does love know about love” (A. Eshpai) - Spanish. Lyudmila Gurchenko;
“I am a citizen of the Soviet Union” (D. Tukhmanov) - Spanish. Muslim Magomaev;
“I love you more than nature” (R. Pauls) - Spanish. Irina Dubtsova;
“I stopped loving you” (V. Makhlyankin) - Spanish. Shaft. Nikulin;
“I want to bring it” (E. Krylatov) - Spanish. Gennady Trofimov;
“The river runs” - Spanish. People Zykina, Lyudmila Senchina, Maria Pakhomenko;
“Waltz about Waltz” - Spanish. Klavdiya Shulzhenko, Maya Kristalinskaya;
“Long farewell” - Spanish. Lev Leshchenko;
“White snow is falling” - Spanish. Gelena Velikanova, V. Troshin;
“Sooner or later” - Spanish. V. Troshin;
“My Motherland” - Spanish. People Zykina;
"Ancient Tango" - Spanish. Vit. Markov, Joseph Kobzon;
“Comrade Guitar” - Spanish. Klavdiya Shulzhenko;
“Murderers walk the earth” - Spanish. Arthur Eisen, Mark Bernes, Alexandrov Ensemble;
“Do Russians want war?” (dedicated to Mark Bernes) - Spanish. Yuri Gulyaev, Mark Bernes, Vad. Ruslanov
Filmography of Evgeny Yevtushenko:
Actor:
1965 - “Ilyich’s Outpost” (Yevtushenko appears in a documentary insert about a poetry evening at the Polytechnic Museum)
1979 - “Take Off” - K. E. Tsiolkovsky
1983 - “Kindergarten” - chess player
1990 - “Stalin’s Funeral” - sculptor
Director:
1983 - “Kindergarten”
1990 - “Stalin’s Funeral”
Screenwriter:
1964 - “I am Cuba” (with Enrique Pineda Barnet)
1990 - “Stalin’s Funeral”
Songs:
1961 - “Career of Dima Gorin.” Song “And it’s snowing” (Andrey Eshpai) - Spanish. Maya Kristalinskaya. The song was also performed by Zhanna Aguzarova, Angelika Varum;
1975 - “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!”, directed by Eldar Ryazanov. Song “This is what is happening to me...” (Mikael Tariverdiev - performed by S. Nikitin);
1977 - “Office Romance”, director Eldar Ryazanov. Song “They chatter us in crowded trams...” Andrey Petrov;
1977-1978 - songs from the series “And It’s All About Him” (based on the novel by Vil Lipatov). Music by E. Krylatov: “Alder Earring” - Spanish. Gennady Trofimov, Eduard Khil;
“No need to be afraid” - Spanish. A. Kavalerov;
"Steps" - Spanish. Gene. Trofimov;
1981 - “Night Witches” in the sky. Song “When you sing songs on Earth...” (E. Krylatov) - Spanish. Elena Kamburova.
Born on July 18, 1933 in Siberia, at the Zima station in the Irkutsk region. Father - Gangnus Alexander Rudolfovich (1910-1976), geologist. Mother - Yevtushenko Zinaida Ermolaevna (1910-2002), geologist, actress, Honored Cultural Worker of the RSFSR. Wife - Maria Vladimirovna Yevtushenko (born 1961), doctor, philologist. Sons: Peter (born 1967), artist; Alexander (born 1979), journalist, lives in England; Anton (born 1981), lives in England; Evgeniy (born 1989), studies in high school in the USA; Dmitry (born 1990), studies in high school in the USA.
Evgeniy Rein, a friend and, as many believe, teacher of Brodsky, has a postulate dated 1997: “Russia is a special country in absolutely every respect, even from the angle of its poetic appearance. For two hundred years now, Russian poetry has been represented by one great poet at all times. This was the case in the eighteenth century, in the nineteenth and in our twentieth. Only this poet has different names. And this is an unbreakable chain. Let's think about the sequence: Derzhavin - Pushkin - Lermontov - Nekrasov - Blok - Mayakovsky - Akhmatova - Yevtushenko. This is one and only Great Poet with different faces. Such is the poetic fate of Russia.” It seems that in relation to Yevtushenko this formula can be unmistakably extended to the beginning of the 21st century.
Evgeny Yevtushenko’s unforgettable childhood years passed in Winter. “Where am I from? I am from a certain / Siberian station Zima...” Some of his most piercing lyrical poems and many chapters of early poems are dedicated to this city.
From early childhood, Yevtushenko considered and felt himself to be a Poet. This is evident from his early poems, first published in the first volume of his Collected Works in 8 volumes. They are dated 1937, 1938, 1939. Not touching verses at all, but talented attempts at the pen (or pencil) of a 5-7 year old child. His writing and experiments are supported by his parents and then by school teachers, who actively participate in the development of his abilities.
The poet more than once remembers with gratitude his parents, who from an early age helped him through everyday communication, books, acquaintance and contact with art to understand the values of the surrounding world and artistic heritage. “My father could spend hours telling me, still a foolish child, about the fall of Babylon, and about the Spanish Inquisition, and about the War of the Scarlet and White Roses, and about William of Orange... Thanks to my father, at the age of 6 I learned to read and write, I read in one gulp indiscriminately Dumas, Flaubert, Boccaccio, Cervantes and Wells. There was an unimaginable vinaigrette in my head. I lived in an illusory world, I didn’t notice anyone or anything around...”
In subsequent years, despite the fact that Alexander Rudolfovich formed another family, he continued to educate his eldest son with poetry. So, in the fall of 1944, they went together to a poetry evening at Moscow State University, and attended other evenings, listening to poems by Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Mikhail Svetlov, Alexander Tvardovsky, Pavel Antokolsky and other poets.
Zinaida Ermolaevna did not interfere with Zhenya’s meetings with his father, and even earlier, when she wrote letters to him, she sent him her son’s poems, in which there were already lines and rhymes testifying to the abilities of the boy who had taken up the pen so early. Mom believed in his abilities and was aware of the value of his early experiences. She kept notebooks and separate sheets of poetry, with work on compiling a dictionary of rhymes that, in his opinion, did not yet exist in poetry. Unfortunately, for various reasons, something was lost, like a notebook that included approximately 10 thousand rhymes.
The mother’s second, artistic, profession also had a positive influence on the formation of the poet’s aesthetic tastes, mastery of pop performances and genuine interest in theater and cinema. In 1938-41 she was a soloist at the Moscow Theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky, graduating from the music school named after M.M. in 1939. Ippolitova-Ivanova, which she entered while still a final-year student at the Geological Exploration Institute - after she took first place in the amateur arts competition of the capital's universities. In her house there were artists - both who later became celebrities, and modest workers of the Mosestrad stage, whom the poet so touchingly described many decades later in one of the chapters of the poem “Mom and the Neutron Bomb”.
From the beginning of the war to December 1943, she performed at the fronts, then went on tour with the grain growers of the Chita region (December 1943), during which she became seriously ill with typhus and spent several months in a Chita hospital. After recovery in 1944, she worked as the head of the Ziminsk House of Culture for Railway Workers, and at the end of July 1944 she returned with her son to Moscow, from where, after her mother arrived on call from Zima, she again went to the front as part of the concert crew of her theater, returning home only in April of the victorious 45th. In subsequent years, she worked at the All-Union Touring and Concert Association and at the Moscow Philharmonic as a director of children's musical work until her retirement in 1977.
Zinaida Ermolaevna’s hospitality extended not only to her own friends, but also to those around her young son, who was entering a stormy creative life. Many poets were part of the house - Evgeny Vinokurov, Vladimir Sokolov, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Grigory Pozhenyan, Mikhail Lukonin and others, not to mention Bella Akhmadulina, the poet’s first wife; prose writer Yuri Kazakov, playwright Mikhail Roshchin, literary critic Vladimir Barlas, students of the Literary Institute, artists Yuri Vasiliev and Oleg Tselkov, actors Boris Morgunov and Evgeniy Urbansky...
The poet grew up and studied in Moscow, attending the poetry studio of the House of Pioneers. He was a student at the Literary Institute, but was expelled in 1957 for speaking in defense of V. Dudintsev’s novel “Not by Bread Alone.” He started publishing at the age of 16. The first publications of poems in the newspaper “Soviet Sport” dated 1949. Accepted into the USSR Writers' Union in 1952, he became its youngest member.
The first book - “Scouts of the Future” (1952) - bore the generic signs of declarative, sloganeering, pathetic-invigorating poetry of the turn of the 1940s-50s. But the poems “Wagon” and “Before the Meeting” are dated to the same year as the book, which Yevtushenko, almost a quarter of a century later, in the article “Education with Poetry” (1975) would call “the beginning of... serious work” in literature.
The true debuts were not the first “stilted romantic book,” as the poet himself attests today to “Scouts of the Future,” and not even the second, “The Third Snow” (1955), but the third, “The Enthusiasts’ Highway” (1956), and the fourth, “The Promise.” "(1957) books, as well as the poem "Winter Station" (1953-56). It is in these collections and the poem that Yevtushenko realizes himself as a poet of a new generation entering life, which will later be called the generation of “sixties,” and loudly declares this with the program poem “The Best of the Generation.”
The poet’s worldview and state of mind were formed under the influence of shifts in society’s self-awareness caused by the first revelations of Stalin’s personality cult.
Recreating a generalized portrait of a young contemporary of the Thaw, E. Yevtushenko paints his own portrait, incorporating the spiritual realities of both social and literary life. To express and affirm it, the poet finds catchy aphoristic formulas, perceived as a polemical sign of new anti-Stalinist thinking: “Zeal in suspicion is not merit. / A blind judge is not a servant of the people. / Worse than mistaking an enemy for a friend, / hastily mistaking a friend for an enemy.” Or: “And the snakes climb into the falcons, / replacing, taking into account modernity, / opportunism to lies / opportunism to courage.”
Declaring his own difference with youthful enthusiasm, the poet revels in the diversity of the world around him, life and art, and is ready to absorb it in all its all-encompassing richness. Hence the exuberant love of life in both the programmatic poem “Prologue” and other consonant poems of the turn of the 1950s and 60s, imbued with the same irrepressible joy of existence, greed for all of it - and not just beautiful ones - moments, to stop, to embrace which the poet irresistibly rushes. No matter how declarative some of his poems may sound, there is not even a shadow of thoughtless cheerfulness in them, which was eagerly encouraged by official criticism - we are talking about the maximalism of the social position and moral program that the “outrageously illogical, unforgivably young” poet proclaims and defends: “No, I don’t need half of anything! / Give me the whole sky! Lay down all the earth!”
The prose “Autobiography”, published in the French weekly “Expresso” (1963), aroused the ire of the then guardians of the canon. Re-reading the “Autobiography” now, after 40 years, you clearly see: the scandal was deliberately inspired and its initiators were ideologists from the CPSU Central Committee. Another elaborative campaign was carried out to tighten the screws and twist hands - to ostracize both Yevtushenko himself and those “dissidents” who reacted in opposition to N.S.’s pogrom meetings. Khrushchev with the creative intelligentsia. E. Yevtushenko gave the best answer to this by including fragments of the early “Autobiography” in later poems, prose, autobiographical articles and publishing it with slight abbreviations in 1989 and 1990.
The poet’s ideological and moral code was not formulated right away: at the end of the 1950s, he spoke loudly about citizenship, although at first he gave it an extremely unsteady, vague, approximate definition: “It is not pushing at all, / but voluntary war. / She is a great understanding / and she is the highest valor.” Developing and deepening the same thought in “Prayer before the Poem”, which opens “Bratskaya Hydroelectric Power Station”, Yevtushenko will find much clearer, precise definitions: “A poet in Russia is more than a poet. / In it, poets are destined to be born / only to those in whom the proud spirit of citizenship roams, / for whom there is no comfort, no peace.”
However, these lines, which have become textbooks, would also be written off as declarations, if they were not confirmed by poems, whose publication, being an act of civic courage, became a major event in both literary and (to a lesser, if not greater extent) public life: “Babi Yar” (1961), “Stalin’s Heirs” (1962), “Letter to Yesenin” (1965), “Tanks are moving through Prague” (1968), “Afghan Ant” (1983). These peak phenomena of Yevtushenko’s civic poetry were not of the nature of a one-time political action. Thus, “Babi Yar” grows out of the poem “Okhotnoryadets” (1957) and, in turn, responds in 1978 with other consonant lines: “The Russian and the Jew / have one era for two, / when, like bread, breaking time, / Russia raised them."
Matching the heights of E. Yevtushenko's civic poetry are his fearless actions in support of persecuted talents, in defense of the dignity of literature and art, freedom of creativity, and human rights. These are numerous telegrams and letters of protest against the trial of A. Sinyavsky and Y. Daniel, the persecution of A. Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia, human rights actions of intercession for repressed dissidents - General P. Grigorenko, writers A. Marchenko, Z. Krakhmalnikova, F. Svetov , support by E. Neizvestny, I. Brodsky, V. Voinovich.
The poet owes frequent trips around the country, including the Russian North and the Arctic, Siberia and the Far East, both many individual poems and large cycles and books of poetry. A lot of travel impressions, observations, and meetings are integrated into the plots of the poems - the wide geography purposefully works in them for the epic breadth of the concept and theme.
In terms of frequency and length, the routes of E. Yevtushenko’s foreign trips have no equal in the writing community. He visited all the continents except Antarctica, using all types of transport - from comfortable liners to Indian pies - and traveled far and wide across most countries. It did come true: “Long live movement and fervor, / and greed, triumphant greed! / Borders bother me... I feel embarrassed / not knowing Buenos Aires, New York.”
Nostalgically recalling the “first day of poetry” in the titled poem of the late 1970s, E. Yevtushenko glorifies poetry, which rushed “to the attack of the streets” in that encouraging “thaw” time, “when, in place of worn-out words / living words rose from their graves " With his oratorical pathos as a young tribune, he contributed more than others to “the miracle of revival / trust born of a line. / Poetry is born from the expectation / of poetry by the people and the country.” It is not surprising that it was he who was recognized as the first tribune poet of the stage and television, squares and stadiums, and he himself, without disputing this, always ardently stood up for the rights of the spoken word. But he also wrote an “autumn” reflection, which relates precisely to the noisy time of pop triumphs of the early 1960s: “Epiphanies are the children of silence. / Something happened, apparently, to me, / and I rely only on silence...” Who, if not him, therefore had to energetically refute in the early 1970s the annoying contrasts between “quiet” poetry and “loud” poetry, unraveling in them an unworthy “game of freedom from the era”, a dangerous narrowing of the range of citizenship? And, following oneself, proclaim the unvarnished truth of time as the only criterion by which one and the other should be verified? “Poetry, whether loud or quiet, / never be quiet or deceitful!”
The thematic, genre, and stylistic diversity that distinguishes Yevtushenko’s lyrics fully characterizes his poems. The lyrical confessionalism of the early poem “Winter Station” and the epic panoramic view of the “Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station” are not the only extreme poles. For all their artistic inequalities, each of his 19 poems is marked by a “uncommon expression.” No matter how close the poem “Kazan University” (1970) is to the “Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station”, even with the general epic structure it has its own, specific originality. The poet’s ill-wishers, not without secret and obvious gloating, blame the very fact of writing it for the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin. Meanwhile, “Kazan University” is not an anniversary poem about Lenin, who appears, in fact, in the last two chapters (there are 17 in total). This is a poem about the advanced traditions of Russian social thought, “passed through” the history of Kazan University, about the traditions of enlightenment and liberalism, freethinking and love of freedom.
The poems “Ivanovo Calico” (1976) and “Nepryadva” (1980) are immersed in Russian history. The first is more associative, the second, dedicated to the 800th anniversary of the Battle of Kulikovo, is event-driven, although its figurative structure, along with epic narrative paintings recreating a distant era, includes lyrical and journalistic monologues connecting the centuries-old past with the present.
At the masterly combination of numerous voices of the public, greedy for exciting spectacles, a bull doomed to slaughter, a young but already poisoned by the “poison of the arena” bullfighter, sentenced until he himself dies, again and again to “kill according to duty,” and even sand soaked in blood The poem “Corrida” (1967) is built in the arena. A year later, the poet’s exciting “idea of blood,” which paid for the centuries-old destinies of mankind, also invades the poem “Under the Skin of the Statue of Liberty,” where the murders of Tsarevich Dmitry in ancient Uglich and President John Kennedy in modern Dallas are placed in a single chain of bloody tragedies of world history.
The poems “Snow in Tokyo” (1974) and “Northern Surcharge” (1977) are based on plot narratives about human destinies. In the first, the poem's idea was embodied in the form of a parable about the birth of talent, freed from the shackles of the immobile, sanctified by the age-old ritual of family life. In the second, unpretentious everyday reality grows on purely Russian soil and, presented in the usual flow of everyday life, is perceived as their reliable cast, containing many familiar, easily recognizable details and details.
Not in the original, but in a modified form, the journalistically oriented poems “Full Growth” (1969-1973-2000) and “Prosek” (1975-2000) are included in the eight-volume collected works of E. Yevtushenko. What is explained by the poet in the author’s commentary on the second is also applicable to the first: he wrote both quarters and more than a century ago “, quite sincerely clinging to the remnants of illusions that were not completely killed... since the times of the Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station.” The current rejection of them has almost prompted a renunciation of the poems as well. But the raised hand “fell down, as if independently of my will, and did the right thing.” It was just as right as friends, the editors of the eight-volume edition, did when they persuaded the author to save both poems. Having heeded the advice, he saved them by removing the excesses of journalism, but keeping the realities of past decades intact. “Yes, the USSR no longer exists, and I am sure that there was no need to revive even the music of its anthem, but the people who called themselves Soviet, including me, ... remained.” This means that the feelings with which they lived are also part of history. And the history of our lives, as so many events have shown, cannot be erased..."
The synthesis of epic and lyricism distinguishes the political panorama of the modern world unfolded in space and time in the poems “Mother and the Neutron Bomb” (1982) and “Fuku!” (1985). Unconditional primacy belongs to E. Yevtushenko in depicting such interconnected phenomena and trends in the agonizing Soviet reality of the 1980s, such as the resuscitation of Stalinism and the emergence of domestic fascism.
Yevgeny Yevtushenko tore away the thick veil of bashful silences about the legalization of Russian fascism and its first public demonstration in Moscow on Pushkin Square “on Hitler’s birthday / under the all-seeing sky of Russia.” Back then, in the early 1980s, there really was a “pathetic bunch of guys and girls” “playing swastikas.” But, as the emergence of active fascist parties and movements, their paramilitary formations and propaganda publications showed in the mid-1990s, the poet’s alarming question sounded on time and even ahead of time: “How could it happen / that these, as we say, units, / were born in the country / of twenty million or more shadows? / What allowed them, / or rather, helped them to appear, / what allowed them / to grab onto the swastika in it?”
In Yevtushenko’s poetic dictionary, the word “stagnation” appeared in the mid-1970s, that is, long before it entered the political lexicon of “perestroika.” In the poems of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the motif of mental peace and discord with the “stagnant” era is one of the dominant ones. The key concept of “perestroika” will appear after a while, but the poet already has a sense of the dead end of the “pre-perestroika” path. It is therefore natural that he became one of those first enthusiasts who not only accepted the ideas of “perestroika”, but actively contributed to their implementation. Together with academician A. Sakharov, A. Adamovich, Yu. Afanasyev - as one of the co-chairs of Memorial, the first mass movement of Russian democrats. As a public figure, who soon became a people's deputy of the USSR and raised his deputy voice against censorship and the humiliating practice of processing foreign trips, the dictates of the CPSU, its hierarchy in personnel matters from district committees to the Central Committee and the state monopoly on the means of production. As a publicist who intensified his speeches in the democratic press. And as a poet, whose revived faith, having acquired new incentives, fully expressed itself in the poems of the second half of the 1980s: “Peak of Shame”, “Perestroika of Perestroika”, “Fear of Glasnost”, “We Can’t Live Like This Anymore”, “Vendee”. The latter is also about literary existence, in which an inevitable split was brewing in the Union of Writers of the USSR, whose monolithic unity turned out to be one of the phantoms of the propaganda myth that disappeared after the “Gekachepist” putsch in August 1991.
Poems from the 1990s, included in the collections “The Last Attempt” (1990), “My Emigration” and “Belarusian Blood” (1991), “No Years” (1993), “My Golden Riddle” (1994), “Late Tears” "and "My very best" (1995), "God is all of us..." (1996), "Slow Love" and "Tumbleweed" (1997), "Stolen Apples" (1999), "Between Lubyanka and Polytechnic "(2000), "I will break through into the twenty-first century..." (2001) or those that were published in newspaper and magazine publications, as well as the last poem "Thirteen" (1993-96) indicate that in the "post-perestroika" work of E. Yevtushenko is intruded by motives of irony and skepticism, fatigue and disappointment.
At the end of the 1990s and in the first years of the new century, there was a noticeable decline in Yevtushenko’s poetic activity. This is explained not only by a long stay in teaching in the USA, but also by increasingly intense creative quests in other literary genres and art forms. Back in 1982, he appeared as a novelist, whose first experience - “Berry Places” - caused contradictory reviews and ratings, from unconditional support to sharp rejection. The second novel - “Don't Die Before You Die” (1993) with the subtitle “Russian Fairy Tale” - with all the kaleidoscopic plot lines and diversity of characters inhabiting it, has as its guiding core the dramatic situations of the “perestroika” era. A notable phenomenon of modern memoir prose was the book “Wolf Passport” (M., 1998).
The result of more than 20 years of not just compilation, but research work by Yevtushenko is the publication in English in the USA (1993) and Russian (M.; Minsk, 1995) languages of the anthology of Russian poetry of the 20th century “Strophes of the Century”, a fundamental work (more than a thousand pages , 875 personalities!). Foreign interest in the anthology is based on objective recognition of its scientific significance, in particular, as a valuable teaching aid for university courses in the history of Russian literature. The logical continuation of the “Stanzas of the Century” will be an even more fundamental work completed by the poet - the three-volume work “In the Beginning Was the Word.” This is an anthology of all Russian poetry, from the 11th to the 21st centuries, including “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” in a new “translation” into modern Russian.
Evgeny Yevtushenko was the editor of many books, the compiler of a number of large and small anthologies, hosted creative evenings for poets, compiled radio and television programs, organized recordings, and himself read poems by A. Blok, N. Gumilyov, V. Mayakovsky, A. Tvardovsky, wrote articles, including for record sleeves (about A. Akhmatova, M. Tsvetaeva, O. Mandelstam, S. Yesenin, S. Kirsanov, E. Vinokurov, A. Mezhirov, B. Okudzhava, V. Sokolov, N. Matveeva, R. Kazakova and many others).
Yevtushenko’s entire creative path was inseparably accompanied by a far from amateurish and not at all amateurish interest in cinema. The visible beginning of his film creativity was laid by the “poem in prose” “I am Cuba” (1963) and the film by M. Kalatozov and S. Urusevsky, shot according to this script. A beneficial role as a creative stimulus was probably played in the future by friendship with Fellini, close acquaintance with other masters of the world screen, as well as participation in S. Kulish’s film “Take Off” (1979), where the poet starred in the leading role of K. Tsiolkovsky. (The desire to play Cyrano de Bergerac in E. Ryazanov’s film did not come true: having successfully passed the audition, Yevtushenko was not allowed to film by decision of the Cinematography Committee.) Based on his own script, “Kindergarten,” he directed the film of the same name (1983), in which he also acted as a director. , and as an actor. In the same triune capacity of screenwriter, director, and actor he appeared in the film “Stalin's Funeral” (1990).
The poet is creatively attached to the stage no less than to the screen. And not only as a brilliant performer of poetry, but also as, at first, the author of dramatizations and stage compositions (“On this quiet street” based on “Fourth Meshchanskaya”, “Do the Russians want war”, “Civil Twilight” based on “Kazan University”, “Proseka” , “Bullfight”, etc.), then as an author of plays. Some of them became events in the cultural life of Moscow - for example, “Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station” at the Moscow Drama Theater on M. Bronnaya (1967), “Under the Skin of the Statue of Liberty” at the Lyubimovsky Theater on Taganka (1972), “Thank you forever...” in Moscow Drama Theater named after M.N. Ermolova (2002). It was reported about the premieres of performances based on E. Yevtushenko’s play “If All Danes Were Jews” in Germany and Denmark (1998).
The works of E. Yevtushenko have been translated into more than 70 languages, they have been published in many countries around the world. In the Soviet Union and Russia alone, and this, it should be admitted, is far from the majority of what was published, by 2003 more than 130 books had been published, including more than 10 books of prose and journalism, 11 collections of poetic translations from the languages of the fraternal republics and one translation from Bulgarian, 11 collections - in the languages of the peoples of the former USSR. Abroad, in addition to the above, photo albums, as well as exclusive and collectible rarities, were published in separate publications.
E. Yevtushenko’s prose, in addition to the novels mentioned above, consists of two stories - “Pearl Harbor” (1967) and “Ardabiola” (1981), as well as several short stories. Hundreds, if not thousands of interviews, conversations, speeches, responses, letters (including collective letters with his signature), answers to questions from various questionnaires and surveys, summaries of speeches and statements are scattered in the media alone. Five film scripts and plays for the theater were also published only in periodicals, and photographs from personal photo exhibitions “Invisible Threads”, shown in 14 cities of the country, in Italy and England, were published in booklets, prospectuses, newspaper and magazine publications.
Dozens of the poet’s works stimulated the creation of musical works, starting from “Babi Yar” and a chapter from the “Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station”, which inspired D. Shostakovich to almost prohibit “from above” the Thirteenth Symphony and the symphonic poem for choir and orchestra “The Execution of Stepan Razin”, highly appreciated by the State Prize ”, and ending with the popular songs “The river runs, melts in the fog...”, “Do the Russians want war”, “Waltz about the waltz”, “And the snow will fall, fall...”, “Your traces”, “Thank you for silence”, “Don’t rush”, “God willing” and others.
About a dozen books, at least 300 general works have been written about the life and work of E. Yevtushenko, and the number of articles and reviews devoted to individual collections and works of the poet, his poetic translations, language and style is impossible to count - it is enormous. This information can, if desired, be gleaned from published bibliographies.
Evgeny Yevtushenko is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts, an honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Malaga, a full member of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an honorary professor of Honoris Causa at the New School University in New York and King's College in Queens. For the poem “Mom and the Neutron Bomb” he was awarded the USSR State Prize (1984). Winner of the T. Tabidze (Georgia), J. Rainis (Latvia), Fregene-81, Venice Golden Lion, Enturia, Triada City Prize (Italy), Simba Academy international award and others. Winner of the Academy of Russian Television "Tefi" award for the best educational program "A poet in Russia is more than a poet" (1998), the Walt Whitman Prize (USA). He was awarded orders and medals of the USSR, an honorary medal of the Soviet Peace Foundation, the American Medal of Freedom for his activities in protecting human rights, and a special badge of merit from Yale University (1999). The refusal to receive the Order of Friendship as a sign of protest against the war in Chechnya (1993) had a wide resonance. The novel "Don't Die Before You Die" was recognized as the best foreign novel of 1995 in Italy.
For literary achievements in November 2002, Evgeny Yevtushenko was awarded the international Aquila Prize (Italy). In December of the same year, he was awarded the Lumières gold medal for his outstanding contribution to the culture of the twentieth century and the popularization of Russian cinema.
In May 2003, E. Yevtushenko was awarded the public order “Living Legend” (Ukraine) and the Order of Peter the Great, in July 2003 - the Georgian “Order of Honor”. Recognized with the Badge of Honor of the founder of the Children's Rehabilitation Center in Russia (2003). Honorary citizen of the city of Winter (1992), and in the United States - New Orleans, Atlanta, Oklahoma, Tulsa, Wisconsin.
In 1994, a minor planet of the solar system was named after the poet, discovered on May 6, 1978 at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (4234 Evtushenko, diameter 12 km, minimum distance from Earth 247 million km).
The famous poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko has passed away. An era has passed. The poet died quietly - in his sleep. He died of a serious illness in a US hospital. Yevtushenko will be buried in Russia, not far from the grave of Boris Pasternak. Evgeniy Aleksandrovich himself asked for this.
Biography
The famous poet was born on July 18, 1932 at the Zima station in the Irkutsk region. But according to the passport, the correct date of birth is 1933. The real name is not Yevtushenko - Gangnus. Evgeniy Alexandrovich’s father is a geologist and amateur poet. Mother is a poetess, geologist, Honored Cultural Worker of the RSFSR.
After the birth of her son, the mother specifically changed her husband’s surname to his maiden name and changed the year of birth, since at the age of 12 it was necessary to obtain a pass.
Yevtushenko’s father left the family for another woman, but did not stop communicating with his son.
In 1944, the poet and his mother moved to Moscow. Yevtushenko lived, studied and worked there. The poet was a regular guest at the House of Pioneers. He studied at the Gorky Literary Institute. But he was expelled from the university for “wrong” statements. He did not re-enter the institute and began to educate himself. The poet was fluent in four foreign languages: English, French, Italian and Spanish.
Yevtushenko's creativity
The first book was published in 1952. The work is called "Scouts of the Future." Later, the author himself gave him not the best assessment. He called it juvenile and immature.
Then several collections were published, and Yevtushenko became the youngest member of the USSR Writers' Union. His collections “The Third Snow”, “Highway of Enthusiasts”, “Poems of Different Years”, “Apple”, “Tenderness” became incredibly popular.
In the 1960s, Yevtushenko began speaking to the public, organizing poetry evenings. By this time, the poet had developed his own recognizable poetic style. In addition, evenings in the Great Auditorium of the Polytechnic Museum, where Yevtushenko, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Bella Akhmadulina, Bulat Okudzhava gathered, became one of the symbols of that time.
Yevtushenko wrote many poems, in addition, his memoirs “Wolf Passport”, “The Sixties: Memoir Prose”, “I Came to You: Babi Yar” are well known.
Personal life
The personal life of Yevgeny Yevtushenko was eventful. The poet married four times and had five sons. Since 1991, Yevgeny Yevtushenko has lived in the USA.
Yevtushenko’s first wife is the famous poetess Bella Akhmadulina.
The second wife is Galina Semyonovna Sokol-Lukonina. The marriage produced a son, Peter.
Third wife – Jen Butler, Irish. They have been married since 1978. They had sons Alexander and Anton.
The fourth wife is Maria Vladimirovna Novikova. Married since 1987. The couple had sons Evgeniy and Dmitry.
Awards “Badge of Honor”, “Order of the Red Banner of Labor”, “Order of Friendship of Peoples”, medal “Defender of Free Russia”, honorary member of the “Russian Academy of Arts” - this is just a small list of the poet’s awards. Yevtushenko was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poem "Babi Yar". In 1978, a minor planet of the solar system was discovered at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, which was named after the famous poet.
Life in America
Since 1991, Yevgeny Yevtushenko has lived in the USA. He began teaching in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His wife Maria teaches Russian at school there. There were those who called Yevtushenko a traitor. The poet emphasized that his departure cannot be called emigration. In addition, Evgeniy Alexandrovich tried to visit Russia as often as possible.
Yevgeny Yevtushenko died on April 1 in the USA at the age of 84. The poet was diagnosed with cancer about six years ago. He had surgery and part of his kidney was removed.
But recently the disease returned, and doctors diagnosed it as stage IV. Doctors said that Yevtushenko could live for another three months, but he passed away much earlier.
The farewell ceremony will take place in two countries - Russia and the USA. Initially, it is planned to organize a civil memorial service and funeral service for a close circle of his family and friends in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After this, the poet’s body will be transported to Moscow for the official farewell ceremony.
The poet will be buried next to the grave of Boris Pasternak, in the village of Peredelkino near Moscow. Yevtushenko himself asked for this.
The 47-year-old artist died in a mental hospital in the capital.
A tragedy occurred in the family of Yevgeny Yevtushenko. The 47-year-old son of the famous poet Pyotr Yevtushenko died in one of the Moscow hospitals. Doctors treated him for mental illness for six months, but the artist’s heart suddenly stopped. His body was cremated, but not buried until the arrival of Evgeniy Alexandrovich, who was in the USA at that time.
Pyotr Yevtushenko is the adopted son of the famous poet and Galina Sokol-Lukonina. After their divorce, the boy stayed with his mother, but his father did everything so that the boy did not feel deprived. And in the States he helped him get an education, and made him a separate apartment, and he didn’t deprive him of money. But for some reason, fate often punishes the children of celebrities. So Peter was no exception.
“Galya, or Galla, as she was often called, was an interesting but harsh woman,” said prose writer Alla Rakhmanina. - I loved Yevtushenko all my life, but did not forgive his endless betrayals. She was businesslike, but didn’t work a single day. Her first husband was the writer Mikhail Lukonin. When Galya was married to him, she had an affair with the poet Alexander Mezhirov. Misha was terribly jealous, but could not do anything... Even the writer Vasily Aksenov almost married Gala. Sometimes she said that she regretted leaving Yevgeny Yevtushenko. After her death, Petya started drinking.
To find out about the life together of Galina and Evgeny Yevtushenko (they got married in 1961 - N.M.), we contacted a family friend, Natalya Shmelkova. 
Natalya Shmelkova with Pyotr Yevtushenko at the opening of his exhibition of paintings (Photo from the archive of Natalya Shmelkova)
“I’m shocked why I, his mother’s closest friend, was not informed about Petya’s death,” Natalya Alexandrovna said with offense. - Probably because I wrote in my book how the poet Lenya Gubanov once shouted in response to Yevtushenko’s criticism: “You are shit!” You will soon be forgotten, but I am a brilliant poet!” Apparently, Zhenya still can’t forgive...
Which husband did she love more? Galya and I talked about Misha Lukonin, and I assured her: “If you stayed with him, you would be happy!” She always spoke with delight about Lukonin. But did she love him? The gypsy told her that she would live in abundance, but would never love. She married Yevtushenko in a black dress with a pink bow.
Galina was burdened by the fact that, having been married for seven years, she could not give birth.
“He and Zhenya took Petya when he was very young,” recalls Shmelkova. - It was intended for Bella Akhmadulina, Yevtushenko’s first wife. But she chose a girl. Galina Volchek persuaded him to take Petya, and she became his godmother. The boy - a cherub with blue eyes and curls - looked like Yevtushenko himself. Petya grew up as a happy child. Sports boy: swam, dived, ski jumped. He studied at the school at the Tretyakov Gallery. 
The adopted son looked like YEVTUSHENKO
Suffered from hazing
The marriage of Galina and Evgeny broke up at the insistence of Galya, tired of the poet’s numerous novels.
“After the divorce, she and Zhenya shared for a long time numerous paintings that were donated by artist friends,” says Shmelkova. - But they remained friends. Galya never remarried. Yevtushenko married twice more. Petya always considered Evgeny his dad. Yevtushenko came to the guy’s birthdays and invited him to visit him at his dacha.
After graduating from the Moscow Art Lyceum, Pyotr Yevtushenko was drafted into the army. The service left an indelible mark on his biography. Subsequently, he will write a series of paintings “A Soldier's Diary”.
“Yevtushenko could have made sure that Petya was not drafted into the army,” Shmelkova believes. - But I didn’t bother. Naive and handsome young men like Petya are bullied in the army. We could only guess what happened there, because Petya carried everything inside himself. Galya said that it was after the army that he developed mental problems... I didn’t see a single regular girl with Petya, although he paid attention to the female gender. I remember once we came to the museum. He liked the charming girl guide. So Petya and I licked her legs and skirt all the way.
After returning from the army, the father enrolled his son in an American college near New York. But, as the young artist himself admitted, he was soon expelled due to absences and partying. Petya returned to his homeland under his mother’s wing. 
The poet's second wife Galina SOKOL-LUKONINA (YEVTUSHENKO) was unable to give birth to a child
Didn't want to share the inheritance
In recent years, Peter lived alone. His mother bought him an apartment in the Yasenevo district. Then she bought him a house on Kurina Street. He lived modestly: in the room there was only the most necessary things. His nanny Shura came to clean up for the poet’s son. Although Peter did not become a famous artist, one exhibition of his works, thanks to Shmelkova, did take place.
“On the advertising poster we placed a picture of a poodle wearing earflaps near the Kremlin wall,” recalls Natalya Alexandrovna. - Petya drew his dog Pele, named after the great Brazilian football player. When I played the piano, Pele howled, and as soon as I took a bad passage, he hit the keys with his paw.
Peter did not get along very well with his mother, but her death two years ago was a strong blow for the lonely and unsuccessful artist.
“I haven’t seen Galya for the last four years,” says Shmelkova. - At the same time, she called five times a day: either to discuss a book, or something else. I offered to meet, but she kept postponing the meeting with one word: “Later.” I think she didn’t want me to see her growing old. I regret that I didn’t come to her funeral because I couldn’t get out of bed. Yevtushenko also did not come, but wrote in the newspaper about her death: “Petya, don’t forget that you have a father and from the depths of the grave your mother’s eyes are looking at you”... Galya dreamed that I would take her son under my wing. But I understood that there would be an inheritance and I would have to go to court. 
Petya was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery next to his mother and grandmother
In recent years he has been drinking. He loved gin, whiskey and other expensive drinks. Once I decided to go on a trip around the world with him, but Petya said: “For this money I will buy so much whiskey that I will dream about this trip.” For the last six months, Petya has been in a psychiatric hospital. I wanted to visit him, but he refused: “I’ll come myself”...
One of Peter’s few friends, artist Konstantin Zvezdochetov, also shared his memories:
- Petya was cremated at the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery. At the wake they put up a photograph of him, he was 17 years old. About ten people came to say goodbye. Among them is the wife of the son of the writer Konstantin Simonov, Galina... I looked after him because my mother was friends with Elena, Evgeniy Alexandrovich’s sister. He was lonely, and it seemed to me that he didn’t need anyone. There is some kind of fate here: the son of director Georgy Danelia passed away tragically, the composer Nikita Bogoslovsky’s Kirill died from heavy drinking, and now Yevtushenko’s son too. Imagine a boy whose mother was friends with Academician Sakharov’s second wife, dissident Elena Bonner. One time Galina practically accomplished a feat: when the writer Viktor Nekrasov went abroad, she was the only one with Pavel Lungin who went to see him off. Yevtushenko helped Petya all his life, even when Yevgeny Alexandrovich’s leg was amputated...
Yes, fate tossed the guy from side to side. From an orphanage he ended up in a bohemian family, then - harsh morals in the army, after life among complete strangers, dad did not take his son to live with him in America. Although Petya didn’t want to go there, because he didn’t like it there. A monument should be erected to Yevtushenko’s sister Elena Maksimovna. When Petya became especially difficult and offended her, she still helped him. She carried huge packages to the hospital. 
Shmelkova shows a poster with a reproduction of Peter’s painting - “Pele the Poodle on Red Square”
“He portrayed himself as a poodle”
“Petya was a talented artist,” says Evgeny Yevtushenko. - There are three large paintings of his in my museum. I especially value my son’s self-portrait: he painted himself in the image of a lonely dog wearing earflaps.
- Evgeniy Alexandrovich, my friends told me that Petya got sick after the army...
- My son went to serve, like everyone else. He took a sip of hazing there, of course. Young people can be cruel, and the children of famous people come under attack. It seems to others that they are freed from many problems. Believe me, the children of famous people are not the happiest. By the way, Petya never used my name. And I never helped Petya just because he is just my son. But he contributed as an artist. The son, although adopted, is the first.
- Did you decide to take the boy from the orphanage?
- Not so much me, but my second wife Galina. Her childhood was difficult: she was brought up in an orphanage, where there were children of “enemies of the people.” It affected her, her views.
- Why wasn't he married?
- A personal tragedy occurred in the USA, where Peter, having received a grant, went to study. He fell in love with a girl on the course and decided to draw her portrait. When he finished work, it was night, but Petya decided to call her and asked her to come to evaluate the portrait. She misunderstood this act. As a result, my son was expelled from college. It was this story with the girl that became the beginning of his illness.
I paid less attention to my son than my mother. But everyone helped him as best they could... He had been taking so many medications lately that he couldn’t even drink strong tea. My heart couldn't stand it. I'm very worried. My sister was waiting for my arrival from America and did not interred her ashes so that I could say goodbye to my son. Petya was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery, where his mother also rests.
Reference
Yevtushenko's first wife in 1954 was the poetess Bella Akhmadulina.
In 1962, Evgeniy Alexandrovich married Bella’s friend, Galina Sokol-Lukonina. Seven years later they adopted a boy, Petya.
In 1978, the poet married his Irish fan, Jen Butler, with whom he had sons Alexander and Anton
Yevtushenko’s fourth wife in 1987 was Maria Novikova, with whom he had two sons - Evgeny and Dmitry.
And there was another case
“In the film “Stalin’s Funeral,” I was lucky enough to meet the brilliant poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who was the director and screenwriter here,” said actress Inna Vykhodtseva. - We voiced the mass scenes of the leader’s funeral at the Mosfilm film studio. The recording did not work out for a long time, and then Evgeniy Alexandrovich asked the administrator to bring a box of vodka, several loaves of sausage and bread. At first we didn’t understand: why so much food? They thought they would feed us during the break. They poured us half a glass of vodka, and the director commanded: “Drink, and then we’ll work!” Since I don’t drink vodka, I poured myself some water. But Yevtushenko noticed that I didn’t drink in one gulp and asked: “Why don’t you drink?” I had to play. I remember that for one shift we were paid as if for two: he was so pleased with the work.
