The poet Vasily Lebedev was extremely popular during the Soviet era. The whole country sang songs to his poems, and from the outside his life seemed cloudless and full of privileges. But at the same time, the "court poet" was regularly accused of plagiarism.
Biography
Vasily was born into the family of a poor shoemaker in 1898. Father Ivan Nikitich was married to the dressmaker Maria Mikhailovna Lebedeva. The surname Lebedev was in the metrics of the future poet. Vasily will choose a double pseudonym for himself much later, and officially he will appear in his passport only in 1941.
Vasily Lebedev brilliantly graduated from the 10th Moscow gymnasium. He received the right to free education there thanks to the famous historian P. Vinogradov - it was he who gave him a scholarship. Already during his studies at the gymnasium, Vasily used his knowledge and earned money by tutoring. His competence included Russian and Latin.
In 1917 he graduated from high school, received a gold medal and entered the history and philology faculty of Moscow State University. The revolution and civil war prevented me from obtaining a document on higher education.
Start of labor activity
One of the first official jobs, where Vasily Lebedev got a job quite early, was the Press Bureau of the Revolutionary Military Council. In parallel with this, he is listed in AgitROST (Russian Telegraph Agency) and works there together with V. Mayakovsky. Later, periodicals were added, such as the newspapers "Bednota" and "Gudok" or the magazine "Krokodil".
Vasily began to publish his works early, the main theme of which was the denunciation of "philistine and philistine." He wrote feuilletons, parodies, satirical tales and, of course, odes to communism.
Most of the population of the Soviet Union was delighted with his songs for the films "Circus", "Volga-Volga" and others. Many even now periodically hum "Light in the heart from a funny song …" or "The song helps us to build and live …".
In 1934, Lebedev became a member of the Writers' Union, of which he is considered to be one of the founders. In 1938 he was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet, and in 1939 he was admitted to the Communist Party.
Contemporaries noted his addiction to long speeches at meetings of the Supreme Soviet. Sometimes he did it in poetic form. There is in his archive a eulogy dedicated to Stalin, which ends with the line: "I am proud to be a bard of the Stalin era."
In the work of Lebedev-Kumach there are also devastating articles written, including about people whom he considered friends. For example, V. Kataev became the "hero" of his opus, published in Pravda. This publication almost led to the imprisonment of Kataev.
Song creativity of Vasily Lebedev
The poet is rightfully considered one of the founders of mass song - a very popular phenomenon for the Soviet Union. V. Lebedev's collaboration with composers Isaac Dunaevsky and Grigory Alexandrov was very productive.
In 1941, one of the most significant works of the poet appears - the song "Sacred War". She became the anthem for the Soviet defenders. Already on June 26, a few days after the start of the war, the song was performed by the Red Banner Song and Dance Ensemble.
Lebedev during the Great Patriotic War served as a political officer in the Navy and worked in the staff of the newspaper "Red Fleet". After the end of hostilities, he resigned with the rank of captain of the first rank. The poet has many medals for the war period, including "For the Defense of Moscow", "For Victory over Japan", "For Valiant Labor in the Second World War, 1941-1945."
In 1941, Lebedev received the Stalin Prize, all the funds from which he transferred to the Defense Fund.
Borrowing charges
Both during his lifetime and after the death of the poet, statements about plagiarism appeared more than once in his work. The most famous research is E. Levashev, who worked at the Moscow State Conservatory. According to him, traces of borrowings can be found in the songs "Moscow May", "Sailors" and even in "Sacred War". In 1940, a special plenum of the Writers' Union was convened after numerous complaints about Lebedev-Kumach's plagiarism. But, according to the recollections of those present there, after a call from a certain high rank, the proceedings were suspended and no longer resumed.
Zinaida Kolesnikova (Bode) also pointed out the plagiarism of the text of the song "The Holy War". She claimed that the author of the work was her father, Alexander Bode, a teacher at the Rybinsk gymnasium. According to his daughter, he really liked the work of Lebedev-Kumach, so he decided to send him the lyrics. He did not wait for an answer, and much later the famous "Sacred War" was born to the famous poet. However, all the evidence in the case was circumstantial, and the authorship remained with Lebedev.
Personal life
The poet's family life was not easy. He got married in 1928, having taken away, according to rumors, his chosen one, Kira, from one of his colleagues in the Krokodil magazine. The couple had a daughter, Marina. True, later his wife returned to her first husband, who was serving a sentence in the camps and then returned to the capital.
After that, Lebedev was credited with a relationship with actress Lyubov Orlova. But at the end of his life, the poet was left alone. For the last two years he has lived in a dacha in the suburbs. He began a creative crisis, his health was undermined, he suffered several heart attacks.
Vasily Ivanovich Lebedev-Kumach died in February 1949, he was 50 years old. Buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
