Schwartz Evgeny Lvovich is an outstanding writer, playwright, literary publicist, screenwriter. And today, Schwartz's works remain in demand and relevant. His plays are performed with invariable success on the stages of many theaters. There are few people who do not know Cinderella, Dragon or Ordinary Miracle.
The writer in all his works invited people to think about eternal values: love, friendship, betrayal, stupidity, good and evil. He did not teach anyone, only gently advised to be kind and wise, to be able to make decisions in difficult life situations. Many difficulties fell to the lot of the writer, because he lived in a difficult time. His biography is replete with interesting and curious facts.
Childhood and adolescence of the writer
In Kazan, in 1896, on October 9, the future famous writer and playwright Yevgeny Schwartz was born. His family had nothing to do with creative professions. The parents were doctors. Maria Fedorovna, Evgeny's mother, worked as a midwife, and her father, Lev Borisovich, was a zemstvo surgeon.
In 1898, the boy's father was arrested on suspicion of aiding the revolutionaries. Because of this, the family was persecuted and was forced to constantly move from city to city. Having reached Maykop, they settled there for a long time.
Eugene spent his childhood and youth in the aforementioned small town. In the same place, the parents have a second child - Zhenya's younger brother, Valentin.
The boy receives his primary education at a school, and then, at the request of his parents, leaves for Moscow to enter the People's University in order to obtain the profession of a lawyer. Later, Schwartz was transferred to a state university, but never became a lawyer.
Eugene was called up to serve in the army in the fall of 1916, and at the beginning of 1917 he went to study at a military school, where he received the rank of cadet, and later - ensign.
At the beginning of 1918, Schwartz took part in the battles in the Kuban, joining the Volunteer Army, and in one of them he received a serious concussion. After treatment in the hospital, he was demobilized. Eugene decides not to return to the military profession and goes to Rostov to enter the university. It was during his studies at this university that Schwartz is fond of theatrical activities and begins to participate in performances.
Creative career of a playwright
The beginning of Schwartz's creative career was "Theater Workshop", where he played in many productions. Together with her, he travels to St. Petersburg and there begins to write his first reports and children's stories. His works are published in the magazine Siskin and Hedgehog. At the same time, Evgeny worked part-time in bookstores, and then got a job as a secretary to Korney Chukovsky.
To publish his works, Schwartz chooses a literary pseudonym - Grandfather Sarai. He writes many feuilletons for the publication "All-Russian stoker". After a while, Schwartz was sent for an internship in Bakhmut, where the branch of the publishing house, the literary newspaper Zaboy, is located.
After completing an internship, the writer returned to St. Petersburg, where he wrote "The Story of an Old Balalaika" for the anthology "Sparrow". The work interested S. Marshak, who invites Schwartz to Gosizdat, where his work as an editor begins. This happened in 1924. At the publishing house, Schwartz was loved and respected, he was engaged in helping young, creatively gifted debutants to start their careers, easily and naturally supplementing the creative ideas of the writers with his thoughts and comments.
Schwartz's first play, Underwood, was staged at the Leningrad Youth Theater in 1929. An uncomplicated story about a student who took home a typewriter, which they tried to steal from him, and Marusya the pioneer prevented the crooks from doing it. The director liked the play, who saw in it an image that personifies dedication, honesty and friendship, good that conquers evil forces.
Since the 1930s, Schwartz has written many works. Among them: "Trivia", "The Princess and the Swineherd", "Little Red Riding Hood", "The Naked King". Scripts for the films "Commodity 717", "Wake Up Helen", "On Vacation", "Helen and Grapes" were also written. After such a fruitful work, Evgeny Lvovich was invited to the Writers' Union of the USSR.
The director of the Comedy Theater - Nikolai Akimov - invites Schwartz to try to write a comedy for adults. This is how a fairy-tale play, with elements of satire, "The Adventures of Hohenstaufen", appeared, in which the action takes place in an ordinary institution, which is run by a real "ghoul" by the name of Upyrev, and is opposed by a good fairy in the person of the cleaning lady Kofeykina.
In 1940, the famous play "The Shadow" was born. The premiere took place, but only once. The management did not like the political satire and ideological content of the work, and it was immediately banned for further staging. Schwartz returns to writing ordinary stories and just before the war, a work appears about the feat of the Soviet people who saved children from ice captivity - "Brother and Sister". Together with Zoshchenko, he creates an anti-fascist work "Under the Lindens of Berlin", which is staged on stage in 1941.
A little later the play "Our Hospitality" was published, and in 1942 - "One Night" and "Distant Land" about the Leningrad blockade.
From the besieged city, Yevgeny was first evacuated to Kirov, and then to Uzbekistan. In evacuation, he began working on the play "Dragon", which was staged after the end of the war at the Comedy Theater. But this play was destined to continue to lie on the shelf until the mid-60s. It was banned from showing right after the premiere.
The film Cinderella, based on the play by Yevgeny Schwartz in 1947, had a colossal success in the country. The main roles were filmed: Yanina Zheimo, Vasily Merkuriev, Faina Ranevskaya, Erast Garin. To this day, viewers love this film and admire the talented acting of the actors and the work itself.
Schwartz continues to write his plays, despite the fact that the country's leadership practically does not recognize him as a playwright and writer. His works are banned from performances in all theaters. Only in 1954, the poetess O. Berggolts spoke in defense of the writer at the next congress. A few years later, a collection of Schwartz's plays was published, and they again began to be staged and shown on stage.
By the end of 1956, Schwartz finishes writing one of his most famous works - An Ordinary Miracle.
The writer's work still inspires directors to this day. Schwartz's plays are still loved by audiences of all ages. They are staged in many of the country's leading theaters: the Youth Theater, the Comedy Theater, Sovremennik, MDT and others. Films based on the works of Evgeny Lvovich Schwartz are still shown on TV screens.
Personal life of the writer
There were two marriages in the life of Evgeny Schwartz.
The first wife is Gayane Kholodova, an actress of the theater in Rostov, where they met. Evgeny and Gayane got married in 1920 and after a while moved to Petrograd. In 1929, a child appears in the family - daughter Natalya and almost immediately the husband leaves the family to marry a second time.
At one of the literary evenings, Schwartz meets the charming Ekaterina Ivanovna Obukh. Love at first sight breaks out between them. To be with Eugene, Catherine breaks off relations with her husband. The couple lived together for many years, until the writer's death, but they say that their marriage was not happy because of the constant unjustified jealousy of the spouse.
Evgeny Lvovich Schwartz passed away in 1958, on January 15. The writer was buried in Leningrad at the Theological cemetery.
