Nikolai Pogodin
Encyclopedia
Nikolai Fyodorovich Pogodin (pseudonym of N.F. Stukalov) ( - September 19, 1962) was a Soviet playwright.
Born into a peasant family at Gundorovskaya Stantsiya in the Don Province, young Nikolai Stukalov "spent a wandering childhood with his mother, who travelled from one Cossack
village to another taking in sewing"; he worked as a bookbinder and carpenter before turning to literature and journalism. During the Russian Civil War
he served as a volunteer with the Red Army
; in 1920 he worked as a reporter for the Rostov-on-Don
newspaper Trudovaya zhizn, and was a traveling correspondent for Pravda
from 1922 to 1932. From 1925 he lived in Moscow.
With his journalistic background, it is natural that "his plays, particularly the early ones, seemed to be dramatization of factual reports on current events." Temp (Tempo, 1929; presented in 1930 by the Vakhtangov
Theater) showed the construction of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, Poema o topore (Poem of the axe, 1931) was about making stainless steel, and Moi drug (My friend, 1932) features a protagonist struggling to get a factory operating. "The most popular in this series of plays was Aristocrats (1934), a half-serious, half-comical play about the building, by forced labor, of a canal between the White and Baltic Seas. Thieves, bandits, and other convicts, the aristocrats of crime, at first do not want to work but gradually become involved in collective action and are transformed and morally regenerated." This reflected a popular propaganda theme of reforming criminals and class enemies through labor. His most popular play was Chelovek s ruzhyom (Man with a gun, 1937), about Shadrin, a soldier who comes to Petrograd in October 1917 and gets involved in the Revolution
; the climax of the play is his meeting with Lenin. The second play in his Lenin trilogy, Kremlyovskie kuranty (The chimes of the Kremlin, 1940), was set in 1920 and featured a scene in which Lenin talks with an old Jewish watchmaker engaged in repairing the Kremlin chimes so they can play the Internationale; the third, Tretya pateticheskaya (The third: Pathetic, 1958) used the news of Lenin's death as a tragic leitmotif
. Kogda lomaiutsya kop'ya (When the spears break, 1953) was a comedy; Sonet Petrarki (Petrarch's sonnet, 1956) "takes the position that there are certain individual matters--personal feelings and affairs of the heart--which are none of the collective's or the Party's business."
From 1951 to 1960 Pogodin was the chief editor of the theatrical journal Teatr. He won the Order of Lenin twice and the Stalin Prize twice, and became an Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1949.
Born into a peasant family at Gundorovskaya Stantsiya in the Don Province, young Nikolai Stukalov "spent a wandering childhood with his mother, who travelled from one Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
village to another taking in sewing"; he worked as a bookbinder and carpenter before turning to literature and journalism. During the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
he served as a volunteer with the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
; in 1920 he worked as a reporter for the Rostov-on-Don
Rostov-on-Don
-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...
newspaper Trudovaya zhizn, and was a traveling correspondent for Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
from 1922 to 1932. From 1925 he lived in Moscow.
With his journalistic background, it is natural that "his plays, particularly the early ones, seemed to be dramatization of factual reports on current events." Temp (Tempo, 1929; presented in 1930 by the Vakhtangov
Yevgeny Vakhtangov
Yevgeny Bagrationovich Vakhtangov was a Russian actor and theatre director who founded the Vakhtangov Theatre. He was a friend and mentor of Michael Chekhov.Vakhtangov was born to Armenian-Russian parents from Ossetia in Vladikavkaz...
Theater) showed the construction of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, Poema o topore (Poem of the axe, 1931) was about making stainless steel, and Moi drug (My friend, 1932) features a protagonist struggling to get a factory operating. "The most popular in this series of plays was Aristocrats (1934), a half-serious, half-comical play about the building, by forced labor, of a canal between the White and Baltic Seas. Thieves, bandits, and other convicts, the aristocrats of crime, at first do not want to work but gradually become involved in collective action and are transformed and morally regenerated." This reflected a popular propaganda theme of reforming criminals and class enemies through labor. His most popular play was Chelovek s ruzhyom (Man with a gun, 1937), about Shadrin, a soldier who comes to Petrograd in October 1917 and gets involved in the Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
; the climax of the play is his meeting with Lenin. The second play in his Lenin trilogy, Kremlyovskie kuranty (The chimes of the Kremlin, 1940), was set in 1920 and featured a scene in which Lenin talks with an old Jewish watchmaker engaged in repairing the Kremlin chimes so they can play the Internationale; the third, Tretya pateticheskaya (The third: Pathetic, 1958) used the news of Lenin's death as a tragic leitmotif
Leitmotif
A leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
. Kogda lomaiutsya kop'ya (When the spears break, 1953) was a comedy; Sonet Petrarki (Petrarch's sonnet, 1956) "takes the position that there are certain individual matters--personal feelings and affairs of the heart--which are none of the collective's or the Party's business."
From 1951 to 1960 Pogodin was the chief editor of the theatrical journal Teatr. He won the Order of Lenin twice and the Stalin Prize twice, and became an Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1949.
Sources
- Pogodin, Nikolai Fyodorovich in Encyclopedia of Soviet Writers