Vadim Shershenevich
Encyclopedia
Vadim Gabrielevich Shershenevich (1893–1942) was a Russian
poet.
, Russia
on 25 January 1893 . He was the son of professor
of Law
Gabriel Feliksovich Shershenevich, a Polish
national and a deputy of the first State Duma from the Constitutional Democratic party
and the author of its platform. Shershenevich's mother, Yevgeniya L'vovna L'vova, was an opera singer. At age nine he entered secondary school a year early. After moving with his parents to Moscow in 1907 he studied in the private secondary school of L.I. Polivanov—earlier graduates of the school included Valery Bryusov
, Andrey Bely and Sergey Solovyov
. After secondary school he began studies in the philological
department at Munich University. His studies continued at Moscow University - first in the Department of Law, then in mathematics
, in which he took his degree.
Shershenevich began writing poetry while still in secondary school and published his first book at age eighteen. This work was strongly influenced by works of Konstantin Bal'mont. His second book, Carmina reflected his enthusiasm for Alexander Blok
. It was praised by Nikolai Gumilev: "Vadim Shershenevich's book makes an excellent impression. The well-polished verse (the rare roughnesses hardly shows itself), the unassuming, but adjusted style, the interesting constructions - all make one glad at [reading] its verses". In the same year Shershenevich turned from Symbolism
to Futurism
. Together with Graal Arel'sky, L. Zak, Ryurik Ivnev
et al. he created the Egofuturists group.
Shershenevich edited almanacs produced by the Peterburgskiy Glashatay publishing house and helped prepare almanacs from the Moscow publishing house Mezzanine of Poetry, which he practically headed. Before the end of 1913 he published two additional books of poems. He became the theorist and the propagandist of futurism in Russia: He met F.T. Marinetti
in Moscow in 1914 and translated his books and published collections of his own articles. His Declaration About Futurist Theatre (1914) attacked asserted that plays and theater direction of the day suppressed the actor: "Action should dominate the theater, not the word."
By age 21, Shershenevich began to develop the theory of Imaginism
. He was quoted as saying: "the skill must be contemporary, otherwise it will not touch." His following book of poetry, Автомобилья поступь (Automobilian Advance) expressed this opinion. It was his most significant in the pre-revolutionary
period.
In 1915, he volunteered into the Russian army's motor transport unit and sent to fight briefly in the First World War.
, Shershenevich lectured on poetry in the Proletkult
, in the division of Narkompros that was responsible for publishing a multivolume dictionary
of artist
s. Together with Vladimir Mayakovsky
he wrote texts for the ROSTA
posters. With V. Kamienski and Ryurik Ivnev he participated in the creation of the All-Russian union of poets, and starting in May 1919 was the group's chairman for more than a year.
In 1918 Shershenevich became close to Sergei Yesenin
and Anatoli Marienhof. He founded the "order of imaginists" and became the theorist of imaginism. At this time, 1918-20, his books of poetry exemplify the imaginist period.
During the subsequent years he published the book of poems Cooperatives of merriment (1921), the play One continuous absurdity (1922) and the book about the art of his comrades Marienhof, Ivnev, Kusikov and Yesenin To whom I shake hands (1921). From 1919 through 1925 he participated in nine anthologies, including Foundry of Words (Plavil'nia slov) (1920) with Yesenin and Marienhof.
... Lyricism is taken away from poetry and poetry without lyricism is as good as a race horse without a leg. Thus the failure of imaginism is understandable, as it always insisted on poetization of poetry."
By that time Shershenevich had moved on to theatre
. His plays were performed in theatres in Moscow. He translated plays by Sophocles
, Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht
and Charles Baudelaire
's Fleurs du Mal. He rewrote the libretti
for a number of operetta
s and is credited as the screenwriter of three films. He also worked as a director in theatres in Moscow and outside of it.
During the early part of World War II
Shershenevich, sick with tuberculosis
, was evacuated with the Moscow Chamber Theater to Barnaul
, where he died on 18 May 1942.
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...
poet.
Earlier years
Shershenevich was born in KazanKazan
Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
on 25 January 1893 . He was the son of professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
Gabriel Feliksovich Shershenevich, a Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
national and a deputy of the first State Duma from the Constitutional Democratic party
Constitutional Democratic party
The Constitutional Democratic Party was a liberal political party in the Russian Empire. Party members were called Kadets, from the abbreviation K-D of the party name...
and the author of its platform. Shershenevich's mother, Yevgeniya L'vovna L'vova, was an opera singer. At age nine he entered secondary school a year early. After moving with his parents to Moscow in 1907 he studied in the private secondary school of L.I. Polivanov—earlier graduates of the school included Valery Bryusov
Valery Bryusov
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov was a Russian poet, prose writer, dramatist, translator, critic and historian. He was one of the principal members of the Russian Symbolist movement.-Biography:...
, Andrey Bely and Sergey Solovyov
Sergey Solovyov
Sergey Mikhaylovich Solovyov was one of the greatest Russian historians whose influence on the next generation of Russian historians was paramount. His son Vladimir Solovyov was one of the most influential Russian philosophers...
. After secondary school he began studies in the philological
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
department at Munich University. His studies continued at Moscow University - first in the Department of Law, then in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, in which he took his degree.
Shershenevich began writing poetry while still in secondary school and published his first book at age eighteen. This work was strongly influenced by works of Konstantin Bal'mont. His second book, Carmina reflected his enthusiasm for Alexander Blok
Alexander Blok
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was a Russian lyrical poet.-Life and career:Blok was born in Saint Petersburg, into a sophisticated and intellectual family. Some of his relatives were literary men, his father being a law professor in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather the rector of Saint Petersburg...
. It was praised by Nikolai Gumilev: "Vadim Shershenevich's book makes an excellent impression. The well-polished verse (the rare roughnesses hardly shows itself), the unassuming, but adjusted style, the interesting constructions - all make one glad at [reading] its verses". In the same year Shershenevich turned from Symbolism
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
to Futurism
Futurism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...
. Together with Graal Arel'sky, L. Zak, Ryurik Ivnev
Ryurik Ivnev
Rurik Ivnev was a Russian poet, novelist and translator.-Early years:Rurik Ivnev was born into a nobleman's family in Tiflis . His father, A. S. Kovalyov, a captain of a Russian army. The children had been brought up by their mother, A. P. Kovalyova-Prince. Among her ancestors was a Dutch count,...
et al. he created the Egofuturists group.
Shershenevich edited almanacs produced by the Peterburgskiy Glashatay publishing house and helped prepare almanacs from the Moscow publishing house Mezzanine of Poetry, which he practically headed. Before the end of 1913 he published two additional books of poems. He became the theorist and the propagandist of futurism in Russia: He met F.T. Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti was an Italian poet and editor, the founder of the Futurist movement, and a fascist ideologue.-Childhood and adolescence:...
in Moscow in 1914 and translated his books and published collections of his own articles. His Declaration About Futurist Theatre (1914) attacked asserted that plays and theater direction of the day suppressed the actor: "Action should dominate the theater, not the word."
By age 21, Shershenevich began to develop the theory of Imaginism
Imaginism
Imaginism was a poetic flow inside Russian avant-garde which came about after the Revolution of 1917. It was founded in 1918 in Moscow by a group of poets including Anatoly Marienhof, Vadim Shershenevich, and Sergei Yesenin, who wanted to distance themselves from the Futurists; the name may have...
. He was quoted as saying: "the skill must be contemporary, otherwise it will not touch." His following book of poetry, Автомобилья поступь (Automobilian Advance) expressed this opinion. It was his most significant in the pre-revolutionary
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
period.
In 1915, he volunteered into the Russian army's motor transport unit and sent to fight briefly in the First World War.
After the Revolution
After the Russian Revolution of 1917Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, Shershenevich lectured on poetry in the Proletkult
Proletkult
Proletkult was movement which arose in the Russian revolution and was active from 1917 to 1925 which aspired to provide the foundations for what was intended to be a truly proletarian art devoid of bourgeois influence.The name is a portmanteau of "proletarskaya kultura" , which are better-known as...
, in the division of Narkompros that was responsible for publishing a multivolume dictionary
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
of artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
s. Together with Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...
he wrote texts for the ROSTA
Rosta
Rosta or Rustah was the name of a district in Isfahan area in Iran attested in historical sources. The Persian explorer Ibn Rustah was a native of Rosta....
posters. With V. Kamienski and Ryurik Ivnev he participated in the creation of the All-Russian union of poets, and starting in May 1919 was the group's chairman for more than a year.
In 1918 Shershenevich became close to Sergei Yesenin
Sergei Yesenin
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin was a Russian lyrical poet. He was one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century but committed suicide at the age of 30...
and Anatoli Marienhof. He founded the "order of imaginists" and became the theorist of imaginism. At this time, 1918-20, his books of poetry exemplify the imaginist period.
During the subsequent years he published the book of poems Cooperatives of merriment (1921), the play One continuous absurdity (1922) and the book about the art of his comrades Marienhof, Ivnev, Kusikov and Yesenin To whom I shake hands (1921). From 1919 through 1925 he participated in nine anthologies, including Foundry of Words (Plavil'nia slov) (1920) with Yesenin and Marienhof.
Late years
In 1926 Shershenevich published his own collection So, the Summary, his last poetic book. In it he broke with imaginist poetics. He summed up imaginism in these words: "Imaginism is dead ... Poetry has became polemicPolemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
... Lyricism is taken away from poetry and poetry without lyricism is as good as a race horse without a leg. Thus the failure of imaginism is understandable, as it always insisted on poetization of poetry."
By that time Shershenevich had moved on to theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
. His plays were performed in theatres in Moscow. He translated plays by Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
, Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
and Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
's Fleurs du Mal. He rewrote the libretti
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
for a number of operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s and is credited as the screenwriter of three films. He also worked as a director in theatres in Moscow and outside of it.
During the early part of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Shershenevich, sick with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, was evacuated with the Moscow Chamber Theater to Barnaul
Barnaul
-Russian Empire:Barnaul was one of the earlier cities established in Siberia. Originally chosen for its proximity to the mineral-rich Altai Mountains and its location on a major river, the site was founded by the wealthy Demidov family in the 1730s. In addition to the copper which had originally...
, where he died on 18 May 1942.
Books
- Spring Thaw (Весенние проталинки) (c. 1911)
- Carmina (1913)
- Extravagant Flakones (1913)
- Romantic Powder (1913)
- Automobilian Advance (Автомобилья поступь) (1916)
- Crematory. The poem of imaginist (1919)
- Horse like a horse (Лошадь как лошадь) (1920)
- Theory of Free Verse (Notes on Poetic Technique) (Teoriia svobodnogo stikha (zametki o poeticheskoi tekhnike)) (1920) Translator and Editor.
- 2х2=5 (1920)
- Cooperatives of merriment (1921)
- To whom I shake hands (1921)
- Red Alcohol (Krasnyi Alkogol') (1922) With Matvei Royzman.
- So, the Summary (1926)
- Kinopechat: Igor Ilinisky (1926)
Screenplays
- When Moscow Laughs (Devushka s korobkoy) (1927)
- A Kiss From Mary PickfordA Kiss From Mary PickfordA Kiss From Mary Pickford is a comedy film made in the Soviet Union, directed by Sergei Komarov and co-written by Komarov and Vadim Shershenevich. The film, starring Igor Ilyinsky, is mostly known today because of a cameo by the popular film couple Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks...
(Potseluy Meri Pikford) (1927) - The House on Trubnaya (Dom na Trubnoy) (1928)