Nikolai Glazkov
| Nikolay Glazkov | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
January 30, 1919 Lyskovo |
| Died | October 1, 1979 (aged 60) Moscow |
| Alma mater | Maxim Gorky Literature Institute |
Nikolai Ivanovich Glazkov (Russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Глазко́в; IPA: [nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ɡlɐˈskof]; January 30, 1919 – October 1, 1979) was a Soviet poet renowned for his uncanny and ironic verse, his alcoholism, and for jokingly coining the term samizdat, which came to be internationally known.
Glazkov was born in the village of Lyskovo, in what is now Nizhegorodskaya Oblast, Russia. His father was a lawyer and his mother, a teacher of German. The family moved to Moscow in 1923. Glazkov began writing poetry at a very early age. As a student, he attended the literature faculty of Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. In 1938 his father was repressed during the Great Purge, and in 1940 Glazkov was thrown out of university as a relative of an enemy of the people. Soon afterwards, however, he was allowed to attend Maxim Gorky Literature Institute, from which he graduated in 1942. Upon graduation he worked as a village teacher, but in 1944 he returned to Moscow. He worked odd jobs such as loading trucks and sawing lumber, all the while publishing poetry both officially and unofficially. Parodying the ceremonious names of the official printing organs of the U.S.S.R., he printed his poetry under the publishing house name of Samsebyaizdat (which literally translates as something like self-publishing house). This is later shortened to samizdat, a term now known to any student of Soviet literature. Through the 50's and 60's, Glazkov continued to be published with and without the consent of the Soviet authorities. He made a "cameo" appearance as the peasant in the hot air balloon at the beginning of A.A. Tarkovsky's 1966 film Andrei Rublev. He died on October 1, 1979 in Moscow.
...
Wikipedia