Evgeny Schwartz | |
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Evgeny Schwartz
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Born | October 21 [O.S. October 9] 1896 Kazan |
Died | January 15, 1958 Leningrad |
(aged 61)
Occupation | Editor, novelist and playwright |
Nationality | Russian |
Period | avante-garde |
Evgeny Lvovitch Schwartz (Russian: Евге́ний Льво́вич Шва́рц; October 21 [O.S. October 9] 1896, Kazan, Russian Empire – January 15, 1958, Leningrad, USSR) was a Soviet writer and playwright, whose works include twenty-five plays, and screenplays for three films (in collaboration with Nikolai Erdman).
Evgeny Schwartz was born in Kazan, Russia, into a physician's family. His father was a baptized Jew, his mother Russian. In 1910 he studied law at Moscow University, where he also became involved in theater and poetry. He was drafted into the army at the end of 1916 to serve on the front. After the Bolshevik Revolution he joined the White and served under general Kornilov. He suffered injuries and shell-shock during the storming of Yekaterinodar in 1918, lost several teeth and acquired a tremor of the hands that plagued him for the rest of his life.
After the end of Russian Civil War, Schwartz studied theater in Rostov-on-Don. In 1921 he moved with the theater troupe to Petrograd, becoming involved with the "Serapion Brothers," a literary group including Ivanov, Zoschenko and Kaverin. In 1923 he moved to Bakhmut and began to publish satirical verse and reviews in the local newspaper. With Mikhail Slonimsky and Nikolay Oleynikov, he organized the literary magazine Slaughter in 1925.
In 1924, Schwartz returned to Leningrad to become an employee of Gosizdat, Children's Department of State Publishing House, under the administration of Samuil Marshak. He became an author of the children's magazines Hedgehog and Siskin. He also wrote children's books, including The Story of Old Balalaika (1924), The Adventures of Shura and Marousi (1937), Alien Girl (1937) and First Grader (1949). During this time, he also became associated with members of the avant-garde literary group OBERIU.