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Joseph Brodsky biography complete. Joseph Brodsky: private life without comments

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Brodsky Joseph Alexandrovich was born on May 24, 1940 in the city of Leningrad. Joseph Brodsky is a Russian and American poet, essayist, playwright, translator, winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature, and US Poet Laureate in 1991-1992. Joseph Brodsky wrote his poems mainly in Russian, and his essays in English.

Biography of Joseph Brodsky

Joseph Brodsky's father - Alexander Ivanovich Brodsky - was a captain Navy USSR. Born in 1903, died in 1984. He was also a war photojournalist. At the end of the war, Alexander Brodsky entered service in the photo laboratory of the Naval Museum, then worked as a photographer and journalist in the city newspapers of Leningrad. Joseph Brodsky's mother, Maria Moiseevna Volpert, was an accountant, born in 1905, died in 1983.

Joseph Brodsky's early childhood was spent during the war, the siege of Leningrad and post-war poverty. In 1955, Joseph Brodsky left school and went to work at the Arsenal plant. He wanted to financially support his family, since his father was not around at that time. For some time he worked in a morgue, then as a stoker in a boiler room, as a sailor at a lighthouse, and also as a worker in geological expeditions of the Scientific Research Institute of Geology. In the summer of 1961, Brodsky had his first nervous breakdown, and he returned home to Leningrad.

On February 18, 1964, the court decided to send Brodsky for a compulsory examination. Thus, Joseph Brodsky spent three weeks in psychiatric hospital No. 2 in Leningrad and recalled that period as the worst time in his life. On March 13, 1964, at the second court hearing, Brodsky was sent to a remote area for five years for forced labor. But later Brodsky called this time the happiest in his life, since there he had the opportunity to study English poetry.

The trial of the poet was one of the factors that led to the emergence of the human rights movement in the USSR, as well as to increased attention abroad to the situation in the field of human rights in the USSR. With the active participation of the poetess Anna Akhmatova, there was a protective campaign for Joseph Brodsky. In September 1965, under pressure from the Soviet and world community, including after an appeal to Soviet government Jean-Paul Sartre and many other foreign writers, the poet's term of exile was reduced to the time actually served, and Brodsky was able to return home to Leningrad.

In October 1965, Korney Chukovsky and Boris Vakhtin recommended that Joseph Brodsky join the Translators Group at the Leningrad branch of the USSR Writers' Union. Brodsky followed the advice, which allowed him to avoid further accusations of parasitism, but the KGB did not ignore its, so to speak, “old client.” This was also influenced by the fact that Brodsky was becoming a very popular poet among foreign journalists. But of course the authorities do not give him permission to leave. Meanwhile, beyond the borders of the Soviet space, Brodsky’s work continues to be published in publications both in Russian and in English, Polish and Italian. In 1971, Joseph Brodsky was elected a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts.

On May 10, 1972, Brodsky was summoned to the OVIR (Visa and Registration Department) and given a choice: immediate emigration or prisons and mental hospitals. By that time, he had already twice had to undergo so-called “examination” in psychiatric hospitals, which, according to Brodsky, was worse than prison and exile. He decides to leave. On June 4, 1972, the poet, deprived of Soviet citizenship, flew from Leningrad along the route prescribed for Jewish emigration: to Vienna.

In July 1972, Brodsky moved to the United States and began teaching as a visiting poet at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. From that moment on, Brodsky led the life of a university teacher, holding professorships at a total of six American and British universities over the next 24 years, including Columbia and New York. Joseph Brodsky taught the history of Russian literature, Russian and world poetry, the theory of verse, gave lectures and poetry readings at international literary festivals and forums, in libraries and universities in the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, France, Sweden and Italy.

Every year the poet's health deteriorated. Brodsky suffered four heart attacks - in 1976, 1985 and 1994. His parents submitted an application twelve times with a request to allow them to see their son, congressmen and prominent cultural figures of the United States made the same request to the USSR government, but even after Joseph Brodsky underwent surgery in 1978 open heart and needed care, his parents were denied an exit visa. They never saw their son again. Brodsky's mother died in 1983, and his father died a little over a year later. Both times Brodsky was not allowed to come to the funeral.

In 1990, Brodsky married Maria Sozzani, an Italian aristocrat who was Russian on her mother's side. In 1993, their daughter Anna was born.

On January 27, 1996, in New York City, Brodsky was preparing to go to South Hadley as the spring semester began on Monday. Wishing my wife Good night, the poet went up to his office to do a little work. In the morning, on the floor in the office, his wife discovered him. Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky died on the night of January 27-28, 1996 - four months before his 56th birthday. The cause of death was sudden stop hearts.

Brodsky was temporarily buried in the cemetery at the Church of the Holy Trinity, on the banks of the Hudson, where the body was kept until June 21, 1997. But according to Maria, Brodsky’s widow, the idea of a funeral in Venice was suggested by one of the poet’s friends. This is the city that, apart from Leningrad, Joseph loved most. On June 21, 1997, the reburial of the body of Joseph Brodsky took place at the San Michele cemetery in Venice. The resting place was marked with a wooden cross bearing the name Joseph Brodsky. A few years later, a tombstone by the artist Vladimir Radunsky was installed at the poet’s grave. On the back of the monument you can see the inscription in Latin: Letum non omnia finit - Not everything ends with death.

The works of Joseph Brodsky

According to Joseph Brodsky himself, he began writing poetry at the age of eighteen, but there are several poems dating from 1956-1957. Marina Tsvetaeva, Evgeny Baratynsky and Osip Mandelstam greatly influenced the poet’s work. Brodsky's first published poem was "The Ballad of the Little Tugboat", which was published in children's magazine“Bonfire” (No. 11, 1962). Brodsky's poems and their translations have been published outside the USSR since 1964, when his name became widely known thanks to the publication of a recording of the poet's trial. Since his arrival in the West, his poetry regularly appears on the pages of publications of the Russian emigration.

Venice and Brodsky

“She is so beautiful that you understand: you are not able to find in your life - and especially not able to create - anything that could compare with this beauty. Venice is out of reach. If reincarnation exists, I would like mine next life to live in Venice - to be a cat there, anything, even a rat, but definitely in Venice” - this is how the poet Joseph Brodsky wrote about Venice. According to him, in 1970 he had a real “fixed idea.” He dreamed of going to Venice, moving in, renting an entire floor in an old palazzo on the canal bank, sitting and writing, throwing cigarette butts into the water and listening to them hiss.

Walking around Brodsky's Venice: on map The places where he lived and loved to visit are marked.

Where did Brodsky live in Venice? The poet's first place of residence in Venice was the Accademia Pension. By the way, it is still available today - a room costs about 170-200 euros. In general, Venice for the poet is, first of all, the place where “what is created by human hands can be much more beautiful than the person himself.” Writer and journalist Pyotr Weil, a friend of Joseph Brodsky, said that the latter never went a year without a trip to Italy, sometimes he went there several times a year. Joseph Brodsky loved Venice in winter, when there were few tourists there, but at the same time he always loved watching people.

Brodsky wrote many poems about Italy: the most famous are “Laguna, Piazza Mattei,” “Embankment of the Incurable,” “Dedicated to Marcus Aurelius.” The story about the “Embankment of the Incurables” needs attention special attention. More than five centuries ago, on the side of the Giudecca Canal there were hospital buildings where people terminally ill with the plague lived out their days. They were carried out to the embankment so that they could finally take a breath of air and say goodbye to this world. This embankment was called the Embankment of the Incurables. True, it occurred to Joseph Brodsky to correct this name a little poetically, and therefore it became the Embankment of the Incurable. The hospital buildings now house the Academy of Fine Arts.

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Brodsky

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Joseph Brodsky first met in 1974 in New York. Their acquaintance turned into a strong friendship. As soon as Mikhail Baryshnikov found himself in America, Joseph Brodsky became the closest person to him. It turned out that in Russia they were somewhere nearby all the time, but did not intersect. And when both lived in Leningrad, it turned out that they were even courting the same girl and could easily have met in some house or with mutual friends, but life turned out in such a way that they only met in America.

Mikhail Baryshnikov spoke about Brodsky this way: “Of course, Joseph influenced me. He helped me just figure out some things life situations. Showed me the decision-making mechanism. How to do something, based on what considerations, from what ethical standards. I always take his advice, try on how he would do it.”

Joseph Brodsky spoke about Baryshnikov like this: “Pure metaphysics of the body.” And he wrote on a book presented to Mikhail Baryshnikov:

“And yet I will not do with my hand
What he can do is with his foot!”

Together with Joseph Brodsky they opened the Russian Samovar restaurant. Guests can still meet and dine there with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Joseph Brodsky died on Mikhail Baryshnikov's birthday - January 27. Baryshnikov flew to Venice for his friend’s funeral. And once he even said that he believed that Joseph Brodsky was still helping him live.

Personal life

In 1962, young Joseph Brodsky met the young artist Marina (Marianna) Basmanova, the artist’s daughter. Marianna Basmanova, who had the initials “M.” in Brodsky’s poems. B.”, many of his works were dedicated. On October 8, 1967, their son was born - Andrei Osipovich Basmanov. In 1990, Joseph Brodsky married Maria Sozzani, an Italian aristocrat who was Russian on her mother's side. In 1993, their daughter Anna was born.

When talking about the great poets of the 20th century, one cannot fail to mention the work of Joseph Brodsky. He is a very significant figure in the world of poetry. Brodsky had a difficult biography - persecution, misunderstanding, trial and exile. This prompted the author to leave for the USA, where he received public recognition.

Dissident poet Joseph Brodsky was born on May 24, 1940 in Leningrad. The boy's father worked as a war photographer, his mother as an accountant. When a “purge” of Jews took place among the officers in 1950, my father went to work as a photojournalist for a newspaper.

Joseph's childhood coincided with war, the siege of Leningrad, and famine. The family survived, like hundreds of thousands of people. In 1942, Joseph’s mother took him and evacuated to Cherepovets. They returned to Leningrad after the war.

Brodsky dropped out of school as soon as he entered the 8th grade. He wanted to help his family financially, so he went to work at a factory as an assistant milling machine operator. Then Joseph wanted to become a guide, but it didn’t work out. At one time he had a burning desire to become a doctor and even went to work in a morgue, but soon changed his mind. Over the course of several years, Joseph Brodsky changed many professions: all this time he avidly read poetry, philosophical treatises, studied foreign languages and even planned to hijack a plane with his friends to escape from Soviet Union. True, things did not go further than plans.

Literature

Brodsky said that he began writing poetry at the age of 18, although there are several poems written at the age of 16-17. In the early period of his creativity, he wrote “A Christmas Romance”, “Monument to Pushkin”, “From the Outskirts to the Center” and other poems. Subsequently, the author’s style was strongly influenced by poetry, and they became the young man’s personal canon.

Brodsky met Akhmatova in 1961. She never doubted the talent of the young poet and supported Joseph’s work, believing in success. Brodsky himself was not particularly impressed by Anna Andreevna’s poems, but he admired the scale of the personality of the Soviet poetess.

The first work that alerted the Soviet Power dates back to 1958. The poem was called "Pilgrims". Next he wrote “Loneliness”. There Brodsky tried to rethink what was happening to him and how to get out of the current situation, when newspapers and magazines closed their doors to the poet.

In January 1964, the same “Evening Leningrad” published letters from “indignant citizens” demanding that the poet be punished, and on February 13, the writer was arrested for parasitism. The next day he suffered a heart attack in his cell. Brodsky’s thoughts of that period are clearly discernible in the poems “Hello, my aging” and “What can I say about life?”

The persecution that began placed a heavy burden on the poet. The situation worsened due to a break in relations with his beloved Marina Basmanova. As a result, Brodsky attempted to die, but was unsuccessful.

The persecution continued until May 1972, when Brodsky was given a choice - a psychiatric hospital or emigration. Joseph Alexandrovich had already been to a mental hospital, and, as he said, it was much worse than prison. Brodsky chose emigration. In 1977, the poet accepted American citizenship.

Before leaving home country the poet tried to stay in Russia. He sent a letter himself asking for permission to live in the country at least as a translator. But the future Nobel laureate was never heard.

Joseph Brodsky participated in the International Poetry Festival in London. Then he taught the history of Russian literature and poetry at the University of Michigan, Columbia and New York University. At the same time, he wrote essays in English and translated them into English language poetry . In 1986, Brodsky’s collection “Less than One” was published, and in next year he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In the period 1985-1989, the poet wrote “In Memory of the Father”, “Performance” and the essay “A Room and a Half”. These poems and prose contain all the pain of a person who was not allowed to spend time in last path parents.

When perestroika began in the USSR, Iosif Alexandrovich’s poems were actively published in literary magazines and newspapers. In 1990, the poet’s books began to be published in the Soviet Union. Brodsky received invitations from his homeland more than once, but constantly delayed this visit - he did not want the attention of the press and publicity. The difficulty of returning is reflected in the poems “Ithaca”, “Letter to the Oasis” and others.

Personal life

First great love Joseph Brodsky became the artist Marina Basmanova, whom he met in 1962. They dated for a long time, then lived together. In 1968, Marina and Joseph had a son, Andrei, but with the birth of the child, the relationship worsened. They separated that same year.

In 1990, he met Maria Sozzani, an Italian aristocrat with Russian roots on her mother’s side. That same year, Brodsky married her, and three years later their daughter Anna was born. Unfortunately, Joseph Brodsky was not destined to see his daughter grow up.

The poet is known as a famous smoker. Despite four previous operations in his heart, he never quit smoking. Doctors strongly advised Brodsky to stop dating bad habit, to which he replied: “Life is wonderful precisely because there are no guarantees, none, ever.”

Joseph Brodsky also loved cats. He claimed that these creatures do not have a single ugly movement. In many photos, the creator is photographed with a cat in his arms.

With the support of the writer, the Russian Samovar restaurant opened in New York. The co-owners of the establishment were Roman Kaplan and. Joseph Brodsky invested part of the money from the Nobel Prize into this project. The restaurant has become a landmark of “Russian” New York.

Death

He suffered from angina pectoris even before emigration. The poet's health was unstable. In 1978 he had heart surgery, American clinic sent an official letter to the USSR with a request to allow Joseph’s parents to leave to care for their son. The parents themselves submitted a petition 12 times, but each time they were refused. From 1964 to 1994, Brodsky suffered 4 heart attacks; he never saw his parents again. The writer's mother died in 1983, and a year later his father passed away. Soviet authorities they refused his request to come to the funeral. The death of his parents undermined the poet's health.

On the evening of January 27, 1996, Joseph Brodsky folded his briefcase, wished his wife good night and went up to his office - he had to work before the start of the spring semester. On the morning of January 28, 1996, the wife found her husband without any signs of life. Doctors declared death from a heart attack.

Two weeks before his death, the poet bought himself a place in a cemetery in New York, not far from Broadway. There he was buried, having fulfilled last will a dissident poet who loved his homeland until his last breath.

In June 1997, the body of Joseph Brodsky was reburied in Venice at the San Michele cemetery.

In 2005, the first monument to the poet was opened in St. Petersburg.

Bibliography

1965 – “Poems and Poems”
1982 – “Roman Elegies”
1984 – “Marble”
1987 – “Urania”
1988 – “Stop in the Desert”
1990 – “Fern Notes”
1991 – “Poems”
1993 – “Cappadocia. Poetry"
1995 – “In the vicinity of Atlantis. New poems"
1992-1995 – “Works of Joseph Brodsky”

0 31 October 2017, 12:40

Anna Brodskaya-Sozzani/Pelageya Basmanova

Joseph Brodsky is one of the main Russian and American poets of the 20th century, Nobel laureate in literature, playwright and essayist. Brodsky was born in pre-war Leningrad, from a young age he was interested in literature and art, read a lot, admired the work of Tsvetaeva, Mandelstam, Auden, Frost, and knew Anna Akhmatova. At the age of 23, Brodsky was publicly accused of parasitism and sent to psychiatric hospital, and later into exile. Here is a short excerpt from the protocol of the court hearing in the case of Joseph Brodsky:

Judge: In general, what is your specialty?
Brodsky: Poet, poet-translator.
Judge: Who admitted that you are a poet? Who classified you as a poet?
Brodsky: Nobody. (No call). And who ranked me among the human race?
Judge: Have you studied this?
Brodsky: Why?
Judge: To be a poet? Didn’t try to graduate from a university where they train... where they teach...
Brodsky: I didn't think... I didn't think that this comes from education.
Judge: And what?
Brodsky: I think this... (confused) from God...

Returning from exile, Brodsky falls under close attention KGB. Despite constant persecution, bullying and psychiatric examinations, Brodsky continues to write poetry. They are published in samizdat and sent abroad. Brodsky gains worldwide recognition in literary circles. In 1972, the poet was summoned to the OVIR and offered to leave the USSR. He flies first to Austria, and then to the USA; he will never return to the USSR.

The poet's personal life is reflected in his poems. Brodsky’s great love is the artist Maria Basmanova. They met in 1962 in Leningrad, quarreled, and got back together. In 1967, Marina gave birth to Brodsky's son, Sergei. Throughout many years before and after leaving, Brodsky dedicated poems to Marina, signing them with the initials M.B.

The last dedication was written in 1989.

Honey, I left the house late this evening.
breathe fresh air blowing from the ocean.
The sunset burned down in the stalls like a Chinese fan,
and the cloud swirled like the lid of a concert piano.

A quarter of a century ago you had a passion for lula and dates,
I drew with ink in a notebook, sang a little,
had fun with me; but then I met a chemical engineer and,
judging by the letters, she has become monstrously stupid.

Now you are seen in churches in the provinces and in the metropolis
at memorial services for mutual friends, which are now continuous
in succession; and I'm glad that there are more distances in the world
unthinkable than between you and me.

You're lucky too: where else, except perhaps photography,
will you always remain without wrinkles, young, cheerful, mocking?
For time, when confronted with memory, learns of its lack of rights.
I smoke in the dark and inhale the rot of the tide.

Brodsky receives American citizenship. He writes in Russian and English and teaches at leading universities around the world. In 1990, Brodsky married his student, Italian aristocrat Maria Sozzani, Russian on her mother's side. Friends note that next to Maria the poet looks peaceful and happy. Three years later, Mary and Joseph have a daughter, Anna. Three years later Brodsky died from heart attack in his apartment on Morton Street. According to the poet's will, he was buried in Venice at the San Michele cemetery.

Thanks to social networks, we can follow the lives of the young heirs of Joseph Brodsky - 24-year-old daughter Anna Brodskaya-Sozzani and 20-year-old granddaughter Pelageya Basmanova. The first does not like publicity, the second, on the contrary, seems to strive for it: quite recently she became Bala Tatler.

The girls have a very small age difference, although one of them is the other's niece. Yes, and they are also very different. We tell you how Brodsky’s heirs are similar and different.

The life of heiresses

Anna Alexandra Brodskaya-Sozzani lives in Italy, where she recently moved from England. The girl visited the homeland of her father, whom she looks very similar to in appearance, only once - a couple of years ago to celebrate his 75th birthday. In St. Petersburg, Anna attended the opening of the poet’s museum-apartment and talked with journalists (with the help of a translator - Brodsky’s daughter does not know Russian). It was then that Anna revealed that she and her partner had a little daughter, Shay. They live on income from the sale of copyrights to Brodsky's creative heritage.

Pelageya lives with her family in St. Petersburg, where she studies at the Interregional Institute of Economics and Law, Faculty of Communication Design. A student who is very similar to her grandmother, the poet’s first love, dreams of opening her own branding agency.

Hobbies

Anna, like her father, is a creative person:

I really like to dance jazz, I sing songs at home, but I haven’t studied dance or music specifically, and I don’t have any special talent. I accompany myself when I fold laundry or wash dishes in the kitchen,

— the poet’s daughter said in an interview with reporters.

Brodsky’s granddaughter, who is now part of secular society, is a romantic with unusual habits: for example, like her grandfather, she loves the smell of algae. She also rides a longboard, walks with friends and three dogs along the shore of the Gulf of Finland.

Anna Brodskaya-Sozzani is an active user of the Instagram network, but she does not have many followers (by the standards of celebrity children): only four thousand people. Brodsky’s daughter shares with her followers everything that comes into her field of vision. Judging by the pictures, Anna has a rebellious spirit: quite often very bold shots appear in her feed in which she is naked.

Pelageya’s Instagram account is much more modest in all respects: in all published frames (55 pieces) the girl is captured in clothes, and there are an order of magnitude fewer subscribers. However, after the Debutante Ball, it seems to us, she should have more fans.

Attitude to Brodsky's work

A couple of years ago, Anna Brodskaya-Sozzani told Russian journalists that she did not know her father’s work very well. She prefers to get acquainted with Brodsky's poetry gradually.

I decided to spread out my acquaintance with my father’s works over time - I will get acquainted with them throughout my life, in order to at least imitate my relationship with him,

- said Anna.

Pelageya seems to be familiar with the poetry and autobiographies of her grandfather. He even quotes some works by heart.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find him. But my mother kept in touch with him. He passed on the gifts that we keep - a bear, a book about Bunny and outfits. My love for the smell of algae brings me closer to my grandfather. As he wrote in “The Quay of the Incurable”: “The attachment to this smell should, without a doubt, be attributed to childhood on the shores of the Baltic, in the fatherland of the wandering siren from Montale’s poem.”

By the way, Anna and Pelageya know each other: the girls met at the opening of Brodsky’s museum-apartment in honor of the poet’s 75th birthday in St. Petersburg. However, whether Anna and Pelageya continue to communicate is unknown.

Photo Gettyimages/Instagram/Colta.ru/Rg.ru

A few days before his death, Brodsky sent letters to friends. As they say, among various requests and orders, the poet approached them with a request to sign a waiver of any comments on his private life until 2020.

Most likely this is the pure truth, since the main women of his life - Marina Basmanova and Maria Sozzani - are still silent.

One got all the poet’s poems - even after breaking up with his beloved, he put her initials over his poems, and shortly before his death he published all his love lyrics with a dedication to M.B., everyone knew that Marina stood behind these initials. And in world poetry, there are probably no more poems dedicated to one woman.

The other one went to his grave. It was Maria Sozzani who decided to move the poet’s burial from America to Venice, and then she returned with her daughter to her homeland - Italy.

And both of these women complied with Brodsky’s request and do not comment on their stories in any way. Marina Basmanova lives as a recluse, never gave any interviews, never wrote memoirs, and raised Brodsky’s son alone.

Maria Sozzani is raising Brodsky's daughter, meeting with journalists, but talking only about her poet husband, never crossing the boundaries of private life.

Both of these women never confirmed or denied the rumors and stories that became public.

All friends and acquaintances spoke of Marina Basmanova as a stunning beauty with an incredible feeling self-esteem. Brodsky was introduced to Marina by a mutual friend. Then everyone unanimously said that it was love at first sight. They practically never separated - they appeared everywhere only together.

Marina remained a mystery to those around her. She was more silent, often sitting in groups with a notebook and sketching something - she was a hereditary artist. But Brodsky did not take his eyes off her, and others could not tear themselves away from her unusually pale face with huge green eyes, framed by heavy chestnut strands.

Now on the Internet you can find only one or two old photographs of Maria and remember how A.A. Akhmatova described her: “Thin, smart and how she carries her beauty! And no makeup. Just cold water!

This external coldness of the ball was noticed by all my friends in Marina; she was smart and reasonable.

With Brodsky, they were like ice and fire in the eyes of others.

They said that lovers complement each other very much. Everyone knew that Joseph was crazy about his girlfriend. He wanted only one thing - never to be separated from her, and reacted very painfully to the fact that Marina was in no hurry to marry him.

To this day, no one can say for sure what really happened between the two of them. But the poet’s entourage was sure that Marina did not give him promises to be together.

If his parents didn’t let him into the apartment, he even tried to influence Marina from behind the door. Brodsky was incredibly worried. Several times after their quarrels, he appeared at his friends' houses depressed and with traces of cut veins on his arms. If they made peace, he beamed with happiness.

Marina, outwardly balanced and calm, was a person strong will. She was most likely frightened by such exaltation of her friend, his desire to completely control her. She was independent and self-sufficient, and Joseph treated her like a child who required care, accompanied her everywhere, was afraid that Marina would be offended, that she could not cope, he always wanted to protect her. But Marina needed her own freedom, her own space.

She herself took the first step away from Joseph.

Brodsky had a friend - Oleg Bobyshev, also a promising young poet. And so Marina chose the handsome, handsome Oleg. The story unfolded rapidly, Marina preferred another to Brodsky, and this other was best friend deceived poet...

This happened at the most inopportune, difficult period for Brodsky: he knew that his arrest was being prepared in Leningrad, and he left for Moscow. Having learned about Marina's betrayal, Brodsky rushed back, forgetting about the danger, to sort things out - and was immediately arrested. First, the poet was sent for a humiliating psychiatric examination, and then put on trial.

He himself described those tragic days for him this way: “I didn’t care whether they tied me up there or not. And the whole trial afterwards was nonsense compared to what happened to Marina”...

As you know, Brodsky was convicted of parasitism and sent into exile in the Arkhangelsk region.

Marina returned to him: she supported Brodsky during the investigation and trial, and then followed him into exile. And Brodsky would later call this time the best, happiest years of his life.

In the village of Norenskaya Arkhangelsk region Brodsky will write his best poems - “Songs of a Happy Winter”, “Slice” honeymoon", "From English wedding songs."

Oleg Bobyshev will come for Marina several times. She then left with him, then returned. The test was difficult for all three. Brodsky and Marina will have a son, Andrei, in 1968. But even in this situation, Marina could not choose between the two. One will bring her to the maternity hospital, the other will take her away.

She will rush around, afraid of losing both one and the other. Bobyshev asked to marry him, Brodsky hoped to the last that Marina would finally formalize a relationship with him. He already understood that he was being “squeezed out” of the country and really hoped that Marina would agree to leave with him. But Marina will consciously remain alone and give her son her last name. And for now he remains silent about the history of his youth: no memoirs, no interviews.

Brodsky will never forgive his friend. If he found out that one of his friends was communicating with Oleg, he immediately severed all friendly ties. Bobyshev himself would later go to America, like Brodsky, he would teach at the university.

But this story will not end. Much later, Brodsky suddenly wrote an angry and ironic poem addressed to Marina:

A quarter of a century ago you had a passion for lula and dates,

I drew with ink in a notebook, sang a little,

had fun with me; but then I met a chemical engineer

and, judging by the letters, she has become monstrously stupid...

Nothing is connected anymore; no one destroyed them,

But a person needs to forget one life, at least

one more life. And I lived this share..."

Thus, after 25 years, he will announce to the whole world that he no longer has anything in common with Marina. Many will understand this confession in a completely different way and will feel sorry for the poet, who was so bitterly broken by love riffs.

Brodsky will live the last five years of his life as a happy family man. Suddenly, at the end of his years, fate will give him a meeting with Maria Sozzani. Smart, successful, beautiful Italian with Russian roots.

Maria, having heard his lecture in Paris, writes him a letter, and so their correspondence begins. Then they will meet, Brodsky will fall in love and they will get married. And in two years they will have a daughter.

All Brodsky’s old acquaintances will be surprised to note the external similarity of Marina and Maria. One type. The continuation, the flow of one love, the one that brought him so much grief and disappointment and suddenly turned out, much later, quiet, calm, peaceful and happy life. Brodsky was 25 years older than Maria, and he himself seemed even surprised at such a bizarre fate. And he told his old friends: “I am Joseph. She is Maria. Maybe we can work something out."

Maria Sozzani-Brodskaya became not only his lover, but also his ally: she participated in all his endeavors, helped, and now continues to work in projects related to the name of the poet.

And we’ll wait - there’s not much left until 2020. Perhaps our story will continue.

“What a biography, however, they are making for our redhead!” - Anna Akhmatova joked sadly in the midst of trial over Joseph Brodsky. In addition to the high-profile trial, the controversial fate prepared for the poet a link to the North and the Nobel Prize, incomplete eight years of education and a career as a university professor, 24 years outside his native country language environment and the discovery of new possibilities of the Russian language.

Leningrad youth

Joseph Brodsky was born in Leningrad in 1940. 42 years later, in an interview with a Dutch journalist, he recalled his hometown as follows: “Leningrad shapes your life, your consciousness to the extent that the visual aspects of life can influence us. It is a huge cultural conglomerate, but without bad taste, without confusion. An amazing sense of proportion, classical facades breathe peace. And all this influences you, makes you strive for order in life, although you realize that you are doomed. Such a noble attitude towards chaos, resulting in either stoicism or snobbery.".

In the first year of the war after the blockade winter of 1941–1942, Joseph's mother Maria Volpert took him for evacuation to Cherepovets, where they lived until 1944. Volpert served as a translator in a prisoner of war camp, and Brodsky’s father, naval officer and photojournalist Alexander Brodsky, participated in the defense of Malaya Zemlya and breaking the siege of Leningrad. He returned to his family only in 1948 and continued to serve as head of the photo laboratory of the Central Naval Museum. Joseph Brodsky remembered his entire life walking through the museum as a child: “In general, I have quite wonderful feelings towards the navy. I don’t know where they came from, but here is childhood, and father, and hometown... As I remember the Naval Museum, St. Andrew’s flag - a blue cross on a white cloth ... There is no better flag in the world!”

Joseph changed schools frequently; his attempt to enroll after the seventh grade in maritime school. In 1955, he left the eighth grade and got a job at the Arsenal plant as a milling machine operator. Then he worked as an assistant dissector in a morgue, as a fireman, and as a photographer. Finally, he joined a group of geologists and participated in expeditions for several years, during one of which he discovered a small uranium deposit in the Far East. At the same time, the future poet was actively engaged in self-education and became interested in literature. The poems of Evgeny Baratynsky and Boris Slutsky made a strong impression on him.

Joseph Brodsky. Photo: yeltsin.ru

Joseph Brodsky with a cat. Photo: interesno.cc

Joseph Brodsky. Photo: dayonline.ru

In Leningrad, people started talking about Brodsky in the early 1960s, when he performed at a poetry tournament in the Gorky Palace of Culture. The poet Nikolai Rubtsov spoke about this performance in a letter:

“Of course, there were poets with a decadent flavor. For example, Brodsky. Taking the microphone stem with both hands and bringing it close to his mouth, he read loudly and liarly, shaking his head to the rhythm of the poetry:
Everyone has their own trash!
Everyone has their own grave!
There was noise! Some shout:
- What does poetry have to do with it?!
- Down with him!
Others scream:
- Brodsky, more!

At the same time, Brodsky began communicating with the poet Yevgeny Rein. In 1961, Rhine introduced Joseph to Anna Akhmatova. Although Brodsky's poetry is usually credited with the influence of Marina Tsvetaeva, whose work he first became acquainted with in the early 1960s, it was Akhmatova who became his personal critic and teacher. The poet Lev Losev wrote: “Akhmatova’s phrase “You yourself don’t understand what you wrote!” after reading “The Great Elegy to John Donne” it entered Brodsky’s personal myth as a moment of initiation.”.

Court and world fame

In 1963, after a speech at the plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, the first secretary of the Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev began to eradicate among young people "sloths, moral cripples and whiners", writing on “the bird jargon of idle people and half-educated people”. Joseph Brodsky, who by this time had been detained twice, also became a target. law enforcement agencies: the first time for publication in the handwritten journal “Syntax”, the second time - due to the denunciation of a friend. He himself did not like to remember those events, because he believed: the poet’s biography is only "in its vowels and sibilants, in its meters, rhymes and metaphors".

Joseph Brodsky. Photo: bessmertnybarak.ru

Joseph Brodsky at the Nobel Prize ceremony. Photo: russalon.su

Joseph Brodsky with his cat. Photo: binokl.cc

In the newspaper “Evening Leningrad” dated November 29, 1963, an article “Near-Literary Drone” appeared, the authors of which denounced Brodsky by quoting poems other than his and juggling fictitious facts about him. On February 13, 1964, Brodsky was arrested again. He was accused of parasitism, although by this time his poems were regularly published in children's magazines, and publishers ordered translations from him. The whole world learned about the details of the trial thanks to Moscow journalist Frida Vigdorova, who was present in the courtroom. Vigdorova's recordings were sent to the West and found their way into the press.

Judge: What do you do?
Brodsky: I write poetry. I'm translating. I guess...
Judge: No “I guess.” Stand fast! Don't lean against walls!<...>Do you have a regular job?
Brodsky: I thought it was a permanent job.
Judge: Answer exactly!
Brodsky: I wrote poetry! I thought they would be printed. I guess...
Judge: We are not interested in “I believe.” Tell me, why didn't you work?
Brodsky: I worked. I wrote poetry.
Judge: We are not interested in this...

Witnesses for the defense were the poet Natalya Grudinina and prominent Leningrad philologists and translators Efim Etkind and Vladimir Admoni. They tried to convince the court that literary work cannot be equated to parasitism, and that the translations published by Brodsky were done to a high standard. professional level. The prosecution witnesses were not familiar with Brodsky and his work: among them were a supply manager, a military man, a pipe-laying worker, a pensioner, and a teacher of Marxism-Leninism. A representative of the Writers' Union also spoke on the side of the prosecution. The sentence was harsh: deportation from Leningrad for five years with mandatory forced labor.

Brodsky settled in the village of Norenskaya, Arkhangelsk region. He worked on a state farm, and in free time I read a lot, became interested in English poetry and began to learn English. Frida Vigdorova and the writer Lydia Chukovskaya worked hard for the poet’s early return from exile. The letter in his defense was signed by Dmitry Shostakovich, Samuil Marshak, Korney Chukovsky, Konstantin Paustovsky, Alexander Tvardovsky, Yuri German and many others. The “friend of the Soviet Union,” the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, also stood up for Brodsky. In September 1965, Joseph Brodsky was officially released.

Russian poet and American citizen

In the same year, the first collection of Brodsky’s poems was published in the United States, prepared without the author’s knowledge on the basis of samizdat materials sent to the West. The next book, Stopping in the Desert, was published in New York in 1970 - it is considered Brodsky's first authorized publication. After his exile, the poet was enrolled in a certain “professional group” at the Writers’ Union, which made it possible to avoid further suspicions of parasitism. But in his homeland, only his children's poems were published, and sometimes orders were given for translations of poetry or literary adaptations of dubbing for films. At the same time, the circle of foreign Slavists, journalists and publishers with whom Brodsky communicated personally and by correspondence became increasingly wider. In May 1972, he was summoned to the OVIR and asked to leave the country to avoid new persecution. Usually, processing documents to leave the Soviet Union took from six months to a year, but Brodsky’s visa was issued in 12 days. On June 4, 1972, Joseph Brodsky flew to Vienna. His parents, friends, and former lover Marianna Basmanova, to whom almost everything is dedicated, remained in Leningrad. love lyrics Brodsky, and their son.

Joseph Brodsky with Maria Sozzani. Photo: russalon.su

Joseph Brodsky with Maria Sozzani. Photo: feel-feed.ru

Joseph Brodsky with Maria Sozzani and one-year-old daughter Anna. 1994. Photograph: biography.wikireading.ru

In Vienna, the poet was met by the American publisher Karl Proffer. Through his patronage, Brodsky was offered a place at the University of Michigan. The position was called poet-in-residence (literally: “poet in the presence”) and involved communication with students as a guest writer. In 1977, Brodsky received American citizenship. During his lifetime, five collections of poetry were published, containing translations from Russian into English and poems written by him in English. But in the West, Brodsky became famous primarily as the author of numerous essays. He defined himself as "a Russian poet, an English-language essayist and, of course, an American citizen". An example of his mature Russian-language creativity were the poems included in the collections “Part of Speech” (1977) and “Urania” (1987). In a conversation with Valentina Polukhina, a researcher of Brodsky’s work, poetess Bella Akhmadulina explained the phenomenon of a Russian-speaking author in exile.

In 1987, Joseph Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature with the wording “For comprehensive literary activity, distinguished by clarity of thought and poetic intensity.” In 1991, Brodsky took the post of US poet laureate - consultant to the Library of Congress and launched the American Poetry and Literacy program to distribute cheap volumes of poetry to the population. In 1990, the poet married an Italian with Russian roots, Maria Sozzani, but their happy union lasted only five and a half years.

In January 1996, Joseph Brodsky passed away. He was buried in one of his favorite cities - Venice, in an ancient cemetery on the island of San Michele.