Kvitko lev moiseevich. An excerpt characterizing Kvitko, Lev Moiseevich

a lion (Leib) Moiseevich Kvitko(Yiddish; October 15, 1890 - August 12, 1952) - Soviet Jewish (Yiddish) poet.

Biography

Born in the town of Goloskov, Podolsk province (now the village of Goloskov, Khmelnitsky region of Ukraine), according to documents - November 11, 1890, but did not know the exact date of his birth and named it presumably 1893 or 1895. Orphaned early, raised by his grandmother, studied at the cheder for some time, and was forced to work from childhood. He began writing poetry at the age of 12 (or, perhaps, earlier - due to confusion with the date of his birth). The first publication was in May 1917 in the socialist newspaper Dos Freye Worth (Free Word). The first collection is Lidelekh (Songs, Kiev, 1917).

From the middle of 1921 he lived and published in Berlin, then in Hamburg, where he worked in the Soviet trade mission, and was published in both Soviet and Western periodicals. Here he joined the Communist Party, led communist agitation among the workers. In 1925, fearing arrest, he moved to the USSR. He published many books for children (17 books were published in 1928 alone).

For caustic satirical poems published in the magazine "Di Roite Welt" ("Red World"), he was accused of "right-wing bias" and was expelled from the editorial board of the magazine. In 1931 he entered the Kharkov Tractor Plant as a worker. Then he continued his professional literary activity. Lev Kvitko considered an autobiographical novel in verse "Yunge yorn" ("Young Years"), on which he worked for thirteen years (1928-1941, first publication: Kaunas, 1941, in Russian only in 1968).

Since 1936 he lived in Moscow on the street. Maroseyka, 13, apt. 9. In 1939 he joined the CPSU (b).

During the war years he was a member of the Presidium of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (EAK) and the editorial board of the EAK newspaper "Einikite" ("Unity"), in 1947-1948 - a literary and artistic almanac "Heimland" ("Motherland"). In the spring of 1944, on the instructions of the EAK, he was sent to Crimea.

Arrested among the leading figures of the EAK on January 23, 1949. On July 18, 1952, he was accused by the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court of treason, sentenced to capital punishment, on August 12, 1952, he was shot. Burial place - Moscow, Donskoye cemetery. Posthumously rehabilitated by the HCVS of the USSR on November 22, 1955.

Translations

On the text of L. Kvitko's poem "Violin" (translated by M. Svetlov), the second part of the Sixth Symphony by Moses Weinberg was written.

Awards

  • Order of the Red Banner of Labor (01/31/1939)

Editions in Russian

  • On a visit. M.-L., Detizdat, 1937
  • When I grow up. M., Detizdat, 1937
  • In the forest. M., Detizdat, 1937
  • Letter to Voroshilov. M., 1937 Fig. V. Konashevich
  • Letter to Voroshilov. M., 1937. Fig. M. Rodionova
  • Poems. M.-L., Detizdat, 1937
  • Swing. M., Detizdat, 1938
  • Red Army. M., Detizdat, 1938
  • Horse. M., Detizdat, 1938
  • Lam and Petrik. M.-L., Detizdat, 1938
  • Poems. M.-L., Detizdat, 1938
  • Poems. M., Pravda, 1938
  • On a visit. M., Detizdat, 1939
  • Lullaby. M., 1939. Fig. M. Gorshman
  • Lullaby. M., 1939. Fig. V. Konashevich
  • Letter to Voroshilov. Pyatigorsk, 1939
  • Letter to Voroshilov. Voroshilovsk, 1939
  • Letter to Voroshilov. M., 1939
  • Mihasik. M., Detizdat, 1939
  • Conversation. M.-L., Detizdat, 1940
  • Ahahi. M., Detizdat, 1940
  • Conversations with loved ones. M., Goslitizdat, 1940
  • Red Army. M.-L., Detizdat, 1941
  • Hello. M., 1941
  • War game. Alma-Ata, 1942
  • Letter to Voroshilov. Chelyabinsk, 1942
  • On a visit. M., Detgiz, 1944
  • Horse. M., Detgiz, 1944
  • Sledging. Chelyabinsk, 1944
  • Spring. M.-L., Detgiz, 1946
  • Lullaby. M., 1946
  • Horse. M., Detgiz, 1947
  • A story about a horse and about me. L., 1948
  • Horse. Stavropol, 1948
  • Violin. M.-L., Detgiz, 1948
  • To the sun. M., Der Emes, 1948
  • To my friends. M., Detgiz, 1948
  • Poems. M., Soviet writer, 1948.

a lion (Leib) Moiseevich Kvitko(לייב קוויטקאָ) - Jewish (Yiddish) poet.

Biography

Born in the town of Goloskov, Podolsk province (now the village of Goloskov, Khmelnitsky region of Ukraine), according to documents - November 11, 1890, but did not know the exact date of his birth and named it presumably 1893 or 1895. Orphaned early, raised by his grandmother, studied at the cheder for some time, and was forced to work from childhood. He began writing poetry at the age of 12 (or, perhaps, earlier - due to confusion with the date of his birth). The first publication was in May 1917 in the socialist newspaper Dos Frae Wort (Free Word). The first collection is Lidelekh (Songs, Kiev, 1917).

From the middle of 1921 he lived and published in Berlin, then in Hamburg, where he worked in the Soviet trade mission, and was published in both Soviet and Western periodicals. Here he joined the Communist Party, led communist agitation among the workers. In 1925, fearing arrest, he moved to the USSR. He published many books for children (17 books were published in 1928 alone).

For caustic satirical poems published in the magazine "Di Roite Welt" ("Red World"), he was accused of "right-wing bias" and was expelled from the editorial board of the magazine. In 1931 he entered the Kharkov Tractor Plant as a worker. Then he continued his professional literary activity. Lev Kvitko considered his life's work the autobiographical novel in verse "Junge yorn" ("Young Years"), on which he worked for thirteen years (1928-1941, first publication: Kaunas, 1941, came out in Russian only in 1968).

Since 1936 he lived in Moscow on the street. Maroseyka, 13, apt. 9. In 1939 he joined the CPSU (b).

During the war years he was a member of the Presidium of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (EAK) and the editorial board of the EAK newspaper "Einikite" ("Unity"), in 1947-1948 - a literary and artistic almanac "Khaimland" ("Motherland"). In the spring of 1944, on the instructions of the EAK, he was sent to Crimea.

Arrested among the leading figures of the EAK on January 23, 1949. On July 18, 1952, he was accused by the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court of treason, sentenced to the highest measure of social protection, on August 12, 1952, he was shot. Burial place - Moscow, Donskoye cemetery. Posthumously rehabilitated by the HCVS of the USSR on November 22, 1955.

Lev (Leib) Moiseevich Kvitko- Jewish (Yiddish) poet. He wrote in Yiddish. Born in the town of Goloskov, Podolsk province (now the village of Goloskovo, Khmelnitsky region of Ukraine), according to documents - November 11, 1890, but did not know the exact date of his birth and named presumably 1893 or 1895. He was orphaned early, raised by his grandmother, studied for some time in a cheder, from childhood he was forced to work, changed many professions, self-taught he mastered Russian literacy, was engaged in self-education. He began writing poetry at the age of 12 (or, perhaps, earlier - due to confusion with the date of his birth). First publication in May 1917 in the socialist newspaper Dos Frae Wort (Free Word). The first collection is Lidelekh (Songs, Kiev, 1917).

Representatives of the Joint with the leaders of the Kiev Culture League. Sitting (from left to right): artist M. Epstein, poet L. Kvitko, artist I.-B. Fisherman, artist B. Aronson, artist I. Chaikov. Standing: literary critic Ba'al-Mahashavot, unknown, E. Wurzanger (Joint), philologist Ba'al-Dimyon (N. Stif), Ch. Spivak (Joint), philologist Z. Kalmanovich, writer D. Bergelson, former minister on Jewish affairs in the government of the Central Rada V. Latsky-Bertoldi. Kiev. May – June 1920. From the book by M. Beizer, M. Micel “American Brother. Joint in Russia, USSR, CIS ”(without year and place of publication).

The revolution

In 1917, Kvitko settled in Kiev. The publication of his poems in the collection "Aigns" put him in the triad (together with D. Gofshtein and P. Markish) of the leading poets of the so-called Kiev group. The poem "Reuter assault" written by him in October 1918 ("Red storm", newspaper "Dos Wort", 1918, and the magazine "Baginen", 1919) was the first work in Yiddish about the October revolution. However, in the collections "Treat" ("Steps", 1919) and "Lyric. Geist "(" Lyrics. Spirit ", 1921), along with youthful perky perception of the revolution, there sounded alarming confusion in front of the gloomy and mysterious in life, which, in the opinion of S. Niger, united the work of Kvitko and Der Nister.

Kvitko's poems of these years combined a sincerely open view of the world (which makes all his work for children especially attractive), a refined depth of perception of the world, poetic innovation, expressionistic searches - with the transparent clarity of a folk song. Their language is striking in its richness and idiomatic flavor.

From the middle of 1921 he lived and published in Berlin, then in Hamburg, where he worked in the Soviet trade mission, was published in both Soviet and Western periodicals. Here he joined the Communist Party, led communist agitation among the workers. In 1925, fearing arrest, he moved to the USSR. He published many books for children (only 17 books were published in 1928).

At the end of the 1920s, he became a member of the editorial board of the journal Di Roite Velt, which published his cycle of stories about life in Hamburg, Riogrander fel (Riograndské skins, 1926; separate edition 1928), the autobiographical story Lam un Petrik "(" Lam and Petrik ", 1928-29; separate edition 1930; in Russian translation 1958) and other works. In 1928 alone, 17 books by Kvitko for children were published. Kvitko's satirical poems in "Di Royte Velt", which then made up the section "Sharjn" ("Caricatures") in his collection "Gerangl" ("Fight", 1929), and especially the poem "Der stinklefoigl Moili" ("Stinky Bird Moyli" , that is, My [she] Li [tvakov] / see M. Litvakov /) against the diktat in the literature of the Evsektsiya leaders, caused a devastating campaign, during which the “proletarian” writers accused Kvitko of “right deviation” and achieved his expulsion from the editorial board magazine. At the same time, writers - "fellow travelers" - D. Gofshtein, editor of the state publishing house H. Kazakevich (1883–1936) and others were subjected to administrative repression.

30s

For caustic satirical poetry, published in the magazine "Di Roite Welt" ("Red World"), he was accused of "right deviation" and was expelled from the editorial board of the magazine. In 1931 he entered the Kharkov Tractor Plant as a worker. Then he continued his professional literary activity. Only after the liquidation of literary associations and groupings in 1932 did Kvitko occupy one of the leading places in Soviet Yiddish literature, mainly as a children's writer. His poems, which made up the collection "Geklibene Werk" ("Selected Works", 1937), already fully met the norms of the so-called socialist realism. Autocensors also affected his novel in verse "Junge yorn" ("Young Years"), the signal copies of which appeared on the eve of the invasion of the Soviet Union by German troops (the novel was published in Russian translation in 1968; 16 chapters in Yiddish were published in 1956–63 in the Parisian newspaper Pariser Zeitshrift) From 1936 he lived in Moscow. In 1939 he joined the CPSU (b).

Lev Kvitko considered his life's work the autobiographical novel in verse "Junge yorn" ("Young Years"), on which he worked for thirteen years (1928-1941, first publication: Kaunas, 1941, came out in Russian in 1968).

Creativity of the war years

during the war years he was a member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and the editorial board of the EAK newspaper "Einikite" ("Unity"), in 1947-1948. - literary and artistic almanac "Khaimland" ("Motherland"). His collections of poems "Fire oif di sonim" ("Fire at the enemy", 1941) and others called for the fight against the Nazis. Poems 1941–46 compiled the collection "Gezang fun mein gemit" ("Song of my soul", 1947; in Russian translation, 1956). Kvitko's poems for children are widely published and translated into many languages. They were translated into Russian

In love with life ...

(Notes about L.M. Kvitko)

Matvey Geyser

Having become a sage, he remained a child ...

Lev Ozerov

"I was born in the village of Goloskov, Podolsk province ... My father was a bookbinder, a teacher. The family was poor, and all the children at an early age were forced to go to work. One brother became a dyer, the other a loader, two sisters were dressmakers, and the third was a teacher." This is what the Jewish poet Lev Moiseevich Kvitko wrote in his autobiography in October 1943.

Hunger, poverty, tuberculosis - this ruthless scourge of the inhabitants of the Pale of Settlement fell to the lot of the Kvitko family. "Father and mother, sisters and brothers died early from tuberculosis ... From the age of ten I began to earn money for myself ... I was a dyer, a painter, a porter, a cutter, a procurer ... I never studied at school ... Self-taught I learned to read and write". But a difficult childhood not only did not anger him, but also made him wiser, kinder. “There are people who emit light,” the Russian writer L. Panteleev wrote about Kvitko. Everyone who knew Lev Moiseevich said that benevolence and love of life emanated from him. It seemed to everyone who met him that he would live forever. "He will certainly live to be a hundred years old, - K. Chukovsky asserted. - It was even strange to imagine that he might someday get sick."

On May 15, 1952, at the trial, exhausted by interrogations and torture, he will say about himself: "Before the revolution, I lived the life of a bat, a stray dog, this life was not worth the price. Since the Great October Revolution, I have lived thirty years of a wonderful, inspired working life." And immediately after this phrase: "The end of my life is right here in front of you!"

Poems, by his own admission, Lev Kvitko began to compose at a time when he still could not write. Invented in childhood remained in the memory and later "poured out" on paper, was included in the first collection of his poems for children, which appeared in 1917. "Lidelakh" ("Songs") was the title of this book. How old was the young author then? "I don't know the exact date of my birth - 1890 or 1893" ...

Like many other recent inhabitants of the Pale of Settlement, Lev Kvitko greeted the October Revolution with delight. In his early poems, a certain anxiety is caught, but true to the traditions of the revolutionary romantic poet Osher Shvartsman, he glorifies the revolution. His poem "Reuter Storm" ("Red Storm") was the first work in Yiddish about the revolution called the Great. It so happened that the release of his first book coincided with the revolution. “The revolution pulled me out of hopelessness, like many millions of people, and put me on my feet. They began to print me in newspapers, collections, and my first poems on the revolution were published in the then Bolshevik newspaper Komfon in Kiev. "

He writes about this in his poems:

We did not see childhood in childhood,

We, children of adversity, wandered around the world.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And now we hear the priceless word:

Come, whose childhood was stolen by enemies,

Who was destitute, forgotten, robbed,

Life is repaying your debts with a vengeance.

One of the best poems by Kvitko, written in the same period, retains the eternal Jewish sadness:

You ran away early in the morning

And only in the chestnut foliage

The impetuous run trembles.

He rushed off, leaving a little:

Only dust smoke at the doorstep

Abandoned forever

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And the evening rushes towards.

Where will you slow down?

Whose door the rider will knock on,

And who will give him an overnight stay?

Does he know how they yearn for him -

I, my home!

Translated by T. Spendiarova

Recalling the first post-revolutionary years, Lev Moiseevich admitted that he perceived the revolution more intuitively than consciously, but it changed a lot in his life. In 1921, like some other Jewish writers (A. Bergelson, D. Gofshtein, P. Markish), the Kiev publishing house offered him to go abroad, to Germany, to study, to get an education. This was Kvitko's old dream, and, of course, he agreed.

The Jesuits from the Lubyanka many years later knocked out a completely different confession from Kvitko on this matter: they forced him to recognize his departure to Germany as flight from the country, since “the national question concerning the Jews was resolved by the Soviet government incorrectly. The Jews were not recognized as a nation, which, in my look, led to the deprivation of any independence and infringed on legal rights in comparison with other nationalities. "

Life abroad turned out to be far from easy. "In Berlin, I barely interrupted" ... Nevertheless, there, in Berlin, two of his collections of poems were published - "Green Grass" and "1919". The second was dedicated to the memory of those who died in the pogroms in Ukraine before and after the revolution.

“At the beginning of 1923, I moved to Hamburg and began to work in the port, salting and sorting South American skins for the Soviet Union,” he wrote in his autobiography. “In the same place, in Hamburg, I was entrusted with responsible Soviet work, which I did right up to before my return to my homeland in 1925. "

It is about the propaganda work that he carried out among the German workers as a member of the German Communist Party. He left there, most likely because of the threat of arrest.

L. Kvitko and I. Fisherman. Berlin, 1922.

At the trial in 1952, Kvitko will tell how weapons were sent from the Hamburg port under the guise of dishes to China for Chiang Kai-shek.

The second time in the communist party, VKP (b), the poet joined in 1940. But this is already a different party and a different, completely different story ...

Returning to his homeland, Lev Kvitko took up literary work. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, his best works were created, not only poetry, but also in prose, in particular the story "Lam and Petrik".

By that time, he had already become a poet, not only beloved, but also generally recognized. It was translated into Ukrainian by the poets Pavlo Tychina, Maxim Rylsky, Volodymyr Sosyura. In different years it was translated into Russian by A. Akhmatova, S. Marshak, K. Chukovsky, J. Helemsky, M. Svetlov, B. Slutsky, S. Mikhalkov, N. Naidenova, E. Blaginina, N. Ushakov. Translated in such a way that his poems became a phenomenon of Russian poetry.

In 1936 S. Marshak wrote to K. Chukovsky about L. Kvitko: "It would be good if you, Korney Ivanovich, translated something (for example," Anna-Vanna ... ")". Some time later, S. Mikhalkov translated it, and thanks to him this poem entered the anthology of world children's literature.

Here it is appropriate to recall that on July 2, 1952, a few days before his sentencing, Lev Moiseevich Kvitko appealed to the military collegium of the USSR Supreme Court with a request to invite K.I. Chukovsky, K.F. Piskunov, P.G. Tychin, S.V. Mikhalkov. The court rejected the petition and, of course, did not bring it to the attention of Kvitko's friends, in whose support he believed until the last minute.

Recently, in a telephone conversation with me, Sergei Vladimirovich Mikhalkov said that he knew nothing about this. "But he could still live today," he added. "He was a smart and good poet. Fantasy, fun, invention, he involved not only children, but also adults in his poetry. I often remember him, think about him."

From Germany, Lev Kvitko returned to Ukraine, and later, in 1937, moved to Moscow. They say that Ukrainian poets, especially Pavlo Grigorievich Tychin, persuaded Kvitko not to leave. In the year of his arrival in Moscow, the poet's collection of the poet "Selected Works" was published, which was an example of socialist realism. In the collection, of course, there were wonderful lyrical children's poems, but "a tribute to the times" (recall, the year was 1937), found "worthy reflection" in it.

Around the same time, Kvitko wrote his famous poem "Pushkin and Heine". An excerpt from it, translated by S. Mikhalkov, is given below:

And I see a young tribe

And a daring flight of thoughts.

As never before my verse lives.

Blessed is this time

And you, my free people! ..

Freedom does not rot in dungeons,

Do not turn the people into a slave!

The fight is calling me home!

I'm leaving, the fate of the people -

The fate of the folk singer!

Shortly before World War II, Kvitko finished his novel in verse "The Young Years", at the beginning of the war he was evacuated to Alma-Ata. His autobiography says: "I left Kukryniksa. We went to Alma-Ata with the aim of creating a new book there that would correspond to that time. Nothing worked there ... I went to the mobilization point, I was examined and left wait ... "

L. Kvitko with his wife and daughter. Berlin, 1924.

One of the interesting pages of memories of L. Kvitko's stay in Chistopol during the war was left in her diaries by Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya:

"Kvitko comes to me ... I know Kvitko better than the rest of the local Muscovites: he is a friend of my father. Korney Ivanovich was one of the first to notice and love Kvitko's poems for children, he got them translated from Yiddish into Russian ... Now two- I spent three days in Chistopol: his wife and daughter are here. He came to me on the eve of departure, to ask in more detail what to tell my father from me if they met somewhere ...

About Tsvetaeva, about the ugliness, perpetrated by the literature fund, began to talk. After all, she is not an exile, but the same evacuee, like all of us, why is she not allowed to live where she wants ... "

Today we know about the bullying, ordeals that Marina Ivanovna had to endure in Chistopol, about the humiliations that fell to her lot, about the shameful, unforgivable indifference to Tsvetaeva's fate on the part of the "writers' leaders" enough. None of the writers, except Lev Kvitko, dared, did not dare to intercede for Tsvetaeva. After Lydia Chukovskaya addressed him, he went to Nikolai Aseev. He promised to contact the rest of the "writers' functionaries" and assured him with his characteristic optimism: "Everything will be fine. Now the most important thing is that everyone must remember specifically: everything ends well." So this kind, sympathetic person spoke in the most difficult times. He both consoled and helped everyone who turned to him.

Another evidence of this is the memoirs of the poetess Elena Blaginina: "The war scattered everyone in different directions ... My husband, Yegor Nikolaevich, lived in Kuibyshev, suffering considerable disasters. They met occasionally, and, according to my husband, Lev Moiseevich helped him, sometimes giving work, or even just sharing a piece of bread ... "

And again to the topic "Tsvetaeva-Kvitko".

According to Lydia Borisovna Libedinskaya, the only prominent writer who was then in Chistopol worried about the fate of Marina Tsvetaeva was Kvitko. And his efforts were not empty, although Aseev did not even come to the meeting of the commission that considered Tsvetaeva's request to hire her as a dishwasher in the writer's canteen. Aseev "got sick", Trenev (the author of the well-known play "Yarovaya Love") was categorically against it. I admit that Lev Moiseevich heard the name of Tsvetaeva from Lydia Chukovskaya for the first time, but the desire to help, protect a person was his organic quality.

So, "the people's war is going on." Life has become completely different and the poems - different, unlike those that he wrote Kvitko in peacetime, and yet - about children who became victims of fascism:

From the woods, from where in the bushes

They walk, closing their hungry lips,

Children from Uman ...

Faces - a shade of yellowness.

Hands are bones and veins.

Six-seven elders,

Escaped from the grave.

Translated by L. Ozerov

In the active army, Kvitko, as it was said, was not taken, he was summoned to Kuibyshev to work in the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. Apparently it was a tragic accident. Unlike Itsik Fefer, Peretz Markish, and Mikhoels, Kvitko was far from politics. "I, thank Gd, do not write plays, and Gd himself guarded me from contact with the theater and Mikhoels," he said at the trial. And during interrogation, talking about the work of the JAC: "Mikhoels was the most drunk. Epstein and Fefer practically did the work, although the latter was not a member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee." And then he will give an amazingly accurate definition of the essence of I. Fefer: "he is such a person that if he is even appointed a courier... Actually becomes the owner ... Fefer put only those questions that were beneficial to him for discussion of the presidium ..."

Kvitko's speeches at meetings of the JAC are known, one of them, at the III plenum, contains the following words: "The day of the death of fascism will become a holiday for all freedom-loving humanity." But even in this speech, the main idea is about children: "The unheard-of torture and extermination of our children - these are the methods of education developed in German headquarters. Infanticide as an everyday, everyday phenomenon - such is the savage plan that the Germans carried out on the Soviet territory temporarily seized by them .. The Germans exterminate Jewish children to the last ... "Kvitko worries about the fate of Jewish, Russian, Ukrainian children:" To return all children to their childhood is a great feat accomplished by the Red Army. "

L. Kvitko speaks at the III plenum of the EAK.

And yet, work in the JAC, politics are not the lot of the poet Lev Kvitko. He returned to writing. In 1946, Kvitko was elected chairman of the trade union committee of youth and children's writers. Everyone who came into contact with him at that time recalls with what desire and enthusiasm he helped writers who returned from the war, and the families of writers who died in this war. He dreamed of publishing children's books, and with the money received from their publication, build a house for writers who were homeless due to the war.

About Kvitko of that time, Korney Ivanovich writes: "In these post-war years we often met. He had a talent for disinterested poetic friendship. He was always surrounded by a tightly knit cohort of friends, and I recall with pride that he included me in this cohort."

Already gray-haired, aged, but still clear-eyed and benevolent, Kvitko returned to his favorite themes and in new verses began to praise as before spring showers and morning chirps of birds.

It should be emphasized that neither the bleak beggarly childhood, nor the youth full of anxiety and difficulties, nor the tragic years of the war could destroy the delightful attitude towards life, the optimism sent down by Kvitko from Heaven. But Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky was right when he said: “Sometimes Kvitko himself realized that his childhood love for the world around him was taking him too far from the painful and cruel reality, and tried to curb his praises and odes with good-natured irony over them, to present them in humorous form ".

If one can argue about Kvitko's optimism, even argue, then the feeling of patriotism, that true, not feigned, not deceitful, but high patriotism, was not only inherent in him, but to a large extent was the essence of the poet and the person of Kvitko. These words do not need confirmation, and yet it seems appropriate to cite the full text of the poem "With my country" written by him in 1946, a wonderful translation of which was made by Anna Andreevna Akhmatova:

Who dares to separate my people from the country,

In that there is no blood - replaced by water.

Who separates my verse from the country,

He will be full and empty shell.

With you, country, people are great.

Everyone rejoices - both mother and children,

And without you, people are in the darkness,

Everyone is crying - both mother and children.

The people working for the happiness of the country

Gives my poems a frame.

My verse is a weapon, my verse is a servant of the country,

And only she belongs by right.

My verse will die without the Motherland,

A stranger to both mother and children.

With you, country, my verse is tenacious,

And his mother reads it to the children.

The year 1947, as well as 1946, did not seem to promise anything bad to the Jews of the USSR. There were new performances in the GOSET, and although the audience was getting smaller, the theater existed, a newspaper in Yiddish was published. Then, in 1947, few Jews believed (or were afraid to believe) in the possibility of the revival of the State of Israel. Others continued to fantasize that the future of the Jews was in the creation of Jewish autonomy in Crimea, not guessing and not guessing what tragedy was already winding around this idea ...

Lev Kvitko was a true poet, and it was not by chance that his friend and translator Elena Blaginina said about him: "He lives in a magical world of magical transformations. Lev Kvitko is a poet-child." Only such a naive person could write a few weeks before his arrest:

How not to work with these

When the palms itch, they burn.

Like a strong jet

carries away the stone

The wave of work will carry away

like a trumpet waterfall!

blessed with labor,

How good it is to work for you!

Translation by B. Slutsky

On November 20, 1948, a Resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was issued, which approved the decision of the USSR Council of Ministers, according to which the USSR MGB was instructed: "Without delay to dissolve the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, since this Committee is the center of anti-Soviet propaganda and regularly supplies anti-Soviet information to foreign intelligence agencies" ... There is an instruction in this decree: "Do not arrest anyone yet." But by that time the arrested were already there. Among them is the poet David Gofshtein. In December of the same year, Itsik Fefer was arrested, and a few days later, the seriously ill Veniamin Zuskin was brought from the Botkin hospital to the Lubyanka. Such was the situation on New Year's Eve, 1949.

Valentin Dmitrievich read Chukovsky's poems from memory, warning that he could not vouch for accuracy, but the essence was preserved:

How rich I would be

If the money was paid by Detizdat.

I would send to friends

A million telegrams

But now I'm ruined to the bone -

Detizdat only brings losses

And you have to, dear Kvitki,

Congratulations to send you in a postcard.

Whatever the mood, in January 1949, as Elena Blaginina writes in her memoirs, the 60th anniversary of Kvitko was celebrated in the Central House of Writers. Why 49th 60th birthday? Recall that Lev Moiseevich himself did not know exactly his year of birth. "The guests gathered in the Oak Hall of the Writers' Club. A lot of people came, the hero of the day was greeted cordially, but he seemed (did not seem, but was) anxious and sad," writes Elena Blaginina. Valentin Kataev chaired the evening.

Few of those who attended this evening are alive today. But I was lucky - I met with Semyon Grigorievich Simkin. At that time he was a student at the theatrical technical school at GOSET. Here is what he said: “The Oak Hall of the Central House of Writers was overcrowded. All the writers' elite of that time - Fadeev, Marshak, Simonov, Kataev - not only honored the hero of the day with their greetings, but also spoke the warmest words about him. Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky Not only did he say about Kvitko as one of the best poets of our time, he also read in the original, that is, in Yiddish, several of Kvitko's poems, among them "Anna-Vanna".

L. Kvitko. Moscow, 1944.

On January 22, Kvitko was arrested. "They're coming. Really? .. / This is a mistake. / But, alas, it does not save from arrest / Confidence in innocence, / And purity of thoughts and actions / Not an argument in an era of lawlessness. / Innocence at the same time with wisdom / Not convincing for the investigator, / Not for the executioner "(Lev Ozerov). If on this day, in the afternoon of January 22, it was possible to finish the biography of the poet Lev Kvitko, what a happiness it would be for him and for me, who is writing these lines. But from this day the most tragic part of the poet's life begins, and it lasted almost 1300 days.

In the dungeons of the Lubyanka

(The chapter is almost documentary)

From the minutes of a closed court session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.

The court clerk, senior lieutenant M. Afanasyev, said that all the accused had been escorted to the court session.

The presiding officer, Lieutenant General of Justice A. Cheptsov, makes sure of the identity of the defendants, and each of them tells about himself.

From the testimony of Kvitko: "I, Kvitko Leyb Moiseevich, born in 1890, a native of the village of Goloskovo in the Odessa region, a Jew by nationality, was a member of the party since 1941, before that he had never been a party to any party (as you know, Kvitko was in the Communist Party of Germany - MG) Profession - poet, marital status - married, have an adult daughter, education at home. I have awards: the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." Arrested on January 25, 1949 (most sources on January 22.- M.G.). I received a copy of the indictment on May 3, 1952. "

After the indictment was announced presiding finds out whether each of the defendants understands his guilt. The answer was "Understood" by all. Some pleaded guilty (Fefer, Teumin), others completely rejected the accusation (Lozovsky, Markish, Shimeliovich. Dr. Shimeliovich will exclaim: "I never did and I never do!"). There were those who partially admitted their guilt. Among them is Kvitko.

PRESIDENT: Accused Kvitko, what do you plead guilty to?

Kvitko: I admit myself guilty before the party and before the Soviet people in the fact that I worked in the Committee, which brought a lot of harm to the Motherland. I also plead guilty that, being for some time after the war the executive secretary or the head of the Jewish section of the Union of Soviet Writers, I did not raise the question of closing this section, I did not raise the question of accelerating the process of assimilation of Jews.

Chair: Do you deny that you were guilty of nationalist activities in the past?

Kvitko: Yes. I deny that. I do not feel this guilt behind me. I feel that with all my soul and all my thoughts I wished happiness to the land on which I was born, which I consider my homeland, despite all these materials of the case and testimony about me ... My motives must be heard, as I will be confirm with facts.

Chairperson: We have already heard here that your literary activity was devoted entirely to the Party.

Kvitko: If only they gave me the opportunity to calmly reflect all the facts that took place in my life and which justify me. I am sure that if there was a person here who could read thoughts and feelings well, he would tell the truth about me. All my life I considered myself a Soviet person, moreover, even if it sounds immodest, but it is so - I have always been in love with the party.

PRESIDENT: All this is at odds with your testimony at the investigation. You consider yourself to be in love with the party, but why then are you claiming a lie. You consider yourself an honest writer, but your attitude was far from what you say.

Kvitko: I say that the party does not need my lies, and I show only what can be confirmed by facts. During the investigation, all my testimonies were distorted, and everything was shown the other way around. This also applies to my trip abroad, as if it was with a harmful purpose, and this also applies to the fact that I slipped into the Party. Take my poems 1920-1921. These poems are collected in a folder from the investigator. They are talking about something completely different. My works, published in 1919-1921, were published in a communist newspaper. When I told the investigator about this, he answered me: "We don't need this."

Chair: In short, you deny this testimony. Why did you lie?

Kvitko: It was very difficult for me to fight the investigator ...

Chair: Why did you sign the protocol?

Kvitko: Because it was difficult not to sign it.

Defendant B.A. Shimeliovich, the former chief physician of the Botkin Hospital, said: "The protocol ... was signed by me ... with an unclear mind. This state of mine is the result of methodical beating for a month, every day, day and night ..."

It is obvious that not only Shimeliovich was tortured in the Lubyanka.

But back to interrogation Kvitko in that day:

Chair: So you deny your testimony?

Kvitko: I absolutely deny ...

How not to recall the words of Anna Akhmatova here? "He who has not lived in the era of terror will never understand this" ...

The presiding judge returns to the reasons for Kvitko's "flight" abroad.

Chairperson: Show motives for fleeing.

Kvitko: I don't know how to tell you to believe me. If a religious criminal stands before the court and considers himself wrongly convicted or wrongly guilty, he thinks: okay, they don’t believe me, I am convicted, but at least Gd knows the truth. I have no god, of course, and I have never believed in God. I have only one god - the power of the Bolsheviks, this is my god. And I say before this faith that I did the hardest work in my childhood and youth. What kind of job? I don’t mean to say what I did when I was 12. But the hardest job is being in front of the court. I will tell you about the flight, the reasons, but give me the opportunity to tell you.

I have been sitting alone for two years in a cell, this is of my own free will, and for this I have a reason. I do not have a living soul to consult with someone, there is no more experienced person in judicial matters. I am alone, thinking and worrying with myself ...

A little later, Kvitko will continue his testimony on the issue of "flight":

I admit that you do not believe me, but the factual state of affairs refutes the above-mentioned nationalist motive for leaving. Then in the Soviet Union, many Jewish schools, orphanages, choirs, institutions, newspapers, publications and the entire institution were created " Culture League"plentifully materially supplied by the Soviet power. New centers of culture were established. Why did I need to leave? And I did not go to Poland, where then blooming Jewish nationalism flourished, and not to America, where many Jews live, and I went to Germany, where there were no Jewish schools, no newspapers or anything else. So this motive is devoid of any meaning ... If I fled from my native Soviet land, I could then write "In a foreign land" - poems that curse the stormy stagnation of life, poems of deep longing for my homeland, for its stars and for its deeds? If I were not a Soviet person, I would have had the strength to fight against sabotage at work in the Hamburg port, to be mocked and cursed by "honest uncles" who were disguised with complacency and morality, covering predators ? If I was not committed to the cause of the Party, could I voluntarily take on the secret burden of danger and persecution? Without reward, after a hard underpaid of a working day, I performed tasks necessary for the Soviet people. This is only part of the facts, part of the material evidence of my activities from the first years of the revolution to 1925, i.e. until when I returned to the USSR.

The presiding judge repeatedly returned to the question anti-assimilation activities of the EAK. ("Blood is accused" - Alexander Mikhailovich Borschagovsky will name his outstanding book about this trial and, perhaps, will give the most accurate definition of everything that happened at this trial.) Regarding assimilation and anti-assimilation gives testimony to Kvitko:

What am I accusing myself of? What do I feel guilty about? The first is that I did not see and did not understand that the Committee, by its activities, does great harm to the Soviet state, and that I also worked in this Committee. The second thing I consider myself guilty of is hanging over me, and I feel that this is my accusation. Considering Soviet Jewish literature is ideologically healthy, Soviet, we, Jewish writers, including myself (maybe I am more to blame for them), at the same time did not raise the question of facilitating the process of assimilation. I'm talking about assimilation of the Jewish masses. Continuing to write in Hebrew, we unwittingly became a brake on the process of assimilation of the Jewish population. In recent years, the Hebrew language has ceased to serve the masses, since they - the masses - have abandoned this language and it has become a hindrance. As the head of the Jewish section of the Union of Soviet Writers, I did not raise the question of closing the section. It's my fault. To use the language that the masses have left, which has outlived its age, which separates us not only from the whole great life of the Soviet Union, but also from the bulk of the Jews who have already assimilated, to use such a language, in my opinion, is a kind of manifestation of nationalism.

Otherwise, I do not feel guilty.

Chair: Everyone?

Kvitko: Everything.

From the conviction:

Defendant Kvitko, returning to the USSR in 1925 after fleeing abroad, joined the mountains. Kharkov to the nationalist Jewish literary group "Boy", headed by Trotskyists.

At the beginning of the organization of the EAK, the deputy executive secretary of the Committee, entered into a criminal conspiracy with the nationalists Mikhoels, Epstein and Fefer, assisted them in collecting materials about the economy of the USSR for sending them to the United States.

In 1944, following the criminal instructions of the EAK leadership, he went to Crimea to collect information about the economic situation in the region and the situation of the Jewish population. He was one of the initiators of raising the question before the government authorities about the alleged discrimination of the Jewish population in Crimea.

Repeatedly spoke at meetings of the EAK Presidium demanding the expansion of the nationalist activities of the Committee.

In 1946, he established a personal connection with the American intelligence officer Goldberg, whom he informed about the state of affairs in the Union of Soviet Writers, and gave him consent to publish a Soviet-American literary yearbook.

From the last word of Kvitko:

Citizen Chairman, Citizens Judges!

In front of the most joyful audience with pioneer ties, I spoke for decades and sang the happiness of being a Soviet man. I end my life with a speech before the Supreme Court of the Soviet people. Accused of the gravest crimes.

This made-up accusation has come down on me and is causing me terrible agony.

Why is every word I said here in court soaked in tears?

Because the terrible accusation of treason to the Motherland is unbearable for me, a Soviet person. I declare to the court that I am not guilty of anything - neither espionage nor nationalism.

While my mind is not yet completely darkened, I believe that in order to be accused of treason to the Motherland, some act of treason must be committed.

I ask the court to take into account that the indictment contains no documentary evidence of my allegedly hostile activities against the CPSU (b) and the Soviet government, and there is no evidence of my criminal connection with Mikhoels and Fefer. I did not betray my Motherland and I do not admit any of the 5 charges brought against me ...

It is easier for me to be in prison on Soviet soil than in "freedom" in any capitalist country.

I am a citizen of the Soviet Union, my Motherland is the Motherland of the geniuses of the Party and humanity, Lenin and Stalin, and I believe that I cannot be accused of serious crimes without proof.

I hope that my arguments will be accepted by the court as it should.

I ask the court to return me to the honest labor of the great Soviet people.

The verdict is known. Kvitko, like the rest of the defendants, except for Academician Lina Stern, was sentenced to VMN (capital punishment). The court makes a decision to deprive Kvitko of all previously received government awards. The verdict is being carried out, but for some reason in violation of the traditions that exist at the Lubyanka: it was pronounced on July 18, and carried out on August 12. This is another of the unsolved mysteries of this monstrous farce.

I cannot and do not want to finish the article about the poet Kvitko with these words. I will return the reader to the best days and years of his life.

L. Kvitko. Moscow, 1948.

Chukovsky-Kvitko-Marshak

It is unlikely that anyone would dispute the idea that the Jewish poet Lev Kvitko would have received recognition not only in the Soviet Union (his poems have been translated into Russian and 34 other languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR), but all over the world, if he had not had brilliant translators of his poems ... "Opened" Kvitko for Russian readers Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky.

There is a lot of evidence of how highly Chukovsky valued Kvitko's poetry. In his book "Contemporaries (portraits and sketches)" Korney Ivanovich, along with portraits of such outstanding writers as Gorky, Kuprin, Leonid Andreev, Mayakovsky, Blok, placed a portrait of Lev Kvitko: "In general, in those distant years when I met him, he really did not know how to be unhappy: the world around him was unusually comfortable and benevolent for him ... This fascination with the world around him made him a children's writer: on behalf of a child, under the guise of a child, through the lips of five-year-old, six-year-old, seven-year-old children it was easiest for him pour out his own overflowing zest for life, his own simple-hearted belief that life was created for endless joy ... Another writer, when he writes poetry for children, tries to restore his long-forgotten childhood feelings with a fading memory. Lev Kvitko did not need such a restoration: between there was no barrier of time for him and his childhood. poisonous excitement and happiness ... "

Chukovsky's ascent to the Hebrew language was curious. It took place thanks to Kvitko. Having received the poet's poems in Yiddish, Kornei Ivanovich could not resist the desire to read them in the original. Deductively, spelling out the author's name and the captions under the pictures, he soon "set off to read the titles of individual poems in warehouses, and then the poems themselves" ... Chukovsky informed the author of this. “When I sent you my book,” Kvitko wrote to him in response, “I had a double feeling: the desire to be read and understood by you and the annoyance that the book will remain closed and inaccessible to you. and turned my annoyance into joy. "

Korey Ivanovich, of course, understood that to introduce Kvitko into big literature only by organizing a good translation of his poems into Russian. The recognized master among translators in that pre-war period was S.Ya. Marshak. Chukovsky turned with Kvitko's poems to Samuel Yakovlevich not only as a good translator, but also as a person who knew Yiddish. "I did everything I could so that, according to my translations, a reader who does not know the original would recognize and fall in love with Kvitko's poems," Marshak wrote to Chukovsky on August 28, 1936.

Lev Kvitko certainly knew the "price" of Marshak's translations. "I hope to see you soon in Kiev. You must definitely come. You will please us, you will help us a lot in the struggle for quality, for the flourishing of children's literature. We love you," L. Kvitko wrote to Marshak on January 4, 1937.

Kvitko's poem "Letter to Voroshilov", translated by Marshak, became super popular.

For three years (1936-1939) the poem was already translated from Russian into more than 15 languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR, and was published in dozens of publications. “Dear Samuil Yakovlevich! With your light hand, the "Letter to Voroshilov" in your masterful translation went around the whole country ... ", wrote Lev Kvitko on June 30, 1937.

The history of this translation is as follows.

In his diary, Korney Ivanovich wrote on January 11, 1936 that Kvitko and the poet-translator M.A. Fromman. Chukovsky thought that no one could translate The Letter to Voroshilov better than Frohman. But something else happened. On February 14, 1936, Marshak called Chukovsky. Korney Ivanovich informs about this: “It turns out that it was not for nothing that he stole two Kvitko's books from me in Moscow — for half an hour. He took these books to the Crimea and there he translated them - including "Comrade Voroshilov", although I asked him not to do this, because Frohman has been sitting on this work for a month now - and for Frohman to translate this poem is life and death, and for Marshak it is only a laurel out of a thousand. My hands are still trembling with excitement. "

Then Lev Moiseevich and Samuil Yakovlevich were connected mainly by creative friendship. They, of course, met at meetings on children's literature, at children's book festivals. But the main thing that Marshak did was that with his translations he introduced the Russian reader to the poetry of Kvitko.

Kvitko dreamed of cooperation with Marshak not only in the field of poetry. Even before the war, he turned to him with a proposal: "Dear Samuil Yakovlevich, I am collecting a collection of Jewish folk tales, I already have a lot. If you have not changed your mind, we can start work in the fall. I am waiting for your answer." I did not find an answer to this letter in Marshak's archives. It is only known that Kvitko's plan remained unfulfilled.

The letters of Samuil Yakovlevich to L.M. Kvitko, full of respect and love for the Jewish poet, have survived.

Marshak translated only six of Kvitko's poems. Their real friendship, human and creative, began to take shape in the post-war period. Kvitko ended his congratulations on Marshak's 60th birthday with owls: "I wish you (Highlighted by me.- MG) many years of health, creative strength to the delight of all of us. "On" you "Marshak allowed very few people to speak to him.

And also about Marshak's attitude to the memory of Kvitko: "Of course, I will do everything in my power for the publishing house and the press to pay tribute to such a wonderful poet as the unforgettable Lev Moiseevich ... Kvitko's poems will live for a long time and delight true connoisseurs of poetry. .. I hope that I will be able to ... achieve that the books of Lev Kvitko occupy a worthy place ... "This is from a letter from Samuil Yakovlevich to the poet's widow Berta Solomonovna.

In October 1960, an evening in memory of L. Kvitko took place in the House of Writers. Marshak was not present at the evening for health reasons. Before that, he sent a letter to the widow Kvitko: "I really want to be at an evening dedicated to the memory of my dear friend and beloved poet ... And when I get better (now I am very weak), I will certainly write at least a few pages about the big man who was a poet both in poetry and in life. " Alas, Marshak did not have time to do this ...

There is nothing accidental in the fact that Chukovsky "presented" Kvitko to Marshak. One can, of course, assume that sooner or later Marshak himself would have paid attention to Kvitko's poems and, probably, would have translated them. The success of the duet "Marshak-Kvitko" was also determined by the fact that both of them were in love with children; This is probably why Marshak's translations from Kvitko turned out to be so successful. However, to speak only of a "duet" is unfair: Chukovsky managed to create a trio of children's poets.

L. Kvitko and S. Marshak. Moscow, 1938.

“Somehow in the thirties,” K. Chukovsky wrote in his memoirs about Kvitko, “while walking with him along the distant outskirts of Kiev, we suddenly got caught in the rain and saw a wide puddle, to which boys were running from everywhere, as if it were not a puddle, They spanked their bare feet so zealously in the puddle, as if they were deliberately trying to smear themselves to their ears.

Kvitko looked at them with envy.

Every child, he said, believes that the puddles are created specifically for his pleasure.

And I thought that, in essence, he was talking about himself. "

Then, apparently, the verses were born:

How much spring mud

A puddle of deep, good ones!

How free it is to spank

In shoes and galoshes!

Getting closer every morning

Spring is coming to us.

Stronger every day

The sun sparkles in the puddles.

I threw the stick into a puddle -

In the water window;

Like golden glass

The sun suddenly split!

The great Jewish literature in Yiddish that originated in Russia, literature dating back to Mendele-Moikher Sforim, Sholem Aleichem and ending its existence in the names of David Bergelson, Peretz Markish, Lev Kvitko, died on August 12, 1952.

Prophetic words were spoken by the Jewish poet Nachman Bialik: "Language is a crystallized spirit" ... Literature in Yiddish perished, but did not sink into the abyss - its echo, its eternal echo will live on as long as the Jews live on earth.

POETRY WITHOUT COMMENTS

In conclusion, let us give the floor to the poetry of L. Kvitko, present the poet's work in "pure form", without comments.

In the translations of the best Russian poets, it has become an integral part of Russian poetry. The remarkable writer Ruvim Fraerman said exactly about the Jewish poet: "Kvitko was one of our best poets, the pride and adornment of Soviet literature."

Obviously, Kvitko was extremely lucky with the translators. In the collection offered to the readers' attention - the poet's poems translated by S. Marshak, M. Svetlov, S. Mikhalkov and N. Naydenova. The first two poets knew Yiddish, but Sergei Mikhalkov and Nina Naydenova worked a miracle: not knowing the poet's native language, they were able to convey not only the content of his poems, but also the author's intonations.

So, poetry.

HORSE

Didn't hear at night

Behind the wheel door

Didn't know that dad

I brought the horse,

Black horse

Under the red saddle.

Four horseshoes

Shine silver.

Inaudible through the rooms

Daddy passed

Black horse

I put it on the table.

Burns on the table

Lonely fire

And looks into the crib

Saddled horse.

But behind the windows

It became brighter

And the boy woke up

In his crib.

I woke up, got up,

Lean on the palm of your hand

And he sees: it's worth

A wonderful horse.

Smart and new

Under the red saddle.

Four horseshoes

Shine silver.

When and where

Is he here?

And how contrived

Climb on the table?

Tiptoe boy

Comes to the table

And now the horse

Stands on the floor.

He strokes her mane

And back and chest,

And sits on the floor -

Look at the legs.

Takes by the bridle -

And the horse is running.

Puts her on her side -

The horse is lying.

Looks at the horse

And he thinks:

"I must have fallen asleep

And I have a dream.

Where is the horse from

Have you come to me?

Probably a horse

I see in a dream ...

I'll go and my mom

I'll wake up mine.

And if he wakes up,

I'll show you the horse. "

He fits

Pushes the bed

But mom is tired -

She wants to sleep.

"I'll go to my neighbor

Petr Kuzmich,

I'll go to my neighbor

And I'll knock on the door! "

Open the doors for me

Let me in!

I will show you

Black horse!

The neighbor answers:

I saw him,

I've seen for a long time

Your horse.

You must have seen

Another horse.

You have not been with us

Since yesterday!

The neighbor answers:

I saw him:

Four legs

At your horse.

But you didn't see

Neighbor, his feet,

But you haven't seen

And I could not see!

The neighbor answers:

I saw him:

Two eyes and a tail

At your horse.

But you haven't seen

No eyes, no tail -

He stands outside the door

And the door is locked! ..

Yawns lazily

Behind the door is a neighbor -

And not a word more

No sound in reply.

Beetle

Downpour over the city

All night long.

There are rivers in the streets

The ponds are at the gates.

Trees are shaking

In the frequent rain.

The dogs got wet

And they ask to go into the house.

But through the puddles,

Spinning like a top

Clumsy creeps

Horned bug.

Now he falls backwards,

Tries to get up.

Kicked up my legs

And he got up again.

To the dry place

Hastens to crawl

But over and over

Water is on the way.

He swims in a puddle

Not knowing where.

Carries it, circles it

And the water drives.

Heavy drops

They beat on the shell

And they whip, and they felled,

And they do not allow to swim.

Is about to choke -

Ghoul ghoul! - and the end ...

But boldly plays

Swimmer with death!

Would be gone forever

Horned bug

But then I turned up

Oak twig.

From a distant grove

He sailed here -

Brought it

Rainwater.

And, having done in place

A sharp turn

To the bug to help

He walks quickly.

Hastens to grab onto

A swimmer for him,

Now not afraid

The bug is nothing.

It floats in oak

Your shuttle

By stormy, deep,

Wide river.

But now they are approaching

House and fence.

Bug through the crack

I made my way into the yard.

And lived in the house

Small family.

This family is dad

Both mom and me.

I caught a bug

Planted in boxes

And listened to how it rubs

A bug against the wall.

But the downpour ended

The clouds are gone.

And into the garden on the path

I took the beetle.

Kvitko translated by Mikhail Svetlov.

VIOLIN

I broke the box

Plywood chest.

Quite similar

on the violin

Boxes are a barrel.

I attached it to a branch

Four hairs -

No one has ever seen

A similar bow.

Glued, set up,

He worked day after day ...

Such a violin came out -

There is no such thing in the world!

In my hands obedient,

Plays and sings ...

And the chicken thought

And it doesn't bite grains.

Play, play

violin!

Trai-la, trai-la, trai-li!

Music sounds in the garden

Lost in the distance

And the sparrows are chirping

They shout in eager rivalry:

What a delight

From such music!

The kitten lifted its head

The horses are racing at a gallop.

Where is he from? Where is he from,

An unseen violinist?

Three-la! Fell silent

violin ...

Fourteen chickens

Horses and sparrows

They thank me.

Didn't break, didn't stain,

I carry it with care

A little violin

I'll hide it in the forest.

On a high tree,

In the middle of the branches

The music slumbers quietly

In my violin.

WHEN I GROW UP

Those horses are crazy

With wet eyes

With necks like arches

With strong teeth

Those horses are light

That stand obediently

At your trough

In a bright stable

Those horses are empathetic

How disturbing:

Only a fly will land -

The skin shudders.

Those horses are fast

With light feet

You will only open the door -

They jump in herds,

They jump, scatter

Unrestrained agility ...

Those horses of the lungs

I cannot forget!

Quiet horses

They chewed their oats,

But, seeing the groom,

They whinnied happily.

Grooms, grooms,

With a stiff mustache

In wadded jackets,

With warm hands!

Grooms, grooms

With a strict expression

Give out oats to friends

Four-legged.

Horses are trampling

Merry and well fed ...

Grooms not at all

Hooves are not scary.

They walk - are not afraid

Everything is not dangerous for them ...

These same grooms

I love terribly!

And when I grow up -

In long trousers, it is important

I will come to the grooms

And I will say boldly:

We have five children

Everyone wants to work:

There is a poet-brother

There is a sister-pilot

There is one weaver

There is one student ...

I am the youngest -

I will be a racing rider!

Well, funny guy!

Where did it come from? From afar?

And what muscles!

And what are the shoulders!

Are you from the Komsomol?

Are you a pioneer?

Choose a horse for yourself,

Join the cavalry!

So I rush like the wind ...

Pine trees, maples ...

Who is this to meet?

Marshal Budyonny!

If I'm an excellent student

So I will tell him:

"Tell the cavalry

Can I be enrolled? "

Marshal smiles

Speaks with confidence:

"You will grow up a little -

Let's enroll in the cavalry! "

"Ah, Comrade Marshal!

Wait for me how long

time! .. "-

"Do you shoot? You kick

Do you reach the stirrup? "

I ride back home -

The wind won't stop!

I'm learning, I'm growing big

I want to be with Budyonny:

I will be a Budenovite!

Kvitko translated by Sergei Mikhalkov.

FUNNY BEETLE

He is cheerful and happy

From toes to crown -

He succeeded

Run away from the frog.

She didn't have time

Grab the sides

And eat under the bush

Golden beetle.

He runs through the thicket,

Shakes his mustache

He is running now

And meets acquaintances

And the little caterpillars

Does not notice.

Green stems,

Like pine trees in the forest

On his wings

Sprinkle dew.

He would be great

Catch for lunch!

From small caterpillars

No satiety.

He's little caterpillars

Will not touch it with a paw,

He is honor and solidity

He will not drop his.

Him after all

Afflictions and troubles

More loot

Need for lunch.

And finally

He meets this

And runs up to her,

Rejoicing with happiness.

Fatter and Better

He can't find it.

But scary to such

Approach one.

It spins

Barring her way

Beetles passing

Calls for help.

Fight for prey

It was not easy:

She was divided

Four beetles.

CONVERSATION

Oak said:

I am old, I am wise

I am strong, I am handsome!

Oak oak -

I am full of fresh energy.

But I still envy

horse that

Rushing along the highway

trotting spore.

The horse said:

I'm fast, I'm young

dexterous and hot!

A horse made of horses -

I love to race at a gallop.

But I still envy

flying bird -

Eagle or even

little tit.

The eagle said:

My world is high

the winds are under my control

My nest

on a terrible steepness.

But what compares

with the power of man,

Free and

wise from the ages!

Kvitko translated by Nina Naydenova.

LEMELE MANAGES

Mom leaves

Hurries to the store.

Lemele, you

You are left alone.

Mom said:

You serve me:

my plates,

Lay down your sister.

Chop firewood

Don't forget my son

Catch the rooster

And lock it up.

Sis, plates,

Rooster and firewood ...

Lemele has only

One head!

He grabbed his sister

And locked him in the barn.

He said to his sister:

Play here!

Firewood he diligently

Washed with boiling water,

Four plates

Smashed with a hammer.

But it took a long time

To fight with a rooster -

He didn't want

Go to bed.

ABLE BOY

Lemele once

I ran home.

Oh, - said my mother, - What is it with you?

You're bleeding

Scratched forehead!

You with your fights

Drive your mom into the coffin!

Lemele answers,

Pulling a hat:

This is me by accident

I bit myself.

Here is a capable boy!

The mother was surprised. -

How are you teeth

Did you manage to get the forehead?

Well, I got it, as you can see, - Lemele answered. -

For such a case

Climbed onto a stool!

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Kvitko Lev (Leib) Moiseevich

(11.11.1890–1952)

The poet of the big soul ...

His fascination with the world around him made him a children's writer; on behalf of a child, under the guise of a child, through the lips of five, six, seven-year-old children, it was easier for him to express his love for life, his simple belief that life was created for boundless joy.

He was so friendly, ruddy and white-toothed that the children were happy even before he started reading poetry. And the poems of Lev Kvitko are very similar to himself - the same light. And what are they missing: horses and pussies, pipes, violins, beetles, butterflies, birds, animals and many, many different people - small and adults. And above all this the sun of love shines for everything that lives, breathes, moves, blooms.

The Jewish poet Lev, or Leib (in Yiddish - this is "lion"), Kvitko was born in the village of Goloskovo, in Ukraine, in a clay, whitewashed house on the very bank of the Southern Bug River. The exact date of birth is unknown - 1890 or 1893 (October 15 or November 11). in his autobiography he wrote: "I was born in 1895".

The family was large, but unhappy: it was poor. Yes, my father was a jack of all trades: a carpenter, bookbinder, woodcarver, but he was rarely at home, wandered around the villages - teaching. All the brothers and sisters of little Leib died of tuberculosis, and his parents died from the same disease. At ten years old, the boy became an orphan. Like another famous writer, Maxim Gorky, his contemporary, he went to "people" - he worked at an oil mill, at a tanner, at a painter; wandered in different cities, walked half of Ukraine, on carts reached Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa. The owners didn't keep him for a long time: he was absent-minded.

And at home Leib was awaited by his grandmother - the main person of his childhood and youth (again similarity to Gorky!). “My grandmother was a woman of extraordinary strength of spirit, purity and honesty,” the poet recalled. “And her influence on me gave me resilience and perseverance in the struggle with the difficult years of my childhood and youth”.

Leib never studied at school. I saw her “only from the outside,” literacy - Jewish, and then Russian - I mastered on my own, however, first I tried to read the Russian alphabet from right to left, as is customary in Jewish writing.

Leo had many friends, he was loved. According to numerous recollections, he surprisingly disposed to himself: calm, friendly, smiling, never in a hurry, never complained that someone came to him or called at the wrong time - everything was done just right for him and by the way. Perhaps he was simple-minded.

From the age of 12, Leo "spoke poetry", but since he was not yet very literate, he could not really write them down. Then, of course, he began to write them down.

Poems were most often obtained for young children. Kvitko showed them in the town of Uman, 60 miles from Goloskov, to local writers. The poetry was a success, so he entered the circle of Jewish poets. He also met his future wife there. A girl from a wealthy family, a pianist, she shocked those around her with her choice: a beggar village boy with a notebook of poems. He dedicated poems to her, where he compared his beloved with a wonderful garden, tightly closed. He told her: "A wonderful flower is blooming in my heart, I beg you, do not pick it." And she slowly carried him bottles of sunflower oil and bags of sugar. In 1917, the young people got married.

At the same time, Lev Kvitko published his first collection of poems. It was called "Lidelekh" ("Songs"). This and all other books by Lev Kvitko were written in Yiddish.

The beginning of the 1920s in Ukraine was a hungry, hard, and anxious time. Kvitko has a wife and little daughter, unpublished poems, a dream to get an education. They live in Kiev, then in Uman, and in 1921, at the suggestion of the publishing house, they moved to Berlin. Kvitko does not buy into bourgeois temptations: he, "liberated by the revolution", true to himself and to his country, joins the German Communist Party, conducts propaganda among the workers in the Hamburg port. All this leads to the fact that in 1925, fleeing arrest, he returned to the Soviet Union.

Living in Kharkov, Kvitko sends a book of his children's poetry to Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky. This is how the “children's classic” writes about it: “I did not know a single Hebrew letter. But, realizing that on the title page, at the top, the author's surname should be put and that, then, this patterned letter is TO, but these two sticks - IN, but this comma - AND, I began to flip through the entire book boldly. The captions above the pictures gave me about a dozen more letters. This inspired me so much that I immediately started reading the titles of individual poems, and then the poems themselves! "

Grace, melodiousness, mastery of verse and the sunny, joyful world captured in them captivated Chukovsky. And, having discovered a new poet for himself, he announced his discovery to all those involved in children's poetry, and convinced them that all children of the Soviet Union should know the poems of Lev Kvitko.

This was announced in 1933 at a conference in Kharkov. Since then, Lev Kvitko's books have been published in huge editions in Russian translations. It was translated with great love by the best Russian poets - M. Svetlov, S. Marshak, S. Mikhalkov, N. Naydenova and most of all - E. Blaginina. They have preserved the sound and imagery, lyricism and humor of the great poems of the great soul.

Lev Kvitko was a man with the soul of a child: the world of his poetry is surprisingly cozy and bright. In the poems "Kisonka", "Pipes", "Violin" everyone has fun and loves each other: the cat dances with the mice, the horse, kitten and chicken listen to the music and thank the little musician. Some poems ("Swing", "Stream") are written as play. They can be counting rhymes, they can be easily shouted out, dancing and bouncing:

The brook is a hover,

The wand spun -

Wait, wait!

(Blaginina)

For a child, everything in life is new and significant, hence his close attention to simple, everyday things and a bright, visible perception of them.

“Look - look” - the poet addresses the children and teaches them to see the richness of details and shades in everything:

Dandelion silver

How wonderfully created he is:

Round-round and fluffy

Watered with warm sun.

(Blaginina)

Here is another observation in the garden (poem "Pilot"): a heavy, horned beetle, "roaring" like a motor, falls to the ground. When he wakes up, he tries to crawl onto a blade of grass - and falls again. Again and again he climbs a thin blade of grass, and the hero watches him with sympathetic excitement: "How is this fat man holding up? .. Again, he won't get there - he will break!" In the end, the beetle gets to the green top and ... takes off.

So this is where the solution to the excitement is,

So this is what the pilot was longing for -

A high place to start,

To spread your wings in flight!

The beetle was watched by a child, but the final lines belong, of course, to an adult Poet.

In poetry, Kvitko does not imitate children, does not entertain them, he is a lyricist, he feels like them, and writes about this. So he finds out that little badgers live in a hole, and he is surprised: "How can they grow underground and lead a boring life underground?" He sees small flies on a leaf - and again wonders: what are they doing - learning to walk? "Or maybe they are looking for food?" So he opened the watch - and froze, admiring the teeth and springs, admiring them without breathing and, knowing that my mother would not let them touch, hurries to assure us: “I didn’t touch the watch - no, no! I didn’t take them apart, I didn’t wipe them ”. I saw the neighbour's twin babies: well, you must, “such good babies! And how similar they are to each other! ", And straightly groans with delight:" I adore these guys! "

Like any child, he lives in a fairy tale. In this fairy tale, a strawberry berry dreams of being eaten, otherwise after three days it will dry up without any benefit; the trees beg: "Children, pick ripe fruits!"; corn and a sunflower will not wait: "I wish my nimble hands pluck them as soon as possible!" Everything rejoices at the sight of a person, it is good and joyful for everyone to serve him. And a person - a child - also joyfully enters this world, where all the same are beautiful: a beetle and a kitten, a boy and a sun, a puddle and a rainbow.

In this world, they are constantly amazed at the miracle of life. "Where are you from, white as snow, unexpected, like a miracle?" - the poet addresses the flower. “About a miracle! The frog sits on his hand ... "- he greets the marsh beauty, and she answers him with dignity:" Do you want to watch me sit quietly? Well, well, look. I'm looking too. " The hero planted a seed, and from it grew ... a carrot! (The poem is called "Miracle"). Or chicory ("... I don't know whether to believe it or not ...")! Or a watermelon ("What is this: a fairy tale, a song or a wonderful dream?")! After all, this is really a miracle, just adults have already looked closely at these miracles, and Kvitko, like a child, continues to exclaim: "Oh, little grass!"

The war against fascism was a difficult test for the poet's sunny world - in 1945 L. Kvitko wrote: "I will never be the same now!" How can you be the same, having learned about concentration camps, about the murder of children, raised to law? .. And yet, referring to little Mirela, who lost her family, and childhood, and faith in people in the war, the poet tells her: “How the world was blackened in your eyes, poor thing! " Blackened because, in spite of everything, the world is not what it seems in the long days of war. A poet - a child - an adult, he knows that the world is beautiful, he feels it every minute.

she recalled how she and Kvitko walked in the Crimea, in the Koktebel mountains: “Kvitko suddenly stops and, prayerfully folding her palms and looking at us with a kind of ecstatic amazement, almost whispers:“ Could there be something more beautiful! - And after a pause: - No, I must certainly return to these places ... "

But on January 22, 1949, Lev Kvitko, like other members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, was arrested on charges of "underground Zionist activities and cooperation with foreign intelligence services." At the trial, after three years of extorting evidence, none of the accused pleaded guilty to treason, espionage, or bourgeois nationalism. In his last word, Kvitko said: "It seems to me that we have changed roles with the investigators, because they are obliged to accuse with facts, and I, a poet, create creative works, but it turned out the other way around."

In August 1952, the "spies" and "traitors" were shot. (Lev Kvitko was rehabilitated posthumously.) In the book Life and Work of Lev Kvitko, published in 1976, nothing is said about his death, and only by the tragic tone of his friends' memories one can guess that something terrible has happened.

In the memoirs of Agnia Barto, one can read how Kvitko showed her little Christmas trees growing by the fence, and repeated with tenderness: "Look at them ... They survived!" Later, apparently after the death of Kvitko, Barto visited the Testaments of Ilyich, where the poet's dacha was located, “walked past the familiar fence. These Christmas trees have not survived. "

The Christmas trees have survived in poetry, how music forever lives in a violin from a poem by Lev Kvitko, how a boy and the sun always meet in them every day. This is the only possible victory over the enemy for the poet.

Quiz "The poetic world of Lev Kvitko from" A "to" Z "

Based on these excerpts, try to determine what is being discussed and recall the names of Lev Kvitko's poems.

What is it: a fairy tale, a song

Or a wonderful dream?

... (Watermelon) heavyweight

Born from a seed.

"Watermelon"

Everywhere you look - the lime

Sawdust, crushed stone, dirt.

And then suddenly ... ( birch)

It came from somewhere.

By the goat, between the logs,

Arranged for a living.

How silver and even,

How light is its trunk!

"Birch"

Runs among flowers and herbs

Garden path,

And, falling to the yellow sand,

The cat sneaks quietly.

“Well,” I think anxiously, “

Something is wrong here! "

I look - two nimble ... ( sparrow)

They dine on the garden bed.

"Brave Sparrows"

... (Gander) got alarmed:

Hey chickens now

It's time to dine -

Wake up the door!

He stretched out his neck

Hisses like a snake ...

"Gander"

... (Daughter) carries water

And rattles with a bucket ...

What grows there ... ( daughter),

In your garden?

"Daughter"

Forest dark wall.

In the green thicket - haze,

Just... ( herringbone) one

She moved away from the forest.

Stands open to all winds,

Shivers quietly in the morning ...

"Yolochka"

He is cheerful and happy

From toes to crown -

He succeeded

Run away from the frog.

She didn't have time

Grab the sides

And eat under the bush

Gold ... ( beetle).

"Cheerful beetle"

The berry is ripe in the sun -

The blush became juicy.

Through the shamrock now and then

She wants to look out.

And the leaves are gently shifted

Above her are green shields

And they scare the poor:

"Look, the mischievous people will rip it off!"

"Strawberry"

The tail said to the head:

Well, judge for yourself

You are always ahead

I am always behind!

With my beauty

Should I drag myself in the tail? -

And I heard in response:

You are beautiful, no doubt

Well, try to drive

I'll go behind.

"Turkey"

Here the kids came running:

You rocked - it's time for us! -

Rush straight to the cloud!

The city has moved in the distance

Got off the ground ...

"Swing"

What does it mean,

I can't understand:

Who is that rides

On a soft meadow?

About a miracle! ... ( Frog)

Sits on the arm

As if she

On a swamp leaf.

"Who is it?"

Immediately it became quiet, quiet.

Snow lies like a blanket.

Evening fell to the ground ...

But where ... ( bear) disappeared?

The worries are over -

Sleeps in his den.

"Bear in the forest"

I've got... ( a knife)

About seven blades

About seven brilliant

Sharp tongues.

Another such

There is no more in the world!

He's all the questions

Gives me the answer.

"Knife"

... (Dandelion) silver,

How wonderfully created he is:

Round-round and fluffy

Watered with warm sun.

On your high leg

Rising to the blue

It grows on the track

And in the hollow, and in the grass.

"Dandelion"

The dog only barks

I, ... ( cock), I sing.

At four he performs

And I stand on two.

I stand on two, walk the whole century.

And already a man is running after me in two.

And the radio sings after me.

"Proud Rooster"

... (Brook) - hoverfly,

The wand spun -

Wait, wait!

Goat hooves -

Bryk-bryk!

It would be good to get drunk -

Jump Jump!

I dipped my face -

Squish-squish!

"Stream"

But someday the impudent poet will say

ABOUT... ( plum), which is not more beautiful;

About tender streaks in her blue

How she lurked in the foliage;

About sweet pulp, smooth cheek,

About a bone sleeping in the through chill ...

"Plum"

He stabbed into the wood

As crumbled aspen noodles,

It pricks the ringing bit, -

A miracle is not ... ( ax)!

About this, to tell the truth,

I have been dreaming for a long time.

"Ax"

Sip,

stretch yourself!

Hurry up,

wake up!

The day has come

a long time ago,

It makes a knocking noise

into your window.

The herd is variegated

The sun is red

And in the green

Dries large

"Morning"

The moon rose high above the houses.

Lemlu liked it:

To buy such a plate for mom,

Put on the table by the window!

Oh, the ball - ... ( lamp),

... (Flashlight) - kubar,

This is a good moon!

"Ball-flashlight"

I really wanted to be here

Where cool days bloom

Among the white birches

Wait for small sprouts -

... (Chicory) seething,

Thick, real,

With baked goat milk

(Oladushki, kalabushki!),

That in the morning and evening

Cooked grandmothers grandchildren!

"Chicory"

... (Watch) new

I've got.

Open the lid -

Under the cover fuss:

Prongs and circles

Like dots, nails,

And stones are like points.

And it all shines

Shines, trembles,

And only black

One spring -

On Negritenka

It looks like it.

Live, Negritinok,

Sway, shiver

A fairy tale

White circles

Tell me!

"Clock"

Why, aspen, are you making noise

Do you nod to everyone like river reeds?

You bend, change your look, your posture,

Turning the leaves inside out?

I'm making noise

To hear me

To be seen

To be dignified

Among other trees they distinguished!

"Noise and Silence"

It happened on a sunny day

Shining day:

Look... ( power plant)

The guy led us.

We wanted with our own eyes

Rather see

How can electricity

River water to give.

"Power station"

Michurinskaya ... ( apple tree)

No need to wrap.

She is undressed

Frost is only glad.

Athletes are not intimidated

Snowstorms howl.

How these winter ... ( apples)

Fresh scent!

"Winter apples"

Flower Legends Crossword

In the highlighted cells: the poet, whose poems are similar to himself, are the same light, and his nickname is "the lion-flower".

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