Lenin Prizes- in the USSR one of higher forms encouragement of citizens for the greatest achievements in the field of science, technology, literature, art and architecture.
Consideration of the works submitted for the Lenin Prize, and decision-making on the award of prizes was carried out by the committees on the Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Councils of Ministers of the USSR on the award of the Lenin Prize were published in the press on the birthday of V. I. Lenin. Persons who received the Lenin Prize were awarded the title of “Laureate of the Lenin Prize”, were awarded a diploma, a badge of honor and a certificate. The Lenin Prizes were not awarded again
Laureates in Literature:
* Jalil, Musa Mustafovich (posthumously) - poet, for the cycle of poems "Moabit Notebook".
* Leonov, Leonid Maksimovich - writer, for the novel "Russian Forest".
* Auezov, Mukhtar Omarkhanovich - playwright, for the epic "The Way of Abai".
1. Rylsky, Maxim Faddeevich - for the collections of poems "Distant Sky" (1959) and "Roses and Grapes" (1957)
2. Tursun-Zade, Mirzo - for the poems "Khasan-arbakesh" (1954), "Moonlight" (1957) and the cycle of poems "Voice of Asia" (1956)
3. Sholokhov, Mikhail Alexandrovich - for the novel "Virgin Soil Upturned" (1932-1960)
* Smuul, Johan - writer, for the book "The Ice Book".
* Stelmakh, Mikhail Afanasyevich - writer, for the novels "Human Blood Is Not Water", "Big Relatives", "Bread and Salt".
* Tvardovsky, Alexander Trifonovich - poet, for the poem "Beyond the distance - distance."
* Petrus Brovka - Belarusian writer, poet, for the collection "And the days go by ...".
* Chukovsky, Korney Ivanovich - writer, for the book "The Mastery of Nekrasov."
* Marshak, Samuil Yakovlevich - poet, for the book of poems "Selected Lyrics".
* Gonchar, Oles (Alexander Terentyevich) - writer, for the novel "Tronka".
* Shabliovsky, Evgeny Stepanovich - literary critic, for the book “T. G. Shevchenko and Russian revolutionary democrats. 1858-1861"
* Svetlov, Mikhail Arkadievich (posthumously) - poet, playwright.
* Gafur Ghulam (posthumously) - poet.
* Mikhalkov, Sergey Vladimirovich - writer.
1. Melezh, Ivan Pavlovich - for the novels "People in the Swamp" (1961) and "Thunderstorm Breath" (1965)
2. Shaginyan, Marietta Sergeevna - for books about V. I. Lenin: “The Birth of a Son” (“The Ulyanov Family”) (1938, 1957), “The First All-Russian” (1965), “Ticket for History” (1937), “ Four lessons from Lenin "(1968)
3. Barto, Agniya Lvovna - for the book of poems "For flowers in winter forest» (1970). (Prize for works of literature and art for children)
1. Simonov, Konstantin (Kirill) Mikhailovich - for the trilogy "The Living and the Dead" ("The Living and the Dead" (1955-1959), "Soldiers Are Not Born" (1960-1964), " last summer"(1965-1970))
1. Avijus, Jonas Kazys - Lost Home (1970)
2. Markov, Georgy Mokeevich - for the novel "Siberia" (1969-1973)
Maxim Tank (Skurko Evgeniy Ivanovich) - for the book of poems "Narochansky Pines" (1977)
. Chakovsky, Alexander Borisovich - for the novel Blockade (1968-1975)
* Brezhnev, Leonid Ilyich, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, for the trilogy "Small Earth", "Renaissance" and "Virgin Land", "for the tireless struggle for peace"
1. Dumbadze, Nodar Vladimirovich - for the novel "The Law of Eternity" (1978)
2. Isaev, Egor Alexandrovich - for the poetic dilogy "The Court of Memory" (1962), "The Distance of Memory" (1976-1977)
1. Bazhan Mykola (Nikolai Platonovich) - for the book of poems "Signs" (1979)
1. Karim, Mustai (Karimov Mustafa Safich) - for the story "Long, long childhood" (1974-1978) and the tragedy "Do not throw fire, Prometheus!" (1976)
1. Bykov, Vasily Vladimirovich - for the story "The Sign of Trouble" (1982)
2. Vasiliev, Ivan Afanasyevich - for the book of essays "Admission to the Initiative" (1983), the essays "Praise to your home", "Return to the land" (1984), "Letters from the village". (Prize for works of artistic journalism)
1. Kuliev, Kaisyn Shuvaevich (posthumously) - for outstanding contribution in Soviet literature artistic originality and development folk traditions in the spiritual life of socialist society
Sixty years ago, on August 15, 1956, the main prize of the country of the Soviets was established.
Newsreel TASS/Sergey Loskutov
The attitude towards awards of various ranks in Russia, and, perhaps, everywhere in the world, is not distinguished only by enthusiasm and rapture. There are always those who believe that this or that prize was awarded to this and that undeservedly. However, as they say knowledgeable people, premium commissions at all ends of the planet, as a rule, albeit latently, try to maintain a certain balance of interests.
Main Prize of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics established 60 years ago, on August 15, 1956. Although it’s more correct to say: they didn’t establish, but restored (or reanimated), because the Lenin Prize in the first world state of workers and peasants was introduced on June 23, 1925 by a joint resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. At that time, it was a real breakthrough, because just a year or two ago, a piece of cloth, chintz or staple (in the Red Army - red revolutionary trousers), boots and other everyday items were considered prestigious promotions.
For the first time in the entire history of the Soviet country, the Lenin Prize became the highest distinction, because by that time, of all state awards there was only one - the Order of the Red Banner of War.
The Lenin Prize of the 1925 model, in addition to honor and respect, provided for a monetary reward. Its amount in various documents- different: from two to five thousand rubles. Apparently, there was no fixed official size of the monetary "fullness" of the title of laureate.
The money at that time was not big, but very big, especially if you take into account that the average salary in the USSR in 1925 was 46.4 rubles, in 1926 - 52.5, in 1927 - 56 rubles a month.
The prices for the basic set of consumption of a citizen of a country building socialism were not low.
How much did it cost (price per kilogram):
In addition to the diploma and financial support, the laureate of the Lenin Prize, at his request, was allocated a plot of land in the near Moscow region, on which he could build a country house at his own expense.
Particular attention should be paid to the motivational formulation of the first Lenin Prizes. The Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks states that they are awarded only for scientific works and "in order to encourage scientific activity in the direction closest to the ideas of V.I. Lenin, namely in the direction of the close connection between science and life.
They decided to name the laureates on the birthday of the leader Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) - by April 22 of each year.
Photo: TASS Newsreel/Vladimir Musaelyan
Winners of the first prize in 1926:
Among the most notable laureates of the Lenin of other years Vladimir Vorobyov, a well-known anatomist in the scientific community. So in 1927, his work on embalming the body of the leader of the revolution, Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), was appreciated. Vorobyov's technologies for preserving the mummy are still used today.
In the same year, Academician David Ryazanov (Goldendach) became Lenin Laureate for preparing the collected works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels for publication. A professional revolutionary who went through the "school" of tsarist prisons and exiles since 1891, he became a prominent scientist, one of the founders of the national school of source studies. But both Marxism and Leninism, and especially the principles of democratic centralism, by the mid-1930s, Stalin was very annoyed. And the Lenin laureate-academician, ex-director of the Union Institute of Marxism-Leninism was shot on January 21, 1938.
In 1929, the prize to them. Lenin was received by the famous engineer Vladimir Shukhov, the author of the television and radio broadcasting tower on Shabolovka, one of the iconic buildings in Moscow. There are similar openwork hyperboloid tower structures in Petushki, Vladimir Region, and Krasnodar. And the tower in Nizhny Novgorod region recently restored and taken under federal protection of architectural monuments. The famous designer and inventor made an invaluable contribution to the development of domestic oil pipelines, the construction of refineries, the first Soviet crackers and oil storage facilities.
In 1931, the prize to them. Lenin was also received by the father of the Soviet oil business, the developer of the system of oil and gas fields in the territories of the RSFSR ("second Baku") Ivan Gubkin, whose phrase: "The subsoil will not fail if people do not fail" became the motto of the developers of energy raw materials deposits in the Fatherland for many years.
The last time the "first wave" Lenin Prizes were awarded was in 1934. And all for the work in the field of Marxism-Leninism. The Marxist economist Yevgeny Varga received it for his book New Phenomena in the World Economic Crisis, the historian Lev Mendelssohn for his work Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism, and the historian Yevgeny Stepanova for his book Friedrich Engels. By the way, Varga, the only one of the entire galaxy of laureates, received the Lenin Prize twice - the first time in 1925, the second in 1957.
For 22 years - from 1935 to 1957, the country refused the Lenin Prizes. In 1941–1952 they were replaced Stalin Prizes three degrees. Comrade Stalin personally made the decision on who and for what to award them. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to restore the Lenin Prizes and name their winners exclusively by April 22, issuing a corresponding joint resolution on August 15, 1956. But, as usual, in the year of the adoption of the fundamental document, they themselves violated it. And on September 7 of the same 1956, the first laureates of the Lenin Prize appeared after a long break.
Photo: TASS Newsreel/Vladimir Savostyanov
For what the Lenin Prizes of the second wave were awarded:
In March 1960, journalism and journalism were added to this "price list". In 1970, the provision on the Lenin Prizes was supplemented with a paragraph "for outstanding works of literature and art for children."
At first, the Lenin Prizes were awarded annually, but since 1967 they introduced a "sequestration" and began to name the laureates once every two years, in even (naturally, after all, the title is honorable) years.
But often they deviated from the introduced rule. The general public did not know about this, because the decrees adopted "outside the rules" contained the names of winners from the "secret": defense, space, nuclear, electronics and aviation industries. In 1957, the regulations provided for 42, but since 1961, 76 Lenin Prizes annually.
However, in 1967 the number of prizes was again reduced to 25. The explanation for this is simple. It was in this year that the party and the government decided to introduce an additional bonus - the State. By the way, according to the statute and the entitlement benefits, it was immediately equated with the Stalin Prize removed from the country's awards field.
The laureates of the Lenin Prize were entitled to a diploma, a gold breast medal and a cash prize. At first, 100 thousand, and after the denomination of 1961 - 10 thousand rubles. The established State Prize of the USSR was considered less prestigious and its monetary filling was half as much: 5 thousand rubles.
Least of all in relation to the monetary component, the laureates were lucky - the "listed". Sometimes 15 or even 18 people came out for one award. As they say, there is nothing to share. And, as a rule, the amount due to the ranks was immediately transferred either to the Soviet Peace Fund. Or to the Soviet Children's Fund. At the same time, an accounting "ritual" was obligatory. Each of the awardees wrote a handwritten statement with a request to transfer their part of the bonus to the organization they chose.
What could be bought for the Lenin Prize after the denomination of 1961 (10 thousand rubles):
Nuclear physicists
Nuclear physicists Igor Kurchatov, Yakov Zel'dovich, Andrei Sakharov, Yuli Khariton became the first laureates of the "second wave" Lenin Prize. The decision to award them the main prize of the country was issued behind closed doors (it was not published anywhere) on September 7, 1956. Contrary to the approved regulation: to award prizes by April 22, Lenin's birthday. At that time, these people were also closed to everyone, forever glorifying the Fatherland and world science. About them new award, and almost all of them were by that time three times Heroes socialist labor, had not a single order, anyway, no one would have known.
True, in the resolution by April 22, 1957, which promulgated the names of, as it were, the very first laureates of the prize, their names were listed in general list, they themselves are named simply: nuclear physicists. Most likely, it was a forced repetition in order to comply with the established statute of the award.
But it was precisely this "quartet" of world-class nuclear scientists that remained Lenin's No. 1 laureates. The "father" of the Soviet atomic bomb, Igor Kurchatov, three and a half years after being awarded the prize on February 7, 1960, at the age of 57, died in front of his colleague and friend Yuli Khariton, talking to him on the bench of the Barvikha sanatorium, where he came to visit. The heart suddenly stopped, an embolism, a blood clot clogged the heart muscle.
Newsreel TASS/Vladimir Peslyak
"Father" of the world's first hydrogen bomb Andrei Sakharov, two years after he was awarded the Lenin Prize, initiated a campaign to ban nuclear weapons testing in three environments - on land, in air and in water. In 1961, he entered into a sharp confrontation with the then leader of the USSR Nikita Khrushchev, trying to stop the test of his brainchild - the "Tsar bomb", with a capacity of 100 megatons over the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic. In the same year, he made a proposal: no longer serve the arms race imposed on the USSR by the Americans, but simply place (the academician attached a diagram to his project) along the coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans US "chain" of nuclear charges of 100 megatons each. And in case of enemy aggression, just "press the buttons". The project, in essence, is draconian, really putting the world on the brink of nuclear self-destruction.
Three years after the Lenin Prize, Sakharov joined the country's human rights movement, for which from the late 1960s he began to be subjected to organized persecution, and in 1980, after public condemnation Soviet invasion to Afghanistan was deprived of all awards, titles, prizes and exiled to Gorky, which was then closed city. The people immediately "spread" the bike: they sweetened the city of Gorky. Everything, including a good name, returned to the academician with perestroika, in 1989, which was his last.
Yakov Zeldovich, having made invaluable discoveries that made it possible to improve the Soviet nuclear weapon, in the last years of his life he was effectively engaged in cosmology, writing the fundamental monographs "The Theory of Gravity and the Evolution of Stars" and "The Structure and Evolution of the Universe". He went down in history as a popularizer of higher mathematics. His book "Higher Mathematics for Beginners and Its Applications to Physics" went through countless editions. Julius Khariton until the end of his days lived in nuclear center Arzamas -16, now the city of Sarov, where he continued to work on the country's nuclear programs and died at the age of 92.
The resolution on the very first "legal" Lenin Prize, published on April 22, 1957, is mainly a list of laureates who are awarded the title for the same achievement. In the "roster", in particular, the famous aircraft designer Andrei Tupolev, who, together with his colleagues in the Design Bureau, was awarded the prize for creating the first Soviet jet passenger aircraft Tu-104. Later, on the sidelines, they will sing to the tune of Chopin's march: "Tu-104, the best aircraft ...", but for now it is the first in the world of its class and has not yet been banned from flying due to numerous accidents with hundreds human casualties. Also on the list is Sergei Korolev, the "father" of the Soviet space technology.
Single laureates were, in particular, Academician Mstislav Keldysh for developments in the field of rocket and nuclear technology, Pavel Agadzhanov, one of the creators of the first Soviet aircraft radio control systems. spacecraft and software Computer (electronic computers), test pilot Alexey Perelet, who tested the first Soviet missile carriers long-range aviation Tu-95, which are still in service. According to the category of science, among the laureates, in particular, two philologists - one was awarded for "the insolvability of the problem of the identity of groups of words", the other - for the study of morphemes in the Old French language. There is also one researcher ancient world peoples of Transcaucasia, one specialist in the field of animal and human trematodes, one expert in protistology.
Apart in the first resolution on the Lenin Prizes of the "second wave" the famous Russian surgeon Alexander Bakulev. He was "let" in the category of "technique", however, the award was formulated as follows: "for the organization scientific research acquired and congenital diseases of the heart and great vessels, the development of methods of surgical treatment and their introduction into the practice of medical institutions.
A notable feature of the first resolution on the laureates of the Lenin Prize on April 22, 1957 is the awarding of groups of production teams, which included representatives of the working class. In this "segment" - tunnelers of one of the mines of Donbass, the creators of the nuclear power plant in Obninsk, the first in the country. The organizers of the first automatic production of mass bearings, new production lines for the production of alumina and cement, geologists who discovered a myriad (which is still confirmed) diamond deposit in Yakutia were also noted.
The section "Literature and Art" has always been the most noticeable and most discussed in society. The first winners of the Lenin Prize in this area were the sculptor Sergei Konenkov, the ballerina Galina Ulanova, the writer Leonid Leonov, the poet Mussa Jalil and the composer Sergei Prokofiev. The last two received high ranks posthumously.
On April 22, 1991, the Lenin Prize was awarded for the last time. Four people received it individually and the same number - as a list. Almost all of them represented the military-industrial complex. The exception is the now living Sergey Arzhakov, a specialist in varnishes, paints and polymers. And to some extent, Ukrainian design engineer Vladimir Sichevoy, who was engaged in the construction of space technology in Dnepropetrovsk.
Newsreel TASS/Victor Budan, Alexander Konkov
The rest of the laureates received the Lenin Prize for the creation of binary chemical weapons, and the chemist S.V. Smirnov, as stated in the resolution, "new chemical weapons (non-lethal)".
It is impossible to tell about all the laureates of the Lenin Prize. It is not easy to "snatch" from among the most famous. Moreover, since about 1970, the motivation for awarding high ranks has become little understood. And in a number of cases, the resolutions simply ceased to indicate what the award was given for. This was especially true of senior military and government officials. For example, in the documents: for 1973, Sergei Alexandrovich Afanasiev, Minister of General Engineering of the USSR, for 1980 - Rashidov Sharaf Rashidovich, 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, for 1981 Belov Andrey Ivanovich, marshal of the signal troops. And there are dozens of such laureates. What is the main award of the country for? Apparently, for being a minister, a party functionary, a marshal. Probably, it was precisely this devaluation of the title of laureate that gave rise to tales in the Soviet environment like: "KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov was nominated for the Lenin Prize for proving that a knock travels faster than sound."
And yet, there were much more people who were awarded the main prize of the USSR for real achievements, outside of market trends, those who are known to the whole world. This is the ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, and the musician Mstislav Rostropovich, and the journalist Vasily Peskov, and the director Tengiz Abuladze, and the writer Vasil Bykov, and the actor Mikhail Ulyanov, and the composer Rodion Shchedrin, and the aircraft designer Pavel Sukhoi. In the galaxy of people who glorified the country, there are many those whom the Lenin Prize "overtook" after death. These are poet Mikhail Svetlov, prose writer, actor and director Vasily Shukshin, film director Andrei Tarkovsky.
For peace
There was another Lenin Prize. It was introduced on September 6, 1956 and was called the International Lenin Prize "For the strengthening of peace between peoples" (since December 11, 1989 - simply the International Lenin Peace Prize). It was awarded at first once a year, and later - once every two years exclusively foreign citizens. True, in the list of the very first laureates, this status was violated several times. Together with the figures of science, culture and art who devoted themselves to the struggle for a world without wars different countries it was awarded to the functionary of the Union of Writers of the USSR, the poet Nikolai Tikhonov. “The authorities didn’t raise their hand for creativity, but as a fighter for peace, please,” his colleagues in the shop taunted. In 1959, the award was given to the then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. For the third time, the Soviet playwright Alexander Korneichuk received the award, for the same motivation as the poet Tikhonov. For the fourth time in 1973, she was given to Leonid Brezhnev.
The status of the international Lenin Peace Prize was no longer violated. Among its laureates were such well-known personalities in the world as the permanent Cuban leader Fidel Castro, American artist Rockwell Kent, Chilean President Salvador Allende, who died during the coup, African-American human rights activist Angela Davis, Indian Prime Minister and reformer Indira Gandhi, Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. The last winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1990 was the famous fighter against apartheid Nelson Mandela, who turned the centuries-old system in South Africa.
Evgeny Kuznetsov
The Lenin Prizes have been restored, but in fact re-established. Until the appearance of the State ones, they will replace the Stalin ones, and then they will become the highest awards, "Soviet Nobel"
After Lenin's death, the prize named after him did not exist for long as an academic one and was awarded to prominent scientists: Vavilov, Obruchev, Fersman, Chichibabin. In the 1930s, they tried to turn the Lenin Prize into a super-award given every five years with a gold medal and honorary membership in the Academy of Sciences, but failed. But from the 60th anniversary of Stalin (1939) they began to generously give Stalin Prizes. The award had three degrees, so the rewards varied, there are multiple winners.
Condemning Stalin's personality cult, the current government cannot continue to award Stalin Prizes. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the government decide: annually on April 22 to award 42 Lenin Prizes, without degrees. This is much less than there were almost innumerable Stalin ones, but the habit of awarding is great, and the number of prizes will grow to 76 per year. They don’t remember previous laureates at all - as if they didn’t exist, they are not indicated in the lists of regalia. Only in 1966 will they find a way out: they will introduce State Prizes, and all those issued by Stalin will be recognized as them, having exchanged diplomas and badges. "The Sovereign" will become relatively accessible, and from now on there are only 30 Leninskys, and they are given every two years, in even years.
A rarer award than the title of Hero of Socialist Labor should celebrate great discoveries and masterpieces. The general public knows little about science and technology, but in culture such laureate means the status of a living Soviet classic. The reputation of the Lenin Prize will be badly damaged by its award in literature to the books of Leonid Brezhnev, moreover, made in the odd year 1979.
Phenomena mentioned in the text
XX congress. Khrushchev's report 1956
At a closed meeting of the regular congress of the CPSU, the first secretary of the Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev makes a report "On the cult of personality and its consequences." The text does not dare to be published, but is read aloud throughout the country. The semi-secret report defines the content of the entire 10-year Khrushchev rule - it will go down in history as anti-Stalin
According to the publication "Laureates Lenin Prize. Sculptors. Text: Abolina R. Publishing House "Soviet Artist", Moscow, 1970
In 1925, the Institute of Lenin Prizes was established to encourage outstanding work in the field of science and technology. In a resolution of 1956, this remarkable tradition was further developed, awards were established for the most outstanding works of literature and art, which received wide public recognition.
IN AND. Lenin, with his characteristic perspicacity, saw huge role art in the life of the people, its remarkable ability to unite the feelings, thoughts and will of the masses. He put forward a plan for monumental propaganda, which was based on the idea of the nationality and partisanship of art, its propaganda by means of the high ideals of the new society. Naturally, the award of a prize bearing the name of Lenin to this or that artist is a high assessment of his personal talent, and the work he created is recognized as a high example of the art of communist society.
Already the awarding of the first prizes in the field of fine arts showed what great demands the public made on the artist, honoring him with the high title of laureate of the Lenin Prize, how deep and multifaceted the work he created must be, revealing the most essential aspects of life, exciting the minds and hearts of millions. These works of socialist realism, which received wide national recognition, became true milestones in the development Soviet art. Beginning in 1957, the Lenin Prize began to be awarded for works of all types and genres of our art.
The Lenin Prize in 1957, in the first year after its establishment, was awarded to S.T. Konenkov for "Self-portrait". In 1958 - M.K. Anikushin for the monument to Pushkin in Leningrad; in 1959 - A.P. Kibalnikov for the monument to Mayakovsky in Moscow; in 1962 - L.E. Kerbel for the monument to Karl Marx in Moscow; in 1963 - G. Iokubonis for the monument to the "Victims of Fascism in Pirchupis". All these works, distinguished by high artistic merit, carry the main defining quality. They reveal the advanced ideas of modernity, affirm the power human mind, the activity of revolutionary thought.
The authors of these works are artists of bright creative individuality, possessing their own manner, their own artistic style, their own plastic language. Each of them managed to say not only the most important and greatest of his thoughts about life and man, but also to express the idea of the people about their heroes, people of mighty will, unfading talent.
The first works of the oldest sculptor S.T. Konenkov (born 1874) were created at the turn of two centuries. This master is deeply original, Russian and at the same time belongs to all mankind. The creator of generalized heroic, even symbolic images ("Peasant", "Slav", "Nike", 1906J; inspired by folklore "Old Men-Polevichkov" and "Prophetic Old Women", 1910), who embodied the beauty of a naked female body in perfectly completed marble statues and wood - the sculptor was always fond of portraiture, being able to reveal in a unique plastic form human character. Usually the sculptor's models are people of bright creative individuality, powerful intellect, bright original talent - thinkers, discoverers, artists.
The strength of the human mind and feelings, an active, effective attitude to the world - the favorite leitmotif of Konenkov's portraits, each time uniquely refracted in individual image("Paganini", 1910 and 1916; "Dostoevsky", 1933; "Mussorgsky" and "Socrates", 1953). Many of the best qualities of Konenkov as a portrait painter were concentrated in the "Self-Portrait", created by the sculptor in 1954. This is not the first time this theme appears in his work. Of interest are the "Self-portrait" of 1914 and the "Self-portrait" of 1916, which reflected the ebullient temperament, the vigilance of the gaze of an inquisitive artist.
But this theme gets a truly epic sound now, when the master's rich experience is combined with the sophistication of thought, the fruits of philosophical reflection on life.
A special inspiration illuminates the face of the artist. Great interest in the world, wise insight, admiration for the beauty of the environment determine his condition; it is felt that this inquisitive mind, thirsting for truth and beauty, is in in constant motion and development.
The inner grandeur of the image determined the clarity and beauty of the plastic form. The portrait conveys the subtly noticed individual originality of the artist's appearance, his manner of holding, listening, peering into the world around him. But in the portrait there is no trace of genre and intimacy. Its form is generalized, majestic, one might say, monumental.
The composition of the portrait, for all its dynamics, is strictly balanced, its rhythm is clearly revealed. The line of the silhouette runs up elastically, covering the hand carved into the marble, the left shoulder, the "eagle" profile, high forehead, then begins the decline of the lines in the heavy strands of the hair thrown back, the flow of the beard. The main volumes are directed upwards and slightly diagonally, while the base of the portrait, spread out horizontally, creates a solid footing for this sculpture. Changing points of view gives the development of sculpture in space. In a strong perspective, the face is perceived from the side on the right. Here, the slopes of the lines are steeper, the volumes are more massive, there is no longer a calm, balancing horizontal line. This is not only a state of reflection, contemplation; an active active principle sounds clearly.
Konenkov's "Self-portrait" is perceived in a broadly generalizing way. “When I was working on my Self-Portrait in the quiet of my studio,” says the sculptor, “referring to this as a deep reflection, I thought not only about portrait resemblance, but above all I wanted to express my attitude to work and art, my aspiration for the future , into the realm of permanent truth and justice. How happy I am to realize that this conversation with myself, a look into a brighter future, is understood by my contemporaries.
This work reflected a special stage in the artist's work, characteristic in general for the development of the art of socialist realism.
The feelings expressed in it deeply excite contemporaries. creative attitude to life, to work, active work for the present and future, striving to transform the world - all this is so characteristic of the builder of communist society. Thanks to the deep ideological saturation, the breadth of the idea, Konenkov managed to express in the easel portrait great feelings and thoughts of his era.
Monumental sculpture solves these problems in an even more versatile way, and it is no coincidence that most of the Lenin Prizes were awarded to monuments standing on the streets and squares. One of the big, honorable tasks of Soviet sculptors is the creation of a monument to A.S. Pushkin. Its construction was envisaged by Lenin's plan of monumental propaganda. The image of the beloved poet excited many Soviet sculptors. The competition for the monument in 1937, timed to coincide with the centenary of the death of Pushkin, concentrated considerable creative forces on solving this problem. It was then that interesting busts and statues were created that contributed to the iconography of Pushkin.
However, the monument for Leningrad, which was designed in these competitions, was never created for the reason that none of the submitted projects did not fully meet the specific requirements that were imposed on this monument. In addition, work on the monument was suspended due to the outbreak of World War II.
The city, in which Pushkin's genius flourished, sung in his immortal poems, as if keeping living memories of him, required a special solution to this topic.
And as soon as the volleys of the war died down, the artists continued their interrupted work - the creation of a monument to Pushkin, whose image is now, in the light of patriotic deed people, as if enriched with new features.
After the war, young forces came to art, and among them was the Leningrad sculptor M.K. Anikushin is the same age as October. He graduated from the Academy of Arts in 1947. Behind was the front, the impressions of which were reflected in his first works ("Winner", "Soldier's Friendship").
The artist takes part in the competition for the monument to Pushkin (1949). And immediately new beautiful aspects of the talent of the young sculptor came to light. The statue of Pushkin, presented for the project, won over with its noble simplicity, special spirituality and grace, which so corresponded to the idea of Pushkin.
Anikushin was instructed to work on the project further. In the second round of the competition (1950), he was the only winner; his model was adopted for the construction of the monument. And here the great exactingness of the sculptor to himself was manifested.
Studying the work of Pushkin, visiting places associated with his name, imbued with the mood of unfading poetry, Anikushin puts more and more unique Pushkin into his creations.
This theme completely captured the sculptor. He created a series of sketches and finished statues of Pushkin, corresponding to various periods of his life, conveying the subtle shades of his poetic reflections, creative inspiration. All this, of course, enriched the project of the monument, on which he did not stop working.
Nevertheless, having fashioned a model of the monument in clay, which was approved in all instances, the sculptor creates a new, more perfect version, according to which the monument, opened in June 1957, was made.
The main thing that attracts in it is crystal clarity and inner harmony images, so corresponding to the very Spirit of Pushkin's poetry. Pushkin's face is inspired and somehow strictly enlightened. It seems that his poems have just sounded, one can even feel their character, freedom-loving, free, civil. Pushkin's gesture is wide, full of not only appeal, but conveying the inspiration of the poet, the warmth of the soul, inner conviction. A proud aspiration to the sky is felt in the whole figure, all of it is turned to a wide expanse.
The molding of the figure is clear, finished. The clarity of form reveals that classical rigor and at the same time romantic excitement, in the unity of which inner content image.
The pedestal for the monument was successfully designed (architect V.A. Petrov). Small, correctly found in proportions, it perfectly emphasizes the harmony and lightness of the figure itself.
Both in its figurative structure and architectonics, the monument corresponds to the Arts Square ensemble, the center of which it has now become.
Imbued with the spirit of Pushkin's poetry, the new monument adequately adorned Leningrad, sounding in unison with its wonderful old ensembles, many of which were created in Pushkin's time.
No less responsible and difficult task of Soviet art was the creation of a monument to Mayakovsky in Moscow. If Pushkin is separated from us by a century, then Mayakovsky is almost a contemporary, memories of meetings with him are still preserved. It would seem that it would be much easier to embody his features in a monument. However, this raises its own specific difficulties. This monument demanded a very unconventional, bold decision. best poet Soviet era. Its design took many years. Most of the projects, possessing a certain impressive force, seemed one-sided - they did not reveal in a single synthesis the qualities of Mayakovsky - a man, a poet, a citizen. Therefore, the project of the sculptor A.P. Kibalnikova (b. 1912), presented at one of the last rounds of the competition (1955). It showed a serious attempt to recreate the image in its complex dialectical unity, absorbing various parties surprisingly original personality of Mayakovsky.
Despite the fact that Kibalnikov's project was accepted for implementation, the main work for the sculptor was still ahead. By this time he already had considerable experience in the field of monumental sculpture. His many years of work on the image of N.G. Chernyshevsky ended with the creation of a monument in Saratov (1953).
It is from the transfer internal state goes the sculptor and is working on a new monument. Inner excitement, an attentive, penetrating look, an active attitude to life determine the image of the poet. Placed on a low pedestal made of red granite, the bronze figure seems to be close to the viewer. Mayakovsky belongs entirely to that ebullient life that unfolds around him. “Like talking to living people,” he seems to have taken a step towards the future. Strength, youth, revolutionary energy - that unique thing that we associate with the idea of \u200b\u200bMayakovsky's poetry is expressed in the composition of the monument: in the energetic plasticity of volumes, a strong turn of the body, an elastic, clear silhouette line. With all the strength, tangible weight of the figure, it is distinguished by comparative lightness and harmony of proportions.
Developing the best traditions of Soviet monumental sculpture, Kibalnikov in the monument to Mayakovsky managed to achieve a special depth and versatility of the image, which were previously mainly considered the property of easel sculpture. Purified from everything accidental, but without losing the complexity and versatility of the individual character, the image finds a clear, concise and expressive form.
This line is especially important for the development of our monumental sculpture, since sometimes the desire for laconicism leads to one-sidedness of content, and at the same time to simplification and schematism of form.
Kibalnikov completed both the sculptural and architectural parts of the monument, which so organically fits into the ensemble of the square.
In July 1958, a monument was opened in Moscow, convincingly recreating the image of the poet of the Revolution.
The development of Soviet monumental sculpture proceeds along the broad lines of realistic art, and an artist can achieve expressiveness by many means, if, of course, he retains the main thing - a living figurative principle. As the practice of our art shows, a deep idea can also be expressed in an image that combines specific forms with generalized monumental ones. The sculptor L. E. Kerbel went in this way, creating in collaboration with architects (R. A. Begunts, N. A. Kovalchuk, V. G. Makarevich and V. M. Margulis) a monument to Karl Marx. The lists of the plan of monumental propaganda provided for the construction "primarily of monuments to the outstanding figures of the revolution, Marx and Engels."
On November 7, 1918, a temporary monument to Marx and Engels by the sculptor S. Mezentsev was unveiled in Moscow.
On May 1, 1920, during the laying of a new, long-term monument to Karl Marx on Theater Square, an exciting speech was delivered by V. I. Lenin. The sculptor S.S. worked a lot on the creation of the monumental image of K. Marx. Aleshin, but the monument was never implemented.
In 1957, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU decided to build a monument to Karl Marx in Moscow. On his project was announced open competition. Many sculptors took part in it, ardently desiring to create a monument worthy of the brilliant teacher of the world proletariat. Among the proposals, one project stood out - under the motto "Red Hammer and Sickle", which gave a concise, concise and expressive solution.
The author of the sculptural part of the monument was L. E. Kerbel (born 1917), who belongs to the middle generation of Soviet sculptors, who has already created several portrait monuments, among them - a monument to General F. I. Tolbukhin.
But in the work on the monument to K. Marx, everything was much more complicated. Accurately conveying portrait features, preserving the concreteness of the image, it was necessary to convey the greatness of the cause of Marx, which lives and triumphs in most of the globe.
In the presented project, a serious application was made for such a solution.
L.E. Kerbel, realizing all the responsibility and honor of the task, together with a team of architects, gets to work. In very short term(for about a year) he creates a model in the size of a monument, in which he refines and brings to the utmost clarity the plastic solution.
Together with the architects, a layout is being developed, linking the monument with the territory of the square, additional architectural forms.
The sculptor assumed only one material for the implementation of the monument - granite. Only in its monolithic whole block could the intended composition be realized. Delivered from the Kudashevsky quarry, from near Dnepropetrovsk, a block of coarse-grained gray granite was processed by granite masters under the direction of L. E. Kerbel. When translating the model into granite, additional changes arose, dictated by the specifics of the material.
It was especially important to find the right ratio of processed and unprocessed parts of the block, so that the figure organically, naturally grew out of the stone.
This is what we feel in the established monument. The figure of Marx, rising from a block of granite, seems to be fused with it. The movement expressed in the sculptural part of the composition is more strongly perceived in contrast with the unshakable granite mass. Only the front of the granite base stands out as a clear line; Marx's right arm, bent at the elbow, leans on it like a pulpit; the whole figure, with the left arm abducted, leans forward. The head is especially expressive, where not only an exact portrait resemblance is conveyed, but great spirituality, a passionate conviction of the thinker. The face is treated with wide planes, with a clear, but at the same time soft distribution of light and shadow on the surface. Marx's gaze, which is distinguished by special vigilance and sharpness, is directed into the distance. As if growing right out of the ground, the monument required a special architectural design of the surrounding area. All of it is somewhat raised and bordered by a strip of polished granite, which, together with the surrounding greenery, creates a kind of frame for the monument. Two gray granite pylons behind the monument with the words of Lenin and Engels carved on them enrich the monument both in terms of meaning and composition.
Opened on October 29, 1961, during the days of the XXII Party Congress, the monument acquired great international and political significance.
A matter of honor for Soviet sculpture was the creation of monuments and entire ensembles dedicated to the heroes and events of the Second World War. Many of these works are symbolic in nature, and this symbolism arises from a wide philosophical reflection feat of the people.
In 1957, the Lithuanian government decided to build a monument on the site of the village of Pirchupis, destroyed by the Nazis on July 28, 1944, whose inhabitants were burned alive. Deeply penetrating this tragedy, the young Lithuanian sculptor Gediminas Iokubonis (b. 1927) embodied the heroic theme in a laconic, severe and expressive form.
The memory of the event in Pirchupis echoed with living pain in the heart of the Lithuanian people, and therefore the competition for the monument attracted Special attention the public. A lot has been shown interesting projects, almost all of them were solved in a symbolic way, many gave a complex allegorical interpretation of the event. Iokubonis presented the project in two versions. In one of them, the main architectural form was an obelisk with a broken top, against which a statue of a woman with a child was installed, in the other - a purely sculptural solution: a figure elderly woman frozen in mute grief. The second option seemed more innovative, its symbolism was quite natural and at the same time significant; the presented version of the monument was really exciting, although it did not yet have everything that I would like to see in this work.
In 1958, Iokubonis began the development of the project together with the architect V. Gabryunas. Characteristically, when creating the monument Iokubonis rose to a qualitatively new level of creativity. Having invested in this image his thoughts about the fate of the people, about the bright ideals that the communist society affirms, he broadly, penetratingly embodied this exciting idea in a monumental monument.
The final version of the monument successfully combined the traditional features of Lithuanian folk art with a new modern visual solution.
Located on the territory of the village of Pirchupis, not far from the highway leading from Vilnius to the southeast, the monument was designed as a roadside monument.
Rising on a flat terrain, bordered in the distance by forests, so characteristic of Lithuanian Dzukija, this monument, small in size, but well found in scale, immediately attracts attention.
On a low pedestal stands the figure of a woman-mother, as if frozen in deep sorrow. She seems to have grown together with her native land, protecting her.
Outwardly static composition is filled with internal dynamics. Everything random, superfluous is discarded in it, attention is focused on the main thing. A shawl thrown over her head, a long dress falling to the ground help to create a simple and very expressive silhouette, emphasizing the solidity of the sculpture, built from large blocks of gray granite. Facial expression is striking. Deeply sunken eyes, mournfully drawn together eyebrows, mournfully and severely compressed mouth. But the experience does not distort the face. Generalized modeled forms, lines distinguished by accuracy and purity - all this brings a special epic clarity to the tragic image, makes it majestic and noble. Force expressed feeling emphasized and restrained gesture - right hand, holding the shawl at the chin, convulsively squeezes the handkerchief, the left one is lowered.
The expressiveness of the sculpture is enhanced by the overall architectural design of the monument, its organic connection with surrounding nature. The contrast between the vertical of the monument and the flat terrain is somewhat softened by a low memorial wall located behind it, on which the text is carved: “The tragedy of Pirchupis will never happen again”, below the names of all the dead are written and a relief is embedded, very tactfully, as if subduedly developing the theme of the monument. Outlined by a laconic and expressive silhouette, the relief figures express the tragedy of the last minutes of people doomed to death. Specially planted trees near the monument, paths made of granite rubble are finely found strokes of the general semantic and compositional solution of the ensemble.
Among the memorial monuments in Soviet and foreign sculpture, the monument in Pirchupis, opened in July 1960, took pride of place.
Most of the sculptures awarded the Lenin Prize belong to monumental art. It is in it that great exciting topics find their expression, images that are dear to the people are embodied.
Naturally, when creating an image that carries in itself the big idea of a broadly generalizing phenomenon of reality, the artist, as it were, all the time feels the invisible support of the people, their ardent participation.
For many sculptors, especially young ones, the work on such monuments was a new stage in their work, a real life and artistic school, in which they not only reached the pinnacle of mastery, but also learned the great social role of art.
And therefore their works, embodying the idea of monumental propaganda on its new, the highest stage, rightly crowned with a prize bearing the name of the great Lenin, who ingeniously foresaw the prospects for the development of the art of the future, the art of communism.
At the time when this edition was already being printed, the Lenin Prizes in Literature, Art and Architecture in 1970 were awarded.
The prizes were awarded to outstanding works of monumental art, architectural and sculptural ensembles: the memorial ensemble in memory of the victims of fascist terror in Salaspils (authors G.K. Asaris, architect, L.V. Bukovsky, sculptor, O.N. Zakamenny, architect, J.P. Zarin, sculptor, O. I. Ostenberg, architect, O. Yu. Skarain, sculptor, I. A. Strautman, architect), monument-ensemble to heroes Battle of Stalingrad in Volgograd (author of the project, head of the team of authors E.V. Vuchetich, sculptor, author of the project Ya.B. Belopolsky, architect, co-authors: V.A. Demin, architect, V.E. Matrosov, sculptor, A.S. Novikov , sculptor, A.A. Tyurenkov, sculptor) and the Khatyn memorial complex (authors Yu.M. Gradov, architect, V.P. Zankovich, architect, L.L. Mendelevich, architect, S.I. Selikhanov, sculptor ).
Eight sculptors became new laureates of the Lenin Prize.
Award history
The Lenin Prizes were established on June 23, 1925 by decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars. Initially awarded only for scientific works "in order to encourage scientific activity in the direction closest to the ideas of V. I. Lenin, namely, in the direction of a close connection between science and life".
Lenin prize certificate inside.jpg
Lenin prize certificate outside.jpg
Certificate of laureate of the Lenin Prize, 1962
Laureates of the Lenin Prize
Laureates of the V. I. Lenin Prize
see also
- International Lenin Prize "For strengthening peace among peoples"
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Notes
Literature
- Lenin Prizes // Kuna - Lomami. - M. : Soviet Encyclopedia, 1973. - (Great Soviet Encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / ch. ed. A. M. Prokhorov; 1969-1978, v. 14).
An excerpt characterizing the Lenin Prize
- Beat him! .. Let the traitor die and not shame the name of the Russian! shouted Rastopchin. - Ruby! I order! - Hearing not words, but the angry sounds of Rostopchin's voice, the crowd groaned and moved forward, but again stopped.- Count! .. - Vereshchagin's timid and at the same time theatrical voice said in the midst of a momentary silence. “Count, one god is above us…” said Vereshchagin, raising his head, and again the thick vein on his thin neck became filled with blood, and the color quickly came out and fled from his face. He didn't finish what he wanted to say.
- Cut him! I order! .. - shouted Rostopchin, suddenly turning as pale as Vereshchagin.
- Sabers out! shouted the officer to the dragoons, drawing his saber himself.
Another even stronger wave soared through the people, and, having reached the front rows, this wave moved the front ones, staggering, brought them to the very steps of the porch. A tall fellow, with a petrified expression on his face and with a stopped raised hand, stood next to Vereshchagin.
- Ruby! almost whispered an officer to the dragoons, and one of the soldiers suddenly, with a distorted face of anger, hit Vereshchagin on the head with a blunt broadsword.
"BUT!" - Vereshchagin cried out shortly and in surprise, looking around in fright and as if not understanding why this was done to him. The same groan of surprise and horror ran through the crowd.
"Oh my God!" - someone's sad exclamation was heard.
But following the exclamation of surprise that escaped from Vereshchagin, he cried out plaintively in pain, and this cry ruined him. That stretched up the highest degree block human feeling, which was still holding the crowd, erupted instantly. The crime was begun, it was necessary to complete it. The plaintive groan of reproach was drowned out by the formidable and angry roar of the crowd. Like the last seventh wave breaking ships, this last unstoppable wave soared up from the back rows, reached the front ones, knocked them down and swallowed everything. The dragoon who had struck wanted to repeat his blow. Vereshchagin with a cry of horror, shielding himself with his hands, rushed to the people. The tall fellow, whom he stumbled upon, seized Vereshchagin's thin neck with his hands, and with a wild cry, together with him, fell under the feet of the roaring people who had piled on.
Some beat and tore at Vereshchagin, others were tall fellows. And the cries of the crushed people and those who tried to save the tall fellow only aroused the rage of the crowd. For a long time the dragoons could not free the bloody, beaten to death factory worker. And for a long time, despite all the feverish haste with which the crowd tried to complete the work once begun, those people who beat, strangled and tore Vereshchagin could not kill him; but the crowd crushed them from all sides, with them in the middle, like one mass, swaying from side to side and did not give them the opportunity to either finish him off or leave him.
“Beat with an ax, or what? .. crushed ... Traitor, sold Christ! .. alive ... living ... torment for a thief. Constipation then! .. Is Ali alive?
Only when the victim had already ceased to struggle and her cries were replaced by a uniform drawn-out wheezing, the crowd began to hastily move around the lying, bloodied corpse. Everyone came up, looked at what had been done, and crowded back with horror, reproach and surprise.
“Oh my God, the people are like a beast, where can the living be!” was heard in the crowd. “And the fellow is young ... it must be from the merchants, then the people! .. they say, not that one ... how not that one ... Oh my God ... Another was beaten, they say, a little alive ... Eh, people ... Who is not afraid of sin ... - they said now the same people, with a painfully pitiful expression, looking at dead body with a blue face, smeared with blood and dust, and with a slashed long thin neck.
A diligent police official, finding the presence of a corpse in His Excellency's courtyard indecent, ordered the dragoons to pull the body out into the street. Two dragoons took hold of the mutilated legs and dragged the body. A bloodied, dust-stained, dead, shaved head on a long neck, tucked up, dragged along the ground. The people huddled away from the corpse.
While Vereshchagin fell and the crowd, with a wild roar, hesitated and swayed over him, Rostopchin suddenly turned pale, and instead of going to the back porch, where the horses were waiting for him, he, not knowing where and why, lowered his head, with quick steps walked along the corridor leading to the rooms on the ground floor. The count's face was pale, and he could not stop his lower jaw shaking as if in a fever.
“Your Excellency, this way... where would you like to go?... this way, please,” his trembling, frightened voice said from behind. Count Rostopchin was unable to answer anything and, obediently turning around, went where he was directed. There was a carriage on the back porch. The distant rumble of the roaring crowd was heard here too. Count Rostopchin hurriedly got into the carriage and ordered to go to his country house in Sokolniki. Having left for Myasnitskaya and not hearing the cries of the crowd anymore, the count began to repent. He now recalled with displeasure the excitement and fear he had shown to his subordinates. "La populace est terrible, elle est hideuse," he thought in French. - Ils sont sosh les loups qu "on ne peut apaiser qu" avec de la chair. [The crowd is terrible, it is disgusting. They are like wolves: you can't satisfy them with anything but meat.] “Count! one god is above us!' - he suddenly remembered the words of Vereshchagin, and an unpleasant feeling of cold ran down the back of Count Rostopchin. But this feeling was instantaneous, and Count Rostopchin smiled contemptuously over himself. "J" avais d "autres devoirs," he thought. – Il fallait apaiser le peuple. Bien d "autres victimes ont peri et perissent pour le bien publique“, [I had other duties. I had to satisfy the people. Many other victims died and are dying for the public good.] - and he began to think about the general duties that he had in relation to his family, his (entrusted to him) capital and himself - not as Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin (he believed that Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin sacrifices himself for the bien publique [public good]), but about himself as a commander in chief, about "If I were only Fyodor Vasilyevich, ma ligne de conduite aurait ete tout autrement tracee, [my path would have been drawn in a completely different way,] but I had to save both the life and dignity of the commander in chief."
Swaying slightly on the soft springs of the carriage and not hearing the more terrible sounds of the crowd, Rostopchin physically calmed down, and, as always happens, simultaneously with physical calming, the mind forged for him the reasons for moral calming. The thought that calmed Rostopchin was not new. Since the world has existed and people have been killing each other, not a single person has ever committed a crime against his own kind without reassuring himself with this very thought. This thought is le bien publique [the public good], the supposed good of other people.
