June 1, 1920 was born David Kaufman, known as David (for friends - Dezik) Samoilov, Soviet poet, front-line soldier.

Private bussiness

David Samuilovich Kaufman (author's pseudonym - David Samoilov), (1920-1990) was born in Moscow in a Jewish intelligent family. In 1938-1941 he studied at MIFLI (as it was called at that time Faculty of Philology Moscow State University). At the beginning of the Finnish war, Samoilov wanted to go to the front as a volunteer, but was not mobilized for health reasons. He was first mobilized to the labor front, and in 1942 got to Volkhov Front, was wounded in the leg, ended the war in the 3rd separate Motor Reconnaissance Division of the Intelligence Department of Headquarters 1 Belorussian Front. For courage and heroism shown during the Great Patriotic War, awarded the order Red Star and the Medal for Military Merit. In 1976, Samoilov settled in the Estonian seaside town of Pärnu. He died in 1990 in Tallinn.

What is famous

One of the most famous and officially recognized Soviet lyric poets. The main themes of his lyrics are war, love, the meaning of life, partly historical figures of Russian history (Anna Yaroslavna, Sophia Paleolog, an associate of Peter the Great, Prince Menshikov). He also wrote children's poems. Author of thirteen collections of poetry.

What you need to know

Samoilov was not a dissident, but the KGB kept an eye on him. He was not a philosopher, according to his son, he did not like to delve into himself and look into his soul. However, Samoilov was very interested in history.

Direct speech

“The main thing that the war revealed to me is the feeling of the people ... We had all the time a feeling of the environment, even of a generation. We even had a term before the war: “the generation of the 40th year.”

How it was! How did it coincide?

War, trouble, dream and youth!

And it all sunk into me

And only then I woke up! ..

forties, fatal,

Lead, gunpowder...

War walks in Russia,

And we are so young!

6 facts about David Samoilov

• In the mid 150s. Samoilov had an affair with Svetlana Aliluyeva, Stalin's daughter, who wanted to bring the matter to a wedding, but Samoilov declined.
• Shortly before his death, Samoilov became a laureate State Prize USSR (1988).
• Samoilov's first poetic publication appeared in the October magazine, No. 3 for 1941, thanks to his teacher Ilya Selvinsky (the poem "Hunting for a mammoth" signed by David Kaufman).
• At the front, Samoilov was a scout and wrote satirical poems about Hitler for the garrison newspaper signed "Semyon Shilo".
• In the village of Opalikha near Moscow, Heinrich Böll visited Samoilov.
• Samoilov was the author of the famous children's fairy tale "Tourist Elephant", which was made into an animated film in 1992.
• In 1943 the poet was wounded; his life was saved by a friend, an Altai peasant S.A. Kosov, about whom Samoilov wrote the poem "Semyon Andreevich" in 1946.

In Moscow, in the family of the doctor Samuil Abramovich Kaufman. The poet took the pseudonym after the war in memory of his father.

In 1938, David Samoilov graduated from high school and entered the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, History and Literature (MIFLI) - an association humanitarian faculties separated from the Moscow State University.

Samoilov's first poetic publication, thanks to his teacher Ilya Selvinsky, appeared in the October magazine in 1941. The poem "Mammoth Hunt" was published signed by David Kaufman.

In 1941, as a student, Samoilov was mobilized to dig trenches. On the labor front, the poet fell ill, was evacuated to Ashgabat, where he entered the military infantry school, after which in 1942 he was sent to the Volkhov Front near Tikhvin.

In 1943, Samoilov was wounded, after the hospital he returned to the front and became a scout. In parts of the 1st Belorussian Front he liberated Poland and Germany; ended the war in Berlin. He was awarded the Order of the Red Star, medals.

During the war, the poet almost did not write. After the war, Samoilov worked as professional translator poetry and as a radio writer.

His first publications were translations from Albanian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian. As a translator, he was admitted to the Writers' Union.

The first post-war work "Poems about the New City" was published in 1948 in the Znamya magazine. Regular publication of his poems in periodicals began in 1955.

In 1958 he published his first book of poetry, the poem "Near Countries".

The military theme became the main theme in the work of David Samoilov. In the period from 1960 to 1975, his best things about the Great Patriotic War: "Forties", "Old Man Derzhavin", "Going through our dates", "Thank God! Thank God ...", etc. After the release of the poetry collection "Days" (1970), Samoilov's name became known a wide range readers. In the collection Equinox (1972), the poet combined best poems from my previous books.

Since 1967, David Samoilov lived in the village of Opalikha near Moscow. The poet did not participate in the semi-official life of a writer, but the range of his activities was as wide as the circle of friends. Samoilov was friends with many of his outstanding contemporaries - Fazil Iskander, Yuri Levitansky, Bulat Okudzhava, Nikolai Lyubimov, Zinovy ​​Gerdt, Yuli Kim and others. Despite his eye disease, Samoilov was engaged in historical archive while working on a play about 1917; published the verse book "The Book of Russian Rhyme".

In 1974, the poet's book "Wave and Stone" was published, which critics called Samoilov's "Pushkin's most" book - not only by the number of references to Pushkin, but, most importantly, by the poetic worldview.

AT different years David Samoilov published books of poems "News" (1978), "Selected" (1980), "Gulf" (1981), "Voices behind the hills" (1985), "A handful" (1989), as well as books for children "Traffic Light" "(1962) and" Elephant went to study. Plays in verse "(1982).

The writer did a lot of translations, participated in the creation of several performances at the Taganka Theater, at Sovremennik, at the Yermolova Theater, wrote songs for theater and cinema.

In 1976, David Samoilov settled in the Estonian seaside town of Pärnu. New impressions were reflected in the poems that made up the collections "News" (1978), "Tooming Street", "Gulf", "Lines of the Hand" (all - 1981).

Since 1962, Samoilov kept a diary, many entries from which served as the basis for prose, published after his death as a separate book, Memoirs (1995).

In 2002, David Samoilov's two-volume "Daily Recordings" was published, which for the first time combined all the poet's diary heritage into one edition.

Samoilov's brilliant humor gave rise to numerous parodies, epigrams, a playful epistolary novel, etc. works collected by the author and his friends in the collection "In the Circle of Myself", which was published in 1993, after the death of the poet, in Vilnius and went through several reprints.

The writer was awarded the USSR State Prize (1988). His poems have been translated into many European languages.

David Samoilov died on February 23, 1990 in Tallinn, at the anniversary evening of Boris Pasternak, having barely completed his speech.

He was buried in Pärnu (Estonia) at the Forest Cemetery.

In June 2006, a memorial plaque to front-line poet David Samoilov was unveiled in Moscow. It is located on the house where he lived for more than 40 years - at the intersection of Obraztsova Street and Ploshchad Struggle.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

June 1 is the birthday of the poet, translator and World War II soldier David Samoilov (1920-1990).

1. "Forties-fatal"

Several times during the war, the young man David Samoilov wrote down a list in his diary literary works- poems, poems, stories that he needs to write in this life. The novel "Generation of the fortieth year" is mentioned twice in the plans. "O! I need to live,” he writes in 1942. You need to survive, because you need to carry out the plan. David Samoilov did not write the novel that he lived during the war. Instead, it turned out to be a poem that contained thoughts and experiences military time and is considered the main - textbook and famous - work of David Samoilov:

forties, fatal,

military and frontline

Where are the funeral notices

And echelon interchanges.

Rolled rails hum.

Spacious. Cold. High.

And fire victims, fire victims

Wandering from west to east...

And this is me at the station

In your dirty earflap,

Where the asterisk is not authorized,

And cut out of a can.

Yes, this is me in the world,

Skinny, funny and playful.

And I have tobacco in a pouch,

And I have a mouthpiece.

And I'm joking with the girl

And I'm lame more than necessary

And I break the solder in two,

And I understand everything.

How it was! How did it coincide?

War, trouble, dream and youth!

And it all sunk into me

And only then I woke up! ..

forties, fatal,

Lead, gunpowder...

War walks in Russia,

And we are so young!

2.Diary

Schoolboy David Samoilov decided to become a real poet and wrote about it in his diary. The diary helped him to put big goals. David Samoilov began keeping a diary in 1934, when he was fourteen years old, and did not stop until the last year of his life in 1990. Having become a grandfather, he himself was surprised that he had written a work covering a half-century period of history! Already in the new millennium - in 2002 - some of the recordings were published in the form of a very beautiful two-volume "Daily Recordings".

3. Daisy Kaufman, Muscovite, son of a doctor.

Classmates called David Daisy and Dezik. His real name- Kaufman. His father was a doctor. David Samoilov talks about his father in the book "Going through our dates" in the chapter "Dream about the father":

“When my grandmother sent her eldest son to study reading and writing, my father, who was about four years old, followed him. The teacher took him on as a student for half the pay. And my father also sat down at the table to chant biblical lines ... He was not originally religious. The Bible for him is a real attribute of childhood.” Samuil Kaufman studied medicine at the University of Krakow, in those distant times when Krakow was part of Austria-Hungary.

Samoilov recalls his childhood in the poem "Departure".

I remember my dad is still young.

I remember the departure, some fees.

And the cabby is dashing, curled.

Horse, cab, and whip, and springs.

And in Moscow - an antediluvian tram,

Where is the old horse trailer.

And over Ekaterininsky - gray.

Everything was imprinted in the memory of the child.

I remember - my mother is still young,

Smiling at our neighbors.

And we are going somewhere. Where?

Oh, somewhere, why are we going!

And Moscow is high and bright.

The turmoil of Okhotny Ryad.

And then - domes, domes.

And we're going, we're all going somewhere.

The forged horse chimes loudly

About a cobblestone in some driveway.

The domes are fading the fire,

Constellation candles are lit.

Dad is young. And the mother is young.

The horse is hot. And the span is winged.

And we're going, no one knows where, -

We all go and go somewhere.

4. "Pioneer Truth": a terrible meeting

David began writing poetry at the age of six. At fourteen he wrote the poem "The Song of Chapaev". And with his "Chapaev", typed on a typewriter, the young writer came to the newspaper. “Today I went to the editor of Pionerskaya Pravda,” he wrote in his diary on January 9, 1935, “he carried poetry. He looked. Criticized brutally. He said that maybe we won’t make a writer out of you, but you will be a literate person. I looked at the verses. He scribbled, criticized ... He ordered me to come on the 11th at 7 pm. There will be guys who write. I won't go - why waste time?

Interestingly, the very next day, Daisy Kaufman recovered from a seemingly crushing blow to self-importance. This is what he wrote down on January 10: “On reflection, I think that my situation is not so bad. How many critics scolded anyone? Take Pushkin, Nekrasov and others.

5. Institute

After school, David Kaufman enters Literary Institute. He studies with Pavel Kogan, Mikhail Kulchitsky, Boris Slutsky. After the third year, the poets go to war. Not many return.

Another important poem by David Samoilov “Going through our dates” is dedicated to the poet of the front-line period.

Going through our dates

I'm talking to those guys

What in the forty-first went to the soldiers

And in the humanists in forty-five.

And humanism is not just a term,

Besides, they say, abstract.

I turn again to loss

They are difficult and irrevocable.

I remember Pavel, Misha,

Ilya, Boris, Nikolai.

I myself now depend on them,

Sometimes I don't want to.

They made noise in the lush forest,

They had faith and trust.

And they were beaten with iron,

And there is no forest - only trees.

And it looks like we have a nice day

And like the wind pulls to fly...

We call each other with Seryozha,

But there is no forest, and there is no echo.

I'm talking about Pavel, Misha,

Ilya, Boris, Nikolai.

6. Front. Return

David Samoilov was a machine gunner on the Volkhov front. After being wounded and hospitalized, he returns to the front. In 1943, he writes in his diary: “I met ‘Maxim’ as if I were an old acquaintance. I know him. He knows me. And we have nothing to talk about." The poet is fighting in intelligence. Participates in the breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad, in the battles near Warsaw. Comes to Berlin. And here is an entry from 1945: “There is also a tiny orphan rabbit here. He spent the whole day yesterday in my bosom.

The poem “Near Countries. Notes in verse, dedicated to returning home from Berlin, appears in 1959, that is, fifteen years after the Victory. This is a story full of sadness and tenderness about comrades-in-arms, about an ownerless German cow being milked by a foreman, about German old musicians met on the road, about a lost dog "kabyzdoshka", which one of the fighters takes with him to Russia. And here is the episode about the battalion commander Bogomolov and the German prisoner:

He sat with his head down

Waiting for a decision (gesagt und getan)

And then I said to Bogomolov:

What to do with him, decide, captain.

No people - to escort the prisoner,

And how much will he say of value?

The life of a soldier is worth little.

They say a word - you will go under the gun.

In the role of the formidable Lord God

An officer stood in front of the prisoner.

And Captain Bogomolov said:

The devil is with him. Let this fool live!

Although the question is not clear to him

Who we are and where we stand

But for us it is no longer dangerous.

Let him go home to his own!

Morning. The prisoner goes through the field,

Glad, or maybe not happy with your will? ..

Captain Bogomolov! not without reason

You've been a battalion commander for almost half a year.

You have four wounds

Three shell shocks, a couple of awards.

And such a special right

Give life and send to death,

What would he be able to do in this case

Even God sometimes replace.

Not such a difficult job

Among our earthly positions.

You might be better off

This world is made up of the simplest parts.

7. Translations and the first book

After the war, David Samoilov was engaged in translations. He translated great amount poems - Apollinaire, Brecht, Rimbaud, Tuwim, Galchinsky, Iyesha and other Czech, Slovak, Hungarian poets. David Samoilov translated Shakespeare's Twelfth Night for the Sovremennik Theatre. And the first book of David Samoilov's own poems, Near Countries, appeared only in 1958, when the author was already 38.

8. "The book of Russian rhyme"

In 1973, David Samoilov sent a questionnaire to a hundred (!) contemporary poets with questions about rhyme. I must say that David Samoilov was a friend of all friends, he was familiar and friendly with many poets of that time. Of the hundred poets, thirty responded to the questionnaire. Their answers were included in the fundamental literary work "The Book of Russian Rhyme". (One of Yevtushenko's answers: " bad poetry good rhymes won't save you.")

This is a one-of-a-kind work where detailed way rhymes in Russian poetry are considered. For example, in the big chapter, dedicated to Pushkin, the author traces how Alexander Sergeevich's rhymes changed from year to year.

9. Elephant-tourist

David Samoilov wrote four children's stories about Baby Elephant. The stories became radio plays and then cartoons. And the most popular performance was "Tourist Elephant". Elephant with Camel cub go on a hike, they write travel notes, looking for lodging for the night, getting acquainted with the inhabitants of the forest. Everyone has their own problem, for example, Worm must solve a paradoxical question: “I am lying and thinking about something important. I don't have time to chat with everyone... The question occupies me. Where my head ends and my tail begins. The poems from the Tourist Elephant turned into funny songs, which can still be heard on the Children's Radio.

10. Pärnu

At the end of his journey, David Samoilov lived in the Estonian town of Pärnu. The poet adored nature and was a master of landscape; snowfalls, smells of forest and rain burst into his poems.

And it happens - on a rainy day,

When everything is gray and dark

Happy blue light

A window will open in the middle of the clouds.

The biography of David Samoilov is of interest to many admirers of his work. This is a famous Soviet poet of the generation of front-line soldiers, like many of his peers, who went to war as a student.

Childhood and youth

The biography of David Samoilov begins in 1920. He was born into a Jewish family. The future front-line poet was born in Moscow.

His father was a well-known doctor in his circle named Samuil Abramovich Kaufman. At the time of David's birth, he was 28 years old. Over time, he became the chief venereologist of the Moscow region, consulted patients with the most complex pathologies. The mother of the hero of our article was called Cecilia Izrailevna Kaufman.

In 1938, in the biography of David Samoilov, significant event. He enters the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History. True, he failed to finish his studies. When did it start Finnish war, Samoilov decided to volunteer for the front. But they did not take him, he turned out to be unfit for health reasons.

When the USSR was attacked Hitler's troops, they were no longer so meticulous about the state of health of conscripts.

At the front

David Samoilov is a poet whose biography is closely connected with the Great Patriotic War. In 1941 he was sent to the labor front. First of all, he dug trenches in the territory Smolensk region, near Vyazma, where the most fierce battles were going on at that time.

True, he could not endure such a test for a long time and became seriously ill. Samoilov was evacuated to Samarkand. When his affairs began to improve, he was able to enroll in evening department Pedagogical Institute, remaining in evacuation.

In parallel, in the biography of David Samoilov appeared and military education. He became a cadet of the military infantry school, however, he did not have time to graduate from it. In 1942 he was again sent to the front. This time on Volkhovsky near the town of Tikhvin.

On March 23, 1942, in a battle near the Mga station, he was seriously wounded in left hand. The poet suffered from a fragment of a mine.

In that battle, he proved himself to be a brave soldier, so a week later the command put him on the award. David Samoilov, whose biography is given in this article, received the medal "For Courage". The leadership emphasized that he was the first to break into the German trench, entered into hand-to-hand combat simultaneously with three Nazi soldiers, whom he destroyed as a result.

Having been wounded, he was again hospitalized and sent to restore his health, which had been undermined by the injury.

At the end of the war

According to many researchers, the most important thing in the biography of David Samoilov is his military exploits. It is noteworthy that he managed to recover only by March 1944. He returned to regular army, continuing service in reconnaissance company on the First Belorussian Front.

In November I received another military award. This time the medal "For Military Merit". Interestingly, he was also awarded it for severe wounds received in battles at the Mga station, as well as for conscientious performance of the duties of a clerk on the Belorussian front.

In 1945, Samoilov participated in the Great Patriotic War already as a submachine gunner. He is celebrated for the capture of a fascist armored personnel carrier with three prisoners. Among them is one non-commissioned officer who provided the Soviet command with valuable information that helped Soviet troops in the battles for Berlin.

Poems during the war

It is noteworthy that during the war years Samoilov did not write poetry. The only exception was a poetic satire directed at Adolf Hitler, as well as a poem about the most successful soldier Foma Smyslov, which he wrote for the garrison newspaper. At the same time, Samoilov used the pseudonym Semyon Shilo.

The poet began to publish in 1941.

Translations

AT post-war years Samoilov David Samuilovich, whose biography you are now reading, was engaged in translations. In particular, he adapted for the Soviet reader Lithuanian, Hungarian, Czech, Polish poets, as well as works of representatives of the peoples of the USSR.

Since 1974, he settled on the territory of the Estonian SSR in the town of Pärnu. He died in 1990 in Tallinn. He was 69 years old.

Creativity of the poet

David Samoilov, his first post-war work, short biography which is before you, published in 1948. His poems about the new city were published in the Znamya magazine. The poet deliberately did not write anything immediately after the victory. He believed that all thoughts, feelings and impressions should settle in his soul before starting to embody all this in poetic creativity.

In 1958 the first separate collection of his poems entitled "Near Countries". His next books were big success at readers. These are lyrical-philosophical poems in the collection "The Second Pass", as well as "Days", "News", "Wave and Stone", "Gulf", "Voices over the Hills". They told in detail about the war and front-line years, as well as about the modern generation, about the role and purpose of art, about historical subjects.

Assessment of Samoilov's poems

Art critics and researchers of the writer's work noted the uniqueness of his poems. In his works, they saw the tragic worldview of a real participant in hostilities, which he managed to hide behind the most simple and in ordinary words, while focusing on the Russian classics. Also, following the traditions of the great Russian literature was always highly valued in his work.

Samoilov gained popularity during mass public speaking. The first of them took place in 1960 in the Central Lecture Hall of Kharkov. The poet read his magnificent poems and answered various questions residents and visitors of this city. The organizer of this and many of his subsequent performances was the Kharkov writer, close friend the hero of our article, whose name was Lev Yakovlevich Livshits.

One of the most famous works created by Samoilov - a poem called "The Hussar's Song". Many Soviet and modern admirers of his work know her by the first line "When we were at war ...". These verses also became famous because at the very beginning of the 80s, the bard Viktor Stolyarov set the text to music. The result was a song and melody that is still popular today.

More recently, Samoilov and Stolyarov's "Hussar Song" was recognized as the most popular work Kuban Cossacks in early XXI century.

It is interesting that Samoilov managed to become famous not only for front-line texts. He is also known as the author humorous collection prose entitled "In the circle of myself." Also engaged in literary activities. Worked on research on versification.

Personal life

Even in a biography for the children of David Samoilov, it is important to talk about his personal life. The poet married in 1946. His wife was 22-year-old Olga Lazarevna Fogelson. She was an art critic. Her father was well known in the Soviet Union. Like Samoilov, he was a great doctor. This is the famous cardiologist Lazar Izrailevich Fogelson.

In 1953, David and Olga had a son, known as Alexander Davydov. He became an excellent writer and translator. After school he entered the Moscow State University who successfully completed. Like his father, he was engaged in poetic translations. In particular, he adapted for the Russian reader Arthur Rimbaud, Jacques Prevert, Guillaume Apollinaire, Robert Desnos.

He himself is the author of several popular books that have been published in publishing houses since the late 90s. These are "Apocrypha, or a Dream about an Angel", "The Tale of a Nameless Spirit and a Black Mother", "49 Days with Kindred Souls", "Three Steps to Yourself...", "Paper Hero" and many others. Regularly published in the magazines "Znamya", " New world", "Foreign literature", "Friendship of Peoples".

Interestingly, it is he who is considered one of the founders and even leaders of the publishing group "Vest", together with Veniamin Kaverin and Georgy Efremov. In this group, at the end of the 80s, all the liberal-minded people of the sixties, who were related to writing, united. Now he is 64 years old, he lives in Moscow.

Over time, Samoilov left his family and married a second time. Galina Medvedeva became his chosen one. They had three children, who were named Peter, Pavel and Barbara.

Samoilov David Samuilovich

Samoilov (real name - Kaufman) David Samuilovich (1920 - 1990), poet. Born on June 1 in Moscow in the family of a military doctor who had big influence, did a lot of his education. He began to write poetry early, but did not consider himself a poet for a long time.

In 1938 he graduated from school with honors and entered the IFLI (Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History) without exams, intending to specialize in French literature. In those years, he taught there all philological science. Then he met Selvinsky, who assigned him to a poetic seminar at Goslitizdat, went to the Literary Institute for Aseev and Lugovsky's seminars. In 1941 he graduated from IFLI, at the same time he published his first poems.

A few days after the start of the war, he volunteered first for defense work in the Smolensk region, then he was enlisted as a cadet of the Gomel military infantry school, where he was only two months old - they were alerted and sent to the Volkhov front. After seriously injured spent five months in hospitals, then returns to the front again, is in the motor reconnaissance unit. Last rank- staff Sergeant.

At the end of November 1945 he returned to Moscow with a train of demobilized people. Decides to live literary work, that is, interrupted by random orders, moonlights on the radio, writes songs, literary compositions.

Only in 1958 the first book of poems "Near Countries" was published. Since that time, his poetry collections have regularly appeared: “Second Pass” (1963); "Days" (1970); “Throwing through our dates…”. D. Samoilov participated in the creation of several performances at the Taganka Theater, in Sovremennik, wrote songs for performances and films.

In the 1970s, the collections “Wave and Stone”, “Vest” were published; in 1981 - "The Bay".

Since 1976 he lived in the city of Pärnu, translated a lot from Polish, Czech, Hungarian and the languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR. D. Samoilov died on March 23, 1990 in Moscow.

Brief biography from the book: Russian writers and poets. Brief biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.