Sasha Cherny (real name Alexander Mikhailovich Glikberg) was born on October 1, 1880 in the city of Odessa. The pharmacist's family had 5 children, two of whom were Sasha. Blond and brunette, "White" and "Black". And so the pseudonym was born.
The boy became a high school student at the age of ten. So that Sasha could go to study outside the "percentage norm" for Jews, his father baptized him. But study was given to Sasha with difficulty, he was repeatedly expelled for poor progress. At the age of 15, the boy ran away from home, began to wander and soon found himself without a livelihood. His father and mother stopped responding to his requests for help. A journalist accidentally found out about the fate of Sasha and wrote an article about it, which fell into the hands of a major Zhytomyr official K. Roche. Rocher was touched by this sad story, and took the young man to his house. So Sasha ended up in Zhytomyr.
But even here the future poet did not finish the gymnasium, this time because of a conflict with the director. Sasha was called up for military service, where he served for two years.
Then Alexander ended up in the town of Novoselitsy (on the border with Austria-Hungary), where he went to work at the local customs.
Returning to Zhytomyr, he began working in the newspaper Volynsky Vestnik. Here is printed his Diary of a Resonator, signed "By Himself". However, the newspaper quickly closed down. The young man, already carried away by literature, decides to move to St. Petersburg. Here Sasha was sheltered by the relatives of Konstantin Roche. Alexander served as an official on the Warsaw Railway. His boss was Maria Ivanovna Vasilyeva. Despite the fact that she was several years older than Sasha, they became close and in 1905 got married. Alexander Glikberg left his job in the office and devoted himself entirely to literary creativity. So he became Sasha Cherny.
His very first poem "Nonsense", published under an unknown pseudonym, led to the closure of the magazine "Spectator", in which it was published, and spread in lists throughout the country. Sasha Cherny's poems, both sarcastic and gentle, have gained all-Russian popularity. Korney Chukovsky wrote: "... having received a fresh issue of the magazine, the reader, first of all, looked for Sasha Cherny's poems in it."
In 1906, a collection of poems "Different Motives" was published, which was soon banned by censorship due to political satire.
In 1910-1913 the poet wrote children's books.
In 1914, Alexander went to the front, served in the 5th Army as a private at the field hospital and worked as a prose writer. However, unable to bear the horrors of the war, he fell into depression and was placed in a hospital.
After the October Revolution in the autumn of 1918, Alexander left for the Baltic states, and in 1920 for Germany. For some time the poet lived in Italy, then in Paris. He spent the last years of his life in the south of France.
In exile, Sasha worked in newspapers and magazines, arranged literary evenings, traveled around France and Belgium, spoke with poetry to Russian listeners, and published books. A special place in his work was now occupied by prose addressed to both adults and children.
The death of Sasha Cherny was sudden and unexpected: risking his life, he helped his neighbors put out the fire, and then, already at home, he had a heart attack. Sasha Cherny died in France in the town of Lavandu on July 5, 1932. He was only 52 years old.

Biography

BLACK, SASHA (1880−1932) (pseudo; real name, patronymic and surname Alexander Mikhailovich Glikberg; other pseudonyms - By itself, Dreamer), Russian poet, prose writer, translator. Born (13) October 1880 in Odessa in the family of a Jewish pharmacist. Baptized by his father at the age of 10, in order to be able to enter the gymnasium outside the "percentage norm", he did not finish his studies (he was repeatedly expelled for poor progress). In 1902-1904 he served in the Novoselitsk customs, from 1905 - an official in St. Petersburg, where, thanks to his marriage to a student of a prominent professor of philosophy A. I. Vvedensky and a relative of the famous merchants Eliseevs, he got the opportunity to engage in self-education.

In 1906-1907 he attended a course of lectures at the University of Heidelberg. During the First World War he was a nurse. In March 1917, he was appointed Deputy Commissar of the Northern Front by the Provisional Government. After the October Revolution (which Cherny did not accept, despite the proposals of the Bolsheviks to head the newspaper in Vilna), in the autumn of 1918 he went to the Baltic states (where poems about Lithuania and the Russian Pompeii cycle were created, which for the first time outlined the motif of nostalgia, which clearly sounds in the poet's émigré work ); in 1920 - to Berlin; from the second half of 1923 to the beginning of 1924 - in Italy, in the family of L. N. Andreev (impressions of the Eternal City were reflected in lyrical and humorous miniatures From a Roman notebook and Roman etchings). From 1924 he lived in Paris, collaborated in the newspapers Latest News, the Parisian Satyricon, and other periodicals, organized literary evenings, traveled around France and Belgium, speaking with poetry to Russian listeners. He began to publish in Zhytomyr in 1904. In the 1900s, he was an active contributor to the progressive satirical magazines Spectator, Molot, Masks, Satyricon, and others. The daring political satire of Black Nonsense (1905; "Trepov is softer than Satan") brought him fame. The poet's first collection of poems, Various Motifs (1906), containing along with lyrics literary and political humoresques, was banned by censorship. The collection of Satires (1910) with an ironic dedication "to all the poor in spirit", which presented the original satirical mask of an intelligent man in the street, denounces the pettiness, emptiness and monotony of the vain petty-bourgeois existence in all spheres of social and literary life, combining sarcasm with notes of pessimism. In the second collection, Satires and Lyrics, Cherny's inclination towards "pure" lyrics, subtle landscape and psychological sketches was manifested. Having left the Satyricon in the spring of 1911, where he had been one of the poetic leaders since 1908, Cherny was published in the newspapers Kievskaya Thought, Russkaya Rumor, in the journals Modern World, Argus, The Sun of Russia, Sovremennik "and others. Acts as a children's writer (books Tuk-Tuk, 1913, Living ABC, 1914). A poignant longing for the lost Motherland, a sharp sense of homelessness permeated the book of poems Black Thirst (1923), the poem Who Lives Well in Emigration (1931−1932), which reveals the only lucky person in a foreign land - a baby in a crib. An organic synthesis of satire, mild humor and lyricism, a nakedly harsh style and deliberate anti-aestheticism of Cherny's virtuoso verse, its fundamental anti-bourgeoisness (poem On the graves, 1912, after visiting Weimar: "Goethe and Schiller on soap and buckles, / On bottle caps, / On cigar boxes / And on suspenders… / Philistines trade in titans…”), which influenced the formation of V. V. Mayakovsky, put forward the poet among the most original artists of the Silver Age. Among his other works are the poem Noah (1914), which sadly predicts a new "global flood" for the modern generation; the poetic cycle War (1918), an impressive picture of the horrors of front-line and infirmary life; poems, novels, stories (book Professor Patrashkin's Dream, 1924; Fox Mickey's Diary, 1927; Cat Sanatorium, 1928; Squirrel Seafarer, 1933, etc.) and the play The Return of Robinson (1922) for children; prosaic collection Frivolous Stories (1928), with “a slight smile, a good-natured laugh, innocent mischief” (A.I. Kuprin) resurrecting the St. Petersburg, Moscow and provincial life of old Russia, from afar seen by Cherny as an irretrievably lost paradise; in tone, the story close to him The Wonderful Summer (1929); numerous stories about the meager life, material deprivation and moral humiliation of emigrant life. A special place in Chernoy's work is occupied by Soldiers' Tales (published in 1933), written in the style of a kind of anecdotal realism close to the tales of N. S. Leskov and M. M. Zoshchenko. He also left translations from H. Heine, R. Demel, K. Hamsun and others. D. D. Shostakovich created a cycle of musical works to the words of Cherny. Black died in La Favière, near the town of Lavandou (France) on August 5, 1932.

Sasha Cherny (real name Alexander Mikhailovich Glikberg) was born on October 13, 1880 in a large Odessa family of a Jewish pharmacist. The pseudonym "Black" appeared in childhood, when two Sashas were called at home by the color of their hair, one was white, the other was black. To enable the smart boy to study at the gymnasium, he was christened at the age of ten. But his studies did not work out, and soon he was expelled for poor progress.

From 1901 to 1902 he served in the customs, and in 1905 he moved to St. Petersburg, where he arranges his personal life, is engaged in self-education. In the same year he published the satire "Nonsense" - the first work under the pseudonym "Sasha Cherny". And the first consequences - the magazine was closed, a censorship ban was imposed on the collection "Different Motives".

In 1906 he left to listen to a course of lectures at the University of Heidelberg, returning two years later. In the Russian capital, he writes for the Satyricon magazine, works as a children's writer, creates the Living ABC series

He met the First World War as an orderly, at the same time he was engaged in samples of a prose pen.

He did not understand and did not accept the Soviet government, he emigrated to the Baltic states, then moved to Paris. He actively works with publications in France, reads poetry to the Russian public in Belgium and Normandy.

If before the October Revolution in the poetry of Sasha Cherny there was a predominance of accusatory satire, protest against the emptiness and philistinism of the layman, subtle sarcasm about money-grubbing, then the emigrant period is filled with a poignant sadness of loss. The lyrical landscapes of the motherland are interspersed with the pain of no return, homeless emigrants live in gray stagnation, having lost everything in their homeland, and not gaining anything in an unkind foreign land.

Sasha Cherny died on August 5, 1932 suddenly from a heart attack, and was buried in the Lavandu cemetery.

(real name - Glikberg Alexander Mikhailovich)

(1880-1932) Russian prose writer and poet

Sasha Cherny's childhood passed in the Ukrainian town of Belaya Tserkov. The boy's father worked as a pharmacist in a pharmacy, and then became a chemical agent. For some time Sasha studied in a cheder, but could not master the Hebrew language, and then his father decided to give him a classical education.

The Glikberg family moved to Zhytomyr, where Alexander was baptized. From the age of ten he began to study at the city gymnasium. Subsequently, he recalled this time as the most difficult period of childhood. He was older than the other students in the class, but lagged behind due to poor memory and inability to concentrate. In addition, he was practically devoid of maternal affection. In the sixth grade, Alexander was expelled from the gymnasium with a "wolf ticket", that is, without the right to enter a similar educational institution.

Desperate, he runs away from home and gets to St. Petersburg, where, having settled with relatives, he still enters the gymnasium. However, in order to get a matriculation certificate, Alexander had to return to Zhytomyr. His father suddenly dies, his mother marries and practically abandons her son. An acquaintance of the family, K. Roche, who occupied a major post in the provincial peasant presence, becomes Alexander's tutor. He vouched for the young man, and he is again accepted into the gymnasium.

Rocher had a beneficial effect on Alexander, introduced him to poetry, which he himself was passionately fond of.

Having received a matriculation certificate, Alexander gets a job as an office worker in the local customs. But in fact, he works as a secretary to Roche, who has become his guardian. At the same time, he began to publish in the newly opened city newspaper "Volynsky Vestnik": he wrote reviews, a chronicle of local social life, and in 1904 published a series of essays under the general title "Resonator's Diary".

At the beginning of 1905, Alexander's life suddenly changes, as his guardian becomes the head of the Warsaw Railway and moves to St. Petersburg. Roche suits Alexander as a senior clerk in the road administration. N. Vasilyeva, who was in charge of the office, falls in love with a young man and soon becomes his wife.

Vasilyeva introduces the novice writer into the circle of St. Petersburg scientists and philosophers. She herself was the niece of the famous philosopher, professor of St. Petersburg University A. Vvedensky and a distant relative of the businessman G. Eliseev.

After moving to St. Petersburg, Glikberg began to publish in one of the leading magazines of that time, the Spectator. On November 27, 1905, he published the anti-government pamphlet Nonsense, under which he first put the pseudonym Sasha Cherny.

The publication, in which they saw allusions to Nicholas II, caused a sharp reaction from the authorities: the magazine was closed for some time. But the scandal made Cherny's name famous, and various satirical magazines began to publish his works.

Censorship clearly monitored the publications of Sasha Cherny, because his works immediately became famous, learned by heart. When he prepared for printing a collection of poems and satirical essays "Various Motives" (1905), the circulation was almost completely confiscated.

To avoid a possible arrest, acquaintances and publishers advised Sasha Cherny to leave Russia. In the summer of 1906, the Glickbergs left for Germany and spent more than a year abroad. Alexander worked hard and hard, listened to lectures at the university, wrote a cycle of lyrical satires, and many essays. Since 1906, he has been acting as a prose writer.

Returning to Russia in early 1908, Sasha Cherny became an employee of the weekly satirical magazine Satyricon. Soon the publication gains all-Russian popularity and becomes the leading satirical organ, and the poet - an all-Russian celebrity. Contemporaries even called him the Russian Heine, the king of the poets of the Satyricon. Here is the opinion of the publisher M. Kornfeld: "Sasha Cherny is a satirist by the grace of God." Sasha Cherny combines his works into two collections - "Satires" (1910) and "Satire and Lyrics" (1913). The first of them withstood five editions by 1917.

He managed to create his own type of hero, skinny, thin and nasty, sometimes prone to self-disclosure.

The poet creates satires of a political nature, addresses social topics, writes lyrical poems. These works are interesting in figurative characteristics, well-aimed epithets (“a continuous carnival of small fry”, “two-legged moles not worth a day of earthly time”), bright details (“throws a leaning bald patch into sweat”, “a lone saffron milk sour on a saucer”).

Throughout his life, Sasha Cherny tried to move away from the role of a satirist, but nevertheless he is perceived precisely as the author of such works.

Realizing the imperfection of relations in the Satyricon, he actively collaborates with various magazines, writes satires, lyric poems, landscape and everyday sketches, acts as a prose writer and author of poems for children, and tries his hand as a translator.

In 1911, Sasha Cherny wrote the first poem for children - "Bonfire", followed by others: "Chimney Sweep", "In Summer", "Bobkin's Horse", "Train". Gorky invites him to work on the collection "The Blue Book", in which Cherny's first fairy tale appears - "Red Stone". In 1912, he began collaborating with Chukovsky in the Firebird magazine.

Poems by Sasha Cherny, written in a simple, clear language, often resemble nursery rhymes, counting rhymes. They show the character of a child-why, figuratively perceiving the world. In 1913, the "Children's ABC" was published, according to which more than one generation of children is taught to read and write.

During the First World War, the poet volunteered for the front, worked in a hospital, and was engaged in social activities. Military impressions were reflected in a number of his works. After the revolution, the cycle of poems "War" was published, and in exile Cherny will publish "Soldier's Tales" (1933), created on the basis of stories heard in the army. His hero is created in the style of a household fairy tale about a skilled and experienced soldier. Cherny acts as a brilliant imitator of the tale, the researchers noted the art of stylization, the impossibility of distinguishing actually folk proverbs and sentences from the author’s ones: “Cossacks are supposed to be bouffant for force”, “Your rank is a semi-officer, and in your head cockroaches suck a footcloth”, “I am alone, like a bug on a blanket, remained.

Sasha Cherny did not accept the October Revolution and left for Lithuania. There, on a quiet farm, he tries to comprehend what is happening and comes to the conclusion that he has become a refugee, an emigrant. The poet bitterly states that he has grown significantly and turned from Sasha into Alexander, so he now signs his works - Alexander Cherny.

Gradually, he manages to prepare his previous poetry collections for publication and release a new collection, the third in a row, Thirst (1923). But Sasha Cherny's main interests are centered around writing for children's magazines. The world of the child was well known to the writer: his wife gave lessons in private schools and gymnasiums.

Life in exile improved gradually, at first the Glickbergs lived in Berlin, but because of the publishing crisis they had to leave for Rome. In 1925, they settled in Paris, and with a fee from Fox Mickey's Diary (1927), they were even able to build a small country house in a Russian colony in southern France on the Mediterranean coast.

Sasha Cherny actively collaborates in various emigrant publications, publishes books for children one after another: Bible Tales (1922), Professor Patrashkin's Dream (1924), Seafaring Squirrel (1926), Ruddy Book (1931) , "Silver Tree" (1929), "Cat Sanatorium" (1928), "Wonderful Summer" (1930).

The adult works of Sasha Cherny are published in 1928 - he combines the works published earlier in magazines in the book “Fun Stories”.

A tragic accident ends the writer's life. After a fire that occurred at a neighbor, he felt unwell and, returning home, soon died.

When asked: "Why did you take such a strange pseudonym - Sasha Black?”, he calmly replied: “I have two brothers and two sisters. One of the sisters is also Sasha, and she is blonde. And I'm a brunette."

On October 13, 1880, a son named Alexander was born in the family of the Odessa pharmacist Mikhail Glikberg.

For the first ten years, the boy lived the way almost all children from relatively educated and intelligent (according to the concepts of that time and especially the place) families lived. He was not particularly busy at home, wandering around the city, reading books, going fishing, making friends with street boys ... The only difference was that his father, a pedantic man who did not like negligence, taught him the correct Russian language.

The situation changed dramatically when Sasha Glikberg was ten years old. He was surprised when his father invited him to accept Orthodox baptism. The Glickbergs did not differ in religious zeal, they went to the synagogue carelessly, for which they were scolded - and after such an event, the pharmacist could lose half of his clients and lose almost all friends and acquaintances.

But my father was persistent. He really wanted to give his son an education, and for this it was necessary to overcome the so-called "three percent barrier" - among the students of gymnasiums and university students, Jews could make up no more than three percent.

Sasha Glikberg was baptized. Entered the gymnasium. And he did not live up to his father's hopes - he studied poorly, he was expelled several times for poor progress, in the end he did not overcome the full gymnasium course. Teachers referred to his "bad memory" and "dreamy nature".

At the age of 15, he ran away from home out of boredom. The angry father did not answer his letters. A prominent official from Zhytomyr, a certain Roche, took part in the fate of the young tramp, took him to his house and sent him to the local gymnasium. However, even there Sasha Glikberg did not find a common language with the authorities and did not receive a gymnasium certificate.

At 21, he was legally drafted into the army. As a literate Orthodox Christian with an incomplete secondary education, he served not for 7 years, but for only two years as a volunteer (candidate officer). But he did not want to fasten shoulder straps, after the service he got a job in customs.

By self-educational order, Alexander Glikberg studied foreign languages ​​well, gained knowledge of historical and philological, even listened to a course of lectures at Heidelberg University as a volunteer. But his main occupation since 1904 was literature: he began to publish in the provincial newspaper of the city of Zhytomyr under the pseudonyms "By itself" and "Dreamer". It quickly became clear that he was not a dreamer, but a real satirist and humorist.

The Zhytomyr newspaper was closed, and Sasha Glikberg decided to move to St. Petersburg. Roche, his patron, once again helped him to get a job in the management of the Warsaw Railway. There, in the railway office, he "married" his immediate boss, Maria Ivanovna Vasilyeva, which he later regretted. But he was able to leave the service and indulge in literary work for numerous St. Petersburg satirical magazines, the most famous of which is the Satyricon.

The first poem printed in the name of Sasha Cherny, "Nonsense" was read by all of Russia in the lists. Now it is difficult for us to understand it, it is very topical, connected with the events of its time, but at that time the effect was enormous.

In 1914 Sasha Cherny went to war. He received a severe psychological shock from trench life, fell into depression, fell ill, ended up in the hospital. After recovering, he served as a nurse.

In the spring of 1917, the Minister of Justice of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky, on the recommendation, appointed "the writer and journalist Glickberg-Cherny" deputy government commissar of the Northern Front. Sasha Cherny also failed to cope with such a high post. He did not accept the Bolshevik coup, although he was courted, offered to become the editor-in-chief of a newspaper in Vilna. In the autumn of 1918, he left for the Baltic States, then to Germany, Italy, and eventually ended up in Paris.

In exile, Sasha Cherny lived alone and in poverty. He did not beg, but was rarely completely full. Literary cooperation in emigre publications brought in pennies, the royalties from the numerous prose books he wrote were also meager. He joined a cooperative of Russian émigrés who bought a piece of land in the south of France and tried to organize a Russian colony there. The undertaking was not crowned with success, the cooperators had a poor idea of ​​life on earth, and none of them knew peasant labor.

On July 5, 1932, one of the colony's houses caught fire. Sasha Cherny was the first to come running to put out the fire, and an hour later he was struck by a heart attack.

Andrey Krotkov

Sasha Cherny (Alexander Mikhailovich Glikberg) is a Russian poet.

Origin. Childhood

Odessa. It was 1880. On October 1, a son, Alexander, was born into the Jewish family of the Glickbergs. It so happened that out of five children in the family, two sons had the same names - Sasha.

And since the future poet was black-haired, his relatives called him “black” for identification, which later became the rationale for choosing a pseudonym.

In order to provide their son with a decent education, the parents decided to baptize him according to the Russian Orthodox custom. This made it possible for the boy to enter the gymnasium, which, however, he did not finish because of his obstinate nature, having escaped from his parental home.

Lived where necessary, ate alms. When one of the newspapers told about this story, a certain K.K. Roche was so moved that he decided to find the boy, take him under his protection and give him a good upbringing.

Rocher was a wealthy man with a kind heart, and, moreover, very educated. He loved literature, and especially poetry, therefore, with all his passion, he introduced the future poet to this, and then gradually began to develop his creative potential in him. Sasha Glikberg turned out to be a talented student, and even his first attempts at poetry were outstanding. So an unexpected philanthropist "blessed" the young man on a poetic path.

First publications

In 1901-02, Alexander was in military service, after which he worked for some time at the Novoselensk customs. And it was then that the first creation of the young author, The Resonator's Diary, appeared in print. It was published by the provincial newspaper Volynsky Vestnik. The local intelligentsia showed considerable interest in the work of Sasha Cherny, which indicates a very successful debut.

In 1905, the young man moved to, where there were much more opportunities for literary self-realization. It "worked": various newspapers and magazines ("Masks", "Spectator", "Almanac" and other publications) began to print it, the poet's popularity grew with each new publication. And, it would seem, everything turned out quite well. But it was not there.

Sasha Cherny turned out to be an "uncomfortable" poet. The magazine "Spectator" was closed due to the publication of the satire "Nonsense" by Sasha Cherny in it, and censorship did not allow his collection "Different Motives" to be published at all. All this led to conflicts with the owners of magazines and even with the authorities, and in connection with this - rejection in society, a kind of rejection.

Study and creativity

Sasha Cherny went to Germany to study. From 1906 to 1908 he was a student at the University of Heidelberg, and at the same time continued his writing career, but his works were still subject to the most severe censorship, preventing their publication. But this did not pacify the poet. Upon his return to St. Petersburg in 1908, he again set to work.

This time his talent was demanded in the famous magazine "Satyricon", and in addition, his poems were published in many other publications ("Argus", "The Sun of Russia", "Contemporary", "Odessa News", "Modern World", " Kiev news”, “Russian rumor”). Finally, his first books are published.

World War I years

Somewhat "slowed down" the rise of Alexander's literary career. He was an ordinary officer on the staff of the field hospital. But military service did not interfere with his work in the literary field. He wrote prose, published his collections, in addition, he discovered a new facet of talent: he began to write for children.

literary heritage

Not everything is unambiguous in the work of Sasha Cherny, but nevertheless, in his bibliography - more than 40 books, a huge number of poems included and not included in the collections. The most famous and significant books of Sasha Cherny: the story "Wonderful Summer", "Fun Stories", books for children "Squirrel the Seafarer", "Professor Patrashkin's Dream", "Cat's Sanatorium", "Rush Book" and others.

Death in exile

During his short life, Sasha Cherny traveled a lot around the world, visited Berlin, Nice, Paris, Rome, Kyiv, Tbilisi, but finally emigrated in 1920 and settled in Berlin. His poems of the emigrant period are imbued with painful nostalgia. In 1923, a volume of poems "Thirst" was published in Germany - a very sad book about burning homesickness, about emigrant orphanhood.

Sasha Cherny died in 1932, right after the fire, which he put out together with other people. Came home, went to bed and didn't wake up again. Until now, no one knows where the outstanding Russian poet is buried. There was no one and nothing to pay for the grave and the funeral ceremony.

At the Lavandu cemetery, where Alexander's wife, who lived to a ripe old age and died in 1961, is buried, a memorial plaque with the poet's name is now installed. And by and large, the name of Sasha Cherny is immortalized in his work. This was taken care of by his friend and mentor Korney Chukovsky, who initiated the publication of a multi-volume edition of all Sasha Cherny's works in the Poet's Library series.