Daniil Kharms (Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev) was born on December 30 (according to the old style - 17) December 1905. His father, Ivan Pavlovich Yuvachev, was a man of exceptional destiny. For participation in the Narodnaya Volya terror, he (then a naval officer) was tried in 1883 and spent four years in solitary confinement, and then more than ten years in hard labor. Kharms’s mother ran a shelter for former convicts in St. Petersburg.
Kharms studied at the St. Petersburg German school (Peterschule), where he acquired a thorough knowledge of German and English languages. In 1924, he entered the Leningrad Electrical Technical School, from where a year later he was expelled for “poor attendance” and “inactivity in public works.” Thus, neither higher nor average special education the writer could not get it. But he was intensively engaged in self-education, especially interested in philosophy and psychology. He lived exclusively on literary earnings. Since 1924, he begins to call himself Kharms. This was the main of his many aliases; originating, perhaps, both from the French “charm” (charm, charm) and from the English “harm” (harm, misfortune); it quite accurately reflected the essence of the writer’s attitude to life and work: Kharms knew how to travesty the most serious things and find very sad moments in the most seemingly funny ones. The same ambivalence was characteristic of his personality: orientation towards the game, towards funny prank combined with sometimes painful suspiciousness, with the confidence that he brings misfortune to those he loves.
In 1925, Kharms met young Esther Rusakova and soon married her. The romance and marriage were difficult and painful for both parties - until the divorce in 1932. However, throughout his life he will remember Esther and compare with her all the women with whom fate brings him together.
In 1925, Kharms joined a small group of Leningrad poets, led by Alexander Tufanov; they called themselves “zaumniks.” Here an acquaintance occurs and a friendship arises with Alexander Vvedensky. In 1926, they, together with young philosophers Leonid Lipavsky and Yakov Druskin, formed the “Chinari” association. Around the same time, Kharms and Vvedensky were accepted into the Leningrad branch of the All-Russian Union of Poets. In the collections of the Union they publish two of their poems, which remain the only “adult” works that they are destined to see published. The main form of activity of the “plane trees” is performances with the reading of their poems in clubs, universities, and literary circles; they usually ended in scandals.
Kharms participates in various left-wing associations and initiates their creation. In 1927, the Association of Real Art (OBERIU) emerged, which, in addition to Kharms and Vvedensky, included Nikolai Zabolotsky, Konstantin Vaginov, Igor Bakhterev, and Nikolai Oleinikov, who became a close friend of Kharms, also joined them.
The only evening of OBERIU on January 24, 1928 became a kind of benefit performance for Kharms: in the first part he read poetry, and in the second his play “Elizabeth Bam” was staged (it in many ways anticipates the discoveries of the European theater of the absurd). Sharply negative reviews in the press determined the impossibility of such evenings; now the Oberiuts could only perform small programs. Finally, one of their speeches at the Leningrad State University dormitory aroused new accusations of counter-revolutionism. In 1930, OBERIU ceased to exist, and at the end of 1931, Kharms and Vvedensky were arrested. The sentence, however, was relatively mild - exile to Kursk, and the efforts of friends led to the fact that already in the fall of 1932 the poets were able to return to Leningrad.
Back at the end of 1927, Oleinikov and Boris Zhitkov organized the “Association of Writers of Children's Literature” and invited Kharms to it. From 1928 to 1941, he constantly collaborated in children's magazines "Hedgehog", "Chizh", "Cricket", "Oktyabryata", he published about 20 children's books. Poems and prose for children provide a unique outlet for his playful element, but they were written solely for earning money and the author did not attach much importance to them. The attitude of official party criticism towards them was clearly negative.
After the exile, there could be no talk of any publications or speeches. Moreover, it was necessary to hide his creativity from outsiders. Therefore, communication between former Oberiuts and people close to them now took place in apartments. Kharms, Vvedensky, Lipavsky, Druskin, Zabolotsky, Oleinikov, had conversations on literary, philosophical and other topics. The activities of this circle continued for several years. But in 1936, Vvedensky married a Kharkov woman and went to her; in 1937, Oleynikov was arrested and soon shot.
Kharms’ “adult” works are now written exclusively “for the table.” Poetry is replaced by prose, leading prose genre becomes a story. In the 30s there is a desire for a large form. Its first example can be considered the cycle “Cases” - thirty short stories and sketches, which Kharms arranged in a certain order, copied into a separate notebook and dedicated to his second wife Marina Malich (whom he married in 1935). In 1939, the second big thing appeared - the story “The Old Woman”. About a dozen stories written in 1940–1941 are known.
By the end of the 30s, the ring around Kharms was shrinking. There are fewer and fewer opportunities to be published in children's magazines. The consequence of this was a very real famine. The tragedy of the writer’s works during this period intensifies to a feeling of complete hopelessness, complete meaninglessness of existence. Kharms’ humor also undergoes a similar evolution: from light, slightly ironic – to black.
The beginning of the war and the first bombing of Leningrad intensified Kharms’s feeling of his own approaching death. In August 1941, he was arrested for “defeatist statements.” Long time no one knew anything about him future fate, only in February 1942 Marina Malich was informed about the death of her husband. Opinion about him last days contradictory. Some believe that Kharms, who was threatened with execution, was feigning mental disorder and was sent to a prison psychiatric hospital, where he died during the first besieged Leningrad winter. There is also information that Kharms was actually diagnosed with schizophrenia shortly before his arrest, so he was admitted to the hospital for compulsory treatment. It is not known exactly where he died - in Leningrad or Novosibirsk. Date of death: February 2, 1942
Kharms's manuscripts were preserved by his friend Joseph Druskin; he took them in the winter of 1942 from the writer’s empty room. I did not part with this suitcase either during the evacuation or upon returning to Leningrad; I did not touch its contents for about twenty years, maintaining hope for a miracle - the return of the owner. And only when there was no hope, he began to sort out the papers of his deceased friend.
Daniil Kharms has verses that many call prophetic:A man left the house
With rope and bag
And on a long journey, and on a long journey
I set off on foot.
He walked and kept looking ahead,
And he kept looking forward,
Didn't sleep, didn't drink,
Didn't sleep, didn't drink,
Didn't sleep, didn't drink, didn't eat.
And then one morning
He entered the dark forest
And from that time on, and from that time on,
And from then on he disappeared...
And if somewhere it
I'll have to meet you
Then quickly, then quickly,
Tell us quickly.Twenty-five years after his death, Kharms was appreciated by a wide readership. His second birth began, which continues today.
Daniil Ivanovich Kharms, real name Yuvachev, born December 30 (December 17, old style) 1905 in St. Petersburg. His father was a naval officer. In 1883, he was put on trial for complicity in Narodnaya Volya terror, spent four years in solitary confinement and more than ten years in hard labor, where he experienced religious conversion: along with the memoir books “Eight Years on Sakhalin” (1901) and “The Shlisselburg Fortress” (1907) he published mystical treatises “Between the World and the Monastery” (1903), “Secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven” (1910).
Kharms's mother had noble origin, was in charge of a shelter for former convict women in St. Petersburg in the 1900s.
After the revolution, she became a castellan at the Barracks Hospital named after S.P. Botkin, his father worked as a senior auditor of the State Savings Banks, and later as the head of the accounting department of the working committee for the construction of the Volkhov hydroelectric station.
In 1915-1918, Daniel studied at the privileged Main German School of St. Peter in Petrograd (Petrishul).
In 1922-1924 - at the 2nd Detskoselsky Unified Labor School, a former gymnasium in Tsarskoe Selo, where his aunt Natalya Kolyubakina was the director and teacher of Russian literature.
In 1924-1926 he studied at the First Leningrad Electrical Technical School, from where he was expelled for “poor attendance and inactivity in public works.”
In the early 1920s, Daniil Yuvachev chose the pseudonym "Kharms", which gradually became so attached to him that it became part of his surname.
In the 1930s, when all Soviet citizens were issued passports, he added a hyphen to the second part of his last name, so it became “Yuvachev-Kharms.”
The pseudonym "Kharms" is interpreted by researchers as "charm", "enchantment" (from the French charm), as "harm" and "misfortune" (from the English harm) and as a "sorcerer". In addition to the main pseudonym, Daniil used about 30 more pseudonyms - Charms, Harmonius, Shardam, Dandan, as well as Ivan Toporyshkin, Karl Ivanovich Shusterling and others.
He began writing poetry while studying at school, and later chose poetry as his main profession.
The earliest surviving poem by Kharms, “In July, Somehow Our Summer...” dates back to 1922.
The early Kharms was greatly influenced by the poet Alexander Tufanov, successor of Velimir Khlebnikov, author of the book “To Zaumi,” who founded the Order of Zaumni in March 1925, the core of which included Kharms himself, who took the title “Behold Zaumi.”
The departure from Tufanov was predetermined by his friendship with the poet Alexander Vvedensky, with whom in 1926 Kharms created the “School of Plane Trees” - a chamber community, which, in addition to two poets, included philosophers Yakov Druskin, Leonid Lipavsky and the poet, later editor children's magazine"Hedgehog" Nikolai Oleinikov. Main form The activities of the "plane trees" included performances with readings of their poems.
In 1926, Kharms’ poem “The Case of railway"was published in a collection of poems; in 1927, "Poem by Pyotr Yashkin" was published in the collection "Bonfire".
In 1928, Kharms became a member literary group The Association of Real Art (OBERIU), which included poets Alexander Vvedensky, Nikolai Zabolotsky and others, who used the techniques of alogism, absurdity, and grotesque. At the “Three Left Hours” evening organized by the association, the highlight of the program was the production of Kharms’ play “Elizabeth Bam.”
In the same year, writer Samuil Marshak attracted Kharms to work in the Leningrad department of the children's literature publishing house Detgiz. “Ivan Ivanovich Samovar” (1928), “Ivan Toporyshkin” (1928), “How Dad Shot My Ferret” (1929), “Jolly Siskins” (co-authored with Marshak, 1929), “Million” were published in print. "(1930), "Liar" (1930) and others. Kharms's poems were published in 11 separate editions.
In December 1931, Kharms, along with other employees of the Leningrad children's publishing sector, was arrested on suspicion of anti-Soviet activities and was sentenced to three years in prison, which was replaced in 1932 by exile to Kursk, where he was escorted along with Vvedensky. In 1932, he managed to return to Leningrad, where he continued to collaborate in the magazines "Hedgehog" and "Chizh", published a free translation of the story "Plikh and Plyukh" by the German poet Wilhelm Busch.
In 1934, Kharms was admitted to the Union of Writers of the USSR. In the same year, he began work on the philosophical treatise "Existence", which was not completed.
In March 1937, the magazine “Chizh” published the poem “A Man Came Out of the House,” which tells how in the USSR a man left his house and disappeared without a trace. After this, Kharms was no longer published in children's publications. In the same year, he began creating the prose cycle "Cases".
At the end of May - beginning of June 1939, Kharms wrote the story "The Old Woman", which many researchers consider the main thing in the writer's work.
In the fall of 1939, Kharms feigned mental illness, and in September-October he was admitted to the neuropsychiatric dispensary of the Vasileostrovsky district, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
In the summer of 1940, he wrote the stories “Knights”, “Myshin’s Victory”, “Lecture”, “Pashkvil”, “Interference”, “Falling”, in September - the story “Power”, later - the story “A translucent young man was rushing about on the bed...”.
In 1941, for the first time since 1937, two children's books with Kharms' participation were published.
The last surviving work of Kharms was the story “Rehabilitation,” written in June 1941.
On August 23, 1941, Kharms was arrested and accused of anti-Soviet activities. In mid-December he was transferred to the psychiatric department of the prison hospital at Kresty.
On February 2, 1942, Daniil Kharms died in custody in besieged Leningrad from exhaustion. His name was erased from Soviet literature.
In 1960, Kharms’ sister Elizaveta Gritsyna appealed to the USSR Prosecutor General with a request to review her brother’s case. On July 25, 1960, by a decision of the Leningrad prosecutor's office, Kharms was found innocent, his case was closed for lack of evidence of a crime, and he himself was rehabilitated.
A collection of his children's poems, "The Game" (1962), was published in the USSR. Since 1978, his collected works have been published in Germany. By the mid-1990s, Kharms took the place of one of the main representatives of Russian literary literature of the 1920-1930s, opposing Soviet literature.
The first complete three-volume collected works of Daniil Kharms was published in Russia in the 2010s.
Daniil Kharms was married twice. The first wife, Esther Rusakova, the daughter of a former political emigrant, after a divorce from the writer in 1937, along with her family, was arrested, sentenced to five years in the camps and soon died in Magadan.
Kharms’s second wife, Marina Malich, came from the Golitsyn family; after the death of her husband, she was evacuated from besieged Leningrad to Pyatigorsk, from where she was deported by the Germans for forced labor in Germany. She managed to get to France, and later Marina emigrated to Venezuela. According to her memoirs, literary critic Vladimir Glotser wrote the book “Marina Durnovo: My husband Daniil Kharms.”
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Real name Yuvachev (1905 1942), Russian writer. In poetry, plays (“Elizabeth Bam”, staged in 1927), the story “The Old Woman” (1939, published in 1991), grotesque stories (the cycle “Cases”, 1933 39, published posthumously), the originality of poetics... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Kharms, Daniil Ivanovich- Daniil Ivanovich Kharms. KHARMS (real name Yuvachev) Daniil Ivanovich (1905 42), Russian writer. Member of OBERIU. In poetry, plays (“Elizabeth Bam”, staged in 1927), the story “The Old Woman” (1939, published in 1991), grotesque stories (cycle... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
KHARMS (real name Yuvachev) Daniil Ivanovich (1905 42) Russian writer. In the play Elizaveta Bam (staged in 1927), the story The Old Woman (1939, published in 1991), in grotesque stories (cycle Cases, 1933 39, published posthumously) he showed... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
KHARMS Daniil Ivanovich- KHARMS (real name Yuvachev) Daniil Ivanovich (190542), Russian Soviet writer. The play “Elizabeth to You” (post. 1927). Book poems and stories for children “Naughty Traffic Jam”, “Theater” (both 1928), “About how Kolka Pankin flew to Brazil, and ... ... Literary encyclopedic dictionary
- (Yuvachev). Genus. 1905, d. 1942. Writer (poet, prose writer, playwright) (absurdist). Became professional literary work in 1925. Member of the Order of Zaumnikov, later the Association of Real Art (OBERIU), the Association of Children's Writers... ... Big biographical encyclopedia
- (real name Yuvachev; 1905/06 1942) – Russian. writer. Entered literature in the middle. 20s In poetry, plays ("Elizabeth Bam", post. 1927), p. “The Old Woman” (1939), grotesque stories (cycle “Cases”, 1933 39) showed the absurdity of existence, depersonalization... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Pseudonyms
Daniil Kharms Birth name: Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev Date of birth: December 17 (30), 1905 Place of birth: Saint Petersburg Date of death: February 2, 1942 Place of death: Leningrad ... Wikipedia
Daniil Kharms Name at birth: Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev Date of birth: December 17 (30), 1905 Place of birth: St. Petersburg Date of death: February 2, 1942 Place of death: Leningrad ... Wikipedia
Kharms, Daniil Ivanovich Daniil Kharms Birth name: Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev Date of birth: December 17 (30), 1905 ... Wikipedia
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Daniil Ivanovich Kharms (real name Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev) poet, prose writer, one of the organizers and...
Daniil Kharms was born in St. Petersburg on December 30, 1905. His father was Ivan Yuvachev, a revolutionary populist who survived exile on Sakhalin and was familiar with Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov and other famous Russian writers of his time.
early years
Thanks to his father, a writer, Daniil became interested in literature at an early age. He studied at several schools, including Petrishula - the oldest school in St. Petersburg. In 1925, the young man joined the All-Russian Union of Poets. Even before that, he began to use the pseudonym Kharms, with which he became widely known. The greatest influence on his work at that time was Velimir Khlebnikov, Kazimir Malevich, Alexey Kruchenykh.
The main activity of “Chinari” was performances with reading of their own poems. Sometimes at such meetings there were dances, especially the then extremely popular foxtrot. The Union of Poets, the locations of the regiments where his friends served - these are just some of the places where Daniil Kharms himself performed. A biography for children can do without these facts, but for the future children's writer the events of that period of his life were extremely important for the development of his creative style. Gradually, public recitations of avant-garde poetry became more and more difficult. Every year the Soviet state became more and more picky about what the intelligentsia offered to society.
OBERIU
Gradually, Daniil Kharms, whose biography at that time was most connected with life within the Leningrad bohemia, gathered around him a circle of devoted supporters. This group was called either the “Left Flank” or the “Academy of Left Classics.” In 1927 it was renamed the Association of Real Art - OBERIU. The group broke up in the early 1930s. Greatest success her activities can be considered “Three Left Hours” - a creative evening at which the premiere of Kharms’s play “Elizabeth Bam” took place.
According to the creator's plan, OBERIU was supposed to unite all the forces of leftist art in Leningrad. Therefore, the group was initially divided into five sections: literary, visual, musical, theatrical and cinematic. Daniil Ivanovich Kharms had a hand in all this. The biography for children published in the USSR, of course, did not mention these sometimes radical experiments of the writer.
Collaboration with children's magazines
What else was young Daniil Kharms famous for? The writer's biography is often associated among the general reader with his works in the genre of children's literature. Kharms began writing for children at the instigation of Samuil Marshak, Boris Zhitkov and Nikolai Oleinikov. In the 1930s he worked in children's magazines "Chizh", "Hedgehog" and "Cricket". Daniil Kharms left many stories and puzzles in them. The biography (2nd grade presentation) cannot do without mentioning this part of his work.
Children's literature for a long time remained almost the author’s only constant income. It is interesting that even innocent works for the smallest audience were banned by censorship for some time. This happened, for example, with the “Naughty Book” - a collection of stories and poems. She was on the censorship list from 1951 to 1961.
Daniil Kharms, whose biography is also the biography of a translator, translated some children's works. Thanks to him, Wilhelm Busch and his book of humorous poems “Plikh and Plyukh” were read in the USSR. The writer also published works written in collaboration with creative colleagues. So in 1937, “Stories in Pictures” was published. The illustrations were drawn by Nikolai Radlov, but the text itself was written by Nina Gernet, Natalya Dilaktorskaya and Daniil Kharms. The author's biography was known for a long time mainly from this book.
Personal life
The writer got married for the first time in 1928. His wife was Esther Rusakova. Most of the works written by Kharms in the second half of the 20s and early 30s were dedicated to this girl. The couple divorced in 1932. Later Rusakova was repressed.
Then Kharms lived in short novels. Such was the relationship with the artist Alisa Poret. The writer married for the second time in 1934 - this time to Marina Malich. The couple were together until the disastrous arrest of Kharms in 1941.
Link to Kursk
Kharms was first arrested in 1931. Then, allegedly, an “anti-Soviet group of writers” was discovered, to which 26-year-old Yuvachev was included. At first he was sentenced to three years in the camps. Then the sentence for the convicted person was changed to exile in Kursk.
Kharms’ comrade Alexander Vvedensky also happened to be there. Apart from him, the writer communicated only with the artists Erbstein, Safonova and Gershov. This company was significantly less than that, with whom the exile maintained contact in Leningrad. And yet, the writer was lucky. He himself received the news about his deportation to Kursk instead of prison with joy, and treated it no differently than a creative business trip.
In the link main problem there was a lack of money and problems with housing. Daniil Kharms experienced all this with great difficulty. The biography, briefly known from the letters of that time, says that the only consolation for the convict were these same letters from friends and relatives. Kharms' main correspondents remained his sister, father, aunt, Boris Zhitkov and Tamara Meyer. In Kursk, the writer experienced his first health problems. They were caused by poor nutrition and lack of good doctors. But even in provincial outpatient clinics, the writer was given disappointing diagnoses - pleurisy and a nervous breakdown.
Changes in style
In the fall of 1932, the writer returned to Leningrad. After the first trial, Kharms' life changed greatly. His group OBERIU found itself under a virtual ban - its active public activities ceased. The circulation of Yuvachev's children's books has decreased. He began to live in poverty - there was a clear lack of money. In connection with this, the whole creative style author.
Before the case against the “anti-Soviet group,” the writer Daniil Kharms, whose biography in this sense repeated the fate of many other colleagues, paid a lot of attention to utopian projects and themes. After 1932, he gradually abandoned the previous concept. In addition, the writer pays more and more attention to prose and less and less to poetry.
Problems with publishing books
The inability to publish his adult works is what Daniil Kharms suffered most from. Biography, poems and stories of the author in modern understanding are an important part of Russian culture of the 20th century. However, during his lifetime, Kharms did not have such an honorable status at all. Despair led him to make fantastic plans for publishing the samizdat magazine “Tapir”. This plan never came to fruition.
In 1933, Kharms suffered from paratyphoid fever. Even after recovery, he was in a creative crisis. For example, in the first half of 1933, the writer completed only a dozen poems and two miniatures, which were later included in the “Cases” cycle. But it was precisely these sketches, including “The Mathematician and Andrei Semenovich,” that became the new starting point from which Daniil Ivanovich Kharms later built. The biography of the writer was like an attraction - after long period stagnation, he finally began to work fruitfully with a new form.
Life in Leningrad
While in Leningrad, Kharms sometimes spent entire weeks with his aunt in Tsarskoe Selo. Such was the summer of 1933, when he became interested in chess problems and plunged headlong into Indian topics. It is interesting that the writer practiced hatha yoga back in the 20s.
1933 - 1934 were a period of numerous meetings of plane trees on Gatchinskaya Street in the house of Leonid Lipavsky. This philosopher and writer remained for a long time best friend Kharms. At the same time, a specialist in German language Dmitry Mikhailov. His hobbies were close to Kharms, since he himself passionately loved everything connected with Germany.
New events
At this time, the writer earned money mainly from his performances in Leningrad schools. He also went to pioneer camps. He knew how to get along with children, who were always delighted with the visits of the famous children's writer. This period of relative financial prosperity was interrupted in 1935. At the same time, Malevich died, with whom Kharms had a long-standing, warm creative and human relationship. The writer spoke with his poem at the civil memorial service for the artist.
In the summer of 1935, Daniil Ivanovich Kharms, whose biography was still closely connected with children's magazines, wrote the play “Circus Shardam”. Its premiere took place in October at the Shaporina Puppet Theater. Subsequently, financial problems plagued Kharms more and more often. He repeatedly applied to the Literary Fund for loans.
Creativity flourishes
In the 1930s, Kharms wrote his main works. These were “Cases” (a cycle of stories), “The Old Woman” (a story) and many stories within short prose. The author never managed to publish them. During his lifetime, Kharms was primarily known as a writer in the genre of children's literature. His “underground” work became known much later.
It is believed that in 1936 appeared new type Kharms's prose. Vivid examples similar works were “The Fate of the Professor’s Wife”, “The Cashier”, “Father and Daughter”. These stories mainly dealt with the theme of death. It is also significant that that year Kharms wrote only two poems, “The Dream of Two Black Ladies” and “Variations.”
At the end of 1936, the Soviet press began to prepare for the centenary of Pushkin's death. Kharms dedicated two works to “Our Everything.” The first is the story “Pushkin - for children”, the second is an anonymous essay about Pushkin, published in Chizh.
Second arrest and death
In 1937, Kharms's children's publishing house was destroyed. Many of his friends and comrades were repressed (Nikolai Zabolotsky, Nikolai Oleinikov, Tamara Gabbe, etc.). Kharms himself was arrested for the second time in August 1941 - in the third month of the war with Germany. He was accused of spreading defeatist sentiments.
At the height of the famine during the blockade of the city, the writer was sent to a psychiatric hospital located in the famous “Crosses”. There he died on February 2, 1942. Kharms was rehabilitated only 18 years later.
The writer's archive was saved by the writer Yakov Druskin. The author's manuscripts were taken in a suitcase from the author's house, which was badly damaged by the bombing. Publication of these “adult” works began in the 1960s. However, even during the Thaw, their circulation remained low. Kharms’s legacy enjoyed much greater popularity in samizdat. In 1974, his selected works were published in the USA. The most complete four-volume edition appeared in Bremen in the 1980s. In the USSR, the copying of Kharms' works stopped only during perestroika. It was then that domestic readers for the first time were able to fully become acquainted with the work of the poet and prose writer.
Kharms Daniil (12/17/1905 – 02/02/1942) – Russian writer, poet. He was a member of the Association of Real Art. During his lifetime he was known as an author of children's works.
Origins of literary activity
The writer's surname at birth is Yuvachev. Daniil Ivanovich was born in St. Petersburg. His father was a revolutionary, a member of the People's Will, and a writer. He knew Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov and others. He served exile on Sakhalin, where he worked at a weather station. After exile, he served in the navy, then as an auditor. His mother was ten years younger than his father and headed a women's shelter for former prisoners. At first, Daniel studied at school under Petrishul, the oldest educational institution Petersburg, then at the second labor school. In 1924 he entered the Electrical Technical College, from which he was expelled two years later.
Harms adopted the pseudonym around 1922. Regarding the origin of this name, the conclusions of researchers differ. Many other pseudonyms were found in Kharms's manuscripts. In 1926 he became a member of the Union of Poets and began to perform reading poems by various authors, including own works. Joining the “Order of Brainiacs” has a corresponding influence on his work. Also included in the community of “plane trees”, among which were A. Vvedensky, Y. Druskin and others.
Child photo Daniel, 1910
Kharms made active attempts to unite poets and artists of the “left” persuasion. He organized such associations as the “Left Flank” and the “Academy of Left Classics.” By 1927, the OBERIU association was formed. The Oberiuts included N. Zabolotsky, B. Levin, I. Bakhterev and others. The largest meeting of representatives, called the “Three Left Hours,” took place in early 1928. Kharms wrote the play “Elizabeth Bam” especially for this evening.
Works for children
Under the influence of S. Marshak and B. Zhitkov, members of the association in 1927 turned to creativity for children. Until the end of the 30s, Kharms worked with children's publications “Hedgehog”, “Cricket”, etc. He wrote stories, poems, came up with puzzles, and funny comments on drawings. Although the Oberiuts did not like writing children's works, Kharms, unlike Vvedensky, approached the work with full responsibility.
Kharms became the author of nine children's books with illustrations in 1928 - 1931, among them “Million”, “Game”, “Theater”. “The Naughty Jam” was subsequently subject to a censorship ban for ten years. In 1937, Daniil Ivanovich translated into Russian the work “Plikh and Plyukh” by V. Bush, and in 1940 he wrote the book “The Fox and the Hare.”
Self-portrait of Kharms, 1924
Kharms' life in the 30s
In 1931, members of OBERIU were accused of anti-Soviet sentiments, Kharms was exiled to Kursk, where he lived for several months. After returning from exile, his life changes for the worse: the association disintegrates, fewer and fewer children's works are published, and his financial situation becomes more complicated.
At this time, creativity also happens crucial moment: Kharms goes to prose works, pays more attention to adult literature. He writes a series of stories "Cases", many short stories, short skits. During the writer's lifetime, most of his adult works were not published. Continues to be friends with former Oberiuts. At meetings they discuss their new creations, philosophical problems. These conversations were recorded by L. Lipavsky. In 1937, a children's publishing house in St. Petersburg was destroyed.
Personal life
Daniel was married twice. In 1928 he married E. Rusakova. Judging by Kharms's diaries, family relationships were quite complex. He dedicated many of his works of the second half of the 20s to his first wife. The union collapsed four years later. Later, Rusakova was exiled to Kolyma, where she died.
In 1934, the writer married Marina Malich. They lived together until his arrest. He dedicated part of his work to Malich, including “Cases”. After the death of her husband, she was evacuated to the Caucasus. From there, after the German occupation, the Germans took her as an ostarbeiter. In the post-war period she lived in Europe and America.
D. Kharms, 1938
Last years and memory
In 1941, Kharms was arrested for so-called “defeatism.” The writer was threatened with execution, but he feigned mental illness. The court sent Kharms for treatment to the hospital at Kresty. Daniil Ivanovich died at the age of 37 during the siege. In February 1942, the largest number of people died of hunger in Leningrad. The wife was first informed that the writer had been transported to Novosibirsk. In 1960, Kharms was completely rehabilitated posthumously at the request of his sister.
During the writer’s lifetime, only a small part of his works was published, especially for adults, but it was possible to preserve the archive with his manuscripts. Kharms's publications began to appear abroad in the 70s. In the USSR, “Flight to Heaven” was published in 1988. In the 90s, the collected works of Kharms were published, and now his works are regularly published by publishing houses.
A memorial plaque was placed on Kharms’s house in 2005, which depicts a portrait of the writer, a line from his poem and a memorial inscription. An asteroid and a street in St. Petersburg were named after him. Also established literary prize Kharms. His works have been filmed more than twenty times; five films, both documentaries and feature films, have been made about the life of Daniil Ivanovich. Moreover, according to his works in Russian theaters pass theatrical performances: plays, ballet and opera.
