Svetlov M. Selected poems.

Svetlov M. Selected poems.
Moscow, Fiction, 1935 166 p. Library of modern poets. Hardcover, size 14 x 20 cm.

Mikhail Arkadyevich Svetlov (real name-Sheinkman; June 4 (17), 1903, Ekaterinoslav — September 28, 1964, Moscow) was a Russian Soviet poet, playwright and journalist, war correspondent. Winner of the Lenin prize (1967, posthumously).

Mikhail Svetlov was born in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro) in the family of a craftsman Aron Borukhovich Sheinkman and Rachel Ilyevna Sheinkman. He had a sister, Elizabeth. Until 1922, the family lived in the Baranov house on Gymnastic street (number 7, after the revolution-Schmidt street, number 23). He began publishing in 1917 in the Ekaterinoslav newspaper Golos soldata. The pseudonym "Svetlov" appeared in 1919.

In 1919, he was appointed head of the press Department of the Ekaterinoslav gubkom of the Komsomol. In 1920, he joined the Red army as a volunteer and took an active part in the Civil war. For a short time he lived in Kharkiv, from where he moved to Moscow in 1922. The first collection of poems "Rails" was published in 1923 in Kharkiv. In 1927-1928, he studied at Moscow state University. According to NKVD documents, he supported the Left-wing opposition, and together with the poets Mikhail Golodny and Joseph Utkin published an illegal opposition newspaper, the Communist, dated November 7, 1927. The illegal printing house that printed the newspaper was located in Svetlov's house. In 1927-1928, according to the NKVD, Svetlov together with Golodny organized poetry evenings in Kharkiv, the collection of which went to the needs of the opposition illegal red cross, and in the future provided material support to the families of arrested oppositionists.

In 1934, when the Union of writers of the USSR was created, Svetlov believed that this organization "except for vulgar officialdom, there is nothing to expect". Regarding the Third Moscow trial, Svetlov said: "This is not a trial, but an organized murder, and what, however, can we expect from them? The Communist party is no longer there, it has been reborn, it has nothing in common with the proletariat." An informant of the NKVD recorded this statement of the poet:

I have been told by excellent party members since 1919 that they do not want to be in the party, that they are burdened, that being in the party has become a burden, that there is all lies, hypocrisy and hatred for each other, but you cannot leave the party. The one who returns the party card, deprives himself of bread, freedom, everything.

In addition to the other "Trotskyist" sins of the poet, the reference compiled for Stalin by the gugb of the NKVD of the USSR indicated the following: "in December 1936, the poet was killed. Svetlov distributed an anti-Soviet quatrain about the arrival of the writer lion Feuchtwanger in the USSR." This quatrain is known in various versions, only the last two lines coincide in them:

See how this Jew would

He wasn't a Jew.

Mikhail Svetlov's famous poem "Grenada", written in 1926, was set to music by about 20 composers from different countries. On December 31, 1926, Marina Tsvetaeva wrote to Boris Pasternak: "Tell Svetlov (the Young Guard) that his Grenada — my favorite — almost said: my best — verse for all these years. Yesenin had none of these. Don't say that, though — let Yesenin sleep peacefully."

The play about collective farm life "Deep province "(1935) was criticized in Pravda and removed from the stage. During the great Patriotic war, Svetlov was a correspondent of the newspaper "Red star", then worked in the front press of the 1st shock army. The most famous of the war poems is "the Italian" (1943).

For the book "Poems of recent years" Svetlov was posthumously awarded the Lenin prize. "Svetlov's lyrics, " writes V. Kazak, " are always multifaceted; much of it remains unsaid and gives free rein to the reader's imagination. His poems are mostly subject-oriented; concrete objects serve as symbols of feelings and thoughts."

Svetlov's work was closely connected with the poet's fighting youth: he sang the hero's loyalty to his dream, the romance of a revolutionary feat, and showed the everyday work of Soviet people.

From 1941 to 1945, the military correspondent of the newspaper "Red Star" first on the Leningrad front, and later worked at Newspapers First shock army, Northwest front: "To defeat the enemy, " "Heroic assault", in the newspaper Thirty-fourth army of the First Byelorussian front. Mikhail Svetlov was awarded two orders of the red Star and medals for his combat work during the great Patriotic war.

In 1931-1962, Mikhail Svetlov lived in the" house of the writers 'cooperative" in Kamergersky lane. For a number of years, he taught at the Literary Institute.

From the memoirs of Varlam Shalamov:

Svetlov stood up, holding out his hand to me.

"Wait. I'll tell you something. I may be a bad poet, but I have never denounced anyone or written anything about anyone.

I thought that it was a great achievement for those years — more difficult, perhaps, than writing "Grenada".