Elena Tsezarevna Chukovskaya gained fame as a literary critic and chemist. Her life was influenced by the Second World War, perestroika and other difficult bright periods in the history of Russia.
Early childhood
August 6, 1931 in the family of Caesar Samoilovich Volpe and Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya, a daughter was born, who was named Elena. A few years after the birth, the parents divorced, the mother almost immediately marries Matvey Bronstein.
Elena was born in Leningrad. However, in early childhood, she spent little time in this city. In 1937, the Soviet theoretical physicist was arrested, after a short trial, the death sentence was executed. The policy of the leading party in relation to those who were found guilty determined the possibility of arrest and close relatives, in this case, Elena's mother. That is why Lidia Korneevna Chukovskaya decided to leave Leningrad and went to live for a while with her father Korney Chukovsky.
Life in Tashkent
During the war period, Elena Tsezarevna, together with her mother, was almost immediately evacuated to Tashkent. Their cousin is also traveling with them.
Student years
Elena chooses chemistry as her main area of professional activity, and after the end of the war in 1948, she enters the Chemistry Department of the State Institute in Moscow. At this moment, her grandfather is working on a handwritten almanac "Chukokkala", in which his granddaughter helps him during his illness.
It was my grandfather who had a lot of influence on the future literary critic. In his personal diary, Korney Chukovsky noted that his granddaughter is well organized and clearly separates the good from the bad.
Professional activities
After 6 years of study, Elena Chukovskaya, whose family was going through hard times, graduated from the university in 1954. Almost immediately, she was hired at the Research Institute of Organoelement Compounds, where she worked until 1987.
Throughout the entire time she worked, she showed herself as a talented chemist. In 1962, under the guidance of R. Kh.
In the course of career development, several scientific papers related to organic chemistry were written, Elena became a co-author of a monograph.
Choice of the Faculty of Chemistry
In one of her interviews, Elena Chukovskaya spoke about how she became a chemist. According to her, the choice was largely random. It was due to the fact that the school was finished in 1949 - a terrible time for the humanities. EnoughHer mother and grandfather, who were expelled from everywhere, experienced problems, and their works were not published. The current circumstances prompted me to choose a practical field of activity.
For Elena, the work of her grandfather "Chukokkala" has become truly fateful. It was after the death of the writer and the inheritance of the almanac that the publishing house "Art" turned to her, and the preparation of the work for publication began. At this time, literary work became a favorite: a chemist by profession became interested in working with archives and notes, restoring works. It was during this period that she met Solzhenitsyn. For some time after the confiscation of the archives, Alexander Isaevich lived first in his dacha, and then in the Chukovskys' apartment.
An interesting fact is that during the life of her grandfather, Elena Chukovskaya did not deal with his affairs. After inheriting the archive, she devoted her later life to its preservation and publishing. Quite a lot of experience as a literary critic was obtained at the time of independent publication and distribution of the works of Solzhenitsyn, who permanently lived in Ryazan. Even under the threat of arrest and expulsion from the country, the works were published on a private basis and clandestinely distributed in the capital and other cities of the USSR.
Activity of a literary critic
Despite her great enthusiasm for the knowledge of chemistry, as well as her active professional activity, Elena Chukovskaya pays quite a lot of attention to literature. As previously noted, even in childhood, her grandfather influenced her, heshaped Elena's love for literature of various genres.
After getting to know Solzhenitsyn and his works, Elena Chukovskaya begins to provide him with various kinds of help. They began to communicate in the early 1960s and continued even after Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the USSR.
Solzhenitsyn on Elena Tsezarevna Chukovskaya
In the essay "The calf butted with the oak" Solzhenitsyn in a separate section called "Invisibles" spoke about help from various people in difficult times. In this section, he talks in more detail about his communication with Elena at the time of living in the USSR under the threat of arrest.
Being a successful chemist, Elena Chukovskaya, whose biography has never been easy and cloudless, sent parcels, organized meetings with the right people, interviewed various witnesses to publicize the government's misconduct against Solzhenitsyn, reprinted five volumes within 3 years. According to the writer, she was mentally prepared for his arrest, which could affect his entire close circle of friends, but she was not afraid of anything. In case of arrest, she even prepared for herself a certain policy of behavior, which was based on the fact that the main thing is not to get confused in the testimony and nothing needs to be denied. In the essay, it was noted that in the event of an arrest, Elena would indicate assistance to Russian literature as the basis for her assistance.
An interesting fact is that they disagreed on many issues, but despite this, Chukovskaya helped Solzhenitsyn as much as possible.
Death of K. I. Chukovsky
K. I. Chukovsky died in 1968. All rights to archives and literary works were inherited by his daughter and granddaughter. However, despite the transfer of rights, the heirs had a lot of problems with the publication of Chukokkala, in which Elena participated in writing during her student years. The first edition was released in 1979, and only in the late 90s was the almanac reprinted in its entirety.
The history of the fight for the publication dragged on for many years. The essay "Memoir about Chukokkale" was devoted to this period. It reflects how the people who surrounded the writer in the last years of his life tried to challenge the rights to the almanac and Chukovsky's decision to betray his works to his daughter and granddaughter.
Korney Chukovsky's house-museum
In Peredelkino, where the author of "Chukokkala" lived, a house-museum dedicated to his life and work was created. At the time of his death and in the subsequent period, the authorities did not pay attention to the desire of people to preserve the work and history of the writer, but his granddaughter and daughter made a lot of efforts to open and maintain the museum. Even now, after the death of his granddaughter, he continues to work.
The first tour guides were the granddaughter and Klara Izrailevna Lozovskaya, the writer's personal secretary.
In 1996, the mother of Elena Tsezarevna Chukovskaya dies. After her death, she begins to work on her archive and the publication of her writings. Zh. O. Khavkina helps her with this.
Publications of Elena Tsezarevna Chukovskaya
The most famous works that startedprinted since 1974, the following:
- "Return the citizenship of the USSR to Solzhenitsyn." The edition was released in 1988. It is based on personal communication with the writer, an assessment of his character and worldview.
- Collection of articles about Solzhenitsyn, which were written jointly with Vladimir Gloritser. The collection "The Word makes its way" was released in 1998.
- Memories of Boris Pasternak (1988).
As previously noted, communication with Solzhenitsyn had a great influence on Chukovskaya's life. This is reflected in her creative work.
Most of the time in the last years of her life she devoted to the preparation and publication of the works that were written by her mother and grandfather. Her reverent attitude to the archive was the reason for the publication of such works as "The House of the Poet", "Dash", "Diary" by Korney Chukovsky, as well as personal correspondence between father and daughter, which concerned creative activity.
A lot of works were published, which were comments on the work of their relatives. In order to understand some works, you need to know what period of life they were written in.
Elena Chukovskaya: personal life
Almost nothing is known about the personal life of Elena Tsezarevna Chukovskaya. All the interviews that she gave in the last years of her life were connected only with her work as a literary critic. Elena Tsezarevna Chukovskaya, whose personal life is covered with a veil of secrecy, after the death of her grandfather and mother, put all her strength into the work of restoringfamily archive. It is only known that she has no children, she did not officially marry.
Elena Chukovskaya: funeral
Elena Tsezarevna passed away on January 3, 2015 in Moscow at the age of 83. She was buried at the Peredelkino cemetery, next to the graves of her mother, grandmother and grandfather. The farewell fell on the Orthodox holiday of Christmas, the ceremony was organized at the House of Russian Diaspora. Even with Solzhenitsyn, Elena did not agree on issues related to faith. Maybe that's why, or because of the Orthodox holiday, a church memorial service was not held.
