Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov. Born on August 20, 1932 in Kazan - died on July 6, 2009 in Moscow. Soviet and Russian writer, film scriptwriter.
Father - Pavel Vasilyevich Aksenov (1899-1991), was the chairman of the Kazan City Council and a member of the bureau of the Tatar regional committee of the CPSU.
Mother - Evgenia Solomonovna Ginzburg (1904-1977), worked as a teacher at the Kazan Pedagogical Institute, then as head of the cultural department of the newspaper "Red Tataria".
He was the third and youngest child in the family, and at the same time the only common child of his parents.
In 1937, when Vasily Aksenov was not yet five years old, his parents - first his mother, and then soon his father - were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison and camps.
The older children - sister Maya (daughter of P.V. Aksenov) and Alyosha (son of E.S. Ginzburg from her first marriage) - were taken in by relatives. Vasily was forcibly sent to an orphanage for the children of prisoners - his grandmothers were not allowed to keep the child with them.
In 1938, P. Aksenov’s brother, Andreyan Vasilyevich Aksenov, managed to find little Vasya in an orphanage in Kostroma and take him in with him. Vasya lived in the house of Motya Aksenova (his paternal relative) until 1948, until his mother Evgenia Ginzburg, having left the camp in 1947 and living in exile in Magadan, obtained permission for Vasya to come to her in Kolyma.
Evgenia Ginzburg described her meeting with Vasya in a book of memoirs "Steep route"- one of the first memoir books about the era of Stalinist repressions and camps, which told about the eighteen years the author spent in prison, Kolyma camps and exile.
Vasily Aksenov, Evgenia Ginzburg and Anton Walter (Magadan, 1950)
Many years later, in 1975, Vasily Aksenov described his Magadan youth in the autobiographical novel “Burn.”
In 1956, Aksenov graduated from the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute and was assigned to the Baltic Shipping Company, where he was supposed to work as a doctor on long-distance vessels.
Despite the fact that his parents had already been rehabilitated, he was never given access. It was later mentioned that Aksyonov worked as a quarantine doctor in the Far North, in Karelia, in the Leningrad sea trading port and in a tuberculosis hospital in Moscow (according to other sources, he was a consultant at the Moscow Research Institute of Tuberculosis).
Since 1960, Vasily Aksenov has been a professional writer. From his pen came the story “Colleagues” (written in 1959; the play of the same name together with Yu. Stabov, 1961; the film of the same name, 1962), the novels “Star Ticket” (written in 1961; the film “My Junior” was based on it) brother", 1962), the story "Oranges from Morocco" (1962), "It's time, my friend, it's time" (1963), the collections "Catapult" (1964), "Halfway to the Moon" (1966), the play "Always in sale" (production of the Sovremennik Theater, 1965); in 1968, the satirical-fantasy story “Overstocked Barrel” was published.
In the 1960s, V. Aksenov’s works were often published in the magazine “Yunost”. For several years he has been a member of the journal's editorial board. He writes adventure duology for children: “My Grandfather is a Monument” (1970) and “The Chest in which Something Knocks” (1972).
The story about L. Krasin “Love for Electricity” (1971) belongs to the historical and biographical genre. The experimental work “Search for a Genre” was written in 1972 (first publication in the magazine “New World”; in the subtitle indicating the genre of the work, it is also indicated “Search for a Genre”).
Also in 1972, together with O. Gorchakov and G. Pozhenyan, he wrote a parody novel on the spy action movie “Gene Green - the Untouchable” under the pseudonym Grivadiy Gorpozhaks (a combination of the names and surnames of the real authors).
In 1976, he translated E. L. Doctorow’s novel “Ragtime” from English.
Back in March 1963, at a meeting with the intelligentsia in the Kremlin, he subjected Aksenov, along with Andrei Voznesensky, to devastating criticism.
On March 5, 1966, Vasily Aksyonov participated in an attempted demonstration on Red Square in Moscow against the supposed rehabilitation of Stalin and was detained by vigilantes.
In 1967-1968, he signed a number of letters in defense of dissidents, for which he received a reprimand and entered into his personal file from the Moscow branch of the Union of Writers of the USSR.
In the 1970s, after the end of the “thaw,” Aksyonov’s works ceased to be published in his homeland. Novels "Burn"(1975) and “Island of Crimea” (1979) were created from the very beginning by the author without any expectation of publication. At this time, criticism of Aksenov and his works became increasingly harsh: epithets such as “non-Soviet” and “non-national” were used.
In 1977-1978, Aksyonov’s works began to appear abroad, primarily in the USA. Your famous novel "Island of Crimea" Vasily Aksenov wrote in 1977-1979, partly during his stay in Koktebel.
In 1978, V. Aksenov, together with Andrei Bitov, Viktor Yerofeyev, Fazil Iskander, Evgeny Popov and Bella Akhmadulina, became the organizer and author of the uncensored almanac “Metropol”, which was never published in the Soviet censored press. The almanac was published in the USA. All participants in the almanac underwent “workouts”.
In protest against the subsequent expulsion of Popov and Erofeev from the Union of Writers of the USSR in December 1979, Aksyonov, as well as Inna Lisnyanskaya and Semyon Lipkin, announced their withdrawal from the joint venture. The history of the almanac is told in a novel with a key "Say 'raisin'".
Vasily Aksenov, Vladimir Vysotsky and Victor Erofeev
On July 22, 1980, he left at the invitation for the United States, after which he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. Until 2004 he lived in the USA.
Since 1981, Vasily Aksyonov has been a professor of Russian literature at various US universities: the Kennan Institute (1981-1982), George Washington University (1982-1983), Goucher College (1983-1988), George Mason University (1988-2009).
In 1980-1991, as a journalist, he actively collaborated with the Voice of America and Radio Liberty. Collaborated with the magazine "Continent" and the almanac "Verb". Aksyonov’s radio essays were published in the author’s collection “A Decade of Slander” (2004).
The novels “Our Golden Iron” (1973, 1980), “Burn” (1976, 1980), “Island of Crimea” (1979, 1981), a collection of short stories were published in the USA, written by Aksyonov in Russia, but first published only after the writer’s arrival in America. "Right to the Island" (1981).
Also in the USA, V. Aksyonov wrote and published new novels: “Paper Landscape” (1982), “Say “Raisin”” (1985), “In Search of the Sad Baby” (1986), the “Moscow Saga” trilogy (1989, 1991 , 1993), collection of stories “The Negative of a Positive Hero” (1995), “New Sweet Style” (1996) (dedicated to the life of Soviet emigration in the United States), “Caesarean Glow” (2000).
The novel “Egg Yolk” (1989) was written by V. Aksenov in English, then translated by the author into Russian.
For the first time after nine years of emigration, Aksenov visited the USSR in 1989 at the invitation of the American Ambassador J. Matlock. In 1990, Aksenov was returned to Soviet citizenship.
Recently he lived with his family in Biarritz, France, and in Moscow.
The Moscow Saga trilogy (1992) was filmed in Russia in 2004 by A. Barshchevsky in a multi-part television series.
In 1992, he actively supported Gaidar's reforms. In his words: “Gaidar gave a kick to Mother Russia.”
In 1993, during the dispersal of the Supreme Council, he stood in solidarity with those who signed the letter of support.
In the USA, V. Aksenov was awarded the honorary title of Doctor of Humane Letters. He was a member of the PEN Club and the American Authors League. In 2004, V. Aksenov was awarded the Russian Booker Prize for the novel “The Voltaireans and the Voltaireans.” In 2005, Vasily Aksenov was awarded the Order of Arts and Letters.
In 2007, the novel “Rare Earths” was published.
Vasily Aksenov - interview
In Kazan, since 2007, the International Literary and Music Festival Aksyonov-Fest has been held annually in the fall (October) (the first was held with his personal participation); in 2009, the building was recreated and the Aksyonov Literary House-Museum was opened, in which there is a city literary club.
On January 15, 2008, in Moscow, V. Aksyonov suddenly felt very ill and was hospitalized in hospital No. 23, where a stroke was diagnosed. A day after hospitalization, Aksyonov was transferred to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute, where he underwent surgery to remove a carotid artery blood clot.
On January 29, 2008, doctors assessed the writer’s condition as extremely serious. As of August 28, 2008, his condition remained “stable and serious.” On March 5, 2009, new complications arose, Aksenov was transferred to the Burdenko Research Institute and underwent surgery. Later Aksyonov was transferred back to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute.
On July 6, 2009, after a long illness, Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov died in Moscow, at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute. Vasily Aksyonov was buried on July 9, 2009 at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow.
In Kazan, the house where the writer lived in his youth was restored, and in November 2009, the Museum of his work was created there.
In October 2009, the last completed novel by Vasily Aksenov was published - "Mysterious Passion". A novel about the sixties,” individual chapters of which were published in 2008 in the magazine “Collection of Caravan of Stories.” The novel is autobiographical, and its main characters are the idols of Soviet literature and art of the 1960s: Robert Rozhdestvensky, Evgeny Yevtushenko, Bella Akhmadulina, Andrei Voznesensky, Bulat Okudzhava, Andrei Tarkovsky, Vladimir Vysotsky, Ernst Neizvestny, Marlen Khutsiev and others. In order to distance himself from the memoir genre, the author gave fictitious names to the characters in the novel.
still from the series "Mysterious Passion"
In 2010, Aksyonov’s unfinished autobiographical novel “Lend-Lease” was published.
In 2011, Alexander Kabakov and Evgeny Popov published a joint book of memoirs, “Aksyonov.” The authors are extremely concerned about the issue of “writer’s fate”, which relates to the intricacies of biography and the birth of a great Personality. The main task of the book is to resist the distortion of facts for the sake of one or another situation.
In 2012, Viktor Esipov published the book “Vasily Aksenov - a lonely long-distance runner,” which included the memories of contemporaries about the writer, part of his correspondence and interviews.
Personal life of Vasily Aksenov:
The first wife is Kira Ludvigovna Mendeleva (1934-2013), daughter of brigade commander Lajos (Ludwig Matveevich) Gavro and granddaughter of the famous pediatrician and healthcare organizer Yulia Aronovna Mendeleva (1883-1959), founder and first rector of the Leningrad Pediatric Medical Institute (1925-1949).
The marriage gave birth to a son, Alexey Vasilyevich Aksyonov, a production designer, in 1960.
The second wife is Maya Afanasyevna Aksyonova (nee Zmeul, in her first marriage Ovchinnikova, in her second marriage married to R.L. Carmen; born 1930), graduated from the Institute of Foreign Trade, worked at the Chamber of Commerce, and taught Russian in America. Stepdaughter - Elena (Alena) (1954 - August 18, 2008).
Scripts for films by Vasily Aksenov:
1962 - When bridges are raised
1962 - Colleagues
1962 - My little brother
1966 - Journey (film almanac)
1970 - Host
1972 - Marble House
1975 - Center from the sky
1978 - While the dream runs wild
2007 - Tatiana
2009 - Jester
Plays by Vasily Aksenov:
1965 - “Always on Sale”
1966 - “Your Killer”
1968 - “The Four Temperaments”
1968 - “Aristophaniana with Frogs”
1980 - “Heron”
1998 - “Woe, grief, burn”
1999 - “Aurora Gorelik”
2000 - “Ah, Arthur Schopenhauer”
Bibliography of Vasily Aksenov:
1961 - “Colleagues”
1964 - “Catapult”
1965 - “It’s time, my friend, it’s time”
1966 - “Halfway to the Moon”
1969 - “It’s a pity that you weren’t with us”
1971 - “Love of Electricity”
1972 - “My grandfather is a monument”
1976 - “A chest in which something is knocking”
1990 - “Island of Crimea”
1990 - “Burn”
1991 - “Looking for Sad Baby”
1991 - “My grandfather is a monument”
1991 - “Rendezvous”
1991 - “Right to the Island”
1992 - “In Search of Sad Baby” “Two Books about America”
1993-1994 - “Moscow Saga” (Moscow Saga. Book 1 “Generation of Winter”; Moscow Saga. Book 2 “War and Prison”; Moscow Saga. Book 3 “Prison and Peace”
1996 - “The Negative of a Positive Hero”
1998 - “The Negative of a Positive Hero”
1998 - “Voltairians and Voltairians”
1999 - “The Death of Pompeii”
2001 - “Caesarean glow”
2001 - “Overstocked barrels”
2003 - “Oranges from Morocco”
2004 - “American Cyrillic”
2004 - “A Decade of Slander”
2005 - “Rare Earths”
2005 - “Looking for Sad Baby”
2005 - “Egg Yolk”
2005 - “Overstocked barrels”
2006 - “Moscow Kva-Kva”
2006 - “Say Raisin”
2006 - “Island of Crimea”
2009 - “Mysterious Passion” (novel about the sixties)
2009 - “Lend-Lease”
2012 - “Oh, this young man is flying!”
2014 - “One continuous Caruso” (Compiled by V. Esipov)
2015 - “Catch the pigeon mail. Letters" (Compiled by V. Esipov)
2015 - “The Lion’s Den” (Compiled by V. Esipov)
Premiere on Channel One: serial film “Mysterious Passion” based on the latest novel Vasily Aksenov, in which the author “encrypted” the names and surnames of his contemporaries. The prototypes of the heroes are the idols of the sixties: Robert Er - Robert Rozhdestvensky, Anton Andreotis - Andrei Voznesensky, Nella Akhho - Bella Akhmadulina, Yan Tushinsky - Evgeny Yevtushenko, Vasily Aksyonov himself under the nickname Vaxon and many others. AiF.ru invites you to recall the real biographies of the prototypes of the main characters of the novel.
Robert Rozhdestvensky
Creation: The first serious publications of Rozhdestvensky’s poems appeared in the Petrozavodsk magazine “At the Turnover” when the poet was only 18 years old. At that time he was just trying to enter the Literary Institute. M. Gorky, where he was accepted, but only on the second attempt. Rozhdestvensky’s first works contained a lot of civic pathos; he wrote about space exploration and the difficulties of everyday life. But the older the writer became, the more lyrical his poetry seemed, and love lyrics came to the fore.
Robert Rozhdestvensky. Photo: RIA Novosti / Boris Kaufman
Rozhdestvensky’s popularity in the Soviet years was enormous: in the 60s he was one of those who conquered the Polytechnic and sports palaces, his creative evenings were held in full houses, and his books were published in huge editions.
Popular works: Rozhdestvensky’s famous poems about love are known in almost all countries, and many are familiar with his work thanks to the songs “My Years”, “Echo of Love”, “Ticket to Childhood”, “Gravity of the Earth”. He is the author of the words of the legendary song “Moments” from the movie Tatiana Lioznova"Seventeen Moments of Spring".
Personal life: Robert's entire personal life was connected with Alla Kireeva, artist and literary critic. He dedicated all his love poems to her, and she became the mother of his two daughters.
Death: Rozhdestvensky died in Moscow at the age of 62. In 1990, doctors gave the poet a terrible diagnosis: a malignant brain tumor. But after a successful operation, he managed to live another 4 years.
Interesting Facts: The poet stuttered badly, especially when he was worried, much less speaking in public, and this made him even more charming. But there was a reason for this speech disorder: they say that in childhood, in front of the poet’s eyes, his friend was hit by a car, after which Rozhdestvensky began to stutter.
Andrey Voznesensky
Creation: Voznesensky’s first collection, “Mosaic,” was published in 1958, when the poet was 26 years old. He immediately incurred the wrath of the authorities, because he did not reflect the principles that were instilled at that time. Then Voznesensky aroused sharp rejection among the Soviet literary community: his lyrics contained many daring metaphors and comparisons, an unusual rhythm of verse and a non-standard reflection of the tragedy of the Great Patriotic War. In 1963, Nikita Khrushchev himself sharply criticized the poet: “Look, what a Pasternak you found!.. Go to the damn grandmother. Get out, Mr. Voznesensky, to your masters!” Only in the 1970s did the persecution of the poet end and he finally began to be published in large numbers.
Popular works: Voznesensky was the author of eight poems and more than forty poetry collections. He is one of the creators of the rock opera “Juno and Avos” and the author of the words of the famous romance “I will never forget you.” Many popular pop songs were written based on his poems, including “A Million Scarlet Roses”, “Encore Song”, “Start Over”, “Give Me Back the Music”.
Personal life: Voznesensky lived for forty-six years in a happy marriage with theater and film critic, writer Zoya Boguslavskaya, who in 1964 left her husband for the famous author after he dedicated the poem “Uzza” to her.
Death: In 1995, Voznesensky was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, the poet began to lose his voice, and the muscles of his throat and limbs began to weaken. He died at home in the arms of his beloved wife at the age of 77 after a second stroke.
Interesting Facts: Popular in the 90s performed Evgenia Osina The song “The Girl is Crying in the Machine” was written based on Voznesensky’s poem “First Ice”. In the late 60s, the song “First Ice” was popular in urban courtyard culture, and in different years it was performed Nina Dorda and VIA "Jolly Fellows".
Bella Akhmadulina
Creation: Bella Akhmadulina began writing poetry during her school years, and her first publication was published in the magazine “October” when the author was only 18 years old. Many Soviet critics considered Akhmadulina’s poetry “irrelevant,” “vulgar,” and “banal,” but the young poetess, on the contrary, gained enormous popularity among readers. Despite her obvious talent, Akhmadulina was expelled from the Literary Institute for refusing to support bullying Boris Pasternak. Later she was restored and even given a honors diploma, but along with Yevtushenko and Voznesensky, the Soviet government never supported her.
Popular works: One of Akhmadulina’s most famous poems is “On my street which year...”, which became famous thanks to the film Eldara Ryazanova"Irony of Fate or Enjoy Your Bath!". The works of the poetess are also widely known: “And finally, I will say...”, “Oh, my shy hero...”, “From the depths of my adversity...”.
Personal life: Akhmadulina was married four times: to Evgeniy Yevtushenko, behind writer Yuri Nagibin, behind screenwriter Eldar Kuliev and for theater artist Boris Messerer.
Death: In the last years of her life, Akhmadulina was seriously ill. In 2010, at the age of 73, she died at her dacha in the village of Peredelkino near Moscow.
Interesting Facts: In 1964, Akhmadulina played a young journalist in the film Vasily Shukshina“There lives such a guy.” And six years later she starred in another film: “Sport, Sports, Sports.”
Evgeniy Yevtushenko
Creation: The poet's first poem was published when he was 17 years old, and the author's talent was so obvious that he was accepted into the Literary Institute without a school certificate. Then, in 1952, he became the youngest member of the USSR Writers' Union, bypassing the stage of candidate member of the joint venture.
The beginning of his creativity coincided with the Khrushchev thaw, and Yevtushenko’s fresh poems turned out to be in tune with the positive sentiments of young people. In the early 1960s, he was one of the first among poets to appear on stage, and his artistry and special manner of reading poetry contributed to his success.
In 1957, Yevtushenko was expelled from the institute for supporting the novel. Vladimir Dudintsev“Not by bread alone,” but he continued to participate in various protests and was in opposition to the authorities. In 1991, Yevtushenko signed a contract with an American university and left the country forever.
Personal life: Yevgeny Yevtushenko was officially married four times: to Bella Akhmadulina, Galina Sokol-Lukonina, my own fan Jen Butler and on Maria Novikova, with whom he still lives.
Popular works: In Yevtushenko’s bibliography there is a place not only for poetry, but also for prose works. The most famous of them are the autobiographies “Premature Autobiography” and “Wolf Passport”. He is also the author of the lyrics to well-known songs: “Do the Russians want war,” “And it’s snowing,” “Waltz about a waltz,” “This is what’s happening to me.”
Interesting Facts: After the publication of the poem “Babi Yar,” Yevgeny Yevtushenko was “excommunicated” from Ukraine for twenty years: he was not allowed to hold creative evenings and meetings with poetry lovers.
Vasily Aksyonov
Creation: In 1956, Aksyonov graduated from the Leningrad Medical Institute. He worked as a doctor in the North, in Karelia, in Leningrad, in Moscow. His first stories were published in the magazine “Yunost” already in 1958, but it took time for Aksyonov to give up medicine and take up writing seriously. His novels and stories turned out to be very popular, but aroused disapproval from the authorities: the writer was constantly accused of hidden anti-Sovietism. After the end of the “thaw” and the scandal with the publication of the uncensored almanac “Metropol” in the USSR, it was no longer published: as a sign of protest, Aksyonov voluntarily resigned from the Writers’ Union.
Vasily Aksenov. Photo: RIA Novosti
Popular works: The author’s most popular works are considered to be “The Moscow Saga”, “Trilogy”, “Burn” and “Island of Crimea”, which were unpublished due to censorship in the USSR. As well as his last completed novel, Mysterious Passion.
Personal life: Vasily Aksenov was married twice, his first wife was Kira Mendeleeva, and second Maya Carmen, which the poet himself called the main passion of his life.
Death: Aksenov died in 2009 at the age of 77 after a long illness.
Interesting Facts: After Aksenov was deprived of Soviet citizenship, he taught Russian literature at several US universities. In 1990, Aksenov and his wife were returned to Russian citizenship, but he never returned to his homeland, only appearing in Moscow from time to time.
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Biography, life story of Maya Carmen (Aksyonova)
Maya Afanasyevna Karmen (Aksenova) is the second and last wife of the writer.
Childhood and youth
Maya was born in Moscow on June 5, 1930 in the family of Afanasy Andreevich Zmeul, a Soviet historian and hero of the civil war. After school, Maya entered the All-Union Academy of Foreign Trade (at that time it was headed by her father), after which she began working at the Chamber of Commerce.
Maya Zmeul was a typical representative of the “golden youth”. Thanks to her father's money and connections, she got everything she wanted. After the death of her mother, her stepmother came to her house, with whom she developed a warm relationship.
Husbands
In 1951, Maya married Maurice Ovchinnikov, a foreign trade worker. In 1954, the couple had a daughter, Elena. Alas, the relationship between Maya and Maurice did not work out. After several years of marriage, they decided to file for divorce.
Maya's second husband was director Roman Carmen. With him, Maya lived in grand style - a luxurious apartment, a dacha near Moscow, regular trips abroad, cars with personal drivers at any time of the day, an elite social circle. And all this against the backdrop of sincere and incredibly strong love for each other. It would seem that the union of Maya and Roman is indestructible. But in 1970 everything changed. The Carmen couple went to Yalta (Roman needed to recover his health after a heart attack), where Maya met. This meeting changed her whole life.
Maya and fell in love at first sight. At that time they were both married. Secret dates began, kisses were stolen... But, as you know, sooner or later everything secret becomes clear. Despite the fact that Maya’s affair became public knowledge, the lovers did not take any action. Maya could not leave her husband, and did not dare to persuade her against her will. In 1978, when Roman Carmen died, Maya had no choice but to try to start a family with. Soon he divorced his then-wife Kira. In 1980, Maya got married.
CONTINUED BELOW
Life in the USA
Immediately after the wedding, the Aksenov family, including Elena, Maya’s daughter from her first marriage, and her son Ivan, went to Paris. From there the family moved to America, planning to stay there for a couple of years. But due to the unexpected deprivation of citizenship, they had to stay in a foreign land for 24 years. In the USA, Maya Aksenova taught Russian to university students.
A series of tragedies
In 1999, a terrible grief occurred in the Aksenov family. Maya Aksenova’s grandson Ivan died tragically. A 26-year-old boy accidentally fell out of a window. The misfortunes did not end there. In 2004, the couple returned to their Moscow apartment, and in 2008 they suffered a stroke.
Maya Afanasyevna Zmeul, better known as Maya Carmen, was born in June 1930 in Moscow, in the family of a civil war hero, Soviet historian Afanasy Andreevich Zmeul. A few years after Maya’s birth, her father headed the All-Union Academy of Foreign Trade. During the Great Patriotic War, he went to the front and was an agitator in the propaganda department of the Political Directorate.
After the war, Zmeul becomes the head of the foreign trade association “International Book”. After graduating from one of the capital's schools, Maya Zmeul is a student at the Institute of Foreign Trade. After receiving her diploma, she got a job at the Chamber of Commerce.
Maya Zmeul belonged to that category of youth that was called “golden”. The daughter of a prominent foreign trade boss, who ran a prestigious institution that had offices in many countries, had everything that others only dreamed of. Maya's mother died early. The father married for the second time. But relations with my stepmother improved quickly. The daughter inherited her father’s character - stubborn, straightforward and purposeful.
In 1951, Maya got married. Her first husband was foreign trade worker Maurice Ovchinnikov. Three years later, the couple had a daughter, Elena. But soon the marriage collapsed. Maya met the country-famous director Roman Carmen and fell in love. He also left his family for her sake - he divorced his wife Nina Orlova, with whom he lived for 20 years.
Despite Maya's hot-tempered and straightforward nature, the couple got along well. They were part of that layer of Soviet society called the “elite.” There was everything here - a prestigious apartment in the famous high-rise building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, a dacha near Moscow, travel abroad, cars with personal chauffeurs and gatherings with members of the Politburo. But in 1970, Roman Carmen had a heart attack. To restore their health, the family went to Yalta. There the fateful meeting between Maya Carmen and.
Personal life
From the moment of meeting Aksyonov, who arrived in Yalta with his wife Kira, Maya Carmen’s personal life was turned upside down. It was love at first sight, a fatal passion that swept away everything in its path. But Kira Mendeleeva also loved her husband and did not want to divorce him. Roman Carmen had the same feelings for his wife.
Vasily Aksyonov and Maya Carmen began dating in secret. They traveled together to Sochi, Koktebel and the Baltic states. But it is impossible to keep the personal lives of such famous people secret. The entire literary bohemia of Moscow was gossiping about this novel. As Vasily Aksyonov later admitted, he was once almost beaten by a man who was friends with Roman Karmen and sincerely worried about his suffering friend.
Their relationship was indeed very risky. After all, Roman Lazarevich Karmen is People’s Artist of the USSR and Hero of Socialist Labor. He is a luminary of documentary cinema, who filmed footage of the surrender of Paulus at Stalingrad and the signing of the act of surrender of Germany. Moreover: Carmen is a personal friend of himself. And Vasily Aksenov is a dissident, he is increasingly criticized in the press and is almost never published. Vasily Pavlovich later described his love affair in his autobiographical work “Burn”. There Maya Carmen is named Alice.
Leonid Brezhnev was friends with Roman Karmen Maya was never able to leave Roman Carmen. She was torn between him and Aksyonov until the death of Roman Lazarevich. He passed away in 1978. The divorce never happened. But with the departure of the director, the last barrier between Maya Carmen and Vasily Aksyonov disappeared. After divorcing Kira, Vasily Pavlovich was finally able to marry Maya. Nothing could now overshadow their life together, not even actual expulsion from the country.
In May 1980, the lovers got married. We celebrated the event in Peredelkino, at the dacha, where close friends gathered. And already in July of the same year, 48-year-old Vasily Aksyonov and 50-year-old Maya with their daughter Alena and grandson Vanya went to Paris. A couple of months later they moved to America, intending to live there for a while. It was planned that it would be 2 years. But the writer was promptly deprived of citizenship. So the couple remained in the USA for a long 24 years. Maya Carmen, like her husband, worked at the university, teaching Russian.
In 1999, great grief happened in the family. Maya's 26-year-old grandson Ivan tragically died after falling out of a window. But this was only the first tragedy, followed by others. In 2004, Maya and Vasily Aksenov received an apartment in Moscow. Or rather, they were given back the apartment they had once taken away in the same building on Kotelniki. And 4 years later Aksyonov had a stroke. The writer was leaving the courtyard of that same high-rise building.
Vasily Pavlovich was in a coma for almost 2 years. The operations he underwent did not save him. All this time Maya was next to her beloved husband. Soon she suffered another blow. In the summer of 2008, daughter Elena, who had come to help care for her stepfather, died suddenly in her sleep. And in the summer of next year, Maya Carmen buried her husband. In one of her last interviews, the woman admitted that she was kept in this world only by Aksenov’s beloved dog, a spaniel named Pushkin.
Chapter seventeen. Aksenov through the eyes of women
…Evgeniy Popov: What attracted women to Aksenov?
Alexander Kabakov: I believe that there were two kinds of love. Firstly... or secondly, women loved Vasya for what they love all the men they love - because he was first-class, first-rate, of the highest quality, a rare man. Let's try, no offense intended to our literary brother, to remember at least one modern writer who would be so full of masculine power... masculine principle. Understand?
E.P.: Well, yes.
A.K.: Personally, I don’t know any. The fact that he was a man was felt by all women without exception. Sorry, if I, who am not at all inclined to same-sex love, felt this, then for women it was in the air. And second, that is, first: women throughout the Soviet Union and some foreign women loved Aksenov for the same thing that all his readers loved Aksenov for. Aksenov himself was like a little Keith, a varnisher of reality. He is an extremely romantic character and a romantic writer, I insist on that. Some consider him a modernist or postmodernist, but he was first and foremost a romantic, and everyone loves a romantic, especially women. Moreover, these can be romantics of anything. The romance of going to the mountains, the romance of rabid drunkenness, the romance of love. They especially love romantics, but Vasya’s love in his books is exclusively romantic. He has the most sexy, the most frank, the most pure fucking - completely romantic. An example is “New Sweet Style”, the relationship between the hero and the heroine. Continuous fucking - frantic, insane, uncontrollable - and continuous romance - nightly conversations on the phone, torment, suffering... It is impossible to find a book without fucking in his book, but it is impossible for him to fuck without romance - which is full of many writers who abuse sex scenes. Well, there is no such thing without romance! In all his works, from “Colleagues” to “Rare Earths,” all love relationships are purely romantic. This is why he was loved - by readers and, especially, by female readers. Here's my concept.
E.P.: Well then? Just bravo-bravo. Let's clap our hands.
A.K.: Thank you for the “bravo-bravo”, but I’m asking a question that I would like you to answer as a person who has known Vasya for many years. How do you think Aksenov himself treated women... women? Do you think that he was not only a romantic writer, but a romantic in general?
E.P.: Well, you know, it’s impossible to answer this right away, and for various reasons. Firstly, you can’t always hide Aksenov’s face under the mask of a “lyrical character”...
A.K.: It’s impossible, but it’s necessary. It is not at all expected that Aksenov’s Don Juan list will be made public.
E.P.: And secondly, I’m afraid that you and I will now begin a protracted discussion on the topic “What is it like to be a romantic in life.” Or in life, as they are now in the habit of saying. And does, for example, the complex of romance include cynicism?
A.K.: Cynicism within romance has the right to peaceful coexistence with unearthly tenderness.
E.P.: Because romance still wins, right?
A.K.: Romance never gives up, I would say so.
E.P.: I once asked Vasily Pavlovich where he met his wife Kira. He replied, at the dance. Is this romance or not?
A.K.: Romance is not about who you met where, even in the toilet...
E.P.: Ugh, how rude...
A.K.: It's okay. The romance is in how you met, what happened, how both lovers felt. A perfect example of this is the entire female-male line in one of my favorite films, “Once Upon a Time in America,” directed by Sergio Leone. Starting from the scene with Charlotte, do you remember?
A.K.: When a boy’s girlfriend promises to give him a delicious charlotte. The boy waits for her on the steps and quietly eats the treat. That is, the scene romanticizes early sexual desire. Although the scene is almost pornographic. I'm not even talking about another story - about a woman who was raped, but who fell in love with the gangster rapist for the rest of her life and becomes his accomplice. This is what romanticism is. Without romance, nothing happens at all. You can't write anything without romance.
E.P.: And I, answering your conceptual question, firmly declare: the romantic writer Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov was a romantic in life. There are many examples of this. Well, for example, the three of us are going to Crimea after the terrible winter of 1978/1979. Erofeev and I all the time indulge in various drinks and conversations on rather, I would say, slippery and dirty topics, using a full bouquet of profanity. Vasily listened to us, listened while driving, and then said: “Are you barking like peteushniks? You don’t have a phrase without swearing!” And it is he who was accused of abundant use of obscene words and shock situations in the text. I remember he was very irritated then! But because in the description of sexual relations he was always interested in the “beautiful secret of a comrade,” and not in unbridledness and abomination. And all his romantic adventures, including love ones, firstly, occupied a huge place in his life, you’re right, and secondly, they were to a large extent the driving force of his creativity. He also took part with interest in other people’s romantic stories, in the romantic stories of his comrades. Even someone else's love made him happy. What a stunning description of someone else’s love in “Genre Quest”! This fellow traveler, who looks ten years older than her age, looks like an old woman, which makes both the author and the reader’s heart ache. And, mind you, she is also going to her beloved romantic, who is drinking himself to death on some kind of dredger. Sorry everyone!
A.K.: Here is proof of what we are talking about - the romanticization of reality. After all, one of the reasons that she is so eager for her dredger driver is his unique sexual quality. The strange thing is that by the end of a week-long binge, some kind of sexual craving suddenly arises in him. And not a craving, like a desire, but a craving, like a steam locomotive. And so, it would seem, this whole episode is just about fucking, and in a Soviet story, which, by definition, should be alien to eroticism. And if you take a closer look, no, it’s not just about fucking...
E.P.: Traction. This is interesting. And, by the way, it coincides with the same-root verb to pull, which previously denoted sexual intercourse. Before the word “fuck” appeared.
A.K.: Absolutely right. But Aksenov immediately romanticizes this very scabrous situation, and your, as you put it, “your heart aches.” But I say again: now only the lazy don’t write about this. Take books from many fashionable contemporary authors - no romance. Purely mechanical, dirty or desperate fucking. Not even porn or physiology, but sheer melancholy. They depict sex as sadly as everyday life.
E.P.: Well, again we have slipped into literature.
A.K.: It is impossible to talk about a writer separately from his literature. Even as if separately.
E.P.: Do you think, based on all of our reasoning, we can conclude that in modern literature fun has disappeared, these elements of that fun that still come from buffoons?
A.K.: Well, you can call this energy fun.
E.P.: Because, excuse me, but, again, I think that, except for Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov, rarely did anyone possess such cheerful energy. Well, maybe Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky and Vasily Makarovich Shukshin.
A.K.: Perhaps.
E.P.: Shukshin has one of his best stories “Suraz” about this. And in almost every story he depicts various rose-colored ladies. It is interesting that Vasily Makarovich was much more critical of the female sex than Aksenov, creating a whole gallery of complete 100% Soviet bitches, among which the most innocent is the evil saleswoman in the story “Boots,” who, for some unknown reason, suddenly began to hate the village peasant buyer.
A.K.: There is an explanation for this. Where is Vasily Palych from? From a Trotskyist literary woman and from a very educated, albeit rural, party worker. He may come from the camp, but from the city intelligentsia, our Vasily Pavlovich. And our Vasily Makarovich is from the peasants, from the simple ones, even though after the army he was the director of a rural school.
E.P.: Simple ones?
A.K.: Simple ones. And he observed ordinary people. There’s no way to compare them with the beau monde, albeit drunk, that Vasily Pavlovich so loved to portray. And ordinary people always have a simpler attitude towards this, which is about this.
E.P. Easier. And the more random, the more likely I’ll remember for some reason...
A.K.: It’s almost not common for them to romanticize relationships. In general, the degree of romanticization of life, in my opinion, is directly proportional to the cultural level.
E.P.: This is an interesting observation, but I do not agree with the use of the adjective “cultural”. Many so-called ordinary people are organically, initially cultured.
A.K.: Well, I’m not talking about deep culture itself, but about its visible level. Quite often, highly cultured people romanticize life to the point of complete idiocy or complete misunderstanding of it.
E.P.: And, while romanticizing, still, excuse me, they make this life easier, mix its tragic essence, make life bearable for existence, anesthetize life.
A.K.: Of course.
E.P.: Well, and thus they turn tragedy into drama, you know? Aksenov is a drama, but Shukshin is still a tragedy. “The wife saw off her husband to Paris” is a tragedy, and “Halfway to the Moon” is a drama. And this is neither good nor bad. This is true. The character in the story “The Wife Accompanied Her Husband to Paris” is in love with his scoundrel wife, which is why he commits suicide. And in general, this is what happens in Shukshin’s stories, if you look closely!
A.K.: Yes, because he is a realist, Shukshin, in these categories of ours he is not a romantic, but a realist.
E.P.: Listen, let’s take a break. Can you imagine how Shukshin would write a story based on Aksenov’s plot? Well, for example (from “The Burn”), how two men drunkenly buy a bottle of expensive Camus cognac from the barmaid, the barmaid is very pleased that, finally, some fools took the bottle that she couldn’t sell to anyone for a year. Nevertheless, she immediately calls the right place and snitches on suspicious crooks with money. After all, this could very well be a story written by Shukshin.
A.K.: A real Shukshin story, but with Shukshin everything would have been different, explicably and inexplicably different. Because Shukshin is a realist, and Aksenov is a romantic. And you know what I'll tell you? What I tried to express delicately, I blurt out more simply and crudely. For educated people who work with nothing but pieces of paper, everything is fine all around. But a simple person who works hard on the land or in a factory has a more sober, colder, more realistic outlook on life. It's always been that way. Love, as you know, was invented by poets. And those who don’t read poets have no love.
E.P.: What do they have instead of love then?
A.K.: Also love, but not the kind that poets invented.
E.P.: How then does your wonderful theory stand up to the fact that Shukshin, by the way, was not ignored by the ladies either?
A.K.: They didn’t bypass, they didn’t bypass, that’s absolutely right.
E.P.: But according to your statement, he was not a romantic, but a realist.
A.K.: So, I’ll tell you this thing, in my opinion, in Shukshin, firstly, the masculine principle also won, it may have been even stronger in him than in Aksenov. Shukshin is also a man, is that clear? And secondly, the fact is that women are straightforwardly drawn to romantics. I don’t state this very clearly, but I’ll try to formulate it. Women are drawn to a romantic in a straightforward manner, that is, this is him, this is how good he is, they think about the romantic. And they are drawn to realists according to the principle of repulsive attraction. This is what he is like... he knows everything, sees everything, and sees right through me, and, in general, he is evil, he is bad. But they love the really bad ones no less than the really good ones. Different, but no less. Women are drawn to cruelty, so I found the word...
E.P.: Or maybe to the strong?
A.K.: No, still to the cruel. Strong people are also different. One strong one is such a strong doctor Aibolit...
E.P.: Or Dill Pomidorych according to Solzhenitsyn.
A.K.: And the other one is as tough as tin. Women value toughness, all classical literature is about this... Are you thinking hard about something? About what?
E.P.: About the fact that today I feel constrained, because I’m afraid to blurt out something and thereby give away some of the mentioned “wonderful secrets of a comrade.”
A.K.: I feel exactly the same way and for the same reason, but I’m talking. However, I remind you once again that we are not discussing Vasya’s Don Juan list, although it contains sonorous and unexpected women’s names. And we don’t specify who, with whom, where and when. We are talking about some fundamental things that, in fact, may concern not only Aksenov.
E.P.: Still, do me a favor, tell me, at least within the framework of conspiracy, how you once met lovers Vasya and Maya in Tallinn.
A.K.: I’m telling you, but with banknotes, so that it is not clear what year it is, so as not to offend anyone. Once, my wife Ella and I, at the very beginning of our long life together, were relaxing as follows - for some unknown reason, we hung out in Estonia for a whole month, wandering around Tallinn. For the purpose of swimming, like all people, we went to Kadriorg, which means to the Tallinn park, where there is a sea and a beach. I remember it was wildly cold and uncomfortable there. Sand flew into your eyes, and no matter where you lie, after a while a pine root crawls out from under this sand, which just wasn’t there. It comes out and digs into your body. I really didn’t like it, and I’m not a big fan of the beach at all. Well, so we sat in these Tallinn European cafes, drank coffee with all sorts of delicious buns, and finally felt almost European. And then one day we go out onto Laboratorium Street, glorified by Aksenov...
E.P.: ... in “Star Ticket”. Thanks to Aksenov, the name of this street was known to all teenagers, boys and girls in the country, and in general to all his readers.
A.K.: Yes, yes, yes. Laboratory street. This is such a strange street. You enter it from one side and from there you can see its end on the other, it is short, and if someone enters from the other end, you will not be able to warm up. It is narrow: on one side there is a high, old city wall, and on the other side there are smooth walls of houses with windows only in the upper floors. This corridor is made of stone. And we entered there, and I said to my wife: “The spirit of Vasily Pavlovich hovers here.” At these words of mine, Vasily Pavlovich and Maya Afanasyevna enter this street from the other side. That’s when Vasya introduced us, and we spent several hours together. Maya was absolutely charming, you can compare her with a Barbie doll, which did not exist then, but the comparison would be a little offensive. Therefore, I will say that the beautiful Maya had a Marilyn Monroe type at that time...
E.P.: Not Brigitte Bardot?
A.K.: No, Marilyn Monroe. And that Marilyn Monroe, the famous Marilyn Monroe, that famous shot where the wind from the underground ventilation lifts up the hem of her dress.
E.P.: Yes, yes, yes.
A.K.: And her dress flies up! Maya was exactly like that, she even had a similar dress. Charming Maya. We wandered along the Tallinn paving stones, she wore out her feet and, without any embarrassment, took off her sandals and continued to walk barefoot, taking the sandals in her hands. It should be noted that she had beautiful legs, and sandals, and she was wearing a beautiful dress... Here. And Vasya was all denim, super fashionable...
E.P.: Sorry to interrupt, but she once showed me a certain denim suit of hers that cost a thousand dollars, which at that time was about the same as ten thousand now. According to her story, this suit was given to her almost by Burt Lancaster himself.
A.K. No, she was wearing a dress then. It was still a long time before they left for America.
E.P.: I see.
A.K.: We wandered and wandered, I, with my characteristic stupidity, would have continued to walk with them, but my wife poked me and said: “Leave the lovers alone. Well, we met, well, we stayed, but that’s it, they’re tired of us, they don’t need us at all...”
E.P.: Eh! Your wife will be smarter than you.
A.K.: It’s not very difficult to be smarter than me. Especially in aptitude tests like this. It was a lovely day with Vasya’s appearance and words about his spirit in the air! Of course, I immediately told them that I had just called Vasya and remembered him, and we all laughed a lot. Yes. It was the appearance of such, I would say, a lovely couple, which completely competed with the surrounding, as it were, European landscape, was, perhaps, even much more cosmopolitan than this Tallinn and at the same time Soviet landscape. Why am I telling you all this?
A.K.: This is absolutely true, but this does not mean that everyone was in love with him, everyone, everything, everyone. Everyone liked him, yes. But “to like” and “to be loved” are different things. You know, moving a little to the side from the topic of women, let’s ask the question - who, actually, didn’t like Aksenov? His enemies are normal, envious people too. But who exactly didn’t like him - not even as a writer, but as a person, a human type, a character? And I’ll tell you who, I know these people, I’ve read their statements - people with complexes, wretched people. God has offended those who have become angry because of it. These are the people who categorically don’t like Aksenov, because he is contraindicated for them. Understand? I know one, well, by my standards, such a young writer, journalist, one of the modern ones would call him a culturologist or something else... So, this “culturologist,” when he wrote about Aksenov, was literally shaking in his texts from rabid hatred towards him. He also mentions you and me, but we are just listing moral monsters there. Why such hatred? Yes, because it’s enough to look at this writer in a simple way to understand everything: women don’t like him.
E.P.: Well, you’ve unleashed some kind of Freudianism!
A.K.: Yes, very simple Freudianism, if you consider this everyday observation to be Freudianism. Those whom women do not like really do not like those whom women love.
E.P.: You know, you remembered a relatively young writer, but I know one very famous writer, who, when the name Aksenov is mentioned, starts shaking...
A.K.: This one is also famous, although he is young.
E.P.: And my famous writer is Aksenov’s peer. And if, according to Chekhov, “everything should be beautiful” in a person, then for him, this writer, everything in Aksenov is disgusting: “his face, his clothes, his soul, his thoughts.”
A.K.: Everything is the same! Women don't like comrades. And it’s not that he envies Vasya that women love Vasya, but not him! Because women don’t like him, he became such an axen-hater.
E.P.: I think Vasya understood this.
A.K.: I understood perfectly.
E.P.: I remember that in one of his stories, I forgot the name, there are some athletes, and one of them, a jovial jovial fellow, says to another, sad one: “I met a girl, let’s go, she has a girlfriend.” . And the sad and complex one asks: “Is the girl beautiful?” “Beautiful,” answers the merry fellow. “Well, beautiful girlfriends always have ugly ones,” states the pessimist.
A.K.: This is a little from a different opera. And I’ll tell you what, I just thought of this, follow my thought: these are the writers who are not Aksenov, they write about carnal love from the point of view of those whom women do not love. Therefore, for them, carnal love is exclusively fucking. And the women loved Vasya. And for him, any love - both carnal and the most sublime - is still... well, joy, because how could it be otherwise? After all, women love him! For him it is always a joy. But for these, it’s not a joy, because their women don’t like them, even if they fuck with them with all their might. And the depiction of carnal love in most modern literature is a depiction made by people whom women do not love, which is why it is so dreary.
E.P.: That’s it, let’s end with this wise maxim... I speak about the maxim without irony.
A.K.: Why are we finishing?
E.P.: Because it’s the finale, the final point of the topic. The complex really comes down to the simple - “The women liked him for something that no one should know” - as Willy Tokarev once sang.
A.K.: What does Tokarev have to do with it? Vulgarity neither to the village nor to the city...
E.P.: Well, it’s a bad joke, I agree. By the way, the entire “MetrOpol” took place in the surroundings of a romantic relationship. It was at this time that Inna Lvovna Lisnyanskaya and Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin formalized their long-term relationship, Friedrich Gorenstein found his red-haired Inna, and Vasya was legally married to Maya. With witnesses such as Bella Akhatovna Akhmadulina and Boris Asafovich Messerer. Well, Maya suddenly turned from a Soviet-secular lady into a friend of the “opposition leader.” By the way, that’s what the strangely perspicacious writer Victoria Tokareva once called Aksenova in my presence, ten years before perestroika.
A.K.: That's what I'm saying. The chieftain of Metropol was Maya Afanasyevna.
E.P.: Yes, Maya happily participated in all this. She fed and watered us in her apartment on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment when we came there from time to time. That is, in Moscow there were three “metropolitan” points: Evgenia Semyonovna Ginzburg’s one-room apartment near the Airport metro station, Boris Messerer’s workshop on Vorovsky Street, and Mayina’s apartment in Kotelniki. By the way, I forgot to say that it was then that I met my future wife Svetlana, and in 1981 Bella became a witness at our wedding, when Vasya was already deprived of Soviet citizenship by Comrade Brezhnev. I'm telling you, it's pure romance. Maybe this is also why Metropol occupies such an important place in the lives of each of us. And not just because we were doing something that was forbidden in the Soviet country.
A.K.: I can’t resist adding that in the Soviet country, love was a forbidden thing. At least not comparable to love for the socialist homeland.
E.P. Allow me, with my characteristic desire for demagoguery, to declare that, unlike love for a socialist homeland, love for a woman and love for literature are together forever, together forever.
A.K: Zhenya! There is a well-known novel by George Orwell “1984”. Everyone says that this is a novel about totalitarianism. But, having read it back in time immemorial, I was convinced that this novel was, first of all, about forbidden love. And that totalitarianism is fought with love as if it were a dangerous thing. Therefore, I believe that engaging in any forbidden activity, for example, publishing an uncensored almanac, is the right time for love. Which you confirmed by listing how many people you had there at that time... it... fell in love, who had a relationship or something turned around.
E.P.: I also thought that women, even in the Soviet Union, always wanted to live more sublimely, decently, and with dignity than external circumstances dictated to them. That is why, perhaps, they were unconsciously drawn to Aksenov, perhaps this is another reason for his success. For readers in general, for women in particular.
A.K.: It’s stupid and unartistic when co-authors always agree with each other, but here you said what I wanted. Women did not like Soviet life much more than men, even if they fought less. So, in general, they almost always fight less, they live differently than men, they - except for being stupid in everyday life - settle down, adapt to circumstances, and do not fight with them. But they didn’t like that government for natural and valid reasons. They had nothing to wear. The boots cost three salaries, and it was impossible to get them. And then you can list anything you want...
E.P.: Queues for this very thing... for soup sets. Drunk men in front of TV. “And there is no money for an abortion,” as the wonderful poet Alexander Velichansky wrote.
A.K.: And the forbidden affair was supposed to stimulate forbidden love. In order to make this forbidden love openly happy. Like Lipkin and Lisnyanskaya, like Vasya and Maya.
E.P.: Interesting. After all, “The Burn” is essentially a novel about love. Maybe all literature is about love?
A.K.: No, no, calm down. Not all. But Vasya has no literature about love.
