- Sergei Tretyakov
Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov (Russian: Сергей Михайлович Третьяков,
Riga , 1892 –September 10 ,1937 ) was aRussia n constructivist writer,playwright and special correspondent forPravda . He graduated 1916 from the department of law atMoscow University . He began to publish in 1913 and just before the Russian Revolution he became associated with the ego-futurists. Soon after the publication of "Iron Pause", he became heavily involved in the Siberian futurist movement known as "Creation" along with artists such asNikolay Aseyev andDavid Burlyuk . Perhaps his most famous play at the time wasRoar China! , which attacked Western imperialism.In 1924 Sergei Tretyakov made a lengthy visit to
China where he taughtRussian literature and collected materials for some of his later publications. Tretyakov also wrote the controversial "I Want a Baby " ("I Want a Child ") (1926) , which has seen recent performances in Europe and America. He was a key contributor to the constructivist journal "LEF", (1923-1925) and co-edited the "Novyi LEF" ("New LEF") magazine (1927-1928). Between 1930 and 1931 he travelled in Germany, Denmark, and Austria. Before he fell foul of the authorities he translated and popularised other European writers such asBertolt Brecht . Brecht was also familiar with Tretyakov's literary work, and even mounted an adaptation of Tretyakov's "I Want a Baby" .Tretyakov was arrested by Stalin's
NKVD onJuly 27 1937 and charged withespionage . He was eventually executed later that year as part of the USSR'sGreat Purge . However, in the introduction to the English publication of 'I Want a Baby',Robert Leach says it seems that in a last act of defiance he threw himself to his death down the stairwell atButyrka prison . During the 1960's, Tretyakov was posthumously rehabilitated along with many other victims of Stalin's purge.ee also
*
Russian avant-garde
*Soviet art
Tretyakov worked with:
*Vsevolod Meyerhold (director)
*Sergei Eisenstein (director)
*El Lissitzky (stage designer)
*Vladimir Mayakovsky (poet, playwright)
*Osip Brik (literary theorist, essayist)
*Alexander Rodchenko (artist and photographer) and his wife
*Varvara Stepanova who was a fellow constructivist andtextile designer.Works
By S.M Tretyakov:
*"Roar China!: A Drama in Seven Scenes",Rialto Service Bureau , (1930)
*"Iron Pause"Vladivostok , 1919 (book of verse)*"
I Want a Baby! "University of Birmingham , (1995), ISBN 0-7044-1620-4*"Gas-Masks"
Vserossiisky Proletkult , (1924)*"Can You Hear, Moscow?
Vserossiisky Proletkult , (1924)*"A Chinese Testament: The Autobiography of Tan Shih-hua",
Gollancz , (1934) ,*"The Country-Crossroad, Five Weeks in Czechoslovakia",
Sovetsky Pisatel , (1937) HardbackOther notable performances:
*Immaconcep - A parody of the creation of the Communist youth organisationKomsomol using theChristian Nativity.Vsevolod Meyerhold 's students toured youth clubs and workers clubs putting on this performance. The title 'Immaconcep' is a modern acronym of theImmaculate conception (seeNewspeak from Orwell'sNineteen-Eighty-Four for a similar use of this device).*The World Turned Upside Down - Adaptation of
Marcel Martinet 's 'Night', presented atthe Meyerhold Theatre in Moscow on7 November 1923 (directed by Meyerhold)References
*King, David : Ordinary Citizens - The Victims of Stalin (Francis Boutle Publishers), 2003, ISBN 1-903427-15-0
*Terras, Victor (ed): Handbook of Russian LiteratureYale University , 1995, ISBN 0-300-03155-6
*Harkins, William E : A Dictionary of Russian Literature (Allen Unwin), 1957 (Although this book reports Tretyakov as having "disappeared from literature at the end of the 1930's")External links
* [http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/theater/content/Event.php?obj=87 "I Want a Baby" scenes performed at Swarthmore College]
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