Ryurik Ivnev

Rurik Ivnev ( _ru. Рюрик Ивнев; born Mikhail Alexandrovich Kovalyov; OldStyleDate|February 23|1891|February 11 — 19 February 1981) was a Russian poet, novellist and translator.

Biography

Early years

Rurik Ivnev was born into a nobleman's family in Tiflis. His father, A. S. Kovalyov, a captain of a Russian army. The children (Mikhail had an elder brother, Nikolai) had been brought up by their mother, A. P. Kovalyova-Prince. Among her ancestors was a Dutch count, who arrived into Russia with Peter I. After the death of their father in 1894 the family moved to Kars, where their mother obtained the position of principal in an all-girl secondary school. By the insistence of their mother, the sons entered into the Tiflis Military School, where Mikhail studied from 1900 through 1908. Upon graduating from the school, Mikhail thought better of a military career and headed to St. Petersburg, where he became a student of the Law Department of the St. Petersburg University. In 1912 he was forced to leave St. Petersburg University and move to Moscow to continue his education. In 1913 he graduated from Moscow University with a law diploma and returned to St. Petersburg, where he began his service at the office of government control.

Literary Career: Ego-Futurist

Rurik Ivnev's first tries in poetry were dated 1904. His first publication was the poem "Our Days" in a 1909 student almanac that came out in Vyshny Volochek. Two years later he showed his poems and prose to Alexander Blok and received his unfavorable opinion. Another two poems were published in 1912 in the Bolshevik newspaper "Iskra". Soon Mikhail, together with Vadim Shershenevich, Konstantin Olimpov and Vasilisk Gnedov, joined the Ego-Futurist movement and became a frequent contributor to Ego-Futurist almanacs published by Peterburgskiy Glashatay, Tsentrifuga and Mezzanin poezii. In 1913 his first book of poems, "Self-immolation", was published.

Mikhail Kovalyov became Rurik Ivnev. The poet himself said that this pseudonym was dreamed up in his sleep on the day before the print of "Self-immolations". The book brought the young poet a great reputation. He became a frequent visitor to St. Petersburg literary salons where he met with Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Gippius, Mikhail Kuzmin, Nikolay Gumilyov, Anna Akhmatova, Fyodor Sologub and Vladimir Mayakovsky.

1920s: Imaginist

After the Revolution Rurik Ivnev, now in Moscow, joined a new poetic flow, Imaginism, which he became mostly associated with in 1920s. In 1925 Ivnev visited Germany, then worked in Vladivostok in the publishing house "Knizhnoe delo". In 1927 he visited Japan. In the second half of the 20s Rurik Ivnev published an epic trilogy, "The Life of Actress", which contained the novels "Love without the love" (1925), "The Open house" (1927) and "The Hero of Novel" (1928).

Later Years

With increasing oppression from the Soviet authorities in 1930s and 40s, Ivnev was reduced to doing translations of foreign-language poetry and writing historical plays. In the late 30s he worked on an autobiographical novel, "At the Foot Of Mtatsmindy". In the same years he began to work on another autobiographical novel, "Bohemia", which Ivnev completed in the month before his death. At the time he lived in Tbilisi and translated Georgian poetry. In 1950 he returned to Moscow.

After the Stalinist era was over he worked on his memoirs. He died three days before his ninetieth birthday.

External links

* [http://www.litera.ru/stixiya/authors/ivnev.html Ryurik Ivnev. Poems]