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Nikolay BajanUkrainian Soviet poet, translator, publicist and politician
Date of Birth: 09.10.1904
Country:  Ukraine |
Content:
Biography of Nikolai Bazhan
Nikolai Bazhan was a Ukrainian Soviet poet, translator, journalist, and political activist. He was born in Kamianets-Podilskyi in the family of a military topographer. During his childhood, his family moved to Uman, where Bazhan spent his formative years. He studied at a cooperative technical school and simultaneously pursued avant-garde stage art at the "Kyivdramte" studio under the guidance of Les Kurbas in 1920-1921. He wrote poems that were compiled into a manuscript collection called "Contrasts of Moods" (1920-1921). In 1921, he moved to Kyiv, where he studied at the Cooperative Institute (1921-1923) and later at the Kyiv Institute of Foreign Relations (1923-1925).
In 1923, Bazhan joined the group of panfuturists, invited by young writer Mykhailo Semenko, and started working for the newspaper "Bolshevik". His first poem "Ruro-March" and other futurist-inspired works were published in this newspaper in 1923. Unlike many older generation poets, Bazhan immediately embraced the Bolshevik regime. In 1925, he joined the group of Hvylovy. Soon after, his first poetry collection "17th Patrol" (1926) was published, fitting into the prevailing romanticized proletarian and Chekist pathos of Bolshevik poetry.
The Baroque Aesthetic
Starting with the collection "Carved Shadow" (1927), Bazhan increasingly defined himself as a poet of the baroque aesthetic, with multi-layered themes, inventive and luxurious intertwining of motifs, and a blend of brutal and pathetic elements. His masterpiece in this style is the cycle "Buildings" (1929), where Bazhan showcases his poetic interpretation of human endeavors, including eccentric forms. In "Death of Hamlet" (1932), he openly contrasts universal symbols of humanist culture as false against the backdrop of Leninist infallibility (anything that serves the revolution is morally correct). In this work, the poet proclaims anathema to "abstract humanism," which became an annoying leitmotif of subsequent party ideology. This theme resounds even stronger in the "Trilogy of Passion" (1933), where the poet, with hatred, eradicates anything that hinders him from becoming what the times demand - a fighter for centralized class morality. Victory over humanism within himself was not easy, and his poems "Blind" (1931) and "Ghetto in Uman" (1930) reflect the heavy doubts and painful reflections of his soul confined to the underground of consciousness.
After 1933, a turning point in the history of Ukrainian literature marked by the destruction and subjugation of the national intelligentsia, Bazhan predominantly produced party rhetoric - inventive, skillfully executed, but forced and insincere, albeit under the mask of authenticity. His poems "Immortality" (1937), "Mother" (1938), and "Fathers and Sons" (1939) exemplify this period. The tradition of baroque poetry, which is close to Bazhan, continues with the famous panegyric to Stalin, "Comrade Stands in the Starry Kremlin" (1932).
Later Works and Personal Life
Bazhan's true essence breaks through when the poet manages to evade the pressing political imperatives, even though they are internally assimilated. Primarily, his cultural poems, referencing the spiritual heritage of the Soviet Union, interpreting phenomena of world art, and engaging in scientific poetry, demonstrate this. One of his notable works is the poem "Number" (1931). Another significant period in Bazhan's life and creative career was during the war with the German-Fascist invaders. His works from these years vividly reflect the hardships of the people, the impending danger, and the patriotic surge, encapsulating both collective and purely national experiences. Some of these works include "Oath" (1941), "Daniil Galitsky" (1942), and "Stalingrad Notebook" (1943), for which Bazhan received the Second Stalin Prize (1946).
The post-war years were the most melancholic period in Bazhan's creative life. Forced to participate in the revision of Ukrainian history and the fight against Ukrainian nationalism, including censoring the works of his colleagues, such as his friend Yuri Yanovsky, and debunking the decaying imperialist West, Bazhan had to navigate ideological campaigns initiated by Stalin. However, with Stalin's death and the beginning of the Khrushchev Thaw, the atmosphere in society and literary circles changed. Gradually, Bazhan returned to his profound complexity. This is evident in his collections "Mickiewicz in Odessa" (1957) and "Italian Encounters" (1961). The cycle "Before Michelangelo's Statues" from his last collection evokes the baroque carving of his early "Buildings," but now with the maturity of a master. Deep philosophical tragedy resonates in the poems of the collection "Uman Memories" (1972).
The Thaw era allowed Bazhan to reflect on many dark pages of the past. In his speech at the memorial evening for Mykola Kulish, he openly recalls the basements of the October Palace in Kyiv, where writers were executed. His poem "Flight Through the Storm" (1964) speaks of the crimes of the past, their repressive weight, but also the lessons of moral and spiritual resistance. The pinnacle of Bazhan's late career became the eight "Night Concerts" from the collection "Signs" (1978), which affirmed his unique ability to congenially experience and embody musical masterpieces in words.
In the 1970s, Bazhan took notice of a young poet named M. Fishbeyn, who became his literary secretary and later a renowned Ukrainian poet. Bazhan was also an outstanding master of literary translation. His greatest achievement was the translation of Shota Rustaveli's poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" (1935), for which he received the Georgian SSR Prize (1937). Among his skillfully executed translations are Shakespeare's "The Tempest," works by Dante, Goethe, Heine, Holderlin, Mickiewicz, and his notable translations of Rilke, which played a significant role in Ukrainian poetry. Bazhan became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1940 and a member of the Central Committee. In 1941, he delivered a report at the All-Ukrainian Conference of the Communist Party of Ukraine. From 1943 to 1948, he served as the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR and as an advisor to the Ukrainian representation at the UN. From 1946 to 1962, he was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He served as the Chairman of the Union of Writers of Ukraine from 1953 to 1959 and as the chief editor of the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia from 1957 to 1988. Under his leadership, the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedias were published in 17 volumes (1959-1965), 12 volumes (1977-1985), and the "History of Ukrainian Art" in 6 volumes (1966-1968), among other notable works. Bazhan's first wife was Gaina Simonovna Kovalenko (1905-1989), an actress at the "Berezil" theater and later a translator. He had a daughter named Maya. His second wife, whom he married in 1938, was Nina Vladimirovna Lauer.
