He was a true connoisseur of domestic literature. Experts say that he managed to create his own unique, special world in it. Evgeni Kharitonov established himself not only as a brilliant poet and writer, but also as an expert in acting and drama. At the same time, he was an informal inspirer of LGBT culture in the literature of the Soviet period of the 70s, describing in his works the feelings experienced by people of non-traditional orientation. Naturally, the special services did not like the fact that a man lives in the USSR who writes miniatures on a forbidden topic, and they did their best to prevent such creativity. One way or another, but Evgeni Kharitonov did not set himself the task of showing homosexuality “in all its glory” in literature, on stage and in life. Reflecting the forbidden topic in his works, he only wanted to prove that the literature of the 70s is no longer as conservative as in the 50s: it moves towards sincerity.
However, Evgeni Kharitonov invented a unique colorful world of prose from the point of view of Russian literature. What was his career and what legacy did he manage to leave behind?
Pantomime expert
Evgeny Kharitonov was born on June 11, 1941 in Novosibirsk. In his youth, he decided to become a hypocrite and entered the acting department at VGIK. Having received a diploma, the young man for some time demonstrated his acting skills on stage, and then became a graduate student in the film department. He began to teach students acting and pantomime.
In the early 70's, Evgeny Kharitonov became a candidate for art history, having successfully defended his dissertation on the topic “Pantomime in the training of a film actor”. He creates a studio under the odious title of "School of unconventional stage behavior."
Search for yourself
Soon, a graduate of VGIK tries his hand at the field of drama and puts on the stage of the Theater of facial expressions and gestures the play “Enchanted Island”, in which the roles are played by deaf-mute actors.
Then Evgeny Kharitonov, whose biography contains a lot of interesting things, heads the mime circle in the Moskvorechye recreation center. He continues to direct productions and shows the classical opera Doctor Faust on the stage of the Moscow Conservatory.
Then Kharitonov gets a job at Moscow State University, at the Department of Psychology, where he helps in solving the problem of speech defects. In parallel, he writes poetry and writes stories, but he does it for himself, and not for the general public.
Self-absorbed
Evgeny Vladimirovich was not a public person and rarely let anyone into his inner world. At the end of the 70s, his lover was killed, and Kharitonov, whom the Chekists were quick to make accused of No. 1 in this crime, was worried about this tragedy. After which he became even more withdrawn in himself. The beginning playwright and poet was perceived by some part of society as an "underground resident of the capital." His behavior at times eloquently testified to this. In particular, Evgeny Kharitonov (poet) wrote to himself that he was looking for such a job so that no one intervened in it and that at the same time it was possible to have less contact with colleagues.
In the early 80s, his works could get on the pages of the catalog almanac, which was produced by an American publishing house. This publication was supposed to include the work of unpublished writers of the USSR. But the works of Yevgeny Vladimirovich did not initially fall into the almanacs thanks to the efforts of KGB officers.
In the field of writing
But was he remembered as an “engineer of human souls”? Evgeni Kharitonov, whose work was not admired by the KGB, was the author of the gay manifesto Leaflet, which is why his popularity as a writer was not large-scale. Moreover, in the era of the building of communism, the editors did not want to deal with him just because he penetrated his works in a fairly open form with the theme of homosexuality. Printing, although rare, caused a wave of indignation and rejection of the author, who continued to remain in clandestine status. One way or another, but such directions as conceptualism and postmodernism came to the fore, and many prose writers, among whom was Kharitonov, tried to operate on the language of these movements.
Prohibited
But even the emphasis on his autobiography and the verbal beauty of the presentation could not prompt the leadership of the publishing houses of the USSR to publish his stories. The exception was only one creation of the maestro under the name "Oven".
This is a simple monologue, combining romantic sophistication and frankness about the topic of forbidden drives. An ordinary guy talks about his love for a guy with a guitar. The author tried to open the reader to new pictures of the world, different from those based on the trivial entertainment of the era of stagnation. In other words, this gray world of the provincial oven bored the hero to the limit.
Some fellow writers, in particular the poet Vsevolod Nekrasov, also could not understand Kharitonov’s commitment to same-sex love. I was indignant not so much about Yevgeny Vladimirovich’s affiliation with gays, but about how he dared to cover a forbidden topic in Russian literature. It is, for example, about the stories “The Story of a Boy. How I became like that, "Non-Drinking Russian." However, the language and style of presentation simply delighted his colleagues. And despite all the background of the case, he earned the right to be considered the second Bunin in Russian literature.
In the center of the plot of Kharitonov’s works is a man who feels himself an outcast in a society that considers it shameful to show his feelings and emotions. And yet, despite the specificity of the chosen topic, Evgeni Vladimirovich, according to some colleagues, is one of the best prose writers published in the 90s.
To the court of the Russian reader
Nevertheless, the poetry, prose and dramaturgy of Kharitonov nevertheless became public.
The disgraced poet was agreed to be published only in Samizdat. But in France there were no problems with the publication of his works, and the local reader first got acquainted with his poems. After some time, it was possible to print the Kharitonov stories in the above-mentioned almanac "Catalog".
Taboo removed …
Only in the post-perestroika period in Russia, it is taken to publish works by the forbidden author. Domestic media, including Mitin Magazine, Russian Courier, Watch, Capital, are happy to take up this matter. In the late 80s in the USSR, Kharitonov’s play “Tink” was published, written especially for children. This is some interpretation of Odoevsky’s fairy tale “Town in a Snuffbox”. This play, written by Evgeny Kharitonov, will be directed by director Evgeny Marcelli. She will see the audience in 1989.
In 1993, the Moscow publishing house "Glagol" released a two-volume work by Yevgeny Vladimirovich "Tears on the Flowers." It included not only the stories of Yevgeny Vladimirovich, but also the memories of his friends: Roman Viktyuk, Dmitry Prigov, Sergei Solovyov, Vasily Aksenov. The preparation of the material for release was carried out by the poet Yaroslav Mogutin.
Only after that did the domestic reader learn in detail about who the prose writer Yevgeny Kharitonov was, whose books they did not want to publish in the Soviet Union. He finally became famous in his homeland. It is noteworthy that Yaroslav Mogutin still believes that “Tears on the Flowers” is a collection that is relevant for the modern generation, sustained in the style of radicalism.
In the West, the two-volume undertook to publish the famous publishers Rowohlt and Serpent's Tail. Kharitonov’s works abroad began to show great interest.
Interesting Facts
As already emphasized, the fame came to the writer after his death. Evgeny Kharitonov (writer) has combined all of his works invented over the past 12 years into one large volume with the famous title “Under House Arrest”. The editing of this collection was done by the literary critic Gleb Morev. He only allowed his closest people to read his stories.
