Biography and creativity of Alexander Gladkov

In 1962 a comedy by Ryazanov "The Hussar Ballad" appeared on the Soviet screens. The film has gained wide popularity. First of all thanks to the songs that it sounded. A significant role in the success of the picture was played by the script written on the heroic poem by Alexander Gladkov. What other plays came out from the pen of this playwright? The subject of the article is the biography and the work of the writer.

Family and early years

Gladkov Alexander Konstantinovich was born in 1912 in the city of Murom. His father was an engineer. Since 1917, Konstantin Gladkov held the post of head of the city, but after the revolution, for unknown reasons, refused it. The future playwright was thirteen years old when the family moved to Moscow. In the capital, he graduated from the labor school.

The beginning of creative activity

For some time the hero of this article worked in the theater as a director. Writer (or rather, journalistic) career of Alexander Gladkov began in the editorial office of the newspaper "Cinema". At the end of the twenties he collaborated with other publications, namely: Komsomolskaya Pravda, Rabochaya i Iskusstvo, Rabochaya Moskva, Sovetskiy Teatr, and New Spectator. At this time, Gladkov began friendly relations with prominent theatrical figures: the playwright Alexei Arbuzov, the director Valentin Pluchek, the actor Isidor Shtok. Since 1934 he worked at the Meyerhold Theater. Cooperation and friendship with this talented director later played a fatal role in the life of Alexander Gladkov.

Works

Until 1955, the playwright wrote the following plays:

• "A long time ago".
• "Immortal".
• "Nahal."
• "Unknown sailor".
• "The newest method."
• "Cruel novel."
• "Until we meet again."
• "The First Symphony."
• "Night sky".
• "The Youth of the Theater."

A comedy in verse "Long time ago" Gladkov composed in 1940. Twenty-two years later, the film "The Hussar Ballad" was created.

"A long time ago"

Everyone who watched the famous comedy of Eldar Ryazanov knows that the play depicts the events of the Patriotic War of 1812. The work of Gladkov is translated into several languages. Over the years, plays have been performed not only in Russia, but also abroad. The first director who used it as material for theatrical production was Alexei Popov, who was awarded the Stalin Prize for this work.

The premiere took place in November 1941 in besieged Leningrad. The author himself said later that the idea of the play was conceived for many years. In his childhood, his favorite books were "The Children of Captain Grant" and, surprisingly, "War and Peace". The events of 1812, depicted by Tolstoy, and the adventure motives characteristic of Jules Verne's prose, all this wonderfully intertwined in the mind of the future playwright. When he became an adult, he could realize an old dream: write about the patriotism of Russian soldiers, but it's easy, fun. Gladkov managed to create one of the best works devoted to the theme of the Patriotic War.

Arrest

In 1948, Alexander Gladkov wrote the play "Until New Encounters." But its production was realized only after seven years. In the work of Gladkov, according to representatives of the Soviet censorship, there was no ideological content. In addition, at home, as it later turned out, he kept the literature falling under the dubious category of "forbidden". There was nothing criminal in these books. But this turned out to be enough to charge accusations of anti-Soviet activity.

The playwright was arrested and sent to the camp. But even there people lived. Ordinary, the same as on freedom, hungry for "bread and circuses." Gladkov was appointed director of the camp theater.

He was released after Stalin's death. He could have cut short his time if he had renounced Meyerhold, who was shot back in 1938. But Alexander Konstantinovich did not abandon this friendship. He did not renounce his brother, who was arrested in 1937.

Alexander Gladkov is a scriptwriter, whose works create the films "Incredible Jehudiel Chlamyde", "Green Coach", "Returned Music". He wrote several documentary works dedicated to Vsevolod Meyerhold, as well as to other outstanding contemporaries (B. Pasternak, O. Mandelshtam, Yu. Olesha).

Five years after liberation Gladkov was restored in the Writers' Union. The playwright died in 1976, in Moscow. In 2015, Alexander Gladkov's diaries were published, with interest received by readers.