OSORGIN MIKHAIL ANDREEVICH (real name Ilyin) (1878, Perm - 11/27/1942, Chabris, France) - Russian writer, journalist, public figure.
Literary fame came to him with the release of the first novel "Sivtsev Vrazhek" in 1928. Prior to that, he worked in newspapers and magazines, which resulted in the glory of one of the largest Russian journalists. It is no accident, therefore, that the main feature of the writer's literary style is considered to be the close interaction of journalism and fiction. Osorgin was convinced of the social responsibility of literary creativity, all his life he was faithful to the humanistic principles that had developed in classical Russian culture of the 19th century. Not only journalistic, but actually literary works of Osorgin have always been distinguished by a close connection with the "sore issues" of the time and an open author's position. At the same time, having had a passion for politics in his youth, the mature Osorgin emphasized his independence from any political or cultural doctrines.
A contemporary of the Silver Age, Osorgin avoided its modernist excesses. As if in spite of the complexity of the symbolist language, he remained a supporter of the classical clarity of the literary word. Osorgin directly called L. Tolstoy and S. Aksakov his teachers, he “quoted” N. Gogol and A. Chekhov with pleasure. Following the traditions of Russian classics sometimes seems too straightforward. Osorgin deliberately populates the modernity of his novels with recognizable characters, as if testing them for strength in the face of globally changed Russian reality. Osorgin belongs to that generation of writers who completed the era of Russian classical literature and realized this fact.
Osorgin was born in Perm, in the family of the provincial judge A.F. Ilyin, a liberal and participant in the judicial reform of Alexander II. The family loved music and literature, Osorgin's older brother Sergei Ilyin was a well-known journalist and poet in the city. The early death of his father had a dramatic effect on the life of the Ilyins. To help his mother, fourteen-year-old Mikhail was engaged in tutoring with the younger students of his gymnasium and began to earn extra money in newspapers. At this time, the first literary debut of Osorgin took place - in the capital's Journal for All (No. 5, 1896) the story "Father" was published. In 1897, he entered the law faculty of Moscow University, from which he graduated in 1902. All these years, Osorgin collaborated with the PGV: he sent Moscow correspondence, and in the summer, during the traditional Perm holidays, he prepared materials on local topics. I tried myself in different genres: correspondence, reviews, essay, story. The most noticeable among them is the cycle of publications “Moscow Letters”, in which the sketchy style of writing, characteristic of the future writer, with expressive lyric-ironic intonation, began to take shape.
"Moscow Letters" captured the young journalist's active involvement in the literary life of Moscow in those years. Osorgin reviews book novelties, writes reports on the most interesting meetings of the famous Moscow Literary and Art Circle, in particular, on the heated debates around the Symbolists. From a reporter's passion for literary news and scandals, Osorgin comes to realize his own literary position, which is based on the principles of democracy and realism. It is symptomatic that Osorgin concludes his letters about the literary and artistic life of the capital with the essay "Korolenko".
After graduating from the university, he worked as a lawyer, however, by his own admission, "he was more busy with the revolution." In 1904 he joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. He did not take part in military operations, but meetings were held at his apartment, weapons and illegal literature were kept. The first marriage was also revolutionary: in 1903 he married the daughter of the famous Narodnaya Volya A.K. Malikov. In 1905, he was arrested and ended up in the Taganka prison due to the coincidence of surnames with one of the organizers of the Moscow uprising. The mistake was discovered, Osorgin was released on bail, but, fearing new persecutions, he flees abroad. The events of these post-revolutionary years will be reflected in the autobiographical dilogy Witness to History (1932) and The Book of Ends (1935).
From 1906 to 1917 lived in France and Italy. During this time, Osorgin's socio-political views are undergoing major changes, from the "Left" Socialist-Revolutionary, he becomes an opponent of any political violence. In 1914 Osorgin was initiated into Freemasonry in Italy. During the Italian emigration, the choice of a life field is finally determined. Since 1908, he became a regular correspondent for Russkiye Vedomosti and one of the most famous journalists in Russia. In 1907, the literary pseudonym Osorgin appeared (after the maiden name of the Ufa grandmother). Publications of this period were included in the books Essays on Modern Italy (1913) and Fairy Tales and Non-Fairy Tales (1918). He was keenly interested in modern Italian culture, which became the birthplace of European futurism (articles about the work of G. D "Annunzio, A. Fogazzaro, J. Pascali, etc.) Developed a specific genre of fictionalized essay.
In 1916, Osorgin semi-legally arrived in Moscow, and then, as a special correspondent for Russkiye Vedomosti, went on a big business trip to the Russian hinterland (cycles "Around the Motherland", 1916 and "On the Quiet Front", 1917). He also visited Perm, where in September 1916 the university was opened.
He accepted the February revolution with enthusiasm, which by October grew into an awareness of the fatality of impending changes. Nevertheless, he was actively engaged in social and literary work. He was one of the initiators and the first chairman of the Union of Russian Journalists. As vice president, he took part in the creation of the Writers' Union, and was also the founder of the famous Writers' Bookstore. In 1921, he was exiled to Kazan for participation in the work of the Volga Famine Relief Society, where he edited Literaturnaya Gazeta. In 1922, along with others, Osorgin was expelled from Russia on the famous “philosophical ship” (feature “How they left us. Yubileinoye”, 1932). He did not consider himself an emigrant, until 1937 he kept a Soviet passport. From 1923 he lived permanently in France. Here he married Tatyana Alekseevna Bakunina, a distant relative of M.A. Bakunin, with whom he lived until the end of his days and who was both a wife, a muse, and the first critic. Having survived O. for more than half a century, T. A. Bakunina-Osorgina devoted herself to the preservation and study of her husband’s work, preparing the fundamental “Bibliography of M. A. Osorgin” for publication.
In exile O. lived literary work. He was a regular contributor to the largest emigrant publications - the Latest News and Sovremennye Zapiski newspapers. Here, in particular, memoirs about the Perm childhood of M. Osorgin were published, which, according to critics, became one of the best works of the writer. Based on these publications, the books The Tale of a Sister (separate edition 1931; first published in 1930 in the journal Sovremennye Zapiski), Things of a Man (1929), Miracle on the Lake (1931) were compiled. They created a surprisingly cozy, bright image of childhood and the image of a small homeland, illuminated by these childhood, fabulous memories, which became a stronghold of the main life values ​​in Osorgin's emigrant far away.
O. paid much attention to the problem of preserving and developing his native literary language. In search of its renewal, he turns to the origins - folk dialect and Russian history. A cycle of magnificent “old stories” appears (part of it was included in the collection of Tale of a certain girl, 1938) with a surprisingly lively stylization of the old folk dialect of the 17-18 centuries. The history of Russia in those years appears in Osorgin's stories as a history of violence and suppression of the common man, as a history of spontaneous resistance and hardening of the Russian spirit. Rather harsh and ugly events of serf life are presented by Osorgin in a deliberately nonjudgmental, descriptive style of a folk story, nevertheless producing a strong emotional effect.
The debut of Osorgin as a novelist was unexpected and noisy. The novel "Sivtsev Vrazhek" was started by Osorgin back in 1918, and only in 1928 did he see the light of day in its entirety. The novel went through two editions in a row, was translated into several languages ​​at once, which was a rarity in the conditions of Russian emigration. Its success was largely due to the lively relevance of the topics raised by the writer. It is dedicated to the events of the last Russian revolution and reflections on the fate of the Russian intelligentsia and Russian culture at the turn of the era. In the center of the narrative, built on the principle of a journalistic association of main short stories, is the life of a Moscow ornithologist professor and his granddaughter, representing “the typical life of the beautiful-hearted Russian intelligentsia” (O. Yu. Avdeeva). Osorgin opposes the bloody logic of the Bolshevik revolution to the values ​​of non-social humanism, the natural harmony lost by mankind - therefore, parallels of the human world with the natural world are constantly drawn in the novel. The novel was reproached for tendentiousness and obvious adherence to the “Tolstoy tradition”. However, this did not prevent his reading success. The novel read like a book about old Moscow and real heroes, it was distinguished by a sharp nostalgic tone, textured details and intense journalistic pathos.
Osorgin's subsequent novels also turned to the events of the national history of her last fateful years. The dilogy Witness to History (1932) and The Book of Ends (1935) are dedicated to the outcome of Russian revolutionary terrorism. The novels are held together by a cross-cutting character from Osorgin's Permian past. They became a strange man, a pop-cut, a man from the people who are curious about everything, Yakov Kampinsky (Yakov Shestakov). Not devoid of the features of adventurous-adventure narration, the novels still did not have a great reader resonance, remaining too early evidence of the turbulent events of Russian history, which did not receive a convincing psychological study and a bright artistic solution. In this respect, the novel The Freemason (1937), which addresses the theme of Freemasonry, which captivated many Russian emigrants, turned out to be more wealthy. The novel uses the stylistics of cinematography and newspaper genres (documentary inserts, event saturation, heading "caps").
In 1940 the writer moved from Paris to the south of France; in 1940 - 1942 he published in the "New Russian Word" (New York) the correspondence "Letters from France" and "Letters about the insignificant", published in 1952 as a separate book and becoming the final manifesto of the writer. In the face of the threat of new and most terrible violence, which was embodied by the fascist dictatorship, O. defended humanism in it, protecting a particular person and his personal freedom.
The final and, according to many literary critics, the best work of M. Osorgin was the memoirs begun in 1938 (Childhood and Youth). They were published as a separate book under the general title "Times" in 1955 with a preface by M. Aldanov. Researchers call the book a "novel of the soul", a guide to the milestones of the spiritual development of the writer, who, according to Osorgin himself, belonged to the class of "miscalculated dreamers", "Russian intelligent eccentrics". For Perm "Times" have a special meaning. The city is reflected in them in a holistic, complete artistic image, in which the motifs of childhood and the life-giving natural force, personified in the images of the forest and Kama, converged. O. G. Lasunsky called M. Osorgin the godson of Kama, referring to the deep lyrical and philosophical significance of the theme of the small homeland in the creative life of the writer. Perm and Kama became one of the central characters in the artistic space of M. Osorgin. They embodied the writer's favorite theme of the Russian provinces and the accentuated lyricism characteristic of his manner, colored by the deepest nostalgia: for Russia and his family nest, for his native nature and great language, not wasted by the moths of Soviet Newspeak.
Osorgin died in Chabris on November 27, 1942, and was buried in the local cemetery.

Op.:
Osorgin M. A. Memoir prose. Perm: Book. publishing house, 1992. 286 p.
Osorgin, Mikhail. Time. Yekaterinburg, Middle Ural book publishing house. 1992.
Osorgin, M. Collected works in 4 vols. Moscow, Publishing House "Intelvak", 1999 - 2001.
Osorgin, M. Moscow Letters. Perm, 2003.
Osorgin, M.A. Memoir prose: 2nd edition. Perm: Teacher's House, 2006.
Lit .: Mikhail Osorgin: pages of life and work. Proceedings of the scientific conference “First Osorginsky Readings. November 23-24, 1993 Perm: Perm Publishing House. University. 1994.
Mikhail Osorgin: artist and journalist. Materials of the second Osorginsky readings. Perm / Perm State University, 2006.
Avdeeva O. Yu. M. A. Osorgin. Bibliographic article.

Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin (Ilyin) was one of the famous Russian thinkers expelled in 1922 by the Bolsheviks into exile. Behind the "Philosophical Steamboat" was the desire of the new authorities to look humane in the eyes of Europe and at the same time get rid of bright freedom-loving personalities.

The passengers of the "philosophical ship" were scientists, philosophers and writers, who for a long time were considered the lost flower of the nation. However, in 2017, Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church called the Russian intelligentsia guilty of “terrible crimes against faith, against God, against their people, against their country.”

"Lenin is a criminal, the intelligentsia is guilty ... All around is a war of compromising materials, all around doubts." And in this situation, it is useful to touch on the personality of Osorgin, his work and activities, focusing on interesting facts and data.

First alias

The charm of the Kama River, gymnasium free-thinking and forbidden passion for billiards, passion for poetry and literature, adoration for Goncharov and Belinsky could not just end in his youth for Ilyin. The usual story for a young educated Russian man of the late nineteenth century - he aspires to become a writer. The first publications happen in their native Perm. Fashionable passion for pseudonyms does not bypass the young writer, he signs the first printed story "Father" with the pseudonym "Permyak".

From Ilyin to Osorgin

Twice in childhood, his father brought Mikhail to Ufa. There he meets his relatives and grandmother Nadezhda Lvovna Ilyina. The grandmother's fascinating stories about great-grandfather Fyodor Vasilyevich Osorgin, the owner of vast lands, clearly influenced the further fate of the writer's first pseudonym. Ilyin subsequently becomes Osorgin in literature.

Road to Europe

In 1897, Mikhail Osorgin became a student at the law faculty of Moscow University. Until 1902, he manages to take part in student unrest and survive a year-long expulsion from Moscow, gain serious journalistic experience and higher education.

The fermentation of minds in Russia does not bypass Osorgin. The son of pillar nobles, a brilliantly educated lawyer, taking his first steps in public service, imbued with the ideas of the Social Revolutionaries, becomes a participant in the revolutionary events of 1905 and ends up in the Taganka prison for six months. In his autobiographical book The Times, much later, he writes about this period of his life as a dream, where, as a result, burying himself in an insurmountable wall, scratching the prison walls with breaking nails, he has to exclaim: “Oh, God! After all, we preached love to everyone!”

First emigration

After leaving prison in 1906, Osorgin immediately leaves his homeland. Knowledge of languages, knowledge of translations, journalistic and writing experience, the ability and desire to work do not allow Mikhail Andreevich, who left Russia penniless, to get lost and abyss in Europe.

The ten-year period of his stay abroad became for him a period of reflection on what had happened, a public renunciation of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, the adoption of Judaism and the philosophy of Freemasonry. "Essays on Modern Italy" (1913) and cooperation with the editors of the Encyclopedia Pomegranate become noticeable in Russia and bring Osorgin the name and glory of the subtlest soul.

Again at home

The year 1916 for Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin becomes in some way a turning point. He is not satisfied with cooperation with Russkiye Vedomosti. He rushes into the thick of things in his homeland and semi-legally returns to Moscow. Becomes the organizer of the All-Russian Union of Journalists, and then heads this organization

February Revolution and Osorgin

The February Revolution of 1917 Osorgin enthusiastically accepts. Works a lot. He is a member of the commission for the development of archives and political affairs, published in newspapers and magazines, prepares for publication a collection of essays and stories, a brochure "The Security Department and its secrets."

Writers' cooperative

Together with the overthrow of strict censorship supervision, all in the same 1917, writers experienced a certain period of confusion and danger of being crushed by the harsh essence of being. Osorgin, in his short essay "The Writers' Bookshop", tells with pleasure about his participation in this fascinating, grateful and saving for writers collective work from 1918 to 1922. The shop helped novice writers and famous writers to survive, it was the cultural center of Moscow in all the most difficult years of war and devastation, it gave up only from the unbearable tax burden of the NEP times.

Echo of the past

The new authorities frankly tolerated the writers' bookshop in Moscow. They tolerated the activities of Osorgin and during a short work in the commission to help the starving. Independent views and former involvement in the Socialist-Revolutionary Party through arrest and release on the guarantee of Nansen eventually turned into a "ticket to the philosophical ship" for Mikhail Andreevich.

And again emigration

Osorgin's life during the second emigration since 1923 was closely connected with Paris. Here he marries for the third time, here he still works fruitfully until the beginning of the Second World War. In 1928, the most significant work from his work "Sivtsev Vrazhek" was published.

Until 1934, historical novels repeatedly appeared in the press, in which he spoke disrespectfully about the imperial family and the highest clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Last resort in Chabris

Masonic activity and passionate rejection of fascism in recent works are two more striking features of the extraordinary activity of the great Russian writer and journalist Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin. Black and white, subtle and passionate came together in his life. He was buried in 1942 in the French city of Chabris, where he lived after fleeing from Paris occupied by the Nazis.

Osorgin Mikhail Andreevich
Born: October 7 (19), 1878.
Died: 27 November 1942

Biography

Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin, real name Ilyin (October 7 (19), 1878 - November 27, 1942) - Russian writer, journalist, essayist, one of the active and active Freemasons of the Russian emigration, founder of several Russian Masonic lodges in France.

Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin; present fam. Ilyin was born in Perm - in a family of hereditary columnar nobles. The surname "Osorgin" was taken from his grandmother. Father A.F. Ilyin - a lawyer, a participant in the judicial reform of Alexander II, brother Sergei (died in 1912) was a local journalist and poet.

While studying at the gymnasium, he placed an obituary to his class warden in the Perm Gubernskiye Vedomosti, and published the story “Father” under the pseudonym Permyak (1896) in the Journal for Everyone. Since then, I have considered myself a writer. After successfully graduating from the gymnasium (1897), he entered the law faculty of Moscow University. In his student years, he continued to publish in the Ural newspapers and acted as a permanent employee of the Perm Gubernskie Vedomosti. Participated in student unrest and was expelled from Moscow to Perm for a year. Having completed his education (1902), he became an assistant to a barrister in the Moscow Court of Justice and at the same time a jury solicitor at a commercial court, a guardian in an orphan's court, a legal adviser to the Society of Merchant Clerks and a member of the Society for the Guardianship of the Poor. Then he wrote the book "Remuneration of workers for accidents."

Being critical of the autocracy, a pillar nobleman by origin, an intellectual by occupation, a Fronder and an anarchist by temperament, Osorgin joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party in 1904. He was attracted by their interest in the peasantry and land, populist traditions - to respond to violence with violence, to suppress freedom - with terror, not excluding individual ones. In addition, the Socialist Revolutionaries valued personal disinterestedness, high moral principles and condemned careerism. Meetings of the Moscow party committee were held in his apartment, terrorists were hiding. Osorgin did not take an active part in the revolution, but he was involved in its preparation. He himself later wrote that in the Socialist-Revolutionary Party he was "an insignificant pawn, an ordinary excited intellectual, more a spectator than a participant." During the revolution of 1905-1907, turnouts were organized in his Moscow apartment and at the dacha, meetings of the committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party were held, appeals were edited and printed, and party documents were discussed. Participated in the Moscow armed uprising of 1905.

In December 1905 Osorgin, mistaken for a dangerous "barricader", was arrested and spent six months in the Taganka prison, then released on bail. He immediately left for Finland, and from there - through Denmark, Germany, Switzerland - to Italy and settled near Genoa, in Villa Maria, where an emigrant commune was formed. The first exile lasted 10 years. The writer's result was the book "Essays on Modern Italy" (1913).

Futurism attracted particular attention of the writer. He was sympathetic to the early, determined Futurists. Osorgin's work in Italian Futurism had a significant resonance in Russia. He was trusted as a brilliant connoisseur of Italy, his judgments were listened to.

In 1913, in order to marry seventeen-year-old Rachel (Rosa) Gintsberg, the daughter of Ahad ha-Am, he converted to Judaism (later the marriage broke up).

From Italy, he twice traveled to the Balkans and traveled to Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia. In 1911, Osorgin announced in print his departure from the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, and in 1914 became a Freemason. He asserted the supremacy of higher ethical principles over party interests, recognizing only the blood connection of all living things, even exaggerating the importance of the biological factor in human life. In relations with people, he placed above all not the coincidence of ideological convictions, but human closeness, based on nobility, independence and selflessness. Contemporaries who knew Osorgin well (for example, B. Zaitsev, M. Aldanov) emphasized these qualities of him, not forgetting to mention his soft, subtle soul, artistry and elegance of appearance.

With the outbreak of World War I, Osorgin greatly yearned for Russia. Although he did not stop ties with the Motherland (he was a foreign correspondent for Russkiye Vedomosti, published in magazines, for example, in Vestnik Evropy), it was more difficult to carry them out. Semi-legally returns to Russia in July 1916, having passed through France, England, Norway and Sweden. From August 1916 he lived in Moscow. One of the organizers of the All-Russian Union of Journalists and its chairman (since 1917) and fellow chairman of the Moscow branch of the Writers' Union. Employee of "Russian Vedomosti".

After the February Revolution, he was a member of the commission for the development of archives and political affairs in Moscow, which worked with the archives of the Moscow security department. Osorgin accepted the February Revolution of 1917. He began to publish widely in the journal Voice of the Past, in the newspapers Narodny Socialist, Luch Pravdy, Rodina, and Power of the People, kept a current chronicle and edited the Monday supplement.

At the same time, he prepared for publication collections of stories and essays Ghosts (1917) and Fairy Tales and Non-Tales (1918). Participating in the analysis of documents of the Moscow secret police, he published the brochure "The Security Department and its secrets" (1917).

After the October Revolution, he opposed the policies of the Bolsheviks. In 1919, he was arrested and released at the request of the Union of Writers and Yu. K. Baltrushaitis.

In 1921, he worked in the Commission for Assistance to the Starving at the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (All-Russian Committee for Assistance to the Starving "Pomgol"), was the editor of the bulletin "Help" published by it; in August 1921 he was arrested along with some members of the commission; they were saved from the death penalty by the intervention of Fridtjof Nansen. He spent the winter of 1921-1922 in Kazan, editing the Literaturnaya Gazeta, then returned to Moscow. He continued to publish fairy tales for children and short stories. Translated from Italian (at the request of E. B. Vakhtangov) K. Gozzi's play "Princess Turandot" (ed. 1923), plays by K. Goldoni.

Together with his old friend N. Berdyaev, he opens a famous bookstore in Moscow, which for a long time becomes a haven for the intelligentsia during the years of post-war devastation.

In 1921 Osorgin was arrested and exiled to Kazan.

In the autumn of 1922, together with a group of opposition-minded representatives of the domestic intelligentsia (such as N. Berdyaev, N. Lossky and others), he was expelled from the USSR. Trotsky, in an interview with a foreign correspondent, put it this way: "We expelled these people because there was no reason to shoot them, and it was impossible to endure."

From the "Resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) on the approval of the list of intellectuals expelled from Russia":

57. Osorgin Mikhail Andreevich. The Right Cadet is undoubtedly of an anti-Soviet trend. Employee of "Russian Vedomosti". Editor of the Prokukisha newspaper. His books are published in Latvia and Estonia. There is reason to think that he maintains contact with foreign countries. Commission with the participation of comrade Bogdanov and others for the expulsion.

Osorgin's emigrant life began in Berlin, where he spent a year. Since 1923 he finally settled in Paris. He published his works in the newspapers "Days", "Latest News".

Osorgin's life in emigration was difficult: he became an opponent of all and sundry political doctrines, he valued freedom above all else, and emigration was very politicized.

The writer Osorgin became famous back in Russia, but fame came to him in exile, where his best books were published. Sivtsev Vrazhek (1928), The Tale of a Sister (1931), Witness to History (1932), The Book of the Ends (1935), Freemason (1937), The Tale of a Certain Girl (1938 ), collections of short stories "Where I Was Happy" (1928), "Miracle on the Lake" (1931), "Incidents of the Green World" (1938), memoirs "Times" (1955).

He retained Soviet citizenship until 1937, after which he lived without a passport, and did not receive French citizenship.

Since the beginning of World War II, Osorgin's life has changed dramatically. In June 1940, after the German offensive and the occupation of part of French territory, Osorgin and his wife fled Paris. They settled in Chabris, on the other side of the Cher river, which was not occupied by the Germans. There Osorgin wrote the book In a Quiet Place in France (1940) and Letters on the Unimportant (published in 1952). They showed his talent as a perspicacious observer and publicist. Having condemned the war, the writer reflected on the death of culture, warned of the danger of the return of mankind to the Middle Ages, mourned the irreparable damage that could be inflicted on spiritual values. At the same time, he firmly stood for the human right to individual freedom. In Letters on the Unimportant, the writer foresaw a new catastrophe: “When the war is over,” Osorgin wrote, “the whole world will prepare for a new war.”

The writer died and was buried in the same city.

Creation

In 1928, Osorgin created his most famous chronicle novel, Sivtsev Vrazhek. In the center of the work is the story of the old retired professor of ornithology Ivan Alexandrovich and his granddaughter Tatyana, who turns from a little girl into a bride-maiden. The chronicle nature of the narrative is manifested in the fact that the events are not lined up in one storyline, but simply follow each other. The center of the artistic structure of the novel is a house on an old Moscow street. The home of an ornithologist professor is a microcosm, similar in structure to the macrocosm - the Universe and the Solar System. It also has its own little sun - a table lamp in the old man's office. In the novel, the writer sought to show the relativity of the great and the insignificant in being. The existence of the world is ultimately determined for Osorgin by the mysterious, impersonal and extramoral interplay of cosmological and biological forces. For the earth, the driving, life-giving force is the Sun.

All of Osorgin's work was permeated by two sincere thoughts: a passionate love for nature, close attention to everything living on earth and attachment to the world of ordinary, inconspicuous things. The first thought formed the basis of the essays published in Latest News under the signature "Publicist" and compiled the book "Incidents of the Green World" (Sofia, 1938). The essays are inherently dramatic: in a foreign land, the author turned from a "lover of nature" into a "garden eccentric", the protest against technotronic civilization was combined with a powerless protest against exile. The embodiment of the second thought was bibliophilia and collecting. Osorgin collected the richest collection of Russian publications, which he introduced the reader to in the cycle “Notes of an Old Bookworm” (October 1928 - January 1934), in a series of “old” (historical) stories that often provoked attacks from the monarchist camp for disrespect for the imperial family and especially to the church.

In his twenty books (including five novels), Osorgin combines moral and philosophical aspirations with the ability to tell a story, following the tradition of I. Goncharov, I. Turgenev and L. Tolstoy. This is combined with a love for some experimentation in the field of narrative technique: for example, in the novel "Sivtsev Vrazhek" he builds a series of separate chapters about very different people, as well as about animals. Osorgin is the author of several autobiographical books, which attract the author's modesty and his life position as a decent person.

Masonic activity

Regularized and attached to the "Northern Star" lodge on March 4 (May 6), 1925 on the recommendation of B. Mirkin-Getsevich. Raised to the 2nd and 3rd degrees on April 8 (1), 1925. 2nd expert since November 3, 1926. great expert (performer) from November 30, 1927 to 1929. speaker from November 6, 1930 to 1932 and in 1935-1937. 1st guard from 1931 to 1934 and from October 7, 1937 to 1938. Also lodge librarian 1934-1936, and from 27 September 1938. Venerable Master from November 6, 1938 to 1940.

From 1925 to 1940, he actively participated in the activities of several lodges operating under the auspices of the Grand Orient of France. He was one of the founders and was a member of the Northern Star and Free Russia lodges.

Mikhail Andreevich - the founder of the lodge "Northern Brothers", its venerable master from the day of its foundation to April 11, 1938. The lodge worked from October 1931 to April 1932 as a narrow Masonic group, from November 17, 1932 - as a study group. The act of establishment was signed on November 12, 1934. Worked independently of existing Masonic obediences under the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. From October 9, 1933 to April 24, 1939, it held 150 meetings, then ceased its activities. Initially, the meetings were held at the apartment of M. A. Osorgin on Mondays, after the 101st meeting - at other apartments.

He held a number of officer positions in the lodge, was a venerable master (the highest officer position in the lodge). He was a very respected and worthy brother who made a great contribution to the development of Russian Freemasonry in France.

Mikhail Andreevich was a member of the "Northern Star" Chapter (4-18 gr.) of the Supreme Council of the Great Collegium of the DPSU.

Raised to the 18th degree on December 15, 1931. Expert circa 1932. Member of the chapter until 1938.

A very characteristic example of a deep knowledge of Freemasonry is Osorgin's work "The Freemason", in which Mikhail Andreevich outlined the main directions in the work of Freemasonry and Freemasons. The humor inherent in the author permeates this work from the first to the last page.

Artworks

Sketches of modern Italy, 1913
Security department and its secrets. M., 1917
Ghosts. M., "Zadruga", 1917
Fairy tales and non-tales M., "Zadruga", 1918
From a small house, Riga, 1921
Sivtsev Vrazhek. Paris, 1928
Dr. Shchepkin's office (Russian) "This happened in Krivokolenny Lane, which shortened the road to his own house from Maroseyka to Chistye Prudy." (19??)
Man's things. Paris, 1929;
A story about a sister, Paris, 1931
Miracle on the Lake, Paris, 1931
Witness to History 1932
Book of Ends 1935
Freemason, 1937
The story of a certain girl, Tallinn, 1938
In a quiet place in France (June-December 1940). Memories, Paris, 1946
Letters about the insignificant. New York, 1952
Time. Paris, 1955
Diary of Galina Benislavskaya. contradictions
"Verb", No. 3, 1981
Memoirs of an Exile
"Time and Us", No. 84, 1985

Editions

Notes of an old bookworm, Moscow, 1989
Osorgin M. A. Times: Autobiographical Narrative. Novels. - M.: Sovremennik, 1989. - 624 p. - (From heritage). - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 5-270-00813-0.
Osorgin M.A. Sivtsev Vrazhek: A novel. Tale. Stories. - M.: Moskovsky worker, 1990. - 704 p. - (Literary chronicle of Moscow). - 150,000 copies. - ISBN 5-239-00627-X.
Collected works. T.1-2, M.: Moskovsky Rabochiy, 1999.

Polikovskaya L. V. “The Life of Mikhail Osorgin. Building your own temple. - St. Petersburg, Kriga, 2014. - 447 p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-901805-84-8

Biography

OSORGIN, MIKHAIL ANDREEVICH (real name Ilyin) (1878−1942), Russian prose writer, journalist. Born on October 7 (19), 1878 in Perm in a family of hereditary columnar nobles, direct descendants of Rurik. He began to print in his gymnasium years, from 1895 (including the story Father, 1896). In 1897 he entered the law faculty of Moscow University, from where in 1899 he was exiled to Perm for participation in student unrest under the covert supervision of the police. In 1900 he was restored at the university (he graduated from the course in 1902), during his studies he led the column "Moscow Letters" ("The Diary of a Muscovite") in the newspaper "Perm Gubernskie Vedomosti". Osorgin's subsequent stories in the genre of "physiological essay" (On an inclined plane. From student life, 1898; Prison car, 1899), romantic "fantasy" (Two moments. New Year's fantasy , 1898) and humorous sketches (A letter from a son to his mother, 1901). He was engaged in advocacy, together with K. A. Kovalsky, A. S. Butkevich and others, he founded the publishing house “Life and Truth” in Moscow, which published popular literature. Here, in 1904, Osorgin's pamphlets Japan, Russian military leaders in the Far East (biographies of E. I. Alekseev, A. N. Kuropatkin, S. O. Makarov, and others), Remuneration of workers for accidents, were published. Law June 2, 1903.

In 1903, the writer married the daughter of the famous Narodnaya Volya A. K. Malikov (memoir essay by Osorgin Vstrechi. A. K. Malikov and V. G. Korolenko, 1933). In 1904 he joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (he was close to its "left" wing), in whose underground newspaper in 1905 he published an article For What?, justifying terrorism by "struggle for the good of the people." In 1905, during the Moscow armed uprising, he was arrested, due to the coincidence of surnames with one of the leaders of the combat squads, he was almost executed. Sentenced to exile, in May 1906 he was temporarily released on bail. The stay in the Taganskaya prison was reflected in the Pictures of prison life. From the diary of 1906, 1907; participation in the Social Revolutionary movement - in essays by Nikolai Ivanovich, 1923, where, in particular, the participation of V. I. Lenin in a dispute at Osorgin's apartment was mentioned; Wreath of memory of small, 1924; Nine hundred and fifth year. For the anniversary, 1930; as well as in the story The Terrorist, 1929, and the documentary duology Witness to History, 1932, and The Book of Ends, 1935.

Already in 1906, Osorgin wrote that “it is difficult to distinguish a revolutionary from a hooligan”, and in 1907 he illegally left for Italy, from where he sent correspondence to the Russian press (some of which was included in the book Essays on Modern Italy, 1913), stories, poems and children's fairy tales , some of which were included in the book. Fairy tales and non-tales (1918). Since 1908, he has been constantly collaborating in the Russkiye Vedomosti newspaper and the Vestnik Evropy magazine, where he published the stories Emigrant (1910), My Daughter (1911), Ghosts (1913), and others. Around 1914 he joined the Masonic fraternity of the Grand Lodge of Italy. In those same years, having studied the Italian language, he closely followed the news of Italian culture (articles about the work of G. D "Annunzio, A. Fogazzaro, J. Pascali and others, about the "destroyers of culture" - Italian futurists in literature and painting), became the largest specialist in Italy and one of the most prominent Russian journalists, developed a specific genre of fictionalized essay, often imbued with lyrical irony characteristic of the writer’s manner from the end of the 1910s. In July 1916 he semi-legally returned to Russia. published his article The Smoke of the Fatherland, which provoked the wrath of the "patriots" with such maxims: "... I really want to take a Russian person by the shoulders ... shake and add:" And it's much better to sleep even under the cannon! ". Continuing to work as a traveling correspondent, he spoke with cycles of essays On the Homeland (1916) and On the Quiet Front (1917).

He accepted the February revolution enthusiastically at first, then warily; in the spring of 1917 in Art. The old proclamation warned of the danger of Bolshevism and the "new autocrat" - Vladimir, published a series of fictionalized essays about the "man of the people" - "Annushka", published brochures Fighters for Freedom (1917, about the People's Will), About the current war and about eternal peace "( 2nd ed., 1917), in which he advocated a war to a victorious end, the Security Department and its secrets (1917). After the October Revolution, he opposed the Bolsheviks in opposition newspapers, called for a general political strike, in 1918 in Art. The Day of Sorrow predicted the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly by the Bolsheviks. The strengthening of Bolshevik power prompted Osorgin to call on the intelligentsia to engage in creative work, he himself became one of the organizers and first chairman of the Union of Journalists, vice-chairman of the Moscow branch of the All-Russian Union of Writers (together with M. O. Gershenzon he prepared the charter of the union), and also the creator of the famous Bookstore writers, which has become one of the important centers of communication between writers and readers and a kind of autographic (“manuscript”) publishing house. He took an active part in the work of the Moscow circle "Studio Italiana".

In 1919 he was arrested and released at the request of the Union of Writers and Yu. K. Baltrushaitis. In 1921 he worked in the Commission for Assistance to the Starving at the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (Pomgol), was the editor of the bulletin "Help" published by it; in August 1921 he was arrested along with some members of the commission; F. Nansen's intervention saved them from the death penalty. He spent the winter of 1921-1922 in Kazan, editing Literaturnaya Gazeta, and then returned to Moscow. He continued to publish fairy tales for children and stories, translated (at the request of E.B. Vakhtangov) the play by C. Gozzi Princess Turandot (ed. 1923), plays by C. Goldoni. In 1918 he made sketches of a large novel about the revolution (the chapter of Monkey Town was published). In the autumn of 1922, with a group of opposition-minded representatives of the domestic intelligentsia, he was expelled from the USSR (essay How we left. Yubileinoye, 1932). Yearning for his homeland, until 1937 he kept a Soviet passport. He lived in Berlin, gave lectures in Italy, from 1923 - in France, where, after marrying a distant relative of M. A. Bakunin, he entered the most calm and fruitful period of his life.

World-wide fame was brought to Osorgin by the novel Sivtsev Vrazhek, begun back in Russia (separate edition of 1928), where in a freely arranged series of main short stories, a calm, measured and spiritually rich life in the ancient center of Moscow of an ornithologist professor and his granddaughter is presented - a typical life of a beautiful-hearted Russian intelligentsia, which is first shaken by the First World War, and then hacked by the revolution. Osorgin seeks to look at what happened in Russia from the point of view of "abstract", timeless and even extra-social humanism, drawing constant parallels between the human world and the animal world. The statement of a somewhat student-like attraction to the Tolstoyan tradition, reproaches for the “dampness”, insufficient organization of the narrative, not to mention its obvious tendentiousness, did not prevent Sivtsev Vrazhok from being a huge reader success. The clarity and purity of writing, the intensity of lyrical and philosophical thought, the light nostalgic tonality dictated by the enduring and keen love for one's fatherland, the liveliness and accuracy of everyday life, resurrecting the aroma of the Moscow past, the charm of the main characters - bearers of unconditional moral values ​​give Osorgin's novel the charm and depth of a highly artistic literary evidence of one of the most difficult periods in the history of Russia. The writer's creative success was also the Tale of a Sister (published in 1931; first published in 1930 in the journal Sovremennye Zapiski, like many of Osorgin's other emigrant works), inspired by warm memories of the writer's family and creating a "Chekhovian" image of a pure and whole heroines; a book of memoirs dedicated to the memory of parents, Things of a Man (1929), Sat. Miracle on the Lake (1931). Wise simplicity, sincerity, unobtrusive humor, characteristic of Osorgin's manner, also appeared in his "old stories" (part of it was included in the collection of Tale of a certain girl, 1838). Possessing an excellent literary taste, Osorgin successfully acted as a literary critic.

Notable are the cycle of novels based on autobiographical material Witness to History (1932), The Book of Ends (1935) and Freemason (1937). The first two give an artistic interpretation of the revolutionary mindsets and events in Russia at the beginning of the century, not without the features of an adventurous-adventure narrative and leading to the idea of ​​the dead end of the sacrificial idealistic path of the maximalists, and in the third - the life of Russian emigrants who associated themselves with Freemasonry, one of the active whose figures Osorgin has been since the early 1930s. Criticism noted the artistic innovation of the Freemason, the use of cinematographic style (partly akin to the poetics of European expressionism) and newspaper genres (information inclusions, factual saturation, sensational slogan "hats", etc.).

Osorgin's pantheism, clearly manifested in Sivtsev's novel Vrazhek, found expression in the cycle of lyrical essays Incidents of the Green World (1938; originally published in Latest News under the caption "The Everyman"), where close attention to all life on earth is combined with a protest against the offensive technotronic civilization . In line with the same “protective” perception, a cycle was created dedicated to the world of things - the writer of the richest collection of Russian editions of the Notes of an Old Bookworm (1928−1937), where the prose writer’s unmistakable ear for the Russian word was expressed in an archaic-accurate, correct and colorful author’s speech .

Shortly before the war, Osorgin began work on memoirs (Childhood and Youth, both 1938; Times - publ. 1955). In 1940 the writer moved from Paris to the south of France; in 1940-1942 he published letters from France in the New Russian Word (New York). Pessimism, awareness of the senselessness of not only physical, but also spiritual opposition to evil are reflected in the books In a Quiet Place in France (published in 1946) and Letters on the Insignificant (published in 1952).

Osorgin (real name Ilyin) was born on October 7 (19), 1878 in Perm in a noble hereditary family, the roots of which come from Rurik. While studying at the gymnasium, he began to publish his first works.

In 1897 he began to study at the Faculty of Law at Moscow University, two years later he was sent home under the informal supervision of the police for supporting student protests. In 1900 he was able to return to university studies and complete his education in 1902. During his student time, he led a column called “Moscow Letters” (“Muscovite's Diary”) in the newspaper “Perm Gubernskie Vedomosti”.

He worked as a lawyer, in Moscow, together with K. Kovalsky and A. Butkevich, he opened the publishing house "Life and Truth", which published popular literature. Here, in 1904, Osorgin issued the brochures “Japan”, “Russian military leaders in the Far East”, where the biographies of E. Alekseev, A. Kuropatkin, S. Makarov and others were presented, as well as “Remuneration of workers for accidents. Law of June 2, 1903".

In 1903 he married the daughter of A. Malikov, a well-known member of the People's Will. A year later he became a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Published in an underground publication the article "For what?" (1905), in which he spoke as a supporter of terrorism. In the same year, an armed uprising was raised in Moscow, for participation in which he was arrested and was close to execution, being the namesake of one of the leaders of the protest. While in the Taganka prison, he writes "Pictures of Prison Life".

Osorgin was sentenced to exile, but in the late spring of 1906 he was released on bail and left for Italy. While abroad, he continues to publish his poems, stories and children's tales in the Russian press. Since 1908, he has been constantly published in the journal Vestnik Evropy and the newspaper Russkiye Vedomosti. From about 1914, he became a member of the Masonic fraternity of the Grand Lodge in Italy. Two years later, semi-legally, he was able to come to his homeland. He worked as a traveling journalist and organized performances with his essays "In the Motherland" (1916) and "On the Quiet Front" (1917).

In 1919, he again falls under arrest, but is released with the help of the Writers' Union. In 1921, he worked at the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in the Commission for Assistance to the Starving and in the editorial office of the Bulletin "Help". Osorgin was arrested for the third time at the end of the summer of 1921 and sent into exile in Kazan, where he edited the Literary Gazette, returned to Moscow a year later, but was again expelled from the USSR.

Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin a brief biography of the writer is set out in this article.

Mikhail Osorgin short biography

Osorgin Mikhail Andreevich was born on October 7, 1878 in Perm in the family of a judge. His father, by virtue of his profession, was rarely at home. The children were educated by their mother, an educated and well-read woman who was fluent in several languages.

In 1897, Mikhail left for Moscow, where he entered Moscow University, Faculty of Law. He graduated in 1902 and immediately began to practice law. But he soon realized that jurisprudence was by no means his calling, Osorgin's heart belongs to literature.

It is worth noting that he began to publish during his school years in the local newspaper. In his student years, he regularly sent his correspondence to Permskiye Gubernskiye Vedomosti, writing his own column in the newspaper called Moscow Letters.

In 1903 Osorgin married

In 1905, the revolution began, and Osorgin hid the revolutionaries in his apartment, kept illegal literature and weapons, for which he was arrested. The writer-lawyer was sentenced to 3 years of exile in the Tomsk region. But already in May 1906 he was free. First, Mikhail hides from power near Moscow, then moves to Finland, and then to Italy. Here he lives in the Maria shelter, created specifically for political emigrants from Russia. Osorgin in Italy became the author and correspondent of Russkiye Vedomosti since 1908. Having worked in this newspaper for 10 years, he published more than 400 articles on its pages.

In parallel with this, he publishes stories in another magazine, Russkiy Vestnik. These were Ghosts, Emigrant, Old Villa, My Daughter.

Mikhail Osorgin returned to Russia in 1916, without official permission to enter the country. And then again the rebellion - the February Revolution. In the summer of 1918, Mikhail Andreevich, along with other writers and poets, set about creating a writers' bookstore in the city of Moscow. It became a place where book readers and writers gathered to socialize.

The autumn of 1922 cut short the writer's plans to stay in his native country. In 1922, together with "harmful" scientists and writers, he was expelled from the country on a ship. Formally, as it were, for 3 years, but in fact forever.

At first he lived in Berlin, sometimes he visited Italy. Abroad, and revealed his real talent as a writer. And he writes exclusively about Russia. He has lived in Paris for a long time. During the Second World War, he left France with his family and settled in the town of Chabris. Here the writer died on November 27, 1942.