Schoolgirl's Notes: How an actress-loser Lydia Charskaya became an idol of schoolgirls and why she fell into disgrace in the USSR

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Lydia Charskaya was the most popular children's writer in tsarist Russia, but in the Land of Soviets the name of the St. Petersburg schoolgirl was forgotten for obvious reasons. And only after the USSR collapsed, her books began to appear on the shelves of bookstores. In this review, a story about the difficult fate of Lydia Charskaya, who may well be called JK Rowling of the Russian Empire.

Childhood

Charskaya Lydia was born in 1875 in the family of a military engineer Voronov. The girl's mother died during childbirth, so her nanny, aunts and ardently loving father raised her. But at the age of 11, the carefree childhood ended. The guardians sent Lydia to a closed girls' school in St. Petersburg. Lydia did not like the institution so much that she later compared the time spent there with imprisonment. And then the girl could not understand in any way: "for what?".

(C) Lydia Charskaya

Arriving home on her first vacation, she was overwhelmed by the news of her father's remarriage. Lydia could not love and accept her stepmother, she seemed so unpleasant to her. Because of this, she did not visit her own father for three years during the holidays. But time passed, and the girl resigned herself to the new circumstances. Relations with her stepmother improved, and the time spent at school no longer seemed so painful to her. Decades later, it is these memories that will become a source of inspiration for her. Her literary career began with an ordinary diary, which she filled out every day from the age of 15.

Lydia's married life was short-lived. Married at the age of 18 to the gendarme captain Churilov Boris out of great love, she gave birth to a son. However, after the birth of the boy, they parted. They officially broke off relations only in 1901, and in 1913 Lydia remarried.

(C) Lydia Charskaya

After a divorce from her first spouse, Lydia was forced to live on the funds of her father. But this state of affairs did not suit her. She began to look for a way out of this situation. After all, the stepmother and father had to raise the younger children as well. During this period, such a movement as emancipation began to emerge in Russia. And Lydia wanted to make a living on her own, and not burden her family.

However, in Russia a woman did not have enough opportunities to work and receive decent remuneration for her work. Lydia did not feel like teaching children or medicine. She didn't want to work for anyone either. As a result, she opted for a career as an actress. It cannot be said that this idea was born completely from scratch - the experience of amateur performances was behind him. “There is no brighter and nobler deed of an artist who embodies and depicts human grief, human joys,” Lydia admitted then. - It is not the thirst for shine, glory that pushes me, but sincere ardent love for the chosen work and also love for my child, to whom I want to say: "Your mother works for you, for your well-being."

(C) Lydia Charskaya

To fulfill her dream, Lydia entered the Drama courses in St. Petersburg, which opened at the Imperial Theater School. After them, she was hired at the Alexandria Imperial Theater. At that time she was 25 years old, and she began work under the pseudonym Charskaya. However, she did not succeed in achieving great popularity. After working in one theater for 24 years, she continued to play only cameo roles. The biggest role in all the years is that of a maid. The money she received was not enough for her and her son, but Lydia did not want to ask her relatives.

Why did you take up the pen?

And Lydia took up the pen … Only earnings could not be the reason. Lydia says she couldn't write just for the money. Literary creativity became a good way out for her to get away from melancholy and boring reality. The same reason pushed J. K. Rowling at one time to write a story about Harry Potter, which became a literary bestseller.

(C) Lydia Charskaya

And although Lydia was unable to achieve such an international success, in Russia she was quite famous. Already the first novel "Notes of a Schoolgirl" in 1901 brought her popularity. "Notes of a schoolgirl" aroused great delight among Russian young ladies. The publishing house was inundated with letters. Charskaya realized that the topic was in demand, and began to write again and again. Until now, the data differ, how many stories, novels and collections of stories came out from under her pen. According to various sources, for 15 years - from 80 to 300 compositions.

There are two main motives in her books - the institute's youth with its first moral lessons and the hard life of orphans. And all the stories are sure to have a happy ending. Critics accused Charskaya of a lack of imagination and self-repetition, but her readers never got bored of her prose. In 1911, female students of women's gymnasiums in their essays on the theme "My Favorite Book" most often mentioned the works of Charskaya. And in libraries, more often than not, only Gogol and Pushkin were asked for her books. Her books have been translated into French, German, English - an absolute triumph!

Marina Tsvetaeva herself in her youth read Charskaya's story "Princess Javakh" and even dedicated a poem to her. Among the reader's works were fairy tales for young children, and historical books, and poetry, and prose for adults.

And although literary glory fell on Charskaya, she did not leave the theater - she still hoped that she would be given a real role. But I never got it. Charskaya did not succeed in getting rich either. Only the publisher of the magazine earned money on her work, with which the writer signed an onerous contract for herself. Under this document, she received more than modest fees, which, however, were enough for confidence in the future and for independence.

Oblivion of the revolution

And of course, Lydia Charskaya would have met old age in prosperity and honor, hadn't the revolution happened. But after the October Revolution, Charskaya's books were called "harmful", because they promoted "bourgeois values and bourgeois life." All Charskaya's books were withdrawn from the libraries, they stopped printing new ones, and at the first congress they were branded publicly.

1922 was a tragic year for the writer. She was fired from the theater, there was nothing to live on, she was interrupted by rare earnings, starved and fell ill with tuberculosis. The son, according to some information, died in the Civil.

But the children who grew up on the books of Charskaya did not forget their idol, and yesterday's grown-up girls and boys often visited the disgraced writer, helped with food and money. In 1937, Lydia Charskaya died.

BONUS

Another outstanding personality of that time was the daughter of Korney's grandfather. About how it was the non-fairytale life of Lydia Chukovskaya, read our review.