Yuriy Olesha(1899-1960)

Yuri Karlovich Olesha was born on March 3, 1899, in Elizavetgrad, Russian Empire (now Kirovograd, Ukraine). His father, named Karl Olesha, belonged to Polish Shlachta and was a government officer. His mother was a devoted Catholic. In 1902 the family moved to Odessa. There young Olesha went to a Classical Gymnazium from which he graduated in 1916. In 1915-1916 he published his early poems. From 1917-1919 he studied at the Law Department of Novorossiisky University in Odessa. At that time he joined the Odessa group of writers, which included Isaak Babel, Ilya Ilf, Eduard Bagritsky, Yevgeni Petrov, and Valentin Kataev. Olesha briefly served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. In 1921 he moved to Kharkov, and his parents emigrated to Poland.

In 1922 Olesha settled in Moscow. He wrote for 'Gudok' newspaper, where his colleagues were such writers as Mikhail A. Bulgakov, Ilya Ilf, Yevgeni Petrov, Isaak Babel, and Valentin Katayev. Olesha gained recognition among writers as a master of metaphoric writing. He was penned "the king of metaphor" for his talent of hiding a deeper meaning between the innocent lines. Olesha himself admitted the influence of Lev Tolstoy, Herbert G. Wells, and Robert Louis Stevenson on his writing style. In 1924 Olesha wrote what became his best known novel - 'Tri tolstyaka' (The Three Fat Men). In was dedicated to his wife Olga Gustavovna Suok. One of the characters in the novel, a beautiful lady, was also named Suok. Olesha could not publish his novel for four years until 1928, and then he was criticized for the lack of revolutionary propaganda. However, with the support from the most influential critic Anatoli Lunacharsky, who was also the Comissar of Culture in the Soviet government, Olesha was commissioned to make an adaptation of his novel into a play. It was staged by Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko at the Moscow Art Theatre.

Olesha gained a high artistic reputation for his novel 'Zavist' (Envy). It was published in 1927, in a Moscow magazine. Olesha brilliantly criticized the loss of civilized values in the Soviet Union. His satirical metaphor of a sausage, as one of the important values in the Soviet life, became a prophecy in a time of hunger and social degradation under dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. Olesha made a stage adaptation of the novel titled 'A Conspirasy of Feelings', but it was banned. In 1930 Olesha wrote a political play 'Spisok blagodeianii' (A List of Good Acts). It was a metaphoric description of terror and social destruction in the Soviet Union. Vsevolod Meyerhold began rehearsals of the play, but it was banned. In 1934 Olesha wrote a speech to the Union of Soviet Writers expressing his opposition to restrictions and censorship in the rapidly degrading society.

In 1936 Olesha was condemned by the official Soviet literary establishment. All his writings were banned, all his plays were canceled, and he was made an outcast. In fear of being arrested Olesha ceased writing serious literary works. "The ruling anti-artistic gang does not need literature of any aesthetic value", explained Olesha in a letter to his wife. He withdrew from public life and turned to writing a diary which became a remarkable document of his experience under the totalitarian regime. Meanwhile, many of his fellow writers and cultural figures were executed. Russia lost such men as Isaak Babel, Vladimir Narbut, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Osip Mandelstam, and many other intellectuals. Olesha suffered from a loss of income and had to take any literary job for survival.

During the 1930's Olesha worked as a part-time screenwriter. He co-wrote scripts for 'Strogiy yunosha' (1934), 'Oshibka inzhenera Kochina' (1939), and 'Bolotnye soldaty' (aka.. Concentration Camp 1939). During the Second World War Olesha was evacuated to Ashkhabad, where he worked with the evacuated Odessa Film Studio. After WWII his writings were under the ban that lasted until the death of Joseph Stalin. In 1956 the ban was lifted because of the political "Thaw" that was initiated by Nikita Khrushchev. Olesha's collected works were published in 1956. By that time he was already a different man. For many years he suffered from humiliation and abuse by Soviet officials that caused him much emotional pain and led to a clinical depression. Yuri Olesha died of a heart attack on May 10, 1960, in Moscow. His diaries were published posthumously under the title 'No Day Without a Line'.

Olesha's books were translated in seventeen languages and sold millions of copies around the world. His novel 'Tri tolstyaka' (The Three fat Men) was adapted into a popular animation in 1963, and also into an even more popular feature film by director 'Aleksei Batalov' in 1966.