2023-12-10 18:16:48
The editorial staff of the capital’s youth has always loved poetry. They can be seen when leafing through even the earliest files of our newspaper. And starting from the 1970s, for several decades, the column “Tournament of Poets” was regularly published on the pages of Moskovsky Komsomolets, where the best poetic works sent to the editorial office by novice authors were published.
Emkov’s “golden fund” includes recognized masters of Russian poetry who collaborated with our newspaper, and in some cases were even its full-time employees. Let’s remember some names.
Zharov and Bezymensky
Three young people at once, who later earned all-Union poetic laurels, raised the popularity of “Young Communard” – “Young Truth” – “Young Leninist” – under such successive names the newspaper was published in the first years of its existence.
One of them is Alexander Zharov. A boy born in the Moscow region joined the Komsomol at the age of 14. He showed poetic talents at an early age. Sasha sent his essays, created, of course, in the then fashionable “proletarian-slogan” style, to the editorial office of the newly created youth group. He recalled later: “I wrote to this newspaper in 1919 and published my first poem in it.”
And in the spring of 1920, at the age of 16, Zharov moved to Moscow, where he began to take an active part in the publication of Youthful Truth – not only as the author of publications, but also fulfilling the role of a business executive, obtaining the materials necessary for printing the edition.
Here is a fragment of one of the works of the young poet published then – the poem “To the International of Youth”.
“The ghost of clouds gnaws at the gray sky, / The day is near – the universal rain will shed. / The banners of youth are flying high, / Youth are rushing towards communism!..”
After some time, Alexander was appointed executive editor, in 1920–21. he headed the newspaper for several months.
From Yunpravda, Zharov was transferred to Komsomol work – to the city committee. But still, this man was dearer to literary creativity. In October 1922, he became one of the founders of the Young Guard association of Komsomol writers. It was Alexander Alekseevich who composed the lyrics for the popular song among children of the Soviet Union, “Range with fires, blue nights!”, which was even called the pioneer anthem. Over the years, A. Zharov became one of the most famous writers in the country. Books containing his works have been published several times. But he gained the greatest popularity as a songwriter.
At the same time as Zharov, another author who later became a famous poet, Alexander Bezymensky, was published in the capital’s youth program. His collaboration with the newspaper also dates back to 1920. It happened that Yunosheskaya Pravda published the works of two Alexanders in its issues in turn.
As an example, Bezymensky’s poem “To the Fallen,” published by Unpravda on July 10, 1921:
“We see naked on the street / Someone with a thunderous soul / Pinned with a rusty bayonet / To the gray chest of the pavement.
At the hour when the shadows of the past / Beat the fateful drum, / Each inch will put on / This bloody bow…”
Bezymensky also distinguished himself later by writing the anthem. But this was not a pioneer song, but a Komsomol main song – “Young Guard”: “Forward, towards the dawn, comrades in the struggle!..”
In the 1920s, collections of Alexander Ilyich’s works were published in thousands of copies, and his poems were often heard on the radio. There was a period when Bezymensky was practically not inferior in popularity to Mayakovsky himself, with whom they sometimes clashed in poetic form. And besides, these two writers often performed together in front of large audiences of poetry lovers.
But even after gaining all-Union fame, Alexander Bezymensky did not lose touch with the capital’s youth. A fragment from his new work – this time it was a play in verse “Shot” – was seen in the fall of 1929 by readers of the newspaper, which by that time was already published under the name “Moskovsky Komsomolets”.
Molchanov and Mandelstam
Another poet who collaborated with the youth newspaper of the capital in the early period of its existence is Ivan Molchanov. Judging by the mentions in publications of that time, he was among the very active authors.
Very young, this native of the Arkhangelsk province took part in the Civil War, fought against the Anglo-American invaders. In the summer of 1919, the army circulation published his first poem. Then there was a serious injury, forced departure from the army, Komsomol work in Arkhangelsk, literary studies.
In 1924, a book of poems by I. Molchanov “Bright Relatives” was published. In the same year, the provincial party committee sent Ivan to Moscow to study at the State Institute of Journalism.
Once in the capital, the young poet actively collaborated with the editors of Young Leninist (formerly Youthful Truth). Later, I. Molchanov, who had already become a certified journalist, was appointed to the position of executive secretary of the editorial office of the new literary and artistic magazine “Komsomoliya”. In the 1920s, several books by Ivan Nikanorovich were published – poetry, prose, journalism. Vladimir Mayakovsky dedicated one of his poems to the work of this writer – “Reflections on Ivan Molchanov and on poetry.”
The song “Take us for a ride, Petrusha, on a tractor,” the words for which were taken from Molchanov’s poem “Peter Dyakov,” composed in 1929, gained wide popularity in the pre-war period.
The above-mentioned publication in Moskovsky Komsomolets of an excerpt from A. Bezymensky’s play “The Shot” continues the “poetic chain” in the work of the youth editorial board. The fact is that this fragment was prepared for publication by another poet who worked at MK, Osip Mandelstam.
The famous writer was enrolled in the staff in the fall of 1929. It was then that the decision was made to resume the production of the youth program, which was closed in the spring of 1928, and give it a new name – “Moskovsky Komsomolets”.
According to some researchers, Mandelstam appeared in the editorial office of the revived newspaper thanks to the patronage of Nikolai Bukharin, a member of the Central Committee and the Politburo of the party. The new employee was assigned to the literature and art department and tasked with preparing materials for the regular “Literary Page” column. As a literary staff member, Mandelstam actively took on the task of attracting the best Soviet writers and poets of that time to publication on the pages of MK. Among other works, Osip Emilievich chose “The Shot” by Alexander Bezymensky.
Alas, the period of life of the youth movement, revived at the turn of the 1920s and 30s, turned out to be short: the first issue of MK was published on September 1, 1929, and on January 18, 1930, “from above” ordered the newspaper to be closed. But it was precisely these 4-5 months that became “Mandelshtam’s” in the biography of “Moskovsky Komsomolets”.
Alexander Aronov. Photo: MK Archive
Aronov and Voznesensky
But the next master of rhyme, who should definitely be mentioned here, worked in our editorial office for a long time – almost 35 years, until his death in 2001. We are talking about the magnificent Alexander Aronov.
He became a journalist for MK in mid-1966. Before this, a graduate of the Moscow City Pedagogical Institute managed to complete graduate school, worked as a teacher in schools in the Moscow region and the capital, and studied mathematical linguistics at the research center of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
The beginning of Aronov’s “EMK” career was working as a literary staff member in the department of student youth. After 10 years, he took the position of editor there, then was transferred to special correspondents.
Over the years, Alexander Yakovlevich led several thematic columns, among them the “Resonance” strip, which was very popular. He himself came up with some of the columns: “Television Week”, the above-mentioned “Tournament of Poets”… In the last few years, he has regularly delighted MK readers with his signature column “Let’s Talk”.
Alexander Aronov successfully combined his journalistic work with poetry. His poems were published not only on the pages of “Moskovsky Komsomolets”, but also in the magazines “Ogonyok”, “Znamya”… During the poet’s lifetime, three collections of his poems were published: “Safety Island”, “Texts”, “First Life”.
One of the most popular was Alexander Yakovlevich’s poem “If you don’t have an aunt.” Based on his words, composer Mikael Tariverdiev composed music for a song that was performed in the famous Ryazanov comedy “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!” Another poem by A. Aronov, which has become widely known, is “Stop, Look Back…”. At one time, Mikhail Gorbachev even declared the opening lines of this work to be a sign of “new thinking,” on which, according to the Secretary General, perestroika in the country was based.
From the end of the last century to the present century, the famous poet Andrei Voznesensky has been noted on the pages of MK with exclusive author publications. For several years, even at a very old age, Andrei Andreevich regularly came to our editorial office to personally oversee the layout of the next newspaper page with his videos and poems.
Many times on the pages of MK appeared strips with poems by Nikolai Dobronravov, who recently left us. The editors did not interrupt cooperation with this wonderful poet even after the song based on his poems “And the battle continues again” was criticized “from above” and was actually banned in the Union.
A great friend of the editorial office and its head, Pavel Gusev, was another famous poet, Andrei Dementyev. Moskovsky Komsomolets has repeatedly published selections of his new poetic works.
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