Yury Olesha facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Yury Olesha
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Olesha in 1933
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| Born | 3 March [O.S. 19 February] 1899 Elizavetgrad, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) |
| Died | 10 May 1960 (aged 61) Moscow, USSR |
| Resting place | Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow |
| Genre | Fiction, drama, poetry |
| Notable works | Envy Three Fat Men |
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Yury Karlovich Olesha (Russian: Ю́рий Ка́рлович Оле́ша, born March 3, 1899 – died May 10, 1960) was a famous Russian and Soviet writer. Many people think he was one of the greatest Russian writers of the 20th century. He managed to write important and beautiful stories even though there was strict censorship during his time.
His stories often seemed to support the government on the surface. But if you read them more closely, they showed deeper and more complex ideas. Sometimes, he is grouped with other writers like Ilf and Petrov, Isaac Babel, and Sigismund Krzhizhanovsky. They are known as the Odessa School of Writers.
Contents
Yury Olesha: A Russian Writer
Early Life and Education
Yury Olesha was born on March 3, 1899, in Elizavetgrad. This city is now called Kropyvnytskyi and is in Ukraine. His family was of Polish background. In 1902, Yury and his family moved to Odessa. There, he met many other writers who became his friends. These included Isaac Babel, Ilya Ilf, and Valentin Kataev. He stayed friends with Kataev his whole life.
As a student, Yury was good at science. However, he loved literature the most. He started writing stories and poems in high school. In 1917, Olesha began studying law. But two years later, he joined the Red Army during the Civil War. During this time, he wrote messages to support the revolution.
Starting His Writing Career
Olesha's writing journey began with a group of young writers in Odessa. This group was called "The Green Lamp." It included Kataev, Olesha, and other important writers like Eduard Bagritski. He also became close friends with Isaac Babel. Olesha continued to write for the revolution in Odessa. Then he moved to Kharkov in 1921 and kept writing.
In 1922, Olesha published his first short story, "Angel." The same year, he moved to Moscow. He worked for a popular newspaper for railway workers called The Whistle. Here, Olesha wrote funny poems using the pen name "Зубило" ("The Chisel"). He published two collections of these poems. After that, he started writing prose (stories) and plays.
Famous Books and Plays
Olesha's first major book became one of his most popular works. It was the novel Envy, published in 1927. This book tells the story of five main characters. Many people consider Envy to be his best work. It explores the differences between old and new ways of life in Soviet Russia. It also looks at ideas of being an individual versus being part of a group.
Around this time, Olesha had another big success. He wrote the fairy tale The Three Fat Men in 1924. But it was published a year after Envy. Olesha also wrote several short stories in the 1920s and 1930s. Some well-known ones are "Liompa" (1928), "The Cherry Stone" (1929), and "Natasha" (1936). Besides stories, Olesha also wrote for the theater. He turned his novel Envy into a play called Conspiracy of Feelings in 1929. He also wrote an original play called A List of Assets in 1931. Later in life, he adapted Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot for the stage.
Challenges and Later Life
In the 1930s and 1940s, it became very hard for Olesha to publish his work. This was because of strict government censorship. He once said that it was difficult for him to write about workers and factories, which was expected of writers then. He explained, "it is difficult for me to understand the type of worker, the type of revolutionary hero. I can't be them."
Olesha faced many challenges due to the political environment. Even though he kept writing and editing, his career was limited. Yury Olesha died on May 10, 1960, from heart failure.
See also
- Engineers of the human soul (a famous phrase linked to Yuri Olesha)
