Olga Fyodorovna Bergholz ( rus, Ольга Фёдоровна Берггольц, p=ˈolʲɡə ˈfʲɵdərəvnə bʲɪrˈɡolʲts, a=Ol'ga Fyodorovna Byerghol'cz.ru.vorb.oga; – November 13, 1975) was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
and
Russian poet, writer, playwright and journalist. She is most famous for her work on the
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
radio during the city's
blockade, when she became the symbol of city's strength and determination.
Early life
Olga Bergholz was born in a working suburb of
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. Her father Fyodor Khristophorovich Bergholz (1885—1948) was a surgeon of half-
Russian and half-
Latvian descent, although in 1942 he was forcefully sent to the
Krasnoyarsk Krai
Krasnoyarsk Krai ( rus, Красноя́рский край, r=Krasnoyarskiy kray, p=krəsnɐˈjarskʲɪj ˈkraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), with its administrative center in the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Siber ...
as "an ethnic
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
and a son of a principal shareholder" (his father was in fact a factory worker).
[''Olga Berggolts (2011)''. Olga. Forbidden Diary. — Moscow: Azbuka Attikus, 444 pages (diaries 1939–1949, letters, documents and photos)] He studied in the
Imperial Military Medical Academy
The S. M. Kirov Military Medical Academy (russian: Военно-медицинская академия имени С. М. Кирова) is a higher education institution of military medicine in Saint Petersburg and the Russian Federation. Senior ...
under
Nikolay Burdenko and served as a military doctor during the
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
; after the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
he was mobilized by the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
and continued working at the
hospital train.
Olga's mother, Maria Timofeyevna Bergholz (née Grustilina) (1884—1957), was a native Russian. She also had a younger sister Maria (1912—2003) who would later become an actress of the Leningrad State Theatre of Musical Comedy. With the start of the
Russian Civil War
, date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
in 1918 Fyodor Bergholz sent his family to
Uglich where they lived in the former Bogoyavlensky Monastery up until 1921. Upon return Olga entered a Petrograd labor school which she finished in 1926.
Career
Her verses dedicated to
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
were first published in 1924. In 1925, she joined a youth literature group 'The Shift' where she became acquainted with
Boris Kornilov. In 1927, Boris and Olga entered the State Institute of Art History, and in 1928, they got married. Same year their daughter Irina was born.
Soon the institute was shut down. Some of the students —including Olga, but not Boris— were moved to the
Leningrad University.
In 1930, she graduated from the philological faculty and was sent to
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
to work as a journalist for the ''Soviet Steppe'' newspaper. During this period Olga divorced Kornilov and married her fellow student Nikolay Molchanov. She also published her first book for children ''Winter-Summer-Parrot'' (1930).
After returning to Leningrad in 1931, she started working as a journalist for the newspaper of the electric power plant (''Electric Power''). In 1932 she gave birth to her second daughter Maya who died in just a year. Her feelings and thoughts on this period were expressed in such books as ''The Out-of-the-way Place'' (1932), ''Night'' (1935), ''Journalists'' (1934), and ''Grains'' (1935). Such works by Bergholz as ''Poems'' (1934) and ''Uglich'' (1932) were approved of by
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
. In 1934 she joined the
Union of Soviet Writers.
During the late 1930s, Bergholz survived several personal tragedies. Her first daughter Irina died in 1936, aged seven, and in 1937, she lost her third child during the full-term pregnancy following the interrogation on the so-called "Averbakh Case" (she contacted
Leopold Averbakh
Leopold Leonidovich Averbakh (Russian: Леопо́льд Леони́дович Аверба́х; 8 March, 1903 Saratov – 14 August, 1937, Moscow) was a Soviet literary critic, who was the head of the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers ...
of the
Russian Association of Proletarian Writers at the start of 1930). Soon, her former husband, Boris Kornilov, was arrested "for taking part in the anti-Soviet
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
organization" and executed in February 1938. In December, Olga herself was arrested on the same account and imprisoned. She spent seven months in prison, but denied all accusations. All this caused a birth of her fourth
stillborn child. During that time period, she wrote poems published as a ''Trial'' anthology during the 1960s. She was subsequently released and completely exonerated in 1939.
In 1940, she joined the Communist Party. After a long period of silence, her novel ''Dream'' and a book of stories ''Vitya Mamanin'' were published to a great acclaim, although she had to hide her prison poetry.
War years
With the start of the
Great Patriotic War
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sout ...
in June 1941, Bergholz was sent to work at the Leningrad Radio House. She spent almost every day of the
blockade in Leningrad working at the radio, encouraging hungry and depressed citizens of the city by her speeches and poems. Her thoughts and impressions on this period, on problems of heroism, love, faithfulness can be found in ''February Diary'' (1942), ''Leningrad Poem'' (1942), ''Your Way'' (1945), and some others.
In January 1942, she survived another personal tragedy: her second husband Nikolay Molchanov died of hunger. Olga later dedicated a poem ''29 January 1942'' and her book ''The Knot'' (1965) to Nikolay. In March 1942, Olga, who suffered from a critical form of dystrophy, was forcefully sent by her friends to Moscow using the
Road of Life, despite her protests. On 20 April, she returned to Leningrad and continued her work at the Radio House. On her return, she married Georgy Makogonenko, a literary critic, also a radio host during the siege. In 1943, she was awarded the
Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad".
Together with her husband, she wrote a screenplay turned a play ''Born in Leningrad'' and a requiem ''In Memory of Defenders'' (1944) on the request of a woman whose brother was killed during the last days of the siege. On January 27, 1945, Bergholz, Makogonenko and their colleagues released a "radio film" entitled ''900 days'' that included various fragments of reports, voices, sounds and music pieces recorded during the siege. She also published a book of memoirs ''Leningrad Is Talking'' and a play ''They Lived in Leningrad'' based on her war experience.
Late years
Bergholz also wrote many times about heroic and glorious events in the history of Russia, such as ''Pervorossyisk'' (1950), a poem about the Altay
commune organized by the workers of
Petrograd
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
; ''Faithfulness'' (1954), a tragedy about the defence of
Sevastopol
Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...
in 1941–1942; and ''The Day Stars'' (1959), an autobiographical novel that was turned into a movie of the same name by
Igor Talankin in 1968.
Olga's voice could be also heard in another Talankin's movie ''
Introduction to Life
''Introduction to Life'' (russian: Вступление, Vstuplijenije) is a 1963 Soviet drama film about World War II seen through the eyes of a young boy from Leningrad. It won a Special Jury Prize at the 24th Venice International Film Festival ...
'' (1963) as she reads her poetry.
On May 9, 1960,
Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery was opened, dedicated to the victims of the
Siege of Leningrad
The siege of Leningrad (russian: links=no, translit=Blokada Leningrada, Блокада Ленинграда; german: links=no, Leningrader Blockade; ) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet city of L ...
, with the words by Olga Bergholz engraved on the wall behind the Motherland monument. The last line "No one is forgotten, nothing is forgotten" became a catchphrase since, often mentioned in Russia during memorial days.
Olga Bergholz died on 13 November 1975, and was buried at Literatorskie Mostki of the
Volkovo Cemetery.
Honours and legacy
*
Stalin Prize, third class (1951) – for the poem "Pervorossiisk" (1950)
*
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...
*
Order of the Red Banner of Labour
The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...
*
Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad" (1943)
*
Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
* Honorary citizen of St. Petersburg (1994)
A
minor planet
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...
3093 Bergholz
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...
discovered by
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
astronomer
Tamara Smirnova in 1971 is named after her. A street in the
Nevsky District
Nevsky District (russian: Не́вский райо́н) is a administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, district of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia. As of the Russian Census (2010), 20 ...
bears her name, as well as a central street in
Uglich. A monument in her memory was opened in Saint Petersburg in May 2015. Also on June the complete collection of diaries by Olga Bergholz was published for the first time by the
Russian State Archive of Literature and Art. A crater on Venus is named after her.
American playwright Ivan Fuller wrote a play about Bergholz in 2009 called ''Awake in Me''.
References
External links
Some poems by Olga BergholzOlga Fyodorovna Berggoltz. Verses and poems.The Poemsby Olga Bergholz (English)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berggolts, Olga
1910 births
1975 deaths
Writers from Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg State University alumni
Stalin Prize winners
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Communist women writers
Russian women children's writers
Russian women dramatists and playwrights
Russian people of Latvian descent
Russian women journalists
Soviet novelists
Russian women novelists
Russian women poets
Russian women short story writers
Soviet children's writers
Soviet dramatists and playwrights
Soviet journalists
Soviet short story writers
Soviet war correspondents
Soviet women novelists
Soviet women poets
Soviet poets
Soviet diarists