Margarita Iosifovna Aliger ( rus, Маргари́та Ио́сифовна Алиге́р, p=mərɡɐˈrʲitə ɪˈosʲɪfəvnə ɐlʲɪˈɡʲɛr, a=Margarita Iosifovna Aliger.ru.oga; – August 1, 1992) 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

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

, and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

Biography

She was born in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

in a family of Jewish office workers; the real family name was Zeliger (russian: Зейлигер). As a teenager she worked at a chemical plant. From 1934 to 1937 she studied at the

Maxim Gorky Literature Institute The Maxim Gorky Literature Institute (russian: Литературный институт им. А. М. Горького) is an institution of higher education in Moscow. It is located at 25 Tverskoy Boulevard in central Moscow. History The insti ...

. The main themes of her early poetry were the heroism of the Soviet people during

industrialization Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...

(''Year of birth'', 1938; ''Railroad'', 1939; ''Stones and grass'', 1940) and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(''Lyrics'', 1943). Her most famous poem is "Zoya" (1942), about

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya Zoya Anatolyevna Kosmodemyanskaya ( rus, Зо́я Анато́льевна Космодемья́нская, p=ˈzojə kəsmədʲɪˈmʲjanskəjə; September 13, 1923 – November 29, 1941) was a Soviet partisan. She was executed after acts of s ...

, a young girl killed by

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. This work was one of the most popular poems during the Soviet era. From 1940 to 1950, the poetry of Aliger was characterised by a mix of optimistic semi-official verses ("Leninskie mountains", 1953), and poems in which Aliger tried to analyse the situation in her country in a realistic way ("Your Victory", 1944 - 1945). In 1956, in a gathering of Khrushchev with the intelligentsia he admonished the writers for interfering with the political system. It is noted that Aliger was the only writer to speak up against him at the event. It was after his retirement that he apologized to her for his behavior. Aliger wrote numerous essays and articles about

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...

and her impressions on travelling ("On poetry and poets", 1980; "The return from Chile", 1966). Her first husband was the composer Konstantin Makarov-Rakitin, who was killed at the front near

Yartsevo Yartsevo (russian: Ярцево) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. ;Urban localities *Yartsevo, Smolensk Oblast, a town in Yartsevsky District of Smolensk Oblast; administratively incorporated as Yartsevskoye Urban Settlement ...

in 1941 after the death of their infant son (their daughter Tatyana 940-1974became a poet and translator), a double tragedy that left her devastated. The following year she had an affair with the author Alexander Fadeyev; from this union was born a daughter Maria (Masha Enzenberger), who married

Hans Magnus Enzensberger Hans Magnus Enzensberger (11 November 1929 – 24 November 2022) was a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Andreas Thalmayr, Elisabeth Ambras, Linda Quilt and Giorgio Pellizzi. Enzensberger was regarde ...

and lived abroad for twenty years, killing herself shortly after a brief return to Russia in 1991. Aliger's second and final husband was the Central Committee official Igor Chernoutsan (1918-1990). She survived all her husbands and children, dying shortly after her daughter Maria Enzensberger. Margarita Aliger is buried in

Peredelkino Peredelkino ( rus, Переде́лкино, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈdʲelkʲɪnə) is a dacha complex situated just to the southwest of Moscow, Russia. History The settlement originated as the estate of Peredeltsy, owned by the Leontievs (maternal rela ...

next to her daughters.

Selected works

*God rozhdeniia (Year of Birth) (1938) *Zoya (1942) *Your victory (1945) *Great Expectations *Two (1956) *Leninskie gory (Lenin Hills) *Sinii chas (Blue Hour) (1970)

References

External links

Poetry of Margarita Aliger
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aliger, Margarita Iosifovna 1915 births 1992 deaths 20th-century Russian journalists 20th-century Russian translators 20th-century Russian women writers Writers from Odesa Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Stalin Prize winners Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Jewish poets Odesa Jews Russian translators Russian women journalists Russian women poets Soviet journalists Soviet translators Soviet women poets Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni