Nikolay Erdman

Nikolai Robert Erdman (3 [16] November 1900 [4], Moscow - 10 August 1970, ibid.) - Russian Soviet playwright, poet, screenwriter. Winner of the Stalin Prize of the second degree (1951). Nikolai Erdman was born in the family of an accountant of the Silk Fabric Manufactory Partnership Factory, a Lutheran and Mitavy native Robert Karlovich Erdman (1860–1950), who also subsequently flashed supporting roles in the films Okraina and Merry Guys, and Valentina Borisovny Erdman ( Kormer, 1880-1964), the Orthodox. Her father Boris Vasilievich Kormer (1851–1915) owned a watch workshop [5] [6]. The mother’s grandmother, Praskovya Abramovna Goldberg (1854–1938), was the daughter of the first guild of Moscow merchant and manufacturer Abram Simhovich Goldberg. Aunt, Olga Borisovna Kormer (1885-1963), was married to Archpriest S. I. Goloshchapov. He studied in Moscow, in the Petropavlovsk real commercial school. In 1919 he was drafted into the Red Army. Demobilized in 1920 and at the same time began his literary activity. Under the influence of his brother Boris, an artist, he entered the group of imagists, published several poems, wrote texts for artistic cabarets; he worked in the genre of satirical reviews popular in those years, often in collaboration with V. Z. Mass, for the music hall, later for the Theater of Satire (including “Moscow in Point of View”), was the author of the interlude in the famous play of the Theater. Vakhtangov "Lev Gurych Sinichkin" based on the play by D. Lensky (1924). Since 1927, Nikolai Erdman worked in film as a screenwriter. Together with Vladimir Mass and Grigory Alexandrov, he wrote the script for the film “Jolly Fellows”; however, during the filming of the comedy in Gagra, in 1933, Erdman and Mass were arrested. The reason for this was politically sharp poems written by them and not intended for printing. The names of both the writers from the credits of the film have been removed. The investigation of their case led N. Kh. Shivarov; The sentence handed down to Erdman was mild for that time - a reference to 3 years in the city of Yeniseisk. Back in 1928, Nikolai Erdman met Angelina Stepanova, one of the leading actresses of the Moscow Art Theater, with whom he had a difficult relationship for a number of years: Stepanova was married to director Nikolai Gorchakov at that time, Erdman himself was married to Dina Vorontsova (1898–1942) , ballerina and pop dancer. However, it was thanks to Stepanova’s petitions in 1934 that Erdman was transferred to Tomsk, where he arrived on March 8. Soon Stepanova married Alexander Fadeev. After the arrest of Erdman, his Mandate was banned; he no longer wrote plays, but continued to work in the cinema; He became one of the authors of the script of the new film by G. Aleksandrov - “Volga, Volga”, in 1941 awarded the Stalin Prize. In the fall of 1941, like all those defeated in their rights, Erdman was sent to the rear. When traveling through Saratov, the train with the evacuees was delayed. At that time, the Moscow Art Theater was evacuated from Moscow in the building of the Saratov Youth Theater. A letter was received in the name of the Moscow Art Theater Director Ivan Moskvin, signed by L. P. Beria, in which Erdman was offered cooperation with the Song and Dance Ensemble of the NKVD. According to this letter, Erdman was removed from the evacuation train and sent to Moscow, to a new place of work. During the war, he participated in the front brigades serving the troops of the NKVD, wore a uniform. After the war, Erdman wrote screenplays for films, worked at the Taganka Theater.