Vladimir Ivanovich Narbut

April 2, 1888 (age 50)

Narbutovka village, Glukhovsky district, Sumy Oblast, Ukraine

Narbut's poems first appeared in print in 1908 and two years later he published his debut collection of verse Stikhi. God tvorchestva pervy (Poems. Year One of Creative Work). His second collection, Alliluia ("Hallelujah," 1912) and copies were seized by the police as pornographic. To avoid the ensuing scandal and a court trial, Vladimir Ivanovich spent the next five months on an ethnographic expedition to Ethiopia and Somalia. He returned to Russia after the amnesty declared on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty in March 1913. On his return Vladimir Ivanovich became the publisher and editor of the magazine Novy Zhurnal Dlya Vsekh until he had to give it up for financial reasons. After the February Revolution broke out in 1917, Vladimir Ivanovich joined the Bolsheviks. One night early in 1918, armed men broke into the Narbut family home and killed his brother Sergei. Narbut himself was wounded and had to have his left hand amputated. During the Russian Civil War, Narbut published literary magazines in Voronezh and Kiev. He was arrested by the White Guards in Rostov-on-Don and imprisoned until being released by the Red Army. In the 1920s, Vladimir Ivanovich edited the magazines Lava and Oblava in Odessa and issued further collections of his own verse, including Aleksandra Pavlovna (1922), the last to appear in his lifetime. In 1928 he was accused of not telling the truth about his imprisonment by the Whites and was expelled from the Communist Party. He began writing lyrics again in the 1930s and another collection, Spiral, was due to be published when he was arrested on October 26, 1936, and accused of belonging to subversive "Ukrainian nationalist" group. He sentenced to five years in the Gulag. Vladimir Ivanovich was incarcerated in prison camps near Vladivostok and Magadan, and the circumstances of his death and its date are uncertain, the registered date of 1944 in all likelihood invented. Vladimir Ivanovich was either summarily shot in 1938 or was drowned with a group of prisoners in sealed barge in the Arctic Ocean (according to Nadezhda Mandelshtam).

Vladimir Ivanovich Narbut

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literary critic,poet

Background

Vladimir Ivanovich Narbut was born on April 2, 1888 in Narbutovka village, Glukhovsky district, Sumy Oblast, Ukraine. He belonged to a princely family with Lithuanian roots. He was the second of nine children in the family.

Education

In 1906-1912 Vladimir Ivanovich was studying at various faculties of Saint Petersburg University.

Career

Narbut's poems first appeared in print in 1908 and two years later he published his debut collection of verse Stikhi. God tvorchestva pervy (Poems. Year One of Creative Work). His second collection, Alliluia ("Hallelujah," 1912) and copies were seized by the police as pornographic. To avoid the ensuing scandal and a court trial, Vladimir Ivanovich spent the next five months on an ethnographic expedition to Ethiopia and Somalia. He returned to Russia after the amnesty declared on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty in March 1913.

On his return Vladimir Ivanovich became the publisher and editor of the magazine Novy Zhurnal Dlya Vsekh until he had to give it up for financial reasons.

After the February Revolution broke out in 1917, Vladimir Ivanovich joined the Bolsheviks. One night early in 1918, armed men broke into the Narbut family home and killed his brother Sergei. Narbut himself was wounded and had to have his left hand amputated. During the Russian Civil War, Narbut published literary magazines in Voronezh and Kiev. He was arrested by the White Guards in Rostov-on-Don and imprisoned until being released by the Red Army.

In the 1920s, Vladimir Ivanovich edited the magazines Lava and Oblava in Odessa and issued further collections of his own verse, including Aleksandra Pavlovna (1922), the last to appear in his lifetime. In 1928 he was accused of not telling the truth about his imprisonment by the Whites and was expelled from the Communist Party. He began writing lyrics again in the 1930s and another collection, Spiral, was due to be published when he was arrested on October 26, 1936, and accused of belonging to subversive "Ukrainian nationalist" group. He sentenced to five years in the Gulag. Vladimir Ivanovich was incarcerated in prison camps near Vladivostok and Magadan, and the circumstances of his death and its date are uncertain, the registered date of 1944 in all likelihood invented. Vladimir Ivanovich was either summarily shot in 1938 or was drowned with a group of prisoners in sealed barge in the Arctic Ocean (according to Nadezhda Mandelshtam).

Achievements

Narbut Vladimir Ivanovich was one of those writers who devoted their life to Russian literature and art development.

Membership

Vladimir Ivanovich Narbut led the "Literary Week" and published his works in the journal "Bulletin of the Voronezh District of Communications".

Editorial Board of "Izvestia" , Russian Federation

1918

Connections

Spouse:: Nina Ivanovna Lesenko
Spouse:: Serafima Gustavovna Suok
Brother:: Ceorgy Ivanovich Narbut
Son:: Roman Vladimirovich Narbut

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