Korney Ivanovich
Chukovsky
1882-1969
Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky (real name – Nikolai Korneichukov) was a Russian and Soviet poet, publicist, literary critic, translator, literary scholar, children’s writer, and journalist. He was a Lenin Prize laureate (1962) and a recipient of the Order of Lenin (1957). He was born on March 31, 1882, in St. Petersburg. His real name was Nikolai Korneichukov. His mother, Yekaterina Korneichukova, was a peasant. He spent his childhood and youth in Odessa, where he was expelled from the gymnasium in 1898. He independently mastered English and French. He began his literary career in 1901 at the newspaper «Odesskie Novosti» (Odessa News). From 1903 to 1904, he worked as a correspondent in London. In 1905, he moved to St. Petersburg. Since 1906, he worked as a critic for the magazine «Scales» («Vesy») and other publications. That same year, he settled in Kuokkala (now Repino), where he communicated with I.E. Repin, M. Gorky, and V.V. Mayakovsky. There, he maintained the handwritten almanac «Chukokkala» and began translating Walt Whitman. In 1916, at Gorky’s suggestion, he headed the children’s department of the «Sail» («Parus») publishing house. After 1917, he lived in Petrograd and participated in the establishment of the «World Literature» publishing house and the «House of Arts». In the 1920s, he published his famous fairy tales: «The Crocodile» (1917), «Wash-’em-Clean» («Moidodyr», 1923), «The Giant Roach» («Tarakanishche», 1923), «The Buzzing Fly» («Mukha-Tsokotukha», 1924), «Barmaley» (1925), and «Doctor Aybolit» («Aibolit», 1929). In 1928, the first edition of his book on child language, «From Two to Five», was published. In the late 1920s, his work was sharply criticized in the newspaper «Pravda», forcing the writer to publicly renounce some of his fairy tales. From 1938, he lived in Moscow and at his dacha in Peredelkino. During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1943), he was evacuated to Tashkent. After the war, he published new works («The Stolen Sun», 1945) and continued his translation work. He is the author of the fundamental work on translation theory «The High Art» and the study «Nekrasov’s Mastery» (1952). In 1962, he was awarded the Lenin Prize. He held the academic degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences (1957) and the honorary title of Doctor of Literature from the University of Oxford (1962). He was a recipient of the Order of Lenin (1957). He is recognized as the most published author of children’s literature in the USSR and Russia.
Address: Moscow, Serafimovicha St., 3, p. 2
