Kornei Chukovsky was a Russian-Jewish writer who established himself
before the Russian Revolution of 1917, and later emerged as important
public figure in the Soviet Union.
He was born Nikolai Vasilyevich Korneichukov on March 31, 1882, in St.
Petersburg, Russia. His father, Emanuel Ben Shlomo Levinson, was an
honorary citizen of Odessa. His mother, Yekaterina Osipovna
Korneichukova, worked as the housekeeper for Levinson's family. The
young Chukovsky grew up virtually without a father, because Levinson
did not legitimize his fatherhood, but apparently supported him
financially. Through his entire life in Russia and Soviet Union
Chukovsky was shy to mention that he was half-Jewish.
Chukovsky was a classmate and a close friend of
Vladimir Jabotinsky in Odessa
Gymnasium. Their friendship and correspondence lasted for several
decades, regardless of the many dangers. He was a journalist for an
Odessa newspaper from 1901-1905, spending 2 years as a correspondent in
London. In St. Petersburg he published a satirical magazine "Signal"
(1905-1906) with criticism of the Czar's government, for which he was
arrested and sentenced to 6 months in prison. He became friends with
Vladimir Mayakovsky,
Vladimir Korolenko,
Leonid Andreyev,
Aleksei Tolstoy, and
Maxim Gorky.
Chukovsky was a praised Russian translator of Charles Dickens, Mark
Twain, Walt Whitman, and other English and American authors. His
writings for children are regarded as classics of the form. His
best-known poems for children are "Krokodil", "Moydodyr",
"Tarakanische", and "Doctor Aybolit" (Doctor Ouch).
Sergei Prokofiev composed music
to several of his stories. In 1930 Chukovsky published a brilliant
study of the language of children, "Ot 2 do 5" (From Two to Five). His
"Mastery of Nekrasov," a literary research on
Nikolai A. Nekrasov, was awarded the
State Lenin Prize in 1962. Chukovsky received an honorary doctorate
from Oxford University (1962). His works were praised by
Vladimir Nabokov.
Chukovsky was fearless when he congratulated
Boris Pasternak with the Nobel Prize. He
also defended Mikhail Zoshchenko,
Anna Akhmatova, and
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn during
their hard times under Joseph Stalin's
dictatorship. His daughter, Lidiya Chukovskaya was the literary
secretary and a life-long companion of
Anna Akhmatova. Chukovsky was
instrumental in publications of the authors, who were writing in
Yiddish. He died on October 28, 1969, and was laid to rest in
Peredelkino, a suburb of Moscow, Russia.
