The biography of David Samoilov is of interest to many admirers of his work. This is a famous Soviet poet of the generation of front-line soldiers, like many of his peers, who went to war as a student.

Childhood and youth

The biography of David Samoilov begins in 1920. He was born into a Jewish family. The future front-line poet was born in Moscow.

His father was a well-known doctor in his circle named Samuil Abramovich Kaufman. At the time of David's birth, he was 28 years old. Over time, he became the chief venereologist of the Moscow region, consulted patients with the most complex pathologies. The mother of the hero of our article was called Cecilia Izrailevna Kaufman.

In 1938, an important event took place in the biography of David Samoilov. He enters the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History. True, he failed to finish his studies. When the Finnish war began, Samoilov decided to volunteer for the front. But they did not take him, he turned out to be unfit for health reasons.

When the Nazi troops attacked the USSR, they were no longer so meticulous about the state of health of conscripts.

At the front

David Samoilov is a poet whose biography is closely connected with the Great Patriotic War. In 1941 he was sent to the labor front. First of all, he dug trenches on the territory of the Smolensk region, near Vyazma, where the most fierce battles were going on at that time.

True, he could not endure such a test for a long time and became seriously ill. Samoilov was evacuated to Samarkand. When his affairs began to improve, he was able to enter the evening department of the Pedagogical Institute, while remaining in the evacuation.

In parallel, a military education appeared in the biography of David Samoilov. He became a cadet of the military infantry school, however, he did not have time to graduate from it. In 1942 he was again sent to the front. This time on Volkhovsky near the town of Tikhvin.

On March 23, 1942, in a battle near the Mga station, he was seriously wounded in his left hand. The poet suffered from a fragment of a mine.

In that battle, he proved himself to be a brave soldier, so a week later the command put him on the award. David Samoilov, whose biography is given in this article, received the medal "For Courage". The leadership emphasized that he was the first to break into the German trench, entered into hand-to-hand combat simultaneously with three Nazi soldiers, whom he destroyed as a result.

Having been wounded, he was again hospitalized and sent to restore his health, which had been undermined by the injury.

At the end of the war

According to many researchers, the most important thing in the biography of David Samoilov is his military exploits. It is noteworthy that he managed to recover only by March 1944. He returned to the regular army again, continuing his service in a reconnaissance company on the First Belorussian Front.

In November, he received another military award. This time the medal "For Military Merit". Interestingly, he was also awarded it for severe wounds received in battles at the Mga station, as well as for conscientious performance of the duties of a clerk on the Belorussian front.

In 1945, Samoilov participated in the Great Patriotic War already as a submachine gunner. He is celebrated for the capture of a fascist armored personnel carrier with three prisoners. Among them is one non-commissioned officer who provided the Soviet command with valuable information that helped Soviet troops in the battles for Berlin.

Poems during the war

It is noteworthy that during the war years Samoilov did not write poetry. The only exception was a poetic satire directed at Adolf Hitler, as well as a poem about the most successful soldier Foma Smyslov, which he wrote for the garrison newspaper. At the same time, Samoilov used the pseudonym Semyon Shilo.

The poet began to publish in 1941.

Translations

AT post-war years Samoilov David Samuilovich, whose biography you are now reading, was engaged in translations. In particular, he adapted for the Soviet reader Lithuanian, Hungarian, Czech, Polish poets, as well as works of representatives of the peoples of the USSR.

Since 1974, he settled on the territory of the Estonian SSR in the town of Pärnu. He died in 1990 in Tallinn. He was 69 years old.

Creativity of the poet

David Samoilov, his first post-war work, short biography which is before you, published in 1948. His poems about the new city were published in the Znamya magazine. The poet deliberately did not write anything immediately after the victory. He believed that all thoughts, feelings and impressions should settle in his soul before starting to embody all this in poetic creativity.

In 1958, the first separate collection of his poems was published under the title "Near Countries". His next books were a great success with readers. These are lyrical-philosophical poems in the collection "The Second Pass", as well as "Days", "News", "Wave and Stone", "Gulf", "Voices over the Hills". They told in detail about the war and front-line years, as well as about the modern generation, about the role and purpose of art, about historical subjects.

Assessment of Samoilov's poems

Art critics and researchers of the writer's work noted the uniqueness of his poems. In his works, they saw the tragic worldview of a real participant in hostilities, which he managed to hide behind the simplest and most ordinary words, while focusing on Russian classics. Also, following the traditions of the great Russian literature was always highly valued in his work.

Samoilov gained popularity during mass public speaking. The first of them took place in 1960 in the Central Lecture Hall of Kharkov. The poet recited his magnificent poems and answered various questions from the residents and guests of this city. The organizer of this and many of his subsequent speeches was a Kharkov writer, a close friend of the hero of our article, whose name was Lev Yakovlevich Livshits.

One of the most famous works created by Samoilov is a poem called "The Hussar's Song". Many Soviet and modern admirers of his work know her by the first line "When we were at war ...". These verses also became famous because at the very beginning of the 80s, the bard Viktor Stolyarov set the text to music. The result was a song and melody that is still popular today.

More recently, Samoilov and Stolyarov's "Hussar Song" was recognized as the most popular work of the Kuban Cossacks at the beginning of the 21st century.

It is interesting that Samoilov managed to become famous not only for front-line texts. He is also known as the author of a humorous collection of prose called "In the Circle of Myself". Also engaged in literary activities. Worked on research on versification.

Personal life

Even in a biography for the children of David Samoilov, it is important to talk about his personal life. The poet married in 1946. His wife was 22-year-old Olga Lazarevna Fogelson. She was an art critic. Her father was well known in the Soviet Union. Like Samoilov, he was a great doctor. This is the famous cardiologist Lazar Izrailevich Fogelson.

In 1953, David and Olga had a son, known as Alexander Davydov. He became an excellent writer and translator. After school he entered the Moscow State University who successfully completed. Like his father, he was engaged in poetic translations. In particular, he adapted for the Russian reader Arthur Rimbaud, Jacques Prevert, Guillaume Apollinaire, Robert Desnos.

He himself is the author of several popular books that have been published in publishing houses since the late 90s. These are "Apocrypha, or a Dream about an Angel", "The Tale of a Nameless Spirit and a Black Mother", "49 Days with Kindred Souls", "Three Steps to Yourself...", "Paper Hero" and many others. He is regularly published in the magazines "Znamya", "New World", "Foreign Literature", "Friendship of Peoples".

Interestingly, it is he who is considered one of the founders and even leaders of the publishing group "Vest", together with Veniamin Kaverin and Georgy Efremov. In this group, at the end of the 80s, all the liberal-minded people of the sixties, who were related to writing, united. Now he is 64 years old, he lives in Moscow.

Over time, Samoilov left his family and married a second time. Galina Medvedeva became his chosen one. They had three children, who were named Peter, Pavel and Barbara.

Born July 1, 1920 in Moscow, in the family of a doctor.
In 1938-1941 he studied at IFLI.
In 1941, he volunteered for the front, was an ordinary soldier, scout, was seriously wounded.
He began to print in 1941; returning from the front, he translated a lot (from Polish, Czech, Hungarian and other languages). In the 60s. settled in a writers' cooperative house (Krasnoarmeiskaya street, 21), then lived on Proletarsky Prospekt, 77, in Astrakhansky Lane, 5. Among Samoilov's Moscow friends and acquaintances were B.A. Slutsky, L.Z. Kopelev, K.I. Chukovsky, many other writers of the military generation. Samoilov is the author of numerous collections of poems (“Near Countries”, “Second Pass”, “Days”, “Equinox”, “Wave and Stone”, “News”, etc.).
Many of his poems are dedicated to fellow poets who died at the front (“Forties, fatal ...” and others). Samoilov showed himself to be a poet of a classically clear style, a soulful lyricist and philosopher (who, at the same time, never betrayed subtlest feeling humor - the poems "Strufian", "Candelabra", etc.). He often turned to historical subjects (dramatic scenes "Dry Flame" - about the trial of A.D. Menshikov, "Poems about Tsar Ivan"), to the theme of the capital (poems about childhood, the poem "Snowfall", memoirs). The last years of Samoilov's life were spent mainly in the city of Pärnu (Estonia).

David Samoilov is a Soviet poet, prose writer and translator. Samoilov is one of the poets of the front-line generation.

Over the years, he managed to write many poems on military topics, but at the end of his life he composed many satirical and children's works.

Moreover, David Samoilov repeatedly proved himself to be an extremely brave and courageous soldier who accomplished more than one feat.

So in front of you short biography of Samoilov.

Biography of Samoilov

David Samuilovich Kaufman (Samoilov) was born on June 1, 1920 in. He grew up in a Jewish family of a venereologist Samuil Abramovich and his wife Cecilia Izrailevna.

It is interesting that in the future the poet will be known under the surname Samoilov, transformed from the name of his father.

Childhood and youth

During the biography of 1938-1941. David Samoilov studied at the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History. After completing his first year, he volunteered for Finnish war(1939-1940), but could not pass the medical board.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War(1941-1945) Samoilov ended up on the labor front, where he dug trenches along with other compatriots. Soon he became seriously ill, as a result of which he was sent to Samarkand for treatment.

After recovering from his illness, David Samoilov entered the Pedagogical Institute. Then he continued his studies at the military infantry school, but did not have time to finish it. The reason for this was a call to the front, since the country was in dire need of soldiers.

In 1942, Samoilov fought under. After serving in the Red Army for about a year, he was seriously wounded in the arm. An interesting fact is that the soldier was wounded during a fight with the Nazis.

David Samoilov in his youth

David single-handedly made his way into the enemy trench, killing 3 Germans in hand-to-hand combat. For his bravery and courage, he was awarded the medal "For Courage".

For a long time, Samoilov could not heal his wound in any way, as a result of which he returned to the front only in the spring of 1944. He received the rank of corporal, and also performed the duties of a clerk, since he was a literate person.

In 1945, another significant event occurred in Samoilov's biography: he managed to capture a German officer, thanks to which Soviet intelligence received a lot of important information. For his bravery and bravery, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

The war left an indelible mark on the soul of the Soviet poet and seriously influenced the formation of his personality.

Creative biography of Samoilov

The first collection in creative biography David Samoilov was called "Mammoth Hunting", which the author published in 1941. Once at the front, he could not print his works.

However, the soldier never stopped writing poetry. After the end of the war, he will publish them in various publishing houses.

During the war years, David Samoilov created the hero "Foma Smyslov", who was a collective image and appeared in many of his poems.

This character helped Soviet citizens to believe in victory over the Nazi invaders, and also instilled self-confidence in the people.

Samoilov's poems

During this period of his biography, Samoilov composed one of the most famous works called "Forties, fatal ...". In this verse, he mentions the war and its consequences, as well as himself "thin in a dirty earflap."

Coming home from the front, David Samoilov made a living by translating, as well as writing scripts for radio programs. In 1970, after the release of the collection "Days", he gained some popularity.

During the biography of 1974-1985. Samoilov released 4 more collections of poems: “Wave and Stone”, “News”, “Gulf” and “Voices Over the Hills”.

These works were dominated by lyrical poems with philosophical overtones. The poet continued to write about the war, as well as about art and the modern generation.

It is worth noting that David Samoilov, as before, was engaged in translation activities. In addition, he wrote scripts for plays and films.

In the last decade of his biography, he wrote several children's books in which great attention dedicated to patriotism.

Personal life

Returning from the war, David Samoilov married the art critic Olga Fogelson. In this marriage, they had a boy, Alexander, who in the future will also become a translator and writer.

Over time, the couple began to lose interest in each other, for which reason they decided to leave.

The second wife of Samoilov was Galina Medvedeva. Two boys and one girl were born in their family: Peter, Pavel and Barbara.

According to one of his sons, their father was always an open and kind person. In addition, he had a great sense of humor.

Death

In 1974, the Samoilov family moved to the Estonian city of Pärnu. Interestingly, although the poet's works never had political overtones, he and his house were under constant surveillance by the KGB.

Father - a famous doctor, chief venereologist of the Moscow region Samuil Abramovich Kaufman (1892-1957); mother - Cecilia Izrailevna Kaufman (1895-1986).

After recovery, from March 1944 he continued to serve in the 3rd separate motor reconnaissance unit of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the 1st Belorussian Front.

By order of the Armed Forces of the 1st Belorussian Front No.: 347 / n dated: 11/01/1944, the clerk of the 3rd separate motor reconnaissance unit of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the 1st Belorussian Front, Corporal Kaufman was awarded the medal "For Military Merit" for severe wounds in battle in the area station Mga, participation in the battles on the Volkhov and 1st Belorussian fronts and exemplary performance of their immediate duties as a clerk.

By order of the Armed Forces of the 1st Belorussian Front No.: 661 / n dated: 06/14/1945, the submachine gunner of the 3rd separate reconnaissance motor reconnaissance company. Department of the headquarters of the 1st Belorussian Front Corporal Kaufman was awarded the Order of the Red Star for the capture of a German armored personnel carrier and three prisoners, including one non-commissioned officer who gave valuable information, and for active participation in the battles for the city of Berlin.

During the war years, Samoilov did not write poetry - with the exception of poetic satire on Hitler and poems about the successful soldier Foma Smyslov, which he composed for the garrison newspaper and signed "Semyon Shilo".

One of the first public performances by D.S. Samoilov before a large audience took place in the Central Lecture Hall of Kharkov in 1960. The organizer of this performance was a friend of the poet, Kharkov literary critic L. Ya. Livshits.

He is the author of the poem "Song of the Hussar" ("When we were at war..."), which was set to music by the bard Viktor Stolyarov in the early 1980s. Samoilov-Stolyarov's "Hussar Song" became popular among the Kuban Cossacks at the beginning of the 21st century.

He published a humorous prose collection "In the circle of himself." Wrote poems.

A family

Since 1946, he was married to art critic Olga Lazarevna Fogelson (1924-1977), daughter of the famous Soviet cardiologist L. I. Fogelson. Their son is Alexander Davydov, writer and translator.

Later he was married to Galina Ivanovna Medvedeva, they had three children - Varvara, Peter and Pavel.

Awards

• Medal "For Courage" (1943)
• Medal "For Military Merit" (1944)
• USSR State Prize (1988)

Compositions

Collections of poems

• Near Countries, 1958
• Elephant went to study, M., 1961
• Traffic light. M., 1962
• Second pass, M., 1963
• Elephant went to study, M., 1967 (for children)
• Days, M., 1970
• Equinox, M., 1972
• Wave and stone, M., 1974
• Interrupting Our Dates…, 1975
• Vesti, M., 1978
• Zaliv, M., 1981
• Lines of the hand, M., 1981 (PBSh)
• Tooming Street. Tallinn, 1981
• Elephant went to study, M., 1982.
• Times, M., 1983
• Poems, M., 1985
• Voices over the hills. Tallinn, 1985
• Let me make a poem. M., 1987
• Handful, M., 1989
• Beatrice. Tallinn, 1989
• Elephant went to study, M., 1989
• Snowfall: Moscow poems, M., 1990
• Elephant went to study. Plays. M., 1990

Editions

• Favorites. - M.: Fiction, 1980.- 448 p.
• Favorites. Selected works in two volumes. - M.: Fiction, 1989. - 50,000 copies. ISBN 5-280-00564-9
  • Volume 1. Poems. / Introductory article by I. O. Shaitanov - 559 p. ISBN 5-280-00565-7
  • Volume 2. Poems. Poems for children. Portraits. - 335 p. ISBN 5-280-00566-5
• Poems. - M.: Time, 2005.
• Poems / Comp., prep. text by V. I. Tumarkin, introductory article by A. S. Nemzer. - St. Petersburg: Academic project, 2006. - 800 p. - ISBN 5-7331-0321-3
• Happiness craft: Selected poems. / Comp. V. Tumarkin, 2009, 2nd ed. - 2010, 3rd ed. - M.: Time, 2013. - 784 p. - ISBN 978-5-9691-1119-6

Prose

• People of one variant // Aurora. - 1990. - No. 1-2.
• Submitted records. - M.: Time, 2002. - 416 p. - ISBN 5-94117-028-9
• Book about Russian rhyme, M., 1973, 2nd ed. - 1982; 3rd ed. - M.: Time, 2005. - ISBN 5-94117-064-5

Translations

• Albanian Poems. M., 1950
• Songs of free Albania. M., 1953
• Grishashvili I. Tales./ Translation from Georgian by D. Samoilov. M., 1955
• Senghor L. Chaka./ Translated from French by D. Samoilov. M., 1971
• The legend of Manjun from the Benu Amir tribe. / Translated from Arabic by D. Samoilov. Interlinear B. Shidfar. M., 1976
• Marcinkevičius Yu. The cathedral. / Translated from Lithuanian by D. Samoilov. Vilnius, 1977
• The shadow of the sun. Poets of Lithuania in D. Samoilov's translations. Vilnius, 1981
• D. Samoilov. I. Cross. Bottomless moments. Tallinn, 1990

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Literature

• Baevsky V. S. David Samoilov: The Poet and His Generation. - M.: Sov. writer, 1987. - 256 p.
• Davydov A. 49 days with kindred spirits. - M.: Time, 2005. - 192 p. - ISBN 5-9691-0068-4

Notes

1. . Retrieved January 20, 2010. .
2. Alexander Davydov.
4. . pamyatnaroda.mil.ru. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
5. . pamyatnaroda.mil.ru. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
6. . pamyatnaroda.mil.ru. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
7. Cossack V. Lexicon of Russian literature of the XX century = Lexikon der russischen Literatur ab 1917 / [trans. with him.]. - M. : RIK "Culture", 1996. - XVIII, 491, p. - 5000 copies. - ISBN 5-8334-0019-8.. - Page 363.
8. Stanislav Minakov// Neva. - 2010. - No. 7.
10. Samoilov D. S., Chukovskaya L. K. Correspondence: 1971-1990 / Entry. Art. A. S. Nemzer, comment. and prepare. text by G. I. Medvedeva-Samoilova, E. Ts. Chukovskaya and Zh. O. Khavkina. - M.: New Literary Review, 2004.

Links

• www.litera.ru/stixiya/authors/samojlov.html
• Zinovy ​​Gerdt reads a poem by David Samoilov "Let's go to the city..." www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK7jkuo85GE

recitation

An excerpt characterizing Samoilov, David

- I would accompany you, yes, by God, - here (the doctor pointed to his throat) I am galloping to the corps commander. After all, how is it with us? .. You know, count, tomorrow there is a battle: for a hundred thousand troops, a small number of twenty thousand wounded must be counted; and we have no stretchers, no beds, no paramedics, no doctors for six thousand. There are ten thousand carts, but you need something else; do as you wish.
That strange thought that out of those thousands of people alive, healthy, young and old, who looked with cheerful surprise at his hat, there were probably twenty thousand doomed to wounds and death (perhaps the very ones he saw), Pierre was startled.
They may die tomorrow, why do they think of anything other than death? And suddenly, due to some secret connection of thoughts, he vividly imagined the descent from the Mozhaisk mountain, carts with the wounded, ringing, slanting rays of the sun and the song of the cavalrymen.
“The cavalrymen go to battle and meet the wounded, and do not think for a minute about what awaits them, but walk past and wink at the wounded. And of all these, twenty thousand are doomed to death, and they are surprised at my hat! Weird!" thought Pierre, heading further towards Tatarinova.
At the landowner's house, on the left side of the road, there were carriages, wagons, crowds of batmen and sentries. Here stood the brightest. But at the time Pierre arrived, he was not there, and almost no one from the staff was there. Everyone was in prayer. Pierre rode forward to Gorki.
Driving up the mountain and driving out into a small village street, Pierre saw for the first time militia men with crosses on their hats and in white shirts, who, with a loud voice and laughter, were animated and sweaty, were working something to the right of the road, on a huge mound overgrown with grass .
Some of them were digging the mountain with shovels, others were carrying the earth along the boards in wheelbarrows, others were standing, doing nothing.
Two officers stood on the mound, directing them. Seeing these peasants, obviously still amused by their new military situation, Pierre again remembered the wounded soldiers in Mozhaisk, and it became clear to him what the soldier wanted to express, saying that they wanted to pile on all the people. The sight of these bearded men working on the battlefield with their strange clumsy boots, with their sweaty necks and some of their shirts unbuttoned at the slanting collar, from under which the tanned bones of the collarbones could be seen, had an effect on Pierre more than anything he had seen and heard so far. about the solemnity and significance of the present moment.

Pierre got out of the carriage and, past the working militias, ascended the mound from which, as the doctor told him, the battlefield was visible.
It was eleven o'clock in the morning. The sun stood somewhat to the left and behind Pierre and brightly illuminated through the clean, rare air the huge panorama that opened before him like an amphitheater along the rising terrain.
Up and to the left along this amphitheater, cutting through it, the big Smolenskaya road wound, going through a village with a white church, lying five hundred paces in front of the mound and below it (this was Borodino). The road crossed under the village across the bridge and through the descents and ascents wound higher and higher to the village of Valuev, which could be seen six miles away (Napoleon was now standing in it). Behind Valuev, the road was hidden in a yellowed forest on the horizon. In this forest, birch and spruce, to the right of the direction of the road, a distant cross and the bell tower of the Kolotsky Monastery glittered in the sun. Throughout this blue distance, to the right and left of the forest and the road, in different places one could see smoking fires and indefinite masses of our and enemy troops. To the right, along the course of the Kolocha and Moskva rivers, the area was ravine and mountainous. Between their gorges, the villages of Bezzubovo and Zakharyino could be seen in the distance. To the left, the terrain was more even, there were fields with grain, and one could see one smoking, burned village - Semenovskaya.
Everything that Pierre saw to the right and to the left was so indefinite that neither the left nor the right side of the field fully satisfied his idea. Everywhere there was not a share of the battle that he expected to see, but fields, clearings, troops, forests, smoke from fires, villages, mounds, streams; and no matter how much Pierre disassembled, he could not find positions in this living area and could not even distinguish your troops from the enemy.
“We must ask someone who knows,” he thought, and turned to the officer, who was looking with curiosity at his unmilitary huge figure.
“Let me ask,” Pierre turned to the officer, “which village is ahead?”
- Burdino or what? – said the officer, addressing his comrade with a question.
- Borodino, - correcting, answered the other.
The officer, apparently pleased with the opportunity to talk, moved towards Pierre.
Are ours there? Pierre asked.
“Yes, and the French are farther away,” said the officer. “There they are, they are visible.
- Where? where? Pierre asked.
- You can see it with the naked eye. Yes, here, here! The officer pointed with his hand at the smoke visible to the left across the river, and on his face appeared that stern and serious expression that Pierre had seen on many faces he met.
Oh, it's French! And there? .. - Pierre pointed to the left at the mound, near which troops were visible.
- These are ours.
- Ah, ours! And there? .. - Pierre pointed to another distant mound with a large tree, near the village, visible in the gorge, near which fires were also smoking and something blackened.
"It's him again," the officer said. (It was the Shevardinsky redoubt.) - Yesterday was ours, and now it's his.
So what is our position?
- Position? said the officer with a smile of pleasure. - I can tell you this clearly, because I built almost all of our fortifications. Here, you see, our center is in Borodino, right here. He pointed to a village with a white church in front. - There is a crossing over the Kolocha. Here, you see, where rows of cut hay lie in the lowlands, here is the bridge. This is our center. Our right flank is where (he pointed steeply to the right, far into the gorge), there is the Moskva River, and there we built three very strong redoubts. The left flank ... - and then the officer stopped. - You see, it's hard to explain to you ... Yesterday our left flank was right there, in Shevardin, over there, you see where the oak is; and now we have taken back the left wing, now out, out - see the village and the smoke? - This is Semenovskoye, yes here, - he pointed to the mound of Raevsky. “But it’s unlikely that there will be a battle here. That he moved troops here is a hoax; he, right, will go around to the right of Moscow. Well, yes, wherever it is, we will not count many tomorrow! the officer said.
The old non-commissioned officer, who approached the officer during his story, silently waited for the end of his superior's speech; but at this point he, obviously dissatisfied with the words of the officer, interrupted him.
“You have to go for tours,” he said sternly.
The officer seemed to be embarrassed, as if he understood that one could think about how many people would be missing tomorrow, but one should not talk about it.
“Well, yes, send the third company again,” the officer said hastily.
“And what are you, not one of the doctors?”
“No, I am,” Pierre answered. And Pierre went downhill again past the militia.
- Ah, the damned! - said the officer following him, pinching his nose and running past the workers.
- There they are! .. They are carrying, they are coming ... There they are ... now they will come in ... - voices were suddenly heard, and officers, soldiers and militias ran forward along the road.
A church procession rose from under the mountain from Borodino. Ahead of all, along the dusty road, the infantry marched harmoniously with their shakos removed and their guns lowered down. Church singing was heard behind the infantry.
Overtaking Pierre, without hats, soldiers and militias ran towards the marchers.
- They carry mother! Intercessor! .. Iberian! ..
“Mother of Smolensk,” corrected another.
The militia - both those who were in the village and those who worked on the battery - having thrown their shovels, ran towards the church procession. Behind the battalion, which was marching along the dusty road, were priests in robes, one old man in a klobuk with a clergy and singers. Behind them, soldiers and officers carried a large icon with a black face in salary. It was an icon taken from Smolensk and since that time carried by the army. Behind the icon, around it, in front of it, from all sides they walked, ran and bowed to the ground with bare heads of a crowd of soldiers.
Having ascended the mountain, the icon stopped; the people holding the icon on towels changed, the deacons lit the censer again, and a prayer service began. The hot rays of the sun beat down sheer from above; a weak, fresh breeze played with the hair of open heads and the ribbons with which the icon was removed; the singing resounded softly in the open air. A huge crowd with open heads of officers, soldiers, militias surrounded the icon. Behind the priest and the deacon, in the cleared place, stood officials. One bald general with George around his neck stood right behind the priest and, without crossing himself (obviously a German), patiently waited for the end of the prayer service, which he considered it necessary to listen to, probably to excite the patriotism of the Russian people. Another general stood in a warlike pose and shook his hand in front of his chest, looking around him. Between this official circle, Pierre, standing in a crowd of peasants, recognized some acquaintances; but he did not look at them: all his attention was absorbed by the serious expression on the faces of this crowd of soldiers and militants, monotonously greedily looking at the icon. As soon as the tired deacons (who sang the twentieth prayer service) began to lazily and habitually sing: “Save your servant from troubles, the Mother of God,” and the priest and deacon picked up: “For we all come running to you, like an indestructible wall and intercession,” - at all faces flashed again the same expression of awareness of the solemnity of the coming minute, which he saw under the mountain in Mozhaisk and in fits and starts on many, many faces he met that morning; and more often heads drooped, hair was shaken, and sighs and blows of crosses on the breasts were heard.
The crowd surrounding the icon suddenly opened up and pressed Pierre. Someone, probably a very important person, judging by the haste with which they shunned him, approached the icon.
It was Kutuzov, making the rounds of the position. He, returning to Tatarinova, went up to the prayer service. Pierre immediately recognized Kutuzov by his special figure, which was different from everyone else.
In a long frock coat on a huge thick body, with a stooped back, with an open white head and with a leaky, white eye on a swollen face, Kutuzov entered the circle with his diving, swaying gait and stopped behind the priest. He crossed himself with his usual gesture, reached the ground with his hand and, sighing heavily, lowered his gray head. Behind Kutuzov was Benigsen and his retinue. Despite the presence of the commander-in-chief, who attracted the attention of all the higher ranks, the militia and soldiers, without looking at him, continued to pray.

From the book of fate. David Samuilovich Samoilov ( real name- Kaufman), poet, translator, theorist of verse. Born June 1, 1920 in Moscow into a Jewish family. Father - a famous doctor, chief venereologist of the Moscow region Samuil Abramovich Kaufman (1892-1957); mother - Cecilia Izrailevna Kaufman (1895-1986). His father had a great influence on him, he was much involved in his education. He began to write poetry early, but did not consider himself a poet for a long time.

In 1938 he graduated with honors from school and entered the IFLI (Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History) without exams, intending to specialize in French literature. In those years, the whole color of philological science taught there. At the same time, he met Selvinsky, who assigned him to a poetic seminar at Goslitizdat, went to the Literary Institute for Aseev and Lugovsky's seminars. In 1941 he graduated from IFLI, at the same time he published his first poems.

A few days after the start of the war, he volunteered first for defense work in the Smolensk region, then he was enrolled as a cadet of the Gomel military infantry school, where he was only two months old - they were alerted and sent to the Volkhov front. After being seriously wounded, he spent five months in hospitals, then returned to the front again, is in the motor reconnaissance unit. The last rank is senior sergeant. At the end of November 1945, he returned to Moscow with a train of demobilized people. He decides to live by literary work, that is, he interrupts by random orders, earns money on the radio, writes songs.

Only in 1958 the first book of poems "Near Countries" was published, five years later, in 1963 - "The Second Pass". David Samoilov participated in the creation of several performances at the Taganka Theater, in Sovremennik, wrote songs for performances and films.

In the 1970s, poetry collections "Days", "Equinocx", "Wave and Stone", "News" were published; in the 1980s - "The Bay", "Times", "Voices Beyond the Hills", "A Fistful". He wrote poems for children (the books "Traffic Light", "Elephant Went to Study"). In 1973, the "Book of Russian Rhyme" was published, reprinted in 1982.

Since 1946, he was married to art critic Olga Lazarevna Fogelson (1924-1977), daughter of the famous Soviet cardiologist L. I. Fogelson. Their son is Alexander Davydov, a writer and translator. Later he was married to Galina Ivanovna Medvedeva, they had three children - Varvara, Peter and Pavel.

Since 1976 he lived in the city of Pärnu, translated a lot from Polish, Czech, Hungarian and the languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR. David Samoilov died on February 23, 1990 in Tallinn, at the anniversary evening of Boris Pasternak, having barely completed his speech.

Zinovy ​​Gerdt, at his anniversary evening, read the poems of David Samoilov, which it was impossible to listen to indifferently:

Oh, how late I realized

Why do I exist

Why is the heart beating

Living blood through the veins

And what is sometimes in vain

Let the passions subside

And what can't be avoided

And what can't be avoided...

Poet about himself: “I was born in 1920. Moskvich. I was lucky in my comrades and teachers. Friends of my poetic youth were Pavel Kogan, Mikhail Kulchitsky, Nikolay Glazkov, Sergey Narovchatov, Boris Slutsky. Our teachers are Tikhonov, Selvinsky, Aseev, Lugovskoy, Antokolsky. I saw Pasternak. Met with Akhmatova and Zabolotsky. I talked more than once with Martynov and Tarkovsky. He was friends with Maria Petrova. The poetic school was strict. Fought. Seriously wounded."

About the poet

When I think that many artists thought about death, foresaw it, even prophesied for themselves, I immediately remember my favorite poet David Samoilov. David had been contemplating death for years, probably since he was fifty. As we joked (of course, affectionately): David has been saying goodbye to life for a year now. But with him it was not coquetry and not speculation, but these were deep reflections. With all this, a colossal love of life in everything that he thought, wrote, did, said - in the way he lived ...

Look - two trees grow

From the root of one.

Is it fate, is it an accident, but here

And without kinship - kinship.

When a blizzard blows in winter

When the frost is severe -

The birch is guarded by a spruce

From the deadly winds.

And in the heat, when the grass burns

And the needles are just right to smolder, -

The birch will give a shadow,

It will help you survive.

Neblood grow not apart,

Their closeness is forever.

And with people - everything is at random, but at random,

And bitter with shame.

Dezik

I became famous as a child.

He put grandeur on his forehead,

and far away, in the shadow of Samoilov Dezik

sawed something there, like a jigsaw.

He treasured this warm shadow,

and she appreciated them too,

and in him, as in a wise plant,

the slowness of eternity invested.

We met him drunk

With different friends to shoulder,

Just never shady:

You can only accumulate light in the shadows.

Our nobility pop music of Russia

important, condescendingly nodded

forties-fatal,

and something about Tsar Ivan.

We did not allow insolence in ourselves

and think that he writes better.

We thought: Dezik is Dezik.

We ourselves are the key, Dezik is the key.

But now we understand at least something

becoming, I hope, deeper, cleaner -

because sometimes huge gates

opens the key, not the key.

And I'm reading The Wave and the Stone,

where wisdom is above the generation.

I feel guilt and fire

forgotten flame of worship.

And I feel so strange

as if fame had died, like a she-wolf.

It's too early for me to write poetry,

but it's time to write poetry to learn.

Poem, published in Aurora magazine, No. 2, 1975.

"Everything is allowed"

One of the bitterest poems of Russian poetry was written in 1968:

That's all. The eyes of a genius closed.

And when the skies faded

Like in an empty room

We pull, we pull the stale word,

We speak both languidly and darkly.

How we are honored and how we are favored!

I don't have them. And everything is allowed.

Strange ... The last of the "closed eyes", Anna Akhmatova, just a few years earlier, wrote, recalling her triumphant beginning: fate and hid under sofa cushions numbers of magazines where they were first published - so as not to be upset.