Evgeniia Ginzburg
Evgeniia Ginzburg (1904-1977) was a notable Soviet writer and political figure known for her poignant memoirs reflecting her experiences during Stalin's purges and her time in the gulag. Born in Moscow to a Jewish family, Ginzburg's early life was spent in Kazan, where she was actively involved in journalism and the Communist Party. Her life took a dramatic turn in 1937 when she and her first husband were arrested on charges of being Trotskyites, leading to her imprisonment and subsequent exile.
Ginzburg's literary contributions primarily include her acclaimed memoirs, "Journey into the Whirlwind" and "Precipitous Journey," both of which provide a harrowing insight into her survival in the Soviet labor camps and her complex feelings of guilt over her past political affiliations. These works are considered significant prison narratives that blend her personal suffering with broader reflections on the political climate of the time. After a long period of rehabilitation, she returned to Moscow in the 1960s, continuing to write until her death. Ginzburg's legacy endures through her impactful writings that shed light on the experiences of those who faced repression in the Soviet Union.
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Subject Terms
Evgeniia Ginzburg
Writer
- Born: December 20, 1904
- Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
- Died: May 25, 1977
Biography
Evgeniia Ginzburg was born in 1904 in Moscow, Russia. Her parents were Jewish and her father was a pharmacist. Ginzburg’s childhood and youth were spent in Kazan, and she attended the University of Kazan after the Russian Revolution. She joined the Communist Party and was an active party member, especially involved in journalism. Her first husband was Pavel Aksenov, a high-ranking official in the regional party and chair of the city council. She and Aksenov had two sons, Alesha and Vasilii; Alesha was killed in the siege of Leningrad in World War II and Vasilii became a writer in exile from the Soviet Union.
In 1937, Ginzburg and her husband were arrested. She was charged with being a Trotskyite and sentenced to ten years solitary confinement. After two years in a women prison in Iaroslavl, her sentence was commuted to service in Siberian labor camps. Here she met Anton Walter, a doctor of German extraction, who was to become her second husband. Ginzburg finally was released in 1947 but was arrested again in 1949 and sentenced to permanent exile. After Walter’s release, she married him and the couple were allowed to live in Lvov, where he died in 1959. Ginzburg later was rehabilitated during the administration of Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev and allowed to live in Moscow in the 1960’s. She died in 1977.
Ginzburg’s first published writings were memoirs of growing up in Kazan, published in a popular youth magazine. Her novella “Iunosha” also appeared there. Her first work to be published in book form was another novella, Tak nachinalos’. . . zapiski uchitel’nitsy (1961), about her life as a teacher in Kazan in a newly formed coeducational school, told from the perspective of Genia, a high school student. Set in the 1920’s, it gives a generally positive account of her experiences. This was followed by another novella published in the youth magazine, “Studenty dvadtsatykh godov,” recounting Genia’s experiences as a college student. The novella describes how Genia becomes aware of her middle-class background and its disadvantages at a time when the Communist Party is increasingly doctrinaire, although the narrative concludes before the ruthless purges of the 1930’s.
Ginzburg’s claim to literary fame are her two volumes of memoirs set in the Soviet gulag, Krutoi marshrut (1967). The memoirs are among the classic prison narratives of the period and contain some of the same features, such as the double perspective of writer-as-present-victim and writer-looking-back. The first volume, covering 1934 through 1939 and translated as Journey into the Whirlwind (1967), was somewhat self-censored in the hope the Soviets would allow its publication. However, this was not the case and Ginzburg had to circulate the volume privately. Her second volume, translated as Precipitous Journey (1967), is much more frank, although also dealing more with her inner journey. Besides being an account of survival, it records her tremendous guilt at having been a Communist Party member, and she minutely and acutely remembers her efforts to expiate this life.