Lydia Chukovskaya
Lydia Chukovskaya was a prominent Russian writer and dissident, born in the early twentieth century into a culturally rich family. Her father, Kornei Ivanovich Chukovskii, was a noted literary figure, which immersed Lydia in an artistic environment from a young age. She spent her childhood in Kuokkala, present-day Finland, and later moved to Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), where she experienced both the hardships of poverty and the dynamism of a changing society. Chukovskaya's literary career began with editing children's books and led to her notable novel, "Sofia Petrovna," which courageously addressed the Stalinist Terror in real time.
Chukovskaya's life was profoundly impacted by the political climate of her era; her husband was arrested and killed during the Stalinist purges, prompting her to flee Leningrad. After this upheaval, she settled in Moscow, where she became a significant dissident voice, ultimately facing expulsion from the Soviet Writers' Union in 1974. Despite these challenges, she continued to write and self-publish her works. In recognition of her contributions and resilience, she was awarded the first Sakharov Award in 1990. Later in life, she collaborated with her daughter to publish her father's journals, preserving a legacy of literary and cultural significance amidst the trials of her time.
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Subject Terms
Lydia Chukovskaya
Writer
- Born: 1907
- Birthplace: St. Petersburg, Russia
- Died: 1996
Biography
Lydia Chukovskaya, the second of four children, was born near the start of the twentieth century into a family and childhood encompassed by art and culture. Her father, Kornei Ivanovich Chukovskii, was a respected literary critic, scholar, theorist, and translator as well as a famous children’s poet. Lydia Chukovskaya spent her most of her childhood in the Russian Empire’s Kuokkala, which is now part of Finland, in the same neighborhood as famous painter Il’ya Repin and in a house in which accomplished artists and writers were frequent guests. After the revolution, Chukovskaya’s family returned to Petrograd (later Leningrad and now St. Petersburg), and the child witnessed both trying poverty and the thrilling energy of an emerging society. Her book To the Memory of Childhood is a detailed reflection on her formative yearsl.
Upon completing school, Chukovskaya married literary critic Tsezar’ Vol’pe and began editing children’s books with poet Samuil Marshak. She gave birth to one daughter in 1932 and married a second time, this time to Matvei Bronshtein, a physicist. Amidst the Stalinist Terror, the publishing house at which Chukovskaya worked saw many of its employees arrested, and Chukovskaya’s husband was arrested and killed in 1937. In response, Chukovskaya fled Leningrad in fear of her own fate. Never able to return to the city of her youth, she spent the remainder of her life in and around Moscow.
Her novel Sofia Petrovna is hailed as one of the only works, if not the only work, of fiction to be written about the Stalinist Terror as it was happening, and for Chukovskaya to even compose the novel in written word during the Terror was risky and courageous. Her friend Anna Akhmatova composed poetry during the same time, but never risked saving the written words; Akhmatova instead relied on Chukovskaya’s remarkable memory, reading the poems to the writer and burning the papers after Chukovskaya had memorized the poems.
Following Stalin’s death, Lydia Chukovskaya rose to be an important Soviet dissident, and she took a number of personal and professional risks. Such risks led to her ejection from the Soviet Writers’s Union in 1974; after this time, all her works had to be self-published or published abroad. Her accomplishments garnered her the first Sakharov Award in 1990, and in the latter years of life, she collaborated with her daughter, Elena Tsezarevna Chukovskaya, in publishing the journals of Chukovskaya’s father.