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Biography of Ilya Grigorievich EhrenburgName: Ilya Grigorievich EhrenburgBirth Date: January 27, 1891 Death Date: September 1, 1967 Place of Birth: Kiev, Ukraine Nationality: Soviet, Ukrainian Gender: Male Occupations: author, journalist, activist Ilya Grigorievich Ehrenburg The Soviet author Ilya Grigorievich Ehrenburg (1891-1967) is best known for his role as a man of letters throughout the first 50 years of Soviet history. He wrote more than 100 books and pamphlets, which range from lyric verse, to fiction, to journalism.Ilya Ehrenburg was born on Jan. 27, 1891, in Kiev. He came from a middle-class Jewish family, and his father worked in a brewery. The rampant anti-Semitism of Kievan life at the turn of the century made a deep impression on young Ehrenburg. Throughout his life he engaged in the fight against racism. In 1896 Ehrenburg's family moved to Moscow, where Ilya entered the First Moscow Gymnasium. Although he was a poor student, he drew inspiration from Moscow life. Leo Tolstoy kept a townhouse next to the Ehrenburg home, and Maxim Gorky lived for a short while in the Ehrenburg house.Ehrenburg's formal education ended in 1907, when he was expelled from the gymnasium …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…placed on the Soviet writer by socialist realism were ambivalent until after the death of Stalin. In 1954, however, Ehrenburg published The Thaw, depicting the harm done to Soviet writing by the heavy hand of the Soviet bureaucracy. The title of this novel became the name of the liberal decade of the 1950s in Soviet literature. Ehrenburg further contributed to the thaw in Soviet literary policy with his memoirs, People, Years, Life, published in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Ehrenburg's memoirs are a valuable source of information for students of Soviet literature.Ehrenburg was an urbane man, an extremely prolific writer, and a protector of the arts. He died in Moscow on Sept. 1, 1967. Further Reading The best source on Ehrenburg's life is his autobiography. For critical appraisals of his writings see Max Eastman, Artists in Uniform: A Study of Literature and Bureaucratism (1934), and Vera Alexandrova, A History of Soviet Literature (1963). |