The directory «Plots»

Shvarz (Шварц) Evgeniy Lvovich
(1896—1958)

Evgeny Lvovich Shvarts was a Soviet writer and playwright whose works include twenty-five plays and screenplays for three films (in collaboration with Nikolai Erdman).

Evgeny Shvarts was born in Kazan, Russia, into a physician's family. His father was Jewish, his mother Russian. In 1910 he studied law at Moscow University, where he also became involved in theater and poetry. He was drafted into the army in the spring of 1917, and served in the White regiment of general Kornilov. He suffered injuries and shell-shock during the storming of Yekaterinodar in 1918, lost several teeth and acquired a tremor of the hands that plagued him for the rest of his life.

After the war, Shvarts studied theater in Rostov-on-Don. In 1921 he moved with the theater troupe to Petrograd, becoming involved with the "Serapion Brothers," a literary group including Ivanov, Zoschenko and Kaverin. In 1923 he moved to Bakhmut and began to publish satirical verse and reviews in the local newspaper. With Mikhail Slonimsky and Nikolay Oleynikov, he organized the literary magazine Slaughter in 1925.

In 1924, Shvarts returned to Leningrad to become an employee of Gosizdat, Children's Department of State Publishing House, under the administration of Samuil Marshak. He became an author of the children's magazines Hedgehog and Siskin. He also wrote children's books, including The Story of Old Balalaika (1924), The Adventures of Shura and Marousi (1937), Alien Girl (1937) and First Grader (1949). During this time, he also became associated with members of the avant-garde literary group OBERIU.

In 1929 Shvarts began a relationship with Nikolay Akimov at the Leningrad Comedy Theater and began writing contemporary reality plays based on the folk and fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson. These included «Golyi korol'» ("The Emperor's New Clothes") (1934), «Krasnaya Shapochka» ("Little Red Riding Hood") (1936), «Zolushka» ("Cinderella") (1938), «Snezhnaya Koroleva» ("The Snow Queen", after Hans Christian Andersen) (1938), «Tyen'» ("The Shadow", after Hans Christian Andersen) (1940), «Drakon» ("The Dragon", an original) (1944), and «Obyknovennoye Chudo» ("An Ordinary Miracle") (1956). At the beginning of World War II, Shvarts wrote Under the Linden Trees of Berlin (1941) with Zoshchenko. During the war, he wrote One Night and The Far Country. Postwar, Shvarts, wrote Ordinary Miracle and The Tale of the Brave Soldiers. Shvarts's adaptations of The Snow Queen and The Shadow were produced as movies in 1966 and 1971. He also completed film scripts for Cinderella, First Grader, Don Quixote and Ordinary Miracle. Shvarts died in Leningrad.

Russia, 2001, Faina Ranevskaya and film «Cinderella»

Russia, 2001, Stamps with popular cinema actors

Russia, 2009, Yanina Zheimo as Cinderella

Russia, 2002, Birth Centenary of Erast Garin