Early life Evgeny Schwartz was born in
Kazan, Russia, into a physician's family. His father was
baptized and was of Jewish origin and 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 at the end of 1916 to serve on the front. After the
Bolshevik Revolution he joined the
Whites and served under
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 end of Russian Civil War, Schwartz 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,
Zoshchenko 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.
Career In 1924, Schwartz 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 Evgeny Schwartz began collaborating with
Nikolay Akimov at the Leningrad Comedy Theater, writing contemporary plays based on the folk and fairy tales of
Hans Christian Andersen. 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, Schwartz wrote Under the Linden Trees of Berlin
(1941) with Zoschenko. During the war, he wrote One Night
and The Far Country''. After the war, Schwartz wrote
An Ordinary Miracle and
The Tale of the Brave Soldiers. Schwartz's adaptations of
The Snow Queen and
The Shadow were adapted as movies in 1966 and 1971. He also completed film scripts for
Cinderella,
First Grader,
Don Quixote and
Ordinary Miracle. During
Joseph Stalin's campaign against the so-called "
rootless cosmopolitans" (Jews), from 1952 to 1954 his plays were not accepted for production by theatres. After
20th Congress of the CPSU baseless criticism has ceased. He died in Leningrad. ==Plays==