Joseph Utkin. biography

Utkin Iosif Pavlovich
Born: May 15 (28), 1903.
Died: November 13, 1944

Biography

Iosif Pavlovich Utkin (1903 - 1944) - Russian Soviet poet and journalist. Member of the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars.

He was born on May 14 (May 27), 1903 at the Khingan station (now on the territory of the Yakeshi urban county) in the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia, China, on the CER, which was built by his parents. After the birth of their son, the family returned to their hometown of Irkutsk, where the future poet lived until 1920. He studied at a three-year primary school, then at a four-year higher primary school, from the last class of which he was expelled for bad behavior and freethinking. The reason for this was frequent absences from classes, since Joseph worked simultaneously with his studies - he had to become the breadwinner of a family abandoned by his father.

In 1919, during the anti-Kolchak uprising in Irkutsk, together with his older brother Alexander, he joined the Workers' Squad, in which he was until the establishment of Soviet power. At the beginning of 1920, he joined the Komsomol, and in May 1920, as part of the first volunteer group of the Irkutsk Komsomol, he went to the Far Eastern Front.

In 1922, he became a reporter for the newspaper Vlast Truda, in which his first poems on the topic of the day appeared. Then he works in the youth newspaper of Irkutsk "Komsomoliya", in the provincial committee of the Komsomol - the secretary of the Komsomol newspaper, political instructor for pre-conscripts. Together with Jack Altauzen, Valery Druzin, Ivan Molchanov, he took an active part in the ILHO (Irkutsk Literary and Art Association) and the monthly magazine Krasnye Zori, which began to be published in Irkutsk in 1923. In 1924, on a ticket from the Komsomol, as the most worthy of young journalists, he was sent to study in Moscow at the Institute of Journalism.

Since 1922, he published his poems in the Siberian press, and upon arrival in Moscow, he began to publish in Moscow publications. In 1925, the first book "The Tale of the Red Motel ..." was published - a poem about the changes brought by the revolution to the life of a Jewish town. This was the first real success of the young poet. The first public reading of the Tale, held at VKHUTEMAS at a literary evening, served as Utkin a kind of ticket to the poetic life. Published in the 4th issue of the "Young Guard" for 1925, "The Tale" immediately became a notable event in literary life. Everyone was attracted and fascinated by her completely original style.

Since 1925, he worked at Komsomolskaya Pravda as the head of the department. At the very beginning of 1927, Utkin's "First Book of Poems" was published, compiled from the works of 1923-1926. Lunacharsky made a big positive review of it. After graduating from the institute in 1927, he was sent along with poets Zharov and Bezymensky abroad, where he stayed for two months. He worked as the head of the poetry department at the Fiction Publishing House. In 1928 he writes and publishes the poem "Sweet Childhood". He lived in Moscow in the famous "House of Writers' Cooperative" (Kamergersky lane, 2).

With the beginning of the Patriotic War, he goes to the front, fights near Bryansk. In September 1941, in a battle near Yelnya, Utkin was wounded by a fragment of a mine - four fingers of his right hand were torn off. He was sent for treatment to Tashkent, where, despite the injury, he does not stop literary work. In less than six months of Utkin's stay in Tashkent, he created two books of front-line lyrics - "Front Poems" and "Poems about Heroes", as well as an album of defense songs written jointly with Moscow composers. And all this time, Utkin rushed "to the line of fire", disturbing the highest military authorities with persistent requests to send him to the front. In the summer of 1942, Utkin again ended up on the Bryansk Front - as a special correspondent for the Soviet Information Bureau, from the newspapers Pravda and Izvestia. Participated in battles, making large transitions with soldiers. Wrote marches. Many poems were set to music, sung at the front: “Mother saw off her son”, “Grandfather”, “Women”, “I saw a girl killed”, “Formidable clouds over the homeland”, “I saw myself” and others. In the summer of 1944, the last collection of Utkin's works, "About the Motherland, Friendship, and Love", was published - a small, pocket-sized book that absorbed the best of what the poet wrote.

Returning from the partisan region, on November 13, 1944, IP Utkin died in a plane crash. The plane crashed not far from Moscow, in the hands of I. Utkin at the time of death was a volume of poems by M. Yu. Lermontov ... He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery (plot No. 4).

(May 14, 1903, Khingan station of the CER, China - November 13, 1944, Moscow, RSFSR, USSR) - poet and journalist. He left a noticeable mark in the cultural history of the Irkutsk region. He stood at the origins of the Irkutsk journalism of the Soviet period.

Curriculum vitae

Born at Khingan Station (now in the territory of the Yakeshi city district in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China) in the family of an employee of the Chinese Eastern Railway. When he was a child, the family moved to live in Irkutsk. He graduated from a three-year city school, after which he entered a four-year school. He was expelled from school for bad behavior. Due to the fact that his father abandoned his family, Joseph Utkin was forced to get a job as a teenager. He was a marker in the billiard room, sold evening newspapers, delivered telegrams, and worked at a tannery. After the revolution of 1917, together with his elder brother, he joined the people's squad, participated in the uprising against Armenia, organized by the Bolsheviks. In May 1920, being one of the first Irkutsk Komsomol members, he volunteered for the Far Eastern Front. In 1922 he became a reporter for the Irkutsk newspaper Vlast Truda, later renamed East Siberian Truth". His first poems were published on the pages of this newspaper. On his initiative and with his active participation in the first Soviet youth newspaper "Komsomolia", which became known as " Soviet youth". In 1924 he was sent to study at the Institute of Journalism in Moscow. In 1924-1925, poems by I.P. were published in the Moscow magazines Ogonyok, Searchlight and Change. From 1925 he worked at Komsomolskaya Pravda as the head of the literary department. After graduating from the institute in 1927, he was sent along with the poets Zharov and Bezymensky abroad, where he stayed for two months. He worked as the head of the poetry department at the Fiction Publishing House. In 1928 he writes and publishes the poem Sweet Childhood. He lived in Moscow in the "House of Writers' Cooperative" (Kamergersky lane, 2). In 1927, the "First Book of Poems" by I.P. Utkin. He participated in the Great Patriotic War from its first days as an employee of the front-line newspaper "To Defeat the Enemy". During the war, many songs were created based on Utkin’s poems: “Mother saw off her son”, “Grandfather”, “Women”, “I saw a girl killed”, “Terrible clouds over the homeland”, “I saw it myself” and others. In the summer of 1944, the last collection of works by I.P. Utkin "About the motherland, about friendship, about love". November 13, 1944 Joseph Utkin died in a plane crash near Moscow.

In 1967, by decision of the Irkutsk City Council, Kuznetsovskaya Street was renamed into street named after Joseph Utkin. The name of Joseph Utkin was given to the Irkutsk Regional Youth Library.

Creation

The first impressions that provided material for the poems of Joseph Utkin are associated with a difficult, beggarly childhood in a large family, which was left without a breadwinner during the First World War. While studying in high school, Iosif Utkin was simultaneously hired for various jobs: from a newspaper peddler to a “boy” in a restaurant and a handyman at a tannery. The Jewish large family lived on bread and water and saw in Joseph their main support. The revolution, according to him, completely turned life upside down, gave meaning to existence itself. At the age of 15, Joseph Utkin participates in the anti-Kolchak uprisingorganized by the Bolsheviks, and moves on to conscious and active political activity. In Irkutsk, he became one of the first Komsomol members, joining the ranks of the Red Army, worked as a political informant, and was a military commissar of marching companies. Subsequently, all these impressions formed the basis of his best works about the Civil War: "Siberian Songs", the famous "Komsomol Song" ("The boy was slapped in Irkutsk ..."), the poem "Twentieth". An important milestone on his path was cooperation in Irkutsk gas. "Power of Labor". U. works in it as a reporter, writes essays, correspondence, begins to print poetry. Soon his works appear in Siberian Lights, Siberia, Red Dawns. He enters (at the "Red Dawns") in the first professional lit. ILHO circle (Irkutsk literary and artistic association). There, together with D. Altauzen and M. Skuratov, he published almanacs, arranged evenings of poetry and discussions. It is interesting to note that, despite the almost universal desire of young Soviet poetry for new forms, sometimes complicated, the members of this circle, and above all Joseph Utkin himself, stood for mastering the classical forms, the old lit. heritage. In 1924, the Irkutsk Provincial Committee of the Party and the Provincial Committee of the Komsomol sent Iosif Utkin to study in Moscow. It was there that his real literary biography began. He writes primarily about the Civil War, and he writes lyrically, sincerely and simply. With all the revolutionary pathos that permeated Utkin's poems, they stood out noticeably against the general loud literary background with a note of kindness, openness, sincerity, and even sadness. A. V. Lunacharsky highly appreciated this amazing and unexpected for the Komsomol poetry of the 1920s, the fusion of the trembling of the heart and a severe sense of duty. He wrote about Joseph that he had " consciousness of revolutionary duty ... and tenderness of the heart are combined into one chord, the result is especially charming music"(Projector. 1925. No. 22. P. 14). When The Tale of the Red Motel (1925) appeared, which brought the poet truly all-Russian fame, Joseph Utkin was warmly welcomed by V. Mayakovsky. “The Tale of the Red Motel” is about a poor Jewish family, or rather, about many families at once, because Motel is not alone in the poem, but appears in different faces.

Together with M. Svetlov, M. Golodny, A. Zharov, D. Altauzen, I. Utkin entered the most famous galaxy of Komsomol poets of that time. Criticism has long been exceptionally favorable to Utkin. In 1927 his "First Book of Poems" appeared. A. Lunacharsky again spoke of her approvingly. He defended Iosif Utkin from the one-sided and unfair attacks of criticism. Utkin was also supported by Maxim Gorky when the poet, together with Zharov and Bezymensky, visited him in Sorrento. Highly appreciating The Tale of the Red Motel, Gorky supported the young poet's plan to write a large trilogy about revolutionary times. He began the trilogy with the poem "Sweet Childhood" (1933), the second part was to deal with youth and the Civil War, and the third was dedicated to modern times. The most integral and artistically expressive was the extensive beginning of the entire poem, namely “Sweet Childhood”. In the press, however, the poem "Sweet Childhood" did not receive approval. In 1931, the collection "Publicistic Lyrics" was published. Until the end of the 1930s, Iosif Utkin was stubbornly accused of philistinism, indulging narrow-minded tastes, and in the so-called abstract humanism. However, it was in the 1930s that he created, along with his poem, which caused so many unfair criticisms, such song masterpieces as "Fight" (1933), "Komsomol Song" (1934), "Song of the Shepherd" (1936), "Song of younger brother" (1938). His lyricism is gaining strength, the poems are becoming larger and more emotional. In the conditions of those years, when the existence of the lyrics itself under the influence of dogmatic critics was under threat, Iosif Utkin led a relentless poetic defense of the poet's lyrical rights. In the second half of the 1930s, several collections were published: Selected Poems (1935), Poems (1937), Lyrics (1939) and others.

During the Great Patriotic War, Joseph Utkin volunteered for the front. Despite being seriously wounded in 1941, he returned to his military unit. Works in army newspapers, prints many verses. In 1942, three collections were published - "Poems about Heroes", "I Saw It Myself", "Frontline Poems". During these years, Iosif Utkin created the popular songs “Guards March”, “Homeland”, “Healthy Song” and other works. In the summer of 1944, the last lifetime booklet of his works “About the Motherland. About friendship. About love". The experience of Iosif Utkin in the field of prose - "Major Trukhlev's Story" - remained unfinished. Iosif Utkin died in a plane crash near Moscow.

In the poetry of the Soviet period, I.P. Utkin left a rather noticeable poetic mark, his poetry is one of the peaks of romantic Soviet art.

First poem

"Mother's Song" (1924)

He entered and said: “As you can see, I am whole, Enemies failed to take aim. And they didn’t take the heart, And the heart is with me! And again I came, dear, home. Lead nights Do not wait ahead! And the order Blazed on his chest. And the eyes are like smoke! And the heart is like smoke! It is so joyful to save life for the young! And the gray-haired mother said painfully: “My dear, I'm tired of crying and waiting. I know how much suffering there is in combat. But I was more afraid For your conscience. Say: You were a man at the front?..” And he said dully: “Seventeen he killed…” And the years are like smoke, And joy is like smoke, It is so sad to lose life to the young!.. And no one else could speak. And silently the soldier Stepped over the threshold, And from behind, like a deep murk of water, With the eyes of an old woman, Anguish looked. He walked towards the horizon, Longing - ahead, And the order ... Trembling on his chest. Ah, poor mother! Ah, good mother! Whom shall we love? Whom to curse?

Poems-songs

Almost all of Joseph Utkin's poems are distinguished by melodiousness - they are ready-made songs and easily fit to music. The famous performer of the author's song Sergey Nikitin for his very first song, written in 1962, chose the verses of Joseph Utkin:

Night, and snow, and the way is far; On the sloping snow Only the ember of the Lonely hut smolders. Clouds melt the moon, Stars shine sparingly, Winter pines stand, Like fighters in sheepskin coats. The tired commander sleeps, Savraska is in no hurry, A fairy tale of Russian life creaks under the runners. ... You look around - Only snow and ski tracks. But such a fairy tale is dearer to us than life!

Literature

Lunacharsky A.V. Iosif Utkin // Lunacharsky A. V. SS: in 8 vol. M., 1964. T. 2.
Saakyants A. A. Iosif Utkin: Essay on life and work. M., 1969.
Keeping Up With Troubled Times: Memories of Iosif Utkin. M., 1971.
Korzhev V. G. Iosif Utkin: Essay on creativity. Novosibirsk, 1971.
Dolmatovsky B.[Intro. article] // Utkim I. Favorites. M., 1975.
Poems and poems / entry. article 3. Paperny. M., 1961.
Poems and poems / entry. article and notes A. A. Saakyants. M.; L., 1966. (B-ka poet. B. series); Favorites. M., 1975.
Pavlovsky A.I. Utkin, Iosif Pavlovich - a bright representative of romantic Soviet art Russian literature of the XX century. Prose writers, poets, playwrights. Bibliographic dictionary. T. 3. 2005

Russian and Jewish poet and journalist. Member of the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars.

He was born on May 14, 1903 at the Khingan station, now Khingansk, of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which was built by his parents. After the birth of their son, the family returned to their hometown of Irkutsk, where the future poet lived until 1920. He studied at a three-year primary school, then at a four-year higher primary school, from the last class of which he was expelled for bad behavior and freethinking. The reason for this was frequent absences from classes, since Joseph worked simultaneously with his studies - he had to become the breadwinner of a family abandoned by his father.

In 1922, he became a reporter for the newspaper "Power of Labor", in which his first poems on the topic of the day appeared. Then he works in the youth newspaper of Irkutsk "Komsomoliya", in the provincial committee of the Komsomol - the secretary of the Komsomol newspaper, political instructor for pre-conscripts. He took an active part in the ILHO (Irkutsk Literary and Art Association) and the monthly magazine Krasnye Zori, which began to be published in Irkutsk in 1923. In 1924, on a ticket from the Komsomol, as the most worthy of young journalists, he was sent to study in Moscow at the Institute of Journalism.

Since 1922, he published his poems in the Siberian press, and upon arrival in Moscow, he began to publish in Moscow publications. In 1925, the first book "The Tale of the Red Motel ..." was published - a poem about the changes brought by the revolution to the life of a Jewish town. This was the first real success of the young poet. The first public reading of the Tale, which took place at VKhUTEMAS at a literary evening, served as a kind of ticket for Utkin to poetic life. Published in the 4th issue of the "Young Guard" for 1925, "The Tale" immediately became a notable event in literary life. Everyone was attracted and fascinated by her completely original style.

Since 1925, he worked at Komsomolskaya Pravda as the head of the department. At the very beginning of 1927, Utkin's "First Book of Poems" was published, compiled from the works of 1923-26. Lunacharsky made a big positive review of it. After graduating from the institute in 1927, he was sent abroad together with the poets Zharov and Bezymensky, where he stayed for two months. He worked as the head of the poetry department at the Fiction Publishing House. In 1928 he writes and publishes the poem "Sweet Childhood". He lived in Moscow in the famous "House of Writers' Cooperative" (Kamergersky lane, 2).

Returning from the partisan region on November 13, 1944, I. Utkin died in a plane crash. The plane crashed not far from Moscow, in the hands of I. Utkin at the time of death was a volume of Lermontov's poems ...

Front-line poet Iosif Utkin

As soon as the Soviet people learned about the perfidious attack of the Nazis, many rushed to the military registration and enlistment offices to ask for the front. Among the volunteers was our compatriot poet Joseph Utkin. He fought alongside the soldiers, wrote poetry and broadcast news from the front.

Joseph was born at the Khingan station in the family of an employee of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Soon a large family with seven children moved to live in Irkutsk. He graduated from a city school and entered a college, from where, however, in the fourth year of study he was expelled "for bad behavior and free-thinking in combination." "Bad behavior" was not only boyish pranks. When the father left the family, it was very bad. The boy missed classes, because he had to become the breadwinner of the family.

With the advent of October, 15-year-old Joseph began, in his words, "an active political life." Together with his older brother, he goes to the work squad. And when a wave of the Civil War swept through Irkutsk, 17-year-old Joseph went to the Far East to fight the White Guards.

The end of 1922 is a turning point in his biography. Joseph becomes a reporter for the Irkutsk newspaper Vlast Truda, and his name begins to appear on the pages of Siberian newspapers and magazines. In 1924, the provincial committees of the party and the Komsomol decide to send Utkin to study in Moscow. New acquaintances, big names, heated debates... Rapidly breaking into the Moscow poetic life, Iosif Utkin quickly became famous. The first and then the second book of his poems is published. The poem "The Tale of the Red Motel" brought real success. Her original style captivated the reader. Published in the 4th issue of The Young Guard in 1925, it immediately became a notable event in literary life.

Since 1925, Utkin has been working in Komsomolskaya Pravda as the head of the department. In January 1928, as part of a group of young poets, he went on a two-month trip abroad. He spent ten days in Sorrento with Gorky. They talked, read poetry, argued. Gorky in those days wrote to Sergeyev-Tsensky: “Now three poets live with me: Utkin, Zharov, Bezymensky. Talented. Especially the first one. This one will go far...

Recalling his meetings with Iosif Utkin, graphic artist Boris Efimov described his appearance as follows: “Joseph Utkin ... He would have more suited a different, not so harmless surname. For example, Orlov or Yastrebov. At worst, Drozdov or Sokolov. He was stately, slender, with a proud posture, with a wavy shock of unruly hair - as they say, a handsome man. To match the appearance and his poems - beautiful, sonorous ... "

Almost from the very beginning of the war, Joseph Utkin became a front-line journalist and poet. In August, as an employee of the newspaper "To defeat the enemy", he ended up in the Bryansk forests. Many of his passionate poems of that time were written directly on the front lines, in dugouts and trenches. He had never written so much before.

In September 1941, during the battles near Yelnya, four fingers on his right hand were torn off by a fragment of a mine to Iosif Utkin. You could forget about playing the guitar and writing yourself, but the poet did not seem to notice his injury: in the field hospital he dictated his poems.

In the sanbat

On a stretcher from an overcoat

I'm lonely and scared.

Fir trees whisper in amazement:

“Is it really Utkin ?!”

Gymnasts not for height

They lowered their eyes over me...

The sisters look surprised.

"Utkin, dear... Is that you?!"

And again the overcoat is like a boat.

I'm floating somewhere... It's

Sisters sad in caps

They carry a poet in their arms!

And from tears warmer eye.

And longing passes me by:

How many beautiful hands at once

For one to find, sick.

Field hospital

Utkin did not stop his literary work in Tashkent, where he was sent for treatment. In less than six months, he publishes two books of military lyrics "Frontline Poems" and "Poems about Heroes", as well as an album of military songs written together with Moscow composers. And the book “I saw it myself” was also published, verses from which I read in the editorial office of Komsomolskaya Pravda. And he constantly asked to go to the front: “I categorically reject the conversation about the impossibility, for reasons of physical order, of my stay at the front. I want. I can"…

In the summer of 1942, Utkin again found himself at the front - in Bryansk as a special correspondent for the Sovinformburo, from the newspapers Pravda and Izvestia. His poetry rose to the level of art needed by the people in the most direct and immediate sense of the word. Poems about people in the war, about fearlessness, about loyalty and about their native land helped the fighters survive and win, they were known, they were read in between battles, they were sung ...

Calm

He is young soul

carried in arms...

M. Lermontov

Above the dugout in the blue abyss

And peace and silence.

Orders of all constellations

Is the girl singing

Is it Lermontov's angel

Continues its flight.

Following the song, the shot will crack -

The sound of a broken string.

This will shoot the song

It will break off, it will suddenly fall silent,

Like Lermontov's angel

The soul will be dropped from the hands ...

This poem was published on May 19, 1944. Six months later, on November 13, the plane on which the special correspondent was returning from the Western Front to Moscow crashed. The last book that the deceased poet held in his hands was a volume of Lermontov ...

Joseph Utkin is buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery. In Irkutsk, he is remembered and loved. His poems are included in the regional school program for extracurricular reading. In 1967, by decision of the Irkutsk City Council, Kuznetsovskaya Street was renamed Joseph Utkin Street. His name was given to the Irkutsk Regional Youth Library.

Alena Chichigina (Irkutsk)

Elena Sirotkina

Iosif Utkin (1903–1944) is one of the prominent Soviet poets, whose poems enjoy the well-deserved sympathy of our reader. The courage of a revolutionary, combined with gentle humanism, is the inner "nerve" of the best works of the poet; captivating melodiousness and at the same time visible accuracy of artistic details - their remarkable feature. This edition surpasses all previously published collections of the poet's poems in the completeness of its volume. Along with the well-known and popular works of Utkin, the book includes unpublished poems of the poet, extracted from the archive.

Joseph Utkin
Poems and poems

Introductory article

Joseph Utkin. Photography 1941–1942 on the certificate of a war correspondent (TsGALI).

In the autumn of 1924, a black-haired young man in a blue shirt and boots appeared at the Moscow Institute of Journalism. The young man's name was Joseph Utkin. His face attracted attention with a mixed expression of timidity - and arrogance, self-doubt - and at the same time a sense of superiority. And it is understandable: after all, this newcomer, who first came to the capital from distant Siberia, managed to write several poems worthy of a real poet, and already had a harsh, beyond his age, biography behind him.

Iosif Pavlovich Utkin was born on May 14, 1903 at the Hngang station in the family of an employee of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Very soon the family moved to Irkutsk, where the early years of the future poet passed.

It was difficult to live: the salary of the parents was meager, the children were seven. Nevertheless, Iosif Utkin managed to graduate from a three-year city school and enter a four-year school, from where, however, he was expelled in the fourth year of study - "for bad behavior and freethinking, part-time." "Bad behavior" was not only boyish pranks. The boy skipped classes, because at the same time he worked - he had to become the breadwinner of a family abandoned by his father, and go "to the people." Utkin subsequently recalled:

"Siberia. Irkutsk. 1916. War. The elder brother - the head of the family - is taken as a soldier, driven to the front.

Family without bread. Mother is thrashing about. Need to work. Where to work? Who should work? Me boy. Where necessary."

And Joseph got a job as a marker in the billiard room of the Siberian "Grand Hotel", where he had to hide from school teachers who wandered into the restaurant; then he sold evening newspapers, delivered telegrams; worked in a tannery. In those years, he did not even suspect, of course, that much of what he saw and "overheard" by him, a thirteen-year-old teenager, would come to life eight years later in The Tale of the Red Motel, and his early and difficult experience was "semi-criminal" (as he once put it) youth will be reflected in a deeply personal poem "Sweet Childhood".

This orphan and semi-homeless existence lasted about two years. With the advent of October, fifteen-year-old Joseph began, in his own words, "an active political life." After some time, he, along with his older brother Alexander, goes to the workers' squad and participates in the anti-Kolchak uprising organized by the Bolsheviks. And in May 1920, he, one of the first Irkutsk Komsomol members, volunteered for the Far Eastern Front. Later, in the 1930s, when compiling his brief autobiography, he would write sparingly:

"In the army, I was at various jobs: a field informant, three times a military commissar of marching companies, a military commissar of an army horse reserve and repair shops ..."

The impressions of these years subsequently formed the basis of Utkin's best works about the civil war - the poem "Twentieth", "Siberian Songs", the famous "Komsomol Song" ("The boy was slapped in Irkutsk ...").

The end of 1922 is a turning point in Utkin's biography. He became a reporter for the Irkutsk newspaper "Power of Labor", and soon his name began to appear on the pages of Siberian newspapers and magazines. So from the age of nineteen his path as a poet began.

On the pages of the "Power of Labor" Utkin posted his first poems - hastily written poetic reports - responses to what the country lived in those years. Utkin wrote about the fight against religion, about the scourge of homelessness, about his beloved aviation, which had just begun to develop rapidly. From time to time in the same "Power of Labor", under the heading "Little Feuilleton", satirical ditties appeared, ridiculing the Nepman, the layman, the tradesman, the moonshiner, etc. Published under the naive signature "Utya", these couplets were rather weak, " working", however, on the topic of the day. Occasionally, Utkin also appeared in the magazines Siberian Lights, Siberia, and Krasnye Zori.

In the winter of 1923, a circle of proletarian poets called ILHO (Irkutsk Literary and Art Association) was formed at the Krasnye Zori. There, together with the future poets D. Altauzen and M. Skuratov, Utkin also came. "Ilhovtsy" published almanacs, held evenings of poetry and discussions, developed creative programs, with the most important and indispensable condition for "practical mastering of the old forms" and "critical mastering of the rich experience of the past."