Soviet literature

Arkady Petrovich Gaidar

Biography

Gaidar Arkady Petrovich was born on January 9, 1904 in the family of a teacher in Lgov. He spent his childhood in Arzamas. Arkady Petrovich graduated from infantry courses, and when the First World War began and his father was drafted into the army, he ran away from home a month later to go to his father at the front. Ninety kilometers from Arzamas he was detained and returned. Later, at fourteen, he met the Bolsheviks and in 1918 volunteered for the Red Army. He was a physically strong and tall guy, and after some hesitation he was accepted into the Red Commanders' Course. He had to fight in Ukraine, on the Polish front, and in the Caucasus. At fourteen and a half years old, he commanded a company of cadets on the Petlyura front, and at seventeen he was the commander of a separate regiment to combat banditry. Since the Civil War, Arkady Petrovich was distinguished by cruelty, suffered from heavy drinking, and was often tormented by nightmares. His childhood psyche could not withstand the atrocities of the Civil War.

In December 1924, Gaidar left the army due to illness after being wounded and shell-shocked. He started writing books. In this matter, his assistants were K. Fedin, M. Slonimsky and S. Semenov, who analyzed every line with him, criticized him and explained the basics of literary skill.

In the fall of 1932, Gaidar decided to settle in Moscow. At that time he was still little known and not rich. But his works had already begun to be published in Moscow and soon brought him widespread fame and glory. In the mid-30s, he married a second time, from his first marriage he already had a son, Timur, and he also adopted the daughter of his second wife, Zhenya. Gaidar named the main characters of the book “Timur and His Team,” published in 1940, after his children. In the 1930s, many of his most famous works were published, such as: “School”, “Distant Lands”, “Military Secret”, “Smoke in the Forest”, “The Blue Cup”, “Chuk and Gek”, “Fate” drummer."

During the Second World War, Gaidar went to the front as a war correspondent. He traveled a lot around the country, met many people, and led a busy life. He wrote his books on the go, on trains, on the road. He recited entire pages by heart and then wrote them down in notebooks.

One day his unit was surrounded, and they wanted to take the writer out by plane, but he refused to leave his comrades and remained in the partisan detachment as an ordinary machine gunner. On October 26, 1941, in Ukraine, near the village of Lyaplyavoya, Gaidar died in a battle with the Nazis.

He considered his best works to be the stories “P.B.C.” (1925), “Distant Countries”, “The Fourth Dugout” and “School” (1930), “Timur and His Team” (1940). Many of Gaidar’s books became an integral part of the school curriculum; they were translated for readers in other countries, and some of them were even made into feature films for children.

Gaidar Arkady Petrovich prose writer and playwright, military leader, communist.

On January 9, 1904, a boy was born into a family of teachers in the city of Lgov - the future famous children's writer. His father is Pyotr Isidorovich Golikov, his mother is Natalya Arkadyevna Salkova, a distant relative of M. Yu. Lermontov.

Arkady lived with his family in Arzamas until 1918. In 1908, Golikov’s father entered the service of the excise department. In 1910, mother Natalya Salkova graduated from midwifery courses and worked for some time as a paramedic.

Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, his father was taken to the front. Arkady was still a young man and decided to run away from home to go to his father, but not far from Arzamas he was caught and returned back. Golikov was a participant in the Civil War. At the age of fourteen he was accepted into the Communist Party, where he had the right to choose. At the age of 14, having met the Bolsheviks, he firmly decided to volunteer for the Red Army. He fought in Ukraine, Poland and the Caucasus. And at the age of seventeen he became the commander of a separate regiment, which in turn fought against banditry. In his young years, he was the responsible commander of his regiment and in 1922 he arrested F.P. Ulchigachev and I.V. Itemenev, who soon became his intelligence officers.

Golikov showed an unhealthy interest in alcohol, was very cruel and because of this he had problems with his subordinates. In December 1924, Gaidar left the army for health reasons after shell shock and numerous injuries. And after all this I started writing books. He moved to Perm, where he was actively published in the Zvezda newspaper. Arkady's first attempt at writing was a story about the civil war, "The Corner House", signed under the pseudonym Gaidar - 1925.

All of Gaidar's works are instructive and profound. Arkady's famous prose “Chuk and Gek”, “Timur and his team”. Also very exciting are “Malchish-Kibalchish” or “Blue Cup”.

In 1932, he began working for the Pacific Star newspaper as a traveling correspondent. Arkady had two children, a son Timur from his first marriage and a daughter Zhenya, whom he adopted from his second wife in the mid-30s.

During World War II he was a war correspondent and led a busy life. He wrote books at this time. I memorized everything by heart, and then documented everything in a notebook. Became a machine gunner in a partisan detachment in September 1941. And on October 26, 1941, Arkady Petrovich Gaidar died in a battle with the Nazis. During his 37 years he lived a hard and eventful life. Gaidar’s remains were reburied in Kanev in 1947.

Arkady Petrovich Gaidar (real name Golikov) is a famous Soviet children's writer, participant in the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars. The biography of Arkady Gaidar (however, then still Golikov) begins on January 9 (according to the old style - 22) January 1904, when he was born in the village of a sugar factory near Lgov, now the Kursk region, in a family of teachers. In 1912, Gaidar's parents moved to Arzamas.

The biography of Arkady Gaidar, in addition to his famous works, is usually associated with a statement that has already become a saying: “And Gaidar, at the age of 16, generally commanded a regiment!” Indeed, at the age of 14, Arkady Gaidar joined the Red Army. After graduating from the Kyiv infantry courses, the young man fought on the Petlyura, Polish, and Crimean fronts. The regiment, of course, did not appear immediately. At the age of 15, Gaidar was a platoon commander, and at the age of 16 he became a company commander. In February 1921, when Arkady graduated from the Higher Rifle School "Vystrel", he received command of the 23rd reserve regiment, and from June 1921 - the 58th separate anti-banditry regiment. Thus, the saying exaggerates only a little: not at 16, but at 17 years old, but Gaidar actually commanded a regiment at the “teenage” age! The “Antonovite” bandits themselves, with whom young Gaidar-Golikov fought, noted his high moral qualities.

After the liquidation of “Antonovism,” Arkady served in Bashkiria, then in Khakassia, where he searched for Solovyov’s gang. He served in the ranks of the CHON (Special Purpose Units) of Siberia. In 1924, he retired from the army due to shell shock received on the fronts of the Civil War.

The biography of Arkady Gaidar, the writer, begins in 1925, it was then that his first publications, signed “Arkady Gaidar,” were published. The literary pseudonym “Gaidar”, which later turned into the author’s surname, which he passed on to his descendants, stands for “ G olikov A Rkadi Y Gift zamas” (in imitation of the name D’Artagnan). The work "R.V.S." turned out to be significant. The writer has become a true classic of children's literature, becoming famous for his stories about military camaraderie and sincere friendship.

The most famous works of Arkady Gaidar are “P.B.C.” (1925), “School” (1930), “Distant Countries” (1932), “The Fourth Dugout”, “Military Secret” (1935), “Timur and His Team” (1940), “Chuk and Gek” (1939) , “The Fate of the Drummer” (1938), stories “Hot Stone” (1941), “The Blue Cup” (1936). These novels and stories were included in the school curriculum, were actively filmed, and translated into many languages ​​of the world.

The work “Timur and His Team” marked the beginning of a unique Timur movement, which aimed at voluntary assistance to veterans and elderly people on the part of the pioneers.

The biography of Arkady Gaidar during the Great Patriotic War is the biography of a Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent in the army. After the encirclement of units of the Southwestern Front in the Uman-Kyiv region in September 1941, Arkady Petrovich Gaidar ended up in Gorelov’s partisan detachment. He was a machine gunner in the detachment. On October 26, 1941, Arkady Gaidar died near the village of Leplyavo, Kanevsky district, Cherkasy region. This is how the biography of Arkady Gaidar, writer and military man ends.

In 1947, Gaidar's remains were reburied in the city of Kanev.

In 1939, Gaidar was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor, in 1963 - the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree (posthumously)

(1904 - 1941)

Gaidar (real name - Golikov) Arkady Petrovich - prose writer. He was considered one of the founders of Soviet children's literature. He became one of the key figures in Soviet propaganda; legends were created around him that had nothing to do with reality. His works until the 1990s. were invariably key in the school curriculum and were compulsory for all Soviet schoolchildren to study. Circulations amounted to tens of millions of copies.

Arkady Petrovich was born on January 9 (22 NS) in the city of Lgov, Kursk province, in the family of a teacher. My childhood years were spent in Arzamas. He studied at a real school, but when the First World War began, his father was drafted into the army, and a month later he ran away from home to go to his father at the front. Ninety kilometers from Arzamas he was detained and returned.

Later, as a teenager of fourteen, he met with “good people - the Bolsheviks” and in 1918 he left “to fight for the bright kingdom of socialism.” He was a physically strong and tall guy, and after some hesitation he was accepted into the Red Commanders' Course. At fourteen and a half years old, he commanded a company of cadets on the Petlyura front, and at seventeen he was the commander of a separate regiment to combat banditry (“this is in Antonovism”).

Participated in the suppression of the Antonov uprising in the Tambov region. According to his memoirs, he was distinguished by pathological cruelty, which raised doubts about his mental health. Since the Civil War, Gaidar became an alcoholic, suffered from heavy drinking, and was tormented by nightmares. He was depressed all his life and even tried to commit suicide. His childhood psyche could not withstand the atrocities of the Civil War.

In December 1924, Gaidar left the army due to illness (after being wounded and shell-shocked). I started writing. His teachers in the craft of writing were K. Fedin, M. Slonimsky and S. Semenov, who analyzed literally every line with him, criticized and taught him the techniques of literary craftsmanship.

He considered his best works to be the stories "P.B.C." (1925), “Distant Countries”, “The Fourth Dugout” and “School” (1930), “Timur and His Team” (1940). He traveled a lot around the country, met different people, and greedily absorbed life. He couldn’t write, locked himself in his office at a comfortable table. He composed on the go, thought about his books on the road, recited entire pages by heart, and then wrote them down in simple notebooks. “The birthplace of his books is different cities, villages, even trains.”

For example this case.

After finishing work on the story "School", Gaidar left Arkhangelsk for Moscow, leaving his wife and two-year-old son in a distant northern city.

But now all publishing matters have been settled, “School” has been published, it is read and studied. The book is about to be published in half a million copies in Roman-Gazeta. You can go to your family and give yourself some rest.

And here he is again in the city where the “School” was created. How not to visit your friends at the Arkhangelsk regional newspaper "Volna", which recently acquired a new name - "Northern Truth". Friends-journalists were sincerely happy about the arrival of his colleague, his creative success, offered him a job, and gave him a specific assignment - to write a good essay about timber rafting.
Rafts with logs are, of course, far from the city, on cold northern rivers. It is not easy to complete such a task. But I couldn’t refuse, and besides, the writer and journalist were fascinated by the new topic.

Late summer, Sunday afternoon. The wife called the family for dinner. Boiled meat smells good. There are other foods too. But something is still missing for lunch. Oh yes, pickles! I remember, even in early childhood, in the city of Lgov, the table at the end of summer was decorated with young lightly salted cucumbers.

The market is nearby, around the corner. Arkady Petrovich promises his wife and son to return with the purchase in a few minutes. But this must happen: in the vegetable aisle, the future heroes of his essay, raftsmen and rafters, were asking the price of pickled cucumbers. Obviously, one of Gaidar’s old acquaintances was among them.

And the writer forgets that dinner is getting cold at home and begins asking the raftsmen about their affairs. The raftsmen with bags and bags hurried to the pier, and the writer did not lag behind them, asking questions and asking them question after question. And before boarding the boat, he asked the rafters to accept him into the artel for at least three weeks.

One can only guess that Gaidar found a way to convey it home so that he would not be expected either today or tomorrow. He returned on the twenty-first day with a plump, densely written notebook. There were plenty of facts for the essay.

This happened more than once in Gaidar’s life. He had a not very successful youth story, “Lbovshchina.” The young writer created a story about something he had not witnessed - the events of 1905. It wasn't a very successful thing. But the revolutionary theme “carried out”, the story was published with a continuation in the Perm regional newspaper “Zvezda”, and was also published as a separate book in Perm. A good fee was received. Arkady Petrovich decided to spend it on traveling around the country without vouchers or business trips. He was kept company by his peer, also a journalist, Nikolai Kondratyev. First Central Asia: Tashkent, Kara-Kum. Then crossing the Caspian Sea to the city of Baku.

Before arriving in the capital of Azerbaijan, they didn’t count their money, but here, at the eastern bazaar, it turned out that the travelers couldn’t even pay for a watermelon. Friends quarreled. Both had to travel with hares to Rostov-on-Don. Both of their clothes were worn out, and their holey trousers had to be sewn onto their underwear: In this form, you would not go into the editorial office of the Rostov "Hammer" or into a book publishing house, where they could help an already famous children's writer with money.

But a way out was found. The travelers went to the freight railway station and worked for several days in a row loading watermelons. No one here cared about their clothes, since the others were no better dressed. And no one, of course, had any idea that the watermelons were being loaded by a writer, a former regiment commander.

The journey, full of romantic adventures, ended with the creation of the story “Riders of the Impregnable Mountains,” which was published in Moscow in 1927.

When the Second World War began, the writer rejoined the army, going to the front as a war correspondent. His unit was surrounded, and they wanted to take the writer out by plane, but he refused to leave his comrades and remained in the partisan detachment as an ordinary machine gunner. On October 26, 1941 in Ukraine, near the village of Lyaplyavoya, a small group of partisans was going to their own cache for food and came across German machine gunners camouflaged in a forest belt. Gaidar saw them first and, before being mowed down by machine gun fire, warned his comrades of the danger.

Arkady Petrovich Gaidar (Golikov) was born January 9 (22), 1904 in the city of Lgov, Kursk province, in a family of teachers. The boy spent most of his childhood in Arzamas, a small town in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Here the future writer studied at a real school.

Arkady was selfless already at an early age. When his father was taken to the front during the First World War, the boy ran away from home to also go to fight. However, he was detained on the way.

In 1918 In Gaidar’s short biography, an important event occurred - fourteen-year-old Arkady joined the Communist Party and began working for the newspaper “Molot”. At the end of the year he was enlisted in the Red Army.

After graduation in 1919 command training courses in Moscow, Golikov was appointed assistant platoon commander.

In 1921 Graduated from the Higher Rifle School ahead of schedule. Soon he was appointed commander of a section of the Nizhny Novgorod regiment, fought on the Don, on the Caucasus Front, near Sochi.

In 1922 Golikov participated in the suppression of the anti-Soviet rebel movement in Khakassia, whose leader was I. Solovyov. Heading the command of the second combat area in the Yenisei province, Arkady Petrovich gave rather harsh orders aimed at brutal treatment of local residents who opposed the advent of Soviet power.

In May 1922 By order of Golikov, five uluses were shot. The provincial department of the GPU found out about what happened. Arkady Petrovich was demobilized with a diagnosis of “traumatic neurosis”, which arose after an unsuccessful fall from a horse. This event became a turning point in Gaidar’s biography.

In 1925 Golikov published the story “In the Days of Defeats and Victories” in the Leningrad almanac “Kovsh”. Soon the writer moved to Perm, where he first began publishing under the pseudonym Gaidar. In 1930 work on the works “School” and “The Fourth Dugout” was completed.

Since 1932 Arkady Petrovich works as a traveling correspondent for the Pacific Star newspaper. In 1932–1938 The novellas and stories “Distant Countries”, “Military Secret”, “The Blue Cup”, “The Fate of the Drummer” were published. In 1939–1940 the writer completed work on his most famous works for children: “Timur and his team”, “Chuk and Gek”.

Arkady Gaidar was married three times.

In 1921 While undergoing treatment in a hospital in the Tambov region after being wounded and concussed, 17-year-old Arkady met 16-year-old nurse Marusya - Maria Nikolaevna Plaksina. They got married and had a son, Zhenya. During his military service, Gaidar found himself in different parts of the country; due to these everyday circumstances, the family fell apart. The firstborn died before he was two years old. In memory of first love, heroines named Marusya often appear in Gaidar’s works.

In the mid 1920s Arkady married a 17-year-old Komsomol member from Perm, Liya Lazarevna Solomyanskaya. In 1926 in Arkhangelsk their son Timur was born. But five years later, the wife left for someone else - journalist I.M. Razin.

In 1934 Gaidar comes to see his son in the village of Ivnya, Belgorod Region, where Liya Solomyanskaya edited the large-circulation newspaper of the political department of the Ivnyanskaya MTS “For the Harvest”. Here the writer worked on the stories “Blue Stars”, “Bumbarash” and “Military Secret”, and also participated in the work of the newspaper (wrote feuilletons, captions for cartoons).

Summer 1938 In Klin, Gaidar met Dora Matveevna Chernysheva, the daughter of the owner of the house where he lived. A month later he married her, adopting her daughter Evgenia.

During the Great Patriotic War, the writer Gaidar worked as a correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda. During this period, Arkady Petrovich created the essays “The Bridge”, “Rockets and Grenades”, “At the Crossing”, “At the Front Edge”, and the philosophical fairy tale “Hot Stone”. In 1941 served as a machine gunner in Gorelov's partisan detachment.

October 26, 1941 Arkady Petrovich Gaidar was killed by the Germans near the village of Leplyavo, Kanevsky district. In 1947 Gaidar's remains were reburied in the city of Kanev.

One of the founders of Soviet children's literature was Arkady Gaidar, whose biography covers a difficult time for our country. This is what most likely determined the main focus of his works - in most of them the reader hears echoes of the war.

Childhood and adolescence

The future writer was born into the family of the grandson of a serf and a noblewoman of an ordinary family. Father, Pyotr Isidorovich Golikov, worked as a teacher and paid a lot of attention to self-education. Natalya Arkadyevna also dedicated her life to enlightening the people, and for this purpose she left her parents’ home early. A short biography of Arkady Gaidar for children is very interesting. The boy began to compose early. According to his memoirs, his first poem appeared when he did not yet know how to write. The origins of this talent are seen in the fact that the parents spent a lot of time studying with their son and three younger daughters. And when communicating with each other, they often read poetry and sang folk songs.

Moral education of a son

The writer’s characters perform heroic deeds; in their features one can even discern the qualities of medieval knights. An explanation for this is also given by the biography of Arkady Gaidar. For 4th grade, for example, it is recommended to use the story “Timur and his team,” which tells how teenagers, distinguished by high moral principles, selflessly help people. So, as a child, Arkasha broke a glass and, as usually happens in such cases, got scared and ran away. And then there was a conversation with his mother, who patiently explained to her son that a brave and honest person will always find the strength to admit what he has done, and will be honest and sincere under any circumstances. Since then, there has not been a case where the boy tried to hide his offense from others.

And Arkady Gaidar, whose biography is replete with facts of overcoming life’s adversities, felt responsible for his younger sisters and therefore never became capricious or complained.

In terrible years

When World War I began, Arkady was ten years old. His father went to the front, and the boy decided to follow him. They caught up with him near Arzamas, his hometown, and brought him back. But this did not stop the teenager’s desire for achievements. With the Bolsheviks coming to power, Arkady Gaidar (the biography for children includes only brief information about this period of the writer’s life) completely took their side. At first he carried out small assignments and guarded the city at night. But he was increasingly drawn to serious action. In the fall of 1918, the teenager, having added two more years to his fourteen years (fortunately, he was tall and physically strong), finally achieved enlistment in the Red Army. Adjutant, commander of a detachment, and then a regiment - this is the military path Arkady Gaidar went through in 6 years. His biography includes such glorious episodes as the defeat of the Bityug gang and the experienced ataman Solovyov. At the same time, he received two military educations in parallel and therefore believed that his future would forever be connected with the army.

Beginning of literary activity

However, fate had its own way: in 1924, Arkady Petrovich was forced to leave service for health reasons. The wounds received in battles, concussion, and, to some extent, nervous exhaustion took their toll - he set out on this road when he was still just a boy. “Write,” - this is how Arkady Gaidar answered himself to the question of what to do next. A short biography during the second half of the 1920s demonstrates the development of Golikov as a writer. At first he wrote for adults. In 1925, the first work appeared, but it did not please the author, as did the next few stories and novellas. And only “R.V.S” (1926) the writer called truly serious and mature.

Nickname

The writer's real name is Golikov, but already the first works were signed with the name Arkady Gaidar. The writer's short biography contains several interpretations of the pseudonym. His school friend, for example, believed that such a surname was the result of Arkady Petrovich’s great imagination. It was formed as follows: G(olikov) A(rkadi) J D(from French - “from”) AR(zamasa). Another option: “D” among the letters of the surname, name, name of the city appeared like D’Artagnan. Supporters of another explanation attribute the pseudonym Gaidar to the Turkic language, from which it is translated as “a horseman galloping ahead” - this was Golikov in life. These are the most common versions of the appearance of the pseudonym, although other interpretations can be found in the literature about the writer’s work.

Works for children

Once Arkady Gaidar (the biography presented here is also based on the personal memories of the writer himself) noted that the war was so firmly established in his childhood that he decided to tell the younger generation about it and about the real heroes. This is how stories and stories for children appeared: “R.V.S.” about teenagers who witnessed the confrontation between the “reds” and “whites”, the autobiographical “School”, “Hot Stone”, the hero of which is an old man who survived the revolution and civil war, and others. Masterpieces of children's literature are called “The Blue Cup”, “Chuk and Huck”, “The Fate of the Drummer”. Very often, the basis of their plot was the events with which the biography of Arkady Gaidar was replete.

For 4th grade, the writer’s works are interesting because their heroes are girls and boys of the same age who find themselves in difficult situations. Thanks to their qualities: kindness, the ability to sympathize and compassion, perseverance, selflessness, readiness to always come to the rescue, courage - they become winners and are role models.

At the origins of the Timur movement

In 1940, perhaps the most famous work appeared, authored by Arkady Gaidar. A biography for children necessarily includes the story of the creation of the story “Timur and His Team,” the main character of which is named after the writer’s son. The incredible popularity of the literary work is evidenced by the fact that groups of schoolchildren immediately began to appear throughout the country, taking patronage over those who needed their help. For several decades, the Timur movement became an integral part of the lives of Soviet teenagers. Even now, sometimes you can hear a familiar word when it comes to good deeds.

Heroic Death

After the outbreak of the Patriotic War, Gaidar again went to the front, now as a war correspondent, where he wrote several essays about the defensive operations of the Southwestern Front. However, this time his battle path was not long. In October 1941, he fell among the partisans when the detachment was trying to get out of encirclement. Presumably, Arkady Petrovich, as part of a group, went for food, and when he noticed the Germans, he gave a signal to his four comrades, and they managed to escape. A famous writer, a tireless person, a warrior at heart, was struck down by a machine gun fire at the age of thirty-seven.

This is a short biography of Arkady Gaidar. For 4th graders, getting acquainted with his works today can become a real lesson in kindness, friendship, and love for one’s native country.