Valentin Lavrov: “Literary creativity is like love. Valentin Lavrov: "Literary creativity is like love. See what" Lavrov, Valentin Viktorovich "is in other dictionaries

Biography

The son of the popular pre-war football player Viktor Lavrov (Lokomotiv Moscow). In the 1950s, he was a famous boxer; graduated State Institute physical education. The first profession is a boxing coach.

From the age of 19 (September) he was published in newspapers and magazines (about 1000 publications) - feuilletons, reports, interviews, stories about rare books.

In January, the publishing house Molodaya Gvardiya published the first book, Cold Autumn. Ivan Bunin in exile ".

Since 1990, the publishing house "Kniga" has published a 6-volume fundamental anthology "Literature of the Russian Diaspora" (Lavrov - compiler, author of notes).

From 1998 to 1998, the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets weekly publishes Lavrov's books - historical detective stories written on the basis of archival materials: "Bloody scaffold", "Fornication on blood", "Secrets of the Tsar's court", the series "Count Sokolov - the genius of the search" and others, only eight books. These works were successful. Many were published in eight or nine editions.

In 1994, the historical novel Catastrophe, about the fate of the Russian emigration after the revolution, was published (four editions in total).

Valentin Lavrov - Laureate of the State Prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Sholokhov Prize, the Arcadia Koshko Prize for the best detective of the year, etc.

Reviews

V. Lavrov “creates a historically accurate biography, with all the complexities of the character of the hero, with his attractive and negative qualities. The book very convincingly debunks the myths about the writer as a callous, selfish person. “He was an amazingly pure person who dearly loved Russia and its people” - we endure such an impression after reading the book ...

V. Lavrov managed to collect a huge amount of historical material. And he owns it freely, depicting, through the prism of a hero, various aspects of emigre existence, open and behind-the-scenes struggle ... In any case, there has never been such a book about I. A. Bunin - neither here, nor abroad. "

Sergey Makashin, Doctor of Philology, State Prize Laureate.

(From the preface to the novel by Valentin Lavrov "Cold autumn. Ivan Bunin in emigration", M. 1989. Tyr. 250 thousand. The first version of the historical novel "Catastrophe").

"Once Roman Gul said about A. I. Solzhenitsyn:" For me he is an exceptional phenomenon ... It is difficult to imagine how such a spiritually untouched by totalitarianism man and writer could appear in the Soviet Union. This word about the classic and the sufferer involuntarily rises in my memory reading "Catastrophe." You close the work with a firm conviction - yes, this work is a rare and spiritually joyful phenomenon in the days of timelessness of our fine literature. In Lavrov's book, facts are ascending currents on which the author's inspiration soars, the power of creative imagination ...

The novel is multifaceted and associative. Dozens and dozens of characters pass before the reader - from a Petersburg cabman to a Russian lady selling herself on the panels of Istanbul, from Trotsky and Lenin to Mussolini and Stalin, from Rachmaninov to Alexei Tolstoy. But the most striking figure is the hero of the novel - the great Bunin. Under Lavrov's pen, this writer grows to a certain symbol of the Russian intelligentsia, the essence of which at all times was the same - serving the Fatherland.

Any episode of the "Catastrophe" withstands the test for full historical accuracy and documentary confirmation ... "

AF Smirnov, professor, doctor of historical sciences. (Preface to the fourth edition of the historical novel "Catastrophe". M. 2003)

“To Lavrov - like a mausoleum. On the TV program "Vremechko" there was an amazing story: a kilometer-long line freezes in the cold for autographs on the detective "Count Sokolov - the genius of detective". Unfortunately, many left with nothing - several thousand copies were instantly sold out. After all, there is no better reading or better gift! "

“Valentin Lavrov has written many books, and they are all bestsellers. To call Lavrov's works simply popular would be to say nothing. There are kilometer-long queues for his books. "

“Lavrov is the king of the Russian thriller. His books are a real sensation. Lavrov made a career in historical chronicles. It has no competitors in the historical thriller genre. "

“Valentin Lavrov has made a fantastic career. At the age of fifty-three he made his debut with the novel "Cold Autumn", immediately printed with a circulation of 250,000 copies. And then every year he gives out a full-fledged one, which certainly becomes a bestseller. "

("Man & Career", No. 45, 1996)

“The novel-chronicle of Valentin Lavrov“ Cold Autumn. Yves. Bunin in exile. " The fascination of the plot, the lively figurative language, the abundance of factual material, the publication of previously unknown materials brought success to this work. The world's largest publishing house “Progress” is preparing “Cold Autumn” in English ”.

("Fatherland", No. 9, 1991)

“Long queues line up for books by Academician Lavrov - this is also shown on television. These days! The press unanimously recognizes everything that he has published as bestsellers: "Catastrophe", "Fornication on Blood", Russian Power ", the series" Count Sokolov - Genius of Detection "," Bloody Block "and others. The foreign press awarded him the title of King of Russian thriller" ...

("Gong", No. 2, 1997)

“After reading, as he exhaled,“ Count Sokolov ”, I thought:“ Well, finally, here is our worthy answer to Conan Doyle! ”Here he is, the domestic Sherlock Holmes, acting as unconventional (from the point of view of the police) methods as his English counterpart, but only with a racial bias-sweep. The main thing is that the book is well written. Read with a bang. "

(Playboy, October 1997)

“In the Photo Center on Gogolevsky Boulevard, a large auction of manuscripts and rare books was held - nearly four hundred lots. The greatest excitement was caused by the layout with numerous revisions of the first complete edition of Valentin Lavrov "Count Sokolov - the genius of detective". 12 million rubles were paid for this lot! According to rumors, a representative of one American university was generous, having decided, apparently, ahead of time to collect autographs of Russian writers - while they are still alive. "

“Book records by Valentin Lavrov. Valentin Lavrov signed 4800 autographs on the corresponding number of his books during the MK festival in Luzhniki. The achievement, unfortunately, is not recorded in the record book. And in vain! However, it is not over yet. The writer continues to train: in the Moscow store “Biblio-Globus” such a line of people wishing to get an autograph lined up for him, that as a result, about a thousand more readers will put on their shelves books with donations of the master of the historical detective.

“The ideal case is when a writer writes and publishes himself. The famous writer Valentin Lavrov founded his own publishing house this spring. “When you publish yourself, you think not so much about commerce as about your readers. I sincerely love my readers. Open any book of my publishing house, you will see an unprecedented business for these times: the books are printed on the best and most expensive paper, interestingly designed. The main reviews of my books are long lines of readers, “- said the writer. Indeed, three hours before the meeting with Lavrov, the most reading people are already patiently waiting for autographs. "

"Not a single literary hero in last years did not conquer the Russian readership so quickly and so comprehensively as the detective genius Count Sokolov. Academician Valentin Lavrov's series about the adventures of this famous detective has become a favorite reading of millions of people. "

(InterPOLICE. 1999. No. 1)

“Lavrov masterfully manages to convey the flavor of a bygone era. His books can be used to study the life of Moscow at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. You open Lavrov's book and hear the rumble of the Sukharev market, the bells of horse-drawn trams, the clatter of horseshoes on the pavement, you see cabbies and merchants, high school students and students, policemen and fillers, and you get so used to a bygone era that after reading the book you don't immediately return to boring reality. "

“Legends of old Moscow ... Valentin Lavrov - Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, laureate of the State Prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Sholokhov Prize, the Arkady Koshko Prize for the best detective of the year, the author of the stunning in strength and truthfulness of the historical novels“ Cold Autumn ”,“ Catastrophe ”,“ Scaffold and Money ”, "Royal Treasures". He is the creator of a series about the genius of the Russian detective Sokolov. In his books, the author writes with love and with the most curious everyday details about the old, long gone Moscow. And not by chance! His ancestors have been Muscovites since the end of the seventeenth century! "

("Culture healthy life... 2010. No. 4 ")

Notes

“V. Lavrov managed to collect a huge amount of historical material. And he owns it freely, depicting, through the prism of a hero, various aspects of emigre existence, an open and behind-the-scenes struggle of forces hostile not only to the Land of the Soviets, but also to the manifestation of all sorts of progressive trends within the emigration itself. In any case, there has never been a similar book about I. A. Bunin - neither here nor abroad, "- Sergei Makashin, member of the editorial board of Literary Heritage, Doctor of Philology, USSR State Prize Laureate.

(Cold Autumn M, 1989 Foreword)

Valentin V. LAVROV
(born 1935)

Valentin Viktorovich Lavrov (born 1935) - Russian literary critic and writer; academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, professor. Author of 21 books, in reprints until December 2007 - 68 books.
The son of the popular pre-war football player Viktor Lavrov (Lokomotiv). In the 1950s, he was a famous boxer; graduated from the State Institute of Physical Education. The first profession is a boxing coach.
From the age of 19 (September 1954) he was published in newspapers and magazines (about 1000 publications) - feuilletons, reports, interviews, stories about rare books. In January 1989, the publishing house Molodaya Gvardiya published the first book, Cold Autumn. Ivan Bunin in exile ".
Since 1990, the publishing house "Kniga" has published a 6-volume fundamental anthology "Literature of the Russian Diaspora" (Lavrov - compiler, author of notes).
From 1990 to 1998, the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" weekly publishes Lavrov's books - historical detective stories written on the basis of archival materials: "Bloody scaffold", "Fornication on the blood", "Secrets of the Tsar's court", the series "Count Sokolov - the genius of the search" and others - only eight books. These works were successful. Many were published in eight or nine editions.
In 1994, the historical novel Catastrophe, about the fate of the Russian emigration after the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, was published (four editions in total).
Valentin Lavrov - Laureate of the State Prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Sholokhov Prize, the Arcadia Koshko Prize for the best detective of the year, etc.
(From Wikipedia)

Chronicle novel "Cold autumn. Ivan Bunin in emigration 1920-1953." - sent by David Titievsky

Publisher's annotation:
The name of I. A. Bunin is one of the most famous in the history of Russian literature. His life is full of the sharpest dramatic twists and turns. Fate either raised the writer to the crest of world fame, then forced him to drag out a miserable existence in a foreign land. For the first time, this book tells in detail about Bunin's life abroad against a motley background of literary and political emigration. The book contains many new documents - diary entries, letters from Bunin, memories of him.

S. Borovikov: Mikhail Roshchin. Prince. Book about Ivan Bunin, Russian writer
“The method by which the book“ Prince ”was worked out was once formulated by Tatyana Tolstaya:“ with glue and scissors. ”Well, the collage is probably legitimate in literature, but one should not make up it for something else. , about Bunin was Valentina Lavrova "Cold Autumn", the worst is that Lavrov, unlike Roshchin, to the extent of his weak powers, also fictionalized the text, which was completely awful. "

Fragments from the book:

"- It is necessary that every literate read Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Chekhov. And then the fashion for all decadents has gone, from them only the decay of the word, its destruction, its innermost meaning, sound and weight, - said Ivan Alekseevich Bukovetsky. - I meet Yesterday Osipovich, a writer after all.
- Are you home? He answers:
- Not at all!
How can I explain to him that they don't speak Russian like that? Doesn't understand, doesn't smell. He's asking:
- And how should I say? In your opinion, not at all? But what's the difference?
“He doesn't understand the difference. He, of course, is forgivable, he is from Odessa. It is also forgivable because in the end he modestly confesses this and promises to remember that he must say "not at all." And what an incredible amount now in the literature of self-confident insolent, imagining themselves terrible connoisseurs of the word! How many admirers of the ancient ("vigorous and juicy") folk language, a word in the simplicity of not speaking, exhausting with its arch-virus!
The latter (after all the international "quests", that is, some kind of Young Turk imitations of all Western models) is beginning to come into great fashion. How many poets and prose writers make the Russian language sickening, taking precious folk tales, fairy tales, "golden words" and shamelessly passing them off as their own, desecrating them with a paraphrase in their own way and with their additions, rummaging in regional dictionaries and compiling some obscene his archirussism is a mixture in which no one has ever spoken in Russia and which is even impossible to read! How they rushed in Moscow and St. Petersburg salons with various Klyuevs and Yesenins, even dressed as wanderers and good fellows, singing in the nose “about candles” and “little rivers” or pretending to be “daring little heads”! "

"Neighborhood with the Merezhkovskys soon got tired. They liked to repeat about" high mental stress "in which they allegedly constantly live. But close up it turned out that there was no tension. They most of all talked about money, about someone else's mediocrity, about food and other trifles. , Zinaida Nikolaevna loved to argue, but this love, in the words of Vera Nikolaevna, was "sports". "

"... Bunin wrote down words in his diary that explain a lot in his character:
The one who is called a “poet” should feel like a rare person in mind, taste, aspirations, etc. Only in this case I can listen to his intimate, love, and so on. What do I need the outpourings of the soul of a fool, a plebeian, a lackey, even physically disgusting to me? In general, once the writer made it so that he lost my respect, that I do not believe him - he disappeared for me. And sometimes two or three lines do it ... "

“The way to Stockholm lay through Germany, in which the guys in brown shirts were rapidly introducing a“ new order. ”Stormtroopers busily walked along the platforms, and little kids, seeing the train, threw up their hands in a fascist greeting.
I had to spend the night in Hamburg. The Herr Aubert in the restaurant offered them only sausages and cabbage, but on every table there were flags with a swastika. Not far from the station, Bunin saw a man in a decent black coat with a lambskin collar. He was selling skinny bunches of chrysanthemums. A golden pince-nez trembled pitifully on his nose.
- Are you Jewish?
The question made the little man flinch. But, seeing that there were foreigners in front of him, he answered french: "Former professor of law ..." Bunin put a large bill in the basket. "

Links:

Valery Burt: an interview with Valentin Lavrov "Bloody block" in "Literaturnaya gazeta" 2003

A few days ago, on May 2, the legendary writer, academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, holder of 18 Interior Ministry awards, Valentin Viktorovich Lavrov, turned 80 years old. The author of such sensational historical novels as "Scaffold and Money", "Cold Autumn", "Tsar's Treasures", "Catastrophe", continues to work in the field of writing. In reprints, Lavrov published 91 books. The novelty "The Hatred of the Leader and the Love of the Robber" (Moscow, 2015. "Prozaik") has just been released. The story of the same name is written on the basis of the once secret materials of the OGPU. Ask the largest stores. You will be read!

- Valentin Viktorovich, you recently turned 80 years old. Isn't it difficult to write at that age?
- I do it with pleasure when I want to say something or when I am concerned about a certain topic. The point is that literary creation is like love. It is good when you really want to. And when love is mutual - the author and the readers. The body is faithful to young habits. This is about love and physical education (not to be confused with sports). Writing is always hard - for me, for example. I write fifteen hours a day, this is not a trifle for the body.
Moreover, this continues for months: one book - one year. And, naturally, this is not very healthy for health. But what kind of health you can bother about when there are good, in the opinion of the author, correct thoughts, which are clothed in beautiful Russian words. Of course, this is ecstasy, both an ecstasy in battle and in literary affairs.
- When did this bacillus of writing first settle in you, as the classic used to say?
- Actually, I was a graphomaniac from an early age. I still have two letters that I wrote to my father. One in 1939, when I was 4 years old, the other in forties. The fact is that my father was a famous football player. He played for Lokomotiv. He went down in history as the one who scored the first goal at the USSR championships. When they went south for training in the spring, I wrote to my father. He drew postcards for football stories and sent them to me.
- How do you remember what happened to you when you were 4 years old?
- I have a surprisingly early memory. For example, I remember learning to speak. I was just over a year old.
- Probably, you remember your military childhood too?
- When the war began, we children were evacuated from Moscow. So my grandmother and I ended up in the Chuvash village of Ilyinskoye on the Volga. But in early October, at the request of our father, we returned to the capital: "The family should be together!" By the way, I helped the adults: I dug trenches in our yard with my child's shovel. It’s a pity, I didn’t take a certificate from the house management: “I contributed to the defense capability of Moscow”. It would be a lot of fun to read it now. By the way, many years later I happened to get acquainted with the German order, if I am not mistaken, No. 114. Fascist troops were strictly forbidden to enter the city. Perhaps Hitler learned something that our command allegedly intended to flood Moscow by opening the floodgates. In thirty-degree frosts, the Nazis would have had a bad time. And along with the Muscovites who were unable to leave the capital. But at the end of November 1941, I had to leave the capital again: my father worked at the military plant No. 315 and he, together with the workers and their families, was evacuated to Perm.
- What do you remember about the war?
- A terrible hunger, terrible frosts, lice and rats, who simply ceased to be afraid of people. In Perm we were hooked up with an old woman who served in a local theater. It houses the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater. Kirov. She often took me with her. I was at the historic premiere of Vano Muradeli's ballet "Spartacus", it happened in January 1942. But he was in love with Tchaikovsky. I listened to Eugene Onegin about fifteen times.
We lived in house number 92 on Bolshevik street in an old wooden house. (Now this is Catherine.) The market is a stone's throw away. It was a favorite place for children to walk. We admired the cans of milk, potatoes, and onions that the collective farmers put on the shelves. They never stole and, moreover, did not beg.
Sometimes there were raids. The soldiers suddenly surrounded the market, lining up along the perimeter of the fence. They checked the documents to identify those who were taking time off from being sent to the front. What can I say there - not everyone was in a hurry to defend Comrade Stalin, they preferred to be workers in the rear.
Yes, from the material side, life was like a nightmare. But we were children, and we knew how to find entertainment and even happiness thanks to sheer trifles. What are children without games? Chizhik, rounders, football with a homemade rag ball, tag (lyapki), parry, robber Cossacks, leapfrog, volleyball, chasing, measuring out, pebbles, towns, bouncers ... Cards were cut into a goat, borax, point. Well, and, of course, the war, however, everyone wanted to be Red Army soldiers.
And for the guys from our Perm yard it was almost daily pleasure to go to the mini-zoo, which was in the mentioned market. We got into the "grinding", that is, without tickets. However, the usher pretended not to notice us. Apparently, the children themselves were hungry, cold. Grief makes people softer and kinder. And goodness is the most important human quality ... During the war, people were softer and kinder.
Seven decades later, I purposely came to Perm to visit the places where I once lived. The houses were new, but the courtyard remained the same. Alas, the children were not visible. New times!
With a smile, I remember going to the local bathhouse with my grandmother - once a week. It was worth a penny, each was given a piece of soap. I ended up with my grandmother, of course, in the women's department. And since the boy was curious from an early age, this washing section for women gave me the greatest platonic pleasure. This continued until the aunt, who checked the tickets at the entrance, said to the grandmother: "You would have brought a man here!" I had to go to the bathhouse with my father, but he could not get out every Sunday. On one of these visits to the bath, I witnessed a terrible sight. 10-15 blockade men were brought into the washing department. They barely moved the bones (it was difficult to name it with their legs and arms), covered with yellow parchment skin. And only deeply sunk eyes remained alive. It was then that I realized what it is - a blockade. Today they say that some people ate human flesh. Who will condemn these unfortunate people?
- Yes, you yourself happened to starve ...
- It was very hungry in winter. In the summer it is easier - they cooked soup from sorrel and nettle, for mushrooms, rose hips and cranberries they went to the opposite bank of the Kama. Now everything was built up there, but then there were forests and swamps in which you could drown. I caught fish - the bite was, but weak. Not all children survived, a three-year-old neighbor died of exhaustion and disease. In October 1942, I was admitted with catarrhal jaundice to the 2nd department of the clinic for childhood diseases of the Medical Institute. My grandmother managed to collect parcels for me, but, as it turned out, the nannies reduced them considerably.
Mom donated blood several times. For this, a meal coupon was put in the dining room. Mom fed me with these coupons.
By the way, already today I visited the local football museum, and there is not a word there that in the summer of 1942 football games were held in Perm. The stands were packed to capacity. The team administrator Shurygin (he was the manager of the capital Lokomotiv before the war) gave out 15 pies with meat to the players, including his father, for each meeting - I still remember their great taste. Alas, the Ural summer is short, and there are not many games ...
- Yes, you got it ...
- Happiness came in March 1943. We returned to Moscow, where I saw white bread for the first time in many months. Three months later we were given housing in Bitsy (then it was still the Moscow region). Not far away was a field on which large wild strawberries were growing, which we were collecting. And only today three times the general (of the police, the KGB, and later the FSNK) Alexander Georgievich Mikhailov, speaking on television, admitted that the executed "enemies of the people" were buried at the training ground in Bitsy. And they planted strawberries on top. Why this was done - no one knows. But we ate these strawberries. It was a terrible time! Basil the Great said: "Patience is agonizing, perception is blissful." People simply say: "Without knowing the bitter, you will not understand the sweet!" It's right. My generation has known the bitter, which is why it knows how to appreciate the good.

Interviewed Vitaly KARYUKOV

Valentin Viktorovich Lavrov (born May 2, 1935) - Soviet literary critic and writer, journalist; academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, professor. Author of 21 books, in reprints until December 2007 - 68 books.

Biography

The son of the popular pre-war football player Viktor Lavrov (Lokomotiv Moscow). In the 1950s, he was a famous boxer; graduated from the State Institute of Physical Education. The first profession is a boxing coach.

From the age of 19 (September 1954) he was published in newspapers and magazines (about 1000 publications) - feuilletons, reports, interviews, stories about rare books.

In January 1989, the publishing house Molodaya Gvardiya published the first book, Cold Autumn. Ivan Bunin in exile ".

Since 1990, the publishing house "Kniga" has published a 6-volume fundamental anthology "Literature of the Russian Diaspora" (Lavrov - compiler, author of notes).

From 1990 to 1998, the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" weekly publishes Lavrov's books - historical detective stories written on the basis of archival materials: "Bloody scaffold", "Fornication on blood", "Secrets of the Tsar's court", the series "Count Sokolov - the genius of the search" and others - only eight books. These works were successful. Many were published in eight or nine editions.

In 1994, the historical novel Catastrophe, about the fate of the Russian emigration after the revolution, was published (four editions in total).

Valentin Lavrov - Laureate of the State Prize of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Sholokhov Prize, the Arcadia Koshko Prize for the best detective of the year, etc.

Reviews

V. Lavrov “creates a historically accurate biography, with all the complexities of the character of the hero, with his attractive and negative qualities. The book very convincingly debunks the myths about the writer as a callous, selfish person. “He was an amazingly pure person who dearly loved Russia and its people” - we endure such an impression after reading the book ...

V. Lavrov managed to collect a huge amount of historical material. And he owns it freely, depicting, through the prism of a hero, various aspects of emigre existence, open and behind-the-scenes struggle ... In any case, there has never been such a book about I. A. Bunin - neither here, nor abroad. "

Sergey Makashin, Doctor of Philology, State Prize Laureate.

(From the preface to the novel by Valentin Lavrov "Cold autumn. Ivan Bunin in emigration", M. 1989. Tyr. 250 thousand. The first version of the historical novel "Catastrophe").

"Once Roman Gul said about A. I. Solzhenitsyn:" For me he is an exceptional phenomenon ... It is difficult to imagine how such a spiritually untouched by totalitarianism man and writer could appear in the Soviet Union. This word about the classic and the sufferer involuntarily rises in my memory reading "The Catastrophe." You close the work with a firm conviction - yes, this work is a rare and spiritually joyful phenomenon in the days of timelessness of our elegant literature. In Lavrov's book, facts are ascending currents on which the author's inspiration, the power of creative imagination soars ...

The novel is multifaceted and associative. Dozens and dozens of characters pass before the reader - from a Petersburg cabman to a Russian lady selling herself on the panels of Istanbul, from Trotsky and Lenin to Mussolini and Stalin, from Rachmaninov to Alexei Tolstoy. But the most striking figure is the hero of the novel - the great Bunin. Under Lavrov's pen, this writer grows to a certain symbol of the Russian intelligentsia, the essence of which at all times was the same - serving the Fatherland.

Any episode of the "Catastrophe" withstands the test for full historical accuracy and documentary confirmation ... "

AF Smirnov, professor, doctor of historical sciences. (Preface to the fourth edition of the historical novel "Catastrophe". M. 2003)

“To Lavrov - like a mausoleum. On the TV program "Vremechko" there was an amazing story: a kilometer-long line freezes in the cold for autographs on the detective "Count Sokolov - the genius of detective". Unfortunately, many left with nothing - several thousand copies were instantly sold out. After all, there is no better reading or better gift! "

Valentin Viktorovich, you are a writer, a person with a great imagination. Have you ever had a desire to celebrate the New Year with some historical character? If so, then surely you would have asked him something ...
- I was lucky to communicate with many wonderful people - from Klavdia Shulzhenko, Tikhon Khrennikov, Nikita Bogoslovsky, Mikhail Zharov, Boris Tenin, Valentina Tolkunova (by the way, the godmother of my children) to the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev and other leaders of the state.
I would like to talk to Stalin. I leafed through books, manuscripts of scripts with extensive notes from the leader. Undoubtedly, he was a charming and amazingly intelligent person. He thought strongly, caught the very essence of the question ...
But I would ask about something else: “Why, Iosif Vissarionovich, did you need to destroy your own people? Is it really just to keep the survivors in terrible fear? " In the communal apartment where I once lived, three were shot in four families, and three more were thrown into concentration camps. So it was with others. And no one ever answered for that.
- Working in the genre of a historical detective story, you were mentally transported to different eras more than once, studied the way of life and customs. What time would you like to live in, and in which country?
- In Russia of the XIX century. Everything there is clear and pleasant to me: people of all classes, good manners, customs, refined manners, noble culture. I would definitely visit Yasnaya Polyana in order to get in touch with the greatest of people. And of course, my ear would have been delighted with the juicy, expressive Russian language, now waning, sick.
- You know old Moscow very well. Which parts of the capital are you particularly fond of?
- Red Gate! Here I was born and live to this day - on Sadovaya-Chernogryazskaya. Where Kalanchevka turns into Myasnitskaya. Sublime, light, like a place hovering over the surroundings. In the old days, festivities were held here. Young Peter the Great had a lot of fun here at Maslenitsa, well, he got off the swing, badly injured his leg, which made him limp for a long time.
Opposite the metro, where there is now a car park, in the middle of the 18th century, according to the project of the famous Ukhtomsky, the Red Gate, amazing in beauty and grace, was erected. Alas, they were demolished in 1928 ... After the war, a small three-story house with a semicircular balcony on the corner of the Garden Ring and Kalanchevka, in which the great Lermontov was born in 1814, also disappeared. But a park with a monument to the poet has survived - since the time of Queen Elizabeth Petrovna, there was a market here where hay, coal, and firewood were traded.
On the right is the Reserve Palace, built during the reign of Catherine II. On the other side of the street was the estate of the Alekseev merchants, who had a son, Konstantin. He entered the history of the theater under the pseudonym Stanislavsky. Nearby is Bolshoi Kharitonevsky Lane, where the young Sasha Pushkin lived with his parents in the wing of the Yusupov Palace.
- I would like to hear a story about your pre-war childhood, the apartment where you lived. What were the children of that time interested in, what did they play?
- In our huge house 3b on Sadovaya-Chernogryazskaya there were 208 apartments. And each had six to eight families. Children were in almost every room, so our three vast courtyards were filled with children from morning to evening. Football, volleyball, small towns, chasing, tagging, robber Cossacks. For girls, classics and jumping over a rope, for boys in a quiet backyard, away from their parents' eyes, - for money, add a wall and expand. In the summer, in the evenings, they carried out the gramophone, and the older guys and girls arranged dances in the open air.
The house management set up a primitive, but very popular gymnastic town. Skating rinks were opening all over Moscow on November 10. We went to Chistye Prudy, where several hundred people dashed to music, mostly from operettas.
Since 1947, by order of the Moscow City Council, skating rinks began to be flooded in all courtyards, and in December they put up Christmas trees and decorated them with colorful lamps and toys.
- Judging by some recollections, before the war people lived pretty well. Is this an illusion or was it really so?
- Life was meager, I will report to you. What joy is it to pushing thirty neighbors, like ours, in an apartment with one toilet and a bathroom? And how to cook for such a crowd on two small gas stoves? By the way, the children were washed in the evenings in the kitchen, because it was warmer here than in the bathroom, where the gas water heater worked intermittently.
And what about washing and drying? Well, in the summer they dried it in the yard, but it was impossible to move away even for a minute, - the little things will certainly snatch! I will say something surprising: having lived twenty-six years in our apartment # 2, I don't remember a single scandal. Everyone was friendly and tried to help each other.
- The first day of the war. You are six years old. Do you remember something?
- I have an amazingly early memory. In my memoir book "The Golden Ducat" I wrote that I remember learning to speak - I was just over a year old ... However, Tolstoy remembered how they infringed on his freedom - wrapped in a swaddle!
On June 22, after having lunch, I was about to go into the courtyard, but neighbors crowded in the hallway. The headman of the apartment, the chief designer of the confectionery factory "Red October" Nesterov solemnly said: "Comrades, the war has begun. With whom? With the Germans! " The neighbors shook their heads in surprise: “It can't be! After all, we are friends with them! " But the news did not make a strong impression on me.
- What happened then?
- Air raids - at first training, when everyone went down to the basement. But already ten days after the start of the war, the evacuation of children from Moscow began. So my grandmother and I ended up in Chuvashia, in a wonderful place - the village of Ilyinskoye, on the right bank of the Volga. It was great here! Honey, homemade hot bread, lamb soup, fresh air, games from morning to night, full of freedom! It was as if there was no war.
But - horror! - in early October, my father demanded that we return to Moscow. The aircraft plant No. 315, where he worked as an engineer, was going to be evacuated to Perm. And the impractical father wanted the family to be together. What for? I did not understand this, for in Perm cold, hunger, and illness raged.
One unforgettable joy: our hostess, Aunt Polya, worked in the theater, where the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater was evacuated. Thanks to her, I was a regular guest in the enchanting world of music! "Eugene Onegin", "The Queen of Spades", "Dubrovsky", "The Enchantress", "The Nutcracker", "Giselle" - a festive atmosphere in the midst of terrible hungry everyday life.
We returned to Moscow in April 1943, and then life seemed like paradise to me. For the first time in a year and a half, I saw white bread! It was eaten by a boy whose mother worked as a soda drinker. There was much more food in Moscow than in Perm. They even sold ice cream here - 30 rubles a pack, a quarter - 7 rubles 50 kopecks. The delicacy is incredible! I thought: “It's good for Stalin! He eats ice cream all day. "
- You mentioned your father in passing. The famous football player who scored the first goal in the USSR championships, who won the country's Cup in 1936 ...
- My father was devoted to Lokomotiv all his life, although they tried to lure him into other, stronger teams, including the CDKA. The army leadership offered us a two-room apartment on Novopeschanaya Street. But my father preferred to stay with his family in a modest 14-meter room in a communal apartment. His arguments were simple: "How can I leave Lokomotiv if he raised me?"
- When did you start publishing?
- Right after school. In 1954, my first feuilleton appeared in the "Evening Moscow". 60 years have passed since then. Anniversary!
- Your first book "Cold Autumn" - about the fate of Bunin - was published when you were 53 years old. At this age, there are already dozens of novels on the account of other writers ...
- Bunin asserted: "You need to become a writer only in adulthood, when life experience has been accumulated and some wisdom has been gained." This is very correct, for a good writer is a teacher of this very wisdom. A good book elevates the soul, indicates the right path in life! It's better not to clog your brains with a bad book.
I have devoted many years to pedagogy. Already at the age of 21 he became a boxing trainer, raised several masters of sports. Among them is such a famous fighter as Lev Chemankov. Later, for some time he worked as a teacher in a rural school in the village of Murikovo, in the Volokolamsk region. And for two decades he taught at art vocational school №64, near the Riga station in Moscow. Three times he was recognized as the best teacher in the vocational education system.
Constantly and painstakingly studied history, and in particular the history of the Russian emigration. So, before writing a book about the great Bunin, I made 52 (!) Publications about him in newspapers and magazines. Basically, these were previously unknown autographs of Ivan Alekseevich and unexplored pages of his life. Spent over 25 years on this. But he studied the life of a writer day after day!
- In all honesty: were you going to become a writer? Or did it happen by chance?
- I thought about this frivolous act as a child. From elementary grades I read classics, made extracts of curious words, liked thoughts, well-constructed sentences. He kept dozens of scribbled notebooks: Tolstoy, Derzhavin, Gogol, Leskov, and Gorky (oh, what a talent!) - unfortunately, broken, mannered! And also Gorbunov, the singer of merchant life - a miracle writer, but he was completely forgotten, unfortunately. Well, Shmelev and Bunin, of course. These were my wonderful universities, my teachers. There is nothing higher than Russian classical literature of the 19th century!
- Has your bibliophile bias affected your writing?
- Of course! For many years I worked in special depositories, manuscript departments, looking for the necessary materials. When I was writing a book about Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, I carefully studied the emigre periodicals, primarily the Parisian "Latest News", the largest and most widely read newspaper in the Russian diaspora.
It was a huge, but necessary work. And yet, had I not been a bibliophile, I would never have become a writer. For example, I collected Bunin's autographs as a bibliophile. These are letters, manuscripts, dedicatory inscriptions on books. The great writer was revealed to me not at all the way he was portrayed in Soviet literature: dry, selfish, arrogant. I saw him cleaner, nobler, higher. I wanted to tell people the truth, as I understood it.
- Could you name a writer who would be guided by such a technique - would initially rely on reliable historical materials?
- The most striking example is Alexey Tolstoy. His best book is "Peter the First". Alexey Nikolaevich strictly followed the outline of Nikolai Ustryalov's well-known to historians, The History of the Reign of Peter the Great, published in five volumes in 1858-1859. By the way, the last volume of "Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich" is designated as the sixth, because the fifth was supposed to contain geographical maps. But he allegedly did not come out. Although the legendary hereditary second-hand bookseller Alexander Ivanovich Fadeev told me that he twice came across a volume that “did not come out”.
- Valentin Viktorovich, what is your favorite book? I understand that they are all relatives, but still ...
- I have written about 30 books, reprinted 89 times. For example, "Count Sokolov - a genius of detective work", "Fornication on blood", "Bloody block" were reprinted ten times. But the most dear to me is the historical novel The Scaffold and the Money, published only once - in 2004. In it, I reveal the origins of extremism at the beginning of the last century. I think this novel remains topical today.
What am I writing now? On a favorite topic - about fascinating searches for book rarities and the fate of these finds: "Book Fever", "Favorite of the Gods", "The head is full of books" ...
I wish all readers, dear fellow teachers, to instill in students a love of Russian classical literature. And also patience, endless kindness to the younger generation. However, Lev Tolstoy remarked brilliantly: the whole matter of educating others is reduced to educating ourselves ...
I wish you happiness in the new year!