Zhitkova Extracurricular activity. Literary kaleidoscope based on the works of B.S. Zhitkov Extracurricular activity Encyclopedia for little ones

And Henry Rider Haggard. But few people remember the Russian writer, teacher and researcher-traveler Boris Stepanovich Zhitkov, whom his fellow writer called the Eternal.

Childhood and youth

Boris was born on August 30, 1882. This happened in the city of Veliky Novgorod. The boy became the second child in the family - the first was daughter Vera. Boris's father, Stepan Vasilyevich, was a teacher at the Novgorod Teachers' Institute. Using Stepan Vasilyevich's textbooks, several generations of children studied arithmetic, algebra and geometry. The boy's mother, Tatyana Pavlovna, was a popular pianist, a student of the Russian composer Anton Grigorievich Rubinstein.

Because of his Jewish roots, Stepan Vasilyevich was closely watched by people from government agencies. Therefore, when, after the birth of the future writer, a conflict arose between Zhitkov Sr. and a local politician, Stepan Vasilyevich decided to take his family to another place. After riding around Russia for a year, but not getting hooked anywhere, Zhitkov Sr. takes his family to Odessa, where his brother and sister lived at that time.

In Odessa, Stepan Vasilyevich gets a job as a cashier-accountant on a ship, and Tatyana Pavlovna becomes a private tutor in playing the keyboard. Vera and Boris receive their primary education at home, and then enter gymnasium No. 5. It was in this educational institution that Zhitkov Jr. met the future writer and translator, as well as Vladimir Evgenievich Zhabotinsky, the future founder of the Jewish Legion.

In 1901, Boris graduated from high school and entered the Imperial Novorossiysk University in the department of natural sciences. As a university student, Zhitkov first became interested in playing the violin, but later decided to exchange it for photography (unfortunately, not a single photo of Zhitkov from those years has survived). The guy also does not forget about physical development - already in his third year he won prizes at sailing competitions.

Boris's hyperactive character and certainty in his beliefs lead him to help smuggle weapons for sailors who decided to revolt during the Russian Revolution of 1905. In 1906, Boris received a university diploma. Due to the unstable situation in the country, he cannot find a job for a long time. As a result, on the advice of a friend, he decides to become a sailor. After several trips to sea, the guy passes the exam to become a navigator. As a navigator of a sailing ship, he makes trips to Turkey and Bulgaria.

Literature

Boris Zhitkov came to literature quite late. On the other hand, it was his stormy and eventful life that became the basis for many of the author’s works. In addition, the writer kept a diary and regularly wrote letters to his family, thus getting better at the craft of writing. In 1909, he became the captain of a research vessel that took part in an ichthyological expedition along the Yenisei.

Upon returning from the expedition, Boris submits documents to the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University for the shipbuilding department. In 1910 he went to Denmark to undergo training as a metal worker. In 1912 he went on his first trip around the world. During his trip around the world, Boris was most impressed by the countries of Asia - India, Japan and China. In 1916 he graduated from the university with a degree in shipbuilding engineer.

By the time he graduated from the Polytechnic University, Zhitkov had already served in naval aviation for a year. In 1916, Boris received the rank of ensign in the aviation unit, and a year later - second lieutenant in the admiralty. In 1917, Zhitkov left the service and went to work in his specialty at the Odessa seaport, where he worked until 1924. This year Zhitkov moved to Petrograd.

There were two reasons for this: firstly, Boris was tired of sitting in one place - his “quick” character made itself felt, and secondly, Zhitkov decided to take his manuscript “The Evil Sea” to the publishing house. The editors appreciated the work and published it the same year. Since 1925, Zhitkov got a job as a teacher at a local school, and spent all his free time on writing. According to Boris's biographers, he wrote 74 essays, 59 novellas and short stories, 7 novels and 14 articles.

Boris Stepanovich became famous mainly as a children's writer. It was for children that he wrote most of his works - in particular, the collections “What I Saw”, “What Happened”, “Sea Stories” and “Stories about Animals”. The collection “Stories about Animals”, published in 1935, contained stories based on his impressions from visiting India - “The Stray Cat”, “The Brave Duckling”, “About the Monkey”, “About the Elephant”, “About the Snake and Mongoose", "Jackdaw" and "Wolf".

However, the work that Zhitkov put at the pinnacle of his creativity was the novel “Viktor Vavich,” dedicated to the events of 1905. For a long time the work was not published because it was banned. The uncut version was released only in 1999 thanks to Korney Chukovsky’s daughter, Lydia, who discovered the manuscript in her father’s archives.

It is worth noting that many people admired the novel “Viktor Vavich”. Among those who liked the work were a writer, a TV presenter and a publicist. Critics noted that if not for censorship, “Viktor Vavich” could have taken a place in Russian classics between “Quiet Don” and “Doctor Zhivago”. In 1988, when the fiftieth anniversary of the writer’s death was celebrated, the first collection of his works was published.

Personal life

Little is known about Zhitkov’s personal life. The nomadic lifestyle did not allow the writer to start a normal family, so towards the end of his days he lived in a civil marriage with Vera Mikhailovna Arnold (1896-1988), the daughter of the director of the Belogorodsky School and a Soviet cryptographer.

The couple had no children, but Boris had a nephew, Alyosha, the son of his older sister. It was Alyosha who became the prototype of the character in the stories from the collection “What I Saw.” However, there is evidence that Zhitkov has several children from a certain Felitsata Fedorovna Guseva - son Nikolai and daughter Felitsata. At least that's what some media say.

Death

Back in 1937, Boris Stepanovich felt unwell. On the advice of a friend, I decided to try therapeutic fasting, but this only worsened my situation. The writer finished the book, which Zhitkov planned as an “Encyclopedia for four-year-old citizens “Pochemuchka””, already dictating to his wife. This book was later published under the title What I Saw.

The writer did not have time to finish his other book, “Help is Coming,” dedicated to technology that serves the benefit of humanity. However, it was also later published under the title “Stories about Technology.” Boris Stepanovich died on August 19, 1938. He was buried in Moscow, in the sixth section of the Vagankovsky cemetery.

Based on his works, the cartoons “Buttons and Little Men” (the story “How I Caught Little People”), “Why Elephants?” (based on the story “About an Elephant”), “Pudya”, as well as the films “Sea Stories”, “Day of an Angel” and “Storm on Land”. Elements of Zhitkov’s biography were used in the poems “Mail” (1927) and “Military Post” (1943), as well as in the film “Look Back for a Moment” (1984).

Quotes from Boris Zhitkov

• “It is impossible for it to be difficult to study: it is necessary to study joyfully, reverently and victoriously.”
• “This is the worst thing - new pants. You don’t walk, but wear your pants: always watch that it doesn’t drip or anything else. They call you to play - be afraid. You leave the house - these conversations! And the mother will run out and shout after her all over the stairs: “If you tear it up, it’s better not to come back home!” It's a shame right now. I don’t need these pants of yours! It’s because of them that everything happened.”
• “Christ went into the city: people were running, fussing, donkeys were barking furiously, everyone was shouting, fussing, trampling, as if there was a fire in the city all day long. All Greeks are noisy people. Some Turks are sitting in the shade. Those who smoke a hookah, and those who suck on a straw, await their fate.”
• “So this is where the cats moved from the city.”

Bibliography

• 1924 – “The Evil Sea”
• 1925 – “Sea Stories”
• 1931 – “Stone Seal”
• 1935 – “Tales of Animals”
• 1939 - “What I Saw”
• 1940 – “Stories”
• 1941 – “Viktor Vavich”
• 1942 – “Stories about Technology”

Who among us did not read amazing stories about travelers in childhood?! Many were fond of such works, but not everyone now remembers that their author was the writer and researcher Boris Zhitkov.

Today let's take a closer look at the biography of this amazing man.

Years of childhood and youth

Boris Zhitkov was born in 1882 in the city of Novgorod. He came from an intelligent family: his father was an excellent mathematics teacher and taught at one of the teachers' institutes in Novgorod. Her mother was devoted to music with all her soul; in her youth she studied with him

However, Boris’s childhood was hectic not only because of frequent moves (his father had a reputation as an “unreliable” person, so he was often denied a place), but because of the character of the boy, who dreamed of travel and adventure.

His conscious years were spent in Odessa, and Boris Zhitkov immediately graduated from high school. At the gymnasium, his best friend was his classmate Kolya Korneychukov (future children's writer K. Chukovsky). Together they once decided to go on foot to Kyiv, however, they failed to get to Kyiv. The boys were returned to their homes and severely punished by their parents.

Dream of sea voyages

Boris Zhitkov has seen a lot in his life; the writer’s biography confirms this fact.

Boris was a capable student; following the example of his father, he entered the university, although in the natural sciences department, not in mathematics.

At the same time, the first Russian revolution took place in Russia in 1905. Zhitkov took the side of the rebels; one night he secretly smuggled weapons on a sailboat to the rebel sailors from the ship Battleship Potemkin. The rebellious student was not tolerated at the university and was expelled.

But Zhitkov did not give up, he decided to fulfill his old dream - to become a sailor and traveler. He decided to take the exam for the title of navigator, passed it with flying colors and was enlisted on board one of the ships.

Over the next three years, the future writer was able to visit the Red, Black, and Mediterranean Seas, travel to exotic countries and learn a lot about the local flora and fauna.

Engineer profession

Having traveled extensively, Zhitkov finally decided to get a serious profession for himself. In 1909, he came to St. Petersburg to enter the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. Zhitkov passed the entrance exams and became a student again. He went to practice in Europe, where he worked at a factory in a very simple position. He returned home to Russia and successfully graduated from college.

In 1912, on the eve of a terrible world war, the future writer sets off on a journey again. This time it became a circumnavigation. Zhitkov saw with his own eyes all the bright and unique colors of Asian countries: India, China, Ceylon. Later, his travel impressions would be very useful to him when he became a writer.

Returning to his homeland, Boris Zhitkov saw that a revolution had begun in the country, which turned the young engineer into an unemployed man, forced to starve and wander. It was then that the writing talent that had been dormant all this time awakened in Zhitkov.

Writing

Zhitkov created a whole series of works for very young readers; he called himself the author of an “encyclopedia for four-year-old children.” This included stories such as “A Mug under the Christmas Tree”, “Pudya”, “What I Saw”. The characters in these books are touching, inquisitive and understandable to every child.

The significance of the writer’s life and work

Boris Zhitkov lived a bright and memorable life; the photo of this man amazes with the special look with which the writer looks at people. This is a brave and at the same time kind look of a person who is ready to fight all the hardships of life and at the same time love it.

Boris Zhitkov felt himself to be a truly in love with life, his photo and biography are clear confirmation of this.

The writer died early. He was only 56 years old. Before his death, he was seriously ill, but was in no hurry to give up on his illness, but fought for every day he lived.

B. Zhitkov was buried in 1938 in Moscow, at the famous Vagankovsky cemetery.

Zhitkov lived only 15 years of his life as a writer. However, his contribution to children's literature is undeniable. It is the writer’s books that reveal to children all the beauty of the natural world and teach them a careful and reverent attitude towards it.

In November 1923, the middle-aged unemployed Boris Zhitkov wrote in his diary: “Today is the day when there is nowhere to go.” There was no work - and there was a feeling of a blank fence along which he walked and knocked unsuccessfully. And suddenly... “a gate opened in this fence... Not at all where... he knocked,... and they said: “For God’s sake, come in, come in.” This is “come in, come in,” they said in the editorial office of the magazine " Sparrow", where Korney Chukovsky suggested that Zhitkov should turn, who believed in the literary talent of his gymnasium friend. They once studied together in Odessa, at one time they were even friends, and Chukovsky (then Kolya Korneychukov) often visited the Zhitkov family.

The family was quite large: parents, three daughters and the youngest son. He was born near Novgorod, in a village on the banks of the Volkhov, where his parents rented a dacha. My father taught mathematics: one of his problem books was published thirteen times! But because of the strong stigma of being “unreliable,” he was forced to change one job after another. The family had to travel around Russia until they settled in Odessa, where his father managed to get a job as a cashier in a shipping company. Boris's mother idolized music. In her youth she even took lessons from the great Anton Rubinstein.

In Odessa, Boris went to school for the first time: a private, French one, where instead of grades for diligence, they gave candy wrappers and toys. Then I entered the gymnasium. He was an unusual high school student. His hobbies knew no bounds. He seemed to be interested in everything: he spent hours playing the violin, or studying photography. I must say that he was a meticulous student. And he often achieved excellent results. For example, having become interested in sports, he not only won prizes in races, but also built a yacht with his friends.

Once I persuaded Kolya Korneychukov to go to Kyiv on foot! And this is 400 kilometers. We left at dawn. Everyone has a shoulder bag. But they didn't last long. Boris was an imperious, unyielding commander, and Kolya turned out to be an obstinate subordinate.

Among Boris Stepanovich’s hobbies there was one that stubbornly “led” to that gate in the fence that “opened” Zhitkov the writer. One might say that since childhood his hand has been drawn to the pen, “pen to paper.” He published handwritten magazines. I kept diaries all my life. His letters are sometimes whole stories. Once, for his nephew, Boris Stepanovich came up with a long story in letters with a continuation. He also wrote poetry: he had a whole notebook of them. In addition, he turned out to be a great storyteller.

Yes, and there was something to tell him about. After graduating from high school, his life is a real kaleidoscope of diverse, sometimes exotic events.

He studied mathematics and chemistry at Novorossiysk University and shipbuilding at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, led an ichthyological expedition along the Yenisei, and worked at factories in Copenhagen and Nikolaev. I went on sailboats to Bulgaria and Turkey. Having passed the exam for a long-distance navigator as an external student, he set off across three oceans from Odessa to Vladivostok as a navigator on a cargo ship. During the 1905 revolution, he made explosives for bombs and helped print leaflets. And during the First World War, it accepted engines for Russian aircraft in England. He worked at school, taught mathematics and drawing.

He had to starve, wander, hide. And so, with the passion with which he sailed a yacht on the Black Sea as a boy, he, a middle-aged man, threw himself into literary work.

The first story of forty-two-year-old Boris Zhitkov, “Over the Sea,” was published in 1924 by the magazine “Sparrow.” Later the author changed the title (“Above the Water”). In the same year, a collection of short stories, The Evil Sea, was published.

Zhitkov's play "Traitor" ("Seven Lights") was performed in the Leningrad Youth Theater. Once, having received an invitation to work as an editor in the magazine "Young Naturalist", Boris Stepanovich carried out a "Zhitkovsky coup" there. Before that, the same thing happened in the Pioneer magazine, which, however, everyone was happy about.

The heroes of his works were people of bright, sharp characters: he met such people more than once in his life full of adventures. And the stories “About an Elephant” and “The Stray Cat” could have been written by a person who not only loved animals, but also understood them. How can one not remember that Boris Zhitkov had both a trained wolf and a cat who knew how to “become a monkey.”

As in childhood, he “longed to teach, instruct, explain, explain.” And sometimes the heroes of his works became... an ax or a steamboat. How the author wanted “his hands and brains to itch” from reading these books. For this purpose, he incessantly zealously invented.

Zhitkov’s varied knowledge also came in handy here. No wonder they had a great reputation. He could explain to a housewife how best to salt cabbage, and to the writer Konstantin Fedin how to make barrels. Yes, to explain that he “heard the knocking and hum of work... and was ready... to plan a little together with the wonderful cooper - Zhitkov.”

A desperate interest in life did not give the writer Zhitkov peace. Either he undertook to make a film about microbes, then he drew excitedly, then he returned to the violin. “I’m captivated, I’m in love and at my feet in admiration” - this is about a new instrument with a gentle “female” voice.

For his eternal wanderings, he was once called the “eternal Columbus.” What would Columbus be without discoveries! In 1936, Zhitkov took up an unprecedented book - “an encyclopedia for four-year-old citizens.” He called her "Why". The first listener and critic of individual chapters was a real why - his neighbor Alyosha, to whom “explain the subway - you’ll twist your brains.”

A book “for small readers” entitled “What I Saw” was published in 1939. It was the last for Boris Zhitkov, who died a year before its release. There is a legacy left: almost two hundred stories, novellas, articles.

LIX-IZBORNIK, 1996

He expressed his philosophical and theoretical views in artistic practice. The tasks Zhitkov set for himself were almost always very difficult - he was an experimenter in literature. And his innovation begins not with the manner of writing, not with the methods of revealing themes and characters, but earlier - with the very choice of themes and plots.

In his novel written for children, Zhitkov is not afraid of difficult situations or tragic incidents. It does not simplify life and relationships between people.

Both the positive and negative heroes of the short stories are not conventional figures, but deeply individualized images, alive in every word, deed, and gesture. Zhitkov does not have the melodramatic villains familiar to old children's stories, just as there are no “blue” heroes celebrating victory over evil in the final chapter.

At the beginning of the story, they are ordinary people, they perform insignificant actions, joke, and talk. Whether they are bad or good - who knows? But in a moment when you need to show high human qualities - in a moment of danger, for example - it turns out who is worth what.

Each person is outlined precisely, shown in action, in a dramatic situation, presented laconically, calmly and therefore especially expressively.

Let us recall one of the best and most characteristic stories for Zhitkov - “The Mechanic of Salerno”.

There is a fire on a passenger ship in the middle of the ocean, bales of yarn are smoldering in the hold. You cannot fill them with water - the steam will explode the hatches, and if you open the hold, air will enter and fan the flames. The ship is doomed. Apart from the crew, whom the captain instructs to build rafts to save 203 passengers, no one should know about the fire. Panic will begin - then everyone will die. The captain assumes enormous responsibility. He must ensure that the team works at a frantic pace and, moreover, calmly; he must at all costs prevent the slightest signs of panic.

And then the mechanic Salerno admits that he accepted a load of bertholium salt as a bribe - it was exactly in the hold where the fire started. This brings the danger closer and immeasurably increases.

In this acute situation, characters must inevitably be revealed, everything usually hidden behind insignificant actions and words of everyday life, superficial relationships between people, must be revealed.

Here is a charming Spaniard, amusing all the ladies on the ship - a merry fellow, a shirtless guy.

“I’m afraid,” said the young lady, “in boats on the waves...

With me, madam, I assure you, it’s not scary even in hell,” said the Spaniard. He put his hand to his heart."

But it turned out that this was not a fun rafting trip, but a disaster. The ship is on fire, and we have to use rafts to escape.

“Women, go ahead! - the captain commanded. - Who is with the children?

Suddenly the Spaniard pushed his lady away. He pushed the people aside and jumped on board. He prepared to jump onto the raft. The shot popped. The Spaniard fell overboard."

To comprehensively characterize the Spaniard, one phrase and one movement were needed. This turned out to be sufficient not only to define a person, but also to justify his murder.

And this is the second murder committed by the captain. The other passenger is outlined just as clearly and strongly as the Spaniard. He's even more disgusting. With the sensitivity of a coward, he immediately sensed trouble on the ship and walked, followed the captain, asked countless questions, sniffed, looked out.

“People like that always ruin... He’ll start chatting and raise the alarm. There will be panic.

The captain knew many cases. Fear is fire in the straw. It will reach everyone. Everyone will lose their mind in an instant. Then people roar like animals. The crowd rushes around the deck. Hundreds of them rush to the boats. Hands are chopped with axes. They rush into the water howling. Men with knives rush at women. They are making their way. The sailors do not listen to the captain. They crush and tear passengers. The bloodied crowd fights and roars. This is a riot in a madhouse."

The passenger pesters the captain and his assistants more and more persistently and anxiously. The captain ordered Salerno to entertain and distract the passenger with anything, and he himself fussed with him - all in vain. The cowardly passenger remains the match in the straw that will ignite the fire of panic.

“Suddenly the captain sat down. He instantly grabbed the passenger by the legs. He jerked it up and pushed it overboard. The passenger turned over his head. Disappeared overboard. The captain turned and walked away. He took out a cigar and bit off the tip. He spat a fathom. I broke matches while I was lighting a cigarette.”

The team began to panic. A riot is about to break out. The captain copes with this danger with a huge effort of will, the power of conviction, a stern threat and a cheerful smile.

He is not the only one who is bravely, sparing no effort, preparing for the rescue of passengers and crew. We see courageously working sailors, we see stokers suffocating in the unbearable heat in order to increase the speed of the ship and bring it to an area where ships often pass before disaster.

We meet the young navigator Gropani, whom the captain instructed to tirelessly entertain passengers and divert their attention from signs of imminent misfortune. Passengers in Gropani’s excited remarks and undertakings feel only the uncontrollable joy of the young man, infecting them, the desire to have better fun and entertain others. But the reader knows the real reason for his excitement, knows why the pleasure rafting trip he proposed is needed. In the very nature of Gropani’s remarks and inventions, we feel the enormous internal tension of the navigator. But the passengers have no idea about anything. In other words, readers and characters in the story have completely different understandings of the motives for Gropani’s words and actions. This determines the emotional power of the episode.

And finally, old man Salerno. He either throws himself on his knees in front of the captain to beg forgiveness for his guilt, or clumsily entertains a panicked passenger, or works until exhaustion with the sailors to build rafts - and, when everyone is saved, he quietly disappears from the raft and atones for his guilt by death.

The psychological and, if I may say so, moral richness of the eighteen chapters of this story, which occupies only eighteen pages, is amazing. “The Mechanic of Salerno” excites both adults and children alike.

The fact that the story is significant and emotionally effective for us adults is evidence of its artistic completeness, the absence of simplifications that so often made literature for children uninteresting to adults. And the fact that, despite two murders and a suicide, despite the complexity of psychological situations, the story is undoubtedly for children, is a consequence of the writer’s remarkable skill, a subtle understanding of the characteristics and possibilities of children’s perception of works of art.

Why does the story turn out to be completely accessible to middle-aged children? Here, of course, everything matters - the clear structure of the episodes, the ways of characterizing people, the language, and the rhythm of the story. But I would like to highlight one element of the artistic structure of “Mechanics of Salerno”.

Complex psychological collisions arise from a very simple conflict: the clash of courage and cowardice, duty and violation of it, honor and dishonesty. All this does not go beyond the life and emotional experience of adolescents. Moreover: we are talking about precisely those ethical experiences that are closer to any other for a teenager, constantly worrying him, since they arise often, although not in such an acute form - everyone has to solve them in school and family life. The main lines of the story are geometrically distinct and clear. It is this clarity that helps the young reader understand the characters’ characters, their actions and give a moral assessment to each. Of course, the depth of penetration into the psychology of the characters in the story depends on the age and development of the reader. But we read any truly artistic work differently at fourteen, twenty and forty years old.

The moral problems of the story excite and provoke thought in every reader. And teenagers are especially shocked by the discovery that killing can be an act of genuine kindness and responsibility. The death of two saved two hundred and three passengers and crew.

Perhaps, someone who reads these lines, but does not know the story itself, will have a thought: will the teenager decide that murder is a means allowed to get out of difficult situations that may arise in his life? No, the writer very accurately and clearly shows that only the need to save hundreds of people from death justified the murder of two. And although murder for the captain in those circumstances was the fulfillment of a duty, the reader always feels what a huge burden the captain took on his conscience, how hard the event is going through. This is expressed sparingly, sternly, sometimes with one gesture of the captain (he broke matches while lighting a cigarette), and therefore is especially strong.

The emotional intensity of The Mechanics of Salerno is determined in no small degree by the restraint of the narrative. She emphasizes the tragedy of the event and at the same time depicts the appearance of the true hero of the story - the captain. All other characters are characterized by their actions and remarks (for example, the Spaniard in the quoted episode). Reflections, an internal monologue that motivates actions and words, are given in the story only to the captain. Since events require constant composure and extreme tension from the captain, the stern brevity of words and thoughts are natural to him. And it determines the entire stylistic structure of the story, extending to the author’s speech and to the remarks of the other characters.

One more important detail. It is quite obvious that the main character of the work is the captain. Mechanic Salerno, in fact, would be a relatively inconspicuous person in the story if the story were not named after him. Zhitkov’s title emphasizes that the entire chain of tragic events was caused by Salerno’s frivolity, which grew into a terrible crime, which he atones for by death. This is one of the main moral motives of the story. He makes the reader think about how serious the consequences of a seemingly insignificant offense can be.

Zhitkov confidently develops themes that, according to the traditional view, are “non-childish” in many works.

Nobility and honesty do not always triumph at the end of the story. This is not an accident, but a principled position. It is connected with Zhitkov’s views on children’s literature. Rejecting the traditionally happy ending, Zhitkov entered into an argument with the old idea of ​​​​the possibility of only simple plots in prose for children, only straightforward moral conclusions and a necessarily happy ending.

Such literature could not be realistic simply because it completely ignored the complexity of relationships between people and the contradictions of class society.

Here is a story about the sinking of a steamship to collect an insurance premium (“Destruction”). Honest people strive to expose the captain and owner of the ship, and are ready to suffer themselves so that justice will prevail. For them, the betrayal of the captain and his willingness to risk the lives of his subordinates for personal material gain are unbearable. But honest people were unable to fight those who could buy the police, the judge, or send hired killers. And so they, those whom the captain wanted to get rid of, kill him themselves.

This time the murder is not driven by such obvious necessity as in The Mechanic of Salerno, and it is more difficult to justify. And yet the ethical grain of the story is clear to the reader.

Let us remember what Gorky writes about the experiences that the books he read in his youth caused:

“I was familiar with dozens of books that described mysterious and bloody crimes. But now I’m reading Stendhal’s “Italian Chronicles” and again I can’t understand - how was this done? A man describes cruel people, vengeful murderers, and I read his stories, like “the lives of the saints,” or I hear “The Dream of the Virgin Mary” - the story of her “walking through the torments” of people in hell.”

In other words, the morality or immorality of a story about a crime is determined by its ideological concept and artistic embodiment.

In “Destruction,” Zhitkov, in accordance with the situation he has chosen, uses artistic means other than in “The Mechanics of Salerno.”

Many of Zhitkov’s short stories, including “Destruction,” are written from the perspective of the narrator. Sometimes these are sailors, sometimes workers, sometimes a boy, sometimes someone who has lived a long life and tells its episodes. Zhitkov always retains his voice, but its timbre in each short story is determined by the narrator and responsibility for the nature of events is, as it were, transferred to him, the narrator.

After all, the author, who does not have his own lines in the story, cannot himself explain or justify the actions of the heroes, or directly express his attitude towards them. This attitude follows from the action directed by the writer and is present in the subtext. The reader is left to draw his own conclusion about the correctness or incorrectness of the hero’s actions and to solve the moral problem posed to him. He must reflect on the fate and behavior of the heroes of the story, and the right decision is suggested by the entire structure of the story, the entire nature of the presentation, all the artistic means that the writer has, who has abandoned his lines in the work.

Every reader needs to make a moral conclusion, because there is a question left in the work, and you need to give yourself an answer to it. You will have to think about it. Demanding from the reader the independent work of thought and imagination, Zhitkov, as it were, strengthens the moral conclusion in his mind, makes him remember the story for a long time, associate it in his memory with those characters, those actions that can be encountered in everyday life.

Zhitkov’s “fairy tale” short stories are characterized by the same emphatically calm tone that so heightens the emotionality of “The Mechanic of Salerno.” The death of the ship, great dangers, and murders are spoken of in simple words; precise descriptions of actions are devoid of external pathos - in the most dramatic places the writer is especially restrained. And despite the fact that the people on whose behalf Zhitkov tells the story are very different, they have common features: nobility of character, courage, respect for man and his work.

The heroes of "Destruction" are a sailor who hired to paint a ship in the port (the narrator), and a Spaniard from the ship's crew, with whom the sailor became friends. It is clear to the narrator from the very beginning that the ship is only suitable for scrapping. And he notices that some kind of trick is being prepared: for some reason, empty boxes are being loaded on board the ship. Going to sea on such a ship is madness. But the Spaniard, a former bullfighter, got scared once in his life and promised himself that he would never be scared again. He decided to remain on the crew of the doomed ship. And the narrator stayed on the ship out of friendship for the Spaniard. He almost doesn’t know the language, doesn’t know how to swim, and will die without the help of a friend.

The ship went out to sea. The captain drowns him and falsifies entries in the ship's log. All this was started so that the owner of the ship would receive a large insurance premium. The whole crew was bribed; the captain failed to bribe only the Spaniard and the narrator so that they too would remain silent about how it all happened. The captain tried to drown the Spaniard and put the narrator in prison for a long time by bribing the police. But both avoid danger. They find the captain. He goes with the convoy - he is afraid. They waylaid him in a narrow passage and met him face to face.

“The captain jumped up - he wanted to turn around. But Jose caught him by the chest.

Yes... and then we threw him like a carcass on a stack.”

These lines reveal one of the secrets of Zhitkov’s writing style. The murder is not emphasized, it is told about it as if in passing, sparingly, in two phrases. The reader's attention is not directed to this episode, but to the characteristics of the characters, their attitude to dishonesty and injustice. It is not the murder that turns out to be the plot of the story, but the story of the noble friendship of two sailors - a Russian sailor and a Spaniard. The story speaks of courage, nobility, and loyalty in friendship. He talks about the meanness of the capitalist world, where criminals like the captain of the "Destruction" go unpunished. This is how the reader will remember the story. Zhitkov showed that both sailors were worthy people, and left the murder on their conscience. This is a difficult life episode caused by the fact that the proletarian cannot achieve justice in a capitalist society.

The writer does not want to give a false, “childish” ending, to avoid murder in the story if, in his opinion, the characters’ characters and the situation should have led to murder. And the reader believes Zhitkov, because he is truthful in every story he tells, he doesn’t hide anything, he doesn’t manipulate anything. He has no far-fetched situations, the plot and characters develop logically, so the moral idea that permeates the story clearly emerges.

Zhitkov chose a difficult path: he preserves life situations that in the retelling seem not at all “childish”, and with subtle artistic means, the placement of plot accents eliminates what could be controversial from an educational point of view.

The stories are written very succinctly, each line moves the development of the action, there are no drawn-out or sluggish episodes. Everything is presented, albeit briefly, but without any haste, very accurately, clearly. There are no unnecessary details that are not necessary for the development of the plot, the delineation of characters, or for understanding the situation.

To select the necessary amount of details, without which the story will be vague or pale, to give the maximum load to every line, every phrase, and not to drag out or mumble the plot - perhaps the most difficult and most necessary thing for a short story writer. There is no other prose genre that requires such economy and power of expressive means as the story. The novelist's attitude to the word, to its semantic and emotional load is as attentive and careful as that of the poet. If this is true of any story, then it becomes especially necessary in a story written for children - after all, every unnecessary detail, every protractedness of the story scatters their attention and weakens the impression of the story.

Zhitkov's short stories can serve as a textbook example of care and economy in the selection of artistic means, in constructing a plot that would create the most favorable conditions for clarifying the character of the characters and solving the ethical problem underlying the story.

Who are they - the people shown by Zhitkov in his stories? Drunkards, swindlers, and cowards pass in the background: in the fight against them, the character of Zhitkov’s true heroes is revealed.

Captains, sailors - the narrators and heroes of "Sea Stories" - have an important quality common to them: these people think and care not about themselves, but about others - about those with whom they are connected at work, with whom they have become friends, or simply about those who need help.

All of them are very honest, loving and devoted to the work to which they dedicated their lives, honestly and devotedly, like Zhitkov himself to his literary work.

All of them are people with a broad understanding of responsibility to their fellow workers and to their conscience; none of them is looking for an excuse to avoid a difficult task or danger. They are resourceful, courageous and therefore often win.

The skillful and courageous overcame the danger, and those who turned out to be cowards in a moment of alarm are a little embarrassed and try to pretend that nothing, in essence, happened.

“- Decide? - asked the assistant.

“I have already determined all of you, who is worth what,” said the captain and he himself took the sextant (astronomical instrument) from the navigation room.

And in the morning I began to shave and saw that my temples were gray.”

This is how the story “Nikolai Isaich Pushkin” ends.

Zhitkov approaches people attentively and with great kindness. But this kindness is courageous. Although the mistakes of a good, worthwhile person are punished, they do not force him to be despised. Another thing is selfish cowards, inveterate scoundrels, like the captain of an insured ship or the cowardly Spaniard from “The Mechanic of Salerno.” For them, Zhitkov has neither compassionate understanding, nor justification, nor pity. Their death does not cause him sympathy.

For Zhitkov, only those who think about others as much as themselves are valuable and are ready to risk their lives if this can save their comrades. The one who loves his work is valuable, puts all his thoughts and strength into it, does it faithfully and does not spare himself for the success of the work.

This is the main thing in the heroes of Boris Zhitkov.

Certainty, precision of images, the desire to make the landscape, water, swell, ship - nature and things tangible, as if sensually visible - is a feature characteristic of all Zhitkov’s stories.

“But the wind died down completely. He immediately lay down, and everyone felt that no force could lift him up: he was completely deflated and now couldn’t breathe. A glossy oily swell rolled fatly across the sea, calm, swaggering.”

“Gritsko looked from the side into the water, and it seemed to him that transparent blue paint was dissolved in the water: dip your hand and take out the blue one.”

Zhitkov needs the reader’s muscles to tense and his fingers to move when he reads the story.

The captain at the Mechanica Salerno waits for dawn to transfer passengers to the rafts. He walks around the deck, measuring the temperature of the burning hold. The temperature is rising. “The captain wanted to adjust the sun. Turn it upside down with the lever."

In the story “Nikolai Isaich Pushkin” the icebreaker is in danger of destruction. He “climbed his nose onto the ice and stood there, pushing with the machine. Both the captain and the assistant, without noticing it themselves, pressed on the gunwale of the bridge, pushing together with the icebreaker... The captain hit the ice twice more and was out of breath, helping the ship.”

This physical expressiveness with which Zhitkov conveys the feelings of excited people is capable of causing involuntary muscular effort in the reader, captivated by the story.

The accuracy of Zhitkov’s descriptions is the result of not only his masterful use of words, but also his talent for vision and observation.

Let us remember his “Tales of Animals”. It is difficult to quote them - it would be necessary to reprint the entire stories, for example the classic story “About the Elephant”. The reader receives, after reading five pages, an accurate, complete picture of the habits and character of the elephant. only if? No, we get acquainted with the life of a working Indian family, shown without any exoticism, which is rare for the literature of the time when the story was written. We see Indians in everyday work. And the elephant is told precisely in this regard - how it helps its owners, what an elephant is a good and kind worker.

Every movement of the elephant is noted and conveyed with pedantic precision, its expediency is explained in simple words, without the slightest reproach.

“We look, the elephant came out from under the canopy, through the gate - and away from the yard. We think it will go away completely now. And the Indian laughs. The elephant went to the tree, leaned on its side and, well, rubbed. The tree is healthy - everything is just shaking. He itches like a pig against a fence.

He scratched himself, collected dust in his trunk and, wherever he scratched, dust and earth as he blew! Once, and again, and again! He cleans this so that nothing gets stuck in the folds: all his skin is hard, like a sole, and in the folds it is thinner, and in the southern countries there are a lot of all kinds of biting insects.

After all, look at him: he doesn’t itch on the posts in the barn, so as not to fall apart, he even carefully makes his way there, but goes to the tree to itch.”

Zhitkov’s attentiveness of observations and expressive accuracy of descriptions extend to people, their work, and nature. From this attentiveness of descriptions arises another quality of his stories: their educational value. Unobtrusively and calmly, without dragging out the story, Zhitkov conveys a lot of information that is necessary and well remembered.

The short story about a drowned man casually, but very efficiently and with exhaustive clarity, tells how to save drowning people and pump them out.

“Sea Stories,” if you select from it all the information about shipbuilding, about driving a ship, about the duties of sailors, the captain, about an honest attitude to work, will turn out to be a kind of short encyclopedia of maritime affairs.

The reader will find the same encyclopedic information in “Stories about Animals.” About the elephant, about the wolf, about the monkey, about the mongoose, Zhitkov tells everything that is necessary and interesting to know about them. He shows animals at work, in solving difficult problems, in circumstances when their natural properties are revealed most clearly.

But Zhitkov knows how to provide educational material, presented in an interesting, fascinating and without any plot.

He was one of the creators of Soviet scientific and artistic literature, who implemented the principle expressed by Gorky: “In our literature there should not be a sharp distinction between fiction and popular science books.”

More precisely, Zhitkov was one of the few writers at that time who, with their works, gave Gorky the basis to formulate this principle.

Zhitkov has a lot of stories about technology. He wrote about electricity, and about printing, and about cinema, and about the steamship, and about many other things.

K. Fedin recalls:

“Once, for a story, I needed to know better how barrels are made. On the stairs of the House of Books I met Boris Stepanovich. He asked what I was doing and I told him about the barrels.

I don’t remember now any books about cooperage, but I was once familiar with it myself,” he said. - Listen here.

We stepped aside, and right there, on the landing of the stairs, I learned details about the preparation of rivets, hoops, all the cooper’s tools, all the difficulties, dangers, diseases and all the delights of barrel production. Zhitkov spoke with such enthusiasm and so clearly explained the stuffing of hoops onto staves that I felt transported to a cooper’s workshop, heard the knocking and hum of work, inhaled the aroma of oak shavings and was ready to take up the hump to plan a little together with the wonderful cooper Zhitkov.

So he knew dozens of crafts.”

It is this aroma of work, the delight of labor and creation that Zhitkov managed to transfer into his books.

He lived a long, complex life. He was a long-distance navigator, studied natural sciences, and was a shipbuilding engineer. Zhitkov came to literature late, already an elderly man, with a large supply of accurate knowledge and observations, with an understanding of the correct attitude of a person to work and with a very young temperament, a deep desire to tell children about everything that he saw and learned.

In almost every book devoted to work or the history of things, Zhitkov finds a new way to tell in an entertaining, fun and understandable way everything you need to know about the branch of technology to which he dedicated his work.

“Steamboat” is a theme dear to Zhitkov both as a shipbuilding engineer and as a navigator. Freely navigating the material, Zhitkov presents it in a unique way and with great skill. The peculiarity of this book is that nothing seems to be told “in a row.” In a light, casual conversation, Zhitkov moves from a description of the captain’s work to an anecdote about a drunken ship, from a fascinating story about cleaning the deck to a tragic incident that occurred from excessive cleaning.

The conversation is about little things, entertaining, but seemingly random, told randomly. And when you read the book, it turns out that you have received distinct, clear knowledge about the steamship, and about ship mechanisms, and about shipbuilding, and about port service, and about the enormous responsibility of the crew, and about the propeller, the anchor, and about what kind of steamer for which service is more convenient?

Funny and sad incidents, skillfully distributed across the pages of the book, turn out to be so meaningful when on the following pages you understand why they were told, that they are remembered forever and the living episode is inextricably linked in the mind with the reason for which it was told.

The book about the printing house is structured differently - “About this book.” Everything is told there in a row. On the first page is a facsimile of the manuscript of this very book. Then it is said how it went into typesetting, how it was typed, laid out, corrected, printed, bound, even how the author took his manuscript to the editor and then redid it. Talking about each production process, Zhitkov shows what funny absurdities would result if this operation was skipped, and the reader easily and cheerfully remembers the sequence of work.

Zhitkov in his scientific and fiction books did not artificially reduce the volume of information due to the fact that it is difficult to tell children about this or that - he did not avoid complex topics. In old popular science books for children, omitting things that couldn't be easily communicated was a common way of getting around difficulties in presentation. Zhitkov would consider such an omission to be the writer’s dishonesty. Moreover, it was precisely these difficulties that attracted him, and it was here that he could show his literary ingenuity, his skill.

In his educational books, he followed the same path that was chosen by all advanced Soviet writers working in children's literature: the difficult becomes accessible if the author understands his subject clearly enough and works not only to find simple and clear language, accurate comparisons or images, but and - above all - on the search for the correct concept of the book, the form of the work that expresses the theme with the greatest emotional power and accuracy.

In those few cases when Zhitkov was convinced that he could not tell in a sufficiently interesting and clear way everything that he considered necessary to reveal the topic, he did not find a form that satisfied him, he postponed the implementation of the plan until this form was found.

In stories about technology, Zhitkov always goes from simple to complex - he seems to briefly repeat the path of scientific and technical thought, which over the course of decades or centuries has led to inventions that raise the material culture of mankind to a new level. Once one problem is resolved, another arises. Behind her is the third. Each invention is the result not of one effort of creative thought or a successful discovery, but of a chain of successive discoveries, the gradual accumulation of knowledge, experience and then a brilliant conclusion from them.

Zhitkov talks about the electric telegraph. He starts with the simplest electrical signal - a bell. If several people live in an apartment, one needs to call twice, the other four. So a simple call can become a directed signal. “And you can arrange it so that whole words can be conveyed by ringing. Invent a whole alphabet." The reader will now understand where Morse code comes from.

“But imagine listening to a bell ring and understanding every letter. The words come out... After all, by the time you listen to the end, you will forget what happened at the beginning. Write down? Of course, write it down."

How to record? “But it’s very inconvenient to both listen and write down... You can, of course, do this: write down in Morse code.”

Thus, another stage has been completed. A new difficulty arises: “But you go to the telegraph office on purpose and listen to how quickly the telegraph operator taps the key of the machine. If a bell rang like that in another city, no one here would have time to record it... It would be best if the call itself were recorded. I wish I could install a machine like this.”

Zhitkov explains how electric current can control the movement of a pencil. So, starting with a simple call, he led the reader to the structure of the telegraph apparatus. This is Zhitkov’s characteristic method of talking about technology.

But to show the reader how humanity, from observations made in ancient times on the property of rubbed amber to attract hairs, came in the 20th century to radio direction finding, to enrich the mind of a teenager with this knowledge, to show him the movement of science and material culture - all this is not enough for Zhitkov.

He wrote in the article “About the production book”:

“Struggle and tragedy, victory and triumph of the new path that has opened up in the breach of the centuries-old wall, will raise that feeling that is most precious: the desire to immediately get involved in this struggle and, if the dispute is not over, to immediately take the side that he is on.” the truth is imagining.

And no matter what you write about, you cannot consider your task completed until the end if you do not leave this feeling in the reader. If he read your book to the end, read it carefully and put it aside with gratitude, writing down the information received for the arrival - no! you didn't do the most important thing. You have not aroused the desire, the passion to quickly begin, right now, to unfold the wall so that light suddenly splashes, even through the smallest gap... And if you are writing about an invention, even the most narrow, applied, very modern one, show its place in the history of technology , and technology as a milestone in the history of mankind.”

In other words, the purpose and significance of a scientific and artistic book is not only in communicating certain information to the young reader, no matter how important and useful they may be in themselves. An educational book should not only educate, but also educate the reader.

In fact, can a fundamentally new approach to a popular book about science, as a work of art, pursue only one goal: to facilitate understanding of the subject? For this purpose, the usual use of certain techniques of artistic writing in popular science literature—sometimes comparisons, occasionally images—would be sufficient.

A scientific and artistic book is the result of “imaginative scientific and artistic thinking,” as Gorky put it. We are talking about creating books that are artistic in concept and execution as a whole, and not resorting to the image as an auxiliary means of popularization.

Such a work can and should set itself a more significant task than a popular science book: it can and should, like any work of art, become a means of multifaceted education of the reader, influence not only his mind, but also awaken emotions and the desire for action.

This is how Zhitkov, one of the first, understood the demands of the time and the possibility of deep reform in this area of ​​children’s literature, which was still almost unrenewed when he began his work - the book about science.

No matter how great the innovative significance of Zhitkov’s books about technology is for our children’s literature, it must be said that he only went part of the way, he renewed the attitude towards children’s books about science within the limits that he outlined in the article cited above.

Zhitkov knew how to awaken in the reader a passion to get down to business as quickly as possible, he knew how to show the place of the invention in the history of technology. But he solved technical topics without a clear connection with the history of society, without a clear connection with the present-day work of the Soviet people, with the needs and demands of a socialist country. And thus Zhitkov limited the educational and propaganda value of his scientific and artistic books.

We have the right to apply this reservation to all of Zhitkov’s work. His stories always contain the right moral direction - he strives to instill in children a love of work, a high understanding of duty, honesty, and friendship.

But all the plots of his stories are taken from the pre-revolutionary era. Zhitkov shows how the noble qualities of people manifested themselves in a class society. Zhitkov accumulated a huge stock of observations and thoughts during his rich life. There was so much left unspoken, undepicted, begging to be put on paper - and now, I didn’t have time...

In only one book - the last - Zhitkov showed Soviet life and Soviet people.

A five-year-old boy goes on a journey. He travels with his mother by train to Moscow, then with his grandmother on a ship to Kyiv, and flies by plane. An immense world of amazing things opens up to him. A steam locomotive, a forest, an elevator, a bus, a washbasin in a steamboat cabin, a traffic light at an intersection, a melon, an electric stove - things that are so ordinary for an adult that he does not notice them. The boy records everything he saw in his memory with the completeness available only in childhood. Everything requires explanation, adults know so many interesting and important things about every thing - the word “why” is always on the tip of their tongue. Alyosha was even nicknamed “Why?”

Mother, grandmother, taxi driver, collective farm chairman, commander of the Soviet Army - everyone who meets Pochemuchka must satisfy his keen, tireless curiosity.

It would be wonderful if adults were always able to give answers to children’s questions with such accuracy, with such an understanding of the volume and nature of knowledge needed by a five-year-old, as Boris Zhitkov does in his latest book “What I Saw.”

The boy talks about his journey, what he saw and what his companions told him about what he saw. This is an encyclopedia for the little ones (the book is intended for children from three to six years old), an encyclopedia covering several hundred concepts and objects, presented in the form of a large story and richly illustrated.

We all know the curious boy who asks questions and gets sensible answers in dozens of children's educational books. This boy helps the author diversify long explanations with dialogues. The trouble is that such a boy is usually forcibly squeezed into the book, remains restless and helpless in it, and does not organize the plot. It seemed that this questioning boy was literary compromised. Boris Zhitkov managed to make him a real, and not a conventional hero of the book. This is a boy with character, with actions, good and bad, with whims. He eagerly explores a world in which there is so much still unknown, so many exciting events and adventures.

Constant interest in the story is maintained by the dramatic and comic situations that arise all the time. The movement of the plot in the book is like small waves behind the propeller of a steamship: as soon as the rise subsides, a new one appears - quickly, one after another.

The events are insignificant for adults, but for Alyosha and for his peers, the readers of the book, these are the most real, exciting and significant incidents.

Light humor - without pressure, without the desire to necessarily make the reader laugh by any means - permeates almost all episodes.

A very difficult literary task faced Zhitkov. He presents the entire book - and there are about fifteen printed pages in it - as a boy's story. It took a lot of careful work, a keen sense of language, a wealth of observations on the psyche of children, their ways of expressing their thoughts, in order to maintain the tone without getting confused or vulgarizing children's speech. When reading a book, you forget that the plot and images of people appearing in the story play a service, subordinate role. The only bad thing is the image of Alyosha’s mother, too fussy and naive.

Cognitive material is included in the plot organically and cannot be separated from it.

Here is an example, one of hundreds of possible ones, of how information about things appears in a book, how words that were previously unclear or dead to him are included in a child’s circle of ideas, and come to life.

They are traveling on a bus and meet troops leaving for maneuvers.

“And everyone began to say:

The cavalry is coming.

And these were just Red Army soldiers on horseback with sabers and guns...

And then we went with more spikes to stab with. Only they held their peaks up, because there was no war yet.

My uncle told me:

Uncle laughed and said:

It's a gun, not a stick.

And the houses are made of iron.

The gun will go boom - just hold on! And the house is strong: you can shoot at it with a gun, it’s okay.

This is a tank. There are people sitting there. Military. They can run into whoever they want. And enemies cannot hide from them anywhere. Because the tank goes wherever it wants. He will run into a tree and break the tree. He will run straight into the house and destroy the whole house. He will want to, and he will go into the water and go under the water.”

Slowly and at the same time concisely, Zhitkov gives exactly the complex of knowledge about each thing that is necessary and sufficient for a five-year-old.

Comparisons that easily associate the unfamiliar with the everyday, familiar, figurative definitions are chosen very skillfully: this is exactly how a child could describe the things he saw for the first time. Zhitkov managed to preserve in the story the child’s surprise at a new phenomenon or object for him, and the ease with which he masters something new and accepts it into his world, and a keenly emotional attitude to each meeting, and the astonishment of the fact that an unfamiliar word means an ordinary thing (cavalry - “these are just Red Army soldiers on horseback”).

It was necessary to work through a huge amount of material to create this universal book, into which Zhitkov so generously invested all his writing experience and talent, knowledge and observations of a diverse life lived, as if he had a presentiment that this was the last book. It is not only interesting, but also fundamentally new for children's literature - there was nothing to compare it with.

However, this literary generosity for Zhitkov is not the exception, but the rule.

The writer approached each of his books, each story with a fresh thought and a fresh creative concept, with such a supply of material that he could choose from it the most important and most interesting for readers.

Some of Zhitkov's books on technology are outdated in terms of material - technology has moved forward. But not a single one has become outdated as an example of the artist’s attitude to the word, which should encourage the reader to move mountains.

There is a large margin of safety in Zhitkov's stories. For half a century they have lost neither freshness nor educational value. The plots of his stories, as we said, are taken from pre-revolutionary life, but they were developed by a Soviet artist who knows how to find in the past those character traits and attitudes of the best people to work that are important for a socialist society. Boris Zhitkov teaches his reader honesty, courage, dedication, and worthy behavior in the hour of danger.

His example is not outdated for writers either.

K. Fedin wrote, remembering Zhitkov:

“We use the word “master” very often in the writing community. But there are not very many masters among us. Zhitkov was a true master, because you can learn writing from him: he wrote like no one else, and you enter his book like a student into a workshop.”

It's right. With the ability to create an extremely clear, but not simplified image using simple means, the ability to accurately see and accurately describe, trust and respect for the young reader, the desire to lead him to the right path in life, to arm him with high morals and rich knowledge, Boris Zhitkov entered the ranks of great Soviet writers, who determined the character and artistic level of our literature for children.

Notes:

It is interesting that in the same year Gorky wrote the fairy tale “Morning”, in which he expresses this idea to children: “The fairy tale about how people worked on the land is the most interesting fairy tale in the world!” Gorky considered this work unsuccessful - “Morning” was published only after his death. In this article, dedicated to Gorky’s journalistic, critical and organizational work in children’s literature, I do not touch upon his artistic works for children - the story “Shake” (1898) and the fairy tales “Morning” (1910), “Sparrow” (1912), “Chance” with Evseyka" (1912) and "Samovar" (1917) were written before October.

Boris Zhitkov’s views on children’s literature and the tasks of his work are widely covered in his letters and articles collected in the collection “The Life and Work of B. S. Zhitkov” (M., Detgiz, 1955), and in an article by V. Smirnova published there about this theme.

B.S. Zhitkov (1882-1938) published his first stories for children in 1924. By this time, he had a long career behind him, full of hard and exciting work in mastering many sciences and professions. He taught the children chemistry and mathematics, then. Having studied flying, he received aircraft engines for Russian aircraft in England, built ships, and then sailed on them as a navigator. This rich life experience gave Zhitkov material for creativity. After the publication of his first stories, he completely immersed himself in literary activity - he became the author and editor of children's books, a contributor to the magazines "Sparrow", "Chizh" and "Pioneer", and a playwright at the Theater for Young Spectators.

Zhitkov created more than a hundred works for children in 15 years. By passing on truly encyclopedic knowledge to young readers and sharing life experience, the writer filled his works with high moral content. His stories are dedicated to human bravery, courage, kindness, and convey a romantic passion for business.

B. S. Zhitkov creates scientific and artistic works that help develop the creative imagination of children. He appeals to the child's feelings and to his mind. The stories of B. S. Zhitkov are deeply emotional and plot-driven (“About this book,” “The Carpenter,” “The Steam Locomotive,” “Through Smoke and Flame”). Technical terms are almost never used by the writer. The writer’s focus is on people and creative work. In his stories one can often feel the influence of L. Tolstoy. B. Zhitkov’s work is characterized by a deep analysis of the inner world of people of different ages (collections “The Evil Sea”, “Sea Stories”; stories “Pudya”, “White House”, “How I Caught Little People”, “Courage”, “Red Commander” " and etc.). His works provide a wealth of material for educational work with children: for conversations, for the development of work skills. B. Zhitkov was one of the first to approach the solution of the important task facing new literature, combining a sharp plot and entertainment with a thorough study of the psychology of the heroes. He brought into it harsh realism, a respectful conversation with a teenager about heroism and demands on oneself and on people, romantic spirituality, and an imaginative perception of the world.”

Stories from the first collections - "Evil Sea" (1924) and "Sea Stories" - introduce the reader to a world with which the author is well acquainted. In addition to life-like authenticity, they captivate with sharp drama and fascinating plots. After all, a person at sea is dependent on the capricious elements, extremely tense and ready to bravely face any surprise.

Zhitkov paid a lot of attention to scientific and educational literature for children. He wrote many books and essays on the history of science and technology.

The writer created most of his educational books for young children. He was increasingly captivated by the idea of ​​writing a work of an encyclopedic nature for very young readers - from three to six years old. As a result, in 1939, posthumously, the famous book appeared “What did I see? Stories about things" ("Whychka"), on which more than one generation of children grew up. The book “What I Saw,” according to the author’s plan, is an encyclopedia, a collection of answers to a variety of “whys.” She must explain to a four-year-old child what the metro is, what Bashtan is, the Red Army, the airport and the zoo. A keen expert on child psychology, Zhitkov decided that in order to assimilate and remember various information, it is best to tell the story on behalf of a peer of the reader. The plot of the book Zhitkov made the journey of four-year-old Alyosha. Alyosha visited Moscow with his mother - for the first time he saw a station, a train, and then a taxi, a semaphore, a hotel, the Kremlin. From Moscow he went to Ukraine, to visit his grandmother on the collective farm - here he saw forests and fields, vegetable gardens, orchards, and towers. Then he flew by plane to his father in Kharkov. On the way and on the spot, Alyosha tirelessly asked: “Why?” The boy learns the world - this is what became the plot of the book - and learns it not statically, but, as is typical for children, in action. Four-year-old Alyosha, called “Why”, not only talks about something, but also reports his impressions of milestones and events. Thanks to this, the enormous educational material does not overwhelm the child, but arouses his curiosity: after all, a peer is telling the story. To talk about unfamiliar things, Alyosha has to explain what he saw using concepts he has already mastered. Thus, in “Pochemuchka” the well-known didactic principle “from simple to complex” is implemented. “The horses were carrying a stove on wheels. She has a thin pipe. And the military man said that it was the kitchen that was coming”; “The anchor is very large and iron. And it is made of large hooks” - this is how the first “scientific” information is given. And not only does the child gain knowledge about things from this book, but also lessons in communicating with people. In addition to Alyosha, there are such characters as a military uncle, mother, grandmother, and friends. Each of them is individual, each has their own actions, and the main character gradually begins to understand what exactly he needs to cultivate in himself.

Zhitkov created several dozen more short stories for young children, collected in books "What Happened" (1939) and "Tales of Animals" (1935). In the first of these collections, the writer pursues the same goal as in works about sea adventures: he tests the morality and courage of his heroes in the face of danger. The plots here unfold more succinctly: they contain one event, one life situation. The attention of the little reader is held by a sudden, unexpected twist in the plot. Here is, for example, a story "Blizzard": The boy, the hero of the work, is carrying a teacher and her son, and only thanks to the hero’s ingenuity and self-control they all did not die in the snowy whirlwind. The tension is created by descriptions of the struggle with the elements, and this is conveyed through the boy’s story, through his impressions and experiences.

In general, Zhitkov often entrusted the narration to children in his works. This technique helps the writer show how the child’s imagination begins to work, awakened by aesthetic experience. The boy Borya admires the steamboat standing on the shelf. The dreamy hero populates the boat with tiny people and, in his passionate desire to see them, ends up breaking the toy. He cries bitterly because he has a good heart and he did not want to upset his grandmother, for whom the steamboat is dear as a memory. (“How I caught little men”).

In every character he creates, Zhitkov invariably emphasizes the presence or absence of kindness. For him, this quality is no less important than courage. Even when depicting an animal, the writer finds in its behavior traits that indicate manifestations of kindness, courage, and self-sacrifice in the human understanding. A thorough knowledge of the life and habits of animals helps him in this. “Our little brothers” pay a person with devotion and affection for taking care of them (“About the Wolf”, “About the Elephant”, “Stray Cat”).

Researchers of Zhitkov’s work note the closeness of his stories about animals to the works of Leo Tolstoy about them: here there is the same respect for a living being, realism and kindness.

38. English children's literature, its features (A. Milne, J. Barry, E. Lear , L. Carroll, D. Tolkien ).

A children's book often becomes a creative laboratory in which forms and techniques are developed, and bold linguistic, logical and psychological experiments are carried out. National children's literature is actively being formed; the uniqueness of traditions in children's literature in England, France, German-speaking, Scandinavian and West Slavic countries is especially noticeable. Thus, the originality of English children's literature is manifested in the rich tradition of literary games based on the properties of language and folklore.

All national literatures are characterized by a wide distribution of moralizing works, among which there are their own achievements (for example, the novel by the Englishwoman F. Burnet “Little Lord Fauntleroy”). However, in modern children's reading in Russia, works by foreign authors, in which a “different” view of the world is important, are more relevant.

Edward Lear(1812-1888) “made himself famous for nonsense,” as he wrote in the poem “How nice it is to know Mr. Lear...”. The future poet-humorist was born into a large family, did not receive a systematic education, was in dire need all his life, but traveled endlessly: Greece, Malta, India, Albania, Italy, France, Switzerland... He was an eternal wanderer - and with a bunch of chronic illnesses, which is why doctors prescribed him “absolute rest.”

Lear dedicated poems to the children and grandchildren of the Earl of Derby (he did not have any of his own). Lear's collections “The Book of the Absurd” (1846), “Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets” (1871), “Ridiculous Lyrics” (1877), “Even More Nonsense Songs” (1882) gained great popularity and went through many editions even during poet's life. After his death they were reprinted annually for many years. An excellent draftsman, Lear himself illustrated his books. Albums of his sketches made during his travels are known all over the world.

Edward Lear is one of the forerunners of the absurdist movement in modern English literature. He introduced the genre into literature "limerick". Here are two examples of this genre:

One young lady from Chile

Mother walked one hundred and two miles in 24 hours,

Jumping indiscriminately

One hundred and three fences later,

To the surprise of that lady from Chile. * * *

The Old Lady from Hull

I bought a fan for the chickens

And so that on hot days

They didn't sweat

She waved a fan over them.

(Translation by M. Freidkin)

Limericks are a small form of folk art that has long been known in England. It originally appeared in Ireland; its place of origin is the town of Limerick, where similar poems were sung during festivals. At the same time, their form was developed, which requires an obligatory indication at the beginning and end of the limerick of the area in which the action takes place, and a description of some oddity inherent in the resident of this area.

Lewis Carroll- pseudonym of the famous English storyteller. His real name was Charles Latwidge Dodgson (1832-1898). He is known as a scientist who made a number of major discoveries in mathematics.

The Fourth of July 1862 is memorable for the history of English literature because on this day Carroll and his friend went with the three daughters of the rector of Oxford University on a boat trip on the Thames. One of the girls - ten-year-old Alice - became the prototype of the main character of Carroll's fairy tales. Communication with a charming, intelligent and well-mannered girl inspired Carroll to create many fantastic inventions, which were first woven into one book - "Alice in Wonderland" (1865), and then to another - "Alice in the Wonderland" (1872).

The work of Lewis Carroll is spoken of as an “intellectual vacation” that a respectable scientist allowed himself, and his “Alice...” is called “the most inexhaustible fairy tale in the world.” The labyrinths of Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are endless, as is the author’s consciousness, developed by intellectual work and imagination. One should not look for allegories, direct connections with folk tales, or moral and didactic subtext in his tales. The author wrote his funny books to entertain his little friend and himself. Carroll, like the “king of nonsense” Edward Lear, was independent of the rules of Victorian literature that required educational purpose, respectable heroes and logical plots.

Contrary to the general law, according to which “adult” books sometimes become “children’s”, Carroll’s fairy tales, written for children, are read with interest by adults and influence “great” literature and even science. “Alice...” is scrupulously studied not only by literary scholars, linguists and historians, but also by mathematicians, physicists, and chess players.

Linguists admire the play on words and see in “Alice...” parodies of various works of art and funny plays on old British sayings like “the smile of the Cheshire Cat” and “The Mad Hatter.” For example, in the Middle Ages in Cheshire (where, by the way, Lewis Carroll himself is from), on the signs of drinking establishments there was a grinning leopard with a shield in its paws. True, the image of an overseas animal was a little difficult for local artists - in the end, its grin looked more like a smile, and the leopard itself looked more like a good-natured cat. This is how the popular proverb “Smiles like a Cheshire cat” was born.

The humor is based on a play on words. Do cats eat midges? Do cats eat midges?

Carroll became a “writer for writers,” and his comic works became a reference book for many writers. The combination of fantasy with honest “mathematical” logic gave birth to a completely new type of literature.

In children's literature, Carroll's fairy tales played the role of a powerful catalyst. Paradox, play with logical concepts and phraseological combinations have become an indispensable part of modern children's poetry and prose. Carroll's own remark that words “mean more than what we mean when we use them, and therefore the whole book probably means much more than what the writer had in mind” turned out to be prophetic. In this regard, there is a certain difficulty in adequately translating not only poetic inserts, but also prose text, full of allusions, hints, and wordplay in the original English version.

The peculiarity of Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass is that all the rules, conventions and conflicts change there on the fly, and Alice is not able to understand this “order”. Being a sensible girl, she always tries to solve a problem logically. Carroll created a world of playing “nonsense” - nonsense, nonsense, nonsense. The game consists of a confrontation between two tendencies - the ordering and disordering of reality, which are equally inherent in man. Alice embodies the tendency of ordering in her behavior and reasoning, and the inhabitants of the Looking Glass - the opposite tendency. Sometimes Alice wins - and then the interlocutors immediately switch the conversation to another topic, starting a new round of the game. Most often, Alice loses. But her “gain” is that she progresses on her fantastic journey step by step, from one trap to another. At the same time, Alice does not seem to become smarter and does not gain real experience, but the reader, thanks to her victories and defeats, sharpens his intellect.

Alan Alexander Milne(1882-1956) was a mathematician by training and a writer by vocation. His works for adults are now forgotten, but fairy tales and poems for children continue to live.

One day Milne gave his wife a poem, which was then reprinted more than once: this was his first step towards children’s literature (he dedicated his famous “Winnie the Pooh” to his wife). Their son Christopher Robin, born in 1920, will become the main character and the first reader of the stories about himself and his toy friends.

In 1924, a collection of children's poems “When We Were Very Little” appeared in print, and three years later another collection entitled “Now We Are Already 6” (1927) was published. Milne dedicated many poems to the bear cub, named after the bear Winnie from the London Zoo (there is even a monument erected to her) and a swan named Pooh.

"Winnie the Pooh" consists of two independent books: "Winnie the Pooh" (1926) and "House in Bear's Corner" (1929; another translation of the title is “House on Poohovaya Edge”).

A teddy bear appeared in the Milnes' house in the first year of the boy's life. Then a donkey and a pig settled there. To expand the company, dad came up with Owl, Rabbit and bought Tigger and Kanga with baby Roo. The habitat of the heroes of future books was Cochford Farm, acquired by the family in 1925, and the surrounding forest.

Russian readers are well aware of B. Zakhoder’s translation entitled “Winnie the Pooh and all-all-all.” This translation was specially made for children: the infantilism of the characters was enhanced, some details were added (for example, sawdust in the head of a bear cub), cuts and changes were made (for example, Owl appeared instead of Owl), and also their own versions of songs were written. Thanks to Zakhoder’s translation, as well as F. Khitruk’s cartoon, Winnie the Pooh firmly entered the verbal consciousness of children and adults and became part of the Russian childhood culture. A new translation of “Winnie the Pooh”, made by T. Mikhailova and V. Rudnev, was published in 1994. However, further we will talk about Zakhoder’s translation, “legalized” in children’s literature.

A. A. Milne structured his work as fairy tales told by a father to his son. The writer settled the boy and his bear along with other toy characters in a fairy-tale Forest. The forest is a psychological space for children's play and fantasy. Everything that happens there is a myth, born of the imagination of Milne Sr., children's consciousness and... the logic of the toy heroes: the fact is that as the story progresses, the heroes leave the author's subordination and begin to live their own lives.

The system of heroes is built on the principle of psychological reflections of the “I” of a boy listening to fairy tales about his own world. The hero of fairy tales, Christopher Robin, is the smartest and bravest (although he does not know everything); he is an object of universal respect and reverent admiration. His best friends are a bear and a pig. The pig embodies the boy's yesterday, almost infantile self - his past fears and doubts (the main fear is being eaten, and the main doubt is whether his loved ones love him?). Winnie the Pooh is the embodiment of the current “I”, onto which a boy can transfer his inability to think with concentration ("Oh you stupid bear! - Christopher Robin says affectionately every now and then). In general, problems of intelligence and education are the most significant for all heroes.

Owl, Rabbit, Eeyore - these are versions of the child’s adult “I”; they also reflect some real adults. These heroes are funny because of their toy-like “solidity.” And for them, Christopher Robin is an idol, but in his absence they are trying in every possible way to strengthen their intellectual authority. So, the Owl speaks long words and pretends that he knows how to write. The rabbit emphasizes his intelligence and good manners, but he is not smart, but simply cunning. Eeyore is smarter than others, but his mind is occupied only with the “heartbreaking” spectacle of the world’s imperfections; his adult wisdom lacks his childish faith in happiness.

All the characters have no sense of humor; on the contrary, they approach any issue with extreme seriousness (this makes them even funnier and more childish). They are kind; It is important for them to feel loved; they expect sympathy and praise. The logic of the heroes (except for Kanga) is childishly self-centered, the actions performed on its basis are ridiculous. Here Winnie the Pooh makes a series of conclusions: the tree itself cannot buzz, but the bees that make honey buzz, and the honey exists for him to eat... Next, the bear, pretending to be a cloud and flying up to the bee’s nest, is literally waiting a series of crushing blows.

Evil exists only in the imagination, it is vague and indefinite: Heffalump, Buki and Byaka... It is important that it, too, eventually dissipates and turns into another funny misunderstanding. The traditional fairytale conflict of good and evil is absent; it is replaced by contradictions between knowledge and ignorance, good manners and bad manners. The forest and its inhabitants are fabulous because they exist in conditions of great secrets and small mysteries.

The mastery of the world by a playing child is the main motive of all stories, all “Very Smart Conversations”, various “Iskpeditions”, etc. It is interesting that fairy-tale heroes never play, and yet their life is a big boy’s game.

"Winnie the Pooh" is recognized throughout the world as one of the best examples of books for family reading. The book has everything that attracts children, but there is also something that makes adult readers worry and think.