Leonid Solovyov - biography: Eternal wanderer. Life and books of Leonid Solovyov Leonid Vasilievich Solovyov born in 1932
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In 1921, the family, fleeing hunger in the Volga region, moved to Kokand. In 1922, the young man graduated from school, studied two courses at a mechanical technical school, worked for some time as a railway repairman, traveled a lot around Turkestan, collected and deeply studied Central Asian folklore. In Kanibadam he married Elizaveta Belyaeva, but their marriage soon broke up. In 1923, Leonid Solovyov began publishing in the newspaper “Turkestanskaya Pravda” (since 1924 - “Pravda of the East”). Until 1930 he worked as a special correspondent for this newspaper.
In 1927, Solovyov’s story “On the Syr-Darya Coast” received the second prize from the World of Adventures magazine (before this the story was rejected in Tashkent). Believing in his literary talent, Solovyov came to Moscow (1930) and entered the literary and screenwriting department, which he graduated in 1932. In Moscow, he married for the second time - to Tamara Sedykh, the marriage also turned out to be unsuccessful and broke up after Solovyov’s arrest. The writer had no children from both wives. During his studies, he published several stories, mainly in magazines.
In 1930, L. V. Solovyov carried out a mischievous hoax - he submitted to the publishing house his own songs about V. I. Lenin, which he passed off as translations of Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz folk songs and tales. All of them were included in the collection “Lenin and the Creativity of the Peoples of the East” (1930). V. S. Vitkovich also spoke about this story in his memoirs. Additional comedy was given to this idea by the results of a hastily organized expedition of the Tashkent Institute of Language and Literature, which in 1933 confirmed the folklore source of the songs and even presented their “originals” in Uzbek and Tajik.
In 1932, L. V. Solovyov’s first book was published - the story “Nomad” - about the life of nomads during the years of the revolution, and two years later - a collection of stories and stories “The March of the “Winner””. In 1935, based on the script by L.V. Solovyov, the film “The End of the Stop Station” (Mezhrabpomfilm) was shot.
"Troublemaker" (1940)
In 1940, L. V. Solovyov published the novel “The Troublemaker,” the first book of his most significant work, “The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin.” The book, published on the eve of the war in Roman-Gazeta, immediately gained extraordinary popularity for its extraordinary literary skill, intelligent, kind and cheerful wit. Its film adaptation (“Nasreddin in Bukhara”) took place in the war year of 1943, when films were shot mainly on military or patriotic themes. The book was reprinted many times, and one reprint occurred even after the author was arrested for a political article (1946). Translated and published in French, Dutch, Danish, Hebrew and other languages.
Arrest and imprisonment (1946-1954)
In September 1946, Solovyov was arrested on charges of “preparing a terrorist act” and kept in pre-trial detention for ten months. As a basis for the arrest, the investigation presented the testimony of an “anti-Soviet group of writers” previously arrested in 1944 - S. A. Bondarin, L. N. Ulin and A. G. Gekht, who admitted that their friend L. V. Solovyov had “terrorist sentiments" against Stalin. The file contains examples of the writer’s anti-Soviet statements: collective farms have not justified themselves, literature is degrading, and creative thought has stagnated.
I met Leonid Solovyov (“The Troublemaker”) who had returned from exile. Tall, old, lost his teeth. He recognized me immediately, unconditionally. Decently dressed. This, he says, was bought for him by a man who owes it to him. I took it to a department store and bought it. About life there he says that he did not feel bad - not because he was placed in any special conditions, but because inside, as he says, he was not in exile. “I took it as retribution for a crime I committed against one woman” - my first, as he put it, “real” wife. “Now I believe I will get something.”
“The crime against a woman,” which Solovyov spoke about, he himself touched upon in his testimony at the investigation in 1946: “I separated from my wife because of my drunkenness and infidelity, and I was left alone. I loved my wife very much, and breaking up with her was a disaster for me.”
Last years (1954-1962)
He settled in Leningrad. In 1955, Solovyov married for the third time, his wife was the Leningrad teacher Maria Kudymovskaya. Friends helped him publish the entire duology “The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin” (both books, 1956) in Lenizdat. The book was a huge success. At Lenfilm, the writer earned extra money by writing and revising scripts.
He secured the place Solovyov occupied in Russian literature by writing a book about a semi-legendary folk sage who lived in the 13th century; The basis of this book is made up of about 300 funny incidents from the life of Khoja Nasreddin that have survived to our time. The image of Nasreddin in Solovyov’s book retained the traditional mixture of trickery and nobility, aimed at protecting the oppressed, wisdom and love of adventure; Moreover, in the second part of the book the fantastic and entertaining side is greatly weakened. In the episodes from the life of Nasreddin freely processed by the author, the style inherent in Eastern literature with its imagery and spectacular expressiveness is preserved.
Continuing to work in the field of cinematography, Solovyov wrote, in particular, the script for the film “The Overcoat” (1959) based on the story of the same name by N. V. Gogol. In 1961, parts of L. V. Solovyov’s new work “The Book of Youth” first appeared in print (they were published posthumously in a separate publication in 1963, under the title “From the Book of Youth”).
Awards
- Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (November 5, 1943)
Creation
- Lenin in the Works of the Peoples of the East (1930). Retrieved January 27, 2015.
- Nomad (1932)
- March of the "Victor" (1934)
- Sad and funny events in the life of Mikhail Ozerov (1938) (original title “High Pressure”).
- The Great Exam (1943)
- Ivan Nikulin - Russian sailor (1943)
- Sevastopol Stone (1944)
- The Enchanted Prince (1954; fully published 1966)
- Sevastopol Stone (1959)
- From The Book of Youth (1963)
Film scripts
- The end of the stop (1935, jointly with V. Fedorov)
- Nasreddin in Bukhara (1943, based on the novel “The Troublemaker”) (co-authored with V. Vitkovich)
- The Adventures of Nasreddin (1944, jointly with V. Vitkovich)
- Ivan Nikulin - Russian sailor (based on the story of the same name) (1944)
- The Overcoat (based on the story by N. Gogol) (1959)
- Anathema (based on the story of the same name by A. Kuprin) (1960)
Literature
- Kalmanovsky E. S. Life and books of Leonid Solovyov // Solovyov L. The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin. Book of Youth: Tale and Stories. - L.: Lenizdat, 1990. - 672 p.
- Solovyov L.V. The Enchanted Prince. - M.: Terevinf, 2015. - 304 p. - (Ruslit. Literary monuments of the 20th century). - ISBN 978-5-4212-0181-6.
- Sokolova T."I Must Be a Dervish", pp. 270-277.
- Bernstein I. The case of Leonid Solovyov, pp. 278-286.
- Prigarina N."The Enchanted Prince" and Sufism, pp. 287-303.
Private bussiness
Leonid Vasilievich Solovyov (1906-1962) born in Tripoli, in what is now Lebanon. His parents were teachers who received their education at government expense and had to work for a certain period of time wherever they were sent. Both were sent to Palestine, where they met and got married. My father held the position of assistant inspector of North Syrian schools of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society. In 1909, the family returned to central Russia and taught in schools in the Samara province.
In 1921, fleeing famine in the Volga region, the family moved to Uzbek Kokand. There, Soloviev graduated from school a year later and entered a mechanical technical school, but after studying two courses, he left. For some time he worked as a repairman on the railway, and taught at a school for the oil-processing industry.
Traveled a lot around Central Asia - Turkestan - collecting local folklore. In Tajik Kanibadam he married Elizaveta Belyaeva, but this marriage soon broke up.
In 1923, he began working as a journalist, publishing in Turkestanskaya Pravda (soon renamed Pravda Vostoka), published in Tashkent. Until 1930 he was a special correspondent for this newspaper.
In 1927, the Moscow magazine “World of Adventures” announced a competition to which Solovyov sent his story “On the Syrdarya Shore.” The story received the magazine's second prize. Inspired by this event, the journalist decided to leave for Moscow and seriously engage in literary creativity. He was able to do this only three years later: in 1930 he entered the literary and screenwriting department of VGIK, from which he graduated in 1932. In Moscow he married for the second time - to Tamara Sedykh. Solovyov had no children in either union.
In the 1930s, he wrote stories about the everyday work of people, about Central Asia, and socialist construction projects, which were readily published.
In 1932, his story “Nomadhood”, about the life of nomads during the years of the revolution, was published as a separate book, and in 1934, a collection of stories and stories “The Campaign of the “Winner”” was published. He collaborated with cinema; in 1935, the film “The End of the Stop Station” was filmed based on his script.
In 1940, Solovyov’s novel “The Troublemaker” was published - the first book of the later “Tale of Khoja Nasreddin”. The novel about a witty oriental half-simple, half-sage immediately became popular. In 1943, it was filmed under the title “Nasreddin in Bukhara.” The script for the film was written by Soloviev and screenwriter Viktor Vitkovich. In 1944, they prepared the script for the second film story, “The Adventures of Nasreddin.” This film was released in 1946.
During the war, Soloviev worked as a military correspondent for the newspaper “Red Front” on the Black Sea, wrote novels and stories about military exploits: “Ivan Nikulin - Russian sailor” (the story was filmed in 1944), collections of stories “The Great Exam” (1943) and “Sevastopol stone" (1944).
In September 1946, he was arrested on the basis of the testimony of an “anti-Soviet group of writers” - Sergei Bondarin, Leonid Ulin and Semyon Gekht, who two years earlier admitted that their friend Solovyov had “terrorist sentiments” against Stalin. The case also contained anti-Soviet statements by the writer that collective farms had not justified themselves, Soviet literature was deteriorating, and creativity was stagnating.
The investigation lasted six months: the first of 15 interrogations took place on September 5, 1946, the last on February 28, 1947. There was no trial, the verdict was made by the JSO; In total, Solovyov spent ten months in prison.
After 10 months of pre-trial detention, Soloviev admitted a fictitious guilt: plotting a terrorist attack against Stalin. “I was only thinking about how to quickly escape from the investigative prison somewhere - even to a camp. There was no point in resisting under such conditions, especially since the investigator told me: “There won’t be a trial against you, don’t get your hopes up. We’ll put your case through a Special Meeting.” In addition, I often, with my confessions, seemed to pay off the investigator - from his persistent demands to give incriminating evidence against my acquaintances - writers and poets, among whom I did not know the criminals. The investigator told me more than once: “You’re blocking everyone with your broad back, but they’re not really blocking you,” Solovyov later wrote in his petition for rehabilitation.
“For anti-Soviet agitation and terrorist statements” he was sent to camps for 10 years. He spent most of his time in Mordovia, where the head of the camp allowed him to write a second story about Khoja Nasreddin in his free time. In May 1948, Soloviev asked his relatives to send him only notebooks for notes: “I must be a dervish - nothing superfluous... This is where, it turns out, I need to escape in order to work well - to the camp!.. No temptations, and a life conducive to wisdom . Sometimes I smile at this myself.”
The story “The Enchanted Prince,” written based on the script for the film “The Adventures of Nasreddin,” was completed by the end of 1950. In the summer of 1954, Solovyov was released under an amnesty.
Writer Yuri Olesha recalled his meeting with Solovyov: “Tall, old, lost his teeth. He recognized me immediately, unconditionally. Decently dressed. This, he says, was bought for him by a man who owes it to him. I took it to a department store and bought it. He says about life there that he did not feel bad - not because he was placed in any special conditions, but because inside, as he says, he was not in exile.”
After his release, he settled in Leningrad with his sister Zinaida. In 1955, he married for the third time - to teacher Maria Kudymovskaya (the second marriage actually ended after the writer’s arrest in 1946). He published both novels about Nasreddin in Lenizdat (1956). He began working for cinema again, at Lenfilm he was involved in writing and finalizing scripts, in particular, he wrote the script for the film “The Overcoat” based on Gogol (1959).
In 1961, he published the first parts of his new work, “Books of Youth.”
What is he famous for?
Leonid Soloviev
Leonid Solovyov is the author of “The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin,” consisting of the books “The Troublemaker” (1940) and “The Enchanted Prince” (1954). The story is based on about three hundred parables and anecdotes from the life of Khoja Nasreddin, a folk sage who lived in the 13th century. Solovyov summarized these stories, creating on their basis a single fairy-tale image of both a simpleton and a sage, a rogue and a noble man, a lover of travel and adventure.
The Enchanted Prince is very different from the fantastically entertaining first book. The novel, created in the camps, is written in a restrained, sad, philosophical style.
What you need to know
At the end of the 20s, Solovyov committed a literary forgery: he submitted to the publishing house songs he himself had written about Lenin, which he passed off as translations of folk songs and tales from Central Asia.
While living in Kokand, having understood the rules and laws of versification by Kokand storytellers and singers, Soloviev tried his hand at stylization. He ended up with a whole notebook of songs, tales and legends about Lenin in Russian.
He took this notebook with him to Moscow, where his young literary acquaintances recommended publishing it, indicating the authors. Then, at the end of each poem, Solovyov made a footnote “written there”: he named several villages in the Kokand and Khojent region where he had been, and under some poems, for the sake of verisimilitude, the fictitious names of the storytellers, and took the notebook to the publishing house “Moskovsky Rabochiy” . Under the authorship of Solovyov, it was published as a separate book, “Lenin in the Works of the Peoples of the East” (1930).
In the summer of 1933, a folklore expedition of the newly created Tashkent Institute of Language and Literature was sent to the Fergana Valley to record these songs in Uzbek and Tajik. The expedition, to the surprise of those initiated into this story, returned with success - all the songs, with the exception of one, were found and recorded. The researchers “confirmed” that the songs have a folk source and even presented their “originals” in Uzbek and Tajik.
It is believed that the folklore expedition did not want to return with anything, since time and money were spent. And then they simply translated Solovyov’s songs from Russian into Uzbek and Tajik, with the exception of one, which they “didn’t find.”Direct speech
The story of Nasreddin and the donkey:
“He chose the largest and most crowded teahouse in the row, where there were no expensive carpets or silk pillows, entered and dragged the donkey along the steps of the stairs instead of placing it at the hitching post.
Khoja Nasreddin was greeted with surprised silence, but he was not at all embarrassed, took out the Koran from his saddle bag, which the old man had given him as a parting gift yesterday, and, opening it, placed it in front of the donkey.
He did all this slowly and calmly, without a smile on his face, as if that was how it was supposed to be.
People in the teahouse began to look at each other.
The donkey tapped his hoof on the echoing wooden flooring.
- Already? - Khoja Nasreddin asked and turned the page. — You are making noticeable progress.
Then the potbellied, good-natured teahouse owner got up from his seat and approached Khoja Nasreddin:
- Listen, good man, is this a place for your donkey? And why did you put the holy book in front of him?
“I teach this donkey theology,” Khoja Nasreddin answered calmly. — We are already finishing the Koran and will soon move on to Sharia.
There was a rumble and a whisper throughout the teahouse; many stood up to see better.
The teahouse owner's eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly. Never before in his life had he seen such a miracle. At this time, the donkey knocked his hoof again.
“Good,” Khoja Nasreddin praised, turning the page. - Very good! With a little more effort, you can take the position of chief theologian at the Mir-Arab madrassa. But he doesn’t know how to turn pages on his own, so we have to help him... Allah provided him with a sharp mind and a wonderful memory, but forgot to provide him with fingers,” added Khoja Nasreddin, turning to the teahouse owner.
The people in the teahouse, abandoning their teapots, came closer; Not even a minute had passed before a crowd gathered around Khoja Nasreddin.
- This donkey is not an ordinary donkey! - Khoja Nasreddin announced. “It belongs to the emir himself.” One day the emir called me and asked: “Can you teach my beloved donkey theology so that he knows as much as I do?” They showed me a donkey, I checked his abilities and answered: “O blessed emir! This wonderful donkey is not inferior in the sharpness of his mind to any of your ministers, or even to you yourself, I undertake to teach him theology, and he will know as much as you know, and even more, but this will take twenty years.” The emir ordered to give me five thousand tanga in gold from the treasury and said: “Take this donkey and teach him, but I swear by Allah: if in twenty years he does not know theology and read the Koran by heart, I will cut off your head!”
- Well, that means you can say goodbye to your head in advance! - exclaimed the teahouse owner. - Where have you seen this, so that donkeys study theology and read the Koran by heart!
“There are many such donkeys in Bukhara now,” answered Khoja Nasreddin. “I’ll also say that it’s not every day that a person manages to get five thousand tanga in gold and a good donkey for the farm.” And don’t mourn my head, because in twenty years one of us will definitely die - either me, or the emir, or this donkey. And then go figure out which of the three of us knew theology better!
The teahouse almost collapsed from an explosion of thunderous laughter.”
5 facts about Leonid Solovyov
- As a child, Solovyov's favorite authors were Jack London and Rudyard Kipling.
- For his participation in the war he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the medal “For the Defense of Sevastopol.”
- By his own admission, he separated from his second wife “because of his drunkenness and infidelity.” He reproached himself for this, believing that imprisonment in the camp was given to him as punishment for this break. His wife did not open his letters from the camp, and when he left, she did not accept him. Discuss on social networks
Leonid Vasilyevich Solovyov (1906-1962) - Russian Soviet writer, screenwriter, author of a dilogy about Khoja Nasreddin (part 1 - “The Troublemaker”, 1940; part 2 - “The Enchanted Prince”, 1954; fully published in 1966).
Leonid Solovyov was born on August 6 (19), 1906 in the city of Tripoli (Lebanon) in the family of an assistant inspector of North Syrian schools of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society.
In 1909, the family returned to Russia, from where they moved to Kokand in 1921.
Leonid Solovyov began publishing in 1923 in the newspaper “Turkestanskaya Pravda” (later “Pravda Vostoka”) and until 1930 he worked as a special correspondent for this newspaper. During trips around the Fergana region in 1924-1925. L. Solovyov collected and studied folklore. During these years, he recorded songs and stories about V.I. Lenin, which were included in the collection “Lenin and the Creativity of the Peoples of the East” (1930). According to E. Kalmanovsky, “all the works included there were composed by Solovyov himself, thus creating a folklore and literary hoax.”
In 1930, Solovyov came to Moscow and entered the literary and screenwriting department of the Institute of Cinematography, from which he graduated in 1932.
In 1932, his first book-story “Nomad” was published - about the life of nomads during the years of the revolution, and two years later - a collection of stories and short stories “The Campaign of the “Winner””.
In 1939, the novel “The Troublemaker” was published - the first book of L. Solovyov’s most significant work - “The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin”. In 1935, based on the script by L. Solovyov, the film “The End of the Stop Station” (Mezhrabpomfilm) was shot. In collaboration with V.S. Vitkovich, he wrote the scripts for the films “Nasreddin in Bukhara” (1943) and “The Adventures of Nasreddin” (1946).
During the Great Patriotic War, Solovyov was a war correspondent for the Red Fleet newspaper. The writer’s front-line stories and essays were included in the collections “The Great Exam” (1943) and “Sevastopol Stone” (1944). Based on the story “Ivan Nikulin - Russian Sailor” (1943), he created a screenplay for the film of the same name (1944).
In September 1946, Solovyov was arrested on charges of preparing a terrorist act. He was released in June 1954, after spending eight years in the camps. The story “The Enchanted Prince,” the second part of “The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin,” was written in the camp, based on the script for the film “The Adventures of Nasreddin,” and completed by the end of 1950.
Since 1954, Solovyov lived in Leningrad. In Lenizdat in 1956, “The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin” first appeared in two books. The book was a huge success.
Continuing to work in the field of cinematography, Solovyov wrote, in particular, the script for the film “The Overcoat” (1959) based on the story of the same name by N. V. Gogol.
In 1961, parts of L. Solovyov’s new work “The Book of Youth” began to appear in print for the first time (they were published as a separate publication in 1963 under the title “From the Book of Youth”).
The writer died on April 9, 1962 in Leningrad. He was buried at the Krasnenkoe cemetery, Narvskaya path.
Bibliography* Nomad (1932)
* March of the “Victor” (1934)
* Sad and funny events in the life of Mikhail Ozerov (1938) (original title “High Pressure”).
* Troublemaker (1940)
* The Great Exam (1943)
* Ivan Nikulin - Russian sailor (1943)
* Sevastopol Stone (1944)
* The Enchanted Prince (1954; fully published 1966)
* Sevastopol Stone (1959)
* From The Book of Youth (1963)Film scripts
* The end of the stop (1935, jointly with V. Fedorov)
* Nasreddin in Bukhara (1943, based on the novel “The Troublemaker”) (co-authored with V. Vitkovich)
* The Adventures of Nasreddin (1944, jointly with V. Vitkovich)
* I am a Chernomorets (1944)
* Ivan Nikulin - Russian sailor (based on the story of the same name) (1944)
* Overcoat (based on the story by N. Gogol) (1959)
* Anathema (based on the story of the same name by A. Kuprin) (1960)
Film adaptationsFilms based on scripts by Leonid Solovyov:
1935 - "The End of the Stop"
1943 - "Nasreddin in Bukhara"
1944 - Ivan Nikulin - Russian sailor"
1946 - "The Adventures of Nasreddin"
1959 - "Overcoat"Leonid Vasilyevich Solovyov was born (6) August 19, 1906 in the city of Tripoli (Libya) in the family of an assistant inspector of North Syrian schools of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society.
In 1909, the family returned to Russia, and in 1921 they moved to Kokand. Impressions of oriental life and the peculiarities of oriental culture left their mark on the entire work of the writer. Leonid Solovyov began publishing in 1923 in the newspaper “Turkestanskaya Pravda” (later “Pravda Vostoka”) and until 1930 he worked as a special correspondent for this newspaper.
During his trips around the Fergana region in 1924-1925, Solovyov collected and studied folklore. During these years, he recorded songs and stories about V.I. Lenin, which were included in the collection “Lenin and the Creativity of the Peoples of the East” (1930). According to E. Kalmanovsky, “all the works included there were composed by Solovyov himself, thus creating a folklore and literary hoax.”
In 1930, Solovyov came to Moscow and entered the literary and screenwriting department of the Institute of Cinematography, from which he graduated in 1932.
During the Great Patriotic War, Solovyov was a war correspondent for the newspaper "Red Fleet"
The writer’s front-line stories and essays were included in the collections “The Great Exam” (1943) and “Sevastopol Stone” (1944). Based on the story “Ivan Nikulin - Russian Sailor” (1943), he created a screenplay for the film of the same name (1944).
In September 1946, Solovyov was arrested on charges of preparing a terrorist act. He was released in June 1954, after spending eight years in the camps. The story “The Enchanted Prince,” the second part of “The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin,” was written in the camp and completed by the end of 1950.
Since 1954, Solovyov lived in Leningrad. In Lenizdat in 1956, “The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin” first appeared in two books. The book was a huge success. The name of the writer is primarily known in connection with this work.
Continuing to work in the field of cinematography, Solovyov wrote scripts, among which we can note the script for the film “The Overcoat” (1959) based on the story of the same name by N. V. Gogol.
Leonid Vasilievich Soloviev. Photo from a 1964 book.
- Date of Birth: August 6, 1906
- Place of Birth: Tripoli, Ottoman Empire (now Lebanon)
- Floor: man
- Nationality: Russian
- Social background: from a teaching family
- Education: higher education, literary and screenwriting department of the Institute of Cinematography (1932)
- Profession/place of work: writer, screenwriter
- Place of residence: at the time of arrest - Moscow
- Where and by whom was he arrested? Moscow, NKVD
- Date of arrest: September 1946
- Charge: anti-Soviet statements and terrorist sentiments against Stalin
- Condemnation: June 9, 1947
- Judging authority: special meeting of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
- Sentence: 10 years of ITL
- Place of departure: Dubrovlag (Mordovia)
- Data sources: Wikipedia
Biography
Leonid Vasilyevich Solovyov (1906-1962) - writer, screenwriter, known as the author of the dilogy about Khoja Nasreddin.
Born on August 6 (19), 1906 in the city of Tripoli on the territory of the Ottoman Empire in the family of an assistant inspector of North Syrian schools of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society. In 1909, the family returned to Russia; parents taught in schools in the Samara province. As a child, Leonid loved to read; his favorite authors were Jack London and Rudyard Kipling.
In 1921, the family, fleeing hunger in the Volga region, moved to Kokand. In 1922, the young man graduated from school, studied two courses at a mechanical technical school, worked for some time as a railway repairman, traveled a lot around Turkestan, collected and deeply studied Central Asian folklore. In Kanibadam he married Elizaveta Belyaeva, but their marriage soon broke up. In 1923, Leonid Solovyov began publishing in the newspaper “Turkestanskaya Pravda” (since 1924 - “Pravda Vostoka”). Until 1930 he worked as a special correspondent for this newspaper.
In 1927, Solovyov’s story “On the Syr-Darya Coast” received the second prize from the World of Adventures magazine (before this the story was rejected in Tashkent). Believing in his literary talent, Solovyov came to Moscow (1930) and entered the literary and screenwriting department of the Institute of Cinematography, which he graduated in 1932. In Moscow, he married for the second time - to Tamara Sedykh, the marriage also turned out to be unsuccessful and broke up after Solovyov’s arrest. The writer had no children from both wives. During his studies, he published several stories, mainly in magazines.
In 1930, L.V. Solovyov carried out a mischievous hoax - he submitted to the publishing house his own songs about V.I. Lenin, which he passed off as translations of Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz folk songs and tales. All of them were included in the collection “Lenin and the Creativity of the Peoples of the East” (1930). V. S. Vitkovich also spoke about this story in his memoirs. Additional comedy was given to this idea by the results of a hastily organized expedition of the Tashkent Institute of Language and Literature, which in 1933 confirmed the folklore source of the songs and even presented their “originals” in Uzbek and Tajik.
In 1932, L. V. Solovyov’s first book was published - the story “Nomad” - about the life of nomads during the years of the revolution, and two years later - a collection of stories and stories “The March of the “Winner””. In 1935, based on the script by L.V. Solovyov, the film “The End of the Stop Station” (Mezhrabpomfilm) was shot.
In 1940, L. V. Solovyov published the novel “The Troublemaker,” the first book of his most significant work, “The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin.” The book, published on the eve of the war in Roman-Gazeta, immediately gained extraordinary popularity for its extraordinary literary skill, intelligent, kind and cheerful wit. Its film adaptation (“Nasreddin in Bukhara”) took place in the war year of 1943, when films were shot mainly on military or patriotic themes. The book was reprinted many times, and one reprint occurred even after the author was arrested for a political article (1946). Translated and published in French, Dutch, Danish, Hebrew and other languages.
During the Great Patriotic War, Solovyov was a war correspondent for the Red Fleet newspaper on the Black Sea. The writer’s front-line stories and essays were included in the collections “The Great Exam” (1943) and “Sevastopol Stone” (1944). Based on the story “Ivan Nikulin - Russian Sailor” (1943), he created a screenplay for the film of the same name (1944). Awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree (November 5, 1943) and the medal “For the Defense of Sevastopol.”
In September 1946, Solovyov was arrested on charges of “preparing a terrorist act” and kept in pre-trial detention for ten months. As a basis for the arrest, the investigation presented the testimony of an “anti-Soviet group of writers” previously arrested in 1944 - S. A. Bondarin, L. N. Ulin and A. G. Gekht, who admitted that their friend L. V. Solovyov had “terrorist sentiments" against Stalin. The file contains examples of the writer's anti-Soviet statements: collective farms have not justified themselves, literature is degrading, and creative thought has stagnated.
The verdict of the Special Meeting of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on June 9, 1947 read: “ For anti-Soviet agitation and terrorist statements, imprisonment in a forced labor camp for ten years" Later, Yuri Nagibin recalled this time: “The huge, kind, naive, eternally inspired Leonid Solovyov ended up in a camp...”
The writer was sent to Dubrovlag (Mordovia), where, as an exception, he was allowed to engage in literary creativity in his free time. He wrote to his parents and sister Zinaida in May 1948 that they didn’t need to send him anything except paper: “ I must be a dervish - nothing superfluous... This is where, it turns out, I need to escape in order to work well - to the camp!.. No temptations, and a life conducive to wisdom. I smile at this myself sometimes" The story “The Enchanted Prince,” the second part of “The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin,” was written in the camp, based on the script for the film “The Adventures of Nasreddin,” and completed by the end of 1950. “The Enchanted Prince” is very different from the first book; it is written in a different - philosophical, restrained and sad style.
After Stalin’s death (1953), relatives, through the influential writer and deputy A. A. Fadeev, petitioned for a mitigation of Solovyov’s fate. He was released under an amnesty in June 1954, after spending eight years in the camps. Yuri Olesha recalled in his diary his meeting with Solovyov:
I met Leonid Solovyov (“The Troublemaker”) who had returned from exile. Tall, old, lost his teeth. He recognized me immediately, unconditionally. Decently dressed. This, he says, was bought for him by a man who owes it to him. I took it to a department store and bought it. About life there he says that he did not feel bad - not because he was placed in any special conditions, but because inside, as he says, he was not in exile. “I took it as retribution for a crime I committed against one woman” - my first, as he put it, “real” wife. “Now I believe I will get something.”
“The crime against a woman,” which Solovyov spoke about, he himself touched upon in his testimony at the investigation in 1946: “I separated from my wife because of my drunkenness and infidelity, and I was left alone. I loved my wife very much, and breaking up with her was a disaster for me.”
He settled in Leningrad. In 1955, Solovyov married for the third time, his wife was the Leningrad teacher Maria Kudymovskaya. Friends helped him publish the entire duology “The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin” (both books, 1956) in Lenizdat. The book was a huge success. At Lenfilm, the writer earned extra money by writing and revising scripts.
He secured the place Solovyov occupied in Russian literature by writing a book about a semi-legendary folk sage who lived in the 13th century; The basis of this book is made up of about 300 funny incidents from the life of Khoja Nasreddin that have survived to our time. The image of Nasreddin in Solovyov’s book retained the traditional mixture of trickery and nobility, aimed at protecting the oppressed, wisdom and love of adventure; Moreover, in the second part of the book the fantastic and entertaining side is greatly weakened. In the episodes from the life of Nasreddin freely processed by the author, the style inherent in Eastern literature with its imagery and spectacular expressiveness is preserved.
Continuing to work in the field of cinematography, Solovyov wrote, in particular, the script for the film “The Overcoat” (1959) based on the story of the same name by N. V. Gogol. In 1961, parts of L. V. Solovyov’s new work “The Book of Youth” first appeared in print (they were published posthumously in a separate publication in 1963, under the title “From the Book of Youth”).
The writer died on April 9, 1962 in Leningrad. He was buried at the Krasnenkoe cemetery, Narvskaya path.
For the writer’s centennial anniversary (2006), a documentary film “Troublemaker. Leonid Solovyov" (scriptwriter B. T. Dobrodeev, director I. I. Tverdovsky).
