Arkady Gaidar short stories. Arkady Gaidar

At that time we were crossing the Gaichura River. This river itself is not special, just so-so, just for two boats to pass each other. And this river was famous because it flowed through the Makhnovist republic, that is, believe me, wherever you go near it, there are either fires burning, and under the fires there are cauldrons with all sorts of goose and pig meat, or some kind of ataman is sitting, or a man is simply hanging on an oak tree , but what kind of person he was, why he was sentenced - for some kind of offense, or simply to intimidate others - is unknown.

Our detachment forded this wretched river, that is, the water was up to the navel, and for me, as I always stood on the left flank as a forty-sixth incomplete, it almost went straight to the throat.

I raised my rifle and bandoleer over my head, walked carefully, feeling the bottom with my foot. And the bottom of that Gaichura is nasty and slimy. My leg got caught on some snag and I fell headlong into the water.

Seryozha Chumakov said:

After all, if you ask like this: “What is the most important thing for you in battle, that is, how do you defeat the enemy and inflict damage on him?” - the person will think and answer: “With a rifle... Well, or with a machine gun, a weapon... In general, depending on the type of weapon.”

And I don’t quite agree with this. Of course, no one takes away the qualities of a weapon, but still, every weapon is a dead thing. It itself has no effect, and all main strength in a person lies in how a person poses himself and how much he can control himself.

And even if you give another fool a tank, he will abandon the tank out of cowardice, and he will destroy the car, and he himself will never disappear, although he could still fight back with anything.

What I’m saying is that if, for example, you fight off your own people, or run out of ammunition, or are even left without a rifle, this is still no reason for you to hang your head, lose heart, and decide to surrender to the mercy of the enemy. No! Look around, invent something, turn around, just don’t lose your head.

The Red Army soldier Vasily Kryukov had a wounded horse, and the White Cossacks were catching up with him. He, of course, could have shot himself, but he didn’t want to. He threw away the empty rifle, unfastened his saber, put the revolver in his bosom and, turning his weakened horse, rode towards the Cossacks.

The Cossacks were surprised at this, because it was not the custom of that war for the Reds to throw their weapons to the ground... Therefore, they did not hack Kryukov to death on the move, but surrounded him and wanted to find out what this man needed and what he hoped for. Kryukov took off his gray hat with a red star and said:

The other day I read in the newspaper a notice of the death of Yakov Bersenev. I had long since lost sight of him, and when I looked through the newspaper I was surprised not so much that he died as at how he could still live, having no less than six wounds - broken ribs and lungs completely crushed by rifle butts.

Now that he is dead, we can write the whole truth about the death of the 4th company. And not because I didn’t want to do it earlier out of fear or other considerations, but only because I didn’t want to once again cause unnecessary pain to the main culprit of the defeat, but at the same time good guy, among many others, severely paid for his self-will and indiscipline.

I was thirty-two years old then. Marusya is twenty-nine, and our daughter Svetlana is six and a half. Only at the end of the summer did I get a vacation, and for the last warm month we rented a dacha near Moscow.

Svetlana and I thought about fishing, swimming, picking mushrooms and nuts in the forest. And I had to immediately sweep the yard, fix dilapidated fences, stretch ropes, hammer in crutches and nails.

We got tired of all this very soon, and Marusya, one after another, comes up with new and new things for herself and for us.

Only on the third day, in the evening, was everything finally done. And just when the three of us were getting ready to go for a walk, her friend, a polar pilot, came to Marusya.

They sat for a long time in the garden, under the cherry trees. And Svetlana and I went into the yard to the barn and, out of frustration, began making a wooden turntable.

There lived a lonely old man in the village. He was weak, he wove baskets, hemmed felt boots, guarded the collective farm garden from the boys, and thereby earned his bread.

He came to the village a long time ago, from afar, but people immediately realized that this man had suffered a lot of grief. He was lame, gray beyond his years. A crooked, ragged scar ran from his cheek across his lips. And therefore, even when he smiled, his face seemed sad and stern.

My mother studied and worked at a large new factory, surrounded by dense forests.

In our yard, in apartment number sixteen, there lived a girl, her name was Fenya.

Previously, her father was a fireman, but then he immediately learned at a course at the plant and became a pilot.

One day, when Fenya was standing in the yard and, raising her head, looking at the sky, an unfamiliar boy thief attacked her and snatched candy from her hands.

At that time I was sitting on the roof of the woodshed and looking to the west, where beyond the Kalva River, as they say, in the dry peat bogs, the forest that had caught fire the day before yesterday was burning.

Either sunlight It was too bright, or the fire had already died down, but I didn’t see the fire, but only saw a faint cloud of whitish smoke, the acrid smell of which reached our village and prevented people from sleeping that night.

Our platoon occupied a small cemetery at the very edge of the village. The Petliurists were firmly entrenched on the edge of the opposite grove. Behind the stone wall of the lattice fence we were little vulnerable to enemy machine guns. Until noon we exchanged fire quite hotly, but after lunch the shooting subsided.

It was then that Levka said:

Guys! Who's with me to go to the melon-growing for the kavuns?

The platoon commander swore:

I’ll give you so much melon that you won’t even recognize your own!

But Levka was cunning and headstrong.

“I,” he thinks, “will only be there for ten minutes, but at the same time I’ll find out why the Petliurists fell silent - nothing other than preparing something, and from there it’s clear to see.”

In those distant, distant years, when the war had just died down throughout the country, there lived Malchish-Kibalchish.

At that time, the Red Army drove far away the white troops of the damned bourgeoisie, and everything became quiet in those wide fields, in the green meadows, where rye grew, where buckwheat blossomed, where among the dense gardens and cherry bushes stood the little house in which Malchish, nicknamed Kibalchish, lived. , yes, Malchish’s father, and Malchish’s older brother, but they didn’t have a mother.

Father works - mows hay. My brother works, hauling hay. And Malchish himself either helps his father or his brother, or simply jumps and plays around with other boys.

The spy crossed the swamp, put on his Red Army uniform and went out onto the road.

The girl was collecting cornflowers in the rye. She came up and asked for a knife to trim the stems of the bouquet.

He gave her a knife, asked her name, and, having heard enough that people had fun on the Soviet side, began to laugh and sing funny songs.

The stories of Arkady Gaidar are a real treasure trove for children all over Russia. The reason for this popularity is simple - the main actors in his works are ordinary street children. They are the ones who do good deeds, help people, and accomplish great feats. Therefore, for Soviet children, such heroes as Timur and his team, Chuk and Gek, as well as Malchish-Kibalchish were the main role models! The main qualities possessed by the protagonists of Gaidar’s stories were devotion, honesty and courage. And the antagonists, as usual, did nothing but betray and play dirty tricks.

The reality that surrounded them was heavy and harsh: October Revolution and the civil war forced the parents of the heroes to go to war, and as a result, the children were left as the head of the family, who quickly realized the fullness of responsibility. They blamed their problems, which were not at all childish, and yet successfully defeated the bad guys and their leaders, took patronage over the weak and helped improve their homeland. And even now, when a child begins to read Gaidar’s stories, the brightest feelings awaken in his soul.

Arkady Petrovich Gaidar (January 22 (9), 1904 - October 26, 1941; real name Arkady Petrovich Golikov) - Soviet children's writer.

Born in the city of Lgov Kursk province in the family of a teacher. He spent his childhood in Arzamas.

First world war father was taken to the front. Arkady, then just a boy, tried to get to the war. The attempt failed, he was detained and returned home.

At the age of 14 he joined the Red Army. Graduated from the Kyiv Infantry Courses. He fought on the Petliura, Polish, and Crimean fronts. He was a platoon commander (at the age of 15), a company commander (at the age of 16). In February 1921, Arkady graduated from the Vystrel Higher Rifle School. After graduation, he first commanded the 23rd reserve regiment, and from June 1921 - the 58th separate anti-banditry regiment (Arkady was 17 years old at that time). The “Antonovites” themselves, with whom Golikov fought, noted his high moral qualities. After the liquidation of “Antonovism,” Golikov served in Bashkiria, and then in Khakassia, where he searched for Solovyov’s gang. He served in the ranks of the CHON (Special Purpose Units) of Siberia. There are rumors about Golikov’s inhuman cruelty, that he allegedly personally shot the population of entire villages (women and children) on suspicion of hiding Solovyov, and in the winter, saving ammunition, he drowned those suspected of conspiring with Solovyov’s gang in lakes Bolshoye and Chernoye (Republic of Khakassia ) dozens of people. There is no documentary evidence of these atrocities. In 1924, he retired from the army due to shell shock received on the fronts of the Civil War.

The author's mentors in the literary field were M. Slonimsky, K. Fedin, S. Semenov. Gaidar began publishing in 1925. The work "R.V.S." turned out to be significant. The writer became a true classic of children's literature, becoming famous for his works about military camaraderie and sincere friendship.

The literary pseudonym "Gaidar" stands for "Golikov Arkady D" ARzamas" (in imitation of the name D" Artagnan from " Three Musketeers"Dumas).

Most famous works Arkady Gaidar: "P.B.C." (1925), "Far Countries", "The Fourth Dugout", "School" (1930), "Timur and His Team" (1940), "Chuk and Gek", "The Fate of the Drummer", stories "Hot Stone", " Blue cup"... The writer's works were included in school curriculum, have been actively filmed and translated into many languages ​​of the world. The work “Timur and His Team” actually marked the beginning of a unique Timur movement, which aimed at voluntary assistance to veterans and elderly people on the part of the pioneers.

During the Great Patriotic War Gaidar was in the active army, as a correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda. Was a witness and participant in the Kyiv defensive operation Southwestern Front. He wrote military essays “At the crossing”, “The bridge”, “At the front line”, “Rockets and grenades”. After the encirclement of the Southwestern Front near Kiev, in September 1941, Arkady Petrovich ended up in partisan detachment Gorelova. He was a machine gunner in the detachment. On October 26, 1941, near the village of Lyaplyavaya in Ukraine, Arkady Gaidar died in battle with the Germans, warning members of his squad about the danger. Buried in Kanev

In the mid-1920s, Arkady married a 17-year-old Komsomol member from Penza, Ruvelia Lazarevna Solomyanskaya. In 1926, their son Timur was born in Arkhangelsk. After 5 years, his wife and son left him for another man.

Gaidar's second marriage took place in the mid-1930s. He adopted Zhenya, the daughter of his second wife Dora Mikhailovna.

IN Soviet time Gaidar's books were one of the main means of educating the younger generation. The educational authorities of the USSR set the heroes of his novels and short stories as examples for Soviet children. The groups of children organized by Soviet schools to help the elderly were called “Timurovskys”, and their participants were called “Timurovtsy”, in honor of the main character of Gaidar’s story “Timur and His Team”.

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Timurov's teams and detachments operated in schools, orphanages, at palaces and houses of pioneers and other non-school institutions, at places of residence; in the RSFSR alone there were over 2 million Timurites. They patronized hospitals, families of soldiers and officers Soviet army, orphanages and kindergartens, helped harvest the harvest, worked for the defense fund; V post-war period they provided assistance to the disabled, war and labor veterans, and the elderly; looked after the graves of fallen soldiers.

In the 60s Timurov's search work to study Gaidar's life greatly contributed to the discovery memorial museums writer in Arzamas, Lgov. With funds raised by Timur members, a library-museum them. Gaidar. In the early 70s Timur's All-Union Headquarters was created under the editorship of the Pioneer magazine.

The traditions of the Timur movement found their expression and development in the voluntary participation of children and adolescents in the improvement of cities and villages, nature conservation, assistance to adult labor collectives, etc.

Timurov teams and detachments were created in the pioneer organizations of the GDR, People's Republic of Belarus, Poland, Vietnam, Czechoslovakia.

Gaidar's name was given to many schools, streets of cities and villages of the USSR. The monument to the hero of Gaidar’s story Malchish-Kibalchish is the first monument in the capital literary character(sculptor V.K. Frolov, architect V.S. Kubasov) - installed in 1972 near the City Palace of Children and Youth Creativity on Sparrow Hills(in Soviet times - the Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren on the Lenin Hills).

Arkady Golikov (Gaidar) - children's writer, participant in the bloody Civil War and punisher of the anti-Soviet underground. Golikov is one of the most controversial personalities in Soviet history. Who is he: a brutal killer of civilians, an inveterate alcoholic, or a talented children's writer?

Childhood

Arkady Petrovich was born on January 9 (22), 1904 in the town of Lgov, in the Kursk province. On his mother’s side, the writer was a hereditary nobleman (moreover, his mother Natalya was related to him), on his father’s side he was the grandson of a serf.

Arkady Gaidar with his parents and sisters

Later the family moved to the city of Arzamas. Arkady was the first-born, and in his new place he had three sisters - Natasha, Katya and Olya. Researchers claim that talent awoke in the writer as early as early years: he learned to compose and speak in rhyme before he learned to write and count.

At the age of 10, the boy is sent to the Arzamas real school. Here the young schoolboy attempted to escape to the front, where his father had previously been taken, but the boy was returned home under escort. While studying at the school, Arkady amazed his teachers with his excellent memory - he memorized entire books and textbook texts.

Military career

After the fall royal family Many parties and student committees appeared in Arzamas. In the summer of 1917, Golikov received the position of delivery boy, and in 1918 he joined the Bolshevik squad. Initially, the Bolsheviks took the young man into the RCP (b) as a candidate, and 15-year-old Golikov became a full member of the party on December 15, 1918. At first he served as an adjutant, later he headed the security department railway.

The young man constantly asked to go to the front, but the commander insisted that the guy first undergo specialized training. And so it happened - Golikov went to the Moscow command courses of the Red Army. Later the institution moved to Ukraine, to Kyiv. Once in Kyiv, Arkady fought with the Petliurists and Ukrainian rebels.

In 1919, Golikov became a commander, and in 1920, a commissar of headquarters. At the age of 17, he knew more about military affairs than many commanders. In 1921 he received the rank of regimental squad commander. Golikov fought in different fronts(in Sochi, on the Don, on the Caucasian front), where he suffered from typhus, was wounded and shell-shocked twice. In 1922, he was sent to suppress the anti-Soviet uprising in Khakassia. Here the young commander showed himself to be a bloodthirsty tyrant, who disliked Jews and shot the population on suspicion of banditry.

According to historians, Gaidar pushed women and children off cliffs and killed anyone he suspected of anti-Soviet activity. In 1922, he was accused of abuse of power. Gaidar was stripped of his position and expelled from the party, and was sent for a psychiatric examination. The case ended with a diagnosis of “traumatic neurosis.”

Creation

Arkady Petrovich returned from the front as an inveterate alcoholic with a fairly damaged psyche.

“From the ship to the ball” - this is how historians characterize literary activity Golikov, which began immediately after the end military career. Arkady took his first manuscript, “In the Days of Defeats and Victories,” and brought it to the popular Leningrad almanac “Kovsh.” With the words: “I am Arkady Golikov, and this is my novel and I ask you to publish it,” the writer handed over several covered notebooks to the editor. And the work was published.

Then the writer moved to Perm, where his first work was published in the magazine “Zvezda” under the pseudonym Gaidar (“Corner House”).

In subsequent years, he published essays and feuilletons. In between nervous breakdowns and travel, he writes his best books: “RVS”, “School” and “Fourth dugout”. Several times Arkady Petrovich is taken away by doctors with bouts of delirium tremens, and later he was arrested for shooting while drunk.

This is followed by several suicide attempts - the writer tries to cut his wrists. Boris Zaks, a fellow journalist, claimed that his hands were covered with large scars, and Arkady cut his veins more than once. In 1932, Golikov was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where he wrote “Military Secret.” In total, according to Gaidar himself, he was in psychiatric hospitals 8-10 times.

In 1938 to children's writer all-Union glory came - the country was reading books and collections of his stories with might and main, memorizing “Timur and his team”, “Chuk and Gek” by heart. The writer took his son Timur and adopted daughter Zhenya to Crimea and forgot about it for a while psychological problems.

In March 1941, Arkady Petrovich, while relaxing in the Sokolniki sanatorium, met Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. When the war began, Gaidar had just received an order to write a film script based on the work “Timur and His Team.” The script was completed within 12 days, after which Arkady wrote a statement to the front.

Personal life

The writer was married three times during his life:

The writer's first wife was Maria Nikolaevna Plaksina, a 17-year-old nurse. The writer himself was 17 years old at the time of his marriage. The first wife gave Gaidar a son, Zhenya, but the first-born died in infancy.

Golikov’s second wife was 17-year-old Liya Lazarevna Solomyanskaya, a supporter pioneer movement and the organizer of the newspaper “Miracle Ant”. In 1926, the couple had a son, Timur. However, it was difficult to live with the writer; he drank alcohol and suffered from mental disorders. In 1931, his wife Leah took her son and left her husband for Samson Glyazer (a journalist for Komsomolskaya Pravda).

For the third time, the writer tied the knot with Dora Chernysheva. This happened in 1938. Being an elderly woman, Dora already had a daughter, Evgenia, whom Arkady later adopted.

Last years and death

Despite the prohibitions, the writer still arrived at the front. He arrived in Kyiv. Acted as a correspondent and helped with advice. Later he found himself behind German lines, and then became a member of a partisan detachment.

Having gone on reconnaissance in 1941, the writer, along with several partisans, found himself in an ambush near a railway embankment on October 26. Having discovered the enemy, Gaidar managed to warn his own, shouting: “Guys, Germans!” This phrase saved the lives of the remaining partisans, but led to the death of Arkady Petrovich.

However, there is another version of events, according to which the writer did not die on October 26. Ukrainian journalist Viktor Glushchenko, having conducted his own investigation, learned that Gaidar and several partisans were sheltered by a woman, Kristina Kuzmenko. Having lived with Christina until spring, the warriors moved towards the front, but were captured. Later the partisans managed to escape. They hid in the forest, and a certain Ulyana Dobrenko brought them food. This data turned out to be insufficient to revise the story of Gaidar’s death. Another fact is also doubtful - the body of the murdered man was wearing an officer’s uniform and woolen underwear, which in no way fits with the story about the partisans.

Today, dozens of streets are named after Arkady Gaidar, his image is used in music and literature, and in Khabarovsk there is a memorial to the writer.

Curious facts

More than 70 years have passed since the death of the writer. However, researchers are still arguing about its life history.

Interesting facts about Arkady Gaidar:

• The writer joined the ranks of the Red Army at the age of 15.
• Historian Andrei Burovsky gives alternative version Golikov's enrollment in the Red Army. In his opinion, Arkady’s mother enlisted in the army to save him from retribution for the murder (or murders) that her son committed. Gaidar, during fits of madness, once admitted that in teenage years committed a murder: “I dreamed about the people I killed as a child...”

• The history of the writer’s pseudonym is also interesting. According to one version, “Gaidar” is translated from Turkic as “messenger”, “advanced horseman”. Another source claims that the pseudonym comes from the phrase “Golikov Arkady from Arzamas.” The third version reports that the pseudonym originates from the Khakass word “Haidar”, which means “where”. During the service in Khakassia, locals shouted: “Haidar-Golik is coming!”
• There is an opinion that gravestone in Kanev (a city in the Cherkasy region) it is not Arkady Gaidar who lies at all. In particular, several years after burial, the slab cracked. It was replaced with a new one, but it was also cracked.

• There is a version that Timur (the son of Leah Solomyanskaya) is not the writer’s own son, but an adopted son. The writer first saw Timur only at the age of two, and at the time of his alleged conception (April 1926) Gaidar was in Central Asia. Thus, it is possible that the writer has no blood descendants.

Bibliography

The most famous works of Golikov:

• "The Blue Cup" (1936);
• "Timur and his team" (1940),
• "Drummer's Fate" (1938),
• "School" (1930);
• "RVS" (1925);
• "The fourth dugout."

PART ONE

Bumbarash fought with Austria as a soldier and was captured. Soon the war ended. The prisoners were exchanged, and Bumbarash went home to Russia. On the tenth day, sitting on the roof of a freight car, Bumbarash cheerfully drove towards his native land.

The locomotives hum incessantly. Long trains are leaving. These are your fathers, brothers, relatives, acquaintances going to the front - where the brave Red Army is waging a battle with the enemies that has never been equal in the world.

Frontline essay
Rear railway station on the way to the front. Water tower. Two straight old poplars. A low brick station surrounded by thick acacia trees.
The military train stops. Two village children run up to the carriage with wallets in their hands.

A curly blond head peeked out of the grass, two bright blue eyes, and an angry whisper was heard:
- Valka... Valka... crawl in to the right, you idol! Crawl behind him, otherwise he'll smell it.
The thick burdocks began to stir, and from their swaying tops one could guess that someone was carefully crawling along the ground.

It's very boring in winter. The crossing is small. There is forest all around. It will be swept away in winter, covered with snow - and there will be nowhere to get out.
The only entertainment is to ride down the mountain. But again, you can’t ride down the mountain all day. Well, you rode once, well, you rode another, well, you rode twenty times, and then you still get bored and tired. If only they, sleds, could roll up the mountain themselves. Otherwise they roll down the mountain, but not up the mountain.

Previously, children sometimes ran here to run and climb between the squatted and dilapidated barns. It was good here.
Once upon a time, the Germans, who captured Ukraine, brought hay and straw here. But the Germans were driven out by the Reds, after the Reds came the Haidamaks, the Haidamaks were driven out by the Petliurists, the Petliurists - by someone else. And the hay was left lying in blackened, half-rotten heaps.

Above the slender snow fortress with forts, battlements and towers flutters a flag - a star with four rays. A fortress garrison lined up at the open gate.
Timur, the commandant of the snow fortress, comes out of the gate. He turns to Kolya Kolokolchikov and firmly says:
– Starting today, the guards at the fortress will change every hour, day and night.
– But... what if they won’t let them in at home?
– We will select those who will always be allowed in.

Kolka and Vaska are neighbors. Both dachas where they lived stood nearby. There was a fence separating them, and there was a hole in the fence. Through this hole the boys climbed to visit each other.
Nyurka lived opposite. At first the boys were not friends with Nyurka. Firstly, because she is a girl, secondly, because in Nyurkin’s yard there was a booth with a feisty dog, and thirdly, because the two of them were having fun.
And this is how we became friends.

Once upon a time, my father fought with the whites, was wounded, escaped from captivity, and then, as commander of a sapper company, went into the reserve. My mother drowned while swimming on the Volga River when I was eight years old. Out of great grief we moved to Moscow. And here, two years later, my father married beautiful girl Valentina Dolguntsova. People say that at first we lived modestly and quietly. Valentina kept our poor apartment clean. I dressed simply. She took care of my father and did not offend me.

Fantasy novel
Saying goodbye to Vera Remmer was not like everyone else. He laughed loudly, loudly, walked up to the table several times, poured cognac into a glass, excitedly tossed it into his mouth and repeated, smiling:
- Well, make sure that no one and nothing, otherwise we may fall apart.

My mother studied and worked at a large new factory, surrounded by dense forests.
In our yard, in apartment number sixteen, there lived a girl, her name was Fenya.
Previously, her father was a fireman, but then he immediately learned at a course at the plant and became a pilot.

CHAPTER FIRST

Our town of Arzamas was quiet, filled with gardens surrounded by shabby fences. In those gardens grew a great variety of “parent cherries,” early ripening apples, blackthorns and red peonies. The gardens, adjacent to one another, formed vast green areas, restlessly ringing with the whistling sounds of tits, goldfinches, bullfinches and robins.

I
There lived a lonely old man in the village. He was weak, he wove baskets, hemmed felt boots, guarded the collective farm garden from the boys, and thereby earned his bread.
He came to the village a long time ago, from afar, but people immediately realized that this man had suffered a lot of grief. He was lame, gray beyond his years. A crooked, ragged scar ran from his cheek across his lips. And therefore, even when he smiled, his face seemed sad and stern.

GAYDAR, ARKADY PETROVICH (1904-1941), real name Golikov, Russian Soviet writer. Born on January 9 (22), 1904 in Lgov, Kursk province. The son of a peasant teacher and a noblewoman mother who participated in revolutionary events 1905. Fearing arrest, the Golikovs left Lgov in 1909, and from 1912 they lived in Arzamas. He worked for the local newspaper "Molot", where he first published his poems, and joined the RCP(b).
From 1918 - in the Red Army (as a volunteer, hiding his age), in 1919 he studied at command courses in Moscow and Kyiv, then at the Moscow Higher Rifle School. In 1921 - commander of a section of the Nizhny Novgorod regiment. He fought on the Caucasian front, on the Don, near Sochi, participated in the suppression of the Antonov rebellion, in Khakassia - against the “Emperor of the Taiga” I.N. Solovyov, where, accused of arbitrary execution, he was expelled from the party for six months and sent on long leave for nervous disease, which did not leave him subsequently throughout his life. A naive-romantic, recklessly joyful perception of the revolution in anticipation of the coming “bright kingdom of socialism”, reflected in many of Gaidar’s works of an autobiographical nature, addressed mainly to youth (RVS stories, 1925, Seryozhka Chubatov, Levka Demchenko, The End of Levka Demchenko, Bandit’s Nest, all 1926-1927, Smoke in the Forest, 1935; stories School, original title Ordinary biography, 1930, Distant countries, 1932, Military secret, 1935, including the textbook Tale of Military secret, about Malchish-Kibalchish and his firm word, 1935, Bumbarash, unfinished, 1937), in mature years gives way to grave doubts in the diary entries (“I dreamed of people killed in childhood”).
With a pseudonym (Turkic word - “horseman galloping ahead”) he first signed the short story Corner House, created in 1925 in Perm, where he settled in the same year and where, according to archival materials, he began work on a story about the struggle of local workers against the autocracy - Life to nothing (other name: Lbovshchina, 1926). In the Perm newspaper "Zvezda" and other publications he publishes feuilletons, poems, notes about travel in Central Asia, fantastic story The Secret of the Mountain, an excerpt from the story Knights inaccessible mountains(other name: Horsemen of the Impregnable Mountains, 1927), poem Machine-Gun Blizzard. From 1927 he lived in Sverdlovsk, where he published the story Forest Brothers (other name: Davydovshchina - continuation of the story Life for Nothing) in the newspaper "Ural Worker".
In the summer of 1927, it's already quite famous writer, moved to Moscow, where, among many journalistic works and poetry, published a detective-adventure story On the Count's Ruins (1928, filmed in 1958, directed by V.N. Skuibin) and a number of other works that nominated Gaidar, along with L. Kassil, R. Fraerman, among the most read creators of Russian children's prose of the 20th century. (including the stories The Blue Cup, 1936, Chuk and Gek, the story The Fate of the Drummer, both 1938, the story for radio The Fourth Dugout; the second, unfinished part of the story School, both 1930).
The fascination of the plot, the rapid ease of narration, the transparent clarity of the language while fearlessly introducing significant, and sometimes tragic events(The Fate of a Drummer, which tells about spy mania and repressions of the 1930s, etc.), poetic “aura”, trust and seriousness of tone, the indisputability of the code of “knightly” honor of camaraderie and mutual assistance - all this ensured the sincere and long-term love of young readers for Gaidar - the official classic of children's literature. The peak of the writer's lifetime popularity came in 1940 - the time of the creation of the story and the film script of the same name (film directed by A.E. Razumny) Timur and his team, telling about a brave and sympathetic pioneer boy (named after the son of Gaidar), together with his friends, surrounded by mystery care of the family of front-line soldiers. The noble initiative of the hero Gaidar served as an incentive for the creation of a broad “Timur” movement throughout the country, especially relevant in the 1940-1950s. In 1940, Gaidar wrote a sequel to Timur - Commandant of the Snow Fortress, and at the beginning of 1941 - a film script for the sequel and a screenplay for the film Timur's Oath (production 1942, directed by L.V. Kuleshov).
In July 1941, the writer went to the front as a correspondent for the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda", where he published essays The Bridge, At the Crossing, etc. In August-September 1941, he was published in the magazine "Murzilka" philosophical tale Gaidar for children Hot Stone - about uniqueness, inevitable difficulties and mistakes on the path to comprehending the truth.
The range of Gaidar's "children's" heroes, varied in age, character and type (among which there are many "negative" persons: Malchish-Bad, Mishka Kvakin from Timur, etc.) is complemented by characters from miniature stories for preschoolers (Vasily Kryukov, Pokhod, Marusya, Conscience , 1939-1940). Author of the film script Passerby (1939), dedicated to Civil War. Many of Gaidar’s works were staged and filmed (films Chuk and Gek, 1953, directed by I.V. Lukinsky; School of Courage, 1954, directed by V.P. Basov and M.V. Korchagin; The Fate of the Drummer, 1956, directed by V. V.Eisymont, etc.).
Gaidar died in battle near the village. Leplyava, Kanevsky district, Cherkasy region, October 26, 1941.