Nikolai Garin Mikhailovsky. Biography

N.G. GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY (1852-1906)
Brief biographical information

• Collected works. In 5 volumes - M.: Goslitizdat, 1957-1958.
• T.1. Childhood Topics; High school students / Enter. article by V.A. Borisova, 1957. - 522 pp., portrait.
• T.2. Students; Engineers, 1957. - 563 p.
• T.3. Essays and stories, 1888-1895, 1957. - 655 p.
• T.4. Essays and stories, 1895-1906, 1958. - 723 p.
• T.5. In Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula; Around the world; Korean fairy tales; Fairy tales for children; Plays; Memoirs, articles, 1894-1906, 1958. - 719 p.
• Selected Works / Enter. article by A. Volkov. - M.: Goslitizdat, 1950. - 300 p., portrait.
• Childhood Topics; Gymnasium students: Stories. - M.: Pravda, 1981. - 447 p., ill.
• Students; Engineers: Stories. - M.: Pravda, 1981. - 528 p., ill.
• Childhood Topics; Gymnasium students. - M.: Artist. lit., 1974. - 384 p.
• Students; Engineers: Stories. - M.: Artist. lit., 1977. - 389 p.
• Stories / Enter. article by Yu. Postnov. - Novosibirsk: Zap.-Sib. book publishing house, 1976. - 648 pp., ill. Contains.: Childhood Topics; High school students; Students.
• Childhood Topics; Gymnasium students. - M.: Artist. lit., 1972. - 440 p.
• Childhood Topics: From a family chronicle / Preface. K. Chukovsky. - M.: Sov. Russia, 1977. - 239 p., ill.
• Stories and essays / Enter. article by K. Chukovsky. - M.: Artist. lit., 1975. - 836 p.
• Novels and stories / Afterword. O.M. Rumyantseva. - M.: Moscow. worker, 1955. - 552 pp., ill. - (B-ka of youth).
• From the diaries of a trip around the world: Through Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula / Enter. article and comment. V.T. Zaichikova. - M.: Geographgiz, 1952. - 447 p., ill., map.
• From an explanatory note from the head of the V survey party, engineer N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, addressed to the chairman of the commission for West Siberian surveys. - In the book: Goryushkin L.M., Bochanova G.A., Tseplyaev L.N. Novosibirsk in the historical past. Novosibirsk, 1978, pp. 243-247.

• Letters from N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky to his wife N.V. Mikhailovskaya: 1887-1897. / Publ., preface. and note. I. Yudina. - Sib. Lights, 1979, N 8, pp. 172-184.
• Letters of one year: From the letters of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky to N.V. Mikhailovskaya (1892) / Preface. and publ. I. Yudina. - Sib. Lights, 1966, N 12, pp. 142-162.
• Letters to his wife and son from the Far East (1904-1906) / Preface, publ. and note. I. Yudina. - Sib. lights, 1970, N 12, pp. 152-163.

BASIC LITERATURE ABOUT LIFE AND CREATIVITY
N.G.GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY

• M i r o n o v G. M. Poet of impatient creation: N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. Life. Creation. Society activity. - M.: Nauka, 1965. - 159 p., ill.
• Yu d i n a I. M. N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky: Life and literary society. activity. - L.: Science, Leningrad. department, 1969. - 238 p., ill. - USSR Academy of Sciences, Institute of Rus. lit. (Pushk. house).
• T y n i a n o v a L. N. Indomitable Garin: A Tale. - M.: Det. lit., 1974. - 143 pp., ill. Journal option: Sib. Lights, 1972, No. 1, pp. 84-195. - (Under the name "Wide World").
• G a l i sh i n A. A. Garin-Mikhailovsky in the Samara province. - Kuibyshev: Book. publishing house, 1979. - 120 pp., ill.
• M i r o n o v G. M. Garin N.: Krat. lit. encyclopedia. T.2. - M., 1964, p.66-68, portrait.
• Garin N. - In the book: Russian writers: Biobibliogr. dictionary. - M., 1971, pp. 231-233.
• Z e n z i n o v N. A., R y z h a k S. A. I envy the people of the future. - In the book: Zenzinov N.A., Ryzhak S.A. Outstanding engineers and scientists of railway transport. M., 1978, pp. 120-132, portrait.
• Same. - Science and Life, 1978, N 10, pp. 105-109.
• Lezinsky M.L. Road: About the design of Crimea. electr. railway - In the book: Lezinsky M.L. Personally involved. Simferopol, 1980, pp. 114-119.
• Chelyshev B. D. Garin. - In the book: Chelyshev B.D. Russian writers in Moldova. Chisinau, 1981, p.92-103, ill.

• M o s e s o v A. Writer-democrat. - Preschool. education, 1982, N 4, pp. 42-45.
• N. N. N. Thirst for harmony: To the 75th anniversary of the death of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Family and school, 1981, N 12, pp. 44-45, portrait.
• Vorobchenko V. I envy the people of the future: N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky in Bulgaria and Moldova. - Codry, 1980, N 7, pp. 141-146, portrait.
• N a u m o v I. Audience. - Sat down. youth, 1977, N 3, pp. 60-61, ill. - (Club of Russian classics).
• Ovanesyan N. Writer, engineer, traveler. - In the world of books, 1977, No. 2, p. 71.
• Example B. Brave dreamer: To the 125th anniversary of the birth of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Ogonyok, 1977, N 9, pp. 18-19, portrait.
• Rybakov V. Results of a prosperous childhood: About an autobiography. tetralogy. - Family and school, 1977, N 3, pp. 47-50, portrait.
• Dzhapakov A. The key to the treasured door: To the biogr. N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Ural, 1976, N 10, pp. 182-187, ill.

MEMORIES OF N.G. GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY

• N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky in the memoirs of his contemporaries / Comp., author. preface and note. I.M. Yudina. - Novosibirsk: Zap.-Sib. book publishing house, 1967. - 175 pp., portrait. The book includes memoirs of K. Chukovsky, N.V. Mikhailovskaya, P.P. Rumyantsev, E.N. Boratynskaya, A.V. Voskresensky, B.K. Terletsky, M. Gorky, F.F. Ventzel, S. Skitalets, S.Ya. Elpatievsky, A.I. Kuprin, V.V. Veresaev, A.Ya. Brushtein.
• Gorky M. About Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Paulie. collection op., vol.20. M., 1974, pp. 75-90.
• Kuprin A. In memory of N.G. Mikhailovsky (Garin). - Collection soch., vol. 9, M., 1973, pp. 43-47.
• Chukovsky K. Garin. - Collection op., vol.5. M., 1967, pp. 700-721, portrait.
• Safonov V. Memories of Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Zvezda, 1979, N 6, pp. 179-187.

N.G.GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY AND NOVOSIBIRSK

• Sheremet'ev N. I envy the people of the future. - In the book: Our fellow countrymen. Novosibirsk, 1972, p.13-30, portrait.
• G o r yushkin L. M. N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky and his “variant on Krivoshchekovo”. - In the book: Goryushkin L.M., Bochanova G.A., Tseplyaev L.N. Novosibirsk in the historical past. Novosibirsk, 1978, pp. 28-32.
• B a l a n d i n S. N. Novosibirsk: History of urban planning. 1893-1945 - Novosibirsk: Zap.-Sib. book publishing house, 1978. - 136 p. ill. On pp. 4-7, 12 about N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.
• And other cities had to make room: Pages of the history of Novosibirsk. - In the book: The streets will tell you... Novosibirsk, 1973, pp. 5-28, ill. On pp. 5-10 about N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.

• 3 k about in N. From the cohort of wrestlers. - Sov. Siberia, 1983, January 19. - (Glorious names).
• Z o r k i y M. ... And here the city was founded. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1977, February 17.
• Kurchenko V. Everyone must prove love. - Youth of Siberia, 1977, February 19, portrait.
• Lavrov I. Writer of our city. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1977, February 18, portrait.
• The memory of him is alive... - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1977, February 19. Four articles dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the birth of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.
• N echa e v K. N. Garin-Mikhailovsky is the founder of Novonikolaevsk. - Sib. Lights, 1962, N 7, pp. 161-163. - Lit. sublinearly note
• N echa e v K. Writer, engineer, dreamer. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1959, July 8. - (Know the history of your hometown).
• Petrov I. The beginning of the great construction: From the history of the Trans-Siberian Railway. railway - Earth Sib., Far East, 1981, N 4, p. 64. - 3 s. region Including about N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.
• Pikulev D. The first bridge across the Ob. - Sov. Siberia, 1968, May 18.
• Istomina I. What the relic told about: About ed. photographs of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, stored in Novosibirsk. region local historian museum. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1983, February 17, portrait.
• V akh rush e v S. Ancient secretary: N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky’s item in the region. local historian museum. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1963, September 6.
• Fundraising has begun for a monument (to N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky in Novosibirsk). - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1983, February 19.
• A L E K S A N D R O V A I. ... And the city remained. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1983, March 1.
• Fedorov V. Neighborhoods rise above the Ob. - Sov. Siberia, 1983, March 10.

  Two articles about the evening at the Palace of Culture. M. Gorky, dedicated to the memory of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.

• "N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky": Results of the competition [Conducted ed. gas. "Evening Novosibirsk" and Novosibirsk. org. volunteer island of book lovers]. - Evening. Novosibirsk, 1983, February 25.

• N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky Square. - In the book: The streets will tell you... Novosibirsk, 1973, p.69-71, ill.
• Kaiko in A. Named after Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Sov. Siberia, 1983, April 17, ill. - (The squares of our city).

On July 25, 1849, during the Hungarian campaign, he distinguished himself in action near Hermannstadt, attacking with a squadron of lancers a square of Hungarians, which had two cannons.

The hero of the day, who received a slight wound, was awarded the Order of St. George 4th degree.

Mother - Glafira Nikolaevna, nee Tsvetinovich (in another spelling - Tsvetunovich). Judging by her surname, she came from a noble family of Serbian origin (which was not something unusual in Novorossiya).

Nikolai Georgievich was born in 1852; he spent his childhood in Odessa. He studied at the Odessa Richelieu Gymnasium.

Student years

In 1871, after graduating from high school, he entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, but studied here for only one year. Having failed an exam with Professor Redkin, the young man decided that it was better to be a good craftsman than a bad lawyer. He left the University and entered the University in 1872. However, here student Mikhailovsky also did not bother himself too much with his studies. Many years later, he admitted that he belonged to the number of so-called “false” students who saw the goal of education not in acquiring solid theoretical knowledge, but in obtaining a diploma giving the right to work in their specialty. Mikhailovsky, a student, filled his leisure time mainly with impressions of love and friendship (socio-political issues were alien to him at that time). For some time he tried to write, but a story from student life, submitted to the editors of one of the magazines, was rejected without any explanation. This failure discouraged the young author and discouraged him from literary creativity for many years.

In the summer of 1876, Mikhailovsky worked on the railway in Bessarabia as a fireman (a student internship option for a future track engineer). Direct acquaintance with working people, with the exhausting physical work of a fireman and driver, brought great benefits to the young man and contributed to his formation as a person.

The last year of Mikhailovsky's studies coincided with a major historical event - the Russian-Turkish War (1877-1878). In the summer of 1878, when the war was still going on, Mikhailovsky completed the course and received an engineering diploma.

Starting an Engineering Career

Immediately after completing the course, Mikhailovsky was sent as a senior technician to Bulgaria, to Burgas, where he participated in the construction of a port and highway. In the city, “for the excellent execution of orders during the last war,” he received the first of his civil service orders.

Twenty years later, impressions from the time of service in Burgas were used in the story “Clotilde” (publ.).

In the winter of 1879-1880. Mikhailovsky served in the Ministry of Railways.

After completion of construction, Mikhailovsky was transferred to head the distance of the Baku section of the Transcaucasian Railway.

Engineer Mikhailovsky stood out for his scrupulous honesty and was sensitive to the desire of many of his colleagues for personal enrichment (participation in contracts, bribes). At the end of the year, he resigned - according to his own explanation, “due to his complete inability to sit between two chairs: on the one hand, state interests, on the other, personal interests.”

Samara landowner (1883-1886)

Nadezhda Valerievna Mikhailovskaya did a lot of work in the village: she treated local peasants with “various commonly used remedies” and set up a school where she taught all the boys and girls in the village. After 2 years, her school had 50 students, and she had “two assistants from young guys who graduated from a rural school in the nearest large village.”

In terms of purely economic matters, things were going well on Mikhailovsky’s estate, but the men greeted all the good landowner’s innovations with distrust and grumbling, and he constantly had to overcome the resistance of the inert masses, and he entered into an open conflict with the local kulaks, which resulted in a series of arson attacks. First, Mikhailovsky lost his mill and thresher, and then his entire harvest. Almost bankrupt, he decided to leave the village and return to engineering. The estate was entrusted to a tough manager.

Subsequently, Mikhailovsky appeared in Gundorovka only on short visits and rarely lived here for a long time, preferring the provincial city of Samara to the rural wilderness. The estate was mortgaged and remortgaged, but it was still a long time before it was sold.

Return to engineering activity (1886-1890)

On a 160-verst length, this is the only place where the Ob, as the peasants say, is in a pipe. In other words, both the banks of the river and the bed are rocky here. And, moreover, this is the narrowest place of the flood: at Kolyvan, where the line was originally supposed to be drawn, the river flood is 12 versts, and here it is 400 fathoms.

A distant consequence of the change in the original project was the emergence of the city of Novosibirsk. The construction of the bridge across the Ob required many workers, and the small village, called Novaya Derevnya in 1891, began to grow rapidly. Later it received the name “Novo-Nikolaevsky” (in honor of Tsar Nicholas II), and in 1903 it became the city of Novo-Nikolaevsky (since 1926 - Novosibirsk).

Mikhailovsky’s research also proved the feasibility of bypassing the railway line of the city of Tomsk: “taking into account the transit significance of the Siberian road, there was no reason to force transit cargo to travel an extra 120-150 miles.” In addition, a turn to Tomsk would lead to a significant increase in construction costs due to unfavorable terrain conditions, and the operation of the future line would be difficult. The Ministry of Railways approved a project that envisaged the construction of a highway 85 km south of Tomsk, with the subsequent construction of a special branch to Tomsk from the Taiga station.

Mikhailovsky arrived in Tomsk at the end of June 1891. His stay in the city was overshadowed by attacks from local newspapers and violent protests against Mikhailovsky’s conclusions about the inexpediency of laying a railway line through Tomsk. Leaving Tomsk he " sighed, like a person who suddenly remembered in a moment of adversity that probably behind this adversity, like after night, joy will come. This joy was that I was no longer in Tomsk, and would probably never see it again» .

Head of construction of the Krotovsko-Sergievskaya railway (1895-1897)

Mikhailovsky was the initiator, ideologist, organizer and builder of the Krotovka-Sergievsk branch in the Samara province, where cheap narrow gauge was used for the first time in Russia. The difficult history of the struggle to bring this project to life provided rich material for the book of essays that was soon written, “In the hustle and bustle of provincial life.”

Construction of the Krotovsko-Sergievskaya railway began in September 1895 (a message about the start of construction “the other day” was published in the newspaper “Samara News” dated September 1, 1895). Mikhailovsky, who for the first time in his life became the head of such a big business, introduced unprecedented rules in construction: election of the administration, collegiality in decision-making, public control over finances. Its administrative principles are clearly expressed in one of its official circulars:

For this road to be truly cheap, it is necessary, first of all, that there should be no thought of any kind of abuse.<…>Having removed the financial part from myself, I entrusted all these matters to a commission of selected persons, which in all its actions reports to the general meeting that I established of all the technicians of the road entrusted to me. I consider myself entitled to demand from my employees who are in charge of financial affairs the same attitude to business. For this main purpose, they have at their disposal a staff of young people, students, completely reliable people, with whose help and participation in all financial matters there is a complete opportunity to both illuminate for everyone the true state of this matter, and to protect themselves personally from any no complaints whatsoever

Public control bore fruit: when one of the engineers brought rotten material for sleepers onto the line and profited from it, a kind of court of honor was held, and the scoundrel lost his job.

The construction of the road itself was completed very quickly, already in the coming winter, but then a serious blow awaited Mikhailovsky from an unexpected direction. The board of the Samara-Zlatoust Railway categorically refused to recognize the “lighter conditions” in relation to auxiliary services, previously approved in St. Petersburg by all authorities (it was supposed, for example, to abandon the complex and expensive station staff; it was supposed not to build guard booths at crossings, limiting oneself to warning signs “beware trains”, etc.). The result was a forced return on the newly built narrow-gauge road to generally accepted operational standards for broad-gauge roads. This caused a huge cost overrun of 240 thousand rubles against the original estimate and the extension of construction for a whole year. The Ministry of Railways directly told Mikhailovsky that he had “failed the matter.”

Voyage around the world (July - December 1898)

After completing all the work related to the construction of the Krotovsko-Sergievskaya railway (put into operation on August 16, 1897), Mikhailovsky decided to take a trip around the world “for relaxation.” However, at the last moment he received an offer from the St. Petersburg Geographical Society to join the North Korean expedition of A.I. Zvegintsov.

Plans and Designs (June 1898)

Zvegintsov's expedition had as its main task the study of land and water routes of communication along the northern border of Korea and further, along the eastern coast of the Liaodong Peninsula, to Port Arthur. Mikhailovsky agreed to take part in the expedition, which became for him an integral part of his trip around the world.

Across Russia (July-August 1898)

To work on the North Korean expedition, Mikhailovsky invited people known to him from his work as a survey engineer: young technician N. E. Borminsky and experienced foreman I. A. Pichnikov.

On July 9, 1898, Mikhailovsky and his companions arrived in Moscow with a St. Petersburg courier train and on the same day left Moscow with a direct Siberian train. At that time, construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was still ongoing. Sections from Moscow to Irkutsk and from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk were built and put into operation. However, the middle links of the route between Irkutsk and Khabarovsk have not yet been built: the Circum-Baikal line from Irkutsk to Mysovaya, on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal; Transbaikal line from Mysovaya to Sretensk; Amur line from Sretensk to Khabarovsk. On this part of the journey, Mikhailovsky and his companions had to experience the unreliability of communications on horseback and by water. The journey from Moscow to Irkutsk, stretching over 5 thousand km, took 12 days, while the section from Irkutsk to Khabarovsk, about 3.5 thousand km long, covered on horseback and by water, took exactly a month. Travelers were constantly faced with a lack of official horses for transporting passengers and cargo; postal stations were unable to “satisfy even a third of the requirements placed on them.” The fee for hiring “free” horses reached a fabulous price: 10-15 rubles for a run of 20 miles, that is, more than 50 times more expensive than the cost of travel by rail. There was a steamship connection between Sretensk and Khabarovsk, but of the 16 days spent by travelers on the journey along the Shilka and Amur, about half were spent standing on the shallows and waiting for transfers. As a result, the entire journey from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok took 52 days (July 8 - August 29, 1898) and, despite all the hardships of the travelers, cost almost a thousand rubles per person, that is, it was longer, and even twice as expensive, than if you go to Vladivostok by a roundabout route by sea.

Across Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula (September-October 1898)

On September 3, 1898, the expedition members were transported by steamship from Vladivostok to Posyet Bay, then walked 12 miles on horseback to Novokievsk, which was the starting point of the North Korean expedition. Separate parties were formed here.

The party, led directly by Mikhailovsky, was to explore the mouth and upper reaches of the Tumangan River, the area of ​​the Pektusan volcano and the upper reaches of the Amnokkan River. Then Mikhailovsky’s party was supposed to go to Kapsan, where it was planned to join the party of the head of the expedition, Zvegintsov.

Under the command of Mikhailovsky, in addition to the technician Borminsky and the foreman Pichnikov, there were three more retired Russian soldiers - experienced people who knew how to handle weapons well, which would be very useful in the event of a clash with Chinese robbers - Honghuz, whose gangs were found at that time throughout the Korean Chinese border. Mikhailovsky’s party also included translators from Korean and Chinese: the Russian Korean P.N. Kim, a teacher by profession, and a certain Chinese citizen, whom the Russians called Vasily Vasilyevich. Subsequently, throughout the journey, Mikhailovsky from time to time hired local Koreans (usually as guides). At the beginning of the journey, Mikhailovsky's party had 13 horses, 8 riding and 5 pack. The luggage, which included provisions, was so large at the beginning of the journey that three carts with oxen were also needed to transport it.

Organizational troubles and heavy rains somewhat delayed the performance from Novokievsk (September 10, 1898). Along the shore of Posiet Bay, the expedition moved to Krasnoye Selo, the last populated area on Russian territory.

On September 14, 1898, Mikhailovsky’s party crossed Tumangan by ferry at Krasnoye Selo. Research at the mouth and lower reaches of this river showed the complete impossibility of navigation due to low water levels and a large number of wandering shoals. Then Mikhailovsky took the shortest route through Korean territory to the upper reaches of the Tumangan. The path ran through mountainous terrain with narrow valleys, in which Korean villages often came across. On September 22, the party reached the town of Musan. From here the path went along the upper reaches of the Tumangan, which here had the character of a typical mountain river. On September 28, when night frosts had already begun, travelers saw the Pektusan volcano for the first time. On September 29, the source of the Tumangan was found, which “disappeared into a small ravine” near the small lake Ponga. This lake, together with the adjacent marshy area, was recognized as the Mikhailovsky source of the river.

Meanwhile, Mikhailovsky’s employees, led by technician Borminsky, completed the most difficult and dangerous part of the work: they went down into the crater to the lake with tools and a collapsible boat, filmed the outline of the lake, lowered the boat onto the lake, and measured the depths, which turned out to be exceptionally large already near the shore. It was not easy to get out of the crater; the boat and heavy tools had to be abandoned. The travelers had to spend the next night near Pektusan in the open air, with a real danger to their health and even to their lives due to the cold snap and bad weather. However, everything turned out well.

Mikhailovsky's party continued research on Pectusan until October 3; Mikhailovsky and Borminsky spent this whole day in a fruitless search for the sources of Amnokkan. In the evening, one of the Korean guides reported that this river originates at the Small Pektusan mountain (which was located about five miles from the Bolshoi).

From Pectusan, Mikhailovsky’s party headed west across Chinese territory, through the area of ​​the Sungari tributaries - places that are fabulously beautiful, but extremely dangerous due to the possibility of an attack by Honghuz (from the local Chinese they met, the party’s translator learned that up to 40 Honghuz had been tracking down Mikhailovsky’s party since she left Musan). (p. 239)

On the evening of October 4, the travelers reached the village of Chandanyon, inhabited mainly by Koreans (its Chinese name is Shadaren). The residents, who had never seen Europeans before, greeted them cordially and gave them the best fanza to spend the night. On the night of October 5, at the beginning of five o’clock, Mikhailovsky and his comrades woke up from the sound of gunshots: the fanza was being fired upon by the Honghuzi, who had holed up in the forest. The neighboring fanza was burning, the horses left in the open were under fire. Having waited until dawn, the Russians ran under gunfire into a nearby ravine, lay there and returned fire. Very quickly the shots from the forest stopped, and the Honghuzes retreated. None of the Russians were injured, but the Korean, the owner of the fanza, received a mortal wound in the groin; one Korean guide disappeared; Of the horses, two were killed and two were wounded. Since there were few horses left, almost all the luggage had to be abandoned (Mikhailovsky especially regretted the loss of “magnificent beds”).

On this day, in order to break away from possible persecution, the travelers made a record 19-hour trek, walked about 50 miles and by 3 a.m. on October 6, already staggering from fatigue, reached one of the tributaries of the Amnokkan. The further path was already less dangerous. On October 7, travelers reached Amnokkan, 9 miles from the Chinese city of Maoershan (Linjiang).

Here Mikhailovsky made the final decision to abandon the continuation of the journey on horseback. A large flat-bottomed boat was hired - an “old rotten little boat” five fathoms long, with a crew of 4 Chinese. From the Korean village of Tayanskhan, Mikhailovsky sent a letter to the head of the expedition, Zvegintsov, where he summed up the preliminary results of the work of the party entrusted to him, spoke about the attack of the Honghuz and explained the reason for the change in route:

I’m not going to see you in Kapsan - 240 versts, when there is still such a journey ahead, cannot be done on exhausted horses. All our provisions are gone, we eat Korean food and sleep without beds and bedding on the floor of Korean fanzes. We sleep little… .

On October 9, the journey down the river began. Due to the onset of cold weather, rain and wind, we again had to endure hardships. Numerous rapids posed a great danger, the largest of which Mikhailovsky describes as a “roaring waterfall,” but all of them, thanks to the skill of the Chinese helmsman, were successfully passed. On October 18, the travelers reached Uiju, a Korean city 60 km above the mouth of the Amnokkan, and here they said goodbye to Korea.

Despite the poverty of the population and the monstrous socio-economic backwardness of the country, Mikhailovsky liked it; in his notes, he highly appreciates the intellectual and moral qualities of the Korean people. During the entire trip, there was not a single case where a Korean did not keep his word or lie. Everywhere the expedition met with the warmest and most hospitable attitude.

On the evening of October 18, the last part of the journey was completed down the Amnokkan, to the Chinese port of Sakhou (now Andong). Further, the path ran along the eastern coast of the Liaodong Peninsula and was covered in a Chinese gig. The character of the area was completely different. The mountains moved to the west, and the entire strip of coast, about 300 versts long and 10 to 30 versts wide, was a slightly hilly plain, densely populated by Chinese peasants. On the evening of October 25, travelers reached the first settlement on the Liaodong Peninsula occupied by the Russians - Biziwo; two days later they were in Port Arthur.

In total, Mikhailovsky covered about 1,600 km in Korea and Manchuria, including about 900 km on horseback, up to 400 km in a boat along the Amnokkan and up to 300 km in a Chinese gig along the Liaodong Peninsula. This journey took 45 days. On average, the expedition covered 35.5 km per day. Route surveys of the area, barometric leveling, astronomical observations and other work were carried out, which served as the basis for drawing up a detailed map of the route. Mikhailovsky kept a diary and technical journal of the expedition. In addition, he recorded up to 100 Korean fairy tales, legends and myths.

Final phase of the journey: through the USA to Europe (November-December 1898)

On November 9 (21), the journey began on an ocean-going steamer, which called at Japanese ports twice (November 11 - Nagasaki, from November 14 to 18 - Yokohama). In Yokohama, Mikhailovsky not only admired Fuji and bought trinkets, like most tourists, but also became well acquainted with the life of the city. He traveled on the Japanese railway (which turned out to be a cheap narrow-gauge railway), and observed from the window of the carriage the fields of Japanese peasants “with toy plots, with amazing cultivation of these plots.” His keen eye noticed everything: “electric lighting, beautiful highways, an excellent commercial and military port, many factory chimneys sticking out on the horizon.” He was “in factories and railway workshops and already as a specialist could be convinced of the amazing perseverance and original talent of Japanese technicians and craftsmen. How rationally they adapted to their entire railway business, on what commercial footing they placed it.”

In Mikhailovsky's published notes on his trip around the world, the last date specifically noted is November 18 (the day of departure from Yokohama); then the dates disappear (perhaps due to the monotony of life on a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean). During a one-day stop in Hawaii, in the port of Honolulu, Mikhailovsky toured the city, visited the local museum, and went outside the city to admire the lush tropical vegetation.

The final destination of the journey across the Pacific Ocean was San Francisco, where the young American Fraser, with whom Mikhailovsky made friends on the ship, helped him get acquainted with the life of the city. Fraser organized two excursions especially for Mikhailovsky: to a jewelry store (where jewelry worth a total of $3 million could be seen) and to one of the banks (with a demonstration of the building, interior premises and numerous technical means for maintaining the security regime).

Mikhailovsky was particularly interested in visiting an American farm, since he himself was a landowner and was engaged in various kinds of agricultural experiments.

Then Mikhailovsky crossed the entire North American continent by train. In Chicago, while the trains were changing, Mikhailovsky managed to inspect the famous slaughterhouses. In New York, Mikhailovsky did not want to linger and set off across the Atlantic Ocean to England on the English steamship Lusitania, at that time the largest in the world.

The trip across the Atlantic coincided with the discussion of the Fashoda Incident. England and France were on the brink of war. The Lusitania's passengers were predominantly English. The impression from this society was difficult. Mikhailovsky was forced to listen to their endless conversations about the need for war, about the superiority of the Anglo-Saxons over all other nations and about the upcoming redistribution of the world in their favor.

This whole society, despite the fact that among them there were scientists and people of letters, gave a strong impression of complacency to the point of vulgarity, of people offended by something. These were the owners who did not forget for a single moment that all this, from the steamship to the last trinket, belongs to them, and they do not have to go to anyone and do not have to ask anyone for anything - all the best in the world is from them.

Under the heavy impression of these meetings, in order to no longer hear “the wild cries of these people who wanted blood and death,” Mikhailovsky changed his original plan to stay in London. He crossed the English Channel and went to Paris, but did not stay here either.

The old bourgeois system is becoming obsolete, and nowhere is this dying, decaying alive, felt more than in Paris.

Mikhailovsky was in a hurry home to Russia.

Results of the trip (geography, literature, folklore)

Mikhailovsky published the scientific results of his observations and research in Korea and Manchuria, which provided valuable geographical information about little-explored territories, especially about the Pektusan region, in special publications: “Reports of members of the autumn expedition of 1898 in North Korea” (1898) and in “Proceedings of the autumn expedition of 1898" (1901). In addition, an entire book about the trip was written based on the diary entries (originally published in the form of separate essays under the general title “Pencil from Life” in nine issues of the popular science magazine “God’s World” for 1899).

During the trip, Mikhailovsky wrote down up to 100 Korean fairy tales, but one notebook with notes was lost on the way, so the number of tales was reduced to 64. They were first published, along with the first separate edition of the book of notes about the trip, in 1903. Mikhailovsky's notes turned out to be the most significant contribution to Korean folklore: previously only 2 fairy tales were published in Russian and seven fairy tales in English. In the preface, Mikhailovsky states that his own role was limited to fixing the text from the translator’s words: “I quickly wrote it down, phrase by phrase, trying to maintain the simplicity of speech, never adding anything of my own.” However, some places in the published text clearly indicate literary processing carried out by the writer. For example, there is this passage:

The new moon was shining in the distant sky. But it was dark, and the gentle Scorpio, like diamonds, burned around the month with its stars and seemed to penetrate deeper and deeper into the blue of the dark sky. White Pektusan stood gloomily and alone and its peak went far into the sky.

Fortunately, examples of such obvious literary intrusion into the text of folklore records are rare. But Mikhailovsky, apparently, systematically used such a deeply flawed technique from the point of view of scientific folklore, as compiling a consolidated text from the versions of different storytellers.

Sometimes Mikhailovsky the folklorist made abbreviations due to the prevailing ideas of propriety in his time, which he completely shared: “Out of three tales, one, due to its complete obscenity, had to be left unwritten, and in one, with a relatively faithful wife, several had to be omitted for the same reason.” strong and witty places." Mikhailovsky cannot even resist making a completely puritanical remark about the Korean storytellers: “And in appearance, when they were sitting in my room, they were such respectable people.”

At the end of the trip, Mikhailovsky was so saturated with the spirit of Korean folk art that he himself was able to act as a Korean storyteller, and the first listener of the new fairy tale he composed on the go was a Korean guide.

When Oconshante created the earth, he sent a special elder-patron to each state. He also sent to Korea, endowing the old man with all the riches: arable land, timber, gold, silver, red copper, iron, coal. The elder put all this in a bag and left. He walked and walked, got tired and stopped for the night in Manchuria. The Manchus offered him their souli, the old man was tempted and thought: I’ll drink at night, and I’ll sleep until tomorrow. He didn’t know that Chinese vodka was such that as soon as you took a sip of water the next day, the person would become drunk again. The old man woke up the next day, took a sip of spring water and went his way. He went and got drunk, and walked drunk all day. He wandered across some river, and it seemed to him that he had crossed Amnok, and he began to scatter arable land, forests, gold, silver, copper, iron, and coal everywhere. When he came to Amnoka, all he had left were mountains and various little things from all his previous riches. So Korea was left with nothing, and the worst thing is that the drunken old man also left the diploma with the Chinese for Korean luck.

The Korean listens to me, shakes his head dejectedly and says something. P.N. translates: - He says: everything was like that. - Tell him it didn’t happen, because I made it up myself. - He said, but he doesn’t believe it: he says it’s more like the truth than fiction. He says that they believe that all Korean happiness went to the Chinese.

Meeting with the royal family

Having become famous in the capital's society not only as a writer, but also as a traveler, Mikhailovsky received an invitation to the royal palace. A meeting followed with the royal family, the exact date of which has not yet been established. Two memoirs have been preserved, recorded according to Mikhailovsky’s stories: A. M. Gorky and M. K. Kuprina-Iordanskaya. According to Gorky's version, Mikhailovsky was officially “invited to the Anichkov Palace to the Dowager Queen.” However, Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fedorovna were present at the meeting (the latter accompanied by some court ladies).

A few days later, Borminsky and Mikhailovsky received notifications of awards. However, Mikhailovsky, according to Gorky’s memoirs, “did not receive his order, because he was soon administratively expelled from St. Petersburg for the fact that, together with other writers, he signed a protest against the beating of students and the public demonstrating at the Kazan Cathedral” (we are talking about the events of March 4, 1901 G.). Kuprina-Iordanskaya adds that Mikhailovsky was not only expelled from St. Petersburg, but also “placed under police supervision.”

Last months

In September 1906, returning from Manchuria, Mikhailovsky settled in St. Petersburg. He actively participated in the literary and social life of the capital. He was a member of the editorial board of the Bolshevik magazine “Bulletin of Life”, in which he collaborated with A.V. Lunacharsky, V.V. Vorovsky, V.D. Bonch-Bruevich. He died suddenly on December 10 (27), 1906 from cardiac paralysis during an editorial meeting, where his dramatic sketch “Teenagers” was read and discussed that day.

He was buried at the Literary Bridges of Volkov Cemetery. The tombstone was created in 1912 (sculptor L.V. Sherwood).

Engineering and construction activities

Public position

By nature, Mikhailovsky was a born polemicist:

Is the point to get through life in such a way as not to offend anyone? This is not happiness. Touch, break, break, so that life boils. I am not afraid of any accusations, but I am a hundred times more afraid of colorlessness than death.

Life in the village and close communication with peasants in 1883-1886. led Mikhailovsky to a deep understanding of the problems of the village and to an ideological break with populism. Mikhailovsky clearly realized that the community praised by the populists was a relic of serfdom and the main obstacle to the development of the country.

Mikhailovsky expressed his views not only in journalism, but also in artistic form: the story “The Wolf,” based on a real story, shows the hopelessness of the situation and the death of a talented peasant who was unable to leave the community. One of the chapters of the story is a sharp satire on the editors of a populist magazine: the main character, who comes there with his manuscript, does not meet with either sympathy or understanding.

Mikhailovsky repeatedly expressed his indignation at the intellectual squalor of populist journalism. After another absurd article by the economist-statistician Karyshev, who advocated the preservation of the community, appeared in “Russian Bogatstvo”, Mikhailovsky wrote a letter to one of the leading employees of the magazine (September 26, 1894) with a very sharp characterization of Karyshev:

...a limited populist with all the powerlessness and weakness of the populist’s thought. So naive that it’s embarrassing to read. This huge colossus of our life is not going that way and that’s not how it’s going.<…>Will Karyshev’s drunken, narrow head understand that the matter is depreciation of labor, in tied hands, in a forced community and in forced labor, in that penal servitude in which Russia is languishing?!

In the same year, Mikhailovsky drew attention to the book of the “legal Marxist” P. B. Struve, “Critical Notes on the Question of the Economic Development of Russia,” which was widely discussed in the provinces. Subsequently, Mikhailovsky actively collaborated in press organs that were, to one degree or another, involved in Marxism, most of all in the magazine “World of God.” In 1896, he became one of the founders of the Samara Vestnik newspaper, which was the first in Russia to acquire a pro-Marxist orientation. Subsequently, Mikhailovsky supported this provincial newspaper with his materials, thanks to which its circulation increased sharply.

For some time, Mikhailovsky continued to collaborate with the populist “Russian Bogatstvo”, avoiding open conflict with his namesake N.K. Mikhailovsky, who was at the head of this magazine, and publishing his “anti-populist” things in other publications. The breakup nevertheless occurred in 1897, but on purely literary grounds - after the editorial staff rejected the drama “Orchid”.

After a personal acquaintance with American farming (during a trip around the world in 1898), Mikhailovsky’s views were further strengthened and were once again expressed in print:

It should be recognized that peasants have the same right to choose any type of labor that the writer of these lines enjoys. This is the only key to success, the key to progress. Everything else is stagnation, where there is no place for a living soul, where there is mud and bitter, incessant drunkenness of the same slave, with the only difference being that the chain is no longer chained to the master, but to the ground. But she is chained by the same master in the name of beautiful sounds, beckoning to the idealistic master, who does not know at all and does not want to know, and therefore cannot comprehend the full extent of the evil arising from this.

Acquaintance and communication with Gorky, who was fond of Marxism and was personally acquainted with the largest figures of the RSDLP, contributed to the radicalization of Mikhailovsky’s political views. During the revolution of 1905, he was already on the political platform of the RSDLP (see biography).

Addresses in St. Petersburg

Memory

In St. Petersburg

In Novosibirsk

• Garin-Mikhailovsky Square is the square in front of the Novosibirsk-Glavny train station.
• Garin-Mikhailovsky Square is a station of the Novosibirsk metro.

In the Samara region

• Garin-Mikhailovsky street in the village of Sernovodsk, Sergievsky district
• In March 2013, in the village of Surgut, Sergievsky district, Samara region, a memorial plaque was unveiled in honor of Nikolai Georgievich, the founder of this settlement.

In Crimea

• On the Yalta-Sevastopol highway, a memorial sign was erected on a rock in memory of Garin-Mikhailovsky’s work in Crimea.

In literature

The famous Soviet writer V. A. Chivilikhin (1928-1984) wrote a biographical book about Garin-Mikhailovsky “The Road”

(February 8 (February 20) 1852, St. Petersburg - November 27 (December 10), 1906, ibid.) - Russian writer.

Garin is the pseudonym of the fiction writer Nikolai Georgievich Mikhailovsky. He studied at the Odessa Richelieu Gymnasium and at the Institute of Railway Engineers. Having served for about 4 years in Bulgaria and during the construction of the Batumi port, he decided to “sit down on the ground” and spent 3 years in a village in the Samara province, but business management did not go well on an ordinary basis, and he devoted himself to railway construction in Siberia.

Life is a wheel that is below today and above tomorrow.

Garin-Mikhailovsky Nikolai Georgievich

He entered the literary field in 1892 with the successful story “Tema’s Childhood” (“Russian Wealth”) and the story “Several Years in the Village” (“Russian Thought”). In "Russian Wealth" he then published "Gymnasium Students" (the continuation of "Tema's Childhood"), "Students" (the continuation of "Gymnasium Students"), "Village Panoramas" and others. Garin's stories were published as separate books. The collected works were published in 8 volumes (1906–1910); The following were also published separately: “On Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula” and “Korean Tales”. As a specialist engineer, Garin passionately defended the construction of cheap railways in Novoye Vremya, Russian Life and other publications.

The most famous of Garin's works - the trilogy "Tema's Childhood", "Gymnasium Students" and "Students" - is interestingly conceived, executed in places with talent and seriousness. "Tema's Childhood" is the best part of the trilogy. The author has a living sense of nature, there is a memory of the heart, with the help of which he reproduces child psychology not from the outside, like an adult observing a child, but with all the freshness and completeness of childhood impressions; but he has absolutely no ability to separate the typical from the random.

The autobiographical element dominates him too much; he clutters the story with episodes that violate the integrity of the artistic impression.

It is perhaps more pleasant to die while doing something than to sit like this and wait for death.

Garin-Mikhailovsky Nikolai Georgievich

The lack of typicality is most noticeable in “Students,” although it also contains very vividly written scenes.

He died suddenly in St. Petersburg during a meeting at the editorial office of the legal Bolshevik magazine “Bulletin of Life” from cardiac paralysis. He was buried on the Literary Bridge of the Volkov Cemetery.

Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky - photo

Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky - quotes

Time does not wait and does not forgive a single lost moment.

Russian writer, publicist, survey engineer and railway builder N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky (real name and surname - Nikolai Egorovich Mikhailovsky) was born on February 8 (20), 1852 in St. Petersburg into a military family. This family belonged to an old noble family, once one of the richest and most noble in the Kherson province. It so happened that the tsar himself and the revolutionary’s mother baptized the boy.

Nikolai Mikhailovsky's childhood and adolescence, which coincided with the era of reforms of the 1860s - a time of decisive disruption of old foundations, were spent in Odessa, where his father, Georgy Antonovich, had a small house and an estate not far from the city. According to the tradition of noble families, the boy received his initial education at home under the guidance of his mother, and then, after a short stay in a German school, he studied at the Odessa Richelieu Gymnasium (1863-1871). In 1871, after graduating from high school, N.G. Mikhailovsky entered the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, but studied there for only a short time. At the end of the first year of study, he did not pass the exam in the encyclopedia of law, but the following year he brilliantly passed the entrance exam to the St. Petersburg Institute of Railways.

During his student internship, Mikhailovsky traveled as a fireman on a steam locomotive, and even then he realized that one must invest not only intelligence and physical strength into work, but also courage; that work and creation in his profession are linked together, provide a rich knowledge of life and encourage him to look for ways to transform it. Until the end of his life, he was engaged in research and construction of roads - railways, electric, cable cars and others - in Moldova and Bulgaria, the Caucasus and Crimea, the Urals and Siberia, the Far East and Korea. According to A.I. Kuprin, “his business projects have always been distinguished by a fiery, fabulous imagination.” He was a talented engineer, an incorruptible person who knew how to defend his point of view before any authorities.

But that would come later, and after graduating from the institute in 1878 with the title of “civil engineer of communications, with the right to carry out construction work,” Mikhailovsky was sent to Bulgaria, which had just been liberated from Ottoman rule. There he built the Bender-Galician railway, connecting Moldova with Bulgaria, as well as a port and roads in the Burgas region. Having spent 4 years in the Balkans, Mikhailovsky was one of the first Russian engineers to work in Bulgaria after its liberation. Mikhailovsky was very proud that Russian engineers were the first to come to Bulgaria not to destroy, but to create. Since then, engineer, surveyor, designer and builder N.G. Mikhailovsky built tunnels, bridges, laid railways, worked in Batum, Ufa, in the Kazan, Kostroma, Vyatka, Volyn provinces and in Siberia. “Experts assure,” Kuprin wrote, “that it is difficult to imagine a better prospector and initiator - more resourceful, inventive and witty.”

In the 1880s, Mikhailovsky worked as an engineer on the construction of the Batumi, Libavo-Romenskaya, Zhabinsko-Pinskaya, Samara-Ufa railways, and participated in the construction of the Batumi seaport. But in the early 1880s he became interested in populism and retired in 1884. Working on a private railroad showed him the impossibility of serving both the interests of capital and society at the same time. Garin-Mikhailovsky decided to “sit down on the ground” and embark on the path of social reformism, practical populism, undertaking the experience of socialist reorganization of the countryside. To implement his social idea, he bought an estate in the Buguruslan district of the Samara province, where he lived with his family for three years, farming and trying to prove the vitality of “community life.” However, such management did not go well. As a landowner, Garin-Mikhailovsky was connected with the old order by numerous threads. Social reform ended in complete collapse, and he devoted himself to railway construction.

Since 1886, Garin-Mikhailovsky has been back in service, and his outstanding talent as an engineer shines again. During the construction of the Ufa-Zlatoust railway (1888-1890), he carried out survey work. The result of this work was an option that provided enormous savings, and in January 1888, Garin-Mikhailovsky began implementing his version of the road as the head of the 9th construction site.

Writer K.I. Chukovsky noted in it “a lively interest in the economic structure of Russia, in the Russian economy and technology that never faded.” “They say about me,” Nikolai Georgievich wrote to his wife, “that I do miracles, and they look at me with huge eyes, but it’s funny to me. So little is needed to do all this. More conscientiousness, energy, enterprise, and these seemingly scary mountains They will part and reveal their secret, invisible moves and passages, using which you can reduce the cost and significantly shorten the line.” He sincerely dreamed of a time when Russia would be covered with a network of railways, and did not see greater happiness than working for the glory of Russia, bringing “not imaginary, but real benefit.” He considered the construction of railways as a necessary condition for the development of the economy, prosperity and power of his country. Given the lack of funds allocated by the treasury, he persistently advocated reducing the cost of road construction through the development of profitable options and the introduction of more advanced construction methods. There were many innovative projects along his path. In the Urals, this was the construction of a tunnel on the Suleya Pass, which shortened the railway line by 10 km and saved 1 million rubles; surveys from Vyazovaya station to Sadki station shortened the line by 7.5 versts and saved about 400 thousand rubles; a new version of the line along the Yurizan River resulted in savings of up to 600 thousand rubles. Managing the construction of the railway line from the station. Krotovka of the Samara-Zlatoust railway to Sergievsk, he removed the contractors who were making huge profits by plundering government funds and exploiting workers, and created an elected administration. In a special circular to employees, he categorically prohibited any abuse and established a procedure for paying workers under the supervision of public controllers. “N.G. Mikhailovsky,” wrote the “Volzhsky Vestnik” on August 18, 1896, “was the first of the civil engineers to cast his voice as an engineer and writer against the hitherto practiced procedures and the first to make an attempt to introduce new ones.” At the same construction site, Nikolai Georgievich organized the first comradely trial in Russia with the participation of workers and employees, including women, against an engineer who accepted rotten sleepers as a bribe. According to K.I. Chukovsky, he seemed to transfer economics “from the area of ​​the mind to the area of ​​the heart.”

On September 8, 1890, Garin-Mikhailovsky spoke at the celebrations in Zlatoust on the occasion of the arrival of the first train here. At the end of 1890, he was engaged in research on the construction of the Zlatoust-Chelyabinsk railway, and in April 1891 he was appointed head of the survey party on the West Siberian railway. Here they were offered the most optimal railway bridge crossing across the Ob. It was Mikhailovsky who rejected the option of building a bridge in the Tomsk region, and with his “option near the village of Krivoshchekovo” created the conditions for the emergence of Novosibirsk - one of the largest industrial centers in our country. So N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky can be called one of the founders and builders of Novosibirsk.

In articles about the Siberian Railway, he enthusiastically and passionately defended the idea of ​​savings, taking into account which the initial cost of the railway track was reduced from 100 to 40 thousand rubles per mile. He proposed publishing reports on "rational" proposals from engineers, and put forward the idea of ​​public discussion of technical and other projects "to avoid previous mistakes." The combination of a high structure of soul with efficiency and economic practice was the peculiarity of Nikolai Georgievich’s creative personality. “He was a poet by nature, you could feel it every time he talked about what he loved, what he believed in. But he was a poet of work, a person with a certain bias towards practice, towards business,” recalled A.M. Bitter.

There is a legend that at one of the railway construction sites, engineers were faced with the following problem: it was necessary to go around a large hill or cliff, choosing the shortest trajectory for this (after all, the cost of each meter of the railway was very high). N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky spent a day thinking and then gave instructions to build a road along one of the foot of the hill. When asked what caused the choice, Mikhailovsky replied that he had been watching the birds all day - or rather, the way they flew around the hill. He figured that they were flying a shorter route, saving effort, and decided to use their route. Subsequently, accurate calculations based on space photography showed that Garin-Mikhailovsky’s decision based on bird observations was correct.

Siberian epic N.G. Mikhailovsky was just an episode in his eventful life. But objectively, this was the highest rise, the pinnacle of his engineering activity - in terms of the foresight of his calculations, the irrefutability of his principled position, the tenacity of the struggle for the optimal option, and the historical results. He wrote to his wife: “I’m in a frenzy of all sorts of things and don’t waste a single moment. I lead the most favorite way of life - wandering around villages and villages with research, going to cities... promoting my cheap road, keeping a diary. Work is up to my neck. ..."

Nobleman by birth, N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky was formed as a personality during the era of social upsurge in Russia in the 1860-1870s. The passion for populism turned out to be unsuccessful; the vitality of “communal life” could not be proven. He actively communicated with the people, knew their life in detail, so disappointment in populism led him to the camp of those sympathizing with Marxism. In 1896 N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky organized one of the first friendly trials in Russia against an engineer who had embezzled government money. He actively collaborated in Marxist publications, and in the last years of his life he provided material assistance to the Bolsheviks. “I think that he considered himself a Marxist because he was an engineer. He was attracted by the activity of Marx’s teachings. Marx’s plan for the reorganization of the world delighted him with its breadth; he imagined the future as a grandiose collective work carried out by the entire mass of humanity, freed from the strong shackles of class statehood ", recalled M. Gorky, and the writer S. Elpatievsky noted that the eyes and heart of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky "were turned forward to the bright democratic future of Russia."

From the mid-1890s, Nikolai Georgievich participated in the organization of the Marxist newspaper Samara Vestnik, the magazines Nachalo and Zhizn, and was a member of the editorial board of the Bolshevik Vestnik Zhizn. In 1891, Garin bought the right to publish the magazine "Russian Wealth" and was its editor until 1899. He more than once hid underground workers on his estate and kept illegal literature, in particular Iskra. In December 1905, while in Manchuria as a war correspondent, Nikolai Georgievich distributed revolutionary propaganda publications in the army and transferred funds for the purchase of weapons to participants in the battles at Krasnaya Presnya in Moscow. It is no coincidence that since 1896, secret surveillance has been established over him, which continued until his death.

Since April 1903 N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky led an expedition to carry out design work on the construction of a railway on the southern coast of Crimea. Over the course of eight months, the expedition carried out technical and economic calculations for twenty-two route options; their cost ranged from 11.3 to 24 million rubles in gold. Garin-Mikhailovsky sought to implement the project thoroughly and at minimal cost. To the question “Which road line would be preferable?” he invariably answered: “The one that will cost less, I recommend that landowners and speculators moderate their appetites.” Contemporaries who knew the writer-engineer closely recalled how he joked that the construction of the South Coast Railway would be the best posthumous monument for him. Garin-Mikhailovsky admitted to Kuprin that he would certainly like to complete only two things in his life - the railway in Crimea and the story "Engineers". The construction of the road was prevented by the Russian-Japanese War, but the research materials of Garin-Mikhailovsky were used during the construction of the Sevastopol-Yalta highway (1972). Death prevented N. Garin from finishing the story “Engineers”.

In the literary field N.G. In 1892, Mikhailovsky published the successful story “Tema’s Childhood” and the story “Several Years in the Village.” As a writer, he acted under the pseudonym N. Garin: on behalf of his son - Georgy, or, as the family called him, Garya. The result of Garin-Mikhailovsky’s literary work was the autobiographical tetralogy: “Tema’s Childhood” (1892), “Gymnasium Students” (1893), “Students” (1895), “Engineers” (published 1907), dedicated to the fate of the younger generation of the intelligentsia of the “turning point” . This tetralogy - the most famous of Garin's works - was conceived interestingly, performed with talent and seriousness. "Theme's Childhood" is the best part of the tetralogy. The author has a living sense of nature, a memory of the heart, with the help of which he reproduces child psychology not from the outside, like an adult observing a child, but with all the freshness and completeness of childhood impressions. But the autobiographical element dominates him too much; he clutters the story with episodes that violate the integrity of the artistic impression. This is most noticeable in "Students", although there are very vividly written scenes in them.

The result of his travels in the Far East were the travel essays “Across Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula” (1899), etc. In 1898, while in Korea, Garin-Mikhailovsky compiled the collection “Korean Tales” (ed. 1899). Gorky recalled: “I saw drafts of his books about Manchuria and “Korean Tales”; it was a bunch of various pieces of paper, forms from the “Department of Traction and Propulsion Service” of some railway, lined pages torn from an office book, a concert poster and even two Chinese business cards; all of this is written in half words, hints of letters. “How do you read this?” “Bah!” he said. “Very simple, because it was written by me.” And he smartly began to read one of the cute fairy tales of Korea. But it seemed to me, that he reads not from the manuscript, but from memory."

Literary creativity brought N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky was widely known during his lifetime. He also wrote novels, short stories, plays, travel essays, fairy tales for children, and articles on various issues. N. Garin's stories were published separately under the title "Essays and Stories" (1893-1895); The following were also published separately: “On Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula” and “Korean Tales”. The best of his works have survived the author. The collected works of Garin-Mikhailovsky were published in 8 volumes (1906-1910). Books by N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky is still being reprinted today and does not linger on the shelves of bookstores and library shelves. Kindness, sincerity, knowledge of the depths of the human soul and the complexities of life, faith in the mind and conscience of man, love for the Motherland and true democracy - all this is still close and dear to our contemporary in the best books of the writer.

Nevertheless, he treated himself as a writer with distrust and injustice. Someone praised "Tema's Childhood". “Nothing,” he said, sighing. “Everyone writes well about children, it’s difficult to write badly about them.” And, as always, he immediately dodged to the side: “But it’s difficult for masters of painting to paint a portrait of a child, their children are dolls. Even Van Dyck’s Infanta is a doll.” Talented feuilletonist S.S. Gusev once reproached that Garin-Mikhailovsky wrote little. “It must be because I’m more of an engineer than a writer,” Mikhailovsky answered and grinned sadly. “I also seem to be an engineer of the wrong specialty; I should have built not along horizontal lines, but along vertical lines. I should have taken up architecture.” ". But he spoke about his work as a railway worker beautifully, with great fervor, like a poet.

Geologist B.K. Terletsky, his adopted son, wrote about Nikolai Georgievich: “Before me is a slender figure with a dark face, gray hair, and youthfully bright eyes. You don’t believe that he is 50 years old. You won’t say that he is an aging man. Such hot eyes “Only a young man could have such a moving face, such a friendly smile.” Many photographs of the writer have survived, but they do not fully reflect the dynamism and charm of this man. Perhaps a more vivid impression is made by the verbal portrait written by A.I. Kuprin: “He had a slender, thin figure, careless, fast, precise and beautiful movements and a wonderful face, one of those faces that are never forgotten. What was most captivating in this face was the contrast between the premature gray of his thick hair and the very youthful shine of the living ", bold, slightly mocking eyes. He entered and within five minutes he mastered the conversation and became the center of society. But it was clear that he himself did not make any effort to this. Such was the charm of his personality, his smile, his lively, fascinating speech " . He spoke as if casually, but in very deft and uniquely constructed phrases. He had a remarkable command of introductory sentences, which Chekhov hated. However, Garin-Mikhailovsky was not in the habit of admiring his eloquence. In his speeches it was always “crowded for words, spacious for thoughts.” From the first meeting, he often gave an impression that was not very beneficial for himself. The playwright Kosorotov complained about him: “I wanted to talk with him about literature, but he treated me to a lecture on the culture of root crops, then said something about ergot.” And Leonid Andreev, when asked: “How did he like Garin?” replied: “Very nice, smart, interesting! But he’s an engineer. It’s bad when a person is an engineer. I’m afraid of an engineer, a dangerous man! . Garin is inclined to put people on his rails, yes, yes! He is assertive, pushes..."

In the summer of 1905 N.G. Garin brought M. Gorky money to transfer it to the party treasury. Seeing Gorky’s very motley company, he sighed and said: “How many people you have! It’s interesting how you live! But here I go back and forth, as if I were the devil’s coachman, and life passes by. It’s almost 60 years, and what have I done?” About his best works - “The Childhood of Tyoma”, “Gymnasium Students”, “Students”, “Engineers”, he answered Gorky: “After all, you know that all these books could not be written. Now is not the time for books...”

Peace was abhorrent to Nikolai Georgievich’s ebullient nature. He traveled all over Russia, traveled around the world, and wrote his works “on the radio” - in a carriage compartment, in a steamboat cabin, in a hotel room, in the hustle and bustle of a station. And death overtook him, as Gorky put it, “on the fly.” Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky - an inspired survey engineer, builder of many railways across vast expanses of Russia, a talented writer and publicist, a prominent public figure, tireless traveler and discoverer - died of cardiac paralysis at an editorial meeting of the Marxist magazine "Bulletin of Life", in whose affairs took part. Garin-Mikhailovsky made a heated speech, went into the next room, lay down on the sofa, and death cut short the life of this talented man. This happened on November 27 (December 10), 1906 in St. Petersburg.

N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, who gave a large sum for the needs of the revolution, had nothing to bury him with. We collected money by subscription among St. Petersburg workers and intellectuals. He was buried on the Literary Bridge of the Volkovsky Cemetery. In 1912, a tombstone with a bronze high-relief half-figure (sculptor L.V. Sherwood) was installed on the grave of the writer and engineer.

“Russia is the happiest country! There is so much interesting work in it, so many magical opportunities, the most difficult tasks! I have never envied anyone, but I envy the people of the future...”

N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky

Storytellers of Russia and the USSR

Victor Eremin

The Book of Happiness; Chicken Kud; Parrot; Korean fairy tales.

Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky

“Children were a source of lasting joy for him. He relaxed with the children, with the children he laughed like a child and trembled with their small, so funny, so naive joys. And we, the children, greedily caught his free moments, surrounded him, each pulled him in his own direction and asked for more and more new fairy tales, which he created right there on the spot, created with inimitable skill. And then it was our turn - Nikolai Georgievich persistently demanded fairy tales from us, and our inexperienced naive attempts made him laugh contagiously and encouragingly” (B.K. Terletsky).

Nikolai Georgievich Mikhailovsky was born on February 20, 1852 in St. Petersburg. His father, Georgy Antonovich Mikhailovsky, was from an old noble family, an uhlan, awarded the Order of St. George for his exploits. Out of respect for the warrior, Emperor Nicholas I personally became the godfather of his eldest son Nicholas. The boy’s mother, nee Glafira Nikolaevna Tsvetinovich, came from Serbian nobles.

After the death of Nicholas I and the end of the Crimean War, Georgy Antonovich retired with the rank of general and moved with his family to Odessa, where he had his own house and estate near the city. The future writer spent his childhood there. I’ll note right away that military general Mikhailovsky turned out to be a useless entrepreneur, and therefore during the years of reforms of Alexander II, the family slowly went bankrupt. This happened so slowly that it actually did not affect Nikolai’s youth.

The boy received his initial education at home, then he was sent to a German school, from where he entered the Odessa Richelieu Gymnasium. In 1871, Mikhailovsky became a student at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, but failed the first session. In 1872 he successfully entered the Institute of Railways. This is how the main life path of the brilliant writer and survey engineer was found.

After graduating from the institute, civil engineer Mikhailovsky was sent to Bulgaria and Moldova, which had just been liberated from the Turks. He participated in the construction of a port in the Burgas region, as well as the Bender-Galician railway, which connected Moldova with Bulgaria. The young man worked in the Balkans for 4 years.

In 1879, Nikolai Georgievich married the daughter of the Minsk governor, Nadezhda Valerievna Charykova. And here we will have to talk about the most important personality traits of Nikolai Georgievich. Firstly, he was an unusually charming person, women easily fell in love with him, and as for men, he knew how to persuade and pacify even the toughest creditors. Secondly, Mikhailovsky was an extremely frivolous person and did things for which anyone else would certainly have suffered; suffice it to say that having a large family, 11 of his own and 3 adopted children, he managed to squander the capital of his two millionaire wives in the shortest possible time (shortly before his death, the writer, having received a loan, hired a private train and traveled on it to Paris to buy fruit for banquet in honor of receiving this loan, etc.). But at the same time, thirdly, Mikhailovsky was very thrifty and prudent when it came to public money and the common good of Russia.

After his marriage, Nikolai Georgievich asked to build the Batumi railway in Transcaucasia, where he was almost killed by Turkish bandits.

Since he already had children, Mikhailovsky decided not to take any more risks and become a landowner. With his wife's money, he bought an estate in the Samara province and organized a scientifically based, profitable farm there. However, the peasants mistook his good deeds for the master’s eccentricities - they burned the farm in mockery and destroyed the harvest. After 3 years, when his wife’s money ran out, Mikhailovsky had to return to engineering.

Since 1886, Nikolai Georgievich built tunnels, bridges, and laid railways. He worked in Ufa, in the Kazan, Kostroma, Vyatka, Volyn provinces and in Siberia. He is considered the founder of the city of Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk). Since April 1903, Mikhailovsky led an expedition to carry out design work on the construction of a railway on the southern coast of Crimea.

At first, the family followed the breadwinner. In the winter of 1887 they lived in Ust-Katav (near Chelyabinsk). The Mikhailovskys’ first daughter, 3-month-old Varenka, died there. Their eldest son Garya (George) was born there.

In the winter of 1890-1891, Nadezhda Valerievna became seriously ill. Mikhailovsky took a leave of absence and took his family to a ruined Samara estate. His wife recovered, and Nikolai Georgievich, out of boredom, decided to write memories of his childhood. He had made attempts to engage in literature before this. In the early spring of 1891, at the height of the mud, the outstanding Russian writer and marine painter Konstantin Mikhailovich Stanyukovich came to them from St. Petersburg. He accidentally came across Mikhailovsky’s manuscript “Several Years in the Country,” and he decided to get to know the author. Nikolai Georgievich read a fragment from his memoirs to the guest, and he offered to give them to the Russian Thought magazine. Since the editor-in-chief of this publication was Nikolai Georgievich’s namesake, a pseudonym was required. They started to come up with ideas. And then little Gary ran into the room. The father took the baby in his arms and said with a laugh:

- I'm Garin's dad!

To which Stanyukovich replied:

- Here is the pseudonym - Garin!

The writer's first books were published under this name. Then a double surname appeared - Garin-Mikhailovsky.

Nikolai Georgievich entered the literary field in 1892 with the memoir “Tema’s Childhood” and the story “Several Years in the Village.” Readers welcomed the talented author. Over time, the memoirs became a tetralogy: “Theme’s Childhood” (1892), “Gymnasium Students” (1893), “Students” (1895), “Engineers” (published 1907). It is considered the best of everything that Garin-Mikhailovsky created.
In 1895, in Samara, the writer met Vera Alexandrovna Sadovskaya, née Dubrovina. This millionaire donated huge sums to his engineering and literary adventures. The romance that began ended with Nikolai Georgievich’s divorce from Charykova and his wedding to Sadovskaya. From that time on, the writer began to appear in society, accompanied by two wives! The women were forced to make friends and humbly accept the whims of their common husband. The writer had no intention of abandoning any of them. Although his salary was not enough to support such a large family, everyone lived on Sadovskaya’s income. Garin-Mikhailovsky even wrote a play about his life with two wives; it was staged at the Samara Theater, and the entire unusual family was present at the premiere.

The writer did not forget about himself. Tired of constant survey and construction expeditions, he decided to make a round-the-world trip in 1898 along the Far East-Japan-America-Europe route. The wives agreed.

Just before leaving, Mikhailovsky was offered to take part in a large scientific expedition to North Korea and Manchuria. Since Korea had previously pursued a policy of self-isolation, this was the first large-scale foreign scientific expedition in those places. It would have been criminally stupid to refuse it. And the writer agreed.

The journey turned out to be very difficult and dangerous. The expedition walked and rode horses for 1,600 km. And no matter where she appeared, local authorities gathered storytellers who, through translators, told Nikolai Georgievich folk tales - such was the whim of the writer. Everything was recorded and resulted in a unique book, “Korean Fairy Tales.” The author published it in 1899, after which it was translated into many languages ​​of the world.

With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Garin-Mikhailovsky went to the Far East as a war correspondent. There he remained until the beginning of the first Russian revolution and the end of the war.

Upon returning to St. Petersburg, the writer continued to work on the story “Engineers”, and also took part in the work of the Bolshevik magazine “Bulletin of Life”. On the evening of December 10, 1906, a stormy meeting of the journal's editorial board took place, at which Garin-Mikhailovsky spoke energetically. Suddenly he felt bad, he went into the next room, lay down on the sofa and died. The writer suffered from cardiac paralysis from overwork.

Since the day before, Nikolai Georgievich, out of his frivolity, gave a large sum to the cause of the revolution, and both of his families were already ruined by that time, money had to be collected for the funeral by subscription. The burial of Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky took place at the Volkovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.