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Biography of Bazhov Pavel Petrovich

Bazhov Pavel Petrovich(January 27, 1879 - December 3, 1950) - famous Russian Soviet writer, famous Ural storyteller, prose writer, talented processor of folk tales, legends, Ural fairy tales.

Biography

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov was born on January 27, 1879 in the Urals near Yekaterinburg in the family of the hereditary mining foreman of the Sysertsky plant, Pyotr Vasilyevich and Augusta Stefanovna Bazhov (as this surname was spelled then).

The surname Bazhov comes from the local word “bazhit” - that is, to bewitch, to foretell. Bazhov also had a boyish street nickname - Koldunkov. And later, when Bazhov began to publish his works, he signed himself with one of his pseudonyms - Koldunkov.

Pyotr Vasilyevich Bazhev was a foreman in the puddling and welding shop of the Sysert metallurgical plant near Yekaterinburg. The writer's mother, Augusta Stefanovna, was a skilled lacemaker. This was a great help for the family, especially during the husband’s forced unemployment.

The future writer lived and was formed among the Ural miners. Childhood impressions turned out to be the most important and vivid for Bazhov.

He also loved to listen to other old experienced people, experts on the past. The Sysert old men Alexey Efimovich Klyukva and Ivan Petrovich Korob were good storytellers. But the best of all whom Bazhov had the chance to know was the old Polevsky miner Vasily Alekseevich Khmelinin. He worked as a watchman for the wood warehouses at the plant, and children gathered at his guardhouse on Dumnaya Mountain to listen to interesting stories.

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov spent his childhood and adolescence in the town of Sysert and at the Polevsky plant, which was part of the Sysert mining district.

The family often moved from factory to factory, which allowed the future writer to get to know the life of the vast mountain district well and was reflected in his work.

Thanks to chance and his abilities, he got the opportunity to study.

Bazhov studied at a men's zemstvo three-year school, where there was a talented literature teacher who managed to captivate the children with literature.

Thus, a 9-year-old boy once recited the entire school collection poems by N.A. Nekrasov, learned by him on his own initiative.

We stopped at Ekaterinburgsky religious school: it has the lowest tuition fees, you don’t have to buy a uniform, and there are also student apartments rented by the school - these circumstances turned out to be decisive.

Having passed the entrance exams perfectly, Bazhov was enrolled in the Yekaterinburg Theological School. The assistance of a family friend was needed because the theological school was not only, so to speak, professional, but also class-based: it trained mainly church ministers, and mostly the children of the clergy studied there.

After graduating from college at the age of 14, Pavel entered the Perm Theological Seminary, where he studied for 6 years. This was the time of his acquaintance with classical and modern literature.

In 1899, Bazhov graduated from the Perm Seminary - third in terms of total points. The time has come to choose a path in life. An offer to enter the Kyiv Theological Academy and study there full content was rejected. He dreamed of university. However, the way there was closed. First of all, because the spiritual department did not want to lose its “cadres”: the choice of the highest educational institutions for seminary graduates was strictly limited to Dorpat, Warsaw, and Tomsk universities.

Bazhov decided to teach at an elementary school in an area inhabited by Old Believers. He began his career in the remote Ural village of Shaidurikha, near Nevyansk, and then in Yekaterinburg and Kamyshlov. He taught Russian, traveled a lot around the Urals, was interested in folklore, local history, ethnography, and was engaged in journalism.

For fifteen years, every year during school holidays, Bazhov wandered around his native land on foot, looking everywhere at surrounding life, talked with workers, recorded their apt words, conversations, stories, collected folklore, studied the work of lapidaries, stone cutters, steelworkers, foundries, gunsmiths and many other Ural craftsmen, talked with them about the secrets of their craft and kept extensive notes. A rich supply of life impressions and samples of folk speech greatly helped him in his future work as a journalist, and then in his writing. He replenished his “pantry” all his life.

Just at this time, a vacancy opened up at the Yekaterinburg Theological School. And Bazhov returned there - now as a teacher of the Russian language. Later, Bazhov tried to enter Tomsk University, but was not accepted.

In 1907, P. Bazhov moved to the diocesan (women's) school, where until 1914 he taught classes in the Russian language, and at times – in Church Slavonic and algebra.

Here he met his future wife, and at that time just his student, Valentina Ivanitskaya, with whom they married in 1911. The marriage was based on love and unity of aspirations. The young family lived a more meaningful life than most of Bazhov’s colleagues, who spent their free time playing cards. The couple read a lot and went to theaters. Seven children were born into their family.

When the First World War began, the Bazhovs already had two daughters. Due to financial difficulties, the couple moved to Kamyshlov, closer to Valentina Alexandrovna’s relatives. Pavel Petrovich transferred to the Kamyshlovsky religious school.

Participated in civil war 1918-21 in the Urals, Siberia, Altai.

In 1923-29 he lived in Sverdlovsk and worked in the editorial office of the Peasant Newspaper. At this time, he wrote over forty tales on themes of Ural factory folklore.

Since 1930 - in the Sverdlovsk book publishing house.

In 1937, Bazhov was expelled from the party (a year later he was reinstated). But then, having lost his usual job in a publishing house, he devoted all his time to tales, and they shimmered in the “Malachite Box” like genuine Ural gems.

In 1939, Bazhov’s most famous work, a collection of fairy tales, was published. Malachite Box", for which the writer receives State Prize. Subsequently, Bazhov expanded this book with new tales.

Bazhov’s writing career began relatively late: the first book of essays, “The Ural Were,” was published in 1924. Only in 1939 were his most significant works published—the collection of tales “The Malachite Box,” which received the USSR State Prize in 1943, and autobiographical story about childhood "Green filly". Subsequently, Bazhov replenished the “Malachite Box” with new tales: “The Key-Stone” (1942), “Tales of the Germans” (1943), “Tales of the Gunsmiths” and others. His later works can be defined as “tales” not only due to their formal genre characteristics (the presence of a fictional narrator with an individual speech characteristic), but also because they go back to the Ural “secret tales” - oral traditions miners and prospectors, distinguished by a combination of real-life and fairy-tale elements.

Bazhov’s works, dating back to the Ural “secret tales” - oral traditions of miners and prospectors, combine real-life and fantastic elements. Tales that have absorbed plot motifs, the colorful language of folk legends and folk wisdom, embodied the philosophical and ethical ideas of our time.

He worked on the collection of tales “The Malachite Box” from 1936 until the last days of his life. First separate publication it came out in 1939. Then, from year to year, the “Malachite Box” was replenished with new tales.

The tales of “The Malachite Box” are a kind of historical prose in which events and facts of the history of the Middle Urals of the 18th-19th centuries are recreated through the personality of the Ural workers. Tales live as an aesthetic phenomenon thanks to a complete system of realistic, fantastic and semi-fantastic images and a rich moral and humanistic problematic (themes of labor, creative search, love, fidelity, freedom from the power of gold, etc.).

Bazhov sought to develop his own literary style, was looking for original forms of embodiment of his writing talent. He succeeded in this in the mid-1930s, when he began publishing his first tales. In 1939, Bazhov combined them into the book “Malachite Box,” which he subsequently supplemented with new works. Malachite gave the name to the book because, according to Bazhov, “the joy of the earth is collected” in this stone.

Direct artistic and literary activity began late, at the age of 57. According to him, “there was simply no time for literary work of this kind.

Creating fairy tales became the main work of Bazhov’s life. In addition, he edited books and almanacs, including those on Ural local history.

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov died on December 3, 1950 in Moscow, and was buried in his homeland in Yekaterinburg.

Tales

As a boy, he first heard an interesting story about the secrets of the Copper Mountain.

The old people of Sysert were good storytellers - the best of them was Vasily Khmelin, he at that time worked as a watchman of the wood warehouses at the Polevsky plant, and children gathered at his gatehouse to listen to interesting stories about the fairytale snake Poloz and his daughters Zmeevka, about the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, about the grandmother Blue. Pasha Bazhov remembered the stories of this old man for a long time.

Bazhov chose interesting shape narrative “skaz” is, first of all, an oral word, an oral form of speech transferred into a book; in the tale one can always hear the voice of the narrator - grandfather Slyshko - involved in the events; he speaks in a colorful folk language, full of local words and expressions, sayings and sayings.

Calling his works tales, Bazhov took into account not only literary tradition genre, implying the presence of a narrator, but also the existence of ancient oral traditions of the Ural miners, which in folklore were called “secret tales”. From these folklore works, Bazhov adopted one of the main signs of his tales: a mixture of fairy-tale images.

The main theme of Bazhov's tales is the common man and his work, talent and skill. Communication with nature, with the secret foundations of life, is carried out through powerful representatives of the magical mountain world.

One of the most bright images this kind is the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, whom Master Stepan meets from the tale “The Malachite Box”. The Mistress of the Copper Mountain helps the hero of the tale Stone Flower Danila to reveal his talent - and becomes disappointed in the master after he gives up trying to make the Stone Flower himself.

The works of the mature Bazhov can be defined as “tales” not only due to their formal genre characteristics and the presence of a fictional narrator with an individual speech characteristic, but also because they go back to the Ural “secret tales” - oral traditions of miners and prospectors, distinguished by a combination of reality and reality. everyday and fairy-tale elements.

Bazhov's tales absorbed plot motifs, fantastic images, color, language of folk legends and folk wisdom. However, Bazhov is not a folklorist-processor, but independent artist, who used the knowledge of the Ural miners' life and oral creativity to embody philosophical and ethical ideas.

Talking about the art of Ural craftsmen, reflecting the colorfulness and originality of the old mining life, Bazhov at the same time puts in his tales general issues- about true morality, about the spiritual beauty and dignity of the working person.

Fantastic characters in fairy tales personify the elemental forces of nature, which trusts its secrets only to the brave, hardworking and pure of soul. Bazhov managed to give the fantastic characters (the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, the Great Snake, the Jumping Ognevushka) extraordinary poetry and endowed them with a subtle, complex psychology.

Bazhov's Tales - an example of masterful use on native language. Carefully and at the same time creatively treating expressive possibilities folk language, Bazhov avoided the abuse of local sayings, the pseudo-folk “playing off phonetic illiteracy” (Bazhov’s expression).

P.P. Bazhov's tales are very colorful and picturesque. His color is in keeping with the spirit folk painting, folk Ural embroidery - solid, thick, ripe. The color richness of tales is not accidental. It is generated by the beauty of Russian nature, the beauty of the Urals. The writer in his works generously used all the possibilities of the Russian word to convey the diversity color range, its richness and juiciness, so characteristic of the Ural nature.

The tales of Pavel Petrovich are an example of the masterful use of the folk language. Carefully and at the same time creatively treating expressive possibilities folk word, Bazhov avoided the abuse of local sayings and pseudo-folk “playing up phonetic illiteracy” (the expression of the writer himself).

Bazhov's tales absorbed plot motifs, fantastic images, color, the language of folk legends and their folk wisdom. However, the author is not just a folklorist-processor, he is an independent artist who uses his excellent knowledge of the Ural miners’ life and oral creativity to embody philosophical and ethical ideas. Talking about the art of the Ural craftsmen, about the talent of the Russian worker, reflecting the colorfulness and originality of the old mining life and the characteristics characteristic of it social contradictions At the same time, Bazhov poses general questions in his tales - about true morality, about the spiritual beauty and dignity of a working person, about the aesthetic and psychological laws of creativity. Fantastic characters in fairy tales personify the elemental forces of nature, which trusts its secrets only to the brave, hardworking and pure of soul. Bazhov managed to give his fantastic characters (the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, the Great Snake, Ognevushka-Rocking, etc.) extraordinary poetry and endowed them with a subtle and complex psychology.

The tales recorded and processed by Bazhov are originally folklore. As a boy, he heard many of them (the so-called “secret tales” - ancient oral traditions of Ural miners) from V. A. Khmelinin from the Polevsky plant (Khmelinin-Slyshko, Slyshko’s grandfather, “Glass” from “Ural Byli”). Grandfather Slyshko is the narrator in “The Malachite Box.” Later, Bazhov had to officially declare that this was a technique, and he did not just write down other people’s stories, but was actually their author.

Later, the term “skaz” entered Soviet folklore with the light hand of Bazhov to define workers’ prose (workers’ prose). After some time, it was established that it did not denote any new folklore phenomenon - “tales” turned out to be traditions, legends, fairy tales, memories, that is, genres that have existed for many hundreds of years.

Ural

The Urals are “a rare place both in terms of craftsmanship and beauty.” It is impossible to experience the beauty of the Urals without visiting the amazing Ural ponds and lakes, pine forests, and legendary mountains, enchanting with peace and quiet. Here, in the Urals, talented craftsmen lived and worked for centuries, only here could Danila the master sculpt his stone flower, and somewhere here the Ural craftsmen saw the Mistress copper mountain.

Since childhood, he liked the people, legends, fairy tales and songs of his native Urals.

The work of P.P. Bazhov is firmly connected with the life of the mining and processing Urals - this cradle of Russian metallurgy. The writer’s grandfather and great-grandfather were workers and spent their entire lives at copper smelters at Ural factories.

Due to the historical and economic characteristics of the Urals, the life of factory settlements was very unique. Here, as everywhere else, the workers could barely make ends meet and had no rights. But, unlike other industrial regions of the country, the Urals were characterized by significantly lower earnings for artisans. Here there was an additional dependence of workers on the enterprise. The factory owners presented the free use of land as compensation for reduced wages.

Old workers, “byvaltsy”, were the keepers of folk mining legends and beliefs. They were not only a kind of " folk poets”, but also unique “historians”.

The Ural land itself gave birth to legends and fairy tales. P.P. Bazhov learned to see and understand the wealth and beauty of the mountainous Urals.

Archetypal images

The Mistress of the Copper Mountain is the keeper of precious rocks and stones, sometimes appears before people in the form beautiful woman, and sometimes in the form of a lizard in a crown. Its origin most likely stems from the “spirit of the area”. There is also a hypothesis that this is the image of the goddess Venus, refracted by the popular consciousness, with whose sign Polevsky copper was branded for several decades in the 18th century.

The Great Snake is responsible for gold. His figure was created by Bazhov based on the superstitions of the ancient Khanty and Mansi, Ural legends and signs of miners and ore miners. Wed. mythological serpent.

Grandma Sinyushka is a character related to Baba Yaga.

Ognevushka-Jumping - dancing over a gold deposit (connection between fire and gold).

Name: Pavel Bajov

Age: 71 years old

Place of Birth: Sysert, Perm region.

A place of death: Moscow

Activity: writer, journalist

Family status: was married

Pavel Bazhov - biography

People come to great literature in different ways. Some for the sake of money and fame, some in the hope of changing the world, and others in search of salvation from the horrors of life. The last case is about Bazhov.

Childhood, family of the writer

In the Ural town of Sysert, on January 15, 1879, he was born into the family of a simple miner. only child- future author of “Malachite Box” and “Silver Hoof” Pavel Bazhov.

The mother saved the family: for days on end she knitted shawls and stockings, which she sold to neighbors. However, the family never got out of poverty - the father died early from alcoholism, and the mother became blind...

Studies

Already in the first grade of the factory school, it became clear that Pasha had rare abilities and a thirst for learning. The literature teacher showed the gifted boy to a veterinarian he knew from Yekaterinburg. To the surprise of his parents, he allowed Bazhov to live with him while studying at theological school. “It was a saving ticket to people,” as the writer would later say.

Pavel Bazhov - biography of personal life

It’s hard to believe, but until the age of 30, Bazhov did not have a single novel. All the young man’s energy and time were taken up by work and part-time jobs. After all, it was necessary to feed not only himself, but also his widowed mother. Bazhov did not complain - he taught until lunch, then gave private lessons, and after that, in the evening (sometimes at night!) he wrote articles for Ural newspapers and magazines.

One day Pavel Petrovich came into new class and... I realized that I was missing. Valentina Ivanitskaya was different from everyone else: smart, beautiful, stately, with a thick braid. What to do? The girl is only 15, Bazhov is already 28. Moreover, she is his student! For 4 years the writer struggled with his feeling, was ashamed of it, considered it criminal, and tried to overcome it. In vain.

And now all the final exams have been passed. A couple more days, and Bazhov will part with his best student forever. "Come what may!" - the teacher decided and, with his tongue slurring from fear, confessed his feelings to Ivanitskaya. In response, the girl threw herself on the writer’s neck. It turns out that she fell in love with him on the very first day of school. In 1911, the lovers got married.

Pavel Bazhov - revolutionary

While not being a singer of the revolution, like Bazhov, he was an ardent supporter of it as a citizen. The horrors of childhood took their toll: ordinary Ural workers lived poorly and hard. That’s why they drank, and fought, and committed crimes. Pavel Petrovich sincerely believed that the Bolsheviks would change Rus', that happiness, equality, and wealth would come to his beloved Urals.

In 1905, Bazhov was “on the barricades”: he participated in protests, even spent 2 weeks in prison. In 1917, he joined the Bolshevik Party and became the editor of the revolutionary Perm newspaper “Okopnaya Pravda.” This position almost cost the writer his life. Kolchak, having captured Perm, began brutal political purges. Almost a third of the city ended up in prison, including Bazhov. The cells, initially overcrowded, quickly emptied - the whites shot several dozen people per day.

Mad with horror and hunger, Bazhov decided to escape. Barefoot in the snow, stumbling over corpses, along railway tracks the sufferer wandered to Yekaterinburg. A compassionate peasant came to the rescue - he hid Pavel Petrovich in a heap of hay and took him through the Cossack posts.

At home there is a new nightmare: the children are crying from hunger, the wife is in a fever with a dead baby in her arms, all her relatives have disappeared... Entrusting his family to a neighbor, Bazhov went to partisan in the forest near Tomsk, and from there to Altai. Could he then have thought that the party would not appreciate his exploits and would sentence him to death for books full of truth?

Pavel Bazhov - books

The Civil War took away three of the seven children from the Bazhovs. Hoping to forget the terrible past, Pavel Petrovich plunged headlong into work - in the Ural political publications he was an editor, a journalist, a critic, and a mentor for young people. At the same time, he helped the local history museum, collected Ural folklore, and wrote his first work of art - “The Ural Were.” So far completely realistic.

In the early 1930s, Bazhov made a mistake - he took up writing the political-historical essay “Formation on the Go.” It would seem that everything was going well: the order was prestigious, “from above”; the goal is good - to describe the process of formation of a new government on the battlefields of the Reds and the Whites. The book turned out to be powerful, passionate, truthful. So true that the authorities were horrified and summoned the writer for questioning.

“Well, goodbye, Valya!” - said Pavel Petrovich, collecting a bundle for the camps.

However, a day later he returned home: the investigator who led the Bazhov case was himself sent to the Gulag. There was no need to rejoice for long: the writer’s son Alexei died in an explosion at the plant. The official version is an accident, the unofficial version is a political order, revenge on a dissident journalist.

Bazhov again lost himself in his work. Traveled a lot around the country, wrote about shock construction projects. In 1936 he ended up at the Paper Mill in Krasnokamsk. It was necessary to write well about the project, but there was nothing to tell - the work proceeded with delays and errors, the leaders, one after another, were carried away by the whirlwind of Stalin's terror... As a result, Bazhov submitted only a small part of the manuscript entitled “How We Lived and Worked.” Naturally, the material was not allowed through, and the author was expelled from the party and fired from his job.

Bazhov - "Malachite Box"

During this terrible period of his life, in 1937, Bazhov created the legendary “Malachite Box” - a collection of Ural tales full of romance, beauty, folk wisdom, and wondrous mysticism. He created into nowhere - forgetting about modernity, no longer hoping for anything. He escaped from troubles, healed his soul with childhood memories of the ancient country of mountain masters...

And suddenly the incredible: after the first publication of the book in 1939, he was given back his party card, accepted into the Union of Writers of the USSR, and given first the Lenin and then the Stalin Prize. In just a few years, the book was translated into 100 languages ​​of the world! Reprints were sold out in millions of copies, and “The Malachite Box” was simply stolen from libraries.

What is unique about Bazhov’s tales? In their amazing non-politicality, folk linguistic originality, Russian deep humanity. They restored people’s faith in work, in miracles, in the great power of an exhausted, but still invincible Russia, so dear and unique.

Last years and death of Bazhov

In the last years of his life, Bazhov did not spare himself. Having become a deputy of the USSR, I tried to help as much as possible more the disadvantaged, to listen and understand everyone who wrote to him or came to his house.

In 1950, at the 72nd year of his life, Pavel Petrovich passed away. Shortly before his death, he completed his last tale, “The Living Light.” He still burns in our hearts.

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov

Master of Tales

Bazhov Pavel Petrovich (1879/1950) - Russian Soviet writer, laureate of the USSR State Prize in 1943. Bazhov became famous for the collection “Malachite Box”, which presents folklore images and motives taken by the writer from legends and fairy tales of the Trans-Urals. In addition, Bazhov’s pen includes such lesser known autobiographical works, like “Green filly” and “Far - close”.

Guryeva T.N. New literary dictionary/ T.N. Guryev. – Rostov n/d, Phoenix, 2009, p. 26.

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov is an original Russian Soviet writer. Born on January 15 (27), 1879 in the family of a mining worker at the Sysertsky plant near Yekaterinburg. He graduated from the Perm Theological Seminary and taught in Yekaterinburg and Kamyshlov. Participated in the Civil War. Author of the book “Ural Sketches” (1924), the autobiographical story “The Green Filly” (1939) and the memoirs “Far and Close” (1949). Laureate of the Stalin (State) Prize of the USSR (1943). Bazhov’s main work is the collection of tales “The Malachite Box” (1939), which goes back to the Ural oral traditions of prospectors and miners and combines real and fantastic elements. Tales that have absorbed plot motifs, colorful language and folk wisdom deservedly enjoy the love of readers. Based on the tales, the film “The Stone Flower” (1946), the ballet by S.S. Prokofiev “The Tale of the Stone Flower” (post. 1954) and opera of the same name V.V.Molchanov. Bazhov died on December 3, 1950 and was buried in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg).

Materials used from the book: Russian-Slavic calendar for 2005. Compiled by: M.Yu. Dostal, V.D. Malyugin, I.V. Churkina. M., 2005.

Prose writer

Bazhov Pavel Petrovich (1879-1950), prose writer.

Born on January 15 (27 NS) in the Sysertsky plant, near Yekaterinburg, in the family of a mining foreman.

He studied at the theological school (1889-93) in Yekaterinburg, then at the Perm Theological Seminary (1893-99). During his studies, he took part in speeches by seminarians against reactionary teachers, as a result of which he received a certificate marked “political unreliability.” This prevented him from enrolling, as he dreamed, at Tomsk University. Bazhov worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature in Yekaterinburg, then in Kamyshlov. During these same years, I became interested in Ural folk tales.

Since the beginning of the revolution, he “went to work in public organizations” and maintained contacts with the workers of the railway depot who stood on Bolshevik positions. In 1918 he volunteered for the Red Army and took part in military operations on the Ural Front. In 1923-29 he lived in Sverdlovsk and worked in the editorial office of the Peasant Newspaper, from 1924 speaking on its pages with essays about the old factory life and the civil war. At this time, he wrote over forty tales on themes of Ural factory folklore.

In 1939, Bazhov's most famous work was published - the collection of fairy tales "The Malachite Box", for which the writer received the State Prize. Subsequently, Bazhov expanded this book with new tales.

In the years Patriotic War Bazhov takes care not only of Sverdlovsk writers, but also of writers evacuated from different cities of the Union. After the war, the writer’s vision began to weaken sharply, but he continued his editorial work, collecting, and creative use of folklore.

In 1946 he was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Council: “...now I’m doing something else - I have to write a lot on the statements of my voters.”

In 1950, at the beginning of December, P. Bazhov died in Moscow. He was buried in Sverdlovsk.

Materials used from the book: Russian writers and poets. Brief biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov.
Photo from the site www.bibliogid.ru

Bazhov Pavel Petrovich (01/15/1879-12/3/1950), writer. Born in the Sysertsky plant, near Yekaterinburg, in the family of a mining foreman. After graduating from the Perm Theological Seminary in 1899, he was a teacher of the Russian language in Yekaterinburg, then in Kamyshlov (until 1917). During these same years, Bazhov collected folklore at Ural factories. In 1923-29 he worked in Sverdlovsk, in the editorial office of the Peasant Newspaper. Bazhov’s writing career began relatively late: the first book of essays, “The Ural Were,” was published in 1924. In 1939, the most significant work Bazhov - a collection of tales “The Malachite Box” (Stalin Prize, 1943) and an autobiographical story about childhood “The Green Filly”. Subsequently, Bazhov replenished the “Malachite Box” with new tales: “The Key Stone” (1942), “Tales of the Germans” (1943), “Tales of Gunsmiths”, etc. The works of the mature Bazhov can be defined as “tales” not only because their formal genre characteristics and the presence of a fictional narrator with an individual speech characteristic, but also because they go back to the Ural “secret tales” - oral traditions of miners and prospectors, distinguished by a combination of real-life and fairy-tale elements. Bazhov's tales absorbed plot motifs, fantastic images, color, the language of folk legends and folk wisdom. However, Bazhov is not a folklorist-processor, but an independent artist who used his knowledge of the Ural miners’ life and oral creativity to embody philosophical and ethical ideas. Talking about the art of the Ural craftsmen, reflecting the colorfulness and originality of the old mining life, Bazhov at the same time poses general questions in his tales - about true morality, about the spiritual beauty and dignity of the working person. Fantastic characters in fairy tales personify the elemental forces of nature, which trusts its secrets only to the brave, hardworking and pure of soul. Bazhov managed to give the fantastic characters (the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, the Great Snake, the Jumping Ognevushka) extraordinary poetry and endowed them with a subtle, complex psychology. Bazhov's tales are an example of the masterful use of the folk language. Carefully and at the same time creatively treating the expressive capabilities of the folk language, Bazhov avoided the abuse of local sayings, the pseudo-folk “playing off phonetic illiteracy” (Bazhov’s expression). Based on Bazhov’s tales, the film “The Stone Flower” (1946), the ballet by S. S. Prokofiev “The Tale of the Stone Flower” (post. 1954), and the opera “The Tale of the Stone Flower” (post. 1950) by K. V. Molchanov were created. symphonic poem A. A. Muravleva “Azov-Mountain” (1949), etc.

Materials used from the site Great Encyclopedia of the Russian People - http://www.rusinst.ru

Bazhov Pavel Petrovich

Autobiography

G.K. Zhukov and P.P. Bazhov were elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
from Sverdlovsk region. March 12, 1950

Born on January 28, 1879 in the Sysert plant in the former Yekaterinburg district of the Perm province.

By class, my father was considered a peasant in the Polevskaya volost of the Yekaterinburg district, but he never engaged in agriculture, and could not do it, since in the Sysert factory district there were no arable land plots at that time. My father worked in the puddling and welding shops in Sysert, Seversky, Verkh-Sysertsky and Polevsky plants. By the end of his life, he was an employee - a “junk supply” (this roughly corresponds to a workshop supply manager or tool maker).

In addition to housekeeping, my mother was engaged in handicraft work “for the customer.” She acquired the skills of this work in the “lordly handicraft” that remained from serfdom, where she was accepted in childhood as an orphan.

As the only child in a family with two able-bodied adults, I had the opportunity to get an education. They sent me to a theological school, where tuition fees were significantly lower than in gymnasiums, uniforms were not required, and there was a system of “dormitories” in which maintenance was much cheaper than in private apartments.

I studied at this theological school for ten years: first at the Yekaterinburg Theological School (1889-1893), then at the Perm Theological Seminary (1893-1899). He graduated from the first category course and received an offer to continue his education at the Theological Academy as a scholarship holder, but he refused this offer and became a primary school teacher in the village of Shaidurikha (present-day Nevyansk district). When they began to impose on me there, as a graduate of a theological school, the teaching of the law of God, I refused to teach in Shaidurikha and became a teacher of the Russian language at the Ekaterinburg Theological School, where I had studied at one time.

I consider this date, September 1899, to be the beginning of my length of service, although in reality he started working for hire earlier. My father died when I was still in the fourth grade at the seminary. For the last three years (my father was ill for almost a year), I had to earn money to support myself and study, and also help my mother, whose eyesight had deteriorated by that time. The work was different. Most often, of course, tutoring, minor reporting in Perm newspapers, proofreading, processing of statistical materials, and “summer internship” sometimes happened in the most unexpected areas, such as autopsy of animals that died from epizootics.

From 1899 to November 1917, there was only one job - a teacher of the Russian language, first in Yekaterinburg, then in Kamyshlov. I usually devoted my summer vacations to traveling around Ural factories, where I collected folklore material that had interested me since childhood. I set myself the task of collecting aphorisms associated with a specific geographical point. Subsequently, all the material of this order was lost along with the library that belonged to me, which was plundered by the White Guards when they captured Yekaterinburg.

Even in his seminary years, he took part in the revolutionary movement (distribution of illegal literature, participation in school leaflets, etc.). In 1905, during the general revolutionary upsurge, he became more active, taking part in protests, mainly on school issues. My experiences during the first imperialist war raised before me the question of revolutionary affiliation in its entirety.

At first February revolution went into the work of public organizations. For some time he did not decide on a party, but still worked in contact with the workers of the railway depot, who stood on Bolshevik positions. From the beginning of open hostilities, he volunteered for the Red Army and took part in combat operations on the Ural Front. In September 1918 he was accepted into the ranks of the CPSU (b).

The main work was editorial. Since 1924, he began to act as the author of essays about the old factory life, about work on the fronts of the Civil War, and also provided materials on the history of the regiments in which I happened to be.

In addition to essays and articles in newspapers, he wrote over forty tales on topics of Ural workers' folklore. Recent works based on oral work creativity have been highly appreciated. Based on these works, he was accepted into membership of the Union of Soviet Writers in 1939, and was awarded in 1943 Stalin Prize second degree, in 1944 for the same work awarded the order Lenin.

The increased interest of the Soviet reader in my literary work of this type, as well as my position as an old man who personally observed the life of the past, encourages me to continue the design of Ural tales and depict the life of Ural factories in the pre-revolutionary years.

In addition to the lack of systematic political education, poor vision greatly hinders work. When the decomposition of the yellow spot has begun, I no longer have the opportunity to freely use the manuscript (I can hardly see what I am writing) and I have great difficulty understanding the printed material. This slows down other types of my work, especially editing the Ural Contemporary. I have to perceive a lot “by ear”, and this is unusual and requires much more time, but I continue to work, albeit at a slower pace.

In February 1946, he was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from the 271st Krasnoufimsky electoral district, and from February 1947 - a deputy of the Sverdlovsk City Council from the 36th electoral district.

...The path of gathering and creative use folklore is not particularly light. Among young people, especially the inexperienced, reproaches were heard that Bazhov found the old man, and he “told him everything.” There is an institute of factory elders, they know and have heard a lot and evaluate everything in their own way. And often this assessment is contradictory and goes “in the wrong direction.” The stories of the factory elders need to be perceived critically and, based on these stories, presented as it seems to you, but, in any case, you should not forget that this is the basis. Bazhov's skill lies in the fact that he tried, as much as possible, to treat the main creators - the Ural workers - with as much respect as possible. And the difficulty was that the language that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers spoke is not so easy for a person who is already accustomed to literary language. Sometimes you struggle with this difficulty for a long time to find one word, so as not to be overwhelmed by Gorbunov’s excess. Gorbunov had an excellent command of the language. But with a mistake: he laughed. This is not the time for us to laugh at the language of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. We must take what is most valuable from it and throw out phonetic errors.

And this selection, of course, is quite difficult. It's up to you to guess which word best corresponds to the working understanding.

Another old man, perhaps, served as a lackey for a master, was a sycophant, and perhaps in his stories there slips an assessment that is not entirely ours. The writer's job is to make it clear where it is not ours.

The main thing: when a writer prepares to work on working folklore, one must remember that this is still an untouched area, still too little studied. But we have ample opportunities to collect this folklore. At one time I worked as a teacher, and at first I walked around villages and set myself the task of collecting folklore. I walked around Chusovaya, heard a lot of legends from bandit folklore and superficially wrote them down. And take people like you. Nemirovich-Danchenko, he wrote down a lot of legends that spoke about Ermak and others. We must look in the places where they came from, where many such legends have been preserved. They all represent a great price.

Question. When did you become familiar with Marxist-Leninist ideas? What are the sources of this information? To what period should the final formation of your Bolshevik worldview be attributed?

Answer. I studied at theological school. During the seminary years in what was then Perm, we had revolutionary groups that had their own school library, passed down from previous generations.

Political literature was mostly populist, but there was still some Marxist books. I remember during these years I read Engels “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.” I didn’t read Marx during my seminary years and became acquainted with him only later, during my school years.

Thus, I believe that my acquaintance with Marxist literature began in the seminary years, then continued during the years of school work. I cannot say that I studied this matter much, but I knew the main Marxist books available at that time...

In particular, I began to get acquainted with the works of Vladimir Ilyich from a book that was published under the name of Ilyin - “The Development of Capitalism in Russia.” This was my first acquaintance with Lenin, and I became a Bolshevik almost during the civil war.

My decision about my party affiliation was made, perhaps, without sufficient theoretical justification, but in the practice of life it became clear to me that this was the party that came closest, I went with it and since 1918 I have been in its ranks.

I don’t remember exactly when and what I first read from Leskov. At the same time, we must remember that in our teenage years had a negative attitude towards this writer, without knowing him. He was known to me by hearsay as the author of reactionary novels, which is why, apparently, I was not drawn to Leskov’s works. I read it in full already in adulthood, when the publication of A. f. Marx (I think in 1903). At the same time I read reactionary novels (“On Knives” and “Nowhere”) and was literally struck by the wretchedness of the artistic and verbal fabric of these things. I just couldn’t believe that they belonged to the author of such works as “The Soborians”, “The Immortal Golovan”, “The Enchanted Wanderer”, “The Stupid Artist” and others, sparkling with invention and verbal play, despite their real-life truthfulness. Leskov’s completely new reading of early printed sources seemed interesting: prologues, chety mena, flower beds.

“Distressing sign”, “edge edge”, etc. seem to me to be a lot of verbal overacting, sometimes bringing Leskov closer to Gorbunov, who, for the amusement of the public, deliberately exaggerated speech and phonetic irregularities and looked for rarities personelles to make it funnier.

Frankly speaking (attention! attention!), Melnikov always seemed closer to me. Simple relatable nature, situation and carefully selected language without overlapping word game. I started reading this author back in those years when the meaning of the words “oh, temptation!” was not entirely clear to me. I re-read it later. And if you absolutely have to look for who caused something to stick, then shouldn’t you look through this window? And most importantly, of course, Chekhov. Here I clearly remember what and when I first read it. I even remember the place where it happened.

This happened in 1894. Your respected brethren of the past - literary scholars and critics - by this time had already fully “recognized and appreciated” Chekhov and even, through joint efforts, brought him to “The Men” and other works of this group. But in provincial bookstores (I lived in Perm at that time) there was still only the young Chekhov’s “Tales of Melpomene” and “Motley Stories.”

It was autumn slush at the beginning of November, and we also had to “celebrate the death in the gods of the deceased” Alexandra III. To the grief of the Perm students, the bishop of that time considered himself a composer. On the occasion of his “death,” he set to music some poetic whine of a Perm high school student. The Bursat authorities sighed reproachfully at their students: here, they say, a high school student mourns even in poetry, and how do you show yourself. And wanting to catch up, they leaned heavily into singing this whining bishop’s composition.

It was on such sour days that I first bought Chekhov’s book. I forgot its cost, but it seemed sensitive for my tutoring income at that time (six rubles a month)...

The seminar authorities treated all literature without an “acceptable mark” with savagery. This was the name of the last step of the permit visa (approved, recommended, allowed, allowed, allowed for libraries).

There was no such visa on Chekhov’s book, and one had to read this book when “the watchful eye grows dull.” This worked best between dinner and bedtime, from nine to eleven. These hours were left to the discretion of the students...

These hours were called free, free, and, due to the variety of activities, motley.

And in these motley hours, a fifteen-year-old boy, a second-grade student at the Perm Theological Seminary, opened the padlocked desk in the second middle row... and for the first time began to read “Motley Stories.”

From the very first page I snorted and choked with laughter. Then it became impossible to read alone - a listener was needed, and soon our classroom was filled with the laughter of a dozen teenagers. It was even necessary to place a messenger in the corridor (one at a time, of course) so as not to “run into trouble.”

Since then - alas - fifty years have passed! I re-read the works of A.P. Chekhov more than once, and yet the subsequent Chekhov never overshadowed in my mind the Chekhov of the initial period, when critics and literary scholars were inclined to call him only a “funny writer.” Furthermore: Many works of this period give me more than things of the subsequent period. “Intruder,” for example, seems more truthful to me than “Men,” which I don’t believe in many ways. Or take “The Witch” for example. After all, this is a terrible tragedy of a young beautiful woman forced to live in a churchyard with a hateful red-haired sexton. We have written so much on this topic in poetry and prose, and everywhere it is a tragedy or melodrama. And here you even laugh. You laugh at the red-haired sexton who is trying to cover the face of the sleeping postman so that his wife does not look at him. You laugh even when this red-haired sexton gets elbowed in the bridge of his nose. However, laughter in no way obscures the main idea. Here you believe everything and remember it forever, while tragedies are forgotten, and melodramas with a simple change of intonation turn into their opposite. No amount of intonation can change anything here, since the basis is deeply national... Chekhov recent years will never overshadow in my mind the young Chekhov, when he easily and freely, shining with his young eyes, sailed across the boundless expanse great river. And it was clear to everyone that the river was Russian and the swimmer was Russian. He is not afraid of the whirlpools or whirlpools of his native river. His laughter seemed to our generation to be the key to victory over all difficulties, for the winner is not the one who sadly sings: “Tarara-bumbia, I’m sitting on the pedestal,” and not the one who consoles himself with the future “sky in diamonds,” but only the one who knows how to laugh at the most disgusting and terrible things.

The main thing, after all, is not in genealogy and literature, but in the path of life, in the characteristics of that public group, under the influence of which a person is formed, among which he has to live and work in one position or another. Even from the pieces of this letter you could be convinced that Bursak life could not pass without a trace. What's eighteen years of teaching like? A joke? Among other things, eighteen spacious summer vacancies. True, some of them were spent on theatrical nature. It was necessary to see the sea, the haze of the southern mountains, the dead cypress tree and other things that were supposed to be there. But it still didn’t last very long. I wandered much more around the Urals, and not entirely aimlessly. Do you remember talking about the Basques? After all, six full notebooks of these highly localized proverbs. And it was done quite thoroughly, with full certification: where, when it was written down, from whom I heard it. This is not a reproduction of what you heard from memory, but a real scientific document. And even though the notebooks are gone, isn’t there anything left of this work? Yes, I still remember now:

“People are boring, but we are simple.”

“They plow and harrow, sow and reap, thresh and winnow, but with us, take off your pants, climb into the water and drag a full sack.”

Or here’s from the notes about the Chusovsky fighting stones:

“We live honestly, and we feed from the Robber.”

“We don’t heat the stove, but it gives warmth” (fighters Rogue and Pechka).

I know that you don’t quite like these folklore adventures of mine, but science is science. It requires a strict approach to facts.

Of course, you have no way of knowing the details of these folklore movements, since your subject in those Arcadian times did not yet know the smell of a freshly printed sheet. Another thing is with the civil war period. After all, you looked at three whole books here. Whatever they are, you can also learn something about the author and the environment in which he had to work. It is highly irrelevant who and when he was at that time. I won't even answer this question. This is a questionnaire. If you answer in detail - a book, not even just one. The main thing you know is that he was a political commissar of those days. Mainly editor of front-line and revolutionary committee press. Both presuppose great communication with the masses and extreme diversity of questions. This was the same for the front-line situation, and for the first months of “installation of power”, and then, when I edited the newspaper “Red Path” in Kamyshlov, already in 1921-1922. It seems to me that the period of work in the “Peasant Newspaper” (later called “Collective Farm Road”) from 1923 to 1930 is especially important. There I had to manage the department of peasant letters. You know about this, but, in my opinion, you really have no idea. The flow of letters then could be measured in tons, and the range - from “the patience of a goat” (she spent the whole winter buried in a haystack) to international problems in the understanding of a village illiterate person. What situations, so much material for the most unexpected turns, and the language! ABOUT! This is the kind of thing that only a young person can dream about. I already wrote an enthusiastic page about this in “Local History Origins,” but how can you really express it? How clumsy and blockheaded one must be to not experience the impact of this pristine beauty. If you had put a man of Chekhov's talent on this task for seven whole years, what would he have done! Without long trips, which Chekhov, according to N.D. Teleshov, usually recommended to writers, and he himself was not averse to (what could be further than Sakhalin?).

We must be no less critical of the literary sources of the past. In addition to the already mentioned work of Gleb Uspensky “Morals of Rasteryaeva Street”, we know great amount other works of the same type, where drunkenness, darkness and half-animal life were especially abundant. The old writers had many reasons for this. Selection dark colors they tried to draw attention to the need for reorganization and enhancement of cultural activities. This, of course, was understandable in its own way, since there was indeed a lot of darkness in the past. But now it’s high time to talk about the past differently. Dark is dark, but in the past there were germs of what gave birth to the revolution, the heroism of the civil war and the subsequent development of the world's first workers' state. Moreover, these were not rare units. New people did not grow out of general drunkenness and darkness. Working-type settlements stood out especially in this regard. This means that there were more light sprouts there.

The old ore miners and ore prospectors of our region have always valued a good lookout - such a wash or cliff where rock layers are clearly visible. These peepers were most often used to get to rich ore deposits. There was, of course, a fairy tale about a special peeper, unlike the usual ones.

This peeper does not come out, but is hidden in the very middle of the mountain, and which one is unknown. In this mountain gazer, all layers of the earth come together, and each, be it salt or coal, wild clay or expensive rock, shines through and leads the eye along all the descents and ascents to the very exit. However, it is impossible to reach such a peeper alone or in a team. It will open only when all the people, from old to small, begin to look for their share in these mountains.

The war years turned out to be such a mountain gazer for me.

It seemed that from childhood I knew about the riches of my native land, but during the war years so many new things were discovered here and in such unexpected places that our old mountains seemed different. It became clear that we did not know about all the riches, and now this has not yet reached its full extent.

He loved and respected the strong, hardy and firm people of his region. The years of war not only confirmed this, but strengthened it many times over. You need to have the shoulders, arms and strength of heroes to do what they did in the Urals during the war years.

At the beginning of the war, there was doubt about whether one should engage in a fairy tale at such a time, but they responded from the front and supported it from the rear.

We need an old fairy tale. There were a lot of things in it that are useful now and will be useful later. From these precious grains, people of our day will clearly see the beginning of the path, and this must be reminded. It is not without reason that they say: a young horse can easily walk along a rough road with a cart and does not think about how hard it was for those horses who were the first to pass through these places. It’s the same in human life: what everyone knows now was something that our great-grandfathers got with a lot of sweat and labor, and it also required invention, and in such a way that even now one has to marvel.

So look at it with refreshed eyes motherland, on his people and on his work, and the years of war taught me, just according to the proverb: “After a great misfortune, like after a bitter tear, the eye becomes clearer, behind you you will see something that you did not notice before, and you will see the road ahead.”

To some extent they got used to my style of writing, but they were no less accustomed to the idea that this one always writes about the past. Many people don’t see what’s modern in it, and I think they won’t see it for a long time. The reason, in my opinion, is in some kind of calendar definition of history and modernity. Put on things written on the most pressing topic of our time, the date of the past - antiquity, history. With this view, try to prove that “Dear Name” is the October Revolution, that “Vasin’s Mountain” is a reflection of the mood with which the Soviet people accepted the five-year plan, that “Gor Podarenie” is the Victory Day, etc. For old frame people don’t see the not-so-old content, which, however, cannot be given in the form of a photograph so that a person can say for sure that it’s me. But I also have tales of direct combat. For example, “Circular Lantern”, written about the VIZ distributor Obertyukhin. I am unfamiliar with the hero of the story. I read only a few newspaper articles about him and transferred his qualities into everyday life that is well known to me. Is it history or modernity? So decide this question.

I have always been a historian, not a real one, of course, and not a very devout folklorist either. The state of my education did not allow me to fully climb the highlands that Marxism revealed to us, but the height to which I still managed to climb gives me the opportunity to take a new look at the past that is familiar to me...

I consider this the quality of a contemporary, and I am included in the group that sifts through old material, where from time to time “missing” phrases and characteristics are inserted. If I were to write “The Painted Phanok” or “Egorshin’s Case”, they would be recognized as memoir literature. If they are lucky, they can even praise: “no worse than “Tema’s Childhood”, “Nikita”, “Ryzhik”, etc., but no one will think why an old Soviet journalist, sensitive to the issues of our time, was drawn to talk about what happened sixty years ago : Is it easy to remember the days when he was a baby, or is there another task. Like, for example, how the cadres of people who had to work hard during the revolution were formed.

The assumption that I am picking something historical in silence, unfortunately, does not seem to be true. Now I’m doing something else, not very much writing. I have to write a lot about the statements of my voters. Of course, in terms of accumulating material about modernity, this gives a lot, but it’s unlikely that I will be able to cope with this new stuff as a writer. The squirrel received a cartload of nuts when its teeth were worn out. But there really is a problem here. One must be surprised how they are not seen.

Collection "Soviet Writers", M., 1959.

Electronic version autobiography reprinted from the site http://litbiograf.ru/

Writer of the 20th century

Bazhov Pavel Petrovich (pseudonyms: Koldunkov - his real surname came from “bazhit”, dialect - to conjure; Khmelinin, Osintsev, Starozavodsky, Chiponev, i.e. “reluctant reader”)

Prose writer, storyteller.

Born into the family of a mining foreman, a hereditary Ural worker. He graduated from the Ekaterinburg Theological School (1893), then the Perm Theological Seminary (1899), and taught (in the village of Shaidurikha, Perm province, Ekaterinburg, Kamyshlov, in 1917 in the Siberian village of Bergul). WITH youth recorded Ural folklore: “he was a collector of pearls of his native language, a discoverer of precious layers of working folklore - not textbook-smoothed, but created by life” (Tatyanicheva L. A Word about a Master // Pravda. 1979. February 1). He took an active part in the revolution and the Civil War. In his youth, he was a participant in the Motovilikha Trans-Kama May Day protests and the organizer of an underground library, in 1917 - a member of the Council of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies, in 1918 - secretary of the party cell of the headquarters of the 29th Ural Division. Bazhov not only participated in combat operations, but also carried out active journalistic work (editor of the divisional newspaper “Okopnaya Pravda”, etc.). During the battles for Perm, he is captured and escapes from prison to the taiga. Under the name of the insurance agent accepts Active participation in underground revolutionary work. After the end of the Civil War, B. actively collaborated in the Ural newspapers “Soviet Power”, “Peasant Newspaper”, the magazine “Rost”, “Storm”, etc.

Bazhov's writing career began relatively late.

In 1924, he published a book of essays “The Ural Were”, and then 5 more documentary books, mainly on the history of the revolution and the Civil War (“Soldiers of the first conscription”, “To the calculation”, “Formation on the move”, “Five stages of collectivization”, documentary story “For Soviet Truth”). Bazhov also wrote the unfinished story “Across the Boundary,” the autobiographical story “The Green Filly” (1939), the book of memoirs “Far and Close” (1949), and a number of articles on literature (“D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak as a writer for children” , "Muddy water and true heroes”, etc.), little-studied satirical pamphlets (“Radio Paradise”, etc.). For many years he was the soul of the writing team in the Urals (Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Perm, Zlatoust, Nizhny Tagil, etc.), constantly working with literary youth.

Bazhov’s main book, which brought him worldwide fame - the collection of tales “The Malachite Box” (1939) - was published when the writer was already 60 years old. Subsequently, Bazhov supplemented the book with new tales, especially actively during the Great Patriotic War: “The Key-Stone” (1942); “Zhivinka in Action” (1943); “Tales of the Germans” (1943; 2nd ed. - 1944), etc. The tales “The Amethyst Affair”, “The Wrong Heron”, “The Living Light” are associated with the life and work of Soviet people in the post-war years.

“The Malachite Box” immediately caused a flurry of enthusiastic responses. Critics almost unanimously noted that never before, neither in poetry nor in prose, has it been possible to so glorify the work of a miner, stone cutter, or foundry worker, to so deeply reveal the creative essence of professional skill. The organic combination of the most bizarre fantasy and the true truth of history, the truth of characters, was especially emphasized. The language of the book aroused general admiration, combining the treasures of not only folklore, but also the living, colloquial speech of the Ural workers, bold original word creation, which has enormous visual power. But it soon became clear that many readers and critics understood the character of this book differently. Two tendencies emerged in the assessment of the “Malachite Box” - some considered it a wonderful document of folklore, others considered it a magnificent literary work. This question had both theoretical and practical significance. There was, for example, a long tradition of literary adaptation, “free rehash” of works of oral folk poetry. Is it possible to “retell” “The Malachite Box” in verse, as Demyan Bedny tried to do?.. Bazhov’s own attitude to the problem was ambiguous. He either allowed notes to be made on editions of the book that tales were folklore, or joked that “scientific people” should understand this issue. Later it turns out that Bazhov sought to use folklore “akin to Pushkin’s,” whose fairy tales are “a wonderful fusion, where folk art is inseparable from the personal creativity of the poet” (Useful reminder // Literary newspaper. 1949. May 11). There were both objective and subjective reasons for the situation that developed at the time. In Soviet folklore studies, for some time, the criteria that made it possible to clearly distinguish works of folklore from literature were lost. There were stylizations of folklore, there were storytellers whose names became quite well known, and they created “novelies” instead of epics. In addition, in the mid-1930s, Bazhov himself, like many of his contemporaries, was accused of glorifying and defending enemies of the people, expelled from the party and deprived of his job. In such a situation, recognition of authorship could become dangerous for the work. Unlike many of his other contemporaries, Bazhov was lucky - the charges were soon dropped and he was reinstated in the party. And researchers of Bazhov’s creativity (L. Skorino, M. Batin and others) convincingly proved that “The Malachite Box,” written on the basis of Ural folklore, is, nevertheless, an independent literary work. work. This was evidenced by the concept of the book, expressing a certain worldview and a set of ideas of its time, as well as the writer’s archive - manuscripts demonstrating professional work Bazhov over the composition of the work, image, word, etc. Often preserving folk stories, Bazhov clothed them, in his words, in new flesh, coloring them with his individuality.

In the 1st edition, “The Malachite Box” contains 14 tales, in the latest edition - about 40. The cycles of tales about masters are distinguished - genuine artists in their work, about work as an art (the best of them are “Stone Flower”, “Mining Master”, “Crystal Branch”, etc.), tales about “secret power”, containing fantastic plots and images (“Mistress of the Copper Mountain ”, “Malachite Box”, “Cat Ears”, “Sinyushkin Well”, etc.), tales about seekers, “satirical”, carrying accusatory tendencies (“Clerk's soles”, “Sochnevy pebbles”), etc. Not all works that make up the “Malachite Box” are of equal value. Thus, history itself has revealed the apologetic nature of tales about modernity, “Lenin’s” tales, and finally, there have been simply creative failures (“Golden Flower of the Mountain”). But the best of Bazhov’s tales have kept the secret of their unique poetic charm and impact on modern times for many years.

Based on the Bazhov tales, the film “The Stone Flower” (1946), the opera by K. Molchanov “The Tale of the Stone Flower” (staged in 1950), the ballet by S. Prokofiev “The Tale of the Stone Flower” (staged in 1954), and the symphonic poem by A. Muravyov “Azovgora” (1949) and many other works of music, sculpture, painting, and graphics. Artists representing a wide variety of styles and trends offer their interpretation of Bazhov’s remarkable images: cf. for example, illustrations by A. Yakobson (P. Bazhov. The Malachite Box: Ural Tales. L., 1950) and V. Volovich (Sverdlovsk, 1963).

K.F.Bikbulatova

Materials used from the book: Russian literature of the 20th century. Prose writers, poets, playwrights. Biobibliographical dictionary. Volume 1. p. 147-151.

Read further:

Russian writers and poets (biographical reference book).

Essays:

Essays. T. 1-3. M., 1952.

Collected works: in 3 volumes. M., 1986;

Journalism. Letters. Diaries. Sverdlovsk, 1955;

Malachite Box. M., 1999.

Literature:

Skorino L. Pavel Petrovich Bazhov. M., 1947;

Gelgardt R. Style of Bazhov's tales. Perm, 1958;

Pertsov B. About Bazhov and folklore // Writer and new reality. M.; 1958;

Batin M. Pavel Bazhov. M., 1976;

Sverdlovsk, 1983;

Usachev V. Pavel Bazhov journalist. Alma-Ata, 1977;

Bazhova-Gaidar A.P. Through the eyes of a daughter. M., 1978;

Master, sage, storyteller: memories of Bazhov. M., 1978;

Permyak E. Dolgovsky master. About the life and work of Pavel Bazhov. M., 1978;

Ryabinin D. Book of Memories. M., 1985. P.307-430;

Zherdev D.V. Poetics of the Svaz by P. Bazhov. Ekaterinburg, 1997;

Khorinskaya E.E. Our Bazhov: a story. Ekaterinburg, 1989;

Slobozhaninova L.M. “Malachite Box” by P.P. Bazhov in the literature of the 30-40s. Ekaterinburg, 1998;

Slobozhaninova L.M. Tales are ancient testaments: An essay on the life and work of Pavel Petrovich Bazhov (1879-1950). Ekaterinburg, 2000;

Akimova T.M. On the folklorism of Russian writers. Ekaterinburg, 2001. pp. 170-177;

Unknown Bazhov. Little-known materials about the writer’s life / comp. N.V. Kuznetsova. Ekaterinburg, 2003.

Name: Pavel Bazhov

Age: 71 years old

Activity: prose writer, folklorist, journalist, publicist

Family status: was married

Pavel Bazhov: biography

Biographers of Pavel Petrovich Bazhov say that this writer had a happy fate. The great storyteller lived a long and peaceful life, eventful. The master of the pen perceived all political revolutions relatively calmly and in those troubled times managed to achieve recognition and fame. For many years, Bazhov did what he loved - he tried to make reality a fairy tale.

His works are still popular among young people and the older generation. Perhaps there are few people who have not seen soviet cartoon“The Silver Hoof” or have not read the collection of stories “The Malachite Box”, which includes the tales “The Stone Flower”, “The Blue Well” and “Dear Name”.

Childhood and youth

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov was born on January 15 (27 according to the new style) January 1879. The future writer grew up and was brought up in an average family. His father Pyotr Bazhov (originally the surname was spelled with the letter “e”), a native of the peasants of the Polevskaya volost, worked at a mining site in the town of Sysert, in the Sverdlovsk region. Later the Bazhovs moved to the village of Polevskoy. The writer’s parent earned his bread by hard work, but was not involved in agriculture: there were no arable lands in Sysert land plots. Peter was a hardworking man and a rare specialist in his field, but the man’s bosses did not favor him, so Bazhov Sr. changed more than one job.

The fact is that the head of the family loved to sip on strong drink and often went on binges. But not this one bad habit became a stumbling block between managers and subordinates: the tipsy Bazhov did not know how to keep his mouth shut, so he criticized the working elite to smithereens. Later, the “talkative” Peter, who for this reason was nicknamed Drill, was taken back, because such professionals are worth their weight in gold. True, the factory management did not immediately condescend to forgive; Bazhov had to beg for a job for a long time. At the moments of the helmsmen’s thoughts, the Bazhov family was left without a means of subsistence; they were saved by the odd earnings of the head of the family and the crafts of his wife Augusta Stefanovna (Osintseva).

The writer's mother came from Polish peasants, ran a household and raised Pavel. IN evening time She was fond of needlework: she wove lace, knitted fishnet stockings and created other cozy little things. But because of this painstaking work, which was carried out in the dark, the woman’s vision was severely deteriorated. By the way, despite Peter’s wayward character, he and his son developed friendly relations. Pavel’s grandmother even used to say that his father indulged his child all the time and forgave any pranks. And Augusta Stefanovna had a completely soft and flexible character, so the child was raised in love and harmony.

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov grew up as a diligent and inquisitive boy. Before moving, he attended the zemstvo school in Sysert and studied excellently. Pavel picked up subjects on the fly, be it Russian or mathematics, and every day he pleased his relatives with fives in his diary. Bazhov recalled that thanks to him he was able to get a decent education. The future writer took a volume of the great Russian writer from the local library under harsh conditions: the librarian jokingly ordered the young man to learn all the works by heart. But Paul took this task seriously.

Later it school teacher told a veterinarian friend about the student as a gifted child from a working-class family who knew Alexander Sergeevich’s creations by heart. Impressed by the talented young man, the veterinarian gave the boy a start in life and provided the native poor family decent education. Pavel Bazhov graduated from the Ekaterinburg Theological School, and then entered the Perm Theological Seminary. The young man was invited to continue his studies and receive church orders, but the young man did not want to serve in the church, but dreamed of poring over textbooks at the university. In addition, Pavel Petrovich was not a religious, but rather a revolutionary-minded person.

But money for further education wasn't enough. Pyotr Bazhov died of liver disease, so he had to be content with Augusta Stefanovna’s pension. Therefore, without receiving a university diploma, Pavel Petrovich worked as a teacher in theological schools of Yekaterinburg and Kamyshlov, teaching students Russian language and literature. Bazhov was loved, each of his lectures was perceived as a gift, he read the works of great classics sensually and with soul. Pavel Petrovich was one of those rare teachers who could interest even an inveterate student and restless student.

The girls at school had a peculiar custom: they pinned bows made of multi-colored satin ribbons to their favorite teachers. Pavel Petrovich Bazhov had no free space left on his jacket, because he had the most “insignia” of all. It is worth saying that Pavel Petrovich participated in political events and perceived October Revolution as something proper and fundamental. In his opinion, the abdication of the throne and the Bolshevik coup were supposed to end social inequality and provide the inhabitants of the country with a happy future.

Until 1917, Pavel Petrovich was a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party; during the civil war he fought on the side of the Reds, organized the underground and developed a strategy in case of a fall. Soviet power. Bazhov also served as head of the trade union bureau and public education department. Later, Pavel Petrovich headed the editorial activities and published a newspaper. Among other things, the writer organized schools and called for the fight against illiteracy. In 1918, the master of words joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Literature

As you know, as a student, Pavel Petrovich lived in Yekaterinburg and Perm, where instead of wildlife there were solid railways around, and instead of small houses there were stone apartments with several floors. IN cultural cities life was in full swing: people went to theaters and discussed social events at restaurant tables, but Pavel loved returning to his native land.

There he became acquainted with semi-mystical folklore: a local old man nicknamed Slyshko (“Glass”) - watchman Vasily Khmelinin - loved to tell folk tales, the main characters of which were mythical characters: the Silver Hoof, the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, the Jumping Fire, the Blue Snake and Grandma Sinyushka.

Grandfather Vasily Alekseevich explained that all his stories are based on everyday life and describe “ancient life.” Khmelinin especially emphasized this difference between Ural tales and fairy tales. Local children and adults listened to every word of grandfather Slyshko. Among the listeners was Pavel Petrovich, who absorbed Khmelinin’s amazingly magical stories like a sponge.

From those times, his love for folklore began: Bazhov carefully kept notebooks in which he collected Ural songs, tales, legends and riddles. In 1931, a conference on Russian folklore was held in Moscow and Leningrad. As a result of the meeting, the task of studying modern worker and collective farm-proletarian folklore was set, then it was decided to create a collection “Pre-revolutionary folklore in the Urals.” Local historian Vladimir Biryukov was supposed to search for materials, but the scientist did not find the necessary sources.

Therefore, the publication was headed by Bazhov. Pavel Petrovich collected folk epics as a writer, and not as a folklorist. Bazhov knew about passportization, but did not carry it out. The master of the pen also adhered to the principle: the heroes of his works came from Russia or the Urals (even if these assumptions contradicted the facts, the writer rejected everything that was not in favor of his homeland).

In 1936, Pavel Petrovich published his first work entitled “The Azov Girl”. Later, in 1939, the collection “The Malachite Box” was published, which during the author’s lifetime was replenished with new tales from the words of Vasily Khmelinin. But, according to rumors, one day Bazhov admitted that he did not rewrite his stories from other people’s lips, but composed them.

Personal life

It is known that for a long time Pavel Petrovich was not involved in relationships with women. The writer was not deprived of the attention of lovely ladies, but at the same time he was not a Don Juan either: Bazhov did not plunge headlong into fleeting passions and novels, but led an ascetic bachelor life. Why Bazhov remained single until he was 30 is difficult to explain. The writer was passionate about his work and did not want to waste time on the young ladies passing by, and also believed in sincere love. However, this is how it happened: the 32-year-old folklorist proposed his hand and heart to 19-year-old Valentina Aleksandrovna Ivanitskaya, a former student. Serious and educated girl answered with consent.

It turned out to be a marriage for life, the lovers raised four children (seven were born in the family, but three died in infancy from illness): Olga, Elena, Alexei and Ariadne. Contemporaries recall that comfort reigned in the house and there were no cases where the spouses were burdened by domestic or other disagreements. It was impossible to hear the name Valya or Valentina from Bazhov, because Pavel Petrovich called his beloved affectionate nicknames: Felyanushka or Valestenochka. The writer did not like to be late, but even leaving for a meeting in a hurry, he returned to the threshold if he forgot to kiss his beloved wife goodbye.

Pavel Petrovich and Valentina Aleksandrovna lived happily and supported each other. But, like any other mortal, in the life of the writer there were both cloudless and sad days. Bazhov had to endure a terrible grief - the death of a child. Young Alexey died due to an accident at the factory. It is also known that Pavel Petrovich, although he was a busy person, always set aside time to talk with children. It is noteworthy that the father communicated with his offspring as with adults, gave them the right to vote and listened to their opinions.

“The ability to know everything about his loved ones was an amazing feature of my father. He was always the busiest, but he had enough spiritual sensitivity to be aware of everyone’s worries, joys and sorrows,” said Ariadna Bazhova in the book “Through the Eyes of a Daughter.”

Death

Shortly before his death, Pavel Petrovich stopped writing and began giving lectures that strengthened the spirit of the people during the Great Patriotic War.

The great writer died in the winter of 1950. The creator's grave is located on a hill ( central alley) in Yekaterinburg at the Ivanovo cemetery.

Bibliography

• 1924 - “The Ural Were”
• 1926 - “For Soviet truth”;
• 1937 - "Formation on the Move"
• 1939 - “The Green Filly”
• 1939 - “Malachite Box”
• 1942 - “Key-Stone”
• 1943 - “Tales of the Germans”
• 1949 - “Far - Close”

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov, Russian Charles Pierrot, who, like a miner, collected gems of Ural folklore in order to later write a collection of tales of amazing magic, was born in the Urals on January twenty-seventh in 1879. His father, Pyotr Vasilyevich Bazhev (that’s how their surname was spelled then), worked in the town of Sysert, near Yekaterinburg, as a foreman in the puddling and welding shop at a mining (metallurgical) plant, and his mother was a famous needlewoman - she weaved amazing lace, and, of course, I can say that her craft was a huge help for the whole family.

The family often moved from place to place, from one factory to another, and it was these childhood impressions of the future writer, being the most vivid, that became, in a way, the basis of his work. Unfortunately, the difficult financial situation of the family did not allow Pavel to study at the gymnasium, therefore it was decided that after three years of studying at zemstvo school, young Bazhov will go to continue his education at the theological school in the city of Yekaterinburg, since the tuition fee there was minimal. In addition, students of the religious school did not need to buy a uniform and pay rent, since the students’ housing was rented and paid for by the school itself.

When Pavel turned fourteen, he graduated from college and immediately became a student at the Perm Theological Seminary, where he studied for the next six years. In 1899, having graduated from the seminary, he decided not to continue his education, especially since his choice was small: he could either become a student at the Kiev Theological Academy, or enter one of the three universities open to seminarians (Tomsk, Dorpat and Warsaw - all other universities did not accept students who graduated from theological seminaries).

Instead of studying, the young man chose to become a teacher, teaching Russian in the remote Ural village of Shaidurikha, mainly inhabited by Old Believers. At the same time, Bazhov traveled a lot around the Urals, collecting folklore, recording workers' tales. Then he worked at the Yekaterinburg Theological School, after which he taught at the diocesan women's school, where he met his future wife, who at that time was his student - Valentina Alexandrovna Ivannitskaya, with whom he married in 1911.

They had two daughters by the beginning, and then the Bazhovs moved to the city of Kamyshev, closer to his wife’s relatives, where Pavel Petrovich continued his teaching career. In total, seven children were born into their family.

Pavel Petrovich, deeply experiencing the social inequality reigning in society, accepted the October Revolution and participated in the civil war. In 1923, he moved to Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk), and began collaborating with the proletarian editors of the Peasant Newspaper publication. He published his first book in 1924, then a collection was published, including more than forty stories devoted to the theme of factory (Ural) folklore. After the release of the Ural tale “The Maiden of Azovka” in 1936, Bazhov unexpectedly gained popularity as a writer.

In the terrible year of 1937, the writer was suddenly expelled from the party, but he managed to avoid the fate of many intelligent people of that time - he was never repressed. A year later he was reinstated in the Communist Party, and Pavel Petrovich devoted himself entirely to writing. The Ural writer published his famous collection “The Malachite Box” in 1939, which he supplemented with new tales in 1942. A year later he was awarded the State Prize for Ural tales.

It was with Bazhov’s light hand that tales entered folklore, which the writer processed so skillfully that they reflected to some extent not only ancient Ural legends, but also echoed the ideas of modernity, in other words, they suddenly turned out to be timeless. Pavel Petrovich Bazhov died in 1950, on the third of December. He was buried in Yekaterinburg.