What time did Chukovsky live? Honorary titles and awards

Korney Chukovsky, who gained fame as a children's poet for a long time was one of the most underrated writers silver age. Contrary to popular belief, the creator's genius was manifested not only in poems and fairy tales, but also in critical articles.

Due to the unostentatious specificity of his creativity, the state throughout the writer’s life tried to discredit his works in the eyes of the public. Numerous research works have made it possible to look at the eminent artist “with different eyes.” Now the works of the publicist are read by both people of the “old school” and young people.

Childhood and youth

Nikolai Korneychukov (the poet’s real name) was born on March 31, 1882 in the northern capital of Russia - the city of St. Petersburg. Mother Ekaterina Osipovna, being a servant in the house of the eminent doctor Solomon Levenson, entered into a vicious relationship with his son Emmanuel. In 1799, the woman gave birth to a daughter, Maria, and three years later gave birth to common-law husband heir to Nicholas.

Despite the fact that the relationship between the scion of a noble family and a peasant woman looked like a blatant misalliance in the eyes of society at that time, they lived together for seven years. The poet’s grandfather, who did not want to become related to a commoner, in 1885, without explaining the reason, put his daughter-in-law out into the street with two babies in her arms. Since Catherine could not afford separate housing, she and her son and daughter went to stay with relatives in Odessa. Much later, in the autobiographical story “The Silver Coat of Arms,” the poet admits that the southern city never became his home.

The writer's childhood years were spent in an atmosphere of devastation and poverty. The publicist's mother worked in shifts either as a seamstress or as a laundress, but there was a catastrophic lack of money. In 1887, the world saw the “Circular about Cook’s Children.” In it, the Minister of Education I.D. Delyanov recommended that the directors of the gymnasiums accept into the ranks of students only those children whose origin did not raise questions. Due to the fact that Chukovsky did not fit this “definition”, in the 5th grade he was expelled from a privileged educational institution.

In order not to idle around and benefit the family, the young man took on any job. Among the roles that Kolya tried on himself were a newspaper delivery man, a roof cleaner, and a poster paster. During that period, the young man began to be interested in literature. He read adventure novels, studied works, and in the evenings he recited poetry to the sound of the surf.

Among other things, his phenomenal memory allowed the young man to learn English language so that he translated texts from the sheet without stuttering even once. At that time, Chukovsky did not yet know that Ohlendorf’s tutorial was missing pages on which the principle was described in detail correct pronunciation. Therefore, when Nikolai visited England years later, the fact that the local residents practically did not understand him incredibly surprised the publicist.

Journalism

In 1901, inspired by the works of his favorite authors, Korney wrote a philosophical opus. The poet’s friend Vladimir Zhabotinsky, having read the work from cover to cover, took it to the Odessa News newspaper, thereby marking the beginning of a 70-year literary career Chukovsky. For the first publication, the poet received 7 rubles. Using considerable money for those times, the young man bought himself presentable-looking pants and a shirt.

After two years of working at the newspaper, Nikolai was sent to London as a correspondent for Odessa News. For a year he wrote articles, studied foreign literature and even copied catalogs in the museum. During the trip, eighty-nine works by Chukovsky were published.

The writer fell in love with British aestheticism so much that after many, many years he translated Whitman’s works into Russian, and also became the editor of the first four-volume work, which in the blink of an eye acquired the status reference book in all those who love literature families.

In March 1905, the writer moved from sunny Odessa to rainy St. Petersburg. There, the young journalist quickly finds a job: he gets a job as a correspondent for the newspaper " Theater Russia", where in each issue his reports on the performances he watched and the books he read are published.

A subsidy from singer Leonid Sobinov helped Chukovsky publish the Signal magazine. The publication published exclusively political satire, and even Teffi was listed among the authors. Chukovsky was arrested for his ambiguous cartoons and anti-government works. The eminent lawyer Gruzenberg managed to achieve an acquittal and, nine days later, free the writer from prison.

Next, the publicist collaborated with the magazines “Scales” and “Niva”, as well as with the newspaper “Rech”, where Nikolai published critical essays about modern writers. Later, these works were scattered in books: “Faces and Masks” (1914), “Futurists” (1922), “From to the Present Day” (1908).

In the autumn of 1906, the writer’s place of residence became a dacha in Kuokkala (the shore of the Gulf of Finland). There the writer was lucky enough to meet an artist, poets and... Chukovsky later spoke about cultural figures in his memoirs “Repin. . Mayakovsky. . Memories" (1940).

The humorous handwritten almanac “Chukokkala”, published in 1979, was also collected here, where they left their creative autographs, and. At the invitation of the government in 1916, Chukovsky, as part of a delegation of Russian journalists, again went on a business trip to England.

Literature

In 1917, Nikolai returned to St. Petersburg, where, accepting the offer of Maxim Gorky, he took over the post of head of the children's department of the Parus publishing house. Chukovsky tried on the role of a storyteller while working on the anthology “Firebird”. Then he revealed to the world a new facet of his literary genius by writing “Chicken Little,” “The Kingdom of Dogs,” and “Doctors.”

Gorky saw enormous potential in his colleague’s fairy tales and suggested that Korney “try his luck” and create another work for the children’s supplement of the Niva magazine. The writer was worried that he would not be able to release an effective product, but inspiration found the creator itself. This was on the eve of the revolution.

Then the publicist was returning from his dacha to St. Petersburg with his sick son Kolya. In order to distract his beloved child from attacks of illness, the poet began to invent a fairy tale on the fly. There was no time to develop the characters and plot.

The whole bet was on the quickest alternation of images and events, so that the boy would not have time to moan or cry. This is how the work “Crocodile”, published in 1917, was born.

After October revolution Chukovsky travels around the country giving lectures and collaborates with various publishing houses. In the 20-30s, Korney wrote the works “Moidodyr” and “Cockroach”, and also adapted texts folk songs For children's reading, releasing the collections “Red and Red” and “Skok-skok”. The poet published ten poetic fairy tales one after another: “Fly-Tsokotukha”, “Miracle Tree”, “Confusion”, “What Mura Did”, “Barmaley”, “Telephone”, “Fedorino’s Grief”, “Aibolit”, “The Stolen Sun”, “Toptygin and the Fox”.

Korney Chukovsky with a drawing for "Aibolit"

Korney ran around the publishing houses, never leaving his proofs for a second, and followed every line printed. Chukovsky’s works were published in the magazines “New Robinson”, “Hedgehog”, “Koster”, “Chizh” and “Sparrow”. For the classic, everything worked out in such a way that at some point the writer himself believed that fairy tales were his calling.

Everything changed after a critical article in which the revolutionary, who had no children, called the creator’s works “bourgeois dregs” and argued that Chukovsky’s works concealed not only an anti-political message, but also false ideals.

After that secret meaning were seen in all the works of a writer: in “Mukha-Tsokotukha” the author popularized Komarik’s individualism and Mukha’s frivolity, in the fairy tale “Fedorino’s Grief” he glorified bourgeois values, in “Moidodyr” he purposefully did not voice the importance of the leadership role communist party, and in the main character of “Cockroach” the censors even saw a caricature image.

The persecution brought Chukovsky to extreme despair. Korney himself began to believe that no one needed his fairy tales. In December 1929 in " Literary newspaper“A letter from the poet was published in which he, renouncing his old works, promises to change the direction of his work by writing a collection of poems “Merry Collective Farm”. However, the work never came from his pen.

The wartime tale “Let’s Defeat Barmaley” (1943) was included in an anthology of Soviet poetry, and then crossed out from there by Stalin personally. Chukovsky wrote another work, “The Adventures of Bibigon” (1945). The story was published in Murzilka, recited on the radio, and then, calling it “ideologically harmful,” it was banned from reading.

Tired of fighting with critics and censors, the writer returned to journalism. In 1962, he wrote the book “Alive as Life,” in which he described the “diseases” that affected the Russian language. We should not forget that the publicist who studied creativity published full meeting works of Nikolai Alekseevich.

Chukovsky was a storyteller not only in literature, but also in life. He repeatedly committed actions that his contemporaries, due to their cowardice, were not capable of. In 1961, the story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” fell into his hands. Having become its first reviewer, Chukovsky and Tvardovsky convinced him to publish this work. When Alexander Isaevich became persona non grata, it was Korney who hid him from the authorities at his second dacha in Peredelkino.

In 1964, the trial began. Korney, together with, are one of the few who were not afraid to write a letter to the Central Committee asking for the release of the poet. Literary heritage The writer has been preserved not only in books, but also in cartoons.

Personal life

Chukovsky met his first and only wife at the age of 18. Maria Borisovna was the daughter of accountant Aron-Ber Ruvimovich Goldfeld and housewife Tuba (Tauba). Noble family never approved of Korney Ivanovich. At one time, the lovers even planned to escape from Odessa, which they both hated, to the Caucasus. Despite the fact that the escape never took place, the couple got married in May 1903.

Many Odessa journalists came to the wedding with flowers. True, Chukovsky did not need bouquets, but money. After the ceremony, the resourceful guy took off his hat and began to walk around the guests. Immediately after the celebration, the newlyweds left for England. Unlike Korney, Maria stayed there for a couple of months. Having learned that his wife was pregnant, the writer immediately sent her to her homeland.

On June 2, 1904, Chukovsky received a telegram that his wife had safely given birth to a son. That day, the feuilletonist gave himself a holiday and went to the circus. Upon returning to St. Petersburg, a wealth of knowledge and life impressions accumulated in London, allowed Chukovsky to very quickly become the leading critic of St. Petersburg. Sasha Cherny, not without malice, called him Korney Belinsky. Just two years later, yesterday’s provincial journalist was on short leg with all the literary and artistic elite.

While the artist traveled around the country giving lectures, his wife raised their children: Lydia, Nikolai and Boris. In 1920, Chukovsky became a father again. Daughter Maria, whom everyone called Murochka, became the heroine of many of the writer’s works. The girl died in 1931 from tuberculosis. 10 years later he died in the war younger son Boris, and 14 years later, the publicist’s wife, Maria Chukovskaya, also passed away.

Death

Korney Ivanovich passed away at the age of 87 (October 28, 1969). The cause of death was viral hepatitis. The dacha in Peredelkino, where the poet lived in recent years, was turned into Chukovsky’s house-museum.

To this day, lovers of the writer’s work can see with their own eyes the place where the eminent artist created his masterpieces.

Bibliography

“Sunny” (story, 1933);
“Silver Coat of Arms” (story, 1933);
“Chicken” (fairy tale, 1913);
“Aibolit” (fairy tale, 1917);
“Barmaley” (fairy tale, 1925);
“Moidodyr” (fairy tale, 1923);
“The Tsokotukha Fly” (fairy tale, 1924);
“Let’s Defeat Barmaley” (fairy tale, 1943);
“The Adventures of Bibigon” (fairy tale, 1945);
“Confusion” (fairy tale, 1914);
“The Kingdom of Dogs” (fairy tale, 1912);
“Cockroach” (fairy tale, 1921);
“Telephone” (fairy tale, 1924);
“Toptygin and the Fox” (fairy tale, 1934);

Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky(1882-1969) - Russian and Soviet poet, critic, literary critic, translator, publicist, known primarily for children's fairy tales in verse and prose. One of the first researchers of the phenomenon in Russia popular culture. Readers are best known as a children's poet. Father of writers Nikolai Korneevich Chukovsky and Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya.

Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky(1882-1969). Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky (Nikolai Ivanovich Korneychukov) was born on March 31 (old style, 19) March 1882 in St. Petersburg.

His birth certificate included his mother's name - Ekaterina Osipovna Korneychukova; Next came the entry “illegitimate.”

The father, St. Petersburg student Emmanuel Levenson, in whose family Chukovsky’s mother was a servant, three years after Kolya’s birth, left her, his son and daughter Marusya. They moved south, to Odessa, and lived very poorly.

Nikolai studied at the Odessa gymnasium. At the Odessa gymnasium, he met and became friends with Boris Zhitkov, in the future also a famous children's writer. Chukovsky often went to Zhitkov’s house, where he used the rich library, collected by parents Boris. From the fifth grade of the gymnasium Chukovsky was excluded when, by a special decree (known as the “decree on cook’s children”) educational establishments were freed from children of “low” origin.

The mother's earnings were so meager that they were barely enough to somehow make ends meet. But the young man did not give up, he studied independently and passed the exams, receiving a matriculation certificate.

Be interested in poetry Chukovsky started with early years: wrote poems and even poems. And in 1901, his first article appeared in the Odessa News newspaper. He wrote articles on the most different topics- from philosophy to feuilletons. In addition, the future children's poet kept a diary, which was his friend throughout his life.

WITH teenage years Chukovsky led working life, read a lot, studied English on my own and French languages. In 1903, Korney Ivanovich went to St. Petersburg with the firm intention of becoming a writer. He visited magazine editorial offices and offered his works, but was refused everywhere. This did not stop Chukovsky. He met many writers, got used to life in St. Petersburg and finally found a job - he became a correspondent for the Odessa News newspaper, where he sent his materials from St. Petersburg. Finally, life rewarded him for his inexhaustible optimism and faith in his abilities. He was sent by Odessa News to London, where he improved his English.

In 1903, he married a twenty-three-year-old Odessa woman, the daughter of an accountant at a private firm, Maria Borisovna Goldfeld. The marriage was unique and happy. Of the four children born in their family (Nikolai, Lydia, Boris and Maria) long life Only the two eldest survived - Nikolai and Lydia, who themselves later became writers. The youngest daughter Masha died in childhood from tuberculosis. Son Boris died in the war in 1941; another son Nikolai also fought and took part in the defense of Leningrad. Lydia Chukovskaya (born in 1907) lived a long and difficult life, was subjected to repression, survived the execution of her husband, the outstanding physicist Matvey Bronstein.

In England Chukovsky travels with his wife, Maria Borisovna. Here future writer spent a year and a half sending his articles and notes to Russia, as well as visiting the free reading room libraries British Museum where I read voraciously English writers, historians, philosophers, publicists, those who helped him develop own style, which was later called “paradoxical and witty.” He meets

Arthur Conan Doyle, Herbert Wells, and other English writers.

In 1904 Chukovsky returned to Russia and became literary critic, publishing his articles in St. Petersburg magazines and newspapers. At the end of 1905 he organized (with a subsidy from L.V. Sobinov) a weekly magazine political satire"Signal". He was even arrested for his bold cartoons and anti-government poems. And in 1906 he became a permanent contributor to the magazine “Scales”. By this time he was already familiar with A. Blok, L. Andreev, A. Kuprin and other figures of literature and art. Later, Chukovsky resurrected the living features of many cultural figures in his memoirs (“Repin. Gorky. Mayakovsky. Bryusov. Memoirs,” 1940; “From Memoirs,” 1959; “Contemporaries,” 1962). And nothing seemed to foreshadow that Chukovsky would become a children's writer. In 1908, he published essays on modern writers “From Chekhov to the Present Day,” and in 1914, “Faces and Masks.”

Gradually the name Chukovsky becomes widely known. Its sharp critical articles and essays were published in periodicals, and subsequently compiled into the books “From Chekhov to the Present Day” (1908), “ Critical stories"(1911), "Faces and Masks" (1914), "Futurists" (1922).

In 1906, Korney Ivanovich arrived in the Finnish town of Kuokkala, where he became close acquaintances with the artist Repin and the writer Korolenko. The writer also maintained contacts with N.N. Evreinov, L.N. Andreev, A.I. Kuprin, V.V. Mayakovsky. All of them subsequently became characters in his memoirs and essays, and the home handwritten almanac of Chukokkala, in which dozens of celebrities left their creative autographs - from Repin to A.I. Solzhenitsyn, - over time turned into an invaluable cultural monument. Here he lived for about 10 years. From the combination of the words Chukovsky and Kuokkala, “Chukokkala” (invented by Repin) is formed - the name of the handwritten humorous almanac that Korney Ivanovich led to last days own life.

In 1907 Chukovsky published translations of Walt Whitman. The book became popular, which increased Chukovsky's fame in literary environment. Chukovsky becomes an influential critic, trashes tabloid literature (articles about A. Verbitskaya, L. Charskaya, the book “Nat Pinkerton and modern literature”, etc.) Chukovsky’s sharp articles were published in periodicals, and then he compiled the books “From Chekhov to the Present Day” (1908), “Critical Stories” (1911), “Faces and Masks” (1914), “Futurists” (1922) and others. Chukovsky is the first researcher of “mass culture” in Russia. Chukovsky's creative interests constantly expanded, his work acquired an increasingly universal, encyclopedic character over time.

The family lived in Kuokkala until 1917. They already had three children - Nikolai, Lydia (both later became famous writers, and Lydia is also a famous human rights activist) and Boris (died at the front in the first months of the Great Patriotic War). In 1920, already in St. Petersburg, a daughter, Maria (Mura - she was the “heroine” of many of Chukovsky’s children’s poems) was born, who died in 1931 from tuberculosis.

In 1916, at the invitation of Gorky Chukovsky Heads the children's department of the Parus publishing house. Then he himself began to write poetry for children, and then prose. Poetic tales " Crocodile"(1916), " Moidodyr" And " cockroach"(1923), " Fly Tsokotukha"(1924), " Barmaley"(1925), " Telephone" (1926) " Aibolit"(1929) - remain a favorite reading for several generations of children. However, in the 20s and 30s. they were harshly criticized for “lack of ideas” and “formalism”; There was even the term “Chukovism”.

In 1916 Chukovsky became a war correspondent for the newspaper Rech in Great Britain, France, and Belgium. Returning to Petrograd in 1917, Chukovsky received an offer from M. Gorky to become the head of the children's department of the Parus publishing house. Then he began to pay attention to the speech and speech of small children and record them. He kept such records until the end of his life. Of them was born famous book“From Two to Five,” which first appeared in print in 1928 under the title “Little Children. Children's language. Ekikiki. Silly absurdities" and only in the 3rd edition the book received the title "From two to five." The book was reprinted 21 times and was replenished with each new edition.

And after many years Chukovsky again acted as a linguist - he wrote a book about the Russian language, “Alive as Life” (1962), where he angrily and wittily attacked bureaucratic cliches, the “bureaucracy”.

In general, in the 10s - 20s. Chukovsky dealt with many topics that one way or another found continuation in his future literary activity. It was then (on Korolenko’s advice) that he turned to Nekrasov’s work and published several books about him. Through his efforts, the first Soviet collection of Nekrasov’s poems with scientific commentary was published (1926). And as a result of many years research work became the book “The Mastery of Nekrasov” (1952), for which in 1962 the author received the Lenin Prize.

In 1916 Chukovsky became a war correspondent for the newspaper Rech in Great Britain, France, and Belgium. Returning to Petrograd in 1917, Chukovsky received an offer from M. Gorky to become the head of the children's department of the Parus publishing house. Then he began to pay attention to the speech and speech of small children and record them. He kept such records until the end of his life. From them the famous book “From Two to Five” was born, which was first published in 1928 under the title “Little Children. Children's language. Ekikiki. Silly absurdities" and only in the 3rd edition the book received the title "From two to five." The book was reprinted 21 times and was replenished with each new edition.

Back in 1919, the first work was published Chukovsky on the craft of translation - “Principles of Literary Translation”. This problem always remained in the focus of his attention - evidence of this in the books “The Art of Translation” (1930, 1936), “ High art"(1941, 1968). He himself was one of the best translators- opened for the Russian reader Whitman (to whom he also dedicated the study “My Whitman”), Kipling, Wilde. Translated Shakespeare, Chesterton, Mark Twain, O'Henry, Arthur Conan Doyle, retold "Robinson Crusoe", "Baron Munchausen" for children, many biblical stories and Greek myths.

Chukovsky He also studied Russian literature of the 1860s, the works of Shevchenko, Chekhov, and Blok. In the last years of his life, he published essays about Zoshchenko, Zhitkov, Akhmatova, Pasternak and many others.

In 1957 Chukovsky was assigned academic degree Doctor of Philological Sciences, then, on his 75th birthday, he was awarded the Order of Lenin. And in 1962 he received an honorary doctorate of literature from Oxford University.

The complexity of Chukovsky’s life - on the one hand, a famous and recognized Soviet writer, on the other - a man who has not forgiven the authorities for much, who does not accept much, who is forced to hide his views, who is constantly worried about his “dissident” daughter - all this was revealed to the reader only after the publication of his diaries writer, where dozens of pages were torn out, and not a word was said about some years (like 1938).

In 1958 Chukovsky turned out to be the only one Soviet writer, who congratulated Boris Pasternak on the award Nobel Prize; after this seditious visit to his neighbor in Peredelkino, he was forced to write a humiliating explanation.

In the 1960s K. Chukovsky I also started retelling the Bible for children. He attracted writers and literary figures to this project, and carefully edited their work. The project itself was very difficult due to the anti-religious position Soviet power. A book called " Tower of Babel and other ancient legends" was published by the publishing house "Children's Literature" in 1968. However, the entire circulation was destroyed by the authorities. The first book publication available to the reader took place in 1990.

Korney Ivanovich was one of the first who discovered Solzhenitsyn, the first in the world to write an admiring review of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, gave the writer shelter when he found himself in disgrace, and was proud of his friendship with him.

Long years Chukovsky lived in the writers' village of Peredelkino near Moscow. Here he often met with children. Now there is a museum in Chukovsky’s house, the opening of which was also associated with great difficulties.

IN post-war years Chukovsky often met with children in Peredelkino, where he built Vacation home, spoke with essay articles about Zoshchenko, Zhitkov, Akhmatova, Pasternak and many others. There he gathered up to one and a half thousand children around him and arranged for them “Hello, Summer!” holidays. and “Goodbye summer!”

Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky died on October 28, 1969 from viral hepatitis. At the dacha in Peredelkino (Moscow region), where he lived most life, now his museum operates there.

"Children's" poet Chukovsky

In 1916 Chukovsky compiled a collection for children “Yolka”. In 1917, M. Gorky invited him to head the children's department of the Parus publishing house. Then he began to pay attention to the speech of small children and record them. From these observations was born the book "From Two to Five" (first published in 1928), which is a linguistic study children's language and characteristics of children's thinking.

The first children's poem " Crocodile"(1916) was born by chance. Korney Ivanovich and his little son were traveling on the train. The boy was sick and, in order to distract him from his suffering, Korney Ivanovich began to rhyme lines to the sound of wheels.

This poem was followed by other works for children: “ cockroach"(1922), " Moidodyr"(1922), " Fly Tsokotukha"(1923), " Miracle tree"(1924), " Barmaley"(1925), " Telephone"(1926), " Fedorino grief"(1926), " Aibolit" (1929), " Stolen sun"(1945), " Bibigon"(1945), " Thanks to Aibolit"(1955), " Fly in the bath"(1969)

It was fairy tales for children that became the reason for what began in the 30s. bullying Chukovsky, the so-called fight against “Chukovism” initiated by N.K. Krupskaya. In 1929 he was forced to publicly renounce his fairy tales. Chukovsky was depressed by the event and could not write for a long time after that. By his own admission, from that time on he turned from an author to an editor.

For children of primary school age Chukovsky retold ancient greek myth about Perseus, translated English folk songs (« Barabek», « Jenny», « Kotausi and Mausi" and etc.). In Chukovsky’s retelling, children became acquainted with “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” by E. Raspe, “Robinson Crusoe” by D. Defoe, and “The Little Rag” by the little-known J. Greenwood; For children, Chukovsky translated Kipling's fairy tales and the works of Mark Twain. Children in Chukovsky's life truly became a source of strength and inspiration. In his house in the village of Peredelkino near Moscow, where he finally moved in the 1950s, up to one and a half thousand children often gathered. Chukovsky organized the “Hello, Summer” and “Farewell, Summer” holidays for them. Having communicated a lot with children, Chukovsky came to the conclusion that they read too little and, having cut off a large piece of land from his summer cottage in Peredelkino, he built a library there for children. “I built a library, I want to build it for the rest of my life kindergarten"- said Chukovsky.

Prototypes

It is unknown whether the heroes of fairy tales had prototypes Chukovsky. But there are quite plausible versions of the origins of the bright and charismatic characters in his children's fairy tales.

To prototypes Aibolita two characters are suitable, one of whom was a living person, a doctor from Vilnius. His name was Tsemakh Shabad (in Russian - Timofey Osipovich Shabad). Doctor Shabad, having graduated from the medical faculty of Moscow University in 1889, voluntarily went to the Moscow slums to treat the poor and homeless. He voluntarily went to the Volga region, where he risked his life to fight the cholera epidemic. Returning to Vilnius (at the beginning of the twentieth century - Vilna), he treated the poor for free, fed children from poor families, did not refuse help when they brought pets to him, and even treated wounded birds that were brought to him from the street. The writer met Shabad in 1912. He visited Dr. Shabad twice and personally called him the prototype of Dr. Aibolit in his article in Pionerskaya Pravda.

In his letters, Korney Ivanovich, in particular, said: “... Doctor Shabad was very loved in the city because he treated the poor, pigeons, cats... It used to be that a thin girl would come to him, he would tell her - do you want her to did I write you a prescription? No, milk will help you, come to me every morning and you will get two glasses of milk. So I thought how wonderful it would be to write a fairy tale about such a good doctor.”

In the memoirs of Korney Chukovsky, another story is preserved about a little girl from a poor family. Dr. Shabad diagnosed her with “systematic malnutrition” and himself brought the little patient a white roll and hot broth. The next day, as a sign of gratitude, the recovered girl brought the doctor her beloved cat as a gift.

Today a monument to Dr. Shabad is erected in Vilnius.

There is another contender for the role of the prototype of Aibolit - this is Doctor Doolittle from the book by the English engineer Hugh Lofting. While at the front of the First World War, he came up with a fairy tale for children about Doctor Dolittle, who knew how to treat various animals, communicate with them and fight his enemies - evil pirates. The story of Doctor Dolittle appeared in 1920.

For a long time it was believed that in " cockroach"depicts Stalin (Cockroach) and the Stalinist regime. The temptation to draw parallels was very strong: Stalin was short, red-haired, with a bushy mustache (Cockroach - “liquid-legged little bugger”, red-haired with a large mustache). Large strong animals obey him and fear him. But “The Cockroach” was written in 1922; Chukovsky might not have known about important role Stalin and, moreover, could not portray the regime that gained strength in the thirties.

Honorary titles and awards

1957 - Awarded the Order of Lenin; awarded the academic degree of Doctor of Philology

1962 - Lenin Prize(for the book “Nekrasov’s Mastery”, published in 1952); an honorary doctorate of letters from Oxford University.

Quotes

If you want to shoot a musician, insert a loaded gun into the piano he will be playing.

A children's writer should be happy.

The authorities, using the radio, distribute rollicking, vile songs among the population - so that the population does not know either Akhmatova, Blok, or Mandelstam.

The older the woman, the larger the bag in her hands.

Everything that ordinary people want, they pass off as a government program.

When you are released from prison and you go home, these minutes are worth living for!

The only thing that is firmly in my body is false teeth.

Freedom of speech is needed by a very limited circle of people, and the majority, even intellectuals, do their job without it.

You have to live in Russia for a long time.

If you're told to tweet, don't purr!

Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky

Biography

Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky(at birth received the name Nikolai Vasilyevich Korneychukov) - Russian poet, famous children's writer, translator, publicist, critic and literary critic. His children Nikolai Korneevich Chukovsky and Lidiya Korneevna Chukovskaya are also famous writers.

Childhood

On March 19, 1882 (new style 31), Nikolai Korneychukov was born in St. Petersburg. Some consider his date of birth to be April 1, which is due to incorrect translation of dates to a new style.

Nikolai was “illegitimate,” which caused him to suffer a lot. Mother Ekaterina Osipovna Korneychukova was a Poltava peasant woman and worked in the house of Emmanuel Solomonovich Levenson. Their family lived in St. Petersburg for about three years, they already had a child - daughter Maria or Marusya. After Nikolai's birth, his father married a woman from high society, and my mother moved to Odessa. In Odessa, he studied at the gymnasium until the fifth grade, from which he was expelled due to his low origin. Autobiographical story The Silver Coat of Arms describes this period of his life.

According to the metric, he and his sister did not have a middle name. His patronymic “Vasilievich” was given by the name of his godfather, and his sister used the patronymic “Emmanuilovna”. He wrote all his works under the pseudonym “Korney Chukovsky”. After the revolution, the pseudonym “Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky” became his legal name. All his children - sons Nikolai and Boris, daughters Lydia and Maria, after the revolution bore the surname Chukovsky and, accordingly, the patronymic Korneevich.

Youth

Chukovsky began writing children's literature when he became famous critic. The first collection “The Christmas Tree” and the fairy tale “Crocodile” were published in 1916. Some of the most famous fairy tales“Cockroach” and “Moidodyr” were written in 1923.

Korney Chukovsky was also interested in issues of the child’s psyche and methods of teaching speech. All your reasoning on this topic he outlined in the 1933 book “From Two to Five.” Most readers know him only as a children's writer.

30s in the life of the writer

Among critics, the term “Chukovism” appears. This leads to the fact that at the end of 1929 Chukovsky publishes a letter renouncing fairy tales, and he also promises to write a collection “Merry Collective Farm”. Renunciation was difficult for him; he never wrote the collection. During these years, she left his life youngest daughter Murochka and the husband of his daughter Lydia were shot.

Beginning in 1930, Chukovsky began to engage in translations. In 1936, his book “The Art of Translation” was published, later republished under the title “High Art”. Also at this time he was translating into Russian the works of R. Kipling, M. Twain, O. Wilde. At this time he begins to write memoirs. They were published posthumously under the title "Diaries 1901 - 1969".

Maturity

In the 60s, Korney Chukovsky began working on a retelling of the Bible for children. Several writers worked on this book, but all texts were edited by Korney Chukovsky. Due to the anti-religious position of the authorities, the word God was replaced by “Wizard Yahweh.” In 1968, the Bible was published, and it was called “The Tower of Babel and Other Ancient Legends,” but all copies were destroyed. The book was published only in 1990.

Last years

During his life, Chukovsky became a laureate of several state awards, a holder of orders, gained popular love. Nevertheless, he communicated with dissidents. He spent his last years at his dacha in Peredelkino, communicating with local children, reading poetry, and arranging meetings with famous people. Korney Ivanovich died of viral hepatitis on October 28, 1969. His museum is now open in Peredelkino.

Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky(birth name - Nikolay Vasilievich Korneychukov, March 19 (31), St. Petersburg - October 28, Moscow) - a famous Russian poet, publicist, critic, also a translator and literary critic, known primarily for children's fairy tales in verse and prose. Father of writers Nikolai Korneevich Chukovsky and Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya.

Origin

Nikolai Korneychukov was born on March 31, 1882 in St. Petersburg. The frequently encountered date of his birth, April 1, appeared due to an error during the transition to a new style (13 days were added, not 12, as should be the case for the 19th century). Writer long years suffered from being "illegitimate". His father was Emmanuil Solomonovich Levenson, in whose family Korney Chukovsky’s mother, Poltava peasant Ekaterina Osipovna Korneychukova, lived as a servant. Their father left them and their mother moved to Odessa. There the boy was sent to a gymnasium, but in the fifth grade he was expelled due to his low origin. He described these events in his autobiographical story “The Silver Coat of Arms.”

The patronymic “Vasilievich” was given to Nikolai by his godfather. From the beginning of his literary activity, Korneychukov, who had long been burdened by his illegitimacy (as can be seen from his diary of the 1920s), used the pseudonym “Korney Chukovsky,” which was later supplemented by a fictitious patronymic, “Ivanovich.” After the revolution, the combination “Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky” became his real name, patronymic and surname. His children - Nikolai, Lydia, Boris and Maria (Murochka), who died in childhood, to whom many of their father's children's poems are dedicated - bore (at least after the revolution) the surname Chukovsky and the patronymic Korneevich / Korneevna.

Journalistic activity before the revolution

“One of these days, knowing that mobilized people would be walking along Nevsky Prospekt, Korney Chukovsky and I decided to go to this main street. There, quite by chance, Osip Mandelstam met and joined us... When the mobilized began to pass through, not yet in military uniform, with bales on his shoulders, then suddenly the poet Benedikt Livshits came out from their ranks, also with a bale, and ran up to us. We began to hug him, shake his hands, when an unfamiliar photographer approached us and asked permission to photograph us. We took each other's arms and were photographed..."

- St. Petersburg. Capital Russian Empire. Faces of Russia. St. Petersburg 1993.

Annenkov's story coincides with the photograph right down to small parts... However, something remained beyond the scope of his story. And first of all, the unknown photographer turned out to be “Karl Bulla himself,” from whose workshop this photograph subsequently became widespread.

Of the four bright creative people presented in the picture, only two died of natural causes in the late 60s and early 70s, having lived to a ripe old age: this is Korney Chukovsky, the only one left in the USSR and Annenkov himself, who survived the exile. Osip Mandelstam and Benedikt Livshits were brutally murdered by their fellow citizens during the Stalinist repressions. Osip Mandelstam, according to the later words of Academician Shklovsky, “to this strange... difficult... touching... and brilliant man”, 23 years old in the photo. Just a year ago, the St. Petersburg publishing house "Akme" published it poetry collection"Stone". Since the first publication in 1907 in the journal of the Tenishevsky Commercial School, a long way has been passed: classes French literature at the University of St. Petersburg, acquaintance with Vyacheslav Ivanov and Innokenty Annensky, new literary communication - poets of the Apollo magazine circle... A little older than Mandelstam - the poet and translator Benedikt Livshits, who entered literature with a group of futurists, who in the picture is already sitting with his head shaved and deliberately put on a brave face, a man leaving for the front. He still does not know whether he will survive after the First World War, where he will be wounded and receive the St. George Cross... Just like Mandelstam, Benedict Livshits was illegally repressed in the 30s and died in the camps in 1939.

Literary criticism

Children's poems

The passion for children's literature, which made Chukovsky famous, began relatively late, when he was already a famous critic. Chukovsky compiled the collection “Yolka” and wrote his first fairy tale “Crocodile”.

“All my other works are overshadowed to such an extent by my children’s fairy tales that in the minds of many readers, except for “Moidodyrs” and “Mukh-Tsokotukh”, I wrote nothing at all.”

The persecution of Chukovsky in the 1930s

Chukovsky’s children’s poems were subjected to severe persecution during the Stalin era, although it is known that Stalin himself repeatedly quoted “The Cockroach”. The initiator of the persecution was N.K. Krupskaya, and inadequate criticism also came from Agnia Barto. Among the party critics of the editors, even the term “Chukovism” arose. Chukovsky took it upon himself to write an orthodox Soviet work for children, “Merry Collective Farm,” but did not do it. The 1930s were marked by two personal tragedies for Chukovsky: in 1931 she died after serious illness his daughter Murochka, and in 1938 the husband of his daughter Lydia, physicist Matvey Bronstein, was shot (the writer learned about the death of his son-in-law only after two years of trouble in the authorities).

Other works

In the 1930s Chukovsky deals a lot with the theory of literary translation (“The Art of Translation” of 1936, republished before the start of the war, in 1941, under the title “High Art”) and translations into Russian themselves (M. Twain, O. Wilde, R. Kipling, etc. , including in the form of “retellings” for children).

He begins to write memoirs, which he worked on until the end of his life (“Contemporaries” in the “ZhZL” series).

Chukovsky and the Bible for children

In the 1960s, K. Chukovsky started retelling the Bible for children. He attracted writers and literary figures to this project and carefully edited their work. The project itself was very difficult due to the anti-religious position of the Soviet government. The book entitled “The Tower of Babel and Other Ancient Legends” was published by the publishing house “Children's Literature” in 1968. However, the entire circulation was destroyed by the authorities. The first book publication available to the reader took place in 1990. In 2001, the publishing houses “Rosman” and “Dragonfly” began publishing the book under the title “The Tower of Babel and Other Biblical Legends.”

Last years

In recent years, Chukovsky has been a popular favorite, a laureate of a number of state prizes and orders, and at the same time maintained contacts with dissidents (Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Brodsky, the Litvinovs, his daughter Lydia was also a prominent human rights activist). At the dacha in Peredelkino, where he lived constantly in recent years, he organized meetings with surrounding children, talked with them, read poetry, invited them to meetings famous people, famous pilots, artists, writers, poets. Peredelkino children, who have long since become adults, still remember these childhood gatherings at Chukovsky’s dacha. Korney Ivanovich died on October 28 from viral hepatitis. At the dacha in Peredelkino, where the writer lived most of his life, his museum now operates.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

August 1905-1906 - Academichesky Lane, 5;
1906 - autumn 1917 - apartment building- Kolomenskaya street, 11;
autumn 1917-1919 - apartment building of I. E. Kuznetsov - Zagorodny Avenue, 27;
1919-1938 - apartment building - Manezhny Lane, 6.

Awards

List of works

Fairy tales

English folk songs
Stolen sun
The Adventures of Bibigon
Confusion
Telephone ()
Toptygin and Lisa
Toptygin and Luna
Fedorino grief
Chick
What did Mura do when they read the fairy tale “The Miracle Tree” to her?
Miracle tree

Poems for children

Glutton
Elephant reads
Zakalyaka
Piglet
Hedgehogs laugh
Sandwich
Fedotka
Turtle
Pigs
Garden
Song about poor boots
camel
Tadpoles
Bebeka
Joy
Great-great-great-grandchildren
Fly in the bath

Stories

Solar
Silver coat of arms

Works on translation

Preschool education

Memories

Memories of Repin
Yuri Tynyanov
Boris Zhitkov
Irakli Andronikov

Articles

To the eternally youthful question
The story of my "Aibolit"
How was “Tsokotukha Fly” written?
Confessions of an old storyteller
Chukokkala page
About Sherlock Holmes
Hospital No. 11

Selected Quotes

My phone rang.
- Who's talking?
- Elephant.
- Where?
- From a camel...

TELEPHONE

I need to wash my face
In the mornings and evenings,
And to unclean chimney sweeps -
Shame and disgrace! Shame and disgrace!..

MOIDODYR

Small children! No way
Don't go to Africa, go for a walk in Africa!
In Africa there are sharks, in Africa there are gorillas,
There are big angry crocodiles in Africa
They will bite you, beat you and offend you, -
Don't go for a walk, children, to Africa...

Origin

Nikolai Korneychukov was born on March 31, 1882 in St. Petersburg. The frequently encountered date of his birth, April 1, appeared due to an error during the transition to a new style (13 days were added, not 12, as should be the case for the 19th century). The writer suffered for many years from being “illegitimate.” His father was Emmanuil Solomonovich Levenson, in whose family Korney Chukovsky’s mother, Poltava peasant Ekaterina Osipovna Korneychukova, lived as a servant. Their father left them and their mother moved to Odessa. There the boy was sent to a gymnasium, but in the fifth grade he was expelled due to his low origin. He described these events in his autobiographical story “The Silver Coat of Arms.”

Journalistic activity before the revolution

“One of these days, knowing that mobilized people would be walking along Nevsky Prospekt, Korney Chukovsky and I decided to go to this main street. There, quite by chance, Osip Mandelstam met and joined us... When the mobilized, not yet in military uniform, with bales on their shoulders, began to pass by, suddenly the poet Benedikt Livshits came out from their ranks, also with a bale, and ran up to us . We began to hug him, shake his hands, when an unfamiliar photographer approached us and asked permission to photograph us. We took each other's arms and were photographed..."

- St. Petersburg. Capital of the Russian Empire. Faces of Russia. St. Petersburg 1993.

Annenkov's story coincides with the photograph down to the smallest details... However, something remains beyond the scope of his story. And first of all, the unknown photographer turned out to be “Karl Bulla himself,” from whose workshop this photograph subsequently became widespread.

Of the four bright creative people presented in the picture, only two died of natural causes in the late 60s and early 70s, having lived to a ripe old age: this is Korney Chukovsky, the only one left in the USSR and Annenkov himself, who survived the exile. Osip Mandelstam and Benedikt Livshits were brutally murdered by their fellow citizens during the Stalinist repressions. Osip Mandelstam, according to the later words of Academician Shklovsky, “to this strange... difficult... touching... and brilliant man”, 23 years old in the photo. Just a year ago, his poetry collection “Stone” was published by the St. Petersburg publishing house “Akme”. Since the first publication in 1907 in the journal of the Tenishevsky Commercial School, a huge path has been passed: studies of French literature at St. Petersburg University, acquaintance with Vyacheslav Ivanov and Innokenty Annensky, new literary communication - poets of the Apollo magazine circle... Slightly older than Mandelstam - included in literature with a group of futurists, the poet and translator Benedict Livshits, who in the picture is sitting with his head shaved and with a deliberately made brave face, a man leaving for the front. He still does not know whether he will survive after the First World War, where he will be wounded and receive the St. George Cross... Just like Mandelstam, Benedict Livshits was illegally repressed in the 30s and died in the camps in 1939.

Literary criticism

Children's poems

The persecution of Chukovsky in the 1930s

Chukovsky’s children’s poems were subjected to severe persecution during the Stalin era, although it is known that Stalin himself repeatedly quoted “The Cockroach”. The initiator of the persecution was N.K. Krupskaya, and inadequate criticism also came from Agnia Barto. Among the party critics of the editors, even the term “Chukovism” arose. Chukovsky took it upon himself to write an orthodox Soviet work for children, “Merry Collective Farm,” but did not do it. The 1930s were marked by two personal tragedies for Chukovsky: in 1931, his daughter Murochka died after a serious illness, and in 1938, the husband of his daughter Lydia, physicist Matvey Bronstein, was shot (the writer learned about the death of his son-in-law only after two years of trouble in the authorities).

Other works

He begins to write memoirs, which he worked on until the end of his life (“Contemporaries” in the “ZhZL” series).

Chukovsky and the Bible for children

Last years

In recent years, Chukovsky has been a popular favorite, a laureate of a number of state prizes and orders, and at the same time maintained contacts with dissidents (Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Brodsky, the Litvinovs, his daughter Lydia was also a prominent human rights activist). At his dacha in Peredelkino, where he lived permanently in recent years, he organized meetings with local children, talked with them, read poetry, and invited famous people, famous pilots, artists, writers, and poets to meetings. Peredelkino children, who have long since become adults, still remember these childhood gatherings at Chukovsky’s dacha. Korney Ivanovich died on October 28 from viral hepatitis. At the dacha in Peredelkino, where the writer lived most of his life, his museum now operates.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

August 1905-1906 - Academichesky Lane, 5;
1906 - autumn 1917 - apartment building - Kolomenskaya street, 11;
autumn 1917-1919 - apartment building of I. E. Kuznetsov - Zagorodny Avenue, 27;
1919-1938 - apartment building - Manezhny Lane, 6.

Awards

List of works

Fairy tales

English folk songs
Stolen sun
The Adventures of Bibigon
Confusion
Telephone ()
Toptygin and Lisa
Toptygin and Luna
Fedorino grief
Chick
What did Mura do when they read the fairy tale “The Miracle Tree” to her?
Miracle tree

Poems for children

Glutton
Elephant reads
Zakalyaka
Piglet
Hedgehogs laugh
Sandwich
Fedotka
Turtle
Pigs
Garden
Song about poor boots
camel
Tadpoles
Bebeka
Joy
Great-great-great-grandchildren
Fly in the bath

Stories

Solar
Silver coat of arms

Works on translation

Preschool education

Memories

Memories of Repin
Yuri Tynyanov
Boris Zhitkov
Irakli Andronikov

Articles

To the eternally youthful question
The story of my "Aibolit"
How was “Tsokotukha Fly” written?
Confessions of an old storyteller
Chukokkala page
About Sherlock Holmes
Hospital No. 11

Selected Quotes

My phone rang.
- Who's talking?
- Elephant.
- Where?
- From a camel...

TELEPHONE

I need to wash my face
In the mornings and evenings,
And to unclean chimney sweeps -
Shame and disgrace! Shame and disgrace!..

MOIDODYR

Small children! No way
Don't go to Africa, go for a walk in Africa!
In Africa there are sharks, in Africa there are gorillas,
There are big angry crocodiles in Africa
They will bite you, beat you and offend you, -
Don't go for a walk, children, to Africa...