Russian Personalities

Sergei Mikhalkov, one of the most popular children’s writers in the USSR, was born in 1913. He spent his school years in Pyatigorsk, in the Caucasus. And in 1930 he moved to Moscow, where he studied at the Gorky Literary Institute. In 1935 his first verses for children were published, and they had been followed by many other verses, fables and plays for children.
He began to write verses early in his life. Along with his penknife and sling-shot, cherished carefully in a casket, there was a rough notebook containing some verses, written out without a single mistake.
Among the verses was one fable— it was called Culture, and the point of it was that “it is better to help people in deeds, not merely in words”. He was ten at the time.
One day he wrote a tale in verse. He copied it out in block capitals and set off for a publisher’s. The boy went into a place that smelt thrillingly of printer’s ink. They led him to “the very top man”. A tiny old man in a long belted shirt received him as though he was a real author. When he said goodbye, he held out three roubles. That was his first advance! A week later he was holding his reply in hands trembling with excitement. Printed on a stock form, it briefly rejected his story about a bear as unsuitable for publication.
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Alexander Tvardovsky was born in 1910, in the Smolensk Region, on the little farm of Stolpovo, as the tiny scrap of land acquired by his father was called. In no sense was possession of that piece of land a thing to be envied. But for his father, who had worked for years as a blacksmith to earn enough to put down the deposit required by the bank, that land was precious, even sacred. And from the very first he taught children to love and respect it.
Alexander’s father was a literate man and even a well-read one by village standards. Books were no rarity in their house, and in the winter whole evenings were given over to reading aloud.
The boy started writing verses before he could properly read and write. There was no metre, no rhyme, nothing of poetry at all, but he distinctly recalled that he had a fervent desire, so passionate that his heart nearly burst, to achieve all that—metre, and rhyme, and music—a desire to give birth to them, and without delay.
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In the Soviet years Joseph Dik was called one of the most prominent representatives of Russian literature. He was friends with Kassil, Paustovsky, Tvardovsky, Trifonov, enjoyed wild success with women. And no one noticed that the writer did not have both hands and an eye.
He was born on August 20, 1922 in Moscow, in the family of Ion Dichesku (Ivan Dik), one of the founders of the Romanian Communist Party. From morning until late evening, his father was at work, but still found time to go to the theater with his son, taught him how to shoot with a small-caliber rifle, and bought books for him. And when at the age of 10 the boy tried to write poetry, the father explained to him what a rhythm was and how to choose rhymes.
Childhood ended in 1937. Joseph’s parents were arrested as “enemies of the people”, and he and his younger sister were sent to the Rybinsk orphanage.
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Man’s interest in distant seas and unknown shores is indomitable. At the beginning of the XIX century, Russian sailors first went on an around the world trip to find out which countries were behind the horizon. The expedition was headed by Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern.
Adam Johann von Krusenstern was born in the family of a judge. The boy dreamed of the sea and distant lands and read all the travel books he managed to find in his home library. Father supported his son’s enthusiasm and, when the time came, he sent Ivan to the Naval Cadet Corps in Kronstadt.
According to contemporaries, at the end of the 18th century the corps was a rather gloomy institution resembling a seminary. Of the subjects indicated in the schedule, only mathematics was taught at a decent level, and very few sciences. In addition, teachers were rude and corporal punishment in the corps was absolutely normal.
It is not known how such an upbringing would end for Ivan, but a serious threat loomed over Petersburg: the Russo-Swedish war began. Pupils of the Marine Corps were hastily mobilized to participate in hostilities, and Kruzenshtern was called up as midshipman. In the Gotland battle, the captain of the ship noted his courage, and for participation in the battles of Revel and Krasnaya Gorka, Kruzenshtern received the rank of lieutenant of the fleet.
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Sergei Yulyevich Witte, the future Russian reformer, graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at the age of 21. And later he took the post of head of the Odessa Railway movement. At 40, he became director of the Department of Railways under the Ministry of Finance, three years later – Minister of Railways and Finance.
Witte introduced the “state monopoly of the trade in drinks” in the country. The state began to live not from the labor and talent of its subjects, but from alcoholism. So, the drunken revenue filled the budget for a quarter. Excise taxes on matches, tobacco, kerosene, sugar, tea, etc. were growing. Taxes grew, and the people, naturally, became poor.
Witte built the Trans-Siberian Railway Network so that, in his words, “Europe got a gate to the Asian East,” but Russia should be a gatekeeper at that gate. For this reason, he chose the road through Chinese Manchuria to the Pacific Ocean as the most interesting for western merchants.
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Kozma Prutkov is a unique phenomenon not only for Russian, but also for world literature. There are fictional heroes and people erect monuments, open museums in the houses where they “lived”. But none of them had their own biography, collected works, critics of their work and followers. Kozma Prutkov’s aphorisms were published in such well-known publications of the 19th century as Sovremennik, Iskra, and Amusement. Many famous writers of that time believed that this was a real person. This character appeared thanks to the joint prank of Alexei, Vladimir and Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov and Count Alexei Tolstoy. The Zhemchuzhnikov brothers came from an old Russian family, in which there were governors and senators. Alexey, Alexander and Vladimir were poets, and their brother Leo was a famous artist and engraver. Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy was a famous Russian writer, playwright and poet.
Kozma Prutkov, whose quotes and aphorisms were loved by many of their contemporaries, appeared due to the failure of the play, co-written by Tolstoy and Alexei Zhemchuzhnikov. Nicholas I, who was present at the performance, was dissatisfied, the play was removed from the repertoire, and the brothers began to write parodies.
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If you believe the chroniclers, Vasily II (or Basil II) was under the patronage of higher powers from the early days. According to legend, at the time of his birth, the Moscow priest heard the voice of heaven, which announced to him: “Go and give name to Grand Duke Vasily!” He went to Grand Duchess Sofia and was surprised to learn that she had just given birth to a son. When Vasily headed the state and his uncle Yuri tried to take power from him, a pestilence began in the city of the latter, and stopped only after he abandoned his claims to the throne. Once, during the reign of Vasily, the Lithuanian army attempted to invade Russia, but suddenly a storm began. Frightened Lithuanians immediately concluded peace with the prince. And yet, despite the intervention of higher powers, the fate of Vasily II was very tragic. After all, a third of his life he was blind.
The boy ascended the Muscovite throne at the age of ten. All his childhood and youth Vasily fought with his uncle, Yuri Dmitrievich, who tried to take the throne from his nephew. In 1434, Yuri succeeded. He defeated the army of 19-year-old Vasily and occupied the Russian throne. But Yuri ruled for only about two months and then he suddenly died.
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