Biography of Kataev for children summary. Brief biography of Kataev Valentin for children is the most important thing

Kataev Valentin Petrovich was born on January 28 (according to the new style), 1897 in Odessa in the family of a teacher. The first poem "Autumn" Kataev published while still a high school student in 1910 in the newspaper "Odessa Bulletin". He also published in Southern Thought, Odessa Leaflet, Awakening, Lukomorye, and others. In 1915, without graduating from high school, he volunteered for the front, was wounded twice, and gassed. He delivered correspondence and essays about the "trench" life of soldiers, full of sympathy for the common man in the war.

In 1919 Kataev was mobilized into the Red Army and commanded an artillery battery on the Don Front. Returning to Odessa, he worked at YugROSTA, visited various literary circles and associations. Befriended Yu.K. Olesha, E.G. Bagritsky, together with whom he composed propaganda texts for posters.

From 1922 he lived in Moscow, was a regular contributor to the Gudok newspaper (since 1923), published humoresques and feuilletons in Pravda, Rabochaya Gazeta, Truda (pseudonyms: Starik Sabbakin, Ol. Twist, Mitrofan Mustard). AT early work Kataev, a peculiar fusion of realism, sharp worldly observation, irony, reaching sarcasm, romantic elation and daring fantasy manifested itself in stories about the Civil War (“The Krantz Experience”, 1919; “Golden Pen”, 1920; “Notes on the Civil War”, 1924, where there is a tendentious-contrasting "black-and-white" image of what is happening, with an exalted description of the "red" heroes and a satirical portrayal of the White Guards). During this period, adventure-utopian novels about the world revolution were written (Ehrendorf Island, The Lord of Iron, both 1924).

Kataev was fascinated by experiments in the field of form, strange characters appeared in his prose - the mysterious Oxford student Sir Henry, the devil in a dark jacket and white cuffs, and other figures that make one recall E. T. A. Hoffmann and E. Poe ("Sir Henry and the devil", 1920; "Iron Ring", 1923).

At the same time, Kataev went from a mocking play on anecdotal incidents (collections of stories "The Bearded Baby", 1924; "The Funniest", 1927) to the accusatory pathos of debunking the cult of profit and "beautiful" life. The first significant success brought the writer the story "Squanderers" (1926). This is a phantasmagoric story of accountant Prokhorov and cashier Vanechka, who, littering with government money, travel around Russia in search of beautiful life. The action takes place during the NEP period, and the characters are presented with a bleak picture of the wretched Soviet life and impudent Nepmanism. The story was translated abroad and became a bestseller in the United States.

The sharpness of social and psychological satire directed against philistine vulgarity and the petty-bourgeois cult of property marked the comedy Squaring the Circle (1928). After a trip to Magnitogorsk, Kataev wrote a chronicle novel "Time, forward!" (1932), the name of which was suggested to him by V. Mayakovsky. The book is imbued with Mayakovsky's belief that the beginning of the first five-year plan can be perceived as the dawn new era. The main characters of the novel - engineer Margulies, Zagirov, foreman of concrete workers Saenko - see the meaning of their lives in work that is ahead of time and transforms life.

In the story "The Lonely Sail Turns White" (1936), the main characters of which are Odessa boys who find themselves in the whirlpool of the revolutionary events of 1905. A fascinating plot, picturesque objectivity of the description of the "background" of what is happening - the bustle of Odessa streets, the market, the port, the beach, the unceasing sea, gymnasium life, etc., a fusion of humor, lyricism and heroic pathos made this work one of the favorite children's books.

The desire to show the history of the country through the fate of a person is also marked by the story of Kataev "I, the son of the working people" (1937), which takes place during the German occupation of Ukraine in 1919, the main characters are folklore characters - the brave soldier Semyon Kotko and the beautiful girl Sophia, narration , unfolding in the style of folk tales, is full of descriptions of Ukrainian landscapes, rituals and customs, the sounds of Ukrainian speech.
Kataev about the Great Patriotic War

During the years of the Great Patriotic War war correspondent Kataev wrote feuilletons, essays, stories. The story The Son of a Regiment (1945; State Prize, 1946), a story about the fate of an orphan boy adopted by a combat regiment, brought the writer great popularity. The institution of "sons of the regiment" has since established itself in the Russian army; according to the story was written play of the same name, a film was made (1946, dir. V.M. Pronin). An accurate sense of modernity, authenticity of details, a witty plot, a fusion of lyricism and grotesque, like his other dramatic works, the play "Day of rest" (1947) was distinguished.
Kataev and the magazine "Youth"

In 1957-1962, being the editor-in-chief of the Yunost magazine, Kataev contributed to its transformation into one of the country's leading periodicals, the "mouthpiece" of the so-called. of the sixties, who opened the way to the reader for many prominent writers (including V.P. Aksenov and A.T. Gladilin). In 1964, the writer published an artistic and journalistic story about V.I. Lenin "A small iron door in the wall." In the cycle of Kataev's memoirs (the stories "The Holy Well", 1965; "The Grass of Oblivion", 1967; "The Broken Life, or the Magic Horn of Oberon", 1972; "My Diamond Crown", 1975; "Dry Estuary", 1986, where, inspired by the poetic imagination of the author, the characters and plots of many of Kataev’s books came together), new facets of the writer’s talent were revealed: the depth of penetration into the meaning of events and the characters of people, confession and observation, combined with a living ability to artistic displacement of time and space.

In the story “Werther has already been written” (1979), Kataev shows the Civil War in Russia as a senseless fratricidal massacre, in which the hero of the story, the sincere and pure Junker Dima, is involved, and in which commissars in black leather jackets carry out their bloody court, shooting without trial or investigation their victims in the garages.

In Youthful Novel (1982), Kataev told a story similar to old romance: about the love of a young soldier Pchelkin for a general's daughter. It's a novel in letters building material which became archival finds.
The last years of Kataev's life

Kataev's last book, Dry Estuary (1986), was hardly noticed by critics. This is a kind of epilogue to his multi-volume novel: in last time heroes came together, plots of many books united. Life is passed through the prism of distant memories, combined with poetic fantasy.

Diocesan School, mother - the daughter of a general, came from a noble family.

The first work of Valentin Kataev - the poem "Autumn" - was published in 1910 in the newspaper "Odessa Bulletin".

In 1915, during the First World War (1914-1918), without graduating from high school, Kataev volunteered for the front. He delivered correspondence and essays on the trench life of soldiers - "Letters from there", "Our everyday life", "Ilya Muromets".

At the front he was wounded twice, received gas poisoning. For military merits, Kataev was awarded two St. George's Crosses and the Order of St. Anna IV degree, promoted to second lieutenant and granted the title of personal, non-hereditary nobility.

At the beginning civil war on the armored train "Novorossiya" Kataev fought in the army of Denikin. After the establishment of Soviet power in Odessa, for several months he was in the prison of the Odessa Cheka for counter-revolutionary activities.

In 1919 he was mobilized into the Red Army and commanded an artillery battery on the Don Front. Impressions of that period of life were reflected in the autobiographical story Notes on the Civil War (1920).

In 1922 Kataev moved to Moscow. Since 1923, he was a regular contributor to the newspapers Gudok, Pravda, Trud, and Rabochaya Gazeta. In the 1920s, young Kataev's social circle included writers Mikhail Bulgakov, Ilya Ilf, Yuri Olesha, poets Vladimir Mayakovsky, Sergei Yesenin, Velimir Khlebnikov, Boris Pasternak.

In the 1920s, Kataev published the novels The Lord of Iron (1924) and Ehrendorf Island (1924).

During this period he published collections satirical stories"Bearded Baby" (1924), "The Funniest" (1927). A sharp satire on vulgarity and philistinism was also noted in the stories "Ignatius Pudelakin" (1927), "Child", "Things" (both - 1929).

His comedies The Wasters (1928, based on the novel of the same name from 1926, a satire on the NEP reality) and Squaring the Circle (1928) were staged on Moscow stages.

In 1932, after two years of work, his avant-garde novel Time Forward! was published, written under the impression of a trip to Magnitogorsk. In 1937, the heroic-revolutionary story "I, the son of the working people ..." was published.

World fame was brought to the writer by the story "The lonely sail turns white", written in 1936. In 1937, a film of the same name was made based on the work. The story became the first part of the "Waves of the Black Sea" tetralogy. Her second part "Farm in the Steppe" was written in 1956, the third part "Winter Wind" in 1960-1961. The fourth part was written in 1948 and was originally called "For the Power of the Soviets", with the same title a film was made on it in 1956; in 1951 it was published in the second edition under the title "Catacombs".

During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) Kataev served as a war correspondent. Huge popularity brought the writer the story "Son of the Regiment" (1945), awarded in 1946 Stalin Prize. Based on the work, a play of the same name was written and a film was made in 1946.

In 1955-1961, Valentin Kataev served as editor-in-chief of the Yunost magazine.

In the 1960s, Kataev wrote a nonfiction story about Vladimir Lenin "The Little Iron Door in the Wall" (1964), lyric-philosophical memoirs "Holy Well" (1967), "Grass of Oblivion" (1967), "Cube" (1969) .

The literary life of Moscow in the 1920s is dedicated to his memoir and art book My Diamond Crown (1978).

In 1980, a story about the repressions of the Odessa Cheka "Werther has already been written" was published.

In 1982, his "Youthful Romance" was published - a collection of letters - the love story of a young soldier for a general's daughter against the backdrop of the First World War.

Based on the works of the writer during his lifetime, the films "The Motherland Calls" (1936), "The Lonely Sail Turns White" (1937), "Son of the Regiment" (1946), "Pages of Life" (1948), "Crazy Day" (1956), "For the power of the Soviets" (1956), "Time, forward!" (1965), "Khutorok in the steppe" (1970), etc.

Kataev was a corresponding member of the Academy in Mainz (Germany), a member of the Goncourt Academy.

The writer's work was marked by various awards. In 1946, Kataev was awarded the Stalin Prize of the second degree. In 1974 he was awarded the title of Hero Socialist Labor. The writer was awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of Friendship of Peoples, and medals.
April 12, 1986 Valentin Kataev died in Moscow. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

From 1934 Kataev was married to Esther Brenner. In 1936 their daughter Evgenia was born, in 1938 their son Pavel was born. Pavel Kataev became a writer, known as the author of the fairy-tale books "The Girl and the Squirrel" and "Flying on a Dragonfly", the novel "Alone in the Ocean".

The writer's younger brother, Yevgeny Petrov (1902-1942), real name Yevgeny Petrovich Kataev, co-wrote the novels The Twelve Chairs (1928) and The Golden Calf (1931) with Ilya Ilf.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Kataev Valentin Petrovich - very popular, especially in Soviet years, writer, journalist, playwright, prose writer, poet and screenwriter. In 1974, for their many years literary works was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Based on his works, many theatrical productions, artistic and documentaries and cartoons. The work of Valentin Kataev has become timely and indispensable, it carried the very necessary moral education, a charge of kindness and humanity.

A little about the pedigree

You need to start the biography of this famous writer with his amazing pedigree. And you can find a lot of interesting things in it.

His paternal grandfather - Kataev Vasily Alekseevich (born 1819) - was the son of a priest and followed in his footsteps, first he graduated from the Vyatka Theological Seminary, then the Moscow Theological Academy, until he eventually became the archpriest of the Vyatka Cathedral.

Father of Valentin Petrovich - Kataev Petr Vasilyevich - was very an educated person, who graduated from the seminary, then the Novorossiysk University of the Faculty of History and Philology and eventually became a teacher of the cadets of the Odessa Diocesan School.

Mother - Bachey Evgenia Ivanovna - was the daughter of a general from a Poltava small-scale family.

The writer had younger brother- Evgeny Kataev (pseudonym Petrov on behalf of his father), who also later became famous writer. By the way, Evgeny is the same Petrov who, in collaboration with Ilf, wrote his famous works"12 chairs" and "Golden calf".

Valentin Kataev: biography

V.P. Kataev was born in Odessa in 1897, on January 16. His parents were who gave birth to two gifted children (in the future writers Valentin and Eugene). After the birth of her second child, Evgenia Ivanovna fell ill with pneumonia and died. The upbringing and care of the children was taken up by her sister, who replaced their own mother.

Their family was unusually a big library, filled with classical, historical, reference and encyclopedic literature, which Valentin Kataev so adored. His biography indicates that parents read these books to their children aloud.

First writings

Love to classical literature was instilled in children from childhood. Kataev himself later recalled that even then he felt that he would become a writer.

His first poem "Autumn" was published in the press of "Odessa Vestnik" in 1910. Two years later, another 25 poems were published.

In 1912, the first publications began to be published in the same newspaper. humorous stories. And at the same time they leave separate edition two voluminous stories - "Dark Person" and "Awakening". In the first there was a satire on A. Kuprin, M. Kornfeld, A. Averchenko, and in the second the story was about love young man who abandoned the revolutionary movement for her sake.

Friendship

Before the start of World War I, the writer Valentin Kataev met his literary teachers I.A. Bunin and A.M. Fedorov. A little later, friendship is established with young Odessa writers and Yuri Olesha.

He had an incomplete gymnasium education due to participation in the First World War and civil wars, and then in the White movement.

In 1915, Valentin Kataev volunteered for the army. The biography has data that he served in the rank of ensign, was wounded twice and received gas poisoning.

In the summer of 1917, after being wounded on the Romanian front, the writer ended up in a hospital in Odessa. He was awarded two and the Order of St. Anne IV "For Courage". With the first officer rank for personal merit, he received a non-hereditary title of nobleman.

Creation

In the war, Kataev writes stories and essays on front-line life in his spare time. In the magazine "The whole world" in 1915, for the first time on the pages of the capital's publishing house, his story "Nemchik" was published.

Kataev considered Ivan Bunin to be his main and only teacher, whom he was introduced to in Odessa by a self-taught writer.

civil

After the Odessa hospital in 1918, Kataev got to serve in the troops of Hetman P. Skoropadsky, and after his betrayal and flight to Berlin, he joined the volunteer army with the rank of second lieutenant. Then he served as an artilleryman on the Novorossia armored train, fought against the Petliurists in Vinnitsa and the Reds in Berdichev.

Before the start of the retreat in 1920 in Zhmerinka, he fell ill with typhus, and the Odessa hospital was again waiting for him, and then his relatives, still sick and weak, took him home. After his recovery, he became an underground member of an officer conspiracy against P.N. Wrangel. Soon he and his brother Yevgeny were arrested and kept in prison until September 1920, then they were released, the rest of the conspirators were shot that same autumn.

Moscow

In 1921, he works in a Kharkov publishing house together with Yuri Olesha and rents an apartment with him. In 1922, Kataev moved to the capital and began working in the Gudok newspaper, all his articles of that time were of a humorous and satirical nature, he signed under the pseudonyms Mitrofan Mustard, Starik Sabbakin, Ol. Twist.

When the poet O. Mandelstam was arrested in 1938, whose works were accepted Soviet power both slanderous and obscene, Kataev helped his family with money.

War time

Kataev went to war with the fascist invaders already in his capacity. At this time, he wrote stories, essays, and journalistic articles. One of bright works those years was the story "Our Father".

Before the Great Victory, he will write his famous story "The Son of the Regiment" and in 1946 he will receive the State Prize for it.

After the war, Kataev began to suffer days of drinking binges, which almost led him to divorce his wife, Valentina Serova. But he changed his mind in time, pulled himself together and stopped drinking.

Valentin Kataev: books

In the period from 1955 to 1961, Kataev founded the magazine "Youth" and became its editor-in-chief. Here he relies on the work of still unknown young, but very promising poets and prose writers, the so-called sixties.

Valentin Kataev writes his works in a very easy, simple and understandable language, his books become very popular. The first success was brought to him by the story "Squanderers" (1926), then followed by "Squaring the circle" (1928), "Time, forward!" (1932). It should also be noted the stories "Holy Well" (1965), "Grass of Oblivion" (1967), "My Diamond Crown" (1975), "Dry Estuary" (1986), etc.

Valentin Kataev also created a lot of works for children and youth, here he showed new facets of his work. In the early 1940s, he began to print his fairy tales "The Pipe and the Jug", "The Dove", "The Flower-Semitsvetik". And in 1945, the fairy tales "Pearl" and "Stump" were published, in which he very subtly discusses moral issues.

Valentin Kataev leads the child to the right conclusions very carefully and delicately. His biography has always been mainly associated with creativity. In 1926, he began to create the tetralogy "Waves of the Black Sea", which included the stories "The Lonely Sail Turns White" (1936), "Catacombs" (1951), "Farm in the Steppe" (1956), "Winter wind" (1960).

After Kataev, they wanted to appoint the editor-in-chief of Literaturnaya Gazeta, but something didn’t work out there. Then in 1966 he, among 25 cultural figures, signed a letter to L.I. Brezhnev - then against the rehabilitation of Stalin.

In 1979, the novel “Werther has already been written” was published in Novy Mir, where he revealed the secret of his participation in the White movement and his arrest. This story caused a great resonance in society. The writer at that time was already 83 years old.

At the end of his life, Kataev Valentin Petrovich underwent surgery, he was removed from a cancerous tumor. On the 90th year of his life, on April 12, 1986, the writer died. His grave is on

Kataev Valentin Petrovich (1897 - 1986), prose writer. Born on January 16 (29 N. S.) in Odessa in the family of a teacher. He studied at the Odessa gymnasium. From the age of nine he began to write poetry, some of which were published in Odessa newspapers, and in 1914 for the first time Kataev's poems were published in St. Petersburg in the journal Vse Mir. With the outbreak of the First World War, he entered the volunteer army in the artillery brigade, where he stayed until the summer of 1917. He met the October Revolution in the Odessa infirmary, where he was treated after being wounded on the Romanian front. After demobilization, he made his first attempts to write prose. In 1919 he was drafted into the Red Army, served as a battery commander, then was recalled from the army and appointed head of the satire windows in the Odessa ROSTA: he wrote texts for propaganda posters, ditties, slogans, leaflets. In 1921 he was sent to establish similar work in Kharkov. In 1922 he moved to Moscow, published his feuilletons in the newspapers Gudok, Trud, Rabochaya Gazeta, without leaving work on fiction. In 1925 he published the story "Squanderers", noticed by both critics and readers. This story was staged, the performance was a success since 1928 on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. Inspired by recognition, Kataev writes the comedy "Squaring the Circle", which also had a resounding success. Since then he has been constantly writing for the theatre. In 1932, having made a trip to the construction of Magnitogorsk, Kataev wrote the novel-chronicle “Time, forward!”, which became milestone in his work. In 1936 he publishes the novel A Lonely Sail Turns White; He works a lot for Pravda: he writes feuilletons, essays, notes, and articles. In 1937, the story "I am the son of the working people" was published. During the Patriotic War, he worked in the Radio Committee and in the Soviet Information Bureau abroad. He was a war correspondent for Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda, where his essays from the front were published. During this period, the stories “Third Tank”, “Flag”, the novels “Wife”, “Son of the Regiment”, the plays “Father's House”, “Blue Handkerchief” were written. In 1949, the novel For the Power of the Soviets was published. In 1955, the journal Yunost was created, with V. Kataev as editor-in-chief. Here, in 1956, the novel "A Farm in the Steppe" was published. In the 1960s, “Grass of Oblivion”, “Holy Well”, “Cube” were written. In 1978 - "My Diamond Crown", in 1980 - "Werther has already been written." V. Kataev died in 1986 in Moscow.

Option 2

Valentin Petrovich Kataev (1897 -1986) - a famous Soviet poet and prose writer was born on January 16 (29 N. S.) in Odessa. His father was a teacher. Kataev studied at the Odessa gymnasium. He began writing poetry at the age of 9. In 1914, the St. Petersburg magazine Ves Mir published the poems of the young poet. During the First World War, Kataev volunteered for the active army. When the October Revolution broke out, he was healing his wounds in the Odessa infirmary. After demobilization, he writes prose. After he was drafted into the Red Army in 1919, he acted as a battery commander. After that, he was recalled from the army and appointed head of the satire windows in ROSTA Odessa. First, he moved to Kharkov, and then to Moscow, where he published his humorous works in the newspapers Gudok, Trud, Rabochaya Gazeta, and at the same time wrote fiction.

Critics and readers noticed the story "Squanderers" (1925), followed by a dramatization for the Moscow Art Theater. The performance was quite successful. Then there was the successful comedy “Squaring the Circle”. Since then, Kataev has been writing regularly for the theatre.

In 1932, under the impression of the construction of Magnitogorsk, the writer created the novel-chronicle “Time, forward!”. In 1936, the publication of the novel “The Lone Sail Turns White” took place. For the newspaper Pravda, Kataev writes humorous stories and articles. In 1937, the story “I am the son of the working people” saw the light of day. During the Second World War, he worked as a war correspondent for Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda. The story “The Son of the Regiment” and the plays “Father’s House” and “The Blue Handkerchief” belong to this period.

In the post-war period, Kataev wrote the novel “For the Power of the Soviets” (1949) and created the journal “Youth”, in which all the works written by the writer in the post-war period are published.

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As for Kataev, the case is quite different. You see, the fall only somehow affects the quality of the text when it is reflected. He had a simple position: he must survive, survive and feed his family, and save his talent, and write, so many petty personal betrayals (it is known that he knelt before Zoshchenko and begged for forgiveness) was not perceived by him as an unacceptable price for survival , it was a fee tolerable. In addition, he visited the war very early, back in 1914 as a volunteer, sniffed phosgene there and coughed all his life because of it; He also visited the fronts of the Civil War in an agitation train. He knew what death was. I was bombed in the 40s, in my opinion, in 1942, and also almost died there, shrinking into the ground (in the "Cemetery in Skulyany" this is written in detail). He knew what death was. And he knew that life is very precious, and he did not joke with her.
In addition, I don’t know about big meanness of that scale, like for Lesyuchevsky (the informer) or like for Zelinsky, who slaughtered Tsvetaeva’s book - there is no such thing behind him. He helped Mandelstam, including with money, he brought so many wonderful authors to the stage when he edited Yunost. I would not call Kataev an immoral person.
Reasons for it creative takeoff, which began in 1957, with the story "The Little Iron Door in the Wall", are quite simple: he did not really return to his avant-garde youth, but he felt the horror of old age, and this can be a very strong stimulus. After all, the whole Kataev is experiments with time, it is the horror of the rapidly passing time, these are attempts to keep it with the help of the word, to create an immortal reality, more convincing than physical reality, physically palpable. This is an experiment with plastic, with artistic time, with the length of the phrase (remember, in the "Cube" there is a two-page sentence), Proustian attempts. And, of course, this is an attempt to return the time of the early 20s - best time of his youth - such characters as Ingulov, who, although he was the head of the Odessa Cheka, as far as I remember, was also a wonderful feuilletonist and, in general, an interesting person. An attempt to figure out what it was after all, to rewrite your old story"Father", calling it "Werther has already been written." An attempt to understand the brilliant generation that gave the entire Odessa, southern school.
I love Kataev very much. And it is no coincidence, say, that Irka Lukyanova is now finishing a book about him. It is no coincidence that we are very much brought together by love for this author and ardent compassion for him. Together we walked around the Odessa places of his youth, worked together in the literary museum in Odessa. Kataev is very sympathetic to me, and sympathetic precisely for his horror of time, Bunin's horror. He real student Bunin, and a very good student.
It has fake notes in books, but I don't know anything better than "The Grass of Oblivion". I always cry over this book. And then, I do not forget that great amount forgotten poems (Narbut, Keselman) entered our lives thanks to Kataev. It was he, quoting them (and quoting them in a line, because “poetry for me,” he says, “has an extension in time, and not just in space”), with these quotations he returned a huge number of authors to use. I really love" broken life, or Oberon's Magic Horn", but most of all - of course, "The Grass of Oblivion", which for me is one of the most important books ...