Summary Alexander Stepanovich Green. The life and work of Alexander Green: a brief biography of the writer

After graduating from the four-year Vyatka City School, he left for Odessa. He led a wandering life, worked as a sailor, fisherman, navvy, a traveling circus performer, a railway worker, and panned for gold in the Urals.

In 1902, due to extreme need, he voluntarily entered military service. Due to the severity of life as a soldier, he fled the battalion twice. While serving in the army, he became close to the socialist revolutionaries and became involved in revolutionary activities.

In 1903 he was arrested, sat in a Sevastopol prison, and was exiled to Siberia for ten years (he fell under the October amnesty of 1905).

In the summer of 1910, Green was arrested for the third time and in the fall of 1911 he was exiled to the Arkhangelsk province for two years. In May 1912 he returned to St. Petersburg.

In 1912-1917, Greene worked actively, publishing about 350 stories in more than 60 publications. In 1914, he became an employee of the New Satyricon magazine.

Due to an “inappropriate comment about the reigning monarch” that became known to the police, Green was forced to hide in Finland from the end of 1916, but upon learning about the February Revolution, he returned to Petrograd.

In the post-revolutionary years, the writer actively collaborated with Soviet publications, especially with the literary and artistic magazine "Flame", which was edited by People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky. Greene's stories and poems often appeared in it.

In 1919, Green was drafted into the Red Army, but soon became seriously ill with typhus and returned to Petrograd. Sick, without a livelihood, without housing, he was on the verge of death and turned for help to the writer Maxim Gorky, at whose petition Green was given academic rations and a room in the House of Arts. Here the writer worked on the novels “The Mysterious Circle” and “Treasure of the African Mountains,” as well as the story “Scarlet Sails,” the idea of which originated back in 1916.

In the early 1920s, the writer began writing his first novel, which he called “The Shining World.” The novel was published in 1924.

Green continued to write stories - "The Loquacious Brownie", "The Pied Piper", "Fandango".

In 1924, the writer left for Feodosia in Crimea, where he worked a lot and fruitfully. He created four novels ("The Golden Chain", "Running on the Waves", "Jessie and Morgiana", "The Road to Nowhere"), two novellas, about forty short stories and short stories, including "Watercolor", "Green Lamp", " Commandant of the port."

In November 1930, Green moved to the small town of Old Crimea, where he began writing autobiographical essays, which later formed the chapters of the "Autobiographical Story" last book writer. The novel “Touchable,” which he began at this time, was never completed.

In 1980, a tombstone with the figure of “Running on the Waves” was installed on the grave of Alexander Green.

Alexander Green was married twice. His first wife was Vera Abramova, the daughter of a wealthy official, whom he married in 1910; they separated in 1913.

The writer married for the second time in 1921 to a 26-year-old widow, nurse Nina Mironova (after Korotkova’s first husband).

At the end of his life, Alexander Greene almost ceased to be published. He died in complete poverty and oblivion from literary organizations.

When Alexander Greene died, none of the writers who were vacationing next door in Koktebel came to say goodbye to him.

Upon learning of Green's death, several presenters Soviet writers called for the publication of a collection of his works. The collection "Fantastic Novels" was published in 1934.

Since 1945, his books have not been published; in 1950, the writer was posthumously accused of “bourgeois cosmopolitanism.” Through the efforts of Konstantin Paustovsky, Yuri Olesha and other writers, Alexander Green was returned to literature in 1956.

The peak of Green's readership came during the Khrushchev "thaw". On the wave of a new romantic upsurge in the country, Alexander Greene became one of the most published and revered domestic authors, the idol of young readers.

Today, the works of Alexander Greene have been translated into many languages, streets in many cities, mountain peaks and a star bear his name. The story "Scarlet Sails" was used to create a ballet and film of the same name, and the novel "Running on the Waves" was used to create a film of the same name. In 1970, the Greene Literary and Memorial Museum was created in Feodosia.

In 1971, the state memorial house-museum of A. S. Green was opened in Old Crimea, founded by the writer’s widow Nina Green. Since 2001, the museum has been part of the Koktebel ecological, historical and cultural reserve "Cimmeria M. A. Voloshin".

In 1980, a museum dedicated to the writer was opened in Kirov.

In 2000, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Green, the Union of Writers of Russia, the administration of Kirov and the administration of the city of Slobodsky established the annual Russian literary prize named after Alexander Green for works for children and youth that contribute to the formation of moral principles of the younger generations and serve the education of children, adolescents and young people in line with national dignity and morality.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Alexander Green (real name Alexander Stepanovich Grinevsky). August 11 (23), 1880, Slobodskaya, Vyatka province, Russian Empire- July 8, 1932, Old Crimea, USSR. Russian prose writer, poet, representative of neo-romanticism, author of philosophical and psychological works, with elements of symbolic fiction.

Father - Stefan Gryniewski (Polish Stefan Hryniewski, 1843-1914), a Polish nobleman from the Disna district of the Vilna province of the Russian Empire. For participation in the January Uprising of 1863, at the age of 20, he was indefinitely exiled to Kolyvan, Tomsk province. Later he was allowed to move to the Vyatka province, where he arrived in 1868. In Russia they called him “Stepan Evseevich”.

In 1873 he married 16-year-old Russian nurse Anna Stepanovna Lepkova (1857-1895). For the first 7 years they had no children, Alexander became the first-born, later he had a brother Boris and two sisters, Antonina and Ekaterina.

Sasha learned to read at the age of 6, and the first book he read was Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. Since childhood, Green loved books about sailors and travel. He dreamed of going to sea as a sailor and, driven by this dream, made attempts to run away from home. The boy's upbringing was inconsistent - he was either pampered, severely punished, or abandoned unattended.

In 1889, nine-year-old Sasha was sent to a preparatory class at a local real school. There his fellow practitioners first gave him nickname "Green". The school's report noted that Alexander Grinevsky's behavior was worse than all others, and if not corrected, he could be expelled from the school.

Nevertheless, Alexander was able to graduate from the preparatory class and enter the first class, but in the second class he wrote an offensive poem about the teachers and was nevertheless expelled from the school. At the request of his father, Alexander was admitted to another school in 1892, which had a bad reputation in Vyatka.

At the age of 15, Sasha was left without his mother, who died of tuberculosis. 4 months later (May 1895), my father married the widow Lydia Avenirovna Boretskaya. Alexander's relationship with his stepmother was tense, and he settled separately from new family father.

The boy lived alone, enthusiastically reading books and writing poetry. He worked part-time by binding books and copying documents. At the encouragement of his father, he became interested in hunting, but due to his impulsive nature, he rarely returned with prey.

In 1896, after graduating from the four-year Vyatka City School, 16-year-old Alexander went to Odessa, deciding to become a sailor. His father gave him 25 rubles of money and the address of his Odessa friend. For some time, “a sixteen-year-old, mustacheless, frail, narrow-shouldered youth in a straw hat” (as the then Greene ironically described himself in "Autobiographies") wandered around in an unsuccessful search for work and was desperately hungry.

In the end, he turned to his father’s friend, who fed him and got him a job as a sailor on the Platon steamship, which plied the route Odessa - Batum - Odessa. However, Greene once managed to visit abroad, in Alexandria, Egypt.

Green did not make a sailor - he had an aversion to the prosaic work of a sailor. Soon he quarreled with the captain and left the ship.

In 1897, Green went back to Vyatka, spent a year there and again left to seek his fortune - this time to Baku. There he tried many professions - he was a fisherman, a laborer, and worked in railway workshops. In the summer he returned to his father, then went on his travels again. He was a lumberjack, a gold miner in the Urals, a miner in an iron mine, and a theater copyist.

In March 1902, Green interrupted his series of wanderings and became (either under pressure from his father, or tired of hunger ordeals) a soldier in the 213th Orovai Reserve Infantry Battalion, stationed in Penza. The morals of military service significantly strengthened Green's revolutionary sentiments.

Six months later (of which he spent three and a half in a punishment cell) he deserted, was caught in Kamyshin, and fled again. In the army, Green met Socialist Revolutionary propagandists who appreciated the young rebel and helped him hide in Simbirsk.

From that moment on, Greene, having received the party nickname "Lanky", sincerely devotes all his strength to the fight against the social system he hates, although he refused to participate in the execution of terrorist acts, limiting himself to propaganda among workers and soldiers of different cities. Subsequently, he did not like to talk about his “Socialist Revolutionary” activities.

In 1903, Green was once again arrested in Sevastopol for “anti-government speeches” and the dissemination of revolutionary ideas, “which led to undermining the foundations of autocracy and overthrowing the foundations of the existing system.” For attempting to escape, he was transferred to a maximum security prison, where he spent more than a year.

In police documents he is characterized as “a closed, embittered person, capable of anything, even risking his life.” In January 1904, the Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. Pleve, shortly before the Socialist Revolutionary attempt on his life, received a report from the Minister of War A.N. Kuropatkin that “a very important civilian figure who first called himself Grigoriev, and then Grinevsky."

The investigation dragged on for more than a year (November 1903 - February 1905) due to Green's two attempts to escape and his complete denial. Green was tried in February 1905 by the Sevastopol naval court. The prosecutor demanded 20 years of hard labor. Lawyer A. S. Zarudny managed to reduce the penalty to 10 years of exile in Siberia.

In October 1905, Green was released under a general amnesty, but in January 1906 he was arrested again in St. Petersburg.

In May, Green was sent to the city of Turinsk, Tobolsk province, for four years. He stayed there for only 3 days and fled to Vyatka, where, with the help of his father, he got someone else’s passport in the name of Malginov (later this would be one of the writer’s literary pseudonyms), using which he left for St. Petersburg.

In the summer of 1906 Green wrote 2 stories - "The Merit of Private Panteleev" And "Elephant and Moska".

The first story was signed "A. S.G.” and published in the fall of the same year. It was published as a propaganda brochure for punitive soldiers and described the atrocities of the army among the peasants. Green received the fee, but the entire circulation was confiscated at the printing house and destroyed (burnt) by the police; by chance, only a few copies were preserved. The second story suffered a similar fate - it was submitted to the printing house, but was not printed.

Only starting on December 5 of that year did Greene's stories begin to reach readers. And the first “legal” work was a story written in the fall of 1906 "To Italy", signed "A. A. M-v"(that is, Malginov).

For the first time (under the title “In Italy”) it was published in the evening edition of the newspaper “Birzhevye Vedomosti” dated December 5 (18), 1906. Pseudonym "A. S. Green" first appeared under story "Happening"(first publication - in the newspaper "Comrade" dated March 25 (April 7), 1907).

At the beginning of 1908, in St. Petersburg, Green published his first collection of books "Invisibility Cap"(subtitled "Tales of Revolutionaries"). Most of the stories in it are about the Social Revolutionaries.

Another event was the final break with the Social Revolutionaries. Green still hated the existing system, but he began to form his own positive ideal, which was not at all similar to the Socialist Revolutionary.

In 1910, his second collection “Stories” was published. Most of the stories included there were written in realistic manner, but in two - “Reno Island” and “Lanphier Colony” - the future Greene-storyteller is already guessed. The action of these stories takes place in a conventional country; in style they are close to his later work. Greene himself believed that starting with these stories he could be considered a writer.

In the early years he published 25 stories annually.

As a new original and talented Russian writer, he meets Alexei Tolstoy, Leonid Andreev, Valery Bryusov, Mikhail Kuzmin and other major writers. He became especially close to.

For the first time in his life, Green began to earn a lot of money, which, however, did not last long, quickly disappearing after carousing and card games.

On July 27, 1910, the police finally discovered that the writer Green was the fugitive exile Grinevsky. He was arrested for the third time and in the fall of 1911 he was exiled to Pinega in the Arkhangelsk province. Vera went with him, they were allowed to officially get married.

In the link Green wrote "The Life of Gnor" And "Blue Cascade Telluri". The period of his exile was reduced to two years, and in May 1912 the Grinevskys returned to St. Petersburg. Other works of a romantic direction soon followed: “Devil of Orange Waters”, “Zurbagan Shooter” (1913). They finally form the features of a fictional country, which literary critic K. Zelinsky will call “Greenland.”

Greene publishes primarily in the small press: newspapers and illustrated magazines. His works are published by “Birzhevye Vedomosti” and the newspaper supplement “Novoe Slovo”, “New Magazine for Everyone”, “Rodina”, “Niva” and its monthly supplements, the newspaper “Vyatskaya Rech” and many others. Occasionally, his prose is published in the reputable “thick” monthly journals “Russian Thought” and “ Modern world" Green published in the latter from 1912 to 1918 thanks to his acquaintance with A.I. Kuprin.

In 1913-1914, his three-volume work was published by the Prometheus publishing house.

In 1914, Green became an employee of the popular magazine “New Satyricon” and published his collection “An Incident on Dog Street” as a supplement to the magazine. Green worked extremely productively during this period. He had not yet decided to start writing a big story or novel, but his best stories of this time show the profound progress of Greene the writer. The themes of his works are expanding, the style is becoming more and more professional - just compare the funny story "Captain Duke" and a sophisticated, psychologically accurate novella "Hell Returned" (1915).

After the outbreak of the First World War, some of Greene's stories acquired a distinct anti-war character: for example, “Battlelist Shuang”, “The Blue Top” (Niva, 1915) and “The Poisoned Island”. Due to an “inappropriate comment about the reigning monarch” that became known to the police, Green was forced to hide in Finland from the end of 1916, but upon learning about the February Revolution, he returned to Petrograd.

In the spring of 1917 he wrote a short story "Walking to the Revolution", indicating the writer’s hope for renewal.

After October Revolution in the magazine “New Satyricon” and in the small small-circulation newspaper “Devil’s Pepper Shaker,” Green’s notes and feuilletons appeared one after another, condemning cruelty and outrages. He said: “I just can’t get my head around the idea that violence can be destroyed by violence.”

In the spring of 1918, the magazine, along with all other opposition publications, was banned. Green was arrested for the fourth time and nearly shot.

In the summer of 1919, Green was drafted into the Red Army as a signalman, but he soon fell ill with typhus and ended up in the Botkin barracks for almost a month. sent the seriously ill Green honey, tea and bread.

After recovery, Green, with the assistance of Gorky, managed to obtain academic rations and housing - a room in the “House of Arts” on Nevsky Prospekt, 15, where Green lived next to V. A. Rozhdestvensky, O. E. Mandelstam, V. Kaverin.

Neighbors recalled that Greene lived as a hermit and barely communicated with anyone, but it was here that he wrote his most famous, touchingly poetic work - the extravaganza "Scarlet Sails"(published 1923).

In the early 1920s, Greene decided to begin his first novel, which he called “The Shining World.” Main character of this complex symbolist work is the flying superman Drood, who convinces people to choose the highest values of the Shining World instead of the values of “this world.” In 1924, the novel was published in Leningrad. He continued to write stories, the pinnacles of which were “The Wordy Brownie,” “The Pied Piper,” and “Fandango.”

Green wrote a novel in Feodosia "Golden Chain"(1925, published in the magazine " New world"), intended as "a memoir of the dream of a boy seeking miracles and finding them."

In the fall of 1926, Green finished his main masterpiece - the novel "Running on the Waves", which I worked on for a year and a half. This novel combines the best features of the writer's talent: a deep mystical idea about the need for a dream and the realization of dreams, subtle poetic psychologism, and a fascinating romantic plot. For two years the author tried to publish the novel in Soviet publishing houses, and only at the end of 1928 the book was published by the publishing house “Earth and Factory”.

With great difficulty, in 1929, Greene’s last novels were published: Jesse and Morgiana, The Road to Nowhere.

In 1927, the private publisher L.V. Wolfson began publishing a 15-volume collected works of Green, but only 8 volumes were published, after which Wolfson was arrested by the GPU.

NEP was coming to an end. Green's attempts to insist on fulfilling the contract with the publishing house only led to huge legal costs and ruin. Greene's binges began to recur again. However, in the end, the Green family still managed to win the case, winning seven thousand rubles, which, however, were greatly devalued by inflation.

In 1930, the Grinevskys moved to the city of Old Crimea, where life was cheaper. Since 1930, Soviet censorship, with the motivation “you do not merge with the era,” banned reprints of Greene and introduced a limit on new books: one per year. Green and his wife were desperately hungry and often sick. Green tried to hunt nearby birds with a bow and arrow, but was unsuccessful.

Novel "Touchable", begun by Greene at this time, was never completed, although some critics consider it his best.

In May 1932, after new petitions, a transfer of 250 rubles unexpectedly arrived. from the Writers' Union, sent for some reason to the name of “the widow of the writer Green, Nadezhda Green,” although Green was still alive. There is a legend that the reason was Green’s last mischief - he sent a telegram to Moscow “Green is dead, send two hundred funerals.”

Alexander Green died on the morning of July 8, 1932 at the 52nd year of his life in Old Crimea from stomach cancer. Two days before his death, he asked to invite a priest and confessed. The writer was buried in the city cemetery of Old Crimea. Nina chose a place from where she could see the sea... On Green’s grave, sculptor Tatyana Gagarina erected a monument “Running on the Waves”.

Upon learning of Greene's death, several leading Soviet writers called for the publication of a collection of his works; Even Seifullina joined them.

Collection by A. Green "Fantastic Novels" published in 1934.

Alexander Green. Geniuses and villains

Personal life of Alexander Green:

Since 1903, in prison - due to the absence of friends and relatives - she visited him (under the guise of a bride) Vera Pavlovna Abramova, the daughter of a wealthy official who sympathized with revolutionary ideals.

She became his first wife.

He never parted with the portrait of Vera until the end of his life.

In 1918 he married a certain Maria Dolidze. Within a few months, the marriage was considered a mistake, and the couple separated.

In the spring of 1921, Greene married a 26-year-old widow, a nurse. Nina Nikolaevna Mironova(after Korotkova’s first husband). They met at the beginning of 1918, when Nina worked at the Petrograd Echo newspaper. Her first husband died in the war. A new meeting took place in January 1921, Nina was in desperate need and was selling things (Green later described a similar episode at the beginning of the story “The Pied Piper”). A month later he proposed to her.

During the eleven subsequent years allotted to Green by fate, they did not part, and both considered their meeting a gift of fate. Green dedicated the extravaganza “Scarlet Sails”, completed this year, to Nina: “The Author offers and dedicates it to Nina Nikolaevna Green. PBG, November 23, 1922."

The couple rented a room on Panteleimonovskaya, transported their meager luggage there: a bunch of manuscripts, some clothes, a photograph of Green’s father and the constant portrait of Vera Pavlovna. At first, Green was almost never published, but with the beginning of the NEP, private publishing houses appeared, and he managed to publish a new collection, “White Fire” (1922). The collection included a vivid story, “Ships in Lissa,” which Green himself considered one of the best..

Nina Nikolaevna Green, the writer's widow, continued to live in Old Crimea, in an adobe house, and worked as a nurse. When the Nazi army captured Crimea, Nina remained with her seriously ill mother in Nazi-occupied territory and worked in the occupation newspaper “Official Bulletin of the Staro-Krymsky District.” Then she was taken to work in Germany, and in 1945 she voluntarily returned from the American occupation zone to the USSR.

After the trial, Nina received ten years in the camps for “collaboration and treason,” with confiscation of property. She served her sentence in Stalin's camps on Pechora. Green's first wife, Vera Pavlovna, provided her with great support, including things and food. Nina served almost her entire sentence and was released in 1955 under an amnesty (rehabilitated in 1997). Vera Pavlovna died earlier, in 1951.

Meanwhile, books by the “Soviet romantic” Green continued to be published in the USSR until 1944. IN besieged Leningrad radio broadcasts were broadcast with the reading of “Scarlet Sails” (1943), in Bolshoi Theater The premiere of the ballet “Scarlet Sails” took place.

In 1946, L. I. Borisov’s story “The Wizard from Gel-Gyu” about Alexander Green was published, which earned the praise of K. G. Paustovsky and B. S. Grinevsky, but later condemnation from N. N. Green.

During the years of the struggle against cosmopolitanism, Alexander Green, like many other cultural figures (A. A. Akhmatova, M. M. Zoshchenko, D. D. Shostakovich), was branded in the Soviet press as a “cosmopolitan”, alien to proletarian literature, “militant reactionary and spiritual emigrant." For example, V. Vazhdaev’s article “The Preacher of Cosmopolitanism” (New World, No. 1, 1950) was devoted to the “exposure” of Green. Greene's books were confiscated en masse from libraries.

Since 1956, through the efforts of K. Paustovsky, Y. Olesha, I. Novikov and others, Greene was returned to literature. His works were published in millions of copies. Having received a fee for “Selected” (1956) through the efforts of Green’s friends, Nina Nikolaevna came to Old Crimea, found with difficulty her husband’s abandoned grave and found out that the house where Green died had passed to the chairman of the local executive committee and was used as a barn and chicken coop.

In 1960, after several years of struggle to return the house, Nina Nikolaevna opened the Green Museum in Old Crimea on a voluntary basis. There she spent the last ten years of her life, with a pension of 21 rubles (copyright no longer applied).

In July 1970, the Green Museum was also opened in Feodosia, and a year later Green’s house in Old Crimea also received the status of a museum. Its discovery by the Crimean regional committee of the CPSU was linked to the conflict with Nina Nikolaevna: “We are for Green, but against his widow. The museum will only be there when she dies.”

Nina Nikolaevna Green died on September 27, 1970 in a Kyiv hospital. She bequeathed to bury herself next to her husband. The local party leadership, irritated by the loss of the chicken coop, imposed a ban; and Nina was buried at the other end of the cemetery. On October 23 of the following year, Nina’s birthday, six of her friends reburied the coffin at night in its designated place.

Bibliography of Alexander Green:

Novels:

The Shining World (1924)
The Golden Chain (1925)
Running on the Waves (1928)
Jesse and Morgiana (1929)
Road to Nowhere (1930)
Touchy (not finished)

Novels and stories:

1906 - To Italy (the first legally published story by A. S. Green)
1906 - Merit of Private Panteleev
1906 - Elephant and Moska
1907 - Oranges
1907 - Brick and Music
1907 - Beloved
1907 - Marat
1907 - On the stock exchange
1907 - At leisure
1907 - Underground
1907 - Incident
1908 - Hunchback
1908 - Guest
1908 - Eroshka
1908 - Toy
1908 - Captain
1908 - Quarantine
1908 - Swan
1908 - Small Committee
1908 - Checkmate in three moves
1908 - Punishment
1908 - She
1908 - Hand
1908 - Telegraph operator from Medyansky Bor
1908 - Third floor
1908 - Hold and deck
1908 - Assassin
1908 - The Man Who Cries
1909 - Barque on the Green Canal
1909 - Airship
1909 - Big Lake Dacha
1909 - Nightmare
1909 - Little conspiracy
1909 - Maniac
1909 - Overnight
1909 - Window in the Forest
1909 - Reno Island
1909 - According to the marriage announcement
1909 - Incident in Dog Street
1909 - Paradise
1909 - Cyclone in the Plain of Rains
1909 - Navigator of the “Four Winds”
1910 - On tap
1910 - In the snow
1910 - Return of "The Seagull"
1910 - Duel
1910 - Khonsa Estate
1910 - The Story of a Murder
1910 - Lanphier Colony
1910 - Yakobson's raspberry plant
1910 - Marionette
1910 - On the island
1910 - On the Hillside
1910 - Nakhodka
1910 - Easter on a steamboat
1910 - Powder Magazine
1910 - Strait of Storms
1910 - Birk's story
1910 - River
1910 - Death of Romelink
1910 - The Secret of the Forest
1910 - Box of Soap
1911 - Forest Drama
1911 - Moonlight
1911 - Pillory
1911 - Atley's system of mnemonics
1911 - Words
1912 - Hotel of Evening Lights
1912 - Life of Gnor
1912 - A Winter's Tale
1912 - From a detective’s memorial book
1912 - Ksenia Turpanova
1912 - Puddle of the Bearded Pig
1912 - Passenger Pyzhikov
1912 - The Adventures of Ginch
1912 - Passage yard
1912 - A story about a strange fate
1912 - Blue Cascade Telluri
1912 - Tragedy of the Xuan Plateau
1912 - Heavy Air
1912 - Fourth for all
1913 - Adventure
1913 - Balcony
1913 - The Headless Horseman
1913 - Wilderness Path
1913 - Granka and his son
1913 - Long journey
1913 - Devil of the Orange Waters
1913 - Lives of great people
1913 - Zurbagan shooter
1913 - History of Tauren
1913 - On the Hillside
1913 - Naive Tussaletto
1913 - New circus
1913 - Siurg Tribe
1913 - Ryabinin’s last minutes
1913 - Merchant of Happiness
1913 - Sweet poison of the city
1913 - Taboo
1913 - The Mysterious Forest
1913 - Quiet everyday life
1913 - Three Adventures of Ekhma
1913 - Man with man
1914 - Without an audience
1914 - Forgotten
1914 - The Mystery of Foreseen Death
1914 - Earth and Water
1914 - And spring will come for me
1914 - How the strongman Red John fought the king
1914 - Legends of War
1914 - Dead for the Living
1914 - On the Balance
1914 - One of many
1914 - A story completed thanks to a bullet
1914 - Duel
1914 - Penitential manuscript
1914 - Incidents in the apartment of Madame Cerise
1914 - Rare photographic apparatus
1914 - Conscience has spoken
1914 - Sufferer
1914 - Strange incident at a masquerade
1914 - Fate taken by the horns
1914 - Three brothers
1914 - Urban Graz welcomes guests
1914 - Episode during the capture of Fort Cyclops
1915 - Lunatic Aviator
1915 - Shark
1915 - Diamonds
1915 - Armenian Tintos
1915 - Attack
1915 - Battlelist Shuang
1915 - Missing in action
1915 - Battle in the air
1915 - Blonde
1915 - Bullfight
1915 - Fighting with bayonets
1915 - Fighting with a machine gun
1915 - Eternal Bullet
1915 - Alarm clock explosion
1915 - Hell Returned
1915 - Magic Screen
1915 - The Fiction of Epitrim
1915 - Khaki Bey's Harem
1915 - Voice and sounds
1915 - Two brothers
1915 - Double Plerez
1915 - The Case of the White Bird, or The White Bird and the Destroyed Church
1915 - Wild Mill
1915 - Man's Friend
1915 - Iron Bird
1915 - Yellow City
1915 - The Beast of Rochefort
1915 - Golden Pond
1915 - Game
1915 - Toys
1915 - Interesting photo
1915 - Adventurer
1915 - Captain Duke
1915 - Rocking Rock
1915 - Dagger and Mask
1915 - A nightmare incident
1915 - Leal at home
1915 - The Flying Doge
1915 - The Bear and the German
1915 - Bear Hunt
1915 - Sea battle
1915 - On the American Mountains
1915 - Above the Abyss
1915 - Hitman
1915 - The Peek-Mick Legacy
1915 - Impenetrable shell
1915 - Night Walk
1915 - At night
1915 - Night and day
1915 - Dangerous Jump
1915 - The Original Spy
1915 - Island
1915 - Hunting in the air
1915 - The Hunt for Marbrun
1915 - Hunting a hooligan
1915 - Mine Hunter
1915 - Dance of Death
1915 - Duel of leaders
1915 - Suicide note
1915 - Incident with the sentry
1915 - Bird Kam-Boo
1915 - The Path
1915 - Fifteenth of July
1915 - Scout
1915 - Jealousy and the Sword
1915 - Fatal place
1915 - A Woman's Hand
1915 - Knight Malyar
1915 - Masha's wedding
1915 - Serious Prisoner
1915 - The power of words
1915 - Blue Top
1915 - Killer Word
1915 - Death of Alembert
1915 - Calm Soul
1915 - Strange weapons
1915 - Scary package
1915 - The terrible secret of the car
1915 - The fate of the first platoon
1915 - The Mystery of the Moonlit Night
1915 - There or There
1915 - Three meetings
1915 - Three bullets
1915 - Murder at the Fish Shop
1915 - Murder of a Romantic
1915 - Asphyxiating gas
1915 - Terrible Vision
1915 - Host from Lodz
1915 - Black flowers
1915 - Black novel
1915 - Black Farm
1915 - Miraculous failure
1916 - Scarlet Sails (story extravaganza) (published 1923)
1916 - The great happiness of a little fighter
1916 - Cheerful Butterfly
1916 - Around the World
1916 - Resurrection of Pierre
1916 - High technology
1916 - Behind bars
1916 - Capture of the Banner
1916 - Idiot
1916 - How I Die on the Screen
1916 - Labyrinth
1916 - Lion's Strike
1916 - Invincible
1916 - Something from a diary
1916 - Fire and Water
1916 - Poisoned Island
1916 - The Hermit of Grape Peak
1916 - Vocation
1916 - Romantic murder
1916 - Blind Day Canet
1916 - One hundred miles along the river
1916 - Mysterious record
1916 - The Mystery of House 41
1916 - Dance
1916 - Tram sickness
1916 - Dreamers
1916 - Black Diamond
1917 - Bourgeois spirit
1917 - Return
1917 - Uprising
1917 - Enemies
1917 - The main culprit
1917 - Wild Rose
1917 - Everyone is a millionaire
1917 - The bailiff's mistress
1917 - Pendulum of Spring
1917 - Darkness
1917 - Knife and pencil
1917 - Firewater
1917 - Orgy
1917 - On foot to the revolution (essay)
1917 - Peace
1917 - To be continued
1917 - Rene
1917 - Birth of Thunder
1917 - Fatal Circle
1917 - Suicide
1917 - Creation of Asper
1917 - Merchants
1917 - Invisible Corpse
1917 - Prisoner of the Crosses
1917 - The Sorcerer's Apprentice
1917 - Fantastic Providence
1917 - Man from the Durnovo dacha
1917 - Black car
1917 - Masterpiece
1917 - Esperanto
1918 - Hit him!
1918 - Fight against death
1918 - Buka the Ignorant
1918 - Vanya became angry with humanity
1918 - The Jolly Dead
1918 - Forward and Backward
1918 - The Hairdresser's Invention
1918 - How I was a king
1918 - Carnival
1918 - Club Blackamoor
1918 - Ears
1918 - Ships in Lisse (published 1922)
1918 - The footman spat in the food
1918 - It became easier
1918 - Lagging platoon
1918 - The Crime of the Fallen Leaf
1918 - Trifles
1918 - Conversation
1918 - Make a grandmother
1918 - The Power of the Incomprehensible
1918 - The old man walks in circles
1918 - Three Candles
1919 - Magical disgrace
1919 - Fighter
1921 - Vulture
1921 - Competition in Lisse
1922 - White Fire
1922 - Visiting a friend
1922 - Rope
1922 - Monte Cristo
1922 - Tender Romance
1922 - New Year's holiday for father and little daughter
1922 - Saryn on a kitschka
1922 - Typhoid dotted line
1923 - Riot on the ship "Alcest"
1923 - The genius player
1923 - Gladiators
1923 - Voice and Eye
1923 - Willow
1923 - Whatever it is
1923 - Horse's head
1923 - Order for the army
1923 - The Missing Sun
1923 - Traveler Uy-Fyu-Eoi
1923 - Mermaids of the Air
1923 - Heart of the Desert
1923 - Talkative Brownie
1923 - Murder in Kunst-Fisch
1924 - Legless
1924 - White Ball
1924 - The Tramp and the Warden
1924 - Cheerful fellow traveler
1924 - Gatt, Witt and Redott
1924 - Voice of a siren
1924 - Boarded up house
1924 - Pied Piper
1924 - On the cloudy shore
1924 - Monkey
1924 - By law
1924 - Casual income
1925 - Gold and miners
1925 - Winner
1925 - Gray car
1925 - Fourteen Feet
1925 - Six matches
1926 - Marriage of August Esborn
1926 - Snake
1926 - Personal reception
1926 - Nanny Glenau
1926 - Someone else's fault
1927 - Two promises
1927 - The Legend of Ferguson
1927 - The Weakness of Daniel Horton
1927 - Strange evening
1927 - Fandango
1927 - Four Guineas
1928 - Watercolor
1928 - Social reflex
1928 - Elda and Angotea
1929 - Mistletoe Branch
1929 - Thief in the Forest
1929 - Father's Wrath
1929 - Treason
1929 - Lock opener
1930 - Barrel of fresh water
1930 - Green lamp
1930 - The Story of a Hawk
1930 - Silence
1932 - Autobiographical story
1933 - Velvet curtain
1933 - Port Commandant
1933 - Pari

Collections of stories:

Cap of Invisibility (1908)
Stories (1910)
Mysterious Stories (1915)
Famous Book (1915)
Incident in Dog Street (1915)
Adventurer (1916)
Tragedy of the Suan Plateau. On the Hillside (1916)
White Fire (1922)
Heart of the Desert (1924)
Gladiators (1925)
On the Cloudy Shore (1925)
Golden Pond (1926)
The Story of a Murder (1926)
Navigator of the Four Winds (1926)
Marriage of August Esborn (1927)
Ships at Lisse (1927)
By Law (1927)
The Cheerful Fellow Traveler (1928)
Around the World (1928)
Black Diamond (1928)
Lanphier Colony (1929)
Window in the Woods (1929)
The Adventures of Ginch (1929)
Fire and Water (1930)

Collected works:

Green A. Collected Works, 1-6 vols. M., Pravda, 1965.

Green A. Collected Works, 1-6 vols. M., Pravda, 1980. Republished in 1983.
Green A. Collected Works, 1-5 vols. M.: Fiction, 1991.
Green A. From the unpublished and forgotten. - Literary heritage, vol. 74. M.: Nauka, 1965.
Green A. I am writing to you the whole truth. Letters from 1906-1932. - Koktebel, 2012, series: Images of the past.

Screen adaptations by Alexander Green:

1958 - Watercolor
1961 - Scarlet Sails
1967 - Running on the Waves
1968 - Knight of Dreams
1969 - Lanphier Colony
1972 - Morgiana
1976 - Deliverer
1982 - Assol
1983 - Man from Green Country
1984 - Shining World
1984 - Life and books of Alexander Green
1986 - Golden Chain
1988 - Mister Decorator
1990 - One hundred miles along the river
1992 - Road to nowhere
1995 - Gelly and Nok
2003 - Infection
2007 - Running on the waves
2010 - The True Story of Scarlet Sails
2010 - Man from the Unfulfilled
2012 - Green lamp

In 1903 he was arrested, sat in a Sevastopol prison, and was exiled to Siberia for ten years (he fell under the October amnesty of 1905).

In the summer of 1910, Green was arrested for the third time and in the fall of 1911 he was exiled to the Arkhangelsk province for two years. In May 1912 he returned to St. Petersburg.

In 1912-1917, Greene worked actively, publishing about 350 stories in more than 60 publications. In 1914, he became an employee of the New Satyricon magazine.

In the early 1920s, the writer began writing his first novel, which he called “The Shining World.” The novel was published in 1924.

Green continued to write stories - "The Loquacious Brownie", "The Pied Piper", "Fandango".

In November 1930, Green moved to the small town of Stary Krym, where he began writing autobiographical essays, which later formed the chapters of “Autobiographical Tale,” the writer’s last book. The novel “Touchable,” which he began at this time, was never completed.

In 1980, a tombstone with the figure of “Running on the Waves” was installed on the grave of Alexander Green.

Alexander Green was married twice. His first wife was Vera Abramova, the daughter of a wealthy official, whom he married in 1910; they separated in 1913.

The writer married for the second time in 1921 to a 26-year-old widow, nurse Nina Mironova (after Korotkova’s first husband).

At the end of his life, Alexander Greene almost ceased to be published. He died in complete poverty and oblivion from literary organizations.

When Alexander Greene died, none of the writers who were vacationing next door in Koktebel came to say goodbye to him.

Upon learning of Green's death, several leading Soviet writers called for the publication of a collection of his works. The collection "Fantastic Novels" was published in 1934.

The peak of Green's readership came during the Khrushchev "thaw". In the wake of the new romantic upsurge in the country, Alexander Green turned into one of the most published and revered Russian authors, the idol of young readers.

In 1980, a museum dedicated to the writer was opened in Kirov.

In 2000, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Green, the Union of Writers of Russia, the administration of Kirov and the administration of the city of Slobodsky established the annual Russian Literary Prize named after Alexander Green for works for children and youth that contribute to the formation of moral principles of the younger generations and serve the education of children, adolescents and youth in line with national dignity and morality.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Alexander Green (1880–1932) - an outstanding representative of Russian neo-romanticism, writer, poet, philosopher. Green's biography contains many interesting highlights, revealing him as a strong and bright personality.

Brief biography of A. S. Green for children

Option 1

Green Alexander Stepanovich (Grinevsky) (1880 - 1932)

He enthusiastically greeted the February Revolution of 1917; he considered subsequent events a tragedy. In the midst of the savagery and chaos that the Bolshevik rule unleashed on the country, Green wrote such works as the novels “The Shining World”, “The Golden Chain”, “Running on the Waves”, etc., in which he created his own romantic world of human happiness.

Option 2

Alexander Green (Alexander Stepanovich Grinevsky) is a Russian writer and prose writer, best known for his extravaganza story “Scarlet Sails”. He wrote a lot of works in the genre of symbolic fiction, and also created the fictional country “Greenland”, where the events of many of his books took place. A. Green was born on August 11 (23), 1880 in a small town in the Vyatka province. The father of the future writer was from Poland, and his mother was a Russian nurse. Since childhood, the boy dreamed of travel, especially sea travel. Therefore, after graduating from the Vyatka School, he went to Odessa, where he became a sailor.

Despite the fact that he did not turn out to be a traveling sailor, he managed to visit a ship abroad. In 1897, he returned to his native land, but a year later he left to seek his fortune in Baku. There he tried many professions, including very difficult ones. In 1902, after a series of wanderings, he joined an infantry battalion as a soldier. However, military service did not benefit him. She only strengthened his revolutionary sentiments. He was noticed as a deserter, spent some time in a punishment cell, and after meeting Socialist Revolutionary propagandists he hid in Simbirsk. The years 1906–1908 were turning points in life. It was during this period that his writing talent was revealed.

In 1906, Green’s first story appeared, “The Merit of Private Panteleev.” The next story to appear was “The Elephant and the Pug.” However, these works never reached readers due to the liquidation of the circulation. The first story that reached the reader was “To Italy.” He first signed the pseudonym Green for the story “The Case” (1907). During the same period, he married 24-year-old Vera Abramova. Their love is described in the story “One Hundred Miles Along the River.” Soon Green met such famous writers as Tolstoy, Bryusov, Andreev, but most of all he liked to communicate with Kuprin.

In 1910, it became clear to the police that Green was a runaway exile who had changed his last name, and he was arrested again. Since 1914, he worked in the magazine “New Satyricon”, in addition to which he published his collection. The writer reacted negatively to the February Revolution and wrote a note on this subject, “Trifles” (1918). The famous one was published in 1923. In his works he liked to use fictional cities, for example, Liss, Zurbagan. By creating noble characters, fictional cities, and a romantic world of human happiness, Green abstracted himself from the reality around him. IN recent years the writer was sick with tuberculosis and lived in Crimea. There he died on July 8, 1932.

Option 3

Russian prose writer, poet. Real name- Grinevsky. Born on August 11 (23), 1880 in the Sloboda Vyatka province in the family of an exiled Pole who took part in the uprising of 1863. He graduated from the four-year Vyatka City School. He spent six years wandering, worked as a loader, a navvy, a traveling circus performer, and a railway worker. In 1902, due to extreme need, he voluntarily entered military service and spent several months in a punishment cell.

The hardship of a soldier's life forced Green to desert; he became close to the revolutionaries and began underground work in different cities of Russia. In 1903 he was arrested, served in a Sevastopol prison, and was exiled to Siberia for ten years (he fell under the October amnesty of 1905). Until 1910, Green lived under someone else’s passport in St. Petersburg, was again arrested and deported to Siberia, from where he escaped and returned to St. Petersburg. He spent his second, two-year exile in the Arkhangelsk province.

After the first published story “To Italy”, the next ones - “The Merit of Private Panteleev” and “Elephant and Pug” - were removed from print by censorship. Green's first collections of short stories, The Invisible Cap and Stories, attracted critical attention. In 1912-1917 Greene worked extensively, publishing approximately 350 short stories in more than 60 publications.

He enthusiastically greeted the February Revolution of 1917; he considered subsequent events a tragedy. In the midst of the savagery and chaos that the Bolshevik rule unleashed on the country, Green wrote such works as the extravaganza story “Scarlet Sails”, the novels “The Shining World”, “The Golden Chain”, “Running on the Waves”, etc., in which he created his own romantic world of human happiness.

The real life around him rejected Green's world along with its creator. Critical remarks about the uselessness of the writer appeared more and more often, the myth of the “foreigner in Russian literature” was created, and Green was published less and less. The writer, suffering from tuberculosis, left in 1924 for Feodosia, where he experienced extreme poverty, and in 1930 he moved to the village of Stary Krym.

Full biography of Green A.S.

Option 1

Russian writer, author of approximately four hundred works... His works are in the genre of neo-romanticism, philosophical and psychological, mixed with fantasy. His creations are famous throughout the country, they are loved by adults and children, and the biography of the writer Alexander Green is very rich and interesting.

Early age

The real name of the writer is Grinevsky. Alexander is the first child in his family, which had four children in total. He was born on August 23, 1880, in the Vyatka province, in the city of Slobodskoye. Father - Stefan - Pole and warrior-aristocrat. Mother - Anna Lepkova - worked as a nurse.

As a boy, Alexander loved reading. He learned this early, and the first thing he read was a book about Gulliver's Travels. The boy liked books about traveling around the world and sailors. He repeatedly ran away from home to become a sailor.

At the age of 9, little Sasha began to study. He was a very problematic student and caused a lot of trouble: he behaved badly and fought. Once he wrote offensive poems to all the teachers, because of this he was expelled from the school. The guys who studied with him nicknamed him Green. The boy liked the nickname, then he used it as a writer's pseudonym. In 1892, Alexander was successfully enrolled in another educational institution, with the help of his father.

At the age of 15, the future writer lost his mother. She died of tuberculosis. Less than six months later, my father married again. Greene didn't get along with Dad's new wife. He left home and lived separately. He worked part-time by weaving and gluing book bindings and copying documents. He was keen on reading and writing poetry.

Youth

A short biography of Alexander Green contains information that he really wanted to be a sailor. At the age of 16, the young man graduated from the 4th grade of college, and with the help of his father he was able to leave for Odessa. He gave his son a small amount of money for the journey and the address of his friend, who could shelter him for the first time. Upon arrival, Green was in no hurry to look for his father's friend. I didn’t want to become a burden to a stranger, I thought I could achieve everything on my own.

But alas, it was very difficult to find a job, and the money ran out quickly. Brodyazhnichiv and hungry, the young man still found his father's friend and asked for help. The man sheltered him and got him a job as a sailor on the steamer Platon. Green did not serve long on deck. Sailor routine and hard work turned out to be alien to Alexander, he left the ship, finally quarreling with the captain.

As he says short biography, Alexander Stepanovich Green returned to Vyatka in 1897, where he lived for two years, and then went to Baku to “try his luck.” There he worked in various industries. He was engaged in fishing, then got a job as a laborer, and then became a railway worker, but even here he did not stay long. Lived in the Urals, worked as a goldsmith and lumberjack, then as a miner.

In the spring of 1902, tired of traveling, Alexander enlisted in the 213th Orovai Reserve Infantry Battalion. Six months later he deserted from the army. Green spent half of his service in a punishment cell for his revolutionary sentiments. He was caught in Kamyshin, but the young man managed to escape again, this time to Simbirsk. Socialist Revolutionary propagandists helped him in this. He communicated with them in the army.

Since then, Greene rebelled against the social order and enthusiastically divulged revolutionary ideas. A year later, he was arrested for such activities, and later caught trying to escape and sent to a maximum security prison. The trial took place in 1905, they wanted to give him 20 years in prison, but the lawyer insisted on a reduced sentence, and Green was sent to Siberia for half the term. Very soon, in the fall, Alexander was released early and arrested again six months later in St. Petersburg. While serving his sentence, he was visited by his fiancée, Vera Abramova, the daughter of a high official who secretly supported the revolutionaries. In the spring, Green was sent to the Tobolsk province for four years, but thanks to his father, he got someone else’s passport and escaped three days later under the name Malginov.

Mature years

Soon Alexander Green ceased to be considered a Socialist Revolutionary. They got married to Vera Abramova. In 1910, he was already a fairly famous writer, and then the authorities realized that the fugitive Grinevsky and Green were the same person. The writer was found again and taken into custody. Sent to Arkhangelsk region.

When the revolution passed, Greene was even more dissatisfied with social foundations. Divorces became allowed, which Vera, his wife, took advantage of. The reasons for the divorce were the lack of mutual understanding and Alexander’s obstinate, hot-tempered character. He tried to reconcile with her more than once, but in vain.

Five years later, Green met Maria Dolidze. Their union was very short-lived, only a few months, and the writer was left alone again.

In 1919, Alexander was called up to serve, where Green was a signalman. Very soon he contracted typhus and was treated for a long time.

In 1921, Alexander married Nina Mironova. They fell in love with each other very much and considered their meeting a magical gift of fate. Nina was a widow then.

Last years of life

In 1930, Alexander and Nina moved to Stary Crimea. Then the Soviet censorship motivated the refusal to reprint Green with the phrase: “You do not merge with the era.” A limit was set for new books: no more than one per year. Then the Grinevskys “fell to the bottom of poverty” and were terribly hungry. Alexander tried to hunt to get food, but all in vain.

Two years later, the writer died of a tumor in his stomach. He was buried in the Old Crimea cemetery.

Green's creativity

The very first story, entitled “The Merit of Private Panteleev,” was created at a difficult time for Alexander, in the summer of 1906. The work began to be published months later in the form of a propaganda brochure for punitive forces. It spoke of official and military unrest. Green was rewarded, but the story was removed from print and destroyed. The story “The Elephant and the Pug” met the same fate. Several copies were randomly saved. The first thing people were able to read was the work “To Italy”. The writer published these stories under the name Malginov.

From 1907 he already signed as Green. One year later, collections of 25 stories per year were published. And Alexander began to be paid good fees. Green created some of his creations while in exile. At first it was published only in newspapers, and the first three volumes of works were published in 1913. A year later, Green began to take a masterful approach to writing. The books became deeper, more interesting, and sold out even more.

In the 1950s, stories were still published. But novels also began to be published: “The Shining World”, “The Golden Chain” and others. Alexander Green (his biography confirms this) dedicated “Scarlet Sails” to his third wife, Nina. The novel "Touchy" remained unfinished.

After death

When Alexander Stepanovich Green passed away, a collection of his works was published. Nina, his wife, remained to live there, but was under occupation. She was sent to Germany, to the camps. When the war ended, upon returning home she was accused of treason and sentenced to ten years in forced labor camps. All of Green's works were banned, but they were rehabilitated after Stalin died. Then new books began to be published again. While Nina was in the camps, her and Alexander’s house was transferred to other people. The woman sued them for a long time and eventually “won” him back. She created a museum dedicated to her husband, a writer, to whom she devoted the rest of her life.

The author is recognized as a romantic. He always said that he was a conductor between the world of dreams and human reality. He believed that the world is ruled by the good, the bright and the good. In his novels and stories, he showed how good and bad deeds are reflected in people. He called for doing good to people. For example, in “Scarlet Sails” through the hero he conveyed the following message in the phrase: “He will have a new soul and a new one for you, just create a miracle for a person.” One of Greene's highest themes was the choice between good and high values and low desires and the temptation to do evil.

Alexander knew how to elevate a simple parable so that a deep meaning was revealed in it, explaining everything in simple, in clear words. Critics have always noted the brightness of the plots and the “cinematic quality” of his works. He freed his characters from the burden of stereotypes. From their belonging to religions, to nationality and so on. Showed the essence of the person himself, his personality.

Poetry

Alexander Stepanovich Green had been interested in writing poetry since his college days, but they began to be published only in 1907. In his autobiography, Alexander told how he sent poems to various newspapers. They were about loneliness, despair and brokenness. “It’s as if a forty-year-old Chekhov’s hero was writing, and not a little boy,” he said about himself. His later and more serious poems, in the genre of realism, began to be published. He had lyrical poems that were dedicated to his first, and then to his last wife. In the early 60s, the publication of his collections of poetry failed. Until the poet Leonid Martynov intervened, who said that Greene’s poems needed to be published, because this was the true heritage.

Place in literature

Alexander Stepanovich Green had neither followers nor predecessors. Critics compared him with many writers, but there were still very, very few similarities with anyone. He seemed to be a representative classical literature, but, on the other hand, special, unique, and it is not known how to accurately determine his creative direction.

The originality of creativity lay in the differences in genre. Somewhere there was fantasy, and somewhere there was realism. But the focus on human moral values still classifies Green’s works more as classics.

Criticism

Before the revolution, the work of Alexander Stepanovich Green was criticized, many treated him very disdainfully. He was condemned for excessive display of violence, for the exotic names of the characters, and was accused of imitating foreign authors. Over time, the negativity of the critics weakened. They began to often talk about what the author wanted to say. How he shows life in its real reflection and how he wants to convey to readers a belief in miracles, a call to goodness and correct actions. After the 1930s, people began to talk about Alexander’s works differently. They began to equate him with the classics and call him a master of the genre.

Views on religion

In his youth, Alexander had a neutral attitude towards religion, although he was baptized according to Orthodox customs as a child. His opinion about religion changed throughout his life. This was noticeable in his works. For example, in The Shining World he demonstrated more Christian ideals. The scene where Runa asked God to strengthen her faith was cut due to censorship.

He and his wife Nina often went to church. Alexander Green, whose biography is presented to your attention in the article, loved the holiday of Holy Easter. He wrote in letters to his first wife that he and Nina were believers in God. Before his death, Green received communion and confession from a priest invited to the house.

Option 2

Alexander Green (08/23/1880 – 07/08/1932) – Russian writer and poet. His works belong to the neo-romanticism movement; they are distinguished by their philosophical and psychological orientation, and often contain elements of fantasy.

Early years

Alexander Stepanovich Grinevsky is a native of the city of Slobodskaya. His father was a Polish nobleman, after the uprising of 1863 he was exiled to the village of Kolyvan. Five years later he moved to the Vyatka province, where in 1873 he married a young nurse. Alexander was their first son, and his brother and two sisters were born later. From an early age the boy was interested in literature. At the age of six he read Gulliver's Adventures. Adventures became his favorite genre; in his dreams of sailing, he once even ran away from home.

In 1889, Alexander entered a real school, where he received the nickname “Green”. At school he was not distinguished by exemplary behavior, for which he constantly received criticism. In second grade, he composed a poem that insulted the teachers and was expelled. The father enrolled his son in another school, which did not have a very good reputation.

In 1895, tuberculosis claimed the life of Green's mother, and his father got a new wife. Not finding a common language with his stepmother, Alexander began to live separately. He devoted most of his time to reading and writing. He took on small part-time jobs: binding books, copying documents. Dreams of the sea did not leave him, and in 1896 Green went to Odessa, hoping to become a sailor.

Finding myself

Arriving in Odessa, the teenager could not find a job and experienced serious financial difficulties. His father’s friend finally got him a job as a sailor on a ship sailing from Odessa to Batumi. Alexander did not like working on the ship, and he quickly abandoned it. In 1897, he decided to return to his homeland, where he lived for a year, and then went on a new journey - to Baku.

On Azerbaijani soil, he worked on the railway tracks, was a laborer and a fisherman. He came to his father for the summer, and then went on his journey again. For some time he lived in the Urals, cut down forests, was a miner, and served in the theater. And each time he was forced to return to his hated native land.

Revolutionary activities

In 1902, Green enlisted in an infantry battalion in Penza. Army life strengthened the revolutionary spirit in the young man. He spent six months in the service, half of the time in a punishment cell. Then he deserted, but was caught, but soon escaped again. The Socialist Revolutionaries helped him escape, and in Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk) Alexander begins to engage in revolutionary activities. “Long” - this nickname was given to him by fellow party members - worked in the field of propaganda among workers and military personnel, but did not welcome terrorist attacks and refused to take part in them.

In 1903, in Sevastopol, Alexander was arrested for his propaganda activities. He attempted to escape, for which he was placed in a special security prison. He spent more than a year in prison, during which time he tried to escape again. In 1905, Green was granted an amnesty and released, but a few months later in St. Petersburg he again found himself under arrest. After this, he was exiled to the Tobolsk province, from there Alexander immediately fled to Vyatka. At home, with the help of a friend, he took a new name for himself and, becoming Magilnov, returned to St. Petersburg.

Green becomes a writer

Since 1906, Green's life has undergone a major turn: he begins to study literature. He published his first work, “The Merit of Private Panteleev,” signing “A.S.G.” The story described the unrest taking place in the army. Subsequently, almost all copies were destroyed by the police. The second work, “Elephant and Pug,” was sent to the printing house, but was not published.

Alexander’s first story to reach readers was “To Italy.” It was published in the Exchange Gazette. In 1908, Green published a collection of stories about the Social Revolutionaries, The Invisible Cap. At the same time, the writer begins to form his own view of the social system, and he breaks off relations with the party. Another significant event occurs: Alexander marries Vera Abramova.

In 1910, a new collection of Green's stories was published. In the writer’s work there is a transition from realistic works to fairy-tale-romantic ones. From that time on, the writer earned good money, joined the circle of famous writers, and became close to A. Kuprin. The calm life is disrupted by a new arrest and exile to the Arkhangelsk province. The return to St. Petersburg took place in 1912.

The actions of the works written by Green in exile and after it take place in an imaginary country, which K. Zelinsky would later call Greenland. Basically, the publication of Green's works took place in small newspapers and magazines, including Novoe Slovo, Niva, and Rodina. Since 1912, Alexander has been published in the more reputable publication “Modern World”.

In 1913, his wife left the writer, and later his beloved father died. In 1914, Green began working at the New Satyricon and continued to develop as a writer. In 1916, he hid in Finland from the police, who were pursuing him for an inappropriate comment about the monarch, and returned to St. Petersburg with the beginning of the revolution.

Life in Soviet Russia

After the revolution, the New Satyricon was closed, and Green was arrested for notes expressing rejection new government. In 1919, the writer joined the army as a signalman, but was soon struck down by typhus. After recovery, Alexander is given a room in St. Petersburg, and a quiet period begins in his life, during which the famous “Scarlet Sails” come out from his pen. He dedicated this work to his wife Nina Mironova, whom he met in 1918. Three years later they became husband and wife and spent eleven happy years together.

In 1924, the writer’s first novel, “The Shining World,” was published. Some time later, Green and his wife moved to Feodosia. Coming out here new novel"Golden Chain" In 1926, a work recognized as a literary masterpiece appeared - “”. At the same time, the writer begins to have difficulties publishing his works.

In 1930, Green moved to Crimea. Due to government restrictions on publications, his family goes hungry and his spouses begin to get sick. At this time, he is working on the novel “Touchable,” which he will not have time to finish. The writer finds himself in a hopeless situation when his work becomes of no use to anyone, and he is denied a pension and any support. At the age of 51, Greene dies of stomach cancer. He was buried in Old Crimea. Only after his death was it decided to publish a collection of the writer’s works: in 1934, “Fantastic Novels” was released.

Greene's works were actively published after his death until 1944. “Scarlet Sails” was especially popular: it was read on the radio, and the ballet of the same name was shown at the Bolshoi Theater. During the struggle against cosmopolitanism, Greene, like many writers, was banned. In 1956, his works returned to literature. The writer's wife opens the Greene Museum in their home. In 1970, a museum was opened in Feodosia, in 1980 - in Kirov, in 2010 - in Slobodskoye.

Green's work is considered special; the writer was not influenced by his predecessors, had no successors, and the genre of his works defies classification. Sometimes they tried to compare him with foreign authors, but the comparison turned out to be too superficial. Some Russian libraries and streets in several cities are named after Green. His works have been filmed several times.

Option 3

The entire work of Alexander Stepanovich Green is a dream of that beautiful and mysterious world where wonderful, generous heroes live, where good defeats evil, and everything planned comes true. He was sometimes called a “strange storyteller,” but Green did not write fairy tales, but the most real works, only he came up with exotic names and names for his heroes and the places where they lived - Assol, Gray, Davenant, Lyse, Zurbagan , Gel-Gyu... The writer took everything else from life. True, he described a beautiful life, full of romantic adventures and events, the kind that all people dream of.

True, the mystery of Alexander Green’s life was and remains unsolved to this day. He was born into the family of an exiled Pole who worked as a clerk at a brewery. Soon after the boy was born, the family moved to Vyatka, where the future writer spent his childhood and teenage years. This city was so far from the sea that few even adults had ever seen it. And yet the boy early childhood literally dreamed of the sea, he was attracted by the “picturesque labor of navigation,” the free wind and the blue expanses of the sea.

Alexander Green tells in his “Autobiographical Story” what feelings he experienced when he first saw two real sailors on the Vyatka pier. These were navigator students, apparently passing through the city. On the cap of one of them was written “Sevastopol”, and the other - “Ochakov”. The boy stopped and looked enchanted at the guests from another, mysterious and beautiful world. “I wasn’t jealous,” Greene writes. “I felt admiration and melancholy.”

The writer also said that the first book he saw was “” by J. Swift. From this book he learned to read, and, oddly enough, the first word the little boy put together from letters was the word “sea.”

Alexander Green lived, as it were, two lives. One, the real one, was disgusting, heavy and joyless. But in his dreams and in his works, he, together with his heroes, wandered across the sea, walked through fairy-tale cities and made friends with strong, noble people.

Some critics believe that Greene wrote such works because he sought to enrich and embellish the “languorous poor life"with his "beautiful inventions." Adult life Alexandra Grina, however, was also full of wanderings and adventures, but there was nothing mysterious and mysterious about her, and the writer recalled his childhood as a nightmare. “I did not know a normal childhood,” he wrote. “In moments of irritation, for my willfulness and unsuccessful teaching, they called me “swineherd”, “golden miner”, they predicted for me a life full of groveling among successful and successful people.”

In 1896, Alexander Green graduated from the city school and got ready to go to Odessa, taking with him a basket woven from willow with a change of linen and watercolors to paint somewhere “in India, on the banks of the Ganges...” The young man decided to get a job as a sailor on a ship and travel around the world, he couldn’t imagine his life any other way.

However, reality turned out to be not as rosy as it seemed in dreams. It was just as difficult to get from Odessa to India and the Ganges as from Vyatka. It was impossible to get a job as a sailor even on local coastal ships, not to mention large ones that go on long voyages. It was possible to get a job as an apprentice on a ship, but they didn’t take anyone there for free, and Green arrived in Odessa with six rubles in his pocket. In addition, the young man did not have much figure, he was narrow-shouldered and thin, so even in the future he could hardly turn into a “sea wolf.”

However, Alexander Green could not give up his dream so easily. He began to persistently train his body and spirit, even swam behind the breakwater, where experienced swimmers drowned more than once, breaking against beams and stones. True, his strength did not increase, since due to lack of money he often had to go hungry and freeze, because there was nothing to buy clothes for himself. And yet, Green, with enviable persistence, daily walked around all the ships standing in the harbor - barges, schooners, steamships. Sometimes happiness smiled on him. Greene first set sail on the transport ship Platon, which sailed around the Black Sea ports.

But Alexander did not sail as a sailor for long. After one or two voyages, he was usually written off ashore, and not because he did not know how to work or was lazy, but because of his rebellious disposition. And yet, he once managed to go on a voyage abroad, and he visited the Egyptian port of Alexandria.

Alexander Green expected to see the Sahara Desert and menacing roaring lions just outside the city. When he got out of the city, he found himself in front of a ditch with muddy water, and then stretched a huge territory with vegetable gardens, plantations, palm trees and wells, crossed lengthwise and crosswise by roads. There was no trace of the Sahara Desert.

Returning to the ship, Green tried to hide his disappointment and told the sailors how a Bedouin shot at him, but missed. And near one of the shops, he allegedly saw roses in a jug and wanted to buy one, but then a beautiful Arab woman came out of the door, smiled at him and with the words “Salaam alaikum” handed him a rose. Neither Greene nor the other sailors knew what the Arab girls said to strangers, whether they even talked to them or gave them flowers, but everyone believed the storyteller or pretended to believe it - the story was very beautiful and exciting.

Having experienced the happiness of the sea, Alexander Stepanovich Green set off to wander around Russia. He worked as a bathhouse attendant, a digger, a painter, tried to go into fishing, served as a fireman in Baku, sailed as a sailor on the Volga, cut down wood, drove rafts along the Ural River, mined gold there, once contracted to rewrite roles and was even an actor “on the go.”

For all his physical weakness, Alexander Green had a strong will and rebellious character. He especially did not tolerate humiliation and bullying. Once in the army, he ended up in the 213th Orovaisky reserve infantry battalion near Penza, where very cruel morals. Four months later, Greene escaped from there and hid in the forest until he was found. The fugitive was put under arrest for three weeks on bread and water. It was then that the Social Revolutionaries noticed the obstinate soldier. They began to give him their leaflets and brochures with political content.

Alexander Green was far from politics, however, after reading the leaflets, he and his wild imagination imagined the life of a revolutionary, full of dangerous adventures and mysterious meetings.

The Social Revolutionaries helped Green escape from the army again, provided him with a false passport and transported him to Kyiv, from where he moved to Odessa, and then to Sevastopol. There Alexander Green received his first assignment, but for him all this revolutionary work was nothing more than a game. This is also noticeable in the irony with which he later described the members of the Sevastopol Socialist Revolutionary organization in his story about the young lady “Pussy,” who played the main role in it.

These were the years when political groups and parties intensified propaganda among the population and called for the overthrow of the existing system. Therefore, the police captured all suspects, which primarily included those receiving amnesty. Green was arrested and sent into exile. However, the very next day after arriving at the place, he escaped and reached Vyatka.

His father got him the passport of Vyatka resident A. A. Malginov, who had recently died in a hospital, and Alexander Green, under an assumed name, returned to St. Petersburg again. True, not for long. After some time, he again ended up in prison and exile, this time in the Arkhangelsk province.

If Green got out of prisons and exile quite quickly, then need haunted him constantly. No wonder the writer later recalled that his life path was strewn not with roses, but with nails. And yet, Alexander Green remained a romantic at heart. And he later transferred his youthful dreams of exploits and heroes into his stories.

The works of Alexander Stepanovich Green were perceived differently by different people. Readers were delighted with them, but many critics considered them too beautiful and exotic. However, Greene wrote not only romantic works. He also had lyrical poems, poetic feuilletons and fables. In addition, he wrote quite realistic essays and stories. And yet, the writer became famous more as a romantic, the author of adventurous adventure works. Many of his heroes were also dreamers and lived a rich inner life.

Another famous writer, Eduard Bagritsky, wrote: “Alexander Green is one of the favorite authors of my youth. He taught me courage and the joy of life..."

Alexander Stepanovich Green created his own world, his own imaginary country, which does not exist on geographical maps, but which - and he knew this for sure - exists in the imagination of all young people. One of the critics very aptly called this country created by the writer’s imagination “Greenland.” There were many blue seas in it, on which ships sailed with scarlet sails. They entered harbors where seemingly ordinary people lived, who had the same problems as in real life.

Therefore, readers got the impression that this country also really exists. And the only difference is that many dreams come true here.

In this regard, some critics reproached the writer for being “foreign” and wondered why he came up with such strange names for his heroes - Assol, Captain Duke, Tirrey Davenant - and why the action in his works takes place in cities whose names are not on geographical maps - Zurbagan, Lise...

It was not by chance that Greene gave such strange names to his heroes. Many of them served as characteristics of the characters in Green’s works, such as the cowardly and greedy sailor Kurkul, the impudent Benz or the lovely dreamer Assol. In the name of the courageous and noble captain Duke, Alexander Green reflected the attitude of Odessa residents towards the Duke of Richelieu - “Papa Duke”, whose statue still stands on the Odessa embankment.

In addition, these invented names and titles once again emphasize that the action takes place in the world of imagination, where nothing seems strange.

However, Greene did not invent everything in his works. He took a lot from real life in his descriptions of his heroes, cities and nature. Green said, for example, that his cities of Lyse, Zurbagan, Gel-Gyu and Gerton included many signs of Sevastopol, Odessa, Yalta, and Feodosia.

Girton is the setting of his novel The Road to Nowhere, which he wrote in 1929, and the biography of the main character, Tirray Davenant, is very similar to the biography of the writer himself. He, too, was in prison, staged an escape, and even from the prison window saw the same thing that Green had observed at one time.

Such details of real life are present in all the writer’s works, so there is no doubt that his artistic imagination was not divorced from reality.

In 1917-1918, Alexander Stepanovich Green conceived one of his most amazing works - “Scarlet Sails”, in which he later wrote the following words: “I understood one simple truth. It’s about making miracles with your own hands.” He did these miracles when creating his works.

In 1923, another novel by Alexander Green was published - “The Shining World”, which told about the flying man Drude, his adventures and tragic death. It turns out that in the world of fantasy there are tragedies.

Greene's works are inhabited by different people, but most of his heroes not only dream of miracles, but are ready to do the most daring things for the sake of their dreams. This is how the pilot Bitt-Boy, who despises death, lives, the faithful Sandy, Captain Duke in the story “Captain Duke”, the incorruptible Molly in “The Golden Chain”, the courageous Tirrey Davenant from “The Road to Nowhere”, the fearless Daisy in “Running on the Waves” and other heroes.

In 1923, Alexander Stepanovich Green left for Crimea, to the sea, lived for some time in Sevastopol, Yalta, Balaklava, and in May 1924 settled in Feodosia, which he called “the city of watercolor tones.”

Six years later, in November 1930, the writer, already seriously ill, moved to Old Crimea, which he loved very much for the silence, the vastness of the gardens and also because it was located on a mountain, from where you could endlessly look at the sea.

The Crimean period of Alexander Green's life was especially fruitful. Despite his illness, the writer created at this time at least half of everything he wrote in his entire short life.

Alexander Green spent the last years of his life in a small adobe house on the outskirts of Old Crimea. In his empty room, without a single decoration, there was only a table, chairs and a bed, above which, right in front of the writer’s eyes, hung at the lintel, darkened with time, corroded by salt, a fragment of a ship.

This single object on the dazzling white wall, which Green nailed with his own hands, until the very last moments of his life connected the already terminally ill writer with his beloved sea. Just like his heroes, Green remained faithful to his dream to the end, and it is not for nothing that he is still called the “knight of dreams.”

Alexander Stepanovich Green was buried in the mountainous Old Crimean cemetery, where the noise and smells of the sea can be heard.

The author of the famous “Scarlet Sails” Alexander Green wrote many other works during his life, perhaps not so famous, but no less good - that’s a fact. Having created an entire fictional world, he populated it with kindness and mercy, reaching the hearts of millions of readers. However, Green also made his mark in the field of poetry, publishing truly talented poems, and in general he was a very prolific author.

Facts from the biography of Alexander Green

The writer's father was a Pole, exiled to Siberia for participating in the uprising.
Alexander Green's real name is Grinevsky.
Young Alexander learned to read at the age of 6, starting with the works of Jonathan Swift about Gulliver. His love for literature about adventure and sea voyages to unknown lands remained with him forever.
While studying at the school, Alexander's classmates nicknamed him "Green", simply shortening his last name.
Alexander Green was a difficult teenager, and he was even threatened with expulsion from school for behavioral problems. In the end, this happened, and the reason was an offensive poem he wrote directed against his teachers.
At the age of 15, Green's mother died, and his father soon remarried. Unable to establish relations with his stepmother, the young writer settled separately from his family.
As a child, Alexander Green tried to run away from home in order to hire a sailor on some ship and sail to distant lands.
He fulfilled his dream of sea voyages when, at the age of 16, he hired a sailor on a steamship in Odessa. Once he even visited abroad, in Egypt.
Later, Alexander Green entered military service, but quickly hated it and deserted six months later. He was caught and returned to his place, but he escaped again.
Imbued with the ideas of the revolution, Green supported them, acting as a propagandist.
After his arrest on suspicion of revolutionary activity in 1903, Alexander Green spent more than a year in captivity while the investigation lasted, making two escape attempts during this time. In police reports, he was characterized as “an embittered, withdrawn person, capable of anything, not afraid to risk his life.” As a result, Green was sentenced to 10 years of exile, was soon amnestied, and then arrested again and exiled for 4 years in the Tobolsk province.
Three days after arriving at the place of exile, the writer escaped, with the help of his father, obtained a passport that belonged to a certain Malginov, and went to St. Petersburg.
Alexander Green signed his works with a variety of pseudonyms - Malginov, Stepanov, Elsa Moravskaya and others.
His love for the sea was reflected in his soul in the fact that he got a tattoo of a sailing ship on his chest.
During his life, Alexander Green managed to try out many different professions, having been a gold miner, a lumberjack, and a farm worker. railway, and a fisherman.
It was after escaping from exile that Greene became a real writer. True, his first works after publication were soon confiscated by the police and burned, but this did not stop him, nor did the subsequent exile to Arkhangelsk.
During Alexander Green's life, about 400 works came from his pen.
When did it start Civil war, he fought in the ranks of the Red Army, but soon became disillusioned with the Bolsheviks, horrified by the violence that swept the country.
In the 20s, the Soviet authorities declared Alexander Green an enemy of the people, and his works were banned from publication.
During his life, the writer was married three times.
During all his travels, voluntary and otherwise, Green never parted with a photograph of his father, always keeping it with him.
Greene's work was greatly influenced by the First World War. It was from this moment that his works acquired a pronounced anti-war sentiment.
At one time he was forced to hide from the tsarist authorities in Finland, returning only after the February Revolution.
Until the end of his days, Alexander Green, as a sign of protest against the Bolshevik regime, used pre-revolutionary spelling and the old calendar.
One of Green's patrons was.
Many of the writer's works take place in the same fictional country. Green himself did not give it a name, but thanks literary critic Zelinsky attached the name “Greenland” to it.
In the 60s of the last century, 30 years after the death of the writer, great fame came to him, despite the fact that before that he was considered an ideological enemy.
The planetoid Grinevia, discovered by astronomers, was named in honor of Alexander Green.
In the last years of his life, the publication of his works almost ceased, and he died in Koktebel, forgotten and destitute by everyone. After the writer’s death, no one even came to say goodbye to him.
Since 2000, the Alexander Green Prize has been operating in Russia, awarded to writers for outstanding achievements in the field of adventure literature for children and teenagers.

For Alexander Green's birthday

Me " the earth teases- wrote Green. - Its oceans are huge, its islands are countless, and there are a lot of mysterious, deadly curious corners.”.

A fairy tale is needed not only for children, but also for adults. It causes excitement - the source of high human passions. She does not allow us to calm down, showing us new sparkling distances, a different life that worries us, a desire for this life. This is its value, and this is the value of the sometimes inexpressible, but clear and powerful charm of Green’s stories.

Alexander Green said that “The whole earth, with everything that is on it, has been given to us for life, for the recognition of this life wherever it is.” Alexander Green himself lived a hard life. Everything in her, as if on purpose, was arranged in such a way as to make him a criminal or an evil man in the street. But this gloomy man, through all the hardships of life, carried without tarnishing the gift of a powerful imagination, purity of feelings and a shy smile. The environment was terrible, life unbearable. Alexander Green survived, but mistrust remained for the rest of his life. He always tried to get away from her, believing that it was better to live with elusive dreams than with the “rubbish and rubbish of every day.”

AlexanderGrinevsky(Green) born August 23, 1880.His father, a participant in the Polish uprising of 1863, was exiled to Vyatka, worked as an accountant and died in poverty.Alexander was dreamy, impatient and absent-minded. I was interested in many things, but never completed anything. He studied poorly, voraciously read Main Reed and Jules Verne, Gustav Aimard and Jacolliot.

From the age of eight, Alexander began to think intensely about traveling. He retained his thirst for travel until his death. Every journey, even the smallest one, caused him deep excitement.

WITH early years Green was tired of his joyless existence. At home, the boy was constantly beaten, his mother was sick and exhausted from housework.defendedhisfrom his always drunk father.

With great difficulty, Alexander Green was sent to a real school. But he was soon expelled for writing innocent poems about his class mentor. The father, having brutally beaten his son, humiliated himself and beggedhowever,I couldn’t get my son reinstated in school. I had to send him to the city school. Mother died. Greene's father soon married the psalm-reader's widow. They had a child.

Life went on as before without any events, in the cramped conditions of a wretched apartment, among dirty diapers and wild quarrels. Brutal fights flourished at the school. The boy had to earn a few pennies through hard work so as not to die of hunger.

Green was one of those people who did not know how to get settled in life. In misfortunes, he became lost, hid from people, and was ashamed of his poverty. His rich imagination instantly betrayed him at the first encounter with difficult reality.

Already in adulthood, in order not to die of hunger, Green made a bow, went with it to the outskirts of Old Crimea and shot at birds, hoping to kill at least one and eat fresh meat. But nothing came of this, of course.

Green always hoped for chance, for unexpected happiness. All his stories are full of dreams of a “dazzling incident” and joy, but most of all his story “Scarlet Sails”. But Green began writing this captivating fairy-tale book in Petrograd in 1920, when, after a rainstorm, he wandered around the icy city in search of a random daily overnight stay.

“Scarlet Sails” is a poem that affirms the power of love and the human spirit. “Shined through and through, like the morning sun,” with love for life, for spiritual youth and the belief that a person, in a rush to happiness, is capable of creating miracles with his own hands.

I have "Scarlet Sails" - a story about a captain and a girl. I found out how this happened quite by accident: I stopped at a display case with toys and saw a boat with a sharp sail made of white silk. This toy said something to me, but I didn’t know what, then I wondered if a red sail would say more, or better yet, a scarlet one, because there is a bright glee in scarlet. Rejoicing means knowing why you rejoice. And so, unfolding from this, taking in the waves and the ship with scarlet sails, I saw the purpose of his existence.

From Alexander Green's drafts for the novel "Running on the Waves", 1925

Life in Vyatka dragged on sadly and monotonously until in the spring of 1895 Green saw a cab driver and two navigator students in a white sailor uniform on the pier.

« I stopped- Green wrote about this case, - and looked as if enchanted at the guests from a mysterious, beautiful world for me. I wasn't jealous. And I felt delight and melancholy».

Since then, Alexander’s dreams of naval service and the “picturesque labor of navigation” have not left him. He was going to Odessa. However, it turned out that it was not so easy to get a job on some ship - who needed a frail young man with dreamy eyesto sailors! Finally, he was taken on board a ship without pay as an apprentice, but after two trips he was put off - he could not pay for food.

Green was also an assistant to the owner of the schooner, who pushed him around like a dog. Green hardly slept - broken tiles served as his pillow. He was soon thrown out without paying any money. Returning to Odessa, he worked in port warehouses as a labeler and made his only overseas voyage to Alexandria.

Tired of Odessa, Green decided to return to Vyatka. He rode home like a hare, without his things. The last two hundred kilometers had to be walked through liquid mud - the weather was bad. And the damned Vyatka life began again. Then there were years of fruitless searches for a suitable “occupation.” I had to be both a bathhouse attendant and a scribe: I wrote petitions to the court for the peasants in the tavern.

Unable to bear it, he left for Baku. Life in Baku was so desperately difficult that Greene had memories of it as continuous cold and darkness - he lived by random, cheap labor... He died of malaria in a fishing cooperative and almost died of thirst on the deadly sandy beaches of the Caspian Sea. I spent the night in empty cauldrons on the pier under overturned boats or simply under fences.

Life in Baku left a cruel imprint on Green - he became sad and taciturn, he walked heavily, like loaders walk, strained by work. He was very trusting, and this trustfulness was outwardly expressed in a friendly, open handshake. Greene said he knows people best by the way they shake hands.

From Baku, Green returned to Vyatka again to his drunken father, who constantly demanded money, but there was none. And then thirst took hold of him happy occasion, and in winter, in severe frosts, he went on foot to the Urals to look for gold. Father gave three rubles for the journey. Green worked in the mines, wandered with a benevolent old man (who later turned out to be a murderer and thief), was a woodcutter, a raftsman...

After the Urals, Green sailed as a sailor on the barge of the famous shipowner Bulychov (the prototype of Gorky's play). But this work also ended, and he found nothing better than to become a soldier. He served in an infantry regiment in Penza, encountered the Social Revolutionaries for the first time and began reading revolutionary books. After serving for about a year, Green deserted the regiment and went into revolutionary work. He lived in Sevastopol, where he became famous as an underground speaker.

“Some shades of Sevastopol entered my stories,” admitted Green. But to anyone who knows Green's books and knows Sevastopol, it is clear that the legendary Zurbagan is an almost exact description of Sevastopol. In the fall of 1903, Green was arrested and served in Sevastopol and Feodosia prisons until the end of October 1905. There he first began to write.

At the beginning of 1908, in St. Petersburg, Green published his first author’s collection, “The Invisible Cap” (with the subtitle “Stories about Revolutionaries”). Most of the stories in it are about the Social Revolutionaries.

The third important event was his marriage - his imaginary “prison bride,” 24-year-old Vera Abramova, became Green’s wife. Knock and Gelly - the main characters of the story “One Hundred Miles Along the River” (1912) - are Green and Vera themselves. In 1910, his second collection “Stories” was published. Most of the stories included there are written in a realistic manner, but in two - “Reno Island” and “Lanphier Colony” - the future Greene storyteller can already be guessed. The action of these stories takes place in a conventional country; in style they are close to his later work. Greene himself believed that starting with these stories he could be considered a writer. In the early years he published 25 stories annually. As a new original and talented Russian writer, he meets Alexei Tolstoy, Leonid Andreev, Valery Bryusov, Mikhail Kuzmin and other major writers. He became especially close to A.I. Kuprin.

Soon the writer was arrested again on an old case, exiled to Pinega, then to Kegostrov. In exile, he wrote a lot, read, hunted and, according to him, even took a break from his past life of hard labor.

In 1912 Green returned to St. Petersburg. Here began the best period of his life, a kind of “Boldino Autumn”. At that time, Greene wrote almost continuously.Soon he took his first book to his father in Vyatka to please the old man, who had already come to terms with the idea that his son had turned out to be a worthless tramp. His father didn’t believe him - he had to show contracts with publishing houses and other documents to convince the old man that Green had really become a “man.” This meeting was the last: soon the father died.

In the fall of 1913, Vera decided to separate from her husband. In her memoirs, she complains about Green's unpredictability and uncontrollability, his constant carousing, and mutual misunderstanding. Green made several attempts at reconciliation, but without success. On his 1915 collection, given to Vera, Green wrote: “To my only friend.” He never parted with the portrait of Vera until the end of his life. In 1918 he married a certain Maria Dolidze. Within a few months, the marriage was considered a mistake, and the couple separated. In the spring of 1921, Green married a 26-year-old widow, nurse Nina Nikolaevna Mironova (after Korotkova’s first husband). They met at the beginning of 1918, when Nina worked at the Petrograd Echo newspaper. Her first husband died in the war. A new meeting took place in January 1921, Nina was in desperate need and was selling things (Green later described a similar episode at the beginning of the story “The Pied Piper”). A month later he proposed to her.

The February Revolution found Green in Finland. He greeted her with delight. And he immediately went on foot to Petrograd - the trains no longer ran. He threw all his things and books there and even a portrait of Edgar Allan Poe, which he never parted with.

In 1920 Green was drafted into the Red Army and served near Pskov. He fell ill with rash, he was brought to Petrograd and, together with other patients, was admitted to Botkinske barracks. Green was seriously ill and was discharged from the hospital almost disabled.

Alexander Green. Sevastopol, 1923

Homeless, half-sick and hungry, he wandered along the granite embankments in search of shelter, food and warmth. It was a time of queues, rations, and icy apartments. The thought of death became more and more annoying and stronger. Writer Maxim Gorky, having learned about Green's plight, did everything in his power for him. He was given academic rations, a room on the Moika with a bed and a table. In addition, Gorky gave Green a job. Often at night, remembering his difficult life and Gorky’s help, Green, who had not yet recovered from his illness, cried with gratitude.

In 1923 Green moved to Feodosia - he could not live without the sea. He lived there until 1930, and then moved to Old Crimea - a city of flowers, silence and ruins. Here he died alone from a painful illness - cancer of the stomach and lungs.easy in 1932.

Alexander Green populated his books with a world of cheerful and brave people, a beautiful land full of wonderful forests and sun, not mapped, and amazing events that turn your head like a sipguilt.
And let real life was limited for him to the philistine Vyatka, a dirty vocational school, shelters, backbreaking labor, prison, etc.chronic hunger. But somewhere beyond the gray horizon sparkled and beckoned countries created from light, sea winds and flowering herbs. Other people, dark with tan, lived there - gold miners, hunters, artists, resilient vagabonds, selfless women. And, above all, the sailors.

Alexander Green with his wife. Old Crimea, 1926

Living without the belief that such countries exist somewhere was too difficult for Green, sometimes unbearable. And when the revolution came, Green was sincerely happy, but the wonderful vistas of the new future were still unclearly visible, and Green belonged to people suffering from eternal impatience. Reality could not give him the immediate fulfillment of his dreams. Only imagination transported me to the desired environment, to the circle of the most extraordinary events and people.

If life blossomed overnight, as in a fairy tale, Green would be delighted. But he couldn’t wait and didn’t want to. Waiting bored him and destroyed the poetic structure of his feelings. Perhaps this was the reason for Green’s alienation from time, which was incomprehensible to those around him.
Alexander Green died too early. Death found him at the very beginning of a mental turning point. Green began to listen and look closely at reality. If not for death, then perhaps he would have become one of the most original writers who organically combined reality with a free and bold imagination in his work.

Natalia Tendora "ALEXANDER GREEN"