Biography of Paustovsky briefly the most important thing for 3. Paustovsky Konstantin Georgievich

Russian Soviet writer, classic of Russian literature; member of the USSR Writers Union

Konstantin Paustovsky

Brief biography

– Russian Soviet writer; modern readers they are more aware of such a facet of his work as novels and stories about nature for a children's audience.

Paustovsky was born on May 31 (May 19, old style) in Moscow, his father was a descendant of a Cossack family and worked as a railway statistician. Their family was quite creative, they played the piano here, sang often, loved theatrical performances. As Paustovsky himself said, his father was an incorrigible dreamer, so his places of work, and accordingly, his residence, changed all the time.

In 1898, the Paustovsky family settled in Kyiv. The writer called himself “a Kievite by heart”; many years of his biography were connected with this city; it was in Kyiv that he established himself as a writer. Konstantin's place of study was the 1st Kiev classical gymnasium. As a student in the last grade, he wrote his first story, which was published. Even then, the decision came to him to be a writer, but he could not imagine himself in this profession without accumulating life experience, “go into life.” He also had to do this because his father abandoned his family when Konstantin was in the sixth grade, and the teenager was forced to take care of supporting his family.

In 1911, Paustovsky was a student at the Faculty of History and Philology at Kyiv University, where he studied until 1913. Then he transferred to Moscow, to the university, but to the Faculty of Law, although he did not complete his studies: his studies were interrupted by the First World War. He, as the youngest son in the family, was not drafted into the army, but he worked as a tram driver on a tram and on an ambulance train. On the same day, while on different fronts, two of his brothers died, and because of this, Paustovsky came to his mother in Moscow, but stayed there only for a while. At that time he had the most different places works: Novorossiysk and Bryansk metallurgical plants, a boiler plant in Taganrog, a fishing artel in Azov, etc. In his leisure hours, Paustovsky worked on his first story, “Romantics,” during 1916-1923. (it will be published in Moscow only in 1935).

When the February Revolution began, Paustovsky returned to Moscow and collaborated with newspapers as a reporter. I met you here October Revolution. In the post-revolutionary years, he made a large number of trips around the country. During the civil war, the writer ended up in Ukraine, where he was called up to serve in the Petlyura army and then in the Red army. Then, for two years, Paustovsky lived in Odessa, working in the editorial office of the newspaper “Sailor”. From there, carried away by the thirst for distant travels, he went to the Caucasus, lived in Batumi, Sukhumi, Yerevan, and Baku.

He returned to Moscow in 1923. Here he worked as an editor at ROSTA, and in 1928 his first collection of stories was published, although some stories and essays had previously been published separately. In the same year he wrote his first novel, “Shining Clouds.” In the 30s Paustovsky is a journalist for several publications at once, in particular, the Pravda newspaper, Our Achievement magazines, etc. These years are also filled with numerous trips around the country, which provided material for many works of art.

In 1932, his story “Kara-Bugaz” was published, which became a turning point. She makes the writer famous, in addition, from that moment Paustovsky decides to become a professional writer and leaves his job. As before, the writer travels a lot; during his life he has traveled almost the entire USSR. Meshchera became his favorite corner, to which he dedicated many inspired lines.

When the Great Patriotic War began, Konstantin Georgievich also had a chance to visit many places. On the Southern Front he worked as a war correspondent, without abandoning his literary studies. In the 50s Paustovsky's place of residence was Moscow and Tarus on the Oka. His post-war years creative path marked by an appeal to the topic of writing. During 1945-1963. Paustovsky worked on the autobiographical “Tale of Life,” and these 6 books were the main work of his entire life.

In the mid-50s. Konstantin Georgievich becomes a world-famous writer, the recognition of his talent goes beyond the borders of his native country. The writer gets the opportunity to travel throughout the continent, and he uses it with pleasure, traveling to Poland, Turkey, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Greece, etc. In 1965, he lived for quite a long time on the island of Capri. In the same year, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but in the end it was awarded to M. Sholokhov. Paustovsky is a holder of the Order of Lenin and the Red Banner of Labor, and was awarded a large number of medals.

Biography from Wikipedia

Konstantin Georgievich Paustovsky(May 19 (31), 1892, Moscow - July 14, 1968, Moscow) - Russian Soviet writer, classic of Russian literature. Member of the USSR Writers' Union. K. Paustovsky's books have been repeatedly translated into many languages of the world. In the second half of the 20th century, his novels and short stories were included in the Russian literature curriculum for middle classes in Russian schools as one of the plot and stylistic examples of landscape and lyrical prose.

His autobiographical “Tale of Life” in two volumes, 6 books in total, can help to understand the origins and development of K. G. Paustovsky’s work. The first book “Distant Years” is dedicated to the writer’s childhood there.

My whole life with early childhood until 1921 is described in three books - “Distant Years”, “Restless Youth” and “The Beginning of an Unknown Century”. All these books form parts of my autobiographical “Tale of Life”...

Origin and education

Konstantin Paustovsky was born into the family of railway statistician Georgy Maksimovich Paustovsky, who had Ukrainian-Polish-Turkish roots and lived in Granatny Lane in Moscow. He was baptized in the Church of St. George in Vspolye. The entry in the church register contains information about his parents: “...the father is a retired non-commissioned officer of the second category from volunteers, from the bourgeoisie of the Kyiv province, Vasilkovsky district, Georgy Maksimovich Paustovsky and his legal wife Maria Grigorievna, both Orthodox people”.

The writer’s pedigree on his father’s side is connected with the name of Hetman P.K. Sagaidachny, although he did not attach much importance to this: “My father laughed at his “hetman origin” and liked to say that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers plowed the land and were the most ordinary, patient grain growers...” The writer’s grandfather was a Cossack, had the experience of being a Chumakov, transporting goods from Crimea with his comrades deep into Ukrainian territory, and introduced young Kostya to Ukrainian folklore, Chumakov, Cossack songs and stories, of which the most memorable was the romantic and tragic story of a former rural blacksmith that touched him, and then the blind lyre player Ostap, who lost his sight from the blow of a cruel nobleman, a rival who stood in the way of his love for a beautiful noble lady, who then died, unable to bear the separation from Ostap and his torment.

Before becoming a Chumak, the writer’s paternal grandfather served in the army under Nicholas I, was captured by the Turks during one of the Russian-Turkish wars and brought from there his stern Turkish wife Fatma, who was baptized in Russia with the name Honorata, so The writer's father's Ukrainian-Cossack blood is mixed with Turkish. The father is portrayed in the story “Distant Years” as a not very practical man of a freedom-loving revolutionary-romantic type and an atheist, which irritated his mother-in-law, another grandmother of the future writer.

High school student K. G. Paustovsky (far left) with friends.

The writer’s maternal grandmother, Vikentia Ivanovna, who lived in Cherkassy, was Polish, a zealous Catholic, who took her preschool-age grandson, with his father’s disapproval, to worship Catholic shrines in the then Russian part of Poland, and the impressions of their visit and the people they met there also sank deeply into her soul writer. My grandmother always wore mourning after the defeat of the Polish uprising in 1863, as she sympathized with the idea of freedom for Poland: “We were sure that during the uprising, my grandmother’s fiancé was killed - some proud Polish rebel, not at all like my grandmother’s gloomy husband, and my grandfather, a former notary in the city of Cherkassy.”. After the defeat of the Poles from government forces Russian Empire active supporters of Polish liberation felt hostility towards the oppressors, and on a Catholic pilgrimage, the grandmother forbade the boy to speak Russian, while he spoke Polish only to a minimal extent. The boy was also frightened by the religious frenzy of other Catholic pilgrims, and he alone did not fulfill the required rituals, which his grandmother explained by the bad influence of his father, an atheist. The Polish grandmother is portrayed as strict, but kind and attentive. Her husband, the writer’s second grandfather, was a taciturn man who lived alone in his room on the mezzanine and his grandchildren’s communication with him was not noted by the author of the story as a significant factor influencing him, unlike communication with the other two members of that family - a young, beautiful , the cheerful, impetuous and musically gifted Aunt Nadya, who died early, and her older brother, the adventurer Uncle Yuzy - Joseph Grigorievich. This uncle received a military education and, having the character of a tireless traveler, a never-despairing, unsuccessful entrepreneur, a restless person and an adventurer, disappeared from his parents’ home for a long time and unexpectedly returned to it from the farthest corners of the Russian Empire and the rest of the world, for example, from the construction of the Chinese-Eastern railway or by participating in South Africa in the Anglo-Boer War, on the side of the small Boers, who staunchly resisted the British conquerors, as the liberal-minded Russian public, which sympathized with these descendants of Dutch settlers, believed at the time. On his last visit to Kyiv, which occurred during the armed uprising that took place there during the First Russian Revolution of 1905-07, he unexpectedly got involved in the events, organizing the previously unsuccessful shooting of the rebel artillerymen at government buildings and after the defeat of the uprising he was forced to emigrate for the rest of his life to the countries of the Far East. All these people and events influenced the personality and work of the writer.

The writer's parental family had four children. Konstantin Paustovsky had two older brothers (Boris and Vadim) and a sister Galina.

High school student K. G. Paustovsky.

In 1898, the family returned from Moscow to Kyiv, where in 1904 Konstantin Paustovsky entered the First Kyiv Classical Gymnasium. My favorite subject while studying at the gymnasium was geography.

After the breakup of the family (autumn 1908), he lived for several months with his uncle, Nikolai Grigorievich Vysochansky, in Bryansk and studied at the Bryansk gymnasium.

In the fall of 1909, he returned to Kyiv and, having recovered at the Alexandrovskaya Gymnasium (with the assistance of its teachers), began an independent life, earning money by tutoring. After some time, the future writer settled with his grandmother, Vikentia Ivanovna Vysochanskaya, who moved to Kyiv from Cherkassy. Here, in a small outbuilding on Lukyanovka, high school student Paustovsky wrote his first stories, which were published in Kyiv magazines. After graduating from high school in 1912, he entered the Imperial University of St. Vladimir in Kyiv to the Faculty of History and Philology, where he studied for two years.

In total, Konstantin Paustovsky, “a Muscovite by birth and a Kievite by heart,” lived in Ukraine for more than twenty years. It was here that he established himself as a journalist and writer, as he admitted more than once in his autobiographical prose. In the preface to the Ukrainian edition of “Gold of Troyanda” (Russian: “Golden Rose”) In 1957 he wrote:

In the books of almost every writer, the image of his native land, with its endless sky and silence of fields, with its thoughtful forests and the language of the people, shines through, as if through a light sunny haze. Overall, I was lucky. I grew up in Ukraine. I am grateful to her lyricism in many aspects of my prose. I carried the image of Ukraine in my heart for many years.

World War I and Civil War

With the outbreak of World War I, K. Paustovsky moved to Moscow to live with his mother, sister and brother and transferred to Moscow University, but was soon forced to interrupt his studies and get a job. He worked as a conductor and counselor on the Moscow tram, then served as an orderly on the rear and field ambulance trains. In the fall of 1915, with a field medical detachment, he retreated along with the Russian army from Lublin in Poland to Nesvizh in Belarus.

After both of his brothers died on the same day on different fronts, Paustovsky returned to Moscow to his mother and sister, but after some time he left there. During this period, he worked at the Bryansk Metallurgical Plant in Yekaterinoslav, at the Novorossiysk Metallurgical Plant in Yuzovka, at a boiler plant in Taganrog, and from the fall of 1916 in a fishing cooperative on the Sea of Azov. After the start of the February Revolution, he left for Moscow, where he worked as a reporter for newspapers. In Moscow, he witnessed the events of 1917-1919 associated with the October Revolution.

During the civil war, K. Paustovsky returns to Ukraine, where his mother and sister moved again. In Kyiv in December 1918, he was drafted into the Ukrainian army of Hetman Skoropadsky, and soon after the next change of power he was drafted into the Red Army - into a guard regiment recruited from former Makhnovists. A few days later, one of the guard soldiers shot and killed the regimental commander and the regiment was disbanded.

Subsequently, Konstantin Georgievich traveled a lot around the south of Russia, lived for two years in Odessa, working in the newspapers “Stanok” and “Sailor”. During this period, Paustovsky became friends with I. Ilf, I. Babel (about whom he later left detailed memories), Bagritsky, and L. Slavin. From Odessa Paustovsky left for Crimea, then to the Caucasus. Lived in Sukhumi, Batumi, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Baku, visited northern Persia.

In 1923, Paustovsky returned to Moscow. For several years he worked as an editor at ROSTA.

1930s

In the 1930s, Paustovsky actively worked as a journalist for the Pravda newspaper, 30 Days, Our Achievements and others magazines, and traveled widely around the country. The impressions from these trips were embodied in works of art and essays. In 1930, the following essays were published for the first time in the magazine “30 Days”: “Talking about Fish” (No. 6), “Chasing Plants” (No. 7), “Blue Fire Zone” (No. 12).

K. G. Paustovsky
on the narrow gauge railway Ryazan - Tuma in Solotch, 1930

From 1930 until the early 1950s, Paustovsky spent a lot of time in the village of Solotcha near Ryazan in the Meshchera forests. At the beginning of 1931, on instructions from ROSTA, he went to Berezniki for the construction of the Berezniki chemical plant, where he continued work on the story “Kara- Bugaz." Essays about the Berezniki construction were published in a small book, “The Giant on the Kama.” The story “Kara-Bugaz” was completed in Livny in the summer of 1931, and became a key one for K. Paustovsky - after the publication of the story, he left the service and switched to creative work, becoming a professional writer.

In 1932, Konstantin Paustovsky visited Petrozavodsk, working on the history of the Onega plant (the topic was suggested by A. M. Gorky). The result of the trip was the stories “The Fate of Charles Lonseville” and “Lake Front” and a long essay “The Onega Plant”. Impressions from a trip to the north of the country also formed the basis for the essays “The Country Beyond Onega” and “Murmansk”.

Based on the materials from the trip along the Volga and Caspian Sea, the essay “Underwater Winds” was written, published for the first time in the magazine “Krasnaya Nov” No. 4 for 1932. In 1937, the newspaper Pravda published the essay “New Tropics,” written based on the impressions of several trips to Mingrelia.

Having traveled around the north-west of the country, visiting Novgorod, Staraya Russa, Pskov, Mikhailovskoye, Paustovsky wrote the essay “Mikhailovsky Groves”, published in the magazine “Krasnaya Nov” (No. 7, 1938).

By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On awarding Soviet writers"On January 31, 1939, K. G. Paustovsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (“For outstanding successes and achievements in the development of Soviet fiction”).

Period of the Great Patriotic War

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Paustovsky, who became a war correspondent, served on the Southern Front. In a letter to Reuben Fraerman dated October 9, 1941, he wrote: “I spent a month and a half on the Southern Front, almost all the time, not counting four days, on the line of fire...”

In mid-August, Konstantin Paustovsky returned to Moscow and was left to work in the TASS apparatus. Soon, at the request of the Committee on Arts, he was released from service to work on new play for the Moscow Art Theater and evacuated with his family to Alma-Ata, where he worked on the play “Until the Heart Stops,” the novel “Smoke of the Fatherland,” and wrote a number of stories. The production of the play was prepared by the Moscow Chamber Theater under the direction of A. Ya. Tairov, who was evacuated to Barnaul. While working with the theater staff, Paustovsky spent some time (winter 1942 and early spring 1943) in Barnaul and Belokurikha. He called this period of his life “Barnaul months.” The premiere of the play “Until the Heart Stops,” dedicated to the fight against fascism, took place in Barnaul on April 4, 1943.

World recognition

In the 1950s, Paustovsky lived in Moscow and Tarusa-on-Oka. He became one of the compilers of the most important collective collections of the democratic movement during the Thaw, “Literary Moscow” (1956) and “Tarussky Pages” (1961). For more than ten years he led a prose seminar at the Literary Institute. Gorky, was the head of the department of literary excellence. Among the students at Paustovsky’s seminar were: Inna Goff, Vladimir Tendryakov, Grigory Baklanov, Yuri Bondarev, Yuri Trifonov, Boris Balter, Ivan Panteleev. In her book “Transformations” Inna Goff wrote about K. G. Paustovsky:

I think about him often. Yes, he had a rare talent as a Teacher. It is no coincidence that there are many teachers among his passionate fans. He knew how to create a special, mysteriously beautiful atmosphere of creativity - this is the lofty word I want to use here.

In the mid-1950s, Paustovsky gained worldwide recognition. Having the opportunity to travel around Europe, he visited Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Turkey, Greece, Sweden, Italy and other countries. Setting off on a cruise around Europe in 1956, he visited Istanbul, Athens, Naples, Rome, Paris, Rotterdam, and Stockholm. At the invitation of Bulgarian writers, K. Paustovsky visited Bulgaria in 1959. In 1965, he lived for some time on the island. Capri. Also in 1965, he was one of the likely candidates for Nobel Prize in literature, which was eventually awarded to Mikhail Sholokhov. In the book “Lexicon of Russian Literature of the 20th Century,” written by the famous German Slavist Wolfgang Kazak, it is said about this: “The planned presentation of the Nobel Prize to K. Paustovsky in 1965 did not take place, as the Soviet authorities began to threaten Sweden with economic sanctions. And thus, instead of him, the major Soviet literary functionary M. Sholokhov was awarded.”.

Paustovsky was a second candidate for the Nobel Prize in 1967, he was nominated by member of the Swedish Academy, writer and subsequent Nobel Prize winner (1974) Eivind Jonsson. However, the Nobel Committee rejected Paustovsky’s candidacy with the wording that became known only in 2017: “The Committee would like to emphasize its interest in this proposal for the Russian writer, but for natural reasons it must be put aside for now.” The probable reason for the refusal was the analysis of Paustovsky’s work carried out by literary critic om Eric Mesterton. His summary read: “In modern Russian literature, Paustovsky undoubtedly occupies an outstanding place. But he is not a great writer, as far as I understand... Paustovsky is a writer with great merits, but also with great shortcomings. I do not find that his merits can outweigh his demerits sufficiently to justify awarding him the Nobel Prize." As a result, the 1967 prize was awarded to the Guatemalan writer and diplomat Miguel Angel Asturias.

K. G. Paustovsky was among Marlene Dietrich's favorite writers. In her book “Reflections” (chapter “Paustovsky”), she described their meeting, which took place in 1964 during her speech at the Central House of Writers:

“...Once I read the story “Telegram” by Paustovsky. (It was a book where next to the Russian text there was his English translation.) He made such an impression on me that I could no longer forget either the story or the name of the writer, whom I had never heard of. I have not been able to find other books by this amazing writer. When I came on tour to Russia, at the Moscow airport I asked about Paustovsky. Hundreds of journalists gathered here, they didn’t ask stupid questions that they usually annoyed me with in other countries. Their questions were very interesting. Our conversation lasted more than an hour. When we approached my hotel, I already knew everything about Paustovsky. He was sick at the time and was in the hospital. Later I read both volumes of “The Tale of Life” and was intoxicated by his prose. We performed for writers, artists, artists, often there were even four performances a day. And on one of these days, preparing for a performance, Burt Bacharach and I were backstage. My charming translator Nora came to us and said that Paustovsky was in the hall. But this couldn’t be, I know that he is in the hospital with a heart attack, that’s what they told me at the airport on the day I arrived. I objected: “This is impossible!” Nora assured: “Yes, he is here with his wife.” The performance went well. But you can never foresee this - when you try especially hard, most often you do not achieve what you want. At the end of the show I was asked to stay on stage. And suddenly Paustovsky walked up the steps. I was so shocked by his presence that, being unable to utter a word in Russian, I found no other way to express my admiration for him than to kneel before him. Worried about his health, I wanted him to return to the hospital immediately. But his wife reassured me: “It will be better for him.” It took him a lot of effort to come to see me. He died soon after. I still have his books and memories of him. He wrote romantically, but simply, without embellishment. I'm not sure if he is known in America, but one day he will be “discovered.” In his descriptions he resembles Hamsun. He is the best Russian writer I know. I met him too late."

In memory of this meeting, Marlene Dietrich gave Konstantin Georgievich several photographs. One of them captured Konstantin Paustovsky and an actress kneeling before her beloved writer on the stage of the Central House of Writers.

Recent years

Grave of K. G. Paustovsky.

In 1966, Konstantin Paustovsky signed a letter from twenty-five cultural and scientific figures Secretary General The Central Committee of the CPSU to L. I. Brezhnev is against the rehabilitation of I. Stalin. For a long time, Konstantin Paustovsky suffered from asthma and suffered several heart attacks. Died on July 14, 1968 in Moscow. According to his will, he was buried in the local Tarusa cemetery - above the steep bank of the Taruska River. The title of “Honorary Citizen” of Tarusa Paustovsky was awarded on May 30, 1967.

Journalist Valery Druzhbinsky, who worked for K. Paustovsky as a literary secretary in 1965-1968, wrote in his memoirs about the writer (“Paustovsky as I remember him”): “Surprisingly, Paustovsky managed to live through the time of insane praise of Stalin and not write a word about the leader of all times and peoples. He managed not to join the party, not to sign a single letter or appeal stigmatizing anyone. He tried his best to stay and so he remained himself.”

During the trial of the writers A. D. Sinyavsky and Yu. M. Daniel, K. Paustovsky (together with K. Chukovsky) openly spoke out in their support, providing the court with positive reviews of their work.

In 1965, he signed a letter petitioning to provide A.I. Solzhenitsyn with an apartment in Moscow, and in 1967 he supported Solzhenitsyn, who wrote a letter to the IV Congress of Soviet Writers demanding the abolition of censorship literary works.

Shortly before his death, the seriously ill Paustovsky sent a letter to A. N. Kosygin asking not to fire the chief director of the Taganka Theater, Yu. P. Lyubimov. The letter was followed by a telephone conversation with Kosygin, in which Konstantin Georgievich said:

“The dying Paustovsky is speaking to you. I beg you not to destroy the cultural values of our country. If you remove Lyubimov, the theater will fall apart and a great cause will perish.”

The dismissal order was not signed.

Family

Father, Georgy Maksimovich Paustovsky (1852-1912), was a railway statistician, came from Zaporozhye Cossacks. He died and was buried in 1912 in the village. An ancient settlement near Bila Tserkva.
Mother, Maria Grigorievna, née Vysochanskaya(1858 - June 20, 1934) - buried at the Baikovo cemetery in Kyiv.
Sister, Paustovskaya Galina Georgievna(1886 - January 8, 1936) - buried at the Baikovo cemetery in Kyiv (next to her mother).
The brothers of K. G. Paustovsky were killed on the same day in 1915 on the fronts of the First World War: Boris Georgievich Paustovsky(1888-1915) - lieutenant of a sapper battalion, killed on the Galician front; Vadim Georgievich Paustovsky(1890-1915) - ensign of the Navaginsky infantry regiment, killed in battle in the Riga direction.
Grandfather (paternal side), Maxim Grigorievich Paustovsky- former soldier, participant in the Russian-Turkish war, one-palace; grandmother, Honorata Vikentievna- Turkish (Fatma), baptized into Orthodoxy. Paustovsky’s grandfather brought her from Kazanlak, where he was in captivity.
Grandfather (maternal side), Grigory Moiseevich Vysochansky(d. 1901), notary in Cherkassy; grandmother Vincentia Ivanovna(d. 1914) - Polish noblewoman.
First wife - Ekaterina Stepanovna Zagorskaya(2.10.1889-1969), (father - Stepan Alexandrovich, priest, died before Catherine's birth; mother - Maria Yakovlevna Gorodtsova, a rural teacher, died a few years after the death of her husband). On her mother's side, Ekaterina Zagorskaya is a relative of the famous archaeologist Vasily Alekseevich Gorodtsov, the discoverer of the unique antiquities of Old Ryazan. Paustovsky met his future wife when he went as an orderly to the front (World War I), where Ekaterina Zagorskaya was a nurse. Paustovsky and Zagorskaya got married in the summer of 1916, in Ekaterina’s native Podlesnaya Sloboda in the Ryazan province (now Lukhovitsky district of the Moscow region), in which her father served as a priest. In 1936, Ekaterina Zagorskaya and Konstantin Paustovsky separated. Catherine admitted to her relatives that she gave her husband a divorce herself. She couldn’t stand that he “got involved with a Polish woman” (meaning Paustovsky’s second wife). Konstantin Georgievich, however, continued to take care of his son Vadim after the divorce. Name Hatice (Russian: "Ekaterina") E. Zagorskaya was given the gift of a Tatar woman from a Crimean village where she spent the summer of 1914.

...I love her more than my mother, more than myself... Hatice is an impulse, an edge of the divine, joy, melancholy, illness, unprecedented achievements and torment.

Son - Vadim(08/02/1925 - 04/10/2000). Until the end of his life, Vadim Paustovsky collected letters from his parents, documents, and donated many things to the Paustovsky Museum-Center in Moscow.

K. G. Paustovsky and V. V. Navashina-Paustovskaya on a narrow-gauge railway in Solotch. In the carriage window: the writer’s son Vadim and adopted son Sergei Navashin. Late 1930s.

Second wife - Valeria Vladimirovna Valishevskaya-Navashina(Waleria Waliszewska)- sister of the famous Polish artist Zygmunt (Sigismund) Waliszewski in the 20s (Zygmunt Waliszewski). Valeria becomes the inspiration for many works - for example, “The Meshchera Side”, “Throw to the South” (here Valishevskaya was the prototype of Maria).
Third wife - Tatyana Alekseevna Evteeva-Arbuzova(1903-1978), actress of the theater. Meyerhold. They met when Tatyana Evteeva was the wife of the fashionable playwright Alexei Arbuzov (Arbuzov’s play “Tanya” is dedicated to her). She married K. G. Paustovsky in 1950. Paustovsky wrote about her:

Tenderness, my only person, I swear on my life that such love (without boasting) has never existed in the world. It never was and never will be, all other love is nonsense and nonsense. Let your heart beat calmly and happily, my heart! We will all be happy, everyone! I know and believe...

Son - Alexey(1950-1976), born in the village of Solotcha, Ryazan region.
Stepdaughter - Galina Arbuzova, curator of the House-Museum of K. G. Paustovsky in Tarusa.

Creation

My writing life began with the desire to know everything, see everything and travel. And, obviously, this is where it ends.
The poetry of wanderings, merging with unvarnished reality, formed the best alloy for creating books.

The first works, “On the Water” and “Four” (in the notes to the first volume of the six-volume collected works of K. Paustovsky, published in 1958, the story is called “Three”), were written by Paustovsky while still studying in the last grade of the Kyiv gymnasium. The story “On the Water” was published in the Kiev almanac “Lights”, No. 32 and was signed with the pseudonym “K. Balagin" (the only story published by Paustovsky under a pseudonym). The story “Four” was published in the youth magazine “Knight” (No. 10-12, October-December, 1913).

In 1916, while working at the Nev-Vilde boiler plant in Taganrog, K. Paustovsky began writing his first novel, “Romantics,” work on which lasted seven years and was completed in 1923 in Odessa.

It seems to me that one of characteristic features my prose is its romantic mood...
... A romantic mood does not contradict an interest in and love for the “rough” life. In all areas of reality, with rare exceptions, there are seeds of romance.
They can be ignored and trampled, or, conversely, given the opportunity to grow, decorate and ennoble with their flowering inner world person.

In 1928, Paustovsky’s first collection of stories, “Oncoming Ships,” was published (“My first real book was the collection of stories “Oncoming Ships”), although individual essays and stories had been published before that. In a short period of time (winter 1928), the novel “Shining Clouds” was written, in which detective-adventurous intrigue, conveyed in magnificent figurative language, was combined with autobiographical episodes related to Paustovsky’s trips around the Black Sea and the Caucasus in 1925-1927. The novel was published by the Kharkov publishing house "Proletary" in 1929.

The story “Kara-Bugaz” brought fame. Written on the basis of true facts and published in 1932 by the Moscow publishing house “Young Guard,” the story immediately brought Paustovsky (according to critics) to the forefront of Soviet writers of that time. The story has been published many times different languages peoples of the USSR and abroad. The film “Kara-Bugaz”, shot in 1935 by director Alexander Razumny, was not allowed to be released for political reasons.

In 1935 in Moscow, the publishing house " Fiction“The novel “Romantics” was published for the first time, included in the collection of the same name.

In the 1930s, stories of various themes were created:

“The Fate of Charles Lonseville” - written in the summer of 1933 in Solotch. It was first published as a separate publication by the Moscow publishing house “Young Guard”. Reprinted several times. It was translated into many languages of the peoples of the USSR.
“Colchis” - written in the fall of 1933, was first published in the almanac “Year 17th” in 1934. The creation of the story was preceded by Paustovsky's trip to Megrelia. In 1934, “Colchis” was published as a separate book (Moscow, “Detizdat”), was reprinted several times, and was translated into many foreign languages and languages of the peoples of the USSR.
“Black Sea” - written in the winter of 1935-1936. in Sevastopol, where Paustovsky settled specifically to be able to use the materials of the Sevastopol Maritime Library. The story was first published in the almanac “Year XIX”, in No. 9 for 1936.
“Constellation of Hound Dogs” - written in 1936 in Yalta. It was first published in the magazine “Znamya” No. 6, 1937. In the same year, the story was published as a separate publication in Detizdat. The play written by Paustovsky based on this story was performed in many theaters across the country for several years.
“The Northern Tale” was written in 1937, written in Moscow and Solotch. It was first published under the title “Northern Stories” in the magazine “Znamya” (No. 1, 2, 3 for 1938). In 1939, the story was published as a separate book in Detizdat. Separate editions were published in Berlin and Warsaw.
"Isaac Levitan" (1937)
"Orest Kiprensky" (1937)
"Taras Shevchenko" (1939)

The Meshchera region occupies a special place in Paustovsky’s work. Paustovsky wrote about his beloved Meshchera:

I found the greatest, simplest and most ingenuous happiness in the forested Meshchera region. Happiness of closeness to your land, concentration and inner freedom, favorite thoughts and hard work. I owe most of the things I have written to Central Russia - and only to it.

The story “Golden Rose” (1955) is dedicated to the essence of writing.

"The Tale of Life"

In 1945-1963, Paustovsky wrote his main work - the autobiographical “Tale of Life”. Various parts of the book were published in magazine versions as they were written.

“The Tale of Life” consists of six books: “Distant Years” (1946), “Restless Youth” (1954), “The Beginning of an Unknown Century” (1956), “A Time of Great Expectations” (1958), “Throw to the South” ( 1959-1960), “The Book of Wanderings” (1963). It was first published in full by Goslitizdat in 1962 in two volumes consisting of six books.

The German Slavist and literary critic V. Kazak wrote:

Regardless of the length of the work, Paustovsky’s narrative structure is additive, “in selection,” when episode follows episode; The predominant form of narration is in the first person, on behalf of the narrator-observer. More complex structures with the subordination of several lines of action are alien to Paustovsky’s prose.

In 1958, the State Publishing House of Fiction published a six-volume collected works of the writer with a circulation of 225 thousand copies.

Bibliography

Collected works in 6 volumes. - M.: Goslitizdat, 1957-1958
Collected works in 8 volumes + extras. volume. - M.: Fiction, 1967-1972
Collected works in 9 volumes. - M.: Fiction, 1981-1986
Selected works in 3 volumes. - M.: Russian book, 1995

Awards and prizes

January 31, 1939 - Order of the Red Banner of Labor
May 30, 1962 - Order of the Red Banner of Labor
June 16, 1967 - Order of Lenin
1967 - Włodzimierz Pietrzak Prize (Poland).
1995 - Medal “For the Defense of Odessa” (posthumously).
1997 - Medal “For Courage” (posthumously).
2010 - Jubilee medal “65 years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.” (posthumously).

Film adaptations

1935 - “Kara-Bugaz”
1957 - “Telegram” (short film)
1960 - “Northern Tale” (film)
1965 - “The Promise of Happiness” (film-play)
1967 - “The Disheveled Sparrow” (cartoon)
1971 - “Steel Ring” (film, film named after A. Dovzhenko, directed by Anatoly Kirik)
1973 - " Warm bread" (cartoon)
1979 - “Steel Ring” (cartoon)
1979 - “Frog” (cartoon)
1988 - “Tenants of the Old House” (cartoon)
1983 - “A Soldier’s Tale” (cartoon)
1989 - “Basket with fir cones” ( animated film using music by E. Grieg)
2003 - “Island without Love” (TV series; 4th episode “I’ll be waiting for you...” based on the story “Snow”)

In music

1962 - opera “Snow” by Alexander Friedlander, libretto by M. Loginovskaya (based on the story of the same name by K. G. Paustovsky)
1962 - ballet “Lieutenant Lermontov” by Alexander Friedlander, based on the play of the same name by K. G. Paustovsky
1964 - opera “Lieutenant Lermontov” by Yu. M. Zaritsky (1921-1975), libretto by V. A. Rozhdestvensky (based on the play by K. G. Paustovsky; production at the Leningrad Maly Opera and Ballet Theater)

Memory

The first perpetuation of the memory of K. G. Paustovsky in the USSR was the assignment of his name to Odessa Mass Library No. 2 - one of the oldest libraries in the city. The library was named after the writer by decision of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR No. 134 of February 20, 1969.

The first monument to K. G. Paustovsky was opened on April 1, 2010, also in Odessa, on the territory of the Odessa Sculpture Garden literary museum. Kiev sculptor Oleg Chernoivanov immortalized the great writer in the image of a mysterious sphinx.

On August 24, 2012, a monument to Konstantin Paustovsky was inaugurated on the banks of the Oka River in Tarusa, created by sculptor Vadim Tserkovnikov based on photographs of Konstantin Georgievich, in which the writer is depicted with his dog Grozny.

The minor planet, discovered by N. S. Chernykh on September 8, 1978 at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and registered under number 5269, is named in honor of K. G. Paustovsky - (5269) Paustovskij = 1978 SL6.

The following names are named after the writer: Paustovsky Street in Moscow, streets in Petrozavodsk, Odessa, Kyiv, Dnieper, Tarusa, Taganrog, Rostov-on-Don, Library No. 5 in Sevastopol, Project 1430 motor ship in Crimea.

On the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the writer’s birth, an organizing committee was created to prepare and conduct events in honor of the significant date, chaired by Mikhail Seslavinsky, which included the director of the State Literary Museum Dmitry Bak, the director of the Institute of Russian Literature Vsevolod Bagno, the director of the Russian State Archive of Literature and art Tatyana Goryaeva, director of the Moscow Literary Museum-Center of K. G. Paustovsky Anzhelika Dormidontova, curator of the K. G. Paustovsky House-Museum in Tarusa Galina Arbuzova, head of the K. G. Paustovsky House-Museum in Old Crimea Irina Kotyuk and others.

On Paustovsky’s birthday in 2017, the main celebrations took place at the writer’s House-Museum in Tarusa. In total, about 100 events took place in the anniversary year festive events. Among them is “Night in the Archive” at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), where the guests were presented with the author’s original manuscripts. An international conference dedicated to literary heritage Konstantin Paustovsky.

The exhibition “The Unknown Paustovsky” was held at the Writer’s House-Museum in Tarusa. The “Paustovsky Trail” route has opened in the Meshchersky National Park (it is also planned to create a museum there based on his work “Cordon 273”). The All-Russian youth literary and musical festival “Tarussky Thunderstorms” brought together venerable and aspiring poets from many regions of Russia in Tarusa. For the writer’s anniversary, Russian Post issued an envelope with an original stamp. Unique items, including manuscripts, postcards, letters, autographs, were shown on November 1 at the exhibition “Russia through the eyes of Paustovsky,” which opened on Arbat. Also on November 1, the exhibition “Paustovsky and Cinema” was opened in the Belyaevo gallery. December 14 in State Museum named after Pushkin, the exhibition “Konstantin Paustovsky. Uncut." Among the acquired documents, a postcard sent by the writer Ivan Bunin to Paustovsky on September 15, 1947 is of particular value. It contains a review of Paustovsky’s story “The Tavern on Braginka”.

Museums

Literary Museum-Center of K. G. Paustovsky in Moscow (Kuzminki estate). Since 1992, the museum has published a specialized cultural and educational magazine, “The World of Paustovsky.”
In the city of Old Crimea there is a house-museum of Paustovsky.
In the village Pilipcha, Belotserkovsky district, Kyiv region, there is a Paustovsky museum.
Paustovsky House-Museum in Tarusa. The opening took place on May 31, 2012, on the day of the 120th anniversary of the birth of K. Paustovsky.
Memorial Museum of K. G. Paustovsky in Odessa on the street. Chernomorskaya, 6. Literary association "World of Paustovsky".
Kiev Museum of K. G. Paustovsky at school No. 135, Mikhail Kotsyubinsky Street, 12B. The opening took place on November 30, 2013.

Popular biographies › Konstantin Paustovsky

Konstantin Paustovsky worked in factories, was a tram leader, an orderly, a journalist and even a fisherman... Whatever the writer did, wherever he went, no matter who he met - all the events of his life sooner or later became the themes of his literary works.

“Youth Poems” and First Prose

Konstantin Paustovsky was born in 1892 in Moscow. There were four children in the family: Paustovsky had two brothers and a sister. My father was often transferred to work, the family moved a lot, and eventually they settled in Kyiv.

In 1904, Konstantin entered the First Kyiv Classical Gymnasium here. When he entered sixth grade, his father left the family. To pay for his studies, the future writer had to work as a tutor.

In his youth, Konstantin Paustovsky was fond of the work of Alexander Green. In his memoirs, he wrote: “My state could be defined in two words: admiration for the imaginary world and melancholy due to the inability to see it. These two feelings prevailed in my youthful poems and my first immature prose.” In 1912, Paustovsky’s first story, “On the Water,” was published in the Kiev almanac “Lights.”

In 1912, the future writer entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Kyiv University. After the outbreak of the First World War, he transferred to Moscow: his mother, sister and one of his brothers lived here. However, during the war, Paustovsky almost did not study: first he worked as a tram leader, then he got a job on an ambulance train.

“In the fall of 1915, I transferred from the train to a field ambulance detachment and walked with it a long retreat route from Lublin in Poland to the town of Nesvizh in Belarus. In the detachment, from a greasy scrap of newspaper I came across, I learned that on the same day two of my brothers were killed on different fronts. I was left with my mother completely alone, except for my half-blind and sick sister.”
Konstantin Paustovsky

After the death of his brothers, Konstantin returned to Moscow, but not for long. He traveled from city to city, working in factories. In Taganrog, Paustovsky became a fisherman in one of the artels. Subsequently, he said that the sea made him a writer. Here Paustovsky began writing his first novel, “Romantics.”

During his travels, the writer met Ekaterina Zagorskaya. When she lived in Crimea, the residents of a Tatar village called her Khatice, and Paustovsky called her the same way: “I love her more than my mother, more than myself... Hatice is an impulse, an edge of the divine, joy, melancholy, illness, unprecedented achievements and torment...” In 1916 the couple got married. Paustovsky's first son, Vadim, was born 9 years later, in 1925.

Konstantin Paustovsky

"Profession: knowing everything"

During the October Revolution, Konstantin Paustovsky was in Moscow. He worked here as a journalist for some time, but soon went to follow his mother again - this time to Kyiv. Having survived several revolutions here Civil War, Paustovsky moved to Odessa.

“In Odessa, I first found myself among young writers. Among the employees of "Sailor" were Kataev, Ilf, Bagritsky, Shengeli, Lev Slavin, Babel, Andrei Sobol, Semyon Kirsanov and even the elderly writer Yushkevich. In Odessa, I lived near the sea and wrote a lot, but had not yet published, believing that I had not yet achieved the ability to master any material and genre. Soon the “muse of distant wanderings” took possession of me again. I left Odessa, lived in Sukhum, Batumi, Tbilisi, was in Erivan, Baku and Julfa, until I finally returned to Moscow.”
Konstantin Paustovsky

In 1923, the writer returned to Moscow and became an editor at the Russian Telegraph Agency. During these years, Paustovsky wrote a lot, his stories and essays were actively published. The author's first collection of stories, “Oncoming Ships,” was published in 1928, at the same time the novel “Shining Clouds” was written. During these years, Konstantin Paustovsky collaborated with many periodicals: he worked for the Pravda newspaper and several magazines. The writer spoke about his journalistic experience as follows: “Profession: knowing everything.”

“The awareness of responsibility for millions of words, the rapid pace of work, the need to accurately and accurately regulate the flow of telegrams, to select one fact from a dozen and transfer it to all cities - all this creates that nervous and restless mental organization, which is called the “temperament of a journalist.”
Konstantin Paustovsky

"The Tale of Life"

In 1931, Paustovsky finished the story “Kara-Bugaz”. After its publication, the writer left the service and devoted all his time to literature. In the following years, he traveled around the country and wrote many works of fiction and essays. In 1936, Paustovsky divorced. The writer’s second wife was Valeria Valishevskaya-Navashina, whom he met shortly after the divorce.

During the war, Paustovsky was at the front - a war correspondent, then he was transferred to TASS. Simultaneously with his work at the Information Agency, Paustovsky wrote the novel “Smoke of the Fatherland,” stories, and plays. The Moscow Chamber Theater, evacuated to Barnaul, staged a performance based on his work “Until the Heart Stops.”

Paustovsky with his son and wife Tatyana Arbuzova

The third wife of Konstantin Paustovsky was the actress of the Meyerhold Theater Tatyana Evteeva-Arbuzova. They met while both were married and both left their spouses to create new family. Paustovsky wrote to his Tatyana that “there has never been such love in the world.” They married in 1950, and their son Alexei was born that same year.

A few years later, the writer went on a trip to Europe. While traveling, he wrote travel essays and stories: “Italian Meetings”, “Fleeting Paris”, “Lights of the English Channel”. The book "Golden Rose", dedicated to literary creativity, published in 1955. In it, the author tries to comprehend “an amazing and beautiful area of human activity.” In the mid-1960s, Paustovsky completed the autobiographical “Tale of Life,” in which he talks, among other things, about his creative path.

“...Writing has become for me not only an activity, not only a job, but a state own life, my inner state. I often found myself living as if inside a novel or story.”
Konstantin Paustovsky

In 1965, Konstantin Paustovsky was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but Mikhail Sholokhov received it that year.

IN recent years During his lifetime, Konstantin Paustovsky suffered from asthma and had several heart attacks. In 1968, the writer passed away. According to his will, he was buried in the cemetery in Tarusa.

Konstantin Paustovsky is a classic in twentieth-century literature. All works are read with pleasure by adults, and children personify human and literary nobility. Paustovsky was born in Moscow into an intelligent family, theatergoers who loved to play the piano and sing. He died at seventy-six years old. He studied in Kyiv at a classical gymnasium. His parents divorced and he had to work part-time as a teacher.

After graduating from high school, he entered Kiev University at the Faculty of Law, but dreamed of becoming a writer. For himself, he decided that in order to write, he needed to “go into life” and gain life experience. In Moscow, he works as a carriage driver, then gets a job as an orderly on a rear train, changes many different professions, and was even a fisherman on the Sea of Azov.

In his free time from work, he wrote stories. During the revolution, he worked in Moscow as a newspaper reporter and described events. During World War II he was a war correspondent. After the war, Paustovsky studied literary activity and writes: novels, stories, as well as short stories and fairy tales for children. Book "Stories and Tales about Animals and Nature." It includes famous stories:

The Adventures of the Rhinoceros Beetle;
Tree frog;
Steel ring;
Badger's nose and other works.

Read Paustovsky's biography for grade 3

Konstantin Georgievich Paustovsky was born on May 31, 1892 in Moscow. He grew up in the family of Georgy Maksimovich Paustovsky and Maria Grigorievna Paustovskaya, had two brothers and a sister. In 1904 he entered the Kyiv gymnasium. My favorite subjects in the gymnasium were geography and literature.

In 1912, having changed places of residence and schools many times, the young man began studying at the Faculty of History and Philology of Kyiv University, completing 2 courses. After the outbreak of the First World War, he transferred to Moscow University, but soon left it and began to work. Having changed many professions, he gets a job as an orderly at the front and participates in the retreat of the Russian army. After the death of his brothers, he returns to Moscow to his mother and sister, but does not stay there for long. The young man travels throughout the south of Russia, lives in Odessa for two years, working at the Mayak newspaper, and then leaves Odessa, goes to the Caucasus, also visiting northern Persia.

In 1923 he returned to the capital. He works as an editor at a telegraph agency for a couple of years and begins publishing. He also spent the 1930s traveling around the country, publishing many essays and stories. During the Great Patriotic War he became a military journalist and served on the Southern Front. In August 1941, he completed his service to work on a play for the Moscow Art Theater and moved to Alma-Ata, where he sat down to write the play “Until the Heart Stops” and the novel “Smoke of the Fatherland.”

In the 1950s he lived in Moscow and Tarusa, becoming one of the compilers of the collections “Literary Moscow” and “Tarussky Pages”. After receiving worldwide recognition, he travels around Europe and lives on the island of Capri. In 1966, he signed a letter from scientists and cultural figures about the inadmissibility of Stalin’s rehabilitation. Dies on July 14, 1968 in Moscow after a prolonged illness with asthma.

For children 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade.

Biography by dates and interesting facts. The most important.

Other biographies:

Victor Hugo
Victor was born on February 26, 1802 in the city of Besançon. His father was a military man. During the first French bourgeois revolution, he served as a simple soldier.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko
Mikhail Mikhailovich Zoshchenko is a famous Soviet writer. He was born in the city of St. Petersburg, where he grew up and spent basically his entire life. In most of his satirical works we can see the struggle
Mikhalkov Sergey
Vasiliev Boris Lvovich
Boris Lvovich Vasiliev became a writer when he was already over 30 years old. But this is already a completely spiritually accomplished person who has gone through the hell of war. At the front he was shell-shocked. He left the army in 1954, wanting to develop in the writing field.
Evgeny Zamyatin
Evgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin is called an outstanding Russian writer, critic and publicist. Most people are known as the author of the dystopian novel “Us.”

Media files on Wikimedia Commons Quotes on Wikiquote

Konstantin Georgievich Paustovsky(May 19 (31), Moscow - July 14, Moscow) - Russian Soviet writer, classic of Russian literature. Member of the Writers' Union of the USSR. K. Paustovsky's books have been repeatedly translated into many languages of the world. In the second half of the 20th century, his novels and short stories were included in the Russian literature curriculum for middle classes in Russian schools as one of the plot and stylistic examples of landscape and lyrical prose.

Encyclopedic YouTube

1 / 5

✪ Lermontov 1943

✪ Film Kara Bugaz

✪ Wick "Talents and Fans" (1974) watch online

✪ Telegram, 1971, watch online, Soviet cinema, Russian film, USSR

✪ Day without lies

Subtitles