Do you know who Vera Chaplin is? Her biography will certainly interest you. This is a famous children's writer, whose work is devoted to the animal world. Not only her works are connected with him, but also her life path. For many years, Vera Chaplin worked at the Moscow Zoo. You can find a photo and a biography in this article.
The origin of Vera Chaplina and the first tragic event in her life
The years of life of Vera Chaplina - 1908-1994. She was born in Moscow on April 24. Her family lived on Bolshaya Dmitrovka. Vera's parents were hereditary nobles. Lidia Vladimirovna, her mother, is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory. And Vasily Mikhailovich, father, is a lawyer. In the chaos of the Civil War following the 1917 revolution, 10-year-old Chaplina Vera was lost. She ended up in Tashkent, in an orphanage, like a street child.
The writer subsequently recalled that only love for animals helped her survive the first great grief. Even in the orphanage, she managed to keep kittens, puppies and chicks. She hid them from teachers at night, and carried them to the garden during the day. Love for animals, as well as responsibility for their lives, raised in the girl the ability to overcome difficulties and determination. These features determined the creative and life path of Vera Chaplina.
Return to Moscow
The girl was found by her mother in 1923 and brought back to Moscow. Soon Vera began to visit the zoo and a circle of young biologists, led by P.A. Manteuffel. Vera Chaplina not only fed the nipple to the cubs of different animals and took care of them. The girl watched them, conducted scientific work. Vera Chaplina strove to create conditions for animals so that they did not feel that they were in captivity.
The site created by Vera Vasilievna
At the age of 25, Chaplina Vera Vasilievna became the innovator of the Moscow Zoo. Her name will always be remembered as the leader and initiator of the site created in 1933. A strong and healthy young growth was brought up here, there were all conditions for different animals to get along with each other. The audience was greatly interested in this experiment. For many years, the playground of young animals has become the "hallmark" of the zoo.
First stories
At the same time, the first stories by Chaplina were published in the magazine "Young Naturalist". After their release, the Detgiz Publishing House decided to conclude an agreement with Vera Vasilyevna to create a book on the playground of young animals. In 1935, it was published. The book was called "Kids from the Green Playground." She was successful, but the writer herself critically evaluated her book. She significantly revised her text and released a new collection of short stories, and this one was not included at all in subsequent editions.
"My pupils"
For Chaplina, as well as for many other authors, the second book became defining. In 1937, "My Pupils" were printed. The stories included in this collection found a special style of the writer, became one of the most successful in her work. This especially applies to such works as "Loska", "Argo", "Tulka". And the story about the lioness Kinuli brought up in the apartment (in the photo below) has become a real bestseller.
World fame
The events described in the story "Threw" began in 1935, in the spring. And already in the fall they became widely known both in the capital and far beyond its borders. Numerous newsreels in film magazines and newspaper articles have done their job. A stream of letters from adults and children from various cities of the country fell upon Vera Vasilievna. Vera Chaplin soon gained worldwide fame. "The Christian Science Monitor" from America in December published an article on Kinuli, Vera and the site of young animals. An agreement was concluded with the writer on the publication of works abroad. In London in 1939, Vera Chaplina's book of short stories, My Animal Friends, was published.
The prewar and war years
Vera Vasilievna participated in the first studio broadcast of the Moscow television center on April 4, 1938. In 1937, she became the head of the predator section. In May 1941, Vera Chaplina was thanked as a drummer at the Moscow Zoo. Vera Vasilievna at the beginning of the war, along with several especially valuable animals, was sent to the Urals for evacuation. So she ended up in the Sverdlovsk Zoo. There was not enough food, and great efforts had to be made in order to save the animals. Chaplin in the difficult conditions of the war proved to be a decisive and skillful organizer. She became in the summer of 1942 the deputy director of the Sverdlovsk Zoo.
In the spring of 1943, Vera returned to Moscow. She now worked as director of production enterprises in the same Moscow zoo, to which Vera Chaplina gave more than 30 years of her life.
"Four-legged friends"
In 1946, Vera Vasilievna took up constant literary work. A new collection of her works ("Four-Legged Friends") appeared a year later. In addition to the revised text “Kinuli”, it included new stories: “Shango”, “Kutsyy”, “Wolf pupil”, “Fomka-white teddy bear”, etc. “Four-legged friends” were of extraordinary success. They were republished not only in the capital, but also in Prague, Warsaw, Sofia, Bratislava, Berlin. In 1950, Vera Chaplina was admitted to the Writers Union.
Collaboration with G. Skrebitsky
Georgy Skrebitsky, a naturalist writer, became a literary co-author of Chaplina from the end of 1940. Together, they created the scripts for the 1951 cartoon "Forest Travelers" and 1954 "In the Forest Thicket." In 1949, after their trip to Western Belarus, a book of essays entitled "In the Bialowieza Forest" was written. In 1955, a new collection of Chaplina’s short stories “Zoo Pets” was published.
In the 1950-60s. readers of Japan, France, and the USA met with the characters in Chaplina’s works. The International Book Publishing House has published Pets of the Zoo and Four-Legged Friends in Arabic, Hindi, Spanish and other languages.
Friend of the Shepherd and Random Encounters
In 1961, the collection "Friend of the Shepherd" appeared. In it, as well as in the 1976 series of random encounters, we find new features in the work of this writer. Instead of bright colors and close-ups, which created funny, and sometimes dramatic portraits of animals, come images, at first glance, of a smaller scale. However, they now appear as if from the life of the reader. Vera Chaplina managed not so much to tell stories, how to notice and discern our winged and four-legged neighbors, which are not always noticeable. The stories "Spoiled vacation", "Funny teddy bear", "How good!", "Puska" are full of comic situations in which we sometimes get into close acquaintance with various "charming" animals. They do such things that they can lead even the most calm person out of themselves. Interesting works, is not it, created by Vera Chaplin? The reviews about them are the most positive - readers note that Vera Vasilievna is witty about all this. It can be seen that she herself often fell into similar stories. It should be noted that people whom Vera Vasilievna shows angry and bewildered are able, despite everything, to maintain a human, kind attitude to the little "tormentors".
The value of the work of Vera Chaplina
More than one generation of readers has grown on the works of Vera Chaplina. To date, the total circulation of her books is more than 18 million copies. In addition, many feature films, short films and popular science films were created based on works written by Vera Chaplina. A brief biography ends with the last date - on December 19, 1994, the great writer died.