Many writers, both Russian and foreign, devoted their work to nature, singing it in various forms: in the form of poems, fables, short stories, short stories and novels. Such authors include Ivan Krylov, who is considered the most famous Russian fabulist; Sergei Yesenin, who wrote many poems about his native land; the great Alexander Pushkin, whose lines from the poem “A sad time! Eye charm! " many remember by heart; Rudyard Kipling, who created The Jungle Book, many of which were filmed.
One of the authors who wrote about flora and fauna is Gennady Yakovlevich Snegirev. His works are considered classics of children's literature.
Biography of Gennady Snegirev
The future writer was born on March 20, 1933 in Moscow. Gennady Snegirev’s childhood cannot be called prosperous: his father died in one of the Stalinist camps, and his mother worked in the library at the locomotive depot. The librarian's salaries were often not enough even for the most necessary things, so the boy had to learn hunger and need early.
After graduating from elementary school, Gennady Snegirev entered the vocational school. However, it took a lot of time, and had to quit school in order to earn a living.
At the age of 13, Snegirev got a job at Moscow University as an assistant to the scientist Vladimir Lebedev, who served as a lecturer at the Department of Ichthyology. Lebedev and Gennady Snegirev studied fish bones and scales, conducted excavations.
The boy began boxing and, despite his small stature and lean body, was the city champion in his weight category. However, the sport also had to leave because of a detected heart disease.
At 17, Gennady Snegirev went on an expedition to study the fish of the Bering and Okhotsk seas. After returning, he became interested in beavers and studied these animals for a year. The result was the stories of Gennady Snegirev about beavers.
In 1954, the first book was published entitled "Inhabited Island." Then other works followed: stories about nature, novels, essays.
The writer continued his expeditions. Together with Lebedev, they traveled along the Lena River in order to study environmental changes in the taiga. After that, there were many more different trips: to Altai, Kamchatka, Buryatia and other parts of Russia. However, contrary to general expectations, Snegirev did not become a scientist. He chose literature as the work of his whole life.
The writer died on January 14, 2004 in Moscow.
Snegirev's stories. "Inhabited Island"
The first book of nature stories includes 4 short works. All of them are united by one theme and tell about the wildlife of the Pacific Ocean. Snegirev wrote them on the basis of his personal observations during one of the expeditions.
One of the stories of the writer Gennady Snegirev, included in this collection, is called “Lampanidus”. Lampanidus is a small-sized fish, sometimes called a "fish-bulb" due to the fact that small lights with a bluish glow are placed throughout its body.
Another story tells about the author’s meeting with the butterfly - a small sea bird, which is sometimes called the "storm swallow" because of the peculiar manner of flight.
In the story “Inhabited Island”, according to which the book got its name, it is said about landing on a small island on which only the guillemot bird is found from living creatures.
The Little Monster
This collection was first published in 1975. It included 11 stories.
“Beaver” was written by Gennady Snegirev while studying beavers, their life and behavior. As the name implies, the protagonist of the story is a small beaver, who, due to spring water rising in the river, swam away from his home and was lost.
The story “Tricky Chipmunk” begins with the fact that the hero, probably a hunter, discovers that someone leaves pine nuts in his home. It was a chipmunk who dragged all his supplies here so that they would not be stolen by jays and other animals.
“The Little Monster” is another work written after an expedition to study the Bering Sea. Behind the side of the ship, something is discovered that the author first calls a "monster", and later turns out to be a sperm whale cub who mistook the ship for another whale.
"Deer in the mountains"
Illustrations for this collection were created by the artist May Miturich. Together, Miturich and Snegirev make up the perfect creative tandem - stories and drawings complement each other, making them more lively and accurate.
The book is more voluminous compared to previous collections: it includes five dozen stories. They included not only new works, but also already familiar to readers - “Lampanidus”, “Tricky Chipmunk”, “Beaver” and others.
Snegirev created not only stories - his authorship also owns two novels: “About Deer” and “About Penguins”. One of them was included in this collection.
The story "About Deer" Snegirev wrote during his expedition to Chukotka. It consists of 10 parts and tells about the writer’s journey through the taiga in the company of the reindeer herder Chodu.
"Arctic land"
The story of Gennady Snegirev “Arctic Fox” is more voluminous compared to most of the writer's works, so it was published as a separate book, and not just as part of collections.
The main character is a boy named Seryozha, who lives in Vladivostok. One day he lands on the island where polar foxes live - polar foxes. There Sergei meets the girl Natasha, and by the will of circumstances they have to live alone for some time on the island. After some time, having returned home, Serezha does not forget about the Arctic Fox and hopes to someday get there again.
"About Penguins"
Another story by Gennady Snegirev - “About Penguins”, first published in 1980 by the publishing house “Children's Literature”.
As the name suggests, the main characters are penguins living "near Antarctica on a small island from Africa." The story contains 8 parts, each of which tells about a certain episode from the life of these birds.
Like many of his works, the writer created this story based on his observations during the trip, so Snegirev was able to accurately and realistically describe the behavior of penguins in various situations.
"Hunting stories"
The collection “Hunting stories” is a series of stories about a boy whose name is not given, and his grandfather-hunter. They live in a small hut near a stream. Grandfather has a hunting dog named Chembulak.
The cycle includes 4 stories. The story comes from the face of a boy who talks about various episodes from his daily life, about how he and his grandfather and Chembulak go hunting, and about the animals that they meet.
For example, in the story “Fur Skis,” the main character is an elk whom the boy meets in the winter in a clearing while walking on his grandfather's fur skis.