Kataev Valentin Petrovich is a very popular writer, especially in Soviet times, a writer, journalist, playwright, prose writer, poet and screenwriter. In 1974, for his many years of literary work, he was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor. Based on his works, many theatrical productions, feature films and documentaries and cartoons were created. The creativity of Valentin Kataev became timely and indispensable, it carried the very necessary moral education, a charge of kindness and humanity.
A little bit about the pedigree
You need to start a biography of this famous writer with his amazing pedigree. And in it you can find a lot of interesting things.
His paternal grandfather - Vasily Alekseevich Kataev (b.1819) - was the son of a priest and followed in his footsteps, first he graduated from the Vyatka Theological Seminary, then the Moscow Theological Academy, until he eventually became archpriest of the Vyatka Cathedral.
The father of Valentin Petrovich - Kataev Pyotr Vasilyevich - was a very educated person who graduated from the theological seminary, then the Novorossiysk University of History and Philology, and eventually became a teacher of cadets of the Odessa Diocesan School.
Mother - Bachey Evgenia Ivanovna - was the daughter of a general from a Poltava small family.
The writer also had a younger brother - Evgeny Kataev (pseudonym Petrov on behalf of his father), who also later became a famous writer. By the way, Eugene is the same Petrov who co-authored with Ilf wrote his famous works “12 Chairs” and “Golden Calf”.
Valentin Kataev: biography
V.P. Kataev was born in Odessa in 1897, January 16. His parents were a happy couple with two gifted children (in the future, writers Valentin and Eugene). After the birth of the second child, Evgenia Ivanovna fell ill with pneumonia and died. Her sister took up the upbringing and care of the children, who replaced her mother.
Their family had an unusually large library filled with classical, historical, reference and encyclopedic literature, which Valentin Kataev adored so much. His biography indicates that parents read these books to their children aloud.
First works
The love of classical literature was instilled in children from childhood. Kataev himself later recalled that even then he felt that he would become a writer.
His first poem, Autumn, was published in the Odessa Messenger in 1910. For two years later another 25 poems were published.
In 1912, the first humorous stories began to be published in the same newspaper. And at the same time, two voluminous stories were released as a separate edition - “The Dark Person” and “Awakening”. In the first, there was a satire on A. Kuprin, M. Kornfeld, A. Averchenko, and in the second, the plot told about the love of a young man who refused the revolutionary movement for her sake.
friendship
Before the start of World War I, Valentin Kataev met his literary teachers I.A. Bunin and A.M. Fedorov. Friendship with young Odessa writers Eduard Bagritsky and Yuri Olesha is made a little later.
He had an incomplete gymnasium education due to his participation in the First World War and the Civil Wars, and then in the White Movement.
In 1915, Valentin Kataev volunteered for the army. The biography has evidence that he served as a warrant officer, was wounded twice and received gas poisoning.
In the summer of 1917, after being wounded on the Romanian front, the writer ended up in a hospital in Odessa. He was awarded two crosses of St. George and the Order of St. Anne IV “For Courage”. With the first officer rank for personal merits, he received the title of nobleman who was not inherited.
Creation
In the war, Kataev in his spare time writes stories and essays on front-line life. In the magazine "World" in 1915 for the first time on the pages of the capital's publishing house published his story "Nemchik."
Kataev considered Ivan Bunin to be his main and only teacher, with whom he was introduced in Odessa by self-taught writer A. Fedorov.
Civil
After the Odessa hospital in 1918, Kataev entered the service of the troops of the hetman P. Skoropadsky, and after his betrayal and flight to Berlin, he left for the volunteer army with the rank of second lieutenant. Then he served as an artilleryman on the Novorossiya armored train, fought against the Petliurists in Vinnitsa and the Reds in Berdichev.
Before the retreat began in 1920 in Zhmerinka he became ill with typhus, and again he was waiting for the Odessa hospital, and then his relatives, still sick and weak, took him home. After his cure, he became an underground officer plot against P.N. Wrangel. Soon, he and brother Eugene were arrested and held in prison until September 1920, then they were released, the rest of the conspirators were shot the same fall.
Moscow
In 1921 he worked in a Kharkov publishing house together with Yuri Olesha and rented an apartment with him. In 1922, Kataev moved to the capital and began working in the Gudok newspaper, all of his articles of that time were humorous and satirical, he was signed by the pseudonyms Mitrofan Gorchitsa, Old Man Sabbakin, Ol. Twist.
When the poet O. Mandelstam was arrested in 1938, whose works were perceived by the Soviet authorities as slanderous and obscene, Kataev helped his family with money.
War time
Kataev went to war with the fascist invaders as a war correspondent. At this time, he wrote short stories, essays, and journalistic articles. One of the most striking works of those years was the story “Our Father”.
Before the Great Victory, he would write his famous novel “The Son of the Regiment” and in 1946 would receive a State Prize for it.
After the war, Kataev began to suffer from many days of hard drinking, which nearly led him to divorce his wife Valentina Serova. But he thought better of his time, pulled himself together and stopped drinking.
Valentin Kataev: books
In the period from 1955 to 1961, Kataev founded the magazine "Youth" and became its chief editor. Here he relies on the work of still unknown young, but very promising poets and prose writers, the so-called sixties.
Valentin Kataev writes his works in a very easy, simple and understandable language, his books are becoming very popular. The first success was brought to him by the story The Wasterers (1926), then followed by The Squaring of the Circle (1928), Time, Go! (1932). It should also be noted the novel “The Holy Well” (1965), “The Grass of Oblivion” (1967), “My Diamond Crown” (1975), “Dry Estuary” (1986), etc.
Valentin Kataev also created a lot of works for children and youth, here he showed new facets of his work. In the early 40s, he begins to print his tales "Pipe and Pitcher", "Dove", "Flower-Semitsvetik." And in 1945, the fairy tales “Pearl” and “Stump” were published, in which he very subtly discusses moral issues.
Very carefully and delicately brings the child to the right conclusions Valentin Kataev. His biography was mainly always associated with creativity. In 1926, he began to create the tetralogy “Waves of the Black Sea”, which included the novels “The Lone Sail Whitens” (1936), “Catacombs” (1951), “Little Farm in the Steppe” (1956), “Winter the wind "(1960).
After Kataev they wanted to become the chief editor of Literary Newspaper, but something did not work out there. Then in 1966 he, among 25 cultural figures, signed a letter to L.I. Brezhnev - the then ruler of the USSR, against the rehabilitation of Stalin.
In 1979, the novel “Werther Already Written” was published in the New World, where he revealed the secret of his participation in the White Movement and his arrest. This story in society caused a great resonance. The writer at that time was already 83 years old.
At the end of his life, Kataev Valentin Petrovich underwent surgery, he had a cancer tumor removed. In the 90th year of life, April 12, 1986, the writer was gone. His grave is located at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.