There are things that you would not seem to put on a par. Love for nature and love for mothers, love for life and love for four-legged friends - this love is very far from death and war. But such stories - about children and the war, about animals and people - were able to combine and make wise and instructive complement each other writer Yakovlev Yuri Yakovlevich.
Writer Biography: The Early Years
Yuri Yakovlevich Yakovlev was born in Petrograd on 06/26/1922. The real name of the author is Khovkin. Six months before the start of World War II, in November 1940, he was drafted into the army. Mother died in the summer of 1942 during the blockade. Yuri Yakovlevich served as an anti-aircraft gunner, their battery was near Moscow. The front was so close that the distance to the enemy was several kilometers. In those critical days, Yuri Yakovlevich filed an application with the party.
Poems of war
He began to write poetry at school. And the war turned this childhood craze into passion. In those days, he learned how great the power of poetry is when life comes into contact with death. Yuri Yakovlev wrote poems when he succeeded. More often this happened at night, in the light of the smokehouse. Throughout the war he was the military commissar of the newspaper "Alarm". It often published his poems and essays. Once, after the war, I saw in one newspaper the poems of an “unknown author”. These were his poems. So the war determined his future path.
Literary life
To enter the Literary Institute, the writer Yuri Yakovlev came in his overcoat. Cycles of army poems by Yakovlev appeared in print a few years after the war. Then their acquaintance with M. A. Svetlov, who voluntarily was his mentor, began. In children's poetry, he was advised by A. L. Barto. In 1952, already the author of several books, he graduated from the institute. A new life has begun.
In 1949, his first children's book, Our Address, was published at the Detgiz Publishing House. In the second book - "In our regiment" - he collected poems about the war, about the army. From the very first lines, he wrote about childhood and war, about what he knew and experienced himself. Literature for him has become not only a job, but also a passion.
Yakovlev Yuri Yakovlevich collaborated in magazines and newspapers. He traveled a lot around the country - met with oil workers in Baku, was at the construction of the Stalingrad hydroelectric station, on collective farms of Ukraine, at the border posts of Belarus. He visited all corners of the country, met with children and teachers. In a word, I always tried to get to know my heroes better, to “live” their life, and not just to collect material.
For little readers
The first story was published in 1960 in the magazine "Twinkle", it was called "Station Boys". It was a transitional moment of his work - he became a prose writer. Following this story, another is published - “The Boy with Skates”. In his “prosaic” fate, Izvestia and Spark played a large role. Writer Yuri Yakovlev has always been proud of what he writes for children. He loved the little readers. He loved his heroes.
The house of L. A. Kassil for creative people was a kind of university. Cassille became for them a mentor, and inspirer, and teacher. In 1972, Yakovlev turned 50 years old - he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Throughout his life, the writer Yuri Yakovlev has been searching for heroes for his works. And he found them very close, and they helped him with amazing destinies.
Where do the heroes come from
Once, old artists told him about their son - about the small Leningrad Gavrosh. So there was a film and the story "He was a real trumpeter." Pupils of A. Obrant told how young dancers came to the front with a teacher and spoke to the soldiers - they showed about three thousand concerts. So the story “The Ballerina of the Political Department” and the feature film “We Stayed in the Face of Death” appeared. The basis of the story “A Girl from Brest” and the feature film “Lullaby for Men” was the life of K. I. Shalikova, the heroine of the war. The story and script for the film “The Commander's Daughter” was helped by the young defenders of the Brest Fortress.
Writer's work
The writer Yuri Yakovlev could not help but talk about the war. She remained in her memory and echoed. Yakovlev wrote such books on a military theme:
- "Relic".
- "We are destined to live."
- "Where was the battery."
- "The day before yesterday there was a war."
Short stories and tales of children, of difficult ages, of experiences when their future life is being decided, is what Yury Yakovlev told Yakovlev. Books in this direction are listed below:
- "Travesty".
- "Hard bullfight."
- "Self portrait."
- "Ivan-jeep."
- "Preferenceist's Daughter."
Life scenarios
A large place in the life of Yakovlev was occupied by cinema. Films were made according to his scripts:
- The First Bastille.
- "Volcano and I."
- "Beauty".
- "Horseman over the city."
- "A little forest goes to Prague."
Yakovlev’s books are original textbooks of life. The main topics are school life of children, war, friendship between people, a good attitude to animals, a sense of gratitude and love for mother. The main ideas of his prose are nobility, loyalty to a chosen guideline, meaningfulness of existence.
The stories of this author penetrate the heart, affect the soul and make you rethink your actions and behavior. Without notations and teachings. Each of his stories reveals some important truth:
- “Ledum”.
- "He killed my dog."
Three simple stories
- “The Secret of Fenimore” - every night a mysterious Fenimore appears in the boys' bedroom in the “Dubki” pioneer camp. He turned their life into a real adventure. He knew many stories and was able to tell. Nights away with bated breath, the boys listened to adventure stories in the Wild West. In the afternoon, having painted their faces with toothpaste, they rushed with arrows and bows, tracking down the Indian enslavers. And they fell asleep "where necessary", at night they could not sleep. This story was filmed in the third episode of the film Three Fun Shifts.
- “An old horse is for sale” - the boy saw on the fence among the announcements an old yellowed leaflet on which it was written that the horse was for sale. I read and began to imagine, and what is this old horse like? Thinking and rushed past his house. Then I decided to go to the address indicated in the old ad. He comes to the house, asks the owner about the horse. He replied that the horse had fallen in the spring. “Ah, if I had come earlier, I would have saved her,” the upset boy thinks.
- “Striped stick” - Mishka grabbed a stick at a crossroads near a gaping passer-by. He really liked her - striped, black and white. A little later, he learns that these sticks help blind people to move around the city. The bear is experiencing the torment of conscience. The black and white stick became a tacit accusation for the boy. He runs around the city and tries to find the owner. So the child’s attitude to his actions is changing.
The writer taught the goodness of young readers, taught unobtrusively and wisely. “Good should be courageous and strong, only then it will win,” Yury Yakovlevich said. The stories, these are so small, on one or two pages, hurt the living. Shrill, calling for help, crying out for conscience, they teach to understand others, to love people, not to treat animals cruelly. They learn to look deep and see the inner essence of each story.