Leonid Panteleev (see photo below) is a pseudonym; in fact, the writer was called Alexei Yeremeyev. He was born in August 1908 in St. Petersburg. His father was a Cossack officer, a hero of the Russian-Japanese war, who received the nobility for his exploits. Alexei's mother is a merchant's daughter, but in the first guild her father left the peasants.
Childhood and youth
Alyosha was addicted to books from childhood; his family even teased him, calling him a “bookcase”. From a very early age, he began to compose himself. Only his mother listened to his children's opuses - plays, poems, adventure novels. There could be no spiritual intimacy with his father - he was a military man and severe.
Little Alexei used to call him "you", but this awe remains forever. The writer Leonid Panteleev forever retained the image of his father in his memory and carried it through life with love and pride. This image was not light, rather, the color of blackened silver, like an old weapon - a noble knightly image.
But the mother is a mentor in the faith, the kindest and most sincere friend for her children. In 1916, when Alyosha was sent to study at a real school, her mother was aware of all his lessons, grades, relationships with teachers and classmates, and helped her son in everything. He never graduated from school - he did not have time.
Wanderings
In 1919, the boy’s father was arrested, he was kept in a prison for some time, and then shot. Alexandra Vasilievna, like a real mother, decided to flee cold and hungry Petersburg to save the lives of her children. First, an orphaned family settled in Yaroslavl, then - in the town of Menzelinsk in Tatarstan.
In these wanderings, the future writer Leonid Panteleev really wanted to help his family, he looked for work, sometimes found, met various people, and some of them turned out to be connected with crime. A very young and trusting person quickly came under bad influence and learned to steal. For desperate courage, inherited, apparently, by inheritance from his father, new friends called him the nickname of the famous St. Petersburg raider - Lenka Panteleev. From here came such a pseudonym.
Dostoevsky School
Since Alexey’s new “activity” was often associated with the police and the KGB, the boy tried to forget his first and last name. Better the surname of a bandit than a shot Cossack officer. Especially mommy from the Arkhangelsk peasants who have fallen into merchants. He got used to the new surname quickly and even when meeting ordinary people, far from his thieves' friends, he kept his real name a secret. And he did the right thing, as if he had foreseen that no matter how long the rope twisted ... He, of course, was caught.
Immediately after the end of the Civil War, the government of the country came to grips with the problem of street children. Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky himself was responsible for the result . The most interesting thing is that after two or three years it became impossible to find a homeless child, and back in 1919 they ran in droves in droves. That's Leonid Panteleev: the biography of the end of 1921 was replenished with an unsuccessful attempt of theft. He was caught and sent to a special commission that dealt with the homeless children of Petrograd. From there he was sent to the Dostoevsky School, that same famous "Skid".
Small republic
This amazing educational institution could be compared with the pre-revolutionary bursa, and with the Pushkin Lyceum. Young homeless children studied at school, studying subjects deeply and with pleasure, wrote poetry, staged plays, learned foreign languages, produced newspapers and magazines of their own production.
Panteleev Leonid, whose biography as a writer began to be laid right here, got all the prerequisites to return to normal life, without shelters in boilers, without theft, hunger and escapes from the police.
Here the boy lived for two years, which charged him with energy for life. Friends appeared, whose past was also not cloudless, who remained with Alexei Eremeev forever. So, fate brought him to the same pupil of the school - Grigory Belykh. He will be the co-author of the first and most famous book about homeless children - "The Republic of SKID." Belykh also lost his father early, his mother earned miserable pennies by washing clothes, but she was always busy, because the work was long and very hard. The son decided to help her: dropped out of school and went to the porters. There, at the stations, he also fell under the influence of dark personalities and began to steal.
Collaborators
The boys became friends and decided to become film actors together. To achieve this, they left Shkida and went to Kharkov. After learning a little at the courses of film actors, they suddenly realized that there were no actors from them. Leaving this occupation, they wandered for a while, did not return to Shkida - they were probably ashamed. However, adolescents loved their school selflessly, they missed it so much that they decided to write a book about it.
At the end of 1925, they returned to Leningrad, settled at Gregory in an annex on Izmailovsky Prospekt - a narrow, long room, ending with a window into the courtyard, and two beds and a table in it. What else is needed for the annals? They bought shag, millet, sugar, tea. One could get down to business.
Planning
It was conceived - from what I remembered - thirty-two episodes with their own storyline. Each of them had to write sixteen chapters. Alexei got into Shkida later than Grigory Belykh, so he wrote the second half of the book, and then he always willingly and generously gave all the laurels to the co-author, who managed to interest the readers so much in the first part of the book that they read the book to the end.
And indeed, it was in the first part that all conflicts started, the mechanisms for the explosion were laid there, all the brightest and most beautiful happened there, which was the distinguishing feature of Shkida.
Publication
They wrote with passion, fast, fun. Nevertheless, they absolutely did not think what would happen to the manuscript later: where is it? And they didn’t even dream of any success. Of course, the boys in Leningrad did not know any of the writers or publishers. The only person they saw twice a long time ago in Shkida at some gala evenings was Comrade Lilina, the head of the department from Narobraz.
One can imagine the horror on the face of a poor woman when two life-battered former orphans brought her a huge, simply unbearable manuscript. However, she read it. And not only. The co-authors were lucky just fabulously. After reading, she handed over a thick, disheveled folder to real professionals - to the Leningrad State Publishing House, where Samuel Marshak, Boris Zhitkov and Evgeny Schwartz read the manuscript .
How authors hid from glory
"Firemen are looking, police are looking ...". Yes, indeed, they have been looking for them for a whole month and everywhere, because the book turned out so ... Well, in a word, the book turned out! They did not leave addresses to anyone. Nothing but a manuscript. In addition, they quarreled, leaving the office. Belykh shouted that the whole idea with arranging the manuscript was completely idiotic, well, they wrote and wrote that he was not going to disgrace anymore and would be ashamed to come here for the result. Then they made up and decided to never go anywhere again. Actors from them did not work, and writers, it seems, too. Here are the movers - yes, they turned out to be quite good.
The writer Leonid Panteleev, however, could not stand it. Time passed weary and strange, as if there was nowhere to put yourself. Although there seems to be nothing to expect, but sucks and sucks under the pit, everyone wants to know what's with their book? And Alexei, slowly from a more stable and strong-willed friend, nevertheless decided to visit comrade Lilina from Narobraz.
How glory still found the authors
Seeing Alexei in the corridor of Narobraz, the secretary screamed: "He! He! He has come !!!" And then for an hour, Comrade Lilina told him how well their book was written. She was read not only by her, but by everyone in Narobraz, right down to the cleaners, and all the staff of the publishing house. One can imagine what Leonid Panteleev felt at that time! What he wrote even after many years, unable to find words. And there are no such words to describe what he felt at that moment.
Samuel Yakovlevich Marshak recalled in detail the first visit of the co-authors to the editorial office. For some reason they were gloomy and spoke little. Amendments were most often refused. But, of course, we were glad of such a turn of events. Shortly after the publication of the book from the libraries, reviews began. "The Republic of SKID" was read voraciously, dismantled like hot cakes! Everyone was interested in who these Grigory Belykh and Leonid Panteleev were, the biography for the children was very important.
Secrets of Success
"The book was written easily and cheerfully, without any thought, since we almost did not compose anything, but remembered and simply wrote down, not much time has passed since we left the walls of the school," the authors recalled. It took only two and a half months to complete the work.
Alexei Maximovich Gorky read the "Republic of SKID" with great enthusiasm, told all his colleagues about it. "Read it!" he said. V.N. Soroka-Rosinsky, the director of the school, was named Gorky as a teacher of a new type, a monumental and heroic figure. Gorky even wrote a letter to Makarenko about Vikniksor, concluding that the director of Shkida is the same passion-bearer and hero as the great teacher Makarenko.
However, Anton Semyonovich did not have a liking book. He saw a pedagogical failure there, and the book itself did not want to be recognized as artistic, it seemed to him too true.
After fame
The co-authors did not part for some time: they wrote essays and stories. “Clock”, “Karlushkin focus” and “Portrait” were very successful. This ended the joint work conducted by Grigory Belykh and Leonid Panteleev together. A brief biography of their community was completed.
Alexey has written many more books for children, among which one should note the excellent story “Honest Word”, which has become a textbook, and the story “Package”, which, however, the author himself was never happy with: it seemed to him that he depreciated his memory of his father. However, this plot was filmed twice.
Coauthor
Grigory Belykh was arrested innocently in 1936, his sister’s husband wrote the denunciation, enclosing a notebook of poetry. Housing issue is to blame. Belykh received three years in prison, and at home he left a young wife and little daughter. Leonid Panteleev even telegraphed Stalin, circled all instances, but in vain. All that remained was to carry the programs to the prison and write letters to a friend.
Gregory himself dissuaded Alexei from continuing the hassle. I did not name the reason, but it was. Prison doctors found tuberculosis in the Whites. He was not even thirty years old when a former street kid, a thief, and later a wonderful writer died in a prison hospital. After this, Leonid Panteleev for many years refused to publish the "Republic of ShKID". Belykh was recognized as an enemy of the people, and to remove the name of a friend from the cover was unthinkable. However, over time I had to ...