Exciting adventures, unknown countries and alluring sea vistas - almost every child dreams of this. But what adventure can be without reliable and faithful friends, resourceful and funny? They are ready not only to fearlessly come to the aid of their comrades, but also to enter the battle against a cunning and greedy adversary, who keeps the whole city in fear.
These heroes live in the books of a remarkable children's writer - Vitaliy Titovich Korzhikov. His good works teach young readers to cope with troubles and hardships, make them friendlier and kinder. And most importantly, they talk about different countries of the world and the wonders that nature is rich in.
Korzhikov Vitaliy Titovich
The biography of this wonderful person can itself become the plot of the book. He was born on April 12, 1931 in the city of Kharkov. A Bolshevik and a man devoted to revolution, his father fought in the Red Army and held a responsible position in the Kremlin. He was familiar with famous writers and statesmen. Korzhikov recalls how he interviewed Fidel Castro.
A notebook in which the Cuban leader wrote in a sweeping handwriting a greeting to the Soviet people, Vitaly Titovich kept until the last days. As a boy, he happened to meet Chukovsky and Marshak, Kataev and Polev, Smelyakov and Akhmatova. They were on friendly terms with his father, who himself wrote plays, and sincerely appreciated this friendship.
Gaidar Gauntlets
Korzhikov Vitaly Titovich often recalls how he went with his mother to Magnitogorsk to his father, who was at that time at the “construction site of the century”. On the platform they were met by dad. A man in uniform approached them, greeted his father and took the child in his arms. Seeing that the boy was without mittens, he immediately pulled his own out of his back pocket and handed them to Vitaly, who later found out that this uncle was Gaidar.
Vitaliy Titovich joked that, along with mittens, the children's writer gave him, the future writer, the main commandments: to protect this world and love, to teach children justice and goodness.
Parents
Vitaliy Titovich’s father was a sincere person, therefore, when collectivization took place in Ukraine, he wrote a letter of protest to the Central Committee of the party. He was arrested in 1937 and sentenced to capital punishment - execution. Following her father, her mother was arrested. Relatives took Vitaliy to Melitopol. He is deeply grateful to them for the fact that in the years when they could have been arrested for this, they were not afraid, but took him to their place.
First poems
Korzhikov Vitaly Titovich warmly recalls the years spent in their house. He says that a cousin with his friends taught him to dream about sails, about exploits. When the Second World War began, uncle was taken to the front. They were sent to evacuation - in Alma-Ata. A bomb hit the car they were in.
He was carried in his arms by his brother, who later died in battle. And Vitaly was beaten and frostbitten brought to Alma-Ata. From there, he sent his uncle a letter to the front, in which he wrote his very first poem. Uncle often read this letter in the dugout to fighters. Since then, the creative biography of Vitaly began.
Post-war years
After the war, Vitaliy Korzhikov returned to Ukraine. He graduated from high school and went to enter the university in Moscow at the faculty of journalism. He was not accepted at Moscow State University as the son of the enemy of the people. Returning to Melitopol, he entered the pedagogical institute. But, as the writer himself writes, Moscow attracted him to him, and in 1950 he was transferred to the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute to the literary faculty.
At that time, the Pedagogical Institute was the haven of many future famous people. His talent was strengthened here, and, as his fellow students recall, he was one of the best professional poets.
After the institute, in 1953, Vitaliy Korzhikov fell into Sakhalin by distribution. Then he transferred to Vladivostok. The windows of the school in which he taught overlooked the bay. His students often looked not at the blackboard, but at passing ships. The teacher, not lagging behind them, also looked at the sea, which he dreamed of since childhood.
Sailor Korzhikov
Vitaly Titovich went to the shipping company to ask for the navy. But here, too, the "son of the enemies of the people." He was not allowed into the overseas fleet, but was taken as a sailor on the Igarka vessel, which delivered goods to Chukotka residents and polar explorers. As the writer himself recalled, they crossed the entire Arctic.
Vitaliy Korzhikov saw a lot of interesting things there: tragic and funny. Once during a storm, sailors sat for three days on a desert island. The work was hard, they dragged 100-kilogram bags, but the people were wonderful. I had to survive a lot. So poems and stories were born in sea wanderings. For 10 years of service in the Navy, I had to go to two circumnavigations.
Creative way
Once Vitaly Titovich flew to Moscow and went to the publishing house "Children's Literature". I met with the director, and he asked me to write a funny book about sea voyages. And so it happened: Vitaly Korzhikov met many good people on the oceans, composed stories, poems, poems, returned home, copied everything and went to the publishing house. It was a good time.
It even happened that the sailor Korzhikov received a radiogram from the journal asking him to write something. And stories from amazing islands and countries flew from Singapore and India, from Japan and Indonesia to Moscow. Many of them were published in the children's magazines "Pioneer", "Murzilka". Then one after another the books began to appear:
- 1957 - Wings, a poetic collection for adults.
- 1958 - a collection of children's poems "Seahorse".
- 1961 - the story "The First Voyage" (recalling the Arctic).
- 1971 - poems and short stories for children “Sea chest”.
- 1974 - children's story “Waves, Like a Kangaroo” (memories of America).
- 1979 - the story "Dinosaur Claw" (a trip to the Gobi Desert, Mongolia).
“Sailing the Sun” (1965) - a collection of short stories for children, one of the most beloved among many readers. Soon the adventures of sailor Solnyshkin grew into a series of books. In 1980, the cartoon of the same name was released, which became the 1997 television series about the fun adventures of a young sailor. The work was included in the Golden Fund of the children's book.
Vitaly Korzhikov died on January 26, 2007. He loved the world, loved people. In one of his poems, he wrote: "I saw the Earth." This wonderful person saw, met so many amazing and wonderful people, on all continents - Vitaliy Titovich Korzhikov! His books told young readers not only about the exotic of tropical countries and about overseas life. In them, he tried to talk about people whom he loved very much and saw in each one something bright and good.