“Fly-clatter”, a fairy tale for children, Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky (real name - Nikolai Vasilyevich Korneychukov) was written in 1923. At first, the State Academic Council, or rather its censorship commission, suspecting the children's poet in sympathy with the rural world-eaters, whose portrait she vigilantly saw in the image of horned and rich beetles, forbade the publication of the work. Published "Mukhina wedding" (that was its original name) publishing house "Rainbow" only in 1924. And the modern title published for the sixth time, a popular fairy tale received in 1927.
Recall a brief plain story. Some kind of fly-tsokotuha accidentally found money in the field, decided to buy a samovar and widely celebrate her name day, inviting her brothers in the class - familiar insects. Suddenly, without invitation, a spider burst in and dragged the birthday girl into his spider corner. None of the guests spoke in defense of the hostess. But, when the fly-clatter was already on the verge of death, suddenly a hero Komarik flew in from somewhere, saved the girl from trouble, killing the spider villain, and offered her a hand and a heart. All the guests crawled out of their hiding places and gathered again at the festive table, but now in honor of the cheerful wedding of Komar and the birthday girl.
As Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky recalled, the “fly-clatter” in August 1923 was born within one day. Inspiration surged through him under the influence of an unexpected surge of happiness. This happened when the writer was forced on business to come from the dacha to the hot Petrograd. Under the influence of emotions, the poet did not run up, but literally flew up into an empty apartment and, finding a piece of paper, having obtained a pencil, he began to quickly sketch one line after another funny poems about the wedding of a fly, and he himself turned into a groom.
“The fly-clatter” was conceived for a long time, the writer even took ten times to drafts, but more than two lines never worked. But now he effortlessly scribbled the whole scrap on both sides, not finding more paper, tore off a strip of wallpaper from a wall in the corridor and, with a sense of thoughtless happiness, continued to write down lines as if under dictation.
Two holidays are celebrated in the fairy tale: a wedding and a name day. The poet feasted on both of them. But as soon as the last composed lines lay on the completely written paper, happy unconsciousness passed away in an instant, and Chukovsky again found himself in an empty apartment, immensely tired and hungry, forced to leave the cottage and come to town for trifling and painful matters. When midges in the course of a fairy tale started dancing, the author also danced, experiencing terrible inconvenience, since it was very difficult to dance and record at the same time. If someone had watched this whole picture from the side, then he would be surprised to wonder what caused the gray-haired 42-year-old father of the family, weighed down by daily labor, to rush about the apartment, drowning, circling and bouncing, while shouting sonorous words and bringing them into a clumsy scroll of dusty used wallpaper?
Then he still did not understand that such sudden periods of inspired happiness are essentially a return to childhood. Awareness of this came later. Chukovsky believed that it is impossible to be a child writer to a person who is not able from time to time to part with the burden of adulthood, to splash out of it, forgetting all the worries, annoyances and turning into a peer of his readers, addressees of his own poems. Unfortunately, the tides of childish joy did not happen often in the poet's life. In fact, the tale “The Fly-Tsokotuha” is the only work from the first to the last word written in haste, swiftly, within one day, in the wake of an unexpected rush of cloudless childhood happiness.