Journey through family history with keyboard and mouse

It's actually quite a long story, and I have a hard time imagining where it starts. Formally, of course, it began in the town of Yampol, Vinnitsa province, in 1923, when my first-born was born to my then grandmother.

Or it began in Belarus in December 1943, when the twenty-year-old Captain Moldavsky was killed in action.

Or in 1956, when my then grandfather sent the first request to the Ministry of Defense, he asked to confirm the fact of the death and burial of his eldest son: all the documents were lost during the years of war, moving, disorder; the family did not know about the place of burial, the grandfather only remembered that it was somewhere in the Liozno district of the Vitebsk region. The Ministry of Defense redirected the request to the Liozno District Military Commissariat, from which the answer came: “In the lists of burials in the region, Captain Moldavsky I.M. does not appear."

In the next forty years, this story certainly could not begin: the official authorities did not give an answer, the grandfather and grandmother had no idea where to look and what to do. After their deaths in the early eighties, my dad, who younger brother for 16 years, and was tormented by ignorance and impotence.

In the mid-nineties, the Book of Memory of Jewish Soldiers Who Died in World War II was published. There, for the first time, dad found information from a notice lost by his parents: “... died on 12/29/1943. Buried in the village Zazibino, Liozno district, Vitebsk region.

But, to tell the truth, this was not the beginning of the story.

And so I enter into the search form (http://obdmemorial.ru/Memorial/Memorial.html) the name of my father's brother: Moldavsky Israel Moiseevich. Where to look? In all available documents: in the Books of Memory, in orders for exclusion from the lists, in updated lists of losses, etc. At first glance, nothing unexpected: the same village of Zazibino, Liozno district. Nothing else seems to be pulled from the database. Well, Yandex will save us.

Search rules in Yandex or Google are quite simple and - most importantly! - presented on the site. Therefore, I will not dwell on them. I will only say that here we have that rare case when “changing the places of terms” (that is, rearranging the words in the query) can give a new result. I methodically “drive” requests into the search bar in all the wording that I can think of: date, place, military unit, military unit + date, military unit + place, and so on. It is useless to look for the uncle's name itself: only my own article, written for the 55th anniversary of the Victory, “falls out”. But the rest of the requests begin to bring results.

Firstly, it becomes clear that there is no village of Zazibino in the Liozno district of the Vitebsk region. But in the Smolensk region, not far from the border with Belarus, there is the village of Zazybino. Well, perhaps this is due to the post-war movement of administrative boundaries. We check what happened in this place on December 28, 1943. Nothing special. The village has already been liberated.

This is not consistent with the story of how the uncle died: it was in that very lost letter (official notice) and was remembered by relatives more vividly than the name of the village. And it was like this: when the battalion commander died, his uncle, the chief of staff of the first separate battalion of the 33rd separate rifle brigade, took command and led the soldiers to carry out a combat mission. He was wounded in the legs, but he refused to be evacuated to the medical battalion and continued to command, lying in the snow. And then the German tanks broke through.

On December 28, 1943, there could not have been German tanks in Zazybino, Monastyrshchinsky District, Smolensk Region: the front had already advanced westward by that time.

Endless requests do not lead to new answers and already seem meaningless when suddenly I stumble upon an officer's memoirs, where the name of the village of Zazyba, located in the square I need, flashed by.

Op-pa! Well, let's ask Yandex what he knows about Zazyby.

He knows a lot. Firstly, the fact that Zazyby is a village, which in 1943 belonged to the Liozno region. Secondly, the Belarusian writer Mikhas Lynkov was born there. Thirdly, there were fierce battles. Fourthly, soon after the war, according to a new administrative-territorial division, it went to the Vitebsk region, which the people of Liozno still remember with regret.

Fifthly, the village is tiny and not marked on the maps.

Even on road maps. And, as it turned out later, on GPS maps too. Again I return to the database, trying to pull something else out of it. And it turns out! For some reason, another village is indicated in one of the documents as the burial place: Orlovo, Vitebsk region. But it is on the map - exactly on the Orsha-Vitebsk highway. So the Bubbles must be around somewhere? I start the search in the next circle, carefully examine the images “falling out” on the monitor.

The most amazing things can be found on the Internet. For example, a scanned page of the Atlas of the hunter and fisherman, on which each bump is indicated. Including the village of Zazyby. Both villages Zazyby.

Here is such a surprise. There were two villages with the same name in the Vitebsk region: Zazyby 1st and Zazyby 2nd. On opposite sides of the highway. And which one I need - is unknown.

In general, you need to go and figure it out on the spot, especially since the long holiday May weekend arrived, the weather finally improved even in Moscow, and to the south of the capital both apple trees and pears have completely blossomed.

And I went. I invited my friend along with me (at the same time we made up an excursion route for ourselves, including Vitebsk, Polotsk and Orsha), loaded maps of the Vitebsk region into the car navigator, marked on them approximately the points where the villages of interest to me should be.

Traveling by car to Belarus is pure pleasure. The road is good (although we came across several sections under repair, it didn’t get any worse), and behind Mozhaisk it’s also empty. We left Moscow early in the morning, had breakfast with sandwiches at the source of the Moskva River almost on the border of the Moscow and Smolensk regions, had a tasty and inexpensive lunch in Smolensk, after dinner we walked around the city with pleasure, climbed the fortress wall. To Vitebsk from Smolensk, a maximum of an hour and a half drive, so before dinner we even had time to visit at least one Zazyby. And the same Orlovo that stands right on the highway.

The roads of Belarus turned out to be beautiful, like a dream. There were almost no cars on them, and the few that got in our way proudly sparkled with Moscow license plates. We turned off the M 1 highway to the highway we needed, from it to the country road. There were no signs to the village of Zazyby 1st. The locals, looking up from the potato beds, were surprised: “Is there such a thing?” We took out a map printed on the printer, the residents were even more surprised: “And the map you have is some kind of ... French ...” At some point I could not stand it and said: “What was found on the Internet, this is the map.” Surprisingly, this statement reassured the locals: “Aaaaaa! So you have an internet game? That's what we're looking at, you have Russian numbers!” After such a statement, the good-natured uncle brought the very “Atlas of the hunter and fisherman” from which our map was scanned (although we did not know this then) and quickly explained where to go.

In general, about the fifth attempt, we found the village somewhere beyond the lake, among the swamps. The old people, who remembered the war, said that there were no special battles here, and there were several graves. Only all the soldiers were reburied long ago in Orlovo-Shapury: “Probably, yours is there too.” At that moment, it became clear where the discrepancy in information in the Books of Memory came from, but the clarity in the search did not increase.

However, it was time to head to Vitebsk, where a booked hotel room was waiting for us.

We left the roads back onto the highway and moved forward. Soon a sign with the name flashed locality Orlovo, followed by Shapury. A minute later, the highway brought us to the memorial burial place of several thousand soldiers who died during the Vitebsk operation.

Not finding my uncle's surname in the alphabetical lists, we nevertheless lit a memorial candle on the monument, after which we went our own way. It was clear that the search was not over yet.

The next day we went to look for the second Zazyby, fortunately the good-natured gardener told us at the same time how to get to them. It turned out to be much easier to find them than the first ones: the road sign indicated the direction to the desired country road. We turned off the asphalt road leading through the village of Kopti to another military memorial, and soon we were approaching the village we needed.

We once again told our story to the locals, who were surprised by the appearance of a car with Russian numbers. Here, no one suspected us of idle fermentation at the call of the Internet. On the contrary, in the second Zazybakh they treated us with even greater understanding than in the first: we are not the only ones who came here to look for the grave of a relative. “Our village changed hands nine times. There were such battles, the mother said that the blood was no longer absorbed into the ground, so it stood in puddles, - says a local resident. “Many of us were buried here. Then they transferred everyone to Shapuri ... And we also had a grave in the garden. Siberian one. Her mother looked after her, and his relatives came. Her mother had been dead for two years, but she remembered everything about the war, they always asked her everything.

We were shown the place where the original burial was: thickets of weeds do not hide pits and mounds - traces of dug graves. The earth remembers everything.

And people remember. In the village of Kopti, through which you need to go to Zazyby, on the beautiful bank of the pond there is a large memorial with monuments to the soldiers who fell in 1941 during the six-month Vitebsk operation, concentration camp prisoners, partisans and executed local residents - they are buried there. More than 20 thousand people, including even three-year-old children. There are benches near stones with local names. A young pine trembles with a St. George ribbon tied to the trunk. There are no flowers: they are on the front side, but they buried their own people so that they would have a beautiful view and so that they could be alone with their native graves alive.

The number of deaths is simply incomprehensible. Especially when you read that during the liberation of the very village of Zazyba, which was not marked on the maps, 877 soldiers and officers died. There, about each surrounding village, it is written how many Soviet soldiers fell during its liberation. The numbers are impressive. More precisely - terrible. So scary that we don't even want to go back to the hotel until we get some air, we take a walk somewhere to recover. So we go to Orsha and walk there until dark, since the architectural ensemble of the city center is very beautiful.

The next day, having also walked around Polotsk (we had time for a walk and only one museum, we chose the museum-library), we returned to Moscow. Bye Byelorussia once again showed us that the land keeps the memory of wars for a long time: we stopped the car near Liozno and entered the roadside woods. And there they found an overgrown, but still noticeable trench of a partisan sniper, hidden behind a bump and oriented towards the highway so that cars approaching from the city were visible.

In August, I finally took my dad to the place where his brother died. On the monument in Orlovo-Shapury, dad found the name of his brother, which my friend and I did not see - not on a plate with surnames starting with the letter “M”, but on an additional one, where, apparently, the names of those who were reburied later than the rest appear. On my first trip, this plate was completely hidden under the wreaths.

In general, here ends the story of a family mystery and how, thanks to the Internet and kind people, it was solved. Just a little more to add.

Firstly, in the process of searching for the grave, I managed to find out that in 1941 my uncle was a participant in the November parade on Red Square and, together with the rest of the Podolsk cadets, went straight to the front from there. And not just anywhere, but exactly in that corner of the Moscow region, where our dacha, built in the fifties, now stands. An amazing coincidence.

Secondly, we could not understand why the employees of the Liozno district military commissariat did not want to answer my grandfather's requests - they did not report that the administrative boundaries of the district were shifting, they did not advise to look at the neighbors.

Thirdly, we were struck local history museum Vitebsk - the last specialist in the Great Patriotic War retired from there about a year ago, so no one could answer dad's questions.

And fourthly, next spring my friend and I are going to the Novgorod region. Oksanin's great-uncle is buried in the area of ​​Myasny Bor. The family received a “missing” notice, but searches in the same database and numerous queries in the search engine allowed the friend to find the village, where, apparently, her ancestor lies in a mass grave.

Critic Ksenia Moldavskaya and Boris Kuznetsov on contemporary literature for teenagers

REAL-VIRTUAL
Xenia Moldavskaya

A year ago general manager ROSMEN publishing house, Boris Kuznetsov, answering questions related to the study of publishers' responses to reader requests, said: “We tried to publish a book of a very relevant genre in the West - a social novel, but this experience was unsuccessful for us. For example, the novels of Jacqueline Wilson, which is very popular in the West. But the degree of identification of a Russian teenager with the heroine of Wilson's books is minimal due to the mismatch of living conditions: for example, the heroine of the novel was offended and went to the second floor to her room.

The statement is surprising, given the extent of Jacqueline Wilson's popularity among Russian teenage girls. Unlike the publisher, the girls look not at the surroundings, but at the inner essence: at the characters, at the conflict and at the resolution of the conflict. The Englishwoman Wilson writes, firstly, well, and secondly, correctly. In the sense that her books help girls in many countries to understand themselves, avoid fatal mistakes, find a constructive and positive way out of difficult life situations- after all, the life of a teenager is full of difficulties, misunderstanding and resentment.

In general, the conclusion from Kuznetsov's words suggested itself: it's not a "mismatch of living conditions", but something completely different. What exactly, we learned this fall, when four books of the new "Rosmen" series "Podruzhki.ru" appeared on the shelves.

There are four girls studying in a certain Moscow school. They have different families, different income (yeah, those very “living conditions”), different interests, but at the same time they are close friends. The exposure is…how to put it mildly…familiar. From Wilson's books. Which, however, had three girls, not four. The development of events is also familiar: the girls are looking for adventures on their own ... heads. Adventures are often risky, such that mothers warn all girls around the world against. But all the girls all over the world don't really listen to their mothers.

Girls need other authorities - somewhere outside the family. They won’t listen to their mother, but they can listen, for example, to the actress Nonna Grishaeva, who in the book “Advice to Dad’s and Mom’s Daughters” (M.: Makhaon, 2010) repeats exactly the same thing: don’t get into a car with a stranger, drink alcohol at a tender age, etc. They also listen to Jacqueline Wilson, who, without moralizing, but very convincingly, is able to explain what happens to girls who find trouble on their heads, and what their parents feel at the same time.

Reminding a teenage girl that parents also have feelings is actually a very important pedagogical task. Wilson does not hide that he solves pedagogical problems (in artistic form) with his books. And all over the world her books are wildly popular. In the UK, only Joan Rowling could reach Jacqueline Wilson.

But "ROSMEN" cleared the clearing from overseas pedagogy in order to grow its own "Podruzhek.ru" on it, composed by a team of authors in accordance with the set commercial task. Subject to resemblance with the same “Girls” by J. Wilson, the creators of “Girlfriends” least of all think about sowing “reasonable-kind-eternal”. What they need from the people is not “thank you from the heart”, you can’t spread it on bread. They need teenage girls to get addicted to books and the world they create. For this, by the way, an interesting move was invented: the epilogue to each of the four books written on behalf of one of the heroines is an episode that will start the next book, but will be told by another “girlfriend”. So books can be read in circles continuously.

"Girlfriends" are tailored to justify teenage dreams: independence, meeting with an adult (twenty years old) Big and Pure Love (hereinafter - BCL) and parents do not climb. And the fact that in life there are various serious dangers is all an invention of elderly relatives. Therefore, a fifteen-year-old excellent student, who has already planned her future life and work, gets drunk drunk in the book Steep Turns, goes to a bike show and meets BCHL, a twenty-year-old biker and nonconformist. And the fifteen-year-old fan of esotericism in the book Cherry for the Demon hitchhikes from Moscow to St. Petersburg and immediately meets BCHL, a twenty-year-old poet and journalist, winner of the Debut and Steps awards, an experienced hitchhiker. BCHL is also found by a glamorous young lady who dreams of a career as a perfumer (she gets a Gnesinka student, winner of international competitions), and a “boyfriend” girl who is fond of martial arts (this one meets a future diplomat, not a government official).

It would seem that the choice of young people is extremely positive. But it can hardly serve as an excuse for the message that the books carry: your parents are talking nonsense, nothing will ever happen to you, because the Prince-on-the-White-Horse will appear on time and take you under his protection. The message, of course, is life-affirming, but, alas, it often makes young ladies forget about safety rules.

However, representatives of the ROSMEN publishing house are sure that their products will not bring any harm to girls. They simply do not believe that a modern girl at 12-13 years old will imitate book heroes. “That is, in your opinion, a modern girl of 10-13 years<…>seeks to imitate someone from a purely children's / teenage literature? I agree if some humanitarian-oriented girl introduces herself (does not imitate, but imagines herself, imagines herself) as Natasha Rostova or the heroine of Red and Black. But imitating a character who is both a peer and a contemporary is something from the Soviet era. “Timur and his team”, for example, ”writes a publishing house PR woman in one of the communities dedicated to children's books. In her opinion, modern children stand more firmly on the ground and are not inclined to get carried away by book characters to self-forgetfulness.

Well, perhaps it is. But those book heroes, or rather, heroines, which ROSMEN offers to modern teenage girls, have powerful support in the form of related products and - most importantly! - Internet site. And on the site, designed just for communication between teenagers, adult uncles and aunts, market researchers, write on behalf of the heroines of "Girlfriends". They write, ask for advice, communicate - in a word, the revival is in full swing. The real and the virtual merge. Fiction is so mixed with life that you don’t even understand what kind of world you are in. Fictional Varya, Zhenya, Nastya and Yarik become girlfriends of real Katya, Tanya and Sonya. Who are convinced that since nothing happened to their familiar girls either on the track or in the bike club, then there are no real dangers in life. Old galoshes-parents are simply jealous of youth and freedom, so they compose frightening fables.

At first, I wanted to end my text with a joke, albeit a blackish one. Remember about “sink, girls, there is enough space for everyone!” or even about what influence of literature on life. But I'm an old galosh, a mother of two teenagers, and I'm somehow not attracted to laughing at girls who, of course, will be “fools themselves”.

Because the danger emanating from the semi-virtual world offered by the ROSMEN publishing house seems too real to me.
* * *
Something I did not say anything at all about the literary merits of the new series. And it should. As the final nail. So just two quotes. They don't even need comments.
“And Kirill is saturated with creativity, it oozed from him, freezing with precious amber drops.”
“Fantasy immediately threw up a picture of how he touches my lips with his, how he carefully sucks one and runs his tongue over my lips, as if in a French movie.”
Fin, citizens.

General Director of the publishing house "ROSMEN"
Boris Kuznetsov

I am very flattered by the attention to our projects of Xenia Moldavskaya, a recognized expert in the field of literature for children and adolescents. It's not often that critics pamper publishers with disinterested reviews. I am sincerely grateful for the detailed analysis of our project. If I didn’t know Xenia personally, then, having come across this review on the Internet, I could well have mistaken it for the very virtuoso work of our PR people. But since this review, alas, is not the work of our PR department, I cannot leave it without a few comments.

To begin with, about my personal position in relation to modern literature for teenagers. I have voiced it more than once: in our country there is practically no, as a noticeable phenomenon, our own teenage literature. I would like our children to finally have books in which all the action takes place "here and now." Where the characters speak the same language with teenagers (literally), and the environment is actually modern and recognizable. For this, in my opinion, works written from the position of “hello, my little friend” and books by foreign authors are not suitable. And Jacqueline Wilson is, of course, a very convincing example here.

And now for a small inaccuracy. Actually, about "the degree of popularity of Jacqueline Wilson among Russian teenage girls." A few years ago, when Wilson's first novels hit our publishing house, they made a splash. We have published almost all the books written by her up to this time. We actively promoted them. The results were, to put it mildly, not the best. This is despite the fact that we know how to promote projects. As a result, focus groups were held, where it turned out that Russian girls are not interested in these books, because they cannot identify themselves, their environment and conditions with those proposed in the novel. Today, I also see no trace of Wilson's popularity anywhere. You can, for example, look at social networks. Traces of interest are vanishingly small. So, alas, there is no need to talk about Wilson's popularity among our girls.

Well, about Podruzhki.ru themselves, and about all the horrors to which greedy publishers-tempters incline girls. Without knowing the text, you might think that Ksenia Moldavskaya reviewed a book based on the series "School". You can try to read books and appreciate the difference. The real "lead abominations" are still not to be found there. Alas, there is no swearing, no drugs, not even unbridled propaganda of sex. Despite such gaps, we still do not intend to give out something completely sterile and sugary-correct. Such books do not teach anyone anything, because no one reads them.

And finally, I’ll say something terrible: we really didn’t set ourselves “a very important pedagogical task.” We did not pretend to take a place on the library shelf between Ushinskiy and Makarenko. We have created a modern media project for Russian teenage girls, in which they recognize themselves. We offered them a virtual world where they can communicate and make friends. The project is quite innocent and safe in terms of content and content. (Which, by the way, is what the vast majority of mothers we interviewed in focus groups agree with.) We created girlfriend books and a world of live, everyday girly communication.
We just want the girls to talk, make friends and read. And now I see that our idea turned out to be close and understandable to them. There are already more than a hundred thousand members on the site and in the game, and approximately the same number of girls are reading our books.

And once again I want to say a big thank you to Xenia Moldavskaya for the informal review. It's nice to see that our projects evoke a lively response from serious literary critics.

P.S. By the way, quotes taken out of context always look very advantageous and funny. Remember, "sharp teeth plunge into the very heart, and drink her blood." (By the way, this is not Stephenie Meyer.)

Sincerely,
Boris Kuznetsov
General Director of the publishing house "ROSMEN"

Photo by Evgeny Feldman

At the Book Fair, which closed on Sunday, there was a discussion titled "Declining Literacy of the Population and Social and Cultural Responsibility of Publishing Houses", organized by the newspaper "Knizhnoye Obozreniye". Few people came to discuss the key issue of post-Soviet humanitarian life - apparently, the other possible participants in the discussion considered the problem insoluble.

"Kniguru" is a competition established by the Federal Press Agency. He is looking for new topics and new authors writing for teenagers. People send texts, experts read them, make a long list of the best, then a short one. We post this list of finalists on the website http://kniguru.rf, and then an open jury begins to work, where any teenager can enter if they wish. Adults no longer decide anything here, so it is very important for experts to correctly evaluate the text at the first stages of its competitive life.

At the September Moscow Book Fair, publishers present the paper books of the previous season's Kniguru winners. A new season, already the third one, starts here, and now the manuscripts are being accepted.

Working in this project, constantly reading manuscripts, you begin to understand: one of the reasons for the “new illiteracy” is that a person does not take the trouble to reread his text. It doesn't matter if it's a letter, a blog post, or a literary impulse. You also clearly see: a text that the author did not take the trouble to re-read is not good (even just efficient). There are no texts that are very talented and absolutely illiterate. Kniguru experts, at least so far, have not met such people.

The general decline in literacy is impossible not to notice. It seems that there are only a few competent proofreaders left. I'm talking about Moscow. The farther from Moscow, the fewer of them. Trouble with spelling, punctuation, syntax. With the scientific apparatus of books, which is now often not verified at all. With the general cultural level of editors and translators.

There are worse problems (although they are, of course, related). Falling literacy school teachers, including the Russian language and literature. Twenty years ago, many "Rusichki", having quit school, got a job as proofreaders - and quite decent proofreaders. The current ones, I'm afraid, will not pull. Now in the student's diary you can find the entry "I was late for the lesson." And young philologists correct the competent works of sixth-graders in accordance with their ideas about beauty.

I don't know what to do with publishers. The administrative resource here, in my opinion, will be powerless. But people must bear responsibility for what they publish.

We have a professional award "Paragraph" - with the nomination "For the worst proofreading". It is awarded once a year. But, let's say, the newspaper heading "Again deuce" with the names of publishers, the names of proofreaders and in general with the debriefing could become a monthly and even weekly. But at the same time, we need an award for the most competent publishers and the most responsible proofreaders.

We need a quality mark of the book, which will be on the cover. At least in children's literature: so that parents can be sure of the book they buy for their child! Unfortunately, not all parents can adequately evaluate a children's book before buying it, which means they need trustworthy tips.

We don't have national spelling contests like there are in English-speaking countries. But such contests are a state initiative. And there is also an “initiative from below”: in Runet now more and more people consider themselves to be the so-called Grammar nazi, that is, those who are ready to “sort” people according to the level of grammatical completeness. It is impossible to read some figures who do not know how to decline numerals, mutilate prefixes and point blank do not see the difference between “ts” and “ts”.

Members of the movement in every possible way emphasize on the Web that they are in no way connected with the ideology of the Third Reich. They certify themselves as "national linguists, linguo-fascists, literate guardsmen ... aggressive literate people with innate literacy and a heightened sense of beauty." Such a literate "gets annoyed when someone makes a grammatical or spelling mistake, and instantly rushes to the attack, brandishing dictionaries and links to Gramota.ru." On their websites, the "guardian guardsmen" post portraits of Ditmar Elyashevich Rosenthal, since it is well known (it was once well known) that the best textbooks and reference books on the Russian language are Rosenthal's books.

I don't belong to this movement. But I absolutely agree with the thesis “Illiteracy destroys the nation”. People who write competently themselves have the right (perhaps they should) demand literacy at least from those who participate in their forums, leave comments on their blogs.

And it would be worthwhile to involve in the war for literacy the very Network in which children sit. The Runet grammar award with several nominations (one of them is mandatory for paper books) could also become a sign of the grammatical quality of the publication.

Everyone is tired of illiteracy. Sitting next to me is a colleague, senior researcher at the Russian Book Chamber, critic, Kniguru expert Maria Poryadina. I would like to draw the public's attention to the badge pinned to Maria Evgenievna's scarf.

On it is written: "I'll tear for tsya / tsya."

This is a natural feeling: each of us professionally reads dozens of manuscripts. And the level of manuscripts is increasingly showing: even school questions “What is he doing?” or "What to do?" when using verbs, the authors can no longer deliver.

And the professional reaction to this ... However, everything is written on Maria Evgenievna's badge.

Critic of children's literature Ksenia Moldavskaya - about why this writer will be read for a long time

On August 14, one of the most famous Soviet and Russian children's writers, Eduard Uspensky, passed away. He was 80 years old, the cause of death was cancer. Ouspensky's first book, Uncle Fyodor, the Dog and the Cat, was published in 1974. Soon, a series of cartoons about Prostokvashino was shot on it, which brought the writer all-Union fame. He is the author of more than 80 books, two feature films have been shot based on his works. Ouspensky was also a well-known television and radio host. Realnoe Vremya talked about the departed writer and person with children's literature critic Ksenia Moldavskaya.

- What is remarkable about the contribution of Eduard Uspensky to children's literature?

He created a new hero - absolutely apolitical, living a private life and dreaming of friendship. Yesterday, the editor-in-chief of the Year of Literature portal, Mikhail Vizel, wrote on Facebook that Cheburashka and Crocodile Gena are symbols of the era, romantics of the sixties. I still don't agree with him. Because both Gena and Cheburashka are losers who had no place in Soviet literature, even in romantic Soviet literature of the 1960s. They are losers and gather around themselves other such losers. They do not have an "informal leader" and no party leadership; in general, they all came from nowhere. And a wonderful friendship turned out, and the characters became not just archetypal, but even more popular than Chapaev. And I think that even if a cartoon had not been created about Cheburashka, these characters would still have been wildly popular. Although no, the cartoon still could not be born.

The same goes for many of his other heroes. In fact, he described the world of the escapist, and the escapist has no place in official children's literature, and still does.

- And Uncle Fyodor from Prostokvashino?

Uncle Fyodor is also an escapist. His parents dream of the fate of the escapists. The heroes of Prostokvashina create their own society, and this is a very interesting experience.

Why, then, did these heroes become so popular in the USSR, where they talked about socialization and civic duty all the time?

Because with all this, everyone then dreamed of dumping somewhere. Dump in a quiet cozy fictional world. Do you remember the intellectual symbol of the last decade of Soviet power, late Soviet Union? This is the kitchen where people gathered, talked - in a whisper or louder, talked about their own, private, friendly.

“Both Gena and Cheburashka are losers who had no place in Soviet literature, even in the romantic Soviet literature of the 1960s. They are losers and gather around them other such losers. Photo youtube.com

Why then is Cheburashka so popular in Japan? And, besides, he became a permanent mascot of the Russian team at the Olympics?

He is fluffy and has ears. As for the Olympics, he does not want to win anyone, there is no and never was aggression in him. And it's actually a paradox that an absolutely non-aggressive character becomes a symbol Olympic Games where the main thing is the desire to win.

- What do they say now in the writer's environment in connection with the departure of Ouspensky?

He helped a huge number of people, became the godfather of at least a third of the authors of our modern children's literature. Yesterday, the entire Facebook was full of the words: “Thanks to him, my first book came out.” He responded and helped many authors. For example, I know two stories. I studied at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. Lenin, and Ouspensky was to speak there. But very few people came to the performance. He was offended, angry, said that he would not perform and left. My classmate Tatyana Rick caught up with him on the stairs and said: “Eduard Nikolayevich, excuse me, I came to your performance, could you take a look at my fairy tales?” Ouspensky could have refused, but he didn’t, he took the fairy tales, read them and suggested that Tanya “call if anything.” And a year later, when she had to move to wheelchair, she decided that this was the very “if anything”, and called Eduard Nikolaevich, reminded him of herself and her fairy tales with a pedagogical bias. Uspensky then just created the publishing house "Samovar" and in it - a series of "Funny textbooks". And he wanted something real. And he saw that in the books of my classmate Tatyana Rick there is the very real thing that he is looking for. So her first books came out with the blessing of Ouspensky. He also tried to help her with treatment and took the most sincere part in her fate. He was a very sincere and enthusiastic person.

Olga Fix, who recently published the novel The Smile of a Chimera by the Vremya publishing house, is a very good book, I advise you to read it, a great fate awaits her, - she said yesterday on Facebook that when she was 17 years old, she got impudent and also came to Uspensky and asked to read her texts. He was a sharp man, not at all polite, but he read it and said: "At least it's not disgusting to read you." And she is very grateful to him. Because that is high praise. By the way, suddenly, in the comments to this story, it turned out that at this meeting in Uspensky's workshop, Tatyana Rick happened to be present, who came about her textbooks, and she remembers this scene very well.

Many people remember him with gratitude. My Facebook friend feed is mostly children's literature people, and they all write "thank you, teacher." This is the keynote of the day.

“He helped a huge number of people, became the godfather of at least a third of the authors of our modern children's literature. Yesterday, the entire Facebook was full of the words: “Thanks to him, my first book came out.” Photo basilisk.livejournal.com

He also participated in the creation of the program " Goodnight, kids! ”, hosted the program“ Ships entered our harbor ”first on the radio, and then on various television channels. What can you say about it?

Ouspensky was talented - he knew how to capture the spirit and essence of the time, to give people what they dreamed of, perhaps even unconsciously. And his program “Ships came into our harbor” was released for 20 years! This is a huge age. This program has become a whole era, which gave the older generation a sense of some stability, connection with the past. And “Calm” is our national treasure.

- And how do you evaluate his new heroes, which he created after perestroika - Fixies, for example?

Fixies, I think, grew out of "Guaranteed little men", but about his books recent years I don't want to talk right now. Not the time for this. I rate them ambiguously.

Why did the heroes of Uspensky not get lost with the collapse of the USSR, but confidently competed with the cartoon characters who came from abroad?

Because they exist outside of time and outside of real space, although their characters are absolutely real, and collisions too. But this escapism, which Ouspensky declared with his works of the golden period, is an amazing phenomenon. It reminds me of the joke about “drop everything and go to Uryupinsk”. The action of his books takes place in the conditional Uryupinsk. And we still all want to go to Uryupinsk. And not only to us.

Ouspensky's works were popular in the USSR; in the post-Soviet period, he is also known as the hero of high-profile copyright cases, including suing Soyuzmultfilm. Was he financially successful at all?

When it comes to patenting, he was absolutely right. Because children have this quality: when they like something, they easily appropriate it. And this is not even theft, but an acquaintance with the world. And when some children grow up, it seems to them that what they appropriated in childhood continues to remain their property. They do not think that their children's books and heroes had authors. I do not know how Uspensky lived under Soviet rule, although by the 1990s he did not live in poverty. But he did not sue for money and not because of material gain. He was suing for the honor of children's literature. Because all his processes - These are processes against thieves. He went ahead like an icebreaker, showing other writers that thieves can be defeated. And he showed the thieves that children's writers - these are not weak and unrequited kids that older boys can come to and shake change out of their pockets. That children's writers have teeth, fangs and claws, and they are quite capable of crushing and trampling crooks. Ouspensky sometimes used his weight in such a way as to destroy someone. He succeeded, he knew how.

“He went ahead like an icebreaker, showing other writers that thieves can be defeated. And he showed the thieves that children's writers - these are not weak and unrequited kids that older boys can come to and shake change out of their pockets. Photo teleprogramma.pro

And besides, he thus created news occasions. Because children's literature is for "serious" media - this is not news at all. For many years we have had a competition for the best work for children and youth "Kniguru". This is a unique competition that has no analogues in the world. But this is not a news occasion for "serious" publications. Moreover, when the Kniguru laureates are awarded on the same stage as the Big Book laureates, the presenters condescendingly say to children's writers: “Well, never mind, you will grow up and also someday write a big adult book.”

So, Ouspensky made news occasions. Yes, scandalous, but "adult" news occasions, so adult, business, economic and socio-political media wrote about him.

Under his care, the Chukovsky Festival was created - the largest holiday of children's literature, which takes place in Moscow and Peredelkino at different venues, gathers writers, artists and a huge number of children. Will the festival continue after his departure?

Of course, he did not rest on authority alone, a whole team works there. Of course, much depends on our department of culture, and I hope that it will not take away funding.

I bow to Eduard Nikolaevich for this festival. Because initially the organizers turned to him precisely as a tank and an icebreaker, a person capable of pushing through any bureaucratic barriers. And thanks to Uspensky, this festival has existed for 12 years. This is an open area where children's writers and poets from different cities gather. And most importantly, this festival exists together with the Chukovsky Prize, which is the only one in our country given to children's poets, there are no awards for prose, only for poetry. And it's very good that Chukovsky guys - the head of the festival, poet Sergei Belorusts, literary critic and employee of the Chukovsky Museum in Peredelkino Pavel Kryuchkov, director of this museum Sergei Agapov and other wonderful people - managed to award Eduard Nikolaevich himself, and in the nomination "The Most Chukovsky Writer". This is the right reward. - both on the scale of personality and on the scale of social significance.

Is it possible to say that Ouspensky's work will remain for centuries? He himself rated himself low - he called himself a craftsman, not a genius ...

He flirted. It will take a long time to read. Because the books that are read by generations live the longest. And Ouspensky has been read for generations. Since the sixties, how many generations have already changed? These are the books that the grandmothers of today's 6- to 10-year-old readers grew up on.

- Does he have literary heirs? Who is following in his footsteps?

This question doesn't seem very appropriate to me. Because the beauty of literature is that every writer has their own unique voice. Literature - this is not a school essay made according to the algorithm. Ouspensky had students, people whom he supported. He supported very many and, at first, even the famous and great Andrei Usachev. He helped Stas Vostokov and many others. He left students, and these are his main heirs. His authority allowed our young children's literature to survive the 2000s, when no one believed in Russian authors, with the exception of Uspensky and Oster, and to return in all the splendor of elegant pages.

“The books that are read by generations live the longest. And Ouspensky has been read for generations. Since the sixties, how many generations have already changed? These are the books that the grandmothers of today's six to ten year old readers grew up on." Photo youtube.com

- And what is happening in Russian children's literature now? What bright names can you name?

This is a long conversation. I can now give you a four-hour lecture on children's literature of the post-Soviet period, but I'd rather just name two bright projects. The first is the Chukovsky Festival, whose open four events are literary bonfires "Hello, summer!" and "Goodbye summer!" take place at the Peredelinsky dacha, and the birthday of Korney Chukovsky and the awarding of the Chukovsky Prize in the House of Writers. Entry is always free. And there are a lot of interesting writers who are worth paying attention to. Interesting, funny, able to communicate with the audience. Therefore, if the parents of children of primary school and before school age want to know something about new literature, welcome to the literary bonfire or the Chukovsky festival in the Central House of Writers.

The second bright project for people a little older. Now the Egmont Russia publishing house has resumed the publication of two series, which for various sad reasons were closed in the 2000s, although they declared themselves very loudly. These are the "Motley Square" and "City of Masters" series. This is modern Russian poetry and prose for readers from about 6 to 14 years old. There are amazing books out there. One of the best books in the last 15 years was published in the "City of Masters" last year - "Veteran of the Battle of Kulikovo, or Transit Contemporary" by Pavel Kalmykov. Compiler of these two series - Artur Givargizov, one of the most talented writers of the current era and the generation of writers over 50. The "City of Masters" and "Motley Square" are worth paying attention to, because Givargizov's list - this is an excellent and very varied reading list.

- And in terms of ethical guidelines in modern children's literature, something has changed - in comparison with the literature that Ouspensky wrote in his best period?

In a nutshell: no, it hasn't changed. Honor is still held in high esteem, friendship is still valued. Well, there were always enough scoundrels who try to fit in and get closer in any way.

Natalia Fedorova

reference

Xenia Moldavskaya- Critic, professional reader of children's books, journalist, teacher. He regularly publishes reviews of children's books in a variety of publications. Long-term host of the Book Poster on Radio Kultura. Expert of several literary awards and competitions for the best work of children's literature. One of the founders and long-term coordinator All-Russian competition for the best literary work for children and youth "Kniguru".

Ksenia Moldavskaya, an expert and critic of children's literature, a teacher, spoke in an interview with Pravchtenie about what a good children's book is

Interviewed by Yulia Myalkina/pravchtenie.ru
Photo: Alisa Vlasova/pravchtenie.ru

The most important question that I wanted to ask you in preparation for this interview is: what would a critic of children's literature, well versed in the modern literary process, advise children to read? This is a question that worries all parents, at least in my environment..

Xenia Moldavskaya: You see, you can never make a diagnosis from a photograph:

nevertheless, one must understand that the child loves, what he is fond of, one child has a book with a bang, and another, even a sibling, may not go at all.

The closest example to me is that I have children of the same age, they, however, are already quite adults, and can even get married, but an older fan of any "fantasy", heroic sagas. He is one of three people known to me who defeated, and in the original. The younger one didn’t even read, but he reads Woodhouse in English and is very fond of comics. He knows this culture so well that I consult with him and get very clear advice. And in general, when we start talking about the high, it turns out that he is better versed in literature than the older one, a student of the philological faculty of Moscow State University. It was a five-minute maternal brag.

After all, it's true that rarely anyone knows a child better than parents, and all advice, including teachers and professionals, should rely on this parental knowledge.

So when they ask me for advice,

I try to advise parents, not children, and in general all my work is aimed at adults.

Parents can keep track of different sources of information, they can constantly read the site, they can constantly read reviews, they can read the Buki website, they can keep track of new items, and choose what will interest their child.

But still, how to evaluate the quality of literature and choose what a child needs?

Xenia Moldavskaya: We're not talking about absolute value, are we? Are we talking about appreciation in the family? So, there are quite simple questions, by answering which a parent can evaluate a book: 1) am I satisfied with the way it is written? Do grammatical errors and logical inconsistencies hurt your eyes? 2) Am I satisfied with the theme of the book? Am I ready to continue the conversation on this topic with my child? 3) Am I satisfied with the ethical and aesthetic position of the author? And, if not satisfied, am I ready to discuss this with my child? Yes, even if it suits. 4) Why does my child need it? Will he be interested? 5) Why do I need a child to read this?

The child needs something for which he has an internal request. In fact, why do children read books?

"Love the book - the source of knowledge" is a very harmful approach.

And what is “good children's literature”, can you define this concept?

Xenia Moldavskaya: Good children's literature is that literature that gives the child, firstly, many answers, and secondly, develops him, and develops his tendency to reflection, and stimulates internal cognitive processes.

What is good for people adolescence? The fact that now all incomprehensible words can be immediately "googled", open "Wikipedia" and make notes for yourself, make reading lists, lists of views. This is very good, and we should rejoice at this opportunity that modern children have.

In addition, a good children's book is a book that meets the aspirations of parents. Because I can say 188 thousand times that he is a genius and that his books are excellent, but there will always be people who will not like him. This is simply not their author, and for them Givargizov's book, no matter how you twist it, will not be good.

Can a translated book by a modern foreign author be considered good literature?

Xenia Moldavskaya: This is wonderful! Why can't it?! Unless the translator kills the book to death, as Braude killed the Moomins. The fact is that

in addition to the national context, there is a global context. The question is, do we want to sit behind our fence or do we want to fit into society and understand what is happening in the world.

Small example. When, about ten years ago, Eric Karl brought The Very Hungry Caterpillar to our market, this book was 35 years old at that moment, and it did approximately the same thing in the world as. We have reminiscences from this work of Lewis Carroll everywhere in our culture. In general, I believe that half of world culture is built on Alice, on the legends of the Arthurian cycle. Another quarter - on Tolkien, but Tolkien, in turn, is built on the legends of the Arthurian cycle. Although he pretends there that these are some Scandinavian sagas ...

So, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as it turned out, is a book on which some part of modern culture is built. And if you don't know what the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" is, you lose some piece of meaning ... And that's why, it seems to me, a great thing is to fit children into the context of world culture. By the way, adults should also fit in.

Okay, Caterpillar. Look, the Bible is, by the way, also translated literature.

So you say that you can’t ask children: “What did the author want to say?” And how then to work on the text, for example, in literature lessons?

Xenia Moldavskaya: I ran away from teaching regular subjects 25 years ago. Literature lessons at school in the form in which they are usually held, I consider dissection, pathology, and not literature. It's not close to me. I think that one can engage in annotated reading, but there should be no analysis, no analysis. You see, after such questions

children are very afraid to reflect. They are taught from kindergarten that there is some right opinion, and there is some wrong one. The correct one is what the teacher likes.

And they strive to guess this "correct answer". And as a result, this guessing game is neither mind nor heart. Although, of course, there are excellent teachers who discuss rather than dissect, calling children to reflection, and not to mechanical formal analysis - and I know these teachers. But I also know others.

I want to ask you a question as an expert, what is the peculiarity of children's literature, what is its difference from adult literature? Should it “carry the good, the eternal” or is it not necessary, should it contain absolutely certain heroes or problems?

Xenia Moldavskaya: Yes, it should carry moral values, but only it should not importunately declare it from a certain moment. Because when she declares, it turns out to be the most complete stupidity. In children's literature, it seems to me, it is much more fun than in adult literature, because, on the one hand, it gives the writer the opportunity to amuse his inner child, and not only in his state of the art, but to console the child who, in childhood, may have been offended. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, children's literature supports the child reader and helps him understand himself and the world around him.

Of course, there are some mandatory restrictions in children's literature. For example, the law on the protection of children from information, which I consider ill-conceived, illogical, and wrong. But still, even its authors looked into the textbook developmental psychology and tried to fit in. Indeed, it is very important for a child of preschool and primary school age that the hero at the end return home or to a place that he can call his home. Like the Hobbit, for example. He leaves home, embarks on some incredible adventures, but he still returns home to his cozy garden. This

the feeling that your world is always waiting for you and will always take you back is very important for a child.

For an older child, something else is more important. There, the hero can choose some other world, something else, but there are also certain psychological age requirements. But the knowledge that you have somewhere to return, it warms quite adults. The parable of the prodigal son is also about this.

Modern teenagers have a terrible amount of cockroaches in their heads. Now the situation is terrible, because many of them have some psychological problems, diagnosed and undiagnosed depression, which can be provoked by the terrible pressure that adolescents experience from all sides, some personal problems or not provoked at all, it also happens. But in any case, a teenager needs support, and a book can become such support. And more often it is translated literature, these are Scandinavian heroes who are a little bit in themselves, but they have a very intense inner life.

And notorious

"Harry Potter", its first volumes, for example, work in cases where you dream of becoming noticeable or you do not have relationships in the classroom, when you are an outcast, when you are a victim of bullying.

Although bibliotherapy is not my field and I am afraid to go there with "unwashed hands", because

bibliotherapy differs very little from traditional medicine in terms of the dangers of self-medication.

You mentioned Tolkien's name. In this regard, the question is: now there is such a tendency for modern children to “passions-muzzles”, they like the terrible, even terrifying. How do you feel about this in children's literature?

Xenia Moldavskaya: You see, the child needs to be scared! On the one hand, this is a “feeling” of the terrible, on the other, self-knowledge, and on the third, it is the need to make sure that, no matter how scared you are, everything will end well.

Indeed, in the life of every person, “terrible forces” always stand in the way. Moreover, we ourselves and the children face them every day: an evil security guard, a teacher or a boss with whom there is no mutual understanding, the need to do something completely unimaginable - climb a rope there or write a dictation, call technical support, it doesn’t matter - a person All this can cause infernal horror. But the main thing is to overcome it and complete the mission.

But can I ask you this question? Do you read Orthodox children's literature?

Xenia Moldavskaya: The question is what we attribute to Orthodox children's literature. If we attribute to it books about Orthodox saints, retellings of the Bible by good and, most importantly, responsible writers such as Valery Mikhailovich Voskoboynikov, then yes, I read it with pleasure. If we refer to Orthodox children's literature literature that does not contradict Christian and Orthodox values, published by completely churched Orthodox people in a publishing house, for example, then yes, such literature does not violate my picture of the world and does not outrage. And if we attribute to Orthodox literature something where there are a lot of Orthodox words, but at the same time the quality of the text is monstrous, then no, sorry! With such literature, we simply run the risk of mutilating children, mutilating their perception of the world and life. So

I am for the fact that the word “Orthodox” should not be added to the word “literature”, for it to be Literature with a beautiful letter “L”.

Now it is not necessary to buy everything that you want to read with children, many novelties of modern publishing houses are regularly purchased by children's libraries. But the kids still don't go there. How would you comment on this state of affairs?

Xenia Moldavskaya: We will not discuss acquisitions and collections of libraries. And prejudices that no one goes to libraries - too. But in general, a library is not a place whose meaning can be assessed in absolute terms of attendance. We just used to have less access to books. Now there is internet. Now the library performs the function not only of a book depository, although it is also a book depository, but also of a cultural, ideological center, which is also very important in fact. For many children, this is a refuge, an opportunity to go beyond their social group, social environment. Sometimes absolutely amazing children grow up in the library, who “in the family of their own, they seemed like a stranger girl”. And the support of these children, who are not so many, cannot be assessed in absolute terms. These are just small things to do.

I really love one story about the seventies of the last century in the Carpathians, in the Kosovo region of the Ivano-Frankivsk region in the Hutsul village of Nizhny Berezov. I must say that the Hutsuls in Western Ukraine are considered an intermediate form of life between Ukrainians and Gypsies, closer to the Gypsies, they are not taken seriously. They speak a very peculiar language, which is very different from the normative Ukrainian. The person I want to talk about spoke not even the normative, Kievan version of the Ukrainian language, but the language of the Lvov version, and the whole village respectfully said that "Dmitro Petrovich can speak Russian!" His name was Dmitro Petrovich Fitsych. He was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, saw the First World War as a teenager, participated in the Second World War - this was already after the annexation of Western Ukraine to the Soviet Union, fought in the Red Army.

Dmitro Petrovich was in charge of the House of Culture in this very village of Nizhny Berezov, Kosovsky District, Ivano-Frankivsk Region, high in the mountains. And he was faced with the question of how to force this very Hutsul, who lives by subsistence farming, to participate in the cultural life of the village? Fitsych went to some completely insane tricks. For example, he arranged some competitions, reviews, God knows what else, and promised to take the winners to Moscow for three days. There could not have been more winners of all these competitions at the same time than the compartment of the Ivano-Frankivsk-Moscow reserved seat car, that is, together with Petrovich there should have been no more than six people.

Fitsych was friends with my dad, who was in charge of the clubs and parks department of the Cultural and Educational Work magazine. Petrovich brought his five collective farmers to our house, they laid their blankets close to each other and lay down on the floor, got up at 6 in the morning and ran to the shops. Well, the tourist route of that time was absolutely clear: GUM, TSUM, " Child's world". By the way, they were all very polite, did not cause any disturbance and even kept up a conversation with pleasure with me as a schoolgirl, and with my father as a journalist, and with my mother as an architect, and with my grandmother as a sculptor, although it was a little similar for them as well. , and for us, a window into an absolutely incredible Other World. And returning home, they brought gifts to all their friends, some orders, enthusiastically talked about the trip and urged fellow villagers to live a cultural life in the House of Culture and generally raise their cultural level in every possible way.

So many, many years later, when neither Dmitri Petrovich nor the Soviet Union was gone, I suddenly found out that

the best translation of "Harry Potter" into a foreign language, a translation that is considered a reference, is a translation into Ukrainian. And the author of this translation is the creator of one of the most interesting Ukrainian publishing houses "A-ba-ba-ha-la-ma-ha" Ivan Malkovich.

And he grew up in the village of Nizhny Berezov, Kosovo district, Ivano-Frankivsk region. And at that moment, a lot of things fell into place in my head. I don’t know if Malkovich himself participated in cultural parades in his village, whether he won prizes, but all these Petrovich tricks, the invasion of amateur competition winners in our apartment - all this was worth starting in order for Ivan Malkovich to grow up in this village.

Original article:
"On Orthodox Literature with a capital "L"" - Pravchtenie, March 17, 2017

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