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The article "Punisher of" bad guys ". 70 years ago, near Kanev in Ukraine, the author of the "Blue Cup" was killed "from issue: AMF №43

70 years ago, near Kanev in Ukraine, the author of the "Blue Cup" died. Why do some families don't like to remember the name of the writer?

For us, who grew up on "Timur and his team", "Chuk and Geka", the name of the writer Arkady Gaidar was cult. But, they say, they have declassified documents in which Gaidar appears to be a completely different person. What did they hide from us?

N. Dragysheva, Tomsk

“Yes, Gaidar was an example for us, schoolchildren, - at the age of 14 he went to fight in the Red Army, became a writer, died in the Great Patriotic War with weapons in his hands,” says Natalia Olkhova, a Krasnoyarsk publicist, researcher of Gaidar's biography. "But some families don't like to remember Gaidar's name."
According to the mother's behest

"Arkasha, remember, son, my mandate, don't spare your belly if you need to defend the power of the Soviets from enemies!" - said the mother to Arkady Golikov (later he will take the pseudonym Gaidar). Fulfilling his mother's behest, he distinguished himself so much that at the end of June 1921, the commander of the troops in the Tambov province, M.N. Tukhachevsky, signed an order appointing 17-year-old Arkady Golikov as the commander of the 58th separate regiment to combat banditry. True, there is another version of why the young Gaidar ended up in the Red Army.

“It is quite possible that Arkady Gaidar committed several murders, after which his mother was enrolled in the Red Army to save himself from retaliation,” says Andrei Burovsky, professor, historian. - During bouts of depression, Gaidar admitted this - it tormented him. And his participation in the extermination of the Khakass intelligentsia on the Salt Lake is a documented event. "

Golikov came to Khakassia in 1922, where he headed the ChON detachment (special purpose units). “In the late 1990s, while collecting materials for my book, I found documents confirming the atrocities of Arkady Golikov's detachment,” continues Natalia Olkhova. - I wrote down the stories of grandmothers who remember the Civil War, about how Gaidar shot in the back of the head anyone who was suspected of involvement in anti-Soviet activities, how he pushed women and children off a cliff. By his order, local residents were shot without trial or investigation, chopped with sabers, thrown into wells.

In the Krasnoyarsk archives, there is a letter from the volost executive committee from the village of Kurbatovo to Achinsk, which tells about the "Gaidar gang": Soviet authorities, which said: "Down with the death penalty and corporal punishment without trial!" There was a system of hostages - the families of the partisans were destroyed. Gaidar's actions were super-tough even during the Civil War. " The commander of the ChON province, V. Kakoulin, was, to put it mildly, slightly discouraged by the behavior of the young commander: "My impression is that Golikov is an unbalanced boy in ideology, who, using his official position, committed a number of crimes." It is interesting that other famous writers - Nikolai Ostrovsky and Pavel Bazhov - also served in the ChON detachments. Gaidar's son Timur married the daughter of the latter.

On June 3, 1922, a special department of the provincial department of the GPU opened case No. 274. Arkady Golikov was accused of abuse of office. After a special commission was held, her boss demanded that the punitive commander be shot. In November 1924, Gaidar was dismissed with a severance pay for illness from the Red Army. Apparently, reports were constantly coming to him, and the leadership was deciding what to do with the uncontrollable commander, because shortly before the dismissal a telegram came from the headquarters of the ChON troops: “To the commander of the 6th consolidated detachment. I am informing you about Golikov’s resolution about Golikov: “Under no circumstances arrest. Withdraw. Kakoulin ". Arkady Golikov was expelled from the party, removed from office, and he was sent for a psychiatric examination.

Nothing and nobody

After that Gaidar often ended up in a hospital bed in psychiatric hospitals. From the diary of A. Gaidar. Khabarovsk. August 20, 1931, mental hospital: "I really want to shout:" Go to hell! " But you hold back. In my life I have been in hospitals, probably 8 or 10 times - and yet this is the only time when I will remember this Khabarovskaya, the worst of hospitals, without embitters, because the story about "Boy-Kibalchish" will be written here unexpectedly. October 28, 1932, Moscow: "In essence, I have only three pairs of underwear, a duffel bag, a field bag, a sheepskin coat, a hat - and nothing else and no one, no home, no place, no friends." February 14, 1941, from a letter to the writer R. Fraerman: “The habit of lying from beginning to end has formed, and the struggle with this habit is stubborn and hard, but I cannot defeat it ... Sometimes I go very close to the truth , sometimes just about - and, cheerful, simple, she is ready to break off her tongue, but as if some voice sharply warns me: beware! Do not say! Otherwise you will be lost! And immediately you will imperceptibly turn, spin ... and for a long time then it dazzles in your eyes - eh, they say, where are you, scoundrel, drove! .. "

The most terrible lines Arkady Gaidar wrote in half-delirium, during the next prolonged depression: "I dreamed of people killed by me in my childhood ..." He wanted to be heard, to be forgiven. Most likely, all his life he repented of the "sins of youth."

“Judging by what Gaidar wrote, he still believed that everything was not in vain, that a new, happy generation would be born that would live the life he dreamed of,” says Natalia Olkhova. “But at the same time, the memories of the murders haunted him, drove him crazy. Can we forgive, feel sorry for him? I think that a person can be judged only by the laws of the time in which he lived, and this also applies to Arkady Gaidar. "

Isn't he buried in the grave of Arkady Gaidar?

The circumstances of the death of the writer in October 1941 were never fully clarified.

German Drozdov, a local historian from the town of Kanev, has been conducting his own investigation for more than a quarter of a century and is sure that he is not buried in Gaidar's grave. "AiF" cites his version of events.

For the first time, the question of the writer's final resting place arose soon after the war. On the morning of October 26, 1947, a group of members of the USSR Writers' Union, headed by Sergei Mikhalkov, arrived in Leplyava near Kanev (Cherkasy region). For several hours, the members of the commission and the persons accompanying them, including Gaidar's first wife, his son Timur (father of the economist Yegor Gaidar) and Arkady Petrovich's sister, tried to find his grave. To no avail.

In the end, one burial was found. They dug it up, began to make identification. Neither Timur nor the wife of Arkady Petrovich, according to eyewitnesses, recognized their father and husband in the murdered. Arkady Petrovich's sister did not recognize him either. Then Mikhalkov, after long and difficult negotiations with Moscow, summons the sister and relatives of the deceased to him and brings them the instructions of Comrade Stalin: Gaidar's body must be immediately found and identified. After that, the sister recognized the remains of her brother, but Timur, who was then 21 years old, said: “Mom, how tired I am of this circus! Why are they doing this to us? "

Gaidar met the beginning of the war with a war correspondent. After the encirclement of units of the Southwestern Front in September 1941, he ended up in the partisan detachment named after. Chapaev, commanded by the secretary of the local regional party committee Fyodor Gorelov. The detachment was poorly armed, even worse trained.

Gaidar introduced himself to the fighters with his real name - Golikov. Having mastered, he began to express disagreement with the policy of the commander. I had the honor to speak with two partisans, and both argued: Gaidar demanded decisive action from Gorelov - they say that the lads in the forest will have enough to wipe their trousers and plunder the population. After such a turn of events, a calm and well-fed life in the forest ended, which not everyone liked. One of the disgruntled escaped from the detachment and passed on information about him to the German patrol. On October 23, as a result of a bloody battle near the sawmill near the Svinintsy farm, the detachment was virtually destroyed, but Gaidar with a small group of partisans was able to leave. Two days later, this detachment was ambushed. Gaidar was wounded in his right arm, but again managed to fight back. There was no longer any sense in partisans, the group decided to move forward to join the Red Army.

Early in the morning of October 26, Gaidar and his comrades, approaching the outskirts of the village of Lepliavo, went on reconnaissance. Climbing the embankment, he heard the sound of a rifle bolt twitching, familiar from his youth. Not having time to do anything, Gaidar shouted at the top of his voice: "Comrades, fire at me!" A shot rang out, Gaidar fell. By sacrificing his life, he saved his comrades. The next day, Gaidar's body was buried in an unmarked grave next to the railway embankment by a lineman named Sorokopud. A few days later, these places were again stained with blood - a local resident, who got raids on his garden, shot the marauder. It was he who was reburied instead of Gaidar on the Dnieper Mountain in the city of Kanev in October 1947.

But who turned out to be a Jew in this case? Policeai Yakov Voropai shot at Gaidar, leaving a bad memory of himself during the occupation. After the retreat of the Germans, he left with them, and after the war he again appeared in the village, but already as an "Ostarbeiter" - a victim of Nazism. In 1945, he served in the Soviet penal battalion and "redeemed his guilt with blood" - he was wounded in the heel. After the war he worked as a warehouse manager at a local collective farm named after ... Arkady Gaidar!

A couple of years after the burial of the remains in Kanev, the gravestone with the inscription "Arkady Gaidar" cracked. It was urgently replaced with a new one, which also cracked. It seems that Gaidar's spirit is opposed to injustice.

Arkady Petrovich Gaidar

January 22, 2008 marks 104 years since the birth of Arkady Petrovich Gaidar (n.f. - Golikov)

Gaidar translated from Tatar means “a rider galloping in front”. In the old days, warriors - horsemen sent a rider ahead, who galloped ahead of everyone and peered into an unknown distance, always ready to warn the detachment. This pseudonym was chosen by Arkady Petrovich Gaidar. Born in the era of the Great October Revolution, he always went ahead, illuminating the path to the future with his works, showing an example of civic courage, patriotism, high morality and spiritual beauty.

The future writer was born on January 22, 1904 in the city of Lgov, Kursk province. Father Petr Isidorovich - a village teacher, after the October Revolution, commissar of the 35th division, a member of the party. Mother Natalya Arkadyevna - a teacher, later a paramedic, after the October Revolution, a party member. Arkady spent the first five years of his life in Lgov. The boy's peculiar character took shape unusually early. None of the relatives and friends in the Golikov family remember that little Arkady was capricious over trifles, complained about his sisters and comrades. In 1910, the Golikov family moved to Nizhny Novgorod, and in 1912 to Arzamas. They always considered Arzamas their hometown. In this town, Arkady grew up and studied. Over his years, strong, blue-eyed, forehead Arkady soon became the most important "organizer" among the neighboring boys. Little Arkady passionately loved theater and almost always participated in school performances.

I grew up in the city of Arzamas. There the bells of thirty churches were buzzing loudly, but no factory whistles were heard.

From 1912 to 1918, the children's writer Arkady Petrovich Gaidar lived in this house.

First they settled on Bolshaya Street in building 128, but for a large family of seven; the apartment turned out to be cramped and not very comfortable. Therefore, Petr Isidorovich and Natalya Arkadyevna found a separate wooden house on Novoplotinnaya Street, where they lived for more than six years.

The house is wooden, sheathed with boards, the log house was built in the early 70s of the XIX century.

The house has four rooms. On the right side is the door to the living room, the parents' room, on the left is the entrance to the kitchen and the nursery.

Living room. The largest and lightest room in the house. On Sundays, the whole family gathered at a square table. A kerosene lamp with an elegant colored lampshade was lit. The father read books to children, told fascinating stories about the life and customs of other nations, all together wrote short stories and poems. “I don’t know what they were about,” Gaidar said later, “about Little Red Riding Hood or about the gray wolf? But for the rest of my life I remember the big dream of a good life. "

The parents' room is separated from the living room by a thin partition. On the old chest of drawers there are small, elegant, rectangular carriage clocks. A thing that Natalya Arkadyevna has always cherished so much. This watch, and even a silver glass from the travel chest of her father, Lieutenant A.G. Salkov were a relic of the whole family.

Kitchen... The smallest room in the house. A large Russian stove takes up a lot of space. On the pole there are clay pots, pans, in the corner there are grips, a poker. By the window there is a copper washbasin, under it is a similar basin on high metal legs, and a towel hangs. There is a kitchen table against the wall, on it is a large copper samovar, nicknamed "wet." The whole family liked to drink tea from this samovar.

Children's. At the oval table, Arkady made hasty scanty entries in his diary, taught his lessons, tormented himself over a line of poetry, entrusted his thoughts in letters to his father at the front. A geographic map hangs above the bed - a guiding star of travels to "distant countries". A shelf with books once read by the realist Golikov.

"There were always a lot of books in the house: they were on the shelves, lying on the table in the bedroom, and even Arkasha and Taichka at that time had their own books with pictures, for which my mother wrote poetry." But Arkady especially loved to leaf through thick volumes of the Brockhaus and Efron encyclopedic dictionary. For the rest of his life he retained the habit of reading "through and through" encyclopedic dictionaries.

Arkady was thirteen years old when the Great Patriotic War took place.

Relatives assigned Arkady to the Arzamas school. But classes had not yet begun when the war broke out. Father was taken as a soldier. Gaidar remembered the minutes of parting with his father for all his life. Everyone was crying: sisters, mother, neighbors. Only a ten-year-old boy stood at the threshold, biting his lips, braced himself and did not cry. Natalya Arkadyevna was left alone with four children. A harsh life began for the Golikov family. No matter how difficult it was for someone living in a remote province to understand the pandemonium of political disputes, he managed to choose the only correct path - he joined the Bolsheviks. As a fourteen-year-old teenager (hiding his age) he voluntarily went to the front. At the age of fifteen he graduated from the Kiev command courses. He was not seventeen years old when he took command of the regiment. Without a doubt, the role of the family and home education was great in this. Arkady's parents belonged to that part of the Russian democratic intelligentsia, which saw their primary duty in selfless service to the people and an uncompromising struggle for justice. Golikov could not imagine his life outside of a military career, he was preparing to enter the military academy. But numerous injuries and illnesses forced him to demobilize from the army in 1924. It was the frustration of all his hopes. In despair, Golikov wrote "The Farewell Letter to the Red Army," which already showed signs of literary talent. (The first story "In the days of defeat and victory", written at the front, did not bring him success). But still, after painful thinking about what to do next, he decides to "serve as a pen"
A new life of Arkady Golikov began, the life of the writer Arkady Petrovich Gaidar in books. There are many versions of the origin of the writer's pseudonym. One of them is already included in Gaidar's biographical data: Golikov Arkady from Arzamas.

Arkady Gaidar with his son Timur

He conveys his romantic perception of the revolution in anticipation of the coming bright future to young readers. In his heroic-romantic works, he confidentially speaks with them about the Motherland, about friendship and betrayal.

Gaidar entered children's literature with a story about the civil war "RVS" (1926). Then books were written on which more than one generation of children was brought up. These are: "School" (1930), "Distant Countries" (1932), "The Tale of the Military Secret, about the Boy-Kibalchish and His Strong Word" (1933), "Military Secret" (1935), "Blue Cup" (1936 ), "The Drummer's Fate" (1939), "Chuk and Gek" (1939). All of Gaidar's books teach only good things, so even now many of them are included in the school curriculum for literature.
For health reasons, Gaidar could not be drafted into the army. But when Nazi Germany attacked our country, he did everything to be at the front. He went off to the war as a correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda. He was not taken into the regular army, he became a partisan. He died helping out his comrades. This happened on October 26, 1941 in a battle near the village of Lepliava, when a small group of partisans, returning from a combat mission, stumbled upon an SS ambush. Gaidar was buried on the high bank of the Dnieper in the city of Kanev.

He died in a grove near Leplyava
Like a partisan behind enemy lines,
And, autumnal eternal glory,
Sleeps on the banks of the Dnipropetrovsk.
S. Marshak.

The museums of A.P. Gaidar were opened in Arzamas and in Lgov. The name of Arkady Petrovich Gaidar was given to many children's libraries in the country. In 1981, the "Gaidar Sign" was established to reward the best organizers of educational work with children and adolescents. Almost all the works of A.P. Gaidar filmed. The first was the film "Duma about the Cossack Golota" based on the story "RVS" (1937), later the films "Chuk and Gek" (1953), "The Fate of the Drummer" (1955), "Military Secret" (1958) and others. A three-part film "School", films "Bumbarash" (based on early stories), "Let It Shine" and others have been created especially for television.

The collection of the Russian State Children's Library contains all the works of A.P. Gaidar. There are also early editions of his books: The Fourth Dugout. - M .: Detgiz, 1935 .-- 36 p .: ill.

• Blue cup / A.P. Gaidar; Artist. B. Dekhterev. - M .: Children's literature, 1936. - The first edition of the book.
• Smoke in the forest / A.P. Gaidar; Artist. Ermolaev. - M.-L. : Children's literature, 1939. - The first edition of the book.
• Hot stone / A.P. Gaidar; Artist. I. Kharkevich. - M.-L .: Children's literature, 1949.

The story "Timur and his team" (1941), written on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, is still very popular with children. It first appeared as a screenplay, then the writer wrote a book of the same name. The exceptional popularity of the film was explained not only by the vitality of the image of its protagonist, who immediately stepped over the boundaries of the screen, which became an ideal and an example for many thousands of his peers. The word "timurovets" vividly reflected the best features characteristic of a schoolboy in the Soviet country: an irrepressible thirst for activity, nobility, courage, the ability to stand up for their interests. This work gave a noble direction in the activities of the pioneer organization - the Timurov movement. Operating everywhere, the Timurov teams helped the families of soldiers who had left and died at the front.

During the Great Patriotic War, this movement grew and expanded literally every day: in the Russian Federation alone, the Timurov team numbered over 2 million people. The title "Timurovite" obliged, it acted discipliningly on the children, encouraging them to noble, patriotic actions. The activities of the Timurovites were of great socio-political and pedagogical significance.

Unfortunately, the movement has met the fate that the writer shrewdly warned about in his screenplay "Timur's Oath": the disintegration of the Timur team under the pressure of bureaucratic window dressing.

Today, many schools are trying to revive this movement. In Altai, a Timurov movement was created - guys from the villages of Brusentsevo and Romanovo. help veterans and the elderly. Most schools in Primorye have resumed the Timurov movement to provide practical assistance to veterans. Participants in the patriotic education of youth in Primorye decided to intensify work on the patriotic education of youth in educational institutions, to involve young people in the preparation of such significant dates as the 65th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War, the 70th anniversary of the events on the island of Khasan, the 40th anniversary of the events on the island of Damanski ... The Timurov movement, which originated in the 40s, is still active today. All over the country there are detachments that have different names, but the general meaning of the activity. The members of these associations and organizations consider the purpose of their activities to help and support veterans and their families. The children's and youth movement in Russia is an indisputable fact today. The last decade has provided an opportunity for children's and youth associations not only to prove their viability in practice, but also to become independent legal entities influencing the state youth policy. A legend is not only a poeticized memory of what has receded in time. This is the second existence not subject to death, when the person continues to participate in the people's life, to influence its course. This is how Arkady Gaidar lives with us. In conclusion, I would like to remind you that A. Gaidar occupies a very special place in children's literature. At one time, S. Ya. Marshak wrote an article "A book for children should be a work of art", in which he cited the following hierarchy of remarkable literary figures: - "Alexei Maksimovich Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Arkady Gaidar." He called him "an all-Union pioneer leader who knew how to be a cheerful comrade to our children, and a little crafty, in his own mind, an educator who dispenses with teachings." From the standpoint of today, we add: A. Gaidar walked far ahead of children's European literature. Long before J.K. Rowling with her Harry Potter, he managed to create the image of Timur, conquering the evil of life with his decency and kindness, attractive to millions of children.

Belinsky once wrote that one should be born as a children's writer.

Arkady Gaidar was indeed born a children's writer. He was as cheerful and good-natured as a child. His word did not differ from deed, thought - with feeling, life - with poetry. He was the author and hero of his books. That is how he will remain forever in the memory of people who happened to know him during his lifetime, and in the imagination of those who learn about him from the books written by Gaidar and about Gaidar.

A.P. Gaidar

The great commander Suvorov has a saying "Take a hero as an example, strive to catch up with him, overtake him, overtake him, and glory to you ...". On January 22, 2014, the legendary man, writer-warrior, forever associated with the army, Arkady Petrovich Gaidar celebrated his 110th birthday.

Let us follow the battle and literary paths of the remarkable writer A.P. Gaidar.

What does the name Gaidar mean?

A.P. Gaidar

When in ancient times, horsemen went on a campaign, they sent a rider ahead. This horseman, galloping in front of everyone, peering into the unknown distance, where the detachment was heading, was called Gaidar.

Gaidar himself, Arkady Petrovich Golikov, was such a forward looking, clear-eyed sentinel. It is no coincidence that he must have taken this sonorous and a lot of speaking pseudonym. The alias is a fictitious name.

Gaidar is a lookout, a rider galloping in front. Gaidar's son Timur suggested that his pseudonym means: Golikov Arkady - a friend of the army.

From other sources it follows that the literary pseudonym "Gaidar" stands for "Golikov Arkady D" ARzamas "(after imitating the name D" Artanyan from "Three Musketeers" by Dumas). The author of the third version is Gaidar's school friend Adolf Goldin. During his school years, Arkady Golikov was a great inventor, romantic, he loved war games. So I encrypted my name as follows. Г - the first letter of the surname "Golikov". A and Y are the first and last letters of the name "Arkady". D - in French means "from". AR - the initial letters of the name of the city of Arzamas.

A family

He was born on January 22, 1904 in the town of Lgov, Kursk province, from where the Golikov family soon moved to Arzamas. His father, Peter Isidorovich, was the grandson of a serf peasant, thanks to his perseverance and perseverance, he made his way to education, worked as a teacher. The writer's mother, Natalya Arkadyevna, was a noblewoman of a not very distinguished family. After graduating from high school, she left home, broke with her environment, deciding to devote her life to educating the people.

She worked first as a teacher, later as a medical assistant. After Arkady, three more children appeared in the family - his younger sisters.

Self-education

Parents did a lot of self-education, studied foreign languages. In our free hours we sang folk songs, recited verses to each other, and fairy tales to children. Imitating his father and mother, Arkady began to "speak in tune" early. He composed his first poem without being able to read.

There were many books in the Golikovs' house. Arkady early became addicted to reading and could retell word for word whole chapters from his favorite books.

Raising chivalry

From an early age, Arkady was taught to independence and chivalry. No one in the family remembered that he was capricious over trifles or complained about his comrades. His duties included taking care of the younger sisters. When one day Arkady broke the glass and ran away, his mother explained to him that a strong and courageous person never lies and does not hide behind the backs of other people. Since then, he has always confessed to his mistakes and misdeeds. Defeating the fear of punishment, Arkady nurtured courage and will.

Front

An extraordinary time gave birth to unprecedented biographies. When the red flags of the revolution flew up, Arkady joined the people who fought for equality, a bright life for all people. They were called Bolsheviks. They began to entrust the boy with various small assignments: to run there, to carry something, to call someone. He was 13 years old at that time. Once, carrying out an assignment from the revolutionary Arzamas headquarters, he was wounded in the street at night with a knife in the chest.

He managed to do everything: to guard the city at night, to educate himself, to write in the student's newspaper. And besides all this, Arkady diligently underwent military training and even learned to ride an old water-carrier nag. He was determined to go to the front. In November 1918, Golikov volunteered for the Red Army. He was broad-shouldered, tall beyond his years. When asked how old he was, he replied that he was 16 (although he was 14). Served as an adjutant to the battalion commander. But the staff work attracted him little. Golikov asks for the front. Wanting to save the boy, the commander sends him to the Moscow command courses of the Red Army. But these courses were soon transferred to Kiev, and this was the Petliura Front. Very often the lectures were interrupted and the audience was thrown either against whites or against gangs of greens.

The defeat of the Bityuga gang

During one such expedition, Golikov was appointed commander of a small detachment and instructed to destroy the band of the chieftain Bityug. The enemy turned out to be cunning and insidious, the operation was thwarted. But one day a man was caught, whom Bityug sent to pour poison into the well, from which the cadets took water. Golikov decided to use a trick. He ordered the headman to prepare the carts because people were supposedly ill. At night, when Bityug burst into the village, confident that everyone had died, a rocket soared into the sky. Bityug's gang was defeated. You can read about this and other episodes in the book by A. Gaidar "In the days of defeats and victories." Soon the situation at the front changed, the courses were closed. Golikov was appointed company commander and sent to the front.

Regiment Commander

He was 16 years old! Golikov showed brilliant commander skills: he was brave, thoughtful, and enjoyed authority among the soldiers. Therefore, Arkady was entrusted to command the Voronezh regiment of 5 thousand sabers and bayonets.

Golikov takes part in the liquidation of the Antonov rebellion in the Tambov region, catches a strong and insidious ataman Solovyov in Siberia (the events are the basis for the film "The End of the Taiga Emperor").

Golikov went a long and glorious way along the fronts of the Civil War. He survived the death of many friends, learned the resentment and bitterness of defeat, and the inspiring joy of victory.

Illness and life path choices

Arkady Petrovich spent six years in the Red Army. He loved her with all his pure and restless being, became akin to a military family. The future was clear for him - he would forever remain in the army.

But then illness struck him. Affected by wounds, head concussion, non-stop, severe overload. Arkady Petrovich is patiently treated, but the doctors are relentless. Diagnosis: unfit for military service. It was November 1924. Golikov is 20 years old.

The question immediately arose: what to do, how to live further? Golikov decides to become a writer. This choice was not accidental. Arkady early developed an interest in the word, the need to write. At school, he wrote poetry, created a handwritten magazine. To the question "What is your favorite activity?" - answered: "Book". Among the read and favorite authors: Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Goncharov, Shakespeare, Jules Verne, Mark Twain.

He traveled far and wide across our country, saw a lot and wanted to tell the children about everything. In one of his autobiographical notes, Gaidar will write that he became a children's and youthful writer, because during the civil war he was still a boy, and he wanted to tell today's boys and girls how the revolution began, in what severe battles a new life was won.

The first story "RVS" and themes of creativity

But Arkady Petrovich did not immediately achieve success in a new field for him. Gaidar himself considered his first stories weak (1925-1927). But already in 1926, a story was written that determined the truly true path of the writer. It was the story "RVS".

If you carefully read Gaidar's little stories, you can say that they were written by a cheerful person, with an open heart and a strong character, a person who has seen a lot in life. Gaidar loved courageous, truthful people, devoted to the revolution, to the Motherland. It shows heroes, adults and children, in the most difficult, decisive moments of life. At such moments, a person gathers all his strength, all his mind, to do the right thing, with dignity. At such moments, one can see what a person is capable of, what he is worth. So, the choice is made: to write about children and for children.

Other famous works of Arkady Gaidar: "Distant countries", "The fourth dugout", "School" (1930), "Timur and his team" (1940), "Chuk and Gek", "The drummer's fate", stories "Hot stone", "Blue Cup" ... The writer's works were included in the school curriculum, were actively filmed, translated into many languages \u200b\u200bof the world. The work "Timur and his team" actually marked the beginning of the unique Timur movement, which aimed at volunteering assistance to veterans and the elderly from the pioneers.

The Great Patriotic War

During the Great Patriotic War, Gaidar was in the active army as a correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda. He was a witness and participant in the Kiev defensive operation of the Southwestern Front. He wrote military essays "At the crossing", "The bridge", "At the front edge", "Rockets and grenades." After the encirclement of the Southwestern Front near Kiev, in September 1941, Arkady Petrovich got into the partisan detachment of Gorelov. In the detachment he was a machine gunner. On October 26, 1941, near the village of Lyaplyava in Ukraine, Arkady Gaidar died in a battle with the Germans, warning the members of his detachment about the danger. Buried in the city of Kanev.

Value

Is the person A.P. Gaidar?

In the book “Chuk and Gek” we read: “What is happiness - everyone understood it differently. But all together the people knew and understood that they had to live honestly, work hard and love this huge and happy land, which is called the Soviet country ”. Gaidar not only left us such a covenant. He lived as he taught.

And Gaidar died with a weapon in his hands, following the path of his heroes, until the last minute of his life, by deed confirming the truth of every word he wrote.

He was 37 years old. He has always been a real commander. For adults and children. He knew how to use military cunning, go on reconnaissance, how to become resilient and strong. How to save strength on a difficult hike. How to come to the rescue in time. And he also knew the main thing: whom to love and whom to hate.

Do today's boys and girls need Gaidar? We think so. From the pages of his books, he leads a direct, honest and frank conversation with young readers.

Many political assessments of A.P. Gaidar are outdated, but the very spirit of his stories will never become outdated. You cannot remove his books from the shelves of libraries. Gaidar teaches to love your country, people, to value friendship, awakens in the soul good feelings, responsibility for others.

Why is Gaidar valuable for the current generation of children and adolescents? Gaidar has heroes from whom one can take an example, they perform actions that one can learn from.

In his books, he proved that the best way to educate a real person is to teach him to speak the truth.

Once upon a time from the short story "Timur and his team" a wonderful Timur movement was born and entered our life. It has reached millions of children. During the Great Patriotic War, the Timurovites took care of the wounded, took care of the families of those who went to the front, helped everyone who needed help.

The Timurov movement did not go away, it was just that Gaidar's idea outgrew the scope of the pioneer detachment and became the property of older people. Those who restore monuments today, collect toys for orphanages, take care of the elderly, tidy up our entrances, streets, clean forests from debris ...

During his lifetime, awarded the "Badge of Honor", Arkady Petrovich Gaidar was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree in 1963. His name is immortalized in the names of hundreds of streets, schools, Palaces of Pioneers, and libraries. The proud name of Gaidar is borne by ships and diesel locomotives, a village in Kazakhstan and a distant, distant asteroid.

The children's favorite writer was awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize. A.P. Gaidar is an honorary citizen of a number of cities in the country.

In Moscow, on the Sparrow Hills, there is a sculptural image of Gaidar's hero Malchish-Kibalchish. In Lgov, where he was born, his immortal book "Timur and his team" was laid out of stone.

Gaidar's fascinating and charming works will survive any time and any change. You just need to read them on time.

Favorite children's books creator
And a true friend of the guys
He lived like a fighter should live,
And he died like a soldier.
You open a school story -
Gaidar wrote her:
The hero is true to that story
And he dared, even though he was small.
Read Gaidar's story
And look around:
Live among us today
Timur, and Gek, and Chuk.
They will be recognized by their actions.
And it doesn't matter
What is Gaidar's name
Not always heroes.
Pages of honest, clean books
He left the country as a gift
Fighter, Writer, Bolshevik
And Citizen - Gaidar ...
(S. Mikhalkov)

Our Gaidar

The name of A.P. We have been proudly wearing Gaidar since 1968, since the opening of the library.

Arkady Petrovich Golikov, now world famous for his surname Gaidar (1904 - 1941), was rightfully considered the most popular children's writer during the Soviet era. His life, even by modern standards, is worthy of a fascinating thriller, and even during the Civil War in Russia, such biographies were rare.

Mad Red Commander

Arkady Golikov was born in the small district town of Lgov, Kursk province in a family of teachers - Peter Isidorovich Golikov (1879-1927) and Natalia Arkadyevna Salkova (1884-1924), a noblewoman, a distant relative of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov.

His parents took part in the revolutionary riots of 1905 and, fearing arrest, left for the provincial Arzamas. There the future children's writer studied at a real school and for the first time published his poems in the local newspaper "Molot".

When Arkasha was in the first grade, he decided to “go on foot to the war” (to the First World War), following his father. And left! Disappeared for two days and was returned by the gendarme. After four grades, he decisively broke with school and at the age of 14 he joined the ranks of the Red Army as a volunteer, hiding his age. This is where the children's "flowers" end and the "berries" of a completely different school begin.

In 1919, he joined the Red Army and the RCP (b), became an assistant commander of a detachment of red partisans operating in the Arzamas region. Hiding his age, he studied command courses in Moscow and Kiev, then commanded a company of red cadets. He fought on the Polish and Caucasian fronts.

It is not known for what feats, but in 1919 the military leader Mikhail Tukhachevsky appointed Private Golikov as the commander of the 58th separate regiment. In 1921, as the commander of the reserve Voronezh regiment, he sent marching companies to suppress the Kronstadt uprising. In the summer of the same year, commanding the 58th separate regiment, he participated in the suppression of the Tambov peasant uprising. Golikov himself explained such a high appointment for a seventeen-year-old by the fact that “many of the higher command personnel were arrested for having connections with gangs,” that is, with the rebels.

Young Golikov tried to justify the trust placed in him. After the destruction of the recalcitrant peasants and sailors, Gaidar continued to serve in punitive special forces (CHON) - first in the Tamyan-Kataysky region in Bashkiria, then in Khakassia. Since his field of activity was located far from Moscow and closer to the Sayan Mountains, many of his cases remained little known until recently. And when the all-Union fame of the children's writer came, they were simply "forgotten".

He was ordered to destroy the detachment of the "emperor of the taiga" I. N. Solovyov, which consisted of local peasants and Kolchak officers. Unable to cope with this task, Gaidar attacked the local population, who did not support the Bolsheviks. People were shot without trial or investigation, chopped with swords, thrown into wells, sparing neither the elderly nor children. There is a known case when, despite the order to deliver the prisoners to the headquarters for interrogation, Arkady Petrovich shot them - because he allegedly did not want to give people for the convoy.

Vladimir Soloukhin, who wrote "Salt Lake", assured that in Khakassia Gaidar was called an executioner, and reported that his friend Khakass Mikhail Kilchakov told him about how Gaidar put hostages in a bathhouse and set them a condition that if they did not say him, where the bandits are hiding, - execution. And they simply did not know. And in the morning young Arkady Petrovich began to let them out of the bathhouse one at a time and personally shot each in the back of the head.

But you never know what the irresponsible aborigines could chatter. And here is a line from the questionnaire filled out by Gaidar himself: in the column "party membership" he wrote - "expelled for two years for cruel treatment of prisoners." The commander of the provincial special forces, Vladimir Kakoulin, ordered to "replace and recall" the zealous commissar. "My impression is that Golikov is ideologically an unbalanced boy who, using his official position, has committed a number of crimes" - such a resolution was imposed on "case 274" by V. Kakoulin. Note: this was said by a man who was called upon to establish revolutionary order in the province, and he himself did not differ in gentleness.

After arriving in Krasnoyarsk "to clarify the circumstances" Arkady Golikov was sent for a psychiatric examination. A criminal case was even opened, but the trial never took place. When he was interrogated at the State Political Administration under the NKVD of the RSFSR, he testified that all the people he had shot were bandits or their accomplices; he pleaded guilty only to non-compliance with certain formalities: there was no one to write interrogation protocols and execution sentences.

His grandson Yegor Gaidar, referring to his father, wrote in his book "Days of Defeats and Victories" that his grandfather "always refused to tell anything about the civil war." Judging by the diaries, he was tormented by something that he denoted by the words "anxiety", "conscience", "guilt", "illness." Gaidar turned out to be a painfully conscientious person, for whom what he had done in Khakassia in such a young age turned into a life tragedy.

However, the biographer of Arkady Gaidar Boris Kamov in the book “Playing with a Thimble. (Investigation of a literary crime) ”tells how myths and fables were born about his beloved writer. He believes that the malicious, cynical in form and invented in content hypothesis about the "bloody past" of Arkady Gaidar, launched into circulation by the writer Vladimir Soloukhin, is a real atrocity. Soloukhinsky fabrications, in his opinion, are just a fictional sensation. Boris Kamov, who carefully researched the war period of Gaidar's biography, visited Khakassia, worked in the local archives, and he assures: "Everything here is sheer forgery and fiction, rigging of facts," confirming this with documents.

Whom to believe?

Vladimir Soloukhin also seems to be citing documentary records, referring to archival materials. Gaidar himself - himself! - writes: "I dream of the people I killed in my youth in the war."
Probably, both Kamov and Soloukhin have their own truth. Only now, one researcher beautifully builds an integral, unclouded image, and the other deliberately thickens the colors, building a type of such a red monster.

Clearly, in the slaughter of the civil war, it was difficult to stay white and fluffy. Gaidar was no different from other representatives of the red military clique, who transfer their hatred of an armed and fighting enemy to the surrounding population, which did not support them. He was a cog in the Red Terror system, which for the Bolsheviks proved to be a decisive means of retaining power.

Drummer's Scary Dreams

Dismissed from office, Golikov asked to let him go to study in Moscow. The permission was received, but he did not get to the Academy of the General Staff. At the medical commission, the future writer was diagnosed with "traumatic neurosis." Symptoms of the disease at the time of exacerbation were very characteristic: "persistent sleep disturbance, a temporary decrease in intellectual abilities, excitability, and a tendency to violent acts." Attacks of mental disorder began with the fact that his mood spoiled for no reason. At first, it was possible to "treat" depression with wine. But self-medication often led to binge drinking. When the wine stopped helping, “Arkady Petrovich, on the eve of an attack, inflicted acute physical pain on himself: he made cuts on his body with a knife. Sometimes in the presence of people. But it all ended in a clinic.

Such was the reckoning for the "boyish years" spent in the war. " Boris Zaks, who knew Gaidar closely, says in his "Eyewitness Notes": "But I saw another situation - when the excesses of his anger were directed at himself ... Gaidar cut himself. With a safety razor. One blade was taken from him, but it cost turn away, and he was already cutting himself with another ... They took him away unconscious, all the floors in the apartment were covered with blood coagulated into large clots ... At the same time, it did not seem that he was trying to commit suicide; he did not try to inflict a mortal wound on himself , just arranged a kind of “shahsei-vakhsey.” Later, already in Moscow, I happened to see him in only his underpants. All his chest and arms below his shoulders were completely - one to one - covered with huge scars. It was clear that he cut himself more than once ... "

In those years of post-war devastation and the new economic policy with the slogan "Get rich!" there was no talk about the social and psychological adaptation of the front-line soldiers. Their fates were unpredictable. Everyone adapted as best they could.
Arkady spent two years wandering around military hospitals and sanatoriums, and after being retired for three days, he wandered around Moscow like crazy. He found no home in the family. Parents who fought on various fronts dispersed.

The father, returning from the war, met and fell in love with another woman, married her. “Two and a half years have passed since I broke all ties, my friend, with you,” wrote Arkady Petrovich to his father on January 23, 1923. “During this time, I have not received a single letter or news from you, my dear and dear dad ... I went into the army as a boy, when, apart from an impulse, I had nothing solid and definite. And, leaving, I took with me a particle of your understanding of the world and tried to apply it to life where I could ... "Arkady did not accept either his father's new family or his advice not to wander, but to become, following his example, a" paint-job "- a red merchant.

A.P. Gaidar with his mother, hereditary noblewoman Natalia Arkadyevna Salkova. Alupka, 1924

The new family life of my mother, who had hopelessly undermined her health, was short-lived. Natalya Arkadyevna died in 1924 from fleeting consumption as head of the provincial health department in Kyrgyzstan. She was proud of her son-commander and on her deathbed wrote that she bequeathed him not to spare her life in the struggle for Soviet power.

Creation

At the age of 21 - with such a lifestyle, it is almost "old age"! - Arkady wanted to tell about his experiences. Arkady Golikov moved to Perm, where he actively published in the Zvezda newspaper. Here his first work "The Corner House", signed by the pseudonym Gaidar, was published.

Spring 1926. A group of editorial staff.
A.P. Gaidar, second from right, staff member of the Zvezda newspaper

One of the versions of the subsequent origin of such a popular surname is: "Haydar?" in translation from Khakass - "Where? In which direction?". Allegedly, the locals asked so when they saw that Golikov was going on another punitive campaign in search of the elusive enemy of the Soviet regime in Khakassia, Ataman Ivan Solovyov, in order to warn the neighbors about the imminent massacre. And this nickname stuck to him because at first he himself asked everyone: "Haydar?" That is, where to go? He didn’t know any other Khakass words.

There is also a second version of the origin of the pseudonym Gaidar.
"Г" is the first letter of the name Golikov; "AI" - the first and last letters of the name; "D" - in French - "from"; "AR" - the first letters of the name of the hometown. By the way, in French the prefix "d" indicates belonging or origin, say, d "Artanyan is from Artanyan. We get: G-AY-D-AR: Golikov Arkady from Arzamas.

But there are many supporters of the version put forward by the writer Lev Kassil. He artistically rethought the legend that the Mongolian people had a rider-scout who rushed ahead of everyone and in case of danger warned the rest. Gaidar, according to Lev Kassil, is a rider galloping in front.

Soon the writer became a classic of children's literature, famous for his works about sincere friendship and military comradeship. In the 30s Gaidar's most famous works were published: "School", "Distant Countries", "Military Secret", "Smoke in the Forest", "Blue Cup", "Chuk and Gek", "The Drummer's Fate", in 1940 - the already mentioned story about Timur. And almost all of his works are imbued with the echo of war, a sense of war, a premonition of war. His young heroes in The School and The Drummer's Destiny begin their adult life with a shot at the enemy. Moreover, the writer is not horrified by such a turn of fate, he takes the shot for granted, necessary, important and just deed. Romanticizes struggle, battles, war.

In 1940, during a meeting with the teachers of the Moscow Library Institute, Gaidar was asked: "Arkady Petrovich, how to instill in the children hatred of enemies? It's not easy." He replied: "Why inculcate hatred? Educate love for the homeland. And then, if someone encroaches on the homeland, a great and righteous hatred will be born in a person." It seems that this question did not arise by chance: the heroes of Gaidar are very passionate about their enemies, too clearly dividing the world into "friends and foes." And strangers need to be destroyed ...

In his lyrics, he was, in his own way, an amazingly whole person. Gaidar believed in what he wrote. And it is unlikely that he was insincere in his diaries and letters, not intended for prying eyes.

The writer's works were included in the school curriculum, were actively filmed, translated into many languages \u200b\u200bof the world. The story "Timur and his team" actually marked the beginning of the unique Timur movement.

Scene from the film "Timur and his team" (1940)

Personal life

His independent personal life also began very early. Today they would say about young Arkady Gaidar: he is a real macho. Strong-willed, decisive. Behind the shoulders of the Civil War, the command of the regiment, injuries. In November 1925, a stately 21-year-old handsome man came to Perm, where he got a job as a feuilletonist in the newspaper "Zvezda".

Soon Arkady met seventeen-year-old Ruva-Lia Solomyanskaya, who organized a pioneer movement in the city. In 1932 he wrote: "... I vaguely remember Perm. The Blue House. Lilka is a girl in a bright sundress." They merried.

Leah Solomyanskaya

Son Timur was born in December 1926 in Arkhangelsk, where Leah worked as a radio journalist. Arkady then lived in Moscow and saw his son only two years later.

This strange fact from Gaidar's biography gave rise to the version that Timur is not the son of Arkady Gaidar. And that is what justifies its reliability. "According to the official biography, by December 1925 they (Arkady Gaidar and Lia Solomyanskaya) already lived together. And if we bear in mind that Timur Gaidar was born in December 1926, then the young parents conceived him around mid-April. But even here it comes out In April, Arkady was far from Perm. For royalties from the published stories, he decided to go to Central Asia ... That is, it turns out that at the moment when Timur was conceived, he was not with Leah. And in the fall Solomyanskaya leaves for his parents to Arkhangelsk, where he gives birth to a son on December 23. He first saw Timur when he was two years old, when he finally decided to move to Arkhangelsk, where he later worked on the radio with Leah. "

Be that as it may, the family soon moved to Moscow. But they did not have to live together for long. The charming and cheerful writer was a very difficult person in everyday life, suffering from a mental disorder and a severe form of alcoholism.

Here is what his grandson Yegor Gaidar told the Izvestia newspaper:
"Grandmother, Lia Lazarevna Solomyanskaya, left him. Who is to blame - not for us to judge. On the one hand, of course, the grandfather was a difficult person in everyday life - especially during seizures ... On the other, grandmother's character is also not sugar, her something I remember. "

The result is a divorce. She, taking the child, went to the journalist of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" Samson Glazer. And in 1932 Gaidar rushed from Moscow. Not from craving for a change of place, but from want and disorder. There was little money, the old concussion resulted in headaches and alcoholic breakdowns, it was not easy with the literature. In addition, the family broke up. It is also fortunate that a colleague called me to Khabarovsk as a newspaper correspondent. To tell the truth, Gaidar would go anywhere - if only farther from Moscow.

Entry from the diary of Arkady Gaidar: "October 28, 1932. Moscow
I spoke on the radio about myself.
But, in general, - hustle and bustle, parties. And because I have nowhere to do with myself, there is no one to easily go to, nowhere even to sleep ... In essence, I have only three pairs of underwear, a duffel bag, a field bag, a sheepskin coat, a hat - and nothing else and nobody, not at home , no place, no friends.
And this at a time when I am not at all poor, and not at all rejected and unnecessary to anyone. Simple - somehow it comes out. For two months I did not touch the story "Military Secret". Meetings, conversations, acquaintances ... Overnight stays - wherever necessary. Money, lack of money, money again.
They treat me very well, but there is no one to take care of me, and I myself am not able. That's why everything comes out somehow not human and stupid. "

Arkady Gaidar, Khabarovsk, 1932

Gaidar painfully experienced separation from his son. "Finally I received the first telegram from Moscow in 4 months. Timur is at Lily's. My dear, glorious little commander," he wrote in 1932. Literally a month later, a letter came from Natalia's sister: "Your letter to Timur was read by Lilya, and for some reason she was crying. Very strange." Then he will write in his diary: "There is nothing strange. We lived for a long time, and there is something to remember. But in general, a thing of the past."

After being discharged, Gaidar left the Far East forever. "Still, I will not come to Moscow the way I left. Stronger, firmer and calmer," he wrote on 24 August

In 1936, when Leah was arrested after her husband and sent to the camps, Gaidar, having drunk for courage, even called Yezhov, demanding to release "his Liika." She was released only in 1940.

It is worth mentioning that Arkady Gaidar's marriage to Solomyanskaya was not the first. On September 5, 1921, Arkady Petrovich Golikov wrote in his own handwritten column “Marital status” in the Personal registration card filled in by the command and administrative personnel: “Married, Maria Plaksina, wife”. Why did Gaidar break up with his first wife? One can only guess about this. The couple had a son, Eugene, who died in infancy. Maybe this family tragedy was the reason for the breakup?

After breaking up with Solomyanskaya single, nevertheless, he did not stay long. Handsome, fair-haired and blue-eyed, women liked him. He married again, having met the poetess Anna Trofimova, who was six years older. He was not afraid of the fact that she raised two daughters - Sveta and Eru. The writer loved children and devoted a lot of time to them. And before the war, he parted with her too - he moved to Klin near Moscow, where he rented a room in the Chernyshovs' house. The head of the family had a private shoemaker in Klin and a small factory in Moscow. And a month later, the writer married Chernyshov's daughter, Dore Matveyevna, who had a daughter, Zhenya.

Arkady Gaidar with his wife Dora Matveyevna and daughter Zhenya. 1937 g.

Gradually, personal life improved. Gaidar adopted Zhenya, took her and Timur to the Crimea, littered with money. After the arrest of his mother, Timur remained with his father, grew up and was brought up in the family of Dora Matveyevna. During these years, Gaidar gained real all-Union glory: the country read Timur and his team, Chuk and Gek, The Fate of the Drummer, Smoke in the Forest, Commandant of the Snow Fortress, Timur's Oath. The family helped him cope with psychological problems. And yet, no, no, let the entry appear in the diary: "Brain fog. I can't write."

Arkady Petrovich himself bore a double surname - Golikov-Gaidar, but Timur, receiving a passport (and according to some information, until he came of age was Solomyansky), took as a surname only the literary pseudonym of his stepfather. This sonorous surname was borne by his son, the famous reformer Yegor Gaidar, and now his grandchildren - Maria and Peter.

Leah Solomyanskaya with her son Timur and grandson Yegor

Arkady Gaidar, 1940.

The mystery of Gaidar's death

When World War II began, Gaidar received an order for a screenplay based on the story "Timur and His Team". He wrote it in 12 days, and immediately after him - a statement with a request to send him to the front. The answer was: "For health reasons, it is not subject to conscription." But he still got his way and became a war correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda. Before leaving, Gaidar told his friend, who was leaving as a volunteer: "It's not enough for me to be a private. I can be a commander." He arrived where he once began his combat path - to the South-Western Front, to Kiev. Indeed, in addition to his duties as a war correspondent, he often helped with advice. Once he asked for reconnaissance in the German rear, he suggested the location of the outpost and how to correctly take the "language." When the Soviet army left Kiev, Gaidar could fly to Moscow, but refused. As part of a large detachment, he ended up in the rear of the Germans, and in October he ended up in a partisan detachment.

The story of Gaidar's death was included in all the anthologies. After the defeat of the partisan detachment, Gaidar with several partisans went on reconnaissance and were ambushed near the railway embankment. Gaidar stood up to his full height in front of the enemy machine guns and shouted to his comrades: "Forward! Follow me!" He was struck down by a machine-gun burst. According to other sources, he died on the railway track near the village of Lepliava, covering the departure of his comrades. It happened on October 26, 1941. Death in battle. As he dreamed. The Germans immediately removed his order and upper uniforms from the deceased partisan, took notebooks and notebooks. Gaidar's body was buried by a lineman ...

But the death of Arkady Gaidar, in general, is not a completely clear story. The biographer of the writer Boris Kamov conducted a small investigation. After talking with the partisans, he came to the conclusion that Gaidar could be saved - it was not at all necessary for him to shout to warn others. But the truth could not be established. Nevertheless, in 1979 the Kiev journalist Viktor Glushchenko tried to investigate the circumstances of Gaidar's death anew. A resident of the village of Tulintsy (a few tens of kilometers from Lepliava, where, according to the official version, the writer died) Khristina Kuzmenko claimed that in the fall of 1941 she hid Gaidar and another partisan in her house from the Germans. The woman recognized Gaidar from a photograph in a library book and claimed that Arkady often remembered his son Timur. According to her, Gaidar and a friend lived with her until the spring of 1942, and then decided to make their way to the front line, but they were captured by policemen. The partisans managed to escape, and for two more days they hid in the forest near the village. Khristina Kuzmenko's neighbor, Ulyana Dobrenko, brought them there. Glushchenko wrote to the Gaidar Museum of Kanev and the Military-Historical Archive of the Soviet Army in Moscow. The answer was laconic: "The date and place of death of Arkady Petrovich Gaidar are set at the state level. There are no grounds for revising them."

Real name - Arkady Petrovich Golikov. Born on January 9 (22), 1904 in the city of Lgov, Kursk province - died on October 26, 1941 near the village of Leplyava, Kanevsky district, Cherkasy region. A well-known Soviet children's writer, participant in the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars.

Arkady, Gaidar was named in honor of his maternal grandfather. Thus, Gaidar's mother wanted to make peace with her father, Lieutenant Arkady Gennadievich Salkov. Ask him for forgiveness for marrying a "commoner" Pyotr Golikov. But the father did not forgive his disobedient daughter, did not want to look at his grandson.

Where did the surname Gaidar come from? Arkady Golikov never answered this question. If pestered, he got off with a joke.

After his death, conjectures began to arise. Writer Boris Emelyanov suggested that pseudonym "Gaidar" originated from the Mongolian "Gaidar" - a horseman galloping in front. This version has become widespread. Indeed, Arkady Golikov has been to Bashkiria, and the names Gaidar, Geida, Haydar are common in the East.

But why on earth should nineteen-year-old Arkady take a foreign albeit sonorous name? Yes, and he was not boastful. The fact is that since childhood he is a great inventor, and at school he used a code of his own invention.

Arkady's school friend, AM Goldin, managed to solve the riddle of the pseudonym "Gaidar". It turns out that "G" is the first letter of the name Golikov; "AI" - the first and last letters of the name; "D" - in French - "from"; "AR" - the first letters of the name of the hometown.

G - AY - D - AR: Golikov Arkady from Arzamas.

By the way, at first he signed simply - Gaidar, without a name and without an initial, because the name was already part of pseudonym... Only when pseudonym became a surname, on the books appeared:. And his son is Gaidar, and his daughter is Gaidar, and his grandchildren are Gaidar.

During the four military years he went from adjutant to regiment commander. Colonel at seventeen! Even the young officers of eight hundred and twelve did not know such a career. They fought for the Fatherland, against a foreign enemy, and Golikov fought with his own - with the Russians. The civil war brought a lot of shocks and pain to the young man: injuries, concussion were not in vain. The path of the career commander of the Red Army, begun so confidently, was clouded over by clouds. As a result, a serious nervous illness that haunted him all his life and forced him to leave the army. Failed to continue education.

Having lost his only and favorite business, Arkady decided to tell people, and, above all, young people, about what he saw and experienced - "In the days of defeats and victories." This was the title of Golikov's first story.

He considered his best compositions to be "P.B.C." (1925), "Distant countries", "The fourth dugout" and "School" (1930), "Timur and his team" (1940). He traveled a lot around the country, met with different people, eagerly absorbed life. He did not know how to write, shutting himself up in his office, at a comfortable table. He wrote on the go, thought over his books on the road, recited whole pages by heart, and then wrote them down in simple notebooks. "The birthplace of his books is different cities, villages, even trains." When the Patriotic War began, the writer again joined the ranks of the army, leaving for the front as a war correspondent. His unit was surrounded, and they wanted to take the writer out by plane, but he refused to leave his comrades and remained in the partisan detachment as an ordinary machine gunner. On October 26, 1941, in Ukraine, near the village of Lepliavo, Gaidar died in a battle with the Nazis.