Detailed biography of Valentin Kataev

There is nothing surprising in that Valentin Kataev is better known as a children's writer. However, very few people know that he was awarded two St. George Crosses, the Order of St. Anne of the 4th degree, three Orders of Lenin, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1974) and the State Prize winner for the story "The Son of the Regiment" (1946).

In the article we will talk in more detail about how Valentin Kataev lived. The biography and work of the famous writer can not but interest.

Odessa Mama

Valentin Petrovich was born in Odessa on January 28, 1897 in an educated family. His father was the son of a priest from Vyatka, and also wanted to follow in his father's footsteps, but after attending the theological seminary, he changed course to Novorossiysk University of History and Philology and then taught at the Odessa Junker Diocesan School.

The writer's mother was a general's daughter. The family lived happily, but not for long. Soon after the birth of his brother Valentine - Eugene - a woman died of pneumonia. And her sister took care of her orphans.

Valentin Kataev: biography, photo

Valentine and Eugene have been instilled from childhood with a love of classical literature, they had a huge library in their house. Parents often read books to them aloud.

This is also fascinating writer's biography. Kataev Valentin Petrovich later recalled that in his works he often described intelligent families, and their prototype, as a rule, was his family, in which the warmth of relations, deep decency and unselfishness always reigned.

Valentine has already started writing poems from the age of 12, which he read to everyone: relatives, comrades, acquaintances. He was interested in their opinion. And then he, as a schoolboy, began running around in the editorial offices, where his poems were in no hurry to take for printing. Only one poem "Autumn" was still published in 1910 in the "Odessa Herald".

It just inspired the thirteen-year-old. He began to take his brother with him to storm the editorial boards. Eugene recalled that he was crying when he was dragging him to the next edition, because Valentin alone was scared to go. So everything would continue until his high school friend advised him to turn to his father, the writer Alexander Mitrofanovich Fedorov.

Soon he already represented Kataev as his very capable pupil. Fedorov acquainted him with the work of Ivan Bunin. And this became for the boy a miracle of genuine poetry. He immediately asked his father to buy him a collection of poems Bunin. Tears filled his father with emotion, he thought that, at last, his son took up his mind.

Dream

Annually Bunin came to Odessa. And it's time to get to know them personally. It was a very important day for the future writer, which is what his biography tells about. Kataev Valentin Petrovich became an exemplary pupil of the famous poet. He taught him to work, write poetry every day, and on this learn like that pianist on the piano, constantly honing his skills.

Bunin told his student that otherwise his talent will become scarce, like a well, from which water is not taken long. Kataev did not know what to write about, but Bunin insisted that you should write regularly and even without the necessary inspiration, about what you see, for example, about the sea, about a stone, about a bench.

Bunin did not strongly approve of Kataev's desire to publish each of his poems in Odessa print publishing houses and advised not yet to rush. He understood the young poet, but explained that it was not necessary to hurry with this matter, for he had also hurried in his time and published many weak works, of which he now very much regrets.

Gentle affection

Valentina Kataeva's biography contains interesting facts of a romantic nature, because sooner or later love happens to everyone. Next to the Kataev family lived the Alekseevs.

The eldest daughter of Colonel Alekinsky, who was called Irina, was a versatile girl. She drew, sculpted, played the piano, wrote poetry and wrote the best in a notebook. Then in the Alexinsky house a certain literary club of poetry lovers was formed. There came Kataev, who could not help falling in love with a sweet and very pretty girl, he devoted a lot of his poems to her, and many years later her image became the prototype of his heroines in prose.

War

In 1915, Kataev, and not graduating from high school, was forced to leave for the front. He served in the army under the command of that same neighbor, now General Alexinsky, Irina's father, to whom he wrote his letters, hiding in damp, close and dark dugouts. There he often remembered about the glorious past times and how he confessed to the girl in love with them in the house on the balcony.

Even in the war, Kataev, being constantly under bullets, fulfilled Bunin's covenant: write regularly and every day. At that time he created many stories and essays, which he then sent to his beloved and to the capital's magazines.

Return

Valentin Kataev's biography is further based on the fact that in December 1916 he returned to his native Odessa to study at the infantry school. The fire time of the war, he changed for several of his best months, which he spent in a kind family atmosphere. Again a lot of time spent with Alexinsky Valentin Kataev (biography briefly, but mentions these facts) and dedicating poetry to Irina. Her notebook was noticeably enlarged at that time.

But in May 1917, he again went to the front, where he was seriously wounded, and until November he was in a hospital in Odessa. As soon as he felt a little relieved, he immediately began working on the almanac "Three Sonnets", published in 1918. In the same year he received news that Irene had stopped loving him. For him, these words sounded like a verdict. However, life was beating with a key.

Revolution

Dashing years began, from 1917 to 1920, power in Odessa changed 14 times. For a long time Soviet power could not be established, and the city remained under the rule of Hetman Skoropadsky. Odessa became a transit point for the Russian emigration in front of Berlin, Paris and Constantinople. Then Ivan Bunin, Aleksey Tolstoy, and other well-known writers and representatives of the intelligentsia left abroad.

Later Kataev served in the volunteer army and fought on the battleship Novorossiya. Soon, typhus began mowing white and red. Again the writer was waiting for the Odessa hospital, and on recovery - work in the telegraph agency. As a former officer, he was put in prison, he already thought of shooting, but later, having recognized him as a writer, Kataev was still released.

These impressions were enough for him all his life. Of his generation of officers who did not have time or did not want to leave Russia, almost no one lived to be old, they were killed in the 20's and shot in the 37th. He even wanted to write a book about this, and did it to his old age.

Moscow

In 1921 his father died of starvation, and Kataev left for Kharkov, away from memory and the Cheka, and then to Moscow, where he began to work in the newspaper Gudok. In the capital, devastated by the emigration, he slowly dragged his brother and friends.

At the publishing house, he met with a doctor Mikhail Bulgakov, also a former White Guard and also stuck due to typhus. They become friends. The entire horde of writers lived with Kataev in a room on Clean Ponds.

Sister Lelya came to Bulgakov, Kataev fell in love with her instantly and offered her an offer. Lelya refused him, and then Valentin quickly married Anna Kovalenko - artist. His company immediately gave the girl the nickname Madame Mucha.

And then he quietly passed all the boundaries, wrote about what he wanted and considered himself lucky.

In the Great Patriotic War, Valentin Petrovich was a correspondent of Pravda and was engaged in publishing books about the war. In 1942, the Germans killed a plane flying from Moscow to Novorossiysk with his brother, also a writer, Eugene. That was then 39 years old and he was the co-author of I. Ilf's novels "12 Chairs" and "Golden Calf".

Once he worked as an inspector in the Odessa criminal investigation department, and then in Odessa publishing houses, where he met Ilya Fainzilberg (pseudonym Ilf), but then Valentine dragged them to Moscow and submitted the idea of a novel about Ostap Bender. They even said that Kataev became his prototype.

Literature for children

A curious enough for us today will be written by the whole era in which Valentin Kataev lived, a biography.

For children, by the way, he wrote a huge number of stories and fairy tales, many of which were screened and enjoyed immense popularity.

The biography of Valentin Kataev is so fascinating and interesting that it does not appear possible to embrace it all. However, the most important thing is that he was loved and appreciated. After the war, he will become the editor of "Youth" and will nurture young talents.

The writer will be very happy in marriage with Esther Brenner, with whom he will live for 55 years and who will really take care of him and love his whole life. Esther gave birth to two children - a daughter of Eugene and son Paul.

The biography of Valentin Kataev is a long way. The writer was always at work and lived for a long 90 years. He died of a cancer tumor in 1986 on April 12. His grave is on the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.