Alexander Belyaev was called the "Russian Jules Verne" for his ability to predict many events. In his books, Alexander predicted not only the invention of scuba gear, the orbital station, but also his own death...

Amphibian and scuba

When Alexander Belyaev, contrary to the will of his parents, chose the profession of a lawyer, a woman who called herself a clairvoyant came to look for his defense. “I warned two women about the possible imminent death of their husbands,” she said. "And now the inconsolable widows accuse me of their willful death." Alexander only chuckled: “Tell me then,” said the writer.

“Your life will be hard, but very bright. And you yourself will be able to look into the future, ”she said. After that, Alexander agreed to take the case of the woman, she was acquitted at the trial. But the prediction was not long in coming. Belyaev was not a prophet, but he knew how to notice what ideas had grown modern society, on the verge of what new discoveries and achievements it is.

One of his first prediction novels was the famous Amphibian Man, where the writer foresaw the invention of an artificial lung and a scuba with an open breathing system in compressed air, invented in 1943 by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. By the way, the novel itself was largely biographical.

Frame from the film "Amphibian Man" (1961)

As a child, Alexander had a dream in which he and his brother Vasily were crawling along a long dark tunnel. Somewhere ahead, a light shone, but the brother could no longer move on. Overcoming himself, Alexander was able to get out, but already without Vasily. Soon, his brother drowned while riding a boat.

In the novel, Belyaev describes how Ichthyander, getting out into the vast expanses of the ocean, had to swim through a tunnel. He swam along it, “overcoming the cold oncoming current. It repels from the bottom, floats up... The end of the tunnel is near. Now Ichthyander can again give himself to the current - it will carry him far into the open ocean.

Air pollution

When Alexander Belyaev was forced to go to the Crimea for treatment due to poor health, he met people on the train who had suffered as a result of a technological accident at a Kuzbass enterprise. This is how the idea of ​​the Air Seller was born.

In his work, Belyaev warns of an impending ecological disaster, where the environment will be so polluted with gases, industrial emissions, that fresh air turn into a product that will not be available to everyone.

Is it worth recalling that today, due to poor ecology, there is a constant danger of oncology walking around the world, and life expectancy in major cities is rapidly declining. Under these conditions, states are even forced to agree to international agreements, an example of which is the Kyoto Protocol to limit emissions carbon dioxide in atmosphere.

Orbital station

The KETs Star was written in 1936 under the influence of the writer's correspondence with Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky. Strictly speaking, KEC is the initials of the Soviet scientist. The whole novel is built on the ideas of Tsiolkovsky - the possibility of launching an orbital station, the exit of people into outer space, trip to the moon.

After the release of the book, which was published by the magazine "Around the World", Tsiolkovsky wrote an enthusiastic review on it. The two dreamers were far ahead of their time - after all, the first real Salyut orbital station appeared in space only in 1973.

Drones

In the book “Lord of the World” (1926), Belyaev “invented” an apparatus for transmitting thoughts over a distance according to the principle of radio waves, which made it possible to inspire an outsider with a thought at a distance - in essence, a psychotropic weapon. In addition, in his book, he predicted the emergence of unmanned aircraft; the first successful tests took place in the UK only in the 30s of the XX century.

Plastic

In his novel The Man Who Lost Face (1929), the author presents the reader with the problem of changing human body and related subsequent problems. In fact, the novel predicts modern advances plastic surgery and the ethical issues that follow invariably.

According to the plot, the governor of the state turns into a black man and, as a result, experiences all the features racial discrimination. It is somewhat reminiscent of the fate of the king of pop music Michael Jackson, who changed his skin color to escape prejudice against black people.

Secret bermuda triangle

After the triumph of the novel "Professor Dowell's Head" at one of the meetings, journalists bombarded the writer with questions: "Who lives at the bottom of the ocean? Is there life on other planets? Are there really flying dutches? Not finding an answer to this question for himself, Belyaev delves into his study, begins to figure out ...

Suppose somewhere, for example, in the Bermuda region, there is a certain special zone. The nearby Sargasso Sea, with its many algae, has always hampered local navigation, and ships left here after shipwrecks could easily accumulate in its waters. This is how the plot of the novel "The Island of Lost Ships" is born.

In his new work, Belyaev was the first to point out the mystery of the now famous Bermuda Triangle, the anomaly of which was first publicly announced by the Associated Press, calling the area "the devil's sea."

Last prediction

The year 1940 is coming. In the country, many have gloomy forebodings - coming terrible war. And Belyaev special sensations- old illnesses make themselves felt, the writer foresees - he will not survive this war. And he recalls a childhood dream, writes a novel about Ariel, a man who could fly. He himself would like to fly above the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Ariel, like Amphibian Man, is biographical. This piece is a prediction. own death. He wanted to fly away from this world like Ariel.

And so it happened. The writer died in 1943 from starvation in besieged Leningrad. The writer Belyaev was buried in a common grave along with many others. After that, Belyaev's wife and daughter were captured by the Germans, and then in exile in Altai.

Upon returning from there, they found the writer's glasses, to which was attached a note addressed to Belyaev's wife:

“Do not look for my footprints on this earth,” her husband wrote. - I'm waiting for you in heaven. Your Ariel...

Alexander Belyaev

Alexander Belyaev

Birthday: 16.03.1884. Place of Birth: Smolensk, Russia
Date of death: 01/06/1942 (57 years old)
A place of death: Pushkin, Russia
Citizenship: Russia

Biography

Alexander Romanovich Belyaev- Soviet science fiction writer, one of the founders of Soviet science fiction literature. His books are devoted to the problems of science and technology of the future. Among famous works: "Professor Dowell's Head", "Amphibian Man", "Ariel", "KETs Star" (KETs - the initials of Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky) and many others (more than 70 science fiction works, including 13 novels).

He was born in Smolensk, in the family of an Orthodox priest. The family had two more children: sister Nina died in childhood from sarcoma; brother Vasily, a student at a veterinary institute, drowned while riding a boat.

The father wanted to see in his son the successor of his work and sent him in 1895 to the theological seminary. In 1901, Alexander graduated from the seminary, but did not become a priest; on the contrary, he came out of there a convinced atheist. In defiance of his father, he entered the Demidov Juridical Lyceum in Yaroslavl. Soon after the death of his father, he had to earn extra money: Alexander gave lessons, painted scenery for the theater, played the violin in the circus orchestra.

After graduating (in 1906) from the Demidov Lyceum, A. Belyaev received the position of a private attorney in Smolensk and soon became known as a good lawyer. He has a regular clientele. Material possibilities also grew: he was able to rent and furnish nice apartment, acquire a good collection of paintings, collect a large library. Having finished any business, he went to travel abroad; traveled to France, Italy, visited Venice.

In 1914 he left law for the sake of literature and theater.

At the age of thirty-five, A. Belyaev fell ill with tuberculous pleurisy. The treatment turned out to be unsuccessful - tuberculosis of the spine developed, which was complicated by paralysis of the legs. A serious illness for 6 years, three of which he was in a cast, chained him to bed. The young wife left him, saying that she did not get married to take care of her sick husband. In search of specialists who could help him, A. Belyaev, with his mother and old nanny, ended up in Yalta. There, in the hospital, he began to write poetry. Not succumbing to despair, he is engaged in self-education: he studies foreign languages, medicine, biology, history, technology, reads a lot (Jules Verne, HG Wells, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky). Having defeated the disease, in 1922 he returns to a full life, begins to work. First, A. Belyaev became a teacher in an orphanage, then he got a job as an inspector of the criminal investigation department - he organized a photo laboratory there, later he had to go to the library. Life in Yalta was very difficult, and A. Belyaev, with the help of acquaintances, moved with his family to Moscow (1923), got a job as a legal adviser. There begins a serious literary activity. He publishes science fiction stories, novels in the magazines Vokrug Sveta, Znanie-Sila, Vsemirnyi Pathfinder, earning the title of "Soviet Jules Verne". In 1925 he published the story "Professor Dowell's Head", which Belyaev himself called an autobiographical story: he wanted to tell "what a head without a body can experience."

A. Belyaev lived in Moscow until 1928; during this time he wrote "The Island of Lost Ships", " Last Man from Atlantis", "Amphibian Man", "Struggle on the Air", a collection of short stories was published. The author wrote not only under his own name, but also under the pseudonyms A. Rom and Arbel.

In 1928, A. Belyaev and his family moved to Leningrad, and since then he has been exclusively engaged in literature, professionally. This is how "Lord of the World", "Underwater Farmers", "Wonderful Eye", stories from the series "Professor Wagner's Inventions" appeared. They were printed mainly in Moscow publishing houses. However, soon the disease again made itself felt, and I had to move from rainy Leningrad to sunny Kyiv.

The year 1930 turned out to be very difficult for the writer: his six-year-old daughter died of meningitis, the second one fell ill with rickets, and his own illness (spondylitis) soon worsened. As a result, in 1931 the family returned to Leningrad.

In September 1931, A. Belyaev handed over the manuscript of his novel "The Earth is Burning" to the editors of the Leningrad magazine "Around the World"

In 1934, he meets with Herbert Wells, who arrived in Leningrad.

In 1935, Belyaev became a permanent contributor to the Vokrug Sveta magazine.

At the beginning of 1938, after eleven years of intense collaboration, Belyaev left the Vokrug Sveta magazine.

Shortly before the war, the writer underwent another operation, so he refused the offer to evacuate when the war began. The city of Pushkin (a suburb of Leningrad), where he lived in last years A. Belyaev with his family was occupied. In January 1942, the writer died of starvation. The surviving wife and daughter of the writer were deported by the Germans to Poland.

The place of his burial is not known for certain. A memorial stele at the Kazan cemetery in the city of Pushkin is installed only on the alleged grave.

Creation

A. Belyaev was fond of nature. WITH early years he was attracted to music: he independently learned to play the violin, piano, loved to play music for hours. Another "fun" was photography (there was a picture taken by him " human head on a platter in blue colors"). Since childhood, he read a lot, was fond of adventure literature, especially Jules Verne. Alexander grew up a fidget, loved all kinds of practical jokes, jokes; the consequence of one of his pranks was an eye injury with further damage to vision. The young man also dreamed of flying: he tried to take off, tying brooms to his hands, jumped from the roof with an umbrella, and finally took to the air in a small airplane. However, in an attempt to take off, he received an injury that affected the entire later life. Once he fell off the roof of a barn and seriously injured his back. In the mid-20s, Belyaev suffered from constant pain in an injured back and was even paralyzed for months.

Even while studying at the Lyceum, A. Belyaev proved himself a theatergoer. Under his leadership in 1913, students of male and women's gymnasium played the fairy tale "Three years, three days, three minutes" with crowd scenes, choral and ballet numbers. In the same year, A. R. Belyaev and cellist Yu. N. Saburova staged Grigoriev’s fairy tale opera The Sleeping Princess. He himself could act as a playwright, and a director, and an actor. home theater Belyaev in Smolensk enjoyed wide popularity, toured not only around the city, but also in its environs. Once, during the arrival in Smolensk of the capital's troupe under the direction of Stanislavsky, A. Belyaev managed to replace the sick artist - instead of playing in several performances.

The writer was keenly interested in the question of the human psyche: the functioning of the brain, its connection with the body, with the life of the soul, spirit. Can the brain think outside the body? Is a brain transplant possible? What consequences can anabiosis and its widespread use entail? Are there limits to the possibility of suggestion? And at genetic engineering? An attempt to solve these problems is devoted to the novels "Professor Dowell's Head", "Lord of the World", "The Man Who Lost Face", the story "The Man Who Doesn't Sleep", "Hoyti-Toyti".

In his science fiction novels Alexander Belyaev anticipated the emergence of a huge number of inventions and scientific ideas: The KEC Star depicts the prototype of modern orbital stations, Amphibian Man and Professor Dowell's Head show the miracles of transplantation, Eternal Bread shows the achievements of modern biochemistry and genetics. A kind of continuation of these reflections were novels-hypotheses that place a person in different environments of existence: the ocean ("Amphibian Man"), the air ("Ariel").

His last novel in 1941 - "Ariel" - echoes with famous novel A. Green "The Brilliant World". The heroes of both novels are endowed with the ability to fly without additional devices. The image of Ariel is the achievement of the writer, in which the author's faith in a person who overcomes "earthly gravity" was objectively realized.

Memory

In 1990, the section of scientific-fiction and science-fiction literature of the Leningrad Writers' Organization of the Writers' Union of the USSR established literary prize named after Alexander Belyaev, awarded for scientific, artistic and popular science works.

Behind all his works is the passionate desire of the disabled writer to challenge physical limitations. During his creative life, Alexander Belyaev wrote 17 novels, about a hundred stories, many essays, articles and stories.

Alexander Romanovich Belyaev was born on March 16, 1884 in Smolensk, his father was a priest. In addition to Alexander, the family had two more children, but their fate was tragic. Sister Nina died in childhood from sarcoma, and brother Vasily, being a student at a veterinary institute, drowned. The father dreamed that his son would continue his spiritual career and send him to study at the Smolensk Seminary, where Alexander stayed for 7 years and graduated from it in 1901. Alexander refused to continue his religious education and entered the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl to become a lawyer. Soon his father died, the family had little money and there was not enough money for education. I had to look for an opportunity to earn money. Alexander gave lessons, played the violin in the circus orchestra and drew theatrical scenery. A significant part of the life of Alexander Belyaev turned out to be connected with the theater, which he loved from childhood. Alexander himself could act as a playwright, director, and actor. The Belyaevs' home theater in Smolensk was popular and toured the city and its environs. Once, when a Moscow troupe led by Stanislavsky arrived in Smolensk, Alexander Belyaev managed to play instead of the ill artist in several performances. Alexander played very well, the success was complete and Konstantin Stanislavsky even offered Belyaev to stay in his troupe, but Alexander refused for unknown reasons. After graduating from the Demidov Lyceum, Alexander Belyaev received the position of a private attorney in Smolensk, and soon enough gained fame as a good lawyer. He formed his own permanent clientele, there was money. Alexander rented a good apartment, acquired a good collection of paintings, collected a large library. There was an opportunity to travel abroad. Belyaev visited France and Italy.

But life has prepared for him severe trials. At the age of thirty-five, Belyaev fell ill with pleurisy, then the disease gave complications and Alexander developed paralysis of the legs and tuberculosis of the spine. Belyaev's wife left, not wanting to take care of her sick husband. Alexander, with his mother and old nanny, goes to Yalta for treatment, where he began to write poetry in the hospital. In 1919, his mother dies, the seriously ill Belyaev cannot even see her off. last way. In 1921, Alexander still gets on his feet, gradually there is some improvement.

In order to somehow live, Alexander needed to look for work. First, Belyaev becomes a teacher in an orphanage, then he works as a criminal investigation inspector, and later goes to work in a library. Life in Yalta was very difficult and Belyaev, with the help of his friends, moved to Moscow, where he got a job as a legal adviser. IN free time he begins to engage in literature, soon in the newspaper "Beep" began to be published with the continuation of his first story "Professor Dowell's Head" (1925). Later story was accepted into The World Pathfinder magazine. Alexander Belyaev lived in Moscow until 1928. During this time, he wrote such works as "The Island of Lost Ships", "The Last Man from Atlantis", "Amphibian Man", "Struggle on the Air" and others. Alexander wrote not only under his own name, but also used the pseudonyms A. Rom and Arbel. In 1928, Belyaev moved to Leningrad, where he now deals exclusively with literature. There, he soon wrote "Lord of the World", "Underwater Farmers", "Wonderful Eye", as well as stories from the series "Professor Wagner's Inventions". But the disease again made itself felt and Alexander had to move from rainy and cool Leningrad to warmer Kyiv. But there were obstacles to creativity, since manuscripts were accepted only in Ukrainian and they had to be sent to Moscow or Leningrad.

The year 1930 turned out to be tragic for the writer. First, his six-year-old daughter died of meningitis, then the second fell ill with rickets, and soon his own disease began to progress. As a result, in 1931 I had to return to Leningrad. In 1932, Alexander went to work in Murmansk to sail on a fishing trawler. And not for romance or new experiences, but to simply earn a living. Before the war, Alexander Belyaev underwent another operation, so he refused to be evacuated in the first days of the war. The city of Pushkin, where Belyaev lived in recent years, was occupied by the Nazis. On January 6, 1942, the writer died of starvation. Throughout his life, Alexander Belyaev was interested in issues of the human psyche, communication human brain with the body, with the life of the soul.

Behind all his works is the passionate desire of the disabled writer to challenge physical limitations. For my creative life Alexander Belyaev wrote 17 novels, about a hundred stories, many essays, articles and stories.

ANOTHER BIOGRAPHY

A. Belyaev was born in Smolensk, in the family of a priest, in which an atmosphere of extreme piety reigned. Parents were deeply religious people, inclined to give charity to poor relatives and pilgrims, which is why there were always a lot of people in the house. There were two more children in the family: sister Nina died in childhood from sarcoma; brother Vasily, being a student at a veterinary institute, drowned while riding a boat. As a child, Alexander grew up a fidget, loved all kinds of practical jokes, jokes; the consequence of one of his pranks was a serious eye injury with further damage to vision. In games and hobbies, the boy was unbridled, so his parents tried to accustom him to order and a serious attitude to business.

At the request of his father, Alexander was sent to study at the theological seminary, which he graduated in 1901, but the young man refused to continue his religious education and entered the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl, intending to become a lawyer. Soon his father died, the family's funds were limited, there was not enough money for education. I had to look for an opportunity to earn money - Alexander gave lessons, painted scenery for the theater, played the violin in the circus orchestra.

A. Belyaev was fond of nature. From an early age he was attracted to music; he independently learned to play the violin, the piano, he could selflessly play music for hours. Another "fun" was photography, and in the most eccentric version - shooting "horror photographs" (this was the picture he took of "a human head on a platter in blue tones"). The young man also dreamed of flying: he tried to take off, tying brooms to his hands, jumped from the roof with an umbrella, and finally took to the air in a small airplane.

A significant part of life young man turned out to be associated with the theater, which he loved since childhood. He himself could act as a playwright, and a director, and an actor. The home theater of the Belyaevs in Smolensk was widely known, touring not only around the city, but also in its environs. Once, during the arrival in Smolensk of the capital's troupe under the direction of Stanislavsky, A. Belyaev managed to replace the sick artist - instead of playing in several performances. The success was complete, K. Stanislavsky even offered A. Belyaev to stay in the troupe, but for some unknown reason he refused.

In the life of A. Belyaev, mystical coincidences played a certain role. One incident turned out to be tragic: somehow, while visiting my uncle, future writer in the company of relatives went for a boat ride. Only brother Vasya did not go with them. Before getting into the boat, Alexander grabbed a piece of clay from both sides, from which he began to sculpt a head - random features turned out to be extremely similar to the face of his brother who remained on the shore, but the expression on his face turned out to be somehow frozen, inanimate. Out of annoyance, Alexander threw the cast into the water, and at the same moment he felt uneasy. He hurried ashore, claiming that something had happened to Vasya. The rest returned with him. At the house, a tearful aunt reported that Vasya drowned, and as it turned out, this happened at the very moment when the cast was thrown into the water. What happened made a strange and terrible impression on everyone.

After graduating from the Demidov Lyceum, A. Belyaev received the position of a private attorney in Smolensk, and soon gained fame as a good lawyer. He has a regular clientele. His financial resources also increased: he was able to rent and furnish a good apartment, acquire a good collection of paintings, and collect a large library. Having finished any business, he went to travel abroad; traveled to France, Italy, visited Venice.

At the age of thirty-five, A. Belyaev fell ill with pleurisy. The treatment was unsuccessful - he developed paralysis of the legs and tuberculosis of the spine. The illness was very difficult. The young wife left him, saying that she did not get married to take care of her sick husband. In search of specialists who could help him, A. Belyaev, with his mother and old nanny, ended up in Yalta. There, in the hospital, he began to write poetry. Gradually there was some improvement.

Bibliography:

Belyaeva S. A star flickers outside the window ... - in the collection of Science Fiction-84. // M.: Mol.gvardiya, 1984, p. 312-347

Alexander Romanovich Belyaev(March 16, 1884 - January 6, 1942) - Russian science fiction writer, one of the founders of Soviet science fiction literature. Among his most famous novels are Professor Dowell's Head, Amphibian Man, Ariel, KEC Star and many others (more than 70 science fiction works in total, including 13 novels). For a significant contribution to Russian science fiction and visionary ideas, Belyaev is called the "Russian Jules Verne."

The future writer was born in Smolensk, in the family of an Orthodox priest. There were two more children in the family: sister Nina died in childhood from sarcoma; brother Vasily, a student at a veterinary institute, drowned while riding a boat.

The father wanted to see in his son the successor of his business and gave him in 1894 to religious school. After graduating in 1898, Alexander was transferred to the Smolensk Theological Seminary. In 1904 he graduated from it, but did not become a priest, on the contrary, he came out of there a convinced atheist. In defiance of his father, he entered the Demidov Juridical Lyceum in Yaroslavl. Soon after the death of his father, he had to earn extra money: Alexander gave lessons, painted scenery for the theater, played the violin in the circus orchestra, and was published in city newspapers as a music critic.

After graduating (in 1908) from the Demidov Lyceum, A. Belyaev received the position of a private attorney in Smolensk and soon gained fame as a good lawyer. He has a regular clientele. His financial resources also increased: he was able to rent and furnish a good apartment, acquire a good collection of paintings, and collect a large library. In 1913 he traveled abroad: he visited France, Italy, visited Venice.

In 1914 he left law for the sake of literature and theater.

At the age of 35, A. Belyaev fell ill with tuberculous pleurisy. The treatment turned out to be unsuccessful - tuberculosis of the spine developed, which was complicated by paralysis of the legs. A serious illness confined him to bed for six years, three of which he was in a cast. The young wife left him, saying that she did not get married to take care of her sick husband. In search of specialists who could help him, A. Belyaev, with his mother and old nanny, ended up in Yalta. There, in the hospital, he began to write poetry. Not giving in to despair, he is engaged in self-education: he studies foreign languages, medicine, biology, history, technology, reads a lot (Jules Verne, Herbert Wells, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky). Having defeated the disease, in 1922 he returned to a full life, began to work. In the same year he marries Margarita Konstantinovna Magnushevskaya.
First, A. Belyaev became a teacher in an orphanage, then he was given the position of inspector of the criminal investigation department, where he organized a photo laboratory, later he had to go to the library. Life in Yalta was very difficult, and A. Belyaev (with the help of a friend) in 1923 moved with his family to Moscow, where he got a job as a legal adviser. There he began a serious literary activity. Publishes science fiction stories, stories in the magazines "Around the World", "Knowledge is Power", "World Pathfinder".
In 1924, in the newspaper "Gudok" publishes a story "Professor Dowell's Head", which Belyaev himself called an autobiographical story, explaining: “Illness laid me once for three and a half years in a plaster bed. This period of illness was accompanied by paralysis of the lower half of the body. And although I owned my hands, nevertheless my life in these years was reduced to the life of a “head without a body”, which I did not feel at all - complete anesthesia ... ".

A. Belyaev lived in Moscow until 1928; during this time he wrote the novels "The Island of Lost Ships", "The Last Man from Atlantis", "The Amphibian Man", "Struggle on the Air", a collection of short stories was published. The author wrote not only under his own name, but also under pseudonyms A. Rom And Arbel.

In 1928, A. Belyaev moved to Leningrad with his family and has since become a professional writer. The "Lord of the World" novels were written, "Underwater farmers", "Wonderful Eye", stories from the series "Professor Wagner's Inventions". They were printed mainly in Moscow publishing houses. However, soon the disease again made itself felt, and I had to move from rainy Leningrad to sunny Kyiv. However, in Kyiv, publishing houses accepted manuscripts only in Ukrainian, and Belyaev again moved to Moscow.

The year 1930 turned out to be very difficult for the writer: his six-year-old daughter Lyudmila died of meningitis, his second daughter Svetlana fell ill with rickets, and his own illness (spondylitis) soon worsened. As a result, in 1931 the family returned to Leningrad.

In September 1931, A. Belyaev handed over the manuscript of his novel The Earth is Burning to the editors of the Leningrad magazine Vokrug Sveta.

In 1932 he lives in Murmansk. In 1934, he meets with Herbert Wells, who arrived in Leningrad. In 1935, Belyaev became a permanent contributor to the Vokrug Sveta magazine.
At the beginning of 1938, after eleven years of intense collaboration, Belyaev left the Vokrug Sveta magazine. In 1938 he published an article "Cinderella" about the plight of contemporary science fiction.

Shortly before the war, the writer underwent another operation, so when the war began, he refused the offer to evacuate. The city of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo, a suburb of Leningrad), where A. Belyaev and his family lived in recent years, was occupied by the Nazis.
On January 6, 1942, at the age of 58, Alexander Romanovich Belyaev died of starvation. He was buried in mass grave along with other residents of the city. “Writer Belyaev, who wrote science fiction novels like Amphibian Man, froze to death in his room. “Frozen from hunger” is an absolutely accurate expression. People are so weak from hunger that they are not able to get up and bring firewood. He was found already completely stiff ... ".

Alexander Belyaev had two daughters: Lyudmila (March 15, 1924 - March 19, 1930) and Svetlana. The surviving wife of the writer and daughter Svetlana were taken prisoner by the Germans and were in various camps for displaced persons in Poland and Austria until liberated by the Red Army in May 1945. After the end of the war, they were exiled to Western Siberia. They spent 11 years in exile. The daughter did not marry.

The burial place of the writer is not known for certain. A memorial stele at the Kazan cemetery in the city of Pushkin is installed on the grave of his wife, who was buried there in 1982.

Addresses of residence

• st. Dokuchaeva, 4. - Smolensk, memorial place where the house where the science fiction writer was born stood.
• 10/26/1936 - 07/1941 - Leningrad - Writers' Creativity House - Children's Village, Proletarskaya Street, 6.

Creation

A. Belyaev was a passionate nature. From an early age, he was attracted to music: he independently learned to play the violin, piano, loved to play music for hours. Another "fun" was photography (there was a picture he took of "a human head on a platter in blue tones"). It is known that A. Belyaev studied the Esperanto language. Since childhood, he read a lot, was fond of adventure literature. Alexander grew up a fidget, loved all kinds of practical jokes and jokes; the consequence of one of his pranks was an eye injury with subsequent deterioration of vision. The young man also dreamed of flying: he tried to take off, tying brooms to his hands, jumped from the roof with an umbrella, and finally took to the air in a small airplane.

Once, during another attempt to take off, he fell from the roof of the barn and crashed - he significantly injured his back. This injury affected the rest of his life. In the mid-1920s, Belyaev suffered from constant pain in an injured back and was even paralyzed for months.

Even while studying at the Lyceum, A. Belyaev proved himself a theatergoer. Under his leadership, in 1913, students of the male and female gymnasiums played out the fairy tale "Three years, three days, three minutes" with mass scenes, choral and ballet numbers. In the same year, A. R. Belyaev and cellist Yu. N. Saburova staged Grigoriev’s fairy tale opera The Sleeping Princess. He himself could act as a playwright, and a director, and an actor. The home theater of the Belyaevs in Smolensk was widely known, touring not only around the city, but also in its environs. Once, during the arrival in Smolensk of the capital's troupe under the direction of Stanislavsky, A. Belyaev managed to replace the ill artist - instead of playing in several performances.

The writer was keenly interested in the question of the human psyche: the functioning of the brain, its connection with the body, with the life of the soul, spirit. Can the brain think outside the body? Is a brain transplant possible? What consequences can anabiosis and its widespread use entail? Are there limits to the possibility of suggestion? What about genetic engineering? The novels are devoted to an attempt to solve these problems. "Professor Dowell's Head", "Lord of the world", "The Man Who Lost Face", stories "The Man Who Doesn't Sleep", "Hoyti-Toyti".

In his science fiction novels, Alexander Belyaev anticipated the emergence of a huge number of inventions and scientific ideas:

• V "Zvezda KEC" the prototype of modern orbital stations is depicted,
• V "Amphibian Man" And "Professor Dowell's Head" miracles of transplantology are shown,
• V "Eternal bread"- Achievements of modern biochemistry and genetics.

A kind of continuation of these reflections were novels-hypotheses that place a person in different environments of existence: the ocean ( "Amphibian Man") and air ( "Ariel").

His last novel Ariel, written in 1941, echoes A. Green's famous novel The Shining World. The heroes of both works are endowed with the ability to fly without additional devices. The image of the young man Ariel is an undoubted achievement of the writer, in which the author's faith in a person who overcomes earthly gravity was objectively realized.

Memory

In 1990, the section of science fiction and science fiction literature of the Leningrad Writers' Organization of the Union of Writers of the USSR established the Alexander Belyaev Literary Prize, awarded for science fiction and science fiction works.

In addition to biographical literature, Alexander Belyaev is dedicated to one of the television films of the series “Geniuses and Villains of the Bygone Era” by the Civilization TV Company.

Curious facts

Both the biography and the work of Belyaev after several decades of Soviet "canonization" (and rather low light) became the subject of conflicting judgments. Thus, the well-known Russian critic and science fiction historian Vsevolod Revich (including in the book "Crossroads of Utopias") gave Belyaev's work a sharply negative assessment, reproaching the author for the poor elaboration of the actual fantastic elements and the socio-moralistic message of the works, in opportunistic ruthlessness towards "class enemies" and "sadism" in relation to the characters, on whom physiological experiments were carried out. Literary critic Boris Myagkov, in turn, believed that Vs. Revich, for example, did not understand the deliberately parodic nature of the stories about Professor Wagner("The Man Who Doesn't Sleep" and others).

Under Soviet law, which was in force until October 1, 1964, Belyaev's works passed into the public domain 15 years after the author's death. After the collapse of the USSR on the territory of Russia, copyright legislation changed, and the term of copyright protection first increased to 50, and since 2004 - up to 70 years, after the death of the author. In addition, the Law of the Russian Federation "On Copyright and Related Rights" increased these terms by four years for authors who worked during the Great Patriotic War or those who participated in it. Currently questions copyright regulated by part 4 of the Civil Code, as well as federal law Russian Federation dated December 18, 2006 No. 231-FZ “On the Enactment of Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation”, which restricts the application of the Civil Code in certain cases (see Article 6): “ The terms of protection of rights provided for by Articles 1281, 1318, 1327 and 1331 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation shall apply in cases where the fifty-year term of copyright or related rights has not expired by January 1, 1993».

In 2008, the Terra publishing house entered into an agreement with Belyaev's heiress (daughter Svetlana) to publish his works. Following this, "Terra" filed a lawsuit against the publishing houses "AST-Moscow" and "Astrel" (both are part of the AST publishing group), which published Belyaev after the conclusion of the contract by "Terra". The Moscow Arbitration Court satisfied the claim for more than 7.5 billion rubles and banned the Astrel publishing house. distribute illegally published copies of the works of A. Belyaev". The court of appeal overturned the decision of the first instance regarding the recovery of compensation and state duty expenses. The cassation instance annulled the judicial acts of the lower instances and completely dismissed the claim, considering the works of A. Belyaev to have passed into the public domain since 01/01/1993. and are currently unprotected.

Meanwhile, the Krasnodar Regional Court recognized Belyaev's works as being in the public domain.

On October 4, 2011, the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation decided to change the decisions of the lower courts: the property rights of A. Belyaev are subject to protection until at least January 1, 2017. The courts will now have to reconsider the case as it has been sent back for retrial.

Novels

• "Professor Dowell's Head" ( 1 (story): "Beep", 1924; World Pathfinder, 1925, no. 3-4; Rabochaya Gazeta, 1925, June 16-21, 24-26; "Professor Dowell's Head". M.-L.: ZiF, 1926; 2 (novel). "Around the World", 1937, No. 6-10, 12; 3 (novel). "Change" (gaz., Leningrad), 1937, 1-6, 8-9, 11, 14-18, 24, 28 Feb., 1, 3-6, March 9-11; otd. ed. - L.-M, “Owls. writer", 1938) - filmed
• "The Island of Lost Ships" ("The World Pathfinder", 1926, No. 3-4; 1927, No. 5-6; separate ed. - M., "ZiF", 1927) - filmed
• “The Last Man from Atlantis” (“World Pathfinder”, 1926, No. 5-8; separate ed. - M., “ZiF”, 1927)
• "Lord of the World" ("Beep", 1926, 19-24, 26-31 Oct., 2-6, 10-14, 16-18 Nov.; separate ed. - L., "Krasnaya Gazeta", 1929)
• “Struggle on the Air” (“Life and Communication Technology”, 1927, No. 1-9, under the title “Radiopolis”; separate ed. - M.-L., “Young Guard”, 1928)
• "Amphibian Man" ("Around the World", 1928, No. 1-6, 11-13; separate ed. - M., "ZiF", 1928) - filmed
• "The Air Seller" ("Around the World", 1929, No. 4-13) - filmed
• "The Man Who Lost Face" ("Around the World", 1929, No. 19-25)
• "Underwater Farmers" ("Around the World", 1930, No. 9-23)
• "Jump into nothing" (separate ed. - L.-M., "Young Guard", 1933)
• "Airship" ("Around the World", 1934, No. 10-12, 1935, No. 1-6)
• "Wonderful Eye" (separate ed. - K .: Molodiy bіshovik, 1935, in Ukrainian; translation by I. Vasiliev - Selected science fiction works in 2 volumes. M., "Young Guard", 1956. T. 1)
• "Star of KETs" ("Around the World", 1936, No. 2-11; separate ed. - M.-L.: Detizdat, 1940)
• "Heavenly guest" ("Lenin's sparks", 1937, December 17-27; 1938, January 4-29, February 9, February 27, March 3-27, April 3-21, May 5-27, 3- June 21, July 3)
• “Under the sky of the Arctic” (“To fight for equipment!”, 1938, No. 4-7, 9-12; 1939, No. 1-2, 4; earlier excerpt under the heading “Prisoners of Fire” - “Around the World”, 1936 , No. 1; excerpt under the heading " underground city"-" Around the World ", 1937, No. 9)
• "Dublve Laboratory" ("Around the World", 1938, No. 7-9, 11-12; "Bolshevik Word", 1939, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 22, 26, 28 Jan., 4, Feb 8, 10, 15, 21, March 4, 6 [published incomplete])
• "The Man Who Found His Face" (separate ed. - L., "Sov. Writer", 1940)
• "Ariel" (separate ed. - L., "Sov. Writer", 1941) - filmed

Tale

• "Eternal Bread" ("Struggle on the Air". M.-L., "Young Guard", 1928)
• "Golden Mountain" ("The Struggle of the Worlds" (L.), 1929, No. 2)
• "The Earth is on fire" ("Around the World", 1931, No. 30-36)
• "Castle of Witches" ("Young Collective Farmer", 1939, No. 5-7)

stories

• "Neither life nor death" ("World Pathfinder", 1926, no. 5-6)
• "Ideophone" ("World Pathfinder", 1926, No. 6, signed: A. Rom)
• "White Savage" ("World Pathfinder", 1926, No. 7)
• "Hunting for the Big Dipper" ("Around the World", 1927, No. 4)
• "Sesame, open up!!!" ("The World Pathfinder", 1928, No. 4, signed: A. Rom; "Around the World", 1928, No. 49, ch. "Electric Servant", signed: A. Rome)
• "Dead Head" ("Around the World", 1928, No. 17-22)
• "The Instinct of the Ancestors" ("On land and at sea", 1929, No. 1-2)
• "Doomsday" ("Around the World", 1929, No. 1-4,7)
• "Keep West!" ("Knowledge is power", 1929, No. 11)
• "Is it easy to be cancer?" (“Around the World”, 1929, No. 13, signed: A. Rom)
• "A lapel means" ("Around the World", 1929, No. 27)
• “In the Pipe” (“Around the World”, 1929, No. 33, signed: A. Rom)
• "The Imperishable World" ("Knowledge is Power", 1930, No. 2)
• "City of the Winner" ("World Pathfinder", 1930, No. 4)
• "VTsBID" ("Knowledge is power", 1930, No. 6-7)
• "Green Symphony" ("Around the World", 1930, No. 22-24)
• "On air pillars" ("The Struggle of the Worlds", 1931, No. 1)
• "Solar Horses" ("Nature and People", 1931, No. 19-20, signature: Arbel)
• "Remote Engineer" ("Revolution and Nature", 1931, No. 2 (21))
• "Kite" ("Knowledge is Power", 1931, No. 2)
• "Storm" ("Revolution and Nature", 1931, No. 3-5)
• “Stronger than God” (“Nature and People”, 1931, No. 10, signature: Arbel)
• "Damn swamp" ("Knowledge is power", 1931, No. 15)
• "Unusual Incidents" ("Hedgehog", 1933, No. 9-11)
• "Record flight" ("Hedgehog", 1933, No. 10)
• "Meeting the New Year, 1954" ("Hedgehog", 1933, No. 12)
• "Blind Flight" ("Ural Pathfinder" [Sverdlovsk], 1935, No. 1; pp. 27-34)
• "The Lost Island" ("Young Proletarian", 1935, No. 12)
• "Mr. Laughter" ("Around the World", 1937, No. 5)
• "Invisible Light" ("Around the World", 1938, No. 1, signature: A. Romanovich)
• "Horned Mammoth" ("Around the World", 1938, No. 3)
• “The Anatomical Groom” (“Bolshevik Word”, 1940, February 12; “Leningrad”, 1940, No. 6)
• Inventions of Professor Wagner
  • "The Man Who Doesn't Sleep" ("Professor Dowell's Head". M., "ZiF", 1926)
  • “The Guest from the Bookcase” (“Head of Professor Dowell”. M., “ZiF”, 1926)
  • “Over the Abyss” (“Around the World”, 1927, No. 2, under the title “Over the Black Abyss”; “Struggle on the Air”. M.-L., “Young Guard”, 1928)
  • “Created legends and apocrypha”: 1. The case with the horse, 2. About fleas, 3. The thermo-man (“World Pathfinder”, 1929, No. 4)
  • "Devil's Mill" ("World Pathfinder", 1929, No. 9)
  • "Amba" ("World Pathfinder", 1929, No. 10)
  • "Hoyti-Toyti" ("World Pathfinder", 1930, No. 1-2)
  • “Flying Carpet” (“Knowledge is Power”, 1936, No. 12)

Alexander Romanovich Belyaev(1884-1942) - Russian writer, one of the founders of the Russian science fiction novel; from 1942 to 1965 Alexander Belyaev was not published.

Famous works of Belyaev: the novels "The Head of Professor Dowell" (1925), "The Amphibian Man" (1928), "The Lord of the World" (1929), "Struggle on the Air" (1928), "Jump into Nothing" (1933), " KETs Star" (1936), "Wonderful Eye" (1935), "Dublve's Laboratory" (1938), "Under the Arctic Sky" (1938), etc.

The son of a priest, studied at the theological seminary, then at law school university and at the same time at the conservatory. For some time he worked in the theater under the direction of K.S. Stanislavsky, was a barrister, a policeman, a violinist in a circus orchestra, a library manager, a theater decorator, an editor of a city newspaper, an educator orphanage and a legal adviser.

Published since 1910. Since the mid-1920s, having contracted tuberculosis of the spine, he was engaged exclusively in literary activity, becoming one of the founders of the genre science fiction in domestic literature. In 1925 Belyaev's first story The Head of Professor Dowell (1925; revised into a novel in 1937) and his first story The Last Man from Atlantis were published. These and subsequent works of Belyaev invariably went beyond specific scientific insights to the acute problems of social life, the responsibility of a scientist and fate. humanistic values in a technologically advanced world populated by bright and unusual people, captivating with the dynamic deployment of an adventurous adventure story, impressive pictures of the past and future, imbued with warm humor. Such, in particular, are the novels The Island of Lost Ships (1926; final edition 1937), Over the Abyss (1927), Eternal Bread, in which an unjust society makes the invention of a scientist the cause of a worldwide catastrophe; Amphibious Man, Fighting on the Aether (all 1928), Seller of the Air, Lord of the World (both 1929), in which scientists try to turn their inventions into tools of power or profit; Leap into Nothing (1933), depicting the flight of the super-rich to space from communism triumphant on planet Earth; Ariel (1941) is about a man who can fly like a bird.

ALEXANDER BELYAEV WITH WIFE MARGARIT AND FIRST DAUGHTER

The features of pamphlet, utopia and dystopia are combined in Belyaev's works with fruitful scientific and technical foresights (many of which have already come true), in particular, in the novels: Underwater Farmers (1930), The Wonderful Eye (1935), Star "KETs" (1936; dedicated to K.E. Tsiolkovsky), Doubleve Laboratory and Under the Sky of the Arctic (both 1928). The bright tone of Belyaev’s work is given not only by technocratic optimism, but also by a certain layer domestic literature 1920–1930s (A.S. Green, P.D. Kogan) romantic mood, planetary scale of worldview, enlightening idealization of man and the power of his imagination, mind and will.

Belyaev also left the script for the film When the Lights Go Out, a series of essays on the figures of Russian science, and articles on the theory of the science fiction genre. Long-term popularity is created by novel of the same name Belyaeva Feature Film Amphibian Man (1962; directed by G.S. Kazansky, V.A. Chebotarev).

He was born in Smolensk, in the family of an Orthodox priest. There were two more children in the family: sister Nina died in childhood from sarcoma; brother Vasily, a student at a veterinary institute, drowned while riding a boat.

The father wished to see in his son the successor of his work and gave him in 1895 to the Smolensk Theological Seminary. In 1901, Alexander graduated from it, but did not become a priest, on the contrary, he came out of there a convinced atheist. In defiance of his father, he entered the Demidov Juridical Lyceum in Yaroslavl. Soon after the death of his father, he had to earn extra money: Alexander gave lessons, painted scenery for the theater, played the violin in the circus orchestra.

After graduating (in 1906) from the Demidov Lyceum, A. Belyaev received the position of a private attorney in Smolensk and soon gained fame as a good lawyer. He has a regular clientele. His financial resources also increased: he was able to rent and furnish a good apartment, acquire a good collection of paintings, and collect a large library. Having finished any business, he went to travel abroad: he visited France, Italy, visited Venice.

In 1914 he left law for the sake of literature and theater.

At the age of thirty-five, A. Belyaev fell ill with tuberculous pleurisy. The treatment turned out to be unsuccessful - tuberculosis of the spine developed, which was complicated by paralysis of the legs. A serious illness confined him to bed for six years, three of which he was in a cast. The young wife left him, saying that she did not get married to take care of her sick husband. In search of specialists who could help him, A. Belyaev, with his mother and old nanny, ended up in Yalta. There, in the hospital, he began to write poetry. Not giving in to despair, he is engaged in self-education: he studies foreign languages, medicine, biology, history, technology, reads a lot (Jules Verne, Herbert Wells, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky). Having defeated the disease, in 1922 he returned to a full life, began to work. First, A. Belyaev became a teacher in an orphanage, then he got a job as an inspector of the criminal investigation department - he organized a photo laboratory there, later he had to go to the library. Life in Yalta was very difficult, and A. Belyaev, with the help of acquaintances, moved with his family to Moscow (1923), where he got a job as a legal adviser. There he began a serious literary activity. He publishes science fiction stories, stories in the magazines "Around the World", "Knowledge is Power", "World Pathfinder", earning the title of "Soviet Jules Verne". In 1925, he published the story "Professor Dowell's Head", which Belyaev himself called an autobiographical story: he wanted to tell "what a head without a body can experience."

A. Belyaev lived in Moscow until 1928; during this time, he wrote "The Island of Lost Ships", "The Last Man from Atlantis", "Amphibian Man", "Struggle on the Air", a collection of stories was published. The author wrote not only under his own name, but also under the pseudonyms A. Rom and Arbel.

In 1928, A. Belyaev and his family moved to Leningrad and since then he has been exclusively engaged in literature, professionally. This is how "Lord of the World", "Underwater Farmers", "The Miraculous Eye", stories from the series "Professor Wagner's Inventions" appeared. They were printed mainly in Moscow publishing houses. However, soon the disease again made itself felt, and I had to move from rainy Leningrad to sunny Kyiv.

The year 1930 turned out to be very difficult for the writer: his six-year-old daughter died of meningitis, the second one fell ill with rickets, and his own illness (spondylitis) soon worsened. As a result, in 1931 the family returned to Leningrad.

In September 1931, A. Belyaev handed over the manuscript of his novel The Earth is Burning to the editors of the Leningrad magazine Vokrug Sveta.

In 1932, he lives in Murmansk (source newspaper "Vecherny Murmansk" dated 10/10/2014). In 1934, he meets with Herbert Wells, who arrived in Leningrad. In 1935, Belyaev became a permanent contributor to the Vokrug Sveta magazine. At the beginning of 1938, after eleven years of intense collaboration, Belyaev left the Vokrug Sveta magazine. In 1938, he published an article called "Cinderella" about the plight of modern science fiction.

Shortly before the war, the writer underwent another operation, so he refused the offer to evacuate when the war began. The city of Pushkin (former Tsarskoe Selo, a suburb of Leningrad), where A. Belyaev and his family lived in recent years, was occupied. In January 1942, the writer died of starvation. He was buried in a mass grave along with other residents of the city. From Osipova's book “Diaries and Letters”: “The writer Belyaev, who wrote science fiction novels like Amphibian Man, froze from hunger in his room. “Frozen from hunger” is an absolutely accurate expression. People are so weak from hunger that they are not able to get up and bring firewood. He was found already completely stiff ... "

The surviving wife of the writer and daughter Svetlana were taken prisoner by the Germans and were in various camps for displaced persons in Poland and Austria until liberated by the Red Army in May 1945. After the end of the war, the wife and daughter of Alexander Romanovich, like many other citizens of the USSR, found themselves in German captivity, were exiled to Western Siberia. They spent 11 years in exile. The daughter did not marry.

The burial place of Alexander Belyaev is not known for certain. A memorial stele at the Kazan cemetery in the city of Pushkin was installed only on the alleged grave.