Arkady Petrovich Gaidar (Golikov) was born on January 9 (22), 1904 in the city of Lgov, Kursk province, into a family of teachers. The boy's childhood was mostly spent in Arzamas, a small town in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Here, the future writer studied at a real school.

Arkady was selfless at an early age. When his father was taken to the front during the First World War, the boy ran away from home to also go to fight. However, he was stopped on the way.

In 1918, an important event took place in Gaidar's brief biography - the fourteen-year-old Arkady joined the Communist Party, began working in the Molot newspaper. At the end of the year he was enrolled in the Red Army.

Service in the active army

After completing training courses for command personnel in Moscow in 1919, Golikov was appointed assistant platoon commander. In 1911 he graduated from the Higher Rifle School ahead of schedule. Soon he was appointed commander of the Nizhny Novgorod regiment, fought on the Don, on the Caucasian front, near Sochi.

In 1922, Golikov participated in the suppression of the anti-Soviet insurrectionary movement in Khakassia, led by I. Solovyov. Heading the command of the second combat site in the Yenisei province, Arkady Petrovich gave rather tough orders aimed at ill-treatment of local residents who opposed the arrival of Soviet power.

In May 1922, by order of Golikov, five uluses were shot. The incident was learned in the provincial department of the GPU. Arkady Petrovich was demobilized with a diagnosis of "traumatic neurosis", which arose after an unsuccessful fall from a horse. This event became a turning point in Gaidar's biography.

Literary activity

In 1925, Golikov published the story "In the days of defeats and victories" in the Leningrad almanac "Kovsh". Soon the writer moved to Perm, where he first began publishing under the pseudonym Gaidar. In 1930, work was completed on the works "School", "The Fourth Dugout".

Since 1932, Arkady Petrovich has been working as a traveling correspondent for the Pacific Star newspaper. In 1932 - 1938, the novels and the story "Far Countries", "Military Secret", "Blue Cup", "The Fate of a Drummer" were published. In 1939 - 1940, the writer completed work on his most famous works for children - "Timur and his team", "Chuk and Gek", which are now being studied in elementary grades.

The Great Patriotic War

During the Great Patriotic War, the writer Gaidar worked as a correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda. During this period, Arkady Petrovich created the essays "The Bridge", "Rockets and Grenades", "At the Crossing", "At the Front Line", the philosophical fairy tale "Hot Stone".

In 1941 he served as a machine gunner in the partisan detachment of Gorelov.

On October 26, 1941, Arkady Petrovich Gaidar was killed by the Germans near the village of Leplyavo, Kanevsky District. The writer was buried in 1947 in Kanev, Cherkasy region.

Other biography options

• According to the most famous version, the pseudonym "Gaidar" stands for "Golikov Arkady D'ARzamas" (similar to the name of d'Artagnan from Dumas' novel).
• In 1939, Gaidar was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor, in 1964 he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
• Arkady Gaidar suffered from severe headaches, mood swings, and was repeatedly treated in a psychiatric clinic.
• Gaidar's personal life did not develop immediately. The writer was married three times - to nurse Maria Plaksina (their son died before he was two years old), Komsomol member Leah Solomyanskaya (son Timur was born in marriage) and Dora Chernysheva (he adopted his wife's daughter).
• Among Gaidar's close friends were the writers Fraerman and Paustovsky.

Biography test

To test your knowledge of Gaidar's brief biography, try answering the test questions.

At that time we crossed the river Gaichura. By itself, this river is not special, so-so, just two boats to part. And this river was famous because it flowed through the Makhnovist Republic, that is, believe me, wherever you go near it, either fires are burning, and under the fires there are boilers with all sorts of goose and pig meat, or some kind of ataman is sitting, or a person is simply hanging on an oak , and what kind of person, for what he was killed - for some kind of fault, whether just for someone else's intimidation - this is unknown. Read...

The other day I read in the newspaper a notice of the death of Yakov Bersenev. I had lost sight of him long ago, and looking through the newspaper I was surprised not so much by the fact that he had died, but by how else he could live up to now, having at least six wounds - broken ribs and lungs completely beaten off by rifle butts. Read...

Our platoon occupied a small cemetery at the very edge of the village. The Petliurists were firmly seated at the edge of the opposite grove. Behind the stone wall of the lattice fence, we were little vulnerable to enemy machine guns. Until noon we exchanged fire rather hotly, but after lunch the shooting subsided. Read...

The guardroom is quiet. The Red Army soldiers of the next shift, seated around the table, talk in such a way as not to interfere with the rest of the comrades who have just replaced. But the conversation does not stick, because the measured ticking of the pendulum brings on sleep, and the eyes stick together against their will. Read...

I had just sat down at a slice of hot bread with milk served by the kind hostess, when occasionally burst in with a noise at the door and shouted ... Read ...

It seems that Nemirovich-Danchenko has such a picture: they bring a captured Japanese. So far, so and so, he asked the soldier to wash. He rinsed his head from the bowler hat and began to lather it. He lathered for a long time, snorted, rubbing his face, washed off the soap, scooped up another pot of water, began rinsing his teeth and dousing his chest with cold water. Read...

At the fire on vacation after a long transition, the Red Army men argued. Read...

Kolka was seven years old, Nyurka was eight. And Vaska is six at all. Read...

My father was late, and three people sat down at the table for dinner: the barefoot guy Efimka, his little sister Valka and the seven-year-old brother, nicknamed Nikolashka the Balovashka. Read...

I was then thirty-two years old. Marusya is twenty-nine, and our daughter Svetlana is six and a half. Only at the end of the summer did I get a vacation, and for the last warm month we rented a dacha near Moscow. Read...

There lived a man in a forest near the Blue Mountains. He worked hard, but the work did not decrease, and he could not go home on vacation. Read...

My mother studied and worked at a large new factory surrounded by dense forests. Read...

There lived a lonely old man in the village. He was weak, wove baskets, hemmed felt boots, guarded the collective farm garden from the boys and thus earned his bread. Read...

The Red Army soldier Vasily Kryukov had a wounded horse, and the White Cossacks overtook him. Of course, he could have shot himself, but he did not want to. He threw away his empty rifle, unfastened his saber, put the revolver in his bosom and, turning his weakened horse, rode towards the Cossacks. Read...

The spy crossed the swamp, put on his Red Army uniform and went out onto the road. The girl picked cornflowers in the rye. She came up and asked for a knife to trim the stems of the bouquet.

CROSSWORD "WORKS OF A.P. GAYDAR"

GAYDAR ARKADY PETROVICH

MOSAICS ACCORDING TO THE STORIES "TIMUR AND HIS TEAM" AND "CHUK AND GEK"

QUIZ "TIMUR AND HIS TEAM"
Illustrated quiz with various questions. Designed for readers of primary and secondary school age. The program itself counts the number of correct answers and shows the time spent on the game. Suitable for individual and group play. Download the game to your computer and play with pleasure. Author Galushko N.V. The size of the archive is 2.4 mb. DOWNLOAD QUIZ

MATERIALS TO HELP THE LIBRARY AND TEACHER

Poster size - 768x1024
File size - 106 kb.
The collage was designed by Galushko N.V.

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the image and download the poster.

COMPUTER GAMES

Click on the picture thumbnail to read the correct answers

horizontally:
1. "Hot ..."
4. "Fourth ..."
5. "Military ..."
6. "... drummer"
7. "Chuk and ..."
8. "... in the forest"
9. "On the counts ..."

LIST OF METHODOLOGICAL MATERIALS

Andreeva M. S. "Hello, cheerful people...": [methodological materials for working with books by A. P. Gaidar: book exhibition scheme, questionnaires, Gaidar tournament] / M. S. Andreeva, M. P. Korotkova / / Library at school. - 2003. - No. 23. - P.55-57.

Andrianova M. A. Lesson of "cordialization": [script of the lesson based on the story of A.P. Gaidar "Conscience"] // elementary school. - 1995. - No. 6. - P.77.

Arkady Petrovich Gaidar, 1904-1941: to the 100th anniversary of the birth. Issue. 1 / Author-editor: M. S. Andreeva, M. P. Korotkova. - M.: School Library, 2004. - 22 p. : 10 s ill. - (Exhibition in the school library).

Vladimirova L. A."Favorite children's books creator and best friend of the guys" (S. Mikhalkov): [material for a library lesson on the work of A.P. Gaidar for children 7-9 years old] // Books, notes and toys for Katyushka and Andryushka. - 2011. - No. 3. - P.16-21.

Davydova M.A. About brave guys: a script about the life and work of the famous children's writer for students in grades 4-6 // Read, study, play. - 2013. - No. 10. - S. 16-21 .: ill.

Makarova B.A. The horseman galloping ahead: the script for a theatrical literary and musical composition about Gaidar A.P. // Read, study, play. - 2003. - No. 11. - S. 44-50 .: ill.

Chizhova L.G. The fate of the commander: a game event for family teams dedicated to the anniversary of A.P. Gaidar for students in grades 5-6 // Reading, learning, playing. - 2013. - No. 10. - S. 22-25 .: ill.

vertically:
1. "Timur and his ..."
2. "Far ..."
3. "Blue ..."
4. "Forest ..."
6. "... about the military secret, Malchish-Kibalchish and his firm word"

Compiled by: Galushko N.V.

POEMS ABOUT GAYDAR

He will never be old.
Into the eyes of readers from a portrait
Looks laughing Gaidar,
Dressed in a marching overcoat.
S.Ya. Marshak

Computer quiz in pictures "Heroes of the story "Timur and his team" (From the illustration, determine the name of the character in the story, describe the plot that the picture illustrates). PowerPoint-2010 (ppsx). Document size - 4.5 mb.

ADD THE WORDS TO GET THE NAMES OF A.P. GAYDAR

IN MEMORY OF GAYDAR
S.Ya. Marshak

Big, funny, bright-eyed,
Sitting down at the fire,
He wrote his stories
Like an endless game.
He was a soldier and leader.
And every line
Remained as a testament to the guys
Bolshevik writer.
He died somewhere near Leplyava,
Like a partisan, behind enemy lines,
And, overshadowed by eternal glory,
Sleeps on the banks of the Dnieper.
And every day to the grave of a warrior
The wave brings the news
What has blossomed and what has been built
On the fields where the war was going on.
To make the earth buzz with construction
Where the war was on fire,
They got the world with courage
People like Gaidar.

ARKADY GAYDAR
S.V. Mikhalkov

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 the school story
Gaidar wrote:
The true hero of that story
And dared, though small in stature.
Read Gaidar's story
And look around
Live among us today
Timur, and Gek, and Chuk.
They are recognized by their actions.
And it's not a problem
What is the Gaidar name
Heroes are not always
Pages of honest, clean books
left as a gift to the country
Fighter, Writer, Bolshevik
And Citizen - Gaidar ...

OVER GAYDAR'S BOOK
I. Belyaev

Reading Gaidar's book
In the evening aloud the three of us,
Suddenly the boys were dreaming
About your future.
Dreamed, argued a lot
And again began to dream:
They have a road for everyone in life
That evening I wanted to choose.
One agreed without dispute
Becoming adults, a gift to the Motherland
Build a beautiful city
And give him a name - Gaidar.
From a portrait in an open book
Gaidar smiled in response:
"My dear boys,
Nothing is impossible for you!”

TALK
I. Antonov

Tired from work
Mother came in the evening
And he sees that his son
Bed not made
That tea is getting cold in a glass,
That the floor is not swept
What, lying on the sofa,
He is reading a book...
And his mother with resentment
She said: "Son,
Someday you mom
Any help?"
And the son answered gloomily,
Barely looking at the mother:
“You, mother, about Timur
You're stopping me from reading."
I'm sure guys
What if Gaidar lived
Illustrious Writer
and brave commissioner, -
That this boy
That's how mother meets
The author of the book would say
(Or rather, I could say):
"You must have a conscience
Fall asleep, boy!
You managed to read the story
But I couldn’t understand!”

***
S.Ya. Marshak

Every Soviet citizen knows
Whether he is very young or old,
That a children's writer lived in the world,
Blue-eyed hero Gaidar.
From youth, wearing a soldier's overcoat,
He defended his homeland
He was the best friend of you guys
And for our happiness fell in battle.

The name Gaidar first appeared on the pages of the Permian newspaper Zvezda on November 7, 1925. When did Arkady Golikov come up with this literary pseudonym and what does it mean?
In one of the diary entries of 1940, Arkady Petrovich recalls poems written by him 17 years ago, i.e. in 1923:
Everything is gone. But fires smoke
The roar of storms is heard in the distance.
All comrades left Gaidar.
Further, further forward they went.
Already then, in 1923, Gaidar sounded in the quatrain. Where does this resounding word come from? Arkady Petrovich himself did not answer this question. And if they insisted, he got off with a joke or answered differently each time. Gaidar's contemporary, fellow writer B. Zaks wrote: “Even explaining the origin of his pseudonym, he did not always adhere to the same version, ... perhaps the most reliable is this. During the period when he commanded a separate regiment somewhere in the steppes near Minusinsk, the inhabitants called him "Gaidar Golikov", which means: chief Golikov.

Another version is offered by a classmate of Arkady Petrovich A.M. Goldin in the book "An Unfictional Life". He considers the pseudonym as an anagram: G is the initial letter of the surname "Golikov". AI - the first and last letters of the name Arkady (A-th), D - in French, the prefix "de" or "d" means "from" (Arkady studied French as a child), AR - the initial letters of the name of his native city - Arzamas.

This version is also supported by Arkady Gaidar's son Timur Gaidar in the book Arkady Golikov from Arzamas. He writes that Arkady was a great inventor in his childhood and often invented ciphers. G - AY - D - AR, Timur Arkadevich believes, this is: Arkady Golikov from Arzamas, “... a pseudonym in which the inviting childish “aida!” and the free word "gaidamak" and even rolls under the drumstick Arkady's favorite "rrrr".

The version of the writer Boris Yemelyanov also became widespread: “In Mongolian,“ Gaidar ”is“ a horseman galloping ahead ”. For many, this beautiful and romantic version is inextricably merged with the image of Arkady Gaidar. The pseudonym "Gaidar" in the meaning - "The horseman galloping ahead" entered the consciousness of many generations. This probably happened because the symbolic meaning of the pseudonym accurately reflected not only the personal and creative biography of the writer, but also the place and role of the artist in literary development.

HISTORY OF A LITERARY NAME

POSTER ON A BOOKSHELF

FILWORD "15 NAMES AND SURNAMES OF THE HEROES OF THE STORY TIMUR AND HIS TEAM"

Virtual album "Rider galloping ahead". Archive - 14.9 mb. A virtual book with turning pages will help the librarian to have an interesting conversation about Gaidar for readers. The album is made up of photographs of Gaidar and his family from different years, as well as photographs of monuments to the writer. The album was designed by Galushko N.V.

ELECTRONIC MATERIALS FOR MASS EVENTS

Among the letters, find 15 names, surnames and nicknames of the characters in the story "Timur and his team".

Hints can be found in the electronic version of the game (see section "Computer games")

"15 names and surnames of the heroes of the story "Timur and his team": flash-fillword. Archive - 412 kb. The game requires a program that reads flash files. In the archive - instructions for the game. DOWN-LOAD A GAME.

Click on the fillword grid to read the correct answers

NOTE:
When creating the page (poems and educational materials), the following methodological guide was used:
Arkady Petrovich Gaidar, 1904-1941: to the 100th anniversary of the birth. Issue. 1 / Author-editor: M. S. Andreeva, M. P. Korotkova. - M.: School Library, 2004. - 22 p. : 10 s ill. - (Exhibition in the school library).

IN OUR LIBRARY: "A DAY WITH GAYDAR"

Our library dedicated to the 110th anniversary of A.P. Gaidar has a whole cycle of events - a book exhibition, watching cartoons, loud readings of the writer's fairy tales, a drawing competition, a computer game library.January 22 was held under the motto "Day with Gaidar", during which young readers got acquainted with the work of this remarkable writer. For students of the 4th grade of school No. 1 and 3rd grade of school No. 44, a competitive program was held on the story "Timur and his team." First, the children got acquainted with the biography of the writer, and then took part in various competitions for knowledge of the text of the work - they added up the loto "Heroes of the story", guessed the event from the picture, determined who owns this or that object, answered computer quiz questions. Award - diploma "Connoisseurs of the works of A.P. Gaidar", received the team that scored b about more points. The children were satisfied with the event and took Gaidar's other books with them to read them at home.

Federal Agency for Education

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution

higher professional education

Chuvash State Pedagogical University named after I. AND I. Yakovlev"

Faculty of Russian Philology

Discipline: "Children's Literature"

abstract

"Creativity of A.P. Gaidar in the circle of children's reading"

Completed:

4th year student

Khorolskaya S.N.

Checked:

Kosyakova E.Yu.

Cheboksary 2012

Introduction

The process of understanding and accepting values ​​begins from early childhood. Children's literature has always been the most important means of shaping the value system of the younger generation. As you know, children's literature is works written specifically for children in order to form their worldview, aesthetic needs and broaden their horizons. Strictly speaking, children's literature is something created specifically for children. But young readers take a lot for themselves from general literature. Thus, another layer arose - children's reading, i.e. circle of works read by children.

The educational value of children's literature is very great. Its features are determined by educational tasks and the age of readers. Its main distinguishing feature is the organic fusion of art with the requirements of pedagogy.

Being closely connected with the specific historical, socio-economic conditions of the era, children's literature, being an independent field of art, develops in close connection, in interaction and under the influence of other types of art and spiritual culture, which are the oral and poetic creativity of the people, written (handwritten and printed) literature, education, pedagogy, science and art, including theater, painting and music.

Creativity a. P. Gaidar for children

Gaidar (pseudonym; real name Golikov) Arkady Petrovich. Years of life: 9 (22). 1.1904, (Lgov, now the Kursk region,) - 10/26/1941.

All his life he remembered the number 302939. It was the number of his first rifle. He took it into his own hands as a schoolboy to defend the revolution.

Arkady Petrovich Golikov, whom we know as the writer Gaidar, was born in the city of Lgov, not far from Kursk. He had to hide his true age when he, tall beyond his years, volunteered for the Red Army. He fought on many fronts of the civil war, at the age of sixteen he already commanded a regiment. Only a severe wound forced him to leave the army. Commander Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze received a desperate letter from Gaidar with a request to leave him in the Red Army.

On the advice of Frunze, who guessed the talent of the future writer, Arkady Petrovich took up literary work. Soon he began to sign: Gaidar. This pseudonym is explained in different ways. One of the versions says that the Mongol cavalry once called a rider who rode a sentinel far ahead of the detachment. Gaidar said: “Let someday people think that there lived people who, out of cunning, were called children's writers. In fact, they were preparing a red-starred strong guard.

So Gaidar, with his books, helped to grow the brave and hard-working guard of young sons and daughters of our people. The children fell in love with Gaidar's books: "School", "Far Countries", "Military Secret", "The Fate of a Drummer", "Chuk and Gek", "Hot Stone". But the special love of all boys and girls was won by Gaidar's story "Timur and his team" and its main character - Timur.

Gaidar himself was the same as the heroes of his books - brave, honest, who knew no fear in battle. In the very first days of the Great Patriotic War, he went to the front as a special correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda. In the autumn of 1941, he was surrounded behind enemy lines and became a machine gunner in a partisan detachment. On October 26, Gaidar was on the lookout ahead of a small group of partisans. On their way, the Nazis set up an ambush. Gaidar was the first to see the fascist submachine gunners and managed to warn his comrades. But he himself died. Died a hero's death. He was buried in Kanev, where a monument to the writer was erected. Movies have been made based on Gaidar's main works. Gaidar's books have been translated in many countries of the world. The writer was awarded two orders and medals.

In 1965, Arkady Petrovich Gaidar was posthumously awarded an honorary military order - the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class.

Tale of A.P. Gaidar about Malchish-Kibalchish occupies a special place among Russian works. This work is directly related to the socio-historical theme, it tells about the high ideals of the revolution, the heroism of the young participants in the civil war, their friendship and fortitude. Moreover, this tale is written poetically, seriously and at the same time with a boyish vision of the events.

Working on this wonderful work requires a special approach, a special attitude, and not only because of the artistic originality, but also for another reason: by the time children begin to study it, it most often turns out to be familiar to them.

The children saw the cartoon, watched the dia- and film about Malchish-Kibalchish, they read this fairy tale to them at home. The students learn that Malchish is brave, brave, they feel sorry for him, because he is dying. A feeling of hostility causes them Plokhish and the servants of the bourgeoisie.

The children rejoice that the Red Army has defeated the "damned bourgeoisie".

Preparing for this work by A Gaidar, the teacher should try to present it to the students in such a way that they discover something new for themselves in it, perceive it as an exemplary work of art of the word, and the main character Malchish-Kibalchish as a typical image of a little hero, patriot, revolutionary.

At that time we crossed the river Gaichura. By itself, this river is not special, so-so, just two boats to part. And this river was famous because it flowed through the Makhnovist Republic, that is, believe me, wherever you go near it, either fires are burning, and under the fires there are boilers with all sorts of goose and pig meat, or some kind of ataman is sitting, or a person is simply hanging on an oak , and what kind of person, for what he was killed - for some kind of fault, whether just for someone else's intimidation - this is unknown.

Our detachment crossed this worthless river ford, that is, the water to someone to the navel, and as I always stood on the left flank of the forty-sixth incomplete, it almost rolled right down my throat.

I raised the rifle and bandolier above my head, I walk carefully, feeling the bottom with my foot. And the bottom of that Gaichura is filthy, slimy. My leg caught on some snag - as I thumped into the water, and with my head.

Serezha Chumakov said:

After all, if you ask like this: “What is the most important thing for you in battle, that is, how do you defeat the enemy and inflict damage on him?” - a person will think and answer: “With a rifle ... Well, or with a machine gun, a gun ... Generally, depending on the type of weapon.”

And I don't quite agree with that. Of course, no one takes away its qualities from a weapon, but still, every weapon is a dead thing. It itself has no effect, and all the main power in a person lies in how a person sets himself up and how much he can control himself.

And give another fool even a tank, he will throw the tank out of cowardice, and destroy the car, and he himself will disappear for no reason, although he could still fight back with anything.

I’m saying this to the fact that if, for example, you fought off your own, or shot cartridges, or even left without a rifle, this is not yet a reason for you to hang your head, lose heart and decide to surrender to the mercy of the enemy. Not! Look around, invent something, get out, just don't lose your head.

The Red Army soldier Vasily Kryukov had a wounded horse, and the White Cossacks overtook him. Of course, he could have shot himself, but he did not want to. He threw away his empty rifle, unfastened his saber, put the revolver in his bosom and, turning his weakened horse, rode towards the Cossacks.

The Cossacks were surprised at such a thing, because it was not the custom of that war for the Reds to throw their weapons to the ground ... Therefore, they did not hack Kryukov on the move, but surrounded and wanted to know what this man needed and what he hoped for. Kryukov took off his gray cap with a red star and said:

The other day I read in the newspaper a notice of the death of Yakov Bersenev. I had lost sight of him long ago, and looking through the newspaper I was surprised not so much by the fact that he had died, but by how else he could live up to now, having at least six wounds - broken ribs and lungs completely beaten off by rifle butts.

Now that he is dead, you can write the whole truth about the death of the 4th company. And not because I didn’t want to do it earlier because of fear or some other considerations, but only because I didn’t want to once again inflict useless pain on the main culprit of the defeat, but at the same time a good guy, who, among many others, severely paid for their self-will and indiscipline.

I was then thirty-two years old. Marusya is twenty-nine, and our daughter Svetlana is six and a half. Only at the end of the summer did I get a vacation, and for the last warm month we rented a dacha near Moscow.

Svetlana and I thought about fishing, swimming, picking mushrooms and nuts in the forest. And I had to immediately sweep the yard, fix the dilapidated fences, stretch the ropes, hammer in crutches and nails.

We got tired of all this very soon, and Marusya, one after another, kept coming up with new and new things for herself and for us.

Only on the third day in the evening, finally, everything was done. And just when the three of us were about to go for a walk, her friend, a polar pilot, came to Marusa.

They sat for a long time in the garden, under the cherry trees. And Svetlana and I went into the yard to the shed and, out of annoyance, began to make a wooden turntable.

There lived a lonely old man in the village. He was weak, wove baskets, hemmed felt boots, guarded the collective farm garden from the boys and thus earned his bread.

He came to the village a long time ago, from afar, but people immediately realized that this man had suffered a lot. He was lame, gray beyond his years. A crooked, ragged scar ran from his cheek through his lips. And so, even when he smiled, his face seemed sad and stern.

My mother studied and worked at a large new factory surrounded by dense forests.

In our yard, in the sixteenth apartment, there lived a girl, her name was Fenya.

Previously, her father was a stoker, but then right there in the courses at the factory, he learned and became a pilot.

One day, when Fenya was standing in the yard and looking up at the sky, an unfamiliar boy thief attacked her and snatched a candy out of her hands.

At that time, I was sitting on the roof of a woodshed and looking west, where beyond the Kalva River, as they say, on dry peat bogs, the forest that had flared up the day before yesterday was burning.

Either the sunlight was too bright, or the fire had already subsided, but I did not see the fire, but only a faint cloud of whitish smoke, the acrid smell of which reached our village and prevented people from sleeping tonight.

Our platoon occupied a small cemetery at the very edge of the village. The Petliurists were firmly seated at the edge of the opposite grove. Behind the stone wall of the lattice fence, we were little vulnerable to enemy machine guns. Until noon we exchanged fire rather hotly, but after lunch the shooting subsided.

Then Levka said:

Guys! Who is with me on melon for kavuns?

The commander cursed:

I'll give you such a melon that you won't recognize your own!

But Levka was cunning and self-willed.

“I,” he thinks, “only for ten minutes, and at the same time I’ll scout out why the Petliurists were silent, only if they are preparing something, and from there you can see it in the palm of your hand.”

In those distant, distant years, when the war had just died down throughout the country, there lived and was Malchish-Kibalchish.

At that time, the Red Army drove the white troops of the accursed bourgeois far away, and it became quiet in those wide fields, in green meadows where rye grew, where buckwheat bloomed, where among the dense gardens and cherry bushes stood the little house in which Malchish lived, nicknamed Kibalchish Yes, Malchish's father, and Malchish's older brother, but they didn't have a mother.

The father works - he mows hay. My brother works - he carries hay. Yes, and the Malchish himself either helps his father or his brother, or simply jumps and indulges with other boys.

The spy crossed the swamp, put on his Red Army uniform and went out onto the road.

The girl picked cornflowers in the rye. She came up and asked for a knife to trim the stems of the bouquet.

He gave her a knife, asked her what her name was, and, having heard that people on the Soviet side live happily, he began to laugh and sing cheerful songs.

The stories of Arkady Gaidar are a real treasure for the children of all Russia. The reason for such popularity is simple - the main characters in his works are ordinary courtyard children. It is they who do good deeds, help people, perform feats. Therefore, for Soviet children, such heroes as Timur and his team, Chuk and Gek, as well as Malchish-Kibalchish were the main role models! The main qualities possessed by the protagonists of Gaidar's stories were devotion, honesty and courage. And the antagonists, as usual, only did what they betrayed and played dirty tricks.

The reality that surrounded them was hard and harsh: the October Revolution and the civil war forced the parents of the heroes to go to war, and as a result, the children who quickly realized the fullness of responsibility remained in charge of the head of the family. They took on their not at all childish problems and yet successfully defeated the bad guys and their leaders, took patronage over the weak and helped to improve their homeland. And even now, when a child begins to read Gaidar's stories, the brightest feelings wake up in his soul.