“I have written twelve books, and no one pays any attention to them. But as soon as I once wrote jokingly "Crocodile", I became a famous writer" (Korney Chukovsky). Chukovsky's first children's fairy tale celebrates its anniversary. We learn the story of the appearance of the Crocodile in children's literature with Natalia Letnikova.

Birth of a crocodile

Vladimir Suteev. Illustration for Korney Chukovsky's fairy tale "Crocodile" ("Old, old fairy tale")

Vladimir Suteev. Illustration for Korney Chukovsky's fairy tale "Crocodile" ("Old, old fairy tale")

A poetic tale about a reptile is inspired by the sound of wheels. Chukovsky's little son, Kolya, fell ill. It was in Helsinki. And as Korney Ivanovich himself recalled, on the way home, on the train, it was necessary to distract the child from the whims and pain. “So I chattered like a shaman…” And so the famous lines were born: “Once upon a time there was a Crocodile. He walked the streets... And the publicist, literary critic, translator, journalist also became "grandfather Korney." The author of children's bestsellers from the life of the animal world - although he himself did not assume that these lines would be related to art.

Having recovered, the boy asked the story to be repeated. And Maxim Gorky ordered a fairy tale for the Yolka almanac - in the spirit of The Humpbacked Horse. Here Chukovsky remembered the Crocodile. The illustrations were made by Re-Mi, aka Nikolai Remizov. The artist introduced the image of the author into history, thanks to which the guys knew “grandfather Korney” by sight. While the collection was being prepared for publication, the tale had already been printed by the magazine "For Children".

Initially, Crocodile spoke German, but censorship changed the language to Turkish. A story called "Vanya and the Crocodile" was published in a children's supplement to the Niva magazine. It was published in large circulation in 1919 - as "The Adventure of Crocodile Krokodilovich". The book was distributed almost free of charge. “An old, old fairy tale” was called a children's poem during the next reprint after the 20s, when Petrograd during the First World War was left in the past - along with pre-revolutionary policemen and policemen.

"My crocodilias"

Vladimir Vinokur. Illustration for Korney Chukovsky's fairy tale "Telephone"

Vladimir Suteev. Illustration for Korney Chukovsky's fairy tale "Moydodyr"

Yuri Vasnetsov. Illustration for Korney Chukovsky's fairy tale "The Stolen Sun"

"My crocodiliads" - Chukovsky called his large set of children's fairy tale poems. The crocodile runs like a red thread through the children's work of the writer: he walks in "Moydodyr" along the alley - already in the story told for Murochka's daughter; in "Telephone" he asks the author for galoshes; nobly helps Aibolit in the fairy tale "Barmaley"; swallows the luminary in The Stolen Sun.

These fairy tales became so popular with children that they were overgrown with stories. Allegedly, at Chukovsky's birthday, Nikita Khrushchev approached the hero of the day with the words: "That's who I hate! You come home from work tired, and your grandchildren with your books: “Grandfather, read!” And so read - the whole country.

“Secretly jealous of my adult books for children. I am sure that my book about Gorky is better than "Moidodyr" and the book about Nekrasov is better than "Crocodile". But no one believes it.", - the writer lamented. "Crocodile" after the publication was bought by the parents of 250 thousand boys and girls, and "Nekrasov" - barely sold out two thousand books.

Bonfires "Grandfather Korney"

Chukovsky Children's Literature Festival

Chukovsky Children's Literature Festival

Having found himself with the honorary status of "grandfather Korney", Chukovsky started a tradition in Peredelkino - he organized holidays for local children and summer residents. Bonfire "Hello, summer!" and "Goodbye summer!". They gather on them at the Peredelkino dacha-museum to this day. Eduard Uspensky, Yuri Entin, Andrey Usachev come to throw logs on the literary fire ... The Chukovsky Festival of Children's Literature is held by successors and colleagues, continuers of the glorious work of "grandfather Korney".

“We are trying to preserve the traditions of Chukovsky, but they rather say that this is cheerful poetry - this is a game of words, a game of letters, a game of poetry, that is, this is play poetry, where equilibrium is important, where laughter is important, where some those eccentric circumstances that are available to almost everyone who participates in our festival ", - says Sergey Belorusets, chairman of the organizing committee of the Festival of Children's Literature named after Korney Chukovsky.

The Chukovsky Poetry Festival has been held for ten years now. In fact, this is a big game for those who are "two to five" and those who look at the world through childish eyes from time to time. As noted in the Writers' Union, literature for children has been growing in recent years with female authors. Mothers are included in life according to children's rules - dances, songs, and sometimes poetry.

“Children see everything in bright colors, and I want to support and not disappoint the child, who should understand everything in the poem, interesting, exciting and not boring - this is the main thing!”- the poetess Galina Balebanova is sure.

In general, everything is like in a childish life, about which Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky wrote, where the washbasin is the “commander’s washcloths”, the sea can blaze from a chanterelle match and the “miracle tree” will grow at any suitable moment.

“A quick verse, a change of meters, a defiant song, a chorus - these were the new sounds. It was Korney Chukovsky's "Crocodile" that aroused noise, interest, surprise, as happens with a new phenomenon in literature ... Chukovsky's fairy tale completely canceled the previous weak and motionless fairy tale of candy-icicles, cotton-wool snow, flowers on weak legs.

lived and was

Crocodile.

He walked the streets

Smoking cigarettes,

spoke Turkish,

Crocodile, Crocodile Crocodile!

And behind him the people

And sings and yells:

"Here, freak, so freak!

What a nose, what a mouth!

And where does such a monster come from?

High school students behind him

Chimney sweeps behind him

And push him

offend him;

And some kid

Showed him shish

And some barbos

Bite him on the nose,

Bad watchdog, ill-mannered.

Looked Crocodile

And swallowed the watchdog,

I swallowed it along with the collar.

The people got angry

And calls and yells:

"Hey, hold it

Yes, knit it

Get to the police as soon as possible!"

He runs into the tram

Everyone shouts: "Ai-yay-yay!"

somersault,

Home,

At the corners:

"Help! Save! Have mercy!"

The policeman ran up:

"What's the noise? What's the howl?

How dare you walk around here

speak Turkish?

Crocodiles are not allowed to walk here.

Crocodile chuckled

And swallowed the poor man

I swallowed it with boots and a saber.

Everyone is trembling with fear

Everyone screams in fear.

Only one

Citizen

Didn't scream

Didn't tremble

He walks the streets without a nanny.

He said, "You're a villain

You eat people

So for this my sword -

Your head off your shoulders!" -

And waved his toy saber.

And the Crocodile said:

"You defeated me!

Do not ruin me, Vanya Vasilchikov!

Have pity on my crocodiles!

Crocodiles splash in the Nile

Waiting for me with tears

Let me go to the kids, Vanechka,

I'll give you a gingerbread for that."

Vanya Vasilchikov answered him:

"Though I feel sorry for your crocodiles,

But you, bloodthirsty bastard,

I'm going to cut it like beef.

I, glutton, have nothing to pity you:

You ate a lot of human meat."

And the Crocodile said:

"Everything I swallowed

I'll gladly give it back to you!"

And here is a live Policeman

Appeared instantly in front of the crowd:

Womb of the Crocodile

Didn't hurt him.

In one jump

From the mouth of a crocodile

Well, dance with joy,

Lick Vanya's cheeks.

Trumpets blew!

The guns fired!

Very happy Petrograd -

Everyone is cheering and dancing

Vanya dear kiss,

And from every yard

A loud "hooray" is heard.

The whole capital was decorated with flags.

Savior of Petrograd

From a furious bastard

Long live Vanya Vasilchikov!

And give him a reward

One hundred pounds of grapes

One hundred pounds of marmalade

One hundred pounds of chocolate

And a thousand servings of ice cream!

And a furious bastard

Down with Petrograd!

Let him go to his crocodiles!

He jumped into the airplane

Flew like a hurricane

And never looked back

And rushed with an arrow

To the native side,

On which is written: "Africa".

Jumped into the Nile

Crocodile,

Straight into the silt

Where did his wife the Crocodile live,

His children are a wet nurse.

Part two

The sad wife says to him:

"I suffered alone with the kids:

That Kokoshenka Leloshenka smits,

That Lelyoshenka knocks Kokoshenka.

And Totoshenka played a trick today:

I drank a whole bottle of ink.

I brought him to his knees

And left him without sweets.

Kokoshenka had a strong fever all night:

He swallowed the samovar by mistake, -

Yes, thank you, our pharmacist Behemoth

I put a frog on his stomach."

The unfortunate Crocodile was saddened

And shed a tear on her belly:

"How are we going to live without a samovar?

How can we drink tea without a samovar?

But then the doors opened

Animals appeared at the door:

Hyenas, boas, elephants,

And ostriches, and wild boars,

And the Elephant

dandy,

Stopudovaya merchant's wife,

And Giraffe is an important count,

As tall as a telegraph, -

All friends are friends

All relatives and godfathers.

Well, hug a neighbor,

Well, kiss the neighbor:

"Give us overseas gifts,

Treat us with unprecedented gifts!

Crocodile answers:

"I haven't forgotten anyone.

And for each of you

I've got gifts!

Monkey -

gingerbread,

Hippo -

Buffalo - a fishing rod,

Ostrich - a pipe,

Elephant - candy,

And the Elephant - a gun ... "

Only Totoshenko,

Only Kokoshenka

Didn't give

Crocodile

Nothing.

Totosha and Kokosha are crying:

"Daddy, you're not good!

Even for a stupid Sheep

Do you have candies.

We are not strangers to you

We are your children,

So why, why

Did you bring us anything?"

Smiled, laughed Crocodile:

"No, cubs, I have not forgotten you:

Here is a fragrant, green Christmas tree,

Brought from far from Russia,

All wonderfully hung with toys,

Gilded nuts, crackers.

We'll light the candles on the Christmas tree,

We'll sing some songs to the Christmas tree:

"You served human babies,

Serve us now, and us, and us!"

As the elephants heard about the Christmas tree,

Jaguars, baboons, wild boars,

Immediately by the hand

With joy they took

And around the Christmas trees

We squatted down.

It doesn't matter that, having danced, Behemoth

He threw a chest of drawers on the Crocodile,

And with a run, the steep-horned Rhinoceros

Horn, horn caught on the threshold.

Oh, how fun, how fun Jackal

Played the dance guitar!

Even the butterflies rested on their sides,

Trepaka danced with mosquitoes.

Dancing siskins and bunnies in the forests,

Crayfish are dancing, perches are dancing in the seas,

Worms and spiders are dancing in the field,

Ladybugs and bugs are dancing.

Part three

Dear Lyalechka girl!

She walked with the doll

And on Tavricheskaya street

Suddenly I saw an elephant.

God, what a monster!

Lyalya runs and screams.

Look, in front of her from under the bridge

Keith stuck his head out.

Lyalechka cries and backs away,

Lyalechka calls her mother ...

And in the gateway on the bench

A scary hippopotamus sits.

Snakes, jackals and buffaloes

Everywhere hiss and growl.

Poor, poor Lyalechka!

Run without looking back!

Lyalechka climbs a tree,

She pressed the doll to her chest.

Poor, poor Lyalechka!

What is it ahead?

Ugly scarecrow monster

Bares fanged mouth,

Stretches, reaches for Lyalechka,

Lyalechka wants to steal.

Lyalechka jumped from a tree,

The monster jumped towards her,

Grabbed poor Lyalechka

And quickly ran away.

And on Tavricheskaya street

Mommy Lyalechka is waiting for:

"Where is my dear Lyalechka?

Why isn't she coming?"

Gorilla Ugly

Lyalya dragged away

And down the sidewalk

She ran up.

Higher, higher, higher

Here she is on the roof

On the seventh floor

Jumps like a ball.

Fluttered up the pipe

Soot scooped up

I smeared Lyalya,

Sat on the ledge.

Sat down, trembled

Lyalya shook

And with a terrible cry

Rushed down.

Where can one find such

The bogatyr is removed,

What will beat the crocodile horde?

Who from the fierce claws

Angry Beasts

Will he rescue our poor Lyalechka?

Everyone sits and is silent,

And, like hares, they tremble,

And they won't stick their nose out into the street!

Only one citizen

Does not run, does not tremble -

This is the valiant Vanya Vasilchikov.

He is neither lions nor elephants,

No dashing boars

Not afraid, of course, not a bit!

They growl, they scream

They want to eat him

But Vanya boldly goes to them

And he gets a pistol.

Bang Bang! - and a furious Jackal

Faster than the deer galloped off.

Bang-bang - and the Buffalo ran away,

Behind him is a frightened Rhinoceros.

Bang Bang! - and the hippo

Runs after them.

And soon the wild horde

Disappeared without a trace.

And Vanya is happy, what is in front of him

The enemies dissipated like smoke.

He is a winner! He is a hero!

He again saved his native land.

And again from every yard

"Hurrah" comes to him.

And again cheerful Petrograd

He brings chocolate.

But where is Lala? Lyali no!

The girl was gone!

What if the greedy Crocodile

Was she grabbed and swallowed?

Vanya rushed after the evil beasts:

"Beasts, give me Lyalya back!"

Furiously animals sparkle with their eyes,

They don't want to give up Lyalya.

"How dare you," cried the Tigress,

Come to us for your sister,

If my dear sister

It languishes in a cage with you, with people!

No, you break these nasty cells

Where for the amusement of two-legged guys

Our native furry children,

Like in a prison, they are sitting behind bars!

Iron doors in every menagerie

You open for the captive animals,

So that unfortunate animals from there

We could get out soon!

If our beloved guys

They will return to our family,

If tiger cubs return from captivity,

Lion cubs with cubs and cubs -

We will give you your Lyalya."

And Vanyusha exclaimed:

"Rejoice, beasts!

to your people

I give freedom

I give you freedom!

I will break the cells

I will scatter the chains

iron bars

I'll break it forever!

Live in Petrograd

In comfort and coolness

But only, for God's sake,

Don't eat anyone

No bird, no kitten

Not a small child

Not Lyalechka's mother,

Not my dad!

"Walk along the boulevards,

Through shops and bazaars,

Walk where you want

Nobody bother you!

Live with us

And be friends

Pretty we fought

And shed blood!

We will break the guns

We'll bury the bullets

And you cut yourself

Hooves and horns!

bulls and rhinos,

Elephants and octopuses

Hug each other

Let's go dancing!"

And then grace came:

Someone else to kick and butt.

Feel free to meet the Rhino -

He will give way to the insect.

Polite and meek now Rhino:

Where is his old frightening horn!

There is a tigress walking along the boulevard -

Lyalya is not a bit afraid of her:

What is there to be afraid of when the animals

Now there are no horns or claws!

Vanya sits on a Panther

And, triumphant, it rushes along the street.

Or take, saddle Eagle

And it flies in the sky like an arrow.

The animals love Vanyusha so tenderly,

Animals pamper him and doves.

Vanyusha's wolves bake pies,

The rabbits clean his boots.

In the evenings quick-eyed Chamois

Vanya and Lyalya are read by Jules Verne.

And at night the young Behemoth

She sings lullabies to them.

Children crowded around the Bear

Mishka gives each candy.

Look, along the Neva along the river,

A wolf and a lamb are sailing in a canoe.

Happy people, and animals, and reptiles,

Camels are happy, and buffaloes are happy.

Today he came to visit me -

Who would you think? - Crocodile himself.

I sat the old man on the couch

I gave him a glass of sweet tea.

Suddenly Vanya ran in

And, like a native, he kissed him.

Here come the holidays! glorious tree

Will be today at the gray wolf.

There will be many happy guests there.

Let's go, children, there quickly!

Publications in the Literature section

Literary relatives of "Crocodile" by Korney Chukovsky

In the fairy-tale world of Korney Chukovsky, the crocodile is everywhere - both in Africa and in Petrograd. Why this image is so often found in the work of Chukovsky and what kind of "crocodile-containing" works inspired the poet - Kultura.RF understands.

Vladimir Suteev. Illustration for Korney Chukovsky's fairy tale "Crocodile" ("Old, old fairy tale")

Vladimir Suteev. Illustration for Korney Chukovsky's fairy tale "Crocodile" ("Old, old fairy tale")

He walked the streets, spoke Turkish

The first Crocodile brought Chukovsky all-Union fame. The poem for children "Crocodile", which was later published with the subtitle "An old, old fairy tale", was written in 1915 and, according to contemporaries, turned the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bchildren's poetry upside down. “Chukovsky's fairy tale completely canceled the previous weak and motionless fairy tale of icicles, cotton-wool snow, flowers on weak legs. Children's poetry opened. A path was found for further development”, - wrote literary critic Yuri Tynyanov.

“I wrote twelve books and no one paid any attention to them. But once I wrote jokingly "Crocodile", and I became a famous writer. I'm afraid that "Crocodile" knows by heart the whole of Russia. I'm afraid that on my monument, when I die, "Author of Crocodile" will be inscribed.

Korney Chukovsky

Chukovsky said that he composed the fairy tale almost by accident. The writer was traveling on a train with his 11-year-old son Nikolai, who suddenly developed a fever. Trying to entertain a sick child, Chukovsky began to recite at random, in a shamanic way:

Once upon a time there was a crocodile...
He walked along the Nevsky...

This is how the first part of the story came about. “My only concern was to divert the attention of the child from the attacks of the disease that tormented him. Therefore, I was in a terrible hurry: there was no time to think, pick up epithets, look for rhymes, it was impossible to stop even for a moment. The whole bet was on speed, on the fastest alternation of events and images, so that the sick little boy did not have time to moan or cry. So I chattered like a shaman", the author recalled.

Korney Chukovsky. Photo: kartinkinaden.ru

Korney Chukovsky. Photo: ergojournal.ru

Korney Chukovsky. Photo: optim-z.ru

The first edition of Crocodile was different from the one we know today. In it, the Crocodile walked along Nevsky Prospekt (now - along the streets) and spoke German, not Turkish. The German language during the First World War was practically officially banned for use in Russia. Chukovsky's contemporaries recalled that in Petrograd one could see posters with the text: "It's forbidden to speak German". Therefore, later the writer replaced German with a politically neutral, but betraying the exotic foreignness of the Crocodile to the city, the Turkish language.

A big crocodile walked the streets

While the children enthusiastically listened to the entertaining tale, literary critics, critics and even politicians were looking for hidden meanings in it. And they found - a lot of allusions, roll calls and inappropriate parodies.

The predecessors of Chukovsky's "Crocodile" are considered to be the Crocodile from a popular street song, as well as the character of Nikolai Agnivtsev's poem "The Crocodile and the Negress":

Folk city song

“A big crocodile walked the streets
She, she was green.

Nikolai Agnivtsev, "Crocodile and the Negress"

amazingly cute
Once upon a time there was a crocodile -
So four yards, no more! ..
And yes she lived
Also very cute
A black woman named Molly.

Crocodile and Dostoevsky

Chukovsky's children's fairy tale also had older predecessors. Fyodor Dostoevsky dedicated the satirical tale “Crocodile. An Extraordinary Event, or a Passage within a Passage. In this work, the official, who was in the stomach of a crocodile, deduced a whole theory that crocodiles were created to swallow people: “For, suppose, for example, you are given the opportunity to arrange a new crocodile - naturally, the question arises to you: what is the main property of a crocodile? The answer is clear: swallow people. How to achieve a crocodile with a device so that it swallows people? The answer is even clearer: by making it empty.”. What then remained for Chukovsky's Crocodile? Not only in the "Old, Old Tale", but also in other works, he effectively swallowed watchdog, policeman, washcloth, Barmaley and even the Sun.

Korney Chukovsky, "Crocodile"

Crocodile chuckled
And swallowed the poor man
I swallowed it with boots and a saber.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crocodile. An Extraordinary Event, or a Passage within a Passage"

“... Since I am dressed in cloth, and I have boots on my feet, the crocodile, obviously, cannot digest me”

It is known for certain that Chukovsky was familiar with the work of Dostoevsky. The writer himself recalled that he once annoyed Ilya Repin to the extreme by reading this tale. Dostoevsky's "Crocodile" was very disliked by the progressive public, because they saw in it an evil satire on Nikolai Chernyshevsky, the "martyr of the regime" exiled to Siberia.

Crocodile and "Mtsyri"

Fedor Konstantinov. Mtsyra's head. Illustration for the poem "Mtsyri". 1956

Pyotr Konchalovsky. Storm. Illustration for the poem "Mtsyri". 1920s

Mikhail Vrubel. Daemon. Illustration for the poem "Mtsyri". 1890

Chukovsky himself pointed out that Lermontov's poem "Mtsyri" was parodied in "Crocodile". The rhythms and motives of "Mtsyri" are recognized when the Crocodile tells his relatives about the sad fate of animals in city zoos. There are many similar passages in the poems.

Korney Chukovsky, "Crocodile"

Oh, this garden, terrible garden!
I would be glad to forget him.
There, under the whips of the watchmen
Many animals suffer...

Find out dear friends
My soul is shaken
I saw so much grief there
That even you, Hippo,
And then he would howl like a puppy,

We are every day and every hour
From our prisons they called you
And they waited, believed that here
Liberation will come.

Mikhail Lermontov, Mtsyri

And at the hour of the night, a terrible hour,
When the storm scared you
When, crowding at the altar,
You lay prostrate on the ground
I ran.

You listen to my confession
Came here, thank you.
Everything is better in front of someone
Lighten my chest with words;

Long time ago I thought
Look at the distant fields
Find out if the earth is beautiful
Find out for freedom or prison
We will be born into this world.

However, later Chukovsky noticed that this "Lermontov" monologue of the Crocodile is completely devoid of dynamics, eventfulness, and therefore children listen to him with the least interest.

"Poor Lyalechka" and Nekrasov

Nikolai Nekrasov was one of Chukovsky's favorite poets and the subject of his literary studies. It is not surprising that the epic style of Nekrasov was reflected in the poems of Chukovsky himself. In particular, contemporaries rightly compared Lyalechka's dangerous adventure from Crocodile with Nekrasov's Ballad of Two Great Sinners.

Korney Chukovsky, "Crocodile"

Snakes, jackals and buffaloes
Everywhere hiss and growl.
Poor, poor Lyalechka!
Run without looking back!

Lyalechka climbs a tree,
She pressed the doll to her chest.
Poor, poor Lyalechka!
What is it ahead?

Lyalechka jumped from a tree,
The monster jumped towards her.
Grabbed poor Lyalechka
And quickly ran away.

Nikolai Nekrasov, “Who is living well in Rus'”

There were twelve robbers
There was Kudeyar - ataman,
Many robbers shed
The blood of honest Christians,

The hermit measured the monster:
Oak - three girths around!
I went to work with a prayer
Cuts with a damask knife

Just pan bloody
Fell head on the saddle
A huge tree collapsed
The echo shook the whole forest.

The continuity was so bright that even Nadezhda Krupskaya noticed it. This comparison proved fatal for Krokodil: the authorities considered it inappropriate to parody the revolutionary poet, and the tale was not published for a long time.

A furious reptile - down with Petrograd

Vladimir Kanivets. Illustration for the fairy tale "Cockroach".

Vladimir Suteev. Illustration for the fairy tale "Moidodyr".

Frame from the filmstrip "Fly-Tsokotuha". 1963

As the Crocodile is subjected to persecution and insults in Petrograd, so the poem about him turned out to be objectionable in the Soviet Union. At first, Krupskaya branded Krokodil "bourgeois nonsense". Chukovsky was charged with a number of fantastic accusations: the Crocodile turned out to be a bourgeois and a monarchist, and the poem itself was a parody of Nekrasov. Later, the tradition of looking for malicious intentions in children's fairy tales was picked up by other "guardians of the pedagogical order." "Crocodile" and "Cockroach", according to critics, disorientated children because they gave incorrect information about the life of animals; "Moidodyr" allegedly developed superstitions and fears; and "Fly-sokotukha" was declared a petty-bourgeois fairy tale.

“With the“ Crocodile ”it was even easier: they announced publicly (in newspapers and at crowded meetings) that I depicted in this fairy tale - what would you think? - The rebellion of General Kornilov. The fact that "Crocodile" was written a year before the rebellion was raised did not cancel this implausible legend "- recalled Korney Ivanovich in the book "From two to five." He also said that well-known writers and scientists stood up for "Crocodile": a letter about the "rehabilitation" of the poem to the State Academic Council was signed by Alexei Tolstoy, Konstantin Fedin, Yuri Tynyanov, Samuil Marshak, Mikhail Zoshchenko and others. Unfortunately, the protest did not affect the fate of the tale: "Crocodile" was not published from the late 1920s until the mid-1950s. The defenders of the fairy tale were called the "Chukovsky group", that is, they were included in the lists of unreliable people.

Suddenly meet my good, my beloved crocodile

The crocodile became a cross-cutting character in Chukovsky's work, the poet even called his fairy tales "My crocodiliads." The crocodile appeared in his other poems no less than four more times, and his appearance was always effective and dramatic. Most often, the Crocodile was the main antagonist ("The Stolen Sun", "Crocodile"), but in an "episodic" role he could also become the hero's savior (Moydodyr, Barmaley).

In Barmaley, Crocodile turns out to be the savior of children:

Happy, happy, happy, happy kids
She danced, played around the fire:
"You us
You are us
Saved from death
You freed us.
you are good time
saw us
oh kind
Crocodile!"

In Moydodyr, the Crocodile is more respectable than ever - and again swallows something:

Suddenly towards my good,
My favorite crocodile.
He is with Totosha and Kokosha
Walked along the alley
And a washcloth, like a jackdaw,
Like a jackdaw, swallowed.

His appearance becomes a turning point in the tale: after meeting with him, the dirty girl is immediately re-educated. The motive of re-education" is generally characteristic of Chukovsky's "crocodile" tales.

Only once the Crocodile appears in the fairy tales of Chukovsky as a chthonic mythological monster, equally far from the city streets and from the human image - in the fairy tale "The Stolen Sun":

And in the Big River
Crocodile
lies,
And in his teeth
Not a fire burns -
The sun is red
Sun stolen.

The history of the creation of famous children's fairy tales

The first children's book by Korney Chukovsky "Crocodile" was published in 1916. She immediately fell in love with little readers. Following the "Crocodile" appeared "Moidodyr", "Cockroach", "Fly-Tsokotuha" and other tales. About how these tales were created, Korney Ivanovich wrote in the article “Confessions of an old storyteller”: “Fairy tales and songs with a sad ending are disgusting for a child. Living in the illusion of an eternal holiday, children stubbornly replace the sad endings of our fairy tales and songs with prosperous, joyful ones. ... For small children do not tolerate that in the information about life that literature, theater, painting give them, there is at least a hint of the final victory of misfortune and evil ... After all, happiness for children is the norm of life, the natural state of the soul ... "

“For a long time it never occurred to me that I would become a poet for children…” wrote Chukovsky. But there are twists and turns in life.

Chukovsky's real name is Nikolai Vasilyevich Korneichukov.

He was born into a poor family - his mother was a peasant woman, and his father, a St. Petersburg student, left the family when Kolya was about three years old. Nikolai tried many professions to help his family: he helped fishermen fix nets, glued posters, helped painters paint roofs. And every free minute he ran to the library and read "drunkenly and without any order ..." He passed the exams for the gymnasium course as an external student. With the help of a disheveled book "English Language Tutorial", bought at a flea market, he independently learned English. Since 1901, he has been published in the Odessa News newspaper, where he writes about paintings, books, and makes translations from English. From his long surname, he came up with the literary pseudonym "Korney Chukovsky", which he later made his own name and passed this name on to his children.

Chukovsky married early. The eldest son Kolya fell ill, and it was necessary to take him to Petrograd. The boy was capricious, and his father began to tell him a fairy tale about crocodile :

Once upon a time there was a Crocodile

He walked the streets

Smoking cigarettes,

spoke Turkish,

Crocodile, Crocodile, Crocodile!

This happened more than once in literature for children: a fairy tale, invented for your child, then became a literary work. The boy calmed down, but then asked to tell this story again. When Gorky ordered Chukovsky a fairy tale in the spirit of The Little Humpbacked Horse for the future almanac "Yolka", it turned out that Chukovsky had a similar fairy tale. This is how the first children's fairy tale by K.I. Chukovsky "Crocodile". The illustrations for it were made by the artist Re-Mi (N. Remizov)

With the second story "Moydodyr" history almost repeated itself. In 1920, a daughter, Murochka (Maria), was born in the Chukovsky family. Being small, she did not want to wash herself. And dad had the lines:

Gotta, gotta wash

Mornings and evenings

And unclean chimney sweeps

Shame and shame, shame and shame.

The story was written in 1922.

"Fly-sokotuhu" he composed for his granddaughter Marina. As the author himself recalled, it was the only fairy tale that he wrote in one day, in a rush. “I really like to remember how this thing was written,” Chukovsky said in the article “How I Was a Writer.” “I had such sudden surges of happiness, completely based on nothing ... I had such a mood on August 29, 1923, when I ... suddenly felt that inspiration had flooded over me, as they say:

Fly, Fly-Tsokotuha,

Gilded belly!

The fly went across the field,

The fly found the money.

I barely had time to write on scraps of paper, with some kind of pencil stub. And then, to my shame, I must say that when it came to dancing in the fairy tale, then I, a 42-year-old, already graying man, began to dance myself ... "

And the story with Aibolit is not so simple at all. Korney Ivanovich had long dreamed of writing a fairy tale about the healer of animals, but her lines were given with difficulty. Once in the Caucasus, he swam far from the shore. Suddenly there are lines:

Oh if I drown

If I go down...

But the story had no beginning and no end. Then came the options:

And a goat came to Aibolit:

My eyes hurt!

An owl flew to him:

Oh, my head hurts!

And only a few days later the lines appeared:

And the fox came to Aibolit:

Oops, I got bitten by a wasp!

And the watchdog came to Aibolit:

A chicken pecked me in the nose.