Little-known poets and writers of the Smolensk region. Smolensk branch of the SRP

Smolensk branch of the SRP

Smolensk branch of the Union Russian writers formed in 1992. At the origins of the organization was the famous Smolensk poet Leonid Ivanovich Kozyr, who died untimely. Following L.I. The trump card of the organization was headed in 1995 by Vera Anatolyevna Ivanova. She got a lot of trouble. She managed not only to strengthen the organization new forces, to rent premises from the city, but also to steadfastly maintain “their” special position in front of the authorities and society. About our organization, registered at the legal address: Smolensk, st. Tvardovsky, 5/11, she spoke well in her article “Tvardovsky Street”, published in the 8th issue of the Znamya magazine in 1998.

Over the 14 years of its existence, the organization has experienced many joys and, unfortunately, many sorrows.

The release of new books by Vadim Baevsky, the oldest writer of the Smolensk region Vera Zvezdaeva, Oleg Ermakov, Ivan Tvardovsky, Raisa Ipatova, Vilen Salkovsky, Viktor Kudryavtsev, Vladimir Lavrov, Elena Orlova, Alexander Makrenkov and our other great writers and poets.

Doctor of Philology, Professor, Honored Scientist of Russia Vadim Solomonovich Baevsky, who is well-known not only in Russia, but throughout the world, enjoys special authority in the organization. His books, and more than twenty of them have been written, are about the history and theory of Russian literature, Russian poetry, and the work of outstanding Russian poets. Alexandra Pushkin, Boris Pasternak, David Samoilov, "Smolensk School of Poetry", memoirs, prose and essays, as well as a vivid life example of selfless service to literature set the highest creative standard for our organization and spiritual landmark. Vadim Solomonovich is the oldest author of the Znamya magazine.

With great interest, the Smolensk people have always met in the regional television programs a program about Smolensk writers by the poet, editor-in-chief of the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company "Smolensk" Raisa Ipatova "On a warm stump." In addition to her life in Russian literature, working on Smolensk television from its inception, Raisa Ipatova managed to do a lot to popularize the work of Smolensk writers, artists, musicians, creative intelligentsia and cultural workers.

Baevsky and Ipatova are members of the editorial and publishing committee of the Administration of the Smolensk region, actively contribute to the publication of fiction, local history and scientific literature of high standard in the Smolensk region.

Readers of modern Russian fiction are well aware of the Smolensk prose writer Oleg Ermakov, author of the magazines Oktyabr, Znamya and New world”, He wrote five books, including “The Mark of the Beast” and “Return to Kandahar”. Oleg Ermakov is a laureate of the Znamya magazine award.

In the circle of researchers of the creativity of the largest Russian poet of the 20th century A.T. Tvardovsky, the name of his biographer Vasily Savchenkov, a member of our organization who lives in Pochinka, enjoys great prestige.

Viktor Kudryavtsev, a poet and journalist from Rudnya, heads the oldest literary association in the Smolensk region, Sovremennik. In addition, Kudryavtsev is the compiler of unique anthologies: "Nevod" (Russian poetic miniature in 2 volumes), "Circular Bowl" (Silver Age poetry in 2 and 5 volumes), Cypress Casket (Silver Age poetry), "White lyre" (poetry of the White movement) and "Far Shores" (poetry of the Russian diaspora).

In the Smolensk region there is only one comedian writer, a member of our organization Sergey Zhbankov. In recent years, he has developed a close creative relationship with the famous film magazine "Wick".

Our writers are members of commissions for the award of the All-Russian literary prize named after A.T. Tvardovsky and the regional literary prize named after M.V. Isakovsky.

Laureate of the A.T. Tvardovsky is Vera Zvezdaeva.

Laureates of the Regional Literary Prize named after M. V. Isakovsky: Vadim Baevsky, Vera Zvezdaeva, Raisa Ipatova, Ivan Tvardovsky, Viktor Kudryavtsev, poets Pyotr Melnikov and Sergey Mashkov who have already passed away.

Sad for us were the deaths of our "old-timers", the poets of the "old school" Leonid Kozyr, Pyotr Melnikov and Sergei Mashkov, the still young poetess Elina Udaltsova.

The organization suffered the hardest loss, having lost its brother A.T. Tvardovsky, writer-memoirist, founder of the museum-farm "Zagorie" Ivan Trifonovich Tvardovsky.

There were other losses, so to speak, the loss of the living. Unfortunately, Nikolai Ilkevich, a well-known researcher of the KGB archives in the Smolensk region, and the poet Nikolai Sukharev, left the organization.

Since 2001, the organization has been publishing the annual literary and artistic almanac "Under the Clock", which was the reincarnation of the previously published magazine "Years". Not only Smolensk writers take part in the almanac. Such famous Russian poets as Bakhyt Kenzhiev, Vladimir Korobov, Lyudmila Abaeva and Anatoly Kobenkov were published on its pages. Since 2007, a library has been published at the almanac, four books of poems have been published during the year: Ivanova, Kapitanov, A. Makarenkov and Khatilin.

Today there are 25 people in our organization. Let's list everyone by name, without fear of repeating names in such a small amount of text. Vadim Baevsky, Oleg Ermakov, Vera Zvezdaeva, Raisa Ipatova, Vilen Salkovsky, Leonid Kuzmin, Vera Ivanova, Iosif Khatilin, Zean Kagan, Vladimir Lavrov, Elena Orlova, Vasily Savchenkov, Sergey Zhbankov, Alexander Makarenkov, Viktor Bobkov-Tesnovsky, Gennady Pastukhov, Sergey Zharkov, Evgeny Bogdanov, Sergey Kapitanov, Alexander Luchin, Alexander Borokhov, Andrey Panisyak. There are many good things to say about each of them and their work. And the best thing, of course, is to read our books.

Posted on the website of the Central universal library them. A.T. Tvardovsky information about Smolensk writers and their works is not final, because for technical reasons the organization has not yet been able to "translate" into electronic format a large number of books by our writers, at least in the necessary and equivalent volume for all.

As far as possible, we will replenish the site with new information and materials.

1st Secretary of the Smolensk Regional Branch

Union of Russian Writers

Vladimir Makarenkov

NIKOLAY SUKHAREV

Nikolai Vladimirovich Sukharev was born in 1954 in the Altai Territory. He served in the army in Smolensk. Graduated from the philological faculty of the Smolensk Pedagogical Institute. He worked as a journalist for large-circulation newspapers in Smolensk and the region. Now he specializes in laying stoves and fireplaces. Author of eight collections of poetry. Lives in Smolensk.

..................

Gagarin's dugout

Our speeches are eloquent -

It cannot be otherwise.

A dugout to perpetuate

He must accomplish the feat!

Not our planes, tanks...

If I had known, the fascist would have killed him,

But if there was no dugout -

The universe would not have conquered.

In the tightest capsule descended

To the Earth, having intermarried with her,

Becoming an idol of the whole planet ...

No, he was not shy about tightness -

It was more crowded in the dugout!

Page 121-132

Viktor Aleksandrovich Gurov was born in 1926. After graduating from an artillery special school and an artillery school, he was sent to the 1st Far Eastern Front, in which he participated in the war with Japan. Graduated from the missile department of the Military Engineering Academy. F. E. Dzerzhinsky, served in military units, in the apparatus of the commander-in-chief of the Strategic Missile Forces. He completed his service in the Soviet army in Smolensk as deputy chief engineer of the 50th Missile Army with the rank of colonel. He was awarded three orders of the Soviet Union and many medals. After being transferred to the reserve, he worked as a senior researcher at NPPO Tekhnopribor.

45 years ago I passed military service in the position of chief engineer of the 29th missile division, which included five regiments stationed on the territory of two union republics - Latvia and Lithuania. The division was armed with all types of then modern medium-range missiles, both ground-based and silo-based.

A new branch of the Armed Forces, the Strategic Missile Forces, was being formed, unprecedented in scale and pace, before.

The voice of announcer Yuri Levitan, familiar since wartime, transmitted a message to TASS about the world's first manned flight into outer space. The text of the message solemnly sounded: “The first pilot-cosmonaut of the Vostok satellite ship is a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, pilot Major Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin!” This caused a surge of pride in our country. “Local” patriotism was also added to them, since from subsequent messages we learned that Yuri Gagarin was a native of Smolensk land. And in Smolensk the headquarters of our 50th Rocket Army, which has the most powerful grouping of the Rocket Forces, was located. We often visited Smolensk on business and rightfully considered it our city.

Was the very message about the flight of a man into space unexpected for me? I think no. Since my formation as a rocket engineer took place simultaneously with the development rocket technology in Soviet Union. After graduating from the faculty of jet weapons of the Military Academy. F. E. Dzerzhinsky in Moscow, I worked at the Kapustin Yar training ground, where I was directly involved in the launches of the first domestic combat missiles and the development of all their subsequent types. At the test site, studies were also carried out on the effect of high-altitude flights on a living organism. So, on June 26, 1951, for the first time, a rocket was launched with the dogs Dezik and Gypsy on board to a height of 100 km, which then safely descended to the ground on a parachute in a container. Similar launches under the program of the USSR Academy of Sciences continued in subsequent years.

Astronautics has a military origin. It sounds somewhat paradoxical, but the adoption by the USSR government of decisive measures to develop rocket technology in postwar period"helped" by our former allies in the war against Nazi Germany. On March 5, 1946, former British Prime Minister W. Churchill, in his speech in Fulton, called for the destruction of world socialism, led by Soviet Russia. This marked the beginning of the Cold War.

The doctrine of "massive retaliation" then adopted by the United States, which provided for the possibility of inflicting nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, forced our state to take adequate measures to strengthen its defense capability. Particular attention was paid to the creation nuclear weapons and missiles capable of carrying it.

In August 1957, the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile was tested in flight in the USSR.

Only ten years have passed since the launch of the first ballistic missiles at the Kapustin Yar test site! A published TASS report said: “... successful tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile have been carried out in the Soviet Union ... The results obtained show that it is possible to launch a missile in any area the globe... »

On January 1, 1960, an R-7 missile with a nuclear charge was put on combat duty at a combat launch station near Plesetsk, Arkhangelsk Region. This put an end to US nuclear blackmail, and now it can be said with certainty that the creation of nuclear and missile weapons in the USSR prevented the world from starting a nuclear war.

With the help of the R-7 rocket, the Soviet Union for the first time in the world in 1957 launched the first artificial satellite of the Earth, was the first to reach the surface of the Moon in 1959, and was the first to return animals from space. In April 1961, the R-7 rocket launched into orbit the world's first spacecraft with a man on board. This man was Russian cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. With the help of the modified R-7A rocket, the Soyuz spacecraft are still being launched.

After April 12, 1961, the name of Yuri Gagarin sounded like a synonym for extraordinary heroism and courage, like the name of a space pioneer who personified the feat of earthlings of the 20th century.

At the same time, all published official documents emphasized the flawless functioning of the systems of the launch vehicle and the Vostok spacecraft. One could get the impression that the heroism of the cosmonaut consisted mainly in overcoming great difficulties at the stage of preparation for the flight, in the unconditional decision to make the first flight into the unknown (every pilot from the first cosmonaut detachment aspired to this), in overcoming physical and emotional overloads in flight. The rest is a matter of technique.

After landing in the Saratov region, Yuri Gagarin was taken to the regional committee mansion in the city of Kuibyshev, where he made a detailed report to the State Commission on his impressions in flight and on the operation of the ship's systems. For 30 years, this report lay in the "Special Folder" under the heading "Top Secret". He was not known to the general public. But in vain... Acquaintance with him makes it possible to more clearly understand the difficulties that arise on the thorny path of space exploration, and see the real courage and heroism shown by Yuri Gagarin during his space flight.

It follows from the report that in the final leg of the flight, the separation of the instrument compartment from the descent vehicle according to the program should have occurred 10 - 12 seconds after the braking propulsion system (TDU) was turned on, but separation did not occur. Calmly assessing the situation, he did not "make a fuss", calculating that in this position he would be able to land several thousand kilometers from the intended area, but on the territory of the Soviet Union. The separation took place ten minutes later. Then, during the descent in the atmosphere, the ship began to randomly rotate, somersault. But in this case, the astronaut did not succumb to panic. Ten minutes later, the rotation of the ship stopped and the flight in the atmosphere stabilized. But the difficulties continued. After the ejection, the reserve parachute did not open, only the knapsack opened. When descending by parachute, there were problems with opening the breathing valve connecting the air volume of the airtight suit with the atmosphere.

To this should be added the fact that before the flight of the manned spacecraft "Vostok" five launches of unmanned spacecraft of the "Vostok" type were carried out, and two of them were emergency. According to the theory of reliability, the probability of successful completion of the flight was 50 - 60%. And Yuri Gagarin knew about it.

I believe that the publication of the truth about the first space flight, of course with the preservation of real, and not far-fetched state secrets, would not detract from our achievements in space exploration and at the same time would significantly reduce the appearance of all kinds of speculation, gossip and lies associated with the flight of the first man into the space.

Time has passed. After the flight into space, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin experienced great "terrestrial overload": he traveled to 28 countries located on four continents of the Earth, made presentations, gave interviews, and besides this, he entered military academy them. N. E. Zhukovsky, where he studied persistently, led a detachment of astronauts. Smolensk fellow countrymen twice (in 1962 and 1966) elected him as a deputy Supreme Council THE USSR. Moreover, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin took his deputy duties very seriously. He provided practical assistance to many enterprises and people of the region.

However, the dream of Yuri Alekseevich remained a new flight into space. “I can’t imagine my life,” he said, “without aviation, without flights, without space.”

By the beginning of 1967, in our country, the development of a new spacecraft (SC) - Soyuz, which had more extensive opportunities for research, had been completed. outer space. The first test of it in space during a manned flight was entrusted to one of the most trained cosmonauts, who has a higher engineering education, - Vladimir Komarov.

On March 30, 1967, a special commission accepted an exam for cosmonauts who were preparing under the Soyuz test program. Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin also showed a high readiness for flight: in all the disciplines tested, as well as in the practice of controlling the spacecraft on the simulator, he received the highest mark - "excellent". Yuri Gagarin was assigned as Vladimir Komarov's understudy for this flight.

In mid-April 1967, Komarov, and then Gagarin, flew to the Baikonur training ground.

At that time, I served in the position for special assignments of the Commander-in-Chief of the Rocket Forces, Marshal of the Soviet Union, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Ivanovich Krylov. My numerous duties also included accompanying the commander-in-chief on all his trips, visits to units and military installations.

In mid-April 1967, the troops were tested with exercises in the 50th Rocket Army. I remember how, during the exercise, during the report of the head of the Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Revolutionary Army, General A. Ya. Popov, the Minister of General Mechanical Engineering S. A. Afanasyev called the army command post via the HF communications apparatus. From his conversation with N. I. Krylov, I learned that D. F. Ustinov, Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, demands that the necessary measures be taken to speed up preparations for the launch of the Soyuz in order to complete the planned test program before the May holidays.

We returned to Moscow and took a special flight from the military airfield in Shchelkovo to Baikonur.

Upon arrival at the test site, the commander-in-chief heard reports on the progress of preparations for the Soyuz launches.

Why Unions? Here we should dwell on the planned program of testing the Soyuz spacecraft, information about which partially appeared in the open press only decades later. Here she is. Initially, the first ship is launched, with one astronaut on board. The next day, a second ship is launched from the same launch pad, but with three cosmonauts. Their docking must take place in space. Moreover, during the docking, the automatic capture of the ship into the radar beam was initially envisaged, and then its precise manual docking. From the second ship, two cosmonauts were supposed to go to the first and already in it complete the flight and descend to Earth. This was the next significant step in space exploration planned in the Soviet Union, once again putting it ahead of the US in the field of space exploration.

According to the tradition established at the test site, on the eve of launches of manned spacecraft, a rally is always held - a meeting of cosmonauts with the personnel of units and industry representatives involved in preparing for the launch of a spacecraft. And this time the rally was held at the launch site No. 1 of the range, in the immediate vicinity of the rocket installed in the launch facility, but not yet filled with fuel components.

The personnel, including representatives of industry, were built on the site before the start along the perimeter of a rectangle with one open side, on which a table was set, covered with red cloth. There was a microphone nearby.

The cosmonauts lined up in two lines: the commander of the first Soyuz, V. Komarov, followed by an understudy, Yu. Gagarin. The crew of the second Soyuz: commander V. Bykovsky, then A. Eliseev and E. Khrunov. Behind them are backups: commander A. Nikolaev, V. Gorbatko and G. Shonin (V. Kubasov). Pilot-cosmonaut A. Leonov was among those present at the launch pad. The day was sunny. Everyone was in high spirits.

The rally was opened by the political officer of the military unit. In a short introductory speech, he greeted the pilot-cosmonauts who were preparing for the upcoming flight and named their names. Half of them (V. Gorbatko, A. Eliseev, E. Khrunov and G. Shonin (V. Kubasov)) were not yet known to the majority of those present. Fame and fame came to them later. The officers of the launch support units who spoke assured the cosmonauts that they had done everything possible for the successful completion of the flight program.

By the way, almost every speaker, according to tradition, asked the crew commanders to take the pennant of the Komsomol organization of the unit with them on board the ship, so that when the astronauts returned from the flight, they would make it a relic of glory. Here the pennants were handed over to cosmonauts Komarov and Bykovsky.

Vladimir Komarov spoke on behalf of the cosmonauts. He spoke calmly, confidently, and everyone felt that we were facing an intelligent, thoughtful, balanced person. He assured those present that the cosmonauts would give all their strength to fulfill the new task and justify the trust of the Soviet people and the Communist Party. As for the pennants of the units, the cosmonauts will be able to take them only with the permission of the chief designer. Yuri Gagarin was also focused. At the end of the rally, the cosmonauts were presented with flowers, and they did a lap of honor.

After the rally, N. I. Krylov, accompanied by the chief designer of ground equipment V. P. Barmin and G. A. Tyulin, went to inspect the layout of the N-1 rocket (intended for the lunar program), which was assembled at the plant located in the assembly and test building polygon. The rocket and launch facilities made a grand impression.

The launch of the Soyuz-1 spacecraft was scheduled for 03:35 on April 23. We were at the launch site around 1:00 am. The rocket filled with propellant components stood in the launch facility, brightly lit by searchlights. The surface of the oxygen tanks smoked with oxidizer vapors formed due to temperature differences. The entire site was flooded with spotlights. There were many correspondents and photographers on it.

Vladimir Komarov stepped lightly from the door of the arriving bus and went with a report to the chairman of the State Commission, General K. A. Kerimov (head of the MOM department). After the report, handshakes, farewell hugs, V. Komarov entered the elevator car and began to climb to the upper platform. Stepping out of the elevator, hands clenched above his head in greeting, he said goodbye to everyone on the launch pad. In the light of the spotlights, against the background of a white rocket, the blue jacket of his half-track suit stood out clearly. Everyone applauded.

After V. Komarov entered the spacecraft and the hatch closed behind him, Marshal N.I. Krylov moved to an observation post located one and a half to two kilometers from the start. A loudspeaker was held there, through which all commands from the control center and reports on their execution were broadcast.

According to the time schedule for preparing the spacecraft for launch, the astronaut takes his place two hours before the launch of the launch vehicle. During this time, the final checks on the functioning of the spacecraft systems are carried out with the participation of the astronaut.

The call sign “Rubin” was often heard, which remained with V. Komarov from the flight to the Voskhod spacecraft, the speakers voiced the calm and detailed reports of the ship's commander.

The launch took place at the appointed time. The booster brought the spacecraft exactly to the calculated trajectory. The tense expectation of the pre-launch minutes was replaced by a joyful animation on the faces of all those present at the observation post. However, after a few minutes the situation changed: immediately after the ship entered orbit, problems began. The left panel of the solar battery of the power supply system did not open, it was not possible to orient the ship to the Sun, it began to spin. V. Komarov's attempts to correct the situation did not give positive results. From the flight control point, the command was given to make changes to the documentation. Not imagining the whole seriousness of the situation that has arisen, someone joked: here, they say, improvements are beginning in space. The fact is that often the industry, due to the tight deadlines for the development and manufacture of rocket technology, supplied it in a “raw” form, and then after it came the documentation for modifications directly in military conditions.

Soyuz-1 was an active spacecraft according to the flight program. He had to perform rendezvous and docking maneuvers, requiring increased costs of electricity, which was clearly not enough due to the non-disclosure of one of the solar panels. Taking into account other problems, the Soyuz-2 launch was canceled and a decision was made to land the Soyuz-1 spacecraft. On the calculated orbit, due to the low sensitivity of the ion sensors, the ship was not oriented for landing in automatic mode and the brake engines did not turn on. A decision was made to manually orient the ship. Vladimir Komarov performed all the operations flawlessly, and after turning on the brake engines on the nineteenth orbit, the ship began to descend. After the separation of the compartments, communication with the ship ceased.

During the past 24 hours, all the people involved in this flight were anxiously waiting, trying not to think about possible negative consequences. For a relatively long time there was no news from the landing site of the ship. On the morning of April 24, a search helicopter pilot discovered the crash site east of the city of Orsk, Orenburg Region. From his report we learned that the cosmonaut had died.

Marshal N.I. Krylov flew by plane to the nearest airfield from the crash site. Colonel M. P. Danilchenko, the former commander of the Dobele (Latvia) missile regiment, was also waiting for us there, also my colleague in the 29th missile division. On two UAZ-469 vehicles in the steppe, off-road, at high speed, we got to the crash site.

Four helicopters stood around the perimeter of the site, the center of which was covered with a tarpaulin. After removing it, we saw a section of the descent vehicle that entered the ground, filled with burnt wires, hard-to-see objects and details. The picture was terrible. Although the remains of the cosmonaut had already been collected and taken away by our arrival, we were shocked by what we saw. It is impossible to convey our condition, the enormous pain of the loss of a person whom we saw alive a little more than a day ago on the launch pad of the cosmodrome.

In a published TASS report on the death of the USSR pilot-cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union Colonel-Engineer Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, it was said that during the test flight the planned program for developing the new spacecraft was fully completed. The ship's systems functioned normally. However, during the landing, “when the main parachute was opened at a seven-kilometer altitude, according to preliminary data, as a result of the twisting of the parachute lines, the spacecraft descended at a higher speed, which caused the death of V. M. Komarov.”

This version of the death of the cosmonaut was confirmed a few months later in the conclusions of the Government Commission chaired by D. F. Ustinov, created to identify all the circumstances of the death of the astronaut. She was instructed to improve the parachute system and test it in the near future. The twisting of the parachute lines hid real reasons catastrophes and wrote them off as an accident. In fact, at the crash site, next to the wrecked ship, a reserve and a braking parachute with tangled lines were found. The stowage of the main parachute, which was supposed to ensure a soft landing, as it was established later, did not leave the descent vehicle container and remained in it until it hit the ground.

Here I would like to express my version of the additional, and possibly the main reasons that led to the catastrophe of the spacecraft.

But first, it is necessary to recall the normal sequence of operations for activating the Soyuz parachute system during descent. After entry into the atmosphere, the braking parachute is first introduced, which brings the ship down to a speed that is safe for the main parachute to enter at an altitude of seven kilometers. The drag parachute then unhooks from the ship and pulls out of the container the package of the main parachute's large canopy. Having completed its task, the drag parachute separates, and the ship descends on the main parachute. In the event of a failure of the main parachute, the speed of the ship's descent remains unacceptably high, and at an altitude of four to five kilometers, the automation issues a command to deploy a reserve parachute.

During the flight of the Soyuz-1, due to the failure of the main parachute, the braking parachute did not separate, the reserve parachute left the container at the command of the automation. I assume that, despite heroic efforts and competent actions, experienced cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov failed to eliminate rotation of the ship, which began immediately after its launch into orbit and increased during descent. Because of this, the parachute lines were tangled and the canopy of the reserve parachute was “strangled”.

Subsequently, when determining the reasons for the failure of the main parachute, it was found that the elliptical-shaped container into which the parachute was pressed had insufficient wall rigidity, and when the container lid was opened in a rarefied atmosphere, a pressure drop formed outside and inside the ship, which contributed to the "clamp" packaging in a container.

It should also be noted that during the unmanned tests of the Soyuz, it was not possible to verify and confirm the operability of the parachute system in normal conditions flight. So, during the second unmanned flight of the Soyuz, due to the burnout of the bottom of the ship during descent, there was no pressure drop that compresses the walls of the parachute container, and the main parachute worked.

In January 1969, during the Soyuz-5 flight with cosmonaut B. Volynov, at the final stage of the spacecraft’s descent to Earth, a similar situation arose as during the Soyuz-1 flight, but, fortunately, did not lead to the same tragic outcome . At the set time, the descent vehicle did not separate from the utility and instrumentation and assembly compartments. The wings of the solar battery spun the ship, and it, rotating randomly, rushed towards the Earth in a stream of fire. Only the explosion of the fuel tanks made it possible to separate from the extra compartments. Automation was no longer able to stabilize the apparatus, and it continued to rotate. This time the parachute system worked normally, but the rotating apparatus began to twist the lines and the parachute canopy, turning it into a "pear". It was saved by the fact that, having reached the top point, the lines began to twist in the opposite direction. The device fell to the frozen ground at an increased speed. The impact was incredible. A few minutes astronaut B. Volynov came to his senses. His mouth filled with blood - then it turned out that the upper jaw was broken.

Was the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov a tragic accident, as was stated in all official reports? In my opinion, no.

Testing a new spacecraft with a man on board makes it possible to most fully identify design and production shortcomings and significantly reduce the time and cost to bring it to safe operation. There is no doubt that testing a new spacecraft is associated with a risk to the life of an astronaut, but the degree of this risk must be acceptable, at which a well-trained tester can cope with difficult situations that arise in flight. In any case, the risk should not be adventurous. An astronaut should not pay with his life for earthly imperfections.

Before the flight of Vladimir Komarov, three tests of unmanned Soyuz were carried out.

The first launch took place on November 28, 1966. Immediately after the spacecraft entered orbit, it turned out that the stabilization system was not working. With great difficulty then it was possible to orient it for descent from orbit, but according to the calculations of ballistics, it should have fallen outside the territory of our country. The ship had to be blown up in flight.

During the preparation of the second unmanned Soyuz, in December 1966, a launch vehicle exploded on the launch pad. For some reason, just before the engines were started, the automation issued a command to cancel the launch. The personnel involved in the work went to the starting position to find out the reasons. Service farms began to be assembled. At this time, the de-energized gyroscopes of the launch vehicle on the coast "fell" and closed the contacts of the Soyuz emergency rescue system, signaling an allegedly abnormal flight of the rocket. Due to design errors in the electrical connections between the rocket and the ship, a command was passed to launch the powder engines of the ship's emergency rescue system (SAS).

During the days of Marshal N.I. Krylov's stay at the training ground, a film was played to him, on which the entire process of burning and explosion of the rocket was clearly recorded. Initially, the third stage collapsed and exploded, then the four side blocks of the first stage exploded in turn, and finally the central block of the second stage. During this time, the personnel of the launch team managed to leave the launch pad. But not all were saved. One number of the starting crew, located in the terrace of the starting structure, died from gas suffocation.

Unlike the R-16 (8K64) rocket, the explosion of which on October 24, 1960 at the test site killed the Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces, Marshal of Artillery M. I. Nedelin and 74 people with him, the Soyuz launch vehicle, which had less aggressive propellant components - kerosene and liquid oxygen turned out to be safer.

The launch equipment of site No. 31 - unmanned "Unions" were launched from it - was completely destroyed at the same time.

At this point, I will make a small digression from the main topic and talk about one event that took place at the Baikonur training ground, in which I was directly involved even before the Soyuz-1 flight.

For about seven years I served in the apparatus of the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces for Armaments, headed by Colonel General N.F. Chervyakov, of which for more than four years I served as Deputy Head of the Center for the Operation of Missile Weapons (Head Major General A.V. Vasiliev).

Organizationally, the Center included four departments and several departments and services. He was entrusted with the tasks of organizing the operation and monitoring the technical condition of group missile systems of medium and intercontinental range, located throughout the territory of the Soviet Union. The Baikonur test site, before the creation of the Space Forces, was part of the Strategic Missile Forces, and to some extent our center took part in monitoring the organization and technical condition of the test site group missile systems, so I had to visit the test site on business.

In the 1960s, France demonstrated the independence of its foreign policy in relations with the United States. Naturally, this impressed the leaders of the Soviet state, and to strengthen friendship with France, as well as to demonstrate military power The USSR made an unprecedented decision at that time to organize a display of rocket technology with rocket launches at the Baikonur training ground for French President Charles de Gaulle. Prior to this, not a single foreigner had set foot on a particularly secret training ground, including the friendly leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries.

The commander-in-chief of the Strategic Missile Forces was the head of the display of rocket technology. For the direct implementation of this measure, a leadership headquarters was created from representatives of the main departments, departments and services of the main command, headed by the first deputy chief of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces, Lieutenant General A. S. Butsky. At the final stage of preparations for the demonstration of rocket technology, the generals and officers who were part of the headquarters, including the group of officers of the center headed by me, left for the training ground.

At the entrance to the 10th site (first called Tyura-Tam, and then the city of Leninsk), from the side of the airfield, a sign with the name of the settlement - "Zvezdograd" was posted. By the way, then the command had a great desire to name such a rapidly developing city. But later this idea was not realized.

So, we had to check the technical condition of several launchers from which it was planned to carry out demonstrative missile launches. The greatest difficulties arose when checking the technical serviceability of the R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile and the equipment of the silo launcher. The fact is that the starting team of the test site had previously checked the launch equipment and missiles, all the premises were sealed, and long time there was practically no control over their condition. We found a very unsightly picture: a large gas contamination of the premises with vapors of aggressive propellant components, corrosion and rust of equipment. But the main troubles were yet to come.

Usually, during critical demonstrations of rocket technology, a reserve rocket was also prepared for launch by the country's leadership. So it was this time.

When checking the first rocket, complex tests did not pass normally. Then we, together with the test site team, began troubleshooting and troubleshooting. When testing the second mine launcher, a malfunction was also detected. I had to do both its search and elimination.

On the same day, General A. S. Butsky decided to hold a meeting to review the progress of work to check the readiness of the test site for the display of rocket technology. In addition to the military, the meeting was also attended by representatives from all the main design and production organizations of the industry, at the level of their leaders or their deputies.

At the beginning of the meeting, General A. S. Butsky gave me the first floor to report on the results of checking the technical condition and readiness of the missiles for launch. Thus, I found myself in a very difficult position: should I report malfunctions on silo launchers with R-16 missiles? In the complex process of creation and development new technology in the event of serious problems - breakdowns, malfunctions, accidents - the desire of members of the commissions to lay the blame for the causes of their occurrence on another department was often visible. I had no doubt that we would find and eliminate the causes of the malfunctions, but this required additional time. Announcing this at the meeting means giving industry representatives the opportunity to blame the test site launch team in the event of an unsuccessful launch. It was also impossible to remain silent about the difficult situation. Therefore, I reported that due to the long stay of mine launchers in a closed and sealed position, it is necessary for three to four days to release the launch team from all household and other work to put ground equipment and premises in order.

The polygon command and the representative of the GURVO were skeptical about my proposal. "Think, rust!"

After the end of the meeting, I asked General A. S. Butsky to detain the head of the training ground, General A. A. Kurushin and the head of the 3rd Directorate of the GURVO, General A. S. Kalashnikov, and reported to them in more detail about the state of the launcher and the malfunctions identified on them. Now they took my report seriously, supported my proposal and gave the appropriate orders.

At the first mine launcher, the cause of the malfunction was identified relatively quickly and immediately eliminated. But to find the cause of the malfunction on the second launcher, it took a lot of time. In contrast to combat missile systems, a telecontrol system (STK) is also included in the control system of ground equipment and missiles at the test site. It turned out that earlier, during the next revision, one of the cables was excluded from the circuit, but they forgot to disconnect it from the control panel, and part of the cable coming from the rocket was cut off, rolled into a bay and left in the lane. According to the “law of mischief”, some veins closed with each other, and false information was given to the remote control. After disconnecting the connector, complex tests of the rocket went well.

The launch of the R-16 rocket on June 25, 1966 literally stunned Charles de Gaulle, who was at a specially equipped observation post along with L. I. Brezhnev, A. N. Kosygin, R. Ya. Malinovsky and N. I. Krylov. In 1966, France refused to participate in the military organization of the NATO bloc.

Returning to the events connected with the tests of the Soyuz spacecraft, I must say that in preparing for the demonstration of rocket technology, our group carefully examined and checked the launch facilities of pad No. 1, and I had a fairly complete idea of ​​their structure and understood the complexity of restoring the destroyed site No. 31. To speed up the work, the commander-in-chief of the RV decided to dismantle the launch equipment of launcher No. 2 at the 48th BSS of the Plesetsk training ground and send it to Baikonur. All necessary equipment was dismantled. However, later, constructions sent from military industry plants were used to restore the launch pad.

The flight of the third unmanned Soyuz spacecraft in February 1967 was also not entirely successful. During the descent in the atmosphere, the bottom with the heat-insulating screen of the descent vehicle burned out. The ship fell on the ice of the Aral Sea, failed, then it was hardly raised.

And after such tests of unmanned spacecraft, it was decided to fly two ships at once according to a complex program. The decision to conduct at least one more launch of the unmanned Soyuz was logically suggested, but the national holiday was approaching - May 1 - and there was no time for new tests.

The ship needed a major overhaul. While preparing it for flight at the training ground, military specialists and industry representatives worked in an extremely intense mode, almost around the clock. The deadlines for readiness were set by a concise, strong-willed decision. Perhaps all this was one of the causes of the malfunctions that arose in flight, which were mentioned above.

Did the members of the State Commission realistically assess the degree of readiness of the Soyuz for such difficult tests when deciding to conduct them? On the eve of the launch of the ship, the last working meeting of the State Commission took place. It was attended by Chairman K. A. Kerimov, Technical Supervisor of Tests V. P. Mishin, President of the USSR Academy of Sciences M. V. Keldysh, Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces N. I. Krylov, Chief Designer of Ground Equipment V. P. Barmin, G. A. Tyulin and several other members of the commission.

V.P. Mishin, who became the chief designer of the Design Bureau after the death of S.P. Korolev, was somewhat pompous. I remember how, when considering the entire complex for upcoming flights, he stated that he could not fully vouch for the launch vehicle - it was manufactured by another company, the Kuibyshev TsSKB Progress - as for the ship, he is confident in the reliability of its functioning. The members of the commission, however, were laconic. M. V. Keldysh was also silent.

Some revival was caused by the clarification of the text of the forthcoming TASS statement on the launch of the Soyuz. In particular, the question arose: how to call the "Union"? Some members of the commission proposed to call it simply "Soyuz", without indicating the number, in the likeness of the "Vostok", which did not exclude their doubts about the successful completion of the flight. Others suggested calling the ship "Soyuz-1". Opinions were divided. K. A. Kerimov called in Moscow a responsible official of the Central Committee apparatus. He without hesitation approved the name "Soyuz-1".

I think that many members of the State Commission, and primarily the technical director of the Soyuz program V.P. Mishin, represented an increased danger of a manned flight of an obviously “raw” ship, but there was great pressure on them from the political leadership of the country, demanding another success in field of cosmonautics in the jubilee year - the year of the 50th anniversary of the Great October Revolution.

With the military and ideological confrontation between the two great powers, the USSR and the USA, in the conditions of a tough space race and in an effort to overtake the rival in this area, political ambitions and ideological attitudes prevailed over the assessment of the technical capabilities of astronautics.

It cannot be ruled out that the information about the real state of affairs with the development of the Soyuz, presented to the country's leadership, was not objective enough, embellished.

How did Vladimir Komarov himself assess the technical readiness of the spacecraft? According to the memoirs of eyewitnesses and his daughter Irina, published in recent years, V. Komarov, whose professionalism is beyond doubt, was clearly aware that the ship had not been finalized for flight tests: “All unmanned Soyuzes that have flown so far have been safely ditched.” "The car is raw. But I need to fly ... it’s me. ”

And the fact that the Soyuz required really serious improvements is evidenced by the course of its subsequent flight tests. And of course, these improvements were not limited to "improvement of the parachute system."

A year and a half passed before the Soyuz-3 flight was carried out on October 26, 1968, with pilot-cosmonaut G. T. Beregov. The ship rendezvoused with the previously launched unmanned Soyuz-2, but they did not dock, despite repeated attempts.

Only two months later Soyuz-4 with V. Shatalov and Soyuz-5 with B. Volynov, A. Eliseev and E. Khrunov were launched. They managed to complete the test program scheduled for April 1967.

Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin was very upset by the death of his comrade, Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov.

In May 1967, in an interview with a correspondent of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, returning to the memory of his friend, he said: “Komarov did an important thing: he tested a new ship, but he also did another very important thing: he made us all be even more collected, even more picky about technology, even more attentive to all stages of checks and tests, even more vigilant when meeting with the unknown. He showed us how steep the road to space is... We will teach Soyuz to fly. In this I see our duty, a duty to the memory of Volodya. This is a great, smart ship. He will fly."

Soviet cosmonauts - friends of Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov taught the Soyuz to fly. Over the past 30 years, based on the experience of developing and testing the Soyuz, a whole family of Soyuz-T and Soyuz-TM spacecraft, Progress automatic cargo transport vehicles, and space stations have appeared.

On October 31, 2000, the first international space crew consisting of Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergey Krikalev and American astronaut Bill Shepard was sent from the Russian Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Russian Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS).

We must not forget that Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, who gave his life for the sake of the future, stood at the origins of this difficult and complex path of development of one of the areas of domestic and world cosmonautics.

A dense wall of secrecy, closeness, hushing up our failures, difficult situations that arose in space, hid the difficulties and dangers thorny path on the road to space, belittled the actual exploits and heroism of the pioneers of space, gave rise to lies, gossip and speculation. Such a policy was propagandistic in nature, designed mainly for the Soviet people. More than once I had to make sure that information about our failures in space somehow penetrated abroad and was widely disseminated there, but in a distorted and false form.

The cosmonauts themselves understood the abnormality of such a situation. In a conversation between Yuri Gagarin and a Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent in May 1967, in response to a question about what the cosmonauts thought after the death of Komarov, there are also the following words: “... your, perhaps too peppy, reports about our work contributed to that space travel was seen by some as a notoriously happy and easy path to fame."

Decades later, astronauts on the pages of newspapers and magazines spoke about many troubles, and sometimes even tragic situations that arose during their flights into space.

Page 162-168

GALINA MOZGUNOVA

ANCESTORS OF YU. A. GAGARIN

Public organization"Smolensk regional organization of the Writers' Union of Russia"

The Smolensk regional organization of the Writers' Union of Russia has rich history formation and development.

The first association of writers of the Smolensk region in the twentieth century. we must consider the literary studio Proletkult, founded in 1919 by S.A. Stradny, whose goal was to “give their own Pushkins, Koltsovs and Tolstoys”. After its collapse in 1921, a literary group"Arena". Along with the "Arena" at the regional newspaper "Working Way" there was literary association headed by M.V. Isakovsky (D. Zemlyak, N. Burkin and others), who advocated the use of the experience of the classics and a closer connection between literature and life.

In March 1924, an organizational meeting of Smolensk writers of all groups and associations took place with the aim of creating a “branch office” of the All-Russian Union of Writers. In fact, it did not contribute significant changes in the literary life of the region. Therefore, in 1927, the first provincial conference took place, uniting a group of so-called. “proletarian writers”, and in March 1930, at the regional writers’ conference, the association of proletarian writers of the Western Region was proclaimed, which essentially put up an impenetrable barrier to the penetration of peasant writers and writers from the intelligentsia into literature. This separation of writers' forces was eliminated by the First Regional Congress of Writers, which took place in April 1934. The chairman of the organizing committee, M. Zavyalov, made a report at it. The congress created the Union of Writers of the Western Region, which then included Smolensk, Bryansk and part Kaluga regions. The created Union elected delegates to the First All-Union Congress of Writers of the USSR (M. Zavyalov, N. Rylenkov, A. Tvardovsky).

After the congress, the writers of the Smolensk school, united on the basis of a common creative method, got the opportunity to publish their works not only in local periodicals (newspapers "Working Way", "Bolshevik Molodnyak", "Bezhitsky Rabochiy", "Decade Literary Newspaper", "For Proletarian Pedkadry", "Kolkhoznaya Gazeta", "Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda" etc.; the magazines “Western Region”, “Offensive”), but also in the central publications (“Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Znamya”, “Kolkhoznik”, “Krasnaya Nov”, “Oktyabr”), as well as in central publishing houses.

With the departure to Moscow, M.V. Isakovsky (1931) and A.T. Tvardovsky (1936), the literary forces of the Smolensk region united around N.I. Rylenkov, who for twenty years headed the Smolensk Regional Writers' Organization. In the pre-war years, local Smolensk newspapers, almanacs and other books of Zapoblgiz regularly published poems and fiction by Smolensk writers, collective collections of works and books by individual authors were published.

During the years of the Great Patriotic War many writers of the Smolensk region were at the front: N.I. Rylenkov, V.F. Shurygin, E.M. Marenkov, N.M. Gribachev and a number of others; in partisans: V.A. Zvezdaeva; A.T. worked as front-line correspondents. Tvardovsky, D.P. Dvoretsky, D.D. Osin, V.A. Ardamatsky, A.I. Gitovich, S.A. Fixin, N.V. Polyakov and others. Defending the Motherland, I. Kutasov, V. Gorbatenkov, Ya. Sinelnikov, G. Nilov, A. Belyaev, V. Aristov perished.

IN post-war years The organization of Smolensk writers was strengthened by young authors. They were skillfully directed by N.I. Rylenkov, who edited and published the first works and their first books. The poet successfully combined work in the governing bodies of the Union of Writers of the USSR and the RSFSR and the Smolensk Writers' Organization. After his death in 1969, the writers' organization was headed by N.G. Antonov, Yu.V. Pashkov, L. I. Kozyr, V. I. Tazov. Playwrights also performed alongside prose writers and poets. A. Bodrenkov's play "Pavel Brodov" for several seasons was on the playbill of the regional drama theater, staged in Moscow, broadcast on central television and Moscow radio. At the same time, T.G. Yan and N.A. Semenov. In the Smolensk Regional Drama Theater there were plays by T. Yan “Nabat in midsummer night” and “Beloved”, children's theater in Moscow he staged the plays The Girl and April (1969) and The House in the Sun (1970). Dramatic works by N.A. Semenova went beyond the Smolensk region and Russia - they were recognized by European, American and Japanese audiences.

After the collapse of the USSR, two writers' organizations were formed: the Union of Russian Writers and the Union of Writers of Russia. The Smolensk organization of the Writers' Union of Russia was headed by N.A. Semenov (1991-1996), and after her death V.P. Smirnov.

Since December 2013, the Smolensk regional organization of the Writers' Union of Russia has been headed by O. I. Dorogan, Secretary of the Writers' Union of Russia.

The Smolensk regional organization of the Writers' Union of Russia rightfully dates back to 1924, when the first Smolensk writers' organization was created, uniting literary groups and individual writers of the Smolensk region under the leadership of M.V. Isakovsky, and carries out a succession. Currently, the organization has 59 members of the Writers' Union of Russia.

The most important areas of work of the Smolensk regional organization of the Writers' Union of Russia are identified:

Activation of the activity of the creative writers' union for the development of culture and art in the Smolensk region, organization and participation in cultural events of the city and the region;

Following rich historical traditions and multiplying them, relying on continuity in one’s work and literary and social activities, linking the departed and living generations, giving priority attention to both revered older writers and talented youth.

Addressing and transferring spiritual, ethical and aesthetic ideals and guidelines, artistic examples of the art of the word professed by writers to various layers of civil society, which would contribute to the consolidation of various social forces, social strata and groups, in the name of strengthening peace and harmony in civil society.

Improving the spiritual dominant of the events, achieving their high-quality educational impact in the spirit of Orthodox morality and patriotism.

Showing the role of Russia in the world historical process from a highly spiritual Orthodox position is put at the forefront. Members of the organization will stop any manifestations of xenophobia, hatred towards other nationalities, call to cherish the friendship between fraternal peoples, strengthen and increase it.

One of the priority tasks is to provide effective assistance to people with disabilities, gifted and striving to express themselves creatively.

In the context of a unified comprehensive cultural Program, the Smolensk Regional Organization of the Writers' Union of Russia, using the assistance and support of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Smolensk Region, various social and public structures, cultural and historical budgetary institutions, carries out a number of major projects and events.

The writers' organization has a composition of the most active writers who participate in all or almost all events. Regularly, members of the writers' organization by writers' delegations, "landing forces", perform at literary venues and rallies dedicated to outstanding poets of the Smolensk region - M.V. Isakovsky, A.T. Tvardovsky, N.I. Rylenkov, as well as the writer B.L. Vasiliev, at events in the Smolensk Regional Universal Scientific Library. A.T. Tvardovsky, city libraries, in the Literary Lounge, created at the Smolensk State Museum-Reserve. And, as a rule, - disinterestedly and gratuitously, one might say, on a volunteer basis. Each member of the writers' organization is tasked with finding talent, especially among young people, and working with them. And the members of our organization, founded more than 90 years ago by M.V. Isakovsky, for the most part strive to continue and increase the reasonable, kind, and eternal that was done by our classics for the humanization and harmonization of civil society within the framework of their time.

Together with employees of the Smolensk Regional Universal scientific library them. A.T. Tvardovsky is being literary competition"BiblioParnassus", covering all areas of the Smolensk region, attracting gifted talented authors to participate in it.

On the basis of the Smolensk Writers' Organization, the Smolensk Regional Association of Orthodox Writers was created under the leadership of N.N. Kezhenov, a member of the board of the Smolensk Regional Organization of the Writers' Union of Russia. It holds meetings and events under the influence and spiritual pastoring of the head of the commission for the work of Orthodox libraries at the Holy Dormition Cathedral, Mitred Archpriest Father Michael (Gorovoy). Regularly, at least once a month, classes are held at the Assumption Cathedral, spiritual and moral, cultural and educational work is carried out in universities, including the Military Academy of the Air Defense Forces of the Russian Federation, schools and gymnasiums, among students and students, as well as among children with disabilities. limited opportunities.

In terms of attracting as many Smolensk authors as possible to literary work, meetings of the "Spring" - a creative association created by the Smolensk poet Yu.V. Pashkov, are held monthly, and now it bears his name. It is headed by L. Serdechnaya, a member of the Smolensk regional organization of the SP of Russia.

One of the most important factors in the development of the literary process and the coverage of as many creative people as possible is the holding of competitions. The most significant was the form of organizing the International Simonov Competition together with the Mogilev regional branch of the "Russian Society" and the Mogilev branch of the Writers' Union of Belarus, the competition commission included members of our Smolensk writers' organization as co-chairs and members of the jury.

There is constant interaction with creative organizations of the regions of Russia: the board and secretariat of the Writers' Union of Russia, the Literary Society of Writers of Russia, the All-Russian Literary Society (the board of these three organizations includes the chairman of the Smolensk regional organization of the Writers' Union of Russia). Information and creative connections with regional organizations of the Joint Venture of Russia of the Moscow, Leningrad, Pskov, Bryansk, Oryol regions, with the Association "Commonwealth of Writers of the Upper Volga Region" (under the Agreement on cooperation in the field of culture of the Smolensk and Tver regions).

Under the Smolensk Writers' Organization, nine issues of the almanac "Native Side" were published; literary and artistic collection "Connection of Generations".

Thus, the most important task facing the entire writers' organization today is to sow the meanings of kindness and love, philanthropy and mercy. These meanings are the seeds that carry out creative work in the hearts and souls of people, helping to resist the forces of destruction.

Two sites have been opened in the information field to cover the activities of the Smolensk regional organization of the SP of Russia.

In 2010, M.N. Paramonova, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Smolensk Writers' Organization, opened the main website of the writers' organization: “The Writers' Union of Russia. Smolensk Regional Organization”, highlighting the most socially significant events and ongoing activities.

Since the beginning of 2018, all events held with the participation of the organization, as well as its members individually, are also covered on the Smolpisatel website, which is run by N.N. Chepurnykh, a member of the board of the Smolensk Regional Writers' Organization of the Writers' Union of Russia.

On the Smolensk land, many outstanding people have been formed who have achieved success in various fields. It is not a secret for the Smolensk people that Yuri Gagarin was born in Gzhatsk, forever included in the history of world cosmonautics, that Mikhail Glinka, who influenced the formation of classical music, lived and worked in his estate in Novospasskoye, that Maria Tenisheva, whom contemporaries called in Talashkino.

Today we invite you to remember a whole galaxy of famous writers and poets who were born in the Smolensk region. Together with the shop "Horizon" we have prepared a selection of books that will not only help you get acquainted with the work of Smolensk authors, but will also take pride of place on your bookshelves.

Alexander Belyaev

Not everyone knows that Alexander Belyaev was born in Smolensk, in the family of a priest. After graduating from the seminary, he decided that he would not follow in his father's footsteps. He continued his education at the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl. Belyaev unlearned as a lawyer, whom he soon began to work with. Despite the fact that the career of a lawyer was very successful, Alexander Romanovich left everything and devoted himself to writing. In the 1920s, he wrote such famous novels as The Island of Lost Ships and The Amphibian Man. In 1928 he moved again, this time to Leningrad, and already completely plunged into literary activity. Having become interested in the problems of the functioning of the psyche, he writes the novels "Professor Dowell's Head", "Lord of the World", "The Man Who Lost Face".

Nothing will say better about the author than his most famous work. That is why we advise you to pay attention to the book "Professor Dowell's Head". This collection includes Belyaev's earliest major science fiction work, The Head of Professor Dowell, and at the latest, Ariel. Both works are based on the writer's belief in the limitless possibilities of man, which was not imputed to him throughout his entire creative career.

A wonderful addition to the previous book will be the collection "Adventures at Sea". The book of the classic of Russian science fiction was made up of his most popular novels "Island of Lost Ships" and "Amphibian Man", they are complemented by the novel "Underwater Farmers", which has not been reprinted for many years and therefore is of undoubted interest to fans of the writer's work. All three works are united by the theme of the sea and the exciting fantasy adventures of the characters.

Mikhail Isakovsky

Mikhail Vasilyevich was born in the village of Glotovka, Smolensk province, into a poor peasant family. The local priest taught him to read and write. Later he will study for 2 years at the gymnasium. From the age of 21, Isakovsky began to publish in Smolensk newspapers, and later moved to Moscow.

The first poem "A Soldier's Request" was published by Isakovsky in 1914. Since then, he has published a huge number of poetry collections. The poet continued the line of peasant poets such as Klyuev and Yesenin. Isakovsky was neither a village nor a city poet; for the first time, the theme appeared in his lyrics. inseparable connection towns with villages. During the Great Patriotic War, Isakovsky wrote many patriotic works, his poems reflect the heroism of Soviet people at the front and in the rear.

To the book "Word about Russia" includes selected poems of the Russian poet. Many of them vividly and deeply expressed the characteristic signs of our time. A number of songs beloved by the people were written to Isakovsky’s verses: “Katyusha”, “Migratory birds are flying”, “Spark”, “Enemies burned their own hut”, “Everything froze again before dawn” and many others

In his declining years, Mikhail Vasilyevich wrote a book "On the Yelninskaya land: Autobiographical pages". The book covers the period from the poet's childhood to the 1920s. Talking about his work on the book, Isakovsky notes: “... even if I wrote mainly for myself, I still could not help but write about the time to which my notes refer, I could not pass by those people whom I knew, I could not ignore all that was happening around me then. In a word, it turned out that I was writing not only my purely personal autobiography, but, to a certain extent, the biography of the time, the biography of many other people, from among whom I came out myself.

Nikolai Rylenkov

Nikolai Ivanovich was born in the village of Alekseevka, Smolensk Region, into a peasant family. In 1933 he graduated from the Faculty of Literature at Smolensk University, where he became friends with Alexander Tvardovsky, in the same year his first book, My Heroes, was published. Just before the war, he publishes the book "Birch copse". And in 1943, a collection of poems by the poet "Blue Wine" was published.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the poet was thinking more and more about his homeland and its difficult history, about the meaning of life and sets out these reflections in his poems. In addition to poetry, he also wrote essays, songs, and historical novels. A significant contribution to literature was his books on the history of poetry - "Traditions and Innovation", where Russian poetry appears in detail from Lomonosov to Bokov, "The Soul of Poetry", which includes articles about Pushkin, Krylov, Surikov, Shevchenko, Blok and many others. Rylenkov was also engaged in translations of works by Belarusian poets, some of the translations are collected in the book "Crane Pipes". Nikolai Ivanovich was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor and medals.

Poet's book "The Soul of Poetry" full of vivid thoughts, sharp observations, it is valuable for a special vision of the world of poetry, inherent only to the author. Lomonosov, Ryleev, Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov, Shevchenko, Surikov, Blok, Yesenin, Isakovsky, Smelyakov, Selvinsky, Marshak - this is an incomplete list of the names of artists whose work Rylenkov reflects on.

In the historical story "On the Old Smolensk Road", a famous Soviet poet tells about the heroism and courage of Russian soldiers and officers, Smolensk peasants and peasant women who fought against the Napoleonic invaders. The writer collected rich factual material, used the legends and traditions of the times of the First Patriotic War that exist in the Smolensk region, and created a true poetic legend about the loyalty of the Russian people native land, about his eternal desire for freedom and happiness.

Alexander Tvardovsky

Tvardovsky created a number of works that brought him true fame and popular love. Alexander Trifonovich was born in the Smolensk region, on the farm Zagorye. His father was a village blacksmith, a literate and very well-read man. At the age of 15, while studying at rural school, his first poems were published. In the early 1930s, he wrote the poems “The snow melts, the earth moves away”, “Brothers”, “Forest in autumn”, as well as the poem “Country Ant”.

After school, Alexander studies at the Smolensk Pedagogical Institute. This is not the end of his education - in 1939 he entered the Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History in Moscow. Tvardovsky writes about the hardships of village life after the revolution, the problems of collectivization, and is engaged in translations of Belarusian, Armenian, Ukrainian poets.

True glory to Alexander Tvardovsky is brought by works created during the Great Patriotic War, primarily the poem "Vasily Terkin", its hero gains truly popular love. The horrors of war, its cruelty and senselessness are described in the poem "House by the Road", in the poems "Two Lines", "I was killed near Rzhev". Since 1950, Tvardovsky has been the editor of the Novy Mir magazine and has held this post almost until his death.

Poem "Vasily Terkin" became one of the pinnacles of the poet's work, in which the folk soul. The book also includes the poems "Country Ant", "House by the road", "Beyond the distance - distance", "Terkin in the next world", "By the right of memory", which describes the tragic fate of Tvardovsky's father - a dispossessed and exiled peasant blacksmith ; landscape lyrics, war poems and poems recent years, stories and essays.

To the book “Poems. Poems» the works "Vasily Terkin", "Beyond the distance - the distance", "Terkin in the next world", "To the liking of memory" by Tvardovsky are included. The appendices to the book contain excerpts from literary-critical articles about the poet's work.

You will find even more books written by great countrymen in the largest bookstore in the city, Krugozor.

A few salient points

D. Gorshkov, N. Burkin, M. Isakovsky. 1921.

On March 20, 1924, the newspaper Rabochy Put (an organ of the Smolensk Provincial Committee, Gubernia Executive Committee and Provincial Trade Union Council) reported:

“Today, at 6 pm, an organizational meeting of all writers, poets and playwrights of the mountains will be held at the Arena. Smolensk to organize a branch office of the All-Russian Union of Writers.

All professional novelists, poets and playwrights are invited.”

“In connection with the departure of N. N. Zarudin and M. N. Volchanetsky from Smolensk, re-elections of the Arena board took place. The new board included: M. Isakovsky (chairman), B. Burshtyn and Belyavsky (deputy chairmen), M. Urlaub (secretary), Yagodkin, Yatsynov and Glebov (members of the board).

Comrade was elected chairman of the audit commission. Nilov.

Since that time, the Smolensk Writers' Organization has been counting down for 90 years.

Although there is something to be said here. The well-known local historian M. Levitin in the article "Glorious Jubilee" ("R.P." dated April 24, 1997) writes about the 75th anniversary of the organization of Smolensk writers, assuming the year of its foundation - 1922, not 1924. Mikhail Naumovich is based on information from “R. P." on April 11, 1922, which for the first time reported that a branch of the All-Russian Association of Proletarian Poets was organized in Smolensk, which included: M. Isakovsky, Dm. Countryman and N. Semlevsky.

D. Zemlyak and N. Semlevsky are literary pseudonyms, respectively, of D. A. Gorshkov and N. G. Burkina.

M. Levitin writes: “In those distant spring days three of our countrymen, coming from a peasant environment, laid a solid foundation creative union. From there, a path is outlined, the development and growth of future bright talents that have received national recognition is underway. The Smolensk poetic school began to take shape. First of all, the names are associated with it. outstanding poets M. Isakovsky, N. Rylenkov, A. Tvardovsky...”.

Further, M. Levitin, referring to the book by L. V. Shurygina "First Steps" (L. V. Shurygina - candidate of philological sciences, daughter of the Smolensk writer - Bolshevik V. F. Shurygin - a man who met with V. I. Lenin), talks about the post-revolutionary literary process in Smolensk, where two creative directions. “One was represented by poets associated with urban themes and new literary schools. Another - people from the countryside, referring themselves to the proletarian poets and continuers of the classical path in Russian poetry. They were closely associated with Rabochiy Put, whose editor in 1921 was M. Isakovsky. The second group was part of the Smolensk literary studio Proletkult. It was led by the talented poet S. Stradny (Smirnov), who died early. But being a peasant by origin, the leader himself occupied a special position among his like-minded people, gravitating towards Isakovsky and his comrades.

M. Isakovsky with journalists "Working Way". 1922

Both sought to publish joint collections of poetry, to speak to the readers of the Smolensk province. They traveled to Moscow, published in the capital's publications.

Boris Burshtyn, one of the founders of the Arena (along with the poet Nikolai Lukhmanov), tells about one of the trips in his memoirs Four Years, published in the journal. "Offensive", 1935

“At the beginning of the summer of 1921, a number of Proletcult studios, including the literary studio, with all its “full-time” staff, went to Moscow, where a review of proletarian proletcults or something like that took place ... A special train in which they lived in Moscow.

In the capital, Smolensk poets performed at a number of mass evenings and, judging by their stories, were a success.

Not without, as usual, and without curiosities. S. Stradny, having seen enough in Moscow different poets, having visited various poetic taverns, such as Pegasus Stable or Domino Cafe, upon arrival from Moscow, he showed a completely new manner of public reading of poetry. He put his right leg forward, half-bent it at the knee and, starting to tremble with it, recited verses in a howling voice. When his comrades laughed at him, Seryozha assured in the most serious way that this was the latest Moscow fashion and that every self-respecting poet should only read like this ... ".

After the self-dissolution of the Arena, attempts were made to create branches of the Forge, Lef and Pass in Smolensk.

“The Arena participants declared themselves the Smolensk branch of the Forge in January 1925. Isakovsky, Burshtyn, Yatsynov entered its core. Smolensk "Forge" organized literary evenings in local clubs, and at one of them on March 25, 1925, M. Isakovsky successfully read "Radio Bridge" - one of the most characteristic poems ... It was in 1924 - 1925. already formed his own creative individuality, and its first distinguishing feature was the turn to the living concreteness of the new Soviet village. In her image, he also introduced his special loving observation, complemented by a kind of good humor.

The creative searches of Isakovsky did not correspond much to the attitudes and practices of the Moscow "blacksmiths" ... The installations of the "Forge" did not take root in other Smolensk writers either, and in the very first year of its existence, the department of the "Forge" ... disintegrated.

M. Isakovsky. Yelnya, 1921

In December 1926, the Smolensk Association of Proletarian Writers (SAPP) was organized in Smolensk. Its core was the literary group attached to the provincial Komsomol newspaper "Young Comrade". Among its participants were novice poets Pleshkov, Osin, Tvardovsky, Rutman, Fixin. M. Isakovsky was the main and only literary figure of the province, who had a name outside of it. He, moreover, for many years led the literary department of the most important provincial newspaper "Working Way". It was he who published in 1925 the poem of the 15-year-old poet-selkor Alexander Tvardovsky "The New Hut" - his first published poem.

As the head of the Smolensk APP, M. Isakovsky was not very active. Poor eyesight forced - or allowed - to evade most meetings, public speaking ... But when he participated in meetings and meetings, he invariably brought something reasonably calm, honest, benevolent to them ... With all the style of his personality, behavior, creativity, he introduced something distant or opposed to all sorts of Rapp and non-Rapp batons, blathering and blathering. And even as if his invisible presence had beneficial effect. Restrained intriguing and political passions. And right up to his departure to Moscow in 1931, and partly even after, since he continued to maintain close ties with Smolensk, M. Isakovsky was that authority, which local violent zealots only very carefully tried to encroach on.

(From the memoirs of a literary critic, scientist Adrian Makedonov).

At the end of 1927, the first conference of Smolensk writers took place. "Working Way" December 4, 1927 noted:

“About 40 people will attend the provincial conference of proletarian writers. All uyezds will be represented… A representative of the Board of the UAPP arrives from Moscow. He will make a report on the immediate tasks of proletarian literature. After the conference, a literary evening will take place, at which, in addition to Smolensk authors, delegates who have arrived from the village will speak.

The Smolensk APP had 17 members. Most of the "Sappovites" were published in local publications - "Young Comrade", "Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda". M. Isakovsky, D. Osin were published in the central editions.

According to V. Smolin, many published poems were weak and imperfect, their authors lacked elementary poetic literacy. The work of some young poets who wrote on a rural theme stood out in particular. The first place among them was occupied by Alexander Tvardovsky.

“Expectations were justified. The call of the Smolensk Association of Proletarian Writers was answered by both literary circles and single writers scattered in different parts of our province.

The same material says that Isakovsky, Osin, Fiksin, Burenkov and Smolin were included in the newly elected SAPP board. M. Isakovsky was elected Chairman of the Board. VAPP representative, deputy editor of the Young Guard, critic V. V. Yermilov made a report on the immediate tasks of proletarian literature. D. Osin and M. Isakovsky were elected delegates to the All-Union Congress of Proletarian Writers.

Writer and journalist Dmitry Dvoretsky, recalling some moments of literary life in Smolensk in the mid-1930s, says that literary life"I beat the key." He connects this with the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers of the USSR in 1934, which gave impetus to the development of the activities of local writers' organizations. The Smolensk delegation included Mikhail Zavyalov, who became the head of the Smolensk branch of the Union of Soviet Writers, Alexander Tvardovsky, Nikolai Rylenkov and Adrian Makedonov.

It should be added that other delegates associated with the Smolensk region also participated in the congress. Among them, a native of Shilovo-Smolenskoye, Dorogobuzh district, Smolensk province. writer Vasily Ilyenkov (laureate Stalin Prize), who moved to Moscow in 1930 and until 1932 was the organizational secretary of the RAPP; V. Ilyenkov's novel "Big Road", written on the materials of the Smolensk region, was awarded the State. USSR Prize. Among the participants of the congress was the Smolensk writer, Komsomol poet Konstantin Dolgonenkov - in 1941 - 1943. - editor of the newspaper "New Way" - the organ of the Smolensk city government; after the war - in exile, lived under. fam. Domanenko, collaborated in the "Russian Thought" (pseudo. K. Akimych). Anatoly Kamegulov, who was born in Smolensk in 1900 in the family of a priest, was also a participant in the congress.

On the opening day of the congress (August 17, 1934), a huge crowd gathered in front of the House of Unions wishing to see famous writers with their own eyes. Even the congress delegates themselves struggled to squeeze through the crowd. One of the delegates, A. Karavaeva, recalled: “On a sunny August morning in 1934, approaching the House of the Unions, I saw a large and lively crowd. Amidst the chatter and applause - just like in the theater - someone's young voice was heard, which energetically called: “Comrade delegates of the First Congress of Soviet Writers! As you enter this hall, don't forget to pick up your historical mandate! Who, what delegate and from where came to the congress ... Soviet people wants to see and know you all! Call, comrades, your last name and show your delegate card!” This energetic young man sonorously repeated each writer's surname twice, and the audience greeted the appearance of a new delegate with friendly applause.

“Smolensk writers ... in 1936 wrote and published a lot good books, - recalls D. Dvoretsky. - These are the poems of Alexander Tvardovsky "The Path to Socialism" and "Country of Ants" ... Mikhail Isakovsky published in Zapgiz collections of poems "Province", "War with cockroaches" and "Along and along the street, along and along the Kazanka" ("Along and along the road , along and along the Kazanka”, 1934 - N. Ch.) ... In 1933, the first book of lyrical poems by Nikolai Rylenkov “My Heroes” was published in Zapgiz, and four years later ... the collection “Spikes”.

During these years, books were published by M. Zavyalov, V. Kudimov, V. Shurygin, V. Aristov, E. Maryenkov; in the collective collection "Poems about a prosperous life", in addition to those named by A. Tvardovsky, N. Rylenkov, the poet S. Fixin takes part. The poet N. Gribachev, critics I. Katz, V. Muravyov, E. Belenky, Y. Sinelnikov work in Smolensk ... The monthly literary magazine "Offensive", "Literary Gazette" are published here ...

This is on the one hand.

On the other hand, in these very years, “the work of Smolensk writers was overshadowed by persecution, persecution, attacks by biased criticism ... Tvardovsky, Marienkov, Zavyalov, Makedonov and others were subjected to disgrace and repression in the 30s, who, under the most severe conditions of the former regime, sought to defend their free art word"(M. Levitin, from the article "Glorious Anniversary", "R.P.", April 24, 1997).

The delegate of the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers M. Zavyalov, being illegally repressed in 1937, died in a transit prison.

The writer N. Antonov in the article "The Writer and the Bolshevik" (1967) writes about M. Zavyalov as a man of "great spiritual charm and a sympathetic heart, he skillfully rallied the organization of a new creative association. A. Tvardovsky, N. Rylenkov, D. Osin and others felt his help.

Around the poem by A. Tvardovsky "Country of the Ant", which later received the State Prize, literary battles ensued. Mikhail Sergeevich was among those who supported the poet.”

N. Antonov quotes the words of the writer's wife D. Zavyalova about her husband:

“... He came from a meeting of writers (where for the first time ... “The Land of the Ant” was read) and with what enthusiasm he told me: “Today we witnessed the birth of a large talented literary canvas.”

N. Antonov further speaks about M. Zavyalov: “Having found his other vocation in fiction, he literally free time gives to literary creativity. He writes both on holidays and in a sanatorium, he writes when he is seriously ill ...

He dreamed of a time when he could "give all his soul to literature."

He told V.P. Ilyenkov:

“I see for myself: literature must be given all the strength of the soul. I’ll finish my work at the workers’ faculty and will only write, write ... ”.

He lamented:

“I was late to enter literature. He lived so much and created so little. If only I could live to be 50 years old, we could do a lot more.”

Didn't live.

M. S. Zavyalov lived only forty years. He left us in 1937, slandered... But how tense, with what holy burning his short life was filled!

Another congress delegate, A. D. Kamegulov, was illegally repressed and shot on October 9, 1937.

A. Makedonov was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

From the autobiography of A. Makedonov.

“I, Makedonov, Adrian Vladimirovich, was born in 1909 on May 22 in the city of Smolensk and then lived there with short breaks until August 1937 ... I graduated from Smolensk University, Faculty of Education, in 1930; graduated (externally) from the Faculty of Geography Saratov University in 1950 before that in 1925 in Smolensk he graduated from a demonstration school at the Smolensk University, and in 1936 - full-time postgraduate studies at the Smolensk Pedagogical Institute, majoring in Russian literature, under the scientific guidance of A. G. Zeitlin, who came from Moscow to Smolensk. In 1936 he presented his Ph.D. thesis to the Moscow pedagogical institute, on the topic - "The problem of the hero in the aesthetics of Belinsky." The dissertation was accepted, received 3 positive reviews, including a review with a proposal to award me a doctorate right away, in May 1937 a defense was appointed, reviews were read, quite positive, quite a lot of people gathered, Tvardovsky was also present. But after all this, according to the statement of the scientific secretary of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute (by the name of Zvirbul), the defense was postponed, since I refused to sign the false autobiography composed by this Zvirbul on my behalf. Apparently, some information was received from Smolensk, since my study had already begun. The thesis later, according to A. G. Zeitlin, whom I saw in the late 1940s, went from hand to hand and was lost by the time I arrived in Moscow. It seems that it was in the hands of A. Lavretsky, who in his book on Belinsky used a number of thesis statements, without any references, of course.

Since 1927, I actively participated in the work of Smolensk literary organizations, from the end of 1927 to April 1932 I was a member of the Smolensk city, and then the regional Western association of proletarian writers ... Since 1927, I have been published in Smolensk and central magazines and newspapers as a literary critic and literary critic . I consider the main series of articles about Pushkin in 1935 - 1937, published in the journal "Literary Critic" and partly in the journal "Literary Review", as well as a series of articles about Belinsky, published in various Moscow magazines and in the Smolensk magazine "Offensive" ...

After a break in 1937 - 1956. again began to publish as a literary critic and literary critic, in total he published more than 200 works in this specialty, including 5 books - "Essays on Soviet Poetry", 1960, Smolensk, written back in Vorkuta; "Nikolai Zabolotsky, life, creativity, metamorphoses", 1968, Leningrad, publishing house "Soviet Writer"; "Achievements and eve / about the poetics of Russian Soviet lyrics of the 30s - 70s /", in the same publishing house, Leningrad, 1985; in 1981 - “The creative path of Tvardovsky. Houses and roads. Moscow, publishing house "Fiction"; in 1986 - "Poetry of the People's Feat", Moscow, Sovremennik publishing house. Currently, the second, supplemented and corrected edition of the book about Zabolotsky is in print ... "

In the book "Vorkuta you, Vorkuta ..." A. Makedonov, who became a prominent scientist, doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences, recalls.

“On August 21, 1937, Tvardovsky sat in my Smolensk apartment until eleven in the evening. And half an hour later I was arrested. I lived in Smolensk... And Tvardovsky was already living in Moscow, but in the summer he would visit his native places, rent a dacha or an apartment. He often looked at me, knocked on the window from the street, asked: “Is Socrates at home?” ...

We also discussed the general situation with him. There was an illusion ... that Stalin continued the work of Lenin and that, despite all the outrages during the period of forced collectivization ... the country was rapidly moving forward along the path of creating a new socialist society.

Tvardovsky had no doubts about it. He simply could not know a lot, for example, none of us knew what was happening even then in the dungeons of the Ministry of Internal Affairs ...

Tvardovsky's parents were incorrectly dispossessed, and he knew that they were not kulaks. He also knew about many other cases of incorrect dispossession of kulaks. Even while agreeing that the liquidation of the kulaks as a class was a necessity, he nevertheless said more than once... that the liquidation of a class does not mean the liquidation of people...

At one time, Tvardovsky found himself almost completely alone among the local writers. A certain Gorbatenkov hated him, and at the same time me, for the systematic defense of the "kulak" poet Tvardovsky. Hence, a joint political case arose against me, Tvardovsky and three other Smolensk writers, among whom was one of the poet's opponents.

A warrant had already been issued for the search and arrest of Tvardovsky, and the next day after my arrest they came for him, but on the morning of August 22, Tvardovsky found out about my arrest, felt that he was threatened, and immediately left for Moscow ... A direct “incriminating” was also prepared Tvardovsky in sympathy for the kulaks is a fact: an episode from the "Country of the Ant", which was not allowed by the censors at that time ("They were not beaten, they were not knitted ..."). This fragment, which exposed the real horror of dispossession with amazing force, he was able to introduce into the text of the poem only after Stalin's death.

However, when the case was sent by the Smolensk Ministry of Internal Affairs to Moscow, it did not go further, since the poem had already been approved by Fadeev, without whose sanction Tvardovsky could not be arrested.

It became known that the poem was read by Stalin himself and he liked it. Stalin realized that he could tame and use a new great talent, that the "Country of the Ant" could be interpreted as a justification for collectivization, although the poem constantly emphasizes the possibility of another, voluntary, association in the collective farm.

As a result, Gorbatenkov had to... Find an excuse and punish the defender Tvardovsky Makedonov, but for other reasons...
They recalled my “seditious” article about Mayakovsky’s suicide, published in Rabochy put… In this article, I wrote that Mayakovsky’s suicide cannot be explained by any personal reasons or only by them and is connected with his internal divergence from our reality and party line in the field of literature ...

How was my life inside the prison in Smolensk?

... there was a large cell, which from time to time was jam-packed ... at one time, Sosin, deputy chairman of the regional executive committee, was put there, who proved ... to his cellmates that if the party needs to stage such processes, then you need to listen to the party. At this time, almost the entire composition of the local party elite was arrested, starting with the first secretary of the regional committee, a Bolshevik from 1905 ... Almost all of them were shot, including ... and Sosin. Many… tried to resist. They were brutally beaten, and after being beaten, forced to stand for twenty-four hours or more, they, as a rule, signed what the investigators demanded ...

My article was formulated in 58-10, part II, that is... counter-revolutionary agitation and counter-revolutionary organization...

And finally, the transfer. Here we were all given a date for the first time before being sent to the stage. Both my wife and my mother took part in the meeting... During the transfer, I also saw my confessed co-workers: Zavyalov, Mandrik, Maryenkov, Muravyov. They all held together, were extremely embittered, and I avoided them - both for their cowardice, and for the fact that they were already completely disappointed in everything that they had previously believed in ... ".

Further, A. Makedonov speaks about his mother, who taught English and German at a technical school, about her fruitless wanderings and petitions in Moscow for her son. In the end, she too was arrested, imprisoned, convicted by the "troika" and shot...

A. Makedonov was serving his sentence in the village of Rudnik on the right bank of the Vorkuta River, on the site of a newly built coal mine. He worked for 10 hours, excluding travel time to the place of work and back - on auxiliary, excavation, loading, etc. work. He was also an exterminator.

“The tent was inhabited by some political people. People were of different nationalities, professions, education. Some recited Latin verses by heart...

Most of the books circulating in the tent, according to rumors, came from those personal libraries that political prisoners who were then shot had ...

Time passed. My release date was approaching. Officially, it was supposed to end on August 21, 1945. But the Stalinist regime came up with another complication. The systematic detention of a part of the prisoners until ... "special order."

But here, nevertheless, Tvardovsky intervened and I sat out only six months.

A. Tvardovsky at the front. 1942.

It should be said that out of almost 600 delegates to the 1st Congress of Soviet Writers, about 180 of them were illegally arrested in the next few years, accused of organizing counter-revolutionary activities, spying for foreign states, and other unthinkable mortal sins, and were shot! Often the sentence was carried out - on the day of its pronouncement. All of them were subsequently rehabilitated ...

Since the inception of the Smolensk Writers' Organization, Ivan Prokofievich Ivanov, "an excellent musician, book lover, a penetrating connoisseur of Smolensk antiquity," had the closest connection with it, as the writer Vera Zvezdaeva testifies. In the early 1930s I. P. Ivanov, being the director of the regional library. V. I. Lenin, “sheltered writers who had nowhere to gather (before the opening of the House of Arts), in his tiny office. This cramped, semi-dark little room was modestly called the "writer's office", saw and heard within its walls Makedonov, Tvardovsky, Rylenkov, Maryenkov, Kudimov ...

On Saturdays, poems were read here, previously posted right on the wall for review, prose, disputes were in full swing ... ".

Vera Andreevna recalls the story of I.P. Ivanov - about how one day in June, after the start of the war, "in a burning, collapsing city ... in a pitch hell ... on Blonya" met "Nikolai Ivanovich Rylenkov, future professors Sobolev and Makovsky, Ivan Prokofievich Ivanov ...

These four, in the most obvious way, were entitled to the reservation and, one must think, would have brought tremendous benefits in the rear as well. But what united them in those terrible days was that they themselves chose - only to the front.

“Leninskaya Street was already on fire,” V. Zvezdaeva continues to recall. - These four are trying to find someone from the draft board. But they learn that everyone has already been evacuated. Then they go to the city party committee. Here they are told that the Germans are close, they write one direction for all - to any military registration and enlistment office that they find.

We went along the burning Sovetskaya to the station ... When we approached it, another bombardment began on the living - refugees, the population of the city in trains ready to be sent ... We moved on on foot. At the station Dukhovskaya managed to board the train. Almost a day he pulled to Yartsevo. It was also bombed, the entire center burned to the ground.

But the recruiting office was found. But they got into the army.”

In his autobiography, N. I. Rylenkov writes:

“At the front, I commanded a platoon in a sapper battalion, mined and cleared fields, dug anti-tank ditches, built fortifications, and at night in a dugout, between bombings, I wrote poetry, not thinking about the possibility of publishing them. It was in these verses, later included in the collections "Blue Wine" and "Farewell to Youth", that, it seems to me, sounded the voice of a shocked consciousness, an indignant conscience ...

These days, I felt especially keenly that the main thing in poetry is the complete and organic fusion of personal and social motives, modernity and history ... ".

On January 18, 1944, the first (since the liberation of the Smolensk region from the Nazi occupation) general meeting of the Union of Soviet Writers of the Smolensk Region took place under the agitation and propaganda department of the Smolensk Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Zagorye. Former front-line correspondent Vasily Arkashev shows a photo of A. Tvardovsky,made after the liberation of the Smolensk region. 1989.

The meeting was attended by writers: A. Tvardovsky, who was in Smolensk as a military correspondent for the Western Front newspaper Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda, N. Rylenkov, V. Kudimov, D. Osin and V. Shurygin, from the regional committee of the CPSU (b) F. Krylov.

The issue of resuming the work of the Smolensk branch of the Union of Soviet Writers, temporarily interrupted in connection with the military events in the Smolensk region, was discussed.

The authorized SSP for the Smolensk region was unanimously elected. They became N. I. Rylenkov. Org. V. Kudimov (M. D. Bogomolov) was elected secretary and referent for work with novice writers.

N. I. Rylenkov was entrusted with managing the Union's loans and making cash payments.

The issue of summoning Smolensk writers who were evacuated was also considered.

May 10, 1944 on general meeting Smolensk writers, the issue of preparing for the production of the almanac "Literary Smolensk" was considered.

It was decided to take an active part in compiling the collection "What they did to our city."

Discussed the organization creative work writers, with a decision - to convene creative meetings, with the involvement of a literary asset - once every two weeks; in addition, to take part in the organization of the weekly literary "Wednesdays" organized by the "Working Way".

At the same meeting, it was decided to regional competition for the best story and poem, dedicated to showing the restoration of the region, with the involvement of Smolensk writers and poets who are at the fronts and in evacuation.

The question of a permanent literary consultation has also been resolved.

V. Kudimov was elected a representative of the Literary Fund for the Smolensk region.

Another important question considered at the meeting - housing. In view of the complete lack of housing space for the needs of writers, considering the destruction that the enemy caused to Smolensk, taking into account also that the lack of housing prevents the return of writers who are in evacuation, the meeting decided to ask the regional executive committee and the city council to book a 4-apartment house for writers.

The compiled cost estimate for the Union of Soviet Writers of the Smolensk Region for the war year 1944 provided for: administrative expenses, which included salaries : authorized by the Union - 800 rubles. per month; organizing secretary and referent - 1200 rubles; secretary-typist - 400 rubles; librarian - 475 rubles; part-time accountant - 325 rubles. Postage and office expenses - 100 rubles. per month. Business trips - 1200 rubles. in a year. Maintenance of the premises - 150 rubles. per month. Purchase of furniture - 3000 rubles, annual amount. Purchase of a typewriter - 7000 rubles, an annual amount. Extract from newspapers and magazines - 1227 rubles. 20 kop. - Amount per year.

Creative work: consultations and creative assistance to novice writers - 1000 rubles. per month; collection of materials on the history of the Patriotic War - 3000 rubles. per month; convening a regional conference of writers - 15,000 rubles, an annual amount; creation of a reference library - 2000 rubles. per month; organizational studies for writers - 1000 rubles. per month; re-evacuation of writers - 1000 rubles. per month.

May 29, 1945 - N. I. Rylenkov (responsible secretary of the Smolensk branch of the Union of Soviet Writers), V. Kudimov (M. D. Bogomolov) (authorized literary fund), writer V. F. Shurygin (director of the Smolensk Institute of Local Lore) with with the participation of expert N. G. Antonov (director of SmolGiz), they drew up an act on the damage caused by the Nazi invaders to the property of the branch of the Writers' Union.

The following has been established:

On the night of June 28-29, 1941, during a major German air raid on Smolensk, the writers' club was destroyed and burned down, located on Pochtamskaya Street, house number 8 (now Konenkova Street - N. Ch.). The club building - the first floor is stone, the second - wooden. The area of ​​the house is 300 square meters. All furniture, library, equipped billiard room, buffet-dining room, art studio, creative offices and a conference hall - perished.

Types of destroyed property.

The building is completely destroyed - 250,000 rubles.

Library 10,000 volumes - 400,000 rubles.

Equipment (stylish furniture, piano, sofas, tapestries, carpets, billiards) - 250,000 rubles.

Two typewriters - 20,000 rubles.

The total amount of damage is 920,000 rubles.

How acute the problem with housing was, testifies to the letter of N. Rylenkov and N. Antonov - to the secretary of the Smolensk regional committee of the CPSU (b) Popov and the chairman of the regional executive committee Melnikov.

“Before the war, the Smolensk branch of the Union of Soviet Writers occupied one of the first places among the regional and regional branches of the Soviet Union, both in terms of the volume and nature of its work, and in terms of the professional composition of writers ... Poets M. Isakovsky, A. Tvardovsky and others left the Smolensk organization comrades who are published in central publications and take their place in Soviet literature...

Based on the decision of the Presidium of the Union of Soviet Writers of the USSR, all writers who were previously evacuated are obliged to return to their former place of residence in order to continue their literary activities.

At the call of the Smolensk Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the writer V. Kudimov returned in January, and the writer V. Lyutova returned in July. So far he lives in Moscow, but the poet D. Osin must return. We keep in close contact with front-line writers and even with some of the other regions who intend to settle in the city of Smolensk after the war ... Creating a new writers' organization, gathering people and establishing publishing- It is a painstaking and complex and time-consuming task.

…the most important thing is the housing issue. We are powerless to help and cannot demand from writers of works if they do not have the most minimal and modest conditions for their work. For example, V. Kudimov has been living in a hotel in a common room for the eighth month now, while at the same time working on a novel about the restoration of Smolensk. The writer V. Lyutova also does not even have a sufficiently equipped bed and is in even worse conditions ... Due to the lack of housing, the poet Osin also cannot move his family to Smolensk and is cut off from our organization. We are not talking about the families of front-line writers N. Gribachev, S. Fiksin and others, who are either in evacuation or in other areas. And therefore, it is not surprising that the comrades who have already arrived are forced to raise the question of their departure from Smolensk and outside the region... agreed to leave for Odessa.

In view of the foregoing, the Union of Soviet Writers and the regional publishing house of OGIZ ask you personally, comrade. Popov, and you, comrade. Melnikov, to help us in resolving so far the only and primary issue with housing for Smolensk writers.

I will name only one event that to some extent characterizes the literary process in the Smolensk region in the postwar years.

Meeting of writers and literary activists of the Smolensk region in the regional committee of the CPSU on February 19, 1953

N. Antonov, editor of the Smolensk Almanac, spoke about the results of the All-Union Conference of Editors of Russian Literary and Artistic Almanacs and the leaders of local organizations of the SSP and the tasks of writers in the Smolensk region. Excerpts from his speech.

“To the poetic departments of the almanacs of comrade. Sofronov (poet, playwright, screenwriter A. Sofronov - N. Ch.) ... gave an unsatisfactory assessment ... Too many poems are printed in the almanacs, many of them are depressingly similar to one another ... There are many fragments in the almanacs, few completed, artistically mature poetic works. A person with his feelings, thoughts, dreams is not always in the center of the poet's attention. The world of the human soul ... is often obscured by the description of production processes. Often young poets are captivated by literature, undemanding to the word. In the poetry departments, there are especially a lot of gray works, and sometimes even hacky ones.

“Let poems,” says the speaker, “be published less often in almanacs, but let them be better, and then tens and hundreds of copies of unsold almanacs will not lie overstocked in book warehouses!”...

Another drawback is contemplation...

Here, the poet went out into the field, he sees - streams flow, steam comes from the earth, asks for seeds; the tractor plows, a girl sings a song on it, or a guy, of course, a former front-line soldier, and with these hands he holds the steering wheel of the tank, and now he exceeds the norms, and that's it. Information, reporting, newsreel, not poetry. And here we are at home, in the editorial board, instead of sending such a poem into a basket, we argue with a thoughtful look: here, well done Dvoretsky, Bodrenkov or Korneev, or Vasilevsky ... He knows that the region is agricultural, that it is equipped with machines. And we “squeeze” the poem in the almanac ... "

From the closing remarks of N. I. Rylenkov, Executive Secretary of the Smolensk Writers' Organization.

“In my opinion, we have three significant shortcomings.

The first shortcoming in the work of our branch of the Union and in the work of each writer individually is a superficial, shallow knowledge of life, a separation from life. At the Moscow meeting, many said that they were jealous of us, that we did not have to go on business trips. And I will say that you can break away from life anywhere, even in the district and on the collective farm ...

It seems to me that our writers also need to go on business trips in order to know what surrounds us, what is in close proximity to us. Closedness is a great misfortune for many of our comrades working in Smolensk, and a great misfortune for our branch of the Union, which could not create such a situation that people would not feel isolated, would not plunge into the swamp. And we have such phenomena. This is the first and most terrible drawback.

The second drawback… is that the Marxist-Leninist education is at a very low level… This is intolerable. No matter how talented a writer is, he will not be able to create anything if he is not properly armed with Marxist-Leninist knowledge.

The third drawback is the poor organization of our creative, professional studies. The aesthetic level of our writers is very low. The vast majority of artistic culture is very poor. And therefore, it is natural that many works turn out to be weak, written in a gray, inexpressive language ... ".

M. Isakovsky and N. Rylenkov at the 50th anniversary of N. Rylenkov. 1959.

Over the following years, in the Smolensk region, with the participation of the writers' organization, many literary events of various sizes were held. The most significant of them was the visiting meeting of the Secretariat of the Union of Writers of the RSFSR in Smolensk on December 11 - 12, 1974 (topic: "New in the poetry of the 70s), headed by Chairman of the Board S. V. Mikhalkov, with the participation of Yuri Bondarev, Sergei Zalygin, Vilya Lipatov, Sergei Orlov, Lyudmila Tatyanicheva, Oleg Shestinsky, Daniil Granin, Viktor Bokov, Sergei Vasiliev, Sergei Vikulov, Gleb Gorbovsky, Nikolai Dorizo, Evgeny Dolmatovsky, Yulia Drunina, Kaisyn Kuliev, Sergei Ostrovoy, Yuri Prokushev, Valentin Sorokin, Vladimir Firsov and other famous writers.

Here are some of the participants' comments.

People's poet of the Kabardino-Balkarian SSR, laureate State Prize USSR poet Kaysyn Shuvayevich Kuliev. Speaking in the debate, Kaysyn Kuliev said:

“I have not been in Smolensk for a very long time, and I am glad that in these winter days I had to see all this.

And not only because Smolensk is better than other cities. Smolensk is very good. It is a city with great historical traditions.

I am glad because this is the city of Tvardovsky. I have already said and I say that this is the city where Isakovsky and Rylenkov lived.

But I want to say that in this city I really miss one person. I miss this person in my trips around Russia, regions and territories.

This man is Nikolai Ivanovich Rylenkov. I also miss him at the Moskva Hotel. And there was no such case that when I arrived after his death, I did not remember him.

I have already recognized many of my acquaintances - smart, wonderful poets. But I really miss Nikolai Ivanovich Rylenkov ... ".

N. Rylenkov in his office at work. 1968.

Chairman of the Committee for Printing, Polygraphy and Book Trade of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR N. G. Sviridov:

“At the All-Russian Seminar of Editors, the question of a better selection of works for publication, of raising the criteria for evaluating poems, was very sharply raised. In this regard, many recalled the deeply interested, cautionary words of the great Russian poet, about whom many spoke here - Mikhail Vasilyevich Isakovsky: “If in our country,” he wrote, “with the same intensity and in such quantity as now, poetry collections will be published, if such a myriad of poems appear in magazines, almanacs, newspapers and radio and television programs, then all this will inevitably turn into a very big disaster ... We can discourage any desire to read poetry ... ".

And then Mikhail Isakovsky rightly advised: “It is not clear why chase after the number of bad, or even average collections that bring material damage and at the same time discredit genuine poetry? Why should the state pay many immature poets for their inability to write good poetry?!”

Poet, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Our Contemporary" Sergey Vikulov:

“... The secretariat of our Russian Union of Writers acted very shrewdly and wisely, choosing Smolensk, and not some other city, for a creative conversation about modern poetry.

Smolensk is the land of Tvardovsky, whom S. V. Mikhalkov, at the solemn act of opening a memorial plaque on the building of the pedagogical institute, called not just an outstanding, but a great poet. I think that our descendants will not dispute this statement, which we fully share.

We know that Tvardovsky is great. This is, firstly, a genuine, and secondly, a high, I would say, courageous citizenship and ideological poet. And we, talking about modern poetry on earth, which still remembers not only the voice, but also the breath of Tvardovsky, cannot help but correlate the work of our mind and heart with great work which he did. Almost all speakers from this rostrum mentioned his name, repelled from one or another of his testament, left to us, his contemporaries, for edification and teaching ... "

Zagorye. Opening of a memorial stone, 1980.

The blow to the Smolensk writers was the liquidation in January 1964 of the regional book publishing house. For almost 30 years, attempts were made to restore the publishing house. And only in the early 1990s did this succeed (ed. "Smyadyn"). But those were other times...

After N. I. Rylenkov, the Smolensk Writers' Organization was led by Nikolai Antonov, Yuri Pashkov, Leonid Kozyr, Viktor Smirnov, Vladimir Tazov ...

Smolensk writers

More than once the organization faced a real threat: "To be or not to be" - in the 1950s and during the years of the collapse of the Soviet state.

During this "troubled time" two writers' organizations began to exist in Smolensk - the regional organization of the Writers' Union of Russia, headed by the playwright Nina Semenova, and the regional branch of the Union of Russian Writers, headed by the poet Leonid Kozyr. After the death of Nina Artemovna, Viktor Smirnov again became her successor. Today the organization is headed by the poet, literary critic, essayist Oleg Dorogan. The regional branch of the Union of Russian Writers was headed by the poet Vera Ivanova. Now it is headed by the poet and publicist Vladimir Makarenkov.

Materials of the state archive were used

Smolensk region (text, photo), state archive of the latest history of the Smolensk region (photo), Internet.