See what "Kataev, I.M." in other dictionaries

Mikhail Kataev was born in 1903 in the village of Osmeryzhsk, Kachirsky district, Pavlodar region, in the family of a poor peasant. Russian. Due to material deprivation, Mikhail barely managed to finish elementary school. In 1925 he was drafted into the Red Army. He served in the cavalry troops on one of the sections of the southern border, took part in the liquidation of the remnants of the Basmachi bands. After demobilization, in 1927, fellow villagers elected M. M. Kataev as chairman of the village council. He takes an active part in the creation of the collective farm "Red Plowman".

Before the Great Patriotic War, M. M. Kataev worked in Pavlodar as an accountant of the city health department. At the front since 1941.

In the battles near Moscow, the heroic chronicle of the front-line life of Mikhail Maksimovich Kataev began. For his courage and bravery, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Overcoming the stubborn resistance of the enemy, units of the 7th Guards Cavalry Corps, in which Guards Sergeant Kataev fought as a gunner of the 7th Guards Anti-tank Fighter Division, approached the Dnieper at the end of September 1943. On the night of September 26-27, 1943, the guard foreman Kataev, with three crews of anti-tank rifles, having built a raft from improvised material, began crossing to the western bank of the Dnieper under heavy machine-gun fire from the enemy. Almost in the middle of the river, the raft was broken. But the brave warrior did not lose his head, in full combat gear, Mikhail Maksimovich rushed into the water, captivating the rest of the fighters with his personal example. Having reached the shore first, the foreman of the guard entered into an unequal battle with the enemy. Under the cover of night, Kataev, with a group of daredevils who came to the rescue, crawled to the trenches, threw grenades at them and destroyed 8 German soldiers from his personal weapons. The boundless love for the Motherland, the courage and bravery shown by M. M. Kataev during the crossing of the Dnieper ensured the successful overcoming of the water barrier.

The motherland highly appreciated the feat of our fellow countryman. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on January 15, 1944, Mikhail Maksimovich Kataev was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In January 1944, our troops fought for the liberation of southeastern Belarus from the fascist evil spirits. On January 26, units of the 7th Guards Cavalry Corps, having broken the stubborn resistance of the enemy, broke into the city of Mozyr. Fierce fighting ensued on the streets of the city. Under the onslaught of Soviet troops, the enemy began to leave the city. Fascist tanks tried to leave along one of the streets. Mikhail Kataev ordered his soldiers to go around, and he himself threw two grenades into the front tank one after another. But the tank continued to move forward. Then the Hero of the Soviet Union M. M. Kataev with the remaining grenades rushes under the tank. The hero died, but the blazing tank also stopped, a traffic jam formed, and the armor-piercers who came to the rescue knocked out several Vrayases vehicles. Soon, the scarlet banner of the country of the Soviets flew over the Belarusian city of Mozyr.

The feat of M. M. Kataev is not forgotten. One of the streets of Mozyr bears the name of the Hero of the Soviet Union M. Kataev. In the center of the city there is a shield with a portrait of the Hero and a description of his feat.

The memory of the Hero is also sacredly revered by Pavlodar residents. One of the streets of the city is named after him. A memorial plaque was installed on the building where M. M. Kataev worked before the war.

Valentin Petrovich Kataev is a world famous writer. But these are dry, general words. It is especially dear to Odessans. Who else could describe our city with such sincere love as Valentin Petrovich in the story “The lonely sail turns white”? Without whom, there would not be not only everyone's favorite books, but even the image of Ostap Bender, without which Odessa would not be Odessa?

The granddaughter of Valentin Kataev is called Tina. This petite woman editor of the Moscow magazine "In the world of science", a well-known journalist.

Catching bandits is easier than writing:
- According to the memoirs of Valentin Petrovich, it was he who gave the idea of ​​"12 chairs". Is it really true?

Yes. The situation developed in this way. Yevgeny Kataev came from Odessa to Moscow to visit his older brother. And he decided to show how independent he is - he got a job in the criminal investigation department. Grandfather had the main task - to come up with anything, just so that he would voluntarily leave from there. Firstly, life-threatening, and secondly, Eugene was very young and emotional. Grandfather began to invite him to write. He says: “Well, is it really easier for you to catch bandits than to write?” At first, Kataev Jr. composed feuilletons for Gudok. Later he met Ilf, they came to the grandfather. (In order not to have two Kataev writers, they decided that the younger brother - it seems that he had not grown up to the elder one - would have a pseudonym, and took Petrov in honor of his father.) Together they discussed what they would write like that. And the grandfather says: “Guys, I’m your master, and you can say auxiliary workers, I’ll tell you the topic now, I’ll give you an idea, you will write everything to me, and I’ll go through the master’s hand. Dumas has a brilliant idea. Let's say there is a certain treasure, value or something that is hidden in a certain number of objects. Let's write to me on this subject. Will watch later". Kataev forgot about it, but they took and wrote "The Twelve Chairs". And when they brought the novel, so that he walked over it with the hand of a master, he said: “Guys, why do you need me? You did great."

So the idea was actually his. Grandfather managed to connect two people who had a complementary gift.

Moreover, he said: “That's it. I take off my last name, I don’t pass by the master’s hand, you are only for submitting the idea - a golden cigarette case! Well, they were upset - it would be a little expensive, but they gave him a cigarette case. Golden, but small, feminine.

So, it was Valentin Petrovich who introduced Ilf and Petrov?

It was a certain literary environment where everyone was familiar with each other. Naturally, when Petrov arrived in Moscow, grandfather introduced him to everyone he knew, but then he got to know himself.

Playing with ears and "Collected Works"

Did Valentin Petrovich tell you anything about his childhood spent in Odessa?

Grandfather's childhood memories are, in fact, “A lonely sail turns white” and “Waves of the Black Sea”. This is all, of course, fiction, but it is very clearly based on childhood memories.

And the fisherman's hut, and...?

Yes. Fictional characters had a real basis.

The images are collective, but there were similar people. Moreover, this work can be used to study the history of Odessa at that time. Let's take the history of the costume. Or, for example, playing with ears is an absolutely clear sign of that time. Even the description of the button matches one to one.

Did your grandfather know Bunin?

Kataev's literary career began with the fact that at the age of seven he started a stack of notebooks and wrote "Collected Works" on it.

At the age of sixteen he came to Bunin.

Bunin was the greatest writer of that time, recognized, but he was famous for his difficult character and did not accept young authors well. Grandfather brought him a notebook with poems, left. And when he came to find out the result, Bunin accepted it. In principle, Kataev did not count on this. Thus began their creative communication. When grandfather was already an accomplished writer, Bunin immigrated. He lived in Paris, wrote "Dark Alleys" and they did not communicate, because it was the Soviet era, and it was simply dangerous for the fate of grandfather. Bunin was very worried about him, he was afraid to send letters, and when delegations of Soviet writers came to Paris, he said “No-no-no-no-no, I don’t want to know anything.” Later, grandparents were in France, they visited Bunin's wife. This was a few years after his death. His wife greeted them with meringues. She remembered that when, at the age of sixteen, her grandfather came to visit them, he said that these were his favorite cakes.

My coffin will hit the railing of the stairs

What are Kataev's impressions of Bulgakov?

Relationships have changed throughout life. But Bulgakov was close to him. Grandfather in his old age recalled how sensitive Bulgakov was and a brilliant artist, because he said "When I die, when they carry me out of the house, my coffin will hit something on the railing of the stairs." In addition to some human things, spiritual ties were very strong.

70 percent sixties

I believe that in our time and in our literature this is not the case.

Maybe the sixties had some kind of surge, but in principle, now we have come to a stalemate in this regard. Our life must be formed in some other way in order for a new surge to occur. The foam should subside.

As for the sixties - after all, Valentin Petrovich was the editor of the magazine "Youth" and he was the first to start publishing them? Yevtushenko, Akhmadulin and all the others?

Yes, he was the editor-in-chief of the magazine for six years (from 1955 to 1961) and his main task was to find young talented writers. He pulled out Aksyonov - Vasily Aksyonov and Anatoly Gladilin, whom he simply adored. He found Voznesensky, Yevtushenko, Bella Akhmadulina and others.

Christmas too?

Rozhdestvensky was himself famous, but, nevertheless, yes. In principle, 70 percent of the sixties - this is the grandfather took out. And he had an absolutely amazing assistant, comrade-in-arms - Maria Lazarevna Ozerova. She is still alive. They both fought. And such a situation occurred - they began to tighten the screws on him. They began to say, “But this should not be published,” a certain amount of pressure. He stepped down as editor-in-chief of his own accord. Khrushchev was completely furious, he said "I have none of the chief editors has the right to submit an application of their own free will." They couldn’t really poison him, he was too famous, but his works were no longer mentioned in the press. He beautifully left, said that he wanted to do only creativity. Didn't let anyone down, but it still angered me. And he actually left due to the fact that he could no longer do what he considered necessary.

Mayakovsky and runny nose

Very good relations were with Yesenin. This is both youth and the atmosphere of the inseparability of life from art, one circle, one impulse.

He was also in very close relations with Mayakovsky. Before perestroika, there were different versions of Mayakovsky's death. Someone said that it was the Cheka who provoked his murder, and his beloved ...

Lila Brik?

No, not Lilya Brik, but the second one. Polonskaya. It was said that she could have shot him. Grandfather saw him the day before his death, or rather in the evening. He said that Mayakovsky had a runny nose and a disgusting mood. This is what happens when the last drop is missing. He said that Mayakovsky tried to commit suicide several times. Moreover, he inserted one cartridge, and left notes.

The only Russian writer

Valentin Petrovich was a corresponding member of the Goncourt Academy, how was that possible in those days?

Whatever the times, whatever the closed country, there are still international literary academies, communities. And since the works of a person are still published, then according to certain works, he is elected an honorary member. At the Academy of Goncourt at that time, Kataev was the only Russian writer. Very often Lano and Bazin came to our house and received them all.

Accept-accepted, but Kataev was released abroad?

Yes, grandfather was released, because whatever the real dictatorship in the country, in order to exist in the international community, it has several positions, especially those related to culture and science. It seems like we are still close to a normal human community and open. Therefore, a number of Soviet writers have always had the opportunity to travel.

In order to take out a group of writers that no one in the world knows about, one surname was needed that everyone knew. They took grandfather and took ten more unknown writers.

"You don't have to know someone to love someone"

Kataev was also related to the film "Circus" ...

He and his brother wrote the script for the film. But when the film came out, too many pro-Soviet things were put in there, and they removed their names. Although the "Circus" in my opinion the film is very good. I imagine how good he could be if they...

Didn't fix anything?

And how did Valentin Petrovich feel about the fact that Madame Storozhenko was played by Ranevskaya?

He adored Ranevskaya.

They knew each other, right?

You don't have to know someone to love someone. For him, it was an actress of the highest level.

Vanya Solntsev never existed

And where did Valentin Petrovich live in Odessa as a child, in what area?

Kulikovo field. Not where the lane named after him. On the other side. Now this house is no more. Therefore, we can only tentatively say where it was. In principle, the Kataevs in Odessa lived in three houses and always in rented apartments.

On the Kulikovo field - this was the first apartment where he lived when he was very young. As was described in "The lonely sail turns white."

Valentin Petrovich worked during the Great Patriotic War as a war correspondent for Krasnaya Zvezda?

in the Soviet Information Bureau. This was the main thing, and publications could go to both Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda.

- Is “Son of the Regiment” to some extent the result of work at the front?

Yes, and Viaduct. But the most common misconception is associated with the "Son of the Regiment". Vanya Solntsev never existed. This is a collective image. Grandfather saw at least ten or twenty such sons of the regiment. He assembled Vanya Solntsev from the image of all these children. And thanks to the fact that the "Son of the Regiment" became popular, the "sons of the regiment" movement began. That is, although Vanya Solntsev was not there, each of these people thought that it was about him. For Kataev, this was very important. That everyone should be recognized, if any of them are still alive - they should be treated as heroes.

A funny thing happened to my friend. In the fifth or sixth grade, we went through “Son of the Regiment” and she was given the task - to write what the writer Kataev was thinking about, what he wanted to put into the image of Vanya. Naturally, living two dachas from us, she came to her grandfather and asked to tell what he had in mind. He said. She was given a three with a minus for her essay - she and Kataev were wrong. And this is a very common misconception associated with well-known literary works.

It is often said that grandfather received Stalin's prizes, was awarded many state awards - this is not true. Despite the fact that his name was used - for international affairs, he was awarded only once, for the "Son of the Regiment" Stalin Prize, but - the second degree.

Circle in the round

But "The Wasters" became a bestseller in the United States.

Somewhere in the twenties the play was on Broadway. "Squanderers" and "Squaring the circle," two things were on there. When we were in America, the Americans showed us a theater called "Circle in the round". They said that it was in honor of the Square of the Circle, which was staged here. That was the name of the theater, it still exists.

Actually, a very funny thing is connected with the "Quadrature of the circle" and the "Squanderers". Kataev was paid an awesome fee for those times - twenty dollars for the right to use the work for the rest of his grandfather's life. He also had other performances there, and Petrov went to America (as a result of which High-Rise America appeared) and somehow received grandfather's fees. And by the time my mother was born, a Blue Washington Ford was delivered from America to Moscow. My grandmother was standing at the window with my newborn mother, and this luxurious car was brought to her.

In 1965, the story "Dear, sweet grandfather" was written - is it about you?

Not exactly about me, but then again he doesn't have things that are written exactly about someone or based on something. But it was really me who inspired him. We watched "Eugene Onegin", I could not stand the opera and periodically commented on everything that was happening on the stage. On the basis of my comments, a work was born to him.

And Kataev did not want to return to live in Odessa?

Wanted. But I was very worried about the fact that in Odessa there would never be hot water anyway ...

Valeria BURLAKOVA, Odessa

Kataev Valentin Petrovich (1897–1986), Russian writer Hero of Socialist Labor (1974). Born on January 16 (28), 1897 in Odessa in the family of a teacher, a teacher at a diocesan school.

Pyotr Vasilievich Kataev; came from a clergy background. Mother, Evgenia Ivanovna Bachey - the daughter of General Ivan Eliseevich Bachey, from a Poltava small-scale noble family. Subsequently, Kataev gave the name of his father and the surname of his mother to the main, largely autobiographical hero of the tetralogy "Waves of the Black Sea" - Petya Bachey.
Valentine lost his mother early. The family did not live well, but the children studied at the gymnasium and even traveled abroad with their father, along the Mediterranean Sea. There was no strict supervision over them, and they managed to join the stormy and unique life of different parts of Odessa. The originality of this southern, multinational, Mediterranean Europe-oriented city, where the psychology of the inhabitants still retained features characteristic of the inhabitants of a free port, left a strong imprint on Kataev's work. Odessa jargon influenced the style of the writer. Valentin Kataev is the elder brother of the writer E. Petrov, who became a famous satirist, co-author of I. A. Ilf. Valentin published his first poem "Autumn" as a high school student in 1910 in the newspaper "Odessa Bulletin". He also published in Southern Thought, Odessa Leaflet, Awakening, Lukomorye, etc. He did not pay too much attention to the aesthetic and political direction of his works, sometimes publishing essays on the pages of warring newspapers. Speaking at poetry evenings, Kataev quickly became acquainted with famous Odessa writers and joined the Green Lamp group of young poets. The young man was patronized by the famous Russian poet and writer A. M. Fedorov,

At the gymnasium, Kataev had the nickname "Chinese", for his slightly slanted eyes. In 1915, without graduating from the gymnasium, at the age of 18 he went to the front as a volunteer. He began his service near Smorgon as a junior rank in an artillery battery, then was promoted to ensign. Twice he was wounded and gassed. In the summer of 1917, after being wounded in the "Keren" offensive on the Romanian front, he was placed in a hospital in Odessa. Kataev was awarded the rank of second lieutenant, but he did not have time to receive shoulder straps and was demobilized as an ensign. He was awarded two St. George's Crosses and the Order of St. Anna IV degree (better known in the Russian army under the name "Anna for Courage"). With a military rank and awards, he received a personal nobility that was not inherited. At the front, he wrote articles and essays about the "trench" life of soldiers, full of sympathy for the common man in the war (Letters from there, Our Weekdays, Ilya Muromets, and others). The protest against the war, which was growing in the mindset of the warring parties of those years, is expressed in the story at Night (1917), which was banned by the censors.

In 1918, after being treated in a hospital in Odessa, Kataev joined the armed forces of Hetman P. P. Skoropadsky. After the fall of the hetman in December 1918, when the Bolsheviks appeared north of Odessa, in March 1919 Kataev volunteered for the Volunteer Army of A. I. Denikin, automatically receiving the rank of second lieutenant. As an artilleryman, he was appointed commander of the first tower on the Novorossiya light armored train of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (VSYUR). The armored train was attached to a detachment of volunteers by A. N. Rosenshield von Paulin and opposed the Petliurists, who declared war on the All-Union Socialist Republic on September 24, 1919. The fighting lasted the whole of October and ended with the occupation of Vapnyarka by the whites. The detachment advanced in the Kiev direction as part of the troops of the Novorossiysk region of the All-Union Socialist Republic of General N. N. Schilling. The actions of the troops of the Novorossiysk region of the Armed Forces of South Russia were part of Denikin's campaign against Moscow. The armored train "Novorossiya" fought on two fronts - against the Petliurists, who were entrenched in Vinnitsa, and against the Reds, who stood in Berdichev. At the very beginning of 1920, even before the retreat of the Whites, Kataev fell ill with typhus in Zhmerinka and was evacuated to an Odessa hospital. In early February 1920, his relatives took him home, still suffering from typhus. On February 7, 1920, Odessa was finally occupied by the Reds.

Already in mid-February 1920, Kataev was cured of typhus. At this time, he connects to the officer underground, which has developed a conspiracy to meet a possible Wrangel landing from the Crimea. (Similarly, with a simultaneous strike by an airborne detachment and an uprising of officer underground organizations, Odessa was liberated from the Reds in August 1919. The main task of the conspirators was to capture a lighthouse to support the landing. The Odessa Cheka knew about the conspiracy from the very beginning and the very "conspiracy idea" was planted provocateurs of the Cheka. In the Odessa Cheka, the conspiracy was called the "Wrangel plot at the lighthouse." One of the conspirators, Viktor Fedorov, a former officer of the All-Union Socialist Revolutionary Federation, who escaped persecution by the Reds and got a job as a junior officer in the searchlight team at the lighthouse, was associated with the lighthouse. was the son of the Russian writer A. M. Fedorov, who in turn was friends with the Kataev and Bunin families. The provocateur of the Cheka offered Viktor Fedorov a large sum of money for disabling the searchlight during the landing. Fedorov agreed to do it for free. The Cheka led the group for several weeks and then arrested its participants: Viktor Fedorov, his wife, his brother-in-law, projectors, Valentin Kataev and others. Together with Valentin Kataev, his younger brother Yevgeny, who had nothing to do with the conspiracy, was also arrested.

Grigory Kotovsky interceded for Viktor Fedorov before the chairman of the Odessa Cheka, Max Deutsch. Victor's father A. M. Fedorov in 1916 influenced the abolition of the death penalty by hanging against Kotovsky. It was Kotovsky who took Odessa in February 1920 and, thanks to this, had a great influence on what was happening at that time in the city. Viktor Fedorov and his wife Nadezhda, at the insistence of Kotovsky, were released by Deutsch.

And Valentin Kataev was saved by an even more fantastic accident. A security officer came from the Moscow Cheka to the Odessa Cheka with an inspection, whom Kataev later called in his memoirs as Yakov Belsky. In the summer of 1919, Belsky happened to be present during a conversation between Bunin and Kataev during the Bolshevik demonstrations then taking place in Odessa. Bunin, not knowing that even at that time Kataev was in the White Guard underground, reproached him in a conversation:

- “After all, if I’m talking to you after all that you have done, then it means that a good feeling for you overpowers me, because now I don’t bow to Carmen and I won’t bow ...”

For Belsky, just like the Odessa Chekists, who did not know about Kataev's voluntary service in the All-Union Socialist League, this was a sufficient reason to let Kataev go. In September 1920, after six months in an Odessa prison, Valentin Kataev and his brother left it. The rest of the conspirators were shot in the autumn of 1920.

"In 1919 he was mobilized into the Red Army, commanded an artillery battery on the Don Front." .... ]

After leaving prison, Valentin Kataev again began to write and collaborate with the YugROSTA association; attends various literary circles. He becomes close to E.G. Bagritsky, together with whom he composes propaganda texts for posters. In 1921, he worked in the Kharkov press together with Yuriy Olesha, edited the Kommunarka Ukrainy magazine and published in many other publications.

From 1922 he lived in Moscow; a regular contributor to the Gudok newspaper (since 1923), as a "topical" humorist, he collaborates and prints humoresques and feuilletons in Pravda, Rabochaya Gazeta, Trud (pseudonyms: Starik Sabbakin, Ol. Twist, Mitrofan Mustard). In the early work of Kataev, a peculiar fusion of realism, sharp worldly observation, irony, reaching sarcasm, romantic elation and daring fantasy manifested itself in stories about the Civil War (Krantz's Experience, 1919; Golden Pen, 1920; Notes on the Civil War, 1924, where there is a tendentious - a contrasting "black and white" image of what is happening, with an exalted description of the "red" heroes and a satirical depiction of the White Guards), as well as in adventurous utopian novels about the world revolution (Ehrendorf Island, The Lord of Iron, both 1924) and in the socio-critical phantasmagoria " small" genres (Sir Henry and the devil, 1920; Iron Ring, 1923).

At the same time, Kataev went from a mocking play on anecdotal incidents (collections of stories The Bearded Baby, 1924; The Most Funny, 1927) to the accusatory pathos of debunking the cult of profit and the “beautiful” life. The first significant success was brought to the writer by the story The Spoilers (1926; play of the same name, 1928), where the "archetypal" rogue characters of new Russian literature, from Gogol's Khlestakov and Chichikov to Ostap Bender I. Ilf and E. Petrov, travel in search of great luck (" happiness") and as a result they discover both the falsity of their own ideals and the squalor of the surrounding reality. The sharpness of social and psychological satire directed against philistine vulgarity and the petty-bourgeois cult of property is also marked by the stories of the 1920s by Ignatiy Pudelakin (1927), Child, Things (both 1929), and the comedy Squaring the Circle (1928). In the same years, Kataev also identified his other main themes: historical-revolutionary, combined with autobiographical (stories Father, 1925; Rodion Zhukov, 1926; Sea, 1928, etc., continued by the story A lonely sail turns white, 1936; film of the same name, 1937 , directed by V.G. Legoshin), and the theme of building a new life (the play Avangard, 1929, about the creation of collective farms; written after a trip to Magnitogorsk and strengthening the popularity of the writer, the chronicle novel Time, Forward!, 1931, full of dynamism, pathos of free labor and optimistic faith in the creative energy of the masses, consonant with the joyful marching tone of the then poems by V.V. Mayakovsky, who suggested the name of the work to Kataev).

The story A lonely sail turns white, the main characters of which are Odessa boys - high school student Petya Bachey, named after the maiden name of Kataev's mother, and the son of a fisherman Gavrik Chernoivanenko, find themselves in the whirlpool of the revolutionary events of 1905, along with adults (sailor from the Potemkin battleship Rodion Zhukov, father Petit - teacher Vasily Petrovich Bachey, a merchant from Odessa Privoz Madame Storozhenko, grandfather Gavrik, etc.) experiencing the seriousness of the ongoing processes and at the same time poeticizing the world around them with the sharpness of a fresh, romantic perception. A fascinating plot, picturesque objectivity of the description of the "background" of what is happening - the bustle of Odessa streets, the market, the port, the beach, the unceasing sea, gymnasium life, etc., the fusion of humor, lyricism and heroic pathos made this work one of the favorite children's books. The story was partly included in the tetralogy of the Waves of the Black Sea (story Khutorok in the steppe, 1956, film of the same name, 1971, dir. For the power of the Soviets, film of the same name, 1956, dir. Buneev).

The desire to show the history of the country through the fate of a person is also marked by the story of Kataev I, the son of the working people (1937), which takes place during the German occupation of Ukraine in 1919, the main characters are folklore characters - the brave soldier Semyon Kotko and the beautiful girl Sofya, the narrative unfolding in the style of folk tales, full of descriptions of Ukrainian landscapes, rituals and customs, the sounds of Ukrainian speech (an opera by S.S. Prokofiev, Semen Kotko, 1939, was created on the plot of the story).

During the Great Patriotic War, he participated in the battles on the Kursk Bulge, near Orel. War correspondent Kataev wrote feuilletons, essays, stories (Third Tank, Flag, Viaduct, Our Father, Wife story, 1943, plays Father's House, Blue Handkerchief). Huge popularity was brought to the writer by the story The Son of the Regiment (1945; Stalin Prize 2nd degree, 1946), a story about the fate of an orphan boy adopted by a combat regiment. The institution of "sons of the regiment" has since established itself in the Russian army; based on the story, a play of the same name was written, a film was made (1946, dir. V. M. Pronin). An accurate sense of modernity, authenticity of details, a witty plot, an alloy of lyricism and grotesque, like his other dramatic works, was distinguished by the play Day of Rest (1947).

After the war, Kataev was prone to days of heavy drinking. In 1946, Valentina Serova told Bunin that Kataev “sometimes drinks for 3 days. He doesn’t drink, doesn’t drink, and then, after finishing a story, an article, sometimes a chapter, he goes on a spree. In 1948, this almost led Kataev to divorce his wife.

The romantic story of a soldier's love for a general's daughter, which has become almost archetypal in the literature of modern times, is described by Kataev in a sentimental novel in letters A youthful novel by my old friend Sasha Pchelkin (1982).

By the second marriage, Kataev was married to Esther Davydovna Kataeva (1913-2009). “It was an amazing marriage,” Daria Dontsova, a close friend of the Kataev family, said about him. There were two children in this marriage - Evgenia Valentinovna Kataeva (named after her grandmother, mother Valentin Kataev, b. 1936) and children's writer and memoirist Pavel Valentinovich Kataev (b. 1938).

Son-in-law of Kataev (husband of Evgenia Kataeva) - Jewish Soviet poet, editor and public figure Aron Vergelis (1918-1999).

Kataev's nephews (sons of Yevgeny Petrov) are cameraman Pyotr Kataev (1930-1986) and composer Ilya Kataev (1939-2009).

The granddaughter of Kataev (daughter of Evgenia Kataeva) is the journalist Tina (Valentina) Eduardovna Kataeva.

Kataev died in Moscow on April 12, 1986. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (plot No. 10).

Valentin Petrovich Kataev was awarded two St. George's Crosses, the Order of St. Anna IV degree, the Stalin Prize of the second degree (1946) - for the story "Son of the Regiment" (1945), Hero of Socialist Labor (1974), three orders of Lenin, medals. Corresponding member of the Mainz Academy (1973, Germany), member of the Goncourt Academy (1976, Paris).

On the facade of the house number 4 on Bazarnaya Street in Odessa, where Valentin Kataev was born, there is a memorial plaque. One of the alleys in Odessa is named after Valentin Kataev. A separate museum exposition is dedicated to Kataev in the Odessa Museum.

An Odessa journalist, interviewed at the end of the writer's life in 1982, spoke of him as follows:

• "... He had an indestructible Odessa accent."

Creative heritage of Valentin Kataev:

The most important and most famous works

• Tetralogy "Waves of the Black Sea".
  • The lonely sail turns white (1936)
  • Farm in the steppe (1956)
  • Winter Wind (1960)
  • For the power of the Soviets (Catacombs) (1949-1951)

Novels

• Lord of Iron (1924)
• Ehrendorf Island (1924)
• The Wasters (1926)
• Time forward! (1932)
• I am the son of the working people (1937)
• A Broken Life, or the Magic Horn of Oberon (1972)
• Cemetery in Skuliany (1975)
• Diamond My Crown (1977)

Tale

• Rodion Zhukov (1928)
• Electric Machine (1943)
• Wife (1943)
• Son of the Regiment (1945)
• Trip South (1951)
• Little iron door in the wall (1964)
• Holy Well (1965)
• Oblivion Grass (1967)
• Cube (1969)
• Already Written by Werther (1980)
• A youthful novel by my friend Sasha Pchelkin. Written by Himself (1980)
• Sleeper (1984)
• Dry Estuary (1985)

Storybooks

• In a besieged city (1923)
• Sir Henry and the Devil (1923)
• Eduard the Loafer (1925)
• Bearded Baby (1926)
• New Stories (1926)
• Stories (1926)
• The Funniest (1927)
• Solyanka team (1927)
• Father (1928)
• Birds of God (1928)

Some individual stories

• Child (1929)
• In the margins of a novel (1931)
• Sonya Buzuluk (1933)
• Two Hussars (1934)
• At Night (1934)
• Gases (1935)
• Namesake (1935)
• Paradox (1935)
• Death of Starodubtsev (1935)
• Sleep (1935)
• Surprise (1935)
• Theater (1935)
• Meeting (1935)
• Black bread (1935)
• Flowers (1936)
• Shadows (1937)
• Under Smorgon (1939)
• Semi-Flower (1940)
• Pipe and pitcher (1940)
• Two Castles (1940)
• In passing (194)
• At the dacha (1941)
• Deciphered summary (1942)
• Third tank (1942)
• Partisan (1942)
• Lieutenant (1942)
• Photographic card (1942)
• Flag (1942)
• 1918 (1943)
• Operational Zagrebukhin (1945)
• Pearl (1945)
• Stump (1945)
• Our Father (1946)
• Viaduct (1946)
• New Year's story (1947)
• Baby Soul (1947)
• Happy New Year!.. (1947)
• Last Night (1948)
• Cursed Wind (1949)
• Dove (1949)
• Port (1951)
• Eternal Memory (1954)
• Remembrance (1961)
• Dear Sweet Grandpa (1965)
• Sorrento (1966)
• Monkey (1970)
• Violet (1973)
• Demyan Tells (1977)

Poems

• Autumn (1910)

Non-genre works

• Dry Estuary (1986)

Kataev's works in theater, film and television

Drama Theater

• 1927 - "Squanderers" - Moscow Art Theater, staged by K. S. Stanislavsky.
• 1928 - "Quadrature of the Circle" - Moscow Art Theatre, staged by N. M. Gorchakov under the direction of V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. The play is still staged in theaters in Russia, Europe and America.
• 1934 - "Road of Flowers" - Moscow Modern Theater

1940 - "House" - Comedy Theater, staged by N. P. Akimov. The play was banned; in 1972 (?) restored by director A. A. Belinsky.

• 1940 - “A soldier was walking from the front” - Vakhtangov Theater.
• 1942 - "Blue handkerchief" - theater (?).
• 1948 - "Crazy Day" ("Where are you, Monsieur Miussov?") - Moscow Academic Theater of Satire.
• 1954 (?) - “It was in Konsk” (“House”) - Moscow Academic Theater of Satire.
• 1958 (?) - "It's time for love" - ​​the theater of the Moscow City Council.

Opera theatre

• 1940, June 23 - "Semyon Kotko" (1939), opera by S. S. Prokofiev in 5 acts, 7 scenes based on the story by V. P. Kataev "I, the son of the working people ...". Libretto by V.P. Kataev and S.S. Prokofiev. Moscow Academic Musical Theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko under control. M. Zhukova.
• 1970s - "Semyon Kotko" (1939), opera by S. S. Prokofiev in 5 acts, 7 scenes based on the story by V. P. Kataev "I, the son of the working people ...". Libretto by V.P. Kataev and S.S. Prokofiev. Bolshoi Theatre, director B. A. Pokrovsky, conductor F. Sh. Mansurov

Filmography: scripts

• Circus (Scriptwriter with Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov; all three removed their names from the credits of the film due to changes made to the script) (1936)
• The Motherland Calls (together with A. Macheret) (1936)
• Pages of Life (together with A. Macheret) (1948)
• The lonely sail turns white (1937)
• Son of the Regiment (1946)
• For the power of the Soviets (together with S. Klebanov) (1956)
• Crazy Day (1956)
• Poet (1957)

-) - Russian historian; father of writer Ivan Kataev, paternal uncle of mathematician A. N. Kolmogorov.

Biography

Son of a village priest. He graduated from the Vyatka Theological Seminary, then the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University ().

Then he worked in the Middle Volga (- gg.), Kuibyshev (- gg.) Pedagogical Institutes.

He headed the history department of the Magnitogorsk Pedagogical Institute (August - April), was the dean of the history department of the Moscow State Pedagogical University.

Scientific works of I. M. Kataev

Author of works on archeography, the history of Moscow, archival science, methods of teaching history.

Studies on the history of Moscow

• "Tushino" (M., 1913);
• "Fire of Moscow in 1812" (M., 1912);
• "Moscow in the 18th century" (M., 1915)

Essays on Russian history

• "Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and his time";
• "Daniil Romanovich Galitsky";
• "Bohdan Khmelnytsky";
• "Emperor Alexander I" (1901-1914).

Other works of Kataev

• "Description of the acts of the meeting of Count A. S. Uvarov" (M., 1905),
• "Review of handwritten monuments on the history of Sloboda Ukraine, stored in the military-scientific archive of the General Staff in St. Petersburg" (Kharkov, 1902),
• "Description of documents of the Moscow archive of the Ministry of Justice" (M., 1905-1917, vols. XVI-XX),
• "Archives of the Kuibyshev Territory" (Kuibyshev, 193 6y.))

Bibliography

• Autobiography of Professor I. M. Kataev // Archival Department of the Administration of Magnitogorsk (AOAM), f. 132, op. 3.
• Vendrovskaya R. B. School reform in 1915-1916. and teaching history // Teaching history in school. - 1995. - No. 4. - S.22-26.
• Kataev I. M. The latest trends in teaching history in middle and senior classes of secondary school // Vopr. history teaching in middle and elementary schools. - M., 1917. - Sat.2.
• Kataev I. M. The latest trends in teaching history in middle and senior classes of secondary school // Teaching history at school. - 1996. - No. 8. - P.4-6.
• Kataev I. M. Textbook of Russian history for secondary school. - SL. - 132 e.; 4.2. - 262 e.; Ch. Z. - 262 p. - M.: Sytin Publishing House, 1917.
• Enlightenment in the Urals. - 1928. - No. 11. - P.14.
• Kataev I. M. Questions of teaching social science: Method. essays. - M., 1926.
• Kataev I.M. New Marxist methodology of history // Social science in labor school. - 1929. - No. 3-4.
• Semenov VV 25th anniversary of the Magnitogorsk Pedagogical Institute MGPI. - Magnitogorsk, 1957. - Issue 5. - p.7.
• Kataev I.M. Usolskaya estate on the eve of the peasant reform of 1861 // Uchenye zap. MGPI. - Magnitogorsk, 1949. - Issue 2. - P.5-59.

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There was no betrothal, and no one was announced about Bolkonsky's engagement to Natasha; Prince Andrew insisted on this. He said that since he was the cause of the delay, he must bear the full burden of it. He said that he had forever bound himself with his word, but that he did not want to bind Natasha and gave her complete freedom. If in six months she feels that she does not love him, she will be in her own right if she refuses him. It goes without saying that neither the parents nor Natasha wanted to hear about it; but Prince Andrei insisted on his own. Prince Andrei visited the Rostovs every day, but not like a groom treated Natasha: he told her you and only kissed her hand. Between Prince Andrei and Natasha, after the day of the proposal, completely different than before, close, simple relations were established. They didn't seem to know each other until now. Both he and she loved to remember how they looked at each other when they were still nothing, now they both felt like completely different beings: then pretended, now simple and sincere. At first, the family felt awkward in dealing with Prince Andrei; he seemed like a man from an alien world, and Natasha for a long time accustomed her family to Prince Andrei and proudly assured everyone that he only seemed so special, and that he was the same as everyone else, and that she was not afraid of him and that no one should be afraid his. After a few days, the family got used to him and did not hesitate to lead the old way of life with him, in which he took part. He knew how to talk about housekeeping with the count, and about outfits with the countess and Natasha, and about albums and canvases with Sonya. Sometimes the family Rostovs among themselves and under Prince Andrei were surprised at how all this happened and how obvious the omens of this were: both the arrival of Prince Andrei in Otradnoye, and their arrival in Petersburg, and the similarity between Natasha and Prince Andrei, which the nanny noticed on the first visit Prince Andrei, and the clash in 1805 between Andrei and Nikolai, and many other omens of what happened, were noticed at home.
The house was dominated by that poetic boredom and silence that always accompanies the presence of the bride and groom. Often sitting together, everyone was silent. Sometimes they got up and left, and the bride and groom, remaining alone, were also silent. Rarely did they talk about their future lives. Prince Andrei was scared and ashamed to talk about it. Natasha shared this feeling, like all his feelings, which she constantly guessed. Once Natasha began to ask about his son. Prince Andrei blushed, which often happened to him now and that Natasha especially loved, and said that his son would not live with them.
- From what? Natasha said scared.
“I can’t take him away from my grandfather and then…”
How I would love him! - said Natasha, immediately guessing his thought; but I know you want no pretexts to accuse you and me.
The old count sometimes approached Prince Andrei, kissed him, asked him for advice on the upbringing of Petya or the service of Nikolai. The old countess sighed as she looked at them. Sonya was afraid at any moment to be superfluous and tried to find excuses to leave them alone when they did not need it. When Prince Andrei spoke (he spoke very well), Natasha listened to him with pride; when she spoke, she noticed with fear and joy that he was looking at her attentively and searchingly. She asked herself in bewilderment: “What is he looking for in me? What is he trying to achieve with his eyes? What, if not in me what he is looking for with this look? Sometimes she entered into her insanely cheerful mood, and then she especially liked to listen and watch how Prince Andrei laughed. He rarely laughed, but when he did, he gave himself over to his laughter, and every time after that laughter she felt closer to him. Natasha would have been perfectly happy if the thought of the forthcoming and approaching parting had not frightened her, since he, too, turned pale and cold at the mere thought of it.
On the eve of his departure from Petersburg, Prince Andrei brought with him Pierre, who had never been to the Rostovs since the ball. Pierre seemed confused and embarrassed. He was talking to his mother. Natasha sat down with Sonya at the chess table, thus inviting Prince Andrei to her. He approached them.
"You've known the Earless for a long time, haven't you?" - he asked. - Do you love him?
- Yes, he is nice, but very funny.
And she, as always talking about Pierre, began to tell jokes about his absent-mindedness, jokes that they even made up about him.
“You know, I confided our secret to him,” said Prince Andrei. “I have known him since childhood. This is a heart of gold. I beg you, Natalie,” he said suddenly seriously; I'm leaving, God knows what might happen. You can spill... Well, I know I shouldn't talk about it. One thing - whatever happens to you when I'm gone...
– What will happen?…
“Whatever the grief,” continued Prince Andrei, “I ask you, m lle Sophie, no matter what happens, turn to him alone for advice and help. This is the most absent-minded and funny person, but the most golden heart.