Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov (biography): a man who walked his own way

Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov, whose biography as a whole developed happily, became a poet, a literary critic, and an archeologist. He was wonderfully and diversely gifted and left a good memory of himself.

Childhood

On the day of laughter, April 1, in the eleventh year of Soviet power (1928), in the family of the teacher D.M. Berestov, who passed the First World War, was born the son of Valentin. Little Valyusha, who, contrary to the meaning of his name (Valentin translated from Latin means "healthy, strong") did not differ in good health, brought up at home. When his grandson was about a year old, his grandmothers were secretly christened. So the Valentine always looked after the guardian angel. And his grandmothers were interesting: one - a peasant, another - a noblewoman. So strangely began the life of Valya Berestov. His biography will continue in adolescence, not at all by children's acquaintances. And while he grew up an inquisitive little boy and at the age of 4 learned to read the headlines of newspapers. Their filings were collected by great-grandmother Alexander Gerasimovna. There was a small library in the Berestovs' house. There were also valuable books illustrated with ancient engravings. Their theme was the story that his father taught at school. The family lived poorly, it was necessary to protect every penny. In those days, most of the Soviet people were in poverty. So lived and Valya Berestov. Biography tells how competently picked up in the 30 years of children's books will make him later an archaeologist.

During the war

The native Meshchovsk, in which the future writer was born, from the beginning of the Great Patriotic War quickly fell under the German occupation, and the whole family was evacuated to Tashkent. There, at the age of fourteen, Valya Berestov showed his poems to Kornei Chukovsky. Biography, which he told himself, describes how Kornei Ivanovich literally saved the boy's life, since he was starving and ill. There he also met Anna Akhmatova, the widow of O. Mandelstam, the son of M. Tsvetaeva.

Lidia Korneyevna Chukovskaya taught the literary criticism of the beginning poet, and Nadezhda Yakovlevna Mandelshtam taught the English language. Anna Andreevna Akhmatova read his poems to him and M. Tsvetaeva's son, but she did not tell her children about her bitter life, trying to protect them from all the terrible and forbidden, and Valentin Berestov, whose biography is interesting to his fans, accepted the love of very different people, Phenomenon in the literature.

Study

In 1944, having on his hands letters of recommendation AA. Akhmatova, V. Berestov comes to the capital. He finishes school for gifted children, which is located in Gorki, and then enters the historical faculty of Moscow State University. And every week he goes home to Kaluga. And I must say that this is now an electric train from the Kiev railway station to Kaluga for three hours. And how long had to travel to those military and post-war years! Already in 1946 he went to excavations in Khorezm and Novgorod. Based on the received impressions and deep knowledge, later there will be the story "The Sword in the Golden Scabbard", "There Will not Be Adventures," and, of course, new poems. So the life of a novice historian and a writer is flowing. Berestov, whose brief biography shows this, is not limited to one or another genre.

Creative and life path

As early as 14 years the teenager wrote poems about imitation. But he himself was quite original. The state of his soul was poetic, and therefore his poems are accessible and easy to read. His first collection was published in 1957, and after the birth of Marina's daughter, he wrote on joys so many children's poems and fairy tales that many people began to perceive him as a children's writer.

And this at a time when he was conducting a serious research work with the archives of A. Pushkin (in parentheses note that not everyone was allowed to them). As a result, a work appeared, with the discoveries of which are considered Pushkinists. Attentive and thoughtful reader is available to his articles, research works of M. Lermontov, M. Prishvin, A. Blok, A. Akhmatova, A. Tolstoy, B. Pasternak, V. Vysotsky.

Writer's house

The wife of V. Berestov was an artist Tatyana Ivanovna Alexandrova. Their three-room apartment collected young poets, artists and journalists. To many, Valentin Dmitrievich helped the formation of art. It was a joyful family, the tone in which asked two loving people.

The writer died when he was 70 years old, just two weeks after his jubilee. This was on April 15, 1998.

So, before you - a biography of Berestov, summarized.

Life and poetry V.D. Berestova

Children learn to read at different times: someone before school, someone at school. "How good it is to be able to read!", - said Marina Valentina Dmitrievich's daughter in ecstasy, and her words became the first line of the poem. "Chitalochka" is well known to all students of our country.

Valya Berestov himself, when he was not yet five years old, began to read a little. And although there was always not enough money in the family, the magazines "Chizh" and "Murzilka" were written out for children, and Valya always waited at the gate of the postman, who would bring fresh numbers. He also liked to go to the library of the small town of Meshchovsk, in which he was born in the distant 1928. It was a real book paradise!

While still at school, Valya Berestov began to write poetry. They saved his life when the war broke out, and from his native places had to leave for Tashkent. There his poetry walked around the city between schoolchildren, until they fell into the hands of Korney Chukovsky and Anna Akhmatova. They fed a very starved and emaciated 14-year-old. They also became interested in A. Tolstoy. These great literary men did not let the boy get lost and sent him to Moscow. Then he studied at Moscow State University and became a historian, but he could not write. And in 1957 the first collection of his poems was published. Then there will be written not one book for children and adults.

In the library there are always many books of the writer, as well as Berestov's biography for children. His life as an archeologist and writer is interesting and instructive, and books are easy to read, since it was a man with a great sense of humor and morals he did not like.