Victor Petrovich Astafiev - biography. Creativity, personal life, photo

Many of us remember the works of Victor Petrovich Astafiev in the school curriculum. These are the stories about the war, and the tale of the hard life in the village of the Russian peasant, and reflections on the events taking place before and after the war in the country. Victor Petrovich Astafyev was truly a people's writer! His biography is a vivid example of the suffering and miserable existence of a common man in the era of Stalinism. In his works, the Russian people do not appear in the image of an all-powerful national hero, who can deal with any deprivations and losses, as was customary at that time. The author showed how hard the burden of war and the totalitarian regime that dominated at that time in the country, for a simple Russian peasant.

Viktor Astafyev: Biography

The author was born on May 1, 1924 in the Krasnodar Territory, in the Ovsyanka village of the Soviet district. Here he spent his childhood. The father of the boy, Pyotr Astafyev, and his mother, Lydia I. Potylitsyna, were peasants, had a sound household. But at the time of collectivization the family was dispossessed. The two elder daughters of Peter Pavlovich and Lydia Ilinichny died in infancy. Victor was left without parents early. His father was put in prison for "sabotage." And the mother drowned in the Yenisei when the boy was 7 years old. It was an accident. The boat on which Lydia Ilinichna, among others, swam across the river to meet her husband in the prison, turned over. Having fallen into the water, the woman caught the oblique for the bonus and drowned. After the death of his parents, the boy was brought up in the family of his grandfather and grandmother. The craving for writing in the child arose early. Later, when he became a writer, Astafyev remembered how Grandmother Katerina called him "lie" for an irrepressible fantasy. The life of the old people seemed like a fairy tale to a boy. She was the only bright memory of his childhood. After the incident at school, Viktor was sent to a boarding school in the village of Igarka. There he lived a hard life. The boy often went homeless. The boarding teacher Ignatii Rozhdestvensky noticed a desire for reading in the pupil. He tried to develop it. The composition of the boy about his beloved lake will later be called his immortal work "Vasyutkin Lake", when he becomes a famous writer. After finishing the sixth grade of secondary school Victor enters the railway school of FZO. He will finish it in 1942.

Adulthood

After that the young man works for a while at the station as a train compiler near the city of Krasnoyarsk. The war made its adjustments to his life. In the autumn of the same year, 1942, he volunteered for the front. Here he was an artilleryman, a chauffeur, and a signalman. Viktor Astafiev participated in the battles for Poland, Ukraine, fought on the Kursk Bulge. During the fighting he was seriously wounded and bruised. His military exploits were awarded with medals "For Courage", "For the Liberation of Poland", "For Victory over Germany" and the Order of the Red Star. After demobilization in 1945 in the city of Chusovoy in the Urals, Victor Petrovich Astafiev settles. His biography here makes a new revolution. A different, peaceful life begins. Here he brings his wife, who later became known as a writer - MS Koryakin. They were completely different people. Victor was always surrounded by women. He was a very interesting person. It is known that he has two illegitimate daughters. His wife was jealous of him. She dreamed that her husband was faithful to the family. Here, in Chusovoy, Victor undertakes any work to feed the children. In a marriage he had three of them. The oldest girl, Maria and Victor, was lost. She was only a few months old when she died in the hospital from severe dyspepsia. It happened in 1947. And in 1948 the Astafyevs had a second daughter, who was named Ira. Two years later Andrei's son appeared in the family. Children of Viktor Petrovich Astafyev grew up in harsh conditions. Because of the state of health undermined in the war, the future writer did not have the opportunity to return to his specialty received in the FZO. In Chusovoy he managed to work hard both as a mechanic, as a loader, as a caster at a local factory, and as a car wash washer at a sausage factory, and as a carpenter in a caravan depot.

The beginning of the creative path

The writing business still attracts the future master of the word. Here, in Chusovoy, he visits a literary circle. That's how Viktor Petrovich Astafyev remembers it. His biography is little known, so for his readers, any little things related to his life or work are important. "I had an inclination for writing early. I remember very well how, at a time when I was visiting a literary circle, one of the practitioners read his newly written story. The work amazed me with its artificiality, unnaturalness. I took and wrote a story. This was my first creation. In it, I told about my front-line friend, "the author told about his debut. The title of this first work is "The Civilian Man". In 1951 it was published in the newspaper Chusovoy Rabochiy. The story was a success. The next four years, the writer is a literary employee of this publication. In 1953, the city of Perm published his first collection of short stories titled "Until the Next Spring". And in 1958 Astafyev wrote the novel "Melt the snow", in which he highlighted the problems of village collective farm life. Soon the second collection of stories called "Ogonki" was released by Viktor Astafyev. "Stories for children" - this is how the author described this creation.

The story "Starodub". A turning point in the writer's work

Victor Astafyev is considered self-taught. Education as such, he did not receive, but he always tried to improve their professionalism. To this end, the writer in 1959-1961 studied at the Higher Literary Courses in Moscow. In the magazines of the Urals, Petrovich Astafyev periodically prints his works, whose biography is presented here. In them he raises acute problems of the formation of the human personality, growing up in the difficult conditions of the 30s and 40s. These are such stories as "Theft", "The Last Bow", "Somewhere the War is Booming" and others. It is worth noting that many of them are of an autobiographical nature. Here are the scenes of the orphanage life, presented in all its cruelty, and the dekulakization of the peasants, and much more. A turning point in the work of Astafiev was his novella Starodub, written in 1959. The action in it unfolds in an ancient Siberian settlement. The ideas and traditions of the Old Believers did not arouse Victor's sympathy. Taiga laws, "natural faith", according to the author, do not save a person from being alone and solving urgent problems. The culmination of the work is the death of the protagonist. In the hands of the deceased instead of a candle - the flower of the starodub.

Astafyev about the Russian character in the story "The Soldier and the Mother"

When did the author's series of works on the "Russian national character" begin? According to most literary critics, from Astafiev's story "The Soldier and the Mother." The main heroine of the creation has no name. It embodies all Russian women, in whose hearts the "heavy iron wheel of war" passed. Here the writer creates such human types that strike with their reality, authenticity, "truth of character". It is also surprising how the master bravely reveals the problems of social development in his creations. The main source, which draws inspiration Astafyev Viktor Petrovich - biography. A short version of it is unlikely to awaken a reciprocal feeling in the reader's heart. That's why the writer's life is so complicated here.

The theme of the war in the writer's works

In 1954, the author's "favorite child" came out. It is about the story "The Shepherd and the Shepherdess". In just 3 days, the master wrote a draft of 120 pages. Later he only polished the text. They did not want to print the story, they constantly cut out whole fragments that did not allow censorship. Only 15 years later, the author was able to release it in the original version. In the center of the narrative is the story of a young platoon commander, Boris Kostyaev, who is experiencing all the horrors of the war, but still dies of wounds and exhaustion in a train that takes him to the rear. The love of a woman does not save the main character. In the story, the author draws before the reader an eerie picture of the war and death that she bears. It is not so difficult to guess why the work did not want to be published. The people who fought and won in this war, it was customary to portray a mighty, strong, inflexible. According to the stories of the master, he not only bends, but also destroys. And people suffer death and deprivation not only through the fault of the fascist invaders who came to their land, but also by the will of the totalitarian system that dominates the country. Creativity Astafyev Victor replenished and other vivid works, such as "Sasha Lebedev", "Anxious dream", "Wife's Hands", "India", "Blue Twilight", "Russian Diamond", "Clear Day" and others.

The story "Ode to the Russian Garden" - a hymn to peasant industriousness

In 1972, his next work was produced by Viktor Petrovich Astafiev. The biography, a brief version of which is presented here, is very interesting. The writer grew up in the countryside. He saw her wrong side. He is not unhappy with the suffering and hardships of people engaged in back-breaking labor, which he has known since childhood. The story "Ode to the Russian Garden" is a work that is a kind of hymn to peasant labor. Writer E. Nosov said this about him: "This is not told, but propeto ..." For a simple village boy, a garden is not just a place where you can "stuff your belly", but a whole world full of mysteries and secrets. This is him and the school of life, and the Academy of Fine Arts. When reading the "Ode" does not leave a sense of sadness over the lost harmony of agricultural labor, which enables a person to experience a life-giving connection with Mother Nature.

The last "bow" about life in the village

The writer Victor Astafyev develops a peasant theme in other of his works. One of them is a cycle of stories called "The Last Bow". The narration is from the first person. At the center of this author's work are the destinies of village children, whose childhood happened in the 1930s, when collectivization began in the country, and youth - in the "fiery" 40s. It should be noted that this series of stories was created two decades (from 1958 to 1978). The first narratives differ somewhat in lyrical exposition, with a subtle humor. And in the final stories, the author's willingness to strongly denounce the system that destroys the national foundations of life is clearly discernible. They sound bitter and open mockery.

The Tale "Tsar-fish" - a trip to native places

In his works, the writer develops the theme of preserving national traditions. His story, titled Tsar-Fish, published in 1976, is close in spirit to the cycle of stories about village life. In 2004, a monument was erected in Krasnoyarsk in honor of the writer's 80th birthday. Now it is one of the symbols of the city. By the time the book was published, Victor Astafyev was already a well-known and popular author. His photo is on the front pages of literary magazines. What about the book? Interesting manner of filing material in this work. The author draws pictures of a virgin nature, untouched by civilization, people's life in the Siberian outback. People whose moral standards are lost, in whose ranks drunkenness flourishes, poaching, theft, courage, are a miserable sight.

The novel about the war "Cursed and killed" - criticism of Stalinism

In 1980 he moved to his homeland - to Krasnoyarsk - Victor Astafyev. Biography here it does not change for the better. A few years after the move, the daughter of the writer, Irina, suddenly died. Viktor Petrovich and Maria Semyonovna take their children, their grandchildren Polina and Vitya with them. On the other hand, it is here, at home, the master has a creative upsurge. He writes such works as "Zaberega", "Pestrruha", "Presentiment of an ice drift", "Death", the last chapters of "The Last Bow" and others. Here he created his main book about the war - the novel "Cursed and killed." This work of the writer is distinguished by sharpness, categoricalness, passion. For writing the novel Astafyev was awarded the State Prize of Russia.

2001 became for the author of the immortal tales fatal. He spends a lot of time in the hospital. The two suffered a stroke do not leave hope for recovery. His friends petitioned the Krasnoyarsk Regional Council of Deputies to allocate funds for the treatment of the writer abroad. Consideration of this issue has turned into a trial of the author. Money was not allocated. The doctors, spreading their hands, sent the patient to die home. On November 29, 2001 Victor Astafiev died. Films made according to his works are very interesting to spectators today.