Nikolai Leonov - the classic of the domestic detective

Domestic authors of detectives are very popular today . Russian publishers are happy to publish their works. But it was not always so...

In the ascetic Soviet times, decent books of the "light" genre were as scarce as food or quality clothing. Among them, detective stories about the young detective Lev Gurov were particularly in demand. But their author - Nikolai Leonov - was known for many works in which other heroes acted, as well as scripts of films, the level of which is inaccessible to many today's fighters and bestsellers.

The difficult task of the biographer

The writer Nikolai Ivanovich Leonov is a complex object for writing biographies. He lived only 65 years and passed away in early 1999. The time when popularity is acquired not by work, but by the frequency of mentioning in the network, was just beginning, and he, apparently, treated individuals who did not attach special importance to the recognition of their person. And the extraordinary events in his life happened, apparently, a lot.

He was born in Moscow in 1933. According to some reports, he studied in the Moscow Juridical Institute in the same group as another future classics of the Soviet detective Georgy Weiner. After receiving his legal education, Nikolai Leonov went to work at the Moscow Police Department, the capital's criminal investigation department, the legendary division of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow.

Detective and Athlete

He went from lieutenant to captain of the militia, having spent a lot of time "in the field", doing the most usual search work. The first cases of the young operative were minor incidents connected with petty thefts and fraud in the capital markets. Nikolai Leonov served under Colonel Vladimir Chvanov, who is known as the prototype of the legendary Gleb Zheglov.

Friends and acquaintances mark the writer's similarity to his main literary hero, Lev Gurov, in terms of sporting fitness and good physical shape. It's not accidental: Leonov was one of the first in the country to seriously engage in table tennis, was at one time captain, and then coach of the national team for this complex technically super-fast sport. They say that he visited the team abroad, and once went to competitions in the US.

Road Selection

For what reason in 1963, after 10 years of service, he filed a report on resignation from the police, it is difficult to say. Perhaps this is just a need for writing, maybe there were other reasons, similar to those that interfered with Lev Gurov's career - the inability to adjust to circumstances to the detriment of one's own nature. The dismissal from the MUR surprised many: Captain Nikolai Leonov by that time began to participate in major, large-scale investigations, in which he achieved tangible success.

But success in literature did not come immediately. The first self-written book "I Begin Detaining" (1965) is the result of numerous alterations and long editorial work. Only gradually, as a result of intense efforts, cooperation with co-authors, Leonov developed the style and manner that put him in the first row of the masters of the genre.

Refined and twisted intrigue, precision in psychology and life details were appreciated by filmmakers. Nikolai Leonov is a writer who gained fame as a writer of films from the gold fund of Soviet film detectives.

"Tavern on Pyatnitskaya" and "Variant" Omega "

The first film experiment of Leonov was the script "Ring", a film on which was released in 1973. A detective story from the sport life has not received the close attention of the audience. But the next two films on his scenarios became hits.

The story "Wait for my call" about the life of the workers of the Soviet UGRO of the time of its formation was screened in 1978 under the name "Tavern on Pyatnitskaya Street". The film was watched by more than 50 million viewers, he became one of the leaders of the film distribution and nominated Leonova to the leading authors of the detectives. Russian TV channels and now periodically show this movie.

Regularly repeated and another masterpiece, shot according to the script, written with the participation of Leonova - the television series "Variant" Omega "(1979). It is based on the story "Operation Viking" about a scout operating in 1942 in occupied Tallinn. The confrontation between Sergei Skaryn and German counterintelligence von Schlosser is one of the first examples of works about the war that showed that not all of the enemies were wretched personalities and mentally defective people.

The film is glittered by the brilliant play of Oleg Dal and Igor Vasiliev, but they had something to play - the level of the literary basis of the film is very high.

Gurovskaya series

Between the first novel about Leo Gurov - "The appearance with the guilt" (1975) - and the fact that he came out shortly before the death of the writer - "Feast during the plague" (1998), more than two decades passed and a whole era. The main character became hardened and tempered, the methods and main goals of those who opposed him were changed, the social way of life of the whole country collapsed. Nikolai Leonov, whose books to the smallest detail reflected the world around him, passed this path together with the reader. A total of 28 stories and novels, where Gurov acts, first - a young lieutenant, in the end - a mother lieutenant colonel. Many of them were screened with different success.

The attention of readers and viewers to the main character of Leonov was explained to many. Among these factors are well-marked advantages of its appearance and inner content, inseparability from large or minor events occurring around, from the environment surrounding everyone who lived in this country. But most importantly, what resonated was the thirst for justice, which Gurov always lacked, and which readers of novels almost never saw about his adventures.

Coincidence and foresight

Leonov's books have one more property, noted by many connoisseurs of good detective literature. The actions of the characters created by the writer are determined not by the author's unrestrained imagination, but by the logic of events occurring at different levels of reality - from spheres of high politics to communal life.

It is surprising the coincidence of the name of the main Leon character and one of the legendary fighters against the crime of Alexander Ivanovich Gurov. One of the first he outlined the danger of organized crime in the bowels of a sick Soviet society, for which he was persecuted by authorities armed with Soviet ideology. According to her, in the advanced social system there can be no prerequisites for the emergence of the mafia.

Mystical coincidence of the events of his own destiny and those that occurred with the hero of the Leonov books was noted by the present Lieutenant-General of the Militia and the deputy himself. Career ups and downs, successes and defeats in the fight against mighty evil first occurred on the pages of books about Lev Ivanovich Gurov, and then in real life Alexander Ivanovich Gurov.

The last case of Lev Gurov, described by Leonov, is connected with a murder, like Galina Starovoitova's death, which became one of the reasons for the writer to write "Feast during the Plague." The version, which is voiced on its pages, is considered by many to be worthy of attention of those who have not yet completed the official investigation.

What can I say at last? Very much the name of Nikolai Ivanovich Leonov is expensive, and they always remember him with a kind word, rereading beautiful books and reviewing films made according to his scripts.