Soviet writer Valentin Kataev: biography, creativity

Kataev Valentin Petrovich - very popular, especially in Soviet times, writer, journalist, playwright, prose writer, poet and screenwriter. In 1974, for his many years of literary work was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. According to his works, many theatrical productions, art and documentary films and cartoons were created. Creativity of Valentin Kataev became timely and irreplaceable, it carried the very necessary moral education, a charge of kindness and humanity.

A bit about the pedigree

Start a biography of this famous writer with his amazing pedigree. And in it you can find many interesting things.

His grandfather on the paternal line - Vasily Kataev (born in 1819) - was the son of a priest and followed in his footsteps, first he graduated from the Vyatka Theological Seminary, then the Moscow Theological Academy, until eventually he became an archpriest of the Vyatka cathedral.

Father Valentin Petrovich - Kataev Peter Vasilievich - was a very educated man who graduated from the theological seminary, then the Novorossiysk University of the History and Philology Department and eventually became a teacher of the Junkers of the Odessa Diocesan School.

Mother - Bachey Eugene Ivanovna - was the daughter of a general from the Poltava small-family family.

The writer also had a younger brother - Evgeni Katayev (pseudonym Petrov on behalf of his father), who also later became a famous writer. By the way, Eugene is the same Petrov who co-wrote with Ilf his famous works "12 chairs" and "Golden Calf".

Valentin Kataev: biography

V.P. Kataev was born in Odessa in 1897, on January 16. His parents were a happy couple, who had two gifted children (in the future writers Valentin and Eugene). After the birth of the second child, Yevgenia Ivanovna fell ill with pneumonia and died. The upbringing and care of the children was taken up by her sister, who replaced her mother.

In their family was an unusually large library filled with classical, historical, reference and encyclopedic literature, which Valentine Kataev so adored. His biography indicates that parents read these books to their children aloud.

The first works

Love for classical literature has been instilled in children since childhood. Kataev himself later recalled that even then he felt that he would become a writer.

His first poem "Autumn" was published in the press of the "Odessa Herald" in 1910. Two years later, another 25 poems were published.

In 1912 the first humorous stories began to be published in the same newspaper. And at the same time, two voluminous stories - "The Dark Personality" and "Awakening" - appear in a separate edition. In the first there was a satire on A. Kuprin, M. Kornfeld, A. Averchenko, and in the second, the story told of the love of a young man who refused for her sake the revolutionary movement.

friendship

Before the beginning of the First World Writer Valentin Kataev met his literary teachers IA. Bunin and A.M. Fedorov. A little later, friendship with the young Odessa writers Eduard Bagritsky and Yury Olesha begins.

He had an unfinished gymnasium education because of his participation in the First World War and civil wars, and then in the White movement.

In 1915 Valentin Kataev volunteered for the army. Biography has data that he served in the rank of ensign, was twice wounded and received poisoning with gases.

In the summer of 1917, the writer was wounded on the Romanian front in a hospital in Odessa. He was awarded two St. George Crosses and the Order of St. Anne IV "For Bravery." With the first officer's rank for personal merits, he received a title that was not inherited from the nobility.

Creation

In the war, Kataev writes his stories and essays in his spare time devoted to the life of the front. In the magazine "The Whole World" in 1915 for the first time on the pages of the capital's publishing house his story "Nemchik" is published.

The main and only teacher Kataev considered Ivan Bunin, with whom he was introduced in Odessa by the self-taught writer A. Fedorov.

Civil

After the Odessa hospital in 1918 Kataev goes to the service of Hetman P. Skoropadsky, and after his betrayal and flight to Berlin, he leaves for the volunteer army with the rank of second lieutenant. Then he served as an artillery on the armored train "Novorossiya", fought against the Petliurists in Vinnitsa and the Reds in Berdichev.

Before the retreat in 1920 in Zhmerinka, he fell ill with typhus, and again he was waiting for the Odessa hospital, and then his relatives, still sick and weak, took him home. After his cure, he became a member of the underground conspiratorial conspiracy against P.N. Wrangel. Soon he and his brother Eugene were arrested and detained in prison until September 1920, then they were released, the remaining conspirators were shot in the same autumn.

Moscow

In 1921 he worked in the Kharkov publishing house together with Yuri Olesha and rented an apartment with him. In 1922 Kataev moved to the capital and began to work in the newspaper "Gudok", all his articles of that time were humorous and satirical in nature, he signed pseudonyms Mitrofan Gorchitsa, Starik Sabbakin, Ol. Twist.

When in 1938 the poet O. Mandelstam was arrested, whose creations were perceived by the Soviet authorities as slanderous and obscene, Kataev helped his family with money.

War time

Kataev went to war with the fascist invaders as a military correspondent. At this time he wrote stories, essays, journalistic articles. One of the brightest works of those years was the story "Our Father".

Before the Great Victory he will write his famous story "The Son of the Regiment" and in 1946 will receive for it the State Prize.

After the war, Kataev began to suffer from long drinking bouts, which almost led him to a divorce from his wife, Valentina Serova. But he changed his mind in time, took himself in hand and stopped drinking.

Valentin Kataev: books

In the period from 1955 to 1961 Kataev founded the magazine "Youth" and became its editor-in-chief. Here he relies on the work of yet unknown young, but very promising poets and prose writers, the so-called sixties.

Valentin Kataev writes his works in very easy, simple and understandable language, his books become very popular. The first success was brought to him by the story "The Waste" (1926), followed by the "Circle Quadrant" (1928), "Time, Forward!" (1932). It should also be noted the story "Holy Well" (1965), "The Grass of Oblivion" (1967), "Diamond My Wreath" (1975), "Dry Liman" (1986), etc.

Valentin Kataev also created many works for children and young people, here he showed new facets of his work. In the early 40's he began to print his fairy tales "The Fife and the Jug", "Golubok", "Tsvetik-Semitsvetik." And in 1945 there are fairy tales "Zhemchuzhinka" and "Pen," in which he delicately discusses moral issues.

Valentin Katayev very carefully and delicately brings the child to the right conclusions. His biography has always been associated with creativity. In 1926, he began to create the tetralogy "Waves of the Black Sea", which included the story "The white solitary sails" (1936), "Catacombs" (1951), "Khutorok in the steppe" (1956), "Winter Wind "(1960).

After Kataev wanted to put the editor-in-chief of the Literary Gazette, but something did not work out there. Then in 1966 he signed a letter of L.I. Brezhnev - then ruler of the USSR, against the rehabilitation of Stalin.

In 1979, the novel "Already Writer" was published in Novy Mir, where he discovered the secret of his participation in the White movement and arrest. This story in the society caused great resonance. The writer at that time was already 83 years old.

At the end of his life Kataev Valentin Petrovich underwent surgery, he was removed from a cancerous tumor. At the 90th year of life, April 12, 1986, the writer was no more. His grave is on the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.