Vyacheslav Shishkov: biography, works. Vyacheslav Yakovlevich Shishkov: novels "Vataga", "Ugryum River"

Altai. Here, on the banks of the Katun River, stands a monument to the great Russian, Soviet writer V. Ya. Shishkov. The choice of place is not accidental. Residents of the Altai Territory are grateful to the author who sang of Siberia, not only for his enormous contribution to Russian literature, but also for the development of the Chui tract project.

Shishkov Vyacheslav Yakovlevich - a writer and engineer. About him and will be discussed today in this article.

Birth and childhood

In 1873, on October 3, in the small town of Bezhetsk, a boy Vyacheslav Shishkov was born in a merchant's family, whom later everyone in the house would be called Westlyka. It is not known from whom the talent of the writer was transferred to him, but one thing is certain: his father, Yakov Shishkov, instilled love for art and everything beautiful, though he was a man of fine artistic nature and passionately fond of theater and opera. It was in this atmosphere that Vyacheslav Shishkov spent all his childhood.

Youth

In 1887, in his hometown, he finished sixth, last grade and entered a technical school in the city of Vyshny Volochek, which is located in the same Tver province. However, after four years of training, it's time to leave our native penates and go to Novgorod, and then to Vologda province for a mandatory two-year practice.

The young man was then only nineteen years old. At the same time, young Vyacheslav Shishkov makes a difficult two-week journey along the Pinega River with John of Kronstadt, which could not but leave a bright trace in his soul.

Job

In 1894, the practice came to an end. It is time for more serious undertakings, and Vyacheslav Shishkov, without hesitation, goes to Tomsk, to the district railroad administration, first to try himself as an ordinary technician. At it all turns out on "excellent". But on this he does not stop and successfully passes the exam, which gives him the right to continue to do his own survey work.

Siberia and the first publications

From 1894 to 1915 Shishkov Vyacheslav Yakovlevich headed many expeditions in Siberia. He traveled this vast territory of Russia along and across, along land and water, along the Pinega, the Yenisei, the Lena, the Northern Dvina, the Vychegda, the Sukhona. In this same fruitful period he is developing a project of the famous Chui tract. It can not be said that such long trips were not dangerous. Taiga is majestic, beautiful and harsh at the same time. Faced with its difficult nature and engineer Vyacheslav Shishkov. Once he and the members of his expedition nearly froze in impenetrable forests. They were rescued by the Tungus nomads.

In addition to studying and discovering new land and waterways, the observant young man studied the life and culture of local residents - Yakuts, Kirghiz, Irtysh Cossacks, interested in the lives of gold diggers, political exiles and simple vagabonds. And all this against a background of royal nature. Overflowing with impressions of what he heard and seen, he begins to write. He writes a lot, for seven years, but does not dare to open up to the world, believing that his wings have not grown yet. Only in 1908 was first published in periodicals "Young Siberia" and "Siberian Life".

Acquaintance with M. Gorky

The first minor, but still successful literary steps are pushing the thirty-eight-year-old researcher and engineer V. Shishkov to turn to Maxim Gorky for help and advice. He writes him a letter with a weak hope for an answer, in which he asks to read two of his stories - "Kralya" and "Vanya Khlyust", and give his assessment.

Gorky simply could not remain indifferent to the talent of the young writer, to his interesting personality, which in his years had already experienced much. He decides to help him and leads, as Shishkov himself wrote, to the "light of God," namely, to the new magazine "Testaments", his numerous works. Also, thanks to his "all-powerful" patron, the future author of the novel "Ugryum-river" gets acquainted with such prominent figures of the time as Mikhail Prishvin, V. Mirolyubov, A. Remizov, R. Ivanov-Razumnik, M. Averyanov, who actively help him in Becoming.

Moving in

In 1915, Tomsk, Siberia, and together with them all the old life and work are far behind. Vyacheslav Shishkov, whose biography does not cease to amaze and amaze, moves to Petersburg to devote his life to literature. Here he is caught by the tragic events that followed two years later: a revolution and a civil war, which he warmly welcomes.

Since 1918, one by one the cycles of his stories and essays have been published: "With a knapsack", "To a saint", "Taiga wolf", "Fresh wind" and many others. Uneasy, and sometimes contradictory Siberian character - that's the main character of all his works. Here, where you do not throw, there are riddles everywhere, impassable jungle and original beauty. Even though the century is exploring, you can not see the end and the edge, as if you are wandering through the taiga.

Vyacheslav Shishkov: works of the post-war years

The fate of the writer is really surprising. He survived the downfall of tsarist Russia, the revolution, the difficult years of the civil war, famine, devastation, the emergence of a new Soviet Russia, the Great Patriotic War. Of course, all these events are reflected in the writer's work.

In 1923, a novel (Vyacheslav Shishkov) "Vataga", in which, according to critics, the author tries to understand the soul of not one person, but a whole people, a mass of people, which at some point is deprived of leadership. But, as they say, a holy place is never empty. In place of the former device comes a new - anarchy, which in any case should someone lead. And then a new actor appears on the scene - the anarchist Zykov, who begins to build a new society, naturally, on the blood and denial of everything. "Watağ" is, it is possible to say, a warning book.

In 1928 the main work of Vyacheslav Shishkov appeared - "Ugrum-river", consisting of two parts. True, the second volume comes out a little later - in 1933. In the center of the novel is Prokhor Gromov, who dreams not only to build his capitalist empire in the heart of Siberia, but also to conquer this vast region, not to destroy it, but to merge with it in order to feel and absorb all its immensity and beauty. However, this land does not just give up. She tests it, offering friendship, loyalty, honor, love to be exchanged for gold, recognition and glory. The protagonist does not pass the test. As soon as he agrees to, as it seems to him, favorable conditions, the imminent end comes immediately: illness, madness and final death. In the work there are a lot of descriptions of nature, the violent nature of the Ugryum River, Siberian life, Tungus legends and legends.

The last significant work of Vyacheslav Shishkov is the historical novel-epic "Emelyan Pugachev". He wrote it, from 1938 to 1945. He did not interrupt his work even during the siege of Leningrad, during which he continued to speak with patriotic articles and small stories on the pages of newspapers.