Alexey Eremeev is a children's writer. In the literary world known as Leonid Panteleev. He created many tales and stories, stories and articles. L. Panteleev is worthy of being among the numerous classics of children's literature.
Biography
Eremeev Alexey Ivanovich was born on August 9 (22), 1908 in St. Petersburg into a middle-class family.
The family had three children: Vasily, Alexey and Lyalya. Before the revolution, the family did not know what need and hunger were. In 1916, Alexei successfully entered the Petrograd Real School, read a lot, wrote poetry and short stories. But the revolution and civil war disrupted the plans and hopes of many thousands of people of that time.
Alexei's father disappeared during the Civil War. The mother was left with three children and, fleeing hunger, left for a distant village in the Yaroslavl province.
For several years, Alexei wandered around Russia. He worked part-time as best he could, often stealing. During this time I visited both the "whites" and the "reds". Many times he ended up in orphanages, colonies, and sat behind bars. At the end of 1921 he ended up in the Petrograd Commission and was sent to the School of Social and Individual Education. Dostoevsky (Shkid).
The period of life at the school. Alexei remembered Dostoevsky. He remembered her and wrote about what this school is dear to him. In it, he really got involved in literature and art. Victor Soroko-Rosinsky became a good example for them. He was a real teacher who loved his work and children. The street children saw the headmaster as an intelligent, well-mannered, educated, cultured person. There he understood what friendship and mutual assistance are. He became close friends with Grigory Belykh. He wrote the famous "Republic of Shkid" with him.
Literary creativity
In 1923 G. Belykh and Alexei left the school. F. Dostoevsky. We went to Kharkov to enroll in acting courses. But the romance of wanderings did not give rest. They again wandered around the cities and returned to Leningrad. Then the idea came to write about SHKID. The manuscript was created in one go - in two and a half months. It's time to think about who to show it to and appreciate. They remembered a friend from the provincial department of public education and took the manuscript there. A friend was also in charge of the children's department of the Leningrad State Publishing House. She liked the manuscript and gave it to S. Ya. Marshak. So A. Eremeev, under the pseudonym Lenya Panteleev, was included in the lists of children's writers.
The popularity of the book exceeded all conceivable and inconceivable dimensions of that time. M. Gorky, A. Makarenko, K. Fedin, M. Prishvin and many other literary figures of that time wrote about her many times. The book has been reprinted more than ten times in Russian, has been translated into many foreign languages and the languages of the peoples of the USSR. The book was not spared by the cinema either.
A. Eremeev's bibliography is extensive. He worked on short stories, fairy tales, novellas, literary portraits, plays and articles. His works were distinguished by morality and conscientiousness.
In 1931, the memory suddenly gave out the memory of the last meeting with his father. Then he told a story about himself, how in the Russian-Japanese war he happened to deliver a letter to the army headquarters. On the way, he managed to fight off the enemy detachment. Wounded on the flight in the chest, bleeding, he delivered the package to the headquarters. For this feat he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir and the status of a hereditary nobleman. All this happened to my father in 1904.
This is how the plot of the story arose. In it, Alexei allowed his imagination to embellish some facts, because from his father he could no longer learn the whole truth of those events. Historians and literary scholars who study A. Yeremeyev's work notice that in the story there is a strong desire to tell the truth, but this is not easy to do. In general, in all the work of A. Eremeev, one can hear a tragic and at times creaky voice, compressed in the larynx. It is as if the speaker is having difficulty pronouncing the words through some suffering and choosing the words carefully.
A. Eremeev was asked to write a story about honesty for the magazine "Koster". The basis of the plot emerged from the memory of childhood, as he walked in the park with a nanny. The boys came up and offered to play "war". They took his word of honor that he would guard the warehouse and would not leave his post anywhere. The boys left and did not return, but the little boy, true to his word, remained in the cold and stood honestly until the nanny found him. Alexey changed the story a little. Instead of a nanny in the cartoon, the boy was found by a military man and allowed to leave the post.
Double name
A. Eremeev entered Russian literature under the pseudonym Leonid Panteleev. In those days, it was safer to keep the real surname and noble origins secret. It was easier to preserve their belonging to the great tribe of street children. This raised fewer questions. With Shkid's nickname "Lenka Panteleev" it was easier to become "one of our own" in that contradictory society. And so it happened that he came into the world with a noble surname, and in the world of literature he became a legendary street child, whom the revolution made educated and famous. Only now historians often make the reservation that at first the revolution made Aleksey Yeremeyev an orphan and that it was precisely the revolutionary upheavals that had such a tragic effect on his future fate.
Life tragedy
The contradictoriness and duality of the time in which A. Eremeev worked, had a strong impact on his inner world. He was an honest and principled man, kind and open, but the conditions of society did not allow him to write truthfully and openly. He constantly felt duality and duplicity. What he wanted to talk about in his works, but could not, as if he was thrusting his true thoughts into the subtext - he resorted to Aesop's language. From this he self-deprecated himself and blamed himself, often made excuses. He considered himself untruthful, distorted and adaptable.
He seemed to be walking and looking around all the time. I could not go to church openly, although I believed. Thought he was a bad Christian. He often recalled the words of N. Ogarev that unspoken beliefs remain just beliefs. And so he did it. He had to hide his views all his life, because he understood that this was the salvation of those times. The disturbing memory was reflected in his family life.
Family tragedy
Alexey Eremeev started a family late. His wife, Eliko Semyonovna Kashia, is a writer. She was an educated and refined person. She dressed tastefully and was considered a sophisticated fashionista of the 50s and 60s. In 1956, a daughter, Masha, was born, who became a grace and a miracle for her father. He kept a diary of Masha's life, which served as the source of the collection of stories "Our Masha".
The daughter was growing up. Parents tried to protect her from all the troubles and misfortunes of the world around her. She studied well and entered the pedagogical institute, but soon she developed some kind of incomprehensible neuropsychic illness. Eliko and Alexei could not understand what was happening to their daughter. They tried to treat her, but to no avail. The illness broke the girl. She didn't get much out of her parents. Eliko died in 1983. Aleksey - in 1987; Masha - in 1990.
