This man is sometimes called the Semei writer. Isai Kalashnikov is a direct descendant of the Old Believers who were once resettled in Transbaikalia. In his works, he pondered a lot about the meaning of life and about the purpose of man.
Childhood and youth
Isai Kallistratovich Kalashnikov from an early age was interested in the history of his native land, in which he was born and raised. In the stories and novels that were born from under his pen, the writer revealed the character of historical figures through the behavior of his contemporaries. This approach was not recognized by everyone, but the readers liked the books, and they still like them.
The future writer was born on August 9, 1931 in a family of Old Believers. Parents lived in the village of Sharaldai on the territory of the Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. My father worked on a collective farm. The mother was engaged in housekeeping and raising children. Seven children grew up in the house. Isaiah was the eldest. When he was six years old, the head of the family was denounced and sentenced to ten years in prison. At school, the boy unlearned only up to the fourth grade. When he turned eleven, he had to leave his studies and go to work on a collective farm as a shepherd.
Creative activity
As Isai Kallistratovich later recalled, there is a silver lining. Looking after the collective farm herd, he read almost all the books that were in the rural library. Without expecting it, he received a pretty decent education. After a while, the savvy boy was transferred to the tractor brigade as an accountant. In 1948, my father returned home. After the meeting, Isai moved to a neighboring area and got a job as a feller in the timber industry. Then he worked as a carpenter, turner, timber rafter. Throughout all these years, Kalashnikov wrote down his impressions and observations in an ordinary school notebook.
Isai Kalashnikov's debut story was published on the pages of the Zabaikalskaya Pravda newspaper. In 1954, the novice author was hired as an employee in the editorial office of the republican youth newspaper. The author completed his first novel, The Last Retreat, in 1961. Kalashnikov's writing career took shape without haste. He worked carefully on each text. And he treated literary creation as a responsible mission. The author rewrote his famous novel The Cruel Age six times.
Recognition and privacy
For the novel "Rip-Grass", published in "Roman-Gazeta" and published as a separate book in a Moscow publishing house, Kalashnikov received the State Prize. In 1973 he was awarded the honorary title "People's Writer of Buryatia".
A separate novel can be written about the writer's personal life. He met his wife Ekaterina Viktorovna in 1953. They spent the rest of their lives under one roof. The husband and wife raised and raised three daughters. Isai Kallistratovich Kalashnikov passed away in May 1980 after a serious illness.
