What was first described by Alexander Belyaev. The mysterious life and death of science fiction writer Alexander Belyaev

This outstanding creator is one of the founders of the genre of science fiction literature in the Soviet Union. Even in our time, it seems simply incredible that a person in his works can depict events that will happen several decades later...

So, who is Alexander Belyaev? The biography of this person is simple and unique in its own way. But unlike the millions of copies of the author’s works, not much has been written about his life.
Alexander Belyaev was born on March 4, 1884 in the city of Smolensk, into a family Orthodox priest. There were two more children in the family: sister Nina died in childhood from sarcoma; brother Vasily, a student at the veterinary institute, drowned while boating.
The father wanted to see his son as a successor to his business and gave him in 1894 to religious school. After graduating in 1898, Alexander was transferred to Smolensk theological seminary. He graduated from it in 1904, but did not become a priest; on the contrary, he left there as a convinced atheist. In defiance of his father, he entered the Demidov Legal Lyceum in Yaroslavl. Soon after his father’s death, he had to earn extra money: Alexander gave lessons, painted scenery for the theater, played the violin in a circus orchestra, and published in city newspapers as a music critic.

After graduating (in 1908) from the Demidov Lyceum, A. Belyaev received the position of private attorney in Smolensk and soon gained fame as a good lawyer. He gained a regular clientele. His material opportunities also increased: he was able to rent and furnish nice apartment, acquire a good collection of paintings, collect a large library. In 1913, he traveled abroad: he visited France, Italy, and visited Venice. In 1914 he left law for the sake of literature and theater. In 1914 in Moscow children's magazine"Thawed Land" published his debut play "Grandma Moira".
At the age of 35, A. Belyaev fell ill with tuberculous pleurisy. The treatment was unsuccessful - tuberculosis of the spine developed, complicated by paralysis of the legs. A serious illness confined him to bed for six years, three of which he spent in a cast. His young wife left him, saying that she didn’t get married to take care of her sick husband. In search of specialists who could help him, A. Belyaev, with his mother and old nanny, ended up in Yalta. There, in the hospital, he began to write poetry. Not giving in to despair, he is engaged in self-education: he studies foreign languages, medicine, biology, history, technology, reads a lot (Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky). Having defeated the disease, in 1922 he returned to a full life and began to work. In the same year he married Margarita Konstantinovna Magnushevskaya.
At first A. Belyaev became a teacher in orphanage, then he was given the position of criminal investigation inspector, where he organized a photo laboratory, and later had to go to the library. Life in Yalta was very difficult, and A. Belyaev (with the help of a friend) in 1923 moved with his family to Moscow, where he got a job as a legal adviser. There he begins serious literary activity.

He publishes science fiction stories and novellas in the magazines “Around the World”, “Knowledge is Power”, “World Pathfinder”.
In 1924, in the newspaper Gudok he published the story “The Head of Professor Dowell,” which Belyaev himself called an autobiographical story, explaining: “An illness once put me in a plaster bed for three and a half years. This period of illness was accompanied by paralysis of the lower half of the body. And although I had control over my hands, my life during these years was reduced to the life of a “head without a body,” which I did not feel at all - complete anesthesia...”

A. Belyaev lived in Moscow until 1928; During this time he wrote the novels “The Island of Lost Ships”, “ Last Man from Atlantis,” “Amphibian Man,” “Struggle on the Air,” a collection of short stories published. The author wrote not only under his own name, but also under the pseudonyms A. Rom and Arbel.

In 1928, A. Belyaev and his family moved to Leningrad and from then on became a professional writer. The novels “Lord of the World”, “Underwater Farmers”, “The Wonderful Eye”, and stories from the series “The Inventions of Professor Wagner” were written. They were published mainly in Moscow publishing houses. However, soon the illness made itself felt again, and I had to move from rainy Leningrad to sunny Kyiv. However, in Kyiv publishing houses accepted manuscripts only in Ukrainian, and Belyaev moved to Moscow again.

The year 1930 turned out to be a very difficult year for the writer: his six-year-old daughter Lyudmila died of meningitis, his second daughter Svetlana fell ill with rickets, and soon his own illness (spondylitis) worsened. As a result, in 1931 the family returned to Leningrad.

In September 1931, A. Belyaev handed over the manuscript of his novel “The Earth is Burning” to the editors of the Leningrad magazine “Around the World”.

In 1932 he lives in Murmansk. In 1934, he met with Herbert Wells, who arrived in Leningrad. In 1935, Belyaev became a permanent contributor to the magazine “Around the World”.
At the beginning of 1938, after eleven years of intensive cooperation, Belyaev left the magazine “Around the World”. In 1938, he published the article “Cinderella” about the plight of contemporary fiction.

Shortly before the war, the writer underwent another operation, so when the war began, he refused the offer to evacuate. The city of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoe Selo, a suburb of Leningrad), where he lived in last years A. Belyaev with his family was occupied by the Nazis.
On January 6, 1942, at the 58th year of his life, Alexander Romanovich Belyaev died of hunger. He was buried in a mass grave along with other residents of the city. “The writer Belyaev, who wrote science fiction novels like “Amphibian Man,” froze from hunger in his room. “Frozen from hunger” is an absolutely accurate expression. People are so weak from hunger that they are unable to get up and fetch firewood. They found him already completely numb..."

Alexander Belyaev had two daughters: Lyudmila (March 15, 1924 - March 19, 1930) and Svetlana.
The writer's mother-in-law was Swedish, named at birth double name Elvira-Ioanetta. Shortly before the war, when exchanging passports, she was left with only one name, and she and her daughter were also registered as Germans. Due to the difficulties of the exchange, it remained so. Because of this entry in the documents, the writer’s wife Margarita, daughter Svetlana and mother-in-law were given the status of Volksdeutsche by the Germans and were taken prisoner by the Germans, where they were kept in various camps for displaced persons in Poland and Austria until liberation by the Red Army in May 1945. After the end of the war they were sent into exile in Western Siberia. They spent 11 years in exile. The daughter did not marry.
The surviving wife of the writer and daughter Svetlana were taken prisoner by the Germans and were kept in various camps for displaced persons in Poland and Austria until liberation by the Red Army in May 1945. After the end of the war they were exiled to Western Siberia. They spent 11 years in exile. The daughter did not marry.

The circumstances of the death of the “Soviet Jules Verne” - Alexander Belyaev still remain a mystery. The writer died in the occupied city of Pushkin in 1942, but it is not very clear how and why this happened. Some claim that Alexander Romanovich died of hunger, others believe that he could not bear the horrors of the occupation, and others believe that the cause of the writer’s death should be sought in his last novel.

Conversation with the daughter of the “Soviet Jules Verne.”

Svetlana Alexandrovna, why wasn’t your family evacuated from Pushkin before the Germans entered the city?
- My father had spinal tuberculosis for many years. He could move independently only in a special corset. He was so weak that leaving was out of the question. The city had a special commission that at that time was involved in the evacuation of children. He offered to take me out too, but my parents refused this offer too. In 1940, I developed tuberculosis of the knee joint, and I faced the war in a cast. Mom often repeated then: “We die together!”
- There are still quite a few versions regarding the death of your father:
- Dad died of hunger. In our family, it was not customary to make any supplies for the winter. When the Germans entered the city, we had several bags of cereal, some potatoes and a barrel sauerkraut. And when these supplies ran out, my grandmother had to go to work for the Germans. Every day she was given a pot of soup and some potato peels, from which we baked cakes. Even such meager food was enough for us, but this was not enough for my father.
- Some researchers believe that Alexander Romanovich simply could not bear the horrors of the fascist occupation...
“I don’t know how my father survived all this, but I was very scared.” At that time anyone could be executed without trial or investigation. Just for violating curfew or being accused of theft. Most of all we were worried about my mother. She often went to our old apartment to pick up some things from there. She could easily have been hanged as a burglar. The gallows stood right under our windows.
- Is it true that the Germans didn’t even let you and your mother bury Alexander Romanovich?
- Dad died on January 6, 1942. Mom went to the city government, and there it turned out that there was only one horse left in the city, and she had to wait in line. The coffin with the father's body was placed in empty apartment Next door. Many people at that time were simply covered with earth in common ditches, but they had to pay for a separate grave. Mom took some things to the gravedigger, and he swore that he would bury his father like a human being. The coffin with the body was placed in a crypt at the Kazan cemetery and was supposed to be buried with the onset of first warmth. Alas, on February 5, my mother, grandmother and I were taken prisoner, so they buried my father without us.

The monument to the science fiction writer at the Kazan Cemetery of Tsarskoe Selo does not stand at the writer’s grave, but at the place of his supposed burial. The details of this story were unearthed by the former chairman of the local history section of the city of Pushkin, Evgeniy Golovchiner. At one time he managed to find a witness who was present at Belyaev’s funeral. Tatyana Ivanova was disabled since childhood and lived all her life at the Kazan cemetery.

She said that at the beginning of March 1942, when the ground had already begun to thaw a little, people who had been lying in the local crypt since winter began to be buried in the cemetery. It was at this time that the writer Belyaev, along with others, was interred. Why did she remember this? Yes, because Alexander Romanovich was buried in a coffin, of which there were only two left in Pushkin at that time. Professor Chernov was buried in the other. Tatyana Ivanova also indicated the place where both of these coffins were buried. True, from her words it turned out that the gravedigger still did not keep his promise to bury Belyaev like a human being; he buried the writer’s coffin in a common ditch instead of a separate grave.

The question of why Alexander Belyaev died seems much more interesting. Publicist Fyodor Morozov believes that the writer’s death could well be connected with the mystery of the Amber Room. The fact is that the last thing Belyaev worked on was dedicated to this very topic. Nobody knows what he was going to write about the famous mosaic. It is only known that Belyaev told many people about his new novel even before the war and even quoted some passages to his friends. With the arrival of the Germans in Pushkin, specialists became actively interested in the Amber Room

Gestapo. By the way, they could not fully believe that an authentic mosaic fell into their hands. Therefore, we actively looked for people who would have information on this matter. It was no coincidence that two Gestapo officers also went to Alexander Romanovich, trying to find out what he knew about this story. Whether the writer told them anything or not is not known. In any case, no documents have yet been found in the Gestapo archives. But the answer to the question whether Belyaev could have been killed because of his interest in the Amber Room does not seem so difficult. It is enough to remember what fate befell many researchers who tried to find the wonderful mosaic.

"Life after death.

More than 70 years have passed since the Russian science fiction writer passed away, but his memory lives on in his works to this day. At one time, the work of Alexander Belyaev was subjected to strict criticism, and sometimes he heard mocking reviews. However, the science fiction writer’s ideas, which previously seemed ridiculous and scientifically impossible, eventually convinced even the most inveterate skeptics of the opposite.

The author’s works continue to be published today and are quite in demand among readers. Belyaev’s books are instructive; his works call for kindness and courage, love and respect. Many films have been made based on the novels of the prose writer. Thus, since 1961, eight films have been filmed, some of them are part of the classics of Soviet cinema - “The Amphibian Man”, “The Testament of Professor Dowell”, “The Island of Lost Ships” and “The Air Seller”. The story of Ichthyander Perhaps the most famous work of A.R. Belyaev’s novel “Amphibian Man,” which was written in 1927. It was he, along with “The Head of Professor Dowell,” that H.G. Wells highly appreciated. Belyaev was inspired to create “Amphibian Man”, firstly, by memories of reading the novel French writer Jean de la Hire “Iktaner and Moisette”, secondly, a newspaper article about what took place in Argentina trial on the case of a doctor who conducted various experiments on people and animals. Today, it is practically impossible to establish the name of the newspaper and the details of the process. But this once again proves that, when creating his science fiction works, Alexander Belyaev tried to rely on real life facts and events. In 1962, directors V. Chebotarev and G. Kazansky filmed “Amphibian Man.” “The Last Man from Atlantis” One of the author’s very first works, “The Last Man from Atlantis,” did not go unnoticed in Soviet and world literature. In 1927, it was included in Belyaev’s first author’s collection along with “The Island of Lost Ships.” From 1928 to 1956, the work was forgotten, and only since 1957 it was republished several times in the territory of the Soviet Union.

The idea of searching for the disappeared Atlantean civilization dawned on Belyaev after reading an article in the French newspaper Le Figaro. Its content was such that in Paris there was a society for the study of Atlantis. At the beginning of the twentieth century, such associations were quite common; they enjoyed increased interest among the population. The insightful Alexander Belyaev decided to take advantage of this. The science fiction writer used the note as a prologue to The Last Man of Atlantis. The work consists of two parts and is perceived by the reader quite simply and excitingly. The material for writing the novel was drawn from the book by Roger Devigne “The Vanished Continent. Atlantis, the sixth part of the world." Comparing the predictions of representatives science fiction, it is important to note that the scientific ideas of the books Soviet writer Alexandra Belyaev were 99 percent successful. So, main idea novel "The Head of Professor Dowell" became an opportunity to revive human body after death. Several years after the publication of this work, Sergei Bryukhonenko, the great Soviet physiologist, carried out similar experiments. A widespread achievement in medicine today - surgical restoration of the lens of the eye - was also foreseen by Alexander Belyaev more than fifty years ago.

The novel “Amphibian Man” became prophetic in the scientific development of technologies for long-term human stay under water. Thus, in 1943, the French scientist Jacques-Yves Cousteau patented the first scuba gear, thereby proving that Ichthyander is not such an unattainable image. Successful tests of the first unmanned aerial vehicles in the thirties of the twentieth century in Great Britain, as well as the creation of psychotropic weapons - all this was described by the science fiction writer in the book “Lord of the World” back in 1926.
The novel "The Man Who Lost Face" tells the story of successful development plastic surgery and the ethical issues that arise from this. In the story, the state governor transforms into a black man, taking upon himself all the burdens of racial discrimination. Here we can draw a certain parallel in the destinies of the mentioned hero and the famous American singer Michael Jackson, who, fleeing unjust persecution, underwent a considerable number of operations to change the color of his skin.

All my creative life Belyaev struggled with the disease. Deprived of physical capabilities, he tried to reward the heroes of the books with unusual abilities: communicate without words, fly like birds, swim like fish. But infecting the reader with interest in life, in something new - isn’t this the true talent of a writer?

Alexander Romanovich Belyaev(1884-1942) - Russian writer, one of the founders of the Russian science fiction novel; from 1942 to 1965 Alexander Belyaev was not published.

Belyaev's famous works: the novels "The Head of Professor Dowell" (1925), "The Amphibian Man" (1928), "Lord of the World" (1929), "Struggle on the Air" (1928), "Jump into Nothing" (1933), " Star of the KETS" (1936), "Wonderful Eye" (1935), "Laboratory of Doubleve" (1938), "Under the Arctic Sky" (1938), etc.

The son of a priest, he studied at the theological seminary, then at the law faculty of the university and at the same time at the conservatory. For some time he worked in the theater under the direction of K.S. Stanislavsky, was a sworn attorney, a policeman, a violinist in a circus orchestra, a library manager, a theater decorator, an editor of a city newspaper, and a teacher. orphanage and legal advisor.

Published since 1910. From the mid-1920s, having contracted spinal tuberculosis, he was engaged exclusively in literary activities, becoming one of the founders of the science fiction genre in Russian literature. In 1925, Belyaev's first story, The Head of Professor Dowell (1925; revised into a novel in 1937) and his first story, The Last Man from Atlantis, were published. These and subsequent works of Belyaev invariably went beyond specific scientific insights to acute problems of social existence, the responsibility of a scientist and the fate of humanistic values in a technologized world populated by bright and unusual people, captivating with the dynamic development of an adventure plot, impressive pictures of the past and future, imbued with warm humor. These are, in particular, the novels The Island of Lost Ships (1926; final edition 1937), Above the Abyss (1927), Eternal Bread, in which an unfairly structured society makes a scientist’s invention the cause of a worldwide catastrophe; The Amphibian Man, Struggle in the Air (all 1928), Merchant of the Air, Master of the World (both 1929), in which scientists try to make their inventions instruments of power or profit; Leap into Nothingness (1933), depicting the flight of the super-rich into outer space from communism triumphing on planet Earth; Ariel (1941) - about a man who can fly like a bird.

ALEXANDER BELYAEV WITH WIFE MARGARITA AND FIRST DAUGHTER

The features of a pamphlet, utopia and dystopia are combined in Belyaev’s works with fruitful scientific and technical predictions (many of which have already come true), in particular, in the novels: Underwater Farmers (1930), Wonderful Eye (1935), Star “KETS” (1936; dedicated to K.E. Tsiolkovsky), Dublve Laboratory and Under the Sky of the Arctic (both 1928). The bright tone of Belyaev’s work is given not only by technocratic optimism, but also by the optimism characteristic of a certain layer Russian literature 1920–1930s (A.S. Green, P.D. Kogan) romantic mood, planetary scale of worldview, educational idealization of man and the power of his imagination, mind and will.

Belyaev also left the script for the film When the Lights Go Out, a series of essays about figures of Russian science, and articles on the theory of the science fiction genre. Created by novel of the same name Belyaeva Feature Film Amphibian Man (1962; dir. G.S. Kazansky, V.A. Chebotarev).

Alexander Romanovich Belyaev(March 4 (16), 1884 - January 6, 1942) - Soviet science fiction writer, one of the founders of Soviet science fiction literature. Among his most famous novels are: “The Head of Professor Dowell”, “The Amphibian Man”, “Ariel”, “The Star of KEC” and many others. He is sometimes called the Russian "Jules Verne".

Born on March 4 (16 NS) in Smolensk in the family of a priest. Since childhood, I read a lot and was fond of adventure literature, especially Jules Verne. Subsequently, he flew airplanes of one of the first designs and made gliders himself.

In 1901 he graduated from theological seminary, but did not become a priest; on the contrary, he left there as a convinced atheist. He loved painting, music, theater, played in amateur performances, took up photography, and studied technology.

He entered the legal lyceum in Yaroslavl and at the same time studied violin at the conservatory. To earn money for his studies, he played in a circus orchestra and painted theater scenery, was engaged in journalism. In 1906, after graduating from the Lyceum, he returned to Smolensk and worked as a lawyer. Acted as music critic, theater reviewer in the Smolensky Vestnik newspaper.

He never stopped dreaming of distant countries and, having saved money, in 1913 he traveled to Italy, France, and Switzerland. He retained the impressions from this trip for the rest of his life. Returning to Smolensk, he worked at the Smolensky Vestnik, and a year later became the editor of this publication. A serious illness - bone tuberculosis - confined him to bed for six years, three of which he was in a cast.

Not giving in to despair, he is engaged in self-education: he studies foreign languages, medicine, biology, history, technology, and reads a lot. Having overcome the disease, in 1922 he returned to a full life, serving as an inspector for juvenile affairs. On the advice of doctors, he lives in Yalta, works as a teacher in an orphanage.

In 1923 he moved to Moscow and began serious literary activity. He publishes science fiction stories and novellas in the magazines “Around the World”, “Knowledge is Power”, “World Pathfinder”, earning the title of “Soviet Jules Verne”. In 1925 he published the story “The Head of Professor Dowell,” which Belyaev himself called an autobiographical story: he wanted to tell “what a head without a body can experience.”

In 1931 he moved to Leningrad, continuing to work hard. He was especially interested in the problems of space exploration and the ocean depths. In 1934, after reading Belyaev’s novel “Airship,” Tsiolkovsky wrote: “... wittily written and scientific enough for fantasy. Let me express my pleasure to Comrade Belyaev.”

In 1933 the book “Leap into Nothing” was published, 1935 - “The Second Moon”. In the 1930s, “KETS Star”, “Wonderful Eye”, “Under the Arctic Sky” were written.

He spent the last years of his life near Leningrad, in the city of Pushkin. I met War in the hospital.

Alexander Romanovich Belyaev - Russian writer, one of the founders of the genre of science fiction literature in the USSR.

Alexander Belyaev was born on March 4, 1884 in Smolensk in the family of an Orthodox priest. Since childhood, the boy was interested in music, photography, foreign languages and adventure novels. The father wanted to see his son become a clergyman, but after graduating from theological seminary in 1901, Alexander decided to choose a different path for himself. The young man entered the Demidov Legal Lyceum in Yaroslavl, upon graduation he began legal practice and quickly gained a reputation good specialist. He gained regular clients and money, which was spent on works of art, books and travel.

As a lyceum student, Alexander Belyaev was seriously interested in theater and tried himself as an actor, director, and playwright. The young man’s passion for literature did not leave him: in 1914, the author made his debut in the Moscow magazine for children “Protalinka”, where his fairy tale play"Grandma Moira."

The plans of the aspiring writer were interrupted by illness: in 1919, tuberculous pleurisy for six years for long years chained him to bed. The illness bothered the author for the rest of his life, but there was no time to despair: he devoted all his time to studying foreign languages, medicine, history, technology, and literature.

1922 was a successful year for Alexander: the illness temporarily subsided and, most importantly, the writer married the woman of his life, Margarita, who gave him a daughter, Lyudmila, three years later. From Yalta, where treatment took place, the Belyaev family moved to Moscow. In 1925, Rabochaya Gazeta published Alexander Belyaev’s story “The Head of Professor Dowell.” From that moment on, the prose writer’s science-fiction stories and short stories began to appear in the magazines “Around the World,” “World Pathfinder,” and “Knowledge is Power.” Over the several years he lived in Moscow, the science fiction writer created many famous works: “Island of Lost Ships”, “Amphibian Man”, “Struggle in the Air”, “The Last Man from Atlantis”.

In 1928, the prose writer and his family moved to Leningrad. At this time, the books “Lord of the World”, “Underwater Farmers”, “The Wonderful Eye”, and stories from the series “The Inventions of Professor Wagner” were written. In 1930, the family suffered grief: six-year-old Lyudmila died of meningitis. Due to severe mental trauma, Alexander’s poor health worsened even further.

The writer found solace in work: in the thirties he actively collaborated with the magazine Around the World, where he was first published famous novel Belyaev "The Earth is Burning". However, the genre of fiction became less and less in demand, and after eleven years of fruitful work, the author decided to leave the magazine.

With the outbreak of the war, the city of Pushkin - a suburb of Leningrad, where the writer lived with his relatives - found himself under occupation. Due to the operation Alexander was unable to evacuate, his family decided to stay with him. In January 1942, the writer Alexander Belyaev died of hunger. The prose writer's wife and daughter were later deported to Poland.

The exact burial place of the prose writer is still unknown. A memorial stele in honor of Alexander Belyaev at the Kazan cemetery in the city of Pushkin was installed only at the supposed grave. The last work author's novel "Ariel", published by the publishing house " Modern writer"a year before his death.

Despite the fact that more than a century has passed since the birth of the talented science fiction writer, his works continue to be published, and films are made based on the novels: since 1961, eight film adaptations of Alexander Belyaev’s works have been released. Adventure movies“The Amphibian Man”, “The Testament of Professor Dowell”, “The Air Seller”, “The Island of Lost Ships” became classics of Soviet cinema. Limited by illness all his life, the author endowed his characters with superpowers: the ability to swim like a fish, fly like a bird, and communicate without words. Belyaev’s books teach kindness and courage, infecting with their all-encompassing thirst for knowledge.

Alexander Belyaev was called the “Russian Jules-Verne” for his ability to predict many events.

In his books, Alexander predicted not only the invention of scuba gear and the orbital station, but also his own death...

When Alexander Belyaev, against the will of his parents, chose the profession of a lawyer, a woman who called herself a clairvoyant came to seek his protection. “I warned two women about the possible imminent death of their husbands,” she said. “And now the inconsolable widows accuse me of deliberately killing them.” Alexander just grinned: “Then predict for me,” said the writer.

“Your life will be hard, but very bright. And you yourself will be able to look into the future,” she said. After this, Alexander agreed to take on the woman’s case, and she was acquitted at the trial. But what was predicted did not take long to arrive. Belyaev was not a prophet, but he knew how to notice what ideas people had grown into modern society, on the verge of what new discoveries and achievements it is located.

One of his first novels of predictions was the famous “Amphibian Man,” where the writer foresaw the invention of an artificial lung and scuba gear with an open breathing system on compressed air, invented in 1943 by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. By the way, the novel itself was largely biographical.

Still from the film “Amphibian Man” (1961)

As a child, Alexander had a dream in which he and his brother Vasily were crawling through a long dark tunnel. Somewhere ahead there was a light, but the brother could no longer move on. Overcoming himself, Alexander was able to get out, but without Vasily. Soon, his brother drowned while boating.

In the novel, Belyaev describes how Ichthyander, getting out into the vast expanses of the ocean, had to swim through a tunnel. He swam along it, “overcoming the cold oncoming current. It pushes off from the bottom, floats up... The end of the tunnel is near. Now Ichthyander can again give himself up to the current - it will carry him far into the open ocean.”

Air pollution

When Alexander Belyaev was forced, due to poor health, to go to Crimea for treatment, on the train he met people who had suffered as a result of a technological accident at a Kuzbass enterprise. This is how the idea of the “Air Seller” was born.

In his work, Belyaev warns of an impending environmental disaster, where environment will be so polluted with gases and industrial emissions that clean air will turn into a commodity that will not be available to everyone.

Is it worth reminding that today, due to poor ecology, there is a constant danger of oncology walking around the world, and life expectancy is major cities is rapidly declining. Under these conditions, states are even forced to enter into international agreements, an example of which is the Kyoto Protocol to limit carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

Orbital station

“The KETS Star” was written in 1936 under the influence of the writer’s correspondence with Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky. As a matter of fact, KETS are the initials of the Soviet scientist. The entire novel is built on Tsiolkovsky’s ideas - the possibility of launching an orbital station, people going into outer space, traveling to the moon.

After the release of the book, which was published by the magazine “Around the World,” Tsiolkovsky wrote an enthusiastic review of it. The two dreamers were far ahead of their time - after all, the first real orbital station, Salyut, appeared in space only in 1973.

Drones

In the book “Lord of the World” (1926), Belyaev “invented” an apparatus for transmitting thoughts over a distance on the principle of radio waves, which made it possible to instill a thought in a stranger at a distance - essentially, psychotropic weapon. In addition, in his book he predicted the emergence of unmanned aircraft; the first successful tests took place in Great Britain only in the 30s of the 20th century.

Plastic

In his novel “The Man Who Lost Face” (1929), the author presents to the reader the problem of changing the human body and the subsequent problems associated with it. As a matter of fact, the novel predicts modern advances in plastic surgery, and the ethical problems that invariably follow.

According to the plot, the state governor turns into a black man and, as a result, experiences all the features of racial discrimination. It is somewhat reminiscent of the fate of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who changed his skin color to escape prejudice against black people.

The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle

After the triumph of the novel “The Head of Professor Dowell,” at one of the meetings, journalists bombarded the writer with questions: “Who lives at the bottom of the ocean? Is there life on other planets? Are there really " flying dutchmen? Having not found an answer to this question for himself, Belyaev delves into its study and begins to figure out...

Let's say that somewhere, for example, in the area of Bermuda, there is a certain special zone. The nearby Sargasso Sea with its abundance of algae has always made local navigation difficult; ships left here after shipwrecks could easily accumulate in its waters. This is how the plot of the novel “The Island of Lost Ships” begins.

In his new work, Belyaev became the first to point out the mystery of the now famous Bermuda Triangle, the anomaly of which was first publicly announced by the Associated Press, calling this area “the devil’s sea.”

Last prediction

The year 1940 comes. Many in the country have gloomy premonitions that terrible war. And Belyaev special sensations- old illnesses make themselves felt, the writer has a presentiment - he will not survive this war. And he remembers his childhood dream, writes a novel about Ariel - a man who could fly. He himself would like to soar above the bustle of everyday life. Ariel, like Amphibian Man, is biographical. This work is a prediction own death. He wanted to fly away from this world like Ariel.

And so it happened. The writer died in 1943 from hunger in besieged Leningrad. The writer Belyaev was buried in common grave along with many others. After this, Belyaev’s wife and daughter were captured by the Germans, and then in exile in Altai.

Upon returning from there, they found the writer’s glasses, to which was attached a note addressed to Belyaev’s wife:

“Do not look for my traces on this earth,” her husband wrote. - I'm waiting for you in heaven. Your Ariel...

Alexander Belyaev

Birthday: March 16, 1884. Place of Birth: Smolensk, Russia
Date of death: January 6, 1942 (57 years old)
A place of death: Pushkin, Russia
Citizenship: Russia

Biography

Alexander Romanovich Belyaev- Soviet science fiction writer, one of the founders of Soviet science fiction literature. His books are devoted to the problems of science and technology of the future. Among famous works: “The Head of Professor Dowell”, “Amphibian Man”, “Ariel”, “KETS Star” (KETS are the initials of Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky) and many others (in total more than 70 science fiction works, including 13 novels).

He was born in Smolensk, in the family of an Orthodox priest. There were two more children in the family: sister Nina died in childhood from sarcoma; brother Vasily, a student at the veterinary institute, drowned while boating.

The father wanted to see his son as a successor to his work and sent him to a theological seminary in 1895. In 1901, Alexander graduated from theological seminary, but did not become a priest; on the contrary, he left there as a convinced atheist. In defiance of his father, he entered the Demidov Legal Lyceum in Yaroslavl. Soon after his father's death, he had to earn extra money: Alexander gave lessons, painted scenery for the theater, and played the violin in the circus orchestra.

After graduating (in 1906) from the Demidov Lyceum, A. Belyaev received the position of a private attorney in Smolensk and soon gained fame as a good lawyer. He gained a regular clientele. His material opportunities also increased: he was able to rent and furnish a good apartment, acquire a good collection of paintings, and collect a large library. Having finished any business, he went to travel abroad; visited France, Italy, visited Venice.

In 1914 he left law for the sake of literature and theater.

At the age of thirty-five, A. Belyaev fell ill with tuberculous pleurisy. The treatment was unsuccessful - tuberculosis of the spine developed, complicated by paralysis of the legs. A serious illness for 6 years, three of which he was in a cast, confined him to bed. His young wife left him, saying that she didn’t get married to take care of her sick husband. In search of specialists who could help him, A. Belyaev, with his mother and old nanny, ended up in Yalta. There, in the hospital, he began to write poetry. Not giving in to despair, he is engaged in self-education: he studies foreign languages, medicine, biology, history, technology, and reads a lot (Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky). Having defeated the disease, in 1922 he returned to a full life and began to work. At first, A. Belyaev became a teacher in an orphanage, then he was given the position of criminal investigation inspector - he organized a photo laboratory there, and later he had to go to the library. Life in Yalta was very difficult, and A. Belyaev, with the help of friends, moved with his family to Moscow (1923) and got a job as a legal consultant. There he begins serious literary activity. He publishes science fiction stories and novellas in the magazines “Around the World”, “Knowledge is Power”, “World Pathfinder”, earning the title of “Soviet Jules Verne”. In 1925 he published the story “The Head of Professor Dowell,” which Belyaev himself called an autobiographical story: he wanted to tell “what a head without a body can experience.”

A. Belyaev lived in Moscow until 1928; During this time he wrote “The Island of Lost Ships”, “The Last Man from Atlantis”, “Amphibian Man”, “Struggle on the Air”, and published a collection of short stories. The author wrote not only under his own name, but also under the pseudonyms A. Rom and Arbel.

In 1928, A. Belyaev and his family moved to Leningrad, and from then on he was exclusively engaged in literature, professionally. This is how “Lord of the World”, “Underwater Farmers”, “The Wonderful Eye”, stories from the series “The Inventions of Professor Wagner” appeared. They were published mainly in Moscow publishing houses. However, soon the illness made itself felt again, and I had to move from rainy Leningrad to sunny Kyiv.

The year 1930 turned out to be a very difficult year for the writer: his six-year-old daughter died of meningitis, his second daughter fell ill with rickets, and soon his own illness (spondylitis) worsened. As a result, in 1931 the family returned to Leningrad.

In September 1931, A. Belyaev transferred the manuscript of his novel “The Earth is Burning” to the editors of the Leningrad magazine “Around the World”

In 1934 he met with Herbert Wells, who arrived in Leningrad.

In 1935, Belyaev became a permanent contributor to the magazine “Around the World”.

At the beginning of 1938, after eleven years of intensive cooperation, Belyaev left the magazine “Around the World”.

Shortly before the war, the writer underwent another operation, so he refused the offer to evacuate when the war began. The city of Pushkin (a suburb of Leningrad), where A. Belyaev lived with his family in recent years, was occupied. In January 1942, the writer died of hunger. The writer's surviving wife and daughter were deported by the Germans to Poland.

The place of his burial is not known with certainty. And the memorial stele at the Kazan cemetery in the city of Pushkin was installed only on the supposed grave.

Creation

A. Belyaev was an enthusiastic person. WITH early years he was attracted to music: he independently learned to play the violin and piano, and loved to play music for hours. Another “fun” was photography (there was a photograph he took “ human head on a platter in blue tones"). Since childhood, I read a lot and was fond of adventure literature, especially Jules Verne. Alexander grew up restless, loved all kinds of pranks and jokes; the result of one of his pranks was an eye injury with further damage to vision. The young man also dreamed of flying: he tried to take off with brooms tied to his hands, jumped from the roof with an umbrella, and eventually took off in a small airplane. However, while trying to take off, he received an injury that affected his entire life. later life. One day he fell from the roof of a barn and significantly injured his back. In the mid-20s, Belyaev suffered from constant pain in his injured back and was even paralyzed for months.

Even while studying at the Lyceum, A. Belyaev showed himself to be a theatergoer. Under his leadership, in 1913, students of male and female gymnasiums acted out the fairy tale “Three years, three days, three minutes” with crowd scenes, choral and ballet numbers. In the same year, A. R. Belyaev and cellist Yu. N. Saburova staged Grigoriev’s opera-fairy tale “The Sleeping Princess.” He himself could act as a playwright, director, and actor. Home theater Belyaev in Smolensk was widely known, toured not only around the city, but also in its environs. Once, during the visit of the capital’s troupe to Smolensk under the direction of Stanislavsky, A. Belyaev managed to replace a sick artist and act in several performances instead.

The writer was keenly interested in the question of the human psyche: the functioning of the brain, its connection with the body, with the life of the soul and spirit. Can the brain think outside the body? Is a brain transplant possible? What consequences can anabiosis and its widespread use have? Are there limits to the possibility of suggestion? What about genetic engineering? The novels “The Head of Professor Dowell”, “Lord of the World”, “The Man Who Lost Face”, the story “The Man Who Doesn’t Sleep”, “Hoyti-Toyti” are devoted to an attempt to solve these problems.

In his science fiction novels Alexander Belyaev anticipated the appearance huge amount inventions and scientific ideas: in “Star of the KEC” the prototype of modern orbital stations is depicted, in “Amphibian Man” and “The Head of Professor Dowell” the miracles of transplantology are shown, in “Eternal Bread” - the achievements of modern biochemistry and genetics. A kind of continuation of these reflections were novels-hypotheses, placing a person in different environments of existence: the ocean (“Amphibian Man”), air (“Ariel”).

His last novel in 1941 - “Ariel” - echoes famous novel A. Green "The Shining World". The heroes of both novels are endowed with the ability to fly without additional devices. The image of Ariel is the writer’s achievement, in which the author’s faith in a person overcoming “gravity” was objectively realized.

Memory

In 1990, the section of scientific, artistic and science fiction literature of the Leningrad writers' organization of the Union of Writers of the USSR established literary prize named after Alexander Belyaev, awarded for scientific, artistic and popular science works.