The story of one Christmas tree. New Year and Christmas hits: the story of the song “A Christmas tree was born in the forest”

Few people know that the song “A Christmas Tree Was Born in the Forest” is not at all folk. Its text was composed in 1903 by Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva, a teacher, librarian and poet. She was 25 years old then.

The poem “Yolka” was published in the Christmas issue children's magazine"Little one." And the music for this song was composed by biologist and agronomist, amateur composer Leonid Karlovich Bekman, who composed this song for his daughter. Because musical notation he didn’t know it, his wife, Elena Aleksandrovna Bekman-Shcherbina, wrote down the notes. This is how the song turned out. The musicians’ little daughter, Verochka, immediately began singing it. In 1906, “The Herringbone” was included in the collection “Verochka’s Songs,” which Rachmaninov, Taneyev, Scriabin spoke approvingly of...

Under Soviet rule, Raisa Adamovna somehow asked to join the Writers' Union, which was then ruled by Fadeev. When she came to his office, he asked what published books she had, and she replied that, in general, none, but she really wanted to join the union, because of rations, etc., and to earn a living for a poor woman hard. Fadeev asks sternly: “Well, have you even written anything?” “Yes,” Raisa Kudasheva answers, “one poem...” And she begins to read: “A Christmas tree was born in the forest...”. “So you wrote this?” - Fadeev shouted. And he began to remember where it was published and how he read these poems for the first time and cried when he reached the last lines: “He cut down our Christmas tree to the very root,” and then accepted it into the Writers' Union.

Dmitry Kolupaev. Christmas tree At school.

In the original text by R. A. Kudasheva there were 56 lines -

When writing the song, the poem was shortened. The first two verses of the canonical version of the song are performed by Morozko, examining his forest possessions, in feature film"Morozko" (dir. Alexander Rowe, 1964)

“I didn’t want to be famous, but I couldn’t help but write,” - this is how, already in the 50s, Raisa Kudasheva explained her shyness, hiding under the literary pseudonyms. About the former princess (the poor governess married a widower prince, but soon became a widow herself, and during the years of the revolution she lost both her property and her title), Alexander Fadeeva once said: “Her poems have such popularity that our poets never dreamed of.” Raisa Adamovna herself did not suspect for a long time that her poem was set to music until she heard it by chance on a train, where a little girl was asked to “sing something for the passengers.”

Nikolai Lyadovsky. Christmas tree.

Today it is difficult for us to imagine that this song once did not exist, but it is even more difficult to understand why for so long no one knew, or maybe was simply not interested in the authorship of these simple and sweet verses and this simple melody.

Rybakova Irina Vladimirovna. New Year.

Since childhood, the ruined Christmas tree from the song has been a thorn in my soul.
R.A. Kudasheva “A Christmas tree was born in the forest.” There are contradictions in the text of this song:
a cut down Christmas tree cannot come to the holiday, and therefore cannot bring
children have “many, many joys.” But they teach them to destroy beauty “to the very root.”
I don’t think this is good. Therefore, I propose replacing the lines for destroying the Christmas tree with cheerful, New Year’s ones. Below you can read my version
string replacements.

R.A. Kudasheva

THE FOREST RAISED A CHRISTMAS TREE

Crying and trembling from the cruelty suffered,
The Christmas tree has left my page with the scene
lumberjack man. I promised her that her
no one will offend here anymore and she will always
will live in his own fairy forest, and everyone
year will meet with Santa Claus
on New Year's holiday.

***
My option for replacing strings.

THE FOREST RAISED A CHRISTMAS TREE

(Fairy tale version)

The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree,
She grew up in the forest
Slim in winter and summer,
It was green.

The snowstorm sang a song to her:
"Sleep, Christmas tree, bye-bye!"
Frost covered with snow:
"Make sure you don't freeze!"

Gray bunny coward
Jumped under the Christmas tree,
Sometimes a wolf, an angry wolf,
I ran at a trot.

Chu! Snow in the dense forest
It creaks under the runner:
That's Santa Claus on a sleigh
He's in a hurry to get to the Christmas tree.

He's a Christmas tree for the New Year
Invited to visit us,
With a smile, I'm frisky
He launched across the field into the distance!

Now she's smart
She came to us for the holiday
And many, many joys
I brought it for the kids.
***
The shining, emerald Christmas tree congratulates you all on a magical New Year!
And smiles at you with thousands of sparkling needles for your kindness, and wishes you
earthly happiness, the kind that Mother Yolka found when she saw her daughter on
New Year's holiday!
***
The song "A Christmas Tree Was Born in the Forest" was written in 1903.
One hundred and eleven years have passed since then - enough time to understand
that teaching children to chop Christmas trees and at the same time expressing joy by singing this song means traumatizing innocent souls children and set a bad example. After all, it is sung, one might say, in all kindergartens.
Santa Claus is a fairy-tale character. Therefore, in my version we are transported
V fairy world, in in which the Christmas tree can move on invisible legs
or waving its branches. Let me remind you: even a broom flies in fairy tales.
That’s why, taking into account the above, in the author’s version, you can simply not perform
two quatrains, with the participation of a peasant lumberjack. And my version, for obvious reasons, cannot be accepted, even if it could exist. But in in this case everyone decides for themselves: to choose a truncated author’s version or a modified one.

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In the same way, I once learned the continuation... and now here is another revelation for me. Everyone knows the New Year's song "A Christmas tree was born in the forest..." And who wrote it?

Like who? - People!

It just so happens that we always attribute our favorite songs to the people. But “Yolochka” has authors, although no one remembers them. It's time to find out who it is, especially since the New Year is just around the corner and soon we will remember about this song.

So, back in 1878, a girl, Raya, was born in Moscow. Raya grew up, studied and sometimes wrote poems, also for children. At the age of 18, she decided to send her poems to the editors of the children's magazine "Malyutka".

Her poems were published and they offered to send more. Raya continues to write poetry and publishes it from time to time. On New Year's Eve 1903, the magazine "Malyutka" decided to devote an entire issue to New Year's poems. It was in this issue of the magazine that the poem “Yolochka” appeared, signed modestly with the pseudonym A.E. And then there was the First World War, then the Great October Socialist Revolution, Raya worked as a teacher, then as a librarian, she had already forgotten about her children's poems. Once on the train, Raya heard a little girl singing a few lines of her poem, and she asked what kind of song it was. And she found out that her poem about the Christmas tree became a song.

Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva (nee Princess Gedroits) - was born into the family of Adam (an official of the Moscow Post Office, who rose to the rank of court councilor) and Sofia Gedroits (nee Kholmogorova). Then the Gedroits couple gave birth to three more girls.
This was a typical old Moscow family - hospitable, cheerful, with servants in white aprons and home performances on holidays.

In high school, Raisa began writing poetry for children. It was so lucky that it was eagerly published in children's magazines. Raisa had a bright future ahead of her as the mistress of an intelligent Moscow house and an amateur poetess, but a misfortune happened - her father died. How eldest daughter Raya took care of her mother and younger sisters - she went to work as a governess in a rich house. Now she could no longer sign poems with her name. In higher circles, writing was considered reprehensible.

In 1902, Raisa got a job with Prince Alexei Ivanovich Kudashev. He was widowed and could not recover from the loss of his beloved wife, so the care of the heir fell almost entirely on the shoulders of the governess. Raisa became maternally attached to the pupil, who had lost his mother and hardly saw his father, and he, in turn, also adored Raechka.

In 1905, the Kudashevo “Yolka” caught the eye of agronomist and passionate music lover Leonid Karlovich Bekman (1872–1939). It was a Baltic German hereditary nobleman, who had extraordinary musical abilities.

about the memories of Elena Bekman-Shcherbina, it was like this:

“On October 17, 1905, my eldest daughter Verochka turned two years old, and in the morning I gave her a living doll - sister Olya, who was born at half past midnight, that is, also on October 17. Verochka was absolutely delighted. While I was still lying in bed, Leonid somehow sat down at the piano, sat Verika on his knees and composed a song for her based on a poem from the children’s magazine “Malyutka” - “A Christmas tree was born in the forest, it grew in the forest...” Verochka, who had excellent hearing , quickly learned it, and so as not to forget the song, I wrote it down. Subsequently, we both began to compose other songs for children. This is how the collection “Verochka’s Songs” arose, which went through four editions in a short time, then “Olenka the Songster”.

Soon the children's song became popular. However, during the First World War, Christmas was not celebrated, and then Soviet authority canceled it as religious holiday. “Yolochka” was banned, as was Father Frost with the slogan: “Only those who are a friend of the priests are ready to celebrate the Christmas tree.” “Herringbone” returned only with the return of the New Year celebration - that is, after 1935. But the song, like many other Christmas symbols, was reclassified as New Year's.

Meanwhile, the song lived triumphantly and festive life. It was sung at all children's matinees, performed at the main Christmas tree of the country in the Hall of Columns, and postcards were drawn based on its plot. This was the country's main New Year's song. And the creator of her text, not identified by anyone, gave out Soviet books and classics at the regional library, and in the evenings she returned to her communal apartment to her books, her beloved cat and memories. Once on the radio she heard a cheerful announcer’s voice: “A song about a Christmas tree, words and music by composer Beckman.” She called her nephew's wife, Anna Kholmogorova (Mikhail's mother). She was indignant. Not only does the author of the words of the national song live on a meager salary, but no one knows about him! Maybe someone else gets paid for it!

How can this be? - Raisa Adamovna was scared. - Darling, no need. I'm too old for such feats. And my origin... God forbid anyone finds out:

But we’ll still try,” the relative continued.

This is where the draft of the poem, saved by Raisa Adamovna back in 1918, came in handy. And miraculously, fee sheets were found in the archives by everyone a long time ago forgotten magazine"Little one." The trial took place. The delicate question of belonging to the exploiting classes was avoided. The process was won, and Kudasheva was officially recognized as the author of the song and was supposed to receive money from each performance.

One day, the chairman of the Writers' Union, Alexander Fadeev, was informed that some old woman had come, asking to see her, saying that she wrote poetry. Fadeev ordered to let her in. Entering the office, the visitor sat down, put the knapsack she was holding in her hands on her lap, and said:
- Life is hard, Alexander Alexandrovich, help somehow.
Fadeev, not knowing what to do, said:
- Do you really write poetry?
- I wrote, they published it once.
“Well, okay,” he said to end this meeting, “read me some of your poems.”

She looked at him gratefully and began to read in a weak voice:

The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree.
She grew up in the forest.
Slim in winter and summer,
It was green...

So you wrote this? - exclaimed the amazed Fadeev. By his order, the visitor was immediately registered with the Writers' Union and provided with all possible assistance.

Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva (that was the old lady’s name) lived long life(1878–1964). Born Princess Gidroits (Lithuanian princely family), in her youth she served as a governess to Prince Kudashev, and later married him. She worked as a teacher, and in Soviet times as a librarian. In her youth she published mainly in children's magazines.

Kudasheva treated fame with amazing indifference and long years hid under various initials and pseudonyms. She explained it this way: “I didn’t want to be famous, but I couldn’t help but write.” In 1899, Kudasheva’s story “Leri” was published in the magazine “Russian Thought”, which remained her only work for adults. The story tells about the adolescence and youth of a girl from noble family, her first Great love to a brilliant officer. In total, Raisa Kudasheva published about 200 songs and stories, fairy tales and books of poetry.

The fame of the children's writer came only in the early 1950s, when the Soviet literary elite became aware that she was the author of the words of the famous song. She was accepted into the Union of Writers of the USSR, put on the payroll of a writer at the highest level, and began publishing her works after a many-year break. IN New Year's issue Ogonyok magazine published a short article about Kudasheva in 1958: “Raisa Adamovna is now retired. With snow-white hair, a friendly smile, and glasses through which lively eyes look, she looks like a kind grandmother from a fairy tale.”

And a wave of popularity began. Correspondents asked for interviews, publishers offered cooperation. In one of her letters, Raisa Adamovna sadly admitted: “I didn’t have the strength to start the business. Too late this story came to me. If only it were a little earlier.”

KUDASHEVA Raisa Adamovna (1878-1964)- Russian writer. Poems and fairy tales for children (“Funny Grandmother and the Dog Boom”, 1906; “Cockerel”, 1915, etc.). The poem "Christmas Tree" (1903, "A Christmas tree was born in the forest..."), set to music by L. K. Beckman, became a popular children's song.

INWe all, young and old, know by heart the words of a song that will be heard throughout the vast country. True, for the Orthodox, the New Year now falls on the Nativity Fast, but we, too, will modestly celebrate the passing of the old and the coming of the new year and, together with the younger generation, we will sing the song “A Christmas Tree Was Born in the Forest,” which turned 103 years old this year. Do you know, our dear little readers, who wrote this wonderful song, without which a holiday would not be a holiday? And it was written by the modest governess Raisa Kudasheva. Shall we sing?

The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree,
She grew up in the forest
In winter and summer she was slim and green.
The snowstorm sang a song to her:
"Sleep, Christmas tree, bye-bye!"
Frost covered with snow:
"Make sure you don't freeze!"
Cowardly bunny gray
Jumped under the Christmas tree.
Sometimes a wolf, an angry wolf, would run by at a trot.
Chu! Snow in the dense forest
It creaks under the runner;
The hairy horse is in a hurry and running.
The horse is carrying wood,
And in the logs there is a man,
He cut down our Christmas tree to the very root.
And here she is, dressed up,
She came to us for the holiday,
And she brought a lot, a lot of joy to the kids.
And she brought a lot, a lot of joy to the kids.

And a simple song was born, which was sung by both our fathers and mothers and our grandparents, at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the poem “Yolka” was published in the December issue of the magazine “Malyutka” for 1903. Instead of the name, the author put the initials “A.E”. The popular song was heard at children's parties and on the radio, but until 1941 no one knew the author: some considered it folk, others thought that the words were written by the composer, a passionate music lover Leonid Karlovich Bekman (1872-1939), a German by birth, biologist, agronomist, candidate of natural sciences. When an amateur musician read this poem, he really liked it and wrote music for it. This is how the song turned out, and his little daughter Verochka immediately began to sing it. And in 1906, “The Herringbone” was included in the collection “Verochka’s Songs,” which was reviewed approvingly by Rachmaninov, Taneyev, Scriabin...

Before the revolution, “Christmas Tree” was a kind of anthem for Christmas, but after 1917 the Bolsheviks excluded Christmas from holidays,seeing in it a religious prejudice. What kind of song is there about a Christmas tree without a Christmas tree?

Celebrating the New Year with a Christmas tree was allowed only in the mid-30s, but instead of the Star of Bethlehem, the tree began to be crowned with a five-pointed star like those in the Kremlin. In 1941, the song was published again in the collection “Yelka”, and since then it has brought much, much joy to new generations of boys and girls. And the compiler of the collection, E. Edman, also found the author of the poem. It turned out to be Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva. And at the age of 63, the author received not only a fee for publishing the song “A Christmas Tree Was Born in the Forest,” but also the right to the inviolability of the work. Kudasheva restored the pre-revolutionary line: “Sleep, Christmas tree, bye-bye!”, leaving out another discrepancy: in the pre-revolutionary editions of the song we read: “The horse is carrying wood, and in the wood is a peasant...” In the 1941 edition, instead of the peasant, an old man suddenly appeared (so reminiscent of Santa Claus). And this is no coincidence, because the author dedicated the song to the holiday of Christmas, and the tree was decorated for this very day, but in the post-revolutionary atheistic time they tried not to mention Christmas. And when in the 1930s it was again allowed to erect Christmas trees, they timed it to celebrate the New Year, and not to the Nativity of Christ. Therefore, the old man in the song meant the return of Santa Claus to the house. So politics even broke into children's songs.

Little is known about the life of Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva. She was born on August 3 (15), 1878 in the family of an official of the Moscow Post Office. Why is a high school graduate from an ancient princely family became a governess, unknown. Then Kudasheva taught and worked as a librarian. She wrote poetry since childhood, and at the age of 18 her first poem was published, and since then her poems began to appear regularly on the pages of children's magazines. Here is one of the poems included in today's school textbooks:

The day has passed. They run in a crowd

Our schoolchildren are home.
- Oh, how nicely we learned!
- I read two fairy tales!
- I wrote everything in a notebook!

- I copied the horse!

They say that during the Great Patriotic War Before the New Year, food rations were distributed at the Writers' Union. Kudasheva also came and timidly asked if she could also get something. But she was sharply refused... Fortunately, this story has a happy continuation. One day, the chairman of the Writers' Union, Alexander Fadeev, was informed that an old woman of about ninety was asking to see him, saying that she wrote poetry. “Life is hard, Alexander Alexandrovich, help somehow.” “Do you really write poetry?” asked the chairman. “Well, okay, read something.” She looked at him gratefully and read:

The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree.
She grew up in the forest...

"So you wrote this?" - Fadeev cried and read the poem to the end himself. R.A. Kudasheva was immediately registered in the Writers' Union and provided with all kinds of assistance. She died on November 4, 1964 in the city where she was born - Moscow. And her affectionate and gentle song, like a mother’s lullaby, will sound for a long time on our merry winter holidays. “Give everyone their due: to whom honor, give honor” (Rom. 13.7).

I managed to find such information on the Internet about amazing person Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva.

Alexander RAKOV http://www.pravpiter.ru/zads/n016/ta004.htm

60 years have passed. In 2003, a friend came to the writer Mikhail Kholmogorov and said: “But you can be a millionaire! You just need to fill out the paperwork.”

Mikhail was puzzled. As the nephew and only heir of Raisa Kudasheva, he could indeed receive royalties. But as a hereditary intellectual, I couldn’t even think about such things.
But why not try? And Mikhail began to sort through the family archives - the relationship still had to be proven in official instances.
This story began a long time ago - in 1878, when Adam and Sofia Gedroits (nee Kholmogorova) had a daughter, Raisa. Then the Gedroits couple gave birth to three more girls. This was a typical old Moscow family - hospitable, cheerful, with servants in white aprons and home performances on holidays. In high school, Raisa began writing poetry for children. It was so lucky that it was eagerly published in children's magazines. Raisa had a bright future ahead of her as the mistress of an intelligent Moscow house and an amateur poetess, but a misfortune happened - her father died. As the eldest daughter, Raya took care of her mother and younger sisters - she went to work as a governess in a rich house. Now she could no longer sign poems with her name. In higher circles, writing was considered reprehensible.
In 1902, Raisa got a job with Prince Alexei Ivanovich Kudashev. He was widowed and could not recover from the loss of his beloved wife, so the care of the heir fell almost entirely on the shoulders of the governess. Raisa became maternally attached to the pupil, who had lost his mother and hardly saw his father, and he, in turn, also adored Raechka.
- Rayechka, will we have a Christmas tree? - he asked on the eve of the New Year.
“Of course it will,” answered Raya.

Will there be guests?
- And guests.
- What poem will I read to them?
- Well, if you want, we’ll learn Pushkin with you.

Does Pushkin have poems about the Christmas tree?

Raisa thought about it and couldn’t remember anything.
- Would you definitely like to talk about the Christmas tree?
- Definitely.

The boy fell asleep. Raisa went to her room and began to compose. She imagined the children running around the Christmas tree, and Alyoshenka in an elegant velvet suit. He stands under the tree and reads: “The shaggy branches bend / Down to the heads of the children. / The rich beads sparkle / With the shimmer of lights:”

And then I imagined a Christmas tree, but only in the forest. How she stands there, alone: ​​“The snowstorm sang a song to her, sleep, little Christmas tree:”

And she remembered that she was already 27 years old, and she couldn’t wait for her holiday. It turned out to be something personal. And for some reason the prince came to mind. He was 50 - not that old. In the morning he looked at her somehow warmly and attentively and for some reason called her Raya, and not Raisa Adamovna, as usual. She shook her head to drive away unnecessary thoughts and vain hopes. By morning the poem was ready.

And in the afternoon she took it to the Malyutka magazine, where she was expected and loved as a regular author. She signed her name, as usual, with the letters “A.E.” That's all, actually.

It didn’t seem to Raya: the prince really began to pay attention to her. They were left together more and more often, as if by accident. The prince urgently needed to discuss with the governess the boy’s grades, the new poem of another decadent... But both did not dare to admit their feelings even to themselves. She - because she did not dare to think about such a profitable match. He did it because he was afraid of offending her pride. Still, there is an age difference. Only three years later the prince proposed his hand and heart to his governess. So Raisa Gedroits became Princess Kudasheva.
“Aunt Raya didn’t look like a princess at all,” recalls Mikhail Kholmogorov. - When I was five years old, my mother took me to visit her. Aunt Raya turned out to be quite old. She and her sister, an equally old woman, huddled in a tiny room that looked like a closet. And then, during a walk, my mother showed me a mansion on the corner of Vorotnikovsky and Staropimenovsky lane. “This house used to belong to Aunt Raya,” she said suddenly.
Misha could not believe that a poor old woman had once lived in a palace. In the 70s, the mansion was demolished, and not a trace remained of the only happy time in Raisa Kudasheva’s life.
Then, at the beginning of the century, she was called a princess, she had her own home, a loving husband and Foster-son. Raisa had almost forgotten about her poems about the Christmas tree.
Once Raisa Adamovna and her family were traveling to St. Petersburg. The traveling companions were a grandmother and her granddaughter. We met and started talking. The old lady asked her granddaughter to sing a song. And the girl, straightening her skirt, sang: “A Christmas tree was born in the forest, it grew in the forest:”
- What is this wonderful song? - Kudasheva asked with a sinking heart.
- Oh, this is the famous New Year's song from the album of composer Beckman. It's called "Verochka's Songs". Just a treasure for home music playing!
The prince listened with half an ear and read the newspaper. When they were alone, Raya decided: the moment had come. The fact that she secretly published poetry weighed on her. She wanted her husband to know everything.

Have you heard the song? - she asked hesitantly.
- Yes. “Lovely,” the prince smiled. It seems that he guessed where his wife was going.
- And the words? Did you like the words?
“Oh, I would like to meet the author,” the prince smiled even wider.
- I wrote this. For our son,” said the princess, blushing.
“I never doubted your talents,” said the prince and kissed his wife.
This is how Raya found out that she was the author of the words of the fashionable song. For the first time, the paths of the song and its creator crossed, only to part ways again, and for a long time.
By 1914, the beloved pupil Alyosha had grown up. He was delirious about the war and fled to the front. The father, who had already crossed the threshold of his 60th birthday, fell ill, unable to withstand the excitement, and soon died - his heart could not stand it. After some time, a notification came about the boy's death. The princess lost everything at once. So she accepted the losses of the revolution almost indifferently.
Kudasheva saw off 1917 completely alone. The princess sat by the stove and warmed her hands. The servants ran away. She was alone, wrapped in a shawl and throwing the remains of furniture into the fire. All the papers reminiscent of the past have long been used to heat the room. She only kept some for herself. And among them is a draft of a poem about a Christmas tree. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. She opened it. The red sailors entered the door, leaving black marks on the parquet floor. One of them, apparently the main one, took the cigarette butt out of his mouth, put it out on the wall and threw it on the floor.
- What do you want? - the princess asked as calmly as possible.
“We want,” the sailor squinted mockingly, “for you, contrarian, to disappear within ten minutes from the house that was illegally taken from the working people.”
Raisa Adamovna meekly packed her things. That's how it began new life. In this life, the main thing was to become as inconspicuous as possible, so that no one would even think of asking her about anything. In the end, she managed to get a job at the regional library, where she sat quietly until 1941.
Meanwhile, the song lived a triumphant and festive life. It was sung at all children's matinees, performed at the main Christmas tree of the country in the Hall of Columns, and postcards were drawn based on its plot. This was the country's main New Year's song. And the creator of her text, not identified by anyone, gave out Soviet books and classics at the regional library, and in the evenings she returned to her communal apartment to her books, her beloved cat and memories. Once on the radio she heard a cheerful announcer’s voice: “A song about a Christmas tree, words and music by composer Beckman.” She called her nephew's wife, Anna Kholmogorova (Mikhail's mother). She was indignant. Not only does the author of the words of the national song live on a meager salary, but no one knows about him! Maybe someone else gets paid for it!
“Let’s try to prove that the author is you,” she unexpectedly suggested to her elderly relative.
- How can this be? - Raisa Adamovna was scared. - Darling, no need. I'm too old for such feats. And my origin... God forbid anyone finds out:
“But we’ll still try,” the relative continued.
This is where the draft of the poem, saved by Raisa Adamovna back in 1918, came in handy. And in the archive, miraculously, fee sheets from the long-forgotten magazine “Malyutka” were found. The trial took place. The delicate question of belonging to the exploiting classes was avoided. The process was won, and Kudasheva was officially recognized as the author of the song and was supposed to receive money from each performance.
But Raisa Adamovna became truly famous only in 1958. At that time, the future “father” of Electronics, Evgeniy Veltistov, worked at Ogonyok. He wandered around the city in search of interesting people and came across Kudasheva. An interview that appeared in the New Year's "Ogonyok" changed the life of an 80-year-old woman. They started writing and calling her strangers, she was invited to schools and kindergartens. But it was too late. “I’m trying to strengthen myself and not lose heart,” Kudasheva wrote to her friend Anna Ivanovna Sytina. “I started the business beyond my strength, this story came to me too late.”
Mikhail Kholmogorov sat with the chief notary of the city of Moscow. He listened carefully to the story of the children's song and its creator.
- Unfortunately, I can't do anything for you. When your relative died, the copyright term was different. And it has long expired. But the law does not have retroactive force.
Mikhail listened to the verdict, realized that he would never become a millionaire and... was not at all upset. Let everything remain as it is. Recently, Mikhail erected a monument at Kudasheva’s grave at the Pyatnitskoye cemetery. On it are the words of a song about a Christmas tree. And the song itself belongs to everyone.

Unknown "Herringbone"

Raisa Kudasheva dedicated not a song to her pupil, but a script for a children's matinee. The children had to take turns reading the stanzas. But the full version of the song begins with four unknown stanzas:

"The shaggy branches bend
Down to the children's heads;
Rich beads shine
Overflow of lights;
Ball hides behind ball,
And star after star,
Light threads are rolling,
Like golden rain:
Play, have fun
The children have gathered here
And to you, beautiful spruce,
They sing their song.
Everything is ringing and growing
Goloskov children's choir,
And, sparkling, it sways
The Christmas tree is a magnificent decoration.
The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree,
She grew up in the forest
Slim in winter and summer,

It was green:"

Bekman Leonid Karlovich author of the music for the song “A Christmas Tree was Born in the Forest”,(1872 - 1939), Baltic German by origin, biologist, agronomist, candidate of natural sciences, composer. Author of the music (1905) of the famous children's song “A Christmas tree was born in the forest” (the author of the words is teacher and governess Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva (Gidroyts) 1878-1964). Wife: pianist Beckman - Shcherbina E.A.. Daughter: - Olga Leonidovna Skrebkova (1905-1997) - candidate of art history, associate professor of the State musical-pedagogical Gnessin Institute (now the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music) - author of numerous publications on music theory. Granddaughter: Skrebkova-Filatova Marina Sergeevna, Doctor of Art History, Professor of the Moscow State Conservatory. P.I. Tchaikovsky, head of the department of theory and history of music at the State Specialized Institute of Arts. Member of the Union of Composers. Honored Artist Russian Federation Born on June 6, 1932 in Moscow. Father - Great-granddaughter - Elena Anatolyevna Sokolovskaya (1967), composer, graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, great-grandson - Sergei Anatolyevich Filatov (1958) - mathematician, graduated from Moscow State University (1981), specialist in the field of mathematical modeling of music.

Copyright for the integrity of a work: But here is another case when a popular song was heard at children's parties and on the radio, but the author of its text was actually not known. This is something everyone is familiar with early childhood the song “A Christmas tree was born in the forest...” Until 1941, no one knew whether this song had an author. Some considered it folklore, while others thought that the composer wrote the lyrics. His name was known: he was a passionate music lover L.K. Beckman, together with his wife E.A.Bekman-Shcherbina who published a collection of children's songs in the 1900s, among which was “Christmas Tree.” At the beginning of 1941, Detizdat published a collection of songs, fairy tales, poems and stories for children - “Yelka”. Here, for the first time, the poem-song “A Christmas tree was born in the forest...” was published with the indication of the author - Raisa Adamovna Kudasheva. For many years she worked as a librarian, and few people knew that in 1896-1915 she often appeared on the pages of children's magazines, publishing more than one and a half hundred poems, stories, and fairy tales for children. Moreover, she used pseudonyms, admitting later: “I didn’t want to be famous, but I couldn’t help but write.” In 1903, in the December issue of the magazine “Malyutka”, R.A. Kudasheva published the poem “Yolka”, signing it with the initials “A.E.” This pseudonym hid the real name of the author of the poem for many years. At the end of 1905, an agronomist who was fond of music, Leonid Karlovich Beckman, Having leafed through the magazine “Malyutka”, I stopped at the spread where the poem “Yolka” was printed. He sat down at the piano, placing his two-year-old daughter Verochka on his lap, and composed a song for her based on the verses that she liked. Verochka, who had excellent hearing, quickly remembered it. And so that the song would not be forgotten, Leonid Karlovich’s wife, a famous Russian pianist, recorded it. Subsequently, the couple began to compose other songs for children, and in order not to endlessly rewrite them for their friends, they decided to publish them as a separate book. This is how the collection “Verochka’s Songs” arose, which went through four editions in a short period of time. Four editions are evidence of the growing popularity of “Yolochka” in those years, which opened “Verochka’s songs”. Popularity that has stood the test of time. And today, at the end of the twentieth century, simple-minded at first glance, but surprisingly poetic, this children's song is an invariable part of all New Year's holidays. Here is the time to remember the law “On the Fundamentals of Copyright,” which establishes royalty rates “for the public performance of works.” But just imagine! - a popular children's song sounded for 35 years, and the author of its text, a modest librarian, could not even think that she had the right to a reward for the public performance of the song: after all, the name of the author was not known. And only in 1941, when the executive editor of the collection “Yelka”, its actual compiler, Esther Mikhailovna Emden, found the author of the poems familiar to everyone from childhood, justice was restored. Now Kudasheva could take full advantage of copyright law. By this time she was already 63 years old. Established authorship gave R.A. Kudasheva not only a fee for publishing the song “A Christmas tree was born in the forest...”, but also the copyright for the inviolability of the work. The right to dispose of its text, to verify it. Having received recognition, Kudasheva partially used her copyright. When published, she restored the pre-revolutionary line in “Sleep, Christmas tree, bye-bye!” instead of the usual “Sleep, Christmas tree, bye-bye!” But the author seemed not to pay attention to another discrepancy. Meanwhile, it is very indicative of the post-revolutionary period. In pre-revolutionary editions of the song we read: A horse is carrying wood, And in the wood is a peasant... In the 1941 collection, instead of a peasant, a peasant suddenly appeared in the song old man. I must say, not at all “suddenly” and not at all by chance. The fact is that R. Kudasheva’s poems about the Christmas tree were written in 1903 for the Christmas holiday. In those pre-revolutionary years, the Christmas tree appeared in houses and was decorated not for the New Year, but for the Nativity of Christ. But in the post-revolutionary, atheistic time, they tried not to mention Christmas. And the Christmas tree, as a companion to Christmas, was banned for many years, probably attributing it to religious propaganda. When, at the end of the thirties, it was again allowed to decorate the Christmas tree, it was timed not for Christmas, but for the New Year. Together with the Christmas tree, the familiar Santa Claus also returned. So it was no coincidence that the old man appeared in the song: he reminded us of Santa Claus, directly linking the song about the Christmas tree with the New Year holiday. Thus, a new time invaded the simple children's song, and its author, although she received recognition, had to reckon with the “adjustments” of the time. In a collection of children's poems from 1941, Kudasheva's song was illustrated with a drawing depicting an old man arriving in the forest on a firewood. And this old man with a white thick beard clearly looked like Santa Claus.