List of Volkov's works for children. Volkov Alexander Melentyevich - so that they remember

A. Volkov is an excellent scientist, teacher and translator, who for his creative career wrote several popular science works, historical novels and fantasy stories, and also translated many popular works into Russian foreign authors. To a wide circle He became known to readers thanks to a series of children's books based on Baum's fairy tale, which tells the story of the Wizard from Oz.

Brief biography: Volkov A. M. (childhood)

The writer was born on June 14, 1891 in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk in a family of a simple class. His father was a retired sergeant major, and his mother earned her living as a dressmaker; both knew how to read and write, so at the age of three little Sasha already knew how to read. A love for fairy tales was instilled in him by his mother, who, according to the writer’s recollections, knew many of them and in her spare time always told her son interestingly and in a new way.

The family lived very modestly and there were few luxuries such as books in the house. In order to be able to read as much as possible and earn a little money, at the age of eight, the boy learned how to cleverly bind the books of his father’s neighbors and co-workers. A. Volkov with childhood I read the works of such masters of the pen as Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov, Nikitin, Jules Verne, Dickens, Mine Read. The work of these writers significantly influenced his future fate.

Youth

At the age of twelve, the talented boy graduated with honors from the city school, where, after graduating from the Tomsk Teachers' Institute, he entered the service as a mathematics teacher. Since 1910, Alexander worked as a teacher, first in Kolyvan, and then returned to his native Ust-Kamenogorsk, where in 1915 he met his future wife- dance teacher Kaleria Gubina. Having an ability not only for the exact sciences, A. Volkov independently studied German and French and began to try his hand as a translator.

Volkov published his first poems in 1917 in the city newspaper “Siberian Light”, and in 1918 he took an active part in the creation of the newspaper “Friend of the People”. Imbued with revolutionary ideas about universal education, Volkov teaches at teacher courses in Ust-Kamenogorsk and writes at the same time comedy plays, which are staged in theaters for children's audiences. Having moved to Yaroslavl in the twenties, he holds the position of school director and graduates in absentia from the city’s mathematics department. pedagogical institute. In the thirties, A. Volkov with his wife and two sons moved to Moscow to head the educational part of the Faculty of Work.

At the same time, in just over six months, having finished training course, is taking exams as an external student at Moscow University at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. In 1931, the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold was created, where Volkov worked for many years. First as a teacher, and later as an assistant professor in the department of higher mathematics. In addition to scientific and teaching activities, Volkov was actively involved in literary creativity throughout his life.

Volkov Alexander Melentievich: books, biography of the writer

Volkov's first attempts at writing were at the age of twelve; inspired by Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe, he tried to write his own adventure novel. Then he became interested in poetry, the poetic fruits of which he published in 1916-1917 under the general title “Dreams” in the newspaper “Siberian Light”.

During his life in Ust-Kamenogorsk and Yaroslavl, Volkov also wrote a number of plays for children’s audiences: “ Village school", "Eagle Beak", "Fern Flower", "Home Teacher", "In a Deaf Corner". These and other plays were staged in city theaters in the twenties and were extremely popular among young audiences.

In 1937, A. Volkov completed work on historical story"The Miracle Ball", published in 1940. The work tells about a political prisoner of the times Russian empress Elizabeth, who managed to leave the dungeon with the help hot air balloon (original name"The First Aeronaut")

The Emerald City and its heroes

In the same year, wanting to practice his English, Alexander Melentievich took on the task of translating the fairy tale “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Fascinated by the translation process and the plot of the fairy tale, Volkov decides to make it more colorful, he endows the heroes with new qualities and adds adventure. Volkov sent the manuscript for the revision of the book for approval to the children's writer Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak, who not only approved it, but strongly recommended that the author take up literary activity on a professional basis. In 1939, a book called “The Wizard of the Emerald City” with illustrations by the artist Nikolai Radlov was published, it won the hearts of many readers and became the beginning famous cycle with the same name. In 1941, Melentievich became a member of the trade union organization.

War period

The theme of adventures and fantastic stories during the war years goes to another level; all the works of the author of this period have a military and patriotic orientation. Thus, in the works “Invisible Fighters” of 1942 and “Planes at War” of 1946 we're talking about about the importance of mathematics in modern types weapons. Volkov also writes many patriotic plays and poems for funds mass media. His historical works“Glorious Pages on the History of Russian Artillery” and “Mathematics in Military Affairs” also emphasize the strength and invincibility of the Soviet army.

IN post-war period From the pen of the author come historical novels: “Two Brothers”, “Architects”, “Wanderings”, as well as works of a science-fiction nature “Earth and Sky: Entertaining stories on geography and astronomy”, “Travelers in the third millennium”.

Return to the magical land

In 1963, the author, inspired by the success of the first book about the adventures in the magical land of the girl Ellie, the dog Totoshka and their fairy-tale friends, published books that continued the fairy-tale cycle: “Oorfene Deuce and his wooden soldiers”, “Seven Underground Kings” (1967), “The Fire God of the Marrans” (1968), “Yellow Fog” (1970), “The Mystery of the Abandoned Castle.” Alexander Volkov writes all books as completely independent; the works are united only by the main characters fairyland. Even the girl Ellie, having matured, could no longer return to Magic world and comes to the aid of fairy-tale friends new heroine Annie with her dog Artoshka.

Alexander Melentyevich died in 1977 on July 3, leaving behind a rich legacy in the form of translations of the works of famous foreign authors, popular science works, historical novels and, of course, the adventures of heroes Emerald City.

Born on July 14, 1891 in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk in the family of a military sergeant major and a dressmaker. In the old fortress, little Sasha Volkov knew all the nooks and crannies. In his memoirs, he wrote: “I remember standing at the gates of the fortress, and the long barracks building was decorated with garlands of colored paper lanterns, rockets were flying high into the sky and scattering multi-colored balls there, fiery wheels were spinning with a hiss...” - this is how A.M. remembered. Volkov celebrating the coronation of Nikolai Romanov in Ust-Kamenogorsk in October 1894. He learned to read at the age of three, but there were few books in his father’s house, and from the age of 8, Sasha began to masterfully bind neighbors’ books, while still having the opportunity to read them. Already at this age I read Mine Reed, Jules Verne and Dickens; Of the Russian writers I loved A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Nikitin. In elementary school I studied only with excellent marks, moving from class to class only with awards. At the age of 6, Volkov was immediately accepted into the second grade of the city school, and at the age of 12 he graduated as the best student. In 1910, after a preparatory course, he entered the Tomsk Teachers' Institute, from which he graduated in 1910 with the right to teach in city and higher primary schools. Alexander Volkov began working as a teacher in the ancient Altai city of Kolyvan, and then in hometown Ust-Kamenogorsk, at the school where he began his education. There he independently mastered German and French languages.

On the eve of the revolution, Volkov tries out his pen. His first poems “Nothing makes me happy” and “Dreams” were published in 1917 in the newspaper “Siberian Light”. In 1917 - early 1918, he was a member of the Ust-Kamenogorsk Soviet of Deputies and participated in the publication of the newspaper “Friend of the People.” Volkov, like many “old regime” intellectuals, did not immediately accept the October Revolution. But an inexhaustible faith in a bright future captures him, and together with everyone else he participates in building a new life, teaches people and learns himself. He teaches at the pedagogical courses that are opening in Ust-Kamenogorsk, at the pedagogical college. At this time he wrote a number of plays for children's theater. His funny comedies and plays “Eagle Beak”, “In a Deaf Corner”, “Village School”, “Tolya the Pioneer”, “Fern Flower”, “Home Teacher”, “Comrade from the Center” (“Modern Inspector”) and “ Trading house Schneersohn and Co. great success performed on the stages of Ust-Kamenogorsk and Yaroslavl.

In the 20s, Volkov moved to Yaroslavl to become a school director. In parallel with this, he is taking exams as an external student at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Pedagogical Institute. In 1929, Alexander Volkov moved to Moscow, where he worked as the head of the educational department of the workers' faculty. By the time he entered the Moscow State University, he was already forty years old married man, father of two children. There, in seven months, he completed the entire five-year course of the Faculty of Mathematics, after which for twenty years he was a teacher of higher mathematics at the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold. There he taught an elective course in literature for students, continued to expand his knowledge of literature, history, geography, astronomy, and was actively involved in translations.

This is where the most unexpected turn in the life of Alexander Melentyevich took place. It all started with the fact that he, a great expert foreign languages, I decided to learn English as well. As material for exercises, he was given the book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. He read it, told it to his two sons, and decided to translate it. But in the end, the result was not a translation, but an arrangement of a book by an American author. The writer changed some things and added some things. For example, he came up with a meeting with a cannibal, a flood and other adventures. His dog Toto started talking, the girl began to be called Ellie, and the Sage from the Land of Oz acquired a name and title - the Great and Terrible Wizard Goodwin... Many other cute, funny, sometimes almost imperceptible changes appeared. And when the translation, or, more precisely, the retelling, was completed, it suddenly became clear that this was no longer quite Baum’s “The Sage.” The American fairy tale has become just a fairy tale. And her heroes spoke Russian as naturally and cheerfully as they had spoken English half a century before. Alexander Volkov worked on the manuscript for a year and entitled it “The Wizard of the Emerald City” with the subtitle “Reworkings of a fairy tale American writer Frank Baum." The manuscript was sent to the famous children's writer S. Ya. Marshak, who approved it and handed it over to the publishing house, strongly advising Volkov to take up literature professionally.

Black and white illustrations for the text were made by artist Nikolai Radlov. The book was published in a circulation of twenty-five thousand copies in 1939 and immediately won the sympathy of readers. At the end of the same year, its re-edition appeared, and soon it became part of the so-called “school series”, the circulation of which was 170 thousand copies. Since 1941, Volkov became a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR.

During the war, Alexander Volkov wrote the books “Invisible Fighters” (1942, about mathematics in artillery and aviation) and “Planes at War” (1946). The creation of these works is closely connected with Kazakhstan: from November 1941 to October 1943, the writer lived and worked in Alma-Ata. Here he wrote a series of radio plays on a military-patriotic theme: “Counselor Goes to the Front”, “Timurovites”, “Patriots”, “Dead of Night”, “Sweatshirt” and others, historical essays: “Mathematics in Military Affairs”, “Glorious Pages” on the history of Russian artillery”, poems: “The Red Army”, “The Ballad of the Soviet Pilot”, “Scouts”, “Young Partisans”, “Motherland”, songs: “Marching Komsomol”, “Song of the Timurites”. He wrote a lot for newspapers and radio, some of the songs he wrote were set to music by composers D. Gershfeld and O. Sandler.

In 1959, Alexander Melentyevich Volkov met the aspiring artist Leonid Vladimirsky, and “The Wizard of the Emerald City” was published with new illustrations, which were later recognized as classics. The book fell into the hands of the post-war generation in the early 60s, already in a revised form, and since then it has been constantly republished, enjoying constant success. And young readers again set off on a journey along the road paved with yellow brick...

The creative collaboration between Volkov and Vladimirsky turned out to be long-lasting and very fruitful. Working side by side for twenty years, they practically became co-authors of books - sequels to The Wizard. L. Vladimirsky became the “court artist” of the Emerald City, created by Volkov. He illustrated all five Wizard sequels.

The incredible success of Volkov's cycle, which made the author modern classic children's literature, largely delayed the “penetration” of F. Baum’s original works into the domestic market, despite the fact that subsequent books were no longer directly connected with F. Baum, only sometimes they contained partial borrowings and alterations.

"The Wizard of the Emerald City" called big flow letters to the author from his little readers. The children persistently demanded that the writer continue the fairy tale about the adventures of the kind little girl Ellie and her faithful friends - the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion and the funny dog ​​Totoshka. Volkov responded to letters of similar content with the books “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” and “Seven Underground Kings.” But reader letters continued to come with requests to continue the story. Alexander Melentyevich was forced to answer his “pushy” readers: “Many guys ask me to write more fairy tales about Ellie and her friends. I will answer this: there will be no more fairy tales about Ellie...” And the flow of letters with persistent requests to continue the fairy tales did not decrease. AND good wizard heeded the requests of his young fans. He wrote three more fairy tales - “The Fire God of the Marrans”, “The Yellow Fog” and “The Secret of the Abandoned Castle”. All six fairy tales about the Emerald City were translated into many languages ​​of the world with a total circulation of several tens of millions of copies.

Based on “The Wizard of the Emerald City,” the writer in 1940 wrote a play of the same name, which was staged in puppet theaters Moscow, Leningrad, and other cities. In the sixties, A.M. Volkov created a version of the play for theaters for young spectators. In 1968 and subsequent years, according to a new script, “The Wizard of the Emerald City” was staged by numerous theaters across the country. The play “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” was performed in puppet theaters under the titles “Oorfene Deuce”, “The Defeated Oorfene Deuce” and “Heart, Mind and Courage”. In 1973, the Ekran association produced a ten-episode puppet film based on A. M. Volkov’s fairy tales “The Wizard of the Emerald City,” “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” and “Seven Underground Kings,” which was shown several times on All-Union Television. Even earlier, the Moscow Filmstrip Studio created filmstrips based on the fairy tales “The Wizard of the Emerald City” and “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers.”

In the publication of A. M. Volkov’s second book, “The Wonderful Ball,” which the author in its original versions called “The First Aeronaut,” Anton Semenovich Makarenko, who had just moved to live in Moscow, completely devoted himself to scientific and literary work, took a large part. "Wonderful ball" - historical novel about the first Russian aeronaut. The impetus for its writing was a short story with a tragic ending, found by the author in an ancient chronicle. Other historical works by Alexander Melentyevich Volkov were no less popular in the country - “Two Brothers”, “Architects”, “Wanderings”, “The Tsargrad Captive”, the collection “The Wake of the Stern” (1960), dedicated to the history of navigation, primitive times, the destruction of Atlantis and the discovery of America by the Vikings.

In addition, Alexander Volkov published several popular science books about nature, fishing, and the history of science. The most popular of them, “Earth and Sky” (1957), introducing children to the world of geography and astronomy, has gone through multiple reprints.

Volkov translated Jules Verne (“The Extraordinary Adventures of the Barsak Expedition” and “The Danube Pilot”), he wrote the fantastic stories “The Adventure of Two Friends in the Land of the Past” (1963, pamphlet), “Travelers in the Third Millennium” (1960), short stories and essays “Petya Ivanov’s Journey to an Extraterrestrial Station”, “In the Altai Mountains”, “Lopatinsky Bay”, “On the Buzhe River”, “Birthmark”, “Lucky Day”, “By the Fire”, the story “And Lena was stained with blood...” (1973), and many other works.

But his books are about Fairyland tirelessly reprinted in large editions, delighting new generations of young readers... In our country, this cycle became so popular that in the 90s its sequels began to be created. This was started by Yuri Kuznetsov, who decided to continue the epic and wrote new story- “Emerald Rain” (1992). Children's writer Sergei Sukhinov, since 1997, has published more than 20 books in the “Emerald City” series. In 1996, Leonid Vladimirsky, an illustrator of books by A. Volkov and A. Tolstoy, connected his two favorite characters in the book “Pinocchio in the Emerald City.”

Volkov Alexander Melentievich

Performed:

student of group 2B

Ustyantseva Ksenia

IN small town Ust-Kamenogorsk,

In the old fortress, where the peasant Melenty Volkov served as a soldier, his first-born Alexander was born on July 14, 1891.

At that time, he independently mastered the German and French languages. At the end of the First World War, already called up for military service

He passed the final exams at the Semipalatinsk gymnasium as an external student. Later, the Yaroslavl Pedagogical Institute remained behind him.

The fairy tale "Oorfene Deuce and his wooden soldiers" is a continuation of A. Volkov's fairy tale "The Wizard of the Emerald City".

It tells how the evil carpenter Oorfene Deuce made wooden soldiers and conquered the Magic Land. Ellie and her uncle, sailor Charlie Black, rushed to the rescue of its inhabitants.

The fairy tale "Seven Underground Kings" continues the story of the adventures of the girl Ellie and her friends in the Magic Land. This time, friends find themselves in the kingdom of underground miners and become participants in new amazing adventures.

The fairy tale "Yellow Fog" continues the story about the amazing events taking place in the Magic Land, where the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Brave Lion live and where their little friends find themselves again.

The fairy tale “The Mystery of the Abandoned Castle” is a continuation of the books “The Wizard of the Emerald City”, “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers”, “Seven Underground Kings”, “The Fire God of the Marrans”, “Yellow Fog” and completes the series of books by A.M. Volkov about the Magic Land .

Volkov has other works:

the collection “The Wake of the Stern” (1960), dedicated to the history of navigation, about primitive times, about the death of Atlantis and the discovery of America by the Vikings; story "The Adventures of Two Friends in the Country of the Past" (1963). Volkov is also known as a translator.

A permanent exhibition of the storyteller's books and letters has been prepared here.

The museum is located in the old university building, where Alexander Melentyevich once studied.

Awards

For selfless work in the military and Peaceful time for the benefit of Soviet children's literature A.M. Volkov was awarded government awards:

• Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1953),
• medals "For Valiant Labor" in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945",
• “For valiant work in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin",

as well as professional awards.

Biography, life story of Volkov Alexander Melentyevich

Volkov Alexander Melentievich - Russian writer, translator.

Childhood

Alexander Melentyevich Volkov was born on June 14, 1891. His place of birth is the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk. Alexander's father's name was Melenty Mikhailovich, he was a retired sergeant major.

Volkov's passion for literature manifested itself in early childhood. At the age of 4, thanks to the efforts of his father, Alexander already knew how to read. Since then, books have become his faithful companions.

At the age of 6, Alexander began studying at the city school, and he was immediately accepted into the second grade. And at the age of 12, Volkov had already graduated from this educational institution.

Education, teaching

The year 1907 was marked for Alexander Volkov by entering the Tomsk Teachers' Institute. In 1910, having received a degree in mathematics, he worked for some time as a teacher in the village of Kolyvan ( Altai region). A little later, he worked as a teacher in his native school in Ust-Kamenogorsk. At this time, Volkov independently mastered the German and French languages ​​to perfection.

In the 20s of the 20th century, Volkov moved to the city of Yaroslavl, where he took up the post of school director, while simultaneously studying at the correspondence department of the Yaroslavl Pedagogical Institute.

Alexander Melentyevich arrived in Moscow in 1929. There they began to work as the head of the academic department of the working faculty. For seven months (instead of the required five years) he studied at Moscow University. By this time, Volkov was already married and had two sons.

In 1931, Alexander Volkov became a teacher and then an associate professor at the Department of Higher Mathematics at the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold.

CONTINUED BELOW

Volkov’s first poems (“Dreams”, “Nothing Makes Me Happy”) were published in the newspaper “Siberian Light” in 1917. Right after October revolution Alexander Melentyevich wrote many plays for children's theater - “Village School”, “In a Deaf Corner”, “Fern Flower” and others. Productions based on his works were very warmly received by the audience.

As a teacher at the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold, Volkov decided to master English language. To do this, Alexander Melentievich read a book by Lyman Frank Baum entitled “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Remaining impressed by what he read, Volkov tried to translate fairy tale story into Russian. In the process of work, the Russian writer changed many aspects of Baum’s story, added some points, so the result was not a translation, but a reworking of the book. As a result, the fairy tale “The Wizard of the Emerald City” came out of Volkov’s pen. Alexander Melentievich showed his manuscript to a famous children's writer. He noted that the manuscript was very good, sent it to the publishing house, and advised Volkov not to give up his literary studies.

“The Wizard of the Emerald City” immediately became popular among readers. The success of this book encouraged Volkov to continue writing. His talent allowed him to become a member of the USSR Writers' Union in 1941.

Throughout his life, Alexander Melentyevich wrote more than 50 works, among which were poems, popular science books, historical essays, novels, plays, and stories...

Death

Volkov Alexander Melentyevich died in Moscow in 1977 on July 3 at the age of 86 years. A street in his hometown of Ust-Kamenogorsk is named in his honor.

Alexander Volkov was born on July 14, 1891 in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk in the family of a military sergeant major and a dressmaker.

In his memoirs about the celebration in Ust-Kamenogorsk in honor of the coronation of Nikolai Romanov in October 1894, Volkov wrote: “I remember standing at the gates of the fortress, and the long barracks building was decorated with garlands of colored paper lanterns, rockets were flying high into the sky and scattering colorful balls there, the fiery wheels spin with a hiss.”

Alexander Volkov learned to read at the age of three, but there were few books in his father’s house, and from the age of 8, Sasha learned to skillfully bind neighbors’ books, while still having the opportunity to read them. He read the works of Mine Reed, Jules Verne and Dickens. Of the Russian writers I liked to read Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov and Nikitin. In elementary school he studied with excellent marks, moving from class to class only with awards. At the age of 6, Volkov was immediately accepted into the second grade of the city school, and at the age of 12 he graduated as the best student. In 1904, after a preparatory course, he entered the Tomsk Teachers' Institute, which he graduated in 1910 with the right to teach in city and higher primary schools, after which Alexander Volkov began working as a teacher in the ancient Altai city of Kolyvan, and then in his hometown of Ust- Kamenogorsk, at the school where he began his education. There he independently mastered the German and French languages.

On the eve of the revolution, Volkov tried to start writing. His first poems, “Nothing Makes Me Happy” and “Dreams,” were published in 1917 in the newspaper “Siberian Light.” In 1917, Volkov became a member of the Ust-Kamenogorsk Council of Deputies and participated in the publication of the newspaper “Friend of the People.” He began teaching at the pedagogical courses that opened in Ust-Kamenogorsk at the technical school, and at the same time he wrote a number of plays for the children's theater. His funny comedies and plays “Eagle Beak”, “In a Deaf Corner”, “Village School”, “Tolya the Pioneer”, “Fern Flower”, “Home Teacher”, “Comrade from the Center” (“Modern Inspector”) and “ Trading House Shneersohn and Co” were successfully performed on the stages of Ust-Kamenogorsk and Yaroslavl.

In Ust-Kamenogorsk.

In the 1920s, Volkov moved to Yaroslavl, where he worked as a school director. In parallel with this, he passed exams as an external student at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Pedagogical Institute. In 1929, Alexander Volkov moved to Moscow, where he worked as the head of the educational department of the workers' faculty. By the time he entered Moscow State University, he was already a forty-year-old married man and the father of two children. There, in seven months, he studied a five-year course at the Faculty of Mathematics, after which for twenty years he was a teacher of higher mathematics at the Moscow Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals and Gold. There he taught an elective course in literature for students, continued to expand his knowledge of literature, history, geography, astronomy, and was actively involved in translations.

The most unexpected turn in the life of Alexander Melentyevich began with the fact that he, a great connoisseur of foreign languages, decided to also study English. As material for exercises, he was given the book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. He read it, told it to his two sons, and decided to translate it. True, the end result was not a translation, but an arrangement of a book by an American author. The writer changed some things and added some things. For example, he came up with a meeting with a cannibal, a flood and other adventures. His dog Toto started talking, the girl began to be called Ellie, and the Sage from the Land of Oz acquired a name and title - the Great and Terrible Wizard Goodwin... Many other cute, funny, sometimes almost imperceptible changes appeared. And when the translation, or, more precisely, the retelling, was completed, it suddenly became clear that this was no longer quite Baum’s “The Sage.” The American fairy tale turned into just a fairy tale, and its characters began to speak Russian as naturally and cheerfully as they had spoken English half a century before. Alexander Volkov worked on the manuscript for a year and entitled it “The Wizard of the Emerald City” with the subtitle “Reworkings of a fairy tale by the American writer Frank Baum.” The manuscript was sent to the children's writer Marshak, who approved it and transferred it to the publishing house, strongly advising Volkov to take up literature professionally.

Black and white illustrations for the text were made by artist Nikolai Radlov. The book was published in a circulation of twenty-five thousand copies and immediately won the sympathy of readers. Therefore on next year a re-edition appeared, and by the end of the year it was included in the so-called “school series”, the circulation of which was 170 thousand copies. Since 1941, Volkov became a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR.

During the war years, Alexander Volkov wrote several works. He wrote a book about mathematics in artillery and aviation, “Invisible Fighters,” in 1942, and a book, “Planes at War,” in 1946. The creation of these works was closely connected with Kazakhstan: from November 1941 to October 1943, the writer lived and worked in Alma-Ata. There he wrote a series of radio plays on a military-patriotic theme: “Counselor Goes to the Front,” “Timurovites,” “Patriots,” “Dead of Night,” “Sweatshirt” and other historical essays: “Mathematics in Military Affairs,” “Glorious Pages of history of Russian artillery”, poems: “The Red Army”, “Ballad of the Soviet Pilot”, “Scouts”, “Young Partisans”, “Motherland”, songs: “Marching Komsomol”, “Song of the Timurites”. Volkov also wrote a lot for newspapers and radio; some of the songs he wrote were set to music by composers D. Gershfeld and O. Sandler.

Drawing by Nikolai Radlov.

In 1959, Alexander Volkov met the aspiring artist Leonid Vladimirsky, and “The Wizard of the Emerald City” was published with new illustrations, which were later recognized as classics. The book fell into the hands of the post-war generation in the early 1960s, already in a revised form, and since then it has been constantly republished, enjoying continued success. And young readers again set off on a journey along the road paved with yellow brick...

The creative collaboration between Volkov and Vladimirsky turned out to be long-lasting and very fruitful. Working side by side for twenty years, they practically became co-authors of books - sequels to The Wizard. Leonid Vladimirsky became the “court artist” of the Emerald City, created by Volkov. He illustrated all five Wizard sequels.

Drawing by Leonid Vladimirsky.

The incredible success of Volkov’s cycle, which made the author a modern classic of children’s literature, largely delayed the “penetration” of F. Baum’s original works into the domestic market, despite the fact that subsequent books were no longer directly connected with F. Baum, only occasionally appearing in them partial borrowings and alterations.

"The Wizard of the Emerald City" caused a large flow of letters to the author from his young readers. The children persistently demanded that the writer continue the fairy tale about the adventures of the kind little girl Ellie and her faithful friends - the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion and the funny dog ​​Totoshka. Volkov responded to their letters with the books “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” and “Seven Underground Kings,” but reader letters continued to come with requests to continue the story. Alexander Melentyevich was forced to answer his “pushy” readers: “Many guys ask me to write more fairy tales about Ellie and her friends. I will answer this: there will be no more fairy tales about Ellie...” And the flow of letters with persistent requests to continue the fairy tales did not decrease. And the good wizard heeded the requests of his young fans. He wrote three more fairy tales - “The Fire God of the Marrans”, “The Yellow Fog” and “The Mystery of the Abandoned Castle”. All six fairy tales about the Emerald City have been translated into many languages ​​of the world with a total circulation of several tens of millions of copies.

Alexander Volkov and Leonid Vladimirsky.

Based on “The Wizard of the Emerald City,” the writer in 1940 wrote a play of the same name, which was staged in puppet theaters in Moscow, Leningrad, and other cities. In the sixties, Volkov created a version of the play for theaters for young spectators. In 1968 and subsequently, according to a new script, “The Wizard of the Emerald City” was staged by numerous theaters across the country. The play “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” was performed in puppet theaters under the titles “Oorfene Deuce”, “The Defeated Oorfene Deuce” and “Heart, Mind and Courage”. In 1973, the Ekran association produced a ten-episode puppet film based on Alexander Volkov’s fairy tales “The Wizard of the Emerald City,” “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers” and “Seven Underground Kings,” which was shown several times on All-Union Television. Even earlier, the Moscow Filmstrip Studio created filmstrips based on the fairy tales “The Wizard of the Emerald City” and “Oorfene Deuce and His Wooden Soldiers.”

In the publication of Alexander Volkov’s second book, “The Wonderful Ball,” which the author in its original versions called “The First Aeronaut,” Anton Semenovich Makarenko took a large part, who at that moment moved to live in Moscow, where he devoted himself entirely to scientific and literary work. “The Wonderful Ball” is a historical novel about the first Russian balloonist. The impetus for its writing was short story with a tragic end, found by the author in an ancient chronicle. Volkov’s other historical works were no less popular in the country - “Two Brothers”, “Architects”, “Wanderings”, “The Tsargrad Captive”, the collection “The Wake of the Stern” in 1960, dedicated to the history of navigation, primitive times, the death of Atlantis and discovery of America by the Vikings.

In addition, Alexander Volkov published several popular science books about nature, fishing, and the history of science. The most popular of these was "Earth and Sky" in 1957. It introduced children to the world of geography and astronomy and went through multiple reprints.

Volkov was engaged in translations of works by Jules Verne. He translated his works “The Extraordinary Adventures of the Barsak Expedition” and “The Danube Pilot”. He wrote the fantastic stories “The Adventure of Two Friends in the Country of the Past” in 1963, “Travelers in the Third Millennium” in 1960, stories and essays “Petya Ivanov’s Journey to an Extraterrestrial Station”, “In the Altai Mountains”, “Lapatin Bay”, “On the Buzhe River”, “Birthmark”, “Lucky Day”, “By the Fire”, the story “And Lena was stained with blood” and many other works.

Alexander Volkov died on July 3, 1977 in Moscow, but his books about the Magic Land are tirelessly republished in large editions, delighting new generations of young readers... In our country, this cycle became so popular that in the 1990s its sequels began to be created. This was started by Yuri Kuznetsov, who decided to continue the epic and wrote a new story - “Emerald Rain” in 1992. Children's writer Sergei Sukhinov, since 1997, has published more than 12 books in the “Emerald City” series. In 1996, Leonid Vladimirsky, an illustrator of books by A. Volkov and A. Tolstoy, connected his two favorite characters in the book “Pinocchio in the Emerald City.”

About Alexander Volkov was filmed documentary"Chronicles of the Emerald City."

Your browser does not support the video/audio tag.

Text prepared by Andrey Goncharov

Used materials:

Materials from the site www.fantlab.ru
Materials from the site www.archivsf.narod.ru
Text of the article “Frank Baum, Alexander Volkov: Emerald Tales”, author L. Vladimirsky

Novels:

1940 - Wonderful Ball
1950 - Two brothers
1954 - Architects
1954 - Wandering

Stories:

1960 - Travelers into the third millennium
1963 - The Adventures of Two Friends in the Land of the Past
1969 - Captive of Constantinople

Fairy tales:

1939 – The Wizard of the Emerald City
1963 – Oorfene Deuce and his wooden soldiers
1964 – Seven Underground Kings
1968 – Fire God of the Marranos
1970 – Yellow Fog
1975 – The Mystery of the Abandoned Castle (published 1982)

Popular science books:

1953 - How to catch fish with a fishing rod. Notes from a fisherman
1957 - Earth and Sky: Entertaining stories on geography and astronomy
1960 - Wake astern
1980 - In Search of Truth

Translations:

Jules Verne. Danube pilot
Jules Verne. Extraordinary Adventures Barsak's expedition