Biography of the writer
Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin
15.03.1937 - 14.03.2015
Russian writer, publicist, public figure, full member of the Academy Russian literature, honorary professor of Krasnoyarsk pedagogical university them. V. P. Astafieva, honorary citizen of the city of Irkutsk, honorary citizen Irkutsk region. Author of many articles devoted to literature, art, ecology, the preservation of Russian culture, and the preservation of Lake Baikal. Novels, short stories, essays and articles by V.G. Rasputin's works have been translated into 40 languages of the world. Many works have been staged in theaters across the country and filmed.
Most famous works : stories “Money for Maria” (1967), “ Deadline"(1970), "Live and Remember" (1974), "Farewell to Matera" (1976), "Ivan's Daughter, Ivan's Mother" (2003); stories “Meeting” (1965), “Rudolfio” (1966), “Vasily and Vasilisa” (1967), “French Lessons” (1973), “Live a Century, Love a Century” (1981), “Natasha” (1981), “What should I tell the crow?” (1981); book of essays “Siberia, Siberia...” (1991).
V. G. Rasputin was born on March 15, 1937 in the village of Ust-Uda. Mother - Nina Ivanovna Chernova, father - Grigory Nikitich Rasputin. The building of the clinic where the future writer was born has been preserved. When flooded, it was dismantled and moved to the new village of Ust-Uda. In 1939, the parents moved closer to their father’s relatives, to Atalanka. The writer's paternal grandmother is Maria Gerasimovna (nee Vologzhina), grandfather is Nikita Yakovlevich Rasputin. The boy did not know his maternal grandparents; his mother was an orphan.
From grades 1 to 4, Valentin Rasputin studied at Atalan Elementary School. From 1948 to 1954 - at the Ust-Udinsk secondary school. Received a matriculation certificate with only A's and a silver medal. In 1954 he became a student at the Faculty of History and Philology at Irkutsk State University. On March 30, 1957, the first article by Valentin Rasputin, “There is no time to be bored,” about the collection of scrap metal by students of school No. 46 in Irkutsk, appeared in the newspaper “Soviet Youth.” After graduating from the university, V. G. Rasputin remained a staff member of the newspaper “Soviet Youth”. In 1961 he got married. His wife was Svetlana Ivanovna Molchanova, a student at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at ISU, eldest daughter famous writer I. I. Molchanov-Sibirsky.
In the fall of 1962, V. G. Rasputin, his wife and son, left for Krasnoyarsk. Works first in the newspaper “Krasnoyarsky Rabochiy”, then in the newspaper “Krasnoryasky Komsomolets”. Vivid, emotional essays by V. G. Rasputin, distinguished by the author’s style, were written in Krasnoyarsk. Thanks to these essays, the young journalist received an invitation to the Chita Seminar of Young Writers of Siberia and the Far East (autumn 1965). Writer V. A. Chivilikhin noted the artistic talent of the aspiring writer. In the next two years, three books by Valentin Rasputin were published: “Bonfires of New Cities” (Krasnoyarsk, 1966), “The Land Near the Sky” (Irkutsk, 1966), “A Man from This World” (Krasnoyarsk, 1967).
In 1966, V. G. Rasputin left the editorial office of the newspaper “Krasnoyarsk Komsomolets” and moved to Irkutsk. In 1967 he was admitted to the Union of Writers of the USSR. In 1969 he was elected a member of the bureau of the Irkutsk Writers' Organization. In 1978 he joined the editorial board of the series “Literary Monuments of Siberia” of the East Siberian Book Publishing House. In 1990-1993 was the compiler of the newspaper “Literary Irkutsk”. On the initiative of the writer, since 1995 in Irkutsk and since 1997 in the Irkutsk region, Days of Russian spirituality and culture “Radiance of Russia” and Literary evenings “This Summer in Irkutsk” have been held. In 2009, V. G. Rasputin participated in the filming of the film “River of Life” (dir. S. Miroshnichenko), dedicated to the flooding of villages during the launch of the Bratsk and Boguchansk hydroelectric power stations.
The writer died in Moscow on March 14, 2015. He was buried on March 19, 2015 in the necropolis of the Znamensky Monastery (Irkutsk).
Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin was awarded the 1977 USSR State Prize in the field of literature, art and architecture for the story “Live and Remember”, the 1987 USSR State Prize in the field of literature and architecture for the story “Fire”, the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art 2012 city, Prize of the Irkutsk OK Komsomol named after. I. Utkin (1968), Certificate of Honor of the Soviet Peace Committee and the Soviet Peace Fund (1983), Prizes from the magazine “Our Contemporary” (1974, 1985, 1988), Prize named after. Leo Tolstoy (1992), Prize named after. St. Innocent of Irkutsk (1995), Moscow-Penne Prize (1996), Alexander Solzhenitsyn Prize (2000), Literary Prize named after. F. M. Dostoevsky (2001), Prize named after. Alexander Nevsky “Russia’s Faithful Sons” (2004), Award “Best foreign novel. XXI century" (China) (2005), Literary Prize named after. S. Aksakov (2005), Prize of the International Foundation for the Unity of Orthodox Peoples (2011), Prize "Yasnaya Polyana" (2012). Hero of Socialist Labor with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the hammer and sickle gold medal (1987). Other state awards of the writer: Order of the Badge of Honor (1971), Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1981), Order of Lenin (1984), Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (2002), Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (2008).
March 15th. Born into the peasant family of Grigory Nikitich (born in 1913) and Nina Ivanovna Rasputin in the village of Ust-Uda, Ust-Udinsky district, Irkutsk region. My childhood years were spent in the village of Atalanka, Ust-Udinsky district.
Study time at Atalan Primary School.
Study time in grades 5-10 at Ust-Udinsk secondary school.
Study at the Faculty of History and Philology of Irkutsk State University. A. A. Zhdanova.
March. Start of work as a freelance correspondent for the newspaper “Soviet Youth”.
January. He was accepted into the editorial staff of the newspaper “Soviet Youth” as a librarian.
Continues to work for the newspaper “Soviet Youth”. Published under the pseudonym V. Kairsky.
January March. In the first issue of the anthology "Angara" the first story "I forgot to ask Alyoshka..." was published (in later editions "I forgot to ask Alyoshka...").
August. He resigned from the editorial office of the newspaper “Soviet Youth” and took up the position of editor of literary and dramatic programs at the Irkutsk television studio.
November 21. Birth of son Sergei.
July. Fired from the Irkutsk television studio together with S. Ioffe for a program about fate Siberian writer P. Petrova. Restored with the intervention of L. Shinkarev, but did not work in the studio.
August. Departure for Krasnoyarsk with his wife Svetlana Ivanovna Rasputina. Hired as a literary employee of the Krasnoyarsk Worker newspaper.
February. Moved to the position of special correspondent at the editorial office of the Krasnoyarsky Komsomolets newspaper.
September. Participation in the Chita zonal seminar for beginning writers, meeting with V. A. Chivilikhin, who noted the talent of the beginning author.
March. He left the editorial office of the newspaper “Krasnoyarsk Komsomolets” for professional literary work.
Returned with his family to Irkutsk.
In Irkutsk, at the East Siberian Book Publishing House, a book of essays and stories “The Land Near the Sky” was published.
May. Accepted into the USSR Writers' Union.
July August. The story “Money for Maria” was first published in the Angara almanac No. 4.
The Krasnoyarsk book publishing house published a book of short stories, “A Man from This World.”
Elected to the editorial board of the anthology “Angara” (Irkutsk) (since 1971 the almanac has been titled “Siberia”).
Elected a member of the bureau of the Irkutsk Writers' Organization.
The Irkutsk television studio showed the play “Money for Maria” based on the story of the same name by V. Rasputin.
March 24-27. Delegate to the III Congress of Writers of the RSFSR.
July August. The first publication of the story “The Deadline” appeared in the magazine “Our Contemporary” No. 7-8.
Elected to the audit commission of the Writers' Union of the RSFSR.
A trip to Frunze took place as part of the club of the Soviet-Bulgarian youth creative intelligentsia.
May. He made a trip to Bulgaria as part of the club of the Soviet-Bulgarian youth creative intelligentsia.
May 8. Daughter Maria was born.
The story “Live and Remember” was published for the first time in the magazine “Our Contemporary” No. 10-11.
The writer's father, Grigory Nikitich, has died.
Member of the editorial board of the newspaper " Literary Russia».
May. Made a trip to Hungarian People's Republic as part of the delegation of the USSR Writers' Union.
December 15-18. Delegate to the IV Congress of Writers of the RSFSR.
June 21-25. Delegate to the VI Congress of USSR Writers.
Elected to the composition Audit Commission Union of Writers of the USSR.
July. A trip to Finland with prose writer V. Krupin.
September. A trip to the Federal Republic of Germany together with Yu. Trifonov to the book fair in Frankfurt am Main.
The story “Farewell to Matera” was first published in the magazine “Our Contemporary” No. 10-11.
September. Participation in the first world book fair (Moscow).
Elected as a deputy of the Irkutsk Regional Council of People's Deputies of the sixteenth convocation.
Moscow Theater named after. M. N. Ermolova staged the play “Money for Maria” based on the story of the same name.
The Moscow Art Theater staged the play “The Deadline” based on the play by V. Rasputin.
March. Traveled to the GDR at the invitation of the publishing house Volk und Welt.
The television film “French Lessons” directed by E. Tashkov was released on the screens of the country.
The VAAP Publishing House (Moscow) released the play “Money for Maria.”
October. Trip to Czechoslovakia as part of the delegation of the USSR Writers Union.
December. A trip to West Berlin for creative purposes.
March. Traveled to France as part of the VLAP delegation.
October November. Trip to Italy for "Days Soviet Union"in Turin.
Elected as a deputy of the Irkutsk Regional Council of People's Deputies of the seventeenth convocation.
December. Delegate to the V Congress of Writers of the RSFSR. Elected to the board of the RSFSR Joint Venture.
June 30-July 4. Delegate to the VII Congress of Writers of the USSR.
Elected to the board of the USSR Joint Venture.
The feature film “Vasily and Vasilisa” directed by I. Poplavskaya was released.
Participation in a visiting meeting of the Council on Russian Prose of the Union of Writers of the RSFSR. The results of the work and V. Rasputin’s speech were published in the magazine “North” No. 12.
In the almanac “Siberia” No. 5 the story “What to convey to the crow?” is published.
The feature film “Farewell” directed by L. Shepitko and E. Klimov was released.
June 1-3. Delegate to the IV Congress All-Russian Society protection of historical and cultural monuments (Novgorod).
A trip to Germany to a meeting organized by the Interlit-82 club.
A documentary film by the East Siberian studio “Irkutsk is with us”, filmed according to the script by V. Rasputin, was released.
Rasputin Valentin Grigorievich
Born: March 15, 1937.
Died: March 14, 2015.
Biography
Valentin Grigoryevich Rasputin (March 15, 1937, Ust-Uda village, East Siberian region - March 14, 2015, Moscow) - great Russian writer, one of the outstanding representatives of the so-called village prose, publicist, public figure.
Hero of Socialist Labor (1987). Winner of two State Prizes of the USSR (1977, 1987), the State Prize of Russia (2012) and the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation (2010). Member of the USSR Writers' Union since 1967.
Born on March 15, 1937 in the village of Ust-Uda, East Siberian (now Irkutsk) region in a peasant family. Mother - Nina Ivanovna Rasputina, father - Grigory Nikitich Rasputin. From the age of two he lived in the village of Atalanka, Ust-Udinsky district, which, like the old Ust-Uda, subsequently fell into the flood zone after the construction of the Bratsk hydroelectric power station. After graduating from local primary school, was forced to move alone fifty kilometers from the house where she was high school(about this period will subsequently be created famous story"French Lessons", 1973). After school, he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Irkutsk State University. During his student years, he became a freelance correspondent for a youth newspaper. One of his essays caught the editor's attention. Later, this essay under the title “I forgot to ask Lyoshka” was published in the anthology “Angara” (1961).
In 1979, he joined the editorial board of the book series “Literary Monuments of Siberia” of the East Siberian Book Publishing House. In the 1980s, he was a member of the editorial board of the Roman-Gazeta magazine.
In 1994, he initiated the creation of the All-Russian festival “Days of Russian Spirituality and Culture “Radiance of Russia”” (Irkutsk).
Lived and worked in Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Moscow.
On July 9, 2006, as a result of a plane crash that occurred at the Irkutsk airport, the writer’s daughter, 35-year-old Maria Rasputina, a musician-organist, died.
On March 13, 2015, Valentin Grigorievich was hospitalized and was in a coma. He died on March 14, 2015, 4 hours before his 78th birthday.
Creation
After graduating from the university in 1959, Rasputin worked for several years in newspapers in Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk, and often visited the construction of the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric power station and the Abakan-Taishet highway. Essays and stories about what he saw were later included in his collections “Bonfires of New Cities” and “The Land Near the Sky.”
In 1965, Rasputin showed several new stories to V. Chivilikhin, who came to Chita for a meeting of young writers of Siberia, who became the “godfather” of the aspiring prose writer. Among the Russian classics, Rasputin considered Dostoevsky and Bunin to be his teachers.
Since 1966, Rasputin has been a professional writer. Since 1967 - member of the Union of Writers of the USSR.
Valentin Rasputin's first book, “The Edge Near the Sky,” was published in Irkutsk in 1966. In 1967, the book “A Man from This World” was published in Krasnoyarsk. In the same year, the story “Money for Maria” was published in the Irkutsk almanac “Angara” (No. 4), and in 1968 it was published a separate book in Moscow in the publishing house "Young Guard".
The writer’s talent was revealed in full force in the story “The Deadline” (1970), declaring the author’s maturity and originality.
This was followed by the story “French Lessons” (1973), the story “Live and Remember” (1974) and “Farewell to Matera” (1976).
In 1981, new stories were published: “Natasha”, “What to convey to the crow”, “Live a century - love a century”.
The appearance of Rasputin’s story “Fire” in 1985, distinguished by its acuteness and modernity of the problem, aroused great interest among the reader.
In recent years, the writer has devoted a lot of time and effort to social and journalistic activities, without interrupting his creativity. In 1995, his story “To the Same Land” was published; essays "Down the Lena River". Throughout the 1990s, Rasputin published a number of stories from the “Cycle of Stories about Senya Pozdnyakov”: Senya Rides (1994), Memorial Day (1996), In the Evening (1997), Unexpectedly (1997), Po-neighborly (1998).
In 2006, the third edition of the album of essays by the writer “Siberia, Siberia...” was published (previous editions were 1991, 2000).
In 2010, the Union of Writers of Russia nominated Rasputin for the award Nobel Prize on literature.
In the Irkutsk region, his works are included in the regional school curriculum in extracurricular reading.
Film adaptations
1969 - “Rudolfio”, dir. Dinara Asanova
1969 - “Rudolfio”, dir. Valentin Kuklev (student work at VGIK) video
1978 - “French Lessons”, dir. Evgeniy Tashkov
1980 - “Bearskin for Sale”, dir. Alexander Itygilov
1981 - “Farewell”, dir. Larisa Shepitko and Elem Klimov
1981 - “Vasily and Vasilisa”, dir. Irina Poplavskaya
2008 - “Live and Remember”, dir. Alexander Proshkin
Social and political activities
With the beginning of “perestroika,” Rasputin became involved in a broad socio-political struggle. He took a consistent anti-liberal position, signed, in particular, an anti-perestroika letter condemning the magazine “Ogonyok” (Pravda, 01/18/1989), “Letter from Writers of Russia” (1990), “Word to the People” (July 1991), appeal of forty three "Stop Death Reforms" (2001). The catchphrase of counter-perestroika was P. A. Stolypin’s phrase quoted by Rasputin in his speech at the First Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR: “You need great upheavals. We need a great country." On March 2, 1990, the newspaper Literary Russia published a “Letter from the Writers of Russia,” addressed to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Supreme Council of the RSFSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU, which, in particular, said:
“In recent years, under the banners of the declared “democratization”, the construction of a “rule of law”, under the slogans of the fight against “fascism and racism” in our country, the forces of social destabilization have become unbridled, and the successors of open racism have moved to the forefront of ideological restructuring. Their refuge is multimillion-dollar periodicals, television and radio channels broadcast throughout the country. There is a massive persecution, defamation and persecution of representatives of the indigenous population of the country, unprecedented in the entire history of mankind, who are essentially declared “outside the law” from the point of view of that mythical “rule of law state”, in which, it seems, there will be no place for either Russians or other indigenous peoples of Russia "
Rasputin was among the 74 writers who signed this appeal.
In 1989-1990 - People's Deputy of the USSR.
In the summer of 1989, at the first Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, Valentin Rasputin first expressed a proposal for Russia to secede from the USSR. Subsequently, Rasputin claimed that in him “those with ears heard not a call for Russia to slam the union door, but a warning not to make a scapegoat out of a stupor or blindly, which is the same thing,” from the Russian people.
In 1990-1991 - member of the Presidential Council of the USSR under M. S. Gorbachev. Commenting on this episode of his life in a later conversation with V. Bondarenko, V. Rasputin noted:
“My rise to power did not end in anything. It was completely in vain. […] I remember with shame why I went there. My premonition deceived me. It seemed to me that there were still years of struggle ahead, but it turned out that there were only months left before the breakup. I was like a free application that was not allowed to speak.”
In December 1991, he was one of those who supported the appeal to the President of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with a proposal to convene an emergency Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR.
In 1996, he was one of the initiators of the opening of the Orthodox women's gymnasium in the name of Christmas Holy Mother of God in Irkutsk.
In Irkutsk, Rasputin contributed to the publication of the Orthodox-patriotic newspaper Literary Irkutsk, and was on the board of the literary magazine Sibir.
In 2007, Rasputin came out in support of Zyuganov.
He was a supporter of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
Valentin Rasputin adhered to the Stalinist position and considered it consonant with the opinion of the people:
“They can’t stand the smell of Stalin. But here I will leave the irony and remind the readers that no matter how much the current heterodox “elite” hates Stalin and accepts him, they should not forget that in Russia not only veterans, but also young people treat him completely differently. -other.
And when, let me remind you, the people nominated candidates for the “Name of Russia”, third place after the blessed Alexander Nevsky and P. A. Stolypin was given to Joseph Vissarionovich, Generalissimo of the Great Patriotic War. It’s little secret that he actually took first place, but was deliberately pushed back two positions so as not to “tease the geese,” that is, citizens who did not accept Stalin in spirit.
And when our narrow-minded liberal elite, or sharashka, viciously hating Stalin, demanded that on the anniversary days of the 65th anniversary of the Victory and the spirit of Joseph Vissarionovich was nowhere to be found, not to mention portraits of the leader, she achieved only that spirit, and there will be much more portraits than if she had not so impudently issued her ultimatums to the front-line soldiers and to all of us.
And rightly so: don’t meddle in the people’s soul. She is not under your control. It's time to understand this."
Our government treats the people, whose fate it controls, apparently, as a foreign body, not considering it necessary to invest money in them. And just as the children of criminal privatization, hiding under the guise of “New Russians,” exported billions of dollars abroad, fueling the lives of others, so it does. ... So the prospects for the future of Russia are gloomy. ... When the doors to power opened for the future president at the end of 1999, in return he was required to have certain savings obligations - not of the people, of course, but of the oligarchic elite who arranged for us interesting life. ... Surely the names of the untouchables were also mentioned: first of all, this is, of course, the “family”, as well as Chubais, Abramovich... (P. 177-178)
At first I was surprised (amazed!) that there, on the Aurora, in the Courchevel company, high-ranking persons seemed to be out of place: the Minister of the Federal Government, Mrs. Nabiullina, the Governor of St. Petersburg, Mrs. Matvienko and others. And they were forced to listen to obscene songs about the Russian soul and much more, and then, probably, they were forced to applaud. ... And what could they do if the invitation came from such a high oligarch for whom there are no obstacles anywhere and in anything? ... This oligarch’s close friends are the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President Klebanov and the presidential assistant Dvorkovich. On the president’s recent trip to Paris, he was accompanied (and it could not have been otherwise), of course, by Prokhorov. Now think about it: could some people even very high position refuse the invitation to “Aurora” by (himself!) Prokhorov! But oh, how expensive it could have been! (P. 288 - about how Prokhorov celebrated his birthday at Aurora) On July 30, 2012, he spoke out in support of the criminal prosecution of the famous feminist punk group Pussy Riot. He, together with Valery Khatyushin, Vladimir Krupin, Konstantin Skvortsov, published a statement entitled “Conscience does not allow you to remain silent.” In it, he not only advocated for criminal prosecution, but also spoke very critically of the letter of cultural and artistic figures written at the end of June, calling them accomplices of a “dirty ritual crime.”
On March 6, 2014, he signed an appeal from the Union of Writers of Russia to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin, in which he expressed support for Russia’s actions in relation to Crimea and Ukraine.
Family
Father - Grigory Nikitich Rasputin (1913-1974).
Mother - Nina Ivanovna Rasputina (1911-1995).
Wife - Svetlana Ivanovna (1939-2012). Daughter of the writer Ivan Molchanov-Sibirsky, sister of Evgenia Ivanovna Molchanova, wife of the poet Vladimir Skif.
Son - Sergei Rasputin (1961), English teacher.
granddaughter - Antonina Rasputina (b. 1986).
Daughter - Maria Rasputina (May 8, 1971 - July 9, 2006), musicologist, organist, teacher at the Moscow Conservatory. Died in a plane crash on July 9, 2006 in Irkutsk. In memory of her, in 2009, the Soviet Russian composer Roman Ledenev wrote “Three Dramatic Passages” and “The Last Flight.” The premiere took place in November 2011 in Great hall Moscow Conservatory. In memory of his daughter, Valentin Rasputin gave Irkutsk an exclusive organ made many years ago by the St. Petersburg master Pavel Chilin especially for Maria.
Bibliography
Collected works in 3 volumes. - M.: Young Guard - Veche-AST, 1994., 50,000 copies.
Selected works in 2 volumes. - M.: Sovremennik, Bratsk: OJSC "Bratskkompleksholding"., 1997
Selected works in 2 volumes. - M.: Fiction, 1990, 100,000 copies.
Selected works in 2 volumes. - M.: Young Guard, 1984, 150,000 copies.
Awards
Hero of Socialist Labor (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated March 14, 1987, Order of Lenin and Golden medal"Sickle and Hammer") - for great services in development Soviet literature, fruitful social activities and in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of his birth
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (March 8, 2008) - for great services in development Russian literature and many years of creative activity
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (October 28, 2002) - for great contribution to the development of Russian literature
Order of Alexander Nevsky (September 1, 2011) - for special personal services to the Fatherland in the development of culture and many years of creative activity
Order of Lenin (1984),
Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1981),
Order of the Badge of Honor (1971),
Memory
On March 19, 2015, the name of Valentin Rasputin was given to secondary school No. 5 in Uryupinsk (Volgograd region).
The name of Valentin Rasputin was given to the scientific library of ISU.
The magazine “Siberia” No. 357/2 (2015) is entirely dedicated to Valentin Rasputin.
A secondary school in Ust-Uda (Irkutsk region) will be named after Valentin Rasputin.
A school in Bratsk will be named after Valentin Rasputin.
In 2015, the name of Valentin Rasputin was assigned to Baikalsky international festival popular science and documentaries"Human and nature".
In 2017, the Valentin Rasputin Museum will be opened in Irkutsk. In January 2016, Valentin Rasputin’s personal belongings were transferred to the Museum of Local Lore.
In creating a national spiritual culture different nations special role belongs to fiction and, first of all, to writers who consciously work in line with the traditions of Russian classics, in whose works one can find a wide variety of connections with their predecessors.
This is exactly what the modern writer Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin is, widely known in our country and abroad. He was born in 1937 in the village of Ust-Uda, located on the banks of the Angara River, three hundred kilometers from Irkutsk. The beauty of the taiga region fostered in the future writer a tender love for nature. After graduating from a rural high school in 1954, Rasputin entered Irkutsk University in the department of history and philology. The beginning of his journalistic activity dates back to this time.
Since the early 80s, Rasputin has seen his main task as a writer in the struggle for the preservation of nature and the spiritual revival of people. One of its main themes is the theme of memory, the theme of preserving the moral experience of previous generations. It is the theme of morality that he reveals in his story The Last Deadline. With Rasputin's story, the mystical principle returned to literature: the problems of life and death appeared in an eternal, timeless dimension. This was a turn to the traditions of Russian classics of the 19th century century. The work of V. Rasputin revealed to the world the most profound processes taking place in the country, in society, in the souls of our people.
The Red Book of Russian Life in the story The Last Term
The plot of Rasputin's story The Last Deadline is very simple. Old woman Anna dies. According to a telegram from his son Mikhail, the eldest village daughter Varvara, the middle daughter city Lyusya and the son Ilya, who has lost his face, come to the funeral. Only the youngest and beloved daughter of the old woman Anna, Tatyana, or Tanchora, as her mother always called her, was the only one of all the children who did not come, and there was no word of her. Delighted by the arrival of the children, the mother unexpectedly came to life for them. Varvara, Ilya and Lyusya, having stayed for three days and wishing their mother to live a long time, left their parents’ house, and at night the old woman died.
The central image of the work has long been ripening in the work of V. Rasputin. The prototype of the old woman Anna was V. Rasputin’s grandmother Maria Gerasimovna. The writer prepared and trained for its literary embodiment from his very first works. The features of the old woman Anna can already be discerned in the early, independent story-essay And Ten Graves in the Taiga, in the mournful image of a mother who gave birth fourteen times, and only two... remained alive. The colors for the portrait were carefully selected, and their appropriateness and accuracy were checked in the sketches; We find the touches of the future image in details seen before and even embodied in phrases that will later form almost unchanged into the fabric of the story: The old woman was not afraid of death, she knew that she could not be saved from death. She fulfilled her human duty... Her family continues, and will continue - she was a reliable link in this chain, to which other links were attached... At night, the old woman died.
Old Woman Anna is the image of an old Russian woman who remembers life before the revolution, who survived several wars, gave them several of her children, and gave all of herself to them, the children. Giving to children means giving to the world, society, country - that’s why this image is so close to us.
Anna has exhausted her life and with a light soul she faces death, which she thought about many times... and knew it as herself - no, she is not afraid to die, everything has its place. Enough, I've profited, I've seen enough. She has nothing more to spend in herself, she has spent everything - empty. It was spent to the very bottom, boiled away to the last drop.
All she knew was: children who needed to be fed, watered, washed, prepared ahead of time so that they had something to drink, and fed tomorrow. Looking back now on these years from her death's threshold, she does not find much difference between them - all of them, urging each other on, passed in the same hurry: ten times a day the old woman lifted her head into the sky to see where the sun was, and realized - already high, already low, and she still hasn’t managed to get things done. It’s always the same thing: the children were playing, the cattle were screaming, the garden was waiting, and also work in the field, in the forest, on the collective farm - an eternal whirlwind in which she had no time to breathe and look around, to hold the beauty of the earth and sky in her eyes and soul . “Hurry, hurry,” she urged herself, pouncing first on one thing, then on another, and no matter how much they did, there was no end in sight....
Having given her entire life to her children, having spent all her strength on them and now not being able to even get out of bed, the old woman is most worried that she has become a burden to Mikhail and his family. Snatching from her distant girlhood the memory of young, bright, beautiful nature and regretting for a moment that this beauty remained without her, she immediately shamed herself: she would be good if she wanted everything in the world to grow old and die along with her. her. Bedridden, awaiting her death hour, in her last minutes she worries about her friend Mironikha - has something happened to her? One strikes like a finger.
Labor in all the works of V. Rasputin is a vital matter, question number one is that, even saying goodbye to life, the old woman Anna argues... with Mironikha, more out of resentment, almost jealousy: Mironikha is able to follow a cow, but she is not. Accustomed to the whole world to greet both misfortune and celebration, personal experience Convinced of the effectiveness of collective work, having learned the value of mutual assistance and good neighborliness, the heroes of the Last Term do not fence off their souls from the misfortune of others.
Reflecting on his dying mother, Mikhail says: We don’t have a father, and now my mother will move, and everyone, and alone. Not small ones, but alone. Let’s say that our mother has been of no use for a long time, but it was considered: her turn first, then ours. It seemed to be blocking us, so we didn’t have to be afraid. Now live and think... It seems like I came to an empty place, and I can see you all around. But the mother not only shielded them, she also saved the family.
Death is the same heroine of the book as Anna. She looks into their faces, listens to their simple wills, looks at their lives and accepts them carefully with maternal love.
In the story The Last Term we find the family on the verge of final disintegration. Or rather, it has already fallen apart today. Of the many children of the old woman Anna, only Varvara visits her when she needs potatoes or something else, but the rest seem to not exist in the world.
They gather - and not all of them - at the mother's deathbed. And in the fact that the only topic for conversation remained their childhood memories, and in the way the brothers vainly try to restore contact through a bottle, and the sisters, calming their own consciences, reproach each other for spiritual callousness. The family has been gone for a long time, the only thing that somehow still holds it together is the mother. But when old woman Anna dies, they can no longer be brought together.
And what’s even more terrible is that the children were drawn to their mother not by love, not by the desire to see her off on her last journey, but by the fear that they would be condemned in the same way as they condemn Tanchora, the most beloved daughter of the old woman Anna, who never came to her dying mother. There is something touching in how patiently, but also stubbornly Anna waits for her youngest, most beloved daughter. The only thing missing is Tatiana; Tanchora,” the old woman said pleadingly; So Tatyana is not going now... She... will see her in a dream, or something else...; And so Tanchora left and disappeared. She cannot say goodbye to this earthly daughter without meeting her - at least mentally.
In a short period of time, the moral essence of four adults is exposed, which can hardly be called healthy.
Valentin Rasputin in the story The Last Time wrote the Red Book of Russian life. The Red Book of Rasputin is hot and disturbing, and it hurts in the heart, but there is pain for death, and there is pain for healing. The soul of the Russian man was revealed to the writer, like no one else. The author does not complicate, does not artificially tie up life, he tries to untie its knots, to lead his hero out of the labyrinth.
The theme of memory in the work Live and Remember
With the greatest severity moral issues set by the writer in his story Live and Remember. The work was written with the author’s deep knowledge of folk life and psychology. common man. The author puts his heroes in difficult situation. The young guy Andrei Guskov fought honestly almost until the very end of the war. Among the scouts he was considered a reliable comrade; the most desperate guys took him with them in order to back up each other. He fought like everyone else - no better and no worse. The soldiers valued him for his strength - stocky, wiry, strong. Life during the war was very difficult at times, but no one complained because everyone got it equally. And they, who fought from the first days of the war, endured and endured so much that they wanted to believe: there must be a special pardon for them, given by fate, death must recede from them, since they have managed to protect themselves from it until now.
Big and small homeland in Farewell to Matera
Heroes of V. Rasputin's prose - simple people from the village, with all their roots connected to their native land, natural in their worldly wisdom and invariably decent in their life ideas. Thus, in the story Farewell to Matera, a wonderful image of the old woman Daria is depicted, whose sense of clan and responsibility to her ancestors is heightened to the limit. The story is structured in such a way that we gradually enter the space of Matera and its history, which allows us not only to get used to the time and place of action, but also to become close to them. The first chapter is dedicated to the island and the village. It's like a bird's eye view, a certain general portrait. In the second chapter we get acquainted with the main character works, “the oldest of the old women” Daria, and other inhabitants of the island, and we get acquainted not superficially, but immediately plunging into their life, worries, and destinies. We begin to guess how they lived, we see what they are like and what is valuable to them. Here begins in the narrative that close intertwining of their lives and the fate of Matera, which will be traced and deepened throughout the entire work. Sitting at the samovar, the old women talk, of course, first of all about the upcoming changes - and do not see anything good in them. Nastasya is openly sad: “I’ll die of melancholy there in one week. In the middle of strangers! Who replants an old tree?!” For Sima, who is new to the island, it’s even worse: “Sima had no property, no relatives, and she had only one way left - to the Nursing Home.” Daria steels herself: she doesn’t have the character to throw her feelings out. Daria's influence on her fellow villagers is great and deserved.
“Old woman Daria, tall and lean...”; she has “a stern, bloodless face with sunken cheeks”; “Despite the years, the old woman Daria was still on her own two feet, in control of her hands, doing all she could and still quite a lot of housework. Now my son and daughter-in-law come to the housewarming party once a week, or even less often, and the whole yard, the whole vegetable garden on it, and in the yard there is a cow, a heifer, a winter calving bull, a pig, a chicken, a dog.”
Everything in her household is strong and harmonious, tidy and well-groomed. And it started for a long time, and continues without hesitation, according to routine. Matera taught people to be unhurriedly efficient, to work that connects the past and the future into the knot of the present. But before that, the people themselves cultivated this land, inhabited it, took care of it. The mothers have long become one whole, and therefore the beginning discrepancy between the mood of the mothers and nature, which does not yet know about the impending disaster, and if it does, then the only way it can respond is with its equanimity, is especially acutely perceived. The old women were already reflecting on the heartbreaking news, and in the nature of the island there was still “grace all around, such peace and tranquility, the greenery shone so thickly and freshly before their eyes, rising even more, raising the island above the water, rolling on the stones with such a clear, cheerful ringing.” Angara, and everything seemed so strong, eternal, that you couldn’t believe in anything - neither moving, nor flooding, nor parting.” The old women seem to take on the pain of nature, allowing it to remain natural in the last months. Such moral qualities and feelings as nobility, loyalty, respect, pride, love, shame do not exist in the abstract - they must be confirmed by actions, and, as you know, it is actions, deeds, not words and good intentions prove what a man is and what his principles are. In that
sense human memory- as the keeper of the moral experience of previous generations - plays a paramount role. And without a person’s feeling of connection with the past, memory becomes flawed and incomplete. In Daria's "Farewell to Matera" this sense of clan, responsibility to ancestors, personal significance as a responsible unit, irreplaceable by anyone else, is further intensified to a greater extent. Or rather, it is predominant in her, and all other goals and actions are linked primarily to this. Telling her son about the devastation that happened at the cemetery, she talks about it as the biggest misfortune at that time: “And they will ask me. They will ask: how did I allow such rudeness, where were I looking? They will say they relied on you, but you? And I have nothing to answer. I was here, it was up to me to watch. And it’s like I’m also to blame. And it would be better for me not to live to see this.” This is perceived by her precisely as a misfortune because there has been an invasion into her previously harmonious relationship with the world, into what is called a worldview, and it happened in one of the most pain points. If she resigned herself, then everything else could lose its meaning, crumble, and droop.
Here is the old woman Daria, her fifty-year-old son Pavel and his son, Daria’s grandson Andrei. Daria remembers her father’s behest to the letter: “Live, this is what you have to live for. You will wallow in grief, in evil, you will be exhausted, if you want to come to us - no, live, move, to hook us more firmly with the white light, to prick us in it.” what we were"; she sacredly honors the memory of those who have passed away and thereby achieves an internal feeling of fulfillment of duty to them, for she knows that “you live nothing at all, because you wouldn’t live well, you wouldn’t think about what kind of memory will remain of you. And memory, it remembers everything, he holds everything, he won’t drop a single grain. Every day, plant flowers on the grave, they’ll trample on everything.” she insists on preserving and then moving the graves to a new location. Her son, Pavel, is less determined; he understands his mother, but what worries her is not the most important thing for him: having promised to fulfill her request, he never will. And Andrei doesn’t even understand what we’re talking about, whether the grandmother is seriously starting such a strange conversation, in his opinion. It is not difficult for him to decide to go build exactly the dam, because of which the island will be flooded; he is attracted and inspired by the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution, progress, in comparison with which Matera is just a special case, a grain of sand. Their truly philosophical argument with the grandmother, apparently, leaves something in his mind, but still it is no longer possible to convince him. The point is not that progress is bad - no, it is good, it is necessary. The question is how morally secure it is, how much the human soul and the person himself are taken into account not as an appendage of progress, but as a consumer of its achievements. Andrei, who proves the need for a hydroelectric power station, as if casually dropping: “Is this Matera of much use?” comes to an accusation that characterizes him quite eloquently as a child of morally unsecured progress. “For some reason you only think about yourself, and even then, you think more with your memory, you have accumulated a lot of memory,” he throws out to his grandmother and father, confident that he is right, that memory is bad, without it better. Maybe it’s better for someone, yes - stronger, won’t it be torn out without it, like a blade of grass without a root, by the first wind, won’t it be carried anywhere? Here you can answer Andrei with his grandmother’s earlier thoughts about conscience: “... they remember it without a path at every word, they have worn out so much of Christ, there is no living place left. It seems that they are incapable of owning it... There are more people, and conscience, come on, it’s the same - so they thinned it out, not for themselves, not for demand, it would be enough for show.” She protects blood ties with small homeland, knows her worth.
The fire is the last act of tragedy, the destruction of the former moral order.
The story Fire occupied a special place in the literature of the mid-80s. The story Fire looks like the last act of tragedy, the destruction of the former moral order, the defeat of the former natural-patriarchal man. But in vain, apparently, some critics see in the story only a continuation and final note in the funeral prayer of Valentin Rasputin, an artistic verdict on this inhuman communist system that ruined old Russia. Here the bearers of the moral principles of the former Matera with their conscience, deep understanding of the soul, kindness and being, the spiritually and morally fallen, criminals with female names, destroying everything around them. Main character In the story, Ivan Petrovich is amazed at one depressing change in his fellow countrymen: everyone so loves to remember their past highly moral life, they are ready to pray for their past, but suddenly they so easily betray their own memories before the onslaught of the Arkharovites. People, faced with some unprecedented rally, holding on not to the best, but as if to the worst person, were confused and tried to stay away from the Arkharovites. There were hundreds of people in the village, and a dozen seized power - this is what Ivan Petrovich could not understand - this insightful alarm no longer applies only to the village of Sosnovka, but to all of Russia in the 80-90s. How so? So many prayers for the salvation of Russia, so many soul-powerful memories of a past life according to conscience, and such timidity in front of dirty tricks? And such a lingering distrust of the state, alienation from it? Why can a dozen half-humans, who have conspired and united for no good reason, manipulate hundreds?
Then the writer did not know the answer to this question. But what happened during the fire? A very significant event. One of the key characters, both in the Fire and in everything art world Rasputin, the mute hero Misha Hampo, the most conscientious hero, assigned to guard the property saved from the fire, suddenly abandoned the principle of non-resistance. Even realizing how unequal his strength was in front of the Arkharovites, raining blows both from the side and in the back, he did not save himself: at the cost of his life he stopped evil, twisted it into three deaths... The plot of the story, as always with Rasputin, simple: in the village of Sosnovka on the banks of the Angara, Orsovo warehouses are burning. People are trying to save something from the fire. Who are these people, how do they behave in this situation, why do they commit this or that act? The writer is interested in precisely this, that is, a person and everything that happens to him - and this cannot but worry all of us. After all, something happens to a person if his soul does not find peace, rushes about, hurts, groans. What happens to him, and who is to blame, and what are the reasons? All these questions seem to be hovering over Sosnovka, which smells of fire smoke, demanding an answer. Central character the story is the driver Ivan Petrovich Egorov. But the main character can be called reality itself: the long-suffering land on which Sosnovka stands, and the stupid, temporary, and therefore initially doomed Sosnovka, and Egorov himself as an integral part of this village, this land - also suffering, doubting, looking for an answer.
“And before Ivan Petrovich felt that his strength was running out, but never before like this: the end, and that’s all,” is the first phrase of the story, as if warning that the action will take place in an extreme situation, at the limit, on the verge of breaking. What happened to this strong, intelligent and kind man, why was he so tired that for him “the edge just opened up, the edge - nowhere else”, “and it was hard to believe in tomorrow”, and “I didn’t want anything like grave,” and even an unusual, unnatural desire for him appeared: “Let it be a long, long night, without measure and order, so that some can rest, others can come to their senses, others can sober up...”?
He was tired of disbelief, he suddenly realized that he could not change anything. He sees that everything is going wrong, that the foundations are crumbling, and cannot save or support. More than twenty years have passed since Yegorov moved here to Sosnovka from his native flooded Yegorovka, which he now remembers every day. During these years, before his eyes, drunkenness developed like never before, former community ties almost disintegrated, people became, as if strangers to each other, embittered. Ivan Petrovich tried to resist this - he himself almost lost his life. And so I submitted my resignation from work, decided to leave these places, so as not to poison my soul, not to darken my remaining years with daily grief. There are a few days left to work.
It was during these sad reflections that Ivan Petrovich, who had barely entered the house, was overtaken by shouts: “Fire! The warehouses are burning!” And it was no coincidence that the driver felt “as if screams were coming from the depths” - his soul was also on fire. This is how they will go through the entire story - two fires, connected one to the other by internal logic. From chapter to chapter, Rasputin will force the reader to move his anxious gaze from one glow to another and until the last page, until the final line, he will not give a break, will not reduce the tension, because everything here is important. Fire consumes quickly and forever - you must have time to see what it consumes, see and remember. It is unlikely that the warehouses located in a large letter “G” caught fire by accident: “It started in such a place that, having caught fire, it would burn without a trace.” There could be many reasons for this. For example, hide thefts, shortages, cover your tracks. If in Rasputin’s first story Maria could have suffered cruelly for just a thousand rubles and, moreover, innocently, now no one wanted to pay for tens or hundreds of squandered thousands.
Such big fire has never happened in the entire history of Sosnovka - the fire could spread to the huts and burn out the village, this was the first thing Yegorov thought about, rushing to the warehouses. But there were other thoughts in other heads. If anyone had told Ivan Petrovich about them a decade and a half ago, he wouldn’t have believed it. It would not fit into his mind that people can profit from trouble without fear of losing themselves, their face. Even now he didn’t want to believe it. But already - I could. Because everything was leading up to this. Sosnovka itself, no longer in any way similar to the old Yegorovka, was conducive to this. And things were tight in the old village: doomed to await death, to be flooded, it was paralyzed - no one was building, the timber industry was luring young people away; but Sosnovka... Uncomfortable and unkempt, and neither urban nor rural, but a bivouac type, this village was as if they were wandering from place to place, stopped to wait out the bad weather and rest, and ended up stuck. But we were stuck waiting for the command to move on, and therefore - without putting down deep roots, without cleaning up and settling down with an eye on children and grandchildren, but just to fly through the summer, and then winter through the winter. "Everything here resembled a temporary shelter - and streets broken by technology, and dirt, and a club in a public bathhouse. “The same people who in their old villages, from where they came here, could not imagine life without greenery under their windows, did not even display front gardens here.” Because everything is temporary: why put down roots if they later choose a forest here, and then you have to wander further into the neighborhood of Berezovka: the timber industry left, having cut everything clean, and it was empty - “only frenzied tourists, blowing smoke through the doors, set fires in the fire.” fires at home."
People who were accustomed to constant grain-growing work in one place were unable to settle down in the new village. But it’s not so bad that they didn’t take root. The trouble is that they began to adapt, to adopt the worst. Yes, and there was someone: the forestry industry selected more than a hundred thousand cubic meters of wood a year, labor was needed, so seasonal workers came here, people without a stake, without a yard, so - tumbleweeds. Over the course of four years, almost as many people died in Sosnovka due to drunken shooting and stabbing as in the six villages that merged into Sosnovka during the war. Then, having learned about this, Ivan Petrovich gasped in shock. Now he had another tragic opportunity to see why this could happen.
The food warehouse was burning with all its might, “almost the entire village came running, but it seems that no one has yet been found who could organize it into one reasonable, solid force capable of stopping the fire.” Because the authorities, except perhaps Boris Timofeevich Vodnikov, the head of the site, are also alien, recent, consider temporary, and even that one is not in place. And the fire truck has been dismantled for parts, and the fire extinguishers are not working. It’s as if no one really needs anything at all. Ivan Petrovich, his friend from Yegorovka Afonya Bronnikov, and tractor driver Semyon Koltsov - that’s almost all who came running to put out the fire. The rest, as it were, put out the fire, but mostly helped the fire, because they also destroyed, finding their own pleasure and self-interest in this. When Vodnikov shouted to the Arkharovites: “Break it!”, they immediately rushed to do it: “this work was for them.” The point is not even that in a fire you really have to break a lot - and there is no time to think about it: Egorov also knocks down the fence and breaks off the boards. The essence is in the feeling with which it is done. The Arkharovites break with inspiration, “as if all their lives they had been doing nothing but breaking locks.”
Arkharovtsy... After the publication of "Fire" this word came into use again - as a synonym for evil, aggressive indifference, disregard: as long as I feel good, for this "good" I will do anything with everyone. There are several of them in the story, Arkharovites, from the leader Sashka the Ninth to Sonya. And everyone, as expected, has a name. But we remember them not by name, but as a certain phenomenon, together, and Rasputin suggests what the essence is: “All sorts of people came, but there were no such people as the current ones. These appeared immediately as a force organized into one, with their own laws and seniority “We tried to break them, but it didn’t work.” It was truly a force, and based “not on the best, but as if on the worst in a person.” She was able to become such because she did not see any obstacles or resistance. For, as Ivan Petrovich correctly guesses, into whose mouth the writer puts his innermost thoughts, “people scattered all over themselves even earlier, and the Arkharovites only picked up what was lying around unused.”
And an unjust force that has seized unjust power, as is known, must confirm its advantage, which is what the Arkharovites did. As soon as the forester Andrei Solodov fined the timber industry enterprise for high stumps, as a result of which the Arkharov residents’ wages were delayed, they burned down the Solodov bathhouse, and then Solodov “lost the forestry mare, the only hard worker in the entire village, on which half of the vegetable gardens were plowed, and which was in the forestry business irreplaceable. Only in the spring did her bones melt in the thicket; a rotting rope lay nearby.” As soon as Ivan Petrovich himself expressed dissatisfaction with the work and behavior of the “organization brigade” several times, he began to discover either sand in the engine of his car, or a cut hose, or even just managed to remove his head from under the counter, when “a heavy metal support suddenly It broke off and broke off, although, installed and tilted inward, it should not have gone back and never went. From the side where the forest was dumped, two Arkharovites were scurrying around.
Even Vodnikov himself, their boss, “after payday, he secretly carried a couple of bottles in his canvas bag to the cutting site... And they learned to accept it as expected...”
But it was not so much the Arkharovites who were blamed by the same Yegorov, who was trying to understand what was happening, but his fellow villagers - why did they resign themselves, give in, allow themselves to be treated so disrespectfully? “Ivan Petrovich thought: the world does not turn over right away, not in one fell swoop, but just like with us: it was not supposed to, not accepted - it became, it was supposed and accepted, it was impossible - it became possible, it was considered a shame, a mortal sin - revered for dexterity and valor."
And this internal fire, invisible to anyone around, in the hero’s soul is not worse than the one that destroys warehouses. Clothes, food, jewelry, and other goods can then be replenished and reproduced, but it is unlikely that faded hopes will ever be revived, and the scorched fields of former kindness and justice will begin to bear fruit again with the same generosity. After all, it was not on their own that a dozen Arkharovites seized power - it means that there is something behind them that gives them strength, secretly supports and inspires them. This “something” is a system aimed only at the immediate and requiring only immediate results. What soul, what graves of ancestors, what conditions for grandchildren? All this for the Arkharovites, and not only for them, is empty talk, they don’t pay for it, but for them the main criterion, the main measure of values is the ruble. When Ivan Petrovich, concerned about the fact that they are spoiling equipment, destroying it, using it for their own needs, drinking and stealing, is told that all this is not the main thing, the main thing is to carry out the plan, he is rightly indignant: “A plan, you say? A plan?!” Yes, it would be better if we lived without him!.. It would be better if we made a different plan - not just for cubic meters, but also for souls! . Remember how it was... well, even five years ago..." However, his indignation is doomed to misunderstanding. That is why Ivan Petrovich feels terrible ruin within himself, because he was unable to fully realize this creative energy given to him - contrary to logic, there was no need for it, it ran into a blank wall that refused to accept it. That is why he is overcome by destructive discord with himself. His soul yearned for certainty, but he could not answer it, what is now true for him, what is conscience, because he himself, against his will, torn out, uprooted from the microcosm of Yegorovka, where everything helped him find harmony, is no longer able connect the external and internal: they fell apart like two hemispheres, revealing emptiness in the middle. It is no coincidence that when, celebrating the thirtieth anniversary life together, Ivan Petrovich and his wife Alena went to see their son Boris on Far East, there for the first time in many years his soul rested: he again saw the unity of man and nature, “looked into people’s faces, not spoiled through drunkenness,” and realized that “life here did not feel strained, more order was visible here, and this order is not based on shouting and fines, but on the long-established community law.”
In Sosnovka, no one is responsible to anyone, moral obligations are illusory, or even completely absent. The same Arkharovites have nothing to treat with respect here - nothing connects them with this land - so they turn off to the cemetery, are rude and threaten the villagers, steal everything that is bad.
“Why is this being done, Ivan?! What’s being done?! They’re dragging everyone away!” - Yegorov’s wife, Alena, exclaims in fear, not understanding how such people can burn to the ground along with the fire human qualities as decency, conscience, honesty. And if only the Arkharovites dragged everything that caught their eye, but their own, Sosnovskys, too: “The old woman, for whom nothing like this had ever been seen, was picking up bottles thrown out of the yard - and, of course, not empty ones”; the one-armed Savely carried sacks of flour and cereal straight to his own bathhouse. Fire... Why is this being done? Why are we like this? - Uncle Misha Hampo could have exclaimed after Alena, if he could speak. But why are there so few of them who are indignant? L as much as there is. How much is left. After the fire and another one, on Hampo, there were fewer.
Uncle Misha Hampo seemed to have moved into “Fire” from “Farewell to Matera” - there he was called Bogodul. It is not for nothing that the author emphasizes this, calling the old man “Egorov’s spirit.” He, just like Bogodul, hardly spoke, was just as uncompromising and extremely honest. He was considered a born watchman - not because he loved this work, but simply “that’s how he was cut out, out of hundreds of hundreds of rules inaccessible to his head, he made the first rule: do not touch someone else’s. All the inconveniences of the world and its disorder he, perhaps, with There was only one connection: they were touching.” But touching it means depriving a person of part of his life: after all, he worked to acquire a thing, spent energy and health. Alas, even Uncle Misha, who perceived theft as the biggest misfortune, had to come to terms with it: he was the only one guarding, but almost everyone was dragging it. During the fire, he conscientiously, as always, guarded the things taken out of the warehouse and piled in the yard. And, seeing someone trying to throw a bundle of colored rags over the fence, he rushed after the thief. “Hampo had just managed to see who it was and what, when a blow fell on him from the side... And again and again he was hit with something heavy - not with his hands. Uncle Misha kept stretching his head to see who was hitting, but nothing could not lift it and only put out his right hand, which was not under his control, trying to defend himself. And they kept beating and beating him, they kept beating and beating him...” In this terrible fight between Hampo and the Arkharovites, Uncle Misha strangled one of them, Sonya, but also he himself was killed with a mallet. He followed his basic principle. What did they follow? Also principles? In this case, when and on what basis did these “principles” appear, why did the impunity that encouraged them flourish? The story gives an unequivocal answer to these questions: the guilt is permissiveness, violation of elementary justice. When a person was told to his face that something did not exist, while it existed, it meant that he, that person, was openly preferred to something else. So how will he respond? In “Fire,” a guy who saw a burnt Ural motorcycle, which he had been shopping for for a long time, is indignant: “After all, there was a Ural! Who was it for?! Who was it hidden for?!” And Ivan Petrovich himself, when he first got inside the warehouse, was amazed at the abundance - sausage circles, butter, red fish. “It was, then! It was after all! - and where did all this go?.. And Ivan Petrovich grinned or pushed himself, burned by the thought that in this place he had to grin at his own foolishness: and the cars from the regional center, from there, from here, everyone turning up to Ors every day? .. How many nerds and paraphernalia there are in the world! And how did it happen that we surrendered to their mercy, how did it happen?!" This whole story is a conflict that has yet to be seriously considered and studied by literary criticism: the conflict of one and many, memory and unconsciousness, deep, truly popular and superficial, temporary , selflessness and greed, mercy and cruelty.
Ivan Petrovich decides to leave Sosnovka and go to his son Boris in the Far East. As we remember, I have already submitted my application, gathered myself internally, and prepared Alena. But the fire that happened showed what all the Arkharovites taken together and their Ivans, who did not remember their kinship, were unable to bring it to - it showed that the earth itself was already in agony, it was filled with suffering, and if it did not have a defender, it was difficult to say. what can happen. In the final chapter of the story, where we see the hero alone with nature, the idea is clearly heard that “no land is rootless,” that it depends on the person, on what kind of person he is. Moving further and further from the post-fire bustle and excitement of the village, observing the mountain, the forest, the bay, the sky, Egorov feels how “easy, liberating and evenly he steps, as if he accidentally found his step and sigh, as if he had finally endured , on the right road." Will he come back? Will he leave Sosnovka forever? “The earth is silent, either as it meets or as it sees him off. The earth is silent. What are you, our silent land, how long are you silent? And are you really silent?” These questions end the story, similar to the painful question that life itself asks. No one will answer it except us. Time is running, the earth is waiting, its judgment is approaching. Yes, “The smoke of the Fatherland is sweet and pleasant to us,” but not the smoke of a fire, but the smoke over a lived-in house in which both children and grandchildren live. Valentin Rasputin showed us the fire. We must think about the house ourselves, and not let it burn.
Ringing string of alarm, symbol of trouble - Money for Mary
When considering the topic of morality, you also need to pay attention to the first story by Valentin Rasputin, Money for Maria. His early prose is already a generic feature of all the writer’s works! - carried within itself a spirit of anxiety, an imminent collapse, a hidden catastrophism for the time being. In 1997, the writer admits: I began to hear ringing at night, as if they were touching a long string stretched across the sky, and it responded with a languid, clear, whining sound. I'm petrified: what's next?
What is this? - Or is my name already? A ringing string of anxiety, a symbol of fast-flowing life and misfortune, sounds already in the writer’s first story. In the first story, the trouble seems to be small, quite earthly: the saleswoman of the village store, Maria, had a shortage of a thousand rubles. Out of the simplicity of her soul, due to her close, almost family relationships with her fellow villagers and friends from her childhood, she sometimes did not sell goods aloofly, but often lent them, and was poor at counting. And then the auditor discovered a debt that horrified both Maria, her tractor driver husband Kuzma, and their children. The auditor, however, took pity on the heroine and gave the kind, inept Maria the opportunity to collect the missing money in five days... This failure in quiet life sharply raised the question: how will the soul of the people behave in relation to Maria? Will it show the full power of kinship? Discord has invaded, will harmony, righteous principles, conscience save?
Guilty without guilt, Maria says to her husband Kuzma: I remembered someone told me what the women there, in these prisons, do to each other. What a shame. I felt unwell. And then I think: I’m not there yet, but still here.
In general, the story Money for Maria with Kuzma walking around the huts with a hat, with a meeting on the collective farm, at which the chairman suggested that state employees simply sign the statement and loan the money to Kuzma to save Maria - it’s easier to refuse separately... . conversation without witnesses - looks like a domestic incident.
There is some kind of transcendental horror that takes possession of Maria in her plea: Don’t give me to them. But the main horror that seized both Maria and Kuzma, who were ready to turn over the whole earth, but not give up Maria, was something else: how easily people took advantage of Maria’s kindness, simplicity, and profligacy and how difficult, alas, they donated money to save her. The author showed Mary's grief from a moral point of view, and not from a national point of view.
The work of Valentin Rasputin is a phenomenon in world literature, and, like any phenomenon, it is unique, unique.
Conscience, guilt, memory are key moral categories in Rasputin's works. It is conscience that determines a person’s behavior, his fate, and his connection with people’s memory. Having read Rasputin’s stories, you will never forget them, there are so many bitter and fair words in them about human happiness and sorrow, about crimes against the moral laws that govern life, and which we do not always remember.
Critics will refer to his works more than once, give examples, and develop the writer’s thoughts. The main thing, of course, is the works themselves. They need to be read slowly, slowly, and thoughtfully. Rasputin's books deserve it. The writer himself says that “reading is work... The reader himself must participate in events, have his own attitude to them and even a place in them, feel the rush of blood from the movement.”
Life and work of the writer V. Rasputin
Born on March 15, 1937 in the village of Ust-Uda, Irkutsk region. Father - Rasputin Grigory Nikitich (1913-1974). Mother - Rasputina Nina Ivanovna (1911-1995). Wife - Rasputina Svetlana Ivanovna (born 1939), pensioner. Son - Sergey Valentinovich Rasputin (born 1961), English teacher. Daughter - Rasputina Maria Valentinovna (born 1971), art critic. Granddaughter - Antonina (born 1986).
In March 1937, in the family young worker The regional consumer union from the regional village of Ust-Uda, lost on the taiga bank of the Angara almost halfway between Irkutsk and Bratsk, had a son, Valentin, who later glorified this wonderful region throughout the world. Soon the parents moved to their father's family nest - the village of Atalanka. The beauty of the nature of the Angara region overwhelmed the impressionable boy from the very first years of his life, settling forever in the hidden depths of his heart, soul, consciousness and memory, sprouted in his works as grains of fertile shoots that nourished more than one generation of Russians with their spirituality.
A place from the banks of the beautiful Angara became the center of the universe for a talented boy. No one doubted that he was like that - in the village, after all, anyone from birth is visible in full view. Valentin learned to read and write from an early age - he was very greedy for knowledge. The smart boy read everything he could find: books, magazines, scraps of newspapers. His father, having returned from the war as a hero, was in charge of the post office, his mother worked in a savings bank. Carefree childhood It ended all at once - my father’s bag with government money was cut off on the ship, for which he ended up in Kolyma, leaving his wife and three young children to fend for themselves.
In Atalanka there was only a four-year school. For further studies, Valentin was sent to the Ust-Udinsk secondary school. The boy grew up from his own hungry and bitter experience, but an ineradicable thirst for knowledge and serious responsibility that was not childish helped him to survive. Rasputin would later write about this difficult period of his life in the story “French Lessons,” which is surprisingly reverent and truthful.
Valentin's matriculation certificate showed only A's. A couple of months later, in the summer of 1954, having brilliantly passed the entrance exams, he became a student at the Faculty of Philology at Irkutsk University, and was interested in Remarque, Hemingway, and Proust. I haven’t thought about writing—apparently, the time hasn’t come yet.
Life was not easy. I thought about my mother and the younger ones. Valentin felt responsible for them. Earning extra money for a living wherever possible, he began to bring his articles to the editorial offices of radio and youth newspapers. Even before the defense thesis he was accepted into the staff of the Irkutsk newspaper “Soviet Youth”, where the future playwright Alexander Vampilov also came. The genre of journalism sometimes did not fit into the framework of classical literature, but allowed us to acquire life experience and stand stronger on your feet. After Stalin's death, my father was granted amnesty, returned home disabled and barely reached the age of 60.
In 1962, Valentin moved to Krasnoyarsk, the topics of his publications became larger - the construction of the Abakan-Taishet railway, the Sayano-Shushenskaya and Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric power stations, shock work and the heroism of youth, etc. New meetings and impressions no longer fit into the framework of newspaper publications. His first story, “I forgot to ask L?shka,” is imperfect in form, piercing in content, and sincere to the point of tears. At a logging site, a falling pine tree hit a 17-year-old boy. The bruised area began to turn black. Friends agreed to accompany the victim to the hospital, which was a 50-kilometer walk. At first they argued about a communist future, but Leshka was getting worse. He didn't make it to the hospital. But the friends never asked the boy if happy humanity would remember the names of simple hard workers, like him and L?shka...
At the same time, Valentin’s essays began to appear in the Angara almanac, which became the basis of his first book, “The Land Near the Sky” (1966) about the Tafalars, a small people living in the Sayan Mountains.
However, the most significant event in the life of the writer Rasputin happened a year earlier, when at once, one after another, his stories “Rudolfio”, “Vasily and Vasilisa”, “Meeting” and others appeared, which the author now includes in published collections. With them he went to the Chita meeting of young writers, among the leaders of which were V. Astafiev, A. Ivanov, A. Koptyaeva, V. Lipatov, S. Narovchatov, V. Chivilikhin. The latter became " godfather"a young writer whose works were published in metropolitan publications ("Ogonyok", " TVNZ") and attracted the interest of a wide range of readers "from Moscow to the very outskirts." Rasputin still continues to publish essays, but most of his creative energy is devoted to stories. They are expected to appear and people show interest in them. At the beginning of 1967, the story “Vasily and Vasilisa” appeared in the weekly “Literary Russia” and became the tuning fork of Rasputin’s prose, in which the depth of the characters’ characters is defined with jeweler precision by the state of nature. It is an integral component of almost all of the writer’s works.
Vasilisa did not forgive her long-standing insult to her husband, who once, while drunk, took up an ax and became the culprit in the death of their unborn child. They lived side by side for forty years, but not together. She is in the house, he is in the barn. From there he went to war, and returned there. Vasily looked for himself in the mines, in the city, in the taiga, he remained with his wife, and brought the lame-legged Alexandra here. Vasily's partner awakens in her a waterfall of feelings - jealousy, resentment, anger, and later - acceptance, pity and even understanding. After Alexandra left to look for her son, from whom they were separated by the war, Vasily still remained in his barn, and only before Vasily’s death Vasilisa forgives him. Vasily both saw and felt it. No, she did not forget anything, she forgave, removed this stone from her soul, but remained firm and proud. And this is the power of the Russian character, which neither our enemies nor ourselves are destined to know!
In 1967, after the publication of the story “Money for Maria,” Rasputin was admitted to the Writers' Union. Fame and fame came. People started talking about the author seriously - his new works are becoming the subject of discussion. Being an extremely critical and demanding person, Valentin Grigorievich decided to study only literary activity. Respecting the reader, he could not afford to combine even such closely related genres as journalism and literature. In 1970, his story “The Deadline” was published in the magazine “Our Contemporary”. It became a mirror of the spirituality of our contemporaries, that fire by which we wanted to warm ourselves, so as not to freeze in the bustle of city life. What is it about? About all of us. We are all children of our mothers. And we also have children. And as long as we remember our roots, we have the right to be called People. The connection between mother and children is the most important on earth. It is she who gives us strength and love, it is she who leads us through life. Everything else is less important. Work, success, connections, in essence, cannot be decisive if you have lost the thread of generations, if you have forgotten where your roots are. So in this story, the Mother waits and remembers, she loves each of her children, regardless of whether it is alive or not. Her memory, her love do not allow her to die without seeing her children. According to an alarming telegram, they are coming to native home. The mother no longer sees, does not hear, and does not get up. But some unknown force awakens her consciousness as soon as the children arrive. They have long since matured, life has scattered them across the country, but they have no idea that these are words mother's prayer the wings of angels spread over them. The meeting of close people who had not lived together for a long time, almost breaking the thin thread of connection, their conversations, disputes, memories, like water in a dry desert, revived the mother, giving her several happy moments before her death. Without this meeting, she could not leave for another world. But most of all, they needed this meeting, already hardened in life, losing family ties in separation from each other. The story “The Deadline” brought Rasputin worldwide fame and was translated into dozens of foreign languages.
The year 1976 gave fans of V. Rasputin new joy. In “Farewell to Matra,” the writer continued to depict the dramatic life of the Siberian hinterland, revealing to us dozens of brightest characters, among whom the amazing and unique Rasputin old women continued to dominate. It would seem, what are these uneducated Siberian women famous for, who over the long years of their lives either did not manage or did not want to see the big world? But their worldly wisdom and years of experience are sometimes worth more than the knowledge of professors and academicians. Rasputin's old women are special. Strong in spirit and strong health, these Russian women are from the breed of those who “will stop a galloping horse and enter a burning hut.” It is they who give birth to Russian heroes and their faithful girlfriends. It is their love, hatred, anger, joy that makes our mother earth strong. They know how to love and create, argue with fate and win over it. Even when offended and despised, they create and do not destroy. But then new times have come, which the old people are unable to resist.
Consisting of many islands that shelter people on the mighty Angara, the islet of Matra. The ancestors of the old people lived on it, plowed the land, gave it strength and fertility. Their children and grandchildren were born here, and life either boiled or flowed smoothly. Here characters were forged and destinies were tested. And the island village would stand for centuries. But the construction of a large hydroelectric power station, so necessary for the people and the country, but leading to the flooding of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land, the flooding of all former life along with arable land, fields and meadows, for young people this may have been a happy way out great life, for old people - death. But in essence, it is the fate of the country. These people don’t protest, they don’t make noise. They're just grieving. And my heart breaks from this aching melancholy. And nature echoes them with its pain. In this, the stories and stories of Valentin Rasputin continue the best traditions of Russian classics - Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Bunin, Leskov, Tyutchev, Fet.
Rasputin does not break into accusations and criticism, does not become a tribune and herald calling for rebellion. He is not against progress, he is for a reasonable continuation of life. His spirit rebels against the trampling of traditions, against the loss of memory, against apostasy from the past, its lessons, its history. Russian roots national character precisely in continuity. The thread of generations cannot and should not be interrupted by “Ivans who do not remember their kinship.” The richest Russian culture is based on traditions and foundations.
In Rasputin's works, human versatility is intertwined with subtle psychologism. The state of mind of his heroes is a special world, the depth of which is subject only to the talent of the Master. Following the author, we plunge into the whirlpool life events his characters, we are imbued with their thoughts, we follow the logic of their actions. We can argue with them and disagree, but we cannot remain indifferent. This harsh truth of life touches the soul so much. Among the writer’s heroes there are quiet pools, there are almost blissful people, but at their core they are powerful Russian characters who are akin to the freedom-loving Angara with its rapids, zigzags, smooth expanse and dashing agility. The year 1977 is a landmark year for the writer. For the story “Live and Remember” he was awarded the USSR State Prize. The story of Nastena, the wife of a deserter, is a topic about which it was not customary to write. In our literature there were heroes and heroines who performed real feats. Whether on the front line, deep in the rear, surrounded or in a besieged city, in a partisan detachment, at the plow or at the machine. People with strong characters, suffering and loving. They forged Victory, bringing it closer step by step. They could doubt, but still accepted the only correct solution. Such images fostered the heroic qualities of our contemporaries and served as examples to follow. ...Nastena’s husband returned from the front. Not as a hero - during the day and throughout the village with honor, but at night, quietly and stealthily. He is a deserter. The end of the war is already in sight. After the third, very difficult wound, he broke down. Come back to life and suddenly die? He could not overcome this fear. The war took away from Nastena herself best years, love, affection, did not allow her to become a mother. If something happens to her husband, the door to the future will slam in her face. Hiding from people, from her husband’s parents, she understands and accepts her husband, does everything to save him, rushes into the winter cold, making her way into his lair, hiding her fear, hiding from people. She loves and is loved, perhaps for the first time, like this, deeply, without looking back. The result of this love is the future child. Long-awaited happiness. No, it’s a shame! It is believed that the husband is at war, and the wife is walking. Her husband's parents and fellow villagers turned their backs on Nastena. The authorities suspect her of having a connection with the deserter and are keeping an eye on her. Go to your husband - indicate the place where he is hiding. If you don't go, you'll starve him to death. The circle closes. Nastena rushes into the Angara in despair.
The soul is torn to pieces from pain for her. It seems that the whole world is going under water along with this woman. There is no more beauty and joy. Not the sun will rise, will not rise in the field of grass. The forest bird will not trill, the children's laughter will not sound. Nothing alive will remain in nature. Life ends on the most tragic note. She, of course, will be reborn, but without Nastena and her unborn child. It would seem that the fate of one family, and the grief is all-encompassing. So, there is such a truth. And most importantly, you have the right to display it. To remain silent, no doubt, would be easier. But no better. This is the depth and drama of Rasputin’s philosophy.
He could write multi-volume novels - they would be read with delight and filmed. Because the images of his heroes are excitingly interesting, because the plots attract with the truth of life. Rasputin preferred convincing brevity. But how rich and unique is the speech of his heroes (“some kind of hidden girl, quiet”), the poetry of nature (“the hard snow playing sparklingly as it settled into the crust, the first icicles rang, the air was lit up by the first melting”). The language of Rasputin’s works flows like a river, replete with wonderful-sounding words. Every line is a treasure trove of Russian literature, speech lace. If only Rasputin’s works reach descendants in the next centuries, they will be delighted with the richness of the Russian language, its power and uniqueness.
The writer manages to convey the intensity of human passions. His heroes are woven from the traits of national character - wise, flexible, sometimes rebellious, from hard work, from being itself. They are popular, recognizable, live next to us, and therefore are so close and understandable. At the genetic level, with their mother’s milk, they pass on their accumulated experience, spiritual generosity and perseverance to the next generations. Such wealth is richer than bank accounts, more prestigious than positions and mansions.
A simple Russian house is a fortress behind whose walls human values rest. Their bearers are not afraid of defaults and privatization; they do not replace conscience with well-being. The main standards of their actions remain goodness, honor, conscience, and justice. It is not easy for Rasputin's heroes to fit into the modern world. But they are not strangers to it. These are the people who define existence.
Years of perestroika, market relations and timelessness have shifted the threshold of moral values. This is what the stories “In the Hospital” and “Fire” are about. People search and evaluate themselves in the difficult modern world. Valentin Grigorievich also found himself at a crossroads. He writes little, because there are times when the artist’s silence is more disturbing and more creative than words. This is what Rasputin is all about, because he is still extremely demanding of himself. Especially at a time when new Russian bourgeois, brothers and oligarchs emerged as “heroes”.
In 1987, the writer was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor, the Badge of Honor, and the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (2004), and became an honorary citizen of Irkutsk. In 1989, Valentin Rasputin was elected to the Union Parliament, under M.S. Gorbachev became a member of the Presidential Council. But this work did not bring moral satisfaction to the writer - politics is not his destiny.
Valentin Grigorievich writes essays and articles in defense of desecrated Baikal, working in numerous commissions for the benefit of people. The time has come to pass on experience to the young, and Valentin Grigorievich became the initiator of the annual autumn festival “Radiance of Russia” held in Irkutsk, which brings together the most honest and talented writers to the Siberian city. He has something to tell his students. Many of our famous contemporaries in literature, cinema, on stage and in sports come from Siberia. They absorbed their strength and sparkling talent from this land. Rasputin lives in Irkutsk for a long time, every year he visits his village, where his relatives and family graves are. Next to him are family and congenial people. This is a wife - a faithful companion and closest friend, a reliable assistant and simply a loving person. These are children, granddaughter, friends and like-minded people.
Valentin Grigorievich is a faithful son of the Russian land, defender of its honor. His talent is akin to a holy spring, capable of quenching the thirst of millions of Russians. Having tasted the books of Valentin Rasputin, having known the taste of his truth, you no longer want to be content with surrogates of literature. His bread is bitter, without any frills. It is always freshly baked and without any flavor. It is not capable of becoming stale, because it has no statute of limitations. From time immemorial, such a product was baked in Siberia, and it was called eternal bread. Likewise, the works of Valentin Rasputin are unshakable, eternal values. Spiritual and moral baggage, the burden of which not only does not weigh you down, but also gives you strength.
Living in unity with nature, the writer still discreetly, but deeply and sincerely loves Russia and believes that its strength is enough for the spiritual revival of the nation.
creative rasputin writer story
Russian writer and publicist, public figure
Valentin Rasputin
short biography
Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin(March 15, 1937, Ust-Uda village, East Siberian region - March 14, 2015, Moscow) - Russian writer and publicist, public figure. One of the most significant representatives of “village prose”. In 1994, he initiated the creation of the All-Russian festival “Days of Russian Spirituality and Culture “Radiance of Russia”” (Irkutsk). Hero of Socialist Labor (1987). Winner of two State Prizes of the USSR (1977, 1987), the State Prize of Russia (2012) and the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation (2010). Member of the USSR Writers' Union since 1967.
Born on March 15, 1937 in the village of Ust-Uda, East Siberian (now Irkutsk region) region in a peasant family. Mother - Nina Ivanovna Rasputina, father - Grigory Nikitich Rasputin. From the age of two he lived in the village of Atalanka, Ust-Udinsky district. After graduating from a local elementary school, he was forced to move alone fifty kilometers from the house where the high school was located; the famous story “French Lessons”, 1973, would later be created about this period. After school, he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Irkutsk State University. During his student years, he became a freelance correspondent for a youth newspaper. One of his essays caught the editor's attention. Later, this essay under the title “I forgot to ask Lyoshka” was published in the Angara almanac in 1961.
In 1979, he joined the editorial board of the book series “Literary Monuments of Siberia” of the East Siberian Book Publishing House. In the 1980s he was a member of the editorial board of Roman Newspaper.
Lived and worked in Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Moscow.
On July 9, 2006, as a result of a plane crash that occurred at the Irkutsk airport, the writer’s daughter, 35-year-old Maria Rasputina, a musician-organist, died. On May 1, 2012, at the age of 72, the writer’s wife, Svetlana Ivanovna Rasputina, died.
Death
On March 12, 2015, he was hospitalized and was in a coma. On March 14, 2015, 4 hours before his 78th birthday, Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin died in his sleep, and according to Irkutsk time it was March 15, so his fellow countrymen believe that he died on his birthday. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to the writer’s family and friends. On March 16, 2015, mourning was declared in the Irkutsk region. On March 19, 2015, the writer was buried in the Znamensky Monastery in Irkutsk.
Creation
After graduating from the university in 1959, Rasputin worked for several years in newspapers in Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk, and often visited the construction of the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric power station and the Abakan-Taishet highway. Essays and stories about what he saw were later included in his collections “Bonfires of New Cities” and “The Land Near the Sky.”
In 1965, he showed several new stories to Vladimir Chivilikhin, who came to Chita for a meeting of young writers of Siberia, who became the “godfather” of the aspiring prose writer. Among the Russian classics, Rasputin considered Dostoevsky and Bunin to be his teachers.
Since 1966 - a professional writer, since 1967 - a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR.
The first book, “The Edge Near the Sky,” was published in Irkutsk in 1966. In 1967, the book “A Man from This World” was published in Krasnoyarsk. In the same year, the story “Money for Maria” was published in the Irkutsk almanac “Angara” (No. 4), and in 1968 it was published as a separate book in Moscow by the publishing house “Young Guard”.
The writer’s talent was revealed in full force in the story “The Deadline” (1970), declaring the author’s maturity and originality.
This was followed by the story “French Lessons” (1973), the story “Live and Remember” (1974) and “Farewell to Matera” (1976).
In 1981, new stories were published: “Natasha”, “What to convey to the crow?”, “Live a century - love a century”.
The appearance of the story “Fire” in 1985, distinguished by its acuteness and modernity of the problem, aroused great interest among the reader.
In recent years, the writer has devoted a lot of time and effort to social and journalistic activities, without interrupting his creativity. In 1995, his story “To the Same Land” was published; essays "Down the Lena River". Throughout the 1990s, Rasputin published a number of stories from the “Cycle of Stories about Senya Pozdnyakov”: Senya Rides (1994), Memorial Day (1996), In the Evening (1997).
In 2006, the third edition of the album of essays by the writer “Siberia, Siberia...” was published (previous editions were 1991, 2000).
In 2010, the Russian Writers' Union nominated Rasputin for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In the Irkutsk region, his works are included in the regional school curriculum for extracurricular reading.
Stories
- Money for Maria (1967)
- Deadline (1970)
- Live and Remember (1974)
- Farewell to Matera (1976)
- Fire (1985)
- Ivan's daughter, Ivan's mother (2003)
Stories and essays
- I forgot to ask Lyoshka... (1965)
- The edge near the sky (1966)
- Bonfires of New Cities (1966)
- French Lessons (1973)
- Live a century - love a century (1982)
- Siberia, Siberia (1991)
- These Twenty Killing Years (co-authored with Viktor Kozhemyako) (2013)
Film adaptations
- 1969 - “Rudolfio”, dir. Dinara Asanova
- 1969 - “Rudolfio”, dir. Valentin Kuklev (student work at VGIK) Rudolfio (video)
- 1978 - “French Lessons”, dir. Evgeniy Tashkov
- 1980 - “Meeting”, dir. Alexander Itygilov
- 1980 - “Bearskin for Sale”, dir. Alexander Itygilov
- 1981 - “Farewell”, dir. Larisa Shepitko and Elem Klimov
- 1981 - “Vasily and Vasilisa”, dir. Irina Poplavskaya
- 1985 - “Money for Maria”, dir. Vladimir Andreev, Vladimir Khramov
- 2008 - “Live and Remember”, dir. Alexander Proshkin
- 2017 - “Deadline.” The Culture channel filmed the performance of the Irkutsk Drama Theater named after. Okhlopkova
Social and political activities
With the beginning of “perestroika,” Rasputin became involved in a broad socio-political struggle, took a consistent anti-liberal position, signed, in particular, an anti-perestroika letter condemning the magazine “Ogonyok” (Pravda, January 18, 1989), “Letter from Writers of Russia” (1990) , “Word to the People” (July 1991), appeal of the forty-three “Stop Death Reforms” (2001). The catchphrase of counter-perestroika was Stolypin’s phrase quoted by Rasputin in his speech at the First Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR: “You need great upheavals. We need a great country.” On March 2, 1990, the newspaper Literary Russia published a “Letter from the Writers of Russia,” addressed to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Supreme Council of the RSFSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU, which, in particular, said:
“In recent years, under the banners of the declared “democratization”, the construction of a “rule of law”, under the slogans of the fight against “fascism and racism” in our country, the forces of social destabilization have become unbridled, and the successors of open racism have moved to the forefront of ideological restructuring. Their refuge is multimillion-dollar periodicals, television and radio channels broadcast throughout the country. Massive persecution, defamation and persecution of representatives of the indigenous population of the country, unprecedented in the entire history of mankind, is taking place, essentially declared “outlaw” from the point of view of that mythical “legal state" in which, it seems, there will be no place for either Russians or other indigenous peoples of Russia."
He was among the 74 writers who signed this appeal.
In 1989-1990 - People's Deputy of the USSR.
In the summer of 1989, at the first Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, he first made a proposal for Russia to secede from the USSR. Subsequently, he asserted that in it “those with ears heard not a call to Russia to slam the union door, but a warning not to make a scapegoat out of a stupor or blindly, which is the same thing,” from the Russian people.
In 1990-1991 - member of the USSR Presidential Council under Gorbachev. Commenting on this episode of his life in a later conversation, the writer considered his work on the council to be fruitless and regretted agreeing to participate in it.
In December 1991, he was one of those who supported the appeal to the President of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR with a proposal to convene an emergency Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR.
In 1996, he was one of the initiators of the opening of the Orthodox women's gymnasium in the name of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Irkutsk.
In Irkutsk, he contributed to the publication of the Orthodox-patriotic newspaper “Literary Irkutsk”, and served on the board of the literary magazine “Sibir”.
In 2007 he came out in support of Gennady Zyuganov. He was a supporter of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
Respected historical role Stalin and his perception in the public consciousness. Since July 26, 2010 - member of the Patriarchal Council for Culture (Russian Orthodox Church)
On July 30, 2012, he expressed support for the criminal prosecution of the famous feminist punk band Pussy Riot; Together with Valery Khatyushin, Vladimir Krupin, Konstantin Skvortsov, he published a statement entitled “Conscience does not allow you to remain silent.” In it, he not only advocated for criminal prosecution, but also spoke very critically of the letter of cultural and artistic figures written at the end of June, calling them accomplices of a “dirty ritual crime.”
On March 6, 2014, he signed an appeal from the Writers' Union of Russia to the Federal Assembly and Russian President Putin, in which he expressed support for Russia's actions in relation to Crimea and Ukraine.
Family
Father - Grigory Nikitich Rasputin (1913-1974), mother - Nina Ivanovna Rasputina (1911-1995).
Wife - Svetlana Ivanovna (1939-2012), daughter of the writer Ivan Molchanov-Sibirsky, sister of Evgenia Ivanovna Molchanova, wife of the poet Vladimir Skif.
Son - Sergei Rasputin (born 1961), English teacher.
Daughter - Maria Rasputina (May 8, 1971 - July 9, 2006), musicologist, organist, teacher at the Moscow Conservatory, died in a plane crash on July 9, 2006 in Irkutsk, in memory of her in 2009, the Soviet Russian composer Roman Ledenev wrote “ Three dramatic passages" And " Last flight", in memory of his daughter, Valentin Rasputin gave Irkutsk an exclusive organ made many years ago by the St. Petersburg master Pavel Chilin especially for Maria.
Bibliography
- Selected works in 2 volumes. - M.: Young Guard, 1984. - 150,000 copies.
- Selected works in 2 volumes. - M.: Fiction, 1990. - 100,000 copies.
- Collected works in 3 volumes. - M.: Young Guard - Veche-AST, 1994. - 50,000 copies.
- Selected works in 2 volumes. - M.: Sovremennik, Bratsk: OJSC “Bratskompleksholding”., 1997.
- Collected works in 2 volumes (Gift edition). - Kaliningrad: Yantarny skaz, 2001. (Russian way)
- Collected works in 4 volumes (set). - Publisher Sapronov, 2007. - 6000 copies.
- Small collected works. - M.: Azbuka-Atticus, Azbuka, 2015. - 3000 copies. (Small collected works)
- Rasputin V.G. Russia remains with us: Sketches, essays, articles, speeches, conversations / Comp. T. I. Marshkova, preface. V. Ya. Kurbatova / Rep. ed. O. A. Platonov. - M.: Institute of Russian Civilization, 2015. - 1200 p.
Awards
State awards:
- Hero of Socialist Labor (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated March 14, 1987, Order of Lenin and gold medal “Hammer and Sickle”) - for great services in the development of Soviet literature, fruitful social activities and in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of his birth
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (March 8, 2008) - for great services in the development of Russian literature and many years of creative activity
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (October 28, 2002) - for his great contribution to the development of Russian literature
- Order of Alexander Nevsky (September 1, 2011) - for special personal services to the Fatherland in the development of culture and many years of creative activity
- Order of Lenin (November 16, 1984) - for services to the development of Soviet literature and in connection with the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Union of Writers of the USSR
- Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1981),
- Order of the Badge of Honor (1971),
Grand Award Ceremony literary prize Russia for 2011.
December 1, 2011
Awards:
- State Prize Laureate Russian Federation for outstanding achievements in the field of humanitarian work 2012 (2013)
- Laureate of the Presidential Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art (2003),
- Laureate of the Russian Government Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of culture (2010),
- Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1977, 1987),
- Laureate of the Irkutsk Komsomol Prize named after. Joseph Utkin (1968),
- Winner of the award named after. L. N. Tolstoy (1992),
- Laureate of the Prize of the Foundation for the Development of Culture and Art under the Committee of Culture of the Irkutsk Region (1994),
- Winner of the award named after. Saint Innocent of Irkutsk (1995),
- Laureate of the Siberia magazine award named after. A. V. Zvereva,
- Laureate of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Prize (2000),
- Laureate of the Literary Prize named after. F. M. Dostoevsky (2001),
- Winner of the award named after. Alexander Nevsky “Russia's Faithful Sons” (2004),
- Winner of the Best Foreign Novel of the Year award. XXI century" (China, 2005),
- Laureate of the All-Russian Literary Prize named after Sergei Aksakov (2005),
- Laureate of the International Foundation for the Unity of Orthodox Peoples Prize (2011),
- Winner of the Yasnaya Polyana Prize (2012),
Honorary citizen of Irkutsk (1986), Honorary citizen of the Irkutsk region (1998).