Nelly KRAVKLIS, writer-local historian, Mikhail LEVITIN, member of the Union of Journalists of Russia, local historian.

The expression "The book is the source of knowledge" can be called the motto of the science fiction writer Alexander Romanovich Belyaev. The love of reading, the desire to learn new things, mastering new spaces, new areas of science, he carried through his whole life.

At the time this photo was taken, young Sasha Belyaev was attracted by distant lands, travels and adventures - everything that had nothing to do with everyday reality.

“A charming man with a wide range of interests and an inexhaustible sense of humor,” recalls V.V. Bylinskaya, who knew him in those years, “Alexander Belyaev united a circle of Smolensk youth around him, became the center of this small society.

A memorial plaque installed on the building where the editorial office of the Smolensky Vestnik was located.

“In his youth, my father liked to dress fashionably,” recalls the writer’s daughter Svetlana Alexandrovna, “if not to say, even with panache ...”

2009 marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Romanovich Belyaev, a Soviet science fiction writer, one of the founders of science fiction literature, who has earned worldwide recognition. A lot has been written about Belyaev, but the years of his life in the city of Smolensk, where he was born and raised, are not fully reflected, moreover, mistakes are repeated in the texts that we correct using archival materials.

Alexander Belyaev was born on March 16 (according to the new style), 1884, in a house on Bolshaya Odigitrievskaya Street (now Dokuchaev Street) in the family of the priest of the Odigitrievskaya Church Roman Petrovich Belyaev and his wife Nadezhda Vasilievna. In total, the family had three children: Vasily, Alexander and Nina.

The plot of land, according to the memoirs of the local historian A. N. Troitsky, consisted of a very picturesque garden, descending along a steep slope into a ravine going to the cathedral.

Alexander's parents were deeply religious people. And Sasha's interests from the very early childhood lay on a completely different plane: he was fascinated by travel, extraordinary adventures inspired by reading his beloved Jules Verne.

“My brother and I,” Alexander Romanovich recalled, decided to travel to the center of the Earth. They moved tables, chairs, beds, covered them with blankets, sheets, stocked up with an oil lantern and went deep into the mysterious bowels of the Earth. And immediately the prosaic tables and chairs were gone. We saw only caves and abysses, rocks and underground waterfalls as wonderful pictures depicted them: eerie and at the same time somehow cozy. And my heart sank from this sweet horror.

Later, Wells came with the nightmares of "The War of the Worlds". In this world, it was no longer so comfortable ... "

It is not difficult to imagine how much the boy’s imagination was excited by the event that happened on July 6, 1893: in the Lopatinsky Garden rose balloon with a gymnast sitting on a trapeze, to a height of one kilometer, after which she jumped off the trapeze. The audience gasped in horror. But a parachute opened over the gymnast, and the girl landed safely.

The sight shocked Sasha so much that he immediately decided to experience the feeling of flying and jumped off the roof with an umbrella in his hands, then on a parachute made of a sheet. Both attempts brought very sensitive bruises. But Alexander Belyaev still managed to make his dream come true: his latest novel, Ariel, tells the story of a man who can fly like a bird.

But the time for carefree hobbies is over. By the will of his father, the boy was sent to a religious school. In publications about the writer, it is reported that he entered there at the age of six. But it's not.

The Smolensk Diocesan Gazette annually published official information about the students of the theological school and the seminary. And in No. 13 for 1895, there is a “List of students of the theological school, compiled by the school board after a year of testing at the end of 1894/1895 school year and approved by His Eminence on July 5, 1895, No. 251.” Among the students of the 1st grade: "Yakov Alekseev, Dmitry Almazov, Alexander Belyaev, Nikolai Vysotsky ..." At the end of the list it is indicated that these students are being transferred to the 2nd grade of the school. Thus, Alexander Belyaev was 11 years old in 1895. Therefore, he entered at the age of 10.

The school was located near the Avraamievsky Monastery, not far from the Belyaevs' estate, a five-minute walk at a leisurely pace.

Classes were easy for him. In the same statements (No. 12 for 1898) a list of students of the fourth grade is given: “First category: Pavel Dyakonov, Alexander Belyaev, Nikolai Lebedev, Yakov Alekseev<...>completed the full course of the school and were awarded the transfer to the 1st class of the seminary.

That's when Alexander Belyaev became a seminarian - at the age of 14, and not at the 11th year, as indicated in the well-established biographical notes to the collected works of his works and in many other publications about the writer.

An expert on the local region, local historian SM. Yakovlev wrote: “The Smolensk Theological Seminary has existed for 190 years. It was founded in 1728 by the former rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, Bishop Gideon Vishnevsky ... "a man of the most learned and great rigor", classes were taught by highly educated teachers invited from Kiev. Learning Latin, Ancient Greek and Polish was mandatory.

In the seminary, Belyaev was famous not only for his success in his studies, but also for his "performances at evenings - reading poems."

In the early years of its existence, the Smolensk Seminary organized spectacular performances of spiritual content (mystery) for the residents of the city in order to strengthen moral and religious principles in the viewer, loyalty to Orthodoxy and the throne. Alexander Belyaev is their constant participant.

In the prefaces to several collections, biographers claim that Belyaev graduated from the seminary in 1901. This is another inaccuracy. Diocesan Gazette (Nos. 11-12 for 1904) cites alphabetical list graduates: among them - Alexander Belyaev.

After graduating from the seminary, against the wishes of his father, who saw his son as his successor, Alexander entered the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl (established in 1809 as a school on the initiative and at the expense of P. G. Demidov with a three-year term of study, this educational institution was reorganized in 1833 from the beginning to a lyceum with the same term of study, and in 1868 to a four-year legal lyceum with the rights of a university). In parallel, Alexander received a musical education in the violin class.

The unexpected death of his father in 1905 left the family without a livelihood. Alexander, in order to get money to pay for education, gave lessons, painted scenery for the theater, played the violin in the orchestra of the Truzzi circus. But grief does not come alone: ​​brother Vasily drowned in the Dnieper, and then sister Ninochka died. Alexander remained the only protector and support of his mother, therefore, after graduating from the Lyceum (1908), he returned to Smolensk.

It is known that in 1909 he worked as an assistant to a barrister. But the creative nature of Alexander Romanovich demanded a way out, and he becomes an active participant in the Smolensk Society of Amateurs fine arts, where he gave lectures, then - a member of the board of the Smolensk Club of public entertainment and a member of the board of the Symphony Society. IN summer months theater troupes usually toured in Smolensk, more often Basmanov. Belyaev writes reviews for Smolensky Vestnik on almost every performance that took place in the Lopatinsky Garden, and also acts as a music critic. Signed under the pseudonym "B-la-f". They published "Smolensk feuilletons" on the topic of the day.

Everyone who has read his works knows how sharply the writer responded to injustice. This quality manifested itself in the very first years of independent life and became the reason that in 1909 Alexander Belyaev was under police surveillance. Information is in the gendarmerie file "Diary of external observation, reports on the Smolensk organization of the party of socialist revolutionaries." The Belyaev case was started on December 30, 1908. In the report of Colonel N. G. Ivanenko for November 10, 1909, a list of persons belonging to a local organization led by a certain Karelin is presented. This list also contains the name of Alexander Romanovich Belyaev: “... assistant to a barrister, 32 years old (in fact, he was 25 years old. - Approx. Aut.), Nickname "Alive" (given in connection with the character. - Approx. auth.)". The report indicates that the suspects were searched on November 2, 1909. "Alive" appears in the diary of the Okhrana until the end of its maintenance (January 19, 1910).

We managed to find in the Smolensky Vestnik (for the same years) reports on several trials conducted by A. Belyaev as an assistant to a barrister. But one of them - dated October 23, 1909 - represents special interest, since Belyaev spoke in the process of the leader of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. And on December 25, as reported in the newspaper, "... V. Karelin, arrested a month ago, was released from the Smolensk prison." It seems that this can be considered proof of how successfully Alexander Romanovich led the defense. In 1911, Belyaev won a major legal case against the timber merchant Skundin, for which he received a significant fee. He set aside this amount for a long-planned trip to Europe. True, it was possible to make the trip only two years later, as evidenced by the "Statement of foreign passports issued since March 1, 1913 by the Smolensk Governor": "... to hereditary honorary citizen, assistant barrister Alexander Romanovich Belyaev for No. 57."

In his autobiography, the writer writes about the purpose of this trip: “I studied history, art, went to Italy to study the Renaissance. I was in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, in the south of France. The trip became an invaluable source from which the writer drew the impressions he needed until the end of his days. After all, the action of most of his novels takes place "abroad". And the first trip turned out to be the only one.

Belyaev is not an idle tourist, but an inquisitive tester. The biographical note to the 9-volume collected works of the writer confirms this: “In 1913 there were not so many daredevils flying on Blériot and Farman planes - “whatnots” and “coffins”, as they were called then. However, Belyaev in Italy, in Ventimiglia, makes a seaplane flight.

Here is an excerpt from the description of this flight: “The sea below us goes lower and lower. The houses surrounding the bay do not seem white, but red, because from above we see only red roofs. The surf stretches like a white thread near the shore. Here is Cape Martin. The aviator waves his hand, we look in that direction, and the coast of the Riviera unfolds in front of us, as in a panorama.

Belyaev will then convey his feelings, in particular, in the story “The Man Who Does Not Sleep”: “Some kind of river appeared in the distance. The city is spread out on high coastal hills. On the right bank, the city was surrounded by ancient battlements of the Kremlin with high towers. A huge five-domed cathedral reigned over the entire city. - Dnieper! .. Smolensk! .. The airplane flew over the forest and smoothly landed on a good airfield.

During a trip to Italy, Belyaev climbed Mount Vesuvius and published an essay on the ascent in Smolensky Vestnik. In these notes, one can already feel the confident pen of not only a talented journalist, but also a future brilliant writer: “Suddenly, bushes began, and we found ourselves in front of a whole sea of ​​black solidified lava. The horses snored, kicked their feet, and they decided to step on the lava as if it were water. Finally, nervously, the horses jumped up onto the lava and walked at a pace. The lava rustled and broke off under the feet of the horses. The sun was setting. Below, the bay was already covered with a gray haze. There came a short gentle evening. On the mountain, the sun snatched out of the advancing darkness several houses, and they stood, as if heated by the internal fire of the crater. The proximity of the peak affected ... Vesuvius is a symbol, it is the god of southern Italy. Only here, sitting on this black lava, under which a deadly fire seethes somewhere below, does it become clear that the deification of the forces of nature reigning over a small man, just as defenseless, despite all the gains of culture, as he was thousands of years ago in blooming Pompeii.

And in the crater of the fire-breathing giant “...everything was filled with caustic, suffocating vapor. He then crawled along the black, uneven edges of the vent, corroded by moisture and ash, then flew up in a white ball, as if from a giant pipe of a steam locomotive. And at that moment, somewhere deep below, the darkness was illuminated, as if by a distant glow of a fire ... "

The writing talent of Alexander Romanovich is manifested not only in the descriptions natural phenomena, he understands people with their contradictions: “Amazing people, these Italians! They know how to combine slovenliness with a deep understanding of beauty, greed with kindness, petty passions with a truly great impulse of the soul.

Everything seen, refracting through the prism of his perception, the writer will then reflect in the works.

Probably, it can be argued that the trip helped him finally decide on the final choice of profession. In 1913-1915, having parted with the legal profession, Alexander Romanovich worked in the editorial office of the Smolensky Vestnik newspaper, first as a secretary, then as an editor. Today, a memorial plaque has been installed on the building where the editorial office was located.

Only his craving for the theater has remained unrealized so far. From childhood, he staged home performances, in which he was an artist, a screenwriter, and a director, he played any role, even women's. Transformed instantly. They quickly learned about Belyaev's theater and began to invite friends to perform. In 1913, Belyaev, together with the beautiful Smolensk cellist Yu. N. Saburova, staged the fairy-tale opera The Sleeping Princess. Smolensky Vestnik (February 10, 1913) noted that the performance’s noisy great success “was created by tireless energy, love relationship and a subtle understanding of the leaders Yu. N. Saburova and A. R. Belyaev, who undertook a grandiose, if you think about it, task - to stage an opera, even for children, using only the forces of an educational institution.

About this side of the creative nature of Alexander Romanovich, a resident of Smolensk, SM, writes in his memoirs. Yakovlev: “The charming image of A. R. Belyaev has sunk into my soul ever since he helped us, students of the gymnasium N. P. Evnevich, put together with the students of the women’s gymnasium E. G. Sheshatka at one of our student evenings a wonderful fantastic play-tale "Three years, three days, three minutes". Taking the plot core of the fairy tale as a basis, A. R. Belyaev, as a director, managed to creatively refine it, enrich it with many interesting introductory scenes, color it with bright colors, saturate it with music and singing. His fantasy knew no bounds! He organically "embedded" his witty remarks, dialogues, crowd scenes, choral and choreographic numbers into the fabric of the fairy tale.<...>His data was excellent. He had a good appearance, a high culture of speech, great musicality, a bright temperament and amazing art reincarnation. His mimetic talent was especially strong, which can be easily judged by the numerous photographs-masks preserved by the writer's daughter, Svetlana Alexandrovna, which unusually accurately and expressively convey the gamut of various states of the human psyche - indifference, curiosity, suspicion, fear, horror, bewilderment. , emotion, delight, sadness, etc.”

The first literary work of Alexander Romanovich - the play "Grandma Moira" - appears in 1914 in the Moscow magazine for children "Protalinka".

Visiting Moscow (which attracted and attracted him), Belyaev met with Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky and even passed acting tests with him.

He's managed everything so far. The future promised success in undertakings. But the year 1915, tragic for A. Belyaev, came. A serious illness fell upon the young man: tuberculosis of the spine. His wife leaves him. Doctors recommend changing the climate, his mother and nanny transport him to Yalta. For six years, Alexander Belyaev was bedridden, three years of which he was in a plaster corset.

And what terrible years those were! The October Revolution, the Civil War, devastation ... Belyaev is saved only by reading a lot, especially translated fantastic literature; studies literature on medicine, biology, history; interested in new discoveries, achievements of science; develops foreign languages.

Only in 1922 did his condition improve somewhat. Helped, of course, the love and care of Margarita Konstantinovna Magnushevskaya, who became his second wife. They got married in 1922 before Christmas Lent, and on May 22, 1923 they registered their marriage at the registry office. After the marriage, “... I had,” Belyaev recalled, “to enter the office of the criminal investigation department, and in the state I am a junior policeman. I am a photographer who takes pictures of criminals, I am a lecturer who teaches courses in criminal and administrative law and a "private" legal adviser. Despite all this, you have to starve.”

A year later, Alexander Romanovich's old dream comes true - he and his wife move to Moscow. A happy accident helped: in Yalta, he met his old Smolensk acquaintance, Nina Yakovlevna Filippova, who invited Belyaev to go to Moscow, giving him two rooms in her large, spacious apartment. After the Filippovs moved to Leningrad, the Belyaevs had to vacate this apartment and settle in a damp room in the basement in Lyalin Lane. On March 15, 1924, a daughter, Lyudmila, was born in the Belyaev family.

Alexander Romanovich during these years worked in the People's Commissariat for Post and Telegraph as a planner, after some time as a legal adviser in the People's Commissariat for Education. And in the evenings he is engaged in literature.

1925 Belyaev is 41 years old. His short story "Professor Dowell's Head" was published on the pages of the World Pathfinder magazine. It's a story, not a novel. The first attempt at writing a science fiction writer. And the beginning of a new, creative life of Alexander Romanovich Belyaev. In the article “About my works”, Belyaev will later say: “I can report that the work “Professor Dowell's Head” is a work to a large extent ... autobiographical. Illness laid me once for three and a half years in a plaster bed. This period of illness was accompanied by paralysis of the lower half of the body. And although I owned my hands, nevertheless my life in these years was reduced to the life of a "head without a body", which I did not feel at all - complete anesthesia. That's when I changed my mind and re-felt everything that a "head without a body" can experience.

With the publication of the story, Belyaev's professional literary activity began. He collaborates with the magazines "World Pathfinder", "Around the World", "Knowledge is Power", "Struggle of the Worlds", publishes new fantastic works: "The Island of Lost Ships", "Lord of the World", "The Last Man from Atlantis". He signs not only with his last name, but also with pseudonyms - A. Rom and Arbel.

Margarita Konstantinovna is tirelessly typing his new works on an old Remington typewriter. The life of the Belyaevs is getting better. They bought a piano. They play music in the evenings. They visit theaters and museums. Found new friends.

1928 was a significant year in Belyaev's work: the novel "The Amphibian Man" was published. The chapters of the new work were published in the magazine "Around the World". The success was extraordinary! Issues of magazines were snapped up instantly. Suffice it to say that the circulation of "Around the World" increased from 200,000 to 250,000 copies. In the same year, 1928, the novel was published twice as a separate book, and a third edition appeared a year later. The popularity of the novel surpassed all expectations. The secret of the success of the critics was explained by the fact that this is a "universal novel that combines science fiction, adventure, social theme and melodrama. The book has been translated and published in many languages. Belyaev became famous! (Shot in 1961, after the death of the writer, the film of the same name was also a stunning success. It was watched by 65.5 million viewers - a record of that time!)

In December 1928, Belyaev left Moscow and moved to Leningrad. The apartment on Mozhaisky Street was furnished with taste. “On the occasion,” recalls Svetlana Alexandrovna Belyaeva, “my parents bought wonderful antique furniture - an office, it had a Swedish desk, a comfortable reclining chair, a large plush sofa, a piano and shelves with books and magazines.”

Alexander Romanovich writes a lot and enthusiastically. His fiction is not far-fetched, but based on a scientific basis. The writer follows the news of science and technology. His knowledge is encyclopedically versatile and he easily navigates new directions.

It would seem that life is going well. But... Belyaev falls ill with pneumonia. Doctors advise to change the climate. And the family moves to Kyiv, where his childhood friend Nikolai Pavlovich Vygotsky lives. Kyiv has a fertile climate, life is cheaper, but... publishing houses accept manuscripts only in Ukrainian! The writer is forced to make another move to Moscow.

Here, grief befell the family: on March 19, Lyudmila's daughter dies of meningitis, and Alexander Romanovich has an exacerbation of spinal tuberculosis. Bed again. And as a response to forced immobility, interest in the problems of space exploration is growing. Alexander Romanovich studies the works of Tsiolkovsky, and the imagination of the science fiction writer draws a flight to the moon, interplanetary travel, the discovery of new worlds. This topic is dedicated to "Airship". After reading it, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky noted in his review: "The story ... is witty written and scientific enough for fantasy." The story "Jump into Nothing" - about a trip to Venus - Belyaev also sent Tsiolkovsky, and the scientist wrote a preface to it. Their correspondence continued until Tsiolkovsky's departure from life. In memory of Konstantin Eduardovich, the writer dedicated his novel The Star of the KETs (1936).

In October 1931, the Belyaevs moved again - to Leningrad, where they lived until 1938. In recent years, the writer was sick, almost never got out of bed. And in the summer of 1938 they change their living space in Leningrad for a five-room apartment in Pushkin.

Alexander Romanovich almost never leaves home. But writers, readers and admirers come to him, pioneers gather every week - he leads a drama circle.

Here he finds the Patriotic War. Belyaev died in the occupied city on January 6, 1942. At the Kazan cemetery in Pushkin, a white obelisk with the inscription "Belyaev Alexander Romanovich" stands over his grave, below - an open book with a quill pen. On the pages of the book is written: "Sci-Fi Writer."

Belyaev created 17 novels, dozens of short stories and a huge number of essays. And this is for 16 years of literary work! His fascinating works are imbued with faith in the unlimited possibilities of the human mind and faith in justice.

Reflecting on the tasks of a science fiction writer, Alexander Romanovich wrote: “A writer working in the field of science fiction must himself be so scientifically educated that he can not only understand what the scientist is working on, but also, on this basis, foresee the consequences and possibilities that are sometimes still unclear. and the scientist himself. He himself was such a science fiction writer.

It is believed, and not without reason, that Alexander Romanovich Belyaev has three lives: one - from birth to the release of the story "Professor Dowell's Head", the second - from this first story to the day the writer died, the third - the longest life in his books.

The journal "Science and Life" became the winner of the Literary Prize named after Alexander Belyaev in 2009 in the nomination "Journal - for the most interesting activity during the year preceding the award. The prize was awarded "for loyalty to the traditions of Russian popular science and science fiction literature and journalism."

The idea to establish a memorial prize in honor of Alexander Belyaev arose in 1984, when the centenary of the birth of the famous science fiction writer, who wrote not only the science fiction novels "Amphibian Man", "Ariel", "Professor Dowell's Head", but also scientifically - Popular works. However, it was first awarded in 1990, and in the early years it was awarded for literary works in the genre of science fiction. In 2002, the status of the award was revised, and now it is given exclusively for works of popular science and science fiction (educational) literature.

Before you is a one-volume edition of the most complete collection of works in the history of Russian literature of the famous science fiction writer - Alexander Romanovich Belyaev (1884-1942).
Let's make a reservation, however: complete is still conditional. The purpose of the publication is to return everything to the reader in the first place (as far as possible) literary texts writer - regardless of their literary quality.
The works are arranged conditionally chronological order. First there are major works - novels and short stories, then all the stories of the writer, as well as two plays, articles and essays. In conclusion, the reader will be able to learn a lot of interesting things about difficult life and the amazing work of the writer from a memoir essay written by the daughter of Alexander Romanovich - Svetlana Alexandrovna Belyaeva.
* * *
A. Belyaev is the only writer who has brought such a number of fantasies to life. For example, here is a small literary and historical reference given in the collection "The Castle of the Witches" (published by " Perm book", 1992). First comes the title of the story from the collection, then the scientific idea, then whether it has been implemented.

"Neither life nor death"
Freezing people as a last resort from an incurable disease has been carried out.
Anabiosis of live fish for transportation - carried out.
Aviette with automatic control - experimental specimens are being made.
Replacement of manual labor by machines - implemented.
Passenger airships - implemented, but then stopped.

"Open Sesame"
Mechanical servant - implemented.
Household telecontrol - implemented.
Humanoid robots - prototypes created.

"Mr Laughter"
Technology for obtaining music of given emotional properties - experiments are underway.
Mechanical receipt of music - implemented with the help of a computer. Sociology of laughter - done.
Laughter technology - experiments are underway.

"Imperishable World"
Ecological catastrophe - feasible.
Disinfection with short waves - implemented.

"VTsBID"
Artificial sprinkling - carried out.
Artificial dispersal of clouds and fogs - carried out.

"Storm"
The use of wind energy has been implemented.
Hydroelectric stations on the Volga, Angara and Yenisei - implemented.
Hydraulic accumulator - implemented.

"Earth is on fire"
A hydroelectric station on the Volga as a means of reclamation of arid lands has been implemented.
Plants for the processing of agricultural raw materials on collective farms have been implemented, but not to the end.
Agricultural cities - feasible.
Power cables - feasible, but not widespread.
Electric tractors - implemented.
Air ionization - implemented.
Biological pest control - implemented. Extraction of oil from the bottom of the sea - implemented.
Floating drilling rigs - implemented.
Fire extinguishing has been carried out.
Moscow-port - implemented.

There are approximately 52 science fiction ideas in the book's nine novellas and short stories. Of these, 42 ideas have been implemented to date, although not to the stage of experimental samples. 10 ideas are discarded or remain fantastic.
The writer's daughter Svetlana Aleksandrovna Belyaeva

  1. "Amphibian Man"

For Alexander Belyaev, science fiction became his life's work. He corresponded with scientists, studied works on medicine, technology, and biology. Famous novel Belyaev's "Amphibian Man" was praised by HG Wells, and scientific stories were published by many Soviet magazines.

"Judicial Formalism" and Travel Dreams: Alexander Belyaev's Childhood and Youth

Alexander Belyaev grew up in the family of an Orthodox priest in Smolensk. At the request of his father, he entered the theological seminary. Seminarians could read newspapers, magazines, books and go to the theater only after special written permission from the rector, and Alexander Belyaev loved music and literature from childhood. And he decided not to become a priest, although he graduated from the seminary in 1901.

Belyaev played the violin and piano, was fond of photography and painting, read a lot and played in the theater of the Smolensk People's House. Jules Verne was his favorite author. The future writer read adventure novels, dreamed of superpowers, like their heroes. Once he even jumped from the roof, trying to "fly", and seriously injured his spine.

My brother and I decided to travel to the center of the earth. They moved tables, chairs, beds, covered them with blankets, sheets, stocked up on an oil lantern and went deep into the mysterious bowels of the Earth. And immediately the prosaic tables and chairs were gone. We saw only caves and abysses, rocks and underground waterfalls as they were depicted wonderful pictures: creepy and at the same time somehow cozy. And my heart sank from this sweet horror.

Alexander Belyaev

At 18, Belyaev entered the Demidov Lyceum of Law in Yaroslavl. During the First Russian Revolution, he participated in student strikes, after which the provincial gendarme department followed him: “In 1905, as a student, he built barricades on the squares of Moscow. He kept a diary, recording the events of the armed uprising. Already during the advocacy, he spoke on political matters, was subjected to searches. Diary nearly burned.

After graduating from the Lyceum in 1909, Alexander Belyaev returned to his native Smolensk. father died and young man he had to support his family: he designed the scenery for the theater and played the violin in the orchestra of the Truzzi circus. Later, Belyaev received the position of a private attorney, practiced law, but, as he later recalled, "the bar - all this judicial formalism and casuistry - did not satisfy". At this time, he also wrote theater reviews, reviews from concerts and literary salons for the Smolensky Vestnik newspaper.

Traveling around Europe and passion for theater

In 1911, after a successful lawsuit, the young lawyer received his fee and traveled around Europe. He studied art history, traveled to Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the south of France. Belyaev went abroad for the first time and received a mass vivid impressions from the trip. After climbing Mount Vesuvius, he wrote a travel essay, which was later published in Smolensky Vestnik.

Vesuvius is a symbol, it is the god of Southern Italy. Only here, sitting on this black lava, under which a deadly fire seethes somewhere below, does it become clear that the deification of the forces of nature reigning over a small man, just as defenseless, despite all the gains of culture, as he was thousands of years ago in blooming Pompeii.

Alexander Belyaev, excerpt from essay

When Belyaev returned from his travels, he continued his experiments in the theater, which he had begun at the Lyceum. Together with the Smolensk cellist Yulia Saburova, he staged the fairy-tale opera The Sleeping Princess. Belyaev himself played in amateur productions: Karandyshev in "Dowry" and Tortsov in the play "Poverty is not a vice" based on the works of Alexander Ostrovsky, Lyubin in Ivan Turgenev's "Provincial Woman", Astrov in "Uncle Vanya" by Anton Chekhov. When artists from the Konstantin Stanislavsky Theater were touring in Smolensk, the director saw Belyaev on stage and offered him a place in his troupe. However, the young lawyer refused.

Belyaev the Science Fiction: Stories and Novels

When Alexander Belyaev was 35 years old, he fell ill with tuberculosis of the spine: childhood trauma affected him. After a complication and an unsuccessful operation, Alexander Belyaev could not move for three years and walked in a special corset for three more years. Together with his mother, he went to Yalta for rehabilitation. There he wrote poetry and educated himself: he studied medicine, biology, technology, foreign languages, read his beloved Jules Verne, Herbert Wells and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. All this time, the nurse Margarita Magnushevskaya was next to him - they met in 1919. She became the third wife of Belyaev. The first two marriages broke up quite quickly: both spouses left the writer for various reasons.

In 1922, Belyaev got better. He returned to work: first he got a job as an educator in an orphanage, then he became an inspector of the criminal investigation department.

I had to enter the office of the criminal investigation department, and according to the state I am a junior policeman. I am a photographer who shoots criminals, I am a lecturer who gives courses on criminal and administrative law and a “private” legal adviser. Despite all this, you have to starve.

Alexander Belyaev

It was hard to live in Yalta, and in 1923 the family moved to the capital. Here Alexander Belyaev began to engage in literature: his science fiction stories were published by the magazines Around the World, Knowledge is Power and World Pathfinder. The latter published the story "Professor Dowell's Head" in 1925. Later, the writer remade it into a novel: “Since then the situation has changed. Huge advances have been made in the field of surgery. And I decided to rework my story into a novel, making it even more fantastic without breaking away from the scientific basis.. With this work, the era of Belyaev's fantasy began. The novel is autobiographical: when the writer could not walk for three years, he came up with the idea to write about how a head without a body would feel: “... and although I owned my hands, nevertheless, my life in these years was reduced to the life of a“ head without a body ”, which I did not feel at all - complete anesthesia ...”

In the next three years, Belyaev wrote The Island of Lost Ships, The Last Man from Atlantis, and Struggle on the Air. The author signed his works with pseudonyms: A. Rom, Arbel, A. R. B., B. R-n, A. Romanovich, A. Rome.

"Amphibian Man"

In 1928, one of his most popular works, The Amphibian Man, was published. The basis of the novel, as the writer's wife later recalled, was a newspaper article about how a doctor in Buenos Aires performed forbidden experiments on people and animals. Belyaev was also inspired by the works of his predecessors - the works of "Iktaner and Moisette" by the French writer Jean de la Hire "Man-Fish" by a Russian anonymous author. The novel "Amphibian Man" was a great success, in the year of the first publication it was published twice as a separate book, and in 1929 it was reprinted for the third time.

It was with pleasure, Mr. Belyaev, that I read your wonderful novels The Head of Professor Dowell and The Amphibian Man. ABOUT! They compare favorably with Western books. I even envy their success a little. In modern Western science fiction literature, there is an incredible amount of baseless fantasy and an equally incredibly little thought ...

H. G. Wells

The Belyaevs briefly moved to Leningrad, but due to the bad climate they soon moved to warm Kyiv. This period was very difficult for the family. Eldest daughter Lyudmila died, the younger Svetlana became seriously ill, and the writer himself began to worsen. Local publications accepted works only in Ukrainian. The family returned to Leningrad, and in January 1931 moved to Pushkin. At this time, Alexander Belyaev began to be interested in the human psyche: the work of the brain, its connection with the body and emotional state. About this, he created the works "The Man Who Doesn't Sleep", "Khoyti-Toyti", "The Man Who Lost Face", "The Air Seller".

To draw attention to a big problem is more important than to communicate a pile of ready-made scientific information. Push same on self scientific work is the best and more that science fiction can do.

Alexander Belyaev

"Understand what a scientist is working on"

In the 1930s, Belyaev became interested in space. He became friends with members of the group of the Soviet engineer Friedrich Zander and members of the jet propulsion study group, studied the works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. After getting acquainted with the work of a scientist on an interplanetary airship, the idea of ​​​​the novel "Airship" appeared. In 1934, after reading this novel, Tsiolkovsky wrote: “... wittily written and scientific enough for fantasy. Let me express my pleasure to Comrade Belyaev..

After that, a constant correspondence began between them. When Belyaev was undergoing treatment in Evpatoria, he wrote to Tsiolkovsky that he was planning new novel- Second Moon. Correspondence was interrupted: in September 1935, Tsiolkovsky died. In 1936, the magazine "Around the World" published a novel about the first extraterrestrial colonies, dedicated to the great inventor - "Star of KETs" (KETs - Tsiolkovsky's initials).

A science fiction writer must himself be so scientifically educated that he can not only understand what the scientist is working on, but also, on this basis, foresee consequences and possibilities that are sometimes unclear even to the scientist himself.

Alexander Belyaev

Since 1939, for the newspaper Bolshevik Word, Belyaev wrote articles, stories, essays about Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Ivan Pavlov, HG Wells, Mikhail Lomonosov. At the same time, another fantasy novel was published - "Dublwe's Laboratory", as well as an article "Cinderella" about the difficult position of science fiction in literature. Shortly before the start of World War II, the writer's last lifetime novel, Ariel, was published. It was based on Belyaev's childhood dream - to learn to fly.

In June 1941, the war began. The writer refused to be evacuated from Pushkin because he was operated on. He did not leave the house, he could get up only to wash and eat. In January 1942, Alexander Belyaev died. His daughter Svetlana recalled: “When the Germans entered the city, we had several bags of cereals, some potatoes and a barrel of sauerkraut, which our friends gave us.<...>We had enough of such meager food, but for my father in his position this was not enough. He began to swell from hunger and eventually died ... "

Belyaev was buried in a mass grave along with other residents of the city.

Alexander Romanovich Belyaev - was born on March 4 (16 n.s.) in Smolensk in the family of a priest. Since childhood, he read a lot, was fond of adventure literature, especially Jules Verne. Subsequently, he flew on airplanes of one of the first designs, he made gliders himself.

In 1901 he graduated from the seminary, but did not become a priest; on the contrary, he came out of there a convinced atheist. He loved painting, music, theater, played in amateur performances, took photographs, and studied technology.

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

He did not stop dreaming about distant countries and, having saved up money, in 1913 he traveled to Italy, France, and Switzerland. He kept the memories of this trip for the rest of his life. Returning to Smolensk, he worked in the Smolensky Vestnik, a year later he became the editor of this publication. A serious illness - bone tuberculosis - for six years, three of which he was in a cast, chained him to bed. Not succumbing to despair, he is engaged in self-education: he studies foreign languages, medicine, biology, history, technology, and reads a lot. Having defeated the disease, in 1922 he returned to a full life, serving as a juvenile inspector. On the advice of doctors, he lives in Yalta, works as a teacher in an orphanage.

In 1923 he moved to Moscow, began a serious literary activity. He publishes science fiction stories, novels in the magazines Vokrug Sveta, Znanie-Sila, Vsemirnyi Pathfinder, earning the title of "Soviet Jules Verne". In 1925 he published the story "Professor Dowell's Head", which Belyaev himself called an autobiographical story: he wanted to tell "what a head without a body can experience."

In the 1920s, such well-known works as The Island of Lost Ships, Amphibian Man, Above the Abyss, and Struggle on the Air were published. He writes essays about the great Russian scientists - Lomonosov, Mendeleev, Pavlov, Tsiolkovsky.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In 1928, A. Belyaev moved to Leningrad with his family and has since become a professional writer. "The novels Lord of the World", "Underwater Farmers", "The Miraculous Eye", stories from the series "Professor Wagner's Inventions" were written. They were printed mainly in Moscow publishing houses. However, soon the disease again made itself felt, and I had to move from rainy Leningrad to sunny Kyiv. However, in Kyiv, publishing houses accepted manuscripts only in Ukrainian, and Belyaev again moved to Moscow.

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

In September 1931, A. Belyaev handed over the manuscript of his novel The Earth is Burning to the editors of the Leningrad magazine Vokrug Sveta.

In 1932 he lives in Murmansk. In 1934, he met with Herbert Wells, who arrived in Leningrad. In 1935, Belyaev became a permanent contributor to the Vokrug Sveta magazine.
At the beginning of 1938, after eleven years of intense collaboration, Belyaev left the Vokrug Sveta magazine. In 1938, he published the article "Cinderella" about the plight of his contemporary science fiction.

Shortly before the war, the writer underwent another operation, so when the war began, he refused the offer to evacuate. The city of Pushkin (former Tsarskoye Selo, a suburb of Leningrad), where he lived in last years A. Belyaev with his family was occupied by the Nazis.
On January 6, 1942, at the age of 58, Alexander Romanovich Belyaev died of starvation. He was buried in a mass grave along with other residents of the city. “Writer Belyaev, who wrote science fiction novels like Amphibian Man, froze to death in his room. “Frozen from hunger” is an absolutely accurate expression. People are so weak from hunger that they are not able to get up and bring firewood. He was found already completely stiff ... ".

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

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

Conversation with the daughter of the "Soviet Jules Verne".

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

The monument to the science fiction writer at the Kazan cemetery of Tsarskoye Selo does not stand at all on the grave of the writer, but at the place of his alleged burial. The details of this story were unearthed by the former chairman of the local history section of the city of Pushkin, Evgeny Golovchiner. He once managed to find a witness who was present at the funeral of Belyaev. Tatyana Ivanova was disabled since childhood and lived all her life at the Kazan cemetery.

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

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

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

"Life after death.

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

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

The idea of ​​searching for the vanished civilization of the Atlanteans dawned on Belyaev after reading an article in the French newspaper Le Figaro. Its content was such that in Paris there was a society for the study of Atlantis. At the beginning of the twentieth century, associations of this kind were quite common, they enjoyed the increased interest of the population. The astute Alexander Belyaev decided to take advantage of this. The science fiction writer used the note as a prologue to " Last person from Atlantis." The work consists of two parts, is perceived by the reader quite simply and excitingly. The material for writing the novel is taken from the book by Roger Devigne “The Disappeared Continent. Atlantis, one sixth of the world." When comparing science fiction predictions, it is important to note that scientific ideas books by the Soviet writer Alexander Belyaev were 99 percent sold. So, main idea novel "Professor Dowell's Head" became the possibility of reviving the human body after death. Several years after the publication of this work, Sergei Bryukhonenko, the great Soviet physiologist, carried out similar experiments. The achievement of medicine that is widespread today - the surgical restoration of the lens of the eye - was also foreseen by Alexander Belyaev more than fifty years ago.

The novel "Amphibian Man" became prophetic in the scientific development of technology long stay man underwater. So, in 1943, the French scientist Jacques-Yves Cousteau patented the first scuba gear, thereby proving that Ichthyander is not such an unattainable image. Successful tests of the first unmanned vehicles aircraft in the thirties of the twentieth century in Great Britain, as well as the creation of psychotropic weapons - all this was described by a science fiction writer in the book "Lord of the World" back in 1926.
The novel "The Man Who Lost Face" tells about the successful development plastic surgery and arising in connection with this ethical issues. In the story, the governor of the state reincarnates as a black man, taking on all the hardships of racial discrimination. Here you can draw a certain parallel in the fate of the mentioned hero and the famous American singer Michael Jackson, who, fleeing from unfair persecution, did a considerable number of operations to change skin color.

Throughout his creative life, Belyaev struggled with the disease. deprived physical abilities, he tried to reward the heroes of the books with unusual abilities: to communicate without words, to fly like birds, to swim like fish. But to infect the reader with an interest in life, in something new - isn't this the true talent of a writer?