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, 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.

January 6, 1942 Belyaev died of starvation in the occupied Pushkin.
Books:

No series

witch castle

(Heroic fantasy)

Star CEC

(Heroic fantasy)

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

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 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 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.

All my 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?