All works by Belyaev. Fantast Alexander Belyaev died in the rear of the Nazis. "Understand what a scientist is working on"

At one time, the writer Alexander Belyaev preferred the financially unstable profession of a writer to a brilliant career as a lawyer. In his works, the science fiction writer predicted such scientific discoveries like the creation of artificial organs, the emergence of learning systems earth's crust and the emergence of orbital space stations.

Throughout his life, Soviet criticism ridiculed his seemingly insane prophecies, not suspecting that in novels, short stories and short stories, the creator, who felt the world subtly, opened the veil of secrecy, allowing readers to see the world of the coming future.

Childhood and youth

One of the founders of Soviet science fiction literature was born on March 16, 1884 in the hero city of Smolensk. In the Belyaev family, in addition to Alexander, there were two more children. His sister Nina died in childhood from a sarcoma, and his brother Vasily, a student at a veterinary institute, drowned while riding a boat.

The writer's parents were deeply religious people, often helping poor relatives and pilgrims, which is why there were always a lot of people in their house. Alexander grew up a fidget, loved all kinds of practical jokes and jokes. In games and hobbies, the boy was unbridled. The consequence of one of his pranks was a serious eye injury, which subsequently led to a deterioration in vision.

Belyaev was a passionate nature. WITH early years he was attracted by the illusory world of sounds. It is known for certain that the writer, without anyone's help, learned to play the violin and piano. There were days when Sasha, skipping breakfast and afternoon tea, selflessly played music in his room, ignoring the events taking place around him.

Alexander Belyaev in his youth

The list of hobbies also included photography and learning the basics. acting skills. The Belyaevs' home theater toured not only around the city, but also in its environs. Once, during the arrival of the capital's troupe in Smolensk, the writer replaced the sick artist and played instead of him in a couple of performances. After a resounding success, he was offered to stay in the troupe, but for some unknown reason he refused.

Despite the craving for creative self-realization, by decision of the head of the family, Alexander was sent to study at the theological seminary, which he graduated in 1901. The young man refused to continue his religious education and, cherishing the dream of a career as a lawyer, entered the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl. After the death of his father, the family's funds were limited. Alexander, in order to pay for his education, took on any job. Until graduation from the educational institution, he managed to work as a tutor, and a decorator in the theater, and even a circus violinist.

After graduating from the Demidov Lyceum, Belyaev received the position of a private attorney in Smolensk. Having established itself as good specialist, Alexander Romanovich acquired a permanent clientele. Stable income allowed him to furnish an apartment, acquire an expensive collection of paintings, assemble a library, and also travel around Europe. It is known that the writer was especially inspired by the beauty of France, Italy and Venice.

Literature

In 1914, Belyaev left law and devoted himself to theater and literature. This year he made his debut not only as a director in the theater, participating in the production of the opera The Sleeping Princess, but also published his first fiction book (before that there were reports, reviews, notes) - a children's fairy tale play in four acts "Grandmother Moira" .

In 1923 the writer moved to Moscow. During the Moscow period, Belyaev published his fascinating works in the genre of fantasy in magazines and in separate books: “The Island of Lost Ships”, “ Last Man from Atlantis", "Struggle on the Aether", "Amphibian Man" and "Professor Dowell's Head".

IN latest novel conflict is based on own experience a man encased in plaster and paralyzed, without power over his body and living as if without a body, with one living head. In the Leningrad period, the writer wrote the works "Jump into Nothing", "Lord of the World", "Underwater Farmers" and "Wonderful Eye", as well as the play "Alchemists".

In 1937, Belyaev was no longer published. There was nothing to live on. He went to Murmansk, where he got a job as an accountant on a fishing boat. Depression became his muse, and the cornered creator wrote a novel about his unfulfilled dreams, giving it the name Ariel. In the book, published in 1941, experiments with levitation are performed on the main character, and in the course of successful experiments, he gains the ability to fly.

Personal life

The writer met his first wife Anna Ivanovna Stankevich while still studying at the Lyceum. True, this union was short-lived. A couple of months after the wedding, a person who did not walk up cheated on her husband with his friend. It is worth noting that, despite the betrayal, after the divorce, the former lovers kept in touch.

It was Anna who introduced the science fiction writer to his second wife, a student of the Moscow Higher Women's Courses, Vera Vasilievna Prytkova. For a long time young people communicated by correspondence, and after a personal meeting, having followed the raging emotions inside, they legalized their relationship. It is known that love fuse new darling the author of the novel "The Air Seller" did not last long. After Vera found out about the illness of the missus, an end was put to their amorous story.

In 1915, fate dealt Belyaev a cruel blow, forever violating habitual move life and broke it into two parts. The writer fell ill with bone tuberculosis of the vertebrae, which was complicated by paralysis of the legs. The search for qualified medical personnel led the mother of the writer, Nadezhda Vasilievna, to Yalta, where she transported her son. The doctors who dressed the body of the 31-year-old science fiction writer in a plaster corset did not give any guarantees, saying that Alexander could remain a cripple for life.

strong will did not let Belyaev lose heart. Despite the torments and uncertain prospects, he did not give up, continuing to compose poems, which were often published in the local newspaper. The creator was also engaged in self-education (studied foreign languages, medicine, biology, history) and read a lot (I gave preference to creativity, and).

As a result, the master of the pen defeated the disease, and the disease receded for a while. During the six years that the science fiction writer was bedridden, the country has changed beyond recognition. After Alexander Romanovich firmly stood on his feet, the writer, with his characteristic natural energy, joined the creative process. For a couple of months, he managed to work as a teacher in an orphanage, and a librarian, and even an inspector of the criminal investigation department.

In Yalta, the creator met his third wife, Margarita Konstantinovna Magnushevskaya, who became his faithful companion life and irreplaceable assistant. Together with her, Belyaev moved to Moscow in 1923. There he got a job at the People's Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs, and in free time engaged in writing activities.

On March 15, 1925, his wife gave birth to his daughter Lyudmila, who died at the age of 6 from meningitis. The second heir, Svetlana, was born in 1929 and, despite the illness inherited from the head of the family, managed to realize herself in life.

Death

Weakened by illnesses, swollen from hunger and cold, Alexander Romanovich died on the night of January 5-6, 1942. Margarita Konstantinovna, two weeks after the death of her husband, managed to draw up documents, get a coffin and take his body to a crypt located in the Kazan cemetery. There, the remains of the eminent science fiction writer, along with dozens of others, were waiting in line for burial, which was scheduled for March.

In February, the Germans took the writer's wife and daughter prisoner to Poland. When they returned to their native lands, the former neighbor gave his wife the writer's glasses that had miraculously survived. On the bow, Margarita found a tightly wrapped piece of paper on which was written:

“Do not look for my footprints on this earth. I'm waiting for you in heaven. Your Ariel.

To this day, biographers have not found the burial place of the writer. It is known that the marble stele at the Kazan cemetery was installed by the widow of the author of the novel Leap into Nothing. The muse of Alexander Romanovich, having discovered on the site the grave of a friend who died on the same day as her lover, placed a symbolic monument next to it, which depicts an open book and a quill pen.

Belyaev was called the domestic Jules Verne, but, despite all the flattering of such a comparison, he was and remains an original, original writer, according to by and large, unlike anyone, for which for decades it has been still loved by many generations of readers.

Bibliography

1913 - "Climbing Vesuvius"
1926 - "Lord of the World"
1926 - "The Island of Lost Ships"
1926 - "Neither life nor death"
1928 - "Amphibian Man"
1928 - "Eternal bread"
1933 - Leap into Nothing
1934 - "Airship"
1937 - "Professor Dowell's Head"
1938 - Horned Mammoth
1939 - "Castle of the Witches"
1939 - "Under the sky of the Arctic"
1940 - "The Man Who Found His Face"
1941 - "Ariel"
1967 - "I see everything, I hear everything, I know everything"

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 famous works, like "Island of Lost Ships", "Amphibian Man", "Above the Abyss", "Struggle on the Air". 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.

Last years spent 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)

He was born in 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 wished to see in his son the successor of his work and gave him in 1895 to the Smolensk Theological Seminary. In 1901, Alexander 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.

After graduating (in 1906) 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. Having finished any business, he went to travel abroad: he visited France, Italy, visited Venice.

In 1914 he left law for the sake of literature and theater.

At the age of thirty-five, 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. First, A. Belyaev became a teacher in an orphanage, then he got a job as an inspector of the criminal investigation department - he organized a photo laboratory there, later he had to go to the library. Life in Yalta was very difficult, and A. Belyaev, with the help of acquaintances, moved with his family to Moscow (1923), where he got a job as a legal adviser. There he began a serious literary activity. He publishes science fiction stories, stories in the magazines "Around the World", "Knowledge is Power", "World 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."

A. Belyaev lived in Moscow until 1928; during this time, he wrote "The Island of Lost Ships", "The Last Man from Atlantis", "Amphibian Man", "Struggle on the Air", a collection of 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 and his family moved to Leningrad and since then he has been exclusively engaged in literature, professionally. This is how "Lord of the World", "Underwater Farmers", "The Miraculous Eye", stories from the series "Professor Wagner's Inventions" appeared. 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.

The year 1930 turned out to be very difficult for the writer: his six-year-old daughter died of meningitis, the second one 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 (source newspaper "Vecherny Murmansk" dated 10/10/2014). 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 an article called "Cinderella" about the plight of modern science fiction.

Shortly before the war, the writer underwent another operation, so he refused the offer to evacuate when the war began. The city of Pushkin (former Tsarskoye Selo, a suburb of Leningrad), where A. Belyaev and his family lived in recent years, was occupied. In January 1942, the writer died of starvation. He was buried in a mass grave along with other residents of the city. From Osipova's book “Diaries and Letters”: “The 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 ... "

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, the wife and daughter of Alexander Romanovich, like many other citizens of the USSR who were in German captivity, were exiled to Western Siberia. They spent 11 years in exile. The daughter did not marry.

The burial place of Alexander Belyaev is not known for certain. A memorial stele at the Kazan cemetery in the city of Pushkin was installed only on the alleged grave.

Alexander Romanovich Belyaev(March 4 (16), 1884 - January 6, 1942) - Soviet science fiction writer, one of the founders of Soviet science fiction literature. Among the most famous of his novels: "Professor Dowell's Head", "Amphibian Man", "Ariel", "Star of the CEC" and many others. Sometimes he is called the Russian "Jules Verne".

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 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.

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 period of study, this educational institution reorganized in 1833, first into a lyceum with the same term of study, and in 1868 into a four-year legal lyceum with university rights). 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 of several lawsuits, which were 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. IN curriculum vitae to the 9-volume collected works of the writer, this is confirmed: “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. On young man a serious illness struck: 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! October Revolution, Civil War, devastation ... Belyaev saves himself only by reading a lot, especially translated fantastic literature; studies literature on medicine, biology, history; interested in new discoveries, achievements of science; learns 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 one creative life 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 began a professional literary activity Belyaev. 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 gets 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 great amount 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 most long life in his books.

The journal "Science and Life" became a laureate 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.