08.03.2020

Belyaev's works are the most famous. Alexander Belyaev - works and biography of the science fiction writer. “Forensic formalism” and dreams of travel: the childhood and youth of Alexander Belyaev

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 depict events that will happen several decades later...

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, into a family Orthodox priest. There were two more children in the family: sister Nina died in childhood from sarcoma; brother Vasily, a student at the veterinary institute, drowned while boating.
The father wanted to see his son as a successor to his work and sent him to a theological school in 1894. After graduating in 1898, Alexander was transferred to the Smolensk Theological Seminary. He graduated from it in 1904, but did not become a priest; on the contrary, he left there as a convinced atheist. In defiance of his father, he entered the Demidov Legal Lyceum in Yaroslavl. Soon after his father’s death, he had to earn extra money: Alexander gave lessons, painted scenery for the theater, played the violin in a circus orchestra, and published in city newspapers as a music critic.

After graduating (in 1908) from the Demidov Lyceum, A. Belyaev received the position of private attorney in Smolensk and soon gained fame as a good lawyer. He gained a regular clientele. His material opportunities also increased: he was able to rent and furnish a good apartment, acquire a good collection of paintings, collect large library. In 1913, he traveled abroad: he visited France, Italy, and visited Venice. In 1914 he left law for the sake of literature and theater. In 1914, his debut play “Grandma Moira” was published in the Moscow children's magazine Protalinka.
At the age of 35, A. Belyaev fell ill with tuberculous pleurisy. The treatment was unsuccessful - tuberculosis of the spine developed, complicated by paralysis of the legs. A serious illness confined him to bed for six years, three of which he spent in a cast. His young wife left him, saying that she didn’t 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, and reads a lot (Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky). Having defeated the disease, in 1922 he returned to a full life and began to work. In the same year he married Margarita Konstantinovna Magnushevskaya.
At first, A. Belyaev became a teacher in an orphanage, then he was given the position of criminal investigation inspector, where he organized a photo laboratory, and 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 begins serious literary activity.

He publishes science fiction stories and novellas in the magazines “Around the World”, “Knowledge is Power”, “World Pathfinder”.
In 1924, the newspaper Gudok published the story “The Head of Professor Dowell,” which Belyaev himself called an autobiographical story, explaining: “An illness once put 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 had control over my hands, my life during 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”, “Amphibian Man”, “Struggle on the Air”, and published a collection of short stories. 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 from then on became a professional writer. The novels “Lord of the World”, “Underwater Farmers”, “The Wonderful Eye”, and stories from the series “The Inventions of Professor Wagner” were written. They were published mainly in Moscow publishing houses. However, soon the disease made itself felt again, and I had to move from rainy Leningrad to sunny Kyiv. However, in Kyiv publishing houses accepted manuscripts only in Ukrainian, and Belyaev moved to Moscow again.

The year 1930 turned out to be a very difficult year for the writer: his six-year-old daughter Lyudmila died of meningitis, his second daughter Svetlana fell ill with rickets, and soon his own illness(spondylitis). 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 “Around the World”.

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 magazine “Around the World”.
At the beginning of 1938, after eleven years of intensive cooperation, Belyaev left the magazine “Around the World”. In 1938, he published the article “Cinderella” about the plight of 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 (formerly Tsarskoe 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 58th year of his life, Alexander Romanovich Belyaev died of hunger. He was buried in a mass grave along with other residents of the city. “The writer Belyaev, who wrote science fiction novels like “Amphibian Man,” froze from hunger in his room. “Frozen from hunger” is an absolutely accurate expression. People are so weak from hunger that they are unable to get up and fetch firewood. They found him already completely numb..."

Alexander Belyaev had two daughters: Lyudmila (March 15, 1924 - March 19, 1930) and Svetlana.
The writer's mother-in-law was Swedish, given the double name Elvira-Ioanetta at birth. Shortly before the war, when exchanging passports, she was left with only one name, and she and her daughter were also registered as Germans. Due to the difficulties 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 given the status of Volksdeutsche by the Germans and were taken prisoner by the Germans, where they were kept 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 sent into exile in 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 kept 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 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 claim that Alexander Romanovich died of hunger, others believe that he could not bear the horrors of the occupation, and 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. The city had a special commission that at that time was involved in the evacuation of children. He offered to take me out too, but my parents refused this offer too. In 1940, I developed tuberculosis of the knee joint, and I faced the war in a cast. Mom often repeated then: “We die together!”
- There are still quite a few versions regarding the death of your father:
- Dad died of hunger. In our family, it was not customary to make any supplies 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 peels, from which we baked cakes. Even such meager food was enough for us, 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 survived all this, but I was very scared.” At that time anyone could be executed without trial or investigation. Just for violating curfew or being 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 have been hanged as a burglar. The gallows stood right under our windows.
- Is it true that the Germans didn’t 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 she had to wait in line. The coffin with the father's body was placed in an empty apartment next door. Many people at that time were simply covered with earth in common ditches, but they 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 being. The coffin with the body was placed in a crypt at the Kazan cemetery and was supposed to be buried with the onset of first warmth. Alas, on February 5, my mother, 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 Tsarskoe Selo does not stand at the writer’s grave, but at the place of his supposed burial. The details of this story were unearthed by the former chairman of the local history section of the city of Pushkin, Evgeniy Golovchiner. At one time he managed to find a witness who was present at Belyaev’s funeral. Tatyana Ivanova was disabled since childhood and lived all her life at the Kazan cemetery.

She said that at the beginning of March 1942, when the ground had already begun to thaw a little, people who had been lying in the local crypt since winter began to be buried in the cemetery. It was at this time that the writer Belyaev, along with others, was interred. Why did she remember this? Yes, because Alexander Romanovich was buried in a coffin, of which there were only two left in Pushkin at that time. Professor Chernov was buried in the other. Tatyana Ivanova also indicated the place where both of these coffins were buried. True, from her words it turned out 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.

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

Gestapo. By the way, they could not fully believe that they had gotten their hands on an authentic mosaic. Therefore, we actively looked for people who would have information on this matter. It was 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. And here is the answer to the question whether Belyaev could have been killed because of his interest in Amber room doesn't seem that difficult. It is enough to remember what fate befell many researchers who tried to find the wonderful mosaic.

"Life after death.

More than 70 years have passed since the Russian science fiction writer passed away, but his memory lives on in his works to this day. At one time, the work of Alexander Belyaev was subjected to strict criticism, and sometimes he heard mocking reviews. However, the science fiction writer’s ideas, 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 today and are quite in demand among readers. 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. Thus, since 1961, eight films have been filmed, some of them are part of the classics of Soviet cinema - “The Amphibian Man”, “The Testament of Professor Dowell”, “The Island of Lost Ships” and “The Air Seller”. The story of Ichthyander Perhaps the most famous work A.R. Belyaev’s novel “Amphibian Man,” which was written in 1927. It was this book that, together with The Head of Professor Dowell, was highly appreciated by Herbert Wells. Belyaev was inspired to create “Amphibian Man” by, firstly, memories of reading the novel “Iktaner et Moisette” by the French writer Jean de la Hire, and secondly, a newspaper article about a trial taking place in Argentina in the case of a doctor who conducted various experiments over people and animals. Today, it is practically impossible to establish the name of the newspaper and the details of the process. But this once again proves that, when 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 author’s very first works, “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 republished several times in the territory of the Soviet Union.

The idea of searching for the disappeared Atlantean civilization 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, such associations were quite common; they enjoyed increased interest among the population. The insightful 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 and is perceived by the reader quite simply and excitingly. The material for writing the novel was drawn from the book by Roger Devigne “The Vanished Continent. Atlantis, the sixth part of the world." When comparing the predictions of science fiction representatives, it is important to note that scientific ideas books by Soviet writer Alexander Belyaev were sold at 99 percent. So, main idea novel "The Head of Professor Dowell" 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. A widespread achievement in medicine today - 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 scientific developments technologies for prolonged human stay under water. Thus, 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 aerial vehicles aircraft in the thirties of the twentieth century in Great Britain, as well as the creation psychotropic weapons- all this was described by the science fiction writer in the book “Lord of the World” back in 1926.
The novel "The Man Who Lost Face" tells the story of the successful development plastic surgery and the ethical issues that arise from this. In the story, the state governor transforms into a black man, taking upon himself all the burdens of racial discrimination. Here we can draw a certain parallel in the destinies of the mentioned hero and the famous American singer Michael Jackson, who, fleeing unjust persecution, underwent a considerable number of operations to change the color of his skin.

All my creative life Belyaev struggled with the disease. Deprived of physical capabilities, he tried to reward the heroes of books unusual abilities: communicate without words, fly like birds, swim like fish. But infecting the reader with interest in life, in something new - isn’t this the true talent of a writer?

He was born in Smolensk, in the family of an Orthodox priest. There were two more children in the family: sister Nina died in childhood from sarcoma; brother Vasily, a student at the veterinary institute, drowned while boating.

The father wanted to see his son as a successor to his work and sent him to the Smolensk Theological Seminary in 1895. In 1901, Alexander graduated from it, but did not become a priest; on the contrary, he left there as a convinced atheist. In defiance of his father, he entered the Demidov Legal Lyceum in Yaroslavl. Soon after his father's death, he had to earn extra money: Alexander gave lessons, painted scenery for the theater, and played the violin in the circus orchestra.

After graduating (in 1906) from the Demidov Lyceum, A. Belyaev received the position of private attorney in Smolensk and soon gained fame as a good lawyer. He gained a regular clientele. His material opportunities also increased: he was able to rent and furnish a good apartment, acquire a good collection of paintings, and collect a large library. Having finished any business, he went to travel abroad: he visited France, Italy, and 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 was unsuccessful - tuberculosis of the spine developed, complicated by paralysis of the legs. A serious illness confined him to bed for six years, three of which he spent in a cast. His young wife left him, saying that she didn’t 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, and reads a lot (Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky). Having defeated the disease, in 1922 he returned to a full life and began to work. At first, A. Belyaev became a teacher in an orphanage, then he was given the position of criminal investigation inspector - he organized a photo laboratory there, and later he had to go to the library. Life in Yalta was very difficult, and A. Belyaev, with the help of friends, moved with his family to Moscow (1923), where he got a job as a legal adviser. There he began serious literary activity. He publishes science fiction stories and novellas in the magazines “Around the World”, “Knowledge is Power”, “World Pathfinder”, earning the title of “Soviet Jules Verne”. In 1925, he published the story “The Head of Professor Dowell,” 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”, and published a collection of short stories. 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 from then on he was exclusively engaged in literature, professionally. This is how “Lord of the World”, “Underwater Farmers”, “The Wonderful Eye”, stories from the series “The Inventions of Professor Wagner” appeared. They were published mainly in Moscow publishing houses. However, soon the disease made itself felt again, and I had to move from rainy Leningrad to sunny Kyiv.

The year 1930 turned out to be a very difficult year for the writer: his six-year-old daughter died of meningitis, his second daughter fell ill with rickets, and soon his own illness (spondylitis) 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 “Around the World”.

In 1932, he lives in Murmansk (source: newspaper “Evening 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 magazine “Around the World”. At the beginning of 1938, after eleven years of intensive cooperation, Belyaev left the magazine “Around the World”. In 1938 he published the article “Cinderella” about the plight of contemporary 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 (formerly Tsarskoe Selo, a suburb of Leningrad), where A. Belyaev lived with his family in recent years, was occupied. In January 1942, the writer died of hunger. 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 from hunger in his room. “Frozen from hunger” is an absolutely accurate expression. People are so weak from hunger that they are unable to get up and fetch firewood. He was found completely frozen..."

The surviving wife of the writer and daughter Svetlana were taken prisoner by the Germans and were kept 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, the wife and daughter of Alexander Romanovich, like many other citizens of the USSR who found themselves 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. The memorial stele at the Kazan cemetery in the city of Pushkin was installed only on the supposed grave.

In his science fiction novels, Alexander BELYAEV anticipated the emergence of a huge number of inventions and scientific ideas: in "The Star of the KETS" the prototype of modern orbital stations is depicted, in "Amphibian Man" and "The Head of Professor Dowell" the miracles of transplantology are shown, in "Eternal Bread" - achievements of modern biochemistry and genetics.
He had a huge imagination and knew how to look far into the future, thanks to which he perfectly depicted human destinies in unusual, fantastic circumstances. There was one thing Alexander Belyaev could not foresee - what his own last days. While biographers know almost everything about the writer’s life, the circumstances of the death of the “Soviet Jules Verne” are still mysterious.
His burial place is also a mystery. After all, the memorial stele at the Kazan cemetery of Tsarskoye Selo ( former Pushkin. - K.G.) was installed only on the supposed grave.

For three days in a row, retreating units of the Red Army stretched through Pushkin in an endless line. The last truck with our soldiers passed on September 17, 1941, and by evening the Germans appeared in the city. There were so few of them that 12-year-old Sveta, looking at the enemy soldiers through the window, even became a little confused. She didn’t understand why the invincible Red Army was running away from a small group of machine gunners? It seemed to the girl that they could be slammed in no time. Then she did not yet know that in just three months the war would kill her dad, the famous Soviet science fiction writer Alexander Belyaev. And the rest of the family members will then spend 15 years wandering around camps and exile. However, we began our conversation with the daughter of the “Soviet Jules Verne” with a different topic.

As a child I loved to swing devils on my feet

Svetlana Alexandrovna, please tell us how your parents met?
- It happened in Yalta, at the end of the 20s. My mother’s family lived in this city for quite a long time, and my father came there in 1917 for treatment. In those years, he had already developed spinal tuberculosis, which put him in a plaster bed for three and a half years. Later he would write that it was during this period that he managed to change his mind and experience everything that a “head without a body” could experience. However, his father’s illness did not interfere with their acquaintance or the development of their relationship.

SVETLANA ALEXANDROVNA: the pre-war years were the happiest

When doctors made a special corset for dad, mom helped him learn to walk again. And her love finally put him on his feet. By the way, before meeting my mother, my father had another wife named Verochka. When he fell ill with severe pleurisy and lay with high temperature, Verochka left him, saying that she didn’t get married to become a nurse.
-Did dad tell you anything about your childhood?
- It’s not much, but I remember most of these stories very well. I especially liked the story about the devil. Dad grew up in the family of a priest, and as a child his nanny often scolded him for his habit of crossing his legs. “There’s nothing unclean to download!” - the woman said in her hearts. Dad always obeyed the nanny, but as soon as she left the room, he immediately crossed his legs, imagining that a cute little devil was sitting on the tip of his leg. “Let him sway while the nanny doesn’t see,” he thought.
In the evening, when my mother and grandmother went to take a breath fresh air, we stayed at home alone. And he came up with all sorts of things for me incredible stories. Let's say about the tailed people who used to live on earth. Their tails did not bend, and before sitting down, they always drilled a hole in the ground for the tail. I remember I believed this for quite a long time. And not long before the war, he promised me to write a children's fairy tale - about me and my friends in the yard. It's a pity that I didn't have time.

Marauders removed the dead man's suit

From the memoirs of Svetlana Belyaeva: “Having occupied the city, the Germans began to walk around the courtyards, looking for Russian soldiers. When they came to our house, I answered in German that my mother and grandmother had gone to the doctor, and my father was not a soldier at all, but a famous Soviet writer ", but he cannot get up because he is very ill. This news did not make much of an impression on them."
- Svetlana Alexandrovna, why wasn’t your family evacuated from Pushkin before the Germans entered the city?
“My father had been seriously ill for many years. He could move independently only in a special corset, and only over short distances. I had enough strength to wash myself and sometimes eat at the table. The rest of the time, dad watched the flow of life from above... own bed. In addition, shortly before the war he underwent kidney surgery. He was so weak that leaving was out of the question. The Writers' Union, which at that time was engaged in evacuating children of writers, offered to take me out, but my parents refused this offer too. In 1940, I developed tuberculosis of the knee joint, and I faced the war in a cast. Mom often repeated then: “We’ll die together!” However, fate would have it otherwise.

SVETA BELYAEVA: this is how the writer’s daughter met the war

There are still quite a few versions about your father’s death. Why did he die anyway?
- From hunger. In our family, it was not customary to make any supplies for the winter. If they needed something, mom or grandma went to the market and simply bought food. In short, when the Germans entered the city, we had several bags of cereal, some potatoes and a barrel of sauerkraut, which our friends gave us. I remember the cabbage tasted nasty, but we were still very happy. And when these supplies ran out, my grandmother had to go to work for the Germans. She asked to go to the kitchen to peel potatoes. For this, every day we gave her a pot of soup and some potato peels, from which we baked cakes. Even such meager food was enough for us, but for my father in his situation this was not enough. He began to swell from hunger and eventually died...
- Some researchers believe that Alexander Romanovich simply could not bear the horrors of the fascist occupation.
“I don’t know how my father survived all this, but I was very scared.” I will never forget the man hanging on a pole with a sign on his chest: “The judge is a friend of the Jews.” At that time anyone could be executed without trial or investigation. Most of all we were worried about my mother. She often went to our old apartment to pick up some things from there. If she had been caught doing this, she could easily have been hanged as a thief. Moreover, the gallows stood right under our windows, and my father saw every day how the Germans executed innocent residents. Maybe his heart really couldn’t stand it...

ALEXANDER BELYAEV WITH WIFE MARGARETA AND FIRST DAUGHTER: the death of little Lyudochka was the first great grief in the family of a science fiction writer

I heard that the Germans didn’t even let you and your mother bury Alexander Romanovich...
- Dad died on January 6, 1942, but it was not possible to take him to the cemetery right away. Mom went to the city government, and there it turned out that there was only one horse left in the city and she had to wait in line. The coffin with my father’s body was placed in an empty apartment next door, and my mother went to visit him every day. A few days later, someone took my dad's suit off. So he lay there in his underwear until the gravedigger took him away. Many people at that time were simply covered with earth in common ditches, but they 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 being. True, he immediately said that he would not dig a grave in frozen ground. The coffin with the body was placed in the cemetery chapel and was supposed to be buried with the onset of first warmth. Alas, we were not destined to wait for this: on February 5, my mother, grandmother and I were taken prisoner, so they buried my father without us.

The Germans laughed at them, and the Russians hated them

Why did you end up in a special camp where Russian “foreigners” were kept?
- I got my foreign roots from my maternal grandmother. Just before the war, they changed their passports, and for some reason they decided to change my grandmother’s nationality. As a result, she turned from a Swede into a German. And for company, my mother was also registered as a German, despite her Russian name and surname. I remember very well how they laughed merrily when they returned home. Who knew then that a banal mistake by a passport officer could result in a prison sentence.
When the Germans came to Pushkin, they immediately registered all the Volksdeutsch. In mid-February 1942, we found ourselves in one of the camps in West Prussia. They took us away from the USSR, supposedly saving us from Soviet power, and then for some reason they put us behind barbed wire. The food was so bad that very soon we even began to eat grass and dandelions. On Sundays local residents they came to look at us like we were animals in a zoo. It was unbearable...

MARGARITA BELYAEVA WITH DAUGHTER SVETA: they went through fascist camps and Soviet exile together

This whole nightmare should have ended for you no later than May 9, 1945.
- The last camp we were in was in Austria, but the troubles did not end for our family, even when the country capitulated. The camp commander escaped. And so they entered the city soviet tanks. Many of the prisoners rushed to meet them. They shouted as they walked: “Our people are coming!” Suddenly the column stopped, the commander got out of the lead vehicle and said: “It’s a pity, we didn’t get to you before the surrender, they would have run you all over to hell!” Children and old people stood thunderstruck, trying to understand why they displeased the liberating soldiers so much. Soviet soldiers, apparently, they mistook us for Germans and were ready to crush us all to the ground.
Our homeland greeted us with camps, where we stayed for 11 years. Later I accidentally found out that in Altai region we were sent several months earlier than the corresponding order was signed. That is, people were imprisoned “just in case.”
- How did you manage to return from exile?
- At the end of the 60s, a two-volume book by Alexander Belyaev was published, for which my mother was paid 170 thousand rubles. Huge money for those times, thanks to which we were able to move to Leningrad. First of all, we rushed to look for my father's grave. It turned out that the gravedigger kept his word. True, he buried his father not exactly in the place that his mother agreed with him. Today, at my father’s grave there is a white marble stele with the inscription: “Belyaev Alexander Romanovich - science fiction writer.”

The last refuge is in a mass grave

The first employee of the Kazan cemetery of Tsarskoe Selo, whom we asked to show the white marble stele, readily responded to our request. It turned out that the monument to the science fiction writer does not stand at the writer’s grave, but at the site of his intended burial. The details of his burial were found out by the former chairman of the local history section of the city of Pushkin, Evgeniy Golovchiner. At one time he managed to find a witness who was present at Belyaev’s funeral.

ALEXANDER BELYAEV: loved to fool around in spite of all diseases

Tatyana Ivanova was disabled since childhood and lived her entire life at the Kazan cemetery - she looked after the graves and grew flowers for sale.
It was she who said that at the beginning of March 1942, when the ground had already begun to thaw a little, people who had been lying in the local chapel since winter began to be buried in the cemetery. It was at this time that the writer Belyaev, along with others, was interred. Why did she remember this? Yes, because Alexander Romanovich was buried in a coffin, of which there were only two left in Pushkin at that time. Tatyana Ivanova also indicated the place where both of these coffins were buried. True, from her words it turned out 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.
And although to name exact location, where the ashes of Alexander Romanovich rest, today no one can, knowledgeable people they say that the “Russian Jules Verne” lies within a radius of 10 meters from the marble stele.

"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 H.G. Wells, and science stories Many Soviet magazines published.

“Forensic formalism” and dreams of travel: the childhood and youth of Alexander Belyaev

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 since childhood. And he decided not to become a priest, although he graduated from the seminary in 1901.

Belyaev played the violin and piano, was interested in photography and painting, read a lot and played in the theater of the Smolensk People's House. His favorite author was Jules Verne. The future writer read adventure novels and dreamed of superpowers like their heroes. One day he even jumped from the roof in an attempt to “fly up” and seriously injured his spine.

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

At the age of 18, Belyaev entered the Demidov Legal Lyceum in Yaroslavl. During the First Russian Revolution, he took part in student strikes, after which the provincial gendarme department kept an eye on him: “In 1905, as a student, he built barricades in Moscow squares. He kept a diary, recording the events of the armed uprising. Already during his legal profession he spoke on political matters and was subjected to searches. I almost burned my diary.".

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

Traveling around Europe and passion for theater

In 1911, after a successful trial, the young lawyer received a fee and went around Europe. He studied art history, traveled to Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and the south of France. Belyaev traveled abroad for the first time and received a lot of vivid impressions from the trip. After climbing Mount Vesuvius, he wrote 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 is seething somewhere below, does it become clear the deification of the forces of nature reigning over a small man, just as defenseless, despite all the conquests of culture, as he was thousands of years ago in blooming Pompeii.
Alexander Belyaev, excerpt from an essay

When Belyaev returned from his trip, he continued his experiments in the theater, which he began at the Lyceum. Together with 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 “Provincial Girl” by Ivan Turgenev, 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 writer: stories and novels

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

In 1922, Belyaev felt better. He returned to work: first he got a job as a teacher in Orphanage, then became a criminal investigation inspector.

I had to enter the office of the criminal investigation department, and according to the staff I am a junior policeman. I am a photographer who takes pictures of criminals, I am a lecturer who teaches courses on criminal and administrative law and a “private” legal adviser. Despite all this, we have to starve.
Alexander Belyaev

Living in Yalta was difficult, and in 1923 the family moved to the capital. Here Alexander Belyaev began to study literature: his science fiction stories were published in the magazines “Around the World”, “Knowledge is Power” and “World Pathfinder”. The latter published the story “The Head of Professor Dowell” in 1925. Later the writer remade it into a novel: “The situation has changed since then. Tremendous advances have been made in the field of surgery. And I decided to rework my story into a novel, making it without breaking away from scientific basis, even more fantastic". The era of Belyaev's fiction began with this work. 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 had control over my hands, my life during 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. Rn, A. Romanovich, A. Rome.

"Amphibian Man"

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

It was my pleasure, Mr. Belyaev, to read your wonderful novels “The Head of Professor Dowell” and “Amphibian Man.” ABOUT! They compare very favorably with Western books. I'm even a little jealous of their success. In modern Western science fiction literature there is an incredible amount of baseless fantasy and just as incredibly little thought...
H.G. Wells

The Belyaevs moved to Leningrad for a short time, but due to the poor climate they soon moved to warm Kyiv. This period became very difficult for the family. Eldest daughter Lyudmila died, the youngest Svetlana became seriously ill, and the writer himself began to experience an exacerbation. 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 become 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”, “Hoyti-Toyti”, “The Man Who Lost Face”, “The Air Seller”.

Drawing attention to a big problem is more important than providing a bunch of ready-made scientific information. Push to do it on your own scientific work is the best and most that a work of 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 Soviet engineer Friedrich Zander and the staff of the study group jet propulsion, studied the works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. After getting acquainted with the scientist’s work on an interplanetary airship, the idea for the novel “Airship” appeared. In 1934, after reading this novel, Tsiolkovsky wrote: “... wittyly written and scientific enough for imagination. Let me express my pleasure to Comrade Belyaev.”.

After this, a constant correspondence began between them. When Belyaev was undergoing treatment in Yevpatoria, he wrote to Tsiolkovsky that he was planning new novel- “Second Moon”. The correspondence was interrupted: in September 1935, Tsiolkovsky passed away. In 1936, the magazine “Around the World” published a novel about the first extraterrestrial colonies, dedicated to the great inventor, “The KETS Star” (KETS are the initials of Tsiolkovsky).

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 consequences and possibilities that are sometimes unclear even to the scientist himself.
Alexander Belyaev

Since 1939, Belyaev wrote articles, stories, and essays about Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Ivan Pavlov, Herbert Wells, and Mikhail Lomonosov for the Bolshevik Word newspaper. At the same time another one came out fantasy novel- “Laboratory of Dublve”, as well as the article “Cinderella” about the difficult position of fantasy in literature. Shortly before the start of the Great Patriotic War, 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 had undergone surgery. He did not leave the house, he could only get up to wash and eat. In January 1942, Alexander Belyaev passed away. His daughter Svetlana recalled: “When the Germans entered the city, we had several bags of cereal, some potatoes and a barrel of sauerkraut, which our friends gave us.<...>Even such meager food was enough for us, but for my father in his situation 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.

2014 marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of the famous Russian writer Alexander Romanovich Belyaev. 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 depict events that will happen several decades later.

The early years of the writer

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, from childhood the boy was taught to love music, photography, and developed an interest in reading adventure novels and studying foreign languages.

Having graduated from theological seminary at the insistence of his father, the young man chooses the path to law, in which he has good success.

First steps in literature

While earning decent money in the legal field, Alexander Belyaev began to become more interested in works of art, travel and theater. He is also actively involved in directing and dramaturgy. In 1914, his debut play “Grandma Moira” was published in the Moscow children's magazine Protalinka.

An insidious disease

In 1919, tuberculous pleurisy suspended the young man’s plans and actions. Alexander Belyaev struggled with this disease for more than six years. The writer tried his best to eradicate this infection within himself. Due to unsuccessful treatment, it developed which led to paralysis of the legs. As a result, of the six years spent in bed, the patient spent three years in a cast. The indifference of the young wife further undermined the writer's morale. During this period, this is no longer the carefree, cheerful and cheerful Alexander Belyaev. His biography is full of tragic life moments. In 1930, his six-year-old daughter Lyuda died, and his second daughter Svetlana fell ill with rickets. Against the backdrop of these events, the illness tormenting Belyaev is also worsening.

Throughout his life, battling his illness, this man found strength and immersed himself in the study of literature, history, foreign languages and medicine.

Long-awaited success

In 1925, while living in Moscow, the aspiring writer published the story “The Head of Professor Dowell” in Rabochaya Gazeta. And from that moment on, the works of Alexander Belyaev were published en masse in the then famous magazines “World Pathfinder”, “Knowledge is Power” and “Around the World”.

During his stay in Moscow, the young talent creates many magnificent novels - “Amphibian Man”, “The Last Man from Atlantis”, “Island of Lost Ships” and “Struggle on the Air”.

At the same time, Belyaev is published in the unusual newspaper “Gudok”, in which people like M.A. also left their mark. Bulgakov, E.P. Petrov, I.A. Ilf, V.P. Kataev,

Later, after moving to Leningrad, he published the books “The Wonderful Eye”, “Underwater Farmers”, “Lord of the World”, as well as the stories “The Inventions of Professor Wagner”, which Soviet citizens read with rapture.

The last days of the prose writer's life

The Belyaev family lived in the suburbs of Leningrad, the city of Pushkin, and found themselves under occupation. The weakened body could not withstand the terrible hunger. In January 1942, Alexander Belyaev passed away. After some time, the writer’s relatives were deported to Poland.

Before today It remains a mystery where Alexander Belyaev was buried, short biography which is filled with man’s constant struggle for life. And yet, in honor of the talented prose writer, a memorial stele was erected in Pushkin at the Kazan cemetery.

The novel “Ariel” is Belyaev’s last creation; it was published by the “Modern Writer” publishing house shortly before the author’s death.

"Life after death

Many films have been made based on the novels of the prose writer. Thus, since 1961, eight films have been filmed, some of them are part of the classics of Soviet cinema - “The Amphibian Man”, “The Testament of Professor Dowell”, “The Island of Lost Ships” and “The Air Seller”.

The story of Ichthyander

Perhaps the most famous work of A.R. Belyaev’s novel “Amphibian Man,” which was written in 1927. It was he, along with “The Head of Professor Dowell,” that H.G. Wells highly appreciated.

Belyaev was inspired to create “Amphibian Man” by, firstly, memories of reading the novel “Iktaner and Moisette” by the French writer Jean de la Hire, and secondly, a newspaper article about the trial taking place in Argentina in the case of a doctor who conducted various experiments over people and animals. Today, it is practically impossible to establish the name of the newspaper and the details of the process. But this once again proves that, when 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 author’s very first works, “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 republished several times in the territory of the Soviet Union.

Prophecies of a science fiction writer

Comparing the predictions of representatives of science fiction, it is important to note that the scientific ideas of the books of the Soviet writer Alexander Belyaev were realized by 99 percent.

Thus, the main idea of the novel “The Head of Professor Dowell” was 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. A widespread achievement in medicine today - 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 technologies for long-term human stay under water. Thus, 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 in the thirties of the twentieth century in Great Britain, as well as the creation of psychotropic weapons - all this was described by the science fiction writer in the book “Lord of the World” back in 1926.

The novel “The Man Who Lost Face” tells the story of the successful development of plastic surgery and the ethical problems that arose in connection with this. In the story, the state governor transforms into a black man, taking upon himself all the burdens of racial discrimination. Here we can draw a certain parallel in the destinies of the mentioned hero and the famous American singer Michael Jackson, who, fleeing unjust persecution, performed a considerable number of operations to change his skin color.

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

beauty

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