Alexander Belyaev author. The mysterious life and death of science fiction writer Alexander Belyaev. “Forensic formalism” and dreams of travel: the childhood and youth of Alexander Belyaev

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

The expression “The book is the source of knowledge” can well be called the motto of the science fiction writer Alexander Romanovich Belyaev. He carried his love of reading, the desire to learn new things, exploring new spaces, new areas of science throughout his life.

In those years when this photograph was taken, young Sasha Belyaev was attracted to distant countries, travel 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 himself and became the center of this small society.

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

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

2009 marked 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, and moreover, the texts repeat errors that we correct using archival materials.

Alexander Belyaev was born on March 16 (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 Vasilyevna. In total, the family had three children: Vasily, Alexander and Nina.

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

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

“My brother and I,” recalled Alexander Romanovich, decided to go traveling 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.

Later Wells came with the nightmares of the “Struggle of the Worlds.” This world was no longer so comfortable...”

It is not difficult to imagine how the boy’s imagination was excited by the event that happened on July 6, 1893: in the Lopatinsky garden he rose balloon with a gymnast sitting on a trapeze to a height of one kilometer, after which she jumped off the trapeze. The spectators gasped in horror. But a parachute opened above 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 from the roof with an umbrella in his hands, then on a parachute made from 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. Publications about the writer report that he entered there at the age of six. But that's not true.

The Smolensk Diocesan Gazette annually published official information about students of the theological school and seminary. And in No. 13 for 1895 there is a “List of students of the theological school, compiled by the school board after one-year tests at the end of the 1894/1895 academic year and approved by His Eminence on July 5, 1895 under No. 251.” Among the first grade students: “Yakov Alekseev, Dmitry Almazov, Alexander Belyaev, Nikolai Vysotsky...” At the end of the list it is indicated that these students are transferred to the second 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 Belyaev estate, about five minutes' walk at a leisurely pace.

Classes were easy for him. The same statements (No. 12 for 1898) provide a list of fourth grade students: “First category: Pavel Dyakonov, Alexander Belyaev, Nikolai Lebedev, Yakov Alekseev<...>graduated from the full course of the school and were awarded transfer to the first class of the seminary.”

This is when Alexander Belyaev becomes a seminarian - at the age of 14, and not at the age of 11, as indicated in the well-established biographical information for collected works of his works and in many other publications about the writer.

Expert in the local area, local historian SM. Yakovlev wrote: “The Smolensk Theological Seminary existed for 190 years. It was founded in 1728 by the former rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, Bishop Gideon Vishnevsky... “a most learned man of great severity,” classes were taught by highly educated teachers invited from Kyiv. The study of Latin, ancient Greek and Polish was mandatory.

At the seminary, Belyaev was famous not only for his success in his studies, but also for his “speeches at evenings - reading poems.”

In the first years of its existence, the Smolensk Seminary hosted spectacular performances spiritual content (mystery) with the aim of strengthening 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) provides an alphabetical list of graduates: among them is Alexander Belyaev.

After graduating from the seminary, contrary to the wishes of his father, who saw his son as his successor, Alexander entered the Demidovsky 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 was reorganized in 1833 first to a lyceum with the same period of study, and in 1868 to a four-year legal lyceum with university rights). At the same time, Alexander received a musical education in violin class.

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

It is known that in 1909 he worked as an assistant to a sworn attorney. But Alexander Romanovich’s creative nature required an outlet, and he became an active participant in the Smolensk Society of Lovers of Fine Arts, where he gave lectures, then a member of the board of the Smolensk Public Entertainment Club and a member of the board of the Symphony Society. During the summer months, theater troupes usually toured Smolensk, most often Basmanova. Belyaev writes reviews in the Smolensky Vestnik for almost every performance staged 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.

Anyone who has read his works knows how keenly 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 found himself under police surveillance. The information is in the gendarme file “Diary of external surveillance, reports on the Smolensk organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party.” The Belyaev case began on December 30, 1908. The report of Colonel N. G. Ivanenko for November 10, 1909 presents a list of persons who belonged to the local organization, led by a certain Karelin. This list also contains the surname of Alexander Romanovich Belyaev: “...assistant attorney at law, 32 years old (in fact, he was 25 years old. - Author’s note), nickname “Live” (given in connection with his character. - Approx. auto.)". The report states that the suspects' premises were searched on November 2, 1909. “Alive” appears in the secret police diary until the end of its recording (January 19, 1910).

We managed to find in the Smolensky Vestnik (for the same years) reports about several trials conducted by A. Belyaev as an assistant sworn attorney. But one of them - dated October 23, 1909 - is of particular interest, since Belyaev spoke in the trial of the leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. And on December 25, as reported in the newspaper, “... V. Karelin, who was arrested a month ago, was released from the Smolensk prison.” I think this can be considered proof of how successfully Alexander Romanovich conducted the defense. In 1911, Belyaev won a major court case against 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 “Report on foreign passports issued since March 1, 1913 by the Smolensk Governor”: “... to hereditary honorary citizen, assistant attorney at law Alexander Romanovich Belyaev for No. 57.”

In his autobiography about the purposes of this trip, the writer writes: “I studied history, art, went to Italy to study the Renaissance. I’ve been to Switzerland, Germany, Austria, 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, most of his novels take 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 Confirmation of this is given in the 9-volume collected works of the writer: “In 1913, there were not so many daredevils who flew on Bleriot and Farman airplanes - “bookcases” and “coffins”, as they were called then. However, Belyaev is in Italy, in Ventimiglia, flying in a seaplane.”

Here is an excerpt from the description of this flight: “The sea beneath us is going lower and lower. The houses surrounding the bay appear not white, but red, because from above we only see 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 before us, as in a panorama.”

Belyaev would then convey his feelings, in particular, in the story “The Man Who Doesn’t Sleep”: “Some kind of river appeared in the distance. The city lies on the high coastal hills. On the right bank, the city was surrounded by the 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 Vesuvius and published an essay about the ascent in the Smolensky Bulletin. 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 to appear, and we found ourselves in front of a whole sea of ​​black frozen lava. The horses snored, shuffled their feet, and they decided to step onto the lava, as if it were water. Finally, nervously, with jumps, the horses climbed onto the lava and walked at a walk. The lava rustled and broke off under the horses' feet. The sun was setting. Below, the bay was already covered with a bluish haze. There came a short, gentle evening. On the mountain, the sun snatched several houses from the encroaching darkness, and they stood as if heated by the internal fire of the crater. The proximity of the peak had an effect... Vesuvius is a symbol, 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 the little man, just as defenseless, despite all the conquests 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 acrid, suffocating steam. It either lay along the black, uneven edges of the vent, corroded by moisture and ash, or flew up in a white ball, as if from a giant chimney of a steam locomotive. And at that moment, somewhere deep below, the darkness was illuminated, as if by the distant glow of a fire...”

Alexander Romanovich’s writing talent is manifested not only in descriptions of natural phenomena, he also understands people with their contradictions: “These Italians are an amazing people! They know how to combine sloppiness with a deep understanding of beauty, greed with kindness, petty passions with a truly great impulse of the soul.”

Everything he saw, refracted through the prism of his perception, the writer will later reflect in his works.

It can probably be argued that the trip helped him finally decide on his final choice of profession. In 1913-1915, having left the bar, Alexander Romanovich worked in the editorial office of the Smolensky Vestnik newspaper, first as a secretary, then as an editor. Today, a memorial plaque is installed on the building where the editorial office was located.

Only his craving for the theater remained unrealized so far. Since childhood, he organized home performances, in which he was an artist, a screenwriter, and a director, playing any role, even women’s. Transformed instantly. They quickly learned about Belyaev’s theater and began inviting 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 noisy great success of the play “was created by the tireless energy, loving attitude and subtle understanding of the leaders Yu. N. Saburova and A. R. Belyaev, who took upon themselves a grandiose, if you think about it, task - to stage an opera, even for children, using only the resources of the educational institution.”

A resident of Smolensk, SM, writes about this side of Alexander Romanovich’s creative nature in his memoirs. Yakovlev: “The charming image of A. R. Belyaev sank into my soul from the time when he helped us - students of the N. P. Evnevich gymnasium - to stage, together with the students of the women's gymnasium E. G. Sheshatka, at one of our student evenings the wonderful fantastic fairy tale play "Three years, three days, three minutes." Taking the plot core of the fairy tale as a basis, A. R. Belyaev, as a stage 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 imagination knew no bounds! He organically “integrated” into the fabric of the fairy tale the witty remarks, dialogues, crowd scenes, choral and choreographic numbers he invented<...>His data was excellent. He had a good appearance, a high level of speech culture, great musicality, a bright temperament and an amazing art of impersonation. He had a particularly strong talent for mimicry, which is easy to judge from the numerous mask photographs of him preserved by the writer’s daughter, Svetlana Alexandrovna, which unusually accurately and expressively convey the range of various states of the human psyche - indifference, curiosity, suspicion, fear, horror, bewilderment. , tenderness, delight, sadness, etc.”

Alexander Romanovich's first literary work - the play "Grandma Moira" - appeared in 1914 in the Moscow magazine for children "Protalinka".

While visiting Moscow (which beckoned and attracted him), Belyaev met with Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky and even passed his acting tests.

So far he has succeeded in everything. The future promised success in his endeavors. But the tragic year 1915 came for A. Belyaev. The young man was struck by a serious illness: spinal tuberculosis. His wife leaves him. Doctors recommend changing the climate, his mother and nanny transport him to Yalta. Alexander Belyaev was bedridden for six years, three of which were in a plaster corset.

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

Only in 1922 did his condition improve somewhat. Of course, the love and care of Margarita Konstantinovna Magnushevskaya, who became his second wife, helped. They got married in 1922 before the Nativity Fast, and on May 22, 1923 they registered their marriage at the registry office. After marriage, “...I had to,” Belyaev recalled, “enter the criminal investigation office, 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.”

A year later, Alexander Romanovich's long-time 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 live in a damp room in a semi-basement on Lyalin Lane. On March 15, 1924, a daughter, Lyudmila, was born into the Belyaev family.

During these years, Alexander Romanovich worked at the People's Commissariat of Postal and Telegraph as a planner, and after some time as a legal adviser at the People's Commissariat for Education. And in the evenings he studies literature.

1925 Belyaev is 41 years old. His story “The Head of Professor Dowell” was published on the pages of the World Pathfinder magazine. It's a story, not a novel. The science fiction writer's first attempt at writing. And the beginning of a new, creative life for Alexander Romanovich Belyaev. In the article “About my works” Belyaev will later say: “I can report that the work “The Head of Professor Dowell” is a work to a large extent... autobiographical. The disease 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 controlled 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. That’s when I changed my mind and experienced everything that a “head without a body” can experience.”

Belyaev’s professional literary activity began with the publication of the story. He collaborates with the magazines “World Pathfinder”, “Around the World”, “Knowledge is Power”, “Struggle of the Worlds”, publishes new science fiction 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 tirelessly types out his new works on an old Remington typewriter. The Belyaevs' life is getting better. They bought a piano. In the evenings they play music. They visit theaters and museums. We made new friends.

The year 1928 became significant in Belyaev’s work: the novel “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 year later a third edition appeared. The popularity of the novel exceeded all expectations. Critics explained the secret of its success by saying that it was “a universal novel that combined science fiction, adventure, social themes and melodrama.” The book was 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 at that time!)

In December 1928, Belyaev left Moscow and moved to Leningrad. The apartment on Mozhaiskogo Street was furnished with taste. “On occasion,” recalls Svetlana Aleksandrovna Belyaeva, “my parents bought wonderful antique furniture - an office, in it there was 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 is based on a scientific basis. The writer follows the news of science and technology. His knowledge is encyclopedically diverse, and he easily navigates in new directions.

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

Here the family suffered grief: on March 19, daughter Lyudmila died of meningitis, and Alexander Romanovich experienced 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 science fiction writer’s imagination pictures a flight to the Moon, interplanetary travel, and the discovery of new worlds. “Airship” is dedicated to this topic. After reading it, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky noted in his review: “The story... is wittyly written and scientific enough for imagination.” Belyaev also sent the story “Leap into Nothing” - about a journey to Venus - to Tsiolkovsky, and the scientist wrote a preface to it. Their correspondence continued until Tsiolkovsky passed away. The writer dedicated his novel “KETS Star” (1936) to the memory of Konstantin Eduardovich.

In October 1931, the Belyaevs moved again - to Leningrad, where they lived until 1938. In recent years, the writer was ill and almost never got out of bed. And in the summer of 1938 they exchanged 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 club.

Here the Patriotic War finds him. Belyaev died in the occupied city on January 6, 1942. At the Kazan cemetery in Pushkin, above his grave there is a white obelisk with the inscription “Belyaev Alexander Romanovich”, below is an open book with a quill pen. On the pages of the book it is written: “Science Fiction Writer.”

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

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

It is believed, and not without reason, that Alexander Romanovich Belyaev has three lives: one - from birth until the publication of the story “The Head of Professor Dowell”, the second - from this first story until the day of the writer’s death, the third - the longest life in his books.

The journal “Science and Life” became the laureate of the 2009 Alexander Belyaev Literary Prize in the category “The magazine - for the most interesting activity during the year preceding the award.” The prize was awarded “for fidelity to the traditions of domestic popular science and 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 was celebrated, who wrote not only the science fiction novels “Amphibian Man”, “Ariel”, “The Head of Professor Dowell”, but also scientific -popular works. However, it was first awarded in 1990, and in its early years it was awarded for literary works in the science fiction genre. In 2002, the status of the prize was revised, and now it is given exclusively for works of popular science and scientific-art (educational) literature.

1. "Amphibian Man"

For Alexander Belyaev, science fiction became his life’s work. He corresponded with scientists, studied works on medicine, technology, and biology. Belyaev’s famous novel “Amphibian Man” was praised by H.G. Wells, and scientific stories were published in many Soviet magazines.

“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. His father died and the young man had to support his family: he 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 an 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 the 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” was a great 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. The 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 be interested in the human psyche: the work of the brain, its connection with the body and emotional state. About this he created the works “The Man Who Doesn’t Sleep”, “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 members of the jet propulsion research group, and 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 science fiction novel was published - “Laboratory of Dublve”, as well as the article “Cinderella” about the difficult position of science fiction 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.

In my early youth, I simply read the works of Alexander Belyaev. Everything was re-read more than once, or twice. Wonderful films have been made based on his works; in my opinion, “Amphibian Man” with Korenev and Vertinskaya especially stands out. But still, not a single film made such an impression on me as the books! But what did I know about the life of the writer, whose works gave me many wonderful moments while I enjoyed them? It turned out - nothing!

The famous Soviet science fiction writer Alexander Belyaev is called the “Russian Jules Verne.” Who among us in adolescence did not read “The Amphibian Man” and “The Head of Professor Dowell”? Meanwhile, in the life of the writer himself there was a lot of strange and incomprehensible things. Despite his fame, it is still not known exactly how he died and where exactly he was buried...

Belyaev was born in 1884 into the family of a priest. The father sent his son to the theological seminary, however, after graduating from it, he did not continue his religious education, but entered the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl. He was going to become a lawyer. Soon, Sasha’s father died, the family found themselves strapped for money, and in order to continue his studies, the young man was forced to earn extra money - giving lessons, drawing scenery for the theater, playing the violin in a circus orchestra.

Alexander was a versatile person: he played various musical instruments, performed in a home theater, and flew an airplane. Another hobby was filming so-called “horror” films (staged, of course). One of the pictures in this “genre” was called: “Human head on a platter in blue tones.”

A significant part of the young man’s life was connected with the theater, which he loved since childhood. He himself could act as a playwright, a director, and an actor. The Belyaevs' home theater in Smolensk was widely known and toured not only around the city, but also in its environs. Once, during the visit of the capital’s troupe to Smolensk under the direction of Stanislavsky, A. Belyaev managed to replace a sick artist and act in several performances instead. The success was complete, K. Stanislavsky even invited A. Belyaev to stay in the troupe, but for an unknown reason he refused.

Even as a child, Sasha lost his sister: Nina died of sarcoma. And a mysterious and mysterious thing happened to brother Vasily, a student at the Veterinary Institute. creepy story. Once Alexander and Vasily were visiting their uncle. A group of young relatives decided to go boating. For some reason Vasya refused to go with them. For some reason, Sasha took a piece of clay with him and molded a human head from it right in the boat. Looking at it, those present were horrified: the head had Vasily’s face, only his features turned out to be somehow frozen, lifeless. Alexander threw the craft into the water with annoyance and then felt alarmed. Stating that something had happened to his brother, he demanded that the boat be turned towards the shore. They were met by a tearful aunt who said that Vasily had drowned while swimming. This happened, as it turned out, precisely at the moment when Sasha threw the clay cast into the water.

After graduating from the Demidov Lyceum, A. Belyaev received the position of a 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. Having finished any business, he went to travel abroad; visited France, Italy, visited Venice.

Belyaev plunges headlong into journalistic activity. He collaborates with the newspaper Smolensky Vestnik, where he becomes editor a year later. He also plays the piano and violin and works in Smolensk people's house, is a member of the Glinka Music Circle, the Smolensk Symphony Society, and the Society of Lovers of Fine Arts. He visited Moscow, where he auditioned for Stanislavsky.

He is thirty years old, he is married and he needs to somehow make decisions in life. Belyaev is seriously thinking about moving to the capital, where it will not be difficult for him to get a job. But at the end of 1915, illness suddenly struck him. For the young and strong man the world is collapsing. Doctors for a long time could not determine his illness, and when they found out, it turned out that it was spinal tuberculosis. Even during a long-standing illness with pleurisy in Yartsevo, a doctor, while performing a puncture, touched the eighth spine with a needle. Now it has given such a severe relapse. In addition, his wife Verochka leaves him, and to his colleague. Doctors, friends, all relatives considered him doomed.

His mother Nadezhda Vasilievna leaves the house and takes her motionless son to Yalta. For six years, from 1916 to 1922, Belyaev was bedridden, three of which many years(from 1917 to 1921) he was shackled in plaster. Belyaev will write about these years, when one government replaced another in Crimea, ten years later in the story “Among the Wild Horses.”

Belyaev's willpower endured, and during his illness he studied foreign languages ​​(French, German and English), and was interested in medicine, history, biology, and technology. He couldn’t move, but some ideas for his future novels came to his mind right then, during real estate.

In the spring of 1919, his mother, Nadezhda Vasilievna, dies of hunger, and his son, sick, in a cast, with a high fever, cannot even accompany her to the cemetery. And only in 1921 he was able to take his first steps thanks not only to his willpower, but also as a result of his love for Margarita Konstantinovna Magnushevskaya, who worked in the city library. A little later, like Arthur Dowell, he will invite her to see his bride in the mirror, whom he will marry if he receives consent. And in the summer of 1922, Belyaev managed to get into a holiday home for scientists and writers in Gaspra. There they made him a celluloid corset and he was finally able to get out of bed. This orthopedic corset became his constant companion until the end of his life, because... Until his death, the illness either subsided or again confined him to bed for several months.

Be that as it may, Belyaev began working in the criminal investigation department, and then in the People's Commissariat for Education, as an inspector for minors in an orphanage seven kilometers from Yalta. The country, through the NEP, began to gradually raise its economy, and therefore the well-being of the country. In the same year, 1922, before the Nativity Fast, Alexander Belyaev got married in church to Margarita, and on May 22, 1923, they legalized their marriage with a civil status act in the registry office.

Then he returned to Moscow, where he got a job as a legal consultant. IN free time Belyaev wrote poetry, and in 1925 his first story, “The Head of Professor Dowell,” began to be published in the newspaper “Gudok.” In three years, “The Island of Lost Ships,” “The Last Man from Atlantis,” “Amphibian Man,” and a collection of short stories were created. On March 15, 1925, their daughter Lyudmila was born.

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

In July 1929, Belyaev’s second daughter, Svetlana, was born, and in September the Belyaevs left for Kyiv, to a warmer and drier climate.

However, soon the disease made itself felt again, and I had to move from rainy Leningrad to sunny Kyiv. Living conditions in Kyiv turned out to be better, but obstacles arose for creativity - manuscripts there were accepted only in Ukrainian, so they had to be sent to Moscow or Leningrad.

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: ignorance Ukrainian language made life in Kyiv unbearable. Constant everyday troubles prevented him from writing, and yet A. Belyaev created during these years the play “Alchemists...” and the novel “Leap into Nothing.”

The year 1937 also affected the fate of Belyaev. He, unlike many of his friends and acquaintances, was not imprisoned. But they stopped printing. There was nothing left to live on. He goes to Murmansk and gets a job as an accountant on a fishing trawler. Depression and unbearable pain from the corset, to the surprise of many, give a completely opposite result - he writes the novel “Ariel”. The main character experiments with levitation: the young man becomes able to fly. Belyaev writes about himself, or more precisely, about the unfulfilled dreams of his life.

The war found the family in Pushkin. Belyaev, who had recently undergone spinal surgery, refused to evacuate, and soon the city was occupied by the Germans.

According to the official version, the science fiction writer died of starvation in January 1942. The body was transferred to the crypt at the Kazan cemetery to wait in line for burial. The turn was supposed to come only in March, and in February the writer’s wife and daughter were taken captive to Poland.

Here they waited for liberation by Soviet troops. And then they were sent into exile in Altai for 11 long years.

When they were finally able to return to Pushkin, former neighbor handed over the miraculously surviving glasses of Alexander Romanovich. Margarita found a tightly wrapped piece of paper on the bow. She carefully unfolded it. “Do not look for my traces on this earth,” her husband wrote. - I'm waiting for you in heaven. Yours, Ariel."

There is a legend that Belyaev’s body was taken out of the crypt and buried by a fascist general and soldiers. Allegedly, the general read Belyaev’s works as a child and therefore decided to honor his body to the ground. According to another version, the corpse was simply buried in a common grave. One way or another, the exact burial place of the writer is unknown.

Subsequently, a memorial stele was erected at the Kazan cemetery in Pushkin. But Belyaev’s grave is not under it.

One of the versions of the writer’s death is connected with the legendary Amber Room. According to publicist Fyodor Morozov, 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, Gestapo specialists also became actively interested in the Amber Room. 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. Suffice it to remember what fate befell many researchers who tried to find the wonderful mosaic. Maybe he paid for knowing too much? Or died from torture? They also say that the science fiction writer’s corpse was charred. His death is as mysterious as his works.

Alexander Romanovich Belyaev(March 4 (16), 1884 - January 6, 1942) - Soviet science fiction writer, one of the founders of Soviet science fiction literature. Among his most famous novels are: “The Head of Professor Dowell”, “The Amphibian Man”, “Ariel”, “The Star of KEC” and many others. He is sometimes called the Russian "Jules Verne".

Born on March 4 (16 NS) in Smolensk in the family of a priest. Since childhood, I read a lot and was fond of adventure literature, especially Jules Verne. Subsequently, he flew airplanes of one of the first designs and made gliders himself.

In 1901 he graduated from theological seminary, but did not become a priest; on the contrary, he left there as a convinced atheist. He loved painting, music, theater, played in amateur performances, took up photography, and studied technology.

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

He never stopped dreaming of distant countries and, having saved money, in 1913 he traveled to Italy, France, and Switzerland. He retained the impressions from this trip for the rest of his life. Returning to Smolensk, he worked at the Smolensky Vestnik, and a year later became the editor of this publication. A serious illness - bone tuberculosis - confined him to bed for six years, three of which he was in a cast. Not giving in to despair, he is engaged in self-education: he studies foreign languages, medicine, biology, history, technology, and reads a lot. Having overcome the disease, in 1922 he returned to a full life, serving as an inspector for juvenile affairs. On the advice of doctors, he lives in Yalta, works as a teacher in an orphanage.

In 1923 he moved to Moscow and 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.”

In the 1920s, such famous works as “The Island of Lost Ships,” “Amphibian Man,” “Above the Abyss,” and “Struggle on the Air” were published. He writes essays about 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 “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, “KETS Star”, “Wonderful Eye”, “Under the Arctic Sky” were written.

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