Swedish children's writer Astrid Lindgren (née Anna Emilia Eriksson) was born on November 14, 1907 in southern Sweden, in the small town of Vimmerby in the province of Småland, to a farmer's family.
After graduating from high school, Astrid took up journalism and worked for the local newspaper Wimmerby Tidningen. She then moved to Stockholm, trained as a stenographer.
In December 1926, Astrid's son Lars was born. Due to lack of livelihood and lack of work, the young mother had to give her son to a family of foster parents in Denmark.
In 1927 she took a job as a secretary in the Torsten Lindfors office.
In 1928, Astrid got a job as a secretary at the Royal Automobile Club.
In April 1931, she married her boss, Sture Lindgren, and took her husband's surname.
After marriage, Astrid Lindgren was able to pick up her son, whom her husband adopted. She devoted herself entirely to caring for Lars, and then for her daughter Karin, who was born in 1934. She took up secretarial work in fits and starts, wrote fairy tales for family magazines and Christmas calendars.
In 1944, Lindgren took part in a competition for the best book for girls, announced by the publishing house "Raben and Sjogren" and received the second prize for the story "Britt-Marie pours out her soul" and a publishing contract for its publication.
Astrid Lindgren jokingly recalled that one of the reasons that prompted her to write was the cold Stockholm winters and the illness of her little daughter Karin, who kept asking her mother to tell her something. It was then that mother and daughter came up with a mischievous girl with red pigtails Pippi Longstocking. The stories about Pippi were later included in the book that Lindgren gave to her daughter on her birthday, and in 1945 the first book about Pippi was published by the Raben and Sjögren publishing house.
1940-1950s - the heyday of Lindgren's creative activity. She wrote a trilogy about Pippi Longstocking (1945-1952), a story about detective Calle Blomkvist (1946-1953).
Astrid Lindgren's books have been translated into 91 languages. The most popular stories associated with the girl Pippi Longstocking and Carlson formed the basis of many theatrical productions and film adaptations.
Around the world created by the writer.
Shortly after the death of the writer in 2002, the Swedish government, in order to promote the development of children's and youth literature, was one of the largest in the field of literature for children and adolescents. The amount of monetary reward is 5 million Swedish kronor (500 thousand euros).
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Astrid Lindgren is one of the most popular children's writers in the world.
Thousands of her fans grew up on Carlson's sayings "Trifling, the matter of life" and "Calm, only calmness", on books about the adventures of "the strongest girl in the world" Pippi Longstocking. But in the life of Astrid Lindgren, who died in 2002 at a very advanced age, there were many secrets. The grandson and great-grandson of the Swedish writer told MK in St. Petersburg why Astrid Lindgren gave her first child to a foster family and hid it for almost her entire life.
"Grandma dressed up as a witch"
Last weekend in St. Petersburg there was a tour of the park "The World of Astrid Lindgren". The Okhta Mall shopping and entertainment center turned into a land of fairy tales for two days, where Carlson lives in a house on the roof, and Pippi and Emil from Löneberga walk along the “streets”. While the children had fun with their favorite characters, adults had the opportunity to meet Olaf Nyman and Johan Palmberg. 45-year-old Olaf is the grandson of Astrid Lindgren, the son of her youngest daughter Karin (by the way, it was she who invented Pippi Longstocking), 26-year-old Johan is a great-grandson. They talked about their famous grandmother, with whom they spent their entire childhood.
When you were born, Astrid Lindgren was at the peak of her fame, she wrote books, went on business trips, she probably had no time for you?
Olaf: - When I was little, I didn't see Astrid as a celebrity, she was just my favorite grandmother. She had a summer house on one of the islands near Stockholm, where she took us every summer - her seven grandchildren. In the morning we had no right to disturb her, because at that time she was always writing books. But in the afternoon, my grandmother herself called us to her place, treated us to croutons with butter and jam (many Swedish grandmothers give them to their grandchildren), we played cards together.
Johan: - Unlike many adults, Astrid has always been interested in how we live. She asked why we were sad and listened in all seriousness to my complaints that someone had taken my toy away from me. But she was already over 90, she could not see well.
Has she ever been angry with you?
Olaf: - I never saw Astrid lose her temper, she almost never yelled at the children. If we behaved badly - for example, we fought, pulled each other's hair - then she, looking at our behavior, became sad. She could make a stern remark, but even so, we saw that she still loves us. And she loved to play pranks herself - I remember once on my birthday (I was 6 years old) I invited friends home, we set up a tent in the room, and my grandmother came in a witch costume. She scared us and drove around the apartment with a broom. It was very cool!
Olaf: - Of course! Each of her grandchildren had all her books, and for the holidays she gave us new ones - with her own wishes on the flyleaf. I loved Carlson most of all, his phrases about “Calm, only calm” and “Trifles, the business of life”, I still say them to myself when I face problems in my adult life. By the way, what struck me here in Russia is that Carlson has been your number one hero since Soviet times. And in the rest of the world, the most beloved character is still Pippi.
Johan: - And every night before going to bed I listened to my great-grandmother's tales, recorded on cassettes, read by herself. And now I read books by Astrid Lindgren on duty: they send me scripts for plays and films based on my grandmother's works, I compare them with the original text in order to avoid any inaccuracies. Astrid took the way her characters were "used" very seriously during her lifetime. For example, she didn’t approve the script if people added adult jokes that children wouldn’t understand. Something vulgar or some political remarks. Such things my grandmother severely suppressed.
- What is it like to be the grandson of the most famous children's writer?
Olaf: - I tried not to tell anyone who my grandmother was. But there was always some classmate who “set me up” in front of a new teacher and shouted: “Here he is, the grandson of Astrid Lindgren.” When you are the grandson of a national Swedish heroine, who is considered almost a saint, you have high expectations and sometimes show too much attention. Of course, I was proud of my grandmother, but, for example, abroad I was always silent about whose grandson I was.
“I wanted a child, but his father didn’t”
But in fact, her life was far from “holiness”: the daughter of a farmer from small Vimmerby “disgraced” her family and gave birth at the age of 17. Astrid did not like to remember this fact of her biography?
Johan: - Yes, for the small village where Astrid's family comes from, it was a huge scandal - she was an intern at the local newspaper and became the mistress of her boss - 50-year-old married man. When a 17-year-old girl became pregnant, she had to keep the name of the child's father a secret, because he was just trying to divorce his wife. When the pregnancy could no longer be hidden, Astrid left for Stockholm, and from there to Copenhagen, where she found the only clinic that allowed her to give birth "anonymously", without giving the names of the mother and father. When her son Lars was born, Astrid had to leave him to the foster family of Stevens, who lived in Denmark, and herself return to Stockholm and look for work. Astrid Lindgren hid this fact of her biography for most of her life, confessing this to journalists only at an advanced age.
- She did not want this child?
Johan: - Later she wrote: "I wanted a child, but not his father." Lars' father wanted to marry Astrid, but she herself did not like it. She did not abandon her son, leaving him in the care of other people. During the first three years of Lasse's life, she cut herself in everything, just to scrape together a ticket from Stockholm to Copenhagen and visit her son, she came to him for weekends, on holidays, and corresponded with his foster family. In Stockholm, she worked as a stenographer, rented a small room for a couple with a girl friend, lived from hand to mouth, escaping with baskets of food that her parents sent her once a month from the village. When Lasse was three years old, she took him to her, especially since then she had already met Sture Lindgren, head of the office at the Royal Automobile Club. They decided to get married, eventually Sture adopted Lasse. But the son of Astrid (he died in 1974. - Ed.) kept in touch with his "first" Danish mother all his life.
Strong man Adolf and Goering as Carlson?
- They say that Astrid's second child - Karin's daughter - was the prototype of Pippi Longstocking?
Johan: - Pippi appeared in 1941. One day, Karin was seriously ill and demanded that her mother tell her stories. And she asked for a story about Pippi Longstocking. Astrid wrote down the stories invented for her daughter about a brave red-haired girl and then gave it to a publisher. By the way, the book was written during the Second World War, so it is not surprising that there is such a character as the strongman Adolf, who performs in the circus, whom Pippi defeats in a fight.
Last year, shocking information appeared on the Internet that the prototype of the famous Carlson was ... Hermann Goering! Allegedly, Hitler's closest ally in the 20s came to Stockholm more than once and made friends with Astrid. And besides, he loved airplanes (hence the propeller) and often used our favorite expressions "a man in his prime."
Olaf: - Who?! Göring?? No, I can guarantee that it is not. Astrid hated and despised the Nazis, and she had never met Goering. The story "The Kid and Carlson" was written only in 1955. During the war years, she kept a kind of "war diary" in which she described what was happening in the world. The war did not touch her personally, because Sweden remained neutral, but she was very afraid that the Nazis might come to power with us.
In the same diary there is such a phrase, dated June 18, 1940: “For me, it’s better to say “Heil Hitler” for the rest of your life than to be under the Russians. Nothing worse can be imagined."
Johan: - Astrid was very worried about her Finnish neighbors who fought against the USSR in 1939. Sweden was in a difficult position - the Nazis occupied Norway and Denmark, the USSR occupied part of Finland. Apparently, then the great-grandmother feared the Communists more than the Nazis. We must not forget the centuries-old history of the Russian-Swedish wars.
Olaf: - Already after the war, my grandmother's attitude towards Russians changed - she even came to the USSR on a visit in the 80s, especially since her books were very popular with you. Because of the Iron Curtain, we did not know much - for example, neither grandmother nor we had ever seen soviet cartoon about Carlson, so beloved by the Russians. Children from all over the world wrote letters to grandmother - dozens of messages came to her every day. And in her old age, already seeing poorly, she tried to answer everything - for this she even had to hire an assistant. Grandmother has always been on the side of the child - no matter what nationality he is.
Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren- Swedish writer, author of the famous books "The Kid and Carlson, who lives on the roof" and the tetralogy about Pippi Longstocking.
was born November 14, 1907 years in the town of Vimmerby in southern Sweden, in a family of peasant farmers. As the writer herself stated in the autobiographical collection My Fictions (1971), she had happy childhood full of games and adventures. After graduating from high school, Astrid briefly worked as a journalist for a local newspaper, and then moved to Stockholm, where she trained as a stenographer. In parallel, she worked in her specialty. Soon she successfully married Sture Lindgren. At that time, she already had a little son, Lars.
Immediately after her marriage, Astrid left her job to take care of her son and newborn daughter Karin (1934). According to the writer, her first tetralogy story, "Pippi Longstocking" (1945), was published precisely thanks to her daughter. When the girl fell ill, she had to tell all sorts of stories every evening. So, once Karin ordered a story about Pippi Longstocking, whose name she invented on the go. The book was a resounding success. Housewife Astrid was immediately offered a job at a children's publishing house and was awarded several prizes. Today, her works have been translated into many languages in 60 or more countries around the world. The story about Carlson also appeared thanks to her daughter, who often talked about a mysterious little man flying in through the window.
In addition to children's books, the writer sometimes created romantic stories, such as The Brothers Lionheart (1979), as well as children's detective stories and picaresque stories about Emil from Lönneberga. Astrid Lindgren became the first children's writer in her country to receive the Achievement Award in Literature. The greatest creative flourishing of the writer fell on the 1940-1950s. One of the best works Lindgren's short story about lonely and neglected children, Mio, My Mio (1954). In her spare time from writing, she hosted various talk shows and quizzes on Swedish TV and radio.
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Biography, life story of Astrid Lindgren
Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren is a Swedish writer.
Childhood
Astrid was born on November 14, 1907 in the small town of Vimmerby (southern Sweden) into a friendly farming family. The year before, Samuel August Eriksson and Hanna Jonsson, who were madly in love with each other, had a boy called Gunnar. A little later, two more girls appeared in the family - Stina Puka and Ingegerd in 1911 and 1916, respectively.
As a child, Astrid adored nature - she was pleased with every new dawn, she was surprised at every flower, every leaf of every tree touched her to the core. Astrid's father, wanting to entertain his children, often told them different interesting stories, many of which, by the way, subsequently became the basis for the works of the already adult Astrid.
IN primary school Astrid was already actively showing her writing skills. Teachers and classmates sometimes even called her the Wemmirbyn Selma Lagerlöf (Selma Lagerlöf is a famous Swedish writer, the first woman in world history to win the Nobel Prize in Literature). Astrid herself, it should be noted, was very flattering to hear something like that in her address, but she was firmly convinced that she did not deserve comparison with such a great writer.
Young years
At the age of sixteen, Astrid graduated from high school. Immediately thereafter, she began working as a journalist for a local newspaper called Wimmerby Tidningen. She worked there for two years, rising to the position of junior reporter. True, already at the age of eighteen, Astrid had to leave her career as a journalist - the girl became pregnant and was forced to look for a quieter job.
Personal life
Being already in position, Astrid left for Stockholm. There she successfully completed secretarial courses. In December 1926, Astrid gave birth to a boy. She named her son Lars. Alas, Astrid had no money at all to support the child and she had to give the boy to a foster family in Denmark. In 1928, Astrid got a job as a secretary at the Royal Automobile Club. At work, she met Sture Lindgren. The young began to meet, gradually their sympathy grew into true love. In April 1931, Astrid and Sture got married. Astrid quickly changed her maiden name Eriksson with her husband's last name and was finally able to take Lars to her place and give her son a real family.
CONTINUED BELOW
After Astrid got married, she decided to devote herself entirely to the family. In 1934, she gave birth to a daughter, Karin. All your own free time Astrid devoted to her husband and children. True, sometimes she still took up the pen, writing little fairy tales for family magazines and making descriptions of other people's travels.
Astrid and Sture lived together for many happy years. In 1952, at the age of fifty-four, the head of the family died.
Writing career
In 1945, Astrid Lindgren's first book, Pippi Longstocking, was published. A fairy tale with a deep meaning has become a real explosion in the world of literature. And she appeared quite by accident. In 1941, little Karin fell ill with pneumonia. Astrid sat by her daughter's bed every evening, telling her different fairy tales, which she composed right on the go. One evening, she came up with the idea to tell her daughter about a funny girl who does not obey anyone's rules and lives as she pleases. After this incident, Astrid began to slowly write about Pippi.
Astrid's daughter really liked the stories about Pippi, she regularly asked her mother to tell her about the new adventures of a funny girl. And Astrid told stories, making up stories that took Karin's breath away. On Karin's tenth birthday, Astrid gave her a homemade book about Pippi Longstocking. But the smart Astrid made two manuscripts - she sent one of them to Bonnier, a large Stockholm publishing house. True, at that time the publishers rejected Astrid, believing that her book was still very raw.
In 1944, Astrid Lindgren took part in a competition for the best book for girls, which was held by a small publishing house. Lindgren took second place and signed a publishing deal with Britt-Marie Pours Out Her Soul. A year later, she was offered to become an editor of children's literature at the same publishing house. Astrid happily agreed. She worked in this position until 1970, after which she retired. All of Astrid's books were published by her own publishing house.
Throughout her life, Astrid Lindgren managed to write more than twenty works, among which there is a trilogy loved by children all over the world about the adventures of Carlson, a cheerful and insanely sweet man in the prime of life who lives on the roof.
Based on Astrid Lindgren's books, performances were staged more than once, her novels were often filmed. Many critics claim that the works of Astrid Lindgren will be relevant at all times.
Astrid Lindgren has always been known for her kindness. So, despite the fact that for her literary creations she earned more than one million crowns, she spent little on herself. She did not know how to save money, but she was always ready to help others. She publicly spoke more than once, calling people to humanism, to mutual respect, to love for all that exists.
In the spring of 1985, Astrid Lindgren turned her attention to the mistreatment of farm animals on many farms. Astrid, who at that time was already seventy-eight years old, immediately wrote a fairy tale letter to all the major newspapers in Stockholm. In the fairy tale, the writer told how one very cute cow protested against the bad and inhuman treatment of livestock. Thus began a major campaign against animal cruelty that lasted for three whole years. In 1988, the authorities nevertheless passed the Lindgren Law - a law on the protection of animals.
Astrid Lindgren has always stood for pacifism, for kindness towards everything - towards children, towards adults, towards animals, towards plants ... She firmly believed that universal love could save this world from destruction. The writer insisted that parents should not beat their offspring for the purpose of education, that animals should not be treated like pieces of furniture, soulless and insensitive, that people should equally respect both the poor and the rich. The ideal world in the understanding of Astrid Lindgren is a world in which all living organisms live in harmony and concord.
Death
Astrid Lindgren passed away on January 28, 2002 in her apartment in Stockholm. She lived a very long (at the time of her death she was already ninety-four years old) and amazing life, giving the world immortal literary masterpieces.
The body of the great writer is buried in the cemetery in her hometown Vimmerby.
Awards and prizes
In 1958, Astril was awarded a medal
It's nice to talk about really bright and wholesome creative people who have enriched the world bright colors. One of them is Astrid Lindgren, whose biography, unfortunately, is distorted by many myths. Her writings have been translated into more than 100 languages, and her extraordinary personality continues to attract attention. Interest in it does not wane, because even today researchers find unpublished manuscripts of it.
Childhood, family
Astrid grew up in a friendly, kind and hardworking family with four children. The little ones adored their father, Samuel August Eriksson, a respected country pastor and picturesque farm owner who was a wonderful storyteller. Perhaps, thanks to the seeds of fiction sown by him, in addition to the world-famous writer, her two younger sisters, Stina and Ingrid, also became journalists.
The mother of the heroine of our story, Hanna Jonson, was an ideal mother and a diligent housewife, for each of her children Hanna was like the sun. With gratitude, Astrid Lindgren always remembers her childhood. The biography of any child, in her opinion, for his own good and further development should contain lines that tell about communication with nature. Astrid recalls her childhood with gratitude to her parents in two words: security and freedom.
The house of Lindgren's parents, the legendary hospitable in the village of Vimemrby, whose heart was a kitchen with a magnificent oven, has now become a famous Swedish museum. The reader's interest in the writer has not weakened even now.
Youth
When her journalists asked what period of life is the most miserable: "Youth and old age," Astrid Lindgren answered. Her biography confirms this statement. The inner uncertainty of youth forced the girl to assert herself. She was the first in the village to cut her braid and began to wear a men's suit for originality.
A talented girl got a job for 60 crowns a month in a local newspaper. It was the owner of this newspaper, Reinhold Blumberg, who at that time was divorcing his wife, who seduced her. On his part, at that time the father of seven children, this was undoubtedly an immoral act. As a result, the girl was in a position. And the biography of Astrid Lindgren from now on differs not only in the nuances of growing up. Difficult times have indeed come in the life of the future writer.
The birth of a son
At that time in Sweden, single mothers were practically illegal: not only were they not entitled to even minimal social protection, their children were often taken away from them by a court decision.
The pastor's daughter, in order to hide the pregnancy out of wedlock from the strict Protestant flock, in agreement with her parents, went to give birth in neighboring Denmark, in Copenhagen. Relatives living there helped find her a clinic for childbirth, as well as a foster mother for her son Lars, who was born. Having given the child to the care of strangers, which she later regretted all her life, the mother herself left for Stockholm in search of work, dreaming of getting her son back.
While studying and then working as a typist and stenographer, Astrid Lindgren, having barely saved up enough money, hurried to go to Lars. The biography of the writer is especially difficult and touching. Mom felt the defenselessness and loneliness of the child with her soul, coming to Denmark for the weekend, she saw those sad eyes. Later, this impression will be reflected in the book Rasmus the Tramp.
Marriage
In Stockholm, Lindgren worked for the Royal Society of Motorists. The head of this organization was her future husband, Niels Sture Lindgren. In 1931 they got married. This made it possible for the writer to finally pick up her son. The husband adopted him. Astrid Lindgren's life began to improve. Connected with her husband real love. They are deep intelligent people, in love with literature, really suited each other.
What Niels Lindgren was like illustrates a fact from his life. In those years, the family's earnings were rather modest, and one day he went to buy a suit for himself with money specially set aside in advance. He returned home with a beaming face, but without a suit, with an effort carrying heavy bales of books in his hands - the complete works of Hans Christian Andersen. Three years later, their daughter Karen was born.
Political activity
However, in the future, their married life was not cloudless. Astrid, on the eve of the World War, to the displeasure of her apolitical husband, showed her involvement in politics. She believed in herself and was inspired by literature - this is how the world-famous writer Astrid Lindgren happened.
What did a resident of a neutral country imagine civilizational challenges to be? Recently published, discovered in 2007 in the attic, the writer's war diaries tell about her worldview. Astrid, like most of the educated population of Sweden, believed that her country was threatened by "two dragons": Hitler's fascism, which enslaved Norway, and Stalin's Bolshevism, which attacked Finland in order to "protect the Russian population." Salvation for mankind Lindgren saw in the recognition of the ideas of social democracy by the world. She joined the respective party.
Start in great literature
Although her first fairy tales were published in magazines and almanacs as early as the 1930s, the Swede herself outlines the beginning of her work in 1941. It was at this time that Astrid Lindgren's daughter Karen, suffering from pneumonia, asked her mother to tell her bedtime stories about the fictional girl Pippi Longstocking. It is interesting that the girl who was in the heat came up with the name of her heroine. Every evening, a caring mother told a recovering child a new story about a fabulous baby. She lived alone, was kind and fair. She loved adventures, and they happened to her. Pippi, with a slender build, was distinguished by incredible physical strength, she had a strong, resilient character ...
Thus, a wonderful collection was created, printed by the new publishing house Raben and Sjogren. He brought the writer worldwide fame.
Boldin Autumn Lindgren
The end of the forties - the beginning of the fifties was marked by a creative upsurge for the writer. At this time, three more books were written about Pippi, two books about Gorlasty Street, three books about Brit Maria (a teenage girl), a detective story about Kali Blunkvist, two fairy tale collections, a poetry collection, four transcriptions of her books into theater productions, two comic books.
Everything seemed to be going great. However, Astrid Lindgren's opposition was great. The list of works listed above, literally for every position, found its way to the reader only after a tough polemic between the writer and literary criticism. And this is not surprising, because the Swede moved the former literary favorites to secondary roles. The Pippi books were the most attacked. Patriarchal Sweden found it difficult to perceive the new pedagogy, where the center was not a teaching adult, but a living child with his questions and problems.
literary heritage
In readers' reviews of the writer's works, her work is compared to a chest full of treasures, in which every child or even an adult can find something consonant with the movements of his soul. Astrid Lindgren wrote various books on her composition and plot for children. Below is a list of the most read ones:
- "The Adventures of Emil from Lenieberga".
- "Pippi Longstocking" (compilation).
- Three stories about Malysh and Carlson.
- "Myo, my Mio!"
- "Children from Gorlastoy Street" (compilation).
- "Rasmus the Vagabond".
- "Brothers Lionheart".
- "Sunny meadow" (collection).
Of her works, the writer herself most loved Rasmus the Tramp. This book was especially close to her. In it, Astrid poured out what she felt and experienced during the difficult three-year period of forced separation from her son. A woman living in another country could not be with him when he began to speak, play the first simple children's games, when he learned to use a spoon, ride a tricycle. The Swede suffered that she was not there when her son was sick and he was being treated. Astrid carried this feeling of guilt throughout her life.
Of course, the stories about Pippi and Carlson are the most popular stories written by Astrid Lindgren. The adventures of these heroes for most children are the most attractive and original. However, as testimonials testify, for many people other works from the list are more valuable.
The motif of loneliness and opposition to a powerful tyrant is heard in "Mio, my mio". The theme of service, love and courage is uniquely revealed in the Brothers of the Lionheart. However, even in these difficult books, partly tragic, touching the soul of the reader, one can feel the enduring optimism and adamant courage of an open and worthy person. Imi Astrid teaches children to remain human under any circumstances.
Difficult path to recognition
The Council for Children's Books, the most authoritative international organization, in 1958 awarded the writer with the Hans Christian Andersen medal. There was a prospect of huge editions of translations into other languages. However, in every single country, the works of the Swede faced issues of changing details in the interests of the notorious political correctness. So, Pippi's father, the Negro king, involuntarily turned either into a colored man or into the king of cannibals.
Lindgren did not shy away from intense discussions, she supported others. She became the editor of children's literature at the Raben and Shegren publishing house. Her popularity grew. Astrid was entrusted with writing the script for the TV show We're on Saltkrok Island, which then developed into a book of the same name. This timeless piece was destined to become Sweden's national family summer holiday brand. By that time, the writer became known to the whole world. Photos of Astrid Lindgren were published on the front page of leading newspapers; the publishing house where she worked founded her name literary prize.
The paradox of translating books about Carlson into Russian
Creativity of the writer in time fell on Khrushchev's time of the "thaw". She showed Soviet children that the team is not at all more important than the individual, that a doubting child, not an excellent student, can also be attractive and attractive.
In 1957, The Adventures of Carlson was published in the USSR, in 1963 - Rasmus the Tramp, and in 1965 - Mio, My Mio and Pippi Longstocking. As you know, in the USSR during the Iron Curtain, those foreign writers were published who either died long ago, becoming classics, or showed themselves as friends of the USSR.
It turned out quite differently with Astrid Lindgren. And her books, and political position did not fall under the tracing paper of the Soviet official censorship. It was liberating literature, helping us accept ourselves for who we are. "Carlson" helped to better understand his soul, became a lifesaver for millions of Soviet children, bound hand and foot by the "good boy code".
Here the talent of the translator Liliana Lungina played a role. Feeling the spirit of freedom in Carlson against the backdrop of the urban loneliness of Malysh, the translator worked a miracle: instead of a negative character in Sweden, a positive, cheerful and dynamic character appeared in the Russian translation. The Swedish writer herself was perplexed: why was her greedy and arrogant hero loved in Russia? The real reason was the versatile talent of Astrid Lindgren. Reviews of Soviet children with gratitude came not only to book publishers. Children's productions of "Carlson" were sold out in theaters, in the two most famous of which Spartak Mishulin successfully played the main character, and Alisa Freindlich played the Kid.
The cartoon about Carlson also enjoyed extraordinary success. Its highlight was the role of Freken Bok performed by Ranevskaya.
Social activity
In 1978, the German Publishers' Guild presented the International Peace Prize at the Frankfurt Fair. The response speech of the writer was called "No to violence." Here are some of her theses, expressed by Astrid Lindgren. Books for children, in her opinion, should teach young readers to be free. In her opinion, violence should be removed from the life of society, starting with children. After all, it has been proven that the foundation of a person's character is laid before the age of 5. Lessons of violence, unfortunately, little citizens often receive from their parents. In addition, from TV shows. As a result, they get the impression that all problems in life can be solved with violence.
Not least thanks to the writer in 1979, Sweden passed a law prohibiting corporal punishment in the family. Today, without exaggeration, we can say that the living generations of Swedes were brought up on her books.
The death of Astrid Lindgren in 2002 shocked the people of her country. People asked their leaders again and again: “Why was such a humanist not awarded Nobel Prize? In response, the government established the annual State Prize named after the writer, which is awarded to the best children's works.
Working on the Astrid Lindgren archive
Now work is underway on the archive of the writer. New documents are uncovered, shedding light on her identity. Thanks to them, she appears more clearly, her emotions, thoughts, anxieties appear for readers. A resident of neutral Sweden, then still just a housewife, Astrid Lindgren reveals to us her point of view on the action of the war.
Unfortunately, there is no translation of it in Russia yet. However, millions of our people are waiting for it. After all, today we are ready to accept any other point of view. And she is not spiteful, she is just different, and she should be understood. Undoubtedly, it will be significant material for future reflections and discussions, as well as for reassessment. After all, this is a look at the history of a person of European values.
It should be remembered that Astrid at the time of writing the Diaries was not the guru who addressed the whole world from Frankfurt. The view of Western man on the expedient actions of the state is fundamentally different from ours. The focus of care of a democratic country and society is not ideology, not state interests, but people. In the post-Soviet space, they are not used to this. Let us recall, for example, how Britain withdrew its army from the continent: at first, every single soldier was taken out on ships, and only then - equipment.
Conclusion
The reader is impressed by Astrid Lindgren's sincere and witty style of narration. Her books, intended for children, pose a rather difficult but fundamental question to society about recognizing the needs and demands of children.
The heroes of the Swedish writer suffer from loneliness, but they stubbornly oppose public opinion and win. The works of this Master are very useful for children's reading. After all, support is critically important for a child, a guideline in life, expressed in a clear "adult" vision of children's problems. It was this view that Astrid Lindgren was able to convey at the level of children's communication. The writer's books have become a long-awaited fresh breath of air for morally obsolete, burdened with patriarchal features of pedagogy.
