Russian prose writer, playwright D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak (real name Mamin) was born on October 25 (November 6), 1852, in the Visimo-Shaitansky industrial settlement of the Verkhotursky district of the Perm province, 140 km from Nizhny Tagil. This village, located in the depths of the Ural Mountains, was founded by Peter I, and the rich merchant Demidov built an iron factory here. The father of the future writer was the factory priest Narkis Matveyevich Mamin (1827-1878). There were four children in the family. They lived modestly: my father received a small salary, a little more than a factory worker. For many years he taught children at the factory school for free. “Without work, I did not see either my father or mother. Their day was always full of work,” Dmitry Narkisovich recalled.

From childhood, the writer fell in love with the magnificent Ural nature and always remembered it with love: "When I feel sad, I am carried away by thought to my native green mountains, it begins to seem to me that the sky is higher and clearer there, and the people are so kind, and I myself become better". So Mamin-Sibiryak wrote many years later, being away from his native Visim. At the same time, in early childhood, Mamin-Sibiryak's love for Russian literature was born and strengthened. "A book was playing in our house leading role, - the writer recalled, - and my father used every free minute to read. "The whole Mamin family took care of the small home library.

From 1860 to 1864, Mitya studied at the Visimsk village elementary school for the children of workers, which was housed in a large hut. When the boy was 12 years old, his father took him and his older brother Nikolai to Yekaterinburg and sent them to a religious school. True, the wild student morals had such an effect on the impressionable child that he fell ill, and his father took him from the school. Mitya returned home with great joy and for two years felt completely happy: reading alternated with wanderings in the mountains, spending the night in the forest and at the houses of mine workers. Two years flew by quickly. The father did not have the means to send his son to the gymnasium, and he was again taken to the same bursa.

In the book of memoirs "From the distant past" D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak described his impressions of the teachings in the bursa. He spoke about senseless cramming, corporal punishment, ignorance of teachers and rudeness of pupils. The school did not give real knowledge, and the students were forced to memorize entire pages from the Bible, to sing prayers and psalms. Reading books was considered unworthy of a "real" student. Only brute force was valued in the bursa. The older students offended the younger ones, cruelly scoffed at the "newbies". Mamin-Sibiryak considered the years spent at the school not only lost, but also harmful. He wrote: "It took many years, a lot of terrible work to eradicate all the evil that I brought out of the bursa, and for those seeds to sprout that were abandoned a long time ago by my own family."

After graduating from bursa in 1868, Mamin-Sibiryak entered the Perm Seminary, a spiritual institution that provided secondary education. The seminary was not much different from the bursa. The same roughness of morals and bad teaching. Holy Bible, theological sciences, the ancient languages - Greek and Latin - these were the main things that seminarians had to study. However, the best of them aspired to scientific knowledge.

In the Perm Theological Seminary in the early 1860s, there was a secret revolutionary circle. Teachers and seminarians - members of the circle - distributed revolutionary literature in the Ural factories and openly called for action against the owners. At the time when Mamin entered the seminary, the circle was destroyed, many seminarians were arrested and expelled, but the underground library was saved. It kept Herzen's forbidden works, works, Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done? and books on natural science (Ch.Darwin, I.M. Sechenov, K.A. Timiryazev). Despite all the persecution, the spirit of freethinking was preserved in the Perm Seminary, and the students protested against hypocrisy and hypocrisy. In an effort to gain knowledge in order to benefit the people, Dmitry Mamin left the seminary after the 4th grade without graduating from it: he no longer wanted to be a priest. But it was to his stay at the Perm Theological Seminary that his first creative attempts relate.

In the spring of 1871, Mamin left for St. Petersburg, and in August 1872 he entered the veterinary department of the Medical and Surgical Academy. He was carried away by the turbulent social movement of the 1870s, attended revolutionary student circles, read the works of Marx, and participated in political disputes. The police soon followed him. His life was difficult. I had to save on everything: on an apartment, on dinner, on clothes, books. Together with a friend, Dmitry rented a cold, uncomfortable room in a large house where students and the urban poor lived. D.N. Mamin was sympathetic to the movement of populist propagandists, but he chose a different path for himself - writing.

In 1875, in the newspapers "Russkiy Mir" and "Novosti" he began a reporter's work, which gave, in his words, knowledge of the "insider things" of life, "the ability to recognize people and the passion to plunge into the thick of everyday life." In the magazines "Son of the Fatherland" and "Krugozor" he published action-packed stories, not without, in the spirit of P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky, ethnographic observation, stories about robbers, Ural Old Believers, mysterious people and incidents ("Elders", 1875; "The Old Man", "In the Mountains", "Red Hat", "Mermaids", all - 1876; "Secrets of the Green forests", 1877; novel "In the whirlpool of passions", author's title "Guilty", 1876, etc.).

Student Mamin studied seriously, read a lot, listened to lectures, visited museums. But, having decided to become a writer, in the fall of 1876, without completing the course of the Medical and Surgical Academy, he transferred to the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, believing that he needed to study the social sciences, which would help him better understand the life around him. In his future books, he wanted to open the Urals to people, tell about the hard work of factory workers, about the life of gold diggers and peasants. Dmitry Mamin rereads the works of his favorite writers, writes a lot, works hard on language and style. He becomes a newspaper reporter and writes short articles for various newspapers. Soon, the first stories and essays of the young writer began to appear in St. Petersburg magazines.

Leading the life of a literary bohemian, Mamin was engaged in reporting and writing stories. His first fiction work "Secrets of the Green Forest" was published without a signature in the magazine "Krugozor" in 1877 and is dedicated to the Urals. The rudiments of talent, acquaintance with nature and life of the region are seen in this work. He wants to live for everyone, to experience everything and feel everything. Continuing to study at the Faculty of Law, Mamin writes a long novel "In the whirlpool of passions" under the pseudonym E. Tomsky, a pretentious novel and very weak in all respects. He took the manuscript of the novel to the journal Domestic Notes, which was edited by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Saltykov-Shchedrin's negative assessment of this novel was a big blow for the novice writer. But Mamin correctly understood that he lacked not only literary skill, but, above all, knowledge of life. As a result, his first novel was published in only one obscure magazine.

And this time, Mamin failed to complete his studies. He studied at the Faculty of Law for about a year. Excessive work, poor nutrition, lack of rest broke the young body. He developed consumption (tuberculosis). In addition, due to financial difficulties and the illness of his father, Mamin was unable to make a contribution to the teaching fee and was soon expelled from the university. In the spring of 1877 the writer left St. Petersburg. With all his heart, the young man reached out to the Urals. There he recovered from his illness and found strength for new works.

Once in his native place, Dmitry Narkisovich collects material for a new novel from the life of the Urals. Trips in the Urals and the Urals expanded and deepened his knowledge folk life. But the new novel, conceived back in St. Petersburg, had to be postponed. He fell ill and in January 1878 his father died. Dmitry remained the sole breadwinner of a large family. In search of work, as well as to educate his brothers and sister, the family moved to Yekaterinburg in April 1878. But even in a large industrial city, the half-educated student failed to get a job. Dmitry began to give lessons to lagging gymnasium students. The tedious work paid poorly, but Mamin's teacher turned out to be a good one, and he soon gained fame as the best tutor in the city. He did not leave in a new place and literary work; when there was not enough time during the day, he wrote at night. Despite financial difficulties, he ordered books from St. Petersburg.

In the early 1880s, stories, essays began to be published in the journals of St. Petersburg and Moscow, and stories are still not known to anyone. famous writer D. Sibiryak. Soon, in 1882, the first collection of travel essays "From the Urals to Moscow" ("Ural stories") was published. The essays were published in the Moscow newspaper "Russian Vedomosti", and then in the magazine "Delo" his essays "In the Stones", stories ("At the turn of Asia", "In thin souls", etc.) were published. The heroes of the stories were factory workers, Ural prospectors, Chusovoy barge haulers, the Ural nature came to life in the essays. These works attracted readers. The collection quickly sold out. This is how the writer D.N. Mamin-Siberian. His works became closer to the requirements of the democratic journal Otechestvennye Zapiski, and Saltykov-Shchedrin was already willingly publishing them. So, in 1882, the second period begins literary activity Mom. His stories and essays from the Urals regularly appear in the Foundations, Delo, Vestnik Evropy, Russkaya Mysl, Otechestvennye Zapiski. In these stories, you can already feel the original depicter of the life and customs of the Urals, a free artist who knows how to give an idea of \u200b\u200ba gigantic human labor, to depict all sorts of contrasts. On the one hand, marvelous nature, majestic, full of harmony, on the other hand, human turmoil, a difficult struggle for existence. Adding a pseudonym to his name, the writer quickly gained popularity, and the signature Mamin-Sibiryak remained with him forever.

The first major work of the writer was the novel Privalovsky Millions (1883), which was published in the magazine Delo for a year. This novel, begun in 1872, is the most popular of his writings today, was completely unnoticed by critics at the time of its appearance. The hero of the novel, a young idealist, is trying to get an inheritance under guardianship in order to pay the people for the cruel family sin of oppression and exploitation, but the lack of will of the hero (a consequence of genetic degradation), the utopian nature of the social project itself dooms the enterprise to failure. Vivid episodes of everyday life, schismatic legends, pictures of the mores of "society", images of officials, lawyers, gold miners, raznochintsy, relief and accuracy of writing, replete with folk sayings and proverbs, reliability in the reproduction of various aspects of the Ural life made this work, along with other "Ural" novels by Mamin-Sibiryak, a large-scale realistic epic, an impressive example of Russian socio-analytical prose.

In 1884, the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski published the next novel in the Ural cycle, The Mountain Nest, which cemented Mamin-Sibiryak's reputation as an outstanding realist writer. The second novel also depicts the mining Urals from all sides. This is a magnificent page from the history of the accumulation of capitalism, a sharply satirical work about the failure of the "tycoons" of the Ural mining plants as organizers of industry. The novel skillfully portrays the mountain king Laptev, a well-formed degenerate, "a remarkable type of all that has only been encountered in our literature," according to Skabichevsky, who highly rated the novel "The Mountain Nest" and finds that "Laptev can be safely placed on a par with such age-old types like Tartuffe, Harpagon, Judas Golovlev, Oblomov".

In the novel On the Street (1886; originally called Stormy Stream), conceived as a continuation of The Mountain Nest, Mamin-Sibiryak transfers his "Ural" heroes to St. Petersburg, and, talking about the rise and fall of a certain newspaper enterprise, emphasizes negative character social selection in a "market" society, where the best (the most "moral") are doomed to poverty and death. The problem of finding the meaning of life by a conscientious intellectual is raised by Mamin-Sibiryak in the novel The Birthday Man (1888), which tells about the suicide of a zemstvo leader. At the same time, Mamin-Sibiryak clearly gravitates toward populist literature, trying to write in the style of G.I. Uspensky and N.N. Zlatovratsky - in a "fictional-journalistic", according to his definition, form. In 1885 D.N. Mamin wrote the play "Gold Miners" ("On the Golden Day"), which did not have much success. In 1886 he was accepted as a member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. The attention of the literary community was attracted by the collection of Mamin-Sibiryak "Ural Stories" (vols. 1-2; 1888-1889), in which the fusion of ethnographic and cognitive elements (as later with P.P. Bazhov) was perceived in the aspect of the originality of the writer's artistic manner, it was noted his skill as a landscape painter.

14 years of the writer's life (1877-1891) pass in Yekaterinburg. He marries Maria Yakimovna Alekseeva, who became not only a wife and friend, but also an excellent literary adviser. During these years, he made many trips around the Urals, studied literature on the history, economics, ethnography of the Urals, immersed himself in folk life, communicated with "simple" people who had vast life experience, and was even elected a member of the Yekaterinburg City Duma. Two long trips to the capital (1881-1882, 1885-1886) strengthened the literary ties of the writer: he met Korolenko, Zlatovratsky, Goltsev and others. During these years he writes and publishes many short stories and essays.

But in 1890, Mamin-Sibiryak divorced his first wife, and in January 1891 he married the talented actress of the Yekaterinburg Drama Theater Maria Moritsovna Abramova and moved with her to St. Petersburg, where the last stage of his life was taking place. Here he soon became friends with the populist writers - N. Mikhailovsky, G. Uspensky and others, and later, at the turn of the century, with the largest writers of the new generation - A. Chekhov, A. Kuprin, M. Gorky, I. Bunin, highly appreciated his work. A year later (March 22, 1892), his beloved wife Maria Moritsevna Abramova dies, leaving her sick daughter Alyonushka in the arms of her father, shocked by this death.

Over the years, Mamin is increasingly occupied with the processes of folk life, he gravitates towards novels in which the main actor turns out to be not an exceptional person, but a whole working environment. The novels of D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak "Three Ends" (1890), dedicated to the complex processes in the Urals after the Peasant Reform of 1861, "Gold" (1892), describing the gold mining season in harsh naturalistic detail, and "Bread" (1895) about the famine in the Ural village in 1891 -1892. The writer worked for a long time on each work, collecting huge historical and modern material. A deep knowledge of people's life helped the author vividly and truthfully show the plight of the workers and peasants and indignantly denounce the wealthy breeders and factory owners who appropriated the natural wealth of the region and exploited the people. The gloomy drama, the abundance of suicides and catastrophes in the works of Mamin-Sibiryak, the "Russian Zola", recognized as one of the creators of the domestic sociological novel, revealed one of the important facets of the public mindset of Russia at the end of the century: a feeling of a person's complete dependence on the socio-economic circumstances that fulfill in modern conditions function of unpredictable and inexorable ancient rock.

Historical novels by Mamin-Sibiryak "The Gordeev Brothers" (1891; about Demidov's serfs who studied in France) and "Okhonin's Eyebrows" (1892; about the uprising of the Ural factory population in the era of Pugachev), as well as legends from the life of the Bashkirs, are distinguished by their colorful language and major tonality. , Kazakhs, Kirghiz ("Swan Khantygal", "Maya", etc.). "Stumpy", "strong and courageous", according to the memoirs of contemporaries, a typical "Ural man", Mamin-Sibiryak since 1892, after the bitter loss of his beloved wife, who died at the birth of their daughter Alyonushka, is also put forward as an excellent writer about children and for children . His collections "Children's Shadows", "Alyonushka's Tales" (1894-1896) were very successful and entered the Russian children's classics. The works of Mamin-Sibiryak for children "Wintering on Studenaya" (1892), "The Gray Neck" (1893), "Zarnitsa" (1897), "Across the Urals" (1899) and others became widely known. They reveal the high simplicity, noble naturalness of feelings and the love of life of their author, who inspires domestic animals, birds, flowers, insects with poetic skill. Some critics compare Mamin's fairy tales with Andersen's.

Children's works are very diverse and are intended for children of different ages. The younger guys know Alyonushka's Tales well. Animals, birds, fish, insects, plants and toys live and talk merrily in them. For example: Komar Komarovich - a long nose, Shaggy Misha - a short tail, Brave Hare - long ears - slanting eyes - a short tail, Sparrow Vorobeich and Ruff Ershovich. Talking about the funny adventures of animals and toys, the author skillfully combines fascinating content with useful information, kids learn to observe life, they develop feelings of camaraderie and friendship, modesty and hard work. The works of Mamin-Sibiryak for older children tell about the life and work of workers and peasants of the Urals and Siberia, about the fate of children working in factories, crafts and mines, about young travelers along the picturesque slopes of the Ural Mountains. A wide and varied world, the life of man and nature are revealed to young readers in these works. Readers highly appreciated the story of Mamin-Sibiryak "Emelya the hunter", marked in 1884 with an international prize.

One of best books Mamin-Sibiryak is an autobiographical novel-memoir of the St. Petersburg youth "Features from the Life of Pepko" (1894), which tells about Mamin's first steps in literature, about bouts of acute need and moments of dull despair. He vividly outlined the writer's worldview, the dogmas of his faith, the views, ideas that formed the basis of his best works: deep altruism, aversion to brute force, love of life and, at the same time, longing for its imperfections, for "a sea of \u200b\u200bsorrows and tears where there are so many horrors, cruelties, untruths. "Is it really possible to be satisfied with one's own life. No, to live a thousand lives, to suffer and rejoice with a thousand hearts - that's where life and true happiness are!" - says Mamin in "Features from the Life of Pepko". The last major works of the writer are the novel "Shooting Stars" (1899) and the story "Mumma" (1907).

Last years life the writer was seriously ill. On October 26, 1912, the fortieth anniversary of his creative activity, but Mamin already badly perceived those who came to congratulate him - a week later, on November 2 (15), 1912, he died. Many newspapers ran obituaries. The Bolshevik newspaper Pravda devoted a special article to Mamin-Sibiryak, in which it noted the great revolutionary significance of his works: “A bright, talented, warm-hearted writer died, under whose pen the pages of the past Urals came to life, a whole era of the procession of capital, predatory, greedy, who did not know how to restrain not with anything". Pravda highly appreciated the writer's merits in children's literature: "He was attracted by the pure soul of a child, and in this area he wrote a number of excellent essays and stories."

D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak was buried at the Nikolsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra; two years later, the suddenly deceased daughter of the writer "Alyonushka", Elena Dmitrievna Mamina (1892-1914), was buried nearby. In 1915, a granite monument with a bronze bas-relief was erected on the grave (designed by I.Ya. Gintsburg). And in 1956, the ashes and monument of the writer, his daughter and wife, M.M. Abramova, were moved to the Literary bridges of the Volkovsky cemetery. On the grave monument of Mamin-Sibiryak, the words are carved: "To live a thousand lives, suffer and rejoice in a thousand hearts - this is where real life and true happiness.

"The native land has something to thank you for, our friend and teacher ... Your books helped to understand and love the Russian people, the Russian language ..." - wrote D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak A.M. Bitter.

A difficult life full of hardships. Death of loved ones, poverty, illness. In the biography of Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak there are many difficult, sometimes almost hopeless pages. He was not recognized for a long time, writers with a name called his works uninteresting and mediocre. But he was able to overcome himself, cope with difficulties, climb the writer's Olympus and even receive the unofficial title of "the voice of the Urals."

His works are still relevant today, his fairy tales are read by modern children. With the help of fictional characters: Komar Komarovich, Ruff Ershovich, Brave Hare, they learn to love nature, respect elders, be kind, sympathetic and fair.

Childhood

Dmitry Mamin, pseudonym Sibiryak joined the surname later, was born on November 6, 1852, in the small village of Visimo-Shaitan, Perm province (now it is the village of Visim, Sverdlovsk region). His father was a factory priest, his mother raised four children.

Father Narkis Matveevich was very fond of books, especially the classics: Pushkin, Gogol, Krylov. The compositions were stored in a custom-made brown cabinet with glass doors. For the Mamins, he was something like a member of the family.

Dmitry Narkisovich recalls that from childhood he read serious works. It was difficult to get children's literature, so buying the first such book was a real event for him. In the autobiographical story “From the Distant Past,” the writer writes: “I remember this children's book now, the name of which I have already forgotten. But I clearly remember the drawings placed in it, especially the living bridge of monkeys and pictures of tropical nature. Better than this book, then, of course, I have not seen.

Education

Until the age of eight, Dmitry was homeschooled. His life was limited to the territory of the court. They rarely let him go outside. Everything changed with the entry into the factory primary school, new friends, hobbies. Teachers described the boy as talented, interested and enthusiastic.

The parents did not have the means to study at the gymnasium. The son is sent to the Yekaterinburg Theological School. Studying there for Mamin-Sibiryak was flour. Corporal punishment and cramming remained in my memory. Then Dmitry is enrolled in the Perm Theological Seminary, but the young man understands that he will not follow in his father's footsteps and will not become a clergyman. He reads forbidden Herzen, Dobrolyubov, Chernyshevsky, dreams of transformations in the country.

In search of himself, Dmitry goes to St. Petersburg. He enters the Medical Academy in the veterinary department. At the same time, he visits circles of revolutionaries, reads Marx, and participates in political debates. He does it so brightly and convincingly that the police establish surveillance. Lives very poorly. Removes a tiny, cold room, saves literally on everything.

Two years later, Mamin-Sibiryak understands that veterinary medicine is not a matter of a lifetime, and is transferred to the Faculty of Law. But getting a higher education is not destined. His father becomes seriously ill, there is nothing to pay for education, and Dmitry himself develops tuberculosis. The young man in the summer of 1877, after 6 years of life in the capital Petersburg, returned to the Urals. These years of wandering will form the basis autobiographical work"Features from the Life of Pepko".

creative path

Dmitry Mamin begins to write in St. Petersburg. He immediately realizes that literature is his vocation. He signs the first stories with the surname Tomsky, but critics, including the eminent Saltykov-Shchedrin, are not enthusiastic about the works of the novice author. The first impulse is to put an end to creative career. But Mamin decides not to give up and year after year improves his skills: he is looking for his own style, literary techniques, images.

It is published in the St. Petersburg newspaper Russkiy Mir, in the magazines Krugozor and Son of the Fatherland. His short stories "In the Mountains", "Mermaids", "Secrets of the Green Forest" tell about the Ural nature, about the Ural life and the life of ordinary people.

The truly literary talent of Mamin-Sibiryak opens after returning to his native place. The disease recedes, but the father dies. Dmitry becomes the head of a large family. In search of work, he goes to Yekaterinburg, it is difficult to get a job without education. The young man is engaged in tutoring and quickly gains fame as the best teacher in the city.

He writes mainly at night, and soon in the famous magazines of Moscow and St. famous Dmitry Siberian. In 1882, a series of travel essays "From Moscow to the Urals", stories "In bad souls", "At the turn of Asia" were published. The heroes of the books are simple Ural workers, their lives are very realistic. A lot of space on the pages is reserved for the description of nature. The author was talked about in literary circles. His collections sell out quickly. And the once categorical Saltykov-Shchedrin gladly publishes the writer in his Domestic notes».

Dmitry Narkisovich signs the first major work “Privalovsky Millions” with the double surname Mamin-Sibiryak, which will remain with the writer forever. Under it, the author will write many works of various genres. These are the novels "Mountain Nest", "On the Street" and "Birthday Man", the play "Gold Miners", the stories "Ohoni's Eyebrows" and "The Gordeev Brothers". With the birth of her daughter, Mamin-Sibiryak will also prove himself as a children's author. His "Alyonushka's Tales" are rightfully considered children's classics.

Personal life

Dmitry Narkisovich was married twice. The first wife was Maria Alekseeva. The couple got married almost immediately after the young man returned from St. Petersburg to the Urals. The marriage lasted about ten years.

The second was not so long and lasted only 15 months. His wife, actress of the Yekaterinburg theater Maria Abramova, died in childbirth, giving the writer a daughter, Alyonushka. The girl was very weak and the doctors openly declared that she would not survive. But the father literally left the baby and in the future he dedicated all his fairy tales to his daughter.

With his second wife Mamin-Sibiryak moved to St. Petersburg. Future life writer takes place in the northern capital. Although his heart and soul are still inextricably linked with the Urals. The last years of his life, the famous author is seriously ill, hemorrhage in the brain, newly discovered tuberculosis seriously undermine his health. Dmitry Mamin died on November 15, 1912, shortly after his 60th birthday.

Obituaries will appear in well-known newspapers and magazines. The Pravda newspaper will write: “A bright, talented, warm-hearted writer has died, under whose pen the pages of the past of the Urals came to life, a whole era of the procession of capital, predatory, greedy, who knew no restraint in anything.” The writer will be buried at the Nikolsky cemetery in St. Petersburg, next to his wife Maria Abramova.And on a granite monument with a bronze bas-relief, the words "To live a thousand lives, suffer and rejoice with a thousand hearts - this is where real life and real happiness" are carved.

Daughter Alyonushka survived her father by two years and died in 1914 from consumption at the age of 22. During his lifetime, he managed to order that his father's house in Yekaterinburg become a museum.

In the 50s of the 20th century, the ashes of the Mamin family were transferred to the Volkovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Heritage

Established in 2002 literary prize named after Mamin - Sibiryak. It is awarded annually to writers writing about the Urals.
The streets of Mamin-Sibiryak exist in many cities of Russia, including Yekaterinburg.
The Nizhny Tagil Drama Theater and the library in Chelyabinsk also bear the name of Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak.

The article is devoted to the popular fairy tale writer - D.N. Mamin-Siberian. You will learn biographical information about the author, a list of his works, and also get acquainted with interesting annotations that reveal the essence of some fairy tales.

Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak. Biography. Childhood and youth

Dmitry Mamin was born on November 6, 1852. His father Narkis was a priest. Dima's mother paid much attention to the upbringing of Dima. When he grew up, his parents sent him to a school where the children of the workers of the Visimo-Shaitan plant studied.

Dad really wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. At first, everything went as Narkis had planned. He entered the theological seminary in Perm and studied there for a whole year as a student. However, the boy realized that he did not want to devote his whole life to the cause of the priest, and therefore decided to leave the seminary. The father was extremely dissatisfied with the behavior of his son and did not share his decision. The tense situation in the family forced Dmitry to leave home. He decided to go to St. Petersburg.

Trip to St. Petersburg

Here he wanders around the medical facilities. During the year he trained as a veterinarian, after which he moved to the medical department. Then he entered St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, after which he began to practice law.

As a result of six years of "walking" in different faculties, he never received a single diploma. During this period of time, he realizes that with all his heart he wants to become a writer.

From under his pen, the first work is born, which is called "Secrets of the Dark Forest". Already in this work one can see his creative potential and outstanding talent. But not all of his works immediately became masterpieces. His novel "In the whirlpool of passions", which was published in a small circulation magazine under the pseudonym E. Tomsky, was criticized to the nines.

Homecoming

At the age of 25, he returns to his homeland and writes new compositions under the pseudonym Sibiryak, so as not to be associated with the loser E. Tomsky.

In 1890, his divorce from his first wife followed. He marries the actress M. Abramova. Together with his new wife, Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak moves to St. Petersburg. Their happy marriage did not last long. The woman died immediately after the birth of her daughter. The girl was named Alyonushka. It was thanks to his beloved daughter that Mamin-Sibiryak opened up to readers as a charming storyteller.

It is important to note such interesting fact: some of the works of Mamin-Sibiryak were published under the pseudonyms Onik and Bash-Kurt. He died at the age of sixty.

List of works by Mamin-Sibiryak

"Alyonushka's Tales".
"Balaburda".
"Spit".
"In the stone well".
"Wizard".
"In the mountains".
"In teaching".
"Emelya the hunter".
"Green War".
Series "From the distant past" ("The Road", "The Execution of Fortunka", "Illness", "The Story of a Sawyer", "Beginner", "Book").
Legends: "Baimagan", "Maya", "Khantygay's Swan".
"Forest fairy tale".
"Medvedko".
"On a way".
"About node".
"Fathers".
"First Correspondence".
"Hold on."
"Underground".
"Acceptant".
"Siberian stories" ("Abba", "Depeche", "Dear guests").
Fairy tales and stories for children: "Akbozat", "The rich man and Eremka", "In the wilderness", "Wintering on Studenaya".
"Grey neck".
"Stubborn goat".
"Old Sparrow".
"The Tale of the Glorious King Peas".

Annotations to the fairy tales of Mamin-Sibiryak

A real talented storyteller is Mamin-Sibiryak. Fairy tales of this author are very popular with children and adults. They feel soulfulness and special penetration. They were created for the beloved daughter, whose mother died in childbirth.

Description of the presentation on individual slides:

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BIOGRAPHY of Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak Prepared by the teacher primary school GBOU secondary school No. 349 of the Krasnogvardeisky district of St. Petersburg Pechenkina Tamara Pavlovna

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Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak 10/25/1852 - 11/02/1912 Russian prose writer and playwright

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Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak (real name Mamin) was born in the factory village of Visimo-Shaitan, Perm province, into the family of a factory priest. Father really wanted Dmitry to follow in his footsteps and devote his life to serving God. Dmitry's family was very enlightened, so he received his first education at home. After that, the boy went to the Visim school for the children of workers. The desire of the parents to send the child along a spiritual path led Dmitry in 1866 to the Yekaterinburg Theological School. There he studied for two years, and then moved to the Perm Theological Seminary (until 1872, he did not complete the full course). Dmitry's extraordinary character can be traced already in these years: he becomes a member of the circle of advanced seminarians, studies the ideas of Dobrolyubov, Chernyshevsky, Herzen. While studying at the seminary, Dmitry writes his first stories - not too good yet, but already testifying to literary inclinations.

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In 1872, Dmitry entered the St. Petersburg Medical and Surgical Academy in the veterinary department. Since 1874, he wrote reports for newspapers on the meetings of scientific societies to earn money. In 1876, without graduating from the academy, he moved to the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. After studying for a year, he was forced to leave the university due to financial difficulties and a sharp deterioration in health. In the summer of 1877 he returned to the Urals to his parents. The following year, his father died, and the whole burden of caring for the family fell on Dmitry. In order to educate his brothers and sister and be able to earn money, he moved to the large cultural center of Yekaterinburg, where he married Maria Yakimovna Alekseeva, who became not only his wife and friend, but also an excellent literary adviser. During these years, the future writer made many trips around the Urals, studied literature on the history, economics, ethnography of the Urals, and got acquainted with folk life.

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Shortly thereafter, travel essays are published under the general title "From the Urals to Moscow." For the first time they are printed by the newspaper Russkiye Vedomosti. The success of Mamin-Sibiryak's prose draws the attention of the publications Delo, Ustoi, Russkaya Mysl, Vestnik Evropy, Otechestvennye Zapiski to it. Then Mamin becomes Mamin-Siberian. He often signed his works with the literary pseudonym D. Sibiryak, which Dmitry decided to add to his real surname. After the publication of these works, the main motives of Mamin-Sibiryak’s work become noticeable: a unique description of the nature of the Urals, its influence on human life. During this period, Mamin-Sibirian traveled a lot around the Urals, carefully studying the economy, history, and ethnography of the region. Communication with local residents, immersion in the original life of the common people provides a huge material for works.

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In 1883, the writer completed work on his first novel from factory life in the Urals, "Privalov's Millions", which was created for ten whole years. The novel first appeared in Delo magazine and received great acclaim. The following year, the novel Mountain Nest is published on the pages of the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine. This work brought Mamin-Sibiryak fame as a talented realist writer. Scene from the play "Privalovsky millions"

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In 1890 he divorced his first wife, married an artist of the Yekaterinburg Drama Theater Maria Abramova and moved to St. Petersburg. A year later, Abramova died, leaving her sick daughter Alyonushka in the arms of her father, shaken by this death. This tragedy was a very big shock for the writer, with which he could not fully cope until his death. Deep depression was reflected in the letters that Mamin-Sibiryak sends to his relatives during this period.

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Nevertheless, the writer overcomes the shock of the loss and gives maximum attention to his daughter. Creativity at this time is very fruitful, many works for children appear. The cycle of fairy tales "Alyonushka's Tales", written by Mamin-Sibiryak for his daughter, has become one of the best examples of his work. Animals, birds, fish, insects, plants and toys live and talk merrily in them. For example: Komar Komarovich - a long nose, Shaggy Misha - a short tail, Brave Hare - long ears - slanting eyes - a short tail, Sparrow Vorobeich and Ruff Ershovich. Talking about the funny adventures of animals and toys, the author skillfully combines fascinating content with useful information, kids learn to observe life, they develop feelings of camaraderie and friendship, modesty and hard work.

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Mamin-Sibiryak took children's literature very seriously. He called the children's book "a living thread" that takes the child out of the nursery and connects with the wide world of life. Addressing writers, his contemporaries, Mamin-Sibiryak urged them to truthfully tell children about the life and work of the people. He often said that only an honest and sincere book is useful. The works of Mamin-Sibiryak for older children tell about the life and work of workers and peasants of the Urals and Siberia, about the fate of children working in factories, crafts and mines, about young travelers along the picturesque slopes of the Ural Mountains. A wide and varied world, the life of man and nature are revealed to young readers in these works. Readers highly appreciated the story of Mamin-Sibiryak "Emelya the hunter", marked in 1884 with an international prize.

(real surname - M a m and n)
11/06/1852, Visimo-Shaitansky plant, Verkhotursky district, Perm province - 11/15/1912, St. Petersburg
Russian writer

He was like a piece of jasper
beautiful, patterned jasper,
brought far from native mountains.

S.Ya.Elpatievskiy

About Mamin-Sibiryak, especially after his death, they talked a lot and many. Some with admiration, some with obvious irritation, and some with mockery. This man gave rise to very diverse judgments.
Tall, broad-shouldered, open-faced and "wonderful, a little thoughtful eyes" He stood out in any crowd. And his "the laid-back grace of a young free-trained bear" only strengthened the general impression of some bewitching wild force. Mamin's character was to match the appearance. The same unbridled, quick-tempered. His harsh judgments, his full-bodied witticisms, his harsh assessments often offended people, giving rise to ill-wishers. But more often, Dmitry Narkisovich was forgiven for something that would not have been forgiven to someone else. So great was the charm of this big, strong, but somehow very unprotected and touching person.
His kindness and gentleness were not immediately revealed and not to everyone. Although even the pseudonym, firmly fused with the surname - "Mamin-Sibiryak" - sounded somehow warm, at home.
Strictly speaking, this pseudonym was not entirely accurate. Old wooden house the factory priest, where the future writer was born, was located on the very border of Europe and Asia. "Watershed of the Ural Mountains" passed only 14 versts. There, in the Urals, Dmitry Narkisovich spent his childhood and youth. The best books have been written about the Urals, its extraordinary nature and people.
But what about Siberia? She was further east. And it was not the favorite theme of the writer and the main content of his works. In fairness, he should have chosen a different pseudonym. For example, Mamin-Uralsky or Mamin-Uralets. Yes, but the sound would not be the same.
Ural - the body is stone, the heart is fiery. He always stayed with Mom. Even when he moved to St. Petersburg and became a completely metropolitan resident, or went to rest with his daughter at some fashionable resort, none of the beauties and miracles there pleased him. Everything seemed dull, devoid of brightness and color.
Why, striving with all his heart to the Urals, he spent almost half of his life away from him. There was a reason. Sad reason. Daughter Alyonushka was born a weak, sickly girl. Even in infancy, she lost her mother. And all the care of her fell on the shoulders of her father. Mamin devoted the last years of his life entirely to his daughter. Doctors forbade Alyonushka to travel long distances, and Dmitry Narkisovich had to come to terms with this. But having taken the Urals from her father, Alyonushka gave him something else.
And not only to him. "Alyonushka's Tales" (1894-96) are touching, poetic, poignantly beautiful. They are written with such selfless love and tenderness that they still make young readers, the same age as little Alyonushka, laugh and cry. And Mamin-Sibiryak himself once admitted: “This is my favorite book, it was written by love itself, and therefore it will outlive everything else”.
By and large, that is what happened. More than a century has passed since the appearance of fairy tales. And although "adult" novels and stories by Mamin-Sibiryak are still being published, for most readers he remains precisely a children's writer, the creator of the marvelous "Alyonushka's Tales".

Irina Kazyulkina

WORKS OF D.N.MAMIN-SIBIRYAK

COMPLETE WORKS: in 20 volumes / D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak. - Yekaterinburg: Bank of Cultural Information, 2002-.
The publication is not finished.

COLLECTED WORKS: in 6 volumes / D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak. - Moscow: Fiction, 1980-1981.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the famous publisher Marx published a collection of works by D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak, which included about 250 (!) Works. Moreover, it did not include stories and fairy tales for children (about 150 titles) and about a hundred works, "lost" in various periodicals or not yet published by that time (publicism, essays, newspaper reports, scientific articles).
This collection of works, although it does not claim to be exhaustive, presents the work of D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak quite versatile. It includes not only novels that brought the author fame as the most accurate everyday writer and ethnographer of the Urals, but also numerous stories, essays, articles and, of course, works for children.

SELECTED WORKS: in 2 volumes / D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak. - Moscow: Fiction, 1988.
Mamin-Sibiryak is a Uralian. He was both in life and in work. Any page of his Ural stories and essays retains the mysterious charm of this region, which is so unlike the others. At times, it seems that the resinous aroma of fir and spruce forests emanates from these pages, and the Chusovaya and Kama rivers roll out their heavy waves on them.

ALENUSHK'S TALES / D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak; artist S. Nabutovsky. - Moscow: Makhaon, 2011. - 125 p. : ill. - (For the smallest).
"Alyonushka's Tales" were first published in 1894-96 on the pages " Children's reading”, one of the best magazines of that time. It was published by the famous Moscow teacher D.I. Tikhomirov. The fairy tales were published as a separate edition in 1897 and since then have been constantly reprinted in Russia.

MOUNTAIN NEST / D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak. - Moscow: Astrel: AST; Vladimir: VKT, 2011. - 416 p. : ill. - (Russian classics).
GOLD / Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak. - Moscow: AST: Astrel: Polygraphizdat, 2010. - 382 p. : ill. - (Russian classics).
PRIVALOV MILLIONS / D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak. - Moscow: Meshcheryakov Publishing House, 2007. - 480 p. : ill.
"Privalovsky Millions" (1883) and "Mountain Nest" (1984) are the most famous "adult" novels by Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak. They managed to step over a century, so that at the beginning of our century they again become amazingly and even frighteningly modern.

GRAY NECK / Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak; artist Ludmila Karpenko. - Moscow: TriMag, 2008. - 31 p. : ill.
GRAY NECK / D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak; [ill. V. Ermolaeva]. - Moscow: Meshcheryakov Publishing House, 2009. - 32 p. : ill.
There are books that seem to have always existed. This is one of them. Little ducks could cry over the story just as sincerely and selflessly in the distant past, as they will probably cry in the equally distant future. After all, in the soul of a person there will always be a place for pity and compassion.

FAIRY TALES. LEGENDS. STORIES / D. N. Mamin-Sibirk. - Moscow: New Key, 2003. - 368 p. : ill.
One person, recalling Mamin-Sibiryak, once said: “Children loved him and animals were not afraid”. This book includes stories and fairy tales of the writer, which he dedicated to both.

Irina Kazyulkina

LITERATURE ABOUT THE LIFE AND WORK OF D.N.MAMIN-SIBIRYAK

Mamin-Sibiryak D.N. From the distant past: [memoirs] // Mamin-Sibiryak D.N. Tales, stories, essays. - Moscow: Moscow worker, 1975. - S. 387-478.

Begak B. A. “After all, it is happiness to write for children” // Begak B. A. Classics in the country of childhood. - Moscow: Children's Literature, 1983. - S. 89-98.

Dergachev I. D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak. Personality. Creativity / I. Dergachev. - Ed. 2nd. - Sverdlovsk: Middle Ural book publishing house, 1981. - 304 p. : ill.

Green mountains, motley people: in search of connecting threads: following the travels of D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak / [authors of essays A.P. Chernoskutov, Yu.V. Shinkarenko]. - Ekaterinburg: Socrates, 2008. - 480 p. : ill.

Kireev R. Happiness dreamed of a spring thunderstorm // Science and religion. - 2003. - No. 1. - S. 36-39.

Kitainik M. G. Father and daughter: essay in letters // Mamin-Sibiryak D. N. Green mountains. - Moscow: Young Guard, 1982. - S. 332-365.

Korf O. For children about writers: the end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century. - Moscow: Sagittarius, 2006.

Kuzin N. Suffer and rejoice in a thousand hearts // Our contemporary. - 2002. - No. 10. - S. 234-241.

D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak in the memoirs of contemporaries. - Sverdlovsk: Sverdlovsk book publishing house, 1962. - 361 p.

Pospelov G. N. Life and customs of the stone belt: “Privalovsky millions” by D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak / G. N. Pospelov // Peaks: a book about outstanding works of Russian literature. - Moscow: Children's literature, 1983. - S. 54-67.

Sergovantsev N. Mamin-Sibiryak / Nikolai Sergovantsev. - Moscow: Young Guard, 2005. - 337 p. : ill. - (Life of remarkable people).

Tubelskaya G. N. Children's writers of Russia: one hundred and thirty names: a bio-bibliographic reference book / G. N. Tubelskaya. - Moscow: Russian School Library Association, 2007 - 492 p. : ill.
Biographical sketch of D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak read on p. 201-203.

Chantsev A. V. Mamin-Sibiryak D. N. // Russian Writers. 1800-1917: a biographical dictionary. - Moscow: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1994. - T. 3. - S. 497-502.

Encyclopedia literary heroes: Russian literature II half of XIX century. - Moscow: Olimp: AST, 1997. - 768 p. : ill.
Read about the heroes of the works of D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak (including the Gray Sheika) on p. 270-275.

I.K.

SCREENSING OF THE WORKS OF D.N.MAMIN-SIBIRYAK

- ART FILMS -

In the power of gold. Based on the play "The Gold Miners". Dir. I.Pravov. Comp. E.Rodygin. USSR, 1957. Cast: I. Pereverzev, I. Kmit, V. Chekmarev and others.

Gold. Dir. A. Marmontov. Russia, 2012. Cast: S. Bezrukov, M. Porechenkov, I. Skobtseva and others.

On a golden day. TV version of the performance of the Theater. E. Vakhtangov. Dir. M. Markova, A. Remezov. USSR, 1977. Cast: Yu. Borisova, N. Gritsenko, V. Shalevich and others.

Under the linden. TV movie. Dir. S. Remmeh. USSR, 1979. Cast: N. Danilova, A. Leskov, V. Panina, I. Gorbachev and others.

Privalovsky millions. Dir. Ya. Lapshin. Comp. Y.Levitin. USSR, 1972. Cast: L. Kulagin, V. Strzhelchik, L. Khityaeva, A. Fait, L. Chursina, L. Sokolova and others.

Privalovsky millions. TV series. Dir. D.Clante, N.Popov. Comp. S. Pironkov. Germany-Bulgaria, 1983. Cast: R. Chanev, G. Cherkelov, M. Dimitrova and others.

- CARTOONS -

Ruff and sparrow. Based on "The Tale of Sparrow Vorobeich, Ersh Ershovich and Yasha the Merry Chimney Sweep". Dir. V. Petkevich. Belarus, 2000.

Once upon a time there lived the last fly. Based on "The Tale of How the Last Fly Lived". Dir. V. Petkevich. Belarus, 2009.

Gray Neck. Dir. L.Amalrik, V.Polkovnikov. Comp. Yu.Nikolsky. USSR, 1948. Roles were voiced by: V. Ivanova, F. Kurikhin, V. Telegina and others.

Tale about Komar Komarovich. Dir. V. Fomin. Comp. V.Kazenin. USSR, 1980. Roles were voiced by: Z. Naryshkina, M. Vinogradova, Y. Volintsev, B. Runge.

Tale of a brave hare. Dir. N. Pavlovskaya. USSR, 1978.

A story about a goat. Dir. V. Petkevich. Art.-post. A. Petrov. USSR, 1985. Text read by G. Burkov.

Brave Bunny. Dir. I. Ivanov-Vano. Comp. Y. Levitin. USSR, 1955. Roles were voiced by: Vitya Koval, V. Popova, V. Volodin, G. Vitsin and others.

I.K.

“Boo-bye-bye…
One eye at Alyonushka is sleeping, the other is looking; one ear of Alyonushka is sleeping, the other is listening.
Sleep, Alyonushka, sleep, beauty, and dad will tell fairy tales ... "
How many of these stories? Roughly ten:
"The Tale of the Brave Hare - long ears, slanting eyes, short tail",
"The Tale of the Kozyavochka"
“About Komar Komarovich - a long nose and about shaggy Misha - a short tail”,
"Vanka's name day",
"The Tale of Sparrow Vorobeich, Ruff Ershovich and the cheerful chimney sweep Yasha",
"The Tale of How the Last Fly Lived",
"The Tale of the Voronushka - a black little head and a yellow bird Canary",
"Smarter than everyone"
"The parable of Milk, oatmeal and gray cat Murka",
"It's time to sleep".
Since 1896, when Alyonushka's Tales were first published, Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak began to consider them his best work, and himself as a children's writer. He chose the name for fairy tales not by chance - Alyonushka was the name of his daughter. Dmitry Narkisovich lovingly called her "father's daughter"- she lost her mother at birth and from the cradle was surrounded only by his care. The girl faced many trials. Almost immediately it became clear that Alyonushka was seriously and hopelessly ill. And only thanks to the great will and courage of her father, she eventually got used to it, adapted to life. And the disease, although not completely gone, receded.
Years will pass, and the grown-up Alyonushka, in turn, will take care of her paralyzed father. This closes the circle of love and self-sacrifice.
... The land has long since reposed both father and daughter. Gone with them all their sorrows and troubles. But love remained. Every page of "Alyonushka's Tales" and "The Gray Neck" breathes with it - works in which the writer managed to forever preserve the features of his dear Alyonushka.

Portrait of father and daughter

This is one of the many joint photographs of Dmitry Narkisovich and Alyonushka. In pre-revolutionary times, they appeared more than once on the pages of children's and youth magazines.

From the latest editions:

Mamin-Sibiryak D.N. Alyonushka's tales / With forty-five pics. artistic A.Afanasiev [and others]. - Reprint. ed. - M.: IEOPGKO, 2006. - 131 p.: ill. - (B-ka spiritual and moral culture).

Mamin-Sibiryak D.N. Gray neck / Fig. S. Yarovoy. - M.: Det. lit., 2006. - 16 p.: ill.

Mamin-Sibiryak D.N. Gray neck / Art. D. Belozertsev. - M.: Aquilegia-M, 2007. - 48 p.: ill. - (Classic).

Mamin-Sibiryak D.N. Gray neck / Art. L. Karpenko. - M.: TriMag, 2008. - 31 p.: ill.

Mamin-Sibiryak D.N. "The Gray Neck" and other tales. - M.: ROSMEN-PRESS, 2009. - 80 p.: ill. - (The best storytellers of Russia).

Mamin-Sibiryak D.N. Tale of the brave Hare - long ears, slanting eyes, short tail / Art. V. Dugin. - M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2007. - p.: ill. - (Favorite book).

Mamin-Sibiryak D.N. Tale of the brave Hare - long ears, slanting eyes, short tail / Art. S. Sachkov. - M.: AST: Astrel; Tula: Rodnichok, 2007. - 16 p.: ill.

Irina Kazyulkina

DMITRY NARKISOVICH MAMIN-SIBIRYAK

D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak

ABOUT THE BOOK

In the rosy perspective of childhood memories, not only people are alive, but also those inanimate objects that were somehow connected with the little life of a beginner. little man. And now I think about them as living beings, again experiencing the impressions and feelings of distant childhood.
In these mute participants in children's life, in the foreground, of course, is a children's picture book ... It was that living thread that led out of the children's room and connected it with the rest of the world. For me, every children's book is still something alive, because it awakens a child's soul, directs children's thoughts in a certain direction and makes a child's heart beat along with millions of other children's hearts. A children's book is a spring sunbeam that awakens the dormant forces of a child's soul and causes the growth of seeds thrown onto this grateful soil. Thanks to this particular book, children merge into one huge spiritual family that knows no ethnographic and geographical boundaries.
<…>
As I see it now, an old wooden house, looking at the square with five large windows. It was remarkable in that on one side the windows overlooked Europe, and on the other - to Asia. The watershed of the Ural Mountains was only fourteen miles away.
“Those mountains are already in Asia,” my father explained to me, pointing to the silhouettes of distant mountains piled up to the horizon. - We live on the very border ...
For me, this "border" contained something especially mysterious, separating two completely incommensurable worlds. In the east, the mountains were higher and more beautiful, but I liked the west more, which was quite prosaically obscured by the low hill of Kokurnikova. As a child, I loved to sit at the window for a long time and look at this mountain. It sometimes seemed to me that she seemed to be consciously obscuring all those miracles that seemed to the childish imagination in the mysterious, far west. After all, everything came from there, from the West, starting with the first children's picture book ... The East did not give anything, and in the child's soul a mysterious craving for the West woke up, grew and matured. By the way, our corner room, which was called the tea room, although they did not drink tea in it, overlooked the west and contained the cherished key to this west, and even now I think of it, as they think of a living person with whom dear ones are connected. memories.
The soul of this tearoom, so to speak, was the bookcase. In him, as in an electric battery, an inexhaustible, mysterious mighty force was concentrated, which caused the first fermentation of children's thoughts. And this closet seems to me also a living being.<…>
- These are our best friends, - the father liked to repeat, pointing to the books. - And what dear friends... You just need to think how much intelligence, talent and knowledge you need to write a book. Then it needs to be published, then it has to make a long, long journey until it gets to us in the Urals. Each book will pass through thousands of hands before it is placed on the shelf of our bookcase.<…>
Our library was made up of the classics, and in it - alas! - there was not a single children's book ... In his early childhood I didn't even see that book. Books were obtained by a long way of writing out from the capitals or accidentally got through the mediation of the booksellers. I had to start reading straight from the classics like grandfather Krylov, Gogol, Pushkin, Goncharov, etc. I saw the first children's picture book only about ten years old, when a new factory manager from artillery officers, a very educated person, came to our factory. How now I remember this first children's book, the title of which I, unfortunately, forgot. But I clearly remember the drawings placed in it, especially the living bridge of monkeys and pictures of tropical nature. Better than this book, then, of course, I have not seen.
In our library, the first children's book was "Children's World" by Ushinsky. This book had to be ordered from St. Petersburg, and we waited for it every day for almost three months. Finally, she appeared and was, of course, eagerly read from blackboard to blackboard. Started with this book new era. It was followed by the stories of Razin, Chistyakov and other children's books. Stories about the conquest of Kamchatka became my favorite book. I read it ten times and knew almost by heart. Simple illustrations were complemented by the imagination. Mentally, I did all the heroic deeds of the conquering Cossacks, swam in light Aleutian kayaks, ate rotten fish from the Chukchi, collected eiderdown on the rocks and died of hunger when the Aleuts, Chukchi and Kamchadals died. From this book, travel became my favorite reading, and my favorite classics were forgotten for a while. By this time, the reading of the "Pallas Frigate" by Goncharov belongs. I looked forward to the evening when my mother finished her day's work and sat down at the table with her treasured book. We were already traveling together, sharing equally the dangers and consequences of a trip around the world. Wherever we were, whatever we experienced, and sailed on and on, inspired by the thirst to see new countries, new people and forms of life unknown to us. Of course, there were many unknown places and incomprehensible words, but these pitfalls were managed with the help of a dictionary of foreign words and common interpretations.<…>
We are now too accustomed to the book to even approximately estimate the enormous power that it represents. More importantly, this power, in the form of a wandering book in an ofeni box, itself came to the reader at that distant time and, moreover, brought other books with it - books wander around the world in families, and their family connection is preserved between them. I would compare these wandering books to migratory birds that bring spiritual spring with them. You might think that some invisible hand of some invisible genius carried this book across the vast expanse of Rus', tirelessly sowing "reasonable, good, eternal." Yes, it is now easy to arrange a home library of the best authors, especially thanks to illustrated editions; but the book has already made its way into the darkest times, in the good old days of banknotes, tallow candles and any movement of the native "tug". Here it is impossible not to commemorate with a kind word the old bookseller, who, like water, penetrated into every well. For us children, his appearance in the house was a real holiday. He also supervised the selection of books and gave, in case of need, the necessary explanations.<…>
So ... we opened a whole warehouse of books, the container for which was a huge old chest of drawers with brass brackets. Kostya and I pounced on this treasure like mice on grits, and at the very first steps dug up Ammalat-Bek himself from the ashes of oblivion.
For several months we simply raved about this book and greeted each other with a mountain song:

<…>
"Writers" and "poeters" constituted an unsolvable riddle for us. Who are they, where do they live, how do they write their books? For some reason it seemed to me that this mysterious man who wrote books must certainly be angry and proud. This thought saddened me, and I began to feel hopelessly stupid.
“The generals write all the books,” Roman Rodionich assured. - There is no less than a general's rank, otherwise everyone will write!
To prove his words, he referred to the portraits of Karamzin and Krylov - both writers were in the stars.
Kostya and I nevertheless doubted the writing generalship and turned to Alexander Petrovich, who was supposed to know everything, to resolve the issue.
"There are also generals," he answered rather indifferently, straightening his little balls. Why shouldn't there be generals?
- All generals?
- Well, where can everyone be ... There are also very simple ones, like us.
- Simple at all, and compose?
- And they compose because they want to eat. You go into a bookstore in St. Petersburg, so your eyes will run wide. All the books are piled up to the ceiling, like we have firewood. If all the generals wrote, then there would be no aisle from them on the street. There are quite simple writers, and even often they are starving ...
The latter did not at all fit in with the idea of the writer formed in our heads. It even seemed to be ashamed: we are reading his book, and the writer is starving somewhere in St. Petersburg. After all, he tries and composes for us - and we began to feel a little guilty.
“That can't be,” Kostya decided. - Probably, they also receive their salary ...
An even more insoluble question was where reality is in the book and where fiction is.<…>
In our pantry and in Alexander Petrovich's chest of drawers, we found, by the way, many books that are completely inaccessible to our children's understanding. They were all old books, printed on thick blue paper with mysterious watermarks and bound in leather. They exuded indestructible strength, like well-preserved old men. Since my childhood, I developed a love for such an old book, and my imagination drew a mysterious person who wrote a book a hundred or two hundred years ago for me to read it now.<…>
Among the mysterious old books were those whose very title was difficult to understand: The Key to the Mysteries of Science, The Theater of Judicial Science, The Brief and Easiest Way to Pray, the work of Madame Gion, The Triumphant Chameleon, or the Depiction of Anecdotes and Properties Count Mirabeau”, “Three Initial Human Properties, or Image of Cold, Hot and Warm”, “Moral Letters to Lida about the Love of Noble Souls”, “Irtysh Turning into Hippocrene” (scattered books of the first Siberian magazine), etc. We tried to read these tricky mysterious books and perished in the most shameful way on the first pages. This convinced us only that these old books are the most intelligent, because they can only be understood by educated people, like our factory manager.
<…>
The 1960s were marked even in the remotest province by an enormous influx of new, popular scientific books. It was a clear sign of the times.<…>
I was fifteen years old when I met with a new book. The famous platinum mines were about ten versts from our plant. The manager, or, in a factory way, trusted, was a former student of Kazan University, Nikolai Fedorych, who entered there. Kostya and I have already wandered through the neighboring mountains with guns, visited the mine, met new people and found here a new book, a microscope, and completely new conversations. Another former student, Alexander Alekseevich, also lived in the mining office, who, mainly, initiated us into the new faith. In the office on the shelf were books unknown to us even by name. There were botanical conversations by Schleiden, and Moleschot, and Vogt, and Lyayel, and many other famous European names. Fully revealed before our eyes new world, immense and irresistibly beckoning to itself with the light of real knowledge and real science. We were simply stunned and did not know what to take on, and most importantly, how to take it “from the very beginning”, so that later mistakes would not come out and we would not have to return to the previous one.
It was a naive and happy faith in that science that was supposed to explain everything and teach everything, and the science itself consisted in those new books that stood on the shelf in the mine office.<…>
And now, when I accidentally come across some book published in the sixties somewhere at a second-hand book dealer, I have a joyful feeling, as if you will find a good old acquaintance.

NOTES

The essay "About the book" is given in abbreviated edition: Mamin-Sibiryak D.N. Collected works: in 8 volumes - M .: Goslitizdat, 1953-1955. - T. 8. - S. 553-570.

"Children's World" Ushinsky- "Native Word" and "Children's World" - the first Russian books for the primary education of children, published since the mid-1860s. huge circulations and therefore publicly available. They consisted of stories and fairy tales about nature and animals. The great Russian teacher, philosopher and writer Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky wrote them abroad, having studied the schools of Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy and other countries and summarizing his teaching experience.

Ammalat Bek- the story of Alexander Alexandrovich Bestuzhev-Marlinsky (1797-1837). Decembrist writer, he was transferred from Siberian exile to the Caucasus, to the active army; As an ordinary soldier, he took part in battles with the highlanders and died in the same year as A.S. Pushkin. Marlinsky's romantic stories captivated readers in the late 1820s and 1830s, but later the unearthly passions and pompous language of his characters were perceived more as a parody of romanticism.

Kostya- the son of a factory employee, a childhood friend of D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak.

Stories by Razin, Chistyakov- in 1851-65. teacher and children's writer Mikhail Borisovich Chistyakov (1809-1885) published the "Magazine for Children", first together with Alexei Egorovich Razin (1823-1875), a journalist and popularizer, and then alone. The magazine published novels, short stories and essays in which the author told children about the history, geography, literature, famous people of Russia and other countries in a fascinating way.

Schleiden's botanical conversations- Matthias Jakob Schleiden (1804-1881), German biologist, botanist and social activist.

Moleshot - the works of the Dutch physiologist Jacob Moleschott (1822-1893) were well known in Russia in the second half of the 19th century.

Vogt - German naturalist, zoologist and paleontologist Karl Vogt (Vogt; 1817-1895).

Lyell - Charles Lyell (1797-1875), English geologist, founder of modern geology.