Vyacheslav Shishkov: biography, works. Vyacheslav Yakovlevich Shishkov: novels "Vataga", "Gloomy River"

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Altai. Here, on the banks of the Katun River, stands a monument to the great Russian, Soviet writer V. Ya. Shishkov. The choice of location is not accidental. The inhabitants of the Altai Territory are grateful to the author, who sang of Siberia, not only for his great contribution to Russian literature, but also for the development of the Chuya tract project.

Shishkov Vyacheslav Yakovlevich - writer and engineer. It will be discussed in this article today.

Birth and childhood

In 1873, on the third of October, in the small town of Bezhetsk, a boy Vyacheslav Shishkov was born into a merchant family, whom everyone in the house would later call only Vestenka. It is not known from whom the talent of the writer was transferred to him, but one thing is certain: his father, Yakov Dmitrievich Shishkov, instilled in him a love for art and everything beautiful, who, despite his occupation, was known as a man of fine artistic nature and passionately loved theater and opera. It was in this atmosphere that Vyacheslav Shishkov spent his entire childhood.

Youth

In 1887, in his hometown, he graduated from the sixth,the last class and enters a technical school in the city of Vyshny Volochek, which is located in the same Tver province. However, after four years of study, it was time to leave their native land and go to the Novgorod, and then to the Vologda province for a mandatory two-year practice.

The young man was then only nineteen years old. At the same time, young Vyacheslav Shishkov makes a difficult two-week trip along the Pinega River together with John of Kronstadt, which could not but leave a bright mark on his soul.

Work

In 1894 the practice ended. The time is coming for more serious undertakings, and Vyacheslav Shishkov, without hesitation, goes to Tomsk, to the administration of the railway district, to first try himself as an ordinary technician. He does everything perfectly. But he does not stop there and successfully passes the exam, which gives him the right to further engage in his own research work.

Siberia and the first publications

From 1894 to 1915 Shishkov Vyacheslav Yakovlevich led many expeditions in Siberia. He traveled this vast territory of Russia along and across, by land and water, along the Pinega, Yenisei, Lena, Northern Dvina, Vychegda, Sukhona. In the same fruitful period, he was developing a project for the famous Chuisky tract. This is not to say that such long journeys were not dangerous. Taiga is majestic, beautiful and harsh at the same time. Faced with her difficult character and engineer Vyacheslav Shishkov. One day heand the members of his expedition nearly froze to death in the impenetrable forests. The Tungus nomads saved them.

In addition to exploring and discovering new land and waterways, the observant young man studied the life and culture of local residents - the Yakuts, Kirghiz, Irtysh Cossacks, was interested in the life of gold diggers, political exiles and ordinary vagrants. And all this against the backdrop of regal nature. Filled with impressions from what he heard and saw, he begins to write. He writes a lot, for seven years, but he does not dare to open himself to the world, believing that his wings have not yet grown. Only in 1908 it was published for the first time in the periodicals Young Siberia and Siberian Life.

Meet M. Gorky

The first minor, but still successful literary steps are pushing the thirty-eight-year-old researcher and engineer V. Shishkov to turn to Maxim Gorky for help and advice. He writes him a letter with a faint hope of an answer, in which he asks to read two of his stories - "Kralya" and "Vanya Khlyust", and give his assessment.

Gorky simply could not remain indifferent to the talent of the young writer, to his interesting personality, who had already experienced a lot in his years. He decides to help him and leads, as Shishkov himself wrote, to the "God's Light", namely, to the new magazine "Zavety", his numerous works. Also, thanks to his “omnipotent” patron, the future author of the novel “Gloomy River” gets acquainted with such prominent figures of that time as Mikhail Prishvin, V. Mirolyubov, A. Remizov, R. Ivanov-Razumnik, M. Averyanov, who actively help him in his development.

Moving

In 1915, Tomsk, Siberia, and with them all the former life and work are left far behind. Vyacheslav Shishkov, whose biography never ceases to amaze and amaze, moves to St. Petersburg to devote his life to literature. Here he is caught by the tragic events that followed two years later - the revolution and the civil war, which he warmly welcomes.

Since 1918, cycles of his stories and essays have been published one by one: “With a Knapsack”, “To the Pleasant”, “Taiga Wolf”, “Fresh Wind” and many others. The difficult and sometimes contradictory Siberian character is the main character of all his works. Here, wherever you rush, there are riddles, impenetrable jungles and original beauty everywhere. Explore for a century, but you can’t see the end and edge, as if you are wandering through the taiga.

Vyacheslav Shishkov: works of the post-war years

The fate of the writer is really surprising. He survived the collapse of tsarist Russia, the revolution, the difficult years of the civil war, famine, devastation, the formation of a new Soviet Russia, the Great Patriotic War. Of course, all these events are reflected in the writer's work.

In 1923, the novel (Vyacheslav Shishkov) "Vataga" was published, in which, according to critics, the author tries to understand the soul of not one person, but a whole people, a mass of people, which at some point loses leadership. But, as they say, a holy place is never empty. The former device is being replaced by a new one - anarchy, which in any casesomeone has to lead. And now a new character appears on the scene - the anarchist Zykov, who begins to build a new society, naturally, on blood and the denial of everything that exists. "Vataga" is, one might say, a warning book.

In 1928, the main work of Vyacheslav Shishkov, "The Gloomy River", consisting of two parts, was born. True, the second volume comes out a little later - in 1933. At the center of the novel is Prokhor Gromov, who dreams of not only building his capitalist empire in the very heart of Siberia, but also conquering this vast land, not destroying it, but merging with it together in order to feel, absorb all its immensity and beauty. However, this land does not give up so easily. She tests him, offering friendship, devotion, honor, love to exchange for gold, recognition and glory. The protagonist fails the test. As soon as he agrees to, as it seems to him, favorable conditions, the inevitable end immediately comes: illness, insanity and final death. The work contains a lot of descriptions of nature, the violent temper of the Gloomy River, Siberian life, Tungus legends and traditions.

The last significant work of Vyacheslav Shishkov is the historical epic novel "Emelyan Pugachev". He wrote it from 1938 until 1945. He did not interrupt his work even during the blockade of Leningrad, during which he continued to write patriotic articles and short stories in the newspapers.