Vera Chaplin: biography, creativity, photo

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

Do you know who Vera Chaplin is? Her biography will surely interest you. This is a famous children's writer, whose work is dedicated to the animal world. Not only her works are connected with him, but also her life path. Vera Chaplin worked at the Moscow Zoo for many years. You will find her photo and biography in this article.

The origin of Vera Chaplin and the first tragic event in her life

The years of the life of Vera Chaplina - 1908-1994. She was born in Moscow on April 24. Her family lived on Bolshaya Dmitrovka. Vera's parents were hereditary nobles. Lidia Vladimirovna, her mother, is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory. And Vasily Mikhailovich, father, is a lawyer. In the chaos of the Civil War that followed the 1917 revolution, 10-year-old Chaplin Vera got lost. She ended up in Tashkent, in an orphanage, as a homeless child.

The writer subsequently recalled that only love for animals helped her to survive the first great grief. Even in the orphanage, she managed to keep kittens, puppies and chicks. She hid them from caregiversat night, and during the day she took it to the garden. Love for animals, as well as responsibility for their lives, brought up in the girl the ability to overcome difficulties and determination. These features determined the creative and life path of Vera Chaplina.

Return to Moscow

The girl was found in 1923 by her mother and brought back to Moscow. Soon Vera began to visit the zoo and the circle of young biologists, led by P. A. Manteuffel. Vera Chaplin did not just feed the cubs of various animals with a nipple and take care of them. The girl watched them, conducted scientific work. Vera Chaplin sought to create conditions for animals so that they would not feel that they were in captivity.

A platform created by Vera Vasilievna

At the age of 25 Chaplina Vera Vasilievna becomes an innovator of the Moscow Zoo. Her name will always be remembered as the leader and initiator of the site, created in 1933. Strong and he althy young animals were brought up here, there were all conditions for different animals to get along with each other. This experiment aroused great interest of the audience. For many years, the young animals' playground has become the "calling card" of the zoo.

First stories

At the same time, Chaplin's first stories were published in the magazine "Young Naturalist". After their release, the Detgiz publishing house decided to conclude an agreement with Vera Vasilievna to create a book about the young animals' playground. It was published in 1935. The book was called "Kids from the green area." She was successful, but the writer herselfcritically reviewed her book. She significantly revised its text and released a new collection of stories, and this one was not included in subsequent editions at all.

My pupils

For Chaplin, as for many other authors, the second book became decisive. In 1937 "My Pupils" were printed. The stories included in this collection revealed the special style of the writer and became one of the most successful in her work. This is especially true for such works as "Loska", "Argo", "Tulka". And the story about the lioness Kinuli brought up in the apartment (pictured below) became a real bestseller.

World fame

The events described in the story "Thrown" began in 1935, in the spring. And already in the autumn they became widely known both in the capital and far beyond its borders. Numerous reports in film magazines and newspaper articles did their job. A stream of letters from adults and children from various cities of the country hit Vera Vasilievna. Vera Chaplin soon gained worldwide fame. "The Christian Science Monitor" from America in December published an article about Kinuli, Vera and the nursery ground. An agreement was concluded with the writer on the publication of works abroad. In London in 1939, a book of short stories by Vera Chaplina "My animal friends" was published.

Pre-war and war years

Vera Vasilievna participated in the first studio broadcast on April 4, 1938Moscow television center. In 1937, she became head of the predator section. Vera Chaplina in May 1941 was commended for being a shock worker at the Moscow Zoo. At the beginning of the war, Vera Vasilievna, along with several especially valuable animals, was sent to the Urals for evacuation. So she ended up in the Sverdlovsk Zoo. There was not enough food, and great efforts had to be made to save the animals. Chaplin in the difficult conditions of the war proved to be a decisive and skillful organizer. She became the deputy director of the Sverdlovsk Zoo in the summer of 1942.

In the spring of 1943, Vera returned to Moscow. She now worked as a director of production enterprises in the same Moscow Zoo, to which Vera Chaplina devoted more than 30 years of her life.

Four-legged friends

In 1946, Vera Vasilievna took up permanent literary work. A new collection of her works ("Four-Legged Friends") appeared a year later. In addition to the revised text "Kinuli", new stories were included in it: "Shango", "Stubby", "Wolf pupil", "Fomka-white bear cub", etc. "Four-legged friends" had an extraordinary success. They were republished not only in the capital, but also in Prague, Warsaw, Sofia, Bratislava, Berlin. In 1950, Vera Chaplin was admitted to the Writers' Union.

Cooperation with G. Skrebitsky

Georgy Skrebitsky, naturalist writer, became Chaplin's literary co-author from the end1940s Together they wrote the scripts for the 1951 cartoon The Forest Travelers and the 1954 film Into the Woods. In 1949, after their trip to Western Belarus, a book of essays en titled "In Belovezhskaya Pushcha" was written. In 1955, a new collection of Chaplin's stories, Pets of the Zoo, was published.

In the 1950s and 60s. readers of Japan, France, and the USA met with the characters of Chaplin's works. International Book Publishing House has published Zoo Pets and Four-Legged Friends in Arabic, Hindi, Spanish and other languages.

"Shepherd's Friend" and "Chance Encounters"

In 1961, the collection "Shepherd's Friend" appeared. In it, as well as in the 1976 cycle of stories "Chance Encounters", we find new features of the work of this writer. Bright colors and close-ups, which created cheerful and sometimes dramatic portraits of animals, are being replaced by images, at first glance, of a smaller scale. However, they now appear as if from the life of the reader. Vera Chaplina managed not so much to tell stories as to notice and make out our winged and four-legged neighbors, who are not always noticeable. The stories "Spoiled Vacation", "Funny Bear", "How Good!", "Puska" are full of comic situations that we sometimes find ourselves in when we get to know various "charming" animals. They do things that can piss off even the most calm person. interesting works,Isn't it, Vera Chaplin created? Reviews about them are the most positive - readers note that Vera Vasilievna wittily talks about all this. It can be seen that she herself often fell into such stories. It should be noted that people whom Vera Vasilievna shows angry and confused are able, in spite of everything, to maintain a human, kind attitude towards little "tormentors".

The meaning of Vera Chaplina's creativity

More than one generation of readers grew up on the works of Vera Chaplina. To date, the total circulation of her books is more than 18 million copies. In addition, many feature films, short films and popular science films have been created based on works written by Vera Chaplin. The short biography ends with the last date - the great writer died on December 19, 1994.