The biography of Igor Nosov

Photo: on the eve of the summer anniversary of the beloved children's author, the creator of the Universe of the Korotyki, the “Book Regiment” spoke with his grandson, photographer and children's writer Igor Nosov. He especially treated you. He wrote about you the whole book “The Tale of my friend Igor”, which was published shortly before his death, in the mid -seventies.

It consists of your childhood stories. What is your very first impression of grandfather? This was described by the grandfather in the book. As now I see grooves along the forest where these newtons lived, and how they surfaced behind the air. We caught them, admired and released them. Nikolai Nikolaevich did not seem to have a lot of time with me in nature - in the forest, in the field.

But he laid the beginning of my love for nature, for all living things. But in general, I remembered my grandfather as a person who works all the time. At all games, with all his attention to me, he worked a lot and created more than many other children's writers. The grandson of the children's writer Nikolai Nosov, also a children's author and photographer Igor Nosov.

What did he do before he began to write books for children? He studied for the screenwriter, and as a result he turned out to be a screenwriter and a director of educational and scientific films. Before the war, he worked as a specialist in creating such films. During the war he was drafted into the army. I remember these amazing memories of my grandfather: how they - already on the way to the front line, they sat by the bonfires, the darkness was around, the grandfather experienced an acute sensation of the unknown and inevitability of what would be ahead.

However, the grandfather never reached the army. He was suddenly withdrawn back to the studio, and he worked the whole war in Moscow at the Centernacchfilm and received the Order of the Red Star, which was issued only for participation in hostilities. For example, his grandfather worked with a large neurosurgeon of the Korean, who did operations on the brain.

After all, there were a lot of wounds in the head, it was urgent to train doctors to operate. Also - films about military equipment. A particularly important point-and this was recalled by the grandmother who worked with him: films for tankers, how to use military equipment, which was supplied to us from the Lend-Lease allies. It was thanks to grandfather that our mechanics were able to figure out how to control the tank to properly, so that it was maneuverable and fast.

We know much less about Nosov than other children's writers - about Chukovsky, about Marshak. Photo: Personal archive - How did it happen that Nosov became a writer for children? He was the only and beloved child, and communication with him gave an impetus to literature. Father was born in the year, and when he was seven years old, his grandfather already published the first stories in which his son was the hero.

In the story “The Sixpers”, even the name is preserved: Petya. Petya and Valya are also a real cousin play under the table in three piglets and hide under the tablecloth. The pre -war years were harsh, there was a war in Spain. One of the editors recalled that Nosov tried to criticize for a frivolous topic. But common sense prevailed. Then the stories appear: “Vitya Maleev at school and at home” - for which the grandfather received the Stalin Prize in the early fifties.

Vitya is a matured Petya. He, like Viti, also had problems with mathematics. How did it happen? It was an incredible breakthrough for children's literature far from ideology. After all, "Vitya Maleev" is a work just about schoolchildren. There were no references to either the party or the leaders. Yes, there were red ties, banners, the seventh of November, but these were just everyday realities.

And, apparently, he liked the idea that a small person, a child, would be more convenient to communicate with a small character - even in height. With Liliput is more comfortable than with a giant, because the giant scares. And Nosov began to take characters from stories about Murzilka, clothing them in a completely new form and giving them a new content. There were both Znayka and Dunno, but they did not have any special distinctive features.

They were taken from Anna Hvolson’s pre -revolutionary book about the adventures of a man Murzilka, whom she, in turn, borrowed from American comics. Nikolai Nosov was connected with the magazine Murzilka: his first works were printed there. Sometimes he ordered stories about Murzilka, so he knew these heroes well. And once he decided to come up with his universe shorty, having relocated some of the characters in the magazine.

Moreover, he refused Murzilka himself. And then a completely new, original world of babies and babies turned out, with bright characters, moods, with complex relationships and an adventurous plot. His plots capture and are very reminiscent of the realities of our life. If the little heroes of former authors were more like gnomes or elves, then the characters and positions of Nosov turned out to be more voluminous and realistic.

On the one hand, there is a socialist sunny city, and on the other, the moon where the capitalists live. Some shorties came out similar to characters in classical Russian literature. The donut, for example, has Plyushkin’s features from Dead Souls: he drags everything to himself: suddenly comes in handy?As for the screw and the shpuntik, these are professionals.

Nikolai Nosov very much appreciated professionalism and wanted to show heroes - real masters of his craft. Let us recall how the artist the tube worked: he created a stencil with a small mouth and big eyes - and painted all the kids on it.

It was a subtle irony against colleagues. Nosov saw what was happening in art and transferred to the life of shorties. The poet Pudik took his “beautiful” pseudonym “Flower”, wore special clothes, hairstyle and in every possible way protruded his unusualness. Here Nosov parodies writers and poets whom he saw himself. Or recall the doctors Medunitsa and Pilyulkin. One treats all in a row with honey, the other - castor.

This reflected to some extent the attitude of the grandfather to medicine. Nikolai Nikolaevich, like Moliere, was skeptical of modern medicine. He died not from gastritis, from which he was treated, but from a heart attack. For Nosov’s predecessors, this hero does not have bright features at all, and in your grandfather he is a continuous personality: “He wears a bright blue hat, yellow, canary, trousers and an orange shirt with a green tie.” We can say a status thing.

Grandfather always wore hats. But the father no longer wore. He is a sharp opposite of the Knowledge, which, on the contrary, is in a black suit. Grandfather wanted to show that Dunno is all of us. Any adult active optimist who wants to know the world is Dunno. After all, you need a lot of energy and courage in order not to be embarrassed to recognize yourself as a Dunno.

Father took up a lot, was very temperamental, fast. A little lazy, but very curious. He always wanted to learn. We can say that Dunno - but he changes from the book to the book - embodied the observations that his grandfather did while observing his father. A hat is an important gentleman attribute in the years. Photo: Personal archive - I looked at the book of memories of Nosov. All memoirists say that he was a person who is an unsociable, shy, introvert.

I knew Nikolai Nikolayevich until my fourteen. He has never been a cloudy and gloomy man, with the exception of, perhaps, the last few years when he was sick. In fact, he was a big optimist. He was tuned to the fact that life was beautiful, therefore he always wrote about it with a smile. I sometimes compare my grandfather with Leonid Gaida. Gaidai spoke in his interviews that people in life and so much sad, so why make sad films.

People need to be pleased. Grandfather, by the way, adored Gaidai's films. And he very sympathized with other people. When I wanted to become a doctor, Nikolai Nikolaevich told me: “Are you ready to compass your patients all your life? There cannot be a doctor who will not compass the patient. ” The first place was taken by Gorky, the second - Pushkin, the third - nosov. Has he brought any benefits to him popularity in other countries?

Surely he was offered to join the party, but he did not enter, I think, by conviction. He wanted to maintain some independence.