"Uncle Guilay." Strongman, scout and master of the word

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8 December 2015 marks the 160 anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Gilyarovsky - a unique person, equally owned by national journalism, fiction and journalism, military stories and even sport.

Getting acquainted with the biography of Vladimir Gilyarovsky - "Uncle Gilyai" - it is difficult to imagine that one person could live such a diverse life. "Uncle Gilyay" was a hauler and circus rider, fought in the Caucasus and put out fires, worked as a newspaper reporter for the crime chronicle and wrote amazing stories about Moscow and Muscovites. Perhaps it is the Muscovites especially significant figure of Vladimir Gilyarovsky. After all, “Uncle Gilyay” is the author of unique stories about the “old”, pre-revolutionary Moscow. The heroes of his works “Moscow and Muscovites” or “Slum People” are market pickpockets and wealthy tycoons, drunk aristocrats and illiterate servants, police officers and professional thieves, gamblers and juvenile prostitutes. In his works, Vladimir Gilyarovsky reflected the life of that Moscow, about which most authors chose not to write. They did not want to, but they could not. And "Uncle Gilyay" could - as a criminal reporter, he climbed all the "white stone" and was well acquainted with the wrong side of her life, with the inhabitants of both palaces and slums. He visited Moscow pubs and bunkhouses, police stations and bazaar dens, explored Moscow dungeons, was well-known to many noble families. The works of Gilyarovsky are valuable because almost all of them are about people who either actually existed or had their real prototypes. There was no need to invent plots for the majority of his works “Uncle Guilay” - there were enough memories and stories from his own life, from a circle of numerous and completely different friends and acquaintances. And Gilyarovsky's life fell on very interesting times - he was a witness to the large-scale changes that took place in Russian history. Found the era of Alexander II and Alexander III, the board of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II, the February and October revolutions, the years of the NEP and Soviet industrialization.

Vologda childhood

Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky was born on December 8 of 1855 (old style - November 26) in the Vologda district of the Vologda province - in the estate of Count Olsufyev, where his father Alexey Gilyarovsky served as assistant forest manager. For a long time it was believed that Vladimir Gilyarovsky was born in 1853 year. This date was included in many encyclopedias and reference books and was recognized as official - at least, it was in 1953 that the writer's 100 anniversary was celebrated. It was only in 2005 that it turned out that Gilyarovsky was born in 1855 year - it was this year that the record of his baptism in the metric book of the church in the village of Syama was dated, where little Volodya was baptized (now the village is part of the Novlensky rural settlement of the Vologda district of the Vologda region, only twenty people live).

All the childhood and adolescence of Vladimir Gilyarovsky passed in the Vologda region. Subsequently, the writer recalled his native places like this: “I was born in a forest farm beyond Lake Kubensky and I spent part of my childhood in dense dominsky forests, where bears walk and walk along swamps and impassable marshes, and wolves drag on packs. In Domšyn, through the dense forests, he ran through the vigorous river Toshnya, and behind it, among the age-old forests, the swamps ”(Gilyarovsky VA, My wanderings). On the paternal line, the ancestors of Vladimir Gilyarovsky were residents of Beloozer and engaged in fishing. They bore the surname Petrov, and the writer's grandfather, who entered the Vologda Theological Seminary, received the surname “Gilyarovsky” - from the Latin “hilaris” - “cheerful, joyful”. Rhode Petrov - free fishermen - most likely ascended to the inhabitants of Veliky Novgorod. According to his mother, Vladimir Gilyarovsky was a descendant of Zaporizhzhya Cossacks - her family moved at the end of the XVIII century. on the Kuban. The maternal grandfather of the Kuban was a native of Kuban - a participant in the hostilities in the Caucasus. Both mother and grandmother told little Volodya a lot about Cossack life. Naturally, the topic of the origin of the Kuban Cossacks from the Zaporizhian Sich inevitably surfaced. This desire for the Cossacks - Zaporozhtsy Gilyarovsky kept for life. From childhood, Nikolai Gogol became his favorite writer, and Vladimir Gilyarovsky loved to rank himself as a glorious and dashing tribe of Zaporozhian and Kuban Cossacks, but he was very proud of his paternal origin from the free Novgorod people.

In 1860, Volodya’s father, Aleksey Gilyarovsky, received a bailiff in Vologda. The whole family moved there. When the boy was eight years old, he suffered a terrible grief - his mother died. From now on, he was waited only by a male upbringing — his father and his friend Kitaev, which we will describe below. In August, ten-year-old Vladimir 1865 entered the first class of the Vologda gymnasium, but he did not care. He was left for the second year. More than a study, the lad attracted sports and writing poetry. He began to write epigrams on teachers, poetry, became interested in translations of poems from the French language. At the same time, Volodya was engaged in circus acrobatics and jigitovka. The teenager was waiting for the summer holidays - to go to the estate Svetelki, where it was possible to exercise enough, to travel through the forest with his father, grandfather and "uncle Kitaev."

Kitayev - the pioneer of jiu-jitsu

By the way, it is interesting that Vladimir Gilyarovsky was one of the first Russians to get an idea of ​​oriental martial arts. Now the interest of young people to the Chinese, Japanese, Korean martial arts will not surprise anyone. Hundreds of thousands of young and not very Russians went through wushu, karate, taekwondo and other martial arts sections. Thanks to developed communications and transportation, the Far East is quite accessible, and some elements of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean culture have tightly entered into life both Europeans and Russians. And then, in the second half of the XIX century, only fragmentary information about the mysterious "Japanese struggle" penetrated into Russia - with the sailors returning from long voyages. One of such remarkable people was brought together by the fate of Vladimir Gilyarovsky, then a teenager. In "My wanderings" Gilyarovsky often commemorates the former sailor Kitaev, who was a close friend of his father and performed the role of "uncle" for the boy Volodya. Kitaev taught the young Gilyarovsky to do gymnastics, ride a horse, shoot and, of course, fight. The last craft "Uncle" knew perfectly. After all, he was called Kitaev because he lived in China and Japan for a long time. During the Far Eastern wanderings, "Uncle Chinas" and mastered the skills of martial arts, unfamiliar to the then Russian men. Vladimir Gilyarovsky recalled his mentor in the following way: “It was a square man, both wide and up, with long, huge and monkey hands and slouching. He was about sixty, but a dozen men could not cope with him: he took them like kittens and cast them away from him, cursing frantically not either in Japanese, or in Chinese, which, however, looked very much like some Russians words ”(Gilyarovsky VA“ My wanderings ”).

In reality, Kitaev’s name was Vasily Yugov. Countryman Gilyarovskih, originally from the Vologda region, he was born into a family of serfs and, like many peasant boys, was enlisted. A strong and smart Vologda guy was sent to serve in the Navy. Thanks to this, Yugov turned out to be far away from his native places - in the Far East. On the navy the sailor Yugov was considered a real strongman and participated in constant fights with foreign sailors. For which he was repeatedly and mercilessly punished by officers. Once, on a ship near the notorious for his atrocities over sailors captain-lieutenant Fofanov Vasily Yugov stood up for a young sailor, who, despite his illness, cruel Fofanov ordered to flog. The furious captain ordered Yugov to be thrown into the hold, and shot the next morning. However, Vasily managed to escape from the ship. He found himself on some island, then, together with Japanese fishermen, he came to Japan, and then to China. Over the years of wandering, Vasily Yugov well mastered the methods of struggle without weapons, having learned it from Japanese and Chinese masters who met on his way. Gilyarovsky recalled that the uncle Kitaev - Yugov showed him unprecedented tricks - put two stones, one on another, and smashed them with a blow on the ribs of the palm. Could juggle logs, which were intended for the construction of the barn. With such an interesting biography was the "coach" of the young Gilyarovsky. And he taught young Volodya jiu-jitsu techniques. Then this Japanese art of struggle was practically unknown in Russia - only half a century later, during the years of the Russian-Japanese war 1904-1905, jiu-jitsu became popular, first among Russian officers and soldiers, and then among other categories of the population. And without that, physically deprived Vladimir Gilyarovsky (it was from him, by the way, Ilya Repin wrote one of his famous Cossacks - a laughing Cossack in a white fur hat and a red scroll), the lessons of the old man - the sailor went to the front. Gilyarovsky well mastered the art of struggle, which then repeatedly helped the future writer in his young years - during his long wanderings, described later in "My Wanderings".

Wandering around the country Volodya Gilyarovsky began because of his violent nature. From a young age he didn’t want for himself the boring life of a petty official or a rural teacher. In addition to the "uncle Kitaev", he closely communicated with the exiled populists, who gave Gilyarovsky protest literature, including the novel by N.G. Chernyshevsky "What to do?". And after a while Gilyarovsky really "went to the people." And he was forced to do this by a regrettable circumstance - in June, 1871, without passing the final exams at the gymnasium, Gilyarovsky without a passport and money escaped from his paternal house. On the Volga, he went to work as a hawker. In the burlack artels, not only physical skill was required, but also the ability to stand up for yourself - the people there were dashing, capable of many things, but seventeen-year-old Volodya managed to “put himself” surrounded by harsh adult guys and men, many of whom were very dark, robber and convict past. The hardening of teenage years, set by Kitaev - Yugov, had an effect. And as a Moscow journalist, in his mature years, Gilyarovsky, unlike many colleagues, could easily risk visiting the most notorious slums and dens, he was quite confident in his abilities. However, incredible physical strength was inherited by Gilyarovsky. Konstantin Paustovsky in a speech at the evening in honor of Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky’s 100 birthday, brought this interesting point that characterized the writer: “not only Gilyarovsky himself, but his whole family possessed this extraordinary Zaporozhye force. And so Gilyarovsky, somehow arriving at his father, took the poker and tied it up. The father said: you can spoil these things at home, but I cannot. And unleashed this poker. I must say that my father was about 80 years "(Transcript of KG Paustovsky's speech at the evening dedicated to the 100 anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky // Questions of literature. - 1969. - №5). Gilyarovsky was remembered that he was a man of tremendous personal courage — he could easily “communicate” with huge chain dogs, catch up and keep on the run a cab driver. Like in the Hermitage garden, where there was a special machine for measuring strength, Vladimir Alekseevich “measured” his power in such a way that the machine turned out to be completely pulled out of the ground.

Burlak, rider and military intelligence officer

The young burlak Gilyarovsky walked twenty days with a strap along the Volga - from Kostroma to Rybinsk. In Rybinsk, Volodya got a job as a hooker in a local port. At this time, he began to think about a military career. In the end, in the fall, Gilyarovsky enrolled as a volunteer in the Nezhinsky Regiment - the 137 Infantry Regiment of the Nezhinsky Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna regiment, formed in 1863 on the basis of the 4-th backup battalion of the Yekaterinburg His Imperial Highness of the Chief of the Defendant of the Defendant of the Defendant of the Defendant of the Defendant and deaconate of the deceased and deacon of the decedent of the deceased and deacon. Able volunteer in 1873 was sent to study - in Moscow cadet school. Young Gilyarovsky had a chance to become an officer, and, who knows, would we then get the opportunity to read his literary works? However, the obstinate temper of Gilyarovsky discipline and drill in the cadet school could not resist. Only a month after entering the cadet Vladimir Gilyarovsky was expelled from the school back to the regiment - for violation of discipline. But Gilyarovsky did not continue to serve in the regiment, but wrote to the command a resignation report. With the military career of the young Vladimir did not work out. Began the next phase of wandering. Gilyarovsky worked as a stoker and a worker at a bleaching plant in Yaroslavl, put out fires as part of a fire brigade, worked in fisheries, and in Tsaritsyn at one time worked as a herdsman. With horses Gilyarovsky, thanks to the lessons of Kitaev, knew how to handle from childhood. Therefore, in Rostov-on-Don, he entered as a rider at a local circus. In 1875, he became a theater actor from a circus rider. With theater troupes Gilyarovsky visited Voronezh and Kirsanov, Morshansk and Penza, Ryazan, Saratov and Tambov.

When the Russian-Turkish war began, Gilyarovsky, quite in the spirit of the times, decided to volunteer. He again entered the military service. The twenty-two-year-old Vladimir Gilyarovsky was assigned to a volunteer-determined 12 squadron of the 161 2nd Alexandropol Infantry Regiment. He was commanded by Colonel Prince R.N. Abashidze. The regiment was stationed in the Caucasus, in the Georgian Guria - on the border with the Ottoman Empire. He participated in the occupation of the Khutsuban Heights, the battles on the Salba Heights and on the r. Achhua The twelfth company of the regiment, into which Gilyarovsky was assigned, was commanded by the famous captain Karganov, who captured Hadji Murad himself. However, in the 12 infantry company Gilyarovsky stayed no more than a week. Service in the infantry unit to Vladimir, who was striving for exploits and extraordinary actions, seemed rather boring. And in terms of his level of training, Vladimir could try himself on more interesting and dangerous tasks. Gilyarovsky moved into the hunting squad team. It was the special forces of the time - military intelligence, performing a very specific set of functions. They shot guards, captured the “tongues”, learned the exact data about the disposition of the Turkish troops. The service was really difficult and very risky. After all, the Turks, especially Bashibuzuki, who were recruited from the local highlanders - Muslims, knew the mountain trails perfectly and were oriented on the terrain much better than Russian soldiers and officers. Therefore, the hunting teams, not inferior to the enemy in the knowledge of the mountainous areas, were truly unique units, the fame of which spread throughout the active army.

During the events described, hunting teams did not yet have an official status and were made up of volunteers - the most desperate and "crazy" Cossacks and soldiers who fit the physical data, but most importantly - for their moral readiness for daily risk. The defense of Sevastopol and, in particular, the fighting in the Caucasus, demonstrated all the strengths of the hunting teams and showed their irreplaceability in the conditions of the mountainous terrain, close to the front of the front with the enemy, and fighting against enemy spies and saboteurs. Nevertheless, when Gilyarovsky served in the Alexandropol regiment, the hunting teams formally remained the “amateur activities” of regimental officers. Only in 1886, their status was legitimized by the relevant order of the military department.

They recruited "suicide bombers" there, warning in advance that no one from the team will return home alive. Gilyarovsky survived. Although he served in the hunting team for almost a year - he fought with the Turks and with the troops of the bashi-bazouks, who operated on in the Caucasus Mountains. “We made peace, took the troops deep into Russia, but only on September 3, 1878, I was retired because I was in the“ hunters ”and we were kept under arms because bashibuzuki were flooding the mountains and had to fight with them alone in the mountain forest slums, crawling on the rocks, hanging over the precipices. This occupation was more interesting to me than the war itself, ”Gilyarovsky later recalled in My Wanderings. By the way, as Gilyarovsky recalled, those dashing soldiers and Cossacks, with whom he served side by side in an infantry regiment and hunting team, seemed to him very intelligent people compared to vagrants and barge haulers, whom Vladimir saw a lot in his youth during his travels country. For his valiant service during the Russian-Turkish war, Gilyarovsky received the Military Order of St. George, IV degree and the medal "For the Russian-Turkish War 1877-1878." However, Vladimir Alekseevich did not ask afterwards with his military past. He barely wore the cross of St. George, confining himself to a ribbon. On the period of his participation in the hostilities in the Caucasus, Gilyarovsky left a chapter of memoirs in the autobiographical book My Wanderings.

From theater to journalists

Demobilized after the war, Gilyarovsky arrived in Moscow. Here in 1881, he got a job at the Pushkin Theater, officially called the A. A. Brenko Dramatic Theater at Malkiel's House. The head of this theater, Anna Alekseevna Brenko (1848-1934) - the famous actress and director. Gradually, however, Gilyarovsky became increasingly convinced that his vocation was not a theatrical game, but literature. He began to write poems and notes in his childhood, in the gymnasium years. 30 August 1881 of the year in the magazine "Alarm Clock" published his poems about the Volga. In the fall of 1881, Vladimir Gilyarovsky left the theater and engaged in literary activities. He entered the correspondent in the "Russian newspaper", then - in the "Moscow leaf". It was in the field of criminal reports and emergency reporting that Gilyarovsky gained fame and relevance to the public.

Fame to the beginning journalist was brought by a series of reports about the famous Kukuyev catastrophe. On the night of 29 on 30 on June 1882, near the village of Kukuyevka, near the station Bastievo of the Moscow-Kursk railway, a mail train crashed. Heavy rain has led to the fact that the pressure of the water destroyed the culvert cast-iron pipe under the earth mound. The mound was eroded, and the railway track literally hung in the air. Naturally, during the passage of the train, seven cars failed and were filled up with soil. As a result of the crash, 42 people died, 35 was injured. Among those killed was twenty-two-year-old Nikolai Turgenev, the nephew of the writer Ivan Turgenev. When the father of the deceased, the writer's brother Nikolai Turgenev Sr., was told the sad news, he was paralyzed. Ivan Turgenev himself repeatedly expressed outrage at the authorities' negligence. The reporter Vladimir Gilyarovsky arrived at the scene of the train wreck, who participated in the dam analysis two weeks later and during this time sent reports to the Moscow leaflet. The next scandalous series of Gilyarovsky’s reports were reports of a fire at the Morozov factory. The editor even had to hide the name of the author of the articles. Gilyarovsky’s acute publications provoked discontent among officials and he soon had to leave the Moscow leaflet. In 1884, he went to work at Russkie Vedomosti, where in 1885 his essay “Doomed” appeared, written by Gilyarovsky back in 1874 and telling about the work at the bleaching plant of Sorokin.

Chronicler of Moscow slums

Indeed, the reporter Vladimir Gilyarovsky was very talented. Almost all Moscow officials personally knew him, especially police officers and investigators, fire bosses, doctors of hospitals. Perhaps, in Moscow there was no such place where Gilyarovsky would not have been. And a topic that he would not cover in his reports. He was allowed to go to theaters and art galleries, to the English club, where Moscow aristocrats gathered, and to terrible dens and Khitrovka's dens, where street robbers, gamblers, prostitutes and drunks were regulars. Everywhere he was taken "for his" and, in fact, Gilyarovsky could solve almost any problem. In particular, he helped his acquaintances to return the stolen items, since he was in the thieves of the “raspberry” Khitrov market. Since the most important thing for a reporter is to be able to unleash the interlocutor's language, Gilyarovsky had to drink. And how can one go to the taverns and slums without drinking, without attracting attention? But, as the writer's friends recall, despite the fact that he could drink a huge amount of alcoholic beverages, sobriety did not leave the reporter and, where necessary, he kept his mind clear and carefully remembered the drunken revelations of his interlocutors. It was this “personal ability” of Vladimir Gilyarovsky that enabled him to create impressive, according to the information contained, essays on the life of the Moscow social “bottom”, the criminal world, and bohemians.

"Uncle Guilay." Strongman, scout and master of the word


A favorite theme of Gilyarovsky’s publications were the social problems of Moscow. Perhaps no one better than Gilyarovsky did not cover the mores and life of the Moscow slums - Khitrovka, Sukharevka, did not tell about the life of social classes. Gilyarovsky even touched on the topic of the life of stray animals in Moscow. The main characters of Gilyarovsky’s works are people “shredded by life”, inhabitants of Moscow slums who sometimes lost their human appearance. But in the behavior of some of them something human is still slipping. Gilyarovsky teaches the reader, literally, “not to denounce the prison and the prison”, because it shows by the example of its heroes how yesterday the prosperous inhabitants in the moment were victims of Moscow slums and could no longer leave the world of cheap taverns and nightlife - klopovnikov. Gradually, Gilyarovsky’s friends and colleagues began to call none other than “Uncle Gilyay”.

The popularity of a journalist who wrote on topical and topical issues grew with each new publication. And in 1887, Gilyarovsky published the first collection of short stories - "Slum People." Censorship seized and destroyed almost the entire circulation of this work. The main accusation of the censors was that Gilyarovsky showed the life of the common people of Tsarist Russia too gloomy, without a light, and “this truth cannot be printed,” as one of the censorship leaders said about the work of Vladimir Gilyarovsky. However, the stories still spread throughout the country. Plots, ease of presentation of material - all aroused the interest of the reader. The heroes of the collection “Slum People” are a drunkard-lackey Spirka, an executive fellow who suffers from drunkenness; old actor Khanov; Alexander Ivanovich Kolesov - office worker, who arrived in Moscow in search of work and, being depraved, replenished the number of inhabitants of Moscow's sleeping nights; retired second-lieutenant Ivanov, frostbitten and turned into a Moscow beggar; a professional billiard player nicknamed "Captain", with an injured hand the loser party. All these people are victims of social lawlessness, poverty, numerous vices. This reality of Tsarist Russia, depicted by Gilyarovsky, was then unwilling to accept and recognize the “guardians” of the existing order, from censors to conservative critics. Even today, it goes against the idealization of pre-revolutionary times inherent in many contemporary authors.



In the essay "Khitrovka" Gilyarovsky gives a detailed and interesting description of the most cereal region of pre-revolutionary Moscow - Khitrov Market. Here, in the overnight houses, it huddled in general to 10 000 people. Among them are countless alcoholics, tramps, interrupted by random earnings, and professional criminals, and juvenile prostitutes, and poor people with disabilities. The cunning people began their criminal journey from birth, and many of them did not live to adulthood. Gilyarovsky describes the policemen who were responsible for ordering on the Khitrovy market and who knew all his criminal public well. In another essay, the writer tells of how he explored the Moscow dungeons - the cesspool between Trubnaya Square and Samotekoy, into which the Neglinka River was turned, almost all the way "rolled into a pipe." By the way, after Vladimir Alekseevich published in the Moscow press a series of articles about the adventures in the Moscow dungeons, the Moscow City Council was forced to issue a decree ordering the beginning of the restructuring of Neglinka. But, in addition to the stories about the "bottom" in the figurative and literal sense of the word, Gilyarovsky also tells about the life of Moscow's rich. So, in one of the essays, the writer draws the way of life of Moscow merchants who gathered in the club in the house of Myatlev. Lists a list of gourmet menus. In the other - it tells about the Moscow “pit” - the debt prison, where unfortunate people got, who were at the mercy of their creditors and who could not pay their debts. In his essays, Gilyarovsky recalls many of the writers, poets, actors, artists and other interesting personalities who met him on the way. Interesting descriptions of everyday life of ordinary people in Moscow - bakers and hairdressers, waiters and cab drivers, students and emerging artists. Remarkable descriptions of Moscow taverns and restaurants, bathhouses and squares.

Friend to poets and artists

Gradually, Gilyarovsky became widely known in the literary, musical, artistic environment - he closely communicated with Ouspensky, with Chekhov, was well acquainted with many famous composers and artists of his time. Anton Chekhov’s brother, Anton Chekhov, recalls: ““ Once, even in the very early years of our stay in Moscow, Brother Anton returned home from somewhere and said: “Mom, someone Gilyarovsky will come to me tomorrow. It would be nice to treat him with something. ” Gilyarovsky’s arrival came just on Sunday, and the mother baked cabbage pie and made vodka. Gilyarovsky appeared. It was then still a young man, of medium height, unusually mighty and stocky, in high hunting boots. Cheerfulness from him and scourged in all directions. He immediately started “you” with us, suggested we touch his iron muscles on his hands, rolled up a penny, rolled a teaspoon with a screw, gave everyone a sniff of tobacco, showed some amazing tricks on the cards, told a lot of the most risky jokes and, leaving On itself not bad impression, left. Since then, he began to visit us, and every time he brought with him some special animation ”(M.P. Chekhov.“ Around Chekhov ”). Gilyarovsky himself recalled his friendship with Anton Pavlovich Chekhov in Friends and Meetings - in this collection the essay “Antosha Chekhonte” is devoted to the great Russian writer.

In parallel to articles in the press and stories, Gilyarovsky was engaged in writing poetry. So, in 1894, he published a collection of poems "Forgotten Notebook". As a reporter for the Russian Gazette, Gilyarovsky visited the Don - among the Cossacks, in Albania and even in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. At the beginning of the First World War, Gilyarovsky donated a fee from a book of poems published by him to the fund to help wounded soldiers. Gilyarovsky's poems were illustrated by the friends of the poet and writer - the Vasnetsov brothers, Kustodiev, Malyutni, Makovsky, Surikov, Serov, Repin, Nesterov. Artists Gilyarovsky loved and communicated closely with them. And not only with celebrities, but also with beginners, young artists whom he tried to support with a kind word and financially - he never regretted money for buying paintings, thereby helping out beginners and poorly paid masters of the brush. In the collection Friends and Meetings, Vladimir Gilyarovsky describes a sad meeting with Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov, the author of the immortal paintings The Rooks Have Arrived and The Volga Spill near Yaroslavl. By the time of the meeting, the great artist was already hopelessly ill with alcoholism, but Gilyarovsky tried to help him with what he could - at least throw money for lunch, because the master, who had no orders, lived in terrible poverty: “I suggested Alexey Kondratyevich to rest on the sofa and made him wear my hunting long beaver jacket. And although it was difficult to persuade him, he nevertheless put on him, and when I accompanied the old man, I was sure that he would not be cold in his leather-covered boots and in this jacket and with his summer coat. I slipped silver into his pocket. Wife, accompanying him, asked to go without hesitation, whenever you want. He happily promised, but never went, - and I never met him again, all I heard was that the old man otrushubobilsya finally and does not appear anywhere ”(Gilyarovsky VA Friends and Meetings).

Perhaps the most famous poetic work of Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky was written in 1915, the March of Siberian Riflemen, which was published in the journal Ensign. It was on his motive that the famous Civil Anthem of the Civil Guard - the White Guard "March of the Drozdovsky Regiment" (From Romania with the campaign of Went Drozdov's Glorious Regiment, During the Salvation of the People Performing a Heavy Duty ... ", 1918 or 1919), the Red Army" March of the Far Eastern Partisans "(According to the valleys and on the hills, 1922) and the anarchist “Makhnovtsev Anthem” (Makhnovshchina, Makhnovshchina, wind your forks, blackened from the sand, reddened with blood). And the original words of the march of Gilyarovsky’s authorship began like this: “From the taiga, the taiga was dense, from the Amur, from the river, silently, a terrible cloud went to battle Siberians”.

"Uncle Guilay" - Soviet writer

After the revolution, he, a classic of Russian journalism and literature, from a young age sympathizing with the populists, took over Soviet power. And this is despite the fact that in the year of the October Revolution, Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky turned sixty-two years old, most of his life was spent “in that world” - in Tsarist Russia, which, however, the criminal reporter did not really complain about. It was in the post-revolutionary decade that Gilyarovsky gained real fame as an excellent memoirist - under the Soviet regime his memoirs were already resolved and no one took copies of books for the purpose of destruction. When Vladimir Alekseevich turned seventy years old, he received a land plot in the Mozhaisk district, then, in Kartino, built a house and lived there until the end of his days. The Soviet government appreciates and respects the writer Gilyarovsky - his articles are still in demand, only in the Soviet press. And literary publishers begin to publish poetry and memoirs in “Uncle Gilyai”.

Gilyarovsky worked in the newspapers "Izvestia" and "Evening Moscow", in the magazines "Ogonyok" and "Projector", in 1922 he published the poem "Stenka Razin". The book “Moscow and Muscovites” was published in 1926, and in “My wanderings” in 1928. In the eyes of Vladimir Alekseevich, Russia was transformed, and his beloved Moscow acquired a new look. First, Moscow became the capital of the Soviet state. Secondly, the slums and dormitories about which Gilyarovsky wrote in “Slum People” and “Moscow and Muscovites” are gone. A contemporary of various eras, he could witness the transformation of the country with his own eyes. And made from his observations quite correct conclusions. Despite the fact that under his old age, Vladimir Gilyarovsky became almost completely blind, he continued to write articles and stories on his own. The book Friends and Meetings was published in 1934. A "People Theater" came out after the death of the writer. In 1960, another work was released by the late author by that time - “Moscow newspaper”.



The book “Moscow and Muscovites” has become a real business card of Vladimir Gilyarovsky. He wrote it for over twenty years - from 1912 to the last year of his life. By December 1925, the work on the collection of essays was completed and in 1926, “Moscow and Muscovites” was released in copies of 4000. After the success of the book, the publisher turned to the writer with a proposal to develop the theme of old Moscow. Gilyarovsky himself admitted that you can write a lot about Moscow. Moscow at the end of the 19th century is one of the favorite themes of the writer's work. In 1931, the publishing house "Federation" published "Notes Muscovite." The third book, in which the two previous editions were combined, was published already in 1935 year. “I feel happy and rejuvenated by half a century,” the writer said so when the manuscript was sent to the publisher. In the eyes of the writer, Moscow, which he gave most of his life and the chronicler of joy and grief of which he became, acquired a new look. The terrible slums of Khitrov’s market and Suharevka were left in the past, and night shelters were torn down, and in their place there appeared new comfortable housing for Soviet citizens. The cabmen were replaced by available public transport, and the policemen were replaced by Soviet policemen. These changes could not but rejoice Gilyarovsky, as he reported in "Moscow and Muscovites."

In 1935, Vladimir Alekseevich died at the eightieth year of life. He was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery. In the name of Vladimir Gilyarovsky in 1966, the former 2-I Meschanskaya street in Moscow was named. Also, the memory of Gilyarovsky is immortalized in the names of streets in Vologda and Tambov, in the name of one of the minor planets of the solar system. By the way, with Gilyarovsky Taras Bulbu created on the bas-relief of the monument to Gogol the famous sculptor Andreev. I. Repin wrote with Gilyarovsky one of his Cossacks - the most popular criminal correspondent in Moscow had such a colorful appearance.
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  1. +8
    8 December 2015 07: 09
    Many thanks to the author for the story of a wonderful writer and a good-looking, interesting person!
    I read the book "Moscow and Muscovites" by Gilyarovsky. I like it very much.
    And now I know more about Vladimir Alekseevich,
  2. +8
    8 December 2015 07: 21
    "Moscow and Muscovites" is a very interesting book, one might say a cut of the time, the customs of the people of that time, it is recommended for reading to people who are sure that before the revolution life was beautiful and the Bolsheviks ruined everything.
    1. avt
      +2
      8 December 2015 19: 10
      Quote: Good cat
      , the morals of the people of that time, it is recommended for reading to people who are confident that before the revolution life was beautiful and the Bolsheviks ruined everything.

      good Replace the "reckless men" with "geldings" or "behi", "raspberries" and "little men" with clafilins "crayfish" with Vietnamese and Chinese underground workshops that moved from Cherkizon to Lublizon and the Moscow region and everything will definitely fall one on one with "Russia we lost".
  3. +4
    8 December 2015 07: 41
    Just thank you. The article is quite complete, perfectly describes the nature and indefatigability of the nature of a talented person.
  4. +2
    8 December 2015 08: 04
    I read a four-volume book by V.A. Gilyarovsky in the 80s. Indeed, "Moscow and Muscovites" liked it. Perhaps, I will download and re-read. Thank you for the article.
  5. +1
    8 December 2015 08: 15
    "Moscow and Muscovites" - there are so many things, so many! We used to have relatives in Moscow. They had an old edition. And now, thanks to the author, I decided to return to this topic. Stories and essays also.
  6. +2
    8 December 2015 09: 01
    Yeah.."Uncle Guilay." Strongman, scout and master of the word..that really is so .. My beloved works .. Moscow and Muscovites, My wanderings, Friends and meetings, People of the theater, Moscow newspaper .. Thank you, Ilya ...
    1. +2
      8 December 2015 11: 03
      Quote: parusnik
      "Uncle Gilyay." Strong man Scout and master of the word

      It is vaguely recalled that it seems was arrested in Serbia by the police Obrenovichi... M. b. "quietly" carried out intelligence activities under the "roof" of a journalist? The water is dark in the cloud!
  7. +1
    8 December 2015 11: 43
    In this amazing person, surprisingly (!) The strength of spirit, willpower and body strength (with an extraordinary mind) merged into one!
  8. +1
    8 December 2015 13: 12
    Gilyarovsky told about himself in the wonderful book "My wanderings".
  9. +1
    8 December 2015 14: 38
    The first time I read "Moscow and Muscovites" as a fifteen-year-old teenager. I reread it more than once and every time I admired this person !!!
  10. +1
    8 December 2015 15: 10
    And as a kid, I heard about Gilyarovsky for the first time in one of A. Rosenbaum's songs ... Then somehow it was not up to Gilyarovsky. And when I got my hands on it and read about Khitrovka, I was struck by the author's ability to professionally, almost documentarily, and at the same time artistically describe the world of Moscow hidden from prying eyes.
  11. 0
    8 December 2015 18: 59
    I read everything I found at Gilyarovsky's. Excellent books, very informative, vital. The description of everyday life and customs of that time is striking. And what is interesting, according to the descriptions, Moscow and St. Petersburg are polar (opposite) cities. Descriptions of Moscow, directly intersect with Yeseninsky - "Golden drowsy Asia rested on the domes."
  12. 0
    8 December 2015 19: 32
    Wonderful writer, wonderful man
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  14. 0
    8 December 2015 20: 58
    "Moscow and Muscovites" is one of my father's favorite books. Thanks to my dad, I also read this wonderful piece. A brilliant cast of the era.
  15. 0
    8 December 2015 22: 03
    I re-read it periodically and each time I find something new for myself .... a good person, writer, citizen, patriot ....
  16. 0
    9 December 2015 13: 16
    Thank you very much for the article about a wonderful person. Vladimir Gilyarovsky is the real son of his Fatherland. These are whose stories and essays should be read by young people, and not by any modern and mediocre "detectives".

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