Biography of the writer - V.G. Rasputin

The life and work of the writer V. Rasputin

Born March 15, 1937 in the village of Ust-Uda, Irkutsk Region. Father - Rasputin Grigory Nikitich (1913-1974). Mother - Rasputina Nina Ivanovna (1911-1995). Wife - Rasputina Svetlana Ivanovna (born in 1939), pensioner. Son - Rasputin Sergey Valentinovich (born in 1961), teacher in English. Daughter - Rasputina Maria Valentinovna (born in 1971), art critic. Granddaughter - Antonina (born in 1986).

In March 1937, a son, Valentin, appeared in the family of a young worker of the regional consumer union from the district village of Ust-Uda, lost on the taiga coast of the Angara almost halfway between Irkutsk and Bratsk, who later glorified this wonderful region to the whole world. Soon the parents moved to the family father's nest - the village of Atalanka. The beauty of the nature of the Angara region overwhelmed the impressionable boy from the very first years of his life, forever settling in the hidden depths of his heart, soul, consciousness and memory, sprouted in his works with grains of fertile shoots that nourished more than one generation of Russians with their spirituality.

The place on the banks of the beautiful Angara has become the center of the universe for a talented boy. No one doubted that he was like that - in the village, after all, anyone from birth is visible at a glance. Valentin learned literacy and counting from an early age - he was very greedily drawn to knowledge. A smart boy read everything that came across: books, magazines, scraps of newspapers. His father, returning from the war as a hero, was in charge of the post office, and his mother worked in a savings bank. A carefree childhood was cut short at once - a bag with state money was cut off from his father on a steamer, for which he ended up in Kolyma, leaving his wife with three young children to their fate.

There was only a four-year-old in Atalanka. For further studies, Valentin was sent to the Ust-Uda secondary school. The boy grew up on his own hungry and bitter experience, but an indestructible craving for knowledge and a not childishly serious responsibility helped to survive. Rasputin would later write about this difficult period of his life in the story "French Lessons", surprisingly reverent and truthful.

There were only fives in Valentin's matriculation certificate. A couple of months later, in the summer of the same 1954, having brilliantly passed the entrance exams, he became a student of the philological faculty of Irkutsk University, was fond of Remarque, Hemingway, Proust. I didn’t think about writing - it’s clear that the time has not yet come.

Life was not easy. I thought about mother and children. Valentine felt responsible for them. Earning a living wherever possible, he began to bring his articles to the editorial offices of radio and youth newspapers. Even before defending his thesis, he was accepted into the staff of the Irkutsk newspaper "Soviet Youth", where the future playwright Alexander Vampilov also came. The genre of journalism sometimes did not fit into the framework of classical literature, but allowed to acquire life experience and get back on your feet. After the death of Stalin, my father was amnestied, returned home disabled and barely reached 60 years old

In 1962, Valentin moved to Krasnoyarsk, the topics of his publications became larger - the construction of the Abakan-Taishet railway, the Sayano-Shushenskaya and Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric power stations, hard work and heroism of young people, etc. New meetings and impressions no longer fit into the framework of newspaper publications. His first story, "I forgot to ask L?shka", imperfect in form, poignant in content, sincere to the point of tears. At a logging site, a fallen pine tree touched a 17-year-old boy. The bruised place began to turn black. Friends undertook to accompany the victim to the hospital, which is 50 kilometers on foot. At first they argued about the communist future, but Leshka was getting worse. He didn't make it to the hospital. And friends never asked the boy if happy humanity would remember the names of simple hard workers, such as they and L?shka ...

At the same time, Valentin's essays began to appear in the Angara anthology, which became the basis of his first book, The Land Near the Sky (1966), about the Tafalars, a small people living in the Sayans.

However, the most significant event in the life of the writer Rasputin happened a year earlier, when at once, one after another, his stories “Rudolfio”, “Vasily and Vasilisa”, “Meeting” and others appeared, which the author still includes in published collections. With them, he went to the Chita meeting of young writers, among the leaders of which were V. Astafiev, A. Ivanov, A. Koptyaeva, V. Lipatov, S. Narovchatov, V. Chivilikhin. The latter became godfather"A young writer, whose works were published in the capital's publications ("Spark", " TVNZ") and interested wide circle readers "from Moscow to the outskirts." Rasputin still continues to publish essays, but most of his creative energy is given to stories. Their appearance is expected, they show interest. In early 1967, the story "Vasily and Vasilisa" appeared in the weekly " Literary Russia" and became the tuning fork of Rasputin's prose, in which the depth of the characters' characters is cut with jeweler's precision by the state of nature. It is an integral part of almost all the works of the writer.

Vasilisa did not forgive a long-standing insult to her husband, who somehow took an ax out of a drunkenness and became the culprit in the death of their unborn child. For forty years they lived side by side, but not together. She is in the house, he is in the barn. From there he went to war, and returned there. Vasily was looking for himself in the mines, in the city, in the taiga, he remained beside his wife, he also brought the lame Alexandra here. Vasily's cohabitant awakens in her a waterfall of feelings - jealousy, resentment, anger, and later - acceptance, pity and even understanding. After Alexandra left to look for her son, with whom the war separated them, Vasily still remained in his barn, and only before Vasily's death did Vasilisa forgive him. Vasily saw and felt it. No, she did not forget anything, she forgave, removed this stone from her soul, but remained firm and proud. And this is the power of the Russian character, which neither our enemies nor ourselves are destined to know!

In 1967, after the publication of the novel Money for Mary, Rasputin was admitted to the Writers' Union. Came fame and fame. They started talking about the author seriously - his new works become the subject of discussion. Being an extremely critical and demanding person, Valentin Grigorievich decided to deal only with literary activity. Respecting the reader, he could not afford to combine even such close creative genres as journalism and literature. In 1970, his story "The Deadline" was published in the magazine "Our Contemporary". It has become a mirror of the spirituality of our contemporaries, the kind of bonfire where people wanted to warm themselves so as not to freeze in the hustle and bustle of city life. What is it about? About all of us. We are all children of our mothers. And we also have children. And as long as we remember our roots, we have the right to be called Humans. The bond between a mother and her children is the most important on earth. It is she who gives us strength and love, it is she who leads through life. Everything else is less important. Work, success, connections, in essence, cannot be decisive if you have lost the thread of generations, if you have forgotten where your roots are. So in this story, Mother waits and remembers, she loves each of her children, regardless of whether they are alive or not. Her memory, her love does not let her die without seeing her children. According to an alarm telegram, they come to their home. The mother no longer sees, and does not hear, and does not get up. But some unknown force awakens her consciousness as soon as the children arrive. They have matured a long time ago, life has scattered them around the country, but they are unaware that these are the words of a mother's prayer that spread the wings of angels over them. The meeting of close people who had not lived together for a long time, who almost broke the thin thread of the relationship, their conversations, disputes, memories, like water in a dried desert, revived the mother, gave her a few happy moments before her death. Without this meeting, she could not go to another world. But most of all, they needed this meeting, already hardened in life, losing family ties in separation from each other. The story "Deadline" brought Rasputin worldwide fame and has been translated into dozens of foreign languages.

The year 1976 gave fans of V. Rasputin a new joy. In Farewell to Mat?ra, the writer continued to depict the dramatic life of the Siberian hinterland, showing us dozens of the brightest characters, among which the amazing and unique Rasputin old women still dominated. It would seem that these uneducated Siberians are famous for what long years life either failed, or did not want to see Big world? But their worldly wisdom and the experience gained over the years is sometimes worth more than the knowledge of professors and academicians. The old women of Rasputin are a special become. Strong in spirit and strong in health, these Russian women are from the breed of those who "stop a galloping horse, enter a burning hut." It is they who give birth to Russian heroes and their faithful girlfriends. Whether it is their love, hatred, anger, or joy, our mother earth is strong. They know how to love and create, argue with fate and win over it. Even being offended and despised, they create, but do not destroy. But other times have come, which the old people cannot resist.

It consists of many islands that sheltered people on the mighty Angara, the island of Matra. The ancestors of the old people lived on it, plowed the land, gave it strength and fertility. Their children and grandchildren were born here, and life either seethed or flowed smoothly. Here characters were forged and fates were tested. And the island village of the century would stand. But the construction of a large hydroelectric power station, such people need and the country, but leading to the flooding of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land, the flooding of all past life along with arable land, fields and meadows, for young people this, perhaps, was a happy exit into great life, for the elderly - death. In fact, it is the fate of the country. These people do not protest, do not make noise. They are just grieving. And the heart is torn from this aching melancholy. And nature echoes them with its pain. In this novel and stories by Valentin Rasputin continue the best traditions of Russian classics - Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Bunin, Leskov, Tyutchev, Fet.

Rasputin does not break into accusations and criticism, does not become a tribune and herald, calling for a riot. He is not against progress, he is for a reasonable continuation of life. His spirit rises against the trampling of traditions, against loss of memory, against apostasy from the past, its lessons, its history. Russian roots national character precisely in succession. The thread of generations cannot, must not be interrupted by "Ivans who do not remember kinship." The richest Russian culture rests on traditions and foundations.

In the works of Rasputin, human versatility is intertwined with the subtlest psychologism. The state of soul of his heroes is a special world, the depth of which is subject only to the talent of the Master. Following the author, we plunge into the whirlpool of life events of his characters, imbued with their thoughts, follow the logic of their actions. We can argue with them and disagree, but we cannot remain indifferent. So this harsh truth of life takes over the soul. There are still whirlpools among the writer's heroes, there are almost blissful people, but at the core they are powerful Russian characters, which are akin to the freedom-loving Angara with its rapids, zigzags, smooth expanse and dashing agility. The year 1977 was a significant year for the writer. For the story "Live and Remember" he was awarded State Prize THE USSR. The story of Nastya, the wife of a deserter, is a topic that was not accepted to be written about. In our literature, there were heroes and heroines who committed real feats. Whether on the front line, deep in the rear, surrounded or in a besieged city, in a partisan detachment, at a plow or at a machine tool. People with strong characters suffering and loving. They forged Victory, bringing it closer step by step. They could doubt, but still made the only right decision. Such images brought up the heroic qualities of our contemporaries, served as an example to follow. ... Husband returned to Nastya from the front. Not a hero - during the day and throughout the village with honor, but at night, quietly and stealthily. He is a deserter. The end of the war is already in sight. After the third, very difficult wound, he broke down. Come back to life and suddenly die? He could not overcome this fear. The war took away from Nastya herself best years, love, affection, did not allow her to become a mother. If something happens to her husband, the door to the future will slam in front of her. Hiding from people, from her husband's parents, she understands and accepts her husband, does everything to save him, rushes into the winter cold, making her way into his lair, hiding fear, hiding from people. She loves and is loved, perhaps for the first time like this, deeply, without looking back. The result of this love is the future child. long-awaited happiness. No, it's a shame! It is believed that the husband is at war, and the wife is walking. Her husband's parents, fellow villagers, turned away from Nastya. The authorities suspect her in connection with the deserter and are watching. Go to her husband - indicate the place where he is hiding. Don't go - starve him to death. The circle closes. Nastena rushes to the Angara in despair.

The soul is torn to pieces from the pain for her. It seems that the whole world goes under water with this woman. There is no more beauty and joy. The sun will not rise, the grass will not rise in the field. The forest bird will not trill, the children's laughter will not sound. Nothing alive will remain in nature. Life ends on the most tragic note. She, of course, will be reborn, but without Nastena and her unborn child. It would seem that the fate of one family, and grief is all-encompassing. So there is some truth. And most importantly - there is the right to display it. Silence, no doubt, it would be easier. But no better. This is the depth and drama of Rasputin's philosophy.

He could write multi-volume novels - they would be enthusiastically read and filmed. Because the images of his heroes are excitingly interesting, because the plots attract with the truth of life. Rasputin preferred convincing brevity. But at the same time, how rich and unique is the speech of his heroes (“some kind of secret girl, quiet”), the poetry of nature (“tight snows, taken in crust, tinkled from the first icicles, we first melted the air”). The language of Rasputin's works flows like a river, replete with wonderful-sounding words. Every line is a storehouse of Russian literature, speech lace. Should it happen that only the works of Rasputin reach the descendants in the following centuries, they will be delighted with the richness of the Russian language, its power and originality.

The writer manages to convey the intensity of human passions. His heroes are woven from the traits of a national character - wise, complaisant, sometimes rebellious, from diligence, from life itself. They are popular, recognizable, live next to us, and therefore are so close and understandable. At the gene level, with mother's milk they pass next generations accumulated experience, sincere generosity and resilience. Such wealth is richer than bank accounts, more prestigious than positions and mansions.

A simple Russian house is that fortress behind the walls of which human values ​​lie. Their carriers are not afraid of defaults and privatization, they do not replace conscience with well-being. Goodness, honor, conscience, justice remain the main measures of their actions. It is not easy for the heroes of Rasputin to fit into the modern world. But they are not strangers in it. These are the people who define existence.

Years of perestroika, market relations and timelessness have shifted the threshold moral values. About this story "In the hospital", "Fire". People are looking for and evaluate themselves in a difficult modern world. Valentin Grigorievich also found himself at a crossroads. He writes little, because there are times when the artist's silence is more disturbing and creative than words. This is the whole of Rasputin, because he is still extremely demanding of himself. Especially at a time when new Russian bourgeois, brothers and oligarchs emerged as "heroes".

In 1987, the writer was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor, the Badge of Honor, the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (2004), and became an honorary citizen of Irkutsk. In 1989, Valentin Rasputin was elected to the Union Parliament, under M.S. Gorbachev became a member of the Presidential Council. But this work did not bring moral satisfaction to the writer - politics is not his lot.

Valentin Grigoryevich writes essays and articles in defense of the desecrated Baikal, working in numerous commissions for the benefit of people. The time has come to pass on experience to the young, and Valentin Grigorievich became the initiator of the annual autumn holiday"Shine of Russia", which gathers the most honest and talented writers in the Siberian city. He has something to tell his students. Many of our eminent contemporaries in literature, cinema, on the stage and in sports come from Siberia. They absorbed strength and their sparkling talent from this land. Rasputin lives for a long time in Irkutsk, every year he visits his village, where there are native people and native graves. Next to him are relatives and close in spirit people. This wife is a faithful companion and the most close friend, reliable assistant and simple loving person. These are children, granddaughter, friends and like-minded people.

Valentin Grigorievich is a faithful son of the Russian land, a defender of its honor. His talent is akin to a holy spring that can quench the thirst of millions of Russians. Having tasted the books of Valentin Rasputin, knowing the taste of his truth, you no longer want to be content with surrogates for literature. His bread is bitter, without frills. It is always freshly baked and flavorless. It is not able to become stale, because it has no statute of limitations. Such a product has been baked in Siberia for centuries, and it was called eternal bread. So the works of Valentin Rasputin are unshakable, Eternal values. Spiritual and moral baggage, the burden of which not only does not pull, but also gives strength.

Living in unity with nature, the writer still unobtrusively, but deeply and sincerely loves Russia and believes that her strength is enough for the spiritual rebirth of the nation.

creative rasputin writer story

Biography and episodes of life Valentina Rasputin. When born and died Valentin Rasputin, memorable places and dates important events his life. writer quotes, Photo and video.

Years of life of Valentin Rasputin:

born March 15, 1937, died March 14, 2015

Epitaph

“Like conscience, it is beyond jurisdiction,
Like light is necessary
Fatherland and people
Rasputin Valentin.
For many it is uncomfortable...
But he's the only one
Always is and always will be
Rasputin Valentin.
Vladimir Skif, from a poem dedicated to V. Rasputin

Biography

During his lifetime, Valentin Rasputin was called a classic of rural prose. First of all, for pictures of the life of ordinary people, which he described sincerely and reliably. Secondly - for the wonderful language, simple, but at the same time highly artistic. Rasputin's talent was highly respected by contemporary writers, including A. Solzhenitsyn. His "French Lessons" and "Live and Remember" became a highlight in Russian literature.

Rasputin grew up in difficult Siberian conditions, in a poor family. In part, he later described his own childhood in the story “French Lessons”. But the writer loved all his life motherland and, even while working in Moscow, often came here. In fact, he had two houses: in the capital and in Irkutsk.

Literary talent manifested itself in Valentin Grigorievich in his student years. He began working in a youth newspaper, and after graduating from the institute he moved to "adult" publications. But to fiction Rasputin did not come immediately. In a certain sense, participation in a literary seminar in Chita, where the 28-year-old author met the writer V. Chivilikhin, became fateful for him. Since that time, the creative flowering of the writer began.

V. Rasputin was known for his clear civic position. Shortly before the collapse of the USSR, he entered politics, although he later spoke of this decision with bitterness, recognizing that his attempt to benefit home country could be considered naive. One way or another, all conscious life after that, Valentin Grigorievich openly declared his convictions, which did not always coincide with the "general line" that ruled at that time.

The writer was crippled by two tragedies: first, the death of his daughter Maria in a plane crash in Irkutsk in 2006, then, in 2012, the death of his wife from a serious illness. Valentin Grigorievich himself was already seriously suffering cancer at this time, and recent events had finally undermined his health. On the eve of his death, he fell into a coma, from which he did not leave for 4 days, and died, not having lived all day before the date of his birth.

Valentin Rasputin was buried in Irkutsk. More than 15,000 people came to say goodbye to the writer, and the ceremony lasted several hours.

life line

March 15, 1937 Date of birth of Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin.
1959 Graduation from the university, the beginning of work in the newspaper.
1961 Publication of the first essay by Rasputin in the anthology "Angara".
1966 Publication of the first book by V. Rasputin "The edge near the sky".
1967 Joining the Writers' Union.
1973 French Lessons story.
1974 The story "Live and remember."
1977 Receiving the first State Prize of the USSR.
1979 Introduction to Lit. collegium of the series " Literary monuments Siberia".
1987 Receiving the second State Prize of the USSR and the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
1989-1990 Work as a people's deputy of the USSR.
1990-1991 Membership in the Presidential Council of the USSR.
2004 Publication of the latest large form writer "Ivan's daughter, Ivan's mother".
2011 Awarding the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
2012 Receiving the State Prize of Russia.
March 14, 2015 Date of death of Valentin Rasputin.
March 18, 2015 The funeral of V. Rasputin in Moscow.
March 19, 2015 The funeral of Valentin Rasputin at the Znamensky Monastery in Irkutsk.

Memorable places

1. Ust-Uda (East Siberian, now Irkutsk region), where Valentin Rasputin was born.
2. Der. Atalanka, Ust-Udinsky district, where V. Rasputin spent his childhood (now - moved from the area of ​​flooding of the Bratsk hydroelectric power station).
3. Irkutsk State University, where V. Rasputin studied.
4. Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric power station, the construction of which was often visited by V. Rasputin, collecting materials for essays.
5. Chita, where the writer visited in 1965, and where he made his literary debut at Vladimir Chivilikhin's seminar.
6. Starokonyushenny Lane in Moscow, where the writer moved in the 1990s.
7. Znamensky Monastery in Irkutsk, on the necropolis of which the writer was buried.

Episodes of life

Rasputin became a laureate of more than 15 allied and Russian awards, including the government award for outstanding achievements in the field of culture, the Solzhenitsyn, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky awards. He was also an honorary citizen of the city of Irkutsk and the Irkutsk region.

V. Rasputin was an opponent of perestroika reforms, a supporter of Stalin and subsequently an opponent of V. Putin, and supported the Communist Party until recent years life.

V. Rasputin's books were filmed several times. The last lifetime film adaptation was "Live and Remember" by A. Proshkin in 2008.

The film "In the depths of Siberia", dedicated to V. Rasputin

Testaments

“Do not climb into the soul of the people. She is not under your control. It's time to understand it."

“When everything is good, it’s easy to be together: it’s like a dream, you know, breathe, and that’s all. You have to be together when it's bad - that's what people come together for.

“A person ages not when he lives to old age, but when he ceases to be a child.”

condolences

“In the current literature there are undoubted names, without which neither we nor our descendants will be able to imagine it. One of these names is Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin.
Ivan Pankeev, writer, journalist

“He is always active, especially with those close writers and people that he likes. And for creativity. And with opponents or people who strained him, he simply did not communicate.
Vladimir Skif, poet

“Rasputin is not a language user, but himself a living involuntary stream of language. He - does not look for words, does not pick them up - he flows with them in the same stream. The volume of his Russian language is rare among today's writers.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, writer

Valentin Grigoryevich Rasputin is one of the most prominent representatives of classical Soviet and Russian prose of the 20th century. He wrote such iconic stories as “Live and Remember”, “Farewell to Mother”, “Ivan's Daughter, Ivan's Mother”. He was a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR, a laureate of the highest state awards, an active public figure. He inspired directors to create brilliant films, and his readers to live with honor and conscience. Previously, we published a short biography, this is an option more complete biography.

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Village childhood and first creative steps

Valentin Rasputin was born on March 15, 1937 in the village of Ust-Uda (now the Irkutsk region). His parents were simple peasants, and he was the most ordinary peasant child, with early childhood who knew and saw labor, not accustomed to surpluses, perfectly feeling people's soul and Russian nature. IN elementary school he went to his native village, but there was no middle school there, so little Valentine had to move 50 km to visit educational institution. If you read his “French Lessons”, then you will immediately draw parallels. Almost all of Rasputin's stories are not fictional, they are lived by him or someone from his entourage.

Receive higher education future writer went to Irkutsk, where he entered the city university at the Faculty of History and Philology. Already in his student years, he began to show interest in writing and journalism. The local youth newspaper became a platform for pen trials. His essay “I forgot to ask Leshka” attracted the attention of the editor-in-chief. They paid attention to the young Rasputin, and he himself understood that he would write, he does it well.

After graduating from the university, the young man continues to work in the newspapers of Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk and writes his first stories, but has not yet been published. In 1965, at a meeting of young writers in Chita, a well-known Soviet writer Vladimir Alekseevich Chivilikhin. He really liked the works of the novice writer and he decided to patronize them, becoming the “godfather” of Rasputin the writer.

The rise of Valentin Grigorievich happened rapidly - two years after the meeting with Chivilikhin, he became a member of the Writers' Union of the USSR, which was the official recognition of a writer at the state level.

Key works of the author

Rasputin's debut book was published in 1966 under the title The Edge Near the Sky. IN next year the story “Money for Mary” was published, which brought popularity to the new star of Soviet prose. In his work, the author tells the story of Maria and Kuzma, who live in a remote Siberian village. The couple has four children and a debt of seven hundred rubles, which they took on the collective farm to build a house. To improve the financial situation of the family, Maria gets a job in a store. In front of her, several sellers have already been planted for embezzlement, so the woman is very worried. Later long time in the store they conduct an audit and discover a shortage of 1,000 rubles! Maria needs to collect this money within a week, otherwise she will be sent to prison. The amount is unbearable, but Kuzma and Maria decide to fight to the end, they begin to borrow money from their fellow villagers ... and here many with whom they lived shoulder to shoulder appear from a new side.

Reference. Valentin Rasputin is called one of the significant representatives of the "village prose". This direction in Russian literature was formed by the mid-60s and united works depicting modern village life and traditional folk values. The flagships of village prose are Alexander Solzhenitsyn (“ Matrenin yard”), Vasily Shukshin (“Lubavins”), Viktor Astafiev (“Tsar-Fish”), Valentin Rasputin (“Farewell to Mother”, “Money for Mary”) and others.

The golden era of Rasputin's work was the 70s. In this decade, his most recognizable works- the story “French Lessons”, the novels “Live and Remember”, “Farewell to Matera”. In each work, the central characters were simple people and their difficult fates.

So, in "French Lessons" the main character is 11-year-old Leshka, a smart guy from the village. There is no secondary school in his homeland, so his mother collects money to send her son to study in the regional center. It is not easy for a boy in the city - if there were hungry days in the village, then they are almost always here, because food in the city is much more difficult to get, everything has to be bought. Because of the milk flow, the boy needs to buy milk every day for a ruble, often it becomes his only “food” for the whole day. The older boys showed Leshka how to make quick money by playing chika. Every time he won his coveted ruble and left, but one day the excitement prevailed over the principle ...

In the story “Live and Remember”, the problem of desertion is sharply raised. The Soviet reader is accustomed to seeing the deserter exclusively in dark color is a person without moral principles, vicious, cowardly, capable of betraying and hiding behind the backs of others. But what if such a black and white division is unfair? Main character Rasputin, Andrey once in 1944 did not return to the army, he simply wanted to look at home for a day, to his beloved wife Nastya, and then there was no return and the caustic brand “deserter” gaped on him.

The story “Farewell to Matera” shows the life of an entire Siberian village of Matera. Locals are forced to leave their homes because hydroelectric power stations will be built in their place. The settlement will soon be flooded, and the inhabitants will be sent to the cities. Everyone takes this news differently. Young people mostly rejoice, for them the city is incredible adventure and new opportunities. Adults are skeptical, gritting their hearts, parting with an established life and realizing that no one is waiting for them in the city. The hardest thing is for the elderly, for whom Matera is their whole life and they cannot imagine another. Exactly older generation become central character lead, her spirit, pain and soul.

In the 80s and 90s, Rasputin continued to work hard, from his pen came the story “Fire”, the stories “Natasha”, “What to tell the crow?”, “Live for a century - love a century” and much more. Rasputin took the perestroika and the forced oblivion of “village prose” and village life painfully. But he did not stop writing. The work “Ivan's Daughter, Ivan's Mother”, published in 2003, had a great resonance. It reflected the decadent mood of the writer associated with the collapse big country, morality, values. The main character of the story, a young teenage girl, is raped by a company of scumbags. For several days they do not let her out of the men's hostel, and then all beaten, intimidated, morally broken, they are thrown out into the street. She and her mother go to the investigator, but justice is in no hurry to punish the rapists. Having lost hope, the mother decides to lynch. She makes a cut and waits for the offenders in the entrance.

Rasputin's last book was created in tandem with the publicist Viktor Kozhemyako and is a kind of autobiography in conversations and memoirs. The work was published in 2013 under the title “These Twenty Killing Years”.

Ideology and socio-political activity

It is unfair to talk about the life of Valentin Rasputin without mentioning his active social and political activities. He did this not for profit, but only because he was not a silent man and could not observe the life of his beloved country and people from the outside.

The news of "perestroika" upset Valentin Grigorievich very much. With the support of like-minded people, Rasputin wrote collective anti-perestroika letters, hoping to save the “great country”. In the future, he became less critical, but finally a new system and new power could not accept. And he never bowed to the authorities, despite the generous gifts from her.

“Always seemed to be taken for granted, laid at the foundation human life that the world is balanced... Now this saving shore has disappeared somewhere, floated away like a mirage, receded into endless distances. And people now live not in the expectation of salvation, but in the expectation of a catastrophe”

Rasputin paid much attention to environmental issues. The writer saw the savings of the people not only in providing them with work and living wage but also in the preservation of its moral and spiritual character, the heart of which is mother nature. He was especially worried about the issue of Baikal, on this occasion Rasputin even met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Death and memory

Valentin Rasputin passed away on March 14, 2015, the day before his 78th birthday. At this point, he had already buried his wife and daughter, the latter was a successful organist and died in a plane crash. The day after the death of the great writer, mourning was declared throughout the Irkutsk region.

Rasputin's memory has been perpetuated more than once: a school in Ust-Uda and Uryupinsk, a scientific library in Irkutsk, and even a festival have been named after him. documentaries which takes place on Baikal.

Undoubtedly, the main memory of Valentin Rasputin is his works, which are still being republished willingly. Despite the fact that many of the realities that Rasputin wrote about are outdated and even sunk into oblivion, his prose remains relevant, because it speaks of the Russian people and the Russian soul, which, I want to believe, will live forever.

“I don’t want to be anyone’s conscience, God forbid, to get along with my own. But what I write for my people and serve them with my word all my life - I do not refuse this.

Rasputin's works are known and loved by many. Rasputin Valentin Grigorievich - Russian writer, one of the most well-known representatives"village prose" in literature. The sharpness and drama of ethical problems, the desire to find support in the world of peasant folk morality were reflected in his stories and stories dedicated to his contemporary rural life. In this article, we will talk about the main works created by this talented writer.

"Money for Mary"

This story was written in 1967. It was from her that Rasputin (his photo is presented above) entered literature as an original writer. The story "Money for Mary" brought the author wide fame. In this work, the main themes of his further creativity: life and life, man among people. Valentin Grigorievich considers such moral categories as cruelty and mercy, material and spiritual, good and evil.

Rasputin raises the question of how other people are touched by someone else's grief. Is anyone capable of refusing a person who is in trouble and leaving him to perish without supporting him financially? How can these people, after rejection, be able to calm their conscience? Maria, the main character of the work, suffers not only from the shortage discovered, but, perhaps, to a greater extent from the indifference of people. After all, yesterday they were good friends.

The Tale of the Dying Old Woman

main character Rasputin's story "The Deadline", created in 1970, is the dying old woman Anna, who recalls her life. A woman feels that she is involved in the cycle of life. Anna experiences the mystery of death, feeling it as the main event in human life.

Four children are opposed to this heroine. They came to say goodbye to their mother, to see her off last way. Anna's children are forced to stay with her for 3 days. It was for this time that God delayed the departure of the old woman. The preoccupation of children with everyday worries, their vanity and fussiness are in sharp contrast to the spiritual work that takes place in the fading consciousness of the peasant woman. The narrative includes large layers of text, reflecting the experiences and thoughts of the characters in the work, and above all Anna.

Main themes

The topics that the author touches on are more multifaceted and deep than a cursory reading might seem. The attitude of children to parents, the relationship between various family members, old age, alcoholism, the concepts of honor and conscience - all these motives in the story "Deadline" are woven into a single whole. The main thing that interests the author is the problem of the meaning of human life.

The inner world of eighty-year-old Anna is filled with worries and worries about children. All of them have already parted for a long time and live separately from each other. The main character wants only the last time to see them. However, her children, already grown up, are busy and business representatives. modern civilization. Each of them has their own family. They all think about many different things. They have enough time and energy for everything except their mother. For some reason, they almost never remember her. And Anna only lives with thoughts about them.

When a woman feels the approach of death, she is ready to endure a few more days, just to see her family. However, the children find time and attention for the old woman only for the sake of decency. Valentin Rasputin shows their lives as if they even live on earth for the sake of decency. Anna's sons are mired in drunkenness, while the daughters are completely absorbed in their "important" affairs. All of them are insincere and ridiculous in their desire to give a little time to their dying mother. The author shows us their moral decline, selfishness, heartlessness, callousness, which took possession of their souls and lives. similar people? Their existence is gloomy and soulless.

At first glance, it seems that the deadline is the last days of Anna. However, in reality this last chance for her children to fix something, to hold their mother with dignity. Unfortunately, they were unable to use this chance.

The Tale of the Deserter and His Wife

The work analyzed above is an elegiac prologue to the tragedy captured in the story called “Live and Remember”, created in 1974. If the old woman Anna and her children gather under their father's roof in the last days of her life, then Andrei Guskov, who deserted from the army, is cut off from the world.

Note that the events described in the story “Live and Remember” take place at the end of the Great Patriotic War. The symbol of Andrei Guskov's hopeless loneliness, his moral savagery is a wolf hole located on an island in the middle of the Angara River. The hero hides in it from people and authorities.

The tragedy of Nastena

The name of this hero's wife is Nastena. This woman secretly visits her husband. Every time she has to swim across the river to meet him. It is no coincidence that Nastena overcomes a water barrier, because in myths she separates two worlds from each other - the living and the dead. Nastena is a truly tragic heroine. Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin puts this woman before difficult choice between love for her husband (Nastena and Andrei are married in the church) and the need to live among people, in the world. The heroine cannot find support or sympathy in any person.

The surrounding village life is no longer an integral peasant cosmos, harmonious and closed within its limits. The symbol of this cosmos, by the way, is Anna's hut from the work "Deadline". Nastena commits suicide, taking with her into the river the child Andrei, whom she so desired and whom she conceived with her husband in his wolf den. Their death becomes an atonement for the deserter, but she is unable to return this hero to human form.

The story of the flood of the village

The themes of parting with whole generations of people who lived and worked on their land, the themes of farewell to the mother-ancestor are already heard in the "Deadline". In the story "Farewell to Matera", created in 1976, they are transformed into a myth about the death of the peasant world. This work tells about the flooding of a Siberian village located on an island, as a result of the creation of a "man-made sea". The island of Matera (from the word "mainland"), in contrast to the island depicted in "Live and Remember", is a symbol of the promised land. This is the last refuge for those who live in conscience, in harmony with nature and God.

The main characters of "Farewell to Matera"

Righteous Daria is at the head of the old women who live out their days here. These women refuse to leave the island, to move to a new village, symbolizing the new world. The old women depicted by Valentin Grigoryevich Rasputin remain here until the very end, until the hour of death. They guard their shrines - the pagan Tree of Life (royal foliage) and a cemetery with crosses. Only one of the settlers (named Pavel) comes to visit Daria. They are driven by a vague hope of joining true meaning being. This hero, in contrast to Nastya, floats into the world of the living from world of the dead, which is a mechanical civilization. However, the world of the living in the story "Farewell to Matera" dies. On the island at the end of the work, only its Owner remains - a mythical character. His desperate cry, which is heard in the dead void, completes the story of Rasputin.

"Fire"

In 1985, nine years after the creation of Farewell to Matera, Valentin Grigoryevich decided to write again about the death of the communal world. This time he does not die in water, but in a fire. The fire covers the trading warehouses located in the timber industry village. In the work, a fire breaks out at the site of a previously flooded village, which has symbolic meaning. People are not ready for a joint struggle with trouble. Instead, one by one, competing with each other, they begin to take away the good snatched from the fire.

The image of Ivan Petrovich

Ivan Petrovich is the main character of this work by Rasputin. It is from the point of view this character working as a driver, the author describes everything that happens in the warehouses. Ivan Petrovich is no longer the righteous hero typical of Rasputin's work. He is in conflict with himself. Ivan Petrovich is looking for and cannot find "the simplicity of the meaning of life." Therefore, the author's vision of the world depicted by him is disharmonized and complicated. From this follows the aesthetic duality of the style of the work. In The Fire, the image of burning warehouses, captured by Rasputin in every detail, is adjacent to various symbolic and allegorical generalizations, as well as to journalistic sketches of the life of the timber industry.

Finally

We have considered only the main works of Rasputin. You can talk about the work of this author for a long time, but it still does not convey all the originality and artistic value of his stories and short stories. Rasputin's works are definitely worth reading. In them, the reader is presented with a whole world full of interesting discoveries. In addition to the works mentioned above, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with Rasputin's collection of stories "A Man from the Other World", published in 1965. The stories of Valentin Grigorievich are no less interesting than his stories.

On March 14, the day before his 78th birthday, a remarkable Russian writer passed away, public figure, a man of a broad soul and a kind heart - Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin.

Valentin Grigorievich was born in the village of Ust-Uda, East Siberian Region, into a peasant family. After graduating from the local primary school, he was forced to leave alone fifty kilometers from the house where the secondary school was located (a famous story will later be created about this period). After school, he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of the Irkutsk State University.

Worked in the editorial board of the book series "Literary Monuments of Siberia". In the 1980s, he was a member of the editorial board of the Roman-gazeta magazine. During perestroika, he was active civil position, had a negative attitude towards liberalism and perestroika reforms. In 1989-1990 he was a People's Deputy of the USSR. The phrase of P. A. Stolypin, quoted by Rasputin in his speech at the First Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, became the winged formula of counter-perestroika: “You need great shocks. We need a great country." He took the collapse of the USSR as a personal tragedy. In the 2000s, he was a member of the Patriarchal Council for Culture. In Irkutsk, he contributed to the opening of the Orthodox Women's Gymnasium, was one of the publishers of the Orthodox-patriotic newspaper Literary Irkutsk.

Some famous works Valentin Rasputin have been filmed since 1969. In particular, these are such stories and novels as “Rudolfio” (1969), “French Lessons” (1978), “Bear Skin for Sale” (1980), “Farewell to Matera” (1981), “Vasily and Vasilisa” “1981 ”, and, finally,“ Live and Remember ”(2008).

Valentin Grigorievich devoted his whole life to one great cause: he taught people good things. And he succeeded. Almost all of the writer's works were read Soviet people. Such different stories, such different heroes, such a different message of each story or story, but they have one thing in common: the desire to help the reader become kinder, more merciful, more sympathetic and attentive to others.

Consider the work of Valentin Grigorievich on the example of some specific works.

So, autobiographical story, which we reviewed a week before the death of the writer, teaches readers compassion, mercy and human dignity. The main character Volodya leaves his native village to study in high school However, in the harsh post-war years, he barely makes ends meet, falls ill with anemia. There are not enough funds even for the milk necessary for anemia. The young teacher delves into the problems of the student and tries to help him in every possible way, but the boy refuses, because it is beneath his dignity to accept help. The teacher comes up with a game of chance and deliberately loses money to the boy, for which she is dismissed as the director of the school, leaves for the Kuban, but continues to send parcels to Volodya.

This is not just "French Lessons", these are lessons of kindness, solidarity and dignity. In some ways, this is a reproach to some modern teachers who only care about working hours, wages, and completely forget to help their students, because teachers play a huge role in educating the younger generation - the future of our country.

in the story "Bear skin for sale" the plot is pretty simple. Hunter Vasily in the taiga easily deals with the inhabitants of the wild, especially bears. "He was a great bear cub." One day, after killing a bear, he realizes that his life has turned into hell: the bear begins to pursue him and even attack him, trying to avenge the murder of his bear wife. The main character is forced to kill the bear with a gun, but this does not make Vasily's life easier: his conscience begins to torment him, he thinks about the right of people to intervene, to invade the fate of the inhabitants of the taiga world.

Conscience and concern for nature is the main message of this work. The reader involuntarily takes the place of the protagonist and begins to talk in sync with Vasily about the dangers of interfering in the lives of bears and other animals. The work also encourages the reader to think about the place and role of each element in the living system of the world, about the awareness of the concept of the measure of responsibility, as a consequence of the free will of choice, about meeting with the awareness " side effects» ideas about their own superiority or omnipotence.

Story "Vasily and Vasilisa" tells about a simple village family: about husband Vasily, wife Vasilisa, their children and their neighbors. Everything went on as usual, until Vasily became addicted to alcohol and, in a drunken state, beat his pregnant wife, who, as a result, had a miscarriage. After that, the protagonist is tormented by conscience for what he did, but in old age he receives forgiveness from his wife. The story serves as an example of the strongest anti-alcohol propaganda, which is so lacking in our lives today.

And, finally, consider the message of the filmed tragedy of the writer - "Farewell to Matera". A story about the resettlement of villagers to a new place in connection with the flooding of the village for the construction of a hydroelectric power station. The deepest emotional experiences and sufferings of all the heroes of the story are shown. The villagers perceive the resettlement very painfully, because here are the graves of their ancestors, which they wish to take with them to a new place ... The essence of this work is to demonstrate true love to the Motherland. Not only to a small, as in the story, but also to a large Motherland, because a person grows into native land roots.

The main characters of the works of Valentin Grigorievich Rasputin are very different people, but they are united by such qualities as conscientiousness, sympathy, disinterestedness, love for the Motherland, rejection of vices, correction of their own mistakes. All the works of the great Russian writer teach us to be worthy, responsible and sober people.