To the 110th anniversary of the birth of Agnia Lvovna Barto
“I love you and I wrap you in paper, when you are torn, I glued you together,” - these words of Agnia Barto read in one children's letter. The writer received letters from grateful readers in large numbers, but it was the children she enjoyed most of all, they were for her a "universal glue" that helped to restore her strength.
“It seems to me that Agnia Barto was always there when I was little - I had her books, first my mother read to me, then I myself,” recalls Galina Fortygina, librarian of the fiction subscription. - My child also grew up - and I read him books by Agnia Barto, which have survived from my childhood, and, of course, we enjoyed buying new ones. And so not only in our family. I think (and hope) that this tradition of reading the books of Agnia Barto will continue to exist for a very long time.
If the writer is remembered for so long, they read and re-read his books, passing on his word from generation to generation - is this not the best recognition!
Tarpaulin
Rope in hand
I pull the boat
On the fast river.
And the frogs are jumping
On my heels
And they ask me:
Take a ride, captain!
Or
No, in vain we decided
Ride a cat in a car:
The cat is not used to rolling -
Overturned a truck.
Agnia Barto was born in Moscow on February 17, 1906. Although the date is not entirely correct, in fact Agniya Lvovna was born in 1907. An extra year in her biography did not take just that, during the war years, young Agnia had to add age to herself in order to be hired. Father, Lev Nikolaevich Volov, was a veterinarian, mother was a housekeeper. The girl studied at the gymnasium, studied ballet, was fond of poetry. And although she graduated from a choreographic school and was accepted into a ballet group, dance did not become her whole life's work. Like many girls at that time, Agnia was passionately fond of poetry and was a "podakhmatovka", as the imitators of Anna Akhmatova were called. I tried to compose myself, wrote poetry about knights, gray-eyed kings, pale skies and ruddy roses, until I discovered Mayakovsky. Since then, all the gentle images were forgotten, and the poetic album of the young poetess began to be filled with a "ladder" and puns. Agnia Barto considered Mayakovsky one of her main teachers, it was from him that she learned the art of new forms. The influence of Mayakovsky, his artistic traditions were felt in the poetry of Agnia Barto all her life.
The youth of Agnia Volova, like many of her compatriots who were born at the beginning of the 20th century, fell on the years of the revolution and civil war. The family survived these times without falling into the hellish millstones. But funds and products were not enough and Agnia had to work, she became a salesman in the "Clothes" store. She continued to dance and write poetry, but of course she did not see herself as a professional poet. An important life decision was helped by a case in the person of A.V. Lunacharsky.
At one of the theatrical evenings at the choreographic school, Agnia read her poem "Funeral March", it was tragic in content and sounded to the music of Chopin. But the People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky, who was present at this evening (he was not only a Bolshevik and Lenin's ally, but also a writer, literary critic) could not help laughing. What amused this man so much remains unknown, but the fact is known that he invited the young ballerina to the People's Commissariat for Education and gave practical advice, advice - to seriously engage in poetry and write not just poetry, but poetry for children. With what instinct did he discern in her this special gift, this rare talent? This was the beginning, the impetus for the professional career of the future poetess was given, and it was in 1920. Many years later, Agniya Lvovna recalled with irony the fact that the first steps of her career were rather offensive. Of course, for youth it is more preferable when your tragic talent is recognized, and not comic.
In 1924 she graduated from the choreographic school and was accepted into the ballet troupe. Foreign tours were planned, in which Agnia, at the insistence of her father, did not take part. The next significant fact from her biography is marriage. At the age of eighteen, Agnia Volova married the man who gave her the surname Barto. The poet Pavel Barto became her husband, and together they wrote several poems, including "The girl-roar" and "The girl with grimy face". They had a son, Edgar, but the marriage did not last long. A few years later, Agnia Barto left this family and creative union, having met her true love. Her second marriage, with power scientist A.V. Shcheglyaev, became long and happy. Their daughter Tatyana Andreevna always said that the parents loved each other very much.
The first successful poems were written in the mid-20s - these are "Chinese Wang Li", "Bear-Thief", "Pioneers", "Brother", "May Day". They were popular due to their themes, closely related to the new interests of children, as well as journalistic pathos, which is still rare in children's poetry. She spoke directly with the young reader on serious moral and ethical topics and did not hide an educational tendency under play or fiction. It was also important that she developed a new big topic for a children's book - the social behavior of a child. Examples include the poems "The girl-revushka" and "The grimy girl."
—Oh you grimy girl
where did you get your hands so smeared?
Black palms;
on the elbows - tracks.
- I'm in the sun
lay
hands up
kept.
THIS IS THEY BURNED.
- Oh you, grimy girl,
where did you smear your nose so?
The tip of the nose is black
as if smoked.
- I'm in the sun
lay
nose up
kept.
HERE HE BURNED ON.
— Oh you grimy girl
feet in stripes
smeared
not a girl
and the zebra,
legs-
Like a negra.
- I'm in the sun
lay
heels up
kept.
THIS IS THEY BURNED.
- Oh, right?
Was that the case?
We will wash everything to a drop.
Come on, give me some soap.
WE WILL REMOVE IT.
The girl screamed loudly
when I saw the urine,
scratched like a cat:
- Do not touch
palms!
They won't be white:
they are tanned.
BUT THE PALTS WERE LAUNCHED.
They rubbed their nose with a sponge -
offended to tears:
- Oh my poor
nose!
He soap
can't stand it!
It won't be white:
he's tanned.
AND THE NOSE WAS ALSO LAUNCHED.
Washed the stripes -
— Oh, I'm afraid of tickling!
Remove the brushes!
There will be no white heels
they are tanned.
And the heels were also washed off.
— Now you're white
Not tanned at all.
In her poems one could discern satire, in which the undoubted influence of Mayakovsky was traced. However, Barto's satire was always muted by soft lyrical intonation, which was taught by another master, Korney Chukovsky. He demanded lyricism from the young poetess (“... only lyricism makes wit humor,” he wrote to her), careful finishing of the form instead of “ruffles and frills” of dexterous forms, with which it is so easy to amaze an inexperienced reader.
Barto continued to write for and on behalf of children - this was her calling. Children were the heroes of all her poems - boys and girls, toddlers and schoolchildren, they lived real life and their portraits were very recognizable, and the images were convincing. A significant part of the poems of the poetess are portraits of children, and in each of them a living child's individuality is visible, which is generalized to an easily recognizable type. In many poems, a child's name sounds. For example, "Fidget", "Chatterbox", "Queen", "Kopeikin", "Newbie", "Vovka is a kind soul", "Katya", "Lyubochka". In her work, Barto considered it important to give a psychological portrait of a child, but at the same time she did not go into moralizing. She skillfully noticed the age characteristics and "problem" features of children and invited them to look at themselves from the outside and engage in self-education. Here Agnia Barto seemed to laugh at her heroes, but she did it tactfully, with soft irony, avoiding stupid and evil laughter. In some ways, she also helped parents, letting them understand that childhood defects are formed by adults themselves. Laziness, self-interest, greed, narcissism, lies, childish anger are easily eliminated if you pay attention to them in time. Parents, who usually read books to children, should discern these clues coming from a sensitive and kind person.
Queen
If you are still nowhere
Have not met the queen, -
Look - here it is!
She lives among us.
Everyone, right and left,
The queen announces:
- Where is my cloak? Hang it up!
Why is he out of place?
My portfolio is heavy -
Take him to school!
I am on duty
Bring me a mug of tea
And buy me at the buffet
Each one, each one a piece of candy.
The queen is in third grade
And her name is Nastasya.
Bow at Nastya
Like a crown
Like a crown
From nylon.
In 1936, Agnia Barto's poetic cycle "Toys" was published - these are poems about babies and toddlers. The author of "Toys" received great national love and popularity and became one of the most beloved poets, speaking the language of children. "Bear", "Goby", "Elephant", "Truck", "Ship", "Ball" and other poems, children remember quickly and with great pleasure - they sound as if the child himself spoke, that is, they reproduce features of the child's vocabulary and syntax.
Among the "baby" poems of Agnia Barto there are those that are devoted to important moments in the child's family, for example, the birth of a brother or sister. The author shows how this event turns the life of older children. Some of them feel lost and unnecessary, while others, on the contrary, begin to realize their adulthood and show concern. "Resentment", "Nastenka", "Sveta thinks", "Mosquitoes", etc.
In the pre-war years, Agniya Lvovna created a poetic image of Soviet childhood. Happiness, health, inner strength, the spirit of internationalism and anti-fascism - these are the general features of this image. "The house has moved" (1938), "Cricket" (1940), "Rope" (1941), in them the author shows that Soviet children can peacefully have fun, walk, work.
Rope
Spring, spring on the street
Spring days!
Like birds flood
Tram calls.
Noisy, cheerful,
Spring Moscow.
Not dusty yet,
Green foliage.
Rooks roar on the tree,
Trucks are thundering.
Spring, spring on the street
Spring days!
The girls consider the chorus
Ten times ten.
Champions, masters
Carrying jump ropes in their pocket
They skip in the morning.
In the yard and on the boulevard
In the alley and in the garden
And on every sidewalk
In plain sight of passers-by
And with a run
And in place,
And with two feet
Together.
Lidochka came forward.
Lida takes the jump rope.
Spring 1941 in Moscow, the war has not yet happened and life is in full swing in the city, there are many carefree children and passers-by on the street. Lidochka, the main character, matches the “noisy, cheerful, springtime” capital. The poem "Rope" perfectly conveys the mood that covers everyone on the first warm spring days and sounds like a hymn to the reviving nature and childhood.
The next important milestone in the life of the famous poetess happened with the beginning of the war. Agniya Lvovna's husband was a famous engineer, specialist in steam turbines, and he was sent to work in Sverdlovsk. His family also went to the Urals with him. And here the writer was not left without work. She continued to write poetry, performed in hospitals, schools, on the radio. But she needed a new type, a new matured hero. And then Barto asked for advice from Pavel Bazhov, with whom she had the opportunity to communicate: how to approach the topic. He took her to a meeting of artisans, where he spoke, and then offered to go to study with them. So Agnia Barto entered a vocational school to learn turning skills. For her, it was a new communication experience needed to understand the new younger generation growing up in wartime. This period includes the poetic cycle "The Urals are fighting great", the collection "Teenagers" (1943), the poem "Nikita" (1945).
It is impossible not to mention one completely selfless act of Agnia Lvovna Barto, a mother of two children. During the war years, she stubbornly sought a business trip to the front and, having hardly obtained permission, spent twenty-two days on the front line. She explained this by the fact that she could not write about the war for children without having been where the bullets were whistling.
In the days of war
The eyes of a seven-year-old girl
Like two dim lights.
More noticeable on a child's face
Great, heavy melancholy.
She is silent, no matter what you ask,
You joke with her - she is silent in response,
As if she's not seven, not eight,
And many, many bitter years.
The Shcheglyaev-Barto family returned to Moscow in May 1945, the war was about to end. But Agnia Lvovna did not manage to feel the full happiness of the Victory Day; a few days before that, her seventeen-year-old son died by tragic accident. A terrible, incomparable tragedy. To get used to her grief, Barto plunged into work, began to visit orphanages. She performed in front of children, read poetry, watched their life. This is how a new theme arose in the poet's work - the theme of protecting childhood from the troubles of the adult world.
In 1947 Agnia Barto's poem "Zvenigorod" was published. In it, she described an orphanage - a house in which children whose parents died in wartime live, and their memories. It was the same recognizable Agnia Barto, with her light, lyrical style, but in the intonations there was a latent bitterness and tragedy.
Collected guys:
To this house in the days of the war
They brought it once ...
After, almost a whole year,
Children painted
Downed black plane
House among the ruins.
Suddenly there will be silence
Children will remember something ...
And like an adult at the window
Suddenly Petya will subside.
He still remembers his mother ...
Can't remember -
She is only three years old.
Nikita has no father,
His mother was killed.
Picked up two fighters
By the burnt porch
Boy Nikita.
Klava had an older brother,
Lieutenant curly,
Here on the card it is removed
With one-year-old Klava.
He defended Stalingrad,
He fought near Poltava.
Children of warriors, fighters
In this orphanage.
Album cards.
This is the kind of family here -
Daughters and sons are here.
The time that Agnia Barto spent in orphanages turned into new experiences and new concerns that stretched out for almost nine years. The starting point was the poem "Zvenigorod", it was read by people who also lost their children during the war. And so one woman wrote a letter to Agnia Barto, it contained no requests, only one hope that her daughter might still be alive and ended up in a good orphanage. The writer could not ignore this misfortune and made every effort to find a person. And I found it. The story, of course, did not end there. When this case became widely known, letters began to come to Agnia Barto with requests for help, which also did not go unnoticed. As a result, in 1965, the Mayak radio broadcast the Find a Person program, to which the writer devoted 9 years of her life. Every month, on the 13th, millions of radio listeners gathered at the radio receivers, and each time they heard the voice of Agnia Lvovna Barto. And for her, this day was special, because she could report that two more (or more) lost souls met, who were scattered along the military roads. With the help of this program, 927 families were connected. “And although the search - for almost nine years - subjugated my thoughts, all my time, along with the last transmission from my life, something precious has gone,” Agniya Lvovna wrote later in her diary. Otherwise she could not. Finding people, communicating with those who searched and found later became the content of the book "Find a Person". It was reprinted several times.
In the post-war period, Agnia Barto visited several foreign countries. She brought children's poems and drawings from each trip. At first, just for myself, and then I thought it would be interesting for others as well. "Small poets" - this is how she jokingly called the little authors. The result of international communication was the collection "Translations from Children" (1976), it included poems written by children from different countries. But, according to the poetess herself, these were not translations. She explained this: “Translations of their poems? No, children's poems, but they were written by me ... Of course, I do not know many languages. But I know the language of children. And therefore, in interlinear translation, I try to capture the feelings of children, to understand what they think about friendship, about the world, about people. "
GRANDFATHER VITALY
Became a pensioner
Grandpa Vitaly,
Receives a pension
Right at home.
He will wake up in the morning:
- Why did you get up so early?
You are not for work! -
They tell him.
Grandpa Vitaly
Was a cashier in a trust,
I gave out a salary
I was in a hurry to the bank in the morning,
And now he will wake up -
And sits in place
And grumbles angrily:
- It's time to die!
- You would take a walk! -
Daughters-in-law say
Hinting to grandfather:
He's in the way!
In the mailbox
Not a single agenda -
More on gathering
Grandfather is not called.
He comes from a walk
Dissatisfied, lethargic.
Would take a walk with my grandson -
Grandfather loves grandson!
But Andryushka grew up,
Small in the fifth grade!
He has for his grandfather
Not a minute!
Then he will rush off to school!
Then he is in the poultry market!
(The squad needs a dove
And two guinea pigs! ..)
Then somewhere he is at the collection,
He's in the gym
It sings in the choir
At the school festival!
And this morning early
The grandson declares to his grandfather:
- We are looking for a veteran,
So that he has a conversation.
Grandfather Vitaly sighs,
It's a shame to the old man:
- Fought a lot
We are in our lifetime.
Are you looking for a veteran?
Look at me!
Fought, oddly enough,
And I in the old days!
In Moscow, on the barricade,
In the seventeenth year ...
I myself am in your detachment
I'll have a conversation!
- What happened to grandfather? -
Surprised neighbors.
Grandpa Vitaly
Preparing for the conversation.
Grandpa Vitaly
Got out my medals
He put them on his chest.
We didn’t recognize our grandfather -
So he got younger!
We have Natasha a fashionista,
It's not easy for her!
Natasha has heels
Like adults, they are tall
Such a height
These are the dinners!
Poor thing! Here is a sufferer -
Goes, almost collapses.
Open mouth kid
Can't figure it out in any way:
- Are you a clown or auntie?
On the head - a cap!
It seems to her - passers-by
They do not take their eyes off her,
And they sigh: - My God.
Where did you come from?
Cap, short jacket
And mom's coat
Not a girl, not an aunt,
And it is not clear who!
No, in my younger years
Keep up with fashion
But following the fashion
Do not disfigure yourself!
WHERE DO I GO?
There are exemplary children
And I'm not exemplary:
I sang at the wrong time
I danced in the dining room.
There are exemplary children
For them ballet on ice
And the stadiums are new ...
Where am I going?
They gave their report card
(There is no end to fives!)
And spinning under the arches
District palace.
And I went to such a circle
References are required there,
That you didn't set anything on fire
And he didn't walk on the grass.
That the seedlings were planted
And he saw off all the old women ...
There to ride down the hill -
And then you need fives!
There are exemplary children
For them ballet on ice
And the stadiums are new ...
Where am I going?
IT HAPPENS…
Tanya was spinning on her toes,
Tanya was a butterfly
And circled and took off
Two nylon wings.
Klava shouted the loudest,
So praised Tanya,
Admired: - Wonderful dance!
You are light like a butterfly!
You are slimmer than a moth!
It was heard: “Bravo! Bravo!"
And Klava whispers to the neighbor:
- Tanya is not slim at all,
And she looks like an elephant.
It happens like this, they say in the eyes:
- You are a moth! You are a dragonfly! -
And behind the back they laugh quietly -
Look, here comes the elephant.
WHERE ARE YOU PAUL?
There lived a boy Pavel,
Merry fellow! Good guy!
If a holiday is in your house,
He shouts: - Let's dance! -
Before all, he congratulated you.
Well done! Good guy!
Aunt Katya's birthday
He woke up at six in the morning
Before everyone jumped out of bed,
Says: - It's time to dance!
But, alas, quite inappropriate
Aunt Katya fell ill.
You don't have to have fun -
Birthday canceled
I need to run for the medicine
Bring the pyramidon.
But where did Paul go?
Nice guy, nice guy?
He disappeared!
I jumped out of my chair
And it was blown away like the wind!
THREE POINTS FOR AN OLD MAN
Larisa stands at the blackboard,
A girl in a fluffy skirt
And translates into glasses
Good deeds.
The blackboard is all in numbers.
- For helping mom - two points,
For helping a baby brother
I am writing a point to Nikitin,
And Gorchakov has three points -
He took the old man to visit.
- Three points are not enough for this! -
Shouts Andryusha Gorchakov
And jumps up from the bench.
Three points for the old man ?!
I demand an increase!
I spent almost half a day with him,
He managed to love me.
Larisa stands at the blackboard,
Love counts
And translates into glasses
Attention and care.
And two girlfriends aside
They grumble, pouting their lips:
- And they didn't give me three points
For good deeds!
- And I was not expecting this,
When I bathed my brother.
Then for good deeds
Not worth it at all!
Larisa stands at the blackboard,
A girl in a fluffy skirt
And translates into glasses
Good deeds.
Oh, even listening is hard
I can't believe guys
What a warmth
Someone needs a fee.
And if you need a fee,
Then the deed is worthless!
BURN, BURN CLEAR!
Lyuba writes in the minutes:
“Well, the kids are in our school!
A speaker came to us,
And the guys are hiding.
Horror, what a fidget!
Every day there are conversations for them,
Reports every day,
And they are not happy!
We listened on air
The most interesting "Bonfire":
The song "Twice two four"
The honored actor sang.
I read them an article -
Turn around on a chair;
I ask them a question -
And they fell asleep! .. "
Lyuba looked out the window
And the link sings in the garden:
- Burn, burn clearly,
So as not to go out!
... The birds are flying
The bells are ringing.
Sings the whole link:
- Burn, burn clearly! -
Lyuba looked out the window
And everything became clear to her.
SECRET OF SUCCESS
Displeased Yura walks
In apartments, in houses,
Yura asks gloomily
At the neighbour's dads and moms
Yura asks gloomily:
- Do you have waste paper?
He's out of sorts: he took it foolishly
Collect waste paper!
Someone looked around Yura:
- There is enough work without you.
The old man slammed the door
In front of Yura's nose
And he mutters: - Believe not,
No waste paper.
An aunt came out in a black shawl,
She was prevented from dining.
Says: - Who are you?
Don't bother me!
Who goes to the park of culture,
Who see the doctor for procedures,
And it sounds in Yura's ears:
"We have no waste paper."
Suddenly some guy is long
Declares Yura after:
- In vain you walk with a sour face,
Therefore, there is no sense!
Yura instantly smoothed his eyebrows,
Knocking at the door, full of strength,
The hostess "how is her health?"
Yura asked cheerfully.
Yura asks cheerfully:
- Do you have waste paper?
The hostess says: - There is ...
Would you like to sit down?
ON THE ROAD, ON THE BOULEVARD
ON THE ROAD, ON THE BOULEVARD
Snow mountains shine
Whiteness,
And below, in the gardens of Sofia,
Summer heat.
Lilyana and Tsvetana,
Two little grinders,
Early in the morning in Sofia
We rolled a hoop in the park.
- Roll, my hoop is yellow, -
Tsvetana sang after.
I want you to go around
All countries, the whole world.
Along the path
Down the boulevard
All over the globe.
And, helping a friend,
Another girl sang:
- Turn around, my hoop is yellow,
Shine like a sun!
Wherever you go
Don't go astray!
Along the path
Down the boulevard
All over the globe.
Cheerful children's hoop,
Travel across the planet!
You with good greetings
Children sent it for a reason.
Along the path
Down the boulevard
All over the globe.
Spanish children - sons and daughters of republican fighters who fought against the Nazis in Spain.
Lolita, you are ten years old
But you're used to everything:
To the night alarm and to the shooting,
To your empty house.
And in the early morning at the gate
You stand for a long time alone.
Are you waiting:
What if the father comes?
But what if
Is the war over?
No, another fire!
The houses are on fire.
A shell roars overhead
And you call the guys again
Watch funnels in the pavement.
There is a column passing by you,
And you are to a familiar fighter
You shout: “Manolo, good hour!
Tell your father that I am alive. "
MAMITA MIA
Black-eyed Maria
Crying outside the carriage window
And repeats: "Mamita mia!"
And "mamita" means mom.
- Wait! Do not Cry! Do not!-
The boy from Malaga whispers.
We are going to the children of Leningrad.
There are banners, songs, flags!
There we will live with friends.
You will write a letter to mom.
Celebrate victory together
I'll go to Madrid with you.
But curly-haired Maria
Crying outside the carriage window
And repeats: "Mamita mia!"
And "mamita" means mom.
I'M WITH YOU
You can sleep. The window is closed
The door is bolted.
Eight-year-old Anita
The eldest is in the house now.
Anita says to her brother:
- The month in the sky has gone out,
From fascist planes
The darkness will cover us.
Don't be afraid of the dark:
You cannot be seen in the dark.
And when the fight starts
Don't be afraid - I'm with you ...
OVER THE SEA STARS
Stars over the sea
It's dark in the mountains.
Fernando's collection
The link is leading.
Why appointed
Gathering today?
Fascists city
They are storming from the mountains.
Here is a dull hooted
There is a shell in the mountains.
Why Fernando
Did you call the guys?
He whispers: - Listen,
The bridge is destroyed
In the village nearby
Fascist post.
Until it dawns
It's dawn in the mountains
Let's take the rifles
There are no cowards here! -
Hooted somewhere again
A projectile in the distance
Boys are coming
A chain in a row.
To collect the last
There is a link.
Stars over the sea
It's dark in the mountains.
Roberto ... we are sitting together,
And you tell me
About hard days, about war,
About your wounded brother.
About how the shell falls
Throwing up a pillar of earth,
And as your friends, guys,
They carried to a nearby hospital ...
That mother often cries
And there is no news from the father,
And what do you know how to shoot
Not worse than an adult fighter.
You ask to take you with you
When the detachment goes to the front.
Roberto, your child's voice
Became severe this year.
There is a custom in Spain:
They call the palm tree in the grove
By the glorious name of a hero
The winner in battle.
You have never been in battle,
I did not hold a rifle in my hands,
But they named the palm tree in the grove
In your bright memory.
You have never been in battle,
But there was a roar of a shell, -
You were wounded in a peaceful home
The night the enemies came.
♦ Barto Agniya Lvovna (1906-1981) was born on February 17 in Moscow in the family of a veterinarian. Received a good education at home, led by her father. She studied at the gymnasium, where she began to write poetry. At the same time she studied at the choreographic school.
♦ The first time Agnia got married early: at the age of 18. Young handsome poet Pavel Barto, who had English and German ancestors, immediately liked the talented girl Agnia Volova. They both idolized poetry and wrote poetry. Therefore, the young people found a common language right away, but ... Nothing, except for poetic research, bound their souls. Yes, they had a common son Igor, whom everyone called Garik at home. But it was with each other that the young parents suddenly became incredibly sad. 
And they parted. Agnia herself grew up in a strong, close-knit family, so the divorce was not easy for her. She was worried, but soon completely surrendered to creativity, deciding that she had to be true to her vocation.
♦ Agnia's father, Moscow veterinarian Lev Volov, wanted his daughter to become a famous ballerina. Canaries sang in their house, Krylov's fables were read aloud. He was known as a subtle connoisseur of art, loved to go to the theater, especially loved ballet. That is why young Agnia went to study at the ballet school, not daring to oppose her father's will. However, in between classes, she enthusiastically read the poems of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Anna Akhmatova, and then wrote down her creations and thoughts in a notebook. Agnia, according to her friends, at that time was outwardly similar to Akhmatova: tall, with a bob haircut ... Under the influence of the creativity of her idols, she began to compose more and more often.
♦ At first, these were poetic epigrams and sketches. Then poems appeared. Once at a dance performance Agnia read her first poem "Funeral March" to the music of Chopin from the stage. At that moment, Alexander Lunacharsky entered the hall. He immediately saw the talent of Agnia Volova and offered to professionally engage in literary work. Later he recalled that, despite the serious meaning of the poem that he heard in the performance of Agnia, he immediately felt that she would write funny poems in the future.
♦ When Agnia was 15 years old, she got a job at the Clothes store - she was too hungry. Father's salary was not enough to feed the whole family. Since she was only hired from the age of 16, she had to lie that she was already 16. Therefore, until now, Barto's anniversaries (in 2007 it was 100 years from the date of birth) are celebrated for two years in a row. ♦ Determination she always had no interest: she saw the goal - and forward, without swaying and retreating. This feature of her appeared everywhere, in every little detail. Once, in Spain, torn apart by the Civil War, where Barto went to the International Congress in Defense of Culture in 1937, where she saw with her own eyes what fascism was (the congress was held in besieged burning Madrid), and just before the bombing she went to buy castanets. The sky howls, the walls of the shop bounce, and the writer makes a purchase! But the castanets are real, Spanish - for the beautifully dancing Agnia it was an important souvenir. Alexey Tolstoy Then he asked Barto with a sarcastic voice: did she buy a fan in that shop in order to fan herself during the next raids? ..
♦ In 1925, the first poems of Agnia Barto, "Chinese Wang Li" and "Bear-Thief", were published. They were followed by "May Day", "Brothers", after the publication of which the famous children's writer Korney Chukovsky said that Agnia Barto is a great talent. Some of the poems were written jointly with her husband. By the way, despite his reluctance, she kept his last name, with which she lived until the end of her days. And it was with her that she became famous throughout the world. 
♦ The first huge popularity came to Barto after he saw the light of the cycle of poetic miniatures for the smallest "Toys" (about a bull, a horse, etc.) - in 1936 Agnia's books began to be published in gigantic editions ... 
♦ Fate did not want to leave Agnia alone and one day brought her to Andrey Shcheglyaev. 
This talented young scientist purposefully and patiently looked after the pretty poetess. At first glance, these were two completely different people: "lyricist" and "physicist". Creative, sublime Agnia and heat power engineer Andrey. But in reality, an unusually harmonious union of two loving hearts was created. According to family members and close friends of Barto, in the almost 50 years that Agnia and Andrei have lived together, they have never quarreled. Both worked actively, Barto often went on business trips. They supported each other in everything. And both became famous, each in their own field. Agnia's husband became famous in the field of heat power engineering, becoming a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.
♦ Barto and Shcheglyaev had a daughter, Tanya, about whom there was a legend that it was she who was the prototype of the famous rhyme: "Our Tanya is crying loudly." But this is not so: poetry appeared earlier. Even when the children grew up, it was decided to always live as a large family under one roof together with the children's wives and grandchildren - so Agnia wanted.
♦ In the late thirties, she went to this "neat, clean, almost toy country", heard Nazi slogans, saw pretty blonde girls in dresses "decorated" with a swastika. She realized that war with Germany was inevitable. For her, sincerely believing in the worldwide brotherhood of, if not adults, then at least children, all this was wild and scary. But the war didn’t treat her too harshly. She was not separated from her husband even during the evacuation: Shcheglyaev, who by that time had become a prominent power engineer, received a referral to the Urals. Agnia Lvovna had friends in those parts who invited her to stay with them. So the family settled in Sverdlovsk. The Urals people seemed to be mistrustful, closed and harsh people. Barto had a chance to meet Pavel Bazhov, who fully confirmed her first impression of the locals. During the war, Sverdlovsk teenagers worked at defense factories instead of adults who went to the front. They were wary of the evacuees. But Agnia Barto needed to communicate with children - she drew inspiration and stories from them. To be able to communicate more with them, Barto, on the advice of Bazhov, received the profession of a turner of the second category. Standing at the lathe, she argued that "he is also a man." In 1942, Barto made her last attempt at becoming an "adult writer." Or rather, a front-line correspondent. Nothing came of this attempt, and Barto returned to Sverdlovsk. She understood that the whole country lived by the laws of war, but still she was very homesick for Moscow.
♦ Barto returned to the capital in 1944, and almost immediately life went back to normal. In the apartment opposite the Tretyakov Gallery, the housekeeper Domash was again busy with the housekeeping. Friends returned from evacuation, son Garik and daughter Tatyana began to study again. Everyone was looking forward to the end of the war. On May 4, 1945, Garik returned home earlier than usual. Home was late with lunch, the day was sunny, and the boy decided to ride a bike. Agniya Lvovna did not mind. It seemed that nothing bad could happen to a fifteen-year-old teenager in a quiet Lavrushinsky Lane. But Garik's bike collided with a truck that drove around the corner. The boy fell to the asphalt, hitting his temple on the curb of the sidewalk. Death came instantly. 
With son Igor
♦ We must pay tribute to the strength of the spirit of Agnia Lvovna - she did not break. Moreover, her salvation was the work to which she devoted her life. After all, Barto also wrote scripts for films. For example, with her participation such famous films as "Foundling" with Faina Ranevskaya, "Alyosha Ptitsyn develops character" were created. During the war, she was also actively involved: she went to the front reading her poems, spoke on the radio, and wrote for newspapers. And after the war, and after the personal drama, she did not cease to be at the center of the country's life. 
Still from the movie "Foundling"
"
Alyosha Ptitsyn develops character " (1953)
♦ Later she was the author of a large-scale campaign to find relatives who were lost during the war. Agnia Barto began to host a radio program called Find a Man, where she read letters in which people shared fragmentary memories that were insufficient for an official search, but viable for word of mouth. For example, someone wrote that when he was taken away from the house as a child, he remembered the color of the gate and the first letter of the street name. Or one girl remembered that she lived with her parents near the forest and her dad was called Grisha ... And there were people who restored the general picture. For several years of work on radio, Barto was able to unite about a thousand families. When the program was closed, Agniya Lvovna wrote the story "Find a Man", which was published in 1968.
♦ Agnia Barto wrote an infinite number of variants before submitting the manuscript for publication. Be sure to read poetry aloud to household members or by phone to fellow friends - Kassil, Svetlov, Fadeev, Chukovsky. I listened carefully to criticism, and if I accepted it, I redid it. Although once she flatly refused: the meeting, which decided the fate of her "Toys" in the early 30s, decided that the rhymes in them - in particular in the famous "They dropped the bear on the floor ..." - were too difficult for children.
Tatiana Scheglyaeva (daughter)
“She didn’t change anything, and because of this, the book came out later than it could, - recalls daughter Tatiana - Mom in general was a principled person and often categorical. But she had a right to this: she did not write about what she did not know, and was sure that children should be studied. All my life I did this: I read letters sent to Pionerskaya Pravda, went to nurseries and kindergartens - sometimes for this I had to introduce myself as an employee of the public education department - listened to what the children were talking about, just walking down the street. In this sense, my mother has always worked. Surrounded by kids (still in his youth)
♦ House Barto was the head. The last word was always hers. Households took care of her, did not demand to cook cabbage soup and bake pies. This was done by Domna Ivanovna. After Garik's death, Agniya Lvovna began to fear for all her relatives. She needed to know where everyone was, that everyone was all right. “Mom was the main helmsman in the house, everything was done with her knowledge, - recalls Barto's daughter, Tatyana Andreevna. - On the other hand, they took care of her and tried to create working conditions - she did not bake pies, she did not stand in queues, but she was, of course, the mistress of the house. Our nanny Domna Ivanovna lived with us all her life, who came to the house back in 1925, when my older brother Garik was born. This was a very dear person for us - and the hostess in a different, executive sense. Mom always reckoned with her. She could, for example, ask: "Well, how am I dressed?" And the nanny said: "Yes, you can do that" or: "Strangely gathered"
♦ Agnia has always been interested in raising children. She said: "Children need the whole gamut of feelings that give rise to humanity" ... She went to orphanages, schools, talked a lot with children. Traveling to different countries, I came to the conclusion that a child of any nationality has the richest inner world. For many years, Barto headed the Association of Literary and Artists for Children, was a member of the international Andersen jury. Barto's poems have been translated into many languages of the world.
♦ She passed away on April 1, 1981. After the autopsy, the doctors were shocked: the vessels turned out to be so weak that it was not clear how blood had flowed into the heart for the last ten years. Agnia Barto once said: "Almost every person has moments in his life when he does more than he can." In the case of her herself, it was not a minute - this is how she lived her whole life. 
♦ Barto loved to play tennis and could arrange a trip to capitalist Paris to buy a packet of drawing paper she liked. But at the same time, she never had either a secretary or even a study - only an apartment in Lavrushinsky lane and an attic in a dacha in Novo-Darino, where there was an old card table and books were piled up in piles.
♦ She was non-contentious, loved pranks and did not tolerate swagger and snobbery. Once she had a dinner, set the table - and attached a sign to each dish: "Black caviar - for academicians", "Red caviar - for corresponding members", "Crabs and sprats - for doctors of science", "Cheese and ham - for candidates "," Vinaigrette - for laboratory assistants and students ". They say that the laboratory assistants and students were genuinely amused by this joke, but the academicians lacked a sense of humor - some of them were then seriously offended by Agniya Lvovna.
♦ Seventies. Meeting with Soviet cosmonauts at the Writers' Union. On a piece of notebook, Yuri Gagarin writes: "They dropped the bear on the floor ..." and hands it to the author, Agnia Barto. When Gagarin was subsequently asked why these particular verses were, he replied: "This is the first book about goodness in my life."
Updated 08/12/14 14:07:
Oops ... I forgot to insert a piece from myself at the beginning of the post)) Probably, it was Agnia Barto's poems that influenced the fact that from childhood I feel sorry for dogs, cats, grandparents who ask for alms (I'm not talking about those who like watch every day are in the same subway crossings ...). I remember when I was a child I watched the cartoon "Cat's House" and literally cried - I felt so sorry for the Cat and the Cat, because their house burned down, but kittens, who themselves have nothing, felt sorry for them))))) (I know this is Marshak)... But the poor child (me) was crying because of his pure, naive, childish kindness! And I learned kindness not only from mom and dad, but also from such books and poems that Barto wrote. So Gagarin said very precisely ...
Updated 08/12/14 15:24:
Persecution of Chukovsky in the 30s
Such a fact was. Chukovsky's poems for children were severely persecuted in the Stalinist era, although it is known that Stalin himself repeatedly quoted "Cockroach". The persecution was initiated by N.K. Krupskaya, inadequate criticism came from both Agnia Barto and Sergei Mikhalkov. Among the party editors' critics, even the term “Chukovshchyna” arose. Chukovsky undertook to write an orthodox Soviet work for children, "Merry Collective Farm", but did not. Although other sources say that she did not completely hound Chukovsky, but just did not refuse to sign some kind of collective paper. On the one hand, not comradely, but on the other ... Decide for yourself) In addition, in recent years, Barto visited Chukovsky in Peredelkino, they kept up a correspondence ... So either Chukovsky is so kind, or Barto asked for forgiveness, or we we don’t know much.
In addition, Barto is seen in the persecution of Marshak. I quote: " Barto came to the editorial office and saw on the table galleys of Marshak's new poems. And he says: "Yes, I can write such poems even every day!" To which the editor replied: "I beg you, write them at least every other day ..."
Updated 09/12/14 09:44:
I continue to reveal the topic of bullying)) As for Marshak and others.
In late 1929 - early 1930. on the pages of the Literaturnaya Gazeta, a discussion "For a truly Soviet children's book" unfolded, which posed three tasks: 1) to reveal all kinds of hack in the field of children's literature; 2) contribute to the formation of principles for the creation of truly Soviet children's literature; 3) to unite qualified personnel of real children's writers.
From the very first articles that opened this discussion, it became clear that she had taken a dangerous path, the path of persecuting the best children's writers. The works of Chukovsky and Marshak were classified under the heading of "defective literature" and simply hack. Some participants in the discussion "discovered" the "alien direction of the literary talent" of Marshak, concluded that he was "clearly alien to us in ideology," and his books were "harmful, meaningless." Beginning in a newspaper, the discussion soon spread to several magazines. The discussion fanned the mistakes of talented authors and promoted the non-fictional works of some writers.
The nature of the attacks, the tone in which these attacks were expressed, were absolutely unacceptable, as stated by a group of Leningrad writers in their letter: "attacks on Marshak are of the nature of persecution."
State Prize (1950)
Lenin Prize (1972)
She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and other awards
"There is a goby, swaying, sighing on the move ..." - the name of the author of these lines is familiar to everyone. One of the most famous children's poetesses, Agnia Barto, has become a favorite author for many generations of children.
Agnia Barto was born on February 17, 1906 in Moscow in the family of Lev Nikolaevich Volov, a veterinarian.
In February 1906, Maslenitsa balls were held in Moscow, and Great Lent began. The Russian Empire was on the eve of changes: the creation of the first State Duma, the implementation of Stolypin's agrarian reform; hopes for a solution to the "Jewish question" have not yet faded in society. In the family of the veterinarian Lev Nikolaevich Volov, changes were also expected: the birth of a daughter. Lev Nikolaevich had every reason to hope that his daughter would live in another, new Russia. These hopes have come true, but not in the way one could imagine. A little over ten years remained before the revolution.
Here is what Barto wrote about her childhood: “I was born in Moscow, in 1906, I studied and grew up here. Perhaps the first impression of my childhood is the high-pitched voice of a hurdy-gurdy outside the window. people were looking out from the windows, attracted by the music ... The memories of my father are very dear to me. My father, Lev Nikolaevich Volov, was a veterinarian, was fond of his work, in his youth he worked in Siberia for several years. And now I hear the voice of my father reading to me, a little , Krylov's fables. He loved Krylov very much and knew by heart almost all of his fables. I remember how my father showed me the letters, taught me to read from the book of Leo Tolstoy, with large print. Father admired Tolstoy all his life, rereading him endlessly. Relatives joked, that, as soon as I was one year old, my father gave me a book “How Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy Lives and Works.” I began to write poetry in early childhood, in the first grades of the gymnasium I dedicated them mainly to the “pink marquises” in love. Well, poets are supposed to write about love, and I paid full tribute to this topic when I was eleven years old. True, even then the enamored marquis and pages who inhabited my notebooks were pushed aside by epigrams for teachers and girlfriends. "
Agnia's mother, Maria Ilyinichna, is the youngest child in an intelligent large family. The brothers are great engineers, lawyers, doctors. The sisters are doctors. Maria Ilyinichna - she did not strive for higher education, she was a witty and attractive woman.
Agnia was the only child in the family. She studied at the gymnasium, as was customary in intelligent families, studied French and German. Judging by fragmentary memoirs, Agnia always loved her father more, very much reckoned with him. He was the main listener and critic of her poems.
Agnia graduated from the choreographic school, intending to become a ballerina. She was very fond of dancing. In one of her early poems, she has these lines:
“Only dull days are not necessary
A dull tone ...
Dance is joy and delight ... "
Agniya Lvovna, being a fifteen-year-old girl, added an extra year to her documents in order to go to work in the “Clothes” store - it was hungry, and the workers received herring heads, from which they made soup.
Agnia's youth fell on the years of the revolution and civil war. But somehow she managed to live in her own world, where ballet and writing poetry coexisted peacefully. People's Commissar of Education Lunacharsky came to the graduation tests of the choreographic school. After the tests, the students spoke. Agnia recited her long poem "Funeral March" to the music of Chopin. Lunacharsky barely hid his smile. And a few days later he invited the student to the People's Commissariat of Prospect and said that while listening to Funeral March, he realized that she would definitely write funny poems. He talked to her for a long time and wrote on a piece of paper what books she should read. In 1924 she graduated from the choreographic school and was accepted into the ballet troupe. But the troupe emigrated. Father A.L. was against her departure, and she remained in Moscow.
In 1925 she brought her first poems to the State Publishing House. Glory came to her pretty quickly, but did not add courage to her - Agnia was very shy. She adored Mayakovsky, but, having met him, did not dare to speak. Having dared to read her poem to Chukovsky, Barto attributed the authorship to a five-year-old boy. She later recalled her conversation with Gorky that she was "terribly worried." Perhaps it was thanks to her shyness that Agnia Barto did not have enemies. She never tried to seem smarter than she was, did not get involved in near-literary squabbles and was well aware that she had a lot to learn. The "Silver Age" brought up in her the most important trait for a children's writer: endless respect for the word. Barto's perfectionism drove more than one person crazy: once, going to a book congress in Brazil, she endlessly altered the Russian text of the report, despite the fact that it was to be read in English. Over and over again receiving new versions of the text, the translator at the end promised that he would never work with Barto again, even if she was at least three times a genius.
A conversation with Mayakovsky about how children need a fundamentally new poetry, what role it can play in the upbringing of a future citizen, finally determined the choice of topics for Barto's poetry. She regularly published collections of poetry: "Brothers" (1928), "Boy in reverse" (1934), "Toys" (1930), "Bullfinch" (1939).
In the mid-thirties, Agniya Lvovna received the love of readers and became the object of criticism. Barto recalls: “... 'Toys' were subjected to sharp verbal criticism for overly complex rhymes. Especially hit the lines:
Dropped Mishka to the floor
They ripped off the bear's paw.
I won't leave him anyway -
Because he's good.
I have the minutes of the meeting where these verses were discussed. (There were times when children's poems were adopted by the general meeting, by a majority of votes!). The protocol says: "... The rhymes need to be changed, they are difficult for a children's poem."
In 1937, Barto was a delegate to the International Congress for Culture in Spain. Congress meetings were held in besieged, blazing Madrid, and there she first encountered fascism.
Events also took place in Agnia's personal life. In her early youth, she married the poet Pavel Barto, gave birth to a son, Garik, and at twenty-nine she left her husband for a man who became the main love of her life. Perhaps the first marriage did not work out, because she was too hasty with the marriage, or maybe the matter is in Agnia's professional success, which Pavel Barto could not and did not want to survive. Be that as it may, Agnia retained the surname Barto, but spent the rest of her life with the energy scientist Shcheglyaev, from whom she gave birth to her second child, daughter Tatyana. Andrei Vladimirovich was one of the most respected Soviet specialists in steam and gas turbines. He was the dean of the power engineering faculty of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (Moscow Power Engineering Institute), and he was called "the most beautiful dean of the Soviet Union." Writers, musicians, actors were often in their house with Barto's - Agnia Lvovna's non-conflict nature attracted a variety of people. She was close friends with Faina Ranevskaya and Rina Zelena, and in 1940, just before the war, she wrote the script for the comedy "Foundling". In addition, Barto visited different countries as part of Soviet delegations. In 1937 she visited Spain. There was already a war going on, Barto saw the ruins of houses and orphaned children. A particularly gloomy impression was made on her by a conversation with a Spaniard, who, showing a photograph of her son, covered his face with her finger - explaining that the boy's head was blown off by a shell. "How do you describe the feelings of a mother who outlived her child?" - Agniya Lvovna wrote then to one of her friends. A few years later, she received an answer to this terrible question.
Agnia Barto knew that war with Germany was inevitable. In the late thirties, she went to this "neat, clean, almost toy country", heard Nazi slogans, saw pretty blonde girls in dresses, "decorated" with a swastika. For her, sincerely believing in the worldwide brotherhood of, if not adults, then at least children, all this was wild and scary.
Agnia Barto's popularity grew rapidly. And not only with us. One example of her international fame is particularly impressive. In Hitler's Germany, when the Nazis arranged terrible auto-da-fe, burning books of unwanted authors, on one of these bonfires, along with the volumes of Heine and Schiller, a thin little book by Agnia Barto "Brothers" was burned.
During the war (until the beginning of 1943) Shcheglyaev, who by that time had become a prominent power engineer, was assigned to the Urals, to Krasnogorsk to one of the power plants to ensure its uninterrupted operation - the factories worked for the war Agniya Lvovna had friends in those parts who invited her live with them. So the family - a son, a daughter with a nanny Domna Ivanovna - settled in Sverdlovsk. The son studied at the flight school near Sverdlovsk, the daughter went to school. Agniya Lvovna writes about herself at this time:
“During the Great Patriotic War, I performed a lot on the radio in Moscow and Sverdlovsk. She published war poems, articles, essays in newspapers. In 1943 she was on the Western Front as a correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda. But I never stopped thinking about my main, young hero. During the war, I really wanted to write about the teenagers from the Urals who worked at the machines in defense factories, but for a long time I could not master the topic. Pavel Petrovich Bazhov advised me to learn more about the interests of artisans and, most importantly, their psychology, to acquire a specialty with them, for example, a turner. Six months later, I got a discharge, really. Lowest. But I approached the topic that worried me ("A student is coming", 1943) "
In February 1943, Shcheglyaev was recalled from Krasnogorsk to Moscow, and allowed to go with his family. They returned, and Agniya Lvovna again began to seek a business trip to the front. Here is what she writes about this: “… it was not easy to get permission from the PUR. I turned to Fadeev for help.
I understand your aspiration, but how can I explain the purpose of your trip? - he asked. - They will tell me: - she writes for children.
And you tell them that you also can't write about the war for children without seeing anything with your own eyes. And then ... they send readers to the front with funny stories. Who knows, maybe my poems will come in handy? The soldiers will remember their children, and the younger ones will remember their childhood. " Finally, the travel order was received.
Agniya Lvovna worked in the army for 22 days.
On May 4, 1945, her son died - a car was knocked down ... Agniya Lvovna's friend Evgenia Aleksandrovna Taratuta recalls that Agniya Lvovna completely withdrew into herself these days. She did not eat, did not sleep, did not speak.
After the death of her son, Agniya Lvovna turned all maternal love to her daughter Tatyana. But she did not work less - on the contrary.
The war ended, but many orphans remained. Agniya Lvovna went to orphanages, read poetry. I communicated with children and educators, oversaw some of the houses. In 1947 she published the poem "Zvenigorod" - a story about children who lost their relatives during the war. This poem had a special destiny. Poems for children turned Agnia Barto into "the face of the Soviet children's book", an influential writer, a favorite of the entire Soviet Union. But "Zvenigorod" made her a national heroine and returned a semblance of peace of mind. This can be called an accident or a miracle. After the book was published, she received a letter from a lonely woman from Karaganda, who had lost her eight-year-old daughter during the war. After reading Zvenigorod, she began to hope that her Ninochka was alive and raised in a good orphanage, and asked Agniya Lvovna to help find her. Agniya Lvovna transferred the letter from her mother to an organization engaged in searches, Nina was found, mother and daughter met. Journalists wrote about it. And then Agnia Lvovna began to receive letters from different people with a request to find their children lost during the war.
Agniya Lvovna writes: “What was to be done? Transfer these letters to special organizations? But for the official search, accurate data is needed. But what if they are not there, if the child was lost when he was little and could not say where and when he was born, he could not even give his last name ?! Such children were given new surnames, the doctor determined their age. How can a mother find a child who has become an adult long ago if his surname has been changed? And how can an adult find relatives if he does not know who he is and where he is from? But people do not calm down, for years they have been looking for parents, sisters, brothers, they believe they will find them. The following thought came to my mind: can a child's memory help in the search? The child is observant, he sees sharply, accurately and remembers what he saw for the rest of his life. It is only important to select those main and always somewhat unique childhood impressions that would help the family to recognize the lost child. "
Agniya Lvovna's hopes for the power of childhood memories were justified. Radio "Mayak" made it possible for childhood memories to be heard throughout the country.
Since 1965, after the first radio broadcast "Find a Person", letters have become her main business and concern. Every day she received 70 - 100 detailed letters (after all, people were afraid to miss any detail - suddenly it was she who would turn out to be the key to the search) and in them she tried to find what both the one who was looking for and the one whom they were looking for could remember. Sometimes the memories were very scarce: the girl remembered that she lived with her parents near the forest and her dad's name was Grisha; the boy remembered how he rode with his brother on the "gate with music" ... Dzhulbars the dog, father's blue tunic and a bag of apples, pecked between his eyebrows like a rooster - that's all that the military children knew about their former life. For official searches this was not enough, for Barto it was enough. That's when the huge experience and the "baby feeling" really played a role.
Such a program as "Find a Person" could only be conducted by Barto - "a translator from a child." She took on something that was beyond the power of the police and the Red Cross.
On the air of "Mayak" she read out excerpts from letters, selected by her, of which she received more than 40 thousand in nine years. Sometimes people, already desperate for many years of searching, found each other after the first transmission. So, out of ten people, whose letters Agniya Lvovna once read, seven were found at once. It was on the 13th: Barto, who was neither sentimental nor superstitious, began to consider him happy. Since then, the programs have been aired on the 13th of every month.
The ordinary listeners, who were not indifferent, helped a lot. There was such a case: a woman who was lost as a child remembered that she lived in Leningrad on a street that began with the letter "o" and there was a bathhouse and a shop next to the house, - says the daughter of the writer Tatyana Scheglyaeva. - No matter how hard we fought, we could not find such a street! They found the old bathhouse attendant who knew all the Leningrad baths ... And in the end it turned out that this is Serdobolskaya Street - there are many “o's” in it, which the girl remembered. And once relatives found her daughter, who was lost at four months old - it is clear that she could not have any memories. The mother only said that the child had a mole on the shoulder that looked like a rose. And it helped: the inhabitants of the Ukrainian village remembered that one woman had a birthmark like a rose, and a local woman found and adopted her at the age of four months during the war.
The Barto family, willingly or unwillingly, got involved in the work. “One day I come home, open the door to my husband’s office - a crying woman is sitting opposite him, and he, pushing aside his drawings, painfully tries to understand who is lost, where, under what circumstances,” Agniya Lvovna herself recalled. If she left somewhere, daughter Tatyana recorded everything that happened during her absence. And even nanny Domna Ivanovna, when people came to the house, asked: “Are your memories suitable? Otherwise, not everything will work. " Such people in the family were called "strangers." They came to Lavrushinsky directly from the railway stations, and many happy meetings happened in front of Agnia Lvovna. In nine years, 927 families have been reunited with her help. Based on the show, Barto wrote the book "Find a Man", which is absolutely impossible to read without tears.
From the 1940s to the 1950s, her collections were published: "First Grader", "Funny Poems", "Poems for Children". During the same years she worked on scripts for children's films "Foundling", "Elephant and the Rope", "Alyosha Ptitsyn develops character".
In her own life, everything went well: her husband worked a lot and fruitfully, her daughter Tatyana got married and gave birth to a son, Vladimir. It was about him that Barto wrote the poems "Vovka is a kind soul". Andrei Vladimirovich Scheglyaev was never jealous of her fame, and he was pretty amused by the fact that in some circles he was known not as the largest specialist in the USSR in steam turbines, but as the father of "Our Tanya", the one who "dropped the ball into the river ". Barto still traveled a lot around the world, visited the USA, Japan, Iceland, England. As a rule, these were business trips. Agniya Lvovna was the "face" of any delegation: she knew how to stay in society, spoke several languages, dressed beautifully and danced beautifully.
In Brazil, Switzerland, Portugal, Greece, she participated in the meetings of the international jury to award the Andersen Medal to the best children's writer and artist. She was a member of this jury from 1970 to 74
In 1958 she wrote a large cycle of satirical poems for children "Leshenka, Leshenka", "Grandfather's granddaughter" and others.
In 1969 she published her documentary book "Find a Man", in 1976 - the book "Notes of a Children's Poet".
In 1970, her husband, Andrei Vladimirovich, died. He spent the last few months in the hospital, Agniya Lvovna stayed with him. After the first heart attack, she feared for his heart, but the doctors said he had cancer. It seemed that she had returned to the distant forty-fifth: the most precious thing was again taken away from her.
She outlived her husband by eleven years. All this time she did not stop working: she wrote two books of memoirs, more than a hundred poems. She did not become less energetic, she only began to fear loneliness. She still did not like to remember her past. She was also silent about the fact that for decades she helped people: she arranged them in hospitals, obtained scarce medicines, found good doctors. She supported the families of repressed friends as best she could, found ways to transfer money, etc.
She helped with all her heart and with her characteristic energy.
In "Notes of a Children's Poet" (1976) Agniya Lvovna formulated her poetic and human credo: "Children need the whole gamut of feelings that give rise to humanity." Numerous trips to different countries led her to the idea of the wealth of the inner world of a child of any nationality. This idea was confirmed by the poetry collection Translations from Children (1977), in which Barto translated children's poems from different languages.
For many years, Barto headed the Association of Literary and Artists for Children. Barto's poems have been translated into many languages of the world. Her name is assigned to one of the Minor planets.
She passed away on April 1, 1981. Agnia Barto once said: "Almost every person has moments in his life when he does more than he can." In the case of her herself, it was not a minute - this is how she lived her whole life.
In 2011, the documentary Agnia Barto was filmed about Barto. Reading between the lines. "
The text was prepared by Andrey Goncharov
Interview with the daughter of Agnia Barto - Tatyana Scheglyaeva.
- Tatyana Andreevna, were there any writers or poets in your family?
- No, but there were many doctors, engineers, lawyers ... My grandfather - my mother's father Lev Nikolaevich Volov - was a veterinarian. My mother's uncle owned the Slovati sanatorium in Yalta. He was considered a luminary of medicine, was an outstanding physician-laryngologist. So after the revolution, the new government even allowed him to work in this sanatorium, about which his mother wrote verses in her childhood: "There are white beds in the Slovati sanatorium."
Mom started writing poetry as a child. Her father was the main listener and critic of the poetry. He wanted her to write "correctly", strictly observing a certain size of the poem, and in her lines, as if on purpose, the size changed every now and then (which my father considered stubbornness on her part). Then it turns out that the change in size is one of the hallmarks of Barto's poetry. True, and later it was for this that her poems were criticized.
I have kept the minutes of the meeting at which the "Toys" were discussed. Those were the times when even children's poems were accepted at the general meeting! It says: "... The rhymes need to be changed, they are difficult for a children's poem." Especially hit the famous lines:
Dropped Mishka to the floor
They tore off Mishka's paw.
I won't leave him anyway -
Because he's good.
- When did Agnia Barto become a poetess from a domestic poetry writer?
- Her entry into big literature began with a curiosity: at the graduation party at the choreographic school (my mother was going to become a ballerina), to the accompaniment of a pianist, she read her poem "Funeral March", while assuming tragic poses. And in the hall sat the People's Commissariat for Education Lunacharsky and could hardly restrain himself from laughing. A couple of days later, he invited his mother to his place and advised her to seriously study literature for children. Her first book was published in 1925: the cover says "Agnia Barto. Chinese Wang-Li".
- But Agniya Lvovna's maiden name was Volova. Is "Barto" a pseudonym?
- This is the name of the mother's first husband, Pavel Barto. Mom got married very early, at the age of 18, immediately after the death of her father. Pavel Nikolaevich Barto was a writer; Together with their mother, they wrote three poems: "The girl-revushka", "The grimy girl" and "The counting". But it was a very short-term marriage: as soon as my brother Garik was born, my mother and Pavel Nikolayevich separated ... With my father, Andrei Vladimirovich Scheglyaev, a scientist, a specialist in the field of thermal power engineering (one of the most authoritative Soviet specialists in steam and gas turbines. - Author's note), my mother lived together until the last days of his life. They loved each other, it was a very happy marriage.
From time to time she was elected to a position in the Writers' Union, but she did not stay there for a long time, because she was an uncomfortable person. If her own position matched the directive from above, everything went smoothly. But when her opinion was different, she defended her own point of view. The main thing for her was to write and be herself. She was a very brave person, for example, when her friend Evgenia Taratuta was repressed, her mother and Lev Abramovich Kassil helped her family.
- Agnia Barto was a laureate of the Stalin and Lenin prizes. Was your family privileged for these high awards?
- I can say that the modern idea that the state used to distribute free cars with chauffeurs and summer cottages to the right and left is not entirely correct. Mom and Dad went by car after the war. On one! At the exhibition of captured German cars, they bought a Mercedes, one of the first models with a tarpaulin top: in comparison, the "victory" looked much more respectable. Then the parents got a "Volga".
We had a dacha, but not a state one. They built it ourselves. My dad was a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, and he was given a plot in the academic village. We chose the most distant site, in the forest, so that nothing would interfere with my mother during work. But there was a problem: moose were walking around the dacha all the time! And the question arose: is it dangerous or not? Mom read somewhere, I think, in Science and Life, how to determine whether an elk is dangerous or not. The magazine recommended looking in the eyes of a moose, and if the eyes are red, the moose is dangerous. We laughed and imagined how we would look a moose in the eyes!
At the dacha, we planted salad, strawberries. In winter we went skiing. Dad made home films, often played chess with Rina Zelena's husband (we were family friends). Mom did not have such a concept as "vacation at the dacha". I remember the celebration of their silver wedding: it was fun, there were a lot of guests ... And the next day my mother was already working: it was her need, a state that saved from all the hardships of life.
Whenever a new poem was ready, my mother read it to everyone: my brother and I, friends, writers, artists, and even a plumber who came to fix the water supply. It was important for her to find out what she didn't like, what needed to be redone, polished. She read her poems by phone to Lev Kassil, Svetlov. Fadeev, being the secretary of the Writers' Union, at any time, if she called and asked: "Can you listen?", Answered: "Poems? Come on!"
Also, Sergei Mikhalkov could call his mother in the middle of the night and, in response to her sleepy-anxious: "Has something happened?" answer: “It happened: I wrote new poems, now I’ll read it to you!” ... Mom was friends with Mikhalkov, but this did not prevent them from furiously discussing the fate of children's literature! By the intensity of passions, we unmistakably determined that my mother was talking to Mikhalkov! The tube was hot!
Mom also talked a lot with Robert Rozhdestvensky. He was a charming person and very talented. Once he came to us with his wife Alla. They drank tea, then called home, and it turned out that Katya was ill. They jumped up and left immediately. And now Katya is a famous photographer, the same Ekaterina Rozhdestvenskaya.
- Who else was a frequent guest in your house?
- There were always a lot of guests, but most came on business, because my mother rarely even celebrated her birthdays. Rina Zelenaya often visited: together with her mother they wrote scripts for the films "The Elephant and the Rope" and "The Foundling". Remember this famous phrase of the heroine of Ranevskaya: "Mulya, don't make me nervous!"? The film "Foundling" was being filmed just then, and this phrase was invented by my mother especially for Ranevskaya.
I remember one day Faina Georgievna came to our dacha. Mom was not there, and we began to wait for her. We spread a blanket on the grass, and suddenly a frog jumped out from somewhere. Faina Georgievna jumped up and no longer sat down. And the meeting did not wait. Mom then asked me who came, was she a young woman or an elderly woman? I replied that I did not know. When her mother told Ranevskaya this story, she exclaimed: "What a lovely child! She doesn't even know if I'm young or old!"
- I heard that Agniya Lvovna was a master of practical jokes, right?
- Yes, she often played her colleagues in the literary workshop. All my mother's friends - Samuil Marshak, Lev Kassil, Korney Chukovsky, Rina Zelenaya - were connoisseurs and connoisseurs of practical jokes. Most of all, Irakli Andronikov got it: he almost always got into the network of the joke, although he was an astute and far from naive person. Once he hosted a TV show from Alexei Tolstoy's apartment, showing photographs of celebrities. Mom called him, introduced herself as an employee of the literary editorial office and asked: "You are showing Ulanova's photograph in Swan Lake upside down - is that so necessary? Or maybe my TV is out of order? Although it's still beautiful - she's dancing and ballet tutu ... However, I am calling for another reason: we have conceived a program in which Leo Tolstoy's contemporaries took part, we want to invite you to participate ... "Do you think that I am the same age as Tolstoy? - Andronikov wondered. - Do I really look like this on your TV ?! It looks like it really needs to be repaired! "-" Then write in your notebook: prank number one! ".
- Is it true that Agnia Barto was a passionate traveler?
- Mom traveled a lot and willingly, but, as a rule, all her voyages were business trips. On her very first foreign trip to Spain in 1937, my mother went as part of a delegation of Soviet writers to an international congress. From this trip, she brought castanets, because of which she even went down in history. At that time, a civil war was going on in Spain. And at one of the stops at a gas station in Valencia, my mother saw a shop on the corner where, among other things, castanets were sold. Real Spanish castanets mean something to the dancer! Mom has danced beautifully all her life. While she was explaining to the owner and her daughter in the shop, a roar was heard and planes with crosses appeared in the sky - the bombing could start at any moment! And just imagine: a whole bus with Soviet writers stood and waited for Barto, who was buying castanets during the bombing!
In the evening of the same day, Alexei Tolstoy, speaking about the heat in Spain, as if casually asked his mother if she had bought another fan to fan herself during the next raid?
And in Valencia, for the first time in her life, my mother decided to see with her own eyes a real Spanish bullfight. With difficulty I got a ticket to the upper podium, in the very sun. The bullfight, according to her story, is an unbearable sight: from the heat, the sun and the sight of blood, she felt bad. Two men sitting next to each other, Spaniards, as she mistakenly believed, said in pure Russian: "This foreigner is ill!" Barely turning her tongue, my mother muttered: "No, I'm from the village ...". The "Spaniards" turned out to be Soviet pilots, they helped my mother down from the podium and escorted her to the hotel. Since then, every time the bullfight was mentioned, my mother invariably exclaimed: "A terrible sight! I wish I hadn't gone there."
- Judging by your stories, she was a desperate person!
- This despair, courage combined in her with amazing natural shyness. She never forgave herself that she once did not dare to speak with Mayakovsky, who was the idol of her youth ...
Do you know, whenever my mother was asked about "a turning point in life", she liked to repeat that in her case there was a "turning point" when she found a forgotten book of Mayakovsky's poems by someone. Mom (she was then a teenager) read them in one gulp, everything in a row, and was so inspired by what she had read that she immediately wrote her poem "to Vladimir Mayakovsky" on the back of one page:
... I hit you with my forehead,
Century,
For giving
Vladimir.
Mom first saw Mayakovsky at a dacha in Pushkino, from where she went to Akulova Gora to play tennis. And then one day during the game, having already raised her hand with the ball to serve, she froze with the racket raised: Mayakovsky was standing behind the long fence of the nearest dacha. She immediately recognized him from the photograph. It turned out that he lives here. It was the same dacha of Rumyantsev, where he wrote the poem "An unusual adventure that happened with Vladimir Mayakovsky in the summer at the dacha."
Mom often visited the tennis court on Akulova Gora and more than once saw Mayakovsky there, walking along the fence and immersed in his thoughts. She desperately wanted to approach him, but she did not dare. She even thought of saying to him at the meeting: "You, Vladimir Vladimirovich, do not need any crow horses, you have" poetry wings ", but she never uttered this" terrible tirade. "
A few years later, a children's book festival was organized in Moscow for the first time: in Sokolniki, the writers were to meet with the children. Of the "adult" poets, only Mayakovsky came to meet the children. Mom was lucky to go with him in the same car. Mayakovsky was immersed in himself, did not speak. And while my mother was thinking about how she could start a conversation smarter, the trip came to an end. Mom never conquered her trepidation in front of him and did not speak. And she didn't ask the question that tormented her then: isn't it too early for her to try to write poetry for adults?
But my mother was lucky: after performing in front of the children in Sokolniki, going down from the stage, Mayakovsky involuntarily gave an answer to the doubt that tormented her, saying to three young poetesses, among whom was my mother: "This is the audience! We need to write for them!"
- Amazing story!
- They often happened to my mother! I remember she told how one day she was returning from friends from their dacha to Moscow on a suburban train. And at one station, Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky entered the carriage! "I wish I could read him my lines!" - thought my mother. The situation in the carriage seemed unsuitable to her, but the temptation to hear what Chukovsky himself would say about her poetry was great. And as soon as he settled down on a bench next to her, she asked: "Can I read you a poem? Very short ...". - "Short is good. - And suddenly he said to the whole carriage: - Poetess Barto wants to read us his poems!" Mom was confused and began to deny: "These are not my poems, but one boy of five and a half years ...". The poems were about Chelyuskinites and Chukovsky liked them so much that he wrote them down in his notebook. A couple of days later, an article by Chukovsky was published in Literaturnaya Gazeta, in which he quoted these verses of the "boy" and sincerely praised them.
- Tatyana Andreevna, we all know Agnia Barto - a poetess. What kind of mother was she?
- I didn't bake pies - I was constantly busy. They tried to protect her from the trifles of everyday life. But in all large-scale home actions, be it a family celebration or the construction of a summer house, my mother took an active part - she was at the helm. And if, God forbid, someone close to me got sick, I was always there.
I studied well, and my parents were not called to school. Mom never went to parental meetings, sometimes she didn't even remember which class I was in. She believed that it was wrong to advertise the fact that I was the daughter of a famous writer at school.
- How did your mother react to your decision to become an engineer?
- I'm not a humanist in the warehouse. Non-engineering options in my case were not even discussed. I graduated from the Power Engineering Institute and worked all my life at the Central Research Institute of Integrated Automation: I am a candidate of technical sciences, was the head of a laboratory, and a leading engineer.
I remember when I was studying at the institute, a comic story happened. A housekeeping professor from Finland came to visit us to study the families of Soviet people. She was already in the hostel, she was in the family of a worker and wanted to visit the family of the professor. For example, we chose ours.
Mom arranged a big cleaning: "whistle everyone upstairs," as they say. Nanny Domna Ivanovna baked delicious pies, bought caviar and crabs ... But during the "interrogation" we began to fall asleep: the questions were complicated. "How much is spent on outfits for a young girl in one season (that is, for me. - T. Shch.)?" And we've been wearing dresses for years! Fortunately, just before that, my mother bought me two summer dresses, which we immediately began to demonstrate, with difficulty remembering how much they cost.
The professor was particularly impressed by the following: the fact is that I loved the institute very much, studied avidly, not thinking about dining at home. I used to say: "I dined in the dining room, the food is excellent there." But what did it look like in reality? "Diaphragm Soup". Can you imagine? From the film that separates the lungs from the rest of the organs! But I was young, and "diaphragm soup" was fine with me. And when the Finnish woman began to admire our table, my mother said seriously: "And my daughter prefers to eat in the student canteen!" The Housekeeping Professor was smitten! She decided that something incredible in terms of gastronomy awaits her there. The next day, the professor volunteered to go to the student cafeteria, where "the food is so excellent." A day later, the director of the canteen was fired ...
- Curiously, Agniya Lvovna dedicated her poems to someone from home?
- She dedicated a poem about ruffs to her eldest grandson, my son Vladimir. "We did not notice the beetle" - to my daughter Natasha. I'm not sure that the cycle of poems "Vovka the Good Soul" is also a dedication to Vladimir, although this name is very often found in her poems of that time. Mom often read poetry to Volodya, showed him drawings of artists for her books. They even had serious literary conversations. She also taught Volodya to dance. He danced very well, felt the rhythm, but did not go to the choreographic school: he became a mathematician and found himself in school, becoming a mathematics teacher.
- She saw her great-granddaughter Asya only once: the baby was born in January 1981, and on April 1, 1981, her mother died ... She was very energetic until the end of her life, went on business trips, even played tennis at an advanced age, danced. I remember her dancing on her 75th birthday ... And a month later she was taken to the hospital, as they thought at first, with mild poisoning. It turned out - a heart attack. On the last day of March, it seemed as if my mother felt better, she asked to be transferred to a ward with a phone: they say, there are so many things to do and worries! But the next morning her heart stopped ...
References
1. A little about yourself. Barto A.L. Collected works: In 4 volumes - M .: Khudozh. Lit., 1981 - 1984.T.4. p. 396
2. Agnia Barto. Notes of a children's poet. pp. 152-153 M ,: "Soviet writer", 1976, 336 pages.
3. Alla Tyukova, Biography magazine, February 2006
