Name: Leonid Solovyov

Age: 55 years

Birthplace: Tripoli (Lebanon)

A place of death: Leningrad

Family status: was married

Leonid Solovyov - biography

Not everyone knows this writer, his name is rarely put on a par with the classics of Soviet literature. But when readers hear about Khoja Nasreddin, their eyes light up: we know, we know! So, he wrote about Nasreddin - Leonid Solovyov.

Thundering wagons, merchants inviting buyers, the smell of spices, the scorching sun ... He remembered everything as now, and after all, almost a quarter of a century had passed. He will never forget the warmth of the East, promising peace and tranquility. Leaning against the cold wall of the prison cell, Leonid Vasilievich recalled his biography: childhood, youth, youth. How much is left in the past and how much is yet to come...

Leonid Solovyov - childhood

The biography of Leni Solovyov began with adventures. He was born in 1906 in Tripoli (Lebanon), although his father and mother were Russian. They were sent to the East by distribution with an educational mission. Both worked as teachers, taught Russian in schools.

When the boy was 3 years old, the family returned to their homeland. However, a calm measured life did not work out: Civil War and the famine that followed had cut the ground from under their feet. They remembered about Uzbekistan - in those years a haven for many Russian refugees. So Solovyov Lenya ended up in Kokand.

The boy took to this land and fell in love with it. Soon he freely communicated with merchants at the bazaar, played with local children. And although the family did not live well, Lenya grew up happy. Soloviev did not like the railway technical school where he studied. As the opportunity was given, he immediately ran away from classes and rushed to his friends. The father, having learned about this, decided that the son had become independent and could well take care of himself. A bundle with things, some money for the first time - and go!

Lenya was glad of the unexpected freedom. Traveling around Turkestan, he gave Russian language lessons to children, helped local residents with household chores, and painted signs for shops. He was paid for his work - not much, but enough for food. After all, the most important food is not the one on the plate, but the one in the head. How much has accumulated there: wise conversations and fleeting conversations, funny stories and legends... It was already impossible to keep them in oneself.

Leonid Solovyov - biography of personal life

It all started with notes in the local newspapers. The editors willingly accepted Solovyov's lively cheerful sketches for publication. Already at the age of 17, he became a correspondent for the popular newspaper Pravda Vostoka in Tashkent. And when one of the stories received the second prize of the World of Adventures magazine, Lenya finally believed in his talent and went to conquer Moscow.

In the capital, Solovyov entered the Institute of Cinematography at the Faculty of Literature and Script. The course was accelerated, and two years later, in 1932, the young man received a diploma. Time flew by quickly, but the memories remained for a long time. It was at the institute that Lenya met Tamara Sedykh, whom he would later call the main woman in his biography - life. Young people decided to get married. For Tamara, this was the first marriage, and for Leonid, it was the second. In distant Kanibadam, he tried to start a family, but his personal life did not take place, the marriage quickly fell apart.

With Tamara, Tomochka, at first they lived well: love helped smooth out sharp corners in relationships and gave an incentive to work. But then it turned out to be not enough: Solovyov, as a creative person, constantly needed nourishment - first alcohol, then women. The wife endured, was silent, and he hoped: maybe it will cost ...

Leonid Solovyov - retribution for frankness

When Leonid picked up a printed copy of his first book - the story "Nomad", he almost shed a tear. Others followed, but Solovyov soon realized that he was best able to write about what he had personally experienced and felt. Scenes of his life in Uzbekistan immediately surfaced in my head. Here's what he can tell people about.

Leonid, an admirer of oriental legends, had a favorite character of Khoja Nasreddin: smart, insightful and roguish. It would be nice to have a conversation on his behalf. But the writer decided to make his hero younger, cunning and cheerful. So, in 1940, the book "Troublemaker" was published. Solovyov only managed to receive laudatory reviews: readers liked the oriental flavor, humor and moral background of the work. Friends also gave the story a high rating. Lenya often sat up with them until late, discussing plans for the future and cursing what the present stands for - many did not like the Stalinist government then.

Solovyov generally did not like to be silent and was excessively frank. During the war years, he worked as a war correspondent - he sent essays from the front line to the whistle of bullets and explosions of shells. Then he himself joined the ranks, received a severe concussion, and therefore he believed that he had every right to say about how brave soldiers and cowardly commanders are in our country.

Maybe because of these harsh words, or maybe because of the criticism of the leader in behind-the-scenes conversations in September 1946, Solovyov ended up in the Lubyanka. He was considered a dangerous person, opposing the authorities, and accused of terrorism. The writer spent a long nine months in prison awaiting the verdict, pleading not guilty. “You'd better agree with everything,” his cellmates advised him. “In any case, they’ll put you in jail, but at least they’ll send you not far.”

Solovyov confessed, but ... They sent him far away - to the Dubrovlag camp in Mordovia for a whole 10 years. At first they wanted to send him to Kolyma, but Solovyov caught himself in time. "Leave it here - I'll write the second part of the story about Hodja Nasreddin," he went for broke. The writer was left in Mordovia, having been allowed to engage in literary work in his spare time.

Leonid Solovyov - to freedom!

Four years later, 735 handwritten pages of the story lay in front of the writer. He called her "Prince Charmed". As if his main treasure, Solovyov took the sheets to the head of the camp for review. He did not comment, but did not hand over the manuscript. For three years it lay in his desk, in the fourth year the manuscript was returned - Stalin died. Paperwork kept Solovyov in the camp for another year.

On the threshold of the Moscow apartment, the former convict was met by his wife Tamara, but not at all in the way he expected.

Here are your things, my strength is no longer to endure!

A heavy bag flopped at Solovyov's feet. Tamara remembered everything for him - women, alcohol, and shame for his exile in the camps.

Leonid Vasilyevich had nowhere to live, the only refuge was in Leningrad, with his sister Zina. She accepted reluctantly: "The most crowded!". Soon Solovyov met a woman who, as he himself admitted, understood his soul. It was the literature teacher Maria Kudymovskaya. After the wedding, he moved in with her.

Leonid Solovyov - memoirs...

Life was slowly getting better: Solovyov began to earn extra money by writing and finalizing scripts at Lenfilm, he was reinstated in the Writers' Union, both stories about Khoja Nasreddin were published together. Already a new generation of readers was delighted with the dilogy. Many wondered what kind of person is behind this work. And Solovyov sat down to write the Book of Youth, in which he wanted to tell about himself everything that he had kept in his memory for so long. But the habitual craving for fiction intervened in the narrative. People who personally knew Leonid Vasilievich, after reading, unequivocally stated: “Much of what was written was not actually ...”

The author was forgiven for this slight digression from reality. Despite the fact that he was only 55 years old, he felt that the end was very close. The stroke that occurred paralyzed a part of the body, and the long-standing concussion reminded of itself ... The only thing that remained for Leonid Vasilyevich Solovyov was a long wandering through the back streets of his memory. And who will now figure out what is true and what is true ...

Encyclopedic YouTube

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  In 1921, the family, fleeing the famine in the Volga region, moved to Kokand. In 1922, the young man graduated from school, studied two courses at a mechanical college, worked for some time as a railway repairman, traveled a lot around Turkestan, collected and deeply studied Central Asian folklore. In Kanibadam, he married Elizaveta Belyaeva, but soon their marriage broke up. In 1923, Leonid Solovyov began to publish in the newspaper "Turkestanskaya Pravda" (since 1924 - "Pravda Vostok"). Until 1930 he worked as a special correspondent for this newspaper.

  In 1927, Solovyov's story "On the Syr-Darya Shore" received the second prize of the World of Adventures magazine (before that, the story was rejected in Tashkent). Believing in his literary talent, Solovyov came to Moscow (1930) and entered the Faculty of Literature and Scriptwriting, which he graduated in 1932. In Moscow, he married for the second time - to Tamara Sedykh, the marriage also turned out to be unsuccessful and broke up after Solovyov's arrest. The writer had no children from both wives. During his studies, he published several short stories, mostly in magazines.

  In 1930, L. V. Solovyov carried out a mischievous hoax - he submitted to the publishing house his own written songs about V. I. Lenin, which he passed off as translations of Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz folk songs and legends. All of them were included in the collection "Lenin and the work of the peoples of the East" (1930). V. S. Vitkovich also told about this story in his memoirs. An additional comedy to this undertaking was given by the results of a hastily organized expedition of the Tashkent Institute of Language and Literature, which in 1933 confirmed the folklore source of the songs and even presented their "originals" in Uzbek and Tajik.

  In 1932, the first book by L.V. Solovyov was published - the story "Nomad" - about the life of nomads during the years of the revolution, and two years later - a collection of stories and stories "The Campaign of the" Winner "". In 1935, according to the script by L. V. Solovyov, the film “The End of the Station” (Mezhrabpomfilm) was shot.

  "Troublemaker" (1940)

  In 1940, L.V. Solovyov published the novel "Troublemaker", the first book of his most significant work - "Tales about Hodge Nasreddin". The book, published on the eve of the war in the Roman-gazeta, immediately gained extraordinary popularity for its outstanding literary skill, smart, kind and cheerful wit. Its film adaptation (“Nasreddin in Bukhara”) took place in the military year of 1943, when films were shot mainly on military or patriotic themes. The book was reprinted many times, and one reprint occurred even after the author was arrested under a political article (1946). Translated and published in French, Dutch, Danish, Hebrew and other languages.

  Arrest and imprisonment (1946-1954)

  In September 1946, Solovyov was arrested on charges of "preparing a terrorist act" and held in pre-trial detention for ten months. As a basis for the arrest, the investigation presented the testimony of the “anti-Soviet group of writers” previously arrested in 1944 - S. A. Bondarin, L. N. Ulin and A. G. Gekht, who admitted that L. V. Solovyov, whom they knew, had “terrorist sentiments" against Stalin. The file contains examples of the writer's anti-Soviet statements: collective farms have not justified themselves, literature is degrading, there has been a stagnation of creative thought.

  I met Leonid Solovyov, who returned from exile ("Troublemaker"). Tall, old, lost his teeth. Recognized me immediately, unconditionally. Nicely dressed. This, he says, was bought by a man who owes him. I took it to a department store and bought it. He says about life there that he did not feel bad - not because he was placed in any special conditions, but because inside, as he says, he was not in exile. “I took it as retribution for the crime I committed against one woman” - my first, as he put it, “real” wife. "Now I believe, I'll get something."

  “The crime against a woman,” which Solovyov spoke about, he himself touched upon in his testimony during the investigation of 1946: “I broke up with my wife because of my drunkenness and betrayal, and was left alone. I loved my wife very much, and breaking up with her was a disaster for me.

  Last years (1954-1962)

  He settled in Leningrad. In 1955, Solovyov married for the third time, the Leningrad teacher Maria Kudymovskaya became his wife. Friends helped him to publish in "Lenizdat" the entire dilogy "The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin" (both books, 1956). The book was a huge success. At Lenfilm, the writer earned money by writing and finalizing scripts.

  The place occupied by Solovyov in Russian literature, he secured for himself by writing a book about a semi-legendary folk sage who lived in the 13th century; The basis of this book is about 300 amusing incidents from the life of Khoja Nasreddin, which have come down to our time. The image of Nasreddin in Solovyov's book retained the traditional mixture of chivalry and nobility aimed at protecting the oppressed, wisdom and love of adventure; Moreover, in the second part of the book, the fantastically entertaining side is greatly weakened. In the episodes from the life of Nasreddin freely processed by the author, the style inherent in oriental literature with its imagery and spectacular expressiveness is preserved.

  Continuing to work in the field of cinematography, Solovyov wrote, in particular, the script for the film "The Overcoat" (1959) based on the story of the same name by N. V. Gogol. In 1961, parts of the new work of L. V. Solovyov "The Book of Youth" first appeared in print ( separate edition published posthumously in 1963 under the title "From the Book of Youth").

  Awards

  • Order of the Patriotic War I degree (November 5, 1943)

  Creation

  • Lenin in creativity of the peoples of the East (1930). Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  • Nomadic (1932)
  • Campaign of the "Winner" (1934)
  • Sad and funny events in the life of Mikhail Ozerov (1938) (originally titled High Pressure).
  • Big Exam (1943)
  • Ivan Nikulin - Russian sailor (1943)
  • Sevastopol stone (1944)
  • The Enchanted Prince (1954; published in full 1966)
  • Sevastopol Stone (1959)
  • From The Book of Youth (1963)

  Screenplays

  • The end of the station (1935, together with V. Fedorov)
  • Nasreddin in Bukhara (1943, based on the novel "Troublemaker") (together with V. Vitkovich)
  • Adventures Nasreddin (1944, jointly with V. Vitkovich)
  • Ivan Nikulin - Russian sailor (based on the story of the same name) (1944)
  • Overcoat (based on the novel by N. Gogol) (1959)
  • Anathema (based on the story of the same name by A. Kuprin) (1960)

  Literature

  • Kalmanovsky E. S. Life and books Leonid Soloviev // Solovyov L. The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin. Book of Youth: A Tale and Stories. - L.: Lenizdat, 1990. - 672 p.
  • Solovyov L.V. The Enchanted Prince. - M. : Terevinf, 2015. - 304 p. - (Ruslit. Literary monuments XX century). - ISBN 978-5-4212-0181-6.
    • Sokolova T."I Must Be a Dervish", pp. 270-277.
    • Bernstein I. Case of Leonid Solovyov, pp. 278-286.
    • Prigarina N. The Enchanted Prince and Sufism, pp. 287-303.

  Leonid Vasilievich Solovyov was born (6) August 19, 1906 in the city of Tripoli (Libya) in the family of an assistant inspector of the North Syrian schools of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society.

  
  

  In 1909 the family returned to Russia, and in 1921 they moved to Kokand. The impressions of oriental life and the peculiarities of oriental culture left their mark on all the writer's work. Leonid Solovyov began to publish in 1923 in the newspaper Turkestanskaya Pravda (hereinafter Pravda Vostoka) and until 1930 worked as a special correspondent for this newspaper.

  During trips around the Fergana region in 1924-1925, Solovyov collected and studied folklore. During these years, he recorded songs and stories about V. I. Lenin, which were included in the collection Lenin and the Works of the Peoples of the East (1930). According to E. Kalmanovsky, "all the works included there were composed by Solovyov himself, thus creating a folklore and literary hoax."

  In 1930, Solovyov arrived in Moscow and entered the literary and screenwriting department of the Institute of Cinematography, graduating in 1932.

  During the Great Patriotic War Solovyov was a war correspondent for the newspaper "Red Fleet"

  Front-line stories and essays of the writer were included in the collections "Big Exam" (1943) and "Sevastopol Stone" (1944). According to the story "Ivan Nikulin - Russian Sailor" (1943), he created a screenplay for the film of the same name (1944).

  In September 1946, Solovyov was arrested on charges of preparing a terrorist act. He was released in June 1954 after spending eight years in the camps. The story "The Enchanted Prince", the second part of "The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin", was written in the camp and completed by the end of 1950.

  Since 1954 Solovyov lived in Leningrad. In "Lenizdat" in 1956 for the first time appeared "The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin" in two books. The book was a huge success. The name of the writer is primarily known in connection with this particular work.

  Continuing to work in the field of cinematography, Solovyov wrote scripts, among which one can note the script for the film "The Overcoat" (1959) based on the story of the same name by N.V. Gogol.

  In 1909 the family returned to Russia, the parents taught at the schools of the Samara province. As a child, Leonid was very fond of reading, his favorite authors were Jack London and Rudyard Kipling.

  In 1921, the family, fleeing the famine in the Volga region, moved to Kokand. In 1922, the young man graduated from school, studied two courses at a mechanical college, worked for some time as a railway repairman, traveled a lot around Turkestan, collected and deeply studied Central Asian folklore. In Kanibadam, he married Elizaveta Belyaeva, but soon their marriage broke up. In 1923, Leonid Solovyov began to publish in the newspaper Turkestanskaya Pravda (since 1924 - Pravda Vostoka). Until 1930 he worked as a special correspondent for this newspaper.

  In 1927, Solovyov's story "On the Syr-Darya Shore" received the second prize of the World of Adventures magazine (before that, the story was rejected in Tashkent). Believing in his literary talent, Solovyov came to Moscow (1930) and entered the Faculty of Literature and Scriptwriting, graduating in 1932. In Moscow, he married for the second time - to Tamara Sedykh, the marriage also turned out to be unsuccessful and broke up after Solovyov's arrest. The writer had no children from both wives. During his studies, he published several short stories, mostly in magazines.

  In 1930, L. V. Solovyov carried out a mischievous hoax - he submitted to the publishing house his own written songs about V. I. Lenin, which he passed off as translations of Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz folk songs and legends. All of them were included in the collection "Lenin in the work of the peoples of the East" (1930). V. S. Vitkovich also told about this story in his memoirs. An additional comedy to this undertaking was given by the results of a hastily organized expedition of the Tashkent Institute of Language and Literature, which in 1933 confirmed the folklore source of the songs and even presented their "originals" in Uzbek and Tajik.

  In 1932, the first book by L.V. Solovyov was published - the story "Nomad" - about the life of nomads during the years of the revolution, and two years later - a collection of stories and stories "The Campaign of the" Winner "". In 1935, according to the script by L. V. Solovyov, the film “The End of the Station” (Mezhrabpomfilm) was shot.

  "Troublemaker" (1940)

  In 1940, L. V. Solovyov published the novel " Troublemaker", the first book of his most significant work - " The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin". The book, published on the eve of the war in the Roman-gazeta, immediately gained extraordinary popularity for its outstanding literary skill, smart, kind and cheerful wit. Its film adaptation (“Nasreddin in Bukhara”) took place in the military year of 1943, when films were shot mainly on military or patriotic themes. The book was reprinted many times, and one reprint occurred even after the author was arrested under a political article (1946). Translated and published in French, Dutch, Danish, Hebrew and other languages.

  Arrest and imprisonment (1946-1954)

  In September 1946, Solovyov was arrested on charges of "preparing a terrorist act" and held in pre-trial detention for ten months. As a basis for the arrest, the investigation presented the testimony of the “anti-Soviet group of writers” previously arrested in 1944 - Sergei Bondarin, Semyon (Abraham) Gekht and L. N. Ulin, who admitted that L. V. Solovyov, whom they knew, had “terrorist sentiments” against Stalin. The file contains examples of the writer's anti-Soviet statements: collective farms have not justified themselves, literature is degrading, there has been a stagnation of creative thought.

  I met Leonid Solovyov, who returned from exile ("Troublemaker"). Tall, old, lost his teeth. Recognized me immediately, unconditionally. Nicely dressed. This, he says, was bought by a man who owes him. I took it to a department store and bought it. He says about life there that he did not feel bad - not because he was placed in any special conditions, but because inside, as he says, he was not in exile. “I took it as retribution for the crime I committed against one woman” - my first, as he put it, “real” wife. "Now I believe, I'll get something."

  “The crime against a woman,” which Solovyov spoke about, he himself touched upon in his testimony during the investigation of 1946: “I broke up with my wife because of my drunkenness and betrayal, and was left alone. I loved my wife very much, and breaking up with her was a disaster for me.

  Last years (1954-1962)

  He settled in Leningrad. In 1955, Solovyov married for the third time, the Leningrad teacher Maria Kudymovskaya became his wife. Friends helped him to publish in "Lenizdat" the entire dilogy "The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin" (both books, 1956). The book was a huge success. At Lenfilm, the writer earned money by writing and finalizing scripts.

  The place occupied by Solovyov in Russian literature, he secured for himself by writing a book about a semi-legendary folk sage who lived in the 13th century; The basis of this book is about 300 amusing incidents from the life of Khoja Nasreddin, which have come down to our time. The image of Nasreddin in Solovyov's book retained the traditional mixture of chivalry and nobility aimed at protecting the oppressed, wisdom and love of adventure; Moreover, in the second part of the book, the fantastically entertaining side is greatly weakened. In the episodes from the life of Nasreddin freely processed by the author, the style inherent in oriental literature with its imagery and spectacular expressiveness is preserved.

  Continuing to work in the field of cinematography, Solovyov wrote, in particular, the script for the film "The Overcoat" (1959) based on the story of the same name by N. V. Gogol. In 1961, parts of a new work by L. V. Solovyov, The Book of Youth, appeared for the first time in print (posthumously, in 1963, under the title “From the Book of Youth”), they were published as a separate edition.

  The works of Leonid Vasilievich Solovyov are all published. Even there is one superfluous, about it later. His main books are well known. Published many times and short biography. She is accurate. True, it requires important additions that will be made here.
  And yet this writer in many respects remained unrecognized, unexplained.
  Over the years, after Leonid Vasilyevich, the witnesses of his life left. In the meantime, as we know, the very structure of our common existence has changed. You can tell everything without hiding.
  Based on scanty documents, I will now try to bring the reader closer to the true image of the author of The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin.

  Life story

  It so happened that our hero did not get into the memories of contemporaries familiar to us. There are only brief notes of the mother, sisters, wife, preserved in the archives, and even a sketch in the papers of Yuri Karlovich Olesha.
  Even a normal, solid photo portrait cannot be found. There are only a few small home photographs. Random, amateur. Have you seen one of them before? title page this book. It is being played for the first time.
  Solovyov's biography is full of sharp turns, strong upheavals, which by no means always coincide with general historical ones.
  He was born on August 19, 1906, far from the land of his fathers, in Tripoli (present-day Lebanon).
  The fact is that his parents were educated in Russia at public expense. So they weren't rich. They should have worked certain period wherever they are sent. They sent them to Palestine. Each separately. There they met and got married. The Russian Palestine Society set itself missionary goals. In particular, he opened schools in Russian for Arabs. Vasily Andreevich and Anna Alekseevna taught at one of these schools. In the year of his son's birth, his father was a collegiate adviser, assistant inspector of the North Syrian schools of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society (as it was fully called).
  Having served the prescribed term in a distant land, the Solovyovs returned to Russia in 1909. According to the official movements of the father until 1918, their place of residence was Buguruslan, then nearby was the Pokhvistnevo station of Samara-Zlatoust railway. Since 1921 - Uzbekistan, the city of Kokand. There, Leonid studied at school and a mechanical college, without finishing it. Started working there. At one time he taught miscellaneous items at the school of the FZU of the oil industry.
  For the sake of brevity, I'm just listing places and activities. But it is clear to any imaginative reader how all this was deposited in the soul of our hero.
  He began to write. Began to be published in newspapers. He rose to Pravda Vostoka, which was published in Tashkent. He distinguished himself at the competition, which was announced by the Moscow magazine "World of Adventures". The story "On the Syr-Darya Shore" appeared in this magazine in 1927.
  1930 Leonid bravely leaves for Moscow. He enters the literary and scriptwriting department of the Institute of Cinematography (VGIK). He graduated in June 1932. The dates found in Solovyov's biography are sometimes surprising. But I myself saw in the archive a document on graduation from the institute. Yes, I studied from the thirtieth to the thirty-second!
  His first stories and stories about today's life, new buildings, everyday work people about Central Asia did not go unnoticed.
  In 1935-1936, special articles were devoted to Solovyov by the magazines Krasnaya Nov and Literary Studies.
  Suppose, in Krasnaya Nov, A. Lezhnev admitted: “His stories are built up each time around one uncomplicated idea, like the pulp of a cherry around a bone”, “... his stories retain an intermediate form between everyday feuilleton and a story” and so on. Nevertheless, the article was called "On L. Solovyov", and this meant that he was recognized, introduced into the series.
  After the publication of "Troublemaker" Leonid Vasilyevich became completely famous. In the February issue Literary studies” for 1941, following the greetings to Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov on his sixtieth birthday, there was a heading “Writers about their work”. This time she was taken to Solovyov. He talked about his latest book. In a word, he moved forward apparently firmly and steadily.
  The war has begun. Solovyov is a war correspondent for the Krasny Fleet newspaper. He writes a kind of modern prose epics: "Ivan Nikulin - Russian sailor", "Sevastopol stone". According to his scripts, films are staged one after another.
  As long as the burden of passions, inner anxieties are hidden from us. We follow the external course of events in his biography.
  Suddenly she shook terribly.
  In September 1946 Solovyov was arrested. Either he really annoyed someone, or there was a denunciation, or one led to another. He spent ten months in pre-trial detention. In the end, he admitted his guilt - of course, fictitious: the plan of a terrorist act against the head of state. He said something unflattering about Stalin. Apparently, he told his friends, but he was mistaken in them.
  Solovyov was not shot. After all, an idea is not an action. We were sent to the Dubravlag camp. His address was: Mordovian ASSR, Potma station, Yavas post office, mailbox LK 241/13. According to the memoirs of fellow camper Alexander Vladimirovich Usikov, Solovyov was selected as part of the stage to Kolyma. He wrote to the head of the camp, General Sergeenko, that if he was left here, he would take up the second book about Khoja Nasreddin. The general ordered Solovyov to leave.
  The Enchanted Prince was indeed written in the camp. Manuscripts have been preserved. Papers, of course, were not given. She was sent by her family. Parents then lived in Stavropol, sisters - in various other cities.
  Solovyov managed to become a night watchman in a workshop where wood was dried. Then he became a night attendant, that is, like a watchman at the bathhouse. Apparently, new prisoners were brought in at night too, they had to observe sanitary norms. Occasionally, Moscow acquaintances were delivered. These meetings were great events in a monotonous life. Lonely night positions gave Solovyov the opportunity to concentrate on his literary pursuits.
  The work on the book has been delayed. Still, by the end of 1950, The Enchanted Prince was written and sent to the authorities. The manuscript was not returned for several years. Solovyov was worried. But someone saved the "Enchanted Prince" - by accident or being aware of what was being done.
  For reasons unclear to the biographer, apparently, in the middle of 1953 Solovyov's prison and camp life continued already in Omsk. Presumably, it was from there that he was released in June 1954. Reviews of all cases have gone. Among others, it became clear that Solovyov's accusation was exaggerated.
  I had to start life over.
  For the first time, Leonid Vasilyevich married very early, back in Central Asia, in Kanibadam, Elizaveta Petrovna Belyaeva. But their paths soon parted.
  The Moscow family was Tamara Alexandrovna Sedykh. According to eyewitness accounts, their union was not smooth, or rather, painful. Upon Solovyov's arrival from the camp, Sedykh did not take him back into the house. All letters were returned unopened.
  Solovyov had no children.
  In the first days after the camp, Yu. K. Olesha met him in Moscow. The Central Archive of Literature and Art (TsGALI) keeps a record of this meeting: "July 13. I met Leonid Solovyov, who returned from exile ("Troublemaker"). Tall, old, lost his teeth. (…) Decently dressed. This, he says, was bought by a man who owes him. I went to the department store and bought it. He says about life there that he did not feel bad - not because he was placed in any special conditions, but because inside, as he says, he was not in exile. “I took it as retribution for a crime I had committed against one woman—my first,” as he put it, “real wife. Now I believe I'll get something".
  Confused, confused, with bitter reproaches to himself, without money, where was he to go?
  On reflection, Leonid Vasilyevich went to Leningrad for the first time in his life, to his sister Zinaida (the eldest, Ekaterina, lived until the end of her days in Central Asia, in Namangan). Zina was tight. Lived with difficulty.
  In April 1955, Solovyov married Maria Markovna Kudymovskaya, a teacher of the Russian language, most likely his age. They lived on Kharkovskaya street, house 2, apartment 16. There in recent months During his life, I met Leonid Vasilievich and I, unexpectedly learning that the author of The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin lives in Leningrad.
  Everything seemed to be on the mend. Lenizdat was the first to publish The Enchanted Prince, preceded by The Troublemaker. The book was a huge success. Solovyov again began to work for the cinema. Started The Book of Youth. But health was deteriorating. He had severe hypertension. I found Leonid Vasilyevich walking, but half of his body was paralyzed.
  On April 9, 1962, he died before reaching fifty-six.
  At first, in Leningrad, Solovyov was immediately supported by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Dudin. We also met friendly people. But in Leningrad literary life Leonid Vasilievich did not really enter. He kept himself apart - most likely due to ill health and mental unrest. When Maria Markovna gathered writers at her place to celebrate some date connected with Solovyov, there were three of us and one more, who did not know Leonid Vasilyevich.
  He was buried at the Red Cemetery in Avtov.
  Thus ended the story of life, for the first time told here with the observance of all its rifts.

  Experienced and written

  It was clear that this man was complex, and what a complex one! In his writings he did not lean towards confession. You can even say that he hid the sincere, he himself experienced. Or - in the main book - turned into a completely different life, in appearance sharply separated from his own.
  But, of course, in the best of writing, an underlying close connection between the writer and the composed remained. How else?!
  Solovyov can be considered a surprisingly uneven writer. Seriously speaking, he has a lot of novels and stories that have not passed the time of their appearance. He did not become a confident master of the word. On the contrary, as if forever starting all over again. Potholes and pits were waiting for him tirelessly along the road. Already after The Enchanted Prince, he wrote the story One Love (1957), strangely inept and at the same time clearly literary, calculated, on purpose.
  The face of Leonid Vasilyevich was hardly ever completely open, easily readable. Rather, in this muzhik, village face there was a shade (not emphasized) of "one's own mind", "mouth on constipation" - however, for the time being: until it explodes and the constipation does not fly off. There was one oddity in his face: as his acquaintance recalls, “in one eye, to his pupil, it was as if someone had stuck another creeper from below. And when the eyes lit up with merriment, this half shone all over, illuminating the face.
  I didn't get that kind of insight. It seems to me that Leonid Vasilyevich, both at the beginning and in the middle of his life, especially at the end, lived languishing and doubting. Not entirely, of course. The story “One Love” ends with the words of a participant in the events presented there: “It is not possible for everyone to turn their losses in life into their prowess ...”
  Leonid Vasilievich saw and felt many of his losses; in valor, he was probably not sure. However, this is only an assumption, since there are no frank confessions either in the press or in the archives. Nothing like a diary. No summary of your life.
  How so! -You can say. - And the "Book of Youth"?
  According to contemporaries, only half of what was planned was written. But even from the available half it is clear that Solovyov again did not want confession. He tightly mixed the external circumstances of his own life and various other things - seen, and even invented. Sometimes he was obscured by fiction in the most everyday sense of the word. For example, I, the reader, absolutely do not believe in some turns of the plot with Katya Smolina or beloved Tanya from Kanibadam.
  In a number of cases, the author, obviously cautious, did not give himself freedom. It is hard not to feel his admiration for Katya Smolina, the strength, independence of her nature. However, this feeling is hidden, sprinkled with literariness.
  Solovyov liked the definition "intermediate person". But, calling so one of the chapters of the "Book of Youth", he did not bring out a person of this particular type, but went on an adventure.
  Still, whatever you say, it is interesting to read and reread the chapters from the Book of Youth. Let this not be an autobiography, but a kind of preface to life and work, a preface to oneself, compiled at the end of the journey, when many things fell into place and were determined.
  Are given historical paintings, expressive evidence of the system, the spirit of past years. A sense of the hot fascination of life reigns over everyone, not lost despite illnesses and other hardships. Thoughts flash from time to time, reminiscent of the fact that the book has a common author with The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin. I especially single out for myself the reasoning attributed to Baryshnikov about the masculine and feminine (“Intermediate Man”). Every time I am amazed by this text.
  Sister Ekaterina Vasilievna recalled: “By nature, Leonid was a visionary and a dreamer, and he remained that way all his life”; “... he often saw people not as they were, but as they seemed to him. Therefore, he often made mistakes.
  In the “Unsuccessful Escape” from the “Book of Youth” we meet an amazing confession: “I don’t know what was more in my story - deceit or an innate tendency to write, however, this is almost the same thing.”
  Fiction sometimes led Leonid Vasilyevich far away. In 1930, the collection “Lenin and the Works of the Peoples of the East” compiled by him was published. In fact, all the works included there were composed by Solovyov himself, thus creating a folklore and literary hoax.
  He dedicated "The Tale of Khoja Nasreddin" to the memory of his friend Mumin Adilov. Immediately briefly told his heroic fate. Dmitry Mironovich Moldavsky in his book “Comrade Laughter” spoke about the futile search on Uzbek soil for at least some information about Mumin Adilov, any signs that he really was. It seems that Solovyov also invented Adilov - in order to visually link his appeal to Khoja Nasreddin with a more or less close and revered modernity.
  As I have already hinted, the literary hoax turned out to be a tribute to the memory of the writer. In 1966, the Leningrad Detgiz published a small booklet by Solovyov “Sakhbo. My friend's notes. The TsGALI keeps a letter to Zinaida Vasilievna Solovieva from one of Kudymovskaya's relatives. This relative, seeing among the manuscripts of Leonid Vasilyevich two and a few pages of the story, completed it herself. In fact, Sakhbo does not belong to Solovyov.
  Let us return to the real Solovyov.
  In "Kanibadam" from the "Book of Youth" there are verses composed allegedly "a long time ago". There is also a bit of cheating here. Solovyov began to write poetry in the camp. Some of them were published posthumously in the Star of the East magazine.
  I hear openness, rare for Leonid Vasilyevich, - however, when it came to the famous Khafiz:

  Because, with the temptation of each
  Thrown into dust and dirt,
  I, Hafiz, knew a different thirst,
  Pray for other pleasures.

  Is it about Hafiz? Let's say. But, of course, about yourself too.
  Yes, Difficult person was Leonid Vasilyevich - and his relationship with life is complex. As a child, he was prone to tears and enthusiastic fun. He did not always show fortitude. The son was no longer alive, and the mother, who survived him, along with various other things, could not forget how Lenya usually involved his younger sister Zina in his childhood pranks: “Together they fumbled in a tub of honey, in jars of jam. Leonid always blamed Zina."
  Much later, he showed outstanding courage by composing in the camp nothing else - "The Enchanted Prince". Leonid Vasilyevich admits in The Book of Youth: “In general, I tend to be frightened in hindsight, when the danger has already passed, the same thing happened to me in the war.”
  He wrote to his parents and Zina in October 1947: “I remember 1945, 1946 with horror and wonder how I didn’t die from drunkenness. But, thank God, he did not have time to drink away his abilities; in this sense, the camp turned out to be a real salvation for me.”
  What are the contradictions of nature; what, presumably, are the delusions of the passions; what ups and downs!
  Last years life, already sick, Solovyov admired Bunin's prose, read Montaigne's "Experiments", loved poetry and poets from Pushkin to Yesenin. But he didn’t stop himself from spree either. He tortured his neighbors. I suffered for many reasons.
  He refused to get himself a solid desk, a solid bookcase: “I am a dervish. I don't want any luxury. It would just be comfortable and calm.” He said: “Writers are Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Gorky, and I’m just a writer ...” I couldn’t fish with a bait when I saw how the worm twitched in his hand. Shoved money to random acquaintances as if on loan.
  He nevertheless managed to subdue the sharp contradictions of his nature, to reduce them to unity, when he created the "Troublemaker" and "The Enchanted Prince".

  main book

  Even a truly gifted writer rarely finds such a sphere of life, such plots, so that by this very choice he opens himself in his uniqueness.
  In this sense, Leonid Solovyov was lucky.
  He has a short story "Sunny Master", according to the time of creation, most likely, the same age or the closest predecessor of "Troublemaker" (1939). in the story we are talking about about an artist who worked in ancient times in Ferghana, a city, by the way, especially loved by Solovyov. " If the pattern of the painting cheerfully goes over gold, blue, white, purple, garnet and blue and the colors are so light, light, transparent that it seems as if the stone wall under them is completely translucent, then reverently bow your head: the unsurpassed, the only Usto Nur worked here -Eddin, the great Nur-Eddin himself, nicknamed the Sun Master».
  This story speaks about Usto Nur-Eddin, but also about the predilections of Solovyov himself. He fell in love with colors, a bright word, a long and patterned phrase. He liked plots that could bring ordinary life closer to a legend, a fairy tale.
  So Khoja Nasreddin appeared to him, under his pen, combining Russian with Central Asian in a unique and natural way, as they were combined in the author of the book.
  "Troublemaker" Leonid Solovyov wrote in thirty-two - thirty-three years. The book was immediately noticed and attracted the love of readers.
  It is clear that Leonid Vasilievich did not invent his hero himself. Khoja Nasreddin - wide famous character folklore of different peoples of Central Asia. There are many legends and anecdotes about him. Because of them, his figure may seem too colorful, diverse.
  Solovyov knew, of course, what the people were saying about his hero. But when he heard or read the stories and memorized them, he boldly and freely, cheerfully set to work. He built a living, whole book. Imagination, as a rule, supplemented the popular rumor. Having become related to Nasreddin with all his heart, Solovyov made him almost his own age. Look at the first sentence of the book: Khoja Nasreddin met the thirty-fifth year of his life on the way". Meanwhile, the canonical Khoja Nasreddin is a lean old man.
  To be honest, the fame that thunders about him in "Troublemaker" does not quite correspond to his age. When did he become famous everywhere? And how did they easily mistake him for the highly experienced Hussein Gusliya ?!
  But Solovyov was dear to his Nasreddin, "a cunning merry fellow with a black beard on a copper-tanned face and sly sparks in his clear eyes."
  It was Soloviev's Nasreddin who became especially popular. The writer gave him the final certainty of nature, understandable and close to us.
  As a reader, I looked at the two books of the Tale in different ways at different times in their relationship.
  Shortly after a decisive turning point in our common life, The Enchanted Prince appeared in 1956 with an epigraph ending with the words: "Friend, last year's calendar is not good today! .." A new book obscured the former with its meaning, with all its content came especially at the time.
  Now, perhaps, I am more surprised at the freedom, independence, bold courage of the first book, despite the fact that its verbal attire is sometimes extremely colorful. The reader, before he gets to the first chapter, is given three epigraphs in a row. This is a shade of stylization, accompanied, however, by a certain amount of irony.
  But is it in the outfit? No, of course not. The completeness of opposition to any despotism, even to some desperate mischief, is striking. Bypass us more than all sorrows emir's anger, emir's love.
  Khoja Nasreddin "outraged and stirred up the whole state" with a string of his impudent deeds.
  The gaiety, the victoriousness of the general tone seem to make the texts about horrors, arbitrariness and torture, about impudent wealth next to dreary and dull poverty, seem to be less noticeable.
  The evil turmoil of life, however, is also revealed here with reckless intelligibility: “No one looked up, no one answered. Instantaneous lightning twitched the Emir's face. And it is not known how many heads, crowned with turbans and framed by gray beards, would lie on the chopping block today and how many flattering tongues, bitten through and through in a death cramp, would fall silent forever, sticking out from blue lips, as if teasing the living, reminding them of the complete illusory nature of their well-being , about the vanity and vanity of their aspirations, troubles and hopes!
  But happy coincidences, unexpected gifts of fate, suddenly accomplished good deeds, the swift and lasting triumph of justice - that was the main thing and turned the "Troublemaker" into a kind of book of revenge for daily fear and foggy distance.
  “Fate and favorable chance always come to the aid of those who are determined and fight to the end” ...
  Where does it go then "the complete illusory nature of their well-being" and so on?
  But, as the poet said, "... even if you win it, / Your truth, this is how you should play." These are true, good dreams and hopes necessary for the soul of a still young writer.
  Naivete from the "Troublemaker" and today does not blow. Although half a century has passed - and what half a century!
  Some pages of the first book (say, the beginning of chapter thirty-six) lead directly to The Enchanted Prince in their tone.
  The author, of course, changed along the way, but not too thoroughly.
  His hero has changed more. Khoja Nasreddin of the second book is no longer the former cheerful sinner with a carefree resourcefulness of mind. That is, he retained his love for life, his natural cheerfulness. But, having learned real life experience, he finally became a person who is rightfully revered as a sage for development, harmony and courage of the spirit.
  The author and his hero, who had lived together for decades, had more and more in common. They shared a lot with each other.
  Had it not been for such a distance in time, The Charmed Prince would have been different. There is an interesting piece of evidence about this.
  In 1944, Solovyov (together with V. Vitkovich) wrote the screenplay for The Adventures of Nasreddin, as if the initial draft of the second book. Basically the same course of events, the same basis. However, there is no elder, no Turakhon, no return to Nasreddin's childhood. Much that will later be included in the book is told differently.
  Let's agree that in the end each book has its own merits, its own advantages. Without arguing with each other, they complement each other.
  Solovyov puts together his fairy tale, equipping it with a leisurely flow of thoughts, setting it up in a motley-rich attire of words.
  Chapter without any haste follows chapter.
  Nevertheless, the narrator's speech is tirelessly woven into " a turbulent stream of light and brilliance, movement and hum.
  On careful reading, one discovers a special and, clearly, involuntary repetition in the faces.
  “Well, wait, usurer, wait!” Khoja Nasreddin whispered, and an ominous fire flared up in his black eyes.
  "The players froze - only the sparkle in their eyes testified to the inner fire that devoured them." On the holiday of commemoration of the holy sheikh, the promised miraculous healing was expected in the square: "The eyes of the people burned with a greedy, unquenchable fire."
  “An old man came, the keeper of the tomb, in rags, with a yellow and wrinkled face, like a flaccid apricot, but with eyes in which a hidden fire shone.”
  “Throwing a flying glance of slanting and narrow, moist, hot eyes at the crowd from under her eyelashes, the dancer kicked off her shoes and deftly jumped onto the drum without a run.”
  And further: "... a swarthy tall mountaineer with a black beard and red-hot eyes shining from under wide angry eyebrows", "... a devilish yellow gleam in his only eye"(about the one-eyed thief); Bukhara ulema “compose with eyes burning with a gloomy flame thick books for the glory of Allah”- and so on. Even the horses in this book have a special look: "Two guards led by the bridle an Arabian stallion, a bay handsome man with a noble and passionate fire in his dark eyes."
  In all those sparkling, burning, shadowed eyes, tongues of a common flame were reflected. They are a mirror of the soul, that is, a mirror of passions, sometimes noble, sometimes low, that boil in the souls, whether you like it or not.
  Many events enter into the flowery movement of a seemingly ancient narrative, the horror of life is built in, an innumerable number of espionage and servility are drawn in. How many times Khoja Nasreddin is on the verge of death! It is impossible not to worry about his fate.
  And the most important meaning of the book is most concentrated in its hero himself. Such as he came out with Leonid Solovyov.
  “I am the most ordinary person on this earth - how many times do you repeat! And I don’t want to be anyone else: neither a sheikh, nor a dervish, nor a miracle worker, nor a star wanderer!
  Khoja Nasreddin in Solovyov's work is the unperverted human nature itself. This is a person who was born talented, kind, noble and strengthened in such his properties in spite of life circumstances.
  Indeed, he wins everywhere and everywhere not at the expense of magical powers or a miraculous combination of circumstances, but because he owns the best moral property inherent in people, and is freed from any delusions that blind a person.
  Khoja Nasreddin has no blind reverence, no fear, no envy. He is not familiar with ardent property worries.
  He knows, he understood: a person only needs to become himself, live his own life. Why envy another with his other life, albeit much more elegant, even magnificent?!
  Note that the enemies of Khoja Nasreddin cannot exist without resorting to blunt physical force, beatings and torture. He defeats them over and over again only with human, humane: strength of mind, lively mind, humor, solidarity with others and trust in them.
  “... That was precisely the fruitfulness of his love, that he loved people as they really were, without turning them into angels in his imagination.”
  Agabek, hated by Nasreddin, on the contrary, “He slandered, denounced, condemned everyone, as if he had been appointed by God as the supreme judge over the whole world.”
  In the Tale, her wonderful hero easily understands everyone. Not only in words, so often poor, clumsy, inaccurate, incomplete. He truly looks straight into your soul. Nasreddin, with his "double vision," is faithful in heart to the once clear-eyed and slender Guljan, who has become a fat, noisy woman with a red face. Is it easy to be the wife of a man of such unprofitable occupations, and even the mother of seven sons? Even the most ordinary break in the fence he could not fix in three months, absorbed, you see, in the exploits of love and kindness!
  Khoja Nasreddin is firmly attached to everything healthy, genuine, not ostentatious, but essential. He cannot fail to understand: no matter how raging, no matter how inventive in his tyranny the nobleman who ruled Kokand, he still “passed through life as some kind of hostile alien body; he could break its course for a while, but he was powerless to subjugate it to himself and gain a foothold in it: with every spring flower, every sound the Great Live Life rejected him!"
  False strength, false significance, false order, false wisdom are among the main enemies of Khoja Nasreddin.
  How do they take the Emir of Bukhara, Kamilbek, Agabek or Rakhimbay? They may seem in their own way impressive, victorious - but here deceit upon deceit, falsehood upon falsehood. They are exalted by chance, by the whim of the greats of this world, or by the efforts of their own cunning and flexible meanness. And hold on "with the ringing of their money, false sermons and the clash of swords" and not kinship with the Great Living Life.
  As for the imaginary life, it actually has only two springs. This is stupidity and selfishness. Fools and selfish people obscure the white light. Because stupidity, simple or inflated, is blindness, the inability to see, notice, understand and respond. And greed is a desperate craving for gain and accumulation, for money, ranks, ranks, and all sorts of cheaply given awards, pushing everyone away.
  Let's not get carried away with lengthy explanations. After all, Solovyov himself said a lot directly on the pages of the book. So, on top of everything, finally establishing the author's style of the story and uniting it even more strongly, reflections are given on the essence of life - closely intertwined with the course of events (I will refer at least to chapter thirty-three - about Khoja Nasreddin's childhood) or located in special islands - a kind of "maxims "(the name comes from the famous book of the Frenchman La Rochefoucauld), which, without interfering with the flow of the story, are still capable of independent existence:
  “The road will be mastered by the walking one; let his legs weaken and bend on the way - he must crawl on his hands and knees, and then he will definitely see a bright flame of bonfires in the distance and, approaching, he will see a merchant caravan that has stopped to rest, and this caravan will certainly turn out to be passing, and there will be a free camel , on which the traveler will reach where he needs to ... How many people died prematurely, and only because they did not want to live enough! ”;