December 8, 2015 marks the 160th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Gilyarovsky - a unique person, equally belonging to domestic journalism, fiction and journalistic literature, military history and even sports.
Getting acquainted with the biography of Vladimir Gilyarovsky - "Uncle Gilyai" - it is difficult to imagine that one person could live such a diverse life. "Uncle Gilyai" was a barge haule and a circus rider, fought in the Caucasus and put out fires, worked as a newspaper reporter for a crime chronicle and wrote amazing stories about Moscow and Muscovites. Perhaps the figure of Vladimir Gilyarovsky is especially significant to Muscovites. After all, "Uncle Gilyay" is the author of unique stories about the "old", pre-revolutionary Moscow. The heroes of his works "Moscow and Muscovites" or "Slum People" are bazaar pickpockets and rich merchants-tycoons, drunken aristocrats and illiterate servants, police bailiffs and professional robbers, gamblers and juvenile prostitutes. In his works, Vladimir Gilyarovsky reflected the life of that Moscow, about which most authors preferred not to write. They didn’t want to, or maybe they couldn’t. And “Uncle Gilyay” could - as a crime reporter, he climbed the whole “white stone” and was well acquainted with the seamy side of her life, with the inhabitants of palaces and slums. He visited Moscow taverns and shelters, police stations and bazaar dens, explored Moscow undergrounds, was a member of many noble families. The works of Gilyarovsky are valuable because almost all of them are about people who really existed or who had their own real prototypes. “Uncle Gilyay” did not need to come up with plots for most of his works - there were enough memories and stories from his own life, from the circle of numerous and completely different acquaintances and friends. And Gilyarovsky's life fell on very interesting times - he witnessed large-scale changes in Russian history. I found the era of Alexander II and Alexander III, the reign of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II, the February and October revolutions, the years of the NEP and Soviet industrialization.
Vologda childhood
Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky was born on December 8, 1855 (according to the old style - November 26) in the Vologda district of the Vologda province - on the estate of Count Olsufiev, where his father Aleksey Gilyarovsky served as an assistant manager of forest lands. For a long time it was believed that Vladimir Gilyarovsky was born in 1853. This date was included in many encyclopedias and reference books and was recognized as official - at least in 1953, the 100th anniversary of the writer was celebrated. It was only in 2005 that it became clear that Gilyarovsky was born in 1855 - it was this year that the record of his baptism in the birth register of the church in the village of Syama was dated, where little Volodya was baptized (now the village is part of the Novlensky rural settlement of the Vologda district of the Vologda region, in it only twenty people live).
Vladimir Gilyarovsky spent his entire childhood and adolescence in the Vologda region. Subsequently, the writer recalled his native places in the following way: “I was born in a forest farm beyond the Kubenskoye Lake and spent part of my childhood in the dense Domshinsky forests, where bears walk along portages and impassable swamps on foot, and wolves dragged in flocks. In Domshino the fast river Toshnya ran through the dense forests, and behind it, among the centuries-old forests, swamps "(Gilyarovsky VA My wanderings). On the paternal side, the ancestors of Vladimir Gilyarovsky were residents of Beloozero and were engaged in fishing. They bore the surname Petrov, and the writer's grandfather, who entered the Vologda Theological Seminary, received the surname "Gilyarovsky" - from the Latin "hilaris" - "merry, joyful." The family of the Petrovs - free fishermen - most likely ascended to the inhabitants of Veliky Novgorod. By his mother, Vladimir Gilyarovsky was a descendant of the Zaporozhye Cossacks - her family moved at the end of the 18th century. to the Kuban. A native of the Kuban was the writer's maternal grandfather - a participant in the hostilities in the Caucasus. Both mother and grandmother told little Volodya a lot about the Cossack life. Naturally, the theme of the origin of the Kuban Cossacks from the Zaporozhye Sich inevitably surfaced. Gilyarovsky kept this craving for the Cossacks - the Cossacks for the rest of his life. From childhood, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol became his favorite writer, and Vladimir Gilyarovsky liked to rank himself among the glorious dashing tribe of Zaporozhye and Kuban Cossacks, however, he was very proud of his paternal descent from free Novgorodians.
In 1860, Volodya's father Alexei Gilyarovsky received the post of police officer in Vologda. The whole family also moved there. When the boy was eight years old, a terrible grief befell him - his mother died. From that time on, only male upbringing awaited him - his father and his friend Kitaev, about whom we will describe below. In August 1865, ten-year-old Vladimir entered the first grade of the Vologda gymnasium, but his studies were unimportant. He was left for the second year. More than studying, the youth was attracted by sports and writing poetry. He began to compose epigrams for teachers, poetry, became interested in translating poetry from French. At the same time Volodya was engaged in circus acrobatics and horse riding. The teenager was waiting for the summer holidays - to go to the Svetelki estate, where he could do plenty of physical exercises, travel through the forest with his father, grandfather and "uncle Kitaev".
Kitaev - pioneer of jujitsu
By the way, it is interesting that Vladimir Gilyarovsky became one of the first Russians who got an idea of oriental martial arts. Now you will not surprise anyone with the interest of young people in Chinese, Japanese, Korean martial arts. Hundreds of thousands of young and not so young Russians have gone through the sections of wushu, karate, taekwondo and other martial arts. The Far East is now, thanks to developed communications and transport links, quite accessible, and certain elements of Chinese, Japanese, Korean culture have firmly entered the life of both Europeans and Russians. And then, in the second half of the 19th century, only fragmentary information about the mysterious "Japanese struggle" penetrated into Russia - with sailors returning from long voyages. The fate of Vladimir Gilyarovsky, then still a teenager, brought together one of such remarkable people. In "My Wanderings" Gilyarovsky often mentions the former sailor Kitaev, who was a close friend of his father and played the role of "uncle" for the boy Volodya. Kitaev taught young Gilyarovsky to do gymnastics, ride a horse, shoot and, of course, fight. The "uncle" knew the last craft perfectly. After all, they called him Kitaev because he lived for a long time in China and Japan. During his Far Eastern wanderings, "Uncle Kitaev" mastered the skills of martial arts, unfamiliar to the then Russian men. Vladimir Gilyarovsky recalled his mentor this way: “He was a square man, both in width and upward, with long, huge, monkey arms and stooped shoulders. He was about sixty years old, but a dozen peasants could not cope with him: he took them like kittens and threw them away from him, swearing furiously in either Japanese or Chinese, which, however, very much looked like some Russians words "(Gilyarovsky VA" My wanderings ").
In fact, Kitaev's name was Vasily Yugov. Countryman Gilyarovskikh, originally from the Vologda region, he was born into a family of serfs and, like many peasant boys, was enrolled in recruits. A strong and intelligent guy from Vologda was sent to serve in the navy. Thanks to this, Yugov found himself far away from his native places - in the Far East. In the navy, the sailor Yugov was considered a real strongman and took part in constant fights with foreign sailors. For which he was repeatedly and mercilessly punished by the officers. Once, on a ship at the captain-lieutenant Fofanov, infamous for his atrocities against sailors, Vasily Yugov stood up for a young sailor, whom, despite his illness, the cruel Fofanov ordered to be flogged. The enraged captain ordered that Yugov be thrown into the hold and shot the next morning. However, Vasily managed to escape from the ship. He found himself on some island, then, together with Japanese fishermen, found himself in Japan, and then in China. Over the years of wandering, Vasily Yugov has well mastered the techniques of fighting without weapons, having learned them from the Japanese and Chinese masters who met on his way. Gilyarovsky recalled that Kitaev's uncle - Yugov showed him unprecedented tricks - laid two stones, one on top of the other, and broke them with a blow of the rib of his hand. He could juggle with logs that were intended for building a barn. Such an interesting biography was the "coach" of the young Gilyarovsky. And he taught young Volodya the techniques of jiu-jitsu. Then this Japanese art of wrestling was practically unknown in Russia - only half a century later, during the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905, jujitsu gained popularity - first among Russian officers and soldiers, and then among other categories of the population. Vladimir Gilyarovsky, who was already not deprived of physical data (it was from him, by the way, that Ilya Repin wrote one of his famous Cossacks - a laughing Cossack in a white hat and a red scroll) the lessons of the old sailor went for the future. Gilyarovsky mastered the art of wrestling well, which then helped the future writer many times in his younger years - during his long wanderings, described later in "My Wanderings".
Volodya Gilyarovsky began to wander around the country due to his violent character. From a young age, he did not at all want for himself the boring life of a petty official or a rural teacher. In addition to "Uncle Kitaev", he closely communicated with the exiled populists, who gave Gilyarovsky protest literature, including the novel by N. G. Chernyshevsky "What is to be done?" And after a while Gilyarovsky really "went to the people." And the unfortunate circumstance made him do this - in June 1871, without passing the final exams at the gymnasium, Gilyarovsky fled without a passport and money from his father's house. On the Volga, he went to work as a barge haule. In the burlak artels, not only physical dexterity was required, but also the ability to stand up for themselves - the people there found dashing, capable of many things, but seventeen-year-old Volodya managed to "put himself" surrounded by harsh adult guys and men, many of whom were very dark, robbery and convict past. The hardening of adolescence, set by Kitaev - Yugov, had an effect. And as a Moscow journalist, in his mature years, Gilyarovsky, unlike many colleagues, could easily take a risk, visiting the most notorious slums and dens - he was quite confident in his abilities. However, Gilyarovsky inherited incredible physical strength. Konstantin Paustovsky, speaking at an evening in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky, cited an interesting moment that characterized the writer: “not only Gilyarovsky himself, but his whole family possessed this extraordinary Zaporozhye strength. And so Gilyarovsky, once arriving to his father, took a poker and tied it up. The father said: you can spoil these things at home, but you can't do it with me. And he untied this poker. I must say that my father was about 80 years old”(Transcript of K. G. Paustovsky at the evening dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky // Voprosy literatury. - 1969. - No. 5). It was recalled about Gilyarovsky that he was a man of tremendous personal courage - he could easily "communicate" with huge chain dogs, catch up and keep on the run the carriage of a cab. Once in the Hermitage garden, where there was a special machine for measuring strength, Vladimir Alekseevich "measured" his strength in such a way that the machine was completely pulled out of the ground.
Burlak, rider and military scout
The young barge haule Gilyarovsky walked for twenty days with a strap along the Volga - from Kostroma to Rybinsk.
In Rybinsk, Volodya got a job as a crochet hooker in a local port. At this time, he began to think about a military career. In the end, in the fall, Gilyarovsky entered the Nizhyn Regiment as a volunteer - the 137th Infantry Nizhyn Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna's regiment, formed in 1863 on the basis of the 4th reserve battalion of His Imperial Highness Yekaterinburg Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Infantry. A talented volunteer in 1873 was sent to study at the Moscow cadet school. Young Gilyarovsky had a chance to become an officer, and who knows, would we then have got the opportunity to read his literary works? However, the obstinate nature of Gilyarovsky's discipline and drill in the cadet school could not stand it. Just a month after admission, cadet Vladimir Gilyarovsky was expelled from the school back to the regiment for violation of discipline. But Gilyarovsky did not continue serving in the regiment, but wrote a letter of resignation to the command. With a military career, young Vladimir did not work out. The next phase of wanderings began. Gilyarovsky worked as a stoker and a worker in a bleaching plant in Yaroslavl, extinguished fires as part of a fire brigade, worked in the fishery, and at one time worked as a herdman in Tsaritsyn. Thanks to Kitaev's lessons, Gilyarovsky was able to handle horses from childhood. Therefore, in Rostov-on-Don, he entered the local circus as a rider. In 1875 he changed from a circus rider to a theater actor. With theater troupes, Gilyarovsky visited Voronezh and Kirsanov, Morshansk and Penza, Ryazan, Saratov and Tambov.
When the Russian-Turkish war began, Gilyarovsky, quite in the spirit of the times, decided to volunteer. He again entered military service. Twenty-two-year-old Vladimir Gilyarovsky was sent as a volunteer to the 12th company of the 161st Alexandropol Infantry Regiment. It was commanded by Colonel Prince R. N. Abashidze. The regiment was stationed in the Caucasus, in Georgian Guria - on the border with the Ottoman Empire. He participated in the occupation of the Khutsuban Heights, battles on the heights of Salba and on the river. Achhua. The twelfth company of the regiment, in which Gilyarovsky was assigned, was commanded by the famous captain Karganov, who captured Hadji Murad himself. However, Gilyarovsky spent no more than a week in the 12th Infantry Company. Service in the infantry unit, striving for feats and extraordinary deeds, Vladimir seemed rather boring. And according to the level of his training, Vladimir could try himself on more interesting and dangerous tasks. Gilyarovsky joined the hunting team of plastuns. It was the special forces of that time - military intelligence, performing a very specific set of functions. They took off the sentries, captured the "tongues", learned the exact information about the location of the Turkish troops. The service was really difficult and very risky. After all, the Turks, especially the Bashi-bazouks, recruited from the local mountaineers - Muslims, knew the mountain paths very well and navigated the terrain much better than Russian soldiers and officers. Therefore, the hunting teams, which were not inferior to the enemy in knowledge of the mountainous regions, were truly unique units, the fame of which spread throughout the entire army.
At the time of the events described, the hunting teams did not yet have an official status and were formed from volunteers - the most desperate and "reckless" Cossacks and soldiers, who were physically fit, but most importantly, morally prepared for daily risk. The defense of Sevastopol and, in particular, the hostilities in the Caucasus, demonstrated all the strengths of the hunting teams and showed their indispensability in mountainous terrain, close to the border of the front with the enemy, in the fight against enemy scouts and saboteurs. Nevertheless, when Gilyarovsky served in the Alexandropol regiment, the hunting teams formally still remained the "amateur performance" of the regimental officers. Only in 1886 their status was legalized by the corresponding order of the military department.
They recruited "death row" there, warning in advance that none of the team would return home alive. Gilyarovsky survived. Although he served in the hunting team for almost a year - he fought with the Turks and with the Bashi-bazouks who operated in the Caucasus Mountains. “They made peace, the troops were withdrawing deep into Russia, but only on September 3, 1878 I received my resignation, as I was in the“hunters”and we were kept under arms, because the bashi-bazouks flooded the mountains and had to fight them alone in the mountain forest slums, crawling over the rocks, hanging over the abyss. This lesson was more interesting to me than the war itself,”Gilyarovsky later recalled in“My Wanderings”. By the way, as Gilyarovsky recalled, those dashing soldiers and Cossacks with whom he served side by side in an infantry regiment and a hunting team seemed to him very intelligent people compared to vagrants and barge haulers, whom Vladimir had seen a lot in his youth during his travels around country. For his valiant service during the Russian-Turkish war, Gilyarovsky received the Military Order of St. George, IV degree and the medal "For the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878." However, Vladimir Alekseevich subsequently did not ask about his military past. He almost did not wear the St. George cross, confining himself to a ribbon. Gilyarovsky left a chapter of his memoirs in his autobiographical book "My Wanderings" about the period of his participation in the hostilities in the Caucasus.
From theater-goer to journalist
Demobilized after the end of the war, Gilyarovsky came to Moscow. Here in 1881 he got a job at the Pushkin Theater, which was officially called the AA Brenko Drama Theater in Malkiel's House. Anna Alekseevna Brenko (1848-1934), a famous actress and director, was in charge of this theater. However, gradually Gilyarovsky became more and more convinced that his vocation was not a theatrical play, but literature. He began to write poetry and notes as a child, in his gymnasium years. On August 30, 1881, his poems about the Volga were published in the magazine "Alarm clock". In the fall of 1881, Vladimir Gilyarovsky left the theater and took up literary activity. He entered as a correspondent in the "Russian newspaper", then - in the "Moscow leaf". It was in the field of criminal reporting and reporting on emergencies that Gilyarovsky gained fame and demand by the public.
The fame of the novice journalist was brought by a series of reports about the famous Kukuyev catastrophe. On the night of June 29-30, 1882, a mail train crashed near the village of Kukuevka, not far from the Bastiyevo station of the Moscow-Kursk railway. A heavy downpour caused the pressure of water to destroy the cast-iron culvert under the embankment. The embankment was washed out, and the railroad track literally hung in the air. Naturally, during the passage of the train, seven carriages fell through and were filled up with soil. As a result of the crash, 42 people died, 35 were injured. Among the dead was the twenty-two-year-old Nikolai Turgenev, the nephew of the writer Ivan Turgenev. When the sad news was reported to the father of the deceased, the brother of the writer Nikolai Turgenev Sr., he was paralyzed. Ivan Turgenev himself has repeatedly expressed outrage at the negligence of the authorities. Reporter Vladimir Gilyarovsky arrived at the train crash site, who took part in dismantling the blockage for two weeks and during this time sent reports to Moskovsky Listok. The next scandalous series of reports by Gilyarovsky were reports of a fire at the Morozov factory. The editor even had to hide the name of the author of the articles. Gilyarovsky's sharp publications displeased officials, and he soon had to leave Moskovsky Listok. In 1884, he moved to work at Russkiye Vedomosti, where in 1885 his essay “The Doomed” appeared, written by Gilyarovsky back in 1874 and telling about his work at Sorokin's bleaching plant.
Chronicler of the Moscow slums
Indeed, the reporter Vladimir Gilyarovsky was very talented. Almost all Moscow officials knew him personally, and especially - police bailiffs and investigators, fire chiefs, hospital doctors. Perhaps there was no place in Moscow where Gilyarovsky had not visited. And such a topic that he would not cover in his reports. He was allowed into theaters and art galleries, into the English Club, where Moscow aristocrats gathered, and into the terrible dens and den of Khitrovka, where street robbers, gamblers, prostitutes and drunkards were regulars. Everywhere he was taken "for his own" and, in fact, Gilyarovsky could solve almost any problem. In particular, he helped his acquaintances to return the stolen things, since he was well into the thieves' "raspberries" of the Khitrov market. Since the most important thing for a reporter is to be able to loosen the tongue of the interlocutor, Gilyarovsky also had to drink. And how can you visit taverns and slums without drinking, without attracting attention to yourself? But, as friends of the writer recall, despite the fact that he could drink a huge amount of alcoholic beverages, the reporter's sobriety did not leave and, where necessary, he kept a clear mind and carefully remembered the drunken revelations of his interlocutors. It was this "property" of Vladimir Gilyarovsky that allowed him to create, according to the information contained in it, impressive sketches of the life of the Moscow social "bottom", the criminal world, and bohemia.
The social problems of Moscow became a favorite topic of Gilyarovsky's publications. Perhaps no one better than Gilyarovsky covered the customs and life of the Moscow slums - Khitrovka, Sukharevka, did not talk about the life of the lower strata. Gilyarovsky even touched on the topic of the life of homeless animals in Moscow. The main heroes of Gilyarovsky's works are people "worn out by life", inhabitants of Moscow slums, who sometimes have lost their human appearance. But in the behavior of some of them something human still slips. Gilyarovsky teaches the reader, in the literal sense, “not to renounce money and prison”, because he shows by the example of his heroes how yesterday prosperous inhabitants instantly became victims of Moscow slums and could no longer leave the world of cheap taverns and hostels that was sucking in like a quagmire - klopovnikov. Gradually, friends and colleagues began to call Gilyarovsky nothing more than "Uncle Gilyai."
The popularity of a journalist writing on sensitive and topical topics grew with each new publication. And in 1887 Gilyarovsky published the first collection of stories - "Slum People". Censorship confiscated and destroyed almost the entire circulation of this work. The main accusation of the censors was that Gilyarovsky showed the life of the common people of tsarist Russia to be too gloomy, without a light, and “such a truth cannot be published,” as one of the leaders of the censorship about the work of Vladimir Gilyarovsky put it. However, the stories still spread throughout the country. Plots, ease of presentation of the material - everything aroused the interest of the reader. The heroes of the collection "Slum People" are the drunkard-lackey Spirka, an executive chap who suffers from drunkenness; old actor Khanov; Alexander Ivanovich Kolesov - an office clerk who arrived in Moscow in search of work and, being robbed, added to the number of inhabitants of Moscow hostels; retired second lieutenant Ivanov, frostbitten and turned into a Moscow beggar; a professional billiard player nicknamed "The Captain", with an injured hand, the loser of the game. All these people are victims of social lawlessness, poverty, and numerous vices. This reality of tsarist Russia, depicted by Gilyarovsky, did not want to be perceived and recognized at that time by the "guardians" of the existing order - from censors to conservative critics. Even today it runs counter to the idealization of pre-revolutionary times inherent in many modern authors.
In the essay "Khitrovka" Gilyarovsky gives the most detailed and interesting description of the most vile district of pre-revolutionary Moscow - the Khitrov market. Here, in the shelters, up to 10,000 people huddled in total. Among them - and countless alcoholic tramps, interrupted by odd jobs, and professional criminals, and juvenile prostitutes, and disabled beggars. The Khitrovites began their criminal path from birth, and many of them did not live up to adulthood. Gilyarovsky describes the policemen who were in charge of order at the Khitrov market and who knew all of its criminal public very well. In another essay, the writer tells how he explored the Moscow dungeons - the cesspool between Trubnaya Square and Samoteka, into which the Neglinka River was turned, practically "rolled up into a pipe" throughout its length. By the way, after Vladimir Alekseevich published in the Moscow press a series of articles about adventures in the Moscow undergrounds, the Moscow City Duma was forced to issue a decree ordering the beginning of Neglinka's perestroika. But, in addition to stories about "the day" in the figurative and literal sense of the word, Gilyarovsky also tells about the life of the Moscow rich. So, in one of the essays, the writer draws the lifestyle of Moscow merchants who gathered in a club in Myatlev's house. Provides a list of exquisite menus. In the other, it tells about the Moscow "pit" - a debt prison, where unfortunate people ended up in the power of their creditors and were unable to pay off their debts. In his essays, Gilyarovsky also recalls many writers, poets, actors, artists and other interesting personalities he met along the way. There are interesting descriptions of the everyday life of ordinary Moscow people - bakers and hairdressers, waiters and cabbies, students and novice artists. The descriptions of Moscow taverns and restaurants, baths and squares are remarkable.
Friend to poets and artists
Gradually, Gilyarovsky became widely known in the literary, musical, artistic environment - he closely communicated with Uspensky, with Chekhov, was well acquainted with many famous composers and artists of his time. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov's brother Mikhail recalls: “Once, in the earliest years of our stay in Moscow, brother Anton returned home from somewhere and said:“Mom, tomorrow someone Gilyarovsky will come to me. It would be nice to treat him with something. " Gilyarovsky's arrival came just on Sunday, and his mother baked a cabbage pie and prepared vodka. Gilyarovsky appeared. He was then still a young man, of medium height, unusually strong and stocky, in high hunting boots. Cheerfulness from him and sprinkled in all directions. He immediately became "you" with us, invited us to feel his iron muscles on his hands, rolled a penny into a tube, twisted a teaspoon with a screw, gave everyone a sniff of tobacco, showed some amazing tricks on the cards, told a lot of the most risky anecdotes and, leaving not a bad impression in itself, gone. Since then, he began to visit us, and every time he brought with him some kind of special revival "(MP Chekhov." Around Chekhov "). Gilyarovsky himself also recalled his friendship with Anton Pavlovich Chekhov in Friends and Meetings - in this collection the essay “Antosha Chekhonte” is dedicated to the great Russian writer.
In parallel with articles in the press and stories, Gilyarovsky was also engaged in writing poetry. So, in 1894 he published a collection of poems "The Forgotten Notebook". As a reporter for Russkiye Vedomosti, Gilyarovsky visited the Don - with the Cossacks, in Albania and even in the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905. At the beginning of the First World War, Gilyarovsky donated a fee from a book of poetry he published to a fund to help wounded soldiers. Gilyarovsky's poems were illustrated by friends of the poet and writer - brothers Vasnetsov, Kustodiev, Malyutni, Makovsky, Surikov, Serov, Repin, Nesterov. Gilyarovsky loved artists and communicated closely with them. And not only with celebrities, but also with novice, young artists, whom he tried to support both with a kind word and financially - he never spared money to buy paintings, thereby helping out beginner and poorly paid masters of the brush. In the collection Friends and Meetings, Vladimir Gilyarovsky describes a sad meeting with Alexei Kondratyevich Savrasov, the author of the immortal paintings The Rooks Have Arrived and The Volga Spill Near Yaroslavl. By the time of the meeting, the great artist was already hopelessly ill with alcoholism, but Gilyarovsky tried to help him as much as he could - at least toss him money for lunch, since the master, who had no orders, lived in terrible poverty: “I suggested that Alexei Kondratyevich relax on the sofa and made him put on my hunting long beaver jacket. And although it was difficult to persuade him, he nevertheless put it on, and when I saw the old man off, I was sure that he would not be cold in leather-lined felt boots, this jacket and his summer coat. I slipped the silver into his pocket. His wife, seeing him off, asked to come in without hesitation, anytime. He happily promised, but he never came in - and I never met him again, I only heard that the old man had completely turned away and was not showing up anywhere”(Gilyarovsky VA Friends and meetings).
Perhaps the most famous poetic work of Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky was the March of Siberian Riflemen, written in 1915, which was published in the ensign magazine. It was on his motive that the famous civil hymns were later composed - the White Guard "March of the Drozdovsky Regiment" Along the hills, 1922) and the anarchist "Hymn of the Makhnovists" (Makhnovshchina, Makhnovshchina, the wind, your pitchfork flags, blackened from the slope, reddened with blood). And the original words of the march by Gilyarovsky began as follows: "From the taiga, dense taiga, from the Amur, from the river, silently, a formidable cloud, Siberians went to battle."
"Uncle Gilyay" - Soviet writer
After the revolution, he, a classic of Russian journalism and literature, who sympathized with the populists from a young age, accepted Soviet power. And this despite the fact that in the year of the October Revolution Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky was sixty-two years old, most of his life was spent "in that world" - in Tsarist Russia, which, however, the crime reporter did not really like. It was in the post-revolutionary decade that Gilyarovsky acquired real fame as an excellent memoirist - under Soviet rule, his memoirs were already allowed and no one confiscated copies of books for the purpose of destruction. When Vladimir Alekseevich was seventy years old, he received a land plot in Mozhaisky district, then, in Kartino, he built a house and lived there until the end of his days. The Soviet government appreciates and respects the writer Gilyarovsky - his articles are still in demand, only in Soviet print media. And literary publishers are beginning to publish poetry and memoir prose "Uncle Gilyaya".
Gilyarovsky worked in the newspapers Izvestia and Vechernyaya Moskva, in the magazines Ogonyok and Prozhektor, in 1922 he published the poem Stenka Razin. In 1926 the book "Moscow and Muscovites" was published, and in 1928 - "My wanderings". In front of Vladimir Alekseevich's eyes, Russia was changing, and his beloved Moscow also acquired a new look. First, Moscow became the capital of the Soviet state. Secondly, slums and shelters, which Gilyarovsky wrote about in "Slum People" and "Moscow and Muscovites", have become a thing of the past. A contemporary of various eras, he could witness the transformation of the country with his own eyes. And he drew quite correct conclusions from his observations. Despite the fact that in his old age Vladimir Gilyarovsky became almost completely blind, he continued to write articles and stories on his own. In 1934, the book Friends and Meetings was published. And "People of the Theater" came out after the death of the writer. In 1960, another work of the author, already deceased by that time, was published - "Newspaper Moscow".
The book "Moscow and Muscovites" has become a real visiting card of Vladimir Gilyarovsky. He wrote it for over twenty years - from 1912 until the last year of his life. By December 1925, work on the collection of essays was completed, and in 1926 "Moscow and Muscovites" was published in 4,000 copies. After the book's success, the publisher approached the writer with a proposal to develop the theme of old Moscow. Gilyarovsky himself admitted that you can write a lot about Moscow. Moscow at the end of the 19th century is one of the favorite themes of the writer's work. In 1931, the publishing house "Federation" published "Notes of a Muscovite". The third book, in which the two previous editions were combined, was published already in 1935. “I feel happy and half a century younger,” said the writer when the manuscript was sent to the publishing house. Before the eyes of the writer, Moscow, to which he gave most of his life and the chronicler of whose joy and sorrow he became, acquired a new look. The terrible slums of Khitrov Market and Sukharevka were becoming a thing of the past, shelters were demolished, and new comfortable housing for Soviet citizens arose in their place. The cabs were replaced by the available public transport, and the policemen were replaced by Soviet militiamen. These changes could not but rejoice Gilyarovsky, as he reported in "Moscow and Muscovites".
In 1935, Vladimir Alekseevich died at the age of 80. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. In 1966, the former 2nd Meshchanskaya Street in Moscow was named after Vladimir Gilyarovsky. Also, the memory of Gilyarovsky is immortalized in the names of streets in Vologda and Tambov, in the name of one of the minor planets of the solar system. By the way, the famous sculptor Andreev created Taras Bulba from Gilyarovsky on the bas-relief of the monument to Gogol. I. Repin wrote from Gilyarovsky one of his Cossacks - the most popular crime correspondent in Moscow had such a colorful appearance.
