Evgeny Petrov - biography, information, personal life. Brief biography of Evgeny Petrov Evgeny Petrov The warmest palm

PETROV Evgeny (1902-1942); MOONBLIT Georgy Nikolaevich (b. 1904) 98 The audience will scream and cry. Film “Anton Ivanovich is angry” (1941), scenes. E. Petrova and Moonblit, dir. A.

There are few people in Russia who have not read, watched or at least heard about such cult works our literature, like “The Twelve Chairs” and “The Golden Calf,” about people with the surnames Ilf and Petrov. They are usually called always together, and this is quite natural: they worked shoulder to shoulder long years. Nevertheless, they themselves remained completely integral units. For example, the writer Evgeny Petrov - what is he like?

Childhood

Evgeny Petrovich Kataev (this is exactly what the writer’s real name sounds like) was born on December 13, 1902. His hometown was Odessa. In addition to Evgeny, in the family of teacher Pyotr Vasilyevich and pianist Evgenia Ivanovna, a six-year-old child was already growing up - the eldest son Valentin (the same Valentin Kataev, who in the future will become famous writer- Few people know about the fact that he and Petrov are siblings). Looking far ahead, it is necessary to explain the meaning of the pseudonym of the youngest of the brothers: Valentin, by the time Evgeniy began to make his way into literary circles, had already begun to conquer this Olympus, and, judging that there were too many two Kataevs in literature, the younger brother “yielded” to the older real name, taking for himself the fictitious Petrov - by patronymic (they were Petrovichs, after all).

Just three months after Eugene’s birth, the boys’ mother died of illness, leaving the father completely alone with his two children. However, she immediately rushed to his aid Native sister deceased wife Elizabeth - having abandoned all her affairs, abandoning her own personal life, she devoted herself entirely to caring for her nephews. The father of future writers never married again. Both he and his aunt sought to raise the boys educated people, there was a rich library in the house, and Pyotr Vasilyevich never skimped on buying new books. Perhaps that is why the eldest youth decided that he would write - unlike the younger one, who did not want to become a writer under any circumstances, but was forced to follow his brother around all the editorial offices - only Valentin was embarrassed and afraid to walk. From the age of thirteen, Valentin's stories began to be published, and Evgeniy even barely succeeded in writing essays at school. He, of course, also loved to read - but not classics, but detective stories and adventures. He adored Sherlock Holmes and dreamed of becoming a great detective himself.

Youth

After the revolution in Odessa, as well as in other cities, came Hard times. Waves of arrests began, as the former tsarist officer Valentin Kataev was detained. Evgeniy went to jail with him - because he was a close relative. The arrest did not last long, soon both brothers were released, but, having decided not to spoil Evgeniy’s reputation, both of them remained silent all their lives about the fact that not only the eldest, but also the younger of them had been in prison.

Since Evgeny Petrov dreamed of becoming a detective, he went to work in the criminal investigation department and, according to the documents, was one of the best operatives. Evgeny Petrov’s work in the criminal investigation department began in 1921, and in the same year the brothers’ father died - unfortunately, both of them were not in Odessa at that time, they did not have time to say goodbye to their father. Soon after this, Valentin left hometown- first he went to Kharkov, then to Moscow, where he began to wait for his younger brother. He joined the elder two years later. This is how Moscow appeared in the biography of Yevgeny Petrov.

The beginning of the way

Arriving in the capital, Evgeniy began to live with his brother, but, not wanting to be a “burden” to him, he hastily began looking for work. With recommendations from the Odessa criminal investigation department, he went to the Moscow police - however, there were no places there, and all they could offer was young man, is the position of a warden in Butyrka prison. Eugene was going to accept this invitation, but Valentin, having learned about it, prevented such a decision. He wanted his brother to become a journalist. At Valentin’s request, Evgeniy wrote a short feuilleton, which was immediately published in one of the newspapers and issued to the young author the fee is much more than a month's salary in prison. After this, Evgeniy stopped resisting his brother.

His journalistic career began with Red Pepper, where he worked as an executive secretary. At the same time, he did not disdain part-time jobs - he ran to various editorial offices, bringing more and more new feuilletons: fortunately, he had rich life experience, after working in the criminal investigation department. It was during these years that he took his pseudonym. Whatever Petrov did! In addition to feuilletons, he wrote satirical notes, came up with caricatures, composed poetry - in general, he did not give up any genres, which allowed him to start earning good money and move out of his brother's room into a separate room.

Meet Ilya Ilf

Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov both grew up in Odessa, but it so happened that their paths crossed only in Moscow. At the same time, Ilf, five years older, arrived in the capital at the same time as Petrov - a whim of fate. Their acquaintance happened in the editorial office of the Gudok newspaper in 1926 - Petrov then came to work there, and Ilf was already working there. The writers became closer a year later, when they were sent on a joint business trip to the Caucasus and Crimea. After spending some time together, they discovered a lot in common and, perhaps, it was then that they decided to write together.

And soon the occasion turned up, and it was not someone who threw it, but brother Evgenia Valentin. He invited his friends to work for him on the so-called theme of the work, with the condition that when it was ready, he would slightly correct it, and there should be three names on the cover: Kataev, Petrov, Ilf. The name Valentina already had weight in literary circles and should have helped the future book quickly find its reader. Friends agreed. And the topic proposed by Valentin was: “There is money hidden in the chairs that needs to be found.”

"The Golden Calf" and "The Twelve Chairs"

Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov began working on the manuscript “about chairs” in the early autumn of 1927. Valentin then left the capital, and upon his return a month later he saw the finished first part of the novel. After reading it, Kataev without hesitation refused the “laurel wreaths” and his name on the cover of the future book, giving it to his brother and his friend - he only asked to dedicate this masterpiece to him and buy a gift from the first fee. By January, the work was completed, and its publication began almost immediately - until July, the novel was published in the Thirty Days magazine.

And the friends have already planned a continuation - this is evidenced by the notes in the notebooks of both. They nurtured the idea for a year, edited it, refined it, and in 1929 they began to implement it. Two years later, the continuation of the story about Ostap Bender called “The Golden Calf” was completed. The Thirty Days magazine also began publishing it, but for political reasons the publication was interrupted, and a separate book could only be published three years later.

“The Twelve Chairs” immediately won the love of readers, and not only them - the novel began to be translated into other languages. However, there was a “fly in the ointment” - firstly, the work of Ilf and Petrov was severely “cut off” by censorship, and secondly, reviews appeared calling their debut brainchild a “toy”, which does not correspond to reality. Of course, this could not but upset the writers, but they could cope with their feelings.

“Golden Calf” had a more difficult time. The leadership did not like the character of Ostap Bender, which is why they stopped publishing the novel and did not agree to release it as a separate edition. Reviewers also continued to “throw eggs” at the creative union of the two friends, believing that their work would soon sink into oblivion. Fortunately, this did not happen, and after Maxim Gorky stood up for Ilf and Petrov, The Golden Calf finally saw the light not only abroad.

Personal life

Evgeniy Petrov’s wife’s name was Valentina, she was eight years younger than him. They got married when the girl was barely nineteen. The marriage was happy, two sons were born - Peter (in honor of his father) and Ilya (in honor of his friend). According to the memoirs of the writer’s granddaughter, her grandmother continued to love her husband until her death (in 1991) and never took the ring he gave her off her finger.

The eldest son of Evgeny and Valentina became a cinematographer and shot many famous Soviet films. The younger one, Ilya, worked as a composer and wrote music for several films and TV series.

Ilf and Petrov

After working on “The Twelve Chairs” and “The Golden Calf,” Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov did not run away. Their tandem lasted for many years - until Ilf’s death. The result of their work was numerous feuilletons and short stories, novellas and film scripts, essays, short stories, vaudevilles and even “ double biography" They traveled a lot together, bringing from these trips unique impressions, which were subsequently processed in the form of some literary work came out into the world.

Having become strong friends, they even wanted to die together - then, in their own words, the other “wouldn’t have to suffer.” It didn’t work out - Ilf left first, five years before his friend. He suffered from tuberculosis, which worsened in 1937. Soon he was gone, as was the tandem of Ilf and Petrov.

"One-story America"

A year before the death of Ilya Ilf, friends visited America - they were sent there as correspondents for the newspaper Pravda. They visited more than twenty different states in more than three months, got acquainted with many interesting people, including the writer Ernest Hemingway, and brought back a colossal baggage of impressions. All of them were reflected in the book of essays “One-Storey America”. This work became the first - and the only one that the friends wrote separately (due to Ilf's illness): they drew up a plan in advance, distributed the parts among themselves and began to create. Despite this type of work, even those who knew their friends closely could not subsequently determine what was written by Ilya and what by Evgeny. By the way, photographs taken by Ilf were also attached to the essays - he was very fond of this type of art.

Evgeny Petrov after Ilya Ilf

After the death of a friend, Evgeniy Petrov’s creativity sharply faltered. For some time he did not write, because it was hard to start all over again - and already alone. But gradually he returned to work. Writer Evgeny Petrov became the executive editor of the Ogonyok magazine and wrote several plays and essays. But he was not used to working alone, and therefore began to collaborate with Georgy Moonblit. Together they created several film scripts.

In addition, Evgeny Petrov did not forget about his untimely departed friend. He organized the publication of his " Notebooks“, I was going to write a novel about Ilf, but I didn’t have time. Their mutual acquaintances recalled much later that Ilf’s features remained in Petrov until his death.

At the beginning of the war, having sent his family to be evacuated, Evgeny Petrov began working as a war correspondent together with his older brother. He wrote for the press both in our country and abroad, often flew to the front line, and even survived shell shock.

Death

Exact circumstances tragic death E. Petrova is still unknown. In 1942, the writer Yevgeny Petrov was sent on another business trip - to Sevastopol. In addition to the Crimean city, he also visited Novorossiysk and Krasnodar, from the latter he flew to Moscow. According to some eyewitnesses who were on board the same plane, Evgeniy, violating instructions, went into the cockpit to talk to the pilots about some issue. Perhaps he asked to increase the speed - he was in a hurry to get to the capital. The pilot was distracted by the conversation and did not have time to notice the hill that suddenly appeared ahead. Despite the fact that the height from which the plane fell was small, about twenty meters, Petrov died, the only one of all.

There is another version of the tragedy, which, by the way, was supported by the writer’s brother Valentin - supposedly the plane was pursued by German Messerschmitts, and it crashed while escaping the pursuit. The writer was buried in the Rostov region.

Writer Evgeny Petrov lived a short, but very bright and rich life. He left behind a rich legacy and enormous creativity. He didn't manage to do much, but he still did enough. This means that his life was not lived in vain.

Petrov Evgeniy (real name and surname Evgeniy Petrovich Kataev) (1903-1942), writer, journalist.

Born on December 13, 1903 in Odessa in the family of a history teacher. In 1919 he graduated from a classical gymnasium. Worked as a correspondent for the Ukrainian Telegraph Agency.

In June 1921 he entered the Odessa criminal investigation department. For the successful fight against bandits he was awarded a watch. Work in the police turned out to be just an episode in the biography of Yevgeny Petrov.

In 1923 he moved to Moscow and became a journalist. He worked as a production editor at the magazine “Red Pepper” and collaborated on the newspaper “Gudok”. In the capital I met Ilya Ilf. Together they wrote the novels The Twelve Chairs (1928) and The Golden Calf (1931).

These works became a kind of encyclopedia of Soviet society in the late 30s and early 40s. More than one generation of readers reveled in the adventures of the resilient Ostap Bender. Work in the Odessa police brought Evgeny Petrov invaluable benefits in creating the image of a “great schemer.”

Ilf and Petrov also jointly created the story “Bright Personality” (1928), “Extraordinary Stories from the Life of the City of Kolokolamsk” and “1001 Days, or New Scheherazade” (both 1929).

In 1940-1941 The writer headed the Ogonyok magazine. During the Great Patriotic War he served as a war correspondent for the Sovinformburo. He was awarded the Order of Lenin.

In May 1942, Petrov arrived in besieged Sevastopol on the destroyer Tashkent. The plane on which the writer was returning to Moscow crashed on July 2, 1942.

For a long time, the works of Ilf and Petrov were not republished. Only in 1961 a five-volume collection of their works was published. During the 60-70s. the co-authors' novels were republished more than 20 times.