Grachev, Alexander Matveevich

He was born on June 23 (July 6, New Style) in 1912 on a farm Merkulovsky (on the right bank of the Don river) of the Veshensky village circle (now Veshensky / Sholokhov district of the Rostov Region), in a peasant family ^[1] .

After graduating from rural youth school , he was a cadet of the Novocherkassk cavalry school (not far from the village of Karginskaya, the birthplace of the all-Union writer Sholokhov ). Expelled for health reasons (fell from a horse and was injured).

In his diary, Alexander Grachev writes:

He entered the rabfak .

Brought up on the books of V.K. Arsenyev , he went to the Far East. At first he served in the headquarters of the military district. As the son of a poor man who had privileges for admission to the medical institute without examinations, he entered, but studied there for only three months.

In 1932 he left for the construction of the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur , worked as a laborer, then as a school teacher ^{[2] [3]} .

In the diary he writes:

Then Alexander Grachev began to write.

Since 1934 - an employee of the newspaper Amursky Drummer (Komsomolsk-on-Amur). In the collection "Komsomolsk", published for the biennium of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, three of his stories were published and awarded the first prize.

In 1940 he joined the CPSU (b) ^[3]

Member of the war with imperialist Japan , took part in the landing on the Kuril Islands .

The story “The Fall of Tishima-Retto” (1956) is dedicated to this event. There were 15 options and 15 titles, one of the last “On Minami Island”. The book is out, but his Kuril diary is irretrievably lost. As the daughter of the writer Anna Ponomareva says: “He was stolen from me at work ...” (Grachev kept diaries from the age of 16, relatives found them after his death).

“My father had a passion for changing places,” says Grachev’s daughter. - From Kamchatka in 1946 we went to Vladivostok, and from there to the Don. We already had a large family - seven people, including four children, and his mother Alida ^[4] , who had lived with him all her life. We called her Baba Lida. ”

In 1948, the Volga-Don Canal began to be built in Stalingrad . And Grachev was offered to cover the construction site as a correspondent for the Izvestia newspaper.

He corresponded with Vsevolod Nikanorovich Ivanov . In one of the letters Ivanov writes:

In 1953, after the death of Stalin , the Grachevs returned again to the Amur.

In the postwar years - correspondent of the newspaper " Pacific Star ", own correspondent of the newspapers " Izvestia ", " Literary Russia ", an employee of TASS , the News Agency . He was the head of the propaganda department of the Komsomolsky rural district committee of the CPSU, the secretary of the party committee of the regional writing organization, a deputy of the district council, a member of the regional council of trade unions ^{[3] [5]} .

To his 60th birthday, Grachev finished stories about nature under the name “Forest Rustles”. There are expert conclusions that everything in them is true, he did not lie. He only humanized animals, animated them ^[6] . Four reprints were issued ^[7] .

He was buried in the Central cemetery of Khabarovsk, 1st sector (writers alley) ^[8] .

Family

Wife - Efrosinya (Faina) Ivanovna Gracheva (1913-2000).

Four children (Peter died in 1957; the eldest son - Vladimir, the youngest son - Leonid, daughter - Anna Ponomareva).

The ideal for Grachev among writers was Mikhail Sholokhov . He is his countryman.

There is a letter, he writes how he visited M. A. Sholokhov, this was before the war:

“Yesterday was at Sholokhov. On the main street in the center of Veshenskaya stands his blue house with an attic. The front door is covered in snow. I’m going to the economic entrance ... And finally, Sholokhov appeared - this titan-artist, a 35-year-old academician, a man respected by all the cultural humanity of the world. Small in stature, stocky, with a fresh face and calmly penetrating, clever, big eyes ... The conversation lasted for about 15 minutes. In the house my sister-in-law M.A. was preparing for the wedding. I left scattered, a little saddened by too short a meeting, but full of desires and energy ... "

In 1953, Alexander Grachev chose and staked out a place for writers' dachas on the banks of the Amur canal, not far from the village of Osinovaya Rechka. It was almost Peredelkino, but among the people it was called Grachevka.

There were houses of a prose writer, literary critic and translator Yulia Shestakova , playwright and executive secretary of the Khabarovsk Writing Organization Viktor Alexandrovsky , national poet Andrei Passar , prose writer and poet Sergei Feoktistov , and a prose writer Peter Proskurin even lived in a tent.

On May 6, 1966, on his way to Japan, Sholokhov traveled to Khabarovsk and met with Grachev. The distinguished guest was received at the dacha in Grachevka and was treated with a company ear. Remembering Sholokhov's long-standing desire to taste Amur crucian carp (he once wrote about this to Grachev), he was presented with a whole, fat crucian carp.

In the 90s, Grachev's cottage burned down. And when they made a pontoon crossing to the Bolshoi Ussuriysky island , they completely destroyed it ^[6] .

• Order of the Badge of Honor (06/23/1972)
• Laureate of the Khabarovsk Komsomol Prize - for the novel "First Clearing" (1976, posthumously).
• Member of the Union of Writers of the USSR .

Roman

• The first clearing [prim. name City in the taiga]. (1960; Book 1, 2, 1977)

Tale

• Mystery of the Red Lake. (adventure story about geologists, 1948)
• The fall of Tishima-Retto. ([original name on Minami Island], adventure story about the liberation of the Kuril Islands, 1956)
• The gatehouse at Burukan rapids. (1962)
• People shock construction. (the story of the builders of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, 1964)
• Forest rustles. (a tale of nature, 1970; - 4th ed., rev., 2006)
• Through the March snow. (adventure story, series "Far Eastern travels and adventures", published in 1973)
• Journey to the edge of youth. (unfinished, published in 1974)
• The thought of the border guard. (documentary-fiction narrative of the Far Eastern border, published in 1976)

Essays

• Thinking by the map. Holds - a bag of treasures. ( In the book: The feat on the Amur continues. - Khabarovsk, 1967. - S. 5-37. )
• At the edge of the snowy mountains. ( In the book: Amur is a river of exploits. - Khabarovsk, 1970. - S. 634-659. )
• Ahead is the ocean. (From a writer's notebook.) ( In the book: Grachev L. A Journey to the Land of Youth. — Khabarovsk. 1974. - P. 63-78. )
• Start: From the diary: [About the construction of Komsomolsk-on-Amur] // Dal. East. - 1982. - No. 5. - S. 119—124.
• The tricks of the cunning Piika // Rural calendar. 1984. - M., 1983. - S. 204: PI.

• Writers of the Far East: Bibliographic Guide. Comp. E. M. Alenkina. - Khabarovsk: Book. ed., 1973. - 304 p., pp. 71-75.
• Writers of the Far East. Bibliographic reference. Vol. 2. Comp .: T.V. Kirpichenko, L.N. Tsinovskaya. - Khabarovsk: Khabar. regional univers. scientific b-ka, 1989 .-- 384 p., pp. 89-92.
• Selected prose of the journal Far East: Prose works of Far Eastern writers for 75 years: 1933-2008 / Author of the project and resp. for issue. V.V. Sukachev [V. V. Springer], ed. L.I. Milanich. - Khabarovsk: Ed. Far East House, 2008. - 608 p., pp. 106-113 (The Secret of the Red Lake, pages of the story).
• Khlebnikov G. Going Beyond the Horizon: An Documentary Fiction (About A. M. Grachev). - Khabarovsk: Khabarovsk book publishing house, 1988. - 176 p.
• Kulikov F. Chronicler of the Land of Youth: On the 60th anniversary of A. M. Grachev. the journal "Far East" - 1972. - No. 6. - pp. 136-137: "Portrait".
• On awarding the writer Grachev A. M. with the Order of the Badge of Honor: Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 23, 1972, Vedomosti of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. - 1972. - No. 26. - p. 390.
• A.M. Grachev. Obituary // Pacific Star. - Khabarovsk, April 17, 1973.
• Alexander Matveevich Grachev: Obituary: the newspaper "Far East Komsomolsk" - 1973, April 15; The newspaper "Young Far East" - 1973, April 15.
• Khalov P. The Land of Youth // Dal. East. - 1974. - No. 9. - S. 142-143
• Chernyavsky A. Journey into youth // Pacific. star. - 1974. - July 12.
• Efimenko V. Alexander Grachev and his books: Grachev A. Through the March snow. - Khabarovsk, 1975. - pp. 295-303.
• Efimenko V. The main clearing of Alexander Grachev: Grachev A. M. The first clearing. - Khabarovsk, 1977. - pp. 507-511.
• Khlebnikov G. The fate of one book // Dalnevost. Komsomolsk - 1978. - Dec 31
• Pronyakin K.A., Kharitonova I. Yu. Grachev from Grachevka . "Debry-DV", 08/06/2009
• Kvyatkovsky Yu. I. Tested by fate. These names are dear to me ... V. Ivanov, A. Vakhov, A. Grachev, V. Alexandrovsky, N. Rogal. The journal "Far East" / Book. 3. - Khabarovsk: Samizdat, 2009 - 86 p. / - 172 p / s.
• His fate was enviable. On the centenary of the birth of Alexander Grachev. Comp. A. Petrov. - Khabarovsk: Department of scientific and publishing activities of the Khabarovsk Regional Museum. N.I. Grodekova, 2012 .-- 208 p.
• Kuzmina M. A. White pages of the Far Eastern writer Alexander Grachev . "Debry-DV", 12.24.2015
• Literary guide. Khabarovsk writers: fate and creativity. Bibliography, prose, poetry. Under the total. ed. M.F. Aslamova. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Khabarovsk Regional Writing Organization. - Khabarovsk: Book. ed., 2004. - 326 p., pp. 65-68.

• Julia Shestakova - Far Eastern writer, colleague of Alexander Grachev.
• Belov Mikhail Prokopyevich
• Ivanov Vsevolod Nikanorovich

• Literary Komsomolsk.
• DEBRY DV. Grachev from Grachevka.
• Grachev, Alexander Matveevich. Encyclopedia of the Far East.
• (unavailable link) Grachev Alexander Matveevich. KomCity.ru
• A. Grachev. Mystery of the Red Lake.
• A. Grachev. The fall of Tishima-Retto.
• 100th anniversary of Alexander Grachev celebrated in Khabarovsk