Al Altaev

Margarita Vladimirovna Yamshchikova belongs to the ancient Russian family. The ancestor of her mother was the Decembrist , a participant in the Semenov revolt N. N. Tolstoy .

Father, landowner Vladimir Dmitrievich Rokotov , actor and playwright, the leader of the nobility of Velikoluksky district of the Pskov province, is a descendant of the 18th century Russian portrait painter Fyodor Rokotov . According to public convictions, Vladimir Rokotov was close to the “Sixties” and, even before the abolition of serfdom, he released his peasants to the will with a plot of land, organized theaters in the provinces, set up a publicly accessible public library in Kiev and published the Kievsky Vestnik newspaper.

Margarita was engaged in the drawing school, then she studied at the Froebel pedagogical courses, which influenced her work, addressed primarily to children and young people.

In 1892, she married a student of the Forest Institute, Andrei Yamshchikov. However, soon with a young child she fled from her husband, who did not want his wife to be engaged in writing.

After the October Revolution, Yamshchikova worked actively in the newspaper Soldatskaya Pravda and Village Poor, the magazine Krasny Pakhar, Young Comrades, Young Builders, Murzilka , 30 Days. She was a editor of the publishing house " Land and Factory ", collaborated with the publishing house "The History of the Civil War".

She died February 13, 1959 in Moscow . She was buried in St. Petersburg at the Literatorsky footbridge of the Volkovsky cemetery ^{[1] [2]} .

Creativity M. V. Yamshchikova volume and thematically multifaceted. According to the " Great Soviet Encyclopedia ", Al. Altaev owns 150 books. Some researchers have (with options and reprints) more than 300 publications.

The first publication is the Christmas tale “Meeting of the New Year”, signed by the pseudonym Al. Altaev, appeared in the World Illustration magazine at the end of 1889 thanks to the support of the poet Ya. P. Polonsky . The second fairy tale - “Butterfly and the Sun”, published in the children's magazine “ Toys ”, introduced it among the regular authors of one of the best publications for children. M. V. Yamshchikova considered A. N. Peshkov-Toliverov, the editor of the Toy, to be one of her literary mentors and dedicated her memories to her.

"Male" pseudonym Al. Altayev, the writer, was also obliged to his benefactor, Y.P. Polonsky , who gave the novice author his book, and who especially liked The Widow's Tale about the life of a talented and hearty, but dissolute Alexander Altayev, a person with a wide heart. The choice of a pseudonym reflected the ideological principles of an aspiring writer.

The first books of Al. Altaev was devoted to children (“Make it Yourself!”, “In the Village. Folding Figures of People and Animals”, etc.), but the writer’s books written in the genre of a historical novel and fictionalized biographies brought success.

Soviet readers Al. Altayev was known primarily as the author of historical novels and biographical stories about composers, musicians, artists. In the first years after the 1917 revolution , the books of Al. Altaeva competed in popularity with the books of M. Gorky , and in subsequent decades were published in large editions, continuing to diverge instantly (the book “Under the Banner of the Shoe” alone sustained more than 10 editions).

Al Altaev wrote about 50 biographies: “Young boy-poet. The life of S. Ya. Nadson "," Miguelle Cervantes "," Leonardo da Vinci "," Raphael "," Michelangelo "," Schiller "," To the heights of art "," Pasynki Academy "," Tchaikovsky "," Beethoven ", "Benvenuto Cellini". Many of the biographies were included in the collections of “Luminaries of Truth. Essays and pictures from the lives of great people "," Ahead of Centuries "," Childhood of famous people. "

He is the author of many action pieces about Garibaldi , Marat , Philip II , Maria Stewart , Leonardo da Vinci , Raphael , Giordano Bruno , Galileo , Hus and Zizka , Cervantes and Andersen , Savonarola , Patriarch Nikon , about the life of the Eastern Slavs of the times of Kiev , Kiev , Kiev , Kiev. the Mongol invasion, the battle of Ryazan, the oprichnina of Ivan the Terrible , the religious schism of the 17th century, and the peasant freemen of Stenka Razin and others.

In historical novels and short stories “Down the Volga River”, “Rebels”, “Decembrists”, “Under the Banner of the Shoe”, “When the Palaces Are Destroyed”, popular movements are depicted (uprising led by Stepan Razin, uprising of the Decembrists, peasant wars in Germany and etc.). He also wrote memoirs about the figures of Russian art of the late XIX - early XX century "Memorable meetings", "At the walls of the theater."

The writer defined her place in literature as follows:

“What is Al. Altai in literature? Always ordinary, laborer. I spoke in meetings with readers, in libraries: Al. Altaev - popularizer of history, assistant to teachers ... "

In the village of Lositsy, Plyusk district, Pskov region, in the territory of the former noble estate Log Bolshevik district there is a memorial museum of the writer (opened in 1967 ) ^[3] . At first (for the first time in 1895 ), M. V. Yamshchikova came here to visit Varvara Pisareva and her daughter, the owners of the estate since 1890 . Later, in 1926, she acquired the outhouse from the manor house, where she lived and worked during the summer periods from 1927 to 1958 (with the exception of the war years). The museum has preserved the furniture that Margarita Vladimirovna used, in particular, the piano, the table at which she worked. Here are also photos of the life of the writer and her relatives, documents, personal belongings. In her book “Memorable Meetings,” Yamshchikova wrote ^[4] :

“I love Gdovshchina, its forests, fields, and the transparent depth of the river Plyussy; dear Gdovshchina, covered with gray legends, with its communal graves left over from ancient battles, with its help, the “fortification”, with pagan graves and treasures, with its peculiar dialect ... "

She told in detail about her life in the village in her autobiographical novel “Gdovshchina” ^[5] .

In honor of the writer named streets.

• Altaeva street in the city of Pskov in Zapskovye .
• Al street. Altaeva in the village of Novosel'e, Plyus region.

• Yamshchikova-Dmitrieva, Lyudmila Andreevna (1893-1978) - daughter and co-author, writer and translator. Used the pseudonym "Art Felice". Buried next to the mother ^{[1] [2]} .

• Collected works in 16 volumes (1928-1930, volumes 1-2, 4-7, 9, 13-14, 16);
• Bonfires of repentance. M., 1903
• Jan Hus of Gusinz: A Historical Tale (1904);
• In the magical land of the Aztecs. M., 1904
• Bevenutto Cellini. SPb., 1904
• To the new world. SPb., 1905
• Assan-Hyz. St. Petersburg, 1904; M., 1906
• Great storyteller. SPb., 1905
• Children of sorrow. SPb., 1907; M., 1908
• Apostle of truth. SPb., 1908
• Down the Volga River. Spb., 1908
• Garibaldi SPb., 1908
• Ahead of centuries. St. Petersburg, 1910
• Two queens. SPb., 1910
• Hans Dudar. M., 1911
• For the freedom of the motherland. St. Petersburg., 1911
• In a great storm. SPb., 1913
• Waves of life. SPb., 1913
• Forgotten shadows. SPb., 1913
• Star of Italy. SPb., 1913
• Thunderstorm in Moscow. SPb., 1914
• The King and the Infant: A historical tale from the time of Philip II. M., ed. Sytina, 1915;
• In the forests of the Dnieper. P.1-2. Pg., 1915
• Childhood of famous people. Part 1-2. M., 1918-1919
• Love is great. Pb., 1920
• Under the banner of the shoe. Historical novel. - Petrograd: State Publishing House, 1920.
• Al Altaev. On the barricades: Collection of stories from the history of the French Revolution (XVIII — XIX centuries) / With a preface by V. N. Zalezhsky ; Compiled by Al. Altai; Drawings and cover of A. Mogilevsky . - M. —L .: Land and Factory , 1924. - 234 p.
• Decembles - M.-L., 1926.
• Great rebellion. - M.-L., 1927.
• Stone Katmira. - M.-L., 1927.
• Maggie from Snake Island. - M.-L., 1927.
• Rebels - M.-L., 1927, 2nd ed. 1930.
• Sword of Ali-Ator. - M.-L., 1928.
• Rebels in Siberia. - M.-L., 1929.
• Power and gold. - M., 1929.
• When palaces are destroyed. - M.-L., 1929, 1930.
• Shaken up Rus. - M., 1930.
• Oblique and hammer. - M.-L., 1930.
• Marat. Pictures from the history of the Great French Revolution. - Kharkov: Proletarian, 1931.
• Memorable meetings: Memories of Russian artists and artists. - 1946 ^[6] .
• M. I. Glinka. Life and art. - M.L.: Detgiz, 1947.
• Tchaikovsky: Biographical novel. - 1954.
• Tale. - 1957.
• The mighty blind man. Historical novel about J. Zizka. - 1959.
• Ahead of centuries. Leonardo da Vinci. Raphael. Michelangelo: a story. - M .: GIDL, 1959; circulation of 90 000 copies.
• Michelangelo. - Petrozavodsk: KKI, 1966; circulation of 100 000 copies.
• Pacenki Academy. - 1967.
• Tale. - 1972.
• To the heights of art. - 1979.
• Thunderstorm in Moscow // Collect Russia. - 1993.
• Bonfires of repentance. - 1993.
• Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo: a story. - 1995.

• Litvinov V. Al. Altaev. - M., 1973.
• Meskin V.A. Altaev Al. // Russian children's writers of the XX century: Bibliographical dictionary. - M .: Flint ; Science , 1997. - pp . 28-30 . - ISBN 5-02-011304-2 .
• Indefatigable Altayev: to the 145th anniversary of the birth of Margarita Vladimirovna Yamshchikova (1872-1959) : biobibliographic index of literature: 12+ / GBUK "Pskov Regional Universal Scientific Library", Department of Local History Literature; [comp .: M.I. Panchishin; Ch. Ed .: V.I. Pavlova]. - Pskov: Pskov Regional Universal Scientific Library, 2017. - 51 p.

• Yamshchikova Margarita Vladimirovna