Naumov, Ivan Sergeevich

Born in 1971 in Moscow. In 1993 he graduated from MIREA as an optical engineer. He began his career in the field of international tourism, and subsequently began to work in the field of transportation of dangerous goods ^[3] .

Esperanto poet

In 1990, Naumov became acquainted with Esperanto and until the early 2000s participated in the Russian youth Esperanto movement, was one of the organizers of a number of significant Russian and international Esperanto events of the 90s. In early 1992, Naumov made his debut in the literary almanac of the esper. with translations of Nikolai Gumilyov ^{[4] [5] [6]} . Subsequently, his work was widely represented in Esperanto-periodicals with original poetry. In 1992-1993 he was the chief editor of Esper. Pado sunen is a literary application of the Esperanto Esper newspaper . Jene , published in Cheboksary by the famous Esperanto activist Alexander Blinov . Literary critics attributed Naumov’s poetry in Esperanto to the ^[7] , although , comparing Naumov’s work with the poetry of E. I. Mikhalsky , considered him an exception to traditional Russian and Soviet Esperanto poetry ^{[ 3]} . Boris Kolker noted that Naumov practically did not use the neologisms common in Esperanto poetry, and at the same time he achieved the magic of images ^[8] . The appearance of the bright poet was noted by the Esper Prize . , awarded by the editors of Esper magazine . La Ondo de Esperanto ^[9] . In 1995, the author’s first book was published, the main feature of which was the combination of two collections in one volume, in two languages ​​and with two covers. Part in Esperanto was called " Esper. Plejo ”, and in Russian“ Music is dreams ” ^{[to 1]} . If the Russian-language collection “Music is Dreams” went unnoticed, then “Plejo” was warmly received by critics who compared Naumov’s poems with impressionism in the visual arts. It was noted that the poetic images in the collection are not abstract, but realistic, but at the same time as if written in pastel ^[8] . At the literary contest of the esper magazine . collection received the first prize. In 1997, Naumov presented his work in the framework of the official program of the World Esperanto Congress in Tampere ^{[3] [10]} .

Science Fiction Writer

Since 2004, Ivan Naumov began to actively participate in online literary competitions, soon the first publications appeared in science fiction collections and periodicals ^[1] . In 2006 he graduated with honors from the Higher Literary Courses of the Literary Institute. Gorky (workshop of E. Yu. Sidorov ). In 2007, the book Harbinger of the Sixth Wave (compiled by science fiction writer Andrei Lazarchuk ) published the story Harlem-Detroit, which was positively received by critics. It was noted that the story is one of the three leaders of the collection ^[11] .

In 2008, the Forum publishing house, which specialized in non-format literature, published the first collection of stories by Ivan Naumov in Russian, "Hostage Exchange." Some stories included in the collection were written for the Mini-Prose contest, in which the author had won four times by the time the collection was released ^[12] . The collection itself participated in the Star Bridge bridge fiction festival and was awarded third place in the Debut Books nomination (Bronze Caduceus) ^[12] . Critics noted that Naumov chose the format of a fantastic story for “an artistic study of the moral and philosophical problems of our life today” ^[13] . The story “October Fourth”, presented in the book, was put forward for the Yuri Kazakov Literary Prize (the best story of the year), but could not reach the final of the competition ^[14] . The critic Lev Danilkin, evaluating the first collection of Ivan Naumov, described his work in this way:

He builds the plot with sharp, unpredictable movements, for which you, as a rule, do not keep pace. What follows is a non-trivial development of the attack - an even stronger move, a change of register; and so annoyed, completely disoriented, you suddenly feel like they’ve made a cut; there is a second shock, blackout, - and at about this moment the story ends. Then you are forced to re-read the story first - “unpack” semantic ellipses, independently restore the plot and read the second row of characters; an exciting, albeit psychologically not very comfortable experience.

- ^[15]

In 2011, the second collection was published telling Ivan Naumov "Boy with a saber." Under one cover, 13 stories were collected, which are divided into three parts by two short essay sketches. The novel “The Boy with a Saber”, which gave the title to the collection, was more like military prose, describing the war in the fictional country of Topolin, which critics associated with the real war in Yugoslavia ^[1] . Moreover, the author was able to very accurately convey the atmosphere of modern war ^[16] . In the stories included in the book, critics looked at allusions to the Strugatsky brothers' Hard to Be a God , and the heroes saw Hemingway fatalism and doom, which push them to the last battle, realizing the whole losing situation ^[1] . The story “Boy with a Saber” made it to the finals of the 2011 Ivan Belkin annual award ^{[17] [18]} . In the same year, Naumov took part in the Burim novel “Sixteen Cards” (he owns the fifth chapter of “Hunting”), which was written by sixteen authors (the initiator and one of the authors of the novel, Grigory Arosev ). The novel was published in the "thick" literary magazine " Ural " ^{[17] [19]} .

In 2012, a unique steam-punk project “Ketopolis. Whales and Armadillos ”- a group of sixteen authors ( Dmitry Kolodan , Karina Shahinyan , Shimun Vrochek , Ivan Naumov, Larisa Bortnikova, and others) played the role of translators of the Icelandic author Gray F. Green ( ²⁰⁾ . Naumov participated in the project “Farewell to Baklavsky”. This work, recognized by critics as the best in the novel, showed the author a mature and strong prose writer ^[1] . Naumov became the first author from the Ketopolis project team to reveal his name. Critics appreciated this step positively, lamenting that “Farewell to Baklavsky” did not turn into a large independent work ^[21] . The story participated in a number of literary competitions in 2011 and 2012 and received two well-deserved awards: the Prize to them. Vl. Odoevsky and "Bronze ROSCON" ^[22] .

In the February 2012 novel Shadows. Book 1. Bestiary ”critics noted the crumbling plot, the weakness of composition and an overabundance of superheroes. At the same time, it was emphasized that Naumov, unlike other authors of the world of Ethnogenesis , more clearly presents the reader with the process of transforming an ordinary person into a superhero, who needs to accomplish feats almost at the physiological level ^[23] . In 2013, the novel participated in the RosCon contest (nomination “Inter-author project”), but was not successful ^[24] .

Balkan border

On March 21, 2019, the film “ Balkan Frontier ” was released in Russian distribution - the script was written by Ivan Naumov in collaboration with Andrei Anaykin and Natalya Nazarova ^[25] . The script of the film was written over several years and three years passed between the first and final version. In total, about thirty versions of the script were written. the first version contained more than 600 pages, and the version given to the director of the film had less than 400 pages ^[26] . While working on the script, Naumov met with participants in the events, including Yunus-Bek Yevkurov ^[27] .

Simultaneously with the film, the novel Balkan Frontier appeared on sale. In his speeches, Ivan Naumov emphasized that the book is not a novelization of the film, but was created in parallel with the script and is significantly different from that shown on the screen ^[28] .

The work of Ivan Naumov is not aimed at entertainment and is based on the traditions of the Strugatsky brothers , Stanislav Lem , Ray Bradbury in science fiction and EI Mikhalsky in Esperanto poetry ^{[13] [15]} . Russian critics traditionally attribute Naumov’s poetry in Esperanto to the ^[3] , but believed that Naumov was more likely an exception to the traditions of the Moscow School ^[29] .

Creativity of science fiction writer Naumov, critics include in the "color wave" of Russian fiction. Vasily Vladimirsky in 2013 noted that Ivan Naumov “writes with equal ease about the events taking place on the Earth tormented by nuclear war, in ancient and mysterious India, on a distant high-tech planet, in a strange world, whose inhabitants live inside mushrooms - and about everyday life limited peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation in a certain Eastern European country. This is not omnivorous, but rather an acute craving for a constant change in repertoire, the desire to certainly play all the main roles of world drama ” ^[17] . Being a representative of the “color wave” of Russian fiction, Naumov’s work is noticeably different from his “colleagues on the wave”. His work has clear ties with modernity, and even in explicitly fantastic works, he refers to “issues of social reality”. One of the typical images in his work is the image of a defender or guard, which protects the established order of things. To achieve his creative goals, the author often puts his heroes in a situation of intersection of civilizations of different levels of technology, worldview, attitude to emerging circumstances. Putting the heroes on the guard of borders, Naumov himself easily crosses the borders of fiction within the framework of the “color wave” and boldly invades the territory of classical literature. Such intrusions were highly appreciated by readers and critics, as evidenced by the presentation of the Ivan Petrovich Belkin Prize in 2010 to Ivan Naumov ^[2] . At the same time, critics noted that, like most representatives of the “color wave” that came out of online literature, Naumov did not refuse to participate in joint projects, such as the novels Ketopolis, Sixteen Maps, or the scenario Balkan Frontier . Russian critics note that the work of Ivan Naumov will not be successful in mass literature, but will always find his reader ^[11] .

• Ivan 'Naumov. esper. Plejo , Music is a dream. - M .: Impeto, 1995 .-- 49 + 55 s. - ISBN 5716100163 .
• Naumov I.S. Hostage Exchange. - M .: Forum, 2008 .-- 416 p. - ISBN 978-5-91134-256-2 .
• Naumov I.S. Boy with a saber. - M .: Astrel, 2012 .-- 384 p. - (Amalgam). - ISBN 978-5-271-44827-0 .
• Naumov I.S. Shadows. Bestiary. - M .: AST , Ethnogenesis , 2012 .-- 272 p. - ( Ethnogenesis ).
• Naumov I.S. Balkan border. - M .: Eksmo , 2019 .-- 448 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-04-099646-9 .

• Danilkin L.A. Ivan Naumov // Numbering from the tail. Guide to Russian literature. - M .: AST, Astrel , Genres, 2009 .-- 288 p. - 4000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-17-058933-3 .

• Ivan Naumov (neopr.) . The authors . Fantlab.ru. Date of treatment March 3, 2019.
• Ivan Naumov. Versoj (verses in Esperanto) (esp.) . Jurij Finkel. Date of treatment March 3, 2019.