Efremov, Ivan Antonovich

According to the autobiography ^[7] and official biography, I. A. Efremov was born on April 9 ( 22 ), 1907 in the village of Vyritsa , Tsarskoye Selo district ^{[8] [9]} .

According to the record in the metric book of the church of the village of Suida of the Gatchinsky district of the Leningrad Region, I. A. Efremov was born on April 10 (23), 1908 ^[10] .

In his youth, Efremov "added" a year to himself, so that he could start working earlier. For P.K. Chudinov , biographer I. A. Efremov, an extract from the archive was made by historian V. Ya. Nikiforov ^[11] .

Father, a resident of Vyritsa Antip Kharitonovich Efremov, was a tenant of the Vyritsky sawmill, which, according to data for 1914, employed 17 people. The land on which the plant stood was owned by the family of the Wittgenstein princes. Subsequently, Antip Efremov created his own production, took a prominent position among local Zemstvo leaders and philanthropists, and changed his name to Anton. Ivan, the son of a wealthy entrepreneur, had to change his middle name from Antipovich to Antonovich after 1917 ^[12] . In Efremov’s novel “ Razor Blade ”, the number of characters includes a certain prince Wittgenstein, whose name was well known to the writer since childhood.

Efremov’s abilities showed up quite early: at the age of four he learned to read, at the age of six he got acquainted with the work of Jules Verne and fell in love with books about explorers, sailors and scientists.

In 1914, his family moved to Berdyansk , where he entered a gymnasium. During the revolution, parents divorced, and in 1919 a mother and children moved to Kherson , married a red commander and left with him, leaving the children to an aunt who soon died of typhus. Ivan nailed to the Red Army autorot, with which the "son of the regiment" reached Perekop . During the bombing, Ochakova was shell-shocked and from that time began to stutter a little.

Education and Expeditions

In 1921, having been demobilized, he left for Petrograd with the firm intention to study and, thanks to the disinterested help of teachers, graduated from school in two and a half years. “The revolution was also my liberation from philistinism,” he said later ^[13] .

I had to combine my studies with my livelihood: Efremov worked as a loader, cutter of firewood, assistant chauffeur, then a night shift chauffeur.

In 1923, he passed the exams for the navigator of coastal navigation at the Petrograd nautical classes and, after graduating from school, left for the Far East in the spring of 1924 .

Efremov came to paleontology when he met academician P.P. Sushkin , who discovered this science for him and helped take the first steps in it. Sailing in the Pacific Ocean in 1924 as a sailor with the patronage of Captain D. A. Lukhmanov , the future paleontologist returned to Leningrad and entered the Biology Department at Leningrad State University .

Since the mid -1920s, his life has been going on expeditions, bringing numerous valuable finds and discoveries. In particular, it was at this time that he discovered the remains of a Vetlugasaur . He became the second person in the world who managed to find these remains.

The routes of the paleontological expeditions of Ivan Efremov ran along the Volga , Urals and Central Asia ; in the first half of the 1930s, he participated in geological expeditions in the Urals , Siberia and the Far East (the head of the detachment of the Lower Amur expedition in 1931 ^[14] ). In 1932 and 1934, the Olekmo-Tyndinskaya and Verkhne-Charskaya geological expeditions of I. A. Efremov passed along the Nyukzha and Olekma rivers. Some episodes of his expeditionary life later went into the stories “The Diamond Tube ”, “The Shadow of the Past ”, “The Loach Podlunny” and others.

In 1932-1935 he studied externally at the Leningrad Mining Institute , the diploma "with honors" was issued in 1937.

Scientific work

In 1935, according to the totality of scientific works, the degree of candidate of biological sciences was awarded, in the section "Paleontology" ^[15] .

In March 1941, for his work “Fauna of Terrestrial Vertebral Middle Zones of the Permian of the USSR”, a Doctor of Biological Sciences was awarded.

At this time, Ivan Antonovich already lived in Moscow , since in 1935 the Paleontological Institute moved here. According to the findings made at the age of 19, in collaboration with A.P. Bystrov, he published a monograph on the osteology and anatomy of the eotrias labyrinthodont , for which the authors will subsequently be awarded honorary diplomas of the Linnean Society (England).

At the beginning of the war he was evacuated to Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR), from there - to Frunze (Kyrgyz SSR). There he suffered a severe form of typhoid fever, having received a serious heart disease. The disease bedridden Efremov for a long time. But it was precisely this forced inaction that contributed to his appeal to the word of art. He decides to express his impressions of the expeditions no longer in documentary form, not in the form of a guidebook, but in art form, in the genre of a story, with a certain plot and elements of fiction. In just a year, he writes and publishes more than ten stories. This is the beginning of his journey into literature. At the same time, Efremov continues to work as a paleontologist.

In the 1940s, Efremov developed a new branch of knowledge, taphonomy - the doctrine of the laws of conservation of the remains of fossil organisms in the layers of sedimentary rocks. The manuscript “Tafonomia” was completed in 1943 , but it was possible to publish it only in 1950 (“Taphonomy and the Geological Chronicle”). The Academy of Sciences allowed Efremov to publish the Tafonomy only after his expeditions to Mongolia brought rich material (several railway carriages of dinosaur bones), and in these expeditions Efremov relied on the theoretical principles of his science. It is noteworthy that a few months earlier an American expedition worked in the same Mongolia, but did not make any paleontological findings. The success of Efremov’s expedition gave the “green light” to his fundamental book on taphonomy and its science, which has practical application and an interdisciplinary theoretical foundation. It is noteworthy that in many American textbooks and reference books on paleontology, Efremov is considered as the "father" of modern paleontology, combining geological and paleontological data into a single science.

The new industry received general recognition only in the 1970s , but Efremov managed to successfully apply the conclusions of his science during the expedition to the Mongolian Gobi desert, which brought rich material. The expedition , led by the head of the Department of Ancient Vertebrates of the Paleontological Institute, I. A. Efremov, worked in Mongolia in 1946 , 1948 and 1949 , and the documentary novel “ The Road of the Winds ” was written about it.

Literary work

During the war, I. A. Efremov began writing his first “stories about the extraordinary,” which combine science fiction and adventure . In these stories, he predicted the discovery of diamond deposits in Yakutia and holography . He directly influenced the fate of the famous Catti Sark on the fate of the famous British sailing ship , now restored by enthusiasts and standing on the banks of the Thames .

During the Great Patriotic War, the scientist creates his first large-scale works - historical and adventure stories with elements of science fiction “The Journey of Baurjed” (1949) and “On the Edge of the Oikumeny” (1953), united by the general title “The Great Arc” . Based on the material of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, he first poses to the reader a number of questions of a moral and ethical nature, interpreting from a humanistic point of view the problems of relations between power and society, war and peace, science and religion.

In the Gobi desert, on an expedition behind the " dragon bones ", Efremov had a plan to create a work about the cosmic future, about the Great Ring of the worlds of the Universe, about beautiful, "insatiable in feat" people, genuine human relationships and the planet, turned by its inhabitants into a blooming garden . Such a work was the novel " The Andromeda Nebula ", released in 1957 . The future described in the book is communist - without private property , the market and professional authorities.

The second novel of the writer, “Razor Blade” , was a response to the problems that faced the country by the beginning of the 1960s , when “siege socialism” of the past was a thing of the past , new approaches to managing society and upbringing, the development of human sciences, and unification were required all the people of the planet in the struggle for nuclear disarmament and genuine socialism. Efremov also sought to show all this in the form of an adventure novel "in a somewhat Haggardian style."

However, the real world development trends became different, more and more alarming, and by the end of the 1960s a warning novel “ Bull Hour ” appeared. The writer warned of a threatening social, environmental and moral disaster. In the book, the bright world of the Earth, continuing the line of the Andromeda Nebula, is opposed by the gloomy dystopia of the planet Tormans, ruled by an oligarchy. The widespread belief that the novel is a caricature of the USSR is incorrect: although the writer reflected the dead-end trends in the development of “ real socialism ” (the novel was perceived as “ slandering Soviet reality ”, was withdrawn from libraries and was not reprinted until the end of the 1980s ) ^[16] . The heroes of Efremov’s novel didn’t come to an unambiguous conclusion on what social system the Tormans oligarchy came from - from “ant false socialism” ( Maoism ) or from “gangsterized capitalism”. In 1969, in a letter to an American colleague, the writer speaks of an “explosion of immorality”, followed by “the greatest catastrophe in history in the form of a widespread technical monoculture.”

In 1972, the writer’s latest novel, The Thais of Athens, was published, in which the author turned to the time of Alexander the Great and tried to trace how the problems were set then, the solutions of which he showed in works about the future. Studies of little-known female cults, focusing on the woman’s inner world and her role for historical destinies, reflection on the genesis of cultures and religions and their interaction, the search for beauty and truth - all this is collected in the novel and shown in the broad historical context of the clash of ancient and eastern cultures.

Efremov was married three times.

First, on Ksenia Svitalskaya, daughter of N. I. Svitalsky, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR , granddaughter of captain 2nd rank I.A. Matusevich, destroyer commander “Impeccable” (marriage was short-lived), since 1936 on Elena Dametievna Konzhukova , who herself was a famous paleontologist. From their marriage, Efremov had a son, Allan Ivanovich Efremov.

After the death of Elena Dometyevna in 1961, Ivan Antonovich married in 1962 Taisiya Iosifovna Yukhnevskaya, with whom he lived the last 10 years of his life.

Ivan Efremov died on October 5, 1972 at the 65th year of life from heart failure. He did not live to see the end of the publication of his fourth novel, Thais of Athens , dedicated to a friend and wife, Taisiya Iosifovna Efremova. He was buried in a cemetery in Komarovo near St. Petersburg.

The obituary at the death of the writer published the weekly Literaturnaya Gazeta among four small obituaries on the inside pages of the newspaper. The news of the death of his beloved writer spread rapidly. However, many years later, the literary editorial office received a lot of letters for Efremov from readers who were confident that the author was alive.

A month after the death of the writer, workers of the KGB of the USSR searched his apartment. There is evidence that the writer and his wife were suspected of espionage in favor of Britain ^[17] . A criminal case was instituted upon the death of a writer of the KGB of the USSR, which was terminated on March 4, 1974 . The prosecutor was initiated by General V.I. Alidin ^[18] .

Later, in the materials of the writer, two artistic works were discovered and published in the journal Student Meridian, and after and in the complete collection of works: the story Kalliroya and the story Tamralipt and Tillottama, some fragments of which were included in Razor Blade.

Efremov's worldview is remarkable for its integrity, in it the evolutionary paleontologist complements the social thinker, psychologist and writer. From primitive biological forms to the Paleolithic bonfires, and further, through the collection of pearls of thought and beauty created by man in all ages, to the building of a just society. The main sources and components of the Ephraim worldview: socialist thought - the dialectic of Marxism , N. Chernyshevsky , A. Bogdanov , G. Wells ; romantic adventure literature - G. Haggard , A. Green ; Silver Age Russian poetry - Nikolai Gumilyov , Maximilian Voloshin (these poets are cited in many works of Efremov, see L. Akopov. Poetry in the works of I. A. Efremov ); " Nomogenesis " of the outstanding biologist Lev Semenovich Berg ; the humanistic psychology of C. Rogers and E. Fromm ; Indian philosophy; the ideas of Russian cosmism - K. Tsiolkovsky , V. Vernadsky and the Living Ethics of the Roerichs ^[19] .

According to the writer and literary critic Dmitry Bykov (2007), Efremov opposed pessimistic views on the nature of man , according to which a man is imperfect and guided by base instincts; with this position, any social structure, whether capitalism or socialism, can become unbearable for life. For Efremov, on the contrary, faith in the prospect of an anthropological revolution is important, from his point of view, Bykov writes, the evolutionary possibilities of man are infinite. At the same time, this path runs along the "razor's edge", the great and the beautiful, according to Bykov, are on the "finest line between dictatorship and anarchy, wealth and poverty, sentimentality and atrocities." Bykov believes that Efremov’s unpopularity in post-Soviet Russia is due to the fact that under the conditions of “wild capitalism” the prevailing attitude is that it is impossible to change a person - “brute cattle”, and capitalism is “the end of history ” ^[20] .

From the point of view of the philosopher and publicist Boris Mezhuev (2012), in the system of Efremov’s views, a person is internally “good and wonderful,” and evil is a product of distorted social relations; accordingly, the task of communist education is only to reveal the inherent moral qualities of man. According to Mezhuyev, such a humanistic Russoist position, rejecting original sin , diverges from the Judeo-Christian tradition , does not take into account the anthropological discoveries of Nietzsche and Freud ; Efremov's "pagan-humanistic" views are opposed to the philosophy of the Strugatsky brothers. Mezhuev sees in the ideas of Efremov the origins of modern "neo-, para- and crypto-Marxism", which is an essential part of Russian science fiction and domestic public discourse ^[21] .

• Order of the Red Banner of Labor ( 1945 ) - for merit in paleontology.
• Order of the Red Banner of Labor (10/28/1967) - for services to the development of Soviet literature and active participation in the communist education of workers.
• Order of the Badge of Honor .
• Сталинская премия второй степени (1952) — за книгу «Тафономия и геологическая летопись».

• Всесоюзное палеонтологическое общество
• Moscow Society of Naturalists
• Союз писателей СССР
• Лондонское Линнеевское общество , почётный член (1957) ^[22]

• Именем Ефремова названа библиотека в посёлке Вырица, а также улица Ивана Ефремова.
• Именем Ефремова назван клуб в Софии (Болгария). «Интегральный клуб фантастики, эвристики и прогностики Иван Ефремов» создан в 1974 году и работает и сегодня. Это старейший клуб в Восточной Европе. Сайт клуба: http://sf-sofia.com/ .
• Названная в честь писателя ежегодная литературная конференция « Ефремовские чтения » проходит ежегодно в пос. Вырица; с 2009 года — также и в Москве .
• Именем Ивана Ефремова названа литературная премия за вклад в развитие и пропаганду фантастики.
• В честь Ивана Ефремова названа малая планета (2269) Ефремиана , открытая 2 мая 1976 года астрономом Н. Черных .
• Ивантоза́вр (лат. Ivantosaurus ensifer) — примитивный терапсид , «Ивана Антоновича ящер», открыт и назван Петром Константиновичем Чудиновым в честь своего научного руководителя, Ивана Антоновича Ефремова.
• В честь И. Ефремова назван минерал ефремовит , что, возможно, связано с особо трепетным отношением Ивана Антоновича к минералам, а также с его профессиональными достижениями как геолога. Свою «любовь к камням» Ефремов отразил и в «Лезвии бритвы» (загадочные серые камни — хиастолиты), и в ранних рассказах, и своих дневниках, посвящённых геологическим экспедициям.
• В 1978 году в честь семидесятилетия со дня рождения Ивана Антоновича Ефремова во многих городах проводились встречи и литературные вечера, посвящённые его памяти. Тогда же возникла идея увековечить его имя в районе трассы БАМа, где он когда-то проводил исследования ^[23] . 21 сентября 1978 года Постоянная междуведомственная комиссия по географическим названиям вынесла положительное решение по этому вопросу ^[24] . В центре Усть-Нюкжи хотели установить памятник Ефремову ^[23] . К инициативе присвоения имени Ефремова станции Усть-Нюкжа (ныне посёлок Юктали ) присоединились также строители этого посёлка (комсомольцы строительно-монтажного поезда № 594), многие общественные организации и даже академики АН СССР В. В. Меннер и А. Л. Яншин ^[25] . Однако решение этого вопроса почему-то затянулось. Последовавшая смерть Брежнева и наступившая перестройка заставили забыть об этой идее.
• В 2016 году Краснодонская улица в Бердянске переименована в улицу Ивана Ефремова ^[26] .
• 25 апреля 2017 года в Москве на доме, где в 1935—1962 годах жил Иван Ефремов ( Бол. Спасоглинищевский пер. , д. 8), была открыта мемориальная доска ^{[27] [28]} .
• Ефремов стал прототипом Фёдора Симеоновича Киврина в повести братьев Стругацких « Понедельник начинается в субботу » ^[29] .

Documentaries

• 1990 — « Откровение Ивана Ефремова » (режиссёр Неля Гульчук).
• 2004 — «Оседлавший дракона» (режиссёр Ирина Ланина).
• 2006 — «Иван Ефремов — Последний коммунист вселенной» (режиссёр В. Мелетин).
• 2007 — «Человек Эры Кольца. Иван Ефремов» (режиссёр Денис Чуваев).

Автор более 90 научных работ ^[30] , среди них монографии:

• Быстров А. П., Ефремов И. А. Bentosuchus sushkini Efr. — лабиринтодонт из эотриаса р. Шарженги. М.: Изд-во АН СССР, 1940. 152 с. (Тр. ПИН АН СССР; Т. 10. Вып. 1)
• Геккер Р. Ф., Громова В. И., Ефремов И. А. и др. Развитие жизни на земле: альбом наглядных пособий. М.: Госкультпросветиздат, 1947. 47 с.; 59 с. silt
• Ефремов И. А. Тафономия и геологическая летопись: Кн. 1. Захоронение наземных фаун в палеозое. M .; Л.: Изд-во АН СССР, 1950. 178 с. (Тр. ПИН АН СССР; Т. 24).
• Ефремов И. А. Руководство для поисков остатков позвоночных в палеозойских континентальных толщах Сибири. М.: Изд-во АН СССР, 1951. 20 с.
• Ефремов И. А. Фауна наземных позвоночных в пермских медистых песчаниках Западного Приуралья. М.: Изд-во АН СССР, 1954. 416 с. (Тр. ПИН АН СССР; Т. 54).
• Ефремов И. А. Тайны прошлого в глубинах времен. М.: Знание, 1968. 63 с.

Основные художественные произведения

• 1942 — 1943 — первый цикл рассказов (издан в 1944 году , «Эллинский секрет» в 1968 ):

• Встреча над Тускаророй
• Эллинский секрет
• Озеро горных духов
• Путями старых горняков
• Олгой-Хорхой
• Катти Сарк
• Голец Подлунный

• 1944 — второй цикл рассказов (издан в 1945 году , «Звёздные корабли» — в 1948 ):

• Белый Рог
• Тень минувшего
• Алмазная труба
• Обсерватория Нур-и-Дешт
• Бухта Радужных Струй
• Последний Марсель
• Атолл Факаофо
• Звёздные корабли

• 1946 — рассказ « Каллиройя » (впервые опубликован в 2007 году в октябрьском номере журнала «Студенческий меридиан»)
• 1954 — повесть « Тамралипта и Тиллоттама » (впервые опубликована в журнале «Студенческий меридиан», № 8, 2008 — № 1, 2009 )
• 1946 — повесть-дилогия «Великая дуга» (« На краю Ойкумены »), первая часть — «Путешествие Баурджеда» опубликована в 1953 году, вторая — «На краю Ойкумены» — в 1949 году
• 1948 — рассказ « Адское пламя »
• 1955 — художественно-документальная повесть « Дорога ветров »
• 1955— 1956 (издана в 1957 ) — роман « Туманность Андромеды »
• 1958 — рассказ « Юрта ворона » и повесть « Сердце Змеи »
• 1958— 1959 — рассказ (фактически — повесть) « Афанеор, дочь Ахархеллена »
• 1959— 1963 — роман « Лезвие бритвы »
• 1965 — рассказ « Пять картин »
• 1963—1968 — роман « Час Быка »
• 1971 — 1972 — роман « Таис Афинская »

«Туманность Андромеды» (реж. Евгений Шерстобитов ). Полное название фильма: «Туманность Андромеды. Часть 1. Пленники Железной Звезды». 1967 год.

«Тень минувшего» (реж. Тамара Павлюченко). Телеспектакль в шестом выпуске телеальманаха «Этот фантастический мир», 1981 год.

• Ивантозавр
• Быстров, Алексей Петрович
• Ахметов, Спартак Фатыхович
• Чудинов, Пётр Константинович
• Демичев, Пётр Нилович, раздел "Демичев и Иван Ефремов"

• Брандис Е. П., Дмитревский В. И. Через горы времени: Очерк творчества И. Ефремова. — М. : Советский писатель, 1963.
• Р. Ф. Геккер. Иван Антонович Ефремов // Тафономия и вопросы палеогеографии : Межвузовский научный сборник. — Издательство Саратовского университета, 1984. — С. 6—14 .
• Капитан сверхдальнего плавания. — Екатеринбург: Возякова Т. И., 2001.
• Чудинов П. К. Иван Антонович Ефремов: 1907—1972 . — М. : Наука, 1987.
• Чудинов П. К. Три времени Ивана Ефремова // Ефремов И. А. Тень минувшего. Рассказы и повести : Вступительная статья из книги. — М. : Наука, 1991. — С. 3—45 .
• Терёхин В. Л. Против течений: утаённые русские писатели. Иван Ефремов — провозвестник мультивременного асинхронного реализма. — М.: ТЕИС, 2002. — 50 экз.
• Еремина О. А., Смирнов Н. Н. Иван Ефремов. — М.: Мол. гвардия , 2013 (Жизнь замечательных людей)
• Olson, EC The other side of the medal: a paleobiologist reflects on the art and serendipity of science . — Blacksburg, Virginia: The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company, 1990. — 182 p.
• Иван Антонович Ефремов: переписка с учёными, неизданные работы / Составитель Н. В. Бойко. — Научное наследство. — М. : Наука, 1994. — Т. 22.
• Переписка Ивана Антоновича Ефремова. — М. : Вече, 2016.
• Воеводин П., Зворыкин А., Майстров Б., Ржонсницкий Б. «Туманность Андромеды», или Бедуин перед верблюдом: Ещё раз о научно-фантастическом романе (Иван Антонович Ефремов) // Промышленно-экономическая газета. — М. , 1959, 19 июля.
• Казак В. Лексикон русской литературы XX века = Lexikon der russischen Literatur ab 1917 / [пер. с нем.]. — М. : РИК «Культура», 1996. — XVIII, 491, [1] с. - 5,000 copies. — ISBN 5-8334-0019-8 .
• Минералов Ю. И. Ефремов Иван Антонович // Русские детские писатели XX века: Биобиблиографический словарь. - M .: Flint ; Наука , 1997. — С. 175—177 . - ISBN 5-02-011304-2 .
• Кунов В. К. «Мудрые мысли в произведениях Ивана Ефремова» Энциклопедический словарь. Киев, «КВИЦ» 2007. 302 стр. — 1000 экз.

• Иван Ефремов — биографическая справка
• Иван Ефремов — электронная библиотека, материалы Ефремовских чтений
• Видеоматериалы: встречи, чтения, лекции
• Иван Ефремов, его жизнь и творчество и Фотогалерея на сайте i-efremov.ru
• А. Измайлов. Туманность (обыск квартиры с рентгеном и металлоискателями после смерти Ефремова)
• Андрей Константинов. Светозарный мост
• Дмитрий Быков. Человек, как лезвие бритвы . — Статья об И. Ефремове в «Огоньке»
• Илья Смирнов об учёном и писателе Иване Ефремове: Иван Ефремов как зеркало времени
• Александра Юферова. Иван Ефремов и Агни-йога
• Николай Смирнов. Космизм Ивана Ефремова
• Татьяна Смирнова. Иван Ефремов, Эрих Фромм, Сент-Экзюпери, Евгений Богат об опыте любви
• И. А. Ефремов и оккультизм — Красная Застава, 2012
• Vl. Гаков. Брешь в твердыне // Если, 2002, № 7.
• Иван Ефремов, его жизнь и творчество, библиография
• об Иване Ефремове , форум о личности и творчества И. Ефремова — Свобода внутри нас
• Свободный человек . — Заметка о Ефремове
• Естественный коммунизм . — статья о мировоззрении Ивана Ефремова
• Статья о Ефремове на komcity.ru
• Ефремов, Иван Антонович (англ.) на сайте Internet Movie Database
• В. П. Буря. Дальний Восток в жизни Ивана Ефремова . Экспедиция в 1931 год. Штрихи к биографии Ивана Антоновича Ефремова.