(1906-1981) Soviet poetess
The poems of Agnia Barto have entered our consciousness since childhood. And in kindergarten, and in elementary school they are often the very first appeal to the vast world fiction. It is no coincidence that the total circulation of Agnia Lvovna Barto’s books exceeded thirty million copies, they were published more than 400 times, translated into all languages of the peoples of Russia and many foreign ones.
And yet, entering the world of great poetry along with such recognized masters as K. Chukovsky and S. Marshak was by no means easy. Agnia Lvovna herself recalls this in her book “Notes children's poet" The title of Barto's memoirs is symbolic, since she always considered herself primarily a poet for children.
Agnia Lvovna Barto was born in Moscow, in the family of a veterinarian. At first, like many in childhood, she experienced a number of hobbies - she studied music, studied at a choreographic school. After her final exams, Agnia read her poem for the first time at one of the evenings, and A. Lunacharsky, the then People's Commissar of Education, accidentally heard it; this seriously influenced her future biography. They met, and Lunacharsky, as if foreseeing the girl’s creative future, said that she would write funny poetry. This meeting, which, as it turned out later, determined her fate, was one of the most powerful impressions of her youth.
Perhaps Agnia Lvovna owes her literary gift to her father, Lev Nikolaevich Volov. He loved to read poetry, knew almost all of Krylov's fables by heart and constantly gave books to his daughter. His family even made fun of him because he once gave Agnia the book “How Leo Tolstoy Lives and Works.”
Since 1925, Agnia Barto had already begun publishing her poems. First came “The Roaring Girl” and “The Dirty Girl,” followed by “Chinese Wang Li” and “The Thief Bear.” Her poems were dedicated to small children, about four to eight years old, who listened to them with pleasure because they recognized themselves and their antics in them. These poems made up the first collection, published in 1928 under the title “Brothers”. In 1934, Agnia Barto published a collection of satirical poems for junior schoolchildren"The boy is the opposite."
The main thing in the biography of the poetess has always been knowledge of the child’s world, the peculiarities of his imagination and thinking. She carefully studied what he did, how and what he said. True, Agnia Barto always believed that she not only wrote for children, but at the same time addressed adults.
At first, K. Chukovsky and S. Marshak provided Barto with great help. They answered her letters, gave advice, and in 1933 Chukovsky published a short response about “Toys.” Under the same name, another collection of poems by Agnia Barto was published in 1936.
Chukovsky continued to closely follow the work of the young poetess and some time later called her a “talented lyricist.” At the same time, he invariably demanded from her “more thoughtfulness and rigor of verse.” Agnia Barto was always sensitive to his instructions, although she had to hear other things. As Agnia Lvovna herself recalls, “there were times when children’s poems were accepted general meeting, by majority vote." At one time, they criticized, for example, the rhyme in her poem “Toys”:
They dropped Mishka on the floor.
They tore off Mishka's paw.
I still won't leave him.
Because he's good.
Critics found it too difficult for children to understand. Nevertheless, Agnia Lvovna stubbornly defended her vision of the children's theme and wrote poems for the little ones the way she herself imagined them. She continued to use complex, playful rhyme.
At the same time, her range of interests gradually expanded. In 1937, Barto went to Spain to attend the Congress of Writers in Defense of Culture. Under the influence of what she saw and heard in her work, new topic- patriotic. Such poems were dictated by the time itself: there was a war in Spain, the world was on the eve of World War II. Therefore, impressions of the wars experienced remained not only in memory.
In the thirties, the biography was marked by a new event; cinema unexpectedly entered the life of the poetess. In 1939, Agnia Barto wrote her first script for the children's film "Foundling", in 1946 she wrote a new one - "The Elephant and the String", and in the fifties - "Alyosha Ptitsyn Develops Character" and "Ten Thousand Boys". All these films were very popular with children and adults, and many of the little characters’ phrases became catchphrases. However, this is not surprising: after all, Barto’s co-authors were often such brilliant comedic actresses as Rina Zelenaya and Faina Ranevskaya. Agnia Barto remained interested in children's drama throughout her life. In 1975, she wrote the play "In Order of Deception."
With the beginning of the war, Agnia Lvovna Barto tried to get to the front, but had to go to the rear, since her husband, a power engineer, was assigned to Sverdlovsk (present-day Yekaterinburg). She lived there until 1942 and continued to work all this time. Agnia Lvovna begins speaking on the radio, in orphanages, and publishes war poems, articles, and essays in newspapers. She finally made it to the front. After returning to Moscow in the spring of 1942, the poetess was sent to Western Front as a correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda.
After the war, she continues to write funny poems for children, creates several satirical and humorous works, which will later be included in her books “Who is considered happy?” (1962) and "What's the matter with him?" (1966). During those same years, Barto had the opportunity to work in orphanage for orphans, and she wrote the poem “Zvenigorod”.
The sixties occupy a special place not only in the biography of Agnia Barto, but also in the history of the entire country. The poetess begins to host the radio program “Find a Person” and helps many people find their relatives who were lost during the war. About a thousand people found their loved ones thanks to the work and energy of Agniya Lvovna Barto. Based on stories about the search for children lost during the Great Patriotic War, she wrote the book Find the Person, which was published in 1968. And in 1972, for her multifaceted activities, Barto became a Lenin Prize laureate.
At the same time, Agnia Lvovna was actively involved in social activities. She becomes a member of the International Association of Children's Writers and a laureate of the Andersen Medal, travels a lot around different countries, conducts international competition children's drawing.
Agnia Lvovna believed that constant communication with listeners enriched her. After she had the chance to host radio broadcasts, her poems became more lyrical. And this is true: they seem to be addressed to the most intimate feelings and experiences. Their names are also poetic - “I’m growing” (1968), “For flowers in winter forest"(1970).
Agnia Lvovna Barto herself determined the secret of her creative longevity, which lies in her words: “Poems written for children should be inexhaustibly young.”
Agnia Barto died on April 1, 1981. She was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery (site No. 3).
The famous children's writer Agnia Lvovna Barto was born in 1906, in the family of a veterinarian. Immediately after birth, the parents named the baby Gethel, but after marriage she changed her name. That is why, for adults and children in all sources, we know her as the famous poet and film screenwriter as Agnia Barto.
Briefly about childhood and youth
Since childhood, the girl loved to dance and dreamed of ballet. And although her father was in charge of her primary education, after entering the gymnasium, the future poetess studied at a ballet school. Agnia loved to be creative since childhood. That is why poems and a biography of Agnia Barto are included in the curriculum for 3rd grade. They are imbued with childhood and include instructive meanings.
It would be possible to briefly talk about Agnia Barto if her biography were not filled with so many interesting facts. Such as, for example, she studied German and French since childhood. After graduating from ballet school, Agnia was enrolled in a professional ballet troupe. So in the biography Barto Agni Lvovna began a new stage, which inspired her to write new poems.
Literary creativity
Among adults and children it is impossible to find anyone who would not love her work. The presence of open human feelings and a child-friendly language is what truly attracts her in her work. And her father taught her to love poetry.
1925 is a significant year in the biography of Agnia Barto, as she published her first two books, the works of which are currently recommended for grade 2.
Agnia read poetry with such an intonation that she inspired confidence. She had an amazing gift of speaking to children in their language. That is why works such as “Chinese Wang Li” by Agnia Barto and her biography are recommended for study for 3rd grade. Many fascinating events took place in the biography of Agnia Lvovna Barto, which prompted her to write poetry for children.
Personal life
Like any person, the poetess experienced black and white stripes in life. There were tragic moments, such as the sudden death of my son. There were bright moments associated with the publishing of Agnia Barto’s books, which are mentioned so much in all the photos and video sources of her biography. Together with her husband, Agnia Barto wrote a number of works for children primary school. For example, such as “Roarer Girl”. She also worked in the magazine “Murzilka”.
The poetess lived a very active and eventful life. Her favorite activities were traveling and playing sports.
Barto Agnia Lvovna (1906 ─1981) – Soviet poetess and writer, composed works for children, wrote scripts for films, and worked as a radio presenter.
Childhood
Agnia Barto (nee Volova) was born on February 17, 1906.
Her parents were educated Jewish people. Dad, Lev Nikolaevich Volov, worked as a veterinarian. Mother, Maria Ilyinichna Volova (maiden name Bloch), led household and raised a daughter. The parents met and got married in the Baltic city of Kovno.
Agnia's uncle, Blokh's mother's brother Grigory Ilyich, was a famous phthisiatrician and otolaryngologist, director of the Yalta Clinic of the Institute of Tuberculosis. He was fond of writing children's educational poems, and perhaps his niece took after his uncle.
Agnia was born in Moscow, where she spent her childhood and early years. She always remembered her father with special warmth. Lev Nikolaevich loved his profession as a veterinarian too much; he often had to go to Siberia on duty. But when he was at home and spent cozy evenings with his daughter, he read to her the works of his beloved I. A. Krylov; he knew almost all of his fables by heart.
The father loved literature and instilled this love in his daughter Agnia with early years. I took a book by L.N. Tolstoy with a larger font, showed my daughter the letters, and taught her to read. He especially admired this writer and constantly re-read all his works. And the first serious gift from the father to his daughter was the book “How Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy lived and worked.”
The poetess later recalled her mother as a lazy and capricious woman. If the mother had to do things that were not interesting to her, then she always put them off until the day after tomorrow; it seemed to her that this was still very far away.
Agnia Barto’s entire childhood was spent as befitted a wealthy, intelligent family in those days, with a nanny who came from the village; ─ governess who spoke French; lunches with pineapple dessert on Sundays.
Education
Agnia received elementary education at home, his father led him, he adored art and dreamed of his daughter becoming a famous ballerina. She danced diligently for a long time, but no special talent was shown in this matter.
But the girl began writing poetry from an early age. While studying at the gymnasium, Agnia and her friends were fond of Akhmatova’s poetry and tried to write themselves. But not everyone succeeded. But Agnia did it well, and not bad at that. Nevertheless, she did not give up ballet classes; she studied at both the gymnasium and the ballet school.
Dad was the first to listen and criticize Agnia. Here he showed all his severity, demanding that his daughter express herself correctly and observe poetic meters. And the young talent, as if on purpose, constantly changed the size in the lines; her father called this stubbornness on her part. But after many years, it is the change in size that will become distinctive feature poetic works of Agnia Barto.
The revolution and civil war did not particularly affect the life of the young girl; she continued to live in her world of poetry and ballet. Later someone will say about Barto: “She came to literature on pointe shoes”.
After high school, Agnia entered the choreographic school, which she graduated in 1924. She was hungry, and at the age of fifteen, along with her studies, the girl had to get a job in the Clothing store. Workers were given herring heads, and they could be used to make soup.
Before the final exams, she was especially worried, because after them she had to start a career in the world of ballet, and besides, the People's Commissar of Education Lunacharsky himself came to the exam. The program consisted of final exams and a concert prepared by school students. The People's Commissar watched all the exam performances and stayed for the concert.
And then a young, beautiful, black-eyed girl came on stage and read her own humorous poems called “Funeral March.” At the same time, she was accompanied by a pianist, and Agnia herself took tragic, but at the same time funny poses. Lunacharsky liked the poems, he could barely contain his laughter, and after a while Agnia was asked to go to the People's Commissariat for Education. Lunacharsky met with her and stated that the girl was created to write funny poems. It was at that moment that such words seemed offensive to her, because at a young age you dream of writing about love, and not being known as a comic poet.
Therefore, the young, tall and graceful girl got a job at the Moscow theater, where she worked in a ballet troupe for about a year.
Creative path
However, Lunacharsky turned out to be right: somehow he managed to discern the makings of a great poet in the young ballerina.
And already in 1925, Agnia Barto’s first book, “The Little Chinese Wang Li,” was published, followed by a collection of poems, “The Thief Bear.” She was only 19 years old when she found herself in the world she dreamed of as a young schoolgirl - the world of Silver Age poetry.
Agnia quickly became popular, but this fact did not add courage to her; she was extremely shy. Barto adored Mayakovsky’s work, but when she had the chance to meet the poet, she never found the courage to approach him and start a conversation. And when she decided to read her poem to Korney Chukovsky, she said that the author was a five-year-old boy. Perhaps it was shyness that helped Barto live his life without enemies. She never pretended to be smarter than she actually was, never got involved in literary squabbles, and was always aware that she still had a lot to learn in life.
Children's poems seemed to flow from her like a river, collections came out one after another:
- "Boy on the contrary";
- "Toys";
- "Brothers";
- "Bullfinch".
In 1947, her poem “Zvenigorod” was published, where Agniya Lvovna talked about children who lost their parents during the war. The poetess visited an orphanage in the Moscow region, talked with children who told her about how they lived before the war, who their parents were. All these childhood memories resulted in a poem that had a special purpose.
When the whole country had already read the poem “Zvenigorod”, Agnia Lvovna received a letter from a woman who had lost her daughter at the beginning of the war. Some fragments depicted in the poem from children's stories seemed familiar to the woman, and she began to hope that Agnia Barto communicated with her daughter in that orphanage. In fact, this is what happened: mother and daughter met after 10 years of separation thanks to the poem “Zvenigorod”.
Soviet magazines and newspapers wrote about this story, and Agnia Barto began receiving letters from people who had lost their relatives during the war. This is how the idea of the program “Find a Person” was born, which Agnia Barto hosted for 9 years on the Mayak radio station.
Agnia Barto is the only children's poetess who speaks with children in their own language with her poems. native language, as if the same age. Her style is very easy. And it’s not for nothing that “Our Tanya is crying loudly,” “The bull is walking, rocking,” “They dropped the bear on the floor” are present in the life of every child, like the first steps and words, like the first teacher and the school bell. She is the first writer a child meets, and then, growing up, he certainly introduces her poems to his children and grandchildren.
Barto also wrote scripts for such famous paintings, How:
- "Foundling" (1939);
- "The Elephant and the String" (1945);
- “Alyosha Ptitsyn develops character” (1953);
- "10,000 Boys" (1961).
The work of Agnia Barto was deservedly noted by the government.
In 1950, for the book “Poems for Children” she received the Stalin Prize, and in 1972 for the collection “For Flowers in the Winter Forest” she received the Lenin Prize.
War
Barto traveled abroad a lot with Soviet delegations. In 1937, she had a chance to visit Spain, where the war was already going on. A terrible picture appeared before her eyes: destroyed houses and orphaned children. Agnia was especially shocked by a Spanish woman who wanted to show her a photo of her son, but constantly covered his face thumb, explaining that the baby’s head was torn off by a shell. Agnia then wrote in a letter to her friend: “How and in what words can one describe the feelings of a mother who outlived her child?” And in a few years she will have to answer this terrible question herself...
And at the very end of the 30s she went to Germany, saw with her own eyes this neat, seemingly toy country, blond German girls in dresses with a fascist swastika, heard Nazi slogans and realized that the war between the Germans and Soviet Union inevitable.
When the war began, Agnia Barto did not intend to evacuate from Moscow. She wanted to work on the radio and make at least some small contribution to the overall victory over the Nazis.
But her second husband Andrei Vladimirovich was sent to the Urals as a specialist in power plants. He took his family with him - Agnia Barto and two children. From there, the poetess often traveled to the capital, made recordings for the All-Union Radio, and read her children's poems. Here she stayed in her Moscow apartment, and once while she was there, a bomb hit a neighboring house and destroyed it in front of Agnia’s eyes.
She constantly asked to join the active army and by the end of the war she achieved her goal. For one month, Agnia Barto was sent to the front, where she read leaflets with her children's poems to the soldiers. And they, men who had seen the world, who saw blood and death every day before their eyes, listened to the poetess and cried, because her poems reminded them of children.
Personal life
Agnia got married for the first time very early, at the age of 18. She recently experienced grief; her father died. And, perhaps, the first husband to some extent filled the empty niche that had formed in her life.
Pavel Nikolaevich Barto was a writer, and together they composed three works: “The Dirty Girl,” “The Counting Table,” and “The Roaring Girl.”
But the marriage was not for life. In 1927, the Barto couple gave birth to a boy, Edgar, whom they always affectionately called Garik, and six years later Agnia and Pavel divorced. Perhaps this marriage turned out to be too early, or perhaps the reason for the separation was the professional success of the poetess, which Pavel Barto did not want to accept.
She went to a man who turned out to be her soul mate, destined by fate, ─ Andrei Vladimirovich Shcheglyaev. He was a fairly well-known energy specialist and was one of the the best specialists USSR on gas and steam turbines. At that time, he worked as a dean at the power engineering faculty of the Moscow Energy Institute. They said about him that he was the most handsome dean in the Soviet Union.
Writers and actors, musicians and directors often gathered in their house. Absolutely non-conflict Agnia literally attracted people different types creativity. Among Agnia Barto's close friends were Rina Zelenaya and Faina Ranevskaya.
Agnia and Andrey loved each other very much and lived happy life, the marriage gave birth to a girl, Tatyana, who is now the main custodian of the poetess’s legacy.
The children Garik and Tanya were raised by the nanny Domna Ivanovna, the same one from the village who once came to Moscow to work and ended up in the Volovs’ house with the little girl Agnia. Until the end of her days, she then lived with Agnia Lvovna and her family, even when the children became adults, she helped run the household and became almost a member of their friendly family (nanny Domna Ivanovna did not have her own husband and children).
On May 4, 1945, Agnia Barto experienced irreparable grief. It was a sunny and bright spring, the whole country was looking forward to victory. Son Garik, a wonderful seventeen-year-old boy, returned from school earlier than usual. Nanny Domna Ivanovna was a little late with lunch, and the boy decided to ride a bicycle. A truck coming around the corner hit Garik, he fell, hit his temple on the curb and died instantly.
My beloved, such a beautiful and affectionate son, incredibly capable in science and music, has passed away. Agnia completely immersed herself in herself; food, sleep, conversations, and indeed everything else ceased to exist for her. the world. Victory Day passed by, which she had been looking forward to very much. Did she remember the Spanish woman in those days, was she able to find words to describe the feelings of a mother who had lost her son?
She devoted her entire subsequent life to her beloved husband, daughter and grandchildren, and, of course, to children, for whom she wrote poetry.
In 1970, doctors diagnosed cancer in her husband Andrei Vladimirovich, again Agnia Barto lost the most valuable thing in life. She lived 11 years longer than her husband and died on April 1, 1981. She was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Daughter Tatyana followed in her father’s footsteps and graduated from the Energy Institute with a PhD in Technical Sciences.
Agnia Barto is the most famous children's poet, whose works have forever entered the golden classics of Soviet children's literature. And today she is rightfully considered an unsurpassed master of children's poetry; her poems are benchmarks for children's poets. Her works, simple at first glance, are the result painstaking work and the endless search for new poetic forms that are understandable and accessible to children. But the main work of her life was the radio program “Find a Person,” thanks to which many families separated during the Great Patriotic War were reunited.
Agnia Lvovna Barto was born in Moscow in 1906, into a wealthy Jewish family. The childhood of little Gethel (this is the real name of Agnia Barto) was happy and cloudless; she grew up in the typical atmosphere of the Moscow intelligentsia of those years. A spacious apartment, a housekeeper and a cook in service, frequent dinner parties, obligatory summer moves to the country, admission to a gymnasium and ballet school - everything in Gethel’s life developed like that of an ordinary girl from a bourgeois environment. Father - veterinarian, brilliantly educated, tried with all his might to pass on his knowledge to his only daughter, and dreamed of a career as a ballerina for her. In addition, she was born in the Silver Age of Russian poetry - an era of fashion for writing and the search for new poetic forms, and the passion for creativity did not escape the future Agnia Barto.
At the age of 18, she married the young poet Pavel Barto, with whom they wrote together and dreamed of poetic fame. In 1925, plucking up courage, Barto brought her poems to Gosizdat, and was very disappointed when she was sent to the children's literature department. Children's poetry was considered “pampering”; real geniuses worked in the field of lyrics. A chance meeting with V. Mayakovsky became fateful; it was he who convinced Agnia of the need for poetry for children, as important element pedagogical education. This is probably why Barto’s early poems, written together with her first husband, are more like “teasers”:
What kind of howl? What kind of roar?
Isn't there a herd of cows there?
No, it's not a cow there,
This is Ganya the Revushka.
Family life did not work out, but Barto had already “got a taste”, her own poems were a success and she enjoyed creating for the children. Observant, she accurately noticed the images created by children, listened to the conversations of children on the street, communicated with them in schools and orphanages.
Barto’s second marriage to a prominent scientist and thermal power engineer turned out to be extremely happy, and Agnia plunged headlong into her work. She was criticized a lot, the “pillars” of children’s poetry S. Marshak and K. Chukovsky often scolded her for changing the size of the stanza and using assonant rhymes, but Barto persistently searched for her own style, light and memorable. The undoubted highlight of her work is the ability to reproduce children's speech, with its short sentences and precise images. Her poems are simple for children to understand, and humor and irony give children the opportunity to look at themselves from the outside and notice their shortcomings with a smile.
On May 4, 1945, when the whole country froze in joyful anticipation of victory, a misfortune happened in Barto’s life - the life of her 18-year-old son was absurdly cut short. This tragedy turned her life upside down. But work saved her, pulling her out of the abyss of terrible grief. Barto traveled a lot not only around the country, but also abroad. Owning several foreign languages, she freely communicated with children from other countries, and took on translations of foreign children's poets.
Agnia Barto became the organizer of the country’s first people-search program, the prototype of the “Wait for Me” program. Lost children often remembered only small parts their childhood, and wrote about them to Barto, and she read them out on the radio, choosing the most significant - the name of the father, the name of the dog, details of home life. Soon the program became so popular that many people went to Moscow directly to Lavrushinsky Lane, where the poetess lived, and Barto received and listened to everyone, including her household members in this activity. Subsequently, Barto devoted almost 10 years to this, managed to unite more than 927 families and wrote a touching book about the fate of lost children.
She died in 1981 and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. There is no elaborate epitaph on her grave, it simply says:
Agniya Barto
Writer.
Barto Agnia Lvovna. 02/17/1906 - 04/01/1981 Russian Soviet children's poetess, writer, film screenwriter Agnia Lvovna Barto was born in Moscow on February 17, 1906 in an educated Jewish family. She received a good home education, led by her father. Agnia studied at a choreographic school and was going to become a ballerina. She loved to dance. A. Barto began writing poetry in early childhood, in the first grades of the gymnasium. The most strict connoisseur of A. Barto's first poems was her father Lev Nikolaevich Volokhov, a veterinarian. With the help of serious books, without a primer, Agnia’s father taught her the alphabet, and she began to read on her own. Her father watched her closely and taught her how to write poetry “correctly.” But Agnia Lvovna was attracted by something else at that time - music, ballet. She dreamed of becoming a dancer; she loved to dance. That’s why I went to study at a choreographic school, but even there I continued to write poetry. Several years passed, and Agniya Lvovna realized that poetry was more important to her. And in 1925 (she was only 19 years old at the time!) her first book, “The Chinese Little Wang Li and the Thief Bear,” was published. The readers really liked the poems. A conversation with Mayakovsky about how children need new poetry, what role it can play in raising children, helped her finally make a choice. Agnia's youth fell on the years of revolution and civil war. But somehow she managed to live in her own world, where ballet and poetry writing coexisted peacefully. Agnia Lvovna's first husband was the poet Pavel Barto. Together they wrote three poems - “Roaring Girl”, “Dirty Girl” and “Counting Table”. They had a son, Egar (Garik), and after 6 years they divorced. In the spring of 1945, Garik died tragically at the age of 18 (he was hit by a truck while riding a bicycle). With her second husband, Andrei Shcheglyaev, Agnia lived for almost half a century of great love and mutual understanding. From the memoirs of their daughter Tatyana: “Mom was the main helmsman in the house, everything was done with her knowledge. On the other hand, they took care of her and tried to create working conditions - she didn’t bake pies, didn’t stand in lines, but was, of course, the mistress of the house . Our nanny Domna Ivanovna lived with us all her life, who came to the house back in 1925, when my older brother Garik was born. Fame came to her quite quickly, but did not add courage to her - Agnia was very shy. She adored Mayakovsky, but, having met she did not dare to speak to him. Having dared to read her poem to Chukovsky, Barto attributed the authorship to a five-year-old boy. Perhaps it was precisely because of her shyness that Agnia Barto had no enemies. She died on April 1, 1981. Once Agnia Barto said: “Almost every person there are moments in life when he does more than he can." In her case, it was not a minute - she lived her whole life this way. Agnia Barto was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
