Nikolay Garin Mikhailovsky interesting information from life. Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky

Garin Nikolay Georgievich(pseudonym; real name - N. G. Mikhailovsky), writer, born 8(20).II.1852 in St. Petersburg into a wealthy noble family.

His father, with the rank of general, retired and moved with his family to Odessa, where the future writer spent his childhood and youth. Nikolai Georgievich was educated at the Odessa gymnasium.

From 1871 he studied at St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Law.

From 1872 - at the Institute of Railways, from which he graduated in 1878.

He worked as a track engineer on the construction of the Siberian Railway. A business conflict with the site manager forced him to quit his job. Nikolai Georgievich bought an estate in Gundorovka, Buguruslan district, Samara province, intending to establish a rational economy based on agronomic science and provide assistance to the surrounding peasants. Having encountered resistance and revenge from the kulaks, who set fire to his barns and outbuildings four times, and misunderstanding from the peasants, Garin abandoned his experiment in 1886 and abandoned the business.

Impressions from working on the estate formed the basis for the series of essays “Several Years in the Country” (1892). In them he showed the complete inconsistency of populist illusions about the countryside, for which he was attacked populist criticism. The essays made a great impression on the famous Marxist N. E. Fedoseev. M. Gorky wrote: “I liked the “Essays” very much” (Collected works, vol. 17, M., 1952, pp. 68-69).

Chekhov praised them: “There was nothing like this in literature in terms of excellence and, perhaps, sincerity” (XV, 440). Somewhat later, Chekhov wrote: “Here the writing public has big success Garin. They talk about him a lot. I promote it “A few lay down in the village” (XV, 460). Chekhov uniquely interpreted the theme of Garin’s work in “New Dacha.”

At the end of 1891, a literary partnership, whose members were N. G. Garin, K. M. Stanyukovich, S. N. Krivenko and A. I. Ivanchin-Pisarev, bought the magazine “Russian Wealth”. In it, Nikolai Georgievich publishes his stories and novellas. However, the populist program of the magazine did not satisfy the writer, disagreements with the editors of Russian Wealth became increasingly aggravated, and in 1897 he completely broke with the magazine.

Since 1893, Garin also collaborated in the magazines “Nachalo”, “Life”, “Magazine for Everyone”. Having become close to the Marxists, he provided material assistance to their newspaper Samara Vestnik, the editorial board of which he was a member in 1896-97. He published Marxist brochures and signed, together with other writers, a protest against the beating of demonstrators at the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg in 1901, for which he was expelled from the capital.

Garin appreciated the socio-historical significance of Marxism. He wrote to his son: “S.-D. on the basis of economic teachings they come to a strictly scientific conclusion about the inevitability of the evolution of life and the achievement of the final goal - the triumph of labor over capital... And only with the teachings of Marx, with the precise derivation of the laws of life, was it possible not to waste what was acquired, to know what you want” .

Gorky wrote about Garin’s views: “He was attracted by the activity of Marx’s teachings... Marx’s plan for the reorganization of the world delighted him with its breadth, he imagined the future as grandiose teamwork, performed by the entire mass of humanity, freed from the strong shackles of class statehood” (Collected works, vol. 17, M., 1952, p. 77).

Garin described his trip around the world in 1898 in books of essays “Around the World” and “Across Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula” (1899). In them, he exposed the cruel exploitation of workers in Asian countries, outlined the customs and morals eastern peoples. The writer used recordings of folklore materials (about 90 tales collected) in the book “Korean folk tales».

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, Garin spent 5 months in combat areas. The impressions of this time made up the book “War. Diary of an Eyewitness" (1904), in which the writer truthfully reproduced the harsh everyday life of the Russian army.

During the revolution of 1905, Nikolai Georgievich Garin actively helped the Bolsheviks.

In 1906 he published his works in the Bolshevik magazine “Bulletin of Life”. Since the beginning of the 90s. Garin is published by the Znanie publishing house and is friends with Gorky. The whole life of Nikolai Georgievich but he was constantly on the move, he wrote “at the irradiation station” and died “on the move” - leaving the meeting room of the editorial board of the journal “Bulletin of Life”.

Garin's most significant work is a tetralogy

"Theme's Childhood" (1892),

"Gymnasium Students" (1893),

"Students" (1895),

"Engineers" (1907).

Having absorbed all the themes of the writer’s work, the autobiographical family chronicle resulted in a wide canvas public life Russia of the last third of the last century. It fully reveals the psychology of childhood, adolescence and adolescence, and clearly shows the deadening effect on young minds classical education. The gymnasium neutralizes the personality of students, accustoming them to meaningless cramming of texts, cultivating secrecy and hypocrisy. The vices of people are caused by the vices of society - this idea permeates the entire work. Teachers and parents are clearly depicted. Themes: Aglaida Vasilievna is a strong-willed but reactionary woman, fettering any initiative of the children, and General Kartashev is a campaigner who suppressed the Hungarian uprising, imposing harsh discipline in the family. The writer painted a generalized picture of the life of the Russian intelligentsia. The weak-willed, reflective Artemy Kartashev, the energetic cynic and money-grubber Shatsky, the sluggish and indecisive Kornev, the pure and purposeful Manya Kartasheva - they all represent different layers of the Russian intelligentsia of the 80s. The writer brings Artemy Kartashev to rebirth: working on the construction of the railway, he reaches for lofty ideals, and with the work of an engineer he wants to contribute to progress home country. Communication with working people changes Kartashev’s views and updates him.

The poetry of labor runs like a red thread through Garin’s other works (“Option”, “Two Moments”). Garin described the life of a machinist worker in the story “In Practice.” Work from Garin N.G. acts as a source of optimism.

This brings the writer closer to Gorky. Garin's plan - to show the life of his contemporary society from all sides - was not fully realized, because the writer did not put the revolutionary at the center of the events taking place, did not show the force capable of breaking the rotten autocratic system. He believed that life could be renewed through the full introduction of culture and technology. The power of tetralogy is in its completeness psychological characteristics characters, especially Theme, in the drama of the story, in the humanistic aspiration of the author. The writer avoided detailed descriptions and gave vivid artistic detail, which revealed an important side of character. The artist traces in detail the process of developing the character of a young man, emphasizing his conditioning by social circumstances. Gorky called the tetralogy “a whole epic.” The best part tetralogy - “Childhood Themes”.

Critics rightly noted that the story “is worth a whole treatise on pedagogy” (F. Batyushkov). This work is often reprinted and is in great demand in children's libraries. The story has been translated into French, German, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Hungarian and other languages. It is organic: it combines bright art paintings and images with excited journalistic digressions. Her language is short, lexically rich and emotional. The narrative is colored with lyricism, the dialogue is masterfully constructed.

Garin Nikolai Georgievich addressed children's topics throughout creative path. His stories are interesting:

"Boy" (1896),

"Dima's Palace" (1899),

"Happy Day" (1898), etc.

Garin ridiculed naive populist illusions about the paths of development of the village in “Village Panoramas”, published in “Russian Wealth” (1894, No. 1-2, 3, 5).

He depicted savagery, poverty and hunger in the stories “Matryona’s Money”, “At the Night’s Place” and others. Garin also acted as a playwright.

His best play, “Village Drama,” was published in the collection “Knowledge” in 1904. But it also has serious shortcomings - murder is piled on top of murder. The scenes in which two young women get rid of their frail husbands are melodramatic. And although the playwright himself said that “the entire plot is completely taken... from reality,” the melodramatic scenes deprive the play of both the power of generalization and life-like authenticity. Old man Anton, described by the author's remark as “silent and mysterious,” is not revealed psychologically, looks like a melodramatic villain who wanted to bribe the peasant “world.” There is a clearly noticeable bias in the drama towards the biological area, and social aspects lives are put on the back burner.

Other plays -

“In the bear meadows (Jugglers of honor)” (2nd half of the 90s),

"Orchid" (1898),

"Zora" (1906),

"Teenagers" (1907) is weak artistically. The last play reflected real events. It glorifies the fearlessness of teenage high school students who passionately argue on issues of the revolution and strive to participate in the revolutionary cause. In this play Garin N.G. approached the theme of revolution.

Select district Agapovsky municipal district Argayash municipal district Ashinsky municipal district Bredinsky municipal district Varnensky municipal district Verkhneuralsky municipal district Verkhneufaleysky urban district Emanzhelinsky municipal district Etkul municipal district Zlatoust urban district Karabash urban district Kartalinsky municipal district Kasli municipal district Katav-Ivanovsky municipal district Kizilsky municipal district Kopeysky urban district Korkinsky municipal district Krasnoarmeysky municipal district Kunashaksky municipal district Kusinsky municipal district Kyshtym urban district Lokomotiv urban district Magnitogorsk urban district Miass urban district Nagaybak municipal district Nyazepetrovsky municipal district Ozersky urban district Oktyabrsky municipal district Plastovsky municipal district Satkinsky municipal district Sverdlovsk region Snezhinsky urban district Sosnovsky municipal district Trekhgorny urban district Troitsky urban district Troitsky municipal district Uvelsky municipal district Uysky municipal district Ust-Katavsky urban district Chebarkul urban district Chebarkul municipal district Chelyabinsk urban district Chesmensky municipal district Yuzhnouralsky urban district

Writer, director, actor
1852-1906

N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky is known to us in to a greater extent as a writer. His famous tetralogy “Childhood Themes”, “Students”, “Students” and “Engineers” has become a classic. But he was also a talented railway engineer (it was not for nothing that he was called the “knight of the railways”), a journalist, a fearless traveler, and an educator. Entrepreneur and philanthropist XIX - beginning XX centuries Savva Mamontov said about him: “He was talented, talented in every way.” Noting his great love of life, the Russian writer A. M. Gorky called him a “cheerful righteous man.”

N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky is also interesting to us because his life and work are connected with the Southern Urals. He took part in the construction of the Samara-Zlatoust and West Siberian railways. He lived for several years in Ust-Katav, where his son Georgy (Garya) was born, and for some time in Chelyabinsk. Nikolai Georgievich dedicated “Travel Sketches”, the essay “Option”, the story “Leshy Swamp”, the stories “Tramp”, “Granny” to the Urals.

In Chelyabinsk there is a street named after Garin-Mikhailovsky; a memorial plaque with his bas-relief (sculptor M. Ya. Kharlamov) was installed on the old railway station building in 1972. A memorial plaque was also installed at Zlatoust station (2011).

The beginning of the life of Garin-Mikhailovsky

Nikolai Georgievich was born on February 8 (February 20 - in the new style) 1852 in St. Petersburg, in the family famous general and hereditary nobleman Georgy Mikhailovsky. The general was so respected by the tsar that Nicholas I himself became godfather a boy who was named after him. Soon the father resigned and moved with his family to Odessa to his estate. Nikolai was the eldest of nine children. There was a strict education system in the house. The writer talked about her in his famous book"Childhood Theme". When the boy grew up, he was sent to the famous Richelieu gymnasium in Odessa.After graduating, he entered St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Law (1871), but his studies did not work out, and he next year Nikolai Mikhailovsky brilliantly passed the exams at the St. Petersburg Institute of Railway Engineers and never regretted it, although his work was incredibly difficult. There was a moment when he almost died: while a student in practice in Bessarabia, he worked as a fireman on a steam locomotive. On one of the trips, out of habit, I was very tired, and the driver, taking pity on the guy, began throwing coal into the firebox for him. From fatigue, both fell asleep on the road. The locomotive was running out of control. We were only saved by a miracle.

Nikolai Mikhailovsky's work on the railway

After graduation, he built a railway in Bulgaria, then was sent to work at the Ministry of Railways.At the age of 27, he married the daughter of the Minsk governor, Nadezhda Valerievna Charykova. She far outlived her husband and wrote memoirs about him. Mikhailovsky did not work at the Ministry for long, he asked to build the Batumi railway in Transcaucasia, and there he experienced a number of adventures (an attack by Turkish robbers). This time was described by him in the story “Two Moments”. In the Caucasus, Mikhailovsky seriously encountered embezzlement and could not come to terms with it. I decided to radically change my life. The family already had two children. Nikolai Georgievich bought an estate in the Samara province, 70 km from the railway, next to the impoverished village of Gundurovka.

Several years in the village

Nikolai Georgievich turned out to be a talented business executive and reformer. He wanted to transform a backward village into a prosperous peasant community. He built a mill, bought agricultural machinery, planted crops that local peasants had never known before: sunflowers, lentils, poppy seeds. I tried to breed trout in the village pond. He selflessly helped peasants build new huts. His wife set up a school for the village children. IN New Year They organized Christmas trees for peasant children and gave them gifts. In the first year we had excellent harvests. But the peasants reacted to this good deeds Mikhailovsky, like the master’s eccentricities, was deceived. Neighboring landowners took the innovations with hostility and did everything to nullify Mikhailovsky’s work: the mill burned down, the harvest was destroyed... He lasted three years, almost went bankrupt, became disillusioned with his business: “So this is how my business ended!” Leaving the house behind, the Mikhailovsky family left the village.

Later, already in Ust-Katav, Mikhailovsky wrote the essay “Several Years in the Village,” where he analyzed his work on the land and realized his mistakes: “I dragged them (peasants - author) to some kind of paradise of my own... educated person, but acted like an ignoramus... I wanted to turn the river of life in a different direction.”

The Ural period of Mikhailovsky’s life

Mikhailovsky returned to engineering. Was assigned to the construction of the Ufa–Zlatoust railway (1886). Conducted survey work. For the first time in the history of railway construction in Russia there were such difficulties: mountains, mountain streams, swamps, impassability, heat and midges in summer, frost in winter. The Kropachevo-Zlatoust section was especially difficult. Later, in the article “A few words about the Siberian Railway,” Mikhailovsky wrote: “8% of prospectors left the scene forever, mainly from nervous breakdown and suicide. This is the percentage of war."

When construction work began, it was no easier: exhausting labor, lack of equipment, everything by hand: shovel, pick, wheelbarrow... It was necessary to blow up rocks, make supporting walls, build bridges. Nikolai Georgievich fought to reduce the cost of construction: “you can’t build expensively, we don’t have the funds for such roads, but we need them like air, water...”. The road was built at state expense. In some essays, for example, by T. A. Shmakova “ Garin-Mikhailovsky Nikolay Georgievich" (Calendar of significant and memorable dates. Chelyabinsk region, 2002 / comp. I. N. Perezhogina [and others]. Chelyabinsk, 2002. pp. 60–63) it was said about Garin-Mikhailovsky that he designed and built a tunnel between Kropachevo and Zlatoust, but it was not specified that the tunnel was not for trains, but for the river, so as not to build two expensive bridges. On Southern Urals there is no tunnel on the railway.

He drew up a project for cheaper construction, but the authorities were not interested in it. Nikolai Georgievich desperately fought for his proposals, sent a telegram of 250 words to the Ministry of Railways! Unexpectedly, his project was approved and appointed head of the site. Nikolai Georgievich described the history of this struggle in the essay “Option” when he lived in Ust-Katav. The author is recognizable in the image of engineer Koltsov. I read it to my wife and immediately tore it up. She secretly collected the scraps and glued them together. The work was published when Garin-Mikhailovsky was no longer alive. Chukovsky wrote about this essay: “No fiction writer has ever been able to write so captivatingly about work in Russia.” This essay was published in Chelyabinsk in 1982.

In a letter to his wife from the construction of the railway in 1887, he said: “... I am in the field all day from 5 am to 9 pm. I’m tired, but cheerful, cheerful, thank God, healthy...”

He did not deceive when he spoke of cheerfulness and cheerfulness. Nikolai Georgievich was a very energetic, fast, charming person. Gorky later wrote about him that Nikolai Georgievich “took life as a holiday. And he unconsciously made sure that others would accept life in the same way.” Colleagues and friends called him “Divine Nika.” The workers loved it very much, they said: “We’ll do everything, father, just order!”

From the employee’s memoirs: “...Nikolai Georgievich’s sense of the area was amazing. Riding a horse through the taiga, drowning in swamps, he, as if from a bird's eye view, unerringly chose the most advantageous directions. And he builds like a wizard.” And, as if he were answering this in a letter to his wife: “They say about me that I do miracles, and they look at me with big eyes, but I find it funny. It takes so little to do all this. More conscientiousness, energy, enterprise, and these seemingly terrible mountains will part and reveal their secret, invisible to anyone, not marked on any maps, passages and passages, using which you can reduce the cost and significantly shorten the line.”

And one can give many examples of “cheaper” road construction: a very difficult section on the pass near the Suleya station, a section of the road from the Vyazovaya station to the Yakhino junction, where it was necessary to make deep excavations in the rocks, build a bridge over the Yuryuzan River, lead the river into a new channel, pour thousands of tons of soil along the river... Anyone who passes the Zlatoust station never ceases to be amazed at the railway loop invented by Nikolai Georgievich.He was one person: a talented prospector, an equally talented designer and an outstanding railway builder.

In the winter of 1887, Nikolai Georgievich settled with his family in Ust-Katav. Unfortunately, the house where the Mikhailovskys lived has not survived. There is a small monument in the cemetery near the church. Nikolai Georgievich’s daughter Varenka is buried here. She lived only three months.

On September 8, 1890, the first train arrived from Ufa to Zlatoust. There was a big celebration in the city, where Nikolai Georgievich gave a speech. Then the government commission noted: “Ufa - Zlatoust road... can be recognized as one of the outstanding roads built by Russian engineers. The quality of work... can be considered exemplary.” For his work on the construction of the road, Nikolai Georgievich was awarded the Order of St. Anne.

Nikolai Georgievich lived in Chelyabinsk in 1891–1892. He was associated with the Construction Administration of the West Siberian Railway. It was in two-story house along Truda Street between the building where the Chelyabinsk History Museum is located today (no. 98) and the monument to Prokofiev. It was demolished in the 1980s. The village where Mikhailovsky’s house was has not been on the city map for a long time. Nowadays the high-rise building of GIPROMEZ is located here.

Writer Garin-Mikhailovsky

Winter 1890–1891 Nadezhda Valerievna became seriously ill. Mikhailovsky left his job and took his family to the village of Gundurovka, where it was easier to live. The wife has recovered. In his spare time, Nikolai Georgievich began writing memoirs about his childhood (“Tema’s Childhood”). In the early spring of 1891, at the very muddy time, an unexpected and rare guest came to them from St. Petersburg - already famous writer Konstantin Mikhailovich Stanyukovich. It turns out that Nikolai Georgievich’s manuscript “Several Years in the Country” came to him, and he was fascinated by it. I came to such a distance and wilderness to meet the author and offer to publish an article in the magazine “Russian Thought”.

We talked, Stanyukovich asked if there was anything else written. Mikhailovsky began to read the manuscript about his childhood. Stanyukovich warmly approved of her, offered to be her “godfather,” but asked to come up with a pseudonym, since the editor-in-chief of Russian Thought at that time was Mikhailovsky’s namesake. I didn’t have to think long, because Gary’s one-year-old son entered the room and looked at the stranger very unfriendly. Nikolai Georgievich took his son on his lap and began to calm him down: “Don’t be afraid, I’m Garin’s dad.” Stanyukovich immediately grabbed it: “that’s the pseudonym - Garin!” The first books were published under this name. Later appeared double surname Garin-Mikhailovsky.

In the summer of 1891, Mikhailovsky was appointed head of the survey party to prepare the construction of the West Siberian Railway, on the Chelyabinsk-Ob section. Again, the search for the most successful and convenient options for laying the road. It was he who insisted that a bridge across the Ob be built near the village of Krivoshchekovo. Nikolai Georgievich then wrote: “For now, due to the lack of railways, everything here is sleeping... but someday it will sparkle brightly and strongly here, on the ruins of the old - new life...". It was as if he knew that on the site of the small station the city of Novonikolaevsk would arise, which would then become huge city Novosibirsk A large square near the Novosibirsk station is named after Garin-Mikhailovsky. There is a monument to Nikolai Georgievich on the square.

While Nikolai Georgievich was busy building the railway, a woman came to him literary fame. In 1892, the magazine “Russian Wealth” published the story “The Childhood of Theme”, and a little later “Russian Thought” - a collection of essays “Several Years in the Village”. ABOUT last work A.P. Chekhov wrote: “Before, there was nothing like this in literature of this kind, both in tone and, perhaps, sincerity. The beginning is a little routine and the end is upbeat, but the middle is a complete pleasure. It’s so true that there’s more than enough.” He is joined by the writer Korney Chukovsky: “...Several years in the village” reads like sensational novel“For Garin, even conversations with the clerk about manure are as exciting as love scenes.”

Garin-Mikhailovsky moved to St. Petersburg, took up publishing the magazine, bought “Russian Wealth”, mortgaging his estate (1892). In the very first issue he published stories by Stanyukovich, Korolenko, and Mamin-Sibiryak, who became his friends.

Garin-Mikhailovsky worked a lot: he writes a continuation of “The Childhood of the Subject,” articles about the construction of railways, about embezzlement, fights for state support for construction, and signs under them “a practical engineer.” The Minister of Railways knows who writes articles he dislikes and threatens to dismiss Mikhailovsky from the railway system. But as an engineer, Garin-Mikhailovsky is already known. He is not left without work. Designs the Kazan – Sergiev Vody railway.

His work did not allow him to sit at a desk; he writes on the go, on the train, on scraps of paper, forms, and office books. Sometimes the story was written in one night. I was very excited when I sent my work and baptized it. Then he was tormented that he wrote it wrong, and sent corrections by telegram from different stations. Garin-Mikhailovsky is the author of not only the famous tetralogy, but also novels, short stories, plays, and essays.

But the most famous and dearest to him was the story “The Childhood of Thema” (1892). This book is not only memories of my own childhood, but also reflections on family, moral education person. He remembered his cruel father, the punishment cell in their house, the floggings. The mother defended the children and told the father: “You should train puppies, not raise children.” An excerpt from “Tema’s Childhood” was published under the title “Tema and the Bug” and became one of the first and favorite books of children of many generations in our country.

The continuation of “Childhood Theme” is “Gymnasium Students” (1893). And this book is largely autobiographical, “everything is taken directly from life.” Censorship protested against its publication. In it, Garin-Mikhailovsky writes that the gymnasium turns children into stupid people and distorts their souls. Someone called his story “an invaluable treatise on education... how not to educate.” The books then made a huge impression on readers, especially teachers. A flood of letters poured in. Garin-Mikhailovsky put into the mouth of his hero from “Gymnasium Students” (teacher Leonid Nikolaevich) his attitude towards education: “They say it’s too late to start talking about education, they say it’s an old and boring issue, long resolved. I don't agree with this. There are no resolved issues on earth, and the issue of education is the most acute and painful for humanity. And this is not an old, boring question - it is eternal new question, because there are no old children."

Garin-Mikhailovsky’s third book is “Students” (1895). It describes him life experience, observations that even in students human dignity was suppressed, that the task of the institute is to educate not a person, but a slave, an opportunist. Only at the age of 25, when he began to build his first road, he began to work and found himself and character. It turned out that the entire first 25 years of his life were a longing for work. The ebullient nature has been waiting for a living cause since childhood.

The fourth book is “Engineers”. It was not completed. And it was published after the writer’s death (1907). A. M. Gorky called these books by Garin-Mikhailovsky “a whole epic of Russian life.”

Garin-Mikhailovsky - traveler

Working on the railway and on new books was not easy. Nikolai Georgievich was very tired and decided in 1898 to rest, travel around the world through Far East, Japan, America, Europe. This was his long-time dream. He traveled all over Russia, now he wanted to see other countries. Preparations for the trip successfully coincided with the offer to take part in a large scientific expedition on North Korea and Manchuria. He agreed. It was a very difficult, dangerous, but extremely interesting journey through unknown places. The writer walked 1600 km with the expedition, on foot and on horseback. I saw a lot, kept diaries, listened to Korean fairy tales through a translator. Later he published these tales, for the first time in Russia and Europe. They were published as a separate book in Moscow in 1956.

Garin-Mikhailovsky visited Japan, America, and Europe in November–December 1898. It’s interesting to read his lines about returning to Russia after a trip: “I don’t know about anyone, but I was overcome by a heavy, downright painful feeling when I entered Russia from Europe... I’ll get used to it, I’ll get drawn into this life again, and maybe it will not seem like a prison, horror, and even more depressing from this consciousness.”

Garin-Mikhailovsky wrote interesting reports about his expedition to North Korea. After returning from a trip (1898), he was invited to Nicholas II at the Anichkov Palace. Nikolai Georgievich prepared very seriously to tell the story about what he had seen and experienced, but it turned out that no one from the royal family was interested in his story. The questions asked were completely irrelevant. Then Nikolai Georgievich wrote about them: “These are provincials!” The Tsar nevertheless decided to award Garin-Mikhailovsky the Order of St. Vladimir, but the writer never received it. Together with Gorky, he signed a letter protesting against the beating of students at the Kazan Cathedral in March 1901. Nikolai Georgievich was expelled from the capital for a year and a half. From July 1901 he lived on his estate in Gundurovka. In the fall of 1902, he was allowed to enter the capital, but secret surveillance remained.

Again Railway

In the spring of 1903, Garin-Mikhailovsky was appointed head of the survey party for the construction of a railway along the southern coast of Crimea. Nikolai Georgievich investigated the possibilities of laying a road. He understood that the road should pass through very picturesque places and resorts. Therefore, he developed 84 (!) versions of the electric road, where each station had to be designed not only by architects, but also by artists. He then wrote: “I would like to finish two things - the electric road in Crimea and the story “Engineers.” But he didn’t succeed in either. Construction of the road was supposed to begin in the spring of 1904, and in January the Russo-Japanese War began.

The Crimean road has not yet been built! And Garin-Mikhailovsky went to the Far East as a war correspondent. He wrote essays, which later became the book “Diary during the War,” which contained the real truth about that war. After the revolution of 1905, he came to St. Petersburg for a short time. He donated a large sum of money for revolutionary needs. He was not a revolutionary, but he was friends with Gorky and helped revolutionaries through him. Nikolai Georgievich did not know that from 1896 until the end of his days he was under secret police surveillance.

Garin-Mikhailovsky and children

Nikolai Georgievich’s main love is children. He had 11 children, seven in his first family, four from V. A. Sadovskaya. Children were never punished in his family; one dissatisfied look from him was enough. On Moscow radio they sometimes read Garin-Mikhailovsky’s wonderful story “Confession of a Father,” about the feelings of a father who punished little son, and then lost it.

Children surrounded him everywhere; other people’s children called him “Uncle Nika.” He loved to give them gifts and organize holidays, especially New Year trees. He made up fairy tales on the fly and told them well. His children's fairy tales were published before the revolution. He talked to the children seriously, as equals. When Chekhov died, Nikolai Georgievich wrote to his 13-year-old adopted son: “The most sensitive and sympathetic person and, probably, the most suffering person in Russia has died: we probably cannot even understand now the full magnitude and significance of the loss that this death brought.. .What do you think about this? Write me...".

His letters to his now adult children have been preserved. They resemble clever fatherly commandments. He saw little of the children and did not impose his beliefs on them, but his influence was enormous. They all grew up to be worthy people.

The author of the article is grateful to the Zlatoust railway workers who introduced her to the writer’s granddaughter, Irina Yuryevna Neustrueva (St. Petersburg). It was possible to clarify a lot in the biography of Garin-Mikhailovsky and learn about the fate of his descendants. Of particular interest to us is the fate of the writer’s son, Georgy (Gary) (1890–1946), born in Ust-Katav. He was a talented and highly educated man. After the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg University, diplomatic work. Before the revolution, Georgy Nikolaevich was the youngest Comrade (deputy - author) of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia! Knew 17 languages! Didn't accept the revolution. I ended up in Paris, then in Prague, Bratislava. He taught, wrote books, translated his father's books into foreign languages. He signed his works, just like his father, Garin-Mikhailovsky. They used to write that after the war he returned to the USSR and died in 1946. In fact, it was not at all like that. When our troops liberated Prague at the end of the war, someone wrote a denunciation against Georgy Nikolaevich. He was arrested and given 10 years in the camps. In one of them (in Donbass) he soon died. Rehabilitated in 1997. In 1993, Georgy Nikolaevich’s two-volume book “Notes. From the history of the Russian foreign policy department, 1914–1920.” His only son, the full namesake of his grandfather (1922–2012), was a candidate of biological sciences at the Slovak Academy of Sciences (Bratislava).

One of Nikolai Georgievich’s sons, Sergei, became a mining engineer. Daughter Olga is a soil scientist. Her daughter, the writer’s granddaughter Irina Yurievna (1935), is a candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences. Her sister, Erdeni Yurievna Neustrueva (1932–2005), has worked at the Aurora publishing house (St. Petersburg) for the last 20 years. Granddaughter Natalya Naumovna Mikhailovskaya – Candidate of Technical Sciences of Moscow state university. Grandchildren Yuri Pavlovich Syrnikov (1928–2010) – Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, honorary academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Pavel Pavlovich Syrnikov (1936) – senior researcher at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. The latter’s son, Maxim Syrnikov, is the author of books about Russian cuisine and visits Chelyabinsk. He also came to the opening in 2012 of the monument to Garin-Mikhailovsky’s daughter, Varenka, restored by the management of the South Ural Railway stations in Ust-Katav.

Care of Garin-Mikhailovsky

After the war, Nikolai Georgievich returned to the capital, immersed himself in public work, wrote articles, plays, and tried to finish the book “Engineers.” He did not know how to rest, he slept 3-4 hours a day. On November 26, 1906, Nikolai Georgievich gathered friends, talked and argued all night (he wanted to create a new theater). They separated in the morning. And at 9 am on November 27 - work again. In the evening, Garin-Mikhailovsky was at a meeting of the editorial board of Vestnik Zhizn, there were again arguments, his bright, heated speech. Suddenly he felt bad, he went into the next room, lay down on the sofa and died. The doctor said that the heart was healthy, but paralysis occurred from extreme overwork.The family did not have enough money for the funeral, so they had to collect it by subscription. Garin-Mikhailovsky was buried at the Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Much has been written about Garin-Mikhailovsky, there are books, articles, memoirs.But probably the most exact specifications was given to Garin-Mikhailovsky by Korney Chukovsky. Here are just a few fragments from his essay “Garin”: “Garin was short, very active, dapper, handsome: his hair was gray, his eyes were young and quick...All his life he worked as a railway engineer, but in his hair, in his impetuous, uneven gait and in his unbridled, hasty, hot speeches, one could always feel what is called a broad nature - an artist, a poet, alien to stingy, selfish and petty thoughts. ..” (Chukovsky K.I. Contemporaries: portraits and sketches. [Ed. 4th, corrections and additions]. Moscow: Mol. Guard, 1967. P. 219).

“But I still haven’t said the most important thing about him. It seems to me that the most important thing is that for all his emotional outbursts, for all his inconsiderate, unbridled generosity, he was a businesslike, business man, a man of numbers and facts, accustomed from a young age to all economic practices.This was the uniqueness of his creative personality: the combination of a high structure of soul with practicality. A rare combination, especially in those days... He was the only contemporary fiction writer who was a consistent enemy of mismanagement, in which he saw the source of all our tragedies. In his books, he often insisted that Russia is completely in vain to live in such humiliating poverty, since it is the richest country in the world...” (Chukovsky K.I. Contemporaries: portraits and sketches. [Ed. 4th, rev. and additional]. Moscow: Mol. Guard, 1967. pp. 225–226).

“And to the Russian village, and to Russian industry, and to the Russian railway business, and to the Russian family life he peered just as busily and thoughtfully - he made, as it were, an audit of Russia in the eighties and nineties... Moreover, like any practitioner, his goals are always specific, clear, close, aimed at eliminating some specific evil: this is what needs to be changed , rebuild, but destroy this completely. And then (in this limited area) life will become smarter, richer and more joyful...” (Chukovsky K.I. Contemporaries: portraits and sketches. [Ed. 4th, revised and additional]. Moscow: Mol. Guard, 1967. P. 228).

The Southern Urals can be proud that such a unique person as Garin-Mikhailovsky is directly related to it.

N. A. Kapitonova

Essays

• GARIN-MIKHAYLOVSKY, N. G. Collected works: in 5 volumes / N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. – Moscow: Goslitizdat, 1957–1958.
• GARIN-MIKHAYLOVSKY, N. G. Works / N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. – Moscow: Council. Russia, 1986. – 411, p.
• GARIN-MIKHAYLOVSKY, N. G. Stories and essays / N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. – Moscow: Khudozh. lit., 1975. – 835 p., ill.
• GARIN-MIKHAYLOVSKY, N. G. Stories: in 2 volumes / N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. – Moscow: Khudozh. lit., 1977. T. 1: Childhood Topics. Gymnasium students. – 334 p. T. 2: Students. Engineers. – 389 p.
• GARIN-MIKHAYLOVSKY, N. G. Stories and essays / N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky; [ill. N. G. Rakovskaya]. – Moscow: Pravda, 1984. – 431 p. : ill.
• GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY, N. G. Option: essay. Stories / N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. – Chelyabinsk: Yuzh.-Ural. book publishing house, 1982. – 215 p. : ill.
• GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY, N. G. Prose. Memoirs of contemporaries / N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. – Moscow: Pravda, 1988. – 572 p., ill.

Literature

• DRUZHININA, E. B. Garin-Mikhailovsky Nikolai Georgievich / E. B. Druzhinina // Chelyabinsk: encyclopedia / comp.: V. S. Bozhe, V. A. Chernozemtsev. – Ed. corr. and additional – Chelyabinsk: Kamen. belt, 2001. – P. 185.
• GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY Nikolay Georgievich // Engineers of the Urals: encyclopedia / Ross. engineer. acad., Ural. separation; [editor: N. I. Danilov, etc.]. – Ekaterinburg: Ural. worker, 2007. – T. 2. – P. 161.
• SHMAKOVA, T. A. Garin-Mikhailovsky Nikolai Georgievich / T. A. Shmakova // Chelyabinsk region: encyclopedia: in 7 volumes / editorial board: K. N. Bochkarev (chief editor) [and others]. – Chelyabinsk: Kamen. belt, 2008. – T. 1. – P. 806.
• LAMIN, V.V. Garin-Mikhailovsky Nikolai Georgievich / V.V. Lamin, V.N. Yarantsev // Historical Encyclopedia of Siberia / Ross. acad. Sciences, Sib. department, Institute of History; [Ch. ed. V. A. Lamin, resp. ed. V. I. Klimenko]. – Novosibirsk: Ist. Heritage of Siberia, 2010. – [T. 1]: A–I. – P. 369.
• N. G. GARIN-MIKHAILOVSKY in the memoirs of his contemporaries: collection. for Art. school / comp., author. preface and note I. M. Yudina. – Novosibirsk: Zap.-Sib. book publishing house, 1983. – 303 p.
• FONOTOV, M. Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky: [about the writer and builder of railways. D. to the South. Urals] / M. Fonotov // Chelyab. worker. – 1995. – May 17.
• SMIRNOV, D. V. He was a poet by nature (N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky) / D. V. Smirnov // Outstanding representatives of the scientific, social and spiritual life of the Urals: materials of the 3rd Region. scientific Conf., Dec. 10–11, 2002 / [comp. N. A. Vaganova; ed. N. G. Apukhtina, A. G. Savchenko]. – Chelyabinsk, 2002. – P. 18–21.
• KAPITONOVA, N. A. Literary local history. Chelyabinsk region / N. A. Kapitonova – Chelyabinsk: Abris, 2008. – 111 p. : ill. – (Know your land). P. 29–30: N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.
• URAL source of the Trans-Siberian Railway: history of the South Ural Railway / [author. ed. project and ed.-comp. A. L. Kazakov]. – Chelyabinsk: Auto Graf, 2009. – 650, p. : ill. P. 170–171: About N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.
• KAPITONOVA, N. A. Literary local history. Chelyabinsk region / N. A. Kapitonova - Chelyabinsk: Abris, 2012. - Issue. 2. – 2012. – 127 p., ill. – (Know your land). P. 26–38: N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.
• KAPITONOVA, N. A. Literary local history. Chelyabinsk region / N. A. Kapitonova - Chelyabinsk: Abris, 2012. - Issue. 4. – 2012. – 127 p., ill. – (Know your land). pp. 108–110: Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky.
• LOSKUTOV, S. A. Gates to Siberia: monograph / S. A. Loskutov; Chelyab. Institute of Railway Communications – Phil. Feder. state budget. education institutions of higher education prof. education "Ural. state University of Communications". – Ekaterinburg: UrGUPS Publishing House, 2014. – 168 p. : ill. P. 40–43: About N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky.

Storytellers of Russia and the USSR

Victor Eremin

The Book of Happiness; Chicken Kud; Parrot; Korean fairy tales.

Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky

“Children were a source of lasting joy for him. He relaxed with the children, with the children he laughed like a child and trembled with their small, so funny, so naive joys. And we, the children, greedily seized his free moments, surrounded him, each pulled him in his own direction and asked for more and more new fairy tales, which he created right there on the spot, created with inimitable skill. And then it was our turn - Nikolai Georgievich persistently demanded fairy tales from us, and our inexperienced naive attempts made him laugh contagiously and encouragingly” (B.K. Terletsky).

Nikolai Georgievich Mikhailovsky was born on February 20, 1852 in St. Petersburg. His father, Georgy Antonovich Mikhailovsky, was from an ancient noble family, Ulan, awarded the Order of St. George for his exploits. Out of respect for the warrior, Emperor Nicholas I personally became the godfather of his eldest son Nicholas. The boy’s mother, nee Glafira Nikolaevna Tsvetinovich, came from Serbian nobles.

After the death of Nicholas I and the completion Crimean War Georgy Antonovich retired with the rank of general and moved with his family to Odessa, where he had his own house and estate near the city. The future writer spent his childhood there. I’ll note right away that military general Mikhailovsky turned out to be a useless entrepreneur, and therefore during the years of reforms of Alexander II, the family slowly went bankrupt. This happened so slowly that it actually did not affect Nikolai’s youth.

The boy received his initial education at home, then he was sent to a German school, from where he entered the Odessa Richelieu Gymnasium. In 1871, Mikhailovsky became a student at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, but failed the first session. In 1872, he successfully entered the Institute of Railways. This is how the main one was found life path a brilliant writer and survey engineer.

After graduating from the institute, civil engineer Mikhailovsky was sent to Bulgaria and Moldova, which had just been liberated from the Turks. He participated in the construction of a port in the Burgas region, as well as the Bender-Galician railway, which connected Moldova with Bulgaria. The young man worked in the Balkans for 4 years.

In 1879, Nikolai Georgievich married the daughter of the Minsk governor, Nadezhda Valerievna Charykova. And here we have to say about the most important properties personality of Nikolai Georgievich. First of all, he was extraordinarily charming person, women easily fell in love with him, and as for men, he knew how to persuade and pacify even the toughest creditors. Secondly, Mikhailovsky was an extremely frivolous person and did things for which anyone else would certainly have suffered; suffice it to say that having a large family, 11 of his own and 3 adopted children, he managed to squander the capital of his two millionaire wives in the shortest possible time (shortly before his death, the writer, having received a loan, hired a private train and traveled on it to Paris to buy fruit for banquet in honor of receiving this loan, etc.). But at the same time, thirdly, Mikhailovsky was very thrifty and prudent where it came to government money and the common good of Russia.

After his marriage, Nikolai Georgievich asked to build the Batumi railway in Transcaucasia, where he was almost killed by Turkish bandits.

Since he already had children, Mikhailovsky decided not to take any more risks and become a landowner. With his wife's money, he bought an estate in the Samara province and organized a scientifically based, profitable farm there. However, the peasants mistook his good deeds for the master’s eccentricities - they burned the farm in mockery and destroyed the harvest. After 3 years, when his wife’s money ran out, Mikhailovsky had to return to engineering.

Since 1886, Nikolai Georgievich built tunnels, bridges, and laid railways. He worked in Ufa, in the Kazan, Kostroma, Vyatka, Volyn provinces and in Siberia. He is considered the founder of the city of Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk). Since April 1903, Mikhailovsky led the expedition to carry out design work for the construction of a railway on the southern coast of Crimea.

At first, the family followed the breadwinner. In the winter of 1887 they lived in Ust-Katav (near Chelyabinsk). The Mikhailovskys’ first daughter, 3-month-old Varenka, died there. Their eldest son Garya (George) was born there.

In the winter of 1890-1891, Nadezhda Valerievna became seriously ill. Mikhailovsky took a leave of absence and took his family to a ruined Samara estate. His wife recovered, and Nikolai Georgievich, out of boredom, decided to write memories of his childhood. He had made attempts to engage in literature before this. In the early spring of 1891, at the height of the mud, the outstanding Russian writer and marine painter Konstantin Mikhailovich Stanyukovich came to them from St. Petersburg. He accidentally came across Mikhailovsky’s manuscript “Several Years in the Country,” and he decided to get to know the author. Nikolai Georgievich read a fragment from his memoirs to the guest, and he offered to give them to the Russian Thought magazine. Since the editor-in-chief of this publication was the namesake of Nikolai Georgievich, a pseudonym was required. They started to come up with ideas. And then little Gary ran into the room. The father took the baby in his arms and said with a laugh:

- I'm Garin's dad!

To which Stanyukovich replied:

- Here is the pseudonym - Garin!

The writer's first books were published under this name. Then a double surname appeared - Garin-Mikhailovsky.

Nikolai Georgievich entered the literary field in 1892 with the memoir “Tema’s Childhood” and the story “Several Years in the Village.” Readers welcomed the talented author. Over time, the memoirs became a tetralogy: “Theme’s Childhood” (1892), “Gymnasium Students” (1893), “Students” (1895), “Engineers” (published 1907). It is considered the best of everything that Garin-Mikhailovsky created.
In 1895, in Samara, the writer met Vera Alexandrovna Sadovskaya, née Dubrovina. This millionaire donated huge sums to his engineering and literary adventures. The romance that began ended with Nikolai Georgievich’s divorce from Charykova and his wedding to Sadovskaya. From that time on, the writer began to appear in society, accompanied by two wives! The women were forced to make friends and humbly accept the whims of their common husband. The writer had no intention of abandoning any of them. Although his salary was not enough to support such a large family, everyone lived on Sadovskaya’s means. Garin-Mikhailovsky even wrote a play about his life with two wives; it was staged at the Samara Theater, and the entire unusual family was present at the premiere.

The writer did not forget about himself. Tired of constant survey and construction expeditions, he decided to make a trip in 1898. trip around the world along the route Far East—Japan—America—Europe. The wives agreed.

Just before his departure, Mikhailovsky was offered to take part in a large scientific expedition to North Korea and Manchuria. Since Korea had previously pursued a policy of self-isolation, this was the first large-scale foreign scientific expedition in those places. It would have been criminally stupid to refuse it. And the writer agreed.

The journey turned out to be very difficult and dangerous. The expedition walked and rode horses for 1,600 km. And no matter where she appeared, local authorities gathered storytellers who, through translators, told folk tales to Nikolai Georgievich - such was the whim of the writer. Everything was recorded and resulted in a unique book, “Korean Fairy Tales.” The author published it in 1899, after which it was translated into many languages ​​of the world.

With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Garin-Mikhailovsky went to the Far East as a war correspondent. There he remained until the beginning of the first Russian revolution and the end of the war.

Upon returning to St. Petersburg, the writer continued to work on the story “Engineers”, and also took part in the work of the Bolshevik magazine “Bulletin of Life”. On the evening of December 10, 1906, a stormy meeting of the journal's editorial board took place, and Garin-Mikhailovsky spoke energetically at it. Suddenly he felt bad, he went into the next room, lay down on the sofa and died. The writer suffered from cardiac paralysis from overwork.

Since the day before, Nikolai Georgievich, out of frivolity, gave a large sum for the cause of the revolution, and both of his families were already ruined by that time, money had to be raised by subscription for the funeral. The burial of Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky took place at the Volkovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky was born on February 8 (20), 1852, in St. Petersburg. But his childhood and adolescence were spent in Odessa. There Nikolai received his secondary education. He studied at the Richelieu gymnasium. After graduating from school, he became a student at the St. Petersburg Institute of Railways.

According to the recollections of classmates, the future engineer studied somehow. He was more attracted to the romantic side of studying away from home. He often partied with friends and had fleeting affairs.

Garin-Mikhailovsky received his engineering diploma in the summer of 1878, at the height of the Russian-Turkish War.

Engineering activities

Own way Mikhailovsky began as a senior technician in Burgas. There in 1879 he earned his first order. In the spring of the same year, he received a prestigious position in the construction of the Bendero-Galician railway. It was led by the company of S. Polyakov. The young engineer had no practical experience at that time, but he quickly established himself well and advanced in his career.

Winter 1879-1880 was quite fruitful for Mikhailovsky. He served in the Ministry of Railways. In March-April he took part in the construction of the Batumi port, which was recaptured from Turkey during the war.

Then he received the position of head of the Baku section of the railway in Transcaucasia. But Mikhailovsky did not last long in his new position.

In 1882 he resigned. The reason was that the straightforward and honest engineer could not come to terms with the reality in which the best human qualities must give way to the thirst for profit.

Garin-Mikhailovsky also took an active part in the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The railway bridge began to be built near modern Novosibirsk. The Tomsk section was not approved.

Literary experiments

Garin-Mikhailovsky was not a professional writer . But his works “Theme’s Childhood” and “Several Years in the Country” received recognition from both readers and critics. Nikolai Georgievich was published in “Russian Thought”. While collaborating with this magazine, Mikhailovsky became quite close with another outstanding writer, K. M. Stanyukovich.

The talent of the author of the story “Tema’s Childhood” made it possible to call him one of outstanding writers of its time. But Garin-Mikhailovsky reacted quite calmly to the unexpected success. He did not want to devote his entire life to literature.

The cycle brought real fame to the writer autobiographical works. After “Childhood Theme,” “Gymnasium Students,” “Students,” and “Engineers” were published.

On a journey

For children studying the short biography of Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky, it will be useful to know that his journey began in June 1898. The famous explorer A.I. Zvegintsov invited him to join his North Korean expedition. Foreman I.A. Pichnikov and technician N.E. Borminsky were also invited.

The expedition passed through North Korea, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula. On the way back, Mikhailovsky visited the USA. The last point before returning to Russia was France.

Death

Garin-Mikhailovsky passed away suddenly. This happened on December 10 (27), 1906, during a meeting of the editorial board of the journal “Bulletin of Life”. The cause of death was cardiac paralysis.

Other biography options

• Mikhailovsky was familiar with royal family. After meeting M. Gorky, he became interested in Marxism. Later he began to collaborate with the Bolsheviks A. Lunacharsky and V. Vorovsky. He was an excellent polemicist and opposed populism.

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Russian writer, travel engineer, one of the founders of the city of Novosibirsk. Many Novosibirsk residents associate the appearance of their city directly with the name of the railway engineer and famous Russian writer N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. And this, in general, is fair, since he did everything in his power to ensure that the Trans-Siberian Railway crossed the Ob exactly where the city subsequently appeared, which would be destined to become the largest industrial, scientific and cultural center

in eastern Russia. N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky was born on February 20, 1852 in St. Petersburg. His father was a military officer, and Tsar Nicholas I himself baptized him. After graduating from high school, the future writer entered the Institute of Railways (St. Petersburg) and six years later, during Russian-Turkish war

, as a young engineer he was sent to the active army to build a highway in Bulgaria. Since then N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky was involved in construction almost his entire life: he built bridges, tunnels, and laid railways.

For many years he was closely connected with Siberia, where he took a direct part in the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky was among those who believed that the construction of a bridge across the Ob in the area of ​​​​the village of Kolyvan, along the old Moscow highway, was extremely unprofitable due to the large flood of the river during floods and unstable soils for bridge supports. The Fifth Kolyvan Party, led by him, in the process of detailed research, determined the final location of the railway crossing across the Ob. N.G. had to spend a lot of effort. Garin-Mikhailovsky, defending this project in the fight against the Siberian merchants and bureaucratic bureaucracy.

But the work of a prospector and track engineer was far from the only occupation of N.G. Mikhailovsky in his life. He was a talented engineer, business executive, educator (created schools and libraries for peasants), publisher (first he published the magazine “Russian Wealth”, participated in the organization of the magazines “Nachalo” and “Vek”, and later founded the Marxist newspaper “Samara Vestnik”), public figure. And all this coexisted perfectly with the talent of a very bright and original writer.

Having traveled all over Siberia, N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky could not ignore the Siberian theme. In his works, the writer showed phenomena typical for Russia at the end of the 19th century associated with the rapid growth of capitalism and the stratification of peasants, and also reflected the most character traits Russian national character - first of all, hard work, the desire for truth, freedom and justice.

The last year of N.G.’s life Garin-Mikhailovsky was marked by new beginnings. He came up with the idea of ​​a theater in which writers and artists, working closely together, would look for fresh forms of reflecting modern life.

Siberian epic N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, which took six months of research and then another year and a half of struggle, was, judging by the shortness of time, only an episode in his rich life. But this was the highest take-off, the pinnacle of it engineering activities- by the foresight of calculations, by the irrefutability of a principled position, by the tenacity of the struggle for best option and - based on historical results.

LITERATURE:

1. N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. Biobibliographic index. - Novosibirsk, 2012. - 102 p.
2. Nikulnikov A.V. N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky. - Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk Book Publishing House, 1989. -184 p., ill.
3. Constellation of fellow countrymen. Famous men of Novosibirsk: Literary and local history collection. Series “On the banks of the broad Ob”. Book five. - Novosibirsk: Editorial and Publishing Center "Svetoch" of the board of the Novosibirsk regional public organization "Society of Book Lovers", 2008. - P. 19-21.