Vera Vasilyevna Chaplina

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Vera Chaplina and the lioness Kinuli in the Moscow Zoo (1936)

Wera Wassiljewna Tschaplina ( Russian Вера Васильевна Чаплина ; born April 24, 1908 in Moscow ; † December 19, 1994 ibid) was a Russian author of children's and animal books. Her life and work was closely connected with the Moscow Zoo .

Life

Wera Tschaplina was born into an old noble family. After the October Revolution in 1917, the ten-year-old was lost in the chaos of the civil war and ended up in a children's home . In 1923 the mother found her child again and moved back to Moscow with him. In the same year Tschaplina became a member of the zoo's young biologists group . Her teacher was Pyotr Manteufel , the Russian Brehm , as he was called. At the age of 25, she founded the children's zoo as an experiment , in which all young animals should get along with one another. In 1933, the magazine Der Junge Naturforscher published her first animal stories. Her first book Small animals from the green zoo ( Малыши с зеленой площадки ) was published in 1935 by the Moscow children's book publisher. In 1935 she acquired Kinuli, a lion cub, who had been rejected by his mother, in her home. H. in a communal apartment ( Kommunalka ) typical of Moscow at the time , in which other families lived. In 1937 she became the head of the carnivores section of the Moscow Zoo. In 1939 her book My animal friends was published in London.

Chaplina worked at the Moscow Zoo until 1946, when she devoted herself exclusively to literary work. Tschaplina processed her memories in the book Der Vierbeinige Freunde (1947) and Zöglinge des Zoo (1955–1965), which was also published several times in German-speaking countries. She died in Moscow in 1994 and was buried in the Vagankovo ​​Cemetery .

Works (selection)

  • Four-legged friends (Russian Четвероногие друзья , 1947, German 1949)
  • Animals in the jungle. Experiences in the nature reserve of Belowesh ( В Беловежской Пуще , 1949, together with Georgij Skrebickij (1903–1964), German 1952),
  • Kinuli. The Story of a Lioness ( Кинули , 1937–1950, Ger . 1953)
  • Four-legged friends and pupils of the zoo ( Четвероногие друзья, Питомцы зоопарка , 1947, 1955, Ger . 1958)
  • The goblin in the zoo and other stories ( Друг чабана, Питомцы зоопарка , 1961, 1965, German 1970)
  • The hedgehog in the kennel ( Случайные встречи , 1976, German 1980)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ In the catalogs of the German libraries: Čaplina, Vera V.
  2. ↑ Antje Leetz. "Four-legged friends. A Russian children's book and its story" - SWR2 (30.12.2010)
  3. ↑ Demaree Bess. Lions and Lambs in Moscow // The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, December 18, 1935.
  4. ^ British Library Catalog

Web links

Commons : Wera Wassiljewna Tschaplina  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Chaplina, Vera Vasilievna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tschaplina, Wera; Чаплина, Вера Васильевна (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Soviet and Russian children's book and animal writer, whose life and work with the Moscow Zoo
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 1994
Place of death Moscow