Vitaly Walentinowitsch Bianki

Vitaly Bianki ( Russian Виталий Валентинович Бианки * January 30 ^jul. / 11. February  1894 ^greg. In St. Petersburg , Russian Empire ; †  10. June 1959 in Leningrad , Soviet Union ) was known as Russian-Soviet children's books author, especially since 1923 through his animal stories and fairy tales. His work included over three hundred short stories, fairy tales, short stories and articles published in around 120 books with a print run of 40 million copies and translated into many languages. Bianki's books, based on nature observation and love for nature, describe the richness and mysteries of nature. He wrote that animals and plants experience just as many events in their existence as humans.

His most famous book, Die Waldzeitung , («Лесная газета», Lesnaja Gazeta ), which appeared in 1928, is a kind of encyclopedia of the forest and its inhabitants. The light and colorful language is aimed directly at the children's imagination. He wrote this unusual book during the 1920s. It was supplemented and continued annually for the next 35 years until the author's death. The book has been translated into many languages ​​and was also used as a template for the popular children's radio program Nachrichten aus dem Wald ("Вести из леса", Westi is lessa ), broadcast by Bianki and Nikolai Sladkov on Leningrad Radio. The show had one of the largest audiences in the country. It was broadcast repeatedly throughout the Soviet Union and reached an estimated audience of fifty million during the 1950s.

biography

Childhood and Revolutionary Period

Exhibit in the St. Petersburg Zoological Museum

Hall of the St. Petersburg Zoological Museum, where Bianki spent much of his childhood through his father, the curator of the insect department.

View of St. Petersburg, the place of birth and death of Bianki, from which he was often separated through war and exile, but to which he kept returning.

Datsches in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. Bianki stayed in such a dacha most of the time from spring to autumn.

Taiga in the northeast Urals

Siberian coniferous forest, Larix sibirica

A dipper. Two birds, including a dipper species, are named after Bianki's father, a well-known ornithologist who wrote over 120 texts.

From an early age Vitali Bianki took part in scientific expeditions to the Volga , the Urals , the Altai and Kazakhstan . Vitali was one of three sons of the zoologist Valentin Bianchi (1857-1920), a scientist in the entomology department of the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Bianki inherited from his father an interest in everything that “breathes, blossoms and grows”.

The home of the father who was the curator of the collection was directly across from the museum, and the three brothers so often spent their time in his study. Bianki could marvel at animals from all over the world in the glass showcases. His father was also his most important teacher. He taught his son to record all his nature observations. He said of his father that he “knew every blade of grass, every bird and every little creature by name, and that he believed he was a kind of forest spirit because he knew all the secret paths and hidden springs, understood and commanded birds and animals . "

In his life, Bianki traveled extensively through northern Russia, often forced to do so. But he was always drawn back to Leningrad, today's St. Petersburg .

After high school and with studies in biology and natural sciences at the physical-mathematical faculty of Petrograd University in 1916 , with a specialization in ornithology , as well as studies in art at the St. Petersburg Art Institute, in drawing of plants and animals he only started his literary activities years later, in 1923.

After serving in the army from 1916 and joining the Social Revolutionary Party in 1917, as well as his work for the Commission for the Protection of Art Monuments of Tsarskoye Selo , he was sent to Siberia on the Volga in spring 1918 and worked for the newspaper in Samara in the summer of 1918 "People" ("Народ"). After detours through Ufa , Yekaterinburg , back to Ufa and Tomsk, he finally moved to Biisk . There he was forced into the army of the monarchist Kolchaks , but deserted and was henceforth forced to live under a false name. In the documents his name was now Vitaly Beljanin and he was a student at the University of Petrograd, ornithologist and collector at the Zoological Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He kept the real secret of his name until the Kolchak regime was driven out . His double name Bianki-Beljanin was in his passport until the end of his life.

After the establishment of Soviet power in Biisk, Bianki worked in the education department for the local museum. He later became the head of the museum. At the same time he was a teacher at a school under the Comintern III. He took an active part in the Biisk Scientific Society, gave lectures on ornithology at the Altai People's University and organized two scientific expeditions to Lake Teletskoye.

In 1921 he was arrested twice by the Cheka in Biisk and spent three weeks in prison. In September 1922 one of his friends warned him of the danger of being arrested again, so Bianki quickly packed his things and traveled to his home country and to his family in Petrograd.

Life as a writer

He began to write his first texts with books full of notes that he collected during his time in Biisk and that were very close to his heart. He said that like the inanimate animals in a natural history museum, the forest, and its inhabitants, these notes were motionless and frozen. As a child, he wanted to bring these animals back to life and it was precisely this magic that he wanted to achieve later with his words. The need for artistic expression to revitalize his accumulated knowledge made Bianki a writer.

Back in Leningrad, Bianki took part in a circle of writers around Kornei Tschukowski . He later became a member of the Writers' Union of the USSR and a good friend of Samuel Marschak and Boris Schitkow (Житков, Борис Степанович).

He and his family lived in Leningrad from 1924 to June 10, 1959 at the address Васильевский остров, Малый проспект, дом 4 (Kleine Strasse, House 4). But for most of the year, from spring to late autumn, he lived out of town. He made his nature observations especially when he lived in the countryside in his family's dacha , in the Lebiazhi settlement (Лебяжье (Ломоносовский район)). At the same time, this house was a cultural center during the summer days, where scientists and authors from St. Petersburg met.

In 1923 his first short story, "The Red Sparrow on the Journey" ("Путешествие красноголового воробья") was published in the children's magazine "Der Spatz" ("Воробей", "Vorobei"). In the same year his first children's book "Whose nose is better?" ("Чей нос лучше?", "Chei nos luchshe") was published by the private publisher Raduga (Радуга).

At the end of 1925, Bianki was arrested again and sentenced to three years of exile in Uralsk for participating in a nonexistent underground organization , where he also spent the next three years. In the spring of 1928, due to numerous applications, including Maxim Gorky's appeal to the intelligence Jagoda , he was given permission as part of the infamous 101 km control, a requirement that released prisoners km only 100 were allowed to live away from major cities, according Novgorod to move and later, in early 1929, again to Leningrad. Another arrest followed in November 1932, from which he was released after three and a half weeks "for lack of evidence".

In March 1935, Bianki was arrested again as an alleged "active member of the armed uprising against Soviet rule" and moved to the Aktobe region for five years . Thanks to the intercession of Gorky's ex-wife, Katharina Pawlowna Peschkowa, Bianki was exonerated. In 1941 he returned to Leningrad. Because of a heart disease he was not drafted into the army, but evacuated to the Urals during the Second World War; after the war he returned to Leningrad.

One of his students and followers is Nikolai Sladkov (Н.Сладков), a well-known author of numerous books on nature.

Vitaly Bianki died on June 10, 1959 in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) and is buried there in the Bogoslovskoe Cemetery.

Publications

The German translation of his stories included "Mäuschen Pik", "The First Hunt", "The Loner", "How Tit Wolow Wolow Searched For Wolves". The stories are especially suitable for young readers and listeners aged 7 and over.

One or the other edition of these books won the GDR's Most Beautiful Books Book Prize .

Witali's works have been published in Germany by the following publishers: Alfred Holz, Kinderbuchverlag Berlin , Orbis Berlin, Kultur und progress Berlin, Parabel (Munich), Hinstorff (Rostock), Volk und Wissen (Berlin), Engelhard-Reyher-Verlag Gotha, Verlag Neues Leben (Berlin), Edition Pan (Düsseldorf), Orbis-Verlag Berlin-Tegel-Nord and at Schaffstein in Cologne.

Abroad, his works have been published at Malysch Moscow, Azbuka St. Petersburg and Olimpij, among others.

Film adaptations

The motifs of his stories can be found in the literary adaptation Adventure in the Taiga ( Prikljutschenija w tajge ) (USSR 1971), a film by the director Agassi Babajan (Agassi Babayan), who made the 1961 film Dersu Uzala, not to be confused with Akira Kurosawas film of the same name. The film shows the life of a lynx, raised by a forest ranger, who has to endure some adventures in the wild and among humans.

The short animation Путешествие муравья (Russian; English: Travels of an Ant) from 1983, based on one of Bianki's stories, shows the adventurous way home of an ant that got lost shortly before sunset. The film won various awards.

Works in German translation

• Askyr the sable. (Original title: Askyr (German)) Schaffstein, Cologne 1951. Translation by Egon von Bahder. Text drawings by Werner Peltzer.
• On the way across the great sea. Rostock 1954. Translation by F. König.
• On the trail. Animal and hunting stories. (Original title: Po sledam ) Holz, Berlin 1965. Translation by Thomas Reschke .
• The little mouse beep. (Original title: Мышонок Пик ) Verlag f. Youth and Volk, Vienna 1953. Translation by W. Linhart. Drawings: E. Ratschew.
• The Wipfelstübchen. (Original title: Теремок ) Engelhard Reyher Verlag, Gotha 1952. Translation: Siegfried Wisch. Illustration: AA Rylow.
• The loner. (Original title: Odinec ) Culture and progress, Berlin 1959. Illustrations: Jürgen Wittdorf . Translated from the Russian by Dieter Pommerenke.
• The loner. and other stories Der Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1970. Illustrations: Renate Göritz. Translation: Corinna and Gottfried Wojtek.
• The fox and the mouse. Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1985. Illustrated by Erika Klein. Transferred from Alla Stüwe.
• The clever fox and the clever duckling: a Russian folk tale. Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1975. Translation: Max Hummeltenberg. Illustrations: Regine Blumenthal.
• The first hunt. (Original title: Первая охота ) Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1965. Translation: Inge Langer. Illustrations: Ingeborg Meyer-Rey .
• The owl. (Original title: Рассказы и сказки ) Der Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-358-01234-4 . Illustrations by Erich Gürtzig . Translation by Alla Stüwe.
• The forest cottages. (Original title: Теремок ) Malysch Verlag, Moscow 1979. Drawings by Mai Mituritsch. Translated from the Russian by Vera Novak.
• The forest newspaper. (Original title: Лесная газета ) Children's book publisher, Berlin 1953. Translation by Inge Langer and Ulrich Kuhnke. Ill. After d. Orig. From Helmut Kloss.
• Flick. Verlag für Fremdsprachige Literatur, Moscow 1955. Translated from the Russian by Hilde Eschwege.
• Mice of Spades and other stories. Children's book publisher, Berlin 1969. Illustrated by Gerhard Rappus.
• Mouse of Spades. A Russian animal fairy tale. (Original title: Мышонок Пик ) Orbis-Verlag, Berlin-Tegel-Nord 1948. Translated by E. Wollert. Drawings: Evgeny Ratschow.
• Mäuschen Pick: story in 2 parts. Zentralverlag, Charkow 1929. German by B. Mayerle.
• Animal stories. (Original title: Рассказы и сказки ) Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1951. Illustrated by Herbert Thiele. Transfer from Alla Stuewe.
• Unexpected encounters: stories from a hunter and nature lover. (Original title: Necajannye vstreci ) Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1950. Translated from the Russian by Ernst Hube. Ill .: Herbert Thiele.
• Hide and seek. (Original title: Prjatki ) Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1951. Translation: Hermann Gleistein. Textile: Rudolf Meissner.
• How Tit Wolow was looking for wolves. Children's book publisher, Berlin 1970. Illustrated by Renate Göritz. Edited by Nadeshda Ludwig. Translated from d. Soot. from Corrinna u. Gottfried Wojtek.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Soviet studies in literature, Volume 17, p. 70.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Steve Shelokhonov: Imdb Mini Biography http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0080671/bio (English)
3. ↑ Biography Bianki http://lib.rus.ec/a/31171 (Russian)
4. ↑ Bio at bibliogid: Archive link ( Memento of the original from November 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Novgoroder Wiki: Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ^ Russian Wikipedia page
7. ↑ bio.1september.ru
8. ↑ Sladkov in the Russian Wikipedia
9. ↑ Film on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YqSIiq-lT0
10. ↑ IMDB entry: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216126

literature

• Bianki, Vitalij Valentinovic. In: Lexicon of foreign language writers: from the beginnings to the present. Volume 1: AG. Leipzig 1977, p. 203.

• G. Grodensky, Vitali Bianchi, M.-L., 1954; Life and work of V. Bianchi. [Articles, memoirs, publications, letters], Leningrad 1967.

Лит .: Гроденский Г., Виталий Бианки, М.— Л., 1954; Жизнь и творчество В. Бианки. [Статьи, воспоминания, публикации, письма], Л., 1967.

Web links

• Literature by and about Witali Walentinowitsch Bianki in the catalog of the German National Library