Childhood
Boris Vladimirovich was born on September 9, 1918 in the city of Cahul . Vladimir Zakhoder was his father and worked as a lawyer by profession, and his mother Polina Herzenstein was a nurse in the infirmary. The parents met at the front.
The family did not live long in Moldova and, with a very small child, moved to Odessa and then to Moscow. A change of scenery while moving was very difficult for the writer.
As a child, the little boy was not interested in literature. He was interested in biology, sports and foreign languages under the guidance of his mother. By that time,
Polina Naumovna The child was very gifted, learned quickly, and at the age of 11 he first translated Goethe’s poem “The Forest King.”
Boris Zakhoder: biography for children
04/22/2015, Biographies of writers, Books for children and parents, A month with your favorite writer, Articles One comment
Reading Zakhoder’s poems and fairy tales - so sonorous, so bright, funny and wise - it is difficult to imagine that their author went through two wars, suffered painful years of non-recognition and many personal tragedies. However, fate rarely spoils real poets. Maybe the fact is that talent blossoms more magnificently on the basis of life’s adversities and trials? Read our article about how the writer’s fate turned out. The biography of Boris Zakhoder, told in simple and accessible language, will also be interesting to your children.
The childhood and youth of Boris Zakhoder
Boris Zakhoder was born on September 9, 1918 in Bessarabia. His father, a graduate of Moscow University, volunteered to go to the front of the First World War in 1914 and in the Bessarabian (now Moldavian) city of Cahul he met the poet’s future mother, nurse Polina Naumovna Herzenstein. The future poet was born in this city. However, the Zakhoder family did not stay in Cahul for long: a year after Boris was born, they moved to Odessa, and from there, another year later, to Moscow, where they finally settled.
Boris's talent manifested itself in childhood: the boy studied easily, read a lot, studied music (giving preference to the works of Chopin and Beethoven), and wrote his first fairy tales. Under the guidance of his mother, a talented translator, he also studied languages - for which the future poet also showed extraordinary abilities. Zakhoder especially loved the poems of Goethe, with whom he felt a kind of “kinship of souls” until the end of his life. Already at the age of 11, he took on the first “serious” translation of Goethe’s poem “The Forest King” - the widespread translation of Zhukovsky, in his opinion, did not correspond to the original at all.
But the main passion of young Zakhoder was biology. “The Life of Animals” by Bram and “The Life of Insects” by Fabre became his reference books. Fascinated by this life, in 1936 he entered the biological faculty of Kazan University, and a year later he transferred to the same faculty of Moscow State University. However, literary talent won: in 1938, Zakhoder entered the Gorky Literary Institute.
The poet’s studies at the Literary Institute took nine long years: it was interrupted first by the Finnish and then by the Great Patriotic War. Zakhoder volunteered for both wars, and in the latter he was twice awarded medals “For Military Merit.” In 1946, Boris returned to Moscow, and a year later he finally received a diploma with honors.
Through thorns
Zakhoder's fate, however, was not as smooth as it might seem at first glance. He had to endure the first serious blow of fate at the age of 14: the boy’s mother committed suicide. Her death caused Boris deep emotional trauma - the question of the reasons for this act tormented him until the end of his life. The second blow was the departure of his first wife, Nina Efimovna Zozulya, who did not wait for him since the Finnish War.
Another difficult test was the years of calm that came after Zakhoder graduated from the Literary Institute. Soviet literature did not require “new Jews”, and they did not want to publish an author with an inconvenient last name. The poem “Sea Battle” appeared in the magazine “Zateinik”, and several author’s retellings of folk tales appeared in “Murzilka”... And that’s all. And it was a hungry time; besides, an unrecognized writer could easily be considered a parasite - and this was prosecuted by law in the USSR.
For almost 10 years, Zakhoder had to literally survive. He lived in a tiny room and earned what he could: he worked as an “apprentice” for other eminent writers, performed translations from German and other languages (which were published in magazines under pseudonyms), bred aquarium fish for sale - and stubbornly continued to write poetry for children , offering them to various publishers. During these years, his character clearly manifested itself: meticulousness, integrity, readiness to defend the right to his own name and achieve excellence in any business - even in fish breeding.
The year 1955 was a turning point for the writer: the “New World” magazine published the fairy tale “The Letter I,” written back in 1947. After long battles, the magazine's editor-in-chief, Konstantin Simonov, agreed to publish the fairy tale under the name Zakhoder - and this was a real victory. The witty tale quickly gained popularity, was even read on the All-Union Radio, and after that Zakhoder’s poems began to be published in Pioneer and Pionerskaya Pravda. In 1955, a collection of poems, “On the Back Desk,” was published, and in 1956, a collection, “Martyshkino Tomorrow,” was published. In 1958, Zakhoder finally received official confirmation of his talent - a certificate from the Union of Writers of the USSR. For a Soviet writer, membership in this Union was not just honorable - it allowed him to write freely without fear of accusations of parasitism.
The threshold of silence was overcome.
Family happiness
What more could a poet wish for? Perhaps only family happiness. Boris Zakhoder didn’t work out with him for a long time: about his relationship with his second wife, artist Kira Smirnova, he sadly wrote: “Melancholy. No home, no peace, no comfort.”
Zakhoder met “his” woman, Galina Sergeevna Romanova, only in 1963. With her, he was finally able to feel real family warmth and create his own little world: in 1966, Boris and Galina moved from Moscow to Komarovka, to a small house that had once been built for a doctor at the Elizabethan hospital.
Here, far from the bustle and hypocrisy of the capital's literary world, Zakhoder created his own creative oasis. The spouses (Galina Romanova officially became the poet's wife in 1967) were visited by Vladimir Shainsky, Iya Savvina, Arkady Raikin, Eduard Uspensky, Valentin Berestov, Rina Zelenaya and many other talented individuals. However, Zakhoder also had enough peace, creative solitude, simple and quiet comfort, necessary for fruitful writing. Here, in Komarovka, he writes many new poems and prose fairy tales for children, works on the translation of “Alice in Wonderland” and “Mary Poppins”, and returns to the translation of Goethe. The latter were published in full only after the death of the writer.
In Komarovka, in a modest house with a garden, Zakhoder lived until his death. In addition to peace, he also received long-awaited recognition: in 1978, for his author’s retelling of “Alice in Wonderland,” he was awarded the Andersen Prize, in the 90s he received several Russian awards and diplomas, and in 2000 he was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation. True, the favor of the authorities and the public extended only to Zakhoder’s “children’s” works - serious lyrics written for adult readers remained unclaimed. Shortly before his death, the poet independently published several collections “Zakhoderznost” and “Almost Posthumous” in small editions, but most readers never became acquainted with the “adult” poet Boris Zakhoder.
Boris Zakhoder died on the night of November 6-7, 2000, in the Central Hospital of the city of Korolev. It was decided to bury the poet at the Troekurovsky cemetery - one of the oldest and most honorable cemeteries in Moscow. In 2002, a memorial plaque was installed on the house in which the writer lived the happiest half of his life.
Alena Volkova, your consultant on the development of children's speech.
Youth
The works of the great philosopher accompanied the poet for a long time. The boy suffered his first blow at the age of 14; his mother voluntarily passed away. No one ever found out the reason. At this time, Boris Zakhoder fell into depression and completely immersed himself in science.
The study of animals and plants took up almost all of his free time, so in 1936 he chose the Faculty of Biology at Kazan University. In 1938, the writer was transferred to the Institute of Literature. It was possible to obtain a diploma with honors by 1947 due to military operations.
The poet voluntarily went to the front and during his service he worked on the creation of the newspaper “Fire at the Enemy” and participated in the battle for Lviv. His poems, published in the newspaper, helped and encouraged military personnel. In 1944 he was given a medal for services to the Fatherland, and later in 1985 he was awarded an order.
Family
My personal life was not going well for a long time. The marriage with his first wife Nina Zozulya quickly fell apart. The woman did not wait for her husband since the Finnish War. with his second wife Kira Smirnova for more than 20 years, but those around him noticed that there was no happiness in the marriage.
Galina Romanova appeared on the poet's path in 1963. This was the love of his life. In 1966, the lovers got married and moved to a modest but cozy house in the village of Komarovka.
Boris Zakhoder created his best works in it and lived for the rest of his life. Galina worked as a photographer and was also interested in the activities of a writer. She is the first wife to take the surname Zakhoder. The poet did not have his own children.
Poems for children and translations of Goethe
Boris Zakhoder and writer Valentin Berestov. Photo: deti-online.com
Boris Zakhoder with his wife Galina. Photo: pravkrug.ru
Boris Zakhoder with his wife Galina. Photo: pravkrug.ru
After the war, Boris Zakhoder tried to publish his poems, but publishing them turned out to be difficult: adult poetry was not allowed through censorship. Therefore, Zakhoder decided to engage in children's literature. He began reading books by other children's writers, studying Russian and foreign folklore, and collecting children's rhymes.
As for literature for children, both before and after the war, Gorky’s thesis reigned that for children one should write in the same way as for adults, only better. I liked this idea: I wanted to write better than for adults.
Boris Zakhoder
Boris Zakhoder's first poem for children was “Battleship”. He published it in 1947 in the magazine “Zateinik”. A little later, the writer created several retellings of folk tales for the children's magazine “Murzilka”. However, these works did not bring fame to the author.
It was not easy for a writer with a Jewish surname to get a permanent job, so Zakhoder worked as a literary apprentice, helping eminent colleagues. There was almost no money for anything, and he even bred rare aquarium fish and sold them on the market. Zakhoder recalled: “A lot of funny and gloomy memories are associated with these years - and if I ever talk about this time, the most honorable place in the story will be taken by the chapter entitled: “How I fed the fish, and they fed me.”
During the same period, Boris Zakhoder began technical and literary translations from Czech, Polish, and English. He himself believed that he spoke German best: “If I don’t know a German word, it means it’s not in the dictionary or it doesn’t exist at all.” Most of all, Zakhoder liked to translate Goethe. Back in 1946, he read the original book by the famous German researcher Johann Eckermann, “Conversations with Goethe in the last years of his life.” Zakhoder was so fascinated by the personality of the classic and his work that from then on he began to call Goethe his “privy adviser.”
Illustration by Hans Wilhelm for the story “The Town Musicians of Bremen.” Image: fairyroom.ru
Illustration by Ernest Shepard for the fairy tale "Winnie the Pooh". Image: fairyroom.ru
Illustration by Yuri Uzbekov for the poem “The Letter I”. Image: fairyroom.ru
The writer was engaged in translations of the German author until the end of his life, but for the first time they were published in full after the death of the translator. In the preface to the two-volume book “Boris Zakhoder. But there is one poet...” Zakhoder’s widow wrote: “Goethe’s drafts are stored in a thick folder, the strings of which are even difficult to tie.” A rough count showed that there were about 800 sheets of paper written on both sides. By touching the origins of the work on Goethe’s translations, which were not even made with a ballpoint pen, but with the “eternal pen,” we are touching history, for there we discovered poems dated 1946. They have been lying in this folder for sixty years, of which five years have passed without their creator.”
In 1952, in the supplement to the magazine “People's Library “Ogonyok””, under the pseudonym B. Volodin, Zakhoder’s translations of stories by the German writer Anna Segers were published. Then Boris Zakhoder published adaptations of poems by the Canadian poet Joe Wallace, Polish poets Jan Brzechwa and Julian Tuwim. Unlike many translators, Zakhoder did not strive to convey a foreign work word for word, but to adapt it to the Russian mentality. During the same period, he managed to publish his own poems for children: “Barbosy”, “The Harmful Cat”, “About Petya”, “The Letter I” and the collection “On the Back Desk”.
