(born October 23, 1932)
He was born into a peasant family in the village of Timonikha, Kharovsky district of the Vologda region. He studied at the FZO school in the town of Sokol, Vologda region, worked as a carpenter, minder, electrician. After serving in the army (19521955) he worked at a plant in Perm, then worked as a worker of the district gaeta “Kommunar” (Vologda region, 1956); from this time began to speak in print. In 1958 he was elected secretary of the district committee of the Komsomol in the Gryazovets district of the Vologda region; in 1959-1964 he studied at the Literary Institute. M. Gorky; in 1963 was admitted to the Union of Writers of the USSR.
Early poems and poems Belova bear the traces of the characteristic moods of the 1950s. (the period of
There is a man from the threshold,
In distressing distances is coming.
Along with many lyricists of the 1950s, the young Belov in the “holy alarm”, in the struggle, in a social impulse, sees the real purpose of man, the only worthy content of life (the poem “Russia”, the poem “Komsomol summer”). Even in his youth, he left his native places, hurrying to escape from the sedentary way and the slow pace of rural life to the attractive brightness, the accelerated-diverse rhythm of urban life. This step seemed a joyous step towards freedom, to unprecedented opportunities; later in the poem “What the accordion sings” the poet will say about this:
And then I did not grieve at all,
Leaving the house lightly.
In the Carpenter’s Stories, the hero Konstantin Zorin (endowed with autobiographical features) remembers how he parted with his village: “… I hated all this with all my heart.” He swore he did not come back here. ” But very soon the craving for the “father’s edge” becomes that dominant force that determines Belov’s destiny and the direction of his creativity. The theme of “return” sounds already in the first poetic collection “My Village of the Woods” (Vologda, 1961). The path of the heart to the homeland, to the “soil”, to the house and the land near Belov is not the path of memories, of contemplative nostalgia. This is the path of intensive artistic, linguistic work, which as a result of the 1960s in the books of Belov recreates the world of the northern Russian village. Epic in its content and ways of image, this world is proneean lyricism of various shades: sorrow, bitterness, sadness, tenderness and mild humor. In the collection of short stories and stories “Hot summer” (Vologda, 1963), pictures of rural everyday life unfold in that unhurried order, which is subordinated to the village calendar, the scope of domestic affairs, the course of the conversation. The real details of the life of the village are recreated in a general restrained palette. Striving for reliability in everything, Belov resorts almost to documentary accuracy in the depiction of characters and often turns the story into an essay (“Tisha da Grisha”). Sketches of familiar peasant types were already in the poems “Grandfather”, “Mother-in-law”; one of the first interpretations of his relations with his native land took place in Belov in the poem “White Blood”, over which the writer worked in 1961. It is not by chance that an excerpt from the last ” At home, “(1981) formed the basis for the later narrative” The Hills. “The transition from poetry to prose from Belov is natural and inevitable in its own way: The great story” A Habitual Affair “(1967) is a landmark work in Belov’s work, with its appearance the old theme the people, the peasantry has acquired a new ethical urgency, new questions have arisen about the artistic development of this topic. The fate of the hero (Ivan Afrikanovich) is revealed by the author inward, to its eternal grounds, from which everything receives stability, value, beauty: the house, work, hunting, rest, h a deed, an act and a word, but when the blood ties with these bases are violated, a person loses his existential supports. “Deciding to leave the village, the protagonist feels” something broke, cracked in the heart. ” And as the tragic consequences of this fateful death, the death of the hero’s wife is perceived, the death of the family warden of the cow Rogul, the wanderings of Ivan Afrikanovich in the forest, which almost ended in ruin, although these events seem to be caused by natural causes or simply accidental. Belov’s sensitivity to the hidden tragedy of the existence of heroes was already present in the stories “The Village of Berdyayka” (1961), “Behind Three Dragged” (1965). In more complex perspectives this theme is given in “Carpentry stories” (1968). For the narrator Constantine Zorin, the rural past is separated from him by years, by a psychological and cultural distance. The hero’s view of the village is sometimes slightly removed, rationalized, but he is irresistibly attracted to his native home, to an old village bath, which he has repaired on vacation. Zorin plunges into the sluggish existence of a semi-abandoned village, converges with fellow villagers. Belov seeks the possibility of harmonic wholeness and finds it in the cozy world of a “small homeland” where “warm spruce forests” quietly sleep, where the forest breathes peace, silence, where it is so good to live. However, such a state is rare and almost inaccessible to a modern person. It is held in Belov’s few things, such as the story “Bobrishny Utor”, and only occasionally appears in the works of the 1970s and the 1980s. Turning to urban plots, Belov usually finds the hero in disharmonious states-lack of cordiality, love, simplicity in people (“Education by Dr. Spock”, 1974, “Chok-Pay.” The motif of “breaking” the very foundations of peasant life was already outlined in ” Carpentry stories. ” The tragic era of collectivization has been the focus of Belov’s attention since the early 1970s. The writer goes to a new genre for him, the novel-chronicle, creating the “Eve” (19721984) and the continuation of their “Year of the Great Break” (19891991). The book “The Year of the Great Break” is not perceived as the completion of the chronicle. The tragic epic about the land and the peasantry, which reached its culmination in the 1930s, remains not only without an outcome, but without a higher meaning. Clearly understanding this, Belov associates understanding of tragedy with the Christian view of what happened in Russia. is not perceived as the completion of the chronicle. The tragic epic about the land and the peasantry, which reached its culmination in the 1930s, remains not only without an outcome, but without a higher meaning. Clearly understanding this, Belov associates understanding of tragedy with the Christian view of what happened in Russia. is not perceived as the completion of the chronicle. The tragic epic about the land and the peasantry, which reached its culmination in the 1930s, remains not only without an outcome, but without a higher meaning. Clearly understanding this, Belov associates understanding of tragedy with the Christian view of what happened in Russia.
The most optimistic, even the festive book of Belov “Lad” (1979). The world of the peasant community, families, farms, the world of work and leisure, crafts and arts, customs and language appears in a perfectly “right” state, in which his history remembers and in what his writer sees. The lad is generated by the correct rhythm of the whole cycle of earthly life. The author is able to combine ethnographic accuracy with moral truth with great tact. His speech itself is picturesque, where it is sincere, where it is mildly ironic, but always strong, it is clear, is clear in concepts and assessments, it is always appropriate to use the popular word in it. A new and uneasy task was set by the writer in the novel “Everything is ahead” (1986) to explore contemporary Russian life, the “human breed” in the conditions of urban confusion of nations, traditions, styles, in the clash of different moral-psychological types. The motives touched in the novel go to Belov’s journalism, intertwining with the main themes of his work with themes of the peasantry, the moral self-determination of man, the preservation of nature and national culture. They found a vivid expression in the writer’s speeches as a people’s deputy of the USSR (19891992) and a member of the Supreme Council (19901991), as well as in a number of articles and books: “Start with personal self-restraint,” “From the Ashes…” (1991) Listen to yourself “(1993). In his “soil” position Belov gravitates to the philosophical and historical views of IA Il’in, whose selected works he prepared and published with his own preface (1993). Peru Belova owns stories for children, humorous miniatures (“The Vologda bay in six parts”), plays (“Prince Alexander Nevsky,” “Over Clear Water,” and others), the movie “Kiss the Dawns…”. Belov is a laureate of the State Prize of the USSR, the Literary Prize named after. L. Tolstoy.