One of the brightest children’s writers of Soviet times was and remains Victor Dragunsky, the author of the famous “Deniskin Stories”, which brought him great fame. However, the list of works released from his pen is much wider, and the life of the writer itself is replete with interesting facts, often not known to the general public.
Most sources indicate the wrong date of birth of the writer – November 30, although in fact he was born on December 1, as evidenced by the surviving documents. Victor Dragunsky, whose parents were from the Belarusian city of Gomel, in New York, but soon his family returned to their homeland. Since the future writer’s stepfather was an actor in the theater, his family often moved from place to place because of their tours. Over the course of his life, Viktor Dragunsky changed a great many professions, from turner to boatman. He first went to work at the age of 16. Even in his childhood, he learned the complex dance – tap-dance.
Even before becoming a writer, Dragoon became an actor. You can see it, for example, in the Soviet film “Russian Question”. The famous “Deniskins stories” got this name in honor of the son of Victor Dragoon, whose name was Denis. Alexander Tvardovsky highly praised the story of Dragoon “The Old Women”, which was published only after the death of the writer. In the postwar years, the writer worked for a while as a clown. The cycle “Deniskins stories” includes 62 short pieces.
Over the course of his life, Dragunsky founded many theater groups of actors, in which he took part as the author of the plays, as an actor, and as a director. Far from all the works of Dragoon relate to “children’s” literature – there are completely different, serious ones. For example, “He fell on the grass,” the story of the early days of World War II. Some of his stories were filmed. Thus, films based on his work “Today and Daily” were released twice, in 1980 and 1993. Writing career of Victor Dragoon lasted only 12 years.
