Arkady Gaidar was a surprisingly versatile man. A lot of wonderful children’s books came out from under his pen, and as a screenwriter, he also showed himself on the best side, and during the Second World War Gaidar as a war correspondent demonstrated miracles of courage.
Mother Arkady Gaidar (nee Golikov) came from a noble family and had a distant relative Lermontov.
Arkady was still quite a boy rushing to the first of the world wars, when the front called for his father. The runaway child managed to catch and return home.
As a child, Gaidar saved his comrade, who fell into wormwood.
At the age of 15, Gaidar was still at war, but already in civilian life, where the teenager was immediately appointed as an assistant to the platoon commander. Military actions did not pass for the guy without a trace – he was wounded and concussed.
At the age of 18, Gaidar, who had been disaccustomed to the military academy in Moscow, headed the regiment to combat banditry – his task was to suppress anti-Soviet statements.
During the struggle against the opponents of the new regime, Gaidar showed himself to be a cruel and uncompromising person, unable to establish relations with either the civil authorities or with his colleagues. According to other Red Army men, he mercilessly shot suspected of “banditry”, carried out mass arrests and deprived people of their property much more often than other comrades. Gaidar was accused of exceeding his official powers and after long proceedings deprived him of the right to hold leading positions for 2 years.
Gaidar was demobilized with the diagnosis of “traumatic neurosis” due to damage to the brain and spinal cord during the wound. Later, he repeatedly underwent treatment in psychiatric hospitals.
After retiring from the army Gaidar took up literature, but his first works waited for failure. But later his creations, for example, “Chuk and Huck” and “Malchish-Kibalchish”, were repeatedly screened and entered the school curriculum.
The writer did not give a clear explanation of how he chose his pseudonym, having turned from Golikov to Gaidar.
Gaidar himself said that his main inspirers were Gogol, Dickens and Mark Twain.
Gaidar’s novel “Timur and his team” marked the beginning of Timur’s movement – inspired by the book, the pioneers took patronage over veterans and pensioners, rendering them all possible assistance.
Gaidar many times cut his veins on his hands, and only the intervention of relatives each time saved him from dying. The writer’s grandson claimed that his grandfather tortured himself to drown out the terrible headache that haunted him all his life.
Gaidar complained to the treating doctor that in a dream he was haunted by the ghosts of people killed in his youth.
During the Great Patriotic War, Gaidar went to the military correspondent, but later became a machine gunner in the partisan detachment. During one of the halts, he noticed a German ambush and managed only to shout out a warning to his colleagues when he was killed. The fact that Gaidar was killed at the time was discovered only after the war.
Monument to Malchishu-Kibalchishu, established in Moscow, was the first monument in the capital in honor of a literary hero.
