Larry Yang

Everyone knows “The Adventures of Karik and Valya,” but not many know the author of this wonderful book.

Ian Larry. What kind of name? Who is he, what is he? What other books have you written? When did you live, where? Did he actually write in Russian or what?

There are a lot of questions, but the fact of the matter is that there are very few answers. Larry is one of the most mysterious figures in the history of our literature, so this name means nothing to most of us.

To show how strange his life story is, let's start from the end. The writer died in 1977, not so long ago, right? But there is no information about his family or descendants. He was married and had a son, but no further details. Who the wife was, who the son became, whether there is anyone further in the family - there is deathly silence about that. There are almost no archives either. As well as creativity researchers and biographers.

Well, now let's go back to the beginning. Here the gaps in the biography are, of course, understandable.

Jan Leopoldovich Larry (this is his real name, he is Latvian) was born in Riga in 1900, was orphaned early, and wandered all over Russia in his childhood and youth. At some point he began working in journalism, and soon tried himself as a children's writer. His first books were published in Kharkov publishing houses, and were even translated into Ukrainian. Moreover, when several years ago they decided to publish Larry’s collected works, they had to do a reverse translation from Ukrainian into Russian, because the original text had not been preserved. It seems that this is not a big loss, because these are all entirely stories about pioneers and Bolsheviks - it is unlikely that a modern reader will read them.

Larry entered the Faculty of Biology either in Kharkov or Leningrad. Having received a natural science education, he begins to work at the Fisheries Research Institute, but does not give up his literary activities. Then he receives an offer from Marshak to write an educational story. Marshak at that time (20s-30s) was creating new children's literature from scratch at the Detgiz publishing house. There was a request from the state for science fiction for children, and Marshak was looking for literary talents capable of introducing young readers to the main areas of knowledge (this is how, by the way, Bianki and Zhitkov appeared in literature). Larry, a man with a biological education and writing for children, as Samuil Yakovlevich’s instinct told him, should cope with this task. Marshak gave the topic: entomology. At that time, nothing had yet been written in this area for children.

"Karik and Valya" was released in 1937 and immediately became a huge success, which the author, however, did not have to enjoy for very long: in 1941, a "black raven" flew to his house, and the writer ended up in the camps for 15 years.

The reason is amazing! At a time when such a sentence could be received for a political joke told in one’s own kitchen in the company of friends, Ian Larry personally writes an anonymous letter to Stalin, in which he “opens the eyes” of the leader to what is happening in the country. It was not even one letter, but a whole series: Larry writes a satirical story, which he sends to the Kremlin in separate chapters. It's called "Heavenly Guest", in which a Martian finds himself in the USSR and criticizes what he sees. The author managed to send several such letters, then he was identified. He himself ended up in places not so remote, and his wife and son were also exiled. The letters with the story, oddly enough, were preserved in the archives of the NKVD, and now on the Internet you can read what Larry wrote to the leader of the world proletariat.

Having completely served his sentence, in 1956 Ian Larry was released. His health is undermined, there is nowhere to go, there is not a penny of money, he is literally without pants (for which the police officers he met on the street almost put him to death again). Official organizations refuse to help Larry, but friends intervene, and life gradually gets better. Larry writes film scripts, children's stories, and is published in magazines. Today, part of his literary heritage has been completely lost; most of it exists on the Internet, but has not been republished for a long time. And here is "Extraordinary Adventures."remain one of the central works of Russian children's literature, are constantly published in new editions, illustrated by different artists, and in 2005 a cartoon was made based on the book.

This is a magnificent work in every sense: original, with a fascinating plot, written in beautiful, rich language. Biologists note the absolute accuracy of the scientific information given in the book. Ian Larry remained the author of one work, but what a work!