Ivan Dmitrievich Vasilenko , was a Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 Soviet children's books author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

.

Early years

Ivan Dmitrievich Vasilenko was born January 20, 1895 in the village of Makeevka, in the former guberniya

Guberniya

A guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire usually translated as government, governorate, or province. Such administrative division was preserved for sometime upon the collapse of the empire in 1917. A guberniya was ruled by a governor , a word borrowed from Latin ,...

 of Taganrog

Taganrog

Taganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: -History of Taganrog:...

 in a clerk’s family. Seven years later, his family moved to the city of Taganrog

Taganrog

Taganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: -History of Taganrog:...

 proper. In 1912 Ivan Vasilenko graduated from the 4-year college and became teacher at a village school. He entered the Belgorod

Belgorod

-Twin towns/sister cities:Belgorod is twinned with: Wakefield, England, United Kingdom Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia Opole, Poland Vyshhorod, Ukraine Kharkiv, Ukraine-External links:...

 pedagogical institute, but was soon dismissed for organization of a Marxist group, because of that the further route for Vasilenko to teaching was closed and he worked as an accountant in the Taganrog Land bank. After October Revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

, he managed trade department, later the department of public education, and gave lessons. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he contributed to Soviet military newspapers.

The literary career of Ivan Vasilenko

The literary talent of Vasilenko was discovered by Russian writer Vikenty Veresaev in 1937. All of his tales and stories written for 30 years of creative life, such as Magic Box, Childhood of the Actor, The Little Mouse, The Gordian Knot, Cocks, Green Trunk, Golden Shoes, Sunrise is only Once a Day, Merimes Watch, Family Council, Misha and Masha and others, were reissued by local, republican and central publishing houses and used large popularity both for children and for adults.

In 1949, Vasilenko was awarded a State Stalin Prize

USSR State Prize

The USSR State Prize was the Soviet Union's state honour. It was established on September 9, 1966. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the prize was followed up by the State Prize of the Russian Federation....

 for the story "The Little Star" about life of trade school’s students. Many books have been translated into 27 languages of USSR nations, and into Czech

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

, German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

, Bulgarian

Bulgarian language

Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...

, Romanian

Romanian language

Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

, Vietnamese

Vietnamese language

Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 languages. His works The Little Star, Artyomka in the Circus, Magic Box, Golden Shoes were filmed and released as motion pictures.

He died in Taganrog

Taganrog

Taganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: -History of Taganrog:...

 on May 26, 1966.

Works

• Magic Box («Ростиздат», Ростов, 1938)
• Magic Box («Детгиз», М., 1941).
• Life Plan or Little Star («Молодая гвардия», М., 1948).
• Amazing Stories («Ростиздат», Ростов, 1946).
• My friends (novels and stories) («Сов. писатель», М., 1946).
• Actor's Childhood - Artyomka in the Circus («Правда»,М., 1952).
• Captain's Order («Детизд», М., 1953).
• Magic Box (novels and stories) («Моск. рабочий», М., 1953).
• Selected Stories («Сов. писатель», М., 1956).
• Golden Shoes («Детизд», М., 1958).
• Selected Stories of Children («Детизд», М., 1960).
• Novels (Душанбе, 1966)

External links

• Ivan Vasilenko and his home city Taganrog