For what they scolded and extolled the self-taught writer Pikul, and Why both Russophiles and Russophobes hated him

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The books of the self-taught writer Valentin Pikul are still being sold in hefty editions today. And this is despite the fact that the claims of historians and pen colleagues to the work of the writer are not appeased. Rejection of Pikul's works united even Russophiles with Russophobes. But the main thing is that he, a man with a five-year school education, managed to awaken an unprecedented interest in history among entire generations of readers.

Leningrad blockade and the helmsman of a military destroyer

Valentin Pikul is from Leningrad. In dreams of connecting his life with the sea, from an early age he attended a sailor's circle in the House of Pioneers. With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Pikul, along with other townspeople, was overtaken by a military blockade. After the first hungry winter, the child and his mother managed to get out of the city under shelling along Lake Ladoga. The evacuation was successful, but the boy's health deteriorated: due to malnutrition against the background of dystrophy, scurvy broke out. By the summer, Pikul's father volunteered for the Stalingrad front, where he soon died. Not wanting to stay away from the military events, 14-year-old Valentin ran away from home to a boy's school on the Solovetsky Islands.

Despite the fact that they were admitted to an educational institution only after 15 and on the basis of 6-7 years of schooling, the commission accepted as an exception the future writer with his 5 grades. As the widow of Pikul Antonina said, the young man conquered the teachers with his excellent knowledge of maritime affairs, literally quickly giving out the names of all divisions of the compass card. After graduating from the Jung School in 1943, Pikul was sent to the destroyer as a helmsman.

The vessel was responsible for escorting convoys delivering food, weapons and equipment to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. When Pikul was asked if he later regretted that instead of textbooks at the age of 15 he was holding a combat wheel in his hands, he answered with unequivocal denial. No education, according to Valentin Savvich, would have given him so much vital knowledge. After the victory of the Red Army, the young man continued his studies at the Leningrad Naval School, but for some reason the matter did not work out. In the end, the official educational experience remained at the level of five school years, and Pikul received all his knowledge and skills on his own - from books.

Emotional storytelling and historical disrespect

In the post-war years, Pikul earned his living in a diving squadron, in a fire station, but all his free time was devoted to literature. He attended the literary circle, talked with novice writers and read a lot. In 1947, the first story was published that had nothing to do with history. But in his head Pikul was hatching the idea of the first real novel. Success overtook Valentin Savvich after the publication in 1954 of the work "Ocean Patrol", which tells about the battle in the Barents Sea with the Germans. Thanks to this novel, Pikul joined the Writers' Union.

The style of the self-taught writer fundamentally deviated from the classical dogmas of Soviet historical novels. In his creations, the author acted as an extremely emotional storyteller and participant in the narrative. And the leading heroes of his books were often not invented characters or vague prototypes, but specific famous personalities. Pikul allowed himself to openly sympathize and rudely condemn. Such a frank writing approach puzzled colleagues, evoked condemnation from historians, and attracted the attention of those in power. Pikul openly condemned Elizaveta Petrovna, censured Catherine the Great and gave a low assessment to Grigory Potemkin. And the reader, fed up with standard novels, saw novelty and honesty in this. For this reason, the greatest success came to the writer during perestroika, when censorship weakened and everything unusual became fashionable.

Factual inaccuracies and fictional events

Along with the growing popularity, criticism also multiplied. Representatives of historical science especially scolded Pikul. Fans of the writer believe that before writing each of his books, Pikul spent a lot of time studying reliable historical sources. Opponents of the Pikulev talent argue that he has never been in the archives, preferring memoirists and works of other authors that have already been published to historical truth. Critics are surprised how a man with a maritime past mistakenly characterizes warships, describes naval battles in a philistine and gives dubious facts about the life of famous naval commanders.

A considerable share of claims related to Pikul's derogatory attitude towards the Soviet leadership during the Second World War, which he unequivocally expressed in the novel "Barbarossa". Many experts noticed that Pikul allowed himself to weave events that either did not happen at all, or relied on historical rumors and stories, into the historical canvas.

Conflict with Stolypin's son and the main merit of the non-standard novelist

The novel "Unclean Power" deserved the greatest condemnation. The scandal erupted immediately after the book was written. The accusations of both communists and monarchists fell on Pikul. The writer is also criticized for the novel by today's zealots of the sanctity of the tsarist regime. "Unclean Power" described the tragic journey of the Romanovs to the Ipatyevsky basement, without relieving the tsar's family of responsibility for their own disaster. Pikul was scolded everywhere and publicly. Stolypin's son published a devastating review of the work in a foreign magazine, calling it a barrel of lies, slander and a reason to go to trial in a state governed by the rule of law. A colleague of Pikul's pen, Kurbatov, wrote that the authoritative magazine Our Contemporary, which published "Unclean Power," had smeared itself with shameful pages of disgraced Russian history. As a sign of disdain for the novel, one of the members resigned from the editorial board of the magazine.

However, fans of Valentin Savvich's work unanimously declare that not a single Russian historical novelist has had and does not have such enchanting magic. And one cannot demand absolute factual objectivity from a work of art. Pikul made full use of copyright in his own opinion. And it is difficult to argue with the fact that the original master of the word was able to immerse millions of readers in the study of history.

Some writers also had a chance to be in the shoes of scouts. For example, Dmitry Bystroletov was successful in almost all of his endeavors, including in the field of foreign intelligence.