Do you remember how our mothers read us fairy tales about the gray neck, about the adventure of the traveler frog? Did you know that this author’s book “Signal” became the basis for writing the script for the first Soviet children’s film? All this is the merit of Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin. The list of works contains both instructive works for children and highly moral satirical short stories for adults.
Life of Vsevolod Mikhailovich
Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin was born on February 14, 1855 on the family estate, which had the beautiful name “Pleasant Valley” and was located in the Catherine province. The mother of the future talent, Ekaterina Stepanovna Akimova, at that time had the education and hobbies that were characteristic of women of the sixties. She was fascinated by literature and politics, and spoke excellent German and French. Of course, it was Vsevolod’s mother who had a significant influence on his development as a writer.
At the age of five, the boy experienced a big family conflict: Vsevolod’s mother fell in love with another man, Pyotr Vasilyevich Zavadsky, and left the family. Pyotr Vasilyevich was the teacher of Ekaterina Stepanovna’s older children. This family drama had a terrible impact on little Seva’s well-being and greatly contributed to the formation of his character. The father of the future writer found out that his wife’s new lover was the organizer of a secret society, and hastened to report this to the police. Zavadsky was sent into exile in Petrozavodsk, and Ekaterina Stepanovna, like the wife of a Decembrist, went to St. Petersburg to see her love. For Garshin, his time in the gymnasium (1864-1874) is the starting point of a career in poetry and writing.
Garshin's writing activity
Already in his student years, namely in 1876, Vsevolod Mikhailovich began to publish his works. The first published work was an essay written with elements of satire, “The True History of the N Zemstvo Assembly.” Afterwards he dedicated a batch of articles to the Peredvizhniki artists, their creativity and paintings. With the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war, Garshin gave up everything and volunteered to fight. During the war, he was a participant in the Bulgarian campaign, which was later embodied in several stories by the writer (1877-1879). In one of the battles, Vsevolod was wounded, after treatment he was sent home on leave for one year. He arrived in St. Petersburg with a clear understanding that he wanted and would only engage in writing, and the list of Garshin’s works began to grow. After 6 months he was awarded the rank of officer.
Revolutionary unrest in Garshin's life
The young writer continued his work, where he raised before the highest intelligent society the problem of choice: to move along the path of personal enrichment or to follow a path filled with service to one’s country and people.
Vsevolod Mikhailovich was especially sensitive to the revolutionary unrest that broke out and spread in the 70s. The obviously disastrous methods of fighting the revolution that the populists used were becoming more and more obvious to him every day. This condition, first of all, affected Garshin’s literature. The list of works contains stories (for example, “Night”) that reflect the painful worldview of revolutionary events that each of his contemporaries experienced.
Recent years
In the 70s, doctors gave Garshin a disappointing diagnosis - a mental disorder. Less than 10 years later, Vsevolod Mikhailovich tried, not entirely successfully, with his public speech to defend the revolutionary Ippolit Osipovich, who wanted to kill Count Loris-Melnikov. This became a prerequisite for his 2-year treatment in a psychiatric hospital. After recovery, he again took up literature and journalism, entered the service, and even married a girl doctor, Natalya Zolotilova.
It would seem that everything had worked out, perhaps this time could be called the happiest in his entire short life. But in 1887, Vsevolod Garshin was overcome by severe depression, problems with his mother and wife began, and in 1888, deciding to commit suicide, he threw himself down a flight of stairs.
Collection of Garshin's stories for children
The list of works by Vsevolod Mikhailovich includes 14 works, 5 of which are fairy tales. However, despite the small number of books, almost everything can be found in the modern school curriculum for elementary and high school students. Garshin began to think about works for children after he had an idea to simplify the narrative style. Therefore, his books are very simple for young readers and have a certain clear structure and meaning. It is worth noting that not only the younger generation are connoisseurs of his children's works, but also their parents: a completely different outlook on life.
For convenience, here is an alphabetical list of Garshin’s works for children:
- Attalea princeps.
- "Frog Traveler"
- "The Tale of Proud Haggai."
- "The Tale of the Toad and the Rose."
- "What didn't happen."
The last fairy tale - “The Frog Traveler” - plays the role of one of the favorite works of more than one generation of schoolchildren.
Garshin's fairy tales are read in one breath... The author is famous for his touching fairy tales for children with deep meaning.
Read Garshin's fairy tales
Garshin's tales list
The list of Vsevolod Garshin's fairy tales for children is small. The school curriculum is most often represented by the works “The Frog Traveler” and “The Tale of the Toad and the Rose.” It is for these tales that the author is known.
However, Garshin's fairy tales make up a list that is not so short. It also contains such wonderful stories as “The Tale of Proud Haggai”, “That Which Was Not” and “Attalea princeps”. In total, the author wrote five fairy tales.
About Vsevolod Garshin
Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin is from an old noble family. Born into a military family. From childhood, his mother instilled in her son a love of literature. Vsevolod learned very quickly and was precocious. Perhaps that is why he often took everything that happened to heart.
Garshin's writing style cannot be confused with anyone else's. Always an accurate expression of thought, identification of facts without unnecessary metaphors and an all-consuming sadness that runs through each of his fairy tales, each story. Both adults and children like to read Garshin’s fairy tales; everyone will find meaning in them, presented in the way that the authors of short stories usually do.
Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin; Russian Empire, Ekaterinoslav province, Bakhmut district; 02/14/1855-03/24/1888
Vsevolod Garshin left a noticeable mark on Russian literature as a master of psychological storytelling. The first children's film from the USSR was based on Garshin's story "Signal". Garshin’s fairy tale “The Frog the Traveler” was also filmed several times.
Biography of Garshin
The writer was born on February 14, 1855 in the district of Yekaterinoslav province, the third child in the family. Vsevolod's father was a military man, and his mother was a housewife, although she was a very educated woman. The mother's upbringing greatly influenced the development of the personality of the future writer and laid the foundation for her love of literature. When the writer was three years old, his father bought a house in the Kharkov province, where the whole family soon moved. Garshin fell in love with reading fairy tales even in infancy, because he learned to read at only four years old. His teacher was P. Zavadsky, with whom the writer’s mother eloped in January 1860. Mikhail Garshin contacted the police, and the fugitives were caught. Subsequently, Zavadsky turned out to be a famous revolutionary figure. Then Garshin's mother left for St. Petersburg to be able to visit her lover. This family drama had a great impact on little Vsevolod, the boy became nervous and anxious. He lived with his father and the family moved frequently.
In 1864, when Garshin turned nine, his mother took him to St. Petersburg and sent him to study at the gymnasium. The writer fondly recalled the years spent in the gymnasium. Due to poor academic performance and frequent illnesses, instead of the required seven years, he studied for ten. Vsevolod was only interested in literature and natural sciences, and he did not like mathematics. At the gymnasium, he took part in a literary circle, where Garshin’s stories were popular.
In 1874, Garshin became a student at the Mining Institute, and after some time his first satirical essay was published in the newspaper Molva. When the writer was in his third year, Turkey declared war on Russia, and on the same day Garshin volunteered to go to war. He considered it immoral to sit in the rear while Russian soldiers were dying on the battlefield. In one of the first battles, Vsevolod was wounded in the leg; the author did not take part in further military operations. Returning to St. Petersburg, the writer plunged headlong into literature; Garshin’s works quickly gained popularity. The war greatly influenced the writer’s attitude and creativity. His stories often raise the theme of war, the characters are endowed with extremely contradictory feelings, and the plots are full of drama. The first story about the war, “Four Days,” is filled with the writer’s personal impressions. For example, the collection “Stories” caused a lot of controversy and disapproval. Garshin also wrote children's stories and fairy tales. Almost all of Garshin's fairy tales are full of melancholy and tragedy, for which the author was reproached by critics many times. 
After the execution of Molodetsky, who attempted to assassinate Count Loris-Melikov in February 1880, the writer’s teenage mental illness worsened; because of this, Garshin had to spend a year and a half in a Kharkov psychiatric hospital. In 1882, at the invitation of Vsevolod, he worked and lived in Spassky-Lutovinovo, and also worked at the Posrednik publishing house and considered this period of his life the happiest. Collections were published that included short stories, essays and short tales by Garshin. At this time, he wrote the story “The Red Flower,” which, in addition to literary critics, drew the attention of the famous psychiatrist Sikorsky. The story, according to the doctor, provides a truthful description of mental illness in artistic form. Garshin soon returned to St. Petersburg, where in 1883 he married N. Zolotilova. At this time, the writer wrote little, but all his works were published and were very popular.
Wanting to have additional non-literary income, the author got a job as a secretary in the office of the Congress of Railways. At the end of the 1880s, quarrels began in Vsevolod’s family, and the writer unexpectedly decided to leave for the Caucasus. But his trip did not take place. Garshin's biography is tragic; on March 19, 1888, the famous Russian prose writer Vsevolod Garshin committed suicide by throwing himself down a flight of stairs. After the fall, the author fell into a coma and died 5 days later.
Books by Vsevolod Garshin on the Top books website
It has been popular to read Vsevolod Garshin’s fairy tales for several generations. They deservedly occupy high places in ours, and also got into ours. And given the trends, Garshin’s books will continue to occupy high places in the ratings of our site, and we will see more than one more work of the writer among.
All books by Vsevolod Gashin
Tales:
Essays:
- Ayaslar case
- Second exhibition of the Society for Exhibitions of Art Works
- Notes on art exhibitions
- New painting by Semiradsky “Lights of Christianity”
- The true history of the Ensky Zemstvo Assembly
Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin(1855 - 1888) - Russian poet, writer, art critic. The fairy tales created in the 19th century by Vsevolod Garshin are distinguished by their magnificent style and the smallest details of the narrative. The richest inner world allowed the Russian writer to compose unique children's works. Fictional stories will introduce kids to a variety of characters: a traveling frog, a trembling rose, a formidable ruler or a purposeful palm tree. Each of them is full of life, since the author very realistically described his characters and the surrounding reality.
Read Garshin's fairy tales online
It is best to read Garshin's fairy tales to a child together with adults. His parents will explain to him the deep meaning that lies behind the seemingly ordinary words and actions of the characters. The stories collected on the site have fantastically beautiful and touching plots, which will appeal to both large and small connoisseurs of Russian literature.
