Arkady Petrovich Gaidar

Arkady Petrovich Gaidar (real surname — Golikov) was a Russian Soviet children's author, screenwriter and prose writer, journalist and war correspondent. He took part in the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. During the Civil War, from the age of 14, he fought in the Red Army. In 1924, after suffering a concussion, he was discharged from the army and devoted himself to literature. He debuted with the work 'R.V.S.' in 1925. His best-known works — 'School', 'Timur and His Squad', 'Chuk and Gek', 'The Drummer's Fate', 'Military Secret' — were included in school curricula, adapted into films and translated into foreign languages.

 

During the Great Patriotic War, Gaidar went to the front as a war correspondent. In the autumn of 1941 he was encircled along with partisans. In a brief skirmish he managed to warn his comrades of the danger, saving their lives, but he himself was killed. In memory of the writer's courage and literary talent, schools, libraries and streets in towns and settlements across Russia have been named after Gaidar.