What kind of life path did Barto Agnia take? The biography of the beloved poetess, on whose poems several generations of children grew up, arouses the interest of both children who know her poems by heart and parents who raise their children on such familiar lines. The famous “There goes the bull, rocking...”, “Our Tanya is crying loudly...”, “They dropped the teddy bear on the floor...” are associated with the baby’s first steps, the first word “mother,” the first teacher, the first school bell. The style of these favorite lines is very easy, the author speaks to the child as if he were the same age, in a language he understands.
Not everyone knows about the personal tragedy of this bright man, about the important life role that Agnia Lvovna Barto took on, whose biography is closely connected with children. In the post-war years, the famous poetess helped meet thousands of people lost during the war.
Agnia Barto: creativity and biography
For children, Agnia Barto is the very first and favorite writer, whose poems they, having grown up and created families, tell their children. Agnia Lvovna was born in 1906 in the family of Lev Nikolaevich Volov, a veterinarian. The family led the typical lifestyle of a well-to-do home for those times: with home-based primary education, French language, and formal dinners. The father was in charge of education; being a fan of art, he saw his daughter as a famous ballerina, which Agnia did not become. The girl was interested in a different direction - poetry, which she became interested in following her gymnasium friends.
In 1925, poems for children were published: “The Chinese Little Wang Li”, “The Thief Bear”. Agnia was very shy and, once deciding to read her poem to Chukovsky, she attributed the authorship to a five-year-old boy. The talented girl finally decided on the topic of poetry after a conversation with Vladimir Mayakovsky, in which he spoke about the need for a fundamentally new one capable of playing an important role in the education of a future citizen. Agnia Barto believed that her works would raise highly cultured, patriotic, honest citizens of their country. The biography of Agnia Barto for children is connected with her favorite poems; from the pen of the poetess from 1928 to 1939 the following collections of poems were published: “The Boy on the contrary”, “Brothers”, “Toys”, “Bullfinch”.
The life of a poetess: creative and personal
Agnia Barto's personal life was not boring; Quite early, she started a family with the poet Pavel Barto and gave birth to a child, a son, Garik.
The first marriage cracked, perhaps due to youthful haste, or perhaps it was due to professional successes that Pavel Barto could not come to terms with. At the age of 29, Agnia left for another man - energy scientist Andrei Vladimirovich Shcheglyaev, who became the main love of her life. From him Agnia gave birth to a daughter, Tatyana. The non-conflict nature of Agnia Barto and the authority of the dean of the power engineering faculty of MPEI (“the most handsome dean of the Soviet Union”) - Andrei Vladimirovich - attracted actors, musicians, and writers to their house. Agnia Barto was very close friends with Faina Ranevskaya.
Barto Agnia, whose biography is of interest to older generations who grew up on their favorite poems, traveled quite a lot as part of delegations from the Soviet Union, and in 1937 participated in the International Congress for the Defense of Culture in Spain. It was there that she saw with her own eyes, because the meetings took place in a burning, besieged Madrid, and orphaned children wandered among the destroyed houses. The most difficult impression on Agnia was made by a conversation with a Spanish woman, who showed a photograph of her son and covered his head with her finger, thus explaining that the boy had been torn off by a shell. How to convey the feelings of a mother who has outlived her own child? She received an answer to this terrible question several years later.
Barto Agnia: biography during the war years
Agnia Barto knew about the inevitability of war with Germany. At the end of the 30s, she visited this clean, tidy country, saw pretty curly-haired girls in dresses decorated with swastikas, and heard Nazi slogans sounding on every corner. The war treated the poetess mercifully; Even during the evacuation, she was next to her husband, who was sent to the Urals, namely to Sverdlovsk. According to Agnia Barto, which was soon confirmed by the words of the writer Pavel Bazhov, the Urals were closed, stern and distrustful people. Sverdlovsk teenagers, taking the place of adults who had gone to the front, worked in defense factories.
Agnia simply needed to communicate with children, from whom she drew stories and inspiration. In order to somehow get closer to them, the poetess mastered the profession of a 2nd category turner. Working at a lathe, she diligently proved her usefulness to a society forced into the framework of a brutal war. Agnia Lvovna spoke on radio in Moscow and Sverdlovsk, wrote military articles, essays, and poems. She spent 1942 on the Western Front, being a correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda. In the post-war years, she visited England, Bulgaria, Japan, Iceland and a number of other countries.
Personal tragedy of Agnia Barto
The poetess returned to Moscow in 1944. Life returned to normal, friends were returning from evacuation, and the children began studying again. Everyone was looking forward to the end of the war. May 4, 1945 was a tragic day for Agnia. On this day, a truck coming around the corner killed 15-year-old Garik, who was riding a bicycle. The Victory Day faded for the mother’s heart, and her child passed away. Having experienced this tragedy hard, Agnia turned all her love to her daughter Tatyana, continuing to persistently engage in creativity.
The 1940-1950s were marked by the release of new collections by Agnia Barto: “Funny Poems”, “First-Grader”, “Poems for Children”, “Zvenigorod”. At the same time, the poetess worked on scripts for children’s films “Alyosha Ptitsyn Develops Character”, “Foundling”, “Elephant and String”. In 1958, a significant cycle of satirical children's poems “Leshenka, Leshenka”, “Grandfather’s Granddaughter” was written.
Favorite poet of all generations
Barto Agnia, whose biography is interesting to her fans, thanks to the poems she wrote, became an influential writer, a favorite of the entire Soviet Union, “the face of the Soviet children's book.” In 1947, the poem “Zvenigorod” was published, telling about children who lost their parents during the war. It was written after visiting an orphanage in Zvenigorod, a town near Moscow. This poem, which used conversations with children, was destined for a special share. After the release of Zvenigorod, Agnia Lvovna received a letter from a woman who lost her eight-year-old daughter during the war. The fragments of memories of the children depicted in the poem seemed familiar to the woman, and she consoled herself with the hope that Agnia communicated with her missing daughter. That's exactly what it turned out to be. Relatives met 10 years later.
In 1965, the Mayak radio station began broadcasting the program “Looking for a Man,” hosted by Agnia Barto. The search work was based on childhood memories, which, according to the writer, are so tenacious and sharp that they remain with the child for life. Over 9 years of painstaking work, Agnia Barto managed to connect thousands of human destinies.
In her personal life, everything went well: her husband was successfully moving up the career ladder, Agnia became the grandmother of her beautiful grandson Vladimir, for whom she wrote the poem “Vovka is a kind soul.” The poetess still traveled around the world, was the face of any delegation, because she knew how to behave in society, spoke several languages, danced beautifully and dressed beautifully. The doors of Agnia Barto's house were always open to guests; Academicians, aspiring poets, famous actors and MPEI students gathered at one table.
The last years of Agnia Barto
In 1970, Andrei Vladimirovich, Agnia Barto’s husband, whom she outlived by 11 years, died of cancer. All these years, Agnia Lvovna worked tirelessly, wrote 2 books of memoirs, more than a hundred poems. Fearing loneliness, she could talk on the phone for hours with her friends, and tried to see her daughter and grandchildren often. She is remembered with gratitude by the families of her repressed acquaintances, for whom Agnia Lvovna found good doctors, helped them get scarce medicines, and “opened” apartments - even for strangers.
Agnia Barto died in Moscow in 1981, on April 1. Having performed an autopsy, the doctors were shocked by the very weak vessels and did not understand how blood had flowed into the heart of such a bright person in the last 10 years. A short biography of Agnia Barto covers the key moments of her life, difficult and fruitful; We still read her poems, raise our children with them, and raise our grandchildren.
Agniya Barto. Poems for children
Agnia Barto began writing from childhood in elementary school. Most of Agnia's poems Barto written for children - preschoolers or junior schoolchildren. Her poems are easy to read and memorize for children. Barto began writing poems for children when she got older. I wrote children's poems about my girlfriends. Since then, her poems for children have become popular. Humor and expression of children's feelings are characteristic of the poems of A. Barto. Poems for children Bartobring adults and children together, helping themin communication. That is why poems for children Barto They so accurately consolidate everything characteristic of different years, which is experienced by children of several generations. Barto's poems for children are pages of our childhood. Bartoalmost always in her poems she speaks on behalf of the child, and she has the right to do so. When you read these poems, you see that the author does not live somewhere nearby, but together with our children, hears not only their conversations, but also their thoughts, knows how to read between the lines in children's letters, which she received in the thousands.
Agnia Lvovna Barto(1906-81) - Russian children's writer.
Barto's legacy: collections “Clubfoot” (1926), “Brothers” (1928), “Poems for Children” (1949), “Finding Flowers in the Winter Forest” (1970); prose books for adults “Find a Person” (1968) - about searching for parents who lost their children during the Great Patriotic War, “Notes of a Children's Poet” (1976); scripts for the films “The Foundling” (1939), “Alyosha Ptitsyn Develops Character” (1958) Her poem Rope was taken by director I. Fraz. the basis of the concept of the film “The Elephant and the String 2 (1945).
Born on February 4 (17), 1906 in Moscow in the family of a veterinarian. She studied at the ballet school. During her studies, experiencing the creative influence of Anna Akhmatova and Vladimir Mayakovsky, she began to write poetic epigrams and sketches. On the advice of Lunacharsky, she took up professional literary work.
In 1925, her first poems, Barto’s “Chinese Little Wang Li” and “The Thief Bear,” were published. They were followed by “The First Ma” (1926), “Brothers” (1928), after the publication of which Korney Chukovsky noted the extraordinary talent of Agnia Barto as a children's poet. Some poems were written together with her husband, the poet P.N. Barto (“Chumaz Girl” and “Revushk Girl”, 1930).
After the publication of the cycle of poetic miniatures for the little ones “Toys” (1936), as well as the poems “Flashlight”, “Mashenka”, etc. Barto became one of the most famous and beloved children's poets by readers, her works were published in huge editions, included in anthologies. The rhythm, images, rhymes, and plots of these poems turned out to be close and understandable to millions of children.
During the Great Patriotic War, Agnia Barto was evacuated in Sverdlovsk, went to the front to read her poems, spoke on the radio, and wrote for newspapers. Her poems of the war years (the collection “Teenagers”, 1943, the poem “Nikit”, 1945, etc.) are mainly of a journalistic nature. For the collection “Poems for Children” (1949) Agnia Barto was awarded the State Prize (1950).
Barto’s poem “Zvenigorod” (1948) tells about the children of the orphanage. For nine years, Barto hosted the radio program “Find a Person,” in which she searched for people separated by the war. With its help, about 1,000 families were reunited. Barto wrote the story “Find a Person” about this work (published in 1968).
In “Notes of a Children's Poet” (1976), the poetess formulated her poetic and human credo: “Children need the whole range of feelings that give rise to humanity.” Numerous trips to different countries led her to the idea of the richness of the inner world of a child of any nationality. This idea was confirmed by the poetry collection “Translations from Children’s” (1977), in which Barto translated children’s poems from different languages.
Conversation for children 5-9 years old: “The Big Country of Childhood.”
The event is dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the birth of the children's poetess Agnia Barto.
Dvoretskaya Tatyana NikolaevnaGBOU School No. 1499 DO No. 7
Educator
Description: The event is intended for children of senior preschool and primary school age, preschool teachers, primary school teachers and parents. This conversation uses an original poem and an outdoor game.
Purpose of work: A conversation in a playful way will introduce children to the poetess Agnia Barto and her work.
Target: introducing children of senior preschool and primary school age to the world of book culture.
Tasks:
1. introduce children to the biography and work of Angia Barto;
2. to introduce children of senior preschool and primary school age to children's poetry;
3. to form emotional responsiveness to a literary work;
4. cultivate children’s interest in book characters;
Preliminary work:
- Organize an exhibition of books by Agnia Barto
- Read the poems of Agnia Barto
- Organize an exhibition of children's drawings based on the works they read
- Prepare theatrical scenes based on poems (2-3 to choose from)
Equipment for the game: chairs (according to the number of girls), tambourine
Introductory speech in verse:
Dvoretskaya Tatyana NikolaevnaPoets write poems for children.
We know and remember these people.
Many years have passed and let...
We remember the lines by heart.
But one of the poetesses
Piques interest.
Her poems are known to the world
They keep funny satire.
Did you find out who it is?
This …. (Children's answers: Agnia Barto)
Presenter: Agnia Lvovna Barto (maiden name Volova) was born in Moscow on February 17, 1906 into an educated, wealthy, Jewish family.
Agnia's father, Lev Nikolaevich Volov, was a veterinarian who treated animals.
The girl grew up in prosperity, love and prosperity. She received a good home upbringing and education, led by her father. By nature, Agnia grew up as a modest and shy girl. In her childhood, Agnia studied at a ballet school; she loved to dance and dreamed of becoming a ballerina.
Agnia began writing poetry in early childhood, in the first grades of the gymnasium. She was no more than 10 years old then. The most strict connoisseur of Agnia's first poems was her father Lev Nikolaevich. Several years passed, and Agniya Lvovna realized that poetry was more important to her than ballet.
And in 1925, when Angia was only 19 years old, her first book, “The Chinese Little Wang Li,” was published. The readers really liked the poems.
From that time on, Agniya Lvovna became a children's writer.
Guys, I invite you to take part in the Quiz: Heroes of Angia Barto's poems
1. What toy did the housewife leave in the rain? (Bunny)
2. Which animal was knocked over by the toy truck? (Cat)
3. Which toy had its paw torn off? (Mishka)
4. What was the name of the roaring cow girl? (Ganya)
5. What was the name of the girl who dropped the ball into the river? (Tanechka)
6. What is the name of the girl who had a blue skirt and a ribbon in her braid? (Lyubochka)
7. What was the name of the boy who came to the holidays only to receive gifts (greedy Yegor)
8. What was the name of the sneak girl? (Sonechka)
9. What is the name of the boy who was jealous of his older brother Seryozha? (Dima)
10. What is the name of the girl who taught herself to jump over a rope? (Lidochka)
11. Do you remember the name of the girl who put things in her pockets? (Darling - piggy bank)
12. Name the little nurses (Tamara and Tanya)
Presenter: Well done guys, you answered all our questions. Among readers, the most famous and beloved book is Agnia Barto’s “Toys,” which was written specifically for the youngest listeners. Short poems that help children feel sorry for others, sympathize, be kind and obedient.
I invite you to play the game: “Toys”.
The chairs are arranged in a row according to the number of girls playing.
Rules of the game:
They choose 1 presenter (adult) and his assistants - a boy and a girl.
The rest of the children are toys: girls are dolls, boys are soldiers.
The presenter says the word: GAME.
The child dolls should form a circle around the girl.
Child soldiers form a circle around the boy.
The leader beats the tambourine, the toy children dance in circles, each in their own circle.
The presenter says the words: “Toys in place” and hits the tambourine 1 time.
Toy dolls must run to the chairs and sit on them.
Toy soldiers run to the chairs and stand behind them at attention (hands at their sides).
Whichever of the toys (dolls, soldiers) gets up or sits down first and occupies the entire row wins.
The game is played 2 times.
Presenter: All of Agnia Barto’s poems are written in simple language about children, and for children, about what interests them, how they live, and what they play. Based on the verses of A.L. Barto raised several generations of children. Her poems are easy to learn by heart. They are light, fun, simple and understandable for children. They instill in the child confidence in his inner strengths, in his thirst to participate in everything that happens in the world around him. They raise children, teach them hard work, diligence, honesty - qualities that a person needs in his future life.
Agnia Barto was the first to use satire in children's literature. She made fun of children: capricious, dirty, talkative, sneaky, greedy and bully.
We bring to your attention theatrical scenes.
1. Sonechka (characters: narrator, Sonechka, boy)
2. Glasses (characters: narrator, younger brother Dima, older brother Seryozha, doctor)
3. Tamara and I (characters: narrator, 2 girls - Tanya and Tamara)
Leading: Among the poems of Agnia Lvovna Barto there are not only funny, but also instructive ones that make fun of bad character traits in children, for example, the poem “Chatterbox” about the girl Lida, who chatted a lot instead of doing things. Or, the heroine of the poem “Give, Give,” little Lyusenka, is used to begging for everything.
In the poem Sonechka, we met a little sneak who constantly complains about everyone. So, with the help of the poetic word, Agnia Barto, without scolding, without threatening, tells children what actions are worthy of condemnation, for which mothers, fathers and the people around them will not praise.
Agnia Barto's poems have been translated into many languages of the world. Agnia Barto was awarded the State Prize for the collection “Poems for Children.”
And in 1976, Agnia Barto received the international literary prize named after H.K. Andersen.
Agnia Barto loved children. She often met with them, talked, observed their actions and deeds.
Agnia Barto often repeated words that emphasize wisdom:
- Almost every person has moments in life when he does more than he can.
- A writer has no right to grow old in soul if his readers and his heroes are guys.
- There are such people - give them everything on a platter.
- If a child is nervous, first of all it is necessary to treat his parents.
Agnia Barto's heart stopped on April 1, 1981. Our country has lost a great writer with a huge heart, sensitive, kind, noble.
Agnia Barto was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Many years have passed, but her touching and poignant poems are still in great demand, they are known and remembered.
The poems of Agnia Barto are more than poetry - they are a big country of childhood!
Gallery of drawings by our young artists.
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Poetess.
Born on February 4 (17 N.S.) in Moscow in the family of a veterinarian. She received a good home education, led by her father. She studied at the gymnasium, where she began writing poetry. At the same time, she studied at the choreographic school, where A. Lunacharsky came for graduation tests and, after listening to Barto’s poems, advised her to continue writing.
In 1925, books of poems for children were published: “The Chinese Little Wang Li”, “The Thief Bear”. A conversation with Mayakovsky about how children need fundamentally new poetry, what role it can play in the education of a future citizen, finally determined the choice of subject matter for Barto’s poetry. She regularly published collections of poems: “Brothers” (1928), “On the contrary boy” (1934), “Toys” (1936), “Bullfinch” (1939).
In 1937, Barto was a delegate to the International Congress for the Defense of Culture, which was held in Spain. There she saw with her own eyes what fascism was (congress meetings were held in the besieged, burning Madrid). During World War II, Barto often spoke on the radio in Moscow and Sverdlovsk, wrote war poems, articles, and essays. In 1942 she was a correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda on the Western Front.
In the post-war years she visited Bulgaria, Iceland, Japan, England and other countries.
In 1940 and 1950 new collections were published: “First-grader”, “Zvenigorod”, “Funny Poems”, “Poems for Children”. During these same years, she worked on scripts for children's films "The Foundling", "The Elephant and the String", and "Alyosha Ptitsyn Develops Character".
In 1958 she wrote a large cycle of satirical poems for children “Leshenka, Leshenka”, “Grandfather’s Granddaughter”, etc.
In 1969 the documentary book “Find a Person” was published, in 1976 the book “Notes of a Children's Poet” was published.
A. Barto died in 1981 in Moscow.
“The bull walks, sways, sighs as he goes...” the name of the author of these lines is familiar to everyone. One of the most famous children's poets, Agnia Barto, has become a favorite author for many generations of children. But few people know the details of her biography. For example, that she experienced a personal tragedy, but did not despair. Or how she helped meet thousands of people who lost each other during the war.
February 1906. Maslenitsa balls were held in Moscow and Lent began. The Russian Empire was on the eve of changes: the creation of the first State Duma, the implementation of Stolypin’s agrarian reform; Hopes for a solution to the “Jewish question” have not yet faded in society. Changes were also expected in the family of veterinarian Lev Nikolaevich Volov: the birth of a daughter. Lev Nikolaevich had every reason to hope that his daughter would live in another, new Russia. These hopes came true, but not in the way one could imagine. There were a little more than ten years left before the revolution.
Agnia Barto did not like to remember her childhood. Primary education at home, the French language, ceremonial dinners with pineapple for dessert - all these signs of bourgeois life did not decorate the biography of the Soviet writer. Therefore, Agniya Lvovna left the most meager memories of those years: a nanny from the village, the fear of a thunderstorm, the sounds of a barrel organ under the window. The Volov family led a life typical of intellectuals of that time: moderate opposition to the authorities and a completely wealthy home. The opposition was expressed in the fact that Lev Nikolaevich was extremely fond of the writer Tolstoy and taught his daughter to read from his children's books. His wife Maria Ilyinichna, a slightly capricious and lazy woman, was in charge of the household. Judging by fragmentary memories, Agnia always loved her father more. She wrote about her mother: “I remember that my mother, if she had to do something uninteresting to her, often repeated: “Well, I’ll do it the day after tomorrow.” It seemed to her that the day after tomorrow was still far away. I have a to-do list for the day after tomorrow.”
Lev Nikolaevich, a fan of art, saw his daughter’s future in ballet. Agnia diligently practiced dancing, but did not show much talent in this activity. The early manifested creative energy was directed into a different direction - poetry. She became interested in poetry, following her school friends. Ten-year-old girls then were all fans of the young Akhmatova, and Agnia’s first poetic experiments were full of “gray-eyed kings,” “swarthy youths,” and “hands clenched under a veil.”
Agnia Volova's youth fell on the years of revolution and civil war. But somehow she managed to live in her own world, where ballet and poetry writing coexisted peacefully. However, the older Agnia became, the clearer it was that she would not become either a great ballerina or “the second Akhmatova.” Before her final tests at the school, she was worried: after all, after them she had to start a career in ballet. People's Commissar of Education Lunacharsky was present at the exams. After the examination performances, the students showed a concert program. He diligently watched the tests and became animated during the performance of the concert numbers. When the young black-eyed beauty with pathos read poetry of her own composition entitled “Funeral March,” Lunacharsky could hardly restrain his laughter. A few days later, he invited the student to People’s Commissariat of Pros and said that she was born to write funny poetry. Many years later, Agnia Barto said with irony that the beginning of her writing career was rather insulting. Of course, in your youth it is very disappointing when, instead of tragic talent, they only notice your abilities as a comedian.
How did Lunacharsky manage to discern in Agnia Barto the makings of a children's poet behind a rather mediocre poetic imitation? Or is the whole point that the topic of creating Soviet literature for children has been repeatedly discussed in the government? In this case, the invitation to the People's Commissariat of Education was not a tribute to the abilities of the young poetess, but rather a “government order.” But be that as it may, in 1925, nineteen-year-old Agnia Barto published her first book, “The Chinese Little Wang Li.” The corridors of power, where Lunacharsky, by his own will, decided to make a children's poetess out of a pretty dancer, led her to the world she dreamed of as a high school student: having started to publish, Agnia had the opportunity to communicate with the poets of the Silver Age.
Fame came to her quite quickly, but did not add courage to her Agnia was very shy. She adored Mayakovsky, but when she met him, she did not dare to speak. Having dared to read her poem to Chukovsky, Barto attributed the authorship to a five-year-old boy. She later recalled about her conversation with Gorky that she was “terribly worried.” Perhaps it was precisely because of her shyness that Agnia Barto had no enemies. She never tried to appear smarter than she was, did not get involved in literary squabbles, and was well aware that she had a lot to learn. The "Silver Age" instilled in her the most important trait for a children's writer: endless respect for the word. Barto's perfectionism drove more than one person crazy: once, while going to a book congress in Brazil, she endlessly reworked the Russian text of the report, despite the fact that it was to be read in English. Receiving new versions of the text over and over again, the translator finally promised that he would never work with Barto again, even if she were a genius three times over.
In the mid-thirties, Agnia Lvovna received the love of readers and became the object of criticism from colleagues. Barto never spoke about this directly, but there is every reason to believe that most of the openly abusive articles appeared in the press not without the participation of the famous poet and translator Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak. At first, Marshak treated Barto patronizingly. However, his attempts to “instruct and teach” Agnia failed miserably. Once, driven to white heat by his nagging, Barto said: “You know, Samuil Yakovlevich, in our children’s literature there is Marshak and the marchers. I cannot be a Marshak, and I don’t want to be a marcher.” After this, her relationship with the master deteriorated for many years.
Her career as a children's writer did not prevent Agnia from pursuing a stormy personal life. In her early youth, she married the poet Pavel Barto, gave birth to a son, Garik, and at twenty-nine years old she left her husband for the man who became the main love of her life. Perhaps the first marriage did not work out because she was too hasty in getting married, or maybe it was Agnia’s professional success, which Pavel Barto could not and did not want to survive. Be that as it may, Agnia retained the surname Barto, but spent the rest of her life with the energy scientist Shcheglyaev, with whom she gave birth to her second child, daughter Tatyana. Andrei Vladimirovich was one of the most authoritative Soviet experts on steam and gas turbines. He was the dean of the power engineering faculty of Moscow Power Engineering Institute, and he was called “the most handsome dean of the Soviet Union.” Writers, musicians, and actors often visited her and Barto’s house; Agnia Lvovna’s non-conflict nature attracted a variety of people. She was close friends with Faina Ranevskaya and Rina Zelena, and in 1940, just before the war, she wrote the script for the comedy “Foundling”. In addition, Barto traveled a lot as part of Soviet delegations. In 1937 she visited Spain. There was already a war going on there, Barto saw ruins of houses and orphaned children. A conversation with a Spanish woman made a particularly gloomy impression on her, who, showing a photograph of her son, covered his face with her finger, explaining that the boy’s head had been torn off by a shell. “How to describe the feelings of a mother who has outlived her child?” Agnia Lvovna wrote then to one of her friends. A few years later, she received the answer to this terrible question.
Agnia Barto knew that war with Germany was inevitable. At the end of the thirties, she traveled to this “neat, clean, almost toy-like country,” heard Nazi slogans, saw pretty blond girls in dresses “decorated” with swastikas. To her, who sincerely believed in the universal brotherhood of, if not adults, then at least children, all this was wild and scary. But the war itself was not too harsh on her. She did not separate from her husband even during the evacuation: Shcheglyaev, who by that time had become a prominent energy worker, was sent to the Urals. Agnia Lvovna had friends living in those parts who invited her to stay with them. So the family settled in Sverdlovsk. The Urals seemed to be distrustful, closed and stern people. Barto had a chance to meet Pavel Bazhov, who completely confirmed her first impression of the local residents. During the war, Sverdlovsk teenagers worked at defense factories instead of adults who went to the front. They were wary of the evacuees. But Agnia Barto needed to communicate with children; she drew inspiration and stories from them. In order to be able to communicate more with them, Barto, on the advice of Bazhov, received the profession of a second-class turner. Standing at the lathe, she proved that she was “also a person.” In 1942, Barto made her last attempt to become an “adult writer.” Or rather, a front-line correspondent. Nothing came of this attempt, and Barto returned to Sverdlovsk. She understood that the whole country lived according to the laws of war, but still she was very homesick for Moscow.
Barto returned to the capital in 1944, and almost immediately life returned to normal. In the apartment opposite the Tretyakov Gallery, the housekeeper Domasha was again doing housework. Friends were returning from evacuation, son Garik and daughter Tatyana began studying again. Everyone was looking forward to the end of the war. On May 4, 1945, Garik returned home earlier than usual. Home was late with lunch, the day was sunny, and the boy decided to ride a bicycle. Agnia Lvovna did not object. It seemed that nothing bad could happen to a fifteen-year-old teenager in a quiet Lavrushinsky lane. But Garik’s bicycle collided with a truck coming around the corner. The boy fell onto the asphalt, hitting his temple on the sidewalk curb. Death came instantly. Barto’s friend Evgenia Taratura recalls that Agniya Lvovna completely retreated into herself these days. She didn't eat, didn't sleep, didn't talk. The Victory Day did not exist for her. Garik was an affectionate, charming, handsome boy, capable of music and exact sciences. Did Barto remember the Spanish woman who lost her son? Was she tormented by a feeling of guilt for her frequent departures, for the fact that Garik sometimes lacked her attention?
Be that as it may, after the death of her son, Agnia Lvovna turned all her mother’s love to her daughter Tatyana. But she didn’t work less; quite the contrary. In 1947, she published the poem "Zvenigorod" - a story about children who lost their parents during the war. This poem was destined for a special fate. Poems for children turned Agnia Barto into “the face of Soviet children’s books,” an influential writer, a favorite of the entire Soviet Union. But “Zvenigorod” made her a national heroine and returned some semblance of peace of mind. This can be called an accident or a miracle. Agnia Barto wrote the poem after visiting a real orphanage in the town of Zvenigorod near Moscow. In the text, as usual, she used her conversations with children. After the book was published, she received a letter from a lonely woman who lost her eight-year-old daughter during the war. The fragments of childhood memories included in the poem seemed familiar to the woman. She hoped that Barto communicated with her daughter, who disappeared during the war. And so it turned out: mother and daughter met ten years later. In 1965, the Mayak radio station began broadcasting the program “Looking for a Man.” Searching for missing people using the media was not the invention of Agnia Barto; such a practice existed in many countries. The uniqueness of the Soviet analogue was that the search was based on childhood memories. “A child is observant, he sees sharply, accurately and often remembers what he sees for the rest of his life,” wrote Barto. “Can’t childhood memory help in the search? Can’t parents recognize their adult son or daughter from their childhood memories?” Agnia Barto devoted nine years of her life to this work. She managed to unite almost a thousand families destroyed by the war.
In her own life, everything was going well: her husband was moving up the career ladder, her daughter Tatyana got married and gave birth to a son, Vladimir. It was about him that Barto wrote the poem “Vovka is a kind soul.” Andrei Vladimirovich Shcheglyaev was never jealous of her fame, and he was greatly amused by the fact that in some circles he was known not as the largest specialist in steam turbines in the USSR, but as the father of “Our Tanya”, the one that dropped into the river ball (Barto wrote these poems for her daughter). Barto continued to travel a lot around the world, even visiting the USA. Agnia Lvovna was the “face” of any delegation: she knew how to behave in society, spoke several languages, dressed beautifully and danced beautifully. In Moscow there was absolutely no one to dance with; Barto’s social circle consisted of writers and her husband’s colleagues and scientists. Therefore, Agniya Lvovna tried not to miss a single dance technique. Once, while in Brazil, Barto, as part of the Soviet delegation, was invited to a reception with the owner of Machete, the most popular Brazilian magazine. The head of the Soviet delegation, Sergei Mikhalkov, was already waiting for her in the hotel lobby when KGB officers reported that a “vicious anti-Soviet article” had been published in Macheta the day before. Naturally, there could be no talk of any reception. They said that Mikhalkov could not forget the upset face and words of Agnia Barto, who came out of the elevator in an evening dress and with a fan, for a long time.
In Moscow, Barto often received guests. It must be said that the writer rarely did housework. She generally maintained the way of life that had been familiar to her since childhood: the housekeeper completely freed her from household chores; the children had a nanny and a driver. Barto loved to play tennis and would organize a trip to capitalist Paris to buy a pack of drawing paper she liked. But at the same time, she never had a secretary, or even a work office - only an apartment on Lavrushinsky Lane and an attic at the dacha in Novo-Daryino, where there was an old card table and books were piled in stacks. But the doors of her house were always open for guests. She gathered MPEI students, academicians, aspiring poets and famous actors around the same table. She was non-confrontational, loved practical jokes and did not tolerate arrogance and snobbery. One day she arranged a dinner, set the table, and attached a sign to each dish: “Black caviar for academicians,” “Red caviar for corresponding members,” “Crabs and sprats for doctors of science,” “Cheese and ham for candidates.” ", "Vinaigrette for laboratory assistants and students." They say that the laboratory assistants and students were sincerely amused by this joke, but the academicians did not have enough of a sense of humor; some of them were then seriously offended by Agnia Lvovna.
In 1970, her husband, Andrei Vladimirovich, died. He spent the last few months in the hospital, Agniya Lvovna stayed with him. After the first heart attack, she was afraid for his heart, but the doctors said that Shcheglyaev had cancer. It seemed that she had returned to distant forty-five: her most precious thing was again taken away from her.
She survived her husband by eleven years. All this time she did not stop working: she wrote two books of memoirs, more than a hundred poems. She did not become less energetic, she just began to fear loneliness. I spent hours talking to my friends on the phone and tried to see my daughter and grandchildren more often. She still didn’t like to remember her past. She was also silent about the fact that for decades she had been helping the families of repressed acquaintances: she obtained scarce medicines, found good doctors; about the fact that, using her connections, she had been “getting” apartments for many years, sometimes for complete strangers.
She died on April 1, 1981. After the autopsy, the doctors were shocked: the vessels turned out to be so weak that it was not clear how the blood had been flowing into the heart for the last ten years. Agnia Barto once said: “Almost every person has moments in life when he does more than he can.” In her case, it was not a minute; she lived her whole life this way.