The name Agniya Barto is known throughout the world. Her poems are loved and known by both adults and children. Already more than one generation grew up on her work. Barto’s kind and instructive poems are easy to remember and for a long time remain in memory a bright symbol of childhood.
Biography
Agnia Lvovna Barto was born in the spring of 1906 in Moscow in an intelligent and educated family. Her father was a veterinarian, and her mother was engaged in housework.
Some sources have information that at birth the girl was named Getel Leibovna Volova.
Agniya's father was a smart and well-read man, he adored Russian literature. From childhood, he read the future poetess the classics, and she studied on her own to read from the book of Leo Tolstoy.
What is noteworthy, on her first birthday, the girl received a book from her father, “How Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy Lives and Works, ” as a gift from her father.
Agnia received a decent home education, including French and German lessons. Then she entered and successfully graduated from the prestigious gymnasium.
Almost simultaneously with her studies at the gymnasium, Barto studied at the choreographic school, dreaming of becoming a famous ballerina.
During the October Revolution and general chaos in the country, the financial situation of the family deteriorated noticeably, so having forged documents, namely increasing her age by one year, Agnia got a job in a clothing store.
Barto wrote her first poems in her early childhood. The famous People's Commissar of Education Lunacharsky heard her poems at the graduation party at the choreographic school and urged the girl not to quit this lesson.
Having completed her studies at the choreographic school in 1924, Barto entered the ballet troupe. However, the girl did not succeed in building a career on the big stage, the troupe emigrated from the country, and Agniya's father categorically refused to let her daughter go from Moscow.
Creative life
The early poems of young Barto were very naive, romantic and devoted to love topics. However, they were quickly replaced by sharp epigrams to friends and teachers.
The first works of the poetess were published by the State Publishing House in 1925. Among the "first swallows" were poems and collections:
- "Thief Bear";
- "Bullfinch";
- "Brothers";
- The Chinese Woman Wang Li;
- "Toys" and others.
Barto's books quickly became popular and provided the poetess with a good reputation in literary circles.
Her poems are cute, humorous images that make fun of human flaws. They were easy to read and understandable to both children and adults.
Despite the success and recognition Agniya Lvovna was a modest and very tactful person. Despite her love for Mayakovsky’s work in a personal meeting, she did not dare to speak with the poet. After some time, their conversation nevertheless took place, and Barto learned a lot of useful things from him for himself and his work.
An interesting fact: Korney Chukovsky, having heard Barto’s poems, suggested that their author is a small child.
Agnia Lvovna also had ill-wishers from the literary milieu. For example, for many years she had a bad relationship with Marshak, who was condescending to her work and was not shy about harsh statements and teachings.
The career of the poetess developed very well, her poems were loved and regularly published. In 1937, Barto traveled to Spain as a delegate from the congress in defense of culture and delivered a speech in Madrid.
During the Great Patriotic War Agniya Lvovna was evacuated with her family to Sverdlovsk. She worked a lot: wrote poetry, military essays, spoke on the radio.
There she met Pavel Bazhov, a famous Uralian storyteller.
In 1943, she wrote the work “The Apprentice Is Coming”. It spoke of the labor feat of adolescents in difficult wartime. To make the poem realistic, Barto worked for some time with the teenagers at the factory.
The post-war period in the life of the poetess
After the war, Agniya Lvovna often went to orphanages and talked with orphans, read their poems to them, and helped financially.
In 1947, one of the most psychologically difficult works of Agnia Barto, the poem Zvenigorod, was published. It was dedicated to children orphaned by the war.
Surprisingly, after the publication of the poet, a letter came from a woman who lost her daughter in wartime. She asked for help with finding a child. Agniya Lvovna took the letter to a special search organization and fortunately the girl was found.
The case became public, and Barto was bombarded with requests for help. Separated during the terrible war years, children and parents prayed for assistance in finding relatives.
The poetess organized and began to broadcast on missing people. Barto read letters and searches on the air, talked to people. As a result, it was thanks to the program “Find a Man” and the personal contribution of Agnia Barto that a large number of people found each other and families reunited.
Despite such responsible work, the poetess did not forget about her work and continued to write poetry for children. In the postwar period, in large numbers were published:
- "Leshenka, Leshenka";
- "First grader";
- "Vovka is a good soul";
- "Grandfather and granddaughter" and others.
Barto also wrote the scripts for the children's films “Alyosha Ptitsyn develops character” and “Elephant and rope”. Together with Rina Zelena Barto worked on the script for the film “Foundling”.
Agnia Lvovna has many state awards, including the Stalin and Lenin Prizes.
