This person is sometimes called a family writer. Isai Kalashnikov is a direct descendant of the Old Believers who were once resettled in Transbaikalia. In his works, he thought a lot about the meaning of life and the purpose of man.
Childhood and youth
Isai Kallistratovich Kalashnikov from an early age was interested in the history of his native land, in which he was born and raised. In stories and novels that were born from under his pen, the writer revealed the nature of historical personalities through the behavior of his contemporaries. Not everyone recognized this approach, but readers liked the books, and still like them.
The future writer was born on August 9, 1931 in a family of Old Believers. Parents lived in the village of Sharaldai in the territory of the Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. My father worked on a collective farm. Mother was engaged in housework and raising children. Seven children grew up in the house. Isaiah was the eldest. When he was six years old, the head of the family was convicted of denunciation for ten years in prison. At school, the boy unlearned only until the fourth grade. When he turned eleven, he had to leave school and go to work on a collective farm as a shepherd.
Creative activity
As Isai Kallistratovich later recalled, there is no silver lining. Looking after the collective farm herd, he read almost all the books that were in the village library. Not expecting that, he received a pretty decent education. After some time, the savvy boy was transferred by the clerk to the tractor brigade. In 1948, father returned home. After the meeting, Isai moved to a neighboring area and got a job as a logger in a timber industry enterprise. Then he worked as a carpenter, a turner, and a rafter for the forest. Throughout all these years, Kalashnikov wrote down his impressions and observations in an ordinary school notebook.
The debut story of Isai Kalashnikov was published on the pages of the newspaper Zabaykalskaya Pravda. In 1954, the novice author was accepted as an employee to the editorial office of the republican youth newspaper. The author completed his first novel, The Last Retreat, in 1961. Kalashnikov’s writing career took shape without haste. He carefully worked on every text. And he regarded literary creation as a responsible mission. The author rewrote his famous novel "Cruel Age" six times.
