Today, open sources can easily find guidance on how to write a detective or adventure novel. At the beginning of the last century, such instructions did not yet exist. The writer Lev Ovalov was guided only by his natural abilities.
Komsomol youth
One of the Chinese sages did not advise his friends and relatives to live in an era of change. However, political cataclysms and changes overtake a person regardless of his desires. The famous Soviet writer Lev Sergeyevich Ovalov was born on August 29, 1905 in a noble family. Parents at that time were visiting the Assumption of the Oryol province in their estate. Father - a career officer, served in the cavalry. When the First World War began, the head of the family went to the front and died after a year and a half. To feed her three sons, her mother decided to move from Moscow to her native village.
When Leo was fourteen years old, he joined the Komsomol and began to work actively as an agitator and propagandist. Two years later, he was elected secretary of the county committee of the Komsomol. The Komsomol secretary not only spoke at meetings, worked at subbotniks, but also regularly sent reports on life in the village to the provincial newspaper. In 1923, Ovalov was sent to study at the Moscow Medical Institute. The country needed new, competent and energetic personnel. Leo entered the medical faculty and continued to engage in public affairs.
Professional activity
Lectures and seminars did not prevent Leo from managing a student library and studying in a literary studio. After some time, notes and essays signed by him began to appear on the pages of the periodicals "Working Moscow" and "Peasant newspaper". Classes in literary work were bearing fruit. Having received a medical education in 1928, Ovalov did not work in his specialty. He was invited to the post of editor of Selkor magazine. By this time, the writer had handed over to the printing house his first story, "Chatter."
The career of a journalist and writer Ovalov was successful. In the prewar years, Lev Sergeyevich headed the editions of the magazines "Around the World" and "Young Guard". He worked closely with the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. The first story about the famous major Pronin was published in 1939. The author continues to work intensively, and the next few stories are published as a separate brochure in the series "Red Army Library". But everything changes dramatically after the outbreak of war. In July 1941, Ovalov was accused of divulging classified information and sentenced to a long prison term.
