Boris Zakhoder(1918-2000)

Boris Vladimirovich Zakhoder is Soviet and Russian children's novelist, poet, translator, screenwriter. A popularizer of world children's classics. Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1999). From childhood, he was interested in natural sciences, biology. In 1935, Boris Zakhoder graduated from Moscow school No. 25. In 1936 he entered the Faculty of Biology of Kazan University. Then he transferred to the same faculty at Moscow State University of Lomonosov. In 1938 Boris Zakhoder entered the Literary Institute, where he was enrolled in the poetry workshop of Pavel Antokolskiy, and began to publish his poems. At the end of 1939, together with a group of students, Boris Zakhoder volunteered for the Soviet-Finnish 'winter' war. In 1940 he returned back. In the short space between the two wars, he wrote poems and essays. From March 1941 he continued his studies at the Lenin Institute, but only until June 22, when Adolf Hitler suddenly attacked the Soviet Union. In the very first days, Zakhoder left as a volunteer. He fought on the Karelian and on the South-Western fronts, participated in the liberation of Lvov. He worked in the editorial office of the newspaper 'Fire on the Enemy'. His poems in these years have been repeatedly published in army newspapers. In February 1944, Senior Lieutenant Zakhoder was awarded the Military Merit Medal. In 1946 he was demobilized and returned to Moscow. He resumed his studies at the Literary Institute and graduated in 1947, receiving a diploma with honors. In the same year, in the journal 'Zateynik' the poem "Sea battle" was published (later it was included in the collection "On the back desk"). It was Zakhoder's debut as a children's poet. In the 1950s, Zakhoder began translating. In 1952, his translations of Anna Zegers short stories were published. In 1958, Zakhoder joined the Union of Writers of the USSR. After the release of the first book, popularity quickly came, and his other works began to be published and reprinted: Monkey's Tomorrow (1956), Nobody and Others, The Letter "Ya" (both - 1958), "Four-Legged Assistants" (1959) , "Who Looks Like Whom" (1960), "To Companions of Children" (1962), "Whale and Cat" (1964), "Little Mermaid" (1967), "Good Rhino" (1977). In his prose tales, Zakhoder addresses the problems of loneliness, the search for friends, true and false beauty, kindness and cruelty. Boris Zakhoder in the USSR was best known for his translations and retelling of the classic works of foreign children's literature.