Writer, dramatist and scriptwriter Valentin Kataev was born

Valentin Kataev, a writer, journalist, dramatist, prose writer, poet and scriptwriter was born in Odessa on January 16 (28), 1897. 

Valentin Kataev’s father, Pyotr Kataev, came of the clergy, and was a schoolteacher in Odessa. His mother, Eugenia Bachey, was the daughter of general Ivan Bachey, who belonged to a noble family in Poltava Governorate.

Valentin Kataev attended a gymnasium (school) in Odessa. He started writing poems at the age of nine. While at the gymnasium his first poem Autumn was printed in Odesskiy Vestnik (Herald of Odessa) newspaper in 1910.

Shortly before the beginning of World War I, Kataev got acquainted with I. A. Bunin, who became the first literary teacher of the young writer.

When World War I broke out, Valentin Kataev joined the army as a volunteer and served in the artillery brigade. His essays, such as Our Everyday Life and Letters from There read about the everyday life of soldiers. During the war Valentin Kataev was seriously wounded twice and poisoned with gas. On the Romanian Front Valentin Kataev suffered a wound and was taken to hospital in Odessa, where he stayed when the October Revolution took place. Valentin Kataev was awarded two Crosses of St. George and the Order of St. Anna 4th Class (“Anna for Courage”), promoted to the rank of second lieutenant (‘podporuchik’) and granted the title of a nobleman that was not hereditary.

In 1919 Kataev got drafted into the Red Army and commanded the artillery battery on the Don Front. Impressions of that time are described in his autobiographical story Sketches of the Civil War (1924). On returning to Odessa, Valentin Kataev together with Yu. K. Olesha and E. G. Bagritsky headed ROSTA Posters of Odessa Russian Telegraph Agency, wrote texts for agitation posters, ditties (‘chastushki’), slogans, and leaflets. In 1921 he worked in Kharkov.

In 1922 Kataev moved to Moscow. He contributed to the country's major magazine Novy Mir (New World). He published his articles in the newspapers Gudok (Whistle) (joined the permanent staff in 1923), Trud (Work), Rabochaya Gazeta (Workers’ Newspaper), and such magazines as Krasny Perets (Red Pepper) and Krokodil (Crocodile). Other contributors were I. Ilf, Ye. Petrov (Kataev’s brother), M. Bulgakov, Yu. Olesha, and M. Zoshchenko.

In 1925 Kataev published the story Embezzlers, which was staged and had a successful run in the Moscow Art Theatre from 1928. Then he began to write for theaters on a regular basis.

In 1932, after a trip to Magnitogorsk, Kataev wrote a chronicle novel Time, Forward!, which was dedicated to the construction of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Plant and its builders. The novel was well received right away, became an important milestone in his writing career and marked the beginning of a new novelistic epoch.

In 1936 he published the novel A White Sail Gleams; wrote essays and articles for Pravda (Truth). The story I am the Son of the Working People was released in 1937. During the Great Patriotic War Kataev worked as a war correspondent on Pravda (Truth) and Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) and wrote the story Son of the Regiment (winner of the Stalin Prize, 1946), and the plays The Parental Home and A Blue Handkerchief.

In the early 1940s Kataev began to publish his fairy tales. Such works as A Fife and a Jug, A Rainbow Flower and A Dove were printed in 1940. Two more fairy tales A Pearl and A Stump got into print in 1945.

In 1955, Valentin Kataev founded Yunost (Youth) magazine, which opened its pages for young poets and prose writers of the ‘60s, and was its editor-in-chief until 1962.

In the late 1960s Kataev began to write memoirs (stories The Holy Well (1965); The Grass of Oblivion (1967); My Diamond Garland (1975) etc.)

Valentin Kataev died on April 12, 1986 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Lit.: Катаев Валентин Петрович [Электронный ресурс] // Герои страны. 2000-2017.URL: http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=11101.