Elena Ilyina Biography

The real name is Lia Yakovlevna Preis, in girlhood - Marshak. It became known thanks to the book Fourth Height. The future writer was born on June 29 in the Ostrogozhsk Voronezh province in a large family of the master of the chemical plant. Father - Yakov Mironovich Marshak worked as a master at the soap factory of the Mikhailov brothers. Work in small factories did not satisfy all the needs of a man who independently comprehended the basics of chemistry and constantly engaged in various experiments.

In search of a better life, the father constantly moved from the city to the city, until he found the job to his liking in St. Petersburg. Mom - Evgenia Borisovna Gutelson, was a native of Vitebsk, was engaged in raising children. In addition to Samuel, Leah had another brother Ilya, who was one of the founders of popular science literature. All children were instilled in a love of literature.

Leah studied at the gymnasium, where the literature teacher in every possible way encouraged the first literary experiments of his pupils. Mom died when the girl was 16 years old. Samuel left his family quite early, so Leah spent the young years with her brother Ilya. They lived very modestly. All the money had to be given to the apartment mistress. There was practically nothing left for other expenses.

Lia Yakovlevna graduated from the verbal department of the Leningrad Institute of Art History. However, the debut in the role of the writer took place a year earlier, when the story “Print of the Office” was published in the magazine “New Robinson”. In the same year, I published the first book “Turuzi on Wheels”. Thanks to the knowledge of several foreign languages, Lia began to engage in translations, for example, translated the book of poems by Bashkir poets “With Courage in the Heart”.

In subsequent years, works were published in magazines such as: “Hedgehog”, “Chizh”, “Bonfire”, “Pioneer”, “Murzilka”. Elena Yakovlevna wrote books for preschool children, as well as students of secondary and senior school age. The collection for the kids “had a birthday” was very popular, in which the poems “crying in vain I do not like”, “about Masha and Natasha” were especially memorable.

Readers also fell in love with a collection of fairy tales, published for younger schoolchildren: "Noise and noise." It published fairy tales: “The Old Primer and the New Book”, “A Jewed Back”, “Chick-Chick with Scissors” and others. I released a series of books "My First Book". Among the works could be found serious. For example, "this is my school." Initially, the story was called "always ready." She talked about schoolchildren of the fifties.

Another documentary story was the work “The Treaty Traveler. Childhood, youth and young years of Karl Marx. ” Many works of Elena Ilyina have become a bibliographic rarity. The only place where you can get to know them now is the Russian National Library in the city and, of course, the most famous book by Elena Ilyina is the fourth height. This is a story about the heroine of the Great Patriotic War Gule Koroleva, about her childhood, school years, about how she visited Artek, how she starred in films, about her youth, how she volunteered for the front and tragically died: on November 23 in Stalingrad, she took out 50 wounded fighters from the battlefield, and when the commander was killed, the first to attack, the first to burst into the first.

The enemy trench killed 15 German soldiers and officers with grenades. It was mortally injured, but continued to fight until reinforcements arrived. The book was first published in the year and since then withstood many publications. According to the book, the feature film “The Fourth Height” of the director Igor Voznesensky was shot. I knew the girl about whom this book was written when she was a child, she also knew her a schoolgirl, a pioneer, a Komsomol member.

I had to meet Gul Korolev during the Patriotic War. And then in her life, which I failed to see herself, the stories of her parents, teachers, friends, and counselors were filled. Her military comrades told me about her life at the front. I was also lucky to read her letters, starting from the earliest - on the linked pages of the school notebook - and ending with the last, written hastily on the sheets of the notebook in between battles.

All this helped me to know how to see the whole Gulin with a bright and tense life with my own eyes, to imagine not only what she said and did, but also what she thought and felt. I will be glad if for those who recognize Guli Korolev on the pages of this book, it will become - at least partially - as close as it was for those who recognized and loved it in life. ” The years spent in prison and in hard labor seriously undermined her health.

The life of the writer ended on November 2. Elena Ilyin was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery, next to her husband - the famous historian I. Books E.