Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov (1815 - 1869) flashed across the firmament of Russian literature as a bright meteor from the fairy tale "The Little Humpbacked Horse". Having composed it at a young age, the writer was immediately accepted into the circle of St. Petersburg writers who appreciated his talent. However, further life circumstances did not allow Ershov to further realize his creative potential. Ershov was forced to leave St. Petersburg, he had to mourn the loss of numerous relatives and children. It is surprising that in such conditions Pyotr Pavlovich did not lose his vital energy and was able to make a great contribution to the development of school education in Tobolsk and the province. The Little Humpbacked Horse will always be a masterpiece of Russian children's literature.
1. Pyotr Ershov was born in the village of Bezrukovo, Tobolsk province, in the family of a police chief. He was a fairly high police rank - the police chief headed the law enforcement agencies and was a member of the court in several counties united in a police district. In Siberia, it could be tens of thousands of square kilometers of territory. The disadvantage of the profession was constant travel. However, Pavel Ershov made a good career, and while his sons graduated from high school, he won a transfer to St. Petersburg. The mother of the future writer Efimia came from a merchant family.
2. Ershov began to receive a regular education when his family lived in the large village of Berezovo. There, Peter attended the district school for two years.
3. In the gymnasium, Peter and his older brother Nikolai studied in Tobolsk. This gymnasium was the only one in the whole of Siberia. In the 19th century, this city had already begun to lose its significance, but it still remained the largest city in Siberia. It is not surprising that after the rural life, the boys were fascinated by the big city.
4. In Tobolsk, Ershov was friends with the future composer Alexander Alyabyev. He even then showed great hope in music, and somehow set out to prove that Ershov did not understand anything in it. They often attended rehearsals of the local orchestra, and Ershov noticed that one of the violinists, hearing falsity, makes hilarious grimaces. Based on this knowledge, Peter offered a bet - he would hear the first false note. To Alyabyev's amazement, Ershov easily won the bet.
Alexander Alyabyev
5. Ershov graduated from St. Petersburg University at the age of 20. True, he treated his studies, to put it mildly, without proper attention. By his own admission, the writer, even after graduating from university, he did not know a single foreign language, which was an incredible thing for an educated person of those years.
6. The path of the writer to fame was even faster than his pace in studies. Already in 1833 (at the age of 18) he began to write The Little Humpbacked Horse, and a year later the fairy tale, which received a very warm reception from writers and critics, was published in a separate edition.
7. On the crest of the wave of success, Ershov suffered two heavy losses at once - with intervals of several months, his brother and father died.
8. The Little Humpbacked Horse went through 7 editions during the author's lifetime. Now the fourth is considered the main one, which Ershov underwent serious processing.
9. The success of Ershov's fairy tale looks even more significant against the background of the fact that he was not a pioneer of the genre of the fairy tale in verse. On the contrary, it was at the beginning of the 19th century that fairy tales were written by A.S. Pushkin, V.I.Dal, A.V. Koltsov and other authors. Pushkin, after listening to the first part of the fairy tale "The Little Humpbacked Horse", jokingly said that he now had nothing to do in this genre.
10. Ershov was introduced to Pushkin by Pyotr Pletnev, a university professor. It was Pletnev that Pushkin dedicated "Eugene Onegin". The professor arranged the debut of The Little Humpbacked Horse in a very interesting way. He just started reading it instead of his next lecture. When the students began to wonder who the author was. Pletnev pointed to Ershov sitting in the same auditorium.
Peter Pletnev
11. After the death of his father, Peter was left without patronage and could not get a government position in St. Petersburg, as he expected. The writer decided to return to his native Siberia as a teacher in a gymnasium.
12. Ershov had very far-reaching plans for the exploration of Siberia. He was friends and corresponded with many famous Siberians, but he could not realize his dream.
13. The career of a writer in the field of public education can hardly be called fast. And he was appointed a teacher of Latin, which Ershov had hated since the days of the gymnasium. He rose to the post of gymnasium inspector after 8 years of working as a teacher, and became the director after 13 years. But after becoming director, Pyotr Pavlovich launched a very vigorous activity. He traveled all over the Tobolsk province and founded several new schools, including 6 for women. From under his pen came out two original pedagogical works.
14. At the next check in 1857, Ershov was added to the list of persons deserving government confidence. At the same time, in the official wording, he was called “smart, kind and honest”.
15. Ershov founded a theater in Tobolsk and wrote several plays for it.
16. Tobolsk at the time of Ershov was a popular place of exile. The writer was friends and communicated with the Decembrists, including A. Baryatinsky, I. A. Annenkov and the Fonvizins. He was also familiar with the Poles exiled for taking part in the 1830 uprising.
17. The writer's personal life was very difficult. He lost his father at 19, his mother at 23. Ershov was married twice. The first time was on a widow who already had four children. The wife had been married for only five years, and Pyotr Pavlovich was left alone with the children. Less than two years later, Ershov remarried, but he was destined to live only six years with his second wife. Of the 15 children from two marriages, 4 survived, and in 1856 Ershov had to bury his son and daughter in a week.
18. The life of Ershov was closely connected with the family of the great scientist Dmitry Mendeleev. The chemist's father was Ershov's mentor at the gymnasium. Then the roles changed - Ershov taught young Dmitry at the gymnasium, who, after graduating from the gymnasium, married the writer's adopted daughter.
19. In Tobolsk, Ershov continued to engage in literary creativity, but he failed to create anything, even approximately in terms of the level of the Little Humpbacked Horse. He published many things under unpretentious pseudonyms like “Resident of Tobolsk”.
19. The native village of Peter Ershov was renamed in his honor. The pedagogical institute in Ishim and a street in Tobolsk were also named after the writer. The Cultural Center named after the writer operates. P. Ershov has two monuments and a bust. Ershov was buried at the Zavalinsky cemetery in Tobolsk.
The grave of P. Ershov
