BELYAEV Alexander Romanovich (1884-1942, Pushkin Leningrad Region), writer. He studied in Smolensky Holy Seminary and in Demidov Law Lyceum in Yaroslavl. From 1915 he was seriously ill. After changing many professions he devoted himself to writing by the end 1920s. He lived in Leningrad and in Tsarskoe Selo (Pushkin) in the 1930s. He worked in the Leningrad and Pushkin Periodical and at Leningrad Radio. Belyaev's creativity contributed greatly in the development of Soviet science fiction. Belyaev's works are charged with a certain ideological straightness (among the most popular are: Professor Dowell's Head, a story, 1925 and a novel with the same name, 1937; The Amphibian, 1928, etc.) but at the same time are marked by a certain dynamics of the story and brightness of images. He was the author of essays on Russian science, stories for children, and theoretical works on science fiction. He died of hunger in his bed during the German occupation. He lived at 19 Konyushennaya Street in Pushkin in 1938-42 (the house has not been preserved, there is a memorial plaque on the present-day house), and also in the House of Creativity at Proletarskaya Street (today 6 Tserkovnaya Street). He was buried in Kazanskoe Cemetery in Pushkin.

References: Ляпунов Б. В. Александр Беляев: Критико-биогр. очерк. М., 1967; Беляева С. А. Воспоминания об отце // Аврора. 1982. № 9. С. 137-145; Бунатян Г. Г. Город муз: Лит. памят. места г. Пушкина. СПб., 2001. С. 337-346.

D. N. Cherdakov.

TOLSTOY Alexey Nikolaevich (1882-1945), count, writer, publicist, public figure, fellow of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939). He studied at еру St. Petersburg Technological Institute (1901-07, without receiving a degree). He started as a poet (Lyrics collection of poems, which imitated the poetry of the symbolists, published in St. Petersburg in 1907), but soon turned to prose (his first story The Old Tower was published in the Niva journal in 1908), which brought him success. His early works include: literary adaptation of folklore subjects in the Magpie Tales collection, 1910; stories based on the life of his native Samara province in the book Narratives and Stories, 1910, also known as Zavolzhye etc.). Tolstoy became an active member of the literary groups of St. Petersburg, frequented Ivanov's Wednesdays and contributed to various St. Petersburg periodicals. In 1913-16 he was in St. Petersburg - Petrograd on flying visits, relocated to Petrograd in 1923, and finally moved to Detskoe Selo in 1928. Among the visitors of his Wednesdays were V.Y. Shishkov, O.D. Forsh, B.A. Lavrenev, M.M. Zoschenko, P.E. Schegolev, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, A.F. Ioffe among others. The works of Tolstoy are distinguished with a vast variety of themes and genres: while in Leningrad and Detskoe Selo, he wrote the science-fiction novel The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (1925-26); the first two books of the novel Peter the Great (1930, 1934; the Stalin Prize of 1941), which was one of the most important works of Tolstoy, dedicated to the issues of Russian state system and historical progress, politically topical in the 1930s; The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino, the fairy tale for children whose popularity never fades (1935) etc. The reality of St. Petersburg life is portrayed in many works of Tolstoy (trilogy The Road to Calvary, 1921-41; play The Conspiracy of the Empress, 1926, written together with Schegolev etc.). From 1938 he lived in Moscow. Tolstoy was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1943 and in 1946, posthumously. In 1907-10 he lived at 35 Tavricheskaya Street; in 1910-12 he resided at 147 Nevsky Prospect; in 1925-28 he lived at 3 Zhdanovka River Embankment; while in Detskoe Selo (Pushkin), in 1928-30 he lived at 8/13 Moskovskaya Street and at 6 Proletarskaya Street (present-day Tserkovnaya) in 1930-38. Tolstoy's name was attached to a boulevard in the town of Pushkin.

References: Воспоминания об А. Н. Толстом: Сб. М., 1982; Бунатян Г. Г. Город муз: Лит. памят. места г. Пушкина. СПб., 2001. С. 309-326; Петелин В. В. Жизнь Алексея Толстого: "Красный граф". М., 2001.

D. N. Cherdakov.

Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy with his family moved into the house of Vuich located in 6 Proletarskaya Street (now it is Tserkovnaya (Church) Street). In this house Tolstoy worked on the novels "Pyotr I" (Peter the First"), "Chernoye zoloto" ("the Black Gold"), the trilogy of novels "Khozhdeniye po mukam", consisting of "Sestry" (“Sisters”), "Vosemnadtsaty god" (“The Year 1918”), and "Khmuroe utro" (“A Gloomy Morning”), wrote the story "Gobelen Marii-Antuanetti" ("The Tapestry of Marie-Antoinette"), the tale "Zolotoy Klyuchik" ("The Golden key"), the libretto for Yu. Shaporin's opera "Dekabristi" ("Decembrists"), started the work on "Oborona Tsaritsina" ("The Defence of Tsaritsin"). He lived and worked here untill his departure to Moscow in 1938.

The house of A.N. Tolstoy, the centre of the cultural life of Detskoye Selo of the 1930s, was visited by writers V.A. Rozhdestvensky, V.M. Inber, V.Ya. Shishkiv, O.D. Forsh, I.A. Andronikov, L.V. Nikulin, B.A. Lavrenev, M.M. Zoshchenko, the literary critic P.Ye. Shchegolev, artists G.S. Ulanova, Ye.I. Time, V.I. Kachalov, N.V. Pevtsov, M.F. Monakhov, the painter K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, composers Yu.A. Shaporin, V.M. Bogdanov-Berezovsky, D.D. Shostakovich, conductors A.V. Gauk, A.Sh. Melik-Pashayev, scientists A.F. Ioffe, A.M. Bonch-Bruyevich, L.D. Landau.

During 1933-1934 A.N. Tolstoy was a deputy of the Detskoye Selo District Soviet, his articles were often published on pages of the district newspaper "Bolshevistskoye slovo" ("Bolsheviks' Word").

Repairing excavators was mastered in the Stream Locomotive Repair Base named after Uritsky (PPRMZ) under the direction of the talented engineer Vladimir Ivanovich Shkvokhin, who became the director of plants "Remputmash" of the Ministry of Transport. Andronnikov Irakly Luarsabovich
Bogdanov-Berezovsky Valerian Mikhailovich
Bonch-Bruevich Mikhail Alexandrovich
Forsh Olga Dmitrievna
Gauk Alexander Vasilievich
Inber Vera Mikhailovna
Ioffe Abram Fedorovich
Kachalov (the real surname is Shverubovich), Vasily Ivanovich
Landau Lev Davydovich
Lavrenev Boris Andreevich
Melik-Pashayev, Aleksandr Shamilyevich
Monakhov Nikolay Fedorovich
Nikulin Lev Veniaminovich
Petrov-Vodkin Kuzma Sergeevich
Pevtsov Illarion Nikolaevich
Rozhdestvensky Vsevolod Alexandrovich
Shaporin Yury Alexandrovich
Shchegolev Pavel Eliseevich
Shishkov Alexander Semenovich
Shkvokhin, Vladimir Ivanovich
Shostakovich Dmitry Dmitrievich
Time Elizaveta Ivanovna
Tolstoy Alexey Nikolaevich
Ulanova Galina Sergeevna
Zoschenko Mikhail Mikhailovich
Tserkovnaya Street/Pushkin, town, house 6