Works of Vladimir Popov touch on the topicworking class. Who can better talk about the work of steelworkers, if not a man who dealt with hot metal? It has come a long way - from the worker at the open-hearth furnace to the engineer of the metallurgical plant. The difficulties, problems and concerns of the workers, their character and dedication, courage and perseverance — Vladimir Popov revealed their soul in their novels.
Popov Vladimir Fedorovich was born July 28, 1907year in Kharkov in the family of an employee. After school, he worked as an auxiliary worker in the open-hearth shop. In 1938 he graduated from the correspondence department of the Industrial Institute in Donetsk. He worked at the Yenakiyevo Metallurgical Plant as Deputy Head of the Workshop and during the Second World War he was evacuated with the plant to the Urals.
After the war, Vladimir Popov (photo above) becamewrite novels and essays on production topics, for which he was awarded the Stalin Prize. From 1975 he entered the Union of Soviet Writers and lived in Moscow. His wife Elena Yakovlevna is a screenwriter and playwright.
The novel "Steel and Slag" was founded by the author onown life experience. In the first days of the war, one-third of the workers went to the front and had to work for two. The war was coming closer and closer. Increasingly, trains with evacuated plants passed through the city. But metallurgical worked so far. The directors were concerned that there was not enough metal for ammunition. Vladimir Popov raises these problems, the heroism of those days in his work.
Biography (photo above) of the author clearly showsthat he himself went through these tests and therefore managed to clearly and truthfully reveal the characters of his heroes. The search and solution of production problems in difficult times for the country - reserves were put into operation, the turn reached ore dust. For decades in the dumps, it was compressed, the dust was sintered at the sinter plant and again sent to the furnace. Children and women collected ore in dumps and scrap metal in the city.
The plant was prepared to work in a militaryof time. Enemy airplanes more often made raids, steel was melted under shelling and bombing. In September 1941, the front approached so much that the plant had to be evacuated. In the work, Popov described the relocation of a metallurgical plant and workers who put a lot of effort into saving the plant. About the partisan activities of those who remained in the occupied territory.
On the heroic struggle of metallurgists against fascistinvaders tells in this work Vladimir Popov. At the same time, the writer seeks to find and raise a production problem that is meaningful and understandable for the reader. The author has always been interested in large, solid people - in the novel he emphasized the importance of the party and its role in overcoming difficulties. The work was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1949. Later, the sequel of the novel “Boiled Steel” appeared.
Evacuation of the plant to the Urals, work and return tothe post-war Donbass - all this was embodied in the novel “Steel and Slag”. Labor and patriotic feats of the Donetsk metallurgists found a worthy reflection in it. This novel and its sequel, “Boil Steel,” determined the place of Vladimir Popov in the literary system — he remained true to his subject.
Later he wrote works, titleswhich speak for themselves - they confirm the author’s deep creative attachment to production processes and problems of that time. He collects material for his works directly at the factory - he meets with workers, oversees industrial processes. In the second novel, “The Broken Circle,” the conflict is associated with a production problem: the plant’s team is fighting for a new technology that increases tire durability.
The novel is not limited to this side.conflict, Vladimir Popov reveals brightly and diversely the characters, the beliefs of their heroes. In the person of the protagonist, the director of the plant, the author shows a real communist, a person with genuine state thinking.
"And this is called weekdays" - in the novel are shownthe relationship of party leaders and business executives, workers and engineers. Here are working days full of struggle and drama for new technologies. The novel reveals the moral problems that occur in human souls. Awarded the First Prize for the best work of the working class.
In one of her articles, journalist NataliaKharakoz wrote about how Vladimir Popov came to the newspaper’s editorial office and how the film was shot based on the book “This is called Weekdays”. In Mariupol there was a festive demonstration. They stood and admired the bright procession. That seemed a column. Ahead, as always, were standard-bearers and foremost.
They would never pay attention to higha young man in a crowd of demonstrators, if a girl with huge brown eyes had not run out on the road. She took the young man by the arm and they went on. But their faces seemed familiar. At that time, the demonstrators heard the chatter of the cameras and guessed that the film was being made.
От киношников и узнали, что проходят съемки episode from the film, based on the novel, whose author is Vladimir Popov. And young artists, none other than Alexander Mikhailov and the popular Valentina Malyavina. The film is called "Today and Tomorrow." In the center of the plot - the relationship of the plant director Kadyshev with the team and the problem of ecology.
