The museum collection features the first book edition of Arkady Petrovich Golikov’s (later known as Arkady Gaidar) debut work “In the Days of Defeats and Victories.” It was donated to the museum by the writer’s son, Timur Arkadyevich Gaidar.
In October 1923, Arkady returned to Arzamas, where his father lived. After the Civil War, Pyotr Isidorovich headed the Unified Consumer Society. Arkady’s father received a housing allocation and moved into 12 Karl Marx Street.
In the duffel bag that Arkady Golikov brought with him to Arzamas was a thick, lined notebook. On the first page, a star was drawn in the upper right corner, with its rays falling on the words “In the Days of Defeats and Victories.”
Initially, Pyotr Isidorovich was skeptical of Arkady’s literary work and suggested that he pursue something more serious. However, later, when he saw this book in the window of a bookstore on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod, he bought it. Family legend holds that Peter Isidorovich purchased this exact copy.
Years later, after the death of Pyotr Isidorovich, Arkady Gaidar’s half-brother, Pyotr Golikov, inherited the book. He then gifted it to Timur Gaidar.
The story is autobiographical. It was first published in 1925 in the Leningrad almanac “Kovsh, ” in an abridged version. In 1926, it was released by the Moscow publishing house “Zemlya i Fabrika.” The book had not yet been signed with the pseudonym “Gaidar” — the cover read “Arkady Golikov.”
The first person to read Arkady Golikov’s
manuscript was the executive editor Sergey Semenov. When Sergey Alexandrovich
handed the text to other members of the editorial board, he said,
