What do you think?
Rate this book
Зимний ветер
Прапорщик Пётр Бачей осенью после ранения попадет в госпиталь в родной Одессе. Он не хочет возвращаться на фронт, где уже мало порядка и всё смотрится совсем безнадёжно. Ещё бы — Россия уже во власти больших событий и потрясений, ведь близится к концу 1917 год.
153 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
8 people want to read
About the author
Valentin Kataev
143 books14 followersValentin Petrovich Kataev (Russian: Валентин Катаев; also spelled Katayev or Kataiev) was a Russian and Soviet novelist and playwright who managed to create penetrating works discussing post-revolutionary social conditions without running afoul of the demands of official Soviet style. Kataev is credited with suggesting the idea for the Twelve Chairs to his brother Yevgeni Petrov and Ilya Ilf. In return, Kataev insisted that the novel be dedicated to him, in all editions and translations. Kataev's relentless imagination, sensitivity, and originality made him one of the most distinguished Soviet writers.
Kataev was born in Odessa (then Russian Empire, now Ukraine) into the family of a teacher and began writing while he was still in gimnaziya (high school). He did not finish the gimnaziya but volunteered for the army in 1915, serving in the artillery. After the October Revolution he was mobilized into the Red Army, where he fought against General Denikin and served in the Russian Telegraph Agency. In 1920, he became a journalist in Odessa; two years later he moved to Moscow, where he worked on the staff of The Whistle (Gudok), where he wrote humorous pieces under various pseudonyms.
His first novel, The Embezzlers (Rastratchiki, 1926), was printed in the journal "Krasnaya Nov". A satire of the new Soviet bureaucracy in the tradition of Gogol, the protagonists are two bureaucrats "who more or less by instinct or by accident conspire to defraud the Soviet state". The novel was well received, and the seminal modernist theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski asked Kataev to adapt it for the stage. It was produced at the world-famous Moscow Art Theatre, opening on 20 April 1928. A cinematic adaptation was filmed in 1931.
His comedy Quadrature of the circle (Kvadratura kruga, 1928) satirizes the effect of the housing shortage on two married couples who share a room.
His novel Time, Forward! (Vremya, vperyod!, 1932) describes workers' attempts to build the huge steel plant at Magnitogorsk in record time. Its title was taken from a poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky. its theme is the speeding up of time in the Soviet Union where the historical development of a century must be completed in ten years". The heroes are described as "being unable to trust such a valuable thing as time, to clocks, mere mechanical devices." Kataev adapted it as a screenplay, which filmed in 1965.
A White Sail Gleams (Beleyet parus odinoky, 1936) treats the 1905 revolution and the Potemkin uprising from the viewpoint of two Odessa schoolboys. In 1937, Vladimir Legoshin directed a film version, which became a classic children's adventure. Kataev wrote its screenplay and took an active part in the filming process, finding locations and acting as an historical advisor. Many of his contemporaries considered the novel to be a prose poem.
Kataev was born in Odessa (then Russian Empire, now Ukraine) into the family of a teacher and began writing while he was still in gimnaziya (high school). He did not finish the gimnaziya but volunteered for the army in 1915, serving in the artillery. After the October Revolution he was mobilized into the Red Army, where he fought against General Denikin and served in the Russian Telegraph Agency. In 1920, he became a journalist in Odessa; two years later he moved to Moscow, where he worked on the staff of The Whistle (Gudok), where he wrote humorous pieces under various pseudonyms.
His first novel, The Embezzlers (Rastratchiki, 1926), was printed in the journal "Krasnaya Nov". A satire of the new Soviet bureaucracy in the tradition of Gogol, the protagonists are two bureaucrats "who more or less by instinct or by accident conspire to defraud the Soviet state". The novel was well received, and the seminal modernist theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski asked Kataev to adapt it for the stage. It was produced at the world-famous Moscow Art Theatre, opening on 20 April 1928. A cinematic adaptation was filmed in 1931.
His comedy Quadrature of the circle (Kvadratura kruga, 1928) satirizes the effect of the housing shortage on two married couples who share a room.
His novel Time, Forward! (Vremya, vperyod!, 1932) describes workers' attempts to build the huge steel plant at Magnitogorsk in record time. Its title was taken from a poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky. its theme is the speeding up of time in the Soviet Union where the historical development of a century must be completed in ten years". The heroes are described as "being unable to trust such a valuable thing as time, to clocks, mere mechanical devices." Kataev adapted it as a screenplay, which filmed in 1965.
A White Sail Gleams (Beleyet parus odinoky, 1936) treats the 1905 revolution and the Potemkin uprising from the viewpoint of two Odessa schoolboys. In 1937, Vladimir Legoshin directed a film version, which became a classic children's adventure. Kataev wrote its screenplay and took an active part in the filming process, finding locations and acting as an historical advisor. Many of his contemporaries considered the novel to be a prose poem.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 22, 2025
The Winds of Winter is a sequel to A White Sail Gleams… The story is written for the young and it is full of revolutionary romance… And a boy of the previous novel is now a full of naive ideals young man fighting the Great War…
Petr is wounded, not seriously but nonetheless he is sent to the hospital… There he is visited by his relatives and acquaintances… And while convalescing he meets a wonderful girl in the city…
Meanwhile Odessa is on the eve of the October Revolution… Then the Revolution is already here… And revolution isn’t romantic, it obeys death…
Trying to make the future bright we just make the present darker.
Petya – or, as he was known now, ensign Batchei – has simultaneously heard two sounds: a whine of a shell and a boom of an explosion. Never before those sounds were heard so threateningly close and so dangerous.
Then he was knocked off his feet, thrown upward, and while flying he lost his consciousness.
Petr is wounded, not seriously but nonetheless he is sent to the hospital… There he is visited by his relatives and acquaintances… And while convalescing he meets a wonderful girl in the city…
He hardly could come to his senses when she at once possessed the whole of him. He could only plaintively look at her as if wishing to say what are you doing to me?
And right from this moment he found himself in that excruciating and at the same time blissful state known as love at first sight.
Meanwhile Odessa is on the eve of the October Revolution… Then the Revolution is already here… And revolution isn’t romantic, it obeys death…
They were looking at each other – a soldier and the general – and their eyes were full with such murderous hatred that they themselves were afraid of it.
Then the general has understood that this young soldier was on the side of Bolsheviks and he would know no quarter.
Trying to make the future bright we just make the present darker.
Displaying 1 of 1 review