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Abstract: This article deals with specific features of the creative biography of I. I. Likstanov (1900–1955), an author of fiction for young people. The research object covers the creative position of a children’s writer in the context of the development of Soviet literature for the younger generation. The practical research material for this article encompasses the novellas “Krasnye flazhki” [“Little Red Flags”] (1943), “Priclucheniya yungi” [“The Adventures of a Cabin Boy”] (1944), “Malyshok” [“The Little Boy”] (1947), “Zelen kamen” [“The Green Stone”] (1949), “Pervoe imya” [“The First Name”] (1953), reviews, and the writer’s letters, memoirs, and reviews of his works stored in the archives of the United Museum of Ural Writers. Based on these materials, the authors of the article analyze Likstanov’s creative behavior, pose hypotheses about the reasons for his turn to children’s literature and to experiments with the content and form of fiction texts, and characterize the author’s ups and downs. Likstanov entered children’s literature with nearly twenty years of positive experience of work in periodicals. This decision was motivated by the high status of a children’s writer in the late 1930s, Likstanov’s rich life experience, his interest in “big form”, and his talent for plot construction. Likstanov’s literary career was ambiguous. On the surface, it appeared prosperous: a provincial writer whose first work was published by a central publishing house, he was a Stalin Prize laureate (1948), and a recognized author whose books were popular with young readers and many of his colleagues. However, his works were overlooked by official critics or met with harsh reactions, and he lacked confidence in the correctness of his authorial decisions, leading him to constantly edit his texts in an attempt to achieve a “clever” result. Likstanov succeeded in discovering the secret how to write a successful book for teenagers. With an open eye for the adventure story genre and having mastered the depiction of the unstable character and behavior of a teenager, the writer – a “prisoner of Detgiz” – varies themes and genre forms, while always following literary topical “fashions”. This balance between the universal and the current, on the one hand, ensured the author’s enduring readership; while on the other hand, it made him practically invisible among other participants of the literary process. The conclusions and materials of this article may be of interest to researchers and teachers of the history of children’s literature and the literature of the Urals.

About the author(s) :

Maria A. Litovskaya

Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin
(Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5388-7616

Kristina S. Tretiakova

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin
(Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9661-1381

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 03.03.2026; date of publication: 31.03.2026

References:

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