Is the mystical story true about the correspondence of the writer Evgeny Petrov?

For many years, a story about the chain of mysterious events that occurred in the last years of the life of one of the co -authors of the Twelve Chairs and the Golden Calf has been wandering around sites and magazines. We checked whether the events really described in this story took place in life.

In most sources, the story is transmitted almost literally in this form: “Few people know that the writer Evgeny Petrov, the one who, together with Ilya Ilf wrote“ Twelve Chairs ”and“ Golden Calf ”, had a very strange and rare hobby: throughout his life he collected envelopes from his own letters. And he did it like that-he wrote a letter to some country at a fictional address, a fictional addressee, and after a while he received a letter back with a bunch of various foreign stamps and an indication of the "addressee" was not found "or something like that. But this interesting hobby once turned out to be just mystical ... "

Then it is telling how in April 1939 Petrov sent a similar letter to the invented address in New Zealand and experienced a shock when he received a warm answer, and even with a photograph in which he hugs with the New Zealand sender. The date when the photograph was taken was coincided with the date of his entry into the hospital in a dying condition a year earlier. And in 1942, on the day when the plane with Petrov, who worked as a front -line correspondent, was shot down by the Germans in the Rostov region, he allegedly came another letter from the same New Zealand, in which the author advised the writer less often to fly. As reported at the end of the viral text, the film was shot on the basis of this story "Envelope»With Kevin Spacey in the title role.

Among the resources that have spread history, social networks can be distinguished - in particular, Facebook (groups "Autograph of the soul"(2800 reposts at the time of writing this analysis),"I want to know everything!"(2000)"Stories. Tales. Legends"(890)," "Community of anonymous aliens"(560) and"The world of knowledge"(350)) and" VKontakte "(public"Brain nuts"(103,000 views),"History: Russia and the world"(47 000),"Club of pensioners"(43,000),"Self-development"(38 000)). Evgeny Petrov spoke about unusual cases from the biography from the pages "Newspapers.ru"Famous writer Max Fry, as well as journalists"Channel One".

For lovers of literature, Evgeny Petrov (real name is Evgeny Petrovich Kataev) does not need to be submitted. He is known primarily as the co -author of Ilya Ilf (Fainzilberg), with whom he created two cult novels “Twelve Chairs” (1927) and “Golden Calf” (1931). Books parted dozens Quote And they were many times Filmed. Of course, the short life of writers (Petrov really died in a plane crash in 1942, Ilf died from tuberculosis five years earlier) devoted a lot of biographical books.

However, in any of the available research works, we were not able to find the mention of the strange correspondence of Evgeny Petrov with a resident of New Zealand. Moreover, nowhere is it even said about its passion for envelopes. And the most severe inflammation of the lungs, which put the writer, is allegedly on the line of life and death, should have been mentioned in at least one more or less detailed biography. Separate issues are raising the arrival of letters from exotic New Zealand to the Soviet capital (the Peterians lived there) in the midst of the war - in the summer of 1942, the Germans, even after the defeat in Battle for Moscow, were still not far from the capital. Moreover, the cities called Haidberwill (from where, according to the plot of the story, a response letter came) is neither in New Zealand or anywhere else on the map of the world.

Nevertheless, the short film "Convert" with Star Kevin Spacey in the title role not only exists (it appeared in 2012), but definitely Filmed on this story. All the main facts coincide - both the name of the envelope collector Evgeny Petrov and New Zealand, except that the time of action was postponed much later. Director and Screenwriter Alexei the necessary told: “I wrote a couple of shorts for the competition, but I did not like everything. I could not find my plot. Suddenly, my wife brings me a story that hooked me. It was a real story read by her on the Internet, and on her basis I wrote a script in one evening. Transferred and sent to the competition. Went to the second stage of selection, wrote the directorial Exclusion, made a video about himself - a lot of things. After there was communication on Skype with the producers of the project. One of them - Dan Brunetti - produced the "social network", "cards of the house", "captain Phillips". They were afraid to shoot my story, since the actions in it took place in the 42nd year. And in America it is impossible to withdraw the 42nd year for little money. And all this time we came up with how to get around it. As a result, the film shows the 85th year-still an iron curtain, but left complex scenery. In gratitude to Danen, he gave this film to Oscar in 2013, and he even went to 15 or 20 applicants, but did not go to the fifth on the last selection. ”

Thus, this story also got into the script from the World Wide Web. But how was she there? The earliest description of the case we found dates back to February 1999, when it was printed in No. 5 of the magazine "Fight»As part of the selection of unusual cases.

Let's provide it word The author of that article Valery Chumakov, later - the correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda, in which his new note appeared in 2018: “When you retell the content of your article written in the last century, this is nice. But when they doubt your truthfulness, it begins to strain. <...>

And it all started with my old article in the "Ogok". It was 1999, and we feverishly looked for a topic for a cheerful first -April number. I wanted to come up with some material about aliens and UFOs. And I called a good friend, one of the main Russian ufologists Vadim Chernobrov. On my proposal, he immediately stated that he would not lie about the landing of a UFO in the center of Moscow, but he has another proposal:

- For many years I collected stories about various coincidences and accidents. I scored a notebook. Take what you like - use.

No sooner said than done. The notebook was fat, there were many accidents in it. I chose fifteen pieces of them, of which the material developed under the heading "accident as an unknown pattern."

Later, I re -read several biographies of Petrov, an interview with the daughter of Ilf Alexandra - nowhere information about a strange hobby was confirmed. But then I did not know this yet and decided to artistically develop the topic. The result was such a story. <...> I repeat again: I came up with all this! <...>

A lot of talked about the film at the same time, in 2012. Spacey himself came to Moscow for the premiere and even talked about a new job with Urgant. He did not call me ... Although, I think, the artist did not suspect about my existence, because in the credits the only author of the script and the director is our compatriot Alexei the desired. It was his scenario application that won the Jameson First Shot contest, the main prize of which was the opportunity to make a "film with a star." Probably, I would not say anything if somewhere in small print it was written "according to the plot of such and such" or "used ideas of such and such." But I did not find anything like that. Recently, I sent a letter to manufacturers asking me to indicate my modest person as some kind of co-authored. There is no answer yet ... "

Thus, the story turned out to be invented, and the co -author of the mystification admitted this, but only many years later. At the same time, it remains a secret from where the main canvas of the plot came to the friend of Valery Chumakov, an ufologist Vadim Chernobrov (1965–2017). It is only known that in their esoteric books, published after a selection in the “Light”, Chernobrov Conducted This story is completely, with all the details and even I thoughtthat the laurels for the authorship of the original scenario to the film by Alexei the necessary should be moved to him. Thus, he indirectly confirmed the fiction of the plot. We also add that the publication in the “light” appeared in February and contained not only invented stories about various mystical coincidences, so it is difficult to call it “primary -April”, according to Chumakov.

It is interesting that at the time of his death Evgeny Petrov occupied The post of editor -in -chief ... The magazine "Spark". The very magazine, which many years later, to some extent, will return interest in the personality of the writer, what is the evidence-articles and documentary movies. However, truth is more important than beautiful stories.

Photo on the cover: Wikipedia.

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