August 12: Vasily Peskov, journalist, writer, and traveler, died.
On August 12, 2013, Vasily Peskov, 83, a journalist, writer, traveler, ecologist, and public figure, and host of the program "In the World of Animals," died in Moscow. He wrote for Komsomolskaya Pravda for 57 years, traveled to five continents, and told the story of the Lykov family of Old Believers.
The main value in life is life itself
Voronezh childhood and the war
Born in 1930 near Voronezh, the son of a crane operator and a collective farm worker, he was left in charge of the household at the age of 11 when, with the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, his father went to the front.
I didn't begin studying geography in school or from books. A vast country was recognizable by the cities it surrendered and later recaptured from the enemy.
After the war, after finishing seventh grade, he studied at the Voronezh School of Projection Mechanics. He didn't graduate from high school until he was 20. He worked as a Pioneer leader and ran a photography club.
How Vasily Peskov became a journalist
At 21, he moved to Voronezh and found work as a photographer in a photo studio. He spent all his free time outside the city, photographing animals and birds with government-issued equipment. A year later, he bought his own photography equipment. One day, a fellow passenger on a commuter train saw his photos and suggested he bring them to the editorial office. Thus, at 23, Peskov joined the Voronezh newspaper Molodoy Kommunar as a photographer, later working there as a staff writer.
At 26, he moved to Moscow and got a job at Komsomolskaya Pravda. His first publication was the story "When the Snowstorms Raged," about the harsh wintering of reindeer in the Voronezh Nature Reserve.
He worked for the newspaper for 57 years. He hosted the "Window to Nature" column, which ran for over 40 years and was included in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Gagarin, the North Pole, and 500 days in a helicopter
In 1961, he conducted his first interview with Yuri Gagarin, the day after his space flight. Other "star" interviewees included Marshals of the Soviet Union Zhukov and Vasilevsky.
He was a passionate and dedicated expert in his field. In 1979, while filming a report on the expedition that became the first to ski to the North Pole, he nearly fell out of the open door of the plane.
He visited five continents and spent 500 days in a helicopter, taking photographs for the series “Portraits of the Motherland”.
The ancient question: should one sail, travel, or walk somewhere at the risk of one's life? The answer is also ancient. A well-established Latin saying puts it this way: "Sailing the sea is necessary. Living is not so necessary."
In the Animal World
From 1975 to 1990, he co-hosted the television program "In the World of Animals" with Nikolai Drozdov. It was often recorded directly at nurseries and nature reserves, making the episodes lively and unique. In the 1990s, he was the sole host of this program on the RTR television channel.
"Taiga Dead End" and the Lykov Family
Peskov is the author of the popular short story series "Taiga Dead End," about a family of Old Believer hermits living in the Khakass forests. The series was published as a separate book in Russia and abroad.
"How did the Lykovs treat their teeth?" one of our readers asked. Agafya replied, "With prayer. If prayer didn't help, they held their mouths open over hot potatoes."
"It's a sin," the father and daughter said of the television. However, this sin proved irresistibly enticing for them. When they occasionally visited the village, they would always sit down and watch. Karp Osipovich would sit right in front of the screen. Agafya would watch, poking her head out from behind the door. She would try to atone for her sin immediately—whispering, crossing herself, and poking her head out again. The old man, however, would pray later, fervently, for everything at once.
Bird Day, Windmills, and Nature Reserve Protection
In the 1990s, he published stories about the world around him, “Uncle Vasya Tells,” in the children’s magazine “Muraveynik.”
In 1999, he proposed reviving "Bird Day" on the first Sunday in April—a holiday forgotten in Russia after the collapse of the USSR. He urged Komsomolskaya Pravda readers to make and hang birdhouses and nest boxes.
He championed the restoration of watermills in Russia, considering them a national cultural and historical symbol. He participated in the revival of several of them.
In 2003, when the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources deemed the operation of nature reserves "inappropriate," he published a series of articles in their defense. He succeeded in repealing the already signed amendments to forest legislation.
Until the last days
Vasily Peskov wrote nearly a thousand essays and more than 30 books. He worked and maintained an active lifestyle until his last days. A story in Komsomolskaya Pravda about the grey heron colony in the Voronezh Nature Reserve was published a month before his death.
I am convinced that for an inquisitive person there are no uninteresting places on Earth.
