Arkady Petrovich Golikov (, in Russian) (1.9(22).1904 — 10.26.1941), better known as Arkady Gaidar (Арка́дий Гайда́р), was a Soviet writer.

In 1918, Gaidar volunteered for the Red Army. During the Russian Civil War, he was made a commander of a regiment at the age of 16. Gaidar was wounded in combat on several occassions. He retired from the army in 1924 due to a contusion. A year later, Gaidar began publishing his literary works. His story "RVS" (1926) defined his further life in many respects: Gaidar found his vocation in children's literature by telling stories of front-line comradery and romanticism of revolutionary struggle. A story "Timur and his squad" (1940) made Gaidar famous. The character Timur was named after and partially based on Gaidar's son. A captivating account of an altruistic pioneer enterprise gave birth to a mass movement of "timurovtsy" all over the Soviet Union.

In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Gaidar was sent to the front as a special correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda. In the fall of 1941, Gaidar and other soldiers were surrounded by the German troops. He joined the partisans and became a machine gunner. On October 26, Gaidar died in combat.

He was buried in a town of Kanev, where the Soviets would later erect a monument to him. Gaidar was awarded two orders and several medals. A number of popular motion pictures was made based on his stories. Gaidar’s books are translated into many languages.

Russian economist Yegor Gaidar is Arkady Gaidar's grandson (well, not quite so, since Yegor Gaidar's father, Timur Gaidar , was actually a stepson of Arkady Gaidar).

Selected works

• RVS (РВС), 1926
• School (Школа), 1930
• Distant Countries (Дальние страны), 1932
• Military Secret (Военная тайна), 1935
• Blue Cup (Голубая чашка), 1936
• Drummer’s Fate (Судьба барабанщика), 1939
• Timur and His Squad (Тимур и его команда), 1940

Bibliography

• Arkady Gaidar:The Blue Cup, Moscow Raduga Publishers,1988. ISBN 5050021774