Potential bestseller on the Trans-Siberian Railway from Samokat Publishing House

MOSCOW. The artist Anna Desnitskaya began work on a book about the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The announced book is not the first experience of a talented artist collaborating with the Scooter publishing house. Desnitskaya’s previous work - an illustration for the book “The History of an Old Apartment” - was enthusiastically received by readers and critics, aroused great interest among the guests of the Non / Fiction Fair of Literature and Frankfurter Buchmesse. In early September, in the capital of Slovakia, the jury of the 26th International Biennale of Children’s Book Illustration (Bienále ilustrácií Bratislava) awarded the graduate of the VA Favorsky Institute of Graphic Arts and Book Books the Golden Apple Prize (ZLATÉ JABLKO BIB 2017). The text for The History was written by Alexandra Litvin, editor-in-chief of the educational footing project Walking Through History.

In her first projects, Anna Desnitskaya actively used such a technique as a collage. Over time, she came to a more mixed technique that was more comfortable for her, allowing her to keep the warmth of a hand-drawn picture, brought to perfection with the help of technical devices.

The new brainchild of the tandem "Scooter" and Desnitskaya has a good chance of becoming the next bestseller, as it tells about an interesting page in the life of the country. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, one of the longest electrified railway lines in the world, has affected the lives of millions of people in large and small towns from Moscow to Vladivostok. The grandiose route with a length of about 10 thousand kilometers required the construction of artificial structures, bridges across Siberian rivers, the construction of permafrost buildings, the construction of hundreds of viaducts, and the piercing of dozens of tunnels in granite rocks. The work was carried out mainly in adverse conditions: harsh climate, floods, extremely low temperatures, swamps, impenetrable taiga. The main contingent is cheap labor: soldiers, convicts, Chinese workers. Despite the lack of powerful technical equipment, meager food, life in blown temporary huts and tents, this scanty paycheck worked at a record pace, mastering up to five hundred kilometers a year.

The implementation of the project of the Minister of Railways Adolf Gubbenet and his successor in this post, Sergey Witte, contributed to the achievement of many goals. The development of Siberia, its richest resources and subsoil, ensuring the unity of the country and protecting its borders. There was an opportunity to quickly and inexpensively get from its European part to the outlying regions. There were also sad consequences. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway became one of the prerequisites for a crisis in relations between Russia and Japan and the outbreak of war between them at the beginning of the 20th century. The highway and its extension to the Manchurian region facilitated the realization of geopolitical interests in Asia, with which the Japanese side could not agree.

It is planned to involve schoolchildren from settlements, next to which the longest railway in the world and the Moscow-Vladivostok train stop, to create a book about the Trans-Siberian Railway. Tales of the cities in which they live will be woven into the overall fabric of the story. A nice bonus for volunteers is the mention of their names and the placement of their painted portraits in the book.

The main task of the Samokat publishing house, its editor-in-chief, Irina Balakhonova, considers the release of good, smart and honest books that correspond to the level and needs of modern children. Including in terms of quality printing. They teach empathy and cope with internal aggression. And also think, respect other people’s opinions and defend their own, overcome passivity and protect personal space. The poet and translator Marina Boroditskaya believes that good literature is like a refuge where you can find salvation from the ugliness of life. And for a teenager, around whom something whistles and rumbles all the time, she becomes a real bomb shelter. Movement towards a democratic society in which aggression and intolerance are illegal, without education and honest literature is impossible.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru