Arkady Gaidar, a man from the Age of Gods and Heroes was born on this very day 110 years ago. He became a regiment commander at the young age of 17. He is one of the founders of the Soviet children’s literature. As a war journalist he died holding a machine gun in the combat with the Nazis.

Although there are different opinions on the origin of his pseudonym, many people believe that in Mongolian, Gaidar means The rider galloping beyond .

Podvoisky addressed us with a speech:

– You are heading off to face the ordeals of the battles. Many of you will not return from the future battles. So in memory of those who will not return, those who will have the great honour of dying for the Revolution, -he drew out his sabre,- the orchestra is going to play the Funeral March for you.

The orchestra began to play…

Our bodies felt shivers,- Gaidar admitted- No one wanted to die. However this Funeral March seemed to rip us away from our fear, and we no longer thought of death.

Many thanks to a Russian blogger haspar arnery for reminding us of this time in history and to Sinologist, who refused to celebrate his 43th birthday today and from whose suggestions I’ve been introduced to The School and other books of the Great Soviet writer.