The Pumpkin

Sergey Orlov was born in the village of Megra, Belozersk district, on August 22, 1921. His parents were teachers. His mother, Ekaterina, gave Russian and literature lessons. Sergey loved books and learnt to read at an early age. Sergey graduated from a seven grade school in Megra in 1936. His stepfather was transferred to work in Belozersk. They settled in two rooms in a house at 12, Dzerzhinskogo street.
In Belozersk, Sergey entered Grade 8 in a demonstration school. Sergey Orlov was a literature team member led by A. Bunzelman, a pedagogical college teacher. Just then his poems were often published in the local Belozersk Collective Farm Worker newspaper and even in such newspapers as Krasny Sever and Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Sergey Orlov’s first major success in poetry happened in 1938. The All-Russia Center of Artistic Education of Children in Moscow announced the all-Russia literature competition. Sergey Orlov sent some of his poems to that competition such as The Pumpkin, In the Vegetable Garden, Rain, and became the prize winner. Just after this all-Russia competition, Korney Chukovsky published an article in the Pravda newspaper where he not just praised The Pumpkin poem but also quoted it in full.
It was Sergey Orlov’s first poem which was published in a central newspaper and had specific features of the poet. This poem includes everything that was brilliantly explicated in Sergey Orlov’s mature works: relations between big and small things; dynamics and bright metaphors; humanity hidden under a kind smile as later it was hidden under a light sadness, under a sigh of sympathy to people.
Korney Chukovsky wrote the following: “The poem made me happy due to its charismatic childishness. One can imagine the writer’s sly face at once. Making a motionless image dynamic – this childish mindset was reflected here brilliantly”.