The museum features a copy of the book by the writer Arkady Petrovich Gaidar “Timur and His Team, ” published by “Children’s Literature” in 1941.
The copy bears a dedication from Arkady Petrovich Gaidar to his half-sister Maya, who was born from his father’s second marriage.
The novella “Timur and His Team” is one of the most famous works by Arkady Gaidar. He completed the book in 1940.
Even before finishing the novella, Arkady Petrovich wrote a screenplay for a film, directed by Alexander Efimovich Razumny. It was Razumny who asked the author to change the name of the main character, who was originally called Volodya Duncan, and the book was titled “Duncan.” Arkady Petrovich decided to rename the character after his beloved son.
The 1940 film script for “Timur and His Team” with the author’s revisions was donated to the museum by Liviy Stepanovich Shipachyov, the actor who played Timur.
In September 1940, Gaidar began writing a sequel to Timur’s story — a cinematic novella titled “A Commander of the Snow Fortress.”
After the release of the book and the film about Timur, the “Timur movement” began in the USSR — a movement of pioneers who helped people in difficult situations, for example, the elderly. Timur’s followers also helped collective farms and state farms, kindergartens, and worked to improve communities, caring for the graves of soldiers. The Timur Movement was a precursor to modern Russian volunteer organizations.
The writer Boris Nikolaevich Kamov noted that Gaidar was the only Soviet writer to create a work that sparked a real social movement among teenagers.
Director Alexander Razumny wrote in his memoirs,