Dāstān-i Pidāguzhīkī: Persian 1400

Makarenko spent ten years (1925-1935) writing the Pedagogical Poem. “It is my most beloved work,” he said of this novel in a letter to Gorky. “The good fortune of this book is that life continues to write it.” The characters of the Pedagogical Poem live on beyond its pages. They are teachers, doctors, aircraft designers, engineers, pilots… The books published in the USSR about the lives of Makarenko’s students could fill a whole bookshelf. Those who read the Pedagogical Poem will surely be pleased to know that the incorrigible Burun is now a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Army and fought like a hero against the fascists in the Patriotic War; that the colonist Zadorov is a hydrological engineer; that Vershnev is a doctor; and Ivan Tkachuk is an actor. One of the most popular characters of the Pedagogical Poem, Sesion Karabanov, followed the path of his teacher, became a teacher and today runs a large children's institution near Moscow. These lives are no exception. Makarenko's students continue the work of their teacher. Death took Makarenko too early. In 1939, he passed away. His books, and especially his Pedagogical Poem, paint the reader the image of a fighter, a public man, and a thinker whom Gorky once said: You are a wonderful Man with a capital M, a man whom Russia needs.