Nikolay Sladkov

Nikolai Ivanovich Sladkov (1920—1996) was a writer and the author of more than 60 books about nature.

Nikolai Ivanovich Sladkov was born on January 5, 1920, in Moscow, but he lived his entire life in Leningrad, in Tsarskoye Selo. Near his home there were many old forest parks, where the future writer discovered an entire world, extraordinarily rich in the mysteries of nature. From the second grade he began keeping a diary, in which he recorded his first impressions and observations. In his youth he was fond of hunting, but later gave it up, considering sport hunting barbaric. Instead, he took up photo-hunting and put forward the slogan: “Don’t take a gun into the forest, take a camera gun into the forest.” During the war he volunteered for the front and became a military surveyor. In peacetime he retained the same profession.

Sladkov wrote his first stories in 1952, and in 1953 his first book, Silver Tail, was published. Together with Vitaly Bianki, his friend and like-minded companion, Nikolai Sladkov spent many years preparing the radio broadcasts “News from the Forest” and answering numerous letters from his listeners. During his adventurous life, Nikolai Ivanovich wrote more than 60 books in all. Among the best known are such titles as Out of the Corner of the Eye, In the Wake of the Blue Bird’s Feather, Aspen Invisible Man, Underwater Newspaper, Earth Above the Clouds, The Whistle of Wild Wings, and many other wonderful books...

Nikolai Ivanovich Sladkov died on June 28, 1996, at the age of 76.

In the books of the remarkable Leningrad writer, you will always find extraordinarily interesting and instructive episodes from the life of the living world, animals, and birds. Nature has a place for everyone: for people, animals, and birds. But to become a true and kind friend to the whole living world, one must learn a great deal about forests and fields, rivers and lakes, mountains and tundra, ta