Aksyonov Vasily Pavlovich was born on August 20, 1932 in Kazan, the Republic of Tatarstan, the RSFSR, the USSR, in Moscow.
Vasily Aksyonov - Russian writer, screenwriter, professor of Russian literature at various US universities.
Vasily Aksyonov is a laureate of the Booker - Open Russia literary prize (awarded for the novel "Voltaireans and Voltaireans", 2004).
Aksyonov is a member of the PEN Club and the American Authors' League, in the USA he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, was awarded one of the main awards of the French Republic - the Order of Literature and Art (2005).
Family, childhood and youth.
Father - Aksyonov Pavel Vasilyevich (1899 -1991), Chairman of the Kazan City Council, member of the Bureau of the Tatar Regional Party Committee. In 1956, P.V. Aksyonov was rehabilitated. Awarded the Order of Lenin.
Mother - Evgenia Semyonovna Ginzburg (1904-1977), lecturer at the Kazan Pedagogical Institute, head of the culture department of the Krasnaya Tatariya newspaper.
The house in which the writer spent his early childhood still stands in the same place - at the intersection of K. Marx and Mushtari streets (former Komlev street).
In the late 1930s, when Vasily Aksyonov was five years old, his parents were arrested and convicted: the mother was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the father - to capital punishment, which was later commuted to 15 years in prison. The elder sister (daughter of Aksyonov P.V.) Maya and older brother Alexei (son Ginzburg E.S.) were taken in by relatives, and Vasily, as a complete orphan, was forcibly sent to the Kostroma orphanage for children of prisoners. Six months later, Aksyonov's uncle, Adrian Vasilyevich (father's brother), miraculously "pulled" Vasily out of the orphanage. He returned to Kazan For 16 years he lived with his aunt, studied for eight grades at secondary school No. V. G. Belinsky.
When Vasily Aksyonov was 16 years old, he arrived in the capital of Kolyma - the city of Magadan, where his mother, Evgenia Ginzburg, was serving a link. Their meeting is described by Ginzburg in the book "The Steep Route". Aksyonov completed his secondary education at Magadan School No. 1. He later described both school life and life in Magadan in his autobiographical novel The Burn (1975).
After graduating from school, Aksyonov left Magadan to go to college. In 1950 he became a student at the Kazan Medical Institute, and four years later he transferred to the First Leningrad Medical Institute named after I.P. Pavlov. After the institute, Aksyonov worked as a therapist at the quarantine station of the Leningrad seaport (1956-1957). He later described this period of his life in the novel Colleagues. Then Vasily Aksenov worked in the hospital of the Vodzdravdepartment in the village of Voznesenie on Lake Onega (1957-1958) and in the Moscow Regional Tuberculosis Dispensary (1958-1960).
Literary activity
The first literary experience of Vasily Aksyonov belongs to the student period. The newspaper "Komsomolets Tatarii" announced a competition of poems about student life. For a poem that tells how two students, after graduating from university, went to one of the construction sites in the Far East, Aksyonov received a prize and even a fee, which was immediately spent in one of the restaurants in Kazan.
Aksyonov's first stories - "Torches and Roads", "One and a half medical units" - were published "with a light hand" by the writer Vladimir Pomerantsev in 1958 in the magazine "Youth". The magazine was then headed by Valentin Kataev, who liked the works of the novice writer. Aksyonov's debut novel Colleagues (1960) was also published there - in "Youth". Based on this novel, together with Y. Stabov, a script was written and a film of the same name was shot (1963). The film "My Little Brother" was filmed based on another novel by Aksyonov - "Star Ticket" (1961). The heroes of this novel were young people from the generation of the "festival of youth and students", who were nicknamed "dudes" in the Komsomol press.
Following this, Aksyonov published: "It's time, my friend, it's time" (1962), the story "Oranges from Morocco" (1963), the collections "Catapult" (1964), "Halfway to the Moon" (1966), the story "It's a pity that you were not with us" (1965), the play "Always on Sale", "Overstocked Barrel" (1968), "Love for Electricity" (1969), "The Story of a Basketball Team Playing Basketball" (1971). His novels and stories were often published in the magazine "Youth" (for several years he was a member of the editorial board of the magazine) and brought fame to Aksyonov as one of the leaders of "young prose". They wrote about Aksyonov that it was he who first introduced the word "jeans" into the Russian language in the 1960s and made them his uniform. He not only created a new type of hero, not subject to conventions and dogmas, but experimented with the narrative form itself. The title of his novel Quest for a Genre (1972) is indicative in this sense. Aksyonov also writes an adventure dilogy for children - "My grandfather is a monument" (1970). "A chest in which something knocks knocks" (1972) - and a parody novel on the spy thriller "Jean Green - Untouchable". The name of the fictitious prose writer to whom it was attributed (Grivadiy Gorpozhaks) was an anagram of the names and surnames of real authors.
In 1976, Aksyonov translated E. L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime. His works with the end of the era of the "thaw" cease to be published, are criticized. He understood that the autobiographical jazz novel The Burn (1975) and the science fiction novel The Island of Crimea (1979) could not see the light of day in the Soviet Union. Later they were published abroad (primarily in the USA).
In 1979, Vasily Aksyonov became one of the organizers and authors of the uncensored almanac "Metropol", around which a violent political scandal erupted. Two authors of the almanac - Yevgeny Popov and Viktor Erofeev - were expelled from the Writers' Union of the USSR. In protest, Inna Lisnyanskaya, Semyon Lipkin and Vasily Aksyonov announced their withdrawal from the Writers' Union.
On July 22, 1980, Aksyonov left for the United States at the invitation, after which he and his wife were deprived of Soviet citizenship.
Vasily Aksyonov in the USA
Aksyonov was a professor of Russian literature at various US universities: the Kennan Institute (1981-1982), George Washington University (1982-1983), Gaucher University (1983-1988), George Mason University (since 1988).
He led the seminar "The Modern Novel - the Elasticity of the Genre", the course "Two Centuries of the Russian Novel", told students about Shklovsky, Tynyanov, Bakhtin.
His novels "Our Golden Iron" (1973, 1980), "The Burn" (1976, 1980), "The Island of Crimea" (1979, 1981), a collection of short stories "The Right to the Island" (1981), "Paper Landscape" were published in America (1982), "Say Raisins" (1985), "In Search of a Sad Baby" (1986), "Moscow Saga" trilogy (1989, 1991, 1993), "Egg Yolk" (1989), a collection of short stories "Negative of the Goodie" (1995), "Sweet New Style" (1996), "Caesarean Glow" (2000).
As a journalist, Aksyonov actively collaborated with Radio Liberty (1980-1991).
In 1990, Vasily Aksyonov was returned to Soviet citizenship.
In 1992, the Moscow Saga trilogy was published, which was filmed in 2004.
In 2001, Aksyonov declared his political views as follows: "I am a conservative liberal or a liberal conservative."
For the novel "Voltaireans and Voltairians" (2004) Aksyonov was awarded the Russian Booker Prize.
Aksyonov's latest works: the book of memoirs "The Apple of the Eye" (2005), the novel "Moscow Kva-Kva" (2006), "Rare Earths" (2007).
Personal life of Vasily Aksyonov
Vasily Aksyonov's wife, Aksyonova (Carmen) Maya Afanasyevna (b. 1930), graduated from the Institute of Foreign Trade, worked at the Chamber of Commerce, and taught Russian in America.
The son from his first marriage is Aksyonov Alexei Vasilievich (b. 1960).
Vasily Aksyonov, Soviet dissident writer. Born in 1932. From his pen came out many novels translated into many languages of the world. Born in the USSR, immigrated to the USA.
Vasily Aksyonov was born in August 1932 in Kazan. His mother came from a Jewish family, thanks to this, in 1980 he managed to leave the USSR. But he spent all his youth and youth in the USSR. Vasily Aksyonov had a half-brother and sister, who were the children of their parents from their first marriages.
Mom was directly related to journalism and writing. She worked as a journalist, wrote memoirs, was fond of history. She passed all the tests of the Stalinist regime, repressions and subsequently wrote the popular novel "The Steep Route", dedicated to this particular topic. Subsequently, she wrote another version of this novel, but in more strict revealing tones, however, she was soon forced to burn it and all drafts, because this novel “Under the Shade of Lucifer’s Wing” was too straightforward, and the woman was afraid that she would be repressed again.
Undoubtedly, the talents of the parents and their fears, fears of being persecuted for dissent could not but leave an imprint on the perception of the world of little Vasily. He absorbed this specific situation in the country, grew up as a thinking person with critical thinking, which, undoubtedly, was passed on to him from his parents.
Childhood and formation
When Vasily was 4 years old, both parents ended up in exile. His half-brother and sister were taken by relatives, and the Soviet authorities sent Vasily to an orphanage, where he grew up in difficult conditions with the children of "enemies of the people" like him.
In the photo Aksenov in childhood In 1938, the uncle managed to find and obtain the right to raise his nephew. He was allowed to take Vasily from the boarding school in Kostroma and take him to his homeland in Kazan, where he lived until the age of 48, that is, 10 years.
After graduation, the future writer decided to enter the medical school. It was quite difficult to do this, but the young man was distinguished by a natural grasp of the mind, an innate desire for knowledge.
He entered the institute and in 1956 successfully graduated from a medical university in Leningrad. According to the distribution of the future doctor, they wanted to appoint him to the Baltic Shipping Company, so that he would perform the functions of a ship's doctor. At that time, his parents were rehabilitated, which became possible only thanks to the death of Stalin. And although all charges against them were dropped and 10 years in exile were declared illegal, nevertheless, the state treated such people with distrust.
Perhaps the authorities decided that traveling around the world with the sailors of the Soviet fleet was too risky for Vasily, who could stay abroad. Perhaps his Jewish origin also influenced, but in the end he was informed that access to travel abroad was closed to him, and he would work as a quarantine doctor in the Far North. Which, in fact, was not much different from the link. For some time he worked in the north, but soon he managed to get a job in a tuberculosis hospital in Moscow.
All these ordeals, forced orphanhood with living parents due to their repressions, of course, subsequently found their way into Aksenov's creative biography. In particular, he wrote the novel "Burn", which tells precisely about this difficult time of Stalinist repressions, general suspicion and hysteria in search of enemies of the people.
Transition to the literary path
Working in his specialty, Vasily Aksyonov is more and more interested in literature at the same time. His first story, which can already be safely classified as professional, was called "Colleagues", it was published in the 60s in a magazine. Then came the novel Star Ticket, which was also successful. According to him, the cult film in the USSR "My Little Brother" was even filmed, in which other stars of Soviet cinema were filmed.
The novel and the film based on it were a huge success, since Vasily Aksyonov managed to delicately embody the image of the youth of the 60s, who are looking for themselves boldly and decisively, but feel lost in this vast world. They rush between a quiet stay in Moscow, a trip north or west to the Baltics. As a result, they have to go through many trials and even losses, but yesterday's teenagers grow up quickly in these difficult conditions, returning to Moscow as completely different people.
After that, ordinary readers show more and more interest in the work of an original writer.
special way
It is published in magazines, it becomes fashionable. In 1963, he was subjected to devastating criticism from Nikita Khrushchev, who always with great fervor arranged a demonstrative flogging of the intelligentsia: artists, writers, journalists. It seemed to Nikita Sergeevich that dissidence wafted from the works of the young writer and that he had his own view of life, which did not coincide with the vector of development of the USSR. The writer could not remain indifferent to the political life in the USSR. Among the few intellectuals, he went to Red Square to protest against attempts to rehabilitate Stalin. It was in the 60s that many considered incredible audacity.
His dissident novels about the system and repressions that reigned in the USSR were published in the USA, which caused discontent among the Soviet authorities. Later, Vasily Aksyonov defiantly left the highly prestigious Writers' Union in protest at the exclusion of his two colleagues from it. It was the last straw.
Emigration and new life
Soon the writer left the USSR. I must say that many dissidents and human rights activists would dream of such a fate. It is known how many attempts to become a defector were in Soviet times. But basically the fate of dissidents was limited to compulsory treatment in psychiatric hospitals, and in this Vasily Aksyonov was much more fortunate. At least he was not considered crazy as a dissident and was not placed in a hospital. The fact that the USSR allowed the repatriation of persons of Jewish origin had an effect. And since Vasily Aksyonov had Jewish roots, he was allowed to leave. He settled in the United States, where his revealing novels about the hard life at home were received with great interest. He worked as a journalist for the Voice of America and Radio Liberty radio stations.
Photo: Vasily Aksenov in the USA He himself believed that his immigration was not voluntary, but forced, and he did not want to leave the USSR abroad. However, he ended up in America and had to start his new life. It was in the USA that he managed to publish many of his literary works, which was unthinkable for the USSR.
The last years of life and the return of citizenship
In 1990, the writer was given citizenship and invited back to the country, but he refused to come, his family settled in France. He came to Moscow on short visits. Interest in his work has grown again.
Personal life
The writer has two marriages behind him. The first wife was Kira Mendeleeva, from a very good, intelligent and well-known family. The couple had a son, Alexei, who is now directing, including creating commercials.
Photo: Vasily Aksenov with his wife The second wife was Maya Carmen - a beautiful girl, a representative of the "golden youth" of the USSR, the daughter of an employee engaged in foreign trade of the USSR.
Photo: Vasily Aksenov with a child It was love at first sight, although both were not free at that time. To conclude a marriage, they had to go through a lot, including the condemnation of friends.
Death
Vasily Aksyonov died in 2009 after suffering a stroke. It happened in Moscow. Doctors fought for his life, the writer for a long time was in a coma literally between life and death. But in the end, he was never able to recover and died on July 6, 2009 after an illness. He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow. It is noteworthy that his second wife's life was also tragic. She has experienced many losses. Her grandson fell out of a window at the age of 26, and her daughter from her first marriage died unexpectedly in her sleep at a fairly young age. And soon after that, Vasily Aksyonov himself left.
Until now, literary meetings are held in Kazan dedicated to the work of this great writer, who created mainly works about the life of young people in the USSR, about the sixties, he skillfully described acute socio-political problems with his characteristic directness.
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Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov is a prose writer, from whose pen many stories, novels, novels, trilogies came out. He wrote a wide variety of works that are known to readers, and after all, initially he was not going to associate himself with writing, but more on that in order.
At first, the life of Vasily Aksenov began well. The child was born in 1932 in Kazan in the family of a party leader, so his family could be called famous, besides, his parents were intelligent people. Alexei was the third child; before him, his mother and father had children from their first marriages. Alexei is the common child of Pavel and Evgenia. Everything seemed to be going well, but then difficult times came, the times of "Stalin's purges" and Aksenov's parents were arrested. The boy himself, unlike the older children who were taken by relatives, was sent to a boarding school. This happened when the boy was four, and only a year later did his uncle manage to find Alexei and take him to him.
The future writer was able to meet his own mother only ten years later in 1948, when she left the camps and moved as an exile to Magadam. There Vasily spent his youth, which he would later describe in his work “The Burn”.
Vasily Aksenov biography and personal life
Further, the life of Vasily Aksenov, his biography and personal life continue with the fact that in 1956 he graduated from a medical university in Leningrad and even worked in his profession for several years, but he saw his greater vocation when he first tried to write. And it happened in the early sixties. Then he wrote the story "Colleagues", which immediately brought success to the writer. This story was even filmed, as were his subsequent works, among which was the novel "Star Ticket", a performance based on the play "Always on Sale" was staged. With each subsequent year, the author becomes more popular, he is recognized, read. He was accepted as a member of the editorial board of "Youth". However, the authorities themselves did not quite accept Aksenov, especially did not support his social activities, and due to his constant participation in demonstrations, the work of Vasily Aksenov began to be criticized, and then it was completely forbidden to print it in his native country.
Further, the life of Aksenov Vasily Pavlovich and his brief biography continues already in the USA, where he emigrated. As soon as he arrived in the United States, he was immediately deprived of his citizenship in his homeland. Due to this exile, the author was unable to visit his country for ten years. During this period in America, he wrote the autobiographical work "The Burn", the trilogy "The Moscow Saga" and much more. Works in the USA as a journalist, teaches literature at universities.
Citizenship was returned to him in the nineties, but the writer prefers to live abroad and visits his native country only on short visits. His first work, which was published in our country after a long exile, was the work "Voltaireans and Voltairians". The last work of the writer was the novel "Mysterious Passion".
Vasily Aksenov died in 2009.
If we talk about Aksenov Vasily Pavlovich, his biography and personal life, then it is worth talking about his marital status. He was married twice. From his first marriage he had a child - son Alexei. His first wife was a girl from a famous family - Kira Mendeleeva, but when Vasily met Maya Carmen, he realized that she was the love of his life. Maya was with him until his last days.
Vaxon Akson, Gravadiy Gorpozhaks - pseudonyms; Aksenov Vasily Pavlovich; Kazan, Russia; 08/20/1932 - 07/06/2009
Vasily Aksenov is a fairly significant figure in world literature. His works have been translated into many languages of the world. Nevertheless, Vasily Aksenov's books received most of the awards in Russia. And one of the most significant of them can be called the Russian Booker Prize, which the writer was awarded in 2009. The writer's contribution can also be assessed by screen adaptations of Aksenov's books. At the moment, there are 4 of them, but given the number of scripts written by the writer, this number may increase.
Biography of Vasily Aksenov
Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov was born in 1932 in Kazan. His father was the chairman of the Kazan City Council, and his mother was a teacher at the Kazan Institute. In addition, she was in charge of the culture department at the local newspaper. But in 1937, both parents were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Four-year-old Vasily was sent to an orphanage for the children of political prisoners. Only a year later, his father's brother managed to pick him up from his grandfather and take him to a relative in Kostroma. Vasily Aksenov lived here until 1948. By this time, his parents had served time and the mother managed to get her son to move to her in Magadan. She was not allowed to go to Kostroma. In 1956 Aksenov graduated from the Leningrad Medical Institute. By distribution, he was sent to the Baltic Fleet. But he did not receive any paperwork. Therefore, he worked in the Far North, then in Leningrad, and then he managed to move to Moscow.
Around this time, Aksenov declared himself as a writer. His debut was the story "One and a half medical units", which was published in 1959. It became possible to read the first story by Vasily Aksenov in 1960. The work was called "Colleagues" and became a reworking of Aksenov's play of the same name, written in collaboration a year earlier. A film adaptation of this story was released in 1962. Then there was another story - "Star Ticket", which was also filmed in 162 under the title "My Little Brother". Soon several more works of the writer will be published, which are published in the magazine "Youth". But in 1966, Vasily Aksenov succumbs to criticism from Nikita Khrushchev. In the same year, he participated in a rally on Red Square against the rehabilitation of Stalin. In later years, he regularly signed petitions in defense of dissidents. All this led to the fact that by 1970 Aksenov's books completely ceased to be published.
But Vasily Pavlovich does not stop working. In 1975, he wrote the novel "The Burn", initially assuming that it would not be possible to publish it in the USSR. In 1977, the writer visits the United States several times until he emigrates there completely in 1980. Almost immediately, he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. In the USA, Aksenov works as a professor of the Russian language at various universities. Here he publishes many of his new works. In addition, he works as a journalist for Radio Liberty and Voice of America. Aksenov again visits the USSR only in 1989, and in 1990 he was returned to Soviet citizenship.
With the beginning of the 90s, the books of Vasily Aksenov, like those, begin to appear in our country. At the same time, not only the old works of the writer are published, but also new books. The writer actively supports the reforms of Gaidar, as well as Boris Yeltsin as head of state. In 2004, Aksenov's novel "Voltaireans and Voltaireans" was published, which in the same year was awarded the Russian Booker Prize. In early 2008, the writer had a stroke. After a long treatment in the summer of 2009, Vasily Petrovich Aksenov died.
Books by Vasily Aksenov on the Top Books website
Vasily Aksenov's books are quite popular to read in our country. This popularity was especially active after the release of the film "Mysterious Passion", which was released in 2015. This film adaptation aroused interest in the writer's work and allowed his works to get into our rating. In addition, Aksenov's novels are presented in our rating. And given the high interest in the writer's work, this is far from the limit.
Vasily Aksyonov list of books
- Aurora Gorelik
- Oranges from Morocco
- Aristophaniana with frogs
- Ah, Arthur Schopenhauer.
- paper landscape
- In search of a sad baby
- Voltaireans and Voltaireans
- Always on sale
- Woe, woe, burn
- Jean Green untouchable
- It's a pity you weren't with us
- egg yolk
- overstocked barrel
- star ticket
- Our Golden Iron
- Catapult
- Cesarean glow
- Colleagues
- Round the clock non-stop
- lend-lease
- Catch pigeon mail
- Lion's lair. Forgotten stories
- Love for electricity
- My grandfather is a monument
- Moscow Kva-Kva
- Halfway to the Moon
- New sweet style
- One solid Caruso
- Crimea Island
- Victory
- Searching for a genre
- One and a half medical units
- It's time my friend, it's time
- A story about a basketball team playing basketball
- rare earths
- Sviyazhsk
- say raisins
- steel bird
The biography briefly describes the main events in the life of one of the iconic writers of the twentieth century.
Childhood and youth
Aksenov was born on August 20, 1932 in. His father (Pavel Aksenov) was the chairman of the city council of Kazan, his mother (Evgenia Ginzburg) taught at the Kazan Pedagogical Institute and worked for the Krasnaya Tatariya newspaper, where she headed the department of culture.
In 1937, parents are arrested one by one. Five-year-old Aksenov is forcibly sent to an orphanage in Kostroma, from where, a year later, his uncle on his father's side takes him.
For the next ten years he lives in Kazan with his aunt. In 1948, Aksyonov went to Magadan to his mother, who, having come out of prison, lives there in exile.
1956 - graduated from the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute. IP Pavlova and then for three years worked as a doctor in Karelia, in the Far North, in the Leningrad Sea Port, in the Moscow Regional Tuberculosis Dispensary.
sixties
1958 - in the magazine "Youth" his first stories are published: "One and a half medical units" and "Torches and roads".
1960 - Colleagues is published. Aksenov becomes known to the reading public. 1961 - after the publication of the novel Star Ticket, real success comes, and Aksenov decides to seriously engage in literature.
During the thaw, Aksyonov was actively published in magazines, becoming one of the founders of the genre of "youth prose":
- "Oranges from Morocco" 1962
- "It's time, my friend, it's time" 1964.
- collection "Catapult" 1964.
- “It is a pity that you were not with us” 1965.
- "Overstocked barrel" 1968
seventies
It ended and the attitude of the authorities towards Aksenov changed. Most of the author's works fall under the prohibition of censorship. He writes on the table.
During these years, several books were written, which will be published for the first time already in exile:
- "Our golden piece of iron" 1973
- novel "The Burn" 1975.
- "" 1979
Emigration
In 1977, his books began to be published abroad, mainly in the USA. In 1979 - Aksenov participates in the creation of the uncensored almanac "Metropol". Attacks from the authorities on him are intensifying. He left the writers' union, and in 1980 emigrated to the United States with his wife.
Soon they are deprived of Soviet citizenship. Life in the USA In the States, Aksyonov received the title of professor and taught a course in Russian literature at several American universities.
During this period he writes:
- "Paper Landscape" 1982
- "Say raisins" 1985
- "In search of a sad baby" 1986
- "Egg Yolk" (in English) 1989
Return. Work in the new Russia
Since 1989, the return of Aksenov and his books to their homeland begins. He is restored in citizenship, his books are actively published, and the author himself often comes to Russia. 1993 - the novel "" is published. In 2004, the film of the same name was released, where the writer's son Alexei Aksenov acts as art director.
1999 - "Aksenov Readings" with the participation of the author are held in Moscow for the first time.
2004 - moves with his family to France. Books written during this time:
- "Voltaireans and Voltairians" 2004;
- “Collection of radio essays “Decade of slander” 2004;
- "Moscow-kva-kva" 2006;
- The apple of the eye "2005;
The life of the writer Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov will be interrupted on 07/06/2009. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Awards and prizes
- Doctor of Humane Degree (USA)
- Member of PEN (World Writers Union)
- Member of the American Authors' League
- Prize "Russian Booker" (for the novel "Voltaireans and Voltairians" (2004))
