The writer whose banned novel became the emblem of glasnost
Stalin speaks in Children of the Arbat: "Death solves all problems — no man, no problem." In one sentence, the cold logic of an era.
A Soviet Jewish writer who grew up on Moscow's Arbat Street. Arrested by the NKVD in 1933 and exiled to Siberia for three years, he later commanded a tank unit through to Berlin. His novel Children of the Arbat, written in the 1960s, was suppressed for over twenty years until glasnost finally brought it to light in 1987, making it a literary landmark of de-Stalinization. Heavy Sand (1979), depicting a Jewish family's struggle under Nazi occupation, was hailed as the first Russian-language Holocaust novel.
Career Timeline
- 1933–36Arrested by NKVD, three years Siberian exile
- 1941–46Tank commander, Moscow to Berlin
- 1948–56Children's books debut (Kortik, Bronze Bird)
- 1950Stalin Prize for Drivers
- 1960s–87Children of the Arbat written, samizdat, suppressed
- 1979Heavy Sand — first Russian-language Holocaust novel
- 1987Children of the Arbat published under glasnost; global sensation
- 1989–91President, Soviet PEN Center