Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov - Russian writer, screenwriter, public figure. He was a member of the PEN Club and the American Authors' League, as well as an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts. Winner of the Russian Booker Prize and the Tsarskoye Selo Art Prize.
Biography
Vasily Aksenov was born on August 20, 1932 in Kazan. His father, Pavel Vasilyevich Aksenov, was a party leader, served as chairman of the Kazan City Council. The writer's mother, Evgenia Solomonovna Ginzburg, taught at the Kazan Pedagogical Institute, was engaged in journalism, wrote several literary works. Vasily was the youngest child in the family and the only common child of his parents (Maya is the daughter of P. V. Aksenov, Alexey is the son of E. S. Ginzburg from his first marriage).
In 1937, the parents were convicted and sentenced (Evgeny Solomonovna - to 10 years in prison and camps, and her husband to 15 years). Brother and sister Vasily were taken by relatives, and he himself was not allowed to stay with his grandmothers, and he was sent to an orphanage for prisoners. In 1938, he was taken from the Kostroma orphanage by his uncle, Andreyan Vasilyevich Aksenov, with whom he lived until 1948, when his mother, who left the camps in 1947 and lived in exile in Magadan, obtained permission for Vasya to move to her.
He received his medical education, graduating in 1956 from the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute, after which he worked in assignment in the Baltic Shipping Company on long-distance vessels. Aksyonov also worked as a quarantine doctor in Karelia, at the Leningrad Sea Trade Port and at a tuberculosis hospital in Moscow.
Beginning in 1963, when Nikita Khrushchev subjected Aksenov to devastating criticism at a meeting of the intelligentsia in the Kremlin, the writer began to have problems with the authorities. His works ceased to be published in the 70s, after the end of the "thaw", and the writer began to be called "non-Soviet" and "non-people". It is not surprising that in 1977-1978 his works began to appear abroad, mainly in the United States, where he went by invitation on July 22, 1980 (after which he was deprived of Soviet citizenship) and where he lived until 2004.
In 1980-1991 he actively collaborated in several major radio stations and magazines, wrote essays, was a professor of Russian literature at one of the universities. Literary activity also continued. For the first time after nine years of emigration, Aksyonov visited the USSR in 1989. The following year, he was returned to Soviet citizenship. In the last years of his life he lived with his family in Biarritz (France).
In 2008, the writer was diagnosed with a stroke. Since then, his condition has been "consistently grave." On July 6, 2009, Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov died in Moscow. He was buried on July 9, 2009 at the Vagankovsky cemetery. In Kazan, the house where the writer lived in his youth was restored; in 2009, the Museum of his work was created there.
Literary activity
Vasily Aksenov began the path of a writer by writing the story "Colleagues" in 1959 (in 1962 a film of the same name was shot on it). It was followed by the novel Star Ticket, written in 1961, which was also filmed in 1962 under the title My Little Brother. The year 1962 ends with the writing of the story "Oranges from Morocco" (1962). Collections of stories "Catapult", "Halfway to the Moon" were published in 1963 and 1966, respectively. In 1968, the fantastic story "Overstocked Barrel" was published. In 1964 Aksenov became one of the nine authors of the collective novel "He who laughs laughs", published in the newspaper "Nedelya".
In the 60s, Aksenov often appeared in the Yunost magazine, of which he has been a member of the editorial board for several years. By 1970, the first part of the adventure dilogy for children "My grandfather is a monument" was written. The second part, entitled "The Chest, in which Something Knocks," young readers saw in 1972.
The experimental work "The Search for a Genre" was written in 1972. At the first publication in the magazine "New World" the genre of the work was indicated as follows: "The search for a genre". There were also attempts at translation activity. In 1976 the writer translated from English the novel "Ragtime" by E. L. Doctorow.
Novels written in the USA: "Paper Landscape", "Say" Raisins "," In Search of a Sad Baby "," Egg Yolk "," Moscow Saga "trilogy, collection of stories" Positive Hero Negative "," New Sweet Style ", "Caesarean glow".
In 2010, Aksyonov's unfinished autobiographical novel "The Lend-Lease" was released.
The best books of the writer
- If you decide to study the work of this wonderful writer, I suggest starting with literature on children. The story "My Grandfather is a Monument" will serve as an excellent start. Adventure, seas, oceans, pirates, captains - romance! While reading it is impossible not to recall the famous "Treasure Island" by Stevenson. Will not leave indifferent either adults or children.
- The story "Colleagues" is recommended if you plan to approach Aksenov's work thoroughly, since this work is his first literary experience, the starting point in his career. The story is about young doctors and their understanding of the world around them, their search for themselves in it.
- The novel "Star Ticket". I would really like to be impartial, but alas, I cannot calmly write about my favorite work of the author. Three guys and a girl, the first trip, youthful maximalism, mistakes and experience, parting are the main "tags" of this story. It was here that the style of the writer was born, it is for this novel that readers love him.
- "Crimea Island". Historical and geographical alternative, where Crimea is a full-fledged island in the Black Sea. The plot is based on the biographies of the heroes; throughout the novel, there is a satirical and political subtext.
- "He who laughs laughs." The novel is interesting at least because 9 writers worked on it. The plot tells the story of a man who once returned home from work and did not find his wife and child at home. On the same evening, wandering around the city, he learns that he is considered a foreign agent …
