Konstantin Fedin was not only a writer. He led an active social life. Occupying high posts in the Union of Writers of the USSR, Fedin defended the traditions inherent in Russian literature. However, many of his assessments were controversial. Fedin opposed the publication of Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward, although before that he had approved the publication of One Day in Ivan Denisovich by the same author.
From the biography of Konstantin Fedin
Konstantin Alexandrovich Fedin was born on February 12, 1892 in Saratov. His father owned a stationery store. From a young age, the boy dreamed of a career as a writer. But his father hoped that Kostya would become a successful businessman. Not wanting to do the will of his father, the boy ran away from home twice.
However, in 1911 Fedin nevertheless entered the Moscow Commercial Institute. Two years later, he published his first satirical stories. After graduating from the third year, the young man went to Germany, where he diligently studied the German language. To make a living, Konstantin played the violin.
In Germany, Fedin was caught in the First World War. Until 1918, Constantine lived in a foreign country as a civil prisoner. During these years he tried his hand at the theatrical craft.
In the fall of 1918, Fedin returned to Moscow and got a job at the People's Commissariat for Education. A year later, he was already the secretary of the city executive committee in Syzran, then editor of the Syzran Communard newspaper and the Otkliki magazine. In the fall of 1919 Fedin was sent to Petrograd to serve in the political department of the cavalry division. Here he became a member of the Bolshevik Party.
In the spring of 1921 Fedin joined the Serapion Brothers community. Then the aspiring writer left the party. He motivated his decision by the fact that he wants to completely immerse himself in creativity. In subsequent years, Fedin held various positions in editorial offices and publishing houses.
After the war, Fedin happened to become a special correspondent for Izvestia at the Nuremberg trials.
From 1947 to 1955, Fedin headed the prose department at the Capital Writers' Union. In 1971 he became chairman of the board of the USSR Writers' Union.
The first wife of the writer was Dora Sergeevna Fedina. She worked as a typist in one of the book publishers. The Fedin's daughter, Nina, later became an actress. Fedin's second wife is Olga Viktorovna Mikhailova. The writer was in a civil marriage with her.
Creativity Konstantin Fedin
The best works of Fedin are considered his novels "Cities and Years" and "Brothers". In the first of them, the writer shared his impressions of his life in Germany and spoke about the experience of the Civil War. The novel "Brothers" tells about Russia, which was going through revolutionary times. In the center of both works - the fate of the intelligentsia, caught in the fire of the revolution.
Readers took these works with enthusiasm. Both novels have been translated into a number of foreign languages.
In 1931 Fedin fell ill with tuberculosis and was treated abroad for more than a year - in Germany and Switzerland. Then he lived in Leningrad, and then settled in Moscow.
In 1935 Fedin's novel "The Rape of Europa" was published. This work is considered the first Russian political novel. This was followed by the novel "Sanatorium Arctur", where the author shared his impressions of the time of his stay in a foreign tuberculosis sanatorium. The hero's recovery takes place against the backdrop of the economic crisis in Western Europe and the rise to power of the Nazis.
From the fall of 1941, for two years, the writer and his family lived in evacuation in Chistopol. During the war years, Konstantin Aleksandrovich wrote essays about his impressions of trips to the front-line areas, which were formerly a zone of fascist occupation.
Konstantin Alexandrovich passed away in 1977. The writer was buried in Moscow, at the Novodevichy cemetery.
