Wassili Pawlowitsch Aksjonow

Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov (Russian: Василий Павлович Аксёнов, scientific transliteration: Vasilij Pavlovič Aksënov, born August 20, 1932 in Kazan; died July 6, 2009 in Moscow) was a Russian writer. He began his career in the Soviet Union and later had to emigrate to the United States.

From 1956 to 1960, he worked as a doctor, but had already begun writing sketches and short stories while still a student. He published his first stories in the 1960s, which soon became very popular, especially among young readers. In 1979, he came under pressure for his collaboration on the underground literary almanac Metropol, along with Andrei Bitov, Fazil Iskander, Viktor Yerofeyev, and Yevgeny Popov.

In 1980, Aksyonov accepted an invitation from an American university and took up permanent residence in the United States, where he continued his writing career. Until 2003, he taught as a professor of Russian at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. In 2004, he moved to Biarritz. He spent the following years alternating between France and Moscow, where he died in July 2009.[2] His grave is in the Vagankovo ​​Cemetery in Moscow.

In 1980, Aksyonov accepted an invitation from an American university and took up permanent residence in the United States, where he continued his writing career. Until 2003, he taught as a professor of Russian at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. In 2004, he moved to Biarritz. He spent the following years alternately in France and Moscow, where he died in July 2009.[2] His grave is in the Vagankovo ​​Cemetery in Moscow.

Aksyonov’s first stories appeared in the magazine Yunost, on whose editorial board he was a member.

In his works, Aksyonov processed his family’s experiences during the Stalin era. The thaw that began in the political and intellectual life of the USSR in the 1960s allowed him to address this topic.

In 1981, while he was in exile, the novel The Island of Crimea (Остров Крым), written in 1979, was first published in English translation. It tells, among other things, how Crimea was “liberated” from the Moscow government through an invasion. In the English-speaking West, Aksyonov became known for his novel “The Burn” (Russian: “Ozhog,” 1975; German: “Gebrannt,” 1986) and the trilogy “Generations of Winter” (Russian: Московская сага, 1989–1993), works in which he explored the taboo subject of Stalinist persecution. “Generations of Winter” tells the story of the Gradov family of doctors from 1925 to 1953. The novel was adapted into a lavish television series in Russia in 2004.

For his 2004 novel “Voltarians and Voltarian Women,” Aksyonov received the $15,000 Booker Prize for Literature – Open Russia. Aksyonov’s books have been translated into several languages. Film adaptations of his books have been made in Russia and France. He has also written plays.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassili_Pawlowitsch_Aksjonow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Aksyonov