Vasily Aksenov years of life. Aksyonov, Yevtushenko, Akhmadulina

Premiere on the first channel: serial film "Mysterious Passion" based on the latest novel Vasily Aksenov, in which the author "encrypted" the names and surnames of his contemporaries. The prototypes of the heroes are the idols of the sixties: Robert Ehr - Robert Rozhdestvensky, Anton Andreotis - Andrei Voznesensky, Nella Akhkho - Bella Akhmadulina, Yan Tushinsky - Evgeny Yevtushenko, Vasily Aksyonov himself under the nickname Waxon and many others. AiF.ru offers to recall the real biographies of the prototypes of the main characters of the novel.

Robert Rozhdestvensky

Creation: The first serious publications of Rozhdestvensky's poems appeared in the Petrozavodsk magazine "On the Line" when the poet was only 18 years old. At that time, he was only trying to enter the Literary Institute. M. Gorky, where he was accepted, but only on the second attempt. In the first works of Rozhdestvensky there was a lot of civic pathos, he wrote about space exploration and the difficulties of everyday life. But the older the writer became, the more lyrical his poetry seemed, and love lyrics came to the fore.

Robert Christmas. Photo: RIA Novosti / Boris Kaufman

The popularity of Rozhdestvensky in the Soviet years was enormous: in the 60s he was one of those who conquered the Polytechnic and sports palaces, his creative evenings were held to full houses, and books were published in huge editions.

Popular works: The famous Rozhdestvensky poems about love are known in almost all countries, and many of his works are familiar thanks to the songs “My Years”, “Echo of Love”, “Ticket to Childhood”, “Gravity of the Earth”. He is the author of the words of the legendary song "Moments" from the movie Tatyana Lioznova"Seventeen Moments of Spring".

Personal life: Robert's entire personal life was connected with Alla Kireeva, artist and literary critic. He dedicated all his poems about love to her, and she became the mother of his two daughters.

Death: Rozhdestvensky died in Moscow at the age of 62. In 1990, doctors diagnosed the poet with a terrible diagnosis: a malignant brain tumor. But after a successful operation, he managed to live another 4 years.

Interesting Facts: The poet stuttered a lot, especially when he was worried, and even more so when he spoke in public - and this made him even more charming. But this speech disorder had a reason: they say that in childhood, in front of the poet’s eyes, his friend was hit by a car, after which Rozhdestvensky began to stutter.

Andrei Voznesensky

Creation: The first collection of Voznesensky's "Mosaic" was published in 1958, when the poet was 26 years old. He immediately incurred the wrath of the authorities, because he did not reflect the principles that were planted at that time. Then Voznesensky caused a sharp rejection from the Soviet literary community: his lyrics contained many bold metaphors and comparisons, an unusual rhythm of verse and a non-standard reflection of the tragedy of the Great Patriotic War. In 1963, Nikita Khrushchev himself sharply criticized the poet: “Look, what a Pasternak you found! .. Go to the damn grandmother. Get out, Mr. Voznesensky, to your masters! Only in the 1970s did the persecution of the poet end, and he finally began to be published in large numbers.

Popular works: Voznesensky was the author of eight poems and more than forty poetry collections. He is one of the creators of the rock opera "Juno and Avos" and the author of the words of the famous romance "I will never forget you." Many popular pop songs were written on his poems, including “A Million Scarlet Roses”, “Song for an Encore”, “Start Over”, “Give Me Music Back”.

Personal life: Voznesensky lived for forty-six years in a happy marriage with theater and film critic, writer Zoya Boguslavskaya, who in 1964 left her husband for the famous author after he dedicated the poem "Oza" to her.

Death: In 1995, Voznesensky was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, the poet began to lose his voice, weaken the muscles of the throat and limbs. He died at home in the arms of his beloved wife at the age of 77 after a second stroke.

Interesting Facts: Popular in the 90s performed by Evgenia Osina the song "The girl in the machine is crying" was written on the basis of Voznesensky's poem "The First Ice". In the late 60s, the song "First Ice" was popular in the courtyard urban culture, and in different years it was performed Nina Dorda and VIA "Jolly guys".

Bella Akhmadulina

Creation: Bella Akhmadulina began to write poetry back in her school years, and the first publication was published in the October magazine, when the author was only 18 years old. Many Soviet critics considered Akhmadulina's poetry "irrelevant", "vulgar" and "banal", and the young poetess, on the contrary, gained immense popularity among readers. Despite her obvious talent, Akhmadulina was expelled from the Literary Institute for refusing to support bullying. Boris Pasternak. Later, she was restored and even issued a red diploma, but along with Yevtushenko and Voznesensky, the Soviet government never supported her.

Popular works: One of the most famous poems by Akhmadulina is “On my street which year ...”, which became famous thanks to the film Eldara Ryazanova"Irony of Fate or Enjoy Your Bath!". The works of the poetess are also widely known: "And in the end I will say ...", "Oh, my shy hero ...", "From the depths of my adversity ...".

Personal life: Akhmadulina was married four times: Evgeny Evtushenko, per writer Yuri Nagibin, per screenwriter Eldar Kuliev and for theater designer Boris Messerer.

Death: In the last years of her life, Akhmadulina was seriously ill. In 2010, at the age of 73, she died at her dacha in the village of Peredelkino near Moscow.

Interesting Facts: In 1964, Akhmadulina played a young journalist in the film Vasily Shukshin"This guy lives." And six years later, she starred in another film: "Sport, Sports, Sports."

Evgeny Yevtushenko

Creation: The poet's first poem was published when he was 17 years old, and the author's talent was so obvious that he was admitted to the Literary Institute without a school certificate. Then, in 1952, he became the youngest member of the Writers' Union of the USSR, bypassing the stage of a candidate member of the SP.

The beginning of creativity coincided with the Khrushchev thaw, and Yevtushenko's fresh poems turned out to be in tune with the positive moods of the youth. In the early 1960s, he was one of the first among poets to enter the stage, and his artistry and a special manner of reading poetry contributed to his success.

In 1957, Yevtushenko was expelled from the institute for supporting the novel. Vladimir Dudintsev“Not by bread alone,” but he continued to participate in various protests and was in opposition to the authorities. In 1991, Yevtushenko signed a contract with an American university and left the country forever.

Personal life: Yevgeny Yevtushenko was officially married four times: to Bella Akhmadulina, Galina Sokol-Lukonina, own admirer Jen Butler and on Maria Novikova, with which he still lives.

Popular works: In the bibliography of Yevtushenko there is a place not only for poetry, but also for prose works. The most famous of them are the autobiographies "Premature Autobiography" and "Wolf Passport". He is also the author of the words to all familiar songs: “Do the Russians want wars”, “And it's snowing”, “Waltz about the waltz”, “This is what is happening to me”.

Interesting Facts: After the publication of the poem “Babi Yar”, Yevgeny Yevtushenko was “excommunicated” from Ukraine for twenty years: he was not allowed to hold creative evenings and meetings with poetry lovers.

Vasily Aksenov

Creation: In 1956 Aksyonov graduated from the Leningrad Medical Institute. He worked as a doctor in the North, in Karelia, in Leningrad, in Moscow. His first stories were published in Yunost magazine already in 1958, but it took time for Aksyonov to quit medicine and take up writing seriously. His novels and stories turned out to be very popular, but they caused disapproval of the authorities: the writer was constantly accused of covert anti-Sovietism. After the end of the "thaw" and the scandal with the publication of the uncensored almanac "Metropol" in the USSR, it was no longer published: in protest, Aksyonov voluntarily left the Writers' Union.

Vasily Aksyonov. Photo: RIA Novosti

Popular works: The most popular works of the author are "Moscow Saga", "Trilogy", unpublished due to censorship in the USSR "Burn" and "Island of Crimea". As well as his latest completed novel, Mysterious Passion.

Personal life: Vasily Aksyonov was married twice, his first wife was Kira Mendeleeva, and second Maya Carmen, which the poet himself called the main passion of his life.

Death: Aksyonov died in 2009 at the age of 77 after a long illness.

Interesting Facts: After Aksyonov was stripped of his Soviet citizenship, he taught Russian literature at several US universities. In 1990, Aksyonov and his wife were given back Russian citizenship, but he never returned to his homeland, only occasionally appearing in Moscow.

Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov(August 20, 1932, Kazan - July 6, 2009, Moscow) - Russian writer.

Since 1980 he lived in the USA (where he taught at universities and worked as a radio journalist), in the last years of his life - in France. In addition to prose and drama in Russian, he wrote scripts for feature films, was a co-author of the group adventure novel "Jean Green - Untouchable", published one book in English ("Yolk of an Egg", 1989) and translated from this language.

early years

Vasily Aksyonov was born on August 20, 1932 in Kazan, in the family of Pavel Vasilievich Aksyonov (1899-1991) and Evgenia Solomonovna Ginzburg (1904-1977). He was the third, youngest child in the family (and the only common child of his parents). Father, Pavel Vasilyevich, was the chairman of the Kazan City Council and a member of the bureau of the Tatar regional committee of the CPSU. Mother, Evgenia Solomonovna, worked as a teacher at the Kazan Pedagogical Institute, then as head of the culture department of the Krasnaya Tatariya newspaper. Subsequently, having gone through the Stalinist camps, at the time of the exposure of the cult of personality, Yevgenia Ginzburg became the author of the book of memoirs "The Steep Route" - one of the first memoirs about the era of Stalinist repressions and camps, which told about the eighteen years spent by the author in prison, Kolyma camps and exile .

In 1937, when Vasily Aksyonov was not yet five years old, both parents (first mother, and then soon father) were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison and labor camps. The older children - sister Maya (daughter of P. V. Aksyonov) and Alyosha (son of E. S. Ginzburg from his first marriage) - were taken in by relatives. Vasya was forcibly sent to an orphanage for the children of prisoners (his grandmothers were not allowed to keep the child). In 1938, P. Aksyonov's brother, Andrey Vasilyevich Aksyonov, managed to find little Vasya in an orphanage in Kostroma and take him to him. Vasya lived in the house of Ksenia Vasilievna Aksyonova (his paternal aunt) until 1948, when his mother Evgenia Ginzburg, having left the camp in 1947 and living in exile in Magadan, obtained permission for Vasya to visit her in Kolyma. Evgenia Ginzburg described the meeting with Vasya in The Steep Route.

Many years later, in 1975, Vasily Aksyonov described his Magadan youth in his autobiographical novel The Burn.

In 1956, Aksyonov graduated from the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute and was assigned to the Baltic Shipping Company, where he was supposed to work as a doctor on long-distance ships. Despite the fact that his parents had already been rehabilitated, he was never given permission. Later it was mentioned that Aksyonov worked as a quarantine doctor in the Far North, in Karelia, in the Leningrad Sea Commercial Port and in a tuberculosis hospital in Moscow (according to other sources, he was a consultant at the Moscow Research Institute of Tuberculosis).

The beginning of literary activity

Since 1960, Vasily Aksyonov has been a professional writer. The story "Colleagues" (written in 1959; the play of the same name together with G. Stabov, 1961; the film of the same name, 1962), the novels "Star Ticket" (written in 1961; the film "My Little Brother", 1962) was shot on it), the story "Oranges from Morocco" (1962), "It's time, my friend, it's time" (1963), the collections "Catapult" (1964), "Halfway to the Moon" (1966), the play "Always on sale" (staged by the theater " Sovremennik", 1965); in 1968, the satirical-fiction story "The Overstocked Barrel" was published. In 1964, he took part in the writing of the collective detective novel Laughs He Who Laughs, published in the newspaper Nedelya.

In the 1960s, the works of V. Aksyonov were often published in the journal Yunost. For several years he has been a member of the editorial board of the journal. Adventure dilogy for children: “My grandfather is a monument” (1970) and “A chest in which something knocks” (1972).

The story about L. Krasin "Love for Electricity" (1971) belongs to the historical and biographical genre. The experimental work "Search for a Genre" was written in 1972 (the first publication in the journal "New World"; in the subtitle indicating the genre of the work, "Search for a Genre" is also indicated).

In 1972, together with O. Gorchakov and G. Pozhenyan, he wrote a parody novel on the spy thriller "Jean Green - Untouchable" under the pseudonym Grivadiy Gorpozhaks (a combination of the names and surnames of the authors themselves).

1976 - translated from English the novel by E. L. Doctorow "Ragtime".

Social activity. Publications abroad

Back in March 1963, at a meeting with the intelligentsia in the Kremlin, Nikita Khrushchev subjected Aksyonov (together with Andrei Voznesensky) to devastating criticism.

On March 5, 1966, Vasily Aksyonov participated in an attempted demonstration on Red Square in Moscow against the alleged rehabilitation of Stalin and was detained by vigilantes. In 1967-1968, he signed a number of letters in defense of dissidents, for which he received a reprimand from the Moscow branch of the Writers' Union of the USSR.

In the 1970s, after the end of the "thaw", Aksyonov's works ceased to be published in his homeland. The novels The Burn (1975) and The Island of Crimea (1977-1979, partly written during his stay in Koktebel) were created by the author from the very beginning without any expectation of publication. At this time, criticism of Aksyonov and his works became more and more harsh: such epithets as "non-Soviet" and "non-folk" were used. In 1977-1978, Aksyonov's works began to appear abroad, primarily in the United States.

In 1978, V. Aksyonov, together with Andrei Bitov, Viktor Erofeev, Fazil Iskander, Evgeny Popov and Bella Akhmadulina, organized and authored the uncensored almanac Metropol, which was never published in the Soviet censored press. The Almanac was published in the USA. All participants in the almanac were subjected to "study". In protest against the subsequent expulsion of Popov and Erofeev from the Writers' Union of the USSR in December 1979, Aksyonov, as well as Inna Lisnyanskaya and Semyon Lipkin, announced their withdrawal from the joint venture. The history of the almanac is set out in the novel with the key "Say" raisins "".

In exile

On July 22, 1980, he left for the United States at the invitation, after which he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. Until 2004 he lived in the USA.

Since 1981, Vasily Aksyonov has been a professor of Russian literature at various US universities: George Washington University (GWU) (1982-1983), Goucher College (1983-1988), George Mason University (GMU) (1988-2009) ), and was also a fellow (fellow) of the George Kennan Wilson Institute Center in Washington.

In 1980-1991, as a journalist, he actively collaborated with Voice of America and Radio Liberty. Collaborated with the magazine "Continent" and the almanac "Verb". Aksenov's radio essays were published in the author's collection "A decade of slander" (2004).

The novels “Our Golden Iron” (1973, 1980), “The Burn” (1976, 1980), “The Island of Crimea” (1979, 1981), a collection of short stories "Right to the Island" (1981).

In the USA, V. Aksyonov wrote and published new novels: “Paper Landscape” (1982), “Say Raisin” (1985), “In Search of a Sad Baby” (1986), “Egg Yolk” (1989, in English) , the Moscow Saga trilogy (1989-1993), a collection of short stories "The Negative of the Positive Hero" (1995), "A New Sweet Style" (1996) (dedicated to the life of Soviet emigration in the USA), "Caesarean Glow" (2000).

For the first time after nine years of emigration, Aksyonov visited the USSR in 1989. In 1990, V. Aksyonov was given back Soviet citizenship.

After 1991

In the last years of his life he lived with his family in Biarritz (France).

The Moscow Saga trilogy (1992) was filmed in Russia in 2004 by A. Barshchevsky in a 24-episode television series.

In 1992, he actively supported Gaidar's reforms. In his words: "Gaidar kicked Mother Russia."

In 1993, during the dispersal of the Supreme Council, he sided with those who signed the letter in support of B. N. Yeltsin.

The book of memoirs "The Apple of the Eye" (2005) is in the nature of a personal diary.

In 2007, the novel "Rare Earths" was published.

On January 15, 2008, in Moscow, V. Aksyonov suddenly felt very ill, was hospitalized in hospital No. 23, where he was diagnosed with a stroke. A day after hospitalization, Aksenov was transferred to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute, where he underwent an operation to remove a carotid thrombus. On January 29, 2008, doctors assessed the writer's condition as extremely serious. As of August 28, 2008, the condition remained "stably grave." On March 5, 2009, new complications arose, Aksyonov was transferred to the Burdenko Research Institute and operated on. Later Aksyonov was transferred back to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute.

On July 6, 2009, after a long illness, Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov died in Moscow, at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute.

In Kazan, the house where the writer lived in his adolescence was restored, and in November 2009 the Museum of his work was created there.

In October 2009, Vasily Aksyonov's last completed novel, Mysterious Passion. A novel about the sixties”, separate chapters of which were published in 2008 in the magazine “Collection of a caravan of stories”. The novel is autobiographical; its main characters were the idols of Soviet literature and art of the 1960s: Robert Rozhdestvensky, Evgeny Yevtushenko, Bella Akhmadulina, Andrei Voznesensky, Bulat Okudzhava, Andrei Tarkovsky, Vladimir Vysotsky, Ernst Neizvestny, Marlene Khutsiev, Roman Karmen, Marina Vladi, Yuri Nagibin and others . To distance himself from the memoir genre, the author gave fictitious names to the characters of the novel. At the same time, the names were changed so consonantly that everyone was easily recognizable. In 2015, based on this novel, a series was filmed, the premiere of which took place in November 2016 on Channel One.

In 2010, Aksyonov's unfinished autobiographical novel "Lend-Lease" was published.

Peer ratings

“Aksenov has always been fashionable. He succeeded in what all writers dream of - to cross the line of generations. He conquered everyone - both the romantic readers of the Yunost magazine, and the bearded dissidents, and today's Russia ”(Alexander Genis).

Aksenov at that time was called a connoisseur of urban life. “There are villagers, but he, Aksyonov, is in the city.” (Georgy Sadovnikov. My classmate Vasya / “Vasily Aksyonov is a lonely long-distance runner”).

“Aksenov in America remained a well-known writer for a narrow circle. I suspect that he wanted to be an American bestseller and was very upset that nothing came of it. In my opinion, even theoretically it could not work. To create an American bestseller, you have to write badly and about nonsense. But Aksyonov, with all his efforts, will not be able to do this. (Anatoly Gladilin. Aksenovskaya saga).

“Talented white hand. I didn’t sniff life ... ”(Vil Lipatov).

“Aksenov is swing, swinging rhythm, buildup, jazz and jazz optional style” (Dmitry Bykov).

Awards, honorary titles, awards

In the USA, V. Aksyonov was awarded the honorary title of Doctor of Humane Letters. He was a member of the PEN Club and the American Authors' League. Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts.

2004 - "Russian Booker" award for the novel "Voltaireans and Voltaireans".

2005 - Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters (France)

2007 - Medal "In memory of the 1000th anniversary of Kazan"

2007 - Laureate of the Tsarskoye Selo Art Prize

Memory

Since 2007, the International Literary and Musical Festival Aksyonov-Fest has been held in Kazan since 2007 every autumn (in October) (the first was held with his personal participation), in 2009 the building was recreated and the Aksyonov Literary House-Museum was opened, in which the city literary club operates.

In 2015, the Aksyonov Garden was opened in Kazan after the reconstruction. The opening of the nominal square was the end of the Aksyonov-fest Festival. "Aksyonov's Garden" began its work with the opening of a memorial sign dedicated to Vasily Aksyonov. This sign is a self-portrait of the author, made in the caricature genre, as he signed his manuscripts.

In 2016, a sculptural composition dedicated to the writer appeared in the Aksyonov Garden.

In 2017, on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of Vasily Aksyonov, the Aksyonov Island portal began to operate.

Books about Aksenov

• 2011 - Alexander Kabakov and Evgeny Popov. Aksyonov. The authors are extremely concerned about the issue of "writer's fate", related to the intricacies of biography, the birth of a great Personality. The super-task of the book is to resist the distortion of facts for the sake of this or that conjuncture.
• 2012 - Victor Esipov. "About Lost Time".
• 2012 - Dmitry Petrov. "Aksenov" (a book from the series "Life of Remarkable People").
• 2012 - Dmitry Petrov. Vasily Aksyonov. Sentimental Journey.
• 2012 - Collection "Vasily Aksyonov - a lonely long-distance runner" (edited by Viktor Esipov). The collection includes memoirs of contemporaries about the writer, part of his correspondence and interviews.
• 2016 - Victor Esipov "Four Lives of Vasily Aksyonov".

Studies of creativity V. P. Aksyonov

• 1998 - Torunova Galina Mikhailovna. The evolution of the hero and the genre in the work of Vasily Aksyonov: From prose to dramaturgy. Dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences.
• 2005 - Karlina Natalia Nikolaevna. The myth of America in American and Russian literature of the second half of the 20th century: E. L. Doctorow and V. Aksyonov. Dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences.
• 2006 - Malikova Tatyana Alexandrovna. The work of V. Aksyonov in the 1960s-1990s in English-language literary criticism and criticism. Dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences.
• 2006 - Popov Ilya Vladimirovich. The artistic world of the works of Vasily Aksyonov. Dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences.
• 2007 - Chernyshenko Olga Vasilievna. The novels of V. P. Aksyonov: genre originality, the problem of the hero and features of the author's philosophy. Dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences.
• 2009 - Barruelo-Gonzalez Elena Yurievna. Roman V.P. Aksyonov "Moscow Saga". Genre issue. Dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences.
• 2009 - Shcheglov Yuri Konstantinovich. "Overstocked Barrel" by Vasily Aksyonov.
• 2011 - Aksyonova Violetta Vladimirovna. Genre originality of V. Aksyonov's prose in the 1960s-1970s. Dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences.

A family

• Sister (by father) - Maya Pavlovna Aksyonova (1925-2010), teacher-methodist, author of methodological and teaching aids on teaching the Russian language.
• Brother (by mother) - Alexei Dmitrievich Fedorov (1926-1942), died during the Leningrad blockade.
• The mother's adopted daughter is actress Antonina Pavlovna Aksyonova (original surname Khinchinskaya, born 1945).
• First wife - Kira Ludvigovna Mendeleva (1934–2013), daughter of brigade commander Lajosh (Ludwig Matveyevich) Gavro and great-niece of the famous pediatrician and healthcare organizer Yulia Aronovna Mendeleva (1883-1959), founder and first rector (1925-1949) of the Leningrad Pediatric Medical Institute .
  • Son - Alexei Vasilyevich Aksyonov (born 1960), production designer.
• The second wife is Maya Afanasievna Aksyonova (1930-2014), nee Zmeul, the daughter of the nomenklatura worker Afanasy Andreevich Zmeul, who at the end of his life headed the foreign trade association "International Book". In her first marriage, Ovchinnikova, in her second marriage to R.L. Karmen, she graduated from the All-Union Academy of Foreign Trade, worked at the Chamber of Commerce, and taught Russian in the USA.
  • Stepdaughter, daughter of Maya Aksyonova - Elena (Alena) Grinberg (1954-2008).

Selected works

Prose

• 1958 - "One and a half medical units" (story)
• 1959 - "Colleagues" (story), film adaptation of "Colleagues" (1962)
• 1961 - "Star Ticket" (novel), film adaptation of "My Little Brother" (1962)
• 1962 - "Oranges from Morocco" (novel)
• 1963 - "It's time, my friend, it's time" (story)
• 1964 - "Catapult" (story and stories)
• 1965 - "Victory" (story with exaggeration)
• 1965 - “It is a pity that you were not with us” (story), “Steel Bird” (story with digressions and solo for cornet)
• 1966 - "Halfway to the Moon" (book of stories)
• 1968 - "Overstocked Barrel" (story), performance at the Moscow theater-studio "Snuffbox"
• 1969 - "Love for electricity" (a story about L. B. Krasin)
• 1969 - "My grandfather is a monument" (story)
• 1971 - "The Story of a Basketball Team Playing Basketball" (feature)
• 1972 - "Search for the genre" (search for the genre)
• 1972 - "Jean Green Untouchable", et al. with Ovid Gorchakov and Grigory Pozhenyan
• 1973 - "Our Golden Iron" (novel)
• 1975 - "Burn" (novel)
• 1976 - "A chest in which something knocks" (story)
• 1976 - "Round the clock non-stop" (novel)
• 1979 - "Island of Crimea" (novel)
• 1982 - "Paper Landscape" (novel)
• 1983 - "Say raisins" (novel)
• 1987 - "In search of a sad baby"
• 1989 - Yolk of the Egg (translated into Russian - "Egg Yolk", 2002)
• 1981 - "Sviyazhsk" (story)
• 1992 - "Moscow Saga" (epic novel), film adaptation of "Moscow Saga (TV series)"
• 1996 - Sweet New Style (novel)
• 2000 - "Caesarean Glow" (novel)
• 2004 - "Voltairians and Voltairians" (novel, Russian Booker Prize)
• 2006 - "Moscow Kva-Kva" (novel)
• 2007 - "Rare Earths" (novel)
• 2007 - “Mysterious passion. A novel about the sixties”, film adaptation of “Mysterious Passion”, (2016)
• 2008 - "Lend-Lease". (unfinished novel)
• 2009 - "Lion's Lair. Forgotten stories "(stories)
• 2014 - "One continuous Caruso" (unpublished stories, essays and diaries)
• 2015 - "Catch the pigeon mail" (letters 1940-1990)
• 2017 - "Personality Island" (essays and journalism)

Film scripts

• 1962 - When the bridges are raised
• 1962 - Colleagues
• 1962 - My little brother
• 1966 - Journey (film almanac)
• 1967 - Stormy life in the south
• 1970 - Master
• 1972 - Marble House
• 1975 - Center from the skies
• 1978 - While the dream is mad
• 2007 - Tatyana
• 2009 - Jester

Plays

• 1965 - "Always on sale"
• 1966 - "Your killer"
• 1968 - "Four Temperaments"
• 1968 - "Aristophaniana with frogs"
• 1980 - "Heron"
• 1998 - "Woe, woe, burn"
• 1999 - "Aurora Gorelik"
• 2000 - "Ah, Arthur Schopenhauer"

Screen adaptations

• 1962 - Colleagues
• 1962 - My little brother (based on the novel Star Ticket)
• 1966 - Journey (film almanac based on the stories "Dad, Fold!", "Breakfasts of the forty-third year", "Halfway to the Moon")
• 2004 - Moscow Saga (TV series)
• 2015 - Mysterious passion (TV series)

Bibliography

• Aksenov V. "Colleagues" - M., Soviet writer, 1961. - 150,000 copies.
• Aksenov V. "Catapult" - M., Soviet writer, 1964. - 30,000 copies.
• Aksenov V. "It's time, my friend, it's time." - M., Young Guard, 1965. - 115,000 copies.
• Aksenov V. "Halfway to the Moon". - M., Soviet Russia, 1966. - 100,000 copies.
• Aksenov V. “It is a pity that you were not with us” - M., Soviet writer, 1969. - 384 p., 100,000 copies.
• Aksenov V. "Love of Electricity" - M., Politizdat, 1971. - 200,000 copies; 2nd ed. 1974. - 200,000 copies.
• Aksenov V."My grandfather is a monument." - M., Children's literature, 1972., 208 p., 100,000 copies.
• Aksenov V. A chest in which something knocks. - M.: Children's literature, 1976
• Aksyonov V. "Island of Crimea". - M., Ogonyok, 1990. - 200,000 copies.
• Aksyonov V. Burn. - M., Ogonyok, 1990. - 200,000 copies.
• Aksenov V. "In search of a sad baby" - M., MAI - "Text", 1991. - 320 p., 100,000 copies.
• Aksyonov V. My grandfather is a monument. Kemerovo, 1991
• Aksyonov V. Rendezvous. - M.: Text-RIF, 1991
• Aksenov V."In search of a sad baby" "Two books about America". - Independent almanac "The End of the Century", 1992, - 50,000 copies.
• Aksenov V. Moscow saga. In 3 books. - M., Text, 1993-1994., - 50,000 copies.
• Aksenov V."Right to the Island". - M., Moscow worker, 1991. - 624 p. - 75,000 copies.
• Aksenov V. Moscow saga. Book. 1 "Generation of winter". - Isographus.
• Aksenov V. Moscow saga. Book. 2 "War and prison". - Isographus.
• Aksenov V. Moscow saga. Book. 3 Prison and Peace. - Isographus.
• Aksenov V."Negative of a positive hero." - Vagrius-Izograph, 1996. - 304 p., 10,000 copies.
• Aksenov V."Negative of a positive hero." - Vagrius-Izograph, 1998. - 304 p., 5,000 copies.
• Aksenov V.
• Aksenov V."Death of Pompeii". - Isograph.
• Aksenov V."Caesarean Glow". - Izographus-EKSMO-press, 2001. - 640 p. - 15,000 copies.
• Aksenov V."Voltaireans and Voltairians". - Isographus.
• Aksyonov V. Overstocked barrels. - M., Izograph-EXMO-press, 2001
• Aksenov V. Overstocked barrel. - M., Izograf-EKSMO, 2002
• Aksenov V."Oranges from Morocco" - M., Eksmo-Isographus., 2003.
• Aksenov V. Egg yolk. - M., Izographus-EKSMO., 2003
• Aksenov V. "American Cyrillic" - M., NLO, 2004. - 3,000 copies.
• Aksenov V."Rare Earths". - EXMO.
• Aksenov V. Moscow Kva-Kva. - EKSMO, 2006.
• Aksenov V."A decade of slander". - Isographus-EKSMO, 2004. - 7,100 copies.
• Aksenov V."In Search of the Sad Baby". - M., Izograph - Eksmo, 2005. - 7,000 copies.
• Aksenov V."Egg yolk" - Isographus - EKSMO, 2005. - 7,000 copies.
• Aksyonov V. Z atomic barrel. - M., Izograph-EKSMO, 2005
• Aksenov V."Say raisins." - RIA "InfA".
• Aksenov V."Say raisins." - EXMO.
• Aksenov V."Island of Crimea". - MIF Literary Agency.
• Aksenov V."Island of Crimea". - ISOGRAPH.
• Aksenov V."Mysterious Passion" (a novel about the sixties). - Seven days, 2009. - 591 p.
• Aksenov V."Lend-Lease". - EXMO.
• Aksenov V."Lion's Lair". - AST; Astrel.-5.
• Aksenov V."Oh, this flying youngster!" - EKSMO, 2012.
• Aksenov V."One solid Caruso." Compiled by V. Esipov. - M., EKSMO, 2014.
• Aksenov V.“Catch pigeon mail. Letters. Compiled by V. Esipov. - M., AST, 2015.
• Aksenov V."Lion's Lair". Compiled by V. Esipov. M., Astrel.-5
• Aksenov V. Mysterious passion ”(a novel about the sixties). Author's version. - M., IP Biryukova Oksana Anatolyevna, 2015. - 738 p. - 25,000 copies.

Vasily Aksenov was born on August 20, 1932 in Kazan, in the family of Evgenia Solomonovna Ginzburg (1904-1977) and Pavel Vasilievich Aksyonov (1899-1991). He was the third, youngest child in the family (and the only common child of his parents). Father, Pavel Vasilyevich, was the chairman of the Kazan City Council and a member of the bureau of the Tatar regional committee of the CPSU. Mother, Evgenia Solomonovna, worked as a teacher at the Kazan Pedagogical Institute, then as head of the culture department of the Krasnaya Tatariya newspaper. Subsequently, having gone through the horror of the Stalinist camps, at the time of the exposure of the cult of personality, Yevgenia Ginzburg became the author of the book of memoirs "The Steep Route" - one of the first memoirs about the era of Stalinist repressions and camps, which told about the eighteen years spent by the author in prison, Kolyma camps and link.

In 1937, when Vasily Aksyonov was not yet five years old, both parents (first mother, and then soon father) were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison and labor camps. The older children - sister Maya (daughter of P.V. Aksyonov) and Alyosha (son of E.S. Ginzburg from his first marriage) were taken by relatives. Vasya was forcibly sent to an orphanage for the children of prisoners (his grandmothers were not allowed to keep the child). In 1938, P. Aksyonov's brother, Andrey Vasilyevich Aksyonov, managed to find little Vasya in an orphanage in Kostroma and take him to him. Vasya lived in the house of Moti Aksyonova (his paternal relative) until 1948, when his mother Evgenia Ginzburg, leaving the camp in 1947 and living in exile in Magadan, obtained permission for Vasya to visit her in Kolyma. Evgenia Ginzburg will describe the meeting with Vasya in The Steep Route.

Many years later, in 1975, Vasily Aksyonov described his Magadan youth in his autobiographical novel The Burn.

In 1956, Aksyonov graduated from the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute and was assigned to the Baltic Shipping Company, where he was supposed to work as a doctor on long-distance ships. Despite the fact that his parents had already been rehabilitated, he was never given permission. Later it was mentioned that Aksyonov worked as a quarantine doctor in the Far North, in Karelia, in the Leningrad Sea Commercial Port and in a tuberculosis hospital in Moscow (according to other sources, he was a consultant at the Moscow Research Institute of Tuberculosis).

A family

• Half-sister (by father) - Maya Pavlovna Aksyonova, teacher-methodologist, author of methodological and teaching aids on teaching the Russian language. Half-brother (by mother) - Alexei Dmitrievich Fedorov (1926-1941), died during the Leningrad blockade. The mother's adopted daughter is actress Antonina Pavlovna Aksyonova (original surname Khinchinskaya, born 1945).
• The first wife is Kira Ludvigovna Mendeleva, the daughter of the brigade commander Lajos (Ludwig Matvevich) Gavro and the granddaughter of the famous pediatrician and healthcare organizer Yulia Aronovna Mendeleva (1883-1959), founder and first rector of the Leningrad Pediatric Medical Institute (1925-1949).
  • Son - Alexei Vasilyevich Aksyonov (born 1960), production designer.
• The second wife, Maya Afanasievna Aksyonova (nee Zmeul, Ovchinnikova in her first marriage, Carmen in her second marriage; born 1930), graduated from the Institute of Foreign Trade, worked at the Chamber of Commerce, and taught Russian in America.
  • Stepdaughter - Elena (Alena) (1954 - August 2008).

Since 1960, Vasily Aksyonov has been a professional writer. The story "Colleagues" (written in 1959; the play of the same name together with Y. Stabov, 1961; the film of the same name, 1962), the novels "Star Ticket" (1961) (the film "My Little Brother", 1962) was filmed on it), the story " Oranges from Morocco (1962), It's time, my friend, it's time (1963), the collections Catapult (1964), Halfway to the Moon (1966), the play Always on Sale (staged by the Sovremennik Theater , 1965); in 1968, the satirical-fiction story "The Overstocked Barrel" was published.

In the 1960s, the works of V. Aksyonov were often published in the journal Yunost. For several years he has been a member of the editorial board of the journal. On March 5, 1966, Vasily Aksyonov participated in an attempted demonstration on Red Square in Moscow against Stalin's alleged rehabilitation. He was detained by vigilantes. In 1967-1968, he signed a number of letters in defense of dissidents, for which he received a reprimand from the Moscow branch of the Writers' Union of the USSR.

Back in March 1963, at a meeting with the intelligentsia in the Kremlin, Nikita Khrushchev sharply criticized Aksyonov (together with Andrei Voznesensky). And in the 1970s, after the end of the "thaw", Aksyonov's works ceased to be published in his homeland. The novels The Burn (1975) and The Island of Crimea (1979) were created by the author from the very beginning without any expectation of publication. At this time, criticism of V. Aksyonov and his works is becoming more and more harsh: such epithets as "non-Soviet" and "non-folk" are used. In 1977-1978, Aksyonov's works began to appear abroad, primarily in the United States.

In 1972, together with O. Gorchakov and G. Pozhenyan, he wrote a novel-parody of the spy thriller "Gene Green - Untouchable" under the pseudonym Grivadiy Gorpozhaks (a combination of names and surnames of real authors). 1976 - translated from English the novel by E. L. Doctorow "Ragtime".

In 1978, V. Aksyonov, together with Andrei Bitov, Viktor Erofeev, Fazil Iskander, Evgeny Popov, Bella Akhmadulina, became one of the organizers and authors of the uncensored almanac Metropol. Never published in the Soviet censored press, the almanac was published in the USA. Like all participants in the almanac, he underwent "studies". In protest against the subsequent exclusion of Popov and Erofeev from the Union of Writers of the USSR in December 1979, V. Aksyonov, as well as Inna Lisnyanskaya and Semyon Lipkin, announced their withdrawal from the joint venture. The history of the almanac is set out in the novel "with the key" "Say" raisins "".

On July 22, 1980, he left for the United States at the invitation, after which in 1981 he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. Until 2004 he lived in the USA.

Since 1981, Vasily Aksyonov has been a professor of Russian literature at various US universities: Kennan Institute (1981-1982), George Washington University (1982-1983), Goucher College (1983-1988), George Mason University (1988-2009).

In 1980-1991, as a journalist, he actively collaborated with Voice of America and Radio Liberty. Collaborated with the magazine "Continent" and the almanac "Verb". Aksenov's radio essays were published in the author's collection "A decade of slander" (2004).

The novels “Our Golden Iron” (1973, 1980), “Burn” (1976, 1980), “Island of Crimea” (1979, 1981), written by Aksyonov in Russia, but first published only after the writer’s arrival in America, came out in the USA in the USA. collection of short stories "The Right to the Island" (1981). Also in the USA, V. Aksyonov wrote and published new novels: “Paper Landscape” (1982), “Say Raisin” (1985), “In Search of a Sad Baby” (1986), the Moscow Saga trilogy (1989, 1991 , 1993), a collection of short stories "The Negative of a Good Hero" (1995), "A New Sweet Style" (1996) (dedicated to the life of Soviet emigration in the United States), "Caesarean Glow" (2000).

The novel "The Yolk of an Egg" (1989) was written by V. Aksyonov in English, then translated into Russian by the author.

In the USA, Aksyonov was awarded the honorary title of Doctor of Humane Letters. He was a member of the PEN Club and the American Authors' League.

For the first time, after nine years of emigration, Aksyonov visited the USSR in 1989 at the invitation of the American Ambassador J. Matlock. In 1990, Aksyonov was returned to Soviet citizenship.

Recently he lived with his family in Biarritz, France, and in Moscow.

The Moscow Saga trilogy (1992) was filmed in Russia in 2004 by A. Barshchevsky in a serial television series.

In 1993, during the dispersal of the Supreme Council, he sided with those who signed the letter in support of B. N. Yeltsin.

In 2004, V. Aksyonov was awarded the Russian Booker Prize for his novel The Voltaireans and Voltaireans. In 2005, Vasily Aksyonov was awarded the Order of Arts and Literature.

On January 15, 2008, in Moscow, V. Aksyonov suddenly felt very ill, was hospitalized in hospital No. 23, where he was diagnosed with a stroke. A day after hospitalization, Aksenov was transferred to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute, where he underwent an operation to remove a carotid thrombus. On January 29, 2008, doctors assessed the writer's condition as extremely serious. As of August 28, 2008, the condition remained "stably grave." On March 5, 2009, new complications arose, Aksyonov was transferred to the Burdenko Research Institute and operated on. Later Aksyonov was transferred back to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute.

On July 6, 2009, after a long illness, Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov died in Moscow, at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute.

Since 2007, the Aksyonov-Fest International Literary and Musical Festival has been held in Kazan every autumn (in October) (the first was held with his personal participation), in 2009 the building was recreated and the Aksyonov Literary House-Museum was opened, in which the city literary club operates.

In October 2009, Vasily Aksyonov's last completed novel, Mysterious Passion. A novel about the sixties”, separate chapters of which were published in 2008 in the magazine “Collection of a caravan of stories”. The novel is autobiographical; its main characters were the idols of Soviet literature and art of the 1960s: Robert Rozhdestvensky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Bella Akhmadulina, Andrei Voznesensky, Bulat Okudzhava, Andrei Tarkovsky, Vladimir Vysotsky, Ernst Neizvestny, Marlen Khutsiev and others. In order to distance himself from the memoir genre, the author gave fictitious names to the characters in the novel.

In 2010, Aksyonov's unfinished autobiographical novel "Lend-Lease" was published.

In 2011, Alexander Kabakov and Evgeny Popov published a joint book of memoirs "Aksenov". The authors are extremely concerned about the issue of "writer's fate", related to the intricacies of biography, the birth of a great Personality. The super-task of the book is to resist the distortion of facts for the sake of this or that conjuncture.

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:

• "Voltairians 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))

I cannot call Aksenov a great writer of the 20th century. He has a peculiar view of art, which can be explained by a difficult life in an orphanage and resentment against the government for the repression of his parents. Perhaps for this reason he became a sharp anti-Stalinist. For which he was expelled from the USSR. In almost every of his works, there is a dislike for the system that existed at that time. If we consider this story, then oranges here act as a kind of symbol of freedom. But this symbol is small, there is not enough for everyone, which means that it must be divided. In the same way, they "divide" the two main characters. More precisely, they themselves are torn apart, not knowing what choice to make. I will definitely re-read the book when it goes on sale. And I advise all lovers of prose of the 60s to familiarize themselves with it.

I love Aksenov's prose! He writes great! His stories can be understood by both adults and children. I came across this piece as a teenager. Then it made a huge impression on me! Actually, oranges are used here rather in a figurative sense. But the main message is that in the era of the 60s it was an unusual and scarce product, especially in the Far East. Orange here is a symbol of the sun, a breakthrough and a miracle! Perhaps someone will find references to the famous rhyme: "We shared an orange ...", but in my opinion this is too primitive a comparison. Most importantly, this book is about people, not fruits. I am very glad that I can buy it again in hardcover.

Catherine

I had never read the stories of Vasily Aksenov before, so I was only familiar with novels. I read this book and was very impressed! Moreover, I liked the language of the narration - easy, relaxed and at the same time meaningful, literary, literate! I liked the way the author puts interesting thoughts into the mouths of the characters, how he endows them with characters and habits. You don’t even notice how you involuntarily begin to feel some kind of kinship with them. After reading, there is a feeling that you don’t want to let them go, you want to continue to follow their fate.
The book is beautifully designed and is a real pleasure to hold in your hands! Despite the impressive volume, the stories are read easily and quickly, you can even say that you don’t notice how you are approaching the end of the story.

Thanks to this book, I discovered Vasily Aksenov in a new way! Previously, this author was exclusively a novelist for me, but now I discovered him as a great storyteller. This is an example of excellent intellectual prose that makes you think about many things, rethink your attitude to life, mourn somewhere, and laugh somewhere ... To be honest, I liked this book even more than The Island of Crimea. Maybe due to the fact that I, in principle, gravitate more towards the small form of narration, of course. But Aksenov is certainly a talented and amazing writer, whose work must be studied without fail.

I began to read the novel as historical, not fantasy as it really is (if two assumptions, one geographical, the other historical, can make a novel fantastic?. And somewhere before page twenty, I was completely at a loss, until it finally dawned on me to go to Wikipedia and read that the novel is a historical hoax that has two assumptions: Crimea is an island, not a peninsula, and it was never Soviet, the White Guard emigrants who fled after the revolution of 17 years turned Crimea into a prosperous democratic state, and the purpose of the novel is to denounce the flawed political system of the Soviet Union.
Despite my dislike for “political pamphlets,” as some reviewers call the novel, I enjoyed reading, mainly, however, from love scenes, from describing the beauties of the Crimea and the life of its inhabitants, from the family relations of the Luchnikovs and Lunins. Speaking, by the way, surnames. The main character Andrei Luchnikov is obviously the Sun, he is even called “a ray of light in the dark kingdom” somewhere in the text, and his old love Tatyana Lunina is the Moon, as well as the image of the motherland, the Motherland to which the hero strives to return . Therefore, she leaves him towards the end of the novel, because in the blindness of his ideological excitement, he not only ceases to notice her, but also to love her (their last bed scene is almost rape).
But, in order.
Three generations of vrevacuants (temporarily evacuated) Luchnikovs: grandfather, son, grandson are representatives of one of the most influential families on OK (Island of Crimea), they are also representatives of three different ideological directions: grandfather Arseniy Luchnikov is an adherent of the old, pre-revolutionary Russia, he and the provisional government of the island are the heirs of noble honor, officers, old men who never surrendered to the red regime (by the way, they surrender to the red invaders at the end of the novel, but no one needs their honor and dignity anymore - this is in the past). Son Andrei Luchnikov, editor-in-chief and owner of the Russian Courier magazine, race car driver, womanizer, jame bond and batman in one bottle, as well as the creator and engine of the Idea of ​​a Common Destiny, which embodied the longing of a Russian emigrant for his homeland, who agrees to any reunion with her with the best of intentions - to be useful to her. Anton Luchnikov - the grandson of Arseniy and the son of Andrey - is a hippie, a man of the world, a child of capitalist progress and, as it is now customary to say, liberal-humanistic ideals, having arrived on the island after long wanderings around the world, he joins the political movement of the Yaquis - a new nation that mixed Russians, Tatars and Europeans, and trying not only to develop a unified political strategy, but also to create their own language. And so, in fact, this family contradiction of views is, as it were, interpolated throughout the entire novel, but the confrontation of these forces, embodied in some table disputes, bath gatherings, behind-the-scenes tactics and undercover games, and even in a car rally looks rather naive, overly glamorous and, despite the abundance of profanity, somehow family-friendly. From the very beginning, no one, as it were, especially doubts that Andrei Luchnikov and his idea of ​​\u200b\u200bCommon Fate, which really wins, have the main truth and strength. And only in this way, having won, can it discredit itself, because instead of a reasonable and mutually beneficial unification of the island with the Soviet Union, an absurd and perfidious attack on the island takes place under the guise of the "Spring Games", although the Crimea itself asked for accession. The main characters are waiting for them to come and ask how everything works. No one asks anyone, almost all the main characters die. And life from a free and colorful fair immediately turns into the absurdity of propaganda, false triumphs, imperial stupidity and senseless violence.

Of the minuses, the author fails to show the very Russia with which the main character longs for unity. The Soviet Union is shown only from the bad side - it is an empire of lies, informers and fear. So, obviously, and sees its author. Nevertheless, he seems to be trying to reconcile the Russian emigration with the Soviet Union (I think this was an urgent task in the 70s), but the events of the novel show that the Red Empire will simply swallow the emigrants like a ruthless luminous shark (an image of the homeland or party that pursued one of the employees of the State Security Service, Kuzenkov Marlen Mikhailovich, who went crazy and was killed by a storm).

I would like to talk about the image of the main character. At times it seemed to me that I was reading about Dunno in the Sunny City, only Dunno has matured, he has an adult son (and at the end of the novel a grandson is born), he drinks a lot, plays political games, and, like James Bond, without fear and reproach, he fucks young beauties and escapes from the persecution of any intelligence agencies of the world, but nevertheless remains Dunno, since he does not understand the fact, obvious to all the other characters of the novel, about the fatality for himself and his relatives of the annexation of Crimea to the Soviet Union.

In general, the work leaves a contradictory impression. Although many reviewers are inclined to interpret it unambiguously, to see it as a denunciation of the "Soviet Deputies", Russia's imperial habits, and sometimes even as the author's statement about the total inferiority and limitations of the Russian nation as a whole. I would not be so unequivocal in my assessments.
The novel is undoubtedly iconic. From the fact that the interim head of the Crimea Aksyonov (mind you, two coincidences! “Provisional” and “Aksenov”) asked for the annexation of Crimea to Russia, from the events in which it happened, I admit, I get goosebumps. The writers again either prophesied or predicted. And if you don’t go into subtleties, then, in my opinion, this is a warning and prejudice against the return of the “Soviet Deputies” (Stepanida Vlasyevna, as they call her in the novel). And in this sense, today, when “Crimea is Ours,” the novel is even more relevant than ever, because it warns and feeds the fears that the liberal-minded intelligentsia is full of.
On the other hand, the main character Andrey Luch still evokes sympathy from the author and the reader, nevertheless he is a superhero, albeit in the format of the ironic Aksenov, most of us still understand the protagonist’s longing for his homeland, and let his desire to reunite even at the cost of our own lives, we are close to the author's attempt to discuss with himself and with the reader about the national idea, without which it is still impossible ... Without it, they will still look for it.