Who is the father of Aksenov's first wife. Vasily Aksenov - biography, information, personal life
Aksenov Vasily Pavlovich is a well-known Russian writer in wide circles. His works, imbued with the spirit of freethinking, tough and touching, sometimes surreal, do not leave any reader indifferent. The article will consider the biography of Vasily Aksenov and provide a list of his most interesting literary works.
early years
In 1932, on August 20, in the city of Kazan, Pavel Aksenov, chairman of the Kazan City Council, and Evgenia Ginzburg, a teacher at the Kazan Pedagogical Institute, had a son, Vasily. According to the account in the family, he was already the third child, but the only common one. When the boy was not yet five years old, both parents (first mother, then father) were arrested and then convicted, each to ten years in prison. Having passed the Stalinist camps, he would later publish a book of memoirs about the era of repressions, The Steep Route, which tells about eighteen years spent in prisons, exiles, and Kolyma camps. But this is not about that now, we are interested in the biography of Vasily Aksenov.
After the conclusion of the parents of older children - Alyosha (son of Evgenia Ginzburg) and Maya (daughter of Pavel Aksenov) - relatives took them to be raised. And Vasya was forcibly sent to an orphanage for the children of convicts (the boy's grandmothers wanted to keep him, but they were not allowed to). In 1938, Pyotr Aksenov's brother, Andreyan, found the child in the Kostroma orphanage and took him to him. Until 1948, Vasya lived with a paternal relative, Motya Aksenova, until the boy's mother, released from prison in 1947, obtained permission to move her son to her in Kolyma. Later, the writer Vasily Aksenov will describe his Magadan youth in the novel The Burn.
Education and work
In 1956, the guy graduated from the Leningrad Medical Institute and, by distribution, was supposed to work as a doctor in the Baltic Shipping Company on long-distance ships. However, he was not given permission, despite the fact that his parents had been rehabilitated by that time. There is evidence that Vasily Aksenov worked as a quarantine doctor in Karelia, in the Far North, in a tuberculosis hospital in Moscow (according to other information, he was a consultant at the Tuberculosis Research Institute in Moscow), as well as in the commercial seaport of Leningrad.
The beginning of literary activity
Aksenov can be considered a professional writer since 1960. In 1959, he wrote the story "Colleagues" (the film of the same name was shot on it in 1962), in 1960 - the work "Star Ticket" (the film "My Little Brother" was also shot on it in 1962), two years later - the story "Oranges from Morocco", and in 1963 - the novel "It's time, my friend, it's time". Then Vasily Aksenov's books "Catapult" (1964) and "Halfway to the Moon" (1966) were published. In 1965, the play "Always on Sale" was written, which in the same year was staged on the stage of "Sovremennik". In 1968, the story of the satirical-fiction genre "Overstocked Barrel" was published. In the sixties of the twentieth century, the works of Vasily Aksenov were published quite often in the journal Yunost. The writer worked for several years on the editorial board of this publication.
Seventies
In 1970, the first part of the adventure dilogy for children "My grandfather is a monument" was published, in 1972 - the second part - "A chest in which something knocks." In 1971, the story "Love for Electricity" (about Leonid Krasin) was published, written in the historical and biographical genre. A year later, the Novy Mir magazine published an experimental work called The Search for a Genre. 1972 also saw the creation of Jean Green the Untouchable, a parody of the spy thriller. Vasily Aksenov worked on it together with Grigory Pozhenyan and Oleg Gorchakov. The work was published under the authorship of Grivadiy Gorpozhaks (a pseudonym from a combination of the names and surnames of three writers). In 1976, the writer translated from English the novel "Ragtime" by Edgar Lawrence Doctorow.
Social activity
The biography of Vasily Aksenov is filled with difficulties and hardships. In March 1966, while participating in an attempted demonstration against the intended rehabilitation of Stalin in Moscow, on Red Square, the writer was detained by vigilantes. In the next two years, Aksenov put his signature in a number of letters sent in defense of dissidents, and received a reprimand for this from the Moscow branch of the Writers' Union of the USSR with entering into the case.
Nikita Khrushchev, at a meeting with the intelligentsia back in 1963, sharply criticized Vasily Aksenov and Andrei Voznesensky. When the "thaw" ended, the writer's works were no longer published in his homeland. In 1975, the novel "The Burn" was written, which we have already mentioned. Vasily Aksenov did not even hope for its publication. "Island of Crimea" - a novel in the fantasy genre - was also originally created by the author without the expectation that the work would be published and seen by the world. At this time (1979), criticism towards the writer became more and more sharp, such epithets as “anti-people”, “non-Soviet” began to slip in it. But in 1977-1978, Aksenov's works began to appear abroad, mainly in the United States of America.
Together with Iskander Fazil, Bella Akhmadulina, Andrey Bitov and Yevgeny Popov, Vasily Aksenov in 1978 became a co-author and organizer of the Metropol almanac. It never got into the Soviet censored press, but it was published in the USA. After that, all the participants of the almanac were subjected to "studies". This was followed by the expulsion of Erofeev and Popov from the Union of Writers of the USSR, and in protest, Vasily Aksenov, together with Semyon Lipkin and Inna Lisnyanskaya, also announced their withdrawal from the joint venture.
Life in the USA
At the invitation in the summer of 1980, the writer left for the United States, and in 1981 for this he was deprived of the citizenship of the USSR. Aksenov lived in the USA until 2004. During his stay there, he worked as a professor of Russian literature at various American universities: the Kennan Institute (from 1981 to 1982), the University of Washington (from 1982 to 1983), Goucher College (from 1983 to 1988), Mason University (from 1988 to 2009). As a journalist between 1980 and 1991 Aksenov Vasily collaborated with Radio Liberty, Voice of America, the Verb almanac and the Continent magazine. The writer's radio essays were published in the collection "A decade of slander", published in 2004.
In the United States, the works written, but not published in Russia, "The Burn", "Our Golden Iron", "The Island of Crimea", the collection "The Right to the Island" were released. However, Vasily Aksenov continued to create in America: "The Moscow Saga" (trilogy, 1989, 1991, 1993), "The Negative of the Good Hero" (collection of stories, 1995), "The New Sweet Style" (a novel dedicated to the life of Soviet emigrants in the USA, 1996) - all this was written while living in the United States. The writer created works not only in Russian, in 1989 the novel “The Yolk of an Egg” was written in English (though the author himself later translated it). At the invitation of Jack Matlock, the American ambassador, Aksyonov came to the Soviet Union for the first time after going abroad (nine years later). In 1990, the Soviet citizenship was returned to the writer.
Work in Russia
In 1993, during the dispersal of the Supreme Soviet, Vasily Aksyonov again openly showed his convictions and expressed solidarity with the people who signed a letter in support of Yeltsin. Anton Barshchevsky in 2004 filmed the trilogy "The Moscow Saga" in Russia. In the same year, the magazine "October" published the work of the writer "Voltaireans and Voltaireans", which was later awarded. In 2005, Aksenov wrote a book of memoirs called "The Apple of the Eye" in the form of a personal diary.
last years of life
In his last years, the writer and his family lived either in France, in the city of Biarritz, or in Moscow. In the Russian capital, on January 15, 2008, Aksenov felt unwell, he was hospitalized in the writer's office. The writer was diagnosed with a stroke. A day later, Vasily Pavlovich was transferred to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute, he underwent an operation to remove a blood clot in the carotid artery. For a long time, the writer's condition remained rather difficult. And in March 2009, new complications appeared. Aksenov was transferred to the Burdenko Institute and operated on again. Then Vasily Pavlovich was again hospitalized in It was there that on July 6, 2009 the writer died. Vasily Pavlovich was buried in Moscow, at the Vagankovsky cemetery. In November 2009 in Kazan, in the house where the writer once lived, the Museum of his work was organized.
Vasily Aksenov: “Mysterious passion. A novel about the sixties"
This is the last finished work of a talented writer. It was published in its entirety after Aksenov's death, in October 2009. Prior to this, in 2008, individual chapters were published in the publication "Collection of the caravan of stories." The novel is autobiographical, its heroes are the idols of art and literature of the sixties of the twentieth century: Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Bulat Okudzhava, Andrei Voznesensky, Ernst Neizvestny, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Bella Akhmadulina, Marlen Khutsiev, Vladimir Vysotsky, Andrei Tarkovsky and others. Aksyonov gave fictitious names to the characters so that the work would not be associated with the memoir genre.
Prizes, awards, memory
In the United States of America, the writer was awarded the degree of Doctor of Humane Sciences. He was also a member of the American Authors' League and the PEN Club. In 2004, Aksenov was awarded the Russian Booker Prize for his work The Voltairians and the Voltairians. A year later, he was awarded the honorary Order of Arts and Letters. The writer was a member of the Russian Academy of Arts.
Since 2007, an international literary and musical festival called "Aksenov-fest" has been held in Kazan every year. For the first time it was held with the personal participation of Vasily Pavlovich. In 2009, the Literary House-Museum of the famous writer was opened, and a literary city club is now functioning in it. In 2010, the autobiographical unfinished novel of the writer "Lend-Lease" was published. Its presentation took place on November 7 at the Vasily Aksenov House-Museum.
Evgeny Popov and Alexander Kabakov in 2011 jointly published a book of memoirs about Vasily Pavlovich, which they called “Aksenov”. In it, they consider the writer's fate, the intricacies of biography, the process of the birth of a great Personality. The main task and idea of the book is to prevent the distortion of facts in favor of certain events.
Family
Vasily Aksenov's maternal brother, Alexei, died during the siege of Leningrad. My paternal sister, Maya, is a teacher-methodologist, the author of many textbooks on the Russian language. The first wife of the writer was Kira Mendelev, in marriage with her Aksenov had a son Alexei in 1960. Now he works as a production designer. The second wife and widow of the writer, Maya Aksenova (born in 1930), is a specialist in foreign trade by education. During her family's life in the United States, she taught Russian, and in Russia she worked at the Chamber of Commerce. Vasily Pavlovich and Maya Afanasyevna had no joint children, but Aksenov had a stepdaughter Elena (born in 1954). She died in August 2008.
Books by Vasily Aksenov have enjoyed unprecedented popularity among thinking readers for several decades. Among them there are completely different works: tough and romantic, truthful and utopian. Therefore, each person will be able to find something for himself in the work of Vasily Pavlovich.
Biography
Biography of Vasily turned out to be difficult but interesting and eventful. To get acquainted with it will certainly be interesting to all fans of his literary work. In addition, Wikipedia will tell information about the life of Aksenov Vasily Pavlovich.
early years
Aksenov was born in 1932 in Kazan to the chairman of the city council and a teacher at a well-known pedagogical university in the city. He became the third child in the family, but the first common son of Pavel and Evgenia. The early years of the boy's life were happy and joyful. His parents loved him very much and tried to spend all their free time with him. In the evenings, my father played board games with Vasya, took him with him on fishing trips and into the forest for mushrooms. True, the happy time did not last long.
When the future writer turned 4 years old, his parents were arrested one by one and sent to Stalinist camps for 10 years. Vasily's mother spent a total of 18 years in exile and prison. It was about this that she later wrote an autobiographical book, which is still popular to this day.
The brother and sister of the younger Aksenov, after the conclusion of their parents, were somewhat more fortunate. Alexei and Maya were taken in by relatives of the family. Interestingly, the baby's grandmothers wanted to raise Vasya as well, but they were forbidden to do so. As a result, the boy ended up in an orphanage for the sons and daughters of convicts, which was located in Kostroma. Relatives were not even informed? in which city the child was sent. Two years later, he was taken from there by his paternal uncle. Andreyan had to make a lot of efforts to find his nephew. From that time and throughout the war, Vasily lived with relatives.
As soon as the boy's mother was released from prison, she immediately began to try to get permission to cohabitation with son. As a result, Aksenov Jr. moved to her in Kolyma. Here she was as an exile. By the way, the writer will tell about his childhood years in these parts in one of his novels.
Education
During his childhood, Vasily had to learn in a variety of schools. He was never an excellent student, but he loved to get new knowledge. The boy had a special inclination for the humanities. True, his parents then could not even think that in the end the younger Aksenov would become a writer. After receiving a school certificate, the young man entered the Leningrad Medical Institute. This was insisted on by his relatives, who believed that only the profession of a doctor could feed the guy. After graduating from the university, he is by distribution I have worked in different places:
- In the capital's tuberculosis hospital;
- In the Far North (quarantine doctor);
- In Karelia (general specialist).
By the way, by the time Vasily received his diploma, his parents were already free and fully rehabilitated.
Creation
Despite the fact that, at the insistence of his parents, the young man received a medical education, the profession of a doctor never did not arouse much interest in him. He knew his business very well and from the first months of his work he was known among his colleagues as a real professional, but his soul aspired to literature.
The beginning of writing
At first, Vasily wrote his books "on the table." But in the 60s, he nevertheless decided to send one of his most beloved stories to a publisher. The young man was extremely surprised and delighted that the work "Colleagues" immediately appeared in print. The reader liked it so much that it later turned into a full-length film.
After that, one by one, the novels of Vasily Aksenov and collections of his stories begin to come out. According to some of them, a movie is also being made in the future. For example, the novel Star Ticket turned into the film My Little Brother. It was especially pleasant for Vasily Pavlovich that shortly after the beginning of his literary activity, the Sovremennik Theater staged a full-fledged performance based on his play. Success so inspired the man that he decided to finally change his profession.
The name Aksenov is becoming more and more popular in Moscow, and then in other cities of the country. He becomes the editor of the magazine "Youth", in which his works are also periodically published. The writer's parents anxiously look for each new issue and add it to the family collection.
Social activity
In parallel with literature, Vasily became interested in social activities. First, he volunteered to participate in a demonstration on Red Square, where he opposed the rehabilitation of Stalin, then he signed letters in defense of dissidents. There were quite a lot of such acts, which could not go unnoticed by the authorities.
Aksenov's public activity the government didn't like it much. He first learned about this at a meeting between the authorities and intellectuals in the Kremlin. Then he heard public criticism of himself from Nikita Khrushchev. Once Vasily Pavlovich was even detained by combatants. Of course, there were no grounds for the arrest of the writer, but he was repeatedly made to understand that he urgently needed to change his line of behavior.
Despite the disagreements that arose with the authorities, the man continued to create and delight his fans with new works. In the early 70s, an adventure book for the youngest readers saw the light of day. It proved to be very popular with children and their parents. Then the historical and biographical story "Love for Electricity" appeared in the press. Vasily was very fond of experimenting with literary genres. He himself noted that for a very long time he could not find exactly the direction in which he would find it most interesting and comfortable to work. He shared his doubts with readers in the work "The Search for a Genre".
Aksenov was engaged and translations from English. He managed to make several foreign novels available to the domestic reader at once. Among the literary experiments of Vasily Pavlovich was even a joint work with two other writers. They became a funny parody of a book about spies.
Aksenov himself understood that conflicts and misunderstandings with the government would sooner or later lead to the fact that he would no longer be able to publish in his homeland. And so it happened: as soon as the “thaw” ended. True, some works by Vasily Aksenov were nevertheless published (much to the surprise of the author himself). Among them are the autobiographical novel mentioned above about the early years of life and the fantastic book The Island of Crimea. Vasily noted that he created these works “on the table” and, on the whole, did not at all hope that they would ever see the world.
By the end of the 70s the authorities begin to criticize the writer more and more openly and sharply. Such an epithet as “non-Soviet” already sounds in his address. And the last straw for the government was the withdrawal of Vasily Pavlovich from the Union of Writers. Thus, he and several other authors expressed their disagreement with the expulsion of Popov and Erofeev from the specified public organization.
Since 1977, Aksenov's works have been actively published abroad. Especially often they appear in print in the United States. It is here that Vasily, together with his creative comrades, organizes the Metropol almanac. Despite the great efforts of the entire team, it was not possible to publish it at home. Among the staff of the magazine were V. Erofeev, A. Bitov, B. Akhmadulina and other "outcasts" of their country.
Life in the USA
For moving abroad (by invitation) Vasily Aksenov was deprived of citizenship of the USSR. This greatly upset the writer, but he understood that he would not succeed in living and creating in peace in his homeland for a long time. Therefore, the man simply resigned himself to his position and remained in the United States, where he stayed until 2004. During this time, he managed to be a professor of Russian literature at the most famous American universities and replenish his own bibliography. The writer also tried himself as a journalist. He has worked with several foreign radio stations and magazines.
By the way, the man published his impressions of working on the radio in the work “A Decade of Slander”, which was published in the last year of his life in the states. Other books have also been published in America. Living in the USA, Vasily Pavlovich actively worked on new stories, novellas and novels. As a result, they the following works were written:
- "Negative of a positive hero";
- "New sweet style";
- "Egg yolk" and others.
Interestingly, the last novel was written in English. But later the author himself translated it for domestic readers. True, he did not receive much popularity at home.
Nine years after his departure from the USSR, the writer returned home for the first time. He was invited to the Soviet Union by the American ambassador. And in 1990, Aksenov was returned to Soviet citizenship. True, this did not spur him to move back. Vasily Pavlovich continued to live with his family abroad and only occasionally flew to Moscow on business.
In the early 2000s, the writer begins to publish in Russia. The first to appear in print was his novel The Voltairians and Voltaireans. For this work, Vasily was awarded the Booker Prize. His last novel was "Mysterious Passion", which tells the truth about the life of the sixties. As a result, at home, he was filmed. True, it became available to viewers after the death of the writer.
Personal life
Aksenov's first wife was K. Mendeleev, who gave the man a long-awaited son (the writer at that time was 28 years old). His ex-wife is alive to this day and is a production designer in one of the capital's theaters. True, with Kira, Vasily failed to build a strong family, even for the sake of a child. Vasily Pavlovich felt happy in love only after meeting with M. Carmen. For his sake, the woman left the famous documentary filmmaker Roman Karmen. Immediately after meeting, a real passion arose between the writer and his new lover.
Maya was far from creativity (a specialist in foreign trade), but she was ready to follow her husband to the ends of the world. She moved with the writer to the United States, where she also began to teach Russian. The couple had no joint children. Vasily and Maya raised her daughter from her first marriage. It was to the second wife that Aksenov experienced real passion and love.
Alexei, half-brother, died during the siege of Leningrad, so Vasily practically did not know him. And here paternal sister Maya, - became a very close and dear person for the writer. When, after the release of her parents, the family was reunited, the girl willingly kept in touch with the younger Aksenov and often helped him in difficult life situations. Their communication did not stop even after Vasily Pavlovich moved to the states. Maya became a teacher-methodologist and published many textbooks on the Russian language, which are still actively used by specialists to this day.
Awards
During his life, the writer Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov received many awards and prizes. Among them are the following:
- Russian Booker Prize;
- Honorary Order of Arts and Letters;
- title of honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts.
In 2011, Aksenov's comrades published a book of memoirs about him. They set their main task to convey to the reader the real facts from his life and work without any distortion in favor of the authorities and all kinds of events.
Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov. Born August 20, 1932 in Kazan - died July 6, 2009 in Moscow. Soviet and Russian writer, screenwriter.
Father - Pavel Vasilievich Aksyonov (1899-1991), 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 Ginzburg (1904-1977), worked as a teacher at the Kazan Pedagogical Institute, then - head of the culture department of the Krasnaya Tatariya newspaper.
He was the third, youngest child in the family, while being the only common child of his parents.
In 1937, when Vasily Aksyonov was not yet five years old, his parents - first his mother, and then soon his 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. Vasily was forcibly sent to an orphanage for the children of prisoners - his grandmothers were not allowed to leave the child with them.
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 described her meeting with Vasya in a book of memoirs "Cool 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.
Vasily Aksenov, Evgenia Ginzburg and Anton Walter (Magadan, 1950)
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 Commercial Sea Port and in a tuberculosis hospital in Moscow (according to other sources, he was a consultant at the Moscow Research Institute of Tuberculosis).
Since 1960, Vasily Aksyonov has been a professional writer. From his pen come the story "Colleagues" (written in 1959; the play of the same name together with Yu. Stabov, 1961; the film of the same name, 1962), the novels "Star Ticket" (written in 1961; based on it, the film "My Youngest brother ", 1962), 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 in sale” (staged by the Sovremennik Theatre, 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. He writes an 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).
Also in 1972, together with O. Gorchakov and G. Pozhenyan, he wrote a parody novel on the spy thriller "Gene Green - Untouchable" under the pseudonym Grivadiy Gorpozhaks (a combination of names and surnames of real authors).
In 1976, he translated E. L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime from English.
Back in March 1963, at a meeting with the intelligentsia in the Kremlin, he subjected Aksyonov, along 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. Novels "Burn"(1975) and Ostrov Krym (1979) 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. His famous novel "Island of Crimea" Vasily Aksyonov wrote in 1977-1979, partly during his stay in Koktebel.
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 a novel with a key "Say "raisin"".
Vasily Aksenov, Vladimir Vysotsky and Viktor Erofeev
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: 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), “The Burn” (1976, 1980), “The Island of Crimea” (1979, 1981), a collection of short stories "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.
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 1992, he actively supported Gaidar's reforms. In his words: "Gaidar kicked Mother Russia."
In 1993, during the dissolution of the Supreme Council, he sided with those who signed the letter of support.
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. 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.
In 2007, the novel "Rare Earths" was published.
Vasily Aksenov - interview
Since 2007, since 2007, the International Literary and Music Festival Aksyonov-Fest 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.
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. Vasily Aksyonov was buried on July 9, 2009 at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow.
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, the last completed novel by Vasily Aksyonov was published - "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, and its main characters are 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.
frame from the series "Mysterious Passion"
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.
In 2012, Viktor Esipov published the book "Vasily Aksenov - a lonely long-distance runner", which includes the memories of contemporaries about the writer, part of his correspondence and interviews.
Personal life of Vasily Aksenov:
First wife - Kira Ludvigovna Mendeleva (1934-2013), daughter of brigade commander Layosh (Ludwig Matveyevich) Gavro and 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).
Married in 1960, the son Alexei Vasilievich Aksyonov, production designer, was born.
The second wife is Maya Afanasyevna Aksyonova (nee Zmeul, in her first marriage Ovchinnikova, in her second marriage married to R. L. Karmen; born 1930), she graduated from the Institute of Foreign Trade, worked at the Chamber of Commerce, taught Russian in America. Stepdaughter - Elena (Alena) (1954 - August 18, 2008).
Screenplays for films by Vasily Aksenov:
1962 - When the bridges are bred
1962 - Colleagues
1962 - My little brother
1966 - Journey (film almanac)
1970 - Master
1972 - Marble House
1975 - Center from the skies
1978 - While the dream is mad
2007 - Tatyana
2009 - Jester
Plays by Vasily Aksenov:
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"
Bibliography of Vasily Aksenov:
1961 - Colleagues
1964 - "Catapult"
1965 - "It's time, my friend, it's time"
1966 - "Halfway to the Moon"
1969 - "It's a pity that you weren't with us"
1971 - "Love for Electricity"
1972 - "My grandfather is a monument"
1976 - "A chest in which something knocks"
1990 - "Island of Crimea"
1990 - "Burn"
1991 - "In search of a sad baby"
1991 - "My grandfather is a monument"
1991 - "Rendezvous"
1991 - "Right to the Island"
1992 - "In search of a sad baby" "Two books about America"
1993-1994 - "Moscow Saga" (Moscow Saga. Book 1 "Generation of Winter"; Moscow Saga. Book 2 "War and Prison"; Moscow Saga. Book 3 "Prison and Peace"
1996 - "Goodie Negative"
1998 - "Goodie Negative"
1998 - "Voltairians and Voltairians"
1999 - "The death of Pompeii"
2001 - "Caesarean Glow"
2001 - "Overstocked Barrel"
2003 - "Oranges from Morocco"
2004 - "American Cyrillic"
2004 - "Decade of slander"
2005 - "Rare Earths"
2005 - "In search of a sad baby"
2005 - "Egg Yolk"
2005 - "Overstocked Barrel"
2006 - "Moscow Kva-Kva"
2006 - "Say raisins"
2006 - "Island of Crimea"
2009 - "Mysterious Passion" (a novel about the sixties)
2009 - "Lend-Lease"
2012 - “Oh, this flying youngster!”
2014 - “One continuous Caruso” (Compiled by V. Esipov)
2015 - “Catch pigeon mail. Letters” (Compiled by V. Esipov)
2015 - "Lion's Lair" (Compiled by V. Esipov)
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.
Read completelyI 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.
Read completelyCatherine
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, which makes you think about many things, rethink your attitude to life, mourn somewhere, and laugh somewhere ... I admit honestly, I liked this book even more than The Island of Crimea. Maybe due to the fact that, in principle, I 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.
Read completely 
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 1717 revolution 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, mostly, 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 protagonist Andrey Luchnikov is obviously the Sun, somewhere in the text he is even called “a ray of light in the dark kingdom”, 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 now, 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 motherland 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.
Writer, screenwriter Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov was born on August 20, 1932 in Kazan in the family of a party leader. Parents were repressed, until the age of 16 Vasily Aksenov was brought up in an orphanage, then with his aunt. For several years he lived in Magadan, where his mother, Yevgenia Ginzburg, the author of the famous novel about Stalin's camps, The Steep Route, was in the settlement. In Magadan, Aksenov graduated from high school.
The first stories of Vasily Aksenov "Torches and Roads" and "One and a half medical units" were published in 1958 in the magazine "Youth", gained fame after the publication in 1960 of the story "Colleagues", which was soon made into a film of the same name.
Written in the early 1960s, the stories "Star ticket", "Oranges from Morocco", the stories "Local hooligan Abramashvili", "Comrade handsome Furazhkin", "It is a pity that you were not with us" and others were labeled by critics as "youth prose".
In 1975, the novel "Burn" was written, and in 1979 - "Island of Crimea", banned for publication by censors.
In 1976, he translated Edgar Doctorow's popular novel Ragtime from English.
In 1979, together with Andrei Bitov, Viktor Erofeev, Fazil Iskander, Yevgeny Popov, Bella Akhmadulina, Aksenov became one of the organizers and authors of the uncensored literary almanac Metropol, published in the United States.
In December 1979, he announced his withdrawal from the Writers' Union of the USSR in protest against the expulsion of Viktor Erofeev and Evgeny Popov from the Union.
Since 1981, Aksenov has been a professor of Russian literature at various US universities: Kennan Institute (1981-1982), George Washington University (1982-1983), Gaucher University (1983-1988), George Mason University (1988-2004). For many years he led the seminar "The Modern Novel - the Elasticity of the Genre", and then the course "Two Centuries of the Russian Novel", was fond of the teachings of Shklovsky, Tynyanov, Bakhtin.
In 1980-1991, Vasily Aksenov, as a journalist, actively collaborated with Radio Liberty.
The novels "The Burn", "The Island of Crimea", "Our Golden Piece of Iron" written by him in the USSR, but first published only after the writer's departure for the United States, were published in Washington.
In the USA, Aksenov wrote and published new novels: "Paper Landscape" (1982), "Say Raisins" (1985), "In Search of a Sad Baby" (1986), the Moscow Saga trilogy (1989, 1991, 1993), a collection short stories "Goodie Negative" (1995), "Sweet New Style" (1996). The novel "The Yolk of an Egg" (1989) was written by Aksenov in English and then translated by the author into Russian.
In 1989, for the first time after a long break, Aksyonov visited the USSR at the invitation of the American Ambassador Jack Matlock.
Since the late 1980s, it began to be published again in Russia. After his citizenship was returned to him in 1990, Aksyonov often came to Russia, his works were published, including in the journal Yunost, and a collection of his works was published.
In June 1999, the first Aksenov Readings took place in Moscow, to which the writer arrived from the USA.
Since 2002, Aksenov has lived in France, in Biarritz.
In 2004, he was awarded the title of honorary professor at George Mason University (USA).
In April 2007, Aksenov's next novel, Rare Earths, was published in Moscow.
Vasily Aksenov - author of the plays "Always on Sale", "Your Killer", "Four Temperaments", "Aristophanian with Frogs", "Heron", "Woe, Woe, Burn", "Aurora Korelik", "Ah, Arthur Schopenhauer" and screenplays of the films "When the Bridges Are Raised", "My Little Brother", "Marble House", "Central", "While the Dream Goes Mad". The writer considered the novel "The New Sweet Style" to be his best thing.
In 2009, after the death of the author, the last completed novel by Vasily Aksenov was published - "Mysterious passion. A novel about the sixties", in 2010 an unfinished autobiographical novel "Lend leasing. Lend leasing" was published.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
