Aksenov Vasily: biography and the best books of the writer

Aksenov Vasily Pavlovich is a well-known Russian writer in wide circles. His works, imbued with the spirit of free-thinking, rigid and touching, in places surreal, do not leave any reader indifferent. The article will consider the biography of Vasily Aksenov and give 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 Eugenia Ginzburg, a teacher at the Kazan Pedagogical Institute, the son Vasily was born. He was already the third child in the family, but the only one in common. 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. After passing through Stalin's camps, Eugenia Ginzburg subsequently publishes a book of memoirs about the era of repression, "The Great Route", which tells about eighteen years spent in prisons, exile, Kolyma camps. But now not about this, we are interested in the biography of Vasily Aksenov.

After the conclusion of the parents of older children - Alyosha (son of Eugenia Ginzburg) and Maya (daughter of Pavel Aksenov) - they took away relatives for education. And Vasya was forcibly sent to the orphanage for convicted children (the grandmothers of the boy wanted to keep him, but they were not allowed to do so). In 1938 the brother of Peter Aksenov, Andreyan, found the child in the Kostroma orphanage and took him to his house. Until 1948, Vasya lived with a paternal relative, Moti Aksenova, while the boy's mother, released from prison in 1947, did not obtain permission to move her son to her Kolyma. Later the writer Vasily Aksenov described his Magadan youth in the novel "Burn".

Education and work

In 1956, the boy graduated from the Leningrad Medical Institute and, according to the distribution, was to work as a doctor in the Baltic Shipping Company on long-distance vessels. However, he was not allowed access, despite the fact that his parents were rehabilitated by that time. There are reports that Aksyonov Vasily worked as a quarantine doctor in Karelia, in the Far North, in a tubercular hospital in Moscow (according to other information, he was a consultant at the Scientific Research Institute of Tuberculosis in Moscow), and also in the merchant seaport of Leningrad.

The beginning of literary activity

Professional writer Aksenova can be considered since 1960. In 1959, he wrote the story "Colleagues" (according to which in 1962 the film of the same name was shot), in 1960 - the work "Star Ticket" (on it also in 1962 was filmed the film "My younger brother"), two Years later - the story "Oranges from Morocco", and in 1963 - the novel "It's time, my friend, it's time." Then came Vasily Aksenov's book Catapult (1964) and Halfway to the Moon (1966). 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 satiric-fantasy genre "Overstocked Bochotar" was published. In the sixties of the twentieth century, the works of Vasily Aksenov were printed quite often in the magazine "Youth". The writer worked for several years in the editorial board of this publication.

Seventies

In 1970, the first part of the adventure dilogy for children "My grandfather - a monument" was published, in 1972 - the second part - "The trunk, in which something is knocking." In 1971, the novel "Love of Electricity" (about Leonid Krasin), written in a historical and biographical genre, was published. A year later in the journal "New World" was published an experimental work with the title "The Quest for a Genre." In 1972, the novel "Jean Green - untouchable" was also created, which is a parody of an action movie about spies. Above him Aksenov Vasili worked together with Grigory Pozhenyan and Oleg Gorchakov. The work was published under the authorship of Grivadia Gorpozhaksa (pseudonym of a combination of surnames and names 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 deprivations. In March 1966, while participating in an attempt to demonstrate against the intending rehabilitation of Stalin in Moscow, on Red Square, the detainees were detained by the writer. In the next two years, Aksyonov signed in a series of letters aimed at defending dissidents, and was reprimanded for it by the Moscow branch of the Writers' Union of the USSR, with a note in the file.

Nikita Khrushchev in a meeting with the intelligentsia in 1963, sharply criticized Vasily Aksenov and Andrei Voznesensky. When the "thaw" was over, the writer's works were no longer published at home. In 1975, the novel "Burn" was written about which we already mentioned. Vasily Aksyonov did not even hope for his publication. "Island Crimea" - a novel in a fantastic genre - was also originally created by the author without calculating that the work will be published and see the world. At this time (1979) criticism towards the writer became more and more acute, such epithets as "anti-popular", "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 Erofeev Victor, Iskander Fazil, Bella Akhmadulina, Bitov Andrey and Eugene Popov Aksenov Vasily in 1978 became the co-author and organizer of the almanac "Metropol". In the Soviet censorship of the press, he never got, but it was published in the US. All participants in the almanac were subjected to "workings" after this. This was followed by the expulsion from the Union of Writers of the USSR Erofeev and Popov, and in protest Vasily Aksenov along with Semen Lipkin and Inna Lisnyanskaya also announced the withdrawal from the joint venture.

Life in the USA

At the invitation in the summer of 1980, the writer traveled to the United States, and in 1981 he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. Aksyonov lived in the US until 2004. During his stay there he worked as a professor of Russian literature at various universities in America: the Kennan Institute (from 1981 to 1982), the University of Washington (1982 to 1983), the Gaucher College (from 1983 On 1988), the University of Mason (from 1988 to 2009). As a journalist in the period from 1980 to 1991, Aksenov Vasily collaborated with radio stations of Radio Liberty, Voice of America, almanac "Glagolus" and "Continent" magazine. The writer's radio essays were published in the collection "Decade of Calumny", published in 2004.

In the United States saw the works written, but not published in Russia, "Burn", "Our Gold Zhelezka", "Island of Crimea", the collection "The Right to the Island". Vasily Aksenov continued to create in America: the Moscow Saga (trilogy, 1989, 1991, 1993), Negative of a Positive Hero (a collection of short stories, 1995), The New Sweet Style (a novel dedicated to the life of Soviet emigrants In the USA, 1996) - all this was written during the period of life in the United States. The writer created works not only in Russian, in 1989 was written in English, the novel "Yolk eggs" (although, later, he translated the author himself). At the invitation of Jack Matlock, the American ambassador, for the first time after traveling abroad (nine years later), Aksenov came to the Soviet Union. In 1990, the writer was returned to Soviet citizenship.

Work in Russia

In 1993, during the dispersal of the Supreme Council, Vasily Aksenov again openly expressed his convictions and expressed solidarity with the people who signed the letter in support of Yeltsin. Anton Barshchevsky in 2004 in Russia was screened trilogy "The Moscow Saga". In the same year in the journal "October" published the work of the writer "Voltaireans and Voltaireans", later awarded the Booker Prize. In 2005, Aksenov wrote in the form of a personal diary a book of memories called "Zenitsa Oka".

last years of life

In his last years the writer and his family lived in France, in the city of Biarritz, and in Moscow. In the Russian capital on January 15, 2008 Aksenov felt ill, he was hospitalized in the 23rd hospital. The writer was diagnosed with a stroke. After a day Vasily Pavlovich was transferred to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute, he underwent an operation to remove the clot in the carotid artery. For a long time, the writer's condition remained rather heavy. And in March 2009, there were new complications. Aksenova was transferred to the Burdenko Institute and reopened. Then Vasily Pavlovich was again hospitalized at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute. It was there that on July 6, 2009, the writer died. Vasily Pavlovich was buried in Moscow, at the Vagankovskoye cemetery. In November 2009, in Kazan, in the house where the writer once lived, the Museum of his creativity was organized.

Vasily Aksenov: "The mysterious passion. A novel about the sixties "

This is the last completed work of a talented writer. It was published in full form after the death of Aksenov, in October 2009. Prior to that, in 2008 separate chapters were published in the edition "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: Evgeny Evtushenko, Bulat Okudzhava, Andrei Voznesensky, Ernst Neizvestny, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Bella Akhmadulina, Marlen Khutsiev, Vladimir Vysotsky, Andrei Tarkovsky and others. Aksenov appropriated the characters to fictitious names, so that the work is not associated with the memoir genre.

Prizes, awards, memories

In the United States of America, the writer was awarded the degree of Doctor of Humanities. He was also a member of the American author's league and PEN club. In 2004, for the work "Voltaireans and Voltaire" Aksenov awarded the "Russian Booker". A year later he was awarded the honorary Order of Arts and Literature. The writer was a member of the Russian Academy of Arts.

Annually since 2007 in Kazan they hold a literary-musical international festival called "Aksenov-fest". For the first time he passed with the personal participation of Vasily Pavlovich. In 2009, the literary House-Museum of the famous writer was opened, and now there is a literary city club. In 2010, the autobiographical unfinished novel of the writer Lend-Lizovsky was released. His presentation took place on November 7 in the House-Museum of Vasily Aksenov.

Eugene Popov and Alexander Kabakov in 2011 jointly published a book of memories of Vasily Pavlovich, which was named "Aksenov". In it they consider the writer's fate, the intricacies of the biography, the process of the birth of a great Person. The main task and idea of the book is to prevent the distortion of facts in order to please certain events.

A family

The brother of Vasily Aksenov on the maternal line, Alexei, was killed in the siege of Leningrad. Sister of the father, Maya, is a pedagogue-methodologist, the author of many teaching aids in the Russian language. The first wife of the writer was Kira Mendeleva, in the marriage with her at Aksenov in 1960 the son Alexey was born. Now he works as an artist-director. The second wife and widow of the writer, Maya Aksenova (born in 1930), a specialist in foreign trade by education. During her family life in the United States she taught Russian, she worked in the Chamber of Commerce in Russia. There were no joint children with Vasily Pavlovich and Maya Afanasyevna, but Aksenova had a stepdaughter Elena (born in 1954). She died in August 2008.