Vladimir Voinovich
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Vladimir Nikolayevich Voinovich (alternatively spelled Voynovich, ru: Владимир Войнович, born September 26, 1932 in Dushanbe, Tajikstan) is a prominent Russian writer and a dissident. He is a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Department of Language and Literature.
[edit] Life and Work
Voinovich was born on (September 26, 1932 in Dushanbe, Tajikstan), to a father of Serbian descent who worked as a journalist, and a mother of Jewish descent who worked as a professor of mathematics. His ancestor, Ivo Vojnović, was one of the most prominent Serbian writers from Dubrovnik.
He is famous for his satiric fiction but also wrote some poetry. While working for Moscow radio in the early 1960s, he produced the lyrics for a cosmonauts' anthem, Fourteen minutes till the start ("14 минут до старта"). Between 1951 to 1955, Voinovich also served in the Soviet Army during peace time.
His magnum opus The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin ("Жизнь и необычайные приключения солдата Ивана Чонкина") is set in the Red Army during World War II, satirically exposing the daily absurdities of the totalitarian regime. "Chonkin" is now a widely known figure in Russian popular culture and the book was also made into a film by the famous Czech director Jiří Menzel.
Other novels have won acclaim: Ivankiada, his novel about a writer trying to get an apartment in the bureaucratic clog of the Soviet system. Moscow 2042, which satirized the self-absorption of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the Soviet penchant for ludicrous rules. The Fur Hat, is, in many ways, a satire of Gogol's Overcoat. And Monumental Propaganda, his latest novel to be translated into English, is a stinging critique of post-Communist Russia, a story that shows the author's opinion that Russians haven't changed much since the days of Stalin.
At the outset of the Brezhnev stagnation period, Voinovich's writing stopped being published in the USSR, but became very popular samizdat and in the West. For his writing and participation in the human rights movement, Voinovich was excluded from the Soviet Writers' Union in 1974, his telephone line was cut off in 1976 and he and his family were forced to emigrate in 1980. He settled in Munich, West Germany and worked for Radio Liberty.
Voinovich helped publish Vasily Grossman's famous novel Life and Fate by smuggling photo films secretly taken by Andrei Sakharov.
Gorbachev restored his Soviet citizenship in 1990 and since then the writer spends most of his time in the new Russia. Recently widowed, he lives in Moscow. Voinovich has a son by his first wife and a daughter, Olga, by his second wife, the recently deceased, Irina. Voinovich has won many international awards and honor titles, such as Sakharov Award (2002), State Award of the Russian Federation (2000) and more. Since 1995 he has ventured into graphic arts and sells his paintings in Russian galleries and on the Web.
[edit] Bibliography
- 1963 I Want to be Honest ("Хочу быть честным")
- 1967 Two Comrades ("Два товарища")
- 1963-1970 The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin ("Жизнь и необычайные приключения солдата Ивана Чонкина") (published 1974, translated in English 1977)
- 1972 A Degree of Trust ("Степень доверия")
- 1973 By Means of Mutual Correspondence ("Путем взаимной переписки")
- 1976 The Ivankiad ("Иванькиада")
- 1979 Pretender to the Throne: The Further Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin ("Претендент на престол: Новая приключения солдата Ивана Чонкина")
- 1985 The Anti-Soviet Soviet Union ("Антисоветский Советский Союз")
- 1986 Moscow 2042 ("Москва 2042") (translated 1987)
- 1988 The Fur Hat ("Шапка") (translated 1989)
- 1994 The Design ("Замысел")
- 2000 Monumental Propaganda ("Монументальная пропаганда") (translated 2004)
- 2002 A Portrait Against the Background of a Myth ("Портрет на фоне мифа")
[edit] External links
- Official website (in Russian) Contains autobiography, art gallery, the transcript of the Writers' Union 1974 meeting, etc.
- Magazine Hall (in Russian)
- Biography at Literary Encyclopedia
