Daniil Leonidovich Andreyev ( rus, Дании́л Леони́дович Андре́ев, p=dənʲɪˈil lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ ɐnˈdrʲejɪf, a=Daniil Lyeonidovich Andryeyev.ru.vorb.oga; 2 November 1906,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

– 30 March 1959, Moscow) was a Russian writer, poet, and Christian mystic.

Biography

Daniil Andreyev, the son of Leonid Andreyev (a Russian writer of the start of the 20th century), had

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

as his godfather. After the infant's mother, Aleksandra Mikhailovna (Veligorskaya) Andreyeva (a great-niece of

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (; ; 9 March 1814 – 10 March 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, folklorist, and ethnographer. He was a fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts and a member of the Brotherhood o ...

), died shortly after childbirth, Leonid Andreyev gave the infant Daniil to his late wife's sister, Elizabeth Mikhailovna Dobrova, to raise. This act had two important consequences: it meant that when Leonid Andreyev, like many other writers and intellectuals, left Russia (he emigrated to the newly independent Finland in December 1917 after the

Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...

), his young son remained behind; it also meant that Daniil was raised in a household that remained deeply religious. Like many of his contemporaries, the boy Daniil had a pronounced literary bent; he began writing poetry and prose in early childhood. He graduated from high school but could not attend university because of his "non-proletarian" background. Supporting himself as a graphic artist, he wrote in his spare time. Daniil Andreyev was conscripted into the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

in 1942. He served as a non-combatant, and during the

Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

of 1941-1944 helped to transport supplies across

Lake Ladoga Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake located entirely in Europe, the second largest lake in Russia after Lake ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Andreyev returned to civilian life, but the Soviet authorities arrested him in April 1947, charged him with anti-Soviet propaganda and preparations to assassinate

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

, and sentenced him to 25 years of imprisonment. He suffered a heart attack in prison in 1954, the first manifestation of the heart condition that would eventually cause his death. In the same year his sentence was reduced to 10 years. He was released on 22 April 1957,Pavlov, Galina (Галины Павлов):
Два письма, три имени
' (Letters of Andreyev), ''Звезда'' 2006/11. URL last accessed 2007-10-22. already terminally ill. He was officially rehabilitated on 11 July 1957. While incarcerated in Vladimir Central Prison from 1947 to 1957, Andreyev experienced mystic visions and started writing '' Roza Mira'', finishing it after his release. The book became known in the Soviet Union via

samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...

, but was first officially published only in 1991. In 1997 Lindisfarne Books published Jordan Roberts's English-language translation of ''Roza Mira'' in the United States. An English translation of Rose of the World was completed by Daniel H. Shubin in 2015.

Works

Almost all works that Andreyev wrote before 1947, were destroyed by Ministry for State Security (MGB) as "anti-Soviet literature", including his novel ''Wanderers of Night'' () about the spiritual opposition to the Soviet regime and atheism. Being imprisoned, however, Andreyev managed to restore some of his poems. He also tried to restore ''Wanderers of Night'', but he could only restore a few pages of it. Also some works of his childhood were kept by his friend, including his first poems written at the age of 8. His main book, '' Roza Mira'' (, literally "The Rose of the World") contains a detailed description of numerous layers of spiritual reality that surround Earth, of the forthcoming religion called Roza Mira that will emerge and unite all people and states, and of the events of the future advent of

Antichrist In Christian eschatology, Antichrist (or in broader eschatology, Anti-Messiah) refers to a kind of entity prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ and falsely substitute themselves as a savior in Christ's place before ...

and his fall. Apart from Roza Mira, he wrote a poem ''The Iron Mystery'' (, published in 1990), a "poetic ensemble" (that is what he called it) ''Russian gods'' (, full text published in 1995) and other works.

References

External links

Fund of a name of Daniel Andreev
– in Russian
Biography of Daniel and Alla Andreev, by Daniel H. Shubin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andreev, Daniil 1906 births 1959 deaths People from Berlin Writers from Moscow Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery 20th-century Christian mystics Prison writings Russian male poets Russian male novelists Russian poets Russian people of World War II Russian prisoners and detainees Soviet military personnel of World War II Soviet poets Soviet novelists Soviet male writers Soviet prisoners and detainees Stalinism-era scholars and writers Soviet rehabilitations 20th-century historians Inmates of Vladimir Central Prison Demonologists