Daniil Aleksandrovich Granin (; 1 January 1919 – 4 July 2017), original family name German (), was a Soviet and Russian author.

Life and career

Granin started writing in the 1930s, while he was still an engineering student at the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute. After graduation, Granin began working as a senior engineer at an energy laboratory, and shortly after

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

broke out, he volunteered to fight as a soldier. One of the first widely praised works by Granin was a short story about graduate students titled "Variant vtoroi" (The second variant), which was published in the journal '' Zvezda'' in 1949. Granin had continued to study engineering and work as a technical writer before he achieved literary success, thanks to his ''Iskateli'' (''The Seekers'', 1955), a novel inspired by his career in engineering. This book was about the overly bureaucratic Soviet system, which tended to stifle new ideas. Granin served as a board member of the Leningrad Union of Writers, and won many medals and honors including the

State Prize State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

for Literature in 1978 and

Hero of Socialist Labor The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievements in Soviet ...

1989. He continued writing in the post-Soviet era.

Writing

According to the ''

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

'': "The main theme of Granin’s works is the romance and poetry of scientific and technological creativity and the struggle between searching, principled, genuine scientists imbued with the communist ideological context and untalented people, careerists, and bureaucrats (the novels ''Those Who Seek'', 1954, and ''Into the Storm'', 1962)". In 1979, he published ''Blokadnaya kniga'' (translated as ''A Book of the Blockade''), which mainly revolves around the lives of two small children, a 16-year-old boy and an academic 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 ...

. Written together with Ales Adamovich, the book is based on the interviews, diaries and personal memoirs of those, who survived the siege during 1941–44. It was nominated for the 2004 Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage. On September 8, 2021, the film "The Blockade Diary," based on Granin's "A Book of the Blockade," was presented in Moscow cinemas. One of his most popular books is ''The Bison'' (1987), which tells the story of the Soviet geneticist Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky. In October 1993, he signed the

Letter of Forty-Two The Letter of Forty-Two () was an open letter signed by forty-two Russian literati, aimed at Russian society, the president and government, in reaction to the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis. It was published in the newspaper ''Izvestia'' on 5 O ...

Honours and awards

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an Title of honor, honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievem ...

(1989) * Order of St. Andrew (28 December 2008) – for outstanding contribution to the development of national literature, many years of creative and social activities *

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

Order of the Red Star The Order of the Red Star () was a military decoration of the Soviet Union. It was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 6 April 1930 but its statute was only defined in decree of the Presidium of the ...

Order of Friendship of Peoples The Order of Friendship of Peoples () was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons (including non-citizens), organizations, enterprises, military units, as well as administrative subdivisions of the USSR for accomplishments in s ...

State Prize of the Russian Federation The State Prize of the Russian Federation, officially translated in Russia as Russian Federation National Award, is a state honorary prize established in 1992 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 2004 the rules for selection of laureates ...

(12 June 2017)

Works

Below is a list of works by Granin translated into English: *''Those Who Seek'' (1954) *''Into the Storm'' (1962, tr. 1965) (adapted as the 1966 Soviet film '' Going Inside a Storm)'' *''The House on the Fontanka'' (1967, tr. 1970) *''A Book of the Blockade'' (1979, tr. 1983) *''The Bison: A Novel about the Scientist Who Defied Stalin'' (1987, tr. 1990)

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Granin, Daniil 1919 births 2017 deaths People from Rylsky District People from Rylsky Uyezd Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Members of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union Russian male novelists Russian male short story writers Soviet male writers Soviet novelists Soviet short story writers 20th-century Russian short story writers Soviet Army officers Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University alumni Academicians of the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences "Nika" Honorary members of the Russian Academy of Arts Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin Soviet military personnel of World War II Recipients of the USSR State Prize State Prize of the Russian Federation laureates Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Recipients of the Medal of Zhukov Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of Holy Prince Daniel of Moscow Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany